Pulwama (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], February 24 (ANI): The Jammu and Kashmir Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in Pulwama has organized an awareness-cum- training program on Soil Health Management for farmers in the Nikas area.
The program was organized with the aim of raising awareness among people about the protection and proper usage of land.
Agriculture experts explained to farmers the benefits of soil health management and urged them to strive to ensure better soil health by adopting efficient application of correct types and amounts of manure and fertilizers.
“Soil is the most important part of farming. There are about 700-1,000 families in our area. We want to give each of them a soil health card so that they know the status of their solid – what it lacks and needs. According, they can use manure and other nutrients,” Muhammad Qasim, Chief Agriculture Officer in Pulwama told ANI.

Farmers have expressed delight and gratitude for the initiative, and believe that the training will help produce better crops.
“This is a great program to make the common farmer aware of soil testing. We are very grateful to the state administration for the initiative. Here we are taught to check nutrients and mineral levels so that we can take care of the solid properly,” said Ghulam Muhammad, a farmer in the area.

“We hope that this will improve the quality of our crops and yield greater profits,” he added.
During the training program, farmers were taught soil sampling, soil testing, and scientific ways of preserving the health of the soil.
“We have been taught which seeds grow well in which soil, what pesticides, manure and nutrients we should use and when. 10-20 years ago, we did not have this knowledge and technology. They are teaching us how to enhance productivity scientifically,” said Farooq Malik, another farmer at the training program. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], February 24 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday slapped a fine of Rs 5 crores on the Saraswati Education Charitable Trust, in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh for violating the Medical Council of India (MCI) regulations while granting admission to 71 MBBS students in the second year in 2017-18.
A two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao and also comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat, passed the order after going through the writ petition filed by Saraswati Educational Charitable Trust.
“National Medical Commission has been directed to create a trust with this money for assistance to needy students in Uttar Pradesh,” the bench led by Justice Rao said in his order.
“The petitioner-College (Saraswati Education Charitable Trust) is directed to deposit Rs 5 crores in the Registry of this court within a period of 8 weeks from today. The petitioners are directed not to recover the amount from the students in any manner whatsoever,” the bench of the top court said, in its order.
The top court also said that being aware of the fact that admissions cannot be made from students not allotted by one of the Respondents, the College admitted 132 students on its own.
Thereafter, the College permitted the students to continue their studies in spite of the direction by the MCI to discharge the students not being stayed. Intentional violation of the Regulations by the Petitioner-College while granting admission to 132 students in the first year MBBS course for the academic year 2017-2018 cannot be condoned, the apex court said in its order.
“We direct the National Medical Commission to constitute a Trust which shall include the Accountant General of the State of Uttar Pradesh, an eminent educationist and a representative of the State of Uttar Pradesh as Members of the Trust,” the bench said.
The Trust constituted to manage the number of Rs 5 crores to be deposited by the petitioner-college shall extend financial assistance to the needy students seeking admission to medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], February 24 (ANI): The Centre has extended the period of paramilitary forces’ deployment in Haryana till February 28 for law and order duties during farmers’ agitation.
According to sources, the deployment of 9 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and 14 companies of Rapid Action Force (RAF) has been extended till February 28 in Haryana, where farmer unions are organising “mahapanchayat” as part of the protest against farm laws.
The deployment of paramilitary forces was scheduled to end on February 22 and already extended multiple times by the Centre.
Meanwhile, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the government has still left its door open for discussions with the farmers regarding the three new farm laws.
This comes as Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait announced the plans for marching to the Parliament with 40 lakh tractors in order to intensify pressure on the central government to withdraw the three farm laws.
Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the national capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws – Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. (ANI)

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], February 24 (ANI): The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Bill, 2021 was passed by the state Legislative Assembly by voice vote on Wednesday.
Earlier, the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet cleared the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, proposing a maximum punishment of 10 years for ‘love jihad’-related offences.
The Islamic organisation Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind had earlier also approached the Supreme Court challenging the Constitutional validity of the Uttar Pradesh Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020.
The organisation filed an intervention application in the already pending pleas challenging the Ordinance passed by the Uttar Pradesh government and the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018.
The application said Muslim youth is being “targeted and demonised” using the Uttar Pradesh ordinance on inter-faith marriages and religious conversion.
The ordinance is an attempt to regulate the personal decisions of each human being by encroaching upon an individual’s choice to convert to a religion of his/her choice, it added. (ANI)

Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], February 24 (ANI): The Kargil-Leh Highway will reopen for vehicular traffic from February 27 according to an order issued by the Office of Superindentent of Police (Traffic), Ladakh on Wednesday.
“In order to ensure smooth movement of vehicular traffic on Zojila and collection of timely information of road condition and movement of traffic. The traffic wing will be deployed at Minamarg who will establish their camp by February 26 evening. They will work in coordination with district Police Kargil already deployed at PP Minamarg,” read the order.
Earlier, a committee was constituted for management of opening and closure of Zojila pass including Divisional Commissioners of Kashmir, Ladakh, Ganderbal, and Kargil. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], February 24 (ANI): The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation’s (CDSCO) Subject Expert Committee (SEC) has recommended additional immunogenicity data from Dr Reddy’s Laboratories which applied to the national drugs regulator seeking emergency use approval for Sputnik V, a Russian COVID-19 Vaccine.
“Today, SEC meeting helped discuss the application of Dr Reddy seeking emergency use approval for Sputnik V vaccine. However, the pharma company has been asked to submit additional immunogenicity data. Once the firm presents the additional data then the only further evaluation will be done,” a government official said.
On 19 February, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories announced that it has initiated the process with the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the well-studied human adenoviral vector-based platform vaccine candidate, Sputnik V.
In September last year, Dr Reddy’s partnered with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to conduct the clinical trials of the Sputnik V and for its distribution rights in India. The vaccine is currently undergoing the phase 3 clinical trial in India.
According to Dr Reddy’s, Sputnik V has demonstrated an efficacy rate of 91.6 per cent in the interim analysis of the phase 3 clinical trial, which included data on 19,866 volunteers in Russia, who received both the first and second doses of the vaccine. Sputnik V maintained a consistent efficacy at 91.8 per cent even among the group of 2,144 volunteers over 60 years old.
Sputnik V is being developed by Russia’s Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology to fight against COVID-19 based on the human adenoviral vector platform. (ANI)