Canada lifts ban on direct flights from India
Toronto(PTI): Canada will allow direct flights from India from Monday, lifting the ban on them after a gap of more than five months.
Announcing the decision, Transport Canada on Saturday in a tweet said: "Beginning at 00:01 EDT on September 27, direct flights from India can land in Canada with additional public health measures in place."
"Travellers must have proof of a negative COVID-19 molecular test from the approved Genestrings Laboratory at the Delhi airport taken within 18 hours of the scheduled departure of their direct flight to Canada," it added.
In April, Canada banned all direct flights to and from India when the second Covid wave hit India. The date of reopening has been postponed many times.
Welcoming the decision, India's high commissioner to Canada Ajay Bisaria described it as a "decisive step towards normalising air mobility" between the two nations.
"@airindiain and @AirCanada are now set to run daily flights between Delhi and Toronto/Vancouver from 27 September. Working with Canadian partners to further ease travel," he tweeted.
Passengers who travel from India to Canada via an indirect route still need to provide a pre-departure negative COVID-19 molecular test result from a third country before continuing their journey to Canada. PTI
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RSS' method is to make personal attacks, did so with Mahatma Gandhi as well: Rahul Gandhi
Araria (Bihar) (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that making personal attacks is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's method of targeting anyone and it did so with Mahatma Gandhi as well.
Gandhi made the remarks at an interaction with Mahagathbandhan allies in Bihar, a video of which he posted on his X handle.
In the video, Gandhi is seen having tea at a dhaba here on Sunday with RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, CPI(ML)'s Dipankar Bhattacharya, Vikassheel Insaan Party's Mukesh Sahani, Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi, Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Kumar and Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan.
"The RSS method of attacking is (making) personal attacks. They used to do it with Gandhi ji all the time. People don't know, don't remember the amount of abuse and defamation heaped on him (Gandhi) by the RSS. How much they lied about him, this is their style," the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.
Tushar Gandhi said that earlier debates used to be very strong and heated, but there was never personal abuse. "Now it has been legitimised," he said, to which Yadav added that it has started to happen after 2014.
"They abused Karpoori Thakur ji and then had to give him a Bharat Ratna," Yadav said.
Talking about the alleged "vote chori", Yadav said people would earlier say that they cast their vote but when the results came, they did not know where their vote had gone.
"Now, these things that are coming out with evidence and facts, people now know that theft is happening. The approach that the Election Commission has taken, people have got the message that the two (EC and the BJP) are in collusion. What (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji is saying, the Election commissioner is doing," the RJD leader said.
Echoing similar views, Sahani said that the people felt they voted for the INDIA bloc, but the result was opposite.
"Now that you (Rahul Gandhi) have brought out the facts, people know that something is wrong and Modi ji is doing some 'hera pheri'. Their (BJP's) voters have also started to believe so," the chief of VIP said.
Sahani and the Congress' Kumar and Khan hailed the Voter Adhikar Yatra and the enthusiasm among the people.
"People earlier never used to hit the road at 8 in the morning and we have also not done that, but it is happening here," Sahani said.
Posting the video of the interaction, Rahul Gandhi said on X, "Yatra, vote chori, and Gandhi ji -- a lively political discussion over hot tea and pakoras with coalition partners."
Gandhi launched the Voter Adhikar Yatra, supported by all Mahagathbandhan constituents, against the Election Commission's special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
The 16-day yatra, which began on August 17 from Sasaram, will conclude with a rally in Patna on September 1 before covering over 1,300 km across the state, where assembly elections are due later this year.
The yatra has so far covered Gayaji, Nawada, Sheikhpura, Lakhisarai, Munger, Katihar and Purnea districts. Further, it will pass through Madhubani, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, West Champaran, Saran, Bhojpur and Patna districts.
