Tag: Smriti Irani

  • Development not reached all families in Amethi despite Gandhis ‘rule’ for 5 decades: Smriti Irani

    By PTI

    THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amethi in Uttar Pradesh was presumed not to be in want of any infrastructure as it was “ruled” by the Gandhi family and “not served” by them for five decades, but development — like internet connectivity — has not reached all families there, Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani said on Sunday.

    Irani, who was scheduled to virtually inaugurate the ‘sevasamarpan’ initiative of RSS affiliated NGO Deseeya Seva Bharati, said she was unable to join the organisation’s conference earlier in the morning as she was deep in the interiors of Amethi, where it was “a struggle” to connect to the internet.

    “I am deep in the interiors of Amethi. Network connectivity is a challenge in some of the villages here. Many presume this was a constituency ruled and not served by the Gandhi family for five decades and hence, would not be in want of any infrastructure. However, the struggle today itself to connect with you (Seva Bharati) is significant enough for you to recognise that even under their (Gandhis) leadership, in their own constituency, development has not reached every single family,” she said after she managed to join the online conference much later.

    She said that with the endeavour to ensure development reaches all parts of the constituency, she is going from village to village to find out their needs.

  • UP’s Amethi now self-reliant in medical oxygen production with seven plants: MP Smriti Irani

    By PTI

    AMETHI: Amethi was neglected for 70 years and there was not even one oxygen generation unit, but it has become self-reliant in medical oxygen now with seven plants, Union Minister Smriti Irani said on Saturday, in an apparent swipe at the Congress whose leaders represented the constituency for decades.

    Irani, on a two-day visit to her parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, inspected a trauma centre in Jagdishpur.

    “Amethi was deprived of various facilities for 70 years. There was not a single oxygen plant in Amethi, but today there are seven oxygen plants. In the area of medical oxygen, Amethi has become self-reliant,” she said.

    ALSO READ | India sends 150 tonnes of oxygen to Sri Lanka to help it tackle coronavirus surge

    “Amethi is my home, my family. I know how to look after the family. I do what I say. You have seen that during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Initially samples had to be sent to Lucknow for testing, but the Yogi Adityanath government in UP made such a provision that COVID-19 tests are now being conducted in Amethi,” said Irani, who defeated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the constituency in 2019.

    “Whether I am in Amethi or outside, I keep a tab of Amethi and am in touch with the administration,” the Union Women and Child Development Minister said.

  • Rahul upset that India earning Rs 6 lakh crore: BJP

    Congress is trying to tarnish the Centre #39;s image for working to fill state coffers transparently while keeping them secure from the quot;robbers quot; of the opposition party, Union Minister Smriti Irani said.

  • No info on increase in child abuse cases due to Covid lockdowns: Union government 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The government Thursday said it has no information as on date regarding data on increase in cases of child abuse due to the Covid-related lockdown situations and data on the increase in child marriage cases across the country due to financial difficulties caused due to coronavirus.

    In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said her ministry has issued advisories and guidelines to state governments and union territory administrations for care and protection of children during the pandemic.

    “As per information provided by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there is no information as on date regarding data on increase in cases of child abuse due to the COVID-19 related lockdown situations and data on the increase in child marriage cases across the country due to financial difficulties caused due to COVID,” she said.

    Responding to another question, Irani gave data on the number of complaints received and disposed of by NCPCR during the last five years.

    According to the data, in the last five years from 2016-17 to 2020-21 the National Commission for Protection of Children received 50,857 complaints out of which 20,836 have been disposed of.

    Among states, highest number of complaints have been received from Madhya Pradesh at 9,572 followed by Uttar Pradesh at 5,340, Chhattisgarh at 4,685 and Odisha at 4,276.

  • ‘Very concerned’ about well-being of protesting women farmers: Smriti Irani.

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The government is “very concerned” about the well-being of women farmers protesting at Delhi borders, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

    Replying to a question, Irani said the agriculture ministry has appealed to the protesting farmers’ unions that women should be requested to go home keeping in view the severe weather conditions and Covid pandemic.

    “The government has been very concerned about the well-being of women farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare during discussions with the farmers’ unions appealed to them that children and elders, especially women, should be requested to go home keeping in view the severe weather conditions and the Covid pandemic,” Irani said in a written reply.

    “Basic amenities for taking care of the condition of citizens, including that of women farmers, are provided by the concerned local body and state/UT government,” she added.

    Thousands of farmers from across the country have been agitating at three Delhi border points — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — against the three farm laws that they claim will do away with the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.

    Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws at major agricultural reforms, have failed to break the deadlock between the two sides.

  • UP professor held for making derogatory remarks against Smriti Irani on Facebook

    By PTI
    FIROZABAD: A professor, who allegedly made derogatory remarks against Union Minister Smriti Irani on Facebook, was sent to jail after he surrendered in a court here.

    Shaharyar Ali surrendered to Additional Sessions Judge Anurag Kumar and moved an interim bail application on Tuesday.

    The judge cancelled the bail plea after which the professor was sent to jail.

    Firozabad Police had booked Ali, head of History department at SRK College, in March for an alleged obscene Facebook post against the women and child development minister.

    The college had then served him with a suspension notice.

    Earlier this month, the Supreme Court refused to grant protection from arrest to Ali.

    An anticipatory bail plea filed by the professor was also rejected by the Allahabad High Court in May.

    Refusing to grant Ali protection from arrest, Justice J J Munir said there was no material on record to show that the professor’s account was hacked.

  • Cabinet Committees rejigged; Smriti Irani, Bhupender Yadav, Sarbananda Sonowal now part of political affairs panel

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The government has reconstituted the powerful cabinet committees under which Union ministers Smriti Irani, Bhupender Yadav and Sarbananda Sonowal have been made part of the all-important Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    Union ministers Virendra Kumar, Kiren Rijiju and Anurag Singh Thakur have been included in the rejigged Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, according to a notification issued by the Cabinet Secretariate last night.

    However, there has been no change in the composition of the country’s highest decision making body on security affairs — the Cabinet Committee on Security — and the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, which takes call on all important appointments in the government in the rank of Joint Secretary and above.

    The members of the Cabinet Committee on Security are the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

    The two-member Appointments Committee of the Cabinet comprises the Prime Minister and the Home Minister.

    The new members of the Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth headed by the PM are Union Minister Narayan Rane, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Ashwini Vaishnaw.

    The Cabinet Committee on Employment and Skill Development, headed by the PM, has new members in Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw, Bhupender Yadav, Ramchandra Prasad Singh and G Kishan Reddy.

  • Union Minister Smriti Irani visits Amethi, takes stock of coronavirus arrangements in her constituency

    By PTI
    AMETHI: Union Minister Smriti Irani on Friday paid a surprise visit to Amethi, her parliamentary constituency, to take stock of the arrangements to tackle coronavirus.

    She took the locals by surprise when she reached Raghu Shukul village of Jagdishpur unannounced to meet families of four people who had died from coronavirus.

    She later went to Mohona Paschim village in Jagdishpur, where Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist Vijay Kumar Shukla had died and met his family members.

    Inspecting the Jagdishpur Community Health Centre, she enquired about medical facilities provided to patients and told officials to ensure that there was no inconvenience to the patients.

    District Magistrate Arun Kumar, Superintendent of Police Dinesh Singh and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Ashutosh Dubey accompanied the MP during her visit.

    The CMO told her in detail about the medical facilities.

    She instructed the district magistrate that necessary medical facilities, including an ultrasound, should be provided here.

  • Congress alleges BJP citing ‘fake toolkit’ to defame it, files police complaint seeking FIR against Nadda, Irani

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP of propagating a “fake toolkit” to defame it and lodged a police complaint against the party’s chief JP Nadda, Union minister Smriti Irani, and leaders B L Santosh and Sambit Patra seeking to book them for “sharing and creating fake news”.

    Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the country would not have been in such a painful situation if access to vaccines was made as easy as arresting people for raising questions in the Modi ‘system’ and noted, “Stop Corona, not questions raised by the public.

    ” Addressing a joint press conference, party’s research cell head Rajeev Gowda and spokesperson Pawan Khera said instead of helping people during the COVID-19 pandemic, the BJP is stooping to low-level politics, asserting that it will neither bow nor be cowed down to such pressure tactics.

    They claimed this is being done to divert the attention of people from the government’s failures in handling the COVID pandemic that has led to a large number of deaths across the country in the wake of shortage of ICU beds, oxygen and essential medicines.

    “The BJP is propagating a fake ‘toolkit’ on ‘COVID-19 mismanagement’ and attributing it to AICC research department.

    We have filed a complaint with Delhi Police commissioner for registering an FIR of forgery and other relevant sections of law against JP Nadda, Smriti Irani, BL Santosh and Sambit Patra,” Gowda said.

    “When our country is devastated by COVID, instead of providing relief, BJP shamelessly concocts forgeries,” he also alleged.

    “This outrageous behaviour of the BJP we have taken up with the police authorities so far and we mean to take it further with authorities of platforms like twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

    Now, basic point is that what these people have done is fraud and forgery and this is a crime, which needs to be taken up with the police and that is the agenda that we are pursuing right now,” Gowda said.

    Khera said, ” You cannot scare us into silence. We are not afraid”.

    “BJP president J P Nadda, party spokesperson Sambit Patra, Union minister Smriti Irani and BJP general secretary BL Santosh and others in connivance with each other had forged, fabricated and manufactured the said documents on the letterhead of AICC Research Department and printed such material on the same which has to potential of creating communal disharmony, civil unrest in the country and the said document is being utilized by the BJP to spread fake news which has to potential to be escalated into violence and fueling hate at the hands of BJP leaders directly,” the complaint made by Gowda and Congress Social media cell chairman Rohan Gupta said.

    “It is stated that in delicate and tough times like this when the nation is fighting to survive against the COVID-19 virus the BJP functionaries are sharing and creating fake news with intent to create communal disharmony and civil unrest in the country, in order to divert attention of the people from the failures of the Modi government of handling the pandemic,” the complaint further said and demanded registration of an FIR on basis of this and punishing them strictly in accordance with law.

    The opposition party was reacting after the BJP alleged that the Congress wants to tarnish the image of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by calling the new strain of the coronavirus the “India strain” or the “Modi strain”.

    Citing a purported Congress toolkit, Patra said according to the document, it is clear that the Congress extending help to the needy during the pandemic is “more of a public relations exercise with the help of friendly journalists and influencers than a soulful endeavour”.

    However, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate at a virtual press conference claimed that there is no such document as shown by the BJP spokesperson and the party was initiating legal action.

    The party’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “Soon after the BJP forged the ‘fake toolkit’, all its ‘fake devotees’ and ‘friends in the media’ came out to set the agenda.

    ” “But, the truth about their misdeeds will not be left hidden,” he said.

    Khera alleged that the Prime Minister is only worried only about saving his false image and not about vaccines, even as people are dying due to Covid but he only wants to attain the position of “vaccine guru” in the world.

    He also alleged that such toolkits are brought out by the BJP the moment someone raises questions on the government as has been done by them in the past during students agitation, anti-CAA protests and the farmers agitation.

    This has exposed the ugly face of the BJP once again, he said, asking that instead of answering questions, the ruling party is accusing those who raise questions and target them.

    “Instead of answering questions, the BJP way is to defame and attack those raising questions. That is the BJP toolkit. That is why the country in such a state today with people dying due to Covid amid shortage of essential drugs and oxygen,” he said, alleging that the government’s priorities are misplaced and had it spent half of this time to helping those affected by corona, India would have been far better.

    “In your attempts to make Mr Modi become a leader, the country is being made to suffer. Address the crisis instead of resorting to such tactics,” he said.

    Shrinate alleged that the government’s priorities are misplaced as it was resorting to such “tactics” instead of helping the COVID affected.

    “We never expected that the national spokesperson of the BJP would resort to such blatant lies,” she said.

    Meanwhile, Nadda hit out the Congress, alleging that the opposition party is a “master” at “dividing society and spewing venom against others”.

    “India is seeing the Congress’ antics, while the nation is fighting COVID-19. I would urge Congress to go beyond ‘Toolkit Models’ and do something constructive,” the BJP chief tweeted.

  • Smriti Irani tweets list of manufacturers of PPE kits and N-95 masks

    As the whole nation is struggling with the second wave of COVID-19 virus people have to be more cautious and take all the necessary precautions. Govt. and all the experts are telling the citizens to follow the ‘covid appropriate behavior’ as it is the only way to stop this latest and highly infectious variant of the virus.

    The covid appropriate behavior includes wearing a mask, washing hands several times a day, follow the social distancing norms and try to stay at home as much as possible.