Midnapore (West Bengal) [India], March 19 (ANI): Targeting the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said that TMC stands for “Terror, Murder, and Corruption.”
Slamming the West Bengal government at a rally in Midnapore, Chouhan said, “I am warning TMC goons that when Didi leaves on May 2, they will be taught a lesson and none will be spared. BJP will not let this jungle raj continue.”
The Madhya Pradesh CM said that if the BJP forms the government, it will restore law and order in the state and ensure that those behind the violence are put behind the bars.
Chouhan, taking a dig at the West Bengal CM, said, “Mamata Banerjee used to talk about Maa (mother), Maati (Earth) and Maanush (human). But she humiliated the mother (West Bengal) with her deeds and she is not even ashamed of it.”
He further said, “You (Mamata Banerjee) painted this land with blood. More than 130 BJP workers died here. You have no right to speak about ‘Maa, Maati and Manush’.”
Taking a jibe at Mamata, the BJP leader said, “To me, ‘D’ of Didi means dictator, which she is. ‘I’ is being insensitive towards people, ‘D’ means the deed of spreading fear and ‘I’ means an incompetent CM.”
He also accused the TMC government of corruption saying that the funds provided by the Centre did not reach the people of West Bengal.
Elections to the 294-member state Assembly will be held in eight phases starting from March 27 with the final round of voting taking place on April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2. (ANI)

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], March 19 (ANI): Amid the concerns over spike in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, the Pune administration on Friday informed that despite a surge in positivity rate, mortality rate remains low in the city.
Speaking to ANI, Pune Mayor Murlidhar Mohol said, “Despite COVID-19 cases increasing with every passing day in Pune, the mortality rate remains low. The mortality rate in Pune is at 2.29 per cent which was above 2.6 per cent earlier. However, the positivity rate which had gone down below 10 per cent recently has again reached 23 per cent in Pune.”
The Pune city administration has increased the COVID-19 testing upto 12,000 a day to combat the virus.
“Around 90 per cent of COVID positive patients are in home isolation and the severity of the cases is low this time. The Pune city administration has increased the COVID-19 testing upto 12,000 a day,” the Mayor said.
Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh continue to report a surge in fresh COVID-19 cases and they account for 80.63 per cent of the daily new cases, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.
As many as 39,726 new daily cases were reported in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra continues to record the highest daily new cases at 25,833, 65 per cent of the daily cases, followed by Punjab with 2,369 while Kerala reported 1,899 new cases.
In terms of response, the Centre is actively engaging with all state and Union Territories (UTs) governments, especially those showing an upsurge in daily new cases and with a high caseload of active cases. (ANI)

Purba Medinipur [India], March 19 (ANI): Mounting an attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said speaking against Prime Minister Narendra Modi means speaking against “democracy” and “Bharat Mata”.
“You will have to take Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vaccine against COVID. He is an elected Prime Minister. Speaking against him is like speaking against democracy. Speaking against him is speaking against Bharat Mata. Pakistan and Bangladesh do not have vaccine, so you will have to take Prime Minister Modi’s vaccine,” Adhikari told ANI.
Adhikari’s remark comes against the backdrop of Banerjee’s public address at Egra and Patashpur where she criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over several issues including COVID-19 vaccination.
Banerjee also called Adhikari, a former minister in Trinamool Congress (TMC) government, “Mir Zafar” as he joined the rival camp BJP in December last year.
Notably, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Adhikari are pitted against each other in the Nandigram assembly seat in the upcoming elections.
Adhikari had earlier said that BJP will defeat Banerjee by over 50,000 votes from Nandigram.
The polling in Nandigram will take place on April 1 in the second phase of the upcoming Assembly elections.
The BJP and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are at loggerheads in poll-bound West Bengal. The top leadership of the BJP has been holding public meetings and roadshows across the state in recent months.
Elections to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held in eight phases starting from March 27 with the final round of voting taking place on April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2. (ANI)

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], March 19 (ANI): The Government of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday promoted officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS) to various grades.
The government promoted its officers namely Mukesh Singh, M. K. Sinha, Sunil Kumar and Danesh Rana of the 1996 batch to the grade of Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) in the Higher Administrative Grade (HAG)- Level 15 of Pay Matrix, with effect from April 1, 2021.
One post of the ADGP in the HAG-Level 15 of Pay Matrix is added temporarily in terms of proviso second below Rule 4 of IPS (Cadre) Rules, 1954.
The government promoted its officers namely Dr Sunil Gupta (IPS), Sujit Kumar, Vivek Gupta and Mohammed Suleman Choudhary of the 2007 batch to the grade of Super Time Scale-(i)-DIG (Level-13A of the Pay Matrix) with effect from April 1, 2021.
Further, the government’s IPS officers namely Tejinder Singh, Abdul Jabbar and Udayabhaskar Billa of 2008 batch to the Selection Grade of IPS (Level 13 of the Pay Matrix) with effect from April 1, 2021.
Promotion of the following IPS officers of the 2017 batch to the Senior Time Scale of IPS (Level-11 of the Pay Matrix) is also with effect from April 1, 2021:- Anayat Ali Choudhary, Mohita Sharma, Nikhil Borkar and Tanushree.
The order was approved by the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha. (ANI)

Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) [India], March 19 (ANI): Andhra Pradesh reported 246 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, informed the state health department on Friday.
There are 1,909 are active cases in the state.
With these new infections, the cumulative count of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 8,92,986.
As many as 131 persons recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours which took the recovery tally to 8,83,890 in the state.
The state recorded one death on Thursday. The cumulative death toll in the state currently stands at 7,187. (ANI)

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 19 (ANI): Power supply was restored within minutes of the outage at the Maharashtra Secretariat Building, Fourshore Road and Maharshi Karve Road in Mumbai.
“Power supply to Mantralaya, Fourshore Road, and Maharshi Karve Road was cut off at 11:55 am due to a fault in the feeder. Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST)’s engineers and technicians restored the power supply in 7 minutes,” PRO, BEST.
The power outage happened due to high voltage at Nariman Point receiving point. (ANI)