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More than one crore health and frontline workers along with some citizens above 60 years of age suffering from comorbidities will be eligible to receive the third dose (Booster) of Covid-vaccines from Monday as India starts administration of ‘precaution dose’ in the high-risk population amid rising Covid-19 cases across the country, an official said.

The eligibility for ‘precaution dose’ requires the recipient to have completed nine months after the second dose. The health ministry had earlier said that Co-Win system will send reminder SMS to those eligible for availing the precaution dose.

“Reminder SMSs have been pushed to more than 1 crore beneficiaries for the precaution dose. The system is ready to welcome beneficiaries at vaccination centres on Monday,” the official said.

In election-bound Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party is presenting the redeveloped, multi-crore Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project as an illustration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ability to meld ideological demands with modern aspirations.

The party’s campaign will also showcase the redevelopment project in Varanasi as a “model of development” that can be replicated pan-India.

“He [PM] has shown through the mandir model that both ideological commitments and development can go hand-in-hand,” explained a senior party leader involved in the electioneering process of the most populous and politically significant state.

In the first-of-its-kind comprehensive exercise, the central government has surveyed 17.78 lakh acres of defence land using the latest technologies such as drone and satellite imagery.

The mammoth exercise of surveying about 1.61 lakh acres of defence land inside cantonments and 16.17 lakh acres outside cantonments was started in October 2018 and is now complete, the defence ministry said.

This is the first time after independence, entire defence land has been surveyed using the latest survey technology and in a large number of pockets in association with the Revenue authorities of several state governments, the Defence ministry said.

This came after 9622.807 acres of defence land was reported to be encroached in the country.

New Delhi:  India saw a single-day rise of 1,41,986 new coronavirus cases, raising the tally to 3,53,68,372, which included 3,071 cases of Omicron variant reported across 27 states and union territories so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday. Of the 3,071 cases of Omicron variant, 1,203 have recovered or migrated, according to the data released by the ministry. Maharashtra has recorded the maximum number of 876 Omicron variant cases, followed by Delhi at 513, Karnataka 333, Rajasthan 291, Kerala 284 and Gujarat 204. A total of 1,41,986 new coronavirus infections were reported in a day, the highest in around 222 days. The active Covid cases have increased to 4,72,169, the highest in around 187 days, according to the data.

New Delhi: BJP municipal councillor Sarabjit Kaur Saturday became the new Chandigarh Municipal Corporation mayor, defeating Aam Aadmi Party’s Anju Katyal by just one vote in a direct contest. Out of the total 36 votes, 28 were polled while seven Congress councillors and the lone Shiromani Akali Dal councillor abstained.

Kaur bagged 14 votes while Katyal got 13, and one was declared invalid, officials said. After the result was declared, AAP councillors created a ruckus in the House. Police were called in to remove them.