Nipah alert in Bihar
Patna, May 26 : The Bihar government issued Nipah virus alert on Saturday, asking people to take precautions, an official said.
"The government has issued an alert of Nipah virus (NiV) in view of its outbreak in Kerala that has claimed 10 lives and created panic," said health department official R. D. Ranjan.
An advisory has also been issued to people with the dos and don'ts as preventive measures, said Ranjan. "People have been advised to keep distance from bats and pigs. They have been asked not to consume fruits without washing them."
According to health experts, Nipah symptoms are not specific and include flu-like illness and hence can be confused with any respiratory illness. The natural host of the virus are fruit bats. Human infections can result from contacts with infected pigs.
Also, humans become infected with Nipah as a result of consuming food products contaminated by secretions of infected fruit bats.
Human-to-human transmission has also been documented.
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Assam to lift all cases against Koch Rajbongshis in Foreigners' Tribunals: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma
Guwahati, Apr 4 (PTI): The Assam cabinet has decided to lift all cases pending against people from the Koch Rajbongshi community in the Foreigners' Tribunals, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday.
They will also no longer carry the tag of 'D' or doubtful voters, he said.
''There are 28,000 cases pending in different Foreigners' Tribunals in the state against people of the community. The cabinet has taken a historic decision of lifting the cases with immediate effect,'' Sarma said at a press conference here after the cabinet meeting.
The government believes that the Koch Rajbongshis are an indigenous community of the state and they are an inextricable part of ''our social and cultural fabric'', he asserted.
The people of this community are poor and have suffered a lot over the years, he said.
''They will no longer carry the tag of foreigners or ‘D’ voters,'' the CM said.
Foreigners Tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies, particularly in Assam, established to determine if a person residing in India is a "foreigner" as defined by the Foreigners Act of 1946, based on the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order of 1964.
These tribunals are designed to address matters related to citizenship and the presence of “foreigners” in India, specifically focusing on cases where someone is suspected of being an illegal immigrant.
There are 100 Foreigners’ Tribunals across Assam.
The Koch Rajbongshis have a sizeable presence in Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya, and parts of Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan, and they demand Scheduled Tribe status.
