RAJKOT/SURAT/AHMEDABAD: Chaos and frayed tempers marked the first day of mandatory RT-PCR tests for people travelling to the state on Thursday as confusion prevailed at airports in Rajkot and Surat and passengers resisting testing. In wake of spiralling Covid-19 cases across Gujarat, the state government had last week announced that RT-PCR not older than 72 hours will be made mandatory effective April1.
Chaotic scenes were witnessed at Surat airport for two hours when the only international flight carrying 168 passengers from Sharjah landed around midnight.
Airport officials said due to space crunch and mandatory testing resulted in the chaos. Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has outsourced testing to a private laboratory and only two staff members were carrying out testing, leading to long queues. “In Dubai, they did free testing at the airport and completed the process in 15 minutes, but here they charged Rs 800 and took a long time,” said Sarfaraz Patel, a businessman.
The Gujarat assembly on Thursday passed a bill proposing amendments to the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2003 paving way for more stringent punishment for forced religious conversions through marriage. The amendment bill provides for up to ten years of jail for fradulent or forced conversion by marriage.
GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat assembly on Thursday passed a bill proposing amendments to the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2003 paving way for more stringent punishment for forced religious conversions through marriage. The amendment bill provides for up to ten years of jail for fradulent or forced conversion by marriage.
As per the government, the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2021 sought to curtail emerging trend in which women are lured to marriage for the purpose of religious conversion . The main opposition Congress voted against the bill.
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SURAT: Vanita Vishram Institution will be the first women’s university with the state Assembly giving sanction for seven private varsities on Wednesday. Vanita Vishram Trust currently runs four colleges with 3,000 students of which three are self-financed institutes that will be governed by university. Ours is the only university for women in the state. We will provide job experience to our students while they study, said Ashwin Mehta, in-charge chairman of VVI.
VVU will offer exit plans to dropout graduation students. The students who complete the first year will get a certificate and for completion of the second year, the student will be given a diploma certificate. VVI has been running colleges for the last 22 years while it came into existence a century ago to support women in need.
The cruise has gaming lounge, VIP lounge and other modern amenities
Surat: The cruise vessel connecting the union territory Diu and Surat made its maiden journey on Wednesday after being flagged off from the Essar Bulk Terminal Ltd’s (EBTL) Hazira port.
One side voyage of 130 nautical miles takes nearly 13- 14 hours. The cruise vessel ‘Mumbai Maiden’ has the capacity of 300 passengers and will sail two round trips in a week. It has gaming lounge, VIP lounge, entertainment on deck and other modern amenities.
“Compared to 139 cruise calls at the Indian ports in 2014, we have 450 calls now despite the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of tourists before 2014 was one lakh which increased to 4.5 lakh in 2019-20,” said Mansukh Mandaviya, union minister for ports, shipping and waterways (Independent charge), after inaugurating the service via video conference.
Deputy chief minister Nitin Patel said the government had received complaints that these two laboratories were issuing fake Covid-19 negative certificates. (ANI FILE)
GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat government on Thursday said it has shut down two testing laboratories located in Surat city of the state for issuing fake Covid-19 negative certificates.
State deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, who is also the health minister, told this to the Legislative Assembly in response to a question raised by MLA Kalabhai Dabhi from Kapadvanj seat.
Patel said the government had received complaints that these two laboratories were issuing fake Covid-19 negative certificates. We received complaints that Tejas laboratory and Hemjyot laboratory in Surat were issuing fake certificates, after which we got the allegations verified, he said.