Daily News Dose: Schools in Kerala will function full-time from February 21 | Feb 13, 2022

Hello listeners, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host, Ajish Jimmy George. 

1) Schools in Kerala will function full-time from February 21, State Education Minister V Sivankutty said on Sunday.

The directive is applicable to all schools, including those following CBSE and ICSE syllabuses.

Annual exams will be conducted for classes from 1 to 9. Model examinations for SSLC, Plus Two and Vocational Higher Secondary will start from March 16.

2)  The Thiruvananthapuram District Collector has made an RT-PCR negative certificate for COVID-19 obtained within 72 hours mandatory for visiting the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple in the city during the famed ‘pongala’ festival. 

A maximum of 1,500 devotees will be allowed at the temple on the ‘pongala’ day. These rules apply to volunteers at the temple also.

An order has already been issued to prepare the ‘pongala’ hearth at homes. Roads and public places should not be occupied for the purpose, said the official order.

 3) Anjali Reema Dev, who along with No 18 Hotel  owner Roy Vayalat and his partner Saiju Thankachan were booked in a POCSO case, has denied all allegations levelled against her.

"These details have been fabricated to ruin my reputation, to destroy me," Anjali said via a Facebook post.

Anjali, Vayalat, and Thankachan were recently charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act following the complaint of a Kozhikode woman.

The woman alleged that Vayalat had molested her 17-year-old daughter during a DJ party at his hotel on November 20, 2021.

4) A youngster was killed in a bomb attack outside a wedding house at Thottada in the Kannur district of Kerala on Sunday. 

The deceased was identified as Jishnu (26), a native of Eachur in Kannur.

Locals have claimed that the attack was the continuation of a scuffle over playing songs during a party that took place on the eve of the wedding.

The deceased was a guest at the wedding. Two of his friends sustained injuries in the attack. It is alleged that the assailants had arrived in a van.

5) England batter Liam Livingstone fetched a staggering Rs 11.50 crore deal from Punjab Kings on the second day of the IPL mega auction in Bengaluru on Sunday.

For their left-arm variety, second-string India pacers like Khaleel Ahmed and Chetan Sakariya got handsome deals of Rs 5.25 crore and Rs 4.20 crore respectively.

Among other Indians, all-rounder Shivam Dube fetched Rs 4 crore from Chennai Super Kings for his six-hitting abilities, while Gujarat Titans bagged another out-of-favour multi-skilled player in Vijay Shankar for Rs 1.4 crore.

6) Daily new COVID-19 cases in the country dipped below 50,000 after around 40 days, taking the country's virus tally to 4,26,31,421, while the active cases declined to 5,37,045, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.

India logged 44,877 infections, while the death toll climbed to 5,08,665 with 684 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 3.17 per cent and the weekly positivity rate settled at 4.46 per cent

That brings us to the end of this episode! Be sure to come back tomorrow. As always, thanks for listening to Daily News Dose.