With increasing number of attacks against healthcare personnel engaged in identifying and treating Covid-19 patients, the government has decided to bring in stringent measures through an amendment to the nearly 125-year-old Epidemic Diseases Act.
“The Cabinet has approved promulgation of an Ordinance to amend the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897,” Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said in a media briefing after the Cabinet meeting.
This amendment will make acts of violence against healthcare personnel cognizable and non-bailable offences. It also intends to provide compensation for injury to healthcare service personnel or for causing damage or loss to the property.
“The Ordinance would protect healthcare service personnel and their living/working premises against violence,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Indian Medical Association, the apex body of doctors, urged the government to formulate a central law against violence.
“The IMA has maintained utmost restraint and patience in spite of extreme provocations. Doctors have been abused, beaten, denied entry and residence. Obstruction to cremation is the last straw that the IMA can bear. If dignity is denied even in death, our patience and restraint lose their value. We demand a Central law against violence on doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and hospitals by an Ordinance,” the IMA had said in an official statement.
The Ordinance is expected to be promulgated at the earliest.
Nutrient-based subsidy
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved fixation of nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) rates for phosphatic and potassic (P&K) fertilisers for 2020-21. The new per kilogram subsidy rate for nitrogen (N), phosphatic (P), potassic (K) and sulphur (S) would be ₹18.78, ₹14.88, ₹10.12 and ₹2.37, respectively.
The CCEA also approved the inclusion of a complex fertiliser – ammonium phosphate (NP 14:28:0:0) – under the NBS scheme. The expected expenditure for release of subsidy on P&K fertilisers during 2020-21 will be ₹22,186.55 crore.
Aadhaar seeding
The Cabinet has also decided to relax the mandatory requirement of Aadhaar seeding of data beneficiaries of the States of Assam and Meghalaya and UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh for release of benefits under the PM-Kisan Scheme up to March 31, 2021.
The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) aims to provide income support to all landholder farmer families across the country with cultivable land, subject to certain exclusions.
Under the scheme, ₹6,000 per year is released in three monthly instalments of ₹2,000 each directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
As on date, the release of benefits is done only through Aadhaar-seeded data of beneficiaries uploaded by the State/UT governments on the PM-Kisan portal, except in case of the States of Assam and Meghalaya and the UTs of J&K and Ladakh, which were given exemption from this requirement till March 31, 2020, as Aadhaar penetration there has been minuscule.