Kerala Tourism’s RT Mission will implement the project in the central Indian state under a 16-point programme. An official agreement in this regard is scheduled to be signed on January 13.

On the eve of the ceremony, a high-level delegation from Bhopal will begin a week’s tour of Kerala to gather first-hand knowledge about RT in the State. The 13-member team is to be led by Madhya Pradesh Tourism and Culture Department Minister Usha Thakur.

A few States in the country are implementing the Kerala-model RT, but Madhya Pradesh will be the first to sign a pact with the government. The nodal officers for the project will be Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board Director Manoj Kumar Singh and Kerala RT Mission coordinator K. Rupeshkumar. Once the delegation from Bhopal returns, a team of Kerala RT Mission will make a visit to Madhya Pradesh.

Kerala’s Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran expressed pleasure over other States emulating Kerala’s RT model. “Of late, other states also have evinced interest in launching the Kerala-model RT. We will be happy to cooperate with them in implementing RT as a social development initiative,” he added.

Kerala Tourism Secretary Rani George said the RT Mission has 20,000 units and 109,000 beneficiaries in Kerala. It has given local people a combined income of Rs 38 crore from the state’s tourism sector.

Kerala Tourism Director P. Bala Kiran said the launch of RT in other parts of the country opens before the state a wide range of opportunities. Our RT Mission can provide its expertise to other states as a professional service.

RT in Kerala emerged as a state mission in October 2017 from what began as a project in four centres of Kottayam district. From then on, the endeavour which strives for social, economic and environmental responsibilities has been winning several national and international honours including the World Travel Market (WTM) award 2020.

The Kerala Tourism’s MoU with Madhya Pradesh features a 16-point programme. They are the following: implement Kerala’s RT projects in Madhya Pradesh in ways that suit that state, to help Madhya Pradesh chart its RT masterplan, to ready the human resources to implement the project, conduct training projects, list the criteria for the formation of district tourism promotion councils, locate sustained tourism projects so as to carry out RT projects, formulate social and economic security measures, help in gradation of hotels, resorts and homestays, form tourism clubs, lavatories and restrooms on lines of Kerala’s RT,

The programme also include : discover human resources in respective tourism centres, find out regional craft and make souvenirs out of them in tune with RT, carry out tourism packages during celebratory occasions, conduct study on the security of tourist centres and their audit, train staff in social tourism projects and formulate the code of conduct in tourist centres.

RT has succeeded in grooming new tourist centres and enabling the state in implementing the pioneering project called PEPPER (People’s Participation for Participatory Planning and Empowerment Through Responsible Tourism). The core idea of the project is to render services locally for the tourism industry. It provides the tourists an experience of the state’s rural life, and sourcing food for hotels and resorts from the people in the vicinity.

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According to reports, Shadab Khan, a journalist by profession, and Karthik Shivhare, an ABVP leader, both claim ownership on the dog.

Shadab Khan, had registered a police complaint in August, stating that his three-year-old black Labrador dog , named Coco had gone missing.

Recently he traced the dog to the house of Karthik Shivhare, the ABVP leader. Shadab called the police and took the dog with him.

Later on November 19, Shivhare registered a complaint against Shadab, claiming that the dog belonged to him. He said the dog’s name is Tiger.

Rather confusing the police, the dog is responding to both the names, Coco and Tiger, and also he was friendly with both the claimants. This compelled the police to perform the DNA test. They collected its blood samples for a DNA test to verify its parentage, and through that, its genuine owner.

Khan claimed that he bought the dog from Pachmarhi in 2017, while Shivhare said he got it from an Itarsi-based breeder a few weeks back.

Meanwhile the animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) accused the police of being insensitive. However Madhya Pradesh police said that they are dealing the case sensitively to ensure the dog get its rightful owner.

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The Election Commission had on October 30 taken note of an alleged breach of “ethical and dignified behaviour” and revoked Kamal Nath as the star campaigner in Madhya Pradesh.

The Election Commission lawyer said since the election is tomorrow, the plea is infructuous.

However, since the plea also seeks Supreme Court verdict on law to be laid down on whether ECI can decide on who can be leader of party under Section 77 RP Act, Supreme Court has agreed to hear the matter.

The CJI asked Election Commission, “Where do you get the power to determine who will be the leader of a political party under Section 77? You have no power.”

While hearing the matter on Monday, Supreme Court said prima facie EC didn’t have the power remove a star campaigner. In turn, EC argued that it acted under the Model Code of Conduct.

Supreme Court has asked EC to file a reply to Kamal Nath’s petition. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibil appeared for Kamal Nath.

The poll panel had said in its order, “…for repeated violation of Model Code of Conduct and for completely disregarding the advisory issued to him, the Commission hereby revokes the status of leader of political party (Star Campaigner) of Kamal Nath, Ex-Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh, with immediate effect for the current Bye-elections of Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh.”

Kamal Nath moved Supreme Court against the EC order and apart from revoking of the order, he also sought framing of appropriate guidelines for speeches during campaigning by star campaigners or campaigners, “keeping in mind the right to freedom of speech and expression and concept of democratic elections”.

The EC’s order against Nath concerned two comments. He made a comment against Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan on October 13 and then on October 18, Nath had said at a rally in Gwalior the Congress candidate was a simple man, unlike his opponent who is an ‘item’. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has Imarti Devi as candidate from the Darba seat in Gwalior in the by-elections.

Congress had submitted a list of 28 star campaigners to the Election Commission for MP by-elections on October 19.

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The total coronavirus cases mounted to 41,13,811, while the death toll climbed to 70,626 with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 1,065 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate due to the coronavirus infection has further declined to 1.72 per cent. There are 8,62,320 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 20.96 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and it went past 40 lakh on September 5.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 4,88,31,145 samples have been tested up to September 5 with 10,92,654 samples being tested on Saturday.

Of the 1,065 fresh deaths, 312 are from Maharashtra, 128 from Karnataka, 81 from Uttar Pradesh, 71 from Andhra Pradesh, 69 from Punjab, 61 from Tamil Nadu, 58 from West Bengal, 34 from Bihar, 30 from Madhya Pradesh, 25 from Delhi, 22 from Haryana, 19 from Chhattisgarh, 18 each from Puducherry and Uttarakhand, 15 each from Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand.

Fourteen fatalities have been reported from Rajasthan, 11 from Kerala, nine each from Goa and Telangana, eight from Tripura, seven each from Assam and Odisha, four from Himachal Pradesh while Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Manipur and Meghalaya have registered one fatality each.

Of the total 70,626 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the maximum at 26,276 followed by 7,748 in Tamil Nadu, 6,298 in Karnataka, 4,538 in Delhi, 4,347 in Andhra Pradesh, 3,843 in Uttar Pradesh, 3,510 in West Bengal, 3,091 in Gujarat and 1,808 in Punjab.

So far, 1,543 people have died of COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh, 1,122 in Rajasthan, 886 in Telangana, 781 in Haryana, 770 in Jammu and Kashmir, 735 in Bihar, 538 in Odisha, 462 in Jharkhand, 356 in Chhattisgarh, 352 in Assam, 337 in Kerala and 330 in Uttarakhand.

Puducherry has registered 298 fatalities, Goa 229, Tripura 144, Chandigarh 69, Himachal Pradesh 54, Andaman and Nicobar Islands 50, Manipur 36, Ladakh 35, Meghalaya 15, Nagaland 10, Arunachal Pradesh eight, Sikkim five and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that State-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

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The online forms have been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of External Affairs and Governments of various States and union territories, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Uttrakhand and Madhya Pradesh among others. According to the MoCA guidelines, this facility will be available for all international arriving passengers from August 8, 2020.

This will help in making passengers’ journey more convenient and comfortable in a contactless way as they won’t have to fill the physical copies of the forms on arrival. Delhi Airport continues to be a hub for international travel. With India establishing air bubble with several countries, the number of international arrivals is likely to go up. Then, this new online self-declaration and quarantine exemption portal will prove to be beneficial for the government officials in taking a swift and informed decision on granting exemption or know the latest health condition of the international arriving passenger.

Passengers seeking exemption under the five specific categories will need to fill the e-form available on the website of Delhi Airport “www.newdelhiairport.in”. They will have to submit it along with supporting documents, including copy of their passports, at least 72 hours before boarding their flights. However, there is no such time capping for passengers filling for the Self-Declaration form.

This process will help passengers avoid the hassle of providing the same set of information and documents to different authorities multiple times as online portal has the smart option to autofill the second application using the previous application’s request number. All applications will get auto-routed to the respective state government depending upon the first port of arrival. Similarly, all self-declaration applications will be routed to Airport Health Organisation (APHO), under Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

A copy of approval or rejection of exemption requests on specific grounds will be emailed to the passengers. Those who would be given exemption from mandatory institutional quarantine can show the same at the transfer area after landing at Delhi Airport, and walk out of the airport hassle-free. This process would not only help the flyers, who can seek exemptions, but also the authorities in completing the requisite formalities faster, and reduce congestions at the arrival hall of the Airports.

Passengers would be considered for exemption only if they fall under any one of the five exempted categories – Pregnant women, People whose kin died recently, people from serious illness (Description to be provided), parents accompanied by children below 10 years and COVID-19 negative in recent RT-PCR test.  Airlines may also notify passengers at the time of reservation that the receiving Indian State Government(s) may authorise exemptions from institutional quarantine for five specific categories on a case-to-case basis.

Commenting on this development,. Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO-DIAL, said “COVID-19 has certainly changed the way Delhi Airport operates. The focus of our activities remains on the safety and convenience of our passengers. Keeping in view the inconvenience faced by arriving international passengers during this pandemic situation, Delhi Airport has associated with the Government of India to take an initiative that is crucial for the well-being of all international arriving passengers, who are waiting to come back to India. Having an approved exemption form will not only ease the quarantine process, but also mitigate the problem of inordinate delay while queuing up for quarantine process. Further, passengers can also avoid the hassle of the filling physical copies of the self-declaration twice.”

Ms Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, MoCA, appreciated the Delhi Airport’s initiative and said, “It’s been a while since international repatriation service resumed in India. Passengers are planning to travel for various reasons on limited international flights during the pandemic. MoCA appreciates Delhi Airport’s contribution in helping digitise and streamline this process of health self-declaration and exempting passengers. E-platform prepared by DIAL would be used by all airports in the country and help the States/ health authorities to fast track the process of clearances for international arrivals. This will further facilitate to scale up the number of flights handled at Indian airports.”

According to the current government mandate, all passengers arriving by international flights in India must undergo seven days institutional quarantine at their own cost, followed by seven days of home quarantine. It is mandatory for international arriving passengers to undergo health screening by APHO. This includes thermal temperature screening by discreetly mounted, highly accurate, mass screening cameras.

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His son Ashutosh Tandon, a UP cabinet minister confirmed the news in Twitter. Lalji Tandon is survived by wife and three sons.

His body will be kept at his official residence in Hazratganj and later at his Sindhi Tola residence to enable people to pay their last respects.

The body would be taken to Gulala Ghat Chowk at 4 pm where his last rites will be performed Ashutosh Tandon said in a statement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his tribute said Mr.Tandon would be remembered for his untiring efforts to serve society.

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