‘Tika Express’ for special vaccination campaign
The Jharkhand government has launched 60 ‘Tika Express’ vehicles under a joint initiative of Care India and the state health department to speed up Covid-19 vaccination. These vehicles will be distributed among all 24 districts based on their size and vaccination rate and will function under the respective deputy commissioners and civil surgeons. According to Chief Minister Hemant Soren, the objective is to reach out to vulnerable people residing in inaccessible areas and those who are still left out of the vaccination drive. The Vaccine Express will provide vaccine to targeted populations at their homes itself.
Tribal languages in primary school curriculum
The school education and literacy department of Jharkhand government has identified more than 5,600 government-run primary schools for introducing a new model of imparting lessons to students in Class 1 to Class 5 in tribal languages from the next academic session onwards. Only those schools where a sizable number of students use tribal languages as their first language have been earmarked for this project. The project is aimed at strengthening the foundation of such students. Jharkhand has already introduced textbooks in tribal languages for such students and the new model of education will ensure effective utilisation of these books. Once the students understand the basics of the language, the medium of education will gradually be changed to either Hindi or English.
Jharkhand girls in national football squad
Sumati Kumari (L) and Astam Oraon (R) from Gumla are part of the preparatory camp for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to be held in India from January 20 to February 6 next year. The training camp is being held in Jamshedpur. Seventeen-year-old forward Sumati has proved her talent by netting the ball 17 times in five games during the Junior Girls’ National Football Championship 2019-20. Defender Astam (16) has also shown a lot of promise and makes a strong presence. The team will travel to the UAE for matches against the UAE on October 2 and Tunisia two days later. Both Sumati and Astam hail from poor families and their parents are daily wage labourers.
Mobile forensic labs in all districts soon
The state is all set to launch at least 25 mobile forensic laboratories in a bid to ensure speedy investigation of crimes following a high court observation that the Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in Ranchi was in “primitive” stage and forensic facilities in the state were in dire need of upgradation. The mobile forensic labs, equipped with latest technology and facilities, will be made operational in all 24 districts and will report to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Ranchi. Sources said that these labs would be set up in SUVs and would have facilities like ballistic kit, blood sample kit and photography kit.
Mukesh Ranjan
Our correspondent in Jharkhand mukesh.r@newindianexpress.com