NEWS

New Delhi:According to estimates of the National Health Agency, which is responsible for implementing the ambitious health insurance scheme of the government, around 65 lakh of the 10.74 crorepoor and vulnerable families eligible for Ayushman Bharat are untraceable.

With an estimated average of five members per family, this makes the transfer of benefits under Ayushman Bharat uncertain for close to 32.5 million people. The national health protection scheme is expected to be launched on August 15.

Ayushman Bharat provides Rs 5 lakh annual hospitalisation cover for each eligible family listed in the socio-economic caste census (SECC) database.The missing people are in families that have moved since the 2011 Census.

New Delhi:Congress president Rahul Gandhi on July 31 reviewed the party’s preparedness in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh at a meeting with senior state leaders. Gandhi discussed with the top leaders that it may formally launch its election campaign in the state late next month.

According to sources, Gandhi was learnt to have discussed the progress made on the party manifesto in the state as well as any possible tie-up to oust the BJP from Madhya Pradesh.

They said that Gandhi was likely to lead the party’s formal campaign in the state in the third week of August and the party leadership in the state were working out details of a poll event for the same.Madhya Pradesh goes to polls later this year, along with the states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.

New Delhi:Union ministry of Home Affairs Ministry officials said on Tuesday that Mumbai's Arthur road jail, where fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya would be kept after extradition from the UK, was one of the best in the country.

The prisons in India were as good as in any other country in the world and prisoners' rights were fully protected in Indian jails. Mallya's apprehension about threat to his life was "misleading", a Home Affairs Ministry official said.

The comments came after a court in the UK today asked the Indian authorities to submit a video within three weeks of Arthur Road Jail cell where they plan to keep Mallya post-extradition to face the law in connection with the Rs 9,000 crore loan default cases.

New Delhi:Authorities in Bihar have registered the first information report (FIR) against the Muzaffarpur-based NGO SevaSankalp Ewam Vikas Samiti (SSEVS), in connection with 11 women missing from a a short-stay shelter. The NGO runs for destitute women aged above 18 years.

SwadharGriha, the short-stay home,is on Sahu Road, barely 200 metres away from the BalikaGriha, also run by the NGO, where 34 of 42 inmates who were medically examined were found to have been raped.

At least 10 people, including Brajesh Thakur, operator of the NGO, have been arrested after investigating agencies discovered that a majority of the inmates of Balika Griha, a shelter home for destitute minor girls in the age group of seven to 17 years, being run on a campus owned by Thakur’s family, were sexually exploited, tortured and used as sex slaves.