Does it behove Rahul to label all Modis as thieves: PM

New Delhi, Jan 26: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday extended his greetings to the people on the occasion of the 71st Republic Day.
"Wishing everyone a happy #RepublicDay," PM Modi tweeted in English as well as Hindi.

Celebrations will be held all across the country to mark the day.

On this day, 70-year back, India officially adopted its Constitution.

The 90-minute Republic Day ceremony will commence with Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting the National War Memorial near the India Gate.

After paying tributes to the martyrs, the prime minister and others would head to the Rajpath.

The parade for the Republic Day will begin on Rajpath with President Ram Nath Kovind unfurling the national flag with a 21-gun salute.

Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro is the chief guest at the parade

India's military might, cultural diversity, social and economic progress will be displayed during the Republic Day celebrations.

For the first time, a contingent of women bikers of CRPF will perform daredevil stunts. The Dhanush artillery will also be displayed for the first time during the Republic Day parade.

Daman, Mar 3: A BJP councillor was shot dead on Monday in the Union Territory of Daman, police said.

Salim Memon was sitting in his motorcycle showroom when three to four unidentified persons shot four to five bullets after asking a visitor there to move out, an official said quoting eye-witnesses.

While fleeing, they also shot two rounds close to this visitor who was standing outside, he said.

"Memon was rushed to a hospital in Marwad area but was declared dead on arrival. CCTV footage is being scanned to nab the culprits," said Daman Superintendent of Police Vikramjit Singh.

Memon was elected to Daman municipality as a Congress candidate but then switched over to the BJP.

Sources said Memon, who also has a land brokerage business, had come out of jail a few months back in connection with a case of rivalry.

New Delhi, May 26: With India now in the bracket of top 10 nations worst hit by the novel coronavirus, experts have attributed the surge in cases to easing of travel restrictions and movement of migrants besides enhanced testing capacity.

According to AIIMS Director, Randeep Guleria, the present rise in cases has been reported predominantly from hotspot areas but there is a possibility of further rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the coming few days due to increased travel.

"Those who are asymptomatic or are in presymptomatic stage will pass through screening mechanisms and may reach areas where there have been minimal or less cases," Guleria said.

He said there was a need for more intense surveillance and monitoring in areas where migrants have returned to contain the spread of the disease.

If proper social distancing and hand hygiene is not maintained at a time when people are out on roads, the coronavirus infection will transmit much faster, he said.

Guleria also noted that testing capacity has been significantly ramped up which is reflecting in the increasing number of cases being detected.

Commenting on the partial resumption of rail and road transport services and migrants returning to their native places, Dr Chandrakant S Pandav, former president of the Indian Public Health Association and Indian Association of Preventive and social medicine, said the floodgates have been opened.

"This is a classic case of creating an enabling environment for coronavirus to spread like wildfire. In the coming few days, the number will rise dramatically. While it is true that lockdown cannot go on forever, the opening up should have been in a measured, calibrated and informed manner," he said.

"Travelling leads to spread of the infection. Now, the government will have to ensure even stronger surveillance to curb the infection but if that will be done is something to be observed," he said.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 4,167 and the number of cases climbed to 1, 45,380 in the country, registering an increase of 146 deaths and 6,535 cases since Monday 8 am, according to the Union Health Ministry.

Dr K K Aggarwal, President of the Confederation of Medical Association of Asia and Oceania (CMAAO), and former IMA President, said there will be a further surge in cases in the coming days if migration continues without any proper social distancing.

"Within the next ten days, the cases will cross two lakh. The very fact that number of cases was rising before the end of the third lockdown and continuing during the fourth lockdown means that people are not following physical distancing as required," he said.

"Even in the last week of May when the temperature is very high, the rising number of cases would mean that human-to-human transmission is more important than surface-to-human transmission. Normally in heat the surface-to-human transmission should have reduced the new cases by half which has not happened," Aggarwal said.

However, Professor K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, said an increase in the number of cases reflects both an increase in testing rates and an increase in spread.

"What we need to see is the number of new tests performed per day and the number of new cases that were identified from them. That gives a better idea of the rate of spread than the total number of new cases alone.

"We also have to see if the testing criteria has remained the same between the two periods of comparison.We may open up gradually but will have to continue case detection, contact tracing and follow personal protection measures as vigorously as possible," he added.

A total of 31,26,119 samples have been tested as on May 26, 9 am and 92,528 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours, ICMR officials said.

India is the tenth most affected nation by the pandemic after the US, Russia, UK, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Turkey and France, as per the John Hopkins University data.

The country has recorded 6,088, 6,654, 6,767 and 6977 cases on May 22, 23, 24 and 25 respectively. Also, the number of RT-PCR tests for detection of COVID-19 in the country crossed the 30-lakh mark on Monday.

The first two phases of the lockdown led to 14-29 lakh COVID-19 cases being averted, while the number of lives saved in that period was between 37,000 and 78,000, the government said last Friday, citing various studies, and asserted that the unprecedented shutdown has paid "rich dividends" in the fight against the pandemic.