{"id":155808,"date":"2021-04-10T02:33:09","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T21:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=155808"},"modified":"2021-04-10T02:33:09","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T21:03:09","slug":"mars-vaccination-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2021\/04\/10\/mars-vaccination-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Mars vaccination drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Centre-States Pow Wow<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\nBy Insaf<\/strong>
\nAn unsavoury slugfest between the Centre and Opposition States over Covid vaccination is the last thing that the country needs to be embroiled in. Unacceptable! Allegations of vaccine shortage by Maharashtra, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, and Punjab have not gone down well with New Delhi. \u201cVaccine supplies are being monitored on a real-time basis, and State governments are being apprised regularly about it,\u201d has reacted Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. He claimed the charges were \u201cutterly baseless\u201d, particularly in Maharashtra and \u2018nothing but an attempt to divert attention from its repeated failures to control the spread of\u00a0pandemic.\u2019The State had said that it had 13 lakh doses of Covaxin and these would last just 3 days. Vardhan also hit out at Delhi\u2019s request foropening up vaccination to everyone above 18 years of age saying goal posts are being changed to camouflage their poor performance in the vaccination drive. A pointer was vaccination of health care workers. Maharashtra has done only 86%, Delhi 72% and Punjab 64 per cent with the first dose. In comparison 10 States\/UTs have done over 90%.
\nVardhan also hit out at Chhattisgarh saying that comments of its leaders on efficacy of the Covaxin vaccine was a deliberate move to \u2018spread misinformation and panic\u2019 and that it would be better if the State government \u2018focusses its energies on ramping up their health infrastructure rather than on petty politicking.\u2019 Though he chose to single out Chhattisgarh on this front, reports say that there are at least 14 States, including BJP-ruled Goa and Himachal Pradesh, which have refrained from using a single dose of Covaxin in their vaccination drive. No words or reprimand for them? It must win confidence of all in this battle against Covid. It\u2019s not enough to warnthat the situation is getting worse, with the country recording 13.1 million cases, and next four weeks being \u2018very very critical\u2019, and expressing \u2018maximum concern\u2019 over rival governments. It must remember the adage a stitch in time saves nine. Politics in the times of Covid is certainly not touch\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Bengal-EC Row
\nElection Commission has more on its plate than bargained for. The incorrigible West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee takes it on. Two notices have been issued one after another to Didi for violating the Model Code of Conduct during rallies. One, her utterances on Central paramilitary forces, where she accused those on poll duty of functioning under Centre\u2019s instructions, committing excesses and the EC was turning a blind eye, invited a stern rebuke. Stating these as \u201ccompletely false and provocative,\u201d the poll body has asked for an explanation by today, else she would face stiff action as her remarks were \u201ccausing extreme demoralisation amongst the ranks and file of these forces.\u201d Two, she was served notice for appealing to minority voters not to divide their votes between different political parties. True to her style, she shot back with: \u201cWhy is that no complaint has been filed against Narendra Modi, who talks about Hindu and Muslim (vote banks) every day? How many complaints have been lodged against those who had uttered the word \u2018mini Pakistan\u2019 during the Nandigram campaigns.\u201d Worse, she told the EC that it could issue 10 show-cause notices, but her reply would be the same, \u201cI will always speak against any division of Hindu and Muslim votes.\u2019 Predictably, all eyes are on Nirvachan Sadan how it tames the Bengal tigress, with five phases of elections due.
\nSetback for MVA
\nThere\u2019s no respite for the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the high profile corruption case against its former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. It\u2019s far from over as it had claimed last week. On Thursday last, the Supreme Court dismissed its petitionand one filed by Deshmukh challenging Bombay High Court order for a \u2018preliminary inquiry\u2019 by CBI into allegations levelled by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh. The two-judge bench said: \u2018nature of allegations, the personas involved and seriousness of allegations do require an independent agency to enquire into the matter. It is a matter of public confidence given the factual scenario\u2026what has been directed is only a preliminary enquiry albeit by an independent agency.\u201d Deshmukh\u2019s counsel had argued the HC order would \u2018affect federal structure\u2019 as the State had already withdrawn general consent to CBI to probe cases in its territory. But the apex court was firm: \u2018the two personas involved\u2026 were closely working together till they fell apart, both holding a particular position. Then should the CBI not investigate?…This is not your enemy who has made these allegations, but almost your right-hand man\u2019.It also ruled out a case of \u2018political rivalry\u2019 as alleged by MVA government saying the Centre uses the CBI, not independent, just to settle scores. With that issue settled, all eyes shall now be on CBI\u2019s preliminary enquiry. A fortnight turns out to be along harrowing wait indeed.<\/p>\n

Tripura Wakes Up
\nTripura seems to have finally woken up it\u2019snot immune to the corona virus and the government is getting its act together. Now, so late? Guess, the realisation dawned only after none other Chief Minister\u00a0Biplab Kumar Deb tested positive for Covid-19. There\u2019s a flurry of activity and government has now issued restrictions to control the spread of virus specially in its offices. The list includes: a maximum of 20 persons can attend official meetings; they should sit at least one metre apart; must follow protocols such as wearing of masks, carrying hand sanitizers and visitors would now be allowed entry with prior permission only.It now sees the need to order that wearing of masks or face shields are mandatory at offices and public places and anyone found not wearing a mask will be fined. Insaf recalls its visit to Agartala in early February and to its horror found that Covid protocols were hardly in place. An oft heard response was \u2018there\u2019s no Covid here!\u2019 The north-east being \u2018different\u2019 came into play. Even in Guwahati, the response was similar. In comparison to other States, Tripura has just \u201870 people under treatment for Covid\u2019 and the positivity rate is a mere 5.19%, as per the State Covid control room. Be that as it may, it must enforce the guidelines it has woken up to and not miss the woods for the trees.<\/p>\n

No Monkey Business
\nIt\u2019s no monkey business, be on your guard. A warning which should go out from the Delhi police after it nabbed two robbers, who used their pet monkeys to make good by attacking people and then robbing them. The two men in their twenties were caught on Thursday lastalong with their monkeys in South Delhi. An accomplice is on the run. The modus operandi was simple: the monkeys were trained to \u2018threaten\u2019 the victims by shrieking and jumping and when they succeeded in the victim panicking and screaming for help, these men would snatch their wallets or phones. On Thursday luck ran out. The three men had gone to a market with monkeys, who targeted a man, and the three made him sit in an auto, instructed the monkeys to sit beside him, and then robbed him of Rs 6000. But they got arrested thanks to security camera footage. It emerges that they were earning a living by playing instruments at weddings and other events. But three months ago they had a better idea. They caught the monkeys from the Tughlakabad Fort Jungle and ingeniously used them to make that extra buck. No longer as monkeying around got the better of them! \u2014 INFA<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Centre-States Pow Wow By Insaf An unsavoury slugfest between the Centre and Opposition States over Covid vaccination is the last thing that the country needs to be embroiled in. Unacceptable! Allegations of vaccine shortage by Maharashtra, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, and Punjab have not gone down well with New Delhi. \u201cVaccine supplies are being monitored on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-155808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}