THE All India Democratic Women’s Association, in a statement issued on April 7, has strongly opposed the unjustified move of the Department of Health and Family Welfare suspending rules 8,9 (8) and Rule 18A under the PcPNDT Act, ostensibly due to the coronavirus pandemic. This suspension goes against the main purpose of the Act to stop sex selection by means of certain basic and vital compliances that genetic labs and clinics etc have to follow in keeping records and submitting these for scrutiny to the appropriate authority and for re-registration.

IN Lok Sabha, A M Ariff took part in the discussion on budget for the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The central government has presented an annual budget of Rs 1.01 lakh crore for the union territory for the financial year 2020- 21. By this decision of allocating this much of an amount of money for the UT, the government is giving a message to other states in the country that if every state became a union territory, then the development of the state and unemployment issues will be sorted out by the central government.

CPI(M)  Polit Bureau has issued  the following statement on April 1

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) considers the setting up of a separate fund to meet the Covid-19 pandemic called the “PM Cares” as unnecessary.

AS I write this column (April 2), Covid-19 is crossing a million infected cases in the world and nearly 50,000 dead. In India, the total infected cases are more than 2,000, with 51 deaths. It is clear that all countries are affected. It is a matter of time before a set of clusters or hot spots form and Covid-19 takes off in the country. Once it takes off, we are in exponential growth with a doubling rate that very soon makes the numbers look frightening. This is where Wuhan was six weeks ago, Italy entered about 3-4 weeks back and the US is in now.

IT is now more than a week since the hastily announced and ill-prepared nationwide lockdown was imposed by the central government.