New Delhi [India], February 25 (ANI): Supporting the ongoing farmer agitation, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) national spokesperson Sudhindra Bhadoria on Thursday warned the central government not to further delay in addressing the demands of farmers anymore.
Bhadoria told ANI that protesting farmers and members of the Kisan Union are ready to talk with the government, several rounds of conversation have already taken place between them but delaying the demands of the farmers should not be kept as an option.
“Members of Kisan Union and the protesting farmers are up in conversation with the government and they had conversation a dozen times too. I believe the government should not delay their demands otherwise the farmers of the country will give up on agriculture and it will lead to major trouble for everyone,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Union Home Ministry has extended the period of paramilitary forces in Haryana till February 26 to maintain law and order during farmers agitation.
Hundreds of thousands of farmers, from the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting against the newly enacted three farm laws. (ANI)

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], February 25 (ANI): As cases of COVID-19 surge in Maharashtra, samples from about eight districts have been sent to laboratories across the country, including the National Institute of Virology and National Center for Disease Control, to find out if any new variant is behind the increasing number of cases.
Speaking to ANI, the advisor to the state for COVID control Dr Subhash Salunke said, “The ICMR has not been able to clearly come out whether is there any new mutant virus or not, that study is being done at NIV and NCDC and other few laboratories in the country, 8 districts of Maharashtra have already sent the required number of 100 samples per district. Results of these studies will be available to us maximum by the end of this week or maybe in another 8 to 10 days. After that, we will be able to confidently state whether the mutation has taken place, if the indigenous strain has mutated and if it is there then what type of mutation it is etc.”
The transmission of cases has increased rapidly in some districts of the Vidarbha region. Districts such as Amravati have been reporting over 20 per cent positivity rate in the last few days.
“Our finding shows that transmission rate has increased, in some cases the whole locality or a family is affected. Even last time when cases were at the peak we could not see such a trend even in Pune or Mumbai, but we could see this picture in Amravati or Yavatmal this time. The positivity rate in Amravati and surrounding areas has gone up to 20% to 25% hence one thing is clear that something is wrong with the virus because the behaviour of the people is the same everywhere in every district. This change is the clear indication that some changes in the virus are there but exact details of the changes will be clear once we get the scientific data after study.” said Dr Salunke.
Earlier samples tested at BJ Medical college laboratory in Pune have shown that the UK and Africa strain are not the reason behind the sudden surge of cases in parts of Maharashtra, however, scientists at multiple laboratories across the country are also working to find out if any indigenous variant of the virus is behind the spike.
Dr Salunke also cautioned the authorities about the possible spread of this virus to other states if it is not controlled in time.
“It is also showing concentrated spur in some of the areas like Vidarbha region and now it is slowly getting transmitted to other districts such as Pune and even Mumbai. If we don’t control it right now it may spread to other states because the potential is there,” Dr Salunke said.
However, he said that proper treatment is available to patients and added that the present treatment strategy is working well.
He also added that clinicians across the country have treated lakhs of patients last year and are clear about the treatment for patients.
Dr Subhash Salunkhe also chairs the Maharashtra Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control Technical Committee. He was the former director general of health services, Maharashtra and WHO chief of Indonesia. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], February 25 (ANI): Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday slammed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government over the hike in prices of fuel and gas.
Taking to Twitter, the Congress leader commented that the Modi government’s pitch is full of high inflation for the common people.
“In the last three months, the price of domestic gas cylinders have increased by Rs 200. Petrol and diesel have already moved towards hitting a century. The pitch of the Modi government, who is batting for his billionaire friends at both ends of the economy, is full of high inflation for the common people,” Gandhi tweeted (roughly translated from Hindi).
The prices of petrol and diesel have been increasing continuously for more than 10 days and in some states, the price of petrol has even crossed Rs 100 in some states. Opposition parties also held protests in different parts of the country over the rise of prices of diesel and petrol.
Earlier on Sunday, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convey “every citizen’s anguish and deep distress regarding the spiralling fuel and gas prices.” (ANI)

New Delhi [India], February 25 (ANI): Urdu publications in their Thursday editions gave prominent coverage to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech over the privatisation of various government companies.
Most newspapers also covered President Ram Nath Kovind’s inauguration of Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Gujarat’s Motera.
Rashtriya Sahara: The newspaper reported President Ram Nath Kovind’s speech in which said that the 1,32,000-seater Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Motera has become the world’s largest cricket stadium. The President also laid the foundation stone of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave in Ahmedabad.
The publication reported that the third phase of COVID-19 vaccination will start from March 1 which will cover people aged above 60 years and along with those with co-morbidities.
Inquilab: The newspaper lead with farmers’ protest news in which farmer leader Rakesh Tikait threatened the Centre by saying that 40 lakh tractors will march towards Parliament if farm laws are not taken back. The leader and the face of the protest also said that he will also grow crops at grounds near India Gate.
The publication carried the news of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the country’s worsening economical condition while addressing a rally in Hooghly. The Chief Minister also compared PM Modi to former US President Donald Trump and said “his condition will be worst than Trump’s.”
It also reported Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of the privatisation of various government companies, except those in the four strategic sectors, during a webinar on the implementation of budget announcements related to privatisation.
The Prime Minister pitched for “monetise and modernise” and said that the decisions related to asset monetisation and privatisation will help in empowering citizens. (ANI)

Alappuzha (Kerala) [India], February 25 (ANI): Police have arrested eight Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) workers in connection with the murder of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker, Nandu R Krishna here on Wednesday.
According to Cherthala police, those arrested are Suneer (33), Yasir (32), Abdul Khader (52), Mohammed Anaz (24), Ansil (33), Riyaz (38), Nishad (32) and Shabudeen (49).
“All eight arrested are SDPI workers,” said police.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other organisations have called for a 12-hour shutdown in Kerala’s Alappuzha district after an RSS worker was allegedly killed by SDPI members during a clash in the district on Wednesday night.
“BJP and other Hindu organisations have called for a hartal in Alappuzha district from 6 am to 6 pm to protest against the incident,” said BJP district president MV Gopakumar.
Nandu was allegedly killed by SDPI members after a clash erupted between two groups in Cherthala, Vayalar yesterday night.
According to the police, the deceased is identified as Rahul Krishna alias Nandu, a native of Vayalar.
Three RSS workers and six SDPI workers were also injured in the clash that ensued around 8 pm. There is a heavy deployment of police in the area following the incident.
A fund collection by SDPI activists on Tuesday was questioned by RSS workers and both organisations on Wednesday took out separate marches which ended up in violence. (ANI)

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], February 25 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda on Thursday said suggestion boxes and digital raths (vehicle) will be used to collect suggestions of the people ahead of Assembly elections in the state.
At the launch of Lokkho Sonar Bangla manifesto crowd sourcing, Nadda said, “We are making efforts to work towards making ‘Sonar Bangla’, with inclusion of contributions of Swami Vivekanand, Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Syama Prasad Mukherjee and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in prestigious history of Bengal.”
“Through this campaign we are putting in effort to understand how the people of Bengal thinks and how they can contribute in making Sonar Bangla. We want to include their aspirations and wishes. People of Bengal know how Sonar Bangla can be realised. Hence, we have to include them and their ideas in achieving this objective,” he said.
“So we are going to take more than 2 crore suggestions. Approximately, we will make available 30,000 suggestion boxes in the state. In 294 Assembly constituencies, around 100 suggestion boxes will be placed. Our workers will reach several homes with 50 boxes and 50 boxes we will kept at strategic or prominent places so that we can get suggestions,” Nadda said.
“Similarly, I am launching LED raths. For every constituency, there will be one LED rath. In that, we will also fulfill the requirement of giving suggestions digitally. Our miss call number will be 9727294294. On this moble one can give miss call and give suggestion. On this number Whatsapp message can be sent so that we can get their suggestion,” the BJP president said.
He added, similarly, on website www.lokkhosonarbangla.com suggestions can be given. This campaign will span between March 3 to March 20.
Nadda further said, “There are around 10 crore farmers in the country, of these around 73 lakhs are in Bengal itself. Seven installments of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi have already been released but the farmers of Bengal have remained deprived of it.”
“The Prime Minister has said we will provide the previous installments and when our government is formed in Bengal, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi will be launched here and 73 lakh farmers of the state will be benefitted,” he said.
Before the start of the event, Actor Payel Sarkar joined the BJP in the presence of state party chief Dilip Ghosh and national president Nadda. (ANI)