India will have back-to-back security and defence dialogue with the US and Japan this month. Following the 2+2 foreign and defence ministerial dialogue with the US on April 11 in Washington, external affairs minister S Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh will travel to Tokyo for dialogue with their Japanese counterparts, Yoshimasa Hayashi and Nobuo Kishi respectively, under the same 2+2 format. The talks with India’s Quad partners will take place at a time when both the US and Japan are disappointed with India’s position on Ukraine and expect the Modi government to join others in condemning Russia’s actions. During his recent visit to India, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida asked his Indian counterpart to intervene with President Vladimir Putin to put an end to Russia’s aggression.
Govt says no need for law on population control
The government said there is no need for a law to de-incentivise couples from having more than two children because family planning and healthcare policies are working well in the country without making them compulsory. Replying to a discussion on nominated BJP member Rakesh Sinha’s The Population Regulation Bill, 2019, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the government was running extensive public awareness campaigns on family planning as well as working towards providing accessible and affordable healthcare to all. With government’s “holistic approach”, population stabilisation policies are doing well without using force. “We have gained results as the total fertility rate has come down to around 2%. . . It tells us that the family planning mission is moving towards success,” the health minister stated.
Chirag evicted from Paswan bungalow
The Directorate of Estates (DoE) under the housing and urban affairs ministry sent a team of officials to vacate 12 Janpath bungalow in the national capital where late Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan lived for nearly three decades. The premises are currently occupied by his son Chirag Paswan and family members. In the past few weeks, the DoE officials visited the bungalows occupied by three more former ministers as they failed to vacate the premises even after the directorate issued the eviction orders. Officials said while the eviction process has been completed in the case of the 7 Moti Lal Nehru Marg bungalow that former minister Ram Shankar Katheria occupied, two other ex-ministers - Ramesh Pokhriyal and Pratap Chandra Sarangi - have assured to vacate their premises in the next few days.
Curfew imposed in Rajasthan town
Curfew was imposed in Karauli city of Rajasthan after communal tension broke out following stone-pelting at a motorcycle rally passing through a Muslim-dominated area on Nav Samvatsar, the first day of the new year under the Hindu calendar on Saturday, officials said. During the violence, some shops and vehicles were set on fire. While the procession reached near a mosque, some miscreants pelted stones on them. This resulted in stone pelting and arson by the other side too in which a few two-wheelers and shops were torched. The situation is under control now and a large number of police personnel have been deployed,” said ADG Administration and Law and Order, Hawa Singh Ghumaria.
PG student leaves, alleges ragging
A PG student in department of orthopaedics at the BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad left the course after less than a week of joining in March, reporting ragging by the seniors as the reason in an email to the dean and PG course director on March 23. The authorities have launched a probe into the allegation with retrieval of CCTVs of the days the student was working in the hospital, along with recording statements of his fellow students and senior batch students. Sources close to the development said that the student had alleged the senior residents of asking for x-ray of the patients within 15 minutes, performing 100 sit-ups and forcing him to sleep in an operation theatre among other forms of mental and physical harassment since joining the course and starting the residency. The mail also named four senior students as perpetrators.
‘Ball of fire’ streaks across Gujarat sky, kindles curiosity
A big “ball of fire” that streaked across the sky in some parts of the state on Saturday night kindled curiosity across Gujarat. While some parts of the state saw the unidentified object that brightened the sky flying, in some parts people reported seeing it “coming down from the sky”. The phenomenon was witnessed across Kutch, Jamnagar, and other parts of Saurashtra to Vadodara in central Gujarat and even parts of South Gujarat. Scientists said that the object can be labelled only after its debris is studied. Noted astrophysicist and cosmologist Dr Pankaj Joshi said that it could either be space debris or a big meteorite.
