A fter a week-long “strict enforcement” of the lock- down post-April 14, the Government is set to relax activities in some sectors on Monday though no relaxation would be given in the contain- ment zones and e-commerce companies will not be allowed to sell non-essential com- modities. A day ahead of the reopen- ing of the agriculture, industry and construction sectors in “Green Zones” (non-hotspot zones), the Home Ministry on Sunday paved the way for migrant workers and labourers to return to their place of work in cities, given they do not show any symptoms of coronavirus. Though migrants will be allowed to return to their places of work in cities, which are non-containment zones, State borders will remain closed for any movement. The Government’s deci- sion comes in the wake of thou- sands of workers being strand- ed across the country, along State border lines, since the national lockdown was imposed on March 25. The Government had first imposed a nationwide lock- down for 21 days till April 14, and then extended it to May 3 in the wake of rising number of Covid-19 cases in the country. The Home Ministry’s deci- sion to reverse its decision on sale of non-essential items through e-commerce platform is a U-turn on its April 15 cir- cular. “In this regard I would like to clarify that while oper- ations of e-commerce for non- essential goods stand prohibit- ed, they will continue to oper- ate for essential goods as has been allowed earlier and con- tinue to be allowed under clause 13(i) of these guidelines,” said Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla in a letter to all States, changing provisions on Clause 14(v) which allowed transport of vehicles related to e-commerce. The Clause 14(v) gave per- mission to all vehicles trans- porting of e-commerce goods, while Clause 13(i) gave only sale of essential commodities. This loophole in the April 15 MHA guidelines may be mis- used by e-commerce compa- nies, alleged trade bodies. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) petitioned to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal for banning the sale of non-essential com- modities by e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart. They alleged that e-com- merce giants are manipulating the guidelines and got clearance from Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan Governments. “On behalf of the seven crore traders of India, the Confederation of All India Traders today lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for the most pragmatic decision of prohibiting e-commerce com- panies to deliver non-essentials amid lockdown period. A day after Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri advised airlines to open bookings only after the Government takes a decision on resuming passenger flight services, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Sunday directed all airliners to refrain from booking of tickets. In a circular issued on Sunday, the DGCA said that decision has not been taken to commence the domestic /inter- national flights from May 4. In view of this, all airliners are hereby directed to refrain from booking tickets. Further, air- lines may note that they shall be given sufficient notice and time for restarting the opera- tions, the circular read. The circular said that there was no directions/clearance which allows the airlines to start ticket booking for the journey from May 4 onwards. All Indian airlines, includ- ing Vistara and AirAsia India, are currently taking bookings on select flights from May 4. On Saturday night, Puri said on Twitter the Government has not taken any decision to open domestic or international flight operations so far. All domestic and international commercial passenger flight operations have been suspended during the lockdown period. W ith no sign of abatement in Covid-19 cases which crossed 17,200 marks on Sunday, the Government has decided not to allow non- essential services from Monday in the containment areas in designated ‘hotspots’ districts where rate of doubling of coro- navirus cases is less than four days, against the national aver- age of six days. The move aims to curb the spread of the virus which has taken its toll on 556 lives so far. Luv Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry, said at a Press briefing here that “From tonight, there will be no relax- ation in containment areas in hotspot districts. Stricter mea- sures could be taken.” He said there will be a strict parameter control in the con- tainment zones, under which no services other than essential services will be allowed. According to the Health Ministry guidelines, hotspot or red zones are the areas where “there are a large number of Covid-19 cases or where dou- bling rates of cases is less than four days.” In these hotspots, the local administration delineates con- tainment and buffer zones to control the disease spread. With 1,324 fresh cases regis- tered in the last 24 hours, the total number of novel coron- avirus count in India crossed more than 17,000 to reach 17,200 confirmed cases so far and death toll to 556, accord- ing to the Government data. Alluding to the areas where there will be selective relax- ation, the Joint Secretary said, “Areas outside the contain- ment zones, States and districts have to ensure that the mea- sures related to lockdown are followed. Social distancing SOPs and preparatory actions in offices, workplaces, factories or establishments are taken.” Mumbai: Maharashtra Government has announced that the State, which is hit badly by the coronavirurs, will open up limited business activities in green and orange zones from April 20. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Sunday that despite resumption of business activities in certain pockets, the borders of the districts will be sealed and e production work in indus- tries/businesses falling in the green zone will be allowed. Green zones are areas where no coronavirus case has been reported. Orange zones are areas where coronavirus has been reported in a limited area. Maharashtra is the worst-hit Indian State from Covid-19 outbreak with 4,200 con- firmed cases. Mumbai: IT and ITeS providers can work at 50 per cent strength from April 20, according to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Majority of the IT companies had asked their employees to work from home during the lockdown. "Digital economy is critical to the services sector and is important for national growth. Accordingly, e-commerce oper- ations, operations of IT and IT- enabled services, data and call centres for Government activ- ities, and online teaching and distance learning are all per- mitted activities now," the Government said. A mid the coronavirus upsurge in Maharashtra, a major political controversy broke out on Sunday, as the ruling Shiv Sena launched a sharp attack against Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for his “failure” to act on the State Cabinet’s recommendation to nominate Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray as a mem- ber of the State Legislative Council by saying “Raj Bhavan should not become centre for political conspiracy”. In normal course, the Governor has to go by the rec- ommendation of the State Cabinet without any undue delay. Kohsyari’s failure to nominate Uddhav has sur- prised many in the State polit- ical circles and that too at a time when the State is passing through a coronavirus crisis. The Governor has given no indication that he would go by the recommendation made by the State Cabinet on April 9 to nominate Uddhav as a Member of Legislative Council from one of the two vacant slots. Uddhav took up the reins as the Chief Minister on November 28, 2019 and needs to become a member of the either House, Assembly or Council, before six months, May 27, as prescribed under Article 164 (4). If Uddhav fails to get the nomination, he will have to resign from his post. In that scenario, it will be up to the Governor to invite Uddhav to take oath as the Chief Minister once again. Once Uddhav is sworn into the office as the Chief Minister, he will have another six months to get elected to either of the Houses. Subsequently, Uddhav’s other Ministers will have to be once again administered oath of office by the Governor. If any- thing, he will be at the mercy of the Governor. More than anything else, the Government re-formation exercise — which will take at least three to four days — will affect the MVA Government’s ongoing efforts to combat coranavirus situation in the State. An angry Shiv Sena spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut lashed out at Koshyari through two tweets — one in Marathi and another in English. In a tweet that he put out first in Marathi, Raut said, “Raj Bhavans should not become dirty den for politics. I am sud- denly reminded of a ‘shameless’ late Andhra Pradesh Governor Ramlal. This clue is enough for those who can understand”. ❝ T he Delhi Government is not going to relax the lock- down for at least a week as the Covid-19 spread appears to have gained pace in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday. Asserting that the deci- sion has been taken to save lives, Kejriwal said even though Delhi accounts for 2 per cent of India’s population, the cases account for 12 per cent of the total cases in the country. Delhi has 77 containment zones, with 2 more added on Sunday, which have been sealed. Citing instances of asymp- tomatic people testing positive for the virus, Kejriwal said out of 736 samples collected recent- ly, 186 were found infected by Covid-19 and the people did not know they were carrying the virus. “When we talked to one of them, he said he was engaged in serving food at a Government-run centre. I have ordered for rapid testing of all those who visited the centre,” the CM said during a video conference. Kejriwal said Delhi paid the price for the markaz event where thousands of Tablighi Jamaat followers attended an event during the lockdown. Kejriwal, however, assured the situation is under control and his Government will reassess it after a week to see what relaxations can be given. An order by Chief Secretary Vijay Dev said the administra- tion will review the situation on April 27. The decision to prolong the restrictions came a day after the Delhi Government added eight new containment zones, increasing their total to 77, and as the number of Covid-19 cases neared 1,900 in the city. P olice on Sunday arrested five more persons in con- nection with the incident of a Nizamuddin Markaz returnee along with two of his associates leading a mob and attacking two State Government offi- cials and holding them captive in Gopinathpur village under the Kuakhia police station in Jajpur district on Saturday. The five arrestees were identified as Sultan Khan (23), Rabani Khan (24) , Gufran Khan (22), Abdul Salam Khan (55) of Badakaichi village and Asraf Ali Khan (30) of Binjharapur village Earlier on Saturday, police had arrested Sajan Khan (26) Parbez Khan (20) and Sophian Khan (19) of Badakaichi village in this case. The incident had taken place on Saturday when Rasulpur BDO Umakanta Parida and Tehsildar Jyotikanta intercepted a motorcycle by which the three persons were travelling despite the lock- down. The trio managed to flee from the spot, but later returned with around 60 other associates and attacked the officials. Police teams are on the lookout for others involved in the assault, said police. When the officials were conducting checks for lock- down violation, the three bike- borne youths, including the Nizamuddin Markaz attendee thought that the officers were trying to stop them due to the Nizamuddin link. The three accused were detained and sent for quaran- tine. Tracing of their contacts is on, said officials. Earlier, one Tablighi Jamaat attendee of the district had test- ed positive for the coronavirus, but he has recovered now. Of the State’s 61 COVID- 19 cases, at least six had links to the Nizamuddin event. Forty-two people of the State, who had attended the event, voluntarily came forward for coronavirus test following an appeal by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, but the per- sons detained on Saturday were not among them, an official said. T he Supreme Court Collegium has recom- mended transfer of Justice Mohammad Rafiq, present Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court, to the Orissa High Court. A recommendation in this regard was made by the Collegium on Saturday (April 18), an official statement said. Notably, the Orissa High Court has been functioning with Acting Chief Justice Kumari Sanju Panda since January 5, 2020 after the retire- ment of Justice KS Jhaveri. Justice Rafiq was appoint- ed as Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court in November 2019. E mphasising on the need for a decentralised approach in the fight against the COVID-19, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday said that empowering the urban local bodies (ULBs) and gram panchayats would help in a great way in this long battle. In a video message, Patnaik said registration of people returning from other States at the panchayat level has been done mandatory. “Every gram panchayat will have registration facility. Those who are returning from other States will register themselves in the panchayats. Following this, they will be kept in 14-day quar- antine. Their treatment, food and accommodation expenses will be taken care by the State Government. Family members and relatives of the returnees will ensure that the registration happens,” the CM said. After the quarantine, the returnees would be given an incentive of Rs 2,000, he said. To ensure that the registra- tion is done at the gram pan- chayat level, sarpanches would be given the power of Collector and, accordingly, law has been changed. This would help in tack- ling the spread of the coronavirus in a better way, Patnaik said. Lakhs of people from Odisha including pilgrims, labourers, students and pro- fessionals have been stranded in other States due to the pan- demic and subsequent lock- down. Their life is yet to become normal despite reme- dial efforts made by the Odisha Government and other States, he observed. T he Commissionerate police on Sunday said there would be no change in Bhubaneswar in connection with restrictions due to the lockdown. Shops selling fertiliser, pes- ticide, animal feed and agri- cultural equipments would continue to be closed. This apart, shops selling cement, paint, iron, etc., would remain closed. Repair shops would also remain closed, said Commissioner of Police Sudhanshu Sarangi. Emergency repairs of AC, refrigerator, etc., would be allowed to open by dial 100 only. For the State Government employees in Bhubaneswar, they have to show their iden- tity cards and a letter from head of offices mobilising for duty so that police personnel would let them go. There is no vehicle pass required for the State Government employees, Sarangi said. For the Central Government employees in Bhubaneswar, as per the MHA order, all officers above the rank of Deputy Secretary would attend their offices. Others would be limited to 30%. They would be allowed to go to offices by showing iden- tity cards. No vehicle pass is required, the Commissioner said. IT and ITeS companies in Bhubaneswar are to continue their works from home arrangement and function with a maximum of 25% staffs com- ing to offices. They would be allowed on showing of com- pany I-cards and email show- ing that they are part of the 25% asked to come to office, he added.
Transcript
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After a week-long “strictenforcement” of the lock-
down post-April 14, theGovernment is set to relaxactivities in some sectors onMonday though no relaxationwould be given in the contain-ment zones and e-commercecompanies will not be allowedto sell non-essential com-modities.
A day ahead of the reopen-ing of the agriculture, industryand construction sectors in“Green Zones” (non-hotspotzones), the Home Ministry onSunday paved the way formigrant workers and labourersto return to their place of workin cities, given they do not showany symptoms of coronavirus.
Though migrants will beallowed to return to their placesof work in cities, which arenon-containment zones, Stateborders will remain closed forany movement.
The Government’s deci-sion comes in the wake of thou-sands of workers being strand-ed across the country, alongState border lines, since thenational lockdown wasimposed on March 25.
The Government had firstimposed a nationwide lock-down for 21 days till April 14,and then extended it to May 3in the wake of rising number ofCovid-19 cases in the country.
The Home Ministry’s deci-sion to reverse its decision onsale of non-essential itemsthrough e-commerce platformis a U-turn on its April 15 cir-
cular. “In this regard I wouldlike to clarify that while oper-ations of e-commerce for non-essential goods stand prohibit-ed, they will continue to oper-ate for essential goods as hasbeen allowed earlier and con-tinue to be allowed under clause13(i) of these guidelines,” saidHome Secretary Ajay Bhalla ina letter to all States, changingprovisions on Clause 14(v)which allowed transport ofvehicles related to e-commerce.
The Clause 14(v) gave per-mission to all vehicles trans-porting of e-commerce goods,while Clause 13(i) gave onlysale of essential commodities.This loophole in the April 15MHA guidelines may be mis-used by e-commerce compa-nies, alleged trade bodies. TheConfederation of All IndiaTraders (CAIT) petitioned toPrime Minister Narendra
Modi, Home Minister AmitShah and Commerce MinisterPiyush Goyal for banning thesale of non-essential com-modities by e-commerce giantslike Amazon and Flipkart.
They alleged that e-com-merce giants are manipulatingthe guidelines and got clearancefrom Maharashtra, Odisha andRajasthan Governments.
“On behalf of the sevencrore traders of India, theConfederation of All IndiaTraders today lauded PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andHome Minister Amit Shah forthe most pragmatic decision ofprohibiting e-commerce com-panies to deliver non-essentialsamid lockdown period.
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Aday after Union CivilAviation Minister Hardeep
Singh Puri advised airlines toopen bookings only after theGovernment takes a decisionon resuming passenger flightservices, the Director Generalof Civil Aviation (DGCA) onSunday directed all airliners torefrain from booking of tickets.
In a circular issued onSunday, the DGCA said thatdecision has not been taken tocommence the domestic /inter-national flights from May 4. Inview of this, all airliners arehereby directed to refrain frombooking tickets. Further, air-
lines may note that they shallbe given sufficient notice andtime for restarting the opera-tions, the circular read.
The circular said that therewas no directions/clearancewhich allows the airlines tostart ticket booking for thejourney from May 4 onwards.
All Indian airlines, includ-ing Vistara and AirAsia India,are currently taking bookingson select flights from May 4.On Saturday night, Puri said onTwitter the Government hasnot taken any decision to opendomestic or international flightoperations so far. All domesticand international commercialpassenger flight operationshave been suspended duringthe lockdown period.
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With no sign of abatementin Covid-19 cases which
crossed 17,200 marks onSunday, the Government hasdecided not to allow non-essential services from Mondayin the containment areas indesignated ‘hotspots’ districtswhere rate of doubling of coro-navirus cases is less than fourdays, against the national aver-age of six days.
The move aims to curb thespread of the virus which hastaken its toll on 556 lives so far.Luv Agarwal, Joint Secretary,Union Health Ministry, said ata Press briefing here that “Fromtonight, there will be no relax-ation in containment areas inhotspot districts. Stricter mea-sures could be taken.”
He said there will be a strictparameter control in the con-
tainment zones, under whichno services other than essentialservices will be allowed.
According to the HealthMinistry guidelines, hotspot orred zones are the areas where“there are a large number ofCovid-19 cases or where dou-bling rates of cases is less thanfour days.”
In these hotspots, the localadministration delineates con-tainment and buffer zones tocontrol the disease spread.With 1,324 fresh cases regis-tered in the last 24 hours, thetotal number of novel coron-
avirus count in India crossedmore than 17,000 to reach17,200 confirmed cases so farand death toll to 556, accord-ing to the Government data.
Alluding to the areas wherethere will be selective relax-ation, the Joint Secretary said,“Areas outside the contain-ment zones, States and districtshave to ensure that the mea-sures related to lockdown arefollowed. Social distancingSOPs and preparatory actionsin offices, workplaces, factoriesor establishments are taken.”
Mumbai: MaharashtraGovernment has announcedthat the State, which is hitbadly by the coronavirurs,will open up limited businessactivities in green and orangezones from April 20.
Chief Minister UddhavThackeray said on Sundaythat despite resumption ofbusiness activities in certainpockets, the borders of thedistricts will be sealed and e
production work in indus-tries/businesses falling in thegreen zone will be allowed.
Green zones are areaswhere no coronavirus case hasbeen reported.
Orange zones are areaswhere coronavirus has beenreported in a limited area.Maharashtra is the worst-hitIndian State from Covid-19outbreak with 4,200 con-firmed cases.
Mumbai: IT and ITeSproviders can work at 50 percent strength from April 20,according to the guidelinesissued by the Ministry of HomeAffairs. Majority of the ITcompanies had asked theiremployees to work from homeduring the lockdown.
"Digital economy is criticalto the services sector and isimportant for national growth.Accordingly, e-commerce oper-ations, operations of IT and IT-enabled services, data and callcentres for Government activ-ities, and online teaching anddistance learning are all per-mitted activities now," theGovernment said.
major political controversybroke out on Sunday, as theruling Shiv Sena launched asharp attack against GovernorBhagat Singh Koshyari for his“failure” to act on the StateCabinet’s recommendation tonominate Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray as a mem-ber of the State LegislativeCouncil by saying “Raj Bhavanshould not become centre forpolitical conspiracy”.
In normal course, theGovernor has to go by the rec-ommendation of the StateCabinet without any unduedelay. Kohsyari’s failure tonominate Uddhav has sur-prised many in the State polit-ical circles and that too at atime when the State is passingthrough a coronavirus crisis.
The Governor has given noindication that he would go bythe recommendation made bythe State Cabinet on April 9 tonominate Uddhav as a Memberof Legislative Council fromone of the two vacant slots.
Uddhav took up the reinsas the Chief Minister onNovember 28, 2019 and needsto become a member of theeither House, Assembly orCouncil, before six months,May 27, as prescribed underArticle 164 (4).
If Uddhav fails to get thenomination, he will have toresign from his post. In thatscenario, it will be up to theGovernor to invite Uddhav totake oath as the Chief Ministeronce again. Once Uddhav issworn into the office as theChief Minister, he will haveanother six months to getelected to either of the Houses.Subsequently, Uddhav’s other
Ministers will have to be onceagain administered oath ofoffice by the Governor. If any-thing, he will be at the mercyof the Governor.
More than anything else,the Government re-formationexercise — which will take atleast three to four days — willaffect the MVA Government’songoing efforts to combatcoranavirus situation in theState. An angry Shiv Senaspokesperson and MP SanjayRaut lashed out at Koshyarithrough two tweets — one inMarathi and another inEnglish.
In a tweet that he put outfirst in Marathi, Raut said, “RajBhavans should not becomedirty den for politics. I am sud-denly reminded of a ‘shameless’late Andhra Pradesh GovernorRamlal. This clue is enough forthose who can understand”.
The Delhi Government isnot going to relax the lock-
down for at least a week as theCovid-19 spread appears tohave gained pace in Delhi,Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalsaid on Sunday.
Asserting that the deci-sion has been taken to savelives, Kejriwal said even thoughDelhi accounts for 2 per cent ofIndia’s population, the casesaccount for 12 per cent of thetotal cases in the country. Delhihas 77 containment zones, with2 more added on Sunday,which have been sealed.
Citing instances of asymp-tomatic people testing positivefor the virus, Kejriwal said outof 736 samples collected recent-ly, 186 were found infected byCovid-19 and the people didnot know they were carryingthe virus. “When we talked toone of them, he said he wasengaged in serving food at aGovernment-run centre. I haveordered for rapid testing of all
those who visited the centre,”the CM said during a videoconference.
Kejriwal said Delhi paidthe price for the markaz eventwhere thousands of TablighiJamaat followers attended anevent during the lockdown.
Kejriwal, however, assuredthe situation is under controland his Government willreassess it after a week to seewhat relaxations can be given.An order by Chief SecretaryVijay Dev said the administra-tion will review the situation on April 27.
The decision to prolong therestrictions came a day after theDelhi Government added eightnew containment zones,increasing their total to 77, andas the number of Covid-19cases neared 1,900 in the city.
Police on Sunday arrestedfive more persons in con-
nection with the incident of aNizamuddin Markaz returneealong with two of his associatesleading a mob and attackingtwo State Government offi-cials and holding them captivein Gopinathpur village under
the Kuakhia police station inJajpur district on Saturday.
The five arrestees wereidentified as Sultan Khan (23),Rabani Khan (24) , GufranKhan (22), Abdul Salam Khan(55) of Badakaichi village andAsraf Ali Khan (30) ofBinjharapur village
Earlier on Saturday, policehad arrested Sajan Khan (26)Parbez Khan (20) and SophianKhan (19) of Badakaichi villagein this case.
The incident had takenplace on Saturday whenRasulpur BDO UmakantaParida and Tehsildar Jyotikantaintercepted a motorcycle by
which the three persons weretravelling despite the lock-down. The trio managed toflee from the spot, but laterreturned with around 60 otherassociates and attacked theofficials.
Police teams are on thelookout for others involved inthe assault, said police.
When the officials wereconducting checks for lock-down violation, the three bike-borne youths, including theNizamuddin Markaz attendeethought that the officers weretrying to stop them due to theNizamuddin link.
The three accused were
detained and sent for quaran-tine. Tracing of their contactsis on, said officials.
Earlier, one Tablighi Jamaatattendee of the district had test-ed positive for the coronavirus,but he has recovered now.
Of the State’s 61 COVID-19 cases, at least six had linksto the Nizamuddin event.Forty-two people of the State,who had attended the event,voluntarily came forward forcoronavirus test following anappeal by Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik, but the per-sons detained on Saturday werenot among them, an officialsaid.
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The Supreme CourtCollegium has recom-
mended transfer of JusticeMohammad Rafiq, presentChief Justice of the MeghalayaHigh Court, to the Orissa HighCourt.
A recommendation in thisregard was made by theCollegium on Saturday (April18), an official statement said.
Notably, the Orissa HighCourt has been functioningwith Acting Chief JusticeKumari Sanju Panda sinceJanuary 5, 2020 after the retire-ment of Justice KS Jhaveri.
Justice Rafiq was appoint-ed as Chief Justice of theMeghalaya High Court inNovember 2019.
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Emphasising on the needfor a decentralised
approach in the fight againstthe COVID-19, Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik on Mondaysaid that empowering theurban local bodies (ULBs) andgram panchayats would help ina great way in this long battle.
In a video message, Patnaiksaid registration of peoplereturning from other States atthe panchayat level has beendone mandatory.
“Every gram panchayat willhave registration facility. Thosewho are returning from otherStates will register themselves inthe panchayats. Following this,they will be kept in 14-day quar-antine. Their treatment, foodand accommodation expenseswill be taken care by the StateGovernment. Family membersand relatives of the returneeswill ensure that the registrationhappens,” the CM said.
After the quarantine, thereturnees would be given an
incentive of Rs 2,000, he said.To ensure that the registra-
tion is done at the gram pan-chayat level, sarpanches would begiven the power of Collector and,accordingly, law has beenchanged. This would help in tack-ling the spread of the coronavirusin a better way, Patnaik said.
Lakhs of people fromOdisha including pilgrims,labourers, students and pro-fessionals have been strandedin other States due to the pan-demic and subsequent lock-down. Their life is yet tobecome normal despite reme-dial efforts made by the OdishaGovernment and other States,he observed.
The Commissionerate policeon Sunday said there would
be no change in Bhubaneswarin connection with restrictionsdue to the lockdown.
Shops selling fertiliser, pes-ticide, animal feed and agri-cultural equipments wouldcontinue to be closed. Thisapart, shops selling cement,paint, iron, etc., would remainclosed. Repair shops wouldalso remain closed, saidCommissioner of PoliceSudhanshu Sarangi.
Emergency repairs of AC,refrigerator, etc., would beallowed to open by dial 100only.
For the State Governmentemployees in Bhubaneswar,they have to show their iden-tity cards and a letter from headof offices mobilising for duty sothat police personnel would let
them go. There is no vehiclepass required for the StateGovernment employees,Sarangi said.
For the CentralGovernment employees inBhubaneswar, as per the MHAorder, all officers above therank of Deputy Secretarywould attend their offices.Others would be limited to30%. They would be allowed togo to offices by showing iden-tity cards. No vehicle pass isrequired, the Commissionersaid.
IT and ITeS companies inBhubaneswar are to continuetheir works from homearrangement and function witha maximum of 25% staffs com-ing to offices. They would beallowed on showing of com-pany I-cards and email show-ing that they are part of the25% asked to come to office, headded.
Management Department andCollectorates and Sub-Collector offices would befunctional from Monday (April20) during the second phase ofthe lockdown in the State.
The offices of RDCs,
Collectors, Sub-Collectors,Tehsil offices, RI offices havebeen allowed to function with100 per cent staff strength aspart of the COVID-19 man-agement process, a notificationby Revenue and DisasterManagement Department stat-ed.
However, the officesincluding Board of Revenueand Sub-Registrar which werenot allowed previously due tolockdown would operate withlimited staff strength up to 33per cent in Notified UrbanAreas of Khordha, Cuttack,Sundargarh, Kendrapada,Bhadrak, Puri, Kalahandi,Dhenkanal and Jajpur districts.
The staffs belonging toGroups B, C and D would be
allowed for work on roasterbasis prepared by their heads ofoffices.
The remaining offices ofBoard of Revenue and Sub-Registrar beyond the aboveurban limits would be func-tional with 100 per cent staffs,the notification stated.
As per the order, all Group-A officers would attend theirrespective offices unfailinglyfrom Monday.
Besides, all stamp vendorswould be allowed to operatefrom the districts or Sub-Registrar offices from Monday.
Similarly, all the minormineral sources like ‘Bali Ghat’,crusher unit and quarry unitwould operate to facilitate con-struction works from Monday.
goods and essential activities,the restriction on humanmovement has badly hit func-tioning of agriculture-basedindustries.
Non-availability of workersand agriculture labourers dueto restricted human move-ment during lockdown hasaffected execution of farmingand allied sector activities.
This was viewed by theparticipants and panelists at awebinar on “Issues of Agri-based Industries and Food
Processing Sector in the face ofCOVID-19 crisis” organised bythe Odisha State Councilrecently.
Chairperson of FICCIOdisha Council MonicaNayyar Patnaik and Chairmanof FICCI Odisha MSMECommittee JK Rath highlight-ed the issues of agri-basedindustries and MSMEs in thefood processing and essentialcommodities sectors. Even ifmany of the activities arerelaxed during lockdown, themigration of workforce andnon-availability of adequatenumber of labourers to ensurebasic operation of such indus-
tries has caused a difficult sit-uation.
The key allied sector indus-tries of agriculture such as, juteindustry, seed packaging, veg-etable farming, poultry andpond fishing which are badlyaffected due to shortage ofmanpower and thereby causinghuge burden to the farmers andMSME entrepreneurs.
Among others, ManagingDirector of AgriculturePromotion and InvestmentPromotion of Odisha Ltd (API-COL) Prof PK Roul andAdditional Secretary, MSMEDepartment UN Das spoke.
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The incidence and preva-lence of COVID infection
across India are a bit mislead-ing because ‘proportionate-to-population' tests are not beingconducted due to lack of facil-ities. Lately, Odisha has beentesting huge numbers ofCOVID suspects. The testresults are fairly reassuring asonly one in a hundred is posi-tive, most of them withoutsymptoms or complications.
Naveen Patnaik as the first CMto extend the lockdown periodto the end of April has againshown the way to others. Modiand Naveen together can builda truly happy, safe and secureIndia.
Evidently the low-wrungpolice officials, sanitary work-ers, nurses and a majority ofdoctors are the real warriors asinfantry in the army for theyslug like crazy in the most dan-gerous conditions.
It is also true that somevery tricky, sly public officialstry to get glorified by confus-ing the media guys, who arenews-hungry in a virtually no-activity period. In contrast,what really moved millions isthe act of Andhra-cadre IASofficer Srijana Gummalla whosacrificed her six-month mater-nity leave and returned towork within just a week of giv-ing birth to a baby. The youngmother was back in office ascommissioner of an urbanbody with the little baby in
arm.Similarly, the act of Dr
Sudhanshu BhushanMohapatra, Additional DistrictMedical Officer of Malkangiriin Odisha is praiseworthy forhe lost his father in Ratnagirivillage near Chandikhol buthad no means at hand to trav-el 700 km to reach on time. So,he decided to stay back andserve the people and comelater to attend the tenth oreleventh day rituals.Incidentally, MalkangiriDistrict Magistrate ManishAgarwal is himself a rolemodel. He had earlier put hiswife in the remote tribal districthospital for delivering a baby.Dr Mohapatra may have beeninspired by the young DistrictMagistrate and come on recordas a dedicated healthcare pro-fessional.
Most significantly, ArunBothra, a 1996-batch Odisha-cadre IPS officer, has madeOdisha people extremelyproud. One Neha Sinha of
Mumbai had tagged PrimeMinister Narendra Modi in atweet seeking supply of camelmilk for her three-year-oldautistic child, who survives oncamel milk and pulses. Becauseof lockdown, she could notorganise camel milk. Sinha’stweet did not get any responsefrom any authority. On April 6,one of Bothra’s followers onTwitter tagged him. Thoughvery active on Twitter to helppeople in other matters, the ‘callfor camel milk' moved him noend. He got into action instant-ly by activating his contacts todiscover a company ‘AdvikFoods' supplying camel milk inMumbai. Bothra requested thecompany to help. Incidentally,the company owner had lost hisfather two days earlier. Still, heand his partner went out oftheir way to arrange the lastavailable 400 grams of camelmilk powder from a supplier inAndheri to tide over the imme-diate crisis. Mumbai had runout of stock. Bothra did not
give up. His nonstop appeals onWhatsApp groups revealed thatthe Railways could help. So, hegot in touch with ChiefPassenger Transport Managerof North-West Railway TarunJain in Jaipur to seek trans-porting help. Tarun checkedwith his seniors and found thata parcel train running betweenLudhiana and Bandra inMumbai could carry the milkfrom Rajasthan. The milk stockwas sourced at Sadri near Paliin Rajasthan and the nearestscheduled stop is Jodhpur.However, due to the lockdown,it was not possible for the sup-plier to reach Jodhpur. Thecompassionate railway author-ities organised an unsched-uled stop for the train at theFalna station where 20 litres offrozen camel milk and 20 kg ofcamel milk powder wereloaded. Thus, the lifesavingmilk finally reached Chemburon April 10. Bothra’s act ofhumanity now is part of histo-ry.
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Ateam of skilled techniciansof the Industrial Training
Institute (ITI) here has devel-oped a walk-in kiosk to collectswab samples for testingpatients showing symptoms ofcoronavirus.
The kiosk is a mobile cubi-cle with a sealed glass cabinwhich comes with a pair ofgloves attached to it in the frontthrough which the doctor orhealth worker can collect sam-ples of a suspected patient. Thestructure is supported withfour wheels at the base.
The swab collections canbe done without direct sunexposure and contact. After thesamples are collected, thegloves will be sanitised fromoutside. The kiosk will be able
to conduct more tests in lesstime.
Inspired by the modeladopted in South Korea tocollect the samples of Covid-19patients, the ITI team hasdeveloped this kiosk.
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Eminent Odia littera-teur and academic
Ratnakar Chaini passedaway at his Bidanasi resi-dence here on Saturday.He was 75 and is survivedby his wife and a son.
Born at Sarei villagein the Salepur area ofCuttack district in 1945,Chaini matriculated from thelocal Nemalo High School,graduated from the ChristCollege in Cuttack, had Mastersdegree in Odia from theRavenshaw College, Cuttackand obtained PhD from theUtkal University. He taughtOdia in several colleges.
Chaini was president of theprestigious Utkal Sahitya Samaj
for long years. His literaryworks include ‘AchyutanandaRachanabali’, ‘Niraba Kolahala’,‘Asha Brundabana’, ‘TathapiRabana’ and ‘Kaha Lalita’. Hewas felicitated with severalawards.
Among others, ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaikexpressed deep grief over hisdemise.
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Seven women have com-plained of abuse when the
Odisha Police made calls tothem as part of its newly-launched “Phone Up” pro-gramme, which is aimed atcurbing domestic violence,Director General of Police(DGP) Abhay said.
A total of 304 calls weremade on Saturday to women,who had in the past reporteddomestic abuse, by the StateCrime Record Bureau (SCRB),he said on Sunday.
“We received adversereports from seven womenduring yesterday’s exercise.Police officers in the districts,from where the women com-
plained of domestic violence,have been told to take neces-sary measures,” the DGP stated.
Under the ”Phone Up”programme, a senior policeofficer would visit the woman,who reported abuse to theSCRB cell, and verify herhealth condition, followingwhich action would be initi-ated.
“The victims can alsoapproach us through theOdisha Police Citizen Portaland Sahayata Mobile App.These initiatives will breakthe chain of violence womenhave been facing at homesince the imposition of lock-down,” another police officeradded.
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Despite not being in perfect health, OAS offi-cer Aditya Swain, Tehsildar of Digapahandi
in Ganjam district, has been working hard in theCovid-19 situation.
Swain was diagnosed with colorectal can-cer about six months ago. Though he underwentsurgery and was administered chemotherapy, heis supposed to be taking rest to recover from theexcruciating pain. However, he chose duty overeverything and became a frontline warrior in theanti-coronavirus battle.
Ganjam district Collector Vijay AmrutaKulange has acknowledged Swain’s services onhis official Twitter handle addressing him a‘COVID warrior’.
The Health & Family Welfare Departmenthas already made it clear that the COVID-19pandemic is likely to affect people with exist-ing medical history and weak immunity.
However, the cancer history has not posed asbarrier to Swain from carrying on his assign-ments.
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Former Union MinisterSrikant Jena on Sunday
demanded that Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik clarify if thelockdown would be extended,why Odisha workers strandedin other States have not beenbrought back and whether theRs 100-crore package is suffi-cient to provide livelihood sup-port to urban labourers.
In a letter to the CM, Jenawanted to know why the num-ber of COVID tests stillremains unsatisfactory and theState has been unable to pro-cure adequate rapid test kits.
"According to the WorldHealth Organisation, lockdownbears no meaning if adequatenumbers of blood samples arenot tested. After 26 days oflockdown, only nine thousandtests have been done (in the
State). If the Andhra PradeshGovernment could bring 1lakh rapid test kits, why theOdisha Government couldn't?In this situation, will yourGovernment extend the lock-down," Jena wanted to know.
Noting that the UtterGovernment has brought backthousands of students fromRajasthan's Kota city by 500buses, Jena wanted to knowwhen the Odisha Governmentwould do so.
Jena pointed out that only30% of the Rs 100-crore pack-age announced by the CM forurban labourers would reachthe targeted 4.5 lakh workers asper labour component norm.Thus, each wager would get Rs4.44 per day. Is the amount suf-ficient to help the poor groupwhen Mudhi costs Rs 50 per kgand a cup of tea Rs 10 now?Jena questioned.
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To maintain social distanc-ing, the authorities are
planning to shift some veg-etable vendors in Cuttack toother locations.
Four major vegetable mar-kets would be relocated duringa joint drive by the districtadministration, police andCuttack MunicipalCorporation on Monday.
The vendors of Nayasarak
Road in Balu Bazar vegetablemarket would be shifted toRing Road in front of the SishuBhawan. But the vendors sittinginside Balu Bazar would beallowed to continue vending asbefore by maintaining a mini-mum distance of 12 feet.
The vendors of Ring Roadnear the Krishak Bazar wouldbe relocated to the four-laneroad connecting AshwiniHospital at Sector 10.
Vendors on NayabazarRoad would be shifted to thefield near TOP. Those on LinkRoad and betweenDolamundai and Khan Nagarwould be shifted to two openfields near Khan Nagar Park.No vegetable retail shops wouldbe allowed at Chhatra Bazaar.
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Have you everseen a ghostly
rainbow halo, aring around thesun? The sight wasspotted in the skyof Damanjodi inKoraput district onSunday.
Amid the coro-navirus scare andrestrictions oflockdown, the res-idents of the locality enjoyedthe circular halo around thesun that lasted for about 10minutes. At the same time, theyfeared for a suspected climatechange in upcoming days.However, astronomy expertsruled out people’s assumption.
Deputy Director of PathaniSamanta Planetarium,Bhubaneswar, Dr SubhenduPattnaik termed the halo as an‘optical illusion’.
“It is not a rare occurrencein the sky. Halo is an opticalphenomenon produced by lightinteracting with ice crystalssuspended in the atmosphere.The halo around the sun iscaused by the reflection anddispersion of light through iceparticles suspended within thinclouds. As sunlight passesthrough the six-arm-shapedice crystals, it is bent, creatinga circular halo around thesun,” Patnaik explained.
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All three MLAs ofBhubaneswar have been
tested negative for coron-avirus disease (Covid-19).
Bhubaneswar EkamraMLA and Minister AshokChandra Panda, BhubaneswarCentral MLA AnantaNarayan Jena andBhubaneswar North MLA
Susant Kumar Rout went tothe Capital Hospital for aRapid Test of Covid-19 onSaturday and were tested neg-at ive for the virus.
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During the lockdown, theOld Boys’ Association
(OBA) of the Sainik SchoolBhubaneswar has come for-ward to extend helping handsto the families of daily wagelabourers in unison with the120 TA Battalion.
Jay Jawan Society (JJS) vol-unteers and BMC membersalso joined in the mission. Sofar, hundreds of families frommarginalised communities,construction workers, slum
dwellers etc have benefitted. At present this relief dis-
tribution has taken place atDamana, Nilapadia and NiladriVihar areas. Grocery packetsconsisting of 5 kg of rice, 500gm dal, potatoes 5 kg, onion 1kg, 1.5 kg chuda, sugar 1 kg, salt500 gm, oil 1 litra, milk pow-der 250 gm, tea 100 gm,turmeric powder 100 gm,phutana 100 gm, body soap 1peice, washing soap 1 peice arebeing distributed.
The Old Boys’ Associationhas decided to continue this
distribution of grocery kits tillthis pandemic situation comesunder control. The associa-tion is also planning to dis-tribute packets in other parts ofthe capital city.
Efforts of Principal SDominic Rayan, OBA presi-dent Amitabh Swain, VPMadhusudan Padhi, secretaryDr Niranjan Padhi, treasurerTarun Mohanty, Treasurer,Colonel DD Swain, JogendraSahu and Pradeep DashMahapatra and other OBEANswere appreciated.
Illegal liquor trading is goingunabated despite raids by the
Excise and police departmenthere. It is also alleged that someaddicts without getting theirregular liquor due to the lock-down are consuming ayurvedicmedicine and cough syrupswith high alcohol content.
According reports ,ayurvedic medicine , MritaSanjivani Sura, has come handyfor the addicts in absence oftheir regular liquor. It is allegedthat some of medicine storesdealing in ayurvedic medi-cines are selling Sanjivani Surawithout any fear and restric-tions.
It is alleged that thesestores are selling them at high-er prices while turning awaythe genuine patients statingnonavailability of stocks.
According to an ayurvedic
doctor Santanu Das, theSanjivani Sura is prescribed tothe some patients dependingon their requirements for var-ious ailments. Since it containsalcohol, a patient is prescribeddoses according to weight andage etc. It shouldn’t be misusedand consumed by others with-out prescription. The drugsinspector should enforce guide-lines on its sell and consump-tion, he said.
Similarly, there are reportsthat the consumption of coughsyrups too has gone high as ithas proved another substituteto regular liquor.
Although a complete banon sale of liquor has beenimposed since lockdown, yet inthe district illegal trading isflourishing despite raids.
The police and Excise offi-cials have seized illicit andspurious liquors from severalplaces across the district fol-lowing raids.
The Excise departmentinformed that during lock-down liquors or its ingredientsworth Rs 10 lakh were seizedand 10 bootleggers arrested.
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Aday after a 58-year-oldman of Baleswar tested
positive for COVID-19, thelocal administration onSunday sealed three wards ofthe town and declared them ascontainment zones to pre-vent the virus spread.
As many as nine entrypoints connecting Ward Nos18, 28 and 29 have beensealed. Nobody is allowed tocome out of their houses andnobody can enter the area,informed Sub-Collector NiluMohapatra. An emergencymeeting of the district admin-istration was convened onSaturday night in this con-
nection.The three places have
been declared as ‘contain-ment zone’ by the districtadministration for seven daysin the first phase. The admin-istration would provide essen-tial items like groceries andmedicines to the personsresiding in the zone, saidMohapatra.
The health checkup ofaround 400 families of thearea would be conducted byhealth workers. Besides, con-tact tracing of the patient wasbeing carried out.
On Sunday, Fire Servicespersonnel carried out disin-fection drive in the area.
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The lockdown measuresimposed for the COVID-19
threat would be relaxed inGanjam district from Monday,said Collector Vijay AmrutaKulange on Sunday.
“Movement of privatevehicles for getting essentialitems will be allowed. However,pillion riding will be restrictedon two-wheelers. Only oneperson can use a two-wheeler.Wearing of masks in publicplaces will remain mandatoryand fine will be imposed forspitting,” Kulange said.
There will be no restrictionon timing for sale of essentialitems like medicines, groceries,vegetables and other fooditems. However, sale of tobac-co products like gutkha, ciga-rettes, betel, tea and liquor isbanned. Stringent action wouldbe taken against violators, hesaid.
Shopkeepers have beenasked to ensure social distanc-ing among customers, failingwhich action will be takenagainst them and the shop willbe shut down, Kulange added.
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Aspecial COVID-19Hospital being construct-
ed by the Hi-Tech Group atJharsuguda, would soon startoperation.
P a r a l a k h e m u n d iSwabhiman Manch presidentand Hi-Tech Group ChairmanDr Tirupati Panigrahi informedthis here. He said the 120-bedhospital would come up at theold building of the DHH atJharsuguda. It would have a 10-bed ICU equipped with all mod-ern equipments. Experienceddoctors, health workers wouldprovide treatment.
Dr Panigrahi thanked theState Government and localMLA and Health Minister forimposing trust on the Hi-TechGroup. He said the hospitalwould provide best of the treat-ment to people.
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In a bizarre incident, a femalehealth worker was ostracised
and sent to quarantine houseby the villagers after she hadreturned from her in-laws’house.
This happened inJamrunda village under theUmarkote police station.
Anjali Raut, who works asa health worker in a sub-cen-ter here, had gone to her in-laws' house with her husbandin Khordha district due to thedeath of her mother-in-law.When she was just to overcomefrom the grief, her husband suf-fered a cardiac arrest in his
sleep. After completing thetenth day rituals of the duo andputting herself in home quar-antine for 14 days, she returnedhere with due permission of theKhordha Superintendent ofPolice.
On arriving in Jamurunda,she faced discrimination asthe villagers urged her to stayin house quarantine for 14more days. She was alsoopposed to enter the healthsub-centre here.
The Medical Officer-in-Charge of the sub-centre andthe Umarkote PS IIC tried tosettle the issue with the villagersbut in vain. Finding no way out,Raut is compelled to stay inquarantine house here.
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Social worker S JudhisthiraPatra has alleged that there are
several BPL card holders as wellas pension holders of Bijipurarea of Brahmapur who haveneither received rations norpensions during ongoing lock-down period. These BPL cardholders and pensioners are poorpeople having no other source ofincome for their survival. Due toCovid-19 lockdown in the cityand restrictions on physicalmovement, these poor people areconfined to their rooms withoutadequate resources for their sur-vival, Patra said.
A Krushna Reddy, a resi-dent of Bijipur Rath Street andNiranjan Maharana of BijipurKalua Street can be taken asexamples of such victims, Patraclaimed. He urged upon thelocal administration to helpthese families who are badly inneed of rations and pension.
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Chief Secretary Asit Tripathyand 5T Secretary VK
Pandian visited the exclusive200-beded COVID Hospitalin Subarnapur district andreviewed various facilitiesavailable there.
The visit of the senior offi-cials came just days after ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik high-ly appreciated the efforts ofSubarnapur Collector MonishaBanerjee in making the stand-alone COVID Hospital func-tional in a short period oftime to further strengthenOdisha’s fight against the coro-
na pandemic.During their visit, the Chief
Secretary and 5T Secretaryreviewed the availability ofmedicines, ICU facility andisolation wards at the hospital,which is located inGovernment ITI, Subarnapur.
They also discussed withthe Collector about enforce-ment of lockdown for coronacontainment and arrangements
made for the migrant workersstranded in the district fromother States. The senior officialsalso urged the district admin-istration to facilitate the agri-cultural activities includingmovement of agricultural pro-duce, speedy implementationof MGNREGS works and tak-ing care of the destitute andhelpless people in view of theextension of lockdown.
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An abject casual and insen-sitive face of the District
Headquarters Hospital came tothe fore when a motherless atwo-day-old critical infantwas referred to the SCBMedical College Hospital,Cuttack on Saturday withoutany pharmacist or attendantfrom Baleswar.
Although his father plead-ed everyone here in the hos-pital to depute one pharmacistor attendant to accompany hisserious son, who was travellingwith oxygen mask, all that fellin deaf ears.
Finally, the hapless fathertaking all risks under severe
traumatic condition took hisson to Cuttack.
The CDMO while couldn’tbe contacted, Chairman, ChildWelfare Committee, BhagirathiBarik said he has sought areport from the CDMO on theissue.
According to reports,Surendranath’s wife SunitaBaskey had a cesarean baby ina private nursing home in Soroon Thursday. After a few hoursof delivery, she succumbed topost-surgery complications.
Sunita was a treasury offi-cer at Udala whileSurendranath is a bench clerkposted in Jaleswar court.
“After death of my wife, myson became serious and wasadmitted in the pediatric ward
of the Baleswar DHH andwhen his condition deteriorat-ed further, the doctor referredhim to Cuttack. The hospitalauthorities, last night, hadassured me that they wouldprovide 108 ambulance and apharmacist who would accom-pany. Yet on Saturday morning,no hospital staff was spared andI was compelled to move asthe infant's condition was dete-riorating fast. I and my sister-in-law took the baby in theambulance. Near Soro when hehad shown some breathingtroubles, we took him to a pri-vate doctor there and got treat-ed. I lost my wife and my sonhas been left in critical condi-tion by the hospital here,”Hansda narrated his plights.
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Former Baleswar MPRabindra Kumar Jena,
extending help to the poorand downtrodden during thelockdown period, has provid-ed dry rations to as many as600 auto-rickshaw drivers forthe welfare of their families.
Bags containing rice, dal,potato, chuda, gur and kitchengroceries were handed over tothe needy.
“After learning that the
auto-rickshaw drivers are alsobearing the brunt of the lock-down as their livelihood isseverely imperiled, the help wasextended to them. I am tryingmy level best to reach out to themost-affected groups and sec-tors and provide whatever pos-sible,” said Jena. Notably, Jena,in his philanthropic mission,had earlier provided rations to60 porters at the Baleswar rail-way station and 450 paddlerickshaw pullers besides help-ing individuals.
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Atotal of 202 swab samplesof people coming to
Jharsuguda district from over-seas and other States have beensent for examination.
Out of this, report of 109samples are confirmed negativewhile report of 93 persons areyet to be received, districthealth sources said.
During the last few days, 60persons have landed in the dis-trict from foreign countries and2,494 from other States. The
Health department has keptclose attention on their healthcondition and samples of thoseshowing corona symptoms arebeing sent for examination.Besides, mass health screeninghas been initiated in the district.
The health workers aremaking door- to- door visits toinquire about the health con-dition of the people. Till date,door-to-door survey of 52,039households has been complet-ed in Brajrajnagar Municipality,Jharsuguda block and Laikerablock. Similarly, in Jharsugudatownship, health scanning of1, 10,7 52 members in 26, 186houses and 39, 689 members in8, 567 households has beendone.
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The guardians of the medicaland engineering aspirants
of Mayurbhanj district strand-ed at Kota in Rajasthan due tothe lockdown now ferventlywant their wards back at theirhomes. They have already writ-ten to this effect to ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik andMayurbhanj district authoritiesurging for help.
Preeti Dandpat, daughterof Swarup Dandpat, DeepikaaDas, daughter of DhanajayDas, Shreyaashree Das, daugh-ter of Tarukant Das andAnubhav Sethi, son of RamaChandra Sethi, among severalothers, are presently atRajasthan’s coaching hub Kota.But now that the entranceexaminations have been post-poned indefinitely, they seek tocome back to their nativeplaces.
The Governments of UttarPradesh, Madhya Pradesh,Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarhhave already brought back suchstudents to their respectiveStates by special buses, theaggrieved guardians pointedout.
BHADRAK: The districtadministration on Sunday lift-ed the containment zone orderthat was imposed on two placesafter three persons tested pos-itive for COVID-19 in Bhadrakdistrict.
Bhadrak Collector GyanaRanjan Das announced therelaxation through a Twitterpost. Reportedly, additionalrestrictions imposed inContainment Zone 2(Charampa) and Zone 3(Erein) were removed.
The move came after twopatients infected with COVID-19 recovered from the disease.
Earlier on April 15, the dis-trict administration had liftedcontainment restrictions atPuruna Bazaar in the districtfollowing recovery of aCOVID-19 patient.
However, the lockdownrestrictions would continue,said Das. PNS
BHUBANESWAR: To assistpatients to reach out to theirdoctors with ease during thelockdown period, doctors at theBR Life Kalinga Hospital herehave come up with a new ser-vice of giving medical consul-tations over phone.
The hospital has now comeup with the facility of telemedi-cine where the patients who arekeen to inquire about their healthailments or need assistance intheir disease management can callthe hospital, the hospital hasannounced. Any person seekingmedical consultations can reachout to the qualified doctors of thehospital. Citizens can use the toll-free numbers of the hospital to getan expert advice. They can call onthe numbers-18005724000.Patients are also provided facili-ty to get video consultation withthe doctors through the toll-freenumber and an additional num-ber of 7205317607. PNS
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With Bhubaneswar emerg-ing as the hotspot of the
coronavirus spread in the State,antibody rapid tests for detec-tion of COVID-19 commencedin the city on Saturday.
Health and Family WelfareDepartment said, “It is a sero-logical test. Blood is takenfrom the vein and the result canbe known in 15-30 minutes.This test is being done pri-marily for the purpose of sur-veillance.”
Meanwhile the ChiefSecretary in a tweet said that,“More than 2,500 samples werecollected from the people, whoparticipated for massCOVID19 testing in three daysunder the initiative
‘BhubaneswarStrategy’.”Initially, COVID warriors
or persons on active duty suchas healthcare workers, policeforce, sanitation workers, deliv-ery personnel, vegetable ven-dors, milk booth owners, aswell as people living in con-tainment zones and nearbyslums are being covered on pri-ority for rapid tests.
Testing is being organisedby the Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation and the HealthDepartment. The departmenthas requested the residents ofthe city to contact theirResident Welfare Associations,ANMs, ASHA Workers andWard Officers to avail testing ina smooth manner.
Collection of nasal andthroat swabs for RT-PCR testwould continue for all contactsof positive cases, all SARI andILI cases, all persons with flu-like symptoms and all high-riskasymptomatic cases through-out the State includingBhubaneswar.
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10 private hospital in Cuttackhave been notified as “Fever
Clinics” in view of rising pos-itive cases of Covid-19 in theState
General public having flu-like symptoms like fever, cold,cough, difficulty in breathingare advised to visit only theseprivate hospitals, in order toavoid the contamination ofdeadly virus. As part of pre-cautionary measure, CuttackCollector Bhawani ShankarChayani has issued an adviso-ry related to this issue.
The hospitals declared as“Fever Clinics” are SunHospital, Tulsipur, ShantiMemorial Hospital, ThoriaSahi Sabarmati GeneralHospital, Mahanadi Vihar,Sadguru Medical, Jagatpur,Chanakya Hospital, CanalRoad, Ranihat, Om ShubhamHospital, Canal Road, Ranihat,Srusti Hospital, Mangalabag,Gudluck Hospital, KathagolaSahi, Rudra Hospital, Bhanpurand Shakti Sai Hospital, Salipur
The Cuttack administra-tion has advised other hospitalsnot to treat patients sufferingfrom flu-like symptoms.
Refusing to be drawn intoany controversy against the
backdrop of the UPGovernment bringing backthousands of its students inbuses from Kota, Informationand Broadcasting Minister, onSunday, however, called forfully observing Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s request topeople to stay wherever theyare. He also asserted that unlikeleaders in some other countries,who are “confused” betweenthe choices of shutdown andletting economic activities pickup, Modi is “not in two minds”about the way forward andknows what needed to be doneand when.
The Yogi AdityanathGovernment had on Saturdaysent buses to Kota in Rajasthanto bring back students from theState stuck there. This hadirked Bihar Chief MinsiterNitish Kumar who said it wasagainst the spirit of lockdown
A day before a host ofrelaxations to boost economicactivities kicked in amid thenationwide lockdown,Javadekar said that more reliefmeasures are bound to come ifIndia continues to manage thecoronavirus crisis well, assert-ing that “you cannot (have)lockdown permanently”.
When asked about the inci-dent of buses ferrying UP stu-dents, Javadekar told PTI, “Iwill not go into any particularincident but let me make itclear that the Prime Ministerhas spoken about people facinghardship when they are awayfrom home. He has advisedthem to stay wherever you are.That is the real point,”
Some Opposition leaders
have also questioned why theCentral Government is notmaking similar provisions forstranded migrant labourers toreturn to their homes.
“Our policy is stay wher-ever you are and help eachother,” Javadekar said, addingthat Modi’s appeal in thisregard should be observed 100per cent.
A member of the group ofministers to oversee the mea-sures to combat the pandem-ic, Javadekar said, “The PMgave the call of lockdown at theright time and is now partial-ly allowing economic activitywhile the lockdown continues.With such a (huge) populationwe have managed well, if thiscontinues we will get morerelief.”
While the relaxations start-ing from April 20 are primar-ily aimed at boosting the ruraleconomy, Javadekar expressedconfidence that economicactivities will start in cities aswell “sooner than later”.
“The lockdown has beenvery successfully conducted.The world is praising it becausethis is the way to fight the coro-navirus. But even after this youcannot (have) lockdown per-manently. It was needed tostart economic activity. Theworld has seen that in such apandemic the country whichsaves lives actually then getsbetter. We have saved lives andat the same time we must
start economic activity. To thatend Prime Minister has par-tially opened economic activ-ities,” he said.
To a question about RahulGandhi’s claim that the lock-down is not a solution to thepandemic, he took a dig athim, saying that the Congressleader must be “more knowl-edgable” about COVID-19than others.
“The world is praisingIndia for timely lockdown andits good implementation.Compared to what we are wit-nessing in western countries,we are doing much better,” thesenior BJP leader said, in anapparent reference to thou-sands of deaths in developedcountries like the US, Franceand Italy.
Javadekar said, the PMkept a keen eye on the COVIDspread outside India evenwhen there was not a singlecase here and would tell hiscabinet colleagues about itspotential danger and serious-ness.
India now has 700COVID-19 hospitals, over onelakh isolation beds, more than11,000 ICUs for coronaviruspatients and has begun man-ufacturing Personal ProtectiveEquipment (PPE), rapid testkits and masks that it did notno earlier, he added.
The Union Minister saidthe partial resumption of eco-nomic activities, including allagriculture-related work, fish-ery and dairy works besidesindustries active in rural areas,under the prescribed guide-lines, will be a good relief to therural economy. The workunder MNREGA will also startand over 13 crore families willbenefit, he stated.
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An alarming rise in asymp-tomatic persons — they do
not show noticeable symptomslike illness, but can still pass theCoronavirus to others — turn-ing out to be Covid-19 positiveis the next big concern for theGovernment, already grapplingwith an ever-increasing tally ofcases of the deadly pathogen inIndia.
On Sunday, the positivecases crossed the 16,000-markwhile the toll was nearly 550across the States.
With 186 asymptomaticcases, Delhi joined the list ofStates like Karnataka, where 60per cent of the total 315 casesare asymptomatic ones. Inworst-affected Maharashtra,the trend is more worrisomeand alarming as over 70 percent of novel coronavirus casesin the State are asymptomaticwith patients having no knowl-
edge that they were infected.Various studies using the
mathematical modelling of out-breaks in Tianjin, China, andSingapore in January andFebruary have also found sig-nificant amounts of spread bypeople who had not shown ordeveloped Covid-19 symp-toms.
The asymptomatic casescame to the fore only afterIndia started aggressive testingof all foreign-returned andthose with travel history toCovid-19-incidence regions ofthe country. Some even testedpositive way after completingthe 14-day period.
A district-wise analysis ofdata in Karnataka up to April16 shows 186 of the 315 Covid-19 patients to be asympto-matic patients.
Experts say that this trendwill add additional stress on thestate machinery, which isalready struggling to cope with
the increasing samples it has totest daily.
“If there are more asymp-tomatic cases than thosepatients with symptoms, theauthorities will not be able toneglect a large section of thepopulation, which means anadded burden on testing labs,”one of them said. An asymp-tomatic person does not shownoticeable symptoms like ill-
ness, but can still pass thevirus to others.
According to researchers,with a very high viral load intheir upper respiratory tract,such persons can shed thevirus through spitting, touch-ing their mouths or noses andthen a surface, or possiblytalking. People who don't feelill end up coughing or sneez-ing occasionally.
“We are actually dealingwith a very huge challengealong with the rest of theworld. In this particular infec-tious disease, not only peoplewho are symptomatic, but evenasymptomatic persons as acarrier may pass on the infec-tion,” Lav Agarwal, JointSecretary, Union HealthMinistry had said a few daysago.
If the asymptomatic casesare not tracked down early andsubjected to the preventive andtherapeutic interventions, thecountry might witness rapidspurt in the cases.
Maharashtra Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray too cau-tioned that over 70 per cent ofnovel coronavirus cases report-ed in the state were asympto-matic and the patients did notknow that they were infected."70 to 75 percent positive casesare asymptomatic. At least 52 percent of the patients are in seri-
ous conditions. Many havereported in the last stage. Iwant to appeal that do not hidesymptoms," Thackeray said.
Similarly, in Tamil Nadu,which is the third worst-hitState many patients who havetested positive for COVID-19 ,were asymptomatic. So far, 15COVID-19 positive patientshave died in Tamil Nadu whilein Odisha, asymptomatic casesand discovery of coronavirusinfection in persons even afterthe 14-day quarantine or isola-tion period has added to thetrouble of the Government,underlining an urgent need toredefine efforts for containingspread of COVID-19 in theState.
While asymptomatic casesconstitute almost the bulk ofCOVID-19 cases in the State, thepattern has led to serious con-cerns over their ability to spreadthe virus in the communitywithout knowledge of them-
selves or their contacts.Health experts have called
for aggressive testing apart fromcarrying out strict containmentmeasures at places where clus-ter of positive cases has emerged.
In an article in the NewEngland Journal of Medicine,Bill Gates, co-chair of the Billand Melinda Gates Foundation,expressed concern about thespread of the disease by peoplewho haven't yet developedsymptoms, or who are only a bitsick.
"There is also strong evi-dence that it can be transmittedby people who are just mildly illor even presymptomatic. Thatmeans COVID-19 will be muchharder to contain than theMiddle East respiratory syn-drome or severe acute respira-tory syndrome (SARS), whichwere spread much less effi-ciently and only by symptomaticpeople," he said.
Others agree that people
without serious symptoms playa substantial role in the spreadof the new coronavirus.
"Asymptomatic and mildlysymptomatic transmission are amajor factor in transmission forCovid-19," said Dr. WilliamSchaffner, a professor atVanderbilt University School ofMedicine.
Also, large-scale studiesusing mathematical modellingof outbreaks in Tianjin, China,and Singapore in January andFebruary have found significantamounts of spread by peoplewho had not yet developedsymptoms.
The study shows thatbetween 48% and 66% of the 91people in the Singapore clustercontracted the infection fromsomeone who was pre-sympto-matic. Of the 135 people in theTianjin cluster, between 62% and77% caught it from someonewho was pre-symptomatic.
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Extending all out support inthe national effort to fight
coronavirus pandemic, theArmy is now managing theNarela quarantine here. It is oneof the biggest centres in thecountry to look after coronapatients and now has nearly1,300 people in its care. In asimilar endeavour, the Navy islooking after people of Karwarin Karnataka and its hospitalINS Patanjali, at present, istreating nine corona positive.
Giving details of the armyefforts, officials said here onSunday the force has taken overthe responsibility of managingthe Narela quarantine centre inDelhi during the day fromApril 16. An Army medicalteam was deployed at Narelacentre since April 01 to assistthe civil administration.
“From April 16, the Armyhas taken the initiative to man-age the facility from morning8:00 am to evening 8:00 pmrelieving the DelhiGovernment Doctors and
medical staff to manage thefacility only during the night.The Army team comprising of40 personnel which includes sixmedical officers along with 18paramedical staff have volun-teered to stay within thepremises only,” the Army said.
Presently, 932 memberswho attended a religious con-gregation in Nizamuddin areain Delhi are being taken careat the facility out of whom 367have tested COVID-19 posi-tive, the Army stated.
The inmates have beenvery cooperative and positiveto the Army medical team,thereby, facilitating smoothhandling of all medical pro-cedures, the Army said addingthere is tremendous synergywith the civil administration torun this entire facility. TheNarela centre was establishedby the Delhi Government inthe middle of March.
Narela Quarantine Centrein Delhi is amongst the largestcentres in the country formanaging the COVID sus-pects. Initially, 250 foreign
nationals arriving from friend-ly foreign countries were keptin this centre. Later an addi-tional strength of approxi-mately 1,000 more werebrought here fromNizamuddin Markaz. Theprofessional approach of theArmy Medical Team has wonthe hearts of inmates, whohave been very cooperativeand positive to the ArmyMedical Team, thereby, facil-itating smooth handling of allmedical procedures., officialssaid.
Chief of DefenceStaff(CDS)General BipinRawat had visited the campsome weeks back to boost themorale of the army team andassure the local administrationof all support by the armedforces.
Similarly, the Indian NavalHospital Patanjali at Karwarhas been at the forefront of thefight against COVID-19, bytreating the patients from theUttara Kannada district.
Acting on a request fromthe Karwar District
Administration uponannouncement of nation-widelockdown on 25 Mar 20,Patanjali was prepared in everyaspect within 24 hours toreceive the first group ofCOVID-19 positive patientson 28 Mar 2020. A team ofthree doctors, nine medicalstaff alongwith and nine sup-port staff has ensured 24 x 7care to the nine COVID-19positive patients admitted thusfar.
Out of the nine patientsadmitted at the hospital, eighthave been cured and dis-charged so far. With the dis-charge of these eight patientsover last few days, the hospi-tal is now attending to a lonepatient admitted on April 16who is also respondingfavourably to the treatment.
In view of this additionalresponsibility, INS Patanjalihas made alternate arrange-ments for routine medicalattention to the large popula-tion of service personnel andfamilies dependent on thehospital.
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The fight against coronaviruspandemic is the "biggest
invisible war" facing the human-ity and India is confronting itwith excellent synergy betweenall key organs of the nation,Defence Minister Rajnath Singhsaid on Sunday.
In an interview to PTI,Singh said a wide spectrum ofmeasures has been put in placeto insulate the three services andtheir strategic assets from thedeadly infection while keepingthem fully prepared to dealwith any possible threats includ-ing along the borders.
Singh, who is also headinga Group of Ministers onCOVID-19, said well-thought-out protocols are being imple-mented aggressively to keep theforces fighting fit so that theycontinue to play an active role indealing with the national crisis.
domes ofG u r d w a r aK a r t a r p u rSahib weredamaged dueto rains andstrong winds,India on Sunday askedPakistan to “urgently” repairthe damage keeping in viewthe sentiments of Sikhs.
Elaborating upon thishere, sources said India hastaken up the issue of the col-lapse of domes at GurdwaraKartarpur Sahib withPakistan. "It has been high-lighted that the damage to thestructures in the Gurdwarahave caused great consterna-tion to Sikhs. Their strongsense of faith and devotion tothe holy site must be fullyunderstood and appreciated."
"India has urged Pakistanthat in deference to the sen-timents of the Sikh commu-nity, the deficiencies whichled to the damage to thenewly constructed structuresbe urgently rectified andremedied," they said.
At least, two domes of theshrine collapsed during heavywinds and rain. Several pho-tos posted on social mediaover the weekend showed atleast two domes of theGurdwara had fallen off dur-ing heavy rains and strongwinds..
The photos were widelyshared on social media, andthe Indian side raised thedamage in a “note verbale”sent to Pakistani authorities.
The pilgrimage and reg-istration for Kartarpur SahibGurdwara was stopped onMarch 15 amid the coron-avirus pandemic.
The Government alsostopped movement of alltypes of passengers throughthe international borderpoints with Pakistan.
A total of 44,951 pilgrimstravel led through theKartarpur corridor to payobeisance at Sri KartarpurSahib Gurdwara, the finalresting place of Sikhismfounder Guru Nanak Dev,since the opening of the routein November 2019.
The Kartarpur Corridorlinks Dera Baba Sahib inGurdaspur in India andGurdwara Kartarpur Sahibin Pakistan.
It was opened onNovember 9 last year in a his-toric people-to-people initia-tive between the two coun-tries.
The Union Health Ministryhas disapproved spraying of
chemical disinfectants on peopleto disinfect them from COVID-19, saying that it is physically andpsychologically harmful.
"Even if a person is poten-tially exposed to the Covid-19,spraying disinfectants on exter-nal parts doesn't kill the virusthat has entered your body," theMinistry said in an advisoryissued recently.
The advisory came follow-ing reports of some health work-ers in Bareilly in Uttar Pradeshusing hose pipes to douse disin-fectants on a group of migrantworkers, amid fears that a largescale movement of people fromcities to the countryside riskedspreading the coronavirus. Theincident had caught everyone'sattention when its video wentviral on social media.
To ensure that such inci-
dents are not repeated in future,the Government advisory said“Spraying individuals withchemical disinfectants is physi-cally and psychologically harm-ful. Disinfectants were chemicalsthat destroy disease causingpathogens or other harmfulmicroorganisms.”
The Ministry said sprayingof chlorine on individuals couldlead to irritation of eyes and skinand potentially gastrointestinaleffects, like nausea and vomiting."Inhalation of sodium hypochlo-rite can lead to irritation ofmucous membranes in nose,throat and respiratory tract and
may also cause bronchospasm,"it said.
Also, use of such measuresmight lead to a false sense of dis-infection and safety, it said andadded it could hamper publicobservance of hand washingand social distancing measures.
The Union Health Ministrysaid it had received many queriesregarding the efficacy of disin-fectants, like sodium hypochlo-rite, spray to disinfect people.
The strategy seems to havegained a lot of media attentionand is also being reportedlyused at local levels in certain dis-tricts/local bodies.
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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Sunday took to the
employment and business-ori-ented platform Linkedin toshare his thoughts on Covid-19saying the contagion has“changed the contours of pro-fessional life and these dayshome is the new office and inter-net is the new meeting room”.
“For the time being, officebreaks with colleagues are his-tory,” he said and went out tomaintain that he too has adapt-ed these changes. “Most meet-ings, be it with ministerial col-leagues, officials and world lead-ers, are now via video confer-encing," Modi wrote in an arti-cle, ‘Life in the era of Covid-19’,on the networking site.
“It has been a topsy-turvystart to the third decade of thiscentury. COVID-19 has broughtwith it many disruptions,” saidthe PM adding India’s energeticand innovative youth can showthe way in ensuring a healthierand prosperous future.
But at the same time, hecautioned “Covid-19 does notsee race, religion, colour, caste,creed, language or bordersbefore striking. Our responseand conduct thereafter shouldattach primacy to unity andbrotherhood”.
Modi told the young pro-fessionals that digitalization hashelped Government to reach outand deliver to common peoplein the lockdown days of Covid-19 pandemic, overcoming thebureaucratic hurdles. In orderto get ground level feedbackfrom various stakeholders, there
have been videoconferencemeetings with several sections ofsociety.
“There were extensive inter-actions with NGOs, civil societygroups and community organ-isations. There was an interac-tion with Radio Jockeys too.Besides that, I have been mak-ing numerous phone calls daily,taking feedback from differentsections of society. One is see-ing the ways through which peo-ple are continuing their work inthese times. There are a few cre-ative videos by our film starsconveying a relevant message ofstaying home. Our singers didan online concert. Chess playersplayed chess digitally andthrough that contributed to thefight against COVID-19. Quiteinnovative! The work place isgetting Digital First. And, whynot?” said Modi in a lengthy arti-cle.
He reiterated that the mosttransformational impact ofTechnology often happens in thelives of the poor. It is technolo-gy that demolishes bureaucrat-ic hierarchies, eliminates mid-dlemen and accelerates welfaremeasures, he said.
“Let me give you an exam-ple. When we got the opportu-nity to serve in 2014, we start-ed connecting Indians, especiallythe poor with their Jan DhanAccount, Aadhar & Mobilenumber. This seemingly simpleconnection has not only stoppedcorruption and rent seekingthat was going on for decades,but has also enabled theGovernment to transfer moneyat the click of a button. This clickof a button has replaced multi-
ple levels of hierarchies on thefile and also weeks of delay.
“India has perhaps thelargest such infrastructure in theworld. This infrastructure hashelped us tremendously in trans-ferring money directly andimmediately to the poor andneedy, benefiting crores of fam-ilies, during the COVID-19 sit-uation,” wrote Modi, alsoexplaining the role of Internetbrought in the education sector.
“COVID-19 has made usrealise the need to work onhealth solutions at low cost andlarge scale. We can become aguiding light for global efforts toensure the health and well beingof humanity, he said. The PrimeMinister also wrote on the needof new investment models forfarmers.
“COVID-19 does not seerace, religion, colour, caste,creed, language or border beforestriking. Our response and con-duct thereafter should attach pri-macy to unity and brother-hood. We are in this together.Unlike previous moments in his-tory, when countries or societiesfaced off against each other,today we are together facing acommon challenge. The futurewill be about togetherness andresilience,” he said urging theyoung professionals to concen-trate on fitness, Yoga and use oftraditional medicine.
“Lastly, and importantly,please download Aarogya SetuMobile App. This is a futuristicApp that leverages technology tohelp contain the possible spreadof COVID-19. More the down-loads, more its effectiveness,”Modi stressed.
and Rajya Sabha- will resumework from Monday after itwas shut in the last week ofMarch in the wake of theCOVID-19 outbreak, accord-ing to an official order.
The Lok Sabha and RajyaSabha were shut on March 24after both houses wereadjourned sine die followingthe passage of the Finance Billfor 2020-21, bringing a pre-mature end to the budgetsession of Parliament, whichwas slated to conclude onApril 3.
Besides the senior level
officials, the other staff willwork on a rotational basis.
The order further saidwhile working, the secretariat staff will ensurethat social distancing normsare observed.
"File movement shall onlybe through electronic modein e-office. The only excep-tion could be urgent files for
the consideration of the LokSabha speaker or the RajyaSabha chairman," sources inParliament said.
According to an orderissued by the Lok SabhaSecretariat, it will resumework from Monday and allofficers of the joint secretaryrank and above will join office.
The same wil l be implied in the Rajya Sabha secretariat and it will have tofunction with only 33 percentwork force of the totalstrength under rotationalbasis regulations similar tothe DoPT circular for CentralGovernment off ices anddepartments.
has failed to keep politics at bayin Bengal. Even as StateGovernor Jagdeep Dhnakhargot embroiled in a twitter warwith the Mamata BanerjeeGovernment for its inept han-dling of the lockdown proto-cols, senior TMC leader SudipBandopadhyay slammed himfor his partisan ways threaten-ing to take the issue up in theLok Sabha when it opens.
“In this hour of crisis theGovernor is doing more poli-tics than the BJP … We willrequest him to conduct himselfin a more dignified mannerbefitting his high chair”Bandopadhyay said addinghow the Governor by “acting ina partisan manner is putting hisconstitutional post to disgrace.”
He said “if he does not stopacting in a politically partisanmanner then we will be forcedto raise the issue in the LokSabha when it reopens.”
Bandopadhyay was refer-ring to situations where theDhankhar was “being wrong-ly informed by the BJP leadersand making adverse commentswithout checking the truth.”
The Governor had earlieralleged that he was not beingkept in the loop about the sit-uation emerging out of thecorona outbreak. “Despite sev-eral requests and efforts made
by my office to get in touchwith the Chief Minister, RajBhavan remained ignored,” hesaid, adding “the lockdownbetween the Raj Bhavan andNabanna (state secretariat)must end during this fightagainst a pandemic.
Ruing that his office wasnot getting any input from theGovernment he said “I wouldappeal to the chief minister thatthis is not time for anyone —for the government or politicalparty to engage in theatrics. Itis time for her to adhere to theessence of the IndianConstitution and brief me,” hesaid.
The Governor later alsoexpressed concerns aboutalleged mishandling of thepublic distribution system withmany people not getting theirshare of ration.
Raj Bhavan sources alsosaid that he had expressedconcerns over how some BJPMPs like Arjun Singh, JohnBurla and Subhas Sarkar wereprevented from distributingrelief materials to thepublic.
The war of words cameamid fresh controversies overa “made up video” in which apoor man from Basihaat townin North 24 Parganas criedpleading hunger and soughturgent relief from ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee butsubsequently told the televisioncamera that he being a part-
time actor was asked by somelocal people to act like thatbefore the video was made togo viral.
The TMC promptly point-ed fingers at the BJP for themischief soon after the latterwent to town complaining howthe relief materials being sentby the Centre were being mis-appropriated by the TMCworkers.
While the Trinamool sawBJP hand in the fake video thelatter washed its hands from itbut insisted that the reliefmaterials were not reaching thetarget groups and the peopledown there were starving. Themiddle-aged ‘actor’ of the videohas since been arrested, policesaid.
Meanwhile, theGovernment on Sunday decid-ed to introduce both rapidanti-body tests and pool-test-ing in hotspot and cluster areasas well as the ten districtswhere there has been no traceof corona infection thus far.
“The pool testing whichhas been successfully done inHolland, Maharashtra,Andaman and Nicobar Islandswill now be introduced here inBengal with swabs of five per-sons will be tested with a sin-gle kit. This will not only savethe kits but also time,” said anofficial. Bengal has been underfire from critics who blamedthe State for under-testing.
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The district authorities inJammu have launched a
Covid-19 audit across differentresidential areas, categorised asred-zones to contain the fur-ther spread of the coron-avirus.
Meanwhile, a total numberof 9 fresh cases, eight fromKashmir and one from Rajouriarea of Jammu were detectedtaking the total tally of positivecases to 350 in Jammu &Kashmir. Out of these 8 cases,four positive cases were report-ed from Kupwara, one eachfrom Srinagar, Baramula,Bandipora and Kulgam. Apatient from Rajouri was
employed at a house in Shopianand had returned via Mughalroad after developing symp-toms of cough andfever.
According to officialsources, "Covid-19 audit waslaunched in Jammu to identi-fy the suspected cases onSunday". Official sources said,separate teams, comprisinghealth care workers and others,were constituted to screen res-idents in red-zone areas.
Some of the Rohingya clus-ters, located in these red-zoneswere also screened. Some of the
Rohingyas, showing symptomsof cough and fever, were shift-ed to quarantine centres wheresamples would be collected onMonday.
In addition, about onedozen Rohingyas, quarantinedin Nagotra area of Jammusince the first week of April2020 were discharged fromthese centres along with agroup of others who hadattended religious congregationin Nizamuddin in the month ofMarch.
Official sources said, "Noneof the Rohingyas or membersof the Tablighi group testedpositive and were let off afterthey completed mandatoryquarantine period".
Lucknow: Lockdown will notbe lifted in 19 districts that havereported more than ten Coronapositive cases, UP ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath saidin a meeting conductedthrough video conferencingwith all District Magistratesand police chiefs on Sundayevening.
He said that in the remain-ing districts, the DistrictMagistrates will take a decisionwhether or not to allow relax-ation in lockdown rules. Norelaxation will be permitted inthe sealed hotspots.
The district officials willwork out the modalities regard-ing opening of specified indus-tries, banks and other units inthe 56 districts that havereported less than 10 Corona
cases.The Chief Minister,
according to the governmentspokesman, asked all DistrictMagistrates to ensure that safe-ty protocols are strictly fol-lowed in their areas and socialdistancing is maintained evenin districts where lockdown islifted.
He also gave guidelinesfor factories and industrieswhere work is to resume onMonday.
The Chief Minister askedthe officials to ensure that theemployers take care of socialdistancing, sanitisers andmasks for employees.
The corona count in UttarPradesh on Sunday went up to1,084 with 115 new cases beingadded.
More than 108 coronapatients have so far been suc-cessfully treated, according tothe Health Department release.
The virus has claimed 17lives in the state so far.
Earlier in the day, the ChiefMinister had set up a five-member committee to ensureemployment opportunities forthe labourers returning to thestate from other parts of thecountry in the wake of theCorona virus lockdown.
The committee will beheaded by the AgricultureProduction Commissioner andwill include the PrincipalSecretaries of the Departmentsof Rural Development,Panchayati Raj, Micro, Smalland Medium Enterprises andSkill Development. IANS
Chennai: Tamil Nadu onSunday reported a sharpincrease in the number ofCovid-19 patients with 105 per-sons diagnosed with coron-avirus infection over the past 24hours taking the total tally to1,477. After reporting lowernumbers in the last couple ofdays, the State has reported adrastic increase in the newinfection numbers. Included inthe new cases are three doctors,one police Sub-Inspector andtwo journalists.It is learnt onejournalist is working with aTamil daily and the other oneworks in a television channel.
The Government also said46 Covid-19 patients have beendischarged on Sunday across the
state taking the total number ofdischarged to 411.
It has also announcedrestarting of property registra-tion activities. According to thegovernment, only four registra-tions will be allowed in an hourand social distancing should bemaintained. The state govern-ment also said that the existinglockdown restrictions wouldcontinue in the state, till ChiefMinister K. Palaniswami decidesotherwise. The government saidthe expert committee that has setup to recommend the indus-tries/business establishmentsthat can restart operations willbe meeting later on Sunday andgive its report to Chief Ministeron Monday. IANS
Garuda drone which hasreplaced the risky manual sani-tisation of the coronavirushotspot in Madanpura locality.
The Garuda drone carry-ing pesticides sanitised heavi-ly populated areas ofMadanpura on Sunday. It wasmonitored from Godowlia byDivisional CommissionerDeepak Agrawal.
"After Madanpura, thissanitization drone will also beused to disinfect hotspots ofBajardiha, Lohta, Nakkhighatand Gangapur," said Agrawal.
Amaravati: One more persondied of coronavirus while 44new positive cases were regis-tered in Andhra Pradesh dur-ing last 24 hours, officials onSunday.
The latest fatality wasreported from Kurnool district,taking the death toll in the stateto 17.
According to the healthdepartment, 44 tested positivesince Saturday, taking the over-all number of cases to 647.
A total of 65 patients haveso far discharged after recovery.The number of active casesstands at 565. IANS
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Sunday called upon the UttarPradesh Government toevolve a plan to help migrantworkers from the State reachtheir home.
In a video appeal, sheurged the State Governmentto set up a helpline and con-trol room to reach out to allthose migrant workers fromUP who are stranded at var-ious places.These workersare our own. It is the respon-sibility of all of us to helpthem. We cannot leave themlike this. We have to find away out," she said.
"I urge the Uttar PradeshGovernment to set up ahelpline and a control roomof 1,000 persons so that
these stranded workers canbe reached out. You have toevolve a plan to bring themback," she said.
Gandhi said she hastalked to the migrant work-ers from the northern statewho are stuck in differentplaces and are finding it dif-ficult to survive as they arenow huddled together inone room.She said themigrants are scared and wantto come back to their homesin UP, as they have no rationor cash left.
The Congress generalsecretary in-charge of UttarPradesh also lauded the state
government for bringingback stranded students fromKota in Rajasthan.
"These migrant workersare also our own. They donot have anything to eat.Helping them is also theresponsibility of the stategovernment," she said in herappeal.
Thousands of migrantworkers have been strandedat state borders and in vari-ous large towns due to thenationwide lockdownimposed to curb the spreadof coronavirus.
Metros like Delhi andMumbai had recently wit-nessed law and order issueswhen thousands of migrantworkers swarmed local busstations and railway stations,in their bid to reach theirnative places.
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The Union Home Ministry on Sundaydirected the States to maintain a register
of all migrant labourers in their camps andconduct their skill mapping to engage themin suitable sectors. The Ministry also askedthe States to create a Standard OperatingProtocol (SOP) for movement of the labour-ers within the State and made it clear therewould no movement of them outside theState.
In a detailed circular, the Home Ministryurged the States to find the skills of thesestranded labour and explore the possibilitiesof engaging them in other sectors includingMNREGA and industrial works.
“Due to the spread of COVID-19 virus,workers employed in industry, agriculture,construction and other sectors have movedfrom their respective places of work, and arehoused in relief/ shelter camps being run byState/ UT Governments. Since additional newactivities, outside the containment zones, havebeen permitted in the consolidated revisedguidelines with effect from 20th April 2020,these workers could be engaged in industri-
al, manufacturing, construction, farmingand MNREGA works,” said the circular.
“In order to facilitate their movementwithin the State/UT, the following guidelinesmay be followed: The migrant labourers cur-rently residing in relief/ shelter camps inStates/UTs should be registered with the con-cerned local Authority and their skill map-ping be carried out to find out their suitabilityfor various kinds of works. In the event, thata group of migrants wish to return to theirplaces of work, within the State where theyare presently located, they would be screenedand those who are asymptomatic would betransported to their respective places ofwork,” added the circular, reiterating thatthere shall be no movement of labour out-side the State where they are currentlylocated.
The Ministry said that during the jour-ney by bus, it would be ensured that safesocial distancing norms are followed and thebuses used for transport are sanitized as perthe guidelines of the Health authorities. Thelocal authorities shall also provide for foodand water etc., for the duration of their jour-ney, said the Home Ministry.
Sunday assured the migrantlabourers settled in the Statethat he was in touch with theCentre and he was confidentthat in the next few days, somesolution would be found fortheir problems.
As part of the address tothe people in the state throughsocial media, Uddhav said:“The migrants living in theState are in a mood to co-oper-ate with the State Government.
They have quietened downnow. I would like to tell themonce again that we are holdingtalks with the Union govern-ment. I am confident that inthe next few days, we will finda way out of the current situa-tion”
“Please don’t worry at all.In Maharashtra, we are slowlystarting the activities. If possi-ble, I request you to come backto work. You can continue toearn living. The day the situa-tion returns to normal, I assurethat the Maharashtra govern-ment will ensure that you will
return to your native places.What we want is that whenev-er you go, you go back happi-ly to your home. Don’t goback in fear,” the Chief Ministertold the migrant labourers. Uddhav went to tellthe migrant labourers: “You tellyour family members that theMaharashtra government istaking care of well. Don’tunnecessarily think about ourwelfare.
The government there willtake care of your needs there.Please take care of your. It isonly matter of few days. I am
confident that our happy dayswill return. With these words,I would like to thank all of you”.
The chief minister’s wordsto the migrants should be seenin the light of the unrest seenamong the migrant workersacross the state in recent weeksand the assembly of hugecrowds witnessed in front ofthe Bandra railway station innorth-west Mumbai on theevening April 14, hours afterPrime Minister Narendra Modiannounced the extension oflockdown till May 3.
Indian Institute of Technology(IIT)-Bombay start-ups have
developed several novel tech-nological weapons for front-line professionals and workers–including contactless detec-tion, hot spot monitoring andreal-time monitoring of logis-tics—to combat Covid-19effectively.
The other weapons that theIIT-Bombay have developedinclude: smart trolley for hos-pitals, rapid ambulance serviceand pregnancy care. “Most ofthese were developed withindays of the nation-wide lock-down announced by the gov-ernment,” an IIT-B spokesper-son said here on Sunday.
Two start-up companiesAugle AIand Faclon Labshavedevised solutions for detection,tracking and localization in a
densely populated city. Thetemperature sensing systemdeveloped by Augle skimsthrough hundreds of peoplemoving in public places.
Tejendu, head of their techteam, said: “We are integratingthis with our existing facialrecognition system to strength-en the safety and security inoffices, government buildings,public places, malls – any placewhere people gather in largenumbers.”
The two start-up compa-nies will also provide drone-based crowd analytics for quar-antined areas for increasing thesafety of police officials andhealth workers.
Faclon is working closelywith BMC to install automat-ic plug & play screening devicesthat can be mounted on wall ortripod. They capture thermalsnapshots of individuals andac-
tivate alarms upon detect-ingthose with fever.
A robotic smart trolleywith racks designed by thestart-up JanYu Technologiesisbeing tested in local hospitals.
Dr. Om Singh of LifecareHospital, Vasai said that thetrolley with its WiFi connect-ed tablet screen and in-builtcamera for patient interactionthrough live audio-visuals.
Lt. Gen. Subrata Saha(Retd.) tweeted about the smarttrolley for remote care forCOVID patients. These trolleyscan be remotely operated, fortaking food, medicine, clothingand other critical suppliesbetween isolation wards andsupply units.
“Our company developsrobots for hazardous work-spaces. We modified these tomeet the current requirements,and are delivering trolleys to
hospitals in Hyderabad,Lucknow and Delhi” SaiHemanth, founder of the com-pany said.
Routetomarket MediaIndia, which offers sales, dis-tribution and media manage-ment services, is manufactur-ing customisable personal pro-tection equipment (PPE) forhealthcare professionals, lawand order personnel and otherfrontline workers. Harsh, oneof the founders of R2MI, said:“We are manufacturing about5,000 PPEs per day and havepledged to donate 50% ofthem.”
Adapt Ideations providesCloud-based platforms for real-time monitoring of logisticsand delivery. They utilizedtheir network to manufactureface protection shields withBSL-2 compliance for use bydoctors, health workers and
enforcement officials.The IIT-spokesperson said:
“As of today, 200 face shieldswere donated to Thane trafficpolice,and 1250 were suppliedto Aastha Pratishthan forRatnagiri Police.More are inproduction, to meet therequests from Andhra Pradeshpolice, Telangana medicalauthorities, and Dharavi resi-dents in Mumbai”.
A PhD student Farhajoined hands with Sukanya,founder of a bioplastics start-up called Phabio, to develop acommunity engagement pro-ject. Their Spot. Corona appprovides a heat map forinformed decisions on conta-minant zones, by predicting thenumber of hidden and report-ed cases. It uses multiple sets ofdata including symptoms,detection, travel history andcontact tracing to identify
infection hotspots. Thishelps indeciding about increased tests,optimal isolation zones andlocalized lockdown.
The CareNxteam devel-oped a video series and webi-nars called ‘Don't Panic,Protect’in partnership withrenowned gynaecologists, doc-tors and counsellors. Their appis used by frontline workers tocounsel more than 10,000 preg-nant women in remote areas.
The HelpNowstart-upteam developed an app calledMedCabs, reducing the timerequired to get an ambulanceto under 15 minutes. They areaggregating ambulances, mobi-lizing Uber drivers andgivingthem AHA-certified training aswell as protective equip-ment.More than 350 such vehi-cles are currently moving onMumbai roads, and have ser-viced over 9000 calls for help.
The team launched a 24x7helpline to provide sanitizedambulances with ventilatorsfor COVID emergenciesandare helping the government tosanitize public places like CST,BKC and Dharavi.
“HelpNow was started byAditya Makkar after his fathersuffered a heart attack andwas told to wait for 45 minutesfor an ambulance; he was savedby driving to the hospital intheir own car” Dr. AparnaRao, who coordinates variouscourses offered by Desai SethiSchool for Entrepreneurship atIIT Bombay, said. More than 25start-ups including Augle,Adapt, CareNx, Faclon,HelpNow, JanYu, Phabio, R2MIand others were started byIITB students who wereinspired and empoweredthrough DSSE courses andmentoring programs.
In a record number of Covid-19 infections reported in a
day, as many as 552 people test-ed positive for Coronavirus inMaharashtra on Sunday, takingthe total number of infectedcases to 4200, while twelvemore persons succumbed tothe pandemic in the State.
On a day whenCoronavirus claimed 12 morelives in Maharashtra, Mumbaiaccounted for six deaths, whilethere were four deaths inMalegaon and one death wasreported from Solapur andJamkhed in Ahmednagar dis-trict.
With the latest deaths, thetotal number of deaths inMaharashtra mounted 223,while the total number ofdeaths in Mumbai climbed to132.
Of those who died, fourwere men, while 8 werewomen. Six of them were agedover 60 years, five were fromthe age group 40 to 60 yearsand the remaining one wasunder 40 years of age.
While the information onco-morbidities in the fourdeceased who died inMalegaon was not available,
six out of the rest eightdeceased (75%) had high-riskco-morbidities such as dia-betes, hypertension, asthmaand heart disease.
With fresh infected cases,the total number of infectedcases in Mumbai rose to 2724.Similarly, the total number ofinfected cases in PuneMunicipal Corporationclimbed to 546, while the num-
ber of deaths stands at 49.“Out of 72,023 laboratory
samples, 67,673 were negativeand 4200 have tested positivefor coronavirus until today,” thestate health medical bulletinsaid. The state health authori-ties are implementing clustercontainment action plan isbeing implemented in placeswhere clusters of patients havebeen found in the State.
“There are 368 active con-tainment zones in the state cur-rently. Total 6359 surveillancesquads worked today across thestate and surveillance of 23.97lakh population was done,” thebulletin said.
Meanwhile, 507 patientshave been discharged till dateafter full recovery. “Currently,87,254 people are in homequarantine and 6,743 peopleare in institutional quaran-tine,” the bulletin added.
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Manavaatti (Malayalam for ‘thebride’) and Aana Mayakki (one
which makes the elephant sleep) areback in action in Kerala. No need toget confused. These are brand namesof ‘desi daaru’ or the country liquor(arrack to be precise) distilled andsold in interior Kerala for those tip-plers who could not survive withouttheir daily quota of spirits.
A 200 ml measure of Manavattiwill make the tippler behave like abride! The head will bow down inshyness till it hits the chest. AanaMayakki is so lethal that a small mea-sure will put the man out of actionfor hours.
There are persons in all pan-chayats and municipalities wellversed in distilling the country liquorwith minimum raw materials andequipment. A little bit of ammoniumsulphate, used batteries, and rottenvegetables are the ingredients.
The desi daaru made a returnwith the closure of the liquor outletsin Kerala and Tamil Nadu as part ofthe national lockdown. Both theStates have fairly large number of tip-plers who did not anticipate this kindof deprivation from the authorities,according to Jose Roshan, an entre-preneur in Perumbavoor. Roshanknows the spots in the town wheredaaru is available. With more thanhundred thousand migrant labors inthe town, bootleggers are doingroaring business and the coronavirushas brought them a bonanza throughManavatti and AM.
The case in Tamil Nadu is no dif-ferent. The last two days saw policeseizing liquor stored in unauthorizedplaces in Puthukottai district anddestroying the same by pouring thespirits into deep pits much to theanguish and agony of the tipplers.Some of them were seen pleadingwith the police not to be cruel and toshow some kindness towards theiragony.
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Even after the conclusion of the firstphase of the three-week nationwidelockdown imposed by theGovernment and its further exten-sion up to May 3 to curb the spread
of Coronavirus, signs are emerging that thevirus is not going away anytime soon. Thisis grim news for the country from both thehealth and economic perspective, especiallyfor the female population, which is likely tosuffer on multiple fronts due to the spread ofthe virus and the resultant need for the peo-ple to stay indoors.
The first category of affected women arehealthcare staff, including nurses, AccreditedSocial Health Activists (ASHAs) and angan-wadi workers, who have been holding the fortagainst the disease all across the country. AGovernment of India report of 2015 revealedthat 88.9 per cent of the support and ancil-lary staff among health workers, primarilynurses, midwives and ASHAs, are female. Thisis corroborated by earlier data from the 68thround of the National Sample Survey on the“Employment and Unemployment Situationin India” (July 2011 to June 2012). With hos-pitals facing an influx of Coronavirus patientsand given the need for active contact tracingof positive cases, these workers have becomefrontline warriors in times of crisis.
The World Health Organisation (WHO)reported that globally, too, women comprisea majority of the healthcare staff, accountingfor 70 per cent of the total in 107 countries,including India. The COVID-19 outbreak isa physical and emotional nightmare for manyhealthcare workers. Eleanor Holroyd, current-ly Professor at New Zealand’s AucklandUniversity of Technology, recounts her inter-actions with student nurses when she was pro-fessor of nursing at the Chinese University ofHong Kong during the SARS epidemic in2003. A large section of these nurses experi-enced confusion, anxiety and stress from thelong days of caring for patients and seeingmany of their colleagues, too, contracting thedisease in the process. “There’s the idea thatif there’s a gap in the health system, the nurs-es will fill it. Their duty is to be ever-presentand visible, offering empathy and care… Addthat to a sick child or husband or parent andthe very uncertain nature of an epidemic, itcan be hard [for the nurse] to hold on,” saysHolroyd.
The crisis is also likely to affect womendisproportionately because of the alreadydeclining female labour force participation(FLFP) rate in India, which according to theEconomic Survey of India of 2017-18, fellfrom 36 per cent in 2005-06 to 24 per centin 2015-16. The India Human DevelopmentSurvey (IHDS), conducted in two waves in2004-05 and 2011-12, too, reported a fall inthe FLFP from 31.12 per cent in 2005 to24.77 per cent in 2012. The IHDS is a multi-topic survey jointly conducted by theNational Council of Applied EconomicResearch (NCAER) and the University ofMaryland, covering 41,554 households in
1,503 villages and 971 urbanneighbourhoods across India.This survey also suggests that thedecline in FLFP could be due tothe lack of demand for femalelabour rather than that of laboursupply. The paucity of demandfor women workers could bereinforced in the comingmonths after the real impact ofthe Coronavirus becomes appar-ent in various sectors of theIndian economy.
Another category of womenlikely to be impacted by the pan-demic are salaried workers, manyof whom are currently working-from-home but could eventual-ly face the prospect of lay-offs andpay cuts once their employersreturn to the normal work rou-tine in a recessionary economy.The temporary or permanentclosure of many businesses is like-ly to have a severe adverse impacton a range of professions domi-nated by women, such as flightattendants, tour operators, salesassistants and frontline hotelstaff and cleaners.
Academics, who have stud-ied past pandemics, includingEbola, Zika, SARS, swine flu andbird flu, report their deep andpersistent effects on genderequality. According to JuliaSmith, a health policy researcherat the Simon Fraser University,Vancouver, Canada, these out-breaks affected everyone’sincomes but “men’s incomereturned to what they had made
pre-outbreak faster than women’sincome.” This outcome is com-pounded by the already-existingwage discrimination in many sec-tors. For example, in the health-care sector, overall, womenreportedly earn 11 per cent lessthan their male counterparts.Anganwadi and ASHA workersreceive salaries in the range ofmerely �3,000-4,500 per month,which is even below the mini-mum wage, without any addi-tional benefits like pension andmaternity leave. These womenmay not lose their jobs but anydecline in their family incomesdue to the pandemic will makethem an equal part of the eco-nomic crisis looming ahead.
Even women, who are out ofthe workforce and traditionallystay at home, are facing a hugechallenge emanating from thelockdown with their alreadyextensive care-giving duties mul-tiplying even further due to thereverse migration of householdservice providers like maids,cooks and nannies to their nativevillages. A 2015 survey by theOrganisation for EconomicCooperation and Developmentfound that an Indian womandoes far more “unpaid work”,almost six hours per day on anaverage, than her peers in mostother countries. The correspond-ing figure for men is just 52 min-utes per day.
In fact, as per an Oxfamreport titled, “Mind the Gap”,
released in March 2019, Indianwomen do the most unpaid careand domestic work in any coun-try, barring Kazakhstan, largelybecause patriarchal norms,which dictate tasks such ascooking, cleaning, looking afterchildren and the elderly andfetching water and firewood,have to be performed by womenalone.
Data for the first wave ofIHDS also highlights the domes-tic drudgery for women, especial-ly in rural areas. The surveyfound that women in India’s vil-lages were spending an averageof 240 minutes per week collect-ing firewood and 66 minutes perday fetching water as comparedto much lower corresponding fig-ures of 136 minutes per week and29 minutes per day, respectively,spent by men in the household.
Last but not the least is theissue of domestic abuse, the inci-dence of which is believed to goup exponentially in any kind ofcrisis, especially the current onethat mandates people to practisesocial isolation and stay at homefor sustained periods. What isworse, in a lockdown situation,women in violent relationshipsare unable to seek help as the per-petrators of the violence arealways around, whereas thosewho can help the victims areinaccessible.
The US, the UK and Chinahave witnessed a significant risein domestic violence since the
advent of the Coronavirus. InIndia, the National Commissionfor Women (NCW) reporteddouble the usual number ofdomestic abuse cases since theimposition of the lockdown.According to the NCWChairperson, Rekha Sharma, atotal of 257 complaints related tovarious offences against womenwere received during the periodMarch 24 to April 1, out of which69 complaints were related todomestic violence. The UNSecretary General AntonioGuterres has, in fact, urgedGovernments “to make the pre-vention and redress of the hor-rifying [domestic] violenceagainst women a key part of theirnational response plans forCOVID-19.”
These gender-based conse-quences of Coronavirus make itimperative for both the admin-istration and social networks toensure that the pandemic doesnot negate the gains of genderequality achieved over the pastfew decades. Diah Saminarsih,Senior Adviser on Gender andYouth to the WHO Director-General, avers that tackling thisissue will be top priority in theWHO’s forthcoming study on theconnections between gender andCOVID-19. It remains to be seenhow well women will be able toride out the Corona storm.
(The writer is ConsultantEditor at NCAER. Views expressedin this article are personal)����(��������������� ���������
Sir — It is heartening to know thatKerala reported more recoveriesthan new cases in the past week.Out of 387 total recorded cases,218 people recovered so far. Ashort while ago, the largest num-ber of infected patients belongedto this State. But growth rate isnow completely under controland is declining rapidly.Statistically speaking, the well-being rate is about 42 per cent,which is a bit higher than in theentire country. The death rateamong the victims is also quite lowhere. This sends positive signalsthat it will be able to dip the infec-tion curve. According to theKerala administration’s statement,the State is being healed accord-ing to certain rules. Other Statesmust apply the same rules to getover this painful pandemic.
Mamun HasanAssam
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Sir — This refers to editorial,“WHO vs Trump” (April 17). It isunfortunate that US PresidentDonald Trump has halted funding
to the World Health Organistaion(WHO) over its handling of theCoronavirus pandemic. But hedoes have some justification forthis attack on the global body andits leader Tedros Adhanom, whomTrump has accused of being a
Chinese lapdog.Post this development, China
hinted that it would step up its con-tribution to the WHO. It must benoted that a lion’s share of the con-tribution to the WHO comesfrom the US and it is the largest
single Government donor in theworld. China or any other coun-try is far behind here. In this sense,he who pays the piper calls thetune. The US has been devastatedby the spread of the COVID-19pandemic and Americans are
falling dead en masse due to thisdisease. It is, therefore, natural forthe US to be offended due to theWHO’s irresponsible behaviour.
But why did China refuse todivulge details about the diseaseto the outside world even whenhundreds of its own people fellprey to the pandemic? These arequestions to which no definiteanswers have been offered byChinese authorities so far. Theworld body has to initiate a probeinto this matter.
TK NandananChennai
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Sir — Rumours are known to begreat disruptors. The COVID-19pandemic is no exception to it.Various false narratives have beenspread to tarnish the name of aparticular community. Despitediversity being India’s strength,the evil spreading on social mediaand caustic ideologies gravelydamage our syncretism. The statemust act responsibly.
In the prevailing period of uncertainty, unpre-dictability and ambiguity of every aspect ofhuman life, in fact, of life itself, is it a war that
we are fighting and what kind of a war is this? Thetraditional understanding of conflict is violent activ-ity between two or more nations or groups over aperiod of time, bringing death and destruction inits wake. The world has, however, seen other typesof battles. For instance, the war on poverty, class wars,trade wars and so on. So, is our ongoing fight forexistence against COVID-19 to be termed a war?The significance is not merely of the word but theprinciples which should govern this fight.
In the spectrum of conflict, at the lower end islow-intensity engagement and at the highest levelthere is nuclear warfare. Chemical and biologicalwarfare can also be grouped with nuclear conflict.While chemical weapons have repeatedly been usedin some conflicts in the 20th century, the use of bio-logical weapons is relatively less and mostlyunproven. But biological weapons are the easiest andcheapest to manufacture and can adversely affect theentire enemy population. (A biological weapon canbe as simple as dropping a body in the village wellor a town’s water supply.) However, possibly due tomorality aspects and more importantly, the inabil-ity to control the fallout of a biological weapon, itsuse on a large scale has been precluded, though manycountries are reported to have had biologicalweapons programmes in the past.
The present crisis would definitely fall under thecategory of biological warfare. The commencementof this war could be both, natural or man-made. Atthis point of time, due to inadequate credible infor-mation, it would be inappropriate to pronounce adecision as to who is responsible for the commence-ment of this war. However, it is of extreme impor-tance to analyse inputs when available and reach aconclusion on its genesis because, many aspects ofthe post-COVID world, including possibly the worldorder, would depend on it. If this be a biological war,we need to see the scale of it. It is perhaps the firsttime in history that the entire human race, withoutany exception, is combatting a common enemy, theCOVID-19 virus. Though there have been pan-demics in the past, like the Spanish Flu in 1918 andthe Asian Flu in 1957, a global catastrophe of thisscale is unprecedented. It is not only the sickness anddeath which the virus-affected world suffers, seem-ingly at an exorbitantly large scale, but also the eco-nomic devastation that is likely to ensue in its wakein the globalised world, which makes this crisis atruly unparalleled one. Additionally, in all previousbattles whether conventional or otherwise (war onterror, price wars and so on), there have always been“sides.” In this unprecedented situation, the entiremankind is on one side and the virus is on the other.It is therefore, a true Global War On a BiologicalThreat (GWOBT).
Considering this to be a war, the “Principles ofWar” need to be applied to defeat it. While these fun-damentals have been enunciated by different mili-tary theorists from Sun Tzu to Clausewitz and dif-ferent countries have adopted their own dictumsbased on their national and strategic requirements,it is intended to elucidate these principles which aregenerally acceptable. Let’s deliberate upon them inthe context of the GWOBT.
Selection and maintenance of aim: This is thesingle-most important maxim as all actions will
depend upon the aim selected. My expe-rience in the Siachen Glacier and otherbattle situations is that, it is necessary firstto survive to defeat the enemy. A dead manis good to nobody. In the existing situa-tion wherein no treatment is available, theaim must remain focussed on survival.
Concentration of force: Since theentire human race has one deadly enemy,all national boundaries, religions, beliefs,ethnicities, caste, creed and gender areirrelevant in this war. All efforts of thehuman race must, therefore, be concen-trated on defeating the virus. Solidarityand synergy of all resources of the worldwould be necessary to defeat this enemy,which has humbled mankind.
Administration/sustainability: Tobe able to fight the war successfully, thehuman race, especially the economicallydeprived, has to be able to sustain itselfthrough the entire period that the battleis fought. The administration has to beperfected to take care of essential needs,especially food and medical assistance.Though this is already partly visible butit has to be ensured over a long period tillit is business as usual.
Security: In military terms, it meansthat an appropriate environment must becreated and maintained, which will enablenecessary freedom of action to achieveobjectives. In the GWOBT, it wouldentail creating an overall internationalenvironment wherein those scientists, doc-tors and researchers, who are involved infinding a solution, feel fully energised andmotivated to find avaccine/solution/drug/protocol, to end thiscrisis. One of the perils identified by theUN Secretary General on April 9 was ofextremist threats, including bio-terroristattacks. Such dangers need to be dealt withthrough an effective international responseand nipped in the bud. Otherwise these
will seriously hamper our efforts at find-ing a solution.
Economy of effort: With limitedresources, especially in the less developednations and the end not clearly in sight,all efforts must be economised. This wouldbe applicable to both, employment ofmanpower as also utilising resources,including foodgrain. The inability toimplement this dictum will result in seri-ous social disturbances, which willadversely affect preventive measures tocontain the virus.
Offensive action: The key to militaryvictories lies in relentless offensive action.In the current situation, too, bold decisionsby the leadership, which are in tune withthe selected aims and based on availabledata, would be the drivers of victory.Complacency or delay in decision-mak-ing can prove catastrophic.
Flexibility: The world is mostlygroping in a relatively unknown domain.The outcome, results and impacts thatemerge in the changing situation, must befactored in by the leadership in finding theroad ahead. One example is how the ubiq-uitous anti-malaria drugHydroxychloroquine has changed theway the world is looking at possible futureprevention.
Cooperation: Partnership amongall, cutting across boundaries, political ide-ologies and religion, will hold the key toa solution. It is also very important that,post-COVID financial benefits accruingto a nation or company, must not be thekey criterion. A competition at this stagehas the potential to ruin or delay successwhereas, collaboration will speed up theprocess, which in turn can benefit allnations.
Morale: These are times which mostof the present generation would not haveever faced earlier. A positive state of mind
in this situation needs to be created. Asense of well-being, group cohesion andthe feeling that the nation is firmlybehind every individual, need to be reit-erated. An inspired leadership — at theinternational, national, State and local level— is the need of the hour.
India has a lot to contribute to theworld in the current situation. The way thesecond-most populous country on theplanet is controlling the pandemic, willdefinitely be watched globally. The lock-down decision, albeit delayed, is beingappreciated by many the world over. Thesense of discipline in most areas and a highstate of morale, despite the extended shutdown which the country can ill-affordright now due to its precarious econom-ic situation, are examples for the world tofollow.
India has also set the example of inter-national cooperation by releasing theHydroxychloroquine tablets to manynations. In the field of research and find-ing a vaccine/treatment as also finding asolution through traditional methods,India can be a world leader.
Despite all the challenges that thenation is facing today, especially the eco-nomically deprived citizens, India couldbe at the forefront in this GWOBT andthereby be an important contributor in thepost-COVID world.
As in war, leadership in all spheres andat all levels — political, judicial, executive,legislative, military and at the national,State and local levels, will be judged by themanner in which they handle the crisis.
History has also shown us that fromthe ashes of war, great economic giantshave risen. Remember Germany, Japanand more recently Vietnam?
(The writer is a retired military veteran and former Director-General
As cases of the rapidly spread-ing Coronavirus increase,the world has come to a
standstill. COVID-19, the diseasecaused by the virus which has so farinfected over two million people andkilled 154,388, has also causedsome severe economic and socialdisruptions. Experts believe thesemay lead to political upheavalseven after the spread is somehowneutralised.
In the line of fire are regimeswho seem to be fumbling inaddressing the spread of COVID-19.Over the last two weeks, the inter-national media has specifically tar-getted the bombastic neo-populistregimes that came to power in var-ious countries after 2014.
Unable to comprehend an issuewhich does not fit their blatheringnarratives, such governments inIndia, the UK, the US, Brazil,Hungary, Philippines, Iran andPakistan are now constantly on thereceiving end of criticism. But thisdoes not mean that countries thatseem to be doing a better job of han-dling the crisis know when or howthis crisis will recede; they arebeing forced to think on their feet.Such is the elusive nature of thisvirus.
On March 12, Dr ZhongNanshan, a Chinese pulmonologistwho has been at the forefront of hiscountry’s fight against the pan-demic, told Reuters that the spreadof COVID-19 can be “contained” byJune this year but only if govern-ments continue to enforce strictsocial distancing through lock-downs.
This does not mean that even ifthe world somehow succeeds tocheck the spread in the next twomonths, everything will automati-cally return to normal. First of all,what was considered to be normal
before the outbreak will change,leading to a new normal. But eventhis won’t emerge unless an anti-COVID-19 vaccine appears.
Vaccines usually take up to 10years to develop for mass usage. Butrecent advances in virology havehelped scientists to greatly shave offyears of required testing and launchanti-viral vaccines in much shorterperiods of time.
Pharmaceutical companiesworking frantically in China,Europe, India and the US believethat an effective anti-COVID-19vaccine can appear in the next 12months. That’s still a whole year.However, the US pharmaceuticalgiant Merck was able to produce avaccine against the 1968 influenzapandemic in four months.
Vaccines have saved the humanrace on numerous occasions. Buttheir historic importance always getsdwarfed by other, more glamorousscientific feats. Human beings havebeen victims of catastrophic viralbreakouts for centuries but the firstvaccine wasn’t developed till the18th century.
In the late 18th century, aBritish doctor, Edward Jenner,noticed that those in England’s vil-lages who had contracted cowpox,became immune to smallpox. Forcenturies, smallpox had been one ofthe deadliest and most painful dis-eases that killed millions. It wascaused by a highly contagious virus.Cowpox, on the other hand, was rel-atively mild and not fatal.
In The Life and Death ofSmallpox, Ian and Jenifer Glynnwrite that Jenner drew some matterfrom a sore of a woman sufferingfrom cowpox. He then injected itinto an eight-year-old boy who hadcontracted smallpox. After severaldays, the boy recovered. Jennerthen injected the boy with mattertaken from a fresh smallpox patientto see if he had developed immuni-ty. He had. Compared to modern-day practices of lab sciences, thismethod seems rather cruel but inthe 18th century, it turned Jennerinto a celebrity.
By the 19th century, smallpoxvaccination became compulsory invarious European countries and in
some American States. Almost a 100years after Jenner’s discovery, aFrench biologist, Louis Pasteur, wassuccessful in developing a vaccineagainst another painfully fatal dis-ease, rabies. Caused by a virus thatenters the human body through aninfected animal bite, it can cause ahorrific death. In 1885, Pasteursuccessfully cured a rabies casewith a vaccine. He used the atten-uation method, in which the virusis weakened in the lab and injectedin the patient to prompt the body’simmune system to work harder.
Building on the works of Jennerand Pasteur, the 20th century saw arapid growth in the introduction ofvaccines against ailments that wereonce incurable and contagious. In1914, a vaccine against typhoidbecame common in the US; in 1921,French bacteriologists developed avaccine for TB; in 1939, US doctorsdeveloped a vaccine against whoop-ing-cough; in 1954, an anti-poliovaccine was successfully tested byAmerican scientists; in 1958, thefirst measles vaccine was intro-duced and in 1966 an anti-mumps
vaccine was launched in the US.Between the late 1960s and
1970s, robust vaccination pro-grammes were highly successful inchecking and, in some cases, erad-icating the spread of some of theworst contagious diseases known toman. However, scientists havealways been running a tricky raceagainst flu viruses because they con-tinue to mutate. This means scien-tists have to always be on their feetto readjust flu vaccines according tofresh mutations.
A problem governments havefaced in checking the spread of con-tagious diseases is the continuousexistence of “anti-vax” segments insome societies. These are groupswithin a population who are againstforced vaccination. The WorldHealth Organisation (WHO) hasdescribed them as a “threat” to pub-lic health.
The roots of this phenomenoncan be traced back to the 19th cen-tury when the British Governmentintroduced compulsory smallpoxvaccination. Some groups refused toget their children vaccinated, fear-
ing it was against their religiousbeliefs.
In 1926, newspapers in the USreported attacks on vaccinationteams in certain conservative ruralareas of the country. Even recently,anti-polio vaccination workers wereattacked in some areas of Pakistanby those who believe that polio vac-cines contain harmful chemicals.
According to a June 27, 2016article in Healthline by Dr DeborahWeatherspoon, the “anti-vax” mind-set is often the result of a mistrustof science in some groups whobelieve that pharmaceutical compa-nies are enhancing the fear of oth-erwise benign diseases to sell theirmedicines, or that such sciences areopposed to religious beliefs, or that“natural” cures through homeopa-thy or other traditional means aremore effective.
Among these are also some whoinsist that vaccines stunt the repro-ductive capabilities of men.Ironically, this perception is mostprominent in some of the world’smost densely populated regions.
Barcelona: Passengers on a lux-ury liner’s around-the-worldcruise, begun before the globewas gripped by the coronaviruspandemic, are finally approach-ing the end of their odyssey after15 weeks at sea.
The ship, the CostaDeliziosa, was heading onSunday toward a port in Spainbefore ending its journey in Italy— both countries devastated bythe coronavirus outbreak.
Costa Crociere, an Italiancruise company, said that theDeliziosa, which set sail fromVenice in early January with1,831 passengers, had no casesof COVID-19 aboard.
The Deliziosa, a nearly 300-meter (1,000-foot) vessel, willdisembark 168 Spanish passen-gers on Monday at Barcelona’s
port. Then the Deliziosa willhead to its final destination,Genoa, Italy, where it is expect-ed to let off the remaining pas-sengers, Italians and those ofother nationalities, onWednesday. A companyspokesman said a passenger leftthe ship earlier in the week inMarsala, Sicily, for health issuesand had a Covid-19 test, whichwas negative.
Being on the liner for weeksduring the pandemic “was notsurreal, it was incredible,’’ saidpassenger Carlos Paya’, wholives in Valencia, Spain, and issailing with his wife. He addedthat they have family membersin Spain. “The news that wasarriving from home was causingus all a lot of worry and grief,,”he told The Associated Press by
text message Saturday evening. “For us it was a stroke of
good luck to be where we were.”“From Perth (Australia) giventhe growth of the pandemic, andof course for those of us whohave children in Spain, we wouldhave preferred to return,” headded.
“Other passengers, on theother hand, given their old age,wanted to stay on board know-ing that the boat was safe andsecure.” French authorities hadrebuffed a request by Costa forpermission to disembark sever-al hundred passengers fromFrance and nearby countries atMarseilles. “The health situationon board the ships doesn’t pre-sent any problem for publichealth and no case of COVID-19,” Costa’s statement said. AP
Bamako: Mali was votingSunday in the final round of alegislative election that aims torevive public faith in the coun-try’s embattled institutionsdespite a bloody jihadist conflictand looming viral pandemic.
The election has beenrepeatedly delayed, and the firstround on March 29 was dis-rupted by jihadist attacks andintimidation, including the kid-napping of opposition leaderSoumaila Cisse.
“I voted. It is importantdespite the economic situation.We need new MPs to consoli-date our democracy,” MoussaDiakite, a 23-year-old student,told AFP after polls opened.Voters in the West Africannation of 19 million people arecasting their ballots in the runoff
for 147 seats in the NationalAssembly.
The country is strugglingwith an Islamist revolt that hasclaimed thousands of lives andforced hundreds of thousandsfrom their homes.
Polling stations opened at0800 GMT in the capitalBamako and also in otherprovinces hard hit by the insur-gency, and will go on until 1800GMT. The first provisionalresults will be announced at thestart of the week.
It is the country’s first par-liamentary poll since 2013 whenPresident Ibrahim BoubacarKeita’s Rally for Mali party wona big majority. Turnout in thefirst round averaged over 35 per-cent nationwide but was less than13 per cent in Bamako. AFP
Kathmandu: A 65-year-oldman in Nepal who was stayingat a mosque, where 12 Indianswere tested positive forCOVID-19, has contracted thedisease, taking the total num-ber of coronavirus cases in theHimalayan nation to 31, healthofficials said on Sunday.
Twelve Indians wereamong the 14 new coronaviruscases reported in Nepal onFriday. The Indian nationalswere staying at a mosque inTriyuga area of Udaypur dis-trict. They were quarantined ina school building after residentsinformed authorities aboutthem.
Basudev Pandey, head ofthe Epidemiology and DiseaseControl Division of the healthministry, said the man was test-ed COVID-19 positive onSaturday evening. PTI
Rome: Italians debated Sundaytheir first cautious steps out ofa coronavirus lockdown that hasleft an estimated half of theworking population seekingGovernment support.
The Mediterranean countryhas been filled with rumoursand speculation about whenpeople will finally be allowed towalk the streets freely for thefirst time since early March.
The balmy weather is nothelping government efforts tokeep everyone inside in the faceof a disease that has officiallykilled 23,227 in Italy — secondonly to the United States.
The number of daily finesfor illegal outdoor activity is ris-ing and police are setting upbarricades along roads leading
to the beaches on the westernoutskirts of Rome.
The growing sense thatweeks of confinement wereending forced an unnamedsource in Prime MinisterGiuseppe Conte’s office to tellmedia that “nothing willchange”.
But some officials seem tothink that extending the strictestlockdown measures beyondtheir May 3 deadline might sim-ply not work.
The daily death rate has fall-en to half of what it was at thepeak of the crisis and people —feeling less frightened but morestir crazy — may simply startgoing out.
“We must give citizensgreater freedom of movement,”
Deputy Health MinisterPierpaolo Sileri said onSaturday.
Conte gave little of thegame away in one of his char-acteristic late-night Facebookposts on Saturday.
He said some activities willbe allowed to resume “accord-ing to a well-structured pro-gramme that balances the needto protect people’s health withthe need to resume production”.
Conte is expected to hearon Monday the conclusions ofa re-opening taskforce headedby former Vodafone chief exec-utive Vittorio Colao.
The pressure on Contefrom the leaders of Italy’s north-ern industrial heartland is alsogrowing intense. AFP
Madrid: Spain has reported itslowest daily death total for con-firmed coronavirus victims innearly a month as the countrycontains a savage outbreak thathas killed more than 20,000people there.
Spanish health officials saidSunday another 410 peoplehave died in the last 24 hours.That is the lowest daily death tollsince March 22. It takes the total
to 20,453 virus-related deathssince the start of the pandem-ic. Spain also reported 4,218confirmed new cases, pushingthe total to 195,944 — secondonly to the United States.
Top health officialFernando Simón said the latestdata gives Spain hope, addingthat it shows “the rate of conta-gion has fallen and that we areon the correct path.” AP
London: British PrimeMinister Boris Johnson hasbegun taking charge of theGovernment even as he con-valesces at Chequers in south-east England, following hishospitalisation after testingpositive for coronavirus.
‘The Sunday Telegraph’reports that Johnson begangiving directions to his Cabinet,including to his deputy UKForeign Secretary DominicRaab, from his prime ministe-rial countryside retreat as heprepares to resume full chargein the coming days.
The 55-year-old issuedsome directives to Raab aswell as senior aides in a seriesof calls last week, followed bya three-hour meeting with hisdeputy and staff on Friday.
“He [Johnson] has hadsome contact with ministers,but mostly with his privateoffice here at Downing Street,”Robert Jenrick, UKCommunities Minister, hadtold reporters at the dailyDowning Street briefing onSaturday. PTI
Beijing: A premier Chinesevirology laboratory in Wuhan,which is in the eye of the stormfor allegedly being the source ofthe novel coronavirus, has forthe first time refuted the charge,including those of US PresidentDonald Trump, that the deadlyvirus originated from his labbefore it spread across the worldand wreaked havoc.
China has come underincreasing global pressure overlack of transparency in its han-dling of the coronavirus pan-demic, which has so far infect-ed over 2,333,160 people andclaimed more than 160,790 livesacross the world.
President Trump onSaturday said his administrationwas looking into reports that thenovel coronavirus “escaped”
from a Wuhan laboratory beforeit spread to the world.
“We’re looking at it, a lot ofpeople are looking at it. It seemsto make sense,” Trump told themedia when asked if there wasan investigation into whether thecoronavirus disease escaped
from a lab in China’s COVID-19 ground-zero city of Wuhan.
Ever since the virus came tolight in Wuhan in December lastyear, speculation has been rife onwhether the viral strain origi-nated from the Wuhan Instituteof Virology (WIV). PTI
London: Virus related deathswithin the UK’s care homes forthe elderly and vulnerable dou-bled within just one week,according to data collected andanalysed by a leading represen-tative body for the not-for-prof-it adult social care sector.
The National Care Forum(NCF) report, released onSaturday, demonstrates 2,500deaths within care homes with-in seven days, figures which itsays highlights significant flawsin the current national report-ing of coronavirus related deathtoll in the UK.
“It is hoped that this analy-sis will provide insight andimpetus for the government tobetter address the needs of thecare sector,” the NCF said.
The group’s research came
as pressure mounts on theBritish government to startcounting deaths within thewider community and carehomes to its daily hospital tollfigures, which hit 15,464 on thisweek.
Amid concerns that thenational statistics presented bythe government for coronavirusrelated mortality rates were notincorporating figures of deathswithin residential and nursinghomes, the NCF said it led anindependent benchmarkingexercise. As many as 47 of itscare provider members con-tributed to the audit, represent-ing 1,169 care services that col-lectively support 30,217 peopleacross the UK — 7.4 per cent ofthe overall residential care sec-tor population. PTI
Athens: A fire ripped throughone of Greece’s largest migrantcamps leaving widespreaddamage and many peoplehomeless after the death of anIraqi woman sparked unrest,officials said on Sunday.
The blaze late Saturday atVial camp on Chios islanddestroyed the facilities of theEuropean asylum service, acamp canteen, warehouse tentsand many housing containers,Migration Ministry SecretaryManos Logothetis told AFP.
“A large part of the camp’sadministrative services wasdestroyed,” said Logothetis,adding that no injuries werereported. The UN refugeeagency’s spokesperson inAthens Boris Cheshirkov saidthe damage is still being eval-
uated but that many camp res-idents have likely been lefthomeless.
“Authorities are still assess-ing the damages but a few hun-dred people are likely affectedbecause their shelters haveburned down. We have donat-ed tents to the authoritieswhich can quickly be put intouse and we will assist in replac-
ing the warehouse tents,” hetold AFP.
At least three vehicles out-side the camp were also gutted.
A police source in Athenssaid two Afghans and an Iraqihad been arrested in relation tothe unrest, which erupted aftera 47-year-old asylum seekerfrom Iraq died in the camp onSaturday. AFP
Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump has warnedChina that it should face con-sequences if it was “knowing-ly responsible” for the spread ofthe novel coronavirus, uppingthe ante on Beijing over its han-dling of the COVID-19 pan-demic.
Trump, who has expresseddisappointment over China’shandling of the coronavirusdisease, alleged non-trans-parency and initial non-coop-eration from Beijing withWashington on dealing withthe crisis.
“If they were knowinglyresponsible, yeah, then thereshould be consequences. You’retalking about, you know, poten-tially lives like nobody’s seensince 1917,” he told reporters ata White House news confer-ence on Saturday.
Trump said his relationshipwith China was very good tillthe time the deadly COVID-19swept across the world.
“The relationship wasgood when we were signingthat, but then, all of a sudden,you hear about this. So, it’s abig difference. You know, thequestion was asked would yoube angry at China. Well, theanswer very well might be avery resounding yes, but itdepends,” Trump said.
The president underlinedthat there was a big differencebetween a mistake that got outof control and something donedeliberately.
“In either event, theyshould have let us go in. Youknow, we asked to go in veryearly and they didn’t want us in.
I think they knew it was some-thing bad and I think they wereembarrassed,” Trump said.
He claimed that China waspitching for former vice pres-ident Joe Biden, who is the pre-sumptive nominee of theDemocratic Party for the pres-idential election. PTI
Sydney: Australia on Sundaycalled for an independent inves-tigation into the global responseto the coronavirus pandemic,including the World HealthOrganization’s handling of thecrisis. Foreign Minister MarisePayne said the country would“insist” on a review that wouldprobe, in part, China’s early
response to the outbreak inWuhan, the city where COVID-19 emerged late last year.
“We need to know the sortsof details that an independentreview would identify for usabout the genesis of the virus,about the approaches to dealingwith it (and) addressing theopenness with which informa-
tion was shared,” she told pub-lic broadcaster ABC.
Payne said Australia sharedsimilar concerns to the UnitedStates, whose President DonaldTrump has accused the WHOof “mismanaging” the crisis andcovering up the seriousness ofChina’s outbreak before itspread. AFP
Paris: The worldwide death tollfrom the novel coronaviruspandemic rose to 160,685 onSunday, according to a tallyfrom official sources compiledby AFP.
More than 2,334,130declared cases have been regis-tered in 193 countries and ter-ritories since the epidemic firstemerged in China in December.
Of these cases, at least518,900 are now consideredrecovered.
The tallies, using data col-lected by AFP from nationalauthorities and informationfrom the World HealthOrganization (WHO), probablyreflect only a fraction of theactual number of infections.
Many countries are testingonly the most serious cases.
In the United States, nowthe worst-hit country, the deathtoll stood at 39,090 with735,287 infections. At least66,819 patients have recovered.
Italy is the next most-affectedcountry with 23,227 deathsand 175,925 confirmed infec-tions.
It is followed by Spain with20,453 fatalities and 195,944confirmed infections, Francewith 19,323 deaths and 151,793infections and Britain with15,464 deaths and 114,217cases.
China — excluding HongKong and Macau — has to datedeclared 4,632 deaths and82,735 cases.
Europe has listed 1,153,148cases and 101,493 deaths todate, the US and Canadatogether have 768,670 caseswith 40,619 deaths, Asia162,256 cases with 6,951 deaths,the Middle East 122,819 caseswith 5,559 deaths, LatinAmerica and the Caribbean98,202 cases with 4,915 deaths,Africa 21,165 cases with 1,058deaths and Oceania 7,879 caseswith 90 deaths. AFP
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Washington: President DonaldTrump has cast doubt on theaccuracy of China’s officialcoronavirus death toll, termingit “unrealistic” and claimingthat the actual number was“way ahead” of the US’ whichis not the world’s “numberone” country in terms ofCOVID-19 fatalities.
Trump’s comments havecome two days after another1,300 fatalities were added tothe official count in theChinese city of Wuhan, wherethe outbreak started inNovember last year. The revi-sion puts China’s overall deathtoll to more than 4,600.
“We are not number one;China is number one just soyou understand,” Trump toldreporters at a White Housenews conference on Saturday.
“They are way ahead of usin terms of death. It’s not evenclose,” he asserted.
According to Trump, whenhighly-developed healthcaresystems of the UK, France,Belgium, Italy and Spain hadhigh fatality rates, it was 0.33 inChina.
The president asserted thatthe actual number was muchmore than the official Chinesedeath toll figures, which he saidwere “unrealistic”.
“You know it, I know it andthey know it, but you don’twant to report it. Why? You willhave to explain that. SomedayI will explain it,” he said.
He also highlighted that ona per-capita basis, the mortal-ity rate in the US was far lowerthan other nations of WesternEurope. PTI
Beijing/Wuhan: China hasclassified the coronavirus epi-centre Wuhan as a low-riskarea, days after it revised thecity’s death toll by 50 per cent,even as 16 new COVID-19cases were reported in thecountry, health officials said onSunday.
According to the risk cri-teria defined in a guidelineissued by China’s State Council,
cities, counties and districtswith no newly confirmed casesin the last 14 days are cate-gorised as low-risk areas.
Those with fewer than 50cases or those with over 50 butwithout a concentrated out-break are classified as mid-riskareas, and those with over 50cases as well as a concentratedoutbreak are classified as high-risk areas. PTI
Figures from France’s mili-tary leadership show more
than half the sailors aboard thecountry’s flagship aircraft car-rier contracted the new virusas the ship traveled throughthe Mediterranean Sea, theNorth Sea and the AtlanticOcean.
A navy official says 1,046of the 1,760 people aboard theCharles de Gaulle tested pos-itive for the virus.
Navy Chief of Staff Adm.Christophe Prazuck attributedthe quick spread to the “greatpopulation density aboard theship.” Speaking Saturdayevening to Europe-1 radio,Prazuck said virus protectionmeasures weren’t followedproperly, which “did not allow
us to detect the beginning ofthe epidemic, and therefore tocontain it .” The ship is undergoing a lengthy disin-fection process since returningto its home base in Toulon lastweek.
One person who servedaboard is in intensive careand more than 20 others arehospitalised. Among thoseinfected are two U.S. Sailorsserving as part of an exchangeprogram.
Investigations are under-way into what happened, andFrench military leaders havebeen questioned in parlia-ment.
A similar outbreak on theUSS Theodore Roosevelt ledto the firing of its captain andthe resignation of the actingU.S. Navy secretary.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Sundayreported 869 new coronaviruscases in the last 24 hours, bring-ing the number of the COVID-19 patients to 8,348 in the coun-try, officials said.
According to officials,worst-hit Punjab provincereported 3,822 cases, Sindh2,537, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa1,137, Balochistan 376, Gilgit-Baltistan 257, Islamabad 171 andPakistan-occupied Kashmir 48,taking the overall tally to 8,348.
The death toll due to thecoronavirus has risen to 168,with Sindh recording its highestnumber of nine fatalities in asingle day, they said. Pakistanhas conducted 98,522 tests,including 7,847 during the last24 hours. So far 1,868 patientshave recovered. PTI
Rome: Italy’s official daily tollfrom the novel coronavirusedged down to 433 on Sunday,the lowest figure in one week.
The total number of deathsreported by the civil protectionservices since the start of Italy’shealth crisis in February nowstands at 23,660 -- second onlyto the United States.
Sunday’s fatalities figurewas the second lowest in onemonth.
The 3,047 new virus infec-tions represented a rise of just1.7 percent.
The new infections rate isbeing watched close by Italiangovernment as it deliberates onhow to exit a lockdownimposed over the first half ofMarch.
The current restrictionsare due to be lifted on May 4,and the government is trying todetermine which businessesto allow to resume operations,and whether to let people outof their homes. AFP
The Ministry of Agriculture onSunday claimed that 67 per
cent of wheat crop has been har-vested. The Ministry claimed thatthere was a minimal or no disrup-tion in the harvesting rabi crop andsowing of summer crop despite thenationwide lockdown due to coro-navirus.
On the other hand, farmersfrom several states have claimed thatthey are finding difficult to harvestwheat crops due to shortage oflabours and machinery stucked instates like Gujarat and MadhyaPradesh. According to farmers, theexemption given to farm sectors and
agri machineries by the HomeMinistry, have not reached the localauthorites that’s why they have notallowed the movement of farmmachineries.
According to agriculture min-istry, of the rabi crop harvesting, outof total wheat sown in 310 lakhhectares, 63-67 percent has alreadybeen harvested in the country.“State-wise harvesting has alsoincreased and reached 90-95% inMadhya Pradesh, 80-85% inRajasthan, 60-65% in Uttar Pradesh,30-35% in Haryana and 10-15% inPunjab. Harvesting is in peak inHaryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradeshand is likely to be completed by theend of April, the ministry said.
Punjab has deployed 18000 com-bines and Haryana has deployed5000 combines for harvesting andthreshing. Rabi rice sown in 28 lakhhectares in Andhra Pradesh, Assam,Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka,Kerala, Odisha, Tamil Nadu,Telangana, Tripura and West Bengalis in the initial stages of harvestingsince the grain is still in the fillingstage and harvesting times wouldvary, it said.
Of the pulses sown in 161 lakhhectare, harvesting has been com-pleted for gram, lentil, urad, moongand field pea. For sugarcane, out ofthe total sown in 54.29 lakh ha, har-vesting has been completed inMaharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat,
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana andPunjab. For the states of TamilNadu, Bihar, Haryana andUttarakhand, 92-98 per cent har-vesting has been completed. InUttar Pradesh, 75-80 per cent hasbeen completed and this will con-tinue till mid May 2020.
Amongst the oilseed crops,Rapeseed Mustard sown in 69 lakhha has been harvested in the statesof Rajasthan, UP, MP, Haryana, WB,Jharkhand, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh,Bihar, Punjab, Assam, ArunachalPradesh and UT of J&K.
Groundnut sown in 4.7 lakh ha,has been harvested to the tune of 85-90 per cent.
While Rabi crops are being
harvested, farmers have startedsowing summer crops whichincludes pulses, coarse cereals,nutri-cereals and oilseeds.
“Summer crop sowing is 36 percent higher over correspondingperiod last year as on April 17. Thetotal summer crop area hasincreased to 52.78 lakh hectaresfrom 38.64 lakh hectares as com-pared to the the correspondingperiod a year ago. The area cover-age under pulses, coarse cereals,nutria-cereals and oilseeds hasincreased to 20.05 lakh hectarefrom 14.79 lakh hectare as com-pared to last year during the corresponding period,” theMinistry said.
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The government’s U-turn onhome delivery of non-
essential items will leave con-sumers disappointed, theworld’s largest online retailerAmazon said, but the decisionwas welcomed by local kiranastore body CAIT that called itthe “most pragmatic”.
Four days after allowing e-commerce firms to also deliv-er non-essential items such aselectronic goods and ready-made garments, the govern-ment on Sunday said non-essential items will continue tobe prohibited during the lock-down period.
Commenting on the deci-sion, Amazon India said thenew guidelines will disappointconsumers whose list of essen-tials has expanded to ‘workfrom home’ and ‘study from
home’ products, as well assmall businesses, sellers andmanufacturers.
The company said it willcontinue to follow the guide-lines and deliver essential prod-ucts and work with authoritiesfor expedited processes tomake safe deliveries of priori-ty products possible.
“The new guideline willdisappoint not only the con-sumers whose list of essentialshad expanded to work fromhome and study from homeproducts but also the thou-sands of small businesses, sell-ers and manufacturers acrossthe country, who had geared upin the last 48 hours to providemillions of people with safeaccess to products,” AmazonIndia spokesperson said.
Amazon India further saidthe company hopes that “thissituation is rectified soon so
that the urgent need of con-sumers is met and that there isrevival of economic activity”.
The Confederation of AllIndia Traders (CAIT), whichhad been campaigning hardagainst allowing e-commercefirms to also commence non-essential deliveries during thelockdown period, “laudedPrime Minister Narendra Modiand Home Minister Amit Shahfor the most pragmatic deci-sion” of “valuing the senti-ments of Indian traders andprotecting their business inter-ests”. Commerce MinisterPiyush Goyal on his part saidthe move will “help in creatinga level-playing field for smallretailers”.
Separately, the RetailersAssociation of India (RAI) saidthe government’s home deliv-ery permissions need to bebroad based and all types of
retailers, including neighbour-hood stores, should be allowedto operate.
The retailers’ body saidallowing neighbourhood storesand large essential products’chain retailers to do homedelivery will help fulfil con-sumer needs in these tryingtimes and play a part inenhancing social distancing.
Soon after the governmenthad on April 16 announcedgraded plan to lift the lock-down by allowing all e-com-merce deliveries and move-ment of trucks, some statessuch as Maharashtra, Odishaand Rajasthan issued notifica-tions allowing non-essentialdeliveries alongside essentialones. CAIT had resented themove and said that the stategovernments were againstIndian traders and “prefer todestroy the businesses of Indian
traders at the hands of foreigne-commerce players”.
“Multinational e-com-merce players have been tryingto disrupt the businesses ofsmall Indian traders by adopt-ing unfair business practicessuch as deep discounting andpredatory pricing by control-ling inventory. Even in thelockdown period, they wouldhave adopted their vitiatedbusiness model and promote allkinds of malpractices to dam-age the foundation of Indianretail,” CAIT said in a statementon Sunday.
The home ministry onSunday issued an order sayingthe following clause — “E-commerce companies. Vehiclesused by e-commerce operatorswill be allowed to ply with nec-essary permissions” — is excluded from the guidelinesissues.
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The Finance Ministry onSunday said that the
Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) is revising the incometax return (ITR) forms for FY2019-20 (Assessment Year2020-21) which will be notifiedby the end of this month, inorder to enable income tax-payers to avail full benefits ofvarious timeline extensionsgranted due to coronaviruscrisis.
“CBDT today said that inorder to facilitate taxpayer toavail full benefits with varioustimeline extensions up to 30thJune 2020 granted by the gov-ernment, it has initiated nec-essary changes in the returnforms so that taxpayers couldtake benefits of their transac-tions carried out during theperiod from 1st April 2020 to30th June 2020 in the returnforms for FY 2019-20,” an offi-cial statement said.
The necessary modifica-tions in the return forms arebeing made to allow taxpayersto avail the benefits of theirinvestments and transactionsmade for the April-June 2020period. Once the revised formsare notified, it will furthernecessitate the consequential
changes in the software andreturn filing utility.
Thereby, the return filingutility after incorporating nec-essary changes shall be madeavailable by May 31, 2020 toavail benefits for FY 2019-20.
Due to outbreak of Covid-19, the government has extend-ed various timelines under theIncome-tax Act, 1961 videTaxation and Other Laws(Relaxation of certain provi-sions) Ordinance, 2020.
Accordingly, the time formaking investment and pay-ments for claiming deductionunder Chapter-VIA-B of IT Actwhich includes Section 80C(LIC, PPF, NSC and so on),80D (mediclaim), 80G (dona-tions), and others for FY 2019-20 has also been extended toJune 30 2020.
Further, the dates for mak-ing investment, construction orpurchase for claiming roll overbenefit in respect of capitalgains under sections 54 to sec-tion 54GB has also beenextended to June 30, 2020. So,return forms are being revisedto facilitate reporting of thetransactions of the relief peri-od, said the statement.
Generally the income-taxreturn forms are notified in thefirst week of April.
New Delhi: Protesting againstproposed resumption of toll onnational highways fromMonday, transporters’ apex bodyAIMTC on Sunday said it willadversely affect rabi crop pro-curement, adding that over 85per cent transporters are cash-starved small operators whoare not able to sustain toll fee.
The All India MotorTransport Congress (AIMTC),the apex body for transportersthat represents about 95 lakhtruckers and transport entities,sought suspension of toll till May3. After temporarily suspendingtoll collection on national high-ways across the country fromMarch 25 amid the coronaviruspandemic, the NHAI is set toresume toll collection fromMonday, a move that is beingopposed by transporters.
“As per inputs receivedfrom across the country, pro-curement of rabi crop will bedisturbed, as more than 85 percent, finance-starved smalloperators can’t sustain toll bur-den starting April 20,” All IndiaMotor Transport CongressPresident Kultaran Singh Atwalsaid seeking the PMO’s inter-vention. PTI
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Smartphone manufacturers who were takingbaby steps to adjust to the new normal were
left in lurch on Sunday after the government pro-hibited e-commerce platforms to sell non-essen-tial items from April 20. Chinese smartphone play-er Realme was all set to start online sales of itssmartphones from April 20, along with launch-ing Narzo smartphone series on April 21 throughe-commerce platforms, which was the firstlaunch post 21-day lockdown in the country.
The company told IANS that bearing in mindthe current order from the Ministry of Home Affairs
(MHA), they are further evaluating the situation.“The decision about the launch of the
much-awaited Narzo series and online sales ofour other smartphones will be made by tomor-row. People’s health comes first at realme and wewill follow the government’s directives issued inbest interests of the people,” informed a compa-ny spokesperson. The Centre allowed e-com-merce companies and the vehicles used by oper-ators of these units to supply only essential goodssubject to “necessary permission” during the lock-down period. The supply of non-essential goodsby e-commerce companies will remain prohib-ited during the 19-day lockdown ending May 3.
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The government is unlikelyto exempt GST on medical
items like ventilators, PPEs,masks, test kits and sanitisers,as it would lead to blockedinput tax credit (ITC), therebyincreasing the cost of manu-facturing and increase the pricefor consumers.
There have been demandsfrom certain sections to exemptGST on certain items like ven-tilators, personal protectiveequipment (PPEs), masks, testkits and sanitisers that areessential items for treatment ofCOVID-19 saying that GSTexemption on these itemswould lead to reduction in
prices. Currently, GST rate onventilator is 12 per cent; onmask, it is 5 per cent; on testkits, it is 12 per cent; on sani-tiser, it is 18 per cent; and onPPE, it is 5 per cent (costing upto Rs 1,000) and 12 per cent (ifthe cost is more that Rs 1,000per piece).
Sources said GST exemp-tion on such items would leadto blocked input tax credit(ITC), thereby increasing thecost of manufacturing and ahigher price for consumers.
GST exemption on suchitems would jeopardise theinterest of the industry andwould not result in any signif-icant gains to consumer, theysaid adding that in the past,
GST exemption on sanitarynapkin has led to similar situ-ation for the domestic manu-facturers.
The sources said that whileconsumers do not gain fromGST exemption on these items,the compliance burden wouldincrease for manufacturers asthey would be required tomaintain separate account ofinputs, input services and cap-ital goods used for manufactureof these items. In case, they arenot in a position to maintainseparate account, they shall berequired to reverse the inputtax credit on all inputs inputservices used in manufacture ofexempted PPE after applyingdetailed calculations.
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Insurance regulator IRDAI hasdirected insurers to take deci-
sion on health insurance claimswithin two hours, a move aimedat alleviating pressure on thecountry’s healthcare infrastruc-ture currently facing the heat of
the coronavirus outbreak. Inlight of prevailing conditionsowing to COVID-19 as also tak-ing into consideration the needfor alleviating the pressure onthe healthcare infrastructure,all the insurers shall decidehealth insurance claims expedi-tiously, it said in a circular.
Pelosi said on Sunday that shedoes not pay much attention tothe tweets being posted byPresident Donald Trump andaccused him of being a “poorleader.”
“Frankly, I don’t pay thatmuch attention to the presi-dent’s tweets against me. As I’vesaid, he’s a poor leader. He’salways trying to avoid respon-sibility and assign blame,”Pelosi told ABC’s This Weekduring an interview.
She was responding to aquestion about a series oftweets against her by Trump inthe last 48 hours.
In his tweets, Trump lev-elled a series of allegationsagainst the powerfulCongresswoman calling herweak and crazy, away on vaca-tion during the coronaviruscrisis. He also accused her of
costing Americans jobs byblocking new funds for thePaycheck Protection Program.
The TrumpAdministration, Pelosi alleged,has failed in the handling thecoronavirus crisis.
“If he continues to predi-cate the action that we take ona false premise, then we’re infurther danger and his earlierdelay and denial caused deaths.So it’s very important that wewalk the line that is close toevidence, data, science, as wego forward and not whimsy,magic hoax allegations andplacing blame instead of tak-ing responsibility,” she assert-ed.
“We’ll go over all of that.Except he was drawingstrength in his own view ofwhat his falsehoods were gain-ing him and we cannot — wecannot fight a pandemic. Wecannot open up to our econo-my based on falsehoods,”Pelosi said.
Appearing on “State of theUnion” on Sunday talk showon CNN, Senate MinorityLeader Chuck Schumer saidthat the economy might notopen unless there is more test-ing. “We will not be able to getthe economy going full-fledgedunless we have testing,” hesaid. “We have examples:South Korea, I think they hada case, one day, the first casewas within a day of each otherin the US and South Korea, thefirst case. But they did justwhat we’re calling for. They dida massive increase in the num-ber of tests. They did contacttracing. And now South Koreais way over the hump. We mustdo the same thing for thegood of the health of Americaand the good of the economy,”Schumer said.
The number of the coron-avirus cases in the US crossed700,000 on Friday, while over39,000 people have died fromthe disease.
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US Treasury SecretarySteven Mnuchin on
Sunday said that it will bemonths not years for the USeconomy, which has been bat-tered by the coronavirus pan-demic, to be back on track.
The country’s economyhas been ravaged by the chal-lenges posed by the coron-avirus crisis. More than 22million people have lost theirjobs, as the heavy job creatingsectors like travel and tourismhas come to a standstill.
Over 95 per cent of thecountry’s 330 million population are under a stay-at-home order.
The deadly virus has killedmore than 39,000 people andinfected over 740,000 in theUS, which has the highestnumber of COVID-19 casual-
ties in the world.The Trump
Administration has brought ina stimulus package worth USD2 trillion to boost the econo-my.
However, the InternationalMonetary Fund and WorldBank say that the Americaneconomy is in a recession.
Mnuchin exuded confi-dence that the economy wouldsoon be back on track in amatter of months.
“I think it will be months.I definitely don’t think it willbe years,” Mnuchin said onasked if it will be months oryears before the economy is back to the strongposition it was before the pan-demic.
Mnuchin made theremarks during his appearanceat the CNN’s State of theUnion talk show.
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US Vice President MikePence on Sunday said
President Donald Trump is“not happy” with China over itsfailure to communicate toAmerica about the beginningof the coronavirus outbreak inWuhan and his administrationwill take a closer look at thematter. Pence vowed that thecoronavirus testing in the USwill increase substantially,allowing the country toprogress according to theTrump administration’s plan togradually reopen the economy.
“It is clear to us that notonly was there a failure by theWorld Health Organization(WHO) to communicate toAmerica and the world whatwas happening in China, butalso that China was not asforthcoming as they shouldhave been with America or theworld about what was hap-pening,” he said.
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North Korea on Sunday dis-missed as “ungrounded”
President Donald Trump’s com-ment that he recently received “anice note” from the North’sleader, Kim Jong Un.
Trump said during a pressbriefing on the coronavirus pan-demic Saturday that “I receiveda nice note from him recently. Itwas a nice note. I think we’redoing fine.” Trump also defend-ed now-stalled nuclear diplo-macy with Kim, saying the USwould have been at war withNorth Korea if he had not beenelected.
The North’s ForeignMinistry said there was no let-ter addressed to Trump recent-ly by “the supreme leadership,”a reference to Kim. It said itwould examine why the USleadership released “the
ungrounded story” to the media.“The relations between the
top leaders of (North Korea) andthe US are not an issue to betaken up just for diversion norit should be misused for meet-ing selfish purposes,” the state-ment said.
Kim and Trump have metthree times and exchanged let-ters and envoys on many occa-sions since 2018, when theybegan talks on how to addressthe North Korean nuclear cri-sis. The two leaders have builtsome personal relationships,and Trump once said he andKim “fell in love.” Their nucleardiplomacy has made littleheadway since the breakdownof their second summit inVietnam in early 2019, whenTrump rebuffed Kim’s calls forsweeping sanctions relief inreturn for a partial denu-clearization step.
has spread from continent to con-tinent like the pandemic itself,forcing the world’s largest techcompanies to take unprecedentedaction to protect public health.
Facebook, Google and othershave begun using algorithms, newrules and factual warnings to knockdown harmful Coronavirus con-spiracy theories, questionable adsand unproven remedies that regu-larly crop up on their services —and which could jeopardise lives.
Health officials, critics and oth-ers who have long implored the techcompanies to step up their responseto viral falsehoods have welcomedthe new effort, saying the platformsare now working faster than ever toscrub their sites of Coronavirus mis-information. “It was definitely, with-in the companies, a shift,” said AndyPattison, manager of digital solu-tions for the World HealthOrganisation, who for nearly twoyears has urged companies likeFacebook to take more aggressiveaction against anti-vaccination mis-information. Pattison said he and histeam now directly flag misleadingCoronavirus information and, attimes, lobby for it to be removedfrom Facebook, Google andGoogle’s YouTube service.
Last month, Iranian mediareported more than 300 people haddied and 1,000 were sickened in thecountry after ingesting methanol, atoxic alcohol rumoured to be a rem-edy on social media. An Arizonaman also died after taking chloro-quine phosphate — a product thatsome mistake for the anti-malariadrug chloroquine, which PresidentDonald Trump and conservativepundits have touted as a treatmentfor COVID-19. Health officialshave warned the drug hasn’t beenproven safe or effective as a virustherapy. Days later, Twitter andFacebook began cracking down inunprecedented ways on posts pro-moting unverified treatments.
Twitter deleted a post byTrump’s personal attorney RudyGiuliani that described hydroxy-chloroqine, a cousin to chloro-quine, as “100 percent effective”against Coronavirus. The companyalso removed a tweet from FoxNews personality Laura Ingrahamtouting what she called the drug’s
“promising results.” Other widelyshared claims that hydroxychloro-quine cures COVID-19 live on. Aconservative radio host’s tweetclaiming that “All hospitals andhealth care workers are using it withtotal success” has been shared morethan 12,000 times. In what may bea first, Facebook removed a postfrom Brazilian President JairBolsanaro, who promoted hydrox-ychloroquine as “working in everyplace” to treat coronavirus. Twitteralso removed an associated video.
It has long resisted calls to factcheck or remove false claims direct-ly made by politicians, arguing thepublic should be able to see whattheir elected officials say. In thispandemic, however, the platformshave no choice but to rethink theirrules around misinformation, saidDipayan Ghosh, co-director of thePlatform Accountability Project atHarvard Kennedy School. “Thedamage to society is clear cut: it’sdeath,” Ghosh said. “They don’twant to be held responsible in anyway for perpetuating rumors thatcould lead directly to death.”
YouTube began removingvideos that claimed coronavirus
was caused by 5G wireless networkslast week. Some of the videos hadracked up hundreds of thousandsof views. Google searches for “5G”and “coronavirus” now redirectusers news videos debunking thetheory. Facebook-owned privatemessaging service WhatsApp haslimited how many chats users canforward messages to in an effort tolimit the spread of COVID-19misinformation. Since WhatsAppencrypts all messages, it can’t readthem to determine if they containmisinformation.
The pandemic has thrown upnew challenges to content moder-ation. Early on, health considera-tions forced the contractors thatemploy human moderators to sendmost of them home, where for pri-vacy reasons they couldn’t do theirjobs. Facebook eventually shiftedsome of that work to in-houseemployees and leaned more heav-ily on artificial-intelligence pro-grammes. More recently, it hasmade new arrangements for con-tract moderators to do their jobsremotely.
Meanwhile, bogus ads formasks, hand sanitiser and unregu-
lated blood tests for COVID-19 stillappear on Facebook and Google.And one North Carolina man with44,000 YouTube subscribers whocomplained that his videos promot-ing the 5G and Coronavirus theo-ry were removed is now using theplatform to hawk $99 subscriptionsto view his videos.
The tech platforms point outthey are putting facts about thevirus from news outlets, fact check-ers, and health officials in front oftheir users when their safeguardsfail.
Google “Coronavirus” andyou’ll be directed to your localhealth department. Search onTwitter for “Coronavirus hoax”and you’ll get a link to the USCenters for Disease Control andPrevention. Watch a Coronavirusconspiracy theory video onYouTube and you’ll see a label pro-moting legitimate news outlets andCOVID-19 information from theCDC hovering over it. “There’s a lotof misinformation when there is alack of good information,” saidPattison. “People will fill the voidout of fear.”
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How difficult is it to sit idle? Well,this is something that every indi-vidual in the world must have
found the answer to during lockdownsamid the Coronavirus scare. And with thenew extension order in India, people arelooking for ways to engage themselves.Since children are now involved in remotelearning, they are also looking forward toexciting and entertaining ways to keepthemselves busy. So, why not music?
In today’s digital world, distractionscome easy. Help them break free from thetentacles of boredom by encouragingthem to learn music. Lift off that clothfrom your piano or the old keyboard, askthem to play those guitar strings and handthem those drumsticks, for music will not
only keep them engrossed but will havenumerous benefits.
Even if your child doesn’t know howto play an instrument, there are numer-ous apps to assist them online. There aretutorial videos, games, and apps that willtake you from holding your instrument forthe first time to playing your favorite songs.Chordana Play, a music application sup-ported by android smartphones, is onesuch app that aids children to take three-step lessons either using the app’s keyboardor a USB-connected musical instrumentkeyboard. There is also a scoring systemthat lets one keep track of his/her progress.With such facilities at hand, it becomeseasier for you to support your child inlearning new music.
Learning music helps youngsters inseveral ways which a lot of parents mightbe unaware of. Here are a few reasons thatwould motivate both parents and childrento imbibe the benefits of this beautiful artform:
�� �"��"&"�.$�"It can be a driving force in uniting
people. Examples abound — the NationalAnthem keeps the people of a nation unit-ed while having the ability to promoteideals like peace and solidarity. It can moti-vate the the Army to face the challengesin a battlefield. A lullaby between a par-ent and child not just builds an emotion-al connect but also creates the ‘soundtrack’of life for the child. While dancers groove
to the beat of a song, rebels might have ananthem to voice their concerns.Connecting to a musical instrument leadsto lasting friendships and memories. It canbe a social glue, too, said researchers fromTokyo University of the Arts in a study.
#"�!���$�,"��"��#"��� ��Music sensitises our brain in a way
that it breathes life in its less-active areas.It helps to improve memory, keeps themind sharp, alert and engaged. Rhythmand pitch can be expressed as mathemat-ical formulae, and musicians know thetechniques through which they producea certain sound. This not only makes themind think deeper but also empowers theability to differentiate between variousthings and sounds.
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The creativity involved in learning anart strengthens critical thinking skills inkids. Visual learning through drawing,sculpting, and painting develops visual-spatial skills. This, in turn, teaches themhow to interpret and use visual informa-tion. Additionally, sound and silence canimprove concentration, fostering betteranalytical skills in children. For instance,some digital pianos have high tone qual-ity and rhythm for the child to soak in thedifferent tune.
Effects of enhanced creativity extendto many aspects of a child’s life. Childrendevelop innovation skills when they’reencouraged to express themselves. Musicis a form of self-expression which not onlyunfolds a child’s creative side but alsoimbues him/her with the ability to takecalculated risks. Owning a creative hobbyacts as an emotional modulator thatrestores a sense of balance in our lives.
#$-"�����A "�.���!����"��The effect of music on human stress
is spectacular, as various studies haveshown. For centuries, sound therapies havelong been popular as a way of relaxing andrestoring one’s health. Music is an easy wayto take some of the pressure off from allthe daily hassles that spike your stress leveland leave you feeling drained and anxious.Learning it early will help the child to growwith a sense of accomplishment. Playingmusic, like daily meditation or hitting thegym, increases focus and attention span.
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Fortunately, there is no shortcut toplaying a musical instrument. It takes alot of time, effort, attention and determi-nation to become competent. The processitself teaches patience and disciplinewith or without the learner realising it.
Research has shown that music offersenormous benefits to our body, mind andoverall health. At this stage of life, whereeverything has come to a standstill, it istime to take baby steps in brighteningyour child’s future and well-being byinculcating a habit of practicing music inthem.
As Plato said, “Music gives soul to theuniverse, wings to the mind, flight to theimagination.”
(The author is the head, Marketing,Casio India.)
��������A hardened mercenary’s mission becomes a soul-
searching race to survive when he’s hired to rescue a druglord’s kidnapped son in Bangladesh. Starring ChrisHemsworth, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Randeep Hooda, thethriller releases on Netflix on April 24.
������ � ���For decades, a Jewish couple ran ‘Circus of Books,’ a
porn shop and epicenter for gay LA. Their directordaughter captures their life and times. Produced by RyanMurphy, the documentary features interviews with LarryFlynt and Jeff Stryker. It releases on Netflix on April 22.
������ �����A cast of quirky critters and Mother Nature herself narrate
this funny sci-fi series, which peeks into the lives of Earth’s mostincredible creatures. Starring Afi Ekulona, the series, inspiredby Wired magazine’s Absurd Creature of the Week, releases onNetflix on April 22.
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We have come across several situationswhere we have to make a choice between
toleration and retaliation. For example, if wecome across a person who has no control overhis words, is uncultured, impolite, short-tem-pered and talks in an offensive manner, then whatwould we do? Well, under such a situation, a cul-tured and spiritual person would choose to tol-erate because he knows well that when toleranceis lost, temper is also lost and this means a dis-turbance of mental balance.
Hence, under such a situation, one should notfeel hurt or injured and think of taking revenge.Instead, one should pity that person and givehim/her positive vibrations of peace so thathe/she learns control their temper. This approachwould enable one to remain calm, composed anddignified. Tolerance, in such provocative situa-tions saves life. And when you add humility, ithas great value, even as a matter of policy, strat-egy or tactic. Therefore, if one loses tolerance inintense situations even for a moment, it mightcost l ives orother grave con-sequences andunpredictablerepercussions.Tolerance is notonly a high-class virtue andmoral value buta non-violentstrategy for self-defence and sur-vival and aweapon for vic-tory too.
One mustalways remem-ber that toler-ance and humil-ity can softenthe hearts of ourbitter critics and opponents while ensuringpeace of mind for us. It creates harmony and eventhe most arrogant person, at some point of time,expresses appreciation for tolerance in the faceof grave aggravation. Along with this, we shouldalso learn to forget and forgive lapses and short-comings of others in the spirit of friendliness andbrotherhood, or else we cannot have goodwill,co-operation and peace.
However, most people question as to howlong should they allow their tormentor to con-tinue with cruel acts, nefarious designs and dirtyways? Should they tolerate injustice? If they doso, wouldn’t it mean a silent consent to their acts?Wouldn’t it deprive them of justice? Also, it wouldmean their connivance in his/her acts of cruel-ty? Isn’t it a kind of self-imposed servitude, ser-vility and slavery? The answer is that we mustput forth our moral resistance and show our dis-approval through non-cooperation. Better still,we must use our skill of persuasion at appropri-ate time. We must make efforts to show the tor-mentor the real nature of his act, the evils andthe consequences that follow.
We must have the spiritual power to changehis/her heart and transform him/her into a bet-ter human being. We must try a healing touchto the mentally and morally sick person. Onemust pity him rather than lose our own moralsense and react with a feeling of rancor andvengeance. That would be our tolerance. But thequestion that ultimately comes up is whether wehave that spiritual power to transform a sinnerinto a saint? For that we must check up our spir-ituality and fill ourselves with power throughyoga and mediation. With our high spiritualpower, we can use tolerance as a tool of socialtransformation and can be god’s instruments foruplifting a man who has fallen from his seat ofmorality.
The entire world has beenfacing an unprecedented and
difficult times due to COVID-19.Majority of the countries haveimplemented either complete orpartial lockdowns. In India, theinitial 21-day lockdown has beenextended by the government tillMay 3, keeping the safety of peo-ple in mind.
The situation isn’t new for amajority of Indian women, bothrural and urban, who are notallowed to work by their familiesor have left their careers midwayafter getting married or becom-ing mothers. However, men, inboth rural and urban settings, arefor the first time forced to stay athome for such an extended peri-od. This unusual situation wheremen are at home, has given riseto two kinds of incidences. Onone hand, increase in cases ofabuse against women and chil-dren are being reported and onthe contrary, there are othernarratives of men sharing thehousehold chores.
Men are breaking many‘patriarchal traditions’. A few areentering the kitchen and learn-ing how to cook, some are help-ing in taking care of children andelderly while others are helpingin maintaining a clean house.This lockdown has reconfirmedthe fact that the gender-based,socially constructed roles can besmashed and that too, for good.
Fathers are not meant tocontribute to the development oftheir children only financially.They must learn co-parentingand participate in the holisticdevelopment of children along
with their partners. In March, when the Corona
scare had just started rearing itshead, parents were trickling in topick up food packets for theafternoon from the Milin NagarAnganwadi Centre in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune. Children wereat home, safe and sound. RohiniChittaranjan Joshi, who has beenan anganwadi sevika for the last30 years, was elated to see fathersin the queue. According to her,
men have started being activelyinvolved in their child’s develop-ment. She has seen this changein the last two years.
“It’s actually funny becausesome of these men used to cometo this same anganwadi centre aschildren themselves,” Rohinishares. “Now that they’ve grownup into capable men, I don’t needto convince them about theimportance of nutrition andchildcare as much as I had to, 30
years ago.” Integrated Child
Development Services (ICDS) isa government programme inIndia, which provides food,preschool education, primaryhealthcare, immunisation, healthcheck-up and referral services tochildren under six years of ageand their mothers. Even thoughthe programme used to targetmothers as parents, in the lasttwo years, active efforts havebeen made to ensure that malecaretakers are involved too. ThePoshan Pakhwada’s key messagethis year was ‘Men for Nutrition— Increasing Male Involvementin Poshan Abhiyaan to ImproveNutrition Indicators’.
Through public meetings,home visits and the PoshanPakhwada celebrations, angan-wadi workers all overMaharashtra have been equip-ping fathers to interact withtheir children, break gender bar-riers and share more responsibil-ities around the household. “Idemonstrate how fathers canbanter with their child whilebathing them, washing theirhands and feeding them. These
instructions are especially wel-come by migrant families wherethe family consists of only par-ents and children. Men have totake up responsibilities,” sharesRohini.
All the anganwadi sevikas Iinteracted with mentioned thatboth fathers and grandfathers arekeen to know more about thechildren. But there are still cer-tain barriers that keep themfrom being fully involved intheir child’s formative years.Kiran Shivsharan, anotheranganwadi worker from GautamNagar, Pimpri, shares, “In mycommunity, male involvement inmeetings often deterred mothersfrom joining in. As women our-selves, we did face some hesita-tion and perhaps shyness ininteracting with men. Moreover,as my anganwadi is quite small,unlike other anganwadis inMaharashtra, both parents can-not fit in every meeting.”
It is not just women who areconstrained by the gender normsbut men are also restrained bythem and are mocked upon ifthey try to become an exception.“Men from my community start-ed getting involved by perform-ing outdoor chores like register-ing their pregnant wife with usor getting them for vaccinationand periodic visit. With regularcounselling provided by angan-wadi workers, many fathers havestarted breaking the barriers byundertaking household chores.This has become an inspirationfor many more,” says MeeraPandirkar, an anganwadi work-er in Mandangad, Ratnagiri.
Anganwadi workers all overMaharashtra have been takinginnovative steps to ensure fathers,who often come from workingclass families, are reached out tocreatively and as per their avail-ability. “I always schedule myhome visits on Thursdays. Withweekly power cuts on the sameday, it becomes easier to talk tothem,” says Kiran Shivsharan.
As fishermen in coastalMaharashtra return from seaonly in the afternoon, SunainaSotekar, anganwadi worker forValmiki Nagar, Mandangadschedules all the PoshanPakhwada events during thattime to ensure that these men getto attend the community pro-grammes. “I ensure that I keepreiterating the progress of theirchild every time a father comesto pick up. This ensures thatfathers feel more invested intheir child’s progress,” sharesMeera Pandirkar adding thatgrandfathers are also slightlyeasier target group to work with.
Meanwhile, Rohini findstechnology helpful to engagefathers. “At the end of everyPoshan Pakhwada event, whetherit is haat bazaars or palakmelawas, I send WhatsApp pho-tos to fathers’ numbers.”
With the COVID-19 pan-demic, fathers are getting moretime with their families.Hopefully, they will learn to putthese measures into practice andthus engage in co-parenting dur-ing the lockdown and will con-tinue doing so once the worldbecomes free of this virus.
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Almost for a decade I’ve dis-cussed health and yoga withsenior mainstream doctors in
India, USA and Germany. All of themagree that inner peace is essential fora healthy immune system. It is essen-tially the balance within us whichprotects and heals us. Of course, med-icines are also required when things gotoo far. Perhaps, that is why theChitrasutra (the oldest-known treatiseon art-making) says that art is the mostvaluable treasure of mankind. In thistime of COVID-19, Ajanta presents themost beautiful image of inner harmo-ny and the peace of spirit within us.This is Bodhisattava Padmapani, theBearer of the Lotus (5th century).
In the ancient tradition, suchimages were created for us to look uponthem and to awaken those qualitieswithin us. I’ve recently completed theshooting of the film Yoga for Health &
Global Harmony in India, USA,Japan, Germany,
China, Bahamas,Costa Rica,
B r a z i l ,
Colombia and Argentina. During thistime of extreme stress because of thepandemic, these are some excerpts fromthe commentary and interviews of thefilm which can be helpful for our gen-eral well-being.
It was the dawn of civilisation whenyoga was conceived 5,000 years ago inthe Indian sub-continent. By the 8th or9th centuries BCE, a collection ofbeautiful verses called the Upanishadswere composed. These verses crys-tallised deep philosophical ideas, which
would last forever. Yoga wasfundamental in
the vision of life contained in these.The three-thousand-year-old Katha
Upanishad says, “He… whose sensesare uncontrolled, who is not tranquil,whose mind is not at rest, he can neverhope to attain the true self, not eventhrough knowledge.” It also says, “Thesupreme being is formless and cannotbe discerned by the senses, hence, allknowledge of the eternal must beacquired by the more subtle faculties.These are developed only through thepurifying practice of meditation.”
In an interview in the film, DrAnanda Balayogi from Puducherry,
who is a yoga expert as well as a med-ical doctor shares, “The biggest ques-tion that is asked by the research sci-entists today is how does it happen?However, ancient rishis, who were thegreat scientists of that time, asked whoam I? Modern science has its eyes out-ward. It is always looking at someoneelse, something else or some place else.
The yoga dhristi, the yogic perspec-tive has always been inward. Lookingat one’s own self, understanding whowe are, knowing the answer to thequestion, kaun hain hum (who arewe)? If you want to go in everythinghas to be still, right from your body,emotions, mind. That is why theyoga rishis adopted still postures tostabilize the mind and went on tofinding oneself. In recent times, sci-ence and spirituality have been sepa-rated. This was not so in that era.Yoga is the challenging study of con-sciousness itself, understanding one’sbody, emotions, mind and beyond thatunderstanding one’s true self .Conquering the fretful disturbances ofthe world around, great thinkersresearched deep into the self. This wasan epic project spread over many cen-turies. A science of life was developedto help us to know ourselves better. Tohelp us attain peace and joy, which canbe found within.”
In another interview yoga expert,Minakshi Devi Bhavnani says, “Unlessone’s sole purpose of taking up scienceis to achieve liberation, to evolve one’sconsciousness to grow in spirit, I don’tthink one should use the word yoga.They can use any other name.”
Former Australian pacerJason Gillespie was veryimpressed with Ishant
Sharma’s “thirst for knowledge”when he played English countyunder his coaching, despite beingan established international crick-eter.
Ishant, who has so far picked297 wickets from 97 Tests, playedfor Sussex in 2018 with Gillespieas the coach.
“You know what really struckme about Ishant was his thirst forknowledge, his willingness to lis-ten, ask questions, try new things,because sometimes you can getsenior players, experienced play-ers who will just go about and dotheir thing,” Gillespie said on achat-show Cow Corner Chronicles.
In fact, during the last first-class season, Ishant acknowl-edged that every one spoke abouthis problems but it was Gillespiewho provided solutions.
“They know what they needto do and that’s fine. But Ishantwas very much...He knew what heneeded to do to bowl well. He alsoknew he wanted to get better,”remarked Gillespie.
India toured England laterthat season in 2018 and Gillespiefelt Ishant was better for theexperience.
“Knowing that he had anopportunity at Sussex, knowingthat India were going to be play-ing in England, later on, I thinkhe saw it as a very good oppor-
tunity, to learn and bowl inEnglish conditions, and test him-self. Look he was fantastic with usat Sussex,” added Gillespie.
Gillespie also said that Ishantmade impact on Sussex players.
“The Sussex players were real-ly impressed with Ishant’s workethic. He fitted in really well in the
dressing room. His work ethic inthe nets, or on the track was phe-nomenal. It was really good for ouryoung seam bowlers at Sussex tosee, that this is what it takes for aTest bowler,” he added.
Gillespie, who worked withanother Test specialistCheteshwar Pujara, whom he
coached at other county sideYorkshire, also praised the latter.
“We had Pujara at Yorkshire,when I was head coach there. Weneeded a batsman in the top threewho could do a job for us insometimes challenging condi-tions, Someone with a very goodtemperament, someone whocould absorb some very goodbowling.
“Pujara fitted that bill perfect-ly. He found it a challenge, theearly season in county cricket withthe duke cricket ball movingaround in English conditions. Hefound that a challenge. I think that
was really a good test for him asa player. A good learning curvefor Cheteshwar,” said Gillespieabout Pujara’s first stint withYorkshire in 2015.
Gillespie feels the countystint helped Pujara, who hasamassed 5840 runs from 77 Tests,immensely.
“I think he grew as a player.He learnt more about his game.He adapted to conditions inEngland which can be quite chal-lenging for top three-top fourbatsmen at the best of times. So,I thought he did wonderfullywell,” Gillespie signed off.
�"-�!"#� 6 Indian boxing’s High PerformanceDirector Santiago Nieva expects the nation-al camp to resume at least partially nextmonth and foresees no hiccups in fans rush-ing back to live sport in the age of social dis-tancing as he feels people always “look forrisks”.
The seasoned coach, who has been withthe Indian team since 2017, is quite optimisticof things improving by the beginning of nextmonth despite the rising COVID-19 cases.
“I think the camp will restart nextmonth. If not full strength, then at least thecore group,” he said.
The core group comprises the ones whohave already qualified for the Olympics andthose who are seen to be strong contendersto make the cut in future qualifiers.
Asked what gives him the belief thatcamps would be good to go if the nationallockdown ends, the Swede said, “That’s myhunch. Of course I can be wrong but I thinkwe will be able to restart early next month.”
“Humans have the ability to adapt to dif-ferent situations. And I think here, people arefacing up to the reality quite well even thoughit is an unprecedented crisis.”
Talking of the crisis and its impact onsports, Nieva said things would never be thesame again but asserted that people will notgive up on live sports either.
“In amateur boxing, we are used to fight-ing in empty halls, so no fan concerns for us,”he joked.
“But seriously speaking, yes, there will bemore restrictions on movement of people, thesecurity is going to be tighter, it won’t be thateasy to travel. But fans, they are going to rushback at the first opportunity,” he predicted.
“People don’t care. I think they should bemore careful but mostly they are not. Theywill come back easily because they have beenconfined at homes for too long. PTI
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Mahendra Singh Dhoni’sintelligent recruitment
policy of roping in interna-tional captains who can con-tribute stretagically, was one ofthe biggest reason for ChennaiSuper Kings’ stupendous suc-cess in IPL, feels former SouthAfrica captain Faf du Plessis.
CSK has been a part of 10out of 12 seasons of IPL andhave never finished lowerthan semi-finals or play-offs.
“A great thing that CSKhas done over the years, andthat’s credit to MS and(Stephen) Fleming the coach,is they have targeted captains— (Brendon) McCullum,myself, (Dwayne) Bravo, obvi-ously MS, (Suresh) Raina’scaptained a bit — becausethey want thinking crick-eters,” the 35-year-old toldCSK’s website.
“So, there’s a lot of leaderswithin group, that experienceof thinking cricketers is whatthey want and obviously it hasproven to be very successful,”he added.
“Chennai Super Kings isa great franchise to be a partof. MS has got such strongleadership. He leaves a mas-sive hole when he’s not on thefield,” the former SA skipperwaxed eloquent about Dhoni.
Du Plessis, who has beenpart of CSK, also spoke abouthis passion for fielding, addingthe team had a few very goodfielders.
“I love going to positionson the field where the ballgoes all the time. We arelucky at CSK that we got a fewvery good fielders. Jaddu(Ravindra Jadeja) is incredible,he has got the strongest armin world cricket. Jaddu wantsthem to try and run. He jogsto the ball because he knowsif you run, you are out,” headded.
#$�!$�6 Brighton owner TonyBloom believes that relegationshould be scrapped if thePremier League season cannotbe completed, claiming itwould be “unfathomable” thata club could be doomed by “0.2points”.
Most teams in the topflight still have nine games toplay while June 30 has beenmentioned as a potential cut-off date for the season to end.
“I don’t foresee a situation,if the season’s not played out,that teams will get relegated ona points-per-game basis,”Bloom said.
“I just don’t think it’s fath-omable that a team which is notallowed to play out the seasonmay lose out on 0.2 pointsbased on this system, and alsoit does not take into account thestrength of the team you havenot played.”
If the season ended early,
Brighton would stay up as theysit two points above drop zone.
Bournemouth, Aston Villaand Norwich were in the rele-gation places when the leaguewas suspended.
“You may get a title win-ner, obviously Liverpooldeserve it, you may use thatcriteria for European qualifica-tion but I do not see how any-one can vote for that, certain-ly the per cent needed (70 percent), for teams to get relegat-ed. I really cannot foreseethat,” added Bloom. AFP
#$�!$�� D ���E6� Former ManchesterUnited and Real Madrid midfielderDavid Beckham rates Barcelona’s LionelMessi higher than Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo succeeded Beckham asManchester United’s No 7 before arriv-ing at Real Madrid two years after theEngland captain left the Spanish giants.
Beckham has also experience ofplaying against a young Lionel Messi inthe latter’s initial years with Barcelona andfaced him once while he was playing forParis Saint-Germain.
“He [Messi] is alone in his class as aplayer, it is impossible that there isanother like him,” Beckham told Telam.“He, like Cristiano Ronaldo, who is notat his level, are both above the rest.”
Beckham recalled his last matchagainst Barca in 2013 Champions Leaguequarters. PSG were ahead at one stage atCamp Nou when Messi came on as a sub-stitute. Eventually, Pedro scored andBarca went through on away goals rule.
“We were leading before Messi camein, and once he came in, Barca scored,”Beckham said. He was 37 years old bythen and ended his illustrious playingcareer at the end of season but Beckhamsaid that he did not enjoy losing that tie.
“Although I enjoyed playing at thatlevel at my age, I do not like to lose. Ourteam played well. In both matches, we didthings we should be proud of. We didn’tlose against Barcelona, and that is some-thing that should motivate us,” he said.
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Bayern Munich captain andgoalkeeper Manuel Neuer
told German media onSunday he has become “irri-tated” with negotiations toextend his contract, whichhave reportedly stalled inrecent weeks.
“All talks I have had sinceI have been here have beenconfidential... nothing hasever leaked,” the 34-year-oldtold Germany’s most populardaily Bild.
“But now, details aboutthe current talks are con-stantly appearing in the media,and are often untrue. That irri-
tates me. It’s not something Iam used to at Bayern.”
The veteran goalkeeper’sunusually candid commentscome amid widespreadreports that his current con-tract negotiations have hitthe rocks.
If the talks fail, club cap-tain Neuer could be free toleave Bayern in June andattract the interest of thePremier League clubs.
Bayern have recentlyextended the contracts of for-ward Thomas Mueller andhead coach Hansi Flick, bothuntil 2023.
Neuer hailed Flick as a“super coach” and said that the
55-year-old’s extension hadconvinced him too to stay onat Bayern.
“I want to have a contractwhich is a win-win situationfor me and Bayern. I want toperform, be there for theteam... and give 100 percent,”he said.
“The conditions have tobe right (for that),” he added.
Neuer, who helpedGermany win the 2014 WorldCup title, has been namedworld goalkeeper of the yearfour times.
He has kept 191 cleansheets in 373 appearances forBayern since joining fromSchalke in 2011.
�$��"& !"$6 Real Madrid’sUruguayan midfielderFederico Valverde has cred-ited manager ZinedineZidane for giving him theself-confidence to flourishwith the Spanish giants.
After playing 25 match-es in his first full season as aReal Madrid player in 2018-19, Valverde has alreadymade 32 appearances in thiscampaign, mostly as a starter.
“He gives you confidencein a way that few other coach-es do,” Valverde said anInstagram Live.
“Everyone has greatrespect for him because, apartfrom being the manager, he’sa legend on a world scale,”Valverde said. “You have tokeep what he tells you insideyour head. Sometimes in agame he’ll tell you to changesomething or give you a sug-
gestion. Or he might criticizeyou. If he says it, you have tolisten and try to get the mostout of it.”
Valverde also praisedReal Madrid midfield col-leagues Luke Modric,Casemiro and Tony Kroos.He described Kroos as a ref-erence for all players, citingthe Germany World Cupwinner’s “admirable compo-sure” on the ball. IANS
�"�"&�6� European football’sgoverning body UEFA ismulling to continue theChampions League matches,suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on August 7-8.
According to a report onSky Sports Italia, the first of theremaining matches in theRound of 16 will be played onAugust 7 and 8 after whichthere will be matches everythree days until August 29when the final is scheduled tobe held.
The semi-final will be onAugust 18-18 and 21-22 beforethe final in Istanbul.
This would also result inthe group stage of the 2020/21season of the ChampionsLeague being postponed toOctober 20. It was initiallyrumoured that a deadline ofAugust 3 has been set for thefinal to be held but UEFA Prezdenied that. IANS
#$�!$�6 Wayne Rooneymay be ManchesterUnited and England’srecord goalscorer but hestill believes he shouldhave found the back ofthe net more often dur-ing his career, eventhough he was not a nat-ural finisher.
Rooney, a teenagesensation at Everton,joined United in 2004and went on to score 253goals in 559 appearancesduring a 13-year spell forthe Old Trafford clubthat saw the Red Devilspile up the trophies.
Rooney surpassed1966 World Cup-win-ner Bobby Charlton asUnited’s all-time lead-ing scorer, just as he didfor England with a tallyof 53 goals.
Despite those fig-ures Rooney, writing inhis Sunday Times col-umn, insisted: “I’m goingto be honest — and thismight surprise you —but I’m not a naturalgoalscorer.”
The 34-year-old,now a player-coach atsecond-tier DerbyCounty, added: “I was
never a Gary Lineker or aRuud van Nistelrooy; I neverlooked at myself that way.
“I hold the goal records forManchester United andEngland and am very proudabout that — yet there havebeen better No 9s than me.
“How did I become arecord-breaker if I wasn’t a nat-ural scorer? Time,” Rooney
explained. “I played for Unitedfor 13 years, England for 15years. I had time to break thoserecords — and looking back Ishould have scored more.”
Rooney backed HarryKane to break his Englandrecord, although he would likethe Tottenham Hotspur strik-er “to stay high as that No 9”after seeing him drop deeperin during the past two seasons.
“I don’t think it will takelong for Harry Kane to claimmy England record and itwould be a proud moment forme,” Rooney said.
“I’ve never been a selfishplayer and it would be great forEngland for Harry to get there.Bobby Charlton had to wait 50years (for Rooney to break hisEngland record) — I hope it’snot so long for me.
“The United record mightlast longer simply becauseplayers don’t stay at clubs aslong as they used to. AFP
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Novak Djokovic on Saturdaysaid that he, Roger Federer
and Rafael Nadal are organising aidfor players struggling with theparalysis of the game due to thecoronavirus pandemic.
“I spoke to Roger and Rafa afew days ago,” Djokovic, the worldnumber one, said in an Instagramchat with friend and rival StanWawrinka on Saturday.
“We had a long conversationabout the near future of tennis,what is going to happen, how wecan contribute and how we canhelp especially lower-ranked play-ers, who are obviously strugglingthe most.”
“The majority of the playerswho are ranked between 200, 250in the world, and the 700th or1,000th do not have federationsupport, do not have sponsors.They are completely independentand left alone,” he said
“Guys who are ranked between200-250, especially to 700...arethinking of leaving tennis rightnow.”
He said players, the ATP and
the four Grand Slams “would allget together and will contribute toa player relief fund that ATP willdistribute.”
“It looks, hopefully, that therewill something between $3 million(2.75 million euros) and $4.5 mil-lion that is going to be distributed,”
he estimated.Djokovic said the cash could
come from the prize money for theseason-ending World Tour Finalsor the final bonus pools for topplayers.
‘FUTURE OF TENNIS’“Maybe if we don’t have any
tournaments this season, we cantake a certain percentage from ourprize money form Australian Openin January,” he said.
“These guys are the grass rootsof tennis. The future of tennis. Weneed to show them they still canrely on support of the top guys.”
According to reports in tennismedia, Djokovic, as president ofthe ATP Players' Council, whichalso includes Federer and Nadal,proposed to members that playersin the top 100 for singles and thetop 20 in doubles contributeaccording to their rankings.
The proposed scale runs from$30,000 for a top-five player to$5,000 for those between 51 and100.
That would raise approximate-ly $1 million and the ATP wouldmake a similar contribution.
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World No 1 Novak Djokovic saidthat rival and Swiss great Roger
Federer’s ability to come up with serveand volley is somewhat underrated andnot talked about enough.
In an InstagramLive chat with for-mer world No 1 Andy Murray, Djokovicsaid that Federer is one of the most com-plete players to have ever played thegame.
“Roger. I mean he would definitelybe there. I mean he is one of the mostcomplete players ever to play the game,”said the Serb.
“We all know how great he is. I thinkit is a bit underrated. I don’t know if peo-ple really talk about his ability to comeup with serve and volley; accurate playat the most challenging times in thematch, against us (great returners).
“He was really not intimidated somuch by the return. He would place,especially on the quicker surfaces, hewould disrupt your rhythm.”
The pair have played a number ofmatches over the years that have decid-ed Grand Slam titles, the latest of whichincluded the 2020 Australian Opensemifinal and the epic 2019 Wimbledonfinal, both of which Djokovic won.
�� �� 2 � 8�
Goa Sports MinisterManohar Ajgaonkar on
Sunday said the state govern-ment will seek clarification fromthe Indian Olympic Associationover the fate of the much-delayed 36th National Games inwake of COVID-19 pandemic.
The coronavirus outbreakhas brought all sporting activi-ties to a grinding halt worldwide.In India, major events like theIPL have been postponed indef-initely.
The pandemic has alsoraised doubts over the theNational Games, scheduled to beheld in the state from October20 to November 4.
Goa has reported a total ofseven positive cases, of which sixhave recovered.
“My department has writtento the Chief Minister onSaturday urging him to seekclarification from IOA over thefate of National Games,”Ajgaonkar said.
The minister said the stateis prepared to host the games,but need at least three monthsadvance notice.
“We were all set to host the
National Games in November2020. Now, with this kind of sit-uation, we are not sure what willhappen,” he said
“Our infrastructure for theGames is ready. Our grounds areready. We can host nationalgames any time. But we need tobe informed three months inadvance about the date. Somesmall time tenders needs to beadvertised.”
The minister added thatthe ongoing works on the infra-structure creation are in the finalphase and can be completedwithin a month.
Goa was earlier supposed tohost the 36th edition of theNational Games in November2018. However, the state later setaside dates for the event fromMarch 30 to April 14 last year,but then expressed its inabilityto host the Games during thatperiod owing to the general elec-tions.
Earlier this month, IOApresident Narinder Batraexpressed optimism that theNational Games will go ahead asper schedule and will provide aperfect preparatory platformfor the Tokyo Olympics-boundIndian athletes.
Ishant’s thirst for knowledge impressed Gillespie96.�50���.6�5.34"3�)�4068�41"�)5.��8.3.:���,� 6�It was difficult to getboth of them out, but SachinTendulkar was a bit harder todislodge than Brian Lara, saidformer Australia pacer JasonGillespie.
The Aussie ratedTendulkar along side Lara asthe toughest batsman to dis-miss in his career.
“Two different types ofplayers, two equally difficult toget out. I always felt, Sachin wasprobably a little bit harder todislodge, in terms of getting hiswicket, but I didn’t feel hewould take you apart, in quitethe same way as Brian.
“I always felt I was in with
more of a chance to get Brianout because he was a bit moreexpansive, with his game. ButI found Sachin’s defence wasvery hard to get through,”Gillespie said.
“Look two fine players, Iam just really glad that I don’thave to bowl to them anymore.They were just far too good.
“It’s quite an honour forme to be able to sit here andtalk to you and say that Ibowled against these guys.
“It was a wonderful time tobe a cricketer, got to bowlagainst the best in the world.For me that was very satisfy-ing,” added Gillespie. IANS
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�"-�!"#� 6 It is common forany captain to have afavourite player and when itcame to Mahendra SinghDhoni, it was Suresh Raina,who enjoyed unstinted back-ing from the former Indiacaptain, feels Yuvraj Singh.
One of India’s greatestlimited-overs cricketers,Yuvraj remembered howDhoni faced selection dilem-ma when he had to choosetwo out of him, Yusuf Pathanand Raina in the playing XIduring the 2011 World Cup.
“Suresh Raina had a lotof support then, because MSused to back him. Everycaptain has a favourite play-
er and I think Mahi reallybacked Raina at that time,”Yuvraj told Sports Tak.
Ultimately all three play-ers made the playing XI(although Yusuf was droppedfrom playing XI later) withYuvraj playing a pivitol rolein winning the title.
“Yusuf Pathan was alsoperforming well at that timeand even I was doing welland was also picking wickets.And Raina was not in agood touch then,” he said.
“They did not have a left-arm spinner at that time andI was picking wickets so theydid not have any choice,” headded. PTI
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Federer’s ability toserve & volley not talkedabout enough: Novak
