The Telugu Desam Party released its election manifesto at a press conference held at the party office in Mangalagiri ahead of the municipal elections. TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh released a 10-point manifesto titled “Pallelu gelichayi ika Mana vanthu”. The event was attended by TDP state president Atchannaidu, Varla Ramaiah, Panchumarthi Anuradha and others.

Nara Lokesh, who spoke after the release of the manifesto, alleged that the government is collecting heavy taxes, increasing current charges from Rs 200 to Rs 1,000, and hiking the fares of RTC buses.

The manifesto also said that the closed Anna Canteens will be reopened, meals will be served for only Rs 5 and 50% of taxes will be waived off.

Meanwhile, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh gave its go-ahead to the State Election Commission to conduct the municipal elections as per its recent notification. The civic polls will now be held on 10 March and counting will be held on 14 March.

The court has dismissed over 16 petitions which challenged the legality of the re-start of the civic polls after a year’s time. The municipal polls actually began in March last year, but were postponed because of the Covid pandemic.

With the prioritisation as guided by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC), the next phase of vaccination is due for citizens of age appropriate categories, including initially the people above 60 years of age and those aged from 45 years to 60 years and have the co-morbidities.

Disclosing this here on Friday, state Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said that all such citizens that are aged, or will attain the age of 45 years to 59 years as on 1 January 2022, and have any of the specified co-morbidities, which have been recommended by NEGVAC and approved by Government of India from time to time, subject to certification to that effect by a Registered Medical Practitioner.

Sidhu added that to augment and simplify the process of registration vaccination, the MoHFW is coming with COWIN 2.0, based on the feedback received during the implementation of Phase-1 of Covid-19 vaccination drive. He said that citizens will be able to register and book an appointment for vaccination using the COWIN 2.0 portal or through other IT applications such as ArogyaSetu etc.

He said that this new portal would prove helpful to expedite the vaccination drive especially to be conducted for aged people.

The Minister said that as per World Health Organization, Covid-19 vaccination is the single way out to deal with pandemic so that eligible beneficiaries have to take maximum benefit of this golden opportunity.

Divulging about the free and paid services, he said that vaccination will be provided free of charge at the government health facilities and will be on payment basis in the private health facilities, at a rate as may be decided by the Government of India from time to time.

New Delhi: In support of the Bharat Bandh called by the Confederation of All India Traders Congress on Friday, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said the central government is showing complacency when the inflation rate is high.

“Employment shut, inflation high, the government is cool with eyes closed, so Bharat Bandh,” read Gandhi’s tweet translated from Hindi. The effect of ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by the Confederation of All India Traders was visible in some parts of the country like Odisha, Assam and West Bengal where most shops and business establishments remained closed on Friday.

The Confederation of All India Traders called for the strike today in protest against rising fuel prices, new e-way bill and GST.

Over a period of time, the prices of petrol and diesel have increased sharply in the country. Opposition parties have held protests in different parts of the country over the fuel price rise. ANI

AICC national spokesperson Sravan Dasoju while delivering an emotional speech on Friday blasted K.T. Rama Rao (KTR), Minister for Industries, IT and Municipal Administration, who did not attend the open debate organised at the Telangana Martyrs Memorial, Gun Park. to discuss the issue of employment in Telangana.

The senior Congress leader criticized the minister for his arrogance and negligence of the welfare of Telangana, and for lying about recruitment numbers during a meeting at the Telangana Bhavan.

“Like father, like son. Shame KTR, you shamelessly betrayed 40 lakh beleaguered unemployed youths of Telangana with your fake and fabricated statements of filling up 1.32 lakh jobs in the state ever since you came into power,” said the AICC leader, while slamming KTR for his absence.

Dr Sravan along with Congress leaders and cadre had made arrangements to welcome KTR for an open debate on employment issues in Telangana. A separate chair had been decorated and kept ready especially for the minister. However, the minister did not show up, which was attributed to the fear that his statements would have been proven wrong publicly.

“We wouldn’t have beaten you KTR. In fact, we would have greeted you with nice garlands and flower bouquets. Democracy is all about healthy dialogue, discussion and debate to arrive at concrete solutions to complex issues,” the Congress leader said.

Ridiculing KTR’s statements on job offers, Dr Sravan explained that there were 4.19 lakh sanctioned jobs in 2014 while 3.12 lakh employees worked in the government and 1.07 lakh posts lay vacant. He questioned how current vacancies had gone up to 1.91 lakhs and the total number of existing employees reduced to 2.28 lakhs, if KTR was right. With the formation of new districts and gram panchayats, the total number of sanctioned jobs should have increased to 5.19 lakhd. As per the Biswal Commission, the state has only 2.28 lakh employees while 4.19 lakh sanctioned jobs are available, which means 47% of sanctioned jobs are currently vacant in Telangana, he noted.