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<p>Breaking News LIVE: Please follow this space for all the breaking news and latest updates from India and around the world.</p> <p><strong>Mamata To Meet PM Modi Tomorrow Over Release Of Financial Dues</strong></p> <p>West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on December 20 to seek release of financial dues to the state, a top official said.</p> <p>The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has agreed to Banerjee's request for an appointment with Modi, he said.</p> <p>&ldquo;The meeting will take place around 11 am on December 20," the official told PTI.</p> <p>Banerjee had earlier this week claimed that the Centre owed Rs 1.15 lakh crore to West Bengal on various accounts, including 100 days of work under MGNREGA.</p> <p><strong>Uptick In Respiratory Illness Cases: Mandaviya To Hold Review Meeting Tomorrow</strong></p> <p>Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on December 20 will review the preparedness of health facilities and services in view of an upsurge in respiratory illness cases, including those of Covid, in some states, official sources said on Monday.</p> <p>He will hold the review meeting virtually with health ministers and additional chief principal secretaries (health) of all states and union territories (UTs) and officials of central ministries and departments concerned, they said.</p> <p>The government on Monday asked states and UTs to maintain constant vigil amid the uptick of respiratory illness cases and the detection of the first case of the new JN.1 variant of the coronavirus in the country.</p> <p>India's first JN.1 case was detected in a sample taken from a 79-year-old woman in Kerala with mild symptoms on December 8. Earlier, a traveller from Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirapalli district was detected with the JN.1 variant in Singapore.</p> <p><strong>MGNREGA Dues: Bengal BJP To Hold Protest Rally In Kolkata Tomorrow</strong></p> <p>West Bengal BJP will organise a major protest demonstration on the streets of Kolkata against the irregularities in implementation of the 100-day job scheme under MGNREGA in the state on December 20.</p> <p>Incidentally, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on the same day to discuss about the pending central dues under the MGNREGA scheme.</p> <p>According to Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, the allegations of Trinamool Congress accusing the Union government of their legitimate dues are baseless, since fund flow has been stopped because of the rampant corruption in implementation of the scheme.</p> <p>&ldquo;Not a single penny will be provided unless and until the corrupt persons land up in jail. Funds will be provided only after the bad practice of the state government to project the centrally-sponsored scheme as the state&rsquo;s own scheme stops. Actually, the chief minister is feeling the pinch of central agency actions against rampant corruption. So she is floating the theory of unpaid money,&rdquo; the Leader of the Opposition said.</p>

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