Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) [India], February 28 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh managed to control the Encephalitis disease by 75 per cent and the fatality rate due to it has reduced by 95 per cent in the past four years, said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday.
While inaugurating a campaign here to create awareness about communicable diseases, Adityanath said, “In 2017, we started a special vaccination programme to aware citizens about Encephalitis. As a result, the state managed to control the disease by 75 per cent and the death rate due to the disease reduced by 95 per cent in the past four years.”
“We will fully control the disease in coming years. United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) also supported to make this program a success,” he added.
The campaign will formally start from March 1 and will continue till March 31.
Adityanath said that after coming to power in 2017, the government started a special campaign to control Encephalitis disease. “We formed special teams for treatment and controlling the disease,” he said.
Last week, Adityanath launched the Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine drive and administered the vaccine drops to children in Lucknow. (ANI)

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], February 28 (ANI): The Left Democratic Front (LDF) officially released the assembly election campaign slogan “Yes for sure it’s LDF” at a function at AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.
CPI (M) Kerala State secretary A Vijayaraghan handed over the tagline for the campaign to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in a function at the party headquarters.
Vijayaraghavan said the slogan “Yes for sure it’s LDF” conveys an assurance that the LDF would come back to power.
Prior to its official release, hoardings with the tagline were put up across the State in the last 12 hours.
The posters that were released at the function have pictures of development activities and welfare schemes implemented by the Kerala government.
CPI (M) leaders including Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, KN Balagopal also attended the function.
The election for 140-member Kerala Assembly in 14 districts will be held in a single phase on April 6. The counting of votes will be held on May 2. (ANI)

Puducherry [India], February 28 (ANI): After repeated gaffe by Rahul Gandhi on no dedicated ministry to deal with the issues of fishermen, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Congress leader was on vacation when the NDA formed the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying in 2019.

“Some days ago, Rahul Gandhi had asked why there is no fisheries department. I want to know from people whether they want a leader who doesn’t know that Department of Fisheries has been in existence for 2 years (since 2019),” Shah said at a public rally ahead of assembly elections in the Union Territory Puducherry’s Karaikal district.

Questioning the capability of the Congress party to govern the Puducherry, he said, “Can the Congress party do the welfare of Puducherry?

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi had demanded the setting up of a separate ministry for fisheries at a meeting in Puducherry. The Wayanad MP’s comments came at an interaction with the fishing community in Kollam’s Thangassery on February 24.

“Just like our farmers farm the land, you farm the sea. Farmers have a Ministry in Delhi, you don’t. No one speaks for you in Delhi. The first thing I would do is to have a ministry dedicated to the fishermen of India so that your issues can be defended and protected,” said the Congress leader.
He made a similar gaffe in Puducherry earlier this month. In Puducherry, Gandhi had demanded the setting up of a separate ministry for fisheries.

However, the Congress leader’s comments came in for immediate rebuttal by Union Minister Giriraj Singh, who had also taken a swipe at Gandhi’s ignorance and attempt to “spread misinformation”.

Singh had said, “Rahul Gandhi is unaware that a separate ministry for fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying was formed by the Prime Minister in 2019, adding that Gandhi can’t come out of Italy.”(ANI)

Kochi (Kerala) [India], February 28 (ANI): Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will initiate the candidate selection for Kerala polls after seat-sharing with Left Democratic Front (LDF) is finalised, said State Transport Minister and NCP leader AK Saseendran on Sunday.
Speaking to the media in Kochi during NCP’s state executive meeting, Saseendran said the key factor while choosing the candidate will be their chances of victory in the upcoming polls.
“The seats which the NCP is contesting will be decided after discussion in the LDF. After that, we will meet and decide on the candidates. It needs the approval of the central leadership. The key factor of a candidate is the chances of victory. Giving seats to newcomers will also be discussed,’ he said.
When asked if he will be contesting in the upcoming, the NCP leader said, “It is up to the party to decide whether I will contest or not. Whatever the party decides, I will be happy.”
The election for 140-member Kerala Assembly in 14 districts will be held in a single phase on April 6.
The tenure of the 14th Kerala legislative assembly will come to an end on June 1, 2021. A total of 2,67,88,268 electors will elect the candidates in Kerala for the 15th legislative assembly.
For Assembly poll 2021, the number of polling booths in Kerala has been extended from 21,498 to 40,771. The counting of votes will be held on May 2.
According to the commission, of the 140 Assembly seats, 14 seats are reserved for SC category and two are reserved for ST category candidates. (ANI)

Kullu (Himachal Pradesh) [India], February 28 (ANI): Three people were killed after their car fell into a ditch near Marogi in Kullu district on Sunday morning.
The bodies were taken out by the police officials and sent for post-mortem in a hospital in Mandi.
The accident occurred around 6 am today when the three persons were moving towards Kullu from IIT Kamand. They were riding a Tata Tiago vehicle, which fell 800 meters in the ditch.
The deceased were identified as Delhi residents – Harveen Sandu, 34 years, Ramesh Chander, 49 years and Yogesh.
“After receiving information, a police team also reached the spot, informed their relatives and have registered a case,” informed Lokander Negi, DSP, Mandi.
Further investigation is underway. (ANI)

By Sushil Batra
New Delhi [India], February 28 (ANI): A contempt petition has been moved in Delhi High Court for initiating the contempt of proceedings against the Officers of Central/Delhi Government and Director of Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) for allegedly not willfully complying the court’s directions to tackle the shortage of doctors at IHBAS.
The plea has been filed by lawyer and social activist Amit Sahni alleging that the order passed by Delhi High Court on September 2, 2020 asking to fill pending vacancies at IHBAS, is not being adhered by the concerned authorities. The contempt petition will be heard by Justice Najmi Waziri on Monday.
Plea states, IHBAS, the premier mental health and neurosciences institute of the country has been suffering from an acute shortage of doctors as it is functioning with 24 doctors against the sanctioned strength of 103.
It also states that the petitioner had made a representation in August last year for filling the pending vacancies of faculty and other medical staff at IHBAS, but no action was taken.
It added that the petitioner had earlier too approached the court and division bench of Delhi High Court.
“The division bench had on September 2, 2020, directed the concerned respondent authorities to treat this writ petition as a representation and to look into the grievances ventilated by the petitioner in this petition in accordance with law, rules regulations and government policies applicable to the facts of the case. Court had also said that, we expect that the concerned respondent authorities shall fill up the vacancies as early as possible and practicable,” the plea said.
The petition states that even the Faculty Association of IHBAS (FAI) also took note of the situation on January 29, 2021, in its minutes of the meeting. They brought the grievance regarding the shortage of doctors at 23 per cent which is leading to over-burdening the existing faculty members.
FAI also noted that even pursuant to the directions of Delhi High Court to fill vacancies as early as possible, nothing has happened till date, the plea said.
It added that the shortage of faculty and staff is a matter of serious concern and despite the directions of this Court, the grievance raised by the petitioner has not been addressed even after five months.
The National Medical Commission considering the assessment report dated August 31, 2020 declined to recommend the recognition of the DM (Neurology) Course of the Institute due to deficiencies of Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor, plea said. (ANI)