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1 ! " !" # $ %&' ( # $ %&' $( ) *+ '* (%, $ %$ %$* "- . $,(" +.* ) *' ,( ,/." 0 $ $+ +./ 1 (% * &/ '/ (*." .( ,%& &&+ " 230 345 In an address to the nation lateon Saturday evening, PrimeMinister Narendra Modiannounced that childrenbetween 15 and 18 years will bevaccinated from January 3 andbooster doses will be given tohealth and frontline workers andthose above 60 with other healthproblems from January PM said theGovernment has decided to gofor vaccination of childrenafter holding wide-rangingconsultation with scientificadvisers. The PM s announce-ment coincided with the drugregulator s granting approvalfor giving vaccine to childrenabove 12 by. The move has tobe cleared by the also said, "Precautiondoses" will be started for healthcare and front-line workersfrom January over 60 with otherhealth problems will alsoreceive extra doses fromJanuary 10 on their doctor'sadvice, he said.))))))

2 Modi said global experi-ence showed following all pre-ventive measures was a bigweapon to fight Covid."Coronavirus is not Theworld is now talking aboutOmicron. Today is Atal BihariVajpayee's birthday andChristmas, so we decided toannounce this step today," hesaid. Asking the people not topanic in view of the Omicronthreat, the PM said, In India,many people have been foundto be infected with Omicron. Iwould urge all of you not topanic, be careful and to wash hands andmask," he virus is mutatingour self-confidence and pre-paredness is also multiplying,"the PM said and informedthat "country has 1,80000 iso-lation beds, 5 lakh oxygen sup-plied beds, 140000 ICU beds,3000 O2 " to counterany new threat from the said all States havebeen given enough vaccinationdoses and testing kits.

3 Besides,he said "we are at mission-mode in vaccine production".The PM announced soonwe will have nasal vaccine andworld's first DNA vaccine inthe country. Modi said, Thereare different opinions onOmicron Indian scientists areworking on it. The PM said after 11months vaccination experiencein the country "the Governmenttoday decided that children inthe age group of 15 to 18 yearswill be vaccinated from January3 which will answer the con-cerns of the parents of school-going children".Modi said vaccination inthe country was started onJanuary 16 and till date 141crore doses have been givenwith 61 per cent of adult pop-ulation receiving both of it. Hesaid while 90 per cent adultshave one dose, States like Goa, uttarakhand and HimachalPradesh have 100 per cent sin-gle dose PM asked people "tonot to give ears to rumours andfear creating attempts.

4 It is notyet known which vaccines willbe given to children. Covaxinis the second vaccine to becleared by the drug regulatorfor those below 18 after ZydusCadila's needle-free Covid-19vaccine has 415 Omicroncases as of today. On Saturday, the DrugController General of India(DCGI) gave Bharat Biotechapproval for emergency useauthorisation of the CovaxinCovid vaccine for children inthe 12-18 years age group withcertain on P2 ) 230 345 Gujarat, Maharashtra andGoa emerged as the topthree States while Delhi stoodnumber one in the list of UnionTerritories (UTs) in the GoodGovernance Index (GGI)2020-21 released by theDepartment of AdministrativeReforms and Public Grievanceson Saturday.

5 Andhra Pradesh toppedlist of States in the Agricultureand Allied Sector whileTelangana was number one inthe Commerce and Industrysector. Uttar Pradesh hassecured top position inCommerce and Industry sectorand also shown increase inSocial Welfare andDevelopment, Judiciary, PublicSafety and citizen Centric topped the com-posite ranking in the 58 indi-cator index followed byMaharashtra and Goa. Gujaratregistered an over 12 per centincrease and Goa registered anearly 25 per cent increase overthe indicators recorded bythese states in the last indexissued in 2019. Gujarat has performedstrongly in economic gover-nance, human resource devel-opment, public infrastructureand utilities, social welfare anddevelopment, judiciary andpublic safety, whileMaharashtra scored in agri-culture and allied sector,human resource development,public infrastructure and util-ities, social welfare and devel-opment.

6 Goa's showed goodperformance was in agricultureand allied sector, commerceand industry, public infra-structure and utilities, eco-nomic governance, social wel-fare and development and the States have beendivided in four separate groups,Uttar Pradesh ranked at fifthposition in Group B which isled by Madhya Pradesh. UttarPradesh which has shownincremental growth of nearly 9per cent over its 2019 perfor-mance and secured the topposition in the commerce andindustry sector, which was oneof the 10 sectors of good gov-ernance that were covered bythe Pradesh has regis-tered an per cent improve-ment in the GGI indicators inthe period 2019 to 2021 whichJammu and Kashmir regis-tered an improvement of cent in the same on P2 !

7 "# $ 5 2 6 75 Punjab Police on Saturdaysaid it has cracked theLudhiana court bomb blastcase after zeroing in on theidentity of the deceasedGagandeep Singh (31) ofKhanna, who was recruited inPunjab Police as constable anddismissed in August 2019 after385 gm of heroin was recoveredfrom his a news confer-ence, Punjab DGP SiddharthChattopadhyaya said the for-mer State police HeadConstable who was killed in theLudhiana district court blasthad links with Khalistani ele-ments and terror outfits, andsome Pakistan-based entitiescould be behind the said Gagandeep, who wasdismissed from service in 2019,had gone to the washroom toassemble the bomb and plant itsomewhere. He was alone inthe washroom when the bombwent was posted as a"munshi" at a police station inKhanna, his native city, and wassacked in connection with adrug-related case,Chattopadhyaya said.

8 Continued on P2 230 345 As the number of Omicronvariant cases rose to 415on Saturday across the coun-try and more States imposednight curfews and relatedcurbs, the Centre will bedeploying Central teams ofexperts with nodal officers to10 States that have been eitherreporting a rapid surge inOmicron and Covid-19 casesor has a slow vaccinationpace. Curb has been announcedin Uttar Pradesh from 11 pm to5 am, starting Saturday amidgrowing concern over thespread of the Omicron coron-avirus variant. The district administra-tion in Gautam Buddh Nagaron Friday imposed Section144 CrPC across Noida andGreater Noida till December 31ahead of the upcoming has also announceda night curfew which will comeinto effect from Sunday,December 26 between 11:30pm and 6 am.

9 However, this curfew willnot be applicable on December31, 2021. According to the orderissued by the Union HealthMinistry on Saturday, theseStates are Kerala, Maharashtra,Tamil Nadu, West Bengal,Mizoram, Karnataka, Bihar,Jharkhand and Punjab. BothPunjab and Uttar Pradesh arein the list where elections aredue in two months time. This comes days after theAllahabad high court alreadyflagged the Omicron threat,asking the ElectionCommission and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toconsider postponing polls byone or two months in UttarPradesh and other on P2 ! " #$ %&' ( %& 230 345 The threat of the thirdCovid-19 wave hitting theDelhi is becoming real by theday.)

10 The Capital saw a massivespike in single-day Covid caseson Saturday, reporting 249infections and one is the highest single-day spike since Delhi reported255 cases on June 13 this national Capital's totalnumber of cases now stood at14,43,062 and the death toll at25,104, according to the healthbulletin on P2 230 345 After forcing the Centre towithdraw the three con-troversial farm laws, victoriousfarmers have decided to testtheir luck in the forthcomingPunjab Assembly farm organisa-tions in Punjab announced apolitical front on Saturday andsaid they would contest thepolls, 2022 to bring in a "polit-ical change".These bodies were among32 farmer organisations inPunjab which participated inthe over-a-year-long protestagainst the three Central farmlaws.