CURRENT AFFAIRS
05 April 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Modi reviews ‘alarming rate of growth’ in COVID-19 cases at high-level meeting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday reviewed the COVID-19 situation and vaccination exercise in the country amid an alarming rate of growth in infections and deaths, with 10 states contributing to more than 91% of them. Mr. Modi said the five-fold strategy of testing, tracing, treatment, COVID-appropriate behaviour and vaccination if implemented with utmost seriousness and commitment would be effective in curbing the pandemic’s spread, according to an official statement. The reasons for the sharp rise in cases could be mainly attributed to the severe decline in compliance of COVID-appropriate behaviour, especially in the use of masks and social distancing, pandemic fatigue and lack of effective implementation of containment measures at the field level, it said. A detailed presentation was made which highlighted that there is an alarming rate of growth of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country with 10 states contributing to more than 91% of cases and deaths due to COVID, it said. It was noted in the meeting that vaccine manufacturers are ramping up their production capacity and are also in discussion with other domestic and offshore companies to augment the same. Noting that the situation in Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh is of serious concern, a presentation in the meeting highlighted that the western state has contributed 57% of the total cases and 47% of deaths in the country in the last 14 days. Earlier, with daily coronavirus cases crossing 90,000 a day very near the numbers seen last September Mr. Modi chaired a high-level meeting. The meeting, attended by top officials at the Centre including the Home Secretary, Secretaries of Health, Principal Scientific Adviser, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research, veered around the view that the spike in cases was due to severe decline in people complying with Covid-appropriate behaviour. This meant, as several communiques from the Centre have reiterated over the past month, that people had largely abjured the use of masks, maintaining ‘2 Gaj ki Doori’, (six feet distance), pandemic fatigue and that authorities weren’t effectively implementing containment measures at the field level.
B) Maharashtra introduces new restrictions.
While ruling out a stringent lockdown, the Uddhav Tackeray-led Mahasrashtra government on Sunday tightened restrictions further by announcing a night curfew and weekend lockdown across the State in wake of the relentless uptick in Covid-19 cases. The fresh norms, which come into effect today, include a curfew from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. (Monday to Friday), a ban on gatherings of five or more persons throughout the day, and, in a determined bid to preclude gatherings, a closure malls, restaurants and bars. Theatres and cinema halls are to remain shut as well, while playgrounds and gardens are to remain closed as well. In their lieu, home delivery services will be permitted while essential services will continue unhindered. The new rules are to last till April 30, said a government notification. In order to keep the economic spokes running, there will be no curbs on industrial operations and construction activity. Agriculture and agricultural activities, transportation of food grains and agricultural commodities will continue as usual too. Film shoots, too, will be permitted, though in the strict absence of crowds. Everything except essential services will be closed on weekends. While no new restrictions are put on traffic, public transport will run at 50 % capacity. All types of shops, malls, markets, except groceries, medicines, vegetables are to remain closed till April 30.
C) Bodies of 22 jawans recovered in Sukma encounter.
Police recovered bullet-riddled bodies of 17 jawans in the jungles of Chhattisgarh on April 4, raising to 22 the number of security personnel killed in a fierce gunbattle with Naxals the previous day the biggest massacre in more than a year that also left 30 injured. The dead include personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), its elite unit CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) and the District Reserve Guard (DRG), the official said. It was not clear how many were from which unit. Eighteen jawans were missing after five security personnel were killed on April 3 in the fierce gun battle with Naxals in a forest along the border between Bijapur and Sukma districts in Chhattisgarh, police had said. On Sunday, bodies of 17 missing personnel were recovered during a search operation, the official said. Some weapons of the security forces were missing, he added. Two bodies have been retrieved and choppers have been sent to recover the bodies of other jawans, Chhattisgarh Director General of Police (DGP) D.M Awasthi said earlier on Sunday, adding that one jawan was still missing. Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on April 4 and directed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) DG Kuldiep Singh to visit the encounter site. Mr. Baghel who was in Assam for election campaign is returning to Chhattisgarh. Five security personnel, including two from the CRPF, were killed and more than 12 others were injured in an encounter with Maoists in Sukma district on Saturday. Two Maoists were said to be killed and the body of a woman cadre was recovered from the site of the encounter.
D) EC rejects Mamata Banerjee’s complaint of rigging at Nandigram booth.
The Election Commission on Sunday warned West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that her conduct at a polling booth in Nandigram was under its scanner and rejected her allegations of rigging and violence on April 1, the day of voting for the second phase of State Assembly elections. Ms. Banerjee, who is a candidate from Nandigram, reached a polling booth at Boyal in the Assembly segment on polling day, where she alleged that her party polling agent was not allowed inside the booth and outsiders were trying to create trouble while Central forces were protecting them under instructions from the Home Ministry. While the Chief Minister sat inside a polling booth at Boyal Primary School for almost an hour, passions ran high among supporters of both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP outside. The EC slammed Ms. Banerjee for her conduct and wrote that as a poll candidate and CM she sought to weave a media narrative to mislead the voters. The EC said tensions outside the polling booth could have had an adverse impact on law and order across West Bengal and may be some other States while the voting was underway. It added, there could not have been a greater misdemeanor. The EC warned Ms. Banerjee that it was examining the incident for violations under Section 131 and 123(2) of The Representation of the People Act, which deal with disorderly conduct outside the polling booth and attempts by a candidate to exert undue influence or interfere with free exercise of electoral right. There is no evidence at all to suggest that the BSF jawans who were deployed at the polling station indulged in any inappropriate behaviour. Moreover, the complaint that they did not allow the voters to go inside the booth is far from the truth, Election Commission of India secretary general Umesh Sinha wrote on April 3. The letter called the Chief Minister’s allegations factually incorrect, without any empirical evidence whatsoever and devoid of substance.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Pakistan court jails Hafiz Saeed’s five aides.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has sentenced five leaders of Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) to nine years of imprisonment each in a terror financing case. Three of them — Umar Bahadar, Nasarullah and Samiullah — have been convicted for the first time since the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Lahore pronounced its verdict some time ago in the terror financing cases registered by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Punjab police. The other two — JuD spokesperson Yahya Mujahid and senior leader Prof Zafar Iqbal — had already been convicted for many years in other terror financing cases. ATC Lahore Judge Ejaz Ahmad Buttar on April 3 handed down nine-year imprisonment to each five of them. The Judge also ordered a six-month jail term to Saeed’s brother-in-law Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki in the same case. The court found the JuD/LeT leaders guilty of offence of terrorism financing. They had been collecting funds and unlawfully financing the proscribed organisation, LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba]. The court has also ordered confiscation of assets made from funds collected through terrorism financing, the CTD said. The JuD leaders were presented in the court amid high security and the media was not allowed to cover the proceedings. The CTD of Punjab police had registered 41 FIRs against the JuD leaders, including 70-year-old Saeed, in terror financing cases. The trial courts have so far decided 37 of them.
B) Philippines accuses China of plans to occupy more areas.
The Philippines’ Defence Secretary said on Sunday that China was looking to occupy more areas in the South China Sea, citing the continued presence of Chinese vessels that Manila believes are manned by militias in disputed parts of the strategic waterway. The continued presence of Chinese maritime militias in the area reveals their intent to further occupy (areas) in the West Philippine Sea, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement, using the local name for the South China. It was the second hostile statement by Mr. Lorenzana in two days as he repeated calls by the Philippines for Chinese boats to leave Whitsun Reef, which Manila calls the Julian Felipe Reef, located within its 200-mile exclusive economic zone. Chinese diplomats have said the boats anchored near the reef numbering more than 200 based on initial intelligence gathered by Philippine patrols were sheltering from rough seas and that no militia were aboard. On Saturday, Mr. Lorenzana said there were still 44 Chinese vessels at Whitsun Reef, despite improved weather conditions. The Chinese Embassy responded to Mr. Lorenzana’s comments, saying it was completely normal for Chinese vessels to fish in the area and take shelter near the reef during rough conditions. It added, Nobody has the right to make wanton remarks on such activities. An international tribunal invalidated China’s claim to 90% of the South China Sea in 2016, but Beijing does not recognise the ruling and has built artificial islands in the disputed waters equipped with radar, missiles batteries and hangars for fighter jets.
