MIM to seek explanation from Waris Pathan over his remarks

New Delhi, Apr 11: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with chief ministers, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday urged CMs of states where the party is in power to unanimously demand for transfer of cash to every poor family.

He said the poor have lost their jobs and have exhausted their savings. They are now standing in lines to get free food, the former Union finance minister said.

Chidambaram said remonetising the poor would cost only Rs 65,000 crore, which is economically viable.

"Chief ministers Amarinder Singh, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, V Narayanasami, Uddhav Thackeray and E Palaniswani should tell the prime minister today that just as LIVES are important LIVELIHOOD of the poor is important, he tweeted.

"The poor have lost their jobs or self-employment in the last 18 days. They have exhausted their meagre savings. Many are standing in line for food," Chidambaram said.

Can the state stand by and watch them go hungry," he asked, adding that chief ministers should demand that cash be transferred to every poor family immediately.

"Remonetise the poor should be their unanimous demand," Chidambaram said.

New Delhi, Mar 20: The government on Thursday said one Indian who tested positive for coronavirus has died in Iran while the other citizens infected with the disease are being provided treatment and taken care of by the Iranian government.

Noting that the virus tends to be more fatal for those whose immunity levels are low, a senior MEA official said the deceased, an elderly person, belonged to the vulnerable age group and had health-related complications.

The death was not because of lack of medical attention or care, he said.

"We have evacuated 590 people from Iran where the situation is very severe. The Indians infected with coronavirus in Iran have been segregated and taken care of very well by the government there. We believe they will recover and we will bring them back," the MEA official said, adding that 201 Indians were evacuated from Iran on Wednesday.

The official said closely knit families required some persuasion and counselling during the process of segregation to prevent the spread of the contagion.

The Indian ambassador and other officials explained the consequences of infected people not being separated from their families and were successful to a large extent in segregating the positive cases from the negative ones, he said.

"Some pilgrims and students are still there and our embassy and mission are in control (of the situation)," the official said.

New Delhi, Jun 23: With an increase of 14,933 new cases and 312 deaths in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count reached 4,40,215 on Tuesday.

According to the latest update by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), 14,011 deaths have been recorded due to the infection so far in the country.

The rise in confirmed cases today is lower than the highest spike of 15 thousand plus cases registered on Sunday.

The count includes 1,78,014 active cases, and 2,48,190 cured/discharged/migrated patients.

Maharashtra with 1,35,796 confirmed cases remains the worst-affected by the infection so far in the country. The state's count includes 61,807 active, 67,706 cured, discharged patients while 6,283 deaths have been reported due to the infection so far.

Meanwhile, the national capital's confirmed coronavirus cases reached 62,655.

2,233 deaths have been reported in Delhi due to the infection so far.

Tamil Nadu has reported 62,087 cases so far with toll increased to 794.