Apart from his party commitments, Bhupender Yadav held a marathon meeting to review plans for Loktak Lake, India’s largest freshwater lake. (FIle) Bhupender Yadav effortlessly juggled his roles as Union Environment and Forests Minister and BJP’s central observer for the upcoming Assembly elections in Manipur as he visited the state on Sunday. Apart from his party commitments, Yadav held a marathon meeting to review plans for Loktak Lake, India’s largest freshwater lake. He conducted the meeting in two phases. First, along with Manipur Environment Minister Awangbou Newmai, he met officials of the Loktak Development Authority, forest department, MP and MLAs. He then called all stakeholders, including fishermen, eco-tourism businesses and environmentalists for consultation. Yadav said the integrated plan for Loktak will now be implemented.
Lone Woman Voice: THE MINISTRY of Women and Child Development may have sent its Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill 2021 to a parliamentary standing committee, but the scrutiny of the Bill, which deals with raising the legal age of marriage for women in India from 18 to 21, will be carried out mostly by male parliamentarians. The 31-member standing committee has only one woman member – TMC MP Sushmita Dev. Women and child rights experts, as well as minority community members (the Bill seeks to supersede all personal laws), had earlier demanded that the panel examining such a Bill should have more women MPs.
Taking Stock: WHILE CONGRESS leader Rahul Gandhi rang in the New Year overseas, his cousin and BJP MP Varun Gandhi chose to spend the first day of the year taking stock of preparations by the authorities in his constituency, Pilibhit, in the wake of the Omicron variant threat. He held an online meeting with the health officials. The online meeting earned him praise as he set an example by wearing a mask to attend it. Incidentally, the BJP MP had earlier tweeted, questioning state governments for permitting large public meetings while on the other hand imposing Covid-19 curbs.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
