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)

Puducherry [India], March 19 (ANI): All India NR Congress party on Friday announced their list of candidates for the upcoming assembly polls in Puducherry. Party’s Chief Ministerial candidate N Rangasamy to contest from Thattanchavady and Yanam constituencies.
While NR Congress is leading the NDA alliance in the Union Territory by fielding 16 candidates, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and AIADMK have been allocated 9 and 5 seats respectively.
The Congress-led government in the Union Territory fell before completing its five-year term under Chief Minister V Narayansamy.
Narayanasamy had resigned on February 22 ahead of a floor test in the 33-member House (including three nominated) following the resignations of five Congress and one Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) legislators. On February 23, President Ram Nath Kovind accepted the resignation of Narayanasamy and his council of ministers.
In the 2016 assembly polls, Congress had won 15 seats, All India NR Congress eight seats, AIADMK got four seats, DMK walked away with two MLAs. BJP could not win any seats.
Polling for 30 assembly seats in Puducherry will be held on April 6.
Of the 30 assembly seats, five are reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidates. As many as 10,02,589 electors will choose the candidates for the 15 legislative Assembly of Puducherry. (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)

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)

New Delhi [India], March 19 (ANI): The Central Government on Friday stopped the doorstep delivery of ration scheme MMGGRY (Mukhya Mantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana) of Delhi Government, scheduled to be launched on March 25.
According to a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, the subsidised foodgrains being allocated by the department for distribution under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) cannot be used for running any state-specific or other scheme under a different name other than NFSA. The same is not permissible under the Act.
The said notification has been issued to the Food and Civil Supplies department of the Delhi Government.
“The use of new nomenclature or scheme name for distribution of NFSA foodgrains by the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi is not permissible,” the notification said.
The notification further said, “The department will have no objection if a separate scheme is made by the UT government without mixing the elements of the NFSA foodgrains.”
Under the MMGGRY scheme, the Delhi government was planning to provide packaged wheat flour, packaged rice and packaged sugar under the Targeted Public Distribution System. (ANI)