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  • ˆ ˝˙ ˝˙!˙ˇˇ˚˛ˇ˛˙!! - The Pioneer€¦ · ing Delhi and NCR, vendors ... Gurgaon, Ranchi, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida and States, such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, ... Delhi
12
W hen Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a three-week lockdown on Tuesday night to prevent the spread of coronavirus, panicky people flooded the streets to purchase essential items. The mad rush made a mockery of the theme of social distancing. A day later, the Government’s focus shifted to providing essential items, including food, dairy products, medicine, etc, to millions of people across the country. Things looked far stable on Wednesday. Grocery stores, sabji mandi, milk booths, chemist shops, ATMs, banks, petrol pumps and supply of LPG cylinders were open in most of the States and there was no shortage of supply. Amid reports of panic pur- chase of essential commodities in some parts of the country, the Home Ministry asked chief secretaries and DGPs of all States to take action to allay apprehensions and maintain peace and tranquility, and inform people about the avail- ability of food, medicine and other essential commodities. Meanwhile, the Home Ministry has asked State Governments to check the spread of rumours about shortage of food and other essential commodities. While Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Government is moni- toring the availability of essen- tial commodities in the market, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said the Centre is committed to ensure smooth supply of essential commodi- ous and asked people not go for hoarding. In a several cities, includ- ing Delhi and NCR, vendors were found selling fruits and vegetables on their carts. Petrol pumps were open and supply of LPG gas cylinders was oper- ational. Mother Dairy outlets too were open. Safal, the fruits and vegetable brand of Mother Dairy group, has announced that all its outlets will be oper- ational at full capacity. Officials of Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) claimed that there was no shortage of fruits and vegetables. In Delhi, trading at the Azadpur Mandi, Asia’s biggest wholesale fruits and vegetable market, has come down by 50 per cent in the last two days in the absence of cur- few passes to traders. Meanwhile, top e-com- merce sites Flipkart and Amazon have temporarily sus- pended their services. Flipkart has listed all products as “out of stock” on the search page. Whereas, Amazon will serve only products of high priority. Grocery startup Grofers too suspended operations due to lack of clarity in their listing as an essential service provider while supermarket chain Big Bazaar is continued to offer doorstep delivery services in several States, including Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Gurgaon, Ranchi, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida and States, such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. In Jharkhand, the Government has released rate chart of various essential com- modities after reports of a few ration shops providing com- modities at a higher price while some others selling them in the back market taking advantage of the lockdown prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. O n the first day of the three- week countrywide lock- down, the count of confirmed coronavirus cases shot up from 519 on Tuesday to 606 on Wednesday while death toll touched eleven in the country with Maharashtra reporting the highest number of cases at 128, followed by Kerala with 109 cases. Delhi registered five fresh cases. Of the total 606 cases, 42 are cured ones. So far authorities have denied com- munity spread of the disease. Madhya Pradesh registered its first death when a 65-year- old woman from Ujjain suc- cumbed to the virus on Wednesday afternoon. In its updated figures released on Wednesday morning, the Health Ministry stated that the second death reported in Delhi was Covid-19 negative. Five more persons tested positive for COVID-19 in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday evening. Kejriwal did not give any details about the new patients, but he did say that only one of the five had a history of foreign travel. The remaining four were either family members of coronavirus patients or had come in close contact with them. Meanwhile, the Government said of the 64,000 people who arrived in the country since March 21, as many as 8,000 are under quar- antine and 56,000 have gone for home isolation. After the Group of Ministers meeting, Union Health Minister Dr Harshvardhan assured the Centre is making efforts to ensure personal protective equipment and N-95 masks are available in adequate numbers for medical fraternity. D elhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said the number of night shel- ters in the city has been increased and more food is being distributed for homeless people. To ensure smooth sup- ply of essential services without any disruptions, Kejriwal announced 1031 helpline num- ber. The Government said wid- ows, senior citizens, and divyangs entitled to monthly pension will get additional amount equivalent to one month’s annuity. “The Government has also decided to double the pension under the widow, old-age, and disability pension scheme,” said Kejriwal. Earlier, the CM had said the Government does not want daily wagers and homeless to suffer due to restrictions hence it had decided to distribute free food and enhanced benefits under ration scheme. “We have decided to pro- vide 50 per cent more quanti- ty — 7.5 kg instead of fixed quota of 5 kg — free rations to 72 lakh beneficiaries attached to our ration scheme for one month. The ration will be pro- vided free of cost,” he said at his online Press conference. The Government will also provide free food twice a day to homeless at night shelters, however, Kejriwal added the offer would not be restricted to occupants of those facilities. “We are arranging free lunch and dinner at 220 night shelters for every person. The Government has also decided to double the pension under the widow, old-age, and dis- ability pension scheme,” he said. Kejriwal also said due to curfew, several people were not able to get food, and urged the public to send such people to the nearest shelters of the Delhi Government, where food was arranged. He said the Delhi Government is working to ensure that not a single person in Delhi should suffer from hunger. New Delhi: India is likely to agree an economic stimulus package of more than 1.5 lakh crore ($19.6 billion) to fight a downturn in the coun- try that is currently locked down to stem the spread of coronavirus, two sources famil- iar with the matter told Reuters. The Government has not yet finalised the package and discussions are ongoing between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office, the Finance Ministry, and Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said both the sources, who asked not to be named as the matter was still under discussion. One of the sources, a senior Government official, said the stimulus plan could be as large as 2.3 trillion, but final numbers were still in discussion. The package, which could be announced by the end of the week, will be used to put money directly into the accounts of more than 100 mil- lion poor and to support busi- nesses hit the hardest by the lockdown, the sources said. The Government will also increase its borrowing plan for the fiscal year 2020/21, which starts from April 1, from the current planned gross bor- rowing of 7.8 lakh crore, both sources said. The sources added that the Government had asked the RBI to buy some of the Government securities being issued, a move not undertak- en by the Indian central bank in decades, due to fears of inflation spiking. B ritain’s Prince Charles has tested positive for the novel coronavirus after he displayed “mild symptoms” and is now self-isolating, his office said on Wednesday. The 71-year-old heir to the British throne is self- isolating in Scotland with wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who has tested negative for the deadly virus, which has claimed 422 lives in the UK. “The Prince of Wales has tested positive for coronavirus,” the Clarence House statement read. “He has been displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual,” it notes. In keeping with social dis- tancing advice during the pan- demic, Charles has been noticeably using “namaste” as a greeting rather than a hand- shake when seen in public over the last few weeks, includ- ing during an event to mark Commonwealth Day on March 9 at Marlborough House in London. His wife Camilla, 72, was seek wearing long black gloves during the same event. “The Duchess of Cornwall has also been tested but does not have the virus. In accor- dance with Government and medical advice, the Prince and the Duchess are now self-iso- lating at home in Scotland,” Clarence House said. The Royals were tested on Monday after they had flown out to Scotland in a jet on Sunday and the royal couple have remained there since then. The statement adds: “The tests were carried out by the NHS (National Health Service) in Aberdeenshire where they met the criteria required for testing. I ndia could face between 100,000 to 13 lakh confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus by mid-May if the current trend in the growing number of COVID-19 cases continues, according to a report by an international team of scientists. The report, compiled by COV-IND-19 Study Group, an interdisciplinary team of researchers, said while India seems to have done well in con- trolling the number of con- firmed cases compared to other countries like the US and Italy in the early phase of the pan- demic, the country is critical- ly missing a key component in this assessment — the number of truly affected cases. This factor depends on the extent of testing, the accu- racy of the test results, and the frequency and scale of testing of people who may have been exposed but do not show symptoms, the researchers, including Debashree Ray from Johns Hopkins University in the US, said. “So far, the number of people tested in India has been relatively small. In the absence of widespread testing, it is impossible to quantify the magnitude of ‘community transmission’, in other words, estimate how many are infect- ed outside health care facili- ties,” the scientists wrote in the report. A t least 25 worshippers were killed and eight others injured when heavily armed suicide bombers blasted their way into a prominent gurdwara on Wednesday in the heart of Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, in one of the deadliest attacks on the minority Sikh commu- nity in the strife-torn country. The ISIS terror group, which has targetted Sikhs before in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack on the gurdwara in Shor Bazar area about 07.45 (local time) as 150 worshippers were inside the building. “At least 25 peo- ple were killed and 8 others were wounded in the attack at Dharamshala, a Sikh worship place in Kabul,” TOLOnews quoted the Ministry of Interior as saying on the attack that last- ed nearly six hours. T he Delhi Police on Wednesday issued passes to e-commerce portals for delivery of essential goods throughout the 21-day nation- wide lockdown period after BigBasket and Amazon claimed disruptions in their services due to restrictions put by the authorities. The police representa- tive also said the delivery agents of these companies will be helped by them. Curfew passes will be issued to all delivery persons and all warehouses will be opened. Police personnel at border checks are being sen- sitised. Home delivery process for the essential items will be made easy by weekend. Mandeep Singh Randhawa, the Public Relation Officer (PRO), Delhi Police, had a meeting with e-commerce website representatives where they shared the problems faced by them in the movement of essential goods. “We have issued passes to them and assured that their delivery agents are helped by the police,” said Randhawa. Earlier, e-commerce portals like BigBasket and Amazon were claiming dis- ruptions in their services due to the restrictions put by the authorities. One of India’s largest grocery delivery service BigBasket, on their app, said, “Dear Customer, we are not operational due to restric- tions imposed by local authorities on the movement of goods in spite of clear guidelines provided by cen- tral authorities to enable essential services. We are working with the authorities to be back soon.” New Delhi: Describing the coronavirus outbreak as an extraordinary situation, the Election Commission has allowed the use of indelible ink by health authorities to stamp individuals for home quarantine. In a letter to the Union Health Ministry, the Commission made it clear that indelible ink mark is normally expected to last for three days when applied on the skin but lasts for a few weeks on the fingernail till the nail grows out. Detailed report on P4 A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a 21-day lockdown to prevent the coronavirus spread, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday announced world’s largest food security scheme to benefit 80 crore people across the country. Briefing media, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said that every person coming under this scheme will get 7 kg ration per month for the next three months, including wheat at a cost of 2 per kg and rice at cost of 3 per kg. “The Government has decided to provide 7 kg per person of foodgrains to 80 crore people under the PDS, which is the world’s largest food security system,” said I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar, detailing the Cabinet decision. He said PDS wheat provid- ed at 7 per kg earlier is being given at 2 and rice at 3/kg. Detailing the logistics of supply of wheat, rice and other items to 80 crore people, Javadekar said that all States have been asked to take food- grains from the Centre in advance for distribution through the PDS and Food Corporation of India (FCI) networks across the country are geared up for this scheme. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

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Page 1: ˆ ˝˙ ˝˙!˙ˇˇ˚˛ˇ˛˙!! - The Pioneer€¦ · ing Delhi and NCR, vendors ... Gurgaon, Ranchi, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida and States, such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, ... Delhi

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When Prime MinisterNarendra Modi declared

a three-week lockdown onTuesday night to prevent thespread of coronavirus, panickypeople flooded the streets topurchase essential items. Themad rush made a mockery ofthe theme of social distancing.A day later, the Government’sfocus shifted to providingessential items, including food,dairy products, medicine, etc,to millions of people across thecountry.

Things looked far stable onWednesday. Grocery stores,sabji mandi, milk booths,chemist shops, ATMs, banks,petrol pumps and supply ofLPG cylinders were open inmost of the States and there wasno shortage of supply.

Amid reports of panic pur-chase of essential commodities

in some parts of the country,the Home Ministry asked chiefsecretaries and DGPs of allStates to take action to allayapprehensions and maintainpeace and tranquility, andinform people about the avail-ability of food, medicine andother essential commodities.Meanwhile, the Home Ministryhas asked State Governments tocheck the spread of rumoursabout shortage of food andother essential commodities.

While Union FoodMinister Ram Vilas Paswansaid the Government is moni-toring the availability of essen-tial commodities in the market,HRD Minister PrakashJavadekar said the Centre iscommitted to ensure smoothsupply of essential commodi-ous and asked people not go forhoarding.

In a several cities, includ-ing Delhi and NCR, vendors

were found selling fruits andvegetables on their carts. Petrolpumps were open and supplyof LPG gas cylinders was oper-ational. Mother Dairy outletstoo were open. Safal, the fruitsand vegetable brand of MotherDairy group, has announcedthat all its outlets will be oper-ational at full capacity.

Officials of AgricultureProduce MarketingCommittees (APMCs) claimedthat there was no shortage offruits and vegetables. In Delhi,trading at the Azadpur Mandi,Asia’s biggest wholesale fruitsand vegetable market, has comedown by 50 per cent in the lasttwo days in the absence of cur-few passes to traders.

Meanwhile, top e-com-merce sites Flipkart andAmazon have temporarily sus-pended their services. Flipkarthas listed all products as “out ofstock” on the search page.

Whereas, Amazon will serveonly products of high priority.Grocery startup Grofers toosuspended operations due tolack of clarity in their listing asan essential service providerwhile supermarket chain BigBazaar is continued to offerdoorstep delivery services in

several States, includingBengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai andGurgaon, Ranchi, Ghaziabad,Faridabad, Noida and States,such as Uttar Pradesh,Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand,Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.

In Jharkhand, theGovernment has released rate

chart of various essential com-modities after reports of a fewration shops providing com-modities at a higher price whilesome others selling them in theback market taking advantageof the lockdown prompted bythe coronavirus pandemic.

���� �1&�/1(23

On the first day of the three-week countrywide lock-

down, the count of confirmedcoronavirus cases shot up from519 on Tuesday to 606 onWednesday while death tolltouched eleven in the countrywith Maharashtra reportingthe highest number of cases at128, followed by Kerala with109 cases. Delhi registered fivefresh cases. Of the total 606cases, 42 are cured ones. So farauthorities have denied com-munity spread of the disease.

Madhya Pradesh registeredits first death when a 65-year-old woman from Ujjain suc-cumbed to the virus onWednesday afternoon. In itsupdated figures released onWednesday morning, theHealth Ministry stated that

the second death reported inDelhi was Covid-19 negative.

Five more persons tested

positive for COVID-19 in Delhi,Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalsaid on Wednesday evening.

Kejriwal did not give any detailsabout the new patients, but hedid say that only one of the fivehad a history of foreign travel.The remaining four were eitherfamily members of coronaviruspatients or had come in closecontact with them.

Meanwhile, theGovernment said of the 64,000people who arrived in thecountry since March 21, asmany as 8,000 are under quar-antine and 56,000 have gone forhome isolation.

After the Group ofMinisters meeting, UnionHealth Minister DrHarshvardhan assured theCentre is making efforts toensure personal protectiveequipment and N-95 masks areavailable in adequate numbersfor medical fraternity.

�������"�����1&�/1(23

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Wednesday

said the number of night shel-ters in the city has beenincreased and more food isbeing distributed for homelesspeople. To ensure smooth sup-ply of essential services withoutany disruptions, Kejriwalannounced 1031 helpline num-ber. The Government said wid-ows, senior citizens, anddivyangs entitled to monthlypension will get additionalamount equivalent to onemonth’s annuity.

“The Government has alsodecided to double the pensionunder the widow, old-age, anddisability pension scheme,” saidKejriwal.

Earlier, the CM had said

the Government does not wantdaily wagers and homeless tosuffer due to restrictions henceit had decided to distribute free

food and enhanced benefitsunder ration scheme.

“We have decided to pro-vide 50 per cent more quanti-ty — 7.5 kg instead of fixedquota of 5 kg — free rations to72 lakh beneficiaries attachedto our ration scheme for onemonth. The ration will be pro-vided free of cost,” he said at hisonline Press conference.

The Government will alsoprovide free food twice a dayto homeless at night shelters,however, Kejriwal added theoffer would not be restricted tooccupants of those facilities.

“We are arranging freelunch and dinner at 220 nightshelters for every person. TheGovernment has also decidedto double the pension underthe widow, old-age, and dis-ability pension scheme,” he

said.Kejriwal also said due to

curfew, several people were notable to get food, and urged thepublic to send such people tothe nearest shelters of theDelhi Government, wherefood was arranged.

He said the DelhiGovernment is working toensure that not a single personin Delhi should suffer fromhunger.

New Delhi: India is likely toagree an economic stimuluspackage of more than �1.5lakh crore ($19.6 billion) tofight a downturn in the coun-try that is currently lockeddown to stem the spread ofcoronavirus, two sources famil-iar with the matter told Reuters.

The Government has notyet finalised the package anddiscussions are ongoingbetween Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s office, theFinance Ministry, and ReserveBank of India (RBI), said boththe sources, who asked not tobe named as the matter was stillunder discussion.

One of the sources, asenior Government official,said the stimulus plan could beas large as �2.3 trillion, butfinal numbers were still in

discussion.The package, which could

be announced by the end of theweek, will be used to putmoney directly into theaccounts of more than 100 mil-lion poor and to support busi-nesses hit the hardest by thelockdown, the sources said.

The Government will alsoincrease its borrowing plan forthe fiscal year 2020/21, whichstarts from April 1, from thecurrent planned gross bor-rowing of �7.8 lakh crore,both sources said.

The sources added thatthe Government had askedthe RBI to buy some of theGovernment securities beingissued, a move not undertak-en by the Indian central bankin decades, due to fears ofinflation spiking.

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Britain’s Prince Charles hastested positive for the novel

coronavirus after he displayed“mild symptoms” and is nowself-isolating, his office said onWednesday. The 71-year-oldheir to the British throne is self-isolating in Scotland with wifeCamilla, Duchess of Cornwall,who has tested negative for thedeadly virus, which has claimed422 lives in the UK.

“The Prince of Wales hastested positive for coronavirus,”the Clarence House statementread. “He has been displayingmild symptoms but otherwise

remains in good health and hasbeen working from homethroughout the last few days asusual,” it notes.

In keeping with social dis-tancing advice during the pan-demic, Charles has beennoticeably using “namaste” as

a greeting rather than a hand-shake when seen in publicover the last few weeks, includ-ing during an event to markCommonwealth Day on March9 at Marlborough House inLondon.

His wife Camilla, 72, was

seek wearing long black glovesduring the same event.

“The Duchess of Cornwallhas also been tested but doesnot have the virus. In accor-dance with Government andmedical advice, the Prince andthe Duchess are now self-iso-lating at home in Scotland,”Clarence House said.

The Royals were tested onMonday after they had flownout to Scotland in a jet onSunday and the royal couplehave remained there since then.The statement adds: “The testswere carried out by the NHS(National Health Service) inAberdeenshire where they metthe criteria required for testing.

���� �1&�/1(23

India could face between100,000 to 13 lakh confirmed

cases of the novel coronavirusby mid-May if the currenttrend in the growing number ofCOVID-19 cases continues,according to a report by aninternational team of scientists.

The report, compiled byCOV-IND-19 Study Group, aninterdisciplinary team ofresearchers, said while Indiaseems to have done well in con-trolling the number of con-firmed cases compared to othercountries like the US and Italy

in the early phase of the pan-demic, the country is critical-ly missing a key component inthis assessment — the numberof truly affected cases.

This factor depends onthe extent of testing, the accu-racy of the test results, and the

frequency and scale of testingof people who may have beenexposed but do not showsymptoms, the researchers,including Debashree Ray fromJohns Hopkins University inthe US, said.

“So far, the number ofpeople tested in India has beenrelatively small. In the absenceof widespread testing, it isimpossible to quantify themagnitude of ‘communitytransmission’, in other words,estimate how many are infect-ed outside health care facili-ties,” the scientists wrote in thereport.

���� 5+6)(

At least 25 worshippers werekilled and eight others

injured when heavily armedsuicide bombers blasted theirway into a prominent gurdwaraon Wednesday in the heart ofAfghanistan’s capital of Kabul,in one of the deadliest attackson the minority Sikh commu-nity in the strife-torn country.

The ISIS terror group,which has targetted Sikhsbefore in Afghanistan, claimedresponsibility for the attack on

the gurdwara in Shor Bazararea about 07.45 (local time) as150 worshippers were insidethe building. “At least 25 peo-ple were killed and 8 otherswere wounded in the attack at

Dharamshala, a Sikh worshipplace in Kabul,” TOLOnewsquoted the Ministry of Interioras saying on the attack that last-ed nearly six hours.

����� ��� ����1&�/1(23

The Delhi Police onWednesday issued passes

to e-commerce portals fordelivery of essential goodsthroughout the 21-day nation-wide lockdown period afterBigBasket and Amazonclaimed disruptions in theirservices due to restrictions putby the authorities.

The police representa-tive also said the deliveryagents of these companieswill be helped by them.Curfew passes will be issuedto all delivery persons andal l warehouses wi l l beopened. Police personnel atborder checks are being sen-sit ised. Home del iver yprocess for the essentialitems will be made easy byweekend.

Mandeep SinghR andhawa, the PublicRelation Officer (PRO),Delhi Police, had a meetingwith e-commerce websiterepresentatives where they shared the problems facedby them in the movement ofessential goods.

“We have issued passesto them and assured that

their delivery agents arehelped by the police,” saidRandhawa.

Earlier, e-commerceportals like BigBasket andAmazon were claiming dis-ruptions in their servicesdue to the restrictions put bythe authorities.

One of India’s largestgrocery delivery serviceBigBasket, on their app, said,“Dear Customer, we are notoperational due to restric-tions imposed by localauthorities on the movementof goods in spite of clearguidelines provided by cen-tral authorities to enableessential services. We areworking with the authoritiesto be back soon.”

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New Delhi: Describing thecoronavirus outbreak as anextraordinary situation, theElection Commission hasallowed the use of indelibleink by health authorities tostamp individuals for homequarantine. In a letter to theUnion Health Ministry, theCommission made it clearthat indelible ink mark isnormally expected to lastfor three days when appliedon the skin but lasts for a fewweeks on the fingernail tillthe nail grows out.

Detailed report on P4

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Aday after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi declared a

21-day lockdown to prevent thecoronavirus spread, the UnionCabinet on Wednesdayannounced world’s largest foodsecurity scheme to benefit 80crore people across the country.

Briefing media, UnionMinister Prakash Javadekarsaid that every person comingunder this scheme will get 7 kgration per month for the nextthree months, including wheatat a cost of �2 per kg and riceat cost of �3 per kg.

“The Government hasdecided to provide 7 kg per

person of foodgrains to 80crore people under the PDS,which is the world’s largest foodsecurity system,” said I&BMinister Prakash Javadekar,detailing the Cabinet decision.

He said PDS wheat provid-ed at �7 per kg earlier is beinggiven at �2 and rice at �3/kg.

Detailing the logistics ofsupply of wheat, rice and otheritems to 80 crore people,Javadekar said that all Stateshave been asked to take food-grains from the Centre inadvance for distributionthrough the PDS and FoodCorporation of India (FCI)networks across the country aregeared up for this scheme.

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Haryana Chief SecretaryKeshni Anand Arora on

Wednesday directed all theDivisional and DeputyCommissioners to ensure thatthere is no problem in move-ment of essential commoditiesduring the complete lockdownin the State for 21 days and amechanism should be preparedfor the supply of essential com-modities to every house in theState by today evening.

She said all on-duty police-men while ensuring social dis-tancing, should also ensure thatpeople going to purchase essen-tial commodities should beallowed to go after thoroughchecking.

Presiding over the meetingwith all the Divisional andDeputy Commissioners throughvideo conferencing, the ChiefSecretary said that in the eventof lockdown announced byPrime Minister Narendra Modifor 21 days in the whole coun-try, the biggest challenge is howto provide essential commoditiesto the people at their doorstep.

She said people should notleave the house at all, this willonly be possible when they getthe delivery of daily needs at theirdoorstep. For this, all theDivisional and Deputy

Commissioners will upload thelist of vegetables, milk and gro-cery vendors along with theircontact numbers on their web-sites according to the area orWard in their respective districts.

Further through media, theDivisional and DeputyCommissioners will also ensurethat these numbers are sharedwith the people so that people asper their respective Wards, cancontact these vendors directly toget the items as per their require-ment, the Chief Secretary added.

The Chief Secretary direct-ed that all the DeputyCommissioners should remainin contact with the traders,wholesalers, and retailers of theirrespective districts and ensureavailability of stock of all typesof essential commodities.

She said that grocery andmedicine shops should be keptopen and no fixed timelineshould be set for them. She saidthat if these shops will be openfor the fixed time, then peoplewill gather in large numbers, soto prevent such a situation, theseshops should be kept open for aslong as possible and these shopsshould be opened at the nightalso so that people rather thangathering at one time should beable to buy these essential itemseasily.

The Chief Secretary also

directed that the vegetable pro-ducers should be allowed tocome to the Mandis and whilereturning they should be givena pass or letter so that the police-men do not stop the empty vehi-cle. Apart from this, the vehiclesengaged in the movement ofessential commodities shouldhave a sticker of "EssentialCommodities Services", so thatpolicemen do not stop thesevehicles repeatedly at the checkpoints and the supply chaincontinues.

The Chief Secretary saidthat during this crisis, food, andfodder for humans, as well asanimals and birds, also falls inthe category of important andessential items. Therefore, themovement of food and fodderfor animals and birds shouldremain constant and for this,special directions should also begiven by the Home Departmentto the policemen so that they donot stop the vehicles supplyingthese items.

She said that depots wouldalso be open under the PublicDistribution System, adding thatmanufacturing units and facto-ries should also be allowed toremain open for the continuoussupply of goods to wholesalers.Apart from this, food processingunits and packaging units willalso remain open.

The chief secretary said thatsmooth transportation of rawmaterial coming from the neigh-bouring States for the necessarygoods or manufacturing units isensured and for this, the StatePolice should coordinate withthe neighbouring States andspecial direction should be issuedto the policemen deployed onthe Inter-State border.

Arora directed that thehomeless and daily wagersshould ensure to get ration andif necessary, make the arrange-ments for delivering the cookedfood at their doorstep. She saidthat if necessary, stock of flour,rice, oil, etc. should also, bearranged in collaboration withHAFED at Vita booths. She fur-ther directed the officers toensure the availability and sup-ply of medicines such as diabetes,blood pressure, and heart ail-ments so that people sufferingfrom such conditions do not getnervous or panic.

The Chief Secretary direct-ed that PPE kits for medical,paramedical staff should be pre-pared in the medical collegesaccording to the technical spec-ifications prescribed by PGI.She also directed that hydroxy-chloroquine and chloroquinemedicines should be discontin-ued without a doctor's prescrip-tion.

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Amidst reports of disrupt-ed supply of essential

commodities and violation ofcurfew orders on the first dayof 21-day nationwide lock-down, Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh onWednesday came out withnew commandments tostreamline the curfew man-agement and facilitate supplyof essentials.

Besides issuing a fresh setof directives to the police andcivil administration includingdetailed instructions forissuance of passes to maintaincritical systems and services inorder to ensure that people arenot inconvenienced in thesedifficult times, the ChiefMinister has also constituteda Committee, under the chair-manship of Additional ChiefSecretar y (Industr y andCommerce), to oversee theprocurement processes for allCoViD-19 related items.

As per the revised curfewmanagement guidelines, gov-ernment offices that havebeen designated inGovernment of India’s orderwill be allowed to remainopen with skeletal staff.

In order to ensure supplyof other essential services,specific State Governmentoffices may also be required toremain open with minimal

functional staff. Such employ-ees of the State Governmentand those employees ofGovernment of India thathave been allowed to reporton duty as per Government ofIndia’s order will be allowed totravel from home to office ontheir institutional IdentityCard, and specific curfewpasses will not be necessary,the revised guidelines states.

It is specifically providedin the guidelines that foremployees of Governmentsincluding PSUs and SPUs, ofHaryana, Punjab and UT ofChandigarh who are residingin Mohali district (especiallyMohali and Zirakpur) andare facing acute problems inreaching their offices, locatedin Chandigarh and Panchkula,it has been decided that theymay be allowed to commuteto their offices for officialduty (not with their familiesor in groups) by showingtheir official or institutionalphoto ID cards and theywould not be required toobtain special curfew passes.

At the same time, it wasclarif ied that al l otherGovernment employees willbe directed to work fromhome and remain available oncall should any such needarise.

It was also clarified thatthere would be no generalrelaxation in curfew. In case,

it is decided by the DistrictAdministration in due courseto relax it in a selected area,due care must be taken toavoid overcrowding and toobserve prescribed social dis-tancing,” stated the fresh guidelines.

Taking cognizance of theneed to ensure timely supplyof critical materials and equip-ment, including PPE kits,masks, medicines etc, to gov-ernment hospitals, primaryand community health centres(PHCs and CHCs), theDeputy Commissioners havebeen asked to contact PunjabState Health and FamilyWelfare Department andPunjab Health SystemCorporation (PHSC) manag-ing director with the facility ofsending advance indents tofacilitate early procurements.

At the same time, CaptAmarinder has ordered thatrequisite protocol issued bythe Health Department fortesting of suspected casesshould be followed meticu-lously. Further, complianceof protocol issued by theHealth Department, datedMarch 22, 2020, should bestrictly ensured.

Continuing with its earli-er curfew orders, the StateGovernment will take all pos-sible steps to avoid any undueinconvenience to theproviders of essential services

and general public, the ChiefMinister assured the people.

He has directed the policeand administrative officials toensure that door-to-doordelivery of essential services ismaintained for the desired orprescribed period and it may,as far as possible, be furtherstreamlined with the assis-tance of e-commerce compa-nies or service providers.

Volunteers may also beengaged, if necessary, forensuring prompt door-to-door delivery of essential ser-vices and commodities, saidthe Chief Minister, addingthat providers of essential ser-vices whether individuals(hawkers or delivery boys) orinstitutions should be allowedto operate for fixed durationbut on specific permissionsand after observing requiredhealth safeguards.

The Chief Minister alsoordered sanitization of affect-ed or vulnerable areas, etc forwhich guidelines have beenissued by the Health andFamily Welfare Department tobe undertaken in both con-cerned towns and villages.

On directives of the ChiefMinister, Secretary ArunSekhri on Wednesday issuedrevised curfew managementguidelines to all DivisionalCommissioners, DeputyC o m m i s s i o n e r s ,Commissioners of Police or

SSPs, as well as other seniorofficials concerned with man-aging the situation.

The DCs have been askedto ensure strict compliance ofthe guidelines.

With the civil adminis-tration and police working inclose coordinate, DGP DinkarGupta also issued clearinstructions to his officers toensure ef f icient delivery mechanisms andprocesses in the light of cur-few with no relaxationsalready in place in the State,and the subsequent nationallockdown announcement bythe Prime Minister.

He emphasized arrange-ments for door-to-door deliv-

ery of essential goods and ser-vices as the only option in thegiven situation and asked theCPs and SSPs to ensure thatfunctioning of delivery boys,rehris, small motorized vehi-cles etc is facilitated to ensuresmooth supplies.

For individual emergen-cies, DCs have been asked tocontinue following up andfacilitating the common manthrough helplines alreadyestablished in the districts.The number of helplines andpersons attending on suchlines may be increased andproperly publicized, theguidelines state.

For procurement ofwheat, ACS (Development)

and PSFS would issue a com-prehensive mandi-wise plan indue course.

Likewise, for harvesting of

potatoes, ACS (Development)would issue necessary guide-lines by Friday, March 27,2020.

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The DCs have to declare allthe officer concerned

authorized signatories andinform the district policeaccordingly. Besides, due recordof the passes, issued by theauthorized signatories, mustbe maintained.

For point-to-point move-ment of individuals orproviders of essential goods andservices, the passes can beissued by the authorized sig-natories at origin, clearly givingaddress of destination and pur-pose of traveling. Such passes

should be honoured both dur-ing transit and at destinationbut such pass holders shouldnot be allowed to stop or goanywhere other than the spec-ified destination.

Central Government, inits order, has also emphasizedmaintaining supply chains ofessential goods and commodi-ties. For the same, vehicle num-ber and mode of transportationshould also be specified, how-ever, movement of people ingroups should be avoided evenfrom point-to-point.

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Amid tighter restrictionsand controls as part of the

anti-COVID curfew or lock-down in place, the PunjabPolice on Wednesday wentinto mission mode to launchinnovative and indigenous ini-tiatives across districts to facil-itate door-to-door supply ofessential goods through strate-gic tie-ups with Zomata,Swiggy, Verka, Amul, mandipradhans, chemist associations,among others.

As a result of the initiativestaken by the district police,door-to-door supply of essen-tial goods like medicines, gro-cery, eatables had started inmany of the districts in thestate, while similar deliverymechanisms were beingworked out in others too.

Passes were also beingissued to authorized vendorsfor the supply of essentialgoods, said the state DGPDinkar Gupta, adding that forhome delivery of medicines, inparticular, necessary tie-upsare being made with the respec-tive Chemist Associations, sothat orders can be taken onphone and home delivery isaccordingly undertaken.

At the same time, the DGPappealed to the people and the

media to show some patienceas arrangements on such alarge scale need time for imple-mentation. “The police is tak-ing prompt action on any infor-mation that comes to theirnotice the from social media,”he said while disclosing thatprompt arrangements weremade for delivery of diabeticmedicines to a Jalandhar fam-ily after they had tweeted forhelp.

He pointed that strictenforcement of curfew hadcurtailed the number of FIRsfor violations to 74 onWednesday against Tuesday’s230, with a 38,468-strong policeforce on the ground to enforcethe restrictions while ensuringaccess to essential goods andservices for the people.

The violations of curfewwere reported from LudhianaCity, Ludhiana Rural, Khanna,Ropar, Sangrur, Patiala,Jalandhar City, Hoshiarpur,Kapurthala, SBS Nagar, Mansaand Ferozepur.

Responding to the DGP’sdirections to think out-of-the-box, Commissioners of Policeand SSPs in several districts hadcome out with innovative waysto ensure that essential com-modities reach the citizens.

In Amritsar and Ludhianacities, 650 persons had been

engaged from Swiggy for homedelivery of essential goods,while in Patiala district, homedelivery of essential com-modities was being ensured incoordination with the deliveryboys from Zomato and Swiggy.

As many as 100 trolleyscontaining essential com-modities were dispatchedacross Sangrur district onWednesday by engaging ser-vices of local volunteers, saidthe DGP adding that in TarnTaran district, milk producingentities like Verka and Amulhave been roped in for ensur-ing decentralized distributionof milk following proper socialdistancing measures.

Officers of Verka Milkplant have been liaised withand they have assured thattheir 700 vendors will under-take door to door supply ofmilk in Amritsar city too, withthe Commissionerate Amritsardirected to issue the necessarypasses, said Gupta.

Further, for fruits and veg-etables in Amritsar city, liaisonhas been established with mer-chant leader (Pardhan) of theSabzi Mandi. As a result,around 200 vendors from theMandi will undertake door-to-door delivery of vegetables tothe residents of each colonyand area in Commissionerate

Amritsar. Similarly, thePardhan of the Mandi hasassured that around 100 ven-dors will be deputed for under-taking door-to-door supply ordelivery of fruits.

In Khanna district, veg-etables and fruits are being soldout door-to-door via rehris,after getting the same frommandis.

For dry rations, necessarytie-ups with the Kiryana storeshave been made, and they arealso taking orders on phoneand ensuring home delivery.Information about the avail-ability of the home delivery ser-vices is being disseminatedthrough the WhatsApp groups.

“Certain issues are beingfaced by the police teams incertain areas, including short-age of essential items and LPGetc, daily visits at governmenthospitals by drug addicts withde-addiction centre cards seek-ing medicines, pressure fromwheat farmers for opening ofpesticide markets and shops,demand from potato growersfor safe passage and trans-portation for supply of theircrop to other states, amongothers,” he said adding that allefforts were being made toresolve these concerns at theearliest.

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With curfew continuingwithout any relaxation

for the second day in the city,the denizens struggled to getsupply of essential items as theChandigarh Administrationfailed to put in place its plan toensure home delivery of essen-tial food items and medicineson Wednesday.

While roads in parts ofChandigarh were desertedthroughout the day, peoplelined up outside milk booths invarious sectors in the morningdefying curfew orders. Withmilk and vegetable vendorsvisiting various sectors, peopleresorted to panic buying and alarge number of people werenot able to get essential items.

After Punjab Governorand UT Administrator VPSingh Badnore reviewed thesituation in a meeting onWednesday, the

Administration decided toallow retailer shops (ration) insectors to open from Thursdayonwards and allow the resi-dents to place their order tele-phonically for essential items.The Administration will deputegovernment and private per-sons to deliver such items.

The overall responsibilityof providing essential servicesrelated to food, groceries, fruitand vegetables, dairy and milkproducts will is given to MCCCommissioner KK Yadav.Besides, four senior UT officershave been deputed for bettermanagement of delivery ofessential goods across the city.

Apart from this, fourmobile ATMs vans will bemade functional in few days,which will visit different partsof the city. The residents wouldbe allowed to avail the facilityon their doorsteps for fixedhours.

The Administration also

decided that no relaxation willbe allowed in curfew restric-tions and no individual will beallowed to visit any shop fordirect purchase of essentialitems. The residents can onlyplace order telephonically fordelivery of essential items attheir doorstep.

“With regard to essentialitems including groceries,chemists, supply of fruit, veg-etables etc, it has been finalizedto provide the same to the res-idents at their doorstepsthrough government and pri-vate carriers. A list of chemistshops and retail shops for gro-ceries will be uploaded byAdministration so that resi-dents can place an order tele-phonically,” said MCCCommissioner KK Yadav.

The retail shops will beused as distribution and stor-age point for carriers to pick upin carts or autos, he said.

On supply of fruits and

vegetables, he said that CTUbuses will be used accompa-nied with police personnel forits supply in sectors. And, milksupply will be ensured fromhouse to house from 6 am to10 am daily in all sectors, headded.

The Administration hasalso decided to distribute andsell separate packets of rationpacked for 10 days and 21 daysin the periphery through theavailable government vehicles.

Further, it was decidedthat no retail sale of fruits andvegetables will be allowed inMandi Sector 26 and thewholesale market will onlyfunction maintain the supplieschain.

Meanwhile, UTAdministrator VP SinghBadnore directed MCCCommissioner to ensure thatall areas get adequate stock ofessential items on time.

During the review meet-

ing, it was informed that thereis no shortage of beds, medi-cines, protective gears etc. fortreating the patients in thecity.

It was further informedthat in case anyone is foundviolating the curfew ordersand buying essential itemsfrom shops, strict legal actionwould be taken against boththe individual and the shopowner as per law.

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While an indefinite curfewimposed in Chandigarh hastriggered panic among citydenizens, the city MP KirronKher is nowhere to be seen andis currently in Delhi.

Kher had left for Delhi toattend Lok Sabha whichreassembled on March 2 forbudget session. While the LokSabha session was adjourned

sine die on Monday due tolockdown in the entire countryin view of COVID-19 out-break, the MP is not back to thecity and stuck in Delhi.

While questioning the

absence of the city MP KirronKher, Chandigarh Congresspresident Pradeep Chhabrasaid that in such a difficult timewhere the MP had the prima-ry responsibility to remove the

problems of the people of thecity, she is missing today.

He said that by giving a lit-tle fund at this late stage, shecannot run away from herresponsibilities.

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In the wake of fears of infectiondue to the corona virus epi-

demic, Haryana Government onWednesday decided to reducethe pressure on jails of the State.

As per directions of theSupreme Court, inmates alreadyon parole or furlough will get anextension of four-week specialparole. Similarly, prisoners whoreturn to jail after only oneparole or furlough on time in apeaceful manner will also be

given six weeks of special parole.Haryana Jail Minister, Ranjit

Singh said that inmates who areover 65 years of age and are notinvolved in more than one casesor those who are not involved indrug cases or those who have notbeen booked under Section 379B or POCSO Act and those whoare not convicted in cases of rapeor acid attack will also be givensix weeks of special parole on thebasis of good behavior. Foreignprisoners are not included in this,he added.

The minister said inmateswhose sentence is not morethan seven years and no othercase is pending in the court,those who owe no penalty willalso be given six to eight weeksof special parole based on goodbehaviour. He said that, specialparole will also be given to thoseprisoners whose maximum sen-tence is up to seven years and ifthere is a case pending in whichthey are out on bail and hasalready returned peacefully afterParole. He said that those who

are convicted in cases like over-dose of drugs or Section 379 Bor POCSO Act, rape and acidattack will not get this benefit.

The Jail Minister said thatthe cases of prisoners, whoseparole or furloughs cases arealready pending with the DistrictCollector or Divisional Collectorwill be shown leniency and willbe disposed of soon. It will alsobe ensured that in such pendingcases, a decision is taken with-in three to six days, he added.

He informed that prisoners

who were serving sentences ofat least seven years and do nothave any pending cases againstthem in the court and those whohave one or more cases pendingagainst them but the punish-ment for which is not likely tobe more than seven years, andwho have good behaviour in jail,will be released on bail or giveninterim bail of 45 to 60 days byDistrict and Sessions Judge,Additional District and SessionsJudge or Chief JudicialMagistrate.

Ranjit Singh said thatinmates with good behavior inthe jail will be given special par-don for two months by theDirector General, Prisons andone month by JailSuperintendent according totheir merit as per the provisiondescribed in the Punjab JailManual. This pardon will not begranted to prisoners who havebeen convicted in seriouscrimes, he added.

He said that every possiblestep is being taken by the depart-

ment in view of the Corona epi-demic and it is being ensuredthat the health of the prisonersin jail is taken care of. He saidthat as per the directions of theSupreme Court, major deci-sions have been taken onhumanitarian grounds for pris-oners and detainees so as toreduce the pressure of prisonersin jails and in any situationarrests are made by the admin-istration as a precautionary lawand order measure then there issufficient place for them in the

jails. He said that directions havealready been issued by thedepartment to all the jails of thestate.

The meeting was held onMarch 24, through video confer-encing, under the chairmanshipof Justice Rajeev Sharma, fordeliberations for compliance ofdirections issued by the SupremeCourt on March 23 which wasattended by Additional ChiefSecretary, Home, Jails, VijaiVardhan and Director General, K.Selvaraj.

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RAIPUR | THURSDAY | MARCH 26, 2020chhattisgarh 03

People with suspected cases of coronavirus are being stamped with permanent ink and a detailed poster is beingpasted outside their residence about home quarantine and for regular monitoring of the patient by the healthdepartment at Bemetara on Wednesday. Pioneer Photo

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

In the wake of thecoronavirus outbreak, the

Chhattisgarh governmenton Tuesday set up 24x7control rooms withdedicated helplines, in allthe 28 districts of the state,including capital Raipur, anofficial release said.

The initiative is incompliance with theinstructions given by chiefminister Bhupesh Baghel, itsaid.

The dedicated 24x7control room helplines have

been set up at the state andthe district levels andpeople can contact thehelpline numbers for anyquery related to Covid-19.

To contain the spread ofcoronavirus infection, a21-day lockdown is beingimplemented across thecountry.

Chief minister Baghelhas appealed to all the peo-ple to strictly follow thenorms of the lockdown.

He said that peopleshould stay at home fortheir own safety and alsosafety of their families.

One should venture out

only for extremelyimportant work, and whenin need, contact controlroom phone numbers, therelease said.

The 24x7 state-levelhelpline number forcoronavirus infectioncontrol is 104.

The control roomhelpline numbers forvarious districts are: Raipur- 100, 07714287199,9479191099,

Police Control Room -101, Fire Service- 112,Kondagaon- 07786242180,Jashpur – 07763223281,Kabeerdham - 07741-

232609, Kanker - 07868-224610, 09165050224,Dantewada- 07856-252412,9479150879, Koriya -07836232330, 9406045758and Korba - 07759-228548.

Similarly, DistrictMungeli – 09111420188,Balod - 07749223950,07828200007, Bilaspur -07752-251000, Bijapur –07853220023, Dhamtari -07722-238479, 07722-237779, Bemetara –07824222150, Durg -0788-2210773, Janjgir-07817222123, Narayanpur- 07781252245,07587399311, Surajpur -

0 9 1 1 1 0 3 3 4 4 6 ,0 9 3 0 1 2 5 0 2 5 2 ,Balodabazar-Bhatapara -07727-223697, Sarguja-093402-67340, 089899-36378, Gariband - 07706-241288, 062671-88110and Sukma –07864284012.

The number ofRajnandgaon district is7000210932, Bastar -07782-223122, Raigarh -07762-223750, Gaurela-P e n d r a - M a r w a h i -9479190097, Balrampur-R a m a n u j g a n j - 0 7 8 3 1 -273012, 07831-273177 andMahasamund-6267770531.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

The Chhattisgarh govern-ment on Wednesday

directed all the departments,commissioners, collectors andhead of departments, toimplement the Centre’s lock-down directives to contain thetransmission of the novelcoronavirus Covid-19 in thecountry for the next 21 daysuntil April 14, midnight.

The guidelines issued bythe office of the chief secre-tary, has listed a number ofservices, including govern-ment and private offices,which would be out of boundsduring the period, whileexempting establishmentssuch as hospitals, ration shops,dairies, banks, insuranceoffices and print andelectronic media.

As per the guidelines onthe measures to be taken tocontain the Covid-19 epidem-ic in the state, state govern-

ment offices, its autonomousand subordinate offices andpublic corporations shallremain closed for the next 21days from March 25.

However, personnel ofthe police, home guards, civildefence, fire and emergencyservices, disaster manage-ment, prisons, district admin-istration and treasury, elec-tricity, water sanitation,

municipal bodies, staffrequired for essential serviceslike sanitation, personnelrelated to water supply andothers, have been exemptedfrom the purview of the lock-down.

All other officials havebeen instructed to continue towork from their homes.

Hospitals and all relatedmedical establishments,

including the manufacturingand distribution units, both inthe public and the privatesectors, such as dispensaries,chemists and medicalequipment shops, laborato-ries, clinics, nursing homes,ambulance services amongothers, will continue toremain functional.

The transportation for allmedical personnel, nurses,para-medical staff, and otherhospital support services bepermitted, the guidelines said.

All the commercial andprivate establishments willremain closed except rationshops and shops that sell med-icines, groceries, fruits, veg-etables, dairy and milk booths,meat and fish and animal fod-der.

However, the districtauthorities may encourageand facilitate home delivery tominimise the movement ofindividuals outside their

homes, the guidelines said.Delivery of all essential

goods, including food, phar-maceuticals and medicalequipment, through e-com-merce has also been exemptedfrom the purview of thelockdown, it said.

The order said industrialestablishments will remainclosed except manufacturingunits of essential commodi-ties, production units, whichrequire continuous process.

All transport services, air,rail, roadways will remainclosed.

Transportation for essen-tial goods will however, beoutside the purview of thelockdown, the guidelines said.

Similarly, the hospitalityservices, educational, training,research, coaching institu-tions, social, political, sports,entertainment, academic, cul-tural, religious functions,gatherings have been barred.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

All liquor stores acrossChhattisgarh, will

remain closed until March31 following the 21-daylockdown announced inthe wake of thecoronavirus pandemic.

In wake of thepreventive measuresundertaken by theChhattisgarh governmentto control and contain thespread of coronavirusinfection and the 21-daylockdown, the state excisedepartment on Wednesdayextended the closure ofliquor shops, bars, pubs,and restaurants fromMarch 25 to March 31.

In a notification issuedby Mariyanus Tigga, undersecretary, state commer-cial tax (excise) depart-ment, all of country-made,Indian-made foreignliquor stores, bars, pubs,and restaurants will nowremain closed until March31.

In an earlier order, allcountry made and IMFLliquor shops, theChhattisgarh statebeverages corporationgodowns (in Raipur andBilaspur) and the districtlevel country made liquorstorage centres, weredirected to remain closeduntil March 25.

The new directivesaid, under the provisions

of the ChhattisgarhExcise Act, 1915 Section24, sub section (1),until further order, all theliquor outlets, godownsand storage centres willnow remain closed untilMarch 31.

All the excise depart-ment officials have beendirected to implement theorder strictly, it said.

In another notificationthe under secretary, saidall the restaurants andhotel bars across the state,too will also remain closeduntil March 31.

Earlier, the date ofclosure was until March25, which has beenextended to March 31, theorder said.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chief minister BhupeshBaghel on Wednesday

addressed the people of thestate and greeted them on thestart of the Hindu New Year.

In his message, Baghelappealed to the people toremain close to god for gettingthe strength to fight the novelcoronavirus pandemic.

"It is a moment of spend-ing time with the family and bystaying at home we will be safefrom the threat looming largein a form of Coronavirus,” hesaid.

Expressing concern forhomeless and daily-wageworkers , Baghel said he hadspecially instructed the districtcollectors to look after them.

He appealed the social

and religious organizations,specially the gurudwaras, tofeed them by distributinglunch packets instead oforganizing ‘langars’.

Baghel also appreciatedthe efforts of the healthcarestaff who are in the frontline ofthe fight against the infectiousdisease, in tackling the

menace.“They are working 24X7

and their efforts are worthappreciation,” he said.

Specially appreciating thesocial awareness of the ruralpeople, the CM, said no one isgiven entry in the rural areasunless they undergo a com-plete health checkup.

Regarding the people ofthe state stranded in otherparts of the country, Baghelsaid they must remain there ascoming back would pose athreat of spreading of thedecease.

“In case they are facingmonetary problem and prob-lem of getting food there, thestate government would makeall possible efforts to make thearrangements,” he said.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The state health depart-ment on Wednesday said

it will keep people who havereturned from foreign tripsand who are in home quar-antine under surveillanceand conduct medical check-ups of their neighbours todetect Covid-19 and curb thespread of the infection.

The health departmentteams will collect informa-tion by holding surveys inneighbourhoods that havepeople who have returnedfrom foreign trips and areunder home quarantine, offi-cials said.

This will help in earlydetection of the infectiousdisease so that infected per-sons can be isolated immedi-ately, they said

State health servicesdirector Neeraj Bansode in avideo-conference on

Wednesday, instructed alldistrict zila panchayat chiefexecutive officers and dis-trict health officers to carryout the surveys.

Bansode said healthdepartment and panchayatteams will carry out the sur-veys of the all the personswho have returned from for-eign trips and are underhome quarantine.

The teams will also carryout surveys in 50 houses inthe neighbourhood of peo-ple who have returned fromforeign trips and conduct

medical checkups, collecttheir medical history ofexisting and old diseasesapart from the details of theirmovements in the last 15days and the details of thepeople they come in contactwith during the period.

The survey teams will begiven training on the datacollecting process afterwhich they will start the sur-veys, the health director said.

Bansode further said thatto stop any type of infection,all safety standards and guide-lines will have to be followed.

“Even during the interac-tions as part of social distanc-ing, one metre distance has tobe kept and people should becalled outside their housesfor the interactions,” he said.

The survey teams willcarry hand sanitizer and san-itize their hands every halfan hour, Bansode said.

All precautionary preven-tive measures will be takenduring the active communitysurveillance and the districtshealth officials have to submitday to day reports to thehealth department, he said.

The district health andpanchayat officials werefamiliarized about the homequarantine and homeisolation protocols.

The health directorinstructed the officials to dis-card the masks after using thembut to ensure that the masks arenot be thrown at any place,instead they follow the guide-lines for disposal of masks.

‘Efforts on to ensureno one sleeps hungry’

Liquor outlets, restaurantsclosure extended till March 31

Health deptt to hold active surveillance in state

Coronavirus pandemic: 24x7Control Room in all districts

State extends lockdown until April 14 midnight

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

All the officials and employ-ees of Chhattisgarh gov-

ernment will donate a day’ssalary for the prevention of thecoronavirus pandemic and tosupport people in the statewho are in need of financialassistance.

The decision comes in thewake of chief ministerBhupesh Baghel’s appeal tostate government officials andemployees to donate a day’ssalary to the Chief MinisterRelief Fund, an official releasehere said on Wednesday.

Regional coordinator ofChhattisgarh Official-Employee Federation AnilShukla, in a letter informedthe chief minister about the

federation’s decision.In the letter, Shukla said

that Chhattisgarh is strugglingwith the coronavirus pandem-ic and the declaration of the21-day nation-wide lockdownhas led to serious financialproblems for the poor people,

daily wage earners and otherworkers of the state.

“In this time of crisis, gov-ernment officials-employeeshave come forward to supportfellow citizens, along with thestate government,” Shukla saidin his letter.

Regional heads of all theofficial-employee unionsaffiliated to the GovernmentO f f i c i a l s - E m p l o y e e sFederation and the non-recog-nized registered officials-employee unions have decidedto contribute a day’s salary ofApril to the Chief MinisterRelief Fund, Shukla said.

He also requested the chiefminister to give necessaryinstructions to the chiefsecretary in the context.

State govt officials-employeesto donate one-day salary

“In this time of crisis,government officials-employees havecome forward tosupport fellowcitizens, along withthe stategovernment”

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Two more positive casesof coronavirus

(COVID-19) were reportedin Chhattisgarh onWednesday, taking numberof positive cases to three inthe state.

An official communica-tion, said that while onecase has been reported inRaipur the other wasreported in Rajnandgaon.

The state public healthand family welfare depart-ment, confirming the cases,said that all measures fortreatment of the patients arebeing ensured.

According to sources,one among two brothers,running a gym inRajnandgaon district, hadreturned from foreign trip.

Though the youngsterhad tested positive for theinfectious disease, he

started running of gymsecretly, even though he andhis sibling were under homeisolation.

The health departmentofficials during a follow-upmedical check-up, detectedone of the brothers to beinfected with the virus,sources said.

The youngster has beentaken under the healthdepartment’s care andplaced under quarantine,they said.

In the other case, awoman residing in theByron Bazaar neighbour-hood of Raipur, who hadreturned from a foreign tripand was under home quar-antine, on Wednesday test-ed positive for Covid-19,officials said.

Earlier, a 24-year-oldwoman from Raipur, a stu-dent studying in Londonand who had returnedhome, too had tested posi-

tive for the viral infection, isundergoing treatment at theAIIMS in the capital city.

State public health andfamily welfare secretaryNiharika Barik Singh in aletter to the director generalof police has asked to takestern action against personswho are withholding infor-mation after their returnregarding their foreign tripsin the last one month.

The letter said thatkeeping in view of novelcoronavirus prevention, theCentre and Chhattisgarhgovernment has been issu-ing regular advisories, but anumber of people who havereturned from foreign trips,are concealing the informa-tion and are moving aroundfreely in public places.

If such persons are notproviding informationthrough the helpline num-ber 104 to the healthdepartment, and if any

information is receivedregarding them, then legalaction should be takenagainst them under Sections

269, 270 and 188 of IPC andthe Epidemic Act, 1897Section 3, the letter hadsaid.

2 new COVID-19 cases detected

BHILAI: An FIR was reg-istered against a youngster,who had recently returnedfrom Dubai and had notdisclosed his internationaltravel history, police saidhere on Wednesday.

“A man from NehruNagar locality had returnedfrom Dubai on March 15.However, he did not dis-close his international trav-el history as it wouldrequire a 14-days isolation,”additional superintendentof police (city) RohitKumar Jha said.

The accused was iden-tified as Amit Rai (37) a

resident of Nehru Nagar,Bhilai.

He was booked underSections 269 (Negligent Actlikely to spread infection ofdisease dangerous to life),270 (Malignant Act likely tospread infection of diseasedangerous to life) and 271(Disobedience to quaran-tine rule) of Indian PenalCode (IPC) and Section 3of Epidemic Act, 1897.

Chhattisgarh has alsoenforced the EpidemicAct, 1897 and legal actionwill be taken against peo-ple risking public health,officials said.

Case registered against youth fornot disclosing intl. travel history

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Wednesday asked

citizens to adopt a right “warstrategy” against pandemiccoronavirus by maintainingsocial distancing, assistingadministration and healthworkers, and providing forpoor, left stranded because ofthe lockdown. The PMappealed to public to “enduretemporary difficulties” withdetermination to win the bat-tle against the virulent diseasein 21 days.

A day after announcing athree-week nationwide lock-down, the Prime Minister onWednesday interacted with asection of citizens from hisparliamentary constituencyVaranasi via video conferenc-ing.

In his address and inter-actions, the Prime Ministerreiterated that none should“hold the illusion” that prob-lem would not come in a cri-sis like the one that has beenlooming large across the globe.

“Main nahin keh saktahoon ki sab kuch theek hai,”Modi said and asked people tocooperate and assist adminis-tration and “not to put pressureon them and create negativity”. He asked the people to coop-erate, particularly with thedoctors and health workers,

who he said were “working for18 hours to save human lives”and are like Gods.

Modi said instead of allow-ing things to worsen beyondimagination, all should “enduredifficulties for next 21 days andfollow social distancing pro-tocol with all seriousness.”

He appealed to all social,cultural and religious organi-sations and public spiritedpeople to pool in their effortsto help out poor who are suf-fering difficulties on account ofthe lockdown.

Modi said “Centre andstates are putting their best todefeat the pandemic” but peo-ple need to chip in to win thewar against the coronavirus.The Prime Minister said theseare not “normal times.”

Prime Minister also shareda WhatsApp number(9013151515), which has beencreated by the government tohelp people get answers toany of their queries relating toCoronavirus.

He asked people to observethe 9-day “navratras” by pro-viding food to at least nineneedy families and also to ani-

mals around as they may havebeen deprived of their dailyfood due to the corona-quar-antine. “Conquer Corona withKaruna (win Corona virusbattle by being kind),” heaffirmed.

The Prime Minister, whotook questions from peoplefrom Varanasi, said, “Aapda koavsar mein badalna hoga” andpointed out that this has alsooffered an opportunity to peo-ple to be with their familiesand “ humanity as such hascome together to deal withcalamity”.

He praised children’s con-tribution in providing positivemessaging on social mediaand raising confidence of theall those engaged in copingwith the situation across thecountry.

Answering a question on asection of people not adheringto general instructions and“misbehaving” with doctors,the Prime Minister said thoughmost of the people across thecountry whole-heartedly par-ticipated in the ‘janata curfew’on Sunday, some may havedeviated from the prescribedline. Modi said “bad behaviouragainst doctors or nurses” willnot be tolerated and that he hasasked the Home Ministryand Directors General of Policeof states to take strict actionagainst the miscreants.

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The Election Commission(EC) on Wednesday

allowed the use of indelible ink,which it exclusively uses tomark the index finger duringvoting, to stamp the hand ofpeople who have been advisedto stay under home quarantinefor coronavirus. The EC tookthe decision after a suo motureview against the backdrop ofvarious State Governments hav-ing already started using theindelible ink.

The EC, however, clarifiedthat the indelible ink mark isnormally expected to last forthree days when applied on theskin but lasts for a few weeks onthe fingernail till the nail growsout. Usually, people are keptunder home quarantine for aperiod of 14 days. People in sev-eral States like Delhi,Maharashtra, Kerala andKarnataka are putting stampson the back of the palm of thoseput under home quarantine.

The EC made it clear thatthe authorities should not use

indelible ink on any fingeron the left hand of any personsand it should not be used forany other purpose. In a state-ment, it said,

"Due to extraordinary cir-cumstances because ofCOVID-19 pandemic, theCommission has reviewed its

decision suo-moto and it isdecided to allow usage ofIndelible Ink on persons forstamping for home quarantineby health authorities with theconditions."

"As per the provisions ofRule 49K of the Conduct ofElections Rules,1961, the leftforefinger of electors is requiredto be marked with indelible inkat the polling stations before theelector is allowed to vote.Subrule (4) of the said Rule 49Kprovides that in cases where theelector does not have forefingeron the left hand, the ink is to bemarked on any finger on his lefthand, and if he does not haveany finger on his left hand, theink is to be marked on his rightforefinger. Hence, concernedauthorities shall be instructednot to use the Indelible Ink onany finger on the left hand ofany persons," read the state-ment.

“The Ministry may stan-dardise mark and location onthe body where the mark has tobe applied so that it does notaffect the conduct of any poll.The authorities concernedshould be instructed to main-tain the record of the personsto whom Indelible Ink isapplied. The authorit iesshould also be instructed toensure that the Indelible Inkshall not be used for anyother purpose,” the EC said.

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With the objective of socialdistancing to prevent

spread of coronavirus pandem-ic, the Armed forces have decid-ed to have bare minimum staffat their respective headquartershere. While the Army started theprocess on Wednesday, the IAFand Navy will implement theorders from Thursday onwards.

Meanwhile, in the nationaleffort to look after Indians com-ing from pandemic affectedcountries, the Army onWednesday received anotherbatch of 273 citizens, mostly pil-grims from Iran, at its medicalfacility at Jodhpur. At present,the Army is looking after near-ly 1,200 Indians in its variouscentres all over the country.

As regards the closure of theArmy Headquarters, officialssaid here the global lock-downhas affected and significantlyreduced the office work be itinternational cooperation, train-ing events, postings and cours-es besides many such otherfunctions. The critical appoint-ments and which includesalmost 40 per cent of the officegoers continued to work fromhome. Emergency staff includ-ing, duty official, medical fra-ternity, drivers, cooks and othersupport staff continued to workat the headquarters.

Army Chief General M MNaravane last week had

reviewed the preparations formeeting the challenge of coro-navirus and decided that atleast 35 percent officers and 50per cent other ranks will workfrom home at the ArmyHeadquarters till March 31.The second batch will workfrom home from March 31onwards. The IAF and NavyHeadquarters here will alsoimplement more or less thesame system of working withbare minimum staff, they said.

Giving details about theongoing efforts to look after theIndians evacuated from foreigncountries, officials said the batchof 273 pilgrims from Iranincluded 149 women and sixchildren.

The evacuees, who weretransferred on IA Flights fromDelhi to Jodhpur were screenedon arrival at Jodhpur airport andthen taken to the Army medicalfacility which has been designedisolation as well as mental andphysical wellness which includesvarious activities includingsports.

At present, the Army isoperating medical facilities forevacuees at Manesar, Jaisalmerand Jodhpur with evacuees fromIran, Italy and Malaysia lodgedin these camps. Evacuees fromWuhan and Japan have alreadybeen discharged after full pro-tocol was observed. Over 1,200evacuees, medical staff and aircrew have so far been catered to

in these facilities.In addition, more Army

medical facilities at Jhansi,Binnaguri and Gaya are kept atstandby with an additional col-lective capacity of 1,600 in addi-tion & those activated already.This does not include the addi-tional capacity created and keptready, they said.

Moreover, the OrdnanceFactory Board (OFB) has des-ignated 285 beds for isolationwards in handling Coronavirus(COVID-19) cases. Forty bedshave been earmarked in hospi-tals at Vehicle Factory Jabalpur,thirty beds each at Metal andSteel Factory Ishapore, Gun andShell Factory Cossipore,Ammunition Factory Khadki,Ordnance Factory Kanpur,Ordnance Factory Khamaria,Ordnance Factory Ambajhari,25 beds at Ordnance FactoryAmbernath and twenty bedseach at Heavy Vehicle FactoryAvadi and Ordnance FactoryMedak.Setting up of Isolationward and corresponding num-ber of beds in OFB hospitals hasbeen done as per Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare(MoHFW) instructions in theCabinet Secretary's meeting onTuesday, officials said. The OFBis also trying to produce per-sonal protection equipment andface masks as per pilot orderquantity placed by HLL LifecareLimited (HLL), a PSU underMoHFW.

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India on Wednesday con-demned the terror attack on

a gurudwara in Kabul termingit “diabolical” at the time ofCovid-19 crisis even as PrimeMinister Narendra Modi saidthe killings have saddened himand expressed condolences tothe families of the deceased.The attack claimed at least 27lives.

In a strong reaction to theincident, the ministry of exter-nal affairs while describing it asa “cowardly attack,” said Indiastands ready to extend “all pos-sible assistance to the affectedfamilies of the Hindu and Sikhcommunity of Afghanistan.”

Stating this in an official

statement, the ministry also said“We convey our sincerest con-dolences to the immediate fam-ily members of the deceasedand wish speedy recovery to theinjured. Such cowardly attackson the places of religious wor-ship of the minority commu-nity, especially at this time ofCOVID 19 pandemic, is reflec-tive of the diabolical mindset ofthe perpetrators and their back-ers.”

Besides the Prime Minister,Civil Aviation MinisterHardeep Singh Puri and PunjabChief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh alsoexpressed sorrow. "Suicideattack on a Gurudwara Sahib inKabul needs to be stronglycondemned. These killings are

a grim reminder of atrocitiesthat continue to be inflictedupon religious minorities insome countries and the urgencywith which their lives & reli-gious freedom have to be safe-guarded," Puri tweeted.

The Punjab Chief Ministercalled the incident "tragic andunfortunate" and askedAfghanistan President AshrafGhani to "find out the perpe-trators and look after our peo-ple." He also tweeted "Horrificnews coming from Kabul wherea barbaric terror attack hap-pened in the Gurudwara GuruHar Rai. It's extremely tragicand unfortunate. RequestPresident @AshrafGhani Ji tofind out the perpetrators andlook after our people."

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Members of Parliament(MPs) can now use

Member of Parliament LocalArea Development Scheme(MPLADS) fund for medicaltesting and other facilitiesrequired to detect and containcoronavirus. After this, UnionFood Minister Ram VilasPaswan, and Ram Gopal Vermahave donated RS one crore eachfrom the MPLAD funds forcoronavirus treatment. Themove follows appeals by someMPs to use MP LAD for coron-avirus treatment. As per earlierguidelines, MPLADS funds canbe used only for permanentwork.

The Ministry of Statisticsand ProgrammeImplementation then issuedfresh guidelines on Tuesdayallowing the use of MPLADfund for the purpose. As per theamendments to MPLADSGuidelines, MPs can now utilisefunds under MPLADS for pro-curement of infra-Red ther-mometers (Non-contact) toenable doctors and medical per-sonnel to record and track a per-son's temperature.

The ministry, based on therequests of MPs, has decided thatdistrict authorities may utiliseMPLADS funds for medicaltesting, screening and otherfacilities required to detect andcontain COVID-19, an ordersaid. It has been decided togrant one-time dispensationunder MPLADS fund to buy facemasks, gloves and sanitisers formedical personnel,

coronavirus testing kits,

thermal imaging scanners orcameras for railway stations andairports, and any other medicalequipment to check COVID-19,among others, the ministry saidin the order,

"Personal ProtectionEquipment (PPE) Kits to keepthe medical personnel well-pro-tected and enable them to func-tion efficiently by minimising therisk of transmission," the orderstated. It also stated that with thehelp of these funds, thermalimaging scanners or cameras forrailway stations, airports andother points of entry whichallows detecting of temperaturefrom a safe distance can also bepurchased.

"Corona testing kitsapproved by Ministry of Healthand Family Welfare, ICU venti-lator and isolation/quarantinewards within their approvedfacilities and face masks, gloves,and sanitisers for medical per-sonnel can be procured," the cir-cular stated. The Governmenthas also allowed procurement ofany other medical equipmentrecommended by the Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare forprevention, control, and treat-ment of COVID-19.

Vivek Tankha, a Rajya Sabhamember from Madhya Pradesh.of the Congress thanked theprime minister and the govern-ment of India for relaxation inMPLADS rules permitting MPsto use public funds in the waragainst coronavirus. “This battleis everyone's responsibility,"

Tankha said. He said theparliamentarians will now beable to help the administrationin providing assistance to theneedy ones.

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The Congress on Wednesdaydemanded the implemen-

tation of the party-proposedNyay Yojana (minimumincome guarantee scheme) tohelp the poor families in thecountry to cope with the situ-ation arising out of the nation-wide lockdown.

Former party chief RahulGandhi said those who surviveon daily wages need immediatehelp and support through directcash transfers into theiraccounts and free rations."Delaying this will cause wide-spread devastation & chaos,"Rahul said.

Asserting it supports thelockdown, the Congress in astatement, however, said it was"deeply disappointed" by thelack of a coherent strategy or aclear way ahead on the part ofPrime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Dear PM, India will adhereto the lockdown. But what stepsdid the government take totackle the corona pandemic

despite early warnings inFebruary," Congress chiefspokesman Randeep Surjewalaasked.

In a series of tweets,addressed to the prime minis-ter, Surjewala said,"TheCongress demands relief pack-age for framers... fair price forcrops, indebtedness relief andsuspension of all recoveriesfrom farmers."

"Dear PM, need of the houris to implement forthwith 'min-imum income guaranteescheme(Nyay) mooted by Rahulji and Congress. Please transferRs 7,500 to every Jan Dhan A/C,PM Kisan A/C & every PensionA/C to tide over nutrition needsof 21 days and give free PDSration," he said.

Ahead of the 2019 LokSabha polls, the Congress hadproposed, and promised toimplement the Nyay scheme ifvoted to power.

In his remarks, a day afterModi announced a completenationwide lockdown for 21days to contain the spread of

COVID-19, the Congress leaderalso said, "we will rise togetheras a nation & defeatCOVID2019. We stand with thelockdown but are deeply disap-pointed by the lack of coherentstrategy or a clear 'way ahead' onyour part."

"Please remember, Tryingtimes are true test of leadership.Is government ready to rise up& deliver," he asked.

"The Congress demands acomprehensive package fordaily wagers, MGNREGAworkers, factory workers, unor-ganised workers, fishermen andfarm labourers," Surjewala said.

He asked when the doctors,nurses and health workers willhave adequate protection andhow many isolation beds andventilators are available in thecountry and where.

"How will daily wagers,labourers, MGNREGA workers,Factory workers, Unorganisedworkers, Fishermen, Farmers &Farm Labour sustain for 21days," he asked.

Asserting that indebted-

ness relief to farmers was theonly way forward in these test-ing times as they are the "back-bone" of country's economy, hesaid there should be a morato-rium on farmer's loans andrecoveries and the governmentshould ensure procurement ofcrops at MSP.

Rahul also stated that Indiais fighting a war against theCoronavirus but the question ishow can we minimise casualtiesin this war. "Isolate the virus andblock its escape routes.Massively expand testing toidentity and treat those who areinfected. Create massive emer-gency field hospitals in partic-ularly in urban areas with fullICU capability to provide careto patients, " Rahul demanded.

Rahul Gandhi further saidmany industries are struggling."Act quickly by announcingtax breaks & financial supportto prevent massive job losses &reassure business owners thatthe Government will supportthem through this crisis," hesaid.

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To strengthen the ruralbanking in the wake of the

corona pandemic, the CabinetCommittee on EconomicAffairs, chaired by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, onWednesday, approved the con-tinuation of the process ofrecapitalisation of RegionalRural Banks (RRBs) by pro-viding minimum regulatorycapital to them for the nextfinancial year 2020-21.

The RRBs were facingproblem to maintain mini-mum capital to Risk weightedAssets Ratio (CRAR) of 9%, asper the regulatory norms pre-scribed by the Reserve Bank ofIndia and this decision will helpto overcome the minimumcapital keeping crisis.

As per this decision, theCentre will pay Rs.670 crore(50%), subject to the conditionthat the release of CentralGovernment’s share will becontingent upon the release ofthe proportionate share by thesponsor banks, said Union

Minister Prakash Javadekardetailing the package. Thisscheme will make the RRBsfinancially stronger and willenable them to meet the cred-it requirement in the ruralareas, he added.

“As per RBI guidelines, theRRBs have to provide 75% oftheir total credit under PSL(Priority Sector Lending).RRBs are primarily catering tothe credit and banking require-ments of agriculture sectorand rural areas with focus onsmall and marginal farmers,micro & small enterprises,rural artisans and weaker sec-tions of the society. In addition,RRBs also provide lending tomicro/small enterprises andsmall entrepreneurs in ruralareas. With the recapitalizationsupport to augment CRAR,RRBs would be able to contin-ue their lending to these cate-gories of borrowers under theirPSL target, and thus, continueto support rural livelihoods,”said the statement issued byGovernment.

The Cabinet also approved

the taking up of constructionof Aligarh-Harduaganj flyoverby Ministry of Railways. Thetotal length of the railway fly-over will be 22 kilometer. Theproject is expected to be com-pleted by 2024-25 at a cost ofover �1,285 crore. “At AligarhJunction Station a branch lineBareilly-Aligarh terminates.The trains coming fromHowrah side and going toHarduaganj/Bareilly crossHowrah-New Delhi mainroute, which is busiest sectionof Indian Railways. Due toheavy traffic there is no pathavailable for surface crossing ofloaded goods trains comingfrom Howrah side and going toHarduaganj/Bareilly. Thisresults into heavy detention oftrains at Aligarh Junction.

“This location has becomea bottleneck and is affecting thetrain working badly causingdelays and detentions and alsoreducing the wagon turnround. Flyover at Aligarhgoing over the existing Delhi-Howrah main line is an oper-ational necessity and is essen-

tially required to remove thebottleneck to traffic move-ment. By construction of fly-over connecting Aligarh toHarduaganj the delays anddetentions will be avoided,”said Government.

The Union Cabinet alsoapproved continuation ofRebate of State and CentralTaxes and Levies (RoSCTL)from 1st April, 2020 onwarduntil such time that the schemeis merged with Remission ofDuties and Taxes on ExportedProducts (RoDTEP). “RoSCTLscheme for apparel and made-ups will be continued witheffect from 1st April, 2020without any change in schemeguidelines and rates as notifiedby Ministry of Textiles till suchtime that the RoSCTL ismerged with RoDTEP.Continuation of RoSCTLbeyond 31st March, 2020 isexpected to make the textilesector competitive by rebatingall taxes/levies which are cur-rently not being rebated underany other mechanism,” saidGovernment.

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In view of the 21-day lock-down, the Union Home

Ministry on Wednesday post-poned the first phase ofCensus and NationalPopulation Register (NPR)updating process. The HomeMinistry said that the popu-lation enumeration processis postponed till furtherorders.

“The Census 2021 wasscheduled to be conducted intwo phases, viz., (a) Phase I i.e.House listing & HousingCensus during April-September, 2020 and (b)Phase II i.e. PopulationEnumeration during 9th to28th February, 2021.Theupdation of NPR was alsoproposed to be done alongwith the Phase I of Census2021 in all the States/UTs,except Assam.

“Keeping in view theabove, the first phase ofCensus 2021 and updation ofNPR, which was to begin onvarious dates decided by theState/UT governments begin-ning 1st April 2020 and vari-ous related field activities, arepostponed until furtherorders,” said the HomeMinistry in a statement. Therehas been continuing protestsagainst the proposed NPRexercise, besides theCitizenship Amendment Act,both by some oppositionsparties as also someOpposition-ruled States as itwas being billed as a precur-sor to the Centre's NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC)move, especially against thebackdrop of some new queriesbeing incorporated in it.

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The NIA on Wednesdaychargesheeted an accused

Santosh Kumar for moneytransfers to the tune of �2.2crore in the February 2019sophisticated arms interdic-tion case of Bihar.

Northeast insurgent groupNSCN (IM) was involved insupplying Under BarrelGrenade Launcher (UBGL)and AK 47 assault rifles tobanned Naxal outfit TritiyaPrastuti Samiti (TPC) inJharkhand.

The National InvestigationAgency filed the chargesheetagainst Kumar under variousIndian Penal Code Setions

besides those of the Arms Actand Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act at a desig-nated court in Patna onWednesday.

The accused SantoshKumar has a number of alias-es including Santosh Singhand Umesh Kumar and is a res-ident of village Horil Chappraunder district Ara, Bhojpur,Bihar.

The case relates to inter-diction of highly sophisticatedweapons and ammunition onFebruary 2.2019, by BiharPolice, including Under BarrelGrenade Launchers (UBGL),AK series rifle and large num-ber of 5.56 x 45 mm ammuni-tion from three persons---Suraj

Prasad, VarengnowKahorngam and ClearsonKabo travelling in a SUV.

"Investigations found thataccused Santosh Kumar wasone of prime members of theweapons trafficking networkand their supply to Naxals inJharkhand.

He had extensively usedbanking and hawala channelsfor transfer of funds for pro-curement of weapons and suchtransactions worth more Rs 2.2Crores have been identifiedduring investigation," the NIAsaid in a statement.

The agency said investigation has establishedthat a large number of illegalsophisticated prohibited

weapons and ammunition weresupplied by an accusedNingkhan Sangtam, a selfstyled Major of NSCN(IM)through illegal arms dealers ofBihar to Bhikhan Ganjhu, aZonal Commander of TPC, aNaxal terrorist gang, proscribed

by theJ h a r k h a n dGovernment.

Earlier twoChargesheetswere filedagainst six otheraccused per-sons-- SurajPrasad, VRK a h o r n g a m ,Clearson Kabo ,Tripurari SinghMukesh Singhand NingkhanSangtam on

August 3 and November 22last year.

Further investigationagainst co-conspirators andother suspects includingabsconding accused BhikhanGanju is continuing, addedthe agency.

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The Ministry of Housing andUrban Affairs has allowed

suo-moto retention for the peri-od from March 17 to May 31 forall allottees under the CentralGovernment General PoolResidential

Accommodation(CGG-PRA) Rules, who were/areexpected to vacate or shift theirhouses. This relaxation will beapplicable to all cases of retentionand change of accomodationunder GPRA Rules. “TheRetention will be suo moto andallottees need not apply for it.The suo-moto retention periodwill be on the payment of licencefees as applicable to the allottee under these rules. Nodamage will be charged for thisperiod,” the ministry said in astatement.

According to the ministry,these relaxations will be given tosuch allottees also where (s)hehas become unauthorized occu-pant of government accommo-dation before March 17.However, in such cases, after theretention period of 75 days up toMay 31, the damages at tele-scopic rates, as was continuingprior to this period, will beresumed.

The Ministry has beenreceiving calls from various allot-tees of General Pool ResidentialAccommodations (GPRA), whowere/ are due to vacate their flats/houses and are not able to do soin the light of the advisoriesregarding social distancingissued by Ministry of

Health and Family Welfare(MoH&FW) under the currentglobal Corona Virus Pandemic(COVID-19).

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Whatever the court dis-poses, the Government

proposes is the new dictum inthe State of Kerala. Last weeksaw the Kerala High Court dis-missing a petition filed by a pri-vate citizen who had pleadedwith the court to direct theGovernment to ensure theavailability of liquor throughonline platforms so that tipplersneed not stand in long queuesfor hours to get their dailyquota of spirits.

Jyothish, a Cochin-basedyouth had approached the judi-ciary in the backdrop of thecoronavirus and the medicaldirectives regarding the socialdistancing.

His contention was that ifthe Indian Made ForeignLiquor (IMFL), as the stuff isknown in this Southern State,is sold through in-line plat-forms like Amazon or Flipkart,the tipplers need not stand in

the queues in front of theKerala State BeveragesCorporation (BEVCO forshort) counters, the Statemonopoly in liquor business,exposing themselves to poten-tial attack by coronavirus. Healso pointed out that if liquoris sold through the online plat-forms, the State need not sur-render or sacrifice the revenueaccrued through the sector.

But the judge who heardthe petition came down heav-ily on Jyothish by giving him asermon on the responsibilitiesof the ourt, Government andthe citizen. To express the dis-pleasure of the court towardsthe petitioner for filing suchpleas, the judge ordered him topay Rs 50,000 as fine whichwould be credited into theChief Minister’s Disaster ReliefFund. The State Cabinet whichmet on Wednesday morningdecided to shut down all theBEVCO outlets in view of thenational lock out declared bythe Centre on Tuesday night.

This has dampened the spiritsof millions of tipplers across theState, which has a reputation asthe largest guzzler of liquor inthe country.

But sources in theDepartment of Excise said theGovernment was studying thepossibilities of making liquoravailable through on line plat-forms. Officials pointed outthat the Excise Minister T PRamakrishnan had launched aproject of on-line booking ofliquor to help the tipplers fromthe hassles of standing in ser-pentine queues in front ofBEVCO.

Consumerfed, the apexbody of all consumer cooper-atives in the State too hadmade elaborate arrangementsfor the on line booking ofspirits through on line agencies.A final declaration about thenew bventure may be outshortly as the unprecedentedclosure of ‘watering holes’ hasdampened the spirits of veter-an tipplers.

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A54-year-old man infected withthe coronavirus died at a hospi-

tal here in the early hours ofWednesday, Tamil Nadu's firstrecorded death due to the disease,State Health Minister C Vijayabaskarsaid. The man had a medical histo-ry of prolonged illness with uncon-trolled diabetes.

“Despite our best efforts, theCOVID19 positive patient at MDU,Rajaji Hospital, passed away... he hadmedical history of prolonged illnesswith steroid dependent COPD(chronic obstructive pulmonary dis-ease), uncontrolled diabetes with

hypertension," the Health Ministertweeted. The Minister also cautionedthat COVID-19 with co-morbidity isa high risk condition.

"Having known the impact ofvirus infections, I've been telling inmy press meets that COVID19 withco-morbidity like uncontrollable dia-betes & hypertension, immunosup-pression are high risk conditions. Ifanyone in ur family has such condi-tions be extra cautious,pls," he addedin another tweet.

On Tuesday, the total number ofCOVID-19 cases in the state rose to18 after six more people, includingthree woman, tested positive for the coronavirus.

According to the Union HealthMinistry, the number of coronaviruscases on Wednesday rose to 562 withnine deaths. This does not include theTamil Nadu death. The StateGovernment had announced a lock-down from March 24-31 as part of itsefforts to stem the spread of the dead-ly virus.

On Tuesday, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi said the entire coun-try would be under lockdown forthree weeks starting midnight. TheTamil Nadu Government had alsosaid it will impose section 144 ofCr.PC, which prohibits the Assemblymore than five persons in publicplaces to implement the lockdown.

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Normal life came to a stand-still in Jammu & Kashmir

on the first day of the 21-daylong nation-wide lockdownimposed by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to slow thespread of the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, with four newfresh cases testing positivefrom Bandipore, the authoritiesin Kashmir valley stepped uptheir efforts to break the chain.Appeals were made to all thosewho may have skipped screen-ing and deliberately hid foreign

travel history after landing inSrinagar.

Spokesman ofJ a m m u & K a s h m i rGovernment, Rohit KansalWednesday evening tweeted, "4more persons, all fromBandipore, tested positive onWednesday. Preliminary find-ings suggest they were closecontacts of Srinagar patientwho tested positive on Tuesday.All 5 reported to have partici-pated together in religiousevent".

So far, 11 cases tested pos-itive (10 active positive and 01recovered) inJammu&Kashmir. At a highlevel meeting chaired by ChiefSecretary BVRSubhramanyam, FinancialCommissioner Health andMedical Education Atal Dulloinformed that the two con-firmed cases of Coronavirus

have been now tested negativeafter following due protocol inJammu.

On the other hand, healthdepartment authorities quar-antined at least eight contactsof a religious preacher, who hadstayed with them in Teli Bastiarea of Bari Brahmana inSamba district of Jammu on hisreturn from Andaman NicobarIslands.

According to local contactsof the religious preacher, hearrived here in Teli Basti areaon March 13, participated inrelgious events and returned toKashmir valley on March 14.The samples of all those eightpersons who came in contactwith him have been sent fortesting in GMC, Jammu

Meanwhile, on the firstday of the nine day longNavratra festival, main doors offamous temples remained shut

and devotees stayed at home.Special prayers were onlyoffered by the priests in famoustemples of Mata Vaishno Devi,Raghunath temple,Ranbireshwar temple, KaliMata temple located insideBahu Fort in Jammu.

Shops, supplying essentialitems, remained open whilemarkets remained shut androads wore a deserted look.

In old city area of Jammu,policemen were deployed out-side the main streets and con-certina wires were spread toprevent movement of people inthe walled city area.

Police teams were deputedon ground zero to patrol thick-ly populated areas. Completelock down was witnessedacross Kathua, Samba,Udhampur, Reasi, Ramban,Doda, Kishtwar, Rajouri andPoonch districts of Jammu

division. The traffic on theJammu-Srinagar NationalHighway was regulated andtrucks ferrying essential sup-plies were allowed to movetowards their destination.

According to the dailyMedia Bulletin on novel coro-navirus (COVID-19), 3061persons have been kept underhome quarantine while as 80are in hospital quarantine.

Persons who are underhome surveillance stand at1477 while as 506 persons havecompleted their 28-day sur-veillance period.

The Bulletin further saidthat 326 samples have been sentfor testing of which 294 testedas negative while as 21 reportsare awaited till March 25, 2020.

Meanwhile, theAdministrative Council whichmet here under the chairman-ship of Lt. Governor, G C

Murmu Wednesday directedthe immediate release of allpensions of one month to givereprieve to the retired class inview of the situation arising outof the ongoing COVID 19pandemic.

The AdministrativeCouncil also decided that inview of the difficulties beingfaced by them, ration packetsbe immediately distributedamong the destitute and slumdwellers.

Teams of health depart-ment also visited several slumdwellings and spread awarenessamong the residents and edu-cated them to stay alert andreport any symptoms of virus.

Separate teams were rushed to different areasto distribute basic ration sup-plies to destitute, needy andslum dwellers across differentplaces.

Jaipur: Bhilwara, the textilecity of Rajasthan, is fighting thetough Covid-19 battle with thenumber of people testing pos-itive reaching 16 onWednesday, making it the high-est count from a single city inthe state.

Four new coronavirus pos-itive cases were reported onWednesday, taking the totalnumber of cases to 36 in thestate, said Additional ChiefSecretary Rohit Kumar Singh.

While two healthcare per-sonnel tested positive inBhilwara, the third positivecase had been of a person whocame in contact with a doctorwho tested coronavirus positive,while the fourth was fromJodhpur, Singh said.

Bhilwara was declared theepicentre of Covid-19 inRajasthan soon after the sixhealthcare personnel testedCovid-19 positive last week.And since then, the town hasbeen undergoing the largestscreening exercise with all itsborders sealed and the residentsfacing curfew for the past fivedays. Till Tuesday, 13 peoplehad tested positive for Covid-19 here.

Intensive search is beingconducted in the city to locateactive cases. 300 teams are con-ducting house-to-house sur-vey on the basis of poliomicroplans. The second phaseof survey will be started soon.

During March 19-24,around 70,000 families weresurveyed and over 300,000 peo-ple screened in Bhilwara. Over30 lakh people would bescreened till March 27 in theBhilwara district, said ChiefMedical and Health Officer

Mushtak Khan.He said over 38,000 hous-

es had been screened and theremaining 25,000 would bescreened in the next two days.The second and third phase ofscreening would be conductedin areas that reported Covid-19positive cases, he added.

Calling it a tough process,Khan said potential carrierscould have spread all over thedistrict.

Till Tuesday, over 5,000people had been isolated athome, and 38 were admitted tohospital isolation wards soonafter three doctors and ninehealthcare workers from thecity's Bangad Hospital testedCovid-19 positive.

According to Bhilwara cityresidents, the spread chain musthave begun when a personwith breathing issues admittedhimself to the hospital, few daysback, hiding his travel history.

He then travelled to Jaipurand visited two hospitals. Theretoo his travel history was notchecked. He was not tested forcoronavirus even after heshowed symptoms of pneu-monia. He died on March 13.

But the doctor and histeam that treated him inBhilwara didn't share any con-cern and travelled to Udaipuron Holi. However, a few daysafter, they isolated themselves.Soon 12 people from Bhilwaratested Covid-19 positive, whichincluded the doctor's wife.

By Tuesday, the adminis-tration set up screening centrefor all the symptomatic andcontacts of the Bangad Hospital,the epicentre of COVID -19positive cases in Bhilwara.

IANS

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami onWednesday asked the Central Government for Rs 4,000 croreto combat the coronavirus pandemic in the State.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the textof which was released to the media here, Palaniswamirequested special assistance of Rs 4,000 crore and other finan-cial measures be considered expeditiously.

Citing the hit taken by the government revenues dueto coronovirus and the additional expenditure, he alsorequested Modi to relax the fiscal deficit limits of three percent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for fiscal 2019-20 and 2020-21 as one time measure.

"Further, additional borrowing of 33 per cent above thelevel permitted for the fiscal year 2019-20 may be allowedfor 2020-21 to enable the states to meet the additional expen-diture requirements." Palaniswami said the state needs Rs3,000 crore for the augmentation and strengthening of the

health infrastructure and for essential equipment, medicinesand for preventive public health measures at this crucial junc-ture. He said Tamil Nadu is vulnerable to coronavirus becauseof the large number of international passengers who tran-sit through its four international airports and four majorports and as it also adjoins states where the outbreak hasbeen initially more severe.

"Hence, while immediate measures have been taken, wewill need to prepare for a significantly higher case load inthe coming weeks and months," Palaniswami told Modi.According to Palaniswami, more resources are needed toface the projected number of cases effectlivey includingthrough the establishment of isolation hospitals, quarantinecentres, supply of hospital equipment including hospital beds,ventilators and personal protection equipments (PPE), med-icines and testing kits and disinfection equipment and chem-icals. IANS

Agra: The festivities associated with the Hindu New Year andNav Durga beginning Wednesday, were badly hit in the Taj cityand the neighbouring Mathura district which has seen a massexodus of pilgrims due to COVID-19 in the last few days.

The religious shrines and temples in Vrindavan andGoverdhan were deserted. Police effectively prevented movementof vehicles and groups of devotees. Barricades have been raisedat all entry points, local officials said.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Hema Malini made a ferventappeal to the locals to stay home and to strengthen Prime MinisterModi's resolve to contain the menace of COVID-19. She hasalready donated Rs 1 crore from her constituency funds to helpthe health services.

IANS

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Complaining of inadequatesupply of masks, sanitisers

and personal protection equip-ment (PPEs), nurses and healthworkers of ID Hospital,Beliaghata — the epicentre fortreatment of coronavirus inKolkata — on Wednesdaystaged a demonstration andthreatened to go on mass leaveif their demands were not met.

The demonstrators laidsiege on the office of the super-intendent and the principal ofthe teaching hospital, the state'sprimary referral facility forinfectious diseases, expressingfears that they could themselvescontract the disease 'anymoment' as the protocol fortheir personal safety normswere not being maintained.

"We are working day in andday out. But we are not gettingadequate medical equipment.Covid-19 is such an infectiousdisease. But we haven't beenprovided adequate number ofmasks, sanitisers and PPEs.Even there is no drinking waterand food in the canteen," saida protester.

"If our demands are notmet, we have to consider goingon mass leaves or strikes," saidanother.

The nurses also allegedthat while their counterparts inother hospitals were beinggiven lift and drop facilities, these have beendenied to them.

"As a result, we are facinglot of harassment while return-ing home from hospital amidthe lockdown," said a nursingstaff.

Sources in the state healthdepartment said the grievancesof the nurse and other healthworkers of ID Hospital werebeing looked into and propersteps would be taken.

Bengaluru: A lockdown in many countries theworld over has forced 1.7 lakh Infosys techiesto work from home to ensure business conti-nuity, a senior executive said on Wednesday.

"About 70 per cent of our 2.4 lakh globalworkforce is working from home to avoid beingaffected by coronavirus," Infosys Chief OperatingOfficer U.B. Pravin Rao told IANS in an email.

In 46 countries, Infosys employs morethan 2.4 lakh employees, serving 1,384 cus-tomers. The 70 per cent workforce translates to1.7 lakh employees.

Calling coronavirus pandemic an uncertainand testing time for the company, Rao said bothemployees and clients are of utmost importance.

"We are doing all we can to be there for thoseemployees and their families that need our sup-

port the most, while prioritizing the safety andwellbeing of our entire global workforce," he said.

Though Rao did not declare that all busi-ness travel has been suspended, he said the com-pany has restricted travel as aappropriate aftermonitoring the situation across countries.

To facilitate so many geeks to operate fromhome, the IT major has arranged for laptops,relocated desktops to home environments, cus-tomised personal devices for official use,arranged high speed broadband internet con-nectivity at residences and improved virtual pri-vate network bandwidth. Admitting that all workcannot be executed from home, especially, busi-ness critical functions, Rao said the company hasprepared teams to deliver account-specificbusiness continuity plans. IANS

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Even as Bengal entered the thirdday of lockdown, Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee on Wednesdayslammed the Centre for not doingenough to help her State tackle thecoronavirus crisis and demanded animmediate package of �1,500 crore.

“It is very difficult to tackle such ahuge crisis with our limited resources”and the Centre should come out withadequate financial packages for all thecorona-affected States, the ChiefMinister said while making her ownclaim for Rs 1,500 crore.

“We had made the same request atthe all-party meeting two days back.

The Centre should announce aspecial financial package for the statein the current situation,” she said.

Reminding how her Governmenthad already created Rs 200 crore fundto tackle the initial spell of the crisisBanerjee appealed to the corporate,industrialist, organizations and well-offcitizens including the non-residentIndians to generously donate in the des-ignated State Emergency Relief Fund.Banerjee who has earned specialacclaim for her inspiring performancein handling the crisis used a whiteboard to personally draw diagramsshowing citizens how to maintainphysical distance while visiting marketsfor daily essentials.

Saying that the total lockdownunder National Disaster ManagementAct had been imposed by the CentralGovernment not in consultation withthe States the Chief Minister said theState’s still had right to take decisionson certain things while implementing

the Act.Accordingly “we will hold a

review meeting on March 31 beforegiving relaxation in the ongoinglockdown,” adding her Governmentwas fully aware of the approachingBengali New Year’s Day on April 15.

“Like the New Year in Punjab andsome other States we too have ourNew Year coming on April 15 and forthat we will review the situation onMarch 31 on how some relaxationcan be given if at all it can be given,”she said.

Directing the police not to stop theonline delivery service of essential itemsand also the vegetable vendors and staffof medicine shops as also the farmerswho were working in fields Banerjeesaid “the police have been instructedto strictly go by the rules and ensurethe lockdown but with a human face.”If required, passes should be issued topeople employed for home delivery ser-vices, she said.

Warning that strong action wouldbe taken against policemen who wouldstop people involved in essential ser-vices Banerjee said “Social distancingdoesn’t mean social isolation.” TheChief Minister also warned of sternaction if doctors, nurses and healthworkers are harassed by their neigh-bours or landlords.

Meanwhile, BCCI presidentSourav Ganguli have come out with aproposal offering a part of the EdenGardens as a quarantine centre for sus-pected Corona cases, sources in theCricket Association of Bengal saidadding a proposal to this effect hasalready been sent to the StateGovernment.

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With no let-up in the con-tinued increase in the

confirmed coronavirus cases inMaharashtra, another 15 morepersons tested positive for thepandemic on Tuesday, takingthe total number of infectedpersons in the State to 122.

On a day whenMaharashtra celebrated itstraditional new year day“Gudi Padwa” in a low-keymanner, the State witnessedan alarming jump in thetotal number of people testingpositive for coronavirus, ajump from the earlier 107cases to 122 cases.

In what came as a relief,the first two patients -- whohad earlier tested positive forCovid-19 -- were dischargedfrom Pune's Naidu Hospitalafter they recovered fully. Thetwo, who are a married couplefrom Pune, tested negativetwice during the follow-upperiod. The two were pre-sented flowers by the in-charge doctors when theywere discharged from the hos-pital on Tuesday.

Of the fresh Covid-19 pos-itive cases reported on Tuesday,Mumbai accounted for a max-imum seven positive cases,while five persons from a samefamily from Islampur town inSangli district in WesternMaharashtra. There was onecase each from Kalyan-Dombivli, Navi Mumbai andPanvel.

The Kasturba Hospital inMumbai, which is the nodalhospital dealing with Covid-19,reported four infected cases inthe morning, while five morepersons tested positive for pan-demic in the afternoon. Threeof the four infected reportedfrom Kasturba Hospital in themorning were that of personswith history of international

travel, while one person con-tracted the pandemic through“a close contact”.

In what came as a cause ofconcern for the authorities, allthe five members of a familywho have been diagnosed pos-itive for Covid-19 had con-tracted Coronavirus throughcontacts. “…In Sangli 5 peoplefrom one family are identifiedas positive due to contacts,”State Health Minister RajeshTope tweeted. In another tweet,Tope said that fourteen patientshad recovered from the illnessand were in the process ofbeing discharged from the hos-pitals.

Significantly enough, thetotal number of infected caseshas nearly doubled during thelast five days from 64 and 122.

Currently,as many as14,502 people are in homequarantine, while 932 peopleare in institutional quarantinein the state.

There have so far beenfour Covid-19 deaths in thestate. On Monday evening, a65-year-old COVID-19 patientdied at Kasturba Hospital inMumbai on Monday evening.Earlier on Sunday night,Filipino died at a private hos-pital late on Sunday night. Thecoronavirus had claimed firstlife in the state on March 17,when a 63-year-old disease-infected had died at theKasurba Hospital on March 17.Subsequently, another 63-year-old male patient, who hadbeen admitted to private hos-pital in Mumbai died on March19.

Addressing the peopleacross the state through socialmedia, chief minister UddhavThackeray all Maharashtriansa traditional Marathi new yearon the occasion of “GudiPadwa”.

Likening the ongoingspread of Coronavirus to the

world war, Uddhav said: “Thisis a World War. During waryou do not get out of your safezone which in this case is yourhome. We literally do notknow where the enemy(CoronaVirus) is going toattack us from. I hope peoplehave now started under-standing the gravity of the sit-uation”.

Making appeal to the citi-zens not to indulge in panicbuying, the chief minister said:“We have enough stock ofessential commodities and foodgrains, do not worry. In anycase, shops selling essentialgoods & services will not beshut. So, I appeal to you to notpanic”.

“The positive that we cantake out of the current situationis we have more time to spendwith our family which we allagree that we had lost on ourway. This feeling of together-ness & spending time withparents, children, grandpar-ents, grand children is inex-plicable,” Uddhav said.

Deputy Chief Minister AjitPawar, state Congress Presidentand Revenue MinisterBalasaheb Thorat, HealthMinister Rajesh Tope appealedto people to celebrate GudiPadva indoors exercising all

precautions in view of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

Unlike in the past, theMaharashtrians celebrated thefestival by hoisting the auspi-cious ‘gudi’ in the confines ofhomes with only family mem-bers in attendance.

Meanwhile, State PublicWorks Department MinisterAshok Chavan said that asprecautionary measure, hisministry had readied 22,118beds to accommodateCoronavirus patients and itcould increase the bed capac-ity to 55,707.

In a news released put outby his ministry, Chavan said:“The people need not panic asthe situation in the state isvery much under control. Wehave made all kind arrange-ments for extreme situationsthat they might arise. As partof the exercise, the PublicWorks Department (PWD)has made available 22,118beds in hundreds of ourbuildings. They include resthouses, hostels and new builtgovernment buildings whichare not being used currently”

“The places where we havemade bed arrangements havedrinking water and electricityfacilities. These places can beused as centres to quarantinepatients with Coronavirussymptoms. They can also beused as make-shift hospitals,”Chavan said.

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The people acrossMaharashtra, who have

been going without newspa-pers since March 23 in viewof the coronavirus situation,will have to wait till April 1,before the publication anddistribution of the newspa-pers resume.

In a joint issued after therepresentatives of the pub-lishers and distributors methim on Tuesday in connec-tion with the difficulties facedby them in the distribution ofnewspapers, MaharashtraIndustries Minister SubhashDesai said: “As decided at themeeting, newspapers willresume publication and dis-tribution from April 1.”

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Page 6: ˆ ˝˙ ˝˙!˙ˇˇ˚˛ˇ˛˙!! - The Pioneer€¦ · ing Delhi and NCR, vendors ... Gurgaon, Ranchi, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida and States, such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, ... Delhi

ATibetan man became the firstvictim of Coronavirus but notin Tibet but in Dharamsala,Himachal Pradesh. Accordingto The Tibet Sun, Tenzin

Choephel, a 69-year-old man from McLeodGanj (where the Dalai Lama lives), died ofCoronavirus after returning from a trip tothe US on March 15. It said, “After stayingin Delhi for a few days, Choephel returnedto McLeod Ganj by a taxi on March 21. Onthe morning of March 23, he complainedof respiratory problems. He was thentaken to the Tanda Government hospitalwhere he died.” Meanwhile, in Tibet, thesituation is surprisingly “normal.”

Contrary to other provinces in China,the mountainous region had only oneinfected patient of the Novel Coronavirus.The patient was a 34-year-old man, whocame from the city of Suizhou, the hard-est-hit province amid the ongoing out-break. He was discharged from hospital onFebruary 12. Xinhua reported, “He trav-elled from the city of Wuhan to Lhasa bytrain from January 22 to 24. On the eveningof January 25, he developed symptoms ofcough and fever and was hospitalised.” Hewas confirmed to be positive on January29 and after an 18-day treatment he waslet out.

It’s difficult to say if this is propagan-da or truth. Nevertheless, the high plateauappears to have been less affected than therest of the Middle Kingdom. If facts are cor-rect, scientists will have to undertake adetailed study of the Tibetan case when theoutbreak of the virus recedes.

One reason why Tibet managed tokeep cases low is because the authoritiesover there used Tibetan medicine exten-sively to fight the disease. For example,when the Tibetan-inhabited area in north-west China’s Qinghai province reported 18confirmed cases of the infection lastmonth, 17 of them received a treatmentinvolving Tibetan medicine (TM) and tra-ditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the twoindependent traditional medical systems.

Huang Licheng, an official with theprovincial Health Commission, was quot-ed by Xinhua as saying, “The Tibetan med-icine played an active role in the treatment.”He further said, “The provincial hospitalof Tibetan medicine produced a batch ofanti-virus medications featuring Tibetanmedicine; 1,000 of them have already beensent to the front lines in Hubei Province,the centre of the virus outbreak.”

This aspect, too, needs to be analysed.At the same time, these harrowing timeshave shown Beijing’s priorities in theTibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), thefirst region in China to restart normal activ-ities and that, too, on a war-footing. Guesswhat started first? Infrastructure projectsclose to the border with India.

On February 20, China Tibet Onlineasserted: “Work continues on infrastruc-

ture projects in Tibet.” It gavethe example of the 11.5-kmlong Mainling tunnel on theLhasa-Nyingchi Railway. It islocated just north of ArunachalPradesh: “It (Lhasa-NyingchiRailway) currently has the mostcomplicated geological condi-tions and is the most difficultproject in China’s constructionof a railway on the plateau,”noted the website.

The Mainling tunnel isscheduled to be completed bythe end of March: “In order toensure constructing process,currently, the constructionworkers are digging the last60m of the tunnel. About 1,881workers in Tibet are doingtheir best to construct theLhasa-Nyingchi railway. Witha designed speed of 160 km/h,it will be the first electrifiedrailway in Tibet.”

But why so much hurry ata time when the rest of Chinais still under clampdown?Beijing has already invested$3.9 billion in this project andthe railway line will be opera-tional by next year. “Workershave completed 44 tunnels outof 47 and 119 bridges out of 120along the route.”

Yet another developmentthat should worry India is theDagu Hydropower Station(HPS) project on the YarlungTsangpo (Brahmaputra in

Assam). Located in SangriCounty in Lhoka, the DaguHPS has a capacity of 660MW. Two billion dollars havealready been invested: “It is amajor project supported bythe Central Government forTibet’s economic and socialdevelopment.” The dam is oneof the three cascade damsunder construction not farfrom the Indian border.

It is said that even duringthe Spring Festival, more than300 workers remained on dutynear the site. Later, they weresaid to “have successfullyreturned to construction. Theconstruction site in the valleyis busy; a large hydropower sta-tion is beginning to take shape.”

Another project is in Sakyacounty, near Shigatse, the sec-ond largest town in Tibet. Amega water project restartedaround February 20, a fewdays before Losar, the sacredTibetan New Year. “With thebiggest investment ever inTibet’s water project history, theproject will help with irrigation,supply water, generate powerand prevent f looding,”explained a Chinese website. Itfurther said, “Tibet hasarranged 179 projects for thisyear…Work has resumed onsome of these projects.”

On March 3, charter flightswere being arranged to bring

workers back from theMainland to Tibet “to resumethe construction of major pro-jects in the region.” TibetOnline, another official websiteof China, mentioned that onthat day, TV6031 flight operat-ed by Tibet Airlines landed atthe airport of Nyingchi City. Itsaid, “The 105 power workersonboard, from ZhejiangProvince, will be assigned tothe power grid projects in theregion’s most impoverishedareas.” Other such charterflights landed in Lhasa, Shigatseand Chamdo.

Quoting a Tibetan powercompany, China Tibet Newssaid on February 29 that morethan 2,800 workers hadresumed the construction of338 projects, accounting for 75per cent of the total. It includ-ed the Ngari Power GridInterconnection Project, not farfrom the Uttarakhand andLadakh border.

The resumption of con-struction projects at a timewhen the rest of China wasunder lockdown is perplexing.Why this frenzy? It’s difficult toanswer. A few weeks ago, anintrusion by the People’sLiberation Army (PLA) wasreported in Naku-la, south ofthe watershed in northernSikkim, an area supposed to bea “settled” undisputed area.

This was not a good sign.With the “victory” of

Wuhan, triumphantlyannounced by the Chinesepropaganda, the PLA, whichplayed a decisive role, is boundto come out reinforced fromthe crisis. Can ChinesePresident Xi Jinping, who is inan extremely weak positiontoday both internally and exter-nally (despite the disinforma-tion war going on a full swing),keep his control over the PLAin the months to come?

Only time will tell. But thespeed at which it has resumedthe construction of infrastruc-ture projects in Tibet is certain-ly ominous. A Chinese websitepublished a photo feature. Itscaption read: “Multiple rocketlaunch systems attached to anartillery brigade under thePLA Xizang MilitaryCommand fire anti-aircraftrockets simultaneously duringa live-fire operation at the ele-vation of 4,500 metres inSouthwest China’s XizangAutonomous Region on March11, 2020.”

China will argue that it isonly a routine exercise butIndia needs to watch carefullyand take necessary measures tobe ready for a new outbreak àla Doklam.

(The writer is an expert onIndia-China relations)

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Sir — The Ministry of Electronicsand Information Technologymust be appreciated for asking allsocial media companies toremove reports spreading misin-formation about COVID-19 fromtheir platforms with immediateeffect. Circulation of false infor-mation is only creating morepanic among the people. Socialmedia companies should initiatean awareness campaign on theirplatforms on the ill-effects ofuploading false information aboutCoronavirus.

MN MusaeedMumbai

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Sir — The Prime Minister hasdone well to impose a nation-wide lockdown for three weeks toprevent large-scale transmissionof COVID-19 and the publichealth catastrophe it may bringalong. The Central and StateGovernments are doing their bitin taking precautionary mea-sures but people do not seem tobe serious about it. It is theresponsibility of every citizen to

follow the instructions of theGovernment. We have to fight thedisease at individual and collec-tive levels. It also remains anindubitable fact that our health-care management system is rick-ety at the moment. Neglect on the

part of successive Governmentsis the reason why the healthcaresector stands crippled today.COVID-19 is definitely not hereto stay but after this, theGovernment must take urgentmeasures and immediate steps to

be prepared to face any such kindvirus in the future. Crucial sectorslike healthcare, education andagriculture determine the real sta-tus of a country.

Nimai Charan SwainBhubaneswar

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Sir — With the country in com-plete lockdown mode for threeweeks, this time must be utilisedwell to introspect, think and dis-cuss ways to make life happier.For couples in a strained relation-ship or not on talking terms, thisis the best time for them torestart. This time can also beutilised to improve knowledgeabout things people wanted toknow but did not have the timeto find the answer to.

Kumud AgrawalVia email

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Sir — Given the sharp rise in thenumber of COVID cases, a com-plete lockdown was unavoidable.Staying home is difficult but peo-ple must be patient and not fallprey to rumours. Citizens need totrust the Government and be restassured that there will be noshortage of food supplies.

Kanika NayanVia email

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Page 7: ˆ ˝˙ ˝˙!˙ˇˇ˚˛ˇ˛˙!! - The Pioneer€¦ · ing Delhi and NCR, vendors ... Gurgaon, Ranchi, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida and States, such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, ... Delhi

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Home Minister Amit Shah assured the UpperHouse that no existing citizen will be tagged“D” or doubtful during the course of collec-

tion of information under the National PopulationRegister (NPR). The provisions of the Citizenship(Registration of Citizens and Issue of NationalIdentity Cards) Rules, 2003 allow for marking adoubtful citizen, verification of documents and evenstriking off someone’s name from the NationalRegister of Indian Citizens (NRIC), if found doubt-ful by officials vested with discretionary powers atlocal, State and national levels. Though Shah has alsoassured that no such verification on the data pro-vided will be undertaken, yet letters of law createsome confusion in the larger public. In almost a sim-ilar vein, the Union Government kept assuring thecountry’s Muslim minority populace that no onewould lose their citizenship under the newly-enact-ed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The fact thatsuch assurances have to be given demonstrates theanomalies and inconsistencies of such laws like theNPR-NRC-CAA. While Shah assured a certainapplication of mind, it leaves wide open the discre-tionary powers granted in laws pertaining to theNPR-NRC-CAA.

In a recent article countering the critics of CAA,noted legal luminary Harish Salve argued that withthe passage of CAA, Muslim illegal immigrantsremain liable to be deported to their country of ori-gin. Salve argued that the criterion of “intelligibledifferentia” makes CAA rational as it includes onlythe “six” religiously-persecuted minorities from thethree neighbouring countries of Pakistan,Bangladesh and Afghanistan. This is how CAA,according to Salve, fulfils its objective of grantingcitizenship to those religiously-persecuted refugeeswho are forced to come to India, leaving behind theirhomes. In effect, the CAA draws a line between thosewho are to be naturalised and those who are liableto be deported. It opens up Indian citizenship to arationally-classified set of people, while it closes itto a set of people who do not fit into this classifica-tion. Salve emphasised on this methodological dis-tinction that CAA draws and justified it on heuris-tic grounds of profiling the “illegal immigrants” onthe basis of their religious identity.

What connects Shah’s commitment of non-vic-timisation in the NPR and Salve’s justification of thedeployment of “intelligible differentia” in the CAAis the common idea of taking the next step withoutstopping to think about what is going to be the nextcourse of action in case anyone is affected. Salve doesnot deny the fact that Muslim illegal immigrantsremain liable to be deported as CAA would notinclude them. Many commentators includingMukul Kesavan pointed out that the criterion of dif-ferentiation that CAA uses is not self-consistent, asit excluded worst religious persecuted such asAhmadiyyas, Shiyas, Rohingiyas, Tamils and TibetanBuddhists from its purview. Further, as per Kesavan,within the intelligible criterion, CAA creates a sub-class of only three neighbouring countries and thena further sub-class of “select” religiously-persecut-ed minorities.

Salve’s advocacy misses the forest for the treesand trees for the forest. It misses the general pointof India’s commitment to those who come to it dueto fear of civil or any other kind of disturbances, asstated in Section 19 (4) of the Indian IndependenceAct, 1947. Premised on such a consequential follow-up of India’s independence, the Nehru-Liaquat pactguaranteed settlement of the displaced minority intheir respective country of choice until the last dayof 1950. Recognition of “minority rights” irrespec-tive of religion has been the very bane of this early

legislation and bilateral pact. The samespirit is reflected in the Immigrants’(Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, thatexcluded any person displaced due to fearof civil disturbances from the definitionof “illegal immigrant.” Subsequently withthe passage of the Citizenship Act, 1955,Section 5 and 6 of the Act provided for nat-uralisation of immigrants from erstwhileterritories of undivided India. Therefore,it is argued that the CAA does not do any-thing extra that cannot be taken care ofby the existing Citizenship Act, 1955, withrespect to any class of immigrants. Orrather, the classification and sub-classesdrawn up with the CAA can all be givendue coverage and even their citizenshipcould be fast-tracked, depending on theurgency. A case in point is singer AdnanSami’s citizenship did not require CAA,or many other cases of erstwhile Pakistanior Bangladeshi citizens naturalised by dueprocess prescribed under the CitizenshipAct, 1955.

As CAA does not serve any specialpurpose except naming some religiousgroups as persecuted and eligible to applyfor Indian citizenship, it is intriguing tonote that Salve justifies it on the groundthat demographic distortions caused byBangladeshi immigrants could be restoredby it. This, to state the obvious, links CAAwith a procedure of determination of cit-izenship by NRIC and NPR that can cre-ate a sub-class of doubtful citizens by sus-pending their nationality and by treatingthem as a class of illegals. Indeed most crit-ics of CAA are worried about this plightof being subjected to undue suspicion ona section of Indian citizens asBangladeshis, based on ethno-racial pro-filing and dual filtering through NPR-NRC. The affidavit submitted by theCentre in the Supreme Court in the casesfiled against CAA makes it further clearthat the power of exclusion of immigrantsarises from “sovereign” power of theIndian State by which it is entitled to haveits own immigration policy. This powerof exclusion of certain class of immigrantsin CAA, as per the affidavit, is the

domain of the Parliament, in terms of itsdirect linkages with the State security andforeign policy. The affidavit further statesthat neither such matters of national secu-rity and immigration policy can wholly besubjected to judicial review, nor couldthese matters be interpreted even withinthe ambit of fundamental rights. As a first,the affidavit also separates “fundamentalrights” from the scope of interpretationsallowed by international covenants andprotocols.

Reading together Salve’s justificationfor only a sub-class of immigrants as eli-gible to be covered in CAA and what theaffidavit of the Centre stated, it is a mat-ter of concern whether such stipulatedsub-classes of inclusion go against the let-ter and spirit of part-III of theConstitution. It is a matter of due consid-eration before the Supreme Court that theconstitutional foundation of unity andequality between all classes of citizens ofIndia, as stated in part-III, can be abridgedand violated by identifying a special classand granting it certain rights. Assumptionof the power of exclusion to discriminatebetween classes who are affected by thelegislation is also a grave concern. If thepower of exclusion by the Parliament fur-ther leads to abridgment of fundamentalrights to equality and right to life of a cer-tain excluded class, constitutional moral-ity prohibits such exclusion. Indeed CAAlegalises the prohibited categories of reli-gion under Article 15 and makes it a basisfor consideration for citizenship for a spe-cial class of non-citizens hailing from for-eign countries.

As India is not yet a signatory to theRefugee Convention and Protocol, doesthis entitle it to draw a distinction betweenclasses of asylum seekers and refugees?This is a grey area in which the currentformulation of the CAA excludesMuslims. Salve justifies it by saying thatas there is a settled political boundarybetween India, Pakistan, Bangladesh andAfghanistan, so Muslim immigrants fromthese countries, other than India, cannotclaim citizenship and they are liable to be

deported if they entered India illegallywithout valid papers. In contrast to immi-grants from six religiously-persecutedgroups, a Muslim immigrant from thesecountries would now become immediate-ly illegal, because of his/her religion. Thisdifference of entitlement in India, for thefirst time, sows seeds of selective prefer-ence. This runs contrary to the CitizenshipAct, 1955 that keeps the process of natu-ralisation open to people originatingfrom undivided India. As stated by the affi-davit, it is true that the Citizenship Act,1955 allows the State to decide who shouldbe admitted to naturalized citizenship butreligion has not been made a reason foranyone’s rejection. With CAA, religioncould be taken as a factor for rejection ofan applicant’s citizenship, as CAA gives apower of exclusion of a special sub-classto the State, as per the affidavit. Of course,the State will have an application of mindin not victimising someone as assured bythe Home Minister in the case of NPR.

Couldn’t framing of such importantlaws related to immigration be morecoherent and non-discriminatory? Whatstops the State from framing religiouslyun-biased laws that rise above religiosityand champion India’s pluralism, even incase of non-Indian citizens? As stated bypolitical philosopher Charles Mills’ bookRacial Liberalism, sacrificing constitution-al impartiality in dealing with differentraces would result in supremacy of dom-inant races. Defending such dominanceis what Mills called “racial liberalism.”CAA, as a consequence, might allow forsuch “racial liberalism” towards someclasses, while excluding certain other class-es of immigrants.

Even better is the description given bysociologist Zygmut Bauman, who consid-ered modern Statecraft of choosing cer-tain people over the other on certain con-sideration as a “gardening State.” The CAA,by choosing some and excluding the otherhas performed the role of “gardening”within the contours of Indian citizenship.

(The writer is a legal philosopher anda political analyst based in Shillong.)

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COVID-19 has a vice-like gripover India and the rest of theworld. According to the

WorldoMeter, there have been over19,607 casualties across the globe; thenumber of people infected stands at4,35,002 and is growing by the hour.In India, too, the situation is grim asthe number of casualties stands at 10whereas the number of infected peo-ple stands at 562.

India has now taken the unprece-dented step of imposing a 21-day-longcurfew and locking down the nation,

with nearly all States and UnionTerritories observing the diktat of theCentral Government or imposingcurfew-like conditions.

Nationally and globally, theimpact on economies has been disas-trous, with the global stock marketsplummeting due to a sell-off amount-ing to $6 trillion in value, triggered bythe Coronavirus within a short spanof six days. The US is already com-paring the current economic condi-tions with the Great Depression of1930.

However, the fact remains thatwhile the world economy is in the dol-drums only now, the environmentalconditions across the globe have notbeen good for decades as is evidentby the threat of climate change thatis looming large. In February, theAntarctica experienced one of itsmajor meltdowns amid record-hightemperatures, causing some of themajor glaciers to melt. The environ-ment and ecological biodiversity have

been in a free fall for long and in theprocess this has been eroding the cen-turies of resilience developed byMother Nature to withstand thedegeneration brought on by mankind.But now it seems that nature isresponding definitively and punish-ingly. Nature’s repositories such astropical forests around the worldwith their teeming exotic animalswere earlier considered the source ofviruses and pathogens that caused dis-eases such as Ebola and HIV. But newresearch under the discipline of plan-etary science is showing that human-ity’s destruction of biodiversity is infact causing the creation of newstrains of virus pathogens that aremoving from animals to humans at analarming rate. The ongoing COVID-19 is the latest example of this.

There is an urgent need to changethe narrative here from exploitationof nature to investment in it. Mankindhas, for decades, exploited nature’shotspots by building roads, cutting

down forests and commercialisinganimal life contained therein. Oncethese biodiversity hotspots weredestroyed by mankind, the animalsand the virus strains existing there-in, needed new hosts and humansbecame unwitting hosts to them.This aspect was recently confirmed bythe United States Centre for DiseaseControl as well. The exploitativeactivities of humans have become ahighway of sorts, using which viru-lent pathogens are crossing from theanimal kingdom to mankind. Thetragedy is that despite earlier experi-ences with such viruses as the Nipah,Ebola and Severe Acute RespiratorySyndrome, we are yet to learn anylessons.

This indiscriminate and unthink-ing exploitation of nature has thepotential of ending mankind andhence it is time to start investing inthe environment for the greater goodof humanity. As a first step, nationswhere wet markets thrive and sell live

animals for consumption purposes,must ban this forthwith. When thebuying stops, so will the exploitationand in turn the transmission of anyharmful pathogens. Many of these wetmarkets in South-East Asia feed ahuge number of populations but inthe larger interest of humankind, thesemarkets must be forced to closedown and Governments must providealternative source of nutrition for thedependent population. In the after-math of COVID-19, China hasalready shut down many wet markets,albeit a delayed move but neverthe-less a welcome one. Many other busywet markets such as those in Lagosmust also be shut down if more virustransmissions are to be averted fromthese locations.

Awareness needs to be made atool of investment in nature. Thestakeholders must be made aware ofthe risks involved to them and to theirfamily members. This will for instancedissuade a logging company employ-

ee from venturing into the tropicalforests to cut trees. Similarly thosedealing in live animals for commer-cial purposes will think twice beforelaying hands on the animals due to thefear of contracting fatal viruses. If oneexamines the past, it is clear that theviruses have kept plaguing humani-ty and possibly will continue to do sounless mankind disconnects itselffrom the concept of pillaging the envi-ronment for material gains andinstead focusses on co-existence withnature so that it is given ample spaceof its own.

Large-scale human casualties dueto the Coronavirus must serve as awake-up call to help understand thereality that the abuse of the environ-ment has now reached catastrophiclevels and unless nature is given therespect it deserves, it will eventuallyreclaim the same and on its ownterms.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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The number of deathsaround the world from the novel coronavirus cases

stood at 19,246, according to atally compiled by AFP at 1100GMT Wednesday from officialsources.

More than 427,940declared cases have been reg-istered in 181 countries and ter-ritories since the epidemic firstemerged in China inDecember.

The tallies, using data col-lected by AFP offices fromnational authorities and infor-mation from the World HealthOrganization (WHO), are like-ly to reflect only a fraction ofthe actual number of infections.

Many countries are nowonly testing cases that requirehospitalisation.

Italy, which recorded itsfirst coronavirus death inFebruary, has to date declared6,820 fatalities, with 69,176infections and 8,326 peoplerecovered.

Like Italy, Spain now has

more fatalities than China with3,434, as well as having 47,610infections and 5,367 recoveries.

China -- excluding HongKong and Macau -- has to datedeclared 3,281 deaths and81,218 cases. The other worst-hit countries are Iran with2,077 fatalities and 27,017cases, France with 1,100 deathsand 22,302 cases, and theUnited States with 600 deathsand 55,225 cases.

Since 1900 GMT Tuesday,Cameroon and Niger haveannounced their first deathswhile Libya, Laos, Belize,Grenada, Mali and Dominicareported their first cases.

By continent, Europe haslisted 226,340 cases and 12,719deaths to date, Asia 99,805cases and 3,593 deaths, the USand Canada together 57,304cases with 624 deaths, theMiddle East 32,118 cases and2,119 deaths, Latin Americaand the Caribbean 7,337 caseswith 118 deaths, Oceania 2,656cases with nine deaths andAfrica 2,382 cases with 64deaths.

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Italy on Tuesday receivedmore reassuring evidence

that its coronavirus infectionrate was slowing thanks to apainful lockdown that othernations are starting to apply atgreat economic cost.

Health officials across theravaged Mediterranean coun-try are poring over every newpiece of data to see whether twoweeks of bans and closureshave made a dent in the crisis.

The harshest restrictionsare theoretically due to expire

on Wednesday evening --although the government is allbut certain to extend them insome form for weeks or evenmonths.

Italy’s 743 new deathsbroke two days of successivedeclines that had taken thenumber down to 601 onMonday.

It set a world record of 793fatalities on Saturday.

But officially registerednew infections rose just eightpercent -- the same as Mondayand the lowest level since Italyregistered its first death on

February 21.It had been running at as

high as 50 percent at the startof March.

“The measures we tooktwo weeks ago are starting tohave an effect,” civil protectionservice chief Angelo Borrellitold the daily La Repubblicabefore Tuesday’s toll came out.

He said more data over thenext few days will help show “ifthe growth curve is really flat-tening.” Few scientists expectItaly’s numbers — if they real-ly are dropping — to follow a

steady downward line.The slowing contagion rate

is at least offering a ray of hopein the midst of a global healthemergency that is only deep-ening in other parts of Europeand the United States.

Scientists believe thatcountries such as Spain andFrance are following in Italy’sfootsteps with a lag of a fewweeks.

The numbers from the USare also similar to the track ofthose of Italy about 20 daysago.

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The number of coronaviruscases in the United States

jumped by nearly 10,000 whileabout 150 Americans died in aday even as President DonaldTrump hoped to reopen thecountry’s economy by Easter,April 12.

With millions ofAmericans under a lockdown,the National Guard as well asthe armed forces were pressedinto service in several statessuch as New York which saw atleast 53 deaths and about 5,000new cases on Tuesday. NewYork has so far reported morethan 25,000 COVID-19 casesand 210 fatalities.

According to Worldometer,a website which compilesCOVID-19 cases, nearly 10,000new coronavirus cases werereported across the country onTuesday alone taking the totalto around 54,000 while thenumber of fatalities surged by150 in a day bringing its totalto about 700.

Apart from New York,neighbouring New Jersey, alongwith California, Michigan,Illinois and Florida were theother coronavirus hotspots.However, no new cases ordeaths were reported inWashington, the state whichwas first hit by the pathogen inthe US.

President Trump, whoseapproval rating touched 50 percent for the first time appar-ently because of his handlingthe coronavirus crisis on a warfooting, put up a brave front onTuesday telling reporters thathe expects things to go back tonormal in about three weeks’

time by Easter, which is onApril 12.

“I want to encourageeveryone to keep followingour guidelines on social dis-tancing, avoiding large gather-ings, hand washing and all theother things that everybodyknows they are supposed to bedoing. Ultimately, the goal is toease the guidelines and openthings up to very large sectionsof our country as we near theend of our historic battle withthe invisible enemy,” the pres-ident said.

“I hope we can do this byEaster. I think that would be agreat thing for our country andwe are all working very hard tomake that a reality. We will bemeeting a lot of people to seeif it can be done,” he said andalso hoped the Congress wouldsoon vote on a USD 2 trillionbill that would deliver directcash payments to strugglingAmericans.

“Easter is our timeline,what a great timeline that

would be,” Trump said butasserted that his first prioritywas always the health and safe-ty of the American people.

However, Director of theNational Institute of Allergyand Infectious Diseases DrAnthony Fauci cautionedagainst setting any timelinefor resolving the crisis, saying,“You got to be very flexible.”

“You can look at a date, butyou got to be very flexible. Andon a literally day-by-day andweek-by-week basis, you needto evaluate the feasibility ofwhat you’re trying to do,” hesaid.

White House CoronavirusTask Force CoordinatorDeborah L Birx informedreporters that of the 3,70,000tests done so far, 2,20000 werecarried out in the last eightdays. The new cases, she said,would continue to surgebecause the government is stillworking on the backlog.

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By the time Patricia Núñez’scough started, she was

already familiar with the dread-ed dry hacking sound tor-menting patients who had forweeks been filling the Madridemergency ward where sheworks.

“We were fed up of hearingit at the hospital, so it was justa matter of time before I wouldcontract it,” said Núñez, a 32-year-old nurse who tested pos-itive for the new coronavirusabout a week ago.

Speaking via video callfrom her home, Núñez said sheis eager to recover, so she canrelieve overworked colleaguesdealing with a rising wave ofpatients and dwindling num-bers of healthy nurses anddoctors.

“The worst thing is thatyou need to stay at home, wor-ried about infecting relatives,

while knowing that you aredearly needed at work,” she toldThe Associated Press.

The coronavirus is waginga war of attrition against healthcare workers throughout theworld, but nowhere is it win-ning more battles at themoment than in Italy and inSpain, where protective equip-ment and tests have been inseverely short supply for weeks.

Spain’s universal healthcare system is a source ofnational pride and often hailedas a reason for its citizens’ leg-endary longevity, but the out-break is exposing its short-comings, some of which are theresult of years of budget cuts.

The country’s hospitals aregroaning under the weight ofthe pandemic: Video and pho-tos from two hospitals in theSpanish capital showedpatients, many hooked up tooxygen tanks, crowding corri-dors and emergency rooms. At

the 12 de Octubre UniversityHospital, patients could beseen on the floor as they wait-ed for a bed in recent days. Thehospital says the patients havesince been accommodated else-where.

On Wednesday, the num-ber of medical personnelinfected was nearly 6,500

nationally, health authoritiessaid, representing 13.6% of thecountry’s 47,600 total casesand about 1% of the health sys-tem’s workforce. At least threehealth care workers have died.

“We are collapsing. Weneed more workers,” said LidiaPerera, a nurse who workswith Núñez at Madrid’s

Hospital de la Paz, which has1,000 beds.

This week, 11 of the hos-pital’s 14 floors are devoted tocaring for those suffering fromCOVID-19, and there is stillnot enough room: The patientswith less serious cases of thedisease are being put in thehospital’s gym or in a large tentoutside.

“If you had told me threemonths ago that I would beworking in these conditions inSpain, I wouldn’t have believedyou,” Perera said, adding thatstaff at La Paz are only beingtested for the virus if theyhave symptoms. “If they did(regular testing), they mightend up without any workers.”

Widespread infectionsamong health workers reflectthe universal difficulty of stem-ming the spread of the pan-demic. But sick health workersdo double damage: They add tothe toll while also hampering

the ability to respond to the cri-sis. On top of that, they raisethe specter of hospitals becom-ing breeding grounds of infec-tion.

Spain’s experience has beenreflected elsewhere.

The World HealthOrganization’s director-gener-al this week called reports oflarge number of infectionsamong health workers “alarm-ing.”

“Even if we do everythingelse right, if we don’t prioritizeprotecting health workers,many people will die becausethe health worker who couldhave saved their lives is sick,”Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesustold journalists.

In Italy, where nearly one-tenth of about 70,000 infectionsare among medical workers,doctors and nurses have beenbegging the government dailyto provide more masks, glovesand goggles.

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The obituaries posted on aboard where the newspa-

pers might otherwise hang tellthe story of an Italian village liv-ing through a disaster the mayorcalls “worse than the war”.

The war Vertova mayorOrlando Gualdi refers to isWorld War II — a cataclysmicevent more and more Italianscite while describing the dam-age wrought by the coron-avirus pandemic.

Italy’s death toll is some-what hard to grasp when theyare read out every evening inRome. The total across thecountry soared to 6,820 byWednesday.

It is 36 in Vertova. But thevillage — its ancient stone hous-es hugging the side of a moun-tain 70 kilometres northeast ofMilan — has 4,600 inhabitantsand usually sees around 60deaths the entire year.

“It’s worse than the war,”Gualdi told AFP in one of thevillage’s empty squares.

Four freshly made coffinsare bunched together near theentrance of a chapel nearby.

They are waiting to becremated and then buried inthe cemetery in the back.

Funerals have been bannedfor weeks and the ceremonywill be a muted affair attendedby caretakers wrapped in pro-tective suits and masks.

The cemetery itselfremains closed to the villagersbecause public gathering arebanned — so grieving for yourloved ones with flowers at theirgrave is no longer allowed.

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Closed borders and socialdistancing rules to stem the

coronavirus outbreak failed tostop one transnational couplein Indonesia from tying the knot on Wednesday, minusthe customary kiss to seal thedeal.

Irra Chorina Octora, 29,and her Turkish partner YavuzOzdemir, 32, swapped vows atAl Akbar mosque in Surabaya,as friends and family -- each sattwo metres apart -- looked on.

The couple both wore face-masks and kept their distancethrough the ceremony to com-ply with strict rules imposed byauthorities, who have bannedmass gatherings including wed-dings but allowed some excep-tions for marriages bookedbefore the pandemic began.

Virus precautions were onfull display, with a maximum of25 people at the event, tem-perature checks at the door andhand sanitiser throughout thevenue. The wedding was alsowrapped up in just 30 minutes.

The only hint of physicalintimacy came when Ozdemir,whom Octora first met onsocial media, briefly took offhis mask for his bride to feedhim a piece of wedding cake.

Their reception party wascancelled and only a compro-mise with the mosque allowedthe pair to proceed with theceremony on Wednesday, ear-lier than planned.

“All people must pass ourdisinfectant gate after beingchecked with a thermal gun,”Al Akbar mosque spokesmanHelmy M. Noor told AFP.

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China on Wednesday down-graded the risk level of the

coronavirus in its epicentreWuhan from high to mediumand resumed bus services with-in the city for the first timesince the nine-week lockdowneven as a new study said thou-sands of positive cases theremay have gone under the radar.

China has decided to liftthe three-month lockdown onmore than 56 million people inthe central Hubei province.

However, the prolongedlockdown of Hubei’s capitalWuhan will end on April 8, lift-ing the mass quarantine over

the city with a population ofover 11 million.

Also, Wuhan will resumecommercial flights from April8, excluding internationalflights and flights to and fromBeijing.

The government hasdowngraded the risk level ofWuhan for COVID-19 out-break from high to medium,state-run China Daily report-ed on Wednesday.

While Hubei and Wuhanhas not reported any newCOVID-19 case, four peopledied in the city taking thedeath toll in China to 3,281, theNational Health Commission(NHC) said on Wednesday.

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Spain’s armed forces onTuesday asked NATO for

humanitarian assistance tofight the novel coronavirus asthe national death toll touched2,700 and infections soaredtowards 40,000.

With the pandemic spread-ing across the world, Spain hasbeen one of the worst-hit coun-tries, logging the third highestnumber of deaths with the lat-est toll standing at 2,696 afteranother 514 people died overthe past 24 hours.

Despite an unprecedentedlockdown imposed on March14, both deaths and infectionshave continued to mount, withthe Spanish army called in tojoin efforts to curb its spread.

With authorities stepping up

testing, the number of peoplediagnosed with COVID-19 roseby nearly 20 percent to 39,673,the health ministry said. Healthauthorities said it would becomeclear whether the lockdownwas having the desired effect.

“This is a very hard weekbecause we’re in the first stagesof overcoming the virus, aphase in which we areapproaching the peak of theepidemic,” Health MinisterSalvador Illa told a televisednews conference.

Like many other countries,Spain has been struggling witha lack of medical supplies fortesting, treatment and the pro-tection of frontline workers.

In a statement, NATO saidSpain’s military had asked for“international assistance”, seek-ing medical supplies to help

curb the spread of the virusboth in the military and in thecivilian population.

The request specified450,000 respirators, 500,000rapid testing kits, 500 ventila-tors and 1.5 million surgicalmasks. With the numbers stillspiralling, the government ofPrime Minister Pedro Sanchezon Tuesday sought parliamen-tary approval to extend thestate of emergency for an extratwo weeks, until April 11 — theday before Easter — in a bid toslow the spread of the virus.

“We are aware of just howhard it is to prolong this situ-ation, but it is absolutely imper-ative that we keep fighting thevirus in order to win this bat-tle,” government spokeswomanMaria Jesus Montero told thenews conference.

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Iran’s president warned thathis government was poised to

introduce tough new measuresagainst the coronavirusWednesday as the death tollfrom one of the world’s dead-liest outbreaks topped 2,000.

President Hassan Rouhanisaid that the new measures,which could be adopted assoon as Wednesday evening,included Iran’s first restric-tions on movement to try tostem the spread of the virus andwere likely to be “difficult” forthe public.

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������������������#�������������������!��������9*". %:�London: Psychologists havelaunched a study of the men-tal health and social impacts ofthe COVID-19 pandemic, aneffort that may shed more lighton how the spread of the dis-ease affects people’s behaviour.

Researchers, led byProfessor Richard Bentall at theUniversity of Sheffield, are sur-veying 2,000 people in the UK,and again in a month’s time,and hope that their findingswill help inform the bettermanagement of future publichealth crises, the Universitysaid in a release. PTI

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Indian stock benchmarksSensex and Nifty posted their

best single-day rise in over adecade on Wednesday, mir-roring buoyancy in global mar-kets and anticipating a stimu-lus package by the govern-ment to tide over the financialturmoil caused by the coron-avirus pandemic.

The BSE gauge Sensex shotup 1,861.75 points or 6.98 percent to settle at 28,535.78, andthe NSE barometer Nifty spurt-ed 516.80 points or 6.62 percent to end at 8,317.85 – thebiggest single-day gain for theindices.

Domestic market was

enthused by recovery in glob-al stocks after the US Senateand White House reachedagreement on a USD 2 trillionstimulus package for the USeconomy.

Reliance Industries was thetop gainer in the Sensex pack,rallying up to 15 per cent, fol-lowed by Kotak Bank, Maruti,HDFC twins, Titan, L&T andAxis Bank.

On the other hand,IndusInd Bank, ONGC, ITCand Bajaj Auto closed withlosses.

All sectoral indices on theBSE ended in the green withenergy, finance, bankex, auto,basic materials and oil and gasindices rallying up to 10 percent.

Broader midcap and small-cap indices surged up to 3.53per cent.

Experts are of the view that

markets took confidence fromthe 21-day lockdown imposedby Prime Minister NarendraModi as the move somewhatremoves the uncertainty andshowed that the government iswilling to take hard steps tofight the Covid-19 pandemic.

Receding uncertainty indomestic markets followingdefined lockdown announce-ment and assurance of domes-tic stimulus by the governmentboosted investor sentiment,said Narendra Solanki, Head-Equity Research(Fundamental), Anand Rathi.

“The rally was supportedby strength across the marketsincluding large frontline andmid-small cap stocks ahead ofexpiry tomorrow (Thursday)which also played its part interms of short-covering whichadded further fuel to the rally,”he added.

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Aglobal stocks rally peteredout Wednesday as Europe

took up the baton, despite USlawmakers agreeing a mam-moth stimulus package to helpthe world’s biggest economyresist effects of the COVID-19pandemic.

After huge gains for equi-ties Tuesday, which continuedinto Wednesday with Tokyosoaring and European indicesjumping at the open, Londonlost some of its gains andFrankfurt was in the red near-ing the half-way stage.

Elsewhere, the dollar waslower against main rivals andoil prices retreated.

“The stimulus is now byand large in place, the questionis whether it’s enough for themarkets or whether the expect-ed spike in cases and deaths inthe US and Europe, combined

with the emerging picture ofthe economic damage, meanswe need to take another leglower before the bottom isfound,” said Neil Wilson, chiefmarket analyst at trading groupMarkets.Com.

While COVID-19 contin-ues to spread, traders have arare semblance of optimismafter weeks of carnage acrossglobal markets, with eyes fixedon Washington where law-makers thrashed out an emer-gency bill worth as much as $2trillion — around 10 percent ofUS gross domestic product. “Atlast, we have a deal,” SenateMajority Leader MitchMcConnell said, calling it a“wartime level of investmentinto our nation”. “We have abipartisan agreement on thelargest rescue package inAmerican history,” top SenateDemocrat Chuck Schumersaid shortly after McConnell

spoke.“So many people are being

put out of work through nofault of their own. They don’tknow what their future is goingto be like, how are they goingto pay the bills,” Schumernoted. “Well, we come to theirrescue.”

The measure will put cashdirectly into the hands ofAmericans, provides grants tosmall businesses and hundredsof billions of dollars in loans forcorporations including embat-tled airlines, while expandingunemployment benefits.

The prospect of a massivespending splurge, combinedwith the Federal Reserve’spledge to essentially print asmuch cash is needed, sent WallStreet into overdrive Tuesday,with the Dow seeing its biggestrise since 1933, while the S&P500 enjoyed its best day inmore than a decade.

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Aviation consultancy CAPAon Wednesday projected

initial losses of USD 3.3-3.6 bil-lion for the Indian aviationindustry in the first quarter ofFY2021 in the eventuality of allair services including domesticremain shut until June due tothe coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic has had asignificant impact on the avi-ation industry due to the strin-gent border controls by a hostof countries and imposition ofthe travel ban on the people ofother nationalities to containthe virus infection.

The Indian governmenthas also suspended all air ser-vices among the several mea-sures to prevent if from gettinga large part of the populationinfected.

“ India’s aviation sectorcould incur losses of USD 3.3-3.6 billion in 1QFY2021.Assuming that all domesticand international operationsremain grounded until Jun30,” the Centre for Asia PacificAviation (CAPA) India said inits preliminary report.

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Tuesday announced a21-day complete lockdownfrom Wednesday, stating that itwas the only way of breakingCOVID-19 infection cycle.

“Even with some partialresumption of services in Mayand June, the financial out-comes may not change signif-icantly,” Modi said in his tele-vised address to the nationMonday evening.

The CAPA has also sought“urgent” government inter-vention and coordinated indus-try response to address all therequirement of the aviationindustry.

According to the CAPA,the airline sector losses areexpected to be around USD1.75 billion while that of theairports and concessionaires ataround USD 1.50-1.75 billionand another USD 80-90 millionlosses of the ground handlingcompanies.

Noting that the domesticairline sector was already vul-nerable even prior to the adventof COVID-19, the CAPA saidmost Indian airlines have notstructured their business mod-els to be able to withstand evenregular shocks, such as elevat-ed fuel prices or economicdownturns, let alone once-in-a-century events.

With few exceptions,Indian carriers have weak bal-ance sheets and precarious lev-els of liquidity, the CAPA saidin the report, adding airlineshave generated cash to stayafloat through advance sales orsale-and-lease back margins(and government infusion inthe case of Air India), but withno cushion to be able to with-stand downward cycles.

Stating that with globalaviation almost grinding to ahalt - and for what could be anextended period – this is a stateof affairs that will heighten risksfor even the strongest carriersin the world, CAPA appre-hended several weaker airlinesmight go belly-up.

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The outbreak of COVID-19and continued slowdown

in the economy are likely to havean impact on banks asset qual-ity and may trigger a surge ingross non-performing assets(GNPA) ratio to 9.6 to 9.9 percent by the second or third quar-ter of the next fiscal, says areport. The global pandemic hasstalled the economic activitywhich is going to severely impactsectors such transport, travel andtourism, aviation, among others.

The Reserve Bank and thegovernment may announce aregulatory forbearance or aninterest subvention scheme onreport by Care Ratings loans tohelp banks deal with the NPAstress, according to a report itsaid.

“Considering that therehas been no substantial

improvement in the economy,ageing provisions and coupledwith the recent outbreak of‘COVID-19’, the banking sec-tor might witness an adverseimpact on credit delivery andasset quality leading to pressureon capital adequacy,” the ratingagency’s senior director, SanjayAgarwal, said in the report.

The GNPA ratio of banks islikely to be in the range of 9.6-9.9 per cent by the second orthird quarter of FY21 from 9.3per cent as of December 2019,given the exposures to certainstressed sectors, moderation inthe bank credit growth andmuted demand scenario, he said.

The rating agency said asthere is a lockdown imposedwithin India and the world,both domestic consumptionas well as export-orientedindustries could be affected dueto muted demand.

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Tea production in the coun-try is likely to fall by 100

million kg this year due to the21-day lockdown which was“inevitable” to tackle the coro-navirus crisis, an official said onWednesday.

The country had producedaround 1,389 million kgs of teain 2019, he said.

“The lockdown wasinevitable as there is no otheroption to prevent the spread ofthe disease. However, the coun-try’s tea production will be hitand this will lead to a collapseof the industry,” Tea BoardChairman P K Bezbaruah toldPTI. It will take time to bringtea bushes again to the pro-

duction stage, he said.Tea Board’s deputy chair-

man Arun Kumar Ray said thatthe “likely shortfall in produc-tion due to lockdown would bearound 100 million kg thisyear”, which could lead to risein prices.

“The impact of the coron-avirus outbreak will be feltacross the globe. The priorityis to prevent communitytransmission,” Ray said.

With this lockdown,Darjeeling tea planters willlose first flush production, apremium variety, by around 30per cent, Bezbaruah said

The loss of production inWest Bengal’s Dooars is likelyto be around 11 per cent and 10per cent in Assam, he said.

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Governments and centralbanks around the world

are ripping up the policy rule-book as they battle to immu-nise their economies fromdeeper coronavirus carnage.

Printing new money, gar-gantuan debt spending, loanguarantees, tax breaks andeven direct payments to work-ers are all in the highlyunorthodox mix.

AFP surveys the latestresponses by major economiesas COVID-19 has spread fromChina to the rest of the world,making a global recession all

but inevitable.In the United States, Senate

leaders and the White Houseearly Wednesday struck agree-ment on a USD 2 trillion stim-ulus package for the world’slargest economy.

The biggest ever spendingplan in US history had beenknocked back by Democraticobjections to the Republicanplan, which was decried as a“slush fund” for bosses.

But party leaders over-came their differences to clincha “wartime level of investmentinto our nation”, RepublicanSenate Majority Leader MitchMcConnell said.

The Senate and House ofRepresentatives still need topass the legislation before send-ing it to President DonaldTrump for his signature.

The package will put cashdirectly into the hands ofAmericans, provides grants tosmall businesses and hundredsof billions of dollars in loans forlarger corporations includingairlines, and expands unem-ployment benefits.

A separate package fromUS financial overseers includ-ing the Federal Reserve wouldprovide a stunning USD 4 tril-lion in liquidity to juice up theeconomy.

The Fed has kept up near-daily announcements to keepdollars flowing, in addition toslashing its main lending rateto near zero.

On Monday, the Fedvowed to buy unlimitedamounts of government debt -- akin to printing money -- andoffered to lend directly tosmall- and medium-sizedfirms.

Some observers aredemanding a collectiveresponse from the G7 and G20to fight the pandemic, andhelp poorer nations who lackthe borrowing capacity of theirricher peers.

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Italy’s air quality has improvedsince the country went into

coronavirus lockdown, theEuropean EnvironmentAgency (EEA) said Wednesday,a trend seen elsewhere inEurope as well.

In Milan, Italy’s economiccapital, the concentration ofnitrogen dioxide (NO2), a gasemitted mainly from vehiclesand power stations and whichcan cause inflammation of therespiratory system, has fallen by24 percent in the last fourweeks, compared with the pre-ceeding four weeks, the EEAsaid.

The week starting onMarch 16 alone saw a 21 per-cent reduction compared withthe same week one year earli-er.

In Rome, NO2 levels havefallen between 26 and 35 per-cent for the same four weeks,and in Bergamo, Italy’s hardesthit city, the reduction was 47percent.

The lockdown in Italybegan in certain northern areas

on February 23 before it wasextended nationwide on March9. As of 1100 GMT Wednesday,Italy had recorded more 69,000cases with 6,820 deaths.

EEA said its “data confirmlarge decreases in air pollutantconcentrations... Largely due toreduced traffic and other activ-ities, especially in major citiesunder lockdown measures.”Other parts of Europe haveseen similar effects, in Spain forexample where NO2 concen-tration has fallen by 55 percentin Barcelona and 41 percent inMadrid, on a 12-month com-parison.

In the Spanish capital, aver-age NO2 concentration hasfallen by 56 percent from oneweek to the next.

NO2 levels have halved insome other parts of the conti-nent. But the French air qual-ity monitoring agency cau-tioned that the lockdown hadnot led to marked declines inso-called PM2.5 and PM10particles, the smallest and mostharmful air pollutants, owing toincreased home heating andcontinued agricultural activity.

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The coronavirus pandemic isthreatening the entire

human race, the UnitedNations said Wednesday as itlaunched a humanitarianresponse that includes appealsfor USD 2 billon for the world’spoorest people. “COVID-19 isthreatening the whole ofhumanity -- and the whole ofhumanity must fight back.Global action and solidarity arecrucial. Individual countryresponses are not going to beenough,” Secretary GeneralAntonio Guterres said inannouncing the initiative.

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Countries must protect peo-ple in detention from the

COVID-19 pandemic byreleasing vulnerable prisoners,the UN’s rights chief said onWednesday.

“Covid-19 has begun tostrike prisons, jails and immi-gration detention centres, aswell as residential care homesand psychiatric hospitals, andrisks rampaging through suchinstitutions’ extremely vulner-able populations,” MichelleBachelet said in a statement.

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Russian President VladimirPutin said Wednesday the

public vote on his constitu-tional reforms must be post-poned due to the coronaviruspandemic and declared nextweek a public holiday.

“I believe the voting mustbe postponed to a later date,”Putin said of the April 22plebiscite in a rare televisedaddress in which he called onRussians to show solidarity.

The reforms, proposed bythe president and approved bylawmakers over the last few

months, would reset presiden-tial term limits and potential-ly allow Putin, in power for 20years, to stay in office until2036.

Putin also took the unusu-al step of declaring next weeka non-working week.

“The long holidays areprovided to slow the speed ofexpansion of the disease,” hesaid. Unlike other countries,Russia has not yet introducedmandatory at home sheltering.

Putin urged Russians tohelp each other and followinstructions given by medicsand the authorities.

Paris: Metro and rail servicesin Paris and its suburbs will becut to a minimum as part of thenationwide coronavirus lock-down, officials saidWednesday.

Both Paris transport oper-ator RATP and national railgroup SNCF have alreadysharply reduced services sincethe self-confinement orderscame into effect on March 17.They apply to all but essentialemployees and those who can-not work from home.

Starting Thursday, about50 of the roughly 300 Parismetro stations will be closed,and service across the net-work, as well as on RER com-muter lines serving the sub-urbs, will run only from 6:00am to 10:00 pm (0500 to 2100GMT).

The operators said the goalwas to keep just enough trainsrunning for health workersand others who need to get towork during the coronaviruscrisis. AFP

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Scotland Yard on Wednesdaysaid that its officers stand

ready to take enforcementaction if “absolutely necessary”and called on the UK popula-tion to comply with the law andstay indoors as part of the lock-down measures to combat thespread of the coronavirus pan-demic.

Metropolitan Police com-missioner Cressida Dick saidthat since Prime Minister BorisJohnson’s “stay at home”announcement on Mondayevening, officers have been on

the streets of London to advisepeople and businesses of thenew rules.

“We will only use enforce-ment if we absolutely have tobut we won’t hesitate if there arepeople who are deliberatelybreaching the law. But I thinkthe vast majority of peoplewill want to comply with thelaw to keep their society safe.

“We’ve shown time andagain our ability to adapt, torise to a challenge, to flex andsurge our resources and ourstaff, and even in the darkest oftime to be able to keep peoplesafe and give a good quality

police service. I am deter-mined we will do that,” she said.

Her message came as itemerged that police had to stepin to break up a barbequegathering of 20 people inCoventry, central England.“Officers felt they needed toend the gathering by tippingover the BBQ and insisting thegroup dispersed to theirhomes,” West Midlands Police said.

“It’s vital everyone followsthe new lockdown instruc-tions. They are essential andwill save lives,” the force said.

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Lockdown = Soaring demand forinternet content for both entertain-ment and information. But more

often than not, these have become thetools for spreading falsehood and myths.YouTuber and singer Bhuvan Bam, who’sBB Ki Vines has 16.7 million subscriberson YouTube, has come out with a videoto tackle both. It is called ‘Time to be aHero’ and focusses on the WhatsAppforwards being circulated aboutCoronavirus. Says Bhuvan, “This hasbeen going on in my head for a long time.In my own house, I see my parents shar-ing fake news on WhatsApp because theythink it is legit. If this is a scenario in myhouse, then how many families are therewho actually believe this?” So he decid-ed to collect all the fake informationrelated to Coronavirus and compared itwith the reality in a 4.05 minute video.

The video, which lists out the do’s anddon’ts while providing the links to WHOand Ministry of Health and Welfare sitein a conversational manner, a style whichthe artiste is known for, has garneredeight million views within three days.

Not just falsehood, Bhuvan also feelsthat there is always the possibility of amessage being misinterpreted whichhappened with the Prime Minister’saddress calling for a lockdown on March22. He says the message needs to bespelled out to coherently. “I immediate-ly thought that when he asked for a JantaCurfew on Sunday, we are a billion peo-ple, many of whom believe everything. Hecould have specifically emphasised thatyou should not be stepping out post 22too as we have to be spoon-fed. Themindset is that if we have to beat the thalior clap, we will do it together. The grav-ity of the situation was lost on most asmany thought that the disease is spread-ing in China or Italy or even in anotherIndian states and there is a border, so itcannot cross that. You don’t know whois travelling where and who has broughtwhich virus. People are underestimatingthe situation,” he asserts.

However, now with people staying athome, there is naturally an explosion inthe demand for content. Bhuvan feels thatthis is a golden opportunity forYouTubers to create content and share it,though he lists out a prerequisite. “Thecreator has the responsibility that if s/heis creating a seven-minute comedy, thens/he should also create an awareness video

for the audience as they will listen to thattoo even if they don’t comply with it inentirety,” he says. Of course, there is thepossibility that the repetitions from dif-ferent people might be irritating for theaudience but “it is the only way to rein-force the message.” He goes on to pointout, “The YouTube community is a vastmarket and each of the creators can doit in their own typical fashion.”

Time and again we have seen com-edy being used effectively for discussinga social issue. It has been explored andutilised widely in films, series as wellYouTube videos. Bhuvan too believes inthe efficacy of the genre. “If you look atmy channel history, whenever I do asocial issue, I try not to sound preachy.I have 18 characters in BB Ki Vines, so Ican put across my views in the form ofa conversation which makes it effective.The message given out as a comedyalways registers better,” says Bhuvanwho before the lockdown had just start-ed working on his dream project,Dhindora, about which he refuses todivulge much information.

A genre of comedy that has come intoits own in the past few years in India isthe one which takes a political stand.However, for Bhuvan, every art form islike an opposition. “Someone can voicetheir opinion and dissent through musicor through stand-up or through painting.

The political views for or against any issueare always there and artistes reflect it.What has made it really popular in Indiais that the younger generation is takingpolitics seriously. Earlier, elderly peoplediscussed it occasionally over tea. Thatway, it is a refreshing change,” he says.

However, scrolling through his chan-nel reveals that there is nothing whichwould qualify as a political satire or com-edy. Bhuvan laughs as he says, “I person-ally don’t like getting into politics. I knowvery little about it and half knowledge isthe worst. And you should not speak ifyou have one-sided or half-baked opin-ion. Politics is not my cup of tea.”

While political content might beabsent, BB Ki Vines is replete with cusswords and that is often the reason whyit has received a lot of flak. Moreover, veryoften, while the audience might enjoy aparticular episode, it is wary of sharingit further unless it is with a group offriends. Bhuvan is upfront and says, “I amfrom Delhi and let that be the end of dis-cussion.” He goes on to explain the con-tent that he puts out, “If someone followsmy channel closely, they know that thecuss words are there when three friendsare together or if Titu Maama makes anappearance. Truth is that my friends havenever talked without using slangs. Andthis is true for every friend group acrossthe world. It is a part of our life. The only

difference is that I am a little transpar-ent while others are hiding it.” Hebelieves that it is nothing but “sheerhypocrisy” when people profess to be fansof Russell Peters or claim to have enjoyedAmerican Pie or Euro Trip but are criti-cal of the content that he puts out. “I amnot showing nudity or anything. If some-one is criticising me for my choice of lan-guage, it is nothing but sheer hypocrisy,”he asserts.

While India and Indians might becritical of the content being put out, forBhuvan, the country and its people haveacted as a source of inspiration. “Thecountry is chalta phirta (fertile ground)meme material. Everyday, a lakh peoplecan create a thousand different videos ondifferent topics because there is so muchcomedy and content happening aroundus. India still wouldn’t run out of content,”says Bhuvan, who works on observationwhich the lockdown has put on hold fora bit. To apply this in practice, theYouTuber travels in the metro and sits ina random coach. “When I look at people,I see how they behave and pick at least onetrait. Observation is important and weneed to be aware and alert to everythingaround you,” he says.

However, comedy and YouTubevideos was not what he had set out to do,though he had his heart set on being a per-former from the very beginning. Bhuvan

used to sing at a restaurant in Delhi whenhe saw a news story, which had a TVreporter interviewing a woman during theKashmir floods. “Her son had disappearedand the reporter was asking, ‘Kaisa lagraha hai aapko aapka bachcha baadh megayab ho gaya? (How do you feel as yourson has disappeared during the floods?)’She replied, ‘Kaisa lagega? (How will Ifeel?)’ I thought this is typical Indian newsand an Indian reporter. I made a videoabout it and posted it on Facebook as atthat time, I was unaware that I could useYouTube for this. I thought it was primar-ily for film trailers. One of my friends toldme to separate the videos from my musi-cian profile, so I made a Facebook pagecalled BB Ki Vines. It caught on by wordof mouth and people started followingme,” recalls Bhuvan who still finds hisescape route in music as he tells us, “WhenI am done writing jokes and creating con-tent, I play the small keyboard that I keepin my room. That is how I get out of stressand anxiety.”

However, he has spread his wingsbeyond music and videos and evenacted in a short film, Plus Minus. Bhuvanhappened to be in the right place at theright time to bag this. “I was lucky to bein that room when director Jyoti KapoorDas and the producer were discussingthat they were planning a story on BabaHarbhajan Singh. He is the soldier, who,it is believed, continues to guard the Indo-China border, long after his death. I wasreally intrigued and wanted a narration.When I heard it, I was like ‘let’s do it’.What made the experience different wasthat for once, I was not holding a phonein my hand,” he says with a laugh and thefact that he worked with actor DivyaDutta made it special. “Sone pe suhaga hogaya (icing on the cake),” he adds.

Bhuvan has also received severalawards including the ‘Entertainer of theYear’ at Cannes last year, recognising theway he is extending his boundaries. Doeshe see Indian artistes across board get-ting recognition worldwide? “In every artform, India is right there. I am glad thatpeople across the globe are appreciatingus. Bollywood films were already a hitabroad. But now people have started talk-ing about YouTube as well as there isdiversity of content. There is comedy aswell as bloggers who create cooking,beauty, travel and more content,” he saysand points out that it seems while thecontent is exploding there are not enoughviewers. He gives several parallels toexplain the situation and says, “During90s, every second house had a bat and ballas everyone wanted to be a cricketer.Then there was the phase of the IndianIdol and everyone aspired to be AbhijeetSawant. Currently, it is the same scenarioas every second house has a YouTuber. Itis growing rapidly.”

When asked about his future plans,the artiste points out that he does notknow beyond two days from now. “Iknow what I have to do on Saturday orSunday but I don’t think ahead of that. Itake life as it comes and have stopped hav-ing any expectations from it,” saysBhuvan.

As senior citizens deal with anxietyabout the Coronavirus, grocery

store chains and other retailers havecome up with a way to ease their fears— shopping times reserved exclusive-ly for them.

Target, Whole Foods, Walmartand Dollar General, as well as super-markets in Europe, began dedicatingearly morning shopping times forolder customers this week. The theo-ry is that allowing seniors to shopamong smaller crowds could reducetheir chances of acquiring the virus andgive them first crack at buying handsanitiser and other products that havebeen hard to find because of panicshopping.

The idea seems to have workedwell in smaller shops but backfired insome larger stores, where big crowdsmade “social distancing” difficult.

“If you didn’t have coronavirusbefore you got there, you probably donow,” said Roger Glenn Miller, 82, afterhe showed up on a recent morning ata Stop & Shop grocery store in NorthProvidence, Rhode Island, along withabout 200 other seniors.

Don Gregson, 81, had a similarexperience at the same shop. Gregsonsaid he expected to shop with a smallgroup of seniors but instead foundaisles crowded with people.

When he saw the number of peo-ple in the store, Gregson slipped on asurgical mask he carries in his pock-et, then bought four gallons (15 litres)of distilled water for the machine heneeds for sleep apnea.

“I’m sure they were trying to do theright thing, but somehow the planningwent astray,” he said.

The Massachusetts-based chain,which has started offering the specialshopping time for seniors every day,said in a statement that it is asking itscustomers to consider staggering thedays they shop “to ensure a less crowd-ed environment as well as for everyoneto exercise caution and social distanc-ing while shopping.”

Ernest Hodge, 72, had a muchsmoother experience at a DollarGeneral store just north of Richmond.Hodge showed up at 8 am sharpWednesday, wearing a face mask andblue rubber gloves to protect himself.He was able to shop among just a half-dozen other seniors and got most ofwhat he needed, including disinfectingwipes, spray cleaner and bottled water.

Hodge said he was happy when heheard about the special shoppinghours because he is trying to limit hisexposure to people. “I get off work, Igo home. I don’t come out againunless it’s a must,” he said.

Dollar General is reserving the first

hour of shopping every day for seniorsat its more than 16,000 stores. Targethas set aside an hour every Wednesdaymorning for vulnerable shoppers,including the elderly and those withunderlying medical conditions.Walmart said it will host an hour-long“senior shopping event” every Tuesdayfor customers who are 60 and above,one hour before stores open to the gen-eral public.

In South Africa, a supermarketchain, Pick n Pay, said that it will openall its markets an hour early everyWednesday for shoppers over 65.

Sainsbury’s, one of the largestsupermarket chains in the UK,reserved the first hour of shopping inits stores Thursday for elderly andother vulnerable customers.

Jim Gibson, 72, from CroftonPark, southeast London, went to hislocal superstore in Bell Green, wherehe said that he had a “relatively trau-ma-free” experience except for the factthat some younger shoppers appeared

to ignore the request to reserve thehour for senior citizens.

Most of the products he was look-ing for were there, though manycanned items were “leaping off theshelves” and he couldn’t get the med-icines that he and his 73-year-old wifewant “for love or money.”

William Petri, a professor in theUniversity of Virginia’s Division ofInfectious Diseases and InternationalHealth, said setting aside dedicatedtimes for seniors to shop makes sense.He added that health officials havefound that many people who areinfected don’t have symptoms rightaway but are still infectious.

“That’s an even better reason to tryto isolate those who are most vulner-able, like the elderly, from youngerpeople through dedicated shoppinghours,” he said. However, Petri suggest-ed that it would be even better forseniors to get groceries delivered totheir homes.

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As Prime Minister Narendra Modiannounced a nationwide lock-

down for 21 days on Tuesday eveningto fight the COVID-19 pandemic, B-Town took to social media to expresstheir support and urge citizens tocooperate and stay indoors.

Bollywood veteran AmitabhBachchan wrote a poem in Hindi,“Hath hain jodte vinamrata se aajhum... Sune adesh Pradhan ka, sadatum aur hum. Yeh bandish jo lagi hai,jeevdayee banegi... 21 Dino ka sankalpnishchit Corona dafnayegi.”

Veteran Bollwood star Dilip Kumartweeted, “Dawa bhi, dua bhi, Pehle kuchfaasla bhi, Woh kareem hai raheem hai,Aur wahi mushkil kusha bhi. My sin-cere appeal to all of you, #StayHomeand obey the #CoronaLockdown. Godbless us all.”

Veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhattshared on Twitter, “We are now at a col-lective turning point, where we muststop, listen and help the governmentimplement the 21 days all India lock-down.”

Lyricist and censor board chairper-son Prasoon Joshi tweeted,“#IndiaFightsCorona. In this war,restraint will be our weapon, stillnesswill be our defence, distance will be thesign that we deeply care. Have to fightit with new rules.#CoronavirusLockdown.”

Shahid Kapoor posted, “Be athome. Stay safe. Stay mentally, emo-tionally and physically strong. Spreadlove. Have faith. Pray often. Speak toall those who matter daily. Meditate.Read. Cook. See the sky turn bluereveryday. 21 days. Will pass. Keep it realand make it count you all.”

Ishaan Khatter urged, “To all myfriends, everybody that this post reach-es. We’ve got this. Let’s not panic. Let’slook out for each other. Let’s find waysto help one another. This is the time forresilience, patience and consideration.I promise to do my part. Please doyours, don’t step out for anything thatis not essential. Don’t put others andyourself at risk. We will come out of thisstronger. Prayers, LOVE and energiesfor everybody. #21dayslockdown.”

Randeep Hooda tweeted:“#CoronavirusLockdown. If we don’tfollow guidelines for the next 21 days,days after that could be even more chal-lenging. Let’s follow what our PM

advised in his address and stay safe.Also, essential services will be opera-tional. Please don’t put yourself at riskby overcrowding shops to stock up.#Covid19India.”

Aditi Rao Hydari tweeted: “21-daylockdown. Let’s be responsible and stayhome. if we don’t we’re in for big trou-ble and could have an even longer lock-down as well as a catastrophic econo-my. Help us help ourselves. 21 days ofdiscipline is all it takes, please! Let’s dothis.”

Singer Shreya Ghoshal shared:“#CoronavirusLockdown for 21 daysannounced by our PM in his speech.We can do this India!! Let’s stay posi-tive and sincere to this effort!#StayHome.”

Even though most Bollwood celebswere seen supporting the 21-day lock-down decision, actor Aahana Kumrafelt that the government should havegiven some more time to the panick-ing citizens to stock up in this crisis.

She tweeted, “I feel the governmentneeds to give some more time for peo-ple to stock up. I understand andapplaud the government’s efforts tocombat the #coronavirus but this panicis going to create more #COVID-19patients than ever!”

Singer Adnan Sami shared govern-ment’s guidelines issued by the govern-ment and tweeted, “Ministry of HomeAffairs Guidelines for 21-day lock-down. Check out the list of essentialservices that will remain open.”

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National Thermal Power CorporationLimited (NTPC), India’s electric power

distribution company, is prepared to supplyuninterrupted power to the nation despite thepandemic of Covid-19. To deal with the ongo-ing crisis, NTPC has issued suitable advisoriesfor its employees. All the employees have beenadvised to avoid face to face meetings and pub-lic gatherings to the extent feasible.

The company has ensured wide circulationof do’s and don’ts with regards to Coronavirusthrough different modes of extensive cam-paigning like films, posters, hoardings etc.Officials have been advised to curtail visit toforeign countries. Further, any person who hasvisited affected foreign countries in the recentpast (last 14 days) is advised to report to theState Health Authorities for necessary action.

While entering NTPC campus or corpo-rate office, hand sanitisers are made availablewith instruction of its use. Biometric processfor employee attendance has been made man-ual for the time being.

All the trained health care staff at NTPCis observing the prevention and control andare using Protective Personal Equipment(PPE) as per the guidelines issued by theadministration. The company has also ensuredthat visitors with essential business require-ment ‘only’ are permitted to enter NTPCpremises with prior approval. For submissionof vendor bills, claims pertaining to ex-employees of NTPC can be put in a drop boxat the entry gate to avoid physical transactions.Also, strict provisions are in place for screen-ing of visitors and employees entering NTPCpremise with thermal scanners/screeners.Allotment of guest houses at the plant loca-tions are being regulated as per essentialrequirements.

All gyms, clubs, swimming pools, cine-mas... have been closed at NTPC Townships.Plant canteens and dining halls are providedwith adequate handwashing facilities andproper cleanliness of frequently touched sur-faces. Despite this pandemic situation, NTPCis making sure that there is no gap in powergeneration and taking all precautionary mea-sures to ensure the same.

SN Shrivastava, CP, Delhi hasgranted out-of-turn promotion

to constable (exe) Rajiv, posted inDwarka district and conferred‘Asadharan Karya Puraskar’ to fivepersonnel — namely ASI Ravindra,posted in central district, HCJoginder Singh HC Vijay, HCSanej, HC Krishan. They all arecurrently posted at PS Mundka,outer district, in recognition oftheir extraordinary acts of courage.

Here are the details of policepersonnel and their act of courage.

OUT OF TURN PROMOTIONCurrently posted at PS Dwarka

Sector 23, Constable Rajiv (num-ber 2404/DW) joined Delhi Policein 2010 as a constable and now, hasbeen granted out of turn promo-tion by CP, Delhi, for showingexemplary courage in rounding upthe armed desperate criminalswithout caring for his life. He retal-iated and fired at the criminalsdespite sustaining serious bulletinjuries on his face while falling onthe ground. Rajiv had to be admit-ted in a hospital and is currentlyunder observation in ICU.

The constable was patrolling inthe area along with DHG AjayKumar on the intervening night ofMarch 16 near L&T constructionsite in Bharthal village, Sector 26,Dwarka. They received informa-tion from the local guard about fir-ing at the construction site andrushed to the spot. However, theassailants had escaped by then.They searched the area for the flee-ing assailants and observed somesuspicious movements in a plotlocated at the outer periphery ofthe area. They entered the premis-es and questioned those who theywere suspicious about. All thefour suspected persons had ranaway towards different directions.The personnel managed to over-power one of the fleeing suspectsand while taking him for furtherquestioning to the PS DwarkaSector 23, the escaped threeassailants returned and opened fireat Rajiv in order to get their asso-

ciate released from their custody.Rajiv, showing exemplary courage,retaliated against and fired at theassailants despite sustaining seri-ous bullet injury on his face.

Later, the police carried outvigorous investigation and arrest-ed two assailants within 12 hoursof the incident and subsequentlymore other accused were arrested.

ASADHARAN KARYAPURASKAR

Currently posted at DCP officecomplaint branch, central district,Daryaganj, ASI Ravindra (number439/C) joined Delhi Police in 1991as a constable and now, has beenconferred with ‘Asadharan KaryaPuraskar’ by CP, Delhi for hisexceptionally brave work in nab-bing one of the accused in a caseby going beyond the call of hisduty.

On the evening of March 17,he was on his way back to his res-idence after finishing his duty,when he reached near B-1/30Building, Noor-E-Illahi, AnandSagar Road, that he found threepersons scuffling with each other

and also heard the sound of firing.Before he could understand thecomplete situation, he saw one per-son running with a pistol in hishand. He began chasing him. Afterdoing that for 50 metres, he nabbedhim with his pistol. Later, the sus-pected was identified as Imranfrom Ziauddinpur, NewMusrafabad.

Ravindra, later, handled the sit-uation tactfully and persuadedthe group. The accused were hand-ed over to local police of PSBhajanpura for further investiga-tion.

Currently posted at PSMundka, outer district, HCJoginder Singh (number 658/OD),HC Vijay (number 1286/OD), HCSanej (number 1263/OD) and HCKrishan (number 627/OD) havebeen conferred with the ‘AsadharanKarya Puraskar’ by CP, Delhi forshowing high sense of responsibil-ity in their official duties andputting their lives in danger in theline of duty.

On March 19, Joginder wasdeployed on QRT vehicle from 8am to 8 pm. During patrolling,

when he reached at LoknayakPuram, Bakkarwala, he could hearscreams of a woman nearby. Later,the woman informed him that twomen robbed her gold chain andlocket at gun point and ran away.Joginder immediately informedthe SHO/Mundka as well as thenearby beat staff and started chas-ing the accused men. One of theaccused opened fire on Joginder,who retaliated the fire with oneround in self-defence. During this,both the accused reached the fac-tory area of village Hirankudnaand robbed a motorcycle at gunpoint and fled. Krishan, deployedat Hirankudna Mor, noticed bothaccused persons reaching the pointon the robbed motorcycle. Onseeing the police, one of theaccused persons opened fired aim-ing at Vijay. In retaliation, Vijayfired two rounds and caught holdof one of the accused persons whileKrishan overpowered the secondone. The two were later identifiedas Dharmender from JJ Colony,Sawada, Delhi and Romil fromJamrud Pur, Greater Kailash I,Delhi.

In connection with theCovid-19 pandemic,

Minister of State (I/C) forShipping MansukhMandaviya reviewed the sit-uation at all major portsregarding cargo handling,SOP, payment to casuallabourers, through videoconferencing with all thechairpersons of ports andDG, Shipping.

More than 90 per cent ofexim cargo is handledthrough ports. For properand smooth maintenance ofthe supply chain, theMinistry of Shipping is tak-ing all-round measures. Foreasy movement of cargo atports, the Ministry ofShipping has preparedStandard OperatingProcedures (SOP) to beadhered at all ports to fightagainst Coronavirus.

Raghav Chadha, ViceChairman of Delhi JalBoard (DJB), chaired a

meeting to review the presentwater supply services. He urgedeverybody to maintain unhin-dered water supply and sewageservices amid Coronavirus pan-demic. The meeting was attend-ed by all senior officers and offi-

cials of the board. The following decisions were

taken to ensure uninterruptedwater services in entire Delhialong with adoption of strictsocial distancing measures:

� The stock position and avail-ability of chemicals, and otheritems used in treatment of water

was reviewed. Directions weregiven to the officials to ensurethat supply chain of such essen-tial chemicals and supply ofclean drinking water mustremain uninterrupted.� Water distribution throughtankers was reviewed and neces-sary instructions were given withregard to coordination with local

police officials for unhinderedmovement of tankers.Instructions were given withregard to social distancing whilesupplying the water throughtankers.� Concerned senior DJB officerswere directed to take the localadministration of police andmagistrates in confidence so that

no problem is faced in move-ment of water tankers.� Availability of staff/humanresources on the ground to pro-vide best possible services has tobe ensured. It was noted in themeeting that there is an issue ofoutstationed employees that areunable to report due to non-availability of inter state con-veyance and inter-state travelrestrictions. Senior officials weredirected to coordinate with localpolice and DMs/SDMs to facili-tate the travel of such employees.� Maintenance and service levelquality to be ensured during thelockdown period.� All workshops involved inproviding necessary equipmentfor repair and Maintenance nec-essary for the functioning of thetreatment plants and DJB net-work lines were asked to makeappropriate provisions so thatsupply chain is not distributed.� Delegation of emergencypowers ( financial and adminis-trative) to field officials will bedone for immediate and swiftdisposal of work and grievances.� Decisions regarding quickrelease of payment to vendors,who are involved in day to dayoperations and maintenance ofplants, is taken so that they donot face any financial crunch andtheir service quality remainsunaffected.� Engineering divisions weredirected to ensure adequate watersupply using tankers at nightshelters set-up by theGovernment, where the food isbeing provided to the poor anddestitute.

Ever since the Government ofIndia started issuing various

advisories to take precautionarysteps to prevent spread ofCoronavirus, the NLC IndiaLimited management is imple-menting a slew of preventiveactions and awareness campaigns.A few of them are listed as under:

�The top management compris-ing Rakesh Kumar, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, RVikraman, Director/HR, NNMRao, Director/P&P, PrabhakarChowki, Director/Mines, ShajiJohn, Director/Power and NJaikumar Srinivasan,Director/Finance are constantlymonitoring the activities besideshaving a structured review start-ing at 9.30 am daily. �NLCIL’s regular employees andthe workmen of contractors havebeen exempted from markingbiometric attendance. Instead,they are recording attendanceelectronically by using their iden-tity cards.�A positive awareness campaignhas been launched through pam-phlets, posters, hoardings andvideos to imbibe and promote thehabits of personal hygiene, work-place hygiene and maintainingsocial distance.�Accommodation in NLCIL’sguest houses have been highlyrestricted. The travel history andmedical status of the guests arethoroughly scrutinised before per-mitting them in the guest house.Guests are also required to recordany contact with those who havea travel history within two monthsto foreign countries and alsoabout any clinical test undergoneby them for Covid-19 or H1N1. �In NLCIL’s general hospital, a‘Quarantine Ward’ has been cre-ated with 20 beds. Additionallythree wards with 73 beds have

been earmarked and kept ready tofunction as isolation wards tomeet any emergency. �A high level team of doctors ofNLCIL belonging to various dis-ciplines such as General Medicine,Occupational Health, Pediatrics,Pathology and also with represen-tatives from Nursing, HospitalAdministration and HumanResource has been formed toreview and implement necessaryaction on war footing on day-to-day basis.�The management has sanc-tioned special funds to pur-chase all required essentialitems like sanitisers, masks,personal protective wear,foggers, disposablelinen... for hospital,township and units’usage.�The health depart-ment of townshipadministrationis taking careof maintain-ing sanita-t ion ande x p e d i t i n gholistic activi-ties to maintainhealth andhygiene.� D i s i n f e c t i o n ,fumigation andrelated activities arebeing carried out onregular basis.�A special awarenessprogramme on Covid-19 has been arrangedwith participation of DrSaravana Kumari, MD,Government MedicalCollege, Villupuram. �A system has beenput in place to per-mit ‘work fromhome’ on alter-nate days for

employees working in variousregional offices at Chennai,Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata,Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknowand Bhubaneswar. �Similar preventive measureshave also been taken up at all pro-ject sites —Thoothukudi (TN),Barsingsar (Rajasthan),Ghatampur (Uttar Pradesh),South Pachwara (Jharkhand),Talabira (Odisha) and all solarplants.�A team of around 130 volunteersis carrying out in thermal scan-ning of incoming passengers. TheManagement has enlisted addi-tional volunteers to put in actionif situation demands.

�NLCIL, followingg o v e r n m e n t

g u i d e l i n e s ,has orderedthat the placesof Worship in

Neyveli shallnot be open to

public until fur-ther orders.�The mega

annual festival ofPanguni Uthiram

at Siva SubramaniaSwamy Temple,

Veluduyanpattu, hasbeen cancelled toavoid large gatheringof public. Only therituals will be per-

formed by the priest.�NLCIL has also imple-

mented government guide-lines to deploy skeletal staffin activities not directly

connected to operation and main-tenance of mines and thermalpower stations.

NLCIL is, thus, continuouslymonitoring the situation arisingout of Covid-19 pandemic andtaking all possible steps to preventincidents.

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International OlympicCommittee President ThomasBach on Wednesday said that

the postponed Tokyo Gameswould require “sacrifices andcompromises” from all sides tomake them work.

“These postponed OlympicGames will need sacrifices, willneed compromises by all of thestakeholders,” Bach told reportersin a conference call the day afterthe IOC decided to delay the 2020Games.

The IOC’s role, Bach said, was“to make the Olympic dreams ofathletes come true”.

He admitted that cancellingthe Tokyo Games was “discussedand considered”, but said: “It wasvery clear from the beginning thatcancellation was not somethingthe IOC would in any way favour.”

It is the first Olympic Gamesin peacetime to be postponed.

Bach said the rescheduling ofthe Games in 2021 remained a“very challenging question”.

A taskforce, named Here WeGo, had been created to examinethe issue, Bach added, saying thefirst port of call would be with the33 international federations, like-ly starting with a conference callon Thursday.

“The first step, we have to seewith them, to see what the optionsare. We also have to take intoaccount the sports calendararound the Olympic Games,” the

German said.The rescheduling, he added,

“is not restricted just to the sum-mer months. All the options areon the table, before and includingthe summer of 2021”.

Both World Athletics andthe International SwimmingFederation say they are preparedto move their 2021 world cham-pionships to accommodate therescheduled Games.

The Athletics world champi-onships are due to be held inEugene, Oregon on August 6-15next year, with the swimmingworlds at Fukuoka in Japanbetween July 16 and August 1.

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The Badminton WorldFederation (BWF) on

Wednesday said it mightfreeze the world rankingsfor a while as it works ona “fair solution” to theOlympic qualificationprocess after the COVID-19 pandemic forced apostponement of TokyoGames.

There have beengrowing calls to freeze theworld rankings after can-cellations and postpone-ments wrecked the sport’scalendar. Indian shuttlersSaina Nehwal, B SaiPraneeth, ParupalliKashyap and H S Prannoyhave been leading the wayin expressing concerns.

“For our athletes, wewill review any impacts onthe Olympic andParalympic qualificationsystem to ensure a fairsolution is found to qual-ify players for the post-poned Games,” the BWFsaid in a statement.

“BWF, in the short-term, is also looking intothe possibility of freezingWorld Rankings untilinternational tournaments

start again.“However, we are still

working on the technicalsolution to ensure thefreezing and eventual un-freezing of WorldRankings works fairly forall players and we willannounce this shortly.”

Shuttlers in the singlescompetition have to beinside top-16 of worldrankings to qualify for theOlympics. In doubles, acountry can field one pairif they are in the top 16 andtwo if both pairs are in thetop eight.

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The athletes are playing the waitinggame for now but coaches involved

with India’s Olympic-bound bunch havealready put their thinking hats on toredraw the preparation plans a day afterthe Games got postponed to 2021.

“It is going to affect the shooters in abig way, especially the young ones who areappearing in their first Olympics. We havebeen preparing for the past three years.Having said that, we need to accept thiswithout any complaints,” national pistolshooting coach Jaspal Rana said.

So far, close to 80 Indian athletes havequalified for the Games and the numberis expected to swell once the qualifiers re-start.

Shooters are almost always consideredIndia’s best bet for Olympic medals.

In Tokyo, 15 of them — eight menand seven women — will take aim formedals, including a bunch of excitingteenagers competing in their maidenOlympics.

Nine boxers and an equal number oftrack and field athletes have also made thecut so far.

“I will redraw the plans only after thedates for the 2021 Games are out. We needto know when are the next qualifiers. Wearen’t really worried because we have gotqualification in nine out of 13 weight cat-egories,” said boxing’s High PerformanceDirector Santiago Nieva, referring to thefive men and four women, who havealready made the cut for Tokyo.

Boxing was scheduled to have aworld qualifying event in May, which waspostponed. India will have a shot at moreOlympic slots whenever that tourna-ment takes place.

“These are unreal times...The plan-ning going forward would be focussedmostly on building up rather than qual-ifying. We are not as concerned as someothers, who did not have enough quali-fications in the Asian tournament (inJordan),” Nieva said.

Deputy national athletics coach PRadhakrishnan Nair struck a note of skep-ticism on what can be achieved and feelsa postponement till 2022 would have beenbetter.

Indian athletics has not produced anOlympic medallist till date.

“It will be a challenge for us as far asplanning of training and competitionschedule is concerned. In this situation oflockdown I feel the athletics season is asgood as over for this year,” Nair said, refer-ring to the nationwide lockdown till April15.

“I don’t think we can start doing any-

thing before September or October. Thenthe seven-eight months before theOlympics (in 2021) may not be enough.Had it been 2022, it would have been bet-ter,” he added.

National badminton coach PullelaGopichand went with the majority viewand said he doesn’t expect any major glitchin the shuttlers’ build-up.

Going by current rankings, P VSindhu, B Sai Praneeth and the men’s dou-bles pair of Chirag Shetty and SatwiksairajRankireddy are assured of an Olympicberth.

“I think a year is a good time...We willhave enough time to come back. So, I don’tthink there will be any problems or neg-ative effect on preparations,” he asserted.

Another strong medal bet for India iswrestling and Vinesh Phogat, one of thebiggest stars among the Indian hopefuls,will take the break positively, accordingto her coach Woller Akos.

“We need to look at the positive sidewith Vinesh. We have got one more yearto prepare against the best opponents,” theHungarian said, asserting that the AsianGames champion is more than ready forany challenge even right now.

“An athlete needs to be a maximalist.She (Vinesh) is ready to follow ourdreams and preparation,” he added whiletalking about the lone woman among fourwrestlers to have qualified for Tokyo.

National weightlifting coach VijaySharma said he will have to rework hisplanning to ensure that the one year inhand is put to best use.

Only former world championMirabai Chanu is currently assured of aTokyo ticket among the lifters.

“We will have to plan everythingagain now. We are now waiting forguidelines on the new qualifying system,accordingly, we will plan our training,” hesaid.

“With the cancellation of the AsianChampionships (earlier) we changed ourplan a bit but now with the Olympicpostponement, it will change complete-ly. We will try and find the best way tobenefit from this situation,” he added.

Rising Table Tennis player GSathiyan’s coach S Raman, a formernational champion, welcomed the post-ponement.

Based on current rankings, Sathiyanis eligible for the Tokyo men’s doublesevent along with veteran A SharathKamal.

“Right decision and should not havecome later than now as it would haveconfused players...You don’t want panictraining and the resultant virus amongcommunity of athletes,” he said.

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Test cricket is ultimate test of batsmanship andShreyas Iyer is now “eargerly waiting” to don

the India whites having cemented his place inlimited overs format.

The stylish right-hander has already madea mark as a No 4 in white ball formats and thereis a lot of buzz that once India again play Testsat the end of the year, he might replace a big namein that Indian middle order.

Asked about his Test ambitions, Shreyas dur-ing an interactive session on Twitter said: “It isthe ultimate test. It’s every cricketer’s dream toplay Test cricket. I’m eagerly waiting for myopportunity to represent my country in whitesalso.”

Shreyas, who is also the skipper of DelhiCapitals in the Indian Premier League, and hasworked with Ricky Pointing, also said that thefreedom which the former Aussie skipper givesto a player was unbelievable.

“He is an outstanding coach to work underand the amount of freedom he gives you is mes-merizing,” added the stylish Mumbaikar whenasked about Ponting’s coaching style.

Shreyas also had words of gratitude for hisIndia teammate and senior pro Rohit Sharma.

“(Rohit) is a very goodpersonality to bearound. He’s very moti-vating, caring towardshis teammates,” saidShreyas about Sharma.

He was also asked oneword for his skipper ViratKohli and he replied,“Relentless”.

He also said that crick-eting icon SachinTendulkar, former Englandbatsman Kevin Pietersen,former South Africanbatsman Ab De Villiers,Rohit Sharma and Kohliwere his role models.

The middle-order bats-man also picked formerIndia pacer Zaheer Khanas his all time favoriteIndia bowler andJemimah Rodriquesas his favoritewomen’s cricketer.

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With the government calling for alockdown to fight the coronavirus

outbreak, the Indian cricketers are allhome and spending time with their fam-ilies. But strength and conditioningcoach Nick Webb in consultation withphysio Nitin Patel has customised rou-tines for Virat Kohli and boys to ensurethey stay in top shape despite the pan-demic induced break.

Sources in the team managementsaid that the duo of Webb and Patel havemade player specific routines for all thecontracted players to ensure that they cancontinue to stay in shape.

“All the players, irrespective ofwhether they play red-ball cricket orwhite-ball cricket or all formats have beengiven fitness routines which they are tofollow and give updates to Webb and

Patel from time to time. The routineshave been created keeping in mind thedemands of the players. So, for example,a bowler will has been given exerciseswhich work to make his core and lowerbody strong. Similarly, a batsman hasbeen given exercises which also work onhis shoulders and wrists,” the sourceexplained.

The source further added that theroutines have been made keeping inmind the workout patterns of the play-ers.

“So, for example, someone like aKohli loves to train with weights as well.So, his routine would have weightsinvolved like the clean and jerk and dead-lifts and other exercises. While anotherplayer might be more comfortable doingfree-hand exercises, so in that case, he hasbeen given more free weight functionaltraining options,” the source pointed.

� 7�� ���� The Indian Olympic Associationon Wednesday conceded that careers ofsome athletes would be impacted by the post-ponement of Tokyo Olympics and the IOAwould look to address this when it makesrevised preparation plans in consultation withthe sports ministry. Like all stakeholders, theIOA on Tuesday welcomed the InternationalOlympic Committee’s decision to postpone theSummer Games.“A one-year postponementmight impact the career/ qualification andplans of some athletes, which would beaddressed in the coming months and all nec-essary support would also be extended by us,”IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta said ina letter to the IOC and the Tokyo Gamesorganisers . PTI

������� Tottenham forward Harry Kanewill leave the club next year if they failto win a trophy in that time, PremierLeague all-time top-scorer AlanShearer has warned.

Kane is yet to lift silverwarein his career despite an eye-catching goalscoring record forboth club and country.

The England captain hasnot played since January dueto a serious hamstring injury andwas on the losing side asTottenham lost to Liverpool inlast season’s ChampionsLeague final.

That is the closest the26-year-old has come tomajor honours and Shearerfeels it may be time tomove on if that doesnot change in thecoming months.

“My guess is, ifhe doesn’t win any-thing in the next

12 months then he

has to leave,” Shearer told the Match ofthe Day: Top 10 podcast.

“He’ll do another year, I think, andif nothing comes in terms of trophies,

then he’ll be off.”Shearer sits at the top of the

Premier League scoring chartswith 260 goals.

Asked if Kane, currently on136 goals, could one day overtakehis tally, the former Blackburnand Newcastle striker said: “It

depends on his fitness, wherehe is and what success he’s

had at whatever club he’sat — whether that’s atSpurs or somewhereelse.

“It’s going to behard for him. He’s on136 and there’s a lot of‘ifs’ being asked — ifhe stays fit or if hestays in the PremierLeague. It’s going to betough, but it’s going to

go one day.” AFP

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe heardfrom US President Donald Trump during

phone talks that the decision to postpone theTokyo Olympics for one year was the right one,Japan’s top government spokesperson said onWednesday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Sugatold a press conference after the call that Trumphad described the move to delay the gamesamid the coronavirus pandemic as a “wise andgreat” decision.

“President Trump repeatedly said thepostponement was a very wise and great deci-sion and he expressed support for the primeminister’s stance,” Suga said.

Abe and Trump confirmed they wouldwork closely to realize the games in a “com-plete” way as “proof that humankind has beat-en the virus,” Suga also said, adding that thetwo leaders also pledged to work together totackle the global coronavirus pandemic.

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�".%"��"�&�"��0��&/�,,���;��B�"��0��'&G�"�������#<#H��"�6������������ The postponement of theTokyo Olympics due to the coro-navirus pandemic will have “noimpact” on the Paris Games,which will go ahead as scheduledin “summer 2024”, the head of theorganising committee TonyEstanguet said.

The 2020 Games weredelayed until “no later than sum-mer 2021” by the IOC andJapanese Prime Minister SinzoAbe on Tuesday, but Estanguetsaid the first postponement of anOlympics during peacetimewould not affect the Paris edition,which will now be staged threeyears after the Tokyo event.

“The 2024 Games will be heldin the summer of 2024. There isno impact on the date,” said thethree-time Olympic canoeingchampion.

“It was the best decision forthe athletes, for all the players inthe Games,” added Estanguet.

“I believe that the Gamesmust stay in their place.

“We are really advancing onour own preparation plan. Eachsituation in the Games is differ-ent. We do not have the sameinfrastructure to build.

“We are advancing on ourschedule independently of that ofTokyo.” AFP

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�����"�&�"�������&�"��,����0��&"���G������ 7� � ���� BadmintonAssociation of India onWednesday postponedthe 84th Sr BadmintonNational C’ships sched-uled to be held inLucknow from April 27 toMay 3 after the govern-ment put country underlockdown till April 14.

“Now that the gov-ernment has extended the

lockdown, we have decid-ed to postpone the 84thSenior nationals bad-minton C’hips and 75thInter State — Inter Zonal.It is unfortunate that thetournament couldn’t beheld as planned but it is agrave situation and fight-ing this disease is the pri-ority,” BAI General secre-tary Ajay Singhania said.

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