Farmer unions announce ‘rail roko’ agitation on Feb 18

NEW DELHI: The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) – an umbrella body of around 40 farmer groups – on Wednesday announced a nationwide “rail roko” programme on February 18 as it decided to scale up its agitation against three contentious farm laws at a meeting of its senior representatives.

SKM also said it will hold a a candle march, a torch procession, and other programs on February 14 to remember the 40 troopers who were killed in the 2019 Pulwama terror attack; and on February 16, observe the birth anniversary of Sir Chhotu Ram, a prominent pre-independence Jat leader.

“Rail stop programs will be held on February 18... across the country,” farmer leader Darshan Pal said.

GENEVA: A World Health Organization panel recommended Astrazeneca Plc’s Covid-19 vaccine for all adults over 18, paving the way to speed up inoculations in developing countries.

Independent experts advising the WHO on Wednesday recommended the use of Astrazeneca’s vaccine even in countries that turned up worrying coronavirus variants in their populations. There had been doubts about the vaccine’s effectiveness against a variant that emerged in South Africa.

The advice is used by health care officials worldwide, but doesn’t amount to a WHO green light for the UN and its partners to ship the vaccine. That approval could come after separate WHO group meetings on Friday and Monday to assess whether an emergency-use listing for the Astrazeneca vaccine is warranted. The Astrazeneca vaccine is important because the Un-backed COVAX Facility, which aims to deploy coronavirus vaccines to people in need around the world whether in rich or poor countries, hopes to start shipping hundreds of millions of doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine later this month. Dr Soumya Swaminathan, the WHO’S chief scientist, called the findings an “important milestone.”