Vol. 13 No. 191 | Pages 24 | `̀ 5.00NEW DELHI, Monday, May 25, 2020 www.mailtoday.in / www.mailonline.in

https://twitter.com/mail_today https://facebook.com/mailtoday

‘Our society stilldoesn’t take womenassociated with artand culture seriously.’

PIYUSH MISHRA,actor-singer-writer

REPORTS ON PAGES 10-11

‘I don’t want to call themmigrant workers.They are residentworkers. The pain ofmigration has beenheartbreaking. Whathas happened isdistressing,and theheart-wrenchingimagesinspire us toreflect.’

‘There is a differencebetween solitude andimprisonment. I amnot really happy withwhat I am writingthese days.’

1st edition of e-Sahitya AajTakconcludes with rare insights onpain of migration, writing andwomen’s place in art & culture.

CHETAN BHAGAT,author

& columnist

The Last Word

SahityaMahakumbh

MIGRANTRETURNTOUGHTESTFORCOVID-HITSTATES

MALINIAWASTHI,

folk singer

SEEPAGE 3IMD ISSUES HEATWAVE RED ALERT FOR NORTH INDIA

REPORTS ON PAGES 2-5 & 7

By Snehanshu Shekhar

in New Delhi

FERRYING lakhs ofstranded migrantsin trains and busesbecame a necessityafter heart-wrench-ing images of thelockdown-inducedexodus went viral.

Some went inside truck-mounted concrete mixers,used bicycles, carts andhand-driven tricycles,while others trudged alonghighways to get home,before the governmentwoke up to their plight.

But here’s another crisis.Coronavirus cases have shotup, with a rapid spread inrural India. States such asUttar Pradesh, Rajasthan,Bihar, Jharkhand and Odishaare struggling to screen andisolate suspected cases,

besides treating those foundinfected, as about 75 lakhworkers have reached home.

This includes nearly 35 lakhferried by 2,600 Shramik Spe-cial trains, which started onMay 1, and 40 lakhs in buses,the government has said.

On Sunday, India saw itsbiggest spike of Covid-19cases with 6,767 new infec-tions, forcing the Centre toredraw region-wise battleplans, with a massive focuson containment, due to sheerand sudden numbers.

With lockdown norms relaxed,limited domestic flights taking

Turn to Page 2

36lakh moremigrants arereaching homein next 10 days.

�UP, Rajasthan, Jharkhand,Bihar & Odisha are worst hit.4 cr total workers in India.

Arrival of 75 lakh workers triggers corona spike, states struggle to

screen & isolate suspects, Centre redraws region-wise battle plan

6,767 new casesin India, total

1,31,868

147 more deaths,toll 3,867

508 new cases inDelhi, total 13,418

30 more deaths,toll 261

�Maharashtra govt allowed 25domestic flights to land and 25more to take off from the Mumbaiinternational airport beginningtoday. Earlier, it had said it neededtime as it is extremely “ill-advised” to reopen airports in a Red Zone.

� CM Uddhav Thackeray said he

can’t say the lockdown in thestate will be lifted by May 31.Bengal & Tamil Nadu had alsoreservations about Centre’s plan.

� In a marathon meeting withstates, Civil Aviation MinisterHardeep Singh Puri convincedthem all to come on board.

C VID-19

PANDEMIC

TURBULENCE AHEAD OF TAKE OFF TODAY

Quarantine for 14days, including 7 days of paid & institutional

quarantine and 7 days ofhome isolation. Flights

might start inJune-July.

SOPs FORINTERNATIONAL

TRAVELLERS

QAMAR SIBTAIN

‘I have tried to keepaway from the elitism of literatureand write for thecommon man.’

MANOJ TIWARI,MP & singer

Delhi’s IGIA gets ready, along with other airports, for limiteddomestic flight operations from today.

Mail Today, New Delhi / Chandigarh, Tuesday, May 5, 2020 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020 2

— JAI RAM THAKUR, HIMACHAL PRADESH CM

Himachal can be a destination forquarantine in these times.We are alsoconsidering this... many people felt thatit could boost tourism.

‘

’

Punjab CM AmarinderSingh on Sunday urged

the state’s migrant labourersnot to travel on foot as hisgovernment was making all

necessary arrangements fortheir journey back home bytrains or buses. He asserted thatit was his govt's duty to ensurethat all migrants return safely.

C VID-19

PANDEMIC

NEW CHALLENGE:RETURN OF THE NATIVE

Migrant workers along with their families wait for transportionto reach Ahmedabad railway station on Sunday.

continued from page 1

off today and 36 lakh moremigrants reaching states in trainsand buses over the next 10 days,cases are likely to go up even fur-ther. Arranging food and shelteris also a challenge for govern-ments.

Punya Salila Srivastava, JointSecretary, Union Home Ministry,said, “The Centre has advised allstates and Union Territories(UTs) that the issue of migrantworkers should be handled withsensitivity and it should beensured that they don't moveduring the lockdown.” There arefour crore migrants engaged indifferent works across the coun-try.

UTTAR PRADESHAbout two lakh migrant workersare travelling back to towns likeBanda, Barabanki, Gorakhpur,Etah, Pratapgarh, Ayodhya, Chi-trakoot, Varanasi and Firozabadevery day in trains and buses. The state government admittedthat the pandemic is spreadingfaster in eastern parts of the statedue to the arrival of migrant work-ers.

BIHARChief Minister Nitish Kumar hascarried out digital inspections ofsome quarantine centres anddirected officials to ensure that allworkers are provided jobs basedon their skills. He has alsodirected officials to carry out door-to-door screening of migrantsacross the state.

RAJASTHANMost of the recent coronaviruscases have been reported fromborder areas like Dungarpur,Jhunjhunu, Chittorgath, Bikanerand Sirohi. Officials said mostcases were reported from Gujaratborders from where migrant work-ers have returned. Thereafter theyhave decided to seal those bor-ders. The Rajasthan governmenthas said that it is mandatory forall migrants to follow 14 days ofcompulsory quarantine. It saidthat if any outsider breaks homequarantine protocols, he will besent to institutional quarantine.

JHARKHANDOne-third of the 350 cases spreadover one dozen districts have beenreported in the last few days, coin-ciding with the arrival of 70Shramik Special trains. On May10, the state had 157 cases. CM Hemant Soren said, "We havebeen saying it for long that ourproblem would start whenmigrant labourers start comingback. Around 2 lakh have beenput into home quarantine. Wehave already started communitykitchen on highways. We haveplanned an institutional quaran-tine centre in all panchayats.”

KARNATAKAKarnataka continued to witness asubstantial rise in infections in thelast few days, taking the totalnumber to 1,959 on Sunday asagainst 848 cases on May 10.According to the state health min-istry, the influx of migrants fromMaharashtra is the reason behindthis jump.

MADHYA PRADESHAround 4.82 lakh migrants have

reached different districts.Though MP is not providingmigrant-specific data regardinginfections, the surge in districtslike Khandwa, Burhanpur andDewas are the areas of concern.The state has so far reported 6,371coronavirus cases.

OTHER STATESOdisha is another state whereCovid-19 cases showed a jumpafter May 10. As per the statehealth department, almost 90 percent of 1,336 cases are migrantsreturning in Shramik Specialtrains and buses. At least 2,14,373migrants have returned.

A few days after almost flatten-ing its Covid-19 curve by the startof May, Kerala saw a spike in thepast week. On Saturday itself, thestate witnessed the biggest single-

day surge with 62 new cases. OnSunday, Kerala had 795 Covid-19cases.

In Assam, too, the cases havejumped from 62 on May 10 to 351on Saturday, mostly attributed tomigrant workers.

WHAT NEXTThe situation is expected to turnfrom bad to worse as more andmore migrant workers returnhome. More than 50 lakhmigrants are still waiting toreturn.

In Delhi for example, the gov-ernment has sent 1.32 lakhmigrants to their home townsthrough Shramik Special trains.As many as 4 lakh migrants hadtill Thursday registered to goback.Similarly, 15 lakh in Maharashtra,15 lakh in Punjab and 8 lakh inHaryana, who have registeredthemselves, are waiting to be sentback.

A nationwide lockdown wasfirst announced on March 24 for

21 days to combat the coron-avirus pandemic. It was firstextended till May 3 and again tillMay 17. The lockdown has nowbeen extended till May 31.

But the Centre started facilitat-ing the movement of migrantsearlier this month after the furoreacross the country.

WHAT EXPERT SAYS Prof Sanjay Kumar of the Centrefor the Study of Developing Soci-eties (CSDS) said the govern-ment should have ensured thatmigrants reached homes wellbefore the lockdown wasimposed.

“Making migrants travel back totheir homes now may lead toanother problem as we are gradu-ally opening up constructionsites,” he said.

(With inputs from SatyajeetKumar in Ranchi , Dev Ankur

Wadhawan in Jaipur, RohitKumar Singh in Patna, Nelan-

shu Shukla in Lucknow)

Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020 3NEWS

—MAYAWATI, BSP CHIEF

BJP and Congress are responsible...Itwould have been better if before announcingthe #COVID19 lockdown,migrant workerswould have been given some time...

‘

’

The Lok JanshaktiParty (LJP) has

offered to sponsoreducation for JyotiKumari, who has hit the

headlines after she cycledalmost 1,200 km toDarbhanga in Bihar fromGurgaon, carrying herinjured father on pillion.

2.6 lakh migrant labourers have so far been sent

back by the Haryana government.

Migrants, not adhering tosocial distancing norms,arrive at Danapur railwaystation to board a train totheir native places, in Patnaon Saturday.

By Munish Pandey in New Delhi

THE National Real EstateDevelopment Council(NAREDCO) has written aletter to Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister, Yogi Adityanath,offering jobs to 2.5 lakhmigrant labourers. The devel-opers’ body has asked thestate government to providethem assistance to the realestate sector, so that they canre-start their stalled projectsand create job opportunitiesfor the migrant labourers.

“The displaced labourersnow have no source of incomeand are finding it difficult toget resources to meet theirday-to-day necessities. Thelegislation should be suchthat the incumbent labourersshall get themselves regis-tered with an accreditedagency of the state govern-ment or the developers bodyand the developers shall pro-vide them jobs according totheir requirements,” said RKArora, Chairman ofNARESCO.

According to the proposal,these labourers and their fam-ilies can be provided withaccommodation, ration andother basic needs by thedevelopers. The body has alsotold the government that ifthe proposal is accepted then,in addition, properhygiene and all pre-cautions of thelabourers shall alsobe followed by thedeveloper at allsuch sites toensure the safetyof the workers.

According to RK Arora, “Real

estate sector is one of the sec-tors where these labourerscan be absorbed by providingjobs suiting their skills andcapabilities. We have written

letter to government forrehabilitation of these

migrant labourersbelonging to UttarPradesh whoreturning fromother states. Wehave requestedthe governmentto give in princi-pal approval, have

a discussion with

our office bearers and chalkout a programme to rehabili-tate these labourers as soonas possible once it is certifiedthat they are not infected bythe COVID-19 virus…”

The developers’ body fearsthat if employment is not pro-vided to the migrant labour-ers immediately then it mayescalate law and order prob-lems. They have asked thegovernment to take the deci-sion of rehabilitation immedi-ately as monsoons are just amonth away.

Choppercase: EDto quizMichelTHE ENFORCEMENT Directoratewill be questioning AgustaWest-land Chopper Deal Scam accusedChristian Michel inside Tihar Jailin connection with money laun-dering case lodged against him.The questioning will take placeon May 25 and May 26 inside theTihar jail as per the order by aDelhi Court.

Sources have told India Todaythat the financial probe agency

recently unearthed fresh evi-dence in the case and an applica-tion was moved before the courtfor permission to question mid-dleman Christian Michel.

“Considering the requirementof the investigation and the sen-sitive nature of the case, thecourt finds it appropriate toallow investigative officer tointerrogate the accused in TiharJail itself, wherein the accused ispresently lodged, being in judi-cial custody in this case,” readsthe order copy.

Three officers of ED have beenallowed to question ChristianMichel James In presence ofTihar Jail Supritendent from 10.00am to 1.30 pm and from 2.30 pmto 5.00 pm. Michel has beenallowed to take legal assistanceand advice from his lawyer from2.00 pm to 2.30 pm on both days.

—Munish Pandey

Accused in VVIP chopperscam, Christian Michel.

A CRISIS IN NUMBERS

6,017 infection cases,up from 4,057 a

week ago. Sultanpur district,which had only five cases tillrecently, now has 60. About16-17 lakh migrant workershave returned.

1,423 who returnedto Eastern UP,

have tested positive. Thisconstitutes 40% of theregion’s total cases. We haveincreased our daily testingcapacity to over 7,000, saidJai Pratap Singh, UP healthminister.

UTTAR PRADESH

6.75 lakh workersbrought backby govt.

12.27 lakh haveapplied forcoming back.

1,476 coronaviruscases in oneweek.

1,200 migrants whoreturned have

tested positive.

6,794 total casesin the state.

RAJASTHAN

JHARKHAND

2,477 infection cases,with arriving

migrants constituting nearlyhalf of them.

7.5 lakh workers havereturned and 20 lakh

are likely to return in thenext few weeks.

6,000 institutionalquarantine

centres where they arebeing kept.

BIHAR

100 migrant labourersall coming from

other states in last one weekhave tested positive.

KARNATAKA

50 of new cases arethose who returned

from Maharashtra in the lastfew days.

People buyair coolersas weatherhas beenpredicted toremain hotin the nextfew days, inNew Delhi,on Sunday.

By Prashasti Shandilyain New Delhi

DELHI-NCR is burning with blis-tering heat wave condition as theIndian Met Department has pre-dicted severe heat wave conditionin isolated to few pockets inChandigarh, Punjab, Haryana andDelhi. A red alert has been fore-casted for two consecutive days inthe areas which is the highest warn-ing issued by the met department.

Those with outdoor exposure arebeing advised to stay indoors toavoid the fatal heat stroke. How-ever, no heed is being paid to themigrants who are forced cross theinterstate borders and walk severalkilometres a day at a time whenDelhi is sizzling at 45 degree celcius.

To add to their woes, they don'thave adequate stock of food andwater.

They've exhausted their little sav-ings and are dependent on themercy of people, hoping someonewould help them, someway.

The India Today TVteam visited New DelhiRailway Station, onlyto find, how thesemigrants are forcedto beg and seek

help from random people to sur-vive.

“We've come all the way fromJammu to Delhi and now we haveto go to Mirzapur in UP but nobodyis there to help us out. We've paid?1800 each for our tickets which is asignificantly huge amount for us

and now we're out of food andmoney. Given the scorch-

ing heat here, I don'tthink we're going to

survive without foodor water. But we'llwalk until our lastbreath,” said

Vikram, a migrant labourer.Revathi, a migrant walked all the

way from Jaipur with her family,hoping to find a train to Chhatis-garh.

“My 18 months old infant needsfood and milk but we have nothing.We all crossed the Haryana borderescaping the police barricades butnobody is here to guide us as tohow can we reach Chhatisgarh. It'sreally hot here and a number of blis-ters have erupted on my infant'sbody. The least I wanted was this.It's difficult to predict if we'll surviveuntil we reach Chattisgarh.”

Migrant labourers walk as they wait for transportation togo back to their hometowns, in Allahabad, on Sunday.

Labour-ers and their

families can beprovided with

accommodation,ration and other

basic needs.

No relief from heat wave,migrants suffer the most

IMDhas issued a

‘red alert’ amidrising mercury.

Real estate body vowsit will provide jobs to2.5 lakh UP workers

Mail Today, New Delhi / Chandigarh, Monday, May 25, 2020 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020 4

— DILIP GHOSH , WEST BENGAL BJP CHIEF

Four days have passed since thecyclone wreaked havoc, but the stategovernment has failed to reach out tothe distressed.

‘

’

Residents continuedto stage protests in

various parts of Kolkata onSunday, demandingimmediate restoration of

water and power supplylines snapped by Amphan,even as the state govt saidservices have beenreinstated in several areas.

C VID-19

PANDEMIC

SPECIAL

DOUBLE WHAMMY FOR CYCLONE-HIT BENGAL & ODISHA

PACKED RELIEF CAMPS FACE TICKING

Rapid spread looms as

taking Covid precautions

become nearly impossible

Even several quarantine

centres are now being used

for Amphan relief in states

CORONA BOMB

By Indrajit Kundu in Kolkata and

Mohammad Suffian in Bhubaneswar

AT Kadampukur village onthe outskirts of Kolkata inNorth 24 Pargana district,55-year-old Bhupati Naskarwas picking up pieces fromthe ruins of his tea stall. Its

tin roof blown off, the little bamboostructure was ravaged by Thursdaynight’s cyclone. It was his onlysource of livelihood.

With no shelter above their head, formany like him staying at home meansspending nights at a relief shelter or underthe open sky. Thousands have made a bee-line at shelter homes across East Midna-pore, North and South 24 Pargana dis-tricts. While 86 people have died so far,according to initial government estimates,10.5 lakh houses have been damaged affect-ing more than 1 crore people in south Ben-gal.

The Bengal government claimsaround 5 lakh people were evac-uated to safer locations andkept in makeshift camps orcyclone shelters. Many of theseshelters were already turnedinto quarantine centres for sus-pected Covid patients or for iso-lating migrants returning toBengal from other states.

With the sudden calamity athand, precautions against Covidare the last thing on thesecyclone victims’ mind. Alreadystretched by the Covid pan-demic, the state administrationhad no choice but to pack inmost people in those sheltersalongside schools being con-verted into shelters overnight.

Experts say that threat ofrapid community transmissionis now real since it’s difficult tomaintain social distancing andpersonal hygiene in these over-crowded cyclone shelters.

E RECTED after the devas-tating clyclone Aila in2009, these shelters areessentially three-storiedstructures with the

ground floor used to keepdomestic animals. South 24 Par-gana, which is the worst-affected district, alone has 625relief camps that has packed in1.97 lakh people, roughly over300 persons per camp.

Expressing concern over thechallenging circumstances inwhich the state has to tackle theCovid outbreak, Bengal HealthSecretary NS Nigam said “Weare definitely worried about it.That is why it has been told thatnorms of social distancingshould be maintained. We havetold the Chief Medical Officer –Health (CMOH) in each districtand doctors visiting there tocheck if anyone symptomatic isfound. In that case he should beisolated and kept separately.”

“People have been told to gen-

erally wear mask and sanitize.Our district magistrates aredoing a good job, we are allwatching and coordinatingclosely,” Nigam told India TodayTV.

Dr Bibhuti Saha at the Schoolof Tropial Medicine in Kolkatasaid the first priority is savingpeople’s lives.

Not ruling out the possibility ofa sudden surge in Covid cases inthe state, Saha said: “I am notsure how the index case was inthe affected areas where peoplehave been shifted. It will dependon the baseline of cases in thoseparticular areas. But even in aworse-case scenario, most peo-ple will survive. 15% may be mildto moderate and 5% could besevere case. We will know it afterabout two weeks.”

So is there a way out of this cri-sis? Dr Kunal Sarkar, renownedcardiac surgeon, said govern-ment should begin rapid testingin the relief camps soon to iden-tify possible cases. “In thosepockets, it might not be a bad

idea to conduct rapid or pooltesting. It is better to identifythe problem at an early stagerather than waiting till a wholelot of sick people come out ofthose areas. You cannot preventit, but can minimize it. We don’twant a third disaster after Covidand the cyclone,” Sarkar said.

HOW ODISHA DEALT WITH AMPHANWHILE BATTLING COVID-19 SURGECyclonic storm Amphan hasaffected nearly 45 lakh people in1,500 panchayats in 89 blocks in10 districts in Odisha.

Just as the IMD issued warn-ing, the Odisha governmentbegan its cyclone preparationswhich included evacuation,movement of people in low-lyingareas and kutcha houses tocyclone shelters, safeguardingRabi crops in mandis, deploy-ment of ODRAF, NDRF teams,among other measures.

The disaster managementdepartment of Odisha was acti-vated immediately. The first

step they took was to evacuateas many people as they couldfrom the coastal districts. TillWednesday morning, the stateadministration evacuated nearly1.5 lakh people in coastal areas.

The challenges for the stategovernment were that the shel-ter homes they had built for thecyclone were already turned into

quarantine centres for migrantreturning to the state. The stateturned the centres back intoshelter homes.

Balasore collector K Sudar-shan Chakravorty told IndiaToday TV, “We are strictly adher-ing to social distancing normswhile shifting people from lowlying areas to shelter homes.”

Villagers retrieve their belongings fromtheir damaged houses at Sonarpurgramin South 24 Pargana on Sunday. (R)Victims at a relief camp in Gosaba ofSouth 24 Pargana.

Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020 5NEWS

—V NARAYANASAMY, PUDUCHERRY CM

The liquor shops would resumebusiness on May 25 as L-G Kiran Bedi hasgiven nod to fix Covid-19 special exciseduty on all liquor products.

‘

’

Intra-state bus and train services

are set to resume inOdisha from Monday.However, the state

government has saidthat those with visiblesymptoms of Covid-19will not be permitted to travel.

50,231Coronavirus cases in Maharashtra

Assam hit by floodsamid Covid threats

By Hemanta Nathin Guwahati

AMID the Coronaviruspandemic, Assam is fac-ing another challenge asthe state hit by the firstwave of floods and severalthousand people of sixdistricts of the state havebeen affected by the flood.

Following torrentialrains in the past few daysin Assam and other neigh-bouring states, the waterlevel of several rivers ofthe state are flowingabove danger level marks.

The floodwaters on Sun-day washed away a por-tion of a state PWD roadat the Agia-Lakhipur area

in the Goalpara district.Over 20 villages in the dis-trict have been affected inthe first wave of floods.

Apart from Goalpara,several thousand peopleof at least 80 villages inBarpeta, Darrang,

Lakhimpur, Dhemaji,Nagaon district haveaffected in fresh floods.

The water level ofBrahmaputra, Beki,Puthimari, Jia Bharali,Noona rivers are flowingabove danger level marksin many places of Assam.

Bizman turnspandemic intoopportunity

UP lets patients use phones at hospitals

Odisha allows homedelivery of liquorBy Mohammad Suffianin Bhubaneswar

THE ODISHA government onSaturday allowed home deliveryof liquor from Sunday and intro-duced a 50% special ‘Covid fee’on all types of foreign liquor andbeer. With the added 50% fee,the liquor products and alco-holic beverages would be sold ata higher price.

The additional fee will be appli-cable to MRPs of 2019-20 fiscal.Normal timing for home deliverywould be between 7 am and 6pm. Following the amendmentof the relevant provisions underthe Odisha Excise Rules, 2017,the existing ON and OFF shoplicensees situated in areas otherthan containment zones andshopping malls were allowed to

make home delivery from Sun-day. However, no excise licenseewill be allowed to sell liquoracross the counter or on theirpremise.

The additional revenue gener-ated from liquor sales would gotowards the treatment of coron-avirus positive patients andother related activities.

The home delivery will be donethrough retailers and foodaggregators, standard technol-ogy platforms, delivery serviceproviders, who are acting asretail aggregators.

By Munish Pandeyin New Delhi

RAHUL Bajaj, a 32-year-oldentrepreneur, had to shutdown his business after thelockdown was announced.Rahul's family-run stainlesssteel cooking utensil busi-ness, Shree Shakti Enter-prises, came to a completehalt due to which payment tothe employees became amajor burden for him. How-ever, an innovative ideachanged the crisis intoan opportunity forRahul and now hisbusiness is boom-ing even betterthan ever.

After the lock-down, Rahul's fourmanufacturingplants in Sonipatwere closed and itbecame impossible tokeep the business afloat.

“When our entire businesswas shut, then, during a visitto a hospital during the lock-down, I saw a handwash sta-tion, which gave me an idea ofmaking a hands-free handwashing station that wouldwork with a foot pedal,”Rahul said.

With the innovative idea,Rahul engineered on how hecan manufacture a hands-freehandwash station which canbe economic, as well as easy

to use.Within three days, he man-

aged to build a handwash sta-tion at his plant and installedit in his colony for testing.After getting positive reviews,Rahul started contacting thepossible dealers who couldbuy his product so that hecan keep the business alive.

Rahul sent a prototype toWalmart India for feedbackon technical feasibility andcommercial viability. PostWalmart India's positive feed-

back on the product,Rahul is now also

building a sensor-based sanitiser dis-penser.

“These productsrange from Rs15,000 to Rs 25,000per piece. The

hands-free hand-wash station is

available in differentsizes and I am getting

orders from everywhere as itis not costly," Rahul said.

Rahul transformed the chal-lenges into an opportunityand has received around 1,000orders for his hands-freehandwash station from sev-eral companies and govern-ment institutions as well.

Once struggling to keep thebusiness afloat, Rahul's inno-vation has resulted in aturnover of Rs 1.15 crore dur-ing the lockdown.

By Nelanshu Shuklain Lucknow

THE Uttar Pradesh governmenton Sunday withdrew its contr-oversial order banning the useof mobile phones by patients inL-2 and L-3 Covid-19 hospitals.

In a fresh order, DirectorGeneral (DG) Medical Educa-tion KK Gupta said that the useof mobile phones by the coro-navirus-infected patients canbe allowed with certain condi-tions. According to the order,coronavirus patients, beforebeing admitted in an isolationward, will have to show their

mobile phones and chargers sothat the hospital administra-tion can disinfect them.

A Covid-infected patient willnot be allowed to share hisphone or charger with anyother patients and healthworkers.

Moreover, the hospitaladministration will disinfectcharger and mobile phone of apatient who is being dis-charged from the hospital.

In his earlier orderissued on May 22, DGmedical educationhad directed thatthe in-charge ofCovid-19 hospitals

be provided two mobilephones so that patients admit-ted in isolation wards couldspeak to their family members.

Earlier, all the medicaluniversities, government andprivate hospitals were askedto ban the use of mobilephones by patients in L-2 andL-3 hospitals.

Soon after the order, SP chiefAkhilesh Yadav slammed the

state government sayingthat it took such a deci-

sion so that the truthabout the poor con-dition of hospitalsdoes not reach thecommon people.

Rahul hasreceivedaround 1,000orders forthe hands-freehandwashstation byprivatecompaniesandgovernmentinstitutionstoo.

A portion of a roadcaved in due to

flood in Goalparadistrict on Sunday.

TheHaryana

entrepreneur isnow earning

crores with newly-manufactured

hands-free hand-wash station

Ex-Maha CM Ashok Chavan testspositiveMAHARASHTRA cabinetminister and formerchief minister AshokChavan has tested posi-tive for coronavirus inMumbai.

Congress leader AshokChavan is the currentPWD minister of Maha-rashtra.

Meanwhile, the num-ber of Covid-19 cases inMaharashtra crossedthe 50,000-mark on Sun-day on account of 3,041new detections, thehighest in the singleday. The overall deathtoll in the state hasgone up by 58, including39 from Mumbai, to1,635. —Vidya

Several rivers flowingabove danger mark

State also introduces50% Covid fee on sales

UPhad issued an

order banningphones by patients in

L-2, L-3 Covid hospitals.

PHOTO FOR REPRESENTATION

PHOTO FOR REPRESENTATION

6 NEWS Mail Today, New Delhi / Chandigarh, Monday, May 25, 2020 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020

File photo of Armypersonnel on dutyin Ladakh.

Showdownin Ladakh

FIR on BJP MP sonsfor assault in Maha

By Abhishek Bhallain New Delhi

AFTER calling reportsof detention of Indiantroops by Chinese“inaccurate” on Satur-day evening, theIndian Army hasissued a formal denialon the issue amid ten-sions simmering inLadakh at four placesat the Line of ActualControl (LAC).

“There has been nodetention of Indian sol-diers at the borders. Wecategorically deny this. Itonly hurts national inter-ests when media outletspublish unsubstantiatednews,” an Indian Armyspokesperson said.

This comes after it wasreported that Indian troopswere held back briefly withweapons seized by the Chi-nese in Pangong Tso, a lakein the eastern Ladakhregion at the LAC where ascuffle took place on May 5and 6. The area has beentense since then with Chinaenhancing its patrol boatsin the lake that is under dis-pute. There are three otherspots — Trig Heights, Dem-chok and Chumar — wherethe Chinese have done atroop build up, pitched

tents, brought in vehiclesand machinery to enhancetheir fortifications acrossthe Galwan Valley in theAkshai Chin region.

There has been a troopbuild up on both sides andthere are 3-4 places wherethe situation has been tensesince May 5. While the dis-engagement took place ineastern Ladakh after troopscame to blows on May 5 andwere involved in a faceoff tillthe morning of May 6 whentroops from both sidesclashed leaving severalinjured. Army Chief GeneralMM Naravane visited Lehamid the growing tension inLadakh after confrontationsbetween India and China.

By Pankaj Khelkarin Pune

POLICE have filed a casefiled against the sons ofBJP Rajya Sabha MP Bhag-wat Karad for barging intothe house of BharatiyaJanata Yuva Morcha(BJYM) worker, KunalMarathe, and assaultinghim and his family mem-bers in Aurangabadin Maharashtra.

On Saturdaynight, Harsh-wardhan andVarun — sonsof the Karad —barged intothe house ofMarathe, 25,and thrashedhim at his house

in Kotla Colony area inpresence of his parents,who have also sustainedinjuries. Marathe toldIndia Today TV, “The BJPMP’s sons have developedan interest in contestingthe polls from the samearea I’ve been working.”

Marathe said Harsh-wardhan and Varun havebeen angry on him

because of the humani-tarian work he has

been doing dur-ing the ongoinglockdown. TheMP’s son arethreatenedwith my grow-ing popularity.

MP Karad, how-ever, rubbishedthe BJYMleader’s claims.

MP Bhagwat Karad

Army rejects claims of jawans

being detained by China at LAC

— ARMY SPOKESPERSON

There has beenno detention ofIndian soldiersat borders. Ithurts nationalinterests whenmedia outletspublish unsub-

stantiated news.

‘‘‘‘

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu in New Delhi

AS India is yet to decide on openingits skies for international passengers,the new guidelines released by theCentre for international arrivals saythat all travellers shall give an under-taking that they would undergomandatory quarantine for 14 days —which include 7 days paid institu-tional quarantine at their own cost,followed by 7 days isolation at home.

This has to be agreed to before the pas-sengers board the flight along with thedownloading of the Aarogya Setu mobileapplication. Travellers who are asympto-matic will be allowed to travel with pre-cautions such as mask and hand hygiene.A self declaration form has to be filled andshared with health officials.

Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puritweeted, “Prescribed clinical protocol will befollowed in case any domestic or internationaltraveller shows symptoms of COVID19. Statescan also develop their own protocol for quar-antine & isolation as per their own assess-ment.”

The guidelines say passengers will be testedas per ICMR protocol, says the Ministry ofHealth and family welfare (MoHFW).

If they test positive, they shall be assessedclinically. If they are assessed as mild cases,they will be allowed home isolation or isolatedin the Covid Care Centre (both public & pri-vate facilities) as appropriate. Those havingmoderate or severe symptomswill be admitted to dedicatedCovid Health facilities and man-aged accordingly.

If found negative, they shall beadvised to further isolate them-selves at home and self-monitortheir health for 7 days.

The guideline further saystravel “only for exceptional andcompelling reasons such ascases of human distress, preg-nancy, death in family, serious ill-ness and parent(s) accompaniedby children below 10 years, asassessed by the receiving states,home quarantine may be permit-ted for 14 days.”

For domestic passengers, onlyasymptomatic passengers will be

permitted to go with the advicethat they shall self monitor theirheaIth for 14 days. In case, theydevelop any symptoms, theyshould inform the district sur-veillance officer or thestate/national call center (1075).

Those found symptomatic willbe isolated and taken to thenearest health facility.

For passengers on trains start-ing on June 1, only those withconfirmed tickets will need toarrive 90 minutes before depar-ture. They will have separateentry and exit point as well.Over 200 passengers train willply, and tickets for them will beavailable from May 21.

7NEWSMail Today, New Delhi / Chandigarh, Monday, May 25, 2020 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020

14-day period to include 7-dayinstitutional & 7-day home isolation

THE NEW FLIGHTPLAN■ If the incoming air passengers test positive, they shall beassessed clinically.

■ If they are assessed as‘mild’ cases, the passen-gers will be allowed home isolation or to be isolatedin the Covid Care Centre(both public & private facilities), as required.

■ Those passengers with‘moderate or severe’ symptoms will be admittedto dedicated Covid Healthfacilities and managedaccordingly.

■ If found negative, the pas-sengers shall be advised tofurther isolate themselvesat home and self-monitortheir health for 7 days.

By Pankaj Upadhyayin Mumbai

MUMBAI International AirportLimited (MIAL) has said thatdomestic operations willresume from today at the Mum-bai International Airport.

It tweeted, “@CSMIA_OfficialPassengers Information: Mum-bai Airport to allow 25 depar-tures and 25 arrivals from 25thMay, 2020.”

Talking to India Today TV, aMIAL official requestinganonymity said, “It is correctthat domestic operations willresume though in limited num-bers. We are now in the processof finalising the details of opera-tions for the benefit of the airpassengers and they shall beput out very soon. There is stillclarification needed so we willwait for the same from the gov-ernment.”

According to airline officials

while Mumbai will work at lim-ited capacity the rest of Maha-rashtra will open at 33%. “Forthe summer schedule the rest ofMaharashtra will work at 33%capacity which includes Pune,”said an official of a private car-rier.

This is a complete U-turn fromthe earlier stance. Late night onSaturday Maharashtra HomeMinister Anil Deshmukh had

cautioned against the resump-tion of operations.

Home Minister made it clearthat arranging adequate trans-port under the present circum-stances would be difficult andwould add to the stress on thered zone.

Even Maharashtra chief minis-ter Uddhav Thackeray, whileaddressing a press conferenceon Sunday, said, “I have spoken

to Hardeep Puri (Union CivilAviation Minister). I have toldhim let us take stock of the situ-ation. We want to open up. Buthow travellers will board, howwill staff of airport commute, allthis will be checked.”

The Civil Aviation Minister onSaturday had announced thatthe domestic flight operationswould resume from 25th May ina calibrated manner.

The airline then rolled outtheir plans and opened theflight bookings as well.

Mumbai airport to workat ‘limited capacity’

Ground rules setfor internationalf lyers too by govt

A view of the empty Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Internationalairport in Mumbai on Sunday.

Passengers will

be tested as per

ICMR protocols,

flights may start

by June or July

SUBDUED EIDFESTIVITIESIN CAPITAL

WITH the celebration of Eidon Monday, the holy monthof Ramadan comes to an end.

This is without a doubt thefirst-ever Eid where the mar-kets have a deserted look.With the Covid-19 cases surg-ing in the city, the festivitiesthis year will take placeinside the homes of people.

The Matia Mahal marketopposite the iconic JamaMasjid seems fairly lull. Usually, this is a place whereone cannot even walk freelyduring the Ramadan.

The Shahi Imam of the

Jama Masjid has also urgedpeople to offer Eid prayersfrom their home.

During the festival peoplegenerally comes out to themarket places to buy firniand other sweets, newclothes and other items. Butthis year, most marketsseem empty with very littlebusiness.

Mohd Akram, the presi-dent of the Matia Mahalmarket association says,“Because of the lockdownpeople are running out ofmoney. Only a few are leftwith the purchasing power.People are following socialdistancing and all the neces-sary actions to avoid theexposure to the virus.”

Most markets in OldDelhi look deserted

By Nikhil Lakhwaniin New Delhi

‘‘Long day of hardnegotiations with

states to restart civilaviation ops.Except

Andhra which willstart on 26/5 & West

Bengal on 28/5,domestic flights will

restart tomorrow.

— Hardeep Singh Puri, Civil Aviation Minister

‘‘

After initial hiccups, Mumbaito open flight operations today

C VID-19

PANDEMIC

QAMAR SIBTAIN

8 Mail Today, New Delhi / Chandigarh, Saturday, March 18, 2017 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020

to counterbalance India by reaching outto China which is sloshing money to buysupport and loyalties of Nepalese politi-cians and consolidate the anti-Indialobby. India has been watching thisstrategy unfold but has preferred ahands-off approach in the hope thatbetter sense would prevail. Clearly, thispolicy has run its course.

A time to actIn diplomacy, patience is mostly a

virtue, until it is not. That time hascome for India. To be patient with thecurrent dispensation in Nepal is to onlylose more ground. In Nepal there is athird player who is pushing the enve-lope every day, and India's ‘patience’has made space for the third player toensconce itself. This is precisely whathappened in Sri Lanka. The Lankansgleefully grabbed the white elephantprojects that China offered them. Theseprojects have today become mill-stonesaround Sri Lanka’s neck with conse-quences not only for Sri Lanka’s sover-eignty but also for India’s security.Nepal is likely to follow a similar trajec-tory with the projects China is seducingthem with.

There is a view that by provokingIndia, a trap is being set. If India falls inthe trap by reacting strongly, the cur-rent dispensation will play the patrioticcard and also push forward the Chinaagenda. But even if India doesn’t react,then the game will anyway slip awaybecause the anti-India lobby will beemboldened to think that daring Indiais a low-risk-high-gain gambit. India stillenjoys considerable leverages in Nepalwhich can be used quite effectively tore-establish India’s primacy in theregion. But this must be done quietly,without any grandstanding or chest-thumping. Nepal must be made tounderstand that the natural affinity andaffection that most Indians havetowards Nepal – Hindu country and allthat – must not be stretched or testedbeyond a point. Because once this bondbreaks, the consequences will beextremely serious and severe.

The writer is Senior Fellow, ObserverResearch Foundation. TThhee vviieewwss

eexxpprreesssseedd aarree ppeerrssoonnaall..

HUMOURDAILY

Never lend your car toanyone you have givenbirth to.

—Emma Bombeck

I’ll go through life firstclass or third, but never insecond.

—Noel Coward

I think I may need professionalhelp... a chef, a maid and a butlershould be enough.

SO FUNNY

THE lockdown was a nationwidepolicy: everyone must follow the samerules. It has still exposed starkinequalities.

It’s no surprise then, that news theprime minister’s chief adviserDominic Cummings travelled fromLondon to Durham with his familywhile lockdown measures were inplace has set off a wave of fury.

Cummings travelled from London, anarea that had a higher number ofdaily cases, to the north-east of

England, which would soon becomeone of the hardest hits parts ofBritain.

This is not a left-right issue. It isabout right and wrong, and thegovernment is choosing to defend oneof its leading figures over the publichealth message which is designed tosave lives.

Everything depends on the ability ofa government to contain this virusquickly. We need this government tosucceed, but that requires it to focusall its efforts on public healthplanning, clear communication andretaining public trust – somethingmade harder when a senior adviserappears to flout the rules.

No time forexceptions inthe lockdown

Lockdown was imposed inIndia at the right time...Lockdown and all its guidelines have acted aspotent social vaccine.

— HARSH VARDHAN,Union health minister, speaking

on benefits of the lockdown

DAY IN WORDS

DAY IN NUMBERS

AROUND THE WORLDTHE GUARDIAN

ON DOUBLE STANDARDS

I didn’t like [Baywatchmovie]. Let’s just keep thebad TV as bad TV. That’swhat’s charmingabout ‘Baywatch’,you know?

After I was locked up, Istarted boxing. But I still seemy friends that I robbed with.I’m happy I’m not in prisonwith them but I still visit them.

—MIKE TYSON, Heavyweight champion, on visiting inmates he

met while he was in prison the ’90s

`11 Ldonated to

PM CARES Fund bySaidulajab, a

village in SouthDelhi

35% rate at which the

sales ofrenewable energy

certificates fell in April

Cummings travelled toDurham with his family

or another, things never descended tothe level to which K.P Sharma Oli hastaken them.

Whatever his reasons – domestic polit-ical posturing, acting on the behest ofChina, or just simple deeply ingrainedIndia-phobia – the fact is that his insur-ance policy with India has now more orless lapsed. For long, India has ignoredhis rants and adopted a rather benignapproach towards him under theassumption that after he has vented hisspleen, things will settle down. Butthat’s not the way things have playedout. The more India cut him slack, themore emboldened Oli got. Matters havenow reached a pass where India willhave to bare her fangs if she wants toremain relevant in Nepal.

Outdated strategiesIn Nepalese politics, there has always

been a section of people who only knowabout dragging India into domesticpolitical discourses to burnish their ownnationalist credentials and find somerelevance. More often than not, main-stream politicians (including the erst-while Royalty) used this section to con-vey signals to India. But they neverreally allowed these guys to cross theRubicon. Until recently the anti-Indiagroup remained on the fringes of poli-tics, and never really occupied centre-stage, until Oli that is. The other thingabout Nepal has been the quest to find acounter-balance to India. King Mahin-dra tried to flirt with the Pakistanis atone time. The 1971 war saw that entiregambit go up in smoke. King Birendratried the Zone of Peace tack, but it did-n’t lead anywhere. The one time heflirted with China, the monarchy col-lapsed and democracy was restored inthe early 1990s. But in recent years, theNepalese have once again started trying

bySushantSareenA

FORMER intelli-gence chief once saidthat the problemwith India’s neigh-bourhood policy isthat India wants to

be seen as the nice, cuddly,harmless giant who is moreloved than feared by its neigh-bours. But this policy runscounter to the iron law of inter-national politics where there isno love without fear. A harmlessgiant who anyone can fingerwithout fear of any adverse con-sequences isn’t worth anythingto anyone.

Crossing the lineIn India's case, it becomes a bit of a

double whammy because not only doescrossing the giants’ path not cause anydread, there is also no expectation ofthe giant pouring in goodies to win overthe love and admiration of its neigh-bours. As a result, in recent years therehas been a rising trend among some ofIndia's neighbours to strike deals or dothings without as much as even consid-ering how this will be taken by India,much less the repercussions of theirmoves on relations with India. Theongoing border spat with Nepal needsto be viewed in the larger context ofhow India has conducted its neighbour-hood policy.

The competing territorial claims ofIndia and Nepal, which are behind therow that has broken out are a matter ofdetail which can be tackled at the diplo-matic level. What is more worrisome isthat Nepal’s leadership has the temer-ity to cock a snook at India by uppingthe ante. The language used by theNepalese Prime Minister, the decisionto publish a new political map, settingup of armed posts near the disputedarea, and making belligerent declara-tions of taking back the land at any costis quite extraordinary in the context ofIndia-Nepal relations. Even during thetimes when relations between the twocountries were strained for one reason

COMMENT

— PAMELA ANDERSON,‘Baywatch’ series

star, on her thoughtson the ‘Baywatch’movie adaptation

India can’t gosoft on Nepal

A gathering of people pray in a garden while celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the festival marking the end of Ramadan,during the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak in Kashmir, on Sunday.

A PRAYER OF THANKS

“”

“”

REUTERS

9Mail Today, New Delhi / Chandigarh, Monday, May 25, 2020 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020 SPOTLIGHT

MIDDLE INDIARAHUL NORONHA

THE crisis in Mad-hya Pradesh,besides the virus,is the one ema-nating from theprecarious finan-

cial condition of the state. Revenues have beenreduced to a trickle, withbusinesses closed or work-ing at sub optimal levels.The state has imple-mented measures toreduce expenses but theymay just be a stop gaparrangement.

Madhya Pradesh earns around`5,000 crore by indirect taxesfrom its own sources. Theseinclude revenues of around ̀ 1,200crore from excise collection and`3,000 crore from VAT imposedon fossil fuels, besides other nontax revenues. In April, `1,100crore including `592 crore fromGST was received in all. Withliquor shops closed, there was nocollection of excise and the saleof land was not executed.

The state deferred payment ofarrears of the VII pay commis-sion to its employees and hadfrozen dearness allowance at 12per cent from July 2019. Thisfreeze will be until July 2021. Thesalary bill annually for the MP

government is around `70,000crore of which the state expectsto save `10,000 crore throughthese measures.

A regular budget has not beenpassed owing to the politicalupheaval in March. It isexpected that the state budgetwhich is around `1,80,000 crorewould be reduced by `25,000crore, the cuts coming in welfareschemes. The revenue, bothfrom state and central sources is

around `1,10,000 crore. Collec-tion of these taxes are expectedto take a beating, reducing theexpected collection.

MP has received clearancefrom the centre to enhance itsborrowing capacity from 3.5 percent of the Gross State Domes-tic Product (GSDP) to 5.5 percent. MP’s GSDP is around 10lakh crore which means it canborrow around `20,000 croremore. The centre has put in a

clause that the state will pushreforms in urban administrationand the energy sector.

Among the contributors to theGSDP, agriculture, which isabout 45 per cent will continueperforming. This cannot be saidabout the other two sectors.

State government mandarinsfeel Madhya Pradesh should beable to manage till June.

The writer is Associate Editor,India Today.

Bhojtal in Bhopal, which along with the rest of the state, is in financial trouble.

A financial crisishas gripped MP

Revenues have beenreduced to a trickle

PARTIESGEARING UP FORBYPOLLSTHE state by-elections aredue at 24 assembly segments.The BJP and Congress arepreparing for the polls.

The BJP’s preparations forthe by-polls have an impor-tant element in the form of acabinet formation. Presentlythe state has a five membercabinet and a full fledgedcabinet is to be sworn in. Theswearing in got delayedowing to the lockdown 10ministers are to be sworn infrom the ranks of the con-gress rebels. The rest will beBJP MLAs.

The Congress has begun itspreparation by changing theoffice bearers of the organi-sation where incumbents areloyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia.A bulk of the by elections arein the Gwalior Chambalregion- Scindia’s stronghold.

The 22 MLAs resigned onMarch 10 and as per law,elections have to be held insix months. The deadlineexpires in September. Butgiven the monsoons areactive in late June, electionsmay be held in June.

Jyotiraditya Scindia

NYAY, the Congress’s reliefscheme, has beenlaunched in Chhattisgarh.Launching the scheme onMay 21, ChhattisgarhChief Minister BhupeshBaghel said the schemeaims to provide relief tofarmers during the crisis.

The scheme will covernearly 19 lakh cultivatorsand will give extra cash tofarmers, which would gen-erate demand in ruralareas. It could run intotrouble with the centrethough. The union govern-

ment in 2014 entered intoan MoU with all stateswhere it forbade statesfrom giving a ‘bonus’ orany amount to farmersabove the MSP of grainbeing procured. In 2019,Congress governments inChhattisgarh and MPpromised bonuses onpaddy and wheat. Thecentre didn’t let them paybonuses Baghel hasattempted to pay bonuseswith a different name. Thecentre is yet to respond.Baghel has taken a risk.

CHHATTISGARH GETSA NOVEL NYAY PLAN

The Congress’s scheme aims to give relief to farmers.

BABA Ramdev participated in a meeting viavideoconferencing with MP CM Shivraj SinghChouhan and Health Minister Narottam Mishra,top state officials including the CS, DGP andchief medical officers of all 52 districts onWednesday. Ramdev told participants thatcoronavirus can be tackled by boostingimmunity which can be accomplishedthrough pranayam, use of herbs andayurvedic medicines. Ramdevclaimed giloy and ashwagandhahelped in breaking the chain ofinfection. He added that evenCovid infected patients can dopranayam for relief. He said hehadn’t been ill in 40 years.

The meeting came when MP has been reel-ing under the cases. On May 22, the numberof covid positive cases were at 6,17.

Some in the state saw Ramdev’s appear-ance as controversial, given his proximityto the BJP. Some also saw a pattern inShivraj Singh Chouhan giving importance

to Ramdev and certain spiritual gurus amonth ago to discuss the impact of

Covid - as an attempt to please theRSS, who appreciates deferencegiven to traditional Indian systemsof medicines and spirituality. TheCM told Ramdev that kaarha- a mixof medicines was being distributedfree of cost by the state govern-ment through the AYUSH department.Baba Ramdev

WHEN NETAS FACEHOME TRUTHS

A state and its battlewith ‘homecoming’CHHATTISGARH, which had done relatively well intackling the virus, is now facing the heat, mainlydue to the return of migrant workers. The statehas seen a jump in cases and has only four labs.1.25 lakh migrant workers have come to Chhattis-garh since May 11, and are in quarantine centres.

Chhattisgarh now has close to 130 cases, mostfrom returned workers. The state hasn’t hadCovid related death so far. Now, districts aresending more samples for tests to the four labs.The labs now have 4,000 pending reports. It hasnow been decided to set up labs at Ambikapur,Bilaspur and Rajnandgaon medical colleges. Thisis however not an easy task given the lack ofmachines and trained manpower.

THE Directorate of Estates,which deals with allotment ofgovernment accommodation,is working hard in Bhopal.Notices were served to 23 for-mer ministers of the KamalNath government for vacat-ing their official bungalowslast week. On Wednesday, arevenue official sealed thehouse of Tarun Bhanot, theformer finance minister, for notresponding to the notice.Bhanot said he cannot empty it of its contents dueto the lockdown. He stays in Jabalpur. On Friday,the official removed the seal from Bhanot’s house.

TarunBhanot

RAMDEV SUGGESTS CURES

Mail Today, New Delhi / Chandigarh, Saturday, May 23, 2020 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020 10 SPECIAL REPORT

Day 3 of e-Sahitya Aaj Tak focused on celebrities as well

‘Leftist ideology has hurt me’

Where Corona warriorsmet exponents of culture

By Mail Today Bureau

THE opening session of e -Sahitya Aaj Tak on Sundaywas a virtual conversationwith a quartet of Coronawarriors.There were repre-sentatives from the policeand from medicine. MeerutIG Praveen Kumar, DIG(City) Indore Harinarayan-chari Mishra, Ear, Nose,Throat Specialist Dr.Sharad Singhi and Dr.Shruti Malik spoke on thecurrent situation.

Talking about the risks intreating Covid patients, DrSharad Singhi said that asdoctors they have no choicebut to treat the sick, as it istheir duty. Dr Shruti Malik

agreed, saying, “Never inour dreams did we thinkthis all would happen. How-

ever, we are doctors whotook the Hippocratic oathand this is a chance for usto serve humanity.” She

added that doctors have notforgotten patients with non-Covid related alimentseither.

Speaking about the fall inthe rate of crime in the pastfew months, DIG Mishrasaid the challenges beforethe police must be vigilant.“The challenges will onlyincrease after lockdown.”He added that the nature ofcrimes has also changed in

Frontline heroesnarrate their stories

By Aasheesh Sharma

HIS middle name couldhave been versatile.Writer, lyricist, actor,poet and singer PiyushMishra spoke his heartout on the third day of

E-Sahitya Aaj Tak. Talking aboutwhether this long lockdown trig-gered by Covid-19 is good or bad forcreative beings such as him, Mishrasaid: “It is an unprecedented situa-tion but we have to face it bravely.People say solitude is good for theartistic process. I am not one ofthose people. I am feeling restless inthe lockdown,” he says.

Mishra is trying to work on the draft of anovel that he had started called Hamlet

Kabhi Bombay Nahin Gaya and he is farfrom satisfied with what he is writing.“There is a difference between solitude andimprisonment. So, I am not happy withwhat I am writing these days. I keep lookingat it and keep rewriting it,” adds Mishra.

A National School of Drama graduate,Piyush Mishra pursued theatre in Delhi for20 years before moving to Mumbai tofamously write critical acclaimed songs inGulaal and Gangs of Wasseypur. Mishragets upset when told his earlier work in the-atre was inspired by Leftist ideology. “I wasa Leftist once but I am through with Leftistideology, it has always hurt me. Speakingthe undiluted truth is not the sole preroga-tive of Leftists.”

How does the 57-year-old artist’s workmanage to strike a chord with the socialmedia savvy generation? “I write in a collo-quial lingo that is not limited to Hindi, Eng-lish or Urdu and is easily understandable bymost. The youth that can understandGulaal is really matured in the mind.”

I write in a colloquial lingothat is not limited to Hindi,English or Urdu and is easilyunderstandable for most.

‘I was a leftist once, but I amdone with leftist ideology.Telling the truth isn’t thesole prerogative of leftists.

‘

— PIYUSH MISHRA, ACTOR

‘Writers arecompeting

with Tik Tok’By Aasheesh Sharma

BESTSELLING author ChetanBhagat s says he has tried tokeep away from the elite natureof literature. Bhagat was speak-ing in the concluding session ofE-Sahitya Aaj Tak.Bhagat said he is trying to cap-ture the spirit of the real India inhis books. “My protagonists arefrom the middle class and stay intier-2 towns. I have a huge num-ber of readers in these towns. Ifthey can relate to the story of aboy who is like them who wins inthe end, it motivates them enor-mously,” said Bhagat. “I am not aGhalib who can impress peoplewith ornate writing. But I dowrite stories they can identifywith. I can’t write about an elitecolony of Delhi. That’s something

that they can’t relate to.” Bhagat said that for literature togrow in India, there has to bespace for everybody from aGhalib, to a Salman Rushdie, anArundhati Roy and himself.“Authors in India are competingwith Instagram and Tik Tok. Wewant the youth of India to keepaway the phones and pick up abook. We have to convince theyouth that books will be moreinteresting than online videos.”

Does being a literary celebrityand saying what he wants onpolitics hurt his popularity as awriter? “Yes, some people maynot like me because they don’tlike my politics. On Instagram Ionly put out motivational videosbut I am also abused on Twitter. Itry to strike a balance betweenthe two.”

Renowned folksinger Malini

Awasthi regaledthe audience at E-Sahitya Aaj Tak on

Saturday. “As anartiste we are

used to criticism,but when the

attacks becomepersonal, women

have no optionbut to stand up to

it,” she said.

DIVA OF FOLK

‘The police have to bemore sensitive now’

As writers we haveto convince theyouth to pick upbooks and keeptheir phones away.

‘

— CHETAN BHAGAT, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST

I cannot write aboutprotagonists staying inan elite colony in Delhi.This is something theyouth can’t relate to.

’

Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020 SPECIAL REPORT 11

as those leading the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic

‘WE ARE FACING GOD’SWRATH DURING THECOVID-19 PANDEMIC’

‘Plight of migrantworkers hurts me’

By Rewati Rau

HINDI crime fiction writerSurender Mohan Pathak feelshumanity is bearing the bruntof God’s wrath during theCovid-19 pandemic. Speakingon day 3 of e-Sahitya Aaj Tak,Pathak said, “I feel god isangry with humanity. Oncethe anger goes, we’ll also getover it.” Speaking about themigration of the labourers, hesaid, “I am reminded of thePartition when I came fromLahore to Delhi. Governmentshould do more for them.”

Having said that, the 80-year-old writer said he is notaffected by the lockdown at all.He said, “My life is currentlynot affected by Corona. Evenwhen it started, I was at home.I’ll be at home even after thelockdown lifts. I am a loner,main bheed mein bhi akela

hoon and I am in love with mywork.”

Speaking about the evolutionof Sunil, Sudhir and Vimal, thethree famous characters he’screated, he said: “I startedwriting at the age of 23. Ialways used to say my busi-ness is writing. With this state-ment, it was not easy for peo-ple to take me seriously. But Ifeel a reader is my consumer,the book is the product and Iam the manufacturer.” My brothers and

I have beencompletely

involved in musicin the lockdown

— MAITHILI THAKUR, SINGER

By Simi Kuriakose

POLITICS, music, films and the plight of migrant workers werethe topics of discussion in a ses-sion with singer and MP ManojTiwari on the final day of e-Sahitya Aaj Tak. Talking aboutspending time during the lock-down, he mentioned that whenhe’s not busy working on the‘Feed The Needy’ campaign, hefocuses on himself, “After servingpeople in the morning for four tofive hours, I try and either run,play badminton or practiceplaying cricket.” He alsospoke about his strug-gles in life and Bihar’sobsession with com-petitive exams,“Only those who

have been in competition knowhow it stings when you’re unsuc-cessful. But the struggles I facedhelps me survive in politics.”Mentioning that nothing has everheld him back from trying, headded, “When you try somethingnew there will be many who willtry to criticise you because ofenvy. If you fall prey to this, yourflight [to success] will be inter-rupted. If not, the sky is thelimit.” Speaking about themigrant worker crisis, he said, “Idon’t want to call them migrant

workers; I think they are resi-dent workers. The pain of

migration that UttarPradesh, Bihar andJharkhand has facedhas been a heart-breaking sight.”

By Simi Kuriakose

WHILE participating in a virtual session onthe final day of the e-Sahitya Aaj Tak, film-maker and writer Neeraj Pandey discussedeverything from his films to his love for thepoet Mirza Ghalib. The director of films likeA Wednesday! and Special 26, among others,initiated the conversation by talking about

his 2013 novel Ghalib Danger. “I feel Ghalib’spoetry makes complete sense in any zone orpart of the world. In fact, its message is asrelevant in today’s times. The protagonist ofmy novel is of the opinion that one musthave an intuitive understanding of Ghalib’spoems, which can solve any problem.”

Discussing his web series SPECIAL OPS,he said “When I was researching on Baby, itwas my first detailed introduction to the

Parliament attack. An officer involved in theprobe said ‘there were many theories, andone was that there were six people involved’.There there was more than met the eye thatday. That brought this fiction to my mind.”

He lamented how people associate religionwith everything including Corona, “Sadly,this problem has been happening for a longtime. A solution to this problem will bringthe country a lot of answers about progress.”

these times, as cybercrimehas increased by 60-70 percent in this period.

For his part, IG PraveenKumar said the police areready to face all challenges.“Workers from Bihar, WestBengal and Jharkhand trav-elled through UP to theirhomes. We worked withmutual coordination. Now thesituation is under control.”

The doctors and police offi-cers also displayed theiraffinity for the arts. Kumarand Mishra recited a few oftheir poems, while Dr SharadSinghi regaled the audienceby playing the tabla. DrMalik recited a few lines, andsang Ae Watan from themovie Raazi.

There is no proofthe virus will fadewith the heat, as it isalready summer.

‘

’— DR SHARAD SINGHI,ENT specialist

People must havemore empathy fordoctors, nurses andhealthcare workers.

‘

— DR SHRUTI MALIK,Dentist

Police personnel mustwork in PPE kits or elsethey themselves will alsobecome victims.

‘

’— HARINARAYANCHARIMISHRA, DIG Indore

The police had ahuge responsibilityduring the lockdown.We’ve done well.

‘

’—PRAVEEN KUMAR, IG, MeerutRange, Uttar Pradesh Police

When you trysomething new, therewill be many who’lltry to hinder yourjourney or criticiseyou because of envy.

Cricket used to be mylife. Now it has become amedium of fitness forme, and a medium tokeep my mind fresh.

‘

’— MANOJ TIWARI, MP

‘‘

‘‘Tiwari

wants to focuson keeping fit in

the lockdown

Talking Ghalib with Neeraj Pandey

A solution [toreligious

prejudices]will resolve

questions aboutIndia’s progress.

My protagonistswant to achieve

their goals at anycost.This has

been a feature inmany of my films.

‘‘

—NEERAJ PANDEY,FILMMAKER & WRITER

‘‘A reader is my

consumer,the book isthe product and I amthe manufacturer.

‘

— SURENDER MOHAN PATHAK, AUTHOR

I feel god is angry withhumanity and his furyis hurting humanbeings in this way.

’

‘I wasn’taffected bylockdown’By Rewati Rau

ON Day 2 of e-Sahitya Aaj Tak,singer Maithili Thakur sangsome of her popular songs forher virtual audience. Speakingabout the lockdown, theyoung singer said, “My broth-ers and I have been in thisroom ever since the lockdownand have been practising a lot.We’re not feeling the impactof the lockdown since we’re soinvolved in music. We interactwith people via YouTube andFacebook.”

Thakur, said that during thelockdown, she’s been singingmore of bhajans becausethese are tough times and itfeels good to remember godthese days. She also said thatthe entire family has beenwatching the re-run ofRamayan, “At one time, theentire country would sit infront of the television andwatch it.”

’

1312 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020

— BORIS JOHNSON, UK PRIME MINISTER

Education of our childrenis crucial… We want to starttaking children back into theclassroom...

‘

’ — SUVIT MAESINCEE, MINISTER OFRESEARCH AND INNOVATION, THAILAND

This project is for the humanrace...We must develop a vaccineand join the world communityworkforce on this.

‘

’

Coronavirus infectionrates in France have

slowed further and thenumber of COVID-19 patientsin hospital and intensive care

continued to fall, healthministry figures showed, asign that social distancing is keeping contagion in check for now.

The Talibanannounced a three-

day ceasefire during theEid al-Fitr holiday startingSunday in a surprise move

following months ofbloody fighting withAfghan forces after thegroup signed a landmarkagreement with the US.

NEPAL reported 19 new coronaviruscases on Sunday, taking the total num-ber infections in the country to 603. Allthe new cases are men. Three peopleaged 25, 34 and 60 were detected withCOVID-19 from Parsa district.

W RLDLY

ISE

China accuses US of being

‘infected with a political

virus’ as the war of words

over Covid-19 intensifies

CHINA said Sunday that relations with theUnited States were ‘on the brink of a newCold War’, fuelled in part by tensions overthe coronavirus pandemic, as Muslimsaround the world celebrated a muted endto the holy month of Ramadan. Foreign

Minister Wang Yi said Washington had beeninfected by a "political virus" compelling figuresthere to continually attack China, but offeredan olive branch by saying thecountry would be open to aninternational effort to findthe coronavirus source.

“It has come to our attention thatsome political forces in the US aretaking China-US relations hostageand pushing our two countries tothe brink of a new Cold War,” he toldreporters during a press conferenceat China's week-long annual parlia-ment session.

He spoke as more nations easedlockdown restrictions in a bid to sal-vage economies and lifestyles thathave been savaged by the pan-demic. Hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world were cel-ebrating a muted Eid al-Fitr, withIslam's two most importantmosques closed to worshippers inMecca and Medina. Still, churcheswere reopening in France, Spain's

football league announced it wouldkick off again on June 8, and thou-sands flocked to beaches in the US,where lockdowns and social distanc-ing have become rights issues thathave split communities.

HIGHLY POLITICISEDGlobally about 342,000 people

have been killed, and more than 5.3million people infected by the virus,which most scientists believe jumpedfrom animals to humans — possiblyat a market in the central Chinesecity of Wuhan.

The issue has become highly politi-cised, with US President DonaldTrump accusing Beijing of a lack oftransparency, and pushing the the-ory that the virus leaked from a Chi-

nese maximum-security laboratory.China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi onSunday blasted what he calledefforts by US politicians to ‘fabricaterumours’ about the virus origin and

‘stigmatise China’. “China is open to working with the

international scientific community tolook into the source of the virus,” hesaid. “At the same time, we believe

that this should be professional, fairand constructive.”

With infection numbers stabilisingin the West, many governments aretrying to move towards lighter socialdistancing measures that they hopewill revive businesses.

US BEACHES REOPENING But the disease continued its surge

in large parts of South America, with death toll in Brazil passing22,000 and infections topping 347,000.

In the US, where the death toll isnearing 100,000, Trump has aggres-sively pushed to reopen the econ-omy, defying the advice of experts. InUK, a scandal erupted over a disclo-sure that a top government adviserhad even flouted the rules. DominicCummings was seen visiting his par-ents 400 kilometres away during thecountry's lockdown, despite suffer-ing from virus symptoms. —AFP

CORONAVIRUS could be com-pletely wiped out in the UK onSeptember 30, according to mod-elling from scientists.

A team at the Singapore Univer-sity of Technology plotted datafrom the pandemic to pinpoint thedate cases will die out in countrieshardest hit by the disease. Theypredict a total eradication of thebug in Britain with no new cases —or a second wave — at all from the

end of September.The US, where most Covid-19

deaths have been recorded, willextinguish the infection by Novem-ber 11. The model predicts the tra-jectory of the spread of the virusover time while tracking the actual number of new con-firmed cases per day in a givencountry, as of May 12.

By plotting the acceleration anddeceleration rates of each coun-

try's outbreak, the scientists haveconjured up a prediction of whenthe virus will wane.

However, researchers noted thepredictions by nature are likely tobe uncertain due to the complexityof the virus as well as other factorsincluding the restrictions and test-ing protocols in place in a country.Britain on Saturday announced 282more deaths, taking UK’s totalfatalities to 36,675. —Daily Mail

3,42,000Number of confirmed Covid-19

deaths reported with morethan 5.3 million infected by the virus worldwide so far.

FILE PHOTOS

‘U.S.-CHINA ON THE BRINK

It has come to our attentionthat some political forces in

the US are taking China-USrelations hostage and pushingour two countries to the brink ofa new Cold War.

— Wang Yi, Chinese Foreign Minister

‘‘ ‘‘

C VID-19

PANDEMIC

THE Chinese virology institute at the centre ofUS allegations it may have been the source ofthe COVID-19 pandemic has three live strains ofbat coronavirus on-site, but none match the newglobal contagion, its director has said.

Scientists think COVID-19 — which firstemerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhanand has killed more than 340,000 people world-wide — originated in bats and could have beentransmitted to people via another mammal.

But the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virol-

ogy told state broadcaster CGTN that claimsmade by US President that virus could haveleaked from the facility were pure fabrication.

In the interview filmed on May 13 but broad-cast Saturday night, Wang Yanyi said the centre has isolated and obtained some coronaviruses from bats. “Now we have threestrains of live viruses... But their highest simi-larity to SARS-CoV-2 only reaches 79.8 percent,”she said, referring to the coronavirus strain that causes COVID-19. —AFP

‘WUHAN LAB HAD 3 LIVE BAT CORONAVIRUSES’

NEW COLD WAR’OF

Pandemic could be over in theUK by Sept 30, claim scientistsA passenger

wearing a face mask as aprecautionagainst the novelcoronavirusarrives atHeathrowairport, in westLondon.

By Rukmini S in Chennai

THE country with the most unusualCovid-19 strategy has undoubtedly beenSweden. The Nordic country has imposedno lockdown or restrictions as such, andprimary schools, bars and restaurants areopen. But has this week shown that thecountry took a wrong turn?

Sweden is no Brazil, and its Prime Minis-ter Stefan Löfven is no Jair Bolsonaro.Löfven is a former welder and trade unionist who leads the Social DemocraticParty in Sweden. Unlike Bolsonaro, who has come out swinging against the lock-down, made it a point to downplay the seriousness of the virus, and joinprotests against governors imposingprovince-level lockdowns, Swedish author-ities seem to see lockdowns less as attackson personal freedom as some right-wingpoliticians like Bolsonaro do, and more asunscientific and futile.

Lockdowns have no basis in science,Sweden’s state epidemiologist Anders

Tegnell has said, and the approach of mostcountries to wait for a vaccine is futilebecause of the uncertain time it will taketo develop one. Lockdowns harm people’swellbeing and the economy, and the publiccan be relied upon to be responsible andmaintain social distance, the governmenthas said. In the long run, Swedes will takeless time to develop greater immunity andavoid a second wave, Tegnell has said.

So far, it appeared as if Sweden’s policywas paying off. Despite discovering its firstcase on January 31, Sweden had fewercases than its neighbour Norway – whichdiscovered its first case nearly a monthlater – right up to March 31. Even amongthe affluent, high-performing Nordic coun-tries, Sweden appeared to be doing well.

But from April, cases began to acceleratesharply, while the others flattened theircurves. With twice as many residents asNorway, Sweden now has four timesas many cases. As the otherNordic countries begin to openup, they are now contemplat-ing travel restrictions onSweden. As of May 23, Swe-den reported more than33,000 cases and almost4,000 deaths. Norway, onthe other hand, has a littlemore than 8,300 cases and 200 deaths.

While the pandemic raged acrossEurope, Sweden was believed to havethings under control. It still has far fewercases than Belgium, with a comparablepopulation size. Belgium reported almost57,000 cases and more than 9,200 deaths asof May 23. Belgium also has the highest percapita death rate in the world.

But since May 7, the daily growth rate ofcases in Sweden has consistently toppedthat of all high-burden European coun-tries. The greatest concern is over deaths.Sweden’s population is lower than that ofMumbai, but it has over 10,000 more casesand over four times as many deaths.

With almost 4,000 deaths, Sweden hasthe sixth highest per capita death ratefrom Covid-19 in the world – 384 per million. But over the last seven days, with 342 deaths, Sweden has had the highestper capita death rate in the world – 5 per million.

A large proportion of deaths in Swedenhave been in care homes for the elderly.But age structure does not alone explainSweden’s recent Covid-19 death problem –many other northern and western Euro-pean countries have a higher median age.

So do Sweden’s deaths make a case fora lockdown? It’s hard to say. Swe-

den has argued that its policy willover the longer term prove to

be more effective. By mostprojections, it appears to beheaded for the same down-ward trajectory as all otherEuropean countries. Couldit have got to the samepoint with a lower deathtoll? That’s the question it

will now have to ask itself.

Did Sweden getits no-lockdown

policy wrong?

‘Effectiveness of apotential vaccine may

be available in autumn’FIRST indications of the effectiveness ofa potential vaccine against coronavirusmay be available in the autumn, the headof the GAVI vaccine alliance told a Swissnewspaper, forecasting a long road fromthere to broad availability.

“Unfortunately, we really do not knowwhich vaccine will work and whetherthere will be one at all. If we’re lucky, we’llreceive indications in autumn as to (apotential vaccine’s) effectiveness,” GAVIhead Seth Berkley told NZZ am Sonntagin an interview published on Sunday.

“But there will still be a long way to gofrom there until an approved active sub-stance becomes available in large quanti-ties for the global population.”

Calling for globally coordinated effortsboth to produce and share an eventualvaccine, Berkley said international agree-ment was needed to build up manufactur-ing capacity to rapidly produce a vaccineonce one is found.

“(Countries) should work together inorder to share in each other’s vaccines incase one’s own are not good,” he said,adding it was possible some vaccineswould work better for younger people and others for older age groups.

He urged the Wealth Health Organiza-

tion to issue clear guidelines on a vac-cine’s use and distribution to prevent avaccine first being made available to therich at the expense of the people most inneed. Should an effective vaccine becomeavailable in an initially limited supply, it should first be used to immunise healthpersonnel, he said. —Reuters

Sweden’spopulation is

lower than that ofMumbai, but it has

over 10,000 more casesand over four times

as many deaths

4,000Number of confirmed Covid-19

deaths reported with more than 33,000 cases in Sweden

as of May 23

PHOTO FOR REPRESENTATION

Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 202014 COFFEE BREAK

TWO PAGES OF ASTROLOGY, PUZZLES AND GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

ARIES Apr 14-May 14

Having made amends for past

follies, you are on the road to

success with your companion. A

peaceful co-existence will begin flourishing

and you can look forward to planning for

the future together.

CANCER July 16-Aug 15

Reworking on some plansmight be needed for overall

betterment to take place. You mayneed to become much more assertivein order to get taken more seriously in your love relationship.

LEO Aus 16-Sep 15

It is time to become less docileand not neglect yourself the wayyou are doing. The demands of

your beloved seem to over shadow everythingelse, leaving you feeling quite inadequate and fearful.

SCORPIO Nov 16-Dec 15

Are you getting what youwant? This new day will bring

with it new hope and you can lookforward to a more meaningfulrelationship. Marriage plans could be talked about too.

AQUARIUSFeb 12-March 13

A decision will have to bemade. Are you serious or do

you just want to play the field? Youyourself could be a little confused in thismatter and harbour mixed feelings.

SAGITTARIUSDec 16-Jan 13

Is it that the spark has gone outof your romance? Try being a

little more creative and paying out morecompliments. That is going to work wondersand both will be so happy.

GEMINI June 16-July 15

Love relations could startdeepening and you will need

to become more responsible now. Thetime is ripe to start discussing plans forimportant goals and marriage is goingto head the list.

TAURUS May 15-June 15

Some new work can take upa lot of your time and you

may have to juggle yourself betweenthat and the demands of your lovemate. However, you will managenicely on the whole.

VIRGO Sep 16-Oct 15

A doubt in your mind can belaid to rest with a heart toheart chat with your lover.

Don’t hold back on expressing yourfears. It would better to clear the airand then get on to new beginnings.

LIBRA Oct 16-Nov 15

The chance to meet some-one new is going to comealong. You could get swept

off your feet at this meeting. The charmthe other person exudes will surelycapture your heart.

PISCES Mar 14-Apr 13

News from a dear friend will

make you see hope. Whom you

had planned to share your future with could

come to see you and this brings on a lot of

excitement and joy.

CAPRICORNJan 14-Feb 11A new chapter begins for you.

Say goodbye to stress as you

have worked around it and are now ready

to face life with your beloved in a more

confident and happy manner.

By Dr Ajai Bhambi

Co

ffee

Bre

ak

Difficulty Rating

Cross out numbers to create blanks. No digit canappear in a row or column more than once. No twoadjacent squares can be blacked out. All the squaresleft unblacked must be connected — vertically or horizontally — to form a single shape.

SCRABBLE GRAMS

DAILY JUMBLE MINI SUDOKU SUDOKU X

CODEWORDSUDOKU

Difficulty Rating

Difficulty Rating

Difficulty Rating

Difficulty Rating

KAKURO SUDOKU CLASSIC HITORI

*Datesbased

on VedicSun Signs

Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020 15COFFEE BREAK

by Manisha Koushik

FOCUSFOCUSASTROASTRO

ARIES Mar 21-Apr 20

You will take care of expenditureand try to control it. A job welldone by you will get you

recognition at work and bring you into the notice of important people.

TAURUS Apr 21-May 20

Some improvements are indicatedon the financial front. You will get

help for completing a task from all quarters.Regularity in workout will help remain inexcellent health condition.

GEMINI May 21-June 21

Some will get a lucky break onthe financial front. This is a

profitable day for jewellers. Remainingregular in workouts will bring reward of total fitness for some.

CANCER June 22-July 22

Adding to your wealth isforeseen by some othermeans. Someone will help

resolve your issues at work. Yourinitiative will bring good results onthe health front.

LEO July 23-Aug 23

Those need capital for a newproject will succeed in getting a

loan. Some will manage to boost theircareer prospects or increase business on the professional front.

VIRGO Aug 24-Sep 23

A project started by you will provebeneficial. Workable solutionsuggested by you will get your

appreciation at work. Your own efforts willallow you to enjoy good health condition.

LIBRA Sep 24-Oct 23

This is a lucky day to focus onboosting your earnings. Goodunderstanding with colleagues

at work will be in your interest. Homedo will be in mind of homemakers.

SCORPIO Oct 24-Nov 22

This is a favourable day forsome seeking for payingattention to their assignments.

You will impress people who matter atwork with your communication skills.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23-Dec 21

Good financial management willmake financial front morecomfortable than before. Your

efforts to avoid work will get you majorshare of tasks at work.

CAPRICORN Dec 22-Jan 21

Good commission in a deal willbe earned by middlemen.Shaking a leg and getting

fresh air is indicated for somedeskbound professionals.

AQUARIUS Jan 22-Feb 19

You get financial help for yourdream project. Things will gosmooth on the professional

front. A new health initiative taken byyou will ensure good health.

PISCES Feb 20-Mar 20

Excellent monetary gains areexpected for some into buying or

selling property. You may find it tricky tohanding over jobs at work, but you willmanage to resolve them.

KEN-KENEach row & column must contain numbers 1 to 4 (easy) or1 to 6 (difficult). The numbers within the heavily outlinedboxes must combine to produce the numbers in the top-left corner.

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS3 So I repeat - it’s neither

very good nor verybad! (4)

5 They meet and return toswarm (4)

7 Therefore, it’s seen ontea and on rye as a disease (5)

8 I slave and run abouthaving unlimited capacity (9)

9 The French put metal ona Roman’s tongue! (5)

10 Get Lou to muster them!I’m quivering! (9)

11 That corrects things andthis morning finishes it (6)

14 A rooster has no egg - it’sduty bound that way (6)

19 Pushes forward and isseen as being rude inthese ports (9)

20 It takes a cop to use thisin conversation (5)

21 Trace it in a way that ismost complex (9)

22 It concerns Adam’s wifeand that bailiff (5)

23 Morally, it’s partly

spoken for (4) 24 Is it duplicated for a

goddess? (4)

DOWN1 The price Al demands for

the duplicate (7) 2 I tag along at tea to get

things moving (7) 3 That nut, Ted’s had them

kept short! (7) 4 Red’s got some Greek to

catch the flies (6)5 They shell out for some

soup (7) 6 It’s time for it - certainly!

That’s the rub! (7)12 A seagoing soldier has the

right to become a sailor (7)13 It’s only normal for Alan to

be in a rut! (7) 15 Roy’s set are into

shellfish (7) 16 Considered heady for

worshippers to be in? (7)17 Most branches are in the

country (7) 18 When it is about an

agreement, they’re considered perfect for it (6)

SUDOKUFill in all the squares in the grid so that each row, column and each of the 3X3squares contains all the digits from 1 to 9. Solutions are below.

Difficulty Rating Difficulty Rating Difficulty Rating

TODAY’S SOLUTIONS

HITORI CRYPTIC CROSSWORDKAKURO

SUDOKU SUDOKU CLASSICMINI SUDOKU

QUICK QUIZ: 1. Anchorman: The Legend of RonBurgundy; 2. Horton Hears a Who!; 3. Dan inReal Life; 4. Don Adams; 5. Foxcatcher; 6.Zach Galifianakis; 7. Billie Jean King

CODEWORD

Scrabble and scrabble tiles are registered trademarks. Allrights in the game are owned in the USA by Hasbro Inc., inCanada by Hasbro Canada Inc., and elsewhere by J.W. Spear &Sons Limited., a subsidiary of Mattel, Inc

SCRABBLE GRAMSSUDOKU X

KEN-KEN

1. Carell's first major film role

was as weatherman Brick

Tamland in the 2004 hit

comedy. Name it.

2. He voiced Hammy the

Squirrel in the 2006 computer-

animated film, Over the Hedge

and Ned McDodd, the mayor of

Whoville, in which 2008

animated film?

3. Carell acted as the title char-

acter of Evan Almighty, a sequel

to Bruce Almighty, reprising his

role as Evan Baxter, now a U.S.

Congressman. Name the 2007

film Carell starred in.

4. Carell played Maxwell Smart

in the 2008 film Get Smart, an

adaptation of the TV series

starring whom?

5. Carell played millionaire E.I. du

Pont family heir and convicted

murderer John Eleuthère du

Pont in which 2014 true crime

drama film?

6. Carell played activist Steven

Goldstein in the gay rights

drama Freeheld, replacing

which actor who dropped out

due to scheduling conflicts?

7. Carell will headline the biogra-

phical comedy-drama Battle of

the Sexes, portraying tennis star

Bobby Riggs and co-starring with

Emma Stone as?

QUICK QUIZ

Ian McKellen wasborn on May 25,1939.

16

17

Mail Today, New Delhi / Chandigarh, Monday, May 25, 2020 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020 18

Various govt schemeshave been unveiled toprovide cash toindustries. We need moreinvestment from localindustries to showcase toothers that India is anattractive destination.

‘QUOTE OF THE DAY

— ANURAG THAKUR, MoS FINANCE

is the liability that Reliance faces in dispute with govt overeastern offshore gas field.

NUMBER OF THE DAY

Reversing their selling trend,foreign investors have infused

over `9,000 cr into the Indian sharemarkets in May so far. FPIs investeda net `9,089 cr in the equitymarkets during May 1-22,depositories data showed.

mybiz

‘

$400 mn

THE UNIVERSITY of Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine trial has only a 50% chance ofsuccess as the coronavirus seems to befading rapidly in Britain, the professor co-leading the development of the vaccinetold the Telegraph newspaper.

Adrian Hill, director of Oxford’s JennerInstitute, which has teamed up withdrugmaker AstraZeneca Plc to developthe vaccine, said that an upcoming trial,involving 10,000 volunteers, threatened toreturn “no result” due to low transmis-sion of COVID-19 in the community.

“It’s a race against the virus disappear-ing, and against time”, Hill told theBritish newspaper. “At the moment,there’s a 50% chance that we get no resultat all.”

The experimental vaccine, known asChAdOx1 nCoV-19, is one of the front-runners in the global race to provide pro-tection against the new coronavirus caus-ing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hill’s team began early-stage human tri-als of the vaccine in April, making it oneof only a handful to have reached thatmilestone.

INDIA CONNECTIONAccording to a Reuters report from Pune,if the world is to gain access to a vaccinefor coronavirus (COVID-19), there is agood chance it will pass through thedoors of the Serum Institute of India

The Pune-based Serum Institute, the

world’s largest manufacturer of vac-cines by volume, is working onseveral candidates for the novelcoronavirus - including poten-tially mass-producing theAstraZeneca/Oxford univer-sity one that has garneredglobal headlines - as well asdeveloping its own.

The efforts are partly beingshepherded by UmeshShaligram, the head ofresearch and development. Hisemployer is a private companybut every day, shortly beforemidnight, he receives a WhatsApp mes-sage from the government asking forupdates, and about any new hurdles

he faces.The message is usually from K.VijayRaghavan, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi’s top scientificadviser - an indication of thecritical, and even strategicallyimportant, nature of the raceto develop the vaccines thewhole world is waiting for.Shaligram promptly

responds with a progressreport and details any

bottlenecks.“Any delays, you just tell them,”

said Shaligram, adding the gov-ernment has been doing everything it canto fast-track clearances, and resolveimport delays and other issues.

Oxford prof sees 50% chance of success on virus vaccine

By Mail Today Bureau in New Delhi

WORKERS atMarutiSuzuki andits arch rivalHyundaiMotor India,

the two biggest car manu-facturing companies in thecountry, have tested posi-tive for coronavirus just afew days after restartingoperations. This reflectsthe risk that companiesand the government facein jumpstarting the econ-omy after the two-monthlockdown to contain thedeadly disease.

Three employees at HyundaiMotor Co’s plant on the out-skirts of Chennai have testedpositive for the virus, the SouthKorean automaker said on Sunday.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, whichhas an over 50 per cent share inthe domestic market, said lateon Saturday that one employeeat its plant in Manesar nearGurugram had tested positivefor COVID-19 and it is investi-gating a second possible case ofinfection at the facility. MarutiSuzuki had reopened the Mane-sar factory on May 12 after a 50-day closure due to the lockdown.

Maruti, however, said therewas no impact on business oper-ations.

Hyundai, which restarted opera-tions at its plant on May 8, saidthe three employees startedshowing mild symptoms ofcoughs and colds in the first week.

“All the necessary measuresare being taken for contact trac-ing, self-isolation and completesanitation,” Hyundai’sspokesman said in a statement.

Test results of 16 more workerswho possibly came into contactwith the infected employees areexpected over the next two days.

“In the first week of our plantoperations, three of our employ-ees have shown mild symptoms

Maruti, Hyundaihit virus bump

of cough and cold and wereimmediately asked to meet med-ical expert team for further eval-uation. They subsequentlytested positive for COVID-19and immediate medical atten-tion was provided to them,”Hyundai Motor India said in astatement.

All three employees are recov-

ering fast towards normalcy andas per the safety protocol, essen-tial information was shared withthe district health authorities, itadded. In addition to that all thenecessary measures are beingtaken for contact tracing, self-isolation and complete sanita-tion, the South Korean firm said.Well-being of employees is of

utmost priority to the companyand as a responsible brand it isadhering to all the guidelines setby the Centre, state and districthealth authorities, the companysaid. The cases have brought tothe fore the risks and challengesPrime Minister Narendra Modi’sgovernment faces in restartingautomobile production.

FIRMS ADVISED TO PLAY FAIRAPEX industry chamber CII onSunday advised companies totread with caution when look-ing for business collaborationsto ensure that their activitiesdo not violate competitionnorms as the economy reelsfrom the coronavirus pandemic.

The suggestion comes in thewake Competition Commissionof India (CCI) issuing an advi-sory about the in-built safe-guards under the CompetitionAct to protect businesses fromsanctions for certain coordi-

nated conduct subject to thecondition that such activitiesresult in increasing efficiencies.

The fair trade watchdog hasalso mentioned that only suchconduct of businesses which isnecessary and proportionateto address concerns arisingfrom COVID-19 would be con-sidered. It has cau-tioned that busi-nesses not to takeadvantage ofCOVID-19 to con-travene any of

the provisions of the Act.Coming out with a compli-

ance manual on the Competi-tion Act amid the pandemic,Confederation of Indian Indus-try (CII) said the impact ofCOVID-19 on the functioning ofthe economy may promptcompanies to collaborate

with their competitors totackle the uncertainty

and hardship faced.Companies must

note that antitrustlaws continue toapply, it said.

SPEEDBREAKER:File photo of anassembly line atMaruti Suzuki’s

Manesar factoryCOVID-19 casesat car factories

By Mail Today Bureau in New Delhi

CASH-STRAPPED telecomcompanies have requestedTrai to move expedite theprocess of fixing a floor pricefor tariffs in the sector sothat the business becomessustainable and puts the tel-cos in a position to pay upthe deferred spectrum andAGR dues.

The Cellular Operators'Association of India (COAI)has written to the TelecomRegulatory Authority ofIndia (Trai) seeking an openhouse discussion on the issueat the earliest. Given thefinancial pressure on thesector and the fact that ARPU(average revenue per user)and tariffs of the Indian tele-com sector are the lowest inthe world, floor pricing isimperative to ensure that

the sector is sustainable, andis in a position to bear thedeferred spectrum and AGR(Adjusted Gross Revenue)dues, while continuing toinvest in world class net-works and services, COAI saidin its letter to Trai chairmanR S Sharma.

The association said theindustry looks forward to anearly decision by the author-ity on having floor tariffs fordata services. While, weacknowledge that the recentsituation on account ofCOVID-19 might have causedsome constraints, howeverthe Authority has startedconducting the open housediscussion through onlineprocess on various othertopics. Accordingly, werequest the Authority tokindly hold a discussion onthis issue at the earliest, COAIsaid. The industry is seekingan early conclusion on thisimportant matter with greatinterest, COAI said.

The regulator had earlierthis month resumed its openhouse discussions. However,Trai sources said the issue offloor price of tariffs isunlikely to be taken up tillthe pandemic stabilises.

Telcos want decision onfloor pricespeeded up

Telcos facingfinancial stress

Companiestold not

to exploit coronavirus crisis

Adrian Hill

Mail Today, New Delhi / Chandigarh, Monday, May 25, 2020 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020 19MY BIZ

TCS created20,000 jobs in America

LUFTHANSA, which is in talks withthe German government over a 9billion euro ($9.8 billion) bailout,will resume flights to 20 destina-tions from mid-June, includingsome holiday hot-spots, a spokes-woman said on Sunday.

The destinations include Mal-lorca, Crete, Rhodes, Faro,Venice, Ibiza and Malaga, thespokeswoman said, adding flightswould depart from the airline’smain hub in Frankfurt.

Further destinations will beunveiled at the end of next week,she said. The flight expansioncomes less than two weeks afterLufthansa unveiled plans toresume flights to destinationsincluding Los Angeles, Torontoand Mumbai from June, as itbegins to restore business thatwas virtually shut down by thecoronavirus crisis. The airlinesaid on Thursday it was in talkswith the German governmentover ceding a 20% stake inexchange for the cash injection.

PREMIER export finance insti-tution Exim Bank said on Sun-day that the present scenarioarising out of the COVID-19 out-break is not suitable to raiseresources from overseas mar-kets. Under such circumstances,the lender had requested theReserve Bank of India (RBI) fora credit line of USD two billion,an official of the Export-ImportBank of India said. The mandatefor Exim Bank is to raiseresources from overseas marketsprimarily for disbursementunder concessional finance pro-gramme on behalf of the govern-ment, he said. We requested forUSD two billion credit line fromRBI, equivalent to around Rs15,000 crore, which the apexbank has agreed to, an officialtold PTI.

Exim Bank seeks$2 billion creditline from RBI

By Mail Today Bureau in New Delhi

BILLIONAIRE Mukesh Ambani-ledReliance Industries began its grocery deliv-ery service JioMart in 200 towns on Satur-day, taking on e-commerce giants AmazonIndia and Walmart-backed Flipkart.

JioMart will deliver groceries in morethan 200 towns across the country,Damodar Mall, chief executive of groceryretail at the Indian conglomerate, said onTwitter late on Saturday.

The move comes as the coronavirus pan-demic has seen a number of businessesturning their focus towards the hyper-com-petitive grocery delivery business as peo-ple have been confined to their homes forfear of catching the infection.

JioMart, the e-commerce venture of

Reliance’s retail arm, offers freeexpress grocery delivery from neigh-bourhood mom-and-pop stores. Itis also converging its offline andonline businesses by tappinginto supplies from RelianceRetail's Smart and Freshstores. The service, however,charges a delivery fee of Rs 25for order value less than Rs 750.

The site offers fruits and veg-etables, dairy and bakery, per-sonal care, home care and babycare, among other products.

The firm has not made an officialannouncement, but Reliancelaunched a small pilot of JioMartdeliveries in certain Mumbai local-ities late last month. Reliance hasnot responded to a query asking

for a response on the launch.The oil-to-telecoms conglomer-ate, which has been on a

fundraising spree over thepast month, collected a total$10 billion from investorsincluding Facebook, KKR &Co Inc and General Atlanticin exchange for over 17 percent stake in its digital busi-nesses, Jio Platforms. This

includes Facebook buying9.99 % stake for $5.7 billion.The partnership is expected tohelp Reliance roll out servicefor India’s grocers and smallbusinesses by capitalising onIndia’s 400 million-strong userbase for Facebook’s WhatsAppmessaging service.

RIL takes on Amazon, Flipkart in grocery biz

INDIA'S largest software servicesfirm Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) has hired over 20,000employees in the US over the lastfive years, which has reduced itswork visa dependency.

The Mumbai-based company,in its 2019-20 annual report, saidit has accelerated its localisa-tion programmes.

“In FY2020, we hired over 2.5times our usual fresher intake,and also made the trainingmore account contextual,accelerating their ability to playproductive, client-facing roles.For very short-term assign-ments, we use sub-contractors,”said TCS executive vice presi-dent Milind Lakkad. He saidthese steps brought down TCS'use of work visas to a small frac-tion of what it used to be fiveyears ago.

Over the past few years, IndianIT firms have increased hiring inthe US and other markets asthese countries have tightenedtheir work visa regimes.

Lufthansa plansto restart opsfrom mid-June

By Aprajita Sharma in New Delhi

IN A surprise move,RBI governorShaktikanta Dasreduced the reporate by 0.40 percent to 4 per cent -

the lowest ever. Further,the central bankextended the moratoriumperiod on term and creditcard loans by anotherthree months untilAugust 31. Here is whatyou should know aboutthe impact of these keyannouncements:

AVOID MORATORIUMThe extension of the morato-rium will indeed benefit thosefacing a short-term moneycrunch. But, you must not takeit just because it is available.Opt for it only if you need itbecause interest rate will becharged on the loan outstand-ing during this period.

“This extension of loan EMIsdoesn't mean a waiver onrepayments as interest rate willcontinue to get accrued on theprincipal outstanding,” saysAdhil Shetty, CEO,BankBazaar.

Paying off credit card dues bydipping into your savings oreven by taking a personal loanwill be a better choice than tak-ing moratorium on it since inter-est rates on credit cards areoften as high as 30-40 per cent.

PLAN REPAYMENTSMake sure you repay dues soonafter the moratorium ends, oth-erwise the amount will getadded to your loan outstandingand start accruing interest.“Opting for the moratoriumcould extend your loan tenureby tens of EMIs, considerablyadding to your loan burden,especially if you've just startedrepaying your loan. The pointbeing, calculate the accumu-lated interest before you takethe moratorium, and seewhether you can pay it back, inaddition to your EMIs, quickly,”says Shetty.

BORROWERS TO GAINThe repo rate cut is good newsfor home loan, car loan or otherborrowers who would soon seetheir EMI burden ease off. Notethat the transmission of rate cutto EMIs will be quicker for bor-rowers who have linked their loanwith the repo rate. If your loan isstill linked with the MCLR, youmay have to wait longer.

“MCLR is an internal bench-mark rate and here, the reporate is not the sole factor indetermining the lending rate.Other sources of funds arealso taken into account andthat is why, many times the

fall in repo rate does not resultin a fall in lending rate for endcustomers (in a similar propor-tion)," explains Pranjal Kamra,CEO, Finology.

“On the other hand, RLLR isan external benchmark which ismore transparent. The borrowerdoes not depend upon the bankto decide the lending rate, itautomatically gets adjusted withrepo rate. As we know, the reporate has been cut once againtoday. Looking at the economicdownturn, it is expected to becut further. Since thetransmission happensquickly in case of repolinked lending rate, it will bedirectly beneficial

for the borrowers.”

CHALLENGES FORDEPOSITORSDepositors who keep theirmoney in savings account andfixed deposits will face a toughtime as interest rates will fallfurther. The one to three yearsfixed deposits at State Bank ofIndia have already hit 5.5 percent. It can see further reduc-tion. So, if you are a conserva-

tive investor, you need tomanage your FDs bet-

ter to maximisereturns on thesame and shouldalso exploreother safer

investment options. “The money you need in thenear-term (1-2 years) shouldbe parked in FDs. The moneyyou don't immediately needshould be put in a mix ofinvestments that providehigher returns. These could beVPF, PPF, Sukanya Samriddhior the GOI 7.75% Bond. Theretired can seek the SeniorCitizens Savings Scheme.There are also some corporateFDs and small bank FDs thatstill give you more than 8 percent. You can pick them as peryour risk appetite and returnsneeds. Go with company FDswith AAA ratings. Even withFDs, always diversify,” sug-gests Shetty of BankBazaar.

Making themost of RBI’srelief steps

ReserveBank has cutrepo rate by 0.4% to 4%

— MT Bureau & Agencies

RelianceIndustrieschairman

Mukesh Ambani

SENSEX30,932.90

FRIDAY’S CLOSE

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GOLD/10 gm `604 `46,992

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20 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020

LETTERS�Double whammyfor the farmers ofMaharashtraIT HAS been a double whammyfor the farmers in Maharashtra.Many were not able to sell theirproduce during the lockdown,and now, nearly 25,000 farmerscultivating tomatoes in Satara,Ahmednagar and Pune, are fac-ing losses in crores due to infec-tions that have struck the cropand affected their produce.

Most of them supply to Mum-bai and markets around thestate and to other countries, pri-marily in South Asia. The situa-tion is similar for other farmerswho planted tomatoes.

Kiran Waman from Sangamner,Ahmednagar, who suffered lossesworth `3 lakh said, “It is unfortu-nate that all our efforts have gonein vain. First it was due to thelockdown and now it is the virusattack on our produce.”

Who will be responsible forthem? I hope the governmentwill extend its helping handtowards farmers.

—NAJIBULLAH QASMI, Mumbai

�Despite the rush,Indian Railwaysneed to plan better THE TRAIN that left CSMT,Mumbai and was headed toJiribam Railway Station inManipur on Thursday, made anunexpected halt at BhusawalRailway Station in Maharashtraand stayed there for most of Fri-day. Trains heading to their desti-nations in Uttar Pradesh andBihar were running late by overeight hours. Most passengerscomplained that they had notbeen provided water and food.Kajal Thangjam, one of the pas-sengers on the train to Manipur,who is an MBA student, said thatthe vendors at the Bhusawal Sta-tion were trying to take advan-tage of their desperate situation.“They are not selling less thanthree bottles of water to a passen-ger and charging as much as `100for that. None of us have toomuch cash and we can't afford to

1) SACH KEH RAHA HAI |COVER | B PRAAK

Cover of ‘Sach Keh RahaHai’ video by ArvindrKhaira, Pianoist KartikDev And Gaurav Dev.

2) CHOKED | OFFICIALTRAILER | SAIYAMI KHER,ROSHAN MATHEW, AMRUTASUBHASH | NETFLIXDirected by AnuragKashyap, ‘Choked’ is thestory of a hapless bankcashier whose life takesan unexpected turn.

3) TENET — NEW TRAILER

Armed with only oneword—Tenet— theprotagonist journeysthrough a twilight worldof internationalespionage on a mission.

4) GULABO SITABO —OFFICIAL TRAILER |AMITABH BACHCHAN,AYUSHMANN KHURRANA |‘Gulabo Sitabo’ is a quirkyslice of life where Mirzaand Baankey are like Tomand Jerry — unique andunmatched, friend andfoe, naughty and smart,all combined together tocreate chaos.

YOUTUBE QUESTION

Mail Today poll

BLOGS

‘AN OSCAR HOLDSLITTLE MEANING’WOODY Allen says win-ning an Academy Awardmeans nothing to himand he claims he hasnever made a greatmovie. The 84-year-oldfilmmaker claims to bean outsider in Holly-wood, despite winning anumber of AcademyAwards. Woody said: “Ihave never been part ofthe club in Hollywood. Idon’t go to parties. Idon’t care about the boxoffice or awards. Win-ning an Oscar for me hasvery little meaningbeyond the practical.”

contactmusic.com

The Centre and some states still don’t seem to be onthe same page regarding domestic f light operations

and the set of rules for the incoming passengers.Could the Centre have planned this better?

YESTERDAY’S RESPONSE

YESTERDAY’S QUESTION

90%YES NO

10%

WRITE TO THE

EDITORYou can now email your opinionto letters@mailtoday.in

‘CAN’T SEE SLUMDOGMILLIONAIRE AGAIN’FREIDA Pinto says she“can never watch”‘Slumdog Millionaire’again as she watched ittoo much when it wasfirst released. The 35-year-old actress — whomade her film debut inDanny Boyle’s Oscar-win-ning movie — admittedshe watched the movieso many times after itsbig screen release. Shesaid: “When it first cameout, I watched it a mil-lion times and now I cannever watch it again.”

contactmusic.com

�Centre must takethe states on boardon flight resumptionIT IS noteworthy that the Maha-rashtra government has saidthat there is no decision to letflight operations start from Mon-day in the state, adding thatthere is no change in policy as ofnow and the lockdown remainsthe same till May 31. TheUddhav Thackeray-led govern-ment has said that the Centre“arbitrarily” took the decision toallow domestic flight operationsand there was no consultationwith the state. Meanwhile, theMinistry of Civil Aviation hassaid that Maharashtra, like allother states, agreed to allowdomestic civil aviation opera-tions. While the Maharashtragovernment, in an emailresponse to the Centre, said thatrestrictions on the movement ofpeople and transport both are inplace in important cities such asMumbai and Pune as they are inthe red zone. Such a big decisionshould not have been taken byCentre before consulting withthe states.

— M N MUSAEED, Mumbai

Amid the Covid-19 scare, thereare cases of bogus doctors ped-

dling fake virus tests and mysterypotions. Is there a need to come

hard on these quacks who areexploiting people’s fears?

pay so much for water,” she said.She added that none of the pas-sengers were screened beforethey boarded the train and nonorms of social distancing arebeing followed. The railways needto plan better and make sure thatavailability of essential food isthere for such travellers.

— MOHD WAJIH, Telangana

The Punjab Police personnel present roses to a newly-wed couple as they ride back aftera simple marriage ceremony owing to the Covid-19 lockdown, in Patiala, on Sunday. BON VOYAGE!

PTI

QAMAR SIBTAIN

INTERACTIVE

JAVELIN thrower VipinKasana endured a difficultlast season when series ofinjury forced him out of allmajor events in the yearwhile managing to hurl per-

sonal best of 82.51metre in CzechRepublic in just four appearancesin 2019.

The javelin thrower was in South Africaearlier this year with coach Uwe Hohn andathletes such as Shivpal Singh and AnnuRani were also in attendance.

However, a fit-again Vipin couldn’t buildup on a strong pre-season as COVID-19put a break on everything; forcing animmediate return to India hours beforethe March 22 lockdown. Coincidentally healso missed on an opportunity to partici-pate in his first competitive appearancesince August in Potchefstroom after theevent was called off at the last minute onMarch 17.

The national camper since then haven’t’hurled a javelin while being confined atNIS Patiala till May 17 lockdown. How-ever, with the relaxations in public trans-port movement last week, Vipin cameback home for the first time in six monthsto meet his wife and two kids in Ghazi-abad.

“It was frustrating justtraining indoors in Patiala. Ithought it’s better to comehome and spend time withfamily as I haven’t seen themin so many months,” Vipintold MAIL TODAY.

“Being a family man, I feltdisturbed leaving my wifeand kids alone in thesehours of crisis.”

The athlete, whois followingindoor trainingregime at home

Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020

Sports

MailGuidelines on resumption ofcricket need clarity: Shakib

SALIVA BAN IS AN INTERIM MEASURE, SAYS KUMBLEICC CRICKET committee chairman AnilKumble says the recommendation to bansaliva for shining the ball is only an interimmeasure and things will go back to nor-mal once the COVID-19 pandemic isbrought under control.

The Kumble-led panel recommended aban on saliva to minimise the risk of infec-tion. On Friday, the ICC, in its guidelines forresumption of the game, also suggested abar on the practice.

“...this is only an interim measure and aslong as we have hopefully control overCOVID in a few months or a year’s timethen I think things will go back to as nor-mal as it can be,” Kumble said.

“If things get back to normal withinthree-four months and we are able tostage matches like we used to do in Feb-ruary and March, then these ruleswon’t apply.”

“As long as the medical advisory doesn’t

change, the rule will stay,” he added. The legendary former spinner, however,

acknowledged the bowler’s dependenceon saliva.

“We all know saliva has been a part andparcel of cricket for so many years. Asbowlers, we used to apply saliva on ball,sometimes for grip also, we applied saliva.But with COVID-19, it can also be asympto-matic, that is why we decided to ban it,”he explained. —Agencies

as well, might have to retuÿrnto the camp soon as reportssuggest the outdoor practicemight start at NIS and othercamps by this week after theSports Authority of India’sStandard Operating Procedure(SOP) came out on Thursday.

Vipin said he is willing toreturn to Patiala soon if

that’s the case. How-ever, going back willalso mean he willhave to undergo

COVID-19 test and remain iso-lated till the result is pending,as per SAI SOP.

“I am willing to return whenthe training resumes and readyto follow all the procedure AFIwill ask me to. I obeyed orderswhen I was asked to stay quar-antined for 14 days uponreturning from South Africa inMarch. I wanted to go homeback then itself as trainingwasn’t happening but lock-down meant I wasn’t able to,”

said the thrower.It’s worth mentioning that

AFI was mulling over sendingathletes home once theOlympics were called off butthe lockdown restricted them.Later with COVID-19 cases onthe rise, AFI advised campersagainst it unless it’s a familyemergency.

Vipin, who missed out onAsian and World Champi-onships in 2019, furtherrevealed that he intends to quit

athletics after the 2021Olympics as he wishes to stayclose to his kids.

“I am thinking to quit javelinafter the Olympics as it hasbeen long time I have beendoing this. Soon when thetraining resumes again, I willbe away from family for longtime.

I am missing out on watchingmy kids grow and will like tospend more time with them,”concluded Vipin.

ICCcricket

committeechairman

AnilKumble.

I am willing to return when thetraining resumes and ready to

follow all the procedure theAFI will ask me to.

Theathlete

wants to retirepost Olympics

National camper Vipin Kasana meets family after six monthsPANDEMICC VID-19

JAVELINTHROWERRETURNSHOME

INTERVIEWBy Aditya K Halder

in New Delhi

VIPIN KASANA

— VIPIN KASANA, INDIAN JAVELIN THROWER

‘‘‘‘

Vipin was in NIS,Patiala for

months beforereturning to

Ghaziabad.

21

Mail Today, New Delhi / Chandigarh, Monday, May 25, 2020 Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020

By Chetan Sharma in New Delhi

RAVI Dahiya doesn’t talk much.You ask him a lengthy questionand he will just reply with a sin-gle word- yes or no. It actuallyrequires so much of patience todig more out of his mouth.

However, the rising star of Indianwrestling is completely different whenhe takes on the mat.

He is aggressive and mentally so sharp againsthis opponents that the senior grapplers havepicked him as one of the medal prospects inOlympics next year. The Tokyo bound wrestlerhas been at Chhatrasal stadium ever since thelockdown was first imposed in India. He and fewother wrestlers are training there with all the pre-cautions required to keep themselves fit and safefrom infection.

MAIL TODAY on Sunday called up the wrestler,who just woke up from his sleep in the evening.He was sounding disinterested but respected thecall. During the initial queries, he gave some sin-gle liners but as the interview progressed thewrestler seemed game on!

“I was sleeping, just woke up byyour call. Please ask your questionfast as I have to start my eveningexercise,” he emphasised. MAIL

TODAY then jumped to the directquestion.

Are you pleased with govern-ment’s order on resumption oftraining in stadia? The grapplerpromptly said: “I have been train-ing in stadium only!”

But after further grilling, Raviadded: “The government hasordered to resume training. Incontact sport, we can’t practicewith other person so that is whatI have been doing here. But if thenational camp starts then it willbe different thing. Frankly speak-ing, nobody wants to risk his orher life right now. You must haveheard that many athletes haveexpressed their dissatisfactionover it. But if the federations callthen everybody will have to go.”

“I think it is going to be a longroad ahead before athletes canstart training and get back intotheir routines. There is a fearamong the athletes now; of how togo about things and how to keepfit. Wrestling is a contact sport sothings will be more difficult for us

but at the moment it’s all wait andwatch.”

The guidance of MahabaliSatpal and senior SushilKumar is also keepinghim and others moti-vated despite theCOVID-19 pandemicscare all over theworld. Dahiya spendsmost part of the year inthe precincts of Chha-trasal and visits his homevery rarely. “It is like homeaway from home for me. Ienjoy here a lot. We are in constant

touch with Mahabali Ji and Sushilbhai through video chat. They

guide as well and keep usupdated will all the nec-

essary informationrelated to Coron-avirus,” he said.

Ravi has had somestrong performancesover the last yeardespite the chal-

lenges of maintaininghis current 57kg weight

category. After clinchinga gold medal at the Rome

Ranking Series tournament in

January earlier thisyear in the 61kg, he dropped hisweight to 57kg to grab gold at the2020 Asian Wrestling Champi-onships again. With these per-formances, it’s why veteran Indianwrestler Yogeshwar Dutt hastipped him as a medal prospectfor the Tokyo Olympics.

Despite the postponement ofthe Tokyo Olympics, Ravisounded positive. “It is not inour hands. I hope everythingwill be alright. I am just con-centrating on my training.There is enough time”

22 COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Ravi says not all the athletes are happy withgovt’s order toopen stadia asvirus cases arerising day by day

PANDEMICC VID-19

INTERVIEWRAVI DAHIYA

The22-year-old

is at Chhatrasal stadium. Despite

the postponementof the TokyoOlympics, he

sounded posi-tive

‘THEREIS FEAR’

Sushil Kumar had said it isgoing to take a long time

before sport can returnto normalcy. (Below)Pooja Dhanda is alsoreluctant to resume

outdoor training.

Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020 23COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Hard to live withoutcompetition: Adcock

By Rohit Panikerin New Delhi

COMMONWEALTH Games 2018gold medallist Chris Adcock feelsthe ongoing COVID-19 pandemichas made it difficult for athletesas lack of competition is makingit hard for them financially.

Adcock, a former World Cham-pionships silver medallist inmixed doubles, is in Leicester,England, where the virus out-break has led to more than 2.5lakh cases and around 27 thou-sand deaths.

Living amid a disastrous situa-tion, Adcock and his wife/mixeddoubles partner Gabrielle arefinding ways to train and keepthemselves fit.

“It’s been a pretty scary timehere in the UK, sadly lots of peo-ple losing their lives still, buthopeful we are now coming outthrough the worst of it,” he toldMAIL TODAY.

“We haven’t been able to haveaccess to badminton courts forquite some time now, so traininghas been tough in that sense.Luckily, we have some good gymequipment at our home, so wehave been able to do weights,running & bike sessions. So we

have been able to keep up a basicfitness level.

“Of course, none of the playersare able to earn any prize moneyduring this time, which I amsure is making life harder formany athletes right now, how-ever, I think what is going on inthe world right now you justhave to be thankful for your

health,” he said.Adcock made his debut in 2008

at the Thomas Uber Cup, and hasbeen on tour ever since. On road,he has won two golds, two bronzeand a silver medal at the CWG.He also has a bronze medal at the2017 World meet other than hold-ing the champion’s title in Euro-pean Championships.

Adcock most recently playedPune 7 Aces in the Premier Bad-minton League in India.

“Actually, as an athlete we spendso much time travelling & com-peting so spending some time athome is actually really nice, how-ever, of course, we miss the com-petition side of things,” he felt.

While Adcock and Gabrielle areyet to find success at theOlympics, their aim is to breakthe hoodoo come Tokyo Games.Being World No. 13 currently,qualifying is least of the worries,as Adcock feels that the worldwill take time to recover from thevirus disaster.

“I think it’s certainly going totake time to get back to normal,although we are still not surehow long that will take and alsowhat the new ‘normal’ is. ButI’m sure when it comes we willbe ready for it.”

FORMER Australia cap-tain Mark Taylor doesnot foresee the T20World Cup scheduled inOctober-Novembergoing ahead and wantsthe ICC to take a deci-sion during its Boardmeeting this week.

Taylor also feels that ifIPL takes place duringthe window the T20World Cup was to beheld, the Australianplayers are likely to becleared by their Boardto take part in the cash-rich league in India.

The ICC Board meetson May 28 to discuss ahost of issues related toCOVID-19 pandemic,including a revampedschedule and the fate ofthe men’s T20 WorldCup in Australia.

“My feeling is theWorld T20 won’t goahead in Australia inOctober as planned. Is itgoing to be viable tohave a world tourna-ment in October orNovember? The answerto that is probably no,”said Taylor, also a formerCricket Australia (CA)directo. “It would prob-ably be good (if a deci-sion is made this week).Because then everyonecan start planning andwe can stop sitting hereand saying ‘well ifs, butsor maybes’.” —Agencies

Taylor saysT20 WCunlikely togo ahead

Mark Taylor

Nobody wants to riskhis or her life right

now. You must haveheard that many

athletes haveexpressed their

dissatisfaction overit (outdoor training).

I hope everything willbe alright. I am just

concentrating on mytraining. There is

enough time forTokyo Olympics.

‘‘

‘‘

— RAVI DAHIYA, INDIAN WRESTLER

Chris Adcock (right) isin Leicester, England.

FAI recommendBhavani Devi forArjuna award

THE Fencing Association of Indiahas recommended CA BhavaniDevi for the Arjuna Award 2020.

In a letter addressed to the gov-ernment, FAI secretary generalBashir Khan has expressed thatBhavani, a 2021 Tokyo Olympicshopeful, is “highly deserving” andan award to her will act as a moti-vation to several budding fencersin the country.

“We strongly recommend thatshe be awarded the distinguished

Arjuna Award. Our upcomingOlympic probable for 2024 and2028 will get enthused with su`chan award for fencing player andthe sport will spread wide and farin our Country. We shall thank youfor advising us on her selection forthe award,” the letter read.

Bhavani, a sabre fencer, has asilver medal and a bronze to hername in the 2019 Satellite WorldCup held in Belgium and Iceland.

In 2018, the 26-year-old had asimilar show in the SatelliteWorld Cup but the highlight ofher performance was an individ-ual gold in the CommonwealthChampionship. Bhavani is wellon track to be the first Indian

fencer to qualify for theOlympics. As per the norms ofqualifying for the TokyoOlympics, top four teams willautomatically seal their place inthe mega event.

By Rohit Paniker

BIHAR schoolgirl JyotiKumari, who

cycled 1200 km with herinjured father from NewDelhi to Darbhanga,will appear for CyclingFederation of India tri-als once the lockdownends even though fin-ishing matriculation isher primary aim. “Wewill surely send for thetrials after the lock-down is lifted. She wasenrolled into class nineyesterday. At themoment, we want her tocomplete her matricula-tion,” said her fatherMohan Paswan. Ren-dered jobless and pen-niless because of theextended COVID-19lockdown, the 15-year-old was forced to ferryher father who wasunable to walk properlyafter a surgery to hisleft knee following anaccident. The CFI tooknote of Jyoti’s incredi-ble feat of cycling morethan 1200-km spanningover a week. —PTI

‘‘

— CHRIS ADCOCK, 2018 CWG GOLD MEDALLIST

‘‘It’s been a pretty scarytime here in the UK,sadly lots of people

losing their lives still,but hopeful we are now

coming out throughthe worst of it.

She won silver

and bronze in the

2019 World Cup

Ravi has had somestrong performances

over the last yeardespite the

challenges ofmaintaining his

current 57kg weightcategory.

BBhhaavvaannii hhaaddbbeeeenn ttrraaiinniinngg iinn IIttaallyy uunnddeerrccooaacchh NNiiccoollaaZZaannoottttii aannddrreettuurrnneedd hhoommeejjuusstt bbeeffoorree tthhee nnaattiioonnaalllloocckkddoowwnn iinnIInnddiiaa wwaass ppuutt iinn oorrddeerr..

HEIKO Herrlichenjoyed a per-fect first Bun-desliga gameon the touch-line as Augs-

burg coach on Sundaywhen his side cruised to a3-0 win at Schalke, a weekafter he missed their lossto Wolfsburg because hebroke quarantine rules tobuy toothpaste.

David Wagner’s Schalke con-tinued their slide down thetable, falling to eighth followinganother poor defensive display.

Eduard Loewen, Noah Saren-ren Bazee and Sergio Cordovascored as Augsburg movedseven points clear of the relega-

Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020

Published & Printed by Amit Gupta on behalf of G.H. Prints Pvt. Ltd, A-256, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase -1, New Delhi - 110 020. Published at F – 26, Connaught Place, New Delhi – 110 001. Editor: Dwaipayan Bose

RNI No.: DELENG / 2007 / 21922

T.V. Today Network Limited. Printed at The Indian Express (P) Limited Press, A-8, Sector-7, Noida - 201301 andFirst Floor,

Sports

MailDortmund sweat on Hummels’fitness ahead of crucial Bayern tie

REAL Madrid manager Zinedine Zidanehas reportedly broken lockdown rulesin Spain after allegedly being spottedat a village miles from the capital.

Spain has been one of hardest hitcountries by the coronavirus, withmore than 230,000 infections andover 28,000 deaths, and as aresult have strict lockdownprotocols to keep peoplesafe and reduce the spreadof the disease.

According to Spanish

outlet Sport, Zidane was sighted by aresident at the village ‘a long wayaway from Madrid’, where he owns asecond home.

The report claims that movingbetween town borders is ‘completely

prohibited’ unless it is for strictlypersonal reasons and that the

Frenchman could havefaced a fine of $1,500 ifimages were taken of himduring his visit andhanded to police.

They allege it is also forbidden totravel to a second home during thecoronavirus crisis. The 47-year-old issaid to have purchased it last year.

Sportsmail has approached RealMadrid for comment.

Los Blancos are currently preparingfor the return of the LaLiga season,which has been suspended sinceMarch, and Zidane has been back onthe training field working with theteam after the league was cleared toresume on June 8. —Agencies

Zinedine Zidane could have faced afine of $1,500 if images were taken ofhim and handed to police.

Zidane breaks Spain’s lockdown rules

tion play-off place. Having been as high as third

last December, Schalke are win-less in their last nine leaguegames, including last Saturday’s4-0 drubbing at Borussia Dort-mund. The German league’shome curse struck again inGelsenkirchen.

This was the ninth away win inthe 16 Bundesliga matches sincethe league resumed behindclosed doors last weekend afterthe coronavirus lockdown.

Loewen gave the visitors thelead after just five minutes witha superb free-kick which flew

into the top corner from 30metres out at a near-emptyVeltins Arena.

Augsburg doubled their lead14 minutes from time when

Schalke defender Salif Sanewas wrong-footed by a longball and substitute wingerBazee rifled home.

Cordova also came off thebench to score in injury time,latching onto a loose passfrom Sane, rounding goal-keeper Markus Schubertand firing into the net.

Augsburg host Pader-born on Wednesday, thesame day Schalke visitstrugglers FortunaDuesseldorf, who occupythe relegation play-offspot in 16th. —Agencies

Lowen scoresa stunningfree kick asthe visitorsput hosts tothe sword

C VID-19

PANDEMIC

AUGSBURGSTUN

TheReal Madrid

boss visited hissecond home in a

village miles away

The club climbs

to 12th in

Bundesliga

SCHALKE

FC SCHALKE 04 0

FC AUGSBURGLowen 6’, Sarenren Bazee 76’,Cordova 90’+1’

3

FC Augsburg’s Eduard Lowen scorestheir first goal. (Below right) Lowencelebrates with his teammate.