˚ ˜ ˆ˙˝˘...2020/04/13  · Director Shalini Pandit gave some relaxing news. The Health and...

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A ll eyes will be on Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he outlines various aspects that will regulate the two-week extension of the ongoing lockdown as agreed in the meeting with Chief Ministers on Saturday. Now that the two-week extension is a mere formality, people will anxiously wait for the PM’s announcement to see what sort of sectoral “opening up”, if any, is facilitated by the Government to keep the econ- omy going. Opening up farm sectors to allow harvesting and storage of standing crops and incentivising sowing could fig- ure in the PM’s speech. There is also speculation about lim- ited opening up of civil aviation in some sector as well. A positive interpretation of his remark “Jaan bhi, jahan bhi” has led to optimism that the second phase of the lockdown may witness graded opening up of activities in other sectors such as construction, road and industrial activities. Thw Government has already allowed fishing activities on the sea side in certain States. The Prime Minister has already suggested specific mea- sures for agriculture and allied sector, including the modifi- cation of Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) laws to facilitate sale of farm produce. He said the crisis was an opportunity to become self-reliant and turn the nation into an economic powerhouse. On Saturday while inter- acting with Chief Ministers via video conferencing in his third such meeting, Modi hint- ed at the need to strike a bal- ance between saving lives and reviving economic activity. Suggestion to a phased open- ing of air service is also under- stood to have been given but health experts have apparent- ly not approved it. It is understood that while senior officials agree on the importance of the lockdown to save Indian lives, they want economic activity to be revived as ports are jammed with con- tainers and major port cities such as Mumbai and Chennai are hit by the pandemic. I n what is turning out to be a nightmare for the health authorities, 15 more persons tested positive for coronavirus in Mumbai’s Dharavi on Sunday, taking the total num- ber of infected cases to 43 in Asia’s largest slum. Of the 15 new infected per- sons, nine have been quaran- tined at the Rajiv Gandhi Sports Complex. “All these nine cases are high-risks con- tacts of Social Nagar patient who died at KEM Hospital and those who tested positive in Madina Nagar. Four new pos- itive cases have been reported in Shastri Nagar, while two per- sons have tested positive in Janata Cooperative Housing society,” a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official from G/North Ward in north central Mumbai said. Of the new cases, two are women aged 20 and 24 years. The remaining 13 are male patients in the age group of 18 years and 66 years. There have been four Covid-19 deaths in the most densely populated slum. Of the fatalities, two deaths have been reported from Dr Baliga Nagar, while one person suc- cumbed to Covid-19 in Social Nagar. The remaining one death has been reported from Kalayanwadi. The break-up of 43 infect- ed cases reported so far includ- ed: Five cases from Dr Baliga Nagar, two cases from Vaibhav Apartments, nine cases from Mukund Nagar, two cases from Madina Nagar, five cases from Muslim Nagar, 6 cases from Social Nagar, four cases from Janata Housing Society, two cases from Kalaynwadi and one case each from Dhanwada Chawl, PMGP colony, Murugan Chawl and Rajiv Gandhi chawl. Not wanting to take any chances, health workers con- ducted door-to-door screening of all the Dharavi residents. Simultaneously, a team of local private doctors of Dharavi and BMC medical staff checked the temperature and enquired the residents about their trav- el history. Over 150 doctors, working under the auspices of Indian Medical Council and Maharashtra Medical Council, have been assisting the BMC in the screening drive. The medical teams will report to the BMC on the num- ber of persons who have shown symptoms for coronavirus. “All those who have symptoms are being kept in quarantine,” a BMC officer said. M ahavir Enclave in Southwest Delhi was on Sunday identified as the new COVID-19 hotspot by the Delhi Government, which ordered its sealing. It has taken the total number of such zones in the city to 34, an official said. On Sunday, the total num- ber of COVID-19 cases in the national Capital climbed to 1,154, with 166 fresh cases and five deaths being reported in a day. A Government order expanding the list of contain- ment zones came hours after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the city Government’s decision to seal every locality that reports a Covid-19 case. The Delhi Government’s “Operation SHIELD” will come into force in these areas. All the containment zones have been classified as red zones, areas where movement of people is strictly prohibited. Areas which are seen as high- risk zones are being classified as orange. In both these areas, the Government will launch a mas- sive sanitisation drive to min- imise spread of the infection. A round 88,000 Self Help Group (SHGs) women across the country have emerged as community war- riors to help contain the spread of deadly Covid-19. These “unsung” warriors are doing their bits by producing masks, Personnel Protection Equipment (PPE) and lakhs of litres of hand sanitisers day and night for frontline staff as well as countless citizens. Some of them have also produced liquid soaps to help in keeping hand hygiene as the country grapples to check the deadly contagion. There are approximately 690 lakh women members of around 63 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) across the country. As the masks are the first line of defence against COVID- 19 and the Government has made mandatory wearing masks in public places, 78,373 SHG members under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) of the Union Ministry of Rural Development have taken upon themselves to produce 1.96 crore masks besides other safe- ty gears. These are various cate- gories of masks, including 2-3 ply woven and non-woven sur- gical masks, cotton masks etc, which adhere to the advisories of Union Health Ministry and Ministry of Consumers’ Affairs. SHG members have now also started making PPE like aprons, gowns, face shields etc, said an official from the Union Rural Development Ministry. “Around 78,373 SHG members are presently involved in manufacturing of masks. Jharkhand SHGs were among the first to respond and have produced about 78,000 masks since March 22, 2020. These masks were being sold at the premises of various district collectorates and subsidised medical stores at an affordable price of Rs 10,” said the officer. A group of “Nihangs” (Sikhs armed with traditional weapons and dressed in loose blue top) chopped off an police officer’s hand and injured three other Punjab Policemen after being stopped from violating the lockdown in Patiala district, triggering a police operation in which shots were fired and 11 people arrested at a gurdwara. In a latenight information, doctors at the Chandigarh’s PGIMER reattached the 50- year-old ASI’s hand after an over seven-hour long surgery, officials said. As many 11 people, includ- ing a woman, were arrested from a local Gurdwara after exchange of fire in connection with the attack on the police party at Patiala vegetable mar- ket in the morning, where the group fled after the 6.15 am incident in Sanaur town. One of the arrested men suffered gunshot wound, while a mandi official was also hurt earlier. “We have recovered arms, 39 lakh cash, tradi- tional arms like irons rods, khanda, bhaale (javelin), and cannabis during the raid on the gurudwara. Weapons, includ- ing guns and petrol bombs, have also been recovered from the hideout,” said Patiala’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu. Video clips regarding the incident have been doing the rounds on the social media, attracting criticism from all over the country, cutting across party lines. Strongly condemning the attack, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has warned that anyone violating the cur- few, imposed in the State since March 23 to check the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, would be strictly dealt with. N early 20 per cent of the Covid-19 positive cases need ICU support in the coun- try. This has put acute pressure on the health officials to mobilise ventilators and other life-saving support equipment. Addressing the daily Press briefing here on Sunday, Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said that on March 29, India had 979 positive cases and 196 needed critical care and oxygen. That time, 41,900 ded- icated Covid beds were avail- able in 163 State-run hospitals. “On April 4, when we required 580 beds, we had 67,500 beds, on April 9, 1,100 beds were required but there were 8,5000 beds available in the country,” he said. Agarwal said as on Sunday India h a s 8,356 p osi t i v e c a s es and of these 20 per cent cases need ICU support. “That means today 1,671 patients need oxygen support and crit- ical care treatment, and we have 1,05,000 dedicated Covid beds available in the country in 601 hospitals. This figure is impor- tant to show that the Government is planning things in advance and is over pre- pared, he said. In addition, the Government is also increasing the number of dedicated Covid hospitals and isolation facilities as per the evolving situations and precautionary measures because this is a pandemic and number can be exponen- tial. Our effort is to take advanced steps, he said. India, which is into the world’s biggest lockdown to combat spreading of the high- ly contagious pathogen, on Sunday reported an increase of 909 cases, taking the country’s total number of coronavirus cases to 8,356 by Sunday morn- ing. The number rose to 900 plus by late in the evening and States were still reporting. Agarwal said, “This is a pandemic and numbers can be exponential. Our effort is to take advanced steps.” “A total of 8,356 positive cases have been reported in the country. At least 909 new cases and 34 deaths have been record- ed in 24 hours. A good news is that 74 people have been cured in the last 24 hours taking the total number of cured people to 716. Total 273 deaths have been reported so far.” About the preparations, Agarwal said the Government has identified 14 institutes, including AIIMS and NIMHANS, to mentor medical colleges and expand Covid-19 testing capacity. Agarwal said AIIMS Delhi is now equipped with 250 beds including 50 ICU beds, and high dependent units attached with beds, and 70 ventilators. In Safdarjung Hospital, one complete block has been con- verted into Covid block and has 500 beds. “We have provided 1,680 beds to Andhra Pradesh. As on today there were 148 ventilators available, we pro- vided 444 additional ventila- tors. One special medical offi- cer is appointed in every State.” F resh COVID-19 cases con- tinued to be reported in the State with four more persons testing positive for the deadly disease late on Saturday night. This takes the total number of coronavirus cases to 54 bare- ly some hours after National Health Mission (NHM) Director Shalini Pandit gave some relaxing news. The Health and Family Welfare Department in its offi- cial twitter post confirmed that four persons Saturday tested positive to the highly infectious virus. Of these four cases, two are from Bisra town in Sundargarh district while one case each was reported from Rajnagar in Kendrapada district and Bhubaneswar. The two cases from Sundargarh district are that of two males and have a Nizamuddin Markaz link. Both were on quarantine in the Rourkela COVID-19 Hospital. The district administration and police officials on Sunday morning sealed Bisra town. Entry points at Dareikela, Puruna Bisra, Budheljar and Santoshpur were blocked to restrict movement of people in and out of the area. Fire Services personnel were engaged to dis- infect the area. A meeting between the district Collector and SP was held to take a decision regard- ing imposition of shutdown in Bisra town. The woman patient of Rajnagar in Kendrapada district has a travel history to West Bengal. On March 29, she returned with her father and another person from Kolkata. Later, she and her father were in home quarantine. Meanwhile, she has been shifted to the Ashwini Hospital in Cuttack and her father, mother and brother are in home quarantine. The swab samples of the family members were collected and sent for testing. Two villages in the area have been declared as contain- ment zones and a disinfection drive was carried out. A door- to door screening of the near- ly 150 households of the area was also carried out, said Kendrapada Collector Samarth Verma on Sunday. Notably, this is the second COVID-19 case in the district. Earlier, a 32-year-old man of the district, who had returned from Dubai, tested positive for the virus. With the four new case s, the number of COVID-19- affected persons in the State has increased to 54. The number of active cases stood at 41 as 12 persons were cured and dis- charged from hospitals while an elderly man has died of the coronavirus. Of the total 3,551 samples tested so far, 3,497 tested neg- ative while 54 samples gave pos- itive result to the COVID-19. A cartoon portraying the mythological character of Yamraj (death god) has now gone viral in the social media in which the god is appealing to people not to come in more numbers to him since his place (Yamapur) is ‘houseful’. And that seems to be true in Sambalpur with the number of general deaths falling dras- tically during the ongoing coro- navirus-related lockdown. “There are also days when there is not even a single death,” said Kandarpa Rakhas, the in- charge of Rajghat, the main crematorium for Sambalpur city and suburbs. “I and the other staffs are astonished. But we are happy,” said Rakhas. “Normally, an average of six dead bodies comes for cre- mation every day. But it has been reduced drastically in the recent days. And the reason is not known,” said Subhransu Nayak, the overall in-charge of Rajghat. “But we are happy that we don’t have to witness more such scenes like before,” Nayak said, adding that only 11 bod- ies were cremated during the last seven days. The municipality authori- ties also admitted the fact.

Transcript of ˚ ˜ ˆ˙˝˘...2020/04/13  · Director Shalini Pandit gave some relaxing news. The Health and...

Page 1: ˚ ˜ ˆ˙˝˘...2020/04/13  · Director Shalini Pandit gave some relaxing news. The Health and Family Welfare Department in its offi-cial twitter post confirmed that four persons

����� ��������

All eyes will be on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi

when he outlines variousaspects that will regulate thetwo-week extension of theongoing lockdown as agreed inthe meeting with ChiefMinisters on Saturday.

Now that the two-weekextension is a mere formality,people will anxiously wait forthe PM’s announcement to seewhat sort of sectoral “openingup”, if any, is facilitated by theGovernment to keep the econ-omy going. Opening up farmsectors to allow harvesting andstorage of standing crops andincentivising sowing could fig-ure in the PM’s speech. Thereis also speculation about lim-ited opening up of civil aviationin some sector as well.

A positive interpretation ofhis remark “Jaan bhi, jahan bhi”

has led to optimism that thesecond phase of the lockdownmay witness graded opening upof activities in other sectorssuch as construction, road andindustrial activities. ThwGovernment has alreadyallowed fishing activities on thesea side in certain States.

The Prime Minister hasalready suggested specific mea-sures for agriculture and alliedsector, including the modifi-cation of Agriculture ProduceMarket Committee (APMC)laws to facilitate sale of farmproduce. He said the crisiswas an opportunity to becomeself-reliant and turn the nationinto an economic powerhouse.

On Saturday while inter-

acting with Chief Ministersvia video conferencing in histhird such meeting, Modi hint-ed at the need to strike a bal-ance between saving lives andreviving economic activity.Suggestion to a phased open-ing of air service is also under-stood to have been given buthealth experts have apparent-ly not approved it.

It is understood that whilesenior officials agree on theimportance of the lockdown tosave Indian lives, they wanteconomic activity to be revivedas ports are jammed with con-tainers and major port citiessuch as Mumbai and Chennaiare hit by the pandemic.

������������ ��

In what is turning out to be anightmare for the health

authorities, 15 more personstested positive for coronavirusin Mumbai’s Dharavi onSunday, taking the total num-ber of infected cases to 43 inAsia’s largest slum.

Of the 15 new infected per-sons, nine have been quaran-tined at the Rajiv GandhiSports Complex. “All thesenine cases are high-risks con-tacts of Social Nagar patientwho died at KEM Hospital andthose who tested positive inMadina Nagar. Four new pos-itive cases have been reportedin Shastri Nagar, while two per-

sons have tested positive inJanata Cooperative Housingsociety,” a BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)official from G/North Ward innorth central Mumbai said.

Of the new cases, two arewomen aged 20 and 24 years.The remaining 13 are malepatients in the age group of 18years and 66 years.

There have been fourCovid-19 deaths in the mostdensely populated slum. Ofthe fatalities, two deaths havebeen reported from Dr BaligaNagar, while one person suc-cumbed to Covid-19 in SocialNagar. The remaining onedeath has been reported fromKalayanwadi.

The break-up of 43 infect-ed cases reported so far includ-ed: Five cases from Dr BaligaNagar, two cases from VaibhavApartments, nine cases fromMukund Nagar, two cases from

Madina Nagar, five cases fromMuslim Nagar, 6 cases fromSocial Nagar, four cases fromJanata Housing Society, twocases from Kalaynwadi andone case each from Dhanwada

Chawl, PMGP colony,Murugan Chawl and RajivGandhi chawl.

Not wanting to take anychances, health workers con-ducted door-to-door screeningof all the Dharavi residents.Simultaneously, a team of localprivate doctors of Dharavi andBMC medical staff checkedthe temperature and enquiredthe residents about their trav-el history. Over 150 doctors,working under the auspices ofIndian Medical Council andMaharashtra Medical Council,have been assisting the BMC inthe screening drive.

The medical teams willreport to the BMC on the num-ber of persons who have shownsymptoms for coronavirus. “Allthose who have symptoms arebeing kept in quarantine,” aBMC officer said.

����������� ���������

Mahavir Enclave inSouthwest Delhi was on

Sunday identified as the newCOVID-19 hotspot by theDelhi Government, whichordered its sealing. It has takenthe total number of such zonesin the city to 34, an official said.

On Sunday, the total num-ber of COVID-19 cases in thenational Capital climbed to1,154, with 166 fresh casesand five deaths being reportedin a day.

A Government orderexpanding the list of contain-ment zones came hours afterChief Minister Arvind Kejriwalannounced the cityGovernment’s decision to sealevery locality that reports aCovid-19 case.

The Delhi Government’s“Operation SHIELD” will comeinto force in these areas.

All the containment zoneshave been classified as red

zones, areas where movementof people is strictly prohibited.Areas which are seen as high-risk zones are being classifiedas orange.

In both these areas, theGovernment will launch a mas-sive sanitisation drive to min-imise spread of the infection.

�� ����������� ��������

Around 88,000 Self HelpGroup (SHGs) women

across the country haveemerged as community war-riors to help contain the spreadof deadly Covid-19. These“unsung” warriors are doingtheir bits by producing masks,Personnel ProtectionEquipment (PPE) and lakhs oflitres of hand sanitisers day andnight for frontline staff as wellas countless citizens.

Some of them have alsoproduced liquid soaps to helpin keeping hand hygiene as the

country grapples to check thedeadly contagion. There areapproximately 690 lakh womenmembers of around 63 lakh SelfHelp Groups (SHGs) across thecountry.

As the masks are the firstline of defence against COVID-19 and the Government hasmade mandatory wearingmasks in public places, 78,373SHG members under theDeendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural LivelihoodsMission (DAY-NRLM) of theUnion Ministry of RuralDevelopment have taken uponthemselves to produce 1.96

crore masks besides other safe-ty gears.

These are various cate-gories of masks, including 2-3ply woven and non-woven sur-gical masks, cotton masks etc,which adhere to the advisoriesof Union Health Ministry andMinistry of Consumers’ Affairs.

SHG members have nowalso started making PPE likeaprons, gowns, face shields etc,said an official from the UnionRural Development Ministry.

“Around 78,373 SHGmembers are presently involvedin manufacturing of masks.Jharkhand SHGs were among

the first to respond and haveproduced about 78,000 maskssince March 22, 2020. Thesemasks were being sold at thepremises of various districtcollectorates and subsidisedmedical stores at an affordableprice of Rs 10,” said the officer.

����� �� ��� ���� � �

Agroup of “Nihangs” (Sikhsarmed with traditional

weapons and dressed in looseblue top) chopped off an policeofficer’s hand and injured threeother Punjab Policemen afterbeing stopped from violatingthe lockdown in Patiala district,triggering a police operation inwhich shots were fired and 11people arrested at a gurdwara.

In a latenight information,doctors at the Chandigarh’sPGIMER reattached the 50-year-old ASI’s hand after anover seven-hour long surgery,

officials said. As many 11 people, includ-

ing a woman, were arrestedfrom a local Gurdwara afterexchange of fire in connectionwith the attack on the policeparty at Patiala vegetable mar-ket in the morning, where thegroup fled after the 6.15 amincident in Sanaur town.

One of the arrested mensuffered gunshot wound, whilea mandi official was also hurtearlier. “We have recoveredarms, �39 lakh cash, tradi-tional arms like irons rods,khanda, bhaale (javelin), andcannabis during the raid on thegurudwara. Weapons, includ-

ing guns and petrol bombs,have also been recovered fromthe hideout,” said Patiala’sSenior Superintendent of Police(SSP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu.

Video clips regarding theincident have been doing therounds on the social media,attracting criticism from allover the country, cutting acrossparty lines.

Strongly condemning theattack, Chief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh has warnedthat anyone violating the cur-few, imposed in the State sinceMarch 23 to check the spreadof Covid-19 pandemic, wouldbe strictly dealt with.

����� ��������

Nearly 20 per cent of theCovid-19 positive cases

need ICU support in the coun-try. This has put acute pressureon the health officials tomobilise ventilators and otherlife-saving support equipment.

Addressing the daily Pressbriefing here on Sunday, UnionHealth Ministry Joint SecretaryLav Agarwal said that on March29, India had 979 positive casesand 196 needed critical care andoxygen. That time, 41,900 ded-icated Covid beds were avail-able in 163 State-run hospitals.

“On April 4, when werequired 580 beds, we had67,500 beds, on April 9, 1,100beds were required but therewere 8,5000 beds available inthe country,” he said.

Agarwal said as on SundayIndia has 8,356 positive casesand of these 20 per cent casesneed ICU support. “Thatmeans today 1,671 patients

need oxygen support and crit-ical care treatment, and we have1,05,000 dedicated Covid bedsavailable in the country in 601hospitals. This figure is impor-tant to show that theGovernment is planning thingsin advance and is over pre-pared, he said.

In addition, theGovernment is also increasingthe number of dedicated Covidhospitals and isolation facilitiesas per the evolving situationsand precautionary measuresbecause this is a pandemic

and number can be exponen-tial. Our effort is to takeadvanced steps, he said.

India, which is into theworld’s biggest lockdown tocombat spreading of the high-ly contagious pathogen, onSunday reported an increase of909 cases, taking the country’stotal number of coronaviruscases to 8,356 by Sunday morn-ing. The number rose to 900plus by late in the evening andStates were still reporting.

Agarwal said, “This is apandemic and numbers can be

exponential. Our effort is totake advanced steps.”

“A total of 8,356 positivecases have been reported in thecountry. At least 909 new casesand 34 deaths have been record-ed in 24 hours. A good news isthat 74 people have been curedin the last 24 hours taking thetotal number of cured people to716. Total 273 deaths have beenreported so far.”

About the preparations,Agarwal said the Governmenthas identified 14 institutes,including AIIMS andNIMHANS, to mentor medicalcolleges and expand Covid-19testing capacity.

Agarwal said AIIMS Delhiis now equipped with 250 bedsincluding 50 ICU beds, andhigh dependent units attachedwith beds, and 70 ventilators.

In Safdarjung Hospital, onecomplete block has been con-verted into Covid block and has500 beds. “We have provided1,680 beds to Andhra Pradesh.As on today there were 148ventilators available, we pro-vided 444 additional ventila-tors. One special medical offi-cer is appointed in every State.”

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Fresh COVID-19 cases con-tinued to be reported in the

State with four more personstesting positive for the deadlydisease late on Saturday night.

This takes the total number

of coronavirus cases to 54 bare-ly some hours after NationalHealth Mission (NHM)Director Shalini Pandit gavesome relaxing news.

The Health and FamilyWelfare Department in its offi-cial twitter post confirmed thatfour persons Saturday testedpositive to the highly infectiousvirus. Of these four cases, twoare from Bisra town inSundargarh district while onecase each was reported fromRajnagar in Kendrapada districtand Bhubaneswar.

The two cases fromSundargarh district are that oftwo males and have aNizamuddin Markaz link. Both

were on quarantine in theRourkela COVID-19 Hospital.

The district administrationand police officials on Sundaymorning sealed Bisra town.Entry points at Dareikela,Puruna Bisra, Budheljar andSantoshpur were blocked torestrict movement of people inand out of the area. Fire Servicespersonnel were engaged to dis-infect the area.

A meeting between thedistrict Collector and SP washeld to take a decision regard-ing imposition of shutdown inBisra town.

The woman patient ofRajnagar in Kendrapada districthas a travel history to West

Bengal. On March 29, shereturned with her father andanother person from Kolkata.Later, she and her father werein home quarantine.

Meanwhile, she has beenshifted to the Ashwini Hospitalin Cuttack and her father,mother and brother are inhome quarantine. The swabsamples of the family memberswere collected and sent fortesting. Two villages in the areahave been declared as contain-ment zones and a disinfectiondrive was carried out. A door-to door screening of the near-ly 150 households of the areawas also carried out, saidKendrapada Collector Samarth

Verma on Sunday.Notably, this is the second

COVID-19 case in the district.Earlier, a 32-year-old man of thedistrict, who had returned fromDubai, tested positive for thevirus.

With the four new case s,the number of COVID-19-affected persons in the State hasincreased to 54. The number ofactive cases stood at 41 as 12persons were cured and dis-charged from hospitals while anelderly man has died of thecoronavirus.

Of the total 3,551 samplestested so far, 3,497 tested neg-ative while 54 samples gave pos-itive result to the COVID-19.

����� 5 � ����

Acartoon portraying themythological character of

Yamraj (death god) has nowgone viral in the social mediain which the god is appealingto people not to come in morenumbers to him since his place(Yamapur) is ‘houseful’.

And that seems to be truein Sambalpur with the number

of general deaths falling dras-tically during the ongoing coro-navirus-related lockdown.

“There are also days whenthere is not even a single death,”said Kandarpa Rakhas, the in-charge of Rajghat, the maincrematorium for Sambalpurcity and suburbs. “I and theother staffs are astonished. Butwe are happy,” said Rakhas.

“Normally, an average ofsix dead bodies comes for cre-

mation every day. But it hasbeen reduced drastically in therecent days. And the reason isnot known,” said SubhransuNayak, the overall in-charge ofRajghat. “But we are happy thatwe don’t have to witness moresuch scenes like before,” Nayaksaid, adding that only 11 bod-ies were cremated during thelast seven days.

The municipality authori-ties also admitted the fact.

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The Utkal Chamber ofCommerce and Industry

(UCCI) has welcomed theextension of the lockdown tillApril 30 to combat the rapid-ly-spreading COVID-19 pan-demic, but at the same time, ina letter to Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik, has voicedconcerns about the State’s econ-omy and said that some sectorsneed special attention for theirsurvival.

The UCCI, an apex cham-ber representing major, medi-um, small, minor industries aswell as trade and commerce,said the major issue before allbusinesses during the lock-down is logistics, withoutwhich no one can plan, executemanufacturing or provide ser-vices.

“Seamless transportationis a necessity, for which instruc-tions, across the line, should beissued for allowing trans-portation activities becauseoverenthusiastic villagers atmany places are causing trou-ble,” UCCI president RameshMahapatra said in the letter to

the CM.He said major industries

are facing the problem oftransporting raw materials tofactories and extraction of fin-ished goods.

Similarly, acute labourshortages in factories, ware-houses, transport sector anddistribution have broken thesupply chain to a great extent,Mahapatra said.

This is a grey area whichneeds to be handled after thelockdown is lifted; but evennow, certain allowable activitiesshould be continued, he said.

With the closure of most ofthe establishments, payment ofwages to employees hasbecome difficult since the lock-down measures have severelyimpacted cash flows; and manyestablishments might closedown their businesses if theyare unable to comply with thelabour department directive.“We request the StateGovernment to look into thedirective again as the lockdownhas been extended,” he said,adding, “We sincerely appealthat the wages should be paidat a reduced rate for at least six

months.”The UCCI also urged the

Government to waive thedemand charges and also theelectricity duties for the lock-down period and claimed thatsimilar steps have been taken inPunjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

“To induce cash flow intothe business, we propose toprovide loan against GST paidby the business at 3% rate ofinterest,” Mahapatra said.

The hotel and tourism sec-tor is the worst-hit, he said,adding that suitable revivalpackages would bring back theindustry on a survival path.

Therefore, excise fees,levies, taxes, and power andwater charges should be waivedfor the tourism, travel andhospitality industry for theApril-June 2020 quarter, hesaid.

Prawn farming has alsosuffered a major blow becauseof the closure or partial run-ning of processing plants, hesaid, adding that a suitablestimulus package to the fishingcommunity, fish farmers andprocessors may be considered.

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In view of the COVID-19 out-break in Bhubaneswar, cele-

bration of the72nd CapitalFoundation Day on Monday(April 13) has been cancelled toavoid mass congregation,informed the Capital DayCelebration Committee onSunday. The foundation-stoneto make the temple cityBhubaneswar as the State cap-ital had been laid by the thenPrime Minister Jawaharlal

Nehru on April 13, 1948. TheCapital Day CelebrationCommittee had been celebrat-ing the memorable day in agrand way since past 30 yearsin collaboration with the StateGovernment and the Khordhadistrict administration.

However, due to theincreasing number of COVID-19 cases and enforcement oflockdown, the committeedecided to cancel all pro-grammes relating to the daythis year.

����������� �� � ��

While liquor, ganja, opium,paan gutkha and other

contraband items have beenbanned during lockdown peri-od by the Government, they aresold like hot cakes in Athagarhareas by the black marketers.

It is seen that the licencedshops are closed from frontside, but these products areavailable at the backdoors ofthe same shops at higher prices.As the supply of the licenceliquor have been banned dur-ing this period, duplicate andillicit liquors are being soldhere, alleged sources.

The country liquor iscooked in the outskirts of

Athagarh, Tigiria and Bankiareas in the manner of runninga cottage industry and sold inat least three times higherprices than before. Similarlyganja is sold by black marketersin most of the chowks and mar-kets of Athagarh and Banki.This apart, gutkhas are sold indouble or triple their usualprices in most of the betelshops which are locked fromfront side but opened in back-side.

The black marketers inconnivance with someunscrupulous Excise officialshere are running the businesseven during the lockdown peri-od and do not go for raidingany such counters. It is alsoalleged that local police alsoknow the matter but remainsilent for vested interest.

Local intelligentsia appre-hend that hooch tragedy mayoccur at any time even duringthe lockdown period due toconsumption of illicit alcohol inthe area.

����� ���� ��5� �

While everyone has beenasked to remain indoors

during the COVID-19 lock-down period in the State,Commissioner of Police (CP)Sudhanshu Sarangi in a video-conference on Sunday urgedpolice personnel to reach out tothe senior citizens and helpthem stay safe and sane.

All police stations usingWhatsApp group for senior cit-izens created by Nodal Officershave been asked to share detailsof home delivery services foressentials like medicine, gro-

cery, cooked food and vegeta-bles.

Nodal Officers informedSarangi that many senior citi-zens are requesting for domes-tic helps to be allowed at theirplaces, but the housing societiesthey are living in are against it.

In view of expert advicethat senior citizens are mostvulnerable to the virus spread,it was decided to apprise seniorcitizens of the concerns and totake help of home deliveryservices to minimise difficul-ties.

The Nodal Officers wereasked to interact with senior

citizens registered with thepolice over phone and extendhelping hand to them in case ofneed.

While the Field Officersinformed their personal expe-rience with the senior citizensand the way they have beenhelping them, Sarangi suggest-ed that these good practices bedocumented.

Among others, AdditionalCP Sanjay Kumar Singh,Additional CP BhubaneswarAnup Kumar Sahu, DCPTraffic Sagarika Nath and DCPSecurity Nirmal KumarSatpathy were present.

����� ���� ��5� �

As many as 8,263 doctors arenow engaged in various

hospitals in the battle againstnovel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the State, according to areport of the Health and FamilyWelfare Department.

As per the status report onCOVID-19 submitted to theOrissa High Court, a total of7,253 Odisha Medical andHealth Services (OMHS)-Cadre doctors, 1,010 OdishaMedical Education Service-Cadre doctors are working forthe people with suspected orconfirmed 2019-nCoV infec-tion.

Besides, 7,015 staff nurses,2,680 pharmacists, 1,397 labo-ratory technicians, 342 radi-

ographers, 4,333 Multi PurposeHealth Workers (male) and10,323 women health workersare engaged under the Healthand Family WelfareDepartment to fight the dead-ly virus.

As per the guidelines by theUnion Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare, the StateGovernment has taken steps toprovide personal protectiveequipments (PPEs) to the doc-tors and healthcare workers fortheir safety. The Odisha StateMedical Corporation(OSMC)has ordered various organisa-tions to supply 10.20 lakhPPEs.

In the status report, theHealth and Family WelfareDepartment has said a total of908 PPE kits have been pro-

vided to the medical practi-tioners in the first week ofMarch, 441 PPE in secondweek, 352 in third week and1,236 in fourth week of March.

As on April 5, 3,228 PPEkits, 83,129 N-95 masks,64,23,824 triple layer masks,79,21,183 surgery gloves and1.55 lakh hand sanitisers are instock for use.

In March, a total of1,08,497 triple layer facemaskshave been provided in the firstweek, 33,278 in second week,1,09,815 in third week and3,19,105 in fourth week.Similarly, 10,453 N-95 maskshave been provided in firstweek, 18,898 in second week,11,985 in third week and30,881 in fourth week.

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April 13 is the FoundationDay of Bhubaneswar. It

was on this day in 1948 thatIndia’s first Prime MinisterPandit Jawaharlal Nehru hadlaid the foundation stone forthe new capital city.

The Master Plan ofBhubaneswar was prepared byinternationally acclaimedurban planner, Otto HKoenigsberger in 1948 for apopulation of 40,000 over anarea of 16.48 sq km with a den-sity of 10 to 12 families per acre.The city was developed on

neighborhood principles. Eachresidential neighborhood isplanned around an education-al and recreational centre withopen spaces for communityfunctions.

Local shopping for everytwo sets of neighborhoods isgrouped together with theintention of improving businessprospects. The town centreconsisted of the market build-ing, weekly market, and dailymarket. Koenigsberger sug-gested seven types of roads –footpaths, parkways, cyclepaths, minor housing streets,major housing streets, mainroads and main arteries – forseven groups of users for sevendifferent functions. The over-all widths of land earmarkedfor roads determined by trafficand the requirements for stormwater drainage services andavenue trees.

The city has now under-gone various transformations.Bhubaneswar was a smallsacred town in 1921 with pop-

ulation of 8,110 persons only.Later on the city became a classIV town and retained the samestatus until 1951. In 1951 thepopulation increased to 16,512.Population further increased to38,211 in 1961, 1,05,491 in1971 and 2,19, 211 in 1981. In1991 population was 4, 11,542.

Bhubaneswar got the NACstatus in 1952. It became aClass III town in the nextCensus of 1961 and a Class Icity with municipality status in1971, depending on its popu-lation strength and other urbancharacteristics.

The city was declared aMunicipal Corporation in theyear 1994 and according to the2001 census it accommodated6,48,032 people in the city. Asper the 2011 census, the pop-ulation of Bhubaneswar is837,737 and covers an area of135 sqkm. The decadal growthrate of the city is 30.2 per centindicating that Bhubaneswar isgrowing very fast.

To meet the changing

needs, the city requires moreland. Today, the city’s growth isso fast that it is spreadingtowards Khurda and Jatani.To formulate a meaningfulphysical development plan, toregulate and guide the urbangrowth in Bhubaneswar by2030 in a planned and healthymanner, a ComprehensiveDevelopment Plan (CDP) forBhubaneswar DevelopmentPlanned Area (BDPA) was pre-pared.

The city was declared asSmart City by the Government

of India under its Smart CityMission in 2015. Bhubaneswarranks number one in the smartcity pilot project. AmericanPlanning Association awardsBhubaneswar Smart City Planthe 'Pierre L’EnfantInternational PlanningExcellence Award' as part of the2017 National PlanningExcellence Awards. This awardrecognizes planning practicesand efforts undertaken outsidethe United States to promotecommunities of lasting value.The award criteria are based on

a set of goals developed by theGlobal Planners Network.

A vital component of aSmart City is sustainability,which may be threatened byextreme use of resources. Thismay result environmentaldegradation of the city. Areport by the Odisha StatePollution Control Board(OSPCB) revealed that pollu-tants in the ambient air werefound to be far above the per-missible limit at all the six pol-lution monitoring stations inthe city, such as at Patrapada,the IRC village, the OSPCBoffice, the Capital police sta-tion, Rasulgarh and at theOSPCB laboratory inChandrasekharpur.

Based on air pollution, thecity is categorized into HighlyCritical Areas, ModeratelyCritical Areas, and CriticalAreas. Highly Critical Areas areBhagabanpur, Patrapada,Aignia, Unit – 20, Shankarpur,Khandagiri, Udaygiri,Dumuduma and areas all along

National Highway 5 and 203.Moderately Critical Areas areCore area of the city. CriticalAreas are Jaganath prasad,Sundarpur, Chandrasekharpur,Bharatpur, Sampur, Malipada,Andharua areas of the city.

The State Pollution ControlBoard has analyzed daily pol-lution data from the manualmonitors to indicate the pro-portion of days in a year thathave exceeded the nationalambient air quality standardsfor PM10 between 2008 and2017. In Bhubaneswar the per-centage of days violating thedaily standards has increasedfrom 26 per cent in 2008 to 45per cent in 2017.

Control of vehicular pol-lution requires transportationand mobility strategies toreduce traffic volumes andtotal vehicle kilometers trav-elled in the city. Such action hasalready started in Bhubaneswarthat includes bus sector reform,infrastructure for non-motor-ized transport (NMT), street

design guidelines, transit ori-ented urban planning, parkingmanagement and electricmobility etc.

As per the Smart City Plan,Bhubaneswar Smart City Ltdhas launched several schemesto advocate and implementNMT plan and policies. As partof the clean air action plancomprehensive street designguidelines and non-motorisedtransport policy may help topromote zero emissions modeand leverage the high share ofwalking and cycling practice.

Besides, there are numberof native trees which can beable to trap pollutants in thecity. The value of Air PollutionTolerance Index (APTI) of thenative trees is important for thepreparation of landscape devel-opment plan.

(Dr Praharaj is a teacher atthe Department of Architecture,College of Engineering andTechnology, Bhubaneswar)

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Looking at the emergency sit-uation due to Novel Corona

Virus (COVID-19), the WorldBank has extended the periodof Odisha Disaster RecoveryProject (ODRP) for anotherthree months.

The ODRP was to end onMarch 31 but has been extend-ed to June 30, providing acushioning period for the State

Government to utilise fundsavailable under the pro-gramme.

World Bank India DirectorJunaid Kamal Ahmedinformed the Ministry ofFinance in this regard.

Earlier, the Governmentof Odisha had requested theUnion Government to extendthe ODRP period for anotherone year keeping an emer-gency situation like COVID-19.

The State Government hadapproached the Centre toimpress upon the World Bankto extend the ODRP up toMarch 31, 2021 and allow theState administration to utiliseRs 310 crore to combat theCOVID-19.

The World Bank was toreallocate the funds for con-

tingent emergency responseto contain spread of theCOVID-19.

However, the World Bankhas extended the period foranother three months insteadof one year and has asked theState Government to close theproject by June 30, 2020.

The State Government wasimplementing ODRP for twoPhailin hit blocks of Puri dis-tricts like Krushna Prasad andBrahmagiri.

Previously, the ODRP wasimplemented in Ganjam andKhordha, both the districtswere badly hit by Phailin in2013.

Now with the UnionGovernment having declaredCOVID-19 as a national dis-aster, the State Government has

approached the UnionMinistry of Finance to allowODRP funds for handling anemergency situation to containspread of COVID-19.

Finance Secretary AshokKumar Meena is in touch withsenior officers of the UnionMinistry of Finance.

Meena had written a letterto the Department ofEconomic Affairs to considerthe case as the StateGovernment is fighting a grimbattle against COVID-19.

Under this back drop, theState Government is expectinga positive response from theWorld Bank so that fundsavailable in ODRP would beutilised for containment ofCOVID-19 in Odisha, sourcessaid.

����� ���� ��5� �

In the wake of the coro-novirus crisis, the Panchayati

Raj and Drinking WaterDepartment has taken a slew ofmeasures for mass senistisationand proactive dissemination ofinformation in the rural areasof the State.

To expedite specialCOVID-19 health facilities,6,939 temporary medical cen-tres have been set up in 6,798GPs with provision of 1,62,142beds.

Rs 5 lakh from GP Fund

has been allotted to openCOVID-19 special temporarymedical centre in every GP.Similarly, Community HealthCentres (CHCs) and Primaryhealth Centres (PHCs) havebeen provided with Rs. 10 lakhand Rs. 5 lakh respectively for

arrangement of basic facilitiesand sanitisation, PanchayatiRaj and Drinking WaterSecretary Deo Ranjan KumarSingh said.

He said social securityassistance, ration along withspecial food security

allowances have been distrib-uted to the eligible beneficiariesin every GP.

Free cooked food is beingprovided in the GPs and about6,944 SHG are actively involvedin this arrangement adhering tosocial distancing and 35,08,096persons have been providedcooked food till April 10, hesaid.

Food and accommodationalong with health facilities havebeen ensured through 2,532camps for around 77,000 'GuestWorkers'. These workers arefrom various States of thecountry. Any complaintreceived through ShramikSahayata Call Centre-18003456703 are beingaddressed promptly, said Singh.

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The Paharia tribals ofNuapada district, who eke

out their living from basketweaving, are the worst-affect-ed people during the corona-induced lockdown.

The prices of differentitems they make range from Rs20 to a maximum of Rs 100depending on their sizes andshapes. They move to differentweekly haats nearby their vil-lages to sell their products.Another way for sale of theproducts is through middle-men, who visit the villages atregular intervals.

However, due to the lock-down, neither the weekly haatsare running nor middlemen areturning up.

"I have 80 baskets in myhouse ready for the haat, butI’m unable to sell them," saysGuri Banbasi of Baijalpur in

Gorla panchayat of Sinapaliblock. She would have soldthose products for Rs 3,000 innormal time.

Jujesti Banbasi of this vil-lage has products worth Rs1,380. There are 14 Pahariahouseholds in Baijalpur; and allof them are in a similar condi-tion.

The total number of house-holds reeling under such a sit-uation would be about 2,000."We would have bought riceand grocery after selling theseproducts but for the lock-down," they say.

Various records andresearch works dating back tothe British rule reveal that thePaharias are one of thenomadic tribal groups of India.The kith and kin of thePaharias of Odisha living in theneighbouring villages ofChhattisgarh have been accord-ed vulnerable status; but inOdisha, they are considered asOBC.

The Odisha Governmenthas recommended for inclusionof the Paharias in the ST

Constitutional Order, whichis yet to be considered by theCentral Government. As aresult, the 2,000 Paharia house-holds living mostly in differentparts of western Odisha are

reeling under acute poverty.Immediate proactive action, ifnot taken during the lock-down period, most people willslide into a state of further dis-tress.

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Afew days back the districtCollector and SP visited

here and briefing to the medi-apersons said the Governmentguidelines would be strictlyimplemented to fight theCOVID-19 outbreak andwarned the violators of strin-gent action. However, what isseen is the violators are leftscot-free.

Shocking visuals inUmarkote town shows peoplethronging market withoutrespecting social distancingnorm. To avoid over crowding,the local administration has setup two places for the daily mar-ket in the town. But due to nondeployment of any police per-sonnel here, the people areopenly flouting the norms ofsocial distancing. They areeven found without wearingthe masks.

The cleanliness drive of thecivic body in the town is eye-wash, as no work has beendone on ground. Garbage pil-ing up on the roads and over-

flowing drains reflect the sorrystate of affairs on the sanitationfront posing a threat of out-break of the diseases. Somelocal NGOs and politicians areseen in abundance here dis-tributing food packets as amark of help to the needy in thetown but it seems they are aftermore publicity rather than ser-vice.

They are taking undueadvantage of the situation anduploading the photograpy ofthe distribution in differentsocial media making a mock-ery of the poor and needy.

Similar is the condition inthe village level to expeditequarantine facilities in ruralareas. The panchayats havebeen provided Rs 5 lakh eachby the Panchayati Raj andDrinking Water Department.The Panchayat officers ( POs)at the panchayat level areinstructed to supervise all thefacilities under the strict sur-veillance of the BlockDevelopment Officers and dis-trict authority.

Due to nationwide lock-down near about 32 nomads

of Maharastra are detained inan isolation center at BenoraPanchayat but they are in apathetic condition. They areprovided with only two roomsby the officials defying thesocial distancing norms. Onthe first day they were provid-ed with some dry foods and afinancial aid of Rs 2,000 by theSP with an assurance to get alltypes of helps.

The quarantine houseinstalled in a school in the pan-chayat has thirty beds havingno bed sheet and pillow. Theworkers engaged for the man-agement of quarantine housealleged that they have been pro-vided with only two hand san-itizers without any adequateprotective equipment for them.

For the sake of their safe-ty, they purchased masks fromtheir own pocket , said theworkers.

In Taranga Panchayat thereare 150 distresed people. Butthere is free kitchen for 99 peo-ple only. Similarly in Hirapurand Singsari Panchayat theyprepare only 15 to 20 mealswhereas the sick and indigentpeople are found in more num-bers.

When asked, the officialsrevealed that they are manag-ing with the existing finance ofthe panchayat received fromthe Block office. However, theBDO said all things were goingsmooth and his officials aredoing well to tackle the situa-tion.

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Iam a gastroenterologist basedat Bhubaneswar being asso-

ciated with the World healthOrganisation on eradicationof hepatitis, also on preventionof Corona infection. Togetherwe can win the war against theinvisible enemy, the COVID-19epidemic.

Odisha has thegreat potential for dis-aster management; itsets its own bench-mark in front of theworld. This time alsoour State will be onthe frontline in man-aging this outbreak.

Acting fast wasthe most importantdecision South Koreamade, early detectionand isolation were themost important strate-gies to prevent trans-mission of infection.

Early detection paid off forSingapore. The country wasone of the quickest to identifycases. Lockdown and social dis-tancing have been used to haltthe transmission of the coronavirus in China.

If we analyze the Bhilwaramodel to curb the spread ofnew coronavirus in areas thathave been identified as

hotspots, aggressive contain-ment measures taken by thedistrict administration limitedthe spread of the virus.Effective implementation ofthe curfew, sealing the bordersof containment zones andensuring zero vehicular move-ment, identifying potentialclusters and carrying out inten-sive mapping of contacts,besides isolating high-risk peo-ple and collecting samples fortests quickly and massivescreening exercise covering theentire population to detectinfluenza-like symptoms weresome of the drastic measures.Kerala: Its involvement of com-munity at a large is standing itin good stead as it leads thefight against the coronavirus.

Odisha should have itsown model to contain theinfection with its experience inmanaging different disastersvery effectively. The State is inlockdown till this month end,

but we all are not doing the waythe Government wants. If everyone of us is not supporting theState initiatives, it is definite weare going to lose the war.

The most important isawareness; people must under-stand the importance of thesestrict measures to curb theinfection. This is the questionof life and death, saving ownlife, others life, saving the Stateand saving the humanity.Community leaders, religiousgurus must be involved tomake people understand theseriousness of the problem.Unwanted social elementsshould face legal action.

The State should come upwith the Odisha Corona App,to provide information aboutCorona infection, strategiesimplemented, and also toinvolve people, get their viewsand suggestions.

The Government machin-ery must involve the people of

Odisha as community leaders,volunteers, different NGOs,people from private organiza-tions to work for the State; theyand their family should besafeguarded. During shutdown,the State Government with thelocal volunteers should designa system to provide everyessential things, also the health-care support. If this is done,people will not venture out andspread the infection.

Every households to bescreened of suspected Covidinfection in a cyclical manner.People should come forward tohelp the team in providingcorrect information. Thosewith suspected infection,should be quarantined and testto be done immediately. Iffound positive, they need to beshifted to isolation and aggres-sive contact tracing must bedone. The contacts are to betested and the measures to befollowed.

����� �� � ���

Praises from Brahmapur res-idents poured in for

Ganjam district Collector VijayAmruta Kulange for his keen-ness and relentless efforts toserve people.

On Friday, a woman alongwith her newborn baby waswalking down to her homewhen Kulange came across

her. He soon enquired abouther move on the road whenlockdown is in force. She nar-

rated that she was dischargedfrom a maternal hospital andwalking down to her house asno auto-rickshaw or rickshawavailable then.

Then, the Collectorstopped a Government vehicleand send her to house by thatvehicle. This act of theCollector has been praised bydifferent quarters of people.

����� ����@ � ��59�����

An elephant trampled a manto death at Kahliborei

under the Hindol Forest Rangein Dhenkanal district onSunday.

The deceased was identi-fied as Pankaj Samal ofGovindpur village. He hadgone to his farmland in themorning when the animalattacked him and crushed himto death on the spot.

In another incident on theday, a carcass of an elephantwas found at the ChandaliReserve Forest under UlundaRange in Subarnapur district.Locals spotted the animal lyingdead in early morning andinformed forest officials aboutit. Though the reason behindthe death of the jumbo was yetto be ascertained, it was sus-pected that the elephant wasshot dead. Forest officials havestarted an investigation into thematter.

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Recently, the CentralGovernment had

announced to send Rs 500 tothe account holders of PradhanMantri Jan Dhan Yojana forthree months in view as a sup-port during the omgoinfCOVID-19 lockdown.

All of a sudden, a rumouris spreading across Bhadrakdistrict that if the accountholders would not withdrawmoney, the deposited amountswould be returned to theGovernment and other twoinstalments would not bedeposited in the account.

Believing such rumours,people are noe making longqueues before banks. Neither

they are wearing themasks nor do theymaintain social dis-tancing.

Looking at suchcrisis, human rightsactivist and SupremeCourt lawyerRadhakanta Tripathyvisited different suchcounters andappealed to peoplenot to believe suchrumours.

Besides, he hasalso discussed withthe local elected rep-resentatives to takeappropriate measuresin this regard.

He has alsoappealed to the mediarepresentatives tospread clarificationsin this regard so thatthe objective of thegmGovernment deci-sion can be fulfilled.

����� ���� ��5� �

The COVID-19 has virtual-ly affected every individual

in the world. At the Amway,corporate social responsibilityis an integral part of its phi-losophy.

The Amway India’semployees have pledged todonate their one day’s salary tosupport the anti-COVID fight.The company has committedto donate five times the amountreceived from its employeestowards this cause.

The donations are meant toprovide personal protectiveequipments (PPEs) like gloves,gowns, shoe covers, head cov-ers, masks, respirators, and eyeprotection gear to frontlineworkers and extend support tothe vulnerable sections of thesociety with essentials includ-ing Amway hygiene products,food and other rations

The Amway India haspledged a contribution of Rs1.61 crore, including Rs 1 croreto the PM CARES Fund.

����� 59�����

While many are enjoyingthe lockdown with their

families,the Municipality /NACworkers, sweepers and FireBrigade personnel here arebusy cleaning streets and doingother works tirelessly, puttingtheir life at risk during this epi-demic COVID-19.

Every morning, sweepersand cleaning workers cleangarbage on various streets, sweepthem, apply bleaching and cleantemporary vegetable markets.Similarly, the officials ofMunicipality offices and NACsare distributing foods among theneedy and poor at the temporaryshelters. The Fire Brigade offi-cials are also sanitising and dis-infecting streets.

These workers are puttingtheir lives at risk and workingoutside for the welfare of thegeneral people with no time tospend with their children andfamily. However, very few have

ever cared for these workers.In an example of glaring

apathy by the authorities,sweepers who are the realheroes during the COVID-19of Tarbha NAC have not gottheir salary of March. If theystop working even for a coupleof days, it will lead to a publichealth catastrophe, apprehendmany.

The workers want theGovernment to look into theirplight and provide them withsafety measures, including adecent hike in their salary.

At least more than 25workers have been employed inTarbha NAC. They are workingtirelessly for the safety of morethan 12,000 people of TarbhaNAC.

����� �� � ����

The Vedanta alumina refin-ery in Lanjigarh, with var-

ious stakeholders, has touchedover 1 lakh people through itssafety and prevention mea-sures to fight against COVID-19.

The plant is running oper-ations with minimum work-force and limited resources,adhering to all the COVID-19guidelines issued by the Centraland State authorities.

“Our communities are atthe heart of everything we do.We have galvanised all possibleresources to protect our com-

munities fromthe COVID-19and we seektheir support toensure social-distancing andall precautionsto collectivelycombat thevirus," saidVedanta alumi-na businessCEO RahulSharma. Over1,00,000 wash-able masks areunder prepara-tion through local self-helpgroups of which 40,000 havebeen distributed free of cost.

Over 100 self-help groupmembers are being providedfree of cost training, sewingmachines and raw materials sothey have a regular source ofincome to support their fami-lies at this time, when sources

of livelihood are scarce.The COVID hospital in

Bhawanipatna has been given60,000 surgical gloves, 25,000surgical masks in addition tosurgical gowns, and 6,000 bot-tles of sanitisers. Over 20,000soaps have been distributed tothe villagers, said an officialrelease.

����� � ��5� �

At a time when most of thepeople have lost their liveli-

hoods due to the coronavirus-related lockdowm, formerBaleswar MP RK Jena hascome to the support of needyonce again.

On Saturday, Jena provid-ed rations to 450 rickshawpuller families who have nomeans to meet their both endsas social distancing is strictlyenforced. The ration packetscontained rice, flour, chuda(flattened rice), gur ( jaggery)

and other items."At this critical juncture, it

may not be possible for theGovernment to reach out to allthe people in distress. Hence,people having resources shouldcome forward and providesupport to the needy," saidJena.

Rickshaw pullers thankedJena for the help in the time ofcrisis.

Earlier, Jena had also dis-tributed dry rations to portersat the railway station and tosome stranded Bengali hawk-ers here.

����� ���� ��5� �

Adding to its relentlessefforts of fighting against

the coronavirus, the UtkalAlumina International LtdUAIL), Doraguda, a unit ofAditya Birla Group, has dis-tributed around 42,000 masksto all its stakeholders and peo-

ple in all its peripheral villagesin Rayagada and Kalahandi dis-tricts. While around 12,000odd masks were prepared by itsown garment manufacturingunit, Saksham, at Tikiri village,the rest have been procured bythe company for distributionamongst the people.

The Saksham garment

stitching is well equipped withsophisticated stitchingmachines for all types of gar-ment manufacturing. Womenbelonging to the nearby villageshave come forward beating allodds to serve the communityby stitching masks. They arestitching 900 to 1,000 masksper day.

KENDRAPADA: At a timewhen men in khaki raininglathis or punishing lockdownviolators have gone viral on thesocial media, but in a breakfrom it, the police here were dis-tributing dry foods and masksto the poor families in slums.

Beating the scorching heat,the senior police officials, led bythe SP of Kendrapada NitiSekhar, distributed the dryfood and masks to the pover-ty stricken daily wagers livingat the roadsides in Shyamgudiaand Nasidipur slum areas.

Though the StateGovernment has providedPDS rations to the beneficiariesfor three months in advanceunder NFSA (National FoodSecurity Act) and State FoodSecurity Scheme along withproviding four monthsadvanced pension to the ben-eficiaries under National SocialAssistance Programme(NSAP),but there were several povertystricken daily wager families,who failed to avail theGovernment benefits. PNS

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Braving the threat of fallingprey to coronavirus and

the harsh winters, the BorderRoads Organisation (BRO)personnel have opened thestrategic Srinagar-Leh high-way. This road connectsLadakh to the rest of the worldand was blocked by snow forthe last four months, thereby,virtually cutting Ladakh fromother regions of the country.Incidentally, snowfall this win-ter was more than previous 60years thereby making it moredifficult for the BRO to clear it.

Giving details here abouttraffic resuming on this criti-cally important road, defenceministry official said here onSunday nearly 18 tankers andother essential commoditieswere initially allowed to movetowards Leh from Zozilla passat 11,500 feet. This was man-aged despite fresh snowfall inthe pass, they added.

The 425-km road fromSrinagar to Leh was closedsince December last year due toheavy snowfall at Zojila pass.As per the directions fromDivisional CommissionerLadakh, there was an emergentneed for stockpiling essentialcommodities in the UnionTerritory of Ladakh. Keepingthat in mind the team ofProject Beacon and ProjectVijayak cleared fresh snowaround Zojilla and made the

road motorable.Snowfall of this year had

broken records of the last sixdecades. The snow clearanceoperations were undertakenby project Beacon of BROfrom Gagangir to zero pointand the same was done by pro-ject Vijayak from Drasstowards zero point, officialssaid while elaborating upon thechallenges faced by the BRO tofinish this task.

This road sustains localpopulation in Ladakh andbeyond besides provide all theall-important support to thetroops deployed on the Line ofActual Control(LAC) facingChina and Line ofControl(LOC) with Pakistan.During the winter months,when this road is closed everyyear, supplies are maintained byair.

In a related development,notwithstanding the threat ofCOVID-19, the BRO person-nel are working relentlessly tocompletely replace Daporijobridge (430 feet Multi-SpanBailey Bridge), the only lifelineof Upper Subansiri district,Arunachal Pradesh to restoreLines of Communication for all451 villages and security forceslocated along the LAC. Thearmed forces have also acti-vated isolation wards near theLAC and the LOC to dealwith any case of the pandem-ic.

Giving details of the BRO

undertaking the mission toconstruct the bridge, officialssaid more than 100 personnelof 23 BRTF/Project Arunank,on special request from thelocal administration, is work-ing in full swing in spite of the

dilapidated state of the existingbridge.

They said the BRO is com-mitted to opening this vital lineof communication by planneddate, with all necessary pre-cautionary measures. Thisbridge will ensure uninter-rupted supplies like food andammunition to the soldiersdeployed on the LAC besidescatering to the needs of thelocal population, sources said.

The BRO is the lead con-struction agency to build strate-gically important roads allalong the LOC and LAC ininhospitable terrain andinclement weather. At present,the BRO is entrusted with theresponsibility of constructing

72 strategic roads mostly instates having the LAC facingChina.

Given this backdrop, theBRO in the northern part of thecountry is presently engaged insnow clearance operations onManali - Leh axis, day andnight despite inclement weath-er and COVID 19 threat to pro-vide relief to Lahaul valley andLadakh in an earlier timeframe. Presently, Rohtang Passand Baralachala Pass are beingcleared by four snow clearanceteams. This is the first time,BRO personnel were inductedby air to Sarchu to carry outsnow clearance of mightyBaralachala Pass from Sarchuside.

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The Opposition has criti-cised the Centre for sus-

pending the Member ofParliament Local AreaDevelopment (MPLAD)scheme for two years, but ananalysis of the scheme revealsthat over the years the trend ofParliamentarians failing to usethe fund optimally for theirconstituencies has been con-tinuing.

As on March 4, 2020, theMinistry of Statistics &Programme Implementationdata shows the unspentamount to be �5,275.24 crore.

In fact, the data showsthat the unspent money underthe MPLAD Scheme rose by awhopping 214.63 per centbetween the 15th and the 16thLok Sabha. And when com-pared with the 14th Lok Sabha,this rise is even greater —885.47 per cent.

When taken Statewise col-lectively, Uttar Pradesh has anunspent amount of �354.58crore out of the total �14,440crore released between 2014and 2019 while Assam has leftonly �53 crore of the totalamount of � 257 crore released.

Maharashtra has �185crore unspent from the total of�774 crore released andAndhra Pradesh has anunspent amount of � 80 croreof the total amount of�375crore released. IfKarnataka has unspent fund of�106.71 cr out of �452 crreleased, then Punjab hasunspent amount of �63.54 cr ofthe total amount of �260 crreleased.

Delhi has an unspentamount of �41.38 crore of thetotal �80 cr released whileMadhya

Pradesh has �112.68 cr.Kerala and Gujarat have �72.38cr and �88.78 cr of unspentfunds.

Prime Minister NarendraModi, who represents Varanasiconstituency, has �2.67croreunspent fund out of the �15crore released under this headwhile the data shows formerCongress president RahulGandhi, who representedAmethi, having �4.58 croreunspent out of �12.50 crorereleased under the MPLADSbetween 2014 and 2019.

Similarly, Congress inter-im president Sonia Gandhihas also an unspent amount of�4.64 crore out of the �17.50crore released during the sameperiod.

The Centre, however, hasdefended the unspent funds. Itrecently informed theParliament that unspent bal-ance is not an unused fund asit also includes the funds inpipeline for implementation ofongoing works.

Nevertheless, unspentfunds have been in thousandsof crores this last few years.Unspent amount under thescheme was � 4,103.97 crore onMarch 31, 2019; �4,877.71crore on March 31, 2018 and�5,029.31 crore on March 31,2017.

And as for the year 2020-21, an allocation of �1,518 crhad already been made beforethe Centre suspended thescheme to keep its finances forthe fight against Covid-19. Ofthis, an amount of �1,432 crwas left unspent.

Prime Minister Modi hassuspended the MPLADS fundfor two years 2020-21 and2021-22 to use a fund of�7,880 crore thus saved tomanage the challenges and

adverse impact on the econo-my due to the spread of coro-navirus outbreak.

There are 543 MPs in LokSabha and 245 MPs in theRajya Sabha, which means788 Parliamentarians in all.Each MP gets �5 crore perannum as MPLAD and fortwo years, which works out tobe nearly � 7,880 crores.

As per the latest informa-tion available with theParliament secretariat, a totalof 355 MPs of 779 MPs (of thetotal 788) have contributed atotal of �365 crore from theirMPLADS towards tacklingexigencies in India emergingfrom the effect of the pan-demic.

Earlier this week, RajyaSabha Chairman M VenkaiahNaidu and Lok Sabha SpeakerOm Birla had asked MPs tocontribute �1 crore from theirMPLADS to the PM CARESFund. They had also askedMPs to contribute a month’ssalary to the PM CARES Fund.

Congress president SoniaGandhi had offered her entireMPLADS fund for the welfareof the people of Rae Bareli infighting the coronavirus out-break as per the requirementof the constituency. Congressleader Rahul Gandhi allocat-ed �2.66 crore from hisMPLADS money to fightcoronavirus in his constituen-cy.

Balashowry, YSR CongressMP from Machlipatnam, hascontributed the highest of Rs4 crore of his MPLAD fund tothe Andhra CM Relief Fundwhile Samajwadi Party leaderMulayam Singh Yadav hasdonated �25 lakh of hisMPLAD fund for purchasingsanitisers and masks inMainpuri.

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Reaching out to those inneed during the Covid-19

crisis, the Navy through itsNaval Air Station (NAS)Utkrosh and MaterialOrganisation (Port Blair) car-ried out food distribution inPort Blair.

The naval station organ-ised food distribution camp for155 labourers working for theinfrastructural developmentof the Air Station. The labour-ers are presently staying in thevicinity of the Air Station.

A team visited the VanvasiKalyan Ashram and distrib-uted cooked meals and dryprovisions for the childrenand staff. Vanvasi KalyanAshram is a non-profit organ-isation providing food andshelter to adivasi children.The organisation has a unitoperating at Port Blair hous-ing around 38 children. Theorganisation also provides

lodging facility to poor adivasifamilies visiting Port Blair formedical treatment. The teamalso sensitised the childrenand staff about the COVID-19and the precautions to beexercised during lockdown toavoid spread of the pandem-ic, according to navy officialshere on Sunday

This apart, the in-housedesigned and manufactured‘Portable Mutlifeed OxygenManifold’ by Naval

Dockyard, Visakhapatnamwas handed over to theVisakhapatnam Collector.The entire set up uses anindustrial 6-way radial head-er to enable one jumbo sizeOxygen Bottle to supplyOxygen to six patients con-currently. While five setswere handed over to theCollector, balance 20 sets areplanned to be progressivelysupplied over within the nexttwo weeks.

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Pradhan Mantri UjjwalaYojana (PMUY) benefi-

ciaries using five kg cookinggas cylinders will be entitledto eight free refills in threemonths due to the nationwidelockdown to combat thespread of coronavirus out-break. According to theMinistry of Petroleum andNatural Gas on Sunday saidPMUY beneficiaries havereceived 85 lakh cooking gascylinders in April 2020.

According to centre’s reliefpackage, free LPG Refills areto be provided to Ujjwalabeneficiaries over the periodof three months, from April toJune 2020. Those who areusing small cylinders will geteight free cylinders in threemonths – April, May and June– under the Pradhan MantriGarib Kalyan Yojana(PMGKY). The demand forLPG by PMUY consumersincreased in the country afterthe centre announced freeLPG cylinder refills for themunder the PMGKY,” the min-istry said.

“As on date, oil marketing

companies (OMCs) have ini-tiated transfer of �5,606 croreinto 7.15 crore PMUY bene-ficiary accounts for availingfree delivery of LPG cylinderunder the PMGKY.

Booking of 1.26 crorecylinders has been done inthis month by the beneficia-ries, out of which about 85lakh cylinders have beendelivered to PMUY benefi-ciaries,” an official statementsaid.

“There are 27.87 croreactive LPG consumers in thecountry, with the PMUY ben-eficiaries accounting for over8 crore. Since the lockdown,50 to 60 lakh cylinders arebeing delivered daily in thecountry… Even in these try-ing times, the waiting periodfor cylinders at most of theplaces is less than two days,”the statement said.

“From Mountainous ter-rain to backwaters, hamlets indeserts to habitations inforests, these Corona war-riors are steadfast in theirduties and ensuring timelydelivery. Even in these tryingtimes, the waiting period forcylinders at most of the placesis less than 2 days. Oil mar-keting companies- IOCL,BPCL and HPCL haveannounced an

ex-gratia amount of �5lakh each, as a one-time spe-cial measure, in the unfortu-nate case of demise of per-sonnel like Show-room Staff,Godown-keepers, Mechanicsand Delivery boys, attendingduty in the LPG distributor-ship chain, due to the infec-tion and impact of Covid-19,”it said.

PMUY was launched byPrime Minister NarendraModi on May 1, 2016 in Ballia(Uttar Pradesh) to providefree cooking gas connectionsto 50 million poor house-holds. Later, the target wasraised to 80 million house-holds, which was achievedsix months in advance onSeptember 7, 2019.

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The IAS OfficersAssociation, Bihar Branch,

has contributed �10 lakh to theChief Minister's Relief Fund(CMRF), in support of thefight against Covid-19.

Earlier, �5 lakh had beengiven by the Association forthis purpose to the CMRFmaking the total contributionof �15 lakh by the Associationto the CMRF.

Dipak Kumar Singh, theSecretary of the Bihar Branch,said that contributions frommore members are still beingcollected, and the Associationwould give further amount inthe coming days.

Singh, currently PrincipalSecretary Environment inBihar Government, furthersaid that apart from contribut-ing through the Association,the IAS officers of the State arealso assisting people in distressin their personal capacity aswell as through NGOs andAlumni Associations of theirrespective schools and col-leges.

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In view of the suspension ofclassroom classes until fur-

ther notice due to the coron-avirus crisis, the KendriyaVidyalaya Sangathan (KVS)Delhi Region has taken sever-al initiatives for taking learningto the students through theonline method at its schoolsfrom Monday.

The KVS in a statementsaid the the HRD Ministry iscommitted to ensure safety andacademic welfare of studentsacross the country and thatKVS Delhi Region is all set tobegin online live classes fromclasses VI to VIII from Monday,whereas online live classes forclasses IX to XII is already inprogress through various onlineplatforms.

HRD Minister RameshPokhriyal Nishank last weekhad sought suggestions fromeducationists on how to devel-op and have a sound onlineeducation ecosystem in thecountry in the wake of closureof schools and academic insti-tutions. The HRD Ministryhas launched Bharat PadheOnline portal where sugges-tions have been sought in thisregard.

"While online live classesfor classes VI to VIII will startfrom Monday, KVS DelhiRegion has already started theonline live classes for IX to XIIon Facebook and YouTube.Huge response has beenreceived from the students andparents as there are approxi-mately 90,000 views and 40,000comments in two days of run-ning the classes.

"There are 13,343 sub-scribers on YouTube channel ofDelhi Region. A team of teach-ers across all streams and class-es was chosen to begin theselive interactive classes. Atimetable was framed for allsubjects and shared with thestudents through theWhatsApp school groups andYouTube. Specific instructionsregarding these live classes were

given to the principals of KVSDelhi Region, who then sharedthe same with the teachers andstudents," KVS CommissionerSantosh Kumar Mal said.

A playlist has also been cre-ated on the YouTube for the stu-dents to view these lessons, classand subject-wise.

At present, the teachers arepreparing lessons using differ-ent software like power pointwindows, movie makers andscreen recorder etc to createeducational videos. ThesePower point presentations arecreated with audio narrationsand converted to video formats.Then these lectures areuploaded on a dedicatedYouTube channel.Teachers arealso providing questions forhomework, assignments andsend to the students using dif-

ferent apps/software likeGoogle Form, Kahoot.com (ForMCQ), Hot potatoes andQuizzes.com. Students are lik-ing this type of assignments asthey are different from the reg-ular Homework and are lesstime consuming and challeng-ing.

The HRD Minister onSunday launched another web-portal YUKTI (Young IndiaCombating COVID withKnowledge, Technology andInnovation) to monitor andrecord the efforts and initiativesof MHRD which have beentaken in the wake of COVID-19.

The portal intends to coverthe different dimensions ofCOVID-19 challenges in a veryholistic and comprehensiveway.

Speaking on the occasionNishank said that in the wakeof COVID-19 threat, our pri-mary aim is to keep our acad-emic community healthy, bothphysically & mentally and toenable a continuous high-qual-ity learning environment forlearners.

"The portal is an effort ofHRD Ministry to achieve thisgoal in these difficult times,"said the Ministry official.

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Union Home Ministry onSunday asked all States to

strictly comply with theSupreme Court’s orders on thewelfare of migrant labourershoused at relief camps.

Citing the Supreme Court’sdirections, the Ministry toldthe States to ensure the role oftrained counselors and com-munity leaders from all reli-gions to boost the morale ofthe migrant labourers duringthe crisis period apart from theregular logistics of the camps.

The Home Ministry alsotold the States to strictly adhereto the Health Ministry direc-tive of service of psychologicalcounseling and implementa-tion of all medical facilities tothe displaced migrant labour.

"The Court directed thatadequate medical facilities

besides proper arrangementsfor food, clean drinking waterand sanitation be ensured formigrant workers at reliefcamps/shelters across thecountry. Further, trained coun-sellors and/ or communitygroup leaders belonging to allfaiths should visit the reliefcamps/ shelter homes and dealwith any consternation that themigrants might be goingthrough.

“The Court also observedthat the anxiety and fear of themigrants should be under-stood by the police and otherauthorities, and that theyshould deal with the migrantsin a humane manner. Further,the State Governments/ UTsshould endeavour to engagevolunteers along with thepolice to supervise the welfareactivities of the migrants,” saidMHA reiterating the States tofollowup the regular direc-

tions of Union HealthMinistry.

The government had toldthe Supreme Court that almosta third of the migrants return-ing to their home towns andvillages could be infected withthe novel coronavirus. Asmany as 21,000 relief campshave been set up by states andUTs to house more than 6.5lakh migrants, as per theMinistry of Home Affairs.

Following the SupremeCourt directives, the HealthMinistry also called for pro-viding a social protection tomigrant workers, saying theyare prone to social, psycho-logical and emotional traumain lockdown situations.

But with just around15,000 trained counsellors andpsychiatrists in the country, theGovernment has a mammothtask at its hand to implementthe Supreme Court order.

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The Jammu and Kashmiradministration on Sunday

directed for continuation ofagriculture operations in acontroller manner besidesallowing bi-annual movementof nomadic tribes in "smallgroups at a slow pace".

However, the administra-tion directed the deputy com-missioners and district policeheads for strict implementationof restrictions in all the 77COVID-19 'Red Zones' acrossthe Union Territory.

Chief Secretary B V RSubrahmanyam passed thedirections at a high-level meet-ing which was convened hereto discuss the strategy to beadopted for containment ofCOVID-19 keeping in view therecent spurt in positive cases,an official spokesperson said.

A total of 224 perople – 180in Kashmir and 44 in Jammu -- had tested positive for coro-navirus till Saturday evening.Of them, four had died includ-ing three in the valley and onein Jammu.

To ensure that the rural

economy is not affected,Subrahmanyam directed theDCs and SSPs to coordinatewith Secretary Agriculture forsmooth continuation of agri-cultural and allied operationsby the farmers in their districts.

He asked for proper regu-lation of food grain mandis andalso to notify temporary man-dis, in addition to the alreadynotified mandis, to avoid largegatherings of persons at oneplace.

Regarding the movementof Bakarwal community fromJammu towards higher reach-

es of Kashmir in search ofgreener pastures for their ani-mals, the chief secretary direct-ed DCs and SSPs to allowtheir movement in a regulatedmanner.

“Only small groups at aslow pace should be allowed tomove,” he said.

To control the spread ofcoronavirus, he stressed onproper regulation in Red Zonesand a complete lockdown inthe identified areas.

"District administration,in close coordination with dis-trict police, should ensure that

there is zero movement ofpeople," he added.

Subrahmanyam furtherdirected the officials to under-take door-to-door surveys andextensive fumigation in all theRed Zones besides earlyissuance of operational guide-lines for management of theRed Zones by the HealthDepartment so that chances offurther spread of virus areminimised.

However, essential suppliesare to be ensured in the RedZones and DCs should plan thedeliveries so that people do notface any inconvenience, headded.

Emphasising on sparingmedical professionals, the chiefsecretary directed the DCs notto involve doctors and otherstaff for survey related work asthey have to perform medicalduties and instead utilise otherstaff for such exercises.

He also asked them to pro-mote usage of 'Aarogya Setu'app as an essential tool in thefight against COVID-19, thespokesperson said.

With regard to the imme-diate need of capacity enhance-ment, the chief secretary direct-ed all DCs to increase thenumber of isolation and quar-antine beds.

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Page 5: ˚ ˜ ˆ˙˝˘...2020/04/13  · Director Shalini Pandit gave some relaxing news. The Health and Family Welfare Department in its offi-cial twitter post confirmed that four persons

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Till Saturday, sanitary work-ers in Tamil Nadu’s Karur

district never knew that life wasbeautiful and there were kindhearted people around. Thedistrict is famous for bankingbusiness as well as textile indus-tries and daily life used to befast moving. But COVID-19and corona virus turned every-thing topsy-turvy. As the StateGovernment declared a totallock-down, people in Karurdistrict too were left with noother alternative but to followthe diktat. Whatever the com-pensation package announcedby the Government seemedpeanuts.

But there were some brightpatches during the testingtimes. There emerged a personin Karur, an apolitical, secularand broad minded person forwhom the man and woman in

the streets were of paramountconcern. Thogai Murugan, a54-year-old self made entre-preneur who came up in lifethrough the hard way, is theman of the hour in the district.

The sanitary workers andcasual employees in Karurtown who were left pennilessand jobless because of the lockdown were in for a surprise asMurugan and his family mem-bers invited them all to hishouse on Saturday and per-formed paada pooja (worship-ping the feet) on them.Murugan, his wife and sonwashed the feet of the sanitaryworkers, offered aarati andsought the blessings of theinvitees by falling at their feet.The icing on the cake was yetto come. “Each of the inviteesnumbering 105 was offeredcash and essential items worthRs 5 lakh which brought tearsin the eyes of the recipients.The sanitary workers who are

the frontline warriors in thebattle against corona virus wereinsured by us,” Murugan toldThe Pioneer. He ensured thata total of 2000 casual workersin the city who faced bleakfuture because of the lockdown got relief materials in theform of rice and groceries.

What prompted him to

spend such big amount forthese workers? “What is theguarantee that Ill survive thispandemic? How many of uswill come out of this attack bythe virus for which there is novaccine as on today? I am notgoing to take with me thematerials I had saved over theyears when my dead body is

taken to the burial ground. IfI can save at least one life, I candie peacefully,” said Murugan.

He said the paada poojawas an act of reciprocation.“They are the real guards whoensure our safety from thepandemic. Can you imagine aday in our life without their ser-vices? This is my way of thank-ing the real life Gods,” saidMurugan, a sworn rationalist.

For Selvaraj and wife Rani,the offering from Muruganwas a divine intervention. “Wewere worried about how to feedthe children in these times oflock out as there is no salary.Here, Ayya (a word of rever-ence) has made our Easter ahappy occasion, somethingwhich we will rememberthroughout our life,” saidSelbva, a sanitary worker.

Corona brings the goodside of life too.

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Bengal Governor JagdeepDhankhar has advised the

Trinamool CongressGovernment not to politicisethe battle against corona.Referring to the Union HomeMinistry’s letter to the StateGovernment warning it againstslack enforcement of lock-down in selected areas theGovernor on Sunday said thatnone should use the grim sit-uation to play politics.

“The Home Ministry hadearlier written a letter where itraised the issue of how thelockdown is being diluted incertain areas … where nosocial distancing is being main-tained and where religiouscongregations are beingallowed to take place. This canaggravate the situation,” theGovernor said adding this wasno time to politicise things.

Apparently referring tothe administration’s green sig-nal to only the TrinamoolCongress’ workers to distributerelief disallowing members ofother parties from joining therelief work the Governor said,“this is not a time to do poli-tics particularly when the sit-uation is so grim … the relief

materials should be distributedby the Government agenciesand not political workers…This will only lead to politi-cization of the matter and thereal purpose will be defeated.”

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee had made a snappishremark on Saturday whilereferring to the HomeMinistry’s letter when she saidthat “you all know by men-tioning the areas where thelockdown is allegedly not beingimplemented properly Delhiwants to pinpoint a particulargroup of population … But Iwant to tell them that we arefighting against a deadly virusand not a communal virus. Iwill not allow any communalpolitics here.”

The letter from Delhi hadalleged that “people have beenthronging in complete viola-tion of social distancingnorms...” mentioning specificareas like Maniktala, NarkelDanga, Rajabazaar, Topsia,Metiaburz, Gardenreach,Ekbalpur Ulta Danga.Incidentally all of these areasare dominated by the people ofminority community.

Apart from Dhankhar theLeft Front also attacked theState Government for not fol-

lowing the ICMR norms inso-far as conducting maximumtests are concerned. StateCPI(M) secretary and partypolitburo member SuryakantoMishra on Sunday said that“not only that adequate num-ber of tests are not being donebut also in many cases thedeaths are being ascribed to co-morbidity reasons which ishighly fallacious.”

Himself a doctor and a for-mer Health Minister of theState, Mishra said that “anycasualty irrespective of co-morbidity reasons should belisted as corona death if the vic-tim had contracted the diseaseotherwise the seriousness ofthe situation will be lost on thepeople.” Apart from conduct-ing tests the Governmentshould also come out with theirdata which will help theresearchers to handle the cri-sis in better manner, he main-tained.

Meanwhile, the BengalGovernment is planning tomake wearing masks manda-tory in the State. According tosources, the Government willsoon come out with ordersmaking masks mandatory forthe people who comeout in thestreets.

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As the number of persons in theState tested positive for coron-

avirus reached 1075 by Sundayevening, Government of TamilNadu has launched an aggressivetesting and containment pro-gramme to restrict the disease instage-2 itself, according to BeelaRajesh, Secretary, health and fam-ily welfare department.

With 106 persons tested posi-tive for coronavirus on Sunday, theGovernment increased the numberof laboratories in the State wherethe virus could be tested. “FromSunday onwards, testing could bedone in 14 Government laborato-ries and nine private laboratories.The Central Government ownedJIPMER medical college and hos-pital at Puducherry too wouldserve as a center for testing samplesfrom Tamil Nadu,” said Beela Rajesh, herself a medical doctor by train-ing.

Out of the 106 persons testingpositive on Sunday, 90 are from thesingle source event held at Delhiand 16 are those who associatedwith them. The spurt in the num-

ber of patients getting admitted tohospitals with coronavirus case hasforced the Government to takesome more drastic measures. OnSunday two more persons suc-cumbed to the dreaded virus tak-ing the death toll in the State to 11.

The Government on Sundaywarned volunteers, NGOs andpolitical parties distributing cookedfoods to the homeless and needy inviolation of section 144. AGovernment order in this regardasked the concerned persons todonate the money they spent toChief Minister’s Relief Fund orhand over the food to ChennaiCorporation authorities for distri-bution among the needy.

The disinfectant tunnels whichcreated a sensation all over the Statewill no longer be allowed anywherein Tamil Nadu. The Department ofHealth by a special Governmentorder asked the officials not toinstall disinfectant tunnels citing aworld health organisation directivewhich stated that such tunnelswould create a false sense of secu-rity and people may be divertedfrom handwash to disinfectiontunnel.

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Three civilians including aminor boy and a woman

were killed in fresh escalationby the Pakistan Army alongthe line of control in NorthKashmir's Kupwara districton Sunday.

Heavy exchange of firingwas also reported from dif-ferent sectors of Poonch. Inresponse, the Indian Armyretaliated strongly and effec-tively. A group of local resi-dents in forward areas ofKupwara came out of theirhomes urging Army men toallow them to shift to saferplaces before giving a befittingreply to Pakistan.

Till the time of filing thereport, the Pakistan Armyhad intensified mortar shellingin Balakote and Mendhar sec-tors of Poonch. Earlier, firingwas reported during day time

from Qasba, Kirni areas ofPoonch district. Large numberof villagers remained closetedinside their houses due toheavy shelling in the forwardareas. According to groundreports from Keran sector,Pakistan army targeted sever-al civilian pockets inChowkibal area of Kupwaraafter 4.00 p.m using heavy cal-ibre weapons. It is after a longgap, areas located several kilo-metres away from the line ofcontrol were targeted by thePakistan Army clearly indi-cating their intention to fur-ther escalate the tensions.

Several shells hit resi-dential areas in which threecivilians were killed while sev-eral others received injuries.Some of the structures alsocaught fire while others suf-fered huge damages in directhits. Deputy Commissioner,Kupwara Anshul Garg con-

firmed the deaths of threecivilians in the area.

Srinagar based DefenceSpokesman, Col Rajesh Kaliasaid, "unprovoked ceasefireviolation was initiated byPakistan in Keran sector ofKupwara at 5.00 p.m". Hesaid, "the Pakistan Army tar-geted civilian populationresulting in killing of threecivilians including one womanand a child".

Local authorities identi-fied deceased civilians as 8-year-old Ziyan Bashir, 17-year-old Javid Ahmad and 35year old Shameema Begum. InJammu, Defence spokesman,Lt-Col Devender Anand said,"Pakistan army intensifiedceasefire violations along theLoC in Jammu &Kashmir onSunday". Three back to backceasefire violations werereported during the day at dif-ferent intervals.

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Alady doctor and a soldier on leavetested positive for Covid-19 along

with 19 others in Jammu & Kashmir, tak-ing the total tally to 245 cases on Sunday.

According to official sources, a ladydoctor from Jammu, posted inUdhampur tested positive along with onesoldier, hailing from Supwal area ofSamba,and two others from Jammuwhile 17 fresh cases were detected fromKashmir region on Sunday. Movingswiftly, all the fresh cases were isolatedin dedicated covid hospitals in Jammuand Srinagar and their close relatives werequarantined and their samples weresent for testing.

The authorities on ground zero havetightened the grip especially in red-zonesby completely sealing the areas andblocking entry and exit points by spread-ing concertina wires on different routes.

According to the daily Media Bulletinon novel coronavirus (Covid-19), out of245 positive cases, 235 are Active Positive,06 have recovered and 04 have died.

Furthermore, till date 51320 travellersand persons in contact with suspectedcases have been put under surveillancewhich include 9153 persons in homequarantine including facilities operated

by Government, 433 in HospitalQuarantine, 235 in hospital isolation and29718 under home surveillance. Besides,11777 persons have completed their 28-day surveillance period.

The Bulletin further said that 3355samples have tested as negative till April12, 2020.

Providing district-wise breakup, theBulletin said that Srinagar has 58 posi-tive cases wherein 56 are Active Positive,01 recovered and 01 has died, Bandipora42 positive cases with 39 Active Positive,02 recovered and 01 died, Baramulla 37positive cases with 36 Active Positive, nocase has recovered and 01 died, Budgam11 positive cases all of whom are ActivePositive, Pulwama 03 positive cases-allActive Positive, Shopian and Kupwarawith 14 and 23 positive cases respectivelyand all are Active Positive, and Ganderbaland Kulgam with 05 and 04 positive casesrespectively all of whom are ActivePositive.

Similarly, Jammu has 21 positivecases of whom 19 are Active Positive and02 have recovered, Udhampur 19 posi-tive cases of which 18 are Active Positive,0 recovered and 01 died, while as Rajouriand Samba have 03 and 04 positive casesrespectively and all are Active Positiveand the single positive case has recoveredfully in Kishtwar district.

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The Indian Hotels Company Limited(IHCL)—which manages the Taj

group of hotels – on Sunday admittedthat an unspecified number of employ-ees have tested positive and have beenduly hospitalised.

Amid reports that six employees ofTaj Mahal Palace Hotel in southMumbai have tested positive for Covid-19, the IHCL in a statement issued heresaid: “Approximately 500 of ouremployees who are at work in ourMumbai hotels have been tested todate. Those who have tested positivemostly were asymptomatic showingabsolutely no signs of illness. However,staff testing positive and symptomaticwere duly hospitalized and otherswho were in contact with them haveimmediately been put in quarantine”.

The IHCL said that the others whohad come in contact with those whohave tested positive have been quar-antined in accordance with WorldHealth Organization (WHO) normsand guidelines issued by the localGovernment authorities”

“Taj Mahal Palace and Tower doesnot have any guests at the current timeand only very minimal staff in areaslike housekeeping, security, mainte-nance and staff dining are present toensure the upkeep and maintenance ofthe hotel,” an IHCL spokesperson

said.“The safety of our associates and

their families remain paramount dur-ing these unprecedented times. Weremain committed to operating underall the guidelines of the WHO,Governmental agencies and other reg-ulatory bodies,” the IHCL spokesper-son said.

“In keeping with our values ofbeing a responsible company and as amatter of abundant precaution, we havebeen proactively ramping up testingcriteria for our employees, especiallythose who are in the front lines at thesetimes,” the spokesperson said

“IHCL has been supporting theGovernment with various humanitar-ian initiatives by offering its hotels tothe medical fraternity, health workers,supporting certain states with quar-antine facilities and also providingalmost 4 lakh meals till date to Doctors,health workers and migrant workers.The President, Taj Lands End, TajSantacruz and Ginger Andheri are alsohosting the medical fraternity in closecooperation with BMC,” the IHCLstatement said.

Earlier, reports in a section ofmedia quoting the doctors at theBombay Hospital that six hospitalisedpatients were the employees of TajMahal Palace Hotel in south Mumbai.The doctors said that the condition ofthe hospitalised employees was“stable”.

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In a shocking incident onSunday, a woman threw

her five children into theGanga river in Jeghangirabadin Uttar Pradesh's Bhadohidistrict.

As soon as the policewere informed, senior policeofficials reached the spot anddivers were pressed into ser-vice to locate the children.

The woman has beenarrested and police officialssaid that she seemed mental-ly unsound.

Sources, meanwhile, saidthat the woman had earliersaid that she and her childrenwere not getting food in thelockdown and money inflowhad stopped because she wasa daily wage earner.

"Our priority is to rescuethe children as soon as pos-sible, We will carry out otherinvestigations later," said apolice official.

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Apregnant woman late Saturday night deliv-ered a baby girl in a running Police con-

trol room (PCR) van of Channi Himmat policestation before reaching a nearby hospital.

According to police, a SOS call was receivedby them past midnight to shift a pregnantwoman to a nearby hospital.

Responding quickly, the police team reachedthe spot and picked three members includingcouple and a professional mid-wife. While theywere enroute, pregnant woman delivered a babygirl in the running PCR van near railway sta-tion. After the delivery, the couple requested thepolice team to drop them home.

"We were lucky, police van came to our res-cue without any delay even at his odd hour, Raju,proud father told media persons outside hishome on Sunday. His wife Sonia, said she wouldname her daughter 'Vaishnavi'.

Meanwhile, taking advantage of desertedstreets, thieves ran away with bottles of liquorand cash after breaking open the rear wall of thewine shop in Rehari area of Jammu late Saturdaynight.

The shop owner claimed, in the absence ofsale register, it is difficult for him to make anassessment about the actual losses suffered byhim. Police teams visited the area and took sam-ples to track down the thieves in thearea.Questions were also raised over the tightvigil maintained by the police on deserted streetsand main roads. The shop was located on themain road near Indira Gandhi Dental collegeand the office of DG Prisons.

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The MaharashtraGovernment has booked

156 foreigners from 18 countriesfor allegedly violating the visarules and attending the TablighiJamaat event at Nizamuddin inDelhi last month.

Announcing this, StateHome Minister Anil Deshmukhsaid here on Sunday: “Thepolice have booked 156 for-eigners for visa rules violationsunder section 14-B ofForeigners Act, other relevantsections of IPC Further inves-tigations are on”.

The section 14 (b) of theForeigners Act, 1946 (Penaltyfor contravention of provisionsof the Act, etc) read thus:“Whoever-- does any act in vio-lation of the conditions of thevalid visa issued to him for hisentry and stay in India or anypart thereunder;

Deshmukh said that allthese foreigners had been grant-ed a tourist visa for India “butthey flouted the norms by vis-

iting the Tablighi Jamaat markazin Delhi last month”.

The 18 countries fromwhich they came are: Indonesia37, Kyrgyzstan 19, Myanmar 18,Bangladesh 13, Tanzania 11,Philippines 10, Kazakhstan andIvory Coast 9 each, Malaysia 8,Togo 6, Djibouti 5, Brunei 4,Russia 2, USA, Benin, Iran,Ghana and South Africa 1 each.

The Minister said that asmany as 15 offences have beenregistered by police in Mumbai,Thane, Navi Mumbai,Amravati, Nanded, Nagpur,Pune, Ahmednagar,Chandrapur and Gadchiroli,and all the foreigners are cur-rently kept in institutional quar-antine, he added.

The MaharashtraGovernment’s stern actionagainst 156 foreign nationalsshould be seen in the context ofits earlier decision to cancel atwo-day Tablighi Jamaat eventheld along the lines of the oneheld at Nizamuddin whichbecame hotbed for Coronaviruscases.

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Lucknow: Farmers should begiven relief from the lockdownto harvest crop, and the UttarPradesh Government wouldencourage institutions andagencies to purchase foodgrains directly from the grow-ers at minimum support price(MSP) or higher, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath saidon Sunday.

He directed officials tostart online classes for stu-dents of higher education, tech-nical education, nursing andparamedical studies, so thattheir academic schedule is notwholly disrupted.

Online counselling of stu-dents was also discussed at ameeting of officials chaired byChief Minister YogiAdityanath. Teachers should betrained for this. On the instruc-tion of Adityanath, the work ofproviding e-content has beenstarted in all universities.Chhatrapati Shahu Ji MaharajUniversity in Kanpur hasimplemented e-educationsmoothly according to thisorder.

"At the meeting, the chiefminister said since harvestingseason is on, farmers should beallowed to move. Apart from

Government purchasing cen-tres, if other institutions andagencies want to buy cropsdirectly from farmers, theywould be encouraged to do soprovided the price is on parwith the MSP or above,"Additional Chief Secretary(Home) Awanish Awasthi toldreporters here.

About arrangements madefor the Tablighi Jamaat con-gregation members traced inthe state, he said, "Provisions toquarantine people related to theTablighi Jamaat have beenmade so as to stop furtherspread of Covid-19. PTI

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In yet another biggest spike inthe number of deaths and

infections in a day, as many as22 persons on Sunday suc-cumbed to Covid-19 inMaharashtra taking the totalnumber of deaths to 149 and221 others tested positive forthe pandemic in the State.

On a day when the totalnumber of infected cases in theState rose from 1761 to 1982,Mumbai recorded 16 deaths,while there were three deathsin Pune, two in Navi Mumbaiand one in Solapur.

Mumbai, which is the mostcoronavirus-affected city in

the country, has so far record-ed 92 deaths and 1298 infect-ed cases.

Of the 22 persons died toCovid on Sunday, 13 were menand 9 women. Six of those deadwere aged over 60 years, while15 deceased were from the agegroup 40 to 60 years and onewas below 40 years “Twenty outof these 22 patients (91%) hadhigh-risk co-morbidities suchas diabetes, hypertension, asth-ma and heart disease,” a med-ical bulletin released by theState Health Department said.

Out of 41,109 laboratorysamples, 37,964 were negativeand 1982 have been testedpositive for coronavirus until

today. As many as 217 patientshave been discharged till dateafter full recovery,” the bulletinsaid.

“As many as 1,247 peopleare in home quarantine, while5064 people are in institution-al quarantine,” the bulletinsaid.

Meanwhile, the state healthauthorities said that they werecarrying out a thorough searchof citizens who had attendedthe religious gathering atBanglewali Masjid atNizamuddin last month wasunderway at the level of all dis-tricts and municipal corpora-tions.

Of the Tablighi Jamaat

event attendees, 755 have beentested and 37 have been foundto be positive for Covid-19.

Out of these 37, 8 are inLatur, 7 in Yavatmal, 6 inBuldhana, 3 in Mumbai, and 2each in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Ahmednagar,and one each in Ratnagiri,Nagpur MunicipalCorporation, Hingoli, Jalgaon,Osmanabad, Kolhapur andWashim. Additionally, 6 con-tacts of these cases have beenfound positive in Ahmednagarand 1 in Pimpri-Chinchwad.

The health authorities saidthat as per the guidance fromGovernment of India, clustercontainment action plan was

being implemented in placeswhere clusters of patients havebeen found in the state.

“There are total 4846 sur-veillance squads deployedacross the state and surveillanceof 17.46lakh population hasbeen done. Twenty six personsthe same family and their con-tacts had been found positiveat Ismalpur in Sangli district.Twenty four of them have beendischarged upon recovery untilnow.

Thirty one surveillancesquads regularly searchedthrough the population of over7,500 in the affected area inIslampur during the last twoweeks,” the bulletin added.

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Twenty five more positive caseswere detected in Gujarat on

Sunday morning and one person hasdied due to Covid-19, the healthauthorities announced, taking thetotal detected positive coronaviruscases to 493 in the state.

Till Sunday, 23 deaths due tocoronavirus have been reported inGujarat.

Despite the health authoritiesclaims of containing the coron-avirus spread crammed into limit-ed pockets or hotspots, the virusspread is springing up in new areasin Ahmedabad as well as in otherparts of Gujarat.

On Sunday, 25 more positivecases were detected by the healthauthorities, out of whichAhmedabad had 23. Two cases werefrom Anand. Many cases were foundfrom areas which have not beenmarked as hotspots in Ahmedabadlike Behrampura, Ghodasar, Ranip,Maninagar. Earlier too, cases werefound from Juhapura, New Vadaj,Dudheshwar, Manek chowk inAhmedabad.

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Page 6: ˚ ˜ ˆ˙˝˘...2020/04/13  · Director Shalini Pandit gave some relaxing news. The Health and Family Welfare Department in its offi-cial twitter post confirmed that four persons

The flight-tracking service,Flightradar24, is a very usefulapplication for frequent flyers.By allowing passengers to seetraffic patterns and where the

aircraft, which is going to operate the nextflight, currently is, it gives a fairly good ideaas to when it will take off. On other days,one could just see a plane pass overhead,fire up the application and find out whereit is coming from or going to, maybe justto get the vicarious joy of virtually travel-ling. In a city like Dubai, where the gigan-tic Emirates airline rules with over 100A380 double-deckers ferrying peopleacross the world, it is just amazing to fireup the application on the phone and lookat all the places those gigantic machines aregoing to.

Therefore, whether one is a frequentflyer or just an aviation geek, the last monthhas been a crazy one. Today, if you openthe Flightradar24 application or the web-site and look over India, you will see bare-ly a plane in the sky. Those that youencounter are those from South-east Asia,travelling to Europe over India, and theoccasional cargo flights flying into majorIndian airports. Besides, maybe one can seean evacuation flight or two every other dayas Air India and other airlines, such asIndiGo, have been operating flights to getforeign nationals out of the country. Otherthan that, nothing.

All of India’s 650 plus commercial pas-senger planes are for the large part ground-ed. And India is not unique here. EvenEmirates is operating just cargo flights andmost of its A380s have been tucked awayat Dubai’s huge World City airport. At leastit will be able to bring these giants back intothe service. Airlines like Air France,Lufthansa and Qantas are debating the veryfuture of these aircraft. Across the world,even in the US, where there are over 10,000commercial aircraft crisscrossing that vastnation, most planes are grounded.

The Coronavirus has hit global avia-tion like nothing before. According to theInternational Air Transport Association,airlines globally can lose passenger rev-enues of up to $113 billion due to this cri-sis. Not that the tensions between India andPakistan last year, which had shut all aircorridors between the two countries, cancompare or the shootdown of theMalaysian Boeing 777 over Ukraine andIran’s downing of a Ukrainian aircraft. Eventhe aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks wasnot so brutal. Aviation consultancy, theCentre for Asia Pacific Aviation India PvtLtd (Capa India), has said that domestic airpassenger traffic is expected to drop froman estimated 140 million in FY20 toaround 80-90 million in FY21 and inter-national traffic is expected to almost halvefrom around 70 million in FY20 to 35-40million in FY21.

Why is it so bad this time around? Well

clearly, hints of how aviationspreads a global pandemicwere evident during the SARSoutbreak of 2004 and the sub-sequent spread of Avian andSwine flu. During the spread ofsuch infections, air travel in andaround the East and South-eastAsia had collapsed. But becausethe virulence of those viruseswas far less than the one blow-ing like a tornado through theaviation world today, the over-all impact was, at best, minimalin Europe and America.

This time around, the vir-ulence of the disease, coupledwith the insane growth of theaviation sector over the pastdecade, is going to make theindustry suffer badly. Indeed,aviation is a victim of its ownsuccess as connectivity movedfrom huge hubs like Beijing andShanghai to direct connectivi-ty to cities like Wuhan.

Unfortunately, afterGovernments hummed andhawed for a couple of weeksbefore shutting aviation down,often delaying flight lockdownsat the insistence of airline lob-byists, the impact might carryon for longer. Even if Indiareopens its skies, it looksincreasingly likely that thewithdrawal of aviation serviceswill only be gradually easedout.

As for international flights,several nations across the worldare still under lockdown. Thiswill go on for a longer periodof time than in India. At leastas of now, some nations, suchas Singapore, are major aviationhubs. It is estimated that at least200 of India’s commercial fleetwill not be required whenthings restart. Leisure travel willbe hit hard as jobs will disap-pear and increments willbecome a thing of the past,resulting in lower discretionaryspends.

But the impact on interna-tional travel is likely to beharder still. Foreign holidaytravel, particularly to hard-hittourist hubs such as Italy andSpain, will vanish. Non-essen-tial business travel, too, will.The conference market dryingup will mean fewer trips tocountries like Germany andeven China. Airlines likeEmirates, which have gorgedthemselves on Indian travellersfor three decades now, mightsuddenly run out of the runwayas aviation will likely reformitself in ways we cannot evenpredict today.

Make no mistake, interna-tional and domestic air travelwill recover. One reason for thisis because a vibrant and oper-ational aviation sector is strate-

gically vital for large nationslike India. While the IndianGovernment will not be able tobail out airlines, the latter willhave to indulge in small mea-sures to get the sector up andrunning again, at least to adecent baseline.

This is also a time when theGovernment will have to sitdown with industry leadersand figure out what it will haveto do to help the sector grow.It needs to ponder if any pro-tectionist moves, such as pre-venting large numbers ofIndian travellers flying throughhubs such as Dubai andSingapore, will be required.

At the same time, flying isall a confidence game. By now,everybody is calling theCoronavirus a “travelling sales-man” disease. One reason forthe dramatic growth in airtravel over the past decade hasbeen because of the incrediblesafety record of modern civilaviation but that confidence hasdisappeared thanks to the virus.So, how do we get that confi-dence back? That will have tobe something the Governmentwill have to do alongside air-lines. It is not just us,Governments across the worldwill have to deal with it.

(The writer is ManagingEditor, The Pioneer)

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Sir — At a time when the entireworld is unitedly fighting a deci-sive battle against COVID-19, itis not just unfortunate but alsocondemnable that some groupsare trying to communalise thisissue. The Markaz of the TablighiJamaat had reportedly informedthe authorities about the event inwriting and even asked the DelhiGovernment and the police tomake arrangements for the par-ticipants to be transported backhome as many workers had beenstranded after the sudden lock-down.

However, several news agen-cies are trying to sensationalise thistragedy to mislead the people bypresenting only one side of the sit-uation. The Government shouldacknowledge that the Delhiadministration took no precau-tionary measures in this regardeven when all the information hadbeen brought to its knowledge. Ifa report has been registered againstthe Nizamuddin officials, thenthere should also be one againstthe Government officials whoneglected their duty.

Abdul MalikNavi Mumbai

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Biden vs Trump” (April 11).The spread of Coronavirus could

well make the Trump-Biden con-test a side show if it relentlesslyclaims casualties till say August.As of date, three-quarters of theconfirmed cases in America arein States which voted for a

Democratic Party leader in 2016.New York alone comprises half ofthe total number of cases.

Americans, not very enlight-ened beyond partisan politics,may stay as divided as four years

earlier. The mounting cases anddeath toll is yet to educate themthat the virus does not attack onparty lines. The hard Right, evenwith near four million cases andcounting, is more concerned onthe right to free movement andspeech. The observance of isola-tion is seen as fascist and its loy-alty to Trump may, thus, stay undi-minished. The raw, partisan WildWest spirit has not been dulledeven after 200 years and Biden isyet to bring in animal spirits tocounter a hedonistic President.

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

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Sir — The biggest challenge forthe authorities will be to imple-ment the Supreme Court’s orderto ensure free testing of Coronain private labs because such diag-nostic centres can take advantageof difficult times and demandmoney from people. Free testingavailability will go a long way infighting Covid but it is altruistic.

AmanVia email

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Page 7: ˚ ˜ ˆ˙˝˘...2020/04/13  · Director Shalini Pandit gave some relaxing news. The Health and Family Welfare Department in its offi-cial twitter post confirmed that four persons

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In a notification submitted to the World TradeOrganisation (WTO) — the multilateral bodywhich binds member countries to a common set

of rules with regard to trade in goods and serviceswith “fairness” and “non-discrimination” as itsunderlying principles — India has informed that thevalue of its rice production during 2018-19 market-ing year was $43.67 billion and for that, it providedsubsidies worth $5 billion. This works out to 11.4 percent of the value of rice production.

Under the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) ofthe WTO, a developing country cannot give aggre-gate measurement support (AMS) — an acronym forsubsidies in WTO parlance — in excess of 10 per centof the value of its agricultural production. The AMSincludes “product-specific” subsidies and “non-prod-uct specific” viz. subsidies on agricultural inputs likefertilisers, seed, irrigation and power.

The “product-specific” subsidy is excess of theMinimum Support Price (MSP) paid to farmers overthe External Reference Price (ERP) multiplied by thequantum of agri-produce. Whereas the MSP is takenfor that very year, say, 2018-19, the ERP is the aver-age of the international price prevailing during 1986-88 fixed in rupee terms. The “non-product specif-ic” subsidies are money spent by the Governmenton schemes to supply agricultural inputs at subsidisedrates. Compliance has to be ensured both for indi-vidual crop as well as at the aggregate level. Forinstance, the subsidy on rice should remain below10 per cent of its production value. Besides, the sumtotal of subsidy on all crops, say rice, wheat and coarsecereals should not exceed 10 per cent of agri-pro-duction value. This rules out a scenario whereby acountry gives more on one crop, say 15 per cent onrice, and yet keeps aggregate subsidy within the 10per cent threshold by giving less on another crop.

Since, the subsidy given to rice farmers in 2018-19 at 11.4 per cent of production value exceeded 10per cent, India has violated its commitment underthe WTO. The breach is open to challenge by othermembers. However, it has invoked the “peaceclause” to seek immunity from action. The Indianrequest will come up for consideration in the WTOCommittee on Agriculture (CoA).

So, what is the “peace clause”? Does it providean effective shield? Will the CoA allow its benefit?Can India explore other options?

India runs a mammoth programme of PublicStockholding for Food Security Purposes. Under it,agencies of the Government viz. Food Corporationof India (FCI) and so on, buy agri-produce from thefarmers at MSP (notified by the union) and distrib-ute through a network of fair price shops to meet thefood security needs of India’s poor and vulnerablepopulation at affordable price. Since, MSP is high-er than ERP, the excess is deemed as subsidy.

Developing countries, with India leading fromthe front, have consistently argued at the WTO thatsince the Public Stockholding is intended to servethe food security objective and does not cause anydistortion in international trade, subsidies givenunder this programme should be exempt from com-mitment under the AoA. The ninth WTO ministe-rial in Bali (2013) agreed to a “peace clause” underwhich “if a developing country gives AMS in excessof 10 per cent, no member will challenge this until2017 when WTO would look for a permanent solu-tion to address their food security concerns”.

The peace clause came with a plethora of con-ditions viz., submission of data on food procurement,stockholding, distribution and subsidies (including

their computation) and do on. These alsoincluded establishing that subsidies are not“trade distorting.” Moreover, it intended tocover only the schemes existing at the timeof the Bali declaration.

The peace clause was intended to bea “stop gap” arrangement that should haveended in 2017 by which time, a permanentsolution should have been in place. But thatwas not to be. In December, 2014, theWTO-General Council (GC) approved“extension of the peace clause till a perma-nent solution was found.” This meantindefinite deferment of the permanentsolution and perpetual dependence ofdeveloping countries on the “peace clause.”In the WTO-GC meeting in Geneva onJuly 31, 2014, India had insisted on a time-bound action plan to find a permanentsolution, to be executed before the end of2014 co-terminus with approval of theTrade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) — anarea of great importance to developedcountries. In December, 2014 GC even asthe latter got away with the TFA, the for-mer was merely handed out a “peaceclause” and that, too, with a plethora of rid-ers.

That the permanent solution route wasmore or less closed, it was also evident fromthe 10th ministerial in Nairobi (December,2015) when it decided that “negotiationson the subject shall be held in the CoA,which will be distinct from the ongoingagriculture negotiations under the DohaDevelopment Round (DDR).” The man-date of CoA normally being routine mat-ters, it was naive to expect from it a far-reaching policy decision. In the 11thWTO — ministerial held in Buenos Aires(December 2017), the DDR was dumped.

Coming to India’s request seekingrefuge under the peace clause againstbreach of subsidy ceiling, now the CoA willexamine it in the light of conditionsappended to it. Considering that the US

has been lambasting India for allegedunder-reporting of its subsidies, it isunlikely to be a smooth sail.

In a notification to the WTO inMarch, 2018, India had reported AMS ofabout �12,000 crore on rice or 5.45 per centof production value during 2013-14,whereas, on wheat, AMS was �5,000crore or 3.53 per cent of production value.In a counter-claim made to the CoA (May,2018), the US stated that during 2013-14,Indian AMS on rice was �1,78,000 crore,or 77 per cent of production value and onwheat, it was �96,500 crore, or 65.3 per centof production value. The gap is due to vast-ly different methodologies used by Indiaand the US.

For arriving at AMS, India rightlycompares MRP with ERP of the same year;considers quantities procured for publicstock holding; excludes price supportprovided to resource poor farmers whoproduce food mostly for self-consumption.On the other hand, the US uses ERP ofover three decades back; considers evenquantities not procured by agencies andignores exemption to resource-poor farm-ers. There are inherent flaws in the US cal-culation. Relating the current MSP to inter-national price prevailing in 1986-88 is notonly illogical but is outright absurd; itinevitably results in “artificially” inflatedsubsidy. The benefit of MSP is not avail-able to quantities not procured fromfarmers; yet the US has included these inits calculations.

The resource-poor farmers producefood for their own consumption; hence,there is no question of subsidy given tothem distorting trade. Yet, the US has notexcluded subsidy support to them from thecalculation.

In the CoA, the US is bound to stickto its calculation and on that basis arguethat the 11.4 per cent reported by India for2018-19 (in case of rice) is a gross under-

statement. The Government should pullout all stops to counter the Americanclaim. It needs to go a step forward to evenchallenge the formula that got embeddedin the AoA (ERP frozen at 1986-88 levelwas part of the agreement).

Correcting the anomalies in themethodology of calculating AMS shouldbe at the core of finding a permanent solu-tion; that process should be resurrected andtaken to its logical end. Post-correction, thesubsidy figures will automatically come tomuch less than 10 per cent (as in 2013-14)or marginally higher (as in 2018-19). Smallvariations are more likely to be condonedand even if retaliatory action is sanctioned,that will entail much less pain. In any case,this would be far better than lettinganomalies continue leading to inflated sub-sidy and need to take refuge under anunreliable peace clause.

India also needs to mount a sustaineddiplomatic offensive to counter US effortsat the WTO to do away with the extantSpecial and Differential Treatment (S&DT)available to developing members whichenable less than reciprocal commitmentssuch as 10 per cent threshold for agri-sub-sidies (for developed countries, the thresh-old is five per cent). If, S&DT goes, Indiawill have to limit its subsidies to less thanfive per cent. Meanwhile, the Governmentshould take up restructuring its subsistingsubsidy regime. Instead of subsidising agri-inputs and MSP to farmers which are treat-ed as “actionable” subsidies, it should con-sider direct cash transfers to farmers sim-ilar to developed countries of US and EU.While, ensuring compliance with WTOrules, this will also help in eliminating inef-ficiencies and misuse that are germane topresent subsidy and price support regime.A collateral gain will be by way of prun-ing payments and helping fiscal discipline.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based pol-icy analyst)

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Currently, we are witnessingthe pandemic of the centuryand almost the whole world

is in a lockdown. The lives and liveli-hoods of millions are in peril. Eventhe so-called developed countries ofthe West have been unable to con-tain the Coronavirus. In all nations,the worst-affected by the shut-downs are the migrant blue collarworkers and their families as theyare the most vulnerable, unorgan-ised and exploited.

Indians being the largestmigrant workforce in the world willbe the worst impacted. Last year, thediaspora’s remittance was to the tune

of $80 billion but what it will be thisyear is anybody’s guess. Frighteningreports have started pouring infrom different parts of the worldrelated to the causalities suffered byNon-Resident Indians (NRIs). Asthe healthcare sector is at the fore-front of the fight against the pan-demic, the large number of Indiandoctors, nurses, paramedics work-ing around the globe will be theworst hit. Most of them are at riskdue to the non-availability or short-age of the PPE (Personal ProtectiveEquipment) needed to fight the pan-demic, even in developed nations.

Envisaging such disasters andconflict in 2015-16, the Migrants inCountries in Crisis (MICIC)Initiative developed guidelines toprotect expatriates through an inclu-sive consultative process. They pro-vide concrete and practical guidanceto stakeholders at the local, nation-al, regional and international levelson how to prepare for and respondto crises in ways that protect andempower migrants, leverage their

capacities and help expatriates andcommunities recover from crises.The guidelines address the fullcycle, i.e, crisis preparedness, emer-gency response and post-crisisaction.

Interventions, policies andstructures to assist and protectimmigrants during the emergencyphase of conflicts and natural dis-asters are best set up in times ofpeace, before a crisis occurs, withexpatriates being integrated into andinvolved in disaster and crisis man-agement planning. The SendaiFramework for Action 2015-2030,adopted at the UN WorldConference on Disaster RiskReduction, underlines the need fora holistic approach to disaster riskreduction (DRR). Unfortunately,our preparedness in this regard forthe Indian diaspora, as we all know,is non-existent.

Promoting, respecting and pro-tecting the rights of immigrants atall times to facilitate their inclusion,mitigate their vulnerabilities,

empower them to better protectthemselves and their community inthe event of a crisis, is vital.

The following are some salientpoints for dealing with this outbreakwith an earnest request for a detailedDRR plan at all our Missions abroadfor future crisis management.

Task groups should be readiedfor collecting and sharing data onimmigrants via local networks anddiaspora groups and with smarttools such as web applications andsocial media. This data shouldinclude information on migrantprofiles (including sex, age, statusand job) and contact details. Whilerespecting data protection laws,speedy procedures are required toregulate data sharing in times ofemergency.

Emergency hotlines should beestablished in all the Missions espe-cially the Emigration CheckRequired (ECR) countries with offi-cers to handle the major regionallanguages of India. Periodical advi-sories must be released in all the

major Indian languages.In order to provide assistance in

times of crisis, it is crucial to haveinformation on where migrants arelocated. Mapping must be done andshould include categories for tem-porary and permanent immigrants,irregular undocumented residents,students and tourists.

Creative communication chan-nels must be used to raise awarenessand improve the integration ofirregular migrants, as they are theworst hit.

User-friendly registration sys-tems should be evolved for individ-uals and groups, especially the vul-nerable sections of the undocument-ed or illegal immigrants.

In coordination with the gov-ernments, lists must be prepared offacilities where migrants could beaccommodated, like shelters, isola-tion and quarantine areas. Thisincludes a special area for womenand children.

Integrating immigrants intoprofessional and voluntary emer-

gency and rescue services constitutesa concrete way to better adapt com-munication channels and services.This must be done in a way thattakes into account language and theculture of migrant communitiesand shares knowledge between reliefservices and expatriate communi-ties. Sufficient orientation and train-ing should be imparted to profes-sional and voluntary emergencyand rescue workers to address thespecific needs of immigrants intimes of crisis.

Training sessions in schools orat workplaces and booklets andbrochures also represent valuableinformation sharing trajectories.Advisories by the Missions dis-seminating information about emer-gency procedures and contacts tomigrants in the mother tongue is amust.

Local administrations general-ly work more closely with affectedpopulations than the Missions andthe Government and can be includ-ed in institutional cooperation from

the beginning in order to make useof their ability to reach out to theaffected diaspora.

To inform migrants where shel-ters/isolation/quarantine centres arelocated, awareness programmesabout consular offices and sheltersshould be held.

It is also vital to coordinate withother governments to ensure effi-cient mass evacuation plans forthose who want to return, especial-ly those with irregular papers or ille-gal immigrants.

Planning for return and reinte-gration as well as for other long-term needs of immigrants must startnow, as essential components ofrecovery plans. Mass returns ofexpatriates can be expected and theGovernment at all levels shouldmake contingency plans and pro-grammes, in particular where Statesor local authorities are unpreparedor unable to assist the returningworkforce.

(The writer is an NRI living inKuwait)

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Page 8: ˚ ˜ ˆ˙˝˘...2020/04/13  · Director Shalini Pandit gave some relaxing news. The Health and Family Welfare Department in its offi-cial twitter post confirmed that four persons

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Hong Kong: People in HongKong thronged beaches, ferriesand outlying islands on Sunday,many of them violating ban ongatherings of more than fourpeople aimed at containingthe spread of the new coron-avirus.

Clear blue skies lured peo-ple to popular areas across theterritory over the long Easterweekend and many of themwere without surgical masks.People in the city of 7.4 millionhave made a point of wearingmasks in the past months.

“ We always stay at homeand it is quite boring,” said

Banny Mak, 24, a local resident.“ We are social animal(s),

we need to go out for some fun.I think with proper protection(for) ourselves and to protectother people. I think it isalready ok to go out.”

Hong Kong has recorded1,005 cases of COVID-19,which has killed four peoplein the city. It banned publicgatherings of more than fourpeople for 14 days fromMarch 29, after recording thebiggest daily increase in newCOVID-19 infections, andlater extended that restrictionuntil April 23. AGENCY

London: Prime Minister BorisJohnson on Sunday vowed thatBritain “ will defeat” the dead-ly coronavirus, soon after hewas discharged from hospitalfollowing week-long intensivecare treatment for the diseasethat has killed over 10,000people in the country.

Downing Street said thatJohnson left St. Thomas’Hospital in London and willhead to his prime ministerialresidence of Chequers inBuckinghamshire, south eastEngland. In a video messagerecorded to mark his dischargeas well as Easter Sunday, the 55-year-old leader said that the UK“ will defeat this coronavirusand defeat it together” .

He said: “ I have today lefthospital after a week in whichthe NHS (National HealthService) has saved my life, noquestion. It’s hard to find thewords to express my debt.

“ And the reason in the endmy body did start to get enoughoxygen was because for everysecond of the night they (NHSdoctors and nurses) were watch-ing and they were thinking andthey were caring and makingthe interventions I needed” .

Johnson name-checked anumber of the “ utterly brilliant”

doctors and nurses for theircare during his week-long hos-pitalisation and stressed that theUK will win the “ national bat-tle” against coronavirusbecause the NHS is the “ beat-ing heart of this country”.

“ It is the best of this coun-try. It is unconquerable. It ispowered by love. So thank youfrom me, and from all of us, tothe NHS, and let’s remember to

follow the rules on social dis-tancing. Stay at home, protectour NHS — and save lives,” hesaid.

As he wished the Britishpublic a Happy Easter, Johnsonalso expressed his thanks to themany millions and millions ofpeople across this countrydoing the right thing and goingthrough the hardship of self-isolation. PTI

Tehran: Iran on Sundayannounced 117 new deaths fromthe novel coronavirus, bringingthe overall official toll to 4,474,even as it eased some restrictionsthat had been imposed to slowthe spread of the illness.

Health ministry spokesmanKianoush Jahanpour also told anews conference that 1,657 newinfections had been confirmed inthe past 24 hours, taking the totalto 71,686. Iran has carried out263,388 tests for the virus so far,he added. Of those confirmed tobe infected with COVID-19 andadmitted to hospitals, 43,894have recovered and been dis-

charged, while 3,930 are in a crit-ical condition. Iran announcedits first coronavirus cases onFebruary 19 and has so farbecome the worst-hit country inthe Middle East.

The new tolls come as Iranhas started a gradual reopeningof its sanctions-hit economy.On Saturday, it allowed smallbusinesses to reopen outsidethe capital and this will beextended to Tehran on April 18.President Rouhani alsoannounced in a cabinet meet-ing that an intercity travel banin place since last month wouldbe lifted on April 20. AFP

New York: US PresidentDonald Trump was warnedabout the potential for a pan-demic but he repeatedly playeddown the seriousness of thevirus and focused instead oncontrolling the message, pro-tecting gains in the economyand batting away warningsfrom senior officials, a lengthyinvestigative report in a leadingAmerican newspaper has said.

The report in The NewYork Times revealed that therewere warnings from the intel-ligence community, nationalsecurity aides and governmenthealth officials about animpending pandemic and itsconsequences but Trumpplayed down the crisis.

“ An examination revealsthe president was warned aboutthe potential for a pandemicbut that internal divisions, lackof planning and his faith in hisown instincts led to a haltingresponse,” the NYT said.

The US is the worst-hitcountry in the world with over530,000 COVID-19 cases and20,608 fatalities, according toJohns Hopkins University data.

“ Top White House advis-ers as well as experts deep inthe Cabinet departments andintelligence agencies all sound-ed alarms and urged aggressiveaction to counter the threatfrom the coronavirus, butPresident Trump remainedslow to respond,” it said.

Trump’s views were “coloured” by long-runningdisputes inside the adminis-tration over how to deal withChina and his own suspicion ofthe motivations of officialsinside what he viewed as the “Deep State.”

Further, recommendationsfrom public health officialsoften competed with econom-ic and political considerationsin internal debates, slowingthe path toward belated deci-sions.

The NYT report said thatthe National Security Councilofficials received the warningsin early January about thepotential dangers from a newvirus in Wuhan, China. PTI

Washington: Abortion rightsadvocates on Saturday called onthe US Supreme Court tourgently intervene to forceTexas to reinstate the right toabortion, which has been sus-pended in the state since thestart of the novel coronaviruspandemic.

This is the first appealrelated to COVID-19 to reachthe highest American court,which has been operating onlyin writing for nearly a month.

The Court, which legalizedabortion in 1973 in its land-mark Roe v. Wade decision, willhave to decide whether a statecan suspend the case law in thename of a public health emer-

gency.This case will be a test for

the Supreme Court, which hasbeen profoundly reshapedsince the election of PresidentDonald Trump.

During his campaign, theRepublican billionairepromised to appoint only anti-abortion judges to the court.Since then he has brought intwo new judges out of nine.

The petition concernsTexas’s decision — later fol-lowed by other conservativestates — to include abortion onthe list of “ non-emergency”medical procedures prohibitedwhile the COVID-19 outbreakcontinues. PTI

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Spain’s daily death toll fromthe coronavirus rose to 619

on Sunday, after falling forthree straight days, the gov-ernment said.

The country, one of theworst hit by the pandemic, hasnow recorded 16,972 deathsfrom COVID-19.

The daily toll was from 510on Saturday, compared with arecord 950 deaths as recently asApril 2. The number of con-firmed cases rose by 4,167 to166,019, a smaller increasethan was recorded on Saturday,the Health Ministry said.

Beijing: Although China isclaiming success in its battleagainst the coronavirus, mil-lions have lost their jobs in theeconomic fallout, throwing intojeopardy an ambitious target toeradicate poverty this year.

Beijing has been workingto fire up the economy againafter bringing it to a nearstandstill to curb the spread ofCOVID-19, but many firmshave had a bumpy restart andworkers are bearing the bruntof the pain.

Despite being a country ofskyscrapers and high-tech

innovations, China still hasmillions of people on meagreincomes.

About 5.5 million ruralChinese live in poverty, definedby the government as survivingon less than 2,300 yuan ($326)a year. A slowing economy putspressure on a key CommunistParty goal to become a “ mod-erately prosperous society” bythe end of 2020, an ambition inplace long before the virusemerged.

It also threatens a long-heldtacit agreement between peo-ple and party that freedoms can

be sacrificed in return for eco-nomic progress, an under-standing that largely forms thebasis of the authoritarian gov-ernment’s legitimacy in theabsence of elections.

China has little in the wayof social security benefits andworkers who lose their jobshave an inadequate safety net,meaning mass unemploymentoften brings a fear of unrest.

Official statistics show job-less numbers have soared, withroughly five million more peo-ple out of work betweenDecember and February. PTI

Tel Aviv: The coronavirus pan-demic has forced militariesand militias to adapt to aninvisible enemy, even as tradi-tional conflicts grind on.

Armies have had to enforcesocial distancing rules amongtroops while helping withnational outbreak containmentand postponing maneuvers.

On Thursday, Saudi Arabiadeclared a temporary halt tofighting in Yemen because ofthe pandemic, while in Libyaand Afghanistan conflicts areintensifying despite UN appealsfor a global cease-fire. An out-break in poor or war-scarrednations would be particularlydevastating.

Before the pandemic,Israel’s military kept tabs on theIran-backed Hezbollah militiain Lebanon, carried out occa-sional airstrikes against Iran’smilitary presence in Syria andretaliated for sporadic rocketfire from the Gaza Strip.

Now troops are beingmobilized to help policeenforce quarantines, assist theelderly or provide child care forhealth workers.

To prevent infections, thearmy canceled some weekendleave and isolated certaingroups of soldiers.

Most training exerciseshave been canceled or delayed,though the air force conduct-ed a drill with U.S. Forces —with each pilot isolated in hisown fighter jet.

The army chief had to self-quarantine after coming incontact with a virus carrier,though he eventually testednegative.

The conflicts on Israel’sfrontiers persist. In late March,Syrian air defenses opened fireon missiles allegedly launchedfrom Israeli warplanes.

The Israeli military saidborder defense remains its toppriority.

“ Our enemies are still atour borders and our civiliansare still within sniper or anti-tank missile range,” said Lt.Col. Jonathan Conricus, a mil-itary spokesman.

The virus has spread to theIsraeli-occupied West Bankand to Gaza, which has beenblockaded by Israel and Egyptsince the militant Hamas groupseized control in 2007.

The long-simmeringIsraeli-Palestinian conflict nowexists side-by-side with effortsto contain the outbreak.

Troops have carried outhome demolitions in the WestBank, soldiers killed twoPalestinians in clashes and atrickle of rockets has beenfired from Gaza.

But the virus is also open-ing doors to limited coopera-tion. Israel has helped delivertest kits and other supplies toboth the West Bank and Gaza.

An Israeli-Palestinian com-

mittee is coordinating themovement of Palestinian work-ers and security forces in theWest Bank.

Spurred by concern overthe pandemic, the Saudi-ledcoalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemendeclared a temporary cease-fireafter five years of war.

The Houthis have dis-missed the offer as a ploy andclashes continue, casting doubtover a future peace agreement.

The UN had called for anend to escalating fighting soauthorities can confront thecoronavirus. Yemen confirmedits first case this week, whileforeign backers Iran and SaudiArabia have struggled to stemmassive outbreaks.

An outbreak in Yemen,where the conflict has devas-tated the health care system,could be catastrophic.

The past month hasbrought more human suffering

across the country. Ground fighting in the

north caused 270 deaths in 10days. The Houthis fired mis-siles at the Saudi capital,Riyadh, triggering retaliatorystrikes on Yemen’s capital,Sanaa. A rebel attack on the cityof Taiz, in western Yemen,killed at least six female pris-oners and wounded two dozenwomen and children.

Even modest hopes forpeace talks in Yemen stand incontrast to Libya, where rivalforces have ignored humani-tarian pleas for a cease-fire,seeking to exploit the diplo-matic void left by the pan-demic. Eastern-based forcesunder the command of KhalifaHifter are escalating a year-longsiege of the capital, Tripoli,which they want to wrest fromthe U.N.-backed government.

Artillery shells crashedthrough living rooms, cars, asea port and three hospitals

over the last month, killing atleast 16 civilians and woundingover 30. Grad rockets struckone of the country’s few coro-navirus facilities, sendingshrapnel into a doctor’s leg dur-ing surgery and forcing seri-ously ill patients to evacuate asthe bombs fell.

Militias allied with theTripoli government haveexpanded their use of Turkishdrones, at one point attacking anaircraft allegedly carrying med-ical supplies and protective gear.In South Korea, which has man-aged to slow the outbreak, themilitary is key to containment.

More than 450 militarymedical staff and 2,700 troopshave been deployed to helpwith treatment at hospitals,screening travelers, enforcingquarantine, producing facemasks and helping trace thecontacts of virus carriers,according to the DefenseMinistry. AP

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Italy on Sunday reported itslowest coronavirus death

toll in more than three weeks,confirming trends showingthat the COVID-19 outbreakin Europe’s worst-hit nationhad peaked.

The 431 new deathsreported by the civil protec-tion service were the lowestsince March 19. Italy’s death

total now stands at 19,899,officially second behind theUnited States.

Rome: Billions around theworld celebrated Easter Sundayfrom lockdown at home as thepope urged solidarity to fightthe coronavirus pandemic andthe European death toll fromthe virus topped 75,000.

Unprecedented scenes ofempty churches emerged fromItaly to Panama and thePhilippines, as religious leadersfound creative ways to addressparishioners marking the holi-day weekend from the confinesof their homes.

More than half the world —over four billion people — arein lockdown worldwide as gov-ernments scramble to halt thepandemic’s deadly march acrossthe globe.

The death toll from thevirus soared past 112,407 thisweekend, with more than 1.7million reported infectionsglobally.

Europe is by far the hardest-hit continent and on Sundaymarked a grave milestone withmore than 75,000 dead, accord-ing to an AFP tally.

The United States wasquickly emerging as a hotspot aswell, and on Saturday marked itsown grim landmark: more than20,000 dead, out of around halfa million infected.

The US now has the high-est death toll and the most casesout of any country in the world.

Speaking from a near-empty Saint Paul’s Cathedral,Pope Francis’ Easter Sundaymessage was largely focused onthe pandemic, offering prayersfor the ill and urging a unitedEuropean front to fight thepandemic.

“ For many, this is an Easterof solitude lived amid the sor-row and hardship that the pan-demic is causing, from physicalsuffering to economic difficul-ties,” he said, in a livestreamedmessage beamed around theworld.

He called for European “solidarity” in the face of thevirus, adding: “ After the SecondWorld War, this beloved conti-nent was able to rise again.” Thepope had earlier urged creativ-ity to mark the holy weekend —a call that appears to have beenmet by some of the world’s twobillion-plus Christians.

In Panama an archbishopblessed his nation from a heli-copter, while worshippers inSpain blasted music from theirbalconies and US PresidentDonald Trump said he would beamong those following Easterservices online. AFP

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London: The UK could end upbeing one of the worst-hitEuropean countries in thecoronavirus pandemic, a seniorscientific adviser to the gov-ernment warned on Sunday.

Sir Jeremy Farrar, directorof the Wellcome Trust whosits on the British govern-ment’s scientific advisorycommittee SAGE, said Britainis facing the highest death tollin the region as further wavesof the deadly virus cannot beruled out.

“ The numbers in the UKhave continued to go up. I dohope we are coming close tothe number of new infections

reducing. But yes the UK islikely to be one of the worst ifnot the worst affected countryin Europe,” Farrar told theBBC.

As of Saturday, the deathtoll in the UK stands at 9,875,increasing rapidly day on day.The death toll in neighbouringEuropean countries stands at19,468 in Italy – among theworst hit countries in theworld, and Germany at 2,871.

Farrar said that Germanyhad introduced testing at a “remarkable” rate which helpedit gain a “ critical six to eightweeks” to prepare its healthsystem for the pandemic. PTI

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Yangon: Myanmar’s New Yearfestival of Thingyan is thecountry’s biggest public holiday— normally a week of nation-wide celebration and water-fights, with soaked revellerspartying late into the night.

But this year, in an echo ofcancelled Easter celebrationselsewhere in the world, thecountry’s commercial hubYangon is locked down, withresidents confined indoorsbecause of the coronavirus.

Food delivery bicycles andrickshaws have commandeeredthe city’s usually traffic-chokedstreets after the Governmentordered people to stay homeunless for essential food andhealthcare needs.

By Sunday Myanmar offi-cially had just 38 confirmedcases — including three deaths— but many fear the low num-ber of tests mean the real fig-ures are likely many timeshigher. AFP

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Colombo: Sri Lanka hasamended a law to make cre-mation compulsory for thosedying from the novel coron-avirus to prevent any potentialthreat despite strong opposi-tion from the Muslim com-munity.

The Quarantine andPrevention of DiseasesOrdinance (Chapter 222) hasbeen amended by a gazetteissued by Health MinisterPavithra Wanniarachchi, thegovernment said.

“ .......The corpse of aperson who has died or is sus-pected to have died of coron-avirus shall be cremated...,”the gazette dated April 11states.

The move followedprotests from the island’sMuslim community whichaccused the authorities of vio-

lating Islamic burial rites.The process of cremation

is forbidden within Islam andJudaism, which require mem-bers of the faiths to be buried.

Wanniarachchi said thatthe body shall be burned at atemperature between 800 to1200 degree Celsius for a min-imum period of 45 minutes toone hour. He said that the cre-mation should take place at acemetery or a place approvedby the authorities.

The amended law preventsbodies being handed over toanyone other than “ to personswho undertake the necessaryduties of cremation” .

The attire and non-reusable personal protectiveequipment used by personswho handle the corpse shallalso be destroyed during cre-mation. PTI

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As the global economy goesthrough an unprecedented

tough phase amid the coron-avirus crisis, a World Bankreport on Sunday said thatSouth Asia may witness itsworst economic performancein the last 40 years.

The report also said that atleast half of the countries in theregion are likely to fall in deeprecession.

“South Asia will likelyexperience the worst econom-ic performance of the last 40years. Because of the unparal-leled uncertainty, this reportpresents a range forecast, esti-mating that regional growthwill fall to a range between 1.8and 2.8 per cent in 2020, downfrom 6.3 per cent projected sixmonths ago.

The hardest hit is theMaldives where GDP is expect-ed to decline by between 8.5and 13 per cent this year, astourism has dried up. Also, forAfghanistan, Pakistan, and SriLanka, the full range of their

forecast GDP growth for this fiscal year is in negativeterritory.

In a worst-case scenario,the whole region would expe-rience a contraction of GDP, itadded. The report noted thatwhile normal downturns arecaused by lack of effectivedemand, this crisis is caused bysupply constraints. While typ-ically manufacturing is themost cyclical part of the econ-omy, this time service sectorsare hardest hit, it added.

“While usually, GDP decel-erates faster than consumption,as consumers smooth their

spending over economic cycles,this time consumption is fallingsharply. Moreover, supply dis-ruptions and panic buying canjeopardize food security. Thesudden disappearance of ser-vice sector jobs and the rise infood prices have created eco-nomic hardship, especially forpeople in the informal sector.”

It noted that policy makersin South Asia are dealing witha plethora of challenges.

The first task is to preparethe, still underdeveloped,health-care system for the fightagainst COVID-19. Anotherimmediate task is to secureaccess to food and basic needsto the most vulnerable peoplein society.

Similarly, it is important tosecure other vital functions inthe economy, such as paymentsystems and banking opera-tions. This all has to beachieved in a deterioratingglobal environment, while deal-ing with fiscal stress and prob-lems in financial markets thatwere caused by pre-existingvulnerabilities, it said.

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The Taliban announcedSunday it will be releasing

20 Afghan Government pris-oners the group has been hold-ing, in the first phase of itscommitment under its historic peace deal with theUnited States.

The deal calls for the gov-ernment to release 5,000Taliban prisoners in exchangefor 1,000 government officialsheld by the Taliban insurgents.

The Afghan governmentreleased its first 100 Talibanprisoners last week and Jawed

Faisal, a spokesman forAfghanistan’s national securi-ty adviser, said the governmenthas thus far released 300Taliban prisoners overall fromgovernment custody.

Suhial Shaheen, aspokesman for the Taliban’spolitical office, said in a tweetthat the first government pris-oners will be handed over tothe International Committee ofthe Red Cross in the southernKandahar province.

The exchanges come afterthe Taliban met with the headof US Forces in Afghanistan tocall for an end to what they say

is an increase in Americanattacks since a peace deal wassigned in February, allegationsthe US Military denied.

On Saturday, a U.S.Military spokesman called onthe Taliban to stop attackingAfghan security forces whomhe said American troops wouldcontinue to come to their aid in accordance with theagreement.

He spoke on condition ofanonymity in line with regula-tions. The peace deal is aimedat paving the way for the U.S.To extricate itself from the 19-year war, America’s longest.

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Robust digital paymentinfrastructure helped more

than 30 crore people to receivefinancial assistance of `28,256crore under Pradhan MantriGarib Kalyan Packageannounced by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanon March 26 to protect themfrom the impact of the lock-down, an official statementsaid on Sunday.

A digital pipeline laid a fewyears ago — through linkingJan-Dhan accounts as well asother accounts with the bene-ficiaries’ mobile numbers andAadhaar Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) — was instru-mental in cash transfer underPradhan Mantri Garib Kalyanpackage amid coronavirus pan-demic.

This infrastructure pipelineis providing the necessarybackbone for DBT flows, adop-tion of social security/pensionschemes, etc, the FinanceMinistry said in a statement onSunday.

As part of `1.70 lakh crorePradhan Mantri Garib Kalyanpackage relief package, morethan 30 crore beneficiarieshave been given support viadirect benefit transfer throughfirst installment during thelast week. Two more install-ments of cash transfer will bedone in May and June.

Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojana (PMJDY) was launchedin August, 2014 with an aim toprovide bank accounts tounbanked persons, it said,adding out of around 126 croreoperative CASA accounts as onMarch 20, 2020, more than 38crore have been opened underPMJDY.

New Delhi: Apex body ofexhibiting and trade show indus-try, Indian Exhibitions IndustryAssociation (IEIA), on Sundaysought an economic packagefrom the government, saying thesector has suffered a loss of Rs3,570 crore due to cancelledevents on account of coron-avirus pandemic.

The impact of COVID-19outbreak on exhibiting and tradeshow industry has been unprece-dented with multiple global andnational events being postponedor cancelled in the country, IEIAsaid in a statement. “...In last fewweeks more than 90 shows havebeen reported to be either post-poned or cancelled due toCOVID-19 during the time-period, summing up to approx-imately 15 per cent of the totalevents conducted annually in theorganised sector, with a resultantestimated loss of Rs 3,570 crorefor the entire sector and this mayincrease if COVID-19 crisislingers on,” IEIA President SBalasubramanian said.

New Delhi: The MSME sectorwill tide over the huge blowcaused by the lockdown, andreduce chinese import depen-dence by ramping up domesticmanufacturing with the gov-ernment support, UnionMinister Nitin Gadkari has said.

In a video-conference withPTI, the MSME minister saidthe government was working ona “war footing” to resolve issues- like working capital crunchand access to affordable financ-ing - faced by the sector, as mil-

lions of units stare at staggeringlosses.

Gadkari said the commit-tees constituted by the PrimeMinister’s Office are continu-ously monitoring and assessingthe situation on the ground andwould suggest if and when thelockdown can be lifted in cer-tain sectors for normal opera-tions to resume, and addedthat “work should begin wherepossible while keeping the virusat bay”.

The MSME Minister said

nearly 8-10 lakh units will berestructured in the comingdays, asserting that owners willhave to take care of their work-ers and put in place mechanismsfor proper sanitisation as a pre-ventive measure once theyreturn to work. Gadkari alsoinformed that a Rs 10,000 crore“Fund of Funds” has beenapproved by the FinanceCommittee and will be placedbefore the Union Cabinet forapproval. This fund, he said, willfacilitate MSMEs to raise money

from the capital market, as aportion of their equity will bepurchased by the government.“We will encourage MSMEs toenter the capital market andattract foreign investments,increase exports from the sec-tor through large-scale pro-duction and create jobs,” theminister said.

He observed that the gov-ernment was well aware of theissues faced by micro, small andmedium enterprises, and pack-ages announced by the Finance

Minister will set in motion arecovery for the sector.

Gadkari said that recom-mendations of the UK SinhaCommittee appointed by theReserve Bank of India will soonbe implemented.

The Minister said he hasdirected district officers to go tobanks and facilitate paper workand coordination for loans to becleared as fast as possible, anda “branch-wise” monitoringwas underway to ease the cred-it woes of the MSME sector. PTI

Vienna: The world’s top oil-pro-ducing countries will meet viavideoconference at 1600 GMTon Sunday, a source close toOPEC said, as they try to addressplummeting oil prices due to thecoronavirus crisis. The sourcespoke on the condition ofanonymity, but the meeting wasconfirmed by Azerbaijan. Themeeting will take place in theframework of consultationsresulting from the meeting onApril 9 of ministers from OPECand non-OPEC countries,”Azerbaijan’s energy ministrysaid in a statement. It added thatthe meeting would be chaired bySaudi Energy Minister PrinceAbdulaziz bin Salman andRussian Energy MinisterAlexander Novak. AFP

New Delhi: Turning ‘crisis intoopportunity’, India needsrenewed focus on infrastruc-ture in the wake of the damagecaused by COVID-19 and talksare on with state governmentsto re-start highway construc-tion projects where migrantlabourers can be gainfullyemployed, union minister NitinGadkari said.

In a video-conference withPTI, the road transport, high-ways and MSME minister saidtalks are on with state govern-ments for facilitating safe returnof migrant labourers, an esti-mated 20 lakh of whom are inshelters pan-India.

“I had a meeting with roadsector officials. Work can be re-started at projects with conditionthat adequate measures are

taken for safeguard against coro-navirus. We have to followguidelines. At some places col-lectors have given permission,some not. We are doing a followup along with the chief secre-taries of the states,” the ministersaid. He said an estimated about20 lakh migrant labourers arestuck in shelters or have goneback to villages and in view ofthe Disaster Management Actbeing in place, district collectorscan take a decision on it.

“As I have said and believe,we can turn any problem intoopportunity, we need to focus onhighways building with renewedvigour...Highways sector hasfaced much obstacles due tocoronavirus. In coming years wewill have to give the highest pri-ority to the infrastructure sector.

To accelerate the economy, infra-structure is needed,” Gadkarisaid. He said plans are afoot toboost the highways sector. Acommittee has already been setup, he said, adding that workneeds to be commenced on awar footing on highway projects,including the �1 lakh croreDelhi-Mumbai new expresswaywhich would usher in develop-ment of backward and far-flungareas of Rajasthan, Haryana,Maharashtra, Gujarat andMadhya Pradesh. Reiteratingthat the government has saved amassive �16,000 crore on landacquisition as it is on a new align-ment, the minister urged com-panies to come forward for set-ting up manufacturing hubs andclusters along the highway toboost economic growth. PTI

Washington: America’sreopening could probably startat least in some ways nextmonth, a top member of theWhite House Task Force oncoronavirus said on Sunday asthe US battles one of the worstpublic health crises in a century.

For weeks now, over 95per cent of 330 millionAmerican population areunder stay-at-home order anda national emergency has beenput in place as the UnitedStates has become the hotspotof COVID-19.

More than 20,000Americans have lost their livesbattling coronavirus and over5.3 lakh have been tested pos-itive. New York, the globalfinancial capital, is the epi-center of this crisis with morethan 1.8 lakh positive cases and

8,650 deaths. President Donald Trump

is mulling reopening the coun-try, where in more than 17million people have lost theirjob, given that in some parts ofthe country like New York,there are signs of reduction innew COVID-19 patients andstates like Washington andCalifornia have successfullyflattened the curve throughstrict enforcement of socialdistancing measure.

With American economyin teeters, President Trump hasdescribed this as one of thebiggest decisions of his life thathe has ever had to make.

“I think it (reopening thecountry) could probably start, atleast in some ways, maybe nextmonth. And, again it’s so diffi-cult to make those kinds of pre-dictions, because they always get

thrown back at you if it doesn’thappen,” Dr Anthony Fauci,director of the National Instituteof Allergy and InfectiousDiseases at the National Instituteof Health told CNN. During the interview, Dr Fauci, who is a member of the White House Task Force on coron-avirus, hinted that the reopen-ing of the country could be inphases and spread out region byregion depending on theground situation.

“We are hoping that, at theend of the month, we couldlook around and say, OK, isthere any element here that wecan safely and cautiously startpulling back on? If so, do it. Ifnot, then just continue to hun-ker down. And that’s what, atleast for me standpoint of thepublic health aspect, that welook at,” he said.

“Other decisions are going tohave to be made at the level ofthe president and the governorsabout what they are going to dowith all of the information theyget. The only thing I and my col-leagues in public health andmedicine can do is to give a pro-jection of the kinds of things thatmay or may not happen whenyou make these steps,” he noted.Responding to a question, DrFauci acknowledged that thingscould have been difficult in theUS had everything been shutdown from day one.

“It’s very difficult to goback and say that. I mean,obviously, you could logicallysay, that if you had a processthat was ongoing, and youstarted mitigation earlier, youcould have saved lives.Obviously, no one is going todeny that. PTI

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Aday after West BengalChief Minister Mamata

Banerjee increased the limit ofthe workforce in tea gardensfrom 15 to 25 per cent amidthe nationwide lockdown, thetea industry on Sunday urgedthe state government to gradually allow up to 50 percent of the labourers in theplantations.

The chief minister hadfirst allowed the deployment ofonly 15 per cent of the work-force in the tea gardens, whichshe increased to 25 per cent onSaturday.

Welcoming the move,Arijit Raha, secretary generalof the Indian Tea Association(ITA) told PTI, “TheConsultative Committee onPlantation Associations(CCPA) made a representationto the government seeking toallow flexibility in operationswithin prescribed limits. Theincreased deployment will

help in plucking and ancillaryactivities.” ITA is a constituentof the CCPA. “We are hopeful that the state govern-ment will consider theenhancement of workforce to50 per cent,” he said.

Rudra Chatterjee, directorof Luxmi Group, which ownsthe Makaibari brand, wel-comed the move saying it willhelp them get a portion of thefirst flush.

“We will get the entire sec-ond flush, the season forwhich will start from May. Thesecond flush will be protected.Makaibari had fetched thehighest price in the history ofDarjeeling second flush atUSD 1850 per kg,” he said.

Chamong Tea ChairmanA Lohia said after the govern-ment decided to allow moreworkforce in the tea gardens,the group has begun pluckingin all of its 13 gardens inDarjeeling by following guide-lines laid down by the admin-istration.

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������������������On the shores of paradise, gorgeous singles meet and

mingle. But there’s a twist. To win a $100,000 grand prize,they’ll have to give up sex. This reality TV dating gameshow, produced by Fremantle production companyTalkback, releases on Netflix on April 17.

������� �������������Some chefs compete to get the hosts and special guests

high on elevated cannabis cuisine with their artful use ofleafy herb, THC infusions and CBD sauces. The reality talkshow releases on Netflix on April 20.

����������������Detective Harry Bosch will find himself at a center of the

complex murder case, a messy federal investigation and a cat-astrophic threat to Los Angeles — the city he has pledged toserve and protect. The series is set to release on Amazon PrimeVideo on April 17.

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Apple and Google fueled hopesfor digital technology’s

promise against a fast-moving,invisible killer, announcing ajoint effort to help public healthagencies worldwide leveragesmartphones to contain theCOVID-19 pandemic.

New software the companiesplan to add to phones wouldmake it easier to use bluetoothwireless technology to track downpeople who may have been infect-ed by Coronavirus carriers. Theidea is to help national, state andlocal governments roll out appsfor so-called “contact tracing”that will run on iPhones andandroid phones alike.

The technology works by har-nessing short-range bluetoothsignals. Using the Apple-Googletechnology, contact-tracing appswould gather a record of otherphones with which they came intoclose proximity. Such data can beused to alert others who mighthave been infected by knowncarriers of the novel Coronavirus,typically when the phones’ own-ers have installed the apps andagreed to share data with public-health authorities.

Developers have already cre-ated such apps in countriesincluding Singapore and China totry to contain the pandemic. InEurope, the Czech Republic saysit will release an app after Easter.Britain, Germany and Italy arealso developing their own tracingtools.

No such apps have yet beenannounced in the United States,but gov Gavin Newsom ofCalifornia said Friday that stateofficials have been in touch withthe companies as they look aheadat how to reopen and lift stay-at-home orders. “We were on thephone just this morning, forexample, with Apple,” he said ata news conference.

Privacy and civil liberties

activists have warned that theapps need to be designed so gov-ernments cannot abuse them totrack their citizens. Apple andGoogle said in a rare jointannouncement that user privacyand security are baked into thedesign of their plan.

The technology might serveas a stopgap until there is wide-spread testing for the novel coro-navirus, which in the US remainslimited after production problemsand limited federal coordinationof the tests’ production and dis-tribution. “It’s not a replacementfor just having widespread testing,which would be more accurate,”said Tiffany Li, a visiting law pro-fessor at Boston University whostudies privacy and technology.“But clearly we have a huge short-age of tests.”

Bluetooth signal tracking, asGoogle and Apple plan to use it,can protect privacy far betterthan other options such as GPS orcell-tower based location data,which allow centralized authori-ties access to the information.

But Li noted it could still leadto numerous mistaken alerts —for instance, if someone were infull protective gear or in an adja-cent apartment while physicallyclose to an infected person.

Pam Dixon, executive direc-tor of the World Privacy Forum,said a conversation with Apple’ssenior director for global privacy,Jane Horvath, assured her that theinitiative will protect people’s pri-vacy.

Sensitive information willstay on individual phones inencrypted form — no personally

identifiable data would be collect-ed — and alerts would be handledby public health agencies, not thetech companies. It says locationdata for users won’t be used andthe identity of people who mayhave been infected will be protect-ed by encryption and anony-mous identifier beacons thatchange frequently. “I think they’vetaken care of some of the reallybig problems,” Dixon said, notingthe companies say they can turnoff the system when it’s no longerneeded. “The government is notgoing to have identity informationof those testing positive.”

Asked about the Google-Apple effort at his daily newsbriefing, President Donald Trumpcalled it “very interesting,” butexpressed concern that “a lot ofpeople worry about it in terms ofa person’s freedom. We’re going totake a look at that.”

Security experts note thattechnology alone cannot effective-ly track down and identify peo-ple who may have been infectedby COVID-19 carriers. Suchefforts will require other tools andteams of public health care work-ers to locate people in the physi-cal world, they say. In SouthKorea and China, such effortshave included the use of credit-card and public-transit records.

In general, epidemiologistssay contact tracing won’t be effec-tive without widely available test-ing. In the Czech Republic, theplan is to have soldiers performtesting; medical students havebeen trained to staff call centersfor notifying people at high riskof infection.

The Czech app will use bothBluetooth technology and geolo-cation data from wireless carriersand banks to create “memorymaps” that trace the movement ofinfected people. That will helpthem identify others they cameinto close proximity with in thefive to 10 days before they testedpositive.

The hope is to quickly isolatepeople who may be affected so thevirus can be contained andrestrictions on movement relaxed.The app builds on a popular cel-lular-location mapping app usedby one in 10 Czechs, who num-ber 10 million.

The Google-Apple solutionwill also be voluntary — or opt-in — but with far greater privacyprotections, something theEuropean Commission specifiedas a central requirement of anysuch apps in a policy recommen-dation this week for the 27-nation bloc.

Given the great need for effec-tive contact-tracing — a tool epi-demiologists have long employedto contain infectious disease out-breaks — Google and Apple willroll out their changes in twophases. In May, they will releasesoftware that will support public-health apps for both Android andiOS phones. In coming months,they will also build the function-ality directly into the underlyingphone operating systems.

On Friday, the companiesreleased preliminary technicalspecifications for the effort, whichthey called “Privacy-PreservingContact Tracing.”

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With nationwide lock-down amid theCoronavirus pandemic,

leading companies and enterpris-es are seeing most of their work-force operating remotely. Workingfrom home has become the newwork culture that people are fol-lowing during self-quarantine.

And as it gets intensified,there are multiple ways in whichfollowing a proper schedule couldget tiring as well as confusing.However, one can operate success-fully at home by practicing sincerediscipline, implementing properto-do lists and, above all, usingtechnology in the right manner.

There have been conversa-tions aplenty about the challengesof working from home and at thesame time, without affecting pro-ductivity. It may not be preferred,but currently working from homeis the need of the hour to ensuresocial distancing. Every cloudhas a silver lining as does this one.This current predicament givesbusinesses, employers, andemployees a golden opportunityto unlearn the classic operationaldynamics and discover newmantras.

This is sure to be a complexperiod but overcoming these chal-lenges will make us who we wantto be. To do so, you need someorganising skills to maintain ahealthy balance between yourpersonal and professional life andkeep them separate.

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While the easiest thing todo is to stay up late at night andget up late in the morning giventhat you are at home and youdon’t have to venture out.However, following the oldoffice schedule is more helpfuleven while you’re at home. Getup on time, have your earlymorning coffee and squeeze insome me-time. Don’t forget thatworking out is of utmostimportance. Don’t forego thehabit and try to organise yourschedule at least for the next 24hours.

Sitting on a couch or the bedwhile working might look com-fortable at first but one needs toremember that it’s not going to bejust one or two days of working inthe comfort of your home. Settingup a workstation will not onlymake you more focussed but willalso help you maintain a fine linebetween your personal and pro-fessional spaces.

�������������A day without any set agen-

da can go haywire with you hav-ing no clue of the to-dos. You

might have an idea as to what allyou are supposed to work on,however, as the day progresses,one tends to forget as assignmentskeep piling. Keeping a proper to-do-list to segregate and prioritisewhat’s important and what’s notand following it religiously willhelp you plan your day better.

-������(��>���%���-�As we are working from

home, we tend to sit on ourassignments and digital screensfor long hours continuously,which can have an adverse impacton our body and mind. Make it apoint to take breaks in betweenand get up from the workstation

for short breaks — going for astroll to the balcony might help.Instead of sitting and attendingcalls, you can walk while doing soas it will help your body relax a bit.

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Working from home doesn’tmean you have to work in isola-tion or all by yourself. Ensure youtake every opportunity to engagewith your team or colleagues. Bein constant touch with your teamvia conference calls, video calls,emails, hangout chats and more.Check if everything is fine at yourcolleagues’ ends and if the workis going smoothly. In times like

these, we need to reach out toeach other as and when required,too.

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The biggest drawback ofworking from home is that peo-ple tend to mix both their person-al and professional lives, leavingvery little time at hand for them-selves or their family. One canstrike the perfect balance by set-ting a fixed time where you willnot work or sit in front of yourlaptop to work. Planning your dayshouldn’t only be restricted toyour assignments and projects.

Space out your timings for lunchand a coffee break to relax dur-ing the day.

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While working from homemight now save a lot of time spentin commuting for some people,this shouldn’t mean that youstart working way past yourdefined hours just because youhave enough time at hand. Thisis the moment where you unwindand utilise the extra time you haveby doing something you look for-ward to before you end the day.It could be spending quality timewith your family members, pet,

learning an art, reading a book or,for that matter, catching up on theseries you are currently hookedto. These activities will not onlyhelp you to relax your mind butalso keep you fresh for the nextday.

In times of a lockdown, it isan individual responsibility to beself-motivated and accountable.Begin by developing measurablegoals for work and continue tocommunicate with the world viatechnology — the biggest thingkeeping us sane in such ‘no-socialisation’ times.

(The writer is SVP, Marketing,Analytics and Direct Revenue,ALTBalaji.)

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Page 11: ˚ ˜ ˆ˙˝˘...2020/04/13  · Director Shalini Pandit gave some relaxing news. The Health and Family Welfare Department in its offi-cial twitter post confirmed that four persons

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All of us have heard the proverb, “Where thereis a will, there is a way” often and most of us

know what it means. However, we don’t realise thatthis proverb can be an important tool for self-trans-formation. The question of one’s inner transforma-tion is linked to their will and resoluteness of spir-it. Hence, if one decides with a strong will not toharbour any negative thoughts or allow oneself toindulge in any kind of bad behaviour, one will suc-ceed in the process of inner change. Otherwise, onewill feel demoralised and give up the effort to changeoneself.

We must know that in the process of self trans-formation or change, the temptation to work for win-ning tributes and laurels and to rise to fame and glorywill be strong. One will feel attracted towards theopposite sex and this will too will exert a powerfulpull on the mind. The situation will be provocativeand one might feel cheated by as there are wordlytemptations.

This is the timewhen it is essential tostand firm and facethe storm like a rockand tell yourself thatit is a question ofyour integrity andhonour. You made apromise to yourselfthat you won’t be apuppet or a slave ofnegative habits.Question yourself if“Am I going to breakmy promise? Am I aperson who does notstick to his/her words or whose promise has novalue? Wouldn't it be a breach of trust? Because youmade a promise with god not to indulge in nefari-ous acts and swore that you had given up. Does itbehove a person with self-respect to break hispromise and to do what he himself had consideredas spiritually obnoxious and morally evil?” This kindof self-talk is helpful while one is on the path of selftransformation.

It has been observed that one of the weakness-es that results in spiritual ruin of man is that, he post-pones the implementation of certain decisions eventhough they were made by him and are for his owngood. This happens especially if a person fails in theinitial steps of self-transformation. As a result of this,he feels frustrated and loses his self confidence.Having lost his will, he gives up the effort and saysto himself: “I am not giving it up forever. I will startand fight again. But perhaps, the time has not yetcome. I will start it on some more auspicious andmemorable day.” And when that day finally comes,he thinks that, for this day, he will start afresh. Butagain there is a pitfall and then he starts all overagain. But one who is not determined to continueagainst all odds, will admit his defeat again and again.And, having lost his heart, will either give up theefforts forever or will postpone it until another aus-picious day.

Such people get used to repeated failure and, inthe process, become weak. Let us, therefore, makea strong affirmation and say to ourselves: ‘Even ifheavens fall, I am now not going to fall. My pledgeis tougher than steel. And I am not going to falterand will march from great to greater heights!’ Whenwe work for self-change with a tenacious and deter-mined will, only then will the society change. Apartfrom this individual responsibility of self-change,there is no other known way of worldly transfor-mation.

On the righteous path

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Lala, a 3-month-old blackLab, romped into Ufuoma

George’s life a few weeks ago,just as she retreated into herNew York apartment in the faceof the Coronavirus pandemic.

Lala, she thought, would becompany. But she’s turned out tobe so much more. “Being aloneat home kind of is hard,” saysGeorge, “but with a pet you havesomeone to take care of, some-one to play with you, someoneto greet you in the morning, soit’s kind of like really calmingand comforting.”

Whether it’s a dog, a cat or,yes, a hedgehog named QuillieNelson, pets are proving to beunexpected heroes in lockdown.They include the newly adopt-ed and fostered like Lala; peo-ple have flooded shelters, look-ing for pets to fill their extrahours at home.

Laura Evans, her husbandand their three kids brought 12-week-old Zoe to their Bethesda,Maryland, home after the pan-demic hit . The squirmyYorkshire terrier needs con-stant attention, and they’rehappy to oblige. “We wanted tobring a little light and life to ourhouse,” Evans said. “She’s a cud-dly work, homework sidekick.Everyone wants to hang withher.”

Nancy Karan said her pet,

Shadow gets her out of her NewYork apartment for quality timewith her fellow dog walkers, ata safe distance. At night theysleep together, “because it’s verycomforting just to have his bodyon my bed.”

In Houston, Quillie Nelsonand other pets help maintainroutines for Rachael Pavlik and

two teens. “I think having petsduring a scary time like this isgood for the whole family. It’sgood for the kids to have a senseof normalcy and a sense ofresponsibility, like they have toget out of bed before noon tofeed their animals,” she said.

Kitty Block, president andCEO of the Humane Society of

the United States, urged morepeople to foster and adopt as thehealth crisis worsens. “It frees upspace in the shelter to takethese animals in that may be dis-placed because their familymember, their owner is ill orfinancially in a troubled situa-tion,” she said.

While many people seek

comfort, some frustrations havesurfaced with all the together-ness. Professional dog trainerNicole Ellis in Los Angeles, ofthe service Rover.com, saidowners should make a con-scious effort to tire out their ani-mals before a Zoom meeting orimportant phone call.

“We can’t blame them ifthey’re like, ‘I’m bored! I’mbored!’ and they haven’t doneanything all day. It’s not theirfault,” she said.

That doesn’t seem to be aproblem for Squiggles, a beard-ed dragon in South Orange,New Jersey. Dan Cohen’s 13-year-old daughter, Julia, has

survived with help from her chilllizard, who has her own emo-tional support vest and tinymask. “We don’t want her catch-ing Coronavirus,” he joked.

Aubrey Fine, a licensed psy-chologist and professor emeri-tus at California PolytechnicState University, said the rela-tionship is mutually beneficialbetween humans and animals.“In a time of tremendous andunique life challenges, goodnessis still around us. When you’relooking at souls, animals touchhuman souls and humans touchanimal souls. And togetherserendipity can happen.”

—AP

Violence against women at anytime is unacceptable. Amid lock-downs imposed worldwide due

to Coronavirus pandemic, cases ofdomestic violence across the globe haveseen a spike says Tedros AdhanomGhebreyesus, director general of theWorld Health Organisation (WHO).Asking women who are tormented tosave themselves anyway they can, healso tweeted recently, “Sadly, there arereports of increase in domestic violencesince the #COVID19 outbreak began.We call on countries to include servicesto #EndViolence as an essential servicethat must continue during the response.There is never any excuse for violence.”

In the UK, as reported in a nation-al daily, more than 25 organisations,working for domestic violence victims,have reported an increase in theircaseload since the start of the virusspread in the country. In India, accord-ing to a monthly magazine, theNational Commission for Women(NCW) has also observed more thantwo-fold rise in gender-based violencein the country during the Coronaviruslockdown. From 116 cases in the firstweek of March, the total number ofcomplaints by women rose to 257 in thefinal week (between March 23-April 1),out of which 69 were of domestic vio-lence. As per Rekha Sharma, chairper-son, NCW, the cases of domestic vio-lence are higher in Uttar Pradesh,Bihar, Haryana and Punjab. These arethe states where maximum cases havebeen reported by women who couldreach NCW through different plat-forms and narrate the torture. However,she pointed out that the actual numbermust be even larger because therewould be many women who are unableto report because of the fear of torturethey face from their husbands and in-laws. Well, one cannot even imagine therise in the total number of cases if everywoman in remote corners of India isgiven easy access to report such crimeswithout being scared of their harasser.

Before the lockdown, a reportreleased by the National Crime RecordsBureau (NCRB) in January 2020,revealed that domestic abuse toppedthe list of violence against women in2018. Out of the total crimes registeredunder the Indian Penal Code (IPC)against women, 31.9 per cent cases reg-istered were listed under the ‘cruelty byhusband or his relatives’. The samereport claimed Uttar Pradesh to be themost unsafe place for women as 59,445cases of crime were registered from the

state in 2018. Of these crimes, 2,444were registered as dowry deaths, while284 cases as abetment to suicide ofwomen in the state. The NCRB datafrom 2016 to 2018 indicated thatGhaziabad and Meerut districts inWestern UP have maximum number ofcases registered, which also includedmurders of wives by husbands.

“It all starts with arguments overpetty things that soon transforms intoideological differences that destabilis-es the harmony between a married cou-ple. Most men grow intolerant towardstheir partner speaking against them.They lose patience and with the objec-tive of punishing them, they end upkilling or torturing their wives,” sharesDr Kashika Jain, a psychologist.

According to Atul Sharma, a socialactivist, the crime statistics in WesternUP are extremely frightening. “Bothpolice and administration have to takeserious steps to control the crime rate

against women. Killing of women bytheir husbands and relatives is utterlydisgraceful and unacceptable,” he adds.

Another factor that has resulted inthe increase in numbers is that due tothe lockdown, both men and womenare unable to move out of their houseto find some solace away from the

monotony. Ideally, when a husbandbeats his wife, the woman finds com-fort in her parents’ home but now sheis unable to head even there. Men, onthe other hand, are facing salary cuts,many have already lost their jobs andare anxious about the future. As aresult, they are venting their frustrationon women.

Ayushi Jain, a social developmentpractitioner, says, “In dysfunctionalhouseholds, spending time outside thehouse is a tried and tested method ofavoiding violence at home. On onehand, going out allows men to take outthe ‘built up anger’, on the other, forwomen, it’s a way of diffusing the inten-sity of what they are going through bygetting in touch with the outside world,possibly seeking support through com-munity gathering or counselling.” Shebelieves that in the current situation,the ways to vent the growing tensionare severely limited because there is

more confrontation between the twoparties during the lockdown, whichsubstantially increases the violence.

Besides the NCW, many non-prof-it organisations have intervened in thesituation and have started providingonline counselling to such cases. Manyhave also issued guidelines on socialmedia to educate people on ways ofintervening in cases of domestic vio-lence around them without jeopardis-ing the life of the victim. However,women who have absolutely no infor-mation about how to access such plat-forms still remain vulnerable. With thelockdown having been further pro-longed, the concerned authorities andNGOs are working to help the victimsof domestic violence due to the grow-ing need to take stronger initiatives,especially in smaller, more staunchlypatriarchal regions like Uttar Pradeshand Bihar.

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Manchester United starPaul Pogba said he is

eager to return from a lengthyspell on the sidelines when foot-

ball resumes following the coron-avirus pandemic.

The World Cup winner hasbeen limited to just eight appear-ances for United this season afterbattling a nagging ankle injury.

“I’m already training andtouching the ball,” Pogba, who

hasn’t played since December 26, toldthe United Podcast.

“I’ve been frustrated, a long timeago. Now I’m almost there, so I’m justthinking about getting back andtraining fully with the team andeverything.”

“You think bad but I’ve neverhad something like this in my career,so I always take it in a good way. Itmakes me more hungry to comeback and do well. And, yeah, it justshows me as well how much I lovefootball.”

(�������@ The Montreal WTA tourna-ment, one of the key build-up events aheadof the US Open, was axed on Saturday andwill not be played until 2021, officials said.

The event, scheduled for August 7-16,had been in jeopardy after QuebecProvince requested that all sporting andcultural events be cancelled throughAugust 31 as a means of slowing the spreadof the coronavirus.

“As a result of the measures imposedby the Quebec government prohibitingholding events until August 31, the RogersCup in Montreal will postpone theirevent to 2021,” said a WTA statement.

“The WTA reiterates that health andsafety will always be the top priority. Weunderstand this was a difficult decision and

we look forward to being back in Montrealin 2021.”

Tournament director Eugene Lapierresaid the decision was made for them.

“At the beginning of the COVID-19crisis we were hoping that the situationwould be resolved in time to be able to hostour tournament as initially planned on thecalendar.”

It is thus with a heavy heart that wereceived this news, but we understandthat this decision was necessary,” he said.

This is latest blow to tennis seasonwhich has been on ice for the lastmonth. AFP

����� ��������

Indian equestrian ace FouaadMirza on Sunday said that

the postponement of TokyoOlympics to next year due tothe COVID-19 pandemic wasa “blessing in disguise” forhim as he will get more time forpreparation.

The 28-year-old Mirza,who won two Silver medals inthe 2018 Asian Games inIndonesia, is currently trainingin Germany.

“The postponement ofOlympics is like blessing in dis-guise for me as it gives muchneeded rest to the horses andpractice for me,” Mirza said.

"My favourite horseSeigneur Medicott has recov-

ered from injury and I will starttraining with him. TouchingWood and Fernhill Facetimegot time to rest and they willbe fresh whenever the seasonbegins,” he added.

Mirza won a Silver each inindividual eventing and team

eventing in the 2018 AsianGames on Seigneur Medicottwhile Touching Wood andFernhill Facetime took himclose to fulfil his Olympicsdream.

He said India has secureda berth for the Olympics but hewants to confirm his personalquota for the Tokyo Games.

“For a confirmedOlympics berth I have to com-pete in one more event. That iscalled ‘Four Star Long’. I cancomplete this task in interna-tional ‘Four Star Long’ compe-tition. My choice of competi-tion was to be held inMontilibretti, Italy from April9-12 but that got cancelled dueto Covid-19.”

If Mirza passes the last

hurdle, he will become India’sthird equestrian participant inthe Olympics after late IndrajitLamba (1996) and ImtiazAnees (2000).

Mirza is currently trainingunder the watchful eyes ofGerman legend SandraAuffarth who won a Gold(team event) and Bronze (indi-vidual) in 2012 LondonOlympics, besides a Silver(team event) in 2016 RioGames.

“I am based in Bergedorf,North-West Germany. Thisplace is almost free fromCovid-19 impact and there issome relaxation for athleteshere. With all required precau-tions, I am continuing mytraining here,” he said.

��&� ����@ Former India openerKrishnamachari Srikkanth feels thatcurrent captain Virat Kohli can be com-pared with the legendary Kapil Dev,given both have tremendous self-beliefand never-say-die attitude.

Srikkanth was part of the squad thatKapil led to victory in 1983 World Cupwhile Kohli featured in the team thatwon the 2011 edition of the showpiece.

“I’ve played along with Kapil Devand I’ve been the chairman of selectioncommittee for choosing Virat Kohli andI can tell you, both of their attitudes areabsolutely the same,” Srikkanth said onStar Sports show Cricket Connected.

“Both have a tremendous amount

of self-belief and they know they onlygo out with intention to win. The never-say-die attitude in them and the aggres-siveness makes them fantastic duringchases and the positive attitude both ofthem have makes them very similar toeach other.”

On the same show, former batsmanVVS Laxman said that Kohli never letshis guard down.

“The one thing I admire about ViratKohli is his intensity. One thing I wasworried about was whether he will burnout quickly. But not even one session orone over he lets his intensity drop andthat is really commendable,” Laxmansaid. PTI

����� ���������

Former India captain-turned-administra-tor Mohammed Azharuddin feels that all

cricket boards should come together toredraw the international calendar as theCOVID-19 pandemic has ensured that thecurrent schedule is irredeemable.

Azharuddin, who is the president of theHyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), feelsthat tweaking of the Futures Tours andProgrammes (FTP) is also necessary toaccommodate IPL, which is important forboth domestic and foreign players.

“I am sure they can have a restructuredFTP for two years because of so much ofuncertainty in prevailing circumstances. Imean you can always prepare for good timesbut you can’t prepare for bad times,” the 57-year-old former skipper said.

“Once things settle down, we can have adialogue with other member nations,” headded.

The IPL, which was scheduled to be heldfrom March 29-May 24, is set to be postponedindefinitely as the country stares at a lockdowntill the end of this month.

“I think if they have to slot IPL, the wholeitinerary needs to be changed. That’s oneoption or else stick to the current itinerarywith whatever gone being gone.

“But that means huge losses for all thestakeholders and is not practical,” saidAzharuddin, whose own Association hostsseven home games of Sunrisers Hyderabad.

“Therefore, I am expecting a completeoverhaul of the FTP, if we have to fit in theIPL. I feel all the boards will agree as every-body is getting affected. But obviously theBCCI gets affected more,” he added.

IPL has so much prominence because for-eign players like Jos Buttler and Pat Cumminshave expressed their willingness to participate

in the tournament at some point of the year.“No one will say no to IPL. Not even the

foreign players. So many people thrive on IPL,”he set the record straight.

“For a lot of our domestic guys, who arenot India regulars, let’s accept they look for-ward to the IPL.”

However, the man who led India in threeeditions of the 50-over World Cup, doesn’tthink that the World T20 in Australia inOctober-November will be done away with.

“I don’t think World T20’s slot will begone. It’s third week of October and if thingsare okay by then, I would believe World T20will happen.

“This is purely my personal opinion asyou can’t tinker with a World Cup. But obvi-ously IPL will get accommodated in some-where.”

��������9�����

Australian all-rounder GlennMaxwell believes a rescheduled

IPL can be held behind closed doorsbut it will be difficult to justify con-ducting the upcoming T20 WorldCup without fans cheering from thestands.

Both the 13th IPL and T20World Cup are uncertain at themoment with the worseningCOVID-19 pandemic.

One of the options for BCCI isto host the IPL in the October-November window if the ICC decidesto postpone the T20 World Cup(October 18-November 15). Therehas also been talks of conducting thetournaments behind closed doors.

One of the stalwarts of T20cricket, Maxwell feels if crowdsweren’t possible for either of the twoevents, the IPL would be a betteroption to go ahead.

“... It’s going to be hard for us tohave crowds. I think if IPL goes aheadthey can probably survive withoutany crowds, but I can’t see the T20World Cup surviving without anypeople there,” Maxwell told ABCGrandstand.

“It’s going to be hard for us to jus-tify having a World Cup when wecan’t get people into the grounds. SoI can’t see it happening in the nearfuture. We’ve got to take care of every-one’s health and wellbeing.”

����� ����� �

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’sintensity stood out and

he looked in spectacular touchduring the IPL camp, vouchedhis Chennai Super Kingsteammates, who remainedunperturbed by speculationsover their talisman’s future ininternational cricket.

The three-time winnershad commenced their trainingon March 2 with Dhoni join-ing from day one, but it wassuspended on March 14 owingto the novel coronavirus out-break.

Leg-spinner PiyushChawla, who was picked bythe franchise during the auc-tion late last year, said Dhoniwas focused and showedmatch-like intensity in theway he was batting and keep-ing.

“Mahi bhai was absolute-ly focused, training purpose-fully and was looking reallygood. He was showing match-like intensity in the way he wasbatting and keeping and thatwas rubbing off on others,”Chawla was quoted as sayingon the CSK website.

Karn Sharma, another leg-gie in the squad, said the CSKcaptain’s enthusiasm andinvolvement were a source ofinspiration for the other mem-bers.

“Mahi bhai was batting fortwo to three hours at netsevery day, and the way he washitting the ball no one couldsay he was returning from along break. The way he was

training was a huge motivationfor the rest of us,” he added.

“During match simula-tions, he was very involved,speaking to the bowlers, andthe rhythm he was in, it was abig boost for our team,”Sharma said.

Meanwhile the team’sbowling coach, LakshmipathyBalaji, described Dhoni as anatural athlete and that he wasclearly looking forward to theseason.

“MS is a natural athleteand supremely fit. He didn’tlook rusty, didn’t look one bitlike he was away from thegame. He was clearly lookingforward to the season, the wayhe was training, batting, keep-ing and being involved withthe team,” Balaji added.

Team physiotherapistTommy Simsek said it was thefirst time in about 10 years hesaw Dhoni do some wicket-keeping training.

“For the first time in about10 years I saw MS do somewicketkeeping training andthat goes to show that he wasdefinitely keen, definitelyfocused to do well this year,”he added.

“I was worried that hehadn’t done much for a longtime and then that he wouldtry and do too much, too soonand he may get injured.

“It turned that I need nothave worried — MS being theprofessional, he looked in real-ly good shape. He said he’dstarted (training) a month orso before our fitness camp,”Simsek said.

����� ��������

Former Pakistan pacerShoaib Akhtar says hecannot fathom why

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has“dragged it for so long” as theright time for the maverick ex-India skipper to call it quits wasafter last year’s ODI WorldCup.

Akhtar said he hopes the38-year-old Dhoni gets aresounding farewell despite hisresolute silence on what thefuture holds.

“This guy has served to thebest of his ability. He shouldleave cricket with dignity. Idon’t know why he dragged itfor so long. He should haveretired after the World Cup,”Akhtar said from Islamabad.

“If I would have been in hisplace, I would have hung up myboots. I could have playedshorter formats for three-fouryears but I left (after the 2011WC) as I wasn’t into the game100 per cent. So why drag?” heasked.

Dhoni, who has not playeda competitive game since theWorld Cup semifinal in July,was preparing to make a much-anticipated comeback with theIPL, which is now unlikely totake place.

If he had done well in theIPL, there was a possibility ofhim playing the T20 World Cupin October-November.

Akhtar believes Dhoni isnow in a limbo but deserves agrand send-off despite the anti-climactic turn of events.

“As a country, you shouldlet him go with a lot of respectand dignity. Give him a nicesend off. He has won you the

World Cup and done wondersfor India. He is a wonderfulhuman being at the same time.But right now, he seems to be

stuck,” he said.Akhtar said Dhoni should

have ideally retired after lastyear’s 50-over World Cup.

“When he could not finishthe game in the semifinal(against New Zealand). I felt heshould have retired but he canonly answer why he didn’t,” hesaid.

“He should have played afarewell series after the WorldCup may be and then saidgoodbye in a manner befittinghis great stature.”

Talking about the Indianteam’s inability to win a globalevent since the 2013 ChampionsTrophy, Akhtar said ViratKohli’s team needs match-win-ners in the middle-order.

“Winning tournaments isone thing but staying at top isanother. India is still the top-ranked Test team and is almostamong the top teams in the lim-ited-overs format. So, we shouldnot base their performanceonly on their showing in ICCevents.

“Of course, they shouldwin ICC events and they haveto. This team, when the top fourscore, they win more oftenthan not. But if they don’t,then it is an issue. Another thingI noticed is that you need amatch-winner like Yuvraj(Singh) or Dhoni in the middle-order,” he explained.

“When we toured India in1998, we always thought we

would run through India aftergetting the top order. There wasno match winner until Yuvrajcame in, followed by Dhoni.

“Then you started seeingchange in results. Right now, theproblem is lack of finishers,”opined the 44-year-old.

Akhtar doesn’t see anycricket happening for the nextsix to eight months as coron-avirus continues to wreak havocaround the world.

But if India’s tour ofAustralia takes place, Akhtarsees all four Tests going downthe wire.

India had won their firstever Test series in Australia earlylast year. But this time, Australiawill be a different kettle of fishin the presence of Steve Smithand David Warner, who wereserving ball-tampering banswhen India toured last.

“Despite the loss in NewZealand, I think India is a very,very good team and can give atough time to Australia. Butagain, India have to prove thatlike they did the last time.

“However, I don’t see thatseries happening. My assess-ment is there won’t be anycricket for next one year. TheT20 World Cup is not going tohappen.

“We are dealing with a pan-demic at the moment. Anyindustry, which requires crowdgathering, is going to suffer,”Akhtar added.

������@Crystal Palace manag-er Roy Hodgson has warnedagainst ‘artificial means’ of decid-ing the Premier League.

In a statement to theLondon club’s supporters, theveteran former England manag-er insisted there was widespreadsupport for playing the 2019/20season out to a finish.

“Everyone is in total agree-ment we need an end to this sea-son,” wrote Hodgson.

“We don’t want artificialmeans of deciding who wins theleague, who gets into theChampions League, who getsrelegated and promoted.”

His letter came after UEFA,European football’s governingbody, warned a failure to com-plete domestic leagues could seeclubs excluded from continen-

tal competitions next season.Hodgson said players who,

in common with the rest of theBritish population, are current-ly in lockdown would ideally likethree to four weeks’ preparationbefore playing a match again.

But the 72-year-old added:

“I accept there may have to bea squeeze on that time-frame.”

The League has been sus-pended until April 30, with fur-ther delays looking likely. Palacecurrently safely is in mid-table,with the Eagles 12 points clearof the relegation zone. AFP

����� ��������

England limited-overs skip-per Eoin Morgan considers

2019 World Cup final as the“most dramatic game of crick-et” that has ever been played,saying it helped the sport grow“outside the normal bubble”and lifted its profile.

England were adjudged thewinners of the 50-over WorldCup last year on the basis oftheir superior boundary countafter the epic final against NewZealand, and also the ensuingSuper Over, ended in a tie at theLord’s in London.

“The final was the mostdramatic game of cricket andthe best game of cricket thatprobably has ever been playedwhich contributes to the hypeof it,” Morgan was quoted as

saying by Kolkata KnightRiders official website.

It was a landmark day for

sport overall as Novak Djokovicedged out Roger Federer in anepic Wimbledon summit clash

some kilometres away, that’sconsidered to be the longestever final in the history of theprestigious tennis tournament.

“I think one of the greatthings about it was on the dayof that great game of cricketwas, it’s always now associatedwith the longest everWimbledon final that was epicas well,” Morgan said.

“It helped us in growingcricket outside of the normalbubble that we’re already in toa different audience, and for usat home it has lifted the profileof the game like we’ve neverseen.”

England had crashed out inthe group stage of the 2015World Cup and Morgan said itwas an amazing journey thatthe team went through fromthat embarrassing defeat to

reaching the pinnacle of worldcricket after four years.

“I think the journey wewent on is probably the mostexciting. In 2015, the embar-rassing nature in which wewere bundled out of that WorldCup and the journey weembarked on to try and changethe brand of cricket we playedwith a new group of extremelytalented players over the courseof 4 years — it’s brilliant,” hesaid.

“Just being able to impartsome of my knowledge andexperience along with somevery senior players and a groupof great support staff whoalways continue to questionwhat we do in a good way inorder to hold us accountable. Itsort of culminated in last year’sWorld Cup.”

Dhoni should have retired after 2019 WC: Akhtar

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