12
O ut of every four Covid-19 patients, three are male. The Union Health Ministry revealed this on Monday — on a day when nearly 500 new cases surfaced in India. The highest number of single-day deaths stood at 30 in the last 24 hours taking the total tally to 135 fatalities. The Government data shows that women seem to be having a greater ability to fight against the infections than men as 73 per cent of the Covid-19 deaths have been reported in men, while 27 per cent of those have been in women. “Seventy-six per cent of the coronavirus patients in India are men, while, 24 per cent of those are women,” said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in Union Health Ministry. More than 4,500 positive cases have been reported in India by late Monday evening. As many as 1,445 cases are related to Tablighi Jamaat, 25,000 workers of whom and their contacts have been quar- antined and five Haryana vil- lages where they visited sealed. Globally, nearly 70,000 people have died and over 1.25 million tested positive. Elderly people remain a high risk population in the country as also across the world. Statistically, 63 per cent of the deaths in India have been reported among people over 60 years age, 30 per cent in the age bracket of 40 to 60 years and 7 per cent victims being below 40 years age. Agarwal said the deceased below 40 years were suffering from the co-mor- bidities like diabetes, chronic kidney ailments, heart diseases and hypertension. Further, though 37 per cent deaths are reported from people below 60 years, approx- imately, 86 per cent of deaths among people with co-mor- bidities indicate that young people with co-morbidities are also at high risk of COVID-19. He implied that if elders, because of their old age and co- mobidities were vulnerable so were those in the young age group having such conditions mainly related to lifestyle which results into weak immunity. “While coronavirus is a bigger threat for the elderly, young people with co-mor- bidities also need to be pro- tected,” Agarwal added. Similar trend was reported in China too where a 2.8 per cent death rate in men while only a 1.7 per cent death rate in women due to COVID-19, according to the data provided by Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While the number of people infected was almost equal in number, it were the women who had a compara- tively more survival rate. Agarwal emphasised that elders should be protected and every youth has to be careful that they maintain sufficient social distance to not pass infection to anyone in the fam- ily, particularly the elderly. “We urge social distancing in the long term and all the dos and don’ts followed by every- body in the family,” he added. Clarifying the queries con- nected with community trans- mission in the country, the Health Ministry said if at all there is any community trans- mission, it will alert the people. “Localised community transmission implies that increase in cases was observed in a particular area. Our action plan is that we should not reach stage 3 (which is the community transmission stage),” he said. The official also clarified that whenever a drastic increase is observed in the number of cases in an area, the Ministry adopts a containment action plan. “All the districts have been informed to have an action plan on Covid-19, if there are cases or no cases”, added Agarwal. Continued on Page 2 T he Union Cabinet on Monday decided to “tem- porarily suspend” MPLAD funds for two years and approved an Ordinance to cut 30 per cent of salary and pen- sion of MPs and former MPs. The Opposition slammed the decision to suspend MPLAD scheme and Left par- ties said the decisions reflect- ed the dire straits of the Indian economy. Citing the age-old adage that “charity begins at home”, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told the media that President, Prime Minister, Ministers and Governors also decided voluntarily to take salary cut. “The money will go to Consolidated Fund of India,” said Javadekar. There 788 MPs in Parliament (543 in the Lok Sabha and 245 in the Rajya Sabha). The one-year deduc- tion of 30 per cent of the salary could save around 60 crore, according to officials. The pension reduction of all the former MPs will also save around 100 crore, they said. The Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conduct- ed through video conferencing. “The Cabinet approves Ordinance amending the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act, 1954 reducing allowances and pension by 30 per cent w.e.f. April 1, 2020 for a year. “The President, Vice President, Governors of States have also voluntarily decided to take a pay cut as a social responsibility. The Cabinet approves temporary suspension of MPLADS during 2020-21 and 2021-22 for managing health and adverse impact of outbreak of COVID-19 in the country,” said the Government in a statement. Every MP is allotted 5 crore per year in MPLAD fund to undertake constituency spe- cific developmental and emer- gency works. 7,880 crore big fund usages is now suspended for two years, which is expect- ed to seriously affect the devel- opmental works in constituen- cies. The MP fund is preferred as it is very hassle free for devel- opment and construction works. Many schools, hospital buildings, equipment in hos- pitals, and construction of small roads across India were created by using MPLAD funds. While Home Minister Amit Shah hailed the decisions, the Congress and TMC were quick to oppose the decision to suspend the MPLAD scheme. “Parliament of the world’s largest democracy stands together in these challenging times. I thank all the parties and MPs for their support,” said Shah. While supporting the deci- sion to deduct the salary of MPs, Congress and Trinamool Congress criticised the sus- pension of MPLADS. The Left parties took a pot shot at Centre and questioned the state of economy of the Modi Government which forced them to take such decision. They also accused the Centre of fudging data. “Please note that MPLAD fund is meant to execute devel- opmental works in the con- stituency. Suspending MPLAD fund is a disservice step to the constituents and it will under- mine their role and functions,” said Congress party’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. Senior Congress Ahmed Patel “welcomed” the Cabinet pay cut decision, saying “in dif- ficult times it is necessary that we help citizens”. “As a Member of Parliament, I welcome the Government’s decision to cut the salaries of MPs. In this dif- ficult time, this is the least we can do to help fellow citizens,” he tweeted. Senior party leader and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh went against the party’s stand and welcomed the Government’s decision on MPLADS. “I welcome the decision on MPLADS. I have been arguing for long that the approximate- ly 7,000 crore given to MPs & MLAs annually for develop- ment works should be used as a corpus for State funding of elections,” Ramesh said. CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, however, accused the Government of “fudging data”, and said it had pushed the economy “steeply downhill” even before Covid- 19. “Transfer of money to the Consolidated Fund of India, instead of being directed towards fighting COVID-19, shows that it is a measure to deal with the economic destruction caused in the past six years,” Yechury said. Continued on Page 2 Z oos and tiger habitats across the country have been put on high alert after a 4-year-old Malayan tigress was found positive for coronavirus at Bronx Zoo in New York in the US. It is said to be the first known infection of the virus in an animal in the United States or anywhere in the world. Not taking chance, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Central Zoo Authority (CZA), both statutory bodies under the Union Environment Ministry monitoring tiger reserves and zoos respectively, on Monday issued an advisory to the States asking them to keep tabs on Covid-like respiratory signs of nasal discharge, breathing problems or coughing among the animals. There are around 2,967 tigers in the wild in 50 tiger reserves and their periphery and another 390 big cats in 145 CZA recognised zoos across the States. “On Monday, we directed chief wildlife wardens (CWLWs) of all tiger-bearing States that owing to the com- municable and zoonotic nature of the disease, big cats may be observed for symptoms of Covid-19 to avert the disease in wild tigers,” said NTCA mem- ber-secretary Anup Kumar Nayak. Continued on Page 2 W hile indicating that the country should be ready for a long haul, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday assured that “power of light of 130 crore Indians” as reflected from Sunday night’s together- ness has provided enough strength to “all of us” to prepare for “a long battle” against coro- navirus pandemic. “..130 crore deshvashiyon ki mahashakti ke mahaprayash se utpann mahaprakash ne deshvasiyon ko ek lambi ladai ke leye taiyar kiya hai..”, said the Prime Minister addressing the BJP on the occasion of party’s foundation day. Modi said, “Today our aim, mission and determination is one and that is to score victo- ry against coronavirus.” Modi on Monday asked Union Ministers to prepare plans to fight the economic impact of COVID-19 on war footing and asserted that this crisis is an opportunity to boost the “Make-in-India” ini- tiative and reduce dependence on other countries. The Prime Minister further said “in this hour of crisis, the responsibility of party workers towards rashtra seva and manav seva increases more so,” and appealed them to carry out five-fold task to battle out the pandemic. Modi asked party “karyakartas’ to help and feed those in need, reaffirm the importance of social distancing and contribute to PM-Care fund amid the coronavirus pandemic that has been impacting the country. He also asked each worker to help 40 people load Arogya app. “We mark our party’s 40th anniversary when India is bat- tling COVID-19. I appeal to BJP karyakartas to follow the set of guidelines from our party president JP Nadda-ji, help those in need and reaffirm the importance of social dis- tancing. Let’s make India COVID-19-free,” he tweeted. Continued on Page 2 I n a development that exposed chinks in private medical establishments in Maharashtra, the civic author- ities have shut down two major private hospitals in Mumbai after several doctors and nurs- es tested positive for coron- avirus over a span of a week, and ordered quarantining of 92 staff members of a Pune hos- pital after they came in contact with an infected road accident victim. On Monday when Mumbai recorded four more deaths and 34 positive cases taking the total number of deaths and infected cases in the metropolis to 34 and 492 respectively, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) sealed the Wockhardt Hospital at Agripdad in south Mumbai, after 26 nurses and three doc- tors tested positive for Covid- 19 during the past one week. Earlier on Wednesday last, the Jaslok Hospital — acting on the directives of the BMC — stopped new admissions and shut down its outpatient department (OPD) after one of its staff members tested posi- tive for Covid. Elsewhere in Pune, at least 92 staff members of DY Patil Hospital, including doctors and nurses, were moved out of the main hospital premises and quarantined in neigh- bouring on the same premises, after a road accident victim, who was treated at the hospi- tal, tested positive for the pan- demic. The closure of Wockhardt Hospital was triggered by a tweet put by leader of the Opposition in Kerala Assembly Ramesh Chennithala, saying: “Called Maharashtra Health Minister Shri. Rajesh Tope ji @rajeshtope11 seeking urgent intervention to ensure safety of 40 Covid19 positive Malayalee nurses working @ a pvt hospi- tal in Mumbai”. Following closure, the hos- pital has barred the entry and exit from its premises. Continued on Page 2 U ttar Pradesh and Telangana on Friday hint- ed that the ongoing lockdown could be extended even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the country should be ready for a long “haul” to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. Appealing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend the three-week lockdown beyond April 15, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Monday said the nation can recover from the hit that the economy was taking but it can’t bring back lives of the people. “Lockdown is the only weapon that India has given the weak health infrastructure that we have. I propose that the lockdown be extended by at least one or two weeks and a call on opening up can be taken after that,” the Chief Minister told the media at Pragathi Bhavan in Hyderabad. “The lockdown is impact- ing all sections of society and the economy at large, but the issue of coronavirus is the biggest crisis faced by the mankind and it calls for stern measures,” he said. At the same time, throwing a hint that lockdown in Uttar Pradesh could be extended, a Government spokesman said that it was premature to talk about lifting the lockdown when fresh coronavirus cases are reported across the State. “The number of positives cases of Covid-19 is increasing day by day, hence it is prema- ture to say that lockdown could be lifted after April 14,” Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Awasthi said here on Monday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier announced a 21-day lock down, which ends on April 14. In his interaction with the State Chief Ministers last week, the Prime Minister had sug- gested that the lockdown could be lifted in a phased manner. Acting on this advice, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had held a meeting with officials asking them to look at the ways and means to lift lockdown in a phased manner so that stranded migrant workers can reach home without creating a chaos at the highways. Awasthi said the Government is reviewing the situation. “The religious lead- ers too had suggested that lockdown is the only way to prevent the virus and hence if required it should be extended,” he said. He said that Tablighi Jamaat people were responsible for the rise in the number of positive cases. Of the total 305 cases in the State on Monday, 159 are linked to members of the jammat. He said during the past 24 hours, 27 people were tested positive in which 21 are from the jamaat. “This is a big concern for the Government,” he said. “We have identified around 1,600 people of the Tablighi Jammat till now and quarantined 1,200 of them. Now the administra- tion is tracing the people who came in touch with them besides others who formed the chain,” he said. Continued on Page 2 New Delhi: Google on Monday said it will now show the locations of food and night shelters on Google Maps in cities across India to help peo- ple find these essential services during the lockdown. Google, in a statement, said it is work- ing closely with State and Central Governments.

1˝˝˙# / 02)(.*031+ %45 ) , = ˇ ... - English News Paper...pay cut decision, saying “in dif-ficult times it is necessary that we help citizens”. “As a Member of Parliament,

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Page 1: 1˝˝˙# / 02)(.*031+ %45 ) , = ˇ ... - English News Paper...pay cut decision, saying “in dif-ficult times it is necessary that we help citizens”. “As a Member of Parliament,

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#���� 345� 467�

Out of every four Covid-19patients, three are male.

The Union Health Ministryrevealed this on Monday — ona day when nearly 500 newcases surfaced in India. Thehighest number of single-daydeaths stood at 30 in the last 24hours taking the total tally to135 fatalities.

The Government datashows that women seem to behaving a greater ability to fightagainst the infections than menas 73 per cent of the Covid-19deaths have been reported inmen, while 27 per cent ofthose have been in women.

“Seventy-six per cent of thecoronavirus patients in Indiaare men, while, 24 per cent ofthose are women,” said LavAgarwal, Joint Secretary inUnion Health Ministry.

More than 4,500 positivecases have been reported inIndia by late Monday evening.As many as 1,445 cases arerelated to Tablighi Jamaat,25,000 workers of whom andtheir contacts have been quar-antined and five Haryana vil-lages where they visited sealed.Globally, nearly 70,000 peoplehave died and over 1.25 milliontested positive.

Elderly people remain ahigh risk population in thecountry as also across theworld. Statistically, 63 per centof the deaths in India have beenreported among people over 60years age, 30 per cent in the agebracket of 40 to 60 years and 7

per cent victims being below 40years age. Agarwal said thedeceased below 40 years weresuffering from the co-mor-bidities like diabetes, chronickidney ailments, heart diseasesand hypertension.

Further, though 37 percent deaths are reported frompeople below 60 years, approx-imately, 86 per cent of deathsamong people with co-mor-bidities indicate that youngpeople with co-morbidities arealso at high risk of COVID-19.

He implied that if elders,because of their old age and co-mobidities were vulnerable sowere those in the young agegroup having such conditionsmainly related to lifestyle whichresults into weak immunity.

“While coronavirus is abigger threat for the elderly,young people with co-mor-bidities also need to be pro-tected,” Agarwal added.

Similar trend was reportedin China too where a 2.8 percent death rate in men whileonly a 1.7 per cent death ratein women due to COVID-19,according to the data providedby Chinese Centre for DiseaseControl and Prevention(CDC). While the number ofpeople infected was almostequal in number, it were thewomen who had a compara-tively more survival rate.

Agarwal emphasised thatelders should be protected andevery youth has to be carefulthat they maintain sufficientsocial distance to not passinfection to anyone in the fam-

ily, particularly the elderly.“We urge social distancing

in the long term and all the dosand don’ts followed by every-body in the family,” he added.Clarifying the queries con-nected with community trans-mission in the country, theHealth Ministry said if at allthere is any community trans-mission, it will alert the people.

“Localised communitytransmission implies thatincrease in cases was observedin a particular area. Our action

plan is that we should notreach stage 3 (which is thecommunity transmissionstage),” he said.

The official also clarifiedthat whenever a drasticincrease is observed in thenumber of cases in an area, theMinistry adopts a containmentaction plan. “All the districtshave been informed to have anaction plan on Covid-19, ifthere are cases or no cases”,added Agarwal.

Continued on Page 2

#���� 345� 467�

The Union Cabinet onMonday decided to “tem-

porarily suspend” MPLADfunds for two years andapproved an Ordinance to cut30 per cent of salary and pen-sion of MPs and former MPs.

The Opposition slammedthe decision to suspendMPLAD scheme and Left par-ties said the decisions reflect-ed the dire straits of the Indianeconomy.

Citing the age-old adagethat “charity begins at home”,Union Minister PrakashJavadekar told the media thatPresident, Prime Minister,Ministers and Governors alsodecided voluntarily to takesalary cut. “The money will goto Consolidated Fund of India,”said Javadekar.

There 788 MPs inParliament (543 in the LokSabha and 245 in the RajyaSabha). The one-year deduc-tion of 30 per cent of thesalary could save around �60crore, according to officials.The pension reduction of all

the former MPs will also savearound �100 crore, they said.

The Cabinet meetingchaired by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi was conduct-ed through video conferencing.

“The Cabinet approvesOrdinance amending theSalary, Allowances and Pensionof Members of Parliament Act,1954 reducing allowances andpension by 30 per cent w.e.f.April 1, 2020 for a year.

“The President, VicePresident, Governors of Stateshave also voluntarily decided totake a pay cut as a socialresponsibility. The Cabinetapproves temporary suspensionof MPLADS during 2020-21and 2021-22 for managinghealth and adverse impact ofoutbreak of COVID-19 in thecountry,” said the Governmentin a statement.

Every MP is allotted �5crore per year in MPLAD fundto undertake constituency spe-cific developmental and emer-gency works. �7,880 crore bigfund usages is now suspendedfor two years, which is expect-ed to seriously affect the devel-

opmental works in constituen-cies. The MP fund is preferredas it is very hassle free for devel-opment and constructionworks.

Many schools, hospitalbuildings, equipment in hos-pitals, and construction ofsmall roads across India werecreated by using MPLADfunds.

While Home MinisterAmit Shah hailed the decisions,the Congress and TMC werequick to oppose the decision tosuspend the MPLAD scheme.

“Parliament of the world’slargest democracy standstogether in these challengingtimes. I thank all the partiesand MPs for their support,” saidShah.

While supporting the deci-sion to deduct the salary ofMPs, Congress and TrinamoolCongress criticised the sus-pension of MPLADS. The Leftparties took a pot shot atCentre and questioned thestate of economy of the ModiGovernment which forcedthem to take such decision.They also accused the Centreof fudging data.

“Please note that MPLADfund is meant to execute devel-opmental works in the con-stituency. Suspending MPLAD

fund is a disservice step to theconstituents and it will under-mine their role and functions,”said Congress party’s chiefspokesperson RandeepSurjewala.

Senior Congress AhmedPatel “welcomed” the Cabinetpay cut decision, saying “in dif-ficult times it is necessary thatwe help citizens”.

“As a Member ofParliament, I welcome theGovernment’s decision to cutthe salaries of MPs. In this dif-ficult time, this is the least we

can do to help fellow citizens,”he tweeted.

Senior party leader andformer Union Minister JairamRamesh went against theparty’s stand and welcomed theGovernment’s decision onMPLADS.

“I welcome the decision onMPLADS. I have been arguingfor long that the approximate-ly �7,000 crore given to MPs &MLAs annually for develop-ment works should be used asa corpus for State funding ofelections,” Ramesh said.

CPI-M General SecretarySitaram Yechury, however,accused the Government of“fudging data”, and said it hadpushed the economy “steeplydownhill” even before Covid-19.

“Transfer of money to theConsolidated Fund of India,instead of being directedtowards fighting COVID-19,shows that it is a measure todeal with the economicdestruction caused in the pastsix years,” Yechury said.

Continued on Page 2

�������-,!��� 345� 467�

Zoos and tiger habitats acrossthe country have been put

on high alert after a 4-year-oldMalayan tigress was foundpositive for coronavirus atBronx Zoo in New York in theUS. It is said to be the firstknown infection of the virus inan animal in the United Statesor anywhere in the world.

Not taking chance, theNational Tiger ConservationAuthority (NTCA) and CentralZoo Authority (CZA), bothstatutory bodies under theUnion Environment Ministrymonitoring tiger reserves andzoos respectively, on Mondayissued an advisory to the Statesasking them to keep tabs onCovid-like respiratory signs ofnasal discharge, breathingproblems or coughing amongthe animals.

There are around 2,967tigers in the wild in 50 tigerreserves and their peripheryand another 390 big cats in 145CZA recognised zoos acrossthe States.

“On Monday, we directed

chief wildlife wardens(CWLWs) of all tiger-bearingStates that owing to the com-municable and zoonotic natureof the disease, big cats may beobserved for symptoms ofCovid-19 to avert the disease inwild tigers,” said NTCA mem-ber-secretary Anup KumarNayak.

Continued on Page 2

#���� 345� 467�

While indicating that thecountry should be ready

for a long haul, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Mondayassured that “power of light of130 crore Indians” as reflectedfrom Sunday night’s together-ness has provided enoughstrength to “all of us” to preparefor “a long battle” against coro-navirus pandemic.

“..130 crore deshvashiyon kimahashakti ke mahaprayashse utpann mahaprakash nedeshvasiyon ko ek lambi ladai keleye taiyar kiya hai..”, said thePrime Minister addressing theBJP on the occasion of party’sfoundation day.

Modi said, “Today our aim,mission and determination isone and that is to score victo-ry against coronavirus.”

Modi on Monday askedUnion Ministers to prepareplans to fight the economicimpact of COVID-19 on warfooting and asserted that thiscrisis is an opportunity toboost the “Make-in-India” ini-tiative and reduce dependenceon other countries.

The Prime Minister furthersaid “in this hour of crisis, theresponsibility of party workerstowards rashtra seva and

manav seva increases moreso,” and appealed them to carryout five-fold task to battle outthe pandemic.

Modi asked party“karyakartas’ to help and feedthose in need, reaffirm theimportance of social distancingand contribute to PM-Carefund amid the coronaviruspandemic that has beenimpacting the country. He alsoasked each worker to help 40people load Arogya app.

“We mark our party’s 40thanniversary when India is bat-tling COVID-19. I appeal toBJP karyakartas to follow theset of guidelines from ourparty president JP Nadda-ji,help those in need and reaffirmthe importance of social dis-tancing. Let’s make IndiaCOVID-19-free,” he tweeted.

Continued on Page 2

����������� ������ ��

!���������!���� �8��+�

In a development thatexposed chinks in private

medical establishments inMaharashtra, the civic author-ities have shut down two majorprivate hospitals in Mumbaiafter several doctors and nurs-es tested positive for coron-avirus over a span of a week,and ordered quarantining of 92staff members of a Pune hos-pital after they came in contactwith an infected road accidentvictim.

On Monday whenMumbai recorded four moredeaths and 34 positive casestaking the total number ofdeaths and infected cases in themetropolis to 34 and 492respectively, the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)sealed the Wockhardt Hospitalat Agripdad in south Mumbai,after 26 nurses and three doc-

tors tested positive for Covid-19 during the past one week.

Earlier on Wednesday last,the Jaslok Hospital — acting onthe directives of the BMC —

stopped new admissions andshut down its outpatientdepartment (OPD) after one ofits staff members tested posi-tive for Covid.

Elsewhere in Pune, at least92 staff members of DY PatilHospital, including doctorsand nurses, were moved out ofthe main hospital premisesand quarantined in neigh-bouring on the same premises,after a road accident victim,who was treated at the hospi-tal, tested positive for the pan-demic.

The closure of WockhardtHospital was triggered by atweet put by leader of theOpposition in Kerala AssemblyRamesh Chennithala, saying:“Called Maharashtra HealthMinister Shri. Rajesh Tope ji@rajeshtope11 seeking urgentintervention to ensure safety of40 Covid19 positive Malayaleenurses working @ a pvt hospi-tal in Mumbai”.

Following closure, the hos-pital has barred the entry andexit from its premises.

Continued on Page 2

#���� 68��3�597: 4;+�+

Uttar Pradesh andTelangana on Friday hint-

ed that the ongoing lockdowncould be extended even asPrime Minister Narendra Modisaid that the country should beready for a long “haul” to dealwith the coronavirus outbreak.

Appealing Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to extend thethree-week lockdown beyondApril 15, Telangana ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao on Monday said the nationcan recover from the hit thatthe economy was taking but itcan’t bring back lives of thepeople.

“Lockdown is the onlyweapon that India has given theweak health infrastructure thatwe have. I propose that thelockdown be extended by atleast one or two weeks and acall on opening up can betaken after that,” the ChiefMinister told the media atPragathi Bhavan in Hyderabad.

“The lockdown is impact-ing all sections of society andthe economy at large, but theissue of coronavirus is thebiggest crisis faced by themankind and it calls for sternmeasures,” he said.

At the same time, throwing

a hint that lockdown in UttarPradesh could be extended, aGovernment spokesman saidthat it was premature to talkabout lifting the lockdownwhen fresh coronavirus casesare reported across the State.

“The number of positivescases of Covid-19 is increasingday by day, hence it is prema-ture to say that lockdown couldbe lifted after April 14,”Additional Chief SecretaryAwanish Awasthi said here onMonday.

Prime Minister NarendraModi had earlier announced a21-day lock down, which endson April 14.

In his interaction with theState Chief Ministers last week,the Prime Minister had sug-gested that the lockdown couldbe lifted in a phased manner.Acting on this advice, UP ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath hadheld a meeting with officialsasking them to look at the waysand means to lift lockdown ina phased manner so thatstranded migrant workers can

reach home without creating achaos at the highways.

Awasthi said theGovernment is reviewing thesituation. “The religious lead-ers too had suggested thatlockdown is the only way toprevent the virus and hence ifrequired it should be extended,”he said.

He said that TablighiJamaat people were responsiblefor the rise in the number ofpositive cases. Of the total 305cases in the State on Monday,159 are linked to members ofthe jammat. He said during thepast 24 hours, 27 people weretested positive in which 21 arefrom the jamaat.

“This is a big concern forthe Government,” he said. “Wehave identified around 1,600people of the Tablighi Jammattill now and quarantined 1,200of them. Now the administra-tion is tracing the people whocame in touch with thembesides others who formed thechain,” he said.

Continued on Page 2

�������������� ������������������������������������������

�������������� ���!��"���#����������������������������������� ����������������������� ��

New Delhi: Google onMonday said it will now showthe locations of food and nightshelters on Google Maps incities across India to help peo-ple find these essential servicesduring the lockdown. Google,in a statement, said it is work-ing closely with State andCentral Governments.

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Page 2: 1˝˝˙# / 02)(.*031+ %45 ) , = ˇ ... - English News Paper...pay cut decision, saying “in dif-ficult times it is necessary that we help citizens”. “As a Member of Parliament,

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Three new novel coronaviruspositive cases were report-

ed in Jammu and Kashmir onMonday, all from the Kashmirdivision, officials said, taking to109 the total number of con-firmed patients in the unionterritory.

In its daily media bulletinon the COVID-19 situation,the Jammu and Kashmiradministration also advisedpeople to “cut down on listen-ing to news all the time as itmay be upsetting” and spendquality time with family.

The administration saidof the 109, 103 are active cases,four have recovered and twohave died. Eighty-five cases arefrom Kashmir and 18 fromJammu division, it said.

Furthermore, till date35,243 travellers and contactsof suspected cases have beenput under surveillance whichinclude 10,556 in home-quar-antine, the bulletin said.

Others include 615 in hos-pital quarantine, 103 in hospi-tal isolation and 17,506 underhome surveillance. Besides,6,463 persons have completed

their 28-day surveillance peri-od, it said.

The bulletin said that tilldate 1,708 samples have beensent for testing of which 1,583have tested as negative, and 16reports are awaited as onMonday.

The bulletin urged thepublic to stay indoors, strictlyfollow social-distancing mea-sures, disclose recent travel his-tory to COVID-19 affectedcountries and report any con-tact with positive cases volun-tarily.

“Spending quality timewith family and gettinginvolved in family discussionswhile staying at home duringthis period will help reduceanxiety and distress. Try toconnect with your familymembers & loved onesthrough phone call or videocall if they stay far from you,”the bulletin says in its advice topeople.

The bulletin called on peo-ple to engage in recreationalactivities like solving puzzles,playing board games, listeningto music, reading etc to reduceboredom.

“It is important to be phys-

ically active. Simple stretchingexercises, simple yoga pos-tures, walking indoors or med-itation will be beneficial notonly for your physical healthbut also mental health. “Keepyourself busy in doing smallactivities at home to reduceboredom like gardening, clean-ing and cooking etc. Cut downon listening to news all thetime as it may be upsetting,”the bulletin reads.

The general public hasbeen advised to avoid unnec-essary visit to hospitals. “In case anyone develops fever,cough and difficulty in breath-ing, seek medical advicepromptly by calling onCOVID-19 helpline numbersso that they can be providedcorrect medical advice anddirected to the right healthfacility, if needed,” the bulletinsaid.

It said the general publiccan avail of free ambulance ser-vices 24x7 in case of any emer-gency at their doorsteps bycalling on toll free No. 108.Pregnant women and sickinfants can avail of free ambu-lance services by dialing toll-free No. 102.

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Karnataka State Board forAuqaf on Monday issued

orders suspending congrega-tional prayers and visit to theQabrasthans (MuslimGraveyards), Dargahs on theoccasion of Shab-e-Barat onApri l 9 , due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"It is hereby directed to allthe managements not to allowany congregational prayersin the masjid and the man-agements of theQ a b r a s t h a n s / D a r g a h sthroughout the State to sus-pend the visit of public on theoccasion of Shab-e-Barat onThursday, April 9," the orderread.

It said, no public shall beallowed to perform religiousrituals in theQabrasthans/Dargahs and alltheir gates shall be keptclosed.

Asking the managementsof the Qabrasthans and dar-gahs to take necessary stepsfor implementation of theorder in the interest of public health in letter

and spirit, it instructed allWaqf officers, Districts WaqfAdvisory Committees in thestate to adhere to the order and to circulate thesame to al l the Waqf managements, and ensure that the said Order isfollowed scrupulously.

"Any dereliction in thisregard will be viewed seri-ously," it added.

Shab-e-Barat is consid-ered as one of the auspicious nights in theIslamic calendar, which iscelebrated with pomp andenthusiasm by Muslims allover the world, during whichthey gather in masjids forovernight prayers. Due to theoutbreak of COVID-19, theGovernment of Karnatakahas issued directions andorders to suspend the con-gregational prayers, the orderin its preamble said.

The Imarat-e-Sharia ofKarnataka have also issued alist of preventive measureswhich have to be duly followed by all Muslims onthe occasion of Shab-e-Barat,it added.

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Manipur Chief Minister NBiren Singh on Monday

visited a fuel distribution out-let here to see if "social dis-tancing" norms as emphasisedby the government to combatthe COVID-19 pandemic wasbeing followed by people.

During the visit, the chiefminister told the people tomaintain social distancingnorms and asked the securitypersonnel deployed to checkthe identity cards of those

who are coming to the fuel sta-tion.

"The first priority is tosave lives as this coronavirus isan unseen enemy," he toldreporters, adding that "proto-cols are to be strictly followedas we have to be careful forthere has been rise of newCOVID-19 related cases inother parts of the country."

Fuel is being distributed atselected outlets for few hoursfor those who are exemptedfrom the purview of the ongo-ing lockdown.

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Google on Monday said itwill now show the loca-

tions of food and night shelterson Google Maps in citiesacross India to help people findthese essential services duringthe ongoing lockdown.

Google, in a statement,said it is working closely withState and Central Governmentauthorities to surface the loca-tions of these relief centres.

"To date, across 30 cities,people can now find theselocations on Google Maps,Search and Google Assistant,"it added. Users can search for'Food shelters in <city name>'or 'Night shelters in <cityname>' in any of these Googleproducts.

The service will also bemade available in Hindi soon,the statement said. Google isworking to bring this service toother Indian languages over thecoming weeks, as well asadding additional shelters inmore cities across the country,it added.

"As the COVID-19 situa-tion develops, we are making aconcerted effort to build solu-

tions that help people duringthese times of need," GoogleIndia Senior ProgrammeManager Anal Ghosh said.

He added that highlightingthe locations of food and nightshelters on Google Maps is astep to make this informationeasily available to the users inneed, and ensure they can availthe food and shelter servicesbeing provided by the govern-ment authorities.

The COVID-19 pandemichas caused disruption in peo-ple's lives, affecting aspectslike livelihood, regular access tofood and transportation.

Many migrant workersstarted moving from variouscities across the country

towards their home on foot."With the help of volun-

teers, NGOs, and traffic author-ities, we hope to convey thisimportant information to theaffected people, many of whommay not have access to a smart-phone or mobile device duringthis time," he said.

IT Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad also tweeted about thefeature.

"Now you can use GoogleMaps, Search and GoogleAssistant to find out food shel-ters and night shelters near youand help a needy person.

This has been developed by@GoogleIndia in collabora-tion with @mygovindia," hewrote.

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Senior diplomat AnuragSrivastava on Monday took

charge as the Spokesperson ofthe Ministry of ExternalAffairs, succeeding RaveeshKumar.

A 1999-batch IndianForeign Service officer,Srivastava was serving asIndia's Ambassador toEthiopia.

"Honoured and privilegedto take over as the OfficialSpokesperson of @MEAIndia.I look forward to working

closely with all to fulfil myresponsibilities in this newrole," he tweeted.

Before his Ethiopianassignment, Srivastava was partof the Finance Division of theMEA.

Srivastava also served atIndia's Permanent Mission tothe United Nations in Genevawhere he dealt with work relat-ed to human rights, refugeeissues and trade policy. Healso served in the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division ofthe ministry at its headquarters.

Srivastava, who has degreesin engineering and business

management, had a brief stintin the corporate sector beforejoining the IFS. He also has apostgraduate diploma inDiplomatic Studies from theOxford University.

Srivastava replaces Kumar,an IFS officer of the 1995batch who is expected to begiven an ambassadorial assign-ment in Europe.

“Time to pass the baton.After 33 months of an incred-ible opportunity to serve thenation, my best wishes toAnurag Srivastava as the nextOfficial Spokesperson of@MEAIndia,” he tweeted.

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Amid the shortage of safetygear for medical staff in the

fight against coronavirus,Madhya Pradesh, health officialswith the help of some prisoners,have come up with a low-costpersonal protective equipmentkit.

State health commissionerFaiz Ahmed Kidwai has alsocalled for rational use of PPEkits, which the health care work-ers and those deployed at quar-antine centres, hospitals andlaboratories need the most at thiscrucial time.

In view of the growingdemand for safety gear by thosetreating coronavirus patients, thehealth officials in Betul have pre-pared their own personal pro-tective equipment (PPE) withthe help of prisoners of the dis-trict jail.

"We have developed ourown PPE kit, which includes arobe stitched by prisonerslodged at the district jail. Theraw material required for thislocally made kit was procuredfrom the neighbouringChhindwara district with the

help of funds provided by thelocal MP," Betul's Chief Medicaland Health Officer Dr G CChourasia said.

The prisoners earlier pre-pared masks which have beenprovided to the local healthworkers, he said.

Betul district hospital's med-ical officer Dr Ankita Seetesaid.

The prisoners have so farprovided 30 protective robes tothe health team.

As part of the PPE kit, thehealth officials have also madea 'face shield' out of plasticwhich can be used along withthe robes.

Betu's Shahpur block med-ical officer Dr Shailendra Sahusaid he has prepared the faceshield with locally availablematerial, after seeing some for-eign videos of the safety gear.

"After finding that such aface shield was not availableonline or in the local market, weprepared it with the plasticsheets used in the packing ofsarees, hair bands, tapes andadhesives.

This is also included in thePPE kit being given to the

health staff of the district," Sahusaid.

The robe in the PPE kitcosts around � 150 and ensuresthe safety of health workers, saidYogesh Pandagre, the MLAfrom Amla assembly seat of thedistrict, who is also a doctor andhas helped in preparing the kit.

"The quality of this protec-tive robe is at par with the prod-uct of any big company, heclaimed.

Meanwhile, health com-missioner Kidwai directed themedical staff across the State forjudicious use of PPE.

In a directive issued onSaturday, he said there is limit-ed availability of PPE kits andN95 masks, so these safety gearsshould be used rationally duringthe battle against coronavirus.

Kidwai also directed thehealth staff to adopt other safe-ty measures like washing handsfrequently and maintaining dis-tance from each other alongwith the use of PPE.

The state health depart-ment currently has about 18,911PPE kits, 72,304 N95 masks and1.76 lakh three-layered masks,an official said.

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From Page 1The NTCA advisory states

tigers must be observed forCovid-like respiratory signs ofnasal discharge, coughing andlaboured breathing throughdirect observation to the extentpossible, and also throughcamera trap.

“The CWLWs shouldensure that personnel han-dling tigers in human-tiger

negative interactions andtranslocation operations arecoronavirus negative. Theyshould take due precaution asadvised by the Union HealthMinistry,” said Nayak.

The NTCA has also calledfor exercising diligence whilehandling post-mortem casesand collecting samples forcoronavirus diagnosis. “Itshould be in consultation withthe state veterinary officialswhile safeguarding oneselfthrough appropriate personalprotective equipment (PPE),” itsaid.

“As coronaviruses areknown to affect gastrointestinal

system in felines, requisite cor-relation may be made for char-acterizing the virus type in con-sultation with the State veteri-nary department.

Differential diagnosis withfeline infectious rhino-tra-cheitis needs to be made assimilar respiratory symptomsmay be observed,” said theNTCA advisory.

For Covid-19 diagnosis aswell as differential diagnosesand characterisation, theNTCA has asked States to sendsamples to approved laborato-ries of the Indian Council ofAgriculture Research (ICAR).

The States have also been

asked to gear up frontline staffas well as veterinary officialsengaged in monitoring tigermortality to detect the diseaseand prevent any spread intigers in the wild.

Being a notifiable disease,any positive case needs to bereported immediately to theNTCA for onward transmis-sion to authorities concerned.

Similarly, CZA member-secretary SP Yadav in his advi-sory issued to the zoos’ headsand the respective depart-ments asked to watch the ani-mals through CCTVs for anyabnormal symptoms. “We haveinstructed that zoo keepers

and animal handlers shouldnot be allowed near the cageswithout safety gear,” Yadavsaid.

The CZA member-secre-tary said mammals like carni-vores, especially cats, ferretand primates need to be mon-itored carefully every fortnightfor Covid-19 while followingall bio-containment and safe-ty measures required to handlethis high risk pathogen.

“For safety of zoo person-nel we have asked all the zoosto coordinate with designatedgovernment agencies respon-sible for public health responseand screening,” said Yadav.

From Page 1The BJP was founded in

1980 on April 6 emerging fromthe `Bhartiya Jansangh` withAtal Bihari Vajpayee as its firstpresident.

Modi said all BJP workerswill provide one meal to thepoor on the occasion of party’sfoundation day as a way toshow solidarity with people fac-ing hardships during the lock-down due to the novel coron-avirus.

Modi paid tribute to all

those who have toiled hard tobuild the party over the decadesand said the party workershave got the opportunity toserve crores, but stressed thatsocial distancing rules must beadhered to.

“Whenever the BJP hasgot the opportunity to serve,the party has focussed on goodgovernance and empoweringthe poor. In line with theparty’s ethos, our karyakartashave worked hard to bring apositive difference in the lives

of many and done great socialservice,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister said inlast few weeks countrymenhave shown exemplary unityand solidarity with each otherand expressed their determi-nation to defeat the enemy athand.

Nadda, who took over asthe BJP chief in January, hasasked party workers to hoistparty flags at all offices and atevery karyakarta’s house whilemaintaining social distancingnorms to mark the party’s 40thfoundation day. He also saidparty workers will give up one

meal to show solidarity withpeople facing hardships duringthe lockdown. Besides, he hasasked workers to provide foodpackets to needy.

Nadda also asked partyworkers to encourage 40 oth-ers to donate �100 each to thePM-cares fund. Also, he hasasked them to contact 40 hous-es at booth level and get theirsignatures on 5 thank you let-ters for police, doctors andnurses, safai karamcharis, bankand postal employees, andGovernment and civic employ-ees.

Party workers are also to

make at least two face masks attheir homes for the people. Allthese steps suggested by thePrime Minister and the partypresident would be undertak-en by the BJP workers across allStates.

Soon after the three-weeklockdown Nadda had askedeach party worker to feed fivepoor people affected by theshutdown. The appeal from thePrime Minister is a secondappeal to the party to do theneedful in the wake of hard-ships caused by the lockdownwhich may get extendedbeyond April 14.

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Aletter has been sent to thechief Commissioner in

Haryana to probe how a groupof 12 people travelled from thenorthern state all the way toMaharashtra's Latur usingemergency passes in violationof the lockdown in place for thecoronavirus outbreak,Collector G Sreekanth said onMonday.

The 12, all Andhra Pradeshresidents who had attended areligious gathering inFerozepur Jhirka in Haryana,were apprehended from amosque in Nilanga in Latur on

Friday, and eight of them test-ed positive for coronavirus thenext day, officials said.

"People are given suchpasses on humanitariangrounds. However, there is norule to issue them during anational disaster. I have writtento the Haryana chief commis-sioner to probe this oversightand act against the guilty offi-cials," Sreekanth said.

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From Page 1Regarding the total cases,

the official said out of the4,067 confirmed coronaviruscases in the country, 1,445have been epidemiologicallylinked to Tablighi Jamaat con-gregation at Nizamuddin. AMinistry of Home Affairs offi-cial said 25,500 local membersof the Tablighi Jamaat andtheir contacts have been quar-antined. “Five villages inHaryana where foreign nation-als, who were connected withTablighi Jamaat, lived, havebeen sealed and quarantined,”added the Home Ministry offi-cial. Meanwhile, the IndianCouncil for Medical Research(CMR) said orders have beenplaced for 5 lakh rapid anti-body testing kits for conduct-ing COVID-19 tests inhotspots.

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The Odisha Government onMonday made it mandato-

ry for people to cover their faceand mouth with a mask orcloth while venturing out oftheir houses in view of thecoronavirus outbreak.

The Revenue and DisasterManagement Departmentissued an order in this regardwhich will come into effectfrom 7 am on April 9 till fur-ther orders. Noting that novelcoronavirus is assuming a gravethreat to health of the people,the order said that masks havebeen found to be useful in con-trolling and containingCOVID- 19.

"The general public isdirected to cover their mouthand nose with any mask whilestepping out of house for anypurpose. A handkerchief or anyother piece of cloth with at leasttwo layers can also be used forthe purpose," it said.

Usefulness of masks incontaining the disease can beseen from global experiences,the order said.

Also, it is imperative tomaintain strict social distanc-ing and isolation measures tocontain the spread of the dis-ease, it said.

The district and municipalauthorities have been directedto strictly ensure that there isno crowding and people usemasks or cloths such as hand-kerchief or dupatta to covertheir faces while stepping outof their houses, an official said.

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From Page 1Saugata Roy, Lok Sabha

MP representing the TrinamoolCongress said though he hadno issues with the cut in salaryfor MPs, he opposed the two-year suspension ofMPLADS.

“This takes away the pre-rogative of MPs for develop-ment in local areas, and as elected representatives, MPs have someresponsibilities and commit-ments,” Roy said.

From Page 1This tracing would take

some time for which we aregoing for total lockdown insome select areas, he added.

Meanwhile, YogiAdityanath has ordered settingup of 14 more Covid-19 testcentres at the medical collegesand sample collection centresin the district where there is notesting facilities.

Money collected fromCorona Fund will be used instrengthening these centres.

With this new testing facil-ities become operational, the

total number of testing labs inthe State would go up to 24.Presently, there are eight func-tional labs and two more - one at Jhansi and otherat Prayagraj - would openshortly.

He further said that thedistricts where there is no test-ing centres the hospitals wouldfacilitate collection of samplesand will send these for test inthe nearby testing centres.

Opposition leaders aredemanding that there shouldbe increase in the testing facil-ities so that virus infected peo-ple are detected early.

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Page 3: 1˝˝˙# / 02)(.*031+ %45 ) , = ˇ ... - English News Paper...pay cut decision, saying “in dif-ficult times it is necessary that we help citizens”. “As a Member of Parliament,

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Monday said

that money is not a problembut the availability of Personalprotective equipment (PPE)for healthcare personnel is,after Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) MP Gautam Gambhirpledged to donate �1 crore tothe Delhi Government to fightcornavirus,

Kejriwal response cameafter Gambhir on Mondaywrote to Kejriwal that he willgive additional �50 lakh, apartfrom the equal amount hepromised a few days back, forprocurement of medical equip-ment and treatment ofCOVID-19 patients in Delhi.

"In addition to �50 lakhwhich I had pledged two weeksago, I would further like topledge �50 lakh from myMPLAD to your kind officewith the hope that the saidamount would be used in pro-curement of equipment ofmedical staff as well as treat-ment of COVID-19 patients," the BJP leader said inthe letter.

In a tweet, Gambhir said

the "massive egos" of Kejriwaland his deputy Manish Sisodiadid not allow them to take �50lakh from his Local AreaDevelopment fund.

"CM @ArvindKejriwal &his Dy say funds are needed.Though their massive egosdidn't allow them to take 50 Lfrom my LAD fund earlier, Ipledge 50 L more so that inno-cents don't suffer! 1 CR wouldat least solve urgent need formasks &PPE kits for days Hopethey prioritize Delhi," Gambhirtweeted.

Responding to the tweet,Kejriwal said, "Gautam ji,thank u for ur offer. The prob-lem is not of money but avail-ability of PPE kits. We wud begrateful if u cud help us getthem from somewhere imme-diately, Del govt will buy them.Thank u."

Earlier, deputy chief min-ister Manish Sisodia had

demanded a disaster fund fromthe Centre to fight coronavirusoutbreak in Delhi, saying it wasthe third most-affected state inthe country.

In a letter to Union FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman,he said the Centre released over�17,000 crore to states from thedisaster fund but not a singlerupee was given to Delhi.

"I have demanded disasterfund for Delhi also in a letterto the Central government.The Centre released �17,000crore to the States to fightcorona from the disaster fundbut Delhi was not given a sin-gle rupee from it. The countryshould fight as one at thishour. This discrimination isunfortunate," Sisodia said in atweet.

Coronavirus cases in Delhihave crossed 500 and sevendeaths have been reported dueto the virus.

�!� ���#�!���� 345� 467�

The Delhi Police has regis-tered around 250 First

Information Reports (FIRs)till date against people foundviolating home quarantineguidelines. According to asenior police official, the vio-lators have been under relevantsections of the Indian PenalCode and Section 3 of theEpidemic Diseases Act.

“As many as 247 FIRs havebeen lodged till now at differ-ent police stations across the

city against persons found vio-lating home quarantine rules,”said the senior police official.

“While 81 FIRs were reg-istered after physical verifica-tion, 160 FIRs were lodged aftertechnical surveillance and sixother cases were filed on thecomplaints of neighbours. 47cases were registered in outerdistrict, 41 in southeast, 35 insouthwest, 35 in Dwarka, 22 insouth, 21 in central, 13 innorthwest, 11 in Shahdara andeight cases in east district tilldate,” said police.

“The Delhi Governmenthas shared over 25,000 num-bers with the police to track themovement of people who havebeen placed under home quar-antine,” said the senior policeofficial. To ensure safety of thepublic, the police said it hasbeen conducting regular sur-veillance and people foundviolating home quarantineguidelines are being booked.

Meanwhile, on Monday,police also registered around191 cases and detained 3,728people in Delhi for violating

Government orders during thecoronavirus lockdown.

According to the datashared by the police, 191 caseswere registered under section188 (for disobedience to orderduly promulgated by publicservant) of the Indian PenalCode (IPC) till 5 PM.

“A total of 3,728 peoplehave been detained under sec-tion 65 (persons bound tocomply with reasonable direc-tions of police officers) and 376vehicles have been impoundedunder section 66 of the Delhi

Police Act. A total of 733movement passes have beenissued,” police said.

Since March 24, a morethan 53,000 people have beendetained so far for violatingorder under section 65 of theDelhi Police Act.

The move comes afterPrime Minister Narendra Modilast week 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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Ateam of CrimeInvestigation Agency

(CIA) Sector-17 of the Haryanapolice arrested four accused onMonday in connection with fir-ing at a mosque in Gurugram'sDhankot village.

According to police, theculprits revealed that they werevery angry with the people ofthe Tablighi Jamaat gatheringat Nizamuddin Markaz spread-ing corona virus in severalStates, and had reached themosque and ensure nobodywas hiding there.

The accused have beenidentified as Vinod (40), Pawanaka Fighter (41) are a residentsof Basai village in Gurugram,Aalam Khan (39) is a resident ofDevilal Colony and Harkesh(18) hails from Uttar Pradesh’sBareli. The police have recoveredthe pistol and the vehicle Gypsywhich was used in the crime.

“During preliminary inter-rogation, it came to fore thatthe four accused were, onSaturday, talking about theCovid-19 matter across thenation, and were scared by thenews emerging regarding it,and regarding the coronaviruspatients caught at theNizamuddin Markaj,” saidPreetpal Singh Sagwan, ACP(crime) of Gurugram Police.

According to police offi-

cials a few days ago, they cameto know through social mediathat some 6 people had beensimilarly caught at the Masjidin Dankot village. “They wereangered by this informationand made a plan to go to theMasjid and check its premisesto ensure no other Coronavirusinfected person was hidinginside it,” Sagwan said.

The four accused, policesaid, took a Gypsy vehiclebelonging to Pawan and Vinodtook a pistol. “All the fouraccused reached to the mosqueand knocked down the gate ofthe mosque and when they did-n’t get any response Vinodtook the pistol in his hand andfired one shot towards theMasjid and another in theother direction,” Sangwan said.

The incident had come tolight on Saturday night, whenthe Imaam sleeping on theterrace of the Masjid, Shahid,had give written complaint tothe police.

A case in this regard wasregistered at the Rajendra ParkPolice Station under relevantsections of the Indian PenalCode (IPC).

��#���������� 345� 467��

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Monday said

his Government will start pro-viding ration to those whohave applied for ration cardonline. The ration will be pro-vided to them at 421 schoolsfrom Tuesday, with an initialcapacity to provide ration toaround 10 lakh people.

While coronavirus in Delhiis spreading, Monday wit-

nessed 20 new cases and onedeath have been reported inpast 24 hours.

Kejriwal said cases in Delhihave increased, partly due toincreased testing. Now, we aregoing to further increase test-ing so that positive cases couldbe identified. Situation is stillunder control and there isnothing to worry. He appealedto the people to adhere to thelockdown.

Importantly, the DelhiGovernment has ordered onelakh testing kits to increase thetesting capacity in Delhi to1000 people per day.

In order to protect doctorsfrom getting infected withdeadly corona virus that hasclaimed thousands lives glob-

ally, the AAP Government haspetitioned the Centre and it hasreceived 27 thousand PersonalProtection Equipment ( PPE).

Thanking the Centre,Kejriwal said, “It is a great step

towards ensuring the safety ofdoctors in the state.””Thesekits should be delivered to usby Tuesday or the day after.This is a great step towardsensuring the safety of our doc-

tors. The Delhi government,the Central government, andthe people are collectively fight-ing the battle against Corona.I hope that we will overcome itvery soon."

Quoting health bulletin,he said, “There were 503 casesin Delhi yesterday, and with 20new cases in the last 24 hours,there are a total of 523 cases inDelhi. Out of these 20 newcases, 10 are from Markaz and10 are from other reasons. Outof the total 523 cases in Delhi,330 cases are from Markaz, 61cases have a history of inter-national travel, 7 people havebeen confirmed dead with onenew death in the last 24 hours.25 people are in the ICU, 8 peo-ple are on ventilators, and the

rest of the patients are in a sta-ble condition."

"In the last few days, itmust have seemed like therehas been a sudden rise in theCOVID-19 positive cases inDelhi. One reason for that isthe rise in the Markaz cases,which is evident since 330 outof 523 cases are from Markaz.The second reason is that now,we have started getting the test-ing kits and testing capacity hasincreased across Delhi in thelast few days. We want maxi-mum people to be tested toprovide better treatment tothe people infected by Corona,"he added.

“The more tests wouldensure that infected people areidentified, quarantined, and

treated so that the virus doesnot get transmitted to otherpeople. He said that throughthis, the State will be able tocontain the outbreak of coro-na this way and even developednations, like South Korea,increased their testing capaci-ty to contain the rising cases ofCorona,” he said, adding, "Ourtesting capacity around 25thMarch was 100-125 people perday, which has increased to 500people per day after 1st April,and is now reaching a capaci-ty of 1000 tests per day. Wehave given the orders for 1 lakhtesting kits, which are expected to be procured byFriday."

Delhi Government hasserved lunch to around

6,90,000 people and dinner toaround 6,94,000 people.

“I want to assure you thatwe would not let anyone inDelhi suffer from hunger. Iwant to thank the people,NGOs and Civil SocietyOrganisations who are distrib-uting food packets in differentareas in their capacity," said theCM.

"I want to appeal to allMLAs, MPs, and councilors toensure that the distributionplaces do not get crowdedbecause it will defeat the pur-pose of social distancing. Ialso want to request the peopleto follow social distancing, Iassure you that the Delhi gov-ernment will provide ration toall," he added.

�!� ���#�!���� 345� 467�

In order to supplement thenational efforts in combating

COVID 19, Indian Railwayshas achieved almost half theinitial task of converting 5,000coaches into isolation wards ina short span of time by puttingall its resources.

“These coaches areequipped following the medicaladvisories. Efforts are beingdone to ensure best possiblestay and medical supervision asper the needs and norms,” therailways said in a statement.

“In times of lockdown,when manpower resources arelimited, different Zones of

Railways have almost done animpossible task of so manyconversions in such a smallspan of time. With the conver-sion of around 2,500 coaches,40,000 isolation beds are nowready for contingency,” it said..

Once the prototype wasapproved and conversionaction was started quickly byZonal Railways.

On an average, 375 coach-es are being converted byIndian Railways in a day. Thework is being carried out at 133locations in the country.

It may be noted that theseisolation coaches are beingprepared only as a contin-gency and to supplement the

efforts of the Ministry of Healthin fighting the COVID 19.

Besides, the move to opena ‘Railway Control Office’ after

declaration of lockdown toassist railway passenger andhelp resolve issues in freightoperations, has proved to be a

huge management success as1,25,000 queries has beenresponded in the first 10 dayson designated communication

platforms. Railway control office has

been doing 24x7 monitoring offour communication and feed-back platforms- Helplines- 139,138, social media and email([email protected]),it said.

“The Control office isbeing manned round-the-clockby director-level officers. Theseofficers monitor citizen feed-back and their suggestionsreceived on social media andemail, and ensure that appro-priate action is taken to allevi-ate any difficulties faced by cus-tomers (especially in goodstransportation) during theperiod of lockdown, it said,

adding that field officers at thelevel of ADRMs monitor attheir divisional level as a partof this team.

Also, RailMadadhelpline139 answered over80,000 queries on one-on-onebasis in the first 10 days of thelockdown, in addition toqueries answered by its IVRSfacility.

“While the queries aremostly for commencement oftrain services and the relaxedrefund rules (which itself wasdone on the basis of the feed-back from public), the socialmedia is flush with apprecia-tion of railways’ efforts in thesechallenging times,” it said.

“Some of the them laudedthe efforts taken by the railwaysinclude running of freighttrains carrying essential items,waiving penalties for laterelease of wagons, convertingcoaches into hospital wards,distribution of food packets,preparing Personal protectiveequipments (PPE), sanitizers &other equipment to fightagainst Covid-19 etc,” it added.

It is pertinent to add thatIndian Railways has taken 360degree effort to ensure thatinterest of the passengers andall commercial clients are takencare of and national supplychains keep running all thetime.

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The Delhi Police has nabbeda man for allegedly trying to

smuggle liquor bottles inNational Capital. Police said thatthe man had hidden sevenliquor bottles in milk cans.Following the 21 days lock-down, all liquor shops are closedacross the city.

The accused has been iden-tified as Boby Chaudhry, a res-ident of Uttar PradeshBulandshahr area. Police saidthat Boby is milkman by pro-

fession and usedthe containers tohide the liquorbottles and slippast the policepickets

Accordingto Eish Singhal,

the Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), New Delhi dis-trict, on April 5, a sub-inspec-tor and a constable from SouthAvenue police station caughthim around 12:05 am onMonday near South AvenueRoad picket.

“The night-patrolling teamwas on their duty when theyreceived information from thepicket team about the milkman.It was an odd hour for a milk-man to be out, turning suspi-cious, the policemen at pickettried to stop the man but hesped on his bike,” said the DCP.

“The policemen chased thebike and caught the man neargate no 4 of RashtrapatiBhawan. During checking of thevehicle police found that he hadfour milk containers and wascarrying seven bottles of RoyalGreen Classic Blended liquor,”said the DCP.

“The man was arrestedunder sections of EpidemicAct, Delhi Excise Act, MV Actand Indian Penal Code (IPC).During interrogation, policefound that the man bought theliquor bottles from Gurugram.He then lost his way whilereturning home and was roam-ing near Delhi. He further toldpolice that he bought the liquorfor his cousin’s birthday party,”the DCP added.

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The Resident Doctors'Association of AIIMS (All

India Institute of MedicalScience) has written to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi overdoctors being reportedly target-ed for raising issues related toCOVID19 preparedness.

In the letter, the residentdoctors appreciated PrimeMinister’s strong leadership inhandling COVID-19 pandemicand said the declaration of lock-

down to allow the healthcarefacilities and State administrationto step up their preparedness wasanother welcome step.

"This is to bring to yournotice that over the last few days,our frontline healthcare workers-doctors, nurses and other sup-port staff- had come forwardwith their problems and issuesrelated to availability of PersonalProtective Equipment (PPE),COVID testing kits and quar-antine facilities, on social media.The officials should view these

inputs constructively," AIIMSRDA president Adarsh PratapSingh and general secretarySrinivas Rajkumar T, said in theletter. “Instead of appreciatingtheir efforts towards welfare oftheir peer and patients, they havereceived a harsh backlash. In theface of coronavirus pandemic, itis the responsibility of the gov-ernment to ensure that these 'sol-diers' are heard and their opin-ion respected, rather than humil-iating them,” they said.

It also condemned the tar-

geting of medical workers onsocial media, saying that suchinputs should be viewed con-structively and urged the gov-ernment to consider creating ahealthy space for debate and dis-cussion to aid healthcare work-ers. "Being an active user of socialmedia for constructive purpos-es yourself, you can understandthe situation of doctors put inthis state,” it said.

"We strongly condemn theseevents and would be reallythankful if Government creates

a healthy space for debate anddiscussion to aid healthcareworkers rather than ridiculethem. All punishments are to bewithdrawn and their honorrestored," it said.

Tweeting the letter RDAAIIMS said “Don't targetDoctors asking for PPE: AIIMSRDA writes to the PM to with-draw punishment on doctorswho took to social media forhighlighting lack of PPEs. Takecriticism as a tool for improvingcare,”

�!� ���#�!���� 345� 467�

In last 24 hours, the PoliceControl Room (PCR) unit of

Delhi Police had shifted around22 pregnant women to differ-ent hospitals in the nationalcapital amid the lockdownimposed to combat the coron-avirus threat.

According to Sharat KumarSinha, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), PCR, the calls ofwomen in labour pain werereceived from almost all dis-tricts of Delhi and around 22

women were shifted to hospi-tals across the city in last 24hours.

“There were 13 calls fromSouth-East, 5 from East, 2from North-West, 1 fromSouth, 1 from North-East. Thedistress calls were even received

at odd hours as well as fromremote areas. Out of these,three calls were received at oddhours between 11:00 PM to5:00 AM and some places wereas far as 15 km from nearestmulti specialty hospitals,” saidthe DCP.

“The Mobile Patrol Vehicle(MPV) teams displayed pro-fessionalism and dedication byshifting these women in labourpain to appropriate hospitalssafely in quickest possible time.The above tasks were per-formed by MPVs besidesattending many other distress

callers,” the DCP said.“Amid COVID-19 lock-

down, when every public trans-port services are suspendedand taxis, autos are not plying,people especially in emergencymedical needs are facing hard-ship. Moreover, sometimes dueto non availability of ambu-lances, the PCR MPVs are pre-pared to provide assistance topeople requiring emergencyhospitalisation like women inlabour pain, heart attackpatients or any other persons inneed of emergency,” the DCPadded.

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Page 4: 1˝˝˙# / 02)(.*031+ %45 ) , = ˇ ... - English News Paper...pay cut decision, saying “in dif-ficult times it is necessary that we help citizens”. “As a Member of Parliament,

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Taking a cue from app-basedcab services, the Centre

may go in for ‘truck aggrega-tors’ to connect farmers withmandis. Preparing for manag-ing a staggered post-lockdownscenario, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Mondaysuggested harnessing technol-ogy and encouraging explo-ration of innovative solutionslike ‘truck aggregators’ whileinteracting with his Council ofMinisters whom he asked toprepare a list of 10 major deci-sions and 10 priority areas offocus after April 14.

Stressing that lockdownmeasures and social distancingmust go hand in hand, PrimeMinister said that it's essentialto strategize for emergent con-ditions once lockdown ends.

The Centre has asked statesand union territories to ensuresmooth harvesting and sowingoperations and exempted agri-cultural activities from the 21-day lockdown enforced to com-bat coronavirus. It has alsoallowed shops of agriculturalmachinery and its spare partsto remain open during theperiod.

Modi said that welfare offarmers is of high importanceand affirmed that his govern-ment would provide all possi-ble help to farmers in the har-vesting season.

He also underlined theneed to devise a strategy toensure procurement of tribalproducts so that the source ofincome of the indigenous trib-al populace remains intact.

While making importantrecommendations and askingfor suggestions, he underlinedimportance of being “moti-vated, determined and vigilantin the battle against COVID-19” .

He sought that Ministersshould remain in touch withState and DistrictAdministration, provide solu-tions to emergent problems andformulate district level microplans.

Modi asked relevantMinistries to continuouslymonitor and ensure that ben-efits of `Garib Kalyan Yojana`keep reaching intended bene-ficiaries in a seamless mannerand tasked his Ministers topopularize Aarogya Setu app inthe rural areas and grass rootinstitutions.

He also asked theMinistries to prepare a BusinessContinuity Plan and be readyto fight the economic impact ofCOVID-19 on war footing.

He said it is imperative thatthe leaders communicateexhaustively with the state anddistrict administration, espe-cially in the districts which arehotspots for the pandemic, tobe apprised of the ground sit-uation and also provide solu-tions to the emerging problems.He noted that a graded plan toslowly open departmentswhere hotspots aren’t existingshould be made and that thecrisis offers an opportunity tobecome self-dependent in themedical sector.

It is also important toensure there is no crowding atPDS centres, maintain effectivemonitoring, take action oncomplaints and prevent blackmarketing and rise in prices ofessentials, he said.

While mentioning that dueto the emergent challenges,the country needs to lessen itsdependence on other nations,he asked all departments tomaintain an objective index onhow their work will promoteMake in India.

�������-,!��� 345� 467�

When it comes to mountingan immune response

against Covid-19 infections,women may seem to be astronger sex as reflected in var-ious data, but, ironically, theybear the brunt of the pan-demics in the form of domesticviolence and maternal mortal-ity because of disruption ofaccessibility to vital health andgender-based violence servicesand social support.

Flagging the deeper crisis

owing to the lack of supportamid Coronavirus crisis, the UNPopulation Fund (UNFPA) onMonday said that the presentsituation could also exacerbateexisting financial inequalitybetween men and women.

Dr Natalia Kanem, execu-tive director of the UNPopulation Fund (UNFPA),warned that the coronavirusoutbreak has “severely disrupt-ed” access to sexual and repro-ductive health (SRH) and gen-der-based violence (GBV) ser-vices “at a time when women

and girls need these servicesmost”.

Among the risk groups sheidentified are pregnant womenwho need antenatal care but areunsure whether to attend aclinic, and women in abusiverelationships trapped at homeduring the lockdown.

Data available on theimpact of COVID-19 on preg-nant women is currently limit-ed, with no suggestion ofincreased susceptibility or ofvertical (mother-child) trans-mission.

However, aid organisationsworking in so-called "weakhealth systems" – defined by ahigh maternal mortality ratio(MMR) – are drawing lessonsfrom the 2014-16 Ebola epi-demic in Liberia, Guinea andSierra Leone. A huge surge inMMR was recorded during andafter the outbreak, as womenstayed away from medical facil-ities due to quarantine restric-tions or misconceptions aboutvirus transmission, and wereforced instead into riskier homebirths, said the statement from

the UNFPA here.Rising tensions due to eco-

nomic losses could lead to aspike in domestic violencebehind closed doors – during aperiod when counselling andsupport services may bestripped back to a minimum.

At a time when nationsacross the world are imple-menting "stay at home" mea-sures, the UNFPA warned thatwomen are more likely to shoul-der higher proportions of thedomestic burden during lock-down.

The organisation alsowarned of a potential rise infemale-genital mutilation, aswell as early, child or forcedmarriages at this time ofrestricted movement, poor vis-ibility and weakened protectionsystems.

Kanem said that prepared-ness will be key in dealing withthe pandemic’s knock-oneffects. The UNFPA is pressingfor the full maintenance of sex-ual and reproductive healthservices during the COVID-19outbreak, which should include

antenatal and postnatal care,access to modern contraceptionand emergency contraception,and safe abortion and post-abortion care "to the full extentof the law" in all areas where ser-vices are likely to be impacted.

The organisation is callingfor priority testing of pregnantwomen with COVID-19 symp-toms, isolation of pregnancywards from confirmed COVID-19 cases, an elevation of care forany pregnant women with res-piratory illnesses, and extracare for all women in delivery,

in case breathing complicationsshould arise.

Another chief area of con-cern is the medical frontline,where women make up an esti-mated 70% of the world’s glob-al health and social sector work-force. In many cases, their safe-ty is being compromisedthrough contact with high-riskenvironments and a lack ofpersonal protective equipment(PPE). Adequate psychologicalsupport is also essential at a timeof high stress for health work-ers, the UNFPA said.

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The hi-tech integrated com-mand and control centre’s

(ICCC) in Pune, Surat,Varanasi Bengaluru andTumakuru, constructed underthe Smart Cities Mission, havebeen converted into Covid-19war rooms to keep a tight vigilon people’s movement, trackhealthcare workers, ambu-lances and coronavirus positivecases.

Geographic informationsystem (GIS) technology isbeing used to map each caseand keep tab on home-quar-antined people.

Till now, the ICCCs werebeing used for municipal ser-vices, traffic management andwater supply among others.

After the spread of thecoronavirus pandemic, theseICCCs have been turned intoa coronavirus war rooms,which are equipped withCCTV surveillance of publicplaces, GIS Mapping ofCOVID positive cases,

GPS Tracking of healthcareworkers. They have facilities oftelecounseling, tele-medicine,real time tracking of ambu-lances, virtual training facilitiesto doctors and healthcare pro-fessionals.

The Ministry of Housingand Urban Affairs, which is thenodal agency for the Smart CityMission, said that Pune SmartCity Command and ControlCentre is using GeospatialInformation System for track-ing and monitoring the areasand create buffer zones wherepatients are diagnosed positivewith Covid-19. This helps toimplement containment plan asper the government guide-lines. The Centre has mappedeach case using geo-spatial

information systems (GIS),tracking healthcare operationsat the city’s Naidu InfectiousDisease Hospital and drawingup a containment plan usingheat-mapping technologies.For this, it has converted itshigh-tech command centreinto a ‘war room’ from whereauthorities can monitor oper-ations to check the spread ofthe contagion. The mapping ofthe containment zones reflectsin the dashboard.

“Using heat-mapping tech-nologies and predictive ana-lytics, the city administrationwill develop a containmentplan and the containment-zones get reflected on the dash-board,” officials added.

The Surat Smart City com-mand and control room haspublished an online

dashboard on its municipalwebsite to provide regularupdates to the citizens. In addi-tion to providing the overallstatistics on tested, confirmed,active, recovered and deathcases, the dashboard providesthe trends and patterns on thespread of COVID-19 withincity, in terms of cumulativecases (each day), number ofnew confirmed cases reported(date wise), age-wise distribu-tion of cases, zone-wise distri-bution and gender-wise distri-bution. Spatial Mapping of theaffected areas is made availableto citizens on this page.

These command and con-trol centres were developedunder the Smart Cities Missionhave so far been used for var-ious municipal functions,including 24-hour water supplyprojects, property tax collec-tion, traffic management, streetlighting, monitoring bus move-ment and CCTV for security.As SARS-CoV-2 hit India,

these command and controlcentres have diversified.

Since these command cen-tres have been planned morelike hitech control rooms to seethe functions of municipalitiesat the click of a button on sev-eral screens, all that wasrequired was minor tweaking.

The war room of Tumauru

has used technology to conductsurveillance on people within8- km radius of a confirmedpatient, so as to contain thespread of the virus. TheBengaluru converted its com-mand and control centre with-in 24 hours into Corona virusWar Room. This 24x7 centrehas mapped each Covid-19

positive case using GIS, track-ing health care workers usingGPS and drawing up contain-ment plan using heat mappingtechnologies. The date-wise,zone-wise, hospital-wise, age-wise and gender-wise detailsare maintained at the war roomand published on a day to daybasis.

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As the number of positiveCovid-19 cases continues

to surge across the country, theCentre on Monday asked theState Governments to ensuresupply of medical oxygen need-ed for ventilators to treat criti-cal patients of coronavirus thatcauses acute respiratory prob-lems. For its part, in a bid tomeet the shortage of thePersonnel ProtectiveEquipment (PPE), the Centreopened up supply lines fromabroad with receipt of 1.70lakh PPE coveralls which weredonated from China to India.

Along with domestic sup-plies of 20,000 coveralls, 1.90lakh coveralls will now be dis-tributed to hospitals and willadd to 3,87,473 PPEs alreadyavailable in the country, said asenior government official.

He said that two lakhdomestically produced N95masks are being sent to hospi-tals. “Including these, over 20lakh N95 masks have been

supplied by the Government.About 16 lakh N95 masks arepresently available in the coun-try. This number will increasewith the fresh supply of 2 lakhmasks” he added.

Also, orders have beenplaced for 112.76 lakhs stand-alone N95 masks and 157.32lakhs PPE coveralls. Out ofthese, 80 lakh PPE kits willinclude N95 masks. The objec-tive is to achieve a supply ofabout 10 lakh PPE kits perweek, said the official.

The order for 80 lakh com-plete PPE kits (including N95masks) which were to be sup-

plied by a Singapore basedfirm will be available fromApril 11 with 2 lakhs, followedby 8 lakhs more in a week.

The Government said thatwithin the consolidated guide-lines issued time to time to theStates, manufacturing units ofmedical devices, their rawmaterials and intermediates;manufacturing units of theirpackaging material; trans-portation of essential goods andmedical supplies and mobili-sation of resources, workers andmaterial for augmentation andexpansion of hospital infra-structure have been permitted.

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Pitching in the national effortto fight coronavirus pan-

demic, nearly 500 NationalCadet Corps (NCC) cadets arenow deployed on duties likeensuring supply chain man-agement, law and order, andsensitizing local people aboutthe pandemic. This mobilisa-tion comes after the defenceministry last week permittedtemporary employment of thecadets under ‘Exercise NCCYogdan’. Ex-servicemen havealso been mobilised to meet thecurrent challenge with many ofthem already assisting variousstate governments.

Giving details about thedeployment of the NCC cadets,defence ministry officials saidhere on Monday civil and policeadministration have started req-uisitioning for services of seniordivision cadets in fight againstCoronavirus (COVID-19) pan-demic. Some of them havestarted giving service fromMonday. These cadets willgive a helping hand to state andmunicipal authorities to aug-ment relief effort.

Union Territory of Ladakhhas requisitioned for employ-ment of eight cadets in supplychain management. Neemuch(Madhya Pradesh)Superintendent of Police hasrequested Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh NCC Directoratefor services of 245 cadets in sup-ply chain and traffic manage-ment. Sixty-four senior divisioncadets including seven womenhave already been employed.Collector of Bilaspur(Chhattisgarh) has requested forservice of NCC volunteer cadetsfor training in COVID-19 pre-ventive measures. These cadetsare being imparted training forthe job ahead.

Punjab, Haryana, HimachalPradesh and Chandigarh(PHHPC) Directorate hasreceived requisition by DeputyCommissioner of Kangra dis-trict in Himachal Pradesh forservices of 86 cadets till April

14 to assist the police in ensur-ing social distancing in the citylocalities.

District Police ofKancheepuram(Tamil Nadu)has also approached districtnodal officer on COVID-19for services of NCC cadets.Fifty-seven cadets includingtwo women have assembledand are being employed. In all,Tamil Nadu, Puducherry &Andaman Nicobar Directoratehas provided services of 75cadets in Tamil Nadu and 57 inPuducherry.

With Balrampur districtadministration in Uttar Pradesh

also asking for services of vol-unteer cadets from NCC GroupHeadquarters Gorakhpur, somecadets are being employed there.In north east, 80 cadets in EastKhasi Hills district are assistingthe Meghalaya Police in moni-toring of ration distributionand sensitisation between April06-08.

The types of tasks envisagedfor cadets include manning ofhelpline/call centres, distribu-tion of relief materials, medi-cines, food/essential commodi-ties, community assistance, datamanagement and queue & traf-fic management and manning

of CCTV control rooms.According to the employ-

ment guidelines, state govern-ment/district administrationhas to send the requisition ofemployment of volunteer cadetsthrough state NCC Directorates.Details will be coordinated atD i r e c t o r a t e / G r o u pHeadquarters/Unit level withstate government/local civilauthority. It should be ensuredthat ground conditions and laiddown requirements are metbefore the cadets are deployedfor the duty. Officials alsospecified that cadets above theage of 18 years are eligible forthese responsibilities.

As regards mobilizing ex-servicemen, they said RajyaSainik Boards, Zila SainikBoards are playing a dynamicrole in identifying and mobilis-ing maximum veterans to assistthe state and district adminis-tration in performing publicoutreach activities such as con-tact tracing, community sur-veillance, management of quar-antine facilities or any suchtasks assigned to them.

Citing some instances, theysaid in Punjab, an organisationcalled ‘Guardians ofGovernance’, comprising 4,200ex-servicemen, are assisting indata collection from all the vil-lages. The ChhattisgarhGovernment has employedsome retired soldiers to assistthe police. Similarly, in AndhraPradesh all the DistrictCollectors have asked for retiredveteran volunteers.

In Uttar Pradesh, all ZilaSainik Kalyan Adhikaris are intouch with District ControlRooms and retired ArmyMedical Corps personnel havebeen identified and kept ready.In addition, Sainik Rest Housesare being readied inUttarakhand to act as isola-tion/quarantine Centres if needarises.

In Goa, a control room hasbeen established and veteransasked to remain on standby forany assistance to the localadministration.

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The IAF Sergeant, who hadvisited the Nizamuddin

area during the time of theTablighi Jamaat congregationlast month, has tested negativefor coronavirus in the pre-liminary tests. However, hewill continue to remain inquarantine till all other testsmandated for the pandemicare conducted. This, even asinvestigations are on to deter-mine if the Sergeant actuallyattended the congregation.

Giving this informationhere on Monday, officials saidthe Sergeant was placed inquarantine two days back as aprecaution after the DelhiPolice found that he had vis-ited Nizamuddin area duringthe time of the Tablighi Jamaatcongregation.

The Sergeant came in con-tact with two other personnel

and they all are asympto-matic. But as per procedure allthree have been quarantined.The families of the personnelhave also been quarantined.

The Sergeant was identi-fied by the police after theytraced people present in theNizamuddin area using phonerecords as part of efforts toidentify those present duringthe congregation.

Once the information wasknown, the contact list of theSergeant was ascertained andit was identified that he con-tacted two more IAF person-nel.

Currently, the IAF isworking on skeletal staff withmajority working from homedue to COVID-19, so thecontact list is very limited.Similarly, the Army and NavyHeadquarters are also workingwith bare minimum staff withmost of the personnel work-ing from home.

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Cautioning that superstitionsand hearsay cannot be

allowed to weaken our battleagainst COVID-19, VicePresident M Venkaiah Naiduhas described the spread ofmisinformation, especially onsocial media, as a “virus” thatneeds to be checked.

Observing that free flow ofauthentic information to quellrumours and misinformation iscritical, Naidu in a Facebookpost said the war on virus can-not be won if we have inade-quate or faulty understanding ofthe magnitude of the problem.

Referring to irresponsibleflouting of the precautionarysocial distancing guidelines insome states and exemplified bythe recent congregation in NewDelhi, the Vice President under-scored the need for greater dis-semination of guidelines andstricter implementation.

He said there has to be agreater awareness of the urgencyand the scientific evidence aboutthe spread of the virus necessi-tating a total societal responsecutting across caste, creed, class,language, regions and religions.

At the same time, Naidu,said that there has to be a com-mon understanding among allreligious groups that socialdistancing norms cannot betaken lightly and there shouldnot be large congregations till thecurrent challenge is overcome.“We hope there will be no moresuch unfortunate, blatant viola-tions of the prescribed guide-lines”, he observed.

The Vice President alsocalled for steering clear of unten-able generalisations about com-munities and not viewing eventsfrom the prism of prejudices andbiases. He said this is no time torelax and a tough struggle liesahead. “Unity of thought andaction and solidarity with all thebrave warriors is the need of thehour,” he outlined.

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The News BroadcastersAssociation (NBA) on

Monday expressed concernover threats received byanchors and reporters of newschannels for their coverage ofthe role of Tablighi Jamaat inthe spread of coronavirus.

The association appealedto the government and lawenforcing agencies to takeimmediate preventive actionagainst 'anti-social elements'.

"This particular trend has

been noticed after electronicmedia recently exposed therole of Tablighi Jamaat in thespread of coronavirus, result-ing in a nationwide spurt inthe number of positive casesand subsequent deaths.Anchors and reporters work-ing in news channels are beingspecifically targeted throughsocial media platforms likeWhatsApp, TikTok, andTwitter," NBA president RajatSharma said in a statement.

The association also tooknote of some of the recent

trends in India on Twitter."There are videos circulatingon social media in which

some religious preachersare naming some TV newsanchors and threateningattacks on the reporters ofthose channels. NBA strong-ly deplores this pernicioustrend in a section of societyand appeals to theGovernment and law enforc-ing agencies to take immedi-ate preventive action againstsuch anti-social elements,"the statement read.

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The Tourism Ministry hascome to the rescue of a

number of foreign touristsincluding an American, twoCosta Ricans and anAustralian family stranded inIndia. As many as 769 foreigntourists have reached out tothe Government for help andsupport amid the 21-daynationwide lockdown to fightthe Covid-19 pandemic.

The foreign tourists reg-istered themselves on theTourism Ministry’s portals t r a n d e d i n i n d i a . c o m ,launched five days ago. Theportal has been launched toidentify, assist and facilitateforeign tourists who arestranded in various parts ofIndia.

Every State Governmentand Union Territor yAdministration has identifieda Nodal Officer for assistingsuch foreign tourists and the5 Regional Offices of theMinistry of Tourism are con-stantly coordinating with theNodal Officers.

While the TourismMinistry Regional Offices arecoordinating with the Bureauof Immigration and FRROsregarding Visa issues beingfaced by the stranded for-eigners, requests for move-

ment within the country/ stateand for transfer to homecountry of such tourists arealso being coordinated withthe Ministry of ExternalAffairs, Ministry of HomeAffairs and with the respectiveEmbassy/ HighCommission/Consulate.

The stranded foreigntourists are being contactedover e-mails, telephones andalso in person depending onthe nature of support requiredby them.

“A lady, who is anAmerican citizen, was strand-ed in Supaul district of Biharamidst the COVID19 lock-down, while her son wasundergoing a surgery at Delhi.The portal facilitated therequired inter-ministerial,inter-departmental and State-Centre coordination and

secured her a special transit-permit to travel to Delhi. Shehas safely reached her desti-nation and expressed her grat-itude for the efforts put in byall the concerned agencies,”the Ministry said.

It also cited the examplesof helping out two CostaRican and an Australiantourist who was stranded withhis family in Ahmedabad.“The tourist has epilepsy andran out of medication pre-scribed by Australian doc-tors due to the lockdown.The portal led to the touristbeing reached through theoffice of the District Collector.He was provided with suffi-cient medication and was alsooffered food and local trans-portation. Now, they are com-fortable and safe,” the state-ment added.

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The coronavirus reached thedoorsteps of Maharahstra Chief

Minister Uddhav Thackeray onMonday after a tea vendor operatingnear his private residence at Bandra (E)in north-west Mumbai tested positivefor the pandemic, even as seven morepersons succumbed to Covid-19 andthe 120 fresh infected cases werereported. Confirming that the tea ven-dor had been infected, a BMCspokesperson said: “The person hasbeen shifted to the nearby HBT MedicalCollege and Dr R N Cooper Hospital”.

Acting swiftly, the BMC sealed offthe area and began to take immediatesteps to insulate the chief minister’s pri-vate residence “Matoshtri” from thepandemic.

What triggered anxiety among thestaff members of the chief minister’soffice that some security guards ofThackerays used to drink from the teastall run by the affected vendor.

With no let up in the large numberof deaths and fresh infections due to theCoronavirus, the total number of the

pandemic deaths rose to 52 as sevenmore persons died, while the totalinfected persons in the state rose to astaggering 838 after 120 more personstested positive for Covid-19.

Of the fresh deaths, Mumbaiaccounted four, while one death wasreported from Thane, Navi Mumbaiand Vasai-Virar. Of the deaths inMumbai, two took place inHinduhridaya Samrat Bal Thackeray(HBT) Medical College and Dr R NCooper Hospital, while one death wasreported by private hospitals.

In a tragic development, a 30 year-old woman in her ninth month of preg-nancy died at the BMC-run air Hospital on Saturday. Threeother deaths – one each belongingto Navi Mumbai, Ambernath in Thanedistrict and another from Virarp-Vasaitook place in Mumbai hospitals.

“Out of 17563 laboratory samples,15808 were negative and 838 have beentested positive for coronavirus untiltoday. 66 patients have been dischargedtill date after full recovery,” a medicalbulletin issued by the State HealthDepartment said.

“32,521 people are in home quar-antine and 3498 people are in institu-tional quarantine,” the bulletin said.

Meanwhile, the BMC – in its dailybulletin – said that it had surveyed thecity’s 15 lakh population till date andidentified 665 “contacts” which havebeen referred for testing. “Wehave also collected 1400 samplesthrough five teams and throughthis process, 130 patients have testedpositive for Covid-19.

“As many as 10968 people had beenplaced under quarantine. Of them,3990 people have completed the quar-antine period. In all, the BMC hasdeclared 226areas/buildings as con-tainment zones in the metropolis.,

As part of special screening cam-paign, theBMC has collected 112 swab samples.

In a related development, variousnurses’ unions and associations --under the umbrella of Jan SwasthyaAbhiyan -- wrote to MumbaiCommissioner Praveen Pardeshi onMonday, raising safety concerns facedby nurses while treating the novelcoronavirus patients.

Panaji: The Goa Government will undertake a Statewidesurvey to trace any potentially suspect coronavirus case,in which all households will be covered, Chief MinisterPramod Sawant said on Monday.

The Chief Minister said the survey will start from April11, so that when the 21-day nationwide lockdown endson April 14, the coastal State was able to consider the nextstep to tackle the spread of coronavirus. "The survey overthree days and ill be conducted by nearly 7,000 govern-ment servants as well as contract workers employed by thestate," Sawant told reporters in Panaji.

The survey's objective was to identify foreigners or per-sons who may have returned to Goa from other states andto identify persons with fever or flu-like symptoms. "Theinformation gathered will be passed on to Public HealthCentre personnel concerned, who will then assess the data,"the Chief Minister said."This is a 100 per cent communi-ty survey. Everyone in Goa should cooperate," Sawantsaid.The Chief Minister announced a 20 per cent hike insalaries of health workers as well as sweepers and securi-ty guards involved in coronavirus relief work. IANS

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The sudden spurt in the number ofcorona positive cases in the State has

baffled the Tamil Nadu administration.During the last week of March, the Statehad hardly 60 corona virus cases whileMaharashtra and Kerala topped thetable. But by April 1, the number of coro-navirus cases in Tamil Nadu touched 200and since then it was an unexpectedsurge.

By Sunday evening, it was announcedby Beela Rajesh that the number of coro-na cases had crossed the 570 mark mak-ing Tamil Nadu the State with the secondhighest number of corona patients afterMaharashtra. It is reported that theGovernment has ordered a detailedprobe to find out the reasons behind theincrease in the number of patients.

Out of the 570 patients tested posi-tive for corona, more than 400 are eitherthe returnees of the Tabligh Jamaat con-gregation held in Delhi or those whocame into contact with them. The Stateadministration is on a mission mode toprevent the disease reaching the Stage-3 (community transmission). But lawbreakers are having a field day in vari-ous parts of the State. Virudhunagar andThoothukudi districts reported shopkeepers openly violating prohibitoryorders and selling meat.

Though there is a notion about thepoor hygiene of the people of the State,Tamil Nadu has been doing well in wastemanagement and disposal. The healthsector too had registered impressivegrowth with many corporate hospitalsopening branches in interior Tamil

Nadu. The State is on its way to establishGovernment medical colleges in all thedistricts. South India’s first All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) isfast coming up at Madurai.

Chief Minister EdappadiPalaniswamy convened a media meet onMonday after his interaction with officials(both revenue and police ) and appealedto the people to cooperate with govern-ment officials to prevent the spreads ofthe disease.

“We have brought in laws to checkthe spread of the disease. But it could beimplemented only with the cooperationof the people. The police are over workedand they have been instructed to be cour-teous with the people. Now it is for ourpeople to reciprocate by obeying theguidelines, dos and don'ts,” saidPalaniswamy.

The video message aired by theGovernment of Tamil Nadu throughnews channels has caught the attentionof the people. Doctors and nurses appealto the people of the State to stay at homeand not to come out. “It is patient whoasks us to save his/her life. This is out turnto request you to stay home and stay safeby not coming out of your houses,” saysDr Raghunanthan, professor of medicine,in this one-minute message.

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Pinarayi Vijayan, ChiefMinister of Kerala, said on

Monday that 327 persons inthe State have been testedpositive for coronavirus.Addressing the daily press meeting atT h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a m ,Vijayan said 122 persons wereadmitted to various hospitalson Monday.

“There are 266 personsundergoing treatment in var-ious hospitals in the State. Wehave been successful in con-taining the spread of the dis-ease. On Monday, nine per-sons tested positive for coro-na in Kasargod district. Sixout of this nine persons hadtravelled abroad and wouldhave developed the diseaseduring their trip,” the ChiefMinister said.

He said more than 1.52lakh persons in the Statehave been put under obser-vation. An important infor-mation disclosed by Vijayanwas that KarnatakaGovernment has agreed toallow non-coronaviruspatients from Kasargod dis-trict to travel to Mangalore formedical aid. “If the personcarried a certificate indicatingthe name of the hospital inMangalore where he is plan-ning to get admitted and thathe was not suffering fromcorona virus, the KarnatakaHealth department officialswould allow his passage to thedistrict,” said the ChiefMinister.

Relations between thetwo States had reached aflashpoint last week whenKarnataka sealed its borderwith Kerala at Kasargod. Thiswas the fall out of persons

afflicted with corona virus inKasaragod rushing to neigh-bouring Mangalore for med-ical aid.

Kasaragod, described asKerala’s epicentre of CoronaVirus cases, has no speciali-ty hospitals or medical col-leges and residents in the dis-trict are dependent onMangalore in Karnatakl fortheir medical needs.

On Sunday, K K Shyalaja,Kerala’s health ministerflagged a team of doctors,nurses and para medical stafffrom Thiruvananthapuramon deputation to Kasaragodto face the medical emer-gency. Efforts are on by theGovernment of Kerala andsome NRIs to set up superspeciality hospitals in the dis-trict, said PeriyachurSukumaran, a Governmenthigh school teacher inKasaragod.

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With 50 more persons testing pos-itive for coronavirus on

Monday, the number of patientsdiagnosed with COVID 19 disease inTamil Nadu reached 621. This wasdisclosed by Beela Rajesh, Secretaryto the department of health andfamily welfare on Monday.

The health secretary made it clearin her media briefing that the meet-ing convened by Chief Minister onMonday morning has decided not touse the terms like Tablighi Jamaat orNizamuddin religious congregationwhile giving out the details of the testsheld to detect the pandemic. "We willjust use terms like travelers or pas-sengers. The Chief Minister was of theview that frequent usage of names likeTablighi Jamaat is discriminatory innature," she said

She said out of the 50 persons test-ed positive on Monday, 48 were thosewho returned from New Delhi. “Wehave tested samples of 1475 personswho had come back from Delhi outof which 573 were found to be posi-tive and 855 tested negative. Samplesof 47 persons are under process,” saidRajesh. She also disclosed that a 57year old women who was admitted toa hospital late Sunday night withsevere acute respiratory infectionbreathed her last on Monday. The lady,a relation of one of the travellers who

had attended the Delhi meet, couldhave contacted the virus from the lat-ter, said the secretary.

The Government has intensifiedits efforts to check the spread of thevirus . “Aggressive containment planshave been drawn out to prevent thevirus reaching the stage-3, whichcould lead to community spread,” shesaid. As part of the Government’s allout war on coronavirus, the healthdepartment is importing one lakhrapid test kits from China. “These kitsare expected to arrive in Chennai onApril 9 and will be dispatched to alldistricts immediately,” said ChiefMinister Edappadi Palaniswamywhile speaking to reporters after anextended meeting with senior gov-ernment officials and doctors atChennai on Monday. The rapid testswould begin in the state from April10 and the results could be knownwithin 30 minutes, he said.

The chief minister said therewas no need to panic as the diseasewas well under control. “We havescreened 2,10,538 passengers at air-ports in Tamil Nadu and of them,90,541 are under home quarantine.10,816 persons have completed the28-day quarantine period,” saidPalaniswamy. He disclosed that therewere 17 testing labs in governmentand private hospitals and the stategovernment had sought permissionfor 21 more labs.

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The icy heights of Keran sector in NorthKashmir's Kupwara district on Sunday wit-

nessed a hand-to-hand combat between elitePara commandos, belonging to the same unitwhich had raided terrorist camps across theline of control during September 29, 2016 'sur-gical strike', with a group of heavily armed ter-rorists in which all five terrorists, who hadsneaked inside the Indian territory few daysago, were eliminated in one of the deadliestoperations while all five commandos also laiddown their lives.

According to field officers, posted in theregion, "It was no less than a repeat of sever-al hand-to-hand combat battles, which Indiansoldiers had fought at the peak of Kargil warin 1999 to flush out the Pakistani Army reg-ulars from their well fortified locations.

According to Col Rajesh Kalia, Ministryof Defence Spokesman based in Srinagar, "foursoldiers under the command of a JuniorCommissioned Officer (JCO) from one of themost professional Para SF Units were helidropped near the LoC after information on theinfiltrators was received.

An intense hand to hand battle ensued andall five terrorists were eliminated". "In this bat-tle, however, Army lost five of its best soldiers,three on the site and two more succumbedwhile they were airlifted to a nearby militaryhospital", Col Kalia added.

The team of elite commandos were led bySubedar Sanjeev Kumar and included HavildarDavendra Singh, Paratrooper Bal Krishan,Paratrooper Amit Kumar and ParatrooperChhatrapal Singh. Two of them belonged toHimanchal Pradesh, two from Uttarakhandand one commando hailed from Rajasthan.

According to senior Army officers, "the foot-steps of the group of infiltrators were first report-ed in the Zurhama forest area on April 1. Dueto extremely difficult terrain and prevailinginclement weather conditions no engagementwith the heavily armed group of infiltrators tookplace. While tight vigil was being maintainedand foot patrolling was enhanced to plug thegaps in the region, security forces weremobilised in the area on April 4.

According to defence sources, "earlySunday morning, a small squad consisting offive soldiers started tracking the footsteps andcame dangerously close to the cornice-a massof hardened snow at the edge of a mountain.

According to defence sources, beforemembers of the squad could realise, it brokeand they fell in to the frozen nallah close towhere the terrorists were hiding.

Despite suffering a free fall , alert com-mandos engaged hiding terrorists in a hand-to-hand combat and eliminated all of them.According to defence sources, dead bodies ofthe soldiers and terrorists were found within2-3 metres of each other and bore marks of bul-let injuries clearly indicted fierce gun fight tookplace between the two groups.

Meanwhile, situation remained tensealong the line of control in Poonch sector.According to Jammu based DefenceSpokesman, Lt Col Devender Anand, Pakistanarmy violated ceasefire agreement by initiat-ing small arms firing and shelling with mor-tars along the LoC in Mankote sub sector ofPoonch around 5.15 p.m. He said, the IndianArmy retaliated the fire befittingly. On Sundayalso, Indian army inflicted heavy damages onthe other side of the LoC while targeting noto-rious Pakistani posts.

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With only three patientstesting positive in

Kashmir division, the totalnumber of Covid-19 cases inUnion Territory of Jammu &Kashmir Monday stood at 109,recording a jump of 57 patientsin last five days alone.

From over 50 reportedcases by the end of last month,the J&K reached a cumulativetally of 109 cases on April 6, themedia bulletin reported.

The Bulletin said that tilldate 1708 samples have beensent for testing of which 1583have tested as negative, and 16reports are awaited till April 06,2020.

Director SKIMS, Dr AGAhangar Monday said, out of283 suspected patients, 238have been discharged and 24positive patients who are undertreatment are all recoveringwell.

The Kashmir Valley had

recorded its first case on March18 when a 67-year-old womanfrom Khanyar Srinagar testedpositive, two days after herarrival from Saudi Arabia afterperforming Umrah.

As per officials, out of these

109 COVID-19-affected peo-ple, 85 are in Kashmir and 18in Jammu. However, four ofthem have been discharged—three from Jammu and onefrom Kashmir while two oth-ers succumbed to the disease.

There are 103 active cases—85in Kashmir and 18 in Jammu.

14 fresh cases were report-ed on Sunday-five fromBaramulla district, two fromBudgam and an elderly couplefrom Shopian besides one eachfrom Ganderbal, Bandiporaand Srinagar districts.

Furthermore, till date35243 travellers and persons incontact with suspected caseshave been put under surveil-lance which include 10556 per-sons in home quarantineincluding facilities operatedby government, 615 in HospitalQuarantine, 103 in hospital iso-lation and 17506 under homesurveillance. Besides, 6463 per-sons have completed their 28-day surveillance period.Meanwhile, the district admin-istration in Srinagar Mondaysealed Chattabal area ofSrinagar after several positivecases reported from the area.

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With the BJP InformationTechnology cell charging

the Bengal Government withhiding facts related to coronadeaths, Chief Minister MamataBanerjee on Monday returnedfire saying these were no timeto reap political harvests.

Banerjee disclosed thenumber of Corona infectedpatients in the State but gave acurt reply to BJP leader AmitMalavya’s allegations --- that theGovernment was fudging thenumber of corona deaths ---saying “some parties are playingpolitics in these hours of crisis… a party’s IT cell is using fakenews to malign our healthdepartment … at a time whenour doctors and health staff aredoing their best to fight the dis-ease. This is not the time for

petty politics for which they willget plenty of time later on.”

Claiming that she was “notfinding faults in what the cen-tral government was doingwhile dealing with the crisis,”Banerjee said “they may bemore interested in politics bydescending on the streets, ring-ing bells, clanging utensils …but we are not. We are moreinterested in serving the people.”

Earlier, leaders like Malavyaand even Bengal BJP presidentDilip Ghosh questioned theGovernment was functioning inBengal saying the “hospitals inthe State are under pressurefrom the Chief Minister who isalso the Health Minister tounderplay the Corona relateddeaths.”

The BJP IT cell chief won-dered as to why the StateGovernment did not come out

with medical bulletins on 2nd,3rd and 5th April. He alsoquestioned the reason “whythe number of Covid-relateddeaths are missing in the bul-letin released on the 4th.”

Ghosh said theGovernment was doing so inorder to save the insurancemoney worth Rs 10 lakh thatthe Chief Minister has promisedin case of any death in the med-ical fraternity for treatingCorona. The Chief Ministerhas promised an insurance of Rs10 lakh for the government staffinvolved in fighting the disease.

Not only the Chief Ministerbut also other opposition lead-ers slammed the BJP for politi-cizing the fight against coronaby encouraging its supporters toburst crackers and light candles“as if this is a time to celebratethe crisis… as it they have won

the battle.”While Bengal BJP president

Dilip Ghosh supported burstingof crackers on Sunday night toexpress solidarity with ‘coronawarriors’ saying “the lockeddown people were giving ventto their frustration… so there isno harm in it,” State MinisterTapas Chatterjee said “in thename of showing solidarity theBJP was getting the people tocelebrate its foundation day.”

Congress MP PradipBhattacharya wonderedwhether Corona will go bylighting candles and burstingcrackers. CPI(M) LegislatureParty Leader said SujanChakrabarty “efficient tacklingof the crisis and not publicitystunt is the need of the hour.”

Elsewhere the police arrest-ed 126 people for burstingcrackers. Over enthusiastic sup-

porters of Narendra Modi tend-ed to overshoot the PrimeMinister’s appeal to switch offlights and light up candles onlyand hit the streets burstingcrackers and flying hot air bal-loons.

Meanwhile, as per theupdates made available by theChief Minister on Monday thenumber of Corona infectedpatients in Bengal was 61 whilethe number of deaths remainedat 3 whereas 13 patients havebeen cured thus far.

There were 6890 peoplewho have been put under gov-ernment quarantine, the ChiefMinister said adding out of the61 people infected 55 belongedto seven families with foreigntravel history.

In a bid to expand the fightagainst the virus theGovernment also set up a

“Global Advisory Board forCovid Response Policy to helpand advise us on tackling thecrisis,” Banerjee said addingNobel Laureate economistAbhijeet Vinayak Banerjee andWHO accredited Dr SwaroopSarkar had been requested to bea part of the committee.

Elsewhere the StateGovernment on Monday sent64 people including patients,medical staff and 39 doctors ofthe Government owned NRSMedical College and Hospital tohome quarantine following thedeath of a suspected coronapatient on Saturday night. Hispathological samples had beensent for tests.

As a precautionary measurethe CCU unit and the malemedicine ward of the hospitalhad been shut down for disin-fection works, sources said.

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Data consumption in ruralIndia on the network of

Common Service Centre (CSC)special purpose vehicle (SPV)jumped nearly 100 per cent with-in a month - especially during thelockdown period. There has alsobeen a high demand of FTTH(Fiber to Home) with more than3 lakh subscribers registeredacross 50,000 Gram Panchayats.

CSC e-Governance ServicesIndia, which holds the license forproviding internet services,recorded an increase in data con-sumption to 4.7 terabyte (TB) ason March 30 from 2.7 TB onMarch 10.

"Based on the growth trend,data consumption on the CSCSPV network is estimated to haveincreased by close to 100 per centtill date," said CSC SPV CEODinesh Tyagi.

He said that a major spike indata consumption has beenrecorded since the time lock-down started.

CSC also provides wifihotspot in around 25,000 grampanchayats in the name of CSCWi-fi Choupal services.

According to the CSC data,Wi-Fi Choupal has more than 12lakh registered subscribers whouse this as a supplement to theirmobile connection.

"This clearly indicates thehigh appetite of internet data inrural areas, which in future can bepivotal in bridging Digital Divideand If nurtured with a regularorganic feed of educational andinformational content rural Indiacan be Digitally Empowered andTransformed," Tyagi noted.

There are more than 60 croreinternet users in India and out ofthis about 29 crore are in ruralareas.

#���� 345� 467�

The CPI on Monday urgedPrime Minister Narendra

Modi to convene a meetingwith all heads of registeredpolitical parties at the nation-al and State level to discuss thecrisis due to the Covid-19 pan-demic.

CPI general secretary DRaja in a letter pointed out thatmeeting with only floor lead-ers parties in the Parliamenthas left out many political par-ties due to “technicality.” ThePM is scheduled to interactwith floor leaders of politicalparties with more than fiveMPs in the Parliament.

“The Government, politi-cal parties and all those whomatter in shaping the political,economic and social course ofthe country must come togeth-er and put their heads and

efforts together to contain thedisaster. In this regard, youhave been interacting with theChief Ministers of the Statesand other experts.

Now you have decided tohave an interaction with thefloor leaders of the politicalparties in Parliament in whichsome of the important partiesare left out on the basis of tech-nicality.

In fact this interactionshould have happened duringthe last days of the last BudgetSession of Parliament or imme-diately after the adjournment ofthe Session.

“However, our Party is ofthe view that the initiativetaken by you must be followedby holding consultations withthe heads of all recognizedpolitical parties at Nationaland State level,” saidRaja.

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A35-year-old man, sufferingfrom cough and cold, com-

mitted suicide by hanging him-self in Jamalpur village inBanda district of Uttar Pradesh.

The police suspect that heended his life because of thefear of coronavirus.

According to the brother-in-law of the deceased,Rajendra, the latter had isolat-ed himself in a room after somevillagers suspected that he wassuffering from corona virus.

"Maybe, he committed sui-cide due to this. The matter isbeing probed," a police officialsaid.

Chief medical officer,Santosh Kumar, said the manhad not visited anyGovernment hospital for treatment.

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Page 6: 1˝˝˙# / 02)(.*031+ %45 ) , = ˇ ... - English News Paper...pay cut decision, saying “in dif-ficult times it is necessary that we help citizens”. “As a Member of Parliament,

The latest estimates of the UnionHealth Ministry indicate thatover 35 per cent of the COVID-19 cases that are springing up inthe country have their origins in

the conference organised by the TablighiJamaat, an Islamic evangelical movement, inNew Delhi in the second half of March,which was in gross violation of StateGovernment orders. At a time when theUnion Government, State Governments andevery national institution is working with sin-gle-minded determination and focus to con-tain the pandemic that has affected over amillion patients globally and claimed over50,000 lives, the Tablighi Jammat has turnedout to be a spoiler.

Displaying gross irresponsibility byflouting the orders of the Delhi Government,the Jamaat held a conference of thousandsof its members. The congregation continuedeven as devotees were barred entry in themost popular temples, including the BalajiTemple in Tirupati, the SiddhivinayakTemple in Mumbai, the Sai Baba temple inShirdi, the Dargah of Khwaja MoinuddinChishti in Ajmer and the Haji Ali Dargahin Mumbai. Lakhs of other temples, church-es and religious places remained closed asper Government orders in their areas.

Also, it is said that probably for the firsttime after the birth of Christianity, church-es around the world will be closed in theweek leading up to Easter, which is regard-ed as the most spiritually enriching week forthe faithful. Fr Filipe Neri Ferrao, theArchbishop of Goa, asked the clergy to usetechnology and livestream church services.It quoted him as saying: “The faithful are dis-pensed from the obligation of participatingin the mass on Sundays and holy days ofobligation. In order to prevent communitytransmission of the virus, the faithful areadvised not to go for daily mass, unless it isstrictly necessary.”

If this is so with other faiths, why did theTablighi Jamaat defy the Government’sorders? What do we do with these Muslimclerics, who lack basic civic sense, violate thelaw and even throw a challenge to the author-ities? Also, this writer has seen several videosof Muslims violating the lockdown ordersand social distancing norms and congregat-ing in large numbers in masjids in differentregions in the country in the initial days ofthe lockdown. This happened because thesemullahs pooh-poohed social distancingand virtually laughed at the world that wasgroaning under the Corona epidemic.

It is now almost two weeks since theauthorities suspended prayers in Mecca andMedina. Similarly, several importantmosques in India have remained closed. TheKerala Governor, Arif Mohammad Khan,was the other day reciting verses from theQuran in which Allah tells the believers notto go to the mosque but to pray from home,when the circumstances are not conducive.

Yet, none of this matters to some

Muslim clerics in India, who arehell bent on challenging the sys-tem time and again on the spe-cious ground that Islam is underthreat (Islam khatre mein hai). Infact, this was the theme of theaddress of the chief of theTablighi Jamaat, MaulanaMuhammad Saad, to his audi-ence at the headquarters of theJamaat. As per an audio clip ofhis “sermon” that is in circula-tion, he asked Muslims to ignorethe orders for closure ofmosques because there was nobetter place to be than a mosque.

Second, this Coronavirusscare was a conspiracy to keepMuslims away from each otherand to weaken Islam. Theyshould, therefore, not fall a preyto this propaganda. Finally, hedeclared that there was no bet-ter place to die than a mosque.This is absolutely horrendous. Itshows that despite his long yearsof Indian citizenship, nothing inthe Indian Constitution, thenation’s democratic and frater-nal traditions has rubbed off onhim. He seems so maladjustedto the nation’s secular, liberal tra-ditions that he renders himselfunworthy of the citizenship ofsuch a great democracy.

Every word that he hasuttered does violence to thecore values in the Constitutionand to the deep and abiding faiththat all of us have in the princi-ples laid down by our nation’sfounding fathers.

It is indeed ironical thatthis maulana, who deliveredthis chilling advice to his audi-ence and even said no one can

escape from the wrath of Allah,has in recent days gone intohiding. It is so sad that all thisbombast does not equip him toface the mundane authorities ofthe Delhi Government.

Meanwhile, JP Nadda, thepresident of the BJP, rightlyexhorted his party colleagues toensure that the sins of theTablighi are not pinned on theentire Muslim community. Hehas advised them to ensure thatthis does not become a com-munal flash point. This is veryimportant. We must sift thewheat from the chaff. It is alsoimportant that Muslim politi-cal leaders must speak up.Unlike the Hindus, who havehordes of objectors in theirranks against fundamentalistsand fringe elements, Muslimpoliticians hesitate to call outthose who threaten the nation’ssecular fabric. They mustchange tack if they wish to pre-serve the Constitution thatenables politicians of all hues tobe elected to public office.

There are trouble-makerslike Maulana Saad and someother clerics. If we wish to pre-serve our Constitution and pro-tect the health of 1,300 millioncitizens, such people must bedealt with in the most severemanner. Just when we thoughtwe were getting to grips withCOVID-19, the maulana andother leaders of the Tablighi havetriggered a monumental spreadof the disease. The Governmentmust send out a strong messagethat those who play aroundwith the lives of millions of cit-

izens, will be made to pay.The Indian Penal Code

(Sections 168-170) deals withpersons, who commit nuisanceand spread epidemic diseases,but the punishments underthese sections are too mild.The Government must gobeyond this. Several States,including Delhi, have alreadyinvoked the powers vested inthem under the EpidemicDiseases Act, 1897.

The Delhi Government’sregulations required foreignersand persons with travel historyto self-quarantine. On March 13,it prohibited assembly or 200 ormore people. The ChiefMinister, Arvind Kejriwal,slashed this to 20 on March 19.Each of these orders and regu-lations have been violated by theNizamuddin gathering.

But the punishments pre-scribed in these Acts and evenin the National Security Act(NSA) are too inadequate forthis dastardly and unpardonablesin. Those who violated thecurfew, behaved irresponsibly,contracted the disease andspread it to others are one cate-gory. But those who are involvedin the diabolical act of deliber-ately spreading this diseaseshould be classified as massmurderers. What should be thepunishment for endangeringthe lives of millions of peopleand ensuring the death of hun-dreds of them? The Indian Stateneeds to ponder over this.

(The writer is an author spe-cialising in democracy studies.Views expressed are personal.)

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Sir — Addressing the nation viavideo conference, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi made it clear thatthe Coronavirus threat couldonly be combatted with the fullcooperation of the people, atoken demonstration of which, hesaid, would be to light candles,lamps and mobile torches for nineminutes on April 5 at 9 pm fornine minutes. Many are nowwondering, when the world isbusy fighting COVID-19 andscientists are trying to make avaccine, why did we first bangthalis, then blow conch shells andthen were asked to light candles.

People have always shownsolidarity with the Government intimes of any national calamity orcrisis — be it the devastating 2004tsunami or the global economicmeltdown in 2008 or the massivefloods in Uttarakhand in 2013.Even now, millions of migrants, leftjobless, have reconciled them-selves to the situation. People donot need gimmicks to prove theircollective will, India’s history is aproof. Countries such as SouthKorea, Hong Kong and Singaporeundertook a massive testing pro-gramme to identify, isolate and

treat infected patients and havebeen successful in containing thevirus. The Government mustdemonstrate its dedication throughsuch actions and not count onbanging thalis or lighting candles.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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Sir — Even before the onset of theCOVID-19 pandemic, the globaleconomy was undergoing turbu-lence on account of disruptions intrade flows and attenuated growth.

The situation has now been aggra-vated due to disruptions indemand and supply chain inflict-ed by the spread of the virus thathas forced nations to impose lock-down. Once the pandemic isbrought under control, the speedof recovery in the US and China

will be the key factors determin-ing the nature and traction of theglobal economy. While India iscurrently focussed in securingthe health of its people, we alsoneed to think about the long-termconsequences the current lock-down will have on the economy.Apart from providing a safety netto the vulnerable, ensuring jobcontinuity is essential. There’s anurgent need to mobilise resourcesto stimulate the economy.

Mahima JainGuwahati

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Sir — The congregation of theTablighi Jamaat in New Delhi hascreated adverse conditions in thecountry. It has also led to the pos-sibility of community transmis-sion of Coronavirus in mostStates where its members trav-elled. A blame game has startedto evade responsibility. But inthese times of crisis, a collabora-tive approach between the Centreand the States is required.

Sritoma MukherjeeVia email

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Page 7: 1˝˝˙# / 02)(.*031+ %45 ) , = ˇ ... - English News Paper...pay cut decision, saying “in dif-ficult times it is necessary that we help citizens”. “As a Member of Parliament,

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The Finance Minister, Ms NirmalaSitharaman, announced a �1,70,000 crorepackage under the PM-Gareeb Kalyan

Scheme (PMGKS) to address the plight of tens ofmillions of workers in the “informal” sector affect-ed by COVID-19, on March 26. The most cru-cial component of this package was giving five kgof rice/wheat per person per month for “free” toaround 80 crore people through the public dis-tribution system (PDS), plus one kg of preferredand region-specific choice of pulse per householdfor three months. To understand the full impli-cations of the relief — estimated to cost about�40,000 crore — let us capture the basics of thefood security system in India. Under the NationalFood Security Act (NFSA), 2013, a quota of fivekg of cereals per person per month is made avail-able at a subsidised price of �3 per kg rice, �2 perkg wheat and �1 per kg coarse cereals to 67 percent of India’s population or over 80 crore peo-ple. It is a matter of shame that even decades afterIndependence, when the NFSA was enacted, ourrulers still felt that more than 80 crore people wereso poor that they needed to be given food at athrowaway price. The belief as embedded in thislaw (in fact, the prices were mentioned in the Actand were to remain valid for a period of three yearsfrom the date of its commencement) also mocksat the official claim that India has achieved bigsuccess in bringing a large number of people abovethe poverty line; that the number of poor peopleis just about 25 per cent of the population

Be that as it may, the Government continuesto believe that the interest of the poor can be fullysafeguarded by not allowing any increase in theprice. This is abundantly clear from a statementby Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Foodand Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan in2017 that, “The Government will not affect anyincrease in issue prices for foodgrains under theNFSA.” This was made at a time when even theAct didn’t prevent a hike. True to that commit-ment, till date, the price remains unchanged. Buthas this safeguarded the poor? The answer lies intaking cognisance of a vital fact which often getsignored.

The supplies under NFSA barely cover 50 percent of a person’s requirement which is 10 kg permonth, as estimated by the National SampleSurvey Organisation (NSSO). This forces him/herto buy the balance quantity from the market at amuch higher price. Being linked to the cost of pro-curement, handling and distribution (in case ofrice, at least �35 per kg), the market price is morethan 10 times the subsidised price.

As a consequence, whatever benefit theGovernment gives by keeping the price low on saleof certain quantity, that is more than offset by theirhaving to pay many times more on purchase ofthe balance five kg from the market. Thus, for buy-ing 10 kg — being his/her requirement for amonth — they have to spend a total of �190. Theeffective price paid by him/her is �19 per kginstead of �3 per kg — a sense one gets by a plainreading of the NFSA. The underprivileged are alsogetting hit in another way.

All along, the Government has taken recourseto increasing the Minimum Support Price (MSP).While this is meant to incentivise farmers pro-duce more, this leads to a collateral damage. Theincrease in MSP leads to increase in the cost ofsupplying food, which triggers a hike in the mar-

ket price, implying that the poor willneed to spend more on the quantitybought from the market. The decisionof the Government to give five kg ofrice/wheat per person per month to 80crore people for “free” over and abovethe five kg they are already getting underthe NFSA can help remove this anom-aly. Having got all of 10 kg at an effec-tive price of �1.5 per kg, s/he need notbuy any from the market. But this is amere coincidence (an offshoot of theCorona-crisis); it was never intended asa conscious policy move. In any case, theadditional five kg for free is available forthree months only. Thereafter, it will beback to square one.

Can the Government consider giv-ing 10 kg per person per month at thesubsidised price of �1/2/3 per kg? In caseit is given to all the 80 crore people, thiswill be at a huge cost, as then the foodsubsidy (excess of the cost of supply overthe issue price multiplied by total quan-tum of sale under the NFSA) willincrease sharply from an already whop-ping �2,19,000 crore during 2019-20 to�2,53,000 crore expected during 2020-21. This is unconscionable.

How can the food requirement ofthe needy be met in full without entail-ing additional burden on the exchequer?How can the two objectives be recon-ciled? What is the way forward?

To get there, we need to recognisethat the 80 crore people — theGovernment currently targets for giv-ing subsidised foodgrain under theNFSA — includes millions of higher-income beneficiaries who don’t deserveit. This was duly accepted in early 2015,when a committee headed by Shanta

Kumar, senior BJP leader, recommend-ed a reduction in coverage under theNFSA from the existing 67 per cent to40 per cent, restricting the eligibility ofsubsidised food at �1/2/3 per kg only tothe poorest of the poor under theAntyodaya Anna Yojna (AAY), plusincreasing their entitlement from five kgto seven kg per month and making therest pay 50 per cent of the MSP paid tofarmers. Reduction in coverage by 27per cent can remove 35 crore peoplefrom the scheme. That will release 175crore kg per month, which can be usedto give an additional five kg per monthto those under the AAY. The number offamilies under the AAY being 2.5 croreor 12.5 crore people (five per family),five kg extra for each will consume 62.5crore kg per month. Even after this,there will be a monthly surplus of 112.5crore kg or 1.125 million tonnes. Inother words, the Government need notundertake distribution of 13.5 milliontonnes of grain annually, which willresult in corresponding saving in sub-sidy or �43,000 crore annually.

Likewise, an increase in issue priceto beneficiaries, other than those underthe AAY or 32.5 crore from the exist-ing �3 per kg to 50 per cent of the MSPpaid to farmers or �14 per kg rice, canhelp reduce subsidy. The savings will beabout �1,800 crore per month or�21,600 crore per annum.

Yet, the Government has not actedupon the recommendations of thepanel. Meanwhile, the country contin-ues to be saddled with millions of under-fed poor; unsustainable high subsidy;inefficiency in handling and distributionby State agencies; misuse of subsidy and

subsidised food being cornered by mil-lions of undeserving people.

These maladies are germane to theexisting dispensation of controls onalmost every aspect of the food supplychain. When subsidised food is availableat a fraction of the market price, thereis huge incentive for dubious operatorsto siphon off. When handling and dis-tribution cost (besides MSP paid tofarmers) is reimbursed to agencies on“actual” as food subsidy, inefficiency andinflated cost claims (including bogus)are inevitable. When millions of therich/better-off are also made beneficia-ries under the NFSA, subsidy is boundto balloon.

The implementation of the commit-tee’s package could have made someheadway in addressing these maladiesbut still it would be far from eliminat-ing them as it does not alter the funda-mentals of the existing dispensation.

To achieve drastic outcome in termsof higher efficiency and lower cost inhandling operations, prevention of mis-use and saving in subsidy, there is anurgent need to remove all controls, allowparticipation of private entities in pro-curement and distribution and makeway for competitive markets. The sub-sidy should be restricted only to thepoor (about 25 per cent of the popula-tion) and given directly to the benefi-ciaries using the Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) mechanism.

Will the Corona crisis wake thepolitical class from its deep slumber intoimplementing this reform? Only timewill tell.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based policy analyst)

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Former Chief Justice of India (CJI)Ranjan Gogoi demitted office inNovember 2019 and four months

later he was nominated by the Presidentunder Article 80 of the Constitution asa Member of Parliament (MP). Hisnomination has raised many questions.Why did Gogoi accept the nominationto the Rajya Sabha (RS)? Did he notdecide cases where the Governmentwas a party? Is the judiciary indepen-dent? Only an independent judiciarycan direct the Government to enforcerights and one of the most importantobjects of the Constitution is to securejustice to all its citizens.

The State comprises three organs

— the legislature, the executive and thejudiciary. It is envisaged that the Stateand the executive are to be separatefrom the judiciary which is indepen-dent. This independence and impartial-ity is essential for the Supreme Courtand the High Courts to direct theGovernment to enforce the fundamen-tal rights of citizens and order theGovernment and its functionaries torespect individual liberties.

Liberty, fundamental rights andfreedom are essential for existence andthe Constitution recognises this. It vestsunfettered and independent jurisdictionon the Supreme Court to pass any orderin public interest to do complete jus-tice. Independence of the judiciary isan integral part of the Constitution asis expected of a sovereign democraticnation. The power of the apex court todirect the Government is essential inour democracy, considering theimmense powers that the Governmenthas. Justice Khanna says that indepen-dence of the judiciary is also linked toessential human rights and civil liber-ties and the rights are needed because

while you want to enable theGovernment to control the governed,you also want it to control itself.

However, the Government is thebiggest litigator in India and about 37million cases are pending in the DistrictCourts and High Courts. As on March1, over 60,469 cases were pending in theapex court and according to theDepartment of Justice in 2017, approx-imately 46 per cent of the total pend-ing cases in courts pertained to theGovernment.

The courts are bound to decidemillions of cases where theGovernment is a party. The indepen-dence of the judiciary is perceived bythe common man by the conduct of thejudges. The confidence of the citizenswill be diminished if the judges are seentoo close to the executive and it is theresponsibility of the judges and lawyersto ensure that this trust is not lost.

The CJI’s Office is the highest andmost respected positions in the judicia-ry. The importance of this position canbe appreciated by the fact that onJanuary 26, 1950, the Chief Justice MK

Kania administered the oath of officeto Rajendra Prasad, the first Presidentof India. Later, in 1969 Chief Justice MHidayatullah was briefly made thePresident.

In the higher courts when a lawyerbecomes a judge, they are referred toas “justice” after that. The judge’s oathis to bear true faith and allegiance to theConstitution and duly, faithfully and tothe best of their ability, knowledge andjudgment perform the duties of theoffice without fear or favour, affectionor ill-will uphold the Constitution andlaws. Disrespect to a judge or court iscontempt of court and punishable toprotect the dignity of the institution ofjustice. Under the Constitution, a judgeof the Supreme Court is prohibitedfrom practising in any court afterretirement. The first Law Commissionheaded by India’s first Attorney-General, MC Setalvad presented areport on Judicial Reforms in 1958. Itwas recommended that a SupremeCourt judge should be totally barredfrom accepting any employment underthe Union or a State after retirement

other than employment as an ad hocjudge of the Supreme Court underArticle 128 of the Constitution. TheLaw Commission also recommendedthat judges of the Supreme Courtshould not start chamber practice afterretirement. These recommendationshave not been implemented. OtherConstitutional functionaries such as theComptroller and Auditor-General ofIndia and members of the UnionPublic Service Commission are barredfrom post-retirement employment withthe Government. Bureaucrats in theAdministrative Services can take upcommercial employment after oneyear, post-retirement, also known as thecooling-off period. In 2014 ChiefJustice R M Lodha at his retirement sug-gested a two-year cooling-off period forSupreme Court Judges after retirement.

Setalvad’s recommendation to banall post-retirement employment makesgood sense for the preservation of theindependence and dignity of the judi-ciary. However, it may not be fair to pro-hibit a retired judge from working.United States (US) Federal judges are

appointed for life or up to when theychoose to quit. The Supreme Courtjudges in the United Kingdom (UK)retire at the age of 70. Considering thatthe Government is the largest litigantwith millions of cases being heard, acooling-off period of two to three yearsis called for in the interest of justice.

In Justice Gogoi’s defence, byaccepting the RS nomination he has notbroken any law. And this is not the firsttime that a retired judge has been elect-ed to the Upper House. Further, beinga MP may not be an employment withthe Government.

The experience and skills of retiredjudges in India are a great resource andshould not be wasted. Perhaps the ques-tions arising from the issued raised bythe nomination of Justice Gogoi willencourage lawmakers to seriously thinkabout the independence of the judicia-ry and the enhancement of the retire-ment age of judges from 65 years to 70years, with a ban on all post-retirementemployment. Our judges are extraor-dinarily hard-working and highly expe-rienced and this wealth of knowledge

would be put to productive use if theyare allowed to continue for a few moreyears beyond the age of 65.

In a recent interview, Justice Gogoisaid that he could be addressed eitheras “Justice Gogoi” or “Mr Gogoi.”

Justice Gogoi as CJI held a highposition in the order of precedence tillNovember 2019. Now as an MP, he isabout 10 to 15 places down in the hier-archy. As the CJI he was protected bythe Constitution and respected inaccordance with the finest traditions atthe Bar. The Judiciary and the Bar con-sider the CJI to be the head of the fam-ily. The Bar, always holds retired justicesin high esteem. Coming down the pro-tocol ladder and getting jeered duringhis oath-taking ceremony in the RS mayhave hurt the institution of justice. BothMr Gogoi and Justice Gogoi have notbroken any law. Still, perhaps JusticeGogoi may have dropped the ball on theway to the RS and allowed the commonman to question the independence ofthe judiciary.

(The writer is Advocate Partner atDua Associates)

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The coronavirus threatenedAmericans with their hard-

est week in living memory onMonday and put Britain’sPrime Minister in hospital,despite early signs that some ofEurope’s hardest-hit countriesmay be turning a corner.

More than 72,000 peoplehave now died worldwide inthe epidemic — some 50,000 ofthem in Europe— and, as thehuman tragedy continues toescalate, the global economy isplunging into what leaderswarn will be a historic reces-sion. More than 1.3 milliondeclared cases have now beenregistered around the world.

The US surgeon generalcompared the likely impact ofthe epidemic in the week aheadto 9/11 or Pearl Harbour andFrance warned of the worsteconomic slump since WorldWar II.

In London, PrimeMinister Boris Johnsonremained in hospital onMonday but was in “good spir-its” after being admitted fortests for “persistent” coron-avirus symptoms.

“The Prime Minister had acomfortable night in StThomas’ Hospital in Londonand is in good spirits,” Johnson’sspokesman said, adding thatthe 55-year-old British pre-mier remains “under observa-tion”. Johnson tested positivefor the virus 10 days ago, anddespite his hospitalisation hishousing minister RobertJenrick said the leader wasstill “in charge” of theGovernment as the countrygrapples with the continuingcrisis.

It was a mixed picture inEurope, where countriesalready ravaged by deadlyCOVID-19 outbreaks reportedlower numbers of new infec-tions and, in Austria and Italy,began thinking about easinglockdown restrictions.

The new coronavirus hasreached almost every corner of

the planet, confining nearly halfof humanity to their homes andturning life upside down forbillions.

About three quarters of alldeaths have been clocked inEurope, and the US now hasthe most recorded cases ofany country — along with asteadily rising death toll.

“This is going to be thehardest and the saddest week ofmost Americans’ lives, quitefrankly,” US Surgeon GeneralJerome Adams told Fox Newsahead of what is expected to bea tough week for already hard-pressed American healthcareproviders.

Italy’s daily coronavirusdeath toll shot up to 636 onMonday, just one day afterdropping to its lowest level inover two weeks, the civil pro-tection service said. The num-ber of fatalities had fallen to 525on Sunday, the lowest sinceMarch 19. Italy’s total number of deaths officiallyattributed to COVID-19 rose to 16,523, more than inany other country.

In Spain, nurse EmparLoren said, “The situation ismore stable. The number ofpatients in intensive care is notgrowing much anymore, andwe are starting to dischargequite a few.”

Hard-hit Spain recordeddeaths down for a fourthstraight day on Monday — butstill logged 637 fatalities.

At a field hospital set up ata Madrid conference centre,staff applauded whenever apatient was healthy enough to besent home. The effective moth-balling of the global economy isbeginning to hit hard with ana-lysts warning millions of jobswill be lost despite unprece-dented stimulus programmes.

Germany announced thatthe Government would guar-antee loans for small business-es but France was gloomy, withFinance Minister Bruno le Maireestimating that the 2020 crunchwould be “far beyond” the pre-vious post-1945 worst case.

Despite the gloom, heart-warming examples of human-ity around the globe have lift-ed spirits, with ordinary peo-ple doing what they can to helpthose on the medical frontline. In a Barcelona restaurant,chefs flipped burgers to deliv-er to nurses and doctors.

“When you deliver thefood and you see they’re happy,that makes us happy and itmakes us stronger,” said deliv-ery man Daniel Valls.

And in the southern Italiancity of Naples, a street artistlowered a “solidarity food bas-ket” from his balcony, holler-

ing: “If you can, put somethingin. If you can’t, take somethingout”. “We started by putting apiece of bread, a bag of pasta,a box of peeled tomatoes,” saidEnglish-language tutor TeresaCardo, who also lowered abasket.

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Japan’s Prime Minister onMonday proposed a state of

emergency for several majorregions seeing a sharp rise incoronavirus cases, as well as astimulus package worth $1trillion to cushion the impacton the world’s third-biggesteconomy.

The official declaration ofthe state of emergency wouldlikely come as soon as Tuesday,Shinzo Abe told reporters, asthe country grapples with arecent spike in coronaviruscases, especially in the capitalTokyo. “Currently, we are see-ing rapid increases of newinfections particularly in urbanareas like Tokyo and Osaka,”said Abe.

The declaration handsregional governors the powerto ask residents to stay inside,seek the closure of businessesthat attract large crowds andcommandeer land and build-ings for medical purposes.

But it falls far short of thesort of lockdown measuresimposed in parts of Europe,where police have patrolled thestreets and fined offenders.

“We envision, for a periodof about one month, that wewill ask further cooperation ofthe Japanese people to reduceperson-to-person contacts thatlead to infections,” said Abe.

The measure does notinclude legal powers to enforcerequests for people to stayinside, or punishments for peo-ple who fail to do so. “In Japan,even if we declare a state ofemergency, we will not closecities as seen in foreign coun-tries. Experts have told us thatthere is no need for such a step,”said Abe.

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An environmentalresearcher from Aarhus

University in Denmark andhealth researchers from Italyhave claimed there could be alink between the high mortal-ity rate seen in northern Italyand the level of air pollution inthe same region.

Environmental scientistDario Caro from Department ofEnvironmental Science, and twohealth researchers, ProfessorBruno Frediani and Dr EdoardoConticini from the University ofSiena in Italy found yet anoth-

er small piece in the puzzle ofunderstanding the deadly dis-ease that has killed nearly 16,000in the country.

They focused on examiningwhy the mortality rate is up to12 per cent in the northern partof Italy while it is only approx4.5 per cent in the rest of thecountry. In research projectpublished in the scientific jour-nal Environmental Pollution,they demonstrated a probablecorrelation between air pollu-tion and mortality in two of theworst affected regions in north-ern Italy: Lombardy and EmiliaRomagna.

The population of thenorthern Italian regions lives ina higher level of air pollution,and this may lead to a numberof complications for patientswith COVID-19 in the regions,simply because their bodiesmay have already been weak-ened by the accumulated expo-sure to air pollution when theycontract the disease. “There areseveral factors affecting thecourse of patients’ illness, andall over the world we’re findinglinks and explanations of whatis important. It’s very importantto stress that our results are nota counter-argument to the find-

ings already made,” said Caro.“Our considerations must

not let us neglect other factorsresponsible of the high lethalityrecorded: important co-factorssuch as the elevated medium ageof the Italian population, thewide differences among Italianregional health systems, ICUscapacity and how the infects anddeaths has been reported havehad a paramount role in thelethality of SARS-CoV-2, pre-sumably also more than pollu-tion itself,” he explained.

The two northern Italianregions are among the most air-polluted regions in Europe.

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President Donald Trump andmembers of his adminis-

tration are growing emphatic inpromoting an anti-malariadrug not yet officially approvedfor fighting COVID-19, eventhough scientists say more test-ing is needed before it’s proven safe and effectiveagainst the virus.

Trump trade adviser PeterNavarro promoted the drug,hydroxychloroquine, in a tele-vision interviews Monday, aday after Trump publicly puthis faith in the drug to lesson the toll of the coron-avirus pandemic.

“What do I know, I’m nota doctor,” Trump told reporters Sunday. “But I have

common sense.” The administration’s pro-

motion of the drug comes aftera heated Situation Room meet-ing of the White House’s coro-navirus task force on Saturday,in which Navarro challengedthe top US. Infectious diseaseexpert Dr Anthony Fauci overhis concerns about recom-mending the drug based only on unscientificanecdotal evidence.

Navarro, who has no for-mal medical training, eruptedat Fauci, raising his voice andclaiming that the reports ofstudies he collected wereenough to recommend thedrug widely, according to a per-son familiar with the exchangewho spoke on the condition ofanonymity to describe the

Situation Room blow-up.Fauci has repeatedly said

that current studies provideonly anecdotal findings that thedrug works. Navarro told CNNon Monday, “I would have twowords for you: ‘second opin-ion.’” Hydroxychloroquine isofficially approved for treatingmalaria, rheumatoid arthritisand lupus, but not COVID-19.Small, preliminary studies havesuggested it might help preventthe new coronavirus fromentering cells and possibly helppatients clear the virus sooner.

Two reports gave mixedresults. A series of 11 patientsin France found that an antibi-otic-malaria drug combo didnot improve how fast patients cleared the virus ortheir symptoms.

#!��� 345�:�;�

Nadia, a 4-year-old femaleMalayan tiger at the pop-

ular Bronx Zoo here has test-ed positive for the novel coro-navirus, probably infected byan asymptomatic employee, inwhat is believed to be the firstknown case of an animal infect-ed with COVID-19 in the US,raising new questions abouthuman-to-animal transmis-sion of the deadly virus.

The tigress, her sister Azul,two Amur tigers and threeAfrican lions had developed adry cough late last month withdecrease in appetite, said theWildlife Conservation Society,which manages the zoo.

Nadia, along with other

big cats, is thought to have beeninfected by the zoo keeperwho has not been identified, itsaid in a statement on Sunday,adding that all the animals areexpected to recover.

“Though they have expe-rienced some decrease inappetite, the cats at the BronxZoo are otherwise doing wellunder veterinary care and arebright, alert, and interactivewith their keepers,” the CNNquoted the zoo as saying.

“It is not known how thisdisease will develop in big catssince different species can reactdifferently to novel infections,but we will continue to moni-tor them closely and anticipatefull recoveries,” it said.

The test result has stunned

zoo officials. “I couldn’t believe it,” zoo director JimBreheny said.

The coronavirus, firstdetected in humans in theChinese city of Wuhan late lastyear, is believed to have spreadfrom animals to humans, anda handful of animals, includingtwo dogs, have tested positivein Hong Kong.

The pandemic has beendriven by human-to-humantransmission, but the infectionof Nadia raises new questionsabout human-to-animal trans-mission.

According to the UnitedStates Department ofAgriculture (USDA), no otheranimals at the zoo are showingsymptoms.

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The novel coronavirus wasfirst detected in Wuhan in

late December where it was list-ed as “pneumonia of unknowncause”, China said on Mondayas it published an official time-line of the detection and con-trol of COVID-19 for the firsttime, amid international criti-cism of Beijing for its allegedcover-up.

Since the coronavirus out-break, the pandemic has killed3,331 people with the number

of infections rising to 81,708by Sunday, China’s NationalHealth Commission (NHC)said on Monday.

A total of 1,299 patients arestill being treated, while 77,078patients have been dischargedafter recovery, it said.

The deadly COVID-19 hasspread rapidly throughout theworld, killing 70,590 peopleand infectecting more than 1.2million across over 180 coun-tries and territories, accordingto Johns Hopkins Universitydata. In late last December, the

Wuhan Center for DiseaseControl and Prevention (CDC)in central China’s HubeiProvince detected cases of“pneumonia of unknowncause”, state run Xinhua newsagency reported, citing thetimeline document.

On December 30, theWuhan Municipal HealthCommission issued an urgentnotification to medical institu-tions under its jurisdiction,ordering efforts to appropriatelytreat patients with pneumoniaof unknown cause, it said.

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The net worth of India’srichest man Mukesh

Ambani dropped 28 per cent orUSD 300 million a day for twomonths to USD 48 billion as onMarch 31 due to the massivecorrection in stock markets, areport said on Monday.

The chairman and manag-ing director of the diversifiedReliance Industries saw hiswealth decline by USD 19 bil-lion in February-March period,taking his global ranking downeight places to 17th, the HurunGlobal Rich List said.

Other Indian businessmenwho have seen a major drop in wealth include GautamAdani whose wealth eroded byUSD 6 billion or 37 per cent,HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar (USD 5 billion or26 per cent) and banker UdayKotak (USD 4 billion or 28 percent), it said.

All the three have dropped

off the top 100 list, leavingAmbani as the only Indian inthe league.

The Indian market hascorrected by 25 per cent in thelast two months as the eco-nomic costs and impact of theCOVID-19 pandemic on companies led to a sell offacross the world.

“India’s top entrepreneurshave been hit by a 26 per centdrop in the stock markets anda 5.2 per cent drop in the valueof the rupee compared with theUS Dollar. For MukeshAmbani, it has been a perfectstorm, with his wealth down 28per cent,” Hurun Report IndiaManaging Director AnasRahman said.

Ambani is the secondbiggest wealth loser globally,after French fashion giantLVMH’s chief executiveBernard Arnault, whose wealth

dropped by 28 per cent or USD30 billion to USD 77 billion.

Berkshire Hathway’sWarren Buffet also lost USD 19billion of wealth in the last twomonths, to USD 83 billion,making it a smaller fall in per-centage terms at 19 per cent,the report said.

With hospitality comingunder intense pressure due tothe pandemic, shared economyplatform Oyo Rooms’ RiteshAgarwal is “no more a billion-aire”, the rich list said.

Others in the top-10 list ofwealth losers also includeCarlos Slim and family, BillGates, Mark Zuckerberg, LarryPage, Sergey Brin and MichaelBloomberg, it said.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos con-tinues to be the richest man inthe world with a networth ofUSD 131 billion, which has slidonly by 9 per cent during the

last two months and is followedby Bill Gates with a fortune ofUSD 91 billion (down 14 percent), Buffet and Arnault.

Chinese billionaires wereamong the few gainers in thelast two months, and included

promoters of video conferenc-ing and pork meat producingcompanies, it said.

While India lost threerankings in the top-100 rank-ings, China added six billion-aires in the league, it said.

#!��� �8��+�

Banks in the country are like-ly to witness a spike in their

non-performing assets ratioby 1.9 per cent and credit costratios by 130 basis point in2020, following the economicslowdown on account ofCOVID-19 crisis, says a report.

In its report titled “ForAsia-Pacific Banks, COVID-19Crisis Could Add USD 300Billion To Credit Costs” S&PGlobal Ratings said, it expectsthe non-performing assets(NPA) ratio for the Chinesebanking sector to increase byabout 2 per cent in 2020, andcredit losses, to increase byabout 100 basis points.

On India, the report said“the NPA ratio in India is like-ly to fare similarly to China’s(1.9 per cent vs 2 per cent) but

the credit costs ratios could beworse, increasing by about 130basis points,” the rating agency’scredit analyst Gavin Gunningsaid in the report.

Gunning said there areconcerns that the coronaviruswill spread faster, further, andfor longer. “This will deepenthe economic pain we alreadyanticipate for 2020. Financingconditions may likewise sour asinvestors become more riskaverse. This would hit bankcredit,” he said.

The report noted that anadditional USD 300 billionspike in lenders’ credit costsand a USD 600 billion increasein (NPAs) will occur in 2020due to the adverse impact ofcoronavirus pandemic.

While banks are not asexposed as the corporate sec-tor during the initial stage of

the pandemic, the strain onlenders could ultimately beprofound. Banks face a second-order hit compared with thecorporate and household sec-tors. The report said the eco-nomic storm created byCOVID-19 will test the ratingsresilience of the region’s 20banking sectors.

“The resilience of banks’asset quality in 2020 hinges inpart on the success of govern-ments’ and regulators’ policyresponses. These measures arein early stages. Some havestarted, some are in planning,and we suspect many moremay be in the wings,” Gunningsaid.

Asia-Pacific Governments,central banks, and superviso-ry authorities have rolled outdiverse measures to addressCOVID-19.

#!��� 345� 467�

India’s petrol sales shrank by17.6 per cent and diesel

demand tanked nearly 26 percent in March as the economyfroze under the nationwidelockdown announced to checkthe spread of COVID-19.

Also, aviation turbine fuel(ATF) sales fell by 31.6 per centas flights got suspended along-side the shutting of businessesand most vehicular trafficgoing off-road.

Petrol sales dropped to1.943 million tonnes in Marchsold in the same month in2019, according to provisionalindustry demand numbers.

Diesel, the most consumedfuel in the country, sawdemand contract by 25.9 percent to 4.982 million tonnes.

Similarly, ATF sales fell to4,63,000 tonnes. The only fuelthat showed growth was LPGas households rushed to bookrefills for stocking during thethree-week lockdown period.

LPG sales rose 1.9 per centto 2.286 million tonnes inMarch. These are provisionalnumbers for the three publicsector oil marketing companies— Indian Oil Corp (IOC),Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd(BPCL) and HindustanPetroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL).

Actual March numbersafter including sales by privatesector firms would beannounced in the next fewdays. Industry officials saidthe pattern in fuel consumptionis likely to continue in April asthe lockdown is to last till midof the month and there areindications that part restric-tions will continue even afterthe lockdown is lifted.

Petrol and diesel sales inApril are one-third of what theywere a year back, they saidadding demand is expected topick up when the lockdown islifted and restrictions on pub-lic transport lifted.

#!��� 345� 467�

State-owned telecom firmMTNL has cleared all pend-

ing salaries till March and isnow looking to resolve debtissues through asset monetisa-tion, a top company officialsaid on Monday.

Meanwhile, BSNL hascleared salary of employeesdue till February and is yet tomake payment for the monthof March, an another officialtold PTI.

MTNL has seen reductionof over 60 per cent wage load post voluntaryretirement of 14,378 employeesthat left it with the workforceof around 4,000 in Delhi andMumbai.

According to official data,MTNL has a debt of around�20,000 crore.

������ 345� 467�

The situation during theongoing COVID-19 will

be grim and the recovery there-after will also take time as pri-vate equity experts fear thatmore people will die fromhunger than pandemic in Indiamost people under estimatingthe gravity and period ofimpact, which at the very leastwill take two to three quarters.

At a private equity webinar,Shailendra Singh, ManagingDirector at Sequoia Capitalflagged that fear that morepeople will die from hungerthan pandemic in India.

He added that most peopleare under estimating gravityand the period of impact,which will be the at the veryleast two to three quarters.

Singh said they are askingevery portfolio co to re validatethe 5 critical assumptions theirbusiness hinges on. “You will besurprised that how many ofthem have actually changed/could change in long run(Zivame),” he added. Theyhave also advised companies tolook at adjacent markets oralternative business models.

Singh said that economicRecovery will not start beforeQ3/Q4 of this financial year.Most countries will move man-ufacturing towards domesticmarkets especially in healthcare& R&D and reliance on Chinawill go down. Anuj Ranjan ofBrookfield said that cycles areinevitable, it will come back butwill take time. After 9/11, no-one thought they would everget on a plane again. But theydid and it was much strongerthan before, but in 22 months.Air travel started but the secu-rity changed forever.

Paris: France is likely to see itsdeepest recession since the endof World War II this year becauseof the coronavirus crisis, FinanceMinister Bruno Le Maire warnedon Monday. “The worst growthfigure in France since 1945 was-2.2 per cent in 2009, after thefinancial crisis of 2008. We willprobably be very far beyond -2.2per cent” this year, Le Maire tolda Senate panel.

“It’s an indication of theamplitude of the economicshock we’re facing,” he said.France imposed a nationwidestay-at-home order fromMarch 17 after shuttering allnonessential businesses.Officials have said the lock-down will last until at least

April 15.Statistics office Insee said

last month that the lockdownhas slashed overall economicactivity by 35 percent, and esti-mated every month of shutdownwould cut annual GPD by threepercentage points. Services,heavy industry and constructionare all taking big hits, Insee said,as factories are shut and only ahandful of business sectors,such as supermarkets and phar-macies, remain open.

A wave of French blue-chipcompanies have abandonedtheir profitability targets for theyear, while employers’ associ-ations have warned that hun-dreds of smaller firms andshops risk bankruptcy. AFP

Washington: The InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) onMonday cited limited butencouraging signs of recovery inChina, the first country to suf-fer the brunt of the COVID-19pandemic, but said it could notrule out a resurgence of the pan-demic in China and elsewhere.

In a blog, top IMF econo-mists said the pandemic causedby the new coronavirus hadpushed the world into a reces-sion that would be worse thanthe global financial crisis, andcalled for a global, coordinatedhealth and economic policyresponse. “The economic dam-age is mounting across all coun-tries, tracking the sharp rise in

new infections and contain-ment measures put in place byGovernments,” the IMF expertswrote. The total confirmed casesof COVID-19 around the worldjumped to more than 1,288,000,with 70,600 deaths reported,according to a Reuters tally.

China was seeing a modestimprovement in its purchasingmanager surveys (PMIs) aftersharp declines early in the year,and daily satellite data on nitro-gen dioxide concentrations inthe atmosphere - a proxy forindustrial and transport activ-ity - showed a gradual declinein containment measures, theIMF experts wrote. “The recov-ery in China, albeit limited, is

encouraging, suggesting thatcontainment measures can suc-ceed in controlling the epi-demic and pave the way for aresumption of economic activ-ity,” the authors wrote.

“But there is huge uncer-tainty about the future path ofthe pandemic and a resurgenceof its spread in China andother countries cannot be ruledout,” they added. Europeancountries such as Italy, Spain,and France were now in acutephases of the outbreak, followedby the United States, while theepidemic appeared to be justbeginning in many emergingmarket and developingeconomies. Agencies

London: Asian and Europeanequity markets reboundedMonday as some of the world’sworst-hit countries reportedfalling death rates, providingmuch-needed hope in the bat-tle against coronavirus, but oilprices sank after a meeting oftop producers was delayed.

While deadly COVID-19continues its deadly sweepacross the planet, with morethan 1.25 million now declaredinfected and nearly 70,000dead, news out of Europe thatthe rise of fatalities was easinghas lifted spirits on tradingfloors.

Italy reported its lowestdaily death toll in two weeks,

while Spanish officials saiddeaths fell for the third straightday and France reported itslowest daily toll in a week.

In early afternoon euro-zone deals, Frankfurt stocksrallied 4.5 percent, Paris won3.7 percent, Madrid gained 3.0percent and Milan added 3.2percent. “European marketsare trading higher becauseinvestors are shrugging off thepessimism,” said AvaTrade ana-lyst Naeem Aslam.

“They are focused on moreoptimistic things: the slowingdeath rate caused by coron-avirus. Italy, Spain, France, andGermany have all seen declin-ing numbers.” London jumped

2.1 percent nearing midday,with gains capped by news thatBritish Prime Minister BorisJohnson was hospitalised forprecautionary tests after suf-fering “persistent” coronavirussymptoms for ten days.

The pound however rose asofficials insisted that Johnsonwas “still very much in chargeof the government”.

Elsewhere, South Koreasaw the fewest new cases in sixweeks, Australian new infec-tions were also dropping andDonald Trump said the US wasshowing signs of stabilising,despite the number of casesthere passing 335,000 — thehighest in the world. AFP

New Delhi: India’s services sector activitycontracted during March as the COVID-19pandemic dented demand, particularly inoverseas markets, while public health mea-sures aimed at stemming the outbreak cur-tailed discretionary spending, a monthly sur-vey said on Monday.

The IHS Markit India Services BusinessActivity Index was at 49.3 in March, downfrom February’s 85-month high of 57.5, asthe new coronavirus pandemic pulled theservice sector into contraction.

The headline figure fell by over 8points, undoing the strong gains in growthmomentum seen throughout 2019, the sur-vey said. In PMI parlance, a print above 50means expansion, while a score below thatdenotes contraction. PTI

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The novel coronavirus thatcauses COVID-19 can

remain infectious on facemasks for up to a week, and laston banknotes, stainless steeland plastic surfaces for days,according to a study. However,the virus can be killed byhousehold disinfectants, bleachor frequent hand washing withsoap and water, said theresearchers from the Universityof Hong Kong (HKU).

The study found that the

COVID-19 virus can stick tostainless steel and plastic sur-faces for up to four days, andto the outer layer of a face maskfor a week, Hong Kong-basedSouth China Morning Post(SCMP) reported on Monday.

The report, published inThe Lancet journal, adds to agrowing body of research aboutthe stability of SARS-CoV-2 —as the novel coronavirus is for-mally known — and what can bedone to prevent its transmission.

“SARS-CoV-2 can be high-ly stable in a favourable envi-ronment, but it is also suscep-tible to standard disinfectionmethods,” said the researchers,including Leo Poon Litmanand Malik Peiris, both fromHKU’s School of Public Health.

The researchers tested how

long the virus could remaininfectious at room temperatureon a variety of surfaces.

On printing and tissue paperit lasted less than three hours,while on treated wood and cloth,it had disappeared by the secondday. On glass and banknotes, thevirus was still evident on the sec-ond day, but had gone by thefourth, while on stainless steeland plastic it was present forbetween four and seven days.

“Strikingly,” the researcherssaid, there was still a detectablelevel of infection on the outer

layer of a surgical face maskafter seven days. “This is exact-ly why it is very important ifyou are wearing a surgicalmask you don’t touch the out-side of the mask,” Peiris said.

“Because you can contam-inate your hands and if youtouch your eyes you could betransferring the virus to youreyes,” he was quoted by SCMP.

On all surfaces, the con-centration of the virus reducedquite rapidly over time, thestudy said. The researcherssaid that the results did “not

necessarily reflect the potentialto pick up the virus from casu-al contact,” as the presence ofthe virus in the study wasdetected by laboratory tools,not fingers and hands as wouldbe the case in everyday life.

A study by Americanresearchers on the environ-mental stability of the coron-avirus published last month inthe journal Nature also con-cluded that it can remain infec-tious on some surfaces for days.They found the virus was pre-sent on plastic and steel for up

to 72 hours, but did not lastmore than four hours on copperor 24 hours on cardboard. Thefindings from HKU add to theconversation about public healthand hygiene, and what kinds ofprecautions people should takewhen bringing items like gro-ceries into their homes.

Poon said hand washingremains at the top of the list,and it was theoretically possi-ble for tins of food to carryenough live virus to cause aninfection, but that the exact riskis yet to be established.

“If you want to protectyourself just maintain goodhygiene, wash your hands oftenand try not to touch your face,your mouth or nose withoutcleaning first,” he said.

People who were particu-larly concerned might prefer toleave non-perishable items intheir shopping bags in thekitchen for a day before han-dling them, he said. “Thatwould reduce the viral con-centration a lot. But the mostimportant message is washyour hands,” he said.

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New Delhi: Reliance IndustriesLimited (RIL) ChairmanMukesh Ambani hasannounced that Reliance LifeSciences has developed its ownconfirmatory tests for COVID-19 which are available to all RILemployees on priority and willsoon be rolled out in the com-munity.

In an internal note onSaturday, Ambani informedabout the comprehensiveCOVID-19 tracking and treat-ment facility for all RIL staffand their dependents.

He also announced thatReliance Life Sciences hasdeveloped its own confirmato-ry tests for COVID-19 whichare available to all RIL employ-

ees on priority and will soon berolled out in the community.

RIL’s company-wide onlineSymptoms Checker was avail-able to all Reliance employeesand family members and willsoon be rolled out to its widercommunity in Mumbai andIndia.

He advised staff to contin-ue to practise safe social dis-tancing, report daily on theRIL’s company-wide onlineSymptoms Checker to trackhealth of all staff and theirdependents, to use the in-house technology platformsfor virtual care and, mostimportantly, to stay positive,productive, and optimisticthrough these times. IANS

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New Delhi: Revenue andEBITDA for wireless telecomservice providers are expectedto improve sequentially duringMarch quarter 2019-20 fuelledby tariff hike in December, butthe full impact is likely only infirst quarter of the current fis-cal when majority users comefor recharge, according to Axis Capital.

Axis Capital, in its recentreport outlining Q4FY20 pre-view, has also anticipated a softquarter for infrastructureproviders, impacted by theCOVID-19 outbreak.

The report said Reliance Jioand Bharti Airtel are expectedto benefit from the price hikeas well as subscriber addition, while subscriber lossis expected to continue for

Vodafone Idea. “We expect revenue and

Earnings before Interest, TaxDepreciation and Amortisation(EBITDA) for wireless serviceproviders to improve led by tar-iff hike taken in December2019, though the full impact isexpected only in Q1FY21 whenmost users come for recharge,”it said. The report, dated April3, added that EBITDA will“benefit from pass-through ofthe price hike with marginimprovement in the range of 20basis points(bps) quarter onquarter (QoQ) to 80 bps QoQfor Indian wireless business.”

On infrastructureproviders, it said Bharti Infratel,is expected to have a mutedquarter with modest tenancyaddition. PTI

New Delhi: As the coronavirus crisis severelyimpacts the global economy, a report by Moody’sInvestor Service said that the economies of G20countries may witness a contraction in the first halfof 2020.

The forecast gains significance as G20 comprisesof the world’s largest advanced and emergingeconomies representing over two-third of theworld population. India also is a member of thegroup. The other members of the G20 are the US,the United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, Brazil,Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy,Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, SaudiArabia, South Africa, Turkey and the EuropeanUnion. The report noted that the economic effectof the pandemic includes impact on demand, sup-ply disruption and shock to the financial markets.

The Moody’s report said: “The global economywill experience an unprecedented shock in the firsthalf of 2020.” PTI

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The fallout of the Coronaviruspandemic is a quarantine

lifestyle which also means parloursthat have downed shutters. Ourskin and hair are bearing thebrunt. Therefore, right from usingcleanser, face masks to hair oil, itis very important to take charge ofyour skin and hair as less physi-cal activity and extra sleep hourscan result in dullness. Utilise thegift of time that this global crisishas bestowed on you to the fullest.Pamper your skin, experimentwith hair colours and see whatsuits you the best.

It’s the best time to indulge inself-care and beauty practices aswe are all sitting at home. The pluspoint is that there is no stress ofrushing to work and no excess pol-lution. You could just sit in yourpajamas with an oily and messyhairdo and a refreshing face mask,while working on your laptop.Imagine what rejuvenating effectsit will have on your skin if you fol-low the regime daily.

Dr Blossom Kochhar, founderof Blossom Kochhar Aroma Magicand chairperson of BlossomKochhar Group of Companies,suggests that people must usethis little extra time to be produc-tive, instead of lazing around.Bollywood celebrities likeAnushka Sharma were recentlyseen giving her husband ViratKohli a haircut while TaapseePannu experimented with herhair colour and haircut. You cando it too.

Here are a few easy tips fromexperts to take care of your skinand hair at home.

!��!�#�� �!� �����"Eating healthy, working out,

staying happy are some of the waysto achieve that perfect glow. “Climbstairs for 10 minutes. This is a goodworkout. If you like to dance, thendance to a song in the room. Thiswill keep your hair and skin healthy.Be active for at least 20 minuteseach in the morning, afternoon andevening. This also helps in the cir-culation of antioxidants in thebody,” says Aashmeen Munjaal,beauty expert and owner of StarSalon n Academy.

Amid this lockdown, it is veryimportant to have a routine anddivide time equally for exercise andother physical activities. “The keyis to follow a routine of usingcleanser, toner and moisturisereveryday. This will help the bodyfollow a pattern,” says VedikaSharma, founder of Mantra Herbal.

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Processed food is not good forthe skin. It affects both the bodyand skin negatively, especiallywhen physical activities arereduced. The less processed thefood, the better it is. Aashmeensays, “Unprocessed, fresh food willstrengthen your immune system

and also help in producing antiox-idants, which are very important atthis time. Drink fruit juice andcoconut water. Eat fresh vegetables,fruits and salads.” Light food withfewer spices and a healthy soup aregood for skin and body. Stayinghydrated is the common solutionfor all the skin, hair or body prob-lems. Vedika says, “It is extremelyimportant to have clean and

healthy eating habits during thistime. We should keep ourselveshydrated at all times and drinkabout three litres of water every day.We should also hydrate our handsand moisturise them often as theyget dry and dehydrated due to fre-quent washing and sanitising.”

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It is always better to use natur-al products for skin care instead ofreadymade cosmetic products.This time is the time to find theskin and hair care ingredients inyour kitchen best suited to yourneeds.

Aashmeen says, “You can fol-low my tried and tested recipe. Youwill need a cucumber, tomato anda potato. Wash and grind all these.You can make its ice cubes andapply one cube daily. A tray will lastfor a week for the whole family.This will keep the skin glowing. Atthis time, when you are not able to

go to the parlour, adopt thismethod to make your skin glow.”Dr Blossom too is on favour of dig-ging into the kitchen for self care.“Personally, the reason why I feelit is the best time is because I canuse things from my kitchen whichare really fantastic and are filledwith minerals and vitamins.Natural ingredients have no substi-tutes.”

Even for hair care we shoulduse natural things like curd. “Donot use detergent-based sham-poos and regularly massage yourscalp for naturally shining hair,”says Dr Blossom.

�����!��!����������The season is changing and

there are higher chances of deadcells accumulating on the surfaceof your skin leading to dull skin.Though we usually use an exfolia-tor to remove dead skin cells, hereis a face pack by Aashmeen for dif-ferent skin type. “For dead skin, addhalf teaspoon each of semolina andbran and mix with a teaspoon ofgram flour to make the skin glow.If the skin is oily, then add rosewater to this mixture. If the skin isnormal, then mix with curd and ifyour skin remains very dry, makea pack with mustard oil. Vary theingredients according to your skintype while keeping the gram flour,semolina and bran constant. Applyand leave for sometime. Removethe pack by moving your hands incircular motion. Keep moisteningthe pack by adding water inbetween. It helps in improving theblood circulation, makes the skinglow and also gets rid of dead skin.”

Can you recall those days whenengaging with Super Mario’sadventures, typically in the fiction-

al mushroom kingdom, after school wasour prime entertainment? Mario wasoften joined by his brother Luigi, andoccasionally by other characters. Theplayer runs and jumps across platformsas well as atop enemies in various lev-els of the game. For sure, by now the 90skids must have pictured every bit of thevideo game, right up to the dragon andrescuing the kidnapped princess Peachfrom the primary antagonist, Browser.

Undoubtedly, Super Mario has beenone of the most influential games formultiple generations. And singer, com-poser and multi-instrumentalist RaghavSachar has paid a tribute to it in his sig-nature style where he is dressed as Marioand Luigi. The main instruments usedare the alto, soprano and tenor saxo-phones along with some other wood-wind instruments like piccolo and flute.The trumpet adds bass, and all of this isblended in with electronic instrumentslike the guitar, seaboard and the keytar.

� How did you first conceptualise it?What was the idea behind?

I always wanted to create my ownrendition of the Super Mario Brotherstheme as it was such an amazingmelody. It had a lot of nostalgic valuefor me and, I am sure, for every childborn in the 80s and the 90s. The ideawas to do my best to showcase thevariety of instruments that I play toemphasize the different stages andmelodies of the game. To takethings a notch further, I am evendressed up like Mario and Luigiplaying various instruments inthe video. I wanted the audio tosound larger than life and endedup creating a massive wind sym-phony of the music. It’s my tribute tothe makers of the game and the creatorof the theme who composed it only with8bit sound as that was the only thingavailable then.

� Since Mario was a video game of the90s primarily, do you aim to cater tothat age group only? If not, how do youthink rest of the audience will relate toit?

Mario has been developed over theyears and a new cooler version is avail-able for the millennials to play. It doesnot have the same theme though but theymight be able to relate to the character.However, it will hold a lot more nostal-gic value for the people who have playedthe original game because my renditionis a tribute to that version. I hope thatthe youngsters and musicians see myvideo from the point of view of a musi-cal extravaganza.

� You have used various instrumentsfor this composition. How difficult wasit to synchronise them together so thatone doesn’t overshadow the other?

I have recorded over 100 audiotracks and featured 11 different instru-ments. It was crucial that I identify whichsection would feature which instru-ment in the foreground. Since it is a windsymphony, woodwinds like saxophonesand flute along with trumpet (brass) takecentre stage with drums and percussionkeeping the energy alive and electricinstruments giving the modern vibe.Synchronising all the instruments wasvery difficult. Mixing and mastering 100live tracks and making everything heardat the right place was tiring and cumber-some. I would do a mix and hear it on

various systems like my car, head-phones, small speakers and more. It tookmany attempts and days before I was sat-isfied with the final video.

� What is peculiar about the videothat you have created?

The most peculiar thing would bethat the game is a part of the video. Iwanted it to evoke that feeling of nostal-gia among viewers when they hear and

watch it. The editing process took agesbecause finding the right clips and theninserting the sound effects of the gamealong with multiple other screens of meplaying so many different instrumentswas a huge task. The process of creatingthis audio and video took more than sixmonths, which is the longest that I havetaken to create anything so far.

� You do a lot of film tracks often, howis your creative process for them dif-ferent from the songs for albums?

Private albums and single are anartistes’ true calling because he/she is notdirected to create it. Creation of Mariohas been a passion project for me and ittook much more time than I had initial-ly anticipated purely because it’s musi-cally very challenging and complicated.

Film work is very different and isvery ‘agenda’ oriented. The

makers always need a ‘HIT’,which frankly no musicdirector can confirm 100per cent. I feel when youapproach music from a

commercial point of viewrather than a creative point ofview, there’s a lot of imbalance

and the process is moremechanical rather being organic and

intuitive.

� Most of the industries are sufferingbecause of the pandemic. Do youthink the music industry is affected asthe songs are already online?

This is an unprecedented situationthat no one had foreseen. Frankly no onehas any answers to what’s going on andwhen will it end. The industries world-wide have been hit and it will take a real-ly long time for all of us to bounce backto our regular routines and for the fearto go away. Music as an industry has thehighest demand during this time. In fact,it can easily be classified under essentialsbecause people rely on it to relax them-selves, meditate, feel spiritual, reinforcelove, experience heartbreak and becomepositive in their overall outlook towardslife. Creating music and releasing it is notas difficult if you are a producer like mewho pretty much is self sufficient. If Iwant any singer to record on my audio,then I can send files to them via inter-net and mostly everyone who is engagedin making music has a small setup athome. It is also easier to release audiotracks without videos because it can lit-erally be done from home and does notrequire manpower. We don’t do that asmuch in India because every artistewants a video to go along with the audioand that costs a lot more money and timewhile involving many more people.

� Is there a specific reason youplanned to release it now amid thisglobal crisis? Do you think it will affectits viewership?

This track was supposed to releasein March with a big press conference anda performance on various instrumentsby me for the media to capture. Initially,I wanted to wait and release it after thelockdown but then when I realised thatthere is uncertainty about how long wewill be stuck like this, I decided to enter-tain the audience while they have fewerdistractions. I think it will be a veryuplifting video for many and I amexpecting huge viewership because thegame is not limited to India. It was a hugesuccess worldwide and there are manycommunities who love Mario. I wish thecircumstances were different but life stillgoes on...

Music heals.” This would defi-nitely sound like an old say-

ing but that’s the symphony that thenation needs now to win theCoronavirus battle. With thisthought, some eminent Bollywoodnames have come together to bringabout positivity and contributetowards a nationwide initiativethrough Muskurayega India. It’s aspecial track, released yesterday,which aims to give strength toIndians in these testing times.

Actor Akshay Kumar took tosocial media and shared the poster.He wrote, “At a time like this whenour days are clouded with uncer-tainty and life has come to a stand-still, bringing you a song of hope.”

Jackky Bhagnani alsoannounced about the song. Hesaid, “Phir hogi subah, phir jagma-gayega India. Hum sab agar saathdein, toh jeet jayega India.#MuskurayegaIndia.”

He added, “This song is ahumble tribute to bring smiles tothe faces of all Indians. I personal-ly felt the only thing that helps intimes of uncertainty is hope so wecame up with this song. A big thankyou to all our friends who helpedus bring this together. All proceedsfrom this song will go into support-ing the central and state govern-ments’ efforts to fight the virus.This is just a small tribute to thespirit of our country, to the powerof 1.3 billion Indians.”

Hinting at the silver lining, thesong marks the coming together ofthe film fraternity for a cause.

Commenting on the same,Akshay shared, “With the help ofthis song, we want the people to becertain of one thing — everythingwill go back to usual. All we needis a united stand against COVID-19. Aur phir Muskurayega India!”

Curated by Jackky’s music labelJJust Music and composed andsung by the talented Vishal Mishra,Muskurayega India’s lyrics havebeen penned by Kaushal Kishore.The anthem is being presented byCape of Good films And JackkyBhagnani.

Other names like Tiger Shroff,Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal,Bhumi Pednekar, Kartik Aaryan,Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana,Kiara Advani, Rajkummar Rao,Sidharth Malhotra, RakulpreetSingh, Shikhar Dhawan andAnanya Pandey have also been apart of the song.

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April 7 of each year marks the celebration of World HealthDay. Ever since its inception, the celebration has aimed to

create awareness of a specific health theme to highlight a prior-ity area of concern for the World Health Organisation. Over thepast 50 years this has brought to light important health issues.The celebration is marked by activities which extend beyond theday itself and serves as an opportunity to focus worldwide atten-tion on these important aspects of global health.

This year on World Health Day we are facing the challengeof COVID-19. It is observed that Diabetics are at high risk ofhaving infection from Corona Virus as compared to normal peo-ple. Also because of the lockdown, it is becoming difficult to fol-low optimal diet and exercise patterns, hence special attentionto Diabetics is needed so that they can gain health, build immu-nity and fight the pandemic.

Here are few do’s and don’ts for Diabetics during the timeof COVID-19-

Firstly, they should mentally adjust with the dietary and exer-cise constraints happily rather than complaining.

Do’s:� Dietary innovations: 25% grain, 25% daal and 50% cooked

vegetables� Intermittent fasting withproper insulin/ medicine doseadjustments� Eat diet low in glycemic indexwhich helps keep the bloodsugars in normal range.� Add anti-diabetic food itemsin diet — bhindi (okra), tendli(kundru), cabbage, garlic, onion,cucumber and methi as is avail-able.� Eat dal-based roti instead ofgrain. � Start meal with clear soup ormethi soup. � Filtered mustard oil, coconutoil, sunflower oil, groundnut oil,rice bran oil and gingelly oil arepreferred. Olive oil can be bestused for salads.� Ensure eating food at theappropriate time, in appropriateamounts and in proper fre-quency.

� Drink sufficient amount of water.� Sleep before 11 pm, maintain a proper sleeping time and timeperiod.

Don’ts:� Do not eat white bread, chips, and pastries, which quicklyincrease blood sugar.� Avoid processed foods as they are rich in salt and oil.� Restrict fried and fatty foods.� Do not watch too much of TV especially while eating food.� Avoid table salt and restrict the use of salty processed foods.� Do not miss your medication. � Restrict refined and starchy food items such as maida, rava,white bread, potatoes, other tubers, processed foods and meats.� In shortage of stevia, do not use artificial sweeteners beyondthe recommended quantity. If possible drink tea/coffee withoutsugar.

Exercise is must. Try to concentrate more on exercise thandiet in this lockdown phase.

Being homebound means less activity, less mobility, less exer-cise thus increases the risk to other health problems because oflack of movement. Thus one should include certain homeboundeasy exercise to be physically active like super brain yoga andchair suryanamaskar. This is the best time to master pranaya-ma and deep breathing exercise.

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D������ The zucchini orcourgette is a summer squashwhich is usually harvestedwhen still immature. It has agood amount of potassium, 8per cent of the recommendeddaily value. Potassium canhelp control blood pressurebecause it lessens theharmful effects of salt onyour body. It can also help inreducing stroke risks.

Zucchini is also high inthe antioxidant Vitamin C,which may help the liningof your blood cellsfunction better,

lowering blood pressure andprotecting against cloggedarteries. It also help to boostimmunity.

Adding zucchini to yourdiet can help improvedigestion including reducingthe incidence of constipationand other digestive issues.Zucchini is rich in fibres andnutrients that promotedigestive health.

� � � � � � � � � � � � Run out of moisturiser? Fretnot. There are several

cheaper options that are in ourkitchen which make for a greatway to keep hand and feet softand moisturised. Use full fatyogurt. For better resultsadd a teaspoon ofhoney to the yogurtand mix well.Slather this onyour hands andfeet and leave themarks for 10minutes. Rinseproperly and patdry.

Scrub your handsand feet at least once a

week with a good exfoli-ating agent to get rid ofany dead skin. Take a

teaspoon each of sugar,olive oil and mix it well with thejuice of half a lemon. Rub thison your hands and feet for fiveto 10 minutes. Wash off withlukewarm water and pat dry.

Clean under your nailswith a nail brush on a regularbasis. When you wash yourhands, use a good quality nailbrush to gently scrub beneathyour nails and remove any dirt

that may be stuck there.Being home with

no maids means thatmany are spendinga lot of time cook-ing. After knead-ing the dough forroti don’t washyour hands. Add

a few drops of milkand lemon juice.

Leave it for a few min-utes. This will cleanse and

moisture your hands.Apply a mixture of glycer-

ine and rose water regularly onhands and feet before going tobed. Leave it overnight. Do thisregularly.

If you have cracked heelsuse honey of even coconut oil.Do this till crack disappears.

Due to lockdown all salonsare closed but there are several

alternative home remediesthat one can follow for soft

hands and feet, says ROSHNI DEVI

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There is an adage: Preventionis better than cure. It stillstands true, particularly at a

time when the entire world is grap-pling with the deadly Covid-19which has claimed over 80,000lives and there seems to be no stop-ping. As a preventive measure fromthe virus that primarily affects thelungs and respiratory system, theimportance of immunity has beenstressed upon once again.

Strong immunity is necessary tofight any kind of foreign body ordisease. People with poor immunesystem tend to be more prone toface the wrath of infections.

While following a healthy dietand lifestyle is the first and foremostway to strengthen one’s immunity,there are certain foods and herbsthat can speed up the process withtheir immune-boosting properties,say experts.

Luckily, we have Ayurveda trea-sure trove that needs to be exploredonce again, as a good immunity mayperhaps sail us through theCoronavirus crisis, said Dr AKSRawat, former CSIR scientist.

In fact, underscoring the needof good health and strong immuni-ty, Prime Minister Narendra Moditoo recently emphasised on theneed to look towards our tradition-al medicine system. He said that hehas been witnessing a rise in the dis-cussion on topics related to fitness,staying healthy and boosting theimmune system. “This is a greatsign,” he said as he urged people tomake the protocol by Union AyushMinistry a part of their lives andalso share them with others.

Sanchit Sharma from herbalproducts manufacturing firm,AIMIL Pharma agrees that immu-nity will be “our saviour” against thevirus. “Also, a healthy immune sys-tem will help in recovery from thecoronavirus infection, Sharma adds.

The firm offers herbal drug

Fifatrol, a multi-drug combinationof classical ayurvedic medicinesand herbs like mrityunjay rasa, san-jeevani vati, tulsi and giloe which aresome of the Ayurvedic herbs that arehelpful in building the immunityand preventing the infection.

These herbs also help increasethe production of interferons (pro-teins) and antibodies to generate animmune response against virusesand increase the rate of phagocyto-sis to destroy microorganisms, thus,increasing immunity from contain-ing viral infections, Dr Rawat adds.

Dr Partap Chauhan, Director,Jiva Ayurveda advices not to panic.He tells uou that fear and negativ-ity reduces immunity. Excessivemental stress also affects our diges-tion and thus causes formation of“ama”, a toxic material that isresponsible for causing many dis-eases.

“Maintaining hygiene is thebest way to prevent the virus fromentering the body. Wash handsoften with soap and water, usesanitisers, cover nose while sneez-

ing, and avoid visiting busy andcrowded places. Performing agniho-tra/yagya or burning havan sama-

gri (a mixture of herbs) keeps homeand environment free from germs,”adds Dr Chauhan.

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We all know the importance of a goodnight’s sleep. As adults, if we don’t

get proper rest, we are unable to do ourwork to the best of our ability and in allprobability we are in a bad mood theentire day taking out our anger on oth-ers. So why should babies be any differ-ent? If your baby is otherwise healthy andyet cranky and irritable, there is a possi-bility that he has not had a good night’ssleep.

Believe it or not, the same holds forschool going kids. For a child to be atten-tive in class it is important that he has hadsleep for at least eight to nine hours. Mostdoctors would tell you the same thing —that for humans to realise our potentialwe need those many hours of sleep. Buthoe does a country that stands at No 2when it comes to being sleep deprived, geta good night sleep?

It is something that we need toinculcate in our kids from the time theywere babies. Kerry Bajaj’s book Sleep,Baby, Sleep gives you a sneak peek intohow one can ensure that your baby istugged away in bed at 8 pm and sleeps till8 am without much fretting. What isinteresting about this book is that it takes

you step by step on how parents whosebabies and kids are not getting as muchsleep and keep parents up till late into thenight can actually put them to sleep sothat the next morning their kid is freshand ready to tackle the day with a smile.

A smile that is so important to us. Ifour child is cranky, the parents are wor-ried and harassed. It also means that untilthe child is old enough to be left on nan-nies, parents have almost zero social lifebecause the child would not let the par-ents be.

The language used here is simple sothat parents can follow the advise that hasbeen to a T. The sentences are not toolong and hence easy to remember.

The book tells you that in order foryour child to have a good night sleep, itis important to creat a spa-like environ-ment. Just live adults instantly relax theminute they enter a spa — with its dimlights, sweet smell and soft music, thesame way parents need to create that envi-ronment during nap time.

It also advises parents that it is themwho decides when and where the babywill sleep and not the baby. Once the par-ents have set a time and space for the babyto sleep, it is important to stick to it andshuffle the baby around.

Routine matters and parents needs tostick to it is the mantra to a baby’s goodnight sleep.

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As Coronavirus continues to spread,everyone has locked themselves at

home. Following the directions issued by theGovernment, people have stopped goingoutside the house and following the quar-antine period. Spending such a long timeat home can be annoying as well as tediousat the same time but one can use the mostof this time by doing several things. Peoplecan opt for various things such as cooking,reading books and doing household choresbut at the same time, it is very importantto take care of them as well.

The best thing you can do to uplift yourmood is to look after yourself, your skin andhair. During this quarantine period, whenpeople have an ample amount of time it isimportant to take care of skin and hair. Hereare some easy and simple tips to take careof your skin and hair during the quaran-tine phase.

Detoxify your skin: Detoxifying skinis really important as it helps to make skinsoft and supple. At this time, you can detox-ify your skin by taking some easily avail-able ingredients such as lemon, mint andcumin. Make detox water by mixing allthese ingredients and drink this water reg-ularly. Alternatively, you can use this waterto clean your face.

Eat a healthy diet: It is very importantto take healthy and nutritious diet in orderto maintain healthy and beautiful skin. Itis essential to take proper diets that are richin vitamins and protein. Include green leafyvegetables and fruits, nuts, eggs and berriesin your diet to boost your skin.

Stay hydrated: Try to stay hydrated allthe time to avoid forming dry and patchedskin. Drink enough water which will auto-matically make your skin soft as dry skin.It is recommended that one should drinktwo-thtee liters or at least eight-10 glassesof water regularly. Also, drinking caf-feinated beverages like coffee can alsoincrease the risk of getting dull skin.Therefore, make sure that even if you takecoffee it should be very limited.

Do regular exercises: As most of thetime we are at home, it is significant to moveyour body in the form of exercise and work-out. It not only helps in the blood circula-tion but also make your skin glowing. Youcan do yoga and meditation for around 20-25 mins regularly to achieve beautifulskin.

Use natural ingredients: You can tryseveral home-made remedies to makeyour skin and hair more beautiful andsmooth. Natural ingredients have alwaysbeen considered as the best option to treatskin problems. Lemon juice, aloevera,turmeric powder, cucumber and tomato aresome of the best soothing and anti-inflam-matory agents that can be applied toachieve beautiful skin.

Apply hair mask: Hair masks can beapplied to make your hair look shiny andhealthy. During this lockdown phase, youcan different home-made masks such as eggwhite, honey and lemon mask to treat dryand rough hair.

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Maharashtra has made it manda-tory for people to wear masks

when out in the public places. Nowthat there are 10 days left to a liftingof the lockdown here is what peopleneed to do when it comes to wear-ing a mask according to WHOguidelines:� If you are healthy, you only needto wear a mask if you are taking careof a person with suspected 2019-nCoV infection.� Wear a mask if you are coughingor sneezing.� Masks are effective only when usedin combination with frequent hand-cleaning with alcohol-based hand rubor soap and water.� If you wear a mask, then you mustknow how to use it and dispose of itproperly.

� Before putting on a mask, cleanhands with alcohol-based hand rubor soap and water.� Cover mouth and nose with maskand make sure there are no gapsbetween your face and the mask.� Avoid touching the mask whileusing it; if you do, clean your handswith alcohol-based hand rub.� To remove the mask: remove itfrom behind; discard immediately ina closed bin; clean hands with alco-hol-based hand rub.

To enhance the body’s naturaldefence system during the

COVID-19 crisis, these are the mea-sures suggested by the AYUSH min-istry:� Drink warm water throughout theday. � Daily practice of yogasana,pranayama and meditation for at least30 minutes.� Use turmeric, cumin seeds, corian-der and garlic in cooking.� Take 10 gm chyavanprash in themorning.� Drink herbal tea/decoction(kadha) made from tulsi, cinna-mon, black pepper, dry Ginger and

munakka — once or twice a day.(Add jaggery, natural sugar, and/orfresh lemon juice to your taste ifneeded)� Golden milk — Half teaspoonturmeric powder in 150 ml hotmilk, once or twice a day� Nasal application — Apply sesame

oil/coconut oil or ghee in both thenostrils (Pratimarsh Nasya) in themorning and evening.� Oil pulling therapy — Take onetablespoon sesame or coconut oil inmouth. Do not drink, swish in themouth for 2 to 3 minutes and spit itoff followed by warm water rinse.This can be done once or twice a day.� During sore throat/dry cough,steam inhalation with fresh mintleaves or ajwain once a day; clovepowder mixed with naturalsugar/honey can be taken two-threetimes a day. It is best to consult a doc-tor if symptoms of dry cough andsore throat persist.

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Former Pakistan captainWaqar Younis feels that

India’s Test series victory inAustralia back in 2018-19could be largely attributed tothe absence of Steve Smithand David Warner from ateam that was already reelingdue to the after effects of ball-tampering controversy.

The legendary fastbowler, who is also the bowl-ing coach of Pakistan teamwas speaking in context of hiscountry not being able to wneven one Test match since1995.

“I am not trying to takeaway any credit from India,they played well and they area very good side. But yes atsame time when they won inAustralia, there is no doubtthat Australian cricket wasgoing through a turmoil andthere were problems in theirdressing room. And theywere without Steve Smithand David Warner,” Waqarsaid during a video confer-ence.

Waqar himself is not sureas to what has been the rea-son behind Pakistan’s failureDown Under.

“I really don’t know whywe have not won Tests theirall these years. At times, wewent there with top bowling

attacks yet lost. To me it wasa case of when the bowlingworked the batting didn’tput up enough runs or whenthe batters put up enoughruns the bowlers didn’t come

through,” Waqar said.For example the tour of

of 1999, when the bowlingattack had Waqar himself, theiconic Wasim Akram, fieryShoaib Akhtar, along with all-

rounder Abdul Razzaq andwily Saqlain Mushtaq butyet they lost 0-3.

But at same time hepointed out that in Tests,India had also generallystruggled in Australia until2018.

“You have to keep inmind that Australia is neveran easy place to tour for anyside. Look at the recent tourby New Zealand they are atop side and they lostbadly. England have lostAshes in Australia in aone-sided series.”

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Bundesliga leaders BayernMunich resumed training

on Monday for the first timesince the German league wassuspended due to coronavirusbut the players were put throughtheir paces in small groups andmaintained social distancingmeasures.

Keeping at least 1.5 metresfrom each other, players includ-ing captain Manuel Neuer,Robert Lewandowski andThomas Mueller trained togeth-er for the first time since theBundesliga was halted on March13.

“It was a very unusual feel-ing to hold a training session insmall groups, but it was also niceto see the boys in person again,”said Neuer after Bayern had pre-viously held training sessionsonline.

After arriving at staggeredtimes to limit contact -— withno greeting hugs or handshakes— the 21-man squad was splitinto five groups, each contain-ing a maximum of five players.

When they changed, theplayers were kept four metresapart in the changing rooms atthe club’s state-of-the-art train-ing complex in southern

Germany.On the pitch, Bayern’ stars

were careful to keep their dis-tance from each other andthere were no challenges ortackles.

Once training was over, theplayers left to shower at home,where they ate food provided bythe club in lunch boxes.

Bayern asked fans to stayaway from the Saebener Strassecomplex, where hundreds ofsupporters usually turn up to seetheir heroes.

Other clubs also cautious-ly resumed training Monday,after the league’s ban on doingso until April 5 passed, amidhopes the league will resume inearly May.

Bayern are four points clearin the Bundesliga table.

At the training ground oftheir closest rivals BorussiaDortmund, the players also didnot shower or eat on site aftera session that focused on run-ning and shooting.

The only clubs inGermany’s top flight not plan-ning group training this weekare Freiburg, whose playerscontinue to work individually,and Werder Bremen, where thecity’s senate still prevents train-ing in groups.

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Former New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris

believes the IPL rivalrybetween Chennai SuperKings and Mumbai Indianspits the game’s best finish-er, M S Dhoni, against thebest death bowler, LasithMalinga, in which the for-mer India captain owns theveteran Sri Lankan.

Super Kings have made8 finals in 10 editions theyhave played in andMumbai five in 12 editions,having won four out ofthose summit clashes.

“It’s about consistency,CSK have never missedthe final series, have won

the most knockout match-es, it’s the expectation andreliance on these IPL teamsto produce Indian playersand CSK have producedthe most uncapped playersfor India and it’s a realdesire that they have tocontinue to develop playersin that regard,” Styris toldStar Sports.

“It’s about the best fin-isher in the game againstthe best finisher bowler.Dhoni vs Malinga andDhoni owns Malinga,” hesaid.

Chennai may be themost consistent side in IPLhistory but of late MumbaiIndians have managed togain an upper hand, feels

former India cricketerSanjay Manjrekar.

Reigning championsMumbai Indians have wonthe IPL four times andChennai Super Kingsthrice.

“...When we look atwinning percentage, whichis a good way of looking atteams, a good winningrecord, CSK is right upthere, but of late, there’sbeen a surge by MumbaiIndians coming throughthe ranks, winning titles aswell,” Manjrekar told StarSports.

“Mumbai Indians havewon 4, CSK has won 3 butthey have played less IPL(they were banned for twoseasons). When you look atthat, Mumbai Indians isemerging as a team that isthreatening CSK in the lastfew years, they have actu-ally been the better teamthan CSK, couple of IPLtitles to MI.”

Mumbai had pippedSuper Kings in the final ofthe previous edition.

“When MI come tothe final, they tend to winit, CSK not as much. Whenyou look at the entire IPL,CSK go first, but of late,may be Mumbai Indianshave a slight edge.”

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McLaren boss ZakBrown on Sunday said

that the coronavirus pan-demic has plunged FormulaOne into “a very fragilestate”, warning that as manyas four teams could even bedriven out of business.

The 2020 world champi-onship has been unable tostart with eight races of ascheduled 22 already eitherscrapped or postponed.

“This is potentially dev-astating to teams, and if (itis devastating) to enoughteams then it’s very threaten-ing to F1 as a whole,” Browntold the BBC on the eve of ameeting planned to discusscost-cutting in the sport.

Brown insisted that all

the teams have agreed tolower the 2021 budget cap to$150m (138.7 million euros)down from $175 million.

However, he said theceiling needs to be reducedfurther to counter the finan-cial fall-out from the virus-hit season.

“Could I see — throughwhat is going on right nowin the world if we don’ttackle this situation headon very aggressively — twoteams disappearing? Yeah,”said Brown.

“In fact, I could see fourteams disappearing if thisisn’t handled the right way.

“And then, given howlong it takes to ramp up anF1 team, and given the eco-nomic and health crisis weare in right now, to thinkthere would be people linedup to take over those teamslike there has historicallybeen... I don’t think the tim-ing could be worse from thatstandpoint.

“So I think F1 is in avery fragile state at themoment.”

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She might be all of 16, but India’s latest crick-eting sensation Shafali Verma means busi-

ness. Going into the World T20 in Australia asa youngster in the Indian team filled with heavy-weights like Harmanpreet Kaur and SmritiMandhana, Shafali stamped her authority toeven rise to the top of the T20 rankings forbatswomen during the tournament. But she saysthe journey has just begun.

After winning accolades for her perfor-mance in the World T20, Shafali said that theroad ahead will only get steeper and she will lookto rise to every challenge that comes her way intaking the women’s team to becoming worldbeaters.

“Just didn’t go our way that day. But sportsis all about winning and losing. There will beother opportunities that will go our way. Whathappened we cannot change, but what will hap-pen is in our hands and we will not leave anystone unturned as we look to be the best in thebusiness,” she said.

But what about her own scintillating showthat won her applause from present as well asformer cricketers? She says the trophy wouldhave felt much better.

“My job is to go out there and score runs andput India in an advantageous position. It obvi-ously feels good when people appreciate yourperformance, but the trophy in the hand wouldhave felt so much better,” she rued.

For a youngster to say this after scoring 163runs in 5 games at a strike-rate of 158.25 saysa lot about how she puts team performance overindividual glory.

Speaking about the team, Shafali says thatthis unit doesn’t believe in any senior-juniordivide and that helps. “You know, there is noth-ing like seniors will speak and junior have to lis-ten or things like those. It is a very relaxedatmosphere and in fact not just seniors likeHarmanpreet Kaur or Smriti Mandhana, every-one is looking to push the other the extra mile.And we have a really amazing coach in WVRaman sir,” she said.

“The best part about Raman sir is that he alwayshas solutions ready and helps out whenever we arestuck. If there is an issue I am facing, I can alwaysgo up to him and get clarity on how to work myway out. He just has a brilliant mind and can eas-ily instil confidence.”

So what was the general discussionwhen she went out to open with anoth-er explosive batswoman likeMandhana? For Shafali, it is all about

playing one’s natural game.“We would keep it sim-

ple. If there is a bad ball, itmust be hit and there is no

two ways about it. So, when I geta bad ball, I hit it and same

works for her. And whenwe get a good ball,

we try and steala single out ofit. Nothingbeats staying

true to yourgame. Trying to

curb your naturalinstincts don’t work I feel,” she

pointed.Having won hearts with her

performance in her maiden WorldT20, what is her next goal? ForShafali, the only goal is to win.“Win more games for India. Ishould be able to put India in aposition of strength when I goout to bat. The goal will alwaysbe to contribute to India’s suc-cess,” she signed off.

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With cricket facing anuncertain future due

to the COVID-19 pan-demic, Australian pacespearhead Pat Cumminswould like to see the T20World Cup at home beingheld over the lucrative IPLin which he would enter asthe costliest foreign buy.

Cummins became themost expensive foreignbuy in the IPL at the auc-tion in December whenKolkata Knight Ridersshelled out a whopping�15.50 crore for his ser-vices.

“The T20 World Cupis something we’ve spokenabout for the best part oftwo or three years. The(ODI) World Cup in 2015,that was absolutely a careerhighlight for me and Iwasn’t even playing in thefinal. I’d love to see that goahead,” Cummins wasquoted as saying by theAustralian Associated Press.

“That’s probably thebig tournament this yearfor international cricket ...I’d love for that to happenin a perfect world and if Iwas to be really greedy, I’dlove for the IPL to happenas well.”

#!��� 345� 467�

“People have this habit of writingme off every now and then butit does not affect me,” says veter-

an wrestler Sushil Kumar, quashing talk ofretirement and insisting that postpone-ment of Tokyo Olympics has given him avery good shot at qualifying for his fourthGames.

The 36-year-old was struggling tomake cut for Olympics, postponed to 2021.

The showpiece, originally scheduledfor July-August this year, was expected tobe a swansong for veterans such as Sushiland tennis ace Leander Paes. But the one-year delay seems to have caused a changeof plans.

Set to turn 37 next month, Sushil said,“I am not going anywhere as of now. I havegot more time and more time means bet-ter preparation.”

Making a comeback at the 2019World Championship, Sushil showedglimpses of the form that made him lookinvincible in his prime before he lost steamand made an early exit.

That disappointment is, however,already behind him.

“Wrestling is such a sport that if youmanage to remain injury-free, practicewell, set a target and work on that, you canhave a shot at your goal,” said Sushil, theonly Indian to win two Olympic medals.

“I am still practising twice a day.Obviously I am not hitting the mat but Iam trying to be in shape and God willing,I will be able to qualify for the TokyoOlympics,” he added.

Sushil competes in the 74kg categoryin which India is yet to lock quota. Willhe be able to beat the slowing reflexes?

“People were saying similar things in2011. I know how to handle this. It’s my

daily job to manage it.”Sushil was referring to doubts cast in

2011 over his ability to repeat his Beijing’sBronze medal-winning show at the 2012London Games. However, he ended upwinning a Silver in London.

The delay in Olympics has alsobrought Sushil’s old foe Narsingh Yadavinto the equation since his four-year dop-ing ban will be over in July, making himeligible to take a shot at Oly qualification.

The Wrestling Federation of India(WFI) has already said it will allowNarsingh to make a comeback.

Narsingh was preferred over Sushil forthe 2016 Games but it all ended in disas-ter when the former failed a dope test.Sushil’s demand for a trial was turneddown by the federation as well as the DelhiHigh Court and he was even accused,without a shred of evidence, of sabotag-ing Narsingh in some quarters.

When asked about possibility of a faceoff, Sushil said, “We will see when the timecomes. What can I say now about this.

Jitender Kumar is also doing a decentjob as he recently won a Bronze in 74kgat the Asian Championship.

Sushil, it seems, does not consider anyof the compatriots his real rivals.

When asked about the competition heis likely to face from fellow Indians, he said,“If you think small, you will achieve noth-ing. I am thinking about the internation-al wrestlers, who are my likely rivals.

“Like there is one Uzbekistan guy, whowon Asian Games Gold (BekzodAbdurakhmonov). He is really good, mypreparations are keeping in mind thesewrestlers.

“I am keeping an eye on everyone. Iam analysing everyone. If I think about thesmall targets, it won’t lead me anywhere,”he signed off.

#!��� 345� 467�

The shooting WorldCup scheduled to be

held in two parts in thenational capital in Maywas on Monday cancelledowing to the COVID-19pandemic.

The World Cup, orig-inally scheduled to be heldfrom March 15-26, waspostponed to May barelyfour days before the start ofthe event.

“Due to COVID-19pandemic the New DelhiOrganising Committee hasbeen forced to cancelRifle/Pistol and ShotgunWorld Cups. Both of thesewere due to take place inNew Delhi,” the sport’sworld governing body ISSFsaid in a statement.

After the postpone-ment last month, it wasdecided to hold the tour-

nament in two parts —Rifle and Pistol competi-tions from May 5-13, whileShotgun competitionswere set from June 2-9,later changed to May 20 to29.

However, consideringthe situation, theInternational ShootingSport Federation (ISSF)and the National RifleAssociation of India(NRAI) decided to cancelthe tournament.

The ISSF has alsodecided to call off thecombined World Cup inBaku, Azerbaijan, whichwas to take place from June22 to July 3.

“The health and safe-ty of our athletes, offi-cials, staff and of all mem-bers of our shooting frater-nity are absolutely para-mount,” the NRAI said ina statement.

#!��� &: 34:�

The just-retired Steve O’Keefehas rued that spinners are not

allowed to win matches inAustralian cricket, saying the coun-try will struggle to dominate in thesub-continent until the issue is notaddressed.

O’Keefe, the New South Walesleft-arm spinner who took 301 first-class wickets at 24.66 and earnednine Test caps, ended his first-classcareer recently after being denieda new contract by his state.

After calling it quits, he hasurged that spinners be given moreopportunities to shine.

“We have so much talent in this

country, spin-bowling depth. Ilook across at the top two spinnersin each state that I really thinkthere’s so much quality,” O’Keefewas quoted as saying byESPNcricinfo.

“The problem is that they aren’tbeing encouraged enough to begiven a ball in the first ten overs andbeing told to win a game of crick-et. The conditions haven’t allowedthem to express themselves.”

On their last Test tour of India,Australia were thrashed by ViratKohli’s team and even though theycame from behind to win an ODIrubber before the 2019 World Cup,the Aussies finished second best inthe 50-over face-offs earlier this

year.“When you want to win over-

seas, spinners are the ones whohave to win you games. But go backand have a look at Shield cricket.

“I’m the leading wicket-takerthis year with 16 wickets andplayed five games. I’ve not had amatch-winning role in any of thegames,” O’Keefe said.

“When you go to these places,it’s all on your spinners; they havegot to be people who are mentallytough and have the skill. It is a mat-ter of urgency, if we are going towin over there to make sure weencourage these guys.”

O’Keefe’s last of his nine Testscame in 2017.

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������� Pakistan bowlingcoach Waqar Younis said heis not in favour of cricketresuming before empty sta-diums amid the COVID-19pandemic as he feels thedesperate plan would endup creating more problems.

“No I don’t agree withthis suggestion that cricketactivities should resumesoon even before emptystadiums,” he said during avideo conference with jour-nalists.

Some former cricketstars and officials of crick-et boards have said that thegame can resume slowlyand matches can be held infront of empty stadiumswith the proper precautionsin place for teams, officialsand other ground staff.

“I think maybe in fiveor six months’ time. Whenthings are under controlaround the world and we getback some normalcy in life,we can think about match-

es behindc l o s e ddoors,” theformer fastbowler said.

“At somestage we need tothink about thesechoices but not thismonth or nextmonth...The situ-ation is not rightfor any cricketactivities,” headded. PTI

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��"������� The Badminton World Federation(BWF) on Monday suspended a host of its flag-ship international, junior and para tournamentsscheduled from May to July in the wake of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

It comprises many Grade 2 and 3 eventsincluding HSBC BWF World Tour, BWF Tourand other BWF-sanctioned tournaments.

According to a BWF release, the decisionwas taken in “close consultation and consen-sus” with the Host Member Associations(HMA) and Continental Confederations (CC).

The most prominent tournament affect-ed during the period is the Indonesia Open2020 (Super 1000).

Last week, the BWF froze the worldrankings and world junior rankings until fur-ther notice, with the lists backdated to March17, 2020.

The BWF is also reviewing the impacts ofthe rescheduling of the Tokyo 2020 Olympicand Paralympic Games upon the Olympic andParalympic qualification system. This reviewprocess is expected to take several weeks uponwhich BWF will make a further announce-ment. PTI

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