Admn orders random sampling of people at religious places
LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said the state would make 35,000 centres for the Covid vaccine and all of them would be put under CCTV (closed circuit television) camera vigil. Besides, all vaccine carrier vehicles will have GPS (global positioning system) trackers.
He tasked the health and home departments with preparing a foolproof work plan for secure storage and cold chain for prospective Covid vaccines, eliminating any possibility of misuse of the vaccine.
In his third dedicated meeting on the vaccine, he also said: “The vaccine is likely to come in the near future. Considering this, the home department and the health department together should make a foolproof work plan for the safe, secure storage of the vaccine and maintenance of cold-chain. Make sure that under any circumstances, there’s no misuse of the vaccine.”
“Use the previous experience of rubella and measles vaccination programmes carried out in the state,” he said.
Reminding them of the deadline, the chief minister asked the officials concerned to put in place safe storage facilities by December 15, putting all of them under CCTV camera vigil.
A press statement by the state government also said the central government conducted a training for master trainers for the vaccination and chief minister Yogi Adityanath observed it virtually. Yogi said that the state government was working in all seriousness for Covid vaccine storage as the government was committed towards saving people from Covid-19.:
LUCKNOW: Not willing to take any chances in view of corona that is still raging, the district administration has made social distancing and masks compulsory at religious places.
What is more, anticipating a second Covid-19 wave, it has also directed random sampling of people at religious places, markets, shops and other public spots of mass gathering.
It has also roped in clerics and religious leaders to not only make the masses aware of the pandemic but also to ensure that the congregations stay within the permissible limits (as per Covid protocol).
“On a precautionary note, we held a meeting with the religious leaders, asking them to ensure that Covid protocol was followed at religious places. We have also made social distancing and masks compulsory at religious places. Random sampling would also be done at all the religious places to assess the situation,” said district magistrate (DM) Abhishek Prakash.
The DM also said that the religious leaders had been asked to create awareness about corona threat among the masses and the devotees. He said the administration had also roped in traders, guest house and marriage hall owners and social activists to ensure effective implementation of Covid protocol.
He said as per the experts, the approaching two months were very crucial for the Covid-19 outbreak, hence the drive had been initiated to contain the deadly virus.
The administration would also create awareness through loudspeakers and public address systems in areas and markets that were vulnerable to mass gatherings.
The anti-Covid awareness drive would be aimed at discouraging people from venturing out without masks.
It would also highlight the legal consequences which one could face on flouting Covid protocol, he said .
LUCKNOW : The UP police registered six cases and arrested 10 people since the new law against forced and dishonest religion conversion came into force on November 28, but two Muslim women victims of similar incidents were struggling to get justice in the state capital, said Madhu Garg, state president of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), here on Wednesday.
The victims sought help from the authorities concerned while sharing their trauma during a press conference organised under aegis of three different women’s organisations, including AIDWA, Bhartiya Mahila Federation and AIPWA, at UP Press Club here.
They said they were running from pillar to post for the past two-three years but it had yielded no results to them.
Sharing her story, the first victim Shakeela aka Soni, 22, said she hailed from an underprivileged family of Kushinagar and her father and step-mother got her married off to a mentally retarded man at the tender age of 15 in 2013. She said she fled from her house after few days when she came to know that her husband was mentally retarded. She reached Lucknow.
She said she had plans to find work and stay in Lucknow independently, but all of this did not happen as she thought it would.
“I met one Suresh Yadav, aged around 50 now, while loitering around Lohia hospital in Vibhuti Khand and he assured help. After initially helping me to get some work and a place to live in, Yadav offered me to marry me and assured me of fulfilling all basic necessities. I agreed as he was helpful and said that he was unmarried,” she emphasised.
“We get married in a temple on September 9, 2013 and since then I converted my religion to become Soni from Shakeela,” she added.
Yadav is a lineman at the Lohia hospital power house.
She said all was well for threefour years as they lived together at small rented room in Gomti Nagar, but her trauma started when she came to know that he was already married and he had kept his wife and children at some other place. She alleged Yadav then started torturing her, abused her sexually and threatened her with dire consequences.
“I faced so much of trauma in the past seven years and now I have been abandoned by him with my two-year-old son from Yadav,” she stated.
Another woman Ruqaiyya Bano, 35, who is now Muskan Arya, said she was now a Hindu woman for her parents, but her “husband Yashovardhan Srivastava and in-laws” still considered her a Muslim. She said she converted to Hinduism for marriage three years ago and was renamed as Muskan.
She said she got married at the Arya Samaj temple in September 2017, but went on to face the “biggest betrayal of her life” thereafter. With her husband denying the marriage sometime afterwards, she had been fighting for justice to get her identity for the past three years, she said while showing marriage photographs and certificate issued from Arya Samaj temple.
“My fight is whether I am Ruqaiyya Bano or Muskan Arya,” she explained.
LOCAL ADMN HAD ALSO ROPED IN CLERICS AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO MAKE THE MASSES AWARE OF THE PANDEMIC