Delhi confidential: The Satyagraha

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that he participated in a satyagraha in 1971 in support of Bangladesh liberation fighters. However, this was not the first time he said so. He first made reference to this in 2015 when he was in Dhaka. The Sheikh Hasina government had conferred the Bangladesh Liberation Award on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. As he was too ill to travel, Modi received the award on his behalf. In his speech, he said that he went to Delhi as part of a group of young volunteers to participate in a Jana Sangh satyagraha in support of freedom fighters in Bangladesh. The citation for Vajpayee’s award says, “Jana Sangh held a Jana Satyagraha from August 1-11 and their volunteers organised a huge rally in front of Indian Parliament House on August 12, 1971.”

For A Cause

AT THE launch of the Environment Ministry’s National Knowledge Network, in which institutes will pair with cities to help reduce air pollution, state environment ministers from across the country attended the MoU signing between the cities and the institutes. Some like Gujarat Environment Minister J Parmar and Madhya Pradesh Environment Minister Hardeep Singh Dang were even given the opportunity to address Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar. Punjab Environment Minister Sunder Shyam Arora raised the issue of stubble burning, and sought a Rs 2,000 crore subsidy to set up “an industry” that could convert the stubble into something that can be of use.

Extending Deadline

WITH COVID-19 cases rising once again in various parts of the country, the government machinery has to recalibrate earlier instructions that had presumed the pandemic would be over by now. One of key arms among them is the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. After extending the validity of various permits and transport-related documents multiple times last year and latest by March 31 this year, the ministry has once again issued an extension. On Friday, it said that keeping in view of the “grim situation still continuing due to conditions for prevention of spread of Covid-19”, validity of all documents like licence and fitness permits was being extended till June 30 this year.