Hyderabad: Telangana health minister T Harish Rao proposed the extension of Basti Dawakhana operating hours across the state till 2 pm on Sundays in order to improve the accessibility of healthcare services to walk-in patients.
The minister in a monthly review meeting reiterated the government’s commitment to providing high-quality medical services to the people.
Assuring that the government would address issues related to shortages of medicines, medical equipment, and staff, the minister asked the medical officers to monitor the health condition of patients referred to hospitals by primary healthcare centres.
Emphasizing the importance of comprehensive healthcare monitoring, from primary health centres to referral hospitals, Harish Rao directed the department officials stating that the sole aim of healthcare workers should be to achieve the ‘number one’ status for Telangana.
Stating that the medical colleges within the districts would enhance healthcare provision further, Harish Rao recommended patient referral to Osmania, NIMS, and Gandhi hospitals only when necessary.
Highlighted the importance of raising awareness about palliative services. the minister emphasized the significance of the Arogya Mahila program for comprehensive women’s healthcare.
Harish Rao further stressed the promotion of the toll-free helpline number 14416 (Telemanas) as a solution for individuals facing mental health issues while he urged for its publicity so that no person in need of healthcare remains deprived of crucial information.
Finally, the minister urged the health department to ensure that deliveries or childbirths were conducted naturally and C-sections were offered only to high-risk patients.
Key NCP committee to meet today to take a call on Sharad Pawar’s successor
Mumbai: The NCP on Friday unanimously rejected the resignation of the party’s national President Sharad Pawar and requested him to continue in his post.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the special panel set up by Pawar to name his successor after his dramatic announcement on Tuesday to step down.
The panel’s decision on the two resolutions — rejecting the resignation and urging him to continue as party chief — will be conveyed to Pawar for his final call in the matter.
Top NCP leaders like Praful Patel and Ajit Pawar will make the official announcement on the developments later this afternoon.
Meanwhile, an emotional NCP activist attempted to commit suicide outside the party office but was prevented by thousands of other workers and the police.
New Delhi: In a shot in the arm for the Jagan Mohan Reddy government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside an Andhra Pradesh High Court order which had stayed an SIT probe into alleged irregularities in the land deals in Amaravati during the previous TDP regime.
Through a government order of September 26, 2019, the Reddy government had appointed a Cabinet Sub Committee to examine the allegations of corruption against members of the erstwhile government which recorded a prima facie finding about certain allegations.
On the basis of the report, the state government issued a second order and constituted the 10-member SIT, headed by a Deputy Inspector General of Police-rank IPS officer, to conduct a comprehensive investigation into various alleged irregularities, particularly the land deals in the Amaravati Capital Region, during the previous Chandrababu Naidu regime.
Both the notifications were stayed by the high court indefinitely which led the state to approach the top court for relief.
An apex court bench of justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh said the high court ought not to have granted an interim stay when it was not required as the entire matter was at a premature nascent stage.
The apex court said the high court has failed to consider the fact that the state government had already made a representation to the Centre to refer the investigation to the CBI.
“We are prima facie of the opinion that some of the reasoning given by the high court while staying the further proceedings pursuant to the two government orders may not be germane, more particularly, when the high court has observed that the new government cannot be permitted to overturn the decisions of the previous government.
The Andhra Pradesh government had challenged a high court order of September 2020 staying the government orders sanctioning the constitution of a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to probe into the allegations of land scam in Amaravati during the previous dispensation under the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
The apex court said central government is yet to take a call on the letter and the consent given by the Andhra Pradesh government and it would have been better, had the high court permitted the parties to complete the pleadings, and thereafter, decided the writ petitions one way or the other by affording ample opportunity to the parties before it.
“We are inclined to set aside the orders dated September 16, 2020, while making it clear that we have not expressed anything on the merits of the case. The high court is expected to decide and dispose of the writ petitions on merits and in accordance with law, without being influenced by any of the observations made in our order.
“Considering the issues governing the facts and law, the high court may make an endeavour to dispose of the writ petitions finally within a period of three months from the date of receipt of the copy of this judgment,” the bench said.
The top court said senior advocate appearing on behalf of the state is justified in submitting that the high court has misinterpreted and misconstrued the two government orders.
“If the aforesaid two GOs are considered, it can be seen that the same cannot be said to be overturning the earlier decisions taken by the previous government and/or to review the decisions taken by the previous government.
“The Sub-Committee and the SIT have been constituted to inquire into the allegations of acts of corruption and misfeasance of the previous government,” the bench said.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea by Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan’s son challenging the high court refusal to stay his conviction in a more than a decade-old case, which led to his disqualification as an MLA.
An advocate, representing Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan, submitted before a bench headed by Justice Ajay Rastogi that his client was a juvenile when the incident took place.
The bench, also comprising Justice Bela M. Trivedi, said that the court was not examining petitioner’s juvenility, rather looking at his prayer seeking stay on conviction. The top court was informed that the election to Suar assembly constituency, which has been vacant after Khan’s disqualification, is scheduled for May 10.
Khan filed an appeal in the apex court challenging the April 13 order of the Allahabad High Court, which declined to stay his conviction.
The bench issued notice to the UP government and sought its reply, and made it clear that the election will be subject to the outcome of the petition.
It asked Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj, representing the UP government: “Can we test the morality of an individual, convicted and sentenced? Can he not be an elected representative?”
The bench said the state has to demonstrate prima facie that he has done a crime in his own capacity. Nataraj submitted that he will file his response to the appeal filed by Khan.
After hearing submissions, the bench said: “Let the counter be filed. Let the election to be held on May 10 be subject to the outcome of this special leave petition.” It has scheduled the matter for further hearing in the second week of July.
In February, Khan was awarded two years’ imprisonment in the case by a Moradabad court. His conviction led to his disqualification as MLA.
It has been alleged that Khan and his father had blocked traffic after their vehicle was stopped by the police for checking.
A criminal case was registered in 2008 against Khan and his father Azam Khan at Chhajlet police station in Moradabad under sections 341 and 353 of the IPC.
Ranchi: The High Court of Jharkhand on Friday extended the stay on a notice by a local judicial magistrate to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for personal appearance in a case filed against him for allegedly maligning BJP leader Amit Shah.
Gandhi has moved the high court praying for setting aside the criminal proceedings initiated against him by the magisterial court in Ranchi.
Justice Ambuj Nath, while hearing the petition, directed that no coercive steps be taken against Gandhi till further orders of the court in this regard.
The high court on February 3 first put a stay on the notice for appearance of Rahul Gandhi before the court of the magistrate in Ranchi the next day.
He was ordered to appear before the magistrate in a complaint case filed against him by Navin Jha, a BJP member in Ranchi.
Jha in his petition has alleged that Gandhi had maligned BJP leader Amit Shah in a speech he made in Chaibasa before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Jha had filed the complaint on April 24, last year before the court of Ranchi Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate which was dismissed.
Thereafter, Jha filed a revision petition before the court of the Ranchi Judicial Commissioner which was allowed and the matter was remanded back to the court of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate.
On Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he will “live with whatever decision” eventually emerges from the court, while also attacking abortion as a practice and citing his previous support for national legislation limiting it.
“It’s a human rights issue,” Graham said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “At 15 weeks you have a developed heart and lungs, and to dismember a child at 15 weeks is a painful experience. It’s barbaric [it’s] out of line with the rest of the civilized world.”
That’s the stance that any Republican who hopes to have a shot at the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 will have as well, Graham said.
“Anybody running for president who has a snowball’s chance in hell in the 2024 primary is going to be with me, the American people, and all of Europe, saying late-term abortions should be off the table,” Graham said.
But Republican Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) cautioned against going too far on anti-abortion legislation ahead of 2024.
“I want us to find some middle ground,” Mace said on ABC’s “This Week,” after voicing support for the court’s decision to protect mifepristone. “There are — in my home state of South Carolina, there was a … very small group of state legislatures that filed a bill that would execute women who have abortions and gave more rights to rapists than women who have been raped. That is the wrong message heading into ’24. We’re going to — we’re going to lose huge if we continue down this path of extremities.”
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu voiced the same concerns Sunday. “If we stay in our traditional lanes, we’re going to lose. There’s no doubt about it,” Sununu said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The Republican governor, a possible 2024 presidential candidate, referenced polls that he said show dwindling support for legislation banning abortion from younger generations of Republicans.
“Look, the next generation of Republicans, right, if you look at the polls from about [ages] 45 and under, when you look at their priorities, you know, banning abortion is not one of their priorities. It’s not,” he said.
Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson — a 2024 presidential contender — said that while he supports limits on abortions, Republicans have fought for decades to have states determine the rules, instead of the federal government. “I would prefer that this is an issue that is resolved by the states,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers applauded Friday’s ruling as being a legally and medically sound decision that lets women maintain control of their own health.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) voiced support for the Supreme Court’s decision, and noted that the drug is used for medical conditions other than abortion.
“I’m certainly not in a position to know, I’m not a medical expert, nor are the Supreme Court justices,” Dingell said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We have agencies designed and set up to do the scientific process and that is where I think the responsibility belongs.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) also challenged the logic behind the initial decision that was built around a challenge to the FDA’s processes.
“I think it was crazy. The notion that you would take a drug that has been used safely for more than two decades and somehow then take that away from availability,” Warner said of the lower court decision.
“You know, I frankly think this is an issue that women’s healthcare choices ought to be made by women, and the idea of this judge so radically intervening with a safe procedure … undermines the very integrity of our FDA process,” he said on “This Week.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) also said the Supreme Court’s decision Friday was the correct one.
“The people of this country believe that the women of this country should be able to make their own decisions about their health care … and they don’t want Ted Cruz in the waiting room,” Klobuchar said on State of the Union, citing a Texas Republican senator who is an abortion foe.
During his interview, Graham pointed to the Comstock Act, a sweeping anti-obscenity measure passed by Congress in 1873 that District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk cited in his initial decision to block abortion medication from being sent by mail.
“I think it’s a law on the books and it was placed there for a reason,” Graham said when asked about applying the 19th century law to the case.
“But sending the abortion drug through the mail is a big change in how it is provided. In 2000 when it was first approved, you had to have four visits to the doctor. In 2021, the Biden administration said you don’t have to even consult a physician anymore and send it through the mail. Is that safe? … That’s what the court will decide,” Graham said.
But Klobuchar said that legislation is outdated.
“The Comstock Act that [was] literally passed, Dana, in 1873,” Klobuchar told CNN’s Dana Bash. “That is 10 years before the ‘Yellowstone’ prequel. … that is at a time when healthcare — when you were treated for pneumonia through bloodletting,” she said.
“The American people do not want to go backward. And what I heard today is that Republican leaders in Washington aren’t backing down on their opposition to reproductive freedom. They are doubling down,” she said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: As Sudanese capital Khartoum continued to witness large-scale violence, the Indian embassy in Sudan issued a fresh advisory on Monday urging Indians not to venture out of their residences and stay calm.
On Sunday, the embassy said an Indian national died in Khartoum after sustaining bullet injuries.
“Based on the latest inputs the fighting has not subsided on day two. We sincerely request all fellow Indians to continue to stay where they are and not venture outside,” the mission said in its second advisory after violence broke out in Khartoum.
Grieving the death of the Indian national, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday said the situation in Khartoum remains one of “great concern” and that India will continue to monitor the developments in that country.
Explosions and clashes were reported in various areas in Khartoum in the backdrop of escalating tension between a paramilitary force and Sudan’s Army.
On Saturday, the Indian embassy advised Indian nationals in Sudan to take utmost precautions and stay indoors after Khartoum witnessed large-scale violence.
According to the official data , the number of Indians in Sudan is around 4,000 including 1200 who have settled down in the country decades ago.
Sudan’s military captured power in a coup in October 2021 and it has been running the country through a sovereign council since then.
There has been a dispute between the Army and the para-military over a proposed timeline for handing over power to a civilian government.
“When you’re here, you wonder why anyone would ever want to leave,” Biden marveled soon after his arrival at the Windsor Bar and Restaurant. A capacity crowd had waited for hours to see him in the rustic pub. “Coming here feels like coming home.”
When presidents travel abroad, they are traditionally tight, focused affairs calibrated with a specific goal in mind: To advance the White House’s interests and shape the place they will soon leave behind. But for three days in Ireland, as Biden roamed the countryside by motorcade with his sister Valerie and son Hunter in tow, the president seemed content to exist within it.
He met dignitaries and townspeople. He toasted his Irish ancestors, the Irish people, Irish Americans and even the “quite a few,” he said, “who wish they were lucky enough to be Irish.”
He took a selfie with nationalist politician and alleged former Irish Republican Army member Gerry Adams, as well as with an Irish reporter and nearly anyone else who wanted one. He kissed babies and had a close encounter with a sliotar.
He butchered the name of New Zealand’s famed rugby team — badly. At one point he tried, unsuccessfully, to make friends with the Irish president’s dog. In a surprise to nobody, he quoted at least three different Irish poets but may have quoted his Grandpa Finnegan even more.
And all that came before Friday evening, when Biden traveled west across the country to County Mayo, where he recalled “the history and hope and the heartbreak” of his ancestors in front of an estimated 20,000 gathered at a 19th-century cathedral on the banks of the River Moy.
“Family is the beginning, the middle and the end,” Biden said. “That’s the Irish of it: the beginning, middle and the end.”
Just hours earlier, Biden had visited the Knock Shrine, a pilgrimage site for Catholics made all the more significant by a chance meeting with the priest who administered last rites to his late son, Beau. The encounter reportedly brought Biden to tears.
Biden had come to Ireland to reaffirm its close relationship with the U.S. — and to reaffirm his own personal relationship with a place he credits for shaping him. It was here that the criticisms he faces at home seemed to fade away: His age didn’t make him old, it provided him wisdom. His gaffes didn’t make him shaky, they gave him charm.
Biden has made no secret of his deep fascination with his ancestral origins. And since visiting Ireland as vice president to trace his lineage, he’d eagerly sought a reason to come back. The White House found its justification in the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement that largely ended sectarian violence in Northern Ireland — a U.S. brokered deal that’s served as an integral element of the island’s tight relationship with America.
Yet Biden spent only a handful of hours in Northern Ireland before jetting off to his ancestral homeland. Combined with the dearth of policy announcements or apparent progress on political priorities, the move raised questions over whether the trip was, as one reporter put it, “a taxpayer-funded family reunion.”
The White House rejected the characterization, pointing to his speeches and meetings with Irish and U.K. leaders. Biden, though, appeared otherwise determined not to let thorny political demands intrude too much on his mutual lovefest with the people of Ireland.
The president has answered only a single question unrelated to his visit, on the search for the Pentagon document leaker. The most substantive answer he gave all week to any query came in response to the child who had asked about the key to success — prompting Biden to launch into a winding and often-told anecdote about the late conservative Sen. Jesse Helms and the importance of not judging people’s motives.
“That’s a long answer to a real quick question,” he conceded, well after the child had lost interest.
At times, it was tough to tell where Biden as president ended and Biden as tourist began. His tour through the country was sentimental and joyful. During a visit to Carlingford Castle, he peered across the water through gathering fog, chatting quietly with a local guide enlisted to bring him through the last Irish landmark Biden’s great-great-grandfather saw before embarking for America over 170 years ago.
“It feels wonderful,” Biden said of his emotions upon visiting the site, as a bagpipe and drum ensemble prepared to strike up an original piece entitled: “A Biden Return.”
In Dundalk, a short ride from the castle through the County Louth where his Finnegan ancestors once lived, Biden bantered with workers at a local market, debating which food and souvenirs to buy. (He left, the town paper later reported, with a bounty: Lemon meringue, chocolate eclairs, bread and butter pudding, pear and almond cake, and a mug with an image of a dog on it.)
And on Thursday, as he became the fourth U.S. president to address a joint session of Ireland’s Parliament, Biden paused to recognize the familial significance of what he would term “one of the great honors of my career.”
“Well mom,” he said, looking skyward, “you said it would happen.”
In between speeches and state dinners, the scenes at times bordered on chaos. Throngs of well-wishers lined Biden’s routes, some stationing themselves mere inches off the road as the motorcade whipped by. Others gathered on highway overpasses in the driving rain, waving Irish and American flags.
As Biden stopped in local towns and businesses, the tight spaces and swelling crowds caused visible alarm among his Secret Service detail. “A security nightmare,” one agent muttered at one point.
But Biden, basking in the middle of it all, seemed unconcerned.
“I wish our mom, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, were here today. She’d be so damn proud,” he said in the Windsor Bar, surrounded by a mix of relatives, Irish officials and local residents. “Louth held such a special place in her heart, it really did.”
As the trip wore on and the outside world fell away, Biden appeared to feel increasingly at home — a sentiment he expressed so frequently that some reporters and aides joked he might actually stay.
“I don’t know why the hell my ancestors left here. It’s beautiful,” he said on Wednesday.
“I only wish I could stay longer,” he told Irish lawmakers on Thursday.
“I’m not going home,” he said, admiring the Irish president’s residence.
Biden, however reluctantly, would eventually have to head home, set as he was to depart the Irish coast late Friday for his family’s adopted shores of Delaware. But well before then, he made permanent his intention to return.
“Your feet will bring you to where your heart is,” Biden wrote in the guestbook at the Irish president’s residence, in reference to a line he attributed to William Butler Yeats that he said his grandfather often quoted.
It was a slightly more poetic way of reiterating a pledge that he’d already made at the Windsor Bar, before striding back into the cold, where the crowds stood eager and waiting: “The bad news for all of you is, we’ll be back,” Biden said. “There’s no way to keep us out.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The Rajasthan High Court has stayed the arrest of Ramdev over an FIR registered against him for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and directed the yoga guru to appear before the investigating officer for questioning by May 20.
Justice Manoj Kumar Garg gave the direction while hearing a petition by Ramdev seeking quashing of the FIR.
The FIR was filed at the Chohtan police station in Barmer on February 5 on the complaint of Pathai Khan against the yoga guru’s alleged derogatory remarks against Islam and Christianity at a religious event in Barmer on February 2.
In provocative remarks at a meeting of seers, Yoga guru Ramdev had accused Muslims of resorting to terror and abducting Hindu women while comparing Hinduism to Islam and Christianity. He alleged that the two faiths were obsessed with conversion while Hinduism taught its followers to do good.
In his complaint, Khan claimed that Ramdev had made his remarks “deliberately… so that there is animosity against Islam”.
At the gathering of seers in Barmer, Ramdev had allegedly said, “Muslims offer namaz five times a day and then do whatever they want. They kidnap Hindu girls and commit all kinds of sins. Our Muslim brothers commit a lot of sins but they definitely offer namaz as they are taught to do so. Hindu religion is not like this.” A video of his speech had surfaced on social media.
“I am not criticising anyone but people are obsessed only with this. Some people talk about converting the entire world to Islam and others want to convert the world to Christianity,” Ramdev said. He allegedly claimed that these faiths had no other agenda.
Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. (File Photo)
Patna: HAM chief and former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday, claimed that he will stay with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar till the last breath of his life and there is no chance of him going into the NDA.
Manjhi met Amit Shah to demand Bharat Ratna for mountain man Dashrath Manjhi.
“There is no chance of going into the NDA. I have taken an oath to stay with Nitish Kumar till the last breath. Nitish Kumar has all the ability of a Prime Minister and he is making honest efforts to unite the opposition parties of the country.
“How could we go with the BJP which has only one ideology – to destroy smaller parties of the country? We have a small party in Bihar and it is not possible to go with them,” Manjhi said.
For the demand of Bharat Ratna for Dashrath Manjhi, a delegation had started a Padyatra from his native village Gahlor in Gaya district on March 5 this year and reached Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on April 1.
