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New maneuver launched by Congress leaders in the backdrop of Farmers’ protests to regain their political space

On Monday, September 28th, 2020, the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan targeted the Central government as a ‘suit-boot ki Sarkar’, which translates into- “government of rich and elite”.

The taunt came as a direct response to the controversial Farm Bills sanctioned by the BJP-led government, despite the widespread opposition and protests led by the farmers. Chavan described this move of the government as a conspiracy against the farmers across the country.

In his statement on Monday, he said that the Bills were hurriedly passed in the face of protests from opposition, farmer groups and even constituents of the NDA to help the BJP’s corporate cronies. Chavan further added that this is a government for the suit-clad super-rich.

A memorandum had been handed over to the President by a party delegation who met Bhagat Singh Koshyari, the state governor, urging the Farm Bills to be recalled. Subsequently, Chavan had made the statement claiming that the BJP-led Central government is overlooking and neglecting the voice of 62 crore farmers and other political parties supporting their movement.

Many such memoranda have been handed over by various Congress leaders to show their support and reflect their opposition against the unjust bills that are being passed by the government despite such nationwide protests.

A press event took place recently which was attended by Balasaheb Thorat, the state president for Congress, H K Patil, AICC Maharashtra in charge, and Prithviraj Chavan. The meeting was attended by other senior Congress leaders too. The party delegation of Congress that had come to the Raj Bhavan to hand over the memorandum, apart from Chavan included Sushil Kumar Shinde, KC Padvi, Suresh Dhanorkar and Yashomati Thakur.

This memorandum scheme by Congress has been launched as a two-month-long ‘mass-movement’ to regain political space amidst the farmer protests going on against the BJP leaders.

As per the recently obtained details from congress sources, the party will observe October 2nd, 2020, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri as the ‘Kisan Mazdoor Bachao Diwas’. The plan is to collect signatures from APMC laborers and traders, and farmers across the nation which will later be compiled into a detailed memorandum which shall be handed over to the President on November 14th, 2020, the birth anniversary of Jawahar Lal Nehru.

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Maha faces acute oxygen crisis, Centre claims India ‘self-sufficient’ in Oxygen cylinders

Maharashtra health department and the transport department have tied up with the Food and Drug Administration to tackle the severe shortage of oxygen supply at hospitals in the state.

The state has procured tankers from other states to overcome the crisis.

Maharashtra has two main suppliers, Inox Air Products and Linde India, which together produce 800 metric ton liquid oxygen every day. Inox has four plants in Raigad, Pune and Nagpur. Linde has two plants in Raigad and Thane. Transportation of supplies to Marathwada and North Maharashtra takes a day straining hospitals in these regions.

Owing to the sudden shortage, several Maharashtra districts are now in the process of installing their own oxygen generation plants to cut dependence on suppliers. District collectors are working to set up their own oxygen plants in Osmanabad, Beed, Nandurbar and Pimpri Chinchwad. More districts are set to issue tender for oxygen plants.
Rural Maharashtra’s arid regions like Latur are now suffocating too. As coronavirus cases rise sharply across the state, a severe shortage of medical oxygen supply has hit COVID-19 care in the region. Oxygen forms the core of COVID management and a shortage has left both doctors and patients struggling.

While oxygen shortage has hit many parts of the country, Maharashtra with the highest COVID-19 case load is facing a severe crisis. There are over 11 lakh cases in the state and nearly 50 percent of COVID-19 cases are now from semi-urban and rural areas outside of Mumbai, Pune and Thane. Nearly 11 percent COVID-19 patients in the state need oxygen support and this is putting pressure on the medical oxygen demand and supply.

Latur district has close to 14,000 COVID-19 cases. The government hospital currently has a capacity of 6,000 litres of oxygen, of which 5,000 litres are used daily. The crisis has hit private hospitals worse with supplies dipping to a third.

Meanwhile, in another step to tackle the situation, the Maharashtra government said, vehicles carrying oxygen for Covid patients will be treated on par with the ambulance service for the next one year.

“The Government of Maharashtra hereby declares that the vehicles permitted for carrying oxygen for medical purposes shall be treated on par with ambulance for a period of one year during such disaster and thereby treating such vehicles as the vehicle on emergency and disaster management duties,” an order from the Maharashtra government read.

Earlier in a statement in parliament, Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said the country is “self-sufficient” in oxygen and oxygen cylinders. “The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has procured and supplied 1,02,400 oxygen cylinders to various states and Union Territories so far,” the minister said.

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First Roro train in India-Karnataka CM flags off first ever RORO train between Bengaluru and Maharashtra’s Solapur

On August 30, the first roll-on roll-off (RoRo) train service in India from Nelamangala in Karnataka to Solapur in Maharashtra was flagged off. This service is expected to remove the existing problems of transportation of goods between the two neighbouring states.

Under the RoRo service, road vehicles such as trucks and others loaded with various goods, will be transported from one place to another through an open wagon of the railway. The trial of the first such service in South Western Railway was flagged off by Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi and Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.
The Karnataka CM stated in a press release that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is emphasizing on multimodal connectivity across the country. He also added that there is tremendous scope for RoRo in the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) market in the region.

He tweeted that the RoRo service is hassle-free, is environmentally friendly, reduces road accidents, and is beneficial to both truck operators and industries. He stated that he was glad to flag off the first RoRo train service to run between Bengaluru and Solapur.

Under this service, the train will run from Dharmavaram Guntakal, Raichur, and Wadi to Bale near Solapur in Maharashtra. This Roro journey will cover a distance of 682 km in 17 hours.

He also said that lorry can be transported on time with 42 trucks/goods on this new train.
The Minister of State for Railways stated that Multimodal connectivity is the dream of Prime Minister. Thousands of trucks ply between Bengaluru and Solapur. The journey in the new Roro system will take them just 17 hours. This is a trial run which started late due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Officials stated that the new service will remove the existing bottlenecks in the transportation of goods between the two states and will ensure safer, faster, and more reliable transportation facilities.