Arrest of activists and intellectuals condemned
‘Arrests are politically motivated’
New Delhi, August 28: Social activists, journalists, film makers, JNU Students Union, publishers and MLA Jignesh Mevani strongly condemned the raids on the homes of social activists and intellectuals who are critical of the government and the ruling party at the centre.
In a statement, they said that the arrests of prominent personalities like Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Gautam Navlakha, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Kranthi Tekula and others were nothing but an attempt to strike terror among those who are fighting for the justice for the marginalized. It was also an attempt by the BJP to invent a false enemy and engage in scaremongering to polarize the 2019 Lok Sabha election in its favour. Already, the government and the media houses close to the BJP have been trying to create a false narrative of Maoist conspiracy since June 2018. The government had invented a term ‘urban naxals’ to stifle any criticism of the government. “We have learnt that the Delhi Police, after arresting Sudha Bharadwaj, waited for Republic TV to arrive before taking her to the court. This simply shows that the arrests are incomplete without the accompanying sensationalist media propaganda to demonise activists, human rights activists and intellectuals”, they said.
The raids carried out on the houses of those activists were aimed at creating a spectacle as the writings and views of those intellectuals were already publicly known and well documented. It was a conspiracy to divert the attention from the gravity of the Sanatan Sanstha conspiracy to carry out serial bomb attacks on Eid and Ganesh Chaturthi. The same Sanatan Sanstha was involved in the murder of Gauri Lankesh as per the SIT investigation. The arrests were carried out to shield the murderers of Gauri Lankesh. People like Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha and others who have been arrested are friends of the people who have dedicated their entire lives to the betterment of the society. With the arrest, the BJP was exposing its insecurities and its intolerance to any dissent or criticism of its policies, they said.
The arrests should be seen in continuation with the recent attacks on pro-justice voices like Swami Agnivesh, Umar Khalid and many other student activists from Delhi to Lucknow. A BJP lawmaker from Karnataka even advocated the murder of “intellectuals.” Both the arrests and the physical attacks on justice loving people must be seen in a series of attempts to stifle dissent and deny social justice. So, the government should release all the arrested activists and intellectuals immediately and drop all false and malicious charges against them as those arrests were politically motivated, they said.
JNU Students’ Union former president Mohit Pandey, former vice president Shehla Rashid Shora, journalist and author Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, journalist Neha Dixit, Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, human rights activist Sanam Sutirth Wazir, documentary filmmaker Nakul Singh Sawhney, journalist and social activist Teesta Setalvad, equal rights activist Harish Iyer, social activist Swami Agnivesh, Shashi Sail of National Alliance of Women and others signed the petition.
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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.
