€¦ · maulana saad has been untraceable since march 28 after he was served a notice by the delhi...

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I n its biggest spike till date, India over the past 24 hours till Wednesday night recorded 386 new cases of coronavirus taking the tally to 2,012 with the Government blaming the spurt in cases on the travel by members of Tablighi Jamaat and asserted that it was not a national trend. “The number of positive cases has gone up since Tuesday. One of main reasons for it is travel by members of Tablighi. This is not a nation- al trend,” said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Health. According to Ministry’s website, the total number of active COVID-19 cases reached 1,637 in India by Wednesday noon, whereas the death toll has risen to 42 from 32 recorded on Tuesday. Globally, the death toll due to novel coronavirus in the US has reached 3,400, surpassing China. The global death rate has reached past the 44,000- mark while around 9 lakh are infected by COVID-19 across nearly 170 countries. Dr R Gangakhedkar, sci- entist from ICMR, said so far, 47,951 tests for COVID-19 conducted in country out of which 4,562 tests done at ICMR network labs on Tuesday. On a query, he said Hydroxychloroquine is not to be used on every person. “This is not for everybody. It is just a demonstration study for doctors and their contacts of lab confirmed cases care- givers and data will be analysed which will tell if we can rec- ommend or not the drug to the people who come in their con- tacts,” he said. Agarwal said 74 flights operated till date under Lifeline Udan for transporting medical cargo across the country. So far over 22 tonnes cargo was trans- ported on March 31, he said. Following the Supreme Court directives, the Health Ministry on Wednesday called for providing a social protec- tion to migrant workers, saying they are prone to social, psy- chological and emotional trau- ma in lockdown situations. Immediate concerns faced by such migrant workers relate to food, shelter, healthcare, fear of getting infected or spreading the infection, loss of wages, concerns about the fam- ily, anxiety and fear. “Sometimes, they also face harassment and negative reac- tions of the local community. All this calls for strong social protection,” the Ministry said in a document. It further said migrant workers faced the situation of spending a few days in tempo- rary shelters, which may be quarantine centres, while try- ing to reach to their native places, are filled with anxieties and fears stemming from var- ious concerns, and are in need of psycho-social support. Meanwhile, several State Governments have continued the difficult task of tracking the movements of Tablighi atten- dees in the Delhi conference, including foreigners and their “human contacts” as more Jamaat delegates who transited through Jamaat Markaz (cen- tre) in Nizamuddin East were quarantined in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra while 140 of delegates were reported untraceable in Hyderabad. Over 250 foreign nationals have been quarantined or admitted to isolation wards in various States in the country following the disclosure that they had attended the Tablighi conference. A total of 16 States have been searching for Tablighi members. According reports, at least 200 from Karnataka, 140 from Andhra Pradesh and 45 from Telangana have been identi- fied. The total number of those who attended the con- ference varies from State to State with Maharashtra listing 185 and Karnataka estimating 342 to have participated in the meeting. With the Tabligh incident spiking the coronavirus num- bers in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Maharashtra Chief Minister and asked the State to trace out the missing Jamaat members who attended the Delhi con- ference. The State DGP held a Press conference to give his account on the issue. The aim of the search for Tabligh attendees is to prevent them from inadvertently cre- ating new clusters of infection across the country. The mag- nitude of the task is immense: Three southern states — Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka — were trying to track at least 2,500 people, many of who had tested posi- tive for coronavirus. In Kashmir 855 people (at least 167 attendees and people in contact with them) were being traced, only nine had been found. Continued on Page 2 E ven as the authorities have cleared Tablighi’s Nizamuddin headquarters and evacuated 2,361 people in 36 hours till Wednesday evening, Nizamuddin Markaz cleric Maulana Saad has been untraceable since March 28 after he was served a notice by the Delhi Police. “Police teams are raiding several places across the west- ern Uttar Pradesh and Mewat region in Haryana to nab Saad,” said a senior police official. Police have also recovered an audio clip in which Saad can be heard saying there is no bet- ter place to die than in a mosque. The audio clip is believed to be of March 18. “Leaving mosques would bring no good. Do not leave mosques even if trusted doctors ask you to,” said Saad in the audio clip. On Tuesday, a First Information Report (FIR) was filed against seven people, including Saad, Zeeshan, Mufti Shehzad, M Saifi, Younus, Mohammed Salman and Mohammed Ashraf. The police have registered the FIR under sections of the Epidemic Disease Act and other sections of the IPC, for not following Government orders on the management of the Markaz in relation to a social, political or religious gathering and thus endanger- ing the lives of the people. Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said authorities are tracking mobile phones of peo- ple under quarantine to check their movement. Tablighis, including for- eigners from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Algeria, Djibouti, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, England, Fiji, France and Kuwait, had assem- bled at Nizamuddin Markaz, which is among the major COVID-19 hotspots in the country, to participate in reli- gious congregation from March 1 to 18. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the premises have been vacat- ed after a 36-hour effort by the concerned agencies. “The staff of health, administration, police and Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) worked together in this 36-hour operation, putting their lives at risk. Hats off to all of them,” Sisodia said in a tweet. The total number of coronavirus cases in Delhi climbed to 152 on Wednesday. Sisodia further said a list has been prepared in which the phone number and other details of these people were noted and handed over to the Delhi Police cyber cell for fur- ther action. Continued on Page 2 A lready busy tackling the Covid-19 cases, doctors across the country are finding themselves hard-pressed with spurt in number of patients reporting alcohol withdrawal symptom because of non avail- ability of “booze” due to the ongoing lockdown. Doctors from country’s premier health institute AIIMS said that people with alcohol withdrawal related problems are coming at their emergency department as OPDs are closed. “When they are deprived of alcohol or sub- stance they are so depended upon they will face varying degree of health related issues. Usually, heavy drinkers need proper counseling and med- ication,” said Dr Atul Ambekar, Professor of Psychiatric at National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre of AIIMS.. Superintendent Dr Uma Shankar from Mental Health Hospital in Erragadda, Hyderabad, said that a as many as 100 persons with withdraw- al symptoms visited the out- patient ward on Monday. She said many of them were treat- ed as outpatients and a few were admitted for constant observation. According to the doctors, there would be four to five alco- holics among an average 30 outpatients on any normal day. However, the number sudden- ly increased manifold since Saturday. At least three cases of suicide were reported from the State after the lockdown was announced last week. Dr Smita Deshpanday, Professor of Psychiatrist from Delhi-based RML Hospital said that such tipplers develop seri- ous problems like alcohol with- drawal fits, hallucinations and depression. However, all patients do not require hospi- talisation. They need proper guidance, good food and reg- ular intake of healthy fluids. “In fact this is the golden chance for the Government to treat their heavy dependence on alcohol and tobacco as such products weaken their lung systems,” she added. Indian medical Association Kerala president Dr Abraham Varghese echoed similar views stating that those showing withdrawal symptoms should be provided scientific treat- ment, which can be given at homes or in hospitals. “They need treatment. Giving them booze is not a solution,” he said. Liquor is out of bound across the country except Kerala and Meghalaya, which recently allowed the sale of liquor with a medical testimo- nial from a qualified doctor due to rising cases of suicide. . Their decisions have drawn flak from the Indian Medical Association which feels that it would only encourage others to fake their health conditions. Interestingly, there are various global studies that say that alcohol withdrawal never results into a suicide unless the person is suffering from other mental health issues such as depression. Continued on Page 2 A new study shows that cur- rent physical distancing guidelines provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may not safeguard you against coron- avirus infection. A research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association warned that the gas cloud from a cough or sneeze may help virus particles travel up to 8 metres. The existing guidelines issued by the WHO and CDC are based on outdated models from the 1930s of how gas clouds from a cough, sneeze, or exhalation spread. Study author, MIT associate professor Lydia Bourouiba, however, thinks otherwise as she says that exhalations cause gaseous clouds to travel up to 27 feet (8.2 metres). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a spe- cialised US health agency, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for six and three feet (0.9 m and 1.8 m) of space for maintaining social distancing to keep at a bay the droplets of coronavirus causing deadly Covid-19. Continued on Page 2 T he Centre has ordered changes in the domicile status rules for Government jobs in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and also amended 109 erstwhile State Acts and repealed 29 Acts, drawing flak from the political parties of the Union Territory. According to the notifica- tion, anyone who has resided in J&K for 15 years or has stud- ied in the State for seven years, and appeared in either the Class 10/12 examination, will be eligible for domicile certifi- cates. This would allow them to apply for gazetted and non- gazetted Government jobs. The new rules also state that migrants registered by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner need not fulfil the amended requirements. According to the new rules, children of officials with the Central Government, all India services, public sector under- takings, public sector banks, statutory bodies, Central uni- versities and recognised research institutes of the Central Government who have served in J&K for 10 years will also be eligible to apply for gazetted and non-gazetted Government jobs in the UT. The drastic changes were implemented through the J&K Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Order, 2020, issued late Tuesday by the Centre. As per the earlier rules, only J&K residents were eligi- ble to apply for jobs or own immovable property in the erstwhile State. The Union Government’s new decision comes amid apprehension in the UT that there would be a demographic change in J&K following the scrapping of Article 370, which guaranteed State subjects the right to jobs, owning property and legislat- ing laws. It also comes at a time when J&K, along with the rest of the country, continues to be under a lockdown in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. The latest MHA order also defines domicile as an admin- istrative category rather than identity-based residency. Continued on Page 2 W ith Nizamuddin proving to be a coronavirus hotspot, the number of novel Covid-19 cases in Delhi climbed to 152, including two resident doctors of the Centre- run Safdarjung Hospital, on Wednesday after 32 new infec- tions were reported in the past 24 hours till Wednesday evening. These 152 cases include 53 people who took part in a Tablighi congregation at Nizamuddin in South Delhi. One of the doctors, who is part of the team treating coro- navirus patients at Safdarjung hospital, is believed to have contracted the disease during the course of duty, official said. “All the doctors and staff who had come in contact with them (the infected doctors) have been tested. So far, none of the contacts has tested pos- itive for coronavirus infection,” hospital sources said, adding all of them have been asked to monitor their health. T o ensure that not even a single citizen sleeps hun- gry in Delhi, when lakhs of daily wagers have become unemployed, the Delhi Government on Wednesday announced that those without ration cards will also be given food ration if they apply online through E-district portal. However, some criticised the requirement to apply online when they can’t even afford food for themselves Continued on Page 2

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Page 1: €¦ · Maulana Saad has been untraceable since March 28 after he was served a notice by the Delhi Police. “Police teams are raiding several places across the west-ern Uttar Pradesh

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In its biggest spike till date,India over the past 24 hours

till Wednesday night recorded386 new cases of coronavirustaking the tally to 2,012 withthe Government blaming thespurt in cases on the travel bymembers of Tablighi Jamaatand asserted that it was not anational trend.

“The number of positivecases has gone up sinceTuesday. One of main reasonsfor it is travel by members ofTablighi. This is not a nation-al trend,” said Lav Agarwal,Joint Secretary in the UnionMinistry of Health.

According to Ministry’swebsite, the total number ofactive COVID-19 casesreached 1,637 in India byWednesday noon, whereas thedeath toll has risen to 42 from32 recorded on Tuesday.

Globally, the death toll dueto novel coronavirus in the UShas reached 3,400, surpassingChina. The global death ratehas reached past the 44,000-mark while around 9 lakh areinfected by COVID-19 acrossnearly 170 countries.

Dr R Gangakhedkar, sci-entist from ICMR, said so far,47,951 tests for COVID-19conducted in country out ofwhich 4,562 tests done atICMR network labs onTuesday. On a query, he saidHydroxychloroquine is not tobe used on every person.

“This is not for everybody.It is just a demonstration studyfor doctors and their contacts

of lab confirmed cases care-givers and data will be analysedwhich will tell if we can rec-ommend or not the drug to thepeople who come in their con-tacts,” he said.

Agarwal said 74 flightsoperated till date under LifelineUdan for transporting medicalcargo across the country. So farover 22 tonnes cargo was trans-ported on March 31, he said.

Following the SupremeCourt directives, the HealthMinistry on Wednesday calledfor providing a social protec-tion to migrant workers, sayingthey are prone to social, psy-chological and emotional trau-ma in lockdown situations.

Immediate concerns facedby such migrant workers relateto food, shelter, healthcare,fear of getting infected orspreading the infection, loss ofwages, concerns about the fam-ily, anxiety and fear.

“Sometimes, they also faceharassment and negative reac-tions of the local community.All this calls for strong socialprotection,” the Ministry said ina document.

It further said migrantworkers faced the situation ofspending a few days in tempo-rary shelters, which may bequarantine centres, while try-ing to reach to their nativeplaces, are filled with anxieties

and fears stemming from var-ious concerns, and are in needof psycho-social support.

Meanwhile, several StateGovernments have continuedthe difficult task of tracking themovements of Tablighi atten-dees in the Delhi conference,including foreigners and their“human contacts” as moreJamaat delegates who transitedthrough Jamaat Markaz (cen-tre) in Nizamuddin East werequarantined in Telangana,Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Naduand Maharashtra while 140 ofdelegates were reporteduntraceable in Hyderabad.

Over 250 foreign nationalshave been quarantined or

admitted to isolation wards invarious States in the countryfollowing the disclosure thatthey had attended the Tablighiconference. A total of 16 Stateshave been searching forTablighi members.

According reports, at least200 from Karnataka, 140 fromAndhra Pradesh and 45 fromTelangana have been identi-fied. The total number ofthose who attended the con-ference varies from State toState with Maharashtra listing185 and Karnataka estimating342 to have participated in themeeting.

With the Tabligh incidentspiking the coronavirus num-bers in the country, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi spoketo Maharashtra Chief Ministerand asked the State to trace outthe missing Jamaat memberswho attended the Delhi con-ference. The State DGP held aPress conference to give hisaccount on the issue.

The aim of the search forTabligh attendees is to preventthem from inadvertently cre-ating new clusters of infectionacross the country. The mag-nitude of the task is immense:Three southern states — TamilNadu, Andhra Pradesh andKarnataka — were trying totrack at least 2,500 people,many of who had tested posi-tive for coronavirus.

In Kashmir 855 people (atleast 167 attendees and peoplein contact with them) werebeing traced, only nine hadbeen found.

Continued on Page 2

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Even as the authorities havecleared Tablighi’s

Nizamuddin headquarters andevacuated 2,361 people in 36hours till Wednesday evening,Nizamuddin Markaz clericMaulana Saad has beenuntraceable since March 28after he was served a notice bythe Delhi Police.

“Police teams are raidingseveral places across the west-ern Uttar Pradesh and Mewatregion in Haryana to nab Saad,”said a senior police official.

Police have also recoveredan audio clip in which Saad canbe heard saying there is no bet-ter place to die than in amosque. The audio clip isbelieved to be of March 18.“Leaving mosques would bringno good. Do not leave mosqueseven if trusted doctors ask you

to,” said Saad in the audio clip.On Tuesday, a First

Information Report (FIR) wasfiled against seven people,including Saad, Zeeshan, MuftiShehzad, M Saifi, Younus,Mohammed Salman andMohammed Ashraf.

The police have registeredthe FIR under sections of theEpidemic Disease Act andother sections of the IPC, fornot following Governmentorders on the management ofthe Markaz in relation to asocial, political or religiousgathering and thus endanger-ing the lives of the people.

Meanwhile, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal onWednesday said authorities aretracking mobile phones of peo-ple under quarantine to checktheir movement.

Tablighis, including for-eigners from Malaysia,Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal,Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, SaudiArabia, Afghanistan, Algeria,Djibouti, Sri Lanka,Bangladesh, England, Fiji,France and Kuwait, had assem-bled at Nizamuddin Markaz,which is among the majorCOVID-19 hotspots in thecountry, to participate in reli-

gious congregation from March1 to 18.

Delhi Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia saidthe premises have been vacat-ed after a 36-hour effort by theconcerned agencies.

“The staff of health,administration, police andDelhi Transport Corporation(DTC) worked together in this36-hour operation, puttingtheir lives at risk. Hats off to allof them,” Sisodia said in atweet. The total number ofcoronavirus cases in Delhiclimbed to 152 on Wednesday.

Sisodia further said a listhas been prepared in which thephone number and otherdetails of these people werenoted and handed over to theDelhi Police cyber cell for fur-ther action.

Continued on Page 2

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Already busy tackling theCovid-19 cases, doctors

across the country are findingthemselves hard-pressed withspurt in number of patientsreporting alcohol withdrawalsymptom because of non avail-ability of “booze” due to theongoing lockdown.

Doctors from country’spremier health institute AIIMSsaid that people with alcoholwithdrawal related problemsare coming at their emergencydepartment as OPDs areclosed. “When they aredeprived of alcohol or sub-stance they are so dependedupon they will face varyingdegree of health related issues.Usually, heavy drinkers needproper counseling and med-ication,” said Dr Atul Ambekar,Professor of Psychiatric atNational Drug DependenceTreatment Centre of AIIMS..

Superintendent Dr UmaShankar from Mental HealthHospital in Erragadda,Hyderabad, said that a as manyas 100 persons with withdraw-

al symptoms visited the out-patient ward on Monday. Shesaid many of them were treat-ed as outpatients and a fewwere admitted for constantobservation.

According to the doctors,there would be four to five alco-holics among an average 30outpatients on any normal day.However, the number sudden-ly increased manifold sinceSaturday. At least three cases ofsuicide were reported fromthe State after the lockdown

was announced last week.Dr Smita Deshpanday,

Professor of Psychiatrist fromDelhi-based RML Hospital saidthat such tipplers develop seri-ous problems like alcohol with-drawal fits, hallucinations anddepression. However, allpatients do not require hospi-talisation. They need properguidance, good food and reg-ular intake of healthy fluids. “Infact this is the golden chancefor the Government to treattheir heavy dependence on

alcohol and tobacco as suchproducts weaken their lungsystems,” she added.

Indian medical AssociationKerala president Dr AbrahamVarghese echoed similar viewsstating that those showingwithdrawal symptoms shouldbe provided scientific treat-ment, which can be given athomes or in hospitals. “Theyneed treatment. Giving thembooze is not a solution,” he said.

Liquor is out of boundacross the country exceptKerala and Meghalaya, whichrecently allowed the sale ofliquor with a medical testimo-nial from a qualified doctor dueto rising cases of suicide. .

Their decisions have drawnflak from the Indian MedicalAssociation which feels that itwould only encourage others tofake their health conditions.Interestingly, there are variousglobal studies that say thatalcohol withdrawal neverresults into a suicide unless theperson is suffering from othermental health issues such asdepression.

Continued on Page 2

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Anew study shows that cur-rent physical distancing

guidelines provided by theWorld Health Organisation(WHO) and by the US Centersfor Disease Control andPrevention (CDC) may notsafeguard you against coron-avirus infection. A research,published in the Journal of theAmerican Medical Associationwarned that the gas cloud froma cough or sneeze may helpvirus particles travel up to 8metres.

The existing guidelinesissued by the WHO and CDCare based on outdated modelsfrom the 1930s of how gasclouds from a cough, sneeze, orexhalation spread. Studyauthor, MIT associate professorLydia Bourouiba, however,thinks otherwise as she says

that exhalations cause gaseousclouds to travel up to 27 feet(8.2 metres).

The Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention, a spe-cialised US health agency, andthe World Health Organization

(WHO) has called for six andthree feet (0.9 m and 1.8 m) ofspace for maintaining socialdistancing to keep at a bay thedroplets of coronavirus causingdeadly Covid-19.

Continued on Page 2

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The Centre has orderedchanges in the domicile

status rules for Governmentjobs in the Union Territory ofJammu & Kashmir and alsoamended 109 erstwhile StateActs and repealed 29 Acts,drawing flak from the politicalparties of the Union Territory.

According to the notifica-tion, anyone who has resided inJ&K for 15 years or has stud-ied in the State for seven years,and appeared in either theClass 10/12 examination, willbe eligible for domicile certifi-cates. This would allow them toapply for gazetted and non-gazetted Government jobs. Thenew rules also state that

migrants registered by theRelief and RehabilitationCommissioner need not fulfilthe amended requirements.

According to the new rules,

children of officials with theCentral Government, all Indiaservices, public sector under-takings, public sector banks,statutory bodies, Central uni-

versities and recognisedresearch institutes of theCentral Government who haveserved in J&K for 10 years willalso be eligible to apply for

gazetted and non-gazettedGovernment jobs in the UT.The drastic changes wereimplemented through the J&KReorganisation (Adaptation ofState Laws) Order, 2020, issuedlate Tuesday by the Centre.

As per the earlier rules,only J&K residents were eligi-ble to apply for jobs or ownimmovable property in theerstwhile State. The UnionGovernment’s new decisioncomes amid apprehension inthe UT that there would be ademographic change in J&Kfollowing the scrapping ofArticle 370, which guaranteedState subjects the right to jobs,owning property and legislat-ing laws. It also comes at a timewhen J&K, along with the restof the country, continues to beunder a lockdown in the wakeof the Covid-19 outbreak.

The latest MHA order alsodefines domicile as an admin-istrative category rather thanidentity-based residency.

Continued on Page 2

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With Nizamuddin provingto be a coronavirus

hotspot, the number of novelCovid-19 cases in Delhiclimbed to 152, including tworesident doctors of the Centre-run Safdarjung Hospital, onWednesday after 32 new infec-tions were reported in the past24 hours till Wednesdayevening.

These 152 cases include 53people who took part in aTablighi congregation at

Nizamuddin in South Delhi.One of the doctors, who is

part of the team treating coro-navirus patients at Safdarjunghospital, is believed to havecontracted the disease duringthe course of duty, official said.

“All the doctors and staffwho had come in contact withthem (the infected doctors)have been tested. So far, noneof the contacts has tested pos-itive for coronavirus infection,”hospital sources said, adding allof them have been asked tomonitor their health.

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To ensure that not even asingle citizen sleeps hun-

gry in Delhi, when lakhs ofdaily wagers have becomeunemployed, the DelhiGovernment on Wednesdayannounced that those withoutration cards will also be givenfood ration if they apply onlinethrough E-district portal.

However, some criticisedthe requirement to applyonline when they can’t evenafford food for themselves

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Page 2: €¦ · Maulana Saad has been untraceable since March 28 after he was served a notice by the Delhi Police. “Police teams are raiding several places across the west-ern Uttar Pradesh

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) on

Wednesday registered a case inconnection with the recent ter-ror attack at a Gurudwara inKabul, Afghanistan. The casehas been registered underIndian Penal Code Sectionsrelating to criminal conspiracyand waging war against theGovernment of any Asiaticpower in alliance or at peacewith Government of Indiabesides relevant sections of theUnlawful Activities(Prevention) Act.

This is the first case of itskind which NIA has registeredas the recent amendments inNIA Act have empowered NIAto investigate terror cases whichare committed at any placeoutside India against the IndiancCitizens or affecting the inter-

est of India. On March 25, unknown

gunmen had stormed into aGurudwara in Shor Bazar areain Kabul Afghanistan and firedindiscriminately killing 27devotees and injuring severalothers. About 150 persons wereinside the Gurudwara when theattack took place. An Indian cit-izen Tian Singh, resident of S-364 Greater Kailash Part-1,New Delhi was also killed in theattack, the agency said in astatement.

Proscribed terrorist organ-isation, Islamic State KhorasanProvince (ISKP) had claimedthe responsibility for this terrorattack. As per the preliminaryinvestigation, one Muhsin fromTrikkaripur, Kasargod, Keralaand others who had joinedISKP, are suspected to havebeen involved in the said ter-rorist attack, the agency added.

5����������15*������ �&� �������������% New Delhi: Retailers on

Wednesday said there isenough stock of essential itemsand groceries if people do notresort to panic buying, whilesome organised players putcaps on items that a consumercan purchase during the lock-down.

Future Group and V-Marthave put in place systems toprevent panic buying at theirneighbourhood grocery stores.

“Availability was not theissue but supply chain wasimpacted (due to the lock-down). The government hasgot into the picture and they areenabling the supply chain tohappen,” Retailers Associationof India CEO KumarRajagopalan told PTI.

He further said,”The sup-plies are actually getting regu-larised with the governmenthelping. If people do not dopanic buying, there is enough

stock and there is no problem.”When contacted, Spencer’’s

Retail Managing DirectorDevendra Chawla said, “We arewell stocked for now on essen-tials. However, we are in touchwith brand manufacturers sothat supply chain for next fewweeks is in place. It couldmean smaller batch sizes orrelaxing some manufacturingefficiencies for some time totide over current supply con-straints.”

V-Mart, which operatesmainly in tier-II and -III cities,said it has not faced supplyissues but has put in placerestrictions on how much cana consumer buy.

“We are currently operat-ing around 25 stores in thelockdown, which are mainly instates such as UP and Bihar.Though we have supply, wehave put restrictions over thequantity of purchase,” V-MartRetail Chairman and ManagingDirector Lalit Agarwal said.

The company has cappedpurchases on several items.For instance, a customer can

buy only 20 kg rice, 10 kg atta,4 kg pulses, 12 packets of bis-cuits of a single type and noo-dles, and 5 Kg sugar.

Future Group too has putseveral restrictions at its neigh-borhood food and grocerystore chain Easyday Club.

As per the restrictions, aperson can not buy more thantwo packets of 10kg atta, fivepieces of 100 gm butter, twopackets of ghee (1 kg), 5 litresof mustard and soya oil, 10 kgof sugar and not more than 5kg of rice and pulses.

However, the company hasnot put any such restrictions atits big format Big Bazaar stores,where it is dispensing onlyessential items following thegovernment’’s decision toimpose a lockdown to containthe Covid-19 pandemic.

FMCG players like HUL,ITC, Dabur India, ParleProducts, GCPL and JyothiLabs have flagged availabilityof workers at factories andtrucks for transportation as thebiggest challenges for theirsupply chain. PTI

.�� ������������������ ������ �������� ��%�� ��1����������������������@������ New Delhi: The Government's

Press Information Bureau(PIB) on Wednesday high-lighted the Supreme Court'sdirective to the media to main-tain a strong sense of respon-sibility while reporting onissues pertaining to theCOVID-19 pandemic andensure that unverified newscapable of causing panic is notdisseminated.

In a statement, the PIBsaid the Supreme Court hasnoted that the migration of alarge number of labourersworking in the cities was trig-gered by panic created by fakenews that the lockdown wouldcontinue for more than threemonths.

The court observed that itwas not possible for it to over-look the menace of fake newsby electronic, print or socialmedia because the panic-dri-ven migration has caused suf-fering to those who acted onsuch news, causing some tolose their lives, said the state-

ment by the PIB which isunder the Ministry ofInformation and Broadcasting.

The Supreme Court hasdirected the media, includingprint, electronic and socialmedia, to maintain a strongsense of responsibility andensure that unverified newscapable of causing panic is notdisseminated, it said.

The top court has said inits order that it does not intendto interfere with free discus-sion about the pandemic, butat the same time has directedthat the media refer to andpublish the official version ofthe developments, the PIBstatement stressed.

The Supreme Court onTuesday directed that to checkfake news, a daily bulletinsystem with regard to theCOVID-19 pandemic be madeactive within 24 hours by thegovernment through all mediaavenues, including socialmedia and forums, to clearpeople's doubts. PTI

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The Supreme CourtWednesday sought

response from the Centre on aplea seeking directions for pro-viding WHO graded protectivegear to doctors, nurses andmedical staff who are treatingcoronavirus patients across thecountry.

A bench of Justices DYChandrachud and MR Shah,which heard the matterthrough video-conferencing,asked Solicitor General TusharMehta to look into the pleafiled by a Nagpur-based doctorand file response on it by nextweek.

The plea has claimed thatin the absence of appropriateprotective gear, doctors andother medical staff are putting

themselves at risk of beingaffected by the virus, also calledCOVID-19, and it is the dutyof the state to ensure that theyget all the required kit whiletreating patients.

It said the Centre shouldensure that World HealthOrganization (WHO) gradedprotective gear, including haz-mat suits, personal protectiveequipment (PPE), starch appar-els, medical masks, goggles,face shield, respirators andhead covers, is made availableto all health workers like doc-tors, nurses, ward boys, med-ical and para-medical profes-sionals who are attendingCOVID-19 patients.

Jerryl Banait, the petition-er who is a doctor, has alsosought a direction to the statesto set up COVID-19 special

screening centres in smallertowns and other cities and totake immediate steps to ensureeffective implementation ofhealth ministry's January 25guidelines which prescribe pro-cedures and practices to beadopted for infection preven-tion and control.

The plea has also sought adirection to the authorities totake necessary steps to ensureadherence to the guidelinesissued by the WHO and thehealth ministry on rationaluse of PPE for COVID-19.

It also said that doctorsand other para-medical pro-fessionals should be providedfacilities including food, sep-arate transportation andaccommodation or isolationrooms to protect exposure oftheir families. PTI

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New Delhi: Some of the 160-odd Tablighi Jamaat attendeesquarantined at a railway facil-ity in southeast Delhi “misbe-haved” with and “even spit” atdoctors and healthcare per-sonnel attending to them, arailway spokesperson said onWednesday.

A total of 167 attendeeswere taken to the makeshiftquarantine centres set up onthe railway property inTughlakabad on Tuesdayevening after being evacuatedfrom the Nizamuddin Markaz,the Tablighi Jamaat headquar-ters in south Delhi which hasemerged as a COVID-19hotspot.

After the attendees wereaccommodated in the facility,residents of the railway colonyraised concerns over their safe-ty and said they feared about

spread of the deadly virus,prompting senior officials torequest local authorities fornecessary action, sources said.

“At the quarantine centres,they (attendees) misbehavedwith the staff and even raisedobjections over the food beingserved to them... They evenspit at the doctors and thoseattending to them and refusedto stop roaming around thequarantine facilities,” Northern

Railway spokesperson DeepakKumar said.

"We informed the DM(district magistrate of) SouthEast Delhi to arrange neces-sary security to control themor to shift them to any othersuitable place. At 5:30 pm, fourDelhi Police constables and sixCRPF jawans along with aPCR van have been deployedat the quarantine centres,"Kumar said.

Ninety-seven of the atten-dees were accommodated inthe Diesel Shed TrainingSchool Hostel QuarantineCentre and 70 were kept at theRPF Barrack QuarantineCentre by the district authorities.

Residents alleged that thecolony was not sanitized even24 hours after the people werequarantined there. Fearing

spread of the virus, the resi-dents remained indoors andcould not even go out to pro-cure essentials.

"While standing near thebus, many of the peoplecoughed, sneezed and evenspit on the road. How are we tofeel safe?" a resident told PTI.

Sources say that seniorofficials of the railways havealready spoken to the districtauthorities on the issue.

"The railways hasinformed the relevant author-ities and steps are being takento ensure their safety," one ofthe sources said.

Tabligh-e-Jamaat's Markazin Nizamuddin West hasemerged as an epicentre forspread of the coronavirus indifferent parts of the countryafter thousands of people tookpart in a congregation from

March 1-15.Six people who died in

Telangana and one in Jammuand Kashmir had attended thecongregation. In Delhi alone,24 participants tested positivefor the disease. By Wednesdaymorning, a total of 2,346 per-sons were evacuated from thecentre, of whom 536 were hos-pitalised, Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal said.

After the matter came tolight, the Centre and state gov-ernments swung into action totrace people who had attend-ed the congregation.

The railways helped intracing people who came incontact with the participants,many of whom took trainsbound for southern India fromDelhi. As many as five trainsand thousands of people arenow under the scanner. PTI

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Apolice unit distributed over1,000 food packets in var-

ious areas of Delhi to help peo-ple amid the lockdown over thecoronavirus pandemic, offi-cials said on Wednesday.

The Delhi Police FirstBattalion arranged 1,422 foodpackets for distribution in var-ious localities.

"The packets containedrice, pulses and table salt. Outof these, 400 food packets weredistributed in Tilak Nagar,Mundka, Rampura,Karampura, Mohan Garden,Nangli and Najafgarh areas,"Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (First Battalion) RakeshBansal said.

Another 472 packets weredistributed at Naraina, KarolBagh, Samaypur Badli,Swaroop Nagar, Chhatarpur,Narela, Paharganj, Todapur,Kapas Hera and Sadar Bazarareas. PTI

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From Page 1“The police will trace their movements’

history. With the help of their mobile phonesdetails, police can easily find out that howmany people have come to their contact andpolice can easily find out their whereabouts,”said Sisodia.

He appealed to the people, who came toNizamuddin West to participate in the Markazin March to contact administration withoutany further delay and surrender to the localmedical facilities immediately so that they cango through a proper medical checkup.

“I request all people who came here forMarkaz to corporate with the police and localadministration. If you will create any troublefor local police and administration and not vol-untary disclose about you and later if itemerged that you are infected and hiding yourdiseases, then a strict action will be takenagainst you,” said Sisodai.

From Page 1Kerala has seen nine deaths

including suicides not due to theinfection but because of the non-availability of alcohol. InKarnataka too, reports of addict-ed people along with alcoholconsumption issues werebrought to them by their fami-ly members were brought to thenotice of the Government.

Alcohol is among the lead-ing causes of preventable deathworldwide, with 3 million deathsper year attributable to alcohol.

According to a report pub-lished in The Lancet last year,Indians are drinking more thanever before, with the annual percapita alcohol consumptiongoing up by 38 per cent inseven years to 5.9 litres (ltr) in2017, up from 4.3 ltr in 2010.The study on harmful alcoholuse in 189 countries said that

globally, alcohol intakeincreased from 5.9 ltr per adultper year in 1990, to 6.5 ltr in2017, and the total volume ofalcohol consumed per yearwent up by 70 per cent - from20,999 million ltr in 1990 to35,676 million ltr in 2017.

If current trends continue,the world will not meet theWHO’s target of reducingharmful use of alcohol by 10per cent by 2025. “To achieveglobal targets to reduce harm-ful alcohol use, the authors callfor effective policy measuressuch as the WHO best-buys,including increasing taxation,restricting availability, and ban-ning alcohol marketing andadvertising, to be introducedglobally, especially in rapidlydeveloping countries withgrowing rates of alcohol use,”said the report.

From Page 1In the gazette notification issued

by the Ministry of Home Affairs,classified as extraordinary, theCentre has repealed the J&K CivilServices (special provisions) Act.

It has also introduced changesin Sections 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 13 of theJ&K Civil Services (decentralisationand recruitment) Act, 2010. The Actis among 109 laws of the erstwhileState that have been amendedthrough Tuesday’s order that alsorepeals 29 other laws. While Section5A now states that no person shallbe eligible for appointment to a postcarrying a pay scale for not morethan Level 4 “unless he is a domi-cile of UT of J&K”, in Sections 6, 7and 8 the words “permanent resi-dent of the State” have been substi-tuted with “Domicile of UnionTerritory of Jammu & Kashmir”.

These sections of the J&K CivilServices Act, 2010, dealt withappointments at district, division-al and State levels.

The Section 13 of J&K CivilServices Act, 2010, which has beenomitted completely, defined resi-dence in the erstwhile State ofJammu & Kashmir. The new ruleshave also been extended to childrenof those who fulfil the above men-tioned criteria even if they do notlive in J&K.

Political parties in the Valleytermed the Centre’s new rule asadding insult to injury of the peo-ple as the rule lacked the promisedprotections. The NationalConference termed the new rules ashollow and the People’s DemocraticParty (PDP) said the rules will giverise to massive problems for resi-dents of J&K.

“Talk about suspect timing. Ata time when all our efforts & atten-tion should be focused on the#COVID outbreak the Governmentslips in a new domicile law for J&K.Insult is heaped on injury when wesee the law offers none of the pro-tections that had been promised,”National Conference leader OmarAbdullah said in a series of tweets.The former Chief Minister who justreleased from detention said thenew law was so hollow that evenpoliticians with “Delhi’s blessings”were forced to criticise it.

“You can imagine how hollowthe domicile law is from the fact thateven the new party created withDelhi’s blessings, whose leaderswere lobbying in Delhi for this law,have been forced to criticise the#JKdomicilelaw,” he added. Omarwas apparently referring to thecriticism of the domicile law byJammu & Kashmir Apni Partyfounder Altaf Bukhari.

Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) said the rules will give rise tomassive problems for residents ofJ&K.

“The domicile law as it appearsis not only trying to shake theboundaries of an already existingState, but it is also trying to give riseto massive problems for residents ofJ&K,” tweeted the PDP.

The party said the Centre’s“manipulation of the law” wouldonly further alienate the people.

“As the GOI (Government ofIndia) tries to manipulate a law thatprovides guarantees to Kashmiris,it is only further alienating people,by depriving them of their consti-tutional rights. When GOI impos-es orders that relegate electedKashmiri leaders to nothingness,GOI shows how it doesn’t want localKashmiris to govern the land theyfought for,” the PDP said.

Jammu & Kashmir People’sConference (JKPC) led by SajadGani Lone said the Presidentialorder defining the domicile lawissued at the depth of night whilethe world is under the grip of adeadly pandemic, falls way short ofexpectations even for those whoexpected some relief and some rec-onciliation process.

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From Page 1In Tamil Nadu, the State

was tracking at least 1,500 peo-ple, 300 of whom were stilluntraceable as of Tuesdaynight.

Nearly 300 people fromacross Karnataka attended thecongregation, State HomeMinister Basavaraj Bommaisaid on Tuesday, creating a“dangerous situation”. Only 26of the delegates (all from Bidar)have been traced. TheTumakuru preacher whoattended the meet is learned tohave had direct contact with atleast 82 people, including 45family members. The 26 dele-gates who were traced all test-ed negative, State HealthMinister B Sreeramulu tweeted.

In UP, police in 18 districtshad tracked down 128 of the157 people from the Statewho had attended the congre-gation. While 120 were foundquarantined in Delhi, eightwere traced to their native vil-

lages and cities and have beenquarantined at home. A searchis on for the remaining 29. Thepolice also traced 95 otherswho had attended Jamaatevent and were not on the listof 157 from UP shared by theDelhi Police.

A total of 185 people fromMaharashtra had attended thecongregation, officials said.Maharashtra MinorityDevelopment Minister NawabMalik, however, said he hadlearned “from the media” that109 people from his State hadattended the meet.

“I have asked officials tofind out how many actuallyattended it. We are also talk-ing to members of the TablighiJamaat to find out,” he said.The Ahmednagar districtadministration later said ithad found 35 returnees, most-ly foreign nationals.

At least 20 villages acrossBandipora, Pulwama, Shopianand Budgam in J&K havebeen identified as red zonesand the administration hasprepared a 50-page list of peo-ple from the UT who eitherattended the event at theTablighi Jamaat Markaz or

had been on contact withattendees.

A total of 1,548 peoplehave been evacuated from theNizamudddin Markaz. Of this,441 have been hospitalisedbecause they exhibited symp-toms while the remaining1,107 people have been quar-antined. Of those hospitalised,24 have already tested positivefor Covid-19 and, given thesymptoms and history ofdirect contact with positivecases, doctors said there was ahigh likelihood of many oth-ers testing positive.

Tamil Nadu HealthSecretary Beela Rajeshannounced that by Tuesday atleast 67 of the Tablighi Jamaatcluster had tested positive,taking Tamil Nadu’s positivecases to 124, the third highestafter Maharashtra and Kerala;50 of these infections wererecorded on Tuesday.

The TN Government alsoadmitted that at least 300 ofthe 1,500 delegates from theState were untraceable. ChiefMinister Edappadi KPalaniswami appealed to peo-ple to come forward forscreening.

���������� �����888 From Page 1

In a Journal of theAmerican Medical Associationarticle published last week,Lydia said peak exhalationspeeds can reach 33 to 100 feetper second (36 km/h and 110km/h) and "currently used sur-gical and N95 masks are nottested for these potential char-acteristics of respiratory emis-sions.”

Lydia was doing research ondynamics of exhalations(coughs and sneezes, forinstance) for years at the FluidDynamics of DiseaseTransmission Laboratory.

Her research could haveimplications for the globalCOVID-19 pandemic, thoughmeasures called for “there’s anurgency in revising the guide-lines currently being given bythe WHO and the CDC on theneeds for protective equipment,particularly for the frontlinehealth care workers,” A Lydiatold US TODAY.

WHO's advisory suggeststhat "droplets can travel onlyshort distances through the air

and either land on people orland on surfaces that peoplelater touch." This is the basis forthe hygiene protocol that urgespeople "to wash hands fre-quently and not touch the face,because that could bring thevirus into contact with the noseor mouth."

Lydia's research, however,calls for better measures toprotect health care workers and,potentially, more distance frominfected people who are cough-ing or sneezing. She said currentguidelines are based on "largedroplets" as the method oftransmission for the virus andthe idea that those large dropletscan only go a certain distance.

Dr. Paul Pottinger, an infec-tious disease professor at theUniversity of WashingtonSchool of Medicine, said ques-tions remain about the dis-tances at which the virus iseffective.

"For me, the question is nothow far the germs can travel, buthow far can they travel beforethey're no longer a threat. Thesmaller the germ particles, thelower the risk that they mightinfect somebody who wouldbreathe them in or get them

stuck in their nose or theirmouth," Pottinger told USTODAY.

WHO referred to a recentscientific brief on the methodsof transmission, which recom-mended "droplet and contactprecautions for those peoplecaring for COVID-19 patients."

Bourouiba said she wants tosee recommendations madebased on current science not"policies based on supply, forexample, because we don't haveenough PPE (personal protec-tive equipment)."

"Although there remains alot of questions to be addressedabout how much virus is at agiven distance or not, we haveno answer one way or anotherat this time," she said."Therefore, the precautionaryprinciple should drive the poli-cies to state that we should havehigh-grade respirators used forhealthcare workers."

"Once that's decided, that'sthe thrust that's needed to nowmobilise most effectively thekind of tremendous high pro-duction level that is possible toreach in a great country like theUnited States. This thrust is nothappening," she added.

From Page 1"We can't issue ration card

but with this process we willhave a record of these peopleand we will provide themration," Kejriwal said.

"Non-ration card holderswill be given ration. To avail it,such people need to apply

online and on that basis, we willprovide them ration," Kejriwalsaid.

Around 71 lakh people arebeing provided 7.5 kgs rationeach at the ration shops. Butnon-ration card holders were achallenge for them, and theDelhi Government has createda system for roughly 10 lakhpeople.

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Given the corona lockdowncrisis, the Centre on

Wednesday allowed limitedregistration of BS IV normsvehicles all over the country,except Delhi/NCR, viz condi-tional sale and registration ofnot more than 10 per centpending BS-4 stock with vehi-cle dealers within 10 days oflifting of the lockdown in thecountry.

The Supreme Court whichhas mandated for BSVI norms

vehicle to be registered in thecountry beginning April 1,2020, last week allowed limit-ed and conditional sale and ofsome stock of BSIV.

The Ministry of RoadTransport and Highways(MoRTH) has advised NationalInformatics Centre (NIC) tofacilitate the States /UTs in lim-ited registration of BS-IV vehi-cles all over India exceptDelhi/NCR in compliance withSupreme Court directions con-tained in its order dated March27, 2020.

Page 3: €¦ · Maulana Saad has been untraceable since March 28 after he was served a notice by the Delhi Police. “Police teams are raiding several places across the west-ern Uttar Pradesh

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To contain the rise of coro-navirus in the national

Capital, the Delhi Fire Services(DFS) personnel will be in thefield for disinfecting vulnera-ble places and spots across thecity. Delhi LieutenantGovernor, Anil Baijal, onWednesday asked authoritiesto deploy fire services person-nel for disinfecting COVID-19hotspots, quarantine centresand public places to check thespread of the virus, which hasinfected at least 120 people andkilled two in the nationalCapital.

To review containmentmeasures being taken in thewake of the coronavirus out-break the L-G also held ahigh-level meeting with ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal,Chief Secretary Vijay KumarDev, Delhi PoliceCommissioner, SN Srivastavaand other senior officers.

The lieutenant governorsaid district authorities willcontinue effective measuresfor enforcing the ongoing lock-down, social distancing andhome quarantine.

“Also advised to use firebrigade for disinfecting vul-nerable neighbourhoods, espe-

cially the hotspot areas, quar-antine centres, public places,etc. Directed district disastermanagement authorities totake concerted preventiveactions,” Baijal also wrote ontwitter.

In another tweet, he saidthat in the meeting hereviewed medical prepared-ness, procurement of medicalessentials, discharge guide-lines, quarantines and mea-sures to enforce lockdown.

During the meeting, LIGdirected DistrictAdministration and DelhiPolice to visit home shelters,night shelters and food distri-bution centres to check adher-ence to social distancing norms.

“If such places are crowd-ed then alternate arrangementsshould be immediately madeto ensure proper social dis-tancing,” said L-G. He alsodirected concerned authoritiesto ensure social distancing atATMs, food distributionpoints.

During the meeting, theDelhi Commissioner of Policeinformed that as per theinstructions, DTC buses havebeen deployed in all the policestations for transportingstranded people to sheltershomes.

It was further apprised thatall vehicles transporting goodsare being allowed to ply as perdirections of Government of

India. It was also informed thatDelhi Police is continuouslychecking e-passes and if anyviolations are found, e-passesare seized and action as per lawis being initiated.

Meanwhile, Delhi StateCancer Institute, run by theDelhi government, has beenshut for a day on Wednesdayafter a doctor tested positivefor COVID-19.

The total number of coro-navirus cases in Delhi climbedto 120 on Tuesday after 23 newcases of the disease werereported.

These 120 cases include 24people who took part in a reli-gious gathering in NizamuddinWest earlier this month.

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Amid the nationwide lock-down, the New Delhi

Municipal Council (NDMC)has started a drive to protectgreenery and horticulture andmaintain sanitation in andaround parks and public placesin the Lutyens’ Delhi.

“It is comprehensive effortsof NDMC, maintaining 1,500acres of green area and 135green avenues, 10 major parks,1,400 residential colonies, 10departmental nurseries includ-ing three Hi- Tech nurseries andthree international relationshipsmemorial parks and prestigiousGarden like Nehru Park, LodiGarden, Talkatora Garden andSanjay Jheel, Children Park,India Gate, Central Parks,Connaught Place, CWG Park,Shanti Path etc,” the civic bodysaid in a statement.

A senior NDMC officialsaid that due to lockdown to

control the pathogenicCoronaVirus, everyone includ-ing our staff is bound to remainat home. However, consideringthe importance of upkeep of thegreenery of Lutyens Delhi, thehorticulture department hasdeployed 25 per cent of its stafffor the purpose.

The official said that thereare more than 20 thousandheritage trees in the area, whichare the pride and backbone ofNDMC greenery. Besides roads,avenue, roundabout with beau-tiful manicured hedges, shrubs,ground covers in the side bermsare also complement equally toshow NDMC area is the most

beautiful in the national Capital,he added.

He further said that any fur-ther postponement in lifting dryleaves and garbage may turn outa huge problem later in liftingand disposal mechanism.Therefore by considering alllimitations, issues likely to arisein future and importance ofmaintaining reputation andstandard of Council deploymentplan has made despite of lock-down situation, he said.

The civic body has also pro-vided all protective equipmentto gardeners and sanitationstaffs such as mask, sanitiserbesides others.

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The Gurugram districtadministration on Tuesday

sent 27 coronavirus suspectedpatients from Pataudi and sixfrom Dhankot village to quar-antine at the Civil Hospital aftercollecting their samples fortesting.

However, local adminis-tration officials said that theywere yet to ascertain if thepatients sent to quarantinewere part of the Tablighi Jamaatevent held at Nizamuddin inDelhi.

In connection with thematter, two raids were con-ducted at Helimandi underPataudi tahsil and Dhankotvillage.

According to the healthofficials, 27 people arrived inPataudi recently and residents

of the area fear that they werepart of the Tablighi Jamaat.“These people are fromMahendergarh district inHaryana, Ghaziabad andDelhi,” said a health official.

Of these 27 people, 13 areadults and the remaining arechildren. They were taken tocivil hospital, sector 10, wheretheir samples were collected forCovid-19 testing.

The locals suspect thatsome of the family membersrecently participated in theTablighi Jamaat event and are suspected coronaviruscases. The investigation is cur-rently on to know how manypersons are left in the houseand the places they visitedrecently.

“We were informed aboutpeople in Dhankot and Pataudi.So, we had to admit them inquarantine. We have also post-

ed pamphlets outside thierhouse with directions to avoidvisiting or approaching thathouse. That house is also underquarantine until it is sanitised,”said Dr Jaswant Singh Punia,Chief Medical Officer (CMO)Gurugram.

In the case of Dhankot, sixpersons, who had participatedin the religious event werefound and admitted to the iso-lation ward of the CivilHospital in Sector 10.

A total of 10 people havetested positive in Gurugram inwhich 6 patients have recov-ered so far and have been dis-charged and anyone of these 33people test positive, the tallywill spike.

Apart from this the stategovernment has designatedfive private laboratories inGurugram district for COVID-19 testing.

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Two men who drove aroundsix kilometres to feed

pigeons on the Lala lajpat Raiflyover in southeast Delhi’sNizamuddin area were arrestedfor not possessing curfew pass-es amid the lockdown imposedto control the spread of coron-avirus, police said onWednesday.

The accused have beenidentified as Sadik Khan (32)and Sarvan Kumar Choudhary(33), residents of Nizamuddinarea, they said.

On Tuesday afternoon, theduo in their car reached the fly-over and started feeding thepigeons, following which acrowd of 10-12 people gatheredaround them.

The crowd dispersed whenthe police arrived but they werenabbed and their vehicle seized,a senior police officer said.

They run a restaurant anddidn’’t have any curfew pass.They were arrested under therelevant sections of the IndianPenal Code, police added.

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To ensure proper imple-mentation of the lockdown

as well as to spread awarenessabout coronavirus throughannouncements, the DelhiPolice on Wednesday flaggedoff 40 bikes which would beused for patrolling in southDelhi.

According to Atul KumarThakur, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), South district, thesebikes will be used to conductregular mobile patrolling in thearea and for announcements toadvise and warn people tostrictly follow the lockdownand remain at home.

“Strict checking will bedone by these bikes at the bor-der pickets, roads and insidethe streets within the city inevery police station area to

ensure that no gathering ormovement takes place in con-travention of the prohibitoryorder,” said the DCP.

“The patrolling bikes willcheck the unnecessary move-ment of people, who, if foundon the road will be sent to near-by shelter homes. However,

the suspicious vehicles includ-ing trucks, tempos and tankerswill be checked properly bythese motorcycles to ensurethat the vehicles are not vio-lating any rules,” said the DCP.

“Police teams will ensurepermanent markings near gro-cery shops, vegetables shops,

milk kiosks, ATMs and bankswhere citizens may be presentto ensure social distancing,”said the DCP.

“These bike staff will alsogather intelligence and keep aregular check on the movementof violators and criminals,”said the DCP.

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In order to provide relief toneedy, Indian Railways is

providing bulk cooked foodthrough base kitchens ofIRCTC across the countrywith the help of security per-sonnel, commercial depart-ments of zones, StateGovernments and NGOs.

Minister of RailwaysPiyush Goyal has also direct-ed the officials of IndianRailways to reach out to needypeople with food and otherassistance to the best of theirhuman abilities and resources.

The Minister said thatRailways should widen theoutreach of their efforts and gobeyond the proximities of rail-ways stations to deeper areas inconsultation with districtauthorities and NGOs etc. The

direction came in a meetingthat attended by Minister ofState for Railways SureshAngadi, members of the Railway board, GMs andheads of public sectors unitsfrom across the nation, wholinked up through video con-ferencing.

Complimenting theRailways for extraordinarywork being done so far in thefight against Corona andadopting innovative solutionslike conversion of passengercoaches as isolation coaches,Goyal expressed confidencethat all the zones will meet thechallenge of making thesecoaches fully ready and wouldbe equipped at the earliest. Itmay be noted that work onconversion of first lot of 5,000coaches has already started ina phased manner

Railway Board officials

informed the Minister thatfollowing Prime Minister’s callto the nation, a contribution of�151 crore was being made toPM CARE fund. ChairmanRailway Board Vinod KumarYadav informed that employ-ees of Indian Railways and RailPSUs took a decision to foregoone day’s salary and contributeto the PM CARE Fund. ManyRailway PSUs are also planningto contribute to the fund tobolster the national efforts.

Railway organisations likeIRCTC and Rapid ActionForce (RPF) are alreadyengaged in distribution of freemeals to the needy persons. Ithas distributed 102,937 foodpackets till March 28 from itskitchens in New Delhi,Bangalore, Hubli, MumbaiCentral, Ahmedabad,Bhusaval, Howrah, Patna,Gaya, Ranchi, Katihar, Deen

Dayal Upadhyaya Nagar,Balasore, Vijaywada, Khurda,Kaadpali, Tiruchirapalli,Dhanbad, Guwahati andSamastipur spread over vari-ous zones such as Northern,Western, Eastern, Southernand South Central.

While reviewing the run-ning of special Parcel Trains byRailways to supply importantitems, Goyal asked the officialsto make the service availableon more routes so that goodslike medicines, essential equip-ments, edibles can be sup-plied all over the country in aquick time

The Minister said that forthe first time in history, not asingle passenger lost their lifein last twelve months in a rail-way accident. Now we areworking to ensure thatCOVID 19 has least impact onIndia.

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Two resident doctors of theCentre-run Safdarjung

Hospital in Delhi have testedpositive for coronavirus infec-tion. One of them, who is partof the team treating COVID-19patients at the hospital, isbelieved to have contractedthe disease during the course ofduty, official said.

According to sources, thefemale resident doctor, a third-year post-graduate student ofthe biochemistry department,who has tested positive for thenovel coronavirus had recent-ly travelled abroad.

Both of them showedsymptoms of COVID-19 andtheir test results came out pos-itive two days ago. They arenow undergoing treatment atthe isolation ward of theSafdarjung hospital.

“All the doctors and staffwho had come in contact withthem have been tested. So far,none of the contacts has test-ed positive for coronavirusinfection,” they said, adding allof them have been asked tomonitor their health.

Meanwhile, Delhi StateCancer Institute has been shutfor a day after a doctor tested

positive for COVID- 19. TillMonday night, the number ofcases of the deadly COVID-19stood at 97, including twodeaths

The Delhi government-run institute is being disin-fected and that is why it hasbeen shut for a day, accordingto officials. The doctor, whotested positive for coronavirus,worked at the institute.

The total number of coro-navirus cases in Delhi climbedto 120 on Tuesday after 23 newcases of the disease werereported. These 120 casesinclude 24 people who tookpart in a religious congregationat the Markaz in NizamuddinWest earlier this month.

According to the Unionhealth ministry, 1,637 COVID-19 cases have been reported inthe country so far, out of which38 people have died.

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In view of the prevailing lock-down period due to COVID-

19 epidemic, the DelhiDevelopment Authority (DDA)has decided to suspend month-ly membership subscription,monthly user charges andmonthly coaching fees at DDA’ssports complexes and GolfCourses during the period.

“The deduction would bemade on pro rata basis. Besides,all caddies at DDA Qutab GolfCourse and Bhalaswa GolfCourse, who are not paid bymanagement, are being givendaily relief of �250 during thisperiod,” it said in a statement.

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Asking for ensuring strictregulations amid ongoing

lockdown, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal onWednesday said with the helpof modern technology, theadministration will track themovements of people whohave been put under manda-tory quarantine.

Kejriwal announced thatwith the help of Delhi police,the Delhi Government willensure less transmission ofcoronavirus particularly in thelockdown period as this ishigh time for the communitytransmission.

“We have written a letter toHome Minister Amit Shah totrace mobile phones of quar-antines in Delhi, by doing so, wewill have confirmation aboutthe movements of patientswhile they are advised to stayindoors , moreover, this willalso help in getting informationabout to whom they met inpast, with this process, we canlimit the chances of COVID-19decision,” said Kejriwal.

With the help of police, theDelhi Government has tracedthe details of 11,840 quarantinepeople and have been send forfurther inspection while detailsof 14,345 quarantines areunder the process.

Mentioning about TabilighiJamaat in Nizamuddin Markaz,Kejriwal said that more than2000 people were evacuated.Around 766 people are admit-ted in various hospitals out ofwhich 112 are corona positivecases, he said.

The Delhi Governmenthas also initiated the release of�5,000 assistance to construc-tion workers through Delhi

Labour Welfare Board.The Aam Aadmi Party

(AAP) has also announced �1crore for health warriors’ fam-ily dying while treating Coronapatients in Delhi.

Lauding the sterling jobbeing done by the medicalstaff- doctors and others,Kejriwal said, “Our doctorsalso fighting to contain coro-na spread, the way soldiersfight on the borders. We havemade arrangements for med-ical staffs, instance - food andstay as they are working withlimited sources in high riskzone”, the Chief Ministeradded.

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The Delhi Police has regis-tered more than 200 cases

and 4,053 people detained onWednesday for violatingGovernment orders during thecoronavirus lockdown.

According to the datashared by the police, 249 caseswere registered under section188 (for disobedience to orderduly promulgated by publicservant) of the Indian PenalCode (IPC) till 5pm.

“A total of 4,053 peoplehave been detained under sec-tion 65 (persons bound tocomply with reasonable direc-tions of police officers) and 515vehicles have been impoundedunder section 66 of the DelhiPolice Act,” police stated.

A total of 1,022 movement

passes have been issued, policesaid.

The move comes afterPrime Minister Narendra Modion Tuesday announced a com-plete lockdown across thecountry for 21 days, assertingsocial distancing is the onlyway out for the country in itsdecisive battle against the virus.

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The Delhi Police has regis-tered a case in connection

with the use of DTC and clus-ter buses to carry migrantworkers leaving the city toAnand Vihar ISBT amid thelockdown due to COVID-19outbreak. Police said that thecase was registered at Shakarpurpolice station in East Delhibased on the complaint of apoliceman.

According to a seniorpolice official, police have reg-istered the case under varioussections of IPC and the DisasterManagement Act, 2005.

“This act on the part of busdrivers/conductors and opera-tions head of DIMTS CK Goyaland other Government ser-vants who are responsible for it,had committed an offenceunder Sections 269, 270, 271and 188 of IPC and Section 55of Disaster Management Act,”stated the FIR.

Meanwhile, there was noreaction available from Delhi

Transport Minister KailashGahlot.

“The complainant was onpicket duty at ITO bridge onSunday when he saw 44 DTCand cluster buses ferryingmigrant workers. Whenenquired, the passengers saidthey were going to AnandVihar Inter State Bus Terminal(ISBT) from where they willboard the buses to their nativeplaces in Uttar Pradesh andBihar,” stated the FIR.

The passengers werebriefed about COVID 19 andthe lockdown, and the buses

were sent back to the placesfrom where they started.

According to the police, thebuses originated from variousparts of the city, includingBadarpur, Vasant Vihar, HariNagar, Anand Parbat, UttamNagar, Manglapuri, Munirkaand Punjabi Bagh.

“When drivers of thesebuses were asked why were theycarrying passengers that toowithout issuing them tickets,they replied, ‘upar se order hai’(there are orders from seniorofficers),” the complainant said.

The Delhi Integrated Multi

Modal System (DIMTS), whichoperates cluster buses in thecity, refused to comment on theepisode.

Meanwhile, the DelhiContract Bus Association in astatement claimed that 50 to 60buses of its members that weredeployed to transport migrantworkers, on the directions ofgovernment, were seized bythe police.

The association appealed tothe prime minister, home min-ister and Delhi chief minister tohelp the bus operators and getthe buses released.

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Page 4: €¦ · Maulana Saad has been untraceable since March 28 after he was served a notice by the Delhi Police. “Police teams are raiding several places across the west-ern Uttar Pradesh

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Continuing with their effortsto fight the coronavirus

pandemic, the Armed forceshave taken several measures tomeet any exigency in the com-ing days including readyingmore than 9,000 beds, 8,500doctors, nurses and supportstaff and airlifting more than 25tons of medicines to the northeast and Ladakh in the last five days.

Giving these updates in avideo conference review meet-ing held here on Wednesday byDefence Minister RajnathSingh, the Services also said25,000 National CadetCorps(NCC)cadets weremobilised to assist the localadministration and the armedforces were in constant touchwith the civil authorities.

The Defence Ministerappreciated the efforts beingmade by various Services,organisations and DefencePublic SectorUndertakings(DPSUs)s interms of evacuation, provisionof health care in quarantinefacilities and research & pro-duction of medical equipmentsuch as sanitisers, facemasksand Personal ProtectiveEquipment (PPE). He directedall the organisations to redou-ble their efforts and work inclose coordination with otherMinistries/organisations of

central government in this cru-cial time.

Chief of DefenceStaff(CDS) General BipinRawat informed Singh thatseparate hospitals have beenidentified to exclusively dealwith COVID-19 and morethan 9,000 hospital beds havebeen made available. Over1,000 evacuees are quaran-tined at facilities in Jaisalmer,Jodhpur, Chennai, Manesar,Hindan and Mumbai. Theirquarantine period will end byApril 7, 2020.

Air Chief RKS Bhadauriainformed that the Air Forceplanes conducted several sor-ties within the country in thelast five days to transportapproximately 25 tonnes ofmedical supplies.

He said, critical opera-tional work is continuing whileensuring all necessary precau-tions. Navy Chief AdmiralKarambir Singh said navalships are on standby to extendany required assistance. Hesaid, the Navy is also extendingassistance as required by localcivilian administration.

Army Chief General M MNaravane said more than 8,500doctors and support staff areavailable to extend necessaryassistance to civilian adminis-tration. Referring to thedefence minister’s directionthat help should be provided toneighbouring countries, he

said assistance to Nepal in theform of medical equipmentwill be delivered shortly.

Secretary Department ofDefence R&D and ChairmanDefence Research andD e v e l o p m e n tO r g a n i s a t i o n ( D R D O ) GSatheesh Reddy said 50,000litres of sanitizers made byDRDO labs were supplied tovarious security entities,including the Delhi Police andanother one lakh litres weresupplied all over the country.

He said, a five-layered nanotechnology face mask N99 arebeing made on war footing.More than 10,000 have alreadybeen made and soon per dayproduction will be extended to20,000, Reddy said adding theDRDO laboratories have alsosupplied 40,000 other facemasks to the Delhi Police.

The DRDO Secretary,being a member of the empow-ered Group of Secretaries, iscoordinating closely withMinistry of Health and FamilyWelfare regarding the require-ment of medical equipment.Another DRDO laboratory hasalso made arrangements tomake 20,000 PPE per day. TheDRDO is also engaged inminor modification of ventila-tors so that one machine cansupport four patients at thesame time.

Director General ArmedForces Medical

Services(AFMS) Lt GeneralAnup Banerji informed theDefence Minister that neces-sary equipment has been pro-cured and dispatched to vari-ous hospitals. Retired healthprofessionals have also beenkept in readiness to volunteertheir services. Approximately25,000 National Cadet Corps(NCC) cadets are beingmobilised to provide necessarylocal assistance.

Various DPSUs such asHindustan AeronauticsLimited (HAL), BharatElectronics Limited (BEL),Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited(MIDHANI), Bharat DynamicsLimited (BDL), Bharat EarthMovers Limited (BEML),Hindustan Shipyard Limited(HSL) and Goa ShipyardLimited (GSL) have con-

tributed 40 crores of their cor-porate social responsibility(CSR) funds to PrimeMinister’s Citizen Assistanceand Relief in EmergencySituations (PM-CARES) fund.In addition, they have alsocontributed one day salary ofall their employees to the PM-CARES fund.

Following the directionfrom the Defence Minister,the DPSUs conveyed to himthat they have made salary pay-ment to all the casual andcontractual workers also. TheOrdnance Factory Board(OFB) is also engaged in man-ufacturing hand sanitisers, facemasks and PPE.

The video conference wasattended by Minister of Statefor Defence Shripad Naik,Chief of Defence Staff General

Bipin Rawat, Chief of NavalStaff Admiral Karambir Singh,Chief of Air Staff Air ChiefMarshal R K S Bhadauria,Chief of Army Staff General MM Naravane, Defence SecretaryAjay Kumar, Secretary(Defence Production)RajKumar, Secretary (Ex-Servicemen Welfare)Sanjeevanee Kutty, Secretary(Defence Finance)Gargi Kaul,Secretary Department ofDefence R&D and ChairmanDefence Research &Development Organisation(DRDO)G Satheesh Reddy,Director General ArmedForces Medical Services(AFMS) Lt General AnupBanerji, heads of DefencePublic Sector Undertakings(DPSUs) and other senior civiland military officials.

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Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday wrote to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi urging him to consider giving

advance wages to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural EmploymentGuarantee Act (MGNREGA) workers hit by the nationwide lock-down. Congress too reiterated its demand on Wednesday that theunion government should announce minimum three months loaninterest waiver on EMIs for salaried, middle class and medium smalland micro enterprises (MSME).

This is the third such letter that Sonia has written to Modi inthe last one week urging the union government to take steps to tack-le on financial aspects in the midst of Corona outbreak and lock-down. “Social distancing norms have rendered all works unfeasi-ble under lockdown. Furthermore even after the work commences,MGNREGA workers have to wait for more than a month to receivewages,” Sonia said in the letter.

“Given the urgency of providing support to the rural poor, dueto lost wages, the government may consider immediate advance pay-ment of wages for 21 days to registered and active MGNREGA work-ers. The advance may be adjusted against the work to be done bythe workers, once MGNREGA sites are opened up,” she added.

Last week Sonia had written to Modi to consider direct cashtransfers to the poor, a six-month suspension of recoveries from farm-ers, waving off equated monthly instalments (EMIs) for the salariedclass for six months and a sector-wise relief package for business-es in view of the Covid-19 outbreak.

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India’s external and internalintelligence agencies failed to

read, assess and report thewarning signals emerging fromthe Tablighi Jamaat stable with-in and outside the country.

As Tablighi Jamaat contin-ued its ijtema (congregation) inKuala Lumpur (Feb 27-Mar 1),Lahore (March 13), Sulawesi,Selatan in Indonesia (Mar 18),26 Covid-19 positive Jamaatmembers were reported inMalaysia and 45 in Lahoreand an unknown numbers inIndonesia. But India’s externalIntelligence agency Researchand Analysis Wing (R&AW)did not report the viral epi-demic at Tablighi events in theregion or issue an alert to theeffect.

Similary, the IntelligenceBureau ignored the foreignTablighi members’ movementacross the country spreadingthe pandemic to the hinterland.

The issue of the Jamaat’scongregation in Kuala Lumpurwas highlighted there in themedia due to the threat itposed to public health amid thecoronavirus pandemic. Takingcognisance of the Jamaat-relat-

ed developments in Malaysia,Indonesia did not allow theTablighi to hold the congrega-tion from March 17 to 19.However, a number of theTablighis who had alreadyarrived on the venue inIndonesia infected a number ofco-participants.

While the COVID-19 out-break trend was developing inthe region in Tablighi’s con-gregations, hundreds of theJamaat members were assem-bled in the Nizamuddin areadespite concerned citizensexpressing concerns to theauthorities over the presence ofso many people in a relativelysmall facility amid the push forsocial distancing.

The returning jamaats weregiven clear instructions byTablinghi Jamaat chiefMohammad Saad to accessmore and more mosques aftergoing back from Nizamuddin.

Scores of foreign Tablighi

members spread across thecountry, spreading the coron-avirus to the interiors of thecountry and posing a majorthreat to public health amid theongoing lockdown in the coun-try to counter the COVID-19pandemic.

This is not the first timethat the Research and AnalysisWing, responsible for gatheringexternal intelligence, did notmeet the expectations of theGovernment as it could notassess the mood in theEuropean Union after the pas-sage of the CitizenshipAmendment Act by theParliament here. A resolutionagainst the CAA was movedrecently and the agency wascaught unawares.

Likewise, the IB has alsorecorded back to back lapseswith the agency not being ableto generate any credible inputsahead of the communal riots inthe national capital last month.

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The Centre may disburseover �8,000- �10,000 crore

to farmers as compensation forthe loss of kharif crop whichgot damaged due to excessiverains in October andNovember last year. Theamount is expected to bereleased by April 20. TheMinistry of Agriculture hasalso asked states to conductyield assessment of rabi cropalso to assess the damage. TheCentre disbursed compensa-tion of around �4,500 crore tofarmers in Maharashtra a fewweeks ago.

Officials of agricultureministry said that excess mon-soon rains and the floods

caused by them affected cropsin Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat,Karnataka, Assam, AndhraPradesh, Punjab, Odisha andBihar. Bihar has not soughtcompensation for kharif croploss due to excessive rains andflood.

“ The maximum payoutnow would be going to MadhyaPradesh where �2,500 crore-3,000 crore would be disbursed,followed by Karnataka (�1,500crore), Rajasthan (�1,200crore), Andhra Pradesh (� 800-1,000 crore) and Chhattisgarh(�600 crore),” officials added.The compensation for farmersin Rajasthan includex lossesincurred due to locust attacks,which damaged standing crops

in January-February 2020besides the kharif crop losses.

“The ministry is pushinginsurance companies to releasethe compensation at a timewhen farmers are facing severeproblems during lockdown,”officials added. TheMaharashtra government hassought �7,207-crore financialassistance from the Centre tocompensate farmers for theircrop damages due to unsea-sonal rain. Unseasonal rainhas damaged more than67.52% of the total kharif cropsown this year. As per theMaharashtra governmentclaim, it has damaged 94 lakhhectares of crop and 103.52lakh farmers were severelyaffected. in the state.

According to Skymet, thecountry as a whole received 110per cent of the long periodaverage (LPA) of 89 centimetresof rainfall during the four-month-long southwest mon-soon period, making it to theabove normal category. Amongmeteorological divisions,Central India and SouthernPeninsula received the maxi-mum rainfall of 129 per centand 116 per cent of their LPA,respectively. Among the 36meteorological sub-divisions,western Madhya Pradesh with161 per cent of its LPA emergedas the largest surplus, while thesubdivision that includesHaryana, Chandigarh andDelhi had a deficiency of 42 percent.

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Amid the coronavirus pan-demic, a study by top

Indian microbiologists haveclaimed that the strain of thevirus that causes Covid-19 dis-ease in India is not as deadlyas the ones which are taking atoll in Italy, Spain and the US.

On Tuesday, the IndianCouncil of Medical Research(ICMR) had said that three

types of coronavirus strainsare doing round in the country.

In an in-depth genomicanalysis of rapidly revolvingSARS-CoV-2(COVID-19)viruses, a team of scientists ledby top Indian microbiologistsdiscovered that strain found inIndia, matches with thesequence of new coronavirusfound in Wuhan, and is less vir-ulent.

However, while the strain iscomparatively less virulent, the

scientists also suggested thatbased on data, it is assumed that

the virus is mutating very rapid-ly. It means that the vaccinedeveloped for one strain mightnot work for other strains cir-culating in other countries.

If the virus after entering ahuman body mutates rapidlythen it often becomes difficultto counter it.

The study analysed thedata taken from different coun-tries including, Italy, Spain,US, China, Nepal and India.

“The study shows that virus

is mutating very rapidly. In sim-pler words, we can say the virusis cor hanging its structurequickly...which means it will bedifficult to develop a vaccine forprevention from this dreadedvirus.

“Even if we develop a vac-cine, we are not sure that thesame vaccine will work in otherparts of the world, looking atthe nature of different strains ofCOVID-19,” said Rup Lal, asenior scientist with The Energy

and Resources Institute(TERI).On why people are dying

more in Spain, Italy and now inthe US, scientist Vipin Gupta,a key member of Lal’s team, saidin their study it was discoveredthat virus which changed itselfrapidly in Europe and then inthe US, was more devastating.

On being asked about thevirus isolated here in India,Gupta said: “We cannot con-clude but safely say at thispoint, that strains of virus

found in India is less virulentwhen we compare it with theUS’’.” During the study, Indianmicrobiologist discovered thatgenomes of six isolates, specif-ically from the US, were foundto harbour unique amino acidand showed amino acid sub-stitutions in proteins.Interpreting the scientific ter-minology for common man,Gupta, who specialises inBioinformatics said, “This sug-gests the severity of mutating

viral genome in the populationof US. Simply to say the virusstrain in US is quite threaten-ing for humans”.

Lal said that differentstrategies are required and see-ing the fast changing charac-teristic of the virus, treatmentwould also be difficult.

“Our study is on, and themore we look deep into thesequence the more facts we willbe able to dig out,” added VipinGupta.

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With railway stations shutdown for passengers due

to Covid-19 lockdown, theAkhil Bharatiya Railway KhanPaan Licence WelfareAssociation (ABKPLWA) hassought intervention of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andRailway Minister Piyush Goyalseeking relief on license fees ofthe vendors involved in cateringneeds to passengers at railwaystations.

“As all small licensees havedeposited considerable amountof license fee, to provide assis-tance to them, it is urged to takeimmediate decision and issueinstructions to forego license feeand 18 per cent GST periodicallyas per contracts, “ said RajinderGupta, ABKPLWA president,in a letter to the RailwayMinister.

Gupta said since FinanceMinistry has taken a note of thefact that likely intensity of coro-navirus disease necessitatesmobilisation of financial help toneedy people and announcedvarious relief packages for weak-er sections and daily wage work-

ers in these days of gravest cri-sis, the vendors association ofIndian railways network tooseeks measures to help lakhs ofpeople associated with this busi-ness.

“While Ministry of Railwayshas granted relaxation in demur-rage-wharfage and Ministry ofFinance for payment of wages tooutsourced persons it is hightime to forego license fee as wellas GST of small catering vend-ing licenses for March 2020onwards so that they may be ableto help lakhs of families of rail-ways catering vending vendors,“ Gupta said.

He informed Rail Ministrythat soon after the lockdown theassociation issued advisory to allsmall licencees and their vendorsworking over Indian Railwaysplatforms network to take allprecautionary measures.

“Since complete closure ofRailways has been declaredthere is absolute shut down ofcatering vending stalls, trolleys,trays and lakhs of vendors’workers and their families areaffected so financial benefitsextended to all will be appreci-ated,” the letter said.

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The Union HRD Ministryon Wednesday directed the

Central Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE) to promoteall students of Classes 1 to 8 inthe country to the next Class inview of the nationwide lock-down due to the deadly coro-navirus.

Besides, it also announcedthat CBSE Class 10th and 12thresults are expected to bedeclared by May end providedthe CBSE board exams 2020 getover in April.

CBSE exams for class 10and class 12 were postponed onMarch 18 given the coron-avirus pandemic across thecountry. These exams, sched-uled between March 19, 2020to March 31, 2020 will be con-ducted post the 21 day lock-down imposed by the govern-ment. CBSE, however, is yet torevise the Class 10 and Class 12examination dates.

“Students are advised tokeep a watch on the officialCBSE website for latest infor-mation on results,” said a CBSEcircular.

This is not the first timethat CBSE exams have beenpostponed. The CBSE Class 10and Class 12 exams were alsopostponed due to the violence

that rocked Northeast Delhi. “The exams in the area for

class 12 will begin on March 31and conclude on April 14,while exams for class 10 willbegin on March 21 and con-clude on March 30,” a seniorHRD Ministry official said.

The board also announcedto promote all students ofclasses 1 to 8 in the all the CBSEaffiliated schools across thecountry.

“In view of the current sit-uation due to #COVID19, Ihave advised @cbseindia29 topromote ALL students study-ing in classes I-VIII to the nextclass or grade,” HRD MinisterRamesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’said in a series of tweets.

He also said that the stu-dents of classes 9 and 11 will bepromoted on school-basedassessments conducted dur-ing the year, adding that thosewho failed to get promoted thistime due to low assessmentscan appear in school based testsonline or offline.

“Students studying in class-es IX & XI will be promoted tonext class/grade based on theschool-based assessmentsincluding projects, periodictests, term exams, etc. con-ducted so far. Students notpromoted this time can appearin school-based tests, online oroffline,” Nishank tweeted.

The HRD ministry alsodirected the CBSE to conductclass 10 and 12 board exami-nations for only 29 main sub-jects which are crucial for pro-motion and admission to high-er educational institutions.

“Have advised CBSE toconduct board exams only for29 main subjects that are

required for promotion andcrucial for university admis-sions.

Whenever CBSE is in aposition to hold board exams,it shall conduct for 29 subjectsby giving adequate notice. Forrest of the subjects, CBSE willnot hold board exams andinstructions for their marking,

assessment will be issued soon,”he said.

The CBSE also announcedthat it will not conduct pend-ing class 10, 12 exams inschools affiliated to the boardin foreign countries.

The exams were postponedin view of the coronavirus out-break in the country.

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HRD Minister RameshPokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on

Wednesday directed theIndian Institutes ofTechnology (IITs) to ensurethat placements of studentsare not affected due to the sit-uation arising out of the coro-navirus pandemic.

In a meeting with headsof 23 IITs through video conferencing, he directed thata task force be set up for thepurpose.

“A task force call forplacements may be set up ininstitutes to liaise with variouscompanies to ensure that ade-

quate placement not belowthe levels of past years maytake place in these institutes.Academic calendar of theinstitutes may be prepared sothat students do not losesummer and winter intern-ships,” Nishank told the IITheads.

“Mental health-relatedchallenges of students duringthe lockdown period alsoneed to be addressed by allthe institutes and a helpline beestablished in this regard.There should be a task forceset up by every institute whichshould include psychologiststo handle mental healthissues,” he added.

The institutes are closed

and exams suspended due tothe nationwide lockdown inview of the coronavirus out-break that has claimed 38 livesin the country till now.

The Minister alsoinstructed the IITs to ensurethat they should conductactive research work in thearea of COVID19. PokhriyalNishank advised the institutesto continue with its researchwork already being done but given the pre-sent circumstances it isresponsibility of all citizens tocontribute for welfare of thenation and IITs have to playa crucial role for technologi-cal advancements includingmedical equipments.

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In one of the strongest con-demnations of the Tablighi

Jamaat, Union Minority AffairsMinister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvion Wednesday termed its reli-gious congregation a “Talibanicrime”and an “unpardonablesin” committed “intentionally”by the organisation.

The National Commissionfor Minorities also said theJamaat caused a “big damage”and asked states to ensure strictcompliance of the lockdown bymadrasas and other religiousplaces. It is said many congre-gation participants in Delhistayed in as many as 16mosques in the national capital.

“Talibani Crime by TablighiJamaat. This is not negligence.It’s a serious criminal act. Whenthe entire country is fightingunited against Corona, such asin is unpardonable,” the minor-ity affairs minister said in atweet.

Naqvi said Tablighi Jamaatcannot be pardoned for the reli-

gious gathering in Delhi’sNizamuddin area amid the out-break of novel coronavirus.

Naqvi also posted on hissocial media accounts mes-sages by Muslim religious lead-ers appealing to people to strict-ly follow the coronavirus lock-down and other guidelines tocontrol the virus.

Reacting on the TablighiJamaat gathering atNizamuddin area, Naqvi said,“They have put lives of manypeople in danger. Strict actionshould be taken against suchpeople and organisations thatdefy government directions.This has been done intention-ally and this is unfortunate.People who are not obeying thelockdown should not be for-given.”

In a letter to chief secretariesof states and union territories,NCM chief Syed GhayorulHasan Rizvi said theNizamuddin incident was a“serious violation” of the lock-down, and has put the lives offellow citizens at risk.

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Page 5: €¦ · Maulana Saad has been untraceable since March 28 after he was served a notice by the Delhi Police. “Police teams are raiding several places across the west-ern Uttar Pradesh

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The number of persons test-ed positive for coronavirus

and admitted to various hos-pitals in Tamil Nadu crossedthe 234 mark by Wednesdayevening, according to BeelaRajesh, Secretary, departmentof Health.

Speaking to reporters atChennai, Rajesh said 110 per-sons tested positive onWednesday alone. “All of thesepersons who returned from thereligious congregation held atNew Delhi. Efforts are on toidentify and trace all the 1,103persons from the State who hadattended the congregation. Thepatients admitted to hospitalson Wednesday include tworeligious preachers fromMyanmar and Indonesiarespectively,” said the HealthSecretary.

Officials of the departmentof health and local bodies areon a house-to-house search inTamil Nadu to trace more than500 persons who had attendedthe religious congregation heldin New Delhi early last monthand had gone missing sincethen. Most of them are fearedto carry the deadly COVID- 19the cause for corona disease.

The State’s efforts to control

the spread of coronavirus pan-demic went on a tailspin sinceTuesday following a suddenspurt in the number of casesdetected positive with COVID-19.

Tuesday alone saw 57 per-sons testing positive for coro-na virus and more than 50 ofthem were those who hadattended the religious congre-gation in New Delhi. With theadmission of 57 patients onTuesday, the number of personsundergoing treatment for coro-na virus in the State has crossedthe 125 mark. This includesten foreign nationals who arereligious preachers by profes-sion.

This is the highest figurerecorded in Tamil Nadu in asingle day since the pandemicbroke out in the country. TheState has been one with mini-mum Corona positive casesever since the administrationcommenced issuing bulletinsabout the number of patientstested with the pandemic.

Tamil Nadu, the focus ofwhich was to prevent commu-nity transmission of the virusand was confident of checkingthe progress of local transmis-sion to community transmis-sion was seen fighting a see-

saw battle as the number ofpositive cases shooting over theroof following the exodus fromDelhi’s Nizamuddeen.

According to the office ofthe Chief Secretary KShanmugham, 1131 personshad attended the religious con-gregation in New Delhi. “Wehave detected 515 of them andonce we trace the remainingindividiuals, we will be able toprevent the progress of coronavirus in the State,” saidShanmugham.

The seriousness of the sit-uation could be understoodfrom the words of the Stateadministration which acceptedthat the New Delhi returneeshad turned the trajectory ofCOVID-19.

Chief Minister EdappadiPalaniswamy himself came outon Wednesday morning andpaid a surprise visit to some ofthe Amma Restaurants in thecity that offer subsidised foodto the common man. AmmaRestaurants were launched bylate Chief Minister JJayalalithaa and this had earnedher a lot of good will amongmigrant workers and lowincome employees becausethey could getbreakfast/lunch/dinner for�five each.

Mainpuri: A young womanwas shot dead on Wednesdayfor informing the police ofpeople who had reached hervillage in Uttar Pradesh'sMainpuri after the lockdown.

The incident took place inAllipur village where VinayYadav had prepared a list ofpersons, mostly migrantworkers, who had come to thevillage from other cities.

Vinay Yadav and his sis-ter-in-law Sandhya informedthe local administration aboutthe people coming to the vil-lage after which health officialsconducted medical examina-tion of all the migrant work-ers.

One of those who hadcome to the village, recently, isan army jawan Shailendra

whose name also figured inthe list given to the officials.

He had an argument withVinay Yadav and the mattertook a serious turn whenShailendra opened fire, killingSandhya Yadav on the spot.

Shailendra has beenarrested and the body of thedeceased has been sent forpost mortem.

The state government hasasked everyone to inform itabout people coming to thevillages during the Coronascare. IANS

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Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee has asked for �61,000

crore from the Centre to ward off thecrisis arising out of the corona endem-ic. This amount includes the financialdues that the "Centre owes" to the State.

A day before her video meetingwith Prime Minister Narendra Modi theChief Minister has written a letter to theformer seeking a financial package of�25,000 crore to meet the expenses forproviding free ration to the people of theState along with other public welfareschemes planned amid massive short-fall in the State’s revenue during postcorona lockdown.

Apart from this the Chief Ministerhas also asked the Centre to clear thepast dues amounting to about �36,000crore, senior officials said. The ChiefMinister had earlier committed freeration to the 9 crore strong populationof the State that started on Wednesdayamid large-scale crowding of marketplaces throughout the districts.

In the letter the Chief Ministerwrote that her State’s finances “like manyother States” were in a “dire situationwith practically no revenue flows after

the closure of all business.”The letter further read that regard-

less of the grim situation on account ofthe lockdown the State has “somehowbeen able to pay the salaries, wages andpensions of Government employees thismonth though some major states of thecountry could not do that on full. Andeven with the massive debt trap leftbehind by the previous Government wewere able to service the debt so far butfuture remains uncertain.”

Asking the Centre to sanction a spe-cial grant of �25,000 crore Banerjeewrote that her Government “requiredto meet our commitments towards girlchild, students, farmers, unorganizedworkers, weaker sections, minorities,SC, ST and OBCs. We are also havingto honour our commitments of pro-viding free ration to almost 9 crore peo-ple who need this so crucially to sur-vive in this perilous time.”

Besides she reminded that theCentre was “yet to pay �36,000 crore”due to the State.

The timing of the letter is crucial asit was written a day ahead of the videomeeting the Prime Minister was likelyto hold with the Chief Ministers onThursday.

Banerjee who has earned appreci-ations for aptly managing the coronacrisis till now later appealed to the peo-ple not to come out of their houses andthrong places. “The coming two weeksare very crucial for us and it is a timewe all should cooperate with eachother to ward fight the disease byremaining indoors…. Please do notcome out of your houses and crowd thestreets… you will get time for gossip-ing in future but now it is time to han-dle the crisis,” she said.

The Chief Minister’s appeal came ata time when thousands of people wereseen thronging the rural markets andration shops --- throwing all cautionsto the wind --- to procure 5 kgs of freerice promised by the Government.Large gatherings were seen atCoochbehar, North and South 24Parganas, Burdwan and elsewhere Foodand Civil Societies Minister JP Mullicksaid appealing to the people to main-tain social distancing.

Meanwhile, the death rate com-pared to the number of Corona infec-tions remained a cause of concern forthe doctors even as Bengal recorded its6th death late on Tuesday night.

While a 57-year-old man from

Howrah district died on Tuesday night,another person of the same age suc-cumbed at a private hospital atBelghoria in the northern suburbs ofKolkata. Neither of the victims had atravel history, Health Department offi-cials said adding they were trying togather further information.

The Chief Minister later said thatthe man died of kidney ailments. Thedoctors too said he had been sufferingfrom diabetes for the past 20 years andhad been a renal patient adding how-ever that he tested positive for the coro-navirus. Family members of both thedeceased have been placed under quar-antine, the official said.

More patients from Sheoraphuli inHooghly district Egra in EastMidnapore tested positive taking thetotal number of such cases in the stateto 37, sources said on Wednesday.

Tension ran high at Dhapa burningground in eastern parts of Kolkatawhere hundreds of locals gathered toprotest the burning the corpse of oneof the corona victims, sources saidadding they were afraid that the burn-ing of the victim might spread infectionin that area. The people were stillprotesting when reports last came in.

Benglauru: The KarnatakaGovernment has confirmedthat 342 persons from the Statehad gone to the Tablighigroup's headquarters inNizamuddin area of southwestDelhi, Home MinisterBasavaraj Bommai said onWednesday.

"From Karnataka, 342 peo-ple attended the congregation.In the beginning of March, 142people visited the Tablighi HQfrom the State and the govern-ment has since quarantinedthem at their homes," Bommaisaid.

He said that there is a pos-sibility of increase in the num-ber of suspect cases of coron-avirus.

Medical EducationMinister Suresh Kumar saidfour Tablighi followers fromChamarajanagar have sincebeen traced.

Health Minister B.Sriramulu said 62 foreignersfrom Indonesia and Malaysiawho visited the HQ also visit-ed Karnataka, out of whom 12were quarantined.

He said the HealthDepartment is on the lookoutfor the remaining foreignersstill staying in the state.

Meanwhile, some relativesof five returness isolated atNelamangla flouted quaran-tine facility norms. IANS

Guwahati/Agartala/Imphal:Five people have so far testedpositive for coronavirus inAssam, who attended the con-gregation at Nizamuddin inDelhi and the number of pos-itive cases in the State mightcross the double digit, AssamHealth Minister HimantaBiswa Sarma said onWednesday.

Addressing the media, theminister said the CentralGovernment has communi-cated to the state governmentthat 456 people from Assamhad attended the congrega-tion organised by the TablighiJamaat in Delhi.

"Out of the 456 people, 230have been identified and 68have not yet returned to thestate. Of the 230 people, swabsamples of 196 were collectedand five have tested positive forCovid-19," Sarma said, addingthat by Wednesday eveningthe test reports of the samplesof remaining people would bereceived.

Search is also on to traceout the other unidentified peo-ple who have attended thecongregation. He said fourmore persons from Assam,who have attended the con-gregation but still remained inDelhi, have also tested positivefor coronavirus.

"Of the five tested positive

for COVID-19, a 52-year-oldman is undergoing treatment atthe Silchar Medical Collegeand Hospital after his samplestested positive on Tuesday. Thefour people who tested positivefor on Wednesday are alsoundergoing treatment in dif-ferent medical colleges andhospitals," the Health Ministersaid.

The four people are agedbetween 19 to 55 years.

According to the Ministersand officials of different north-eastern states, over 500 peoplefrom several northeasternstates, mostly from Assam,have either attended or visitedthe vicinity at the religious con-gregation organised by theTablighi Jamaat in Delhi forc-ing all the seven northeasternstates to launch an all-outsearch to identify and test thesamples of these attendees.

The attendees' familymembers and the people theycame in close contact are alsobeing examined or sent toquarantine.

In Tripura, EducationMinister Ratan Lal Nath said atleast 22 people from Tripuraattended or went to the hotspotat Nizamuddin in Delhi.According to the Minister, 15of the 22 people identified andtheir swab samples were testednegative. Authorities are look-

ing for the remaining seven."The state cabinet Chaired

by Chief Minister BiplabKumar Deb approved a Rs 233crore package to deal withcoronavirus and related relief tothe needy," Nath told media.

Tripura Chief MinisterBiplab Kumar Deb in a tweetsaid that if there is anyone fromTripura who attended the reli-gious congregation of TablighiJamaat at Hazrat Nizamuddinin Delhi must report immedi-ately to the nearest governmenthospital or to call the controlroom.

In Manipur, the state gov-ernment officials said that 14people who were linked to thereligious congregation held inDelhi's Nizamuddin, have beenidentified. According to theofficials associated with theCOVID-19 Central ControlRoom in Imphal, three havebeen taken for testing and theremaining 11 are being exam-ined.

Manipur Director Generalof Police L. M. Khaute said any-one from the state who attend-ed the religious congregation orwho stayed in the vicinity of thevenue or passed near it shouldget themselves tested at thenearest government hospitalfailing which legal actions arebeing contemplated againstthem. IANS

Meerut: The second coronavirus patient died onWednesday in Meerut medical college. His son-in-lawis also admitted in the same hospital with Covid-19infection. Both of them had been on ventilator sincethe past two days.

The father-in-law, aged 72, had apparently got theinfection from his son-in-law who had come to Meerutform Amravati in Maharashtra. Sixteen members ofthe same family have also tested positive for Covid-19 and are under medical observation.

The chief medical officer and other senior officialshad also visited the hospital to take stock of thearrangements. Though the government spokesmanconfirmed the death, he parried questions about thedoctors and other medical staff, attending on thepatients, being quarantined. This is the second coro-navirus death in Uttar Pradesh. The first case wasreported form Gorakhpur where a youth from Bastidied on Monday evening in the BRD hospital. His sam-ple report confirmed him as corona positive onWednesday. IANS

Lucknow: Several politi-cians in Uttar Pradesh haveallocated money from theirrespective MLA LADSfunds to provide face masksand sanitizers for journalistson reporting duty.

Leader of Opposition inAssembly and SamajwadiMLA Ram GovindChaudhary has directed theDistrict Magistrate of Balliato spend ��one lakh fromhis MLA funds to buy theprotective gear for journal-ists exposed to coronavirusrisk during field work.

Apna Dal MLC AshishSingh Patel has also given�12 lakh from his funds forjournalists in Lucknow (�2lakh), Noida (�3 lakh) and�1 lakh each in Varanasi,Prayagraj, Kanpur, Faizabad,Meerut, Bareilly and

Mirzapur.Samajwadi Party MLA

Shailendra Yadav Lalai hasgiven �one lakh for jour-nalists in his constituency inJaunpur district.

According to AshishSingh Patel, he has seenjournalists visiting hospitalsand other places during thecourse of their professionalduties, which makes themsusceptible to corona infec-tion."I feel that masks andsanitizers should be madeavailable to them to protestthem from the virus," hesaid. IANS

Bengaluru: City police arrested aman for selling counterfeit ther-mometers at an exorbitant price,used for thermal screening andseized 70 instruments, an officialsaid on Wednesday.

"We have arrested Keshavunder IPC section 420 for sellingthe fake thermometers at ��16,000each," Deputy Commissioner ofPolice Kuldeep Jain told IANS.

Keshav was nabbed inRajajinagar, within the limits of theSubramanyanagar police station.

Jain said Keshav procured thethermometers from Chennai at �2,000 each, purported to havebeen manufactured in China.

"Because they were importedthere is no MRP, people were justbuying and preliminary investi-gation suggested that a few taluka

health officers (THOs) also pur-chased them at 15,000 a piece withthe government money," Jain said.

Keshav was selling the fakethermal screeners from a firstfloor surgical shop to Governmentagencies and any private individ-ual. "These days everybody wantsa thermometer, even you feel likeyou should have a thermometer tocheck," he said, explaining howsome people are taking advantageof the COVID-19 fear in themasses.

Similarly, the Central CrimeBranch police arrested Shivkumarfor making and selling fake handsanitisers at an exorbitantprice."We have arrested Shivkumarand seized 5,000 fake sanitiser bot-tles. He was booked under IPCSection 420," Jain said. IANS

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The Pinarayi VijayanCabinet that met here on

Wednesday has given the in-principle clearance to have asalary challenge from all StateGovernment employees to col-lect funds to handle the vari-ous activities of Covid-19 ofthe Kerala Government.

All State Governmentemployees have to contributeone month's salary to the CMDistress Relief Fund and itcould be done in instalmentsalso.

Kerala has at present 215positive coronavirus positivecases, with over 1.60 lakh peo-

ple under observation athomes and hospitals.

As a first step the entirecabinet decided that each oneof them will contribute �onelakh each and it has alreadybeen done by Vijayan.

On Tuesday, Vijayan heldtalks with a section of theemployee's representatives andit has been more or less agreedupon, even as talks have to takeplace with a few other organ-isations.

Meanwhile, Leader ofOpposition RameshChennithala reacting to thesalary challenge told the mediathat they have no issues withthis.

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Adopting a more aggressiveapproach towards contain-

ing spread of Covid-19, theJammu & Kashmir adminis-tration on Wednesday decidedto conduct testing of over 2000contact persons of positivecases with immediate effect.

At present 58 active cases,48 in Kashmir division and 10in Jammu division, are under-going treatment in differenthospitals.Addressing a pressconference late Wednesdayevening, spokesman of Jammu& Kashmir Government andPrincipal Secretary, RohitKansal told reporters, "we planto test every single one of the2000 contacts that we haveidentified".

He said, these contact per-sons were traced as a result ofa vigorous contact tracingexercise undertaken by the dif-ferent wings of the administra-tion. So far 62 cases have test-

ed positive in J&K, he added."Out of these 58 are active casesincluding 48 from Kashmirdivision and 10 from Jammudivision".

Kansal said, a total numberof 17041 cases are under sur-veillance. Kansal told reporters,Jammu & Kashmir has beentesting cases aggressively. Ourtesting rate has been nearly 77.5per million,one of the highestin the country and next only toKerala.

Due to sudden spike inpositive cases, concerns wereraised as it became clear thatlarge number of suspected casesof coronavirus, who may havecome in contact with religiousteachers and identified positivecases, went untraceble and maylead to further spread of casesin rural pockets of vulnerabledistricts.

More than 30 villagesacross eight districts of Jammu& Kashmir have already beendeclared 'red zones by the gov-

ernment, thoroughly restrictingmovement of people from oneplace to another.

At present, 52 patients havebeen kept in hospital isolation,516 under hospital quarantine,and 3961 under home surveil-lance. Out of 977 samples, 911have tested negative and reportsof four are awaited.

Meanwhile, in Srinagar,two hundred and thirty-six(236) persons who were shift-ed into administrative quaran-tine upon their return toSrinagar two weeks ago weredischarged Wednesday aftersuccessfully completing their14-day quarantine period.

All these persons hadreturned from different over-seas countries with most ofthem having returned fromBangladesh. At present there arearound 1900 persons who havebeen put under administrativequarantine in Srinagar aftertheir return mostly from over-seas countries.

Jaipur: Around 183 residentsof Rajasthan, including fiveforeigners from Nepal, whoattended the Tablighi Jamaatevent held in Delhi last monthhave been identified.

They reportedly entered13 districts of the state recent-ly and will be screened, saidDirector General of PoliceBhupendra Singh onWednesday. He said these peo-ple entered Jhunjhunu, Dausa,Alwar, Tonk, Shri Ganganagar,Bharatpur, Karauli, Jodhpur,Barmer, Hanumangarh, Churuand Jaipur City.

It is possible that Tablighimembers coming here fromother states also came in con-tact with Markaz in Delhi."Directions have been issued tothe District Magistrates andDistrict Superintendents ofPolice to screen these peopleand then opt for medical iso-lation and quarantine pro-ceedings," said Singh.

A thorough investigationwas made to identify the resi-dents of Rajasthan who went toattend the Tablighi Jamaat inNizamuddin, Delhi and camein touch with other membersof the Jamaat, and thenreturned to the state, Singhsaid. IANS

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Jaipur: A total of 13 new cases of COVID-19 positive patients was reported onWednesday in Jaipur, taking the total tallyto 89 in Rajasthan which when countedwith 17 evacuees from Iran, who testedpositive in Jodhpur, counted 106 in State,confirmed health officials.

All 13 are the contacts of the first per-son who tested positive in Ramganj a fewdays ago. They have been kept in isolationat the Rajasthan University of HealthServices and NIMS and samples were takenfrom there, said Additional Chief SecretaryRohit Kumar Singh.

The man who tested positive a fewdays ago after returning from Oman is nowbeen termed as a super-spreader as he alsoinfected his friend a day after he returned.

Thereafter, his mother and son testedpositive and then on Monday, 10 more

patients from the same family also testedpositive.

Now, with 13 patients testing positive,it seems Ramgunj is coming up as yetanother hotspot in the state with 25patients earlier testing positive from thesame location.

On Tuesday, Additional ChiefSecretary Rajeev Swaroop ordered the seal-ing of all the boundaries of the walled cityin Jaipur, which has been already undercurfew since last four days.

Except essential services, he orderedzero mobility in this area and appealed toall residents to cooperate with the healthteams who are visiting the locality to con-duct health surveys.

He also said legal action shall be takenagainst those flouting the curfew norms inthis region. IANS

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On the recommendations of theEmpowered Group of Officers

10, the Centre on Wednesdaylaunched the National MonitoringDashboard to ensure timely imple-mentation of COVID 19 ResponseActivities.

Over 300 public grievances,including those related to non-adher-ence of the ongoing lockdown andrequest for rescue from foreign coun-tries, have been received by the cen-tral government under a recently-launched mechanism. The dashboardwas launched by Minister of State forPersonnel Jitendra Singh.According toofficials, the nature of grievances relat-ed to quarantine facilities, lockdown

not being adhered to complaints,essential supplies related complaints,examination related complaints,rescheduling of interest repaymentson loans, evacuation requests fromforeign countries.“Out of the total 336public grievances, 28 were on "lock-down not adhered to", 25 were"requests for rescue from foreigncountries" and 14 were related to"quarantine”. On Day 1 of the launch,the dashboard received 43 griev-ances of Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare, 31 grievances ofMinistry of External Affairs and 26grievances of Ministry of Finance. Atotal of nine were related to "inade-quate facilities in hospitals", sevenwere "examination-related", six were"stuck at some place due to lock-

down", five "essential supplies notbeing provided", four were related to"harassment" and one was on "prob-lem in donating to the PM-CARESFund", the officials said.It aims toensure timely redress of COVID-19grievances. Directions have beenissued to all ministries and depart-ments to prioritize these grievancesand provide redress in threedays.There were 101 suggestionsreceived by the government and 136public grievances fell under "others"categories, they said. Giving furtherdetails of grievances related to non-compliance of lockdown, an officialsaid, people claimed that "private sec-tor employees were still being calledat work" and also "postal departmentwas calling employees to work".

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Page 6: €¦ · Maulana Saad has been untraceable since March 28 after he was served a notice by the Delhi Police. “Police teams are raiding several places across the west-ern Uttar Pradesh

With the Chinese making aconciliatory statement, thewar of words — of accusa-tions and counter accusa-tions — between the US

and China appears to be thawing. As theepicentre of the pandemic has shifted fromChina to Europe and the US, there may bea window of opportunity. With the success-ful handling of the Coronavirus crisis, evenas the rest of the world is grappling withthe menace, China maybe eyeing to squeezediplomatic capital out of such a humani-tarian overture. It’s truly a case of schaden-freude. Foreign leaders, from the SerbianPresident Aleksandar Vucic to theHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbanand Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio,have all thanked China loudly for the med-ical supplies and teams of doctors receivedby them while at the same time chidingtheir neighbours for abandoning them.Spain has already decided to buy medicalequipment and supplies from China wortha few hundred million US dollars.

Pakistan is reported to have opened itsland border with China on the Karakoramhighway in order to receive a generous con-signment of medical supplies. In fact, aninformal offer of building makeshift hos-pitals in India to treat COVID-19 patientson the pattern of the set-up in Wuhan alsoexists. And despite all the controversies,China continues to be the biggest suppli-er of medical equipment to the US.

Talking of controversies, there aresome, which refuse to die, even with thepassage of time. Considering the wide-spread human interest involved, some ofthese continue to be kept alive by conspir-acy theories. In the context of Coronavirus,a lot has already appeared in the media butin a latest salvo, US President DonaldTrump has targetted the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) while China has spo-ken strongly in support of the globalhealth body. However, there is a back-ground to the accusations made by Americavis-a-vis the WHO.

Its contention is that despite the diseasein its initial stages remaining confined toWuhan, where the virus first caused an out-break, it was neither tagged with China northe province. Even when all the details werenot available, it could have been tagged geo-graphically or simply named as the Chinesevirus. It was much later that the WHOnamed it as COVID-19, avoiding anymention of China. On the other hand, wehave seen in the past, Spanish flu, Japaneseencephalitis, German measles and someother country or place specific diseases,breaking the geographical barriers tobecome international pandemics. China hassomehow managed to escape this tagging.

We are aware that both H5N1 bird fluand Severely Acute Respiratory Syndrome(SARS) had originated from the Chinese

province of Guangdong. Yet,both these, even at their peaks,had managed to avoid theChinese tag.

Sometimes, the name tagscan also be greatly misleadingwith disastrous results. It is nowknown that the 2009 pandem-ic, which was popularly knownas the Swine flu, was actuallyspread by humans and notpigs. But in its attempt to pre-vent contagion, a country in theMiddle East mistakenly slaugh-tered a few lakh pigs.

Undeniably, there appearsto be a certain degree of poli-tics attached with the nomen-clature of labelling such fataldiseases. In this regard, thedecisions are taken at the levelof the WHO, which hosts theInternational Classification ofDiseases (ICD). The currentguidelines for nomenclaturehave been criticised by a num-ber of scientific organisations.

It is the general opinionthat by simply giving numbersto alphabetic codes, people atlarge are unable to appreciatethe gravity of the disease. Forinstance, the letters HN denotethe genetic size and sequence ofthe virus HemagglutininNeuraminidase. On the otherhand, geographical labels tendto convey some very useful

information for the world atlarge.

By leveraging their finan-cial clout over certain interna-tional institutions, the Chinesehave disturbed the existingorder. This has not gone wellwith Western powers, who inany case had been increasing-ly looking inwards. Besides,there has been the question offinancial support to such insti-tutions, too. This is bound tomake an impact on the post-Corona economic revival. Inthe given situation, the Chinesestand to gain substantially at thecost of others and emerge as adomineering influence cannotbe ruled out.

Such a situation was in themaking for a long time. In fact,ever since the economic down-turn of 2008-09 and with thedrying up of resources, thereappeared to be some kind of avacuum as far as investments inEurope were concerned. Thisspace was readily occupied byChina.

According to data com-piled by the Institute for Studiesin Industrial Development(ISID), New Delhi, the Chineseinvestments in Europe between2010-17 have been of the orderof $318 billion, which is 45 percent more than their invest-

ments in the US. In fact, theyhave been targetting technolo-gies that can, in the long run,provide a key to their own crit-ical infrastructure. During thisperiod, China has taken over360 European companies, rang-ing from Pirelli & cSpA of Italyto Kuka AG robotics ofGermany. ChemChina, achemical firm in China, hasacquired the Swiss giantSyngenta for $46 billion. Thepenetration of the communica-tion giant Huawei with its 5Gnetworks has already raisedenough of hackles among theNATO countries.

It is in the backdrop ofthese developments that thepost-Corona scenario must beviewed. The Chinese are mak-ing a quick economic revivalwith heavy investments whileother nations are still reelingunder the virus onslaught. Thiscoupled with China’s outreachprogramme for medical andhumanitarian aid are bound topay it handsome dividends.For the decades to follow, thenext few months are going to becrucial for politics, economy,diplomacy and the world order.

(The writer is a formerGovernor and a Senior Advisorat the Pranab MukherjeeFoundation)

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Sir — There may be theories thatother nations may have a milderversion of the Coronavirus but itsduration and transmission out-side the human body is still thesame. Distancing is only a stop-gap, not the silver bullet. We mustnot be complacent because Indiahas registered far lesser cases thanChina, Italy or the US. For, wemay just be in the primary incu-bation phase whereas othernations are in advanced stages.

Unless we start a massive testprogramme based on excellentalgorithms on data, we are sure tofind too late that social distanc-ing has its limitations. China, theepicentre of the virus, undertookdraconian isolation measures butit was mass testing that helped itkeep casualties in check.

The US failed in isolating itscitizens but is now trying toredeem the position undertakingmillion tests per week. SouthKorea was the smartest. It simul-taneously went for testing and iso-lation. Let us not be lulled by datawhen tests are yet to be greatlyscaled up.

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

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Sir — In times of crisis, benevo-lent hands should come forwardto reach out to the poor and theunprivileged. Genuine feelingstowards the affected sow the

seeds of charity. The “reverse gift”of life is giving back to society. Indoing so, no one will becomepoor. In view of the spread of theCoronavirus pandemic, contribu-tions made by the people canstrengthen India’s battle againstthe infection. Generous donations

have come but more is needed. In particular, efforts of the

Kerala Government need to beapplauded. The Pinarayi VijayanGovernment rolled out a �20,000crore financial package to miti-gate the impact of the deadly virusand counter its economic fallout.

Its efforts to help migrant work-ers stuck at the borders, too, havebeen commendable. The State hastaken steps to ensure the welfareof the labourers and treated themas its guests. Most of them havepreferred staying back.

Ganapathi BhatAkola

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Sir — The quote, “Uneasy lies thehead that wears a crown” is veryapt in the case of Kerala ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan, who isvery much upset over the suici-dal deaths in his State for want ofalcohol as beverages outlets wereclosed due to the lockdown.Taking a lenient stand towardsboozers, Vijayan kicked off acontroversy by directing the StateExcise Department to provideliquor to those carrying medicalprescriptions. The truth of thematter is that it’s difficult foraddicts to give up on drinking.The Chief Minister has a peculiarsituation to deal with.

TK NandananChennai

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Page 7: €¦ · Maulana Saad has been untraceable since March 28 after he was served a notice by the Delhi Police. “Police teams are raiding several places across the west-ern Uttar Pradesh

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The spread of the deadly Coronavirusthrough human-to-human transmissionand the growing number of fatalities are giv-

ing birth to all kinds of conspiracy theories, blamegames and racism. However, the growing prefer-ence for isolation, erection of walls, closing ofboundaries, restrictions on travel and tourism arealso exhibiting that the world is no longer a glob-al village and we are now divided into numerousGoogle villages.

The ills of globalisation and relative interde-pendence are visible in the acute dearth of pro-tective gear for fighting the contagion, even in themightiest of all countries, the US. Since China isthe largest producer of protective gear like masks,ventilators, respirators, protective suits and test-ing kits, America’s helplessness and dependenceon China, which controls 95 per cent of the USmarket for the supply of these kits, are easily under-standable. This is a warning sign for not just theglobal super power but also for other nations thatthey need to reduce such dependence and startproduction of everything, which used to be out-sourced for manufacturing to China or othercountries. The Coronavirus is shaping up to bean enormous stress test for globalisation. As crit-ical supply chains break down, nations hoard med-ical supplies and limit travel, the crisis is forcinga major re-evaluation of the interconnectedglobal economy. Not only has globalisationallowed for the rapid spread of contagious diseasebut it has fostered deep interdependence betweenfirms and nations that makes them more vulner-able to unexpected shocks. Now, firms andnations alike are discovering just how vulnerablethey are.

Another major impact of the Coronavirus isthe fact that it is challenging and redefining theworld order as we know it. The inability of the USto quickly control the spread of this virus and savethe lives of its citizens has exposed the weaknessand lack of vision of the US leadership in takingstock of the situation and providing the much-needed guidance to the administration. As a result,the number of casualties today in the country hascrossed the number of deaths in China, where thewhole nightmare began.

The status of the US as a global leader has beenbuilt not just on wealth and power but also on thelegitimacy that flows from its domestic gover-nance, provision of global public goods and theability and willingness to muster and coordinatea global response to crises. The Coronavirus pan-demic is testing all three elements of US leader-ship and so far Washington is failing the test.

On the other hand, as this deadly virus trav-elled from China’s Wuhan province to virtuallyevery part of the globe, therefore, primarily Chinais being considered the villain by the world. Thisis also in major part due to the fact that it con-cealed the information about the contagion for along time. Had it informed the global village intime, the precautions, which are being taken now,could have been taken earlier and the large-scalespread of the virus could have been averted.

At present, the concerns about the dominanceof the world order through economics, expansionof trade, commerce and route connectivity havetaken a back seat and the control of the pandem-ic has taken a front seat. Though by locking downWuhan province through draconian measures,China succeeded in containing the spread of theoutbreak to other parts of the country, hiding thenews of the contagion, it was unable to preventits spread to the rest of the world. Apart from the

42,352 people across the globe who havedied because of the Coronavirus, theother big casualty of the pandemic is theglobal village-based world order, asnow every country has sealed its bordersand even flights have been grounded fornow. Currently, the only thing that iskeeping the world united and linked isthe internet as the Google village is avail-able for accessing and exchanging infor-mation and ideas.

After being castigated and ostracisedby the world community for hiding andspreading the virus globally, the ChinesePresident sought India’s support to con-front its isolation and face the worldbravely. Even in the time of a crisis,China has not forgotten its world-dom-ination ambitions and in order to showits greatness and maintain its status asa major power on the world stage, as agoodwill gesture, it is willing to share itsexperiences and strategy with India.

As the US fumbles around, China ismoving quickly and adeptly to takeadvantage of the opening created byTrump’s mistakes, filling the vacuum toposition itself as the global leader in theresponse to a major crisis. It is workingto tout its own system, provide materi-al assistance to other countries and evenorganise other Governments. But theworld community, including the US, isnot going to forget what China has doneand how Beijing is using this opportu-nity to increase its military and econom-ic might by offering to supply the med-ical necessities to Europe and the US.

Beijing’s move to block the recent-ly-called United Nations SecurityCouncil meet on the Coronavirus pan-demic also indicates that China is aspir-ing hard to maintain its image of a gen-erous leader of the world, ready to helpwith loans and equipment.

Chinese attempts clearly hint that

this pandemic will surely change theglobal scenario but the power game willremain unhampered because China,even in the wake of the crisis, is not leav-ing any stone unturned to make its pres-ence felt in the Indo-Pacific.

Although it was felt that theCOVID-19 outbreak would halt China’soverseas investments, interestingly thesignals coming from China right nowindicate that it is not likely to stop invest-ment in its ambitious Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI) project and will also keepon exploring the possibility of grabbingnew markets for its goods, commoditiesand investments. Because, through thisit can fill the power gap and make itspresence and power felt in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly in the BRIcountries.

According to reports, recentlyChinese military aircraft carried out anti-submarine drills in the contested SouthChina Sea (SCS), to respond to patrolsby US warships, which suggest thatCoronavirus or no Coronavirus, Chinais not going to mend its ways, tone downits assertiveness and leave any opportu-nity to exhibit its power politics. Theclaims of controlling the COVID-19 inWuhan have made it more aggressivethan ever. Even though the People’sLiberation Army’s (PLA’s) activities onthe Tibetan plateau have reduced due tothe outbreak, PLA intrusions wererecently reported from Naku-la, southof the watershed in northern Sikkim, aborder said to be “settled” by China.

In view of China’s obvious movesfor domination, most of the countries,including the World HealthOrganisation, are looking at the othermajor power in the region India’sresponse and efforts to confront thischallenge, with interest and anxiety.

If this crisis is not handled careful-

ly by India, the death toll and the num-ber of sick people would be unimagin-able and would take the country back bydecades, something which would not bein favour of New Delhi and its allies asthey look to stop China’s march.

In this context, it would be appro-priate to highlight that while in thedomestic sector, India is taking all nec-essary steps to contain the outbreak, itis also at the forefront of the fight againstCoronavirus internationally.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s callfor cooperation to fight the pandemic inthe SAARC countries places the nationat the front and centre of the fight againstthe pandemic in the region and gives ita place at the global power high table.With the creation of the $10 millionSAARC Emergency Fund to fightCOVID-19, India has also suppliedtesting equipment and sanitisers to theMaldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepaland Bangladesh. In a recent meeting, theG-20 group also pledged to introduce $5trillion into the global economy toblunt the effect of the virus. PrimeMinister Modi has also advocated theneed for developing a new crisis man-agement protocol to deal with globalhealth issues, which indicates patient andgood leadership and signals India’seffective presence in the global powerscenario. The seriousness and gravityshown by the Indian leadership andappeals to people for restraint anddetermination are a great example of eth-ical leadership in the time of a crisis. Thewell-timed lockdown and appeals by theleadership for social isolation are allow-ing all of us to forget the concept of glob-al village and just turn into a Google vil-lage with limited exposure to people butunlimited contacts for our well-being.

(The writer is Vice-Chancellor HNBGarhwal University, Srinagar, Garhwal)

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As the old proverb goes, “Everydark cloud has a silver lining.”The ongoing COVID-19 crisis,

too, has a silver lining as it has giventhe environment the much-neededbreak from the relentless degrada-tion and exploitation by mankind.

The Earth is healing itself even asits biggest “parasite” humanity,grapples with the virus by practisingsocial distancing amid strict lock-downs. Suddenly, the urban as well asperi-urban areas have started experi-encing a resurgence of nature as the

lockdowns have brought with themfresh air, clearer skies and the revivalof urban wildlife.

Social media is abuzz with citizensposting pictures of the night sky glit-tering with stars that were not visibletill now in most cities due to the pol-lution. They are also posting videosof wildlife like deer, Blue Bulls, the rareIndian Civet and so on, straying intotowns. There are more birds singingthese days and the flora is actuallylooking green instead of the usualdusty brown. The light showers in thelast few weeks have only helped to fur-ther bring down pollution and fresh-en up nature.

The city of Wuhan, the epicentreof the COVID-19 pandemic, hasbeen witnessing clear blue skies andfresh air instead of the usual low-hanging smog. In fact, satellite imagesof China collated by the NationalAeronautics and SpaceAdministration (NASA), showedmajor reduction in Nitrogen Dioxide

(NO2) levels due to the restrictionsimposed in the wake of the virus con-tainment efforts. The European SpaceAgency (ESA) also reported similarfindings of a drop in NO2 levels acrossEurope, especially Italy. The canals ofVenice, now devoid of the boat traf-fic, sport clearer waters with a freshspurt in aquatic life.

Furthermore, the suspension ofall air traffic in most parts of theworld, including India, and the lackof vehicular traffic on roads due to thelockdowns have considerably reducedpollution levels and especially easedparticulate matter (PM) 2.5 woes.

Stanford University has conduct-ed a research on the long-term ben-efits of this current rejuvenation of theplanet and the study showed thathumanity will stand to benefittremendously in future due to therespite received by the environment.These benefits would translate intolives being saved on account ofreduced pollution levels of the PM 2.5

kind, which claim lives of children andthe elderly.

The study’s findings were even-tually published in the interdiscipli-nary group, Global Food, Environmentand Economic Dynamics (GFEED).Other research data from across theworld also supports these findings andadditionally suggests that China iscurrently experiencing a 25 per centdrop in carbon dioxide emissionswhich is equivalent to 200 tonnes.

Research aside, the fact that itrequired a pandemic for the environ-ment to experience this much-required relief and recovery isappalling. Our daily routines do notoffer any concessions or respite for theenvironment. Neither do the period-ic climate conferences, which becomea battleground of opposing views butwitness very little meaningful actionin the best interests of the planet. InIndia, too, the peak polluting monthscompel us to adopt environmental-conservation measures in a half-

hearted manner. Compliance withregulations then is not anywherenear the current level of obediencethat we are witnessing regarding thelockdowns. This is unfortunate as itshows that we humans respond withsincerity only when our lives arethreatened.

The current phase can be a majorlearning curve for the IndianGovernment and environmentalauthorities. The pattern of publicbehaviour and response to a matterof community emergency is evidenthere and the Government must takenote of the same. So that in future,when environmental conditions wors-en and require a community-basedaction, the Government can follow asimilar methodology. This is essentialbecause the current lockdown rules— though not 100 per cent success-ful — have been followed sincerely bymany of the citizens.

The current situation also high-lights another important aspect of

how nations and governments mea-sure the real-time improvement ordeterioration of the environment.The authoritative and authentic satel-lite visuals of the ESA and NASA wererelied upon to draw conclusions onthe state of the environment of Chinaand Europe. India, too, must stop pol-itics over environmental assessmentand data collection and instead relyon impartial international data. Thiswill provide the real picture and dis-able any attempts at manipulation ofState agency data by vested interests.

The rejuvenation of the Earthcomes as a succor at the time ofanguish and pain to mankind. Everyhuman being pauses, even if it is fora second, to marvel at the beauty ofnature and forgets the hardshipsbeing faced in this difficult time. Ifhumanity needs a break from thispandemic, the environment needs abreak from us.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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Late last year — long beforemost people had heard of

the new coronavirus nowsweeping the globe — scien-tists in Germany sprang intoaction to develop a test for thevirus that was causing anunusual respiratory disease incentral China.

They had one by mid-January — and labs around thecountry were ready to startusing it just weeks later, aroundthe same time that Europe’smost populous country regis-tered its first case.

“It was clear that if the epi-demic swept over here fromChina, then we had to starttesting,” said Hendrik Borucki,a spokesman for BioscientiaHealthcare, which operates 19labs in Germany.

That quick work stands instark contrast to delays andmissteps in other countries.Coupled with Germany’s largenumber of intensive care bedsand its early social distancingmeasures, it could explain oneof the most interesting puzzlesof the COVID-19 pandemic:Why are people with the virusin Germany currently dying at

much lower rates than inneighboring countries?

The numbers are remark-able: As confirmed cases inGermany passed 71,000, thedeath toll Wednesday was 775,according to a tally kept byJohns Hopkins University. Incontrast, Italy has reportedalmost 106,000 infections andmore than 12,400 deaths, whileSpain has more than 102,000cases with over 9,000 deaths.

France has four times asmany virus deaths as Germanyand Britain has twice as many,even though both countrieshave fewer reported infections.

There may be many factorsat play, but experts said early onthat fast and widespread test-ing gave Germany an edge.

“The reason why we inGermany have so few deaths atthe moment compared to thenumber of infected can belargely explained by the factthat we are doing an extreme-ly large number of lab diag-noses,” said virologist Dr.Christian Drosten, whose teamdeveloped the first test for thenew virus at Berlin’s Charitéhospital — established over300 years ago to treat plaguevictims.

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For the first time since theCOVID-19 outbreak, China

on Wednesday revealed thepresence of 1,541 asympto-matic cases carrying the dead-ly novel coronavirus, raisingconcerns of a second wave ofinfections amid the relaxationof stringent measures in thecountry initiated to contain thedeadly disease.

Asymptomatic coronaviruscases are those who carry thevirus but do not show anysymptoms and can cause spo-radic clusters of infections. In asurprise announcement onTuesday, China’s NationalHealth Commission (NHC)said it would begin to release thedata of asymptomatic patients.A total of 1,541 asymptomaticpatients infected with COVID-19 have been put under medicalobservation in China by the endof Monday, including 205imported cases, state-runXinhua news agency quoted theNHC in a statement.

Besides the asymptomaticcases, there are reports of 35new imported cases and onedomestic infection, NHC saidon Wednesday. The total num-ber of imported cases has risento 806, it said. Seven more peo-ple have died of the disease, tak-ing the total number to 3,312.

As of Tuesday, a total of81,554 confirmed cases of theCOVID-19 had been reportedon the Chinese mainland.

The announcement aboutasymptomatic cases came as theother countries are includingasymptomatic cases in theirnumber of confirmed cases fortheir potential to infect others.Hong Kong-based South ChinaMorning Post reported that thedata suggested that by the end ofFebruary, more than 43,000 peo-ple in mainland China had test-ed positive for the coronavirusbut had no immediate symp-toms. They were not included inthe official tally of the con-firmed cases. There is no officialexplanation why these caseshave not been included earlier.

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The UK reported its biggestsingle-day coronavirus toll

of 563 on Wednesday, takingthe total number of COVID-19deaths in the country to 2,352.

The Department of Healthsaid 29,474 people have testedpositive for the virus, anincrease of 4,324 cases since onTuesday, as the countryremains under lockdown withthe Government’s advice forpeople to stay at home andobserve strict social distancingwhen outside for exercising orbuying essentials.

The latest virus positivetests mark an increase of near-ly 20,000 confirmed cases inthe UK in just one week.

The Government has saidits focus remains on rampingup testing for frontline NationalHealth Service (NHS) staff,who are treating the risingnumber of patients comingthrough hospitals and clinics.

Downing Street spokesper-son for British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson who remains inself-isolation after his COVID-19 diagnosis last week — con-firmed more than 2,000 NHS

frontline staff in England havebeen tested for coronavirussince the outbreak began in apush to get healthy self-isolat-ing medics back to work.

UK Cabinet OfficeMinister Michael Gove had

said on Tuesday that a shortageof chemicals needed for thetests meant the NHS, whichemploys 1.2 million in England,could not screen greater num-bers of its staff for the virus.

Meanwhile, several

makeshift hospitals are becom-ing functional across the UK asthe NHS aims to boost its bedcapacity to cope with the grow-ing number of COVID-19cases. It follows the conversionof London’s ExCel Centre intoNHS Nightingale — a 4,000-bed hospital facility.

A push for more ventilatorsis also in place as a new set ofmanufacturers plan to deliverthe first batch by early nextweek. “We are doing everythingwe can to support our NHS stafffighting this battle on the front-line, and it’s crucial we get evenmore ventilators there as soonas possible,” said UK HealthSecretary Matt Hancock.

“We have seen a fantasticresponse from businesses toour call for a national effort --and I’m delighted these com-panies accepted the challengeto save lives across the country,”he said.

The Government said ithas provided a number of let-ters of intent to purchasepotentially thousands moreventilators with companieswho have credible designs,subject to them passing the reg-ulator and strict safety tests.

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The heads of three globalagencies warned on

Wednesday of the risk of aworldwide “food shortage” ifauthorities fail to manage theongoing coronavirus crisisproperly. Many Governmentsaround the world have puttheir populations on lockdowncausing severe slow-downs ininternational trade and foodsupply chains.

Panic buying by peoplegoing into confinement hasalready demonstrated thefragility of supply chains assupermarket shelves emptied inmany countries.

“Uncertainty about foodavailability can spark a wave ofexport restrictions, creating ashortage on the global market,”said the joint text signed by QuDongyu, head of the UN’s

Food and AgricultureOrganisation (FAO), TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus, direc-tor-general of the World HealthOrganization (WHO) andRoberto Azevedo, director ofthe World Trade Organisation(WTO).

“In the midst of theCOVID-19 lockdowns, everyeffort must be made to ensurethat trade flows as freely as pos-sible, specially to avoid foodshortage(s)” from developing,they said in their statement.“When acting to protect thehealth and well-being of theircitizens, countries shouldensure that any trade-relatedmeasures do not disrupt thefood supply chain,” they added.

Over the longer term con-finement orders and travelrestrictions risk causing dis-ruptions in agricultural pro-duction due to the unavail-

ability of agricultural labourand the inability to get food tomarkets.

“Such disruptions includ-ing hampering the movementof agricultural and food indus-try workers and extending bor-der delays for food containers,result in the spoilage of per-ishables and increasing foodwaste,” said the three leaders.

They also stressed the needto protect employees engagedin food production, processingand distribution, both for theirown health and that of others,as well as to maintain food sup-ply chains. “It is at times likethese that more, not less, inter-national cooperation is essen-tial,” they said. “We mustensure that our response toCOVID-19 does not uninten-tionally create unwarrantedshortages of essential itemsand exacerbate hunger and

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Though factories have shut,planes have been ground-

ed and cars left in the garage,the coronavirus pandemic ishaving very little impact on cli-mate change, the WorldMeteorological Organizationsaid Wednesday.

Any reductions in pollu-tion and carbon dioxide emis-sions are likely to be temporary,said Lars Peter Riishojgaard,from the infrastructure depart-ment of the WMO, a UnitedNations agency based inGeneva.

“It does not mean much forclimate,” he told a virtual press

conference.Riishojgaard said there was

a lot of media speculationabout what impact the globalpandemic might have on theclimate, greenhouse gas emis-sions and longer-term globalwarming.

“The answer to that is itprobably does not mean very

much,” he said.While in the short term,

carbon dioxide emissionswould go down as cars stay putand aircraft remain on theground, “we expect the impactwill be fairly short-lived,”Riishojgaard said.

“The pandemic will beover at some point and the

world will start going back towork and with that, the CO2emissions will pick up again,maybe or maybe not to quitethe same level.”

He said visibility in citiessuch as New Delhi hadimproved because there werefewer traffic-emitting fumes,but cautioned that it was only

down to an “artificial halt” tonormal activity.

“You could see it as maybescience experiment: what hap-pens if all of a sudden we turnthe whole thing off?” saidRiishojgaard.

“It will lead some people,and perhaps also some gov-ernments, to rethink.” He

reflected on China shuttingdown much industrial pro-duction during the Beijing2008 Olympics.

“They demonstrated veryclearly that you can absolutely, if you have enoughcontrol over the situation, youcan turn off the air pollution,”he said.

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The US is headed for a “verytough two weeks”, President

Donald Trump has warned,advising people to be preparedfor the “hard days” ahead, as the country was atwar with a deadly coronaviruspandemic that the WhiteHouse projects could claimone to two lakh lives during thenext fortnight.

Trump’s remarks came asDeborah Bix, a member ofWhite House Task Force oncoronavirus, based on a modelfrom actual data from theground, said the death toll inthe US could be between1,00,000 to 2,00,000, with thestrict implementation of theexisting mitigation measuresincluding social distancing tillApril 30.

If no steps were to betaken, the death toll couldrange between 1.5 million and2.2 million, Brix said on a day

when the confirmed number ofcoronavirus infections in theUS, according to the JohnsHopkins Coronavirus ResourceCenter website, zoomed toover 1,89,500, adding morethan 25,000 new cases in a sin-gle day and the fatalities rose toover 4,000.

“I want every American tobe prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” agrim-faced Trump told reporterson Tuesday at a briefing whichhas now become his daily coronavirus press conference atthe White House for more than10 days.

“We’re going to go througha very tough two weeks andthen, hopefully, as the expertsare predicting, as I think a lotof us are predicting after hav-ing studied it so hard, we aregoing to start seeing some reallight at the end of the tunnel.But this is going to be a verypainful, very, very, very painfultwo weeks,” Trump said.

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The worldwide number ofofficially confirmed fatali-

ties from the novel coron-avirus rose to 45,309 onWednesday. More than 902,715declared cases have been reg-istered in 186 countries and ter-ritories since the epidemic firstemerged in China inDecember. Of these cases, atleast 1,90,639 are now consid-ered recovered.

The coronavirus pandem-ic has claimed more than30,000 lives in Europe alone, aglobal tally showed onWednesday, in what the head ofthe United Nations hasdescribed as humanity’s worstcrisis since World War II.

Italy and Spain bore thebrunt of the crisis, accounting

for three in every four deathson the continent, as the grimtally hit another milestone eventhough half of the planet’spopulation is already undersome form of lockdown in abattle to halt contagion.

Spain reported a record864 deaths in 24 hours, push-ing the country’s number offatalities past 9,000.

The toll is only dwarfed byItaly’s, where the virus haskilled nearly 12,500 people.

President Donald Trumphas warned of a “very, verypainful two weeks” as theUnited States registered itsdeadliest 24 hours of what hecalled a “plague”. In a scrambleto halt the contagion, govern-ments have shut schools, mostshops, and ordered millions ofpeople to work from home.

Cancellations of key eventson the global calendar haveswept both the sports and cul-tural worlds, with theEdinburgh arts festival the lat-est to be scrapped.

For UN Secretary-GeneralAntonio Guterres, the extraor-dinary upheaval spurred by thevirus presents a real danger tothe relative peace the world hasseen over the last few decades.

The disease “represents athreat to everybody in theworld and... An economicimpact that will bring a reces-sion that probably has no par-allel in the recent past,” he said.

“The combination of thetwo facts and the risk that itcontributes to enhanced insta-bility, enhanced unrest, andenhanced conflict are thingsthat make us believe that this

is the most challenging crisiswe have faced since the SecondWorld War.”

With most business activ-ity grinding to a halt for anundetermined period of time,scenes of economic desperationand unrest were emergingacross the globe.

In Italy, queues werelengthening at soup kitchenswhile some supermarkets werereportedly pillaged.

Half a million more peoplenow need help to afford meals,Italy’s biggest union for theagriculture sector Coldirettisaid, adding to the 2.7 millionalready in need last year.

“Usually we serve 152,525people. But now we’ve 70,000more requests,” confirmedRoberto Tuorto, who runs afood aid association. It was cru-

cial to “ensure that the economiccrisis unleashed by the virusdoesn’t become a security crisis,”he warned. The economic painof lockdowns is especially acutein poorer nations.

In Tunisia several hun-dred protested a week-old lock-down that has disproportion-ately hit the poor. “Never mindcoronavirus, we’re going to dieanyway! Let us work!” shoutedone protester in the demon-stration on the outskirts of thecapital Tunis.

Africa’s biggest city Lagoswas just into its second full dayof lockdown on Wednesday —but with some of the world’sbiggest slums, home to millionswho live hand-to-mouth, con-tainment will be a challenge.

Wary of a collapse of theworld’s economy, the globe’s

leading central bankers havepumped billions of liquidityinto the system.

In the European Union, theterms of a rescue plan threat-ened to divide the bloc.

Worst-hit Italy and Spain areleading a push for a shared debtinstrument — dubbed “coron-abonds”, but talk of shared debtis a red line for Germany andother northern countries.

The tone sharpened thisweek, with some Italian politi-cians even taking out an adver-tisement in a major Germannewspaper to remind Europe’sbiggest economy of WWIIdebts to jolt it into action.

The economic cost of thecrisis was still piling up as lock-downs remain at the forefrontof official disease-stoppingarsenals — a strategy increas-

ingly borne out by science.Researchers said China’s

decision to shutter Wuhan,ground zero for the pandemic,may have prevented hundredsof thousands of new cases.

“Our analysis suggeststhat without the Wuhan travelban and the national emer-gency response there wouldhave been more than 700,000confirmed COVID-19 casesoutside of Wuhan” by midFebruary, said OxfordUniversity’s Christopher Dye.

At the same time, focus isnow turning to how asympto-matic cases may be fuelling thespread.

Germany and France werealso ramping up testing of thepopulation to establish howmany already have immunity.

For now, the focus of the

health sector in the hardest hitcountries remains the scramblefor available facilities to treatpatients. Emergency hospitalsare popping up in event spaceswhile distressed medical staffmake grim decisions abouthow to distribute limited pro-tective gear, beds and life-sav-ing respirators.

In scenes unimaginable inpeacetime, around a dozenwhite tents were erected toserve as a field hospital inNew York’s Central Park. Buteven with the extended capac-ity, doctors say they are stillhaving to make painful choic-es. “If you get a surge of patientscoming in, and you only havea limited number of ventilators,you can’t necessarily ventilatepatients,” Shamit Patel of theBeth Israel hospital said.

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Taipei: It may be the global day for pranks but with the worldunder assault from the deadly coronavirus pandemic manyGovernments on Wednesday were warning against virus-themed April Fools’ jokes — some even threatening jail.

The April 1 tradition sees families, web users and corpora-tions embrace practical jokes. But few are in the mood as the glob-al death toll mounts and billions remain under some form of lock-down. Google, a company renowned for its elaborate annual stunts,told its employees it would “take the year off from that traditionout of respect for all those fighting the Covid-19 pandemic,”according to an internal email obtained by Business Insider.

The deadly outbreak has already been accompanied by a del-uge of online misinformation, making it harder for governmentsto keep their citizens safe. Some are now threatening jail for viruspranks. Taiwan, which has been held up as a model for how totackle an outbreak, warned people who spread false rumours thatthey faced up to three years in jail and a TW$3 million fine($100,000).

“On April Fools’ Day we can exercise our sense of humourif we have to but we can’t make jokes on the pandemic to avoidbreaking the law,” President Tsai Ing-wen posted on Facebookalongside a photo of one of her cats. AFP

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Page 9: €¦ · Maulana Saad has been untraceable since March 28 after he was served a notice by the Delhi Police. “Police teams are raiding several places across the west-ern Uttar Pradesh

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GST collections in Marchslipped below the psy-

chological �1 lakh crore-markfor the first time in four monthsto �97,597 crore as COVID-19lockdown that shut most busi-nesses compounded tax col-lection woes in an alreadysluggish economy.

Goods and Services Tax(GST) mop-up in Marchrecorded a 8.4 per cent declineover March 2019 collection of�1.06 lakh crore. The collec-tions were lower on account ofdip in revenues from domestictransactions as well as imports.

In the last four months —November 2019-February 2020— GST collection surpassedthe �1 lakh crore-mark. InFebruary, mop-up was �1.05lakh crore, January (�1.10 lakhcrore), December (�1.03 lakhcrore) and November (�1.03lakh crore). The number ofGST returns filed duringMarch was 76.5 lakh, lowerthan 83 lakh filed in February— reflecting poor compliance.

“The gross GST revenuecollected in the month ofMarch, 2020 is �97,597 crore ofwhich CGST is �19,183 crore,SGST is �25,601 crore, IGST is�44,508 crore (including�18,056 crore collected onimports) and Cess is �8,306crore (including �841 crorecollected on imports),” afinance ministry statement said

on Wednesday.The Government has settled

�19,718 crore to CGST and�14,915 crore to SGST fromIGST as regular settlement. Thetotal revenue earned by theCentral Government and StateGovernments after regular set-tlement in March, 2020 is�41,901 crore for CGST and�43,516 crore for the SGST, itadded. The ministry furthersaid that GST revenues fromdomestic transactions hasshown a negative growth of 4 percent over March, 2019. Takinginto account the GST collectedfrom import of goods, the totalrevenue during March, 2020 hasalso decreased by 8 per cent overMarch, 2019.

During this month, the GSTon import of goods has showna negative growth of (-) 23 percent as compared to March,2019, the ministry added. Forthe full financial year 2019-20,the GST from domestic trans-action has shown a growth rateof 8 per cent over the revenuesin the preceding year. During2019-20, GST from import ongoods fell by 8 per cent as com-pared to the previous year.Overall, gross GST revenuesgrew at 4 per cent year-on-year.

Tax experts, however,raised concern that GST col-lection number is likely todecline further next month onaccount of disruption in eco-nomic activity due to COVID-19 outbreak.

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Markets began the new fis-cal with yet another

bruising selloff on Wednesdayas global sentiment remainedgrim due to the Covid-19 pan-demic. Reversing the previoussession’s gains, the 30-shareBSE barometer Sensex slumped1,203.18 points or 4.08 per centto finish at 28,265.31.

Similarly, the NSE Niftytanked 343.95 points, or 4 percent, to close at 8,253.80.

Global equities skidded asweak factory data from Asiaand a steady rise in coronaviruscases pointed to the toughroad ahead for the world econ-omy. Dismal auto sales num-bers and reports of India miss-ing its fiscal deficit targets by awide margin further sappedinvestor confidence here,traders said.

Tech Mahindra was the toploser in the Sensex pack, crash-ing 9.21 per cent, followed byKotak Bank (8.81 per cent), TCS(6.23 per cent), Infosys (5.65 per

cent), Axis Bank (5.50 per cent)and SBI (5.26 per cent).

Hero MotoCorp, BajajAuto, Bajaj Finance and Titanwere the only gainers, spurtingup to 2.21 per cent.

According to traders,domestic equities plunged intandem with global stocks asno respite from the coron-avirus pandemic seemed insight. Extensive lockdowns tocontain the spread of the virushave severely hit business out-look, they said.

Around the world, totalnumber of infected casessurged past 8.6 lakh, whiledeaths have crossed 42,000.

“The first day of the finan-cial year started off on a nega-tive note, impacted by the neg-ative global markets and alsodomestic uncertainties withregards to banks’ stressed assetsand auto numbers. FIIs havenet sold around �62,000 crorein Equity in March and withvirus infections increasing,markets are anticipating aworsening of the situation,”said Vinod Nair, Head ofResearch at Geojit FinancialServices.

All sectoral indices ended

with losses. BSE IT, teck,bankex, telecom, finance,FMCG and power indices fellup to 5.58 per cent.

Broader BSE midcap andsmallcap indices ended up to2.18 per cent lower. Domesticauto majors like Maruti Suzukiand Hyundai reported up to 47per cent decline in March sales,hit by the coronavirus-trig-gered lockdown and weak con-sumer sentiment.

New Delhi: The CellularOperators Association of India(COAI) said, here onWednesday, no additional spec-trum was required for main-taining the network stability andquality. COAI Director GeneralRajan Mathews said over thepast few days, the industry hasseen flattening of traffic demandon members’ networks.

The clarification comes daysafter the telecom operatorsrequested the Department ofTelecommunications (DoT) foradditional spectrum to meet therising load on networks due tothe nationwide lockdown. Asstreaming services and over-the-top platforms had reduced con-tent from HD to SD and telecomoperators had also taken othermeasures, pressure on the net-work had eased, he said. IANS

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The country’s leading carmakers Maruti Suzuki

India (MSI) and HyundaiMotor reported steep drop insales in March as the transitionto BS-VI emission norms andthe COVID-19 lockdownimpacted the dispatches.

Tata Motors, Mahindra &Mahindra (M&M) and ToyotaKirloskar Motor (TKM) also

reported a double-digit declinein domestic sales last month.

The country’s largest carmaker MSI saw its domesticwholesales dip 46.4 per cent at79,080 units last month asagainst 1,47,613 units in March2019. Sales of mini-cars com-prising Alto and WagonR inMarch 2020 stood at 15,988units as compared to 16,826units in the same month lastyear, down 5 per cent.

Similarly, sales of compactsegment, including modelssuch as Swift, Celerio, Ignis,Baleno and Dzire, fell 50.9 percent to 40,519 units, against82,532 cars in March 2019.

Sales of utility vehicles,including Vitara Brezza, S-Cross and Ertiga, also declined 53.4 per cent to 11,904units in March.

Hyundai Motor Indiareported 40.69 per cent declinein domestic sales last month at26,300 units, compared with44,350 units in March 2019.

Similarly, M&M reported90 per cent sales drop in thedomestic market in March to6,130 units. It had sold 59,012units in March 2019.

“Our performance inMarch has been muted onaccount of the impact of thecurrent lockdown related to

Covid-19 and the disruption inour BS-VI ramp-up plan,”M&M Chief Executive Officer(Automotive Division) VeejayRam Nakra said.

The latter was plannedbetween February and Marchbut was affected due to thechallenges of parts’ supply fromglobal and local suppliers, headded.

Tata Motors said its totaldomestic sales were down 84per cent at 11,012 units as com-pared to 68,727 units in Marchlast year.

Passenger vehicles’ saleswere affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent

nationwide lockdown, TataMotors Passenger VehiclesBusiness Unit PresidentMayank Pareek said.

Similarly, TKM said itsdomestic sales declined 45 percent to 7,023 units last monthas compared to 12,818 units inMarch 2019.

“Even though the compa-ny has been long successful inliquidating all BS-IV stock andtransitioning to a 100 per centBS-VI manufacturing facility,last month has been very chal-lenging for us, both in terms ofsales as well as production,”TKM Senior Vice-PresidentNaveen Soni said.

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US President Donald Trumpsaid on Tuesday he was

ready to help resolve an esca-lating oil price war betweenRussia and Saudi Arabia thathas helped push crude bench-marks to 17-year lows.

The threat of a globalrecession triggered by the coro-navirus pandemic had alreadyhammered prices when Riyadh said last month it wouldraise exports after a produc-tion-cut agreement among topproducers flopped in earlyMarch.

On Monday, Saudi Arabia

said it would increase exportsfurther to a record 10.6 millionbarrels per day from May,deepening a global supply glutas crude recorded its biggestmonthly and quarterly priceplunges in history.

Trump said he had spokenwith his Russian counterpartVladimir Putin and SaudiCrown Prince Mohammed BinSalman by phone with the aimof halting the slide.

“The two countries arediscussing it. And I am joiningat the appropriate time, if needbe,” Trump said.

Saudi Arabia had beenexporting around 7.0 million

barrels per day under an out-put reduction agreementamong a 24-member produc-er alliance known as OPEC+,which included Russia.

OPEC+ failed to reach anagreement on further produc-tion cuts to shore up saggingprices as the coronavirus bat-tered the global economy lastmonth.

Analysts say Riyadh isengaged in a deliberate long-term strategy to capture greatermarket share by pressuring itshigh-cost rivals.

“Saudi policy will not justdrive more expensive forms ofoil production out of the mar-

ket; it will also make it harderfor renewable energy to com-pete with fossil fuels,” saidBernard Haykel, a Saudi expertat Princeton University.

The price war has also hitshale oil producers in the US,with Trump telling Tuesday’spress conference that the pro-duction dispute threatened“thousands and thousands” ofjobs.

In a letter last week to USSecretary of State MikePompeo, a group of US sena-tors accused Saudi Arabia andRussia of waging “economicwarfare against the UnitedStates”.

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Afghan Government repre-sentatives have met with

the Taliban in Kabul for thefirst time to discuss a prisonerswap aimed at jump-starting afloundering peace process, offi-cials said on Wednesday.

The two sides met onTuesday and would meet againon Wednesday for further talksbeing observed by theInternational Committee ofthe Red Cross, Afghanistan’sOffice of the National SecurityCouncil said on Twitter.

“The two sides held face-to-face negotiations about therelease of Afghan NationalDefense and Security Forcepersonnel as well as Talibanprisoners,” the security councilsaid. It was the first time thehardline Islamists had beeninvited to Kabul to meet direct-ly with Government officialssince they were toppled in theUS-led invasion of 2001. Thetwo sides had spoken previ-ously in a videoconference todiscuss the prisoner issue.

Taliban spokesmanZabihullah Mujahid told AFP

that a “technical team” was inKabul purely to facilitate theprisoner swap, and not foradditional negotiations.

“The prisoners to bereleased should be those whosenames are on the list... That iswhy our technical team is there...It is not a negotiation, and therewill be no political talks there”,Mujahid said. Washingtonsigned a deal with the Taliban inlate February that promised thewithdrawal of US and foreigntroops from Afghanistan byJuly next year, provided theTaliban start talks with Kabuland adhere to other guarantees.

The deal required theAfghan Government — whichwas not a signatory to theaccord — to free 5,000 Talibanprisoners and for the insurgentsto release 1,000 pro-govern-ment captives in return. Theimbalance is one of manyaspects of the agreement thatobservers say gives the Talibanthe better bargain. The swapwas supposed to have takenplace by March 10, at whichpoint peace talks between theTaliban and the governmentwere meant to begin.

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China-India relations arestanding at a new starting

point and facing new oppor-tunities, Chinese President XiJinping said on Wednesday,exchanging congratulatorymessages with his Indian coun-terpart Ram Nath Kovind onthe 70th anniversary of bilateraldiplomatic ties.

On April 1, 1950, Indiabecame the first non-socialistcountry in Asia to establishdiplomatic relations with the

People’s Republic of China.In his message to Kovind,

Xi said China-India relationshave experienced “extraordi-nary development” during thepast 70 years. With joint effortsof both sides, the two countrieshave established a strategicand cooperative partnershipfor peace and prosperity, andare endeavouring to build aneven closer partnership ofdevelopment, he said.

The two sides enjoyincreasingly deepening bilateralexchanges and cooperation in

various fields, and constantlyimproving coordination onimportant regional and inter-national affairs, Xi, who heldtwo informal summits withPrime Minister Narendra Modiin Wuhan and later inMamallapuram in 2018 and2019 which stabilised the bilat-eral ties, said. Xi said he attach-es great importance to thedevelopment of bilateral rela-tions with India and is willingto work with President Kovindto elevate China-India ties to ahigher level, so as to bring more

benefits to the two countriesand contribute more positiveenergy to Asia as well as theworld, state-run Xinhua newsagency reported.

President Kovind, in hisletter to his Chinese counter-part Xi, conveyed warm greet-ings, felicitations and goodwishes to the government andthe people of China.

He noted that the two sideshave made considerableprogress, especially in the lastfew years, in enhancing theirbilateral engagement in a num-

ber of areas, including political,economic and people-to-peo-ple ties.

Messages of felicitationswere exchanged between thepresidents, prime ministersand external affairs ministers ofIndia and China on the occa-sion of the 70th anniversary ofthe establishment of diplomat-ic relations between the twocountries.

In his message to PrimeMinister Modi, ChinesePremier Li Keqiang said friend-ly cooperation and mutual

benefit serve the fundamentalinterests of the two countriesand peoples and will benefitAsia and the world.

Modi, in his message to Li,said coravirus pandemic is areminder of the interconnect-ed nature of the world and theneed for adopting a globalresponse to it. Modi also saidgood bilateral relations areconducive not only for thetwo countries, but also impor-tant from the perspective ofpeace, stability and prosperityof the region and the world.

Beirut: The war in Syria killed103 civilians in March, markingthe lowest monthly non-com-batant death toll since the startof the conflict in 2011, a warmonitor said on Wednesday.

Of the total deaths, some 51people were killed in shellingand air strikes by the Syrianregime, the Britain-based SyrianObservatory for Human Rightssaid. The bulk of the remainingcasualties were caused either byexplosive remnants or mysteri-ous “assassinations”, theObservatory added.

The civilian death toll was

more than double that ofMarch in February, when aregime offensive on Syria’s lastmajor rebel bastion was still infull swing. According to theObservatory, the number ofdeaths that month stood at 275.The war in Syria has left morethan 380,000 people dead sinceit started nine years ago.

The highest civilian deathtoll recorded in a month sincethe start of the conflict was1,590 in July 2016, when bat-tles between rebels and theregime raged in the northernprovince of Aleppo. AFP

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New Delhi: Shares of publicsector banks closed the day ona mixed note after the megamerger of PSU lenders cameinto effect from Wednesday.

As per the mega consoli-dation plan, Oriental Bank ofCommerce and United Bank ofIndia merged into PunjabNational Bank (PNB);Syndicate Bank into CanaraBank; Andhra Bank andCorporation Bank into UnionBank of India; and AllahabadBank into Indian Bank.

Shares of Punjab NationalBank dropped 5.72 per cent,while Canara Bank fell mar-ginally by 0.17 per cent on theBSE. In contrast, Indian Bankgained 1.86 per cent and UnionBank of India rose marginallyby 0.17 per cent.

The broader marketdepicted a weak trend, with the30-share BSE barometer tank-ing 1,203.18 points or 4.08 percent to close at 28,265.31.

The consolidation exerciseassumes significance as it tookplace at a time when the entirecountry is under the grip of theCOVID-19 outbreak, whichhas triggered a 21-day lock-down. State-owned PunjabNational bank on Wednesdaysaid all nation-wide branches ofUnited Bank of India andOriental Bank of Commercehas started functioning as PNBbranches. The amalgamationof Punjab National Bank,United Bank of India andOriental Bank of Commercehas come into effect from April 1, 2020. PTI

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London: Stock markets sankon Wednesday after USPresident Donald Trumpwarned of “a very, verypainful two weeks” to comefor the United States, whosecoronavirus death toll hasovertaken that of China.

European equities fellhard, with London down 3.7per cent in afternoon trading.Tokyo earlier closed down 4.5per cent. Wall Street openedsharply lower, with the Dowfalling 4.0 per cent. Adding tothe gloom, UK banks axedbillions of pounds in share-holder dividends and stockbuybacks after the Bank ofEngland requested the moveto boost liquidity as part ofmeasures to stimulate thevirus-hit economy.

Investor sentiment inEurope was also knocked bypoor manufacturing surveydata, jangling market nervesbefore Friday’s key US non-farm payrolls figures. Theeuro dropped against thedollar and pound. “Trump’swarning is the primary dri-ver of today’s downturn,”Oanda analyst Craig Erlamtold AFP. “It’s such a shiftfrom his previous views onthe impact of the coron-avirus and finally an accep-tance of how severe the sit-uation is.” Asian bourses alsodropped after a dire firstquarter for markets. AFP

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Three-month moratoriumon EMI payments offered

by banks is unlikely to bringmuch relief to borrowers hit byCOVID-19 lockdowns as theywill have to bear the extra costof interest charged by lendersand a longer repayment peri-od, according to experts.

Experts feel that the three-month moratorium on repay-ment on loans to help peoplefight the impact of coronavirusseems to be benefiting banksrather than borrowers as theywill have to pay accumulatedinterest through increasednumber of EMIs.

It is an expensive propo-sition for any borrower to optfor three-month suspension asannounced by the RBI under the relief measuresto mitigate the hardship ofthose hit by the outbreak ofCOVID-19 pandemic.

Last Friday, the RBI hadannounced that all term loans,including retail and crop loansand working capital payments,will be covered by the three-month moratorium. Bankswill now have discretion indeciding the limits on work-ing capital, with the RBI say-ing that no payment missshould be considered a defaultand reported to credit infor-mation companies.

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Can you recall the last time youstepped out with your childrenhappily? When did you last shop

for yourself? Don’t you miss the coffeebreaks with your colleagues? Well, thisconversation might seem far-removedfrom present day reality when theworld is facing a crisis. A large part ofthe world, which wakes up to emptystreets due to COVID-19, has acceptedthe lockdown and empty grocery storesas a way of life.

The virus has become a social andeconomic threat due to its global impact.It has changed the way we eat, socialise,work, play and travel. But what is evenmore scary is that we have not found itscure yet. Doctors and practitioners arestill in the process of researching on avaccine for this virus. Amidst all thiscrisis, there are experts who feel that fol-lowing some Ayurvedic ways and build-ing immunity can help us fight thisvirus.

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In Ayurveda, strong digestion playsa vital role in fighting against any virusand disease. Opting for a healthierlifestyle and shifting towards organicproducts are important steps to fight thepandemic. Besides this, here are sometips by Ayurveda expert, AcharyaManish:� As we all know, this is the time ofNavratra and people are fasting. Thoughpeople usually do it because of religiousreasons but fasting at least once a weekis good for health. It detoxifies the bodyand improves the immunity.� During fast eat salads, vegetables, dryfruit, seeds, coconut water and herbaltea. This diet may prevent the spread ofthe virus.� Take ayurvedic herbs such as giloy,turmeric, ashwagandha, tulsi and amla.They are effective in improving theimmunity.� Since the virus is caused by comingin contact with infected patients, avoidthat and follow hygiene guidelines likefrequent handwashing and isolatingoneself if there are any symptoms.� Avoid heavy meals, eggs, meat andfish these days.

� Use napkins, tissue paper while sneez-ing and throw them in the bin after use.� Try not to come in contact with anyanimal.� Drink hot water, also called ushan Jalin Ayurveda. It is easily digestible andremoves toxins from the body. It alsohelps to maintain the immunity of thebody and protects it from viral infec-tions and respiratory problems — oneof the symptoms of the virus.

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You need to focus on buildingimmunity not just to fight Coronavirusbut all diseases caused by bacteria andviruses. “You must have seen that manypeople fall ill frequently or have coughmost of the time while some rarely fallill. This difference is because of theimmune system. The ones with weakimmunity frequently fall ill,” says AcharyaManish.

He adds that adding tulsi, guduchiand turmeric in diet can help in increas-ing the immunity of the body. Eatinghealthy food is the first step towardsboosting immunity. One should alsoconsume citrus fruits like oranges andgrapes regularly. They have vitaminC which is believed to be effec-tive in increasing the produc-tion of white blood cells.Broccoli also helps inincreasing the immunityof the body as it containsvitamin A, C, E and a lotof fibre.

Ayurvedacharya DrPartap Chauhan, direc-tor, Jiva Ayurveda, saysthat one should ditchregular tea. As wework from home, ourroutines have gone fora toss. To cope withwork stress, we increaseour caffeine doses. But it istime we replace our regularcaffeine dose with an Ayurvedic

tea. One can make it at home with gin-ger, tulsi leaves and honey. These ingre-dients are good for the respiratory sys-tem and immunity too. Not only this,these also give the added benefit of stressrelief.

Herbs like brahmi, ashwagandha,jatamansi, sankhpuhspi, sarpgandha arealso great for reducing stress.

9�������������9“Yoga is no longer a lifestyle fad, it’s

a necessity. Fix 30 minutes every morn-ing for yoga. Composing your mind inthe morning will fortify it for stress

assaults all day long. Pick a calm spotin your home, like your balcony ornear an open window and practice

Padmasana, Shavashana and otherforms,” says Dr Partap.

���������3�����������9��3���It is one of the oldest systems of tra-

ditonal medicine. The ancient wisdom inthis system has the potential to cure anydisease. But Acharya Manish questionsthat why have people forgotten Ayurvedaand it’s importance? Well, probablybecause it works slowly and people wantfaster results.

“In this fast-paced life people aresticking to allopathic medicines more asthey give faster results. This is because itonly kills the symptoms of the disease. Onthe other hand, Ayurveda works on theroot cause. We need to focus on the factthat Ayurveda has a solution for all thediseases. It takes time but cures the dis-eases properly without any side effects,”adds Acharya Manish.

Actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas hasdecided to donate $100,000 along

with the organisation BON V!V SpikedSeltzer to the women out there who areworking for the betterment of societyamid the coronavirus pandemic.

Taking to her Instagram Story,Priyanka revealed that she was sup-posed to launch a promotional cam-paign with the brand in the next fewweeks but due to the coronavirus pan-demic, she decided to halt the plan. Shewill now use the resources for the fourwomen who are in need.

She posted a video in which is seenrequesting her users to nominate suchwomen. “Our worlds changed quick-ly, and needless to say, we couldn’t goforward with our original plans tolaunch this campaign. Each week I’llgo live with @BONVIVSeltzer toshare the stories of four women whoare overcoming the struggles of ournew realities in their own powerfulway. If you know a woman we shouldhighlight, visit the link in my bio fornext steps. We are all in this together.#togetherwomenrise #partner,”Priyanka wrote.

The actor also issued a statement,which read: “If you know a woman weshould highlight, share her story withus, whether she is in the serviceindustry, from a large business, smallbusiness owner, or first responders onthe front lines. We want to commem-orate her. #TogetherWomenRise.”

The actor and her husband NickJonas have also donated to organisa-tions like the PM-CARES Fund,Unicef, Feeding America and Goonj.

There are several other actorsfrom the industry who are doingtheir bit. Actor Ajay Devgn will alsobe donating ��51 lakh to Federationof Western India Cine Employees(FWICE) to aid daily wage film work-ers, who have been left without jobsdue to the lockdown amid the ongo-ing coronavirus pandemic.

Confirming the news, AshokDubey, general secretary of FWICE,said: “Ajay has pledged to donate � 51lakh to FWICE. I’m glad that peoplelike Ajay and Rohit (Shetty) are help-ing the daily wage workers who needit the most during the downtime. Wehave received more enquiries from

others wanting to provide monetaryhelp. We are providing them theaccount details. I hope more andmore people come forward to helpdaily wage workers,” Dubey added.

Bollywood superstar Salman Khanwas the first industry bigwig who tookthe initiative to help the 25,000-odddaily wage workers of the film indus-try whose lives have been affectedowing to the lockdown.

Filmmaker Rohit Shetty subse-quently donated � 51 lakh to FWICE.Frames Production Company andShashi Sumit Productions have alsoprovided ration and money for thecause. FWICE will utilise all thedonated money to help its daily wageworkers like junior artistes, stuntartistes, light men, and spot boysamongst others.

Bollywood actor Vicky Kaushal

also donated � 1 crore to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s relief fundand Chief Minister’s (Maharashtra)relief fund, to lend support to theongoing battle with COVID-19 pan-demic.

He also shared a note onInstagram: “While I am blessedenough to be seated with my lovedones in the comforts of my home, thereare many who are not as fortunate. Inthis time of crisis, I humbly pledge tocontribute an amount of � 1 crore toPM-CARES and Maharashtra ChiefMinister Relief Fund. We are in thistogether and we’ll win this together. Letus all do our bit for a healthier andstronger future.”

Many Bollywood celebrities likeAkshay Kumar, Kartik Aaryan, DiljitDosanjh, Anushka Sharma amongmany others have come forward tocontribute monetarily in these timesof crisis.

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Cricket is not just a sport, it is the heart ofIndians. It’s something that unites us.

With its mission to inspire creativity and bringjoy, TikTok, a platform for short format videoshas become the go-to platform for cricketersfrom all over to explore their fun and creativeside.

Cricketers such asSuresh Raina,Yuzvendra Chahal,Virender Sehwag,Irfan Pathan,Mohammad Shami,Chris Gayle and YusufPathan have joinedTikTok to showcasetheir talent apart fromcricket. Many of themcan be seen experi-menting with the newfilters available on the platform such as subma-rine game, zoom my face and halloween, mak-ing fun and comedy videos. They can also beseen participating in the ongoing challenges andsharing their fitness regime, inspiring millionson the platform.

With over three million followers onTikTok, India’s finest right-arm-leg spinner,Chahal is a big hit on TikTok. His comedyvideos and fun banter with fellow cricketersleaves his fans in splits of laughter. Sharing hisexperience on TikTok, Chahal said, “It is amaz-ing to be on this platform as it helps me exploremy fun side. I’ve come across some users whoare sharing different and exciting content. I’vealso collaborated with some talented creatorson the platform and was stunned to see theirdedication and creativity to always deliver thebest.”

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In view of the current nation-widelockdown due to COVID-19 pan-

demic, the Delhi DevelopmentAuthority (DDA) has declared that themonthly membership subscription,monthly user charges and monthlycoaching fees will not be charged atDDA’s sports complexes and golf cours-es during the period. The deductionwould be made on pro rata basis. Allcaddies at DDA Qutab Golf Course andBhalaswa Golf Course, who are notpaid by management, are also beinggiven daily relief of `250 during thelockdown.

Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)has mobilised a large number of

healthcare services across all five of itsmain hospitals located in the five integrat-ed steel plants to fight the Coronaviruspandemic.

The five hospitals include JLNHospital & Research Centre at Bhilai,Durgapur Steel Plant Main Hospital atDurgapur, Ispat General Hospital atRourkela, Bokaro General Hospital atBokaro, and Burnpur Hospital at IISCO,Burnpur.

SAIL has also created isolation wardswith 330 beds, necessary facilities for thequarantine with 592 beds, ICU beds alongwith other necessary health equipment tospecially deal with the cases of COVID-19 infections. These facilities have beenmade available to the local administration

for utilisation as well. The company is alsoproducing masks through self-help groupsand providing large quantities of masks,PPEs and sanitising facilities across all the

health units and work areas. SAIL’sRourkela steel plant is handing over fiveventilator units to Odisha government tocater to their requirements as well.

NTPC Ltd, India’s largestpower producer, has

stepped up its vigil againstglobal pandemic of COVID-19by converting its hospitals intodedicated Coronavirus units.

R K Singh, Minister ofState (I/c) of Power, New andRenewable Energy andMinister of State of SkillDevelopment, has decided toutilise NTPC’s 45 hospitalsand healthcare units to makeisolation facilities and pro-

cured requisite number ofequipment for the medicalstaff to handle such cases effec-tively.

As many as 121 beds, withall facilities, have been turnedinto isolation wards in thesehospitals. The key medicalinfrastructure is been provid-ed by state governments totackle COVID-19 cases,including the hospital atBadarpur in Delhi and themedical college hospital of

Sundergarh in Odisha. KorbaHospital is also being exam-ined to be taken over by thestate government.

The medical staff has alsobeen trained over video callsabout the use of PersonalProtective Equipment (PPE).Mock drills are getting con-ducted at all hospitals as perMOHFW guidelines.Furthermore, 1,160 PPEs,30,000 masks and 30,000gloves have been dispatched to

all the projects and stations. A total of eight ventilators

are being procured atHazaribagh for district admin-istration. Additionally, thereare 18 Advanced LevelAmbulances (ALAs) with ven-tilators.

It has contributed funds tothe district administration ofNTECL Vallur for procuring1,000 bedsheets for a hospital.

At NTPC Bhilai, fundshave been reserved for support

to the district hospitals to pro-vide foods to nearby localitiesthrough NGOs and also forproviding essential medicine inPrimary Health Cares (PHCs).

Similarly, NTPC Rihandhas assured adequate funds fordistribution of sanitisers andother protective equipment.

The requirement of con-tractor workers has also beenrationalised at NTPC projectsstations in accordance with theGOI guidelines. The agencies

have been asked to treat theworkers’ absence in theseextraordinary circumstancesas on duty. As far as wages areconcerned, there will be nohindrance and they will begiven timely. In some cases,including advances havealready been given.

Accommodation, food andmedical facilities for the con-tractor workers have also beenarranged at many of NTPC’sproject stations.

In the wake of the nation-widelockdown amid the ongoingCoronavirus pandemic, children

missing out on their education is ahuge cause of concern for parents andteachers. However, the Ministry ofHuman Resource Development(MHRD) is fully prepared to copewith the situation. The MHRD hasbeen working on various projectsthrough which quality educationcould be reached through variousmeans of communication to allschools for the last five years.

The three organisations under theMHRD — the Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE), theNational Institute of Open Schooling(NIOS) and the National Council ofEducational Research and Training(NCERT) — are collaborating topool up all resources at their dispos-al to make academic content reachschool-level learners across Indiapursuing education through CBSE,NIOS or any other school boards ofthe country. Amit Khare, secretary ofeducation, Government of India,personally discussed the plan with theorganisations and given directions towork on a contingency plan.

The CBSE has developed the‘DIKSHA’ portal, through which aca-demic lessons in various Indian lan-guages have been placed for differentlevels. The material has been divid-ed into two major areas — for teach-ers and students. Students from dif-ferent school boards of different

states would be able to study adopt-ed material for their state in their ownlanguage.

Similarly, the NIOS has made thecontent available for secondary andsenior secondary classes on the‘SWAYAM’ portal of the MHRD(www.swayam.gov.in/nios). Throughthe portal, learners can log in andstudy courses of their choice and alsowatch related videos and audiolessons. Later, they can also takeonline tests. The course-coordinatingteacher will also be available to

answer queries, if students have any.Another major initiative of NIOS isthe running of four DTH TV chan-nels on the SwayamPrabha bouquetof channels. While Channel 27 Paniniis dedicated to secondary classes,Channel 28 Sharda is dedicated tosenior secondary and Channel 30Gyanamrit to sign language. There isalso Channel 32 Vagda which will bededicated to live, interactive classes.

The NIOS is also starting live ses-sions for students to ask questions andget answers. It has been conducting

live interaction with teachers in thelast two years but now this facility willbe expanded to students. SantoshMall, commissioner, KendriyaVidyalaya, has assured to provideexperts and teachers, who would beavailable to take questions throughcalls on Vagda channel. Anita Karwal,chairperson, CBSE, is coordinatingwith all the three organisations tomake available online classes to allschool children across the nation.

Parents, whose children sat for12th board examinations in 2020,

would be anxious to know about theresults so that they don’t miss out oncollege admissions in India andabroad. However, there shouldn’t beany concern or anxiety as all theboards have deferred the examina-tions and as soon as the condition isnormalised, all boards, includingNIOS will conduct examinationsafter giving sufficient time to prepare.The evaluation will be done at warfooting and results would be declaredat the minimum possible time.Hence, students would have sufficienttime to apply for admissions. Highereducation institutions will also extendtheir admission deadlines.

Chandra Bhushan Sharma, chair-man, NIOS, said, “We don’t wantteachers to start preparing lessons toteach over the internet as this is atechnical job for which they do nothave prior training. They should con-centrate on providing counselling andremedial lessons online in smallgroups. They should prod their stu-dents to log in to the online materi-al, which has been prepared byexpert teachers and media profes-sionals.”

He added, “It has also beenmade compulsory for all cable oper-ators to carry DD channels. Wehave also requested to the I&BMinistry to instruct cable operatorsto carry the SwayamPrabha channels.This will be a great service to theapproximately 25 crore school-levellearners in the country.”

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The competent authority of the Council of Architecture hasdecided to postpone the first test of National Aptitude Test

in Architecture (NATA 2020), which was scheduled to be heldon April 19. The new date of the examination will be announcedafter the period of complete lockdown amid COVID-19 is over.

It has also been decided to extend the registration date uptoApril 15. Other important dates such as image uploads allowedtill, fee payment, candidate correction window, publication ofadmit card, also stands revised. The candidates and parents areadvised to kindly regularly visit the websites for latest updates.

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The Ordnance Factory Boardis in the forefront to fight

COVID-19. The first batchcomprising 1,500 litre of handsanitiser was despatched bythe Cordite FactoryAruvankadu in Tamil Nadu toThiruvananthapuram. Thetruck was flagged off remotelyby the DGOF and chairman,Ordnance Factory Board, HariMohan, from OFBHQ atKolkata.

Hindustan Latex Limited(HLL), which has been nomi-nated as the nodal agency, has

placed an order of 13,000 litresof hand sanitiser. This is beingmanufactured in a number offactories.

Hand sanitisers which con-tain ethanol can only beprocessed in a cool environ-ment with proper ventilationand requires extensive safetyprecautions. Various teams ofofficers, staff and workmentoiled ceaselessly to establishand then scale up the produc-tion. Apart from hand sanitis-er, the units of OFB are alsodeveloping masks and coverall.

The Government of India has decid-ed to provide Pradhan Mantri Garib

Kalyan Package, an insurance schemecover of �50 lakh for 22.12 lakh publichealthcare providers for 90 days includ-ing community health workers, whomay come into direct contact ofCOVID-19 patients. They are at highrisk of being impacted by this.

New India Assurance CompanyLimited is providing this insurancecover. Private hospital staff, volunteers,local urban bodies, daily wage, ad hoc,outsourced, contractual, retired employ-ees, and staff requisitioned by thestates’ or central hospitals orautonomous hospitals of central, stateor UTs, AIIMS and INIs/ hospitals ofcentral ministries, will be coveredunder this scheme.

India’s top economists, socialscientists, workers’ organisa-

tions and former civil servantshave appealed for urgent inter-vention from PM/CM of statesto ameliorate the impact onVulnerable Workers andPopulations induced byCOVID-19 lockout. The mea-sures are as follows:

- The Centre and Statestogether should try and ensurea minimum transfer of at least�6,000 per month to each JDYwoman account holder with amajor part borne by the centralgovernment over the next threemonths.

- All State governmentsshould ensure that at least 10 kgfree ration per month, alongwith other necessary items,are available for all eligible

households.- Three to four fold

increase of the current short-term relief package for impact-ed informal workers.

Amid the Coronaviruspandemic, while welcomingthe central government’s �1.7trillion package and variousmeasures taken by the Stategovernments, the IndianSociety of Labour Economics(ISLE) and the signatories tothis letter strongly appeal to thegovernment of India all theserequests. In the letter to thePrime Minister and the StateChief ministers, we have pro-posed urgent additional mea-sures that are required toaddress critical gaps that existin the short-term relief mea-sures announced so far.

���LIC of India has contributed

�105 crore to PM-CARES Fund forsupporting the efforts of theGovernment of India in fightingCOVID-19. Out of the �105 crore,�5 crore has been donated from LIC’sGolden Jubilee Fund.

In a statement, LIC’s chairman,MR Kumar said, “India is facing ahuge challenge in wake of the glob-al pandemic. LIC is committed to thewelfare of India and the people.Living up to our motto‘Yogakshemam Vahamyaham’, whichmeans ‘your welfare is my responsi-bility’, we promise our solidarity withthe efforts of the Government andwill take every step to ensure safetyand security of people.”

�������������3���������������������

The CGWWA contributed �1.5lakh to PM-CARES Fund to furtherstrengthen the Government of India’sefforts in tackling the pandemic ofCOVID-19.

CGWWA, with its motto ‘SelfHelp’, aims at empowering ICGwomen through varied educationaland skill development programmes.CGWWA has also been extendingtheir assistance to women and chil-dren from the underprivileged soci-ety through various schemes. Itactively took part in sensitising thelocal populace about the preventivemeasures to be adopted againstspread of COVID-19.

���������������������������I���J

PFC, the NBFC in the power

sector, has pledged to contribute�200 crore to the Prime Minister’sCitizen Assistance and Relief inEmergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) to support the battleagainst COVID-19. PFC’s employ-ees will voluntarily contribute aday’s salary to further strengthen thenation’s fight against the dreaded dis-ease.

Earlier, PFC had agreed to pro-vide financial assistance of �50 lakhto Indian Red Cross Society inRajasthan. Under the CSR Initiative,PFC’s financial aid will be used fordistribution of masks and sanitisersas a part of preventive measuresagainst COVID-19.

PFC and its employees remainvigilant and alert in these testingtimes. As a responsible corporate,PFC is relentlessly working towardsimplementation of all precautionarymeasures to deal with the pandem-ic.

���BHEL has made a contribution

of �7 crore through its CSR funds,while its employees have made ahumble contribution of donatingtheir one-day salary to the PM-CARES Fund to bolster the fightagainst this unprecedented medicalemergency.

Significantly, BHEL’s Ranipetunit has developed in-house a sprayassembly that atomises the sanitisingliquid and can be used for mass sani-tisation to combat Coronavirus,while consuming comparatively lessliquid. It has been named Bhelmisterand has been donated to the localadministration of Ranipet for sani-

tising the whole town on a massscale. The design is being shared withall other units of BHEL so that it canbe adapted and used by them as well.

Also, three-ply masks have beenmade in-house by the company’sJhansi unit to meet the requirementof the unit’s hospital, guest house,security guards and employees work-ing under essential services.

����NHDC, the largest hyrdo power

generating company in MadhyaPradesh, has contributed �10 crorefrom its CSR fund to PM-CARESfund to combat the crisis ofCoronavirus.

NHDC has also sanctioned �50lakh to District Administrations inKhandwa for purchase of medicaland protective equipment to fightCorona in the district. Being asocially responsible corporate,approximately �15 lakh have beenearmarked for sufficient distributionof hand sanitisers, face masks,healthcare items, food grains in theproject areas of NHDC. A total of �5lakh have also been provided toSewa-Bharti in Bhopal for distribu-tion of food packets to the needy.

Apart from this, employees ofNHDC have also pledged to con-tribute one day’s salary to fight thedisease.

�����3�����������������To help the nation win the bat-

tle over COVID-19, RVNL has con-tributed �5 crore CSR Fund to PM-CARES Fund. RVNL employeeshave also voluntarily contributedone-day salary for the same.

��3����������������������9�I����J

NMDC Limited, declared thatthey will contribute �150 crore to thePM-CARES Fund to help in the fightagainst COVID-19. This will be thebiggest support offered by any PSEin the country to help the fightagainst Corona so far. N BaijendraKumar, IAS, CMD, NMDC, said,“Coronavirus is one of the biggestchallenges that our country hasfaced and has been unprecedented inits severity. We at NMDC, hasalways been at the forefront in timesof need for the country. But thebiggest need is at this time is to beunited and strengthen the hands ofthe Government of India. Togetherwe will be able to defeat this pan-demic.”

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Page 12: €¦ · Maulana Saad has been untraceable since March 28 after he was served a notice by the Delhi Police. “Police teams are raiding several places across the west-ern Uttar Pradesh

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Wimbledon organisers onWednesday scrapped the oldestGrand Slam tennis tournament

for the first time since World War II asthe coronavirus wreaks further havoc onthe global sporting calendar.

The cancellation of the only grass-court major at London’s All England Clubleaves the season in disarray, with no ten-nis set to be played until mid-July.

“Devastated,” tweeted eight-timechampion Roger Federer, while SerenaWilliams, who has won the tournamentseven times, said she was shocked by themomentous decision.

Wimbledon was due to run for twoweeks from June 29, with Novak Djokovicand Simona Halep set to defend their sin-gles titles.

But tournament chiefs bowed to theinevitable on Wednesday, saying in a state-ment that they had made the decisionwith “great regret”.

US tennis chiefs responded by sayingthe US Open, due to finish a week beforethe rearranged French Open, was still dueto take place as planned.

All England Club chairman IanHewitt said the decision to cancelWimbledon had not been taken lightly.

“It has weighed heavily on our mindsthat the staging of The Championshipshas only been interrupted previously byworld wars,” he said.

“But, following thorough and exten-sive consideration of all scenarios, webelieve that it is a measure of this global

crisis that it is ultimately the right deci-sion to cancel this year’s Championships.”

Halep tweeted her disappointment.“So sad to hear @Wimbledon won’t

take place this year,” she said. “Last year’sfinal will forever be one of the happiestdays of my life! But we are going throughsomething bigger than tennis and

Wimbledon will be back! And it meansI have even longer to look forward todefending my title.”

Two-time champion Petra Kvitovasaid the cancellation was tough to take.

“I will miss playing on the beautifulgrass and wearing my whites, BUT ofcourse we know it will be back better than

ever next year. And maybe we will allappreciate it even more!” she tweeted.

The decision to cancel Wimbledonwas widely expected, with the world strug-gling to contain spread of COVID-19.

Organisers had earlier ruled outplaying the event behind closed doorswhile postponing it would also have cre-

ated its own problems, with shorter dayslater in the English summer.

The ATP and WTA have also can-celled the grasscourt swing in the build-up to the tournament, meaning the ten-nis season will not now restart until July13 at the earliest.

The US Tennis Association saidit was sticking to its August 31

to September 13 dates forthe US Open in New York.

“At this time theUSTA still plans to hostthe US Open as sched-

uled, and we continue tohone plans to stage the tour-

nament,” it said in a statement.“The USTA is carefully monitoring

the rapidly changing environment sur-rounding the COVID-19 pandemic, andis preparing for all contingencies.”

The cancellation of Wimbledoncould mean multiple champions Federer,Serena Williams and Venus Williamshave played at the All England Club forthe final time.

Federer and Serena will be nearly 40by the time of the 2021 championshipsand Venus will be 41.

Serena, beaten in last year's final byHalep, is stuck on 23 Grand Slam singlestitles — agonisingly one away fromequalling Margaret Court’s record.

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Epicentre of the COVID-19 pandem-ic before it gripped Europe and the

USA, China will host the third editionof the Asian Youth Games in Shantou inNovember next year, the OlympicCouncil of Asia said on Wednesday.

The OCA has decided to hold theAsian Youth Games from November 20to 28. The host city was decided by theOCA in 2019 but the dates of themulti-sporting event was announced onWednesday.

“The OCA while maintaining avery strict isolation policy is still con-tinuing its activity and liaising with thevarious Asian Games OrganisingCommittee to ensure that the prepara-tions for the Games are not hindered,”the OCA said in a letter sent to all itsmember nations in Asia.

“In this respect I have the pleasureto inform you that the OCA in coordi-nation with the Shantou 3rd AsianYouth Games Organising Committee(SAYGOC) has decided the dates andsports programme of the 3rd AsianYouth Games, which are from 20th to

28th November 2021,” OCA DirectorGeneral Husain Al Musallam said in theletter.

The 3rd Asian Youth Games willhave 18 sports in its roster — Athletics,Aquatics, Badminton, Basketball (3x3),Beach Volleyball, Dragon Boat Racing,Football, Gymnastics, Golf, Handball,Hip Hop Dance, Rock Climbing, Rugby,Surfing, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, WindSurfing and Wushu.

The Asian Youth Games were firstheld in Singapore in 2011 and then againin Nanjing in China in 2013.

The 2017 event was awarded toHambantota in Sri Lanka but the islandnation dropped out following a series ofproblems.

Jakarta was then lined up as areplacement but it also withdrew.

In 2019, Shantou was awarded theGames in 2021, marking the event’sreturn after eight years, that too in thesame country for the second time.

The Asian Youth Games are consid-ered the second biggest multi-sportingevent in the continent and nearly 2500athletes took part in the 2013 edition inNanjing in China.

��� ��� India pacer JaspritBumrah on Wednesday said hetakes inspiration from Swedishfootballer Zlatan Ibrahimovicand the way he rose from theashes to become one of the bestin the business.

Talking on Instagram Livewith Rohit Sharma, Bumrahsaid: “I love Ibra. I can relate tohis story that people did not takehim seriously and then hebecame a star. I can relate as Ithink people took me lightly ini-tially and then I proved themwrong, I am still trying.”

Bumrah is the No 1 ODIbowler at present. He rosethrough the ranks playing forMumbai Indians in IPL and hada forgettable first outing .

On debut against RCB,Bumrah was smashed to threeboundaries by Virat Kohli in his

first-ever IPL over. However,what followed that was a rib-bon-cutting to his gloriouscricketing career.

Rohit and Bumrah, bothteammates at Mumbai Indians,

also spoke on Sri Lanka T20captain Lasith Malinga whoalso plays for Mumbai Indians.Rohit asked Bumrah on his rela-tion with Malinga.

“The communication wasdifficult initially. He taught methe mindset when he gets hit, hesmiles. I used to get annoyed atthe beginning but he explainedthere is no point getting angry,”Bumrah said.

Rohit said Mumbai had abalance team this term andwould have done well.

"I was looking forward tothis (season) we had lethal newball combination, we had allbases covered. IPL would havebeen exciting but anyway thiscan't be controlled," said India'slimited overs vice-captain andone of the best white-ball bat-ters. IANS

������ �(�+(,-�

India’s T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur has said India’sdomestic scructure is “five-six years behind” Australia

and England, adding that skill wise they are at par withthem.

India lost to Australia in the T20 World Cup finalby 85 runs last month.

“Definitely we are five-six years behind them in theseaspects,” Kaur told Mumbai Mirror.

“But now girls have understood their responsibil-ity towards being fit. Earlier there used to be a huge dif-ference between a domestic player and what is expect-ed at the international level. But now some 30 girls aregiven individual programme by the BCCI.

“So when one of them is picked for India, she is notclueless about what is expected of her. As we keepimproving our domestic level, the performances at theinternational level will improve. That is why I said weare five-six years behind these teams because our domes-tic set-up is not as good as it should be.”

“Now the players are getting more aware about beingfit and following the right daily routines,” Kaur said.

“The things we have grasped in the last two-threeyears, England and Australia have been doing from longbefore.”

Kaur said it is more about fitness and not skills thatseparate them from Australia or England.

“Just the fitness. In these two countries fitness is partof their culture. Unfortunately, in India we start thesethings late,” Kaur told The Week.

“For the last three years the girls have been work-ing hard on fitness. It does not improve overnight, weneed to work on it for longer durations. Earlier, we wouldcome close to these teams and lose, but now we are win-ning matches against them. Skill-wise we are better bat-ters and bowlers than these two countries.”

Kaur’s form was poor throughout the World Cupcampaign in Australia. But the 31-year old dashing bat-ter said she is not thinking too much about pressure andalso captaincy.

“From the outside it may look like that, but person-ally I have never felt so,” she said when questioned onthe captaincy.

“I really enjoy this part. I feel more involved. Thecaptaincy keeps me alert all the time. Earlier, I used tothink about my performance alone. Captaincy has mademe a better person. [ Now,] I cannot think only aboutmyself, but [have to think] of other things, too.”

�9��� UEFA have made a movetowards clearing the decks for thereturn of club football by announcingon Wednesday that all internationalmatches that had been pushed back toJune have now been postponed untilfurther notice.

“This includes the play-off match-es for UEFA Euro 2020 and qualify-ing matches for UEFA Women’s Euro2021,” said European football's govern-ing body in a statement.

“All other UEFA competitionmatches, including the centralisedinternational friendly matches,remain postponed until furthernotice.”

The decision followed avideo conference with Europe’s55 member federations as partof discussions on how to adaptthe fixture calendar in the faceof the ongoing coronaviruscrisis.

The play-offsemi-finals andfinals that are sup-

posed to decide the last four qualify-ing berths for the next EuropeanChampionship were initially post-poned at the end of March and pen-cilled in provisionally for June.

That was “subject to a review ofthe situation” amid uncertainty overhow the pandemic will develop andwhether many European countriescurrently in lockdown will be able toreturn to some kind of normality.

Friendlies that will not now goahead include England’s matches inAustria and at home to Romania in

early June.However, UEFA have also

stated a determination to fin-ish all domestic and club com-petitions by June 30.

While that currently looksambitious, clearing the interna-

tional fixtures from the samemonth does buy some more time

as they aim to complete theChampions League and Europa

League competitions as well asdomestic leagues. AFP

���� ������ Even a shortenedIPL with just Indian playerswould be good enough in these“extraordinary times”, RajasthanRoyals Executive ChairmanRanjit Barthakur said onWednesday, revealing that afinal call on the glitzy event’s fateis unlikely before April 15.

The top executive spelt outhis franchise’s wish even as thenumber of positive cases anddeath toll due to the pandemiccontinued to rise across theworld.

“We are open to a shortenedtournament with only Indianplayers, at the end of the day it

is the Indian Premier League,”Barthakur said.

With a nationwide lock-down in place to combat thespread of the disease, the eventseems unlikely to go aheadunless the BCCI figures analternate window later in theyear.

The RR executive thoughsaid they are confident that theBoard will take a decision keep-ing in mind the best interests ofthe franchises.

“These are extraordinarytimes and the BCCI will do thebest it can when things improve,”he said.

“Earlier we could not thinkof an Indians-only IPL but nowthere is enough quality to choosefrom. It is better to have an

����������Australian spin legendShane Warne has named formerskipper and current BCCIPresident Sourav Ganguly as thecaptain of his all time India XI,which includes master blasterSachin Tendulkar and Navjot SinghSidhu.

Warne said he ignored formerskipper MS Dhoni and current cap-tain Virat Kohli because he pickedonly those Indian players againstwhom he had played.

“I am only picking players thatI played against and that’s why MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli are notgoing to be a part of the side. WhileDhoni is probably the greatestwicketkeeper-batsman to haveplayed the game, Kohli is one of thegreatest batsmen across formats,”Warne said in Instagram Live post.

Warne also ignored VVSLaxman, who was once consideredhis nemesis. He justified his deci-sion, stating that the stylishHyderabadi batsman faced the axe

to accommodate Ganguly.“I went for Ganguly because I

wanted him to be the captain of myside, that is why Laxman missedout,” he said.

Nayan Mongia was his pick asthe wicket-keeper of the team,which also includes the likes of1983 World Cup-winning captainKapil Dev, spin duo of Harbhajan

Singh and Anil Kumble and JavagalSrinath among others.

The 50-year-old spin wizardnamed Virender Sehwag and Sidhuas openers in the strong battingline-up which also includes thelikes of Rahul Dravid, Tendulkarand Mohammad Azharuddin.

On picking Sidhu ahead ofother openers, Warne said theright-hander from Punjab was thebest player of spin during his play-ing days.

“I had to pick Navjot SinghSidhu because he was the best play-er against spin I have ever playedagainst. All the other spinners Ihave played with, they have alsotold me that Sidhu was brilliantagainst them,” Warne said.Warne’s all-time India XI: SouravGanguly (c), Virender Sehwag,Navjot Singh Siddu, Rahul Dravid,Sachin Tendulkar, MohdAzharuddin, Kapil Dev, NayanMongia (wk), Harbhajan, JavagalSrinath, Anil Kumble. PTI

����� )��9-(*&(�

Manchester City midfield-er Kevin De Bruyne has

vowed to play for an extra twoyears at the end of his careerto make up for the time lostdue to the coronavirus.

The Premier League ispostponed until at least April30 because of the pandemicand is likely to be delayed evenlonger when the Englishgame’s stakeholders meet onFriday.

De Bruyne has not playedsince March 1 because of thehealth crisis and the miserableexperience has underlined tothe Belgian star just howmuch he loves the game.

The 28-year-old’s desire toprolong his career comes afterhe enjoyed a superb personalseason with City after missingmost of their treble-winningcampaign last term due toinjury.

“I told my wife I’m going

to play a little longer,” DeBruyne said in an InstagramLive video Q&A with Belgium

team-mates Romelu Lukakuand Axel Witsel.

“After this lockdown, Icannot stay at home. I told herI’m going to take two yearsmore.

“It’s time to play footballagain. I miss it and it’s diffi-cult. But we are not important,football is not important.People love football, but youneed to stay safe.”

De Bruyne revealed hisfamily, including his two chil-dren, had been ill during thevirus lockdown, but he saidthey are better now.

“I’ve been at home nowfor two weeks,” he said.

“At the beginning, myfamily and my kids were a lit-tle bit sick so that was a littlebit worrying but they arealright now.

“People ask why I’m not inBelgium. It's because I’m self-isolating in England. I livehere so I’m here with my kidsand wife.”

���� �(�+(,-�

Star Indian wrestler BajrangPunia is assured of a top-four seeding in the 65kg

category at next year’s TokyoOlympics even if he skips the lastranking series tournament,going by the latest world stand-ings.

The fast-rising Ravi Dahiyaalso seems set for a top-fourbilling at the mega-event, whichwill be held from July 23 toAugust 8 next year.

Wrestling’s world governingbody UWW announced thefresh rankings which placedBajrang at number two in the65kg category. Dahiya is fourthin the very competitive 57kg cat-egory.

Russian Olympic championGadhzimurad Rashidov leadsthe 65kg rankings. Four Pointsseparate Rashidov (60), Punia(59) and Kazakshtan’s DauletNiyazbekov (56) for the topseeding.

But the Russian and Indianwrestlers have such command-ing leads over the fieldthat they can sit out ofthe final ranking seriesevent and still earn atop-four seeding at theOlympic Games.

R a s h i d o vowns the topspot in 65kgafter finallyclaiming hislong-awaitedworld Gold inNur-Sultan lastseason.

Punia began theyear ranked num-ber three with 25points after hisworld Bronzemedal. He hasoverthrown worldfinalist Niyazbekovfor the number tworanking.

Punia added16 points to hisworld champi-onship total afterhe erased a three-point deficit againstJordan Oliver (USA)to win the 16-pointMatteo PelliconeRanking Series Gold

medal. Although he stumbled in

the Asian finals against 2018world champion TakutoOtoguro(JPN), Punia collected18 points and pushed himself towithin one point of the Russiandefending world champion.

The 57kg is led by reigningworld champion and numberone from Russia Zaur Uguev (60points).

World runner-up SuleymanAtli is firmly in the number twoposition after runner-up finish-es at the World and EuropeanChampionships. He has 58points and is followed by StevanMicic (48) and Dahiya (45).

Dahiya needs a 12-point fin-ish at the final Ranking Seriesevent to secure one of the top-four seeds. There is slim chancethat the Indian wrestler can grabthe number one seeding.

For that to happen, Dahiyawould need Uguev, Atli andMicic to sit out of the finalRanking Series event and winGold in a bracket with morethan 11 wrestlers to earn the 16points he needs to clear his top-three rivals.

Nurislam Sanayev is rankedfifth in this weight and trailsDahiya by six points.

World ChampionshipSilver-medallist DeepakPunia is ranked secondin 65kg behind Iranian

great Hassan Yazdani,who underwent kneesurgery earlier thisyear and had nochoice but to skip the

Matteo Pellicone and AsianChampionships.

He commanded a 20-point lead over Deepak butthe Indian wrestler closedthat gap on Yazdani with a14-point Asian champi-onship Bronze-medal fin-ish. Deepak leads RussianArtur Naifonov by sevenpoints after the conclusionof the continental champi-onship season.

No Indian figures intop-10 of the 74kg, 97kgand 125kg categories, thethree other olympicweight categories.

The top four in eachcategory will be seeded

at the Tokyo Games.

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++�����������������%.A�����%�������������Indians-only IPL than not at all.

“When can we have it? That BCCIdecides. And I think that call be taken onlypost 15th April,” Barthakur added. PTI

China to host Asian Youth Games in 2021

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������������ ����G������������������������� Sportspersons beingasked to take pay cuts have beenmaking news ever since the out-break of the coronavirusbrought the world to a standstill.But BCCI Treasurer ArunDhumal has made it clear thatthere is no such thought processat present when it comes to thesalary of the Indian cricketers.

He made it clear that therehave been no such discussions.

“No, we have not spoken

about this (pay cut). Whateverthe steps after this setback, it willbe taken judiciously and keep-ing the interest of all people inmind. Any step taken needs tobe thought out and right nowwe haven’t even thought aboutit. Obviously this is a big set-back, but we will go about thisin a way that nobody getsaffected. These things can bediscussed once things settledown,” he said. IANS

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