EXCLUSIVE: Government moved to block MPs question on India's slide in Democracy Index rankings in Parliament. It wrote to the Rajya Sabha to disallow the question. The question that was removed in the monsoon session has again been disallowed. Details in @IndianExpress. The question was asked from the external affairs ministry by TMC MP. Scheduled to be answered on Feb 10, it has now been removed from the list of questions admitted.

indianexpress.com/article/india/…

From birth certificates to citizenship to promoting a ‘family database design’ to drafting a single Environment Act that subsumes all laws– Govt prepared a 60 point plan based on PM's meeting with secretaries last month. Cab Sec also pulled up ministries for their progress in Q1. In a letter written two days after the PM's meeting with the secretaries Cabinet Secretary expressed his displeasure at the performance of many ministries at the end of the first quarter of the financial year stating that stated that their "progress was not satisfactory."

EXCLUSIVE: EIU declined India's offer to use Govt data & research for its Democracy Index ranking after Govt made several attempts to establish contact with them. The Govt instructed officials to conduct “discreet” enquiries regarding the @TheEIU, according to documents accessed. The Govt sought details on the sample size taken in India in ranking the Democracy Index; the methodology and details of agencies/authors or contributors and their contributions used or utilised in preparing the Democracy Index, in India. hindustantimes.com/india-news/eiu…

EXCLUSIVE: Govt asked to disallow another Parliament ques on 'Indian position in the Democracy Index' as it was "very sensitive," in a doc accessed by us. The Indian Govt contacted @TheEIU after ranking India as "flawed democracy" it said they refused to give details to the Govt. Govt admitted it contacted Economist Intelligence Unit over its 'Democracy Index' ranking of India that attributed the primary cause of the "democratic regression" on "erosion of civil liberties and the authorities handling of the corona virus pandemic in the country."

80% Shramik special trains have been sent to UP and Bihar.

https://twitter.com/A2D2_/status/1264144567655256065

Over the next 10 days @RailMinIndia has formed a schedule to run trains to ferry 36 lakh migrants in 2600 Shramik Trains. Here's the list of the originating and destination states.

BREAKING: Indian Railways to gradually restart passenger train operations from 12th May, 2020, initially with 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys). #Lockdown3 These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi Station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.

Thread 👇#Lockdown
India is on the brink of another humanitarian crisis even as it is grappling with the mass exodus of migrant workers. Lakhs of truck drivers are stuck in limbo, stranded on the roads in abysmal conditions without food or shelter as no movement is being allowed. More than 6 lakh registered trucks are stranded across the country, actual numbers maybe even more. I visit the largest transport hub in Asia—Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar. These drivers have been stranded for more than 10 days now with nowhere to go. Listen to what they say

Firms that didn't win the project had proposed extending the Central Vista up to the banks of Yamuna, converting North and South Blocks into archival spaces, the Parliament building into a museum and erecting a new obelisk akin to the Washington Monument overlooking the Rajpath. This firm CP Kukreja Architects had proposed that the Central Vista would run from the Yamuna in the east to the Delhi Ridge. It also proposed the creation of a pair of “semi-public” streets that would run between the buildings with a new underground Metro route connecting CV.