Geeta Chandran distances herself from pro-PM campaign by 900 artistes
Bharatnatyam dancer Geeta Chandran, who has been named in a list of 907 artistes supporting "the continuance of Govt. led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi", has now distanced herself from the campaign, saying she never gave her consent for it.
The campaign by the Nation First Collective was initiated as a response after 600 theatre artistes (including names like Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Konkona Sen Sharma, Anurag Kashyap, Vinay Pathak and Amol Palekar) joined over 100 filmmakers (including Anand Patwardhan, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, Vetri Maaran and Pa Ranjith) and 200 writers (such as Arundhati Roy, Girish Karnad and Amitav Ghosh) to issue statements urging people to “vote hatred out of power”.
The 600 theatre artistes had appealed to people to “Vote against the BJP and its allies” under the collective Artist Unite India.The counter campaign, backed by 907 artistes, filmmakers, actors and writers, urges people “to cast their vote and exercise their right to elect the new government without any pressure and prejudice”, and includes names like Vivek Oberoi, Shankar Mahadevan, Koena Mitra, Alok Nath, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Pratibha Prahlad, Anuradha Paudwal, Gajendra Chauhan, Mukesh Khanna and Raju Srivastav.
Their statement reads: “We believe that during the last five years, India has seen a government that has delivered corruption-free good governance and development oriented administration. During this period, globally India has acquired greater respect. It is our firm conviction that the continuance of government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the need of the hour. Besides, when challenges like terrorism are before all of us, we need a Majboot Sarkar and not a Mazboor Sarkar and hence we need the present Govt. to continue.”Geeta Chandran, whose name is also included in the list of 907 artistes, has now said that there was no formal agreement where she gave her approval for her name to be used. She tells us, "On April 8, the Chairman of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) invited senior artistes to a celebration of the Hindu New Year (Vikram Samvat 2076) and several of us went to greet him. There, in our conversations, there was talk about artistes asking all members of the public to vote.
We all eagerly agreed, since voting is one of the duties of all citizens."She adds, "They then mentioned endorsing the current government and its successes. Many of us present felt that the democratic principle of 'secret ballot', that is our constitutional right, would be violated if we agreed to those points, especially since most of us were not members of any political party. There was no formal signing!"
courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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Maharashtra sets up state vaccination task force to strengthen immunisation programme
Mumbai (PTI): The Maharashtra government has set up a State Vaccination Task Force to strengthen the regular immunisation programme and review the progress of related campaigns, a health department official said on Monday.
The State Vaccination Task Force will comprise at least 29 members and will be headed by the administrative head of the health department, he informed.
The government has also constituted separate district-level and municipal vaccination task forces to improve implementation and address challenges at the grassroots level, he said.
Municipal task forces, chaired by respective civic commissioners, have been constituted in view of the vast urban population in Maharashtra and the role of civic bodies in implementing different health programmes.
The district-level task forces will function under the chairmanship of collectors.
"Complete immunisation of children at the appropriate age is an extremely simple, cost-effective and highly effective measure to reduce child mortality and the prevalence of diseases among kids. Immunisation is a powerful tool for reducing illness in children," maintained the official.
To ensure full vaccination of all children, the state government implements various campaigns from time to time as per the central government guidelines, he pointed out.
"Active participation and cooperation of other relevant government departments are essential (in making these campaigns successful)," according to the official.
The state-level body will review the regular immunisation programme, associated campaigns and vaccine-preventable diseases in detail. It will also conduct focused assessments of high-risk districts and municipal corporations, including vacancies at district, municipal and sub-district levels, availability of cold chain equipment, resource gaps and training requirements, he noted.
The state task force will review allocation and utilisation of funds for immunisation and ensure timely action by officers concerned based on reports from district and municipal task forces and state-level monitoring mechanisms, the official said.
It will also ensure active coordination and participation of other government departments in immunisation drives, while district and municipal task forces will carry out similar functions at their respective levels, the official added.
