Daily News Dose: Kerala to seek legislative powers to dismiss errant governors | Feb 21, 2022

Hello listeners, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host, Gopika KP. 

1) Kerala government has decided to seek legislative powers to dismiss errant governors. This coincides with the off and on tiff between the Pinarayi Vijayan regime and Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan over a host of issues. The State's intent has been expressed in response to the Union Government missive seeking its views on the Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi Commission Report on the changes to be effected in the Centre-State relations. The State Government is set to recommend to the Central Government that the State Assembly be given necessary powers to dismiss the Governor who violates the constitutional provisions, mishandles the job of the Chancellor and fails to properly discharge criminal prosecution responsibilities.

2) At Thalassery in Kannur, a CPM activist was hacked to death. Haridas, who was a fisherman, was murdered at 1.30 am while he was returning from work. It is suspected a gang that arrived in two motorbikes committed the crime. The police have taken into custody seven suspects in connection with the murder. According to the victim's younger brother who was a witness to the crime, Haridas was murdered in front of his home by five people. CPIM has blamed RSS for the murder. 

3) Schools across Kerala resumed normal operations. As many as 47 lakh students returned to schools for regular academic sessions after nearly two years of shutdown in the wake of the Covid outbreak in early 2020. Online classes had replaced the conventional classroom studies in the interregnum. This is the first time after March 2020 that schools are restarting with full student strength in classrooms.  Classes for Standard 1 to 12 will be held from morning to evening at a stretch as it was in the pre-Covid era. 

4) As many as 12.98 lakh smart ration cards have been distributed in Kerala, nearly four months after the launch of the initiative. This accounts for about 14% of the 92 lakh ration card holders in the state. According to State Food and Civil Supplies Minister GR Anil, only those who want to avail themselves of the e-ration card will have to apply for a smart card. The application for the card can be uploaded through Akshaya Centre/Citizen login.

5) Firefighters are struggling to put out a fire that broke out on a vessel carrying thousands of luxury cars, which is adrift off the coast of Portugal's Azores islands. According to the port officials, it is unclear when they would succeed. The Felicity Ace ship, carrying around 4,000 vehicles including Porsches, Audis and Bentleys, some electric with lithium-ion batteries, caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean last Wednesday. The 22 crew members on board were evacuated on the same day.

6) India logged around 16,000 new coronavirus infections, taking the virus tally to 4.28 crores. The death toll climbed to 5,12,109 with 206 fresh fatalities. The daily COVID-19 cases have remained below one lakh for 15 consecutive days. The active cases comprise 0.47% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further improved to 98.33%. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.93%.

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