National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has written a letter to the Chief Secretary of all states and Union Territories regarding the issue of children who have become orphan due to the death of both parents due to Covid-19.

 The commission has requested that if any such information for an abandoned or orphaned child is received by any entity, organisation or NGO then the same can be also be informed to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights either through email (cp.ncpcr@nic.in) or telephone (011-23478250) for assistance and help to the children. This information can also be shared with the respective state commissions of the said state and UT for the same.

 NCPCR said that they have been made aware of instances where it has been seen that many NGOs are advertising about the children who have become orphans after losing both their parents to Covid-19.

 “In such a sad situation of the surge in Covid-19 cases in the country, situations are arising where the child has lost both its parents or is found to be abandoned. It may be noted that the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 provides for the procedure to be followed for children who have lost their family support and have become a child in need of care and protection,” it said in a letter. The procedure under the JJ Act, 2015 ensures that the child is provided with all the minimum standards of care and the rights of such child are upheld and protected.

 Therefore, it is of utmost importance that these children who have lost their family support must be produced before the child protection authorities of the district and information about these children must be shared with the authorities. “These children who have lost family support due to Covid-19 or are found to be abandoned due to the loss of parents to Covid-19 are a child in need of care and protection as per the JJ Act, 2015 and such children must be produced before the Child Welfare Committee as per Section 31 of JJ Act, 2015, so that necessary orders for the care of the child can be passed,” it said.

 The commission further said that every individual, entity, organisation, NGO must ensure that if any such information is received for orphaned and abandoned children by them during these Covid times, then the same must be informed to the childline helpline number 1098 and the child must be produced before the Child Welfare Committee of the district.

 WITH ANI INPUTS 

Haryana Police arrested the ‘kingpin’ of a racket engaged in black-marketing of Remdesivir drug from Panipat district which is in high demand for the treatment of Covid-19 patients on Monday.

According to the Haryana Police spokesperson, the primary probe revealed that the arrested accused used to buy injection from a Uttarakhand resident at the rate of Rs 12,000 per vial and then sold the same between Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000. 

 “Out of 750 vials brought so far, the accused had already sold 650 injections. Out of 750 vials the accused gave 100 injections to his nephew Sumit, 150 to Saksham and 40 injections to Keshav for black-marketing,» said Police. «The arrested accused was identified as Pardeep, a resident Panipat,» it added.

Earlier, Haryana Police on 27 April, had nabbed three youths from Panipat on the charges of black-marketing of Remdesivir injection and recovered 19 vials from their possession. They were taken on police remand.

During the remand period, the accused revealed that they had purchased the vials from Pardeep, who runs a medical store at a hospital located on Sanoli road. Based on the information, the police team immediately nabbed him and when interrogated, the accused confessed to having committed the black-marketing of the vials in this pandemic.

On completion of the police remand of accused Sumit, Saksham and Keshav, they were produced in the Court and sent to judicial custody. Accused Pradeep is taken on four-day police remand for intensive interrogation.

During the investigation, it also came to light that the wrapper of the seized vials is quite different from the company›s injection and seems these were not original. The public is requested to be beware of such gangs involved in black marketing and immediately inform the police. 

WITH ANI INPUTS 

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Exam 2021 has been postponed for at least four months, the Centre announced on Monday. It is being done to provide adequate human resources for responding to the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, according to an official statement by the Prime Minister›s Office (PMO).

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the growing need for adequate human resources for responding to the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. Many important decisions were taken which will significantly boost the availability of medical personnel in Covid duty, the official statement said.

 A decision was taken to postpone NEET-PG for at least four months and the exam will not be held before 31 August 2021. Students will also be given at least one month after the announcement of the exam before it is conducted. This will make a large number of qualified doctors available for Covid duties.

 It was also decided to allow deployment of Medical Interns in Covid Management duties under the supervision of their faculty, as part of the Internship rotation. The services of Final Year MBBS students can be utilised for providing services like teleconsultation and monitoring of mild Covid cases after due orientation by and under supervision of the faculty. This will reduce the workload on existing doctors engaged in Covid duty and provide a boost to efforts of triaging, it added.

 The services of Final Year PG Students (broad as well as super-specialities) as residents may continue to be utilised until fresh batches of PG Students have joined. B.Sc./GNM Qualified Nurses may be utilised in full-time Covid nursing duties under the supervision of Senior Doctors and Nurses. The individuals providing services in Covid management will be given priority in forthcoming regular Government recruitments after they complete a minimum of 100 days of Covid duty.

 The medical students/professionals sought to be engaged in Covid related work will be suitably vaccinated. All health professionals thus engaged will be covered under the Insurance Scheme of Government for health workers engaged in fighting Covid-19.

 All such professionals who sign up for a minimum of 100 days of Covid duty and complete it successfully will also be given the Prime Minister›s Distinguished Covid National Service Samman from the Government of India.

 Doctors, nurses, and allied professionals form the backbone of covid management and are also the frontline personnel. Their presence in adequate strength is critical to address the needs of the patients well. The stellar work and deep commitment of the medical community were taken note of.

WITH ANI INPUTS

With Writers Qi, Anjali Raghbeer has been helping students to achieve their dreams of gaining a world-class education. She does so by making the college application process both easy and fun. 

Anjali spoke at length about WritersQi, her journey so far as an educational consultant, the upcoming educational fair called ‘College Brew 1.0’, and more.

Speaking about Writers Qi and how she helps students opt for the right college, she said, “I run WritersQi, which is an educational consultancy, and we are based in Delhi. Much before the lockdown began, we have always had international clients from Singapore, the US and the UK. I help the students with their college application journey and students from as early as grade 9 come to me. I feel that grades 9 and 10 should be taken slower so that children don’t burn out by the time that the applications are going out. The bulk of the work is done when one is in the 11th grade and grade 12 is when you end up applying to colleges. I have been doing this for the last six years and I am passionate about it. It fits well with my writing background. That’s how I got into it and I enjoy it.”

Writers Qi also advises students on which courses would be good for them. Anjali emphasised, ”When students come to me from grade 10 onwards, the first thing we do is give them a psychometric test, which is an aptitude test to find what the child is best suited for. As per that, we build the profile of the child, keeping in mind his/her interest and passion. I think it is crucial to correlate that and not have a manufactured result based on what colleges are looking for. I think it is very important to note what they are interested in and then make them passionate about what they are doing and eventually help them shortlist colleges. We do it based on ‘Dream-Target-Safety’. The dream could be the college that one wants to get into, Target could be what we think is best suited for them, and then, of course, you want some safety which is a fallback option.”

Talking about College Brew, an endeavour of Writers Qi to help students coming from different backgrounds to gain insights from global experts and counsellors with a series of webinars and events, she expressed, “College Brew is a baby of the lockdown. When the lockdown happened, one needed ways to reach out to people. I started doing webinars. Since the world was closed, I think I had a lot of access to great resources such as NYU and Georgetown. So many people came on board and were happy to go on this platform. Then it took a journey of its own. It has been almost a year now since we did the webinars every month. College Brew is the mother of it all. We are using all of it under one platform in one day.”

 “College Brew is a series of talks with about 12 talks in a day by several experts. We have Viral Doshi from Mumbai, who is a world-class counsellor. He will be coming to the platform to talk about applications. We have people talking about psychometric tests, some experts from the UK and the US, people from the University of Sydney who will talk to students about opportunities in Australia, and Ashoka talking about India. So, we have tried to give it a mix of everything. There will also be workshops on SATs by experts who will help with the application process. If you are thinking of applying to an Ivy League college, it is better to start the process early. This is a place where you can come in and get all the information you require. We have got a tremendous response and received over 500 registrations already,” added Anjali.

On being asked if people prefer one country over another for college and whether the pandemic has changed their priorities, she responded, “Not really. People who aspire to go abroad are anyway aspiring. Everyone wants to go to the best. The US is still a very coveted place. There is a lot of interest in the UK, more so than pre-lockdown. That’s why we are bringing experts from there.”

When prodded further on whether there is a session at College Brew that she is looking forward to and will be the most useful to students, Anjali said, “The way I structured it, anybody from any stage, for wherever they want to apply, can come and get something out of it. If someone is in grade 9, I recommend psychometric testing and a session with Viral Doshi. This will help them get an overview of how to progress. For students in grade 12, we have workshops in writing and an expert from UCLA for it. I also have two companies who will speak about research opportunities. If someone is a design student, I have a person who will be talking about how to build your portfolio as well as special one-on-one sessions. If you are interested in food, we have an expert on that. We have tried to bring everything under one umbrella so that whatever your interest might be, there will be something for you there.”

On a parting note, she spoke about what made her get into the field of counselling. “I think it has to do with my writing background because I studied writing and did a lot of creative writing courses. I have also done a lot of children’s books. People used to come to me seeking assistance with their college essays. While helping them out, I sort of decided to get into the field and started doing it on a full scale rather than in just bits and bobs. I found it so fulfilling because a lot of my students have won full scholarships and it has been rewarding in that sense,” said Anjali.

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday announced all accredited and yellow-card journalists in the state to be included in the list of frontline warriors in the fight against Covid. All Power Corporation employees in the state have also been categorized as frontline workers. These employees, along with the journalists, will now be eligible for all benefits, including priority vaccination, that frontline workers are entitled to from the state government, said the Chief Minister at a high-level Covid review meeting.

Journalists have been taking grave risks in covering the pandemic on the ground and helping spread awareness for more than a year now, noted the Chief Minister. They need to be protected, he said, adding that though many states had raised the demand for their inclusion in the frontline workers category, the Government of India had not responded so far.

His government, therefore, has decided to provide frontline protection to journalists as well as Power Corporation employees, who are also endangering their lives while maintaining critical power services in hospitals and other vital institutions.

Punjab will be allocated just 3.30 lakh vaccines by the Serum Institute of India to vaccinate people in the 18-44 years category in the month of May. Keeping this in view, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday ordered 70% of the doses to be reserved for individuals with co-morbidities, and the remaining 30% for the high-risk category of employees and workers in that age group.

Chairing a high-level virtual review meeting, Chief Minister Punjab announced that within these groups, the district-wise allocation has been prioritised based on the population index, mortality, and density. Given the severe supply constraints, it has been decided to limit vaccinations for people between 18 and 44 years in this phase to major urban centres, he said, while expressing concern over the fact that even for the 45+ age group, the state is in short supply, as a result of which only a few vaccine centres are currently functioning.

The state expects 2 lakh doses to arrive tomorrow for the vaccination of the 45+ category. Of the 33,46,500 Covishield doses received so far, a total of 32,91,045 has already been utilised.

In the 18-44 age group, for the month of May, the maximum allocation of 50% has been prioritised for Group A or the most-affected districts of SAS Nagar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Bathinda, and Patiala. Another 30% has been reserved for the Group B districts of Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, SBS Nagar, Faridkot, Kapurthala and Gurdaspur, while 20% will be utilised in other districts which have the least number of cases at present. Allocation has been made in proportion to the population of major urban areas in Zones A and B, while for Zone C, an equal distribution of doses for each district has been allocated.

These decisions have been taken following the vaccine strategy recommended by the state’s Vaccine Expert Committee for May, an official spokesperson said after the meeting. The committee recommended that when further doses are available or as the epidemiological situation changes, the prioritisation framework may be modified.