LEAD

Six newly-elected Rajya Sabha MPs, including Assam BJP`s candidate Pabitra Margherita and its ally party UPPL candidate Rwngwra Narzary took oath as members of the House on Monday (April 4, 2022). 

The new set of MP`s who took oath today included two from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), one from the Congress, one from the Communist Party of India (CPI), Kerala, and one from the Communist Party of India (Marxist). 

S Phangnon Konyak (BJP, Nagaland); Pabitra Margherita (BJP, Assam); Jebi Mather Hisham (Congress, Kerala); Rwngwra Narzary (UPPL, Assam); Sandosh Kumar (CPI, Kerala); A A Rahim (CPI-M, Kerala) were the members who took oath in the upper house of the Parliament.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) suspended supply of Bharat Biotech’s COVID vaccine, Covaxin, to allow the manufacturer to upgrade facilities and address deficiencies found during an inspection last month.

A statement issued by the WHO said the suspension was in response to the outcomes of its post EUL (emergency use authorisation) inspection, held between March 14–22, 2022, and the need to conduct process and facility upgrades to address recently identified GMP (good manufacturing practice) deficiencies.

While there will be interruption in supply of Covaxin, the risk assessment to date does not indicate change in the risk-benefit ratio, the WHO said, adding that available data indicate the vaccine is effective and no safety concern exists.

The Punjab Assembly on Friday passed a resolution seeking immediate transfer of Chandigarh to the state, with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann accusing the Centre of trying to upset the balance in the administration of the Union Territory and other common assets.

The resolution was moved by Mann in the absence of the two BJP legislators, who earlier staged a walkout from the House.

Except the BJP, members of all political parties, including the AAP, Congress, SAD and the lone BSP legislator came out in support of the resolution and dubbed the Centre's move as “dictatorial and autocratic”.

China and India are firmly opposed to any third party interference in the border dispute, the Chinese defence ministry said on Thursday, adding that the two countries have agreed to resolve differences by negotiating and consulting each other.

Referring to the 15th round of military negotiations held on March 11, the defence ministry also said the talks were “positive” and “constructive”.

“China and India sides have agreed to properly handle the border issue through negotiation and consultation, firmly opposing interference from a third party,” senior colonel Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Chinese ministry of national defence (MND), said at the monthly press conference in Beijing on Thursday, a transcript of which was published on a Chinese military portal.

Bengal is in the grip of "mafia" led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and law and order has crashed in the state, a BJP "fact-finding team" has said on eight people burnt alive in Birbhum district last week.

The killings in village Bagtui were the result of "state-sponsored extortion, goonda tax, cut-money and tolabaji", the BJP report said, referring to terms used for bribe-taking by Bengal's ruling party leaders. The rivalry over bribe amounts between the beneficiaries was another reason, it said.

"Local residents have deserted their homes fearing a threat to their life and property," the report claimed, recommending that bodies like the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Women visit the village and set up confidence-building measures to bring the villagers back.