Soren too hooted by crowds in Modi's presence

New Delhi, Jun 25: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday hit out at Congress for "unceremoniously sacking" its spokesperson and said that leaders in the opposition party are "feeling suffocated".

To substantiate his point, Shah referred to the recent Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet in which senior members and younger members raised a few issues, however, they were "shut down".

Taking to Twitter, Shah posted two English dailies' articles titled -- "Not scared of PM Modi, but many in the party dodge him: Rahul at Congress Working Committee meet" and "Congress removes Sanjay Jha as party spokesperson after critical article".

Last week, Jha was dropped as AICC spokesperson and Abhishek Dutt and Sadhna Bharti appointed as National Media Panelist of Congress party.

"During the recent CWC meet, senior members and younger members raised a few issues. But, they were shouted down. A party spokesperson was unceremoniously sacked. The sad truth is - leaders are feeling suffocated in Congress," the Union Minister tweeted.

Meanwhile, Shah also targetted Congress on the completion of 45 years of emergency, which was imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975 and asked the party to self introspect.

"As one of India's opposition parties, Congress needs to ask itself: Why does the Emergency mindset remain? Why are leaders who do not belong to 1 dynasty unable to speak up? Why are leaders getting frustrated in Congress? Else, their disconnect with people will keep widening," he wrote.

New Delhi, Jul 19: India's Covid-19 case fatality rate is "progressively falling" and is currently at 2.49 per cent, which is one of the lowest in the world, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday, crediting efficient clinical management of hospitalised cases for it.

There are 29 states and union territories with a case fatality rate (CFR) lower than India's average, with five of them having a CFR of zero and 14 having fatality rate of less than 1 per cent.

The focused efforts of the Centre and state and UT governments on efficient clinical management of hospitalised cases have ensured that India's case fatality rate has fallen below 2.5 per cent, the ministry said.

With effective containment strategy, aggressive testing and standardized clinical management protocols based on holistic standard of care approach, the CFR has significantly dipped, it said.

"The CFR is progressively falling and currently, it is 2.49 per cent. India has one of the lowest fatality rates in the world," the ministry said.

From 2.82 per cent over a month earlier, India's Covid-19 case fatality rate declined to 2.72 per cent on July 10 and has further reduced to 2.49 per cent presently.

Under the guidance of the Centre, the state and UT governments have ramped up testing and hospital infrastructure by combining public and private sector efforts, the ministry said.

Many states have conducted the population surveys to map and identify the vulnerable population like the elderly, pregnant women and those with co-morbidities.

This, with the help of technological solutions like mobile apps, has ensured keeping the high-risk population under continuous observation, thus aiding early identification, timely clinical treatment and reducing fatalities, the ministry said.

"At the ground level, frontline health workers like ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) and ANMs (Auxiliary Nursing Midwives) have done a commendable job of managing the migrant population and to enhance awareness at the community level.

"As a result, there are 29 States and UTs with CFR lower than India's average. This shows commendable work done by public health apparatus of the country," the ministry said.

Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Mizoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands have zero case fatality rate.

States and UTs having a CFR below the national average include Tripura (0.19 pc),  Assam (0.23 pc), Kerala (0.34 pc), Odisha (0.51 pc), Goa (0.60 pc), Himachal Pradesh (0.75 pc), Bihar (0.83 pc), Telangana (0.93 pc), Andhra Pradesh (1.31 pc), Tamil Nadu (1.45 pc), Chandigarh (1.71 pc), Rajasthan (1.94 pc), Karnataka (2.08 pc) and Uttar Pradesh (2.36 pc).

India saw a record single-day jump of 38,902 Covid-19 cases pushing its tally to 10,77,618 on Sunday, while the total number of recoveries increased to 6,77,422.

A total of 23, 672 patients have recuperated in the past 24 hours, the highest so far in a day, according to the health ministry data updated at 8 AM.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 1,37,91,869 samples have been tested up to July 18 with 3,58,127 samples being tested on Saturday. 

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 25: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday asked the state's MPs to take up the matter of deaths of eight Keralites at a resort in Nepal early this week, with the Centre to pursue the matter with the neighbouring country's government.

He was speaking to the MPs at the customary meeting that the Chief Minister has with all MPs ahead of every session of the parliament.

"The demand has come from the families of the victims for a fair probe on what happened and adequate compensation. For this, you (MPs) should take it up with the Centre. A probe has to be done by the Nepal authorities and the Centre should pursue this with them," Pinarayi reportedly stated. 

"We (the state government) have already taken the issue with the Centre and will now send a detailed letter on the need for a fair probe by the Nepal authorities," he added.

The eight dead include Praveen Krishnan Nair, who worked in the UAE and was on a short vacation here, when the tragedy struck the family. His wife Saranya, a second year M.Pharma student, and their three children, were also killed.

On Friday morning, it was a goodbye that Thiruvananthapuram has perhaps not seen before, as hundreds of people, many of them strangers, came to pay last respects to the five members of the Nair family.

The family of Praveen Nair decided to bury the bodies of the three children and cremate the bodies of Praveen and Saranya. It was also decided to bury the ashes of the couple alongside their three children in the compound of their house.

The second family hailed from Kozhikode and the bodies of Ranjith, an IT professional, his wife, who works in a cooperative bank and their younger child, who slept in the same room as that of Praveen, arrived at the Kozhikode airport on Friday morning.

State Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran and many others were there to receive the bodies, which were first taken to Ranjith's new home that is almost complete.

From there it was taken to a hall for all to pay their last respects and then to the family home of Ranjith where the cremation took place.

Watching everything happening was Ranjith's elder son, seven-year-old Madhav, who escaped that night in Nepal as he was sleeping in another room.

Madhav had arrived from Delhi on Thursday and was unaware of the tragedy as he was busy moving around in a new bicycle, which his relatives had bought to keep him busy.