New Delhi, May 15: As Coronavirus infection is spreading to rural India, the National Jal Jeevan Mission has advised States and Union Territories to monitor water quality and undertake surveillance to ensure potable drinking water to every home and public institutions in all villages across country.
The advisory notably has come amid reports of dead bodies found floating in rivers in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
“In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, criticality of public health including preventive action, is well understood, making safe drinking water, improved sanitation and better hygiene a pre-requisite for improved public health,” the Jal Shakti Ministry said in a statement.
The Mission also asked every state and UT to have at least one state/UT level laboratory and region-wise laboratories in bigger states and UTs so that all nearby sources are tested regularly.
Similarly, all districts should have a district-level laboratory and setting up of the same to be accorded highest priority, said the statement.
Further, all laboratories are to be opened for public to test their water samples at a nominal rate.
“This will instill confidence in public on the quality of water supplied and the demand for water purification devices will be curtailed,” the statement added.
The JJM scheme aims to ensure assured tap water supply to all rural households by 2024.
Under the scheme announced in 2019, four crore households are said to have been provided with tap water connections.
New Delhi, May 14 : The Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp on Friday told the Delhi High Court that its privacy policy update is not ‘mandatory’ in nature as it does not force any user to accept the same.
WhatsApp also alleged that privacy policies of many Internet-based applications including Big Basket, Koo, Ola, Truecaller, and Zomato as well as the Central Government’s contact tracing app Aarogya Setu have similar policies and that some even collect more data.
The plea filed by WhatsApp contended that any interference with its update would ‘cripple’ the entire industry of internet-based applications and websites.
The new update does not expand WhatsApp’s ability to share data with Facebook, the US-based social media firm argued.
It also reiterated that the privacy and security of personal messages and calls do not change and are protected by end-to-end encryption.
WhatsApp and Facebook cannot read or listen to them, the tech giants said.
The Court will hear the matter on Monday.
On May 5, the bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh had asked WhatsApp to file their reply while hearing Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Advocate Harsha Gupta seeking some interim orders as WhatsApp intends to bring its policy into effect from May 15.
As per the fresh policy of WhatsApp, users have to agree to its new data-sharing norms, a key point of which is sharing data from business conversations with Facebook.
Earlier, the Centre had informed the Delhi High Court that WhatsApp’s new privacy policy violated the 2011 IT Rules.
Tel Aviv, May 13: At least 1,600 rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the escalation, around 400 of which fell inside the Palestinian enclave, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Jonathan Conricus said on Thursday.
Conricus specified at a briefing that these figures include the overnight shelling.
According to the IDF spokesman, the effectiveness of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system is estimated at around 90 percent.
Six Israeli civilians and one servicemen were killed since the beginning of the escalation, Conricus noted.
Washington, May 12: The global death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic has
crossed 3.308 million, while more than 159.1 million cases of the infection have been detected till now said the US-based Johns Hopkins University(JHU).
JHU is the most credible organization which compiles global data related to the pandemic.
As of 20:30 GMT Tuesday(0100 hrs IST, Wednesday), the number of cases in the world stood at 159,164,818, including 3,308,508 fatalities.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 32,765,633, including 582,635 fatalities.
New Delhi, May 12: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday expressed gratitude to the nursing staff on International Nurses Day saying that their sense of duty, compassion and commitment towards a healthy India is exemplary.
In a tweet, the Prime Minister said, ‘International Nurses Day is a day to express gratitude to the hardworking nursing staff, who is at the forefront of fighting COVID-19. Their sense of duty, compassion and commitment towards a healthy India is exemplary.”
The International Council of Nurses has celebrated this day since 1965.
In January 1974, May 12 was chosen to celebrate the day as it is the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.