NDMC bans road cutting in its areas till March 31

New Delhi, Feb. 10: The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has banned road cutting in its areas till March 31 except for urgent repair or maintenance work.

“Keeping in view ensuing Swacch Sarvekshan-2021, there will be ban on road cutting from February 9 to March 31, except for urgent repairs, maintenance work for restoration of services,” Chief Engineer, Sanjay Gupta, said in an order.

NDMC areas are home to the high and mighty of the country, including Union ministers and parliamentarians besides many top industrialists.

Parliament House, offices of all the ministries, Supreme Court, High Court and residences of Supreme Court judges, senior bureaucrats and senior military officers are in NDMC areas.

Earlier, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation told the Delhi High Court that strike of the sanitation workers was over and cleaning and garbage collection work has commenced in Model Town area here and waste will be lifted from the entire colony in the next 10 days.

The Supreme court on Tuesday halted further dismantling of decommissioned INS Viraat on a plea by a Mumbaibased Envitech Marine Consultants Pvt Ltd seeking to convert over six-decade old aircraft carrier into a maritime museum & multi-functional adventure centre

Putting on hold the dismantling of INS Viraat which was decommissioned by India Navy on March 5, 2017, a bench headed by Chief Justice Sharad A. Bobde and also comprising Justicse A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian issued notice to the centre and a Gujarat-based private company Shree Ram Group which had bought it for scrapping and took it to Alang port in Gujarat for dismantling.

Lucknow, Feb. 10: Attacking the Centre over the new farm laws, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday told a rally in western Uttar Pradesh that if voted to power her party would scrap them.

At a “kisan panchayat” organised by the party in Saharanpur, the Congress general secretary accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders of “insulting” farmers who are protesting against the laws. “The three laws are demonic. If voted to power, the Congress will scrap these laws,” she said.

She said the party’s fight will continue till the laws are scrapped.

The rally is the first in a series of such farmers’ meetings planned by the Congress in western Uttar Pradesh, a year before the assembly elections in the state where the opposition party is struggling to revive itself.

The Congress leader was presented with a pair of ploughs at the meeting.

IT IS HEARTENING that the figures of Covid-19 related deaths have steadily turned south of late. The Union health ministry reported no fatalities in the past 24 hours in 15 states and Union territories, and the death count was less than five in another 18 states and UTs. For two weeks on the trot, the case fatality ratio had stayed below one per cent, which was the government’s original target when it was battling the rising epidemic. Thirty-three out of 36 states and UTs have fewer than 5,000 active cases. Is this the beginning of the end for the pandemic?

N.J. Ravi Chander

Bengaluru

Brussels, Feb. 10: European lawmakers on Wednesday approved a 672.5 billion euro ($815 billion) recovery package of loans and grants to help member states recover faster from the coronavirus pandemic.

The regulation for the Recovery and Resilience Facility was adopted with 582 votes in favour, 40 against and 69 abstentions. The RRF is the central pillar of the the bloc’s 750 billion euro ($910 billion) recovery plan that was adopted by EU leaders last year.

“In the long-term, this money is going to bring about change and progress to meet our digital and climate goals,” said Eider Gardiazabal Rubial, a lawmaker closely involved in the negotiations.

“We will ensure that the measures will alleviate poverty and unemployment, and will take into account the gender dimension of this crisis. Our health systems will also become more resilient.” —