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Rahul Gandhi pens letter to Union ministers, seeks help for flood-hit Wayanad

Agencies
August 27, 2019

New Delhi, Aug 27: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has written letters to Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Harsh Vardhan and Nitin Gadkari seeking help to rehabilitate flood-hit Wayanad.

"The recent floods in Kerala have already claimed the lives of over a 100 people and uprooted lakhs of people from their homes," Rahul said in his letter to Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Harsh Vardhan.

"It is critical to strengthen capacity of the existing healthcare infrastructure and provide additional manpower, medicines, temporary infrastructure to meet the critical healthcare needs of the affected communities," he added.

Rahul went on to share that during his recent visit to Wayanad, he "received representations regarding setting up medical relief camps staffed by health specialists in Nilambur."

"I hope that the MoHFW will take immediate action in this regard," he said.

In his letter to Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Rahul said, "While Kerala is still reeling under the devastating impact of the 2018 flood, the deluge this year has derailed the reconstruction process."

"My Parliamentary constituency Wayanad, is one of the worst affected areas. Landslides, road caving and other mishaps have caused extensive damage to the national highways. Restoration of damaged roads must be accorded highest priority for ensuring early recovery," he said.

Rahul further shared particulars of National Highway stretches in Wayanad that "need to be repaired on war-footing basis."

"I sincerely hope that under your leadership, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways extends all possible support to the brave people of Kerala in their hour of need," he said.

In his letter to Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Rahul wrote, "In the past, the Ministry of Rural Development has made special dispensation under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA natural calamities) in calamity affected Villages/Blocks/Taluks/Districts notified by the state government."

He added, "Furthermore, Section 3 (4) of the MGNREGA Act, 2005 empowers the central government to increase the number of days of employment beyond the guaranteed period. I would like to request you to expand the scope of works under MGNREGA for the state of Kerala for enabling the state take up needed flood rehabilitation works and also increase the minimum guaranteed days of employment to a family to 200 days."

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Agencies
August 3,2020

Rajouri, Aug 3: Ashfaq Mehmood Choudhary, a 17-year-old boy from Chattyear of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, has developed a file-sharing app 'Dodo Drop' which would enable users to share audios, videos, images, and texts between two devices without Internet access.

While speaking to media persons, Ashfaq Mehmood said that the 'Dodo Drop' application is an alternative to the Chinese 'SHAREit' app. "The Indian government has banned several Chinese apps due to data breaching, and among those apps was SHAREit which was used for sharing files.

Users faced a lot of problems due to the ban, and so I decided to make this file-sharing app. With 'Dodo Drop', users can share audios, videos, images, and even texts," he said.

Ashfaq said that it took him four weeks to develop the application, and it was launched on August 1 this year. The 'Dodo Drop' application has a transfer rate of up to 480 mbps, which is faster than the SHAREit app and is "quite easy" to use.

"Users can transfer data comprising photos, videos, audios, apps, texts, etc. between two devices with no Internet access. The transfers are fully encrypted and secure," he added.

"Our Prime Minister has always asserted the need for decreasing the dependency on foreign products and apps and to focus on the development of India-based apps. I tried to be part of the initiative of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' by developing an India-based file-sharing app. I want to develop global-standard apps for India," he added.

"We support and cooperate with him. He generates his own income by working on some projects and utilises it. We will continue to support him," said Parvez Ahmed Choudhary, Ashfaq's father.

In July, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) banned 47 apps, which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 apps banned earlier in June. These banned clones included SHAREit Lite, Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite, and VFY Lite.

The 59 apps had been banned by the Centre in June in view of the information available that they were engaged in activities which were "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity and defence" of the country.

Almost all the apps banned had some preferential Chinese interest and the majority had parent Chinese companies.

The ban came amid border tensions with China in the Eastern Ladakh region.

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News Network
March 27,2020

Srinagar, Mar 27: Over 180 people with undeclared recent travel histories have been traced and shifted into quarantine in Srinagar, officials said.
"COVID-19: Over 180 persons with undeclared recent travel histories have been traced and shifted into quarantine this past week in Srinagar. Some 200 more complaints are being verified. Just hoping no one is infected as it's just too hard to even imagine the possible consequences." Srinagar district administration tweeted.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had earlier on Thursday reported 88 new COVID-19 cases, which is the highest in a single day, taking the total countrywide tally to 694.

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News Network
January 31,2020

New Delhi, Jan 31: The central government has decided that pensioners' life certificates will be collected from their doorstep, saving them from hassles of visiting pension disbursing banks.

The service will be charged an amount not exceeding Rs 60, according to a statement issued on Thursday by the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare (DoPPW).

Every year a pensioner is required to give proof of him being alive to banks in order to ensure continued pension. These certificates can be submitted online or by visiting the bank.

"The department has taken a landmark step to make life easier for senior citizens to submit their annual life certificate for continued pension," it said.

Directions have been issued to all pension disbursing banks to send SMS or emails to all their pensioners on October 24, November 1, November 15 and November 25 every year reminding them to submit their annual life certificates by November 30, the statement said.

"The bank in addition will also ask such pensioners through SMS/email as to whether they are interested in submission of life certificate through a chargeable doorstep service, the charge not exceeding Rs 60, it said.

The department for stricter monitoring and in order to ensure that no pensioners are left out has also directed the banks to make an exception list on December 1 every year of those pensioners who fail to submit their life certificate and issue another SMS or email to them for submitting it.

The Central Pension Processing Cells (CPPC) of the pension disbursing banks shall now be duty bound to submit a report to the DoPPW in January, February and March.

The report will indicate the total number of pensioners who have not given their life certificate along with a breakup of the certificates submitted physically and through digital means, the statement said.

This is a landmark step from the side of the central government showing due care for pensioners, it said.

This step is in addition to the order issued in July last year, vide which all pensioners aged 80 years and above have been given an exclusive window to submit their life certificate w.e.f. 1st October every year instead of 1st November every year, the statement added.

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