Stay away from Commonwealth Heads meet: DMK

[email protected] (CD Network)
March 25, 2013
dmkChennai, Mar 25: After quitting the UPA coalition on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, DMK on Monday demanded that India should boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting scheduled to be held in Colombo in November this year.

“While Commonwealth Secretariat should not convene the meeting at Colombo, but if it happens, India should boycott the meeting in order to reflect the sentiments of Tamils worldover and to keep up the democratic spirits,” the DMK Executive Meeting said.

Chaired by party chief M. Karunanidhi, the meeting was attended by senior party leaders, but his son M.K. Alagiri, who is sulking on not being consulted over the party’s pull out of UPA, skipped it.

This is the first high level meeting of the party after it withdrew support to the UPA government last week charging that the Centre failed to bring amendments to the U.S.-sponsored resolution at the UNHRC against Sri Lanka for the alleged human rights violations during its crackdown on LTTE four years ago.

When some countries had decided against attending the Commonwealth meeting, “India without any hesitation should announce its decision about boycott immediately,” the party said in a resolution.

Defending its decision to snap ties with the UPA, DMK said it had provided stability to the Congress-led coalition from 2004 and solidly backed it in 2009.

“Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) and DMK deserve credit for providing stability and preventing the collapse of the government” when the Centre faced several critical situations on issues like FDI in retail and to keep the communal forces at bay, the resolution said.

Slamming the Centre on the Lankan Tamils issue, it said New Delhi continued to extend all assistance to Colombo terming it as a “friendly country” and insisted that India should bring a resolution on its own against Sri Lanka before the UNHRC.

Referring to the attack on Tamil Nadu fishermen allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy, the DMK said despite its repeated pleas on the protection of fishermen, it seemed that the Centre has not taken any effective steps so far.

“The Centre should not delay further and take strong action to protect Tamil Nadu fishermen,” the resolution said.

The meeting passed as many as 16 resolutions.

In a resolution, the meeting urged the Centre to take steps to complete the Sethu Samudram project by defeating the designs of communal forces, which were trying to stall it.

The meeting also narrated the benefits that Tamil Nadu had received during DMK’s alliance with the UPA coalition at the Centre.

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News Network
April 29,2020

New Delhi, Apr 29: India's tally of COVID-19 cases has reached 31,332, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday. With 73 more deaths reported, the number of deaths due to coronavirus in the country breached the 1,000 mark and stood at 1,007.

The tally is inclusive of 22,629 active coronavirus cases, 7,695 patients who have been cured/discharged and one patient migrated.

According to the Ministry, Maharashtra has the most number of COVID-19 cases with 9,318 cases of which, 1,388 patients have been cured/discharged while 400 patients have succumbed to the virus.

Gujarat has the second-highest number of positive cases in the country with 3744 cases including 434 patients cured/discharged and 181 deaths.

Delhi's tally stands at 3314 cases of which, 1078 patients have recovered while 54 patients have succumbed to the virus.

Madhya Pradesh has a total of 2387 positive cases including 377 patients recovered/discharged and 120 fatalities.

Meanwhile, Goa (seven cases; all seven recovered), Arunachal Pradesh (one case; now recovered), Manipur (two cases; both recovered), Tripura (two cases; both recovered) have reported no new cases of COVID-19.

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News Network
July 1,2020

Chennai, Jul 1: In a case of cluster infection, 58 of the 65 mourners who attended the funeral a Central government official, Selvam, 56, who had worked in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and who died in Coimbatore and was brought for burial at Pannavaadi near Kolathur near Mettur in Salem district, tested positive for Covid-19, after three of them initially tested positive as they neither wore face masks not observed social distancing during the funeral, sources said.

Even as Dr Vijayabaskar said AIADMK MLA from Sriperumbudur, K Palani who tested positive for Covid-19 has recovered and will be discharged from hospital in couple of days, the MIOT International Hospital in Chennai said that the State Higher Education Minister, K P Anbazhagan, who initially showed no symptoms of coronavirus, subsequently tested positive in his second sample. He was now under treatment, his condition very stable and all his vital parameters are normal, MIOT said in a statement.

In what continues to be an unrestrained run, Tamil Nadu added its biggest day-wise spike so far of 3,943 positive Covid-19 cases, while another 60 deaths due to the novel coronavirus confirmed on Tuesday took the total death toll in the state to 1,201.

Of the new positive cases, Chennai alone accounted for its highest per-day jump of 2,393 positives with the number of persons tested today across Tamil Nadu put at 30,053. The total number os Covid-19 positive cases in the State as a whole till date is racing towards the one lakh mark at 90,167.

However, these outcomes are all on anticipated lines with the ICMR's push for more aggressive testing, even if they want lockdown controls to be now more focused at the district level, and want the Chennai model to be taken to the districts.

In this backdrop, the Health minister, Dr C Vijayabaskar chaired a detailed Covid review meeting this evening through video conference with all the hospital deans and other top officials on different facets of the disease prevention and control measures and the state's overall preparedness.

Chief Minister, Mr. Edappadi K Palaniswami in a statement in Chennai assured that with the 'full lockdown' continuing in greater Chennai, parts of three neighbouring districts of Chengalpattu, Thiruvallur and Kancheepuram and parts of Madurai district till July 5, the free community kitchens for the elderly, disabled and destitute will continue to function in those places till July 5 and hygienically cooked food packets served to them.

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News Network
June 8,2020

New Delhi, June 8: Only 20.26 lakh migrant workers of the targeted 8 crore such labourers have received free food grains in May and June (2020), according to data released by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

In the middle of May, as part of the Rs 20 lakh crore Atma Nirbhar Bharat package, the Modi government had announced that migrant labourers who are not covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) or any state-run PDS scheme, will receive free food grains for two months.

"Non-card holders shall be given 5 kg wheat or rice per person and 1 kg chana per family per month for the next 2 months. About 8 crore migrants will benefit from this scheme that will cost the government Rs 3500 crore,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said at a press conference following PM Modi’s announcement.

But the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said on Sunday, "The states and UTs have lifted 4.42 LMT (lakh metric tonne) of food grains and distributed 10,131 MT of it to 20.26 lakh beneficiaries."

It added, "The Government of India also approved 39,000 MT pulses for 1.96 crore migrant families. Around 28,306 MT gram/dal have been dispatched to the states and UTs. A total 15,413 MT gram have been lifted by various states and UTs". The state governments, the ministry added, had distributed only 631MT (metric tonnes) of gram so far.

Because of the constant movement of migrant workers, the Centre had said that the states will be responsible for identifying the migrants and subsequent food distribution.

The Centre claims it is spending approximately Rs 3,109 crore for food grains and Rs 280 crores for grams/chana under this package.

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