Russia made two overtures to ease tensions around Ukraine reporting a pullback of troops near its neighbour and welcoming talks with the West. But the United States and its allies said they needed evidence of the troop movements and that the threat of a Russian invasion still loomed.
For the second day Tuesday, there were signs of hope that Europe might avoid war following weeks of escalating East-West tensions as Moscow massed around 150,000 troops on three sides of Ukraine and held massive military drills. Those moves led to dire warnings from Washington, London and other European capitals that Russia was preparing to roll into Ukraine.
But the tenor changed this week. President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia does not want war and would rely on negotiations in its efforts to eliminate any chance that Ukraine could one day join NATO his key demand in the crisis. At the same time, he did not commit to a full pullback, saying Russia’s next moves in the standoff will depend on how the situation evolves.
Russia also offered few details of the pullback, and President Joe Biden said American officials had not verified Russia’s claim. He promised that the U.S. would give diplomacy every chance, but he struck a skeptical tone about Moscow’s intentions.
Two paths are still open,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “But let there be no doubt: If Russia commits this breach by invading Ukraine, responsible nations around the world will not hesitate to respond. If we do not stand for freedom where it is at risk today, we’ll surely pay a steeper price tomorrow.
Even amid the glimmers of hope, Biden said 150,000 Russian forces are now massed near Ukraine and in neighbouring Belarus an increase from an earlier U.S. estimate of 130,000 troops.
Russia’s claim that it pulled back troops “would be good, but we have not yet verified that, Biden said. Indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position.
Russia has denied having any invasion plans. It wants the West to keep Ukraine and other former Soviet nations out of NATO, halt weapons deployments near Russian borders and roll back forces from Eastern Europe.
The U.S. and its allies have roundly rejected those demands, but they offered to engage in talks with Russia on ways to bolster security in Europe.
Speaking after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said the West agreed to discuss a ban on missile deployment to Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures issues that Moscow put on the table years ago.
He said Russia is open to discuss some of those elements,” but added that it would do so only in combination “with the main issues that are of primary importance for us.
While Scholz reiterated that NATO’s eastward expansion is not on the agenda everyone knows that very well, Putin retorted that Moscow will not be assuaged by such assurances.
They are telling us it won’t happen tomorrow, Putin said. Well, when will it happen? The day after tomorrow? What does it change for us in the historic perspective? Nothing.
Scholz also said diplomatic options are far from exhausted, and he praised the announcement of a troop withdrawal as a good signal, adding: “We hope that more will follow.
The Russian Defense Ministry released images of tanks and howitzers rolling onto railway platforms and more tanks rolling across snowy fields. It did not disclose where or when the images were taken, or where the vehicles were headed, other than to places of permanent deployment.
Ukraine expressed skepticism.
We won’t believe when we hear, we’ll believe when we see, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
And NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that there have been no signs, so far, of a reduced military presence on Ukraine’s borders.
Meanwhile, a series of cyberattacks knocked out the websites of the Ukrainian army, the defense ministry and major banks. There was no indication that the relatively low-level denial-of-service attacks might be a smoke screen for more serious cyber mischief. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. has not yet determined who was behind the attacks.
Despite the worst East-West tensions in decades, few Russians expect a war. In a village in Russia’s Belgorod region, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Ukraine’s border, residents carried on with life as usual, even as more military personnel have been passing through village streets.
We are really on the border, we really have relatives here and there, everyone has somebody on the Ukrainian side, villager Lyudmila Nechvolod said. “No one wants war.
Russian lawmakers urged Putin to recognize rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states. The State Duma, Russia’s lower house, voted to submit an appeal to Putin to that effect.
Putin said the request reflects the Russian public’s sympathy for the suffering of people trapped in the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed over 14,000 since 2014. He noted, however, that Russia continues to believe a 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany should serve as the main vehicle for a settlement of the separatist conflict.PTI
More than 200 Congress functionaries and workers of Bandra (East) Assembly constituency, led by senior Congress leader Mehmood Deshmukh joined the Aam Aadmi Party in the presence of Aam Aadmi Party’s National Executive Member and Mumbai Prabhari Preeti Sharma Menon.
In the program was held at Purushottam High School in Bandra (East) on 13th February 2022 senior leader Mehmood Deshmukh exuded confidence that under the leadership of Aam Aadmi Party’s National Convener Shri Arvind Kejriwal, Mumbai too can implement the Delhi Governance Model. He said after a lifetime in the Congress, he was convinced that Congress is the past and Aam Aadmi Party is the future. The remarkable work done by the Delhi Government in the field of education and health is praised by every countryman today. That is why he along with his supporters decided to join the party.
Welcoming Deshmukh and his colleagues into the party, Aam Aadmi Party’s National Executive Member and Mumbai Prabhari Preeti Sharma Menon said, “Aam Aadmi Party was formed to resolve the issues of the common people and to do welfare work for them. We wholeheartedly welcome all the good people who want to be partners in this work. Shri Arvind Kejriwalji has proved that if the intention is clear, then the governments can do great work. The Kejriwal Model of Governance in Delhi has proved that even in just 5 years, the lives of lakhs of people can be changed. More than 17 lakh students are studying in government schools of Delhi today. On the contrary, the number of students in the schools run by the Mumbai Municipal Corporation is continuously decreasing. And now perhaps these schools will be closed or they would be given on contract to some politician or bureaucrat. Same is the case with health services. Many services have been outsourced by the Mumbai Municipal Corporation to the relatives of bureaucrats and politicians. We are confident that this time in all 236 wards of Mumbai Municipal Corporation, the people of Mumbai will give full support to the candidates of Aam Aadmi Party. Our goal is not to gain power but to change the system, and people’s confidence in the party is our biggest strength.”
AAP Calls BMC Commissioner’s claims of proposed polyclinics with Mohalla clinics as comparison of apples and organges; points out that Shiv Sena couldnt even get the basics right in 30 years.
The Aam Aadmi Party today asked BMC Commissioner Iqbal Chahal to fix Mumbai’s healthcare system beginning with primary healthcare and offerred to help BMC with the technical expertise, through the Delhi Govt. The party was reacting to Iqbal Chahal’s statement where he allegedly claimed to have studied the Delhi Model and had claimed that BMC polyclinics will be better than Delhi’s Mohalla clinics.
BMC has 187 public dispensaries, which are supposed to function as primary health centres. A vast majority of them are disfunctional due to poor infrastructure and flawed operations. The BMC hasn’t been able to fix something as basic as prmary health care, over the last 30 odd years.
Mumbai’s BMC hospital’s bed capacity has remained stagnant, despite a steep rise in population. For anything and everything, the poor are compelled to go to peripheral and tertiary hospitals, which leads to their capacity being overwhelmed and quality of service deteriorating.
“For the record, Delhi has a three tier public health system. Primary healthcare or Mohalla Clinics, Polyclinics or Secondary Healthcare and Tertiary Hospitals. Mohalla clinic. Delhi has Universal Free and Quality Healthcare for all it’s citizens. A mohalla clinic is at an avg distnce of 1km from the community that it was built to serve. Diagnostic tests are free, patient records are digitized, doctors are remunerated handsomely and should it take more than 30 days for a government facility to action a prescibed operation, the same can be availed free of cost, in a pvt facility of the patient’s cost.
Iqbal Chahal’s comparison is one of apples with organges and that of wilful obfuscation. The fact is that healthcare has never been BMC’s priority. They have actually turned it, into a money making racket, like everyother department, by outsourcing big ticket items.
Delhi’s Healthcare Model has won global acclaim and UN accolades. Why can’t it be implemented in Mumbai in toto? We will be more than happy to share Delhi Govt’s expertise with the BMC for the same.”, said Preeti Sharma Menon, AAP National Executive Member and Mumbai Prabhari.
An appeal has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the direction of the Karnataka High Court that has asked students not to insist on wearing any cloth on campuses of educational institutions which can instigate people, till the matter is resolved.
The plea filed by a student has sought a stay on the direction of the high court, which is hearing the hijab issue, as well as the proceedings going on before the three judge bench.
The appeal contended that the high court has sought to curtail the fundamental right of Muslim student women by not allowing them to wear the hijab.
The high court has posted the matter for Monday and also said educational institutions can resume classes for students.
The three-judge full bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice J M Khazi and Justice Krishna S Dixit, which was formed on Wednesday, also said it wants the matter to be resolved at the earliest but till that time peace and tranquillity is to be maintained.
“Till the disposal of the matter, you people should not insist on wearing all these religious things,” Awasthi had said.
“We will pass an order. Let the schools-colleges start. But till the matter is resolved, no student should insist on wearing religious dress”, he had said.
On Wednesday, Justice Dixit, who was hearing the case, referred the case to Justice Awasthi’s consideration with a view that a larger bench may look into the case.
The Hijab row started in December end when a few students started coming to a government pre-university college in Udupi wearing Hijab. To protest against it, some Hindu students turned up wearing saffron scarves.
The row spread to other educational institutions in different parts of the State, and the protests took a violent turn at some place earlier this week, prompting the government on Tuesday to declare three days holiday for the institutions. PTI.
Central Govt. and Maharashtra Govt. must learn from the Delhi Govt’s humanitarian work during the pandemic
The Aam Aadmi Party today took strong objection to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in Parliament, where he gave a clean chit to his own government as far as Covid mismanagement is concerned. There cannot be anything further from the truth. The fact is, that both the PM Modi-led Central government as well as CM Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government miserably failed our migrant daily wage earners, who make a bulk of our informal labour force. It is these very workers who, through the sweat of their brow, power the engine of economic growth-led development in Urban India.
We first had lies in election rallies, but now we have lies on the floor of Parliament itself, by none other than Prime Minister Modi himself. Misclaims of absolutely no Covid mismanagement is contrary to the lived experience of millions of daily wage earners who were stranded due to an unplanned lockdown, and invariably had to walk back home, not knowing their mode of transport, and that too on empty stomachs. The pandemic amplified inequalities world over, but it was only in India that we saw streams of hundreds of thousands of people, trudging alongside our highways in their journey home. Some of them were also with their families, who didn’t have access to adequate food, water, or even toilets for that matter. After partition, this was perhaps the largest forced displacement of marginalized populations.
The Maharashtra government on the other hand, initially resorted to physically attacking migrant workers, in their attempt to prevent bad press. PR was more important than the safety and travel arrangements of these workers. Let’s not forget that these migrant workers were forced to leave their homes as most of their slums were containment areas. In the absence of a planned lockdown, and no help forthcoming from local administration, they very quickly extinguished their meagre savings, and literally didn’t have anything to eat. It’s in the context of these abject conditions, that we saw what we did, while watching this human catastrophe unfold right in front of our eyes.
“The Aam Aadmi Party demands that the PM have some shame and immediately apologize to our nation for his lies, and his abject failure to manage the Covid crisis. The Central and the Maharashtra government must learn from the Delhi government’s humanitarian work during the pandemic – which not only ensured that labourers were given adequate allowances, but also ensured that food was available at every municipal school for their sustenance. We also appeal to our fellow Indians to shun these failed parties and vote for the greater good, by choosing the Aam Aadmi Party.” said Preeti Sharma Menon, AAP National Executive Member and Mumbai Prabhari.
The National Green Tribunal has slapped a penalty of Rs 25 crore on Vedanta group firm Hindustan Zinc Ltd for violation of environmental norms in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district.
The green panel said environmental law violations cannot be taken lightly when the violators are entities like the present project proponent (PP) and victims are poor villagers.
The NGT said the victims of damage are unspecified number of persons spread over in more than six panchayats — Bherukhera, Agucha, Parasrampura, Kalyanpura, Kothiya, Balapura and others — in Hurda block.
A case is made out for requiring the PP to provide for compensation for the past violations and bear the cost of remediation, apart from complying with recommendations of the Committee.
Having regard to the violations/damage by the project proponent and overall estimated cost of ecological rehabilitation and restoration and financial capacity of the PP, we require the PP to deposit a sum of Rs 25 crore with the District Magistrate, Bhilwara within three months to meet the cost of remediation measures, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice A K Goel said.
The NGT also directed that a joint committee of the Central Pollution Control Board, state pollution control board and District Magistrate, Bhilwara with the assistance of any other experts may prepare a restoration plan for remediating the soil and quality of ground water in the area, apart from undertaking health improvement programme for the inhabitants and the cattle.
The action taken may be placed on the website of the District Magistrate, Bhilwara and its execution duly monitored.
The remediation works may be got executed by an appropriate agency utilising the amount deposited by the PP and the PP itself will have liberty to get the such work executed of restoration/rehabilitation on its own or through any other agency, if found proper by the joint committee in the circumstances, the bench said .
The NGT said that a public awareness group may be setup jointly by the DM and the PP to list out the issues requiring further action.
The amount deposited will be utilised for executing the plan within one year, associating all stake holders, including the PP and civil society in a suitable manner, subject to overall supervision of the Committee, the bench said.
The joint committee may have a report of status of compliance as on March 31, 2023 filed before the Registrar General of this Tribunal by e-mail.
The tribunal was hearing a batch of pleas alleging violation of environmental norms by Hindustan Zinc Ltd in executing mining lease of lead, zinc and associated minerals in the villages covering nearly an area about 1,200 hectares of mining land.
Australia will open its borders to all vaccinated tourists and business travellers from February 21 in a further relaxation of pandemic restrictions announced Monday.
Australia imposed some of the world’s toughest travel restrictions on its citizens and permanent residents in March 2020 to prevent them from bringing COVID-19 home.
When the border restrictions were relaxed in November in response to an increasing vaccination rate among the Australian population, international students and skilled migrants were prioritised over tourists in being welcomed back to Australia.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his senior ministers agreed on Monday that the border would reopen to all vaccinated visas holders from February 21.
Morrison said visitors must have proof of vaccination. He referred to Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic being deported by the Australian government last month because he was not vaccinated against coronavirus.
Events earlier in the year should have sent a very clear message, I think, to everyone around the world that that is the requirement to enter into Australia, Morrison said.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said visitors who could provide proof of a medical reason why they could not be vaccinated could apply for a travel exemption.
Tourist operators have been lobbying the government to bring tourists back sooner. The southern hemisphere summer is in its final month.
BMC habitually makes tall claims without having any results to show for them
The Aam Aadmi Party today, slammed the Shiv Sena and the BMC for their failure to rejuvenate the Mithi river, despite spending crores on projects for the same. The Mithi river is an essential part of Mumbai’s natural infrastructure, and serves a key role as a natural drain for the city. Unfortunately, it has become a nalla today, having been subjected to excessive encroachment and pollution under the Shiv Sena government. In their 2022-23 BMC budget, the government has allocated 400 crores for the widening/training of the Mithi river, but this is one amongst several such budgetary allocations and initiatives undertaken by the BMC over the past two decades, which are yet to yield any outcomes.
After the 2005 floods in Mumbai, the 2006 Chitale Committee report had clearly directed the government to rejuvenate the river on a war footing. In fact, The MMRDA and BMC had spent over Rs 1,200 crore on the “development” of Mithi river till 2019. The BMC had cleared 569 Crores for Mithi’s rejuvenation in 2020, then tabled a Mithi desilting proposal of 132 Crores in February 2021, and cleared another project for Mithi worth 603 Crores in August 2021. The BMC and the Shiv Sena have already spent crores of public funds, with no results to show for it, and now, the 2022 budget has another 400 crores earmarked for the restoration of the Mithi river.
“Mumbai is governed by a PR sarkar. The BMC habitually makes tall claims and hefty budgetary allocations, but either these projects do not see the light of day because the allocated funds are lost to corruption, or the desired results don’t materialize because of a lack of due oversight. While such initiatives to restore Mumbai’s natural infrastructure are encouraged, we are afraid that this initiative will also be lost to the Shiv Sena’s incompetence, corruption and lack of initiative.” said Preeti Sharma Menon, National Executive Member and Mumbai Prabhari.
SC’s pulling up of the BMC and terming it’s inaction as putting Mumbaikar’s lives at danger is ‘Alarming
The Aam Aadmi Party today, called out the BMCs callousness towards the lives of Mumbaikars and Mumbai’s ecology, by not being able to construct STP plants, despite being pulled up by the SC. Moreover, what is further shocking is that the project cost escalation has been exponential when compared with other STPs in other states. This has resulted into both, a delay in execution, as well as an additional burden on the exchequer.
“We have self proclaimed environmentalists at the head of our government, who have proven to be useless time and again. If the Aam Aadmi Party can build world class STPs in Delhi at a fraction of the cost, then why can’t the BMC do the same? It clearly demonstrates the BMC’s lack of intent and callous approach towards Mumbai and Mumbaikars. AAP demands an urgent and immediate rationalization of costs, and speedy execution of these STPs without further delay.
Mumbai is the only large metropolis of the world which doesnt treat a bulk of its sewage and actually allows the sewage to flow out in the Arabian sea. This has resulted into the degradation of the entire coastal ecosystem, which is already very fragile. 10 species of fish have gone extinct in the last 3 decades alone. Dirty, contaminated water, which also creates a stench is the regular sight on all sewage outflows on Mumbai’s coastline.” said Preeti Sharma Menon, AAP National Executive Member and Mumbai Prabhari.
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