16
I n a horrific incident, 12 Covid patients, including the head of gastroenterology department, died at Batra Hospital due to lack of oxygen on Saturday. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed grief over the incident. Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi, “This news is very painful. Their lives could have been saved by giving them oxygen on time. Delhi should get its quota of oxygen. Can’t see our people dying like this. Delhi needs 976 tonnes of oxy- gen, but it received only 312 tonnes yesterday. How will Delhi breathe in such a less amount of oxygen?” The hospital had sent out an SOS message about oxygen shortage on Saturday. Sudhanshu Bankata, the Executive Director of Batra hospital said once a patient is pushed to the edge without the support of oxygen, it is very dif- ficult to revive him. “Unfortunately, we are expecting more fatalities,” said Bankata. SCL Gupta, the Medical Director of the hospital, said RK Himthani, head of depart- ment (HOD), gastroenterology department, was among those who died due to lack of oxygen. “Himthani had been admitted to the hospital for the last 15-20 days. The hospital had informed the authorities about lack of oxygen on Saturday morning when they had 2,500 litres of the life-sav- ing gas left,” Gupta said, adding, “It is a matter of shame that people are dying due to lack of oxygen in the national Capital.” Around 12.30 pm, the hos- pital authorities claimed they had run out of oxygen. The oxygen tanker arrived at 1.35 pm, said the hospital authori- ties, adding that they were without oxygen for 80 minutes. There are around 327 patients in the hospital out of which 48 are in the critical care unit. The hospital had been raising alarms since Saturday afternoon over depleting levels of oxygen supply. In a related development, Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj has stopped taking admissions due to oxygen shortage. The hospital has four hours of oxy- gen left, sources said. According to the Delhi corona mobile applica- tion, the hospital has 106 coro- navirus patients. Meanwhile, Sehgal Neo hospital in Meera Bagh sent out an SOS message on Twitter about its depleting oxygen. “We request urgent assis- tance in getting #SOS oxygen. We are running out of our backup supply, and have been waiting for a supply since early morning. We have 90 patients on O2 & 13 in ICU,” the hos- pital tweeted around 12.40 pm. Hospitals across Delhi and its suburbs have been sending out desperate messages of help on social media and other platforms, flagging their dwin- dling stocks of oxygen. Sir Ganga Ram Hospital had last week reported the death of 25 of its “sickest” patients as the administration struggled with depleting oxy- gen supplies. Twenty people died at the Jaipur Golden Hospital last week amid shortage of oxygen. N orth India is having one type of Covid virus, which is completely different from that of the one spread- ing in the south. Similarly, the western parts of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan are having another type of pathogen, while the areas of West Bengal and other eastern parts of the country are witnessing the spread of a different mutant variant of the deadly coronavirus. The observations by the scientists from the CSIR lab Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad flagged this concern about the presence of four major variants of virus that are spreading widely in dif- ferent parts of the country. This comes at the time when India is witnessing record spike of Covid-19 cases this year when compared to previous year. The scientists said only one or two mutants variants were doing the rounds last year. The study conducted by the CSIR lab is part of the continuous research of genome sequencing of the prevailing lethal virus causing Covid-19 disease. Dr Rakesh Mishra, director of CCMB, said that the main reason that is caus- ing coronavirus spread widely in India is its different variants. “If the virus is of singular variant having no mutations, its spread can be curtailed by breaking its infection chain. However, in India we have iden- tified 4 different mutant variants of coronaviruses, which are spreading widely in different parts of the country,” said Mishra, while explaining the major cause of the huge spike in Covid cases in the country. As per the research study revealed by the CCMB scientists, it is understood that the northern parts of India such as Delhi, Haryana, UP, Punjab and other areas are witnessing the UK variant of Covid virus, apart from this, the B1.617 variant is also widely spreading. Continued on Page 4 I ndia kicked off the third phase of the much-hyped vaccination drive covering those above the age of 18 years from Saturday at a dismal note as barring six, most States and Union Territories (UTs) deferred the drive due to short- age of vaccine. Total 84,000 beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group got inoculated on Day 1. Even in these six States, the drive was “token”, limited to just a few districts, said an official from the Union Health Ministry. The exercise began at a time when many States are reporting shortage of vaccines on contrary to the Centre’s claim that more than 79 lakh Covid vaccine doses (79,13,518) are still available with the States and Union Territories to be administered. The Centre has so far claimed to have provided near- ly 16.37 crore vaccine doses (16,37,62,300) to States and UTs “free of cost” of which the total consumption, including wastages, is 15,58,48,782 doses. The Centre has promised to provide more than 17 lakh (17,31,110) vaccine doses to the States and UTs within the next three days. Some private hos- pitals too started the vaccine process for those in the age group of 18-44 years. Amid deadly Covid-19 sec- ond wave surge, the Centre had said all Indian adults will be eli- gible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine starting May 1. The inoculation process and docu- ments to be provided to get the jab to remain the same. The Government has made it mandatory for the 18-44 age group to register on CoWIN. Continued on Page 4 A t least 18 persons, includ- ing 16 Covid-19 patients, died in a fire at a hospital at Bharuch in Gujarat in the early hours of Saturday, officials said. The State Government said a judicial enquiry will be con- ducted into the fire that destroyed the Intensive Care Unit of Patel Welfare Hospital, run by a charitable trust. “Sixteen coronavirus patients and two nursing staff were either charred to death or died due to suffocation inside a Covid-19 unit,” said Superintendent of Police Rajendrasinh Chudasama. As many as 50 patients were undergoing treatment at the Covid-19 facility on the ground floor when fire broke out in the ICU around 1 am, probably because of short cir- cuit, said a hospital official. The fire was doused with- in an hour. Local people and the kin of patients helped in the rescue operation during which dozens of patients were shift- ed to other facilities by ambu- lance. Some were brought out of the building on wheelchairs or on make-shift stretchers. The four-storey designated Covid-19 hospital stands on the Bharuch-Jambusar highway, 190 km from Ahmedabad. A 35-year-old woman died in her car outside a Government hospital due to Covid after waiting for hours for a bed in Greater Noida on Thursday. Her body remained inside the car for three hours. An eyewitness said the rel- atives of Jagriti Gupta were try- ing to find a hospital bed for her at the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS). Gupta, who worked as an engineer in Greater Noida, is survived by her husband and two children. The eyewitness said he reached GIMS around 12.15 pm and there he saw the woman patient in a serious condition in her car. He added she was with an attendant, who was running from pillar to post for a bed for her. Continued on Page 4 A s India battles the second wave of coronavirus, the much-awaited first consignment of Russia-made Sputnik V vaccines arrived in Hyderabad on Saturday, the day India kicked off the nationwide vaccination drive for those in the age group between 18-44 years. India is currently using two vac- cines, including Covishield and Covaxin. Russia’s Sputnik V is going to be the third Covid vaccine which will be administered to the people. However, the final date for the launch of the Russian vaccine is yet to be decided. Last month, the Drug Controller General (DCGI) had issued permission for Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to import the Russian vaccine to India for emer- gency use. The rollout of the Russian vaccine is expected to boost India’s third phase of the vaccination drive which commenced at a dismal note amid reports of shortage of vaccine in vari- ous States, prompting them to skip the vaccination programme. K arnataka’s ruling BJP suf- fered a massive jolt when the Congress trounced the saf- fron outfit in the urban local body polls. The Congress won 120 out of the 263 wards in ten local bodies across eight dis- tricts that went to the polls on April 27. The BJP finished third winning 57 seats behind the JD(S), which won 66 seats. Hailing his party’s impres- sive victory, Congress State president DK Shivakumar, “Congress has won 7 out of the 10 Urban Local Bodies that went to polls. The BJP has won only 1. I thank the people of Karnataka for placing their confidence in the Congress Party and punishing the BJP for its misrule.” M ohammad Shahabuddin (53), former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP, who was serving a life sentence in a mur- der case at Tihar prison, died of Covid-19 at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital in Delhi on Saturday. According to Sandeep Goel, the DG of Prison, Delhi, an information was received from DDU Hospital about the death of Mohammad Shahabuddin. “He was suffering from Covid-19. Shahabuddin was admitted to the ICU two-three days ago,” the DG said. “The former Siwan MP was lodged in high-security jail number 2 at Tihar,” said prison official. Continued on Page 4 W ith its presence at around 3 lakh panchayats across the country, the Centre’s digi- tal arm Common Service Centres (CSC) has come for- ward to assist rural India to reg- ister the population falling in the age bracket of 18-44 years for the mandatory Co-Win portal registration for the mass Covid vaccination programme that started on Saturday. This has come as relief for the authorities amid appre- hension as to how rural India will get themselves registered for vaccination in the absence of adequate internet access and smartphone mobility. On the first day of regis- tration after the Government of Indian opened the Covid vac- cination programme for the general people in the 18-44 years category, more than one lakh people from rural India reported through the CSC kiosks in less than 24 hours. There are more than 4 lakh CSC. Around 2.64 lakh of these are at panchayat level with each centre/kiosks facili- tated by an agent called Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE). Continued on Page 4 T he Delhi Government extended lockdown by a week till May 10, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Saturday. The national Capital has been under lockdown since April 19, as the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) scrambles to contain a fresh wave of infections and a positivity rate that remains over 30 per cent. “Lockdown in Delhi is being extended by one week,” Kejriwal tweeted. This is the second exten- sion of the lockdown in the national Capital. Last Sunday, while announcing the first, Kejriwal had said, “Coronavirus still continues to wreak havoc in the city. Public opinion is that lock- downs should increase. So it is being extended for one week.” The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), in its order on the extension of the lockdown, stated that a review of the pandemic situation showed that the numbers of positive cases, positivity rate as well as bed occupancy (oxygen-sup- ported or ICU beds) in the dedicated Covid-19 hospitals are very high. Continued on Page 4 New Delhi: Inoculation of people in the 18-44 age group against Covid-19 will begin in Delhi from Monday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Saturday, say- ing 4.5 lakh vaccine doses have been received by the city Government. T he Delhi High Court on Saturday came down heav- ily on the Centre and ordered that forthwith the Delhi Government must be given promised quota of 490 MT oxygen per day failing which the Centre would face con- tempt of court. Fuming with rage, the judges said “enough is enough” and observed that for the past 10 days, the State was getting only around 300 MT. Minutes after the slap from High Court, the Centre increased Delhi’s quota to 590MT per day. The order was passed by a Division Bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli in a batch of peti- tions raising issues relating to Covid-19 management. “We direct Centre to ensure that Delhi receives its 490 MT oxygen supply today by whatever means,” the court said, adding that the Centre must arrange tankers for the State. The court also noted that Delhi is not an industrial State and has no cryogenic tankers that could enable acquisition to facilitate the supply of oxygen. “It falls on the Central Government to arrange tankers ..(else) it only remains a paper allocation. The allocation to Delhi has been in force from April 20 and not for a single day Delhi has received allocat- ed supply,” said court fixing responsibility on Centre. The court also clarified that in case its present direction is not complied. Secretary of Industries has to remain pre- sent before it. We may even consider issuing contempt pro- ceedings, the court added. Even as Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma sought to inter- vene, the court remarked, “Water has gone above the head. Now we mean business. You will arrange everything now…You made an allocation. You fulfill it.” ASG Sharma urged the court not to say anything on the aspect of contempt and even requested that the order be deferred by half an hour to enable the officers to explain the position. However the judges did not entertain the requests of the ASG. Continued on Page 4 New Delhi: The Government has allowed imports of oxygen concentrators for personal use through post, courier or e- commerce portals under the gift category amid increasing demand for oxygen due to ris- ing Covid-19 cases, the Commerce Ministry said on Saturday.

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In a horrific incident, 12Covid patients, including the

head of gastroenterologydepartment, died at BatraHospital due to lack of oxygenon Saturday.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal expressed griefover the incident. Kejriwaltweeted in Hindi, “This news isvery painful. Their lives couldhave been saved by giving themoxygen on time. Delhi shouldget its quota of oxygen. Can’t seeour people dying like this.Delhi needs 976 tonnes of oxy-gen, but it received only 312tonnes yesterday. How willDelhi breathe in such a lessamount of oxygen?”

The hospital had sent outan SOS message about oxygenshortage on Saturday.Sudhanshu Bankata, theExecutive Director of Batrahospital said once a patient ispushed to the edge without thesupport of oxygen, it is very dif-ficult to revive him.

“Unfortunately, we areexpecting more fatalities,” said Bankata.

SCL Gupta, the Medical

Director of the hospital, saidRK Himthani, head of depart-ment (HOD), gastroenterologydepartment, was among thosewho died due to lack of oxygen.

“Himthani had beenadmitted to the hospital for thelast 15-20 days. The hospitalhad informed the authoritiesabout lack of oxygen onSaturday morning when theyhad 2,500 litres of the life-sav-ing gas left,” Gupta said, adding,“It is a matter of shame thatpeople are dying due to lack ofoxygen in the national Capital.”

Around 12.30 pm, the hos-pital authorities claimed theyhad run out of oxygen. Theoxygen tanker arrived at 1.35pm, said the hospital authori-ties, adding that they werewithout oxygen for 80 minutes.

There are around 327patients in the hospital out ofwhich 48 are in the critical careunit. The hospital had beenraising alarms since Saturdayafternoon over depleting levelsof oxygen supply.

In a related development,Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj

has stopped taking admissionsdue to oxygen shortage. Thehospital has four hours of oxy-gen left, sources said.

According to the Delhi corona mobile applica-tion, the hospital has 106 coro-navirus patients.

Meanwhile, Sehgal Neohospital in Meera Bagh sent outan SOS message on Twitterabout its depleting oxygen.

“We request urgent assis-tance in getting #SOS oxygen.We are running out of ourbackup supply, and have beenwaiting for a supply since earlymorning. We have 90 patientson O2 & 13 in ICU,” the hos-pital tweeted around 12.40 pm.

Hospitals across Delhi andits suburbs have been sendingout desperate messages of helpon social media and otherplatforms, flagging their dwin-dling stocks of oxygen.

Sir Ganga Ram Hospitalhad last week reported thedeath of 25 of its “sickest”patients as the administrationstruggled with depleting oxy-gen supplies.

Twenty people died at theJaipur Golden Hospital lastweek amid shortage of oxygen.

����� -#.��#/�0

North India is having one type ofCovid virus, which is completely

different from that of the one spread-ing in the south. Similarly, the westernparts of Maharashtra, Gujarat andRajasthan are having another type ofpathogen, while the areas of WestBengal and other eastern parts of thecountry are witnessing the spread of adifferent mutant variant of the deadlycoronavirus.

The observations by the scientistsfrom the CSIR lab Centre for Cellularand Molecular Biology (CCMB) inHyderabad flagged this concern aboutthe presence of four major variants ofvirus that are spreading widely in dif-ferent parts of the country. This comesat the time when India is witnessingrecord spike of Covid-19 cases this yearwhen compared to previous year. Thescientists said only one or two mutantsvariants were doing the rounds last year.

The study conducted by the CSIRlab is part of the continuous research ofgenome sequencing of the prevailinglethal virus causing Covid-19 disease.

Dr Rakesh Mishra, director of CCMB,said that the main reason that is caus-ing coronavirus spread widely in Indiais its different variants.

“If the virus is of singular varianthaving no mutations, its spread can becurtailed by breaking its infectionchain. However, in India we have iden-tified 4 different mutant variants ofcoronaviruses, which are spreadingwidely in different parts of the country,”

said Mishra, while explaining the majorcause of the huge spike in Covid casesin the country.

As per the research study revealedby the CCMB scientists, it is understoodthat the northern parts of India such asDelhi, Haryana, UP, Punjab and otherareas are witnessing the UK variant ofCovid virus, apart from this, the B1.617variant is also widely spreading.

Continued on Page 4

����� -#.��#/�0

India kicked off the thirdphase of the much-hyped

vaccination drive coveringthose above the age of 18 yearsfrom Saturday at a dismal noteas barring six, most States andUnion Territories (UTs)deferred the drive due to short-age of vaccine. Total 84,000beneficiaries in the 18-44 agegroup got inoculated on Day 1.

Even in these six States, thedrive was “token”, limited to justa few districts, said an officialfrom the Union HealthMinistry. The exercise began ata time when many States arereporting shortage of vaccineson contrary to the Centre’sclaim that more than 79 lakhCovid vaccine doses(79,13,518) are still availablewith the States and UnionTerritories to be administered.

The Centre has so farclaimed to have provided near-ly 16.37 crore vaccine doses(16,37,62,300) to States andUTs “free of cost” of which thetotal consumption, includingwastages, is 15,58,48,782 doses.

The Centre has promisedto provide more than 17 lakh(17,31,110) vaccine doses to the

States and UTs within the nextthree days. Some private hos-pitals too started the vaccineprocess for those in the agegroup of 18-44 years.

Amid deadly Covid-19 sec-ond wave surge, the Centre hadsaid all Indian adults will be eli-gible to receive the Covid-19vaccine starting May 1. Theinoculation process and docu-ments to be provided to get thejab to remain the same. TheGovernment has made itmandatory for the 18-44 agegroup to register on CoWIN.

Continued on Page 4

����� !�123��

At least 18 persons, includ-ing 16 Covid-19 patients,

died in a fire at a hospital atBharuch in Gujarat in the earlyhours of Saturday, officials said.

The State Government saida judicial enquiry will be con-ducted into the fire thatdestroyed the Intensive CareUnit of Patel Welfare Hospital,run by a charitable trust.

“Sixteen coronaviruspatients and two nursing staffwere either charred to death ordied due to suffocation insidea Covid-19 unit,” saidSuperintendent of PoliceRajendrasinh Chudasama.

As many as 50 patientswere undergoing treatment atthe Covid-19 facility on theground floor when fire brokeout in the ICU around 1 am,probably because of short cir-cuit, said a hospital official.

The fire was doused with-in an hour. Local people andthe kin of patients helped in therescue operation during whichdozens of patients were shift-ed to other facilities by ambu-lance. Some were brought outof the building on wheelchairsor on make-shift stretchers.

The four-storey designatedCovid-19 hospital stands on theBharuch-Jambusar highway,190 km from Ahmedabad.

���� � -40�1

A35-year-old woman died inher car outside a

Government hospital due toCovid after waiting for hoursfor a bed in Greater Noida onThursday. Her body remainedinside the car for three hours.

An eyewitness said the rel-atives of Jagriti Gupta were try-ing to find a hospital bed forher at the Government Instituteof Medical Sciences (GIMS).

Gupta, who worked as anengineer in Greater Noida, issurvived by her husband andtwo children.

The eyewitness said hereached GIMS around 12.15pm and there he saw thewoman patient in a seriouscondition in her car.

He added she was with an attendant, who wasrunning from pillar to post fora bed for her.

Continued on Page 4

����� -#.��#/�0

As India battles the second wave ofcoronavirus, the much-awaited

first consignment of Russia-madeSputnik V vaccines arrived inHyderabad on Saturday, the day Indiakicked off the nationwide vaccinationdrive for those in the age groupbetween 18-44 years.

India is currently using two vac-cines, including Covishield andCovaxin. Russia’s Sputnik V is going tobe the third Covid vaccine which willbe administered to the people. However,the final date for the launch of theRussian vaccine is yet to be decided.

Last month, the Drug ControllerGeneral (DCGI) had issued permissionfor Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to importthe Russian vaccine to India for emer-gency use. The rollout of the Russianvaccine is expected to boost India’s thirdphase of the vaccination drive whichcommenced at a dismal note amidreports of shortage of vaccine in vari-ous States, prompting them to skip thevaccination programme.

����� -#.��#/�0

Karnataka’s ruling BJP suf-fered a massive jolt when

the Congress trounced the saf-fron outfit in the urban localbody polls. The Congress won120 out of the 263 wards in tenlocal bodies across eight dis-tricts that went to the polls onApril 27.

The BJP finished thirdwinning 57 seats behind theJD(S), which won 66 seats.

Hailing his party’s impres-sive victory, Congress Statepresident DK Shivakumar,“Congress has won 7 out of the10 Urban Local Bodies thatwent to polls. The BJP has wononly 1. I thank the people ofKarnataka for placing theirconfidence in the CongressParty and punishing the BJP forits misrule.”

�������������� -#.��#/�0

Mohammad Shahabuddin(53), former Rashtriya

Janata Dal (RJD) MP, who wasserving a life sentence in a mur-der case at Tihar prison, died ofCovid-19 at the Deen DayalUpadhyay (DDU) Hospital inDelhi on Saturday.

According to SandeepGoel, the DG of Prison, Delhi,an information was receivedfrom DDU Hospital about thedeath of MohammadShahabuddin.

“He was suffering fromCovid-19. Shahabuddin wasadmitted to the ICU two-threedays ago,” the DG said. “Theformer Siwan MP was lodgedin high-security jail number 2at Tihar,” said prison official.

Continued on Page 4

�����������" ��� -#.��#/�0

With its presence at around3 lakh panchayats across

the country, the Centre’s digi-tal arm Common ServiceCentres (CSC) has come for-ward to assist rural India to reg-ister the population falling inthe age bracket of 18-44 yearsfor the mandatory Co-Winportal registration for the massCovid vaccination programmethat started on Saturday.

This has come as relief forthe authorities amid appre-hension as to how rural Indiawill get themselves registeredfor vaccination in the absenceof adequate internet access andsmartphone mobility.

On the first day of regis-tration after the Government ofIndian opened the Covid vac-cination programme for thegeneral people in the 18-44years category, more than onelakh people from rural Indiareported through the CSCkiosks in less than 24 hours.

There are more than 4lakh CSC. Around 2.64 lakh ofthese are at panchayat levelwith each centre/kiosks facili-tated by an agent called VillageLevel Entrepreneur (VLE).

Continued on Page 4

�������������� -#.��#/�0

The Delhi Governmentextended lockdown by a

week till May 10, ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwalannounced on Saturday. Thenational Capital has been underlockdown since April 19, as theruling Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) scrambles to contain afresh wave of infections and apositivity rate that remainsover 30 per cent.

“Lockdown in Delhi isbeing extended by one week,”Kejriwal tweeted.

This is the second exten-sion of the lockdown in thenational Capital. Last Sunday,while announcing the first,Kejriwal had said,“Coronavirus still continuesto wreak havoc in the city.Public opinion is that lock-downs should increase. So it isbeing extended for one week.”

The Delhi DisasterManagement Authority(DDMA), in its order on theextension of the lockdown,stated that a review of thepandemic situation showedthat the numbers of positivecases, positivity rate as well asbed occupancy (oxygen-sup-ported or ICU beds) in thededicated Covid-19 hospitalsare very high.

Continued on Page 4

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New Delhi: Inoculation ofpeople in the 18-44 age groupagainst Covid-19 will begin inDelhi from Monday, ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwalannounced on Saturday, say-ing 4.5 lakh vaccine doseshave been received by the cityGovernment.

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The Delhi High Court onSaturday came down heav-

ily on the Centre and orderedthat forthwith the DelhiGovernment must be givenpromised quota of 490 MToxygen per day failing whichthe Centre would face con-tempt of court.

Fuming with rage, thejudges said “enough is enough”and observed that for the past10 days, the State was gettingonly around 300 MT.

Minutes after the slap fromHigh Court, the Centreincreased Delhi’s quota to590MT per day. The order waspassed by a Division Bench ofJustices Vipin Sanghi andRekha Palli in a batch of peti-tions raising issues relating toCovid-19 management.

“We direct Centre toensure that Delhi receives its490 MT oxygen supply todayby whatever means,” the courtsaid, adding that the Centremust arrange tankers for theState. The court also noted thatDelhi is not an industrial Stateand has no cryogenic tankersthat could enable acquisition tofacilitate the supply of oxygen.

“It falls on the CentralGovernment to arrange tankers..(else) it only remains a paper

allocation. The allocation toDelhi has been in force fromApril 20 and not for a singleday Delhi has received allocat-ed supply,” said court fixingresponsibility on Centre.

The court also clarifiedthat in case its present directionis not complied. Secretary ofIndustries has to remain pre-sent before it. We may evenconsider issuing contempt pro-ceedings, the court added. Evenas Additional Solicitor GeneralChetan Sharma sought to inter-vene, the court remarked,“Water has gone above thehead. Now we mean business.You will arrange everythingnow…You made an allocation.You fulfill it.”

ASG Sharma urged thecourt not to say anything on theaspect of contempt and evenrequested that the order be

deferred by half an hour toenable the officers to explainthe position.

However the judges did not entertain the requestsof the ASG.

Continued on Page 4

New Delhi: The Governmenthas allowed imports of oxygenconcentrators for personal usethrough post, courier or e-commerce portals under thegift category amid increasingdemand for oxygen due to ris-ing Covid-19 cases, theCommerce Ministry said onSaturday.

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�What is your role about?The post-partition era saw our

country go through a drasticchange. Families were displaced andwere now refugees in their owncountry. For them to find theirground all over again and rebuildtheir lives was a challenge. Royalfamilies too had a fair share ofordeals to deal with then. Mycharacter is set against these verychallenges. Nalini Pratap Singh isthe Queen of a province with alegacy she’s proud of and would goto any lengths to safeguard it. Theonly heartache in her life is herstrained relationship with her onlyson and how his crazy shenanigansand bid to outwit her constantlykeep her on her toes. �How did you come on board theproject?

It’s sheer luck and faith of myproducers in my potential that I gotthis show. The way Shashi ma’amnarrated the character I knew I hadto do it. And I am. I feel Kyun UttheDil Chhod Aaye is an amazing andunique concept and this show isgoing to be a different experiencefor me. Other than that I wanted tobe a part of the show which standsout from all the other shows I havedone in past. I am overwhelmed towork with such a well-knownproduction house and wonderfulchannel. This is a great opportunityfor me. I am looking forward to anew journey of my life with theentire team.�What is the hardest part ofplaying Nalini Devi?

Playing Nalini Devi’s characterthough not easy is a very fulfillingexperience as an actor. Who doesn’twish to portray a larger than lifecharacter? It’s what every actordreams of. It’s very different from notjust all the characters that I playedbefore but it’s different from all theother characters on television per se.� Is there a lesson that you learntthe hard way in the industry?

The hardest lesson that I learnt

was that one must not get overlyattached to one character becauseonce the show ends, that voidhurts. �Having played so many variedroles, which one was thetoughest?

Every character is toughand challenging in the initialstages of a show. But onceyou completely embrace itand let it become yoursecond skin, it’s likehaving parallel lifealtogether. For me,Nalini is still achallenge. And I’mworking towardsowning hercompletely. Shejust might bethe toughestcharacter I’veever played.� You haveplayed bothpositive andn e g a t i v echaracters. Whichone do you prefer?

It’s not the shadeof a character thatmatters. It’s the depth,the weightage, the screenspace and above all theopportunity to performthat matters. I’ve playedevery shade, totally black,totally white and a bit ofboth, grey. Not to brag butmy conscious choices inchoosing a show have notstereotyped me as positiveor negative.� Is there anything in thepipeline?

It’s a conscious effort tobe a part of one show at atime. I don’t pursue anythingelse as it takes a toll on what’son hand. And in these tryingtimes, to be able to work in asafe and healthy environment,I feel blessed.

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Page 3: 5 64...2021/05/02  · Around 2.64 lakh of these are at panchayat level with each centre/kiosks facili-tated by an agent called Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE). Continued on Page

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Delhi’s healthcare system ison the precipice of total

collapse as patients suffocatingto death, many scrambling forbeds, moreover the mostadvanced hospitals in thenational Capital’s vicinity havebeen reduced to begging theGovernment for emergencysupplies of oxygen with a gapof 2,916 Metric Tonnes (MT) ofoxygen against the demand of5856 MT per week in presentcircumstances.

While crematoriums blaz-ing nonstop and have run outof room and wood, Delhi facedtough battle to meet the gap ofdemand and supply of life-sav-ing oxygen according to ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal, thedaily demand is of 976 MToxygen per day the Centreallotted only 490 MT and we

received just 312 MT, adding,“we have to set up infrastruc-ture of beds for COVIDpatients but unable to startbecause of Oxygen crisis.”

Responding to the questionregarding oxygen shortage, theofficial twitter handle of ChiefMinister’s Office (CMO) hadput, “As opposed to thedemand of 976 MT, only 490MT oxygen has been allocatedto Delhi and is getting 312 MT.

If given what is required,then we can increase 9000

beds in the next 24 hours.”As per the official database

maintained with city adminis-tration, on April 25, Delhireceived only 305 MT, on April26 - 408 MT, April 27, the sup-ply was 398 MT, April 28, it was431, April 29-409 and on April30, Delhi managed to get 312MT of medical oxygen while asper the Covid19 health bulletin,the caseload of novel coron-avirus patients is recordedabove 25,000 per day.

Surprisingly, as per the

civil health administration data,Delhi had dire need of 5856MT in previous week howeverit allocated 2940 MT andreceived only 2263 MT.

“We are facing a lot oftrouble regarding oxygen. Eventoday, we received SOS callsfrom hospitals all across Delhi- with only one hour of oxygenleft or only half an hour of oxy-gen left. A lot of difficult situ-ations are emerging. We haveconveyed it to the courts as wellas written to the Central

Government that Delhi has arequirement of 976 metrictonnes per day. Against the 976metric tonnes, we have beenallotted 490 metric tonnesOxygen, but we are not evengetting the 490 metric tonnes,”Kejriwal pointed.

Till May 1, Delhi received312 MT per day however witha big gap of 664 MT per day, anuproar witnessed in hospitals.Many hospitals have said thatthey will have to turn downtheir patients.

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The Delhi Government willstart its inoculation drive

for the age group of 18-44 fromMay 3 as it has received 4.5 lakhvaccination. Authorities havestarted the distribution at dis-trict level, a Delhi Governmentofficial said.

Urging people to followappropriate Covid 19 behav-iour, Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal assured that the cityadministration has madearrangements and everyonewill get the jab. “Please do notqueue at the centres; everyonewill be given appointmentsand should get their online reg-istration done,” he added.

Taking it to micro-bloggingsocial site – twitter, Kejriwalinformed: “The vaccinationprocess for those above the ageof 18 years has begun today.The arrangements at PolyclinicVaccine Centre at SaraswatiVihar have been reviewed. Assoon as Delhi gets the con-signment of vaccines, we willboost the vaccination drive inDelhi”

Kejriwal shared the infor-mation after his visit at the cen-

tre. “In one way today(Saturday) is symbolic as thevaccination drive has startedonly at one centre from todayonwards, the vaccination driveon a large scale will start inDelhi. It’s my request to every-body, it’s not walk-in yet, with-out registration and without anappointment, please don’tcome,” he asserted.

While patients were notable to get bed and had to waitoutside the dedicated facilityamid surge in corona cases,Kejriwal said, “It is onlybecause of oxygen. In RadhaSoami Satsang Beas we haveprepared 5,000 beds but only150 beds are functional becausethere is no oxygen. In theCommonwealth Games andYamuna Sports Complex, we

have prepared for 1,300 beds;but there is no oxygen. InBurari we have arranged for2,500 beds.

He also responded to theblack-marketing of Remdesivirand ambulance facilities andsaid, “I just want to say that hadwe received the Oxygen sup-plies and were able to create thebeds, then an official systemcould have been prepared. Onecould also have received thedoctor prescribed medicinesthere. Now whoever is gettingwhatever is laying their handson them. The Government isalso taking action on this. Theenforcement and police teamsand the Delhi Governmentteams are catching hold of allthose engaged in black-mar-keting.”

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The Delhi Police has arrest-ed two men from East

Delhi for allegedly selling fakeRemdesivir injections at exor-bitant prices.

The accused have beenidentified as Anshuman (31), aresident of Rohini, and Kartik(24), a resident of Tilak Nagar.

According to a seniorpolice official, on Friday, infor-mation was received that oneAnshuman, who was sellingfake Remdisiver injections at

exorbitant price, would comenear Cross River Mall around8 pm in his car to sell injectionsto someone. “Acting on theinputs a trap was laid. Policespotted the car around 8.15 PMand the car was signalled tostop. Two persons came out ofthe vehicle with polythene bags

in their hands and tried to flee,but were apprehended,” said thesenior police official.

“A total of 17 Remdesivirinjections and one car wererecovered from their posses-sion. Interrogation revealedthat they procured these injec-tions from one Akarshan, a res-ident of Noida, through oneAnil. They were selling theseinjections at a price of Rs35,000 per vial,” he said.

“The duo has cheatedmany people in the NationalCapital,” said police.

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Delhi Police CommissionerSN Shrivastava on

Saturday directed the seniorofficers to act sternly againstmalpractices by ambulances,black-marketing of Covid med-icines, oxygen and fake life-sav-ing injections.

The Delhi Police alsoinformed the citizens that theycan call the police’s COVIDhelpline 011-23469900 to com-plain about malpractices.

“EXPANDING OURCOVID HELPLINE| You cancomplain on #DelhiPoliceCovid Helpline 011-23469900abt malpractices like#Overcharging by#Ambulances #Fake covidmedicine #Blackmarketing#Hoarding of medicines oxycylinders, concentrators, medequipment; #harassment atCremation Grnd etc,” the DelhiPolice said in a tweet.

“The helpline will alsoreceive complaints and infor-mation on overcharging byAmbulances for COVIDpatients, harassment at cre-mation grounds, cheating andfrauds committed in name ofproviding covid treatmentmedicines and injections,Oxygen cylinders etc,” saidChinmoy Biswal, the PublicRelation Officer (PRO) of

Delhi Police.On Saturday, Shrivastava

reviewed the enforcement oflockdown and action takenagainst hoarding or black mar-keting of medicines or oxygengas cylinders during a virtualmeeting.

During the meeting, thedistricts DeputyCommissioners of Police(DCsP) were instructed to acti-vate robust human intelligencemechanism with deploymentof decoy customer in order tounearth the entire chain.

Taking cognizance of someinputs, Shrivastava also told theDCPs to act strongly againstovercharging by ambulancesand any harassment caused topeople at cremation grounds.

“The court orders forrelease of seized medicine andoxygen cylinders be taken so

that the seized articles could beused by needy patients. At thesame time, the chargesheets ofarrested persons in such casesshould be prepared promptlyand submitted in the courtwithin minimal time period,”said the CP.

“During the meeting, itwas also emphasized to sensi-tise cyber cells to check theonline frauds reportedly beingcommitted in the name ofarranging oxygen, medicines,medical equipments, etc,” saidBiswal.

“On the lockdown enforce-ment front, the DCPs were toldto use public address system toaware people about the COVIDappropriate behaviour andstaying home to protect them-selves. Strict action be takenagainst those found violatinglockdown instructions whilethe movement of only bonafidee-pass holder, needy or genuinebe allowed,” said Biswal.

The CP also reiterated thatthe welfare of staff should belooked after by all districtsand units and admission tohospital or treatment of infect-ed staff should be ensured onpriority. “It should also beensured that Ayush kits andother safety material meantfor staff should reach till the lastfield functionary,” said the CPat the meeting.

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A42-year-old man, afterfalling asleep, allegedly

rammed his car into a policepicket killing a constable insouthwest Delhi’s Vasant Vihararea early on Saturday morn-ing.

The deceased constablewas identified as ConstableMunshi Lal (57). Police saidthat Lal, an ex-serviceman,was posted in Vasant Viharpolice station since August 28,2020.

According to Ingit PratapSingh, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Southwest district, theaccident took place around 4am at Al-Kauser picket whenthe accused, Samit Yadav,dozed off while he was return-ing from a hospital after attend-ing to his Covid-19 positivewife.“The offending vehicle,Honda CRV, rammed into thepicket tent that was erected forstaff to ensure lockdown anddragged Lal for 30 to 40meters,” said the DCP.

“The constable was rushedto AIIMS trauma center wherehe died during the course of

treatment. The accused, Yadav,a resident of Munirka, whoworks in IT sector, was appre-hended from the spot,” said theDCP.

“He told police that he fellasleep while returning fromMax Hospital, Gurugram afterattending his wife. Yadav was

taken to Vasant Vihar policestation and given a PPE kit andisolated in police stationpremises. His medical test willbe conducted soon,” said theDCP adding that a case hasbeen registered under relevantsections of law and investiga-tion is underway.

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Amid the sudden surge inCovid-19 cases, as many as

7 patients died reportedlydied due to shortage of oxygensupply in Kriti Hospital ofGurugram located in Sector-56on Friday night.

Attendants of the deceasedcreated ruckus inside hospitalpremises. Some family mem-bers also protested outside thehospital.

Reportedly the familiesapproached the police and withtheir intervention the lives ofremaining covid patients couldbe saved.

“We received an informa-tion about the incident matterand a team of police station

Sector-56 were rushed to thespot to pacify the aggrievedfamily members. The reasonbehind the deaths will be ascer-tained after an investigation.No complaint has been filed tillnow, Sub-Inspector DalpatSingh, additional station houseofficer of Sector-56 police sta-tion said.

“Around 20 covid patientswere admitted at the hospital.Around 8.00 pm on Friday thepatients conditions startdetorating and the hospitalmanagement didn’t inform usabout the shortage of liquidoxygen. Also, doctors at thehospital fled the spot. Thosewho were present at the hos-pital were complaining aboutvomiting and unconscious-ness,” a family member of the

patients told mediapersons.However, some other fam-

ily members claimed that onlyafter an information given tothe police, the policemen hadarranged oxygen cylinders anddoctors at the hospital.

“It was a gross negligenceon part of the hospital. Nearly20 covid patients were admit-ted at the hospital withoutoxygen backup. The doctor’s atthe hospital did not discloseanything about oxygen crisis.Stern action should be initiat-ed against the guilty,” allegedanother patient’s family mem-ber.

Meanwhile, despite sever-al call attempts and messagenobody’s from the hospitalmanagement were available forthe comments.

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In a joint effort, theGurugram and Sonipat units

of the special task force (STF)of the Haryana police havearrested an Inter-State mostwanted criminal Sube Gujjar,who was carrying a reward of�7.50 lakh on his head from aDelhi airport on Friday, thepolice informed on Saturday.

The reward had beenannounced by the Haryana,Delhi, Rajasthan and UttarPradesh police. Gujjar, a resi-dent of Bargujjar village ofGurugram, was a key memberof the Kaushal gang and wasinvolved in 11 cases of murder,12 attempt to murder cases,extortion, contract killing anddozens of other crimes which

were serious in nature. According to the police,

Gujjar was an active gangmember of Kaushal gang andwas operating the gang after thearresting of Kaushal. Gujjar wasinvolved in multiple criminalactivities since 2004-05 and wasa proclaimed offender. He was

yet to be arrested in 20 othercases which he had committedin the span of 16 year’s.

Inspector Varun Dahiya,In-charge STF Gurugram unitsaid the noted criminal wasusing fake IDs during his hide-out period and around 15 daysago he was returned in India

from Nepal.“Gujjar had committed

multiple crimes in Delhi andNCR, Haryana, Rajasthan andUttar Pradesh. He was operat-ing his gang from outside Delhiand NCR. Following a leadinputs about his presence atDelhi airport the STF arrested

him on Friday. Gujjar used toextort crore of rupees with thehelp of his gang members fromwine contractors, business-man, sweet shop owners,builders and industrialists,”Dahiya said.

Gujjar had visited Dosa,Alwar in Rajasthan andChannai during his hideoutperiod with the help of fakedocuments. Gujjar hadreturned from GOA and hadplanned to fled somewherebut before that he was nabbedby the STF,” Dahiya informed.

The investigation agencyhas taken him seven days policeremand period to gather infor-mation about his other gangmembers, to inquire informa-tion about weapons used intothe crime, further probe ison,” he said.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) leader Gautam

Gambhir will provide 200 oxy-gen concentrators to those hav-ing mild or moderate symp-toms of the infection in thenational Capital.

The BJP leader's office, ina statement, said he hasarranged 200 oxygen concen-trators for the people in Delhi.

"The concentrators, thathave been bought by the MPout of his own pocket, will bemade available to all thosesuffering from mild to moder-ate Covid-19 infection athome," the statement said.

Right now, the biggest con-cern for the people of Delhi isshortage of oxygen, especiallyfor those who are in the processof finding a bed in hospitals,Gambhir said in the state-ment.

People residing anywherein Delhi can get an oxygen con-centrator from Gambhir's officeat 2, Jagriti Enclave, East Delhi,by providing a doctor's pre-scription, recent saturationlevel of the patient and Aadhaardetails, the statement said.

The beneficiaries will alsorequire to furnish a post datedcheque as security to preventblack marketing of the equip-

ment. The cheque can be col-lected upon returning the unitwithin 7-10 days, it said.

People belonging to eco-nomically weaker sections canfurnish their EWS certificateinstead of the cheque, it added.

Commenting on the med-ical oxygen crisis, the cricketer-turned-politician said peopleare desperately looking foroxygen cylinders and also fac-ing the tough task of gettingthem refilled.

He also charged the ArvindKejriwal-led city government of"abdicating" its responsibility tohelp people amid the surge inCovid-19 cases.

"Delhi does not deservethis chaos and I will do what-ever it takes, whatever is in mypower, to help the people intheir fight against one of thetoughest battles we have seen inrecent times," Gambhir said.

He added that more suchconcentrators are beingarranged to help as many peo-ple as possible.

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A35-year-old doctor at aprivate hospital in south

Delhi allegedly hanged himselfinside his residence at MalviyaNagar on Friday night.

The deceased has beenidentified as Vivek Rai. Heused to work as a doctor inMax Hospital, Saket and wasliving at Malviya Nagar with hiswife, police said.

According to Atul KumarThakur, the DeputyCommissioner of Police

(DCP), South district, theMalviya Nagar police stationreceived information on Fridayat 11.16 pm where it was men-tioned that the husband of thecaller’s friend was not openingthe door.

“Police reached at the givenaddress on the second floor ofa building in Malviya Nagarand found that a person washanging from a ceiling fanwith a saree,” said the DCP

"The body was shifted toAIIMS mortuary and post-mortem of the deceased was

got conducted.After the autopsy, the

body was handed over to hiscousin," said the DCP.

"Police searched the roomand a suicide note was foundwherein no allegation wasmade against anybody by thedeceased. The suicide noteaddressed to his family andfriends in which the deceasedhas wished well for all hisknown persons," said the DCPadding that inquest proceedingunder section 174 CrPC isbeing done.

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Page 4: 5 64...2021/05/02  · Around 2.64 lakh of these are at panchayat level with each centre/kiosks facili-tated by an agent called Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE). Continued on Page

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Guwahati/Agartala: The thirdphase of Covid vaccination forpeople in the 18-44 age groupwas delayed by some days inmost of the northeastern statesas the companies are unable tomeet the supply of vaccines dueto huge demand in the region,where the cases have beenalarmingly rising, Ministersand officials said onSaturday.

The third phase of Covidinoculation drive coveringthose above the age of 18 yearsbegan on Saturday in somestates in India includingMaharashtra, Rajasthan, UttarPradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarhand Odisha.

Assam Health and Finance

Minister Himanta Biswa Sarmasaid that online registration hasstarted.

"We are expecting someinformation about the vaccinesoon. We have already placedorders for one crore doses eachwith the Serum Institute andBharat Biotech. The centralgovernment is also pursuingvaccine manufacturers accord-ingly," he told the media.

Sarma said that Assam isvaccinating close to one lakhperson every day and soaround 26 lakh people inocu-lated.

Tripura Health officialssaid that the vaccination to the18-44 age group is expected tostart after May 15 and as the

supply of vaccines by the man-ufacturer company beingdelayed due to the heavydemand of the jabs.

"The Tripura governmenthas already sanctioned Rs133.19 crore to purchase thevaccine to provide the jab to theage group of 18-44 at the gov-ernment's costs," Educationand Law Minister Ratan LalNath said.

The Meghalaya govern-ment has stated that it wouldsoon announce the exact dateof the inoculation drive for theage group of 18-44.

The Meghalaya govern-ment has also placed orders forthe required vaccine with theSerum Institute of India. IANS

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New Delhi: The Indian Navyhas deployed seven warships tobring oxygen-filled cryogeniccontainers from abroad as hos-pitals across India continuedto face a severe shortage ofmedical oxygen in view ofmounting cases of COVID-19infections.

The ships which aredeployed to bring liquid oxygenand associated medical equip-ment from abroad under oper-ation 'Samudra Setu II' areKolkata, Kochi, Talwar, Tabar,Trikand, Jalashwa and Airavat,officials said.

The Navy launched theoperation at a time hospitals inDelhi and several other statesand union territories are run-ning out of oxygen, triggeringa healthcare crisis. Twelve peo-ple, including a doctor, died atDelhi's Batra Hospital onSaturday after it allegedly ran

out of medical oxygen.The Indian Navy said INS

Talwar is bringing 40 metrictonnes of liquid medical oxy-gen from Manama in Bahrainwhile INS Kolkata has pro-ceeded to Doha to collect med-ical supplies. The ship willsubsequently leave for Kuwaitto bring liquid oxygen tanks.

Similarly, on the easternseaboard, INS Airavat is sched-uled to bring oxygen fromSingapore while INS Jalashwais standing by to bring medicalstores at a short notice.

"The second batch of shipscomprising Kochi, Trikand andTabar mission deployed in theArabian Sea have also beendiverted to join the nationaleffort. From the SouthernNaval Command, the landingship tank INS Shardul is beingreadied to join the operationwithin 48 hours," the Navy said

in a statement. Officialssaid the Navy has the capabil-ity to deploy more ships whenthe need arises to further thenation's fight against COVID-19. "It is pertinent that the shipsare combat-ready and capableof meeting any contingency inkeeping with the attributes ofversatility of sea power," theNavy said.

Last year, the Indian Navyhad launched OperationSamudra Setu as part of theVande Bharat evacuation mis-sion under which it broughtback around 4,000 strandedIndians from the Maldives, SriLanka and Iran.

In the last few days, theIndian Air Force airlifted fromabroad 47 oxygen containerswith a total capacity of 830 met-ric tonnes to augment oxygensupply and distribution infra-structure in the country. PTI

New Delhi: As India logged aworld record of over four lakhcoronavirus infections onSaturday, Congress leaderRahul Gandhi said the entireworld is shaken by what is hap-pening here and accused PrimeMinister Narendra Modi of"dropping the ball and throw-ing it to States" after prema-turely taking credit for having"won against COVID-19" whenthe second wave was alreadyunderway.

"Rely on yourself is themotto. No one will come to helpyou. Definitely, not the primeminister," Gandhi said, whilealleging that the Covid-19 sit-uation has gone completely outof control for the ModiGovernment, and wonderedwhether it was their way ofmaking the States and the citi-zens truly ''Aatmanirbhar''.

In an exclusive interview toPTI, the former Congress chief

alleged that the Governmentcompletely failed to under-stand or to tackle the Covid-19pandemic, right from the verybeginning, despite repeatedwarnings including from sci-entists.

Training his guns on thePrime Minister and HomeMinister Amit Shah, Rahulsaid India must be the onlycountry in the world facing thismassive pandemic without theguidance of an expert andempowered group that ischarged with fighting the virusand protecting the people, withplanning ahead, anticipatingneeds and taking the decisionsthat will result in swift action tosave lives.

"They continuously ignoredrising cases and were busyinstead with election cam-paigns. They encouraged super-spreader events. They evenbragged about them. Our Prime

Minister and Home Ministerwere not even wearing masks inpublic over the past fewmonths. What sort of a messageis that sending to citizens?"Rahul said.

He was referring to electionrallies that were recently held forfive Assemblies for West Bengal,Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu andPuducherry. Leaders of all majorparties including BJP andCongress participated in rallies,but decided to curtail the size ofmeetings and even cancelledsome towards the end of thecampaign for West Bengal whencases began rising moresharply.

Rahul, who was among thefirst to cancel his rallies and hadalso urged other political lead-ers to do so, noted that the sec-ond Covid-19 wave is a tsuna-mi that has brought absolutedevastation and has destroyedeverything in its way.

The former Congress chieftermed the story of vaccinepricing in the country as one of"discount sales" and a "completeeyewash" alleging that the vac-cine makers first marked up theprices and then reduced thatwhile making a show of theentire exercise.

Asked who is responsiblefor the current situation, Rahulsaid, "The Prime Minister is atfault. He runs a highly cen-tralised and personalisedGovernment machinery, is sole-ly and substantially devoted tobuilding his own brand, isutterly focused on imageryrather than substance." "Thefact is that this Governmentcompletely failed to under-stand or to tackle the Covid-19pandemic -- right from the verybeginning, despite repeatedwarnings," he alleged.

Attacking the ModiGovernment over the handling

of the situation, he alleged it is"plainly arrogant and focuses onperception over reality".

"Now that the situation iscompletely out of control, theyhave dropped the ball andthrown it to the states... Theneed of the hour is to holdhands, work together and healour people," Gandhi said.

Gandhi alleged that thegovernment declared victoryagainst the virus too soon andthat this was "absolute insani-ty" and demonstrated a com-plete misunderstanding of thenature of what this virus was.

The only way to fightCorona is with humility and byrealizing that you are faced witha relentless opponent, who canadapt and is very resilient, hesaid, noting that the primeminister had an entire year tobetter prepare, to protect India,and to think through this cri-sis but did nothing. PTI

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Kota (Rajasthan): A 92-year-old woman fromRajasthan's Kota won the battle against Covid-19in just 12 days, with doctors saying her positive atti-tude and regular lung exercises helped in the speedyrecovery.

Sheila Devi, who was admitted to the hospitalhere on April 18 after she tested COVID-19 posi-tive, spent seven days in critical condition at thefacility and later was kept in home isolation.

She was admitted to the private ward ofMaharao Bhim Singh (MBS) hospital here wherewhere she underwent critical COVID treatment forseven days from April 18 to April 25, superintendent of the hospital Dr. Naveen Saxenasaid.

Her son Dr. Arvind Saxena, who is visuallyimpaired and a noted historian, said his mother wasput on oxygen support from the very beginning.

"On Friday, 'Ma' took her bath and did all thenormal activities of day by herself," Dr Saxena said.

The doctors who treated her said her positiveattitude and energy was the sole reason behind herspeedy recovery.

Dr. C P Meena, in-charge of COVID ward atthe hospital, said at such an old age, the lungs suf-fer most adversely and patient's immunity alsodiminishes. PTI

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New Delhi: The ElectionCommission (EC) on Saturdaymoved the Supreme Court over theMadras High Court’s observationthat the poll body is singularlyresponsible for the COVID-19 sit-uation in India and that it shouldprobably be put on murder chargesfor failing to ensure compliance ofCOVID-19 protocol during electionrallies. In its petition, the EC saidthe Madras HC’s comment was“uncalled for, blatantly disparagingand derogatory”. The matter hasbeen listed before a bench of theApex Court headed by Justice DYChandrachud for a hearing onMonday.

The EC in its petition said thatthe Madras High Court being anindependent constitutional author-ity made "serious allegations ofmurder on another independentconstitutional authority withoutany basis, which has ultimatelydented both the institutions." TheEC said that that dangerous trendhas started with the "uncalled for,blatantly disparaging and deroga-tory remarks", as a criminal com-

plaint was filed against a DeputyElection Commissioner.

Maintaining that the remarksby the High Court caused seriousdamage to its reputation, built overthe years, the poll body claimedpeople from places, where no elec-tions were held in the recent past,pinned the blame of Covid-19infection on the EC. The plea alsohighlighted how the Madras HighCourt Friday refused to entertain itspetition in this regard.

The poll body has also prayedthat that directions be issued tomedia houses to confine theirreports to observations recorded inorders or judgments and to refrainfrom reporting on oral observationsmade during courtproceedings.

The development comes a dayafter the Supreme Court on April30 advised High Courts to avoidunnecessary 'off-the-cuff remarks'during hearings, a call that cameagainst the backdrop of stingingobservations made by some ofthem against the Centre and stategovernments over their handling of

the escalating COVID-19 crisis. On Friday, the Madras High

Court had refused to entertain apetition by the ElectionCommission seeking to restrain themedia from publishing the court’soral observations blaming the pollbody for the rise in Covid-19cases..

However, the Bench of ChiefJustice Sanjib Banerjee and JusticeSenthi Kumar Ramamurth saidthat the "post mortem" on suchaspects can wait and that the focus,for now, would be on the measuresthat can be put in place for COVID-19 management in the State.

Coming down heavily on theElection Commission for “not stop-ping political parties” from violat-ing Covid protocols during theircampaign rallies for Assembly pollsin four states and an UnionTerritory over the last month, theMadras HC had said that murdercharges should probably beimposed on the panel for being “theonly institution responsible for thesituation that we are in today”. PNS

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Ahmedabad:The Gujaratpolice on Saturday Busted afactory in Surat, which wasallegedly manufacturing fakeRemdesivir injections, used inthe treatment of COVID-19,and arrested six persons in thisconnection, an official said.

Acting on a tip-off, thepolice in Morbi town arrestedthree persons for sellingRemdesivir without prescrip-tion, Director General of Police(DGP) Ashish Bhatia toldreporters.

During the probe, theaccused led the police toAhmedabad, where the citycrime branch sleuths raided ahouse in Juhapura and recov-ered 1,170 vials of Remdesivirand Rs 17 lakh cash and arrest-ed two more men, the officialsaid.

On questioning the duo,the police found that they hadprocured the injections fromone Kaushal Vora, a resident ofSurat, he said.

The city's crime branchtraced Vora and co-accusedPuneet Gunwant Shah to afarm house in a village inOlpad taluka of Surat district,Bhatia said.

"The police found a wholefactory manufacturing fakeinjection set up at the farmhouse. The accused repackagedvials of glucose water and saltand labelled them asRemdesivir," the DGP said.PTI

Dehradun: Uttarakhand ChiefMinister Tirath Singh Rawat onSaturday further lowered thecap on the number of peopleattending a marriage ceremo-ny in the State from 100 to 25in the wake of the sharp rise inCOVID-19 cases.

Reviewing the COVIDsituation in the state via videoconferencing, Rawat directedall district magistrates to limitthe number of people attend-ing marriage ceremonies to25. He also authorised theDMs to reduce the duration forthe opening of market places ifthey find it necessary.

Rawat ordered the pay-

ment of an incentive of Rs1,000 each to Asha volunteers.The COVID helpline num-bers and call centres should befully active and keep updatinginformation related to avail-ability of beds and injections,he said.

All efforts should be madeto increase the number of oxy-gen cylinders, he said, addingambulance rates should befixed to prevent over-rating,Rawat said. A total of 147 STFteams have been set up inUttarakhand to stop black mar-keting of drugs used in treat-ment of COVID-19, he said. PTI

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New Delhi,: The Central Boardof Secondary Education (CBSE)on Saturday announced a pol-icy for tabulation of marks forclass 10 board exams whichhave been cancelled in view ofthe COVID-19 pandemic situ-ation in the country.

According to the policy,while 20 marks for each subjectwill be for internal assessmentas every year, 80 marks will becalculated on basis of the stu-dents' performance in varioustests or exams throughout theyear.

"The students will beassessed out of maximum 100marks for each subject. As perthe policy of the board, 20marks are for internal assess-ment and 80 marks are for year-end board examinations."The weightage in terms ofmaximum marks for schoolswhich have conducted the testsand exams through the year will

be -- periodic test/unit test (10marks), half-yearly exam (30marks) and pre-board exams(40 marks)," CBSE ExaminationController Sanyam Bhardwajsaid.

The board has askedschools to form a result com-mittee consisting of principaland seven teachers for finaliz-ing the results. Five teachersfrom the school should be fromMathematics, Social Science,Science and two languages, andtwo teachers from neighbour-ing schools should be co-optedby the school as the externalmembers of the committee.

"In the pandemic situation,delivering fair and unbiasedresults to students on time is achallenging task. But the boardis confident that every schoolleader and every teacher ofCBSE affiliated schools willcomplete this process with thehighest degree of professional-

ism, consistency, and care toensure accurate and fair results.Schools will also have to ensurethat the marks awarded bythem should be in consonancewith past performance of theschool in class 10 board exams,"he said.

"Schools are expected toprovide a fair and objectiveassessment of the student andhave been given the autonomyand flexibility to do so.However, to take care of thevariations in school level eval-uation processes, there is aneed to standardize the scoresacross schools through a processof moderation of marks," headded. The CBSE has alsowarned schools againstindulging in unfair and biasedpractices for assessment or theywill have to face penalty or dis-affiliation. The board said thatthe result will be announced byJune 20. PTI

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From Page 1The CSIR observation

comes a day after the UnionHealth Ministry had said at aPress conference that UttarPradesh has seen 5.4 timesmore cases in April thanSeptember last whileChhattisgarh reported a 4.5-time rise, Delhi a 3.3-timeincrease, Rajasthan a five-timespike and Andhra Pradesh sawa 1.4-time rise in the numberof cases.

While in Maharashtra, theState which is witnessing high-est record Covid-19 cases in thecountry is said to have beenwitnessing the double mutantand triple mutant variant ofCovid virus. In addition tothese variants, the B1.617-1,2,3variants of the Covid virusesare also prevailing in thisregion, because of whichMaharashtra and the sur-rounding States are witnessingthe highest number of Covidcases and related deaths in thecountry.

“In Maharashtra, apartfrom double mutant variantsabout 10 per cent cases are alsofound to be having triplemutant Covid infections. Thistriple mutant variant of virus ismost infectious and is the mainreason for the wide spread ofthe disease,” observed theCCMB scientists. Maharashtra,which saw 24,886 cases inSeptember last year, but the fig-ure rose to 68,631 cases inApril, which is 2.8 times high-

er.In the Eastern parts of

India, including West Bengal,Manipur and other regions arefound to have the B1.618 vari-ant virus. More than 20 percent of cases are found to havebeen infected by this kind ofcoronavirus variant in the east-ern parts of the country.

Similarly States likeTelangana, Andhra Pradesh,Kerala, Karnataka and TamilNadu are witnessing N440Kvariant of Covid-19 virus is saidto be widely spreading. Whenasked as to which type ofCovid-19 variant is most infec-tious and widely spreading thescientists said that the UK vari-ant, double mutant and N440Kare most infectious variants andbecause of these mutant variantsIndia is witnessing highest num-ber of Covid-19 cases in theworld, observed the scientists.

In fact, the States identifiedby the CSIR which are witness-ing different variants haveemerged as the States of concernwhere the cases have surgedrapidly with the Union HealthMinistry too admitting thatsince April, there has been asteep rise in the number of casesin these States. Data speaks:From April 5 onwards, thecountry saw over one lakh casesbeing reported in a day, whilefrom April 15, the single-day risein the number of cases went pasttwo lakh and from April 22, itstarted recording over threelakh daily cases.

From Page 1They need to get an

appointment for vaccinationagainst coronavirus, sayingwalk-ins will not be allowedinitially to avoid “chaos” atimmunisation centres once theinoculations drive opens upsubstantially.

However, the Centre willcontinue to provide vaccines toStates and vaccinate, for free,those over 45.

States on the other handhave to negotiate with vaccinecompanies the price at whichthey will buy vaccines. Thisagain will be from the 50 percent of the vaccines that aremade and cleared by theCentral Drug ResearchLaboratory, Kasauli.

The remaining will con-tinue to go to the Centre for itsprogramme.

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“...Therefore, in order tocontain the spread of the virusand break the transmissionchain, the curfew needs to beextended for another week inthe territory of NCT of Delhi(except for essential activitiesand services),” it said.

The DDMA has directed toextend the curfew (lockdown)on the movement of individu-als (except for essential activi-ties and services) till 5 am onMay 10 or further orders,whichever is earlier.

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From Page 1

From Page 1Earlier this week, the Delhi High Court had

directed the AAP Government and prison author-ities to ensure proper medical supervision and careof Shahabuddin.

On December 9, 2015, a special judge in Bihar’sSiwan convicted Shahabuddin and his associatesin a 2004 double murder case and sentenced themto life imprisonment.

Two brothers, Satish and Girish Roshan, weremurdered in August 2004 in Siwan for allegedlyrefusing to pay extortion money.

A third brother, Rajiv Roshan, who was an eye-witness to the crime committed by Shahabuddin’smen, was shot dead on June 6, 2014, when he wason his way to a trial court to depose against thestrongman.

The conviction and sentencing of Shahabuddinand three others were eventually upheld by thePatna High Court and the Supreme Court.

The former RJD leader was shifted to Tiharfrom Siwan jail following a Supreme Court orderon February 15, 2018.

From Page 1“CSC will help the citizen in rural India to reg-

ister for vaccination, identify the nearest center, getan appointment and inform them to carry neces-sary documents at the time of vaccination. CSCwill also create awareness amongst the rural per-son for getting a vaccination. So far about one lakhperson from Rural India has been registeredthrough CSC,” said CSC Managing Director DrDinesh Tyagi.

The vaccine an eligible person will just haveto walk to its nearest CSC at their village (most ofthe village also have multiple CSC kiosk) and theVLEs will help the beneficiary in getting the reg-istration formalities and also guide them the venueof vaccination, necessary documents required at the Centre for vaccinationetc.

The CSC VLEs will handover an acknowl-edgment slip to the beneficiary to present itself atthe vaccination center.

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From Page 1“Will we shut our eyes to people

dying in Delhi? Enough is enough.Who is asking for a dime more thanallocated ?..Don’t do this, Don’t dothat. We don’t appreciate this. This isa new way of arguing that we are see-ing,” said the Bench. The Bench alsonoted that eight deaths were report-ed by Batra Hospital on account of nooxygen supply for over one hour.During the course of the hearing,senior Advocate Rahul Mehra for theDelhi Government stated that whileDelhi’s demand was 700MT, allocated oxygen was 490MT, out ofwhich the suppliers had made a vol-untary commitment of supply of445MT.

The quantity on Delhi border, fortoday, was 312 MT only, Mehrainformed the Court as he submitted

that this was a deficit of over 100 MT. “Our tankers are not given prior-

ity. There is no timing, schedulegiven to us. We are dealing in SoS eventoday. My officers will have a mentalbreakdown. A morally conscious per-son does what best he can. This can’tbe permitted,” he said. The matterwould be heard on. May 3.

Meanwhile the High Court alsosought data on admissions and dis-charge from all hospitals from Aprilmonth. “..every day a substantialnumber of beds should become avail-able. But that does not appear to behappening. Patients who require hos-pitalisation with oxygen supportshould normally be in a position toleave within 8-10 days subject totheir condition…”, the court said,posting the matter to May 6 for fur-ther hearing.

From Page 1He added that one of the women attendant was rubbing the chest of the

woman, to make it easier for her to breathe.“The woman then died around 3.15 p.m. The attendant then again called

the doctors after there was no movement in Gupta’s body. A doctor then cameand declared her dead,” the eyewitness said.

The eyewitness said that he left the hospital around 6.15 p.m. and till thenthe hospital did not take any step to wrap the body of the Covid patient andsend it to the mortuary.The body of Gupta was taken for cremation three hoursafter her death.The healthcare system across the country has come underimmense pressure amid the record surge in Covid-19 cases. Patients acrossthe country are complaining of shortages of beds and medical oxygen.

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Page 5: 5 64...2021/05/02  · Around 2.64 lakh of these are at panchayat level with each centre/kiosks facili-tated by an agent called Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE). Continued on Page

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With the objective to addmuscle to the ongoing

fight against the corona pan-demic, the armed forces havemobilised more than 600retired doctors besides deploy-ing 300 National Cadet Corps(NCC) cadets to assist thelocal administration in variousparts of the country. Also, thearmy has provided 720 beds forcivilians suffering from corona.

Moreover, seven navalships are currently ferryingthe much-needed oxygen fromvarious parts of the world.The IAF on Saturday broughtcryogenic containers fromSingapore and off leaded themat the Panagarh airbase in WestBengal.

The IAF has carried outmore than 160 sorties in the lasttwo to three days rushing med-ical equipment to various partsof the country apart from air-lifting oxygen cylinders fromcountries including Singapore,United ArabEmirates(UAE)and Thailand.

All these measures werereviewed by Defence MinisterRajnath Singh here on Saturdayalong with the three Serviceschiefs and Chief of DefenceStaff General Bipin Rawat in avirtual meeting, defence min-istry officials said.

Mobilisation of additionalhealth professionals, logisticsupport to facilitate supply ofoxygen and setting up new oxy-gen plants are top priorities, thedefence minister said in themeeting.

Giving details of the high-level meeting, they said Rajnathwas apprised that approxi-

mately 600 additional doctorsare mobilised through specialmeasures such as calling toduty those who had retired inthe last few years.

The Indian Navy hasdeployed 200 Battle FieldNursing Assistants to assist invarious hospitals. The NCC hasdeployed 300 cadets and staffat various locations inMaharashtra, Uttarakhand andHaryana. Moreover, a tele med-icine service, to be operated byhealth veterans, will begin soonto provide consultation to thosepatients who remain at home.

Also, the Army has madeavailable more than 720 bedsfor civilians in various states.The minister directed theArmy to share the details withlocal administration at the stateand district levels. Rawat sug-gested that local military com-mands have to be activelyengaged in assisting the civiladministration.

Rajnath was briefed thatthe 500-bed hospital being setup the Defence Research andD e v e l o p m e n t

Organisation(DRDO) inLucknow will start functioningin the next two to three days.Another hospital is also beingset up in Varanasi which isscheduled to be completed byMay five, DRDO chief S Reddyinformed the minister. Also,the first four out of 380 OxygenPSA (Pressure SwingAdsorption) plants being man-ufactured under PM CARESfund will be deployed in hos-pitals in New Delhi by nextweek, he said.

The minister appreciatedthe logistics support being pro-vided by the Armed Forces intransporting oxygen containersfrom abroad as well as withinthe country between places ofconsumption and production.

While transport aircraft ofthe IAF carried out several sor-ties from Singapore, Bangkok,Dubai and within the country,Indian Navy dispatched fourships – two to Middle east andtwo to South East Asia – totransport filled oxygen con-tainers to India.Part ofOperation ‘Samudra Setu II,’

overall seven ships includingKolkata, Kochi, Talwar, Tabar,Trikand, Jalashwa and Airavatare deployed for shipment ofliquid medical oxygen-filledcryogenic containers from var-ious countries.

Kolkata and Talwar weremission deployed in the PersianGulf and were the first batch ofships that were immediatelydiverted for ferrying oxygen.They entered port of Manama,Bahrain on Friday and Talwarwith 40 MT Liquid MedicalOxygen (LMO) is headed backhome.

INS Kolkata has proceed-ed to Doha, Qatar for embark-ing medical supplies and willsubsequently head to Kuwaitfor embarking Liquid Oxygentanks.

Similarly, on the Easternseaboard, Airavat too has beendiverted for the task, whileJalashwa was pulled out ofmaintenance and sailed out toaugment the effort. Airavat isscheduled to enter Singaporefor embarking Liquid oxygentanks and Jalashwa is standingby in the region to embark medical stores at shortnotice.

The second batch of shipscomprising Kochi, Trikand andTabar mission deployed inArabian sea have also beendiverted to join the nationaleffort. From the SouthernNaval Command, the LandingShip Tank Shardul is beingreadied to join the Operationwithin 48 hours.

As regards the air effort, ason Saturday, carried out 28 sor-ties from abroad, airlifting 47oxygen containers with 830MT of capacity, while fromwithin the country, it carriedout 158 sorties, airlifting 109containers with 2,271 MTcapacity.

The Navy and the AirForce have also supplied near-ly 500 portable oxygen cylin-ders from their stores to vari-ous civilian hospitals.

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Union Road Transport andHighways Minister Nitin

Gadkari on Saturday said thatthe Government is givingutmost priority to the devel-opment of infrastructure andhas set a target of road con-struction of worth �15 lakhcrore in next two years.

He said that theGovernment is permitting 100percent FDI in the road sector.The Minister said that in India,projects like the NationalInfrastructure pipeline (NIP)for 2019-2025 is the first of itskind and the government iscommitted to provide world-class infra to its citizens andimproving the quality of theirlives.

He said that under the NIP,there are over 7,300 projects tobe implemented at a total out-lay of ?111 lakh crore by theyear 2025.

He said that the NIP aimsat improving project prepara-tion, and attract investmentinto infrastructures like high-ways, railways, ports, airports,mobility, energy and agricul-ture and rural industry.

Addressing the Indo-USPartnership Vision Summitthrough video conferencingon Friday, Gadkari said that inthe new era of bilateral rela-tions, the national interests ofIndia and the United States areconverging and there is grow-ing confidence between boththe administrations that alloutstanding trade issues will beresolved and major trade agree-ments will be signed soon.

The Minister also invitedthe US companies to invest ininfrastructure and MSME sec-tors in India.

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Congress president SoniaGandhi on Saturday called

for a nationwide strategy tofight the surge in Covid casesin India after discussion with allpolitical parties. In a video mes-sage, she further asserted thatthe Centre and StateGovernments “should wake upand fulfil their responsibilities”.

“It’s high time that theCentre and State Governmentswake up and fulfil theirresponsibilities. Migration ofthe labourers should bestopped. A minimum of �6,000should be added to theiraccounts till the crisis is over,”Sonia said in a message sharedon the official Congress Twitterhandle.

Former party chief RahulGandhi launched a medicaladvisory helpline to help thosebattling Covid-19 at a timewhen the country has beenravaged by the second wave ofthe deadly virus. He has alsoappealed to doctors to join the

battle against Covid-19Sonia further insisted on

her earlier demand that freevaccines should be given to allthe citizens. “Testing should beincreased across the countryand medical oxygen and otherresources should be arrangedon a war footing. Free vacci-nation should be arranged forall the citizens so that peoplecan be saved. Mandatory vac-cine license should be given toincrease the vaccine coverage.Black-marketing of life-sav-ing medicines should bestopped,” Sonia added.

Pointing out the shortageof crucial resources, whichhas worsened the battle against

the pandemic, she said: “Lakhsof people are getting affectedamid the pandemic everyday,lakhs have died so far. Theseare testing times and we haveto support each other. Moststates continue to grapple withshortage of medical oxygen,hospital beds and medicines.”

She said that a nationwidestrategy should be prepared tofight Covid after discussionwith all parties. “I bow downto all the doctors and healthworkers who are serving Covidpatients while putting them-selves at risk. We have to gobeyond the differences. Ourcountry has overcome manyhuge struggles in the past.Congress will support the cen-tre in this battle.”

Rahul Gandhi went toappeal to doctors and medicalprofessionals to join the battleagainst Covid-19 and helpthose in need of medicaladvice. The party alsolaunched a plasma helplinefor the requirement of Covidpatients.

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Counting of votes will beheld on Sunday in the

high-stakes Assam, WestBengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu andPuducherry Assembly elec-tions, overshadowed by theraging Covid pandemic. Therewill be 2,364 counting centresin 822 Assembly constituenciesin five States/UT and for count-ing for the bypolls held in 4 PCsand 13ACs across 13 States, ascompared to 1,002 halls in2016 in 822 Assembly con-stituencies, a more than 200percent increase, in view of theCovid guidelines.

According to the ElectionCommission officials, at least15 rounds of sanitisation will becarried out at each pollingcentre, besides social distanc-ing and other precautions,including a ban on gatherings,will be strictly followed. Theysaid counting of votes willbegin at 8 AM and continuelate into the night.

At a review meeting per-taining to the countingarrangements, Chief ElectionCommissioner Sushil Chandraon Saturday directed that alllaid down instructions of theCommission must be adheredto. He also directed that allcounting halls must be fullyCOVID guidelines compliant.The Commission has madeelaborate arrangements forcounting of votes across the fivestates and deputed around95,000 counting officialsincluding micro observers forthis purpose.

The poll body has desig-nated 822 returning officersand more than 7,000 assistant

returning officers for countingacross the four states-WestBengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu,Assam and union territory ofPuducherry. Besides,1100counting observers have beendeputed to watch countingprocess.

According to the EC, postalballots this time are four timeshigher, having risen to 13.16lakh from 2.97 lakh in 2016. Asmany as 1.5 lakh countingagents whose details were pro-vided by candidates have beenfacilitated for RT-PCR/RAT infive states/UTs. EC has alsodirected acceptance of testreports issued by any autho-rized laboratories.

The poll results in the fourstates and the UT are alsolikely to reflect how the han-dling of the COVID pandem-ic has played on the voters’mind. Exit polls have forecasta tight contest between theincumbent Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress andthe BJP in the crucial WestBengal assembly polls and putthe ruling saffron combineahead in Assam while project-ing that the Left alliance willretain Kerala, a feat unseen infour decades. For the Congress,

the exit polls predicted that itmay fall short in Assam andKerala and lose in Puducherryto the opposition alliance ofAINRC-BJP-AIADMK. Theonly good news for theCongress was from TamilNadu, where the exit polls pre-dicted that the DMK-led oppo-sition alliance, of which it is apart, will trounce theAIADMK-BJP coalition.

According to officials, athree-tier security apparatushas also been placed in thesefive states. Considering thefact that coronavirus infectionis raging in the state, steps havebeen taken to ensure thatCOVID guidelines are strictlyfollowed during the counting.Arrangements have been madefor sanitizing the countingvenues frequently during theprocess. Wearing of face masksand use of sanitizers have beenmade mandatory for enteringthe counting halls. EVMs andVVPATs at the well-ventilatedcounting venues will be sani-tised before the commence-ment of the process. Tables willbe placed in the counting hallsin such a way so that social dis-tancing norms are maintained.

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The five Left parties onSaturday blamed Modi

Government for “doing noth-ing” for the past one year totackle the Covid crisis and“not listening to any one”. In ajoint statement general secre-taries of CPI(M, CPI, CPI(ML), RSP and Forward Blocsaid that the CentralGovernment has lost completemoral authority to continue inoffice, if they can’t deliver theneed of the suffering people inthe pandemic.

“One whole year has beenwasted by this Government

which did not heed any of oursuggestions. Instead theGovernment promoted megasuper spreader events. Now,India cannot afford to lose anymore time. As the least min-imum Government mustimmediately deliver on theabove. Otherwise, the CentralGovernment completely losesits moral authority to contin-ue to remain in office,” saidSitaram Yechury, D.Raja,Dipankar Bhattachar ya,Debabrata Biswas, ManojBhattacharya.

The Left leaders reiterat-ed that the Government mustfully uti l ise the budged

�35,000 crore and full moneyfrom PM Cares Fund for totackle the pandemic crisisand must stop the CentralVista project costing �20,000crore.

They also said the Centremust invoke CompulsoryLicensing to produce bothvaccines and life saving drugsand must strictly controlprices of essential drugs.“Direct transfer of � 7,500 toall families in the non-incometax paying bracket and freedistribution of foodgrains toall needy must be delivered toface the crisis,” said the Leftleaders.

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The Centre has identified 30nitrogen generation plants

for production of medical oxy-gen considering Covid-19 pan-demic situation and to furtheraugment availability of oxygenfor medical purposes in thecountry.

“About 30 industries havebeen identified, and efforts havebegun to modify nitrogen plantsfor the production of medicaloxygen,” said Ministry ofEnvironment, Forest andClimate Change.

“Some of these plants can beshifted to nearby hospitals forsupplying oxygen and someplants, where it is not feasible toshift the plants, can produceoxygen on-site.”

UPL Ltd converted one 50Nm3 per hour capacity Nitrogenplant to produce oxygen usingZeolite Molecular Sieve, andinstalled it at L.G. RotaryHospital, Vapi (Gujarat). Thisplant is producing 0.5 ton perday oxygen and is operationalsince April 27.

UPL Ltd is also underprocess of conversion of threemore plants. On conversion tooxygen plants, these plants willbe installed at hospitals in Suratand Ankaleshwar.In the existingnitrogen plants, replacingCarbon Molecular Sieve (CMS)with Zeolite Molecular Sieve(ZMS) and few other changessuch as installation of oxygenanalyzer, change in control panelsystem, flow valve etc., oxygenfor medical use can be pro-duced.With the availability ofZMS, such modified plant canbe set-up in 4-5 days whileinstallation of new oxygen plant

may take minimum 3-4 weeks.Oxygen produced in on-site

plants has to be compressed andfilled in cylinders or specialvessels using high pressure com-pressor for transporting to hos-pitals.

Facilitation is being provid-ed to these industries for com-pletion of work at the earliest.

The Centre had earlierasked the Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB), whichhas comprehensive data base ofindustrial units, to identify theindustries having spare nitrogenplants and explore the feasibil-ity of converting of existingnitrogen plants to produce oxy-gen.

The CPCB with the help ofState Pollution Control Boards(SPCBs) have identified suchpotential industries, whereinexisting nitrogen generationplants may be spared for pro-duction of oxygen.

In this regard, consultationhave been held with potentialindustrial units and experts.

The Centre’s step comes asIndia has been hit by a devas-tating wave of Covid infections- daily new cases crossed thefour-lakh mark this morning fora record global high. The surgein cases has left hospitals over-worked, doctors traumatised,and resources like beds, medi-cines and oxygen in perilouslyshort supply.

The scale of the crisis hasprompted the global communi-ty to step in, with oxygen con-centrators, tankers and otherequipment being flown in by theUnited States, the UnitedKingdom, Singapore, theEuropean Union and othercountries.

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Anew study using data fromIndia and five other coun-

tries finds that using domes-tic travel bans to controlCovid-19 infections may beinadvisable.

Depending on their dura-tion, these restrictions canlead to more rather than fewerinfections overall, especiallywhen there is a large urban-rural migrant population, itindicated.

As India battles a severe

second wave of Covid-19, stategovernments are once againfaced with the question:Should they use travel bans tocontrol disease transmission?

In the first wave of Covid-19, most states chose thisoption.

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Ahurriedly ordered moveby the CRPF to put in place

a common dress code for offi-cers and jawans has led toresentment among the offi-cers of the force.

In a recent order issued onWednesday, Inspector GeneralRakesh Kumar Yadav hasdirected a uniform dress codefor physical training andgames for Gazzetted officers,subordinate officers and juniorofficers and the constables.

For ranks of the Force, thedress code for physical train-ing and sports will be blackshorts, blue round neck TShirt for summer. For womenpersonnel, blue track pant andblue round neck T shirt will beapplicable for summer.

Likewise, for winters, thedress code will be blue tracksuit, blue cap covering headand ears in case of extremecold will be allowed. Also, bluejackets and wind cheaters willbe required for extreme cold.Fabric will be of polyester/cot-ton as suitable to local weath-

er conditions and shoes will beof sports variety with anyvariation of blue or blackcolour.

Earlier, for Gazetted offi-cers, the dress code was whiteshorts and shirt with sleevesrolled up and white T shirtwith white canvas shoes andwhite socks.

For subordinate officers,it was white shorts twill ( halfsleeves), white canvas shoesand white socks.

For other ranks, it wasregimental mufti for gamesand athletics, white pant,shirt of white colour andcanvas shoes.

On ground, they weresupposed to wear khakhipants or shorts and white Tshirt and cotton vest.

As per the CRPF uniformrules, any officer (includingthe IPS officers) while beingon deputation to CRPF can-not wear the IPS insignia asshoulder badges as part ofthe rank badges. As per therules, this is required to dis-tinguish themselves as mem-ber of the CRPF.

However IPS officers on

deputation to CRPF havenever followed this neither inletter nor in spirit. Not wear-ing CRPF insignia on shoul-der badges and caps is also incontravention of the CentralG o v t e r n m e n tdecisions/instructions issuedin connection with IPS uni-form rules 1954 that mandatewearing the same uniform asthat to be worn by cadre offi-cers of CRPF while they areon to the deputation to theparamilitary.

“The guiding philosophybehind any uniform rulesprescribed for any Armed orParamilitary Forces is thatirrespective of his parent ser-vices, all the members bytheir appearances shouldlook like and distinguishthemselves as member of theForce in which they are amember wether permanentor temporary. Instead of fol-lowing the laid down uni-form rules, the IPS lobby inthe CRPF is tweaking theuniform rules of CRPF whichis likely to lead to indisciplinein the ranks,” a senior cadreofficial said.

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Even as the latest wave ofCovid-19 is surging at an

alarming pace to spread intoTier 2 and Tier 3 cities andtowns and surrounding areas,the Union Health Ministryseems to be taking its own timeto train the healthcare workersincluding doctors in theseregions on how to manage thepandemic efficiently and cutdown fatalities given that virusis more infectious and lethal thistime.

It is only on Friday that theMinistry at a press conferenceshared that it will soon come outwith a module to train the

healthcare workers working inthe Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities so thatthe Covid-19 cases are handledas per protocol.

Delhi AIIMS DirectorRandeep Guleria said: Doctorsof Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities are notmuch aware of how to tackle thedisease as the virus has been sofar contained in the urban areas.However, now the virus isspreading fast in small townsalso.

“We have identified 14Centres of Excellence like AIIMSand PGIMER in Chandigarhwith whom the Ministry officialswill develop programmes forCovid management which willthen be shared with doctors

including those in districts or vil-lages including in private andpublic sector.

“We will reach out to all thedoctors from these areas,” saidDr Guleria. However, while thevirus is fast spreading, alreadyhitting various cities as seen bysharp spurt in cases in theseregions, the Ministry seems tobe moving too slow in thisregard.

A few weeks ago PrimeMinister Narendra Modi too ata meeting had expressed hisconcern saying that Covid-19 isspreading rapidly in Tier 2 andTier 3 cities as well. He urgeddoctors to connect with theircolleagues working in Tier 2 and

Tier 3 cities and give themonline consultations to ensurethat all protocols are followedcorrectly.

Moreover, the Ministry isalready grappling with issueslike mismanagement of theCovid-19 crisis given hugemisuse of drugs likeRemdesivir and Tocilizumabwhich are being prescribed bythe doctors to their patientseven those in the home setting.

Time and again the Ministryhas been warning that thesemedicines are not to be usedfor patients in home isolationbut those admitted in the hos-pital. Also, experts warn thatoxygen demand from theseTier1 and Tier 2 cities will alsoincrease, putting pressure onthe health infrastructure.

However, some of the offi-cials at the district level are nottaking chances. DM YashMeena from Nawada districtin Bihar said, “We are antic-ipating a surge in the cases inthe near future. We have beenholding awareness camps withthe healthcare workers as wellas panchyatas and communi-ty against improper use ofmedicines while people arebeing educated against sever-al rumours on Covid treat-ment and prevention so thatthey do not become a victimof panic.”

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Page 6: 5 64...2021/05/02  · Around 2.64 lakh of these are at panchayat level with each centre/kiosks facili-tated by an agent called Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE). Continued on Page

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The Union Territory of Jammu& Kashmir on Saturday record-

ed the highest ever death tally of 47in one single day while the totalactive positive cases crossed the bar-rier of 30,000 with 3,832 fresh casesgetting detected during screeningacross the region.

Out of these 47 deaths, 30 werereported from Jammu division and17 across Kashmir division.Out ofa total of 3832 fresh cases, the twincapital cities of Srinagar and Jammureported highest number 1084 and504 cases respectively.

The UT administration afterreviewing the rapid growth of coro-navirus cases late evening alsodecided to extend the 'CoronaCurfew' till May 6 across four mostaffected districts of Srinagar,Baramulla, Budgam and Jammu.

However, the Corona curfew atnight shall continue in all Municipal/ urban local body limits of all 20districts of Jammu and Kashmir,including the above 4 districts.Night curfew will be in force from

8 pm to 7 am.On the other hand, the third

phase of the vaccination drivemeant for persons between 18-45years of age was launched in aphased manner in Jammu andSrinagar districts only.

According to the media bulletinissued by the Department ofInformation and Public Relations,"Out of 30 deaths reported acrossJammu region, 13 were reportedfrom GMC, Jammu, four fromAcharya Shri Chander College ofMedical Sciences and Hospital (ASCOMS), three from GMC,Rajouri, two from GMC Kathua".

As the number of deaths piledup across Jammu region allegationsof lack of oxygen supply available insome of the private hospitals alsosurfaced.

One of the hospital premises inJammu saturday witnessed chaosafter family members raised hue andcry soon after their patient suc-cumbed. Aggrieved family membersalleged the patient died in theabsence of uninterrupted oxygensupply. Responding to the allega-

tions Director Principal, AcharyaShri Chander College of MedicalSciences and Hospital (ASCOMS),Dr Pavan Malhotra said a patientnamely Bita Kumari Kher aged 59years was admitted on 14.04.2021 asCoVID positive and turned nega-tive on 28.04.2021. She howevercould not support herself on theatmospheric oxygen and had to con-tinue with High Flow oxygen evenafter getting negative.

The patient was treated as perprotocol of CoVID and she becamenegative after receiving the treat-ment. She had a massive CardiacPulmonary arrest today morning ataround 9.30 A.M and passed awaydue to acute CoVID pneumonia.The reports in the media that thepatient died due to the non avail-ability of oxygen is totally incorrect.

Dr Malhotra also claimed “Theoxygen supply to the hospital is ade-quate and the hospital is not admit-ting any non CoVID patient so thatthe care of CoVID patients is notaffected. Normal and Emergencysurgeries have been temporarilysuspended” the Principal said.

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Jaipur: Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has saidthat the time has come to provide comprehen-sive social security to the needy, helpless anddeprived people like developed countries to facil-itate healthy and dignified living and to bridgethe gap of richness and poverty.

The Chief Minister Chiranjeevi HealthInsurance Scheme is a historic step of theRajasthan government in this direction, whichwill free the people of the state from worryingabout the huge expense of treatment.

Gehlot was inaugurating the Chief MinisterChiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme and freevaccination for the age group of 18 to 45 yearsfrom the video conference on Saturday. TheChief Minister launched the website of thescheme chiranjiv.rajasthan.gov.in.

During this time, he interacted with theyouth in the age group of 18 and above, whowere vaccinated in Jaipur, Ajmer and Jodhpur.On this occasion, policy documents ofChiranjeevi Yojana were also distributed toselectedbeneficiaries of these three districts.

Others should also consider such a schemeThe Chief Minister said that Rajasthan is theleading state in the country providing univer-

sal health insurance with the aim of providinghealth protection to every state after free med-icine and screening scheme.

He said that during the UPA government,a rights-based era was started to promotesocial security in the country under the lead-ership of the then Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Smt.Sonia Gandhi.

At that time, the countrymen were givenright to programs like Right to Information,Right to Education, Food Security and MahatmaGandhi NREGA. A program like MNREGA hasproved to be a boon for the poorer class in theCovid crisis.

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He does not have a politicaloutfit with presence any-

where outside his hometown ofPoonjar in Kottayam district.But when PlathottamChackochan George (70), PCto his friends, followers andeven rivals, speaks, they all liat-en with rapt attention. He doesnot care a damn about thestature of any politicianswhether it is Pinarayi Vijayanor Oommen Chandi or evenlate K M Mani, his one-timementor. Even Archbishops andCardinals hold him in highesteem because George speaksthe truth.

He is an enigma to con-ventional politicians because hecannot stand to non-sense.George gas been elected seventimes to the legislative assem-bly and the 2021 outing is hiseighth attempt. He won boththe last elections without thesupport of any major politicaloutfits and is sure to make it tothe Legislative Assembly thistime too.

According to George, whotreads a lone furrow in Keralapolitics for the last decade, theState is in for a hung assembly.“Do not give any attention to

these opinion polls or exitpolls. They do not have any sci-entific validity. Chances are thatthe Congress-led UDF is like-ly to emerge as the singlelargest front. But I doubt thepossibilities of them touchingthe magic figure of 71. The BJPis likely to win three to fiveseats and it is going to be theturning point in the State’spolitics,” George told ThePioneer. Interestingly, he hasbeen of the view that the LDFwould not win this election.“My opinion that the LDF willnot win the election stays. Wewill see politically interestingperiod in months to come,” saidGeorge.

All we have to do is to waitfor a few more hours to seewhether George has the lastlaugh. Sivam Mukkan, whoclaims to possess tantric pow-ers says Pinarayi Vijayan wouldcease to be the chief ministeronce the voters are counted. “Hecan forget the chief minister’sname after May 2,” said Sivan.But he declined to give the rea-sons or who would be the nextchief minister. PandhappilliGopala Menon, Sanskrit schol-ar and a widely respectedastrologer has an interestingobservation to make.

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Four teachers of differentdepartments of Aligarh

Muslim University (AMU)died due to corona virus infec-tion. Vice Chancellor Prof.Tariq Mansoor has expressedgrief over the demise of allthese teachers.

Prof. Kunwar Sajid AliKhan, Chairman, Departmentof Psychology, died in a hospi-tal in Delhi. He was 63.Professor Muhammad AliKhan, senior teacher in AMU'sPost Harvest Engineering andTechnology Department,passed away. Vice ChancellorProf. Tariq Mansoor said thatwe have lost the leading acad-emician and scientist, who wasinstrumental in the develop-ment of the post harvest engi-neering field.

In addition, Dr. Jibrail ofthe Department of Historypassed away.

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As the number of Covid-19patients in the State show-

ing no signs of any abatement,Kerala is being fortified fromwithin as well as outsideaccording to Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan.

The districts of Kozhikodeand Malappuram have beenbrought under prohibitoryorders for the next one week inview of the counting of assem-bly votes scheduled for Sundayand the surging cases of Covid-19.

Vijayan in his daily pressbriefing on Saturday eveningsaid that 48 persons lost theirlives and the number of newCovid-19 patients shot up to35, 636 during the last 24hours. The Test Positivity Ratioin the State stood at 24.33 per

cent, said Vijayan.The Chief Minister alleged

that the Centre was not at allcooperating with the State inissuing the vaccines and thishas forced the KeralaGovernment to call off theprogramme to vaccinate thosebetween the 18-45 age groupindefinitely.

“The Centre is showingtotal disregard to the relevantSupreme Court verdict andthis has out us un trouble,” saidthe chief minister.

He disclosed that therewere more than 3.23 lakhCovid patients in the State.Many Government run hospi-tals in Kerala has ran out ofbeds. The Taluk Hospital atThiroorangadi was forced tosend back patients who werebrought to the hospital onSaturday as there were no beds.

There are persons likeRejith Kumar of Idukki whohad opted out from gettingadmitted to the hospital takinga cue from NarayanaDabhalkar of Nagpur. Kumar, a SamskarBharati office -bearer is under-going treatment in his ownhouse in Kerala’s High Range region.

Kozhikode district diag-nosed 5,554 new patientswhile Ernakulam districtaccounted for 5,002 new cases.

With 48 persons suc-cumbing to the pandemic onSaturday, death toll reached5,356 .

Kerala Private HospitalsAssociation on Saturday reject-ed the diktat by the departmentof health to unify the treatmentcosts with that of governmenthospitals.

CHENNAI: Despite stringent measures in force sincelast week, there is no respite in the spread of Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu. On Saturday, the directorate of healthand preventive medicine disclosed that 19, 588 new per-sons were diagnosed with Covid-19 till Saturdayevening. The fatalities too reached a new high as 147deaths were reported from across the State tillSaturday evening, said the release.

The number of Covid-19 patients in Chennaireached 31,475 on Saturday as 5,829 persons were test-ed positive till evening. Chengalpattu (1,445),Coimbatore (1,257) and Tirunelveli (812) are the otherdistricts which were causing concern across the State.

The Tamil Nadu Government’s Unified CommandCentre for Covid-19 management commissioned onFriday has started helping patients across the State byproviding information about hospital bed availabilityand ICU facilities in areas closer to their places of res-idence. Till Thursday, this facility was available onlyin Chennai and neighbouring districts.

Meanwhile the Tamil Nadu Police on late Fridayevening arrested Dr Mohammed Imran Khan, a MBBSgraduate and his accomplices who were involved inhoarding and black-marketing of Remdesivir, a drugfor Covid-19.

Thiruvannamalai based Dr Imran Khan wasprocuring Remdesivir from Government GeneralHospital for Rs 8,000 and selling the same at Rs 20,000, said S Santhi, SP, Civil Supplies Department. PNS

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Refuting a report prepared by M/s.Arsenal Consultancy suggesting

that “fake evidences” were planted intothe laptop of Rona J Wilson, a humanrights activists and one of primeaccused in the sensitive Bhima-Koregaon case, the NIA has told theBombay High Court that the US dig-ital forensics firm has no locus-stan-di to give such opinion without thecourt’s permission.

In an affidavit filed in the highcourt, the NIA contested the reportprepared by the M/s. ArsenalConsultancy, in which the US digitalforensics firm had claimed thatWilson’s laptop was hacked and 10“incriminating” letters planted in itahead of his arrest on April 17, 2018.

The letters, recovered purported-ly from Wilson’s laptop, had amongother things alleged that a conspira-cy had been hatched to kill the PrimeMinister of India and overthrow thegovernment.

Opposing an interim relief toWilson, the NIA stated in its affidavitfiled before the Bombay High Courtthat the application filed by Wilsonbefore the Bombay High Court inFebruary this year on the basis of M/s.Arsenal Consultancy’s claims, was notmaintainable.

In an application on February 10this year, Wilson had urged the high

court to a Special Investigation Team(SIT) to look into the “fake evi-dences” planted into his computerahead of his arrest in the case, andsought dismissal of the case againsthim.

Citing the report prepared by M/s.Arsenal Consultancy to suggest thathis laptop had been hacked and 10 let-ters planted in it ahead of his arrest,Wilson had alleged that the NIA hadused to make out a case against himother activists arrested in the famousBhima-Koregaon case.

Among other things, ArsenalConsulting – which the human rightsactivist had cited to seek an interimrelief -- had claimed in its report thatnot only Wilson’s computer was‘attacked and compromised’ fromJune 13, 2016 for over 22 months, butsimilar malware attacks were made oneven other accused in other high-pro-file Indian cases.

On the basis of M/s ArsenalConsulting’s report, Wilson hadsought a stay on the proceedings in thecase and his immediate release as aninterim relief.

In its affidavit filed before the highcourt, the NIA claimed that M/sArsenal Consulting had no locus togive any opinion in the case at a timewhen Wilson and 15 other civil rightsactivists and academics were beingtried for charges under the stringentUnlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,

1967 (UAPA).“When the trial is pending and is

sub-judiced before this court M/s.Arsenal Consultancy have no locus-standi to give such an opinion with-out permission of this Hon'ble Court,"NIA’s Superintendent of Police VikramKhalate stated in his affidavit.

The NIA told the high court thatit was for Wilson to explain how hislaptop came to be allegedly hacked,when it was under his control and thatthe latter could not blame the inves-tigating agencies that came into thepicture much later.

Terming Wilson's petition is"vague", the NIA stated that the peti-tion did not mention the name of thecyber attacker's name, who might haveplanted evidence on his laptop.

The high court will now hearWilson’s plea seeking interim relief onMay 4.

It may be recalled that the scannedcopies of 10 “incriminating” letterswere among the virtual and physicaldocuments recovered by the investi-gators during their simultaneous raidsconducted by the investigators onApril 17 2018 ahead of the arrest ofWilson and other accused in the case.

Apart from Wilson, another 15persons were arrested in 2018. Thearrested persons included P VaravaraRao, Sudhir Dhawale, SurendraGadling, Anand Teltumbde, GautamNavlakha, Jyoti Jagtap, Ramesh

Gaichor, Shona Sen, Arun Ferreira,Sagar Gorkhe, Mahesh Raut, SudhaBharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Fr.Stan Swamy and Hany Babu. They arebeing tried under the dreaded UAPAAct, 1967.

On the basis of one of the alleged-ly incriminating letters seized fromWilson’s computer, the Pune policehad claimed that the CPI (Maoist) hadhatched a “conspiracy" to “overthrow”the Government and “target” thecountry’s highest political functionary.

The letter, written by “R” (whichthe investigators suspected might beRona Jacob himself) and addressed toone comrade Prakash, stated: “We arethinking along the lines of anotherRajiv Gandhi-type incident. It soundssuicidal and there is a good chance wemight fail but we feel the party mustdeliberate over our proposal. Targetinghis road shows could be an effectivestrategy. We collectively believe thatsurvival of the party is supreme to allsacrifices”.

The letter also talks about therequirement of Rs 8 crore to procureM-4 rifles as an annual supply andfour lakh rounds of ammunition.

Among other things, the letterstated: “Modi-led Hindu fascist regimeis bulldozing its way into the lives ofindigenous adivasis, in spite of bigdefeats like Bihar and West Bengal.Modi has successfully establishedBJP govt in more than 15 states. If this

pace continues then it would meanimmense trouble for the party on allfronts. Greater suppression of dissentand more brutal form of Mission 2016(OGH). Com. Kisan and few othercomrades have proposed concretesteps to end Modi-raj”.

“Defeating Hindu fascism hasbeen our core agenda and a majorconcern for the party.... We are tryingto consolidate ties with like-mindedorganisations, pol. parties, represen-tatives of minorities across the coun-try,” the letter stated.

The arrests of “Maoist-linked”activists were made under the FIR reg-istered on January 8, 2018 at thePune’s Vishram Baug Police Station inconnection with the Elgar Parishadorganised on December 31, 2017 bythe leftist outfit Kabir Kala Manch(KKM) and Republican PanthersParty ahead of the January 1, 2018Bhima-Koregaon riots.

It may be recalled that on January1, 2018, one Rahul Phatangale (28), aDalit, was killed and another 40-oddvehicles and some other property weredamaged after some miscreantsattacked Dalits celebrating the January1, 1818 victory of British troops overPeshwa Bajirao II's army at Bhima-Koregaon in Pune district of westernMaharashtra. Following the incident,Maharashtra had witnessed large-scale Dalit protests which turnedviolent at some places.

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The Nashik police onSaturday registered a non-

cognisable offence against fivepersons for allegedly creatingand circulating an objection-able video on Facebook andother social media platformsabout former Chief Ministerand senior BJP leaderDevendra Fadnavis.

Acting on a complaint filedby the BJP’s local unit presidentHemant Gaikwad, the NashikRoad police registered a caseagainst five persons for alleged-ly trying to defame Fadnavisduring his visit to Nashsik onFriday.

According to the com-plaint, one unidentified person

prepared an objectionablevideo against Fadnavis andtried to defame the formerchief minister.

The five persons, againstwhom the police have regis-tered a case, were identified asSanket Bhosale, Ratan Khalkar, Pramod Khonkhade,Rahul Joshi and Bunty Thakre.

They had allegedly usedtheir Facebook accounts tocirculate the objectionablevideo.

In his complaint, Gaikwadhas alleged that the person whohad video had threatened toattack Fadnavis and heapedabuses on the former chiefminister and former State min-ister Girish Mahajan.

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Panaji: Goa recorded 2,303 new coronavirus infections onSaturday which took its caseload to 93,355, a health depart-ment official said.With 54 persons succumbing to the infec-tion, the death toll reached 1,222.

The number of recovered persons rose to 68,249 with1,310 patients getting discharged from hospitals on Saturday.

The number of active cases in the state is 23,884, the offi-cial said."With 5,897 new tests, the total of samples testedfor coronavirus went up to 6,58,713," he added.

With the coastal state, a popular tourist hotspot, report-ing an extremely high test positivity rate of over 50 per centon Thursday, authorities have imposed a four-day lockdowntill 6 am on May 3.

The state government has said all essential services wouldbe allowed to function during the period.

Goa's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases93,355, new cases 2,303, death toll 1,222, recovered 68,249,active cases 23,884, samples tested to date 6,58,713. PTI

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With hardly any let up in the con-tinued spurt in the infections and

fatalities in Maharashtra, as many as802 died of Covid-19 and 63,282 moretested positive for the pandemic in var-ious parts of the state on Saturday.

A day after the pandemic claimed828 lives and left 62,919 infected in thestate, Maharashtra logged 802 deathsand 63,282 new infections.

With 802 new deaths, the totalnumber of deaths in the state climbedfrom 68813 to 69615. Similarly, with63,282 infections, the total number ofcases rose from 46,02,472 to 46,65,754.

As 61,326 patients were dischargedfrom the hospitals across the state afterfull recovery, the total number of peo-ple discharged from the hospitals sincethe second week of March last year wentup to 39,30,302. The recovery rate in thestate for the first time in several daysrose from 84.06 per cent to 84.24 percent.

The total “active cases” in the state

rose from 6,62,640 cases to 6,63,658cases. The fatality rate in the statedropped from 1.50 per cent tpo 1.49 percent. With fresh deaths, the Covid-19toll in Mumbai remained static at13,215, while the infected cases went upby 3897 to trigger a jump in the infec-tions from 6,48,471 to 6,52,368.

While Pune accounted for a maxi-mum 1,04,849 “active cases” in the state,Nagpur stood second 76,291 followedby Mumbai with 63,325, Thane(49,981), Nashik (49,255), Chandrapur(27,409), Ahmednagar (21,754), Satara(18,858), Solapur (18,780), Latur(14,677), Aurangabad (13503), Jalgaon(12784), Beed (13296), Parbhani(11,912), Bhandara (11,127), Buldhana( 10,031), Osmanabad (8965)Nanded(8577), Nandurbar (6936) and Gondia(8293).

Of the 2,73,95,288 samples sent tolaboratories, 46,65,754 have tested pos-itive (17.03 per cent) for COVID-19until Saturday.Currently, 40,43,899 peo-ple are in home quarantine while 26,420people are in institutional quarantine.

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Amaravati: A record numberof 98,214 test turned out a newhigh of 19,412 positive cases ofcoronavirus in AndhraPradesh in 24 hours ending 9am on Saturday.

The state also reported11,579 recoveries and 61 freshfatalities in a day, a healthdepartment bulletin said Thegross positive cases has climbedto 11,21,102, recoveries to9,82,297 and toll 8,053.

The state now has1,30,752 active cases, the bul-letin said. Ten out of 13 dis-tricts reported fresh cases inexcess of 1,000 each and theremaining less than 800 each.State Principal Secretary(Health) Anil Kumar Singhaltold a press conference onSaturday evening that results of1.30 lakh samples were overdueand they were trying to clearthe backlog in the next twodays.

"From Monday, we willhopefully deliver the resultswithout any delay," Anil said.

He said out of the 43,491beds available in 551 COVID-19 hospitals, 32,301 were nowoccupied.

"We have started a dis-charge drive in hospitals wherethe load is high.

It started in Vijayawada,Guntur, Chittoor,Anantapuramu and otherplaces.

The more the beds thevacated, the more new patientscan be accommodated," thePrincipal Secretary said.

Anil said 75,898 patientswere now in home isolation.

"We are advising patients

(with mild symptoms) to firstget admitted in Covid CareCentres, he added.

On the Oxygen supplyposition, Anil said 443 tonnesof liquid medical oxygen wasdelivered to the state onSaturday.

Meanwhile, the state gov-ernment airlifted, by IAFs C-17Globemaster, two emptytankers to Angul in neigh-bouring Odisha for bringingoxygen from Tata Steel's plant.

Covid Special Officer M TKrishna Babu said the state wascurrently getting 170 tonnes ofoxygen from theVisakhapatnam Steel Plant andanother 200 tonnes from dif-ferent sources within AP.

The balance 100 tonneshas been allotted from Angul,Bellary and Chennai, he said.

Another two tankerswould be airlifted to Angultomorrow. PTI

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VIENNA: High-ranking diplo-mats from China, Germany,France, Russia and Britainresumed talks Saturday focusedon bringing the United Statesback into their landmarknuclear deal with Iran.

The U.S. will not have arepresentative at the table whenthe diplomats meet in Viennabecause former PresidentDonald Trump unilaterallypulled the country out of thedeal, known as the JointComprehensive Plan of Action,in 2018. Trump also restoredand augmented sanctions to try

to force Iran into renegotiatingthe pact with more concessions.

U.S. President Joe Bidenwants to rejoin the deal, how-ever, and a U.S. delegation inVienna is taking part in indi-rect talks with Iran, with diplo-mats from the other worldpowers acting as go-betweens.

The Biden administrationis considering a rollback ofsome of the most stringentTrump-era sanctions in a bid toget Iran to come back intocompliance with the terms ofthe nuclear agreement, accord-ing to information from cur-

rent and former U.S. officialsand others familiar with thematter earlier this week.

Ahead of the main talks,Russia’s top representativeMikhail Ulyanov said JCPOAmembers met on the side withofficials from the U.S. delega-tion but that the Iranian dele-gation was not ready to meetwith U.S. diplomats.

“JCPOA participants heldtoday informal consultationswith the U.S. delegation at theVienna talks on full restorationof the nuclear deal,” Ulyanovtweeted. “Without Iran who is

still not ready to meet with U.S.diplomats.”

The Joint ComprehensivePlan of Action, or JCPOA,promised Iran economic incen-tives in exchange for curbs onits nuclear program. The reim-position of U.S. sanctions hasleft the Islamic Republic’s econ-omy reeling. Tehran hasresponded by steadily increas-ing its violations of the restric-tions of the deal, such asincreasing the purity of urani-um it enriches and its stock-piles, in a thus-far unsuccess-ful effort to pressure the other

countries to provide relief.The ultimate goal of the

deal is to prevent Iran fromdeveloping a nuclear bomb,something it insists it doesn’twant to do. Iran now hasenough enriched uranium tomake a bomb, but nowhere near the amount ithad before the nuclear deal wassigned.

The Vienna talks began inearly April and have includedseveral rounds of high-leveldiscussions. Expert groups alsohave been working on propos-als on how to resolve the issues

around American sanctionsand Iranian compliance, aswell as the “possible sequenc-ing” of the U.S. return.

Outside the talks inVienna, other challengesremain.

An attack suspected tohave been carried out by Israelrecently struck Iran’s Natanznuclear site, causing anunknown amount of damage.Tehran retaliated by begin-ning to enrich a small amountof uranium up to 60% purity,its highest level ever.

AP

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KABUL, Afghanistan: —Afghanistan’s chief peace nego-tiator said Saturday the oftenfractured Afghan political lead-ership must unify in its peacetalks with the Taliban or riskthe withdrawal of U.S. andNATO troops bringing morebitter fighting.

Abdullah Abdullah, headof Afghanistan’s NationalReconciliation Council, saidthe time is now forAfghanistan’s political leadersto stand united in the talks. Butsome of them are former war-lords with fierce reputations,heavily armed militias anddeep seated grudges.

In an interview with TheAssociated Press in the Afghancapital, Abdullah warned thathistory and millions of Afghans— already frustrated by whatthey see as government inepti-tude and runaway corruption— will judge them harshly ifunity eludes the powerful lead-ers now in Kabul. In the early1990s bitter fighting betweenmany of the same leaders killedthousands of mostly civilians inthe capital and gave rise to theTaliban, who took power in1996.

Abdullah said the with-drawal that officially beganSaturday of the remaining2,500 to 3,500 U.S. troops andabout 7,000 NATO allied forceswill present “huge challenges.”

“I wouldn’t call it the endof of the world for our people.I would say that it will be verychallenging and that’s why I amof the opinion that the whole

focus has to be on achievingpeace, that does not only takeus, it takes the other side,” hesaid.

Still, Abdullah said he isunconvinced the Taliban wantpeace. He said the NationalReconciliation Council, ofwhich he is the chairman, hasput out countless calls for theTaliban to put all theirdemands on the table.

Messages go back and forthbetween a variety of Taliban tosenior negotiators, includinghimself, said Abdullah. Henoted that he has receivedcountless messages fromTaliban officials, some written,some as voice messages.Sometimes they are detailed,and other times terse and brief.But he said he has yet to see acommitment to peace fromthe insurgent group on whichhe can rely.

Abdullah said his responseto the Taliban has been con-sistent: “Put everything thatyou want on the negotiatingtable. We are ready to discussit. We are ready to find waysthat it works for both sides.”

He said the withdrawaladds pressure on both sides tofind a peace deal.

The Taliban cannot winmilitarily, he said, and evenregional powers — includingPakistan with its influence overthe insurgent group — havesteadfastly rejected a militarytakeover in Afghanistan.Taliban leaders are headquar-tered in Pakistani cities.

AP

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WASHINGTON: President JoeBiden has asked his adminis-tration to provide all assistanceto India, which is battling oneof the worst outbreaks ofCOVID-19, and has assuredthat the US would stand shoul-der-to-shoulder with the coun-try, top officials from the twonations have said.

Biden sent two of his topofficials to the Dulles Airporthere on Friday evening fromwhere another flight withUSAID assistance materialsincluding oxygen cylinders,N95 masks and filters to beused in the production of vac-cines were dispatched to NewsDelhi.

The first two flights arrivedin New Delhi a day earlier.

“He (Biden) said great.Stay with it. Stay with it!,” vet-eran diplomat Kurt Campbell,who is leading Biden’s AsiaPolicy at the White House toldreporters at the airport onFriday evening.

Campbell travelled with

Biden on Air Force One dur-ing his trip to Georgia.

On his way back, Campbellbriefed the president of theadministration’s COVID-19relief efforts for India.

“I was able to give a senseof what USAID (United StatesAgency for InternationalDevelopment) is doing, what ithopes to accomplish,” he said inresponse to a question.

India’s Ambassador to theUS Taranjit Singh Sandhu toldreporters at the Dulles Airport:?The administration, startingright from the top, PresidentBiden reached out and in fact,to quote him, the United Stateswill stand shoulder-to-shoulderwith India.

We very much appreciatethat.

“Sandhu also applaudedthe bipartisan support thatIndia has received fromAmerican congressmen andsenators. The US businesseshave come forward in anunprecedented way.

“Finally, the people of theUnited States, their solidaritywith the people of India is verymuch recognised and appreci-ated. And also the IndianAmerican community. I’msure, with the support offriends and partners like theUnited States, we will face thischallenge and with God’s grace,we will come out of it,” Sandhusaid.

Campbell said he and hisNational Security Council col-league Sumona Guha, who issenior director for South Asiathere, were sent by the presi-dent to the airport before theCOVID-19 relief material leftfor India.

“The President asked us tocome out today to well wishthis supply going to India,?Campbell said, as he applaud-ed the tireless efforts ofAmbassador Sandhu for help-ing in every way he can.

Campbell said during hiscall with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi last week,

Biden made clear that Indiawas one of the first countriesthat came to the rescue of theUS in May last year whenAmericans were suffering fromthe pandemic.

“They stepped up for us.This time, we in the UnitedStates, our people in the gov-ernment, but also in the privatesector -- I’ve never seen such anoutpouring of support fromour corporate friends, andpartners, as we’ve seen over thelast several days,” he said.

“What we are coordinatingis the most significant out-pouring of support for peoplethat I’ve never seen from thecorporate community. We’retrying to be there for India,now as they were with usbefore. We know that this is going to be a long haul,”he said.

“This is only the first cou-ple of days. We have to bedetermined. We have to workin partnership... we have to dothis together. And we’re com-

mitted to doing that,” he said.Guha told reporters that

the Biden administration wasworking to provide India withsupplies that they’ve asked for:oxygen, testing equipment, andPPE kits.

Jeremy Konyndyk, senioradvisor coordinating agency-wide COVID efforts at USAID told reporters that theplane headed for India fromDulles airport sent oxygencylinders, N95 respirators andothers.

?These are materials thatwill help to sustain people sickwith COVID-19 in India.

Oxygen treatment is one ofthe most effective ways to treatSevere COVID-19,” he said.

“Everything behind ushere, everything on this flightwill be saving lives in India inthe coming days in partnershipand support of our partners inthe Indian government and insupport of the Indian people,?he added.

PTI

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HOUSTON: In a suspectedhuman smuggling case, 91people, including five coron-avirus-infected persons, havebeen found crammed togetherin a two-storey building here inthe US state of Texas, policesaid.

Based on a tip-off, a spe-cial-tactics team of the policeraided the home in south-westHouston on Friday. A searchwarrant was served before theraid. No children were foundinside the home. The youngerlot of residents were at least 20years and above. In total, therewere five women and the restwere men.

The police referred to theboarders at the house as

“migrants” as their nationalitywas yet to be confirmed.

The migrants told policethey were hungry, while someshowed signs of COVID-19,including fever, loss of smelland taste.

The Houston HealthDepartment conducted rapidCOVID-19 tests and five of theboarders tested positive. Themigrants would temporarilycontinue to stay in the house,police said.

The Houston FireDepartment has provided med-ical care, food and water to themigrants. No serious injurieswere found on any of themigrants.

“When we got into thehouse, we realised there wereover 90 people inside and so weimmediately began to assessany kind of a special threat,”said Houston Police assistant

chief Daryn Edwards.He said the people were

found “huddled together” inthe two-storey home, but theywere not tied up. No firearmswere found at the scene.

“It was a big surprise whenwe got in the house and sawwhat we saw,” Edwards said.

“I don’t know if they (theones who lodged the migrants)were going to parcel them (themigrants) off into doing somework or labour, but it is defi-nitely more of a smugglingthing than a trafficking thing,”he said. The police are investi-gating who the victims are, andwho brought them here.“Anytime you see people beingmistreated, it doesn’t matterwhat race, culture, where youcome from... there’s no excusefor people to be mistreated likethat,” said Assistant HPD ChiefPatricia Cantu. PTI

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MOSCOW: Russia’s state sta-tistical service says the numberof deaths nationwide in thefirst three months of 2021 wasmore than 25% higher than thesame period a year ago, and itreported thousands moredeaths due to COVID-19 inMarch than tallied by thecountry’s coronavirus taskforce.

More than 583,000 peopledied in January-March of thisyear in Russia, compared with460,000 for those months in2020, the Rosstat agency said

in a report issued Friday.The agency did not pro-

vide an explanation for thesharply higher death toll, butcritics have suggested thatRussian officials underplay theseverity of the pandemic in thecountry.

The national coronavirustask force counted more than12,300 deaths from COVID-19in March, but Rosstat gave asubstantially higher number.The agency said there were15,003 deaths that month inwhich coronavirus was the

leading cause, along with 2,454cases in which COVID-19 wasbelieved to be the leadingcause and 1,401 deaths inwhich COVID-19 influencedother diseases and accelerateddeath.

According to the taskforce, throughout the pan-demic 110,502 people havedied in Russia of COVID-19 asof Saturday — 392 of them inthe past day. The country hasrecorded more than 4.8 millionconfirmed cases.

Although Russia has boast-

ed of being the first country toauthorize a coronavirus vac-cine — the Russian-madeSputnik V — the pace of itsvaccination program is laggingwell behind many other coun-tries.

Only about 8% of Russianshave gotten at least one vaccineshot, while 5% have been fullyvaccinated. That puts Russia farbehind Britain, where 50% ofthe population has gotten atleast one shot; the UnitedStates at 43% and the EuropeanUnion with nearly 27%. AP

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Geneva: The World HealthOrganisation has given the go-ahead for the emergency use ofModerna’s Covid-19 vaccine.

The mRNA vaccine fromthe US manufacturer joins vac-cines from AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Johnson &Johnson in receiving theWHO’s emergency use listing.

Similar approvals forChina’s Sinopharm and Sinovacvaccines are expected in thecoming days, WHO has said.

The greenlight forModerna’s vaccine, announcedlate Friday, took many months

because of delays that WHOfaced in getting data from themanufacturer.

Many countries withouttheir own advanced medicalregulatory and assessmentoffices rely on the WHO listingto decide whether to use vac-cines. UN children’s agencyUNICEF also uses the listing todeploy vaccines in an emer-gency like the pandemic.

The announcement, how-ever, wasn’t likely to have animmediate impact on the sup-plies of Moderna’s vaccine forthe developing world. AP

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Workers and union leadersdusted off bullhorns and

flags that had stayed furled dur-ing coronavirus lockdowns forslimmed down but still bois-terous May Day marches onSaturday, demanding morelabour protections amid a pan-

demic that has turnedeconomies and workplacesupside down. In countries thatmark May 1 as InternationalLabour Day, the annual cele-bration of workers’ rights pro-duced a rare sight during thepandemic: large and closelypacked crowds, with marchersstriding shoulder-to-shoulderwith clenched fists behind ban-ners. But in Turkey and thePhilippines, police preventedthe May Day protests, enforc-ing virus lockdowns.

Toronto:Ontario, Canada’sworst-hit province which isbattling the third wave of thecoronavirus, has sought a banon the arrival of internation-al students.

Currently, students fromIndia make up the majority ofinternational students study-ing in Ontario.

Making this announce-ment on Friday, OntarioPremier Doug Ford said thatsince 94 per cent of all newcases in Ontario are of newvariant of the virus and arecoming from outside. IANS

Washington: About 35 percent of all Americans havebeen infected with Covid-19over the past year, according toa new study of the US Centersfor Disease Control andPrevention (CDC). CDC esti-mates that from February 2020to March 2021, 114.6 millionAmericans were infected withCovid-19, 97.1 million hadsymptomatic illnesses and 5.6million were hospitalised withCovid-19, the Xinhua newsagency reported on Saturday.

IANS

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Washington: As the US gov-ernment steps up assistance toIndia in its battle against adeadly wave of the COVID-19,an Indian public healthcareexpert has pointed out thetremendous scope for India-UScooperation in the sectors ofhealth technology and phar-maceuticals.

‘After we emerge out of thecrisis, two areas where there istremendous scope for cooper-ation between India and the USare health technology andpharmaceuticals,’ Indian civilservant Dr Mrinalini Darswal,currently pursuing doctoralstudies in public health withfocus on COVID-19 atHarvard University, told PTI.

A 2002-batch Odisha-cadre IAS officer, Darswal saidIndia has proved its compe-tence in the health sector, espe-cially in speed of innovation,manufacture, and cost-effec-tiveness.

It is beneficial to the US toutilise India’s technical com-

petence and installed capacityin drug manufacturing tosource health equipment,drugs, personal protectiveequipment, and vaccines atcompetitive rates even now, shesaid.

‘This shall also lower USdependence on China, whichhas proved a treacherous part-ner, besides being non-repen-tant of its hiding of the originof COVID-19 and conse-quently throwing the planet inthe current predicament,’Darswal said.

Observing that globalisa-tion and interconnectednesshastened the spread of thecoronavirus in a matter ofweeks in November 2019,Darswal said the same forces ofinterdependence and mutual-ity would help the world tideover the crisis. “The USA andIndia -- the largest democraciesin the world -- are capable ofsetting the path to the normalfor the entire planet,” Darswalsaid. PTI

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Dublin: Five countries including India have beenadded to Ireland’s mandatory quarantine list, accord-ing to a statement released by the Irish government.The five countries are India, Iran, Mongolia, Georgiaand Costa Rica. India’s federal health ministry saidon Friday morning that 386,452 new cases and 3,498related deaths were registered in the past 24 hoursacross the country, the Xinhua news agency report-ed. IANS

Washington: The overall globalCovid-19 caseload has topped 150.9million, while the deaths havesurged to more than 3.17 million,according to the Johns HopkinsUniversity. In its latest update onSaturday morning, the University’sCenter for Systems Science andEngineering (CSSE) revealed that

the current global caseload anddeath toll stood at 150,972,476 and3,176,054, respectively.

The US continues to be theworst-hit country with the world’shighest number of cases and deathsat 32,345,038 and 575,921, respec-tively, according to the CSSE.

IANS

Tripoli: The United NationsHigh Commissioner forRefugees (UNHCR) on Fridaysaid that some 340 illegalmigrants have been rescued offthe coast of Libya.

“Some 340 refugees andmigrants have been returnedtoday to Tripoli by LibyanCoast Guard,” UNHCR tweet-ed.

“UNHCR and IRC(International RescueCommittee) provided urgentmedical and humanitarianassistance to all survivorsbefore being taken to deten-tion,” UNHCR said.

Libya has become a pre-ferred point of departure forthousands of immigrants whoattempt to cross theMediterranean Sea to reachEuropean shores, the Xinhuanews agency reported. IANS

Washington: The US willexplore diplomacy with NorthKorea and adopt a “practicalapproach,” the White Housesaid on Friday.

White House PressSecretary Jen Psaki toldreporters aboard Air ForceOne that the Biden adminis-tration had completed its pol-icy review on North Korea,Xinhua news agency reported.

“Our policy will not focuson achieving a grand bargain,nor will it rely on strategicpatience,” she said.

“Our policy calls for a cal-ibrated practical approach thatis open to and will explorediplomacy with North Koreaand to make practical progressthat increases the security ofthe United States, our allies,

and deployed forces.”The term “strategic

patience” and “grand bargain”refer to US policies towardNorth Korea under the admin-istrations of Barack Obamaand Donald Trump.

Psaki reaffirmed that thecomplete denuclearization ofthe Korean Peninsula remainsthe policy goal, noting “theefforts of the past four admin-istrations have not achievedthis objective.”

She added that the UnitedStates would continue to con-sult with South Korea, Japan,and other allies and partners onthis issue.

President Joe Biden lastmonth told reporters thatNorth Korea ranked the topforeign policy issue for his

administration. The WhiteHouse said the Biden admin-istration had reached out toPyongyang through severalchannels but had not yetreceived any response.

North Korea First ViceForeign Minister Choe SonHui said in March thatPyongyang would ignore USoutreach until Washington“rolls back its hostile policy.”

Denuclearization talksbetween Pyongyang andWashington have been stalledsince the summit talks betweentop North Korea leader KimJong Un and former USPresident Donald Trump ended without agree-ment in February 2019 at theVietnamese capital of Hanoi.

IANS

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Colombo: Sri Lanka is looking at sources otherthan India to purchase the Oxford/AstraZenecavaccine in view of delay in securing the vaccinesfrom the Serum Institute of India, health author-ities said on Saturday. “The supply is beingdelayed from India. We have to understand thatIndia has to look after their own country beforesupplying to us. It is not that they have told noto us,” Gen Shavendra Silva, the chief of theCovid prevention operations said. PTI

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New Delhi:Essar on Saturdaysaid it has set up a 100-bedCovid care centre in Gujarat’sDwarka district.Accordingly, the centre is dulyequipped with oxygen supportand will be operated by theKhambaliya Civil Hospital.The

centre is equipped with oxygensupport which will has becomecritical during the secondCovid wave across the country.It houses 40 rooms with dou-ble occupancy and 20 rooms ofsingle occupancy

IANS

Taipei:Taiwanese chip-makercompany MediaTek is expect-ing to post another sequentialincrease of 10-18 per cent inrevenues for the second quar-ter of 2021.

The company has alsoraised its internal revenuegrowth and gross margin pro-jections for 2021 to 40 per centand 44-46 per cent, respec-tively, DigiTimes reported, cit-ing industry sources.

The company has alreadybegun talks with its upstreamsupply chain partners aboutcapacity support for 2022 andhas achieved satisfactory resultsso far, the sources said. IANS

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India’s gross GST revenuecollection reached a new

record high of over Rs 1.41 lakhcrore in April 2021, beating allexpectations of lower collec-tions in wake disruptions claus-es by fresh wave of Covid-19.

Accordingly, the GST rev-enues during April 2021 are thehighest since the introductionof the tax. The same feat wasachieved even in March whencollections at over Rs 1.23 lakhcrore was the highest sinceintroduction of GST in 2017.

“In line with the trend ofrecovery in the GST revenuesover past six months, the rev-enues for the month of April2021 are 14% higher than theGST revenues in the last monthof March’2021,” the FinanceMinistry said in a statement.

“During the month, therevenues from domestic trans-action (including import ofservices) are 21 per cent high-er than the revenues fromthese sources during the lastmonth.”

According to the state-ment, the gross GST revenuecollected in the month of April

2021 is at a record of Rs1,41,384 crore of which CGSTis Rs 27,837 crore, SGST is Rs35,621, IGST is Rs 68,481 crore(including Rs 29,599 crore col-lected on import of goods) andCess is Rs 9,445 crore (includ-ing Rs 981 crore collected onimport of goods).

“During this month thegovernment has settled Rs29,185 crore to CGST and Rs22,756 crore to SGST fromIGST as regular settlement.The total revenue of Centre andthe States after regular and ad-hoc settlements in the monthof April’ 2021 is Rs 57,022 crorefor CGST and Rs 58,377 crorefor the SGST.”

Despite the second wave ofCovid-19 pandemic affectingseveral parts of the country,Indian businesses have onceagain shown remarkableresilience by not only comply-ing with the return filingrequirements but also payingtheir GST dues in a timelymanner during the month, theFinance Ministry statementsaid.

“The all-time high collec-tions which relates to suppliesmade in March 21 could nowgive way to muted collectionsin the coming months due tothe lower economic activities inApril. The continuing focus onimproving compliance and the

steps taken to curb evasionappears to be significantlyimproving the GST collec-tions,” said M. S. Mani, SeniorDirector, Deloitte India.

GST revenues have notonly crossed the Rs 1 lakh croremark during successively forthe last seven months but havealso shown a steady increase.These are indicators of sus-tained economic recovery dur-ing this period, FinanceMinistry said.

Closer monitoring againstfake-billing, deep data analyt-ics using data from multiplesources including GST,Income-tax and Customs ITsystems and effective taxadministration have also con-tributed to the steady increasein tax revenue, it added.

Quarterly return andmonthly payment scheme hasbeen successfully implementedbringing relief to the smalltaxpayers as they now file onlyone return every three months.Providing IT support to tax-payers in the form of pre-filled GSTR 2A and 3B returnsand ramped up System capac-ity have also eased the returnfiling process.

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In view of the severe Covid-19 pandemic and requests

put forward by taxpayers, taxconsultants and other stake-holders, the Government hasdecided to provide furtherrelief to taxpayers by extendingvarious time limits of compli-ances.

Accordingly, the CentralBoard of Direct Taxes (CBDT)has now extended the timelimit for filing of belated returnand revised return forAssessment Year 2020-21, bytwo months from March 31,2021 to May 31, 2021.

Also, Income-tax returnin response to notice underSection 148 of the Income TaxAct, for which the last date offiling of return of incomeunder the said notice is April1, 2021 or thereafter, may nowbe filed within the time allowedunder that notice or by May 31,2021, whichever is later.

The CBDT has also grant-ed extension for filing ofappeals before Commissioner(Appeals) to May 31, 2021.Similar extension has also beengiven for filing of objections to

Dispute Resolution Panel(DRP) under Section 144C ofthe Act.

The compliance deadlinehas also been eased by twomonths till May 31, 2021 forPayment of tax deducted underSection 194-IA, Section 194-IBand Section 194M of the Act,and filing of challan-cum-statement for such tax deduct-ed. These are are currentlyrequired to be paid and fur-nished by 30 April, 2021(respectively).

Also, Statement in FormNo. 61, containing particularsof declarations received inForm No. 60, which is due tobe furnished on or before 30April, 2021, can now be be fur-nished on or before 31 May,2021.

The relaxations are the lat-est among the recent initiativestaken by the government toease compliances to be made bythe taxpayers with the aim togrant respite during these dif-ficult times, a Finance Ministrystatement said.

The government had alsorelaxed few tax compliancerelated issues last week onSaturday.

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Country’s largest steel makerSteel Authority of India

Limited (SAIL) is planning toset up jumbo medical facilitiesof about 2,500 beds withgaseous oxygen (GOX) forCovid treatment.

This will be in addition tothe facilities currently availableat SAIL’s five integrated steelplants at Bhilai (Chattisgarh),Bokaro (Jharkhand), Rourkela(Odisha), Durgapur andBurnpur (West Bengal).

These jumbo facilities arebeing planned outside theexisting hospital facilities andshall have oxygen supportthrough a dedicated gas linedrawn directly from the steelplants instead of extracting

gaseous oxygen from liquidmedical oxygen as is beingdone in the own hospitals ofSAIL currently.

At the suggestion of thegovernment, SAIL shall usegaseous oxygen directly as anadditional source of oxygen asthe demand for liquid medicaloxygen is high currently, thecompany said in a statement.

These 2,500 bed facilitywill be developed in phasedmanner in collaboration withthe respective state govts. In thefirst phase, the company will setup about 700 beds which will bescaled up to 2,500 beds acrossall the five locations. Currently,there are around 3,000 beds inthe five SAIL hospitals andabout 45%of beds have beenearmarked for Covid patients.

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As India grapples with anunprecedented new wave

of the Covid Pandemic,Reliance Industries has scaledup production of medical gradeliquid oxygen, becoming coun-try’s largest producer of thislife-saving resource from a sin-gle location in just over a year’stime.

Traditionally, Reliance isnot a manufacturer of medicalgrade liquid oxygen. Yet, start-ing from Nil before the pan-demic, the company is itslargest producer in the countryfrom a single location. At itsrefinery-cum-petrochemical

complex in Jamnagar and otherfacilities, RIL now producesover 1000 MT per day - or 11per cent of India’s total production - meeting the needsof nearly every one in tenpatients.

A company statement saidthat under personal supervisionof Mukesh Ambani, Chairmanand Managing Director, atJamnagar, Reliance has adopt-ed a two-pronged approach tostrengthen the availability ofmedical oxygen in India: thecompany is refocusing severalindustrial processes at Reliance’sJamnagar and other facilities forrapid scale-up in production ofmedical grade liquid oxygen.

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The eastern states in thecountry are witnessing high

levels of digital frauds or UPIscams (41 per cent) via pay-ment apps and online market-places, a report has revealed.

According to TrustCheckr,a fraud data insights and ana-lytics startup, West Bengal,Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Kashmir,Arunachal Pradesh,Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland,Mizoram, Manipur, HimachalPradesh and Sikkim are facingtop frauds in KYC, fake cash-back, frauds through digitalwallets, fake-selling, QR codes,UPI phishing, lottery scamsand financial fraud on socialmedia.

The top scamsters are fromPatna, Chandigarh, Kolkataand Meerut for one of the toppayment apps (at 15 per cent)and most QR Code scamsoriginate from Assam, account-ing for 20 per cent of the totaldistribution.

“Top cities where fraudstersyndicates are active areKolkata, Delhi, Jaipur,Guwahati, Patna, Chandigarh,Meerut,” the report mentioned.

In QR code frauds, mostfraudsters posed themselves

as army men selling somethingon marketplaces.

“Digital scams can trickusers as they may appear aslegitimate by revealing a fewauthentic details about them inorder to earn their trust andmove money. If it sounds toogood to be true, one should becareful about such transac-tions. Our score parameters cangive a go-ahead or early warn-ing signs of fraud,” said ShivrajHarsha, Co-founder,TrustCheckr.

TrustCheckr identifiedover 1 million frauds togetherin B2B and B2C in the last 15months — 25 per cent scams inKYC and 20 per cent in QRcodes, while B2B scams werelargely done with 30 per centfake identities and 25 per centsynthetic identity frauds.

“The common thread ofdigital payment frauds is phonenumber and email address.We check fraud signals withphone/email, validate the cus-tomer authenticity using his-torical fraud trends, fraud datasets, history and provide sim-ple REST APIs with phonenumbers as input, integrationin less than 48 hours,” saidAdhip Ramesh, Founder,TrustCheckr.

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Fuel prices in the countryremained unchanged on

Saturday as oil marketing com-panies decided to wait andwatch the situation prevailingin global oil markets beforebefore restarting daily revi-sion of petrol and diesel prices.

Sources indicated that pricerevisions may begin anytimenext week after results to stateelections are declared.However, whether price ofpetrol and diesel would moveup or down then would dependon actual average global pricein the last fortnight of March.

OMCs benchmark retailfuel prices to a 15-day rollingaverage of global refined prod-ucts’ prices and dollar exchangerate.With no price change onSaturday, pump price of petroland diesel remained at Rs 90.40a litre and Rs 80.73 a litrerespective in Delhi. This is 16consecutive day when fuel priceshave not been revised. The priceof the two auto fuels had fallenby 16 paisa and 14 paisa per litrerespectively on April 15 after a15 day break when OMCs keptits prices static.

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The Finance Ministry hasreleased an amount of

�8,873.6 crore in advancetowards central share of theState Disaster Response Fund(SDRF) for FY22 to help statesin their fight against Covid-19.

The advance release of 1stinstalment of central sharetowards SDRF has beenreleased as a special dispensa-tion on the recommendationsof the home ministry.

Normally, the first instal-ment of SDRF is released in themonth of June as per the rec-ommendations of the FinanceCommission.

However, in relaxation ofnormal procedure, not only hasthe release of SDRF beenadvanced, the amount has alsobeen released without waitingfor the utilization certificate ofthe amount provided to the

States in the last financial year.Up to 50 per cent of the

amount released i.e. Rs 4,436.8crore can be used by the Statesfor COVID-19 containmentmeasures. The funds fromSDRF may be used by theStates for various measuresrelated to containment ofCOVID-19 including meetingthe cost of oxygen generationand storage plants in hospitals,ventilators, air purifiers,strengthening ambulance ser-vices, COVID-19 hospitals,Covid Care Centres, consum-ables, thermal scanners, per-sonal protective equipment,testing laboratories, testing kits,containment zones, etc.

New Delhi:SpiceHealth onSaturday said it has set up walk-in RT-PCR testing laboratoriesin Delhi, Haryana andMaharashtra. According to thehealthcare company launchedby the promoters of SpiceJet,SpiceHealth’s RT-PCR testinglabs have been conducting thecountry’s “fastest and cheapest”RT-PCR tests. “As the countryreels under spike in Covid cases,labs struggle to keep up with thedemand and home collection ofsamples becoming a huge chal-lenge, SpiceHealth’s walk-in RT-PCR testing facility at multiplelocations across Delhi, Haryanaand Maharashtra aims toaddress these issues,” said AvaniSingh, CEO, SpiceHealth.IANS

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Major automobile manu-facturers Maruti Suzuki,

Hyundai Motor, Tata Motorsand Kia on Saturday reporteda decline in passenger vehiclesales in April compared toMarch this year as the secondwave of the coronavirus pan-demic hit dispatches.

However, Mahindra &Mahindra along with HondaCars India posted sequentialgrowth in their passenger vehi-cle sales last month.

Sales in April this year arenot comparable with that of thecorresponding month a yearago as companies had report-ed zero sales due to the nation-wide lockdown imposed tocurb the outbreak of theCOVID-19 pandemic in thecountry.

The country’s largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India(MSI) reported a 4 per centdecline in total sales to 1,59,691units in April as compared to1,67,014 units in March thisyear.

Similarly, Hyundai Motor

India Ltd (HMIL) posted totalsales of 59,203 units in April2021, a decline of 8 per centfrom 64,621 units it had sold inMarch this year.

HMIL Director (Sales,Marketing and Service) TarunGarg said, “In these challeng-ing times, we stand in solidar-ity with the nation and are con-tinuing all efforts to support theaffected... While our effortspresently focus primarily onsupporting the lives and liveli-hood of people, we have alsoreceived positive sales results inApril 2021”.

Likewise, homegrown automajor Tata Motors said its pas-senger vehicle sales in thedomestic market stood at25,095 units in April, down 15per cent from 29,654 units inMarch this year.

However, compatriotMahindra & Mahindra said itspassenger vehicles sales in thedomestic market stood at18,285 units last month, up 9per cent from 16,700 units inMarch 2021.

“With the increase in lock-down restrictions in many

parts of the country, we foreseecontinuing supply chain-relat-ed production challenges.While demand remains good,there would be some impact inthe first quarter as a result oflow customer movement anddealership activity due to thelockdown restrictions,” M&MChief Executive OfficerAutomotive Division VeejayNakra said.

In times like these, thecompany’s focus is the well-being and safety of all its asso-ciates and dealers, he added.

Honda Cars India alsoreported a 28 per cent increasein its domestic sales to 9,072units last month as comparedto 7,103 units in March thisyear.

“The current healthcalamity has struck the entirenation and at this time nothingis more important than thehealth and well-being of ourcountrymen.

Of course, it has had animpact on the business anddeliveries in the marketplace,”Honda Cars India Senior VicePresident and Director

(Marketing & Sales) RajeshGoel said.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor(TKM) said its dispatches tothe dealers last month stood at9,622 units.

“Despite the challenges,we continue to witness gooddemand owing to personalmobility needs and the samehas helped us clock 9,622 unitsof wholesales in the month ofApril 2021,” TKM Senior VicePresident Naveen Soni said.

Kia India reported a 16 per

cent decline in dispatches todealers to 16,111 units in Aprilcompared to 19,100 units inMarch this year, while MGMotor India said its retailsales last month stood at 2,565units.

MG Motor said its pro-duction and vehicle dispatch-es to dealers last month wassignificantly higher than retailsales although it currently hasan order backlog of over threemonths across its productlines.

����� ,3,!10

State Bank of India (SBI)Saturday said it has reduced

home loan interest rate to 6.70per cent.

The lender said home loaninterest rates are now startingfrom 6.70 per cent for loans upto Rs 30 lakh and 6.95 per centfor loans above Rs 30 lakh to Rs75 lakh.

The interest rate on homeloans above Rs 75 lakh is 7.05per cent, the bank said in arelease.

“The affordability for theconsumer increases immense-ly with the present home loaninterest rate offerings whichreduce the EMI (equatedmonthly instalment) amountssubstantially,” its managingdirector (retail and digitalbanking) C S Setty said.

To women borrowers, thebank is offering a special fivebasis points (bps) concessionon home loan interest rates.

Customers also apply fora loan through YONO app andget an additional interest con-cession of 5 basis points, therelease said.

The bank was offeringhome loans at an interest ratestarting from 6.70 per cent tillMarch 31, 2021. From April 1,2021, it restored the originalinterest rates starting from 6.95per cent.The lender commandsover 34 per cent market sharein home loans. Its home loanportfolio has crossed the mile-stone of Rs 5 lakh crore.

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Power consumption in thecountry grew 41 per cent in

April 2021 to 119.27 billionunits (BU) over the samemonth last year, showing robustrecovery in industrial and com-mercial demand of electricity,according to power ministrydata. Power consumption inApril last year was recorded at84.55 BU. On the other hand,peak power demand met,which is the highest supply ina day, during the first half ofthis month remained wellabove the highest record of132.20 GW in April2020.During April this year,peak power demand met or thehighest supply in a day touchedthe highest level of 182.55 GWand recorded a growth of near-ly 38 per cent over 132.73 GWrecorded in the same month in2020.

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Automobile major MarutiSuzuki India on Saturday

reported a total sales of159,691 units in April 2021.

According to the compa-ny, total sales in the monthinclude domestic sales of137,151 units, sales to otherOEMs at 5,303 units and

exports of 17,237 units.The company had sold

632 vehicles during April2020 and 143,245 units in2019.

“Since April 2020 hadlockdown due to Covid-19and almost zero sales, a com-parison with April 2020 does-n’t have any meaning,” thecompany said in a statement.

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Jet fuel price on Saturday washiked by steep 6.7 per cent,

reversing price cuts of lastmonth, while an increase inpetrol and diesel prices may beon the anvil as internationalprices firmed up.

Aviation turbine fuel (ATF)price was increased by �3,885per kilolitre (kl), or 6.7 per cent,to �61,690.28 per kl in thenational capital, according to aprice notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Rates varyfrom state to state dependingon incidence of local taxes.Theincrease in price comes aftertwo rounds of reduction lastmonth. Prices were cut by 3 percent on April 1 and then againby �568.88 per kl (1 per cent)

on April 16. Meanwhile, petroland diesel prices remainedunchanged for the 16th day onSaturday but oil company offi-cials indicated an increase inrates in near term. Despite theconcerns about rising Covid-19cases in India denting demand,crude oil prices in the interna-tional market continue to riseon account of strong USdemand recovery and a weakdollar.

“Prices have been on acontinuous uptrend for last 4days (since April 27),” an offi-cial said adding Dubai crude oilprice has risen USD 2.91 perbarrel. It is expected that thecrude oil prices in the interna-tional market will remain firmin the near future, exertingupward pressure, officials said.

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Delhi is struggling to breathe.Deaths have become younger,more frequent and unabated.Oxygen has all but vanishedfrom cylinders, suppliers, hos-

pital ICU pipelines and people are dyinggasping for a breather from the pandemic’ssecond wave.

From being a success story, the nationhas become a cause of concern globally withfast rising casualty and total collapse of notjust medical infrastructure but all other sup-port systems, helmed by an unprecedentedoxygen supply shortage in the Capital.

“The reason behind the oxygen crisis inDelhi is plain and simple that even thoughwe knew that the second wave is coming,we knew it from the last century that the sec-ond wave of any disease was much morewidespread and deadlier, we did nothing.And we had seen it coming in Europe, UKand the US and then in our country toowith the massive vengeance, but still we didnot get ready and we did not apply ourminds. The Government had sanctioned160 pressure swing adsorption oxygenrestoration plants out of which eight wereto be in Delhi. The Government had sanc-tioned these plants, the funds had beenreleased. But we have to ask why these plantswere not commissioned, who sat on theprocess and was behind the delay. We didnot secure our oxygen supply lines, we didnot secure our plants. That is the main rea-son. The second reason is, of course, thatthe supply is shot up by, at least, 10 timescompared to what the demand was earlier,”Dr Shuchin Bajaj, Founder Director, UjalaCygnus Group of Hospitals, says.

However, even if the demand shot up,the process should have been amped up too.

“This scarcity would have been justifiedif it was for four-five days, we could haveunderstood that the supply chains were get-ting stressed. But it has continued for almost15 days and there is no hope that it is goingto get solved anytime soon. And it’s not justin Delhi, it’s in all the Northern States. Mosthospitals are working at lesser capacity,

because the doctors are scared of admittingpatients because they don't know when andwhere their next supply of oxygen is com-ing from. If oxygen is assured, I am sure thescarcity of beds will be ameliorated to a greatextent because hospitals will admit morepatients. However, they need to be assuredthat oxygen is readily supplied and that theywill not run out of oxygen,” Bajaj tells you.

Dismissing the claims, that there isunnecessary panic and hence, the shortageof oxygen, he says, the panic is justified giventhat a life source is out of stock.

“Not to mention, oxygen is the lifesource of any patient who’s suffering froma lung illness and Corona affects your lungsbadly. So, if oxygen runs out, anyone willpanic. There is no other way that thesepatients can be saved in the absence of oxy-gen and patients are dying in hospitals inDelhi. The figure of 25 patients dead inJaipur golden and another 25 in Sir GangaRam Hospital is just the tip of the iceberg.There must be many others who have diedbecause of low pressure of oxygen orunavailability of oxygen, which has not gotmedia attention just because of the fact thatit didn’t happen in the big hospitals. Manypeople are dying in their houses, on theroads and in ambulances because of lack ofoxygen. So, this panic is definitely justifiedbecause people are dying. There is no excusefor that it is not justifiable at all, that we areallowing people to die just because we can-not arrange oxygen for them. It’s a shame,”he asserts.

However, it is not as if we can pick andchoose people to blame. Experts say every-one is to be blamed here, especially thepoliticians, administrators and the lawmak-ers.

“Everybody is to blame here. Especiallythe administrators, the politicians, the law-makers and the policymakers. More so,because we knew what was going to happenand still we did secure enough supply lines.It is sad. So I think each and every personin the ecosystem is to be blamed. They haveto share some part of the blame,” Bajaj says.

Dr Aashish Chaudhry, ManagingDirector, Aakash Healthcare, Dwarka, tellsthat Delhi does not produce medical oxy-gen and hospitals in the city are entirelydependent on neighbouring and otherStates for oxygen supply.

“When the requirement of oxygenstarted to increase due to the unique com-plications arising in the second wave, manyof the neighbouring States prevented oxy-gen produced in their state to be transport-ed to Delhi. The bureaucratic tangle of nego-tiations takes time but in ICUs and emer-gencies, a moment’s delay can cost a life —the Governments may have been trying toresolve the situation while patients’ liveswere at risk,” he says.

The unique complications, he says, inthe second wave is one reason behind thepanic — many of the atypical symptoms areoccurring for the first time in many patients,which can be misleading if not cross-checked with test results. “Since the strainthis time is seemingly more infectious, manyof the lab technicians are getting infectedwhich is affecting the turnaround time forRT-PCR test results. The Rapid AntigenTests (RATs) don’t have the high sensitivi-ty of RT-PCR. Even the RT-PCR results aremisleading in many cases where infectioncan be detected only through a CT scan —the damage has been done by then. Thenthere is happy hypoxia — oxygen levels startdropping suddenly and fast and the prevail-ing oxygen crisis makes it difficult to pro-vide the person with what they need at thatjuncture,” Chaudhary says.

He says India’s historic lack of focus onbuilding healthcare infrastructure and sub-stantial budgetary allocation for severaldecades is to be blamed for this crisis.

“The Government’s decision to estab-lish captive oxygen plants in hospitals is along overdue move, we welcome it whole-heartedly. Besides, a surveillance, monitor-ing and evaluation system must be set upto create a system of warning and assess thestate of preparedness, so that we can pre-vent people from dying due to lack of oxy-

gen supply,” he adds.Not only this, but the unnecessary

hoarding of oxygen concentrators coupledwith the surge in moderate to severeCOVID-19 cases has led to the shortage ofoxygen supply.

“There is an absolute surge in the num-ber of new covid cases over a very short spanleading to the strain on healthcare in India.Also there has been increase in number ofcases who present with moderate to severeCOVID-19 disease. These are the patientswho need oxygen therapy. There is signif-icant chunk of patients in hospital who areeither on high flow or HFNC system whichconsumes a large volume of oxygen. This hasresulted in huge surge in oxygen demand inhospitals. Many people out of panic are buy-ing oxygen concentrators. Combination ofboth has led to shortage of oxygen. Manypeople are hoarding oxygen and it’s hightime Government take these people to task,”Dr Arunesh Kumar, HOD, Paras ChestInstitute & Senior Pulmonologist, ParasHospital, Gurugram, says.

He adds that oxygen is a medicine whichis prescribed to a particular patient. Usingoxygen if you don’t need it, is harmful toyour body.

Bajaj warns that the Government andthe hospitals both need to be very carefulof the possible third wave coming in.

“We should learn from this crisis andshall ensure that we have secured all our sup-ply lines for future. Last year, it was PPE kitsand masks, this time it is oxygen. So nexttime it may be something else that falls shortand that we fail to anticipate, and then it willbe easy to lay the blame on the doorstepsof someone else. A lot of technology needsto be employed by the Government as wellas the healthcare professionals and see thesupply chain management from completeorigin to the end. We should know their sup-pliers, and the suppliers of suppliers. Weshould know the cost of goods and shouldsecure everything so that we are not depen-dent on anyone for the management of thedisease and patients in future,” Bajaj opines.

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India is choking for lack ofoxygen. Given that the

atmosphere has 21 per centoxygen, the one thing that wenever envisioned was that peo-ple would die due to lack ofoxygen. But this is preciselywhat is happening. The secondwave of the COVID-19 haswreaked havoc. There are nobeds and where there are, thereis no oxygen to give to peoplewhose SpO2 per cent is below94 per cent. The end result isthat people are dying right out-side the hospitals gasping forbreath.

One can continue with the

blame game, in the meantime,it is the common man who hadto pay a huge price where thehealthcare stakeholders mis-read the situation and didn’tprepare itself for the deadly sec-ond wave. But there are a fewhospitals in the country whohave their own oxygen gener-ators.

Adel, GM head marketing,Meenakshi Mission Hospitaland Research Centre(MMHRC), Madurai, TamilNadu, tells you that their med-ical oxygen requirement hasgone up by double due to thehigh oxygen consumption by

COVID-19 patients.“Compared to the first wave,the patients that we receive noware mostly sick and so theyneed oxygen support to anextent of 80 litres per hour,” hesays.

He tells you that for mosthospitals, there are two ways toprocure it. First, they install aliquid medical oxygen plant.There are a handful of vendorswho will come and install theplant. Second, to buy oxygencylinders in bulk like the onesees that retails patients use.Given the hospital’s consump-tion, they opt for either one of

them or both, depending ontheir demand.

“At MMHRC, we have a 10kl oxygen plant and recently weinstalled another 3kl. On a rou-tine basis, we use the 10kl plantfor hospital needs. But with theincreasing need for oxygendue to the second wave, weinstalled the 3kl plant. Apartfrom this, we have installed anoxygen generator that gener-ates up to 200 litres per day. Forthe generator, we don’t need todepend on the oxygen suppli-er. The plant generators oxygenon its own. But for the liquidmedical oxygen plant, we have

to depend on the vendor tocome and fill the tanks.Unfortunately, the consump-tion of oxygen has gone uptriple-fold. A COVID-19patient may require up to 50-80 litres of oxygen per hour. Ina normal working day of thehospital, the requirementwould not be more than threeto 10 kl per hour for any crit-ical care patient. But due toCOVID-10 our requirementhas doubled,” Adel explains.

Besides the 13kl liquidmedical oxygen plant and theoxygen generator, theMMHRC is in the process of

setting up another plant.“There is a possibility thatwhat these plants are generat-ing may not be enough or incase the oxygen generator fails,the hospital will be in trouble.So I have ordered for anotheroxygen plant. Given the pre-sent situation it will take 10-12weeks to get the plant going.Even the price of installationhas gone up; it now costs �5crore. This plant will generate200 oxygen cylinders per day,”Adel tells you.

As far as the liquid med-ical oxygen plant is concerned,the oxygen goes directly,

through the pipelines to thepatient’s bed where the oxygenapparatus is. For the cylinders,once they are filled, they aretaken to the patients who needit. Adel tells you that even fora hospital with 1,000, at bestthey would reserve 25-30 percent beds for critical patientslike the ICU.

“The rest would be gener-al wards and other rooms.This is because not everyoneneeds that kind of care. Butthings are different now. Withthe new plant that will beinstalled soon, we will be ableto meet the demand,” Adel says.

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Page 10: 5 64...2021/05/02  · Around 2.64 lakh of these are at panchayat level with each centre/kiosks facili-tated by an agent called Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE). Continued on Page

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In a desperate attempt to arrest their slide,SunRisers Hyderabad have thrust Kane

Williamson into the leadership role by removingDavid Warner as they prepare to take on RajasthanRoyals, who are also struggling like them, here onSunday.

In a surprise move, SRH removed strugglingAustralian batsman Warner from the captaincy onSaturday as the side has lost five of the six match-es under him this season.

The Royals are not faring any better as theyhave managed to win only two matches out of thesix they have played. No wonder, the Royals areplaced seventh just above SRH.

SRH are coming into Sunday’s match after los-ing their last two matches including the Super Overdefeat against Delhi Capitals.

SRH rely heavily on their top-order — Warner,Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey andWilliamson — but they did not fire together.Their middle order is without a solid batsman.

There is a possibility that Warner who hashas scored 3, 54, 36, 37, 6 and 57 could bedropped from the playing XI.

Englishman Jonny Bairstow has alsostruggled while Williamson has played in justthree matches with 66 not out as his high-est.

The Kiwi batsman and Pandey, whohas two half centuries in four matches, holdthe key for SRH if their openers fail to givegood starts.

The poor quality of Indian talenthas also been SunRisers’ bane.

In the bowling department, alot depends of Afghan spinnerRashid Khan and he has beendoing a decent job if not excellent,with nine wickets from six matches.But he is not getting enough supportfrom his bowling colleagues.

Senior India pacer BhuvneshwarKumar struggled with just threewickets from four matches. He didnot play in SRH’s last two matches.

The Sanju Samson-led RR lackconsistency. They notched up their firstwin in their second game and lost theirnext two matches before winning again— against a struggling Kolkata KnightRiders.

In their last match against MumbaiIndians, the top-order did a decent job to

put up 171 for 4 but their bowling letthem down. They let MI batsmenscore freely to lose by seven wicketswith nine balls to spare.

RR have a lot of issues to sortout, particularly in the absenceof key foreign players like JofraArcher and Ben Stokes.

Their batting depends heav-ily on skipper Samson but theinconsistent captain has notfired since the 119 in the open-

ing match. The knock of 42 washis best after that. Opener JosButtler is yet to score a half centu-ry in six matches.

The middle-order is strugglingwith David Miller having scored justone half century in five games whileRiyan Parag is out-of-form with 25 ashis highest.

In the bowling department, milliondollar recruit Chris Morris has beendoing a great job with 11 wickets from

six matches but he cannot single-handed-ly carry the team on his shoulders.

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Young Punjab Kings spinners Harpreet Brarand Ravi Bishnoi wouldn’t mind another

dream day in office against a menacing DelhiCapitals here on Sunday, aiming to take a giantleap forward in their bid for an IPL play-offberth.

Brar’s match-winning 3/19 was wonderful-ly complemented by Bishnoi’s 2/19 as their com-bined haul of 5/36 in 8 overs decimated a star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Come Sunday, the duo will face a toughertask against the Delhi team which has a slight-ly better record against spin attacks with open-ers Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw in impe-rious form.

Dhawan (311 runs) and Shaw (269 runs)have provided flying starts with five half-cen-turies between them along with 71 fours and 15sixes.

For any bowling unit, facing the Dhawan-Shaw duo is a scary proposition.

Even Steve Smith and Rishabh Pant are fan-tastic players when it comes to tackling the slowbowlers.

In fact, Bishnoi, who primarily bowls thegoogly, will like to challenge the DC skipper, whohas a knack of hitting against the spinover deep mid-wicket region.

The Narendra Modi Stadiumtrack has shown that balls tend togrip and batting becomes difficultas the game progresses.

It won’t be therefore surprising ifthe in-form KL Rahul wants to bat firstagain and replicate his smashing 57-ball-91 not out against RCB the otherday.

For Capitals, there is a chanceof veteran leg-spinner AmitMishra making a comeback intothe playing XI after DC watchedBishnoi get so much success inthe past few games.

In case Mishra gets the nod,Lalit Yadav will have to make wayfor him although he was impressivewith his off-breaks against KKRduring their last game.

Axar Patel’s all-round presencegives much-needed stability as hecould prove to be a handful on theslower tracks.

It will be a battle of top orderswhere Rahul’s finesse will be coun-

tered by Prithvi Shaw’s exuberance while ChirsGayle will try to overpower Pant’s pyrotechnicswith his own marauding style of batsmanship.

However, one area where DC is slightlyahead will be the pace bowling department,comprising the troika of Avesh Khan, Kagiso

Rabada and Ishant Sharma.While Avesh has had a stand-

out season so far with 13 scalpsat less than 7.5 run economy

rate, Rabada has got somekind of rhythm in the

past two games that wasabsent during some ofthe earlier games. For

Punjab also, the problemhas been consistency save skipper

Rahul, who has scored 331 runs so far.In the bowling department,

Mohammed Shami has only eightwickets from seven games while premi-um buys like Jhye Richardson and RileyMeredith have been very expensive.

Chris Jordan has been just aboutokay in a couple of games which hasmade KL Rahul’s job of identifying theperfect pace combination infinitely

difficult.

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VENUE: ARUN JAITLEY STADIUM, DELHI

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Batting like a man pos-sessed, Kieron Pollard sin-glehandedly powered

Mumbai Indians to an astonish-ing four-wicket win overChennai Super Kings, belting theongoing IPL’s fastest half-centu-ry in a high-octane match hereon Saturday.

Set an imposing target of219, Pollard raced to his fifty inonly 17 balls and remainedunbeaten on 87 off 34 deliveries,as he triumphantly walked backto his jubilant teammates at theend of the game.

Mumbai needed 16 runs inthe final over and Pollardsmashed two fours and a sixbefore running two off the lastball to seal the game for his side.

CSK rode on an unbeaten 72off 27 balls by Ambati Rayudu topost 218/4, but it was overshad-owed by Pollard’s blitzkrieg, as hesmashed eight sixes and sixfours to build on a strong 71-runopening stand.

This was the second highestrun-chase in IPL history.

At one stage, Mumbai wereteetering at 81/3, but Pollardturned the tables with his power-hitting at the Arun JaitleyStadium’s batting paradise.

Krunal Pandya (32) andHardik Pandya (16) too playedtheir part.

The carnage started whenPollard smashed three towering

sixes off Ravindra Jadeja in the13th over, which fetchedMumbai 20 runs. Next, hesmashed two successive sixes offLungi Ngidi and then took onShardul Thakur in the 15th over,as Mumbai got 23.

Despite Krunal’s departure,Pollard, who got a life on 68, keptplaying his shots as the equationcame down to 31 off the last twoovers.

Mumbai openers QuintonDe Kock (38; 4x4; 1x6) and RohitSharma (35; 4x4; 1x6) started onan aggressive note as they racedto 58 in six overs.

Rohit was hitting boundariesat will. The Mumbaikar hit LungiNgidi for a six over mid-wicketin the sixth over, while De Kocktoo played his shots.

The duo plundered runs atwill as the five-time championslooked on course for a success-ful chase.

However, Shardul Thakurbroke the stand by dismissingRohit, who holed in the deep toRuturaj Gaikwad.

Suryakumar Yadav (3) fellcheaply and Moeen Ali thenremoved De Kock as Mumbaislipped to 81/3 in the 10th over.Pollard took over from there.

Earlier, with Rayudu in fullflow, CSK amassed 82 runs in thelast five overs to set a stiff target.

Moeen Ali (58) and Faf duPlessis (50), too, struck blister-ing half-centuries after beingasked to bat first.

CSK lost opener RuturajGaikwad (4) early but SouthAfrican du Plessis and England’sMoeen plundered runs at willduring their 108-run second-wicket partnership.

Rayudu, who notched up hisfifty in just 20 balls, went ham-mer and tongs with seven sixesand four fours during his stay inthe middle.

To start with, du Plessissmashed Dhawal Kulkarni for afour and maximum, as CSKgrabbed 11 runs in the secondover.

Moeen also opened up hisarms in the third over, hammer-ing Trent Boult (1/42) for amaximum over backwardsquare-leg and a boundary, asChennai fetched 12 runs off it.

Moeen was the more aggres-sive of the two as CSK canteredto 49/1 after powerplay.

The southpaw kept playinghis shots at will. Moeen, whoused the pull shot to perfectionand du Plessis, were brutal onleg-spinner Rahul Chahar (0/32),striking a six each in the ninthover, as CSK amassed 16 runsand raced to 77/1.

There was no stoppingMoeen, who then smashed a sixand two boundaries off JamesNeesham (0/26) in the 10thover, while Du Plessis hit twosuccessive sixes and a boundaryoff Jasprit Bumrah (1/56) in thenext. This was Bumrah’s mostexpensive spell in the IPL./� '��%�������������;��������������+����!��������� ���� �� � �;�������������" ����������� ��; %�?$(29��

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Manchester City are on thebrink of clinching thePremier League title after a

2-0 win against Crystal Palace,while Brighton virtually assuredtheir survival with victory overLeeds on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola’s side moved 13points clear at the top thanks to sec-ond-half goals from Sergio Agueroand Ferran Torres at Selhurst Park.

City will be crowned Englishchampions for the third time in fourseasons if second-placed ManchesterUnited lose at home to Liverpool onSunday.

If United avoid defeat, City canseal the title with a victory againstChelsea at the Etihad Stadium nextSaturday.

It is a matter of when, not if, Cityregain the title they surrendered toLiverpool last season.

They shook off a tepid first halfin south London and put Palace tothe sword with two goals in thespace of 84 seconds.

Aguero, making only his sixthleague start in an injury-plagued sea-son, broke the deadlock in the 57thminute when he ran onto BenjaminMendy’s long pass and slammed ahalf-volley into the roof of the netfrom 10 yards.

It was only Aguero’s fourth goalof what will be his final season withCity after the club’s record scorerannounced he will leave in theclose-season.

City hope Torres will be part ofa new generation of stars capable ofbuilding on the foundations laid by

the likes of Aguero.The Spanish forward gave a

glimpse of his potential when hefired home from the edge of the areaafter a flowing City attack in the 59thminute.

That was enough to seal an 11thsuccessive away victory in thePremier League, equalling theEnglish top-flight record.

City were languishing in 14th

place in late November but a blister-ing run since then has carried themto the brink of a third title in fourseasons.

‘PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE’The treble chasers could also

add the Champions League to thathaul.

On Tuesday, City will attempt toreach their first ever Champions

League final when they defend a 2-1 lead in the semi-final second legagainst Paris Saint-Germain.

“We can start to think about itand put it in the fridge. The PremierLeague is already there, it is in ourhands. We need one more victory,”Guardiola said.

“I’m absolutely delighted withthat after the Champions League. Wecould not play with much rhythm.

We struggled a little bit but in thesecond half we deserved it.

“I will check on the Liverpoolgame. It’s in our hands and now wewill give everything to beat PSG.”

At the Amex Stadium, Brightonbroke a three-game goal droughtwhen they took the lead throughPascal Gross’s 14th minute penalty.

Ezgjan Alioski was penalised for

bringing down Danny Welbeck andGross found the bottom cornerwith the resulting spot-kick.

Graham Potter’s side struckagain through Danny Welbeck’sexcellent solo effort in the 79thminute to seal a 2-0 win.

Brighton are now 10 pointsclear of the relegation zone with fourgames left.

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Emil Forsberg volleyed RBLeipzig into the German

Cup final by sealing a 2-1 winat Werder Bremen with a stun-ning last-gasp goal in extra-time on Friday.

Hwang Hee-chan had putLeipzig ahead at the start ofextra-time only for Bremenmidfielder LeonardoBittencourt to level with asuperb finish before Forsbergcame off the bench to hit thewinner.

“I was only on for aboutfive minutes, but that wasenough to get the goal,” saidForsberg.

“We are all really happy tobe in the final and looking for-ward to it,” he added as Leipzig

face either Borussia Dortmundor Holstein Kiel, who knockedout Bayern Munich, in the finalon May 13.

“We lost to Bayern the lasttime,” he added having playedin the team which lost the 2019German Cup final 3-0 inBerlin, “so the passion anddesire to win the cup is huge.”

Leipzig coach JulianNagelsmann, who will coachBayern next season, can signoff after two seasons by liftingthe German Cup.

“The boys fought hard, it’sbeen a turbulent week for theclub and we deserved the win,”said Nagelsmann after hisdeparture to Bayern was con-firmed on Tuesday.

“I would love to finish witha title for Leipzig.”

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Leicester missed a chance tocement their grip on third

place in the Premier League aftera 1-1 draw against 10-manSouthampton at St Mary’s onFriday night.

Southampton had to play 80minutes without Danish defenderJannik Vestergaard after he was sentoff for a foul on Jamie Vardy. ButJames Ward-Prowse’s second halfpenalty briefly put RalphHasenhuttl’s side ahead beforeJonny Evans headed Leicester’sequaliser.

Leicester remain in third place,but fourth placed Chelsea wouldclose the gap to just two points ifthey beat struggling Fulham.

Fourth place will be reduced toa Europa League qualification spotif Chelsea win the ChampionsLeague, Arsenal win the EuropaLeague and both clubs finish out-

side the top four.So Leicester need to hang

onto third place to be sure of qual-ifying for next season’s ChampionsLeague.

Fourth place might still beenough for Brendan Rodgers’ team,but they have only four matches leftto guarantee their berth in Europe’selite club competition.

“A little frustrating, but I don’tthink we did enough to win thegame. A great opportunity against10 men and we’re normally verygood at that,” Rodgers said.

“Give credit to Southampton,they defended deep and compactbut we’re disappointed. The speedwas too slow. We didn’t really startto play with that tempo until we gotthe equaliser.

“When we get back in again onMonday it is another point towardswhere we want to go. We’ve nowgot four games to go. We’re in a bril-liant position.”/������ ���� �E�&�����$���������'�� ���" ������������ �� E����������������� ���� �������� ��

Madrid: Atletico Madrid were given a huge let-off on Saturday as Elche missed a 91st-minutepenalty, allowing the La Liga leaders to escapewith a 1-0 win and go five points clear at the topof the table.

Elche’s Fidel Chaves struck the post with hisinjury-time spot-kick in what could prove a piv-otal moment in Spain’s thrilling title race, withReal Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla all still in thehunt to be crowned champions.

Marcos Llorente gave Atleti the lead at theEstadio Martinez Valero but they failed to makethe result secure and Elche twice could haveequalised in the final minutes.

First, Antonio Barragan volleyed over fromclose range and then Llorente’s handball gaveFidel a golden opportunity from the spot but hetoo squandered the chance.

Diego Simeone leapt into the air when theball came back off the post, his side pulling fur-ther clear and putting pressure on the others, withReal Madrid at home to Osasuna beforeBarcelona travel to Valencia on Sunday. Sevilla,who are now six points behind, play their gamein hand on Monday against Athletic Bilbao.

After a frantic week that saw Real Madriddraw at home to Real Betis, Atletico lose againstAthletic and Barcelona defeated by Granada, anyvictory, even one as marginal as this, will be wel-come for Atleti.

They are now guaranteed to be ahead ofBarca when they kick off at Camp Nou nextSaturday, the only question now how significanttheir advantage will be. AFP

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Neymar scored one goal and laidon the other as Paris Saint-

Germain warmed up for the secondleg of their Champions League semi-final against Manchester City with avital 2-1 win over Lens in Ligue 1 onSaturday.

Neymar netted on 33 minutesand his corner was headed home byMarquinhos just prior to the hourmark at the Parc des Princes, withCameroonian forward IgnatiusGanago pulling a goal back for Lens.

It was a huge three points forPSG in their attempt to retain theLigue 1 title, as Mauricio Pochettino’sside move provisionally two pointsclear of Lille at the top of the table.

However Lille can return to thesummit by beating Nice at home,while third-placed Monaco willreturn to within a single point of PSG

if they defeat Lyon on Sunday.PSG are looking to win their

eighth Ligue 1 title in nine years and,given how close the title race is inFrance this season, they could notafford to take it easy in between the

two legs of their Champions Leaguetie against City.

Last season’s Champions Leaguerunners-up are up against it after los-ing 2-1 at home to Pep Guardiola’sside in the first leg, with the returnin Manchester on Tuesday.

With that match in mind, KylianMbappe was rested against Lens ashe nurses a calf knock, andPochettino made six changes to hisline-up in total. Angel Di Maria wasalso left out of the starting XI.

Lens had beaten the Parisians athome back in September and trav-elled to the capital on a run of 13games unbeaten that saw them comeinto the weekend in fifth, just aheadof Marseille in the fight for France’slast European qualifying berth.

However PSG went ahead whenArgentine defender Facundo Medinatried to play the ball back towards hisown goal under pressure and only

succeeded in teeing up Neymar,who took a touch and scored just hisseventh Ligue 1 goal of the season.

Pablo Sarabia came close toadding to PSG’s lead before thebreak but they went 2-0 up on 59minutes.

Marquinhos had scored with aheader from a corner against Cityand he repeated the trick here, head-ing in Neymar’s delivery from theedge of the six-yard box.

Lens got one back straight fromthe restart as Arnaud Kalimuendo’sattempted overhead kick from aJonathan Clauss cross turned into aperfect assist for Ganago to score.

However, Lens could not find anequaliser and PSG thought theyhad a late third goal when MauroIcardi turned in substitute MarcoVerratti’s low centre.

However, an offside flag againstVerratti cut short the celebrations.

Portimao: Valtteri Bottas took pole position for thePortuguese Grand Prix with seven-time world cham-pion Lewis Hamilton completing a Mercedes front-row lockout in qualifying on Saturday.

Hamilton’s pursuit of a 100th pole at the trackwhere last year he notched up his record 92nd winwas delayed when Bottas earned the 17th of hiscareer.

“It’s a good feeling to be on pole,” said Bottas.He added: “Feels like it’s been a while. It’s been

a weak point for me in the first two races. The teamhave been working hard all weekend and we havea good position for tomorrow.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, one point offHamilton in the drivers’ standings, took third onSunday’s grid with his teammate Sergio Perez along-side him on the second row in Portimao.

Carlos Sainz for Ferrari came in fifth ahead ofthe Alpine of Esteban Ocon, LandoNorris, in a McLaren, and CharlesLeclerc in the second Ferrari.

Hamilton paid tribute to Bottas“and our team” for us both to be on thefront row.

“It was not expected. We haveto be happy for that, it was notthe perfect lap but I gave iteverything.

“You can never be satis-fied, we exist to keep mov-ing forward but I’m happywith what we’re doing andthe steps we’re taking.”

Hamilton narrowlyleads the 2021 championshipafter he won the opener in Bahrainbefore his Dutch rival Verstappenhit back in the Emilia RomagnaGP at Imola. AFP

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Hasan Ali bagged a total ofnine wickets while mid-

dle-order batsman FawadAlam hit a century as Pakistantrounced host Zimbabweinside three days by aninnings and 116 runs in thefirst Test match on Saturday.

The 26-year-old Ali pro-duced an admirable spell offast bowling at Harare SportsClub, varying his pace andlengths brilliantly on the thirdday, finishing with figures of5-36 after Zimbabwe neededto score over 250 runs tomake Pakistan bat again.

The right-armer, namedplayer of the match, removedKevin Kasuza (28) DonaldTiripano (2), Tendai Chisoro

(0), Blessing Muzarabani (2)and Richard Ngarava (5) asthe African side was bundled

for 134 runs in its secondinnings.

Earlier in the match, Ali

(4-53) combined with fellowopening bowler Shaheen ShahAfridi (4-43) to pick up eightwickets to rattle Zimbabwe’sbatting lineup, which col-lapsed to 176 all out in thefirst innings on a good battingwicket.

In response, Pakistanshowed aplomb, with theopening pair of Imran Butt(91) and Abid Ali (60) reach-ing 115 runs together at thetop of the order.

Alam, the 35-year-old left-hander, then took over with acontrolled innings.Continuing on 108 not outfrom the second day, Alamfaced 204 balls and cracked 20boundaries before he was dis-missed by Zimbabwe pacebowler Muzarabani for 140.

��!�����F� '�'��'����G��@����Pallekele: Left-arm spinner PraveenJayawickrama’s dream debut in whichhe picked six wickets for 92 runshelped Sri Lanka dismiss Bangladeshfor 251 in their first innings of thesecond Test. Jayawickrama’s returns,the best innings figures on Test

debut for Sri Lanka, helped thehome side secure a big lead.

Sri Lanka had earlierextended their first inningstotal to 493/7 in the morning,before declaring their

innings closed. NiroshanDickwella’s quickfire 77 notout helped Sri Lankaapproach the 500-run mark.

The home side were 17/2at stumps with an overall lead

of 242 runs.In the morning, Bangladesh

began their innings well, thanks to

Tamim Iqbal’s counter-attacking 92.He brought up his fifty in just 57deliveries. This was his fourth con-secutive half-century in the format.

At the stroke of lunch, the SriLankan spinners effected a double-blow on the visitors. Jayawickramapicked his maiden Test wicket, induc-ing an edge from Saif Hassan (25),who was caught in slips. RameshMendis dismissed the new manNajmul Hossain Shanto for a duck inthe very next over, and Bangladeshwent to lunch at 99/2 in 27 overs.

After the break, Tamim joinedforces with Mominul Haque to reori-ent Bangladesh’s innings. The duoadded 52 runs in 98 balls for the thirdwicket, and they looked good for a lotmore. However, it was youngJayawickrama who confounded themagain. IANS

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Milan: Christian Eriksen and AchrafHakimi scored in the second half asInter Milan beat Crotone 2-0 to moveto the brink of the Serie A title onSaturday. Antonio Conte’s side are 14points ahead of second-placed Atalantaand can claim their first Scudetto since2010 if the Bergamo side fail to win atSassuolo on Sunday. Dane Eriksencame on as a substitute in the 65th

minute and scored four minutes later,firing home a shot which took a deflec-tion off Crotone defender LisandroMagallan, from Romelu Lukaku’s lay-off.Lukaku had a goal ruled out beforeHakimi struck a second in injury time.The match pitted the Serie A leadersagainst the bottom team who were rel-egated as a result of the loss with fourgames to play. AFP

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Inter put one hand on Serie A trophy

Page 12: 5 64...2021/05/02  · Around 2.64 lakh of these are at panchayat level with each centre/kiosks facili-tated by an agent called Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE). Continued on Page

�The second wave of COVID-19 isworse than ever. How is it affectingthe industry?

When the lockdown opened lastyear, there was so much hope. A fewtheatres had opened. But again thevirus has hit everyone like neverbefore. Things are shut again. There is

melancholy in the industry.Movies have been put on

hold; they are not beingreleased. There is sad-ness; shootings are beingcancelled. My ownshoot has been put on

hold. There is uncer-t a i n t y

every where.�Will it affect the producers frominvesting in the near future?

There is one thing that I can sayabout this industry, we are veryresilient. Hum mein sehan shakti bahuthai . New projects are beingannounced, new scripts are beingwritten. We will rally back. Watchinga film in the hall has a charm and peo-ple will return. Wherever it is possi-ble to shoot, it is happening. We arebrave that way. Till your productreaches the theatres, there will beapprehensions.

�How is your daughter, she testedpositive a few weeks back?

Vanshika, my daughter, is doingmuch better now. She is on oral med-

ication and has just come backhome from the hospital a few

days back. She is nine. I too hadtested positive but was backhome much before she did.

�How tough is it for parentsto deal with a situation whentheir children test positive?

To take care of the kidsduring these tough times is

imperative. This new is affectingtoddlers like never before. I had

put a request on Insta that parentsshould take care of their children and

that we need more paediatric doctors,nurses and hospitals for kids. It istough to isolate toddlers at home. If wetake them to the hospital, how doesthat work?

�Now, kids are testing positive. Howtough is it for parents to cope whentheir child is in the hospital?

I speak on behalf on every parentwho’s child tested positive and had tobe hospitalised. I can’t tell you how dif-ficult it is to see your child lying on thebed helpless. I tested positive on March17; my daughter came to my room on18th despite being asked to stay away.So I decided to shift to the hospital. Shewanted to hug her mother. That was soheartbreaking since one couldn’t dothis. But then she too tested positiveand she had to be hospitalised. Herfever wouldn't go down. But luckily shewas in my room. But it was so sad toshe her like that. My request to all par-ents, please keep your kids safe.

�Do you think that releasing movieson OTT is affecting the industry?

Releasing a movie on the OTT isan individual decision. One has to seeif the money invested in the project isbeing recovered or not. There havebeen instances where makers haverecovered the entire amount from theplatform they released it on. The

advantage is if the film is good, one getsgood viewership.

�You released Kagaaz on Zee5. Wasit a tough decision to make?

I had made the movie so that Icould release it in the cinema halls.Butthen I decided to release it on OTT andit did so well. It grabbed eyeballs. If Ihad instead released in in theatres backthen (January) there would have beenuncertainty. But I released it on OTTand recovered my money. Also, farmore people have seen the movie. Imade the film for cinema hall but thisswitch has happened and have had toadjust myself to it. I am happy with theresults. I can now do more work with.It has given me an alternative that if onemakes different kind of content, thereis space for it as well.

�How would you describe yourself— actor, director or producer?

I just had one thing in my mind —I wanted to work in this industry; Iwanted to be an actor and work inmovies. I have been in this professionfor four decades. What more can I askfor? I am from a middle class family.Today, I am a successful director andproducer. I couldn’t ask for more. I haveto thank my fans and my family andfriends who supported and loved me.I am satisfied.

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�What is Bekaboo 2 about?It is a psycho-thriller. It is Season 2 of the web series that

was a hit among people; season 1 released in 2019. Those whohave not seen the series, it is about a popular writer who is broughtdown by three women. The previous series ended with him beingjailed. In this season, he comes back to take revenge. What hap-pens next is what Season 2 is about.�Do you think our audience is mature enough to watch thekind of content that is finding its way on OTTs?

There is a popular series — Game of Thrones. Even whenwe didn’t have OTT platforms, people downloaded it and watchedit. I had friends who were in IIT and watched it. If one to saythat India needs to do certain kind of content and needs cen-sorship, it is wrong. People have already watched so much more.People have got it wrong; they think we make content and peo-ple watch it. It is the other way round. However, we do need cen-sorship because some people took advantage of OTTs. Our audi-ence is mature but we need self-policing and have balance.�Did you always want to be a director?

I come from a background where nobody told us what todo. The only thing I felt was that I was a misfit in my city. I paint;I am a poet. But I come from a middle class family. I was encour-aged to study, get a job. I did my MBA in HR; I worked as welland earned a lot of money. But I wanted to tell stories. Filmmakingspeaks directly to people.� Jamai 2.0 is getting good response. Did you expect this?

Since I have studied filmmaking, I had never done a televi-sion show before. I was not aware that Jamai Raja, the TV show,was so popular. I knew that my mother would watch it regular-ly but the show stayed with me. The show came to me when Iwas looking to make a family show and said yes to making it.The producers told me that this show doesn’t need marketing.When I saw the numbers on Day 4, I understood the importanceof fan following. Zee 5 was looking to shift their audience to OTTand they did it brilliantly with this show.�Your directorial debut was with a psychological crime drama.Was it a conscious decision to go ahead with it?

I have tried my hand at different genres. I began withDamaged. Then I made a fantasy show. I made a youth show; Imade Jamia which is a family show. I don’t come from the indus-try. My linage comes from the people I have worked with. I start-ed my career by assisting Sanjay Leela Bansali on Goliyon KiRaasleela Ram-Leela. I have also worked with Sriram Raghavanon Badlapur. Since I have worked with these two completely dif-ferent directors, I have diverse knowledge. �A lot of experimentation is happening on OTT. Where isthis coming from?

This is possible because OTT is a personal medium and theconsumption increased during the lockdown. When you arewatching in your personal space, you get to choose what you wantto see. There are people who only watch biopics. Hence, they arebeing made. People have diverse tastes and OTT is catering toit by making different shows and experimenting. �You have made ads, short films, music videos. Where doesyou forte lie?

I am a filmmaker and come with a dream of making films.I am here and make a film one day. But I don’t want to be type-cast. My stories are women-centric because men have no shades.I make films around women; that my forte.

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Many of us might have won-dered who is behind theenchanting voice of theCaptain that we hear

before the plane takes off and lands.And it is nothing short of a sweet sur-prise to see the man in the uniformat the arrivals. The sheer pleasure ofseeing the pilot leaves us with an urgeto join the aviation industry soonerthan later.

While it is rare that you get achance to exchange words with a pilot,Riju Kochhar, Senior Captain, IndiGoand Sahil Dewan, Captain on AirbusA320, IndiGo are here to tell you whatgoes into the making of a pilot.

Kochchar started his flying careerwith the Indian Air Force in 1994 andafter 21 rewarding years joined IndiGoin 2016. “I started my journey as aMilitary pilot and soon realised thatbeing a pilot is strenuous and extreme-ly demanding. A pilot has to strictlyadhere to the laid down SOPs with nocompromise whatsoever since there ishardly any room for error. My tran-sition as a pilot from Air Forcefatigues to the IndiGo Blue was asmooth one courtesy the help andsupport extended to me by my seniors,instructors and supervisors who allwent out of the way to make me feelat home and comfortable in the newenvironment,” he says.

However, getting a pilot’s wings isnot easy, he says. One has to gothrough the rigours of tough training.

“It requires wholehearted focusand dedicated efforts to hone yoursensory and motor skills, developretention capacity, a calm and a coolhead display of quick thinking anddecision making. Last but not the leastis self-discipline since a pilot has toshoulder a high degree of responsi-bility each time he sits in the cockpit,”Kochchar tells you.

Modern day aircrafts are state ofthe art, highly expensive and complexmachines. As such complacency hasno room in a pilot’s scheme of thingsas lives and safety of hundreds of pas-sengers and their families is at stake,he adds.

The only thing that Kochchar dis-likes about his job is getting up earlyin the morning. “I am not a morningperson. Though our shifts are carefullyprepared and are a mix of day, nightand morning flights, but the earlymorning flights definitely hurt a bit,”he says.

You might have wondered, how

do pilots react to the challenging sit-uations while being up in the air. Dothey panic, stress or just handleeverything at ease? “Since flying envi-ronment is highly dynamic, you doface challenging situations. Being atrained professional, a pilot has toreact to them using all his skill, expe-rience, training, laid down SOPs cou-pled with his decision making abili-ties and a high degree of situationalawareness to safely handle them keep-ing all aspects of flight safety inmind. Having said that, as pilot is alsoa human being, he too would havestress at times, but then it is a posi-

tive stress and with good team workand all the tools at his disposal helearns to tackle and address it,” heexplains.

He recalls an incident when hefaced a critical emergency at 27,000feet up in the air. However, his quickthinking and the ability to land safe-ly earned him the PresidentialGallantary Award for his skills.

“During my stint with IAF, I didface a critical emergency—an explo-sive decompression with main dooropening at 27,000 feet and 42 pas-sengers on board. The emergencyrequired adept handling and quick

thinking and fortunately I was able tobring the aircraft safely down and landwithout any loss of life or any dam-age to the aircraft. I was conferredwith a Presidential Gallantry award forthis,” he tells you.

For the aspiring pilots, Kochcharhas words of wisdom to share. “Neverlet go of your dream, keep looking atthe skies, stay focused, determinedand one day you will certainly get thecoveted wings on your chest,” he says.

He has message to share on theoccasion of World Pilot’s Day.“Whenever you see a pilot’s uniform,always remember to greet and smile.Behind that glamour is an intent tomake your journey safe and worthwhile,” he says.

For those who wonder how to getinto this field, Dewan says, the processstarts in Class XII only. “The first stepis to make sure you have Maths andPhysics in Class XII. After that, youcan stay in India and start your train-ing or go to a foreign country. If youare training abroad, then there’s aprocess of converting your foreignlicense to Indian one. The trainingtakes about a year or a year-and-a-half.After the training is completed, thecandidate usually gets recruited by anairline. After that, you will have totrain for a particular aircraft. There isa separate four-month training thatyoi have to go through to clear as aFirst Officer. Moving ahead, after hav-ing four years of experience you canappear for a Captain’s exam followedby another three-month training,”Dewan explains.

A captain is allowed to flytill he is completely fit orbefore he reaches his retire-ment age.

Contrary to the popu-lar belief, Dewan says, theCaptain’s job is relaxed.However, there are certainsituations that can provechallenging, but they aretrained to handle such situ-ations.

“It is true that a pilot’s jobis glamorous, but withgreat freedomcomes greatresponsibili-ty. Thereare a lot ofchallengesone facesfrom them o m e n t

he decides to become a pilot and tillthe date he becomes one. It wasn’t easyfor me too. I did my training in 2008and after that the world faced amajor recession period. I had to waitfor a long time to get my job,” he tellsyou.

The odd working hours, he says,surely take a toll on their lifestyles, buthaving said that all airlines workaccording to the DGCA guidelinesand make sure that they are provingample rest to the pilots.

“The shift timing variation isapplicable across all departments thatwork at the airport. But we are givenample of time to rest and spend timewith our families. It is difficult in a waythat there are times we feel we are notrested enough, but it is easy toobecause we have options to inform thecompany and apply for a leave well inadvance. We do have stand by pilotsin case of emergencies,” Dewanexplains.

Ask Dewan about a thing that helikes and dislikes about his job and heis quick to answer — flying is a pro-fession that needs to be enjoyed dayin and out. “No pilot will ever say thathe is sick and tired of flying. There’snothing that I dislike about my job.But the one thing that I love the mostis once the flight lands, I don’t haveto take my work home. Once I amhome, I am just there for my family,”he says.

With the pandemic, the situationis grim and the biggest challenge thepilots are facing is to keep themselvessafe and continue to do their job dili-

gently.“Aviation has been hit the

most by this pandemic. Theload factor (the number ofpassengers per aircraft) isless and people are avoidingall kinds of travel. But theairlines are making sure totake care of the pilots, thecabin crew and the ground

staff. There is a strong mes-sage that we give out, it is

that the 6E family isthere for each

and everyt e a mmembera n dt h e i rf a m i -lies,” hesays.

61�������������� ���������2

TalktimeSATISH KAUSHIK

The actor-director-producer speaks with ShaliniSaksena why he chose to release Kagaaz on

OTT, the reason why the industry is nolonger making films like DDLJ andChandni and his COVID experi-

ence

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Tucked into the folds of theAravalli Hills, about thirtymiles north-east of Udaipur,is the bustling pilgrimagecentre of Nathdwara, home

to Shrinathji, the living image (svarup)of Krishna raising Mount Govardhan.The establishment of the deity’s haveli(mansion/temple), in Mewar in the sev-enteenth century, gave rise to a townthat completely revolved aroundShrinathji and the activities at his pala-tial shrine. The haveli brought togethera myriad of diverse social groups suchas masons, potters, tailors, silversmiths,embroiderers, brocade weavers, enamel(meenakari) workers, cooks and car-penters, all performing divine service(seva) for the child-god Krishna. Mostimportantly it fostered the growth of apainting community, drawn from vari-ous towns in Rajasthan, that came toserve the needs of the haveli and the pil-grims.

Nathdwara became a unique centre,its rituals and traditions remaining vir-tually unchanged for over 300 years.Until recently it was in a time capsule,maintaining artistic traditions that hadvanished from the Rajput courts. It wasthe archive for the styles and techniquesof the courtly painting studios ofRajasthan as well as the home to its ownunbroken artistic tradition for overthree centuries. There were hundreds ofartists from the Jangir and Adi Gaurcastes dedicated to serving the templeand providing painted icons for the pil-grimage trade. It is sad to learn fromMadhuvanti Ghose that all this is nowbeing threatened, eroded by the growthof the town and the encroachment ofthe twenty-first century.

Over the last forty yearsNathdwara’s uniqueness has garneredthe attention of scholars and producedan explosion of research on the pilgrim-age centre. When we first worked onthe Calico Collection of Nathdwarapichhavais (Indian Pigment Paintings onCloth) in the early seventies there werevery few publications about Nathdwara.Most notable were Robert Skelton’sRajasthani Temple Hangings of the

Krishna Cult (1973), Renaldo Maduro’sArtistic Creativity in a Brahmin PainterCommunity (1976) and RajendraJindel’s Culture of a Sacred Town (1976).Since then outstanding art historianssuch as Tryna Lyons, B.N. Goswamy,Amit Ambalal and Madhuvanti Ghosehave made significant contributions tothe understanding and preservation ofthe history of Nathdwara’s artistic com-munity. In addition to the art historicalaspect of the sacred town, there hasbeen an avalanche of material publishedon the literary, political, socio-economicand anthropological facets ofNathdwara. The plethora of online textsand translations as well as the new pub-lications bowing the library shelvesattest to Nathdwara’s continuing appealas a research subject.

��������Until the seventeenth century

Nathdwara (Door to the Lord) was onlya remote dusty village called Sinhar inthe state of Mewar. It soared to famewhen Shrinathji and his followers,threatened by the rise to power of theiconoclastic Mughal EmperorAurangzeb, fled Krishna’s sacred home-land of Braj and sought refuge inRajasthan. It is said that the Maharanaof Mewar with a retinue of 100,000 war-riors went out to escort Shrinathji per-sonally to his capital of Sesodias butthat the bullock cart carrying Krishnabecame bogged down in the mud in thesmall village of Sinhar. It was taken as asign that Shrinathji had selected thisspot along the Banas River as a haven.

This is the most commonly accept-ed version of the move and one that wesubscribed to in our 1979 publication,but it is debatable whether theVallabhacharis, so named for their guruVallabhacharya (VS 1535-1587; 1478-1530 CE), fled the area out of fear ofpersecution or whether they made ajudicious decision to resettle inRajasthan. It is possible that the uncer-tainty caused by Aurangzeb’s threatsreduced the pilgrimage trade and affect-ed the temple revenue. The Shrinathji kiPrakatya Varta records that Aurangzeb’s

messenger delivered an ultimatum toVallabha’s grandsons that ‘either thefakir of Gokul show some miracle orleave the Mughal Empire’. This rudewarning must have come as a shock.Prior to Aurangzeb’s reign theVallabhacharis had enjoyed Mughalfavours and were protected by severalfirmans issued by Akbar and ShahJahan that gave them grazing rightsover the land stretching from Gokul tothe whole district of Mahaban. In addi-tion, they enjoyed the privilege of beingexempt from taxation. It is debatablewhether they fled or simply decided toreestablish the sect in the land ofwealthy Rajasthani maharajas whomthey had cultivated as devotees. E. AllenRichardson argues that Maharana RajSingh of Udaipur, beginning in 1665,with the gift of the village of Asotiya inMewar to two goswamis, was preparinga place for the Vallabha Sampraday andthat Maharana Raj Singh foresaw theeconomic and social benefits of bring-ing the popular sect to Mewar.

Among the Vallabhacharis there is astory that explains the situation withouttarnishing their relationship with theMughals. On one of his missions,Vitthalnathji (VS 1572-1642; 1515-1585CE), the son of Vallabhacharya, had vis-ited Sinhar where he initiated into thesect one Ajabkunvar, the sister-in-law ofthe legendary Bhakti poetess Mirabai.Ajabkunvar became so passionatelyattached to Shrinathji that she askedhim to visit her every night. Shrinathjigranted her wish and came everyevening, traversing hundreds of milesfrom Braj, to play with her his favouriteparcheesi-like game of chaupar. Finally,seeing him red-eyed and exhaustedfrom his travels, Ajabkunvar requestedShrinathji to settle in Mewar perma-nently. Shrinathji replied that it was notpossible for him to do so now but thathe would in the future after the time ofVallabhacharya and Vitthalnathji. In1669 when the persecution grew acute,Vitthalnathji and Vallabhacharya hadboth passed away. It was time for thepromise to be fulfilled. The bullockchariot carrying Shrinathji reached

Sinhar in VS 1728 (1671 CE) and itcame to rest beneath a pipal tree whereAjabkunvar’s house had been located. Itwas to be Shrinathji’s new home.Tradition holds that Shrinathji’s shrineis the only one in the sect with a tiledroof in imitation of Ajabkunvar’s house.

Interestingly the account of themove in the Shrinathji ki Prakatya Vartarecords none of the pomp that JamesTod describes in his Annals ofRajasthan. According to Harirai(b.1590), author of the Shrinathji kiPrakatya Varta, and a member of one ofthe thirty-six families that accompaniedShrinathji to Rajasthan, the move wasdone as quietly as possible. Perhaps itwas the Maharana of Mewar who want-ed to make a great show of Shrinathji’sarrival whereas the Vallabhachariswanted only safety for their svarup.

No doubt the flight was a major dis-ruption for the VallabhacharyaSampraday. When the upheavaloccurred in 1669, the sect had beenestablished well over 150 years onMount Govardhan, the location whereShrinathji first appeared. It was a shiftnot taken easily for this was Krishna’sbirthplace, the playground for his lilas(sports) and most importantly the siteof Shrinathji raising Mount Govardhanas an umbrella to protect his peoplefrom the punishing deluge sent by thestorm god Indra. Even though theteenaged Tilakayat Damodarji (VS1711-1760; 1654 -1703 CE) was sup-ported by his uncles, Gopinathji andBalakrishnaji, it must have been anemotionally trying decision for him tomake. The sect had strong roots in Braj.

Yet the Vallabhacharya Sampradaywas an immensely popular sect withmany adherents. Both Vallabhacharyaand Vitthalnathji had made extensivepilgrimages throughout Gujarat andRajasthan recruiting new followers.Besides Shrinathji’s appeal to the com-mon people, almost every royal houseof Rajasthan could be counted amongShrinathji’s devotees.

After Shrinathji’s arrival in Sinhar ashrine was erected in VS 1728 (1671CE) which was purposefully designed

as a haveli (mansion) instead of the tra-ditional shikara-style (towered) temple.The architect of the new temple built onthe pattern of an aristocrat’s mansionwas Gopaldas Ustad under the supervi-sion of Hariraiji, the author of theShrinathji ki Prakatya Varta. Every partof the new structure was to recall thesacred topography of Braj, Krishna’shomeland.

Today pilgrims throng the halls ofthe haveli for every ceremony, jostlingeach other to reach the Nij Mandirwhere Shrinathji resides. The viewingperiods are short, and thousands seekhis darshan (viewing). Although theseva (service) is done with the utmostrespect the crush of pilgrims tries thepatience of those attempting to feel atone with their Lord. Outside in thestreets there is almost a carnival-likeatmosphere. Entire lanes are dedicatedto outfitting the private shrines of pil-grims. There are shops filled withembroidered fabrics to embellish thesacred chambers and glittery brocadedresses fashioned for every size andshape of image as well as a profusion ofpainted, printed and sculpted images ofShrinathji. Prasad, which is made in thehaveli kitchens in great quantities, isavailable for purchase. There are piles ofghee-laden laddus, pots of thick sweetrabri and mounds of savoury besan sev— all Krishna’s favourites. Nathdwarafosters an entire industry dedicated tothe worship of Shrinathji.

Since the founding of Nathdwara,artists have been drawn to this sacredplace to fulfil the needs of the haveliand to provide pilgrims with painteddevotional images for their shrines.While the other schools of Rajasthanipainting have died out for lack of royalpatronage, Nathdwara has continued,fed by the passionate desire of devoteesto serve Shrinathji and to be one withtheir Lord.

Excerpted with permission fromNathdwara Paintings from the Anil

Relia Collection: The Portal toShrinathji by Kalyan Krishna & Kay

Talwar by Niyogi Books, �3,500

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People are talking again, same people, same things. Weare as clueless as we were during the previous surge ofCorona. Masks, social distancing, sanitisers and lock-

down are our mainstay. As to the medicines no one knowswhich one is working and for whom. Admittedly we havenot grown any wiser despite spending billions. Vaccinationsof course have come as a big source of sustenance but thereare doubting Thomases also to see the darker side. Amid allthis, we need to settle down for something more authentic.As the kerfuffle continues, two things seem to be our bestrefuge. Faith and hope. They are our powerful antidotes todayto inoculate against Corona. Highly scientific brains may havereasons to raise questions about the efficacy of these two con-structs. But there is ample scientific evidence to suggest thatfaith healing works and even die-hard medical practition-ers will agree to this. Faith drives hope, and hope drives life.True, evidence-based research may not be readily availableto prove this, but there is need to understand that absenceof proof is no proof of absence. Moreover, copious anecdo-tal evidences can be cited to establish that faith and hope dowork. The fact of the matter is that even the best of the med-icines works only if the patient believes they can work. Amplepsychological studies are there to corroborate that placeboeffects are a reality. Call it miracle or call it will power, butit works. As a deluge of data is being dished out to show howdeadly the coronavirus is and how helpless humanity is, thereare rays of hope in this otherwise sombre atmosphere. Whilecase fatality rates are being boldly displayed to point out howlife threatening is the coronavirus, recovery rates are notshown as prominently. If only this data is displayed honest-ly, we would realise how unfounded our angst is about thepossibility of dying, or the entire humanity coming to an end.A simple recapitulation of the catastrophic incidents of thepast century will show how the present challenges match withthose. The first world war was responsible for killing 22 mil-lion people. Then followed the Spanish flu, a close cousinof the present variant, which had killed 50 million people.15 million in India alone. Remember, antibiotics were notdiscovered then. Then came the great depression that ruinedeconomies like a House of cards. This was followed by thesecond World war, killing over 60 million people. Then theKorean war, the Vietnam war and what not. Humanity sur-vived all that and grew around three times since then. Wecertainly are far better off but for the fact that we are high-ly ill-informed. No, there is no dearth of information. Quitethe contrary. But there is plenty of negative information thathas struck a bloody blow to our faith and hope and boggedus down with forces of Thanatos, the death urges. Look atthe figures of April 25. Total number of confirmed cases is147,096,661 and total number of deaths 3,223,558, that isaround 2%. Ironically, one estimate says that around 9 mil-lion people die every year of hunger and hunger related dis-eases. Not that we don’t do anything about Corona. But weneed not lose hope. More people are dying out of fear ofCorona rather than the actual infection. Time to rekindlehope and faith by tweaking the headlines. Headline man-agement can go a long way in arresting the present surge.

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Lord Krishna says that faith isaccording to one’s nature. Humanspecies is endowed with faith.

Whatever faith he has, he is that only(Bhagawad Gita 17.3) The Lord haslinked our faith to our nature. Therefore,let us understand our nature in essence.

What does our nature comprise? Tocarry out this exercise, we must havebasic knowledge of the three factors —goodness, passion and darkness. Ournatures consist of these three mode invarious proportions. The mode ofgoodness is illuminating and free fromdiseases on account of purity. (14.6) Themode of passion, which suffers from thefault of attachment, know that to becaused by desire and attachment. (14.7)And the mode of darkness, which caus-es delusion to all living entities, knowthat to be born of ignorance, whichbinds with carelessness and laziness.(14.8) Generally, the percentage of themode of passion is the highest in mostpeople, therefore, we can take it as thebase mode. This mode is given direc-tion either by the mode of goodness orthe mode of darkness, i.e., whichever isin preponderance at a particular time.

Besides the modes, our nature isalso influenced by our consciousness,i.e. whether that is material or spiritu-al. In the earlier type of consciousness,one considers the self as a material body.In the later consciousness, a rare one,one knows oneself to be a soul.‘Sanskars’ brought from the previouslives and given by parents and others inthis life also make a huge difference towhat our natures will be like. Similarly,habits both good and bad influence ournatures greatly. Ego is not far behind.Rather this has an undue influence overthe nature of some.

All these factors determine what

kind of faith or in whom one will haveat a particular time or generally. Natureis internal, whereas faith is external. Thenature determines the kind of faith onewill have. Those, whose nature is dom-inated by the mode of goodness, andwho have spiritual consciousness, andwho are endowed with good sanskarswill have faith in God and scriptures.This is wonderful because one becomeshappy with brightness in all gates(senses) of the body. (14.9 and 11) Suchfaith is highly desirable. Saints have suchfaith. It does not exclude occasionallower behaviour when the other modesare in ascendence. This is when theymake mistakes like all do.

Those, who have mode in passionin preponderance, have faith in moneyand material objects. These they love toshow off also, besides accumulating asmuch of it is possible. Sense enjoymentsare not far behind; the more the better.They are also likely to have a lot of faithin their own abilities. Faith in God andscriptures is mostly casual.

Those, who have mode of darknessin ascendance are generally in trouble.They are mostly atheists, i.e. no faith inGod or in scriptures. Such faithdegrades and one regresses than pro-gresses. It has severe consequences; onemay have many bad qualities. One mayalso suffer from anxiety, fear, depression,and so on. When this mode is overpow-ering, one commits crimes and mayeven kill the self.

In order to avoid these eventuali-ties, one must work consciously to tryto reduce this mode’s presence in one’snature. The first thing to do is to beginhonouring all the ‘maryadas’ put inplace for the human species. Oneshould try to follow ‘dharma’ — theguidelines for our proper existence.Faith in God, which is the ultimate sav-ior will come gradually as the othermodes, especially the mode of goodnessgets in ascendance. Therefore, let us tryto develop faith in God.,�������������� ������ ��������'��������

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Asoul is sent to a life in thehuman body for a certainperiod of time. When thesoul inhabits a body, thesoul is still a part of God

and is still one with God. The soul,however, is now overpowered bypowerful forces, such as the mind, thebody and the outer world, whichcause the soul, over time, to forgetitself. The soul slowly begins to iden-tify itself with the body and mind andworld outside. It suddenly begins tothink that it can only receive infor-mation from the outer world throughthe senses. Thus the soul has becomeattuned to only one channel — thechannel of the world.

If we think about our life aswatching a television programme, wehave multiple choices as to what towatch. Just as there are a dozen net-work stations and then dozens if nothundreds of cable stations fromwhich to choose, so, too, there aremany activities in this world that wecan engage in.

Now, let us take a look at theother choices available to us. Thisphysical planet is not a separate off-shoot from all of creation and God.

Most religions believe that there arehigher regions or existence to whichthe soul goes after it dies. Scientistsand doctors have tried to verify thisby documenting accounts of peoplewho were declared clinically dead buthad near-death experiences anddescribed something beyond thisworld. The question is, where arethese realms? They are not zones inouter space delineated by borders. Allthese realms exist concurrently withthis one. The reason we are not awareof them is because they operate on adifferent frequency or vibration.

The saints and mystics tell us thatwe have the choice to either staytuned to this physical world, or totune into the channels of God. Godwants us to watch God’s program-ming. God is available twenty-fourhours of the day, three hundred sixtyfive days of a year. God’s program-ming does not turn off at three amlike some networks do. It is a free sta-tion broadcasting all the time with-out any cable fees. We only need toknow how to tune into God’s station.

The connection to God is nothard. It is just a matter of making thechoice that this is what we want to do.

The steps to do this are simple. � Step one is to stop identifying withthe body, mind, and world outside,and identify with the soul. � Step two requires that when weidentify with our soul that we shiftour attention to the frequency or thehigher realms and ultimately to God.

That is all we have to do. God didnot make it hard for us to becomeaware of our true Home. It is we whohave made it complicated.

So how do we accomplish stepone and step two? To accomplish stepone, we must withdraw our attentionfrom our body, mind, and the worldoutside. We must decide to turn offthe outer programming. When thatprogramming is in the off mode, thenin the silence we will experience our-selves as soul. That is the step that wecall self-knowledge.

Once we identify with the soul,we will be able to pick up frequenciesthat the soul is capable of receiving.We can do a gradual shift in which wego from the consciousness of oneregion to consciousness of the spiri-tual realms.

In this process we are not goinganywhere physically; we are merely

shifting our attention from one stateof consciousness to the other. Theother state of consciousness does notexist in time or space. They areoperating concurrently. We are simul-taneously in the other realms and inGod at the same time but we are notaware of it because our attention isonly focused on one region — thephysical.

So, for step one, if we meditateaccurately we will experience our-selves as soul. Once we identify withthe soul, then we will also be awareof the inner Light and Sound that isthe radiance and vibratory sound ofGod within us. If we absorb ourselvesin the Light and Sound within, we canthen attain step two. We can shift ourattention into the Light and Sound,which attracts our soul to higher lev-els of vibration.

It is simply a matter of choosingwhere we want to put our attention.This is the simplicity of spirituality.God did not make things complicat-ed. It is simple, we just have to chooseto transplant the flower of our atten-tion from the world into God’s gar-den.

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Day in and out we witness how ouractions, emotions and decisionsshape us as a whole and where it

takes us. While we may have achieved someor the other goal in the past, our willingnessto keep going somehow feels lost at times,and a feeling of non-belongingness erupts.We keep procrastinating certain things andeven end up feeling gloomy with no actionsdirected to keep moving in that direction.This is when you must start engaging inmindfulness and focussing on self-improve-ment by measuring yourself and your deci-sions diligently.

Personal development and self-improvement are subjective. Each one hastheir willingness to achieve something as agoal. You have a certain goal and you havefailures in achieving the same. This stemsthe thought of self-improvement to betterhandle the situation at hand. When it comesto self-improvisation, it doesn’t have a dead-end wherein we feel we have achieved it alland attained self-actualisation, but it keepspushing us to explore our actions, decisionsfurthermore for better results out of themany upcoming challenging situations.

Self-improvement is an unending pur-suit to better yourself, be it whatever thatyou are eyeing to achieve. It’s a long-termgame and we’re here for a marathon, notjust for a sprint. With self-improvement,you may not see the changes tomorrow butcan see things moving in the directionmaybe a few weeks, months, and most defi-nitely a year from the first time you start.This is the most effective method ofimprovement because the only one whoknows your thoughts to the dot is you. Andyour actions are a reflection of yourthoughts, therefore, you can change youractions by understanding your thoughts andchannelling your thought process.

Link to knowledge: Personal develop-ment through self-improvement is tied to

knowledge and as we are aware that knowl-edge is endless. As much we seek, there’sroom for more to imbibe the ocean ofknowledge that the world possesses. Theknowledge of various aspects guides us tofind various ways to achieve a certain thingthat we desire. It also induces a feeling thatif it could be achieved in a certain way, howabout exploring another way too? And weleap to find it!

Moreover, our pursuit for self-improve-ment never reaches the epitome becauseour brain is conditioned to be pessimisticand has the hunger to achieve more. Wethink we are not perfect at a certain thingand always feel there is still a lot of room tolearn and excel in the same. Measuringefforts when we do it is something that weas humans don’t engage in. This leads to thehunger of trying more ways to achieve acertain thing at its full potential.

Self-improvement is more to do withintrospection as we know the best and nomatter what solutions that we have sought

earlier or seek moving forward from theoutside world, we will only be able to find itfrom inside, speaking to ourselves. Whatdoes the mind need? A good job, highgrades at school, that dream car, wanting tobe at the helm in your workplace, etc.,thoughts are aplenty, it is we who find ourown ways to try and channelise ourthoughts and efforts in a certain way in abid to break through what we look forwardto having. And how do we achieve it?

A simple success mantra that anyonecan follow in their pursuit of self-improve-ment is adopting mindfulness. It is the wayyou condition your mind to fully dedicateyour attention to the present without lettingthe past or the future influence yourthought process. Self-improvement certain-ly is immortal and cannot be limited to acertain achievement, but can be with us fora lifetime, if we do not give up on learning.Hence, self-improvement cannot only go sofar but can go all the way!

The writer is an author

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7�= ����� ���� +�7�1� �����������= ������� On April 24, the Armenian geno-

cide completed its 106thanniversary. As the parties involvedin the conflict are restless, the mud-slinging game is on. Joe Biden is thefirst American President to recognisethe Armenian killing as genocide.And this has sparked a new war ofwords between Washington andAnkara. The diplomatic spat betweenthe two countries have now involvedsenior functionaries in the adminis-tration of both the countries.

Although Biden’s historic recog-nition is not laced with any economicsanction or diplomatic isolation, hisexplosive statement will certainlyrock the already tense relationsbetween the two nations. In fact,President Biden called up his Turkishcounterpart the day before he madethe announcement. Earlier AmericanPresidents did not take the risk ofinfuriating Turkey, a key NATO allyand a strategically critical country,straddling West Asia and Europe.

Though the US’ new position issymbolic, it equates the Armenianmassacre with the genocide underHitler, and the Cambodian genocideby the Khmer Rouge under Pol Potfrom 1975-79 and finally theRawandan genocide against theTutsis in April 1994.

Elated at President Biden’s dec-laration, Armenian Prime MinisterNikol Pashinyan has reacted by say-ing that is a “…powerful step on theway to acknowledging the truth, his-torical justice and an invaluablesupport for the descendants of thevictims of Armenian genocide”.

However, moments after therelease of Biden’s statement onArmenian genocide, Turkish ForeignMinister Mevlut Cavusoglu said,“The words cannot change or rewritehistory. We have nothing to learnfrom anybody on our own past.Political opportunism is the greatestbetrayal to peace and justice. Weentirely reject this statement basedsolely on populism.”

This hints at Turkey’s sharpdenial of the Armenian genocide. ForTurkey, this massacre is an unfound-ed slander and the current Americanpronouncement is emerging simplyfrom the country’s internal politicalcalculations.

Thus, the Turkey’s Governmentsays there was no policy of extermi-nation to deal with the Armeniansubjects under the Ottoman Empire.Key officials of President RecepTayyip Erdogan claim that the cur-rent American stand on theArmenian genocide is simply to

malign the global image of Turkey.The Turkish Ministry of ForeignAffairs says the demographic stud-ies show that fewer than 1.5 millionArmenians lived in the entireOttoman Empire before the FirstWorld War. Hence, there is no ques-tion of the death of 1.5 millionArmenians only in Eastern Anatolia.Again, alongside the loss of theArmenians, more than 2.5 millionMuslims died in the Anatolian regionin the same period, they claim.Finally, the Ministry says,“Documents of the time list inter-communal violence, forced migrationof all ethnic group, disease and star-vation as causes of death.” Therefore,Turkey officially does not recognisethe killings as genocide.

For a fact, the killing of morethan 1.5 million Armenians andother Christian minorities between1915 and 1917 by the Young Turkadministration in AnatolianPeninsula is widely labelled as “geno-cide”. These Armenian Ottomanswere killed while they were beingdeported from Anatolia to the Syrian

desert in the peak of the First WorldWar. The Young Turks also knownas Jon Turkler (in Turkish language)were the proponents of a politicalreform movement that took place inthe early 20th century. The YoungTurks wanted to replace the absolutemonarch in the Ottoman Empire inthose days.

The principal aim of this move-ment was to establish a constitutionalform of government. They led amovement known as Young TurkRevolution against the OttomanSultan Abdul Hamid II in 1908which culminated in the foundationof a constitutional government inTurkey. And by January 1913, themost militant members of the YoungTurks like Talat Pasa and Enver Pasatook over the regime from their lib-eral colleagues in a coup d’état. Itmust be noted here that these youngrevolutionaries belonged to a smallgroup called Committee of Unionand Progress (CUP), an organisationbelonging to the greater Young TurksRevolution. And only during the ruleof these radicals, the mass killing of

the Armenians took place during theFirst World War.

The history, legacy and tragedyaround this mass murder is shroud-ed in controversies and contestednarratives. However historicalrecords of the later part of the 19thcentury show that even Sultan AbdulHamid advocated pan-Islamic idealsfor his empire. The year 1894 wit-nessed brutal killing of Armeniansin the Ottoman Empire. The sameyear, rising agitations by theArmenians demanded politicalreform which forced the Sultan touse brutal forces to normalise the lawand order situation. Contemporaryhistorical records indicate the mas-sacre of 80,000 to 300,000 Armeniansand 25,000 Assyrians in a period ofthree years. Subsequently, the NewYork Times referred to the masskillings under Sultan Hamid as“Armenian Holocaust” in the year1895 and popularly termed it as“Hamidian massacre”.

Therefore, it is not the onlyregime during the First World Warbut also the earlier that Sultans car-

ried out atrocities against theArmenians and other smaller ethnicand religious groups in the OttomanEmpire.

One can possibly read what wasthere in the mind of Talat Pasa whenhe once said: “What on earth do youwant? The question is settled. Thereare no more Armenians.”

An attempt to create a pan-Islamic and a pan-Turkic State final-ly led to the killing of all theseArmenians. It was the hatred towardsthe Christians when the OttomanEmpire suffered a humiliating defeatin the historic Balkan War between1912 and 1913. The young Turkishrulers were always suspicious of theChristian Armenians. The hardlin-ers of the CUP strongly felt that theArmenians were collaborating withthe foreign powers to harm theOttoman Empire. After the humili-ating defeat in the First Balkan War,when the Empire lost almost all theirpossession in Europe, the Europeanleaders imposed a major set ofreforms over the Ottomans, askingthem to allow the supervision of theinspectors in eastern part of it. Thisdirectly resulted into a pure mis-conception among the Ottomanrulers thinking that only theArmenians were there behind thisconspiracy. Thus, a sense of insecu-rity grew in the ruling elite that theArmenians could be workingtowards undermining the sover-eignty of the Ottoman Empire. Andall these above reasons and probablya growing movement of self-asser-tion among the Armenians led to theextermination of them by the YoungTurk regime.

It is hard to access the exactnumber of Armenians lived in theOttoman Empire during the FirstWorld War. But the EncyclopediaBritannica sources quote that therewere around 2.5 million Armeniansin the beginning of the 20th centu-ry in the Ottoman Empire. Buttoday the modern Turkey has an esti-mated population of 70,000 of themonly. The Armenians initially livedin the six provinces in the EasternAnatolia, what is today known asEastern Turkey.

However, these ChristianArmenians never used to dominateone single area or zone. They alsoshared various parts of EasternAnatolia with the Kurds populationin those days. Records in Ancient his-tory and in Middle Ages clearly saythese areas were controlled by suc-cessive Armenian dynasties for longtime although they used to face

incursions from outsiders. Unfortunately, by the 11th cen-

tury, invasions and large migrationsof Turkic population flooded the area,gradually overpowering the localArmenians. But then the worst wasyet to come. By the 16th and 17th cen-turies, the Eastern Anatolia wasincorporated into the great OttomanEmpire by the Turks, but the dis-tinctive identity of the Armenians hadremained intact. Another interestingfact was that the Armenians couldalways find a broader communityconnect with the other Armenians liv-ing beyond the Ottoman Empire inthe neighbouring Russia.

For centuries, the multi-faithOttoman Empire adopted a uniqueadministrative mechanism called“Millet System” for its minorities.Under this system, the minorities,including the Armenians, enjoyed aconsiderable degree of self-gover-nance to run their affairs. However,gradually, the Millet System declined.By the beginning of the 19th centu-ry, the rulers of the Ottoman Empireinitiated a slew of administrativereforms to modernise its society andpolity. On the way to modernise andsecularise its institutions, the rela-tionship between the Empire and itsminorities changed.

These changes led to centralisa-tion of power in the Ottoman stateand as a result tensions rose betweenthe majority Muslims and diversegroup of minorities living within itsterritory.

In the past, the recognition ofthis tragedy as genocide has alwaysbeen shaped by geopolitical games.On record, the UK, Israel andAzerbaijan have flatly refused torecognise this killing as genocide asthey have been the allies of Turkey.

Whereas Lebanon, Greece andFrance, having large populations ofArmenian descent and traditionallyhostile to Turkey, have largely claimed this horrendouskilling as genocide.

The reality is that truth finallyprevails. And to speak no one needsto think at all. It’s time for Turkey tocome up with a credible answer. Theglobal blame game and taking polit-ical stands for saving one’s skin nei-ther help the descendants of the vic-tims nor the international commu-nity. However, the very use of theterm genocide by Biden at this hourcan rightly be called a moral slap onErdogan.

(The writer is an expert on inter-national affairs)

#�������������� ���������������4����The loss of twenty-two secu-

rity officials in a Maoistattack in Chhattisgarh has onceagain raised concerns over theprotracted Maoist violence.The concerns following theincident have raised criticalquestions, especially over thenature and effectiveness of thecounter-insurgency operations.Such questions are valid con-sidering the identical pattern inwhich the security forces havebeen trapped by the Maoists, beit in the case of Gadchiroli inMaharashtra in 2019 or thecases in the Bijapur-Sukmaregion in Chhattisgarh in 2020-21. The identical pattern inwhich many security forceshave lost their lives to theMaoists invites criticism on thepreparedness, tactical capabil-ities, and intelligence-gatheringaspects of the former.

Following the latestepisode of Maoist violence,the Chief Minister ofChhattisgarh was quick toreject any chances of intelli-gence failure which would havebeen the major factor leadingto the casualties. While therehave been questions on the tac-tical capabilities of the securi-ty forces, certain importantdevelopments related to theMaoists have been completelyoverlooked.

An important episode thathas gone unnoticed is the con-ditional “peace talks” offer bythe Maoists. In a press state-ment dated March 12, thespokesperson of theDandakaranya Special ZonalCommittee offered a condi-tional peace dialogue with theChhattisgarh Government pro-

vided three conditions — with-drawal of the security forces;removal of a ban on theMaoists; and the release of theMaoists cadre arrested by thegovernment — were fulfilled.Such a conditional offer fromthe Maoists came as a reactionto one “Dandi March 2.0”which was organised by civilsociety organisations, endorsedby the Chief Minister ofChhattisgarh, for peace in theMaoist-affected areas.

Coming down heavily onthe peace march, calling it ahoax, the Maoists invited theGovernment for peace talks.While such conditional peacetalks offer coming from theMaoists is not unprecedented,the timing of the offer needs tobe merited. It is safe to arguethat such peace dialogue offerwas the first of its kind after theMaoist organisation had wit-nessed a change in the leader-ship. The new leadership of theMaoists (Nambala Kesav Raoalias Basavraj as the GeneralSecretary and Madvi Hidma asthe chief of the military), asmany believe, has got very lit-tle to do with the romanticnotion of “revolutionary” ide-ology. Rather, they want toscotch the understanding thatthe Maoists are on their last legs.

The militant posturing ofthe new leadership of theMaoists is a testimony of itsdwindling support base andshrinking territory limited onlyto some pockets ofChhattisgarh. The violentepisodes targeting the securi-ty forces are acts of desperationwith motives to keep the armedcadre motivated and to make

the state machinery acknowl-edge their presence. Against thebackdrop of militant posturingand peace talks offers by theMaoists, the responses from thesecurity forces merit a criticalexamination. It is important tomention that while the militaryapproach has been a robuststrategy in bringing down theviolence level in the Maoistsaffected areas, the tactical fail-ures in certain cases have costthe security forces heavily. Asthe Maoist movement underthe new leadership would makeall attempts to revive the organ-

isational strength, the securityforces need to tweak their tac-tical capabilities.

A major focus in this direc-tion should be in terms ofstrengthening credible humanintelligence network. It is onlypossible when the local peoplehave more trust in the securi-ty forces and other statemachinery than the Maoists.The recent incident does notnecessarily reflect on lack ofintelligence, but the credibili-ty of the complete intelligencecan be questioned. The intelli-gence input about Madvi

Hidma’s presence that prompt-ed the operation of 2,000 secu-rity forces turned out to be atrap which reflects on lack ofcomplete information. Large-scale operations with partialintelligence input are bound toface such fate.

Secondly, there is a need torethink the “grab the kingpin”approach. Apprehending andneutralising the leaders of theMaoists have been a critical tac-tical policy to minimise the riskof violence. While the merit ofthis policy should not beunfairly questioned, it needs to

be revisited depending on thespecificities of the situation. Itis important to mention thatthe present leadership of theMaoists which largely believesin violent activities to revive themovement would be on theback foot if a greater numberof armed cadres are targeted.

A third critical issue is onthe morale of the security forces.On one hand, the security forceshave been able to contain theMaoist violence to a great extent,on the other hand, in the pock-ets of Chhattisgarh the CentralArmed Police Forces (CAPF)

have also suffered major casu-alties. The large-scale killing ofthe security forces by theMaoists would hurt the moraleof the CAPF. The experience offighting the outlawed Maoistssuggests that specialised forcesdrawn from the State police likethe Grey Hounds have beenmore effective than the CAPF.Better understanding of thelocal areas and language andeasy access to the local popula-tion are some of the importantadvantages of the State policeover the CAPF. Consideringthe local support base of theMaoists, better coordinationbetween the State police forcesand the CAPFs would boost themorale of the latter.

Apart from the role of thesecurity forces, theGovernments at the State andCentral level need to serious-ly think of going for peace talkswith the Maoists. As men-tioned before, the Maoists havetaken a step forward, thoughconditional, towards peacetalks. The least Governmentscan do is to start engaging theMaoists in negotiation processthrough multiple channels. Wemust understand that theMaoist conflict in its close to sixdecades of existence has pro-duced a host of loot-ableresources that have benefittedthe elites across the spectrum.In this process, the underpriv-ileged population has been atthe receiving end while thesecurity forces have laid theirlives.

(The writer is an AssociateProfessor, National Institute ofAdvanced Studies, Bengaluru)

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Let us now have a look at the attrib-utes reflected by the form in whichMother Goddess Saraswati is per-

ceived. She is visualised clad in spotlesswhite apparel. She is mounted on aSwan, which is white in colour.Remember, transparent white is thecolour of purity, Buddhi (discriminateintelligence) and Akasa (the space filledwith the eternal element of conscious-ness). It hints out at the pure and unsul-lied truths as laid down with nature.Such truths can be accessed and under-stood only when approached with a pureand simple mind, free from any egotisti-cal preconditioning.

Otherwise, with our minds drivenby a sense of relative perception, it willbe difficult to identify the thin dividingline between truth and untruth. It issomething like milk diluted with water,which looks no different from its purefrom. However, when served to a Swan,it consumes the pure milk, leaving asidethe adulterated water. Her mount, thus,gains its relevance in practical terms. Tosum up, realisation of truth calls for apure uncorrupted mind, when it will beavailable in its wholesome form.

The Mother carries a Veena (a

stringed musical instrument). In animplied sense, She remains the beholderof all Sabdas — the spoken as well aswritten words carrying meaning. Andthe word carries meaning only when theletters are placed in an orderly fashion. Italso points to the fact that pleasing man-nerism alone could help relate well withall and be in harmony, but for which lifemay not have a smooth run. Here, it isworth recalling the verse appearing inthe Veda, which reflects upon the originof the words with name and meaning:“Prajapatiravaiidamasit,Tasyavagdwitiyaasit, VagvaiparamamBrahman”. Literally it means that in thebeginning was the Prajapati (anothername of creative matrix) with whom wasVak (She is spoken of as second to Him,because She is first potentially in, andthen issues forth as Sakti); and the wordis Brahmana.

The same concept resonates in the4th Gospel: “In the beginning was theWord, and the Word was with God, andthe Word was God”. Vak, thus, is a Saktior Power of the creator. Going by theancient India’s perception, with the firstmotion at the Primal-Source — pranava— the primal-sound Om got excited,

which when gravitated further, energystreams got excited out of the seeds ofcreation. Thus emerged differentiatedsounds. Out of them, the ones that wereaudible to human ears, are termed asroot syllables (described as Bija mantrain Indian sense). 50/51 alphabets ofDevnagari script are nothing but theroot syllables. The harmony and sym-phony of these root syllables led to themaking of the words with name andform. All these words inherently rest inAkasa (the space filled with eternal ele-ment of consciousness).

Akasa, as per ancient India’s percep-tion was the first to emerge in theprocess of creation of the Universe. Evenscience believes that following the BigBang, the first to emerge was spacewhich provided the ground for furtherevolution of the energy chain excited inthe process. Akasa is supposed to holdin its womb the supra-sensual power ofsound, which flowing through the aircomes in touch with the vocal-chord tomanifest words audible to human ears.Veena, the musical instrument ofMother Goddess Saraswati, thusmetaphorically symbolises being thebeholder of words.

The mother is shown holding a book(the Veda) in one of her hands. It impliesthat Mother is beholder of eternal truth— self-revealed design parameters inlaidwith nature that drives the existentialorder. And that remains beyond thescope of individual judgment.

In this context Rumi’s sayingbecomes imperative: “Somewhere beyondright or wrong, there is a garden.” Onewould need to explore truth only withthis mind-set, which calls for movingbeyond all limitations of mind. It impliesthat true knowledge and wisdom can beacquired only by a pure uncorruptedmind, free from any limitation whatso-ever.

The Mother is shown having arosary in another hand. It implies thatrepeated reflection over knowledgeacquired would be needed for realisationof the true import of the subject matterof learning. So runs the verse: “Sastrasunishcit puni-puni dekhi”. It implies thatrepeated reflection of a subject matterfirms up our insight.

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