Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will address Chintan Shivir of Home Ministers of states on Friday via video conferencing. The Chintan Shivir is being held at Surajkund, Haryana on the 27th & 28th of this month.

According to the information from the prime minister’s office, ‘Chintan Shivir’ of Home Ministers is an “endeavor to provide national perspective to policy formulation on internal security related matters, in accordance with the ‘Panch Pran’ announced by the Prime Minister in his Independence Day speech. The Shivir, in the spirit of cooperative federalism, will bring more synergy in planning and coordination between various stakeholders at the center and state levels”, mentioned the release from the PMO.

The Shivir will deliberate on issues like modernization of police forces, cybercrime management, increased use of IT in the criminal justice system, land border management, coastal security, women’s safety, and drug trafficking, among other

Home Secretaries and Director Generals of Police (DGPs) of the States and Director Generals of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) & Central Police Organisations (CPOs) will also attend the Chintan Shivir.

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) rescued 20 Bangladeshi fishermen while a coordinated search and rescue operation, from the sea on October 25, upon being sighted by Coast Guard Dornier aircraft which was on surveillance sortie post-landfall of cyclone “Sitrang”.

These rescued fishermen were clinging to floating debris after their fishing boat sank. They are planned to be handed over to the Bangladesh Coast Guard in accordance with MoU existing between the two Coast Guards. “In a swift co-ordinated Search & Rescue Operation @IndiaCoastGuard rescued 20 Bangladeshi fishermen post-landfall of cyclone #Sitrang. Fishermen will be handed over to #Bangladesh in accordance with the existing MoU,” ICG tweeted.

Over 18 people have died in different parts of Bangladesh since Monday night as the powerful Cyclone Sitrang completed its landfall.

The Dhak Tribune reported that Bangladesh officials closely tackling the impacts of the cyclone said that having taken up all necessary preparations, like appropriate weather forecasting and timely evacuation of people of the coastal regions.

Meanwhile, the situation in Assam continues to remain grim on Tuesday as nearly 1100 people from 83 villages have been affected by the deluge caused by the cyclonic storm ‘Sitrang’.

Several houses were damaged due to Cyclone Sitrang which caused heavy rainfall and a storm in Assam. According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, 1146 people have been affected by the storm.

New Delhi, Oct 26: Veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge formally took over as Congress president on Wednesday after he was handed over the certificate of election to the top post at a function at the AICC headquarters here.
Kharge, the first non-Gandhi to head the party in 24 years, had defeated Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor in a direct contest for the president’s post in the grand old party after the Gandhis opted out of the race.
Kharge was handed over the certificate of election as the Congress president by the party’s central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry.
Mistry said he hopes other parties will draw a lesson from the Congress and hold polls for party presidency by secret ballot.
Outgoing Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former chief Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were also present at the event which was attended by several top party leaders.
Ahead of his taking over, Kharge visited Rajghat and paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi. He also visited the memorials of former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and former deputy prime minister Jagjivan Ram, and paid tributes to the leaders. (Agencies)

New Delhi, Oct 26: India’s COVID-19 caseload climbed to 4,46,45,768 on Wednesday with 830 fresh infections, the lowest single-day rise in 197 days, while the number of active cases came down to 21,607, according to Union health ministry data.
The death toll due to the viral disease climbed to 5,28,981 with one new fatality, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The active cases comprise 0.05 per cent of the total infections. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.77 per cent, the ministry said.
A decrease of 942 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.67 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate stood at 1.05 per cent, the ministry said.
The number of people who have recuperated from COVID-19 surged to 4,40,95,180 and the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent, it said.
So far, 219.57 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive, according to the ministry.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 last year, three crore on June 23 and four crore on January 25 this year. (Agencies)

JAMMU, Oct 25: Union minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday took a dig at PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti for using the elevation of Rishi Sunak as Britain’s prime minister to lament alleged divisiveness in India, saying that India’s democracy is far better than that of any other country in the world.
The Minister of State for Personnel, without naming anybody, questioned the mindset which is “possibly motivated by reluctance to accept the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is part of India”.
“Anybody who is familiar with the history of independent India and the history of Indian democracy would have no doubt that democracy in India is far better than any other country’s in the world,” Singh told reporters here.
For example, India has witnessed more than one presidents either from the minority or from the weaker sections, he said.
“I am proud to say that during the Vajpayee regime, we had APJ Abdul Kalam as the President of India. After Prime Minister Modi took over, we had Ram Nath Kovind and now we have (Droupadi) Murmu.
“Incidentally, all of them are either from the minority section or from the weaker section, and if you think Jammu and Kashmir is also part of India, I think everybody would accept that the President (of India) is also the President for Jammu and Kashmir,” the minister said .
“But what worries me is that the mindset which articulates such kind of phrases and such kind of observations is possibly motivated by reluctance to accept the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is part of India,” said Singh, who is a Lok Sabha member from Udhampur constituency of the Union territory.
The minister was asked to respond on remarks by PDP chief and former J&K chief minister Mufti.
“Proud moment that UK will have its first Indian origin PM. While all of India rightly celebrates, it would serve us well to remember that while UK has accepted an ethnic minority member as its PM, we are still shackled by divisive & discriminatory laws like NRC & CAA,” Mufti had tweeted on Monday. (Agencies)