12
I ndia celebrated a nine- minute of Diwali on Sunday night as millions of diyas and candles lit up the country’s nook and corner, skyscrapers and shanties to express their solidarity in the fight against coronavirus. From political bigwigs to celebrities and middle class to low-end wage earners, they all came out to contribute their bit to drive out the coronavirus which has ravaged the nation’s health and economy and kept people confined in their homes. President Ramnath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Home Minister Amit Shah as well other senior Ministers switched off the lights of their resi- dences and lighted candles and diya to mark the occasion. Even before the scheduled time of 9 pm, people around the country switched off their electric lights and came out in the balconies and verandas of their house holding candles, lanterns and diya (following a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “challenge the darkness spread by the coronavirus crisis”. The sky also reverberated with the sound of firecrackers, blowing of conches, ringing of temple bells. People also chant- ed “go corona...go…” to express their resolve to throw out the deadly contagion. The event passed off with- out creating any problem for the power grids due to such abrupt fluctuation in demand. “The nine-minute lights-out event went smoothly; no impact on electricity grid func- tioning,” said Power Minister RK Singh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nonagenarian mother responded to the lights-out call given by her son, by hold- ing a diya in her hand at her house in Gujarat on Sunday night. In a video that went viral in a short span of time, the PM’s mother, Hiraba, is seen sitting on a chair holding a metal diya in hand for nine minutes after the lights were switched off. On Friday last, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked people to empower themselves as also the country by lighting earthen lamps, candles and mobile torch at 9 pm for nine minutes on April 5, and send out a message that none of the citizens are alone in the coro- navirus battle. “This Sunday on April 5, we have to challenge coron- avirus. I need your nine min- utes at 9 pm. Switch off the lights of your house. Light up a candle, lamp or use the mobile torch. This light will show that we are together in this battle,” had said the Prime Minister in a nation-wide address. The Opposition was not amused by the PM’s call. Several Opposition leaders slammed the Prime Minister for exhorting people to light candles, saying they had expected him to announce a second financial package to alleviate the pain and anxieties of the people. Since the outbreak of coro- navirus Modi has been giving tips to the citizens to cope with the situations emerging from the lockdown, in force in the country since midnight March 25. T he coronavirus has pene- trated 274 districts across 30 States and Union Territories forcing the Centre to take unprecedented steps to provide medicare and welfare mea- sures to millions of affected persons. The Centre on Sunday said more than 75 lakh people are being provided food as it detailed the measures being taken to face the crisis. As many as 27,661 relief camps and shelters in States — 23,924 set up by the Governments and 3,737 by the NGOs — are housing 12.5 lakh people while 19,460 food camps have also been set up with 9,951 by the Governments and 9,509 by the NGOs, said Punya Salila Srivastava, Joint Secretary of Home Ministry briefing the media on Sunday. The Joint Secretary said as many as 12.5 lakh people are being sheltered in the 27,661 relief camps. Out of these camps, 3,700 have been set up by NGOs. “19,460 camps provide food to about 75 lakh people. The NGOs have set up around 9,000 camps. 13.6 lakh work- ers, including migrant labours, are being given food and shel- ter by employers,” she said. Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba has also carried out a massive interactive exercise with all the district magis- trates and State Chief Secretaries with the stress on ensuring seamless operation of pharma units making medical devices and medicines, sharing experiences in dealing with the crisis in districts. According to guidelines, the manufacturing and move- ment of essential items, their raw materials is permitted. “Our detailed guidelines on April 3 allow for the inter-State movement of the employees of those sectors as well. However, in order to solve issues of the pharmaceutical sectors in cer- tain pockets, Home Secretary on Sunday has written to Chief Secretary of the concerned State and asked to prepare SOPs with proper protocols and social distancing to ensure inter-State movement of employees,” she said, while addressing media along with Luv Agarwal, Joint Secretary of Health Ministry. Continuing with its efforts to ensure that enough food grain stocks are made available in every part of the country during the lockdown, Food Corporation of India (FCI) has set a “new record in single day movement” by moving 70 rakes carrying 1.93 lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) continuously for two days on April 3 and 4. Continued on Page 2 T he Government on Sunday blamed the Tablighi Jamaat event, a religious congrega- tion held mid-March in Delhi, for explosion of Covid-19 cases in the country which resulted into the current rate of dou- bling of the cases in just 4.1 days on an average against 7.4 days earlier. “The rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases in India is 4.1 days presently but if the cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation would not have happened, it would have been 7.4 days,” Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said at a routine press- er here. Massive efforts by various authorities have led to nearly 22,000 people linked to the reli- gious grouping and their pri- mary contacts getting quaran- tined. More are being traced. There had been 472 new COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths in the last 24 hours, on the eleventh day of the three-week nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the respiratory disease. According to the Health Ministry, the total coronavirus cases stand at 3,374 and the death toll at 79, said the official adding that 267 people have recovered. He said at least 274 districts have Covid cases in India. However, a tally of fig- ures reported by States direct- ly showed at least 119 deaths, while the number of confirmed cases had crossed 4,200 mark. Of the total, 321 have been cured and discharged. The number of Covid-19 cases continues to rise across the States. In Andhra Pradesh the total number of cases now stands at 226 while 690 cases have emerged from Maharashtra, of which 406 cases have been reported from Mumbai alone. The Government also admitted that there is a short- age of personal protective equip- ment (PPEs) and N95 masks as the country was not locally manufacturing them till now. aHowever, now domestic manufacturers have started production and the Government has started procuring them from other countries too. “We’ve discussed this with all health secretaries, chief sec- retaries and DMs as this is one of the major issues. We’ve explained to them that PPEs available with us have been already immediately dispatched to the States based on case-load basis,” said Agarwal amid reports and complaints from health workers including doc- tors and nurses about the short- age/absence of mandatory medical protective items. Continued on Page 2 T he Centre on Sunday decid- ed to form an Academic Calendar Committee under UGC Chairman to suggest measures to deal with the issue of delay in the academic session and another committee under a Joint Secretary of the HRD Ministry to take care of the mental well-being of the stu- dents of the school as well as of colleges and universities against the backdrop the Covid-19. HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal held and interac- tion with Vice Chancellors of all the Central Universities after which these measures were announced. He said the decision to reopen schools, colleges will be taken after reviewing the coronavirus sit- uation on April 14. “It is difficult to take a deci- sion at the moment. We will review the situation on April 14 and depending upon the cir- cumstances, a decision will be taken on whether schools and colleges can be reopened now or have to be closed for more time,” the Minister said. The HRD Minister also said to promote online educa- tion and give suggestions regarding online examination a committee under the chair- manship of Prof Nageshwar Rao, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, has been constituted. Continued on Page 2 A uthorities unleashed a crackdown on Sunday against 28 foreign nationals linked to Tablighi Jamaat for visa violations. Eight Malaysian citizens, who were about to board a spe- cial flight to Malaysia, were caught at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. They were part of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin. Ten Filipino nationals were booked in Vashi area of Navi Mumbai under Foreigners Act 1946 and Maharashtra COVID-19 Regulations for allegedly spreading novel coro- na virus. The Ghaziabad police filed a criminal case against 10 Indonesians, including five women, for violating tourist visa norms in Sahibabad area of the district. The Indonesian group had also attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in the national Capital last month which has led to a spiral in the number of Covid positive cases across the country. All the booked Indonesians have been sent to a quarantine facility. The Ghaziabad police have also booked a local guide and four others who provided them accommodation. The eight Malaysian citi- zens, who attended a Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin here, were caught by immigration authorities at the IGI Airport while trying to flee the country through a special flight arranged for the stranded travellers of that nation, officials said. The eight Malaysian Tablighi radicals were hiding in Delhi-NCR and they tried to take advantage of a special flight arranged by the Malaysian High Commission for their citizens stranded in India due to the lockdown to prevent Covid-19. However they were caught by the immi- gration authorities. The eight Malaysians were debarred from boarding the flight as the Central Government has directed all State police forces to take action against those foreigners who had come to India on tourist visa and participated the Tablighi Jamaat congregation. Continued on Page 2 N otwithstanding the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic, tension remains at its peak between India and Pakistan Army along the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir. In the second successful operation in less than 24 hours, alert troops of the Indian Army on Sunday eliminated five heavily armed terrorists in North Kashmir’s Keran sector of Kupwara district. Three Indian soldiers also sacrificed their lives in the line of duty while neutralising heavily armed group of Pakistan trained terrorists. Earlier, on Saturday four Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were eliminated in a clean operation in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district. According to Col Rajesh Kalia, Srinagar-based spokesman of the Ministry of Defence, “over the last 24 hours, Indian security forces have eliminated nine terrorists in J&K. Four terrorists who were involved in killing of innocent civilians were elimi- nated at Batpura on April 4.” Continued on Page 2 Lucknow: A man was on Sunday morning shot dead outside a tea shop near his house in Kareli in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh for criticising the Tablighi Jamaat for spread- ing coronavirus in the country. According to the police, when the deceased was speakng, a few man picked up an altercation with him. One of them, said to be the main accused, left the spot and later returned with some other peo- ple. The victim was standing outside his house when sud- denly an assailant opened fire at him, hitting him on his head and killing him on the spot. The accused tried to flee from the spot but the locals caught him and later handed him over to the police. Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Government has announced a compensation of 5 lakh to the family of the deceased. At present, heavy police force has been deployed on the spot to prevent any kind of escalation. PNS

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Page 1: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · caught at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. They ... the IGI Airport while trying to flee the country

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��� � �+,�%+-!.

India celebrated a nine-minute of Diwali on Sunday

night as millions of diyas andcandles lit up the country’snook and corner, skyscrapersand shanties to express theirsolidarity in the fight againstcoronavirus.

From political bigwigs tocelebrities and middle class tolow-end wage earners, they allcame out to contribute their bitto drive out the coronaviruswhich has ravaged the nation’shealth and economy and keptpeople confined in their homes.

President RamnathKovind, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, and HomeMinister Amit Shah as wellother senior Ministers switchedoff the lights of their resi-dences and lighted candles anddiya to mark the occasion.

Even before the scheduledtime of 9 pm, people aroundthe country switched off theirelectric lights and came out inthe balconies and verandas oftheir house holding candles,lanterns and diya (following acall from Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to “challengethe darkness spread by thecoronavirus crisis”.

The sky also reverberatedwith the sound of firecrackers,blowing of conches, ringing oftemple bells. People also chant-ed “go corona...go…” to expresstheir resolve to throw out thedeadly contagion.

The event passed off with-out creating any problem forthe power grids due to suchabrupt fluctuation in demand.“The nine-minute lights-outevent went smoothly; noimpact on electricity grid func-tioning,” said Power Minister

RK Singh.Prime Minister Narendra

Modi’s nonagenarian motherresponded to the lights-outcall given by her son, by hold-ing a diya in her hand at herhouse in Gujarat on Sundaynight. In a video that went viralin a short span of time, thePM’s mother, Hiraba, is seensitting on a chair holding ametal diya in hand for nineminutes after the lights wereswitched off.

On Friday last, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi askedpeople to empower themselvesas also the country by lightingearthen lamps, candles andmobile torch at 9 pm for nineminutes on April 5, and sendout a message that none of thecitizens are alone in the coro-navirus battle.

“This Sunday on April 5,we have to challenge coron-

avirus. I need your nine min-utes at 9 pm. Switch off thelights of your house. Light upa candle, lamp or use themobile torch. This light willshow that we are together inthis battle,” had said the PrimeMinister in a nation-wideaddress.

The Opposition was notamused by the PM’s call.Several Opposition leadersslammed the Prime Ministerfor exhorting people to lightcandles, saying they hadexpected him to announce asecond financial package toalleviate the pain and anxietiesof the people.

Since the outbreak of coro-navirus Modi has been givingtips to the citizens to cope withthe situations emerging fromthe lockdown, in force in thecountry since midnight March25.

����� �+,�%+-!.�

The coronavirus has pene-trated 274 districts across

30 States and Union Territoriesforcing the Centre to takeunprecedented steps to providemedicare and welfare mea-sures to millions of affectedpersons.

The Centre on Sunday saidmore than 75 lakh people arebeing provided food as itdetailed the measures beingtaken to face the crisis.

As many as 27,661 reliefcamps and shelters in States —23,924 set up by theGovernments and 3,737 by theNGOs — are housing 12.5lakh people while 19,460 foodcamps have also been set upwith 9,951 by the Governmentsand 9,509 by the NGOs, saidPunya Salila Srivastava, JointSecretary of Home Ministrybriefing the media on Sunday.

The Joint Secretary said asmany as 12.5 lakh people arebeing sheltered in the 27,661relief camps. Out of thesecamps, 3,700 have been set upby NGOs.

“19,460 camps providefood to about 75 lakh people.The NGOs have set up around9,000 camps. 13.6 lakh work-ers, including migrant labours,are being given food and shel-ter by employers,” she said.

Cabinet Secretary RajivGauba has also carried out a

massive interactive exercisewith all the district magis-trates and State ChiefSecretaries with the stress onensuring seamless operation ofpharma units making medicaldevices and medicines, sharingexperiences in dealing withthe crisis in districts.

According to guidelines,the manufacturing and move-ment of essential items, theirraw materials is permitted.

“Our detailed guidelines onApril 3 allow for the inter-Statemovement of the employees ofthose sectors as well. However,in order to solve issues of thepharmaceutical sectors in cer-tain pockets, Home Secretaryon Sunday has written to Chief

Secretary of the concernedState and asked to prepareSOPs with proper protocolsand social distancing to ensureinter-State movement ofemployees,” she said, whileaddressing media along withLuv Agarwal, Joint Secretary ofHealth Ministry.

Continuing with its effortsto ensure that enough foodgrain stocks are made availablein every part of the countryduring the lockdown, FoodCorporation of India (FCI)has set a “new record in singleday movement” by moving 70rakes carrying 1.93 lakh MetricTonnes (LMT) continuouslyfor two days on April 3 and 4.

Continued on Page 2

����� �+,�%+-!.

The Government on Sundayblamed the Tablighi Jamaat

event, a religious congrega-tion held mid-March in Delhi,for explosion of Covid-19 casesin the country which resultedinto the current rate of dou-bling of the cases in just 4.1days on an average against 7.4days earlier.

“The rate of doubling ofCOVID-19 cases in India is 4.1days presently but if the caseslinked to the Tablighi Jamaatcongregation would not havehappened, it would have been7.4 days,” Union HealthMinistry Joint Secretary LavAgarwal said at a routine press-er here.

Massive efforts by variousauthorities have led to nearly22,000 people linked to the reli-gious grouping and their pri-mary contacts getting quaran-tined. More are being traced.

There had been 472 newCOVID-19 cases and 11 deathsin the last 24 hours, on theeleventh day of the three-weeknationwide lockdown to slowthe spread of the respiratorydisease.

According to the HealthMinistry, the total coronaviruscases stand at 3,374 and thedeath toll at 79, said the officialadding that 267 people haverecovered. He said at least 274districts have Covid cases in

India. However, a tally of fig-ures reported by States direct-ly showed at least 119 deaths,while the number of confirmedcases had crossed 4,200 mark.Of the total, 321 have beencured and discharged.

The number of Covid-19cases continues to rise acrossthe States. In Andhra Pradeshthe total number of cases nowstands at 226 while 690 caseshave emerged fromMaharashtra, of which 406cases have been reported fromMumbai alone.

The Government alsoadmitted that there is a short-age of personal protective equip-ment (PPEs) and N95 masks asthe country was not locally

manufacturing them till now.aHowever, now domestic

manufacturers have startedproduction and theGovernment has startedprocuring them from othercountries too.

“We’ve discussed this withall health secretaries, chief sec-retaries and DMs as this is oneof the major issues. We’veexplained to them that PPEsavailable with us have beenalready immediately dispatchedto the States based on case-loadbasis,” said Agarwal amidreports and complaints fromhealth workers including doc-tors and nurses about the short-age/absence of mandatorymedical protective items.

Continued on Page 2

��� � �+,�%+-!.

The Centre on Sunday decid-ed to form an Academic

Calendar Committee underUGC Chairman to suggestmeasures to deal with the issueof delay in the academic sessionand another committee undera Joint Secretary of the HRDMinistry to take care of themental well-being of the stu-dents of the school as well as ofcolleges and universities againstthe backdrop the Covid-19.

HRD Minister RameshPokhriyal held and interac-tion with Vice Chancellors of

all the Central Universitiesafter which these measureswere announced. He said thedecision to reopen schools,colleges will be taken afterreviewing the coronavirus sit-uation on April 14.

“It is difficult to take a deci-sion at the moment. We willreview the situation on April 14and depending upon the cir-cumstances, a decision will betaken on whether schools andcolleges can be reopened nowor have to be closed for moretime,” the Minister said.

The HRD Minister alsosaid to promote online educa-tion and give suggestionsregarding online examinationa committee under the chair-manship of Prof NageshwarRao, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU,has been constituted.

Continued on Page 2

����� �+,�%+-!.

Authorities unleashed acrackdown on Sunday

against 28 foreign nationalslinked to Tablighi Jamaat forvisa violations.

Eight Malaysian citizens,who were about to board a spe-cial flight to Malaysia, werecaught at Delhi’s Indira GandhiInternational Airport. Theywere part of the Tablighi Jamaatcongregation at Nizamuddin.

Ten Filipino nationals werebooked in Vashi area of NaviMumbai under Foreigners Act1946 and MaharashtraCOVID-19 Regulations forallegedly spreading novel coro-na virus.

The Ghaziabad police fileda criminal case against 10Indonesians, including fivewomen, for violating touristvisa norms in Sahibabad areaof the district. The Indonesiangroup had also attended the

Tablighi Jamaat event in thenational Capital last monthwhich has led to a spiral in thenumber of Covid positive casesacross the country.

All the booked Indonesianshave been sent to a quarantinefacility. The Ghaziabad policehave also booked a local guideand four others who providedthem accommodation.

The eight Malaysian citi-zens, who attended a TablighiJamaat congregation at

Nizamuddin here, were caughtby immigration authorities atthe IGI Airport while trying toflee the country through aspecial flight arranged for thestranded travellers of thatnation, officials said.

The eight MalaysianTablighi radicals were hiding inDelhi-NCR and they tried totake advantage of a specialf light arranged by theMalaysian High Commissionfor their citizens stranded inIndia due to the lockdown toprevent Covid-19. Howeverthey were caught by the immi-gration authorities.

The eight Malaysians weredebarred from boarding theflight as the CentralGovernment has directed allState police forces to take actionagainst those foreigners whohad come to India on touristvisa and participated theTablighi Jamaat congregation.

Continued on Page 2

������!��������� /&��0

Notwithstanding the threatposed by the coronavirus

pandemic, tension remains atits peak between India andPakistan Army along the Lineof Control in Jammu &Kashmir.

In the second successfuloperation in less than 24 hours,alert troops of the Indian Armyon Sunday eliminated fiveheavily armed terrorists inNorth Kashmir’s Keran sectorof Kupwara district. ThreeIndian soldiers also sacrificedtheir lives in the line of dutywhile neutralising heavilyarmed group of Pakistantrained terrorists.

Earlier, on Saturday fourHizbul Mujahideen terroristswere eliminated in a cleanoperation in South Kashmir’s

Kulgam district.According to Col Rajesh

Kalia, Srinagar-basedspokesman of the Ministry ofDefence, “over the last 24hours, Indian security forceshave eliminated nine terroristsin J&K. Four terrorists whowere involved in killing ofinnocent civilians were elimi-nated at Batpura on April 4.”

Continued on Page 2

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Lucknow: A man was onSunday morning shot deadoutside a tea shop near hishouse in Kareli in Prayagraj inUttar Pradesh for criticisingthe Tablighi Jamaat for spread-ing coronavirus in the country.

According to the police,when the deceased wasspeakng, a few man picked upan altercation with him. Oneof them, said to be the mainaccused, left the spot and laterreturned with some other peo-ple. The victim was standingoutside his house when sud-

denly an assailant opened fireat him, hitting him on his headand killing him on the spot.

The accused tried to fleefrom the spot but the localscaught him and later handedhim over to the police.

Meanwhile, the UttarPradesh Government hasannounced a compensationof �5 lakh to the family of thedeceased.

At present, heavy policeforce has been deployed on thespot to prevent any kind ofescalation. PNS

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Page 2: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · caught at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. They ... the IGI Airport while trying to flee the country

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Shimla: A 37-year-old manhanged himself to death inHimachal Pradesh's Una districton Sunday morning afterallegedly facing "social boycott"by some villagers, who suspect-ed him to be suffering fromCOVID-19 despite testing neg-ative for it.

Mohammad Dilshad com-mitted suicide under a shed athis residence in Una's Bangarhvillage, a day after health officialsdropped him at his village fol-lowing his negative report, anofficial said.

He was taken to a quaran-tine facility a few days agowhere he tested negative for thedisease. Una Sadar SHODarshan Singh said Dilshadwas one of the contacts of aTablighi Jamaat member whohad returned from New Delhi'sNizamuddin. Commenting onit, DGP Sita Ram Mardi in arecorded message on socialmedia said, "Some villagers

pointed out that this man was asuspected COVID-19 patient.He was quarantined and testednegative for the infection. Whenhe returned to his village, he wasdiscriminated against and social-ly boycotted by villagers. Atthis, he committed suicide."

However, the SHO told PTIthat "nothing like discriminationor social boycott came to theirnotice during investigation".

"Members of his family didnot level any such allegations.The investigating officer record-ed statements of his two relativesbut they did not state anythinglike this in their statements," headded. His post-mortem isbeing conducted and policehave initiated inquest proceed-ings under Section 174 of CrPCin this regard, he added.

The DGP has urged peopleto maintain social distancing (tocheck the spread of COVID-19),which "does not mean social dis-crimination". PTI

Shimla: Himachal PradeshChief Minister Jai Ram Thakuron Sunday asked all TablighiJamaat members who hadattended the group's congre-gation in Delhi's Nizamuddin,a COVID-19 hotspot, to comeforward for testing by 5 pm,failing which action will betaken against them.

Three of the seven personswho tested positive for coron-avirus in the state on Saturdaywere Tablighi Jamaat members,he said.

Earlier in the day, DirectorGeneral of Police, HimachalPradesh, Sita Ram Mardi hadissued a similar warning to dis-trict heads of Tablighi Jamaat.

He asked them to disclosedetails of all those who came tothe state after attending thecongregation in Delhi'sNizamuddin West area last

month.Thakur claimed Tablighi

Jamaat members are not coop-erating with the authorities.

He asked all TablighiJamaat members who attend-ed the Delhi congregation tocome forward for medicalcheck-up by 5 pm on Sundayand warned of strict actionagainst those who do not com-ply with the order.

The chief minister said thethree members of the groupwho tested positive on Saturdaywere hiding in a mosque inSolan district's Nalagarh andtheir samples were collectedfrom there.

The three were admitted toIndira Gandhi Medical Collegehere at 6.30 am on Sunday,Senior Medical Superintendent,IGMC, Dr. Janak Raj said.

They are residents of Uttar

Pradesh and had come toHimachal Pradesh's Nalagarharea from Nizamuddin onMarch 18. Their contacts arebeing traced so that they can bequarantined, he said.

With the seven fresh infec-tions, the number of coron-avirus cases in HimachalPradesh has risen to 14,Additional Chief Secretary(Health) R D Dhiman said onSaturday.

These include two patientswho have recovered and asmany deaths. There are 10active cases in the state, he said.

Of these, six are TablighiJamaat members, according toofficials.

The remaining three arebeing treated at Dr. RajendraPrasad Government MedicalCollege (RPGMC) in Kangradistrict's Tanda, they said. PTI

Chandigarh: With six morepersons testing positive for coro-navirus in Nuh and Gurugramdistricts, the number of cases inHaryana rose to 76 on Sunday,the state health department said.

While Nuh reported fivefresh infections, Gurugramreported one, it said.

The total of 76 includes 15patients who have been dis-charged. There are 61 activecases in the state, the healthdepartment said in its afternoonbulletin.

The total also includes fourSri Lankan nationals, oneNepalese national and 20 peo-ple from other states of India, thebulletin said.

Haryana has reported onedeath due to COVID-19 so far.

Health Minister Anil Vijsaid 29 Tablighi Jamaat mem-bers were among those whohave tested positive for coron-avirus in the state so far.

On reports claiming thatthere could be more Jamaatmembers in the state who were

yet to be tracked down, Vij said,"We believe we have tracked allof them. But still if a few of themare hiding, they should them-selves report to the concerneddistrict administration so thatthey can be quarantined.

"However, if they fail to doso over the next couple of days,then strict action as per law willbe taken against them," he said.

Earlier, Vij had said as manyas 652 of the 1,300 TablighiJamaat members who came toHaryana had been traced to Nuhalone. Over 1,300 TablighiJamaat members, including 107foreigners, came to Haryanabefore the lockdown came intoforce on March 25, Director

General of Police Manoj Yadavahad said on Friday.

All of them have been quar-antined, he had said.

Vij on Sunday said tendershad recently been floated andfour firms will supply 1,000personal protective equipment(PPE) kits each for doctors,nurses and paramedical staff atthe frontline of the battle againstcoronavirus. On the lockdownin the state, he said initially it didtake a couple of days to persuadepeople to stay indoors, but nowthey are complying with thegovernment orders. "People areshowing great restraint andcooperating with the authori-ties," the minister said. PTI

Morena: Days after 10 peopletested positive for coronavirusafter attending a funeral feastorganised by a man on hisreturn here in Madhya Pradeshfrom Dubai, over 26,000 oftheir contacts and family mem-bers have been placed underhome quarantine, officials saidon Sunday.

The man, who worked as awaiter at a hotel in Dubai,returned to Morena from Dubaion March 17 after getting infor-mation about his mother's death,Sub-Divisional Magistrate(SDM) RS Bakna said.

"He organised a customaryfeast on March 20 to mark the13th day of mourning after hismothers death," he said.

The man initially hid histravel history, but revealed itafter he and his wife tested pos-itive for coronavirus on April 2,Chief Medical and HealthOfficer R C Bandil said.

The couple came to a hos-pital on March 27 after theircondition deteriorated. Sincedoctors suspected coronavirus,the couple was immediately

sent to an isolation ward andtheir samples were taken whichcame out positive followingwhich the man revealed histravel history, he said.

On April 3, 10 more peo-ple who came in contact withthe couple tested positive forthe deadly viral infection,alarming the district adminis-tration.

The authorities later cameto know that 1,000 to 1,200people attended the feastorganised at the man's resi-dence. "This caused the spreadof infection. The administra-tion has sealed the entire wardno.47, where the man resides,"Bakna said.

According to Bandil, total27,881 people have been homequarantined in the district sofar. "Nearly 26,000 of these peo-ple are those who attended thefeast, their family membersand contacts," he said.

As many as 24 people havebeen admitted to the districthospital after their screeningduring contact tracing of thesepatients, he said. PTI

Bhubaneswar: The OdishaGovernment has warned peoplein Bhubaneswar, Bhadrak andCuttack against venturing outinto the streets in large numbersafter the 48- hour 'total shut-down' imposed on the threecities amid the rise in COVID-19 cases - is lifted on Sundayevening.

Addressing a press meethere, Chief Secretary AsitTripathy said sanitisation andsurveillance were being con-ducted from time to time toensure safety of people.

Dispelling fears of com-munity spread, Tripathy alsosaid that the shutdown wasprimarily imposed to investigatethe COVID-19-positive cases inSurya Nagar and Bomikhalareas of the state capital.

"The Surya Nagar case canbe traced back to Kolkata, whilepatients in Bomikhal localityhad links with Bhopal.Therefore, as per our investiga-tion, community transmissionof COVID-19 can be ruled outto a large extent," he said. The

chief secretary, however, assert-ed that all restrictions imposedby the Centre and the state gov-ernment would continue toremain in force.

Strict action will be takenagainst those found flouting thesocial distancing norms, hestated.

"District collectors andpolice personnel have beenasked to enforce social distanc-ing in market places. Peopleshould not step out of homes inlarge numbers and create chaos(once the shutdown is lifted).

"The government will haveno option but to implementtougher measures, in such cir-cumstances, he said.

Tripathy further said thatlocal authorities have beenempowered to seal COVID-19hotspots, if and when necessary,and carry out surveillance andtrace contacts.

Maintaining that the stategovernment has adopted bestpractices, in keeping with theguidelines issued by WHO, hesaid that the 48-hour shut-

down, which ends at 8 pm onSunday, was a complete success,and that similar steps might betaken in the days to come, ifpeople were found violatingrules.

Noting that around 80 percent of COVID 19-positivepatients did not exhibit symp-toms initially, he said social dis-tancing, if not maintained, couldinvite trouble.

The chief secretary urgedcommunity leaders and opinionmakers to raise awareness oncoronavirus among people.

He also appealed to TablighJamaat event attendees to comeforward and register themselveswith authorities, who wouldthen arrange for their medicaltests. Three persons, includinga religious leader, who hadattended the event in Delhi'sNizamuddin have tested posi-tive for COVID-19 in Odisha.

Meanwhile, the adminis-trations in Jajpur and Puri haveimposed a shutdown in sever-al pockets of the two districts onSaturday. PTI

Raipur: Three COVID-19patients in Chhattisgarh's capi-tal Raipur were discharged fromhospital on Sunday, the numberof such recovered persons nowtouching seven, said health offi-cials. The state currently hasthree active COVID-19 cases.

"Three patients, includingtwo women, hailing from thecapital, were discharged aftertwo consecutive tests returnednegative. All are in the 21-24 agegroup. They had travelledabroad," a health official said.

The three active cases noware a 21-year-old man who hadbeen to London and was admit-ted here on March 31, a 16- year-old Tablighi Jamaat member,both from Korba, and a manwho tested positive on March 25and is undergoing treatment inRajnandgaon, he said.

"Three more coronaviruspatients have been dischargedfrom AIIMS after being cured.7 out of 10 have now been cured.I hope the remaining three willsoon return home after beingcured," tweeted Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel. PTI

Raiur: More than 70,000 peo-ple, most of them with a trav-el history to either foreigncountries or other affectedStates, are kept in home quar-antine across Chhattisgarh as aprecautionary measure to pre-vent the spread of coronavirus,Health officials said on Sunday.

Of the 70,456 people beinghome quarantined as onSaturday, 6242 are in JanjgirChampa district, 5987 inRajnandgaon, 4353 in Bastar,3827 in Kawardha, 5372 inBalodabazar, 4431 in Bilaspur,3612 in Bijapur, 4717 inMungeli, 4986 in Raigarh and640 in Raipur.

A total of 10 people haveso far tested positive to coro-navirus and seven of themhave been recovered tillSunday. The rest threeremained admitted in theAIIMS and at Rajnandgaon

medical college."Of the 1949 samples sent

for screening until now in thestate, 10 have tested positivewhile 1888 came out negative.While reports of 51 others areawaited," an official said.

According to officials, thelatest samples of the patientadmitted in Rajnadagon test-ed negative to the virus.

State Health departmentSecretary Niharika BarikSingh on Saturday asked DGPDM Awasthi to ensure strictcompliance with the quaran-tine protocol and the desig-nated period, an official said.

To contain local trans-mission of cases, all thosewho had travelled abroad or visited other states in the last 28 days have beendirected to stay in home quar-antine, Singh's letter to theDGP stated. PTI

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From Page 1“During the 12 days since

start of lockdown on April 24,the FCI has done averagemovement of 1.41 lakh MTfood grain per day as againstthe pre-lockdown daily averageof about 0.8 lakh MT. A totalof 605 rakes carrying about16.94 lakh MT food grains havebeen transported across thecountry during this period,”said the Government in a state-ment.

Wheat is given for meetingthe requirements of manufac-turers of wheat flour and otherwheat products based on theassessment of requirementsdone by the respective DistrictMagistrates.

Rice is given to the StateGovernments for further dis-tribution through their chan-nels. So far FCI has allotted1.38 LMT wheat in 13 Statesand 1.32 LMT rice in eightStates.

The Civil AviationMinistry has said 116 flightshave been operated by AirIndia, Alliance Air, IAF, PawanHans and private carriers forcargo movements for trans-portation of food and otheressential items.

“Seventy nine of theseflights have been operated byAir India and Alliance Air.Cargo transported till date isaround 161 tonnes. Aerial dis-tance covered by Lifeline Udan

flights till date is over 112,178km. On the international front,the Ministry of Civil Aviationand Air India have workedclosely with China to establisha cargo air-bridge between thetwo countries for transfer ofcritical medical supplies.

“The first cargo flightbetween India and China wasoperated by Air India on April4, 2020, carrying 21 tonnes ofcritical medical supplies fromChina. ‘Lifeline Udan’ flightsare being operated by Ministryof Civil Aviation to transportessential medical cargo toremote parts of the country tosupport India’s war againstCOVID-19,” said Civil AviationMinistry in a statement.

From Page 1He added, “In an another

ongoing anti-infiltration oper-ation in Keran sector of NorthKashmir, alert troops bravinginclement weather and hostileterrain have so far eliminatedfive terrorists attempting toinfiltrate across the LoC tak-ing advantage of bad weather”.

In the ongoing operation,three Indian soldiers alsoattained martyrdom. Out ofthese three, two of them suc-cumbed to their fatal injuriesafter they were evacuatedbraving adverse weather con-ditions. Other injured sol-diers are undergoing treat-ment while operation was stillin progress along the LoC.

According to officialssources, Indian Army is brac-ing for ‘hot summer’ seasonahead. Fresh assessmentsmade by various intelligenceagencies also suggestedPakistan was desperately look-ing for an opportunity to sendacross heavily armed terroristsinside the Indian territory toscale up terrorist violence.

Pakistan Army was alsogradually scaling up tensionsin the region by regularly tar-geting civilian areas with mor-tar shells in a bid to push inarmed terrorists via Rajouriand Poonch sectors in Jammuregion. According to fieldreports, Pakistan Army vio-lated ceasefire agreementmore than 10 times a daysince last one month record-ing over 400 violations in themonth of March. “SinceJanuary 1, 2020 over 1,100violations have been reportedacross different sectors ofJammu & Kashmir”, officialsources said.

From Page 1“We need to understand

we make allotments based onthe number of cases reported inStates. We are also making aneffort to see that how should itsprocurement be increased. Ithas started easing out, in com-ing weeks we should be able tomanage these issues to a largeextent. But their usage shouldbe optimised by using themrationally,” he added.

Also, all DMs have beenasked to instruct pharma unitsmaking devices and medicinesto must run seamlessly, hesaid. The Government hasalready banned the export ofcertain drugs, along with ven-tilators, masks and other pro-tective gear needed by bothpatients and medical staff.

From Page 1The Government has already black-

listed 960 foreigners and cancelled theirvisa for violating visa conditions.

The eight Malaysians have beenhanded over to the Crime Branch of theDelhi Police by the immigrationauthorities. All eight will be put in quar-antine, officials said. Action against theforeign Tablighi Jamaat members weretaken after over 2,300 activists, includ-ing 250 foreigners, were found to be liv-ing at its headquarters located atDelhi’s Nizamuddin last week despitethe 21-day lockdown imposed to checkthe spread of coronavirus. At least 9,000people had participated at the congre-gation at the Nizamuddin Markaz lastmonth after which many have travelledto various parts of the country for mis-sionary works.

From Page 1The other points also dis-

cussed during the meetingwere measures to be takenregarding health of studentsresiding in hostels and acade-

mic and non-academic staff ofthe university.

Proper adherence to socialdistancing and isolationinstructions in the university;provision for testing of sus-

pected cases of COVID-19 inthe university; arrangementsmade to continue the educa-tion of students manage-ment to deal with mentalhealth challenges of studentswere amongst point dis-cussed.

The other finer pointsthat were pondered uponwere research related toCOVID-19.

Pokhriyal directed all theVice Chancellors to motivatetheir faculty and students touse SWAYAM and SWAYAMPRABHA in mission modeand also through otheronline digital mediums tocontinue the academic pro-

gramme. Pokhriyal also said to pro-

mote online education andgive suggestions regardingonline examination a com-mittee under the chairmanshipof Prof Nageshwar Rao, VC,IGNOU has been constituted.

A senior HRD Ministryofficial said all the universitieshave assured that in the hourof crisis, they are prepared tomeet the challenges. Propercare is being taken for the foodand mental health of the stu-dents who continue to reside inuniversities.

The Banaras HinduUniversity (BHU) and AligarhMuslim University (AMU)said they have created facilityof 40-bed isolation rooms.Most of the universities con-tinue to run courses digitally sothat academic session is notdelayed.

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Noida (UP): No fresh coron-avirus positive case was report-ed on Sunday in Gautam BuddhNagar, even as the number ofCOVID-19 tests saw a sharpspike to cross the 1,000-mark,officials said on Sunday.

Gautam Buddh Nagaradjoining Delhi in western UttarPradesh has so far 58 positivecases of COVID-19, the highestfor any district in the state,according to official figures.

"A total 1,020 samples havebeen sent for COVID-19 testfrom Gautam Buddh Nagar sofar, of which 58 have tested pos-itive, 632 negative and result for336 was awaited," the HealthDepartment here stated in itsdaily statement.

Eight people have beencured and discharged from hos-pitals so far while the active casesstand at 52, it said.

Currently, 1,129 people areunder surveillance across Noidaand Greater Noida, while anoth-er 363 quarantined -- 90 of themat a Gautam Buddh Universityhostel and the rest in special iso-lation facilities at hospitals in

Noida and Greater Noida, itadded.

Previous daily statementsfrom the department had putthe test samples figure at 804 onSaturday, 699 on Thursday, 696on Wednesday, 626 on Tuesdayand 531 on Monday, showing asteady upward rise. Data was notavailable for Friday.

District Magistrate Suhas LY on Sunday reiterated hisappeal to the people to stayindoors and practice all mea-sures against the pandemic likesocial distancing and hand san-itation.

He also warned of actionagainst people spreading anyfalse rumours related to thenovel coronavirus. PTI

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The Delhi Government onSaturday said it has pro-

vided lunch and dinner toaround 6.5 lakh people acrossthe national Capital. TheGovernment also received1,040 calls on April 4 request-ing for supply of food from dif-ferent parts of the city.

We are providing lunchand dinner to over 6 lakh peo-ple everyday and have thecapacity to provide food to 10-12 lakh, said a Govt official.

Keeping in mind thepromise of not to let anyone dieof hunger, the Govt has pro-vided money and shelters todaily wagers, constructionworkers, auto and public sec-tor vehicles drivers.

As per the data of DelhiGovernment, DelhiGovernment gave lunch to64,8,469 people and dinner to65,0,667 people at around 1,592centres while the Governmentis also getting requests for foodfrom various parts of the cityand on April 4 Delhi govt got1040 calls or requests for foodfrom different locations ofDelhi. Based on these calls orrequests the Delhi Governmenthas also ensured food.

From April 1 the DelhiGovernment is providing lunchand dinner to over 6 lakh peo-ple everyday and has the capac-ity to provide food to 10-12 lakhpeople. Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal also hasannounced on March 31 that it’sgovernment is preparing toarrange facilities to feed 10 to 12lakh people a day from April 1.For this, the government hasbeen putting efforts to arrange3,000 centres, each with a capac-ity of feeding 500 people per day.

Nearly 2,500 schools and250-night shelters have starteddistributing food to 500 peoplea day, each bringing the totalnumber of distribution centresto nearly 2,800. Kejriwal said,“We are feeding 3.5 lakh-4lakh people daily until now, andwe will start feeding 10-12

lakh people from tomorrow.Upon further deliberations onthis, we found out that peoplewere crowding at the foodcentres. So we decided to cre-ate more centres.”

To ensure that the govern-ment’s free meal scheme isequitably accessible to theneedy so that they do not haveto walk for miles looking forfood, the Delhi government hasmade the schools and nightshelters as key food distributionpoints. From the day of thelockdown, the Delhi govern-ment started with the distrib-ution of foods at the existing234-night shelters and 35 com-munity halls. At the time offood distribution, the Delhigovernment is also ensuringsocial distancing, safety andsanitation for the people.

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The lockdown in the wake ofCovid-19 pandemic has

checkmated habitual offendersand criminals , Gurugram policesaid, citing data that points to adrastic fall in most categories ofcrime.

The crime rate in Gurugramdropped by 57 per cent sinceMarch 25 when restrictionswere in place to prevent theCOVID-19 spread as comparedto the same period last year, thepolice said on Saturday.

According to the datashared by the police, a total of171 cases of crime have beenregistered from March 25 to 31,2020 as against 396 cases duringthe same period last year. These

cases include murders, theftsand snatching, among others.

The data showed that in2020, 14 cases of crime againstperson (murder, abetment tosuicide, assault and others) wereregistered between March 25and March 31. In 2019, 38 suchcases were filed.

Similarly, crimes againstwomen, including rape andharassment, also declinedfrom 17 cases in 2019 to fourthis year over the stated peri-od. Number of cases of vehi-cle theft witnessed a dropfrom 85 to seven.

"We registered seven casesof motor vehicle theft in the lastweek. Perhaps, this is the firsttime that such few number ofcases have been reported.Generally, we register at least

dozen of vehicle theft cases aweek,” said a senior police offi-cial. “Due to the lockdownthere has been a dip of 57% incrime rate across the district.Vehicle-lifters are finding it dif-ficult to spot potential buy-ers.Usually,stolen vehicles aresold immediately. But now, fear-ing coronavirus, buyers of suchvehicls have remained indoor.

"This is the main reason forthe decrease in vehicle thefts.Secondly, many vehicles arestolen from parking lots andthese places are empty now," apolice officer explained.

On March 24, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hadannounced a complete lock-down across the country for 21days to control the spread ofCOVID-19.

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South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) has

started a major sanitation drivein identified major vulnerablespots and densely populatedareas in unauthorised colonies.The civic body has sanitised200 localities and 60,000 hous-es across all four zones till date.

The officials of publichealth department have alsocarried out surveillance inalmost 3500 houses that wasmarked home quarantinedand provided all the necessaryassistance, a senior SDMCofficial said.

SDMC has geared up itsaction and preventive mea-sures to contain the spread ofcoronavirus. “We deployeddrone for spraying disinfec-tants in the congested andslum areas such as

Paschimpuri, Laxmi JhuggiCamp, Punjabi Bagh exten-sion, Janak Puri,” he said.

The civic body in associa-tion with Delhi Governmentand police, door to door check-ing, survey in Nizamuddin

area continued in second day.A total 869 houses were visit-ed in the area to check symp-toms of COVID -19.

The drone with a capaci-ty of holding over five litres ofliquid, is being used to cover

larger areas and bring downhuman efforts to avoidchances of infection amongstaff working on ground, hesaid, adding that approx 25 kgdisinfectants solution wassprayed through drone, taking

10 rounds each of 30 minutes..The official further said

that the SDMC meticulouslyplanned action for intensivedisinfection and sanitisationof slum areas, major vulnera-ble spots, densely populatedareas as they are more proneto spread of infection.

“Drones, tankers, fire ten-ders are being deployed inlarge number for spraying dis-infectants in almost all locali-ties and the action are beingmonitored at the highest levelto ensure effective santizationactivities,” he added.

The spraying action hastaken up at all the zones on alarge scale mainly inManglapuri, Dharmpura,Najafgarh, Sagarpur, ShankarGarden, Indira Camp, VikasPuri, Lado Sarai Village, SaritaVihar, Sarai Kale Khan,Govindpuri extension, headded.

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Giani Ranjit Singh Jathedarof the Takht Patna Sahib

on Sunday urged the PrimeMinister Narender Modi andHome Minister Amit Shah toquash the FIR (FirstInformation Report) registeredby the Delhi Governmentagainst Delhi Sikh GurdwaraManagement Committee(DSGMC) for providing shel-ter and food to stranded pas-sengers who had sought refugein Gurdwara Manju Ka tilldue to lockdown .

Takht Harmandir Sahib(Patna) which is one of the fivetakhts,(the highest seats of reli-gious authority for the Sikhsworldwide) highlighted thesocial and charitable works

being undertaken by varioussikhs institutions worldwideand told that at present 100gurdwaras are providing langarto standard people in punjabdue to lockdown.

All Inns (serais) with TakhtPatna Sahib has been providedto Bihar Government for uti-lizing it as quarantine centreand isolation wards and foraccommodating health stafftemporarily.

He highlighted the positiveachievements of the DSGMCin service of mankind to fight

Coronavirus and said that allthe passengers had come attheir own to seek shelters inGurdwara Gurdwara ManjuKa tila on seeing the NisanSahib , the symbol of Gurdwaraand DSGMC has intimatedtheir stay to the authorities wellin time.

The DSGMC has beenserving all the standard personswith langar and following theprincipal of social distancingfor each standard person. Hestrongly condemned the DelhiGovernment for filing an FIRagainst DSGMC with malafideintention to defame the reli-gious institution and criticisedit for equating the Sikhs withTalibaghi Jamaat with aim ofmaligning the image and rep-utation of Sikh community.

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The Delhi Police on Sundayregistered nine First

Information Reports (FIRs) aftereleven people who were advisedto be in 'home quarantine' werefound violating rules in areas ofShahdara district. Meanwhile,police said more than 170 caseswere registered and 3,531 peo-ple detained in Delhi on Sundayfor violating Government ordersduring the coronavirus lock-down.

According to DineshKumar Gupta, DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP),Shahdara district as many as 517addresses who were advisedfor home quarantine were ver-ified in Shahdara district and onconducting physical verificationof the addresses, police foundthat a total of 11 persons who

were advised home quarantinewere not found at their home.

"A total of nine cases hasbeen registered under section188 (for disobedience to orderduly promulgate of by publicservant) of the Indian PenalCode (IPC) on Sunday," said theDCP.

Earlier, two more caseswere registered when thoseadvised for home quarantinewere found violating the rules.

Meanwhile, on Sunday,police also registered around170 cases and detained 3,531people in Delhi on Sunday forviolating government ordersduring the coronavirus lock-down.

According to the datashared by the police, 176 caseswere registered under section188 (for disobedience to orderduly promulgated by public

servant) of the Indian PenalCode (IPC) till 5 PM.

"A total of 3,531 peoplehave been detained under sec-tion 65 (persons bound to com-ply with reasonable directions ofpolice officers) and 388 vehicleshave been impounded undersection 66 of the Delhi PoliceAct. A total of 782 movementpasses have been issued," policesaid.

Since March 24, a total of51602 people have beendetained so far for violatingorder under section 65 of theDelhi Police Act

The move comes afterPrime Minister Narendra Modilast week announced a completelockdown across the country for21 days, asserting social dis-tancing is the only way out forthe country in its decisive bat-tle against the virus.

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A37-year-old man, suspect-ed coronavirus patient, was

injured after he allegedlyattempted suicide by jumpingfrom the third floor of a hos-pital in Central Delhi. Policesaid the incident occurred onSaturday late night.

The man identified asSarafat Ali, a resident of MataSundri Road was admitted tothe Lok Nayak Jai PrakashNarayan Hospital on 31 Marchas suspected coronaviruspatient.

According to police, hejumped from the third floor ofthe hospital at around 11.30 pm

on Saturday. He first fell on thetin roof and then on the groundfollowing which he sustainedfracture in leg.

As per doctors, his condi-tion is stable now and theresult of his test forCoronavirus is still awaited.

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A20-year-old youth wasallegedly shot dead by his

friend over money dispute inthe national Capital. Policesaid the incident was reportedon Saturday from North-westDelhi's Bharat Nagar area.

The deceased has beenidentified as Imran Khan, a res-ident of JJ Colony, Wazirpur.

According to VijayantaArya, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Northwest district, theincident took place on Saturdaynight, when Imran along withhis friends was sitting in hislocality. Suddenly, his friendFeroz opened fire at him andfled from the spot.

"The victim was rushed toa nearby hospital by his fatherwhere he was declared dead bythe doctor. The police were

informed by the hospitalauthorities that the victim dieddue to gun shot injury. A casehas been registered and effortsare being made to arrest theaccused, said the DCP.

"Police suspect money dis-pute to be the reason behindthe killing, however, all anglesare being probed," the DCPadded.

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The enforcement team ofFood and Civil Supplies

Department of the DelhiGovernment on Sunday con-ducted an inspection in OldDelhi area and prosecuted sixdefaulting retailers and manu-facturing companies after find-ing them overcharging on var-ious essential commodities.

The move came after Foodand Civil Supplies MinisterImran Hussain sent enforcementteams of legal metrology depart-ment to visit the Old Delhi areafor checking the instances of vio-lation of ‘Packaged CommodityRules’ (PCRs) and overchargingby retailers, shopkeepers,chemists, manufacturers, tradersetc especially with regard to thesale of various essential com-modities.

The Minister directedsenior officers to review thefunctioning of field staff ondaily basis. He further direct-ed that at no cost, the chemists,retailers, traders etc. should beallowed to take undue advan-tage of the health crisis due tothe prevailing pandemic natureof the Corona virus. He alsodirected that the violators anddefaulters must be immediatelyproceeded against, strictly asper law.

Hussain appealed to theretailers, traders, manufacturers

etc to scrupulously comply withprovisions of ‘PackagedCommodity Rules’ and desistfrom overcharging for thepacked commodities, for thebenefit of consumers and joinhands with Government in thefight against the health crisis dueto coronavirus.

The Minister also appealedto the citizens of Delhi to bringinto the notice of the legalmetrology department anyinstance of overcharging ofpacked commodities and also ofviolations of packed commod-ity rules.

With many such complaintswere brought in to the notice ofthe Minister, he directed theteam to check overpricing inareas. Six prosecutions werelaunched against defaultingretailers or manufacturing com-panies which amounting tomore than Rs one lakh, it said.

The teams conducted totalof 10 surprise inspections of gro-cery shops and found instancesof violations of PCRs by retail-ers in SN Market, Lahori Gatemarket where the retailers were

found stocking some packeditems not showing ‘MaximumRetail Price’ (MRP), packeditems containing mandatorydeclarations on stickers in vio-lation of PCRs, certain packedcommodities not having cus-tomer care number printed onthem etc, according to a state-ment issued by the department.

Packaged Commodity Rulesprescribe requirement of print-ing of mandatory declarationson the packaged commoditiessuch as the name and address ofthe manufacturer, packer,importer, the common name ofthe product in the package, thenet quantity, month and year ofmanufacturing or pre-packing,MRP (inclusive of all taxes)and name, address, telephonenumber of the person who canbe contacted by the consumer incase of a complaint.

It further said that failure tocomply with PCRs renders theretailer; manufacturer and trad-er etc are liable for prosecutionaction under Legal MetrologyAct, 2009 and the PackagedCommodities Rules, 2011.

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Accusing the DelhiGovernment for “failing”

to prevent the spread of coron-avirus, Delhi Congress onSunday said the national Capitalwitnessed many cases com-pared to rest of the country dueto lack of preparedness to tack-le the disease.

Chaudhary Anil Kumar,president of Delhi PradeshCongress Committee (DPCC)said that Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal is not serious about thedevastating effects of coron-avirus in Delhi.

“The rapid increase in casesof persons infected withCoronavirus is a matter of seri-ous concern. On 1st April therewere 2059 positive cases inIndia, which rose to 3675 on 4thApril. Likewise in Delhi therewere 152 positive cases on 1stApril which rose to alarmingnumber to 445 on 4th April butinstead of dealing with it, theChief Minister and Delhi HealthMinister are misleading people

by making false and contradic-tory statements regarding theirpreparations to fight against theCoronavirus in Delhi,” he said.

He said as per the data avail-able on Delhi Government’swebsite, there are only 243 ven-tilators, 3261 ‘PersonalProtection Equipment’ (PPE),whereas positive cases haveincreased multi fold in Delhiwith alarming numbers in recentdays.

Quoting the statement ofDelhi Health Minister on a newchannel, Kumar said that theHealth Minister expressed con-cern that stock of the PPE kit willremain for 2-3 days anddemanded 50,000 PPE kits fromthe Central Government, where-as earlier, the Chief Minister hadsaid that the government cantreat 100, 500 or 1000 patientson daily basis.

Chaudhary Anil Kumar alsodemanded the DelhiGovernment to provide neces-sary equipments to doctors,nurses, technicians and SafaiKaramcharis.

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The Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR)

on Sunday said that coron-avirus is not an airborne infec-tion, as is being reported bysome studies, asserting that itwas the case then every personin a family would be infectedand same would apply for otherpatients in a hospital.

"We need to understandthat in science whoever doesexperiments, there will be dif-ferent opinions, but we need totake a balanced, evidence-basedapproach,” ICMR scientistRaman R Gangakhedkar said ata Press briefing here.

"For example, if it was anair-borne infection, then in afamily whoever has a contactthey all should come positivebecause they are living in thesame surroundings as thepatient and the family is breath-ing the same air. When some-one is admitted in the hospital,other patients would have gotexposure (if it was airborne) butthat is not the case,” the scien-tist explained.

Gangakhedkar alsoinformed that the rapid anti-body based blood tests kits forCoronavirus will be deployed byWednesday, implying that thetests will begin from that dayonly. If put to use, this would bethe first time India will useserology for detection of disease.The council had last monthissued tenders for the procure-ment of 5 lakh antibody test kits.

The serological antibodyblood test, which deliver resultsin 15 minutes, work on bloodsamples instead of nasal swabsand will tell whether a patienthas ever been exposed to thenovel virus. Similar tests havebeen widely conducted to checkfor influenza, human immun-odeficiency virus and Zika.

The ICMR has alreadyissued an advisory to start rapidantibody based blood test forcoronavirus, enhancing thescreening strategy in line withits containment plans in high-risk areas and Covid-19hotspots.

So far, the Government hasidentified over 70 hotspots andhigh risk zones including clus-

ters (containment zone) andlarge migration gatherings orevacuees’ centres across thecountry.

“As a matter of abundantprecaution, all symptomatic ILI(influenza-like illness) are to bemonitored in health facilities.Any surge in cases to be mon-itored and brought to the noticeof surveillance officer/CMO foradditional investigation,” theadvisory said.

It added all ILI personsshould be home- quarantinedfor 14 days. At facility level, allsymptomatic people withinfluenza-like illness havingcough, cold, low-grade fever andsore throat will be tested withrapid antibody tests.

“If a patient tests positiveafter a rapid antibody test, deci-sion will be taken based on clin-ical assessment and treatment inhospital will follow. As per pro-tocol, contact tracing will also bedone.

“In case of negative results,RT-PCR may be done if war-ranted. The revision in thestrategy came in view of theincreasing number of cases inlast few days needing an imme-diate check on migrant workers,who left cities for their homes,for Covid-19,” it added.

The advisory also men-tioned that as a matter of abun-dant precautions, all sympto-matic ILI persons should beadvised home quarantine for 14days.

At facility level, sympto-matic ILI individuals are to betested using rapid antibody test.

The guidelines mentioned,“Antibody test negative: if war-ranted, confirm by real time RTPCR using throat or nasal swab.If RT PCR negative: likely nonCOVID19 ILI and if RT PCRpositive: confirmed COVID 19case and action as per protocolto be initiated for isolation,treatment and contact tracing.”

To ensure that all suchcases are monitored and neces-sary action is initiated withrespect to infectious can diseasemanagement, ICMR has soughtdetails of all test results to itsportal and update real time data.

Failure to do so, they will beheld liable to action under Disaster ManagementAct, 2005.

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The Congress on Sundaysaid lighting lamps alone

will not help win the waragainst coronavirus anddemanded answers from theGovernment on the safety ofhealth workers in the absenceof adequate protective gear.

The party also said lifting oflockdown should not be donein an unplanned manner as itsimplementation .

"Just as lockdown alonecannot fight coronavirus, light-ing alone cannot help. Merelylighting a lamp will not help

win the war against coron-avirus. If the Government ofIndia does not fulfill its duties,it is not possible to fight the waragainst coronavirus, Congressspokesperson Sushmita Devsaid at a Press conferencethrough video conferencing.

"There has to be properplanning and provision of per-sonal protection equipment(PPEs) to those fighting thiswar. There is also the need foran economic package for thepoor and vulnerable," she saidamidst the reports coming fromvarious places including Biharabout lack of PPEs.

Highlighting the absence ofenough protective gear for themedical workers dealing withCOVID-19 cases, Dev said atleast 50 doctors have beeninfected by the deadly virus.

She also sought to knowwhen would the Centre providecompensation to those whohave died due to coronavirus, asshe said state governments werenot financially equipped toprovide the same.

"Hundred people have diedso far, will the central govern-ment give compensation totheir families? These are somequestions which we ask in

national interest and not in crit-icism of the government," shesaid.

Asked if the Congress sup-ported lifting the lockdown,Dev said it is for the govern-ment to decide.

"We only hope it is notdone in an unplanned manneras the lockdown was imposedthe sacrifice of people and thehardship faced by them for thelast 21 days should not gowaste," she noted.

The Congress leader alsoalleged that against the demandof 62 lakh PPE kits, only 3.34lakh kits are available for doc-

tors and paramedical staff atpresent.

"If we cannot protect ourdoctors, nurses, techniciansand other paramedical staffwho are in the forefront offighting this war against coro-navirus, then this country is notprepared for this fight, Dev said.

Accusing the governmentof delaying by five weeks issu-ing orders for allowing manu-facture of PPEs locally in theabsence of guidelines till March24, she said the 50 doctors whocontracted the disease couldhave been averted.

She also asked if the gov-

ernment has approved anyagencies to test these PPEsmanufactured locally.

Dev also questioned thegovernment on increasing thenumber of ventilators requiredin the country, as only 40,000of them are available, of which20,000 are not working prop-erly, according to reports.

She also called for large-scale testing to curb the spreadof the disease.

"We cannot be successful inthis war against coronavirusunless the Government increas-es the scale of testing," theCongress leader said.

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Continuing his exercise ofinformation exchange with

different organisations andindividuals on ways to tacklethe coronavirus pandemicaffecting over 3,000 peopleand causing more than 75deaths in the country, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onSunday called up formerPresidents and Prime Ministersbesides several Oppositionleaders like Sonia Gandhi,Mamata Banerjee andMulayam Singh Yadav to dis-cuss the situation and tap theirwisdom on the issue.

Modi spoke to formerPresidents Pranab Mukherjeeand Pratibha Patil and had adiscussion on Covid-19 relat-ed issues with them. Similarly,he also called former PrimeMinisters Manmohan Singhand HD Deve Gowda to dis-cuss the pandemic situationwith them.

Prime Minister hasengaged various domestic sec-tors to seek their suggestions towage an effective war on thecoronavirus in the country. Hehad earlier spoken to a range ofdiplomats and exchanged viewswith the US President DonaldTrump who is himself facedwith a difficult task of check-ing the spread of virus in hiscountry where the death tollhas reached to 8100 and thenumber of positive cases havecrossed the 3-lakh mark.

Apart from Prime

Ministers and Presidents, Modialso reportedly called a num-ber of political party leaders todiscuss the pandemic withthem and to take their sinceresuggestion, according tosources.

Besides congress chiefSonia Gandhi, TMC supremoMamata and SP patriarachMulayam, Modi discussed thecorona crisis with SP chiefAkhilesh Yadav, BJD headNaveen Patnaik, TRS chief KChandrashekar Rao, DMKchief MK Stalin and SAD pres-ident Parkash Singh Badal.

Modi’s initiative came evenas he reminded people to light‘earthen lamps’, candles andtorches on Sunday night fornine minutes to show solidar-ity with each other during theglobal crisis.

On Tuesday, PrimeMinister will hold a meeting ofthe council of ministersthrough a video conferencewhere some major decisionsare expected to be taken to con-tain coronavirus and the lock-

down reviewed by the govern-ment. This is for the first timein country’s history that acouncil of ministers’ meetingwill be held via video confer-ence called by a Prime Minister.

On April 8, Modi will betalking to opposition floor-leaders via videoconferencingand taking their views tosharpen the national strategyagainst coronavirus and sharegovernment’s views on thephase-wise withdrawn of three-week lockdown in the country.

The interaction with oppo-sition leaders is taking placeamid criticism that the Modi-government has not taken theformer into confidence and notinformed them about the stateof medical and other contin-gencies.

Many opposition leadershave been asking for an all-party meeting with the PrimeMinister on the pandemic,wanting to have the first-handinformation on the steps tocope with the crisis which maynot end too soon in time andlinger on with unforeseenimpact on many aspects ofnational life, particularly itseconomy which has alreadybeen in a slowdown mood.

The ruling BJP has dis-missed opposition charge ofnot taking them in confidenceby saying that Prime Ministerhas been talking and video-conferencing with severalopposition-led-Chief Ministersand taking their views on theissue.

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The Centre on Sunday decid-ed to form an Academic

Calendar Committee underUGC Chairman to suggest mea-sures to deal with the issue ofdelay in the academic sessionand another committee under aJoint Secretary of the HRDMinistry to take care of the men-tal well being of the students ofthe school as well as of collegesand universities against the back-drop the Covid-19 pandemic.

The decisions were takenduring HRD Minister RameshPokhriyal’s interactions with theVice Chancellors of all theCentral Universities.

HRD Minister alsoinformed that to promote onlineeducation and give suggestionsregarding online examination acommittee under the chair-manship of Prof. NageshwarRao, VC, IGNOU has been con-stituted. The other points dis-cussed during the meeting weremeasures to be taken regardinghealth of students residing inhostels and academic and non-academic staff of the university.

Proper adherence to socialdistancing and isolation instruc-tions in the university; provisionfor testing of suspected cases ofCOVID-19 in the University;arrangements made to continuethe education of students man-agement to deal with mentalhealth challenges of studentswere discussed.

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Fearing that the habit of spit-ting after consumption of

tobacco and chewing gums canadd to the spread of Covid-19,State Governments are takingstringent measures like pro-hibiting not only their con-sumption but also production.

While Uttar PradeshGovernment has banned man-ufacture, distribution and sale ofpan masala in the State,Himachal Pradesh has prohib-ited sale of chewing gums for thenext three months, hoping thatby that time the disease will ebb.A couple of days ago, Haryanahad imposed similar prohibitionon chewing gums, adding to theprohibition list that includesgutka and Khaini among othertobacco items. More states mayjoin the list, an official from theUnion Health Ministry said.

COVID-19 is known to betransmitted through thedroplets released when aninfected person sneezes orcoughs and there is a possibili-ty of transmission by spittingchewing gums or tobacco itemslike gutka and khaini.

The Himalayan State’s movecame the same day when theIndian Council of uthkaaMedical Research (ICMR), aresearch wing of the UnionHealth Ministry, urged the peo-ple not to consume and spitsmokeless tobacco in public

places.“Chewing smokeless tobac-

co products (gutka, pan masalawith tobacco, pan and otherchewing tobacco products) andareca nut (supari) increases theproduction of saliva, followed bya very strong urge to spit.

“Spitting in public placescould enhance the spread of theCOVID19 virus,” the ICMRsaid in an advisory here.

“In view of the increasingdanger of COVID-19 pandem-ic, it is an appeal to the generalpublic to refrain from consum-ing the smokeless tobacco prod-ucts and spitting in public placesduring the COVID epidemic.”

“The habit of spitting afterconsumption of paan masala orsharing its pouches may con-tribute to the spread of the infec-tion. In wake of this, the statehas imposed a complete ban onthe manufacture, distributionand sale of paan masala withimmediate effect,” the YogiGovernment order stated.

It also said that those whoviolate the ban will invite policeaction and punishment as perrelevant provisions of the FoodSafety and Standards Act andFood Safety Act.

Similarly, HimachalPradesh has prohibited the saleand use of chewing gum forthree months to preventCOVID-19 transmissionthrough spitting, an officialfrom the State said.

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The NITI Aayog has soughtthe help of non-govern-

mental and civil society organ-isations in the fight against theCovid-19 pandemic.

The think-tank's ChiefExecutive Officer (CEO)Amitabh Kant has written toover 92000 NGOs/ CSOs (civilsociety organisations), regis-tered on the Darpan portal,appealing them to assist thegovernment in identifyinghotspots and deputing volun-teers and care givers to deliverservices to the elderly, personswith disabilities children, trans-gender persons, and other vul-nerable groups.

Kant, who is heading theEmpowered Group (EG 6) oncoordinating with private sec-tor NGOs and internationalorganisations, has also written

to all chief secretaries urgingthem to instruct the localadministration at the districtlevel to utilise the physical andhuman resources made avail-able by NGOs and civil societyorganisations (CSOs), an offi-cial statement said.

The Government had onMarch 29 constituted 11empowered groups to suggestmeasures to ramp up health-care, put the economy back ontrack and reduce misery of peo-ple as quickly as possible postthe 21-day lockdown imposedto contain the coronaviruspandemic.

"CEO Niti Aayog has writ-ten to over 92000 NGOs/ CSOsregistered on the Darpan por-tal of Niti Aayog, appealingthem to assist the governmentin identifying hotspots anddeputing volunteers and caregivers to deliver services to the

elderly, persons with disabili-ties, children, transgender per-sons, and other vulnerablegroups; to create awarenessabout prevention, social dis-tancing, isolation, and com-bating stigma; to provide shel-ter to homeless, daily wageworkers, and urban poor fam-ilies; set up communitykitchens for migrants," thestatement said.

It further said that theempowered group (EG 6) con-ducted detailed deliberationswith 40-plus prominent CSOsand NGOs working in differ-ent parts of the country andwith different communities

The statement said theEG6 has contacted start-ups,namely AgVa, BiodesignInnovation Lab, Kaeaenaat,Qure AIDrona Maps, mFine,MicroGo and Staqu, workingon innovative ventilator

designs, testing tools, andtracking solutions to under-stand their scale and possiblecontributions.

Industry representativesand the EG 6 deliberated indetail on several challenges oncritical issues of health-careintervention, pertaining toramping up production andprocurement of ventilators,personal protective equipment(PPE), testing kits, in collabo-ration with several other EGs;apart from ways to step up therelief and rehabilitation andinformation dissemination, itadded.

Six meetings were con-ducted by EG6 between March30 and April 3 with industryassociations and CSOs abouttheir contribution to theresponse, plans for the comingweeks, and the issues they arefacing.

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Shoring up the national effortto fight coronavirus pan-

demic, the Defence public sec-tor undertakings(PSUs) andOrdnance Factory Board(OFB)have readied more than 300isolation beds in their plants allover the country besides man-ufacturing sanitisers, masksand ventilators.

Giving details of the stepstaken by the PSUs and theOFB, Defence Ministry officialssaid here on Sunday the OFBhas planned for 280 isolationbeds across 10 hospitals spreadover six States in the country.They are located at VehicleFactory Jabalpur, Metal andSteel Factory Ishapore (WestBengal), Gun and Shell FactoryCossipore (West Bengal),Ammunition Factory Khadki(Maharashtra), OrdnanceFactory Kanpur (UttarPradesh), Ordnance FactoryKhamaria, Heavy VehicleFactory Avadi (Tamil Nadu)and Ordnance Factory Medak

(Telangana).Aviation conglomerate,

Hindustan AeronauticsLimited (HAL), Bengaluru, hasisolation ward facility withthree beds in Intensive CareUnit and 30 beds in wards. Inaddition, a building having 30rooms was readied. In all, 93people can be accommodatedat the HAL facility, they saidadding the OFB has manufac-tured and dispatched 50 spe-cialised tents for COVID-19patients to Arunachal Pradeshat a short notice.

Besides this, developmentand production of hand sani-tiser as per World HealthOrganistation(WHO) stan-dards have been undertaken inthe factories of OFB. Theyhave received a requirement of13,000 litres from HLL LifecareLimited (HLL), the nodalagency appointed by centralgovernment for centralisedprocurement. First lot of 1,500litres of sanitiser was sent onMarch 31020 from CorditeFactory Aruvankadu (TamilNadu). Two more factories,

namely Ordnance Factory (OF)Itarsi (Madhya Pradesh) andOrdnance Factory Bhandara(Maharashtra) are ready withbulk production. Together theyhave capacity to produce 3,000litres of sanitiser per day tomeet the national requirement.

Moreover, the ordnancefactories located at Kanpur,Shahjahanpur, Hazratpur(Firozabad) and Chennai areengaged in developing coveralland masks. They have alsoarranged special heat-sealingmachines for manufacture ofthese garments at a very shortnotice.

The OFB requestedDefence Research &Development Establishment,Gwalior and was successful ingetting the first of samples ofcoveralls tested at Gwalior.Testing of masks will continueto be done at South IndiaTextile Research Association(SITRA) in Coimbatore. TheOFB is commencing shortlybulk production of coveralls upto 5,000 to 6,000 pieces perweek. Three machines have

been developed which havebeen approved by SITRA fortesting the efficacy of coverallsand masks. These will be usedin production to maintain thestandards.

Another PSU, BharatElectronics Limited (BEL) hasstepped in at the request ofMinistry Health and FamilyWelfare to manufacture andsupply 30,000 ventilators forICUs within the next two

months. The design of these venti-

lators was originally developedby Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation(DRDO), which was improvedupon by M/s Skanray, Mysore,with whom BEL has collabo-rated. Ordnance Factory,Medak has undertaken repairof ventilators in various hospi-tals in Hyderabad, officialssaid.

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In possibly the first caseinvolving the armed forces,

the Indian Air Force (IAF) hasplaced a Sergeant in quarantineas a precaution after the DelhiPolice found that he had visit-ed the Nizamuddin area duringthe time of the Tablighi Jamaatcongregation last month.

Giving details here onSunday, IAF spokespersonWing Commander IndranilNandi said the Sergeant camein contact with two other per-sonnel and they all are asymp-tomatic. But as per procedure,all three have been quaran-tined. Investigation is on todetermine if the Sergeant hadactually attended the congre-gation, he stated. The familiesof the personnel have alsobeen quarantined.

The Sergeant was identi-

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

Once the information wasknown, the contact list of theSergeant was ascertained and itwas identified that he contact-ed two more IAF personnel,Nandi added.

Currently, the IAF is work-ing on skeletal staff with major-ity working from home due to

COVID-19, so the contact listis very limited.

Similarly, the Army andNavy Headquarters are alsoworking with bare minimumstaff with most of the person-nel working from home.Moreover, the personnel havebeen advised to follow thecoronavirus pandemic precau-tions.

The Cantonments all overthe country are also followingthe lockdown with the can-tonment authorities.

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In a relief to farmers toremove sand deposits/silts

from agricultural fields afterfloods, digging of well for irri-gational and drinking waterpurposes, dredging and de-silt-ing of dams, reservoirs, riverand canals for the purpose oftheir maintenance, the Centrehas decided to do away withenvironment clearances. TheCentre issued a notification list-ing out various works exempt-ed from the grant of environ-ment clearances. The Centre isalso assessing the impact of theCovid-19 lockdown on agri-culture and allied sectors andtaking measures to minimise itseffect on the country's foodsecurity.

"The Ministry ofEnvironment, Forest andClimate Change is in thereceipt of representations for

waiver of requirement of priorenvironmental clearance forborrowing of ordinary earth forroads; and manual extraction oflime shells (dead shell) etc.,within inter tidal zone by thetraditional community," theministry said while makingamendments in mineral laws.

The digging of foundationof a building is also exempted.The other projects includeextraction of ordinary clay orsand by manual mining, by thepotter and earthen tile makersto prepare earthen pots, lamps,toy and, tiles. Removal of sanddeposit on agriculture field

after flood by farmers alsodoes not require EC.

It said exemption from therequirement of environmentalclearance shall also be given to"Removal of sand deposits onagricultural fields after flood byfarmers.

Customary extraction ofsand and ordinary earth fromsources situated in GramPanchayat for personal use orcommunity work in villages.

"Community works, like,de-silting of village ponds ortanks, construction of villageroads, ponds or bunds under-taken in Mahatma GandhiNational Rural Employmentand Guarantee Schemes, otherGovernment sponsoredschemes and communityefforts. Extraction or sourcingor borrowing of ordinary earthfor linear projects such asroads, pipelines, etc. Dredgingand de-silting of dams, reser-

voirs, weirs, barrages, riverand canals for the purpose oftheir maintenance, upkeep anddisaster management." Grampanchayats also need not go forEC for extraction of sand andordinary earth from sources sit-uated in their jurisdiction, forpersonal use or communitywork in village.

Digging of wells for irriga-tion or drinking water purpos-es and digging of foundation forbuildings and excavation ofordinary earth or clay for plug-ging of any breach caused incanal, nallah, drain, water body,etc., to deal with any disaster orflood-like situation upon ordersof the District Collector orDistrict Magistrate or any othercompetent authority as well asactivities declared by the StateGovernment under legislationsor rules as non-mining activi-ty shall not require prior greennod.

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Chief of DefenceStaff(CDS) General Bipin

Rawat on Sunday visited aCOVID medical facility runby the Delhi Government atNarela here and interactedwith the civil and Army doc-tors attending to peopleadmitted there. This the firstcamp in the country where

the Army doctors are assistingthe local authorities. A teamof three doctors and as manynurses from the Army areworking in close co-operationwith their civilian counter-parts. Rawat expressed satis-faction over perfect synergybetween the civil and armymedical teams and assuredthem of all assistance, officialsaid.

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There was no let up in polit-ical controversies even

amid corona crisis with UnionMinister Debashree Chaudhurigetting embroiled in a tiff withthe State administration afterthe local panchayat and districtadministration officialsapproached her residence forthe second time atSudarshanpur area of Raiganjto fix ‘home quarantine’posters.

Chaudhuri a UnionMinister of State who recent-ly returned from Delhi soondrew flaks for going out inpublic to distribute masksinstead of remaining confinedto 14-days mandatory homequarantine.

On Sunday the Ministerhad a fresh row with the localauthorities and panchayat staffafter they went to her rentedhouse to affix a quarantineposter.

She had shooed them awayearlier too, the panchayatmembers complained, whileChaudhuri wondered whethersuch posters were being past-ed at the residences of all theUnion Ministers and MPs likeTrinamool Congress’ SudipBandopadhyay and SougatoRoy. Hitting backBandopadhyay said rules were

alike for all the citizens and theadministration had taken aspecific decision consideringcertain reports --- of her com-ing out in the public ---“whereas I have not come outof my house and haveremained confined indoors.”

Clashes erupted down onthe streets too, this time amongthe general public after panic-stricken villagers resisted set-ting up of Corona quarantinecentres at various places inBengal.

Hours after a person waskilled at Talibpur village inBirbhum district where peoplein favour of setting up quar-antine centres fought withthose opposing it villagersraided a nursing home atChanchal in Malda districtfollowing reports that theadministration had acquirethe facility as a corona quar-antine centre.

The villagers who vandal-ized the private nursing homeand burnt tyres on the road toprotest the setting up of thequarantine facility said that theadministration had ignoredthe local people’s concern thatthe nursing home was situat-ed in a congested market placeand that there was fear thatother people could also getinfected if it was to be made aquarantine centre.

A large posse of policemen was rushed to the spot tobring the situation under con-trol, sources said.

In the earlier incident a 40-year-old man was killed whengroups opposing the setting upof a corona centre at Talibuprfought with those supportingthe cause. The two hurledbombs at each other leading tothe death of Saiful Sheikh,police said.

“The people were oppos-ing the district administra-tion’s decision to set up a coro-na centre in a hostel adjacentto a school,” a local said. A largepolice force has been deployedin the village. The rulingTrinamool Congress saw BJPhand in the skirmish, whichthe saffron party denied.

Back in Kolkata ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee haspraised Bollywood super starShahrukh Khan for contribut-ing “generously” to the ChiefMinister’s Relief Fund

Following Khan’s “good ges-ture” Banerjee tweeted "thankyou … your contribution willhelp assist a lot of distressed peo-ple during these challengingtimes. Such humane benefac-tion will keep inspiring millionsin this country who look up toyou as their role model withrespect and reverence,” MsBanerjee tweeted.

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The total number of coronavirus pos-itive cases broke the barrier of 100

mark, with Kashmir valley reporting 14fresh cases, taking the final tally to 106on Sunday.

Meanwhile, six more villages weredeclared red zones and their surround-ing villages as buffer zones in theBandipora district to prevent spread ofcorona virus after six positive cases werereported from these villages in last twodays.

Earlier, the authorities had identified24 Red zones across Jammu & Kashmirand focusing on conducting screeningand testing of over 2000 contact personsof already declared positive cases.

According to official sources, villageKonan, Gund-Qaiser, Gund-Dachina,Hakbara, Madwan and Pethkote inBandipora were declared red zones by thedistrict authorities.

According to the media bulletin onnovel coronavirus (COVID-19), out of

106 positive cases, 100 are Active Positive,04 have recovered and 02 have died. Outof 100 active cases, 82 are in Kashmir and18 in Jammu division.

The Bulletin further said that till date1551 samples have been sent for testingof which 1429 have tested as negative, and16 reports are awaited till April 05, 2020.

The Bulletin urged the general pub-lic to stay indoors, strictly implementsocial distancing measures, disclose recenttravel history to COVID-19 affectedcountries and report any contact withpositive cases voluntarily.

Furthermore, till date 33503 trav-ellers and persons in contact with sus-pected cases have been put under sur-veillance which include 10981 persons inhome quarantine including facilitiesoperated by government, 619 in HospitalQuarantine, 100 in hospital isolation and16237 under home surveillance.

Besides, 5566 persons have complet-ed their 28-day surveillance period.

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With three more persons succumb-ing to coronavirus on Sunday, the

number of patients losing their lives dueto the pandemic in Tamil Nadu hasreached five. The number of patients test-ed positive for coronavirus reached 571by Sunday, said Beela Rajesh, Secretary,health and family welfare. She also dis-closed that 86 patients tested positive forcoronavirus on Sunday out of which 85were Tablighi Jamaat members whoreturned from the recently held Delhimeeting.

As the number of persons falling vic-tims to the dreaded touched fie and theState recording an unprecedented num-ber of coronavirus cases the first signsof panic could be felt all over the State.Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami hascalled for an emergency video confer-encing of all district collectors, policeofficials and other top bureaucrats forMonday morning to discuss the situationarising out of the latest developments.

As a first step towards resorting tostringent measures , the Chief Ministerordered the closure of all business estab-lishments by 1 PM everyday. “ Shops sell-ing essential items can function from 6am to 1 pm. They should down the shut-ters at 1 pm and we will not allow anybusiness activities after 1 pm in iew of theprevailing situation,” Palaniswamy said ina release.

The health secretary said during hermedia briefing on Sunday that the top pri-ority of the administration was on full-

fledged containment activities to restrictthe virus to the stage-2 level itself. As partof the measures to contain the coronavirus to manageable level, theGovernment has incorporated the ser-vices of 26 private medical colleges and138 private hospitals where the COVID-19 patients could get admitted for treat-ment.

“We have screened 39 lakh personsas well as 9.22 lakh households for coro-na virus. The operation is an ongoingprocess and the departments of healthand revenue are working round-the–clock to detect, diagnose and care per-sons afflicted with corona virus,” saidRajesh. She said as on Sunday evening ,1,848 persons have been admitted to iso-lation wards .

The social impact of the total lockdown is being felt in the State in a majorway. Three persons died in Puthukottaidistrict in Tamil Nadu late Saturday fol-lowing the consumption of after-shavelotion . All the three were addicted toliquor. With liquor and alcohol becom-ing scare in the State, they were told by‘friends’ that a cocktail of after- shavelotion and soda has the potential to givethem the much needed ‘kick’. All the threedied within minutes of consuming thepotion. The State-Government ownedliquor outlets downing their shutters fol-lowing the national lock down has sentthe seasoned liquor consumers in to astate of helplessness. With bootleggerstoo ithdraing from the scene followingstrict policing, alcoholics have been lefthelpless and clueless.

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Amid repeated pleas byChief Minister Pramod

Sawant urging those in home-quarantine not to leave theirhomes, the state HealthDepartment on Sundaylaunched COVIDLocator, aGPS-based app to keep track ofquarantined persons.

"The app will help in track-ing suspected and asympto-matic carriers of coronaviruswhen they leave their quaran-tine zone," a statement issuedby the State Health departmentsaid, adding that the app hadbeen developed by the Goagovernment in association withDelhi-based Intugine technologies.

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Kashmiri medical students in Iranwho arrived in India on March 15

now in the Jaisalmer quarantine facil-ity say their quarantine period is overbut there is still no clarity when theycan return home to Kashmir to reunitewith their families.

One of the students at the Armywellness centre in Jaisalmer who did notwant to be named told IANS over thephone that they want to return homein Kashmir.

She said they have already com-pleted their quarantine period fromIran and there is no reason for them notto be released.

She said there is no segregation oflow risk, moderate risk and high riskpatients at the facility.

"We want to go to our homes we arehere for more than 20 days now and wewill be here for another 10 days, whichis totally unfair, we know the precau-tions, but staying here for more than 30days is not good," she said.

"We don't know whether we havebeen held up because our quarantineperiod has been extended or this

has something to do with the lock-down."

After the outbreak of coronavirusIran became one of the worst hitcountries with more than 3,000 deaths.

The government has evacuatednearly 300 students after March 14 fromIran who have been put in the Armywellness centre in Jaisalmer and areunder medical supervision.

Kashmiri students in Iran werebrought back from Iran after ForeignMinister S. Jaishankar met with theirparents in Srinagar last month. Thereare over 170 Kashmiris in Jaisalmer ofwhich more than 100 are students inIran.

The parents back home in Kashmirare desperate to meet them.

"We are worried about our childrenwho are in quarantine for the last 50days, they have completed 25 dayquarantine in Iran and 25 days in India,this is being very harsh on them," oneparent said in Srinagar. Perhaps it istime to give out right information toend the confusion of the students at thequarantine facility at Jaisalmer and theirparents in Kashmir.

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Just a day after crossing thehundred mark of coronavirus

positive cases in the State,Gujarat saw the highest num-ber of positive cases recordedin a day on Sunday morning,with 14 new cases and onedeath.

At least 10 out of the newcases on Sunday have a director indirect link with theTablighi Jamaat members.

At least 14 new positivecases were found on Sundayand one more death in Surat,taking the total death toll in thestate to 11 and total positivecases to 122 in Gujarat.

"Yesterday's 3 cases in theevening had links with the

Tablighi Jamaat members andout of 14 cases found today, atleast 10 positive cases havebeen found in Muslim areas ofAhmedabad, where direct orindirect links to the TablighiJamaat members cannot beruled out," said Jayanti Ravi,Gujarat health secretary on Sunday.

"A 61-year-old female hav-ing comorbid conditions likediabetes succumbed to thedreaded virus on Sunday. Shewas admitted at the Missionhospital in Surat," added Ravi.

"A total of 14 new positivecases, aged between 17 and 75,of Coronavirus were found onSunday. This includes elevenmale and three female newcoronavirus patients," said Ravi.

"Since yesterday evening, 4patients have been discharged.Two female - (29) and (46)from SSG hospital Vadodaraand a female (75) and a male(42) have been discharged fromthe PDU hospital, Rajkot. Tillnow 17 patients have been dis-charged from hospitals andthe conditions of 94 admittedpatients are said to be stableand none of them is on venti-lator," said Ravi.

The maximum number of

cases are in Ahmedabad - 53 (5deaths, 5 cured), followed bySurat - 15 (2 deaths, 3 cured),Gandhinagar - 13 (3 cured),Bhavnagar - 13 (2 deaths),Rajkot - 10 (3 cured), Vadodara- 10 (1 death, 4 cured),Porbandar - 3, Gir-Somnath -2 and 1 each in Kutch,Mehsana, Panchmahal, Patanand Chota Udepur.

"Till now we have taken2,354 samples out of which2,224 are negative, 122 positiveand 8 are pending," addedRavi.

The total number of quar-antined in the state is 14,920,where 13,560 are home quar-antined, 1,085 in governmentfacilities and 275 in privatefacilities.

Jaipur: An 82-year-old man from Jaipur became the fifth casu-alty in Rajasthan due to coronavirus, confirmed health officialshere, adding that six new cases have been reported on Sundaytaking the total tally to 210 in the State.

The deceased was a resident of Mehro ka rasta chokdi RamChandra ji ki Ghat gate, Jaipur. He was admitted on April 4 atmedicine unit 3/burn unit, SMS hospital, Jaipur and passed awayon April 5 at 12.16 a.m., Additional Chief Secretary Rohit KumarSingh

Meanwhile, the six new corona cases reported on Saturdayinclude a 40-year male who travelled from Dubai on March 20to Jaipur, second is a 48-year-old male, who is a Tablighi Jamaatmember, and third is another male of the same age, but bothare from Jhunjhunu, the fourth is 25-year-old male contact ofTablighi from Bikaner, the fifth and the sixth are 28-year-oldand 69-year-old males who are from Dausa and are close con-tacts of Tablighi, said Additional Chief Secretary Rohit KumarSingh.

Out of 210, 46 cases are Tablighi members, he added.Jaipur till date accommodates highest number of corona

positive cases which is 56, followed by Bhilwara which has 27patients, Jhunjhunu 18, Jodhpur and Tonk 17 each, Churu 10,Ajmer, Alwar and Bharatpur 5 each, Udaipur and Bikaner 4 each,Dausa 3, Banswara 2 and Karauli, Dholpur, Pali and Sikar haveone each, Pratapgarh has two and Dungarpur has three. IANS

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Having been at the receivingend of the Shiv Sena, its

late chief Bal Thackeray and theShiv Sena-led BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)for years on end, Bollywoodactor Shah Rukh Khan hascome in for wholesome praisefrom the BMC for his generousgesture of offering his four-storey personal office spacefor quarantining Covid-19patients in Mumbai.

Amid massive work under-taken by it in various parts ofMumbai to combatCoronavirus, the BMC put outa tweet on its handle @mybmc:“StrongerTogether We thank@iamsrk & @gaurikhan foroffering their 4-storey person-al office space to help expandour Quarantine capacityequipped with essentials forquarantined children, women& elderly. Indeed a thoughtful& timely gesture!”.

A pleased SRK responded:“When we say ‘mybmc’ then it’swith a sense of ownership andpride in all the efforts yourteams are putting up to fightcovid 19. We both are thankfulthat we could be a part of yourattempts to help and care forMumbaikars. ???? Mumbai ????BMC”

In response to supportextended by the actor for com-bating Covid-19, Shiv Senaleader Aditya Thackeray hadtweeted earlier: “Thank you somuch @iamsrk ji for your sup-port” . Chief Minister UddhavThackeray's office also tweeted:“Thank you @iamsrk ji @gau-rikhan ji”.

In response, SRK tweeted:“We don’t ever have to thankeach other during times likethese. We r a family. Gratefulyou are working so hard forMaharashtra and wheneveryou get alone time...do write a

poem or two. Love to you”.

In another tweet put out ahalf Marathi-half English tweet,SRK said that “all of us aretogether ... with bits and bits ofeffort can result in an ocean ofassistance. Thank you forguidance. We are all a familysir....and we need to be togeth-er to keep each other healthy.Thank you”.

The latest developments,which have seen SRK comeback into the good books ofThackerays and Shiv Sena,should be seen in the contextthat several run-ins he hadwith the Sena and lateThackeray over the past decadeand a half.

It may be recalled that InFebruary 2010, Thackerays hadcome down heavily on SRKduring the IPL-3 auctionswhich coincided with therelease of “My Name is Khan”.

Shahrukh had come in theline of fire from late Sena chieffor his remarks in favour of theinclusion of Pakistani players inIPL-3. Sr Thackeray, later, in aneditorial, also said that heshould now make a film – 'MyName is Kasab'.

On November 26, 2010,the Shiv Sena had hit out atBollywood actor Shah RukhKhan for his reported move toattend a celebrity dinner to behosted by Prime TV, a Pakistanichannel, in London on Sundayto “commemorate” the secondanniversary of 26/11 attack onMumbai.

Though the actor himselfwas not available for commentat that time, his office inMumbai had denied reportsthat he would attend thecelebrity dinner hosted byPrime TV and said that ShahRukh was currently away inBerlin shooting for Don 2.

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The coronavirus situation inMaharashtra turned grim on

Sunday, as 13 more persons died ofCoronavirus taking the pandemicdeath toll to a staggering 45 and thetotal number of infected casesjumped by 113-- from 635 to 748 -- in a single day.

After having witnessed sixdeaths each during the past two days,the pandemic proved to be deadly as13 persons succumbed to it takingthe total number deaths due toCoronavirus rose to 45, ever sincethe Coronavirus claimed the first lifein the state on March 17.

While eight deaths were report-ed from Mumbai, there were threedeaths in Pune and one each inKalyan-Dombivli-Kalyan andAurangabad.

In what came as a big shock,none of the persons who succumbedto the pandemic had had no histo-ry of international travel. Thosekilled who died were in the agegroup of 52 -80 years.

A day after 154 more personstested positive for Covid-19 in var-ious parts of the state, the state healthauthorities had more than a reasonto be concerned on Sunday—asanother alarming 113 persons werediagnosed as being infected withCoronavirus.

Of the fresh infected cases,Mumbai accounted for 81 resultingin the total number of positive casesin the metropolis mounting to 458.

While 18 new cases were report-ed from Pune, the number infectedcases reported from other parts ofthe state was as follows:Aurangabad-4, Ahmednagar-3,Thane- 4, Palghar and Osmanabad-1 each, and one from Gujarat( test-ed positive in Maharashtra).

On a day when the total num-ber of infected persons rose to a stag-gering 635, the state health author-ities confirmed the death of six morepersons due to Covid-19.

“Out of 16008 laboratory sam-ples, 14837 were negative and 748have been tested positive for coro-navirus until today. 56 patients havebeen discharged till date after fullrecovery,” a medical bulletin issuedby the State Health Department said.

“46,586 people are in homequarantine and 3122 people are ininstitutional quarantine,” the bulletinsaid.

“A thorough search of citizenswho had attended the religiousgathering at Banglewali Masjid,Nizamuddin in early March isunderway at the level of all districtsand municipal corporations. Sevenpeople out of these have been foundpositive until now in the state. Theycomprise 2 each from these are fromPune, Pimpri-Chinchwad andAhmednagar and one is fromHingoli. Out of their contacts, 5 havebeen found positive inPimpriChinchwad,” the bulletin said.

According to the bulleting, theState government ---as per the guid-ance from Government of India --is currently implementing a clustercontainment action plan is beingimplemented in places where clus-ters of patients have been found inthe state.

“As many as 519 teams areworking in the Mumbai MunicipalCorporation area While 439 teamsare in Pune Municipal Corporationarea. Nearly 210 teams are doinghouse-to-house surveillance in theNagpur corporation area, while 196teams have been deployed in NaviMumbai area. There are 3078 teamsworking across the state and sur-veillance of over 10 lakh populationhas been done,” the bulletin added.

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The Food Corporation of India(FCI) has transported 16.94 lakh

metric tonne foodgrains in 605rakes to different parts of the coun-try for feeding poor people since thenationwide lockdown from March24. FCI has set a new record in sin-gle day movement by moving 70rakes carrying 1.93 Lakh MetricTonnes (LMT) continuously for twodays( from April 3 to 4). During 12days from the starting of lockdown,FCI has done average movement of1.41 Lakh MT food grain per day asagainst the pre-lockdown daily aver-age of about 0.8 Lakh MT.

According to the Department ofFood and Consumer Affairs, Punjabaccounted for about 46% of totalfood grain movement at 7.73 LMTfollowed by Haryana (3.02 LMT),Telangana (2.04 LMT) andChhattisgarh (1.15 LMT).

Other states like Odisha, AndhraPradesh etc. moved the rest. Amongthe consuming states, maximuminduction was done in Uttar Pradesh(2.07 LMT) followed by Bihar (1.96

LMT), West Bengal (1.65 LMT) andKarnataka (1.57 LMT). Keepingspecial focus on North East, a quan-tity of 1.4 LMT food grains havebeen inducted into the NorthEastern states during the lockdownperiod.

FCI is ensuring that the require-ments of every state is met withoutany shortages. As on 04.04.2020, FCIis having 55.47 Million MetricTonnes food grains (31.23 MMTRice and 24.24 MMT Wheat) in cen-tral pool.

The Government has decided toprovide 5 kg either wheat or rice atfree of cost to 80 crore people cov-ered under National Food SecurityAct for next three months. This isover and above their monthly enti-tlement of 5 kg rice or wheat at asubsidised price of �3 a kg and �2 akg. The State-owned corporation hastransported foodgrains from Punjab,Haryana, Uttarakhand, AndhraPradesh, Telangana, MadhyaPradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha toother states.

During the current lockdownperiod, the ministry said FCI is

ensuring "uninterrupted" supply ofwheat and rice throughout the coun-try.

The agency is able to meet theincreasing demand of foodgrains bygearing up the pace of supply ofwheat and rice to ensure farmers geta minimum support price. It dis-tributes the same foodgrains at asubsidised rates to over 81 croreration card holders under the PublicDistribution System (PDS).

The ministry said FCI is fullyprepared to meet not only the food-grain requirement under theNational Food Security law but alsothe additional supply of 5 kg per per-son for next three months under thePradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan AnnaYojana (PMKAY). So far FCI hasallotted 1.38 LMT Wheat in 13 statesand 1.32 LMT Rice in 8 statesunder this model.

Besides, FCI is offloading sur-plus grains to bulk users under theopen market sales scheme (OMSS)through e-auction for providingWheat to the empaneled roller flourmills/State Government to ease thesupply constraint in the market.

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Lucknow: The coronavirustally in Uttar Pradesh has risento 276 with 48 new cases test-ing positive on Sunday.

Sixteen persons have test-ed positive for coronavirus atthe King George's MedicalUniversity in Lucknow.

Three more persons inAgra tested positive, takingthe total number of positivecases in the district to 48.

Chief minister YogiAdityanath said on Sundaythat district magistrates wouldbe held responsible if people gowithout food.

The Chief Minister has

sought a list of districts, wherecommunity kitchens have stillnot been set up along withnames of district magistrates.

Municipal councilors, localbody employees and grampradhans should be mobilizedto ensure swift distribution offood, he said. IANS

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Acruel irony plays out as thepowerful Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USSTheodore Roosevelt, succumbsprecariously to what the US

President had cuttingly called the “Chinesevirus” or Coronavirus. The irony gets mag-nified with the ship’s call sign, “RoughRider” and its motto, Qui Plantavit Curabit,or, “He, who has planted, will preserve.”With more than 100 sailors infected withthe Novel Coronavirus, the mighty battleplatform has been rendered ineffective likenever before. The gargantuan warshipwith over 1,17,000 tonne displacementcapacity to carry 90 aircraft and 5,000 crewmembers had been leading a China-cen-tric strike group encompassing an air wing,cruiser and six destroyers before it figura-tively ran aground with the first COVID-19 case being reported on any US naval ves-sel deployed overseas. The sheer apathy andindecisions surrounding the crisis in the USNavy are obvious from the fact that the firstreported case came on March 24 and therequest to contain the predicament wentunheeded till it led to a spiralling of infect-ed cases aboard. An embarrassing SOS fol-lowed from the Captain of the battleship.

Captain Brett Crozier wrote a desper-ate and blunt four-page letter to the navalleadership asking for “decisive action”and warned that the continuing dilly-dal-lying was “unacceptable.” His movingwords, “We are not at war. Sailors do notneed to die. If we do not act now, we arefailing to properly take care of our mosttrusted asset — our sailors”, hit at the soulof the seafaring nation with a proud navaltradition. The US’s legendary politician, theformer Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox,had famously said, “No matter what hap-pens, the US Navy is not going to be caughtnapping.”

Seemingly, it was caught napping inthis incident as the optics were almost sim-ilar to the Japanese civilian cruise liner,Diamond Princess. Confusion led to theonboard quarantining of the ship with 712out of the 3,711 passengers and crew infect-ed with Coronavirus. Inaction on the partof the US Navy in responding to the ini-tial request for containment measuresonboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt led toa similar multiplication of infection. The$10 billion platform has now become abreeding ground for Coronavirus.

Living conditions on these platformsare extremely constrained to say the least.Sailors are placed cheek-by-jowl across alabyrinth of decks lined by steep ladder-likestairs and very narrow corridors. Armedto the teeth, the free space available is at asuper-premium with up to 60 sailors shar-ing a sleeping compartment that is in bunkor rack formation, crammed together instacks of three. All 60 of them could besharing one bathroom with a very sparsecommon area. Workplaces are similarly

constricted. The space to main-tain the prescribed social dis-tancing or to have properdecontamination is not possi-ble without full evacuation.

However, evacuation hasbeen the bone of contentionwith the Captain suggesting aresidual force of 10 per cent or500 members to stay on boardto perform sustenance duties;whereas the Chief of Navaloperations has insisted on 1,000sailors in order to maintain the safety and security of theship.

At stake is the nuclearpower plant, four squadrons ofBoeing F-18 fighter aircraft,one squadron of Growler elec-tronic warfare aircraft, twosquadrons of Seahawk multi-mission helicopters, onesquadron of Grumman E-2Hawkeye early warning aircraftand another squadron ofGreyhound cargo aircraft.Besides, the aircraft carrier’sown munitions, including threePhalanx CIWS, two RIM-7Sea Sparrow weapons systemsand two RIM-116 infrared sur-face-to-air missiles. Securingthe operational worthiness ofthe ship has inadvertentlycounter-posited the same vis-à-vis the concern for the safe-ty of the sailors onboard. Whilethe US naval top brass is reject-ing allegations of either a lack-adaisical attitude or failure to

take care of its sailors, this inci-dent has highlighted the over-all lack of preparedness andsensitivity towards such exigen-cies — be it in the civilian or inthe military realm.

However, what will hauntthe hallowed institution of theUS armed forces much after theCoronavirus crisis has settled isnot so much the apparentdefencelessness from a medical or an infrastructuralperspective, as much as thereaction of its senior leadershiptowards the soldiers at theforefront.

Captain Brett Crozieralluded to this leadershipaspect when he stated thatkeeping the crew on the shipwas “an unnecessary risk andbreaks faith with those sailorsentrusted to our care.” Equally,the leak of the letter to the Presshas also diminished the prin-ciple of good order, restraintand discipline that behoves acombat leader, whatever thecircumstances.

Even a direct letter to theostensible Commander-in-Chief, as opposed to the Press,would have been construed tobe a lesser dereliction of theinstitutional traditions. Thisincident will trigger a debate onthe sacred covenant betweenthe soldier and service, whichalways prides that they “leaveno men behind.” Sometimes,

the practicality of the situationand the cruel principle of “larg-er good” lead to an unfortunatecompromise as it happened inthe US’ decision to drop atom-ic bombs over Hiroshima andNagasaki. This, knowing itfully well that occupiedAmerican prisoners-of-war(POWs) were held up in theselocations. Even if the initialdownplaying and non-evacua-tion of the Coronavirus riddenUSS Theodore Roosevelt was apractical necessity, it was nothandled with the required con-cern, alacrity and reassurancefrom the naval leadership.

Naval leaderships are givento the very finest and noblesttraditions that always put thehonour of the nation and thepeople under command abovethe interest of the leaders them-selves. The saga of IndianNavy’s captain, MN Mulla,who chose to go down with hisship in the India-Pakistan war,is the sort of DNA that profes-sional navies thrive on.

Therefore, the US Navywill be forced to navel-gaze onits own handling of the USSTheodore Roosevelt issue as themost visible, intimidating anddeadly “five acres of mobile USland.” Diplomacy cannot sinkto such lows.

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islands)

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Sir — If developed countries likethe US are struggling to cope withthe ever-growing demand of per-sonal protection equipment, thenwe can safely assume what wouldbe the condition of India, whichis poorly placed on the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO)standards. The world just needsto take a cue from Germany’sproactive approach — its virolo-gists started developing testingkits four months ago and can nowconduct 50,000 tests per week.

We should adopt Germanyand South Korea’s methods totrace, test and treat to contain thedamage, especially after theTablighi Jamaat episode. At thishour of crisis, both the public andprivate sector need to join handsto ensure that more companiescome forward to manufacturethese equipment to cater to grow-ing needs.

Bal GovindNoida

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Sir — The spread of Coronavirushas caused mass destruction of

lives and livelihood across theworld. Sensible people will learnlessons from such disasters.

As for India, the most impor-tant takeaway is to undertake rad-ical healthcare reforms, which arelong overdue. Post the crisis, thepublic health system must bemade robust to cope with suchdisasters. As of now, it is incum-bent upon each one of us to riseto the occasion and do everything

possible to minimise the impend-ing fallout of Coronavirus.Necessary precautions regardingpersonal hygiene are important.

The Government, too, mustramp up COVID-19 testing andensure the availability of essentialequipment to doctors. Activeinvolvement of the private sectorand other healthcare providers isessential. Primary Health Centres(PHCs), Community Health

Centres (CHCs) and district hos-pitals can play an important rolein the fight against the pandem-ic. A proper communication planmust be devised so that messagesare conveyed without the spreadof false information.

More importantly, India muststrive to meet the norms set by theWorld Heath Organisation(WHO) with regard to healthworkforce density and infrastruc-

ture. Healthcare workers havebeen fighting a fierce battle againstthe virus. We must appreciate thegreat work they are doing.

Venu GSKollam

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Sir — The Tablighi Jamaat con-gregation in Delhi was the biggestin South Asia that led to such abig explosion of Coronavirus indifferent States and regions ofcountry. It has emerged as thebiggest hotspot, not only account-ing for one-fifth of the totalCOVID-19 cases so far but alsoof the 170 fresh cases linked to theevent. Why did the organisers notmake a call to the next door policestation or other concernedauthorities about the event? TheMinistry of Home Affairs, theDelhi police, too, should haveaccepted their failure. What hashappened has happened. People’scooperation is the best key to fightthe deadly infection. We muststay united.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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When pandemics hit, they usually hit thepoor the hardest, if not the first. Likethe months bygone, the next couple of

months are going to schlep through the loom-ing threat of the contagion bulging into the nextstage of community spread. This may precipitatethe exponential disease spikes and deaths in num-bers that we can very well speculate. They maybe in thousands if not millions, considering thepoverty and density of population. It is high timethat we stand up and walk with the Governmentand aid its efforts to fight the pandemic by notonly following its instructions on social distanc-ing and not hoarding essential commodities butalso by contributing intelligent observations andsuggestions.

We have seen so far that COVID-19 canquickly overwhelm the health systems of coun-tries, including those nations that are said to haveadvanced healthcare systems, like Italy and theUnited States (US). The ongoing rise in mortal-ity in such developed nations portends a verydark future for poorer nations with inadequatehealthcare facilities, including ours.

The first line of defence against any pandem-ic is surveillance: Monitoring human (and ani-mals where relevant) populations to spot out-breaks and containing them at the earliest. Incountries with overall impoverished infrastruc-ture, isolated outbreaks are likely to go undetect-ed longer and thus simmer and spread.

At the current stage, our public healthcaresystem is expected to detect where the virus isspreading and collect high-quality real-time datafrom various geographies and groups of people,identifying pockets of infection before they mul-tiply into larger outbreaks.

It is for our health systems to be able to fig-ure out which communities can expect to see arise in Coronavirus cases and where to allocateresources in anticipation of rising hospitalisations.

Without quality data, no one can respondappropriately to this fatal threat, neither as indi-viduals nor as a society. Nor can we learn whethercountermeasures adopted so far against the pan-demic are working or not. The most importantcomponent of the contagion data is informationfrom the laboratory tests detecting active infec-tions, past infections, immunity status of peo-ple as well as assessing herd immunity in com-munities. These present a real picture of theCoronavirus’ spread and status in the country.

The priorities of action plans for the roadback to normalcy would be maintaining arobust and vigilant healthcare system, a firmadministration with impeccable attention todetail regarding the nuances of the vulnerablegroups living at the edges (migrants and dailywage labourers) and an effective targetted (sen-tinel) surveillance system.

If the country’s systems function to their fullpotential, we would be able to learn where theCoronavirus is dormant. And once we know thelocation and size of the problem, we can startleaving our homes gradually, return to work andattend schools and universities, bring business-es back in shape and let people congregate formovies, meetings, weddings or mass prayers.

An observation, or rather a lesson learnt fromcountries battling the Coronavirus in anadvanced stage than ours, is that the threats posedby the virus have cast a spotlight on the short-comings in healthcare systems across the globe.The population of billions in India may be thenext battleground in the fight against the con-

tagion if proactive measures are notundertaken at this stage.

Home to one-third of the world’sslum-dwelling population, India islargely filled with people battling pover-ty and poor education (including healtheducation and general inadequateknow-how about things), existing co-morbid conditions and most impor-tantly hygiene challenges (i.e., limitedaccess to resources such as clean water,soap, disinfectants and so on).

The much-recommended measureof social distancing practised aroundthe globe to stem the spread of this pan-demic is almost impossible in manyparts of India. With a population den-sity of 2,77,136 people per square kilo-metre (sq km) in Mumbai’s Dharavislum to 1,25,000 people per sq km atthe Rasoolpura slum in Hyderabad, thedifficulty in observing social distanc-ing is self-explanatory. Slums are anintegral part of a city’s economy as thoseare where a majority of the labour forceand domestic help stays, all around thecountry. Now, with three cases ofCoronavirus cases appearing in theDharavi slum, these places are also aticking time bomb where the contagionis concerned.

The biggest challenge regardinghygiene is overcrowding around com-mon toilets — Dharavi slum has onetoilet per 1,440 residents. The COVID-19 virus is known to survive longer thanthree days in faecal matter, whichmakes crowding around toilets and liv-ing amid bad drainage a major threat.

The focus must now shift to proac-tive testing for asymptomatic andsymptomatic COVID-19 bearers, with-in the most vulnerable, high populationdensity pockets of India.

There are genuine capacity issuesbut we need mandatory COVID-19testing of all slum inhabitants across thecountry. Quarantine is a must for theasymptomatic and symptomatic bear-

ers of the Coronavirus in slum zones indifferent pre-identified, isolated loca-tions.

This test data is vital in enabling theright strategy to manage the next stepsof Coronavirus containment and erad-ication. The health system hence shouldencourage doctors to test liberally(without any out-of-pocket paymentfrom the people given their economicstatus).

About laboratory test data, we seethat unlike in developed nations, thedata is either incomplete or complete-ly unavailable in developing nations likeours due to poor infrastructure andcoordination issues. This makes itimpossible for administrators, scientists,healthcare professionals, researchersand the general citizen to assess theextent and significance of the testingefforts.

The other component of an effec-tive healthcare system of a low-incomecountry is to focus on serology tests.RT-PCR is the confirmatory test forCOVID-19 which is currently priced at�4,500 per test and takes more than aday for the result to be available. Theserology tests on the other hand aremuch cheaper and can be used exten-sively for screening. These are not con-firmatory tests and hence not used inclinical practice but these tests havevalue in epidemiology studies andherd immunity assessment.

These tests screen blood for theantibodies that confer immunity afterexposure to a pathogen. In publichealth management, this is essential fortailoring interventions and stoppinglocal spread of a disease, especially acontagious one. Serology is uniquelyuseful for defining specific anti-viralimmunity. If you know that a large per-centage of people have been exposedand developed some immunity, it mayallow for less-restrictive measures.These tests can be added to routine

blood draws with no additional hasslefor the patient.

For instance, in the US, ever sincethe Coronavirus outbreak began, manydifferent groups have ramped up theirefforts to develop a serological test.Should a test like this ever become avail-able to the public, it could radicallyshape how healthcare professionalsdecide who gets to leave home andreturn to some semblance of a normallife.

Considering the current status ofthe Coronavirus contagion, with theuncovering of 10 hotspots of the viralinfection within the country, a sentinelsurveillance system must now exist infull force and to the highest accuracy.

The Government needs to build itwith dedicated funding, perhaps as partof the next stimulus package. This willrequire an efficient data-collection sys-tem that allows cases/suspectedhotspots of the disease to be identifiedand tracked in real time (without over-burdening providers with data entryand case reports).

Many of our citizens have alreadycalled for the need for special financ-ing arrangements to support surveil-lance and preparedness for the worst-case scenario of a fierce outbreak.They have also underscored the impor-tance of incentivising the right type ofcapacity-building, including the rightresearch and evidence-generation capa-bility, to enable effective containmentof infection and other mitigation strate-gies. With funds coming in from var-ious sources and from the taxpayers’money that is directed towards theCOVID-19 response, India, even witha weak healthcare system should con-centrate on this and use all availableresources wisely until we come out ofthe pandemic, bruised but not totallydefeated.

(The writer is an author and a doc-tor by profession)

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In a series of documentaries forthe BBC, between the early 2000sand 2016, prolific documentary

filmmaker Adam Curtis demon-strates how, since the late 1970s —when the idea of social democracybegan to come under tremendousduress — politicians in Europe andthe US began to outsource theirresponsibilities to financial institu-tions.

Curtis links the evolution of thistendency to the demise of social

democracy and the rise of ideas suchas “neo-conservatism”, which even-tually mutated to become the strandof populism that swept across manycountries from 2014 onwards.

The weakening of the image ofa politician who existed to serve thepeople through reform was allowedto be overshadowed by “tech-nocrats.”

But as the old-fashioned politi-cian faded away, a new kind ofpolitician emerged. He was notonly against the old-fashionedpolitician but also against the tech-nocrat.

He was the new populist —charismatic, audacious, contradic-tory and almost demagogic in hisrhetoric. Yet, he came to powerthrough a democratic system.

He enjoyed a staunch base ofsupport which was unmoved by hiscontradictory behaviour. His disdainfor experts, intellectuals and oldstyle of politics was applauded by

many who began to see the old-fash-ioned politician as crooked andtechnocrats as cold, calculatingexploiters.

This was post-modernistmachoism: The muscular internal-isation of the self by linking it toindigenous ideas of faith, cultureand nationalism and the externali-sation of existentialist threatsthrough rhetoric against thosedeemed as outsiders or workingwith “hostile” external forces.

But just like most post-mod-ernist ideas that often wobble andfail to hold in the face of various uni-versalist ideas, post-modernist pop-ulism, too, found itself feelingentirely disoriented with the rapidglobal spread of a tiny virus and theconsequential disease.

Indeed, almost every regime isstruggling to grapple with the spreadof the Coronavirus. But one saw theneo-populist governments com-pletely lose their sheen and compo-

sure in this crisis. These includeItaly, India, the UK, the US,Pakistan, the Philippines, Iran,Brazil and Hungary, and/or coun-tries that had elected populists,even though Iran remains anauthoritarian theocracy.

Again, even non-populistregimes are facing criticism but thething about the neo-populists beforethe COVID-19 outbreak was thatthey were successfully riding out allother criticism in a world thatseemed to have been okay with theidea of romancing nationalist chau-vinism and even various forms ofbigotry and irrationality. Science,too, became a victim of this dispo-sition.

Nevertheless, regimes headed bypopulists are now facing a barrageof criticism that they cannot man-age to divert or neutralise. As peo-ple around them continue to catchthe virus and as economies crum-ble, social life has come to a halt and

the air of fear thickens each passingday.

Thomas Wright and KurtCampbell write in the March 5 edi-tion of Brookings that the dreadedvirus is “exposing the limits of pop-ulism”. They point out how certainpopulist regimes in developed coun-tries exposed their country’s suscep-tibility to the virus by cutting downhealth programmes and relatedfunding.

In an interview that he gave tothe science newsletter Nautilus(March 12), the well-known virol-ogist Dennis Carol laments thatmany countries today are governedby inertia. He said such viruses canonly be tackled through a globalresponse but populism has frag-mented the global networksrequired to face the challenge.

He gave the example of Trump’s“America first” mantra that express-es the kind of inertia which is dis-rupting the fight against COVID-19.

True to populism’s habit of external-ising the source of a problem,Trump seems to be more investedin blaming China for the virusrather than his own regime’s incom-petence in handling the pandemic.

On the website of the EuropeanCouncil of Foreign Relations, TCorratella writes that COVID-19 isweakening Italy’s brand of populism.The article adds that restrictivemeasures required to check thespread of the virus are antitheticalto the ideas of neo-populism thatmushroomed in many Europeancountries. That’s why authorities arestruggling to apply these restrictionsin countries such as Italy, France andthe UK.

However, Corratella says thatthe popularity of populist parties isplunging in those areas of Italy mosthit by COVID-19. Same is the casein Pakistan, where the populistGovernment of Prime MinisterImran Khan, though tough in its

rhetoric against “corruption”,seemed indecisive, even meek, whenpressed to take the COVID-19 chal-lenge head-on.

It is a simple matter of populistsfailing to recognise an enemy whichdoes not belong in the cannon ofthreats that their pre-COVID-19narratives had formed.

They can’t understand it. Andthe measures required to tackle it areat the opposite end of the post-mod-ernist worldview through whichthey understand their political, eco-nomic and cultural surroundings.

As John Harris writes in TheGuardian (March 15), populists allover the world had declared a waragainst civil servants, experts andscientific communities. But thecrises caused by COVID-19 havebrought these very communities atthe forefront. One can thus assumethat populism has become this out-break’s first ideological casualty.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

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More than 1.2 million cases,including 68,150 deaths,

have been reported in 190countries and territoriesaround the world since thevirus first emerged in China inDecember.

Italy has the highest officialdeath toll with 15,362 fatalities.

Spain follows with 12,418,the United States is on 8,503,France 7,560 and Britain 4,313.

Spain saw its third consec-utive daily decline in deathsfrom the virus, recordinganother 674 fatalities onSunday. A day earlier, Italycheered after seeing its numberof intensive care cases drop forthe first time — from 4,068 onFriday to 3,994.

New York state, epicentre

of the US outbreak, reports 630new deaths in one day, itslargest 24-hour spike.

New York City mayor Bill deBlasio issues an emergency pleafor volunteers, estimating thecity will need 45,000 more med-ical personnel to fight the pan-demic through April and May.President Donald Trump warnsAmericans to brace for a “veryhorrendous” number of coron-avirus deaths in coming days.

Queen Elizabeth II willgive a rare address on Sundayaimed at rallying Britain, wherethe government warns oftougher measures on socialdistancing to try to curb surg-ing infections.

The Central Bank of theUnited Arab Emirates says ithas doubled to $70 billion astimulus package to support the

Gulf state’s economy.More than 300 Europeans

on Saturday leave Bolivia forFrance on a charter flight.

Some 170 people, mostlyFrench but including Swiss,Belgians, Germans and Britons,leave Moscow on Saturday ona repatriation flight organisedby the French embassy.

Bolivia on Saturday repa-triates 480 nationals who hadbeen blocked at the Chileanborder. And 740 Algeriansstuck in Turkey after theirflights were cancelled are repa-triated on Saturday.

Algeria announces it willextend its night-time curfew —until now in place only in thecapital and 13 of its 48provinces — across the wholecountry. Senegal extends by 30days its nationwide state of

emergency. Pope Francis callsfor courage in the face of thepandemic as he delivers PalmSunday mass by livestreaminstead of before Saint Peter’sSquare crowds. Egypt’s CopticOrthodox church will suspendprayers preceding Easter cele-brations later this month.

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The COVID-19 lockdownsglobally have not only

made air breathable or riversclean but have also resulted inthe way our Earth moves, asresearchers now report a dropin seismic noise (the hum ofvibrations in the planets crust)because transport networks,real estate and other humanactivities have been shut down.

According an article in thejournal Nature, efforts to curbthe spread of coronavirus meanthat the planet itself is movinga little less, which could “allowdetectors to spot smaller earth-quakes and boost efforts tomonitor volcanic activity andother seismic events”.

Vibrations caused by mov-ing vehicles and industrialmachinery produce back-ground noise, which reducesseismologists’ ability to detect

other signals occurring at thesame frequency.

“A noise reduction of thismagnitude is usually only expe-rienced briefly aroundChristmas,” said ThomasLecocq, a seismologist withthe Royal Observatory ofBelgium in Brussels which hasobserved the drop in seismicnoise. Data from a seismome-ter at the observatory show thatmeasures to curb the spread ofCOVID-19 in Brussels causedhuman-induced seismic noiseto fall by about one-third.

In Belgium, scientistsreport at least a 30 per centreduction in that amount ofambient human noise sincelockdown began there.

The current drop hasboosted the sensitivity of theobservatory’s equipment,improving its ability to detectwaves in the same high fre-quency range as the noise, saidthe Nature article.

However, not all seismicmonitoring stations will see aneffect as pronounced as the oneobserved in Brussels.

According to Emily Wolin,a geologist at the US GeologicalSurvey in Albuquerque, NewMexico, many stations are pur-posefully located in remoteareas to avoid human noise.

“These should see a small-er decrease, or no change at all,in the level of high-frequencynoise they record,” she wasquoted as saying.

The fall in noise could alsobenefit seismologists who usenaturally occurring back-ground vibrations, such asthose from crashing oceanwaves, to probe Earth’s crust.

A fall in human-inducednoise could boost the sensitiv-ity of detectors to natural wavesat similar frequencies

“There’s a big chanceindeed it could lead to bettermeasurements,” said Lecocq.

The reduction in seismicactivity, like reduction in airpollution, also show that peo-ple are adhering to social dis-tancing guidelines.

“From the seismologicalpoint of view, we can motivatepeople to say, ‘OK look, people.You feel like you’re alone athome, but we can tell you thateveryone is home. Everyone isdoing the same. Everyone isrespecting the rules,’” Lecocqtold CNN.

London: UK Cabinet SecretaryMichael Gove has called theconspiracy theories linking 5Gmasts with the spread of thenovel coronavirus as “danger-ous nonsense”, the mediareported. Videos purportedlyshowing masts deliberately seton fire were posted on socialmedia after theories about thelink between the 5G mobiletechnology and COVID-19circulated online, said theMetro nespaper in a report onSaturday.

Fire crews in the WestMidlands and Merseyside havebeen called out to extinguish themasts and Mobile UK, the tradebody representing networkproviders, has said people were

“abusing our key workers andmaking threats to damage infra-structure under the pretence ofclaims about 5G”.

Asked about the rumoursat a Downing Street coron-avirus briefing on Saturday,Gove dismissed them as “dan-gerous nonsense”.

NHS England’s nationalmedical director ProfessorStephen Powis called therumours “complete and utterrubbish”, adding: “It’s the worstkind of fake news.”

I am absolutely outraged,absolutely disgusted, that peo-ple would be taking actionagainst the very infrastructurethat we need to respond to thishealth emergency. IANS

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Americans braced for whatthe nation’s top doctor

warned Sunday would be “thehardest and saddest week” oftheir lives while Britainassumed the unwelcome man-tle of deadliest coronavirushotspot in Europe after a record24-hour jump in deaths thatsurpassed even hard-hit Italy.

“This is going to be ourPearl Harbor moment, our9/11 moment,’’ U.S. SurgeonGeneral Jerome Adams told“Fox News Sunday.”

New York City, the U.S.epicenter of the pandemic, sawa glimmer of hope, with Gov.Andrew Cuomo saying that thenumber of daily deaths haddropped slightly, along withintensive care admissions andthe number of patients whoneed breathing tubes inserted.

Still, he warned that it was“too early to tell” the signifi-cance of those numbers.

As of Sunday, Britain has

recorded 4,934 virus deathsoverall among 47, 806 cases.Those coming down with thevirus in the U.K. include PrimeMinister Boris Johnson, thehealth secretary, England’s chiefmedical official and PrinceCharles, heir to the throne.

There are wide fears thatJohnson’s Conservative gov-ernment did not take the virusseriously enough at first andthat spring weather will temptBritons and others to breaksocial distancing rules.

In an address to the nationto be televised later Sunday,Queen Elizabeth II appealed toBritons to exercise self-disci-pline in “an increasingly chal-lenging time.” The 93-year-oldmonarch said the pandemichad caused enormous disrup-tions, bringing grief, financialdifficulties and daunting chal-lenges to everybody. It is onlythe fourth time since her reignbegan in 1953 that she hasgiven such an address.

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Rome: Italy on Sunday record-ed its lowest daily death tollfrom the novel coronavirus inover two weeks and saw thenumber of critical care patientsdecline for the second day.

The 525 official COVID-19fatalities reported by the civilprotection service were thelowest since 427 registered on

March 19.“This is good news but we

should not let our guard down,” civil protection servicechief Angelo Borrelli toldreporters.

Officials also reported thefirst decline in the number ofnon-critical COVID-19patients receiving hospital care.

That number fell from29,010 on Saturday to 28,949on Sunday.

The number of criticalpatients edged down from3,994 on Saturday to 3,977 onSunday — the second succes-sive decline. Italy’s official deathtoll, the highest in the world,now stands at 15,887. AFP

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Shady middlemen, phantomshipments, prices soaring

by the hour, goods flown in ona private plane. What soundslike an organized-crime thrilleris now the new reality for gov-ernors desperately trying tofind the medical equipmenttheir states need in the throes

of a pandemic. With the federal stockpile

dwindling fast, and the Trumpadministration limiting accessto what’s left, state leaders aregoing to extraordinary mea-sures on their own to securefaces masks, ventilators, glovesand other equipment essentialto fighting the outbreak.

They’ve ventured into a

global market-place one gov-ernor described as the “wild,wild, West,” only to competeagainst each other and theirown federal Government.

They’ve watched the priceof a ventilators double andmasks go for 10 times theiroriginal price. They’ve turnedto rich friends and businessesfor help.

Massachusetts Gov. CharlieBaker enlisted NFL ownerRobert Kraft to send thePatriots team plane to China to retrieve over a mil-lion masks.

In New York, an epicentreof the outbreak in the US, Gov.Andrew Cuomo has lookedcloser to home to secure ven-tilators, issuing an order thatforces even private hospitals toredistribute ventilators to thehospitals most in need.

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While being in isolationduring the COVID-19

pandemic, without access togyms and sports clubs, maymake it difficult for people towork out, researchers say thatkeeping up regular, daily exer-cise plays an important role inhelping maintain a healthyimmune system.

The analysis, published inthe international journal ExerciseImmunology Review, assessedstudies conducted over the lastfour decades that investigatedhow exercise affects the immunesystem.

According to theresearchers, including those fromthe University of Bach in the UK,regular moderate intensity exer-

cise is beneficial for immunity. They said in the short term,

exercise can help the immunesystem find and deal withpathogens, and in the long term,regular exercise slows downchanges that happen to theimmune system with ageing,therefore reducing the risk ofinfections. According to the sci-entists, these infections are morelikely to be linked to inadequatediet, psychological stress, insuf-ficient sleep, travel and impor-tantly, pathogen exposure atsocial gathering events likemarathons — rather than the actof exercising itself.

“Our work has concludedthat there is very limited evi-dence for exercise directlyincreasing the risk of becominginfected with viruses,” said study

co-author James Turner from theUniversity of Bath.

In the context of coron-avirus, the scientists said, themost important consideration isreducing exposure from otherpeople who may be carrying thevirus. But they said peopleshould not overlook the impor-tance of staying fit, active andhealthy during this period.When carried out in isolation,away from others, regular, dailyexercise will help better maintainthe way the immune systemworks — not suppress it, theresearchers added.

“People should not fearthat their immune system willbe suppressed by exercise plac-ing them at increased risk ofcoronavirus,” said study co-author, John Campbell from

the University of Bach.“Provided exercise is carried

out according to latest govern-ment guidance on social dis-tancing, regular exercise willhave a tremendously positiveeffect on our health and wellbe-ing, both today and for thefuture,” Campbell added.

At this current time in par-ticular, the scientists said main-taining good personal hygienewhen exercising is extremelyimportant, including thorough-ly washing hands following workout sessions.

To give the body its bestchance at fighting off infec-tions, they suggested in addi-tion to doing regular exercise,people also pay attention to theamount of sleep they get andmaintain a healthy diet.

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One day, the battle againstthe novel coronavirus will

be won. But the world thatemerges may look very differ-ent from the one we lived inbefore the pandemic began.

Over 60,000 people havelost their lives to COVID-19and there are a more than amillion confirmed cases withthe outbreak yet to reach itspeak across the developed andemerging world.

But on top of the tragichuman toll, the coronavirusalso threatens incalculablesocial, economic and politicalcosts, and to trigger a wave ofchange that will shape ourworld for years to come.

The shutdown imposed toslow the spread of the viruscould push some economiesinto full-scale meltdown.Financial markets may never

recover to pre-crisis levels.Restrictions on movement

will help some governmentstighten autocratic control, andcivil liberties could be erodedin the name of gaining infor-mation on virus spread.

Many are already ques-tioning the merit of multilat-eral organisations such as theWHO or the United Nationsgiven the perceived lack of acoordinated, global response toan unprecedented health crisis.

The changes could beimmense, say analysts, but alsounpredictable. “Is itgoing to be a headline or is ita trendline?” asked AaronDavid Miller, Senior Fellow atthe Carnegie Endowment forInternational Peace.

“Are we witnessing anevent that is going to reshapeinternational relations and rela-tions among states?” Muchwill depend on how long

national economies manageto withstand the storm, and theperformance of governmentsin tackling the threat.

China, where the virus isbelieved to have originated,proudly claims to have quelledthe outbreak.

US President DonaldTrump initially appeared toshrug off the seriousness of thethreat and is now faced with afull-scale crisis.

While the official figuresfrom India remain far lessgrim than in the West, there isanxiety that much worse is tocome. “Is this leadership orabsence of leadership going toprovide opportunities or vul-nerabilities to various countriesaround the world?” askedMiller. The world’s wealthiestpowers enjoy a cushion thatwill allow them to keep theeconomy ticking over duringthe crisis, to compensate work-

ers laid off, and to resume eco-nomic activity quickly after-wards.

But in poorer countrieswith no such protections, theresulting deprivation risks dri-ving people onto the street.

“The potential for wide-spread social unrest in coun-tries that have not provided asocial safety net for those los-ing their jobs during this crisis strikes me as veryreal, with possible repercus-sions for governance andmore,” said Joshua Geltzer,visiting professor of law atGeorgetown University.

Countries like Russia andTurkey, led by the same strong-men for two decades, will behoping that their measureswill be enough to spare themthe worst of the virus and anypolitical consequences.

But to battle the outbreak,even the most democratic soci-

eties have had to restrict civilliberties on an unprecedentedscale and bid farewell to bor-der-free travel for the foresee-able future.

“All the global elite whohad lectured for a long timeabout liberalism and globali-sation were the first to closetheir borders,” pointed outBakary Sambe, director of theTimbuktu Institute in Dakar.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, pro-fessor of political sciences atIndia’s Ashoka University, saidthere risked being conflictsover trading systems. “There isa potential to acceleratedeglobalisation in the wake ofthe crisis.”

The European Union, in ayear that it wanted to showsolidity after Brexit, has beensorely tested. States adoptedpolicies unilaterally, there havebeen vast discrepancies in pre-paredness, and one member,

Hungary, adopted policieswhich critics say border onauthoritarianism.

The EU is far from theonly international institution tofeel the heat.

The G20, chaired this yearby Saudi Arabia, has struggledto make itself heard. And theobservers say the UN, throughits World Health Organisation(WHO), has yet to coordinatea truly global outbreakresponse.

The WHO “seems moreand more sidelined,” saidBarthelemy Courmont,researcher at the Institute forInternational and StrategicResearch (IRIS) in Paris.

“What legitimacy will wegrant to international institu-tions if they do not have theauthority to manage crises?The global system we live inwill emerge somewhat weak-ened from this crisis.”

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New Delhi/Mumbai:Government has assured Statebanks it is ready to provide cap-ital support as the coronaviruspandemic may lead to a surgein bad loans when economicgrowth is slowing, threeGovernment and bankingsources told Reuters.

The Government mayneed to make a provision of atleast Rs 20-25,000 crore forcapital infusion in state-runbanks. However, this number

can increase significantly as thesituation evolves, the officials said.

“The NPAs (non-perform-ing assets) could remain anissue and the Government mayneed to make a provision forsome capital infusion in thepublic sector banks,” said a senior Government offi-cial with direct knowledge ofthe issue.

None of the sources want-ed to be named as the plan is

not yet public. A FinanceMinistry spokesman declinedto comment.

The Government hasalready pumped in Rs 3.5 lakhcrore in the last five years torescue the beleaguered banks.In this financial year’s budgetannouncement in February ithad not allocated any funds forcapital infusion. Instead, thebanks had been encouraged totap capital markets for funds.

Indian banks are burdened

with a bad loan pile of nearlyRs 11 lakh crore and the lion’sshare of it rests with the state-owned banks. Meanwhile, loangrowth for the banking indus-try has also plummeted to thelow single digits putting a fur-ther strain on these lenders.

Moody’s and Fitch group’sIndia Ratings and Researchhave assigned a negative out-look for the Indian bankingsector due to disruptions arising from the coronavirus

outbreak.Most lenders are likely to

require capital in the second orthe third quarter of this finan-cial year and that is when theywill formally approach theGovernment if required as theyalready have the reassurance,bankers said.

“On top of the list rightnow are the mergers and toensure how one can tackle theCOVID-19 related problems.Currently, most banks are in a

position to meet their capitalrequirement for the first half ofthis financial year,” said the CEO of a public sec-tor bank who declined to benamed as the matter is not pub-lic yet.

In August last year, Indiahad announced a series ofmergers involving 10 state-owned banks to ensurestronger balance sheets to boostlending and revive economicgrowth. Agencies

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To ensure smooth intra andinter-state movement of

essential food and groceriesduring the lockdown period,the Centre has directed stategovernments to facilitate truckdrivers and labourers associat-ed in this sector to reach theirworkplace.

Consumer AffairsSecretary Pawan KumarAgarwal, in a letter to all statechief secretaries, has askedState Governments to designatea nodal officer who will coor-dinate with state police toensure hassle free movement ofsupplies.

The designated officer willalso issue authorisation lettersto companies and organisationshaving nationwide supply ofessential goods, he said.

To ensure that truck driversdo not face problems frompolice during the lockdown, thesecretary said, “Movement ofone driver and one additionalperson from their place of res-idence to the truck may kind-ly be facilitated by the local

authorities”.If the truck/vehicle is trav-

elling empty, invoice, way-billetc for the delivery or pick up of goods may addi-tionally be carried by the dri-vers, he said.

Stating that several com-panies have reported difficul-ties in getting labour for theiroperations, Agarwal said,“Local administration may beadvised to facilitate in ensuringavailability of labour in facto-ries, warehouses and trans-portation and distributionoperations of essential food andgroceries by appealing to houseowners, societies and villages toallow workers to go for work”.

He also mentioned thatthe Consumer Affairs Ministryhas developed an e-pass systemsolution with the help of E-GovFoundation.

This system enables thegovernment to monitor thenumber of passes issued by theauthorised companies.

“The State Governmentmay use this e-pass solution forthe issue of passes,” the secre-tary added.

New Delhi: The Governmenthas tightened the export bannorms on anti-malarial drughydroxychloroquine by includ-ing special economic zones(SEZs) under its prohibitionambit to ensure there is noshortfall during Covid-19 cri-sis. US President DonaldTrump has said that he hasrequested Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to release theamount of Hydroxychloroquineordered by the US after Indialast month banned the drugsfor exports.

With more than three lakhconfirmed cases of coronavirus

infection and over 8,000 fatal-ities, the US has emerged as theworst sufferers of the deadlycoronavirus diseases to whichthere has been no cure.

The drug is also notallowed to be shipped by exportoriented units (EOUs) or underany export promotion scheme.

Under advance authorisa-tion (AA) scheme, firms areallowed to import raw mater-ial at zero duty but with thecondition of export obligationwithin a certified time frame.SEZs are treated as foreignterritory in terms of customslaws. PTI

Islamabad: The International Monetary Fund(IMF) is likely to delay the release of its thirdtranche of the total USD 6 billion Extended FundFacility (EFF) to cash-strapped Pakistan in the wakeof the global coronavirus pandemic, according toa media report on Sunday. Pakistan in Decemberlast had received the second tranche amountingUSD 454 million. The delay of the release of thethird trance, amounting USD 450 million, will be

likely due to the surfacing of new realities on themacroeconomic front following the coronaviruspandemic, The News International reported.“Under the existing arrangement of USD 6 billionExtended Fund Facility (EEF), the approval of thirdtranche might be delayed for some time becauseall macroeconomic targets have shaken, arising outrequirement to re-adjust macroeconomic targets,”it noted. PTI

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Foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) have net withdrawn

a record Rs 1.1 lakh crorefrom the Indian markets inMarch as the coronavirus pan-demic dented investor senti-ment worldwide.

According to latest depos-itories data, FPIs pulled out anet Rs 61,973 crore from equi-ties and Rs 56,211 crore fromthe bond market in March, tak-ing the cumulative net outflowto Rs 1,18,184 crore.

The outflow of funds inMarch comes after six consec-utive months of investment by

FPIs since September 2019. This is also the highest

withdrawal ever since the FPIdata has been made available bythe National SecuritiesDepository Ltd. Besides, injust two trading sessions ofApril, FPIs have withdrawn anet sum of Rs 6,735 crore fromthe domestic markets. Out ofthis, Rs 3,802 crore were pulledout from equities and Rs 2,933crore from the debt segment.

“The sell-off in March ismostly driven by quant funds,hedge funds, and risk parityfunds,” Harsh Jain, co-founderand COO at Groww said.

Terming the fund outflow

as “unparalleled”, HimanshuSrivastava, senior analyst man-ager research, MorningstarIndia, said that with fear overthe degree of impact thatCovid-19 could leave on theglobal economy, foreigninvestors stormed out of theemerging markets, with Indiaamong the worst hit.

“The intensity of the situ-ation could be gauged from thefact that even during the finan-cial crisis of 2008, FPIs sold netassets worth USD 9.3 billion inthe Indian markets while inMarch 2020, they have been netsellers to the tune of USD 16.5billion,” he added.

Regarding the future of FPIflows, Srivastava said these areunprecedented scenarios andwith risk-taking going off thetable, emerging markets likeIndia may most likely witness aprolonged period of net out-flows till the time situation onthe coronavirus front stabilizes.

Jain said, “RBI raised thelimit FPIs can invest in corporatebonds to 15 per cent on March30th. While this is encouraging,it is unlikely to drive investmentsimmediately. The government’splan for easing out the lockdownafter April 15 and other boostslike economic aid is crucial atthis point in time.”

New Delhi: Depreciation inIndian rupee and African cur-rencies against the US dollar mayraise the cost of imported tele-com equipments, including forBharti, pushing up the capitalexpenditure, according to areport by Axis Capital.

The report said while telcos’capex has been hit globally dueto COVID-19 lockdown, growthof telecom infrastructureproviders will be hurt by slow-down in Government spendingon projects like BharatNet.

“Depreciation inINR/African currencies versusUSD may increase cost ofimported telecom equipment(including Bharti), pushing uptheir capex. Stronger USD mayalso lead to translation lossesfrom USD-denominated debt,”Axis Capital’s telecom sectorreport said.

Benefit of lower crude oilprice would be passed to con-sumers once lockdown is over,but if crude sustains at these lev-els for longer, it will hurt earn-

ings of African economies,affecting Airtel Africa’s growth,it added.

On challenges for infra-structure providers, the reportsaid that delays in BharatNet pro-ject and 5G spectrum auctionmay impact Sterlite Tech andTejas Networks, while BhartiInfratel faces concerns aroundfinancial stress of Vodafone Ideaand competition from JioInfratel. On Bharti Airtel, it saidusage per subscriber is insulat-ed from COVID-19 impact,though subscriber addition willbe hit by the lockdown. “Rupeedepreciation is likely to push upcapex spends and translationlosses,” it said.

In an unprecedented move,Prime Minister Narendra Modion March 24 announced acomplete lockdown of theentire country for 21 days to tryhalt the spread of coronavirus,shortly after which the Centresaid road, rail and air serviceswill remain suspended duringthis period. PTI

New Delhi: About 40,000 crewand seafarers stranded on cargoand cruise vessels across theglobe are awaiting return toIndian shores, with the gov-ernment assuring to extendhelp once the nationwide lock-down on account of coron-avrius outbreak is lifted, mar-itime bodies have said.

There are about 15,000seafarers onboard about 500cargo vessels across the globe,and another 25,000 on cruiseships. Maritime bodies likeNUSI, MUI and MASSA toldPTI they have raised the issue

with the Shipping Ministry,which has assured to extend allpossible help for return ofthese seafarers after the lock-down is lifted.

“It is estimated that around40,000 Indian seafarers arestranded on cargo and cruisevessels across the globe and arewaiting to come back homesince their job contracts haveexpired,” said Capt Shiv Halbe,CEO of Maritime Associationof Shipowners, Shipmanagersand Agents (MASSA).

He said the issue was raisedbefore Shipping Minister

Mansukh Lal Manadaviya, whoassured their safe passage backhome once the lockdown is lift-ed. “However, the ministersaid that the seafarers will needto be tested and then quaran-tined or isolated,” he added.

The maritime bodies andother stakeholders from portsector held a meeting withMandaviya, through video con-ferencing, to discuss the plightof Indian seafarers, who areoutside India currently, andvarious issues faced by theIndian maritime industry dueto COVID-19 pandemic. PTI

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Economic disruptions causedby the coronavirus pan-

demic may have warrantedseveral compliance and finan-cial reporting relaxations, butexperts and officials cautionedon Sunday that relaxing themandatory closure of tradingwindow for ‘insiders’ might goagainst the interest of investors.

There has been demandfrom promoters and othersclassified as insiders withregard to stock market tradingthat this restriction should alsobe relaxed as capital marketsregulator has eased the time-lines for filing of financialresults for listed companies.

Under the Sebi’sProhibition of Insider TradingRegulations, “Trading restric-tion period shall be madeapplicable from the end ofevery quarter till 48 hoursafter the declaration of finan-cial results. The gap betweenclearance of accounts by auditcommittee and board meetingshould be as narrow as possi-

ble and preferably on the sameday to avoid leakage of mater-ial information.”

Accordingly, the tradingwindow closure for insiders isalready in place since April 1,though the timeline for filing ofresults for the quarter and yearended March 31 has beenrelaxed till June 30.

These are among the relax-ations given by Sebi for listedcompanies and various marketparticipants in light of theCOVID-19 crisis and the ongo-ing nationwide lockdown.

While promoters and otherinsiders are demanding that thetrading window should beopened for them as resultswould be announced later, offi-cials and experts flagged sucha relaxation would be detri-mental to the interest of generalinvestors as promoters and thetop management, alongwiththeir associated entities, wouldalready be in know of broaderfinancial performance for thelast quarter even if the actualresults would get filed later.

Confirming that there have

been requests seeking relax-ation from the trading restric-tion period, a government offi-cial said the challenge for regu-lator Sebi was striking a balancebetween granting relaxationsand ensuring market integrity.

Exchanges have alreadyissued circulars regarding thetrading window closure as Sebidid not accede to requests forany relaxation. Globally also,no such relaxation has beengiven by regulators in majormarkets. Information relatingto financial results, unless madepublic, is deemed as unpub-lished price sensitive informa-tion (UPSI) and insiders whomay have access to such UPSIare not allowed to trade.

“It would be incorrect toinfer from the above develop-ments that promoters andinsiders cannot trade till June30, 2020, as there is no mandatefrom Sebi to delay the financialresults, instead a listed entity isfree to stick to its timelines andopen the trading window as perextant provisions of law,” theofficial said.

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AP n Washington

As the first alarms sound-ed in early January that an out-break of a novel coronavirus inChina might ignite a globalpandemic, the Trump admin-istration squandered nearlytwo months that could havebeen used to bolster the feder-al stockpile of critically need-ed medical supplies and equip-ment.

A review of federal pur-chasing contracts by TheAssociated Press shows feder-al agencies waited until mid-March to begin placing bulkorders of N95 respirator masks,

mechanical ventilators andother equipment needed byfront-line health care workers.

By that time, hospitals inseveral states were treatingthousands of infected patientswithout adequate equipmentand were pleading for ship-ments from the StrategicNational Stockpile. That federalcache of supplies was createdmore than 20 years ago to helpbridge gaps in the medical andpharmaceutical supply chainsduring a national emergency.

Now, three months into thecrisis, that stockpile is nearlydrained just as the numbers ofpatients needing critical care is

surging. Some state and localofficials report receiving bro-ken ventilators and decade-olddry-rotted masks.

“We basically wasted twomonths,” Kathleen Sebelius,health and human servicessecretary during the Obamaadministration, told AP. Asearly as mid-January, USOfficials could see that hospi-tals in China’s Hubei provincewere overwhelmed with infect-ed patients, with many leftdependent on ventilatormachines to breath. Italy soonfollowed, with hospitals scram-bling for doctors, beds andequipment. HHS did not

respond to questions aboutwhy federal officials waited toorder medical supplies untilstocks were running criticallylow. But President DonaldTrump has asserted that thefederal Government shouldtake a back seat to states whenit comes to dealing with thepandemic.

Trump and his appointeeshave urged state and local gov-ernments, and hospitals, tobuy their own masks andbreathing machines, sayingrequests to the dwindlingnational stockpile should be alast resort.

“The notion of the federal

stockpile was it’s supposed to beour stockpile,” Jared Kushner,the president’s son-in-law andadviser, said at a White Housebriefing Thursday. “It’s notsupposed to be state stockpilesthat they then use.”

Experts in emergency pre-paredness and response haveexpressed dismay at such state-ments, saying the federal gov-ernment must take the lead inensuring medical supplies areavailable and distributed wherethey are needed most.

“States do not have the pur-chasing power of the federalgovernment. They do not havethe ability to run a deficit like

the federal government. Theydo not have the logistical powerof the federal government,”said Sebelius, who served asgovernor of Kansas before run-ning the nation’s health caresystem.

Because of the fracturedfederal response to COVID-19,state governors say they’re nowbidding against federal agenciesand each other for scarce sup-plies, driving up prices.

“You now literally will havea company call you up and say,‘Well, California just outbidyou,’” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo,D-N.Y., said on Tuesday.

“It’s like being on eBay

with 50 other states, bidding ona ventilator.”

For nearly a month, Trumprebuffed calls from Cuomoand others to use his authori-ty under the DefenseProduction Act to order com-panies to increase productionof ventilators and personalprotective equipment. He sug-gested the private sector wasacting sufficiently on its own.

More than three monthsafter China revealed the firstCOVID-19 cases, Trump final-ly relented last week, saying hewill order companies to rampup production of critical sup-plies. By then, confirmed cases

of COVID-19 within theUnited States had surged to thehighest in the world, with morethan 300,000 people infected,and deaths have topped 8,400.

Trump spent January andFebruary playing down thethreat from the new virus. Hederided warnings of pandemicreaching the U.S. As a hoax per-petrated by Democrats and themedia. As the World HealthOrganization declared the out-break a global public healthemergency on January 30,Trump assured the Americanpeople that the virus was “verywell under control” and he pre-dicted “a very good ending.”

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London: British PrimeMinister Boris Johnson’s preg-nant fiancée, Carrie Symondson Sunday revealed that shewas bedridden after developingsymptoms of coronavirus but isnow on the mend and feelingstronger.

The 32-year-old conser-vationist had been self-isolat-ing separately from Johnsonwith the couple’s dog Dilyn.Her social media post on herown symptoms subsiding cameas Johnson, 55, continues toself-isolate at Downing Streetafter testing positive for coro-navirus last week.

“I’ve spent the past week inbed with the main symptoms ofcoronavirus. I haven’t needed tobe tested and, after seven daysof rest, I feel stronger and I’mon the mend,” Symonds post-ed on Twitter.

In an accompanying post,Johnson’s partner, who isaround six months pregnantand expecting the couple’s babyin the coming months, addeda link to guidance from theUK’s Royal College ofObstetricians andGynaecologists for pregnantwomen during the pandemic.

“Being pregnant withCOVID-19 is obviously wor-rying. To other pregnantwomen, please do read and fol-low the most up to date guid-ance which I found to be veryreassuring,” she said.

In an earlier post onInstagram, Symonds —believed to be at her flat inCamberwell, south London —is seen lying in bed with Dilynwith the caption: “Self-isolatingisn’t so bad with this one.”

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� ,��7 (�� �9��,�/����-���$:���5��(���; ��(�%��!9-, %����&"�# Moscow: A man in central

Russia shot and killed fivepeople for talking noisily atnight under his windows,investigators said on Sunday.

The shootings took place inthe Ryazan region during stay-at-home orders aimed at slow-ing the spread of the coron-avirus. A 32-year-old man fromthe small town of Yelatmaopened fire on a group of fouryoung men and a woman who“were talking loudly in thestreet under his windows” ataround 10 pm on Saturday,investigators said.

Yelatma is located near thecity of Ryazan, which is situatedsome 200 kilometres southeast ofMoscow. The man went to hisbalcony to complain to the groupand a dispute erupted before hereached for his single-barrelhunting rifle, the InvestigativeCommittee said. AFP

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These are testing, almost dystopiantimes. The kind which we had neverforeseen or imagined. These are

likely to become an object of wonder forthe future generations as they will find itdifficult to comprehend how people stayedin their homes for weeks and monthsbecause a deadly virus had taken over theentire world and forced us to distance our-selves physically from one another even aswe began to value and understand theimportance of the human connection. Ofcourse, on account of its uniqueness, thistime will be remembered for years to come,and well, what better way to recall it thanthrough preserving its memory througharts.

Art galleries, literature festivals, musicconcerts, and other public displays of artor any other spaces, which see a large num-ber of footfalls, are on the backburner amidthe lockdown due to the Coronavirus pan-demic. Not surprisingly, one can see manyof them cancelling or postponing theseevents. However, some of them haveupped their game and decided to turn it totheir advantage by taking to social mediaand digital platforms. While most of theplayers have not added a monetary cost tothe views and streaming is free but theyagree that if this has to be done in the longrun, paywalls and online contributions arethe way forward.

F�����������������.�.����Described as the “greatest literary

show on earth,” the Jaipur LiteratureFestival 2020 stands as the biggestexample of this change. The festival,which started on Saturday, is coming as

an online literature series in which, thistime, the sprawling grounds of DiggiPalace will be replaced by the boundlesspossibilities of the internet. Its new liter-ature series — ‘JLF presents Brave NewWorld’ aims to keep alive a free-flowingexchange of ideas online in this time of de-globalisation. It comes as a virtual initia-tive to celebrate books, their power andpositivity.

Former politician and author BrunoMaçães will speak about our transformedcircumstances and the lessons learnt fromAmerica, China and Europe at a sessionon our past, present and future, and whatthe rebirth of these nations could mean forthe world and global affairs.

Other sessions would see the likes ofwriter and broadcaster Bee Rowlatt andBaroness Helena Kennedy exploring theneed to protect the “forum internum” —our private mental space — from theincursions of digital technology — at a ses-sion titled Freedom of Thought. Stillanother would have co-authors of therecent The New World Disorder and theIndia Imperative, writer, politician andpublic intellectual Shashi Tharoor andpresident of Observer ResearchFoundation, Samir Saran, sharing theirviews on the current crisis the world isgoing through. Their session will build anecessary narrative on the new realitiesthat confront us today.

Walls and Bridges will be a session ondystopian fiction and its increasingly realand uncanny presence in our lives in whichPrayaag Akbar, author of Leila (which wasadapted into a Netflix series), and AmritaTripathi, author of The Sibius Knot willshare their views.

Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher andco-director of the JLF, said, “Book loversare never truly alone — not when we havebooks, and each other. JLF has alwaysaffirmed the spirit of community. Webelieve that these testing times are also themoments in which we need to interrogateand make sense of our world, throughbooks and ideas, debate and dialogue,music and philosophy, science and the arts.The festival, which has always been a plat-form that celebrates the spirit of humanconnection, is now ready to go straight intohearts and minds and homes. Our time-ly new initiative will provide an importantnew resource for our extended JLF fami-ly across the world.”

YouTube channel: Jaipur LiteratureFestival

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The National Centre for the PerformingArts (NCPA) is presenting its best of eventsfrom its archives on YouTube. The specialeight performances, that began on Fridayand will go on till April 9, are its exclusivevideos specially curated from NCPA’sextensive library.

Talking about theatre going digital inthese time, K N Suntook, chairman andfounder, NCPA, said in an interview, “TheNCPA is a repository of great artistic trea-sures. Our genre heads and team haveworked hard to put this together. As a cul-tural organisation, we felt this treasure mustbe shared in these difficult times in the safestway possible. The best of concerts, lecture-demonstrations and workshops presentedat the NCPA can now be viewed online onour YouTube channel. We are grateful for

the support that we have received from theartistes.”

YouTube channel: NCPA Mumbai

��������������������For those who haven’t been able to

watch the famous Swan Lake ballet, this isjust the time to catch the show as BolshoiTheatre is going digital for the first time andpresenting some of its most popular operaand ballet performances. Known as the“Golden Collection,” viewers from aroundthe world can tune in to its official YouTubechannel to see the shows.

A total of six performances are sched-uled. The performances have been pre-recorded but the audience will feel theexcitement and get the feeling of an open-ing night by tuning in to watch each broad-cast using YouTube’s ‘Premiere’ feature. Forviewers, who are unable to watch in real

time, each performance will be available ondemand for 24 hours after its initial broad-cast.

Vladmire Urin, general director ofthe Bolshoi Theatre, recently told adaily, “Our country, like the rest of theworld, is experiencing a very difficulttime. We’ve never faced this type of sit-uation before and since we had to closethe theatre, we didn’t want to lose ourconnection with our audience. Theatreis deeply moving and is a rich experience,and although we cannot perform in frontof live audiences, we’re excited to shareour performances digitally. It’s been a lotof hard work on our part to make thishappen, but we hope these perfor-mances will lift peoples spirits and sup-port the well-being of all who tune intothe Bolshoi.”

It is set to present The Nutcracker

(2011) on April 11 at 7 pm, Moscow time.Viewers who subscribe to the channel willreceive an alert and will be able to partic-ipate in a live chat for the performance.The comments section will also remainopen after each performance so viewerscan discuss the forthcoming shows.

YouTube channel: Bolshoi Theatre

�����������3����/���������0+�Gallery Latitude 28, amid the lock-

down, presents the works of artists NiyetiChadha Kannal and Noor Ali Chagani inArt Dubai’s Online Catalogue 2020.Tapping on the expansive possibilities ofthis digital initiative, it has designed thecatalogue in a way that it is able to con-nect to more art collectors, enthusiasts andgalleries across the country.

YouTube channel: ArtCultureFestival

�������3�����The 93.5 RED FM and music label T-

Series have come together to present theirnew digital initiative The Care Concert.The initiative is aimed at raising funds totackle the current COVID-19 pandemicand donate the amount to PM-CARESFund. The concert would be streamed onYouTube and Facebook handles of boththe organisations. There will be perfor-mances by more than 15 artistes. Viewerscan contribute any amount they wish to,to the PM-CARES Fund through a linkprovided for the donations.

YouTube channels: Red FM India andT-Series

BookMyShow has also recently beganits online series, Live From HQ — SpokenWord Edition, which it calls a “happyrespite” in the form of an online live spo-ken word and storytelling property fea-turing 30-minute performances by vari-ous prominent poets and storytellers. Theedition will see artistes like ArunodaySingh, Kubbra Sait, Adil Hussain, DanishSait and Harnidh Kaur, among others. Theseries presents Swanand Kirkire live onInstagram today.

Well, so much together, that too, in thecomfort of your home? We bet youwould have been unable to catch up onall these while being physically presentthere. Consider the quarantine timelucky then!

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Receiving letters fromsomeone you love can

often make you feel special.But what happens when youreceive a letter from your 15-year-old self, who wants tobe sure that you grow up tobe the best version of your-self in the years to come?

From being a PretentiousMovie Reviewer to learningto Keep it Real, stand-upcomedian Kanan Gill’scomic adventures have final-ly landed him on Netflix forhis first original comedyspecial, Yours Sincerely,Kanan Gill.

When asked about writ-ing and producing the spe-cial, Kanan said, “This showis about rediscovering thegoals I had set for myselfwhen I was younger and see-ing how my life has mea-sured up. It’s about how Ithought my life would be,how it turned out to be andhow I feel about it. The

process of writing is spend-ing long periods of timewith nothing but ideas. Eachline has been agonised overand told to thousands ofpeople around the worldbefore being recorded.”

Yours Sincerely, KananGill aims to take you on arollercoaster ride as Kananpromises the audience tosome razor-sharp, wittyjokes.

Shah Rukh Khan recentlyannounced several

initiatives with his group ofcompanies, Kolkata KnightRiders, Red ChilliesEntertainment, MeerFoundation and Red ChilliesVFX, to support the efforts ofPrime Minister NarendraModi and the government inits COVID-19 fight.

In a recent development,the actor has gone an extramile and offered a four-storeypersonal office to help BMC(Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation) in order toexpand their quarantinecapacity, equipped withessentials for quarantinedchildren, women and elder.

Expressing their gratitudetowards the actor, BMC took totheir handle and posted,“#StrongerTogether We thank@iamsrk & @gaurikhan foroffering their 4-storey personaloffice space to help expand our

quarantine capacity equippedwith essentials for quarantinedchildren, women and elderly.Indeed a thoughtful & timelygesture!

#AnythingForMumbai#NaToCorona”.Soon after the tweet,

“#SRKOfficeForQuarantine”was the top trend on Twitter.His fans showered love andpride for the actor. A tweetread: “Another on pointcontribution. He is settingbenchmark for serving thepeople.” A user also pointedout that it’s not a companyoffice but it is Shah Rukh andGauri’s personal office that’sbeen offered.

With his recentannouncement of variousinitiatives, the actor hasextended his support with hisgroup of companies. He isbeing lauded for his generosity,helping the society at a timethat it is needed the most. From

government funds to 50,000PPE kits, food requirements of5,500 Mumbai families, 2,000cooked meals to hospitals,three lakh meal kits for 10,000people, grocery for 2,500 dailywage workers in Delhi and 100acid attack survivors, his rangeof initiatives aim to spreadacross various segments of thesociety.

In an effort to ensure thatthe basic necessities reachmany who are being deprivedof it in these trying times, thefunds allocated will bedistributed amongst thepartners. The aim is to not onlyprovide relief during thepandemic but also help raiseawareness about COVID-19and encourage more people tocome forward and help.

This new step by thesuperstar would further helpBMC in their efforts to preventthe spread of Coronavirus andcurb it.

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Most of us might have heard the proverb — youdon’t know what you have got ‘til it’s gone —

many times in our lives. We realise the fortune’sworth only after we lose it. The stream of life flowson and every second the water in the stream keepschanging. What is present now will move on to thenext moment and will become the past. Everymoment life is unfolding and something new isbeing presented. So often we let the present slipaway, allowing time to rush unobserved andunseized as we are too lost in the past or caughtup in the future. We get caught up in our pastbecause we did not allow ourselves to live themwhen they were the present.

It’s very common for most of us to fantasizeabout things like shopping or going for a moviewhile we are at work. Andwhile we are actually in amovie theatre, we worryabout the work piling upon our desks. Isn’t that soironical? We are trappedby intrusive memories ofthe past or fret about whatmay or may not happen inthe future. Between thestruggles of past andfuture, we don’t appreciatepresent much because weidentify ourselves withthose thoughts, beliefs and emotions. We forget afact that it is necessary to live in the moment i.e‘now’. To do that we need to be very still inside butwe are constantly distracted by our thoughts linkedto the past and future.

Most of us are addicted to the patterns andbeliefs we created in the past, which keep drivingour thoughts even in the present. Instead of think-ing consciously, we are controlled by our thoughtsof the past. To change this pattern, we need to firstpause and observe what’s going on in our mind.We need to step back, watch and then steer thethoughts towards the present moment and creativegoals. We need to just focus on being before think-ing, judging, analysing and doing.

Living in the moment is a state of intentionalattention on the present. When we become awareof what’s going on in our mind, we realise that weare not our thoughts; we are the observers of ourthoughts from moment to moment and then westop judging them. It is like watching waves ris-ing and falling on the surface of ocean.

Spiritual wisdom makes us aware and realisethat we must love our original state of being. Asthe noise and chatter of the mind slows down, wecan experience our true nature and just relax in ourstate of being. Then we are connected to now andnot influenced by the past, future or anything outthere. We are in a highly creative state when ourpure awareness creates energy of love, joy and peacein every moment. Under such a stage, we are flow-ing with life without grasping, chasing, wanting,needing or holding on to anything. We are in a trulyliberated, powerful and creative state. There is freshenergy in every thought and action.

Living in the present reduces impulsive andreactive behaviour. Those who live in the momentcan hear negative feedback without feeling threat-ened. They are more accepting, accommodatingand flexible. As a result, they have easy and satis-fying relationships.

It is very important for all of us to realise thatwe are now in the most important and beneficialage when almighty himself is bestowing his trea-sures of wisdom and love. Hence, by becoming soulconscious, we can live in the present and make thebest out of each second of this valuable period.Liberation and abundance can be experienced byall human souls right now, right here. Being awareof the self as a soul and being connected to supreme,liberates us in a second. Don’t look back becauseyou are not going that way again.

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Social distancing and self-quarantineare the most important terms thatwe have learnt during this prolonged

lockdown because of the Coronaviruspandemic. No matter how socially activewe were but COVID-19 has made ushome-bound and introverts. The con-stant fear of contracting the virus if weshake hands, maintaining a certain dis-tance while meeting a person are mak-ing us almost allergic to humans. We alsoneed to pay attention to the fact that evenafter this ends, we will be suspiciousabout going to crowded places.

In the most literal sense, theCoronavirus is a moral panic. It has start-ed exploiting vulnerabilities in humanpsychology and as a result our schools,colleges and universities are shut, stockmarket has crashed, the increased socialconflict and xenophobia has reshuffledour migration patterns, and is workingto contain us in homogenous spaces.

What options are we left with? Even ifthe lockdown gets lifted, we can comein contact with the virus, especially, if welive in a densely populated area — if notthis year, then next or the year after, asit undergoes its seasonal global migra-tion pattern.

�Changing colour of India’s celebra-tion

With the number of coronaviruscases going up in our country and thedeath toll rising worldwide, the ramifi-cations can be felt on Indian festivals aswell. Festivals are the pulse of our

nation’s social life. Every religion andcommunity celebrates theirs accordingto their own style. There are variety offestivals depending on the state, religionand community. At the heart of numer-ous and varied festivals held throughoutthe year are get-togethers with extend-ed family, friends and neighbours. Butthis year itself saw major festivals likeHoli and Ram Navami being celebratedin a subdued manner. Gauging theadverse effect of the threat of COVID-19 on the fervour of Indian festivities isunfathomable.

�Will we dine out, meet friends likebefore?

Life as we know has been altered sig-nificantly and things are happeningdifferently. People in general are kind andhelpful especially in our country but thevirus has instilled a sense of heightenedfear which makes us wary of everythingthat is outside our house. For instance,while dining out with friends, earlier wewere carefree. We ordered anything wewanted. But now either we won’t dine outfor a long time after this lockdown ends,or even if we go, we will think 100 timesbefore ordering an exotic Chinese sea-food (because that is supposedly wherethe virus originated) or meeting a friendwith a warm hug. People are wary ofshaking hands as the virus usuallyreveals its symptoms after two or moredays which means the person may seemperfectly healthy but may still be a car-rier of Coronavirus and transmit it toothers through handshakes. Even afterApril 14 (when the lockdown ends) Idon’t think people will instantly goback to their normal routine. It will taketime. Moreover, eliminating the viruscompletely from the country will taketime.

�� Sit apart at workplaces and avoidhuman touch?

Don’t you think workplaces will alsowitness a shift in their meeting and sit-ting patterns? This might not be the col-lective mindset but I feel it will under-go a change. When one is afraid for one’sown life, it is human nature to avoidthings which can endanger it. Peoplemight distance their movable cubicles orchair tables and not touch other’s elec-tronics.

All this a result of increasing fear thathas pervaded our lives at the moment.However, this should not make us aban-don our faith in humanity as and whenthings go back to normal. We cannot for-get the fact that a human being is a socialanimal. If we try to live isolated, we willunnecessarily be prone to stress, anxietyand depression.

Traditionally, growing yourown herbs and veggies was

reserved for those with the lux-ury of outdoor space and abun-dant light. Now there are anumber of new, high-techindoor gardening systems thatallow apartment dwellers withlimited light or those aching togardening before the seasonstarts, a chance to grow theirown greens.

For many households shel-tering in place, with limitedaccess to perishable foods, thedevices can also provide a sourceof fresh herbs and vegetables, aswell as a chance to enjoy grow-ing something. And novicesneedn’t worry: These automat-ed growing systems are relative-ly foolproof, with pre-planted“seed pods,” auto-timed lights,even smartphone apps andAlexa interfaces to help youthrough the process.

“It’s sort of like the K-cupmodel for growing,” explainsPaul Rabaut, marketing directorat AeroGarden, which makes arange of indoor growing systemsthat use seed pods, which areinserted into the electronicgrowing machine, not unlikeinserting a capsule into a coffeemachine. “Our mission is toallow people access to freshlygrown herbs and veggies allyear round, even without a yardor much light. It’s easy to be suc-cessful and there are no messybags of soil to lug,” explainsRabaut.

Like a number of these sys-tems, AeroGarden uses hydro-ponics, a method of growingthat uses only water and liquidnutrients, not the soil used in

traditional gardening. Seedscome embedded in a plug ofpeat, nestled inside a tidy cap-sule pre-labeled with the nameof the plant, how tall it’s expect-

ed to grow and in how manydays. All that’s required is to addwater and nutrients periodical-ly, and the rest is automated.

Indoor gardeners can expect

their first harvest in a matter ofweeks. After two or threemonths, the seed pod needs tobe replaced or planted in tradi-tional soil to continue growing

and another pod can be insert-ed in the system. As with coffeecapsules, the plastic seed podsare recyclable, Rabaut says,adding that AeroGarden podtrays can be swapped out for aseedling tray that lets peoplestart many more plants at once.

Another popular growingsystem is Click and Grow. Andbig names like Samsung, LG andIKEA have also worked ondeveloping automated indoorgrowing systems. “We have anew competitor coming on themarket every week or two some-where in the world,” says MartinLaidla, public relations manag-er for the Estonia-based Clickand Grow, whose biggest mar-ket is North America.

“We call this ‘hyper-localgardening’ since you can do the

growing right in your kitchenbut some systems are definitelybetter than others. It’s easy to puttogether a plastic base and lightbut it’s the quality of the grow-ing medium and the growingtechnology, and of course thelight, that’s really the trick,”says Laidla.

Marc Hachadourian, direc-tor of glass house horticulture atthe New York Botanical Garden,says, “Technology has invadedevery aspect of our lives, so itwas only a matter of time untiltechnology entered into gar-dening.” “LED light technologywas really the game changer,with better quality plant lightsavailable in all different sizes,” hesays. “Now you can even buytiny clip-on plant lights for yourAfrican Violet or plant lightsthat are the size of desk lamps.They used to be enormousthings.” But just as coffee cap-sules aren’t for everyone, neitherare these growing systems,which can seem sterile to thoseused to gardening the old-fash-ioned way.

“I’ve seen novices growwonderful plants using thesesystems,” says Hachadourian.But he adds, “There’s still some-thing for getting your hands inthe dirt. If you just plug it in andwatch it grow, there’s no inter-action there.”

He says that with good-quality modern plant lights,people can also grow plants insoil indoors without a high-techsystem, while getting hands-onenjoyment. “It’s like cooking.Sometimes it’s good to get yourhands dirty,” he says.

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India has submitted its bid doc-uments for hosting the AFC

Asian Cup in 2027, a top official ofthe national federation confirmedon Sunday.

If India wins the bid, it will bethe first time the country will hostthe continental showpiece event.

“We have already submittedour expression of interest to theAFC (Asian FootballConfederation). That is what’srequired as of now,” All IndiaFootball Federation GeneralSecretary Kushal Das said.

Recently, the AFC had extend-ed the deadline to lodge expressionof interest by three months fromMarch 31 to June 30 in view of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

“The AFC had hoped toannounce the tournament hosts assoon as possible to give themmore time to prepare for the qua-drennial continental championship,which was expanded to 24 teams

for the 2019 edition in the UnitedArab Emirates,” the AFC said.

The AFC is expected toannounce the host country earlynext year.

Other than India, Saudi Arabia,which has won the continental titlethree times but never hosted the

tournament, is only nation to havepublicly announced their intentionto launch a bid for 2027 Asian Cup.

India had joined the race forthe 2023 AFC Asian Cup, alongsideThailand, Indonesia and SouthKorea, but pulled out early inOctober 2018.

Later, Thailand and SouthKorea also pulled out leaving Chinathe sole country to host the 2023tournament.

South Korea, which is hostingthe 2023 Women’s World Cup, isalso likely to join India in the bidfor the men’s 2027 AFC Asian Cup.China will host the 2023 showpiecetournament in 10 cities.

Since successfully staging themen’s U-17 World Cup in 2017,India was to host the U-17 women’sWorld Cup this November but hasbeen postponed to a later date dueto the worsening COVID-19 pan-demic.

India has also been awardedhosting rights for the 2022Women’s AFC Asian Cup in 2022.

�.�������Former India fast bowler Ashish Nehra feelsthat the factor that helped MS Dhoni stand out amonghis contemporary wicketkeepers in the early part of hiscareer was the fact that he made the most of the oppor-tunities he got.

Dhoni scored his first international exactly 15 yearsago in an ODI against Pakistan in Visakhapanam. He ham-mered 148 off 123 balls and Nehra’s four-wicket haul laterin the match helped India win by 58 runs. Nehra said thatDhoni’s knock gave India the confidence that they toocould have a good wicketkeeper-batsman at a time whenthey were looking to relieve Rahul Dravid of wicketkeep-ing duties.

“That innings got the team to believe that we too couldhave a prolific wicketkeeper-batsman,” Nehra told theTimes of India. “Dhoni didn’t have a great time in his ini-tial matches. But when a confident man like him gets anopportunity and cashes in, then it’s hard to pull him back.

“Unwavering self-confidence is Dhoni’s strength. Thatinnings was like he had tasted blood and he yearned formore. He hardly ever batted at No 3 after that innings buthe had made a statement that day. We lost all the remain-ing four matches in that series but we discovered Dhoni.”

Nehra said that Dhoni was probably behind contem-poraries Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel in wicketkeep-ing skills at the time but he was the best wicketkeeper-batsman among them.

“Dhoni wasn’t the best wicketkeeper around when hefirst came in. All those who played before him were real-ly good. He was certainly not a Kiran More or a NayanMongia. So it’s not that he was miles ahead of his con-temporaries as a wicketkeeper, but he made for a betterpackage. His discipline, passion, composure and confi-dence made him different.

“Dhoni did what DK and Parthiv couldn’t i.e., makethe most of his opportunities. Dhoni may not have beenthe best-looking batsman or a sound wicketkeeper but hecertainly was the best wicketkeeper-batsman. He workedhard on his game, knew what work for him and grew asan impeccable wicketkeeper.”

Nehra said that Rishabh Pant is the only player whohe sees as capable of coming close to Dhoni, whose cur-rent troubles with form reminds the 40-year-old of theformer Indian skipper in his early days.

“I don’t see anyone coming close to the impact he hashad as a wicketkeeper-batsman except for Rishabh Pant.Pant’s journey — though it is still early days — remindsme a lot of Dhoni,” he said. IANS

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Abatsman can do with yoga andweight training but for themerchants of speed, former

India pacer Ashish Nehra feels theabsence of running for more thanthree months at a stretch could comein their way of fitness.

According to him, the fast bowlerswill have to start running sooner orlater.

With sporting activities coming toa standstill, the elite athletes are con-fined to their homes, trying to remainfit while hoping for action to beginonce normalcy returns.

“Let’s consider a few situations.Even if the lockdown ends on April 15,it will take a lot of time for social lifeto become normal.

“If you ask me, I am not expect-ing any cricketing activity before July.So this is a long break but once actionstarts fast bowlers have the biggestchallenge to remain fit,” Nehra said.

Just like former India team physioJohn Gloster, Nehra also feels that thepaucity of space for most cricketers isa problem and more so for the fastbowlers.

“Lack of running time for fastbowlers is an issue. Now the situationis unavoidable. So whoever at least hasa garden with say 15 metres or 20metres space, they should do shuttlerun thrice a week unless they areallowed to train at grounds,” saidNehra.

Shuttle run comprises short stridesbetween 20 to 40 metres where play-ers run between points A and B.

“You can do as much of yoga orfree weights, fast bowler’s life is noth-

ing without good running time.There is a lot of difference with bats-men,” said Nehra, who has been a

bowling coach with IPL franchiseRoyal Challengers Bangalore.

Why does one need to run more

than say cycling or swimming?“It’s not just about heart-rate but

also about bowling muscles such as

hamstring, glutes, groin and calf, theyremain activated. Giving a choicebetween swimming, cycling and run-ning, as a cricketer I would say run-ning. Also a bit of shadow bowling canhelp in visualization,” said Nehra,who has played 164 internationals forIndia (17 Tests, 120 ODIs and 27T20Is).

He had a word of advice for thosewho have sprawling terraces withsoil and grass cover.

“It’s fine if you are doing SuryaNamaskar on terrace but if you startrunning and doing shuttle run, youwill end up damaging your knees andankles because of hard surface.Thevery reason that professional playersshould avoid playing tennis on hardcourts in five-star hotels. They arecement courts.”

Nehra said that he is confidentwhether it’s the BCCI or ICC, even ifthere is a semblance of normalcy byJune, they will give at least a month’stime to the players to prepare, as onecan’t suddenly start playing.

“And injuries can happen to any-one. The fast bowler who has trainedthe least might be fitter than fastbowler who has trained the most.Nature of sport is such. But yes, I hopethat if lockdown ends, they haveaccess to grounds,” said Nehra.

And he also had a word of cautionfor fast bowlers and professional play-ers in general.

“Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra,after this prolonged break, can affordto come back with a paunch. Notactive players. So break ka matlab yenaahi ki biryani khaani hain (A breakfrom sport doesn’t mean you will havebiryani).”

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Bernie Ecclestone says this season’sFormula One championship should

be cancelled because it appears unlike-ly that enough races can be completedfor it to be valid due to the coronaviruscrisis.

The opening eight rounds of the2020 season have been either cancelledor postponed, with doubts over a num-ber of the other 14 races as the pandem-ic continues to overshadow the sportingcalendar.

A minimum of eight races arerequired for the championship to bevalid, but former F1 chief executiveEcclestone believes that will not be pos-sible.

“We should stop the championshipthis year and start again next year, hope-fully, because I can’t see it’s going to bepossible to get the right amount of racesin that count for a championship,” the 89-year-old told BBC Radio.

“There’s got to be eight from mem-ory, and I can’t see them getting that in.

It’s a difficult situation.”Lewis Hamilton was this year aim-

ing to match Michael Schumacher’srecord of seven drivers’ titles, thoughthere have been suggestions a truncat-ed season would diminish the achieve-ment.

But Ecclestone, set to become afather for the fourth time, said: “I don’tthink it will make a lot of difference toLewis. He would win whatever the racenumber, whether it be eight, 16 or 20.

“If it’s a world championship and hewins, it would go on his record and sayhe has won a world championship. Theterrible thing is he would win all eightraces. It wouldn’t be a super champi-onship.”

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Brazilian football great Kakasaid that he leans towards

Lionel Messi in the debate of whoamong the Argentine and hisarch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo is thebest player in the world.

“I played with Cristiano andhe’s really amazing, but I’ll go withMessi,” Kaka said when asked whohe would pick out of Messi orRonaldo during an InstagramLive Q&A for FIFA’s channel.

“He’s a genius, a pure talent.The way he plays is incredible.”

The debate has been one ofthe defining characteristics ofworld football for over a decade.Between 2008 and 2018, Ronaldoand Messi won the Ballon d’Oraward. Kaka was the last player towin the award before the pairstarted domination. He playedwith Ronaldo for five years at RealMadrid.

He said the two players areamong the greatest of all time inthe history of football. “Cristiano

is a machine. It’s not just the wayhe’s strong, powerful and fast; he’sstrong mentally,” said Kaka.

“He always wants to win andplay. To be the best. For me, that’sthe most incredible thing he has.

“In the history of sport, they[Messi and Cristiano] are definite-ly in the top five. We are very luckyto have been able to see both ofthem.”

�.������ The crack men’s doublespair of Chirag Shetty andSatwiksairaj Rankireddy is nowhoping to avail the services of a newforeign coach in their Olympicpreparation after sudden exit ofIndonesian Flandy Limpele.

Limpele was appointed till theTokyo Olympics. But, last month, hestepped down as India’s doublescoach, citing family reasons, becom-ing the fourth such foreign coach tohave resigned without completingthe tenure.

Chirag said the Olympics post-ponement will now give them moretime to deal with the departure ofLimpele, who was specifically hiredto prepare them for Tokyo Games.

“We will definitely get more timeto prepare now. Since it is more thana year, so I believe we will get a newforeign coach. If Olympics wouldhave happened this year, then wewouldn’t have got since for 3-4months it wouldn’t make sense. Butnow, BAI might get one to help us,”Chirag said.

Satwik said the departure of

Limpele in the Olympic year was abig worry.

“It is a worry for us because he(Limpele) left us before theOlympics. He is an experiencedcoach, he used to give us inputs inevery match and we trusted him alot. Since he left we didn’t know whatto do, what program to follow.

“But now we have a year, sohopefully we will get a new coachand again we will have to adjust tothe new regime. So in a way, we got

lucky with this postponement.”Badminton Association of India

general secretary Ajay Singhania saidthey will try to rope in a new foreigncoach once things return to normal.

“With the Olympic postpone-ment, we are keen to get a doublescoach in order to strengthen thecoaching staff. However, we have towait for the lockdown to get over firstso that we can discuss the issue withSAI and Sports Ministry,” he said.

Chirag and Satwik, the

Commonwealth Games Silvermedallists, were the first Indianmen’s doubles pair to win a Super500 in Thailand and also reached thefinals of Super 750 event at FrenchOpen last year. It also helped themto break into the top 10.

“If an experienced coach likecomes on board, it will make a bigdifference,” said Chirag.

“Now we are almost there, it isa matter of 2-3 points, say we are 90percent there and a really good coachlike for example Rexy Mainaky,who is the head coach of Thailandwould give us that extra 10 percent.A high-calibre coach can help us getinto world’s top 3.”

Mainaky, a 1996 Olympic Goldmedallist is one of the famous pairwith other being Ricky Subagja.

Satwik said: “We have coacheslike Dwi Kristiawan and NamrihSuroto, who can make a programfor us. Namrih used to handle uswhen Flandy was not availableand we have been training withDwi too, so they are also well-equipped to help us.” PTI

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Sri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur feels the T20squad needs some adjustments and a method

to win games, ahead of the World Cup later thisyear.

“Our T20 side is still going to take some fine-tuning and this was amplified against a verystrong West Indies team that simply had toomuch power for us,” Arthur said in a chat withSri Lanka Cricket (SLC) media unit.

“I think the most important thing is build-ing a method to win games based on theresources that you have at your disposal and thenmaking sure that the players are under no illu-sion as to what that method is based on ourstrengths,” he said.

Sri Lanka will be looking to add anotherWorld T20 title to their kitty after winning it in2014.

Sri Lanka lost to West Indies in two T20Islast month.

Arthur took over the reins in December andhis toughest test yet awaited in a two-matchhome series against England, but that was calledoff last month due to the coronavirus pandem-ic.

“It was really disappointing not playing theTest series against England although this will beplayed at a later date,” said Arthur, who has alsocoached South Africa, Australia and Pakistan.

“We had just worked out a brand that weknew would be successful against all teams, andI just hope that the momentum that we had builtup will not be lost with our Test team when westart up again,” he said.

“We have some very realistic goals with ourTest team and believe that we have now the play-ers and gameplans to have success both at homeand abroad in the future.”

�.� ����� D����E�� FormerIndia cricketer Yuvraj Singhhas said that Rohit Sharmareminded him of Pakistan leg-end Inzamam-ul-Haq in hisearly days.

The flamboyant India vice-captain made his ODI debut inJune 2007 while his maidenT20 game came during theWC later that year againstEngland, where unfortunatelyhe didn’t get a chance to bat.

Asked about his firstimpression of Rohit, Yuvrajsaid the swashbuckling bats-man seemed like somebodywho had a lot of time to playhis strokes.

“I think when he came intothe Indian team, he looked likesomebody who had a lot of

time,” Yuvraj Singh said duringa YouTube chat show.

“He reminded me ofInzamam-ul-Haq, because,when he batted, Inzi had a lotof time (to play the bowlers).”

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Former Australian bats-man Dean Jones and

Pakistan fast bowling greatWasim Akram noted the tal-ent pool that Pakistan bringsinto cricket, with the latterstating that the country is tothe sport what Brazil is tofootball.

“You’re (Pakistan) thetalent factory. We in Australiaalways used to say thatPakistan have so much talent,it’s just the matter of how youharness it,” Jones said in aninteraction with Wasim.

“Raw talent, it’s like Brazilof cricket,” Wasim said inreply.

Jones noted the innova-tions that Pakistan players,

particularly bowlers, havebrought into cricket over theyears.

“Pakistanis bring differ-ent techniques to internation-al cricket, different attitudes

fast bowlers like yourself(Wasim) and Waqar (Younis),Shoaib (Akhtar), and ofcourse Abdul (Qadir) andMushi (Mushtaq Ahmed)and all these great bowlersthat are coming through evennow,” he said.

Jones noted that whilecricket was always big in thecountry but the team’s dom-inance in the 1980’s and theirvictory in the 1992 WorldCup were important catalysts.

“Cricket is in the DNA,it’s been great for a long timebut really started to turn bigtime in the late 80s whenImran took over, when yourip England apart in front ofa 100 thousand people atMCG (in 1992) was amaz-ing,” he said.

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President Donald Trumpon Saturday said he

believes US sports leagues hitby the coronavirus pandemicwould resume “sooner ratherthan later” but declined to seta timetable for their return.

On a conference call withthe commissioners of themajor professional sportsleagues, Trump told NationalFootball League commission-er Roger Goodell he believedthe season would kick off asscheduled in September.

US sports have beenupended by the coronavirus,with the NBA, Major LeagueBaseball, Major League Soccerand National Hockey Leagueall halting or suspending theirrespective seasons last monthas the pandemic erupted.

“I want fans back in thearenas...whenever we’re ready,”Trump told reporters at aWhite House briefing onSaturday.

“As soon as we can obvi-ously. I can’t tell you a date butI think it’s going to be soonerrather than later.”

Major League Baseballand NBA officials are report-edly studying plans to playgames without spectators atneutral venues to minimisethe risks of infection associat-ed with crowded arenas.

Trump, however, spokeoptimistically of fans eventu-ally being let back into stadi-ums.

“We’re not going to haveseparation for the rest of ourtimes on the planet,” Trumpsaid.

“We need it for this peri-od of time. But eventuallypeople are going to be able tooccupy those seats next toeach other. I’m not commit-ting to it. It would be great ifwe could.”

Long breaks pose big challenge for pacers

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