Sealing off HOT ZONESfor one month proposed, Hyd in the list

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Sunday brought in more dis-mal news for the state, withanother 60 people testing pos-itive for COVID-19 in AndhraPradesh. The overall numberof people infected thus far inthe state stood at 252 at 5 pm.

Kurnool was under-standably tense, with49 of the 52 casesbeing recorded onSunday alone. Eachof these caseshad somec o n n e c -tion witht h eTablighiJ a m a a tconventionin Delhi;those infected had eitherattended the ijtema or hadcome in direct contact withthose who did.

The two North Andhra dis-tricts — Srikakulam andVizianagaram — remain

untouched by the virus that isextremely contagious andstealthy.

According to the healthbulletin released by the stategovernment the details ofpatients from 131 to 190reveal that most of them hadeither attended the Delhi reli-

gious convention or aretheir contacts. Those

infected include men,women of all age

g r o u p sfrom 12years to

70 yearsb e s i d e sthree per-sons fromM u m b a i ,two fromAjmer andone who

travelled byDuronto Express and onewho travelled by SamparkKranti express.

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VIJAYAWADA, MONDAY APRIL 6, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

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PNS n NEW DELHI

From making passengers wearmasks to using the Arogya Setuapp to check their health sta-tus before allowing them totravel and encouraging socialdistancing on board are a fewproposals that Indian Railwaysis mulling as it prepares to gearfor the end of the 21-day lock-down on April 14.

While no decision has yetbeen taken on when the pas-senger services, which weresuspended in the wake of thecoronavirus lockdown, will beresumed, officials said it islikely to be done in a phasedmanner after the green signalfrom the government.

A decision, officials said, is

likely to be taken in the com-ing week on how to restore ser-vices.

The railways, officials said,has discussed the option ofresuming services only on spe-

cific approval of each trainfrom the Railway Board.Suggestions for phase-wiseplanning have to be providedby the zone to the board.

"These are sensitive times

and we are not looking interms of revenue generation fornow. The focus is on passengersafety and to ensure that thedisease does not spread. Trainswill run in due course, once thegovernment gives us the greensignal. However as of now, wehave not taken any decision yet,said a senior officer.

In the zones, officials are alsoidentifying trains and routeswhich can be resumed with theapproval of the board. The

focus, say officials, is to see ifroutes catering to migrantworkers can be resumed initial-ly and also those that are nottravelling or has halts atCOVID-19 hotspots.

Officials added the railwayswill also have to factor in howthe lockdown is eventuallyopened. If it is selective, thentrains will only run in areaswhere lockdown is lifted, offi-cials said.

The railways, officials said, has discussed theoption of resuming services only on specificapproval of each train from the Railway Board.Suggestions for phase-wise planning have tobe provided by the zone to the board

Jamaat incidentworsenedCovid-19 spread,says Govt

5

NGOs told toassist govt in relief measures

8

No crowding onstreets aftershutdown,people warned

4

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated April 05, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:Chaitra & Shukla PakshaPanchangam:Tithi: Trayodashi: 03:51 pm Nakshatram: Purva Phalguni: 12:16 pm Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 07:42 am – 09:14 amYamagandam: 10:46 am – 12:18 pmVarjyam: 06:33 pm – 07:57 pmGulika: 01:50 pm - 03:22 pmGood Time: (to start any

important work)Amritakalam: 06:35 am – 08:00 amAbhijit Muhurtham: 11:53 am – 12:43 pm

VIJAYAWADAWEATHERForecast: Partly cloudyTemp: 39/26Humidity: 49%Sunrise: 06:06 amSunset: 06:30 pm

MULTIPLEX ASSOCIATION APPEALSTO LANDLORDS TO WAIVE OFF RENT

The HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank' on Sunday said thatthe government will decide whether to reopen schools, colleges on

April 14 after reviewing the coronavirus situation. "It is difficult to take adecision at the moment. We will review the situation on April 14 anddepending upon the circumstances, a decision will betaken on whether schools and colleges can bereopened now or have to be closed for more time,"the minister said in an interview. "We are prepared toensure there is no academic loss to students ifschools, colleges remain shut beyond April 14.Classes are already being conducted online.”

26K QUARANTINED AFTER 10 FEASTATTENDEES CONTRACT COVID-19 Days after 10 people tested positive for coronavirus after attending a

funeral feast organised by a man on his return here in MadhyaPradesh from Dubai, over 26,000 of their contacts and family membershave been placed under home quarantine, officials said on Sunday. Theman, who worked as a waiter at a hotel in Dubai,returned to Morena from Dubai on March 17 aftergetting information about his mother's death, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) R S Bakna said. "Heorganised a customary feast on March 20 tomark the 13th day of mourning after hismothers death," he said.

The government's dedicated WhatsApp chatbot MyGov CoronaHelpdesk, which aims to provide timely updates and help citizens

clear their queries on Covid-19, has been used by over 2 crore users.Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot company HaptikInfotech Pvt Ltd, which is 87 per cent owned byReliance Jio, developed the MyGov Corona Helpdeskchatbot. "Misinformation & rumours are the primaryoutlets of panic. The @reliancejio & @haptik poweredofficial @mygovindia coronavirus chatbot has helpedeliminate these outlets for millions. Whatsapp+919013151515 for your queries," Haptik tweeted.

HAPTIK-POWERED CORONACHATBOT SEES OVER 2 CR USERS

DECISION ON REOPENING SCHOOLS,COLLEGES TO BE TAKEN ON APRIL 14

The Multiplex Association of India (MAI) has appealed to landlordsacross the country to waive off rent and common area maintenance

(CAM) for all the multiplex operators during the period of the currentnation-wide lockdown. India is currently under the lockdown with around1.3 billion people asked to stay home in view of thecoronavirus outbreak. Formed under the aegis ofFICCI in 2000, the national multiplex trade bodyrepresents more than 18 regional and nationalmultiplex chains, including PVR, INOX, Carnival andCinepolis, and operates more than 2900 screensacross the country.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Health Ministry has releasedan aggressive containment planfor large outbreaks of COVID-19, which includes buffer zonesand sealing off areas for nearly amonth. The government madethe containment plan after clus-ters posing high risk of furtherspread of COVID-19 emerged inseveral states.

The strategy is meant to con-tain the highly contagious diseasecaused by a novel coronavirus,first detected in China inDecember, within a defined geo-graphical area by early detectionof cases, breaking the chain oftransmission and thus prevent-ing its spread to new areas. Anovel virus is one that has notbeen previously identified inhumans.

The 20-page document saysthe aggressive containment strat-egy will be scaled down only ifno new cases of COVID-19 arereported for at least four weeksafter the last confirmed test.

Some of the steps the govern-ment seeks to take include seal-ing containment areas and stop-ping movement of people in andout of these areas.

All suspect and confirmedCOVID-19 cases will be hospi-talised and kept in isolation inhospitals dedicated to fightingthe coronavirus, says the docu-ment available on the HealthMinistry's website.

Patients will be dischargedonly if two samples test negativefor coronavirus. Those with mildsymptoms will be quarantined instadiums, those having moder-ate symptoms will be admitted tohospitals meant for COVID-19care, and those with severe symp-toms will be sent to tertiary oradvanced hospitals. Another stepmentioned in the strategy is clo-sure of schools, colleges andoffices in containment and bufferzones. There will be no publicand private transport in theseareas. Only essential serviceswill be allowed to move. Thecontainment plan will be eased

if no COVID-19 cases are report-ed from the quarantine zone forat least four weeks after the lastconfirmed test.

The Health Ministry docu-ment says the geographic distri-bution of COVID-19 mimics thedistribution of H1N1 pandemicinfluenza, which suggests thatwhile the spread of COVID-19in the population could be high,it's unlikely that it will be uni-formly affect all parts of thecountry.

"This calls for differentialapproach to different regions ofthe country, while mounting astrong containment effort inhotspots," the documentsays.Large-scale measures tocontain COVID-19 over largeterritories have been tried inChina. Mathematical modellingstudies have suggested that con-tainment might be possible espe-cially when other public healthinterventions are combined withan effective social distancingstrategy.

Sealing off HOT ZONES for onemonth proposed, Hyd in the list

Railways mulls post-lockdown norms for passengers

49 test positive forCOVID in Kurnoolalone, total at 252

CM lights candle to expresssolidarity in fight against virusPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy onSunday joined the nation inheeding the call given byPrime Minister NarendraModi to show unity anddetermination of the nation infighting COVID-19 by light-ing lamps for nine minutes at9 pm. The Chief Minister helda lit candle at his residence onSunday at 9 pm to extend sol-idarity with the nation inf ighting against the pandemic.

Governor BiswabhushanHarichandan too lit a candleat the Raj Bhavan inVijayawada, in response toModi’s call.

Honouring the appealmade by the Prime Minister,people of the state, irrespec-tive of religion, region, andcaste, followed him in light-ing lamps, candles and turn-ing on torches and cellphoneflash for nine minutes from 9pm onwards.

Chief Secretary NilamSawhney, DGP GautamSawang, and other officialswere among those who par-ticipated in the event.

Set up COVID-19 testing labsin each district, orders JaganPNS n VIJAYAWADA

As the number of Coronaviruscases has been escalating at arapid pace across the state dueto transmission from TablighiJamaat attendees, ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy on Sunday directed theauthorities to open testing labsin each district and also createisolation wards in all hospitals.

Of the total 220 activeCoronavirus cases in the stateas on Sunday, close to 90 percent relate to the TablighiJamaat participants and theirclose contacts.

The Chief Minister asked thehealth authorities to immedi-

ately complete testing of allthose who returned from theTablighi Jamaat convention andtheir primary contacts.

In the next step, the sec-ondary contacts of the TablighiJamaat attendees should betested, he said at a high-levelreview meeting on COVID-19.

Special Chief Secretary

(Health) KS Jawahar Reddyinformed the Chief Ministerthat seven labs were working inthe state with a capacity to testover 900 blood samples per day.He said steps were being takento increase the testing capacityof the labs in Visakhapatnamand Vijayawada.

Jawahar Reddy explainedabout the special approachundertaken on an experimen-tal basis in Visakhapatnam city,where the identified red zones(having Corona positivepatients) were divided intoeight clusters and 20 sampleswere tested on a random basisfrom each cluster.

TTD decides tooffer Rs 19crore to AP forCovid-19 reliefPNS n TIRUPATI

TirumalaT i r u p a t iD e v a st h a n a m s( T T D )that gov-erns theLord Venkateswara templeat Tirumala near here, hasdecided to offer Rs 19 croreto the Andhra Pradesh'sgovernment relief coron-avirus fund, a top TTD offi-cial said on Sunday.

Corona suspect leaves spit on ATM controlsPNS n KADAPA

In an alarming incident, a youthsuffering from fever, cold andcough, all symptoms of COVID-19, went inside an ATM kioskand applied his saliva on the dis-play and keyboard. The incidentset off a wave of panic inMydukur Mandal, from whichthe youth hails. The number of

COVID-19 positive cases hasalready crossed the 200 mark inAP and the youths actions set offa wave of fear among the locals.

The dangerous behaviour ofthe youth was noticed by localswho alerted the police.

According to the police, the

youth visited the SBI ATMCentre at Royal Circle andapplied his saliva on the ATMdisplay and keyboard.

He was taken to the police sta-tion and subjected to medicalexamination. It was revealedthat he is suffering from cold,cough and fever (101 degrees).

MLA thanks, washes feetof sanitation workersPNS n SRIKALAHASTI

YSRCP MLA BiyyapuMadhusudhan Reddy onSunday evening washed thefeet of sanitation work-ers and showeredflowers on them toexpress his appre-ciation for theirservices.

The MLA saidthat he wanted theworld to recognisethe meritorious ser-vices of sanitation workers tosociety and to boost theirmorale so that they rededicatethemselves to their job.

Ever since the first case of

Coronavirus was reported inSrikalahasti, sanitation workershave been toiling night and dayto maintain hygiene. “They areworking hard,” the MLA said,

describing their services as‘unforgettable’.

The workers havebeen spraying insecti-cides in the templetown at all places thatpassersby can touch.

It may be mentionedhere that the

Coronavirus is extremelycontagious and a person can getinfected if he or she touches anobject that has saliva of a patienton it and then touches his or hermouth, nose or ears.

The number of COVID-19 positive cases has alreadycrossed the 200 mark in AP and the youths actionsset off a wave of fear among the locals

Steps are beingtaken to increase thetesting capacity ofthe labs inVisakhapatnam andVijayawada

3

3

3

3

3

3

LIGHTING UUP HHUMANITY’S DDARKEST HHOUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whosuccessfully rallied the nation in expressing their collective will to tackle Covid-19 byhis call for “9 minutes of diya from 9:00 pm on Sunday”, lighting a lamp in New Delhi.

Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy lights a candle in response to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s call, at his camp office in Tadepalli, on Sunday

Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Printed at Sree Seshasai Enterprises, D.No. New 3-88, Old 3-22, Chandra Theatre, Gosala, Penamaluru Mandal, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh - 521 151, Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that information given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for anydamage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only. Readers are advised and requested to verify and seek appropriate advice to satisfy themselves about the veracity of any kind of advertisement beforeresponding to any contents published in this newspaper. The printer, publisher, editor and any employee of the Pioneer Group's will not be held responsible for any kind of claim made by the advertisers of the products & services and shall not be made responsible for any kind of loss, consequences and further product-related damages on such advertisements.

CAPSULE

SCR extendshelping hand tolicensed portersVIJAYAWADA: The South CentralRailways, Vijayawada Division,employees of the commercialdepartment has come forward tolend a helping hand to 454licensed coolie porters of entireDivision, who have lost theirsource of revenue due to thelockdown. Accordingly, the staffof the commercial departmenthas contributed money on acharity basis and purchasedessential items for distribution toall the licensed porters onSunday. They distributedprovisions worth of Rs 1,500 viz.25 kg rice bag, red gram, oil,sugar, onions, bathing anddetergent soaps, along with Rs500 cash, to 454 railwayauthorised licensed portersacross the Division at all themajor stations. Speaking on theoccasion, P Bhaskar Reddy,Seniorr Divisional CommercialManager, Vijayawada,commended the staff for thedisplay of empathy andgenerosity by coming forward insupport of licensed porters amidCovid-19 crisis. He thanked thestaff of the commercialdepartment for standing besidewith firm resolve and voluntarilycontributing to the noble cause.

Hygiene measures atWalmart for customersPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Walmart India, which oper-ates large-format wholesalecash-and-carry stores inVijayawada and Guntur, hastaken precautionary measuresto contain the spread of thevirus and ensured the entry ofonly one person per member-ship card.

The store has brought downthe number of associatesworking in the store as perdirective from local authori-ties. As far as measures forsanitation are concerned,Walmart India has alreadydeployed hand washing sta-

tions at the entry of stores aswell as multiple hand sanitis-er stations across each store."The stores are also equippedwith contactless thermome-ters for conducting tempera-ture checks. Entry is barredfor those detected with feverand high-touch surfaces ofstores are being regularlycleaned with disinfectant.

Walmart India's two mainpriorities are to ensure thesafety of our associates aswell as the members, whopurchase from our best pricecash-and-carry stores,"according to Walmart Indiaspokesperson.

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020 vijayawada 02

Gold continues to be first preference of investorsPNS n HYDERABAD

With the onslaught of coron-avirus vigorously continuingand causing havoc in almostthe entire world, economicactivities took a back seat dur-ing the week ended.According to the AsianDevelopment Bank, so far, theglobal economy has suffereda loss of 4.1 lakh crore dollarsand nobody knows where itwill halt. Consequently, goldcontinued to be the first pref-erence of investors at USdollars 1,616.45 (per oz).Silver also remainedfirm, and closed at dol-lars 14.39.Platinum and pal-ladium closed atdollars 726 anddollars 2,118(per oz)respectively.

O t h e re c o -n o m i cparame-t e r swere as follows: Foreignexchange rates:

US dollar Rs.76.22, BritishPound Rs.93.77, EuroRs.82.57, Swiss franc Rs.78.20,UAE dirham Rs.20.81, SaudiRiyal Rs.20.30, Canadian dol-lar Rs.53.75, Australian dollarRs.45.82. Kuwaiti DinarRs.245.63 and Omani RiyalRs.98.34.

Sensex and Nifty 50 closed

at the lower levels of 27,590.90and 8,083.80 points, while NY

Mex closed at 29. MCXgold and MCX silverclosed at Rs.43,722(per10 gms) and Rs.

41,259(per kg)respectively. Brent

closed at dol-lars 34.65 (perbarrel) and

crude oi ldipped fur-ther and

closed atRs.2,048(per bar-r e l ) .

Copper closed at Rs.380.10(per kg).

Retail markets continued tobe under lockdown. Due tostrict vigil by the authorities,gold smugglers too are rest-less.

COMMODITIES

The wholesale commoditymarkets have been permittedto carry on business during

the lockdown period. Themovements of food grainsand essential food items havebeen quite smooth and thereis no dearth of these com-modities. The hoarders havebeen put under strict vigi-lance.

True, there seems to besome distribution-relatedproblems in the case of per-ishable goods, but in thegiven situation, they arebound to be there. Barringsuch sporadic aberrations,the markets have been quitecooperative.

The NECC wholesale eggprice turned northward main-ly due to increasing temper-atures. In Hyderabad, theweek-end closing pricerecorded an increase of Rs.5at the closing price of Rs.340(per 100). The high-est price of Rs.400 was record-ed in Burdwan, Midnaporeand Surat, while Ludhianarecorded the lowest price of Rs.215.

WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW

Consequently, gold continued to be the first preference of investors at US dollars 1,616.45 (per oz). Silveralso remained firm, and closed at dollars 14.39. Platinum and palladiumclosed at dollars 726 and dollars 2,118 (per oz) pectively

HC UPADHYAY n HYDERABAD

Perhaps it is possible to straight-en the tail of a dog; perhaps itis possible to tame the ferociousbull that has seen a red rag orperhaps it is also possible toinstil an element of wisdom ina Pappu. But alas! it is impos-sible to set right the fanatic ele-ments, self-styled as ‘jihadis’, totransform them as humans, letalone as the nation-loving.

This only could be the logi-cal conclusion of the prevailingsituation in the country, andpossibly throughout the world.It is surely for the first time inthe annals of history that a nat-ural disaster like Covid-19 hasbeen used by the fanatic jihadis,both educated and uneducated,rich and the poor, men and thewomen- with the ill-fanciedgoal of establishing the Islamicrule! And, lo! they are not con-cealing their evil designs. On theother hand, they are openlychallenging the authority of theState by all possible means –right from spitting on the policeand health workers to attackingthem violently as individuals aswell as mobs.

First, they experimented with

Shaheen Bagh; and now, buoyedwith its success, they are up inarms once again on a magnifiedscale. Their defiance or to saythe betrayal or revolt has notstemmed up from ignorance oflaw (which too, is not anexcuse), but from a strong com-mitment towards the ultimategoal of Islamisation.

And see, so far what our‘democratic’ State has done! Tosay the least, these poisonous,treacherous elements have beengiven a kid-gloves treat-ment. They have beencajoled and cuddled,and even indirectlyencouraged by nottaking stringentaction. Theirmorale getsboosted by theplanned andwell-orches-trated overt andcovert supportfrom the defeat-ed political par-ties, disloyalbureaucrats, and paid ‘intellec-tuals’ in and outside media.Otherwise, how the kingpin ofTablighi Jamaat, Maulana SaadKandhalvi, could vanish in theair right under the nose of the

central government just after aclose-door meeting with theNational Security Adviser, AjitDobhal?

Unfortunately, today whenthe pro-and anti-nation, nay,humanity lobbies are at theirbest, it is the moral, ethical and

Constitutional duty of allgovernments toensure that the pan-

demic is fought effectivelyand decisively to save

humanity. In this context,without going into the scienceand politics of the PrimeMinister’s clarion call to lightcandles and mobile-torches onSunday, the 5th of April, one

thing seems to be certain. Andit is, the show of national unity,which also will vividly exposethe people who are not withIndia and humanity at large.

Let’s hope, the authorities

would be able to identify thehotspot of pro-Covid-19 crea-tures and tackle them subse-quently in the manner theydeserve. Merely filing of casesunder softer sections of thecriminal laws so as to ensuretheir release easily after arrest isnot going to solve the mam-moth phenomenon.

Section 156 (3) Cr PCgives wide powers tomagistrate: SC

In an important judgementdelivered on March 20, theSupreme Court of India has heldthat under Section 156 (3) of theCriminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the Magistrate enjoys widepowers in the matter of registra-tion of an FIR and proper inves-tigation of the case by police.

The bench, comprising JusticeN.V Ramana, Justice Mohan M.

Hantanagoudar and JusticeSanjiv Khanna, in M.Subramaniam and Anr. Vs. S.Janaki and Anr, held: “It is well-settled that when a power isgiven to an authority to dosomething, it includes such inci-dental or implied powers whichwould ensure the proper doingof that thing. In other words,when any power is expresslygranted by the statute, there isimpliedly included in the grant,even without special mention,every power and every controlthe denial of which would ren-der the grant itself ineffective.Thus, where an Act confersjurisdiction, it impliedly alsogrants the power of doing allsuch acts or employ such meansas are essentially necessary for itsexecution.”

The apex court, however,after quoting a catena of judge-ments, also decried the tenden-cy among litigants to rush to thehigh courts for registration ofFIR without following the dueprocess of law and rules madethereunder, which requires thatbefore approaching the highcourt in such matters, a personmust exhaust other remedies likeapproaching the concernedSuperintendent of Police and the

Magistrate.

Citing Covid-19,Bombay HC refuseshearing of bail petition

“Release of an accused or con-vict at the cost of breaching theorder of lockdown and at thecost of risking lives of many can-not be considered to fall withinthe category of ‘extremely urgentmatter”, stating this, Justice A.MBadar of the Bombay HighCourt refused to hear the bailapplication of one SopanRamesh Lanjekar, an accused ina cheating case in Mumbai.

Elaborating the reasoning,the high court said, “Because oflockdown declared by the State,all offices, including offices of thecourt, are virtually closed. Bydeputation of bare minimumstaff, extremely urgent businessis being transacted. Processinga bail order and consequentrelease of an accused/convict, assuch, virtually amounts breach-ing the order of complete lock-down. Putting several employ-ees and officers to work, may putthem to the risk of contractingCovid-19.”

The court also observed in itsorder that at this moment theentire law enforcing machinery

is focusing on the implementa-tion of the lockdown through-out the State by virtually remain-ing on the field for 24 hours.This is being done for saving theentire nation, the court added.

Earlier, on March 31, JusticePankaj Bhandari of theRajasthan High Court (JaipurBench) also had ruled that bailpetitions and the petitions forsuspension of sentence do notfall under the category of‘extremely urgent matters.’

Book lockdown viola-tors under criminallaws: Centre

The Home Secretary AjayBhalla on April 2 asked the statesto widely circulate informationon penal provisions laid downunder the Disaster ManagementAct, 2005 as well as the IndianPenal Code and implement thesame “in letter and spirit, with-out allowing any exception.” Hecited Sections 51 to 60 of theDM Act as well as Section 188of IPC which provide for puni-tive action.

According to Section 51 ofDM Act, anyone who obstructsgovernment servant can bepunished with imprisonmentup to one year (two years, if it

endangers life) or fine. Section54 provides for up to one-yearjail term for false warning;Sections 52 and 53 provide fortwo years in jail for false claimsand misappropriation of funds.Similarly, Section 188 of IPCprovides for up to six months’imprisonment and/or finewhich is further extendable totwo years if it endangers humanlife, for anyone disobeying anorder duly promulgated by apublic servant.

Thus, seriousness of the cen-tral government about the cur-rent pandemic situation is quitediscernible. However, some stategovernments, for reasons bestknown to them, only give a con-venient go-by to violators.Scores of videos showing most-ly the people of a particularcommunity not only violatingthe instructions of police, butalso abusing and assaultingthem have gone viral.

It is, indeed, unfortunate thatin Telangana, the government,even without waiting for theverification of a video that hadgone viral showing the allegedpolice brutality on a minor boyin Wanaparthy, has hastily sus-pended the concerned police-men.

LEGALROUNDUP

And see, so far what our ‘democratic’State has done! To say the least, thesepoisonous, treacherous elements havebeen given a kid-gloves treatment.They have been cajoled and cuddled,and even indirectly encouraged by nottaking stringent action

Let the ‘Sunday light's banish anti-national and jihadi Covid-19

Tipplers turn to hoochSUMIT ONKA n VISAKHAPATNAM

The absence of liquor andbeers due to Covid-19 lock-down has made some tipplersare turning to hooch, which isrisky and its makers are find-ing a great opportunity tomake money in parts of theState.

With the shutdown of wineshops and bar and restaurantsdue to lockdown, some liquortraders are brewing the coun-try made liquor (hooch) in theremote areas in parts of theState and the neighbouringStates like Odisha andTelangana and they are supply-ing to desperate tipplers at highprices.

On an average, officials ofpolice and prohibition andexcise departments seize atleast 50 litres of hooch in a daybesides destroying the raw-material of the hooch (jaggeryextraction) in the State for thepast 10 days.

Sources said that the hoochmakers in Odisha, Telanganaand parts of the State areadding sedative medicines togive a different taste to thehooch. The finished hoochhas been transported to differ-ent areas of the State in theguise of distribution of essen-

tial commodities by loadingthe hooch in the vegetable-laden vehicles.

Expressing concern over theflow of the hooch from neigh-bouring Odisha to AndhraPradesh, deputy excise com-missioner of Vizianagaram YVBhaskar said that they seizedhooch worth Rs 10 lakh in thepast 10 days. However, somepeople are adopting innovative

methods totransport thehooch. Tipplers have tounderstand that the hooch isbeing laced with sedatives anddangerous chemicals, which isindeed dangerous and peopleshould be aware of what theyare buying and consuming,he added.

The officials said that despitethe lockdown, some makers

have been transporting thehooch to parts of Krishna andGuntur districts fromTelangana.

A liquor addict ( K Prasadname changes) said that he hasno other option except con-suming hooch as all the liquorshops and bar and restaurantshave been closed due to Covid-19 lockdown. Cashing in onthe situation, the hooch mak-ers are also selling the hooch at

high prices Rs 800 for a1,000 ml bottle citing

risks and otherfactors, he

added.The total

l o c k d ow nappears tohave takena toll on tip-plers as the

supply ofalcohol has

c o m p l e t e l ystopped and the

tipplers are turningto the hooch. If the situ-

ation continues, AndhraPradesh may witness hoochtragedies, said activists of var-ious organisations. Call it amyth or blind belief, somepeople are consuming thehooch citing that it will kill theCoronavirus in the rural partsof the State, they added.

l Expressing concern over the flow ofthe hooch from neighbouring Odisha to

Andhra Pradesh, deputy excisecommissioner of Vizianagaram YV

Bhaskar said that they seized hoochworth Rs 10 lakh in the past 10 days.Some people are adopting innovative

methods to transport the hooch

l Tipplershave to understand

that the hooch is beinglaced with sedatives and

dangerous chemicals, which isindeed dangerous and people

should be aware of whatthey are buying and

consuming, headded

Sanitisation tunnelopened in VizianagaramPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

A voluntary organisation haslaunched a sanitisation tunnel atthe entrance of the Rajiv Stadiumwhere the local Rythu Bazaar hasbeen shifted to avoid congestion.

The unique structure, first ofits kind in the State, would cleanthe entire body of the people andtheir hands while going andcoming out of the market.Kaushik, the founder of NGORaj Trust and son of local MLAKolagatla Veerabhadra Swamy,formally launched the tunnel onSunday.

Kaushik got the idea from hisfriends in Tamil Nadu where ithas been launched recently. Oneof the organisers said the systemcontinuously sprays sodiumhypochloride from the roof ofthe tunnel and people wereasked to use hands as umbrellato avoid getting wet. The spraycomes like a steam and peoplepassing through it hardly get wet.The chemical has been approvedby both the government and theWHO, the organisers said.

"Our hands and entire bodygets cleaned twice like the carautowash,'' said the organiseradding that more such tunnelswould be installed in crowdedplaces.Viziangaram has not

reported any Coronavirus pos-itive cases so far though hun-dreds of people returned fromabroad after the outbreak of the

virus. The district administrationhas all appreciation for the NGO,which launched a unique sani-tiser.

l Kaushik, the founder of NGORaj Trust and son of local MLAKolagatla Veerabhadra Swamy,got the idea from his friends in

Tamil Nadu where it has beenlaunched recently

l One of the organisers said thesystem continuously sprays

sodium hypochloride from theroof of the tunnel and peoplewere asked to use hands as

umbrella to avoid getting wet

l The spraycomes like asteam andpeople passingthrough it hardlyget wet. Thechemical hasbeen approvedby both thegovernment andthe WHO, theorganisers said

Minister inspects sanitationworks in Vijayawada cityPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Minister for EndowmentsVelampalli Srinivas foundfault with the opposi-tion party leadersfor resorting tocheap tactics forpolitical gain inthe crucial time.He appealed tothem to comeforward to con-tain the Covid-19virus.

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy was relent-

lessly striving to contain thespread of Covid-19 in the State,he said. The minister visitedBhavanipuram, Urmila Nagar,

Kabhela and others areasin Vijayawada here on

Sunday and spoke tothe residents abouttheir problems.

The ministermonitored the san-itation works

underway atBhavanipuram area,

later, he visited UrmilaNagar and instructed the field

staff to clear the garbage on the

roadside, side canals and toldofficials concerned to take mea-sures to ensure cleanliness in thearea. He checked vegetablesbeing sold to customers in RTCbus at the Kabela area.

Speaking on the occasion, hesaid that vegetables are being soldin five RTC buses at a few placesto contain the spread ofCoronavirus. The governmenthas been taking precautionarysteps to prevent the virus andpeople should feel the responsi-bility and venture out only in anemergency and follow socialdistancing.

AFP n PARIS

One day, the battle against thenovel Coronavirus will be won.But the world that emerges maylook very different from the onewe lived in before the pandem-ic began.

Over 60,000 people have losttheir lives to COVID-19 andthere are a more than a millionconfirmed cases with the out-break yet to reach its peak acrossthe developed and emergingworld.

But on top of the tragic humantoll, the Coronavirus also threat-ens incalculable social, econom-ic and political costs, and to trig-ger a wave of change that will

shape our world for years tocome. The shutdown imposed toslow the spread of the virus couldpush some economies into full-

scale meltdown. Financial mar-kets may never recover to pre-cri-sis levels.

Restrictions on movement

will help some governmentstighten autocratic control, andcivil liberties could be eroded inthe name of gaining informationon virus spread.

Many are already questioningthe merit of multilateral organ-isations such as the WHO or theUnited Nations given the per-ceived lack of a coordinated,global response to an unprece-dented health crisis. The changescould be immense, say analysts,but also unpredictable.

" Much will depend on howlong national economies manageto withstand the storm, and theperformance of governments intackling the threat. China, wherethe virus is believed to have orig-

inated, proudly claims to havequelled the outbreak.

US President Donald Trumpinitially appeared to shrug off theseriousness of the threat and isnow faced with a full-scale cri-sis. While the official figures fromIndia remain far less grim thanin the West, there is anxiety thatmuch worse is to come.

"The potential for widespreadsocial unrest in countries thathave not provided a social safe-ty net for those losing their jobsduring this crisis strikes me asvery real, with possible repercus-sions for governance and more,"said Joshua Geltzer, visiting pro-fessor of law at GeorgetownUniversity.

After the virus: What world will we live in?

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020 vijayawada 03

It feels like somethinginscrutable came and put every-thing in its place. Suddenly the

price of fuel went down, pollutiondeclined, people started to havemore time so much so that they donot know what to do with it, par-ents are spending time with theirkids as a family and work is nolonger a priority. Nor is travelingor social life.

Suddenly we journey within andmake an effort to understand thesignificance of words like "solidar-ity", "love", "strength", "empathy"and "faith". We realize that we areall in the same boat, rich and poor;that the supermarket shelves areempty and the hospitals full. Newcars and old cars stand in thegarages, simply because nobodycan get out. Empty streets, cleanair and even the land breathes.Human beings have returned totheir origins, realizing that, with or

without money, the importantthing is to survive. Today, health isthe main thing.

It took just a few weeks for theuniverse to establish social equali-ty of sorts that until recently sound-ed Utopian. Fear is pervasive. Allof this points to the vulnerability ofthe human being. Nature, in its char-acteristically quiet way, is forcing usto clean up the mess we made.

Trying to be relevant in difficult times

Some leaders are doing every-thing within their means to be inthe news. They are trying tosound innovative for photo-ops.Since the outbreak of coronavirus,the focus has been on the far-reach-ing impacts of the pandemic that

has shaken all departments andministers. To be relevant amidst allthis, netas are trying to find waysof reaching out to people by distrib-uting food, trying to be active onsocial media, and by responding torequests. However, most of it isgoing unnoticed as the mediafocus has been on three persons:PM, CM and Health Minister,apart from frontline warriors likedoctors and the police. There arealso those who have preferred tostay at home and follow norms likeany other citizen. This has been thecase with start-ups. Trying to be rel-evant, T-Hub and TITA are com-ing up with hackathons. Except fordrone and aerosol design by T-works, most of the innovationswere otherwise hardly of any use.

Cloak of charity to move around

Under the cloak of charityinvolved in the distribution of freefood to the needy during the lock-down, some groups and trusts aresecuring ways to move aboutfreely in south Telangana districts.Although the administration istaking necessary measures andproviding ration, money and

essentials to the needy amongmigrants from other states, somegroups and trusts have latched onto this aspect mainly to moveabout freely in groups across thecity. The authorities, while appre-ciating genuine charitable ser-vices, are closely monitoringaspects relating to violation oflockdown rules.

Shopping every day dutifully

Lockdown has arrested themovements of free birds amongyouth and those who enjoy roam-ing here and there on one pretextof the other. Now they need tospecify the reasons for stepping outtheir homes. This aspect of coursehas given scope for families to take

to grocery shopping every dayand many employed sections usu-ally relying on monthly purchaseshave started buying groceries on aday-to-day basis. In many towns,youths who used to invariablydecline domestic requests to buycommodities with lame excuses arenow jumping at these 'offers'. Theydutifully bring kirana items andvegetables, any number of timesungrudgingly. Although all of thisis not giving them the freedom theyneed, they reason that somethingis better than nothing. Some youthsin Warangal and Hanamkondatowns rue the washout of theirevening gossip period.

Photo-op amid pandemicWhen it comes to hog the

media limelight, political leadersgo out of the way. Still, a pandem-ic is expected to have a soberingeffect on such publicity-crazypoliticians. That seems to be miss-ing today. Ministers in AndhraPradesh were snapped ‘inaugurat-ing’ coronavirus treatment wardson Saturday, complete with rib-bon-cutting ceremony, this andthat. However, the pictures ofsuch openings have not gonedown well with many. They sayministers should instead ensurethat protective gears like masksandgloves should reach the hospitalsto ensure that frontline workersstay safe while serving patients.

(Contributed by Ch Pradeep,

Naveena Ghanate, Avinash Deepak Puli,

P V Kondal Rao, Sumit Onka)

REPORTERS

D ARY

Nature is forcing us to clean up the mess we made

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

The tipplers in the city are hav-ing sleepless nights due to clo-sure of liquor shops and bars fol-lowing imposition of the lock-down across the State and thenation. After exhausting theirstocks, search with friends andbuying at premium prices, theyhave moved towards self de-addiction by consuming seda-tives.

Sensing this could lead tohealth hazards, all the medicalshops have stopped selling seda-tives and even cough syrups.“We could make out the buyersas they were seen every day atthe liquor shop located to ournext door. They tried to producesome fake prescriptions andsought huge quantity. Werealised this could lead to com-plications and subsequently wemay be asked to shut the shop,’’said a retail medical shop ownerat Peda Waltair.

He said that was the last daythey sold the sedatives andnever tried to stock them.

Around 20 shop owners saidthey did not procure stocks ofsedatives after lockdown orderswere issued but some said theywere deliberately not beinggiven by the authorities as a pre-cautionary measure.

Assistant director of drugcontroller office K Rajitha saidher department did not issueany ban orders on sedatives.“We only insist valid prescrip-tion from medical professionals

to sell some categories of drugs,which largely include sedativesof all forms,’’ Rajitha said.

The city has 313 wines hopsand 130 bars and a large num-ber of people were addicted toalcohol. Many were caughtunaware as lockdown wasannounced suddenly.

“I wanted to join de-addictionward in the GovernmentHospital for Mental Care butafter a few beds were given for

quarantine, my family membersdid not allow me get admitted,’’said a dock worker, who hadbeen consuming alcohol forthe past 30 years non-stop.

Medical shops shooing awaytipplers, refuse sedatives

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Leader of the Opposition NChandrababu Naidu has saidthat it is painful to note that theruling YSRCP has thrown theDalits’ welfare to the wind. Healleged that the governmentignored their welfare in the Statefor the past 11 months anddiverted funds meant for themto other programmes, which hetermed as against the spirit of theConstitution. On the pretext ofdistribution of house sites to thehomeless poor, the State govern-ment is snatching the assignedlands given to the Dalits.

Paying glowing tributes to for-mer Deputy Prime Minister andDalit leader the late Babu JagjivanRam through a tweet on Sundayon the occasion of the Dalitleader’s birth anniversary, hesaid that the credit of sendingDalit leader to the Lok Sabha asSpeaker goes to the TDP.Similarly, the credit of electing aDalit leader as the first Speakerof the Andhra Pradesh goes to

the TDP. The TDP gave their dueshare in the power structure toDalits and weaker sections, hesaid adding that the party is ded-

icated to implement ideals ofeminent leaders like JyotibaPhule and Jagjivan Ram.

The TDP implemented manyprogrammes for the welfare ofthe SCs during the past five years,including presenting Rs 40,000as gift to SC girls at the time oftheir marriage. Under the ‘JnanaBhumi’ programme, Rs 10 lakhhas been granted to the poor stu-dents seeking to pursue overseaseducation. He said the TDP alsoreimbursed tuition fees for themand gave scholarships.

Under the scheme ‘JagjivanJyoti’ scheme, power has beensupplied free of cost to Dalithomes up to 100 units a month.He said his regime paid Rs1,500 per month as pension toDappu artistes. The budgetaryallocation of Rs 40,253 crore hasbeen made for the welfare of theDalits in four years, he said. Over6.56 lakh benefited through theSC Corporation. To encouragethe SC youth to take up selfemployment, Innova cars havebeen given and also JCBs.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Amid a 21-day nationwidelockdown due to coronavirusscare, NGO 'Save the Children'India has begun distributingfree dry ration amongRohingya refugees living here.

As part of the continuouscommunity engagement pro-gramme, the United Nations-affiliated NGO had identifiedaround 1,325 families in 30 set-tlements in Balapur and begundistribution work from April 3.

In 48 hours, 'Save theChildren' has handed over 25kg rice and vegetables and oilto 880 families from 21 settle-ments. The distribution to theremaining families will contin-ue, said Vikas Gora, DeputyDirector, Save the Children.

Distribution of other essen-tials such as wheat flour, puls-es, chilli powder, turmeric pow-der, onion, garlic, salt and sugarwill be taken up in the secondphase from April 7 onwards.

Hygiene kits, containingsoap bars and floor/toiletcleaners will also be distributedin the second phase.

Keeping the safety protocoland social distancing in mind,door-to-door delivery modelwas followed. It also helped toreach out to the pregnant, lactat-ing, differently-abled and elder-ly people to access food rations.

“For four-and-a-half years,‘Save the Children’ is workingon the rights of children ofrefugees in close collaborationwith the government ofTelangana, UNHCR and otherstakeholders. In the time ofCovid-19 crisis, we have been

ensuring that the childrenaccess food through dryrations and hygiene kits, suf-ficient for a month at least. Weappreciate the support andinvolvement of health andpolice department, communi-ty volunteers, and local leaderslike young change makers,who have been supportive,"said Vikas.

Hunger is one of the keyindicators that is impacting thelives of scores of the poor andmarginalised communities inthe country and globally andour prime effort is to addressthis, from a child protectionlens," he added.

NGO distributes ration amongRohingya refugees in Hyd

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The government will procurepaddy and other produce atthe village-level and ensure theMinimum Support Price(MSP) to all farmers besidesbringing out a ‘harvest calen-dar’. Speaking to the mediahere on Sunday, Minister forAgriculture K Kanna Babusaid Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy has givenstrict orders that all farmersshould get an MSP for rabicrops.

Farmers, who are willing tosell their paddy and otherproduce, have to contact theagriculture assistant at theirVillage Secretariat, who willregister their names, and thepaddy would be purchased bythe government.

“Paddy will be procuredthrough PPCs while maizewould be procured byMarkfed. Perishable goodswill be purchased and distrib-uted through Rythu Bazaars.

Banana and mango growersshould also be covered and theHorticulture Department hasbeen directed to do the need,”he said.

The government has start-ed the procurement of bananaand has procured 57,000tonnes, he said. ‘Harvest cal-endar’ will be brought out tostandardise the process up toprocurement and calendarwould give district wise detailsof crops and their harvestseason, he disclosed. The Statehas procured six lakh quintalsof seeds of the required eightlakh quintals, he said.

Govt to procurepaddy at village-level

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

YSRCP MLA Ambati Rambabudared the TDP to prove its alle-gations on distribution of Rs1,000 each to rice cardholders byparty municipal nominees. Hepointed out that the governmenthas distributed Rs 1000 each to1.33 crore rice cardholdersthrough village and ward volun-teers. The TDP, Pawan Kalyanand Kanna Lakshminaraynahave been tweeting irresponsi-bly, while N ChandrababuNaidu has been writing lettersto the Centre with baseless alle-gations unmindful of the factthat the TDP government hadleft the coffers empty. YSJaganmohan Reddy has beentrying to bring in financial dis-cipline and at this hour of cri-sis, Opposition has been mak-ing irresponsible claims andindulging in mud-slinging.

TDP allegationsagainst YSRCPbaseless: Ambati

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Lighting the lamps is a reflec-tion of unity and determina-tion of people to get rid of thedreaded Coronavirus fromthe country, said GovernorBiswa Bushan Harichandanwhile participating in theevent at the Raj Bhavan onSunday in response to the callgiven by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

The Governor said by light-ing the lamps at 9 pm for nine

minutes on Sunday by peopleacross the country, it is certainto win the fight against thedreaded Covid-19. Hethanked the people across theState for their overwhelmingresponse. First Lady SupravaHarichandan also participatedin the event, along with theGovernor. Mukesh KumarMeena, Secretary to theGovernor, officials, personalstaff, security staff of RajBhavan were present on theoccasion.

Governor Biswa Bushan Harichandan, along with first lady, holding a candle tojoin the nation’s fight against the Corona, at the Raj Bhavan in Vijayawada onSunday

Guv thanks people fortheir fight against Covid-19

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

To contain the spread ofCOVID-19, the Central andthe state governments are mov-ing forward with an action plan,said Union Cabinet secretaryRajiv Gauba on Sunday.

He was addressing throughvideo conference an orientation-cum-training session to containCOVID-19 that was attended byall State Chief Secretaries,District Collectors and Policeofficers.

Reviewing the situation acrossthe country, Rajiv Gauba cau-tioned them that the next twoweeks are crucial in containingthe COVID-19. He stressed onthe need to implement the lock-down and containment systemmore effectively. “Lockdown isa good opportunity for theadministration to contain theCOVID-19,” he added. RajivGauba told the officials to iden-tify high-risk individuals andadmit them in quarantine cen-

tres. He said that both theCentre and State governmentsshould take more stringent mea-sures to contain the spread ofCoronavirus. “The next twoweeks are crucial,” he asserted.Rajiv Gauba instructed the dis-trict collectors to make availablethe rapid response teams thatshould work round the clock.“The government and privateestablishments should be takenover for effectively using themas per the requirement,” he said.

Complimenting the govern-ments of all the states for effec-tively implementing the lock-down, he instructed them tomake sure to continue the man-ufacturing facilities at the phar-maceutical companies through-out the country.

“Special efforts should bemade to provide essential com-modities and medicines to thepeople but at the same timesocial distance should be imple-mented at any cost,” Rajiv Gaubasaid.

Next two weeks mostcrucial in COVIDfight, says Centre

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

A 49-year-old woman com-mitted suicide on Sunday atKommadi in Visakhapatnamafter reportedly scared overcontracting Covid-19.

According to police, thedeceased was identified asVaranasi Sarada Devi, a resi-dent of Teja Residency nearKommadi Road. She has ahabit of over thinking aboutevery issue. From the past fewdays, she was worried aboutcontracting the Covid-19.

Though the deceased didn'tsuffer any symptoms of thevirus, she was misled by socialmedia messages that led her tobelieve that she might be keptin quarantine for many daysand die at a later stage facingcritical conditions.

Police said that she jumpedoff the balcony of their flat infifth floor while her husbandand son were busy in taking Rs1,000-pension amount fromthe ward volunteer on Sunday.

Woman jumps offbalcony fearingcontracting Corona

n After exhausting theirstocks, search withfriends and buying atpremium prices, theyhave moved towards selfde-addiction byconsuming sedatives

n Sensing this could leadto health hazards, all themedical shops havestopped selling sedativesand even cough syrups

n Around 20 shop ownerssaid they did not procurestocks of sedatives afterlockdown orders wereissued but some saidthey were deliberatelynot being given by theauthorities as aprecautionary measure

n The TDP gave their dueshare in the powerstructure to Dalits andweaker sections, he saidadding that the party isdedicated to implementideals of eminent leaderslike Jyotiba Phule andJagjivan Ram

n The TDP implementedmany programmes forthe welfare of the SCsduring the past five years,including presenting Rs40,000 as gift to SC girls atthe time of their marriage.Under the ‘Jnana Bhumi’programme, Rs 10 lakhhas been granted to thepoor students seeking topursue overseaseducation

JAGJIVAN RAM REMEMBERED

Naidu alleges YSRCPignored Dalit welfare

As part of the continuous communityengagement programme, the UnitedNations- affiliated NGO had identifiedaround 1,325 families in 30settlements in Balapur and begundistribution work from April 3

Continued from Page 1

Those who returned fromabroad and persons in thehigh- risk age groups (below10 and above 65 years) werechosen at random and theirblood samples were tested.

"All these samples turnednegative in the tests," theSpecial CS said. The ChiefMinister then asked theSpecial CS to set up a lab inevery district as the number ofcases was mounting.

Jagan directed the officialsto ensure the lockdown guide-lines were scrupulously fol-lowed, particularly in the iden-tified red zones and hotspots.

He also asked them to beprepared to implement anyfresh guidelines from theCentre after the lockdownperiod ends on April 14. ChiefSecretary Nilam Sawhney,Director General of Police DG Sawang, Principal SecretaryPraveen Prakash and othersenior officials attended.

Set up COVID-19 testinglabs in each district...Continued from Page 1

TTD Executive Officer AnilKumar Singal said that TTDhad already given a Rs eightcrore to the government offi-cials of Chittoor district and theremaining Rs 11 crore wouldsoon be handed over to themto fight killer virus. He said the-re was no lapse in the conductof daily rituals at the LordVenkateswara temple on theTirumala hills, since the com-plete lockdown of the nationwas announced by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.


Other districts in the statewhich recorded COVID-19 pos-itive cases are SPS Nellore with 34cases, Guntur with 30 cases fol-lowed by Krishna with 28 cases,while Prakasam and YSR Kadaparecorded 23 cases each.

Chittoor district recorded 17COVID-19 positive cases whileWest Godavari andVisakhapatnam recorded 15 cases

each in the state. East Godavarirecorded 11 cases and Anantapurhad three COVID-19 positivecases.

A total of five patients — oneeach from East Godavari,Krishna, SPS Nellore, Prakasamand Visakhapatnam districts —were discharged upon testingnegative after undergoing quar-antine. Meanwhile, Krishna dis-trict collector A Md Imtiaz saidthat the district recorded 28

COVID-19 positive cases, 348samples have been sent for analy-sis and 146 reports returnednegative. He said that reports of174 tests were awaited.

of the 28 persons infected, 17live within VMC limits, three areare from Jaggaiahapet, two fromNuzvid and one each fromChandralapadu, Nandigama andMachilipatnam. About 460 peo-ple are under isolation, Imtiazsaid.

49 test positive for COVID in Kurnool alone...


Railways is also unlikely torescind a March 19 order sus-pending all concessions for pas-sengers except those offered topatients, students and peoplewith disabilities in a hurry, evenafter the lockdown period to dis-courage unnecessary travel.

Railways, officials said, arealso discussing protocols thatneed to be followed once ser-vices begin to ensure safety ofpassengers. They are mullingoptions like thermal screeningand other methods to screenpassengers boarding trains.

"Once the services areresumed, we are thinking ofrequesting passengers to wearmasks as per the health ministryadvisory. We are also thinkingof using the Arogya app to checkthe health and wellness ofpatients and allow only healthypassengers to board trains, anofficial said.

As part of its preparedness,the Indian Railways has alsoasked zones to ensure the secu-rity of coaches parked in depots.

Officials say once the services

resume full throttle, they expectovercrowding at stations andmeasures have to be chalked outon how to deal with them.

The focus now for railways,the officials said, is to ensure thatthe rakes of passenger trainswhich were suspended due tothe lockdown had returned totheir respective bases, receivedproper maintenance like charg-ing of batteries, cleaning of bio-toilets, and were ready to returnon the tracks once the resump-tion of services is announced.

Officials also said RailwayMinister Piyush Goyal is keenthat the railways concentrate onensuring that the different rail-way zones continue their effortstowards contributing towardsthe larger fight against coron-avirus.

Railway PSUs have alreadycommitted to convertingaround 5000 coaches as isolationwards initially which are likelyto be sent in rural areas whichdoes not have hospitals, hasoffered its hospitals for infectedpatients and are also producingessential medical goods likemasks, sanitisers, PPEs.

Railways mulls post-lockdown norms...

TTD decides to offerRs 19 cr to AP...


The police said that sternaction would be initiated againstthe youth after he is providedtreatment. A case was registeredagainst the youth under variousSections of the law. Meanwhile,health officials advised peopleto confine themselves indoorsand consult doctors if theyshow up any symptoms relatedto Coronavirus.

Youth with Coronasymptoms...

Sealing offhot zones...


At all times doctors, nurs-es and paramedics workingin clinical areas will wearthree-layered surgical maskand gloves. Seventy-ninepeople have died in Indiaafter being infected withCOVID-19, the HealthMinistry said today, addingthat the country recorded472 cases in last 24 hoursthat takes the total to 3,374.

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020 nation 04SHORT READS

‘Lockdown hasimproved air qualityof Bengaluru'BENGALURU: The COVID-19related lockdown hassubstantially improved the airquality of Bengaluru, taking itfrom satisfactory level to good,a senior state pollution controlboard offcial said here onSunday. "During the course ofthe lockdown 19 problem, wereached good position fromsatisfactory. It is between zeroto 50 AQI (Air Quality Index)now. We have good quality air,"the Karnataka State PollutionControl Board membersecretary Basavaraj Patil said.He said the indicator forknowing the air quality in "If theAQI is zero to 50 then it isgood. If it is 50 to 100 then it issatisfactory. 101 to 150 ismoderate and if it is 151 to200, then it is poor, heexplained. Patil said as peravailable recrods, there hasbeen a 60 to 65 per centreduction in pollution duringthe lockdown.

Rs 25 lakhcompensation for Guj frontline staff

Cab aggregator helps4 Australians,stranded in JaipurNEW DELHI: Four Australiansstranded in Jaipur due to theCOVID-19-triggered lockdownin the country, were helped bycab aggregator Ola to reachDelhi, said a companyspokesperson. The four,including two women, werestranded in Jaipur sincelockdown started on March 24,he said, adding they reachedDelhi on Saturday afternoon."The group reached out toAustralian high commission inDelhi, which put them in touchwith Ola, and together wecollaborated with authorities toget permissions and passes tobring them from Jaipur toDelhi," said spokesperson. Atrained driver along with asanitised cab was arranged bycab aggregator after clearanceand permissions fromauthorities for the group toreach Delhi safely. All thenationals were tested negativefor COVID-19 in Jaipur beforethey were transferred to Delhi,he added. Delhi has authoriseddistrict magistrates to issuetransit passes to foreignersseeking to leave the country.

AHMEDABAD: The Gujaratgovernment on Sundayannounced Rs 25 lakhcompensation in casesantitation and health workers,revenue and food suppliesstaff, fair price shop ownersdied of the coronavirusinfection while working in thefrontline to combat theoutbreak. The announcementwas made by Ashwani Kumar,secretary to Chief Minister VijayRupani. Earlier, a similarcompensation package wasannounced for policepersonnel. "Chief Minister VijayRupani has taken a decisionthat after police personnel, kinof sanitary and health workersof municipal corporations andmunicipalities who die in theline of duty due to coronaviruswill get Rs 25 lakh. The benefithas also been extended to staffand officers of revenue andfood supplies departments aswell as owners of fair priceshops," he said.

No crowding on streets aftershutdown, people warnedPNS n BHUBANESWAR

The Odisha government haswarned people inBhubaneswar, Bhadrak andCuttack against venturing outinto the streets in large num-bers after the 48- hour 'totalshutdown' imposed on thethree cities amid the rise inCOVID-19 cases - is lifted onSunday evening.

Addressing a press meethere, Chief Secretary AsitTripathy said sanitisation andsurveillance were being con-ducted from time to time toensure safety of people.

Dispelling fears of commu-nity spread, Tripathy also saidthat the shutdown was primar-ily imposed to investigate theCOVID-19-positive cases inSurya Nagar and Bomikhalareas of the state capital.

"The Surya Nagar case canbe traced back to Kolkata,while patients in Bomikhallocality had links with Bhopal.Therefore, as per our investiga-tion, community transmissionof COVID-19 can be ruled outto a large extent," he said.

The chief secretary, howev-er, asserted that all restrictionsimposed by the Centre and thestate government would con-tinue to remain in force.

Strict action will be taken

against those found flouting thesocial distancing norms, hestated. "District collectors andpolice personnel have beenasked to enforce social distanc-ing in market places. Peopleshould not step out of homes inlarge numbers and create chaos(once the shutdown is lifted).

"The government will haveno option but to implementtougher measures, in such cir-cumstances, he said.

Tripathy further said thatlocal authorities have beenempowered to seal COVID-19hotspots, if and when neces-sary, and carry out surveil-lance and trace contacts.

Maintaining that the stategovernment has adopted bestpractices, in keeping with theguidelines issued by WHO, he

said that the 48-hour shutdown,which ends at 8 pm on Sunday,was a complete success, and thatsimilar steps might be taken inthe days to come, if people werefound violating rules.

Noting that around 80 percent of COVID 19-positivepatients did not exhibit symp-toms initially, he said social dis-tancing, if not maintained,could invite trouble.

The chief secretary urgedcommunity leaders and opin-ion makers to raise awarenesson coronavirus among people.

He also appealed to TablighJamaat event attendees to comeforward and register them-selves with authorities, whowould then arrange for theirmedical tests.

Three persons, including a

religious leader, who hadattended the event in Delhi'sNizamuddin have tested pos-itive for COVID-19 in Odisha.

Meanwhile, the administra-tions in Jajpur and Puri haveimposed a shutdown in severalpockets of the two districts onSaturday. The shutdown wouldremain in force till 8pm on April6 in Jajpur, while district officialsin Puri said the restrictions willbe in place till April 14.

"Public movement has beenbanned in Puri's containmentzones and entry and exit pointshave been sealed, after a per-son tested postitive for the dis-ease in Pipili block. Local res-idents were being suppliedessentials by the administrationat their door steps," Sub-Collector B T Sahu said.

COVID-19

10 Nizamuddin returneesof Mumbai test negative PNS n AGARTALA

Ten residents of Mumbai, whohad come to Tripura afterattending the Tablighi Jamatcongregation in DelhisNizamuddin last month, weretested negative for coronavirus,officials said on Sunday.

Thousands of people acrossthe country and abroad hadattended the religious eventbetween March 13 and 15after the Delhi governmenthad promulgated orders pro-hibiting gatherings or morethan 200 persons. Many of theattendees later tested positivefor COVID-19 and six of themdied in Telangana.

The 10 residents of Mumbaiwere staying in a house atBeterban on the outskirts ofAgartala since March 18, StateNodal Officer for coronavirusDeep Debbarma said.

"Acting on a tip-off, a teamof police and health depart-ment officials visited the houseand put 16 people -- 10 resi-dents of Mumbai and six otheroccupants of the house -- inquarantine. Their swabs weretested in Agartala GovernmentMedical College and all ofthem were found to beCOVID-19 negative,"Debbarma told PTI.

Altogether 50 people, who

attended the Tablighi Jamatcongregation, were tested inTripura and it was found thatnone of them was infected bynovel coronavirus.

Two persons from Tripurawere tested positive for COVID-19 at Bikaner in Rajasthanwhere they had gone travellers.

"11-people from Sipahijaladistrict visited NizamuddinMarkaz in Delhi on March 5.They went to Bikaner fromDelhi. After they were testedthere, two of them were foundto be coronavirus positive,"state Health SecretaryDebasish Basu said.

A total of 4782 persons areunder home quarantine and128 are in facility quarantine inTripura. The health depart-ment has so far tested 191 sam-ples which came negative.

Meanwhile, a cargo plane onSaturday landed at MaharajaBir Bikram Airport here car-rying a consignment of 109packets of essential medicalsupplies, Terminal Manager SHaokip Jempu told reporters.

PNS n KOLKATA

A tour of the city is never com-plete without a visit to the icon-ic Victoria Memorial and thisincludes a ride around the majes-tic structure in Maidan area ona gleaming horse carriage.

But the area is deserted nowdue to the lockdown as a resultof the coronavirus outbreak,except for many horses, turnedpale due to lack of care, loiter-ing around.

More than 100 horses, whichin normal circumstances drawbeautifully bedecked carriagesfor tourists and city-dwellers ona day out, or carry children ontheir backs during joyridesaround the famous VictoriaMemorial here, are now anabandoned lot, said Ajay Daga,a senior member of People ForAnimals (PFA).

The NGO has come forwardto feed these animals till the sit-uation normalises, Daga saidon Sunday.

"I got a phone call from MrsManeka Gandhi on Fridayenquiring about the conditionof the horses," Daga said.

The former Union minister,known to be an avid animal

lover, has assured assistance toPFA in taking care of these ani-mals whenever required, he said.

"At present, PFA is feedinghorses with the help of publicdonations," Daga told PTI.

While some of the owners ofthe horses have gone back totheir native states in UttarPradesh and Bihar by abandon-

ing the animals since the lock-down began, some have stayedback, of whom, only a few aretaking care of their horses.

"Even when the lockdown islifted, who will be there to rideour carriages since there will beno tourist for sometime there-after," Salim, one of the own-ers said.

Daga said the PFA has fundsto feed horses only for the nextseven days.

The cost of feeding the hors-

es is around Rs 15,000 per day."We have decided to feed the

stray horses till the situationnormalises after the lockdownis lifted," he said.

Daga said that city-head-quartered Emami Group'sjoint-chairman, R S Goenka,who is a trustee of the PFA,chips in whenever there is anyrequirement.

Local councillor SusmitaBhattacharya said the KolkataMunicipal Corporation is fill-

ing the troughs, near theVictoria Memorial, built tostore drinking water for theanimals.

"As a local councillor, I gotinformation that more than100 horses have been aban-doned by their owners andwere loitering in the maidanarea, following which I hadcontacted the NGO for feedingthe animals," she said.

She said that a sack of fod-der, which normally costs Rs800 to Rs 850, is now costingRs 1,150.

"I got a call from a seniorofficial at the West BengalState Secretariat 'Nabanna'inquiring about the conditionof the horses and he hasassured that the governmentwill do the needful to ensurethat the animals are taken careof," Bhattacharya said.

Horses used left in maidan to survive on their ownWhile some of the owners of thehorses have gone back to their nativestates in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar byabandoning the animals since thelockdown began, some have stayedback, of whom, only a few are takingcare of their horses

PNS n ITANAGAR

Self-help groups in anArunachal Pradesh districthave come forward duringthe coronavirus pandemic bystiching masks for frontlineworkers, a senior official said.

Keeping in mind shortage ofprotective gear in the markets,nearly 100 women members ofself-help groups (SHGs) inChanglang district are on thejob to prepare three-layeredreusable masks to be distrib-uted among sanitary workersand police personnel, at anominal price.

The move was initiatedwhen on the persuasion of thedistrict administration,Bordumsa Mahila Mandal,headed by Pisilu Singphoagreed to provide 500 masks tothe administration at a nom-

inal cost of Rs 40 per mask,Changlang deputy commis-sioner R K Sharma said.

The self-help group has acapacity of making 150 masksper day and so far it has sup-plied 700 masks to variousagencies, Sharma said.

Taking a cue from theBordumsa Mahila Mandal,another self-help group of thedistrict - Changlangkan Self-Help Group headed by MarinaTikhak, also started sewingmasks, and so far the NGO hassupplied 215 masks to variousfrontline workers of the dis-trict, Sharma said.

The reusable masks arestitched and sanitized underthe professional advice of doc-tors. The NGOs have receivedadditional orders and areworking tirelessly to meet thedemand, the DC said.

PNS n MUMBAI

Family members of a 71-year-old man from Vakola inMumbai who died of coron-avirus infection on Friday haveclaimed that civic-runKasturba Hospital had refusedto admit him when they failedto provide his travel history.

One of the two sons of thedeceased said on Sunday thatfamily members came to knowabout the exact cause of thedeath only after local policeinformed them.

"We first admitted my fatherto a civic-run facility after hecomplained of uneasiness onMarch 24. But as his health didnot improve, we took him to aprivate doctor in Vakola," hesaid.

He claimed that the family

members approached a civic-run facility in Santacruz (east)last Thursday, but authoritiesthere asked them to rush theman to Kasturba Hospital insouth Mumbai. "They provid-ed us an ambulance," he said.

He said when they reachedKasturba Hospital, the nodalfacility for COVID-19 cases inMumbai, we were asked toprovide travel history of the

patient."When we failed to provide

travel history, they refused toadmit my father," he claimed.

I and my brother rushed myfather to KEM Hospital on atwo-wheeler on Thursdayitself. "My father's treatmentstarted on a bench at KEMHospital. On one occasion hefell from a stretcher. Next dayhe was declared dead," he said.

Covid-19 victim's kin claimadmission refusal by Kasturba hosp

SHGs in ArunachalPradesh districtmanufacture masks

PNS n NEW DELHI

The India Islamic CulturalCentre on Sunday urged allreligious scholars and leadersto appeal to citizens not to visitplaces of worship during thelockdown period, saying thesituation arising out of thecoronavirus pandemic is"unprecedented" and toughtimes call for tough measures.In a statement issued by theorganisation's vice president,S M Khan, all stakeholderswere asked to show "completediscipline" and refrain fromactivities which can causedamage to the dedicatedefforts of the government.

The statement from theoffice-bearer of the four-decade-old organisation,which was set up to promotemutual understanding and

amity amongst the people ofthe country, came after reportsof some patients taken forquarantine from TablighiJamaat headquarters inNizamuddin allegedly misbe-having with the medical staff.

Khan thanked all essentialservice providers who areensuring continuity of supplies.

PNS n NEW DELHI

While infected people sneez-ing, coughing and snifflingcan spread COVID-19, itappears that the communica-ble period for the coronaviruscan start before a person fallssick and may even continueafter they apparently recover,says a new book.

"A person may get infectedbut may not fall sick for sever-al days and may appear healthy.These apparently healthy peo-ple need to be monitored notonly for their own safety, butalso to prevent transmission ofinfection to others," say thethree authors who are medicalexperts.

While sick people sneez-ing, coughing, sniffling and

excreting out virus cause mostcoronavirus infections, itappears the communicableperiod for the coronavirus canstart before a person falls sickand may even continue afterthey apparently recover, they

say. "The Coronavirus: WhatYou Need to Know about theGlobal Pandemic" is written byinternal medicine specialistDr Swapneil Parikh, clinicalpsychologist Maherra Desai,and neuropsychiatrist Dr

Rajesh M Parikh and is pub-lished by Ebury Press, animprint of Penguin RandomHouse. The publishing housesaid for the first time it isreleasing a superlead title bookin e-format before its subse-quent launch in physical formin the market. According to theauthors, current estimates ofthe incubation period ofCOVID-19 range from one to14 days, with most cases occur-ring approximately five to sixdays after exposure.

"Therefore, exposed indi-viduals are quarantined fortwo weeks from exposure (themaximum incubation time).The incubation period explainswhy people exposed to infec-tion on a plane don't fall sickright away.

‘Communicable period for coronavirusmay continue after patients recover’

PNS n UDHAMPUR (J&K)

Lending its support to theJammu and Kashmir adminis-tration in the fight againstcoronavirus, the Army onSunday said it has opened itscommand hospital here to testsamples of suspected cases.

The hospital is fullyequipped to deal with patientsinfected with the disease andmany wards have been con-verted into corona-specificintensive care units, comman-dant of the hospital MajGeneral S C Gupta toldreporters here.

“We have always emergedvictorious in the wars againstour enemies. This time ourfight is against COVID-19 andthe command hospital is fullyprepared to register its victo-ry over the disease as well,” hesaid. Maj Gen Gupta said theArmy responded swiftly to

the request of the civil admin-istration in accordance with itstradition to assist the govern-ment to meet any eventuality.

“The civil administrationapproached us on April 1 andwithout wasting any time, westarted testing from the nextday and so far 68 samples weretested at the command hospi-

tal,” he said. He said the mol-ecular biology laboratory of thecommand hospital was recent-ly validated and approved bythe ICMR for testing.

Maj Gen Gupta said manywards have been transformedinto corona-specific ICUs atthe hospital to tackle the casesof coronavirus.

Facing ‘social boycott',man hangs self to death PNS n SHIMLA

A 37-year-old man hanged selfto death in HimachalPradesh's Una district onSunday morning after alleged-ly facing "social boycott" bysome villagers, who suspectedhim to be suffering fromCOVID-19 despite testingnegative for it.

Mohammad Dilshad com-mitted suicide under a shed athis residence in Una'sBangarh village, a day afterhealth officials dropped him athis village following his neg-ative report, an official said.

He was taken to a quaran-tine facility a few days agowhere he tested negative forthe disease.

Una Sadar SHO DarshanSingh said Dilshad was one ofthe contacts of a TablighiJamaat member who hadreturned from New Delhi'sNizamuddin.

Commenting on it, DGPSita Ram Mardi said, "Somevillagers pointed out that thisman was a suspected COVID-19 patient. He was quaran-tined and tested negative forthe infection. When hereturned to his village, he wasdiscriminated against andsocially boycotted by villagers.At this, he committed suicide."

However, the SHO told PTIthat the matter was beinginvestigated whether he wasdiscriminated against orsocially boycotted by villagers.

Army opens command hospital to assist J-K administration in fight against Covid-19

Altogether 50people, whoattended theTablighi Jamatcongregation,were tested inTripura and it wasfound that noneof them wasinfected by novelcoronavirus

Chief secretaryAsit Tripathyhowever, assertedthat allrestrictionsimposed by theCentre and thestate governmentwould continue toremain in force

In a statement, SMKhan, all stakeholderswere asked to show"complete discipline"and refrain fromactivities which cancause damage to thededicated efforts ofthe government

Appeal people not to visitplaces of worship duringlockdown: Islamic Centre

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020 nation 05SHORT READS

Eye doctor inquarantine afterattending preparatorymeeting for TablighiHYDERABAD: Anophthalmologist at a state-runmedical institute has beenplaced under hospitalquarantine in Telagana after heattended the preparatorymeeting for the Tablighi Jamatcongregation in Delhi lastmonth and his test results areawaited, officials said here onSunday. The COVID-19 testreport of the eye specialist,working at the Rajiv GandhiInstitute of Medical Sciences atAdilabad, was awaited, theysaid. The man, who is also aJamat functionary and isreportedly an organisingcommittee member,had visitedDelhi on March 8, returned toAdialabad on March 10, asenior official said. He did notdisclose that he had taken partin the event and beganattending to patients fromMarch 12 to April 1, he said.

Unexploded mortarshell destroyed alongLoC in JK's Poonch

Tally of Covid-19patients in KalyanDombivali areas 28

3 kin of 93-year-oldMP man test positive

THANE: With four morepersons, including a minor,testing positive for coronavirusin the areas under KalyanDombivali MunicipalCorporation (KDMC), thenumber of such patients in theregion rose to 28 on Sunday,officials said. All the four newpatients are residents ofDombivali. One of them is aseven-year-old girl. Three otherpatients are women aged 75,54 and 24, an official statementsaid. The 24-year-old womanhad returned from Parisrecently, it added. All the fourpatients are currently beingtreated at Mumbai's KasturbaHospital, the statement said.

BARWANI (MP): Threepersons, including a 13-yeargirl, tested positive for novelcoronavirus in Barwani districtof Madhya Pradesh on Sunday,a senior official said, addingthey were kin of a 93-year-oldman who had arrived here fromUAE on March 13 and died onMarch 30. The elderly man, aresident of Sendhwa here, haddied in an Indore hospital and itis not known whether hissamples were tested forcoronavirus at the time, DistrictCollector Amit Tomar said.

JAMMU: The Army's anti-explosion experts on Sundaydestroyed a live mortar shell ina forward area along the Lineof Control in Poonch district ofJammu and Kashmir, officialssaid. The shell had remainedunexploded during the recentcross-border shelling byPakistani army and was noticedby some border residents nearGhani village in Krishna Ghatisector, the officials said. Theysaid the army experts rushed tothe scene and safely destroyedthe mortar shell.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The rate of doubling ofCOVID-19 cases in India is 4.1days presently but if the caseslinked to the Tablighi Jamaatcongregation would not havehappened, it would have been7.4 days, the Health Ministrysaid on Sunday.

Joint Secretary in the min-istry Lav Agarwal said therehad been 472 new COVID-19cases and 11 deaths sinceSaturday. The total coronaviruscases stand at 3,374 and thedeath toll now stands at 79. Hesaid 267 people have recovered.

However, a PTI tally of fig-ures reported by states direct-ly showed at least 106 deaths,while the number of con-firmed cases had reached3,624. Of the total, 284 havebeen cured and discharged.

There has been a lag in theUnion Health Ministry fig-ures, compared to the numbersannounced by different states,which officials attribute to

procedural delays in assigningthe cases to individual states.

Asserting that there was noevidence that COVID-19 wasairborne, an ICMR officialsaid, "We need to understandthat in science whoever doesexperiments some will have a'for opinion and some against'but we need to take a balanced,evidence-based approach.”

"For example, if it was an air-borne infection then in a fam-ily whoever has a contact theyall should come positivebecause they are living in same

surrounding as the patient andthe family is breathing thesame air. When someone isadmitted in hospital, otherpatient would have got expo-sure (if it was air borne) butthat is not the case,” the officialsaid. Talking about the TablighiJamaat congregation, Agarwalsaid, "If the Tablighi Jamaatincident had not taken placeand we compare the rate ofdoubling — that is in howmany days the cases have dou-bled, we will see that current-ly it is 4.1 days (including

Jamaat cases) and if the inci-dent had not taken place andadditional cases had not comethen the doubling rate wouldhave been 7.4 days."

CS Rajiv Gauba on Sundayheld a meeting on COVID-19with district magistrates, super-intendent of police, chief med-ical officers, state and districtsurveillance officers, statehealth secretaries and districthealth secretaries and chiefsecretaries, Agarwal said.

PNS n NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR

Human Intelligence, a weaponused for busting terror groupsin Jammu and Kashmir, hascome in handy to trace peoplewho concealed their travelhistory, besides in retracing thesteps of coronavirus positivepatients, in an operation thatled to tracking of over 1,000people who have since beenquarantined in various parts ofthe union territory.

Fighting this new battle,officials said the authoritiesroped in the state intelligencemachinery who were tasked totrack, identify and bring suchpeople to quarantine facilities.

The intelligence personnelalong with the regular police,which remain at the forefrontin the fight against terrorgroups in the union territory,were now complementing thedistrict administration in itsefforts to ensure the success ofthe lockdown, besides trackingpeople who hid their travel his-tory from the authorities.

According to a report sub-mitted to the Centre, over

1,000 people who had eithertraveled out of the state orabroad were brought to quar-antine centres between March15 and 31 and their identifica-tion and verification was goingon, the officials said.

Also, more than 28,000 peo-ple are under surveillancewhich included 10,600 whohave been either quarantinedat government facilities or inhome-isolation, the officialssaid. There have been 92 pos-itive cases so far in the unionterritory out of which twohave died.

A total of 34 hotspots have

been identified in Jammu andKashmir which include: sevenin Pulwama, five in Srinagar,and four each in Bandiporaand Budgam; two in Shopian,one each in Ganderbal andBaramulla in Kashmir division;and five in Rajouri, four inJammu and one in Udhampurdistrict of Jammu division.

"We knew that it's a chainreaction. He would have metone and the chain continues.So it was necessary to imme-diately break the chain," said anofficial of the JK administra-tion, spoking on condition ofanonymity.

Anti-terror mechanism used totrack people escaping quarantine

PNS n NEW DELHI

How do you explain to a childthe science of something thatis neither living nor dead?How do you tell her that some-thing invisible can kill people.What answer does a father havewhen his son asks whether hewill be able to celebrate hisbirthday in June. Then there isthe kid who is competes withhis parents for TV time – car-toons or grim news programs?And perhaps not surprisinglymany want to beat up China

Parents across the country,and the world, are grapplingwith an unprecedented chal-lenge of dealing with theirchildren who are too old to beshushed or placated and tooyoung to understand the inex-plicable situation the worldhas found itself in.

PTI journalists across Indiashared experiences and conver-sations with their childrenaged 2 to 13, which rangedfrom cute to poignant and

heart-wrenching to humor-ous, and some with sagacity farbeyond their age.

Here are some of the experiencesfrom around the country:

Niheer Waghmare, all of 2years 4 months, is a diehard fanof his father Aditya's RoyalEnfield motorcycle. A shortride around Aurangabad ismandatory every day. Whenthe lockdown started, this prac-

tice stopped. Now the bikeengine is started every morn-ing for him to sit on its petroltank and drink his milk.

His mother told him: “Thereis a threat called corona onroads outside. It will attack andinjure us”. He understood it'ssomething dangerous.

“He said, 'once corona ends,I will go to the hills'. For now,I show the hills to him from theroof of my house,” said

Waghmare. Three-year-old Ira was never

too keen to go to playschool.But since the lockdown she'sbeen insisting on being withher playgroup. So her mother,Arundhati Pattabhiraman,dresses up Ira every morningand lines up her toys to createan environment similar to herplay school.

To make her understandabout coronavirus, “we made itinto a story that it is a monsterwhich will catch her if she stepsout of the house or if she does-n't wash her hands. So nowevery time she speaks to hergrandparents, she ends the con-

versation with 'wash your handsor coronavirus will get you'.”

Anvay Deshmukh , 4,believes he can beat the“Corona-demon” in a fist fight.He also checks out the maingate of the house a couple oftimes in a day, thinking he mayspot the demon so that he canfight with him.

“We have informed him thathe is not supposed to touchhim and keep his hands cleanso that coronavirus will notrecognise him. He has startedjoyously clapping every timeafter washing his hands” saidhis father Nikhil Deshmukh inMumbai.

“We had to come up with astory of Corona-demon who ison the loose and is wanderingon the streets,” said Deshmukh.“He at times believes that.”

Ananya Jaiswal, who is 5,used to go on a horse cart rideevery weekend, followed byher favourite cheese dosa andwatermelon juice. Acceptingthat the horse cart ride is notpossible now, she has found analternative -- her soft toy, a hugeWinnie the Pooh, on which shesits and pretends to be on ahorse. As for the cheese dosa,“we try to make her happy bymaking her favourite delica-cies,” said her mother KomalPanchamatia in Mumbai.

The other day, she chose towear her party dress and gotready with matching acces-sories. She wore it throughoutthe day, said Panchamatia, wholike everyone else is workingfrom home. “Ananya has bynow understood that I have ateacher and I have been givenhomework to doevery day.”

In millions of homes, kids have questions about corona

Jamaat incident worsenedCovid-19 spread, says Govt

Parents across the country, and theworld, are grappling with anunprecedented challenge of dealingwith their children who are too old tobe shushed or placated and too youngto understand the inexplicable situationthe world has found itself in

PNS n NEW DELHI

As the world scrambles tofind a cure for COVID-19,health experts have suggestedboosting the body's immunesystem may help minimizethe affects and hasten therecovery from the disease.

They say ayurvedic herbssuch as tulsi, cinnamon, blackpepper, shunthi (dry ginger)and raisins and regular yogaare potent aids to increase thebody's immunity againstharmful viruses.

Prime Minister NarendraModi, too, recently highlight-ed the benefits of ayurveda andurged people to "have a look"at Ayush Ministry's protocol tostay fit, saying "good health isthe harbinger of happiness".

The ministry's protocol out-lined measures to build astrong immune system and itincluded: consuming warmwater, practising yogasana,pranayama and meditation for

30 minutes every day.It also advised usage of

turmeric, cumin, corianderand garlic in cooking, besidestaking 10 gm of chyavanprashin the morning. Jaggery, freshlemon juice too can be helpfulin the fight against COVID-19.

Sanchit Sharma, executivedirector of herbal products-manufacturer AIMIL Pharma,welcomed the prime minister'ssuggestion, saying immunitywill be "our saviour" againstthe virus. Also, a health

immune system will help inrecovery from the coronavirusinfection, Sharma added. Thefirm offers immunityenhancer herbal drug Fifatrol,a multi-drug combination ofayurvedic classical medicinesand herbs like mrityunjayrasa, sanjeevani vati, tulsi andgiloe, he said.

"The idea is that if youdon't have a potent weapon tocombat the enemy, a strongand effective shield is the bestbet to protect yourself."

Ayurveda helps boost immunityagainst Covid-19, say experts

PNS n KOCHI

Japan has lifted inspectionorder for Indian Black Tigershrimps after the export con-signments of this shrimp werefound free from any residue ofsynthetic anti-bacterial drugfurazolidone, MPEDA has saidhere.

This has been conveyed byFood Inspection and SafetyDivision of Japan's Ministry ofHealth, Labour and Welfare(MHLW) to the Embassy ofIndia in Japan, ExportInspection Council of Indiaand the Marine ProductsExport Development Authority(MPEDA).The MHLW hasalso reduced import inspectionsampling frequency for BlackTiger shrimp (Penaeus mon-odon) to 30 per cent from thecurrent 100 per cent.

The order related with fura-zolidone was implemented inaccordance with Section 3,

Article 26 of the FoodSanitation Act of Japan.

Black Tiger shrimp, com-monly known as the gianttiger prawn or Asian Tigershrimp, is a popular seafooddelicacy the worldover andalso forms an important seg-ment of India's marine prod-ucts export basket.

Japan consumes nearly 40per cent of India's Black Tigershrimp exports, while it enjoys

niche markets in the EU andUSA also. The MHLW, in aMarch 25 communication toits chiefs of Quarantine Station,has also conveyed that due tolifting of Inspection Orderrelated with furazolidone onIndian cultured Black Tigershrimp, the frequency of mon-itoring inspection will berevised to 30 per cent based onImported Foods Monitoringand Guidance Plan FY2019

and it is added to Schedule-2of monitoring notification.

A two-member expert teamhad surveyed the Black Tigershrimp hatcheries and farms,and processing units thatexport the variety duringMarch 2-6 ahead of this order,MPEDA said in a release here.

Welcoming the lifting ofinspection order by Japan, K SSrinivas, Chairman, MPEDA,said it is a validation of therelentless efforts undertaken bythe Authority in raising therequest at various platformsand through its trade promo-tion office in Tokyo.

He also said MPEDAthrough its field offices andsociety named National Centrefor Sustainable Aquaculture,had been constantly educatingfarmers on BMPs and the ill-effects on usage of unknowninputs which may containresidues of anti-microbial sub-stances like furazolidone.

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

Union Minister Pratap Sarangihas urged Odisha ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik toprovide a compensation pack-age for priests and servitors,who are finding it difficult toearn livelihood, amid thenationwide lockdownimposed to slow the spread ofCOVID-19.

He also pointed out thattemples in Odisha, unlikemany other states, do not paysalaries to the priests andservitors, who mostly dependon offerings from devotees fortheir every day expenses.

In a letter to Patnaik, theUnion Minister of State forMicro, Small & MediumEnterprises said,"I request youto kindly issue instructions tothe state's Hindu ReligiousEndowment Authority tomake an assessment of theground situation and come out

with a compensation packagefor the priests and servitors ofthe temples under its charge,for their relief in these difficulttimes." In the wake of theCOVID-19 lockdown, admin-istration has shut down placesof worship across the state toprevent mass gatherings.

Sarangi said the priests andtheir attendants were findingit difficult to feed their fami-lies.

Union Minister writes toOdisha CM, seeks reliefpackage for priests, servitors

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Centre made a "grave mis-take" by announcing the lock-down without taking the statesinto confidence and it shouldnow spell out its plan after the21-day period ends to avoid"chaos", Congress leader MVeerappa Moily said on Sunday.

Asserting that access to test-ing should be "universal",Moily, a member of Congresstask force to deal withCOVID-19 pandemic inparty-ruled states, said thekey to fighting the pandemicwas large scale testing and theCongress-ruled states werefocusing on that aspect despiteconstraints.

"We (Congress-ruled states)have given high priority to test-ing. Until the testing is carriedout on a massive scale, I don'tthink we can tackle this issue,"he told PTI in an interview.

The former Union ministeris part of the Congress taskforce set up last month to

intensify efforts to deal withthe COVID-19 situation inparty-ruled states.

Besides Moily, the task forcealso includes P Chidambaram,Jairam Ramesh, andTamradhwaj Sahu — all chair-men of respective manifestoimplementation committeesin the Congress ruled-states ofPuducherry, Punjab,Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

Moily asserted that thestates should have been takeninto confidence before thelockdown was ordered.

Govt made ‘grave mistake',says Veerappa Moily

PNS n MUMBAI

Air India has asked passengerswho travelled in four of itsflights in March to follow nec-essary isolation or quarantineafter three passengers on thoseflights tested positive for coro-navirus.

Two of these flights werefrom Goa to Mumbai, onefrom Mumbai to Delhi andanother from Delhi to Patna.

In an appeal to passengerswho were onboard theseflights, the airline said it has gotthe information that three pas-sengers who travelled with thefights have been found infect-ed with coronavirus.

"As informed by DisasterManagement Department ofBihar, one passenger who trav-

elled from Mumbai to Delhi byAI-101 of March 22 and fromDelhi-to Patna on AI-415 onMarch 23 has been foundCOVID-9 positive on March31," the airline said in a tweet.

As appealed by the depart-ment, passengers who were onthis flight are required to fol-low necessary isolation/quar-

antine process.The national carrier also

made similar appeals to thepassengers of its Mumbai-Goaflights, AI 883 and AI 661, onMarch 22 and March 19,respectively.

"As informed by IntegratedDisease SurveillanceProgramme, Directorate ofHealth Services, Goa, one pas-senger who travelled fromMumbai to Panjim in Goa onAir India flight AI 661 onMarch 19 has been foundCOVID-9 positive.

As appealed by integrateddisease surveillance pro-gramme, Goa, passengers forthis flight are required to fol-low for necessary isolationquarantine," Air India said ina tweet on Saturday.

CORONAVIRUS SCARE

AI appeals flyers of 4 flights operatedin Mar to quarantine themselves

PNS n NEW DELHI

Only 57 per cent students in thecountry have required hard-ware like computer, router andprinter at home to attendonline classes being conductedduring the coronavirus lock-down, according to a survey.

The survey, with over25,000 respondents, alsopointed out problems beingfaced by students in sharingresources with parents who, asseen in many households, arealso working from home.

"Around 57 per centrespondents said they havehardware like computer, tablet,printer and router, required fortheir children to participate inonline classes from homewhile 43 per cent respondentssaid they do not have requiredresources," the survey con-

ducted by online platformLocal Circles said.

"This means that two inevery five parents do not havethe necessary equipment toenable their wards to take theonline classes which will startsometime in April. Some par-ents at schools where onlineclasses already started lastweek expressed how they wereletting their child use theircomputer for online classesand compromising on theirwork from home," it reported.

Some parents also men-tioned that they were havingproblems to divide theresources among their chil-dren. Several schools and col-leges have been conductingonline classes for studentsafter the government hadannounced closure of educa-tional institutions.

Only 57 pc students haverequired hardware toattend online classes

Japan lifts inspection order for Indian Black Tiger shrimps

There has been alag in the UnionHealth Ministryfigures, comparedto the numbersannounced bydifferent states,which officialsattribute toprocedural delays

Acruel irony plays out as thepowerful Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USSTheodore Roosevelt, succumbsprecariously to what the US

President had cuttingly called the “Chinesevirus” or Coronavirus. The irony gets mag-nified with the ship’s call sign, “RoughRider” and its motto, Qui Plantavit Curabit,or, “He, who has planted, will preserve.”With more than 100 sailors infected withthe Novel Coronavirus, the mighty battleplatform has been rendered ineffective likenever before. The gargantuan warshipwith over 1,17,000 tonne displacementcapacity to carry 90 aircraft and 5,000 crewmembers had been leading a China-cen-tric strike group encompassing an air wing,cruiser and six destroyers before it figura-tively ran aground with the first COVID-19 case being reported on any US naval ves-sel deployed overseas. The sheer apathy andindecisions surrounding the crisis in the USNavy are obvious from the fact that the firstreported case came on March 24 and therequest to contain the predicament wentunheeded till it led to a spiralling of infect-ed cases aboard. An embarrassing SOS fol-lowed from the Captain of the battleship.

Captain Brett Crozier wrote a desper-ate and blunt four-page letter to the navalleadership asking for “decisive action”and warned that the continuing dilly-dal-lying was “unacceptable.” His movingwords, “We are not at war. Sailors do notneed to die. If we do not act now, we arefailing to properly take care of our mosttrusted asset — our sailors”, hit at the soulof the seafaring nation with a proud navaltradition. The US’s legendary politician, theformer Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox,had famously said, “No matter what hap-pens, the US Navy is not going to be caughtnapping.”

Seemingly, it was caught napping inthis incident as the optics were almost sim-ilar to the Japanese civilian cruise liner,Diamond Princess. Confusion led to theonboard quarantining of the ship with 712out of the 3,711 passengers and crew infect-ed with Coronavirus. Inaction on the partof the US Navy in responding to the ini-tial request for containment measuresonboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt led toa similar multiplication of infection. The$10 billion platform has now become abreeding ground for Coronavirus.

Living conditions on these platformsare extremely constrained to say the least.Sailors are placed cheek-by-jowl across alabyrinth of decks lined by steep ladder-likestairs and very narrow corridors. Armedto the teeth, the free space available is at asuper-premium with up to 60 sailors shar-ing a sleeping compartment that is in bunkor rack formation, crammed together instacks of three. All 60 of them could besharing one bathroom with a very sparsecommon area. Workplaces are similarly

constricted. The space to main-tain the prescribed social dis-tancing or to have properdecontamination is not possi-ble without full evacuation.

However, evacuation hasbeen the bone of contentionwith the Captain suggesting aresidual force of 10 per cent or500 members to stay on boardto perform sustenance duties;whereas the Chief of Navaloperations has insisted on 1,000sailors in order to maintain the safety and security of theship.

At stake is the nuclearpower plant, four squadrons ofBoeing F-18 fighter aircraft,one squadron of Growler elec-tronic warfare aircraft, twosquadrons of Seahawk multi-mission helicopters, onesquadron of Grumman E-2Hawkeye early warning aircraftand another squadron ofGreyhound cargo aircraft.Besides, the aircraft carrier’sown munitions, including threePhalanx CIWS, two RIM-7Sea Sparrow weapons systemsand two RIM-116 infrared sur-face-to-air missiles. Securingthe operational worthiness ofthe ship has inadvertentlycounter-posited the same vis-à-vis the concern for the safe-ty of the sailors onboard. Whilethe US naval top brass is reject-ing allegations of either a lack-adaisical attitude or failure to

take care of its sailors, this inci-dent has highlighted the over-all lack of preparedness andsensitivity towards such exigen-cies — be it in the civilian or inthe military realm.

However, what will hauntthe hallowed institution of theUS armed forces much after theCoronavirus crisis has settled isnot so much the apparentdefencelessness from a medical or an infrastructuralperspective, as much as thereaction of its senior leadershiptowards the soldiers at theforefront.

Captain Brett Crozieralluded to this leadershipaspect when he stated thatkeeping the crew on the shipwas “an unnecessary risk andbreaks faith with those sailorsentrusted to our care.” Equally,the leak of the letter to the Presshas also diminished the prin-ciple of good order, restraintand discipline that behoves acombat leader, whatever thecircumstances.

Even a direct letter to theostensible Commander-in-Chief, as opposed to the Press,would have been construed tobe a lesser dereliction of theinstitutional traditions. Thisincident will trigger a debate onthe sacred covenant betweenthe soldier and service, whichalways prides that they “leaveno men behind.” Sometimes,

the practicality of the situationand the cruel principle of “larg-er good” lead to an unfortunatecompromise as it happened inthe US’ decision to drop atom-ic bombs over Hiroshima andNagasaki. This, knowing itfully well that occupiedAmerican prisoners-of-war(POWs) were held up in theselocations. Even if the initialdownplaying and non-evacua-tion of the Coronavirus riddenUSS Theodore Roosevelt was apractical necessity, it was nothandled with the required con-cern, alacrity and reassurancefrom the naval leadership.

Naval leaderships are givento the very finest and noblesttraditions that always put thehonour of the nation and thepeople under command abovethe interest of the leaders them-selves. The saga of IndianNavy’s captain, MN Mulla,who chose to go down with hisship in the India-Pakistan war,is the sort of DNA that profes-sional navies thrive on.

Therefore, the US Navywill be forced to navel-gaze onits own handling of the USSTheodore Roosevelt issue as themost visible, intimidating anddeadly “five acres of mobile USland.” Diplomacy cannot sinkto such lows.

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islands)

Dharavi, Asia’s largest and clusteredslum, has registered three cases ofCoronavirus and unfortunately, one

death as well, taking India’s battle against thevirus to another level altogether. AnArmageddon we are not ready to fight just yetbut our containment drill now will be to iden-tify, isolate and choke clusters considering thedensity of population and the less than stan-dard safety and hygiene protocols. Dharavi ishome to a whopping one million slum-dwellerscrammed in a roughly five-square-kilometre

maze of narrow lanes, ramshackle buildings, shanties and open sewers. Withfamilies of six-seven people packed like sardines in tiny quarters, social dis-tancing is a privilege none can afford. Such community clusters may just beour Achilles’ heel in the fight against the rapidly-spreading Coronavirus that hasferociously battered the entire human population of the planet. Given the rateof the disease spiral, community transmission is a given, at least in such con-tiguous settlements.

Urban slums are indispensable to the economy of the country as a vast per-centage of daily-wage labourers, industrial workers and domestic help live here,keeping the service economy going. They represent a valuable human resource.Water sources and sanitation facilities are shared by multitudes of people andexistence is by the brush of the skin. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation(BMC) has quarantined and stamped all the people who may have come in con-tact with the victim but tracing people who float in and out is still a humongouschallenge. The BMC swung into action quickly, in alliance with the police, firebrigade, doctors and healthcare workers called the Contain Dharavi Operation.This multi-pronged strategy didn’t let up for 24 hours at a stretch. They imme-diately separated people above 60 who were also suffering from some respira-tory diseases and tested them. In fact, if more positive cases show up, they willtest all 125 senior citizens in the vicinity. The affected, the senior citizens andthose with underlying health conditions will be moved to the district sports com-plex if need be. This micro pin-pointing is arduous and meticulous but is ouronly hope to stave off a human disaster. It is through non-pharmaceutical means,lockdowns, testing and isolation through which we can contain and confine themalaise, may be delay its inevitable spread. With even developed countries suchas the US, Spain and Italy being overwhelmed by the pandemic and their health-care facilities facing a crisis, we need intense community vigilance. With rapid-ly-increasing numbers of positive cases being reported every week, it is esti-mated that our hospitals will be overwhelmed by the end of May or even soon-er considering that the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people in India is only0.7, compared to 11.5 in South Korea. What’s equally alarming is the fact thatsome States could reach the point where they don’t have enough hospital bedsto treat critical COVID-19 patients much sooner than others, notably Kerala,Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab. This is a time for sharing resources and exper-tise and while we have to shut out the world, States and the Centre need to poolin and share resources to save our communities.

As news begins to filter in that compa-nies are using the “conditional” part ofa “conditional offer” they made to grad-

uating students from India’s premier institutessuch as the Indian Institutes of Technology(IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management(IIMs) to withdraw job offers, the young andtalented Indians might feel outraged anddespondent. But unlike the good times,when one rescinded offer meant 10 other goodones fell into one’s lap, this time round, offersmade by the elite “Fortune 100” companies

are falling by the wayside. Many jobs that involved moving to the UK or the UShave been put aside as businesses will try to work out the costs of the slow-down, which will inevitably come with a rise in nationalism as millions of localjobs will be lost. Post-Corona rebuild means each affected country prioritisesits own needs and people. In the US, for example, foreign nationals have suc-cumbed to the unfortunate yet unavoidable consequence, which is of unem-ployment. Thousands of techies and skilled workers, around 67 per cent fromIndia, holding a non-immigrant visa (the H-1B category) are now on a stickywicket. What’s worrying them more is the fact that they face the prospect ofbeing an illegal immigrant as visas for most professionals have lapsed. All theyhave is a 60-day grace period to find a new job. Frankly speaking, in these strainedtimes, it is an impossible task. An evacuation flight emergency operation, too,remains off the radar. This is why demand for a minor change in the H-1B rules— to allow a 90-day grace period — has been making headlines. The earlierhiccups of the US Government, where it had imposed curbs on the issuance ofH-1B visas notwithstanding, the Trump administration has been a vocal oppo-nent of the demands by technological firms lobbying to extend the programmethat would allow more immigration.

Thus, it might be years before India’s top export — that of talent — recov-ers. While the best graduates from the better schools and colleges will find jobseven in a weak economy, the sudden stopping of the brain drain faucet mustbe looked on as a positive. Instead of losing its best talent to the Silicon Valleyand the global financial sector, India will hold on to some of this talent. Maybefinally a Satya Nadella or Sundar Pichai could make it big in India instead of hav-ing to go abroad. That said, the glut of talent and the inevitable lack of jobs acrosssectors is going to mean that many of the average boys and girls, who gradu-ate, will not find worthy employment. With the service industry, too, in tatters,there will be a lot of stories of young, destitute people. This is why the Governmentwill have to spend, spend and spend not only to get the infrastructure sectorgoing but also the private sector. The job losses that will result from the viral cri-sis are expected to wipe out even the modest gains made by India in the pastdecade. Things are going to be tough and it will take exemplary leadership andeconomic planning to pull the country out of it, at least pull it out of this crisisbetter than the rest of the world. This cannot be done by the current political andbureaucratic leadership alone. India needs to set up war councils on the econ-omy. Councils that should not just have the country’s top industrialists and cor-porate leaders but also the finest brains in our country, many of whom teachabroad. We cannot avoid the economic desolation that the virus will leave in itswake but we should now start working towards the rebuilding and the reimag-ining of India’s economy for the next three to five decades. Only then can those,who find themselves jobless and without opportunity in the aftermath, can havesome hope for the future.

Worsening matters

Sir — If developed countries likethe US are struggling to cope withthe ever-growing demand of per-sonal protection equipment, thenwe can safely assume what wouldbe the condition of India, whichis poorly placed on the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO)standards. The world just needsto take a cue from Germany’sproactive approach — its virolo-gists started developing testingkits four months ago and can nowconduct 50,000 tests per week.

We should adopt Germanyand South Korea’s methods totrace, test and treat to contain thedamage, especially after theTablighi Jamaat episode. At thishour of crisis, both the public andprivate sector need to join handsto ensure that more companiescome forward to manufacturethese equipment to cater to grow-ing needs.

Bal GovindNoida

Beef up health apparatus

Sir — The spread of Coronavirushas caused mass destruction of

lives and livelihood across theworld. Sensible people will learnlessons from such disasters.

As for India, the most impor-tant takeaway is to undertake rad-ical healthcare reforms, which arelong overdue. Post the crisis, thepublic health system must bemade robust to cope with suchdisasters. As of now, it is incum-bent upon each one of us to riseto the occasion and do everything

possible to minimise the impend-ing fallout of Coronavirus.Necessary precautions regardingpersonal hygiene are important.

The Government, too, mustramp up COVID-19 testing andensure the availability of essentialequipment to doctors. Activeinvolvement of the private sectorand other healthcare providers isessential. Primary Health Centres(PHCs), Community Health

Centres (CHCs) and district hos-pitals can play an important rolein the fight against the pandem-ic. A proper communication planmust be devised so that messagesare conveyed without the spreadof false information.

More importantly, India muststrive to meet the norms set by theWorld Heath Organisation(WHO) with regard to healthworkforce density and infrastruc-

ture. Healthcare workers havebeen fighting a fierce battle againstthe virus. We must appreciate thegreat work they are doing.

Venu GSKollam

Stay united

Sir — The Tablighi Jamaat con-gregation in Delhi was the biggestin South Asia that led to such abig explosion of Coronavirus indifferent States and regions ofcountry. It has emerged as thebiggest hotspot, not only account-ing for one-fifth of the totalCOVID-19 cases so far but alsoof the 170 fresh cases linked to theevent. Why did the organisers notmake a call to the next door policestation or other concernedauthorities about the event? TheMinistry of Home Affairs, theDelhi police, too, should haveaccepted their failure. What hashappened has happened. People’scooperation is the best key to fightthe deadly infection. We muststay united.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

op nionVIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020

06

Risking the sacred covenant

BHOPINDER SINGH

Even if the initial downplaying and non-evacuation of the Coronavirus-ridden USS TheodoreRoosevelt was a practical necessity, the US naval leadership did not handle it properly

The PM will speak his mind and Iwill speak mine. I cannot inter-fere in someone else’s matter. Ifyou think that the PM has saidsomething good, follow it...it is apersonal decision.

West Bengal CM—Mamata Banerjee

I do worry about my mother,but she is suddenly soundingextremely wise, saying shehas had a full life and has noregrets. It’s scary, listeningto such stuff.

Actor—Saif Ali Khan

We are now in recession, itis way worse than the global financial crisis of2008. This is a crisis thatrequires all of us to come together.

IMF managing director—Kristalina Georgieva

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

The test of mettle

This refers to the editorial, “Business unusual” (April40. COVID-19 is a task master, which is out to testthe mettle of countries, big and small, across the

world. Every nation, without any exception, can now beexpected to be looking inward for the next four to sixquarters in resetting priorities, policies and budgets. Forthe past two years, in one form or another, majoreconomies have already been doing precisely that, beit the US’ America First or the UK’s Brexit. But the long-established global interdependence of economies can-not be wished away. This aspect will start asserting itself,sooner than later, on the hollow notion of economic sov-ereignty of nation states to then rediscover the value ofinternational cooperation — of trade, economic blocsand so on. Wisdom lies in reanimating these platformsimmediately even as individual nations address theirdomestic concerns. We will require the very best in glob-al leadership to be better prepared for the nextinevitable universal cataclysm, be it natural disasters or

man-made pandemics.It’s sad that it cost us so many lives and resources

to discover the abject futility of the World HealthOrganisation (WHO). We cannot afford further costlylessons on the global economy, public health or any other.

R Narayanan Navi Mumbai

WHILE THE USNAVAL TOP BRASS

IS REJECTINGALLEGATIONS OF

EITHER ALACKADAISICAL

ATTITUDE ORFAILURE TO TAKE

CARE OF ITSSAILORS, THISINCIDENT HAS

HIGHLIGHTED THEOVERALL LACK OF

PREPAREDNESSAND SENSITIVITYTOWARDS SUCH

EXIGENCIES — BEIT IN THE CIVILIAN

OR IN THEMILITARY REALM

Send yyour ffeedback tto:[email protected]

The Dharavi project

Modiji is an excellent com-municator. Instead of thalitali, lighting candles anddiyas, he should win theconfidence of people bytelling them facts.

Congress leader—Digvijaya Singh

The Class of 2020 from premier institutes is going to suffer as much as the rest of the graduates

If the BMC does contain the virus spread in Asia’s largestslum cluster, then it would be a rescue template like no other

Jobs drying up

S O U N D B I T E

A ticking COVID bomb

I NEED YOUR NINE MINUTES AT NINE PM. LIGHT ACANDLE OR LAMP. THIS LIGHT WILL SHOW THAT WE

ARE TOGETHER IN THIS BATTLE. —PRIME MINISTER

NARENDRA MODI

SYMBOLISM IS IMPORTANT BUT SERIOUS THOUGHT TOIDEAS AND MEASURES IS EQUALLY VITAL. PEOPLEWERE EXPECTING ANOTHER FINANCIAL ACTION PLAN.—CONGRESS LEADER P CHIDAMBARAM

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

When pandemics hit, they usually hit thepoor the hardest, if not the first. Likethe months bygone, the next couple of

months are going to schlep through the loom-ing threat of the contagion bulging into the nextstage of community spread. This may precipitatethe exponential disease spikes and deaths in num-bers that we can very well speculate. They maybe in thousands if not millions, considering thepoverty and density of population. It is high timethat we stand up and walk with the Governmentand aid its efforts to fight the pandemic by notonly following its instructions on social distanc-ing and not hoarding essential commodities butalso by contributing intelligent observations andsuggestions.

We have seen so far that COVID-19 canquickly overwhelm the health systems of coun-tries, including those nations that are said to haveadvanced healthcare systems, like Italy and theUnited States (US). The ongoing rise in mortal-ity in such developed nations portends a verydark future for poorer nations with inadequatehealthcare facilities, including ours.

The first line of defence against any pandem-ic is surveillance: Monitoring human (and ani-mals where relevant) populations to spot out-breaks and containing them at the earliest. Incountries with overall impoverished infrastruc-ture, isolated outbreaks are likely to go undetect-ed longer and thus simmer and spread.

At the current stage, our public healthcaresystem is expected to detect where the virus isspreading and collect high-quality real-time datafrom various geographies and groups of people,identifying pockets of infection before they mul-tiply into larger outbreaks.

It is for our health systems to be able to fig-ure out which communities can expect to see arise in Coronavirus cases and where to allocateresources in anticipation of rising hospitalisations.

Without quality data, no one can respondappropriately to this fatal threat, neither as indi-viduals nor as a society. Nor can we learn whethercountermeasures adopted so far against the pan-demic are working or not. The most importantcomponent of the contagion data is informationfrom the laboratory tests detecting active infec-tions, past infections, immunity status of peo-ple as well as assessing herd immunity in com-munities. These present a real picture of theCoronavirus’ spread and status in the country.

The priorities of action plans for the roadback to normalcy would be maintaining arobust and vigilant healthcare system, a firmadministration with impeccable attention todetail regarding the nuances of the vulnerablegroups living at the edges (migrants and dailywage labourers) and an effective targetted (sen-tinel) surveillance system.

If the country’s systems function to their fullpotential, we would be able to learn where theCoronavirus is dormant. And once we know thelocation and size of the problem, we can startleaving our homes gradually, return to work andattend schools and universities, bring business-es back in shape and let people congregate formovies, meetings, weddings or mass prayers.

An observation, or rather a lesson learnt fromcountries battling the Coronavirus in anadvanced stage than ours, is that the threats posedby the virus have cast a spotlight on the short-comings in healthcare systems across the globe.The population of billions in India may be thenext battleground in the fight against the con-

tagion if proactive measures are notundertaken at this stage.

Home to one-third of the world’sslum-dwelling population, India islargely filled with people battling pover-ty and poor education (including healtheducation and general inadequateknow-how about things), existing co-morbid conditions and most impor-tantly hygiene challenges (i.e., limitedaccess to resources such as clean water,soap, disinfectants and so on).

The much-recommended measureof social distancing practised aroundthe globe to stem the spread of this pan-demic is almost impossible in manyparts of India. With a population den-sity of 2,77,136 people per square kilo-metre (sq km) in Mumbai’s Dharavislum to 1,25,000 people per sq km atthe Rasoolpura slum in Hyderabad, thedifficulty in observing social distanc-ing is self-explanatory. Slums are anintegral part of a city’s economy as thoseare where a majority of the labour forceand domestic help stays, all around thecountry. Now, with three cases ofCoronavirus cases appearing in theDharavi slum, these places are also aticking time bomb where the contagionis concerned.

The biggest challenge regardinghygiene is overcrowding around com-mon toilets — Dharavi slum has onetoilet per 1,440 residents. The COVID-19 virus is known to survive longer thanthree days in faecal matter, whichmakes crowding around toilets and liv-ing amid bad drainage a major threat.

The focus must now shift to proac-tive testing for asymptomatic andsymptomatic COVID-19 bearers, with-in the most vulnerable, high populationdensity pockets of India.

There are genuine capacity issuesbut we need mandatory COVID-19testing of all slum inhabitants across thecountry. Quarantine is a must for theasymptomatic and symptomatic bear-

ers of the Coronavirus in slum zones indifferent pre-identified, isolated loca-tions.

This test data is vital in enabling theright strategy to manage the next stepsof Coronavirus containment and erad-ication. The health system hence shouldencourage doctors to test liberally(without any out-of-pocket paymentfrom the people given their economicstatus).

About laboratory test data, we seethat unlike in developed nations, thedata is either incomplete or complete-ly unavailable in developing nations likeours due to poor infrastructure andcoordination issues. This makes itimpossible for administrators, scientists,healthcare professionals, researchersand the general citizen to assess theextent and significance of the testingefforts.

The other component of an effec-tive healthcare system of a low-incomecountry is to focus on serology tests.RT-PCR is the confirmatory test forCOVID-19 which is currently priced at`4,500 per test and takes more than aday for the result to be available. Theserology tests on the other hand aremuch cheaper and can be used exten-sively for screening. These are not con-firmatory tests and hence not used inclinical practice but these tests havevalue in epidemiology studies andherd immunity assessment.

These tests screen blood for theantibodies that confer immunity afterexposure to a pathogen. In publichealth management, this is essential fortailoring interventions and stoppinglocal spread of a disease, especially acontagious one. Serology is uniquelyuseful for defining specific anti-viralimmunity. If you know that a large per-centage of people have been exposedand developed some immunity, it mayallow for less-restrictive measures.These tests can be added to routine

blood draws with no additional hasslefor the patient.

For instance, in the US, ever sincethe Coronavirus outbreak began, manydifferent groups have ramped up theirefforts to develop a serological test.Should a test like this ever become avail-able to the public, it could radicallyshape how healthcare professionalsdecide who gets to leave home andreturn to some semblance of a normallife.

Considering the current status ofthe Coronavirus contagion, with theuncovering of 10 hotspots of the viralinfection within the country, a sentinelsurveillance system must now exist infull force and to the highest accuracy.

The Government needs to build itwith dedicated funding, perhaps as partof the next stimulus package. This willrequire an efficient data-collection sys-tem that allows cases/suspectedhotspots of the disease to be identifiedand tracked in real time (without over-burdening providers with data entryand case reports).

Many of our citizens have alreadycalled for the need for special financ-ing arrangements to support surveil-lance and preparedness for the worst-case scenario of a fierce outbreak.They have also underscored the impor-tance of incentivising the right type ofcapacity-building, including the rightresearch and evidence-generation capa-bility, to enable effective containmentof infection and other mitigation strate-gies. With funds coming in from var-ious sources and from the taxpayers’money that is directed towards theCOVID-19 response, India, even witha weak healthcare system should con-centrate on this and use all availableresources wisely until we come out ofthe pandemic, bruised but not totallydefeated.

(The writer is an author and a doc-tor by profession)

The much-recommended measure of social distancing practised around the globe to stem thespread of this pandemic is almost impossible in many parts of India

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

Virus disruptssupply chains

MEENAL JAGTAPSHARMA

SACHINJAGTAP

Organisations will have no choice but to redraw their sales and operations planning

and adjust to the new realities

SURAVI SHARMA KUMAR

WITH APOPULATIONDENSITY OF

2,77,136PEOPLE PER

SQUARE KILOMETRE(SQ KM) IN

MUMBAI’S DHARAVISLUM TO

1,25,000 PEOPLEPER SQ KM AT THE

RASOOLPURA SLUMIN HYDERABAD, THE DIFFICULTY

IN OBSERVINGSOCIAL

DISTANCING ISSELF-EXPLANATORY.

SLUMS ARE AN INTEGRAL

PART OF A CITY’SECONOMY AS

THESE ARE WHERE A MAJORITY

OF THE LABOURFORCE AND

DOMESTIC HELPSTAYS ALL

AROUND THECOUNTRY

India is in a lockdown till April 14. Whether it will help us stop the expo-nential spike in Coronavirus cases, only time will tell. Meanwhile there isan economic challenge that is already unfolding. In the beginning of March,

the only concern that corporates had was supply disruption, with criticalcentres in China, Italy and Korea being under lockdown. Now, the biggerconcern is the consumer being grounded and the supply pipeline being stran-gled. While we can afford to lock down the whole population for some time,we still need to keep the consumer goods flowing at all times.

The first impact of the Coronavirus crisis was the explosion in demandfor masks, sanitisers and hand-wash liquids. The availability of these itemsis still poor. People had already been stocking up on essential commodi-ties since mid-March in anticipation of shortages and lockdowns. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s announcement of a 21-day shut down sent peo-ple in a panic-buying frenzy. Not only did people order in excess online butthey also made a run on the nearest grocery stores. Some sense of thepanic buying can be gauged by the spike in sales of e-grocers just beforethe lockdown. Before the shut down, the average “basket value” on the BigBasket platform was around 20 per cent higher than regular days. The num-ber of orders on Grofers was 45 per cent higher, while the average ordervalue increased by 18 per cent.

However, as soon as the lockdown was imposed, the operations ofe-grocers came to a grinding halt as all delivery centres and staff were requiredto get local permissions for offering essential services and the process wasvery slow. The first week of the shutdown allowed e-commerce firms tocomplete backlog deliveries. In the second week of the lockdown ordersare still being accepted but with delayed delivery schedules.

Items such as food staples, comfort foods such as instant noodlesand essential home and personal care products like toothpaste, soap, sham-poo, dishwash liquids and so on, will continue to be in demand. There maybe a little drop in demand for a while once the hoarders feel content withtheir precious stock and start consuming as per regular needs. The newsis not so good for other categories though. Official data from China indi-cates that the lockdowns in January-February caused a 20.5 per cent fallin retail sales. Given how “conservative” data from China often is, this fig-ure could be much higher.

Experts believe that consumer sentiment is already taking a hit in Indiaas well. Fear of loss or fall in income and uncertainty over health and well-being is curbing all non-essential and discretionary spending. As the healthcrisis abates, hopefully in the next three months, we will be in a severe eco-nomic slowdown/recession which may last up to two years. Consumersentiment will thus continue to be low for some time to come, for all non-essential purchases. Major categories affected will be apparel, home decorand furniture, electronics and appliances, sports goods and automobiles.

However, the immediate and most pronounced impact will be on retail-ing as under lockdown and self-imposed social distancing, we will contin-ue to see an increase in online purchasing. The direct-to-home delivery chan-nels (including online) may actually see some sort of permanent shift intheir favour. For essential daily needs, the neighbourhood mom and popconvenience stores will continue to be vital. Open format supermarkets andhypermarkets will be major losers. This means companies will need to re-organise their distribution based on this new reality. As of now, even thesechannels are struggling because of overwhelming demand and restrictedlast-mile supply. The sudden nature of the shutdown has also created a lotof confusion on what is “essential” and what is not. The Delhi Government,in a notification dated March 26, listed all the e-commerce companies, diag-nostic labs and couriers that would be allowed to make deliveries, after ear-lier notifications left ambiguity on who could operate essential services. Inmost States such uncertainties are still being cleared and ironed out.

The possibility of an extended lockdown in the current form has beenruled out by the Government. However, some shut-in measures will remainbeyond April 14. Intermittent complete lockdowns in the coming monthsfor two-three weeks cannot be ruled out either. The altered consumer behav-iour and present last-mile and retail bottlenecks will also have a direct impacton distribution and transport. Hubs and distribution centres will be stuckwith a lot of non-moving inventory and may in some cases also face short-age of space for in-demand items. Till March 29, truck movement was severe-ly restricted till the Centre allowed highway movement of all commoditiesand not just essentials. Hopefully, this will ease the problems, though delaysand bottlenecks may still remain for some time. One thing is for sure, thiswill completely disrupt the warehouse throughput. Some warehouses willstarve for stocks as they do not receive supplies, while others will chokedue to the inability to distribute goods. Before the lockdown, there was asmall concern among consumer goods factories with raw materials/com-ponents coming from China and South Korea. Now as China is openingup, we have gone into a shutdown. As production re-starts, sourcing willbe an issue as different nations go into lockdowns. On the demand side,the consumption downturn will pose different challenges. Organisations willhave no choice but to redraw their sales and operations planning and adjustto the new realities. An important lesson that managers have learnt is totake supply chain risks more seriously.

(Sharma is Professor at TIPS, GGSIPU and Jagtap is a senior supplychain consultant)

In a series of documentaries forthe BBC, between the early 2000sand 2016, prolific documentary

filmmaker Adam Curtis demon-strates how, since the late 1970s —when the idea of social democracybegan to come under tremendousduress — politicians in Europe andthe US began to outsource theirresponsibilities to financial institu-tions.

Curtis links the evolution of thistendency to the demise of social

democracy and the rise of ideas suchas “neo-conservatism”, which even-tually mutated to become the strandof populism that swept across manycountries from 2014 onwards.

The weakening of the image ofa politician who existed to serve thepeople through reform was allowedto be overshadowed by “tech-nocrats.”

But as the old-fashioned politi-cian faded away, a new kind ofpolitician emerged. He was notonly against the old-fashionedpolitician but also against the tech-nocrat.

He was the new populist —charismatic, audacious, contradic-tory and almost demagogic in hisrhetoric. Yet, he came to powerthrough a democratic system.

He enjoyed a staunch base ofsupport which was unmoved by hiscontradictory behaviour. His disdainfor experts, intellectuals and oldstyle of politics was applauded by

many who began to see the old-fash-ioned politician as crooked andtechnocrats as cold, calculatingexploiters.

This was post-modernistmachoism: The muscular internal-isation of the self by linking it toindigenous ideas of faith, cultureand nationalism and the externali-sation of existentialist threatsthrough rhetoric against thosedeemed as outsiders or workingwith “hostile” external forces.

But just like most post-mod-ernist ideas that often wobble andfail to hold in the face of various uni-versalist ideas, post-modernist pop-ulism, too, found itself feelingentirely disoriented with the rapidglobal spread of a tiny virus and theconsequential disease.

Indeed, almost every regime isstruggling to grapple with the spreadof the Coronavirus. But one saw theneo-populist governments com-pletely lose their sheen and compo-

sure in this crisis. These includeItaly, India, the UK, the US,Pakistan, the Philippines, Iran,Brazil and Hungary, and/or coun-tries that had elected populists,even though Iran remains anauthoritarian theocracy.

Again, even non-populistregimes are facing criticism but thething about the neo-populists beforethe COVID-19 outbreak was thatthey were successfully riding out allother criticism in a world thatseemed to have been okay with theidea of romancing nationalist chau-vinism and even various forms ofbigotry and irrationality. Science,too, became a victim of this dispo-sition.

Nevertheless, regimes headed bypopulists are now facing a barrageof criticism that they cannot man-age to divert or neutralise. As peo-ple around them continue to catchthe virus and as economies crum-ble, social life has come to a halt and

the air of fear thickens each passingday.

Thomas Wright and KurtCampbell write in the March 5 edi-tion of Brookings that the dreadedvirus is “exposing the limits of pop-ulism”. They point out how certainpopulist regimes in developed coun-tries exposed their country’s suscep-tibility to the virus by cutting downhealth programmes and relatedfunding.

In an interview that he gave tothe science newsletter Nautilus(March 12), the well-known virol-ogist Dennis Carol laments thatmany countries today are governedby inertia. He said such viruses canonly be tackled through a globalresponse but populism has frag-mented the global networksrequired to face the challenge.

He gave the example of Trump’s“America first” mantra that express-es the kind of inertia which is dis-rupting the fight against COVID-19.

True to populism’s habit of external-ising the source of a problem,Trump seems to be more investedin blaming China for the virusrather than his own regime’s incom-petence in handling the pandemic.

On the website of the EuropeanCouncil of Foreign Relations, TCorratella writes that COVID-19 isweakening Italy’s brand of populism.The article adds that restrictivemeasures required to check thespread of the virus are antitheticalto the ideas of neo-populism thatmushroomed in many Europeancountries. That’s why authorities arestruggling to apply these restrictionsin countries such as Italy, France andthe UK.

However, Corratella says thatthe popularity of populist parties isplunging in those areas of Italy mosthit by COVID-19. Same is the casein Pakistan, where the populistGovernment of Prime MinisterImran Khan, though tough in its

rhetoric against “corruption”,seemed indecisive, even meek, whenpressed to take the COVID-19 chal-lenge head-on.

It is a simple matter of populistsfailing to recognise an enemy whichdoes not belong in the cannon ofthreats that their pre-COVID-19narratives had formed.

They can’t understand it. Andthe measures required to tackle it areat the opposite end of the post-mod-ernist worldview through whichthey understand their political, eco-nomic and cultural surroundings.

As John Harris writes in TheGuardian (March 15), populists allover the world had declared a waragainst civil servants, experts andscientific communities. But thecrises caused by COVID-19 havebrought these very communities atthe forefront. One can thus assumethat populism has become this out-break’s first ideological casualty.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

Populism the first ideological casualty?Regimes headed by populists are now facing a barrage of criticism that they cannot manage to divert or neutralise. As people around themcontinue to catch the Coronavirus and as economies crumble, social life has come to a halt and the air of fear thickens each passing day

NADEEM PARACHA

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Toyota discontinuessale of Etios range,Corolla Altis inIndia

EPFO to acceptAadhaar as birthproof online fromsubscribers

Mutual fundsinvestment inREITs, InvITs climbs58 pc to Rs 980 crNew Delhi: New Delhi, Apr 5(PTI) Emerging investmentinstruments, REITs and InvITs,seem to be gaining pace, withmutual funds investing awhopping Rs 980 crore in suchunits in January 2020, a surgeof 58 per cent from thepreceding year. Fund managersinfused Rs 71 crore in realestate investment trusts(REITs) and Rs 909 crore ininfrastructure investment trusts(InvITs) in January this year,according to the Securities andExchange Board of India (Sebi).In comparison, an investmentof mere Rs 7 crore was seen inREITs in January 2019 and Rs611 crore in InvITs.

New Delhi: Retirement fundbody EPFO will accept onlineits subscribers' Aadhaar cardas valid proof to rectify theirdate of birth to ensure that theaccount is KYC compliant, thelabour ministry said onSunday. "In a move to extendthe availability and reach ofonline services in the wake ofthe COVID-19 pandemic, theEPFO (Employees' ProvidentFund Organisation) has issuedrevised instructions to its fieldoffices to facilitate PFmembers to rectify their dateof birth in EPFO records, thusensuring that their UAN is KYCcompliant," a ministrystatement said.

NEW DELHI: Japaneseautomaker Toyota has stoppedsale of Etios range as well asCorolla Altis in India as it looksto free up production capacityat its plant to bring in newproducts with bettertechnologies. Toyota KirloskarMotor (TKM), the joint venturebetween Japanese auto majorToyota and Kirloskar Group,had introduced Etios sedan in2010, followed by hatchversion Etios Liva in 2011. Thecompany sold a total of 4.48lakh Etios series vehicles inthe domestic market, andexported 1.31 lakh units toother markets. Similarly, itsold close to 1.16 lakh units ofCorolla Altis in India since itslaunch in 2003. "The month ofMarch 2020 witnessed the lastbatch production of the Etiosseries as well as the CorollaAltis, bringing an end to theiconic journeys both themodels have enjoyed in India,"TKM Senior Vice President -Sales and Service Naveen Sonisaid when contacted over thematter. He said the launch ofthe Etios range in the countryrepresented a significantlandmark for the company andthe model remained popularwith all types of customers,including fleet operators.

Covid-19: Co-workingsegment hit by lockdownPNS n NEW DELHI

Co-working segment, whichhas been growing at a rapidpace for the last few years, isfacing a challenging time post-lockdown, with operators get-ting requests for rental waiversas well as cancellation of leaseagreements from their clients,especially start-ups, freelancersand small enterprises.

Entire business activities,which involve taking co-work-ing spaces on lease from land-lords and then sub-leasing it toclients, have come to a grind-ing halt due to the lockdown toprevent spread of COVID-19(coronavirus), according toproperty consultants and co-working operators.

However, market expertsexpect the impact to be short-term, as demand for flexibleworkspaces would only rise intimes of uncertainties.

Co-working operators leased10.8 million sq ft office spaceduring 2019, up 26 per centfrom the previous year, accord-ing to property consultant

CBRE. "The impact ofCOVID-19 in India is likely tobe short-lived providing thevirus remains relatively con-tained.

"However, on the positiveside, health and wellness ofemployees could take centrestage for the majority of thecorporates with greater focus

on workplace hygiene, remoteworking policies and increasedadoption of flexible spaceoptions," said AnshumanMagazine, Chairman & CEO-India, South East Asia, MiddleEast & Africa, at CBRE.

Awfis co-founder and CEOAmit Ramani said, "...we arestriving to maintain a fine bal-

ance between our landlordsand members by passingthrough the waivers which weget on fixed rental paymentand our savings on variableoperating costs, to our cus-tomers in the form of conces-sions on monthly rentals."

The company is renegotiatingcontracts with its partners, whileassuring them to go back to orig-inal contractual terms once thecurrent situation stabilizes, hetold PTI.

Ramani expects a V-shapedrecovery for co-working seg-ment once the lockdown periodends as companies would laymore emphasis on cost opti-mization and prefer flexibleworkspace.

Smartworks founder NeetishSarda said, "As of now, for us, wehaven't received many requestsfor concession or paymentwaivers. Majority of our clientsare large enterprises and businesscontinuity is important to them."

"We do understand these arehard times and will follow theindustry norms for waivers ona case to case basis," he said.

Entire business activities, which involvetaking co-working spaces on lease fromlandlords and then sub-leasing it toclients, have come to a grinding halt

‘Complete collapseof economies' aheadas Africa faces virusPNS n KAMPALA (UGANDA)

Some of Uganda's poorestpeople used to work here, onthe streets of Kampala, asfruit sellers sitting on thepavement or as peddlers ofeverything from handkerchiefsto roasted peanuts.

Now they're gone and noone knows when they willreturn, victims of a globaleconomic crisis linked to thecoronavirus that could wipeout jobs for millions across theAfrican continent, many wholive hand-to-mouth with zerosavings.

"We've been through a loton the continent. Ebola, yes,African governments took ahit, but we have not seen any-thing like this before," AhunnaEziakonwa, the UnitedNations DevelopmentProgram regional director forAfrica, told The AssociatedPress.

"The African labour marketis driven by imports andexports and with the lock-down everywhere in theworld, it means basically thatthe economy is frozen in place.And with that, of course, allthe jobs are gone."

Tourism bodyIATO seeksfinancial reliefpackagePNS n NEW DELHI

The Indian Association ofTour Operators (IATO) onSunday urged the govern-ment to provide relief to thetourism industry as it hasexperienced heavy losses dueto the coronavirus pandem-ic and the survival of the sec-tor is at stake.

While IATO said it fullysupports the lockdown, thetourism industry has suf-fered heavy losses amid zerocash flow.

This has put the survival ofentire industry in question, itsaid in a statement.

"To tide over the crisis,IATO is seeking scrapping ofGST in entirety for period ofone year for all outbound,inbound and domestic book-ings," it said.

The tourism industry alsowants advances paid to hotels,airlines and to state govern-ments for luxury trains,wildlife safaris and road taxto be entirely refunded, IATOsaid.

PNB looks to tap marketin Q3 of FY21; mayraise capital via bondPNS n NEW DELHI

With the successful merger ofOriental Bank of Commerceand United Bank of Indiawith itself, Punjab NationalBank has started focussingon growth and planned aseries of capital raising initia-tives, including rights issueand FPO, in the third quarterthis fiscal.

At the moment, the bank isadequately capitalised withthe capital adequacy ratio of14.04 per cent at the end ofDecember 2019, PNBManaging Director S SMallikarjuna Rao told PTI.

The government providedRs 16,091 crore to PNB and Rs1,666 crore to United Bank ofIndia in September forenhancing the capital base ofthese two lenders.

Besides, Punjab NationalBank (PNB) raised Rs 1,500crore from Tier II bonds inDecember.

Going forward, Rao said,the bank plans to furtherinfuse capital during the cur-rent fiscal including throughfollow-on public offer (FPO).

Sharing details of the capi-tal raising plan, Rao said thebank is looking to raise Rs3,000 crore through addition-al Tier-I (AT-1) bonds in thenext couple of months.

"The board of the bank hasalready given approval andnow we are contemplatingapproval from the govern-ment of India," he said, addingthe bank is preparing to raiseAT-1 bonds during the firstquarter itself, depending onhow quickly normalcy isrestored.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government's dedicatedWhatsApp chatbot MyGovCorona Helpdesk, which aimsto provide timely updates andhelp citizens clear their querieson Covid-19, has been used byover 2 crore users.

Artificial intelligence (AI)chatbot company HaptikInfotech Pvt Ltd, which is 87per cent owned by RelianceJio, developed the MyGovCorona Helpdesk chatbot.

According to Haptik, morethan 55 million messages havebeen sent by over 20 millionusers since the chatbot waslaunched by the governmenton March 20.

"Misinformation &rumours are the primary out-lets of panic. The @reliancejio& @haptik powered official@mygovindia coronaviruschatbot has helped eliminatethese outlets for millions.Whatsapp +919013151515 foryour queries," Haptik tweeted.

In two weeks since itslaunch, the coronavirus

helpdesk chatbot has beenused by over 2 crore users inIndia.

"The 'MyGov Coronahelpdesk' has alreadyprocessed over 28 millionconversations on WhatsAppfrom users across the countrywhile more than 20 millionusers have taken their queriesto the chatbot within the 13days since its launch," Haptikco-founder and CEO AakritVaish told PTI.

Within the first week of itslaunch, the chatbot registeredover crore users and processedover 1.4 crore conversations.

The service was initiallylaunched in English, andHindi language was addedlater to assist the millions ofHindi-speaking users in thecountry, Vaish said.

NGOs told to assist govt in relief measuresPNS n NEW DELHI

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kanthas written to over 92,000NGOs appealing them to assistthe government in identifyingCovid-19 hotspots and deliver-ing services to vulnerablegroups.

Kant, who is heading theEmpowered Group (EG 6) oncoordinating with private sec-tor NGOs and internationalorganisations, has also writtento all chief secretaries urgingthem to instruct the localadministration at the districtlevel to utilise the physicaland human resources madeavailable by NGOs and civilsociety organisations (CSOs),an official statement said.

The government had onMarch 29 constituted 11empowered groups to suggestmeasures to ramp up health-

care, put the economy back ontrack and reduce misery ofpeople as quickly as possiblepost the 21-day lockdownimposed to contain the coro-navirus pandemic.

"CEO Niti Aayog has writtento over 92000 NGOs/ CSOsregistered on the Darpan por-tal of Niti Aayog, appealingthem to assist the governmentin identifying hotspots anddeputing volunteers and caregivers to deliver services to theelderly, persons with disabili-ties, children, transgender per-sons, and other vulnerablegroups; to create awarenessabout prevention, social dis-tancing, isolation, and combat-ing stigma; to provide shelterto homeless, daily wage work-ers, and urban poor families;set up community kitchensfor migrants," the statementsaid.

It further said that theempowered group (EG 6) con-ducted detailed deliberationswith 40-plus prominent CSOsand NGOs working in differ-ent parts of the country andwith different communities.

"Several challenges andissues raised by these CSOs

were addressed by the EG6 tofacilitate their working in thefield during this crisis," itadded.

The statement said the EG6has contacted start-ups, name-ly AgVa, Biodesign InnovationLab, Kaeaenaat, Qure AIDronaMaps, mFine, MicroGo andStaqu, working on innovativeventilator designs, testing tools,and tracking solutions to under-stand their scale and possiblecontributions.

Industry representatives andthe EG 6 deliberated in detail onseveral challenges on criticalissues of health-care interven-tion, pertaining to ramping up

production and procurement ofventilators, personal protectiveequipment (PPE), testing kits, incollaboration with several otherEGs; apart from ways to step upthe relief and rehabilitation andinformation dissemination, itadded.

Industry representatives havealso shared in detail the activi-ties undertaken in public advo-cacy, philanthropy and, CSR byway of running factory kitchensfor preparing, distributing freefood in coordination with localadministration; and makingavailable factory hospitals/premises/ guest houses as quar-antine and shelter facilities.

The govt had on March 29 constituted11 empowered groups to suggestmeasures to ramp up healthcare, putthe economy back on track

UK plans 7 special flights forBritons stranded in IndiaPNS n LONDON

The UK government onSunday announced the firstseven chartered flights nextweek to bring home Britishnationals stranded in Indiaamidst the international trav-el lockdown over the coron-avirus pandemic.

An estimated 35,000 Britishnationals are currently in India,out of whom over 20,000 havecontacted the British HighCommission to say they wishto return to the UK as soon aspossible. A set of 113 of the"most vulnerable" Britons wereflown out of Goa on an Irishflight on Saturday.

The special f lights toLondon include three sched-uled from Goa for next

Wednesday, Friday and Sundayand two each from Mumbaiand Delhi on Thursday andSaturday, with further flightsplanned later.

The British HighCommission told its citizens tocheck the government traveladvisory and visit the bookingportal for respective cities toreserve seats.

"We know how worrying thepast few weeks have been forBritish nationals in India. I

hope this announcement willbring relief, especially to thosein greatest need," said JanThompson, Acting HighCommissioner to India.

"Due to the large numbers ofBritish travellers involved, thescale of this operation is huge.The UK government continuesto work hard with our Indiancounterparts in New Delhiand London to arrange a safejourney back for as many peo-ple as possible," she said.

Corona chatbotsees 2 cr users

Data consumption in rural areajumps by100 pc within a monthPNS n NEW DELHI

Data consumption in ruralIndia on the network of CSCSPV jumped nearly 100 percent within a month - especial-ly during the lockdown period,a top official of the entity saidon Sunday.

CSC e-Governance ServicesIndia, which holds licence forproviding internet services,recorded an increase in dataconsumption to 4.7 terabyte(TB) as on March 30 from 2.7TB on March 10.

"Based on the growth trend,data consumption on the CSCSPV network is estimated tohave increased by close to 100per cent till date," CSC SPVCEO Dinesh Tyagi told PTI.

He said that a major spike indata consumption has beenrecorded since the time lock-down started.

"Beside the surge of data con-sumption in rural areas, therehas been a high demand ofFTTH (Fiber to Home). In themonth of March 20, more than

3 lakh subscribers registeredacross 50,000 Gram Panchayatsfor FTTH," Tyagi said.

CSC also provides wifihotspot in around 25,000 grampanchayats in the name of CSCWi-fi Choupal services.

According to the CSC data,Wi-Fi Choupal has more than12 lakh registered subscriberswho use this as a supplement totheir mobile connection.

"This clearly indicates the

high appetite of internet data inrural areas, which in future canbe pivotal in bridging DigitalDivide and If nurtured withregular organic feed of educa-tional and informational con-tent rural India can be DigitallyEmpowered and Transformed,"Tyagi noted.

There are more than 60 croreinternet users in India and outof this about 29 crore are inrural areas.

Starbucks competitor Luckinapologises for fraud scandalPNS n BEIJING

Luckin Coffee, China's biggestrival to Starbucks, apologisedon Sunday after it revealed atop executive may have faked2.2 billion yuan (USD 310million) worth of sales in 2019.

The company's former chiefoperating officer, Liu Jian, andseveral of his staff have beensuspended pending an internalinvestigation, it said in a USSecurities and ExchangeCommission filing last week.

"The company retains theright to take legal measuresagainst those suspected to beinvolved, it will not shieldthem or be lenient," LuckinCoffee said in a statement onWeibo Sunday.

Luckin Coffee added that itsstores would remain open as

usual, and acknowledged thatit relied on the support of itscustomers.

The company said in its fil-ing that fabricated salesextended from the second tofourth quarter last year, mak-ing up almost half of its esti-mated 2019 revenue of USD

732 million.Luckin Coffee has not yet

released its fourth-quarterresults.

After the bombshell wasrevealed Thursday, shares inthe NASDAQ-listed firmplunged more than 70 percent.

Slump in fuel demanddue to Covid-19PNS n NEW DELHI

Oil Minister DharmendraPradhan on Sundayspoke to US EnergySecretary DanBrouillette on thevolatility in interna-tional oil marketsand the slump indemand followingCovid-19 pandemic.

Since the outbreak of coro-navirus, countries across theglobe have placed restrictionsand announced lockdowns,which have shut businessesand stopped both air as well asroad travel. India tooannounced a 21-day lock-down from March 25 whichhas led to slump in fueldemand.

"Interacted with US EnergySecretary @SecBrouillette

through video conferencing.Expressed my deepest condo-lences, and concern, regarding

the COVID-19 situationglobally, and more

specifically in theU.S," Pradhan tweet-ed.

"We had discus-sions about demand

reduction due to Covid-19 response globally and

volatility of the oil markets,which are of concern to boththe countries. We both willwork towards a more stable oilmarket, and agreed to remainin contact," he added.

India's petrol sales havefallen 15.5 per cent in March,while diesel sale has slumped24.2 per cent. Asia's thirdbiggest economy has also seenjet fuel demand fall by 31 percent in March.

Deposits:HDFC buckstrend, reports7.41 % risePNS n MUMBAI

HDFC Bank has bucked whatwas emerging as a trend ofprivate sector lenders facing afall in deposit base during theMarch quarter.

The largest private sectorlender has reported a 7.41 percent increase in aggregatedeposits during the January-March period to Rs 11.46lakh crore, which was 24 percent higher as compared toMarch 31 last year.

HDFC Bank said itsadvances have risen by around21 per cent to Rs 9.93 lakhcrore as of March 31 and havegrown by over 6 per cent forthe March quarter as com-pared to December-end.

‘Govt canincreaseinsurancecoverage’PNS n NEW DELHI

The government can increaseinsurance coverage andimplement direct cash trans-fer, besides providing creditsupport to small and mediumenterprises as an immediateeconomic response to dealwith the disruption caused bythe Covid-19 pandemic,Deloitte said in a report.

These disruptions are like-ly to pose challenges notonly in the next two quar-ters, but could also linger forsome more time before theeconomy revives, given theuncertainty on how long thepandemic would last, itadded.

RAP FOR A CAUSE

overnments, doctors and socialactivists are working hard to arrestthe spread of Coronavirus in thecountry. Despite the lockdown, itseems like some are still unawareof the potential danger that the

virus is. Police have been complaining aboutmany getting out of their homes for silly rea-sons. That’s when Telugu rapper PranavChanganty took it upon himself to do his bitto raise awareness on social distancing andstaying put at home.

Pranav composed a rap song titledLakshmana Rekha, which also is the world’sfirst-ever monosyllabic rap, sounding ‘a’ inevery syllable. For example: Kadalaka gada-pa. “It took me three days to pen the lyrics. Ithen shot the video on my terrace with thehelp of a friend of mine,” Pranav says. “Theworld is fighting the COVID-19 crisis. We arefortunate to have been able to control it bet-ter than most other countries. But some peo-ple have been defying the lockdown to comeout for invalid reasons which could result inirreparable damage. As a rapper, I wanted todo something about it and came up with theidea of making a song about the importanceof adhering to the lockdown. I completed theshoot on my terrace because I didn’t want tobreak the rules,” he adds.

Recently, Pranav also made a rap song inTelugu using two syllables ‘Na’ and ‘Ma’ andreceived great applause for his love for Telugulanguage. Pranav shares, “For years I’ve beenmaking rap songs on various social issues. Thepresent Lakshmana Rekha song is all about oursafety. Our Prime Minister requested us to bein homes for 21 days to fight this unexpect-ed battle. In the song, I explained what willhappen to our loved ones if we step out forsilly reasons. By stepping out, we are not onlyrisking our lives but also our loved ones’. I hopemy song inspires people to stay home to winthis battle against the deadly virus.”

Making a rap on any topic under the sunwithout any boundaries is easy. But makingone with limitations like getting a particularsound for every letter is very difficult. Pranavexplains, “Yes, it is not that easy to get wordswith the same sound for every letter in a song.That’s why it took me three days to completeit. Sometimes, I was stuck for hours for someletters.”

Pranav is also known for composing rapsongs for movies like Kaala. On a conclud-ing note, he shares, “It is always impor-tant for Telugu rappers like me toremember our roots. Every rap-per must strive to includehis or her culture andtradition to art toexcel at it.”

Rapper Pranav Changantyhas made history with hismonosyllabic rap — afirst-of-its-kind forTelugu. Titled LakshmanaRekha, the rap aims tospread awareness amongpeople on the importanceof staying home duringthe lockdown, finds V SATEESH REDDY

G

As a rapper, I wantedto do something about

the ongoing pandemic andcame up with the idea ofmaking a song about theimportance of adhering tothe lockdown.

ell us a little about yourselfand your experience as afood photographer.

I’m Rohith Rao and I runa studio called ‘Hand onHeart’ at Jubilee Hills. I

indulge in creating authentic and engag-ing images of different cuisines. Image-making is oxygen to my life and I fun-damentally believe, the amount of enjoy-ment I receive from my work will feedthrough the photographs I capture.

What is your creative process like?I buy ingredients, cook, and then pho-

tograph them. A lot of things like com-position, background drop, suitableprops, lights, and reflectors go into thepreparation for an appealing output. Theright setup, establishing the mood andfocus using good lighting is very impor-tant.

What are your thoughts on food pho-tography in India, since it’s derivedfrom a foreign concept? What got youinto this?

Well, the concept of food photographyin India is at an ideal stage and it exist-ed only in a few cities, where studios shotimages for menu launches and advertis-ing campaigns, it’s a different story now.I never planned on becoming a com-mercial photographer, I had a gapinginterest in baking and thatled me to pursue foodphotography.

How has foodphotographyevolved?

E ar l i e r,restaurantsi nHyderabadwould callin photogra-phers fromMumbai, butnow there is thisadvent of food pho-tographers in our citywho are practicing the differenttechniques and tricks of it. There hasbeen this sudden shot of photographersin the past few years, thanks to societynow being open to accepting and wel-coming new professions.

Which restaurants and cafés have youworked with? How important a role

does a food photographer play in giv-ing a restaurant’s cuisine a reboundlook?

I have worked with a lot ofbrands across the city like AlmondHouse, Avasa, Green Park, Concucafé, Roastery Coffee House, AliveCafe, Sneha Chicken, Park Hyatt, TajGroup, etc. A food photographer’sintrigued curation will take a restau-rant’s branding and marketing to atop-notch level. There has been anotable increase in sales because ourart can appeal to a consumer's emo-tions, making them want to stop

scrolling and have the urge to taste it.

Can you elaborate on the challenges afood photographer faces while con-structing an image?

Food photogra-p h y

always begins withempty plating so it gets difficult for usto imagine which shot or angle to pur-sue. We need to capture the food in theright lighting to evoke an emotionhence, I often end up rigging many kindsof lighting modifiers and unconventionaltools to make the right image.

Whate f f e c tdoes foodblogging haveon your profession?

Currently, this is the biggestdefiance we are facing. They shooteverything, right from the landscape viewand talk about the dish, it’s round orsquare. This has attracted several view-ers on social media. But I must say thatcreating a good food image takes muchmore effort than scantily clicking froma camera. We first conceptualise theimage according to the brand we areworking for and then go ahead.

Can you tell our readers about theimportance of plating while makingfood images?

Plating and dressing of the cuisine iseverything. It sets a mood and ambiancefor the dish according to the backgrounddrop of the restaurant or café. I edit thephotographs along with the team of therestaurant I am working with, includingtheir chefs, to have a good collection ofinputs.

Have you ever facedissues of plagiarism?

How do you dealwith them?

Yes, I did andI generally tend

to ignore them.Recreating animage fromscratchi s

okay,b u t

s t e a l -ing my

idea isi nte l l e c tu a l

theft, somethingI don’t appreciate.

Layer by layer, foodphotographer andfounder of

Hyderabad-basedstudio ‘Hand onHeart' RohithRao, constructsmarvelousphotographsthat are a treatto the eye. In

an exclusivechat with

SHIKHADUGGAL,he takes us onhis journeysinto therealms of

deliciousfood

T

EARLIER, RESTAURANTSIN HYDERABAD WOULD

CALL IN PHOTOGRAPHERSFROM MUMBAI, BUTNOW THERE IS THIS

ADVENT OF FOODPHOTOGRAPHERS IN OUR

CITY WHO AREPRACTICING THE

DIFFERENT TECHNIQUESAND TRICKS OF IT.

Creating a good food image takes much more

effort than scantily clicking from a camera. We firstconceptualise the image

according to the brand we areworking for and then go

ahead.

PixelsON A PLATE

Monday April 6, 2020

Follow us on

@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/

dailypioneer

Aditya, who broke out

on the Bollywood scene

with his 2019

blockbuster debut Uri:The Surgical

Strike starring

Vicky, is

once again

teaming up

with the

actor

10

Vijayawada Monday April 6, 2020 what’s brewing

irector Aditya Dhar sayschoosing Vicky Kaushal forhis next, actioner TheImmortal Ashwatthama wasa split-second decision asthe actor fit the bill perfect-

ly. Aditya, who broke out onthe Bollywood scene with his2019 blockbuster debut Uri:The Surgical Strike starring

Vicky, is once again teamingup with the actor.

Uri was an eventful filmfor the actor-director duo,who went on to win theirfirst National Film Award— best director for Aditya

and best actor for Vicky.The director, who has

begun pre-production workon Ashwatthama, said he

scouts for actors who share thesame passion and dedication

like him.“My criteria is

simple, Irequire fan-

tastic actors who are ready to givetheir best and are easy to workwith. I don’t like people with a lotof baggage and rather those whoare simple and straightfor-wardand their agenda is to make a brilliant film,” Adityatold PTI.

“If my priority is Ashwatthama,my actor’s priority should also beAshwatthama. Vicky fits the char-acter, it was a no-brainer for mebecause when he is doing a pro-ject then nothing else matters tome, he will give his blood andsweat for it, he did that with Uri...And he will remain my firstchoice for all my films,” he added.

The film, billed as a superheroaction film set in modern times,is being planned as a trilogy butAditya said they will make thethird one depending on theresponse to the first two.

Though the team has crackedthe basic idea for all the threeparts but they are concentrating

on the first one at the moment, headded.

“The film requires a lot of plan-ning because this is somethingthat has never been done before,it is huge. The work is on in termsof writing,” the director said,adding the team aims to startrolling by year end or early 2021.

Aditya believes spectacle filmssuch as The ImmortalAshwatthama with a touch ofIndian mythology must be servedmore to the audience.

As per the epic Mahabharata,Ashwatthama was the son ofguru Dronacharya, who foughtfor the Kauravas in the battle ofKurukshetra.

“It was high time we broughtsuch stories to the audience, thekind of fantastic stories we havein our mythology. I wonder whynobody made those into films inso many years. My idea is to cre-ate something that is at par witheverything that is around the

world or Hollywood.”The director said that Vicky is

currently busy prepping for Takht,which will in a way help the actorto work on Ashwatthama.

“It will be unfair for me to tellhim to do anything right nowrelated to Ashwatthama. I wanthim to give his 100 per cent forTakht. There is a huge prep for ourfilm but I don’t want to distracthim from Takht. Once he getsdone then he will have to concen-trate on our film.”

Besides Vicky, Aditya said theteam is looking for a female actorand a villain, who will have well-written arcs.

“It is one of the strongestfemale characters we have everseen but we haven't finalisedanyone yet, we also have a strongantagonist. We are looking acrossthe spectrum for it, like from thesouth. Maybe a newcomer, we arekeeping our options open,” headded.

ollywood singerKanika Kapoor, whotested positive forCoronavirus afterreturning to India

from London, has finally test-ed negative for the deadly virusin her sixth test.

“Her reports are now nega-tive but we will wait for onemore test before she is allowedto go home,” said Prof R.K.Dhiman, director of the SanjayGandhi Postgraduate Instituteof Medical Sciences (SGPGI) inLucknow where she is under-going treatment.

If her second test is also neg-ative, Kanika may be allowed togo home this week.

Kanika’s troubles, however,are likely to increase after sheis discharged from hospital.

Three FIRs have been filedagainst Kanika on charges ofnegligence for attending vari-ous social events in the citydespite being infected withcoronavirus and having beeninstructed by the authorities to

isolate herself at her home.She has been booked under

Sections 188, 269, and 270 ofthe Indian Penal Code (IPC) atSarojini Nagar police station inthe city. The FIR was lodgedbased on a complaint filed bythe chief medical officer(CMO) of Lucknow.

She is the first Bollywoodcelebrity to test positive for thedeadly virus in the country.

In a statement on Instagram,which she later deleted, Kanikanarrated how she developedsigns of flu on her return fromLondon. She claimed that shewas unaware of the Coronainfection till she tested positive.

The singer who had comefrom London on March 9 wasslammed by the media forinteracting with hundreds ofpeople at parties and otherevents in Lucknow.

She was admitted on March20 when her tests revealedthat she was Corona positive.

Her five consecutive reportsshowed her as Corona positive.

ctor Zac Efron says he has no desire toget back in the “good shapea that he wasin while filming the movie Baywatch”.

The High School Musical starappeared in an episode of Hot Ones with

host Sean Evans, and opened up about his careerin Hollywood as well as the body transforma-tion he underwent to star alongside DwayneJohnson in the 2017 film, reports foxnews.com.“That was actually a really important time to doBaywatch because I realised that when I wasdone with that movie, I don’t ever want to be inthat good of shape again. Really. It was so hard,”Efron admitted. “You’re working with almost nowiggle room, right? You’ve got things likewater under your skin that you’re worryingabout, making your six-pack into a four-pack.S**t like that it’s just not a it’s just stupid,” headded.

The actor confessed that he is glad hisphysique made the movie look good and evenadmitted he would do it again if the right pro-ject absolutely demanded it. “I’m happy that itworked, I’m happy that it got me through it. Imay do it again if it was something worthwhilebut we all wait till it gets to that,” the 32-year-old said. This isn’t the first time that Efron crit-icised his own body in Baywatch, which alsostars Priyanka Chopra Jonas. In May 2019, hecriticised his look from the movie during anappearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

ZAC EFRONnever wants to

get in Baywatchshape again

A b

SINGER KANIKAKapoor finally tests-ve for Coronavirus

D

Taking VICKY KAUSHAL for Ashwatthamawas a no-brainer: ADITYA DHAR

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

sport 11VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020

PTI n NEW DELHI

India has submitted its bid doc-uments for hosting the AFC

Asian Cup in 2027, a top official ofthe national federation confirmedon Sunday.

If India wins the bid, it will bethe first time the country will hostthe continental showpiece event.

“We have already submittedour expression of interest to theAFC (Asian FootballConfederation). That is what’srequired as of now,” All IndiaFootball Federation GeneralSecretary Kushal Das said.

Recently, the AFC had extend-ed the deadline to lodge expressionof interest by three months fromMarch 31 to June 30 in view of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

“The AFC had hoped toannounce the tournament hosts assoon as possible to give themmore time to prepare for the qua-drennial continental championship,which was expanded to 24 teams

for the 2019 edition in the UnitedArab Emirates,” the AFC said.

The AFC is expected toannounce the host country earlynext year.

Other than India, Saudi Arabia,which has won the continental titlethree times but never hosted the

tournament, is only nation to havepublicly announced their intentionto launch a bid for 2027 Asian Cup.

India had joined the race forthe 2023 AFC Asian Cup, alongsideThailand, Indonesia and SouthKorea, but pulled out early inOctober 2018.

Later, Thailand and SouthKorea also pulled out leaving Chinathe sole country to host the 2023tournament.

South Korea, which is hostingthe 2023 Women’s World Cup, isalso likely to join India in the bidfor the men’s 2027 AFC Asian Cup.China will host the 2023 showpiecetournament in 10 cities.

Since successfully staging themen’s U-17 World Cup in 2017,India was to host the U-17 women’sWorld Cup this November but hasbeen postponed to a later date dueto the worsening COVID-19 pan-demic.

India has also been awardedhosting rights for the 2022Women’s AFC Asian Cup in 2022.

IANS n NEW DELHI

Former India fast bowler Ashish Nehra feels that thefactor that helped MS Dhoni stand out among his con-

temporary wicketkeepers in the early part of his careerwas the fact that he made the most of the opportunitieshe got.

Dhoni scored his first international exactly 15 yearsago in an ODI against Pakistan in Visakhapanam. He ham-mered 148 off 123 balls and Nehra’s four-wicket haul laterin the match helped India win by 58 runs. Nehra said thatDhoni’s knock gave India the confidence that they toocould have a good wicketkeeper-batsman at a time whenthey were looking to relieve Rahul Dravid of wicketkeep-ing duties.

“That innings got the team to believe that we too couldhave a prolific wicketkeeper-batsman,” Nehra told theTimes of India. “Dhoni didn’t have a great time in his ini-tial matches. But when a confident man like him gets anopportunity and cashes in, then it’s hard to pull him back.

“Unwavering self-confidence is Dhoni’s strength. Thatinnings was like he had tasted blood and he yearned formore. He hardly ever batted at No 3 after that innings buthe had made a statement that day. We lost all the remain-ing four matches in that series but we discovered Dhoni.”

Nehra said that Dhoni was probably behind contem-poraries Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel in wicketkeep-ing skills at the time but he was the best wicketkeeper-batsman among them.

“Dhoni wasn’t the best wicketkeeper around when hefirst came in. All those who played before him were real-ly good. He was certainly not a Kiran More or a NayanMongia. So it’s not that he was miles ahead of his con-temporaries as a wicketkeeper, but he made for a betterpackage. His discipline, passion, composure and confi-dence made him different.

“Dhoni did what DK and Parthiv couldn’t i.e., makethe most of his opportunities. Dhoni may not have beenthe best-looking batsman or a sound wicketkeeper but hecertainly was the best wicketkeeper-batsman. He workedhard on his game, knew what work for him and grew asan impeccable wicketkeeper.”

Nehra said that Rishabh Pant is the only player whohe sees as capable of coming close to Dhoni, whose cur-rent troubles with form reminds the 40-year-old of theformer Indian skipper in his early days.

“I don’t see anyone coming close to the impact he hashad as a wicketkeeper-batsman except for Rishabh Pant.Pant’s journey — though it is still early days — remindsme a lot of Dhoni,” he said.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Abatsman can do with yoga andweight training but for themerchants of speed, former

India pacer Ashish Nehra feels theabsence of running for more thanthree months at a stretch could comein their way of fitness.

According to him, the fast bowlerswill have to start running sooner orlater.

With sporting activities coming toa standstill, the elite athletes are con-fined to their homes, trying to remainfit while hoping for action to beginonce normalcy returns.

“Let’s consider a few situations.Even if the lockdown ends on April 15,it will take a lot of time for social lifeto become normal.

“If you ask me, I am not expect-ing any cricketing activity before July.So this is a long break but once actionstarts fast bowlers have the biggestchallenge to remain fit,” Nehra said.

Just like former India team physioJohn Gloster, Nehra also feels that thepaucity of space for most cricketers isa problem and more so for the fastbowlers.

“Lack of running time for fastbowlers is an issue. Now the situationis unavoidable. So whoever at least hasa garden with say 15 metres or 20metres space, they should do shuttlerun thrice a week unless they areallowed to train at grounds,” saidNehra.

Shuttle run comprises short stridesbetween 20 to 40 metres where play-ers run between points A and B.

“You can do as much of yoga orfree weights, fast bowler’s life is noth-

ing without good running time.There is a lot of difference with bats-men,” said Nehra, who has been a

bowling coach with IPL franchiseRoyal Challengers Bangalore.

Why does one need to run more

than say cycling or swimming?“It’s not just about heart-rate but

also about bowling muscles such as

hamstring, glutes, groin and calf, theyremain activated. Giving a choicebetween swimming, cycling and run-ning, as a cricketer I would say run-ning. Also a bit of shadow bowling canhelp in visualization,” said Nehra,who has played 164 internationals forIndia (17 Tests, 120 ODIs and 27T20Is).

He had a word of advice for thosewho have sprawling terraces withsoil and grass cover.

“It’s fine if you are doing SuryaNamaskar on terrace but if you startrunning and doing shuttle run, youwill end up damaging your knees andankles because of hard surface.Thevery reason that professional playersshould avoid playing tennis on hardcourts in five-star hotels. They arecement courts.”

Nehra said that he is confidentwhether it’s the BCCI or ICC, even ifthere is a semblance of normalcy byJune, they will give at least a month’stime to the players to prepare, as onecan’t suddenly start playing.

“And injuries can happen to any-one. The fast bowler who has trainedthe least might be fitter than fastbowler who has trained the most.Nature of sport is such. But yes, I hopethat if lockdown ends, they haveaccess to grounds,” said Nehra.

And he also had a word of cautionfor fast bowlers and professional play-ers in general.

“Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra,after this prolonged break, can affordto come back with a paunch. Notactive players. So break ka matlab yenaahi ki biryani khaani hain (A breakfrom sport doesn’t mean you will havebiryani).”

AFP n LONDON

Bernie Ecclestone says this season’sFormula One championship should

be cancelled because it appears unlike-ly that enough races can be completedfor it to be valid due to the coronaviruscrisis.

The opening eight rounds of the2020 season have been either cancelledor postponed, with doubts over a num-ber of the other 14 races as the pandem-ic continues to overshadow the sportingcalendar.

A minimum of eight races arerequired for the championship to bevalid, but former F1 chief executiveEcclestone believes that will not be pos-sible.

“We should stop the championshipthis year and start again next year, hope-fully, because I can’t see it’s going to bepossible to get the right amount of racesin that count for a championship,” the 89-year-old told BBC Radio.

“There’s got to be eight from mem-ory, and I can’t see them getting that in.

It’s a difficult situation.”Lewis Hamilton was this year aim-

ing to match Michael Schumacher’srecord of seven drivers’ titles, thoughthere have been suggestions a truncat-ed season would diminish the achieve-ment.

But Ecclestone, set to become afather for the fourth time, said: “I don’tthink it will make a lot of difference toLewis. He would win whatever the racenumber, whether it be eight, 16 or 20.

“If it’s a world championship and hewins, it would go on his record and sayhe has won a world championship. Theterrible thing is he would win all eightraces. It wouldn’t be a super champi-onship.”

IANS n SAU PAULO

Brazilian football great Kakasaid that he leans towards

Lionel Messi in the debate of whoamong the Argentine and hisarch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo is thebest player in the world.

“I played with Cristiano andhe’s really amazing, but I’ll go withMessi,” Kaka said when asked whohe would pick out of Messi orRonaldo during an InstagramLive Q&A for FIFA’s channel.

“He’s a genius, a pure talent.The way he plays is incredible.”

The debate has been one ofthe defining characteristics ofworld football for over a decade.Between 2008 and 2018, Ronaldoand Messi won the Ballon d’Oraward. Kaka was the last player towin the award before the pairstarted domination. He playedwith Ronaldo for five years at RealMadrid.

He said the two players areamong the greatest of all time inthe history of football. “Cristiano

is a machine. It’s not just the wayhe’s strong, powerful and fast; he’sstrong mentally,” said Kaka.

“He always wants to win andplay. To be the best. For me, that’sthe most incredible thing he has.

“In the history of sport, they[Messi and Cristiano] are definite-ly in the top five. We are very luckyto have been able to see both ofthem.”

NEW DELHI: The crack men’s doublespair of Chirag Shetty andSatwiksairaj Rankireddy is nowhoping to avail the services of a newforeign coach in their Olympicpreparation after sudden exit ofIndonesian Flandy Limpele.

Limpele was appointed till theTokyo Olympics. But, last month, hestepped down as India’s doublescoach, citing family reasons, becom-ing the fourth such foreign coach tohave resigned without completingthe tenure.

Chirag said the Olympics post-ponement will now give them moretime to deal with the departure ofLimpele, who was specifically hiredto prepare them for Tokyo Games.

“We will definitely get more timeto prepare now. Since it is more thana year, so I believe we will get a newforeign coach. If Olympics wouldhave happened this year, then wewouldn’t have got since for 3-4months it wouldn’t make sense. Butnow, BAI might get one to help us,”Chirag said.

Satwik said the departure of

Limpele in the Olympic year was abig worry.

“It is a worry for us because he(Limpele) left us before theOlympics. He is an experiencedcoach, he used to give us inputs inevery match and we trusted him alot. Since he left we didn’t know whatto do, what program to follow.

“But now we have a year, sohopefully we will get a new coachand again we will have to adjust tothe new regime. So in a way, we got

lucky with this postponement.”Badminton Association of India

general secretary Ajay Singhania saidthey will try to rope in a new foreigncoach once things return to normal.

“With the Olympic postpone-ment, we are keen to get a doublescoach in order to strengthen thecoaching staff. However, we have towait for the lockdown to get over firstso that we can discuss the issue withSAI and Sports Ministry,” he said.

Chirag and Satwik, the

Commonwealth Games Silvermedallists, were the first Indianmen’s doubles pair to win a Super500 in Thailand and also reached thefinals of Super 750 event at FrenchOpen last year. It also helped themto break into the top 10.

“If an experienced coach likecomes on board, it will make a bigdifference,” said Chirag.

“Now we are almost there, it isa matter of 2-3 points, say we are 90percent there and a really good coachlike for example Rexy Mainaky,who is the head coach of Thailandwould give us that extra 10 percent.A high-calibre coach can help us getinto world’s top 3.”

Mainaky, a 1996 Olympic Goldmedallist is one of the famous pairwith other being Ricky Subagja.

Satwik said: “We have coacheslike Dwi Kristiawan and NamrihSuroto, who can make a programfor us. Namrih used to handle uswhen Flandy was not availableand we have been training withDwi too, so they are also well-equipped to help us.” PTI

IANS n COLOMBO

Sri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur feels the T20squad needs some adjustments and a method

to win games, ahead of the World Cup later thisyear.

“Our T20 side is still going to take some fine-tuning and this was amplified against a verystrong West Indies team that simply had toomuch power for us,” Arthur said in a chat withSri Lanka Cricket (SLC) media unit.

“I think the most important thing is build-ing a method to win games based on theresources that you have at your disposal and thenmaking sure that the players are under no illu-sion as to what that method is based on ourstrengths,” he said.

Sri Lanka will be looking to add anotherWorld T20 title to their kitty after winning it in2014.

Sri Lanka lost to West Indies in two T20Islast month.

Arthur took over the reins in December andhis toughest test yet awaited in a two-matchhome series against England, but that was calledoff last month due to the coronavirus pandem-ic.

“It was really disappointing not playing theTest series against England although this will beplayed at a later date,” said Arthur, who has alsocoached South Africa, Australia and Pakistan.

“We had just worked out a brand that weknew would be successful against all teams, andI just hope that the momentum that we had builtup will not be lost with our Test team when westart up again,” he said.

“We have some very realistic goals with ourTest team and believe that we have now the play-ers and gameplans to have success both at homeand abroad in the future.”

NEW DELHI (IANS): FormerIndia cricketer Yuvraj Singhhas said that Rohit Sharmareminded him of Pakistan leg-end Inzamam-ul-Haq in hisearly days.

The flamboyant India vice-captain made his ODI debut inJune 2007 while his maidenT20 game came during theWC later that year againstEngland, where unfortunatelyhe didn’t get a chance to bat.

Asked about his firstimpression of Rohit, Yuvrajsaid the swashbuckling bats-man seemed like somebodywho had a lot of time to playhis strokes.

“I think when he came intothe Indian team, he looked likesomebody who had a lot of

time,” Yuvraj Singh said duringa YouTube chat show.

“He reminded me ofInzamam-ul-Haq, because,when he batted, Inzi had a lotof time (to play the bowlers).”

IANS n LAHORE

Former Australian bats-man Dean Jones and

Pakistan fast bowling greatWasim Akram noted the tal-ent pool that Pakistan bringsinto cricket, with the latterstating that the country is tothe sport what Brazil is tofootball.

“You’re (Pakistan) thetalent factory. We in Australiaalways used to say thatPakistan have so much talent,it’s just the matter of how youharness it,” Jones said in aninteraction with Wasim.

“Raw talent, it’s like Brazilof cricket,” Wasim said inreply.

Jones noted the innova-tions that Pakistan players,

particularly bowlers, havebrought into cricket over theyears.

“Pakistanis bring differ-ent techniques to internation-al cricket, different attitudes

fast bowlers like yourself(Wasim) and Waqar (Younis),Shoaib (Akhtar), and ofcourse Abdul (Qadir) andMushi (Mushtaq Ahmed)and all these great bowlersthat are coming through evennow,” he said.

Jones noted that whilecricket was always big in thecountry but the team’s dom-inance in the 1980’s and theirvictory in the 1992 WorldCup were important catalysts.

“Cricket is in the DNA,it’s been great for a long timebut really started to turn bigtime in the late 80s whenImran took over, when yourip England apart in front ofa 100 thousand people atMCG (in 1992) was amaz-ing,” he said.

AFP n WASHINGTON

President Donald Trumpon Saturday said he

believes US sports leagues hitby the coronavirus pandemicwould resume “sooner ratherthan later” but declined to seta timetable for their return.

On a conference call withthe commissioners of themajor professional sportsleagues, Trump told NationalFootball League commission-er Roger Goodell he believedthe season would kick off asscheduled in September.

US sports have beenupended by the coronavirus,with the NBA, Major LeagueBaseball, Major League Soccerand National Hockey Leagueall halting or suspending theirrespective seasons last monthas the pandemic erupted.

“I want fans back in thearenas...whenever we’re ready,”Trump told reporters at aWhite House briefing onSaturday.

“As soon as we can obvi-ously. I can’t tell you a date butI think it’s going to be soonerrather than later.”

Major League Baseballand NBA officials are report-edly studying plans to playgames without spectators atneutral venues to minimisethe risks of infection associat-ed with crowded arenas.

Trump, however, spokeoptimistically of fans eventu-ally being let back into stadi-ums.

“We’re not going to haveseparation for the rest of ourtimes on the planet,” Trumpsaid.

“We need it for this peri-od of time. But eventuallypeople are going to be able tooccupy those seats next toeach other. I’m not commit-ting to it. It would be great ifwe could.”

Long breaks pose big challenge for pacers

Indian pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami along with bowling coach Bharat Arun during nets session BCCI/Instagram

Dhoni’s Vizag knock felt likehe had tasted blood: Nehra

FormerPak skipper Imran Khan ICC

Arthur using break to buildplans for SL development

Pak is Brazil of cricket: Akram

Messi is a genius, pure talent: Kaka India submit bid to host AFC Asian Cup

Lionel Messi FCB/Twitter

Trump hopesvirus-hit sportswill be back‘sooner than later’

2020 F1 c‘ship should becancelled: Ecclestone

Chirag, Satwik hoping to get new foreign coach

Rohit reminded me of Inzamamin his early days: Yuvraj

NAGA SHAURYActor NagaShaurya, who gotbulked up for hislast releaseAswathama, willbe sporting a

chiseled and well-tonedbody for his next withSubrahmanyapuram direc-tor Santhossh Jagarlapudi.The actor plays an archer inthe film, which has beenshot for a couple of days lastmonth in Hyderabad, beforeCovid-19 outbreak called ahalt to the proceedings.

According to a well-placed source close to theunit, Shaurya, who knowsthe basic of archery havinghad a tryst with in the past,has already begun preppingfor the film. “The script hasgotten into the actor’s headso much so that he doesn’twant to put a foot wrongwith his prep. He is alsochatting with Santhoossh

frequently over what isexpected of him. He has hitthe gym but as his archerportions will be shot in thethird schedule, he will taketime to achieve the desiredlook,” the source says.

The source adds that thedirector has roped in inter-national archery coachRamesh as a consultant forthe film and his inputsabout the sport have beenincorporated into the script.“Ramesh will also train

Shaurya for a week to honehis skills on the sport, todevelop the right body lan-guage for an archerbesides helpinghim on hisphysique. Asthe film isthe f irstI n d i a nfi lm onarchery,the mak-ers haveb e e n

extra cautious on the scriptand the way the sport willbe presented. Which is whySanthossh has done eightmonths research for theproject. The techniques thatarchers employed some 150years wil l be used byShaurya in the film andsuch episodes will stand asa highlight of the film,” thesource informs.

The untitled film, a jointproduction venture betweenSharrath Marar, NarayanaDas Narang and RamMohan Rao, sees Ketika

Sharma alongsideShaur ya, while

Naseer and Satyaround off thes u p p o r t i n gdepartment.K a a l aBhairava hasbeen signed

on to ren-der tunes.

12

tollywood

THE DIRECTOR HAS ROPED ININTERNATIONAL ARCHERY COACHRAMESH AS A CONSULTANT FOR THE FILMAND HIS INPUTS ABOUT THE SPORT HAVEBEEN INCORPORATED INTO THE SCRIPT.HE WILL TRAIN SHAURYA FOR A WEEK TOHONE HIS SKILLS ON THE SPORT

Vijayawada Monday April 6, 2020

Mythri Movie Makersand team GeorgeReddy's helping hand

remier production houseMythri Movie Makers, whichhas already donated Rs 10lakhs each to CMRF of bothTelugu states to battle Covid-

19 pandemic, has now come to the res-cue of daily wage employees of theindustry. The production house tweet-ed indicating that they’ve sent a chequeof Rs 5 lakh to Corona Crisis Charitythat was formed by MegastarChiranjeevi to aid the daily wageemployees who have been hit hardbecause of the lockdown. Similarly, theteam of George Reddy — led by direc-tor Jeevan Reddy and lead actor Sandy— distributed essentials like cooking

oil, onion and pulses to 100 employeesof the industry who don’t possess avalid card recognised by the unions.The distribution took place inHyderabad on Sunday.

The actor plays an archer

in the film,which has

been shot for acouple of days

last month inHyderabad,

findsNAGARAJ

GOUD

to sport a well-toned andchiseled look for his next

A

p

Change ofguard forMAHASAMUDRAM

ven after he got the nod of Sharwanand tospearhead the film, director Ajay Bhupathi’sproblems to takeMahasamudramto f loors

seem to be far fromover. The latesttrouble that hitthe director, wehear, is the pro-duction house.Word in thefilm circles isthat SitharaEntertainments,which had agreedto pool in resourcefor the film backedout, leaving Ajay to rushto Anil Sunkara, who is on ahigh post the success of Sarileru Neekevvaru. The pro-ducer has evinced his interest to back the project buthe wants to check if it can be made in the budget. Heis believed to be taking a final call after the lockdownis lifted.

Mahasamudram, a love story set in the backdrop ofsmuggling, will be primarily shot in Visakhapatnam.Ajay Bhupathi also has to search for his female lead asSamantha is said to have exited the project due tounknown reasons. Chaithan Bharadwaj will be the film’smusic director.

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GEORGE REDDY TEAMDISTRIBUTED ESSENTIALSLIKE COOKING OIL, ONIONAND PULSES TO 100EMPLOYEES OF THEINDUSTRY

FIRSTLOOK

s Ashok Galla turned a year older on Sunday, his first look from his maid-en film with Sriram Adittya (Bhale Manchi Roju fame) was unveiled.The untitled drama which went to floors last November is halfwaythrough with its filming. Padmavati Galla is producing the film underAmar Raja Media & Entertainment, while superstar Krishna and Galla

Aruna Kumari are jointly presenting it. The likes of Jagapathi Babu, Naresh, Satyaand Archana Soundarya are playing supporting roles, with Niddhi Agerwal asthe leading lady. Ghibran is the music composer.

a

Pujita Ponnadabegins with a bang in Tamil

ast seen in Dr Rajasekhar-star-rer Kalki, Telugu actress PujitaPonnada has a lot on her platethis year. Besides Telugu filmslike Miss India, Katha Kanchiki

Manam Intiki and Run, the actress hasgreen-lit three Tamil films — withBharat, Aari and Vimal — and what’smore interesting is that she is on thebrink of completing all of them. “I hada schedule left for each of my Tamil filmsand I’ve allotted dates this month andMay. Let’s see how the situation pans outbecause of the lockdown,” the Vizag girltells us, adding, “I’m playing the femalelead in all the three films. Film withBharat is a family drama with a lot ofthriller elements woven into the narra-tive, while film with Vimal is a remake

of Kannada romantic comedy Lucky(2012), starring Yash and Ramya. Aari’sfilm is a mythological thriller. It’s set inpresent day but the screenplay goesback in time as well. All the three pro-jects have given me roles with a lot ofweight.” — NG

lI’m pplaying tthe ffemale llead iin aallthe tthree ffilms. FFilm wwith BBharat iis

a ffamily ddrama wwith aa llot oof tthrillerelements wwoven iinto tthe nnarrative, wwhilefilm wwith VVimal iis aa rremake oof KKannadaromantic ccommedy LLucky ((2012), sstarringYash aand RRamya. AAari’s ffilm iis aamythological tthriller

Sealing off HOT ZONESfor one month proposed, Hyd in the list

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