NEW COVID VARIANT: DDMA TO MEET ON 29 NOVEMBER

NEW DELHI: Amid concerns due to the new Covid-19 variant ‘Omicron’, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) is scheduled to meet on Monday to take a call on international passengers, especially from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong, informed government sources. Experts and representatives from the Ministry of Civil Aviation are expected to attend the meeting among others. “They may take a call on RT-PCR testing of passengers deboarding from international flights and quarantining of passengers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong etc,” government sources said. Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has instructed officials to ensure adherence to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour in public places.

The Sunday Guardian spoke to the two former Congress leaders—kirti Azad from Bihar and Ashok Tanwar from Haryana—and Pavan Varma from the JDU who joined the TMC earlier this week in New Delhi, in the presence of Mamata Banerjee. All the three new inductees into the TMC equivocally said that they see Mamata Banerjee as the most formidable leader to be the Prime Ministerial candidate for 2024 elections and that the Congress currently lacks a “charismatic” leadership which has led to the downfall of the Congress across the country. They also said that the TMC has a larger strategic pan India plan in place to take on the ruling BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

KIRTI AZAD

A cricketer-turned-politician, he had been an MP from Dharbhanga in Bihar thrice. In 2014, he contested on a BJP ticket and won the elections. He was later suspended from the BJP for openly targeting former Union Minister Arun Jaitley. He then joined the Congress and now earlier this week the TMC. Excerpts from