‘Better edu, health facilities in border areas a priority’
Pithoragarh: Creation of better educational and health facilities in border regions of the country is a priority for the Centre, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Monday. Inaugurating a medical camp organised by the Army in Dharchula, Sitharaman said such events reflected the Centre’s concern for people living in border areas. The defence minister also took part in some other programmes and handed over four Ayushman Bharat cards to beneficiaries. She also distributed cheques of Rs 10,000 each among 25 ex-Army personnel out of the Army Welfare Fund besides distributing wheel chairs, scooters and other welfare material. Over 7,000 locals were medically checked at the camp by experts from various Army command hospitals, District Information Officer Girija Joshi said. (PTI)
UP govt doctors to wear black bands at work on Oct 1
Lucknow: Government doctors in Uttar Pradesh under the banner of Provincial Medical Services Association-UP announced Monday their decision to wear black bands on October 1 in support of their demands including promotion issues and non-practice allowance. “Government doctors across the state will register their protest while discharging their duties by wearing black bands to protest insensitivity shown towards them by the authorities,” a statement issued by the association said. Association president Dr Ashok Kumar Yadav alleged at a press conference here that government doctors were “being targeted” and held responsible for the shortcomings in the health services “without any fault of theirs”. Yadav, who is a senior consultant at Dr SP Mukherjee (civil) Hospital here also said that government doctors were over-burdened. He said the 18-point charter of demands, which will be handed over to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, included time-bound promotion and non-practice allowance, besides special allowance for specialists and rural allowance for those serving in the villages. The association claims membership of 15,000 government doctors. (PTI)
ISRO to launch 18 missions in next six months
Chennai: With the continuing success of PSLV missions, ISRO has decided to take it up a notch and plans to launch 18 missions in the next six months, virtually one every two weeks. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday night successfully launched NovaSAR and S1-4 earth observation satellites of the UK-based Surrey Satellite Technologies Ltd. “We are going to have 18 missions in the next six months, virtually one launch every two weeks,” ISRO chairman K Sivan said in a press release. According to senior scientists, some of the planned launches include GSAT-11, Chandrayaan-2 moon mission and GSLV-MkIII-D2 missions. GSAT-11 is a multi-beam communication satellite, which is expected to be launched from French Guiana. Chandrayaan-2 is the second mission to the moon in which ISRO will launch the lander carrying a six-wheel rover. ISRO had successfully launched Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008 which orbited the moon at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface for chemical, mineralogical and photo-geologic mapping of the moon. In Chandrayaan-2, the scientists will make the lander soft land on the moon and deploy the rover to study its surface. The GSLV-MkIII-D2 mission would, for the first time, carry communication payloads. It is targeted at Village Resource Centres in rural areas to bridge the digital divide. (PTI)
Work RSS does is incomparable: Bhagwat
New Delhi: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the ruling BJP, began a three-day conclave here on Monday with an aim to engage with a cross section of people and present its perspective on future of the country. On the first day of the conclave, “Bhavishya Ka Bharat — An RSS Perspective”, Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said the event was being organised so that people could understand the organisation. Bhagwat, spoke on a variety of issues, including the freedom movement. “Congress played a big role in freedom movement and gave India many great personalities,” he said. “The work RSS does is incomparable,” he added. Almost all major opposition parties gave the conclave a miss though the RSS had invited them. The venue of the event is Vigyan Bhavan, where usually major government events are held. (PTI)