Union Home Minster Amit Shah on Wednesday said the Narendra Modi government will implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and no one can stop it. He was addressing a rally in Kolkata to launch the BJP’s Lok Sabha campaign. Shah said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been unable to stop infiltration in West Bengal.

Shah said voter and Aadhar cards are being openly and illegally distributed to infiltrators in the state. He asked if development ever going to take place in Bengal? He said this is the reason Mamata Banerjee is opposing CAA. Shah said CAA is the law of the country and no one can stop it.

CAA was passed by the Indian parliament in 2020. CAA offers citizenship to religious minorities who entered India through Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan before 2015. According to the Trinamool Congress the CAA is unconstitutional as it excludes Muslims and links citizenship to faith in a secular country.

The Centre had said the process for making news laws for CAA is going to start soon. Union Minister of state for home affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra had said the rules for CAA will be framed by March 30, 2024. Shah in his address at the esplanade said Banerjee government and the communists have ruined the state of Bengal. He said figures suggested election violence is the highest in Bengal all over India.

The home minister was confident the Bharatiya Janta Party will form government in Bengal with two thirds majority in the state elections in 2026. Shah urged the people of Bengal to ensure BJP wins with flying colours in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He requested the people to make PM Modiji the prime minister again. The BJP had won 18 seats which is the highest ever of the state’s 42 seats in the last state elections in 2019.  

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday has approved a central scheme for providing drones to 15,000 women Self Help Groups (SHGs), with an outlay of Rs 1,261 crore for two years beginning 2024-25 fiscal year.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said that a decision in this regard was taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. The Union Minister said that the scheme aims to provide drones to 15,000 selected women self help groups during the period 2024-25 to 2025-2026 for providing rental services to farmers for agriculture purposes.

An official release stated that the approved initiatives under the scheme will provide sustainable business and livelihood support to 15,000 self help groups and they would be able to earn additional income of at least Rs 1,00,000 per annum.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur told the media that this scheme is important as part of PM Modi’s lakhpati didi initiative. He added that drones play a key role in the services sector and that there are about 10 crore women who are part of some Self Help Groups. Under this drone scheme, it has been ensured that the use of technology in farming drones will improve efficiency in spraying fertilisers and pesticides.

In addition, a five-day mandatory drone pilot training and additional 10-day training for agriculture purposes of nutrient and pesticide application are to be provided to one member of self help groups.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced empowering self help groups with drone technology from the Red Fort in his Independence Day speech on August 15, while pitching for leveraging the potential of science and technology in rural development.

Meanwhile, the Union cabinet also approved that the Central government will provide free grains to eligible citizens under the public distribution scheme for another five years.

International tunneling expert Arnold Dix who was called for the Uttarkashi rescue operation on Wednesday said the mission witnessed a miracle and he would go to the temple as he had promised to say thank you at the temple when the operation was going on. Hours later, Dix was seen offering his prayers at the temple of local deity Baba Bokh naag ji.

Arnold is the head of the Geneva based International Tunneling Underground Space Association. He is also a geologist, an engineer and a lawyer. He said it had been an honour as a parent to help out all parents in getting their children back home. He had promised in the beginning that 41 people would go unhurt by Christmas. He said Christmas had come early.

He said it had been a challenging mission. He said everyone in the team was focused on bringing the boys home. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese applauded Dix’s effort and was extra happy as Dix is an Australian. He took to X(formerly Twitter) and wrote he was proud of the role Australian Professor Arnold Dix played on the ground.

Dix thanked the Australian Prime Minister that it had been his privilege to show that Australians are fantastic at not just cricket but at other things as well including tunnel rescue. Arnold Dix was seen praying at a makeshift temple at the rescue site on Tuesday when the breakthrough was just a matter of time with the rat miners manually digging the way out. The video has gone viral on social media.      

Arnold said the rescue team remained calm and knew exactly what was wanted. He said everyone had worked as a wonderful team: the army, the engineers, all the agencies and the Fedral authority. He said it was joy to be part of the successful mission.