· 2020-05-06 · +/2+1-.3%1!4(2!˜ while uncertainty looms large over holding of the annual rath...

12
T he end of the extended lockdown has began to look like a possibility with the Centre on Wednesday disclos- ing that road public transport services may resume soon. The Government is for- mulating guidelines for safe usage of different transport modes adhering to social dis- tancing norms to check the spread of coronavirus. While addressing mem- bers of Bus and Car Operators Confederation of India, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said, “The Government will soon make efforts to start bus services on the basis of certain guidelines. We need to start transport at some level, because people are stranded in several places.” Gadkari said the opening of transport and highways will go a long way in instilling confidence among the public and cautioned towards main- taining social distancing and adopting all safety measures like hand wash, sanitising, face masks, etc, while operating buses and cars. On demand of a bailout for passenger transport industry, Gadkari said the Government is fully aware of their problems and will fully support them to mitigate their issues. He said he is in regular touch with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who are working overtime to uplift the economy during these difficult days of Covid-19 pandemic. The Minister also asked investors and the industry to convert the coronavirus- induced crisis into an oppor- tunity by occupying larger global market. “Economy is facing crisis due to coronavirus outbreak... We should treat it as blessing in disguise as no one wants to deal with China. Japan’s Prime Minister is facilitating industry there to do investment out of China... It is a chance to boost Indian economy,” the Minister said. He said Indian industry should grasp this opportunity to invite those foreign compa- nies to invest in them in India. He expressed confidence that the country and its industry will together win both the bat- tles — the one with coron- avirus, and the one with eco- nomic slowdown. Responding to concerns raised by the operators, the Minister said his Ministry is looking at adopting the London model of public transport, where Government funding is minimal and private invest- ment is promoted. He also pointed out towards the poor standards of Indian bus and truck bodies which he said are functional for only 5-7 years, whereas the European models last for up to 15 years. Gadkari emphasised upon adopting good practices from European operators, which will also be economically viable for indigenous industry in the longer run. The Minister said he is aware of the tight financial con- dition of the Indian market during the ongoing pandemic. But, he said all stakeholders will have to work together to com- bat it. Members of the confeder- ation made suggestions for improving the condition of public transport which includ- ed extending interest payment exemptions, restarting public transport, extending age life limit, deferring state taxes, extending Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) benefits, extending insurance policy validity, etc. The Minister also said the insurance sector should come forward to help as it has ben- efitted due to less accidents during the lockdown. He fur- ther said work on many high- way projects has resumed. R iyaz Naikoo, one of the top commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen, a pro-Pakistan banned terror outfit in Kashmir Valley, was killed along with one of his close aides in Beighpora area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday. Naikoo was an A++ cate- gory terrorist and carried a reward of 12 lakh on his head. In 2019, Naikoo had also figured on the list of most wanted terrorists prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Two other local terrorists were killed in a separate encounter with the joint teams of security forces in Sharshali Khrew area of Awantipora, taking the tally of killed ter- rorists since January 2020 to 67. As stone-pelters as usual tried to scuttle the encounter, a few of them were injured in police action, but there was no official confirmation about the nature of injuries. Confirming the identity of the terrorists killed in Beighpora area, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir range, Vijay Kumar told reporters, “The slain terrorist was identified as Hizbul Mujahideen’s chief operational commander Riyaz Naikoo”. Police spokesman in Srinagar said, in Sharshali encounter, 2 terrorists of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) were killed. “In the second operation in Beighpora village of Awantipora, a top terrorist commander was trapped along with his accomplice. The oper- ation was launched last evening and contact was established with hiding terrorists in the morning on Wednesday. In this encounter, two terrorists were killed. One of the terror- ists has been identified as Riyaz Naikoo. He was the chief oper- ational commander of the HM outfit in Kashmir,” the spokesman said. Following his elimination in the six-hour long operation, widespread incidents of stone- pelting were reported from Beighpora, Gulzarpora, Ghat Tokna and Malangpora prompting the authorities to suspend mobile internet and voice calling facilities of private networks across the Kashmir valley. I ndia’s Covid-19 count crossed half-lakh mark on Wednesday as the country reg- istered 3,050 fresh cases of viral infection, taking the tally to 52,460. The death toll from the virus also surged to 1,781 with Maharashtra again topping the list of the worst-affected States. However, the total recovery numer is 14,911, and active cases 35,762. Maharashtra’s tally spiked to 16,758 after detection of 1,233 new cases — highest in a day so far while 34 deaths on Wednesday took toll to 651. Tamil Nadu reported 771 positive cases taking the tally to 4,829 while Gujarat reported 6,680 after the day’s addition of 380 cases even as 25 more patients died. The total death count in Gujarat stands at 298. Delhi has 5,110 cases, includ- ing 65 fatalities. Uttar Pradesh added 118 more cases to be just two short of 3,000 with a death count of 60. Madhya Pradesh report- ed 89 cases for a tally 3,138. The Ministry of Home Affairs secretary Ajay Bhalla on Wednesday wrote to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha saying the coronavirus testing in the State was very low and the mortality rate was higher than any other State. S erious concern about data security breach of Aarogya Setu App was raised after a French hacker Robert Baptiste, who goes by Elliot Alderson on Twitter claimed a potential security issue in the app, prompting the Government to issue clarification that there was no security vulnerability in the contact tracing app. Responding to clarifica- tion, Alderson tweeted, “I will come back to you tomorrow. The challenge by the hacker has put the Government machin- ery in a fix and given ammu- nitions to the Opposition par- ties amid Covid lockdown. The app with about 9.08 crore users as of now has been the most downloaded app on Play Store. It did not take long for the tweet to catch the eye of Aarogya Setu App team which contacted Alderson shortly and tried to fix the loopholes. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Software Freedom Law Centre, India (SFLC.in) and the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), have raised question on Aarogya Setu App. After Alderson’s tweet, sev- eral people have expressed pri- vacy and security concerns over the app, which has been made mandatory for all public and private sector employees, as well as those in coronavirus containment areas. His tweets created a flutter on Twitter, with several people asking him questions about the alleged security issue. One Twitter user asked if Alderson believed the issue was intentional and done by design, to which he replied in the affirmative. Soon after the Modi Government rejected the claim, Alderson tweeted that five peo- ple felt unwell at the PMO; two unwell at the Army headquar- ters; one infected people at the Indian Parliament and three infected at the home office. “Basically, I was able to see if someone was sick at the PMO or the Indian Parliament. I was able to see if someone was sick in a specific house if I wanted,” he tweeted. Meanwhile, rejecting charges by the Opposition that the Aarogya Setu app breach- es privacy, Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has assert- ed that the platform is “absolutely robust, safe and secure” in terms of privacy. “This is a technological invention of India — Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, our scientists, NIC, Niti Aayog and some private (entities) — whereby it is a per- fectly accountable platform to help in the fight against Covid- 19,” Prasad said. A 31-year-old Delhi Police constable died from coro- navirus on Tuesday. It is said to be the first death of a Delhi Police official due to Covid-19. The lab report confirming his Covid positive status came posthumously. On Tuesday evening, when he was feeling uncomfortable, he was rushed to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital where he was declared brought dead, a senior police official said. Now all police personnel who came in contact with the constable, who belonged to Haryana’s Sonipat, are being tracked to be quarantined. “He is survived by wife and a 3- year-old son,” the official said. The deceased constable was posted at Northwest Delhi’s Bharat Nagar police station. Ahmedabad: To control the spread of coronavirus in the worst-hit Ahmedabad city, civic authorities on Wednesday ordered the closure of all the shops except those selling milk and medicines for a week, trig- gering panic buying of grocery items and vegetables. A s migrant workers have started returning in large numbers, the State Government has arranged around 5,00,000 beds to pro- vide Covid-19-related health services in rural areas, informed Panchayati Raj Secretary DK Singh here on Wednesday. About 12,000 temporary medical camps have been set up in 6,798 gram panchayats with all basic facilities, he said. Government spokesperson on Covid-19 Subroto Bagchi said 35,540 Odias have already returned by trains, buses and other vehicles. Of them, 7,451 Odias returned on Wednesday, he said. The State Government is expecting return of around 5,00,000 migrant workers. They all would be kept in quarantine centres. For urban areas, home quarantine is the preferred option. Wherever home quar- antine is not feasible, institu- tional quarantine will be arranged by the urban local bodies. Returnees could also opt for paid quarantine in a hotel or lodge identified for the pur- pose, said Bagchi. W hile uncertainty looms large over holding of the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath this year scheduled on June 23 due to the lockdown for the Covid-19 pandemic, the State Government on Wednesday sought permission from the Centre for construc- tion of chariots. The decision came after the temple administration wrote to the State Law Department seeking its permission to start chariot construction work with strict adherence of lockdown and social distancing norms. However, the State Government was so far silent on construction work of char- iots despite appeal of the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee and Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb. The committee had also expressed concern over the matter as the Rath making work had already been delayed by eight days. They apprehend that the work may not be com- pleted in time. Chariot head carpenter Bijay Maharana said that since the Government is yet to respond to the Rath construc- tion issue, it seems it is impos- sible to complete the job by the requisite day of May 15. Senior Daitapati servitor Binayak Das Mohapatra took a swipe at the State Government for its move seeking the Centre’s permission for RathYatra when the State itself is the sole stakeholder of this holy event. T he State on Wednesday reported the second Covid- 19 death as a 77-year-old man of Madhusudan Nagar in Bhubaneswar, who had tested positive on April 28, died. The Health and Family Welfare Department said the victim also had comorbidities of hypertension, diabetes, and kidney disease. He was on ventilator since April 30 and his blood pressure was low from the past few days and he was under medication. The State’s first corona death had been reported just a month ago, on April 6, the vic- tim also being a man of Bhubaneswar (Jharpada). And on Wednesday, as many as eight persons tested positive for the novel coron- avirus, taking the total number of cases to 185 in the State. Jagatsinghpur district reg- istered four maiden cases while one each found positive in Kendrapada, Jajpur, Ganjam and Baleswar districts. All four Jagatsinghpur patients are Surat returnees. Out of them, three are mem- bers of a family of Naugaon vil- lage and the other is also a native of the same village. They were under quarantine after they returned from Surat. With the virus spreading to Jgatsinghpur district, the total number of affected districts rose to 17. The Information and Public Relations Department said the Jgatsinghpur patients include a 26-year-old man, a 32-year-old man, a 30-year-old man and a 47-year-old man. The person tested positive in Kendrapada is a 60-year-old man with travel history to Kolkata. With this, the number of cases in the district rose to three. One more person also test- ed positive in Jajpur. He is a 65- year-old man. He is also a returnee from West Bengal. With this, the total number of cases in the district increased to 55, the district-wise highest. The total number of cases in Baleswar district surged to 25 following the detection of one more patient, a 45-year-old man. Ganjam district also reported a new case. He is an 18-year-old youth, a returnee from Surat. With the case, the number of total cases rose to four in the district. Meanwhile, a person of Kendrapada district and anoth- er of Surya Nagar in Bhubaneswar recovered from the lethal disease and were dis- charged from hospital.

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Page 1:  · 2020-05-06 · +/2+1-.3%1!4(2!˜ While uncertainty looms large over holding of the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath this year scheduled on June 23 due to the …

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The end of the extendedlockdown has began to

look like a possibility with theCentre on Wednesday disclos-ing that road public transportservices may resume soon.

The Government is for-mulating guidelines for safeusage of different transportmodes adhering to social dis-tancing norms to check thespread of coronavirus.

While addressing mem-bers of Bus and Car OperatorsConfederation of India, UnionTransport Minister NitinGadkari said, “TheGovernment will soon makeefforts to start bus services onthe basis of certain guidelines.We need to start transport atsome level, because people arestranded in several places.”

Gadkari said the openingof transport and highways willgo a long way in instillingconfidence among the publicand cautioned towards main-taining social distancing andadopting all safety measureslike hand wash, sanitising, facemasks, etc, while operatingbuses and cars.

On demand of a bailout forpassenger transport industry,Gadkari said the Governmentis fully aware of their problemsand will fully support them tomitigate their issues.

He said he is in regulartouch with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman,who are working overtime touplift the economy during

these difficult days of Covid-19pandemic.

The Minister also askedinvestors and the industry toconvert the coronavirus-induced crisis into an oppor-tunity by occupying largerglobal market.

“Economy is facing crisisdue to coronavirus outbreak...We should treat it as blessing indisguise as no one wants to dealwith China. Japan’s PrimeMinister is facilitating industrythere to do investment out ofChina... It is a chance to boostIndian economy,” the Ministersaid.

He said Indian industryshould grasp this opportunityto invite those foreign compa-nies to invest in them in India.He expressed confidence thatthe country and its industrywill together win both the bat-tles — the one with coron-avirus, and the one with eco-nomic slowdown.

Responding to concernsraised by the operators, the

Minister said his Ministry islooking at adopting the Londonmodel of public transport,where Government funding isminimal and private invest-ment is promoted.

He also pointed outtowards the poor standards ofIndian bus and truck bodieswhich he said are functional foronly 5-7 years, whereas theEuropean models last for up to15 years.

Gadkari emphasised uponadopting good practices from

European operators, which willalso be economically viablefor indigenous industry in thelonger run.

The Minister said he isaware of the tight financial con-dition of the Indian marketduring the ongoing pandemic.But, he said all stakeholders willhave to work together to com-bat it.

Members of the confeder-ation made suggestions forimproving the condition ofpublic transport which includ-

ed extending interest paymentexemptions, restarting publictransport, extending age lifelimit, deferring state taxes,extending Micro, Small &Medium Enterprises (MSME)benefits, extending insurancepolicy validity, etc.

The Minister also said theinsurance sector should comeforward to help as it has ben-efitted due to less accidentsduring the lockdown. He fur-ther said work on many high-way projects has resumed.

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Riyaz Naikoo, one of the topcommanders of Hizbul

Mujahideen, a pro-Pakistanbanned terror outfit in KashmirValley, was killed along withone of his close aides inBeighpora area of SouthKashmir’s Pulwama district onWednesday.

Naikoo was an A++ cate-gory terrorist and carried areward of �12 lakh on hishead. In 2019, Naikoo hadalso figured on the list of mostwanted terrorists prepared bythe Ministry of Home Affairs.

Two other local terroristswere killed in a separateencounter with the joint teamsof security forces in SharshaliKhrew area of Awantipora,taking the tally of killed ter-rorists since January 2020 to 67.

As stone-pelters as usualtried to scuttle the encounter,a few of them were injured inpolice action, but there was noofficial confirmation about thenature of injuries.

Confirming the identity ofthe terrorists killed inBeighpora area, InspectorGeneral of Police, Kashmir

range, Vijay Kumar toldreporters, “The slain terroristwas identified as HizbulMujahideen’s chief operationalcommander Riyaz Naikoo”.

Police spokesman inSrinagar said, in Sharshaliencounter, 2 terrorists ofLashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) werekilled.

“In the second operation inBeighpora village ofAwantipora, a top terroristcommander was trapped alongwith his accomplice. The oper-ation was launched last eveningand contact was establishedwith hiding terrorists in themorning on Wednesday. Inthis encounter, two terroristswere killed. One of the terror-ists has been identified as RiyazNaikoo. He was the chief oper-ational commander of the HMoutfit in Kashmir,” thespokesman said.

Following his eliminationin the six-hour long operation,widespread incidents of stone-pelting were reported fromBeighpora, Gulzarpora, GhatTokna and Malangporaprompting the authorities tosuspend mobile internet andvoice calling facilities of privatenetworks across the Kashmirvalley.

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India’s Covid-19 countcrossed half-lakh mark on

Wednesday as the country reg-istered 3,050 fresh cases of viralinfection, taking the tally to52,460. The death toll from thevirus also surged to 1,781 withMaharashtra again topping thelist of the worst-affected States.

However, the total recoverynumer is 14,911, and activecases 35,762.

Maharashtra’s tally spikedto 16,758 after detection of1,233 new cases — highest ina day so far while 34 deaths onWednesday took toll to 651.

Tamil Nadu reported 771positive cases taking the tally to4,829 while Gujarat reported6,680 after the day’s addition of380 cases even as 25 morepatients died. The total deathcount in Gujarat stands at 298.Delhi has 5,110 cases, includ-ing 65 fatalities.

Uttar Pradesh added 118

more cases to be just two shortof 3,000 with a death count of60. Madhya Pradesh report-ed 89 cases for a tally 3,138.

The Ministry of HomeAffairs secretary Ajay Bhalla onWednesday wrote to WestBengal Chief Secretary RajivSinha saying the coronavirustesting in the State was very lowand the mortality rate washigher than any other State.

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Serious concern about datasecurity breach of Aarogya

Setu App was raised after aFrench hacker Robert Baptiste,who goes by Elliot Alderson onTwitter claimed a potentialsecurity issue in the app,prompting the Government toissue clarification that there wasno security vulnerability inthe contact tracing app.

Responding to clarifica-tion, Alderson tweeted, “I willcome back to you tomorrow.The challenge by the hacker hasput the Government machin-ery in a fix and given ammu-nitions to the Opposition par-ties amid Covid lockdown.

The app with about 9.08crore users as of now has beenthe most downloaded app onPlay Store. It did not take longfor the tweet to catch the eye ofAarogya Setu App team which

contacted Alderson shortly andtried to fix the loopholes.

Congress leader RahulGandhi, the Software FreedomLaw Centre, India (SFLC.in)and the Internet FreedomFoundation (IFF), have raisedquestion on Aarogya Setu App.

After Alderson’s tweet, sev-eral people have expressed pri-vacy and security concernsover the app, which has beenmade mandatory for all publicand private sector employees,as well as those in coronaviruscontainment areas. His tweetscreated a flutter on Twitter,with several people asking himquestions about the allegedsecurity issue. One Twitteruser asked if Alderson believed

the issue was intentional anddone by design, to which hereplied in the affirmative.

Soon after the ModiGovernment rejected the claim,Alderson tweeted that five peo-ple felt unwell at the PMO; twounwell at the Army headquar-ters; one infected people at theIndian Parliament and threeinfected at the home office.“Basically, I was able to see ifsomeone was sick at the PMOor the Indian Parliament. I wasable to see if someone was sickin a specific house if I wanted,”he tweeted.

Meanwhile, rejectingcharges by the Opposition thatthe Aarogya Setu app breach-es privacy, Union IT MinisterRavi Shankar Prasad has assert-ed that the platform is“absolutely robust, safe andsecure” in terms of privacy.

“This is a technologicalinvention of India — Ministryof Electronics and InformationTechnology, our scientists, NIC,Niti Aayog and some private(entities) — whereby it is a per-fectly accountable platform tohelp in the fight against Covid-19,” Prasad said.

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A31-year-old Delhi Policeconstable died from coro-

navirus on Tuesday. It is said tobe the first death of a DelhiPolice official due to Covid-19.

The lab report confirminghis Covid positive status cameposthumously. On Tuesdayevening, when he was feelinguncomfortable, he was rushedto the Ram Manohar LohiaHospital where he was declaredbrought dead, a senior policeofficial said.

Now all police personnelwho came in contact with theconstable, who belonged toHaryana’s Sonipat, are beingtracked to be quarantined. “Heis survived by wife and a 3-year-old son,” the official said.

The deceased constablewas posted at Northwest Delhi’sBharat Nagar police station.

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Ahmedabad: To control thespread of coronavirus in theworst-hit Ahmedabad city, civicauthorities on Wednesdayordered the closure of all theshops except those selling milkand medicines for a week, trig-gering panic buying of groceryitems and vegetables.

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As migrant workers havestarted returning in large

numbers, the StateGovernment has arrangedaround 5,00,000 beds to pro-vide Covid-19-related healthservices in rural areas,informed Panchayati RajSecretary DK Singh here onWednesday.

About 12,000 temporarymedical camps have been setup in 6,798 gram panchayatswith all basic facilities, he said.

Government spokespersonon Covid-19 Subroto Bagchi

said 35,540 Odias have alreadyreturned by trains, buses andother vehicles. Of them, 7,451Odias returned on Wednesday,he said.

The State Government isexpecting return of around5,00,000 migrant workers. Theyall would be kept in quarantinecentres.

For urban areas, homequarantine is the preferredoption. Wherever home quar-antine is not feasible, institu-tional quarantine will bearranged by the urban localbodies.

Returnees could also optfor paid quarantine in a hotelor lodge identified for the pur-pose, said Bagchi.

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While uncertainty loomslarge over holding of the

annual Rath Yatra of LordJagannath this year scheduledon June 23 due to the lockdownfor the Covid-19 pandemic, theState Government onWednesday sought permissionfrom the Centre for construc-tion of chariots.

The decision came after thetemple administration wrote tothe State Law Departmentseeking its permission to startchariot construction work withstrict adherence of lockdownand social distancing norms.

However, the State

Government was so far silenton construction work of char-iots despite appeal of the ShreeJagannath Temple ManagingCommittee and GajapatiMaharaja Dibyasingha Deb.

The committee had alsoexpressed concern over thematter as the Rath makingwork had already been delayedby eight days. They apprehendthat the work may not be com-pleted in time.

Chariot head carpenterBijay Maharana said that sincethe Government is yet torespond to the Rath construc-tion issue, it seems it is impos-sible to complete the job by therequisite day of May 15.

Senior Daitapati servitorBinayak Das Mohapatra took aswipe at the State Governmentfor its move seeking theCentre’s permission forRathYatra when the State itselfis the sole stakeholder of thisholy event.

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The State on Wednesdayreported the second Covid-

19 death as a 77-year-old manof Madhusudan Nagar inBhubaneswar, who had testedpositive on April 28, died.

The Health and FamilyWelfare Department said thevictim also had comorbiditiesof hypertension, diabetes, andkidney disease.

He was on ventilator sinceApril 30 and his blood pressurewas low from the past few daysand he was under medication.

The State’s first coronadeath had been reported just amonth ago, on April 6, the vic-tim also being a man ofBhubaneswar (Jharpada).

And on Wednesday, asmany as eight persons testedpositive for the novel coron-avirus, taking the total numberof cases to 185 in the State.

Jagatsinghpur district reg-

istered four maiden cases whileone each found positive inKendrapada, Jajpur, Ganjamand Baleswar districts.

All four Jagatsinghpurpatients are Surat returnees.Out of them, three are mem-bers of a family of Naugaon vil-lage and the other is also anative of the same village. Theywere under quarantine afterthey returned from Surat.

With the virus spreading toJgatsinghpur district, the totalnumber of affected districtsrose to 17.

The Information andPublic Relations Departmentsaid the Jgatsinghpur patientsinclude a 26-year-old man, a32-year-old man, a 30-year-oldman and a 47-year-old man.

The person tested positivein Kendrapada is a 60-year-old

man with travel history toKolkata. With this, the numberof cases in the district rose tothree.

One more person also test-ed positive in Jajpur. He is a 65-year-old man. He is also areturnee from West Bengal.With this, the total number ofcases in the district increasedto 55, the district-wise highest.The total number of cases inBaleswar district surged to 25following the detection of onemore patient, a 45-year-oldman.

Ganjam district alsoreported a new case. He is an18-year-old youth, a returneefrom Surat. With the case, thenumber of total cases rose tofour in the district.

Meanwhile, a person ofKendrapada district and anoth-er of Surya Nagar inBhubaneswar recovered fromthe lethal disease and were dis-charged from hospital.

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Page 2:  · 2020-05-06 · +/2+1-.3%1!4(2!˜ While uncertainty looms large over holding of the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath this year scheduled on June 23 due to the …

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The global community hasbeen overawed with

Odisha’s corona preventionmeasures. The State was thefirst one to clamp lockdown. Italso organised bulk tests todetermine exact status of preva-lence of the infection quite earlyin time. Naveen Patnaik’s hand-picked bureaucratic aides havebeen guiding him perfectly.The infection percentage isstill under one per cent. The

recent surge in infection isonly an ordinary phenomenondue to influx of migrantsreturning home, most of thembeing unruly.

As is universally recog-nised, social distancing is thebest method of keeping thehighly infective virus at bay.This simple behaviour isensured by avoiding big-crowdevents of any kind, social, reli-gious or economic. The world-famous Car Festival at Puri isone where social distancing asa safety measure can never bemaintained. Rightly therefore,the Naveen administration can-celled all popular, crowd-attracting festivals of LordJagannath. Despite logs ofwood having arrived at Puri,chariot construction has beenput on hold to keep commonfolks away from infection.

The Puri Shankaracharyawould only harp on religiousrituals as sacrosanct andunavoidable. He does not pos-sess the divine wisdom of the

Adi Shankara. So, consultinghim on issues involving publicorder and human safety wouldbe a most futile exercise. Bigreligious festivals like theKumbh Mela and Car Festivalare public events where hugenumbers of people are boundto bump into one another.And the coronavirus is onlylooking for that bodily contactto set up habitat and replicateat high speed. The Car Festivalactually begins with the con-struction of cars; and all relat-ed chores are bound to putindividuals brushing oneagainst the other. People arekeen that the festival beobserved only symbolically,which has been done severaltimes in the past as per histor-ical records.

The Gajapati king, despiteknown for his fair legal knowl-edge and commonsense, hasbrazenly said publicly that carconstruction is not a religiousactivity. He has strangely failedto figure out that the carpentry

work is only incidental to thecritically religious Car Festivalevent. The temple committee,which Gajapati heads symbol-ically, would have done betterby consulting sharp-mindedbureaucrats and legal expertswho guide the State machineryon all contentious issues. Thereligion-illiterate Daita servitorcommunity has foolishlydemanded the Car Festival tohappen as usual. They need tobe fixed for good, therebysending a strong message thatlife enjoys primacy over everyother thing. Hence, the festivalhas to be observed symbolicallyand not with pomp and show.The horrifically infective coro-na will have a heyday in casethere is a routine Car Festivalhappening. Puri town, with atleast a hundred thousandlocals, would then turn themost terrible hotspot in theworld. The State Governmenthas sought permission from theCentral Government for carconstruction on the Grand

Road, which is a public placeand where no big-crowd eventcan take place as per thenational rule. The Centre isleast likely to grant permissionas it has banned all big-gath-ering religious activities allover India.

The Naveen administra-tion has been hailed as incred-ibly efficient in management ofdisasters, natural and pan-demics alike. It has firsts inmany domains, including thehighest number of Covid-19hospital beds with sophisticat-ed facilities, all free of cost. Italso has shown great respect forall Covid warriors comprisingdoctors, police personnel andsanitation workers. Howeverunfortunately, low-wrung pub-lic utilities workers, electricityand water supply functionariesdelivering services in the fields,have been ignored.

It is true that the lockdownhas brought economic activitiesto a long-time halt. But as peo-ple have become more and

more disciplined and consciousof right and wrong, economicactivities should commenceon a guarded, regulated mode.Or else, the exercise of keepingcorona warded off would resultin acute starvation which maytake more lives than the killervirus can ever claim. Hungercan trigger dangerous anarchyand violent public disorder.Right at the moment, the mostimportant sector to focus on isthe specific, relevant skill devel-opment in Covid times. TheOdisha skill development advi-sor, a renowned professional, isseen wasting himself as a ‘virusspokesperson'. He better ispersuaded to get back to hisdomain and help youngsterswaiting eagerly to pick skills toensure a dignified livelihood.

Agriculture should be nowgiven utmost priority, withoutwhich food materials will van-ish soon. This is a rare occasionfor Governments to realise andgauge the invaluable food stuffsthat only agriculture produces.

No spacecraft, bullet trains orthe most sophisticated infor-mation technology gadgets cansustain life as agro-based eco-nomic activities can guarantee.

It is important to recognisethe fact that the poor from farand wide pour into cities tomake construction, transportand innumerable service deliv-ery activities happen, withoutwhich life gets crippled. Thehousehold help, the lorryloader, the plumber, the elec-trician, the neighbourhoodcarpenter, the barber and thestreet-eatery errand runnermake big economic activitiespossible. One link getting bro-ken means doomsday as every-thing comes to a grinding halt.Let these hitherto-invisiblecommunities be specificallybrought in place.

The Government mayerroneously put back liquor inthe marketplace believing itwould generate the criticallyrequired revenue. But duringthe pandemic situation, liquor

in any form can cause unprece-dented disaster especially whendisciplined behaviour and pub-lic order are a must to protectpeople from a deadly disease.No matter how vigilantly thepolice keep watch, alcohol inthe human system can makeheads go haywire. Study shows60% of alcohol consumers arelikely to go so much out of con-trol as ‘social distancing' and‘mask wearing' discipline willbreak. Since there is no sub-stantial report of alcoholiccreatures having died becauseof the dry spell, let alcohol salebe kept on hold for some moretime. If it is a must, regulated,let systematic home delivery bethe only mode. Alcohol wor-shippers will not hesitate tocough up a little more slightlyfattening the State exchequer!

Naveen Patnaik is a globalhero already. But a normalCar Festival and free flow ofalcohol may cause irreparabledamage to the great statesman'simpeccable image.

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In view of MSMEs hit by theCovid lockdown, the FICCI

has urged the StateGovernment to urgently noti-fy a suitable incentive schemeto help large number of MSMEunits meet their fixed costs,especially the salaries to theiremployees.

FICCI national presidentDr Sangeeta Reddy has made asubmission to Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik in this regard.

“Currently, the MSMEs arerunning out of money to startoperations. Nil cash inflow,delayed payment and expens-es towards salaries of workforceand other fixed costs havesteered MSMEs into existentialcrisis,” she mentioned.

He urged the ChiefMinister to plan a scheme akinto the “Haryana MSME Revival

Interest Benefit Scheme” adopt-ed by the Haryana Governmentrecently.

Under the scheme, eligibleMSMEs would get 100 percent interest benefit on loansavailed for payment of wages ofemployees and/or otherexpenses up to a maximum ofRs. 20,000 per employee. Theinterest benefit would be lim-ited to the interest paid by theunit to the bank / financialinstitution up-to a period of sixmonths. The interest benefitshall be calculated at the rate ofinterest of maximum 8% p.a. oractual rate of interest chargedby the bank / financial institu-tion on Term loan/ workingcapital loan whichever is lower.All the MSME units function-al as on March 15, 2020 can bedeclared eligible for availingbenefits of the scheme.

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The State Government hasinitiated talks with some

business houses in Japan,Korea, and the United States toattract investment to the State.

This was revealed at areview meeting on the State’scorona situation chaired byChief Minister Naveen Patnaikhere on Tuesday.

Besides, the Governmenthas also decided to formulatea model policy to resolve theproblems faced by the indus-tries due to the Covid pan-

demic, said an official.Senior Government offi-

cials would hold discussionwith Chamber of IndianIndustries, Indian Chamber ofCommerce and Banks as earlyas possible before formulatingthe model for overcoming thecrisis. The State’s MSME sector,which has been hit due to thecrisis, would benefit after exe-cution of the policy.

He said the MSME sectorhas attracted the Government’sattention the most as it providesemployment to a large numberof people, mostly unskilledand semi-skilled, said the offi-cial.

Additional Chief Secretarycum-Special ReliefCommissioner PK Jena said theGovernment has issued neces-sary orders to facilitate hassle-free inter-district movement ofworkers.

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Cu t t a c k -B a r a b a t i

M L AM o h a m m a dMoquim satsilent at hishouse here onWednesday inprotest againstt h eGovernment’sdecision to reopen the liquorshops in the State, especially ingreen zone Cuttack, at a timewhen the Covid-19 is stillspreading its tentacles.

The Congress leader stagedthe protest a day after hereleased a video in which heopposed the decision andappealed to all people to stagesilent protests in their respec-tive houses. However, he urgedall to obey the lockdownrestrictions.

Alleging that the ChiefMinister is making false claimof taking steps to check domes-tic violence, Moquim said theCM would not have orderedopening of liquor shops duringthis crucial time if he had anyconcern in that regard.

He said the inebriated oneswould undoubtedly contributeto escalating the domestic vio-lence in which women wouldsuffer a lot.

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Even amidst the prevailinguncertainties due to the

Covid-19 lockdown, the StateGovernment on Wednesdayannounced that Plus III finalyear examinations would beginfrom July 24 while final semes-ters for PG courses wouldcommence from August 20.

Higher Education MinisterArun Sahoo made theannouncement after a video-conference with Vice-Chancellors of all universities.

Besides, the Minister

informed that entrance testfor admission into various PGcourses would be held betweenSeptember and October. Forthis, offices of all universitiesand autonomous collegeswould start operation with 30-per cent staffs from Thursday(May 7).

This apart, a special com-mittee has been formed todesign a blueprint for onlineprogrammes, he said, addingthat all the decisions have beentaken in adherence to the StateGovernment’s Covid-19 guide-lines.

It was also decided that theMinister would hold a reviewmeeting with the VCs of alluniversities via videoconfer-ence in every 15 days.

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As new Covid-19 positivecases are reported from

Ganjam district, theGovernment deputed twosenior officials for surveillancein the district.

A team of officials com-prising Family Welfare DirectorBijay Kumar Panigrahi andBhubaneswar RMRC ScientistJaysingh Khatri has beenassigned for Ganjam to super-vise the surveillance and con-tainment measures, said a noti-fication issued by Health &Family Welfare Department.

Besides, the MKCGMedical College Hospital

would form a five-memberRRT consisting of a professorfrom pulmonary medicine ormedicine department, a pro-fessor or associate professor ofanesthesiology, a professor orassociate professor of microbi-ology department and two fac-ulty members of communitymedicine department tostrengthen the surveillance,contact tracing and testing aswell as the medical prepared-ness.

The total of Covid-19 pos-itive cases in Ganjam hasincreased to four so far after alarge number of migrant work-ers reached the district fromSurat.

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Former Minister HaraprasadMahapatra passed away at

his residence here onWednesday. He was 97.

He was suffering from pro-longed illness, family sourcessaid.

Mahapatra was elected tothe State Assembly twice fromthe Soro constituency inBaleswar district as a CPI can-didate in 1967 and as a JanataParty nominee in 1977.

He was secretary-general ofthe Orissa Motor TransportWorkers’ Union’s Baleswar unit.

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The StateGovernment has

appointed RoopaRoshan Sahoo asMember-Secretary ofthe Poverty andHuman DevelopmentMonitoring Agency(PHDMA).

The new assign-ment will be in addi-tion to her currentresponsibility asAdditional Secretary tothe Chief Minister, anotification by theG e n e r a lA d m i n i s t r a t i o nDepartment said. TheGovernment is plan-ning to give PHDMA,an autonomous agencyunder the Planningand Convergence Department,a boost. The PHDMA’s man-date is to work for strengthen-ing poverty and human devel-opment monitoring systemsand formulating pro-poor pro-grammes and projects.

With the battle againstCovid-19 expected to contin-

ue for long, the Governmentwants to effectively track pover-ty reduction and documentimportant processes. ThePHDMA is also likely to go foragreements with different agen-cies, including internationalorganisations, to scale up itsactivities, the official added.

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The Commissionerate policeon Wednesday warned

people not to download theAarogya Setu app from mali-cious links forwarded throughSMS or WhatsApp.

People have been advisedto download the Aarogya Setuapp only from authenticsources like https://Mygov.in

Google Play Store or Apple AppStore.

“Some users are receivingan SMS or WhatsApp or a linkfrom friends to downloadAarogyaSetu App. Please donot click on the link to down-load. Delete any such link, ifalready downloaded, go forfactory re-set of mobile phone,”s a i dpolice.

These links are maliciousand leading to download of anApp called ChatMe on thescreen, which is being used byPakistan-based groups to stealdata

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The State police onWednesday registered three

cases against returnees for vio-lating quarantine norms orabsconding from quarantinecentres during last 24 hours.

In the MV-79 police stationof Malkangiri district, a casewas registered under theDisaster Management Act onthe Kalimela BDO’s reportagainst three persons, whowere found wandering out-side violating the quarantine

norms.In the Orient police station

of Jharsuguda district, a casewas registered under the Act onthe Executive Magistrate’sreport against a person formoving outside a containmentzone.

In the Jagannath Prasadpolice station of Ganjam dis-trict, on the report of theGandadhar panchayatSarpanch, cases were regis-tered under the Act against fourpersons for violating quaran-tine norms.

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Union Minister of HumanResource Development

Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishankwould launch helpline ‘Bharosa’(08046801010) for the CentralUniversity of Odisha (CUO)here to provide voluntary ser-vices to university students in thewake of Covid-19 for enhancingtheir mental wellbeing.

Students of any universityof any part of Odisha can dialthis number. The Bharoshawill be launched via a video-conference by the UnionMinister in presence of State

Minister of Higher EducationArun Sahoo and CUO Vice-Chancellor Prof IRamabrahmam and RegistrarProf Asit Kumar Das.

Meanwhile, a pilot of theCUO Bharosa helpline waslaunched by Koraput districtCollector Madhusudan Mishraon Tuesday.

The CUO has taken theinitiative in collaboration withtwo frontline organisations,Association of HealthPsychologist (AHP) andSupport for the EmotionalRehabilitation of Virus Victims(SERV).

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Awoman patient died forwant of blood while being

treated in the DistrictHeadquarters Hospital (DHH)here.

Two days back, SunilPandey had admitted his wifein a serious condition in DHHin the lockdown situation.Unfortunately, he could notarrange blood as required.Even, he could not get blood in

the exchange scheme also.With no alternative, Sunil,

who is originally a resident ofBihar, handed over his fourchildren to the Childline forsettlement on Tuesday in thepresence of Childline districtcoordinator Asish Panda andmembers.

As per orders of theDistrict Welfare Committee,Sunil’s one-and-a-half-month-old daughter will be given tothe Adoption Centre,Brajrajnagar and the otherthree children aged 4, 7 and 9years will be given to the ChildCare organisation, Belpahar, fortheir settlement.

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It now seems it isn't safe to keepcash in the Andhra Bank. This

has come to light on Wednesdaywhen one Kishore Behera, a res-ident of Azadbasti of the JodaMunicipality who has a savingsaccount in the bank's Jodabranch, found his account hadbeen debited of cash aboutwhich he didn't know.

Behera had gone to with-draw cash for purchase of acycle for his daughter; but to hisgreat dismay, he was deniedwithdrawal by bank officialssaying that there was no bal-ance in his account.

Then he reported the mat-

ter to Branch Manager, whorevealed that there had beenfrequent fraudulent with-drawals from his account with-out his knowledge.

As on January 22, there wasa cash balance of Rs 1, 93, 000in Behera’s account; but onWednesday, he saw that therewas a balance of Rs 965.

Then, the victim lodged anFIR in the local police station.

When contacted, Joda PSIIC Raisen Murnu said thatprima facie, it seemed thatsomebody had withdrawn themoney by using the mobilenumber of the account holder,but rest would be known aftera detailed inquiry.

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Aviolent clash between twogroups of Surat returnees

at an quarantine centre inJamurda under the JagannathPrasad police station inGanjam district on Tuesday leftthree persons injured.

Four persons were arrest-ed in connection with the inci-dent. The injured were rushedto a local hospital and aftertreatment they were againtaken back to the quarantinecentre, said Jagannath PrasadPS IIC charge Jubaraj Swain.

Preliminary inquiryrevealed previous enmity mighthave led to the clash. Police reg-istered a case against thoseinvolved in the clash basing ona complaint lodged by localsarapanch Gayatri Nayak,Swain said.

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Page 3:  · 2020-05-06 · +/2+1-.3%1!4(2!˜ While uncertainty looms large over holding of the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath this year scheduled on June 23 due to the …

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Asurvey conducted in 18gram panchayats in

Ganjam district has revealedthat most of them were gross-ly unprepared to cope with thenumber of migrants expectedto return.

The Youth for SocialDevelopment (YSD) has con-ducted the rapid assessment ofquarantine centres with anaim of understanding thepreparation of institutionalquarantine facilities in Ganjamdistrict as mandated by theState Government.

The assessment evaluatedthe capacity of the GramPanchayats in the preparationof handling the incomingmigrants after the lockdown

period, and observed the exist-ing infrastructure available forthe setting up of the quarantinecentre facilities.

The rapid survey-cum-assessment was conducted inthree blocks of Purusottampur,Khallikote, andKabisuryanagar to know theground reality.

The assessment was madethrough observation of quar-antine facilities and semi-struc-tured interviews with theSarpanches and other PRImembers over telephonic inter-views. The questions coveredmultiple themes which aimedto explore the demographicdetails of the 18 case study pan-chayats, physical facilities avail-able at the established quaran-tine centres, availability ofhealth infrastructure andhealthcare officials at the cen-tres, administrative capacityof the gram panchayats in thehandling of the quarantinecentres, and anticipated issuesby the Sarpanches that arelikely to crop up and theirprospective solutions.

The total number of bedsin the 120 existing quarantine

centres across the 18 grampanchayats was 6,950 whichwould not be enough for thealready registered 10,914migrants as on April 28. Thenumber is bound to increase asthe Sarpanchs expect approx-imately 18,500 people toreturn, based on their assess-ment.

Majority of the quarantinecentres neither have any spe-cial arrangements for pregnantwomen, children, and theelderly nor have access tofunctional toilets, water supply,bathing facilities, and electric-ity connections.

Though most of the GPshad the presence of healthcareofficials such as doctors,Anganwadi and ANM workersin their quarantine centres,surprisingly only a few GPs tilldate had procured gloves andmasks which too were limit-ed for use.

Many Sarpanches duringthe survey expressed their fearof the existing quarantine facil-ities not being enough to caterto need of the large number ofmigrants/returnees whowould visit after the comple-

tion of the lockdown, thushoping for additional financialsupport from the StateGovernment for smooth run-ning of the centres.

Officials in GPs also hopedfor additional security antici-pating possible disturbances inthe centers, including ambu-lance services and adequatehealthcare officials. The offi-cials themselves were also wor-ried about the possibility in aspiraling increase of positiveCovid-19 cases in the region.

Keeping the feedbacksfrom the GPs and surveyresults in view, the YSD hasmade an array of measures tothe Government that includetimely release of fund andeffective monitoring of quar-antine centers, provision of suf-ficient beds, basic infrastruc-ture facilities such as toilets,bathrooms, drinking water,healthy meals for the quaran-tined people and medical facil-ities such as availability ofhealthcare officials, testingequipment, ambulance sup-port, and availability of suffi-cient masks, gloves, PPE kits,etc to these centres, etc.

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Failing to buy medicines forhis ailing father, a 25-year-

old distressed youth ended hislife at Kushta Pada under theKhetarajpur police limits here.

The deceased Sunil Sahuwas working at a garment shopin the city and was the solebreadwinner of his family. Afterthe shop was closed due to theCovid-19 lockdown, he wasfacing a lot of difficulties inrunning the family.

But fate had somethingeven worse in store for Sunil ashe lost his job at the garment

shop when it reopened. Withno money, he was unable tobuy medicines for his bedrid-den father suffering from paral-ysis. Besides, pending tuitionfee of his younger brother, aClass-X student, also added tohis burden.

Losing mental balance dueto the poverty, Sunil decided totake the extreme step onMonday night. At around 9 pm,he went outside and did notreturn to the house. OnTuesday morning, he wasfound hanging from a treenear Sadak Ghat at Bada Bazar.

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What can be more inhu-man than a man leaving

his old wife in a totally dis-tressed condition at a hospitalmerely for liquor?

Such an incidence hasoccurred at the Veer SurendraSai Institute of Medical Scienceand Research (VIMSAR) atBurla.

Uma Rani Kumbhar camefrom the Padmapur hospital ofBargarh district to the VIM-SAR after she got her leg crit-ically fractured in an accident.She came by a 108 ambulance.

Her drunkard husbandNaba Kumbhar came in theambulance. But the momentthe patient got down from theambulance, Naba fled the spotwith cash of Rs 20,000 he had

brought for treatment of hiswife.

This came to the notice ofthe local police and some socialworkers, who made every effortto ensure that the woman getsadmitted in the hospital andtreatment. Narayan Pati, for-mer Councillor of the BurlaNAC, also came forward withothers to help this distressedwoman.

“I have narrated the entirematter to the district Collectorof Sambalpur and he has alsoassured for necessary help,”said Pati. Local people are alsocoming forward to help thewoman, he added.

Doctors have also comeforward to treat the womanwith all facilities from the hos-pital under different schemes ofthe Government.

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Covid-19 could not havecaught India at a more

vulnerable moment. StartingApril, Indian farms go into mis-sion mode to be able to feed abillion plus people within andmillions more outside for restof the year. That Covid maycompromise the mission war-rants strategies extraordinaire.

Odisha’s response plan is tomeet the virus head-on despitebeing spared of its wrath; it hadreported just 160 positive casesand one death at the time ofwriting this. That, however, hasnot left it complacent. For,Odisha, an agrarian State thatwitnessed impressive growth incrop productivity and farmincome in recent years whilebeing disproportionately affect-ed by extreme weather, dis-parity in farm incomes andhigh dependence on labourintensive crop production, has

much at stake. Agricultureengages nearly two-third ofthe State’s workforce and isworth Rs 75,800 crore annual-ly.

Given the stakes, theInternational Crops ResearchInstitute for the Semi-AridTropics (ICRISAT), which isworking with OdishaGovernment to help farmersrecover from the cyclone Fani,and boost crop productivity aswell as farm incomes byimproving the State’s soils,developed a COVID-19response strategy. The strategyis going into action in parts ofOdisha and may have lessonsfor rest of India.

To outline it, the strategyaims to secure Odisha’s Rabicrop, help perishable producecontinuously find takers andensure Kharif preparation pro-gresses unhindered.

Securing the standingcrop

As COVID-19 reduced

workforce availability and man-dates physical distancing tolower risk of spread, machineshad to be efficiently pressedinto service. With efficientdeployment of machines andwhere available, human work-force, harvesting of Rabi crophas been near complete.

After harvesting and pri-mary processing at the farm-gate, procurement of the pro-duce is to begin with the State’s efforts, mainly in trans-portation to secondary pro-cessing units. It was suggestedthat railway wagons be con-verted into mobile procure-ment centres and run throughmajor railway stations at dis-trict and block level to augmentroad transport. It was estimat-ed that 450 trains of 30 wagonswould be needed to procure 7.5lakh tonnes of paddy fromjust 38 critical blocks of the 295paddy producing blocks.

These blocks were mappedwith Odisha’s railway network

to plan procurement routes.The critical blocks were furtherclassified as high,medium andlow criticality depending ontheir produce estimates.Further mapping revealed thatthese critical blocks clusteredaround districts like Bargarh,Subarnapur, Baleswar,Kalahandi and Koraput.Criticality was attributed tothese blocks as it was estimat-ed that they can produce a sur-plus of 90 percent over localconsumption, which if not pro-cured on priority basis can leadto distress sale.

If enough railway wagonscan’t be arranged in time, theState could consider procuringthe marketable surplus atdoorsteps of farmers or callthem to designated procure-ment centres (say, throughSMS alerts) to avoid crowding.Decentralised procurementbeyond mandis may requiresuitable amendments to theOdisha Agricultural ProduceMarketing Act. Returnee

migrants as well as local agri-cultural labourers could assistin these operations while fol-lowing COVID risk manage-ment guidelines.

Vitally, the Governmenthas to permit functioning ofprocessing units with distanc-ing and sanitization measures,besides providing health insur-ance cover to those involved inthe operations at this time.

Maintaining supplychains for perishable com-modities

Bottlenecks in supply isseverely affecting producerseven as consumers are dis-tressed by having to pay moreand make do with reducedavailability of fruit and veg-etable. Perishable commoditieswill have to be aggregated at thevillage level or by FPOs (and bylarge number of self-helpgroups, promoted under theMission Shakti in Odisha) witha view to target local promotionof 50 percent of the produce.

Air-conditioned railwaycoaches/refrigerated transportcan be used to ferry remainingproduce to distant markets,besides activating local coldstorage units for temporarystorage. It was shown that oneAC train with 14 coacheswould be required to liftaround 177 tonnes of vegeta-bles and 457 tonnes of mangoevery day from Koraput, whichis one of the major producersin the State. Permitting sec-ondary food processing unitscan further help the producefind takers.

Facilitating Kharif prepa-rations

Like in Rabi, there is aheightened need for mecha-nization to complete plough-ing, seed bed preparation andseeding or transplantationforKharif. An inventory ofmachinery at block level basedon the requirement was sug-gested. Estimates were drawnup for Cuttack to show that

5,350 tractor equivalents forploughing and 5,618 for pud-dling were required for a totalof 2.2 lakh hectares in the dis-trict. Similarly, 3,219 and 3,380tractor equivalents for plough-ing and puddling respectivelywould be required in Bargarh.

Estimates for requirementof high-yielding varieties ofseeds of paddy, groundnut,greengram, blackgram andpigeonpea were also providedfor Bargarh. For paddy alone,based on recommended seedrate and area sown duringKharif 2019, 14,045 tonneswould be required. Similar rec-ommendations were made forpaddy and chillies in Cuttack.

The two districts were alsoused as examples to demon-strate fertilizer requirementbased on area sown during lastKharif and recommendeddoses for nitrogen, phospho-rous, potash, boron, zinc andsulphur. ICRISAT was able tomake dose recommendations

as it had analysed around40,000 soil samples in the Stateover the last two years.

The COVID strategy madeuse of cloud-based applica-tions to draw up farm-levelinventories for equipment,labour requirement, seed andfertilizer requirement aggrega-tion as well as output aggrega-tion with market linkages. Itssuccess hinges on theGovernment ’s ability to coor-dinate the response bottom-up– village to the State-level.

For a State with a record inefficient handling of naturalcalamities, the COVID-19should be just another chal-lenge to repeating its success.

(Padhee is country director-India, Pillandi is senior com-munications officer and Dixit ishead of the Development Centreat the International CropsResearch Institute for theSemiarid Tropics (ICRISAT).Views are authors’ own.)

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CHAMPUA: RukmaniMahanta (56), an AnganwadiWorker of Joda block inKeonjhar district, died on dutyon Monday.

Sources said Mahanta wasmaking a door-to-door surveyfor distribution of mosquitonets at Bileipada village whenshe suddenly became uncon-scious. Former BJP Joda blockpresident Aganu CharanMahanta rushed her to theChampua Sub-DdivisionalHospital soon. However, shewas shifted to DistrictHeadquarters Hospital atKeonjhar where she suc-cumbed.

A resident of Jamdalaknear Champua, Mahanta wasvery hardworking and is sur-vived by husband and twosons. She was suffering fromhypertension and diabetes,sources said. PNS

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Awoman and her five-year-old daughter were burnt to

death in a fire mishap atGopalpur village under theRanpur police station inNayagarh district onWednesday morning.

The woman’s three-year-old son also sustained criticalburn injuries in the incident.He was rushed to the Ranpurhospital but referred to the SCBMedical College Hospital inCuttack after his conditionworsened.

Though the cause of thefire is yet to be ascertained,police have registered a caseand are investigating into the

incident.A case in this connection

has been registered at theRanpur police station and aninvestigation was underway.

In another tragic incident,two children were killed andone sustained critical injurieswhen some crackers explodedin the house of one Saro Sahooat Sogar village under theTumusinga PS in Dhenkanaldistrict on the day.

The injured was admittedto the District HeadquartersHospital (DHH) in a criticalcondition but two of themsuccumbed to the injuries.

According to reports, themishap occurred when thethree children were playing inthe house. They received griev-ous burn injuries in the inci-dent and were rushed to theAnlabereni CHC.

Source said that the explo-sion was so powerful that thatthe roof of the house col-lapsed. Later, Fire Service per-sonnel rushed to the spot andrescued the victims, who weretrapped under the debris.

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As many as 1,374 teacherswere found absent in

schools without applying forleave in Nabarangpur district.

The teachers went to theirnative districts prior to thenationwide lockdown enforcedto check the outbreak of thedeadly coronavirus (Covid-19)on March 24.

This came to the fore afterthe District Education Officer(DEO) asked the BlockEducation Officers (BEOs) tofurnish lists of absent teachersand the latter submitted com-pliance reports.

According to reports, 51teachers in Nabarangpur block,72 in Tentulikhunti, 230 inKosagumuda, 162 inUmarkote, 53 in Nandahandi,96 in Chandahandi, 166 in

Papadahandi, 214 in Jharigam,247 in Raighar and 83 inDabugam are absent.

The DEOs have directedthe teachers to remain presentin their respective place ofposting immediately and givetheir endorsement in attendantsheets to mark their physicalpresent.

It is alleged that someteachers have given proxy inattendant sheets to save theircolleagues.

Keeping in view of morenumbers of migrants returninghome, the district administra-tion has planned to installmore quarantine centers indistrict. The DEO has beeninstructed to identify quaran-tine facilities which would bemanaged by Governmentstaffs, including schoolteachers.

But the illegal absence ofthe teachers during the coronapandemic has worried theauthority. An exemplarydepartmental action againstthe erring teachers has beendemanded.

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CHAMPUA: Sawan KripalRuhani Mission ( SKRM), aNew Delhi based non-profitorganisation, dedicated toworld peace and human unity,held community kitchen andserved free meals in JodaMuncipality during the lockdown period.

Starting from March 30 toApril 3, the SKRM Joda branchserved total 34,000 food pack-ets at an average of 700 pack-ets daily. The food packetsprepared by SKRM were beinghanded over to municipalitystaff who in turn reached themto the needy people.

At the direction of SantoshRajinder Singhji Maharaj,Shankar Nag and Braja KishoreBehera of Joda coordinatedthe whole programme. PNS

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An Anganwardi Worker ofKashingar block in

Gajapati district has beenserved a show-cause notice byher higher authorities for fur-nishing erroneous informa-tion to a section of mediaregarding migrants staying out-side the State.

Kumari Suchismita,Anganwardi Worker ofKharada gram panchayat, gavesome information to a sectionof media without taking prior

information from the higherauthorities. The ChildDevelopment ProjectCoordinator has askedSuchismita to clarify her state-ment.

Anganwadi Workers havebeen entrusted the charge ofpreparing list of villagers stay-ing outside the State during thecurrent Covid lockdown.While they are not authorizedto give any information in thatregard, Suchismita furnishedwrong information to somereporters on April 4.

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The Jindal Steel and PowerLimited ( JSPL) has

reported highest ever exportsof steel and related productsduring April. The companyexported 248,000 MT of steeland related products, which isa growth of 109 percent (m-o-m). export contributed to74 percent of its total salesvolume.

Despite challenging times,JSPL India reported 5 percentgrowth (y-o-y) in the pro-duction of steel and granu-lated pig iron to 550,000 MTduring April. The Group hasrecorded 655,000 MT of con-solidated steel production inApril.

All plant operations

strictly adhered to the MHAguidelines and shop flooroperations resorted to stag-gered working to ensureproper physical distancing.

India’s largest BlastFurnace at JSPL-Angul hasrecorded the highest everproduction of 298,000 MT ofhot metal during April.

JSPL reported standalonesales of 335,000 MT, the bal-ance production is undershipment and stocked at theport waiting for vessels, whichwill be accounted in themonth of May. JSPL recordedconsolidated sales of 456,000MT during April. JSPL OmanSteel plant reported 106,000MT of steel production whilesteel sales stood at 120,000MT.

BALESWAR: Following twomore Covid-19 cases werereported from Baleswar dis-trict, the authorities onWednesday declared two moregram panchayats (GPs) as con-tainment zone as measures tocontain spread of the lethalvirus.

The two GPs that weredeclared as containment zonesare Paunskuli GP and NatakataGP.

Notably, two cases werereported from Basantapur andMasada villages under BastaTehsil in the district.

Wth this, restriction hasbeen imposed on publicmovement and vehicularmovement in the containmentzones. All shopping establish-ments have been shut whilesupply of essentials and med-ical requirements would beensured through various teams. PNS

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In the battle against coron-avirus pandemic, a corona

warrior from Nuapada districthas led from the front.

Lopamudra Rath, a micro-biologist working at the DistrictHeadquarters Hospital (DHH),has so far collected as many as176 swab samples from sus-pected persons in five blocksand sent those to Bhubaneswarfor testing.

Collecting samples fromsuch persons is quite a risky joband there are chances of gettinginfected by the deadly virus ifcarefulness is not maintained

while doing so.The sample collection team

was led by health officer PKBPattnaik along with 75 StaffNurses and 10 lab technicians.

Lopamudra’s courageousact is certainly exemplary forother health workers. She hasearned accolades from variousquarters for her service.

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Page 4:  · 2020-05-06 · +/2+1-.3%1!4(2!˜ While uncertainty looms large over holding of the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath this year scheduled on June 23 due to the …

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Former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and

Congress chief Sonia Gandhion Wednesday questioned theModi Government's decision-making on the extended coro-navirus lockdown and soughtto know the roadmap after May17 when the deadline for thirdlockdown ends.

Both Singh and Sonia werepart of the video conferencemeeting of Chief Ministers ofCongress-ruled States. Soniaquestioned the Governmentover the criteria it adopted tojudge how long the COVID-19-induced lockdown will con-tinue.

Addressing the ChiefMinisters of States where theCongress is in power, sheasked "what after May 17?"

India has been underlockdown since March 25 tocurb the spread of the novelcoronavirus. The first andsecond phase of the lock-down was from March 25 toApril 14 and April 15 to May3, respectively. The thirdphase began from May 4 andwould end on May 17.

Former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and formerCongress chief Rahul Gandhiwere also part of the meetingheld through video-confer-encing.

"After May 17th, What?and After May 17th, How?What criteria is GoI

(Government of India) usingto judge how long the lock-down is to continue. . . , "Congress chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala quotedSonia Gandhi as saying in themeeting to discuss theCOVID-19 situation and thepost-lockdown work.

She thanked farmers, par-ticularly of Punjab andHaryana, for ensuring foodsecurity by giving bumperwheat produce despite allodds.

Singh said, "We need toknow, as Soniaji said, whatwill happen after lockdown3.0?".

"Soniaji has already point-ed out. CMs need to deliber-ate and ask as to what is thestrategy of the government ofIndia to get the country out ofthe lockdown," Singh asked.

Rahul said the centralpiece of the strategy to fightCOVID-19 is to protect theelderly as well as those whoare diabetic and with heartconditions.

Speaking at the meeting,Punjab Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh said he hasset up two committees, one tostrategise on how to come outof the lockdown and the other

on economic revival."Concern is people sitting

in Delhi are deciding on clas-sification of (COVID-19)zones without knowing what'shappening on the ground," hesaid at the meeting.

Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot said, "untilextensive stimulus package isgiven, how will states and thecountry run? We have lost Rs10,000 crore revenue."

He said states have repeat-edly requested the prime min-ister for a package, "but we areyet to hear from the govern-ment of India".

Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel said,"States are facing dire eco-nomic crisis. They need to beprovided immediate assis-tance."

He said Chhattisgarh isone state where 80 per cent ofsmall industries have restart-ed and nearly 85,000 workershave returned to work.

The Centre is deciding onCOVID-19 zones withoutconsulting states, Puducherrychief minister VNarayanasamy alleged.

"This is creating an anom-alous situation. People sittingin Delhi can't tell the states,

No State or CM is consulted.Why?" he asked.

"PM isn't saying a word oneconomic package for states,"he said.

Former Union financeminister P Chidambaram alsoalleged that states are "bleed-ing" in terms of finances butno money is being allocated

by the government.He said a number of

newspapers have brought outthe unavailability of financeswith states.

Former Union Minister MVeerappa Moily said the strat-egy to declare lockout or comeout of it hasn't been stated atall by the prime minister or

changed at all.The Congress president is

also likely to discuss the issueof migrant labourers andworkers stranded at variousplaces and steps taken by thestates in bringing them backto their home states.

Sonia Gandhi hadannounced on Monday that

the state units if Congressparty would pay for the trainfare of migrants as they pre-pare to go back to theirhomes. She also criticised thecentral government for charg-ing them train fare.

Surjewala later said duringthe chief ministers meetingwith the Congress president,

that "states should assure thatthey have decided to pay forthe travel of migrant labour-ers and have asked theRailways for special trains."

"Punjab CM informs that� 35 crore has been set asideand Railways is charging �870per ticket, which state is pay-ing," he said.

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The Congress on Wednesdayslammed the Centre for

increasing the prices on petroland diesel. Terming the rise infuel prices as unfair, the partydemanded that theGovernment immediately rollback the increased prices.

Congress leaders RahulGandhi and Priyanka Gandhisaid that at a time when thefight against coronavirus iscausing economic hardships toall, the Government has cho-sen to increase fuel pricesinstead of reducing them.

"The ongoing battle withthe coronavirus is causingsevere economic hardship forour crores of brothers and sis-ters. At this time, instead ofreducing prices, the decision ofthe government to raise pricesof petrol and diesel by �10-13

per litre is unfair and should bewithdrawn,” Rahul tweetedafter the Centre hiked exciseduty and cess on petrol by �10per litre and on diesel by Rs 13a litre. This was the second hikein excise duty in less than twomonths.

Congress general secre-tary Priyanka Gandhi Vadrawas also unsparing in herattack against the Government

over its decision to hike exciseduty on petrol and diesel. In aseries of tweets, Priyanka saidthat the government was busyfilling its coffers at a timewhen the benefit of low crudeoil prices should have beentransferred to the consumers.

“The people should bene-fit from the low crude oilprices. But the BJPGovernment repeatedly hikes

excise duty so that the benefitthat should have gone to theconsumers is instead used tofill its own suitcase. Who is thegovernment collecting thismoney for? The labourers,farmers, middle-class, industry,nobody is benefiting from thefall in crude oil price,” Priyankasaid.

Senior Congress leader andformer Finance minister PChidambaram too voiced con-cern and suggested the Centremust borrow to meet deficitsand not impose higher tax bur-dens when economic activityhas ground to a halt amid thecoronavirus.

“New or higher taxes arejustified only when the econo-my is booming. Tax burdens onthe middle class and poor isactually taxing distress.Governments should givemoney to the people in times of

distress, not squeeze and takemoney from the people,”Chidambaram tweeted.

Congress chief spokesmanRandeep Singh Surjewala atAICC Press video conferencesaid the entire nation and its 130crore people are fighting theCorona pandemic and the poormigrant labourers and workers,the shopkeepers, the farmers,the small and medium busi-nesses are virtually penny less,they are struggling for every sin-gle Rupee, yet, this draconianGovernment is fleecing 130crore Indians by raising insur-mountable taxes on petrol anddiesel.

Congress alleged thatbetween the years 2014-15 up tillthe year 2019-20 that is in a peri-od of six years, the Modi gov-ernment has increased taxeson petrol and diesel 12 timesand has collected �17 lakh crore.

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The Centre and the MamataBanerjee dispensation’s

locking of horns continued onWednesday this time over theissues of non-movement ofessential goods through theIndia-Bangladesh border as itentail international ramifica-tions and the under-reportingof Covid-19 related deathsfrom the State besides viola-tion of lockdown guidelinesthere.

Union Home SecretaryAjay Bhalla wrote two lettersto the State Chief SecretaryRajiv Sinha. In the letter sentin the morning, the MHAblamed the State Governmentfor blocking international car-gos to Bangladesh while in theone in the evening it accusedthe Trinamool Congress-ruledState of underreporting ofCovid-19 deaths and series ofviolations of lockdown rules.

"A large number of truckscarrying essential supplies,bound for Bangladesh, arestranded at different bordercrossing points.... A number ofdrivers returning fromBangladesh have not beenallowed to cross the borderand are stranded inBangladesh. The unilateral

action of State Governmentwill have larger implicationsfor the Indian Governmentwith regard to its legally bind-ing international commit-ments,” Union HomeSecretary’s letter to the StateChief Secretary stated.

Bhalla also said, “This actof the State Governmentamounts to violation of the

orders issued by MHA underDisaster Management Act,2005.”

Bhalla said directionswere given on April 24 toallow cross land border trans-portation of essential goodsthrough all Indo-Nepal, Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Bangladeshborders and send a compli-ance report to the MHA. But

we have not received the com-pliance report from the stategovernment of West Bengal,he said.

In the second letter, Bhallasaid: “Lockdown violationshave been noted in Kolkata,Howrah by specific groups inspecific localities with mediareports of 'corona warriors'including the police beingattacked. This necessitatesstricter enforcement of lock-down. Overcrowding inbazaars, free movement ofpeople in large numbers with-out masks, bathing of peoplein rivers, playing cricket foot-ball, serious laxity in enforc-ing lockdown in containmentzones and poor supervision nimplementation of crowd con-trol measures by the districtauthorities,”

The Home Secretary alsocited the reports of Centre’sInter-Ministerial team’s find-ings against the West BengalGovernment in tackling thepandemic and non-coopera-tion including the under-reporting of the number ofdeaths.

“There remain gaps inthe surveillance and contacttracing of positive cases. Statehas not furnished any dataregarding the

households/individuals con-tacted/sur veyed forCOVID19. Indefinite delays intesting results have furtheraffected the contact tracing,put patients at risk...Points tovery low rate of testing in pro-portion to the population,and a very high rate of mor-tality of 13.2, by far the high-est for any State. This is areflection of poor surveil-lance, detection and testing inthe State,” said the UnionHome Secretary.

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Responding to the Centre’sletter, the West Bengal

Government said it will take acall on the movement of essen-tial goods through the Indo-Bangladesh borders after con-sidering all aspects. State’'sHome Secretary AlapanBandopadhyay said: “Thereare a lot of things that need tobe looked into," he said.

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Civil society groups haveurged Prime Minister

Narendra Modi to ensure thatthe Railways do not charge fortickets on the special trainsbeing run to transport migrantworkers back to their homesamid the coronavirus-forcedlockdown.

They said all travel must befree and food expenses shouldbe borne by the state.

The civil society organisa-tions, who have come togetherto form 'National Campaign

for Migrant Workers', demand-ed that the migrant workersreturning home be provided anex-gratia of �7,000 in lieu of thewages lost due of the lockdown.

They also appealed to theministry of home affairs to issuedirections to withdraw all themass FIRs against the migrantworkers filed in places like Surat,Bandra (Mumbai), Hyderabadwhere the workers protested toallowed to be go home. “Theprotests were an expression ofgenuine distress,” said theactivists.

The campaign also urged

the MHA to withdraw the May2 order, clarifying the definitionof stranded workers.

The Home Ministry had onSunday made it clear that therelaxations given for the move-ment of people during the lock-down were available only to dis-tressed migrant workers.

It clarified that the order isnot applicable to those categoriesof persons who are otherwiseresiding normally at places otherthan native places for purposesof work etc and those who wishto visit their native place in nor-mal course.

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The Union EnvironmentMinistry’s Expert Appraisal

Committee (EAC) on infra-structure has cleared terms of ref-erence (ToR) for three seaplaneairports at the Brahmaputrariverfront in Guwahati and at theStatue of Unity and ShatrunjayDam, both in Gujarat. The ToRsare guidelines for conductingenvironmental studies of projectsafter which it is considered forclearance by the panel.

The EAC in its meetingheld through video-conferencingin April noted that the wateraerodromes aims to boosttourism near Statue of Unity andSardar Sarovar Dam, Gujaratalong with terminal building onthe land side and allied facilities.Both projects are planned in theland provided by the State CivilAviation Department.

The �12.5 crore proposedproject is located onPanchmukhi Lake (Lake-3) ofSardar Sarovar Dam at LimdiVillage in Narmada District,Gujarat. Over 2,046 sqm landwill be acquired for the proposedproject.

The development of WaterAerodrome has been proposedat Shatrunjay Dam, Village vadalin District Bhavbnagar byGujarat Civil AviationDepartment to be spread over0.40 hectares of area. The pro-posed project is planned in thearea provided by the NarmadaWater Resource Department,Partly Private land in the pro-

posed access road near Palitana,noted the EAC.

Similarly, the developmentof water aerodrome has beenproposed at Guwahati Riverfront(Bramhaputra River), Guwahati,Assam by the State TransportDepartment.

The proposed terminal willbe spread over the plot area of0.42 Hectares.

Considering that the wateraerodrome are just emerging inthe country as a new mode oftransport involving sea/riverfronts and its likely impacts onwater, air and aquatic biodiver-sity including flora and fauna, theEAC followed the appraisalprocess as is being done in thecase of airports.

The project proponents alsoinformed the EAC that wateraerodrome were primarily onwater, intended to be used eitherwholly or in part for the arrival,departure and movement ofseaplanes, and any building andequipment on ground or water.

Sea plane operation from coastal/river/ canal as well as terrestrialwater bodies will extend the con-nectivity to those areas wherethere is no land-based airport.

The high capital investmentfor airside infrastructure devel-opment required in land-basedairport can be avoided. Thus,there is a necessity to establishwater aerodromes for seaplaneoperations, argued the projectproponents.

After discussion with mem-bers, the EAC cleared ToRs forthe three projects asking theirproponents to take clearancefrom the National Board forWild Life (NBWL) in case nearto the sanctuary as well as impactof aerodrome on flow charac-teristics during normal and floodconditions by modelling studyamong other required clear-ance.

They have also been askedto conduct public hearing forpreparation of environmentimpact assessment report.

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The Delhi High Court hassought response of the

police on a plea moved by aman, serving life term since2005 in a murder case, seek-ing parole to find a suitablewife for himself and curb his"inner stress and depression"due to incarceration whichhas "exacerbated" due toCOVID-19 pandemic.

Justice Prateek Jalandirected the police to file astatus report after verifyingthe address and health con-dition of the petitioner's fam-ily, with whom he intends tostay if parole is granted.

The court also directedthat the status report shallalso "disclose the precautionswhich are being followed bythe jail authorities whilereleasing the prisoners onparole or bail and at the timethey are returned to custody,inter alia, in terms of thedirect ions of the HighPowered Committee".

With the direction, thecourt listed the matter forhearing before an appropriatebench on May 19.

The petitioner has chal-lenged the authorit iesDecember 2019 decision toreject his application forparole "to explore the possi-bility of finding a suitablematch, to maintain social tiesand family relations, and tocurb inner stress and depression due to incarcera-

tion".The high court had on

January 14 issued notice tothe police and called for hisnominal role. However, due tothe COVID-19 outbreak, thecourt 's functioning wasrestricted and his plea couldnot be heard.

Subsequently, he movedtwo applications - one seekingearly hearing of his plea andanother for grant of parole onthe grounds of coronaviruspandemic.

His lawyer told the courtthat the grounds upon whichparole was sought from theState included the requirement to curb innerstress and depression due toincarceration which has beenexacerbated due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.

The police told the courtthat his application for parolewas rejected by the authoritiesas on an earlier occasionwhen he was granted the

relief in 2011, he committedan offence in respect of whichhe was convicted on February22, 2018 for dacoity, robbery,and conspiring to committhese crimes.

On the ground taken bythe police regarding violationof an earlier parole, the courtsaid despite his conviction in2018, he was, thereafter,released on parole twice in2018 and 2019 which werenot misused by him.

The court also noted thataccording to his nominal rollhe worked as a 'sahayak' in thejail and his conduct has beensatisfactory at least for lastone year.

The petitioner was earli-er convicted in 2005 in amurder case and sentenced tolife imprisonment by a trialcourt.

His appeal against the2005 order of the trial courtwas dismissed by the highcourt in 2009.

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The Government may beapplauding the role of

frontline health workers byvarious gestures like the recentone by showering flower petalson them, but around 200 nurs-es at the Centre-run RMLHospital in Delhi are a disap-pointed lot.

Appointed in December lastyear, they are yet to get theirsalary which has left them at thereceiving end as many of themare living in rented accommo-dations. Hailing from across thecountry, some of these nurseshave been taking credit fromtheir friends and relatives to paytheir bills as they have not gotsalary for the last four monthssince joining the hospital. TheCovid-19 induced lockdown hasjust added to their agony.

Some of them have beenassigned duties at the Covid-19wards as well. Though they haverepresented before the con-cerned authorities in this con-nection several times but exceptassurance their grievance has notbeen met.

A nurse on the condition ofanonymity said that they havesubmitted all the required doc-uments related to their job.

“We are doing our dutydiligently. But in this lockdowntime, it is difficult to sustain with-out money. Moreover, it is quitefrustrating that while on the onehand the country is expressingsolidarity with our efforts, on theother we are waiting for what isour rightful due,” she said

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APIL was filed in the DelhiHigh Court on Wednesday

seeking direction to the AAPgovernment to close liquorshops here until the coronaviruspandemic is under control.

The plea was mentioned foran urgent hearing and it is like-ly to be listed on May 8.

The petition by NGO, CivilSafety Council of India, chal-lenged the Delhi Governmentand its Excise Department'sdecision to open liquor shops inthe city from Tuesday “withoutany planning and crowd man-agement”.

The plea, filed throughadvocate Arvind Vashistha,said the people of Delhi are fac-ing complete lockdown for thelast so many days but the May3 notification regarding open-ing of liquor shops has failed thewhole system, set up by theState, and it is going waste andputting the life of citizens indanger.

“Liquor consumption isnot in consonance with thedirective principles of state pol-icy, under which improvingpublic health is among the pri-mary duties of the state. Thiswould include prohibition ofintoxicating drinks and drugswhich are injurious to health,”the plea said.

It said due to this decision,a large number of persons havelined up outside liquor shops inthe city for the second consec-utive day.

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Tamil Nadu Governmenthas no options other than

opening liquor shops in theState to tide over the econom-ic crisis caused by the coron-avirus pandemic and the resul-tant lockdown, according to atop Government official in Chennai.

All liquor shops barringthose in Chennai city wouldreopen on Thursday morningbringing cheers to the dispirit-ed tipplers in the State .

More than ten persons hadcommitted suicide during thedays when the 5,146 liquor out-lets in the State downed the

shutters. Though theGovernment hiked the prices ofliquor by Rs 10 to Rs 80 perbottle, it has not dampened thespirit of the boozing fraternityas the wait for sun to rise onThursday to queue up in frontof the liquor outlets.

Liquor is one of the mainsources of income for TamilNadu Government.

“State’s Own Tax Revenuecontributes to 60 per cent ofTamil Nadu’s monthly revenuewhich runs to Rs 10,000 crore.What the State may receive inthe month of April wouod notbe more than 20 per cent of thisamount because of the shutdown,” Prof C Murukadas, lead

economist of Tamil Nadu andadviser to the Government.

Fifty percent of the SOTR

comes from the sale of alcoholand petroleum products.

Tamil Nadu Government

holds the monopoly in liquorprocurement and sales. Allliquor outlets in the State areowned by the Government.The financial year 2017-2018saw liquor contributing Rs26,797 crore of the State’s rev-enue.

“Excise duty on manufac-ture and sale of alcohol com-prises 10 to 15 per cent of theState’s Own Tax Revenue. Stateslike Tamil Nadu impose VAT;also charge special fees onimported foreign liquor, trans-port fee and label and brandregistration fee. As liquor salesare operated by TASMAC,Tamil Nadu Governmentreceives certain amount as

sales margin. Altogether in2018-2019 , Tamail NaduGovernment’s earnings fromliquor stood at Rs 31, 157crore. This is 35 per cent of theState’s Own Tax Revenue of Rs87, 905.26 crore generated in2018-2019. The Total Revenueof Tamil Nadu in 2018-2019was Rs 2.98 lakh crore out ofwhich liquor contributed 10.45per cent. There fore TamilNadu Government cannotafford to dispense with theearnings from liquor for its dayto day functioning,” said ProfMurukadas, himself a strongproponent of prohibition.

Prof Murukadas, a widelyrespected scholar in the State

with many books to his cred-it, pointed out that Tamil Naduwas on the brink of financialcrisis mainly due to the expen-diture for containment ofCovid-29 pandemic.

“At this juncture, it is notpossible for the government todeploy the police force to detectillicit distillation. The inci-dents of suicides are on thehigh because of liquor addicts,”he pointed out.

Besides, liquor and petro-leum, the other areas fromwhich the State mobilizes rev-enue are registration of vehiclesand immovable properties.“But there are no businessactivities in the State because of

the coronavirus lockdown.Since vehicles are off the roads,there is no sale of petroleumproducts and this has taken aheavy dent on the State’s econ-omy,” pointed out ProfMurukadas.

Officials in TASMAC(Tamil Nadu State MarketingCorporation), said the distil-leries from where they procureliquor are owned by leaders ofthe DMK as well as theAIADMK. “The DMK is in theforefront opposing the gov-ernment’s move to reopen theliquor shops. But that is toimpress and convince the people in the State,” said theofficial.

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Thirty four cases of coron-avirus were detected posi-

tive, taking the total tally to 775in Jammu & Kashmir onWednesday.

Out of 34, a total numberof 32 cases were reported fromKashmir while 2 fresh caseswere detected from Jammudistrict. At present four districtsof Kashmir valley namelyBandipora, Srinagar, Anantnagand Baramulla have reportedmore than 100 positive cases.

On Wednesday,Srinagarand Anantnag districts report-ed 11 fresh cases each whileShopian reported 5 andKupwara three fresh cases.

Worried over the constantrise in number of positive cases,Deputy Commissioner, SrinagarDr Shahid Choudhary tweeted,“Each Covid+ve case confirmedin Srinagar today & yesterdaycould’ve been avoided. Mosttraced to single illegal travel.Please don’t make fatal mockeryof our efforts for your safety” InJammu, the authorities hadcompletely sealed entry andexit points of localities fromwhere fresh cases have beenreported since Monday.

According to media bul-letin, out of 775 positive cases,445 are active Positive, 322 haverecovered and 08 have died.

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Archaeological Survey of India(ASI) for its lackadaisical atti-tude towards the preservationof a 17th century Catholicchurch, the Basilica of BomJesus, Goa Governor Satya PalMalik on Wednesday appealedto Union Minister of State forTourism, Prahlad Patel, forassistance.

In a letter to Patel, Malikalso urged the Union Ministryto instruct the ASI to completemaintenance work at the OldGoa church complex, one ofthe most popular tourism des-tinations in the state, before theonset of the monsoon.

“Though ASI has citedvarious constraints for the slowpace of work such as non-avail-ability of sand or dillydallyingand unresponsive behaviour ofthe contractors, the entire atti-tude of the ASI in preserving,conserving and restoring theBasilica seems to be casualand lackadaisical,” theGovernor said in his letter toPatel.

“The report of the ASIreflects uncoordinated actionand non-committal attitude ofthe different branches of theASI in dealing with the preser-vation and restoration of thearchitectural marvel,” Maliksaid in his letter.

After complaints made bythe Rector of the Basilica, Fr

Patricio Fernandes, ChiefMinister Pramod Sawant hasordered the formation of acoordination committee of offi-cials from the state governmentagencies and the ASI, forstreamlining maintenance andrestoration work at the Churchcomplex.

The Bom Jesus Basilica ishome to the mortal remains ofSpanish saint St Francis Xavier,who was also associated withrecommending the Inquisitionin Goa. Born in Navarro villagein Spain’s Basque region,Francis Xavier is regarded asthe patron saint of Goa by thestate’s Catholics, who accountfor around 26 per cent of thestate’s 1.5 million population.

The Basilica is also recog-nised as an UNESCO worldheritage site and is one of themost prominent places on theitineraries of the several milliontourists and devotees who visitthe state annually.

Quoting a complaint madeby the church authorities,Malik said that the Basilica isin a general state of disrepairand neglect.

In his letter, Malik alsourged the Union Minister todirect the ASI to “pull up theirsocks to complete all therestoration works in a time-bound manner and if possible,before the monsoon arrives inGoa”. IANS

Thiruvananthapuram: KeralaChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayanon Wednesday said non-resi-dent Keralites returning fromabroad and from within thecountry from Thursday, exceptpregnant women and children,will remain in state-run quar-antine centres for a week.

Such arrivals are scheduledat Thiruvananthapuram, Kochiand Kozhikode. The Kannurairport is not on the list, butwould be added in the secondschedule.

The arrivals at these air-ports would be supervised bya DIG of Police.

“The exception from quar-antine is only for pregnantladies and kids, who canremain in isolation at theirhomes. This is the rule for allthose arriving from outsidethe country and those fromwithin the country,” saidVijayan.

“There are two flights onMay 7 as of now -- one fromAbu Dhabi to Kochi and anoth-er from Dubai to Kozhikode.We are waiting for furtherinstructions from the Centre.After quarantine, those who

test negative can go home andremain in quarantine foranother week” said Vijayan.

The Chief Miniser saidthat all arrangements havebeen made.

“The media also shouldtake necessary caution.Attempts to interview thosewho are coming from abroadshould not be done. Media hasto ensure that social distancingnorms are followed. You shouldensure that there is self-con-trol,” added Vijayan.

State Health Minister K.K.Shailaja said: At present, 207hospitals in the state have beenkept ready to admit peopleshowing coronavirus symp-toms. Everyone landing at theairports will have to downloadan app. The body temperaturesof all returnees would be takenat the aerobridge. All those whoare normal will be send to thehelp desk while those whohave higher-than-normal tem-perature would be moved tothe isolation bay. From there,normal returnees would betaken to the corona care cen-tres and others send to hospi-tal.” IANS

Bengaluru: To bring early reliefto farmers, flower growers,washermen, barbers, auto-rick-shaw and taxi drivers — someof the worst-affected by theCovid-19 induced lockdown,the Karnataka Government onWednesday announced a Rs1,610 crore package.

“The state government willprovide Rs 1,610 crore com-pensation/benefit to the peoplewho are in distress due to thelockdown since March 25 andextended till May 17 to containthe coronavirus spread,” ChiefMinister B.S. Yediyurappa toldreporters here.

Among the beneficiaries ofthe package are farmers andgrowers of f lowers, vegetables and fruits, washer-men, barbers, auto-rickshawand taxi drivers who all suf-fered huge losses due to theprolonged lockdown, whichhas been extended twice sinceApril 15 and May 4.

“As growers have destroyedtheir flowers in 11,687 hectaresacross the state due to lack ofdemand during the lockdown,Rs 25,000 compensation perhectare will be given to thosewho suffered crop loss to theextent of 1 hectare,” saidYediyurappa.

A separate relief packagewill soon be announced forfarmers and growers of veg-etables and fruits, as they toosuffered huge amount of loss-es due to the lockdown, he

added.Similarly, service profes-

sionals like 2,30,000 barbersand 60,000 washermen (dho-bis) in urban and rural areas,who too have been affected bythe lockdown, will be givenone-time compensation of Rs5,000 each.

About 7,75,000 auto-rick-shaw and taxi drivers across thestate, who also lost income dueto lockdown, will be givenone-time compensation of Rs5,000 each.

“As micro, small and medi-um enterprises (MSMEs) alsoreeled under production lossover the last 42 days and willtake time to revive, monthlyfixed charges on their electric-ity bills will be waived for twomonths since April,” saidYediyurappa.

Payment of fixed chargeson power bills of large indus-tries will also be deferred with-out penalty and interest for twomonths since April.

“Incentive and concessionswill be given to consumers pay-ing bills in the stipulated time.Reduction will be given oninterest on delayed payment and adequate time forpaying balance bill payment ininstallments,” said the ChiefMinister.

Power connection will notbe disconnected till June 30 forconsumers who have not paidarrears of their electricity bills.

“Of the Rs 109 crore loan

waiver scheme announced ear-lier for handloom weavers, Rs29 crore has been paid to themand balance Rs 80 crore will bereleased soon,” Yediyurappasaid.

The 54,000 handloomweavers will also be eligible forfresh loans to resume theirbusiness. A reimbursementbenefit will be provided toweavers who repaid loan in thelast fiscal.

The Chief Minister said anew scheme “weaver sammanyojana” (nekarara sammanayojane) for the benefit of theweavers would soon beannounced.

Under the scheme, thestate government will depositRs 2,000 in the bank account ofeach handloom weaverthrough the direct benefittransfer (DBT) scheme.

“We are also transferringRs 2,000 in the bank accountsof 11.80-lakh building workersthrough the DBT,” he said.

About 15.80 lakh regis-tered building workers are reg-istered across the state, andaction has been initiated totransfer Rs 2,000 into theaccounts of the remaining 4-lakh construction workers afterverifying their bank details, headded.

The state government hasalso decided to transfer Rs3,000 more to building work-ers through DBT.

IANS

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Despite Tamil NaduGovernment’s stance that

all is well on the coronavirusfront, the number of personstested positive for Covid-19reached 4,829 by Wednesdayevening. The day saw 771 per-sons testing positive for thepandemic on Wednesday, thehighest number of personstesting positive on a singleday.

The death toll reached 35in the State while Chennai hasbecome the epicentre of thepandemic. The release issuedby the Department of Healthsaid 324 persons tested positivein Chennai making the totalnumber of Covid-19 patients inthe metropolis to 2,328.

The release further saidthat all persons tested positivewere contacts of Covid-19patients, which means all ofthem were infected frompatients suffering from thepandemic.

The number of cops work-ing in the State Police HeadQuarters who have been test-ed positive reached 13 byWednesday evening.

Chief Minister EdappadiPalaniswami asked the peoplenot to panic because of thespurt in the number of coron-avirus cases in the State. “This

is because of the increase in thenumber of tests being done inTamil Nadu compared to otherStates in the country. 1,88,241samples have been tested tilldate and we have 52 testingcentres in the State, the Statewith largest number of testinglabs,” said the Chief Ministerwhile speaking to reportersearlier in the day.

It was on March 7, 2020 theState confirmed the detectionof the first coronavirus patient.It took 36 days for the numberof patients with COVID-19 treach the 1000 mark.

Within the next 16 daysTamil Nadu’s coronavirus casescrossed 2000. The number shotpast the 3000 mark in five daysand by Monday evening itstood at 3,550.

It crossed the 4000 mark injust two days. As things standtoday, the number of coron-avirus patients in the State is allset to cross the 5,000 mark byThursday evening.

Medical experts and gov-ernment officials are worriedover the opening of the liquoroutlets in the State on Thursdaymorning. “It is certain that wewill see more crowd in front ofthe liquor shops and the pos-sibility of infections increasingis very high,” said a governmentdoctor who did not want hisname to be quoted.

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In an effort to meet an antic-ipated increase in the num-

ber of Covid-19 infections dur-ing May, the MaharashtraGovernment has requestedhospitals, institutions andbuildings under the manage-ment of the Railways, MumbaiPort Trust, Indian Army, Navyand other Central Governmentundertakings to make availableIntensive Care Unit (ICU) bedsat their facilities available acrossMaharashtra.

In a statement issued hereon Wednesday, chief ministerUddhav Thackeray said: “Forthe past three months, theState Government has beenfighting a war against virus andso far, has managed to containit’s spread through variousmeasures. The number of testsis being significantly increased,and hence, the patient count isrising. The numbers of patientsbeing cured and discharged has

also increased”.“The state government has

requested hospitals, institu-tions and buildings under themanagement of the Railways,Mumbai Port Trust, IndianArmy, Navy and other CentralGovernment undertakings tomake available Intensive CareUnit (ICU) beds at their facil-ities available acrossMaharashtra. I have personal-ly spoken to people at a high-er level in this regard,” the chiefminister said.

Uddhav said that since theUnion government had pre-dicted that the severity ofCoronavirus would increasein the month of May, his gov-ernment had planned toincrease the isolation facilitiesand ICU beds in Mumbai,Pune and other prominentcities in the state.

“In this context, the gov-ernment has already createdICU beds in Mumbai’sMahalaxmi Race Course,Nehru Science Centre, NehruPlanetarium, GoregaonExhibition Centre, Richardson& Cruddas factory, BandraKurla Complex (BKC) andother locations,” the chief min-ister said.

“Similarly, the MunicipalCommissioners and districtcollectors concerned are creat-

ing additional ICUs beds inother big cities in the state. Weare Also getting huge placesbelonging to private hospitalsand major organisation forcreating ICU beds in otherparts of the state,” Uddhavsaid.

The chief minister saidthat following the relaxation oflockdown norms, the peoplehad started coming toMaharashtra from other partsof the country and even peoplewill start returning from abroadin the coming days. “Keepingthis and as well as the antici-pated increase in number ofcases, the state government isall to increase the availability ofICU beds in various hospitals,

including those Railways,Mumbai Port Trust, IndianArmy, Navy and other CentralGovernment undertakings

Meanwhile, Brihanm umbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)Commissioner Praveen Pardeshihas authorized all ward officersin the city to requisition addi-tional beds/wards/facilities inprivate hospitals or clinics forCovid-19 patients.

Mumbai is the worstCovid-19 affected city in thecountry. With 25 fresh deaths769 new infected cases report-ed on Wednesday, the totalnumber of deaths has risen to412, while the total number ofinfected cases has mounted to10714.

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In yet major another spike ininfected cases in Mumbai’s

Dharavi, one person died andas many as 68 persons testedpositive for corinavirus onWednesday, taking the totalnumber of infected cases inAsia’s biggest slum to 733.

A day after as 33 more per-sons tested positive for Covid-19, Coronavirus claimed onelife taking the total number ofdeaths to 21 and left 68 othersinfected in various parts ofthis densely populated slum.

A maximum six positivecases were reported fromMatunga Labour camp, whilefive new infected cases eachwere recorded in transit camp,Kumbharwada, Indira Nagarand 90 feet road area. Amongthe infected persons was a 90-year-old woman fromKumbarwada. Three cases eachwere reported from 60 feetroad area and Dharavi PC.

With 68 fresh cases, thetotal number of positive caseshas risen to 733 in Dharavi.Dharavi has witnessed sub-stantial number infected casesin Dharavi for the past five days.

On Tuesday, 33 new posi-tive cases were reported from

Dharavi. On Monday, therewere 42 new positive cases ofCovid-19. On May 3,Cornavirus claimed two livesand left a record day’s tally of 94others infected in this slum. OnMay 2, Dharavi recorded asmany as 89 Covid-19 positivecases. On May 1, there were 38new cases. Earlier on April 23,one death and 25 cases hadbeen reported from Dharavi ina single day.

Dharavi is one of theCoronavirus hotspots inMumbai. Spread over 240hectare area, this slum is hometo more than 4 lakh people.Ever since first few cases ofCoronavirus were reported inthe early first week of April, theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) is closelymonitoring the situation inDharavi where the healthauthorities have clamped a totallockdown.

Till Tuesday, theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) screened83,500 people in Dharavi. “Tillyesterday, as many as 2380people are in institutional quar-antine, while 196 people weredischarged from various hos-pital after full cure,” a seniorBMC official said.

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The Maharashtra Congresson Wednesday slammed

Information and BroadcastingMinister Prakash Javadekar formaking a “false” allegation thatall State Governments are pay-ing rail fare for poor migrantsexcept Maharashtra, Keralaand Rajasthan Government,“who are taking fare from thepoor”

“Even in times of crisis, theBJP’s blatant insensitivity inlying to the people is shocking.I would like to challengePrakash Javadekar that if thereis any sensitivity in the Uniongovernment, the Centre should

issue a two-line order that therailways shall not take anymoney for ticket fare frommigrant workers,” MaharashtraPradesh Congress Committee(MPCC) spokesperson SachinSawant said.

Sawant said that thoughthe central government allowedthe migrant workers to returnto their hometowns, it took an“insensitive decision” of askingthe state government to collectfare from the poor and depositwith the Railways.

Sawant said that extreme-ly upset over this insensitive-ness, the Congress PresidentSonia Gandhi decided that thecost of repatriation of migrant

workers in this extremelyunfortunate situation wouldbe borne by the Congress ineach of the states.

“With the general publicaware of the insensitivityshown by the central govern-

ment and the decision taken byCongress president SoniaGandhi, the grounds of theBhatiya Janta Party (BJP) hasshaken. As a result, BJP lead-ers have launched a nationwidecampaign to spread propagan-

da and false statements,”Sawant said.

“Yesterday, Sambit Patra,BJP’s national spokespersonmade a public statement thatthe central government is giv-ing 85 percent concession whileother 15 percent is being borneby the state governments,” thestate Congress spokespersonsaid.

“And, in such a scenario,what the Congress party willgive? In order to target oppo-sition, the union ministerPrakash Javadekar went aheadand made a false allegation thatall state governments are pay-ing rail fare for poor migrantsexcept Maharashtra, Kerala

and Rajasthan government,who are taking fare from thepoor,” Sawant said.

He said that in the firstplace, health was a state issueand “in such a crisis period, nofinancial assistance has beengiven to the states by the cen-tral government despite the factthat state governments arefighting against the corona cri-sis”

“Besides, the central gov-ernment has not given Rs15,000 crore for GST compen-sation to the state. There isalready a loss of around Rs25000 crore in March. There isno income this month. In sucha scenario, there is no support

from the Centre. It seems thatthe Centre is shirking itsresponsibility by passing thecost of travel fare of migrantworkers to the states,” Sawantsaid.

“Javadekar’s statementshows the mentality of thecentral government is to takecredit of work done by the stategovernment,” the Congressspokesperson said.

“Official decision to give85% concession in railway fareshas not yet been taken.However, it is quite possiblethat the BJP can make a moveto say later that this concessionwas already there. Currently therailways is recovering full fare

for the tickets. It is cleared thatthe central government hasdirectly cheated poor people,”Sawant said.

“Going beyond that, to saythat only the governments ofMaharashtra, Rajasthan andKerala are taking money fromthe workers is the height ofhypocrisy of BJP leaders likeJavadekar. In Gujarat, severalmedia channels not only haveshown that money is beingtaken from all workers but nopeople are being sent withoutwater and food. And the BJP’shypocrisy has been exposed. InMadhya Pradesh too, labourersare travelling at full cost,” theCongress spokesperson added.

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Page 6:  · 2020-05-06 · +/2+1-.3%1!4(2!˜ While uncertainty looms large over holding of the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath this year scheduled on June 23 due to the …

The Government’s directive to allpublic and private sector employ-ees to install the Aarogya Setu appin their mobile phones has raisedeyebrows in some quarters. But the

fact is that a post-COVID world is going tobe equated with a digital society. It will be thenew normal, where the use of diverse and con-verged digital technologies will help peoplemaintain social distancing and facilitatesecured living in an age of pandemic.

The Aarogya Setu app is designed tokeep the people informed about the risk ofthem being infected with Coronavirus.Self-assessment begins with a request forinformation such as gender, full name, age,countries travelled to in the last 30 days andprofessional details. The app, which makesthe use of GPS to get the user’s location, dis-covers other available applications nearhis/her device using bluetooth. By cross-ref-erencing the location details with that ofIndian Council of Medical Research(ICMR)’s database and by collecting recordsof nearby users, it does a risk assessment andreturns with a colour-coded message. Itappears that the app continuously collects theuser’s data and uploads them to aGovernment server along with a DiD,which is a unique digital id. Data in the serv-er is anonymised in such a manner that per-sonalised features are suppressed withoutaffecting the statistical features of the dataensembles.

The fact that devices exchange informa-tion, continuously collect location data ofregistered users and maintain a record of theplaces where they may have come in con-tact with other people has given rise to asense of distrust among the people. Hence,the controversy. Arguments can be drawninto two fields: One of data privacy and theother on surveillance. While debate aroundthe Aarogya Setu app is unsubstantiated andunfounded, questions related to data priva-cy will very much be a talking point in a post-COVID society.

Data is now widely being treated as thenew “oil”, “gold” and is a valuable resourcefrom the perspective of society, economy,polity, privacy and human progress. For asociety to make progress from an informa-tion age to a knowledgeable, digital world(data-driven society), the effective use of dataand information, while qualifying with pri-vacy parameters, will be a cornerstone ofpublic discourse. Privacy is as old asmankind and has a close connection withhuman dignity, freedom and independenceof an individual. Maintaining privacy will bemore challenging in an age of informed soci-ety. Data privacy is a necessity so as to pre-serve and protect personal informationthat is collected by organisations. The fearof it being used by a third party is alwaysthere.

Data privacy assumes significance aspeople live with the app economy for theentire day, every day and every hour. Digital

citizens, while accessing variousapps, give in to the consentclause and in reciprocation for-feit intimate details to data com-panies by accepting the fine printof services that they receivethrough the app. Further, sever-al devices often track our move-ments, preferences and anyinformation they can mine fromour digital existence. This with-out the consent of the user.

Let us be clear at this stagethat collecting data, however pri-vate it may be, with the user’sconsent, implicit or explicit, forany purpose and using it for dataanalytics in anonymised form isnot a breach of privacy. Ofcourse, unless the data is person-alised and shared with otherplatforms or a third party. Thisseemingly is not the case withthe Aarogya Setu app at present.

The nation has just seen thatall efforts to curb the rapidspread of the Corona pandem-ic can be seriously affected dueto contact tracing. This can beminimised with the help ofdata-driven technology that col-lects contact history of individ-uals. Undoubtedly, contact his-tory is private but is used for apublic cause. Aarogya Setuensures just that and is a proofthat India is growing to be a dig-itally matured State.

Post the COVID pandem-ic, India will witness a rise inapp-driven socio-economicactivities. Every aspect of thedigital society — spanning from

e-commerce, digital marketingand learning, digital art and cul-ture, digital banking and trans-actions, social networking andsocial media, to digitalGovernment interventions —will spread ominously.

Collection of data, private orotherwise, is inevitable andunavoidable in a data-intensiveand algorithmically governedsociety. At the same time, the useof data responsibly while alsopreserving privacy should be theorder of the day.

This brings us to an impor-tant question: Is India preparedto regulate data laws in thecyberspace? Further, are the cit-izens digitally educated tounderstand the trade-offbetween “comfort” and “luxury”while using digital technologiesor when they share their data fora purpose? Are they aware of theprivacy concerns arising there-of? These questions need to beaddressed by digital communi-ties of a post-COVID society.

India’s legal system, too,can be construed as half pre-pared to deal with concerns aris-ing out of data privacy violationin the app economy and highlyintegrated digital age, eventhough the InformationTechnology Act (2008, amend-ed in 2011) provides the neces-sary legal regime for cybersecu-rity and protecting privacy con-cerns thereof.

With changing transnation-al contours of the app economy,

where the jurisdictional function-ality of service providers is ques-tionable and operates in clouds,India needs to consolidate andstrengthen data laws on priority.

The Personal DataProtection Bill, 2019, which isstill stuck in Parliament, intendsto regulate the processing of per-sonal data of individuals (dataprincipals) by the Governmentand private entities (data fiducia-ries). The Bill must providelegal teeth to data protectionauthorities to prosecute the datafiduciaries with penal actions.Such regulation, even if passed,cannot be effectively compliantin the context of lacking digitalcitizenship practices and eti-quette.

A post-COVID society anddemocracy in India will be dig-itally driven and will be con-verged around data privacy andsecurity that should not bedevalued due to the currentpolitical bickering on the instal-lation of the Aarogya Setu app.The app has only a limited pur-pose to contain the spread of theCorona infection. At the sametime, developers of the appmust take care to ensure that thedata collected for the purpose isnot intruded, de-anonymised orexploited by any other party.

(The writer is former Deanof the School of Computer andInformation Sciences at theUniversity of Hyderabad andcurrently the Vice Chancellor ofCentral University of Rajasthan))����������������*�� ����!� ����(

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “All for a drink” (May 5). Asthe fight against COVID-19entered its third phase with theGovernment providing consider-able relaxation in lockdown curbsas part of a phase-wise exit plan,hundreds of people have been lin-ing up before Government-runliquor shops, jostling and push-ing in complete defiance of socialdistancing norms. At most places,many buyers were not even wear-ing masks. The over one-month-long nationwide lockdown toprevent the spread of the viruswill become ineffective if theGovernment does not controlsuch crowding around the liquorshops.

MN QasmiKolkata

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Sir — The extended lockdownhas exposed the plight of themigrant workers. India of the1960s had dignified the ruraleconomy. Rural infrastructuresupport, that would have sus-tained income levels in agro-slack

seasons, was soft-pedalled, result-ing in migration.

Now, as restless migrantstried to set off for their villages,employers leveraged the lock-down to block the exodus toensure continuity to their farmand factory outputs. This 140 mil-lion strong migrant labour isvital to our economy, yet shock-

ingly, their status remains unde-fined. China has 300 millionworkers but it provides themwith more congenial work envi-ronment. It would be a pity if wenow fail to incorporate theexploited labour in the newscheme of things.

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Reality, not criticism” (May 5).The homecoming of migrantworkers on special trains is wel-come. But it is also the moralresponsibility of the Governmentto bear the cost of their train jour-

ney considering their tragedyand distress. It’s ironical that theGovernment could fly backstranded tourists back home forfree to display its efficiency to therest of the world.

Though after facing pressurefrom Opposition, the Centreclarified that the railways will pay85 per cent of the train fares andthe remaining 15 per cent will bepaid by the State Governments,the onus has been put on respec-tive States who are already reel-ing under tough conditions. Notto forget, there’s no accountabil-ity of the money being collectedin the name of the crisis in thePM Cares fund.

Nimai Charan SwainBhubaneswar

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Sir — The loss of three soldiersin Jammu and Kashmir is tragic.India must retaliate with fullmight. Only immediate forcefulaction will calm the people ofIndia.

JayantVia email

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Page 7:  · 2020-05-06 · +/2+1-.3%1!4(2!˜ While uncertainty looms large over holding of the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath this year scheduled on June 23 due to the …

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Adoctor contracted COVID-19 from a patientand succumbed to the virus on April 19 inChennai. The funeral of the doctor was

stopped by residents who assembled in large num-bers to oppose it. The Madras High Court, takingsuo moto cognisance of the despicable incident, saidthat Article 21 of the Constitution, which protectsthe life and personal liberty of all persons, includeswithin its ambit the right to a decent burial. The courtsaid that this doctor was deprived of his right to havea decent burial.

In another incident in Meghalaya, the local gov-erning bodies known as Durbar Shnong preventedthe cremation of a COVID-19 infected doctor.Consequently, the Meghalaya Bar Association fileda Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the High Court,against the State and local bodies. The court notedthat the State authorities handled the matter in aninept way and the obstructive conduct of the DurbarShnong would shock the conscience of every right-thinking individual.

The contemptible action of various groups toobstruct the dignified interment of doctors and otherhealthcare professionals has outraged the medicalfraternity and all citizens with a conscience. On April20, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said thatobjections to proper funerals of doctors and otherhealth workers, dying in the line of pandemic duty,is the last straw. The IMA demanded a specialCentral law to take stringent action against those whoindulge in violence against healthcare professionalsand hospitals. The IMA called for a “white alert”on April 22 and sought to declare April 23 as a “blackday” if its demands to protect the serving medicalfraternity were not met.

Soon after, the Union Cabinet passed theEpidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020which was then signed by the President. TheMinistry of Health and Family Welfare intended theOrdinance to ensure “zero tolerance” to any formof violence against healthcare professionals and dam-age to property. Significantly, in 2019 the HealthcareServices Personnel and Clinical Establishments(Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property)Bill, drafted by the Health Ministry to contain vio-lence against doctors, was rejected by the HomeMinistry, saying that there cannot be a separate leg-islation to protect the members of a particular pro-fession.

Hopefully, this Ordinance will make up for thepast errors and infuse confidence in the healthcarecommunity, that is on the frontline in our war againstthe pandemic. Though the passing of the Ordinanceitself is a positive decision by the Government, themoot question is whether the new law is adequateto protect doctors and other healthcare workers?

According to the Ordinance, an “act of violence”includes any of the following acts committedagainst healthcare personnel: Harassment impact-ing living or working conditions; harm, injury ordanger to life; obstruction in the discharge of dutiesand loss or damage to the property or documentsof the healthcare personnel.

Property is defined to include: Clinical estab-lishment; quarantine facility; mobile medical unit,and other property in which a healthcare worker hasa direct interest. Further, “healthcare personnel” arepeople, who while carrying out their duties in rela-tion to countering the epidemic, may come in directcontact with affected patients and thereby are at therisk of being impacted by such disease and includeany public and clinical healthcare providers such as

doctors, nurses, paramedical staff andcommunity health workers. The Ministryclaimed that while the citizens fully coop-erated with healthcare personnel most ofthe time, there were sporadic incidents ofviolence that demoralised the medical fra-ternity fighting the contagion. Therefore,it was felt that separate and stringent pro-visions for emergent times were neededto act as effective deterrents to any suchincidents of violence.

Though the Ministry makes tallclaims of zero tolerance, with very highaspirations of pacifying a demoralised andshaken medical fraternity, the Ordinancedoes not address the issue of attacks onhealthcare workers in normal circum-stances, after the pandemic is over.Assaults on them existed globally, longbefore COVID-19 reared its ugly head.Numerous pleas to protect medical staffhave fallen on deaf ears. According to theIMA, over 75 per cent of doctors and otherhealthcare professionals have faced vio-lence at work.

In 2012, a pregnant woman withobstetric complications died in Tuticorin.In retaliation, the attending doctor waskilled by the enraged husband. This trig-gered a call for a strike by the Tamil NaduGovernment Doctors’ Association. TheIMA has demanded that hospitals bedeclared as “protected zones” and calledfor strict implementation of laws in casesof violence against health professionals.

In 2014, angry relatives of a 14-year-old boy, who was declared “broughtdead” at a private hospital in Bathinda,Punjab, went on a rampage. They dam-aged the nursing home and burnt downthe doctor’s house. The Punjab StateChapter of the IMA demanded strictaction against those responsible for dam-aging the nursing home and the house ofthe doctor. Angry relatives of patients arenot the only ones who oppress medicalprofessionals, the Government set-up is

also equally guilty. Dr Indranil Khan, anoncologist, faced harassment after he post-ed images of doctors wearing raincoats ina COVID-19 ward of a Government hos-pital on social media. Police detained DrKhan, charged him with causing commu-nal disharmony and criminal intimidationand confiscated his phone.

A writ petition against his harassmentby the police was filed before the CalcuttaHigh Court. Justice Prasanna Mukherji ofthe Calcutta High Court said that freedomof speech and expression, which is grant-ed under Article 19 of the Constitution,has to be scrupulously upheld by the State.The court said that if an expression ofopinion brings the Government into dis-repute, it cannot defend the allegation byintimidation of the person expressing theopinion by subjecting him to prolongedinterrogation, threatening arrest, seizinghis mobile phone and SIM card.

In another incident, Dr PiyushPushkar Singh, who complained about theshortage of equipment and protectivemasks, was terminated by the Hindu RaoHospital for bringing disrepute to the insti-tution on April 15. Clearly, the EpidemicDiseases Ordinance, 2020, which is stat-ed to ensure the safety of healthcare pro-fessionals is not designed to protect DrKhan and Dr Singh.

Sadly, the COVID-19 outbreak led toa rash of attacks against doctors and otherhealth workers. Healthcare personneldeployed in rural areas were beaten andstopped from entering the villages and for“violating” the lockdown while going towork. The hurried promulgation of theOrdinance appears to be a knee-jerk reac-tion by the Government. First, theMinistry’s claim that the citizens fullycooperated with the healthcare workers isbelied by its own statement that incidentsof violence have occurred which demor-alised the medical fraternity. Second, theOrdinance only “protects” healthcare

personnel in an epidemic and not in gen-eral conditions. Therefore, this Ordinancedoes not afford any protection to the med-ical fraternity in a non-epidemic situation.

According to the World HealthOrganisation (WHO), health workersmust be provided with training on infec-tion prevention, given Personal ProtectionEquipment and technical updates. Theymust have a blame-free environment toreport on incidents such as exposure toblood or bodily fluids or violence.

The right to health i.e. the right to livein a hygienic and safe environment,flows from Article 21. According toArticle 47 the improvement of publichealth is the primary duty of the State.Justice Chandrachud said under Article21, the right to life is meaningless unlessaccompanied by the guarantee of certainconcomitant rights including, but not lim-ited to, the right to health. The right tohealth is understood to be indispensableto a life of dignity, well-being and includes,for instance, the right to emergencymedical care and the right to maintenanceand improvement of public health. In thecurrent situation, with the need to have aconducive and safe environment formedical professionals and the responsibil-ity of the State to provide for public health,the Government will be well-advised totake all steps to protect the medical fra-ternity from any form of lawlessness. TheCentre must consider enacting a stand-alone law that will enable hospitals andmedical personnel to work in a safe envi-ronment at all times, so as to attain theConstitutional aspiration of right tohealth for all citizens. While social distanc-ing is being advocated, medical profession-als do not have the privilege of workingremotely. The best form of applause to givethe doctors and medical personnel is togive them a safe working environment.

(The writer is Advocate Partner in alaw firm)

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The Indian subcontinent hasalways been extremely proneto natural disasters like floods,

earthquakes, landslides, avalanchesand storms. Statistics published inmedia reports suggest that post-Independence, till 2017, India haswitnessed 529 natural disasters,leaving aside those caused bydroughts, epidemics and extremetemperature. These disasters haveresulted in nearly 2,00,000 deathsand left hundreds of millions affect-ed in the country.

In all of these incidents, our

armed forces have been employedfor conduct of HumanitarianAssistance and Disaster Relief(HADR) missions, more often thannot, as the key nodal agency.

It, therefore, comes as a majorsurprise to all, especially the mili-tary leadership, when they findthemselves and the military on thefringes in this ongoing war againstthe pandemic, tasked with provid-ing only limited assistance on theperiphery.

That apparently appears to havebecome a source of immense anxi-ety and insecurity among theService Chiefs, forcing them to calla press conference to announce aseries of displays by elements of thethree Services and the Coast Guardto honour our “Corona warriors.”

If, on the other hand, these werethe directions of the Governmentthat they were complying with —which is also a major possibility —it shows them up as weak, only aim-ing to please their political bosses in

hopes of future rewards.To my mind, there appears to be

no other reasonable explanation forthis bizarre exercise, which obvious-ly appears to have, at least outward-ly, paid them some dividends, if thePrime Minister’s tweet means any-thing.

Let us not get it wrong. Thereis indeed much to be appreciative of,inasmuch as such displays gotowards building the morale of the“Corona warriors.” But did it reallyrequire the Chief of Defence Staffand the three Service Chiefs to makethe announcement? Is that whatthey have been reduced to? For thatmatter, was the scale that thismorale-boosting exercise wasundertaken at really necessary?

In such troubled times, sub-stance over showmanship wouldhave been better appreciated. Muchof that time, money and effort, couldand should, have been better utilisedin providing assistance to the vastnumbers of our citizenry who have

been rendered utterly destitute,hungry, without shelter and unableto reach their homes because of anill-planned and poorly-executednationwide lockdown.

Feeding the hungry, providingtented shelters for the homeless ortransport for the weary are not mat-ters that require approval from thehighest levels, just a humane bent ofmind at the local level. That in itselfwould have garnered enough good-will among the populace, withoutthis grasping for publicity that wewitnessed on television.

It should be seen as a positivestep that our military has not beencalled out in this disaster, except ofcourse for providing medical assis-tance where necessary. This suggeststhat our civil administration isfinally maturing and waking up toits duties, however poor its perfor-mance might have been this timearound.

In all fairness, this particulardisaster has been on an unprece-

dented scale. We neither anticipat-ed it nor were we prepared ortrained for it and errors were to beexpected.

It has been the bane of the mil-itary in the past that whenever a dis-aster occurred, it invariably led tothe civil administration and itsagencies all but abdicating theirresponsibilities, leaving it to the mil-itary to take over the process, coor-dinate and provide the requiredassistance. Examples are too numer-ous to quote but the floods that dev-astated Uttarakhand and Kashmir,in the past, best illustrate this phe-nomenon.

Clearly, as we look at and assessthe security environment in ourregion, there can be little doubt thatour military must take all necessaryprecautions to keep its units out ofharm’s way so that they can meettheir constitutional obligations andsuccessfully protect our sovereign-ty at a moment’s notice. Static unitsand those uncommitted opera-

tionally, spread out all over thecountry could have been utilised ina number of ways to provide suc-cour to our hard-pressed brethren.As a matter of fact, it was the bound-en duty of our Service Chiefs to haveinterceded with the Prime Ministerand have convinced him of the enor-mous range of assistance that ourforces were capable of providing.

Obviously the lack of PersonalProtection Equipment (PPE) with-in the forces may well have been animportant consideration for thehierarchy in whatever suggestionsthey may have made. In any case, the“Corona warriors” would have beenmore appreciative if they had beenprovided with PPE and protectionfrom rampaging mobs instead.

In fact, within the veteran com-munity, leaving aside a few, thesetheatrics have been seen as contraryto service norms and ethics, as theformer Naval chief, AdmiralLaxminarayan Ramdas’, article inone of our dailies makes it amply

clear.Instead of copying what the US

Air Force Aerobatics Teams did atNew York, we could have looked atthe more innovative ways theSpanish military was used to man-ufacture PPE. It may come as a sur-prise but various Ordnance Corpsestablishments within the Armyare authorised tailors and equipmentrepairers, who could have beengainfully employed to producemasks and other equipment.

Given the massive deficiency inPPE suits, even the OrdnanceParachute Factory at Kanpur couldhave been modified quickly tomass-produce them. An opportuni-ty to do good was truly squandered,leaving behind only a bitter taste inthe mouth that is unlikely to disap-pear any time soon.

(The author, a military veteranis a Consultant with the ObserverResearch Foundation and a SeniorVisiting Fellow with The PeninsulaFoundation, Chennai)

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AChinese medicalresearcher on the “verge of

making very significant” coro-navirus findings has beenfound shot dead in the US stateof Pennsylvania, media reportssaid on Wednesday.

University of Pittsburghprofessor Bing Liu, 37, wasfound dead inside his home inRoss Township, north ofPittsburgh, on Saturday withgunshot wounds to the head,neck, torso and extremities,according to the Ross PoliceDepartment.

Investigators believe anunidentified second man, HaoGu, 46 who was found dead inhis car, shot and killed Liu inhis home before returning tohis car and taking his own life,the Pittsburgh Post-Gazettereported.

Police believe the menknew each other, but say there

is “zero indication that therewas targeting due to his (Liu)being Chinese,” according toDetective Sgt. Brian Kohlhepp,the CNN reported.

The university issued astatement saying it is “deeply saddened by the trag-ic death of Bing Liu, a prolificresearcher and admired col-league at Pitt.

The University extends ourdeepest sympathies to Liu’sfamily, friends and colleaguesduring this difficult time.”

“Bing was on the verge ofmaking very significant find-ings toward understanding thecellular mechanisms thatunderlie SARS-CoV-2 infec-tion and the cellular basis of thefollowing complications,” hiscolleagues at the university’sDepartment of Computationaland Systems Biology said in astatement.

“He was a very talentedindividual, extremely intelligent

and hard-working,” said IvetBahar, the head of the compu-tational and system biologydepartment in Pitt’s School ofMedicine. Members of the uni-versity’s School of Medicinedescribe their former colleagueas an outstanding researcherand mentor, and have pledgedto complete Liu’s research “inan effort to pay homage to hisscientific excellence.”

Liu, who earned a Ph.D incomputational science fromthe National University ofSingapore, worked as a post-doctoral fellow at CarnegieMellon University beforebecoming a research associateat the University of PittsburghSchool of Medicine.

The deadly coronaviruswhich originated from theChinese city of Wuhan hasinfected over 3.67 million peo-ple and killed 258,051 peopleglobally, according to a tally byJohns Hopkins University.

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China on Wednesday daredUS Secretary of State Mike

Pompeo to show the “enor-mous evidence” he has to provethat the novel coronavirus orig-inated from a lab in Wuhan andasserted that the matter shouldbe handled by scientists insteadof politicians out of theirdomestic political compulsionsin an election year.

In recent days, USPresident Donald Trump andSecretary of State Pompeo haveclaimed that the deadly virusoriginated from the WuhanInstitute of Virology in the cen-tral Chinese city of Wuhan,where the outbreak was firstdetected last December. Thetwo leaders have also said thatChina has refused to give inter-national scientists access tolearn what happened.

The claim has drawn fierce

rebuttal from Beijing, which onWednesday described the accusation as “smear”intended to bolster PresidentTrump’s re-election chances inNovember.

“He (Pompeo) said ‘enor-mous evidence’. Then showus,” Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesperson Hua Chunyingtold a media briefing here.“Pompeo cannot present anyevidence because he does nothave any,” Hua said. “This mat-ter should be handled by sci-entists and professionalsinstead of politicians out oftheir domestic political need”.

China’s foreign ministrycalled the accusations a polit-ical strategy to “smear China”for Republicans ahead of the2020 election.

“The recently exposed USRepublican strategies showsthey are encouraged to attackChina under the pretext of the

virus,” Hua said, adding thatChina was “fed up with suchtricks.”

“We urge the US to stopspreading disinformation ormisleading the internationalcommunity. It should deal withits own problems and dealwith the pandemic at home,”she said. Hua said the head ofthe World Health Organisation(WHO) stated that the US hasnot presented any evidence toit so far to back up its claims.

“On the issue of the originof coronavirus, people have dif-ferent opinions. I think tracingthe origin is a very serious mat-ter. That should be researchedby scientists and professionals,”she said.

“Almost all top scientists,including those in the US,believe that this virus camefrom nature, not man-madeand there is no possibility thatit was leaked from a lab,” said.

“The WHO officials alsosaid all the evidence showedthat the virus is not man-made”, she said.

Hua also said all countriesmust examine the reports thatthe cases of Covid-19 werereported in some countries in

September and December lastyear. She said recent reportssaid coronavirus cases werereported in the US in October

last year. Reports from Francespoke of a coronavirus casedetected from a patient inDecember last year, Hua said.

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Asenior Chinese diplomatexpressed backing for the

World Health Organisation onWednesday, but said an invita-tion for the agency’s experts tovisit Wuhan to look into theorigins of the coronavirus mustwait until after the pandemic isbeaten.

“First things first: The toppriority for the time being is tofocus on the fight against thepandemic,” said Chen Xu,China’s ambassador to UNinstitutions in Geneva, whenasked about the timing of a

possible invitation for a WHOteam. “We need the right focusand allocation of ourresources.”

“So it’s not we are allergicto any kind of investigations,inquiries or evaluations,” hesaid, “as long as it will be ben-eficial to the internationalefforts.”

The comments from Chenamount to the latest Chinesediplomatic push, just as theUnited States has criticized theWHO over its handling of theCOVID-19 outbreak that hasinfected millions and killed atleast 2,50,000 people — and its

alleged coziness with Beijing.Chen said China is now on

board for an initiative led by theWHO, many European coun-tries and charity groups like theGates Foundation to expeditevaccines and COVID-19 treat-ment tools to developing coun-tries. He didn’t offer details onhow China would show itssupport.

The US meanwhile hasnot lined up for the Access toCOVID-19 Tools, or ACT,“Accelerator” that aims to helpthe most vulnerable countriesgain access to vaccines, diag-nostics and treatment tools for

the coronavirus as they emerge.President Donald Trump’s

administration has criticizedthe WHO’s handling of theearly outbreak and announceda suspension of funding fromthe US — the UN agency’s topdonor. Administration officialshave accused the WHO ofcovering up missteps as theoutbreak emerged in Wuhan.

Chen said the US was“duty-bound” to keep up itsfunding.

“We do hope that theAmericans could have secondthoughts, to come back to theright track,” he said.

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From the marbled halls ofItaly to the wheat fields of

Kansas, health authorities areincreasingly warning that thequestion isn’t whether a secondwave of coronavirus infectionsand deaths will hit, but when —and how badly.

In India, which relaxed itslockdown this week, healthauthorities scrambledWednesday to contain an out-break at a huge market. Hard-hit New York City shut downits subway system overnight fordisinfection. Experts in Italy,which just began easing somerestrictions, warned lawmakersthat a new surge of infections and deaths is com-ing, and they urged intensifiedefforts to identify victims, mon-itor their symptoms and tracetheir contacts.

German Chancellor AngelaMerkel said after meeting withthe country’s 16 governors thatrestaurants and remainingshops will be allowed to reopenin the coming weeks but thatrestrictions will be reimposed ifnew infections hit a certainlevel. “There will be a secondwave, but the problem is towhich extent. Is it a small waveor a big wave? It’s too early tosay,” said Olivier Schwartz, headof the virus and immunity unitat France’s Pasteur Institute.France, which hasn’t yet easedits lockdown, has worked up a“re-confinement plan” to readyfor that second wave.

Many areas are still strug-gling with the first wave. Brazilfor the first time locked downa large city, the capital ofMaranhão state. Across theocean, the number of con-firmed coronavirus cases inAfrica has shot up 42% in thepast week. Infections wereexpected to surpass 50,000 thereon Wednesday.

An Associated Press analy-sis, meanwhile, found that U.S.infection rates outside the NewYork City area are in fact rising,notably in rural areas. It found

New York’s progress against thevirus was overshadowingincreasing infections elsewhere.

“Make no mistakes: Thisvirus is still circulating in ourcommunity, perhaps even morenow than in previous weeks,”said Linda Ochs, director of theHealth Department in ShawneeCounty, Kansas.

The virus is known to haveinfected more than 3.6 millionand killed more than 251,000people, according to a tally byJohns Hopkins that all expertsagree is an undercount becauseof limited testing, differences incounting the dead and con-cealment by some governments.

The U.S. has seen over71,000 deaths amid its 1.2 mil-lion confirmed infections, andEurope has endured over144,000 reported deaths.

“Burying both parents atthe same time? It’s hard,” saidDesmond Tolbert, who lost hismother and father in ruralGeorgia. Because they had thevirus, he couldn’t be with themwhen they died.

The researchers behind awidely cited model from theUniversity of Washington near-ly doubled their projection ofdeaths in the U.S. to around134,000 through early August,in large part because of the eas-ing of state stay-at-home restric-tions.

President Donald Trump,with his eye on being reelectedin November, is pushing hard toease the social-distancing ordersand resuscitate the U.S. econo-my, which has seen over 30 mil-lion workers lose their jobs inless than two months. Thoughthe White House had signaledTuesday that it would beginwinding down the country’scoronavirus task force, Trumptweeted Wednesday that itwould continue “indefinitelywith its focus on SAFETY &OPENING UP OUR COUN-TRY AGAIN.”

Underscoring those eco-nomic concerns, the EuropeanUnion predicted the worstrecession in its quarter-century

history, and the U.S. unem-ployment rate for April, whichcomes out Friday, is expected tohit a startling 16 percent, a levellast seen during the GreatDepression of the 1930s.

A century ago, the Spanishflu epidemic’s second wave wasfar deadlier than its first, in partbecause authorities allowedmass gatherings fromPhiladelphia to San Francisco.

As Italy’s lockdown easedthis week, Dr. Silvio Brusaferro,president of the SuperiorInstitute of Health, urged “ahuge investment” of resources totrain medical personnel to mon-itor possible new cases. He saidtracing apps — which are beingbuilt by dozens of countries andcompanies — aren’t enough tomanage future waves of infec-tion.

“We are not out of the epi-demic. We are still in it. I don’twant people to think there’s nomore risk and we go back tonormal,” said Dr. GiovanniRezza, head of the institute’sinfectious-disease department.

Lothar Wieler, head ofGermany’s national disease con-trol center, said scientists “knowwith great certainty that therewill be a second wave” of infec-tions but said Germany is well-prepared to deal with it. Thecountry has been hailed for test-ing widely and has had one-fourth the number of deaths inItaly or Britain, which havesmaller populations.

Britain has begun recruiting18,000 people to trace contactsof those infected. British officialsacknowledge that they shouldhave done more testing and trac-ing earlier and could learn fromSouth Korea, which brought itsoutbreak under control by rig-orously testing, tracing and iso-lating infected people.

South Africa, which hasyears of experience trackingHIV and other infections, hasmore than 30,000 experiencedcommunity tracers at work.Turkey has 5,800 teams of con-tact tracers who have trackeddown and tested nearly half a

million people.India was concentrated on

the immediate drama aroundthe market in the southern cityof Chennai, which is now tiedto at least 1,000 virus cases. Anadditional 7,000 people con-nected to the now-shutteredKoyambedu market are beingtraced and quarantined. Expertsare worried about a health cat-astrophe in a country of 1.3 bil-lion people with an alreadystressed medical system.

New confirmed daily infec-tions in the U.S. exceed 20,000,and deaths per day are well over1,000, according to the JohnsHopkins tally. And public healthofficials warn that the failure tolower the infection rate couldlead to many more deaths —perhaps tens of thousands — aspeople venture out and busi-nesses reopen.

“The faster we reopen, thelower the economic cost — butthe higher the human cost,because the more lives lost,”New York Gov. Andrew Cuomosai d. “That, my friends, is thedecision we are really making.”

New York City Mayor Billde Blasio warned on CNN thatsome states may be reopeningtoo quickly.

“My message to the rest ofthe country is learn from howmuch effort, how much disci-pline it took to finally bringthese numbers down and followthe same path until you’re surethat it’s being beaten back,” hesaid, “or else if this thingboomerangs, you’re putting offany kind of restart or recoverya hell of a lot longer.”

Trump acknowledged thetoll but argued that keeping theUS economy closed carriesdeadly costs of its own, such asdrug abuse and suicides.

“I’m not saying anything isperfect, and yes, will some peo-ple be affected? Yes. Will somepeople be affected badly? Yes.But we have to get our countryopen and we have to get it opensoon,” he said during a visit toArizona in which he did notwear a face mask.

Geneva: At least 90,000 health-care workers worldwide arebelieved to have been infectedwith Covid-19, and possiblytwice that, amid reports ofcontinuing shortages of pro-tective equipment, theInternational Council of Nurses(ICN) said on Wednesday.

The disease has killed morethan 260 nurses, it said in astatement, urging authorities tokeep more accurate records tohelp prevent the virus fromspreading among staff andpatients.

The Geneva-based associ-ation said a month ago that 100nurses had died in the pan-demic sparked by a novel coro-navirus that emerged in thecentral Chinese city of Wuhanlate last year.

“The figure for health careworkers infections has risenfrom 23,000 to we think morethan 90,000, but that is still anunder-estimation because it is

not (covering) every country inthe world,” Howard Catton,ICN’s chief executive officer,told Reuters Television in itslakeside offices.

The 90,000 estimate isbased on information collect-ed on 30 countries fromnational nursing associations,government figures and mediareports. The ICN represents130 national associations andmore than 20 million registerednurses.

Catton, noting that 3.5million cases of Covid-19 havebeen reported worldwide, said:“If the average health workerinfection rate, about 6 percentwe think, is applied to that, thefigure globally could be morethan 2,00,000 health workerinfections on Wednesday.

“The scandal is thatGovernments are not system-atically collecting and report-ing on this information. Itlooks to us as though they are

turning a blind eye which wethink is completely unacceptable and will costmore lives,” Catton, a Briton,added.

The World HealthOrganization (WHO), which iscoordinating the globalresponse to the pandemic, saysthat its 194 member states arenot providing comprehensivefigures on health worker infec-tions as they grapple with theunprecedented crisis.

The WHO last said onApril 11 that some 22,000health workers were thought tohave been infected.

The ICN said it nowbelieves those “shocking” fig-ures to significantly underesti-mate the reality.

“This failure to record bothinfection rates and deathsamong healthcare workers isputting more nurses and theirpatients in danger,” the state-ment said. Agency

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There are no signs NorthKorean leader Kim Jong Un

received heart surgery when hedisappeared from state mediafor three weeks, but he reduced public activity due tocoronavirus concerns, SouthKorean lawmakers briefed bythe spy agency said onWednesday.

Kim attended the comple-tion of a fertiliser plant, NorthKorea’s official media said onSaturday, the first report of his appearing in public sinceApril 11.

His absence fuelled a flur-ry of speculation about hishealth and whereabouts, witha South Korean news outletreporting Kim was recovering

from a cardiovascular proce-dure while CNN said US officials were monitoringIntelligence he was “in gravedanger” after surgery.

Members of South Korea’sparliamentary Intelligencecommittee said after a meetingwith the National IntelligenceService (NIS) that the reportswere “groundless.”

“The NIS assesses that atleast he did not get any heart-related procedure or surgery,”committee member KimByung-kee told reporters.

“He was normally per-forming his duties when he wasout of the public eye.”

“At least there’s no heart-related health problem.”

But the lawmaker said KimJong Un only made 17 public

appearances so far this year,compared with an average of 50from previous years, whichthe National IntelligenceService (NIS) ascribed to a pos-sible coronavirus outbreak inNorth Korea.

“Kim Jong Un had focusedon consolidating internal affairs such as military forcesand party-state meetings, andcoronavirus concerns have further limited his public activity,” Kim Byung-kee said.

“Though North Koreamaintains it has zero cases, itcannot be ruled out that there is an outbreak theregiven they had active people-to-people exchanges withChina before closing the bor-der in late January.”

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Page 9:  · 2020-05-06 · +/2+1-.3%1!4(2!˜ While uncertainty looms large over holding of the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath this year scheduled on June 23 due to the …

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The unprecedented increasein excise duty on petrol and

diesel by �10 and �13 per litreon Tuesday may not be the endof the government’s exercise tofleece the two petroleum prod-ucts for additional revenuethis year.

Sources indicated that thatanother �3-6 per litre increasein excise duty on petrol anddiesel may come midway dur-ing the year if government feltthe need to mobilise moreresources to finance addition-al economic recovery packagesto fight Covid-19 related dis-ruptions.

This level of increase couldprovide government addition-al revenue to the tune of�60,000 crore for full year.

In March, government hadtaken Parliamentary approvalto raise special additional exciseduty on petrol to �18 per litreand on diesel to �12 per litrebut did not change the levythen. On Tuesday, special addi-tional excise duty has beenraised to �12 on petrol and to�9 on diesel. This leavesGovernment with the space toincrease excise duty on petrolby a further �6 per litre and ondiesels by �3 per litre.

“This is the option with theGovernment that could be con-

sidered later in the yeardepending on the need andprevailing global oil prices. Ifglobal oil and product pricesremain at current levels orlower, a further duty hike thisyear is a strong possibility,” saida source from public sector oilmarketing company.

For consumers, any furtherincrease in duty should notimpact much as retail pricesmay be left unchanged or mar-ginally increased as lower oilprices would allow for absorb-ing any increase in price.

However, a further increasein taxes on fuel would make theproduct most taxed globally.

The current taxes accountfor close to 70 per cent of theprice of petrol and diesel. Withany further increase in duty,this Fichte could reach 75-80

per cent level.Higher retail price is not an

option for the government atthis juncture as it could pushinflation.

According to Barclays theestimate is that the centralgovernment’s revenue benefitfrom the additional hikes infuel taxes undertaken onTuesday, could be as much as�1.4 lakh crore (0.67% of GDP)on an annual basis. This is ontop of an estimated �2.8 lakhcrore already being collected bythe central government fromthe fuel tax/cess, which wouldbring the total contribution tocentral exchequer from fueltaxes to �4.4 lakh crore (~ 2.1%of GDP). These projectionsassume that demand for bothpetrol and diesel will fall 12%in FY20-21.

New Delhi: In a relief to tele-com major Bharti Airtel, theDelhi High Court has directedthe Centre to verify the com-pany’s claim of excess GST of�923 crore within two weeksand refund the amount onceverified. Bharti Airtel allegedthat there was excess paymentof taxes, by way of cash, to thetune of around �923 crore.

“This was occasioned to agreat degree due to non-oper-ationalisation of Forms GSTR-2A, GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 andthe system related checkswhich could have forewarnedthe petitioner about the mis-take. Petitioner now desires tocorrect its returns, but is beingprevented from doing so, asthere is no enabling statutoryprocedure implemented by theGovernment,” said the judge-ment copy.

“We also direct theRespondents that on filing ofthe rectified Form GSTR-3B,they shall, within a period oftwo weeks, verifythe claimmade therein and give effect tothe same once verified,” theHigh Court said. IANS

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Markets found firmerground on Wednesday

after two sessions of losses asinvestors made a cautiousreturn to some recently-bat-tered banking, finance andauto counters.

Dismal macroeconomicdata and rising concerns overthe country’s economic outlookamid rising Covid-19 casescapped the gains, traders said.

After swinging over 800points during the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex closed 232.24points or 0.74 per cent higherat 31,685.75.

On similar lines, the NSENifty rose 65.30 points, or 0.71per cent, to finish at 9,270.90.

M&M was the top gainerin the Sensex pack, spurting5.27 per cent, followed by BajajFinance, HDFC Bank, BhartiAirtel, ICICI Bank, HeroMotoCorp and HDFC.

On the other hand, ITCcracked 5.81 per cent. HUL,TCS, Titan and Infosys tooended in the red.

According to traders, eco-nomic uncertainty due to theCovid-19 pandemic, mutedcorporate earnings and weak

macroeconomic data keptinvestors wary.

India’s service sector activ-ity plummeted to a historic low

in April amid the coronaviruslockdown.

The IHS Markit IndiaServices Business Activity

Index stood at just 5.4 in April,from 49.3 in March — the mostsevere contraction in servicesoutput since records began inDecember 2005.

“Markets were volatile as9,100 levels held out as a keysupport for the Nifty in a dayof mixed gains for its con-stituents. Financials led thegains, in anticipation of stim-ulus measures while FMCG,bluechip IT stocks and OMCsdisappointed.

“The volatility in theindices is expected to contin-ue as investors look out fortrading cues in the form ofstimulus measures by the gov-ernment and global markettrends,” said Vinod Nair, Headof Research at Geojit FinancialServices.

BSE finance, telecom,bankex, auto, basic materialsand realty indices climbed upto 2.46 per cent, while FMCG,consumer durables, IT andenergy closed lower.

Broader BSE midcap andsmallcap indices rose up to 0.78per cent. Global equities weremixed as investors tracked therising coronavirus cases andescalating US-China tensions.

Bourses in Shanghai, Hong

Kong and Seoul settled withsignificant gains, while Tokyowas closed for a holiday.

European markets weretrading on a cautious note inearly deals. International oilbenchmark Brent crude futuresrose 1.65 per cent to USD31.48 per barrel.

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Telecom regulator Trai onWednesday resumed its

customary open house discus-sion (OHD) on pending mat-ters through video-conferencebut the issue of floor price oftariffs is unlikely to be taken upvia online mode for now, till theongoing situation arising fromCovid-19 pandemic stabilises,a source said.

The Trai source said the reg-ulator may soon come out witha consultation paper dealingwith bill shocks in internation-al mobile roaming, that will seekto address the issues faced byconsumers in terms of loss ofconnectivity, and high bills.

The modalities of the con-sultation paper will be finalisedsoon, and it may be releasedwithin a month.

The Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (Trai) has, sofar, lined up at least two OHDs— a standard practice followedby it to take verbal inputs fromindustry and public on specif-ic issues — through video-con-ference for this month.

The source said in all prob-ability an OHD will also beorganised on the issue of“transparency in publishing oftariff offers”, by month end.

Besides, at least 3-4 other

OHDs will take place nextmonth through video-confer-ence, and online will be the reg-ular mode for such discussionstill things get back to normal.Even once things are back to nor-mal, OHDs may assume a hybridformat, to ensure increased par-ticipation, the source added.

However, the issue of fix-ing floor price of tariffs may notfigure immediately in OHD viavideo-conference, the sourcesaid adding that some of thepending matters are likely to betaken up first.

Also, given the ongoingscenario of coronavirus pan-demic and the difficulties facedby people, Trai may wait forsituation to stabilise before itproceeds to the OHD stage onfloor price issue, the sourcesaid. When contacted, CellularOperators’ Association of India(COAI)Director General RajanMathews recently told PTI thatthe regulator is aware of theindustry’s sense of urgency,but that the industry will waitfor Trai to take a call.

Stating that telcos are cur-rently focusing on ensuringuptime, quality of service andengaging with the Governmentto open retail recharge facilities,Mathews said the “issue offloor price will emerge once weget past Covid-19 situation”.

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Automobile majors, includ-ing Maruti Suzuki India,

Mercedes-Benz, TVS Motor,and Royal Enfield, onWednesday announcedresumption of or plans torestart production at theirrespective manufacturing unitsfollowing relaxation of guide-lines by the Government forthe third phase of lockdown.

The country’s largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India(MSI) said it would resumeoperations at its Manesar plantfrom May 12. The Gurugramdistrict administration hadallowed MSI to run Manesarfacility on a single shift basis,while fixing the total numberof employees at plant at 4,696.

The company’s Manesar(Haryana) plant is outside thelimits of Gurugram MunicipalCorporation, while itsGurugram plant falls within thecity limits.

The two plants in Haryanahave an installed capacity to roll

out 15.5 lakh units per annum.Operations at the facilities aresuspended since March 22.

Hyundai Motor India,which is yet to start rolling outvehicles from its Chennai plantthough it has commencedpreparations to do so, saidaround 250 company dealer-ships have resumed operationsacross various States.

On the other hand,Mercedes-Benz India said ithas resumed production at itsmanufacturing facility inChakan, Pune.

The production has com-menced in a graded mannerfollowing directives from the

Government of Maharashtra toreopen and resume operations,the company said in a state-ment. Similarly, Chennai-basedTVS Motor Company said ithas commenced operations inIndia across all factories inHosur, Mysuru and Nalagarh,while niche bike maker Royal Enfield also said it hasresumed operations at its man-ufacturing plants.

However, Honda CarsIndia Ltd (HCIL) said lack ofrequired workforce is makingit difficult for the company toresume operations at its twomanufacturing plants, butadded that its dealerships have

started to open across thecountry.

The automaker, which sellsmodels like City and Amaze,said that with new relaxationsfrom the Government, it isplanning to restart operationsat Tapukara plant in Rajasthan

sometime next week.Likewise, utility vehicle

maker Isuzu Motors India alsosaid said it has receivedapprovals from local authoritiesto resume operations at its plantin SriCity, Andhra Pradesh.

Similarly, tyre major MRFLtd said it has partially resumedoperations in most of its plantswith restricted manpower, fol-lowing relaxation of lockdownguidelines by the Government.

The Home Ministry hadallowed factories in rural areasor those outside municipallimits to resume productionunder strict safety and hygiene guidelines fromMonday with an aim to kick-start economic activity in thethird phase of lockdown tillMay 17.

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The rupee depreciated 9 paiseto close at 75.72 against the

US dollar on Wednesday due togrowth concerns as a surveyshowed that the services sectorcontracted in April.

Weakness in Asian cur-rencies following Chinese yuandropping by 0.6 per centagainst the US dollar and sus-tained foreign fund outflowsalso weighed on the rupee.

Inflation concerns follow-ing the Centre and some statesincreased taxes on petroleumproducts also hit investor sen-timent.

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Shares of oil marketing com-panies — Indian Oil

Corporation Ltd, BharatPetroleum Corporation Ltdand Hindustan PetroleumCorporation Ltd — onWednesday trimmed most oftheir early losses at close oftrade after plunging up to 13per cent during the day afterhike in excise duty on petroland diesel.

Shares of HindustanPetroleum Corporation Ltd(HPCL) settled 5.68 per centlower, Indian Oil Corporation(IOC) slumped 2.73 per centand Bharat PetroleumCorporation Ltd (BPCL) fell0.94 per cent on the BSE.

During the day, HPCLtanked 13 per cent, BharatPetroleum 9.99 per cent andIndian Oil 7.49 per cent.

Late on Tuesday evening,the Government hiked exciseduty on petrol by �10 per litreand that on diesel by �13 a litreto mop up gains arising frominternational oil prices fallingto a two-decade low.

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Enquiries regarding residen-tial properties across major

cities by prospective buyershave increased during the lock-down, courtesy the onlineroute, although sales remainedsubdued, according to a reportby 360 Realtors.

The report noted that thecoronavirus pandemic contin-ues to undermine growth in theIndian realty sector, as demandhas softened in most of themajor cities.

“The industry showedsome resilience by leveragingthe digital medium, but aknock-off in site visits andsales was inevitable. The num-bers plunged, thereby tankingoverall sentiments.Interestingly, there was a steeprise in enquiries as people are

having plenty of extra time dueto lockdown,” it said.

In Pune, the monthlyenquiries grew by 220 per centin April, while in Bengaluru,the rise is pegged at 140 percent, said. In Noida, it was up58 per cent, followed byMumbai where enquiries roseby 56 per cent.

Ankit Kansal, Founder andMD, 360 Realtors said: “Due tolockdown, most of the peopleare working from home, whichis giving them ample time toresearch and learn more aboutproperties.

Although COVID has trig-gered uncertainty and volatil-ity in the market, it is alsoenabling wide-scale behav-ioural changes. Across the valuechain, spurred adoption of thedigital medium is visible.”

In terms of demand, the

report said that the distress ismore visible in markets likeGurugram, where a sharp 70per cent monthly reduction intransaction volumes has beenregistered.

However, in other IT-cen-tric markets like Pune andBengaluru, the deceleration ismore indistinct, as realtors cansell properties through onlineplatforms.

It observed that theremight be a possible compres-sion of 10-25 per cent in theoffice rentals. The report fur-ther revealed that renewedleasing will be in the range of20-25 million square feet in theyear, a notable dip of around 50per cent.

However, strata leasing andsmall ticket size sales of �50-70 lakhs will continue toinfuse momentum.

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The outbreak of Covid-19pandemic and the subse-

quent national lockdownimplemented to curb its spread,has led to a massive declin e inIndia’s service sector output inApril, a macro-economic datapoint sho wed on Wednesday.

Accordingly, the IHSMarkit India Services BusinessActivity Index showed a read-ing of 5.4 in April, which is anextreme decline from 49.3 inMarch, and indicative of themost severe contraction in ser-vices output since recordsbegan in December 2005.

An index reading of above50 indicates an overall increasein economic act ivity and below50, an overall decrease.

The survey panellists saidthe activity fell severely as a

result of the n ationwide lock-down, leading businesses toshut down their operations asdema nd collapsed.

“Approximately 97 per centof survey respondents observeda reduction in o utput, high-lighting the widespread impactof the Covid-19 pandemic,” thereport said.

Similarly, the CompositePMI Output Index, which mea-sures the combined ser vicesand manufacturing output,sank to a new record low inApril.

“At 7.2, the index fell from50.6 in March and was indica-tive of an unprec edenteddecline in private sector busi-ness activity,” the report said.

“The latest reading wasthe smallest by some margin,eclipsing the previos low seenin February 2009.”

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US stocks closed higher asmarket sentiment was

boosted by a strong rally in oilprices and hopes for restartingthe economy.

On Tuesday, the Dow JonesIndustrial Average increased133.33 points, or 0.56 per cent,to 23,883.09, after jumpingmore than 400 points earlier inthe session, Xinhua newsagency reported.

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Overall sale of luxury properties across thekey markets of National Capital Region

(NCR), Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR)and Bengaluru rose by 9 per cent in 2019 on ayear-on-year (YoY) basis to 40,376 units,according to a PropEquity report.

As per the report, supply of luxury units roseby 7 per cent in 2019 across the three metrosto 31,230 units and the unsold inventory in thesegment declined 9 per cent 95,965 units.

Sale of luxury housing in Delhi-NCR wit-nessed a growth of 17 per cent in 2019,whileBengaluru and MMR saw a growth of 10per cent and 6 per cent respectively.

Samir Jasuja, Founder and MD ofPropEquity said: “There was a limited demand

for luxury housing projects across India withready-to-move-in options by Grade-A devel-opers seeing some traction in 2019. Going ahead,we can expect some decent uptake for ready tomove in and nearing completion luxury projectsby renowned developers in top cities.”

He further said that as corona pandemic isexpected to subside in the next few months, themarket may witness a positive spike in luxurydemand as buyers who were delaying their deci-sions would enter the market.

“New supply of luxury housing units inDelhi-NCR jumped by 37 per cent to 8,026 unitsin 2019, whereas Mumbai Metropolitan Region(MMR) saw a marginal growth of only 3 per centto 15,720 units and new supply fell by 8 per centto 7,484 units in the same period in Bengaluru,”it said the report.

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In the backstage hallways ofWashington DC’s Capital One

Arena, Michelle Obama walksarm-in-arm with her husband,Barack Obama. She has just fin-ished the third stop on whatwould be a 34-city book tour ofsuch unprecedented scale that italmost resembled a Beyoncéconcert tour.

Nadia Hallgren’s camera istrailing them when Michelle per-haps looking for reassurance,asks the former president: “Doesit seem like a show that you’d liketo see?”

Hallgren’s documentary,Becoming, is — more so thanwe’ve seen before — the MichelleObama Show. It captures the for-mer first lady, in settings bothpublic and intimate, navigatingher post-White House life, inter-acting with fans and generallyfostering a spirit of positivity, self-belief and hope that few besideher husband are capable ofinspiring.

“My life is starting to be mineagain,” she says in the film.“There’s another chapter waitingfor me out there.”

Becoming, which debutsWednesday on Netflix, is anextension of her 2018 best-sell-ing memoir of the same nameand a kind of authorised filmicportrait of Obama. It’s producedby Higher Ground Productions,the film company founded by theObamas.

Before now, Higher Groundhas backed well-received, social-ly-minded documentaries aboutAmerican labour (the Oscar-

winning American Factory) andthe disability rights movement(the acclaimed Sundance-winnerCrip Camp: A DisabilityRevolution). It’s been an auspi-cious, award-winning beginningfor Higher Ground, the mostambitious post-White Housedive into Hollywood of any for-mer US president. WithBecoming, one half of HigherGround now steps in front of thecamera, too.

The film, itself, was a secretuntil last week when Netflixannounced its forthcoming pre-miere. Hallgren typically workedwith small crews or just by her-self. Much of Becoming takesplace either in arenas crowdedwith cameras or in private set-tings — the back seat of an SUV,the childhood home of Obama— so few would have spotted her.

“I think if people saw me, itprobably looked very unofficial,”chuckles Hallgren. KeepingBecoming clandestine still wasn’teasy, though. “My closest friendshad no idea what I was doing,”Hallgren says. “People werealways like, ‘What are you upto?’”

Hallgren is a veteran docu-mentary cinematographer

(Trouble the Water, Girl Rising,Trapped) making her featuredirectorial debut. The job,Hallgren believes, she won fromher body of work and, as first

gleaned in a high-pressure meet-ing with Obama, their similari-ties. “She’s from the South Side.I’m from the South Bronx,” saysthe New York-bred filmmaker.

Unlike the interview-heavyHulu doc-series Hillary on HillaryClinton, Hallgren’s approach ismostly fly-on-the-wall, mixingglossy onstage footage of Obama’stalks with the likes of OprahWinfrey, Reese Witherspoon andStephen Colbert with more per-sonal scenes offstage. Obamareflects on her eight years in theWhite House and the often racist-tinged response they engendered.“You hope people were moreready for us than maybe theywere,” she says.

Obama doesn’t analyse the2016 election or the rise ofDonald Trump except for onecomment lamenting the turnoutof African American voters.“That’s my trauma,” she says.

But the main trust ofBecoming is not just Obama’sstory but what she inspires —how one story begets others.Hallgren, drawing from the pho-tography of Garry Winogrand,lingers on the faces in Obama’scrowds, and in some cases takesa moment to follow their lives.Becoming may be part concertfilm but it’s nearly as interested inthe audience as it is in the show-stopper on stage.

“Often times when Obama

was on stage, I was not the maincamera filming her,” saysHallgren. “So I had the opportu-nity to walk around. There wassuch an incredible energy inthose arenas. The excitementthat people had felt special. Ithought: I want to capture this.”

The timing of of the docu-mentary is interesting not justbecause it captures a sense ofcommunity before people wereforced into lockdown by the pan-demic but because it comes in themiddle of the presidential cam-paign. The Deadline review of thefilm isn’t alone in maintaining: “IfMichelle Obama wasn’t soadamant that she isn’t running forpublic office, the perfectly timedthe documentary would sureseem like a campaign launch.”

Obama, however, has stead-fastly maintained she’s not apolitical figure and hasn’t beforeofficially endorsed a candidate.Obama decline to be interviewedfor this article but she released astatement when Becoming wasannounced.

“Even as we can no longersafely gather or feed off the ener-gy of groups, even as many of usare living with grief, lonelinessand fear, we need to stay open andable to put ourselves in other peo-ple’s shoes. Empathy is our lifelinehere. It’s what will get us to theother side,” said Obama. “Let’s useit to redirect our attention towardwhat matters most, reconsiderour priorities, and find ways tobetter remake the world in theimage of our hopes.”

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It started with a small trickle with thesharing of screenshots of chats of anInstagram group by an individual

and, within a few hours, became a del-uge. Soon social media was agog withthe workings of the (now infamous)‘bois locker room,’ where boys (andgirls) spoke graphically about girlstheir age. Within three days, therehave been enough twists and turns tomatch a thriller with arrests, leaking ofmore chats and name calling. But thisis certainly not the first, and certainlynot the last case where juveniles havebeen involved in cyber crime.

Experts who follow juvenile behav-iour acquiesce. Dr Samir Parikh,Director and Head of Department ofMental Health and BehaviouralSciences, Fortis Healthcare says that thecase didn’t come as a surprise. “We arebasically a hibernating society andneed something to wake us up for somedays, intellectualise it and then returnto slumber. There are million other inci-dents out there,” he says.

Supreme Court advocate PavanDuggal, who specialises in Cyberlawsays, “The lockdown period has seen thehighest spike in cyber crime in 20 yearssince the internet was introduced inIndia.”

Of course, there are a number ofreasons why such incidents take place.

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Societal norms hold parents respon-sible for bringing up children andimparting values. Consequently, the firstfingers always point in their directionwhenever youngsters are involved inbehaviour that is deemed unacceptable.Dr Geetanjali Kumar, counselling psy-chologist and parenting coach for 22years points out the gaps in present-dayparenting. “Children have a sense ofentitlement which springs from guiltcompensatory parenting. The latestphones, the smartest TV in each bed-room are gifted by adults to make up fornot spending time with children.” Thequestion to ask is why do youngstersneed these rather than fulfilling everywhim.

An extension of this is the way par-ents cover up their wards’ misde-meanours. “There is no sense of own-ership and responsibility as we haven’tmade them realise that every action hasconsequences,” says Dr Kumar. A

missed test in school sees parentsshooting off explanatory letters. “If thechild hasn’t finished the assigned work,we are quick to say it doesn’t matter andwe will pay the tutor,” says Dr Kumar.The boundaries for the lack of respon-sibility keep on extending to underageor drunken driving and more.

Etishree Bhati, clinical psychologist,says, “There are two kinds of parents.Ones who approach the problem calm-ly and question whether it was curios-ity or sexual arousal that made the childdo this? The other kind are harsh anddon’t try to understand the reasons.Their children are more likely to engagein this behaviour repeatedly, of course,secretly.”

Role modelling too comes intoplay. When the first thing a parent doesin the morning is to scroll the mobile,how can they admonish the child for thesame?

��������� �Society is in a state of flux where

the greys are more prominent while theclear-cut demarcation between rightand wrong has been obliterated. RajatMitra, Professor of Clinical Psychology,Amity University, who has workedextensively with juveniles and appearedin several hundred cases in court toassist its proceedings says, “Many par-ents are indifferent and haven’t takenany assertive stand about value forma-tion.” He recalls an incident whenDelhi Police found minors, both girlsand boys, from upper middle class fam-ilies in a state of undress and engagingin sexual acts in a public place. “Parentsdismissed the behaviour by sayingthat the children were just having funpost exams. Right and wrong havebecome relative unlike in the pastwhen values were absolute,” pointsout Mitra further elaborating thatmost people feel that if it seems right,it must be so.

Bhati extends the argument further.She points out that 15 years ago, edu-cators were talking about limiting chil-dren’s screen time on parents’ deviceand now every child has a personal one.“During lockdown, children retreat totheir rooms on the pretext of onlineclasses but neither the parents nor theteachers are aware of what they aredoing. Even during a class they mightbe chatting or visiting adult sites,” shesays.

������ ��������These blurring lines and easy access

to pornography, with inherent vio-lence, without any influence of ethicshas repercussions. Mitra says, “Between15-20 per cent adolescents get into vio-lent sexual fantasies and some actual-ly commit them.”

Violent and vulgar sexual languageseen in the ‘bois locker room’ screen-shots is indicative of a violent streak.“This violence associated with thecrime gives them a high more than thecrime itself,” says Mitra.

Another attribute of the young is thelove of risk taking. Dr Kumar says, “Theregulatory mechanism of the brainwhich advises caution isn’t developed asyet which makes the prohibited moreattractive.”

��� �������What sparked outrage about the

‘bois locker room’ incident was that itconsisted of a group, rather than justindividuals, engaging in lewd conver-sations. Mitra explains, “The boys givecollective shape to the violent fantasiesas they don’t have to feel individualguilt. It is the same psychology at workwhen crowds burn, kill, loot and rapein the actual world absolving individ-ual responsibility. This is replicated dig-itally.”

� "����"���������� Often we have seen that even at din-

ner tables people are glued to their indi-vidual mobiles. This effectively meansa lack of communication. “Even the sib-ling bond isn’t strong as children do noteven watch TV together,” says DrKumar.

A lack of communication leads toan inability to express emotions and ascarcity of emotional vocabulary. “Weneed to generate thinking with a logi-cal and emotional perspective whereyou can define the whys and hows ofemotions. Children get frustratedbecause they can’t talk to anyoneabout their concerns like changingbody, hormone surge and more,” sheadds.

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The lack of communication meansthat they lack the arsenal to deal withtheir raging hormones. “Will it be donerespectfully or in a vulgar fashion is

what makes or breaks the situation. I’vehad cases where 15-year-old girls haveshared explicit photographs with boysand when discovered, threatened toslash their wrists if the parents say any-thing. The boys asking for photographsand the girls doing it willingly all pointin the direction,” says Kumar.

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A change in the visual and vocab-ulary landscape of the media with theadvent of first, cable television, and now,OTT platforms has been blamed formany societal ills. Dr Parikh says,“Attitudes and behaviours are formed byobservation and imitation. The mostaccessible observable source is themedia. Lack of censorship is taken as asign of free thinking but if we see thetop two-three shows on any streamingplatform and their language, sexual por-trayals as well as violence, we can seewhat the children were influenced by.”He says that, as a deterrent, thereshould be a band at the bottom, high-lighting the negative impact the way itis done with alcohol and cigarettes.

He points out that in the lastdecade we have deteriorated value-wisein the content. He gives the examplesof dance shows featuring children andsays, “Have you seen the expressionsand movements of six-year-olds?”

Of the new media, the social kindhas the singular largest impact. Whenin the the adult world, it is common-place to see violent, sexual and false nar-ratives in social media as a way of bring-ing down independent women, whatmakes us think that children would beimmune from the behaviour? Parikhtoo agrees, “Often Twitter trends havean abusive word and children do use it.”

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“Do you know who is my father?”is a refrain that all of us have heard oftenin reel and real life. Mitra says, “Manychildren grow up in homes where theyhear their parents openly talk of flout-ing laws and bribing police.”

Coupled with the lack of respect forlaw is an extremely derogatory view ofwomen. They grow up in cultureswhere women have get no respect orempathy. “This makes them incapableof empathetic or caring relationships,”says Mitra.

��� �� "��� After parents, schools are supposed

to influence and educate children.Bhati says, “They haven’t been able totalk about emotional closeness and afulfilling relationships. They aren’timparting sex education and even ifthey are, children today believe that theyknow-it-all.”

Dr Kumar, a pioneer in sex educa-tion was associated with the first ado-lescent education programme launchedby United Nations Population Fund(UNFPA) in 2002-3, says, “I start thetalk on a neutral note and when I cometo the topic of sex education, thevibrant discussion becomes lukewarm.”Other gaps include the lack of coun-selling despite the presence of psychol-ogists and counsellors.

���� ��� ��� �� ��GDuggal says, “Children accessing

the internet have the basic presumptionthat they know more than their parents.”Add to it the fact that the IT Act of 2000which was amended in 2008 made allthe offenses bailable. People on bailsdeleted the electronic evidence againstthemselves. Consequently, there hasbeen a famine of cyber crime convic-tions giving children the impression thatthe law is inadequate to catch them.“The fact that we haven’t got any exem-plary conviction in the 17 years since2003 makes youngsters reckless,” saysthe lawyer who was the counsel for thefirst cyber crime conviction for thecomplainant in 2003. There has beena massive change in technology and amore holistic, topical Act which takesinto account that most cyber offensesare committed by youngsters is need-ed.

In this case, the juveniles would atthe most be sent to corrective homes oradvised counselling. “Even in the applic-able Act, Section 67 and 67 (A) whichdeal with sharing obscene electroniccontent against a woman were invokedby the police but they should haveincluded Section 67 (B) which woulddeal with child pornography,” saysDuggal.

����� �����While this is one more in the series

of offenses which have been committed,we cannot keep on moving our thresh-old further. Dr Parikh says, “The onlyhope is to create filters in young mindsto minimise damage to belief systems,attitudes and behaviours. Gender sen-sitisation has to be a priority.”

In a t ime when exposure isinevitable, the least we can do is pro-tect children. “Media literacy should betaught in schools along with other sub-jects. This would enable them to ques-tion, ‘Is it right?’ ‘How would this makeme feel if it happened to me or my lovedone?’ ‘Are they selling a product byusing a celebrity?’” says Dr Parikh.Along with this, the media too needsself censorship, self realisation andresponsibility.

Bhati emphasises on appropriateage-related sex education while DrMitra says that parents, schools andfriends need to watch out for cues fromadolescent. “There is a need for preven-tive action and greater awareness.”

For this particular case, Dr Kumarsays, “The parents and the children needto be counselled both in groups andindividually. They should be encour-aged to accept their mistake and thenonly is it possible to move forward.” Asfor the larger picture, she feels parentsand schools should work in tandem toreinforce values. “Counsellors in schoolshave to upgrade their skills. The lock-down is a time for schools to go inwardand find out and address problems intheir vision.”

Only time will tell if the correctiveactions will be put in place or if we willjust slip back into slumber till the nextand even more heinous offense grabseyeballs.

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After a complete destruction of theworld, god recreates the universe

and simultaneously gives the knowl-edge of four Vedas in the heart of fourrishis because in the absence of Vedicknowledge, human beings wouldremain ignorant and would be unableto utilise the purpose of their worldlyexistence.

The first mantra of Rigved is:Agnimeedey Purohitam. It refers to thevirtue that a person must desire to wor-ship god and before beginning any newthing, should first remember god todestroy all the sorrows, problems, dis-eases etc.

Vedas are the invaluable treasureof education of each and every world-ly subject that is, right from straw toBrahma. Therefore, medical science isalso a part and parcel of Vedic knowl-edge.

An Atharvaved mantra preachesthat god is the creator, who nurses andis “Su Bhishaktamaha” that is, the mostsupreme doctor. Hence, god is empow-ered to destroy all diseases, which can-not be controlled by any doctor in theworld.

This is why several doctors, dulyinspired by almighty god, clearlyinform the relatives of highly criticalpatients that, “We, the doctors, havedone our best, now everything lies inthe hands of god.” But it’s our bad luck

that we are ignorant of the Vedas andhence, never praise, pray or worshipgod according to Vedas.

If we stop remembering god, thesupreme power stops protecting usfrom diseases and leaves us to bear thesorrows according to our previous lives’bad deeds.

Vedas preach that the base of thehuman life is Brahmacharya. So anoth-er Atharvaved mantra preaches thatwhen a person maintains firm brah-macharya, then a precious gem ofstrength is generated in his body,which kills all the microbes that causediseases.

Further, it also preaches thatBrahmacharya generates the best med-icine within the body to kill all typesof disease-causing germs. But there isa doubt that in the absence of holdingVedic knowledge whether or notBrahmacharya can be maintained.

In previous yugas, the knowledgeof Vedas was in vogue. As a result,everyone used to maintainBrahmacharya, perform dailyYajyen/agnihotra, which purified theair, water, food, etc. Therefore, the ques-tion of suffering from any disease didnot arise.

In current life, living beings,including humans, spread pollution inthe atmosphere. If we go by a Yajurvedmantra, we will find that if we perform

daily agnihotra/Yajyen, then all infec-tious diseases could be destroyed. Itpurifies the air and thus erodes all kindsof pollution. Where would then the dis-eases exist?

But to our bad luck, unlike previ-ous yugas, we are not aware of the vedicknowledge and as a result are unableto liberate ourselves from serious dis-eases spreading in the world current-ly.

Let us pay our attention to aYajurved mantra, which preaches thatif a person makes contact with alearned Acharya or guru, then s/he, byteaching him Vedic knowledge, canhelp him purify his speech, respirato-ry system, senses, vision, the source ofhearing, naval, organs of excretion andultimately, his character and conduct.

These are the results that one willfind in oneself if one follows vedicmantras:

- There will never be any kind ofdiseases spreading around.

- Yajyen purifies the universe if itis performed by everybody. It emergesin the form of smoke, which reachesup to the sun’s rays and then, spreadsaround, reaching humans and otherliving beings. Thus it purifies the airand atmosphere.

(The author is Swami Ram Swarup,Yogacharya, the chief editor of the VedIshvareeya Vani magazine.)

Indian Air Force showered flowerpetals on Kalinga Institute of

Medical Sciences (KIMS) CovidHospital, Bhubaneswar in a flypastfrom its helicopters on Wednesdayas a mark of gratitude from thenation to the medical professionalscombating COVID-19 crisis. TheIAF took this initiative to boost themorale of the Corona warriors, whohave dedicated themselves to savelives of the patients affected bynovel Coronavirus.

The KIMS Authority hasexpressed pleasure for the show ofsolidarity by the IAF. “We express ourheartfelt gratitude to theGovernment of India for motivatingand lifting the spirits of COVID-19warriors at KIMS. Through this, thewill power of all the doctors, nursesand paramedical staff along withpatients will be strengthened byand large and they would continuetheir fight against the novelCoronavirus disease with renewedzeal”, said Dr Achyuta Samanta,founder of KIIT, KISS & KIMS.

He also thanked Naveen Patnaik,chief minister, Odisha, for his sup-port to open a special Covid Hospitalat KIMS. “As a result, it has been pos-

sible for us to witness such a remark-able and memorable moment,” addedDr Samanta.

“We have come forward to agreat extent in this war againstCOVID-19 and it is because of DrSamanta’s consistent endeavor toaugment our moral strength,” saidthe doctors.

Among the dignitaries, DrSubrat Acharya, pro-chancellor, KIITDeemed to be University, Dr BishnuPrasad Panigrahi, CEO, KIMS, Maj.Gen. Dr PK Patnaik, principal, KIMSand Dr Ambika Prasad Mohanty,MS, were also present to witness theaerial salute along with other staffmembers.

The Department of Pension &Pensioners’ Welfare have takenthe following initiatives to pro-

mote ease of living amid COVID-19crisis:�� The Department of Pension &Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW) hassuccessively taken steps in the recentpast date to make life easy for thePensioners. Here are some other ini-tiatives too�� The department runs an onlinegrievance portal “CPENGRAMS”(Centralised Pension GrievanceRedressal & Monitoring Mechanism)in which any central government pen-sioner can register a complaint and thesame is monitored by DoPPW till itsfinal resolution and closure by thePension settling Department/Ministry.DoPPW started a Toll-free call cen-tre number 1800-11-1960 in June 2019where pensioners grievances are lodged. The Department also counsels seniorcitizens on their pension related prob-lems.�� It got a deep-dive/root-causeanalysis conducted by an independentthird party. It was seen that someMinistries/departments often closedgrievances routinely without qualita-tive resolution. It therefore evolved amodel of on-the-spot resolution ofgrievances called the Pension Adalat. �� With respect to NPS (NationalPension System), DoPPW decided tostart awareness workshops for centralgovernment employees. It conductedits first awareness programme atJammu to educate the subscribersabout the provisions of NPS and at thesame time educate the differentDepartments on the Dos & Don’ts withrespect to the system. �� Keeping in view the representa-tions/court cases filed by several cen-tral government officials covered underthe NPS (National Pension Service)whose recruitment had been complet-ed before January 1, 2004 but who forsome reason, administrative or other-wise, could join service only on or afterthat, an option has been given to jointhe old pension system, if they so desire

by giving a one-time option up to May31.��Another initiative was the promo-tion of Digital Life Certificate. Keepingin view the difficulty faced by thoseseniors who are settled abroad withtheir children after retirement, itbrought out a circular on ConsolidatedInstructions on Life Certificate andCommencement of Family Pension forthose living abroad, vide which thebank branches abroad and the IndianE m b a s s i e s / C o n s u l a t e s / H i g hCommissions have been instructed tofacilitate submission of life certificateand commencement of family pension.��All pension disbursing banks havebeen instructed to provide door-stepLife Certificate facility to those pen-sioners who are unable to visit banksin the month of November.��To provide comfort to pensionersaged 80 and above, OM dated July 18,2019 enables them to submit their LifeCertificate w.e.f. October 1 every yearinstead of November 1. A pilot wasdone in 2018 in 8 cities in whichPensioners’ Associations were roped in

to go door to door and inhospitals/ICUs with newly purchasedIris devices to collect DLCs. This wasexpanded in 2019 to 24 cities.

DoPPW also showed the sensitiveside of the government with severalreforms which touched human livesimmensely. To enumerate a few:��Rule 54 of CCS (Pension) Rules wasamended to provide for payment ofenhanced family pension (50 per centof last pay) to families of even thoseemployees who die during servicebefore completing service of sevenyears. Earlier, the family of an employ-ee who died during service before com-pleting service of seven years was notentitled to enhanced family pension.��A minimum qualifying service of10 years is required for eligibility forpension under the CCS (Pension)Rules. Rule 38 of CCS (Pension) Rulesamended to provide for InvalidPension at 50 per cent of last pay tothose government servants who retiredue to bodily or mental infirmity evenbefore completing qualifying service of

10 years.��For those living in non-CGHS areas,for OPD the amount of Fixed MedicalAllowance (FMA) raised from � 500per month to � 1000 per month.�� Permission of CMO/CGHS dis-pensed with for sanctioning FMA topensioners residing in cities/areas notcovered under CGHS.��Co-authorisation of pension for dis-abled children/siblings/dependent par-ents introduced in the PPO. Thiswould avoid the delay and hassles of afresh PPO by the office in favour of dis-abled children/siblings/dependent par-ents.��Minimum pension raised from �3500 per month to � 9000 permonth. Minimum disability pensionand family pension covered underCCS(EOP) Rules enhanced from �7,000 to � 18,000.��A new slab of death gratuity hasbeen added. The family of a govern-ment servant dying while in servicewith a qualifying service of 11 to 20years would be entitled to death gra-tuity at 20 times of monthly emolu-

ments as against the existing entitle-ment of 12 times of emoluments.��The ceiling of gratuity raised from� 10 lakh to � 20 lakh.�� The rates of ex-gratia lump-sumcompensation being paid to the fam-ilies of employees who die in perfor-mance of duty has been increasedfrom existing � 10-15 lakh to � 25 to45 lakh, depending upon the circum-stances in which the death occurs.��DoPPW also targeted awareness ofpensioners/family pensioners throughsocial media. The Union Minister ofState (Independent Charge)Development of North-Eastern Region(DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel,Public Grievances & Pensions, AtomicEnergy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singhlaunched the Twitter Do You KnowSeries on Family Pension at Jammu onFebruary 29.��DoPPW will now take out a seriesof 30 info graphics (two per week) tospread awareness about family pen-sion. Through this, theP e n s i o n e r s / F a m i l yPensioners/Departments & Ministryofficials/Bank officials/Pensioners’Associations will become aware of thefamily entitlements for which till nowthey had to run around offices. Twobooklets on family pension, in Hindiand English were also released by theMoS(PP).��Bhavishya (Online pension settlingsystem): Pensioners’ portal wasstrengthened by adding the facility ofonline pension sanction process —Bhavishya. It is a software with a digi-tised end to end solution for pensionsettlement. As of now more than 1lakh cases have already been processedthrough this software. ��Sankalp: With a view to re-orientpensioners towards an active postretired life and utilise their skill andexperience towards nation buildingactivities and social work, a new ini-tiative namely Sankalp was undertak-en. Under this, Pre-RetirementCounselling (PRCs) are being organ-ised for those employees who areabout to retire in a year.

In a new beginningmade by chief executive

officer, Greater Noidaauthority honoured itsemployees by announc-ing the ‘Employee of theMonth.’ It expressed itsgratitude to all perma-nent and contractualemployees including dri-vers, security guards,sweepers, gardeners, andsweepers. This will befollowed monthly toencourage positive envi-ronment.

ACEO Deep Chandsaid that it has beendecided by the authoritythat employees, whocared for the residentswithout caring abouttheir own lives during thepandemic and acted self-lessly should be thanked.

Its over 500 staffmembers are engaged indistributing food to theneedy and providing civicservices across the city.

Chand also said, “We

cannot honour the staffmembers with prize moneydue to fund crisis. Hence,

we are thanking by crown-ing them with respect.”The authority said that its

employees have now disin-fected about 40 areas andare working to disinfect an

equal number of villageseveryday to control thespread of COVID-19.

Amid COVID-19 crisis, jutefarmers of West Bengal and

other jute-growing states havedone a commendable work bysowing the crop in more than 90per cent of their areas. In somestates, 15 to 20 per cent more sow-ing area is anticipated despitelockdown and restrictions. Allthis was possible by the efforts ofICAR-CRIJAF, Barrackpore whoissued regular agro-advisory, con-stant monitoring on availability ofseeds, implements and other agro-inputs to the farmers and otherstakeholders.

Farmers are worried aboutthe infestation of pests and diseaseson jute due to the rainy weather.At present, the jute crops in thefarmers’ fields of different parts ofthe state is almost 20-50 days olddepending on the sowing time.Due to the heavy rain in somepockets of Bengal and adjoiningstates, the jute fields have beenwaterlogged. Under such changingweather conditions, the crop nowneeds infestation, said ICAR-CRI-JAF director, Dr Gouranga Kar.

He added that the institute isissuing weekly agro-advisory onpriority to outreach farmers andextension personnel of state gov-ernments through different digitalplatforms. He also said thataround seven lakh farmers of dif-ferent jute-growing states are get-

ting benefitted every week throughtheir agro-advisory.

Under rainy and waterloggedsituation, he advised that the farm-ers should drain out the waterimmediately. After a few daysthere may be incidence of seedlingblight and damping off. If suchcondition arises, some commonfungicides like mancozeb (1g/l) orcarbendazim (4g/l) may be sprayedonce the field is drained out anddried up.

The damage of Indigo caterpil-lar has been reported from manyfarmers’ fields, said Dr Satpathy,head division of Crop Protection,ICAR-CRIJAF. The insect usuallybecomes more problematic in jutefields, in which cabbage, cauli-flower, potato, etc, were grown asthe previous crop. In case of heavydamage, the farmers should go forthe spraying of chlorpyriphos20EC (2 ml/l).

In grown up jute plants of 30-

50 days, grey colour weevils withdark white spots and elongatedheads are visible on the growingfoliage. Heavy defoliation weak-ens the plant and adverselyaffects the growth. In case of con-siderable damage, foliar spray ofchlorpyriphos 50EC+cyperme-thrin 5EC combination (1-1.5ml/l) or chlorpyriphos 20EC(2ml/l) or quinalphos 25 EC(1.25 ml/l) may be done.

Generally, after moderaterainfall, the yellow mite infesta-tion in jute goes down. Butchances are that just after rain,once the weather is clear andthere is abundant sunshine andthe temperature is high, the miteinfestation gradually increases.Maintain adequate soil moistureto reduce the damage symptomcaused by mite infestation. Incase of rain, wait for at least fiveto six days to initiate the acari-cide spray if symptoms persist.

Dr Kar also said that it isadvised to always use protectiveclothing, gloves and mask toavoid the drift of the insecticide.While conducting any type ofintercultural operation, like pes-ticide spray, the farmers areadvised to maintain social dis-tancing and take all other preven-tive measures as per the adviso-ry to check the spread ofCOVID-19.

TOUCHING HEARTS, CHANGING LIVES 3��������������� ������ �� ���� �����$�� ������� ��� ����/������4�/��������!������� ������ ������������������������������������

&��������������������������(&�� Greater Noida authority grateful to employees

+�203�0+-2%�����������/��������� 52�0��! -630/�� .1�0.6�062�62�6/-2��

Page 12:  · 2020-05-06 · +/2+1-.3%1!4(2!˜ While uncertainty looms large over holding of the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath this year scheduled on June 23 due to the …

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Virat Kohli’s Indianteam still has a long

way to go before it is spo-ken of in the same breathas Australia of 2000s, feelsformer India pacer AshishNehra.

Under Kohli’s leader-ship, India earned itsmaiden series victory inAustralia in 2018-19,achieving the feat aftertrying for seven decades.

However, it can’t bediscounted that absence ofSteve Smith and David

Warner due to ball tam-pering ban turned out tobe an important factor.

“This Indian team hasto still cover a lot of dis-tance in order to match upwith that Australia team(led by Steve Waugh andthen Ricky Ponting),”Nehra said during aninteraction with ex-playerAakash Chopra on hisshow ‘Aakash Vani’.

“You are talking aboutan Australian team whichwon three consecutiveWorld Cups and beforethat reached the final in

1996, won 18-19 Testmatches in home andaway conditions,” Nehraadded.

He also did not appre-ciate the fact that everynow and then team com-bination is being tinkeredwith.

“It’s not like thisIndian team can not reachthere but I believe thecore group is very impor-tant. A person gets con-fused after watching manydishes on the table and soit’s important to havefewer but better dishes,”

Nehra made his displea-sure clear.

He the went on to citehow team managementhad handled RishabhPant's career so far.

“KL Rahul is playingon the fifth position andPant, the person you werepreparing to succeed M.S.Dhoni, is serving drinks,”the left-arm fast bowler,known for his straight for-ward views, said.

Thanks to his incon-sistency, Pant had lost hisplace in the Indian team inwhite-ball cricket to

Rahul.“I know he (Pant) has

missed his chances andthere is no doubt about itbut then you have kepthim in the team becauseyou saw the potential inhim at 22-23 years,” Nehrasaid.

“There are a lot of tal-ented players but theyshould be backed for alonger duration. Todayalso when we talk aboutthe number five and sixslots in Indian ODI side,then we are not sure aboutit," Nehra said.

���� �&�������� �!�"�#��!�$�% "�&�% '(��)�)

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He has flattered to deceive onumpteen occasions but highly-

rated wicketkeeper-batsman SanjuSamson says he has learnt to accepthis failures in pursuit of the calmdemeanour that former India captainMahendra Singh Dhoni possesses.

The 25-year-old from Kerala hasalways been talked about by the likesof Rahul Dravid and GautamGambhir but it hasn’t translated intointernational success with only fourT20 Internationals in his kitty in thelast five years.

“I have learnt to understand andfocus more on my strengths and (bemore) accepting (of) the failures. I tryto contribute to the team’s cause andtry to take the team over the line. I amlearning to focus and control my emo-tions while batting like MS Dhoni,”Samson said during a podcast organ-ised by Rajasthan Royals.

He recently made a comeback inIndia’s T20 side and it was a worthyexperience for him.

“It was great to be a part of theIndian team again. To be a part of oneof the best teams in the world, sur-rounded by players like Virat bhai andRohit bhai, it was a fantastic experi-ence,” Samson said.

In one of the games in NewZealand, Samson was sent to bat in theSuper Over, something which madehim feel wanted in the Indian set-up.

“It was a great feeling to be trust-ed by the players such as Virat bhaiand Rohit bhai to go out there and batin the crucial moments. It’s a greatfeeling when the team and the play-

ers consider you to be a match win-ner.” On a lighter note, Samsonrevealed that he refers to Steve Smithas “chachu” (uncle) after Brad Hodgeonce started calling him by thatname.

“I share a very good relationshipwith ‘Chachu’ Steve Smith. He is oneof the best brains in world cricket andwe all enjoy a lot playing under him.”

While Dhoni is his idol, he alsoloves watching Jos Buttler in Royalsand makes notes on how the starEnglishman prepares for games.

“I observe Jos especially given hetoo is a wicketkeeper-batsman. He’salways working on his skills and hisgame and never sits idle.

“He’s either working on his keep-ing, batting in the nets or runningaround the park. I love to observe andknow how he thinks and prepares asa keeper before a game.”

��� -.%��.,/�

They have similar impact ontheir teams but Virat Kohli isdriven by sheer passion to

subdue the rivals while Steve Smithjust enjoys batting, says Australiaopener David Warner.

India skipper Kohli and topAustralian batsman Smith arearguably the top two cricketers of thecurrent era. They achieve new mile-stones consistently, invoking debates,who is better between them.

“Virat’s passion and drive toscore runs is different to what Steve’swould be,” Warner said while speak-ing to Harsha Bhogle on ‘Cricbuzz inConversation’.

“Steve is going out there for a hitin the middle, that’s how he seesthings. He’s hitting them out in themiddle, he’s having fun, he's enjoy-ing himself, just does not want to getout.”

Warner feels, while Kohli is bat-ting he is aware that if he sticksaround the middle his team will beon top of the proceedings.

“Virat obviously doesn’t want toget out but he knows if he spends acertain amount of time out there, he’sgoing to score plenty of runs at arapid rate. He’s going to get on top ofyou. That allows the guys coming in,especially in the Indian team you’vegot a lot of players who can be flam-boyant as well.”

The Australian opener addedthat both men are mentally strongand a good knock by them boosts themorale of the entire team.

“When it comes to cricket, theyboth have got the mental strength, themental capacity to score runs. Theyboth love spending time in the mid-dle.

“They stabilise, they boostmorale - if they score runs, every-one else’s moral is up. If they are outcheaply you almost sense that on thefield that everyone is (down onmorale and thinking) ‘now we allhave to step up’. It’s a very bizarre sit-uation,” he added.

Asked about the similaritiesbetween himself and Kohli, who are

both live wires on the field, Warnersaid the passion to do better than theopponent keeps him going.

“I can’t speak for Virat, obvious-ly, but it’s almost like we got this thingin us when we go (out to the middle)we need to prove people wrong,prove someone wrong.”

“If you’re in that contest, and ifI’m going at him for example, you’re

thinking, ‘Alright, I’m going to scoremore runs than him, I’m going totake a quick single on him’. You aretrying to better that person in thatgame. That’s where the passioncomes from.”

Warner also explained how hebreaks down a match into smallercompetitions.

“Obviously you want to win the

game but you almost break it downto: If I can score more runs thanVirat, or if Pujara scores more runsthan Steve Smith, you have these lit-tle contests and that's how you try tonarrow the game in the sense that ifwe do these little things, we can beahead of the game or we can bebehind the game.

“The passion is driven by...Iknow my sense - one, the will to winand two, wanting to do better thanthat person in the opposition,” saidWarner.

��� +.-1,2!2

Defender Gurinder Singhfeels India has been play-

ing an aggressive brand ofhockey under chief coachGraham Reid, and it hashelped the team in creatingmore goal scoring opportuni-ties.

India displayed an attack-ing brand of play in the FIHHockey Pro League earlierthis year and reaped richrewards for it, beatingAustralia and world champi-ons Belgium.

“It’s been over a yearsince chief coach Reid hasjoined us and I am sure onecan see the difference he hasbrought to the side sinceApril last year. We havebecome much more aggres-sive in our approach andtherefore we are creatingmany more goal-scoringopportunities,” Gurinder said.

Gurinder said since hisarrival Reid has been workingclosely with every player,besides emphasising on teamtactics.

“It was amazing to see

him shift focus from workingon team tactics to the devel-opment of each and everyplayer during the senior mennational coaching camp inNovember last year," he said.

“Since there was a lot oftime to prepare for the nexttournament after theOlympic Qualifiers, chiefcoach Reid spent time with allplayers and ensured that weimproved on certain aspectsduring the camp,” he added.

Gurinder, who has beenin and out of the team, saidhis immediate goal is to book

a place in the Olympic-boundteam.

“I am working extreme-ly hard to book a place in theIndian team for the Olympicsat the moment. Keepingmyself fit is my number onepriority during the lockdownperiod and I am carrying outsome stickwork drills as well.”

“Playing for India at theOlympics has been a dreamsince childhood and hopeful-ly, I will make it to the squadand contribute to India win-ning a medal at the quadren-nial event,” he said.

��� -.%��.,/�

India’s Test vice-captain AjinkyaRahane on Wednesday said crick-

eters will need at least a month oftraining before resumption of com-petitive games, which should happenonly after a vaccine for the dreadedCOVID-19 is discovered.

Rahane also said that in a coro-navirus-scarred world, the lifestyleof cricketers will undergo a changeas far as pre and post-match routinesare concerned.

“...We would be needing three tofour weeks of proper practice beforeplaying any kind of competitivegame (domestic or international),”Rahane, who was named brandambassador of ELSA (EnglishLanguage Speech Assistant) app,said during an online press confer-ence.

“...I am missing my batting. Butobviously, cricket should only startwhen we get a vaccine to fight thevirus,” he asserted.

While the sports ministry isplanning a phased resumption ofnational camps in Olympic disci-plines, the BCCI is yet to spell outits plans on cricket. Rahane said heis focussing on his fitness amid thelockdown.

“I am following the chart givenby our trainer. I am also doing ‘freeweights’ at home apart from medi-tation,” he said.

He agreed that in future, play-ers will be wary of wild celebrationsand group hugs which they are soused to at the fall of wickets.

“I think we might go back to thegood old days when fielders would

still stand in their designated posi-tions after the fall of a wicket andclap. May be handshakes will bereplaced by a 'Namaste',” the elegantMumbai right-hander predicted.

“But once sport resumes, youcan’t take anything for granted. Thesafety of the fans will be of utmostimportance. There will be changesin lifestyle while travelling.Especially before and after thematch,” Rahane said

However he was non-committalon whether there should be a ban onthe use of saliva to shine the ball, atopic of debate right now.

“I would like to wait and watch.You will only get a fair idea aboutrevised rules once play resumes.”

��� ,9-�9-

The Marylebone Cricket Club(MCC) on Wednesday

announced that it would recom-mend a second term for its PresidentKumar Sangakkara owing to theglobal disruption caused by theCOVID-19 pandemic.

The former Sri Lanka wicket-keeper-batsman became the firstnon-British President of the clubwhen he assumed office on October1 last year.

“The disruption to the globalcricketing landscape caused by theoutbreak of Covid-19 has led theCommittee to recommend thatSangakkara, who began his term ofoffice on 1 October 2019, be invit-ed to serve as President of the Clubuntil 30 September 2021,” the clubsaid in a statement.

The recommendation forSangakarra’s extension will be sentfor approval to the club's membersat the Annual General Meeting,which has been scheduled for June24. The club also added that this wasnot the first time a president will

serve beyond his oneyear tenure.

“ W h i l s tPresidents ofMCC only nor-

mally serve for atwe lve-mont hperiod, it is notunprecedented forlonger terms to be

introduced torespond to extra-

o r d i n a r yc i rc um-stances.”

�� �� ,1/9!.

Former Australia all-rounder TomMoody believes Pakistan bats-

man Babar Azam has grown byleaps and bounds in recent timesand will “definitely” be among thetop five batsmen of the decade inTest cricket in the near future.

“He (Babar) has emerged overthe last year or so into somethingthat is going to be so special. Wetalked about how Virat Kohli is sogood on the eye as a batsman. If youthink Virat Kohli is good to watch,have a look at Babar Azam bat. Mygosh, he is something special,”Moody said in The Pitch SideExperts Podcast as quoted by crick-etpakistan.com.pk.

“I think in the next five to tenyears, he will definitely be in yourtop five (batsmen of the decade)without a question,” he added.

The former SunrisersHyderabad coach, however, admit-ted considering Azam’s statistics at

the moment, it is very difficult to puthim in the top five current batsmen.

“I think, in the next 5-10 years,he will be on your top five position.Even though he has played 26matches but in half of those match-es he was not considered even partof the main batting line-up forPakistan. He was the after-thoughtdown the order,” he said.

“I think at the moment, it is veryhard to justify him at that positiongiven his statistics. Away fromhome he is only averaging 37 and athome he is averaging 67. But wehave to consider that he has hardlyplayed away from home and a lot ofthose games away were during theearly part of his career,” Moodyadded.

��� -.%��.,/�

The National Anti-DopingAgency's Director General

Navin Agarwal on Wednesdaysaid the body will conduct itsdisciplinary hearings onlinefrom Friday despite the manylogistical challenges to ensurecases don’t pile up due to thenational lockdown.

NADA hearings have notbeen taking place due to thelockdown to contain theCOVID-19 pandemic.

“That’s right, we will bestarting with our online hear-ings from May 8. Both Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel(ADDP) and Anti-DopingAppeals Panel (ADAP) hear-ings will be conducted for thecases which are pending,”Agarwal told PTI in an inter-view.

“Last year, they (ADDPand ADAP) did a remarkablejob and disposed off so manycases which hasn't happenedearlier in the history of NADA.Our panels disposed off 180cases which is a record for theagency,” he asserted.

Agarwal acknowledgedthat the unprecedented stepwould have its share of opera-

tional hassles.Listing inconsistent or

unavailable internet as one ofthem, Agarwal said athleteswill be allowed to participate viaaudio calls to ensure that thingscan be managed smoothly.

“We understand that theathlete needs to have the (inter-net) facility at his home for thehearings. I know there are lim-itations. We are working on thatand made arrangements at ourlevel.

“It will only be done on theavailability of an athlete througheither audio or video. I know inrural areas, internet bandwidthcan be an issue or network, weare game with even an audiorecording or a conference call,”he explained.

“We are requesting theministry as the campuses inNIS Patiala and Spots Authorityof India (SAI) Bengaluru areclosed and have barred entry orexit of any outsiders as per gov-ernment guidelines.

“So we are taking this upwith ministry and would like toknow whether our DopeControl Officers (DCOs) willbe allowed inside the campus-es for testing subject to allclearances,” he said.

� ��"1�!��

If given the option, Rafael Nadal said he wouldscrap this season entirely so tennis could resume

normally in 2021.The second-ranked Spaniard, who is 33 years

old and has won 19 Grand Slam titles, said he hopedto resume playing this year but doubted it couldhappen because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I would sign up right now just to being readyfor 2021,” Nadal said in interviews with El País andother Spanish newspapers published Tuesday.

“I’m more concerned with the Australian Openthan with what happens later this year. I think 2020has been practically lost. I'm hopeful of being ableto start next year.”

Nadal said the logistical difficulties of havingto move people from country to country for tour-naments make it hard for tennis to resume safelyamid the pandemic.

“Sadly, I’m not going to lie to you, the feelingis that we are losing a year of our lives,” Nadal said.

“And at 33, 34 years old, that is more valuablethan at 20, when you have more time ahead of you.”Nadal recently said he was concerned with the riskof new injuries when players return to action aftera long time without proper training. The Spaniardhas had to deal with a series of injuries through-out his career and expects his body to struggle againwhen competitions finally resume.

Nadal also complained about “confusing”information regarding the return to practice of ten-nis players in Spain. He said he went to train on aprivate court because it wasn’t clear to him

whether he could practice normally after the gov-ernment eased some of the lockdown measures thathave been in place in the country since mid-March.

Professional and high-performance athleteshave been allowed to resume practicing at any timethis week, but sports facilities and training centersare to remain closed, with some exceptions for soc-cer clubs and a few other sports.

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