NEWS

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday (March 12, 2021) told the Election Commission (EC) that the attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was premeditated and a part of a deep-rooted conspiracy.

"An attempt was made on the life of our chairperson Mamata Banerjee, on March 10 at Nandigram, though the perpetrators failed in their vicious attempt," the TMC said in the letter submitted to the EC

The letter also read, "The events/actions leading up to the attempt on her life, leave no doubt that the attack was premeditated and part of a deep-rooted conspiracy."

A delegation of six TMC MPs met the EC officials in Delhi to raise their concern over the Nandigram incident. 

The third phase of COVID vaccination has yet to pick up pace despite the health authorities’ well-orchestrated endeavour to scale up the number of inoculated people.

A total of 2,25,365 senior citizens above the age of sixty years have received the COVID-19 vaccine dose till Tuesday after the commencement of third phase vaccination drive on 1st March in Odisha. In total, 9,68,766 doses of vaccines have been administered so far including the first and second doses.

“The pace of progress of vaccination, particularly the third phase covering the senior citizens and 45 plus people with comorbidities, has hardly been encouraging. The rising mercury might have prompted the elderly people not to turn up at the vaccination centres. Besides, the people with comorbidities have aired their grievance saying that the registered medical practitioners are unwilling to issue them the medical certificate for vaccination purpose”, said a senior official of the health and family welfare department on Wednesday.

Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar on Thursday (March 11) met with members of Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) to discuss the new rules for OTT platforms.

Following the meeting, Javadekar said the OTT representatives welcomed the new rules and offered a few suggestions.

"In a follow up to meeting with OTT platforms, held an interaction with Digital News Publishers Association today. Discussed new rules for digital media. They welcomed the new rules & offered few suggestions which I have noted," Javadekar was quoted as saying by a news agency.

DNPA includes media organisations such as Times of India, Hindustan Times, NDTV, Dainik Bhaskar etc.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday (March 11) said strict lockdown measures will be enforced in some parts of the state to contain the spread of COVID-19.

CM Uddhav Thackeray who is 60, was speaking after receiving the first dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 at the government-run J J Hospital here.

Maharashtra on Wednesday (March 10) recorded 13,659 new coronavirus cases, the highest one-day spike this year, which took the state's caseload to 22,52,057.

The state has so far reported 52,610 deaths due to the disease, as per official data.