TN CM Stalin launches 1,000 pharmacies across TN
Chennai, Feb 24 (PTI): As many as 1,000 ‘Mudhalvar Marundhagangal’ pharmacies providing medicines at subsidised prices to the people across Tamil Nadu was inaugurated on Monday by Chief Minister M K Stalin.
The initiative not only offers expensive medicines at affordable prices to the members of the public but also ensures employment opportunities for 1,500 B.Pharm and D.Pharm holders, the Chief Minister said.
Medicines will be available at discounts up to 75 percent.
"This would reduce the financial burden of the people dependent on medicines on a long-term basis. We wanted to end the situation where the public has to pay a high price to buy medicines and these pharmacies would help to reduce their financial burden," Stalin said at the inauguration.
Pharmacists and cooperative societies have been provided subsidy and required financial assistance to operate the ventures. While the entrepreneurs were provided Rs 3 lakh, the cooperative societies were provided a subsidy of Rs 2 lakh.
"These pharmacies have been stocked with three months’ supply of medicine and warehouses have been established in all the 38 districts across the state," he said.
AIADMK leader Dr C Vijayabhaskar slammed the DMK government for launching the scheme that was rolled out by former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa during her tenure in 2014.
"This scheme was launched by Jayalalithaa when she was the Chief Minister, through the cooperative department. Though those pharmacies still exist in certain pockets, the scheme was not implemented in totality because it contained the name 'Amma'," the former Health Minister told reporters after participating in the AIADMK leader's 77th birth anniversary celebrations at the AIADMK state headquarters here.
"The ‘Mudhalvar Marundhagangal’ scheme was launched to conceal Amma's name. This is unacceptable. This is like affixing a sticker on the AIADMK initiative," Vijayabhaskar added.
BJP state chief K Annamalai too slammed the ruling dispensation saying "a copy can never become an original" and posted a picture of the Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015.
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Trump orders US military to 'shoot and kill' Iranian small boats choking Strait of Hormuz
Dubai (AP): President Donald Trump said Thursday he has ordered the US military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines to choke traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump's post on social media came shortly after the US military seized another tanker associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil, ratcheting up a standoff with Tehran over the strait through which 20 per cent of all crude oil and natural gas traded passes.
“I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be...that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump posted. “There is to be no hesitation. Additionally, our mine sweepers' are clearing the Strait right now.”
“I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!” Trump added.
He also said the military is intensifying mine clearing operations in the critical waterway.
The move comes a day after Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guards attacked three cargo ships in the strait, capturing two of them.
The Defence Department released video footage earlier on Thursday of US forces on the deck of the Guinea-flagged oil tanker Majestic X, which was seized in the Indian Ocean.
“We will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate,” a Pentagon statement said.
Ship-tracking data showed the Majestic X in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia, roughly the same location as the oil tanker Tifani, earlier seized by American forces. It had been bound for Zhoushan, China.
The vessel previously had been named Phonix and had been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in 2024 for smuggling Iranian crude oil in contravention of US sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
There was no immediate response from Iran on the news of the seizure.
On Tuesday, Trump extended a ceasefire while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports. There was no immediate sign whether peace talks, previously hosted by Pakistan, would resume anytime soon.
The standoff between the US and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports through the strait with no end in sight.
On Thursday, Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi was splattered with red liquid as he left a building after a news conference in Berlin. The alleged perpetrator was immediately detained by police.
During the event, Pahlavi criticised the ceasefire between the US and Iran, arguing that the agreement assumes the Iranian government's behaviour will change and “you're going to deal with people who all of a sudden have become pragmatists.”
Pahlavi, 65, has been in exile for nearly 50 years. His father, Iran's shah, was so widely hated that millions took to the streets in 1979, forcing him from power. Nevertheless, Pahlavi is trying to position himself as a player in his country's future.
Since the Feb. 28 start of the war between Iran, Israel and the United States, over 30 ships have come under attack in the waters of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman.
The threat of attack, rising insurance premiums and other fears have stopped traffic from moving through the strait. Iran's ability to restrict traffic through the strait, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has proved a major strategic advantage.
The ceasefire has been strained by duelling US attacks on Iranian ships and those by Iran on commercial vessels. It also remains unclear when, or if, the two sides will meet again in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, where officials say they are still trying to bring the countries together to reach a diplomatic deal.
The conflict already has sent gas prices skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the cost of food and a wide array of other products. Officials around the world have warned the impact to businesses, consumers and economies could be long-lasting.
