oppn parties Free Vaccines For All, Free Food Grains For The Poor Till Diwali

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
oppn parties
Free Vaccines For All, Free Food Grains For The Poor Till Diwali

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-06-08 01:25:52

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

In his address to the nation on Monday, Prime Minister Modi announced that the his government was accepting the request made by the states and taking over the entire process of procurement and supply of vaccines, as it was being done before the vaccination policy was 'liberalized' in May. He said that all adults would receive jabs free of cost once this was put in place. However, he allowed private hospitals to get 25% of the vaccines produced to jab those who wished to pay for being vaccinated, capping the cost at price of the vaccine plus Rs 150 service charge. He also extended the benefit of free food grains to the poor under the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana till Diwali 2021.

The Prime Minister took pains to explain why the vaccination policy was tweaked. He said that when the vaccine procurement and supply were centralized, there were demands from many states for decentralization. The government had then accepted their demand by giving them direct access to 25% of the vaccines manufactured. He said that the states were experiencing difficulty in pricing and getting the vaccines directly from the manufacturers and there were demand for the Centre to buy and supply to the states. He said that the government has accepted their demand and the vaccine drive would now be centralized once more with free supplies to the states and free jabs for all.

As expected, while some opposition ( Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik being among them) leaders thanked the Prime Minister for accepting their demand, the Congress, the TMC and the AAP chose to say that the government had acted only after its 'liberalized' policy was called "irrational and arbitrary" by the Supreme Court which also demanded that the government come up with a road map for how it proposed to vaccinate all by December 2021. While there can be no denying the fact that the Supreme Court observations must have prodded the government into tweaking the policy once more, it is also a fact that the original tweak was made after a chorus from the states who wanted more say in the vaccination drive. Mamata Banerjee's letter to the PM on February 24, making this specific demand, is already doing the rounds on social media after Congress leader P Chidambaram said the PM was blaming the opposition for his mistakes and demanded proof ("Let us know which CM, which state government, on what date demanded that he should be allowed to procure vaccines") of such demands.

The decision to extend free food grains supply to the poor by 5 months till November is also good. Given the fact that the second wave is expected to take a heavy toll on the economy (and this will become known only in the next couple of months) with business closures (the Hyatt Regency hotel in Mumbai has already closed down till further notice as there is no money to pay salaries), job losses and pay cuts, it is necessary to support the poor in whatever way we can. As the Prime Minister said, the free food grain supply would ensure that they do not suffer from hunger.

The Prime Minister also advised people not to pay heed to the misinformation being spread about the vaccines and get jabbed once their turn comes. He once again emphasized that despite the vaccines, the coronavirus has not disappeared and that the people should strictly follow the Covid protocols of wearing masks, washing hands regularly and maintaining physical distance. It is universally accepted that the only way to win the battle against the virus is to rapidly vaccinate the people and strictly follow Covid protocols till more than 60-70 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. 

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