Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa will be sworn in as the country’s new prime minister for the fourth time at a historic Buddhist temple on Sunday, consolidating the hard-line political dynasty’s grip on power.
The 74-year-old Sri Lanka People’s Party (SLPP) leader, who polled over 500,000 individual preference votes — the highest ever recorded by a candidate in the history of elections — will take the oath of office for the ninth Parliament at the sacred Rajamaha Viharaya in Kelaniya, a north Colombo suburb, according to an official statement.
The SLPP, led by Mahinda, registered a landslide victory in the general election, securing two-thirds majority in Parliament needed to amend the Constitution to further consolidate the powerful Rajapaksa family’s grip on power.
It won in 145 constituencies, bagging a total of 150 seats with its allies, a two-thirds majority in the 225-member Parliament. It polled 6.8 million votes (59.9 per cent).
The Cabinet of Ministers will be sworn-in on Monday, followed by the swearing-in of the state and deputy ministers, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.
The new government has decided to restrict the size of the Cabinet to 26, though it can be increased up to 30 in terms of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
The Rajapaksa family — including SLPP founder and its National Organiser Basil Rajapaksa, who is the younger brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa with the eldest being Mahinda — has dominated Sri Lankan politics for two decades. Mahinda previously served as the president for nearly a decade from 2005 to 2015.
President Gotabaya had won the November presidential election on the SLPP ticket.
In the parliamentary election, he was seeking 150 seats mandatory to execute constitutional changes, including to repeal the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which had curbed the presidential powers while strengthening the role of Parliament.
Reacting on the prospects of amending the Constitution, SLPP Chairman G L Peiris on Friday said it would only be carried out after much thought and consideration.
Clearly, some amendments are required. It cannot continue in this manner when it comes to governing the country, he told reporters.
After President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected, the 19A Amendment prevented him from dissolving Parliament to make way for a government which could support his programme of work while former opposition MPs urged that the dissolved Parliament be re-convened, he said.
From the results of the general election, it is evident that the government, people needed after the new President was elected, was quite different to that of the previous Parliament.
These things should be changed. If needed, the new government has the power to amend the Constitution, Peiris said.
When asked whether the Independent Commissions would be abolished, he said there was no such need.
“The intention of the Independent Commissions is to maintain apolitical institutions with appointments made by the Constitutional Council which should also be independent. Anyone can see that these purposes had not been served. To achieve these targets, some reforms are necessary, Peiris added.
Activists, already alarmed by the diminishing space for dissent and criticism in the island nation, fear such a move could lead to authoritarianism.
The biggest casualty from the election outcome was the United National Party (UNP) of former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe which managed to win only one seat. The country’s grand old party failed to win a single seat from any of the 22 districts.
Its leader and four-time prime minister was unseated for the first time since he entered Parliament in 1977.PTI
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday defended the use of the Rapid Antigen tests for diagnosis of COVID-19 in the national capital, saying the false reading rate for it is almost the same as that of the-PCR.
Sisodia said the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), over which the experts have expressed reservations due to high false negative rate, has its own merits, one of which is giving immediate results that can help in early isolation of a patient to contain the spread of the virus.
“I don’t think there is a problem with antigen tests. The false reading rate for antigen is almost same as that of-PCR which is around 30 per cent,” Sisodia told PTI in an interview.
He was responding to a question on why the Delhi government was not increasing the PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) — a laboratory technique widely used in the diagnosis of genetic diseases as well to measure gene expression in research and considered more reliable due to its sensitivity and — despite the High Court’s observations in this regard.
Delhi started ramping up coronavirus tests since June 18, especially after RAT was introduced. The increased number of tests proved to be an important pillar, according to experts, in containing the spread of the virus in the city where fresh infections per day had touched nearly 4,000 in June.
However, the bulk of the daily tests continue to be RAT.
Till July 30, more than 10.13 lakh tests were conducted in the national capital, according to the health bulletin of which some five lakh were conducted alone in that month.
Of the five lakh tests in July, 3.82 lakh tests were RAT while the rest were mostly PCR.
Last month, when Delhi’s case tally started showing a decline, several experts lauded the role of increased testing in curbing it. However, they expressed reservations about the reliance on RAT.
In virologist Shahid Jameel’s view, rapid antigen tests don’t have the same accuracy as-PCR tests.
“Delhi has almost completely switched to antigen based tests. A very large amount of tests are antigen tests and they have sensitivity of 50-60 per cent. It is possible that the reduced numbers (of cases) are because of the low sensitivity of the antigen test,” Jameel, CEO of the Welcome Trust/ DBT India Alliance, had told PTI last month.
Referring to lab sensitivity, he said the nasal swab, for instance, has to be put deep into the nasal cavity and maybe not everyone is trained adequately.
“It is not that PCR does not have false negative. Antigen test has its merits.- PCR test results come in two days and by then already many people are infected from the individual concerned. However, antigen test has immediate results which is effective in controlling its further spread,” Sisodia said.
On July 27, the Delhi High Court had asked the AAP government why it was going with RAT, which has a high rate of false negative results, as the primary test of COVID-19 infection.
The high court was also of the view that in light of the sero survey report and the high rate of false negatives of RAT,-PCR tests, whose numbers were plummeting, should be ramped up.
On August 4, the Delhi High Court also disapproved of the AAP government’s “resistance” to monitor its COVID-19 testing strategy, saying the administration appears to have developed “cold feet” as it was questioning maintainability of a plea for augmenting of testing numbers in the national capital on “technical” grounds.
However, in the instant matter, the focus of the court has been on ramping up testing in Delhi not just through RAT, but also through-PCR, CB-NAAT and TrueNat, it said.
Cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT) is a recently introduced polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based method for detection of TB.
TrueNat is an indigenously developed portable version of CBNAAT and was also meant for detecting tuberculosis (TB).PTI
Adani Power on Thursday said its consolidated net loss widened to Rs 682.46 crore in the June quarter, mainly due to lower revenues on account of low power demand during the lockdown.
The company had posted a net loss of Rs 263.39 crore for the same period last year.
The total income of the company in the quarter declined to Rs 5,356.19 crore, from Rs 8,014.50 crore in the year-ago period, Adani Power said in a BSE filing.
The company’s consolidated net loss was Rs 2,274.77 crore for 2019-20, while total income stood at Rs 27,841.81 crore in the fiscal.
Average plant load factor (PLF or capacity utilisation) achieved during the first quarter of FY21 was 51 per cent, as compared to 78 per cent in Q1 FY20.
The PLF is lower due to the decline in power demand following the announcement of a nationwide lockdown to combat COVID-19, it said.
Consolidated units (of power) sold for the quarter stood at 12.7 BU (billion units), as compared to 16.5 BU in the same quarter previous fiscal.
Despite the lockdown, 3,300 MW Tiroda plant witnessed a good demand for power for the major part of the quarter.
Kawai plant (1,320 MW) also saw improved PLF in June 2020, after the lockdown was relaxed and power demand started to normalise.
However, it said, the Udupi plant witnessed a sharp fall in PLF due to a slump in power demand.
Mundra plant’s PLF was also affected by lower power demand and subdued short-term market tariffs.
On the other hand, all power plants were able to achieve or exceed normative availability under long-term PPAs (power purchase agreements) through diligent efforts, despite restrictions imposed during the lockdown, in fulfilment of their role as providers of the essential service of electricity generation, the company said.
“Adani Power continues to march ahead towards achievement of its vision to play an important role in fulfilling India’s growing demand for electricity. The Adani Group has a strong belief in India’s economic fundamentals and potential, and the role of the infrastructure sector in attaining long term growth.
“Achieving the Government’s ambitious targets for the infrastructure sector will call for a confluence of enabling policy actions, procedural reforms, and support from the financial sector, in order to reinvigorate investments by the private sector. We remain committed to sustainable growth and being an active contributor to nation building,” Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group, said.
As the firm continues to seize opportunities for value creation in a challenging market and a fast-changing competitive landscape, it is focusing on operational excellence and sustainability while taking long-term decisions to enhance strategic capability and resource flexibility, Anil Sardana, Managing Director, Adani Power, said in the statement.
“Having combated and overcome the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, our resolve is to excel in all spheres of our activity and to meet the aspiration of millions of Indians who don’t have access to affordable power, has only become firmer,” he said.PTI
The Supreme Court Thursday extended the protection from any coercive action till August 31 to TV news anchor Amish Devgan in connection with the cases lodged over his alleged defamatory remark against Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti during a show telecast on June 15.
A bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari took note of the fact that one of the FIRs against Devgan has been transferred from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh to Noida in Uttar Pradesh.
The bench, during the proceedings conducted via video conferencing, said the news anchor, represented by senior lawyer Siddharth Luthra and advocate Mrinal Bharti, will have to now amend his plea accordingly and deferred the hearing to August 31.
Now the UP government will have to file its response to Devgan’s plea in which he has sought quashing of the FIRs, stay on the investigation and the protection from any coercive action for his alleged comments against the sufi saint.
The bench made clear that the interim relief of protection to Devgan, granted earlier, shall remain operative.
The apex court, while granted interim relief to Devgan, had also stayed the probe in the cases related to the June 15 telecast against the journalist.
Five FIRs have been lodged against Devgan in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Telangana for using a derogatory term for the Sufi saint in the news debate show called Aar Paar’ on his channel on June 15.
However, he later tweeted an apology saying that he was actually referring to Muslim ruler Alauddin Khilji and inadvertently ended up naming Chisti.
As regards the interim relief, till the next date of hearing, we deem it appropriate to pass ad-interim relief in terms of prayer clause (A) and (B) (which seek stay of investigation in pending and future FIRs and the protection from possible coercive action), the top court had said in its June 26 order.
On July 8, the interim order of June 26 was extended till August 6 and now it will remain in operation till this month end.
Issuing notices to Maharashtra, Telangana and Rajasthan, the bench had earlier asked the petitioner to make the complainants, who have lodged FIRs, as parties to his plea.
Two FIRs for the alleged offence have been registered at Ajmer and Kota in Rajasthan and one has been lodged at Bahadurpura in Hyderabad, the plea said, adding that two such FIRs have been lodged at Nanded and Pydhonie in Maharashtra.
Devgan said he has already issued a clarification through a tweet and moreover, errors cannot be construed as criminal offences.
The journalist has said the plea concerned his life and liberty.
In a well-orchestrated manner – the petitioner has been made a victim of country-wide filing of false and baseless criminal complaint and FIRs on the one hand, and on the other hand, petitioner, his family and his crew has been abused unabashedly on social media and by personal messages by unknown persons. The petitioner has also received several death threats from various anti-social elements, the plea submitted.
It said that Devgan was holding a discussion on a petition filed before the top court on his show on June 15 on the issue of the Places of Worship Special Provisions Act.
During the course of the live heated discussion one of the panellists quoted Chisti (Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti) and inadvertently, petitioner (Devgan) who wanted to refer to the historical figure Khilji(Alauddin Khilji) as a marauder, mentioned the name Chisti’ , the plea submitted.
That immediately on realising his inadvertent slip of tongue during heated debate in his news debate show petitioner tendered a clarification and clarified that the name Chisti was mentioned by error and inadvertently, it said.
Devgan tweeted the clarification on his personal Twitter account on the intervening night of June 16-17 and moreover, the channel carried a video clarification featuring the journalist, the plea said.
One of the FIRs was lodged at Pydhonie police station in Mumbai against Devgan for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by referring to Chisti in derogatory terms in the TV programme on the complaint of Arif Razvi, general secretary of the Raza Academy.PTI
The Centre has released Rs 890.32 crore as the second instalment of the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness package to 22 states and Union Territories, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.
The amount of financial assistance to each state and Union Territories is based on their COVID-19 caseload.
Those who received financial assistance in the second instalment include Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim, the ministry said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the Rs 15,000 crore package as part of the ‘Whole of Government’ approach wherein the Centre is leading the COVID-19 response and management, and supporting the states and UTs through technical and financial resources.
The second instalment of the aid will be used to strengthen public health infrastructure for testing, including procurement and installation of RT-PCR machines, RNA extraction kits, TrueNat and CB-NAAT machines, bolster infrastructure for treatment and development of ICU beds, installation of oxygen generators and procurement of bedside oxygen concentrators among others.
It would also be used for engagement, training and capacity building of necessary human resources and incentives to healthcare workforce and volunteers, including ASHA workers on COVID-19 duties, the health ministry said, adding that wherever necessary, volunteers registered on the COVID Warriors portal may also be engaged in coronavirus duties.
The first instalment of Rs 3,000 crore was released in April to all states and UTs to aid and enable them ramp up testing facilities, augment hospital infrastructure, conduct surveillance activities along with procurement of essential equipment, drugs and other supplies, the health ministry said.
As part of this package, states and Union territories have been strengthened with 5,80,342 isolation beds, 1,36,068 oxygen-supported beds and 31,255 ICU beds.
Also, 86,88,357 testing kits and 79,88,366 Vial Transport Media (VTM) have been procured by them. As many as 96,557 human resource has been added and incentive has been given to 6,65,799 human resources. The package has aided provision of mobility support to 11,821 staff, the ministry said.
Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio’s production banner Appian Way has inked a first-look film and TV deal with Apple, under which the company will develop new TV series and films for the technology giant.
Appian Way, ran by DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson, previously had a three-year film deal with Paramount Pictures and, prior to that, was working in collaboration with Warner Bros.
The banner already has two projects set up at Apple TV Plus the feature Killers of the Flower Moon directed by Martin Scorsese and starring DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro, as well as thriller series Shining Girls , featuring Elisabeth Moss.
Under the company, the Oscar-winning actor and Davisson have also produced films like The Aviator, Shutter Island, The Ides of March, Runner Runner, The Wolf of Wall Street, Robin Hood and Richard Jewell .PTI
Four persons arrested for
allegedly spitting on a doctor at a medical facility in Tripura were granted interim bail by a court here on Tuesday.
After hearing the arguments, judicial magistrate Sanjan Lal Tripura granted interim bail to the accused persons till August 29 on furnishing of bail bond of Rs 30,000 each with one surety of like amount by August 10 with the condition that they will co-operate with the investigation.
The police prayed for getting remand but the judge declined, saying the present factual circumstances of the case do not justify that.
West Tripura District Surveillance Officer Dr Sangita Chakraborty went to the Covid Care Centre set up at the Bhagat Singh Youth Hostel on July 24 to admit five women with newborn babies when a group of patients said they would not allow any new admission, alleging that the facility had reached full occupancy, according to police.
When doctors at the centre tried to convince the patients, they allegedly abused and spat at Chakraborty and also threatened to infect her with coronavirus, police said.
The four were arrested based on an FIR lodged by the Director of Health Services at the New Capital Complex (NCC) police station.PTI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday performed the ?bhoomi pujan’ of a Supreme Court-mandated Ram temple in Ayodhya, bringing to fruition the BJP’s ?mandir’ movement that defined its politics for three decades and took it to the heights of power.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were among those who attended the event at the site where a large number of devout Hindus believe Lord Ram was born.
The guest list, including religious leaders who formed part of the movement that started in the 1980s, was restricted to 175 in view of the COVID-19 crisis.
As a priest chanted Sanskrit ?shlokas’ and the ground-breaking ceremony got under way under a giant marquee decorated in shades of reds and yellows, Modi and the other dignitaries, all in masks, maintained social distancing and sat a safe distance away from each other.
Slogans of ?Bharat Mataki Jai’ and ?Har Har Mahadev’ went up as the ritual ended and the prime minister laid the foundation of the temple
Bhajans and ?shlokas’ were heard as the town, festooned with marigold flowers and yellow and saffron flags, celebrated the beginning of the construction of a grand Ram temple. Roads leading to Ayodhya were adorned with hoardings of the proposed temple and of Ram Lalla, the infant Ram, the deity now housed in a makeshift temple. Most shops were painted in bright yellow
The prime minister arrived in Ayodhya in a helicopter where Adityanath among others received him.
Before the function to lay the foundation stone of the ‘Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir’, the prime minister took part in prayers at the Hanumangarhi temple
From there, he travelled to the ‘Shree Ram Janmabhoomi’ where he performed prayers at the ‘Bhagwan Shree Ramlala Virajman’.
He also planted a Parijat (Indian night jasmine) sapling.
He will unveil a plaque to mark the laying of the foundation stone and also release a commemorative postage stamp on the ‘Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir’
On November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court settled the fractious issue going back more than a century and backed the construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the disputed site. It also ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the Hindu holy town
Delivering a unanimous judgement on a case that had long polarised the country, the court said the faith of the Hindus that Lord Ram was born at the site was undisputed
The Ram Janmabhoomi movement got a fillip in 1990 with then BJP president L K Advani’s ?rath yatra’. Two years later, in December 1992, the 16th century Mughal-era Babri Masjid, built on what a large sections believe is Lord Ram’s birthplace, was demolished.
President Donald Trump said White House coronavirus task force leader Dr Deborah Birx hurt the Trump administration when she said widespread virus infections in urban and rural America mark a new phase for the pandemic.
It was a rare rebuke of Birx. Trump accused her of taking the bait by responding to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who told ABC’s This Week that she had lost confidence in Birx because Trump appointed her and the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus.
Trump, in a tweet on Monday, described Birx’s response to Pelosi as pathetic .
On CNN’s State of the Union , Birx said her comments are driven by data and that she would stake her 40-year career on using data to implement programmes to save lives.PTI
Former Union minister Uma Bharti
on Monday said she will go for darshan of Lord Ram in Ayodhya after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others leave the venue of the ground-breaking ceremony for Ram temple construction there, in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The 61-year-old senior BJP leader’s comments came a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said he tested positive for the coronavirus.
Bharti was among the leaders of the Ram Janambhoomi agitation and is an accused in the Babri mosque demolition case.
The ground-breaking ceremony of the Ram temple is scheduled to be held on Wednesday in Ayodhya and is expected to be attended by Prime Minister Modi.
“I will leave Bhopal today and on the way I might come in contact with a coronavirus infected person. Taking this into account, I will keep a distance from the place where @narendramodi and hundreds of others will be present,” Bharti tweeted in Hindi.
“I will go for darshan of Ramlala after @narendramodi and others leave the venue,” she further said.
“I have informed senior officer-bearers of Ram Janambhoomi Nyas at Ayodhya and @PMOIndia not to incorporate my name in the list of the people during @narendramodis function,” she said.
Bharti in an earlier tweet said a senior office-bearer of the Ram Janambhoomi Trust directed her to reach Ayodhya by August 4 evening and be present there till August 6.
The mosque in Ayodhya was demolished in December 1992 by ‘kar sevaks’ who claimed an ancient Ram temple had stood on the same site.
In November last year, the Supreme Court paved the way for the construction of Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, and directed the Centre to allot an alternative five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a “prominent” place in the holy town.PTI
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