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1 ! " ! # ! ! " !# $ % &' ( ' ! ) * + " " ! # , " " # " ! !! ! # - . / 01$Having weathered rain, heat,bone-chilling cold, andCovid-19 pandemic for 378days during which around 715lives were lost, the farmers onThursday decided to suspendtheir agitation after theGovernment repealed threecontroversial agriculture lawsand accepted all their demands. The agitation is being sus-pended because the Centrehas agreed to all our has been won and thewar to ensure farmers rights,especially to secure the mini-mum support price (MSP) as alegal entitlement for all farm-ers, will continue, saidGurnam Singh Chadhuni,farmers leader and one of themembers of the core committee of the SamyuktaKisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of 40 farmunions.

2 Chadhuni added thatthe agitation could be resumedif the Centre backtracks fromits promises .The farmers groups saidconsidering that the nation ismourning the demise of Chiefof Defence Staff General BipinRawat and his associates, theyhave also postponed their Fateh March (Victory Daycelebrations) on Thursday andwill vacate Singhu, Tikri andGhazipur borders in Delhiafter holding a grand VictoryDay (Vijay Diwas) parade atall protest sites and toll plazasacross the country on decision was taken ata meeting of the SKM earlier inthe day after a written propos-al from Sanjay Agarwal,Agriculture Secretary, wasreceived on the pending issuesof farmers accepting alldemands put forward by theprotesting farmers, includingthe withdrawal of cases regis-tered by central agencies andthe State Government andcompensation to the families offarmers who had died duringthe course of the movementagainst the contentious agri-culture laws.

3 The Government had senta draft proposal to the farmunions on a plain paper onWednesday, saying that in lightof the concessions proposed,there was no justification forthe agitation to continue, andrequested the unions to end it. Continued on Page 2 - . / 01$The entire top echelon of theGovernment, defence ser-vices, and Parliament onThursday paid tributes to Chiefof Defence Staff Gen BipinRawat and other military per-sonnel who were killed in adeadly helicopter crash onWednesday in Tamil Ram NathKovind, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, and DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh droveto the Palam airport and laidwreath on their mortal remainsafter these arrived fromWellington in the evening.

4 Thechiefs of the three Servicesbesides National SecurityAdviser (NSA) Ajit Doval werepresent to pay their Rawat, his wifeMadhulika Singh and 12 otherwere killed on Wednesdaywhen an Air Force Mi-17 V5 helicopter crashed justbefore Parliament, Rajnathinformed the MPs about thesequence of events leading tothe helicopter Defence Ministerapprised both the Houses ofParliament that the last rites ofGen Rawat and his wife will beperformed with full militaryhonours at Brar Square, DelhiCantonment, on Friday. The last rites of other mil-itary personnel will also be per-formed with appropriate mili-tary honours, he said.

5 Members of both theHouses observed silence for abrief as a mark of , the Oppositiondecided to refrain from its agi-tation on Thursday against thebackdrop of the tragic , the search andrescue teams recovered theflight data recorder or theblack box from the crash sitenear village Kateri close toDefence Services Staff College(DSSC), Wellington. Thisrecovery will help the investi-gators to find out the cause ofthe mishap of the also said the lonesurvivor Group Captain VarunSingh was on life support sys-tem and all efforts were on toprovide him the best medicalcare. It was learnt the fighterpilot was airlifted fromWellington to Bengaluru lateon also said positiveidentification of only threemortal remains were possibleas of now, including GenRawat, his wife and BrigadierLS Lidder.

6 Their mortalremains will be released totheir next of kin for final ritesas desired by respective fami-lies, officials said here onThursday. Mortal remains of GenRawat were laid for all to paytheir last respects at his resi-dence, 3 Kamaraj Marg regards the ceremoniesrelated to the final rites, sourcessaid civil dignitaries and citi-zens can pay their respectsfrom 11 am to pm onFriday followed by militarypersonnel paying respects to pm The final journey of Rawatfrom his residence to the BrarSquare Crematorium is sched-uled to start from his residenceabout 1400 hours, they said positive identifi-cation of remaining mortalremains was continuing.

7 Continued on Page 2 - . / 01$With the Omicron variantspreading its tentacles in57 countries, WHO Director-General Tedros AdhanomGhebreyesus on Thursdaywarned that its certain features,including its global presenceand a large number of muta-tions, suggest it could have amajor impact on the course ofthe Covid-19 the meantime, a vaccineadvisory panel of the globalhealth agency has recom-mended that people who areimmunocompromised orreceived an inactivated vaccineshould receive a booster doseof a Covid-19 shot. Its con-tention was that vaccines effi-cacy against Covid-19 wanes,with a significant decline seenin older people in the Omicron variant,Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesussaid, We are now starting tosee a consistent picture of rapidincrease in transmission (rates),although for now the exact rateof increase relative to other variants remains difficultto quantify.

8 Emerging data from SouthAfrica suggests increased riskof re-infection with Omicron,but more data are needed todraw firmer conclusions, he some evidencemight suggest that Omicroncauses milder symptoms thanthe earlier Delta variant, it s stillearly days to draw any finalconclusions, WHO expertshave on Page 2 - . / 01$Concerned at the rapidinfection rate of OmicronCovid variant in various coun-tries, the Government onThursday asked States to ensureadequate buffer stock of eight critical drugs andmake sure all hospitals areready to deal with any possiblesurge in Health SecretaryRajesh Bhushan held a reviewmeeting with senior officials ofStates and Union Territories onThursday and urged them toensure the availability of ade-quate buffer stock of criticaldrugs used for the treatment ofthe Covid-19.

9 The meeting was held inthe wake of the detection of anumber of cases of the highlytransmissible Omicron variantof the virus in to HealthSecretaries and National Health Mission directors viavideo conference, Bhushan saidall health facilities should have functional venti-lators, PSA plants, and has reported 23 casesof the Omicron variant ofCovid-19 so far from Jaipur,Pune, Delhi, and of those who tested pos-itive either recently arrivedfrom african countries or werein contact with such people. States were informed thatmany ventilators supplied bythe Centre are still lyingunpacked and unused at somefield hospitals, with consum-ables not being procured andmade available by the States, said a statement from theUnion Health Ministry.

10 This needs to be reviewedimmediately to ensure that allPSA oxygen plants, oxygenconcentrators and ventilatorsare installed and are function-ing, it five-fold strategy oftest-track-treat-vaccinate-adherence to Covid-appropri-ate behaviour was highlightedas the mainstay of public healthresponse strategy for effectiveand timely control and man-agement of the on Page 2 - . / 01$ADelhi court on Thursdaygranted bail to JawaharlalNehru University studentSharjeel Imam in a case relat-ed to alleged violence at JamiaMillia Islamia University inDecember MetropolitanMagistrate Dinesh Kumaradmitted him on bail on fur-nishing 25,000-bond with onesurety of like amount.