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Showing posts from August, 2021

50% students per classroom, staggered lunch breaks among DDMA guidelines for reopening of schools

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  Mandatory thermal screening, staggered lunch breaks, alternate seating arrangement in classrooms and avoiding routine guest visits are among the guidelines announced by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) for reopening of schools and colleges from September 1. The DDMA has said that students, teachers and other employees living in Covid containment zones will not be allowed to come to schools and colleges. Following a marked improvement in the Covid situation in the national capital, the Delhi government on Friday had announced that schools for classes 9 to 12, colleges and coaching institutions would reopen from September 1. The Delhi government had clarified that no student would be forced to attend physical classes and the consent of parents would be mandatory. "Schools and colleges should prepare a timetable as per occupancy limit of classrooms following Covid norms. A maximum 50 per cent students per classroom may be called depending upon capacity. The seating a

Completion of Aug 31 deadline for Afghan evacuation mission depends on Taliban cooperation: Biden

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  President Joe Biden has said the US is on "a pace" to complete its evacuation mission in Afghanistan by August 31 and doesn't plan to have troops in the country past that date, but the completion of the deadline depends on cooperation from the Taliban. The US has currently approximately 5,800 troops at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. “We are currently on a pace to finish (the evacuation mission) by August 31. The sooner we can finish, the better. Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “But the completion by August 31 depends on the Taliban continuing to cooperate and allow access to the airport for those who were transporting out and no disruptions to our operations,” he said. The Taliban -- which seized power in Afghanistan on August 15, two weeks before the US was set to complete its troop withdrawal after a costly two-decade war -- has warned that the US must end its evacuation m

2,800 trees to pay with life for Ayodhya airport’s birth

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  But 7,87,00,000 trees to be planted under compensatory afforestation rule At least 2,800 trees will be chopped for the development of the proposed `242.14-crore Ayodhya airport in Uttar Pradesh. However, the Government is making sure that nature does not pay for the developmental projects in Ayodhya . The plantation of more than 7,87,00,000 trees has been stipulated under compensatory afforestation as per the projects. The Yogi Government’s pet project, Ayodhya Airport, is planned to be developed in Faziabad city. It will be serving the districts of Bahraich, Gonda, Sultanpur, Amethi and Basti in eastern Uttar Pradesh The proposed airport, to be known as Maryada Purushottam Sriram Airport, Ayodhya, will be spread over  347.62 acres (140.67 ha) of land, including 177.62 acres needed for existing runway. About 170 acres (68.79 ha) of additional land has already been hand over by the district administration for the proposed development activities. The pact for the development of the air

HC grants interim protection from arrest to Raj Kundra in 2020 porn films case

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  The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted interim protection from arrest to businessman Raj Kundra in connection with a porn films racket case registered by the city police in 2020. A single bench of Justice S K Shinde directed the police to respond on August 25 to the pre-arrest bail plea filed by Kundra. "Interim protection granted till then," Justice Shinde said. Kundra, the husband of actor Shilpa Shetty, is currently in jail after being arrested in July in another case related to production and distribution of pornographic clips on some mobile apps. He filed the anticipatory bail plea in the HC last week in connection with the 2020 case, after a sessions court rejected his application seeking pre-arrest bail. In his plea, Kundra claimed that another accused in the case was granted bail and hence, he too should be given bail on parity. Opposing the plea in the HC on Wednesday, Additional Public Prosecutor Prajakta Shinde submitted that Kundra's role  in the case w

Taliban seize Jalalabad, cut off Afghan capital from east

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  The Taliban seized the city of Jalalabad early Sunday, cutting off Afghanistan's increasingly isolated capital Kabul to the east as the insurgents' blitz across the country continued ahead of the withdrawal of U.S. And NATO forces from the country after two decades of war. The collapse of Jalalabad, which had been the last major city standing besides Kabul, leaves Afghanistan's central government in control of just the capital and seven other provincial capitals. In a nationwide offensive that has taken just over a week, the Taliban has defeated, co-opted or sent Afghan security forces fleeing from wide swathes of the country, even with some air support by the U.S. Military. President Ashraf Ghani, who spoke to the nation Saturday for the first time since the offensive began, appears increasingly isolated as well. Warlords he negotiated with just days earlier have surrendered to the Taliban, leaving Ghani without a military option. Ongoing negotiations in Qatar, the sit

Netizens troll Kareena, Saif on rumours of naming son Jehangir

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  Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan's second child is not even two years old, but his name has been dragged into an unseemly Twitter troll attack. So much so, riding on the hate campaign, the hashtags #saifalikhan and #aurangzeb are trending on the social media platform. The world knew that the child had been named 'Jeh' -- his maternal grandfather Randhir Kapoor, in fact, had also referred to him as 'Jeh' when someone asked him for his name in response to the Bollywood veteran's recent tweet that he was visiting his grandchild. But then, reports started circulating that Kareena and Saif's second son was named Jehangir -- and that made the troll army see red. The couple had named their first son Taimur after he was born in 2014 and then, too, they were greeted with negativity. Those circulating the information that Kareena and Saif's second child is named Jehangir quoted from Kareena's just-released book, 'Pregnancy Bible: The Ultimate Man

Leaders of 14 Opp parties attend Kisan Sansad

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  Two days after they showed a “united face” over a breakfast meeting, several leaders of Opposition parties, including former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, on Friday extended their solidarity to protesting farmers and joined their Kisan Sansad at Jantar Mantar in Delhi asserting that  the three “black” agri laws will have to be withdrawn. Leaders of 14 Opposition parties met at Parliament House and then reached the nearby Jantar Mantar on a bus to participate in the Kisan Sansad, which began on July 22 to mark over seven months of the farmers’ protests at Delhi’s border points. The leaders neither spoke from the podium of the Kisan Sansad nor were they seated on the dais. Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and several other Congress leaders besides members from other Opposition parties were present at the meeting at Parliament House. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, RJD leader Manoj Kumar Jha, CPI (M) leader Elamaram Kareem, CPI leader Binoy Viswam,

PM Modi lashes out at opposition members for their conduct in Parliament

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  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday slammed opposition members for tearing papers in Parliament and making " derogatory " remarks on the way bills have been passed as he accused them of insulting the legislature and the Constitution with their conduct. Briefing reporters on Modi's speech at the BJP parliamentary party meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said the prime minister expressed anger at the conduct of some opposition members. While a TMC member in Rajya Sabha had torn the statement of IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on the Pegasus issue, several opposition members had torn papers in Lok Sabha and threw it in the air and towards the Chair. A tweet of TMC leader Derek O'Brien criticising the manner of bills' passage in Parliament also drew Modi's ire, Joshi and another Union minister V Muraleedharan told reporters, without naming the TMC member. He had tweeted, "In the first 10 days, Modi-Shah rushed through and passed 12 Bil