NATIONAL NEWS
Certain sections of media communalise everything, says CJI
Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana on Thursday said certain sections of the media communalised everything and this would ultimately result in giving the country a bad name. The remark from the CJI came while hearing petitions highlighting how some media outlets aired communal content linking the spread of the coronavirus to a Tablighi Jamaat meet held at Nizamuddin in Delhi. The problem is, everything in this country is shown with a communal angle by a section of media. The country is going to get a bad name ultimately, Chief Justice Ramana, heading a three-judge Bench, observed orally. The hearing witnessed Chief Justice Ramana upbraid the lack of accountability on the part of social media platforms. The CJI said social media platforms only responded to powerful people, while complaints made by ordinary people, institutions and judges over content were ignored. These web channels, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. They never respond. There is no accountability. About the institution they write badly and then they do not respond. This is the condition of institutions, forget individuals. They consider only people who are powerful. Institutions, common man, judges, they do not. This is the reality, Chief Justice Ramana noted.
Lok Sabha without a Deputy Speaker for 830 days With the Delhi High Court asking the Central government on Wednesday to explain its stand on a petition that claimed that keeping the post of Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha vacant is a violation of Article 93 of the Constitution, the issue is once again in the spotlight. Petitioner Pawan Reley pointed out that the position had been vacant for the last 830 days. Congress’s floor leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, It is a constitutionally mandated position and not a ceremonial one. During each session, the Congress has demanded that the election to the post be held, but our demands have been ignored. Senior TMC leader Derek O’ Brien pointed out that the longest time that this post had remained vacant was in the 12th Lok Sabha, and even then on the 59th sitting of Parliament, election to the post was held. Modi-Shah is dismantling every institution, including Parliament. We have been screaming ourselves hoarse. Angry. Sad, he said. Congress Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha Kodikunnil Suresh said that by convention, this post went to the Opposition. During the Budget Session of Parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla contracted Covid-19. The panel of chairpersons are not equipped to handle the job, he noted. As of now, there are nine members who are part of the Panel of Chairpersons from the BJP, DMK, YSR Congress, BJD, TMC and the Revolutionary Socialist Party. A Deputy Speaker enjoys the same legislative powers as the Speaker. And in the absence of the Speaker because of death, illness or any other reason, the Deputy Speaker also assumes the administrative powers. Soon after the 2019 general election, the government had made some effort to fill the position. It approached the YSR Congress, who turned down the offer since it would have been difficult to align their protest against the government for not according special status to Andhra Pradesh while occupying the post. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and his Deputy in the Lok Sabha Arjun Ram Meghwal were both not available for their comment. Birla had said that it is for the House to elect a Deputy Speaker and it’s not the Speaker’s job. BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, who is a member of the Panel of Chairpersons, said the Lok Sabha functioning was not affected by lack of a Deputy Speaker. Currently, the Maharashtra Assembly is functioning without an elected Speaker after the resignation of Nana Patole, he pointed out. As the combined Opposition did not have the strength to elect a member of their choice, the choice fell on the government. The fact that there was no recognised leader of the Opposition also hampered the process, he stated. In 1984, when Rajiv Gandhi came to power with an overwhelming majority, the Deputy Speaker’s position was given to the AIADMK, he noted.
Long-COVID now forces hospitals to offer rehabilitation programme
Medical care facilities across the country are now offering rehabilitation programmes for COVID-survivors, with the hospitals continuing to report cases of Long-COVID while India is registering a downward trend of new COVID cases. The most common symptoms reported include muscle weakness/fatigue, sleep problems, and hair loss though hospitals are also seeing cases of COVID-related development of tuberculosis and fungal pneumonia, and cases of increased heart rate, especially among those between 30-65 years. The rehabilitation programme includes physiotherapy, psychological counselling, pulmonologist consultation, and lung function tests. Dr. Akshay Budhraja, Pulmonologist, Aakash Healthcare, said: We are seeing issues with those over 30 years and aggravated complaints among the elderly. A study published recently in medical journal Lancet, titled 1-year outcomes in hospital survivors with COVID-19: A longitudinal cohort study,’ — conducted among COVID survivors in Wuhan, the epicentre of the first coronavirus outbreak in China — found that a number of survivors continued to have lower health status a year after symptom onset. Survivors continued suffering from at least one post-COVID medical complication even a year after COVID. While most survivors returned to their original work and life, the baseline health status of some continued to be lower, said the study, which followed the cases of 1,276 patients admitted at the Jin Yin-tan Hospital in Wuhan over one year. G.S. Chabbra, director, Respiratory Medicine, QRG Hospital, Faridabad, said while admissions due to Long COVID have slowed down now, the hospital has been in constant touch with their patients via tele-medicine and the hospital app. After the second wave we did have patients with complaints of hair fall, episodes of breathlessness, and joint and muscle pain, which are typical symptoms of post-COVID patients, he said.
Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments
The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,29,01,257 with the death toll at 4,39,900. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday said that with reports of new mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the rising number of variants of concern and interest, international passengers coming in from South Africa, Bangladesh, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, etc., will now undergo RT-PCR tests on arrival in India. Passengers from the U.K., Europe and the Middle East are already required to take this test. International passengers are to undergo pre-arrival RT-PCR testing at least 72 hours before boarding and only asymptomatic passengers are allowed to board a flight to India. Now, these latest revisions have been communicated to the States to ensure strict compliance so that the import of variants into India may be prevented, he explained. He added that in case of symptomatic and/or positive international travellers, States must continue to implement stringent public health measures of contact tracing, quarantine, testing and ensuring COVID-19-appropriate behaviour. The Ministry has also written to States and Union Territories asking them to strengthen their Whole Genome Sequencing activities, which are critical to establishing clinical epidemiological correlations. The Health Secretary stated that the second COVID-19 surge is far from over and that, currently, 69% of Covid-19 cases are from Kerala. He added that Kerala currently has more than 1 lakh active cases, while four States — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh — have between 10,000 to 1 lakh active cases. Forty-two districts in the country are still reporting more than 100 new cases each day, which is a cause of concern. However, India has now managed to fully vaccinate 16% of its adult population, while 54% has got one shot, Bhushan said.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
New York City Mayor declares state of emergency after record-breaking rain
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency on September 1 night due to what he called a historic weather event, with record-breaking rain across the city leading to flooding and dangerous conditions on the roads. Nearly all New York City subway lines were suspended late on September 1 as the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida brought drenching rain and the threat of flash floods and tornadoes to parts of the northern mid-Atlantic. At least five flash-flood emergencies were issued on September 1 evening by the National Weather Service, stretching from just west of Philadelphia through northern New Jersey. Earlier in the night, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy also declared a state of emergency in response to Ida. Storm damage from Ida astounded officials on Wednesday three days after the powerful hurricane pounded southern Louisiana, as reconnaissance flights revealed entire communities devastated by winds and floods. Tornadoes spawned by the storm ripped through parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, images on social media showed. At least nine homes were destroyed in Mullica Hill, New Jersey. New Jersey’s Newark Liberty Airport said on Twitter it was experiencing severe flooding. It said it resumed limited flight operations close to midnight after all flight activity was suspended late on Wednesday. New York City also experienced flooding, with social media images showing water gushing over subway platforms and trains. Subway service was extremely limited due to the flooding, the Metropolitan Transit Authority said. The New York City Mayor urged people to not go outside.
Mullah Hebatullah Akhundzada to be named Afghanistan’s Supreme Leader
The Taliban’s top religious leader Mullah Hebatullah Akhundzada will be named as Afghanistan’s supreme authority, a senior member of the group has said. Consultations are almost finalised on the new government, and the necessary discussions have also been held about the cabinet, Mufti Inamullah Samangani, a senior official in the Taliban’s information and culture commission, said on Wednesday. He said the group is all set to announce the formation of the new government in Kabul in the next three days. In the new set-up, 60-year-old Mullah Akhundzada will be the Supreme Leader of the Taliban government, which will follow the pattern of the Iranian leadership. In Iran, the supreme leader is the highest political and religious authority of the country. He ranks above the president and appoints the heads of the military, the government, and the judiciary. The supreme leader has final say in the political, religious and military affairs of the country. Mullah Akhunzada will be the leader of the government and there should be no question on this, he said, indicating that the president will work under his oversight. Mullah Akhunzada is the top religious leader of the Taliban and has been serving at a mosque in Kachlaak area of Balochistan province for 15 years.
