NEWS

While it might seem that the BJP has taken a huge risk by bringing in a completely new Council of Ministers in Gujarat, 14 months ahead of the Assembly elections, party insiders pointed to the fact that the protests within, which ostensibly caused the postponement of the oath-taking ceremony Wednesday, had already calmed down.

Senior BJP leaders cited this to hail Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “bold experiment” in his home state, and another example of him as a "strong leader".

Sources told media that the original plan was to drop a few ministers, but the party then decided to go the whole hog, thus preempting any rebellion from those dropped. “Sookhe ke saath geela bhi jal gaya (the good were sacrificed with the bad)," is how a senior leader described the decision.

With the Covid-19 cases going down in the state,  the Haryana government has decided to open government and private schools for the students studying in Class I to Class III from 20 September.

An official spokesperson on Thursday said schools across the state were closed in compliance with the lockdown guidelines issued due to the Pandemic.

Earlier, schools for students studying from classes VI to XII were started on 23 July while schools for Class IV to Class V were opened on 1 August.  Now schools for Class I to Class III will start on 20 September.

Mizoram CM Zoramthanga has shot off another letter to PM Narendra Modi seeking humanitarian aid for thousands of Myanmar refugees flooding the state in the wake of the military coup in the neighbouring country and following clashes recently.

Zoramthanga, who also sent a copy of his letter to external affairs ministry secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, asked the Centre to sanction at least Rs 10crore for providing immediate relief to the refugees.

In his letter to Modi on Wednesday, Zoramthanga asked for Rs 5 crore to provide food, Rs 3 crore for construction of accommodation and Rs 2 crore for providing medicine and healthcare facilities to the refugees.

COVID-19 pandemic has been a blow to many entrepreneurs, particularly those involved in small businesses. A large number of them have shut down, or are on the brink of closing down due to the financial difficulties inflicted by subsequent lockdowns.

There are also others, who keep on fighting and are exploring more avenues when one door gets shut.   

33-year-old Mira Devi, a native of Kelo, a tribal village in Khunti district Jharkhand, is one such enterprising woman who is refusing to give up.

Mira, who belongs to the Santhali tribe, had been a regular attendee in handicraft fairs across Jharkhand is now planning to open her own handicrafts shop in Khunti as regular craft exhibitions have come to a halt due to the pandemic.