As coronavirus cases rise in Noida, Times of India report calls Zee News a 'major cluster'
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The coronavirus outbreak among employees of Zee Media has been deemed a "cluster" by a Times of India report today.
he newspaper had a report headlined, "Noida sees steepest weekly rise in cases from 2 clusters". Interestingly, the online version of the story was headlined, "Noida saw 90 cases in a week, most are from rural clusters".
according to the report, the number of weekly cases has almost doubled in Noida, from 51 to 90 in 14 days. It said "a majority of them have been reported from the Sector 16 office of a media house. With 50 employees testing positive so far, including 31 from Noida, the media house is slowly emerging as a major cluster in the city".
Last week, Newslaundry reported on how Zee News became a Covid-19 hotspot, and how its management was lax in enforcing safety protocols and guidelines prescribed by the Indian government to prevent the virus from spreading.
This included how the channel's editor-in-chief, Sudhir Chaudhary, told employees: “I don’t want to listen to any more complaints about someone’s fever or cough from tomorrow. Remember this: all of you will recover from the fever, but for the one who complains, it will never be the same.”
Newslaundry also reported on how an office WhatsApp group shows abject negligence towards social distancing and employee safety. Also, the channel's first Covid-19 case wasn't in May but in April, but no one else was tested or quarantined.
The Zee News office was sealed on May 25 for "sanitization and containment of the disease".
The news was published by Newslaundry.com and has been published here without any changes or alterations. Click here to read the original post.
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Kolkata Port: Decline in number of voters during SIR brings in uncertainty in TMC bastion
Kolkata (PTI): A sharp decline in the number of voters following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has injected an element of uncertainty into the Kolkata Port Assembly constituency, considered a safe seat for the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The electorate in the south Kolkata constituency has dropped from 2.36 lakh in the 2021 Assembly polls to around 1.75 lakh, a fall of nearly 26 per cent, prompting political parties to closely assess its potential impact on the April 29 polling.
The TMC re-nominated senior minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, who has held the seat for two consecutive terms, while the BJP fielded Rakesh Singh. The Congress nominated Aquib Gulzar, and the CPI(M) put up Faiyaz Ahmad Khan, making it a four-cornered contest.
Kolkata Port, part of the Kolkata Dakshin parliamentary constituency, comprises dock areas, old business districts and densely populated neighbourhoods. Muslim voters form a significant segment of the electorate, alongside traders, transport workers and working-class Hindu families.
The reduction in voter numbers has prompted party workers across formations to scrutinise the revised rolls booth-wise to identify deletions and assess whether specific localities have been affected.
Singh’s candidature has added a twist to the contest. He had earlier contested against Hakim as a Congress candidate but is now in the fray on a BJP ticket.
Hakim won the seat in 2016 by 26,548 votes, defeating Singh, and increased his margin significantly to 68,554 votes in 2021, polling over one lakh votes.
While the TMC has expressed confidence in retaining the seat, opposition parties have raised concerns over the voter list revision, alleging that names of genuine voters have been removed.
“People here know who has stood by them. Elections are decided by trust,” Hakim told PTI during a campaign event.
Singh claimed several residents had complained about missing names in the rolls, stressing the need for transparency. The CPI(M) nominee also said voters in several areas had raised similar concerns.
The constituency has remained a difficult terrain for the opposition in recent elections.
Civic issues such as sanitation, traffic congestion and declining business activity in traditional markets also feature in the campaign in the constituency, though the revised voter list has emerged as a key talking point.
Polling in the constituency will be held in the second phase on April 29, with counting scheduled for May 4.
