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O n March 27, Daniel Lopez- Acuna, former director of healthcare in crisis situation with the World Health Organization (WHO) said the number of people currently affected by coronavirus is very, probably “ten times”, higher than the official confirmed case, both in Spain and world- wide. Nearly two months ago, when coronavirus spread was in its midway stages, Lopez- Acuna’s warning failed to cre- ate any stir, both in Europe and elsewhere. After all, a Spanish citizen was speaking primari- ly in the context of the Spanish outbreak. Two months down the line, the entire world is haunted by the fear that the number of actual cases could be many time more than the reported ones. The death count could be equally manifold. Various studies conducted across the globe have shown that only a fraction of the infection and fatalities are being detected due to inadequate testing. This means the number of people who have been quaran- tined is far less than those out in the streets or filling up work places and spreading the virus. These undetected “carriers” may be the single biggest hur- dle in preventing the spread of coronavirus, more so in India, where testing has been far less than other equally affected nations. Take the case of the United Kingdom, which has 2,57,154 cases till date. A study by the researchers at Stanford University estimated that the virus kills 1.04 per cent of affected patients in the United Kingdom. Since on May 19, the day the study was published, the UK had reported 48,417 deaths, it is estimated that the total infection stood at 4.65 million, nearly 19 times more than the tally of 2,40,00 cases on that day. Similarly, researchers from the University of Bonn have said the number of coron- avirus infections in Germany could be 10 times higher than currently thought. The researchers tested 900 persons at Gangelt in Heinsberg district in the west- ern German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The finding published on May 3 showed that out of 900 persons from 404 households who were test- ed, around 15 per cent were found infected. This was five- time higher than the number of confirmed cases reported offi- cially by the Robert Koch Institut. The infection rate corre- sponded to fatality rate of 0.37 per cent. If this fatality rate is applied on a national scale, it would mean ten-time more infection than the reported ones in Germany. Similarly, way back on March 24 itself, a top Italian Government official who head- ed the agency collating the Covid-19 data, confirmed that the number of cases in the country could be ten-time higher. “A ratio of one certified case out of every 10 is credible,” Angelo Borrelli, the head of the Civil Protection Agency, told La Repubblica newspaper. Let us now take a look at the US scenario. According to the Worldometer --- the fore- most global website that 24x7 tracks down the countrywide number of new cases and fatal- ities --- since a large number of cases are asymptomatic and that testing is sparse, only a fraction of the infection is detected. “The number of actual cases is therefore estimated to be at several multiples above the number of reported cases. The number of deaths also tends to be underestimated, as some patients are not hospi- talised and not tested,” it said. “If we base our calculation (deaths/cases) on the number of reported cases (rather than on the actual ones), we will greatly overestimate the fatal- ity rate,” it said. The Worldometer analysed the data provided by New York City, the New York State anti- body study, and the excess deaths analysis by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and said that the number of actual cases is 10 times the number of con- firmed cases. T he States have agreed to allow a limited number of domestic flights operations from Monday with several rid- ers while West Bengal will resume flight operation from May 28. Maharashtra, which has been unwilling to reopen its airports for passenger flights has agreed to allow 25 flights to and from Mumbai on Monday instead of proposed 250 flights. West Bengal will allow flights from Kolkata and Bagdogra airports from May 28 instead of May 25. The Tamil Nadu Government also allowed air travel but mandates 14 days home quarantine for passen- gers and who don’t have facil- ity for home quarantine will be moved to institutional quar- antine. According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Hyderabad airport has agreed to allow 15 arrivals and 15 departure fights while airports- Vizag and Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh have agreed to resume flights from May 26. Meanwhile, pilots and first officers seem to be concerned over lack of clarity on quarantine requirements for them. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are home to some of the busiest airports in terms of passenger traffic. According to Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, it has been a long day of hard negotiations with various State Governments to recommence civil aviation operations. Except Andhra Pradesh which will start on May 26 and West Bengal on May 28, domestic flights will recommence across the coun- try from Monday. “For Tamil Nadu, there will be maximum 25 arrivals in Chennai but there’s no limit on no. of depar- tures. For other airports in Tamil Nadu flights will operate as in other parts of country,” the Minister said. Meanwhile, confusions prevailed on Sunday as differ- ent States imposed their own set of conditions on reopening airports. Many States like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar, Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu were opposed to opening up of their airports and have announced their respective quarantine measures for passengers arriving at their airports. I n another shocking incident involving a sadhu from Karnataka, Shivacharya Nirvanarudra Pashupatinath Maharaj, the founder-spiritual head of Nirvanji Pashupatinath Mutt, was found dead in his bedroom at his ashram in Umri near here on Sunday morning, with police stating that robbery may have been the motive. Later in the evening, the Nanded police arrested the prime suspect behind the Mutt head and one of his associates. After killing Pashupatinath Maharaj’s associate Bhagwan Shinde, the prime suspect - identified as one Sainath Langote — went to the ashram late on Saturday night. Finding Maharaj alone resting in his bedroom at his Ashram, Langote allegedly threw chilli powder in his eyes, blinding him. He took away 69,000, his laptop, other valu- ables in the bedroom worth approximately 1.50 lakh and the sadhu’s car keys. As Maharaj put up some resistance, Langote overpow- ered and strangled him. Later, he dragged the deceased Mutt head’s body to the latter’s parked outside and dumped it into the vehicle’s boot and sped off from the place. Acting on a tip-off that the prime accused had fled to Telangana, the police traced to a nearby Tanur village in the neighbouring State and arrest- ed him. J ust a day before “Nautapa’, beginning from May 25, the maximum temperature of Rajasthan’s Churu and Ganganagar on Sunday record- ed 47 degrees Celsius, hottest in the country. Nautapa is con- sidered hottest days of the summer season when the sun enters into the Rohini Nakshatra. The next nine days begin- ning from Monday, could be hottest days of the season. During Rohini Nakshara, the distance between the sun and the earth gets reduced significantly resulting in days and nights getting hotter than the rest of summer months comparatively. During this period, maximum and mini- mum temperatures soar up. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the maximum tem- peratures could soar up to 47 degrees Celsius while mini- mum temperature could also soar up to 25-28 degrees Celsius in several parts of the country. The IMD on Sunday issued a “red” warning for Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Rajasthan for the next two days. The IMD has also issued an orange warning for heatwave for east Uttar Pradesh. This is also for the first time this summer season that a red warning has been issued for heatwave. According to Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of IMD’s Regional Meteorological Centre, this season, the tem- peratures did not rise the way it usually does in North and Central India because of sig- nificant rainfall activity during April that continued till mid- May. Srivastava said due to dry north-westerly winds and a trough between Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu, conditions are favourable for heatwave to severe heatwave. “Heatwave conditions over some parts with severe heat- wave over isolated pockets are very likely over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha and Telnagana during the next five days,” the IMD said in its daily bulletin. M aharashtra on Sunday crossed 50,000-mark, reporting the highest-single day coronavirus surge with Mumbai recording 30,542 cases as States of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Delhi also followed it with high spike in their coronavirus counts. With the addition of around 7,107 new cases and 156 deaths, the total coronavirus cases in the country rose to 1,38,532 and death count crossed 4,000. After today’s spike India on Sunday pipped Iran to emerge as the tenth worst affected country in the world. Maharashtra led all States in the count of those infected by the virus and crossed 50,231 numbers with 3,041 new cases. The State recorded 58 new deaths taking the total toll in the State to 1,635. Besides Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu recorded 765 rise in the cases with total count of 16,277. With 8 new deaths, total toll in the State reached 112. Tamil Nadu Capital Chennai itself has registered total 10,582 cases with 587 new cases and with six deaths on Sunday the toll in the city has reached at 81. In view status of coron- avirus cases in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the Governments there have sought more time to resume large-scale domestic flight ser- vices in their respective States on Monday. West Bengal wit- nessed spike of 208 cases tak- ing total number of affected people in the State to 3,667 with 272 casualties. The State Capital Kolkata witnessed 52 new cases and total affected in the city numbered 1,665 with 180 deaths. Gujarat, among top three States in the coronavirus count, recorded a rise of 394 cases tak- ing the total number of those affected with the virus to 14,063 and 29 fresh deaths taking toll figure in the State to 858. Delhi recorded total of 13,418 cases with 508 new cases. With 30 new deaths on Sunday , the National Capital stood at 261 deaths as on Sunday. Other States witness- ing spike in cases include Karnataka with 130 new cases taking its count to 2,089 with total 42 casualties, Bihar with rise of 117 cases reaching the count at 2,511 with 11 deaths as on date. Rajasthan witnessed 152 new cases with total count at 6,894 and 161 fatalities in the State, while Madhya Pradesh recorded 294 new cases for a tally of 6,665 cases and 290 deaths. Odisha addition of 67 cases took the count of coron- avirus affected to 1,336 with seven deaths and Assam in the North-East recorded six new cases taking total number of virus affected people to 353 with four casualties. Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had ear- lier claimed that return of natives from southern and western regions of India to the Northeast region has led to a sudden rise in Covid-19 posi- tive cases, especially in Assam. The Central Government has claimed that around 50 lakh stranded migrant labour- ers have reached their homes. A s the domestic air travel set to begin after almost two- month-long halt, all passen- gers reaching Punjab would be tested for Covid-19 as they landed at the airports in the State. Issuing the orders in the wake of directions issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to resume air travel from May 25, Mohali Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan has issued orders that all pas- sengers belonging to Punjab shall be tested for Covid-19 at the airport. The orders stated that as the Chandigarh International Airport (CHIAL) falls in the jurisdiction of the district, the entry of inbound persons into the State needs to be regulated in line with the protocol of the Punjab Health Department for the containment and prevention of the spread of Covid-19. “Therefore, all passengers belonging to Punjab shall be tested for Covid-19 at the air- port. All such persons shall be required to undergo mandato- ry home quarantine for a peri- od of 14 days from the date of arrival. In case, the test comes out to be positive, the person or persons shall be shifted to an isolation facility. In case the test comes out to be negative, the person shall still be required to undergo home quarantine for 14 days and shall self-monitor their health status and report to the nearest government health facil- ity in case they develop any Covid symptoms,” read the orders. This is being done in line with the directions of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, which mention in that “states can develop their own protocol with regard to quarantine as per their assessment”. However, it has been clarified that manda- tory tests shall be done only of passengers whose destination is Punjab (any district). “The pas- sengers for UT of Chandigarh, Haryana, HP etc, moving through the airport, shall be dealt with as per the protocol of the recipient State,” added the Deputy Commissioner-cum- District Magistrate in the order. Besides, the orders stated that the Airlines shall publicise this information extensively so as to ensure that this informa- tion is made available to all the passengers boarding the flights well before they reach the air- ports, that is the points of departure.
12

ˆ ˆ · resume flight operation from May 28. Maharashtra, which has been unwilling to reopen its ... identified as one Sainath Langote — went to the ashram late on Saturday night.

Aug 20, 2020

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Page 1: ˆ ˆ · resume flight operation from May 28. Maharashtra, which has been unwilling to reopen its ... identified as one Sainath Langote — went to the ashram late on Saturday night.

�������������� ��������

On March 27, Daniel Lopez-Acuna, former director of

healthcare in crisis situationwith the World HealthOrganization (WHO) said thenumber of people currentlyaffected by coronavirus is very,probably “ten times”, higherthan the official confirmedcase, both in Spain and world-wide.

Nearly two months ago,when coronavirus spread wasin its midway stages, Lopez-Acuna’s warning failed to cre-ate any stir, both in Europe andelsewhere. After all, a Spanishcitizen was speaking primari-ly in the context of the Spanishoutbreak. Two months downthe line, the entire world ishaunted by the fear that thenumber of actual cases could bemany time more than thereported ones. The death countcould be equally manifold.

Various studies conductedacross the globe have shownthat only a fraction of theinfection and fatalities are beingdetected due to inadequatetesting.

This means the number ofpeople who have been quaran-tined is far less than those outin the streets or filling up workplaces and spreading the virus.These undetected “carriers”may be the single biggest hur-dle in preventing the spread ofcoronavirus, more so in India,

where testing has been far lessthan other equally affectednations.

Take the case of the UnitedKingdom, which has 2,57,154cases till date. A study by theresearchers at StanfordUniversity estimated that thevirus kills 1.04 per cent ofaffected patients in the UnitedKingdom. Since on May 19, theday the study was published,the UK had reported 48,417deaths, it is estimated that thetotal infection stood at 4.65million, nearly 19 times more

than the tally of 2,40,00 caseson that day.

Similarly, researchers fromthe University of Bonn havesaid the number of coron-avirus infections in Germanycould be 10 times higher thancurrently thought.

The researchers tested 900persons at Gangelt inHeinsberg district in the west-ern German state of NorthRhine-Westphalia. The findingpublished on May 3 showedthat out of 900 persons from404 households who were test-

ed, around 15 per cent werefound infected. This was five-time higher than the number ofconfirmed cases reported offi-cially by the Robert KochInstitut.

The infection rate corre-sponded to fatality rate of 0.37per cent. If this fatality rate isapplied on a national scale, itwould mean ten-time moreinfection than the reportedones in Germany.

Similarly, way back onMarch 24 itself, a top ItalianGovernment official who head-

ed the agency collating theCovid-19 data, confirmed thatthe number of cases in thecountry could be ten-timehigher. “A ratio of one certifiedcase out of every 10 is credible,”Angelo Borrelli, the head of theCivil Protection Agency, toldLa Repubblica newspaper.

Let us now take a look atthe US scenario. According tothe Worldometer --- the fore-most global website that 24x7tracks down the countrywidenumber of new cases and fatal-ities --- since a large number ofcases are asymptomatic andthat testing is sparse, only afraction of the infection isdetected.

“The number of actualcases is therefore estimated tobe at several multiples abovethe number of reported cases.The number of deaths alsotends to be underestimated, assome patients are not hospi-talised and not tested,” it said.

“If we base our calculation(deaths/cases) on the numberof reported cases (rather thanon the actual ones), we willgreatly overestimate the fatal-ity rate,” it said.

The Worldometer analysedthe data provided by New YorkCity, the New York State anti-body study, and the excessdeaths analysis by the Centrefor Disease Control andPrevention (CDC) and saidthat the number of actual casesis 10 times the number of con-firmed cases.

����� ����������� �

The States have agreed toallow a limited number of

domestic flights operationsfrom Monday with several rid-ers while West Bengal willresume flight operation fromMay 28.

Maharashtra, which hasbeen unwilling to reopen itsairports for passenger flightshas agreed to allow 25 flights toand from Mumbai on Mondayinstead of proposed 250 flights.West Bengal will allow flightsfrom Kolkata and Bagdograairports from May 28 instead ofMay 25.

The Tamil NaduGovernment also allowed airtravel but mandates 14 dayshome quarantine for passen-gers and who don’t have facil-ity for home quarantine will bemoved to institutional quar-antine. According to theMinistry of Civil Aviation,Hyderabad airport has agreedto allow 15 arrivals and 15departure fights while airports-Vizag and Vijaywada inAndhra Pradesh have agreed toresume flights from May 26.Meanwhile, pilots and firstofficers seem to be concernedover lack of clarity on quarantine requirements forthem.

Maharashtra, Tamil Naduand West Bengal are home tosome of the busiest airports interms of passenger traffic.

According to Union CivilAviation Minister HardeepSingh Puri, it has been a long

day of hard negotiations withvarious State Governments torecommence civil aviationoperations. Except AndhraPradesh which will start onMay 26 and West Bengal onMay 28, domestic flights willrecommence across the coun-try from Monday. “For TamilNadu, there will be maximum25 arrivals in Chennai butthere’s no limit on no. of depar-tures. For other airports inTamil Nadu flights will operateas in other parts of country,” the

Minister said.Meanwhile, confusions

prevailed on Sunday as differ-ent States imposed their ownset of conditions on reopeningairports. Many States likeMaharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar,Punjab, Assam, AndhraPradesh, West Bengal andTamil Nadu were opposed toopening up of their airportsand have announced theirrespective quarantine measuresfor passengers arriving at theirairports.

����� ��� �

In another shocking incidentinvolving a sadhu from

Karnataka, ShivacharyaNirvanarudra PashupatinathMaharaj, the founder-spiritualhead of Nirvanji PashupatinathMutt, was found dead in hisbedroom at his ashram in Umrinear here on Sunday morning,with police stating that robberymay have been the motive.

Later in the evening, theNanded police arrested theprime suspect behind the Mutthead and one of his associates.

After killing PashupatinathMaharaj’s associate BhagwanShinde, the prime suspect -identified as one SainathLangote — went to the ashramlate on Saturday night.

Finding Maharaj aloneresting in his bedroom at hisAshram, Langote allegedlythrew chilli powder in his eyes,blinding him. He took away�69,000, his laptop, other valu-ables in the bedroom worthapproximately �1.50 lakh andthe sadhu’s car keys.

As Maharaj put up someresistance, Langote overpow-ered and strangled him. Later,he dragged the deceased Mutthead’s body to the latter’sparked outside and dumped itinto the vehicle’s boot and spedoff from the place.

Acting on a tip-off that theprime accused had fled toTelangana, the police traced toa nearby Tanur village in theneighbouring State and arrest-ed him.

��������� �� ��������

Just a day before “Nautapa’,beginning from May 25, the

maximum temperature ofRajasthan’s Churu andGanganagar on Sunday record-ed 47 degrees Celsius, hottestin the country. Nautapa is con-sidered hottest days of thesummer season when the sunenters into the RohiniNakshatra.

The next nine days begin-ning from Monday, could behottest days of the season.

During Rohini Nakshara,the distance between the sunand the earth gets reducedsignificantly resulting in daysand nights getting hotter thanthe rest of summer monthscomparatively. During thisperiod, maximum and mini-mum temperatures soar up.

According to the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD), the maximum tem-

peratures could soar up to 47degrees Celsius while mini-mum temperature could alsosoar up to 25-28 degreesCelsius in several parts of thecountry.

The IMD on Sunday issueda “red” warning for Delhi,Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarhand Rajasthan for the nexttwo days. The IMD has alsoissued an orange warning forheatwave for east UttarPradesh. This is also for the first

time this summer season thata red warning has been issuedfor heatwave.

According to KuldeepSrivastava, the head of IMD’sRegional MeteorologicalCentre, this season, the tem-peratures did not rise the wayit usually does in North andCentral India because of sig-nificant rainfall activity duringApril that continued till mid-May. Srivastava said due to drynorth-westerly winds and atrough between Chhattisgarhand Tamil Nadu, conditions arefavourable for heatwave tosevere heatwave.

“Heatwave conditions oversome parts with severe heat-wave over isolated pockets arevery likely over Punjab,Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi,Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbhaand Telnagana during the nextfive days,” the IMD said in itsdaily bulletin.

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Maharashtra on Sundaycrossed 50,000-mark,

reporting the highest-single daycoronavirus surge with Mumbairecording 30,542 cases as Statesof Tamil Nadu, Gujarat andDelhi also followed it with highspike in their coronaviruscounts. With the addition ofaround 7,107 new cases and 156deaths, the total coronaviruscases in the country rose to1,38,532 and death countcrossed 4,000. After today’sspike India on Sunday pippedIran to emerge as the tenth worstaffected country in the world.

Maharashtra led all Statesin the count of those infectedby the virus and crossed 50,231numbers with 3,041 new cases.The State recorded 58 newdeaths taking the total toll inthe State to 1,635.

Besides Maharashtra,Tamil Nadu recorded 765 risein the cases with total count of

16,277. With 8 new deaths,total toll in the State reached112. Tamil Nadu CapitalChennai itself has registeredtotal 10,582 cases with 587 newcases and with six deaths onSunday the toll in the city hasreached at 81.

In view status of coron-avirus cases in Maharashtra,Tamil Nadu and West Bengal,the Governments there havesought more time to resumelarge-scale domestic flight ser-vices in their respective Stateson Monday. West Bengal wit-nessed spike of 208 cases tak-ing total number of affectedpeople in the State to 3,667with 272 casualties. The StateCapital Kolkata witnessed 52new cases and total affected in

the city numbered 1,665 with180 deaths.

Gujarat, among top threeStates in the coronavirus count,recorded a rise of 394 cases tak-

ing the total number of thoseaffected with the virus to14,063 and 29 fresh deathstaking toll figure in the State to858. Delhi recorded total of

13,418 cases with 508 newcases. With 30 new deaths onSunday , the National Capitalstood at 261 deaths as onSunday. Other States witness-ing spike in cases includeKarnataka with 130 new casestaking its count to 2,089 withtotal 42 casualties, Bihar withrise of 117 cases reaching thecount at 2,511 with 11 deathsas on date.

Rajasthan witnessed 152new cases with total count at6,894 and 161 fatalities in theState, while Madhya Pradeshrecorded 294 new cases for atally of 6,665 cases and 290deaths. Odisha addition of 67cases took the count of coron-avirus affected to 1,336 withseven deaths and Assam in theNorth-East recorded six newcases taking total number ofvirus affected people to 353with four casualties.

Assam Health MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarma had ear-lier claimed that return ofnatives from southern andwestern regions of India to theNortheast region has led to asudden rise in Covid-19 posi-tive cases, especially in Assam.

The Central Governmenthas claimed that around 50lakh stranded migrant labour-ers have reached their homes.

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As the domestic air travel setto begin after almost two-

month-long halt, all passen-gers reaching Punjab would betested for Covid-19 as theylanded at the airports in theState. Issuing the orders in thewake of directions issued by theUnion Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) to resume air travelfrom May 25, Mohali DeputyCommissioner Girish Dayalanhas issued orders that all pas-sengers belonging to Punjabshall be tested for Covid-19 atthe airport.

The orders stated that as theChandigarh InternationalAirport (CHIAL) falls in thejurisdiction of the district, theentry of inbound persons intothe State needs to be regulatedin line with the protocol of thePunjab Health Department forthe containment and preventionof the spread of Covid-19.

“Therefore, all passengersbelonging to Punjab shall betested for Covid-19 at the air-port. All such persons shall berequired to undergo mandato-ry home quarantine for a peri-od of 14 days from the date ofarrival. In case, the test comesout to be positive, the person orpersons shall be shifted to an

isolation facility. In case the testcomes out to be negative, theperson shall still be required toundergo home quarantine for 14days and shall self-monitor theirhealth status and report to thenearest government health facil-ity in case they develop anyCovid symptoms,” read theorders.

This is being done in linewith the directions of Ministryof Health and Family Welfare,Government of India, whichmention in that “states candevelop their own protocol withregard to quarantine as pertheir assessment”. However, ithas been clarified that manda-tory tests shall be done only ofpassengers whose destination isPunjab (any district). “The pas-sengers for UT of Chandigarh,Haryana, HP etc, movingthrough the airport, shall bedealt with as per the protocol ofthe recipient State,” added theDeputy Commissioner-cum-District Magistrate in the order.

Besides, the orders statedthat the Airlines shall publicisethis information extensively soas to ensure that this informa-tion is made available to all thepassengers boarding the flightswell before they reach the air-ports, that is the points ofdeparture.

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With temperatures surpass-ing the 45 degrees Celsius-

mark across several parts in theregion, the MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) on Sundayissued a “red” warning forPunjab, Haryana and their jointcapital- Chandigarh for the nexttwo days.

Intense heat wave contin-ued to swept Punjab andHaryana with maximum tem-perature soaring severaldegrees above normal in mostparts of both states.

A Met official said thatboth maximum and minimumtemperature levels were record-ed above normal limits acrossthe region.

According to the MetDepartment forecast, severeheat wave conditions are like-ly at many places in Punjab andHaryana May 25 and 26.

In Haryana, Narnaul wasthe hottest place as it recordedmercury at 45 degrees Celsius,four notches above normal.Hisar settled at a high of 43.6degree Celsius, two degreesabove normal while Ambalarecorded a maximum of 42.6

degree Celsius, up by fourdegrees from normal. Karnalrecorded a high of 41.6 degrees,three notches above normal.

Punjab’s holy city Amritsarbraved the scorching heat atmaximum temperature of 41.2degree Celsius, two degreesabove normal. Patiala andLudhiana recorded respectivemaximum temperatures at 42.6degrees and 41.9 degreeCelsius, both three notchesabove normal limits.

Chandigarh, the joint cap-ital of Punjab and Haryana set-tled at maximum temperatureof 41.7 degree Celsius, up byfour notches from normal.

The union territory ofChandigarh settled at mini-mum temperature of 25.7degrees, which was two notch-es above normal. The mini-mum temperature recorded inNarnaul was 27 degrees,Ambala 23.2 degree Celsius,Hisar 24.1 degrees, Amritsarrecorded 23.2 degree Celsius,Ludhiana 23.6 degrees andPatiala 23.5 degree Celsius.

TEMPERATURES CONTIN-UE TO RISE IN HIMACHAL

Temperatures continued

to rise in parts of HimachalPradesh on Sunday and Unawas the hottest place in the statewith a maximum temperatureof 42 degrees Celsius, theMeteorological centre here said.

Most other parts of thestate recorded temperaturesabove the 30-degree mark.

Una recorded the highesttemperature in the hill state at42 degrees Celsius, ShimlaMeteorological Centre directorManmohan Singh said. Bilaspur recorded a max-imum temperature of 41degrees Celsius, followed by40.8 in Hamirpur, 38.8 inSundernagar, 37.2 in Nahan, 37in Kangra, 35.9 in Chamba,34.8 in Solan, 31.6 inDharamshala and 31 inPalampur.

Tourist places Shimla,Manali, Dalhousie and Kufrirecorded maximum tempera-tures of 27.9, 26.8, 23 and 19.8degrees Celsius respectively.

The mercury settled at 19degrees Celsius in tribal districtLahaul-Spiti's administrativecentre Keylong and Kinnaur'sKalpa recorded a maximumtemperature of 23.8 degreesCelsius.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) has expelled its leader

from Haryana’s Karnal,Chander Parkash Kathuria,from the primary member-ship of the party for six years.

Kathuria, a special inviteeof the party's state executivecommittee, was suspended bystate BJP chief Subhash Baralaon Sunday.

However, the reasonbehind his suspension was notmentioned in the letter issuedby Barala. A letter issued at thestate BJP headquarters inRohtak stated that Kathuria hasbeen suspended for six yearsfrom the primary member-ship of the party.

Kathuria (51) is a formerchairman of the Haryana StateFederation of CooperativeSugar Mills Limited.

The party’s action againstKathuria came two days after avideo purportedly showed theparty leader having fallen on theground when he allegedly triedto descend from the second-floorbalcony of a flat in Chandigarhwith the help of a cloth.

He had fractured his foot

while trying to come down thebalcony and was admitted at thePost Graduate Institute ofMedical Education and Research(PGIMER) for treatment.

After the incident, theChandigarh Police had issueda statement stating that the BJPleader was injured after he fellwhile escaping from the secondfloor of a building in Sector 63where he had gone to meet afemale friend on Fridayevening. A person had comethere and to avoid to see him,Kathuria tried to come downthrough balcony and feel downfrom second floor.

No complaint was made inthis regard. While the family toldthat they are taking him toFortis from PGIMER, he was notadmitted in Fortis as per records.The patient was declared unfitfor statement by the PGIMER. Atext was received by concernedSHO from Kathuria’s wife sayingthat they will inform the policeabout his heath, the UT Policehad stated.

The incident had broughtmajor embarrassment to theruling BJP in Haryana and isseen as a reason for Kathuria’sexpulsion from the party.

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As Punjab Government ismaking special efforts to

develop the holy historic city ofSri Chamkaur Sahib as a one ofthe best tourist destination in theworld, Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh has approved�47 crore for beautification andtheme park under this project.

“�14 crore would be spenton the beautification projectand �33 crore on the themepark,” said the state Tourismand Cultural Affairs Ministerand local MLA Charanjit SinghChanni after the inaugurationof the beautification project.

Channi said that �14 crorebeautification project includesfaçade development atGurudwara Katalgarh Sahib

Road, beautification of canalembankment and pathwayalong the canal etc.

“Sri Chamkaur Sahib holdsa great significance in the Sikh

history as elder Sahibzadas oftenth Sikh Guru of Sri GuruGobind Singh ji were mar-tyred here fighting with theMughals. The Sikhs from allover the world come here to payobeisance to Baba Ajit Singh Jiand Baba Jujhar Singh ji. Dueto its importance, the PunjabGovernment would leave nostone unturned in beautifica-tion of this holy place,” he

added.“Besides, development

works of theme parks are inprogress with the cost of �33crore. The work is being doneby the best designers, engi-neers, artists, singers with thelatest technology from all overthe world,” said Channi, addingthat all the development worksof the holy city would be com-pleted well in time.

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Chandigarh: In a major break-through, the UT Police onSunday arrested one personand seized a total of 440 boxesof liquor (21120 quarters) con-cealed in his milk tanker.“Anaccused named Gaurav Khatri,resident of Mohali, Punjab hasbeen arrested by the UT Policefor possessing huge illegalliquor consignment concealedin milk tanker. An FIR hasbeen registered against himunder Section 61-1-14 ExciseAct,” said a spokesman ofChandigarh Police.

Giving more details, thespokesman said that a team ofcrime branch led by ASIRajinder Singh Dhanda got atip-off from secret informerthat one Gujarat registrationnumber milk tanker will carryillegal liquor from IndustrialArea, Phase-1 to Gujarat.

It was informed that byadopting this method, illegalliquor has been supplied toGujarat from here, severaltimes.

Accordingly, a naka waslaid near Poultry Farm Chowk,Chandigarh. A Gujarat regis-tration number GJ25-U-3717milk tanker coming fromIndustrial Area, Phase-1,Chandigarh was stopped.

During the search of milkvan tanker, 440 boxes of illegalliquor make Crazy RomeoWhisky Quarters (total 21120quarters) were recovered fromthe tank of this vehicle, thespokesman said. PNS

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Sunday ordered a magisterialinquiry into the fire incident ata closed factory in Ludhiana.No loss of life has been report-ed, so far, in the incident.

A fire broke out at RTWoollen Mills factory in theafternoon. Even though the fac-tory was closed, the ownerwas present on the premisesand managed to escape.

“I have directed DCLudhiana to look into the rea-sons behind the fire that brokeout at RT Woollen Mills today.Luckily there have been nocasualties. The fire departmenttook prompt action and pre-vented the fire from spreading

and causing more damage,”tweeted the Chief Minister.

As per the fire departmentofficial, the fire incident wasreported at around 12:30 pm,and services of more than 40fire tenders were used duringthe entire operation. The fire-man reportedly faced a massivechallenge in dousing the fire asthere was only one way to enterthe mill.

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Athree days old baby girlfrom Dadumajra here died

of Coronavirus on Sundaybecoming the youngest fatali-ty due to the virus inChandigarh.

This is the fourthCoronavirus related death inChandigarh. 23 fresh caseswere also reported from BapuDham colony in Sector 26 onSunday

“The three days old girlwas born at Civil Hospital,Sector 22 here. She was referredto PGIMER on Sunday and wasbrought dead there. Later hersample was taken and thereport came out positive forCoronavirus. The mother wasalso tested for the Coronavirusand her report is awaited,”stated Chandigarh HealthDepartment’s bulletin.

The total cases stood at 256while the active cases were 67till late evening in the city.

Meanwhile, the BapuDham colony (BDC) in Sector26 continues to remain the epi-center of spread of Covid-19 inChandigarh, with 23 fresh cases

reported from the colony.The BDC, which has been

declared as containment zonein Chandigarh has reported184 positive cases out of total256 till now. The colony inSector 26 here has an approx-imate population of 60000 peo-ple.

“23 fresh cases have beenreported in BDC on Sunday.The post midnight positivecases include 18 years old male,23 years old female, 37 yearsold and two females aged 30years,” stated ChandigarhHealth Department’s mediabulletin.

“14 years old male, 18years old male, 42 years oldmale,19 years old male, 29years old male and 56 years oldmale- six persons of threehouseholds within the samehouse have been reported to bepositive for Covid -19. Apartfrom this, 28 years old male, 45years old male and 38 years oldfemale from two differenthouseholds within the samehouse. Other cases include sixfemales aged 6, 18, 23, 25, 28,50 and two males aged 12 and32 years,” the bulletin stated.

The positive cases havebeen admitted in GMCH-32,GMSH-16 and Covid CareCentre Dhanwantri, Sector-46here. Meanwhile, one patientwas discharged from PGIMERand six from SoodDharamshala on Sunday. Theseven patients (25 yearfemale,44 year male ,32 yearmale,7 year male,35 yearmale,25 year female and a halfyear female) who were positiveCovid-19 cases have been treat-ed, cured and discharged, itstated.

A total of 99 samples werecollected at the sampling cen-tre set up in a school at BDCon Sunday. 3904 samples havebeen tested so far in the city.Four deaths related to coron-avirus have been reported tillnow, the bulletin added.

While the Administrationhas made arrangements forseparate quarantine centre forthe residents, who want to goout of BDC and stay inGovernment quarantine centredue to extreme congestion intheir own houses, it has so farfailed to break the chain ofinfection in the colony.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Sunday announced a slew ofreliefs for the people during theCovid-19 pandemic, especial-ly for the transport sector. Atthe same time, the ChiefMinister maintained that theState Government “is exploringmore avenues to assist ourpeople during this crisis”, whichhe would share once finalized.

The Chief Ministerdeclared that no commercialvehicle would be charges anytax during the time period oflockdown, from March 23,2020 till May 19, 2020.

Besides, the Chief Ministerannounced that the transporttax for the ordinary buses willalso be reduced by five percent.

In addition, the ChiefMinister also announced to dis-tribute 14 lakh additionalration packets, containing 10 kgAtta, one kg gram and one kgsugar. “We had earlier distrib-uted 15 lakh such packet,” saidthe Chief Minister in his tweeton Sunday.

Capt Amarinder, in a seriesof two tweets, said: “To con-

tinue providing immediaterelief to our people during#Covid19, Punjab Governmenthas decided to implement fol-lowing: 14 Lakh additionalRation packets to be distributedcontaining 10 kg Atta, 1 Kggram & 1 kg sugar. We had ear-lier distributed 15 lakh suchpacket.”

“No tax to be charged oncommercial vehicles from 23rdMarch-19th May. Transporttax for ordinary buses to bereduced by 5%....We are explor-ing more avenues to assist ourpeople during this crisis, willshare once finalized,” he tweet

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All the Civil Surgeons acrossPunjab have been instruct-

ed to keep a close watch onquarantined persons. At thesame time, they have also beenasked to personally monitor thefunctioning of Rapid Responseteams to ensure maximum vis-its at their home and at quar-antine centres.

The instructions to thiseffect were issued by the stateHealth and Family WelfareMinister Balbir Singh Sidhu onSunday. “To ensure cent-per-cent compliance of guidelines,quarantined person must activeCOVA app on his or her mobile(available at Android PlayStoreand Apple play store) andmake sure that it remains activeat all times (through Bluetoothor wi-fi) to keep a watch on hisor her activities,” he added.

Besides, the Minister saidthat to further increase the test-ing procedure in State, theState Government has takenseveral initiatives, and now, “on

an average, 2,088 samples arebeing taken during this week ofMay to ensure 100 percentcontact tracing of high and lowrisk persons”.

Sidhu said that currently,Punjab has witnessed cases ofCovid-19 mostly related totravel and local transmissionfrom imported cases to theirimmediate contacts.“Community transmission ofthe disease has not been doc-umented till now,” he added.

Revealing about the testingstrategy for Covid-19 inPunjab, Sidhu said that apartfrom international traveler,symptomatic contacts of labo-

ratory confirmed cases andsymptomatic healthcare work-ers, pregnant residing in clus-ter or containment area or in alarge migration gathering cen-ters from hotspot districts rep-resenting labor or likely todeliver in next five days even aasymptomatic has to be tested.

He said that all patientswith Severe Acute RespiratoryIllness (fever and cough and/orshortness of breath), asympto-matic direct and high-risk con-tacts of a confirmed case wouldhave to undergo through test-ing once between Day 5 andDay 14 of coming in his or hercontact.

The Minister said that theState Government has alreadymade mandatory all thosecoming to the state, includingvia domestic flights, trains andbuses, would have to undergocompulsory home quarantinefor 14 days.

“Total 531 RRTs have beenconstituted in the State. Mainjob is contact tracing, identifysuspects and refer them fortesting, ensuring home quar-antine, creating awarenessabout prevention from Covidcounseling of home quaran-tined persons. They also attendto calls received at 104 regard-ing symptomatic persons andscreen them and refer for test-ing,” he added.

He said that about1,57,13,789 persons have beenscreened by teams of HealthDepartment in the month ofApril 2020 and flu cornershave been established in allgovernment hospitals wheresamples of suspected patientsare being taken on routinebasis.

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C h a n d i g a r h : H a r y a n aCooperation Minister BanwariLal on Sunday said that in thecurrent crushing season 2019-20, all ten cooperative sugarmills of the state have procured371.67 lakh quintals of sugar-cane by May 21.

The procurement is madeafter spending an amount of Rs1262.54 crore, for which thepayment of about �897.12 croreof sugarcane farmers has beenmade. Out of this the financialassistance of �290 crore pro-vided by the State Governmentin the form of unsecured loanand �607.12 crore has beengiven to the farmers by themills, the Cooperation Ministersaid.

As compared to theamount of �517.17 crore out-standing till the same date ofthe previous crushing season,there is an outstanding amountof �365.42 crore during thecurrent crushing season whichis 29.34 percent less than theoutstanding amount of theprevious season, he said.Banwari Lal said that all nec-essary steps are being taken tomake the due payment of�365.42 crore of the currentseason, at the earliest.

During the current season,till May 21, 370.52 lakh quin-tal of sugarcane has beencrushed, whereas during theprevious season, 354.96 lakhquintal of sugarcane had beencrushed till the same date, hesaid.Similarly, during the cur-rent season, all the cooperativesugar mills of the state haverecovered an average of 10.08percent sugar till May 21, 2020,while on an average of 10.06percent sugar was recovered tillsame date during the previousseason, said the Minister. PNS

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Punjab Health Departmenton Sunday, issuing detailed

advisory for maintaining ofhygiene and sanitization ofbarber shops or hair-cutsaloons during the Covid-19pandemic, has asked the shopowners to ensure there wouldbe no overcrowding.

Department’s spokesper-son said that shop ownerswould have to ensure that anystaff member, having symp-toms of Covid-19 (like fever,dry cough, breathing difficul-ty, etc), is not engaged at workand stays at home on sickmedical advice. Similarly, noclient having such symptomsshould be attended.

“All clients should be askedto avail services unaccompaniedunless necessary (such as parent

or guardian). It should beensured by the owners that thereis no unnecessary crowding bar-ber shops/hair cut saloons,” thespokesperson added.

Spokesperson said that theclients must use the mask toextent possible while availingservices, while the owners andstaff working in such shops willmandatorily use mask.

“All guidelines related toprevention of Covid-19 like fre-quent hand washing (with soapand water or alcohol basedhand sanitizer), maintaining aphysical distance of one meter,following respiratory hygiene,keeping a watch over diseasesymptoms, no spitting in pub-lic etc must be complied withduring the interpersonal deal-ing of clients and staff, the advi-sory stipulates,” said thespokesperson.

In addition, the shop own-ers should encourage the cus-tomers to use the digital pay-ment mode as much as possi-ble. In case cash transaction isused, the shopkeeper, staff andclients shall sanitize their handsimmediately before and aftercash transaction.

Regarding proper clean-ing at shops, indoor areasincluding service rooms, wait-ing areas, workstations etcshould be cleaned preferablyevery two-three hours. Floorsshould be cleaned with onepercent Sodium Hypochloriteor equivalent commercial dis-infectant. Furniture and fre-quently touched surfaces andarticles should be regularlycleaned or sanitized.

“Tools (scissors, razors,combs, styling tools) should bewiped with one percent

Sodium Hypochlorite afterevery use. Robes, towels andrelated items should be cleanand regularly washed robes,towels etc, and should not bereused for multiple clients,”added the spokesperson.

PUNJAB DEVISES TECH-NOLOGY SOLUTIONS TOPROVIDE CITIZEN-CEN-TRIC SERVICES DURINGLOCKDOWN

Punjab Government’sDepartment of GovernanceReforms and Public Grievances(DGR&PG) has been proac-tively engaged in providingtechnology solutions to thePunjab Government amidunprecedented Covid-19 pan-demic.

The Department devel-oped solutions to manage,share and analyze data as well

as to provide seamless essentialcitizen-centric services effica-ciously during the lockdown,”said the state Additional ChiefSecretary (ACS), GovernanceReforms and PublicGrievances, Vini Mahajan onSunday.

She said that that the ITteam, under the supervision ofe-Governance CEO RaviBhagat and DGR&PG directorParminder Pal Singh had beentasked to build and implementtechnology solutions to helpthe State Government in thisdifficult phase.

“The entire team workedrelentlessly to develop theseunique solutions through itsdedicated and innovativeapproach. The teams built andlaunched the COVA App inMarch 2020 which has 23 lakhdownloads till date, to track the

spread of the pandemic, geo tagpatients to identify clusters, geofence quarantined individualsand provide citizen servicesbefore any other Governmentor organization had launch asimilar solution,” said Mahajan.

She said that as many as 11States requested for access toadmin logins to the COVA Appand Dashboard such that theycould use the features of theapplication to manage servicesin their respective States as well.

“Partnering with multipleagencies, start-ups and orga-nizations who were willing toprovide pro bono support tothe Department, the IT teamhas implemented several dash-boards for data collection andintegration including for reg-istration of migrant workers,registration of citizens willingto come back to or leave Punjab

among others,” she added.This team has been con-

sistently offering IT support tothe Departments of Healthand Family Welfare andMedical Education andResearch, State Covid-19Control Room as well as to thePunjab Mandi Board.

PBTI OFFERS 15% DIS-COUNT ON TESTING OFAGRI-PRODUCTS TO PUN-JAB-BASED EXPORTERS

To boost export of agri-products amid COVID-19restrictions, PunjabBiotechnology Incubator(PBTI) has approved a flat 15percent discount on all producttesting facilities in PBTI facili-ty for registered Punjab-basedexporters besides introducingspecial packages to further sup-port the exporter community.

Notably, PBTI is providingtesting services such as ResidueAnalysis, Microbial Analysis,Adulterants and Food Additiveanalysis, which form an impor-tant part of stringent exportguidelines of international loca-tions such as European Union.

“Major exports from theState during the lockdownperiod are rice, honey, milk andmilk products to key marketssuch as European Union, UKand UAE and the relief extend-ed by the Incubator would beimmensely beneficial for allagri and food exporters,” saidthe spokesperson.

PBTI labs have also facili-tated the Punjab exporters ofessential goods during thelockdown to ensure uninter-rupted supply of their goodsdue to increased demand fromEuropean countries.

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With 53 fresh coronaviruscases in Haryana on

Sunday, the total tally nowstood at 1184. The state has sofar reported 16 Coronavirusrelated fatalities.

“Out of 53 fresh cases, 14were reported from Faridabad,9 from Gururgam, 8 fromKarnal, 7 from Hisar 5 eachfrom Sonepat and Rewari, 2from Jhajjar and one each fromPanipat, Rohtak, Kaithal,”according to the state HealthDepartment’s evening bulletin.

The total active Covid-19patients in the state are 403while 765 patients have beencured and discharged fromhospitals, as per the state’shealth bulletin.

The worst-affected districtsof the state with the maximumnumber of positive cases areGurugram with 271 cases,Faridabad with 209 cases andSonepat with 159.

As many as 97006 sampleshave been tested so far, ofwhich 591138 have tested neg-

ative in Haryana. However,the report of 4648 samples isawaited, the bulletin stated.

The Covid-19 positive ratestood at 1.28 percent, recoveryrate at 64.61 percent and dou-bling rate of Coronavirus casesat 18 days on Sunday inHaryana, it stated.

A day before, as many as 21of the 73 Haryana nativesdeported from the UnitedStates were tested positive forCoronavirus.

These 73 people, who werepart of a group of over 160Indians who had landed atAmritsar International Airportby a special flight on May 17,were brought to Panchkula onMay 19.

Since then, they had beenquarantined at various hotelsand Dharamshalas, as per thequarantine protocol of foreignreturnees. Meanwhile, morethan 50.17 lakh persons have sofar downloaded Aarogya SetuApp in Haryana.

ONE DEATH, 5 FRESHCASES IN PUNJAB

One more Covid-19patient succumbed to death inPunjab with the state’s deathreaching 40. The state alsorecorded 15 fresh cases takingthe tally to 2,060, of which only122 are active cases.

The Covid-19 death wasreported from Amritsar wherea 60-year-old man, resident ofKatra Dullo area, died on lateSaturday evening. The victim,who was reportedly on venti-lator at Amritsar hospital, hadtested positive for Covid-19 onMay 21.

The official maintainedthat his wife and two sons havealso tested positive for coron-avirus a day before.

As per the health bulletin,out of total 15 new cases, sevenwere reported from Pathankot,four from Hoshiarpur, twofrom Gurdaspur and one eachfrom Amritsar and Jalandhar.

“Amritsar case is detectedafter the person reported at thehospital by himself. Another‘self reported’ case was report-ed from Pathankot, whichreported total seven caes on

Sunday. The remaining sixcases were the “contacts” of thealready positive case,” said theofficial.

Even as Jalandhar report-ed a new case, the remainingcases reported on Sunday werethe contacts of positive cases.

Total 28 coronaviruspatients were discharged fromdifferent hospitals of Ludhiana(18), Fazilka (three), SBS Nagar,Mansa, Patiala (two each) andFaridkot (one), taking the state’stally of cured patients to 1,898.

Amritsar continued to topthe Covid-19 tally in the Statewith 319 coronavirus cases,followed by 214 in Jalandhar,173 in Ludhiana, 153 in TarnTaran, 132 in Gurdaspur, 105 inSBS Nagar, 107 in Patiala, 102in Mohali, 106 in Hoshiarpur,88 in Sangrur, 66 in Muktsar,61 in Faridkot, 60 in Rupnagar,59 in Moga, 57 in FatehgarhSahib, 44 each in Fazilka andFerozepur, 42 in Bathinda, 39in Pathankot, 35 in Kapurthala,32 in Mansa and 22 in Barnala,it said. As per the bulletin, one

patient is critical and on ven-tilator support.

Of the total 66,142 samplestested so far, 60,114 sampleswere tested negative andreports of 3,968 samples are stillawaited.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Sunday tweeted about theimproving numbers in the Stateunder the State Government’s‘Mission Fateh’, while at thesame time, asked the people tokeep their guard up. “Punjabhas shown tremendousimprovement, thanks to effortsof all Punjabis and our#CoronaWarriors. Our dou-bling rate is at 98 days and wehave far less cases as comparedto rest of India. Our testingcapacity has also been rampedup. But we cannot let ourguard down. #MissionFateh,”he tweeted.

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Inching towards the 200mark, Himachal Pradesh

recorded 10 more cases ofCovid-19 on Sunday, taking thetally in the state to 196.

Two coronavirus patientsfrom Bilaspur district haverecovered from the disease onSunday, Additional ChiefSecretary (Health) R DDhiman said. Four of the freshcases were reported from Unaand one each from Bilaspur,Chamba, Mandi, Kangra,Hamirpur and Solan districts.

All the new cases hadrecently returned from otherstates including six fromMumbai, Maharashtra, threefrom Delhi and one from WestBengal.

A woman, her brother-in-law and two sons, who hadreturned from Mumbai recent-ly, have tested positive for coro-navirus. In Mandi, a 19-year-oldasymptomatic woman fromDharampur in Sarkaghat tehsiltested positive for Covid-19and is being shifted to a Covid-19 care centre at Dhangshidar,a district official said.

She too had recentlyreturned from Mumbai with herparents and all of them were inan institutional quarantine cen-tre in Dharampur, he said,adding that the woman's parentstested negative for the virus.

In Chamba, a 30-year-oldyouth tested positive. He wasinstitutionally quarantined afterrecently returning from

Mumbai and is being shifted toa Covid care centre at Balu, adistrict official said. In Bilaspur,a man has tested positive daysafter returning from Delhi onMay 21, deputy commissionerRajeshwar Goel said. A per-manent resident of Mandi dis-trict, he was institutionallyquarantined at Bilaspur'sSwarghat on the HimachalPradesh-Punjab border sincehis arrival from Delhi, headded.

In Kangra, a man fromPalampur's Panchrukhi testedpositive for the virus,Superintendent of PoliceVimukt Ranjan said, addingthat he had returned fromDelhi a few days ago and waskept under quarantine at afacility at Baijnath.

Hamirpur DeputyCommissioner HarikeshMeena said that a 20-year-oldwoman has tested positive forCovid-19. A resident ofBaragram in Badsar area, thewoman had returned fromDelhi along with her relativeson May 18 and was quaran-tined at government highschool, Baragram, he added.

The number of activeCovid-19 cases in HimachalPradesh now stand at 129 and63 people have recovered so far,according to the officials.

Hamirpur has the maxi-mum number of active cases inthe state at 55 followed by 36 inKangra, 11 in Solan, nine inMandi, seven in Una, four inBilaspur, three in Chamba, twoin Sirmaur and one each inKullu and Shimla. Four people

have died due to Covid-19 inthe state so far.AIR PASSENGERS COMINGTO HP FROM RED ZONETO BE QUARANTINED

As India is set to resume itsdomestic passengers flightsfrom Monday after a gap of twomonths, the Himachal Pradeshgovernment has decided toput people coming from redzones under institutional quar-antine.

It is mandatory to quaran-tine people coming from redzones and those with influen-za like illness symptoms, hencethe same rule will apply on airpassengers, Kangra DeputyCommissioner RakeshPrajapati said. Paid quarantinefacilities are also available inHimachal Pradesh TourismDevelopment Corporation(HPTDC) hotels in Kangradistrict, he added.

The deputy commissionersaid air passengers will be test-ed for coronavirus.

A district official said onlyHimachal Pradesh residentshaving valid address proofshould book flights coming toDharamshala's Gaggal airportfrom Monday.

Tourists will not be allowedto enter the district, he said,adding that they will be imme-diately put in a quarantinefacility and sent back on theirown expenses.

People coming to the stateon flights will have to obtain anentry pass from district mag-istrate concerned and show itafter deboarding at Gaggal air-port, the official said.

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Asserting that it was PunjabGovernment’s duty to

ensure that all migrants keen togo back home return to theirnative states safely, ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh on Sunday directed theDeputy Commissioners anddistrict Police chiefs to ensurethat no migrant is forced towalk home to any other state inthe country, or to remain hun-gry while in Punjab.

“Any migrant found walk-ing on the road should betransported by bus by thepolice to the nearest placefrom where he can board atrain or bus to his native State,”the Chief Minister directedthe DCs and the police officials,even as the 300th SpecialShramik Train left the state car-rying migrants to UttarPradesh. Till they leave Punjab,they should be provided foodand water, he further directedthe officers.

Urging the migrants not topanic, the Chief Ministerassured that the StateGovernment would make surethat every single migrant, whois keen to return home, isassisted by the State, witharrangements for their freetravel and food.

Underlining the State’scommitment to “look afterevery person in distress”, CaptAmarinder described themigrants as “our fellow Indianswho contribute to the State andits economy”.

“Punjab is your karma-bhoomi, even if it is not yourjanam-bhoomi,” said the ChiefMinister to the migrants,appealing to them not to try toundertake arduous journey byfoot to their native place as theState Government is making allnecessary arrangements fortheir travel by trains or buses.

The Chief Minister saidthat more than 10 lakh personshave registered on the State

portal for outbound move-ment from Punjab. The StateGovernment has undertaken amassive validation exercise ofall registered persons by mak-ing individual phone calls to re-ascertain whether or not theyare keen to return to theirnative States.

“This is being done inview of the fact that, in the pastthree-four days, around two-thirds of the industrial units inthe State have commencedoperations after the easing ofrestrictions, following whichthe number of persons keen totravel out of Punjab hasreduced considerably,” he said,terming it a welcome sign.

However, the StateGovernment would continue toply trains to the concernedStates till such time personsevince desire to return home,said Capt Amarinder, addingthat the State Government hashad already paid Rs 20 crore toRailways for free travel ofmigrant workers to theirrespective States following itsdecision in April-end to pro-vide free travel and food for allthe migrant workers keen toreturn to their respective States.

The Chief Minister sharedthat the 300th Special Shramiktrain on Sunday departed fromPatiala for Uttar Pradesh at 5pm. By Sunday night, 311Special Shramik trains carryingmore than 3.90 lakh passengerswould have been sent from dif-ferent districts of Punjab to var-ious States of India, includingStates of southern India and theNorth-East.

In addition, migrant work-ers are also being transported

free of charge from their homesto the railway stations by gov-ernment buses across the State.Punjab has also sent StateTransport buses to dropmigrant workers to districts ofwestern Uttar Pradesh withoutany charge to the migrants.“Punjab’s officers, both in theState headquarters as well as inthe districts, have done a com-mendable job in facilitating thisorganized movement ofmigrants,” said the Chief

Minister.At the same time, the State

Government is also facilitatingPunjabis stranded in otherstates to return to Punjab,including providing financialassistance for travel, wherevernecessary.

Capt Amarinder, however,expressed the hope that “allState Governments will abideby their responsibility of trans-porting our persons strandedin other States”.

“I have already written toall concerned Chief Ministersin this regard. Punjab is themotherland of all Punjabis andit is our duty to bring themback to the State,” said CaptAmarinder.

Allaying concerns on thiscount amid fears of Covid-19,Capt Amarinder said that clearprotocols are in place for quar-antine and testing of such trav-elers, to check further spread ofthe virus in the State.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Sunday

said that due to the Covid-19pandemic, the StateGovernment daily runs specialshramik trains from the variousrailway stations of the state tohelp migrant labourers returnto their home states.

In the same series, fivespecial shramik trains depart-ed from Haryana on Sunday.About 3200 migrant labourershave been sent from Bhiwani toKatihar and Araria (Bihar) intwo trains. Similarly, threetrains departed fromYamumanagar carrying 4600migrant labourers to Barauni,Muzaffarpur and Katihar(Bihar), the Chief Ministersaid.

He said that despite diver-sity, the people of India areunited and with this senti-ment and thought, HaryanaGovernment has started send-ing labourers stranded in lock-down and labourers who werewilling to return to their homestates free of cost.

The Chief Minister saidthat all Indians living in anypart of the country are one andit is the joint responsibility ofall to alleviate their sufferings,

he added.Two shramik trains depart

from Bhiwani for Katihar andAraria (Bihar)

3200 migrant labourers leftfor Bihar from Bhiwani. Aspecial shramik Train left fromBhiwani for Araria at 4 pm andKatihar at 5 pm with 1600migrant labourers each. 1360migrant labourers fromBhiwani, 141 from Narnauland 99 labourers from Dadriboarded the train. Similarly, forKatihar, 1300 migrant labour-ers boarded from Fatehabadand 300 migrant laborers fromHisar district. There were 22children on this train as well.

Three shramik trainsdepart from Yamunanagar toBarauni, Muzaffarpur andKatihar (Bihar)

About 4600 migrantlabourers have been sent fromYamunanagar to their homestate Bihar through threeshramik trains. The firstshramik trains from Jagadhri-Yamunanagar railway stationleft for Barauni (Bihar) carryingabout 1550 migrant labourers.

Haryana EducationMinister, Kanwar Pal who waspresent on this occasion alongwith other dignitaries said thatthis train will go from heredirectly to Barauni (Bihar) and

will not halt anywhere on theway. He appealed to themigrant labourers to remain inthe shelter homes to preventthe spread of Covid-19.

He said that most of themigrant labourers who arebeing sent by train came herefrom Punjab on foot or onbicycles and the StateGovernment provided all facil-ities to them in the shelterhomes and now they arereturning to their home states.

After this, two shramiktrains departed forMuzaffarpur and Katihar(Bihar) from Yamunanagar.Migrant labourers from 10 to12 districts of Bihar state havebeen sent to their home state inthese trains.

A train left for Barauni(Bihar) from Yamunanagar-Jagadhri railway station at 12.15pm while the second shramiktrain left for Muzaffarpur(Bihar) at 4.20 pm and the thirddeparted for Katihar (Bihar)after 6 pm. Migrant labourersfrom Katihar, Barauni,Muzaffarpur, Madhepura,Champaran, Motihari,Nawada, Mahuva, Sipol,Munger, Saharsa, Bettiah andother districts in Bihar havereturned to their homes onthese special shramik trains.

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With Punjab industriesgradually oiling its

machinery to go full throttleamidst the Covid-19 scare,about 50 percent of the migrantlabourers, who have registeredat the state’s web portal toreturn to their native towns,have decided to stay back.

Every day, the number ofmigrants going back to theirhome towns, via trains orbuses, is “thinning”, while stillmany others wanted to returnto their native places.

The state has a migrantpopulation of around 13 lakhs,of which the Government has,so far, facilitated the return of3.95 lakh migrants throughmore than 300 special trains,with maximum from Bihar,and majority going to Biharand Uttar Pradesh.

During his Facebook Liveprogramme ‘#AskCaptain’ aday before, the Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh hadalso pointed that nearly half ofthose migrants who hadapplied for online registrationhad willingly decided to stayback, and had also startedworking in the industry.

The Chief Minister had

also thanked the labourers whohad chosen to stay back andcontribute to Punjab’s eco-nomic strength, adding that“this is your state and you arepart of it”.

Notably, out of the total2.56 lakh industries in theState, 1.5 lakh have alreadyresumed operations as of now.

Describing the trend as“the sign of normalcy return-ing”, Mohali DeputyCommissioner Girish Dayalansaid that the train, which leftthe Mohali Railway Station forMotihari Station in Bihar onSunday, saw only 866 migrantworkers going back to theirhome State.

Dayalan said that earlierthe number of migrant work-ers making a return to homestates from the district variedbetween1300-1600 on averagebut owing to the opening up ofthe industrial sector and allow-ing of the construction activi-ties, a large of migrant popu-lation is choosing to stay back.

Supporting his argument,Dayalan said that till date, out ofmore than 55,000 migrants con-tacted, less than half, that is only26,239, have gone back whichbrings out the fact that the dropoff rate is on the increase.

At the same time, theDeputy Commissionerappealed that all the migrantworkers who want to stay back,are most welcome to do sowhile those who still want to goback to their home states,would be sent at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the state NodalOfficer for facilitating migrantsreturn Vikas Pratap said thatwith 300th train leaving fromPatiala on Sunday evening,Punjab Government has facil-itated return of more than 3.95lakh migrant workers to theirhome states.

“Total 23 trains are run-ning today taking total numberto 311, making Punjab one ofthe top performing States inthis regard. The StateGovernment has spent Rs 21.8crores till now in form of costof these operations,” he added.

Pratap said that out of total311, maximum trains (204)have gone to Uttar Pradesh,with another 82 takingmigrants to Bihar, followed bynine to Jharkhand, seven toMadhya Pradesh and two toChhatisgarh and West Bengal.One train each has gone toMaharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,Manipur, Tamil Nadu andUttrakhand.

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Following the fresh guidelinesissued by the Central

Government on quarantine andisolation protocols of passengers,the Chandigarh Administrationon Sunday decided to follow theCentral rules.

The Union Government onSunday, in its release on domes-

tic travel, stated that StateGovernments/UTs will be able to“develop their own quarantineand isolation protocols as pertheir assessment”.

The order came amid con-cerns raised by various States asthe Government lifted curbs onair travel and domestic flights arescheduled to resume from May25 at an operational capacity of

33.33 percent, after which theoperations would be expanded ina phased manner.

UT Adviser Manoj Paridaon Sunday said that theAdministrator VP SinghBadnore has approved to imple-ment Central Government direc-tions on domestic fliers.Asymptomatic passengers can gohome and will self monitor

health for 14 days. Screening willbe done, details of passengers willbe kept and undertaking will betaken from them at airport, hesaid. The Administration willalso strictly follow the CentralGovernment’s order on quaran-tining foreign returnees, headded.

The Union Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare

(MoHFW) on Sunday made itmandatory for stranded Indiansarriving from abroad to checkinto an institutional quarantinefor 14 days at their own expensefollowed by seven days of homeisolation.

Specifying guidelines for theinternational arrivals, theMinistry said that before board-ing, all the travellers would have

to give an undertaking that theywould stick to the above rule toensure least chances of trans-mission.

Apart from this, the UnionCivil Aviation Minister HardeepSingh Puri stated that the statesneed not quarantine those arriv-ing passengers (domestic) whohad approval on their AarogyaSetu status and did not show any

Coronavirus symptoms.1600 MIGRANT WORKERSLEAVE FOR UP

A special shramik trainaccommodating 1600 migrantworkers left for Hardoi in UttarPradesh from ChandigarhRailway Station on Sunday.

Till date, a total of 29290passengers have been sent totheir home towns from

Chandigarh which included27313 passengers through spe-cial shramik trains and 1977passengers through buses.

On May 26, a shramiktrain is scheduled fromChandigarh Railway Stationfor Lucknow in Uttar Pradeshwith stoppages at Moradabad,Bareli, Hardoi andShahanjanpur.

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Page 4: ˆ ˆ · resume flight operation from May 28. Maharashtra, which has been unwilling to reopen its ... identified as one Sainath Langote — went to the ashram late on Saturday night.

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The Congress on Sundaydemanded a judicial probe

into the use of a ventilator onCovid-19 patients in Gujaratthat, it said, has not beenapproved by the DCGI. Italleged the mortality rate washighest at the hospital wherethese machines were installed.The party alleged that the lowvulnerable quality ventilatorswere provided under CSRfunds by the same businessmanwho had donated the �11-lakhsuit worn by Modi during thevisit of the then US PresidentBarrack Obama.

The Congress also lashedout at the Gujarat Governmentover the State’s alleged "sickhealthcare system" and target-ed Prime Minister NarendraModi and Union HomeMinister Amit Shah on theissue.

The party said almost sixweeks after Dhaman-1 venti-lators were installed atAhmedabad Civil Hospital onApril 4, doctors there soughtmore ventilators claiming thesemachines did not work onpatients and were not capable.

Congress spokespersonPawan Khera alleged themachines were donated underCSR funds by a company inwhich a Surat-based business-man, who donated the mono-grammed suit to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi whichwas worn by him during for-mer US President BarackObama’s visit to India, has astake.

The Dhaman-1 ventilatorhas been developed by Rajkot-based firm Jyoti CNC which“donated” 866 of them to theState Government last monthin view of acute shortage of themachines, according to seniorGujarat government official.

A row erupted when theAhmedabad Civil Hospitalwrote to the Government, stat-ing that the ventilators were notup to the mark, and soughtsophisticated machines.

Khera alleged the VijayRupani government projectedthe mechanised AMBU(Artificial Manual BreathingUnit) bag as ventilator, “play-ing with the lives of patients.”

“Why was Dhaman-1approved and installed when ithad been tested on just onepatient? Why was Dhaman-1approved and installed withouta licence by DCGI (DrugController General of India),”he asked.

“We also want to know ifthe PM Cares Fund was usedto buy 5,000 pieces of Dhaman-1 through HLL Lifecare. Allthese answers can only befound through an indepen-dent judicial inquiry,” Kherasaid.

Training his guns on ChiefMinister Rupani, he asked whyGujarat had “such shockingdata” on COVID-19 patients as11 per cent of the total coron-avirus cases in the country werein the state, but 22 per cent ofthe deaths related to COVID-19 in the country were fromGujarat.

“Why this high mortality?Why the high mortality inAhmedabad in particular?Why the highest mortality is inthe civil hospital, where thesemachines were installed,” heasked.

He asked why Dhaman-1was marketed within and out-side the state as a “ventilatorwhen it is not a ventilator.” TheCongress leader asked whywas Dhaman-1 allowed to besold to other states and whywas HLL Lifecare, a PSU,allowed to order 5,000 pieces.

Congress leader AbhishekManu Singhvi said: "Today,we don't have a healthcaresystem (in the state); we havea sick system. The inefficien-cy of the Gujarat Governmentin handling Covid crisis showsthat it is undermining, under-confident, and under-achiev-ing."

"It is my sad duty to bringto the country''s attention thedeplorable and indefensible

plight of medical and healthfacilities in Modi''s home stateand in part of Shah''s con-stituency (4 assembly seg-ments of Ahmadabad fall inGandhinagar parliamentaryconstituency)."

Singhvi, Rajya Sabhamember, said: "We wouldrespectfully ask the PM, HM,GOI, and Gujarat CM -- Areyou even aware of what is hap-pening in your own homestate? If so, have you everintervened, chastised or pun-ished the Gujarat governmentor does the latter have Covidimmunity vaccine because theybelong to the BJP?"

Singhvi said if such pow-erful people who control thelevers of power were unable toprovide justice on their homeground to the poor and needy,what could the rest of India''steeming millions expect fromthem.

The Congress leaderreferred to Gujarat High Courtobservations on the "lack ofPPE, shortage of ventilators,ICUs and isolating wards..."and "pathetic" conditions at theCivil Hospital, Ahmedabad.

He said that even the HighCourt had observed that stateHealth Minister "does notseem to be aware of what isgoing on, nor appears to haveever visited the hospital".

The party also questionedwhy private testing of coron-avirus suspected cases, even byauthorised private institutions,was stopped by the Gujaratgovernment which orderedthat cornan tests can be con-ducted only at governmenthospitals.

Singhvi pointed to "proac-tive" role of the BengalGovernor but the "silence" ofthe Gujarat Governor on coro-navirus situtations in theirrespective States.

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The Union Home Ministryon Sunday issued revised

guidelines for the internation-al arrivals and persons strand-ed in India for travelling totheir country or having visa toa particular country. Indianshaving visa to a foreign coun-try would also be allowed totravel.

The new guidelines arebasically issued for thosestranded in other countriesand wanted to visit India inmedical emergencies or deathof the family members.

The circular issued byMinistry of Home Affairs(MHA) said that the expensesshould be borne by the trav-ellers and the travel list will beprepared by the concernedIndian missions.

The passengers must con-sent to being subjected to thequarantine norms on arrival, itsaid adding that the travellers’list must be finalized two daysin advance.

“Priority will be given tocompelling cases in distress,including migrant workers/labourers who have been laidoff, short term visa holdersfaced with expiry visas, personswith medicalemergencies/pregnant women/elderly, those required to returnIndia due to death of familymember, and students,” theMHA said.

The Ministry of ExternalAffairs (MEA) will have nodalofficers to oversee the arrival ofstranded persons to India.

Based on the registrationsreceived, MEA will prepareflight/ship wise database of allsuch travellers and their fulldetails. MEA’s digital platformwill display the details of select-

ed persons in two daysadvance. “All travellers willalso be required to give anundertaking that they are mak-ing the journey at their ownrisk. Passengers arrivingthrough land borders will alsohave to undergo the same pro-tocol and only those who areasymptomatic will be enabledto cross the border into India,”said the new guidelines.

MHA said that those per-sons who wanted to go abroadhave to get in touch with CivilAviation Ministry’s designatedagency. “Only those personsshall be allowed to travel to thedestination countries, who arecitizens of that country or whohold visa of at least one yearduration of that country orgreen card holder of that coun-try or OCI (OverseasCitizenship of India) card hold-er. In cases of medical emer-gency or death in the family,Indian Nationals holding sixmonths visa can also beallowed,” said the MHA’s newguidelines allowing people totravel abroad.

Indian seafarers and crewworking in foreign firms wouldalso be allowed to travel.

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Aswarm of crop-eatinglocusts has crossed the

border State of Rajasthan toreach Central India with thou-sands of the harvest fliesswooping down on vast fieldsof moong dal in MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan’s Budhni con-stituency. It is said to be thebiggest locust attack in theregion in past three decadesand is threatening to destroycrops worth �8,000 crore.Locusts’ attack has also beenreported from Jhansi in UttarPradesh.

While an expert teamfrom Rajasthan is to visit MPto tackle the pest attack, inJhansi the fire brigade teamhas been kept in readiness tospray disinfectant in theaffected area. These locusts

come to India from Iran pass-ing through Pakistan. This isthe biggest locust attack inMadhya Pradesh and UttarPradesh in last 27 years and islikely to grow till monsoonseason. The locusts enteredthrough Neemuch district inthe state and travelled to partsof Malwa Nimar to reachclose to Bhopal.

In UP, as many as 17 dis-tricts including Agra, Jhansi,Aligarh, Mathura,Bulandshahr, Hathras, Etah,Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etawah,Farrukhabad, Auraiya, Jalaun,Kanpur, Mahoba, Hamirpurand Lalitpur are affected fromlocusts that reached throughDausa, Rajasthan. Over the250 tractors/ trolly have beenkeep in ready with chemicals.

According to officials ofagriculture ministry, locustswarms have enteredRajasthan, Punjab, Haryana,

and Madhya Pradesh a monthin advance and pose a majorthreat to standing crops andvegetables. This is the fourthattack since December lastyear. Locust swarms enter the

desert areas of India viaPakistan for breeding in thesummer of June-July, but thistime Locust Hoppers as wellas Pink Adult Swarms hadentered border districts of

Rajasthan and Punjab in Aprilitself. Officials said that Indiahas taken up the matter withPakistan as well as Iran,another country affected bythe locust attack, and offered

pesticide support to bothcountries.

The Ministr y ofEnvironment also warned oflocust attacks in Punjab,Haryana, UP an MP in thecoming weeks.

In MP, four teams of theCentral Government, besidesteams of state agriculturaldevelopment, are fighting thelocusts by using chemicalsprays with the help of tractorsand fire-brigade vehicles. TheLocusts WarningOrganisation of the agricul-ture ministry has issued anadvisory to the farmers in vil-lages of the affected districtsto keep continuous vigil overthe desert locusts. They havebeen asked to keep the insectsat bay by using loud soundsthrough drums, banging ofutensils and shouting.

In UP, the agriculturedepartment has directed fire

brigade to keep its vehicleready with chemicals follow-ing a sudden movement by aswarm of locusts. As DeputyDirector Agriculture KamalKatiyar said the swarm oflocusts, which is moving, issmall in size.

To tackle the locusts, theministry has ordered sprayingmachines from UnitedKingdom to tackle locustswarms and over 2500 tractorsand trollies are engaged inspraying chemicals. Besides,drones are being used to keepan eye over locust swarms inRajasthan, Punjab, MadhyaPradesh and Uttar Pradesh.The officials of agriculturedepartments of these Statesare worried a lot as summercrops sowing are going onthese days and there are pos-sibilities that if they are notcontrolled, they could dam-ages to kharif crops in these

States.In its latest update, the

Locusts warning section of theFood and AgricultureOrganisation (FAO), saidlocusts’ breeding was contin-uing in southern Iran andsouth-west Pakistan, wherecontrol operations are inprogress against hoppergroups and bands.

“As vegetation dries out,more groups and swarms willform and move from theseareas to the summer breedingareas along both sides of theIndo-Pakistan border in sev-eral waves from now until atleast early July. Good rains arepredicted during the first halfof June along the Indo-Pakistan border [and] thatwould allow egg-laying tooccur. This should reduce thefurther eastward movement ofswarms that have alreadyarrived in Rajasthan, India.”

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Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan on Sunday

said that at least four of the 14candidate vaccines for novelcoronavirus in the countrymay enter the clinical trialstage within five months.However, he cautioned that itis too early to expect any vac-cine against the disease becausethere is a long due procedureinvolved in its development.

In a social media interac-tion with BJP leader GVLNarasimha Rao, the Ministersaid within five months, four ofthe vaccine candidates in thecountry may enter the clinicaltrial stage.

The Minister said, "Thewhole world is trying to devel-op a vaccine for COVID-19.There are over 100 candidatevaccines which are at differentlevels of development. TheWorld Health Organisation(WHO) is coordinating theefforts. India is also activelycontributing in it. There are 14candidates in India also whichare at different levels..."Vardhan said.

He said the Department ofBiotechnology of the Ministryof Science and Technology ishelping the academic worldand industry in all manners

such as giving regulatory clear-ances, grants or financial sup-port, among other things.

"As far as I know, four ofour fourteen vaccines will soonbe in the clinical trial stage,within 4 to 5 months. All the14 are right now at the pre-clinical trial stage."

It will take minimum oneyear for the development of anyvaccine even if it is developedearliest. Therefore use socialdistancing, masks and followhand and physical hygiene --the biggest safeguard againstthe disease- till any vaccine orcure is found, said the Minister.

On Sunday, the Ministeralso visited the DedicatedCovid-19 Health Centre(DCHC) at Chaudhary BrahmPrakash Ayurved CharakSansthan (CBPACS), Najafgarh, a first Ayurveda hospital in thecountry engaged in providingcare to the Covid positivepatients on the basis of princi-ples of Ayurveda as per proto-col of Ministry of AYUSH. Inaddition to the Ayurvedic andherbal treatments, the holisticapproach also includes yoga,meditation, pranayam, etc.

Till date a total of 201patients have been admitted inthe CBPACS Centre. Of these,37 patients have been cured and100 patients have been advised

home isolation. 19 patients havebeen shifted to Specialty hospi-tals on review of their medicalcondition. There has been nocasualty in this Centre, said thegovernment statement here.

Dr. RK Manchanda,Director (AYUSH) of the DelhiGovernment, Dr. VidulaGujjarwar, Director-Principal,CBPACS along with senior fac-ulty and doctors and Ministryofficials were also present dur-ing the review meeting at theAyush hospital.

Overall, the Minister said,the fatality rate in the countrystands at 2.9% while recoveryrate has improved to 41.2%.

Talking about the health-care infrastructure setup acrossthe country, he said, a total of968 Dedicated Covid hospitalshave been identified across thecountry with 2,50,397 beds(1,62,237 isolation beds +20,468 ICU beds); 2,065 dedi-cated Covid health centres with1,76,946 beds (1,20,596 isolationbeds + 10,691 ICU beds); and,7,063 Covid care centres with6,46,438 beds.”

He further informed thatStates/UTs as well as centralinstitutions have been providedwith around 109.08 lakhs N-95masks and around 72.8 lakhPersonal Protective Equipment(PPE), as per the statement.

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The preliminary results ofthe trial of the Gilead

Sciences Inc's Remdesivir, thefirst drug cleared for the treat-ment of Coronavirus, has beenfound to be effective onpatients who need extra oxygenbut are not dependent on ven-tilators or heart-lung bypassmachines, according to areport in the New EnglandJournal of Medicine.

It said that Remdesivir wassuperior to placebo in short-ening the time to recovery inadults hospitalised with Covid-19 and evidence of lower res-piratory tract infection.

In the experiment, patientswere randomly assigned toreceive either Remdesivir (200mg loading dose on day 1, fol-lowed by 100 mg daily for upto 9 additional days) or place-bo for up to 10 days.

Preliminary results of thistrial suggest that a 10-day

course of Remdesivir was supe-rior to placebo in the treatmentof hospitalised patients withCovid-19, as per the report.

The primary outcome wasthe time to recovery. In con-trast to the placebo drug,Remdesivir helped Covid-19infected patients to heal fasterand allowed them to returnhome after about 11 days.Placebo treated coronaviruspatients in 15 days.

In addition to this, therewere also signs that the med-icine increased the survivalrate of patients on Remdesivirby 7.1 per cent.

On the other hand, 11.9per cent of placebo-experi-mented patients died withintwo weeks, the researchadded.

The researchers said,"Remdesivir was superior toplacebo in shortening thetime to recovery in adultshospitalised with Covid-19and evidence of lower respi-

ratory tract infection".In the experiment, a total

of 1, 063 patients underwentrandomisation. 538 wereassigned to Remdesivir and521 to placebo. Seriousadverse events were reportedfor 114 of the 541 patients inthe Remdesivir group whounderwent randomisation(21.1 per cent) and 141 of the522 patients in the placebogroup who underwent ran-domisation (27 per cent), theresearchers added.

The US Food and DrugAdministration (US FDA) hasmade Remdesivir availableunder an emergency useauthorisation for the treat-ment of adults and childrenwith severe coronavirus dis-ease.

The trial was sponsoredand primarily funded by theNational Institute of Allergyand Infectious Diseases(NIAID), and NationalInstitutes of Health (NIH).

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After Taliban, the Al Qaedahas now ditched Pakistan

on the Kashmir issue by noteven mentioning the region ina document circulated to topleadership of the global terroroutfit.

The document titled "TheWay Forward: A Word ofAdvice on the CoronavirusPandemic" and circulated by AlQaeda Central talked about thehardships of Uyghurs andSyrian Muslims besides thecommunity members residingunder hostile regimes but hasbeen conspicuously silent onKashmir which was earlier onthe agenda of these terrorgroups.

Assessments here suggestthe outfit could be frustrateddue to the bickering betweenvarious terror groups in Jammuand Kashmir, especially theKashmiri groups like HizbulMujahideen on whose inputs anumber of terror comman-ders have been killed by thesecurity forces after integrationof the erstwhile State into the

Indian Union. Infightingbetween Pakistan-backedgroups and their masters in theISI and Pak army could also bea reason behind the outfit'schange in stance.

This could have led to thedistancing of the Al Qaedafrom the issue as also a real-isation of the changed reali-ties on the ground post-abro-gation of Article 370 where-in top terror commandershave been neutralised by theforces.

Sources, however, did notrule out that Pak deep statecould have advised both theterror groups to disown theKashmir issue for now so thatIndia does not stop funding inAfghanistan for reconstruc-tion. The cash starved groupsmight be eyeing to take controlof such funds as Pakistan econ-omy is in shambles.

"Before the great disaster(Covid-19) struck, obscenityand moral corruption hadalready become widespread inMuslim countries. In fact thisphenomenon had extended itsdirty tentacles to the vicinities

of the purest site on the face ofthe earth, the Haram inMakkah ....The despots rulingover the Muslim World, specif-ically in the Arab World, havebeen guilty of committing themost unimaginable forms oftorture and rights abusesagainst Muslim scholars andMujahideen in secret torturecells that have become a normacross the Muslim world," itsaid.

It further said, "To makematters even worse, Islamiccauses have been consigned to

oblivion across the Muslimworld, especially Syria, Iraq,Waziristan, Palestine, EastTurkistan, Libya, IslamicMaghreb, andSomalia...Muslims must learnsome serious lessons thiscalamity (Covid-19) and starttaking practical steps for theliberation of prisoners for theliberation of prisoners andmissing persons across theIslamic World."

"Let us not forget thatCovid-19 emerged from one ofthe filthiest places on earth, the

markets of Wuhan (China),where all known norms ofdecent and humane dietarypractices tramples upon. Frominsects to rodents and reptiles,in short everything unsafe forhuman consumption, or theconsumption of which is pro-hibited in all revealed reli-gions, was sold and consumedthere," it said in an indicationof its disapproval of the atroc-ities on the Uyghurs.

"The very technologicaladvancement and globalisa-tion that man took immensepride in has become his undo-ing. Today, if someone sneezesin China, those in New Yorksuffer from its consequences,"it claimed.

Earlier, the Talibanspokesperson Suhail Shaheenhad said that "the policy of theIslamic Emirate is clear that itdoes not interfere in the inter-nal affairs of other countries."Considering Kashmir as aninternal affair of India is theclearest hint that Kashmir is notan issue or on the agenda ofTaliban which is seeking toengage with India.

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Page 5: ˆ ˆ · resume flight operation from May 28. Maharashtra, which has been unwilling to reopen its ... identified as one Sainath Langote — went to the ashram late on Saturday night.

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With 97 new cases,Karnataka's Covid-19

tally crossed the 2,000-mark,while 26 were discharged fromhospitals taking the number ofcured persons to 634, said anofficial, here on Sunday.

“The total number ofCovid-19 cases across the stateis 2,056, with 97 more testingpositive during the past 18hours,” said a state health offi-cial.The number of active casesin the state is 1,378 and Covid-19 deaths 42, including 2 fornon-Covid reasons.

Of the 26 discharged, 18are in Davanagere, 4 inChitradurga, 3 in Bagalkoteand one in Haveri across thesouthern state.Of the newcases, 41 are women and 19children below 20 years.

“68 of the 97 new cases arereturnees from Maharashtra,the worst affected Covid-hitstate in the country with 47,190cases till Saturday,” said the offi-cial.

Of the 30 Karnataka dis-tricts, Chikkaballapura record-ed the highest cases at 24, fol-lowed by Udupi (18), Hassan(15) and Kalaburagi, Yadigiriand Mandya (6 each).

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As on Sunday, there were7,839 active coronavirus

cases under treatment in vari-ous hospitals in Tamil Nadu,said the medical bulletin issuedby the Directorate of PublicHealth and PreventiveMedicine, Government ofTamil Nadu.

The bulletin said that 16,277 persons have tested posi-tive till Sunday. “8,324 positivepatients have been dischargedfollowing treatment till Sunday.Hence 7,839 active cases areunder treatment as on date,”said the bulletin.

A total of 765 persons test-ed positive on Sunday alone,taking the total number ofcases tested positive till date to16,277 in the State. The fatali-ties reached 111 with eight per-sons succumbing to the pan-demic. The day saw 833 per-sons getting discharged fol-lowing treatment and getting

well. There are 68n laboratoriesin the State which tested 11,441persons on Sunday. The num-ber of persons tested till Sundayall over Tamil Nadu reached3.91,252.

Out of the 765 personstested positive on Sunday, 587were from Chennai whichremained the district with max-imum cases, 10,576.Chengalpattu (779),Thiruvallur (731), Cuddalore(427) were closely following thecapital city.

A new disclosure made bythe Government of Tamil Naduvide the medical bulletin is theunprecedented increase in thenumber of coronavirus positivepersons in the 13 to 60 agegroup. Out of the 16,277 pos-itive cases detected in TamilNadu, 13,911 were in the 13 to60 age group while 1,358 per-sons were in the 60 Plus agegroup. Children in the 0-12 agegroup accounted for 1003cases.

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Number of persons testedpositive for coronavirus

continued to increase in Keralain the backdrop of Ramzan fes-tivities. On Sunday, 53 personstested positive for the pan-demic as the number of per-sons under treatment rose to322, according to KeralaMinister for Health KKShailaja.

Out of the 53 persons test-ed positive on Sunday, 18 wereexpatriates and 22 were fromother States in the country. Till Sunday, 522 per-sons were cured of the covid-19 pandemic and sent homefrom hospitals.

The Minister said 188 per-sons were hospitalised onSunday while the number ofpersons under observation roseto 95, 394. The last three dayssaw the number of coronaviruscases in Kerala increasing by

157.According to Shailaja, the

coming days would see a hikein the number of covid 19patients. “This is because of thearrival of expatriates and peo-ple from other States to Kerala.The only option before us is tomake sure that the people whocome back to the State observethe guidelines of quarantineand observation. If those whocome back follow the safetyguidelines we can effectivelycontrol the spread of the pan-demic and flatten the coron-avirus curve,” said the Minister.

Dr Ranjith Vijayahari, gas-

tro surgeon, who has beenfocusing on covid-19 casessince the breaking out of thepandemic in the State, said theinformation disclosed by theGovernment about the numberof cases is just the tip of the ice berg.

“There are more number ofcases which are yet to bebrought out. If only you testmore and more persons youwill be able to identify, isolateand quarantine the afflictedpeople. The situation is worri-some but I do not want to upsetthe people,” Dr Vijayahari toldThe Pioneer.

He said the relaxation inlockdown over the last two-three days is sure to cause hikein the number of coronaviruscases in the coming days. “Anyrelaxation in lockdown ruleswill definitely cause an impacton the number of patients.But we cannot go on withlockdown indefinitely,” he said.

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Even as the country is strug-gling hard to contain the

coronavirus pandemic which isspreading all over with vigor bythe hour, indifference ofbureaucrats towards the med-icine developed to minimiseand regulate the contagiousdisease is causing irreparabledamage to the soul of India.

While scientists specialising

in modern medicine are grop-ing in the dark in search of avaccine to fight the coron-avirus pandemic, an Ayurvedicdrug and protocol developed bya team of eminent Ayurvedicphysicians in collaboration withmodern medicine specialistsis given a raw deal by thebureaucrats of the Ministry ofAyush. The details of the drugand treatment protocol wassubmitted to the Ayush

Ministry on April 15 this year.Messages to Shripad Yesso

Naik, Union Minister of State(Independent Charge) did notevoke any response. Dr RajeshKotecha, eminent Ayurvedicphysician , who is also the sec-retary to the Ayush Ministrychose to ignore the messagessent to him requesting fordetails about the clinical trials.

The team of doctors thatdeveloped the ayurvedic drug

prepared from the age oldIndian system of knowledgewas led by Dr PRKrishnakumar, South India’sleading Ayurvedic scholar andincluded a who’s who of med-ical researchers. Dr RamaJayasundar of All India Instituteof Medical sciences, New Delhi,a physicist turned ayurvedicresearcher, Dr CVKrishnaswamy, Tamil Nadu’sleading physician, Prof B M

Hegde, described as the coun-try’s medical warrior are someof the members of the team thatdeveloped the drug and proto-col.

Dr Krishnakumar has beenhonoured by the nation withPadma Sree while Prof Hegdeis a Padma Bhushan with hun-dreds of publications in nation-al and international journals. Itwas Prof Hegde who declaredin his pathbreaking research

work “What Doctors Don’t GetTo Study in Medical School”that the drug for coronavirusand influenza would come fromIndia.

“We submitted everythingas per specification to the AyushMinistry with a request that thedrug be taken up for clinical tri-als. Without clinical trials, it cannever be administered to thepatients. But till date we havenot received any communica-

tion from the ministry aboutthe fate of our application,” avisibly upset Dr Krishnakumartold The Pioneer.

Dr Jayasundar too sound-ed sad while speaking to ThePioneer over the inordinatedelay in taking up their workfor clinical trials. “I don’t knowwhat is happening. You have tocheck it with the authorities,”she said when asked about thedelay. Dr Krishnaswamy said

this clinical trial should havebeen taken up on a war footing.

“As you see, the number ofcoronavirus patients are shoot-ing up on an hourly basis andour medical system should facethe situation in a missionmode,” said Dr Krishnaswamy.

A veteran medical doctorpointed out that the possibili-ty of a vaccine to fight coron-avirus getting ready in the nearfuture is remote.

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The Himalayan state of Sikkimreported its first coronavirus case

when a 25-year-old student whoreturned from Delhi tested positive,a senior official said on Sunday.

Sikkim Health Secretary PempaT. Bhutia said that the swab sampleof the student was sent to NorthBengal Medical College and Hospitalin Siliguri (in West Bengal) for test-ing. The positive report came onSaturday.

The student from Rabangla inSouth Sikkim district is admitted atSir Thutob Namgyal MemorialHospital in Gangtok. Hospital sourcessaid his health condition was stable.

The student was living in Delhito prepare for UPSC examinationsbut returned to the state by bus alongwith a few others last week.

Till Saturday night, 1,707 peoplewere tested in Sikkim.

The first corona case was report-ed a day after the Sikkim governmentannounced that teaching for studentsfrom Class 9 to university levelswould resume from June 15.

The tiny Himalayan state was oneof the first states to close inter-stateand international borders and banentry of both domestic and foreigntourists, besides migrant labourers.

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Amid strict lockdown, Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations

remained a low-key affairacross Jammu & Kashmir onSunday.

None of the famous reli-gious shrines includingHazratbal and Jamia Masjidwitnessed congregationalprayers in Srinagar city. Localpolice authorities had strictlyenforced restrictions to ensureresidents stay back at home andavoid stepping out in the wakeof spike in number of cases ofcoronavirus across Kashmirvalley. Police vans were seenmaking public announcementssince early morning appealingpeople to stay indoors to ensurestrict compliance of lockdownguidelines.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, 52fresh cases were detected tak-ing the total tally of coronaviruscases to 1,621 in the UnionTerritory of Jammu & Kashmir.While Srinagar district report-ed no fresh case on Sunday, 26patients tested positive inKulgam district alone. InJammu division six cases were

reported from Jammu , sevenfrom Samba, 4 from Kathuaand three from Rajouri district.A police jawan, posted on dutyat Lakhanpur entry point,tested positive and shifted toisolation facility.

Official sources main-tained, majority of fresh pos-itive cases had a travel historyand were fresh returnees. Atpresent, 791 cases are activepositive and around fifty per-cent cases i.e 809 have recov-ered so far in Jammu &Kashmir.

According to local reportsfrom Srinagar, worshipersoffered Eid prayers at homeand at few odd places in remoteareas small gatherings of closefamily members converged atone place to offer thanksgivingprayers ending the month longperiod of fasting duringRamzan.

Eid was celebrated acrossJammu and Kashmir andKerala on Sunday, while therest of the country will cele-brate Eid on Monday. InJammu region too, no massassembly was witnessed on theoccasion.

Earlier, in August 2019,Eid-ul-Azha prayers could notbe offered in Kashmir asauthorities had imposed strictcurfew in the wake of abroga-tion of Article 370 and divisionof then Jammu & Kashmirstate into two UnionTerritories.

However, South Kashmirdistrict of Pulwama witnessedincidents of stone pelting aftera joint teams of security forcesbusted a terrorist hideout in thearea.

A group of terrorists hadcarved a hideout in a shopowned by a government officialof Revenue department. Atleast two people receivedinjuries as clashes broke out inMitrigam area of Pulwamaafter security forces launched acordon and search operation inthe area.

Security forces have recov-ered detonators, explosives andsome logistic materials fromthe hideout. Some of the closefamily members of the gov-ernment official, detained bythe police for questioning, wereearlier involved in terroristactivities.

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Lucknow: Shopping complexes inthe state capital, outside the con-tainment zones, will be allowed toreopen from May 26.

However, shopping malls andmultiplexes will still remain closed.

According to the order of theLucknow district magistrateAbhisheka Prakash, only one-thirdof shops in a complex will operatedaily on rotational basis from 7 a.m.to 7 p.m. The centralized air-con-ditioning of the complex will remainshut, though individual shops cankeep their air-conditioners on.

A maximum of three customersat a time will be allowed inside thestore. All customers will have towear masks and thermal screeningof customers will be done at theentrance of the complex.Shopkeepers will have to report to

health authorities immediately ifthey find any customer withCOVID-19 symptoms.

Shop owners will have to makesanitizers available to the customerbefore and after transaction as wellas keep record of every visitor. Shopswill have to be sanitized withbleaching powder and sodiumhypochlorite several times in a day.

Amarnath Mishra, senior gen-eral secretary, Lucknow VyaparMandal, said that the decision willhelp major stores of garment, elec-trical and electronic items and jew-ellery that are located in shoppingcomplexes.

“With this decision, almost 70per cent of the market will nowremain open according to condi-tions laid down by the districtadministration,” he said. IANS

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Atotal lockdown on Sundayturned Karnataka into a

ghost State, with an eeriesilence and uneasy calm pre-vailing across its cities andtowns, even as hundreds ofpolicemen kept a close vigil.

“A total lockdown is inforce across the state sinceSaturday evening (7pm) toMonday morning (7am). Aban under Section 144 of theCrPC has also been imposed toprevent movement of peopleand vehicles,” a police officialtold IANS here.

As decided by the stategovernment to contain thecoronavirus spread, the Sundaylockdown comes after a partialrelaxation of restrictions onweekdays since May 19 torevive economic activity and

restore near-normalcy.“We have seized about 100

vehicles across the city(Bengaluru) since morningwhen some people, mostlyyouths, ventured out on two-wheelers to roam around inresidential areas in violation ofthe lockdown norm,” the offi-cial said.

The police also sealedinter-state borders to preventmovement of people and vehi-cles from neighbouring states,as bus services and trans-portation of goods remain sus-pended till Monday morning.

“Only ambulances andvehicles on essential duty areallowed to ply during the cur-few period. Shops selling med-icines, groceries, vegetables,fruits and poultry and meatproducts have been allowed to

open but ensure customersmaintain physical distancingand stand in queues.

“Barring retail outlets foressential supplies like milk,vegetables, fruits, and medi-cines, everything has been shutdown since 7pm on Saturday to7am on Monday,” the officialadded.

State-run buses, taxis andautos have also not beenallowed to operate across thestate.

Though the central gov-ernment further extended thelockdown to May 31 from May18 with greater relaxation in thenorms to restore near-normal-cy across the country, the statehas decided to enforce it (lock-down) only on Sundays tillmonth-end, that is on May 24and May 31.

All main roads, flyovers

and enter/exit points on the cityoutskirts have been barricadedto prevent vehicular move-ment.

In an appeal to all citizensacross the state on Saturday,Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa urged the peopleto abide by the lockdown onthis (May 24) and next Sunday(May 31) to contain the Covid-19 spread.

“We have reached a crucialstage in the war against Covid-19. Follow guidelines in theinterest and welfare of all tofight the pandemic. Stay athome to be safe,” saidYediyurappa.

The state government,however, allowed weddingsprefixed on Sunday amid thelockdown with a slew of ridersto ensure health and social dis-tancing.

Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh):A migrant worker riding pil-lion on a two-wheeler from Gurugram in Haryana tohis home in Bihar, died when he dozed off on the motor-bike and fell off.

His nephew Satish also lost balance and fell down.Both received serious head injuries and Ratiram,

36, died on the spot while Satish is in hospital with crit-ical injuries.The incident took place on the YashodaNagar highway on Saturday.

According to reports, Ratiram and his nephewSatish, residents of the Supaul district of Bihar, used towork in a factory in Gurugram.

After the lockdown, they lost their jobs and final-ly decided to return to their home.

They left on their motorcycle from Gurugram onSaturday after they failed to get another other meansof transport. Naubasta inspector Ashish Shukla said thattheir families have been informed and are on their wayto Kanpur. “The body has been shifted to the mortu-ary and the autopsy will be conducted only after his fam-ily members arrive from Bihar,” the inspector\said. IANS

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After hours of confusion onwhether domestic flights

will fly in and out of themetropolis in the coming days,the Maharashtra Governmenton Sunday evening agreed toallow operation of 25 flights toand from the Mumbai Airportfrom Monday.

Hours after MaharashtraChief Minister UddhavThackeray said that thereshould be “minimum possibledomestic f lights fromMaharashtra from May 25thwhich are purely emergent innature”, Maharashtra CabinetMinister Nawab Malikannounced that beginning fromMonday, the state governmenthad allowed 25 flights to andfrom the Mumbai.

Quoting his telephonicconversation with State chiefSecretary Ajoy Mehta, Maliksaid: “After discussions with allagencies, it has been decidedthat 25 flights will arrive anddepart from Mumbai airport.The number will increase sub-sequently”.

In a formal announcementmade later, the ChhatrapatiShivaji Maharaj InternationalAirport (CSMIA), Mumbai,said: late in the evening:“Starting May 25, 2020, CSMIAwill resume 25 commercial

passenger flight movements ondeparture and 25 on arrival.The initiative comes after thedirective issued by the Ministryof Civil Aviation as well as theState Minister giving a nod torecommence domestic flightoperations to and fromMumbai.

“Furthermore, CSMIA alsoadvises passengers above 80years as well as expectant moth-ers and passengers with healthissues to restrict travelling.While, arriving passengers willbe temperature screened bythe State Govt. and expectedhome quarantine for 14-days,”CSMIA said in a statement.

“Moreover, CSMIA has alsocreated a separate quarantinecentre for symptomatic pas-sengers. CSMIA has deployedresources to manage the queueeffectively and to maintainminimal human interaction,”the CSMIA statement added.

Earlier in the afternoon,chief minister UddhavThackeray’s office tweeted: “CMUddhav Balasaheb Thackerayspoke to Civil Aviation Ministerof State (Independent)@HardeepSPuri ji regardingdomestic f lights inMaharashtra”.

“He communicated hisviews that till the time MIALplans and fine tunes airportoperations, they should initiate

minimum possible domesticflights from Maharashtra fromMay 25th which are purelyemergent in nature like forinternational transfer passengers, medical emergen-cies, students, and cases oncompassionate grounds,” theCMO tweeted.

That the announcementmade by Aviation MinisterHardeep Sigh Puri’s about theresumption of domestic flightsfrom May 25 without consult-ing the MaharashtraGovernment has not gone wellwith the ruling Maha VikasAghadi (MVA) could be evi-denced from a strong tweet putout by State Home MinisterAnil Deshmukh in the earlyhours of Sunday.

“Its extremely ill-advised toreopen airports in red zone.Mere thermal scanning of pas-sengers inadequate w/o swabs.Impossible to haveautos/cabs/buses ply in currentcircumstances. Adding posi-tive passenger will add Covidstress to red zone,” Deshmukhhad tweeted. Malik also hit outat the Narendra Modi for tak-ing decisions without consult-ing the State Government, bysaying: “The Government atthe Centre makes announce-ment after announcementwithout discussing issues withthe State Government”.

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At the end of month-longRamadan fasting, Eid-ul-

Fitr was celebrated in coastaldistricts of Karnataka on asubdued note at homes due toban on mass gathering inmosques amid lockdownacross the southern state tocontain the coronavirus spread,an official said on Sunday.

“As decided by MarkaziRuet-e-Hilal committee mem-ber Maulana Maqsood ImranRashidi sahib on Saturday afterMaghrib, Eid is being cele-brated in the state's coastalregion today (Sunday) and onMonday in other parts of the

state though the moon couldnot be sighted on Saturdaynight,” said Maulana SagheerAhmed Rashadi in a state-ment here.

The port city of Mangaluruis about 360km southwest ofBengaluru.

The state's coastal regioncomprises Dakshina Kannada,Udupi, Uttara Kannada,Kodagu and Chikkamagalurdistricts off the Arabian Sea.

“All the devout Muslimsoffered Eid prayers (namaz) attheir home and greeted eachother from a distance to main-tain physical distancing. Attiredin new clothes, all of us part-took the festival dishes, includ-ing biryani and kheer,” Urdu

teacher Habibur Rahman toldIANS on phone.

As the state governmentdecided to enforce a strictlockdown on Sunday the peo-ple completed shopping fornew dresses and groceries forthe feast by Saturday evening.

“This is the first time in ourlife we are celebrating Eid athome as we are unable go tomosque for prayers or greetothers due to the extendedlockdown, which also made usobserve fast during the month-long Ramadan at home,”recalled Rahman.

The first day of Shawwal(1441 Azli Fazli) will be onMonday.

In a video message, Jamia

masjid Imam Maulana AbdulAleem of Bhatkal in the north-ern coastal district urged thepeople to maintain peace andharmony and bear the incon-venience due to the lockdownwith fortitude.

“May this special day bringpeace, blessings and happinessto all. Pray Allah to accept ourprayers on the Eid,” theMaulana said on the occasion.

Bhatkal is about 460kmnorthwest of Bengaluru in thesouthern state.

The Imam also hoped(Inshallah), COVID menacewould soon end so that allcould get back to normal lifeand meet relatives and friendsagain.

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Hitting out at theOpposition BJP for its

efforts to indulge in politicsover the coronavirus crisis,Maharashtra Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray said hereon Sunday that hisGovernment would lift thelockdown gradually as it didnot want crowds in publicplaces which would compelthe Government to re-impose lockdown in theState.

Two days after the BJPstaged “Save Maharashtra”agitation against the “inept”handling of coronavirus cri-sis by his Government,Uddhav said: “I sincerelyfeel that this is a time of cri-sis, and hence, no one shouldplay politics. You may do it,but we will not as we are vested with aresponsibility and above all,the people of Maharashtratrust us”.

Addressing the peopleacross the state throughsocial media, theChiefMinister said: “As much it isimproper to impose lock-down all of a sudden, it is

also improper to lift the lockdown at one go.We are treading cautiously toensure restoration of nor-malcy. While l8ifting thelockdown, we will have totake measures againstcrowds at public places.Every citizen will have toprecaution of not indulgingin undisciplined behaviour,a behaviour that will force us to re-impose lock-down”.

“I want to thank peopleof all religions, social orga-nizations and political partiesfor their co-operation,” hesaid.

In a series of tweets putout after his interaction withthe people across the state,Uddhav said: “A couple ofdays ago, I was part of a VCwith Congress PresidentSonia Gandhi ji and otherleaders. I said the real pictureabout our country will beclear in the coming fortnightdue to the migration and thelikely transmission of thevirus due to the movementof people”.

“This intra-state move-ment from one district toanother has been allowed to

an extent. But, this can bepermitted on a large scaleonly after following precau-tions. We have allowed shopsand offices to open in someareas.”

“We are also consideringif the theatre, film and tele-vision industries can beallowed to resume shootingand post-production activi-ties like dubbing and editing.They have asked us if theycan shoot in the Green zonebefore the monsoons withdue precautions,” hesaid.

“We are also consider-ing allowing outdoor games.The cabinet held a meetingto prepare for the Kharif sea-son. We are launching a newproject to make seeds andfertilisers available to farm-ers in their fields,” he said.

“Since day one, we neverstopped any agricultureactivities or transport of pro-duce. We are taking care offarmers. We have purchased75 to 80% cotton in areas likeVidarbha, Marathwada andNorth Maharashtra, and thisis still underway,” he said.

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Page 6: ˆ ˆ · resume flight operation from May 28. Maharashtra, which has been unwilling to reopen its ... identified as one Sainath Langote — went to the ashram late on Saturday night.

Apandemic invariably leads to ahealth crisis, which has aneconomic fallout, too. This hasbeen the trend in almost allcountries that are reeling under

the impact of Coronavirus. The addition-al crisis posed by the mass exodus of themigrant labourers is more or less specificto our country and is bound to have somefar-reaching consequences.

For a long time to come, heart-rend-ing images of the migratory efflux will bethe defining moment of the Corona-inspired lockdown. Having lost their liveli-hood, without any savings and no hope forthe future, lakhs of workers left for theirhometowns and villages. In the absence ofany transportation during the first month-and-a-half, out of sheer desperation, theyset out with meagre belongings on roadsand highways. Some even covered morethan a thousand kilometres on foot.Though their decision must have been vol-untary, the fact is the prevailing circum-stances left them with little option.

The present crisis is a multi-dimen-sional one but for now, the focus has shift-ed almost entirely to the economy and lesson health. In the long run, this may alsoemerge as a major social issue. The migra-tory process, its effects and the growth ofslums in urban areas have been studiedcomprehensively but the instant case is thatof reverse migration. Earlier, this phenom-enon was attributable to individual behav-iour and decisions but in the present con-text, it has assumed the shape of a massefflux. Individuals and families, who aresuffering, having been uprooted physical-ly for no fault of theirs, are not only boundto be unhappy but also bitter. Given thepresent situation, this bitterness does notappear to be disappearing anytime soon.The reason as to why these people wereforced to leave their villages in the firstplace might, perhaps, confront them in amore aggravated form now as they get backto their home States.

Under the provisions of the DisasterManagement Act, the Government hadordered on March 24 that all employees —be it industry, shops or commercial estab-lishments — will have to pay wages to theiremployees even when they are not in oper-ation during the lockdown. Landlords, too,were asked not to charge rent or get thepremises vacated from their worker-ten-ants. Pursuant to a judgment from theSupreme Court, this order was withdrawnon May 18, without any alternative arrange-ment, thus leaving the migrants high anddry. The Supreme Court ruled that theMinistry of Home Affairs’ order was viola-tive of Article 19 (1)(g) of the Constitutionwith respect to the rights of private firms.It’s another matter that prior to its with-drawal, the order was being observed morein violation. Perhaps the case for themigrant workers could have been present-

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Sir — Central Governmentemployees, posted outside theirhome towns, are facing a hugeproblem because of great risksinvolved while living in hotels orguest houses because of thespread of the Corona pandemic.Even finding a rented accommo-dation is extremely difficult inthese times.

The Department of Personneland Training (DoPT) shouldrevise its advisory. Those desiringto be posted in their hometownsmust be allowed to move to theirnative places. The revised systemshould be applicable forGovernment employees in eachcadre and services like adminis-trative service, police service orinternational service as far aspracticable. The Corona era is atime when living with the fami-ly has become a necessity for allpractical reasons. It’s difficult formany to maintain mental healthduring long periods of self-isola-tion? If citizens have to learn tolive with the virus, theGovernment must amend therules, too.

Madhu AgrawalDelhi

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Sir — The month of Ramzan isconsidered to be auspicious forMuslims all across the world. Theyfast from dawn to dusk for a monthto remind themselves of the suffer-

ing of the less fortunate and tobring the followers closer to god.

The sighting of the crescentmoon marks the end of the holymonth of Ramzan and the arrivalof Eid. The festival is all aboutsharing happiness and joy. Thisyear, however, celebrations have

been stifled due to the pandem-ic, which has forced us to incul-cate changes in life. We must bemore humane and empathetic.And social distancing doesn’tmean emotional distancing.

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Finally, the takeoff ” (May22). The Union Government’sdecision to partially resume airtravel is welcome. But it wouldhave been much appreciated ifthe Civil Aviation Ministrycould have taken steps to refundfares for flyers, who had madedomestic and international trav-el bookings during the lockdownperiod.

Although the AviationMinistry had asked airlines toissue a full refund to customers,it was an ambiguous directive asthe cancellations did not applyto tickets booked before thelockdown for the travel periodbetween the lockdown or afterit. Surely the aviation industry isgoing through its worse timesince 9/11 and grounded flightsmean no money made. Still,holding money of passengers isboth morally and legally wrong.The Government must come tothe rescue of hapless people.

AbhinavVia email

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ed more effectively.More glaring is the non-

implementation of the InterstateMigrant Workmen (Regulationof Employment and Conditionsof Service) Act 1979. Known asISMW, rules under the said Actwere framed and notified in1980. The implementingauthorities for this Act are therespective chief labour commis-sioners. Perhaps they could notforesee the enormity of the sit-uation and, thus, could notreact in time. Also, the efflux ofthe workers was only initiallyprevented.

In fact, some action wastaken against erring officers,who tried to facilitate theirmovement but after some time,the decision was reversed, lead-ing to confusion in makingarrangements for their safetransportation. The registrationfor workers wanting to migratehas begun only now and that,too, at selective places. TheISMW has specific provisionsfor such registrations in thenormal course of working ofthe labour department, which,perhaps, was being neglected.

It is true that in its originalform, the Act applied tomigrants of only certain class-es. With a small amendment, itcould have been extended to allcategories. Complete neglecton the part of the ISMWappears to be one of the factorsthat may have widened the dif-ference between the workers,

labour, migrants and theadministration.

Ever since the liberalisationof the economy and pro-labourlegislations coming into force,unrest among the wagers hadbecome a thing of past. Thewell-known trickle-down effectcame into full play and a recordnumber of people could moveaway from poverty. Some ofthese pro-labour legislationsare now in the process of beingabandoned with States likeGujarat, Uttar Pradesh andRajasthan undertaking majorchanges in them to woo invest-ment. In fact, the higher judi-ciary has already taken cogni-sance of this and has askedsome pertinent questions onbehalf of the workers and theirrights.

Experience shows thatbringing the economy back onthe rails cannot be achieved ifour working classes are unhap-py. The role of the trade unionswill have to be consideredafresh in the changed circum-stances. Unions have more orless remained dormant duringthe last two decades and arenow coming back with a cause,which may not augur well forthe industry as a whole.

An extremely importantquestion that has not beendebated so far is: What next?For how long will the migrantworkers stay on and whetherthis eff lux is for good.Whatever be the status of a

worker in society, he/she didhave access to a certain level offacility in urban areas. All ofthem became used to their livesand would certainly miss thembadly back home. So does thismean that this efflux is a tem-porary phenomenon and thatthings will normalise in duecourse?

Considering the alienationthat they have undergone, itdoes not appear that the work-ers would be coming back toosoon unless some confidence-building measures are taken.This should entail a review ofsome of the regressive laws thatwork against the interests of thelabourers. Alienation of theworkforce has several manifes-tations but one of the worstforms is estrangement of manfrom man. It would havepained them where it hurts themost to see a complete lack ofempathy among sections ofsociety who could have helpedthem tide the crisis. Only ahandful of NGOs stepped in tohelp. Generally, Governmentagencies were a big letdown.This may have further aggra-vated the situation.

The Government’s deci-sion to increase the allocationfor MGNREGA up to �40,000crore is a step in the right direc-tion. Though in a limited man-ner, this can certainly help themigrants tide over the imme-diate crisis when they reachtheir home States. Our MPs

and MLAs, who could haveundertaken immediate reliefmeasures, are handicapped inthe absence of funds that havebeen already diverted.

Additionally, existingresources of the StateGovernments have come undersevere stress. Their borrowingcapacity needs to be enhancedfurther. In the event where abulk of the migrants would notwant to go back to their orig-inal workplaces, focus willhave to be on the creation ofappropriate levels of employ-ment opportunities in thevicinity. Obviously, investmentin the area of rural develop-ment and employment wouldhave to be increased in affect-ed districts where there hasbeen a sudden influx of popu-lation. The Providing UrbanFacilities in Rural Areas(PURA) model, as suggested byformer President Abdul Kalam,can also be taken into consid-eration.

Today, a much greaterresponsibility lies with theState Governments, who haveto not only provide the arriv-ing migrant force with medicalcare but also treat them withempathy and help absorb themin the existing social milieu,physically, psychologically andeconomically.

(The writer is a formerGovernor and a Senior Advisorat the Pranab MukherjeeFoundation)

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Page 7: ˆ ˆ · resume flight operation from May 28. Maharashtra, which has been unwilling to reopen its ... identified as one Sainath Langote — went to the ashram late on Saturday night.

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In what is perceived as possibly the last phaseof the lockdown, with States being given thepowers to implement relaxations by the

Centre and economic activity once again beingstarted across urban and rural India, a wave ofresentment is brewing among the organised sec-tor of the working class and trade unions in thecountry.

Indeed, images of tens of thousands ofmigrant workers in dire straits, walking withoutfood and water in this scorching heat on high-ways and streets to unknown destinations,especially in the Hindi heartland, have shockedthe national conscience, even while death andhighway accidents of the workers seem to havebecome routine.

It is in this context that the new labour lawsbeing enacted by the Centre and various StateGovernments might create another lockdown,even as the economy limps back to normalcyafter having all but collapsed, especially in theurban sector, with the agricultural economy onthe threshold of a disaster despite a very goodharvest. Indeed, the almost 77 million tonnes offoodgrains lying in the Food Corporation ofIndia (FCI) godowns, and the huge output post-harvest season, especially in States like Punjab,Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh (UP) andMaharashtra, are bound to lead to another cri-sis, especially when the monsoon season sets in.

With the BJP-led Central Governmentrefusing to release the overflowing foodgrain forthe jobless and homeless migrant workers, or thepoor, even while rejecting the proposals of sev-eral top economists like Amartya Sen, RaghuramRajan and Abhijit Banerjee, the rural economywill yet again find itself in a Catch-22 situation.Already, the crisis of the past has not beenresolved: For instance sugarcane farmers inWestern UP have largely not been paid the min-imum support price while their payment fromthe mills is still pending. A similar situationmight erupt in Maharashtra with onion farm-ers among others.

The migrant workers, who have gone backto their hometowns and villages, are not return-ing anytime soon despite the booster announcedby the Union Finance Minister, Ms NirmalaSitharaman. Sources say that the financial“bonanza” announced by the Centre might justprove to be yet another “jumla” while largely ben-efitting certain industrialists close to the Delhiregime. The real estate and construction indus-try has not recovered and even the cream of theindustry, Information Technology has facedretrenchment of employees.

Almost 10,000 workers of a successful andcheap brand of biscuits like Parle G had to besacked just because there was no purchasingpower in small towns and rural India to buy theseglucose biscuits. Hundreds of employees havebeen sacked in media organisations in recenttimes with not even a whimper of protest.

With coal mines and airports being priva-tised, among other public sector units (PSUs),a collapsing economy, faced with a giganticunemployment problem among the organisedand unorganised workers, including among theeducated and white-collar professionals, thecountry can slip into a major crisis yet again.Almost 40 million workers are slated to lose theirjobs. Indeed, post-demonetisation and Goodsand Services Tax (GST), the small and medium-

scale industry had virtually shut down,affecting tens of thousands of dailywagers and small and medium entre-preneurs.

Even flourishing industrial zoneslike Surat in Gujarat had risen inrevolt before the last Lok Sabha elec-tions. It took major maneuvering andpersuasion by Home Minister AmitShah to get the pro-BJP traders to thepolling booths. Indeed, sociologists hadearlier predicted that the mass protestsagainst the National Register of Citizens(NRC) and Citizenship AmendmentAct (CAA) all over the country werealso triggered by mass joblessness anda state of perpetual anxiety about a sta-ble future.

Besides, after the shocking and hor-rifying images of the poor and starv-ing migrant workers, men, women andchildren, have hit social media, and theWestern media, the international imageof the country has taken a big beating.This kind of a national trauma on sucha massive scale and as a daily and relent-less public spectacle for almost twomonths has not been seen in any partof the world during the pandemic, noteven in the sub-continent, in Africa orthe Middle-East. Surely, India is on asticky wicket not only in terms of itsGross Domestic Product (GDP) orgrowth rate and per capita income. Itsmoral and ethical core has been dis-rupted and proved crudely transparentin front of the whole world.

It is in this pessimistic context thatthe one-day hunger strike by the lead-ers of 10 Central Trade Unions on May22 against the new labour laws rattledthe Central Government, which is stillto find its economic scaffolding.

The demands of the unions includ-ed restoration of labour laws that have

been changed or their implementationput on hold in about 10 States consist-ing of both BJP and non-BJP ruledones. In a joint petition to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, the unionleaders sought immediate relief tostranded workers and arrangements forsafe return to their homes. They alsodemanded immediate halt to indiscrim-inate privatisation of PSUs. Even as thetrade unions approached theInternational Labour Organisation(ILO), the Government refused toengage in a dialogue with the leadersand they were detained for violating therestrictions of the lockdown. However,the trade unions have said that thisprotest was just the beginning and theirstruggle would continue.

Amid all this chaos, experts havedeclared that the latest Governmentbooster for the small and mediumenterprises is just not enough. It shouldbe noted that the majority of theworking class in India do not even fallunder the organised or formal sector.They constitute almost 93 per cent ofthe workforce, have no trade unioncover or other rights such as work guar-antee, fixed-wage hours or wages,maternity leave, provident fund, pen-sion and so on. They are just “freelabour” out to be exploited by all con-cerned. Half of them are women,Dalits, extremely backward castes,landless labourers and the poorest ofthe poor. Understandably, the labourlaws have been declared draconian bythe unions, whereby the lockdown hasbeen used to bulldoze them.

Some of them are outrageous, likeincreasing the work hours per day fromeight to 12 hours, something the labourmovement had gained after the famousMay uprising in the Hay Market in

Chicago in the 1830s, celebrated all overthe world as May Day. The suspensionof a large number of labour laws forthree years by UP and the MadhyaPradesh Government’s decision toallow companies to “hire and fire”workers coincided with Gujarat,Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan,Punjab, Bihar, Odisha and Maharashtraincreasing the daily working hours.Significantly, the BJP trade union,BMS, did not join the protest while theCongress trade union, INTUC did,though the Congress StateGovernments, too, are tagging along onthe new labour laws.

Among the “draconian measures”,the Yogi Adityanath Government in UPhas made 38 laws meaningless foralmost three years, including theIndustrial Disputes Act, Trade UnionAct, Equal Remuneration Act,Maternity Benefit Act, Act onOccupational Safety and Health,Interstate Migrant Labour Act and theContract Labour Act.

The BJP-ruled Madhya PradeshGovernment has ushered in seriouschanges in the Factories Act, ContractAct and Industrial Dispute Act. Hireand fire seems to be the new pandem-ic doctrine, with most workers’ rightsbeing taken away, including regardingwages, safety and compensation, andcontractors and industry running with-out any regulations. May 22 marked thebeginning of a new chapter in the work-ing class’ struggle in India, even as thetragic narrative of mass migration of theunorganised workers continues relent-lessly. Will it mark a paradigm shift inthe current scenario? Only time will tell.But for now the workers are not givingup.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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Apandemic like COVID-19can be a threat to the nation-al security of a country

which is not prepared to tackle sucha disaster. The impact of the pan-demic can be even more severe ifsuch a virus is not natural but bio-logically altered by a country for itspersonal gains. The pandemiccaused by COVID-19 is a result ofthe increasing conspicuous con-sumption in society. The ever-

increasing need in almost everyfield of human consumption hasgiven birth to a situation where thedefinition of a new-normal neverstops.

The greed of individuals isreflected in the proliferation ofnew products to be marketed withgreat conviction that inadvertentlycontrol the behavioural pattern ofthe majority of the consumers of theglobe. One principal reason for thisare the global commodity chainsthat have fostered greater move-ment of goods and people acrosscontinents. The impact of the con-tagion on the world economy ishuge because the global Northoften seeks to subsidise its com-modity consumption by outsourc-ing it to countries with weak labourlaws and economies of scale withlow manufacturing costs. Hence,China’s crisis became the world’s

crisis even before the disease hitEurope and America. The presentpandemic has proved that everyhuman effort is defeated when it isa question of how to balancebetween natural and artificial eco-systems, given the increasing fluc-tuations in the climatic disorder.

One of the possible answers canbe reducing the ever-increasingneed, consumerism and productionand the establishment of sustainableinfrastructure where humans andnature can complement each other.For the last four decades the wholeworld was on the path of globalisa-tion, where every country under-stood the needs of the other and asymbiotic trade system was estab-lished. This resulted in alleviationof poverty, betterment of healthcarefacilities and better lifestyles glob-ally, to a certain degree. However,these developmental indices have

been realised at the expense of nat-ural resources. The increasingdemand for foodgrain invited abun-dant use of pesticides that finallypermeated into the human body,causing fatal diseases.

Similarly, the demands for secu-rity and defence-related productshave further harmed nature,impacting the air, water and soil.However, the massive productionlines in China have not only impact-ed the global community but thecountry itself has faced the negativeimpact of global greed and con-sumerism. A World Bank andScottish Environment ProtectionAgency report says that around7,60,000 people die prematurelyeach year in China because of airand water pollution.

This increasing imbalance innature has been reflected in suchcatastrophes and the possibility of

their recurrence cannot be deniedif the global community does notwake up. No one can deny the factthat the COVID-19 virus originat-ed from Wuhan province of Chinaand the Wuhan Institute of Virologydoes research on most dangerouspathogens. There is a huge wet mar-ket for animals and seafood locat-ed in Wuhan. The bush meat,which may be termed as a culturalpreference, may be detrimental forhumans and is often a source ofsuch pandemics.

No one can also deny thatChina hid the initial outbreak andfailed to warn the world communi-ty of the severity of the virus,despite the fact that it knew howcontagious it was and Wuhan iswell-connected with the capitals ofmany countries around the globe.

As a result, the pandemic hasaffected 53,32,323 people and there

have been 3,40,590 casualties tillnow, globally. However big thiscount may be, the economic andemotional implications of the out-break are unfathomable. There is aglobal lockdown amid chaos andfear and there is a threat to the cur-rent world order. At times like this,the question of national securitybecomes very important.

Thankfully, all the casualtiesthat the world has been witnessinghave not permeated the defencecommunity in a major way so far.But, what if the defence communi-ty is targetted by an enemy coun-try? Or if the virus falls into thehands of terrorists? The 9/11 attackon US soil 20 years ago redefinedthe security infrastructure of theglobal community and so far, moreor less every country’s securitydesign has been impacted by terror-ism.

The spread of the Coronavirushas raised a big question on glob-al security and now every nation hasto redefine its security. The searchfor biological weapons by the US inIraq in 2002 and further conse-quences were based upon the pro-gramme of Iraq’s weapons of massdestruction from 1962 to 1991,aimed at attacking Iran, the Kurdsand other purposes. There hasbeen biological espionage betweenthe West and the Soviet Union andso on.

In this manner, as confrontedby the outcomes of the Coronaviruson most of the world networks,there is a need to again restore anelective power which might resem-ble the NAM, reboot the UnitedNations Organisation and reclassi-fy worldwide security.

(The writer is AssistantProfessor, JNU)

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Karachi: A preliminary reporton the Pakistan InternationalAirlines (PIA) plane crash, inwhich 97 people were killed,has raised serious questionsabout the pilot’s handling of theaircraft and what prevented thecrew in the cockpit frominforming the air traffic con-trollers about the troubles.

Pakistani investigators aretrying to find out if the crashof the national flag carrier’sflight PK-8303 is attributable toa pilot error or a technicalglitch, with new leads raisingfresh questions over the cir-cumstances of the incident,Geo News reported. PTI

Honolulu: Joe Biden won theDemocratic Party of Hawaii’sparty-run presidential prima-ry on Saturday, which wasdelayed by more than a monthbecause of the coronavirus.

Biden defeated VermontSen. Bernie Sanders 63 per centto 37 per cent.

Biden won 16 of Hawaii’sdelegates and Sanders will takeeight. Biden has a total of1,566 delegates to the party’snational convention, accordingto the count by the AssociatedPress. He needs 1,991 delegatesto win the nomination, athreshold he is projected toreach in June.

A total of 35,044 voters castballots in the party-run pri-mary. All ballots were cast by mail.

The party had initiallyplanned to hold the primary onApril 4 and had expected mostparty members would vote bymail and some would cast bal-lots at about 20 in-person pollingsites around the state. AP

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Muslims around the worldon Sunday began cele-

brating Eid al-Fitr, a normallyfestive holiday marking the endof the fasting month ofRamadan, with millions understrict stay-at-home orders andmany fearing renewed coron-avirus outbreaks.

The three-day holiday isusually a time of travel, familyget-togethers and lavish daytimefeasts after weeks of dawn-to-dusk fasting. But this year manyof the world’s 1.8 billionMuslims will have to pray athome and make due with videocalls. Some countries, includingTurkey, Iraq and Jordan, haveimposed round-the-clock hol-iday curfews. But even wheremany restrictions have beenlifted, celebrations will be sub-dued because of fears of the pan-demic and its economic fallout.

Saudi Arabia, home to theholy cities of Mecca andMedina, is under a completelockdown, with residents onlypermitted to leave their homesto purchase food and medicine.

In Jerusalem, Israeli policesaid they broke up an “illegaldemonstration” and arrestedtwo people outside the Al-Aqsa mosque, which Muslimauthorities have closed forprayers since mid-March andwill not reopen until after theholiday. Worshippers who triedto enter the compound scuffledwith the police.

Al-Aqsa is the third holiestsite in Islam and would ordi-narily welcome tens of thou-sands of worshippers duringthe Eid. The hilltop compoundis also the holiest site for Jews,who know it as the TempleMount. The site has long beena flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Iran, which is battling the

deadliest outbreak in the MiddleEast, allowed communal prayersat some mosques but cancelledthe annual mass Eid prayers inTehran led by Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranhas reported over 130,000 casesand more than 7,000 deaths.

The virus causes mild tomoderate flu-like symptoms inmost patients, who recoverwithin two to three weeks. Butit is highly contagious and cancause severe illness or death,particularly in older patients orthose with underlying healthconditions.

Indonesia, the world’slargest Muslim-majority nation,has reported nearly 22,000infections and 1,350 fatalities,the most in Southeast Asia.Lockdown orders intended tocontain the pandemic meanthere will be no congregation-al prayers at mosques or evenopen fields, no family reunions,no relatives bearing gifts forchildren.

“This outbreak is not justdampening spirits of Eid, butalso has made the traditionentirely different,” said AndiekaRabbani, a university student inJakarta. This year, like manyIndonesians, he will only seefamily and friends through

video calls.In neighboring Muslim-

majority Malaysia, businesseshave mostly reopened afterweeks of lockdown. But massgatherings are still banned andpeople are not allowed to trav-el back to their hometowns forthe holiday. Police have turnedaway more than 5,000 cars andhave warned of strict penaltiesfor those who try to sneakhome. Malaysians are onlyallowed to visit relatives who livenearby, and only on Sunday,with gatherings limited to 20people. Mosques have reopenedbut are limited to small con-gregations of up to 30. Malaysiahas reported 7,185 infectionsand 115 deaths.

Rohaizam Zainuddin saidhe felt blessed he could celebrateEid with his elderly parents liv-ing nearby, but his sister inanother state could not returnhome.

“We are frustrated that cel-ebration this year is not thesame,” he said. “But there is nopoint getting angry. We just haveto accept it, life goes on.”

He and his family membersare still wearing new clothes andpreparing traditional dishes.Plates of cookies are set out forany visitors, alongside a ther-

mometer and hand sanitizer. In Pakistan, Eid is being cel-

ebrated in the shadow of thecoronavirus and in the wake ofa passenger plane crash near Karachi on Friday thatkilled 97 people.

For the first time, Pakistanis celebrating Eid countrywideon the same day, ending anannual controversy betweenrival committees over the moonsighting that signals the start ofthe holiday.

Pakistan has taken mea-sures to control the spread of thecoronavirus since mid-March,but Prime Minister Imran Khanrefused to close mosques dur-ing Ramadan despite pleas fromdoctors and a rising number ofinfections. Pakistan has report-ed more than 52,000 cases andmore than 1,100 deaths.

More than 1,000 worship-pers gathered and prayed shoul-der-to-shoulder in an open fieldin Karachi on Sunday, withonly a few of them wearingmasks.

In neighboringAfghanistan, the governmentand Taliban insurgentsannounced a three-day cease-fire in honor of the holiday.

Some 2,000 Muslims gath-ered for Eid al-Fitr prayersSunday at a sports complex inthe Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, carefully spaced apartand wearing masks, accordingto France-Info radio. Traditionalembraces were not allowed.

France is allowing religiousservices to resume for the firsttime since March, but France’sleading Muslim organization,CFCM, advised mosques tostay closed Sunday. The CFCMsaid the government decreedidn’t give mosques enoughtime to procure masks andhand gel to ensure that gather-ings don’t turn into super-spreading events.

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China on Sunday accusedthe US of pushing the bilat-

eral ties to the brink of a “newCold War” by spreading “lies”about the coronavirus and saidit was open to internationalefforts to identify the source ofthe virus that has killed over3,00,000 people globally.

Foreign Minister Wang Yialso said the lawsuits filedagainst China in the USdemanding compensation forCovid-19 is an attempt toblackmail a victim with fabri-cated evidence.

Under constant attack fromUS President Donald Trumpand Secretary of State MikePompeo over the origin of thecoronavirus and failure to pro-vide timely information, Wanglaunched a broadside againstWashington in his annual Press

conference. He accusedAmerican politicians of spread-ing “political virus” to smear

China. “It is the most regrettable

that while the coronavirus is

still out there, a ‘political virus’is also spreading in the US andjumping at any opportunity toattack and slander China,” hesaid in a video media confer-ence on the sidelines of China’sannual session of the NationalPeople’s Conference (NPC).

“Some political forces inthe US are taking China-USrelations hostage and pushingour two countries to the brinkof a new Cold War,” Wang said.

Some politicians ignoredthe basic facts and made upcountless lies and conspiracytheories concerning China.

“The longer the list, themore it says about how low therumour-mongers are willing togo and the more stains they willleave in history,” Wang, who isalso the State Councillor, said.

He was scathingly criticalof especially the lawsuitsagainst China. A lawsuit was

filed by Missouri AttorneyGeneral Eric Schmitt againstthe Chinese government, theruling Communist Party ofChina (CPC), and otherChinese officials and institu-tions in the US District Courtfor the Eastern District ofMissouri.

It alleges that during thecritical weeks of the initialcoronavirus outbreak, theChinese authorities deceivedthe public, suppressed crucialinformation, arrested whistle-blowers, destroyed criticalmedical research and permit-ted millions of people to beexposed to the virus, causing aglobal pandemic that wasunnecessary and preventable.

Observers say the Missourilawsuit could pose a problem toChina given the US courts’claim of universal jurisdiction.

Asked whether Beijing is

concerned that China’s overseasassets could be seized, Wangsaid “some people are clam-ouring for so-called account-ability and compensation froma victim of Covid-19.

“They are fabricating so-called evidence for frivolouslawsuits. These people aretramping on international ruleof law and betraying humanconscience,” he said.

“If anybody thought theycould use some ludicrous law-suits to undermine China’ssovereignty and dignity todeprive the Chinese peopletheir hard-won gains they willbe daydreaming and bring dis-grace to themselves,” he said.

He also struck a reconcil-iatory note saying that both theUS and China should worktogether.

The Covid-19 pandemic isthe common enemy of China

and the US and it is the sharedwish of the people of the twonations to support and helpeach other.

China and the US shouldshare the experience of the epi-demic fight and learn fromeach other to boost theirrespective responses, Wang said.

He said China is open tojoint efforts by the internationalscience community to identifythe source of the virus, whichoriginated from the centralChinese city of Wuhan inDecember. He said the processmust be professional, impartialand constructive.

By being “professional,” itmeans that the process shouldbe based on science, led by theWorld Health Organisation(WHO) and conducted on aglobal scale by scientists andmedical experts.

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The Taliban announced athree-day ceasefire during

the Eid al-Fitr holiday startingSunday in a surprise move fol-lowing months of bloody fight-ing with Afghan forces after the group signed a land-mark agreement with theUnited States.

President Ashraf Ghaniswiftly welcomed the insur-gents’ offer and ordered hisforces to also comply, while theUS envoy to Afghanistan hailedthe deal as a “momentousopportunity.”

Taliban spokesmanZabihullah Mujahid said in astatement posted on socialmedia that the group’s “lead-ership instructs all themujahideen of the IslamicEmirate to take special mea-sures for security of the coun-trymen, and conduct no offen-sive operation against theenemy anywhere.”

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The Chinese virology insti-tute in the city where

Covid-19 first emerged hasthree live strains of bat coron-avirus on-site, but none matchthe new contagion wreakingchaos across the world, itsdirector has said.

Scientists think Covid-19— which first emerged inWuhan and has killed some3,40,000 people worldwide —originated in bats and couldhave been transmitted to peo-ple via another mammal.

But the director of theWuhan Institute of Virologytold state broadcaster CGTNthat claims made by USPresident Donald Trump andothers that the virus couldhave leaked from the facilitywere “pure fabrication”.

In the interview filmed onMay 13 but broadcast onSaturday night, Wang Yanyisaid the centre has “isolatedand obtained some coron-aviruses from bats.”

“Now we have three strainsof live viruses... But their high-est similarity to SARS-CoV-2only reaches 79.8 percent,” she said, referring to the coro-navirus strain that causesCovid-19.

One of their research

teams, led by Professor ShiZhengli, has been researchingbat coronaviruses since 2004and focused on the “sourcetracing of SARS”, the strainbehind another virus outbreaknearly two decades ago.

“We know that the wholegenome of SARS-CoV-2 is only80 percent similar to that ofSARS. It’s an obvious differ-ence,” she said.

“So, in Professor Shi’s pastresearch, they didn’t pay atten-tion to such viruses which areless similar to the SARS virus.”

Conspiracy rumours thatthe biosafety lab was involvedin the outbreak swirled onlinefor months before Trump andUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the the-ory into the mainstream byclaiming that there is evidencethe pathogen came from theinstitute.

The lab has said it receivedsamples of the then-unknownvirus on December 30, deter-mined the viral genomesequence on January 2 and sub-mitted information on thepathogen to the WHO onJanuary 11.

Wang said in the interviewthat before it received samplesin December, their team hadnever “encountered, researchedor kept the virus.”

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President Donald Trump hasa new pitch to voters for this

fall: Trust me.As the economy faces a

once-in-a-century recession,with more than 38 million peo-ple out of work, Trump isincreasingly talking up a futurerecovery that probably won’tmaterialize until after theNovember election. He’s askingvoters to look past the pain beingfelt across the nation and givehim another four-year term onthe promise of an economiccomeback in 2021.

“It’s a transition to great-ness,” Trump says over andover, predicting a burgeoningeconomy come the fall. “You’regoing to see some great numbersin the fourth quarter, and you’regoing to end up doing a greatyear next year.”

His chief economic adviser,Larry Kudlow, echoes the wait-until-next-year sentiment, hold-ing out hope for a “big bang2021.” It’s a delayed-reward tac-tic Trump was using long beforethe global pandemic gut-punched the country. He hasturned to it with new urgency asthe coronavirus has robbed him

of the booming economy thatwas to be the core of his reelec-tion message.

Trump had already pledgedto finally release a Republicanhealth care plan after the pollsclosed — despite having servedmore than three years in office— along with a postelection taxcut and a “Phase 2” trade dealwith China. Now, Trump ismaking the case to voters that ifhe helped bolster the economyonce, he can do it again.

“We built the greatesteconomy in the world,” Trumpsays frequently. “I’ll do it a sec-ond time.”

Jerusalem: Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu arrived ata Jerusalem court for the start ofhis long-delayed corruption trial,rejecting the “ludicrous” chargesagainst him and declaring he wasfacing the hearing “with myhead held high.”

The veteran premier, whohas just forged a unity govern-ment after over a year of polit-ical turmoil, now faces thenext challenge — being thecountry’s first premier to facecriminal charges while in office.

Flanked by ministers andbodyguards, PM Netanyahuaddressed reporters beforeentering the Jerusalem DistrictCourt where he was to facecharges of bribery, fraud andbreach of trust. AFP

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The first astronauts launchedby SpaceX are breaking

new ground for style with hipspacesuits, gull-wing Teslasand a sleek rocketship — all ofit white with black trim.

The color coordinating isthanks to Elon Musk, the dri-ving force behind both SpaceXand Tesla, and a big fan of flash

and science fiction.NASA astronauts Doug

Hurley and Bob Behnken likethe fresh new look.

They’ll catch a ride to thelaunch pad in a Tesla Model Xelectric car.

“It is really neat, and I thinkthe biggest testament to that ismy 10-year-old son telling mehow cool I am now,” Hurleytold The Associated Press.

“SpaceX has gone all out”on the capsule’s appearance, hesaid. “And they’ve workedequally as hard to make theinnards and the displays andeverything else in the vehiclework to perfection.”

The true test comesWednesday when Hurley andBehnken climb aboard aSpaceX Dragon capsule atop aSpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and,

equipment and weather per-mitting, shoot into space. It willbe the first astronaut launchfrom NASA’s Kennedy SpaceCenter since the last shuttleflight in 2011.

It will also mark the firstattempt by a private companyto send astronauts into orbit.Only Governments — Russia,the US and China — have done that.

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Hong Kong police fired teargas and a water cannon at

protesters in a popular shop-ping district Sunday, as thou-sands took to the streets tomarch against China’s move toimpose national security legis-lation on the city.

Pro-democracy support-ers have sharply criticized aproposal, set to be approved byChina’s rubber-stamp parlia-ment this week, that would bansecessionist and subversiveactivity, as well as foreign inter-ference, in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

The pro-democracy campsays the proposal goes against the“one country, two systems”framework that promises HongKong freedoms not found inmainland China. Crowds ofdemonstrators dressed in blackgathered in the Causeway Bay

district on Sunday, chanting slo-gans such as “Stand with HongKong,” “Liberate Hong Kong”and “Revolution of our times.”

The protest was a continu-ation of a monthslong pro-democracy movement in HongKong that began last year and hasat times descended into violencebetween police and protesters.Police raised blue flags, warningprotesters to disperse, beforefiring multiple rounds of tear gas.They later fired a water cannonat the demonstrators.

At least 180 people werearrested, mostly on charges ofunlawful assembly, police said.

They also said that some ofthe protesters threw bricks andsplashed unidentified liquid atofficers, injuring at least fourmembers of the police medialiaison team. They warned thatsuch behavior is against the lawand that police would pursuethe matter.

London: Age, male sex, andunderlying illnesses like diabeteshave emerged as risk factors fordeath due to novel coronavirusinfection, according to a largecohort study which can helphealth professionals learn moreabout how the Covid-19 illnessprogresses. According to thestudy, published in the BMJ, therisk of death increases in peopleabove the age of 50, as doesbeing being male, obese, orhaving underlying heart, lung,liver and kidney disease.

In this largest prospectiveobservational study reported todate, the scientists, includingthose from the University ofLiverpool in the UK, noted thecharacteristics of patients hos-pitalised in the UK with Covid-19, and their outcomes.

At the time of publishing thestudy, the scientists said thestudy had recruited over 43,000patients. While earlier studieshad reported the risk factorsassociated with severe Covid-19based on reports from China,the researchers said an under-standing of features of patientsin other parts of the world arelacking.

To address this knowledgegap, the scientists said theyanalysed data from 20,133patients with COVID-19 admit-ted to 208 acute care hospitals inEngland, Wales, and Scotlandbetween 6 February and 19April 2020. PTI

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Page 9: ˆ ˆ · resume flight operation from May 28. Maharashtra, which has been unwilling to reopen its ... identified as one Sainath Langote — went to the ashram late on Saturday night.

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Chittaranjan: As per notification of Govt. of WestBengal in the year 1971, No. 871-P dtd 06-02-1971and of the Public Order dtd.06.02 .1971under theprovisions of sections 2 (31), (2) 32,3, 144,146, andfurther to Railway Act , Chittaranjan township hadbeen declared as Protected places and for entry andexit into the township prior permission of the con-cerned Security Officer will be required .This pro-cedure are being followed since then. More over, inview of the current serious situation of COVID-19pandemic , CLW administration is following strict-ly the recent guidelines of Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare, Govt.of India and of Govt. of WestBengal by proper vigil and by deploying securi-ty personnel at various gates of this township to stopun authorise entry . Our efforts has lead to posi-tive results and because of these strict measures,CLW township has so far, till the current Lockdown4.0, not reported a single Corona positive case.

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The country’s retail tradelost business worth �9 lakh

crore in the last 60 days, main-ly due to the nationwide lock-down to contain coronaviruspandemic, trader’s body CAITsaid on Sunday.

Confederation of AllIndia Traders said domestictrade is facing its worst periodas shops and commercial mar-kets across the country sincelast Monday could registeronly about 5 per cent of busi-ness, and only 8 per cent ofworkforce could resume their

duties in shops after migrationof about 80 per cent employeesto their native places.

CAIT Secretary GeneralPraveen Khandelwal said dur-ing the span of 60 days ofnational lockdown, domestictrade has lost a business to thetune of about �9 lakh cr, caus-ing a revenue loss of about �1.5lakh cr to both the central andState Govts on account of GST.

The traders are facing acutefinancial crunch, and inabsence of any policy supportfrom the Government, they areworried about future of theirbusiness, he said.

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Telecom players have urgedregulator Trai to move for-

ward quickly on the issue of fix-ing floor price for tariffs, say-ing the matter is imperative toensure that the sector is sus-tainable and in a position tobear the deferred spectrumand AGR dues.

Notwithstanding the nudgefrom the industry, a latest reportby ICICI Securities has said thatany huge tariff hike is unlikelyfor at least a quarter or two.“Tariff hike is unlikely beforerecommendation on floor price,as any suo moto tariff hike maywork against telecom operators

for policy intervention. We donot see any huge tariff hike forat least a quarter or two,” ICICISecurities said in a report onSunday.

Meanwhile, the CellularOperators’ Association of India(COAI) — whose membersinclude Bharti Airtel, VodafoneIdea and Reliance Jio — has writ-ten to the Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (Trai) seekingan open house discussion on theissue “at the earliest”.

“Given the financial pres-sure on the sector and the factthat ARPU (Average RevenuePer User) and tariffs of theIndian telecom sector are thelowest in the world, floor pric-

ing is imperative to ensure thatthe sector is sustainable, and isin a position to bear the deferredspectrum and AGR (AdjustedGross Revenue) dues, whilecontinuing to invest in worldclass networks and services,”COAI said in its letter to TraiChairman R S Sharma.

The association said theindustry looks forward to anearly decision by the authori-ty on having floor tariffs fordata services.

“While, we acknowledgethat the recent situation onaccount of COVID-19 mighthave caused some constraints,however the Authority has start-ed conducting the OHD (open

house discussion) throughonline process on various othertopics. Accordingly, we requestthe Authority to kindly hold anOHD on this issue at the earli-est,” COAI said.

The industry is lookingforward to an early conclusionon this important matter withgreat interest, COAI said, urg-ing Trai for an early decision onthe same.

Notably, the regulator hadearlier this month, resumed itscustomary open house discus-sion (OHD) on pending mat-ters through video-conferencebut Trai sources had made itclear that the issue of floor priceof tariffs is unlikely to be taken

up via online mode for now, tillthe ongoing situation arisingfrom COVID-19 pandemicstabilises.Given the coronaviruspandemic and the difficultiesfaced by people, Trai may waitfor the situation to stabilisebefore it proceeds to the OHDstage on floor price issue, asource had said.

Recently, Bharti AirtelCEO, India and South Asia,Gopal Vittal in an earnings calldrew attention to the pendingfloor price issue, saying whilethe telecom industry has seensome bit of repair, tariffs con-tinue to be “unsustainably low”.He exhorted the sector regula-tor to address the floor price

issue “sooner than later”. “We believe that an ARPU

of �154 is inadequate to turn areasonable return on capital asa company and remain hopefulthat ARPUs will get to � 200 inthe short term and eventually to �300 which iswhere it should be for a businesslike ours.

“Of course, even at this levelof ARPU we believe we will bevery well placed to serve all thelower-end customers who mayhave the capacity to pay �100 orless,” Vittal had said. Airtel saidthe full impact of the tariff hikeundertaken in December 2019came through in its entirety withno downtrading.

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Asurvey by theConfederation of Indian

Industry (CII) has shown thataround 71 per cent people inthe country would preferdomestic travel in the comingmonths, while only 1.4 per centpeople wanted to travel abroad.

However, the reportshowed that 27.6 per centrespondents in the surveywould like to travel both inIndia and abroad.

Around 33.3 per centrespondents said that theywould like to travel within onemonth of the lockdown restric-tions being lifted. Another 30.5per cent said that they would

travel within 3 months.As per the survey which

was conducted in north India,around 29 per cent peoplewould like to travel within sixmonths of the curbs beingeased and just 7.1 per centwould venture out more than1 year after the lockdown.

Further, business traveland outing with family are thetwo biggest reasons for travel.The two reasons account forover two-thirds of responses.

Star-rated hotels are themost preferred place of stay forrespondents, as 45.2 per centpreferring them. Around 21per cent have shown preferencefor staying in resorts.Use ofprotective gear comes across as

the most important precautionthat tourists would like to takeduring travel with AarogyaSetu app being the preferredchoice of around one-fifth ofrespondents.Stressing on theimpact of the lockdown on thetourism sector and the need forgovernment support, NikhilSawhney, Chairman, CIINorthern Region, said: “Giventhe nature of the tourism sec-tor, it is first to be impacted andlast to recover.

The sector generates massemployment, even in remoteareas, and it is critical that theGovt looks at the package tocover the tourism and hospi-tality sector under various poli-cies announced”.

������ ��������

As you stream your favouritemovies or TV series on

Netflix, Disney Plus or Hulu, orconnect with your team viavideo meet app Zoom, leadingCloud service providerAmazon Web Services (AWS)in the backdrop is ensuringseamless, scalable and secureconnectivity to help people athome and organisations func-tion while they can’t operatenormally at work.

According to AWS CEOAndy Jassy, a lot of things thatare allowing humanity to dealwith the global health crisis runon top of AWS which isAmazon’s Cloud arm andtopped $10 billion in quarter-ly revenue for the first time inthe January-March period.

“We’re just trying to helpour customers in various areas.If you look at Netflix, it runscompletely on top of AWS. Sodoes Disney Plus. Hulu runs onAWS. Prime Video runs onAWS. All those entertainmentpieces have kind of made time

go by,” Jassy said during a fire-side chat at AWS OnlineSummit recently.

“Fortnite runs on top ofAWS, and so does SonyPlayStation. A lot of otherpopular games too,” heinfomed.The popular BattleRoyale game Fortnite hasgained 350 million registeredplayers, who in April collec-tively spent over 3.2 billionhours in the game.According toJassy, AWS has its own video-conferencing service in Chime.

“But a lot of people useZoom, and the vast majority ofZoom’s cloud infrastructureruns on AWS and will for theforeseeable future,” he said.

Amazon Chime VoiceConnector is a service thatenables enterprises to migratetheir telephony workloads toAWS.

If you have kids at home,you also realise they’re alldoing e-learning at themoment. “If you just look atcompanies like Blackboard andInstructure’s Canvas, whichrun on top of AWS.

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There is a need to convertdevelopment into mass

movement, and India shouldaspire to become second orthird largest economy in theworld by 2047, Niti AayogVice Chairman Rajiv Kumarsaid on Sunday.

Addressing a webinarorganised by BharatiyaShikshan Mandal, Kumarpointed out that private sectorinvestment is necessary for theeconomic growth of India.

“Today we need to convertdevelopment into Jan Andolan(mass movement)... Indiashould aspire to become sec-ond or third largest economyby 2047,” Niti Aayog ViceChairman said. Presently,India is the fifth largest econ-omy in the world. K u m a ralso said if India generatesenough employment oppor-tunities then economic growthwill happen.

He pointed out thatCOVID-19 pandemic hasshown weaknesses of Indiansociety.

“80 per cent of our work-ers are below the radar, we don’thave data about them.

��������

Jute is the important cash crop in easternIndia, particularly in West Bengal, Odisha,

Bihar, Assam and about 5 million people aredirectly or indirectly depends on jute crop fortheir livelihood.

Amidst COVID-19 crisis, jute was suc-cessfully grown in about 7.5 million ha in thisseason of 2020 pre-kharifsuccessfully. Even insome states 10-15% more crop area wasreported by field functionaries. But the recent‘very severe cyclone’ “Amphan” with windspeeds of 155 kmph and 200 to 230 mm rain-fall have devastated the jute crop in some partsof North 24-Parganas, Hooghly, Nadia,Murshidabad, East Midnapur and Howrah dis-tricts of West Bengal which are main jute grow-ing belt of West Bengal. The cyclone severelyaffected the standing jute crop by lodging,spe-cially that attains a height of 0.5 to 1.5 mt.

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As businesses and enter-prises face a severe crisis

amid the coronavirus pan-demic, industry body CII hascautioned that although toughtimes may prompt companiesto collaborate with their com-petitors, they must take deci-sions and operate as per theanti-trust law and theCompetition Act of 2002.

In its competition law com-pliance manual for corporatesin the wake of novel coron-avirus, CII noted that theCompetition Commission ofIndia (CCI) would keep a closewatch for any potential com-petition law infringement dur-ing this period.

“The current COVID-19crisis has created unprece-dented challenges in India andacross the world. This impactof COVID-19 on the func-tioning of the economy mayprompt companies to collabo-rate with their competitors totackle the uncertainty andhardship faced. However, com-panies must note that antitrustlaws continue to apply and allbusiness decisions undertakenby companies must not fall foul

of the provisions ofCompetition Act, 2002,” saidthe industry manual.

It said that companies mustcarefully evaluate their businessoperations during the COVID-19 period, especially if theirbusiness operations mightrequire close collaboration withcompetitors.

“The concrete antitrustrisks surrounding any suchcollaboration remain difficultto assess. Given the absence ofany guidance from the CCI,companies should tread withcaution and consult theirantitrust lawyers as and whenrequired or while exploring anycollaboration,” the CII manu-al said.

It said that companiesshould reach out to their exter-nal counsel to assess theserisks and must avoid informa-tion exchanges through tradeassociations or any other plat-forms.

It said that while enteringinto any form of collaboration,companies should take carethat the collaborative effortsmust be limited to products orservices directly affected by thepandemic or the exigency mea-sures.

����� ��������

Wholesale prices of toma-to, onion and other key

seasonal vegetables havedeclined sharply by up to 60per cent across the country,mainly due to higher produc-tion, compression of demandand market disruption amidCOVID-19 crisis.

However, the retail pricesof most vegetables remain firm.According to data maintainedby AGMARKNET under theUnion Agriculture Ministry,the wholesale tomato priceswere ruling below �5 per kg insome states on May 24, whilethat of onion to � 6 per kg inthe key producing state ofMaharashtra. However, potatoprices were stable at 12-13 perkg.

Tomato, onion and potatoare three key largely consum-ing vegetables in the country.The falling price trend was alsoseen in other vegetables such asladies finger, capsicum, bittergourd, bottle gourd, chillies andcoriander leaves, among others.

“It is a matter of concernthat farmers are forced to sellat such low prices,”

Government think-tank NitiAayog member Ramesh Chandtold PTI.

He said the fall in rates isdue to an increase in arrival dueto better crop productionbesides mandi disruption in thewake of COVID-19 pandemic.

Chand, however, ruled outthe impact of lack of demandfrom bulk users like hotelsand restaurants.

Since mandis come underthe purview of states, the NitiAayog member

said they should step upefforts to ensure smooth func-tioning of wholesale markets. Ifthey are not able to operate dueto social distancing andCOVID-19 reasons, otherarrangements should be madeto ensure farmers do not suf-fer.

“Mandis are not working asusual. Maybe traders are notcoming to markets. Forinstance Azadpur mandi inDelhi was closed for a few daysdue to COVID-19 reasons.There is impact on prices dueto such disruptions,” he said.

Chand said he had sug-gested states in the beginningof COVID-19 crisis to suspend

mandis for six months whichnot many states have done yet.Farmers should have beenallowed to sell directly.

Stating that demand forvegetables has compressed inthis crisis period, agri-econo-mist Ashok Gulati said thedemand from bulk users likehotels and restaurants is miss-ing. Even households are notbuying in huge quantitiesbecause of fear of infection.

“After reports of traders insome mandis had got infectedwith the virus, there is fearamong household consumersabout the quality of vegetables.They find cleaning it everytimeis a big hassle and thereforeshifting to pulses, whose priceshave shot up sharply due to risein demand,” he explained.

Gulati said it is sad to seethe government’s TOP schemeunder Operation Green has notbeen of much help to farmersin this situation. TheGovernment has spent only �3crore out of� 500 crore since itslaunch two years ago under theplan, whose objective is tohelp tomato, onion and pota-to (TOP) farmers in times ofsurplus output.

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As the ongoing lockdownhas severely impacted

infrastructure activities acrossthe country, liquidity starvedengineering and constructionindustry is seeking immediaterelease of long pending duesfrom the central and StateGovernment agencies.

According to industryplayers, release of these dues,most of which are stuck in arbi-tration and run into thou-sands of crores of rupees,would bring in immediate liq-uidity in the current COVIDcrisis scenario, rather than the�20 lakh crore economic stim-ulus package announcedrecently.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman recentlyannounced a stimulus packageof �20 lakh crore, or 10 per centof the GDP, in five tranches togive a boost to the economywhich will be in the negativeterritory for the current fiscal.

“Funding of constructionprojects will be instrumental inhelping revive the economy asinfrastructure investment hasthe highest GDP multiplierfactor, almost 2.0x, and ourindustry is among the largestemployment generators

impacting seven crore house-holds. Risk aversion by finan-cial institutions to infrastruc-ture was prevalent pre-COVID,and has now worsened,” HCCDirector and Group CEOArjun Dhawan told PTI.

He further said that con-tract enforcement and timelydispute resolution is thebedrock of free enterprise andwhile we all hope for swifterconciliation or court proceed-ings, an immediate solution isthe unqualified payment ofarbitration dues withoutrepeated challenge in courts orthe onerous requirement ofbank guarantees.

“This immediate liquiditywill repay lenders, unlock sup-ply chains, protect thousands ofMSMEs including migrantlabour while restarting theprofit cycle that will trigger oureconomic revival,” he added.National Highways Authorityof India (NHAI) alone has atleast 180 cases in arbitrationinvolving a sum of about �80,000 crore.

The agency has been hold-ing dialogues (with contractorsand industry players) to findresolution to disputes throughreconciliation.

Meanwhile, the ReserveBank of India has also slashed

the repo rate by 40 basis pointsin eighth straight cut and alsoallowed lenders to extend anongoing moratorium on loanrepayment, which was due toend on May 31, by anotherthree months till August 31, amove intended at easing liq-uidity pressure.

“These initiatives will boostliquidity subsequently as theclients or customers can availcredit, but eventually it wouldbe spent on project execution.The policy announced relax-ation in time limits for infraprojects, but is silent on whowould bear the cost implica-tions of lockdown. Once lock-down ends, we expect moreclarity and that would put torest this debate,” Tata ProjectsChief Strategy OfficerHimanshu Chaturvedi said.

Echoing similar views,global professional servicesfirm Alvarez & MarsalManaging DirectorVenkataraman Renganathanopined that the stimulus pack-age is a step in the right direc-tion and is intended to infuseliquidity into the system, how-ever, it is a credit line.

“In a way, the stimuluspackage will get in the liquid-ity for projects which havebeen stranded for money.

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India’s gold imports contract-ed for the fifth consecutive

month in a row, falling byabout 100 per cent to USD 2.83million in April due to thelockdowns imposed globally onaccount of coronavrius out-break.

The import of the yellowmetal stood at USD 3.97 billionin April 2019, according to thecommerce ministry’s data.

The decline in goldimports has helped in narrow-ing the country’s trade deficitto USD 6.8 billion during thelast month as against USD15.33 billion a year ago.

Gold imports have beenrecording negative growthsince December last year.

India is the largestimporter of gold, which main-ly caters to the demand of jew-ellery industry.In volume terms,the country imports 800-900tonnes of gold annually. Gemsand jewellery exports declined98.74 per cent to USD 36 mil-lion in April.

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Minister of State for FinanceAnurag Thakur has

exhorted India Inc to takeadvantage of the recentGovernment initiatives andstep up investments to makethe country ‘’AtmanirbharBharat’’. In these difficult times,local industries should becomethe flag-bearers in showcasingthat India is an attractiveinvestment destination, he toldPTI in an interview.

As part of �20.97 lakh croreAtmanirbhar Bharat package,Thakur said Govt hasannounced a slew of long-pending structural reforms con-cerning industry, especiallyland, labour and laws, in a bidto improve investment climateand ease of doing business.

Besides, the Minister saidother bold reforms announced,including easing of limits on for-eign direct investment indefence manufacturing, privati-sation of six more airports, and

allowing private sector in com-mercial coal mining, providenewer avenues for investment.

To take care of liquidityneeds, various schemes havebeen unveiled to provide cashto industries to kickstart theirbusiness, he said.

“I personally believe thatwe need more investment fromlocal industries, Indian indus-tries to showcase to othersthat India is an attractive des-tination. We need both invest-ment from the domestic indus-tries, and also from other coun-tries,” he said.

Talking about new avenuesfor investment, the Ministersaid, “Agriculture, agro exports,manufacturing of defenceequipment within the countryand making it a hub forexports. Also, the area of spacewhere you (private players)can get more investment andmining of coal and other min-eral sectors could be looked at.So, there could be many sec-tors.”

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The thought of bringing the childinto the world is filled with

phases of happiness, fear and anx-iety. It is difficult to imagine whatnew parents are going through inthe post-COVID world.

It has affected the plans of newparents and expectant couples.Parenthood is a blessing and it is apriceless feeling when you wel-come your baby for the first timeinto this world. Nothing can evercome close to this emotion.

But during this these times ofcrisis, when there is a threat percep-tion related to the new born, therealities of parenthood havechanged and this makes it impor-tant to ensure that positivity engulfsthe new parents even more today.

The ad world too is takingnote. Recently, Pampers Indiareleased a film#WelcomeToTheWorld for the new-born babies with reference to thecurrent context. At a time when anew mother is experiencing emo-tional upheaval, it captures herstrength and positive outlook for herbaby and portrays the true essenceof the new world that will unfold forher newborn with each step andeach milestone.

Dr Archana Dhawan Bajaj,Gynecologists and Obstetrician andIVF Expert, Nurture IVF Centresays that the expectant couplesneed to understand that everyonewho’s in the hospital or is goingthrough a checkup is not COVIDpositive. And even if you contractan infection, there are chances thatit would be a mild infection and notsomething related to Corona.”

This is a lot of threat perceptionrelated to the newborns.Dhanvarsha Dadhich from Jodhpuris expecting her second child. Shesays: “I am just so scared of carry-ing this baby. Not just delivery buttaking care of the child has becomea scary task. I fear stepping out ofmy room as my area is a Corona

hotspot." Dr Archana says that this is a

new disease and there are very fewstudies related to it. So it would bedifficult for anyone to comment onwhat would be the chances of a newborn. “We just need to keep in mindthe three portals of infection for thebaby. First is the mother herself. Soshe needs to ensure that she main-tains distance, use masks and takenecessary relevant precautions. Theother point of contact is the hospi-tal where you deliver. Anybodywho’s about to deliver should choosetheir hospital very wisely. Youshould only deliver in a hospitalwhich COVID tests all its pregnantwomen. Any good maternity willtest the mother before taking herinto the labour room. Try andavoid multi-speciality hospitalwhere people from all kinds of ail-ments are likely to come. The gen-eral public has a higher chance ofgetting infected as compared to apregnant woman because she ishome bound and takes better care.The third place where the baby canget infected is when you are visit-

ing a paediatrician. So ensure thatyou go only when it's really neces-sary. Consult through video confer-ences and for things like immuniza-tion, go only when your paediatricstell you that it is urgent.” Though arevarious drawbacks of video confer-encing as there is never a replace-ment for seeing a doctor. Doctorscannot judge many diseases unlessthey physically see the patient. Butthen, any good doctor will tell youto come to them if they are not get-ting adequate information throughvideo conferencing.

It is also very important tounderstand that this fear of Coronawill only make you feel anxious. “Itis going to stay for at least two years.Women, their families and extend-ed families need to get out of thisphobia. Pregnant women are enter-ing hospitals like Eskimos. They arecovered from head to toe. This heatwill smother them. So this fear hasto go,” says Dr Archana.

Pointing towards the silver lin-ing, she says that a lot of male part-ners will get the chance to look aftertheir wives and babies which they

wouldn’t have been able to do oth-erwise. That's a plus. “Also, havinga baby around this time gives youthe opportunity to interact withhim/her as you are homebound. Ifyou are not stepping out and main-taining your quarantine, then yourbaby is not going to contract infec-tions. In this scenario, other diseasesthat are specific to summer andwould have occurred otherwisewill also not happen,” says she.

The new parents should followall the necessary precautions — stayindoors, avoid meeting people orseeing vendors, don't get domestichelps who come daily, prefer theones who stays within the house, eatwell to increase your vitality, drinka lot water, keep exercising so thatyour lung capacity remains high,breathe fresh air, walk on your ter-race or balcony. These are some ofthe little things one needs to takecare of.

“Other than that being a newparent you have to condition your-self being positive irrespective of theenvironment around,” says DrArchana.

Undoubtedly, all of us have beengoing through a lot of stress thesedays. People tend to feel miserable

because there are a host of uncertaintiesthis pandemic holds. Someone might havelost a job or fears that they would, someare struggling to put together money topay bills, a few of them are worried abouttheir health and safety or that of theirloved ones. The continuous onslaught ofworry, fear and insecurity is certainlyincreasing mental health issues day by day.But how much more can you stop theworld from moving? The economic dam-age from staying home could be worsethan the impact of the disease, believemany global leaders. Yes, we are talkingabout learning to live with the virus.

Now, since the Centre has announcedthe opening of offices and industrial unitsamid lockdown 4.0, the major questionhere is — how can people psychological-ly and behaviourally rewire themselveswhile rejoining office? Experts share thatit is very important that the guidelines areadopted in the community as a behaviour-al change.

The risk of returning to normal, as weknew it, is in no way possible. However,MBBS, MD, Psychiatrist, Dr AnuneetSabharwal says, “The risk cannot be cal-culated. It is hard to get back into the rou-tine of things when you first return towork but you can start by planning the dayin advance and making a list of things thatneeds to done. Strategising your work andfocussing on doing one task at a timemight help you to feel in control. Once youstart doing it, your natural work rhythmwill fall back into place. And you can startto feel productive again.”

According to the recent data, a signif-icant and sustained increase in symptomsof anxiety and depression have beenreported. People with pre-existing healthconditions and aged adults have allreported higher rates of anxiety and fear,shares Ariba Abbasi, Senior CounselingPsychologist, Msc, BA. The pandemic hasbrought huge changes in our lifestyle.Niharika Mehta, Psychologist atHiranandani Hopsital Vashi, a FortisNetwork, tells us that new habits have tobe adopted and conscious precautionshave to be taken. Just as a new normal ofdifferent trends (such as diets, workoutroutines, fashion) are accepted, a new nor-mal of work culture should be acceptedas well. Being aware and accepting ofchange is the very first step towards adjust-ing to it, she feels.

Every other expert believe that psy-chologically people need to accept this asa new reality and take precautions on howto safe guard themselves. Ekta Soni,Chief Clinical Psychologist, suggests thatwe should focus on the things that are inour control — hand washing, usingmask, sanitising and social distancing. “Ifwe were to live constantly with insecuri-ty and give fuel to our negative thoughts,then we would paralyse ourselves and notdo anything. Eventually, things will snow-ball into a big mountain. Over a periodof time, we will all develop our own safe-ty measures and these would become

habitual. The fear has led to the rise of cat-astrophising (view or present a situationas considerably worse than it actually is)and hypochondriacal (obsession withthe idea of having a serious but undiag-nosed medical condition) traits,” shesays.

As per official derivatives, provi-sions for thermal scanning and sanitisa-tion are being done. But what precautionscan be taken individually? Dr Anuneetshares some of these simple measures thatcan be taken in order to prevent contract-ing the virus: Understand the signs andsymptoms: The symptoms can includecough, fever, cold or shortness of breath.Most people may only experience mildsymptoms but some can become very sickwith additional health issues. If youthink you may have been exposed to aperson with COVID-19 and have symp-toms, then get in touch with the emer-gency room immediately and informthem about your travel history as well. Thebest way to protect yourself is to practisegood hygiene. Wash your hands regular-ly with soap and water for at least 20 sec-onds. If soap and water are not readilyavailable, use an alcohol based hand sani-tiser. Avoid touching your mouth, eyesand nose with unwashed hands. Maintainsocial distancing when you step out of

home. Clean and disinfect frequentlytouched objects and places. It is highly rec-ommended that people wear masks when-ever stepping out of their homes, especial-ly in situations where maintaining socialdistancing is difficult. You can use a tissueor a toothpick while touching the lift but-tons. Make sure there is enough distancebetween you and your colleagues’s seat. Atlunchtime, eat at a distance from others.

The threat of disease can lead us tobecome harsher judges of the peoplewithin our social group. The social attitudeof people have become more conservative.This may reflect much deeper psycholog-

ical shifts. So what can be done? Dr Ektafeels that it is true that people may becomemore conservative but the mindset has tochange from avoiding people to taking theabove mentioned precautions ourselves.“People must realise that the fight isagainst the virus and not with each other.It is possible to win only if we all worktogether. It is important that people takeresponsibility for educating people intheir social circles or extended families.Make sure to circulate right and verifiedinformation only,” explains Dr Ariba.

These times are difficult for every sin-gle individual. Everyone is taking time to

process the change and take care of theirwell-being. Compassion, empathy, and sup-port will make it easier, believes DrNiharika. She says, “If someone is takingtime off from social media to disconnector not responding to calls and messages,instead of dealing with it negatively, try tounderstand that the person needs time tofocus on self. It has nothing to do with yourrelationship. This strengthens the bond andcreates a sense of social security and sup-port. It’s extremely important, especially inthe current situation,” says she.

Certainly, the pandemic will still bethere but life has to go on...

������������A four-star general begrudgingly teams up with an

eccentric scientist to get the US military’s newest agency— Space Force — ready for lift-off. Created by Steve Carelland Greg Daniels, season 1 releases on May 29 on Netflix.

���� �������������In the twilight of the 1950s, on one fateful night in

New Mexico, a young switch board operator Fay andcharismatic radio DJ Everett discover a strange audiofrequency that could change their small town and thefuture forever. Directed by Andrew Patterson, the filmreleases on May 29 on Amazon Prime Video.

������������������A terrible misunderstanding with a local gang sends

17-year-old Ulises, leader of a group hooked on cumbiamusic, across the border to save his life. Starring JuanDaniel García, Angelina Chen and Jonathan Espinoza,the film releases on May 27 on Netflix.

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Most of us would agree thatCOVID-19 has turned the world

upside down. Everything — how welive, interact with each other, the waywe work, communicate and of course,the way we travel — has been impact-ed. However, inspite of these negativeeffects, there are many positive onestoo, which many of us would haveobserved while staying under lock-down. It is so wonderful to see that dur-ing such disasters, suddenly we all for-get our caste, creed, religion, status andcome together to focus solely on sur-vival, sharing hope and compassion.We simply do this because we cannotbear to see the misery and suffering ofour fellow beings. Hence, their painbecomes ours. Just imagine not beingable to be a part of last rites of a lovedone or feeling helpless at not getting ahospital bed for him/her. Under suchcircumstances, when a person who isnot even known to us helps us out ofthe blue, it makes our belief in human-ity and spirituality stronger.

It is so ironical that Armed forcesacross the globe are not fighting eachother, but are distributing food, waterand medicines to their citizens. Fromwhere does this loving humanity ariseso spontaneously at a time like this?Today, we have a renewed sense oftrust, in every human being and thegovernment, as we continue to partwith our wealth and services, hopingthat they will reach the needy.

The pandemic as well as other nat-ural disasters that we are witnessingtoday are, in a way, a reflection of ourinner world — mirroring the tsunamis,volcanic eruptions and earthquakesthat continually break out in ourmind. The ruthless energy of anger,violence and greed has taken a toll onmankind and mother earth. As we keepexploiting earth’s mineral resources,hack its forests, pollute its water,deplete the soil, we rob it of all its ener-gy. Thus this is nature’s way of tellingus that ‘enough is enough’. Since mostof us do not realise that mother earthhas a heart and she, too, has feelings,we keep on hurting her without anykind of remorse. Just like we express

our love and affection towards ourmother, we should do the same withmother earth.

Majority of us thank anyone whogives us something or helps us in some-way. But do we do the same with moth-er earth? How many of us have thankedher for the fresh-air, water, food, sunand many more things that she givesus since the time we were born. Howmany of us have apologised for inflict-ing so much pain on her? Many wouldcounter question, how do we do this?Or how do we communicate withnature ? Well, the simplest and easiestway to do this is by praying or medi-

tating with positive thoughts whichmost of us can do. You never know theimpact of your pure thoughts. Onemust not forget that there is a deep con-nection that we all share with motherearth — a feeling, a knowledge thatduring times of need, she would cer-tainly come and defend us. Hence, wemust realise that natural disasters inparticular are a wakeup call as to wherewe are investing all our energies. Arewe too busy giving value to accumu-lating, hoarding, storing, stockpilingmaterial wealth and possessions, andnot giving enough time to the uplift-ment of the soul. It is quite unfortunatethat we need such disasters to bring theworld together as one big family. Isn’tit time to be wise and not commit thesame mistakes that we have beencommitting till now? If only our visionwould remain the same for all the time— a vision of oneness, embracing all,being non-judgmental, creating har-mony in a relationships, so that we canbe there for each other no matter what,as a family would be.

So let us all come together as oneto support every member of the glob-al human family and start respectingmother nature who is a life-giver.Remember that no status or wealthwould ever matter during disasters. Theonly thing that would matter would beour good karma, which would help ustide over bad situations and carry usforward.

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In the recent past, science andtechnology had been separatedfrom spirituality. However, a lot

of scientific research done in the lastfour decades has confirmed the far-reaching benefits of yoga andAyurveda. The world is reaching outto integrate this ancient wisdomwith the modern developments inmedicine and psychology. Whileshooting my latest film, Yoga forHealth & Global Harmony, SujataChatterji and I travelled across fourcontinents and many countries towitness the marvellous blend ofmodern thinking and yoga which istaking place today. The deep con-nection between physical body,mind, emotions and spirit within usis being rediscovered around theglobe.

Scientific research done in thelast 30 to 40 years has confirmed thebenefits of yoga. It has been foundthat it contributes to health and hap-piness of people in all walks of life.Further research needs to be doneand yoga needs to be introduced inall branches of education, medicineand even in the workplace.

Yoga goes far beyond the med-ical system. It not only prevents dis-ease but it covers all aspects of life.Integration of yoga and modernmedicine would help the world toshift from disease management tohealth promotion.

In an interview in the film, Dr

Ananda Balayogi from Puducherry,who is a yoga expert as well as a doc-tor shares, “Yoga has come a longway from the time when it was con-fined to the ashrams in the forestsor the caves of the high Himalayas.It is now found in modern hospi-

tals.”He says, “Genetic potentialities

may be preventable from becomingactualities. Our genes are like aloaded gun but the choice ofwhether the trigger is pulled or notlies with us. Yoga enables us to make

the right choice.”In next interview, Dr Andreas

Michalsen from Charite UniversityHospital, Berlin, shares, “Step-by-step in the last few years, we seemore acceptance of yoga in main-stream medicine. It means that it is

now almost an established part ofstandard medical care in Germany.”

Another Ayurveda and yogaexpert, Ramesh Vangal fromBengaluru, India, explains thatyoga’s entire essence is a conceptcalled samatvam, which means bal-

ance. “It’s very logical, when you arebalanced, your body heals daily. Sobalance is what restores and healsyou in a way that no medicine does.Most allopathic medicines basical-ly treat the symptoms. They providesymptomatic relief, they can never

cure,” says he.For instance, Vangal tells us, “If

I had diabetes and I am taking anallopathic medicine, what does itdo? It cuts the symptoms but themoment I stop taking it, I get dia-betes back again. However, if I ambalanced, I am able to fight theimbalance and restore health.” AnuRamaswamy, Teachers TrainingCourse Student, Sivananda YogaFarm, Grass Valley CA, says in thenext interview, “I have restless legsyndrome, it’s also known as Willis-Ekbom Disease. It’s a nerve neuro-muscular pain in the leg and I havehad it for about 15 to 20 years. Sinceit is a neuromuscular condition, themedicines are invasive and affect thenervous system. Meditation andpranayama actually helps me tokeep the pain either in control orpretty much not experience it all.Also, I used to take the highest doseof sulfonylurea for diabetes tillabout six months ago, now I don’ttake it at all.”

Yoga researcher and expert, DrSat Bir Khalsa, Brigham andWomen’s Hospital, Boston, USA,says, “Modern medicine tends to bedivided between psychiatry on theone hand and physical medicine onthe other. The two really don’t talkto each other, yet obviously themind and body are inexplicablylinked. So yoga addresses that linkbetween mind and body.”

Working at the Coronahotspots from morning

till evening, women police con-stables have been walking on theline of fire since the beginningof the nation-wide lockdown.Their contribution must berecognised not just as public ser-vants but as women who are tak-ing care of the nation along withtheir children and families.

Standing under the sun inHarnaamdas area — one of thehotspots of Meerut, constableLatesh sanitises her hands andthen brings her mask down towipe the sweat dripping downher forehead. “I have two chil-dren. The schools are shut so Iam a little relaxed about theirsafety. I reach home aroundnine at night, take a bath, cookdinner, help them in their stud-ies, make preparations for thenext day and then go to bed pastmidnight. To ensure that all thehousehold chores are completebefore I leave for my duty, I haveto wake up at five,” sharedLatesh who, despite being wor-ried about her health, puts dutyfirst. The only thing she com-plains of is the lack of sanitationfacilities. “Risk of contaminationis higher in hotspot areas. Insuch a situation, where are weexpected to relieve ourselves?There is no police station near-by where we could use thewashroom. In its absence, wehave to request people to allowus to enter their houses whichincreases our chances of expo-sure. We take huge risks to sur-vive,” she added.

Constable Meenu, who isalso posted in a hotspot inMeerut shares the challengesposed by the 12-hour long duty.“After reaching home, I batheand keep my uniform outsidethe house in a separate box. Inthis 12-hour duty, I do not gettime to wash and iron my uni-form every day and have to usethe same uniform for two days,”says she as she has to completeother household chores beforeand after the duty.

She believes that people aresafe inside their houses and sheputs in extra efforts to ensurethat lockdown guidelines are

being followed strictly in theareas assigned to her. “We eatwhile standing outside the gatesof the affected colony so thatpeople are safe,” says she.

In another hotspot area ofMeerut City, a woman constableAnita is seen scolding people forroaming unnecessarily on thestreets. And then, the very nextmoment, she is video calling hertoddler daughter and calmingher down. She is serving thepublic for the last nine years.“We have to be strict as peopledo not understand the threat.We are standing here in a con-taminated area risking our livesand people want to roam outside— I do not understand this,”rues Anita, hinting towards theirresponsible behaviour of peo-ple who, despite having theprivilege of staying inside theirhouses, were breaking the rulesof the lockdown. “I am con-cerned about my children as

they are quite young. I have toleave them with my mother-in-law as my husband serves in theIndian Army and is posted out-side Meerut.”

These women posted inhigh-risk areas consider this‘special-duty’ as an opportunityto serve the people of the coun-try. In the interviews, they admitthat they are not afraid ofCorona and will keep the hon-our of the uniform by serving tilltheir last breath. “While talkingto my parents, I wanted to tellthem how much I missed thembut then I remembered why Ijoined the police services,” sharesSonam whose parents live inSaharanpur while she has beenserving as a constable for the last10 years in Meerut.

Although, these women con-stables are fearless, but theyhave their weak moments too.Sharing one such incident, con-stable Bobby says, “On the very

first day of my posting in thehotspot area, I was scared. Aspart of our daily routine, my par-ents called me during noon andI wanted to ask my mother topray for my health but I had tohold back my nervousness sothat they don’t get tensed.”

Be it the police, health orsanitation department, everyperson serving in the high-riskenvironment is equally vulner-able and can easily be exposed toCOVID-19 but it is about timethat the dual roles of women areacknowledged. They carry var-ious responsibilities — devote 12hours in the hotspot regions,eight hours to household choresand get hardly four hours forthemselves. On ground, theyare more exposed to sanitationand hygiene challenges thanmen, yet stand in the line of dutywith equal courage, fightingCorona effectively. Salute!

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Page 12: ˆ ˆ · resume flight operation from May 28. Maharashtra, which has been unwilling to reopen its ... identified as one Sainath Langote — went to the ashram late on Saturday night.

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Timo Werner bagged a hat-trick as RB Leipzig routed

Mainz 5-0 behind closed doorson Sunday to climb to third in

the German league table as thestriker moved to within threegoals of the Bundesliga’s top-scorer Robert Lewandowski.

It was the 24-year-old’s thirdBundesliga hat-trick having also

netted three times when Leipzigromped to an 8-0 home winagainst Mainz last November.

Werner’s treble leaves himon 24 goals, while BayernMunich striker Lewandowskiclaimed his 27th Bundesligagoal this season in the leagueleader’s 5-2 win over EintrachtFrankfurt on Saturday.

Leipzig’s victory was the

tenth win for the visiting team in17 matches since the Bundesligarestarted last weekend.

Werner opened the scoringin Mainz after 11 minutes whenhe converted a low cross.

Yussuf Poulsen then markedhis 250th appearance for Leipzigby heading home a MarcelSabitzer cross on 23 minutes.

The pair reversed roles for

the third when Poulsen laid apass off to Sabitzer who showedgreat finishing to make it 3-0 atthe break.

Werner grabbed his secondgoal three minutes into the sec-ond-half when Kevin Kamplplayed him into the area.

The visitors were attacking atwill when Kampl had a goalruled out for offside soon after.

With 15 minutes left ,Poulsen’s floated free-kick wasmet by Werner who volleyedpast Mainz goalkeeper FlorianMueller to wrap up his hat-trick.

The win leaves Leipzig thirdand seven points behind leadersBayern.

Augsburg also enjoyed anaway win with a 3-0 romp atSchalke.

����� ��������

ICC cricket committeechairman Anil Kumblesays the recommenda-

tion to ban saliva forshining the ball is onlyan interim measure and“things will go back tonormal” once theCovid-19 pandemic

is brought undercontrol.

The Kumble-led panel recom-

mended a ban onsaliva to minimisethe risk of infection.

On Friday, the ICC,in its guidelines for

resumption of the game, also suggest-ed a bar on the practice.

“...This is only an interim measureand as long as we have hopefully con-trol over Covid-19 in a few months ora year’s time then I think things will goback to as normal as it can be,” Kumbletold Star Sports show Cricket Connected.

“If things get back to normal with-in three-four months and we are ableto stage matches like we used to do inFebruary and March, then these ruleswon’t apply.

“As long as the medical advisorydoesn’t change, the rule will stay,” headded. The legendary former spinner,however, acknowledged the bowler’sdependence on saliva.

“Of course we all know saliva hasbeen a part and parcel of cricket for somany years. “As bowlers, we used toapply saliva on ball, sometimes for gripalso, we applied saliva. But with this dis-ease, it can also be asymptomatic, thatis why we deiced to ban it,” he

explained.There have also been discussions

on whether the ICC would allow usageof external substances like wax toshine the ball. Kumble said there werediscussions on usage of external sub-stances but .

“Using wax is not allowed, we havenever used external substances. We canuse sweat. Everyone is talking about(how) it will affect the pacers, grassshould be left. Why not leave it dry andplay two spinners?” he quipped.

“...If you look back at the history ofthe game, I mean we have been verycritical and we have been very focusedon eliminating any external substancescoming into the game,” Kumble addedaddressing the speculation.

He cited the 2018 ball-tamperingscandal, which led to bans onAustralian cricketers Steve Smith,David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.

“Whether you are literally legalis-ing, if you are looking to do that nowwhich obviously has had a great impactover the last couple of years,” he said.

“ICC took a decision but thencricket Australia took, even a moretougher stance on what happened dur-ing that series between South Africaand Australia, so we did considerthat,” he said.

�+ ���1�

���)��� India’s limited-oversvice captain Rohit Sharmasays he has fully recoveredfrom the calf injury thatforced him to leave the tourof New Zealand midway ear-lier this year but the fitnesstest has been continuouslydelayed because of the Covid-19 lockdown.

“Before the lockdownhappened, I was almost readyto play. That whole week wasgoing to be my fitness test butthat’s when the lockdownhappened and I had to pushback everything now,” Rohittold LaLiga’s Facebook Livesession on Saturday night.

“Once everything opensup, I have to first go to thecentre (NCA) and give my fit-ness test and once I pass thefitness test, I will be allowedto go and resume my dutieswith the team.”

The Indian limited oversdeputy said he is missinghanging out with his team-mates and is looking for-ward to training with themwhen things get back to nor-mal.

“Yes, I miss my team-mates, hanging around withthem and having a banterwith them. Although asfriends we are trying to stayin touch through the videocalls to see what’s one been upto, things like that and wemanage that pretty well,” hesaid.

“When you are playingtogether, almost from 365days, we are together for 300days, we are playing, travellingtogether, so it’s like a family.So the first thing I want to dois to catch up with all theseguys and try hit some balls assoon as I can.”

Mumbai is one of theworst affected by the conta-gious disease and Rohit saidit might take more time forhim to resume training.

“I am assuming thatthose (other) places mightopen up lot earlier thanMumbai, the city where I stayand which is the most infect-ed. I feel the other guys willsend me videos of catching upwith each other a lot earlierthan I do,” he said. PTI

����� ��� -�'��

Former Australiacaptain Mark Taylor

does not foresee theT20 World Cup sched-uled in October-November going aheadand wants the ICC totake a decision duringits Board meeting thisweek.

Taylor also feelsthat if IPL takes placeduring the window theT20 World Cup was tobe held, the Australianplayers are likely to becleared by their Boardto take part inthe cash-richleague in India.

The ICCBoard meetson May 28 todiscuss a hostof issues,including a revampedschedule and the fate ofthe men’s T20 WorldCup in Australia.

“My feeling is theWorld T20 won’t goahead in Australia inOctober as planned. Isit going to be viable tohave a world tourna-ment in October orNovember? Theanswer to that is prob-ably No,” Taylor, also aformer CricketAustralia director, wasquoted as saying by

Nine Network.“It would proba-

bly be good (if a deci-sion is made thisweek). Because theneveryone can startplanning and we canstop sitting here andsaying ‘well ifs, buts ormaybes’.”

Taylor also said theCA wants to keepBCCI happy so theAustralia players arelikely to be cleared forthe IPL if it happens inOctober.

Pat Cummins, whowas bought for a record

amount of�15.50 crore inlast year’s IPLauction, isamong theAustralians keento take part inthis year’s com-

petition.“The Cricket

Australia board willwant to keep Indiahappy. So they maywant to let the playersgo to India if the IPLgoes ahead,” Taylorsaid.

“Because they wantIndia to come here thissummer and play,which will be ourbiggest summer interms of dollars. That’sthe sort of discussiongoing on. No doubt.”

�� ���� The authorities must notpostpone the T20 World Cup inhaste since the showpiece event isthe best product to highlight crick-et once activities resume, Pakistanhead coach and chief selector,Misbah-ul-Haq has said.

Misbah said though logistics isa huge challenge due to the prevail-ing circumstances, the authoritiesmust deliberate enough beforearriving at a decision.

“The logistics of hosting 16teams is not easy but the authori-ties should give it time and wait fora month or more before taking anydecision,” Misbah said in an inter-view to Youtube channel.

“Everyone wants to see the T20World Cup. It would be the bestproduct to highlight cricket onceactivities resume,” he said.

Misbah also said that their

upcoming tour to England will notbe easy for either the players, coach-es or anyone as circumstances arenot ideal for cricket.

Pakistan & England Boardshave discussed a tour by the Green

Shirts from July to play three Testsand three T20 matches.

“The idea is to first have one toone training then increase thenumber of players to groups. Weneed to get together and train to beprepared for a comeback to crick-et. “It is not going to be easy also get-ting used to new rules like notapplying saliva sweat to shine theball. I am hoping a three-week campin Pakistan and then more practicein quarantine in England should getthe players prepared.”

The Pakistan coach had nodoubt the players will face difficul-ties adjusting to the new laws andbio-security environment. “We willbe taking a group of 25 to 27 play-ers to England because we can’t askfor replacements and we all have tobe together from start to end so thatno one catches the virus.” PTI

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Carlo Ancelotti said that Frenchgreat Zinedine Zidane gave

him the chance to move beyondthe 4-4-2 formation. Ancelottimanaged Zidane when he ledJuventus from 1999 to 2001.

“With Zidane, I tried tochange my idea about the system.Zidane is the first player who gaveme the possibility to change thesystem and play in a differentway,” Ancelotti, who currentlymanages Everton in the PremierLeague, told former Liverpooldefender Jamie Carragher on SkySports.

“So when I had Zidane, in thefirst year at Juventus, I played witha system of 3-4-1-2, having

(Alessandro) Del Piero and(Filippo) Inzaghi up front andZidane a little bit behind. The sec-ond year, I played with a back fourbut keeping two strikers in frontand one No 10 like Zidane.

“Zidane changed my ideaabout football, I was so focusedbefore Juventus on 4-4-2 andafter with Zidane, I changed, Iwanted to put him in the bestposition for him to let him bemore comfortable on the pitch,”he added.

Ancelotti would later go onto work with Zidane when hecoached Real Madrid and the lat-ter was his assistant manager.Zidane took over from Ancelottiand led Real to three consecutiveChampions League titles.

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SALIVA BAN ONLY AN INTERIM MEASURE

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Former India pacer Irfan Pathanreckons that the ban on using sali-

va for shining the ball is a significantblow to bowlers and authoritiesshould ensure preparation of bowl-ing-friendly Test wickets to preventcomplete domination of the game bythe batsmen.

“You will to have make sure thatpitches are more suitable to thebowlers than batsmen to negate the

advantage (of not being able use sali-va). If you are not able to shine theball properly, you will not be able tocut the air because of scientific rea-sons.

“And if you are not able to swingit, the batsman will have it easybecause nobody fears just pace, it isthe combination of pace and swingthat troubles them,” Pathan, one ofthe best exponents of swing bowlingin Indian cricket said.

“It (ban) will affect bowlers a lotin Test matches. It won’t be an issuein white-ball cricket as the bowlersanyway don’t shine the ball after thefirst few overs, they want to make itsoft (to make strokeplay tougher forthe batsman).

“But in red-ball cricket, whetheryou are a fast bowler or spinner, youneed to shine the ball. Spinner relieson shine to drift the ball. That willbe a big advantage for batsman. Thegame will become even more bats-men friendly,” said the first Indianpacer to take a Test hat-trick.

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England captain Joe Root feels theban on using saliva might improve

the skills of the bowlers, who will haveto work harder to get something outof the pitch.

“It could work in our favour andup skill levels.”

“Not having the assistance thatyou might normally have means youraccuracy has to improve,” he was quot-ed as saying by metro.Co.Uk.

“Guys will have to find another

way to get something out of the sur-face, whether that’s a bit more effort,changing angles on the crease, usingthe wobble seam they might not havein their locker.

“It could develop our bowlers ina four or five-week period.”

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Bihar school girl JyotiKumari, who cycled 1200

km with her injured fatherfrom New Delhi to Darbhanga,will appear for CyclingFederation of India trials oncethe lockdown ends even thoughfinishing matriculation is herprimary aim.

“We will surely send for thetrials after the lockdown is lift-ed. She was enrolled into classnine yesterday (Saturday). Atthe moment, we want her tocomplete her matriculation,”her father Mohan Paswan saidfrom Sirhulli near Darbhanga.

Rendered jobless and pen-niless because of the extendedCovid-19 lockdown, the 15-year-old was forced to ferry her

father who was unable to walkproperly after a surgery to hisleft knee following an accident.

As the story went viral, theCFI duly took note of Jyoti’sincredible feat of cycling morethan 1200-kilometres spanningover a week.

“Yes we received the callfrom New Delhi (CyclingFederation of India). We saidshe needs rest now may be aftertwo-three months we will see,”Paswan, who fractured his leg inan accident while driving hisauto-rickshaw in January, said.

In her village Jyoti had ear-lier regulary cycled 5 kms toreach to her school.

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