According to a parliamentary response by the Union health ministry in 2023, around 654,000 families in Delhi are eligible to enrol under the scheme.
Two persons, including a child, died and another person was injured in a bomb blast at Mahabbatpur village near India-Bangladesh border, the police said on Wednesday.
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'Rather than assuaging the feelings of the Hindus accommodated in schools and hospitals, she calls a meeting of imams and tries to assuage them.'
The West Bengal government has ordered a CID probe into the death of a woman and three others falling critically ill after childbirth in a state-run hospital allegedly following the administration of 'expired' intravenous fluid. A 13-member committee will also investigate the matter parallelly. The decisions were taken at a review meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The CM also holds the health portfolio. "We have asked the CID to investigate the matter. They will look into all aspects and find out whether there were procedural lapses and whether SOPs (standard operating procedures) were properly followed or not," Chief Secretary Manoj Pant said. Pant said the CM held a review meeting with officials of the state health department and gave a clear direction that such negligence in administrative and procedural lapses will not be tolerated. "Strict action will be taken against those found guilty of any procedural lapses or in treatment," he said. Referring to the initial report on the incident submitted by the committee, Pant admitted that "clear violations" of norms were found in this matter. A woman died and four others were critical after the delivery of babies at the Medinipur Medical College and Hospital allegedly due to the administration of expired intravenous fluid, prompting the health department to constitute the panel to investigate the matter.
Due to the rising COVID cases, the Centre is conducting mock drills to check facility-level preparedness and has instructed all states to ensure availability of oxygen, isolation beds, ventilators, and essential medicines, official sources had said.
Ending the logjam persisting for 42 days in the wake of the rape and murder of a young doctor at RG Kar hospital, the agitating medics withdrew the 'cease work' after holding a march to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office in Salt Lake in Kolkata from the state health department's headquarters, where they had been demonstrating for over a week.
The top court also questioned the West Bengal government's decision to hire contractual employees for the protection of doctors and other staff in hospitals.
The ED officers are conducting raids at 15 places in the state during the day and Sajahan's house is one of them, an officer said.
India's active Covid case tally crossed the 5,000 mark with Kerala remaining the most affected state followed by Gujarat, West Bengal and Delhi, according to the Union health ministry data released on Friday.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar expressed gratitude to several leaders, including Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, for their concern and well wishes after he was hospitalized for cardiac-related ailments. Dhankhar, who resumed chairing the Rajya Sabha on Monday, said he was "greatly touched" by the concern expressed across party lines, which contributed to his speedy recovery.
Banerjee had on Wednesday said an amendment to existing laws will be passed in the state assembly next week to ensure capital punishment to convicted rapists.
The parents of a doctor who was raped and murdered at state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata four months ago expressed unhappiness over the opposition BJP's role in demanding justice for their daughter. They said they would hit the street over the issue, feeling that the incident has been forgotten by the principal opposition party of West Bengal. They criticized the reinstatement of some of the junior doctors accused of patronizing a threat culture in state medical colleges, raising doubts about the intent to bring to book those responsible. The parents have been vocal in their demand for justice and have opened a Facebook account and posted videos urging people to stand with them. The case is currently being investigated by the CBI.
The juggernaut of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, which triumphed in three of the four east and north-eastern states that went for assembly bypolls on Saturday, was halted yet again in West Bengal where Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress registered a six-on-six clean sweep.
A Kolkata court rejected a petition by the parents of the R G Kar Hospital rape-murder victim to allow their lawyer to visit the scene of the crime, citing a lack of legal basis and potential violation of established procedure.
Healthcare services remained affected at state-run hospitals in West Bengal as junior doctors continued their cease-work protest.
The veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist leader is likely to undergo a few tests later in the day, which will help in ascertaining the severity of the infection in his lungs that landed him in the hospital on Saturday afternoon.
The strike will continue following the tragic incident at the RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata, it said.
Agitating junior doctors in West Bengal continued their fast-unto-death for the third consecutive day on Monday, demanding justice for the rape and murder of a woman medic of the RG Kar hospital and workplace safety even as the state government remained silent to address their issues.
Terming the alleged non-cooperation of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government as an example "symptomatic of a systemic malaise", the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has sought a direction to West Bengal authorities to extend full cooperation to the CISF.
The governor also named Justice Mukherjee as the new vice chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University, he added.
The incident took place amid midnight protests by women against the horrific rape-murder of the doctor at the hospital.
The district administration has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the families of the deceased, he said.
Senior Trinamool Congress minister Udayan Guha has sparked controversy by claiming that fingers of those blaming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and demanding her resignation over the alleged rape and murder of a woman doctor would be broken.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an appeal in the Calcutta High Court seeking the death penalty for Sanjay Roy, who was sentenced to "life imprisonment until death" for the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The CBI argued that the crime falls under the "rarest of rare" category deserving capital punishment, while the trial court had ruled otherwise. The West Bengal government has also appealed for the death penalty, but the CBI opposed the state's right to file an appeal, claiming it was the prosecuting agency and therefore had the right to appeal on the grounds of inadequacy of the sentence. The high court will hear the appeals from the CBI, the victim's family, and the convict on January 27.
A year after the RG Kar rape-murder Swarupa Dutt/Rediff look at the city where it happened, Kolkata -- its study in dichotomy, at once the self-proclaimed cultural capital of India as also a petri dish for a peculiar rage that breeds crimes against women.
All the 26 people working there were from the Malda district of West Bengal.
The body of a Bharatiya Janata Party leader was found inside the party office at Usthi in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, a police officer said on Saturday.
Demanding the resignation of the state's health secretary and director of health education, the striking medics said that they would also take out a rally to 'Swasthya Bhavan' - the headquarters of the health department in Salt Lake - on Tuesday noon.
Although both sides agreed on the prevailing threat culture, they differed on the underlying premises, forces, and situations that promote it.
The Calcutta high court on Tuesday directed that a resolution by the special college council members of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital to suspend 57 medics/students will not be effected, until and unless a decision is arrived at by the West Bengal government in this regard.
While the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress alleged that the killings were a fallout of the TMC's infighting, the ruling party pointed fingers at the grand old party of India.
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The victim's mother expressed hope that the discussions between the CM and the agitating doctors would yield results.
Seven persons have died after drinking illicit liquor at Payradanga village in Hooghly district, the police said.
"I apologise to the people of Bengal who expected an end to the RG Kar impasse today. They (junior doctors) came to Nabanna but did not sit for the meeting. I request them to go back to work," Banerjee told a press conference.
Banerjee, who also takes care of the home department, said Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal has offered to resign in the wake of the protests but "we need someone who knows law and order ahead of Durga puja".
Former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, was admitted to a hospital in Kolkata on Tuesday after his health condition deteriorated, officials said.
Moderate to high turnout was recorded in 13 assembly constituencies across seven states where bypolls were held on Wednesday amid sporadic incidents of violence in Uttarakhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
Trinamool Congress councillor Dulal Sarkar was shot dead by unidentified miscreants in West Bengal's Malda district on Thursday morning. Sarkar, popularly known as Babla, was shot multiple times from close range by bike-borne assailants at Jhaljhalia More area. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed shock over the killing and blamed the callousness of the Malda SP. Two contract killers have been arrested in connection with the murder.
