Every third child in Gujarat is underweight, says CAG

October 5, 2013

Underweight_childrenGandhinagar, Oct 5: Though Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been waxing eloquent about the Gujarat model of development, the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India as well as the State government’s own admission speak of malnourished and underweight children in the State.

According to the government’s own figures, produced by Women and Child Development Minister Vasuben Trivedi in a written reply to the State Assembly, there are at least 6.13 lakh children in 14 districts who are malnourished or extremely malnourished as of August this year. Not to speak of the rest of the 12 districts, for which the numbers are not available.

What is more, the district of Ahmedabad, considered to be the commercial capital of the State, has the highest – 85,000-plus – children who are malnourished or extremely malnourished. The Minister told the State Assembly that “there are 54,975 malnourished children and 3,860 extremely malnourished children in Ahmedabad city” alone.

Meanwhile, the CAG in its latest report has found that despite the government’s claim of “providing supplementary nutrition to the targeted children between the year 2007 and 2012, the monthly progress report as on March 2012 states that every third child was underweight.”

The auditor pointed out that as opposed to 75,480 anganwadi centres needed in the State, only 52,137 had been sanctioned and only 50,225 were functional. It observed that 1.87 crore people had been deprived of the benefits of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).

Malnutrition

The Women and Child Development Minister’s reply pointed to the fact that malnutrition was not confined to any specific region in the State but was found through and length and breadth of Gujarat. The tribal districts of Banaskantha in the North and Dahod in central Gujarat on the Madhya Pradesh border are next to Ahmedabad district with 78,421 and 73,384 malnourished children respectively. Junagadh district in the western Saurashtra region has the least, 17,263, children who are malnourished.

The CAG report also lambasted the government for insufficient coastal security stating that despite Gujarat having the longest coastline in the country, the security along the border was quite inadequate. It pointed out there were very few marine police stations and lack of trained personnel, besides inadequate night patrolling.

The auditor pointed out that in spite of a 235 km coastal stretch of Kutch district bordering Pakistan, there was only one marine police station in Mundra but there was not a single between Dwarka and Harshad.

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News Network
January 18,2020

Jammu, Jan 18: Prepaid mobile connections were restored in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday and 2G services resumed in two districts of the valley after being disconnected on August 5 last year. Voice and SMS facilities were restored for all local prepaid mobile phones across the Union territory.

Rohit Kansal, the principal secretary to the administration of Jammu and Kashmir said the order will come into effect from Saturday.

In order to consider giving mobile Internet connectivity on such SIM cards, the telecom service providers will have to verify the credentials of the subscribers, he said.

Internet service providers have been asked to provide fixed line Internet connectivity in all the 10 districts of Jammu region and two districts, Kupwara and Bandipora, in North Kashmir.

Telecom services were shut in the entire Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 when the Centre abrogated special status to the erstwhile state and also bifurcated it into two Union Territories.

However, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the UT administration last week for arbitrarily shutting down the Internet, the facility described as the fundamental right by the apex court.

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News Network
July 1,2020

Mumbai, Jul 1: Mumbai police on Wednesday imposed section 144 of CrPC prohibiting the movement of people in public places and gatherings, to prevent the spread of Covid-19, an official said.

The prohibitory order, issued by a senior police official, says restrictions on the movement of residents for non- essential work will remain in force till July 15.

The order prohibits "presence or movement of one or more persons in public places or gathering of any sort", the official said.

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News Network
January 17,2020

Mumbai, Jan 17: A 68-year-old convict of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, Jalees Ansari, went missing on Thursday morning while being on parole, officials said.

Ansari, a resident of Mominpura in Agripada here who is serving a life term, is suspected to be involved in many bomb blast cases across the country, an official said.

He was on parole for 21 days from the Ajmer Central Prison, Rajasthan, and was expected to surrender before prison authorities on Friday, he said.

During the parole period, he was ordered to visit the Agripada Police Station everyday between 10.30 am and 12 pm to mark his attendance, he said.

However, Ansari did not visit the police station on Thursday during the designated time, the official said.

In the afternoon, his 35-year-old son Jaid Ansari approached the police station with a complaint about his “missing” father, he said.

According to the complaint, Jalees Ansari woke up in the early hoursand told family members he is going to offer namaz, but did not return home.

On his complaint, the Agripada Police registered a missing case, he said.

The Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police and the Maharashtra ATS have launched a massive manhunt to trace him, he said.

Jalees, who is known as Doctor Bomb, was allegedly connected with terror outfits like SIMI and Indian Mujahidin and taught terror groups how to make bombs, he said.

He was also questioned by the NIA in 2011 in connection with the 2008 bomb blast in Mumbai, he said.

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