Shaheer Sheikh’s Father Passes Away: COVID-19

After suffering from a severe COVID-19 infection, actor Shaheer Sheikh’s father passed away.

Actor Aly Goni confirmed the unfortunate news on his Twitter account.
“Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. May Allah rest uncle’s soul in peace bhai @Shaheer_S, stay strong bhai,” he tweeted.

Shaheer’s father was on a ventilator. Two days ago only, Shaheer requested everyone to pray for his father’s recovery.

“My dad is on a ventilator, suffering from a severe covid infection… pls keep him in your prayers,” he had written.

Shaheer is best known for his role in the TV show ‘Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi’. (ANI)

PM Inaugurates Launch Of ‘Azadi Ke Amrit Mahotsav Se Swarnim Bharat Ki Ore’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated the launch of ‘Azadi Ke Amrit Mahotsav se Swarnim Bharat Ki Ore’.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is delivering the keynote address at the national launch ceremony of ‘Azadi Ke Amrit Mahotsav se Swarnim Bharat Ke Ore’ today via video conferencing. The program unveiled yearlong initiatives dedicated to Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav by the Brahma Kumaris, which include more than 30 campaigns and over 15000 programs and events.
During the event, Prime Minister flagged off seven initiatives of Brahma Kumaris. These include My India Healthy India, Aatmanirbhar Bharat: Self Reliant Farmers, Women: Flag Bearers of India, Power of Peace Bus Campaign, Andekha Bharat Cycle Rally, United India Motor Bike Campaign and green initiatives under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Brahma Kumaris is a worldwide spiritual movement dedicated to personal transformation and world renewal. Founded in India in 1937, Brahma Kumaris has spread to over 130 countries. The event is being held on the occasion of the 53rd Ascension Anniversary of Pitashree Prajapita Brahma, Founding Father of Brahma Kumaris. (ANI)

Over 3.17 Lakh COVID-19 Cases; Daily Positivity 16.41%

India has logged 3,17,532 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours and the daily positivity rate stood at 16.41 per cent, said Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.

India reported 2,82,970 new COVID-19 cases with a daily positivity rate of 15.13 per cent yesterday.
The weekly positivity rate stood at 16.06 per cent, as per government’s data released today.

With the addition of new infections recorded in the country, the active cases mounted to 19,24,051. As per the ministry, the active cases account for 5.03 per cent of the total cases.

In the last 24 hours, 2,23,990 recoveries were reported, With this, the total recoveries climbed to 3,58,07,029. Consquently, the recovery rate is currently at 93.69 per cent.

The number of people who succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours is 491. The death toll is at 4,87,693.

The country has so far registered 9,287 cases of COVID-19 variant Omicron. There is an increase of 3.63 per cent in its cases since Wednesday, as per the ministry.

To detect the presence of the virus, 19,35,180 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. Since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, 70.93 crore tests have been conducted.

Meanwhile, in the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive, 159.67 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far. Notably, India’s vaccination drive commenced on January 16, 2021 and it has completed one full year. (ANI)

Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Brother-In-Law Set To Join BJP

A day after former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), his brother-in-law and former Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Pramod Gupta is set to join the BJP in Lucknow on Thursday.

Gupta while talking to media persons at his residence in Auraiya said, “Today at noon I will join BJP in presence of Laxmikant Bajpai.”
He further alleged, “SP is giving shelter to mafias and criminals and there is no point in staying in such a party. Akhilesh has imprisoned Mulayam Singh Yadav. Netaji (Mulayam Singh) and Shivpal were tortured by Akhilesh.”

Aparna Yadav had joined BJP on Wednesday in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and BJP State president Swatantra Dev Singh.

Aparna is the wife of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger son Pratik. They got married in 2011. For the forthcoming assembly elections, Aparna has sought a ticket from the Lucknow Cantt assembly seat, as per sources.

Notably, Aparna made her political debut in the 2017 assembly elections in the state by contesting from the Lucknow Cantt seat. However, she was defeated by BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who had secured nearly 63,000 votes.

Besides politics, Aparna runs an organisation named ‘beware’ for the welfare of women. She also runs a shelter for cows in Lucknow.

In the past as well, she has praised BJP’s initiatives in the state and had also donated Rs 11 lakh for the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Elections to the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)

India’s Elderly – A Neglected Minority

Molkareen (Maid), a Marathi language film made in 1963 was about an impoverished widow abandoned by her son working incognito as a maid in his household, looking after the grandchild. In Baghbaan (Gardner) made four decades later, Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan expresses his anguish at being discarded by his sons and forced to live away from his wife: “Why is it that children who learnt to walk from parents are unwilling to lend them a hand in their old age?”

Some years back, a man who dispensed justice knocked at the doors of the same court. A retired Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, he and his wife sought eviction from home of their son and daughter-in-law.

Accusing them of “traumatizing” them and making their life “hell”, the old couple wanted that they move to another house, mind you, also built by the father. Probably first such case involving a judge, it embarrassed the court and hit media headlines. The son denied it all, saying some relations had misled his parents.

The court’s directing the police did not deter the son. On a fresh appeal, two retired judges and a senior lawyer were appointed to ensure that the petitioners got justice.

There are countless cases involving the sick and the aged being hounded by their young progeny. Times are a-changing in tradition-bound India. People still grow up respecting their elders. Feet-touching and respectful bowing of heads by the young is still the norm. But it hits the wall of the material and the mundane.

Woes of the aged are rising. The dispute is mostly over money and property, but also about who does what work at home, over what is ‘needed’ and what is a ‘luxury, relationship with other siblings and who pays medical bills of the old.

Lack of social welfare schemes make the old more vulnerable. The young often eye pension money, savings and the family heirloom and await, impatiently, for the old parents to ‘go’. Of the two, the survivor becomes most vulnerable.

Migration for work, globalisation and fast urbanization are contributing to joint families going nuclear and to changing of values. Yet, the latest data shows that to survive, more and more aged are having to depend upon the young.

More than four in five older Indians live in multi-generational households with their children. But surveys find that the share of older Indians living with only a spouse or alone doubled between the early 1990s and the mid-2000s.

ALSO READ: ‘Family Sent Me To Deaddiction Unit To Usurp Property’

Within a household’s shrinking space where two or three generations live together, the old are pushed to small rooms or outhouses to make way for the younger members, be it study space for the young or privacy of the just-married. Or, as Baghbaan depicts, they are separated.

Unable to keep pace with the young, the old must accommodate and adjust. They face emotional blackmail of being denied support of the children and affection of the grandchildren to whom they are attached. 

Old people are increasingly unwanted at home. The era of grandma’s tale that educated and entertained the kids is fading. Mother is needed, but as a glorified nanny when the daughter/daughter-in-law is expecting. Grandparents are needed when that child goes to school and needs minding while parents are away to work.

They are needed as tutors too. Times of India recently reported that a grandfather, on arriving in a limousine at the office of HelpAge India, a non-government organization, broke down. His son had slapped him seven times because the child had failed despite the granddad’s coaching.  

With better health facilities available and life expectancy rising, the aged live longer. The age of retirement has been raised from 60 to 62. But the aged must work longer and retire late for want of pension, family support, healthcare and even shelter. When it comes to products like hearing aids, eye lenses or wheelchairs, most available in India are imported, and hence, expensive. Struck with serious ailment, the old resign to their ‘fate’ rather than burden the young.

Take the growing trend of senior citizens’ homes. This small, privileged section of society is not waiting for the next generation to plan anything for them; they have already planned their own old age, choosing the destination and the company in which they want to spend their grown-up years.

But it gets lonely there with nobody to talk to.  The aged are dumped, among others, by Indians settled abroad. Funds are paid, but no visiting; only video-calls. In some cases, they are just informed when the old die.

In a youth-obsessed media and start-up space, one rarely sees initiatives focused on the elderly, be it for their travel requirements, social and lifestyle needs, or tapping into their experience.

The world is getting smaller with easier travel, instant communication and with social media. This means we have family and friends around the world, but maybe, none close to us to take care of us in our old age.

A ‘young’ India has over a half of its 1.2 billion below the age of 25 and over 65 percent below 35. While China, Japan and many other nations face an aging demographic profile, the youth segment of India’s population is growing rapidly, and is projected to continue to do so for the next 30 years.

Over the next four decades, India’s 60-plus population is projected to increase dramatically from eight percent in 2010 to 19 percent by 2050, according to the United Nations Population Division. It rose from 10.9 percent in 1961 to 14.2 percent in 2011 and is projected to increase to 15.7 percent and 20.1 percent in 2021 and 2031, respectively.

There will be more women survivors than men as per National Statistical Organisation (NSO) figures. They could be more vulnerable, given India’s patriarchal traditions.

By mid-century, this age group will be 323 million people, a figure larger than the current population of the United States.

Like India, China, too, must face this. According to the UN report on “ageing in the 21st century”, by 2050, India and China will have about 80 percent of the world’s elderly.

And India is likely to pip China in the number of centenarians. Already, India is home to between 11,000 and 20,000 centenarians. It is set to rocket to anywhere between 151,000 and 620,000 by the year 2050.

Wonder where the traditional elder’s blessing, “may you live a hundred years” has led to.

The writer can be reached at mahendraved07@gmail.com

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi

Raid On Kin Reflects Revenge: Channi On ED Action

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Wednesday alleged that a recent raid at his relative Bhupinder Singh Honey’s house indicated that it was a ‘revenge’ for the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ferozepur in Punjab.

He added that Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax and other agencies are being used by the Central government in order to implicate him.

“I have come to know that ED said, ‘Don’t forget PM Modi’s Ferozepur visit.’ This raid reflects ‘revenge’. In order to implicate me, my nephew was interrogated for 24 hours … The agency didn’t get any proof against me,” said Channi while addressing a press conference in Chandigarh.

“ED, income tax and other agencies are being used by Central government…Be it West Bengal or Punjab, the revolution started in these states. Delhi is trying to suppress (us) but Punjab will hit back…,” he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Enforcement Directorate conducted raids at nearly a dozen places in Punjab in connection with an alleged illegal sand mining case.

The federal agency searched the residence and office premises of the suspects including premises linked to sand mafia Bhupinder Singh Honey.

According to ED officials, Honey is reportedly a relative of Channi and had allegedly floated a firm named Punjab Realtors to get sand mining contracts. (ANI)

UP Assembly Dy Speaker Nitin Agarwal Resigns, Quits SP

Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Nitin Agarwal on Wednesday stepped down from his post and also resigned from the primary membership of the Samajwadi Party.

Nitin Agarwal who was also Samajwadi Party MLA from Hardoi constituency got elected as the Deputy Speaker of the Uttar Pradesh assembly in October 2021.
He joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2018 along with his father and former SP leader Naresh Agarwal, however, he was still an MLA from the SP government when elected as Deputy Speaker of UP assembly. (ANI)

Sand Mining: ED Seizes ₹10-Cr From Channi’s KIn, Others

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized more than Rs 10 crore cash, gold worth above 21 lakh and a Rolex watch worth Rs 12 lakh from the residential premises of land mafia Bhupinder Singh Honey, a relative of state Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, and others in connection with an alleged illegal sand mining case.

The Enforcement Directorate declares the recoveries after it concluded its two-day raid conducted at the business and residential premises of the accused persons and their associates in over a dozen places in Mohali, Ludhiana, Rupnagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Pathankot.
The ED raids went on from 7.30 am till late night on Tuesday and it again started on early Wednesday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The federal agency said it raided the premises of the accused persons and their associates including Kudratdeep Singh, the owner of Pinjore Royalty Company, and his partners and shareholders Kanwarmahip Singh, Manpreet Singh, Sunil Kumar Joshi, Jagveer Inder Singh.

The raids were also conducted at the premises of Randeep Singh, the owner of Providers Overseas Consultants Pvt Ltd and its other Directors and shareholders including Bhupinder Singh and Sandeep Kumar.

The places being searched on Tuesday and Wednesday include Honey’s Homeland Heights Society residence in Mohali’s Sector-70.

“During the course of the search, various incriminating documents related to the sand mining business, property transactions; mobile phones, Indian currency more than Rs 10 Crore, Gold worth above 21 lakhs and a Rolex watch worth Rs 12 lakhs were found and seized from the search premises,” said the ED said, adding it “carried out search operation in the illegal sand mining case”.

ED initiated a money-laundering investigation on the basis of FIR registered at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar Police Station under section 379, 420, 465, 467, 468 and 471 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 21(1) and 4(1) of Mines and Minerals (Regulation of Development) Act, 1957 in March 2018.

In the FIR, it was mentioned that a team comprising of officials of the Mining Department, Civil Administration and Police Department made a surprise check on March 7, 2018, on the basis of a complaint received at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar Police Station regarding illegal sand mining.

Consequently, it was found that several mines were being excavated by various machines and mining was being carried out beyond the designated area.

Accordingly, several tippers and trucks, Porcelain machines and JCB Machines were captured and seized by the investigating team.

“The seized tipper and trucks were also found to be overloaded with sand. The seized weighment slips having office stamps had actually not been issued by the concerned office and were forged,” said the ED.

Subsequently, the ED said, the mining operation at Malikpur mining site was stopped and also the approval of weighment slips was stopped by the team.

As per the FIR, apart from Malikpur, illegal mining activities were also carried out at Burjtahl Das, Barsal, Lalewal, Mandala and Khosa.

On the basis of information available, the ED said, the investigation was initiated against all the accused mine owners and their associates in order to ascertain the money laundering activities undertaken by them for laundering their proceeds of crime.

“Further investigation in this case is ongoing,” said the ED.

An ED team is also questioning Honey and recording his statement. However, the officials said, the decision to arrest anyone would be taken as per the situation.

The ED has refused to connect any political links in the case.

The ED suspects that black money was invested in getting a contract of the sand mine. The company floated, sources say, is of very small scale and unlikely to get a contract worth crores.

Honey’s partner Kudratdeep Singh of Ludhiana and 25 others are already booked by Punjab Police in its FIR registered in 2018.

When the ED questioned Kudratdeep Singh it came to the fore that the main facilitator was Honey.

Sources in the ED said the agency is probing whether the CM’s name was used to do illegal mining.

With the Assembly election in Punjab slated for February 20, the timing of raids is all set to rise the electioneering mercury in the State.

Voting for 117 assembly seats in Punjab is slated for February 20.

Punjab CM Channi on Tuesday termed the raids as part of a political vendetta, saying “Congress party and its leaders will not budge under any pressure”. (ANI)

COVID-19 Surge Takes Toll On North Bengal’s Health Sector

With many health care workers getting infected with COVID-19, the family members of the patients in North Bengal Medical College Hospital (NBMCH) on Wednesday claimed that the COVID situation has hit normal patient care services in the hospital.

According to the authorities of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, there are around 70 nursing staff and 12 faculties including other medical students who were infected with the COVID-19.
The relatives of the patients claimed that in view of the present COVID scenario, the scheduled surgeries have been postponed at NBMCH.

Sabir Alam, a family member of a patient admitted to the orthopaedic department said, “COVID infections among the NBMCH health workers has affected the services. My mother’s operation was postponed. We waited three and half hours in front of the operation theatre. They shouldn’t have done it.” According to him, the government should take alternative ways to carry on with the health service considering the present COVID-19 scenario.

Dr Sandip Sengupta, Dean, Students Affairs, NBMCH said, “There is rising COVID-19 cases for the last two weeks and it is increasing. Many were hit by the virus in our medical college.” Dr Sengupta informed that no surgeries are being cancelled and the OPD and emergency services are running.

Dr Sanjay Mallick, Medical College Superintendent and Vice Principle (MSVP) said that a good number of sergeants and anaesthetists were affected. “As some sergeants and anaesthetists were infected, we had to cancel some of the surgeries because of manpower shortage” He added that despite the shortcomings, the hospital is trying their best to give proper care to the patients.

As per hospital information, there are 40 departments functioning at the NBMCH with a workforce of hundreds of doctors, nurses, junior doctors and interns. (ANI)

Kohli Completes 25,000 Runs In International Cricket

Kohli Becomes India’s Highest Run-Getter In Away ODIs

Virat Kohli on Wednesday became India’s highest run-getter in away ODIs.

The 33-year-old achieved the feat in the ongoing first ODI of the three-match series against South Africa here at the Boland Park, Paarl.
After scoring nine runs in the ongoing ODI, Kohli went past Sachin Tendulkar who had scored 5,065 runs in the away ODIs for the country.

Earlier, Rassie van der Dussen (129*) and Temba Bavuma (110) were the bright spots with the bat as South Africa posted 296/4. Bavuma and van der Dussen put on a stand of 204 runs for the fourth wicket and this is the second-highest by a South African pair in ODIs against India.

Kohli had last registered an international century in 2019 as he scored a ton against Bangladesh in the day-night Test at the Eden Gardens. After that, the batter managed to get half-century several times but the three-figure mark has kept on evading him.

Last week, Kohli announced his decision to step down as India’s Test skipper.

Kohli holds the record for most Test appearances as India Test captain (68) and he also holds the record for most Test wins by an Indian captain (40). Only Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, and Steve Waugh have won more matches than Kohli as captain in Test cricket.

Last year, Kohli had stepped down as the T20I captain and then he was removed as the ODI skipper after the selectors wanted to have one captain for the white-ball formats. (ANI)