Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said he was confident the BJP will win with huge majority in Rajasthan ahead of counting of votes in Rajasthan. He said the fight today is between the massive governance of Prime minister Narendra Modi and the misgovernance of the Congress party.

The Congress party will try to return to power again. The BJP’s election campaign will be focused on an anti incumbency wave in the state. Rathore said the fact that people of the state had come out in large numbers to vote meant that they wanted to bring a change. According to exit polls the BJP have a slight edge over the ruling Congress party in Rajasthan. He said there won’t be a close contest and the BJP will win the elections with a vast majority.

Rajyavardhan Rathore said the party leadership will announce who will be the chief minister after the results have been declared. He said everything comes at the right time. He said once the results are out the party leadership will take the decision at the right time.

The campaign has been intense on both sides. The BJP had pulled all stops in line with an established election template as senior ministers had been deployed and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress had followed a grassroots campaign with frequent appearances by its central leaders.

Chief minister Ashok Gehlot said he was confident that he had beaten the jinx on the fortunes of the party in power. The BJP rode high on the trend and the power of brand Modi. Eight of the nine exit polls gave the BJP a comfortable, if not a strong victory. The aggregrate indicated that the BJP may get 104 seats and Congress 86. But like the difference in the price of cooking gas they are offering- The Congress party – Rs 500 and the BJP’s Rs 450: the gap is marginal.

The Enforcement Directorate recently conducted raids against two former Punjab forest ministers and Congress leaders Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Sangat Singh Giljian and others in relation to an alleged forest-scam linked money laundering investigation.  

Issuing a statement on Friday, the Enforcement Directorate said that its investigation pertains to charges of bribery in the state forest department against the issuance of a permit for tree felling and for transfer and posting in the department, among some other allegations. 

The ED raids were carried out on November 30 in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi at the residential premises of Dharamsot, Giljian, their associates, forest officers and some private individuals. The agency reportedly searched fourteen locations under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Congress leader Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, has been a five-time MLA and he was arrested earlier this year by the Punjab Vigilance bureau as part of a case linked to alleged possession of disproportionate assets. In his three-year tenure as forest minister, Dharamsot collected ₹1 crore in lieu of issuance of permits for cutting khair trees through his OSD. Sangat Singh Giljian has been an MLA from the Urmar seat in Hoshiarpur district.

The Enforcement Directorate said that the money laundering case was filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and stems from an FIR of the Punjab Vigilance Bureau.

The nodal agency mentioned that the first information report pertains to alleged irregularities in the forest department and allegations of taking bribes by the concerned ministers and officers of the department against the issuance of permits for felling of Khair trees, transfer/posting in the department, issuance of NOC from the department and purchase of tree guards.

In addition, the Enforcement Directorate asserted that during the search operations, various incriminating documents, mobile phones/digital devices have been seized which, prima facie, reveal suspicious transactions involving persons who are under investigation. 

Amid a respiratory infection outbreak in China, the Jharkhand government has put its hospitals on alert, directing them for surveillance, preventive measures and testing of respiratory illness. The additional chief secretary of health Arun Kumar Singh directed the district administrations to remain prepared and keep a continuous vigil on the situation.  

In a letter to the district magistrate, Arun Kumar Singh stated that in view of the recently reported surge in respiratory illness, particularly in children in Northern China, in the recent weeks, there is an urgent need to keep a constant vigil, monitor trends of cases and quickly respond to any emerging public health. He added that considering the ongoing influenza, there might be an increase in respiratory illness cases.

He mentioned that this is predominantly attributed to usual causes like Influenza strain (H1N1/H3N2/H5N1/H9N2 etc.), mycoplasma pneumonia, SARS-CoV-2, etc. He further remarked that in order to reduce the incidence of respiratory diseases along with the current scenario of unusual causes of respiratory diseases in children or any unexpected clinical manifestations, there is a need to increase the surveillance and remain vigilant and to monitor the continuously changing nature of the virus, including respiratory pathogen (H1N1, H3N2 etc) and evolution of SARS CoV-2 variants.

The additional chief secretary of health further directed the officials to strengthen the flu and respiratory clinics in the medical colleges, district hospitals, and health centres. He asserted that the departments of microbiology at RIMS-Ranchi and Mahatma Gandhi Medical College in Jamshedpur have been made sentinel sites for sending the suspected samples.    

Reportedly, the district administrations have also been asked to ascertain that the health facilities, including private hospitals, report all suspected cases. In addition, they were also asked to assess the availability of oxygen and the supply chain for refilling along with other necessary equipment. The district administrations were also asked to ensure mock drills for emergency circumstances, as per the officials.