English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ......ment zones came hours after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ... 39 lakh cash, tradi-tional arms like irons rods, khanda,

�� !�� "#�###��$

� �� %�&��'�� ()��*��$�

��

�� +,-�.,%/'

All eyes will be on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi

when he outlines variousaspects that will regulate thetwo-week extension of theongoing lockdown as agreed inthe meeting with ChiefMinisters on Saturday. TheCommerce Ministry has pre-pared blueprint for opening upof major industries and MSME with requisite healthsafeguards.

Now that the two-weekextension is a mere formality,people will anxiously wait forthe PM’s announcement to seewhat sort of sectoral “openingup”, if any, is facilitated by theGovernment to keep the econ-omy going. Opening up farmsectors to allow harvesting andstorage of standing crops andincentivising sowing could fig-ure in the PM’s speech. Thereis also speculation about lim-ited opening up of civil aviationin some sector as well.

A day before the crucialannouncement by Prime

Minister Narendra Modi on thelockdown, the UnionCommerce Ministry wrote tothe Union Home Ministry onthe need to open several indus-tries and many business sectorswith “precautions” to preventthe spread Covid-19. For loversof liquor there is good news.The Commerce Ministry hassuggested opening up of thatsector too.

The Commerce Ministryhas suggested opening up ofindustries with “single entrypoint for workers” and “keep-ing of social distancing” inwork atmosphere.”

“It is felt that certain activ-ities with reasonable safeguardsshould be allowed once a finaldecision regarding extension

and nature of lockdown istaken by the centralGovernment. These new activ-ities are essential to improve theeconomic activity and provideliquidity in the hands of thepeople. These suggestions havebeen obtained on the basis ofvery detailed interaction ofthe Hon’ble CIM ( Commerceand Industries Minister PiyushGoyal) with various States andindustry bodies, and the feed-back,” said the letter written byDr Guruprasad Mohapatra,Secretary, Department ofPromotion of Industry andInternal Trade, Ministry ofCommerce and Industry toUnion Home Secretary AjayKumar Bhalla.

Continued on Page 2

�� !�� 0 1'

In what is turning out to be anightmare for the health

authorities, 15 more personstested positive for coronavirusin Mumbai’s Dharavi onSunday, taking the total num-ber of infected cases to 43 inAsia’s largest slum.

Of the 15 new infected per-sons, nine have been quaran-tined at the Rajiv GandhiSports Complex. “All thesenine cases are high-risks con-tacts of Social Nagar patientwho died at KEM Hospital andthose who tested positive inMadina Nagar. Four new pos-itive cases have been reportedin Shastri Nagar, while two per-

sons have tested positive inJanata Cooperative Housingsociety,” a BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)official from G/North Ward innorth central Mumbai said.

Of the new cases, two arewomen aged 20 and 24 years.The remaining 13 are malepatients in the age group of 18years and 66 years.

There have been fourCovid-19 deaths in the mostdensely populated slum. Ofthe fatalities, two deaths havebeen reported from Dr BaligaNagar, while one person suc-cumbed to Covid-19 in SocialNagar. The remaining onedeath has been reported fromKalayanwadi.

The break-up of 43 infect-ed cases reported so far includ-ed: Five cases from Dr BaligaNagar, two cases from VaibhavApartments, nine cases fromMukund Nagar, two cases from

Madina Nagar, five cases fromMuslim Nagar, 6 cases fromSocial Nagar, four cases fromJanata Housing Society, twocases from Kalaynwadi andone case each from Dhanwada

Chawl, PMGP colony,Murugan Chawl and RajivGandhi chawl.

Not wanting to take anychances, health workers con-ducted door-to-door screeningof all the Dharavi residents.Simultaneously, a team of localprivate doctors of Dharavi andBMC medical staff checkedthe temperature and enquiredthe residents about their trav-el history. Over 150 doctors,working under the auspices ofIndian Medical Council andMaharashtra Medical Council,have been assisting the BMC inthe screening drive.

The medical teams willreport to the BMC on the num-ber of persons who have shownsymptoms for coronavirus. “Allthose who have symptoms arebeing kept in quarantine,” aBMC officer said.

Continued on Page 2

� �� !�� +,-�.,%/'�

Mahavir Enclave inSouthwest Delhi was on

Sunday identified as the newCovid-19 hotspot by the DelhiGovernment, which ordered itssealing. It has taken the totalnumber of such zones in thecity to 34, an official said.

On Sunday, the total num-ber of Covid-19 cases in thenational Capital climbed to1,154, with 166 fresh casesand five deaths being reportedin a day.

A Government orderexpanding the list of contain-ment zones came hours afterChief Minister Arvind Kejriwalannounced the cityGovernment’s decision to sealevery locality that reports aCovid-19 case.

The Delhi Government’s“Operation SHIELD” will comeinto force in these areas.

All the containment zoneshave been classified as red

zones, areas where movementof people is strictly prohibited.Areas which are seen as high-risk zones are being classifiedas orange.

In both these areas, theGovernment will launch a mas-sive sanitisation drive to min-imise spread of the infection.

Continued on Page 2

�� +,-�.,%/'

Around 88,000 Self HelpGroup (SHGs) women

across the country haveemerged as community war-riors to help contain the spreadof deadly Covid-19. These“unsung” warriors are doingtheir bits by producing masks,Personal Protection Equipment(PPE) and lakhs of litres ofhand sanitisers day and nightfor frontline staff as well ascountless citizens.

Some of them have alsoproduced liquid soaps to helpin keeping hand hygiene as the

country grapples to check thedeadly contagion. There areapproximately 690 lakh womenmembers of around 63 lakh SelfHelp Groups (SHGs) across thecountry.

As the masks are the firstline of defence against COVID-19 and the Government hasmade mandatory wearingmasks in public places, 78,373SHG members under theDeendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural LivelihoodsMission (DAY-NRLM) of theUnion Ministry of RuralDevelopment have taken uponthemselves to produce 1.96

crore masks besides other safe-ty gears.

These are various cate-gories of masks, including 2-3ply woven and non-woven sur-gical masks, cotton masks, etc,which adhere to the advisoriesof Union Health Ministry andMinistry of Consumers’ Affairs.

SHG members have nowalso started making PPE likeaprons, gowns, face shields,said an official from the UnionRural Development Ministry.

“Around 78,373 SHGmembers are presently involvedin manufacturing of masks.Jharkhand SHGs were among

the first to respond and haveproduced about 78,000 maskssince March 22, 2020. Thesemasks were being sold at thepremises of various districtcollectorates and subsidisedmedical stores at an affordableprice of �10,” said the officer.

Continued on Page 2

�� +,-�.,%/'

Amedium-intensity earthquake shookDelhi-NCR on Sunday at 5.45 pm. The

3.5 magnitude tremor with epicentre locat-ed at Latitude 28.7N and Longitude 77.2E ata depth of 8 kilometre in Northeast Delhiprompted panic-stricken people to rushout of their homes.

“The earthquake’s epicentre was inWazirabad in Northeast Delhi at the depthof 8 kilometres,” said JL Gautam, Head(Operations), National Centre for Seismology(NCS). The tremors were also felt in neigh-bouring Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad.There was no immediate report of any dam-age. An earthquake of magnitude 2.8 had hitthe national capital in 2004.

Another quake of magnitude 3.4 was

recorded in the city in 2001. Soon after the earthquake, humour took

the stage on social media with people.Joining other tweeples was Delhi’s DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodia.

“Wasn’t coronavirus enough that anearthquake had to occur too,” Sisodia tweet-ed in Hindi.

�� &/1+.'213/4�15'1%1

Agroup of “Nihangs” (Sikhsarmed with traditional

weapons and dressed in looseblue top) chopped off a policeofficer’s hand and injured threeother Punjab policemen afterbeing stopped from violatingthe lockdown in Patiala district,triggering a police operation inwhich shots were fired and 11people arrested at a gurdwara.

In a late night information,doctors at the Chandigarh’sPGIMER reattached the 50-year-old ASI’s hand after anover seven-hour long surgery,officials said.

As many 11 people, includ-ing a woman, were arrestedfrom a local Gurdwara afterexchange of fire in connectionwith the attack on the policeparty at Patiala vegetable mar-ket in the morning, where thegroup fled after the 6.15 amincident in Sanaur town.

One of the arrested mensuffered gunshot wound, whilea mandi official was also hurtearlier. “We have recoveredarms, �39 lakh cash, tradi-tional arms like irons rods,khanda, bhaale (javelin), andcannabis during the raid on thegurudwara. Weapons, includ-ing guns and petrol bombs,

have also been recovered fromthe hideout,” said Patiala’sSenior Superintendent of Police(SSP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu.

Video clips regarding theincident have been doing therounds on the social media,attracting criticism from allover the country, cutting acrossparty lines.

Strongly condemning theattack, Chief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh has warnedthat anyone violating the cur-few, imposed in the State sinceMarch 23 to check the spreadof Covid-19 pandemic, wouldbe strictly dealt with.

Continued on Page 2

�� +,-�.,%/'

After weeks of ceasefire onpolitical front, the

Congress on Sunday went onoffensive against the ModiGovernment, accusing it ofdelaying the nationwide lock-down just to topple the MadhyaPradesh Government.

Former Madhya PradeshChief Minister Kamal Nathalleged that senior party leaderRahul Gandhi at various plat-forms, including social media,had indicated the threat posed

by Covid-19 early Februaryonwards, but the BJP-ledCentre’s entire machinery andenergy was dedicated to pushMP into political crisis.

One-and-a-half-year-oldKamal Nath Government hadto make way for Shivraj SinghChouhan after severalCongress MLAs defected to theBJP last month when seniorCongress leader JyotiradityaScindia quit the grand oldparty to join the BJP.

“Madhya Pradesh is theonly State which has no Health

Minister and no HomeMinister...Shivraj SinghChouhan took oath as ChiefMinister on March 23, and thelockdown began a day later,”Nath said at an AICC mediabriefing. “Rahul ji had onFebruary 2 drawn the attentionof the Government to thethreat posed by coronavirus.However, the Centre delayedaction because it was moreinterested in toppling theGovernment in MadhyaPradesh,” he said.

Continued on Page 2

�� +,-�.,%/'

Nearly 20 per cent of theCovid-19 positive cases

need ICU support in the coun-try. This has put acute pressureon the health officials tomobilise ventilators and otherlife-saving support equipment.

Addressing the daily Pressbriefing here on Sunday, UnionHealth Ministry Joint SecretaryLav Agarwal said that on March29, India had 979 positive casesand 196 needed critical care andoxygen. That time, 41,900 ded-icated Covid beds were avail-able in 163 State-run hospitals.

“On April 4, when werequired 580 beds, we had67,500 beds, on April 9, 1,100beds were required but therewere 85,000 beds available inthe country,” he said.

Agarwal said as on SundayIndia has 8,356 positive casesand of these 20 per cent casesneed ICU support. “Thatmeans today 1,671 patients

need oxygen support and crit-ical care treatment, and we have1,05,000 dedicated Covid bedsavailable in the country in 601hospitals. This figure is impor-tant to show that theGovernment is planning thingsin advance and is over pre-pared, he said.

In addition, theGovernment is also increasingthe number of dedicated Covidhospitals and isolation facilitiesas per the evolving situationsand precautionary measuresbecause this is a pandemic

and number can be exponen-tial. Our effort is to takeadvanced steps, he said.

India, which is into theworld’s biggest lockdown tocombat spreading of the high-ly contagious pathogen, onSunday reported an increase of909 cases, taking the country’stotal number of coronaviruscases to 8,356 by Sunday morn-ing. The number rose to 9,205late on Sunday and States werestill reporting.

Agarwal said, “This is apandemic and numbers can be

exponential. Our effort is totake advanced steps.”

“A total of 8,356 positivecases have been reported in thecountry. At least 909 new casesand 34 deaths have been record-ed in 24 hours. A good news isthat 74 people have been curedin the last 24 hours taking thetotal number of cured people to716. Total 273 deaths have beenreported so far.”

About the preparations,Agarwal said the Governmenthas identified 14 institutes,including AIIMS andNIMHANS, to mentor medicalcolleges and expand Covid-19testing capacity.

Agarwal said AIIMS Delhiis now equipped with 250 bedsincluding 50 ICU beds, andhigh dependent units attachedwith beds, and 70 ventilators.

In Safdarjung Hospital, onecomplete block has been con-verted into Covid block and has500 beds. “We have provided1,680 beds to Andhra Pradesh.As on today there were 148ventilators available, we pro-vided 444 additional ventila-tors. One special medical offi-cer is appointed in every State.”

Continued on Page 2

��

� 5��16��7�� !�� 7�� $�'��7��8�9��""��7��:��9��8��

� -��;��<��/�� !�� 7� ��=��3��.�� >��$�.��?

� 5��7��&@A'.!"B��7��5��+��7�� B#�

� 1�C:!��!��7��*��2��+��D��$�/��.��%=

�� !�"��

#�� $��#%%�� &��

��

�� '

��

�� !��"��##��#��$��%�#�&$ #�"��

'(�#��#��")��#��

� ��

��!��

�� ! �� !�� "��# �$

%�� !�� %�� $�� #� ��%�� "��# $&'

$�� (��)�� !�� "��# $&'

��*��+�� +��$�� ,�� %� �(�� !�� "��# $&'

�#��%#�"�� *��#��)#�#�+��,�� #�� (�� ,��(��

E5��.�� 7�� $��4��-��

��

�.�/0�1��1�'1�1=��,,�-@3�5�,&@+@'&�,3F@31+&,�'+�G#�=,13��-

��$��4��4

H%��&�� "#�C#��$$�% "#:H1��,>��1��7��

��7��F��.,%/'��%0&)+@- /@�1%�� /0 1+,�-13

31+&/'�31'�03 &/1+.'213/�.,/31.0+ /=.,31 1.�A'�1=-1.1

�$&�'"($)%��*+,-�� !"��#$%��

�� *.��/0/01�� !��*/��.

�.�,�,.��25/,�,�5=�

�)=

�.34�5&)@/%'�&1+� ,�&@�13,.-'5/�)1�'%��3'))1+5/

��

161�� *�78��(��&8�(��#�+��)��1�+��#��#

�� !�"#"# ��

�� !��"��#�� $��%&&'''(� ��)#��*��$(&'�(&&!��%�+��,-��.�/��0��123!-3�413�/��(�''/��0��0��5��0��6 �71�6�� !��0��#��7��0��8��$�� 9��0/�1�:%;'<=;&''�(+<==(<&%<;�>?<&(+;(<&��*�� @��0;��A��!��!��#��A�B �3��*�� %((�'&��9��0'=((%(+;�;;+�(+;�;;;�(+;�;;=�

�� !��"�� #�� $��%��&�� '�� "��(��

New Delhi: The Azadpurmandi, the largest wholesalefruit and vegetable market inthe country, has decided tointroduce odd-even rules fromMonday to maintain social dis-tancing in the wake of thecoronavirus outbreak.

It has also been decided tostagger timings — 6 am to 11am for sale of vegetables and 2pm to 6 pm for sale of fruits —at the mandi.

The decisions were takenfollowing reports that social dis-tancing rules were not beingfollowed at the mandi, whichspreads over 80 acres.

Adil Ahmad Khan, chair-man of the AgriculturalProduce Marketing Committee(APMC), Azadpur, said thereare 22 big sheds under whichhundreds of traders sell veg-etables and a huge number ofpeople visit the market on adaily basis.

"Under the odd-even rules,we will allow all the 22 sheds tooperate according to their num-bers. For instance, on an evendate, even-numbered shedssuch as 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 will beallowed to function.

"This will help us maintainsocial distancing in the marketin view of the COVID-19 out-break" Khan told PTI.

Odd-even rules may also beimplemented at other wholesalemarkets of the national capital.

Delhi DevelopmentMinister Gopal Rai has calleda meeting of officials of all thewholesale markets on Mondayto discuss ways to ensure socialdistancing in the mandis.

Khan said the traders havealso been told that only onetruck per trader will be allowedinside the Azadpur mandi.

Until now, a trader wouldtake three-four trucks inside themandi, shrinking the space forothers.

According to Khan, APMCAzadpur has also directed itsofficials to ensure effectivesocial distancing and mask-wearing at the mandi.

The number of coronaviruscases mounted to 1,069 in thenational capital on Saturday,with 166 fresh cases and fivedeaths reported in a day.

Of the total cases, 712 werebrought to hospitals throughspecial operations. PTI

.$��9��#��%#�"�� New Delhi: Sitting near the

mud stove in her makeshiftsemi-pukka house on the banksof the Yamuna, Rani Das is won-dering what if the lockdown isextended. Does she have enoughration to feed her family?

For now, she has enoughrice, flour and sugar which willhelp them have two meals eachday for another week.

Rani''s family is one amongsuch 140 households in theHindu Refugee camp nearGurudwara Majnu Ka Tila. Mostof them fled their homes inPakistan, escaping discrimina-tion and religious persecution,and came to India between2011 and 2013.

"But there is very little oflentils and vegetables left. Thereis no money, so there is no gas.The policemen are not letting uscollect firewood from the banksof the river," Rani says, as sheflips a sugar-stuffed roti on thehotplate.

"We don''t have fodder forour famished cows. Earlier, we

would collect it from the jungle.Now, even that is now alloweddue to the lockdown," she says,adjusting the only small wood-en log inside the ‘chulha'' to keepthe fire burning.

Rani''s daughter-in-lawJamuna is pregnant with her firstchild and has been eating justtwo meals a day – mostly sugar-stuffed roti or rice with salt and‘green chutney''.

Her neighbour, Gomti, 52,says a few people came to themwith cooked food but the resi-dents of the camp did not takeit, fearing it might spread thecoronavirus in the locality.

"How do we know it issafe? We do not have a machine,which they show on television,to ascertain if it has the virus,"she says. Gomti says her familywill choose to have "noon-roti"(salt and roti) or die of starva-tion, rather than get infected.

"We saw it on mobile phone,even the families of those dyingdue to coronavirus do not acceptthe bodies and cremation

grounds return them," she says.Dharamveer, 42, the

‘Pradhan'' or community repre-sentative, says most men in thecamp earn their living doing oddjobs. "All the daily wagers, agri-cultural labourers, and thosewho sell mobile covers on theroadside are out of work," hesays. "Some people came herewith cooked food but we did notaccept it. We can cook our foodon our own. All we need is thatcredible government agenciesgive us dry ration," Dharamveer,who has been leading the fightfor India citizenship for com-munity members, says.

He says families have beenbathing and washing clotheswithout any soap. "There is nosoap. How do we wash ourhands? We have been wearingthe same clothes for 3-4 days onthe trot," he says. Dharamveersays the policemen had beenasking them not to go to veg-etable markets or even to thewheat fields across the Yamunato find some work. PTI

- ��.�� #�� , ��

New Delhi: The current situ-ation across the globe due toCOVID-19 pandemic remindsfirebrand writer TaslimaNasreen of her days as a doc-tor treating patients during thecholera outbreak inBangladesh in the early 90s.

"I was practising at thattime and did not use glovesand masks while giving salinedoses to hundreds of patientseveryday as I found it uncom-fortable wearing them.Fortunately I didn't get anyinfection. However, thisCOVID-19 is very contagious

and it's a pandemic. All pre-cautions are a must," says theBangladeshi-Swedish writer of"Lajja" fame who has been liv-ing in exile since 1994.

"The current situationreminds me of the time whenI too worked to save peoplefrom cholera epidemic in theearly 90s. I worked in an infec-tious disease hospital inMymensingh where thousandsof patients used to come everyday and I treated them," shetold PTI in an interview.

The cholera epidemic inBangladesh in 1991 affected

around 2,25,000 people andclaimed over 8,000 lives.

"I feel very proud of themedical fraternity across theworld working tirelessly. Theyare risking their lives to savehumanity. Some of myacquaintances also died inNew York fighting coron-avirus," Nasreen says. She stud-ied medicine at MymensinghMedical College and graduat-ed in 1984. Daughter of aphysician father, she worked atDhaka Medical College hospi-tal but had to quit due to herfeminist writing. PTI

+�� /�� #��#�� (0��1�&��

Kathmandu: Three Indiannationals, who entered Nepalfrom India for a religious massgathering and were staying at amosque in the southern part ofthe country, have tested positivefor the novel coronavirus, thehealth ministry here said onSunday.

The three Indian men, aged37, 44 and 55 years, were stayingat the mosque in Birgunj city, 135kilometres south of the capitalKathmandu, due to the nation-wide lockdown which has beenimposed till April 15 to containthe spread of the deadly coron-avirus in the country, theMinistry of Health andPopulation said. With the threefresh cases, the total number ofinfections in the country hasgone up to 12. The three Indiannationals had reportedly enteredNepal for a religious mass gath-ering held in Saptari district inMarch in which hundreds ofpeople from Nepal and Indiaparticipated. According to alocal media report, the Indian

nationals are local religious headsand had taken part in a TabligiJamaat congregation in Delhibefore entering Nepal in March.

At least 9,000 people partic-ipated in the religious congre-gation in Nizamuddin lastmonth, which has become thebiggest hotspot for the spread ofthe coronavirus in India.

The three Indian nationals,who tested for positive, areundergoing treatment and theircondition is normal, said theHealth Ministry. The ministryhas also dispatched a team totrace people who came in con-tact with the three infected per-sons. The local administrationhas put 26 people, who wereresiding in the mosque, underquarantine. The NepalGovernment decided to extendthe nationwide lockdown at aCabinet meeting held on April 6after the country entered into thesecond phase of the coronavirusoutbreak with the first case oflocally transmitted person con-firmed in Western Nepal. PTI

(�!�� )� ��

From Page 1He also added that 9,000

beds were identified by theArmy and 7,000 beds are avail-able in military hospitals.Waterproof tents are also avail-able in far flung areas and twopatients can be kept in one tent,he said. On being asked aboutresurgence in COVID19 cases inlast few days in China, Japan andKorea, Agarwal said, “It is a causeof concern for us too, so we needto make sure that we continue tofollow our containment andsocial distancing measures likewe are following today.”According to the health experts,COVID-19’s immediate assaulton the body is extensive. It tar-gets the lungs, but a lack of oxy-

gen and widespread inflamma-tion can also damage the kid-neys, liver, heart, brain, andother organs. According to areview ‘Intensive care manage-ment of coronavirus disease2019 (COVID-19): challengesand recommendations’ pub-lished in the Lancet Journal(Respiratory Medicine), as thepandemic spreads across theworld, the intensive care unit(ICU) community must pre-pare for the challenges associat-ed with it. It stressed that stream-lining of workflows for rapiddiagnosis and isolation, clinicalmanagement, and infection pre-vention. Management of acuterespiratory failure and haemo-dynamics is key, it said.

Amid the spike in the num-ber COVID-19 cases, the IndianCouncil of Medical Research

(ICMR) said that in the last fivedays, the average number of15,747 samples have been test-ed per day. The average numberof samples which tested positivedaily is 584. More than 40 vac-cines are under development butnone has reached the next stage.As of now, there is no vaccine,said Dr Manoj Murhekar, sci-entist from ICMR. Across theworld, the total number of coro-navirus cases has crossed 1.8lakh. With over 5 lakh cases, theUS has been the worst affectedcountry, followed by Spain (1.63lakh), Italy (1.52 lakh), France(1.3 lakh) and Germany (1.25lakh). The mortality across theworld has risen to over 1 lakh. Inthe US, the toll has crossed20,000, followed by Italy (19,468),Spain (16,606) and France(13,832).

From Page 1From the country’s eastern

region, 853 SHGs involving 2516rural women of Chhattisgarh,have supplied thousands ofmasks, while in Odisha, SHGshave manufactured more than amillion masks for distribution ofamong common people.

In Andhra Pradesh, 2254groups of 13 sub-blocks of thedistrict have followed the guide-lines of government for themanufacturing of cloth facemasks.

Similarly, Karnataka ruralself-help groups have produced1.56 lakh face masks just in 12days.

Northern Goa district ruraldevelopment agency throughthe help of SHGs has supplied

2,000 masks across the State. Tocater the increased demand ofmasks, Himachal Pradesh SHGswith 2000 women members areproducing masks.

Similarly, SHG membersare also manufacturing PPEincluding aprons, gowns, faceshields etc. Around 5000 PPEkits have been manufactured sofar by SHGs in various Statesincluding Madhya Pradesh,Himachal Pradesh, Punjab andKarnataka. Punjab SRLMreported supply of 500 aprons toCivil Surgeon, Kapurthala whileMeghalaya reported supply of200 face shields to districtMedical Health officer.Karnataka reported productionof 125 face shields. SRLMs ofMeghalaya, Jharkhand,Karnataka, Himachal Pradeshand Punjab have reported pro-

duction of face shields, gowns bythe SHG members. The officerfurther said the micro-enter-prises supported by DAY-NRLMhave taken up the production ofhand sanitisers and hand washproducts to ensure the availabil-ity in rural areas. Around 900SHG enterprises in 9 States haveproduced 1.15 lakh litres ofsanitisers with the production inthe three States of Tamil Nadu,Madhya Pradesh and AndhraPradesh exceeding 25,000 litreseach. Similarly, around 900 SHGenterprises located across theStates of Andhra Pradesh,Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand,Kerala, Manipur, MadhyaPradesh, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu,Uttar Pradesh and Mizoram areproducing sanitisers to feedsoaring demand, the officeradded.

From Page 1“The police personnel are

risking their lives to save thepeople of Punjab and any attackon them would not be tolerat-ed,” he said while directing theState Director General of Police(DGP) to come down heavilyon those trying to disturb thelaw and order of the state at thisdifficult time.

One of the viral video clipsshows the Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Harjeet Singhseeking help after the “Nihang”(members of a Sikh sect whoseadherents carry traditionalarms and wear blue robes) sev-ered his hand with a sword. Aman picks up the severed hand

and gives it to the officer whowas then taken away from thescene of incident on a two-wheeler.

The ASI was then rushed toRajindra Hospital, from wherehe was referred to the PGIMER,Chandigarh, where he under-went seven-and-a-half hourlong “successful” surgery, andwill stay under observation.

With curfew restrictionsin place amidst the COVID-19outbreak, the police has put upbarricades outside the whole-sale market and entry wasrestricted to those having cur-few passes.

“About four-five Nihangsarrived in an SUV and were toldto stop by the mandi officials.They were asked to show cur-few passes. But they rammedthe vehicle against the gate andthe barricades,” said the SSP.

“The Nihangs were spottedby the Mandi Board of the localvegetable market when theywere trying to enter the marketwithout passes. The assailantsfirst thrashed the Mandi Boardemployees and then a scufflebroke out between them andthe nearby police officers whohad rushed to the scene. Duringthe confrontation, the culpritstook out their swords andchopped off the hand of ASIHarjeet Singh while the SHOSadar Singh and ASI Raj Singhsustained injuries on their armsand legs,” said the governmentspokesperson.

After the attack, the menfled to the Gurudwara KhichdiSahib, managed by them inBalbera village around 25 kmfrom Patiala city, while beingchased by the police. Seniorpolice officers, including the

SSP, then arrived at the sceneand sent additional police forcesto nab the culprits.

The accused were nabbedafter the police party, led by IGPatiala Range Jatinder Aulakhand SSP Sidhu, were fired uponfrom inside the Nihang DeraComplex which also housesKhichdi Sahib Gurudwara.

“The operation followedseveral hours of stand-off andmany rounds of appeals andnegotiations led by Patiala SSPwith the Dera Head BabaBalwinder Singh to surrenderwith their weapons and swordsbut the Nihangs refused tosurrender. One Nihang,Nirbhav Singh, suffered aninjury in the incident, wasimmediately rushed to PatialaHospital,” said the spokesper-son.

Giving details of the entire

incident, DGP Gupta said theaccused had set up morchasinside the Dera Complex andhad placed LPG cylinders,along the Dera perimeter andwere getting ready to set-offblasts to cause injuries to thepolice party, which was sur-rounded by the police party thatchased them.

Despite repeatedannouncements from the pub-lic address system, they refusedto surrender and, instead,abused the police and threat-ened them with serious conse-quences if they tried to comecloser.

The police then persuadedthe Sarpanch and some villagersto go in and persuade the mento come out but they failed.Soon thereafter, the police partyheard loud shouts and noisesfrom inside the gurdwara

premises, suggesting that someinnocent people and hostageswithin might have got caught inthe trouble, according to theDGP.

A Patiala Police team led byIG Patiala and SSP Patiala,along with a team of the SpecialOperations Group (SOG), ledby ADGP Rakesh Chandra,then moved into the premises,followed “to flush out the rogueband of nihang criminals”.

A few shots were fired bythe accused at the police per-sonnel before they were nabbed,said the DGP, adding that entireoperation was handled deli-cately so that the maryada andsanctum sanctorum of theGurdwara Sahib was not dis-turbed in any manner.

“The accused included thefive persons involved in thebrutal attack on the Punjab

Police team posted at the veg-etable market in Sanaur early onSunday morning. They hadcrashed through a series ofbarricades and attacked thepolice personnel who inquiredabout their curfew passes, saidthe DGP Gupta, adding thatBaba Balwinder Singh, theNihang Head, was the mainperpetrator of the attack on thepolice party at the Patiala SabziMandi this morning. He cameto the market with four otherpersons, in a Tata Xenon vehi-cle.

DGP said a huge cache ofweapons as well as hand-heldweapons, such as barchhe andkirpans, and some used car-tridges were seized from theaccused, in addition to twopetrol bombs and LPG cylin-ders, five bags of poppy huskmixed with sulpha, other drugs

in commercial quantity and Rs39 lakhs in cash. Some bottleswith chemical substances werealso found inside the premises.

ASI Harjit Singh, whosehand was reportedly cut offwith a sword during the attackat the vegetable mandi, hasundergone a plastic surgery atPGI Chandigarh for suturingback his hand, where he wasrushed after the incident, saidthe DGP.

Besides, Sadar Patiala SHOInspector Bikkar Singh alsosuffered sharp weapon injurieson his left arm, leg and back,ASI Raj Singh was inflicted asharp weapon injury on his leftleg, and ASI Raghbir Singh hadgot blunt injuries on his body.In addition, a Mandi Board offi-cial AR Yadwinder Singh alsosuffered some minor injuries inthis attack.

From Page 1Meanwhile, the Mumbai

Police personnel are usingdrones to monitor the move-ment of people in the congest-ed lanes of Dharavi.

In a related development,the police and health authori-ties are enforcing the lockdownmeasures strictly in Asia’slargest slum.

Following the total lock-down, the movement of peoplehas come down drastically onthe roads, while all shops andestablishments, fruit/vegetablemarkets or vendors, hawkers,etc, have been shut down, bar-ring medical stores in Dharavi.

On its part, the BMCauthorities have identified 10hotspots within Dharavi, whichis spread over 240-hectare area,and are maintaining vigilanceon matters relating to health inthe area. There are 60,000 to70,000 families (more threelakh people) in Dharavi.

Dharavi has several busi-ness units -- right from textilesto pottery to fabrication toleather industry. Plastic recy-cling and garbage segregationtoo is done here. Mainly a hubof cottage industries, it has anestimated 5,000 business enti-ties and 15,000 single-roomfactories.

From Page 1The new areas notified are:

Gali No 5 & 5A, H-2 Block,Bengali Colony, MahavirEnclave, New Delhi, H No 811to 829 and 842 to 835 - KhaddaColony, Jaitpur, Extension ,Part-II1, H No 1144 to 1134 and 618to 623 - Khadda Colony, Jaitpur,Extension , Part-II, Gali No 16,Kachhi Colony, MadanpurKhadar, Extension , MehelaMohalla, Madanpur Khadar, H-Block, Near Umar Masjid, AbuFazal Enclave, E-Block, AbuFazal Enclave H No 97 to 107and H No 120-127 Kailash Hills,East of Kailash, E-Block (E-284to E-294) East of Kailash ; H. No.53 to 55 & 25, Shera Mohalla,Garhi, East of Kailash.

Recently, Delhi HealthMinister Satyendar Jain hadsaid the hard work of the healthofficials and the successfulimplementation of “OperationSHIELD” has made DilshadGarden a coronavirus-free area.

No new cases were report-ed from Dilshad Garden in thelast 10 days, the Governmenthad said.

From Page 1He said Parliament con-

tinued to function despite thefact several State Assembliesadjourned in view of thespread of COVID-19. Thiswas done so that it could besaid that if Parliament couldfunction, the Madhya PradeshAssembly, which wasadjourned by the Speaker,could also be convened.

On the current situation inMadhya Pradesh with regardto coronavirus, Nath said thatat such a crucial juncture,Chouhan is functioning with-out a Cabinet. “The

Constitution clearly says thatthere shall be a Council ofMinisters. Vivek Tankha isabsolutely right in pointing outthe crisis in Madhya Pradeshto the president. Since March23, when the situation withregard to Covid-19 is so seri-ous, there is no Cabinet. It isakin to making a joke of thepeople,” he said.

He said that soon after theWHO declared COVID-19 apandemic, his Governmenthad closed down all schools,colleges and malls.

Nath said the situationwas grim in MP with around

45 officials of the HealthDepartment, including thePrincipal Secretary, Healththemselves getting infected.

He raised the issue of inad-equate testing in MadhyaPradesh, saying for every 10lakh people, barely 25 or 30people were being tested. Healso said that testing wasfocused only on the urbanareas, and the rural areas werebeing ignored.

“What is a matter of con-cern is that the figures are forurban areas and not for ruralareas. People have come backfrom adjoining States and goneto their villages. We have noidea if they have brought anyinfection with them and howmany people they might havefurther infected,” he said.

On the political develop-

ments in the State, he saidmajority of the 22 MLAs whohave switched over to the BJPwill find it difficult to get re-elected. “They will have to facethe people in the end. Alltheir life, they criticised theBJP, and now they will go tothe people carrying BJP flags,”the former CM said.

Nath added there will alsobe dissatisfaction in the BJPwith regard to the newinductees as the leaders of thesaffron party will feel thattheir turf is being encroachedupon. “My sympathy is withShivraj. I wonder how he willrun a Government whichincludes 10-12 Ministers whoin the past used to criticisehim. He will now sit in theCabinet with the same people,”he said.

��(�� ":::

)�� '��*�� +++

�� !��"�:::

&6;�<�:::

'(�#��#��:::

5�"�#�(��::: �� :::From Page 1

The letter follows withthree page annexure of what allindustries to be opened andwhat all precautions to betaken. Commerce Ministrysuggested that Industriesshould be allowed to operate inshifts with 25-30 percent staffin each shift with proper socialdistancing, santisation meth-ods for the staffers and premis-es. The Ministry also suggest-ed that District level authori-ties must inspect on the work-ing of the industries and checkon the adherence of the rulesto prevent the Covid-19 pan-demic.

The Commerce Ministrysuggested that big companiesand MSMEs and export ori-ented units must be opened.The Ministry also said thatvehicle movements would beopened up with checking andfactories must be asked totransport the staffers. Theopening of telecom and alliedsectors, fiber cable manufac-turing, heavy electrical items,compressors, steel, defence,cement, pulp, timber, glassfertilizer, agro and agro chem-ical, paints, dyes, automotive,gems, jewellery, special eco-nomic zones were suggested ythe Ministry.

A positive interpretation ofPM’s remark “Jaan bhi, jahanbhi” has already led to opti-mism that the second phase ofthe lockdown may witnessgraded opening up of activitiesin other sectors such as con-

struction, road and industrialactivities. Thw Governmenthas already allowed fishingactivities on the sea side in cer-tain States.

The Prime Minister hasalready suggested specific mea-sures for agriculture and alliedsector, including the modifi-cation of Agriculture ProduceMarket Committee (APMC)laws to facilitate sale of farmproduce. He said the crisis wasan opportunity to become self-reliant and turn the nation intoan economic powerhouse.

On Saturday while inter-acting with Chief Ministers viavideo conferencing in his thirdsuch meeting, Modi hinted atthe need to strike a balancebetween saving lives and reviv-ing economic activity.Suggestion to a phased open-ing of air service is also under-stood to have been given buthealth experts have apparent-

ly not approved it.It is understood that while

senior officials agree on theimportance of the lockdown tosave Indian lives, they want eco-nomic activity to be revived asports are jammed with con-tainers and major port citiessuch as Mumbai and Chennaiare hit by the pandemic. In thebackdrop of the PrimeMinister’s assertion to strike abalance between “lives andlivelihood”, the Governmentmay move towards a “smartlockdown” -with severe restric-tions in affected districts, andpartial lifting of restrictions inunaffected districts, along withthe opening up of some sectorsto meet the economic challenge.

The Government may alsobe considering demarcatingthe country into three zones -red, yellow and green -depending on the scale of theCovid-19 outbreak.

Maharashtra ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeraypointed out the challengesmigrant workers were facing asindustries did not have themoney to provide for theirwages and shelter interminably.He wanted the Centre’s assis-tance to facilitate the harvest ofcrops and grain procurement,relaxing of the FRBM (FiscalResponsibility and BudgetManagement) Act cap of 3 percent fiscal deficit to 4-5 percent, release of MNREGAfunds to pay wages to workers,and also their share of GSTcompensation.

The construction of high-ways may be also exemptedfrom the total shutdown.According to sources, areaswhich are away from the urbancentres and where there havebeen minimal to zero Covid-19 cases may be exemptedfrom the lockdown and con-struction activity of roadsshould be allowed as it isessential for any economy.

It is believed that theMaharashtra Government mayallow the construction of itsmarquee project --Maharashtra SamruddhiMahamarg, an expresswayconnecting Mumbai andNagpur. The expressway onceconstructed would be 701 kilo-metres long and will includeeight lanes - four on each side.

The Ministry of RoadTransport and Highways andthe National HighwaysAuthority of India (NHAI)are also in discussions withvarious States to evaluate thesituation on the ground.According to an official, someStates and districts had soughtpermission to start road con-struction work where the den-sity of population is low. Theyhad also said the guidelines ofsocial distancing would befollowed to commence theprojects. It is also learnt thatdistricts and States will not bein a position to sustain theexpenditure on the stay ofmigrant labour so they couldinstead be used for construc-tion activity.

� ��

�� +,-�.,%/'

The Delhi Police on Sundayregistered over 250 cases

and detained 3,462 peopleacross the national Capital forviolating Government ordersduring the coronavirus lock-down.

According to the datashared by the police, 278 caseswere registered under section188 (for disobedience to orderduly promulgated by publicservant) of the Indian PenalCode (IPC) till 5pm.

Police said that a total of3,462 people have beendetained under section 65 (per-sons bound to comply with rea-sonable directions of policeofficers) and 479 vehicles havebeen impounded under section66 of the Delhi Police Act.

“The police also registered121 cases against people forstepping outside their resi-dence without wearing masks.A total of 432 movement pass-es have been issued,” policesaid.

Since March 24, over75,000 people have beendetained so far for violatingorder under section 65 of theDelhi Police Act.

However, On Sunday DelhiPolice received over 700 callson their 24x7 helpline numberto resolve issues related to

lockdown. Police said that total18,220 number of calls receivedby police till Sunday on theirhelpline 011-23469526.

“Police received 771 callsfrom Saturday 2 pm to Sunday2 pm. Out of 828, around 60calls were related to outsideDelhi, which have beenreferred to respective statehelpline numbers. A total of 25calls were received related to nofood/no money, which havebeen forwarded to NGO fordirect relief at their addresses,”said police.

“While four calls werereceived regarding medicalissues and have been resolvedthrough proper guidance toproceed in case of such emer-gencies while 555 calls wererelated to movement passes andwere advised to apply online onwebsite of Delhi Police,” saidpolice.

The move comes followingnationwide restrictions due tocomplete lockdown imposedacross the country to containCoronavirus.

�� +,-�.,%/'

In the wake of coronavirus out-break, New Delhi Municipal

Council (NDMC) has opened aunique 24×7 flu corner at theCharak Palika Hospital (CPH)to check patients complaining offever and other related symp-toms.

The flu center has beendeveloped by the NDMC atMoti Bagh in New Delhi. It hasa glass barrier to avoid humantouch between Health CareProvider ( HCP ) and patient.

A senior NDMC officialsaid that this flu corner willensure protection to the health-care providers (doctors andother medical staff) besides sav-ing personal protective equip-ment (PPE) used to check coro-navirus affected person.

“The design involves a tem-porary structure made of canvaswith a glass partition. The glasspartition with microphone facil-ity provides effective protec-tion at the time of patient inter-action with the healthcareprovider,” he said.

The official further saidthat the flu corner is construct-ed in an open area, away fromthe main Charak Palika Hospitalwithin its premises. “A CCTVcamera is installed at the flu cor-ner which is connected with theCentral Control and CommandCentre (CCC) under the smartcity mission,” he added.

�� +,-�.,%/'

The Food, supplies andconsumer affairs depart-

ment of Delhi Governmenthas written a letter to SpecialCommissioner of Police,Crime Branch to lodging anFirst Information Report(FIR) against a ‘fake website’indulged in cheating people inthe name of issuing Ration

Card.According to the letter

issued on April 11, an officialcommunication was receivedfrom the office of Delhi’sMinister for Food and Supplyalong with two screen shotsand one link stating that afake website(https://rationcardagent.co.in/digital-ration-card-applica-tion/ ) has been created bymiscreants for registering dig-

ital ration card and asking forRs 407.

“As per Section 2 (16) ofNational Food Security Act2013 Ration Card “means adocument issued under anorder or authority of the StateGovernment for the purchaseof essential commodities fromthe fair price shops under thetargeted public distributionsystem”.

As mentioned above only

government and governmentalone are competent to issueration card and there is noenabling provision under lawto authorise any agent to issueration card,” stated the letter.

“It is not only a case ofcheating the common manbut also amounts to fraudu-lently and dishonestly cheat-ing him with an intention tohave wrongful gains. Besides,it is also a fraud on govern-

ment. Further, the depart-ment is undertaking relief tothe people in midst of Covid19 Lockdown period andpoor and needy are beingprovided ration free of cost,”it further reads.

“Cheating the public andplaying fraud on theGovernment at this junctureindicates as to how the mis-creants are indulging in fraudand violation of law,” it

added..“It is requested that nec-

essary directions may kindlybe issued in the matter forimmediate registration of FIR,investigating the matter onpriority, and arrest of mis-creants as per due process oflaw and under relevant pro-visions and sections of law.The department may kindlybe appraised regarding actiontaken in the matter,” it said.

�� +,-�.,%/'

The Delhi Police on Sundaysaid the suppliers and buyers

at Keshopur Mandi, one of thelargest fruit and vegetables mar-ket in West Delhi, have beenstrictly directed to maintiansocial distancing and function asper time restriction to containthe spread of coronavirus.

According to police, thetraders are allowed to functionfrom 5 am to 12 noon and localbuyers are allowed to visit mandifrom 12 pm to 7 pm only.

“Commercial vehicle arenot allowed to be parked after avalidated period. To ensure strictadherence of directions, twoInspectors with one platoon oflocal police and one company ofoutside force have been deployedon daily basis” said DeepakPurohit, the DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP),west district.

“The strong pickets havebeen erected to restrict entry ofunauthorised persons on theroad facing the mandi. Vendorshave been made to arrange fruitand vegetables at proper distance.Authorities have been requestedto remove stray animals fromMandi. It has been decided toclose Mandi for two days for thepurpose of sanitisation,” saidthe DCP, adding that the police

teams will also do verification ofvendors and buyers before entry.

“Proper marking signs havebeen made to ensure social dis-tancing while banners andposters have been placed atlocations to create awarenessabout the directed instruction inthe wake of corinavirus pan-demic. Public AnnouncementSystem is being used to reiter-ate instructions to the visitors atthe mandi. The police have alsodeployed volunteers to ensureobservance of regulations.Besides, 20 Civil Defence per-sonnel have been also beendeployed to ensure all directivesare followed,” said the DCPadding that no vehicle is allowedto enter without valid entry passand action will be taken againstviolators.

The police are also usingdrone surveillance in otherwholesale vegatable markets,including Azadpur and Gazipur,to ensure all directives are beingfollowed.

In south Delhi, the MehrauliSabzi Mandi has been shifted tobus terminal in order to ensuresocial distancing.

According to Atul KumarThakur, the DCP, South districtmarkings have been done andmeeting was held with Pradhanto ensure social distancing andsanitisation.

� �� 2030231

The Gurugram districtadministration has made it

compulsory for residents of thedistrict to wear face maskswhile stepping out of theirhouse.

Violating the instructionmay attract legal action undersection 188 of the Indian PenalCode (IPC). If anyone withoutwearing masks on roads or anyother public places.

“Wearing masks is com-pulsory even while travelling inpersonal or government vehi-cles. The violators will bebooked under Section of 188(Disobedience to order dulypromulgated by a public ser-vant) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC),” read the orders.

As per the guidelinesissued on Thursday, the 3 kmarea from the houses of coro-na infected persons will bedeclared as containment zones.

The SDM of the areas willdecide the area of contain-ment zones. They will be assist-ed by area ACP and SHO ofGurugram police.

"It is applicable for everycitizen, government officialsand any other employees asso-ciated with essential services. Itis also applicable to motoriststoo while driving private orgovernment vehicles. Also, gov-ernment officials should also

wear face masks on the ground.They will be not allowed inmeetings if they would notwear proper face masks," saidAmit Khatri, the district mag-istrate of Gurugram.

It is pertinent to mentionthat several states have made itmandatory for people to wearmasks in a bid to contain thespread of coronavirus.

Gurgaon is among theworst-affected districts in thestate with 32 COVID-19 casesbesides Nuh with 38 cases,Palwal with 28 and Faridabadwith 28 cases.

In the Gurugram districtout of 32 positive cases, 12corona infected patients have

been discharged now and 20are admitted in different hos-pitals.

As a preventive measure,the district administration hasalready declared 9 areas ascontainment zones in the wakeof the fast-spreading coron-avirus.

The nine areas includeSector-9, Sector-54/NirvanaCountry, Palam Vihar, EmarPalm Gardens Sector-83,Laburnum Society, and Sector-39. Besides, three villagesnamely Fazilpur Jharsa, WardNumber 11 Pataudi and Village Raipur Sohna wherecorona infected patients arefound.

�� +,-�.,%/'

The Police Control Room(PCR) unit of Delhi Police

has shifted 354 women inlabour pain in hospital acrossthe National Capital sinceMarch 25 to till date after thePrime Minister Narendra Modiimposed 21 days lockdown inthe country in wake coron-avirus outbreak.

According to Sharat KumarSinha, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), PCR, during the lock-down period 354 women inlabour pain have been admit-ted to various hospitals so farby PCR Mobile Patrol Vehicles(MPVs) from all across Delhiincluding a foreign nationalfrom Finland residing in SouthDelhi.

“Among these 354 cases oflabour pain, about 45 cases

were of critical nature. Parentsand relatives of women as wellas doctors of the hospitalsappreciated this prompt andswift action of PCR officials.Most of the cases of labour painwere reported from South andSouth East District and major-ity of them were shifted toSafdarjung Hospital,” said theDCP adding that in the last 24hrs, PCR MPVs have shifted 35women in labour pain to var-ious hospitals all across Delhi.

“The police teams on PCRhave also shifted 845 injuredand people who needed med-ical attention, including twosenior citizens who had suf-fered heart attack, to varioushospitals across the city,” saidthe DCP.

“As a preventive measure toprevent spread of Corana Virus(COVID-19), the lockdownimplement has resulted in pub-

lic transport services to besuspended and taxis, autos etc.are also not plying. People, par-ticularly poorer section have toface certain hardships includ-ing commuting to hospitals inemergency medical needs dueto non availability of appropriate transport,” said theDCP.

“Moreover, ambulance arealso over burdened in dealingwith various emergencies andnot able to cater to the need ofpeople. At this time of emer-gency PCR vans have steppedinto for the help of people. PCRvans are prepared to provideassistance to people requiringemergency hospitalisation likewomen in labour pain, heartattack patients or any otherpersons in need of emergencyhospitalization due to lifethreatening medical issues,”the DCP added.

� �� !�� +,-�.,%/'�

With spike in corona pos-itive cases in Delhi, Chief

Minister Arvind Kejriwal onSunday announced the launchof massive sanitisation drives in‘red’ and ‘orange’ zone to con-tain the virus spread under theOperation - SHIELD.

The massive drive will startfrom Monday and to make itpossible at larger scale keepingescalating corona patients inmind, the five has joined handwith a Japanese industrynamed - PI.

Incidentally, announcingit, Kejriwal said that the PI hasprovided hi-tech machines cov-

ering 20 Thousand Squaremeter area in one hour to usfree of cost. “We are in collab-oration with PI industries andDelhi Jal Board ( DJB); whileDJB will do sprinkling with 50small machines, the PImachines will help in coveringlarge volume in less time,”Kejriwal added.

Importantly, Kejriwal gov-ernment is escalating sealingwherever Coronapatients arebeing reported by healthauthorities.

For this, the governmenthas divided areas in two mainzone- Red and Orange.

“Areas which have beendeclared as containment are the

Red zone while where the highrisk zones are - Orange,” “Ourgovernment termed High RiskZone to few areas with the con-sultation of health expertspanel,” Kejriwal added.

“Massive sanitization drivebeing started all over Delhi. Weare making every effort toensure you stay safe,” Kejriwalsaid while interacting digitallywith media.

Further, after the success ofOperations Shield in DilshadGarden, Delhi government hasplaned to implement it in moredefined areas.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal andTransport Minister KailashGehlot also announced thetransfer of Rs 5000 in theaccount of Public Sector UnitTransport drivers with a con-dition to have valid drivinglicense.

He said, "We have procured10 high-tech Japanesemachines for sanitization fromPI industries. One machinecan sanitize 20,000 sq/m in onehour. Along with this, 50 smallmachines will be procuredfrom the DJB. From tomorrow,a massive sanitization programwill be carried out in red andorange zones in Delhi."

"We are doing whatever we

can to ensure that you stay safe.We are learning, observingand implementing all the mea-sures taken in other nations.We are also taking all measuresfor the security of the mostvulnerable and poorest sectionsof society. We are providingfood for these people. Around71 lakh beneficiaries are pro-vided ration and 23 lakh ben-eficiaries, who do not haveration cards, have applied andthey will also be providedration through our schools.Apart from drivers, the con-struction workers have alsobeen provided Rs. 5000 asrelief assistance', the chief min-ister added..

��#�� #��$(��9�� (��

�� !"#"#��$%�"�%��!&��$��$# '�"#�% !$#!(

;F��I��&�� /��&��!"B��

(�,%�� '��

�� !"�"��#�"��$

�� +,-�.,%/'

The Delhi Police has arrest-ed eight people for gam-

bling at a house in Rohini sec-tor 16 during a lockdown tocontain the spread ofCoronavirus. Police said thatduring raid, a cash �9,5600 andfive new packets of playing cards have beenrecoverd from the possession ofthe accused.

The accused have beenidentified as Vinod Kumar(36), Amit ( 41), Sunil (52),Kamal Kishore (59), Pradeep(32), Suresh Kumar (48),Rajesh Malik (52) and Satbir(27), all are residents of near-by places in Rohini.

“The police raided a houseon the first floor of sector 16Rohini where eight personswere found gambling withplaying cards on Saturday. Acase was registered under rel-evant sections of DelhiGambling act, section 3 ofEpidemic Diseases Act andother relevant sections of theIndian Penal Code,” said asenior police official.

“All of them have deniedany previous involvement butthe same is being verified,” saidthe senior police official addingfurther investigation is underway.

�� +,-�.,%/'

The Delhi Police on Sundayevening stopped a Uruguay

woman diplomat for not wear-ing masks when she wascycling in Southwest Delhi’sVasant Vihar area.

According to police, theincident took place at around6.30 pm on Paschimi Marg.

“The Station House Officer

(SHO) of Vasant Vihar, RaviShankar along with his teamwas patrolling in the area whenthey stopped the foreignnational cycling at PaschimiMarg for violating the govern-ment orders imposed duringlockdown to contain the spreadof Coronavirus,” said a seniorpolice official.

In a video, the womandiplomat could be seen arguing

with SHO Vasant Vihar whenhe stopped her for not wearingmasks and told her she was vio-lating the Government ordersby not following the directionsissued.

“The woman noted downthe name of the SHO andcontinued to argue.Whenasked to show the Identitycard if any, the woman refusedto show following which her

name was noted down,” he said.She refused to take the noticethat was served to her for vio-lating the lockdown. Since shewas a diplomat, an action takenreport is being sent to theconcerned authorities, theofficial added.

“The Resident WelfareAssociation (RWA) represen-tative was also present whenthe incident took place and

assured the police that theywere taking all measures andwere convincing the foreignnationals in the area to followguidleness.

The police have also writ-ten to the Uruguay embassy inthis connection and a report isbeing sent through officialchannels to the Centre,” thesenior police official furthersaid.

�� +,-�.,%/'

The Delhi Police has appre-hended eight people and

registered a case against themfor gathering at a Gurudwara inNorth Delhi’s Kotwali during alockdown on early Sundaymorning.

According to a seniorpolice official, on wee hours ofSunday at 2.15 am, duringpatrolling Sub-Inspector alongwith police team checkedGurudwara Sisganj and found‘paath’ being performed in theGurudwara, they said.

“On seeing police, the peo-ple assembled there started toflee away but the police man-aged to apprehended eight ofthem. The apprehended peoplewere served notices under sec-tion 41 A Code of CriminalProcedure (CrPC) for viola-tion,” the senior police officialsaid.

“A case was registeredagainst them under section 188(disobedience to order dulypromulgated by public ser-vant), 269 (negligent act likelyto spread infection of disease)and 270 (Malignant act likely tospread infection of diseasedangerous to life) of the IndianPenal Code at Kotwali policestation,” he said.

“The apprehended peoplewere not wearing masks andviolated the order of not gath-ering at a religious place dur-ing the Coronavirus pandem-ic,” the senior police officialadded.

2��#�� # ��

)��'��*��( %��" %�+��"* � �"�&,#!('�$-"�*!� ��%�"

� %"��&"�� '�%��#�� (�� "%��"�"�!��)��

22�3�(�4�&��&)%�5�"(2%��6%%�)��3$��7��8��&�/#*9��3(�4�5�&3�""(�4�5�"(2%

&%��2)%2:%��!�3�6�3��($4��;��7��<5��&)=

'%(�4�5%37�3�%��(��&)%�!�3�6�3�

$��-�� '��

,��7��3��

.��'�� -/��

34��5��!! �� 66�$$ ��

�� !�"#"#

�� '�� !�"#"#

��>*?��@��

.��%��#�%�#��'

�� +,-�.,%/'

Braving the threat of fallingprey to coronavirus and

the harsh winters, the BorderRoads Organisation (BRO)personnel have opened thestrategic Srinagar-Leh high-way. This road connectsLadakh to the rest of the worldand was blocked by snow forthe last four months, thereby,virtually cutting Ladakh fromother regions of the country.Incidentally, snowfall this win-ter was more than previous 60years thereby making it moredifficult for the BRO to clear it.

Giving details here abouttraffic resuming on this criti-cally important road, defenceministry official said here onSunday nearly 18 tankers andother essential commoditieswere initially allowed to movetowards Leh from Zozilla passat 11,500 feet. This was man-aged despite fresh snowfall inthe pass, they added.

The 425-km road fromSrinagar to Leh was closedsince December last year due toheavy snowfall at Zojila pass.As per the directions fromDivisional CommissionerLadakh, there was an emergentneed for stockpiling essentialcommodities in the UnionTerritory of Ladakh. Keepingthat in mind the team ofProject Beacon and ProjectVijayak cleared fresh snowaround Zojilla and made the

road motorable.Snowfall of this year had

broken records of the last sixdecades. The snow clearanceoperations were undertakenby project Beacon of BROfrom Gagangir to zero pointand the same was done by pro-ject Vijayak from Drasstowards zero point, officialssaid while elaborating upon thechallenges faced by the BRO tofinish this task.

This road sustains localpopulation in Ladakh andbeyond besides provide all theall-important support to thetroops deployed on the Line ofActual Control(LAC) facingChina and Line ofControl(LOC) with Pakistan.During the winter months,when this road is closed everyyear, supplies are maintained byair.

In a related development,notwithstanding the threat ofCOVID-19, the BRO person-nel are working relentlessly tocompletely replace Daporijobridge (430 feet Multi-SpanBailey Bridge), the only lifelineof Upper Subansiri district,Arunachal Pradesh to restoreLines of Communication for all451 villages and security forceslocated along the LAC. Thearmed forces have also acti-vated isolation wards near theLAC and the LOC to dealwith any case of the pandem-ic.

Giving details of the BRO

undertaking the mission toconstruct the bridge, officialssaid more than 100 personnelof 23 BRTF/Project Arunank,on special request from thelocal administration, is work-ing in full swing in spite of the

dilapidated state of the existingbridge.

They said the BRO is com-mitted to opening this vital lineof communication by planneddate, with all necessary pre-cautionary measures. Thisbridge will ensure uninter-rupted supplies like food andammunition to the soldiersdeployed on the LAC besidescatering to the needs of thelocal population, sources said.

The BRO is the lead con-struction agency to build strate-gically important roads allalong the LOC and LAC ininhospitable terrain andinclement weather. At present,the BRO is entrusted with theresponsibility of constructing

72 strategic roads mostly instates having the LAC facingChina.

Given this backdrop, theBRO in the northern part of thecountry is presently engaged insnow clearance operations onManali - Leh axis, day andnight despite inclement weath-er and COVID 19 threat to pro-vide relief to Lahaul valley andLadakh in an earlier timeframe. Presently, Rohtang Passand Baralachala Pass are beingcleared by four snow clearanceteams. This is the first time,BRO personnel were inductedby air to Sarchu to carry outsnow clearance of mightyBaralachala Pass from Sarchuside.

� �� +,-�.,%/'

The Opposition has criti-cised the Centre for sus-

pending the Member ofParliament Local AreaDevelopment (MPLAD)scheme for two years, but ananalysis of the scheme revealsthat over the years the trend ofParliamentarians failing to usethe fund optimally for theirconstituencies has been con-tinuing.

As on March 4, 2020, theMinistry of Statistics &Programme Implementationdata shows the unspentamount to be �5,275.24 crore.

In fact, the data showsthat the unspent money underthe MPLAD Scheme rose by awhopping 214.63 per centbetween the 15th and the 16thLok Sabha. And when com-pared with the 14th Lok Sabha,this rise is even greater —885.47 per cent.

When taken Statewise col-lectively, Uttar Pradesh has anunspent amount of �354.58crore out of the total �14,440crore released between 2014and 2019 while Assam has leftonly �53 crore of the totalamount of � 257 crore released.

Maharashtra has �185crore unspent from the total of�774 crore released andAndhra Pradesh has anunspent amount of � 80 croreof the total amount of�375crore released. IfKarnataka has unspent fund of�106.71 cr out of �452 crreleased, then Punjab hasunspent amount of �63.54 cr ofthe total amount of �260 crreleased.

Delhi has an unspentamount of �41.38 crore of thetotal �80 cr released whileMadhya

Pradesh has �112.68 cr.Kerala and Gujarat have �72.38cr and �88.78 cr of unspentfunds.

Prime Minister NarendraModi, who represents Varanasiconstituency, has �2.67croreunspent fund out of the �15crore released under this headwhile the data shows formerCongress president RahulGandhi, who representedAmethi, having �4.58 croreunspent out of �12.50 crorereleased under the MPLADSbetween 2014 and 2019.

Similarly, Congress inter-im president Sonia Gandhihas also an unspent amount of�4.64 crore out of the �17.50crore released during the sameperiod.

The Centre, however, hasdefended the unspent funds. Itrecently informed theParliament that unspent bal-ance is not an unused fund asit also includes the funds inpipeline for implementation ofongoing works.

Nevertheless, unspentfunds have been in thousandsof crores this last few years.Unspent amount under thescheme was � 4,103.97 crore onMarch 31, 2019; �4,877.71crore on March 31, 2018 and�5,029.31 crore on March 31,2017.

And as for the year 2020-21, an allocation of �1,518 crhad already been made beforethe Centre suspended thescheme to keep its finances forthe fight against Covid-19. Ofthis, an amount of �1,432 crwas left unspent.

Prime Minister Modi hassuspended the MPLADS fundfor two years 2020-21 and2021-22 to use a fund of�7,880 crore thus saved tomanage the challenges and

adverse impact on the econo-my due to the spread of coro-navirus outbreak.

There are 543 MPs in LokSabha and 245 MPs in theRajya Sabha, which means788 Parliamentarians in all.Each MP gets �5 crore perannum as MPLAD and fortwo years, which works out tobe nearly � 7,880 crores.

As per the latest informa-tion available with theParliament secretariat, a totalof 355 MPs of 779 MPs (of thetotal 788) have contributed atotal of �365 crore from theirMPLADS towards tacklingexigencies in India emergingfrom the effect of the pan-demic.

Earlier this week, RajyaSabha Chairman M VenkaiahNaidu and Lok Sabha SpeakerOm Birla had asked MPs tocontribute �1 crore from theirMPLADS to the PM CARESFund. They had also askedMPs to contribute a month’ssalary to the PM CARES Fund.

Congress president SoniaGandhi had offered her entireMPLADS fund for the welfareof the people of Rae Bareli infighting the coronavirus out-break as per the requirementof the constituency. Congressleader Rahul Gandhi allocat-ed �2.66 crore from hisMPLADS money to fightcoronavirus in his constituen-cy.

Balashowry, YSR CongressMP from Machlipatnam, hascontributed the highest of Rs4 crore of his MPLAD fund tothe Andhra CM Relief Fundwhile Samajwadi Party leaderMulayam Singh Yadav hasdonated �25 lakh of hisMPLAD fund for purchasingsanitisers and masks inMainpuri.

0��&1� ��234$��

056�� 73��

�� +,-�.,%/'

Reaching out to those inneed during the Covid-19

crisis, the Navy through itsNaval Air Station (NAS)Utkrosh and MaterialOrganisation (Port Blair) car-ried out food distribution inPort Blair.

The naval station organ-ised food distribution camp for155 labourers working for theinfrastructural developmentof the Air Station. The labour-ers are presently staying in thevicinity of the Air Station.

A team visited the VanvasiKalyan Ashram and distrib-uted cooked meals and dryprovisions for the childrenand staff. Vanvasi KalyanAshram is a non-profit organ-isation providing food andshelter to adivasi children.The organisation has a unitoperating at Port Blair hous-ing around 38 children. Theorganisation also provides

lodging facility to poor adivasifamilies visiting Port Blair formedical treatment. The teamalso sensitised the childrenand staff about the COVID-19and the precautions to beexercised during lockdown toavoid spread of the pandem-ic, according to navy officialshere on Sunday

This apart, the in-housedesigned and manufactured‘Portable Mutlifeed OxygenManifold’ by Naval

Dockyard, Visakhapatnamwas handed over to theVisakhapatnam Collector.The entire set up uses anindustrial 6-way radial head-er to enable one jumbo sizeOxygen Bottle to supplyOxygen to six patients con-currently. While five setswere handed over to theCollector, balance 20 sets areplanned to be progressivelysupplied over within the nexttwo weeks.

��#�� $��(��

��

Pradhan Mantri UjjwalaYojana (PMUY) benefi-

ciaries using five kg cookinggas cylinders will be entitledto eight free refills in threemonths due to the nationwidelockdown to combat thespread of coronavirus out-break. According to theMinistry of Petroleum andNatural Gas on Sunday saidPMUY beneficiaries havereceived 85 lakh cooking gascylinders in April 2020.

According to centre’s reliefpackage, free LPG Refills areto be provided to Ujjwalabeneficiaries over the periodof three months, from April toJune 2020. Those who areusing small cylinders will geteight free cylinders in threemonths – April, May and June– under the Pradhan MantriGarib Kalyan Yojana(PMGKY). The demand forLPG by PMUY consumersincreased in the country afterthe centre announced freeLPG cylinder refills for themunder the PMGKY,” the min-istry said.

“As on date, oil marketing

companies (OMCs) have ini-tiated transfer of �5,606 croreinto 7.15 crore PMUY bene-ficiary accounts for availingfree delivery of LPG cylinderunder the PMGKY.

Booking of 1.26 crorecylinders has been done inthis month by the beneficia-ries, out of which about 85lakh cylinders have beendelivered to PMUY benefi-ciaries,” an official statementsaid.

“There are 27.87 croreactive LPG consumers in thecountry, with the PMUY ben-eficiaries accounting for over8 crore. Since the lockdown,50 to 60 lakh cylinders arebeing delivered daily in thecountry… Even in these try-ing times, the waiting periodfor cylinders at most of theplaces is less than two days,”the statement said.

“From Mountainous ter-rain to backwaters, hamlets indeserts to habitations inforests, these Corona war-riors are steadfast in theirduties and ensuring timelydelivery. Even in these tryingtimes, the waiting period forcylinders at most of the placesis less than 2 days. Oil mar-keting companies- IOCL,BPCL and HPCL haveannounced an

ex-gratia amount of �5lakh each, as a one-time spe-cial measure, in the unfortu-nate case of demise of per-sonnel like Show-room Staff,Godown-keepers, Mechanicsand Delivery boys, attendingduty in the LPG distributor-ship chain, due to the infec-tion and impact of Covid-19,”it said.

PMUY was launched byPrime Minister NarendraModi on May 1, 2016 in Ballia(Uttar Pradesh) to providefree cooking gas connectionsto 50 million poor house-holds. Later, the target wasraised to 80 million house-holds, which was achievedsix months in advance onSeptember 7, 2019.

�� A� ��

The IAS OfficersAssociation, Bihar Branch,

has contributed �10 lakh to theChief Minister's Relief Fund(CMRF), in support of thefight against Covid-19.

Earlier, �5 lakh had beengiven by the Association forthis purpose to the CMRFmaking the total contributionof �15 lakh by the Associationto the CMRF.

Dipak Kumar Singh, theSecretary of the Bihar Branch,said that contributions frommore members are still beingcollected, and the Associationwould give further amount inthe coming days.

Singh, currently PrincipalSecretary Environment inBihar Government, furthersaid that apart from contribut-ing through the Association,the IAS officers of the State arealso assisting people in distressin their personal capacity aswell as through NGOs andAlumni Associations of theirrespective schools and col-leges.

��*��"��$�! "��&!�� #�!+�� ,&��$"��#�!��+

�(% �� $"�� #��$�� "%��,��

��$�!��(��

'�"�7�� ( ��(��89��+%4*

$%2:�� #� �� ;��

In view of the suspension ofclassroom classes until fur-

ther notice due to the coron-avirus crisis, the KendriyaVidyalaya Sangathan (KVS)Delhi Region has taken sever-al initiatives for taking learningto the students through theonline method at its schoolsfrom Monday.

The KVS in a statementsaid the the HRD Ministry iscommitted to ensure safety andacademic welfare of studentsacross the country and thatKVS Delhi Region is all set tobegin online live classes fromclasses VI to VIII from Monday,whereas online live classes forclasses IX to XII is already inprogress through various onlineplatforms.

HRD Minister RameshPokhriyal Nishank last weekhad sought suggestions fromeducationists on how to devel-op and have a sound onlineeducation ecosystem in thecountry in the wake of closureof schools and academic insti-tutions. The HRD Ministryhas launched Bharat PadheOnline portal where sugges-tions have been sought in thisregard.

"While online live classesfor classes VI to VIII will startfrom Monday, KVS DelhiRegion has already started theonline live classes for IX to XIIon Facebook and YouTube.Huge response has beenreceived from the students andparents as there are approxi-mately 90,000 views and 40,000comments in two days of run-ning the classes.

"There are 13,343 sub-scribers on YouTube channel ofDelhi Region. A team of teach-ers across all streams and class-es was chosen to begin theselive interactive classes. Atimetable was framed for allsubjects and shared with thestudents through theWhatsApp school groups andYouTube. Specific instructionsregarding these live classes were

given to the principals of KVSDelhi Region, who then sharedthe same with the teachers andstudents," KVS CommissionerSantosh Kumar Mal said.

A playlist has also been cre-ated on the YouTube for the stu-dents to view these lessons, classand subject-wise.

At present, the teachers arepreparing lessons using differ-ent software like power pointwindows, movie makers andscreen recorder etc to createeducational videos. ThesePower point presentations arecreated with audio narrationsand converted to video formats.Then these lectures areuploaded on a dedicatedYouTube channel.Teachers arealso providing questions forhomework, assignments andsend to the students using dif-

ferent apps/software likeGoogle Form, Kahoot.com (ForMCQ), Hot potatoes andQuizzes.com. Students are lik-ing this type of assignments asthey are different from the reg-ular Homework and are lesstime consuming and challeng-ing.

The HRD Minister onSunday launched another web-portal YUKTI (Young IndiaCombating COVID withKnowledge, Technology andInnovation) to monitor andrecord the efforts and initiativesof MHRD which have beentaken in the wake of COVID-19.

The portal intends to coverthe different dimensions ofCOVID-19 challenges in a veryholistic and comprehensiveway.

Speaking on the occasionNishank said that in the wakeof COVID-19 threat, our pri-mary aim is to keep our acad-emic community healthy, bothphysically & mentally and toenable a continuous high-qual-ity learning environment forlearners.

"The portal is an effort ofHRD Ministry to achieve thisgoal in these difficult times,"said the Ministry official.

<�"�� +��'��'''��%��

�� +,-�.,%/'

Union Home Ministry onSunday asked all States to

strictly comply with theSupreme Court’s orders on thewelfare of migrant labourershoused at relief camps.

Citing the Supreme Court’sdirections, the Ministry toldthe States to ensure the role oftrained counselors and com-munity leaders from all reli-gions to boost the morale ofthe migrant labourers duringthe crisis period apart from theregular logistics of the camps.

The Home Ministry alsotold the States to strictly adhereto the Health Ministry direc-tive of service of psychologicalcounseling and implementa-tion of all medical facilities tothe displaced migrant labour.

"The Court directed thatadequate medical facilities

besides proper arrangementsfor food, clean drinking waterand sanitation be ensured formigrant workers at reliefcamps/shelters across thecountry. Further, trained coun-sellors and/ or communitygroup leaders belonging to allfaiths should visit the reliefcamps/ shelter homes and dealwith any consternation that themigrants might be goingthrough.

“The Court also observedthat the anxiety and fear of themigrants should be under-stood by the police and otherauthorities, and that theyshould deal with the migrantsin a humane manner. Further,the State Governments/ UTsshould endeavour to engagevolunteers along with thepolice to supervise the welfareactivities of the migrants,” saidMHA reiterating the States tofollowup the regular direc-

tions of Union HealthMinistry.

The government had toldthe Supreme Court that almosta third of the migrants return-ing to their home towns andvillages could be infected withthe novel coronavirus. Asmany as 21,000 relief campshave been set up by states andUTs to house more than 6.5lakh migrants, as per theMinistry of Home Affairs.

Following the SupremeCourt directives, the HealthMinistry also called for pro-viding a social protection tomigrant workers, saying theyare prone to social, psycho-logical and emotional traumain lockdown situations.

But with just around15,000 trained counsellors andpsychiatrists in the country, theGovernment has a mammothtask at its hand to implementthe Supreme Court order.

,��% � �#��"�� #��#� ��"+��

)�-��*��.��)��

�� 10

The Jammu and Kashmiradministration on Sunday

directed for continuation ofagriculture operations in acontroller manner besidesallowing bi-annual movementof nomadic tribes in "smallgroups at a slow pace".

However, the administra-tion directed the deputy com-missioners and district policeheads for strict implementationof restrictions in all the 77COVID-19 'Red Zones' acrossthe Union Territory.

Chief Secretary B V RSubrahmanyam passed thedirections at a high-level meet-ing which was convened hereto discuss the strategy to beadopted for containment ofCOVID-19 keeping in view therecent spurt in positive cases,an official spokesperson said.

A total of 224 perople – 180in Kashmir and 44 in Jammu -- had tested positive for coro-navirus till Saturday evening.Of them, four had died includ-ing three in the valley and onein Jammu.

To ensure that the rural

economy is not affected,Subrahmanyam directed theDCs and SSPs to coordinatewith Secretary Agriculture forsmooth continuation of agri-cultural and allied operationsby the farmers in their districts.

He asked for proper regu-lation of food grain mandis andalso to notify temporary man-dis, in addition to the alreadynotified mandis, to avoid largegatherings of persons at oneplace.

Regarding the movementof Bakarwal community fromJammu towards higher reach-

es of Kashmir in search ofgreener pastures for their ani-mals, the chief secretary direct-ed DCs and SSPs to allowtheir movement in a regulatedmanner.

“Only small groups at aslow pace should be allowed tomove,” he said.

To control the spread ofcoronavirus, he stressed onproper regulation in Red Zonesand a complete lockdown inthe identified areas.

"District administration,in close coordination with dis-trict police, should ensure that

there is zero movement ofpeople," he added.

Subrahmanyam furtherdirected the officials to under-take door-to-door surveys andextensive fumigation in all theRed Zones besides earlyissuance of operational guide-lines for management of theRed Zones by the HealthDepartment so that chances offurther spread of virus areminimised.

However, essential suppliesare to be ensured in the RedZones and DCs should plan thedeliveries so that people do notface any inconvenience, headded.

Emphasising on sparingmedical professionals, the chiefsecretary directed the DCs notto involve doctors and otherstaff for survey related work asthey have to perform medicalduties and instead utilise otherstaff for such exercises.

He also asked them to pro-mote usage of 'Aarogya Setu'app as an essential tool in thefight against COVID-19, thespokesperson said.

With regard to the imme-diate need of capacity enhance-ment, the chief secretary direct-ed all DCs to increase thenumber of isolation and quar-antine beds.

�� )=<1�� &�� A�3��7��!��7��&@A'.!"B� �� $

� 1��::G��J�"K#��)��GG��!��$�@��$5��7��.&��1��7��$

�� !�"#"# ��>*?��@��

/��( ��$��"0�� 1'2��)�

�� &/,++1'

Till Saturday, sanitary work-ers in Tamil Nadu’s Karur

district never knew that life wasbeautiful and there were kindhearted people around. Thedistrict is famous for bankingbusiness as well as textile indus-tries and daily life used to befast moving. But COVID-19and corona virus turned every-thing topsy-turvy. As the StateGovernment declared a totallock-down, people in Karurdistrict too were left with noother alternative but to followthe diktat. Whatever the com-pensation package announcedby the Government seemedpeanuts.

But there were some brightpatches during the testingtimes. There emerged a personin Karur, an apolitical, secularand broad minded person forwhom the man and woman in

the streets were of paramountconcern. Thogai Murugan, a54-year-old self made entre-preneur who came up in lifethrough the hard way, is theman of the hour in the district.

The sanitary workers andcasual employees in Karurtown who were left pennilessand jobless because of the lockdown were in for a surprise asMurugan and his family mem-bers invited them all to hishouse on Saturday and per-formed paada pooja (worship-ping the feet) on them.Murugan, his wife and sonwashed the feet of the sanitaryworkers, offered aarati andsought the blessings of theinvitees by falling at their feet.The icing on the cake was yetto come. “Each of the inviteesnumbering 105 was offeredcash and essential items worthRs 5 lakh which brought tearsin the eyes of the recipients.The sanitary workers who are

the frontline warriors in thebattle against corona virus wereinsured by us,” Murugan toldThe Pioneer. He ensured thata total of 2000 casual workersin the city who faced bleakfuture because of the lockdown got relief materials in theform of rice and groceries.

What prompted him to

spend such big amount forthese workers? “What is theguarantee that Ill survive thispandemic? How many of uswill come out of this attack bythe virus for which there is novaccine as on today? I am notgoing to take with me thematerials I had saved over theyears when my dead body is

taken to the burial ground. IfI can save at least one life, I candie peacefully,” said Murugan.

He said the paada poojawas an act of reciprocation.“They are the real guards whoensure our safety from thepandemic. Can you imagine aday in our life without their ser-vices? This is my way of thank-ing the real life Gods,” saidMurugan, a sworn rationalist.

For Selvaraj and wife Rani,the offering from Muruganwas a divine intervention. “Wewere worried about how to feedthe children in these times oflock out as there is no salary.Here, Ayya (a word of rever-ence) has made our Easter ahappy occasion, somethingwhich we will rememberthroughout our life,” saidSelbva, a sanitary worker.

Corona brings the goodside of life too.

<�� #

� �! ��!�� )@%)151

Bengal Governor JagdeepDhankhar has advised the

Trinamool CongressGovernment not to politicisethe battle against corona.Referring to the Union HomeMinistry’s letter to the StateGovernment warning it againstslack enforcement of lock-down in selected areas theGovernor on Sunday said thatnone should use the grim sit-uation to play politics.

“The Home Ministry hadearlier written a letter where itraised the issue of how thelockdown is being diluted incertain areas … where nosocial distancing is being main-tained and where religiouscongregations are beingallowed to take place. This canaggravate the situation,” theGovernor said adding this wasno time to politicise things.

Apparently referring tothe administration’s green sig-nal to only the TrinamoolCongress’ workers to distributerelief disallowing members ofother parties from joining therelief work the Governor said,“this is not a time to do poli-tics particularly when the sit-uation is so grim … the relief

materials should be distributedby the Government agenciesand not political workers…This will only lead to politi-cization of the matter and thereal purpose will be defeated.”

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee had made a snappishremark on Saturday whilereferring to the HomeMinistry’s letter when she saidthat “you all know by men-tioning the areas where thelockdown is allegedly not beingimplemented properly Delhiwants to pinpoint a particulargroup of population … But Iwant to tell them that we arefighting against a deadly virusand not a communal virus. Iwill not allow any communalpolitics here.”

The letter from Delhi hadalleged that “people have beenthronging in complete viola-tion of social distancingnorms...” mentioning specificareas like Maniktala, NarkelDanga, Rajabazaar, Topsia,Metiaburz, Gardenreach,Ekbalpur Ulta Danga.Incidentally all of these areasare dominated by the people ofminority community.

Apart from Dhankhar theLeft Front also attacked theState Government for not fol-

lowing the ICMR norms inso-far as conducting maximumtests are concerned. StateCPI(M) secretary and partypolitburo member SuryakantoMishra on Sunday said that“not only that adequate num-ber of tests are not being donebut also in many cases thedeaths are being ascribed to co-morbidity reasons which ishighly fallacious.”

Himself a doctor and a for-mer Health Minister of theState, Mishra said that “anycasualty irrespective of co-morbidity reasons should belisted as corona death if the vic-tim had contracted the diseaseotherwise the seriousness ofthe situation will be lost on thepeople.” Apart from conduct-ing tests the Governmentshould also come out with theirdata which will help theresearchers to handle the cri-sis in better manner, he main-tained.

Meanwhile, the BengalGovernment is planning tomake wearing masks manda-tory in the State. According tosources, the Government willsoon come out with ordersmaking masks mandatory forthe people who comeout in thestreets.

�� &/,++1'

As the number of persons in theState tested positive for coron-

avirus reached 1075 by Sundayevening, Government of TamilNadu has launched an aggressivetesting and containment pro-gramme to restrict the disease instage-2 itself, according to BeelaRajesh, Secretary, health and fam-ily welfare department.

With 106 persons tested posi-tive for coronavirus on Sunday, theGovernment increased the numberof laboratories in the State wherethe virus could be tested. “FromSunday onwards, testing could bedone in 14 Government laborato-ries and nine private laboratories.The Central Government ownedJIPMER medical college and hos-pital at Puducherry too wouldserve as a center for testing samplesfrom Tamil Nadu,” said Beela Rajesh, herself a medical doctor by train-ing.

Out of the 106 persons testingpositive on Sunday, 90 are from thesingle source event held at Delhiand 16 are those who associatedwith them. The spurt in the num-

ber of patients getting admitted tohospitals with coronavirus case hasforced the Government to takesome more drastic measures. OnSunday two more persons suc-cumbed to the dreaded virus tak-ing the death toll in the State to 11.

The Government on Sundaywarned volunteers, NGOs andpolitical parties distributing cookedfoods to the homeless and needy inviolation of section 144. AGovernment order in this regardasked the concerned persons todonate the money they spent toChief Minister’s Relief Fund orhand over the food to ChennaiCorporation authorities for distri-bution among the needy.

The disinfectant tunnels whichcreated a sensation all over the Statewill no longer be allowed anywherein Tamil Nadu. The Department ofHealth by a special Governmentorder asked the officials not toinstall disinfectant tunnels citing aworld health organisation directivewhich stated that such tunnelswould create a false sense of secu-rity and people may be divertedfrom handwash to disinfectiontunnel.

#�8&�� 9)�� ##

�� 10

Three civilians including aminor boy and a woman

were killed in fresh escalationby the Pakistan Army alongthe line of control in NorthKashmir's Kupwara districton Sunday.

Heavy exchange of firingwas also reported from dif-ferent sectors of Poonch. Inresponse, the Indian Armyretaliated strongly and effec-tively. A group of local resi-dents in forward areas ofKupwara came out of theirhomes urging Army men toallow them to shift to saferplaces before giving a befittingreply to Pakistan.

Till the time of filing thereport, the Pakistan Armyhad intensified mortar shellingin Balakote and Mendhar sec-tors of Poonch. Earlier, firingwas reported during day time

from Qasba, Kirni areas ofPoonch district. Large numberof villagers remained closetedinside their houses due toheavy shelling in the forwardareas. According to groundreports from Keran sector,Pakistan army targeted sever-al civilian pockets inChowkibal area of Kupwaraafter 4.00 p.m using heavy cal-ibre weapons. It is after a longgap, areas located several kilo-metres away from the line ofcontrol were targeted by thePakistan Army clearly indi-cating their intention to fur-ther escalate the tensions.

Several shells hit resi-dential areas in which threecivilians were killed while sev-eral others received injuries.Some of the structures alsocaught fire while others suf-fered huge damages in directhits. Deputy Commissioner,Kupwara Anshul Garg con-

firmed the deaths of threecivilians in the area.

Srinagar based DefenceSpokesman, Col Rajesh Kaliasaid, "unprovoked ceasefireviolation was initiated byPakistan in Keran sector ofKupwara at 5.00 p.m". Hesaid, "the Pakistan Army tar-geted civilian populationresulting in killing of threecivilians including one womanand a child".

Local authorities identi-fied deceased civilians as 8-year-old Ziyan Bashir, 17-year-old Javid Ahmad and 35year old Shameema Begum. InJammu, Defence spokesman,Lt-Col Devender Anand said,"Pakistan army intensifiedceasefire violations along theLoC in Jammu &Kashmir onSunday". Three back to backceasefire violations werereported during the day at dif-ferent intervals.

�� 10

Alady doctor and a soldier on leavetested positive for Covid-19 along

with 19 others in Jammu & Kashmir, tak-ing the total tally to 245 cases on Sunday.

According to official sources, a ladydoctor from Jammu, posted inUdhampur tested positive along with onesoldier, hailing from Supwal area ofSamba,and two others from Jammuwhile 17 fresh cases were detected fromKashmir region on Sunday. Movingswiftly, all the fresh cases were isolatedin dedicated covid hospitals in Jammuand Srinagar and their close relatives werequarantined and their samples weresent for testing.

The authorities on ground zero havetightened the grip especially in red-zonesby completely sealing the areas andblocking entry and exit points by spread-ing concertina wires on different routes.

According to the daily Media Bulletinon novel coronavirus (Covid-19), out of245 positive cases, 235 are Active Positive,06 have recovered and 04 have died.

Furthermore, till date 51320 travellersand persons in contact with suspectedcases have been put under surveillancewhich include 9153 persons in homequarantine including facilities operated

by Government, 433 in HospitalQuarantine, 235 in hospital isolation and29718 under home surveillance. Besides,11777 persons have completed their 28-day surveillance period.

The Bulletin further said that 3355samples have tested as negative till April12, 2020.

Providing district-wise breakup, theBulletin said that Srinagar has 58 posi-tive cases wherein 56 are Active Positive,01 recovered and 01 has died, Bandipora42 positive cases with 39 Active Positive,02 recovered and 01 died, Baramulla 37positive cases with 36 Active Positive, nocase has recovered and 01 died, Budgam11 positive cases all of whom are ActivePositive, Pulwama 03 positive cases-allActive Positive, Shopian and Kupwarawith 14 and 23 positive cases respectivelyand all are Active Positive, and Ganderbaland Kulgam with 05 and 04 positive casesrespectively all of whom are ActivePositive.

Similarly, Jammu has 21 positivecases of whom 19 are Active Positive and02 have recovered, Udhampur 19 posi-tive cases of which 18 are Active Positive,0 recovered and 01 died, while as Rajouriand Samba have 03 and 04 positive casesrespectively and all are Active Positiveand the single positive case has recoveredfully in Kishtwar district.

�� !�� 0 1'

The Indian Hotels Company Limited(IHCL)—which manages the Taj

group of hotels – on Sunday admittedthat an unspecified number of employ-ees have tested positive and have beenduly hospitalised.

Amid reports that six employees ofTaj Mahal Palace Hotel in southMumbai have tested positive for Covid-19, the IHCL in a statement issued heresaid: “Approximately 500 of ouremployees who are at work in ourMumbai hotels have been tested todate. Those who have tested positivemostly were asymptomatic showingabsolutely no signs of illness. However,staff testing positive and symptomaticwere duly hospitalized and otherswho were in contact with them haveimmediately been put in quarantine”.

The IHCL said that the others whohad come in contact with those whohave tested positive have been quar-antined in accordance with WorldHealth Organization (WHO) normsand guidelines issued by the localGovernment authorities”

“Taj Mahal Palace and Tower doesnot have any guests at the current timeand only very minimal staff in areaslike housekeeping, security, mainte-nance and staff dining are present toensure the upkeep and maintenance ofthe hotel,” an IHCL spokesperson

said.“The safety of our associates and

their families remain paramount dur-ing these unprecedented times. Weremain committed to operating underall the guidelines of the WHO,Governmental agencies and other reg-ulatory bodies,” the IHCL spokesper-son said.

“In keeping with our values ofbeing a responsible company and as amatter of abundant precaution, we havebeen proactively ramping up testingcriteria for our employees, especiallythose who are in the front lines at thesetimes,” the spokesperson said

“IHCL has been supporting theGovernment with various humanitar-ian initiatives by offering its hotels tothe medical fraternity, health workers,supporting certain states with quar-antine facilities and also providingalmost 4 lakh meals till date to Doctors,health workers and migrant workers.The President, Taj Lands End, TajSantacruz and Ginger Andheri are alsohosting the medical fraternity in closecooperation with BMC,” the IHCLstatement said.

Earlier, reports in a section ofmedia quoting the doctors at theBombay Hospital that six hospitalisedpatients were the employees of TajMahal Palace Hotel in south Mumbai.The doctors said that the condition ofthe hospitalised employees was“stable”.

� �� /1.@/'�L05513�31.,�/M

In a shocking incident onSunday, a woman threw

her five children into theGanga river in Jeghangirabadin Uttar Pradesh's Bhadohidistrict.

As soon as the policewere informed, senior policeofficials reached the spot anddivers were pressed into ser-vice to locate the children.

The woman has beenarrested and police officialssaid that she seemed mental-ly unsound.

Sources, meanwhile, saidthat the woman had earliersaid that she and her childrenwere not getting food in thelockdown and money inflowhad stopped because she wasa daily wage earner.

"Our priority is to rescuethe children as soon as pos-sible, We will carry out otherinvestigations later," said apolice official.

�� 10

Apregnant woman late Saturday night deliv-ered a baby girl in a running Police con-

trol room (PCR) van of Channi Himmat policestation before reaching a nearby hospital.

According to police, a SOS call was receivedby them past midnight to shift a pregnantwoman to a nearby hospital.

Responding quickly, the police team reachedthe spot and picked three members includingcouple and a professional mid-wife. While theywere enroute, pregnant woman delivered a babygirl in the running PCR van near railway sta-tion. After the delivery, the couple requested thepolice team to drop them home.

"We were lucky, police van came to our res-cue without any delay even at his odd hour, Raju,proud father told media persons outside hishome on Sunday. His wife Sonia, said she wouldname her daughter 'Vaishnavi'.

Meanwhile, taking advantage of desertedstreets, thieves ran away with bottles of liquorand cash after breaking open the rear wall of thewine shop in Rehari area of Jammu late Saturdaynight.

The shop owner claimed, in the absence ofsale register, it is difficult for him to make anassessment about the actual losses suffered byhim. Police teams visited the area and took sam-ples to track down the thieves in thearea.Questions were also raised over the tightvigil maintained by the police on deserted streetsand main roads. The shop was located on themain road near Indira Gandhi Dental collegeand the office of DG Prisons.

��+��

'�� #��#��4��

��9�*�:��

-��0�� (��",��"��$�$% ��!�� 33�!��""�$��"��

"��(�$�(��+&" &$

�� !�� 0 1'

The MaharashtraGovernment has booked

156 foreigners from 18 countriesfor allegedly violating the visarules and attending the TablighiJamaat event at Nizamuddin inDelhi last month.

Announcing this, StateHome Minister Anil Deshmukhsaid here on Sunday: “Thepolice have booked 156 for-eigners for visa rules violationsunder section 14-B ofForeigners Act, other relevantsections of IPC Further inves-tigations are on”.

The section 14 (b) of theForeigners Act, 1946 (Penaltyfor contravention of provisionsof the Act, etc) read thus:“Whoever-- does any act in vio-lation of the conditions of thevalid visa issued to him for hisentry and stay in India or anypart thereunder;

Deshmukh said that allthese foreigners had been grant-ed a tourist visa for India “butthey flouted the norms by vis-

iting the Tablighi Jamaat markazin Delhi last month”.

The 18 countries fromwhich they came are: Indonesia37, Kyrgyzstan 19, Myanmar 18,Bangladesh 13, Tanzania 11,Philippines 10, Kazakhstan andIvory Coast 9 each, Malaysia 8,Togo 6, Djibouti 5, Brunei 4,Russia 2, USA, Benin, Iran,Ghana and South Africa 1 each.

The Minister said that asmany as 15 offences have beenregistered by police in Mumbai,Thane, Navi Mumbai,Amravati, Nanded, Nagpur,Pune, Ahmednagar,Chandrapur and Gadchiroli,and all the foreigners are cur-rently kept in institutional quar-antine, he added.

The MaharashtraGovernment’s stern actionagainst 156 foreign nationalsshould be seen in the context ofits earlier decision to cancel atwo-day Tablighi Jamaat eventheld along the lines of the oneheld at Nizamuddin whichbecame hotbed for Coronaviruscases.

.�� ;��

�%�6%3%�"�2:8��5�"(2%�B��2��%�&��3�3%$2�%6(&)��&��8��%"�8�%B%��&�&)($��)��3��;��7�&)%3

&�"��%�(�5%3$��$��&$(�%�)($�)��%��8

��!��"�4��$��4�"�"��#� �� 5&%��

Lucknow: Farmers should begiven relief from the lockdownto harvest crop, and the UttarPradesh Government wouldencourage institutions andagencies to purchase foodgrains directly from the grow-ers at minimum support price(MSP) or higher, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath saidon Sunday.

He directed officials tostart online classes for stu-dents of higher education, tech-nical education, nursing andparamedical studies, so thattheir academic schedule is notwholly disrupted.

Online counselling of stu-dents was also discussed at ameeting of officials chaired byChief Minister YogiAdityanath. Teachers should betrained for this. On the instruc-tion of Adityanath, the work ofproviding e-content has beenstarted in all universities.Chhatrapati Shahu Ji MaharajUniversity in Kanpur hasimplemented e-educationsmoothly according to thisorder.

"At the meeting, the chiefminister said since harvestingseason is on, farmers should beallowed to move. Apart from

Government purchasing cen-tres, if other institutions andagencies want to buy cropsdirectly from farmers, theywould be encouraged to do soprovided the price is on parwith the MSP or above,"Additional Chief Secretary(Home) Awanish Awasthi toldreporters here.

About arrangements madefor the Tablighi Jamaat con-gregation members traced inthe state, he said, "Provisions toquarantine people related to theTablighi Jamaat have beenmade so as to stop furtherspread of Covid-19. PTI

. �/��'"�0��(#1�!��'#�&�&��/'�$-"�*!�%�� 1��%�$��2�3��

� � �+�1%�0��-��45� 0'#(�#�&��#(!��&��1#�' %#!(�1#� ��'��

�� !�� 0 1'

In yet another biggest spike inthe number of deaths and

infections in a day, as many as22 persons on Sunday suc-cumbed to Covid-19 inMaharashtra taking the totalnumber of deaths to 149 and221 others tested positive forthe pandemic in the State.

On a day when the totalnumber of infected cases in theState rose from 1761 to 1982,Mumbai recorded 16 deaths,while there were three deathsin Pune, two in Navi Mumbaiand one in Solapur.

Mumbai, which is the mostcoronavirus-affected city in

the country, has so far record-ed 92 deaths and 1298 infect-ed cases.

Of the 22 persons died toCovid on Sunday, 13 were menand 9 women. Six of those deadwere aged over 60 years, while15 deceased were from the agegroup 40 to 60 years and onewas below 40 years “Twenty outof these 22 patients (91%) hadhigh-risk co-morbidities suchas diabetes, hypertension, asth-ma and heart disease,” a med-ical bulletin released by theState Health Department said.

Out of 41,109 laboratorysamples, 37,964 were negativeand 1982 have been testedpositive for coronavirus until

today. As many as 217 patientshave been discharged till dateafter full recovery,” the bulletinsaid.

“As many as 1,247 peopleare in home quarantine, while5064 people are in institution-al quarantine,” the bulletinsaid.

Meanwhile, the state healthauthorities said that they werecarrying out a thorough searchof citizens who had attendedthe religious gathering atBanglewali Masjid atNizamuddin last month wasunderway at the level of all dis-tricts and municipal corpora-tions.

Of the Tablighi Jamaat

event attendees, 755 have beentested and 37 have been foundto be positive for Covid-19.

Out of these 37, 8 are inLatur, 7 in Yavatmal, 6 inBuldhana, 3 in Mumbai, and 2each in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Ahmednagar,and one each in Ratnagiri,Nagpur MunicipalCorporation, Hingoli, Jalgaon,Osmanabad, Kolhapur andWashim. Additionally, 6 con-tacts of these cases have beenfound positive in Ahmednagarand 1 in Pimpri-Chinchwad.

The health authorities saidthat as per the guidance fromGovernment of India, clustercontainment action plan was

being implemented in placeswhere clusters of patients havebeen found in the state.

“There are total 4846 sur-veillance squads deployedacross the state and surveillanceof 17.46lakh population hasbeen done. Twenty six personsthe same family and their con-tacts had been found positiveat Ismalpur in Sangli district.Twenty four of them have beendischarged upon recovery untilnow.

Thirty one surveillancesquads regularly searchedthrough the population of over7,500 in the affected area inIslampur during the last twoweeks,” the bulletin added.

� �� 21+./'+1213

Twenty five more positive caseswere detected in Gujarat on

Sunday morning and one person hasdied due to Covid-19, the healthauthorities announced, taking thetotal detected positive coronaviruscases to 493 in the state.

Till Sunday, 23 deaths due tocoronavirus have been reported inGujarat.

Despite the health authoritiesclaims of containing the coron-avirus spread crammed into limit-ed pockets or hotspots, the virusspread is springing up in new areasin Ahmedabad as well as in otherparts of Gujarat.

On Sunday, 25 more positivecases were detected by the healthauthorities, out of whichAhmedabad had 23. Two cases werefrom Anand. Many cases were foundfrom areas which have not beenmarked as hotspots in Ahmedabadlike Behrampura, Ghodasar, Ranip,Maninagar. Earlier too, cases werefound from Juhapura, New Vadaj,Dudheshwar, Manek chowk inAhmedabad.

;<1=�$� ��*�� ,&

+�62�� #!(��#!!�*� ��

The flight-tracking service,Flightradar24, is a very usefulapplication for frequent flyers.By allowing passengers to seetraffic patterns and where the

aircraft, which is going to operate the nextflight, currently is, it gives a fairly good ideaas to when it will take off. On other days,one could just see a plane pass overhead,fire up the application and find out whereit is coming from or going to, maybe justto get the vicarious joy of virtually travel-ling. In a city like Dubai, where the gigan-tic Emirates airline rules with over 100A380 double-deckers ferrying peopleacross the world, it is just amazing to fireup the application on the phone and lookat all the places those gigantic machines aregoing to.

Therefore, whether one is a frequentflyer or just an aviation geek, the last monthhas been a crazy one. Today, if you openthe Flightradar24 application or the web-site and look over India, you will see bare-ly a plane in the sky. Those that youencounter are those from South-east Asia,travelling to Europe over India, and theoccasional cargo flights flying into majorIndian airports. Besides, maybe one can seean evacuation flight or two every other dayas Air India and other airlines, such asIndiGo, have been operating flights to getforeign nationals out of the country. Otherthan that, nothing.

All of India’s 650 plus commercial pas-senger planes are for the large part ground-ed. And India is not unique here. EvenEmirates is operating just cargo flights andmost of its A380s have been tucked awayat Dubai’s huge World City airport. At leastit will be able to bring these giants back intothe service. Airlines like Air France,Lufthansa and Qantas are debating the veryfuture of these aircraft. Across the world,even in the US, where there are over 10,000commercial aircraft crisscrossing that vastnation, most planes are grounded.

The Coronavirus has hit global avia-tion like nothing before. According to theInternational Air Transport Association,airlines globally can lose passenger rev-enues of up to $113 billion due to this cri-sis. Not that the tensions between India andPakistan last year, which had shut all aircorridors between the two countries, cancompare or the shootdown of theMalaysian Boeing 777 over Ukraine andIran’s downing of a Ukrainian aircraft. Eventhe aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks wasnot so brutal. Aviation consultancy, theCentre for Asia Pacific Aviation India PvtLtd (Capa India), has said that domestic airpassenger traffic is expected to drop froman estimated 140 million in FY20 toaround 80-90 million in FY21 and inter-national traffic is expected to almost halvefrom around 70 million in FY20 to 35-40million in FY21.

Why is it so bad this time around? Well

clearly, hints of how aviationspreads a global pandemicwere evident during the SARSoutbreak of 2004 and the sub-sequent spread of Avian andSwine flu. During the spread ofsuch infections, air travel in andaround the East and South-eastAsia had collapsed. But becausethe virulence of those viruseswas far less than the one blow-ing like a tornado through theaviation world today, the over-all impact was, at best, minimalin Europe and America.

This time around, the vir-ulence of the disease, coupledwith the insane growth of theaviation sector over the pastdecade, is going to make theindustry suffer badly. Indeed,aviation is a victim of its ownsuccess as connectivity movedfrom huge hubs like Beijing andShanghai to direct connectivi-ty to cities like Wuhan.

Unfortunately, afterGovernments hummed andhawed for a couple of weeksbefore shutting aviation down,often delaying flight lockdownsat the insistence of airline lob-byists, the impact might carryon for longer. Even if Indiareopens its skies, it looksincreasingly likely that thewithdrawal of aviation serviceswill only be gradually easedout.

As for international flights,several nations across the worldare still under lockdown. Thiswill go on for a longer periodof time than in India. At leastas of now, some nations, suchas Singapore, are major aviationhubs. It is estimated that at least200 of India’s commercial fleetwill not be required whenthings restart. Leisure travel willbe hit hard as jobs will disap-pear and increments willbecome a thing of the past,resulting in lower discretionaryspends.

But the impact on interna-tional travel is likely to beharder still. Foreign holidaytravel, particularly to hard-hittourist hubs such as Italy andSpain, will vanish. Non-essen-tial business travel, too, will.The conference market dryingup will mean fewer trips tocountries like Germany andeven China. Airlines likeEmirates, which have gorgedthemselves on Indian travellersfor three decades now, mightsuddenly run out of the runwayas aviation will likely reformitself in ways we cannot evenpredict today.

Make no mistake, interna-tional and domestic air travelwill recover. One reason for thisis because a vibrant and oper-ational aviation sector is strate-

gically vital for large nationslike India. While the IndianGovernment will not be able tobail out airlines, the latter willhave to indulge in small mea-sures to get the sector up andrunning again, at least to adecent baseline.

This is also a time when theGovernment will have to sitdown with industry leadersand figure out what it will haveto do to help the sector grow.It needs to ponder if any pro-tectionist moves, such as pre-venting large numbers ofIndian travellers flying throughhubs such as Dubai andSingapore, will be required.

At the same time, flying isall a confidence game. By now,everybody is calling theCoronavirus a “travelling sales-man” disease. One reason forthe dramatic growth in airtravel over the past decade hasbeen because of the incrediblesafety record of modern civilaviation but that confidence hasdisappeared thanks to the virus.So, how do we get that confi-dence back? That will have tobe something the Governmentwill have to do alongside air-lines. It is not just us,Governments across the worldwill have to deal with it.

(The writer is ManagingEditor, The Pioneer)

)�� (�� *��

�� +�� ,��(�� #��&�%��

-��$�� (�� (�� #��.�/��011��2��(��3�� 4��5��$��)�� )�� (�� #��(��(��!��2��#��(��5��!��)�*��&�+�� #��

#��(��+��06�7�� +��+�� &�� )��(�� #��

8�&��(� ��&��

�� (��#�� #�� 9�� &�� #�� (

��#�� 5��(��(��)��*��2�� #��(�� (��2��+��(��:��2��(��2��$��#�� +�� +�� ;��2��%�� (�� (��(�� <��%��(��2��*9=)�(>?�

*�� &��*�� 2� �� %�� )��@��,��>?6A�#��(�� ;��(�� .��6A��/��>0�� .70��/�5��(��#�� (�� )��(�� 9�� 4�� ;��(��;�� #�� )�� "��#��2�� (��!5)&��#��"�� 9��$��4�� 4�� 4��2��3��!5)%��!��!�� *9=)�(��)��(�� )�� )��

4(��"�# (

��

Sir — At a time when the entireworld is unitedly fighting a deci-sive battle against COVID-19, itis not just unfortunate but alsocondemnable that some groupsare trying to communalise thisissue. The Markaz of the TablighiJamaat had reportedly informedthe authorities about the event inwriting and even asked the DelhiGovernment and the police tomake arrangements for the par-ticipants to be transported backhome as many workers had beenstranded after the sudden lock-down.

However, several news agen-cies are trying to sensationalise thistragedy to mislead the people bypresenting only one side of the sit-uation. The Government shouldacknowledge that the Delhiadministration took no precau-tionary measures in this regardeven when all the information hadbeen brought to its knowledge. Ifa report has been registered againstthe Nizamuddin officials, thenthere should also be one againstthe Government officials whoneglected their duty.

Abdul MalikNavi Mumbai

��

Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Biden vs Trump” (April 11).The spread of Coronavirus could

well make the Trump-Biden con-test a side show if it relentlesslyclaims casualties till say August.As of date, three-quarters of theconfirmed cases in America arein States which voted for a

Democratic Party leader in 2016.New York alone comprises half ofthe total number of cases.

Americans, not very enlight-ened beyond partisan politics,may stay as divided as four years

earlier. The mounting cases anddeath toll is yet to educate themthat the virus does not attack onparty lines. The hard Right, evenwith near four million cases andcounting, is more concerned onthe right to free movement andspeech. The observance of isola-tion is seen as fascist and its loy-alty to Trump may, thus, stay undi-minished. The raw, partisan WildWest spirit has not been dulledeven after 200 years and Biden isyet to bring in animal spirits tocounter a hedonistic President.

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

��

Sir — The biggest challenge forthe authorities will be to imple-ment the Supreme Court’s orderto ensure free testing of Coronain private labs because such diag-nostic centres can take advantageof difficult times and demandmoney from people. Free testingavailability will go a long way infighting Covid but it is altruistic.

AmanVia email

� � � / 3 � = , 4 ! � � � , . �

***7" #',�#�!��7$�/��7�� $��4��N E5��.��N ��$��4��4

%�� !�"#"#

�6

9�� '�

�3�� )��

+��7�� $�-��7��?�-��7��?

-��!&@A'.!"B��'��7��7��7�� 7��$�

��(��(�($&%38.��

5��7��$$��7��'��7��!��7��$

�%4�$&�38�1��7��

&��7�� !��$=�� $�'�� $�

��3%$(�%�&8.��5��

� � � � � * � � �

� � � � � � � � � � ��

��

/��7�7�� @�� +��1��1�7��&��<�7��

��$�/�� $��F��+�6�� -��-��!''��!��&��7��$�&��$�F��7��$�� O�� $� �� 7��7��!��$�1��7��$�%� ��7�� !��$�

5��F��>��7��$/��7��!��$�� $�'��$�&�� 7��

��7�� >��!��$�1��7�� &��7�� >��$�5��!��7��7��&@A'.!"B��$�� 7��&��>�� $5�� $�'��!��>��$�'��7��$�

��;(&��%��

5/,�A'30%,+&,�@F5/,�.'�,1�,�

&@0�%,.�-'5/�5/,'+�1+,�23@-5/�@F

5/,�1A'15'@+�,&5@3�@A,3�5/,�1�5�.,&1.,��-1�

2@'+2�5@�1),5/,�'+.0�53=�0FF,3� 1.%=$

'+.,,.��1A'15'@+'��1�A'&5'�@F�'5�@-+��0&&,��1�

&@++,&5'A'5=@A,.�F3@�/02,/0 ��%'),� ,'�'+21+.��/1+2/1'�5@

.'3,&5&@++,&5'A'5=�5@

&'5',��%'),�-0/1+

"��##��1"%&&%3$&�5(��%%3C4��("#2��

=�"��##��#�

��&��7��!��$�3��7��$

��43%$$�"%��%38��&��7��

4��

0��

4��

��@��@�� @��#��@��!� ��

��!��#��!��@��#�D��

��

�� !��#�� !��#��*�000��#�� @��#�D@��! �� ! �@��

� ��

In a notification submitted to the World TradeOrganisation (WTO) — the multilateral bodywhich binds member countries to a common set

of rules with regard to trade in goods and serviceswith “fairness” and “non-discrimination” as itsunderlying principles — India has informed that thevalue of its rice production during 2018-19 market-ing year was $43.67 billion and for that, it providedsubsidies worth $5 billion. This works out to 11.4 percent of the value of rice production.

Under the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) ofthe WTO, a developing country cannot give aggre-gate measurement support (AMS) — an acronym forsubsidies in WTO parlance — in excess of 10 per centof the value of its agricultural production. The AMSincludes “product-specific” subsidies and “non-prod-uct specific” viz. subsidies on agricultural inputs likefertilisers, seed, irrigation and power.

The “product-specific” subsidy is excess of theMinimum Support Price (MSP) paid to farmers overthe External Reference Price (ERP) multiplied by thequantum of agri-produce. Whereas the MSP is takenfor that very year, say, 2018-19, the ERP is the aver-age of the international price prevailing during 1986-88 fixed in rupee terms. The “non-product specif-ic” subsidies are money spent by the Governmenton schemes to supply agricultural inputs at subsidisedrates. Compliance has to be ensured both for indi-vidual crop as well as at the aggregate level. Forinstance, the subsidy on rice should remain below10 per cent of its production value. Besides, the sumtotal of subsidy on all crops, say rice, wheat and coarsecereals should not exceed 10 per cent of agri-pro-duction value. This rules out a scenario whereby acountry gives more on one crop, say 15 per cent onrice, and yet keeps aggregate subsidy within the 10per cent threshold by giving less on another crop.

Since, the subsidy given to rice farmers in 2018-19 at 11.4 per cent of production value exceeded 10per cent, India has violated its commitment underthe WTO. The breach is open to challenge by othermembers. However, it has invoked the “peaceclause” to seek immunity from action. The Indianrequest will come up for consideration in the WTOCommittee on Agriculture (CoA).

So, what is the “peace clause”? Does it providean effective shield? Will the CoA allow its benefit?Can India explore other options?

India runs a mammoth programme of PublicStockholding for Food Security Purposes. Under it,agencies of the Government viz. Food Corporationof India (FCI) and so on, buy agri-produce from thefarmers at MSP (notified by the union) and distrib-ute through a network of fair price shops to meet thefood security needs of India’s poor and vulnerablepopulation at affordable price. Since, MSP is high-er than ERP, the excess is deemed as subsidy.

Developing countries, with India leading fromthe front, have consistently argued at the WTO thatsince the Public Stockholding is intended to servethe food security objective and does not cause anydistortion in international trade, subsidies givenunder this programme should be exempt from com-mitment under the AoA. The ninth WTO ministe-rial in Bali (2013) agreed to a “peace clause” underwhich “if a developing country gives AMS in excessof 10 per cent, no member will challenge this until2017 when WTO would look for a permanent solu-tion to address their food security concerns”.

The peace clause came with a plethora of con-ditions viz., submission of data on food procurement,stockholding, distribution and subsidies (including

their computation) and do on. These alsoincluded establishing that subsidies are not“trade distorting.” Moreover, it intended tocover only the schemes existing at the timeof the Bali declaration.

The peace clause was intended to bea “stop gap” arrangement that should haveended in 2017 by which time, a permanentsolution should have been in place. But thatwas not to be. In December, 2014, theWTO-General Council (GC) approved“extension of the peace clause till a perma-nent solution was found.” This meantindefinite deferment of the permanentsolution and perpetual dependence ofdeveloping countries on the “peace clause.”In the WTO-GC meeting in Geneva onJuly 31, 2014, India had insisted on a time-bound action plan to find a permanentsolution, to be executed before the end of2014 co-terminus with approval of theTrade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) — anarea of great importance to developedcountries. In December, 2014 GC even asthe latter got away with the TFA, the for-mer was merely handed out a “peaceclause” and that, too, with a plethora of rid-ers.

That the permanent solution route wasmore or less closed, it was also evident fromthe 10th ministerial in Nairobi (December,2015) when it decided that “negotiationson the subject shall be held in the CoA,which will be distinct from the ongoingagriculture negotiations under the DohaDevelopment Round (DDR).” The man-date of CoA normally being routine mat-ters, it was naive to expect from it a far-reaching policy decision. In the 11thWTO — ministerial held in Buenos Aires(December 2017), the DDR was dumped.

Coming to India’s request seekingrefuge under the peace clause againstbreach of subsidy ceiling, now the CoA willexamine it in the light of conditionsappended to it. Considering that the US

has been lambasting India for allegedunder-reporting of its subsidies, it isunlikely to be a smooth sail.

In a notification to the WTO inMarch, 2018, India had reported AMS ofabout �12,000 crore on rice or 5.45 per centof production value during 2013-14,whereas, on wheat, AMS was �5,000crore or 3.53 per cent of production value.In a counter-claim made to the CoA (May,2018), the US stated that during 2013-14,Indian AMS on rice was �1,78,000 crore,or 77 per cent of production value and onwheat, it was �96,500 crore, or 65.3 per centof production value. The gap is due to vast-ly different methodologies used by Indiaand the US.

For arriving at AMS, India rightlycompares MRP with ERP of the same year;considers quantities procured for publicstock holding; excludes price supportprovided to resource poor farmers whoproduce food mostly for self-consumption.On the other hand, the US uses ERP ofover three decades back; considers evenquantities not procured by agencies andignores exemption to resource-poor farm-ers. There are inherent flaws in the US cal-culation. Relating the current MSP to inter-national price prevailing in 1986-88 is notonly illogical but is outright absurd; itinevitably results in “artificially” inflatedsubsidy. The benefit of MSP is not avail-able to quantities not procured fromfarmers; yet the US has included these inits calculations.

The resource-poor farmers producefood for their own consumption; hence,there is no question of subsidy given tothem distorting trade. Yet, the US has notexcluded subsidy support to them from thecalculation.

In the CoA, the US is bound to stickto its calculation and on that basis arguethat the 11.4 per cent reported by India for2018-19 (in case of rice) is a gross under-

statement. The Government should pullout all stops to counter the Americanclaim. It needs to go a step forward to evenchallenge the formula that got embeddedin the AoA (ERP frozen at 1986-88 levelwas part of the agreement).

Correcting the anomalies in themethodology of calculating AMS shouldbe at the core of finding a permanent solu-tion; that process should be resurrected andtaken to its logical end. Post-correction, thesubsidy figures will automatically come tomuch less than 10 per cent (as in 2013-14)or marginally higher (as in 2018-19). Smallvariations are more likely to be condonedand even if retaliatory action is sanctioned,that will entail much less pain. In any case,this would be far better than lettinganomalies continue leading to inflated sub-sidy and need to take refuge under anunreliable peace clause.

India also needs to mount a sustaineddiplomatic offensive to counter US effortsat the WTO to do away with the extantSpecial and Differential Treatment (S&DT)available to developing members whichenable less than reciprocal commitmentssuch as 10 per cent threshold for agri-sub-sidies (for developed countries, the thresh-old is five per cent). If, S&DT goes, Indiawill have to limit its subsidies to less thanfive per cent. Meanwhile, the Governmentshould take up restructuring its subsistingsubsidy regime. Instead of subsidising agri-inputs and MSP to farmers which are treat-ed as “actionable” subsidies, it should con-sider direct cash transfers to farmers sim-ilar to developed countries of US and EU.While, ensuring compliance with WTOrules, this will also help in eliminating inef-ficiencies and misuse that are germane topresent subsidy and price support regime.A collateral gain will be by way of prun-ing payments and helping fiscal discipline.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based pol-icy analyst)

�� > ��#�� !��.96 ��'��? �� +@�0�� A

�+"�" �7. � � � � � � � � ) �

��!�*�!��/ '�#��/��(#!(

��-��)

5��$��$�5��

��

3�� -��

&@33,&5'+2�5/,�1+@1%',��

'+�5/,,5/@.@%@2=�

@F�&1%&0%15'+21��/@0%.�

,�15�5/,�&@3,�@F�F'+.'+2�1�,31+,+5

�@%05'@+O�5/15�3@&,��

�/@0%.� ,3,�033,&5,.�

1+.�51),+�5@�'5�%@2'&1%�,+.$

�@�5!&@33,&5'@+�5/,��0 �'.=F'203,��-'%%

105@15'&1%%=&@,�5@�0&/

%,��5/1+�"#��,3�&,+5�

L1��'+�:#"C!"GM�@3�132'+1%%=

/'2/,3L1��'+�:#"K!"BM$

�1%%�A13'15'@+�13,�@3,�%'),%=5@� ,�&@+.@+,.

1+.�,A,+�'F3,51%'15@3=

1&5'@+�'��1+&5'@+,.��

5/15�-'%%�,+51'%0&/�%,��1'+

+��(�� (

��B��C<��(�� *9=)�(>?��(>1��

5�� *��(�� (��

#�� @��8��(��(��5��&�� #��#��(��#��(��)�� #��

*�� &��2��@�� 2��*��

#�� )�� *��#��"�� D

%��"�� %�� (�� 3��#�� #�� (��

#��B�� C��(��*9=)�(>?��"��(��#�� (��#�"��D)��&��"��9�� 9�� B��C��>1��

+�� (��2�� (��#��B:��C��

#�� #��4��

#��(��.�� /��(��

#�� #��

$�� $��#��9��B��C��9��B��C��#��(��"��)�� "��(��

.�� /

Currently, we are witnessingthe pandemic of the centuryand almost the whole world

is in a lockdown. The lives and liveli-hoods of millions are in peril. Eventhe so-called developed countries ofthe West have been unable to con-tain the Coronavirus. In all nations,the worst-affected by the shut-downs are the migrant blue collarworkers and their families as theyare the most vulnerable, unorgan-ised and exploited.

Indians being the largestmigrant workforce in the world willbe the worst impacted. Last year, thediaspora’s remittance was to the tune

of $80 billion but what it will be thisyear is anybody’s guess. Frighteningreports have started pouring infrom different parts of the worldrelated to the causalities suffered byNon-Resident Indians (NRIs). Asthe healthcare sector is at the fore-front of the fight against the pan-demic, the large number of Indiandoctors, nurses, paramedics work-ing around the globe will be theworst hit. Most of them are at riskdue to the non-availability or short-age of the PPE (Personal ProtectiveEquipment) needed to fight the pan-demic, even in developed nations.

Envisaging such disasters andconflict in 2015-16, the Migrants inCountries in Crisis (MICIC)Initiative developed guidelines toprotect expatriates through an inclu-sive consultative process. They pro-vide concrete and practical guidanceto stakeholders at the local, nation-al, regional and international levelson how to prepare for and respondto crises in ways that protect andempower migrants, leverage their

capacities and help expatriates andcommunities recover from crises.The guidelines address the fullcycle, i.e, crisis preparedness, emer-gency response and post-crisisaction.

Interventions, policies andstructures to assist and protectimmigrants during the emergencyphase of conflicts and natural dis-asters are best set up in times ofpeace, before a crisis occurs, withexpatriates being integrated into andinvolved in disaster and crisis man-agement planning. The SendaiFramework for Action 2015-2030,adopted at the UN WorldConference on Disaster RiskReduction, underlines the need fora holistic approach to disaster riskreduction (DRR). Unfortunately,our preparedness in this regard forthe Indian diaspora, as we all know,is non-existent.

Promoting, respecting and pro-tecting the rights of immigrants atall times to facilitate their inclusion,mitigate their vulnerabilities,

empower them to better protectthemselves and their community inthe event of a crisis, is vital.

The following are some salientpoints for dealing with this outbreakwith an earnest request for a detailedDRR plan at all our Missions abroadfor future crisis management.

Task groups should be readiedfor collecting and sharing data onimmigrants via local networks anddiaspora groups and with smarttools such as web applications andsocial media. This data shouldinclude information on migrantprofiles (including sex, age, statusand job) and contact details. Whilerespecting data protection laws,speedy procedures are required toregulate data sharing in times ofemergency.

Emergency hotlines should beestablished in all the Missions espe-cially the Emigration CheckRequired (ECR) countries with offi-cers to handle the major regionallanguages of India. Periodical advi-sories must be released in all the

major Indian languages.In order to provide assistance in

times of crisis, it is crucial to haveinformation on where migrants arelocated. Mapping must be done andshould include categories for tem-porary and permanent immigrants,irregular undocumented residents,students and tourists.

Creative communication chan-nels must be used to raise awarenessand improve the integration ofirregular migrants, as they are theworst hit.

User-friendly registration sys-tems should be evolved for individ-uals and groups, especially the vul-nerable sections of the undocument-ed or illegal immigrants.

In coordination with the gov-ernments, lists must be prepared offacilities where migrants could beaccommodated, like shelters, isola-tion and quarantine areas. Thisincludes a special area for womenand children.

Integrating immigrants intoprofessional and voluntary emer-

gency and rescue services constitutesa concrete way to better adapt com-munication channels and services.This must be done in a way thattakes into account language and theculture of migrant communitiesand shares knowledge between reliefservices and expatriate communi-ties. Sufficient orientation and train-ing should be imparted to profes-sional and voluntary emergencyand rescue workers to address thespecific needs of immigrants intimes of crisis.

Training sessions in schools orat workplaces and booklets andbrochures also represent valuableinformation sharing trajectories.Advisories by the Missions dis-seminating information about emer-gency procedures and contacts tomigrants in the mother tongue is amust.

Local administrations general-ly work more closely with affectedpopulations than the Missions andthe Government and can be includ-ed in institutional cooperation from

the beginning in order to make useof their ability to reach out to theaffected diaspora.

To inform migrants where shel-ters/isolation/quarantine centres arelocated, awareness programmesabout consular offices and sheltersshould be held.

It is also vital to coordinate withother governments to ensure effi-cient mass evacuation plans forthose who want to return, especial-ly those with irregular papers or ille-gal immigrants.

Planning for return and reinte-gration as well as for other long-term needs of immigrants must startnow, as essential components ofrecovery plans. Mass returns ofexpatriates can be expected and theGovernment at all levels shouldmake contingency plans and pro-grammes, in particular where Statesor local authorities are unpreparedor unable to assist the returningworkforce.

(The writer is an NRI living inKuwait)

2�� '�� ! ��&��'&(��)��*+ �&% ��, (�-��*+�,��'��$��&�( .%&'��'�-&� /� (��$��.�� ##�#�.�#��$�'#��0 /��,�(�%(1�(,2�+# (�� (�

+&�1& 00��%(�+ &�%,'# &�3$�&��"� ��&�#�, #� '�$�&%�%�� &��'(+&�+ &��&�'( -#�� %��$��&��'&(%(1��(�% (��% �+�&

�� 8�5��8��

�� !�"#"#

***7" #',�#�!��7$�/

� ��$��9�� !�"#"#

��>*?��@��

Hong Kong: People in HongKong thronged beaches, ferriesand outlying islands on Sunday,many of them violating ban ongatherings of more than fourpeople aimed at containingthe spread of the new coron-avirus.

Clear blue skies lured peo-ple to popular areas across theterritory over the long Easterweekend and many of themwere without surgical masks.People in the city of 7.4 millionhave made a point of wearingmasks in the past months.

“ We always stay at homeand it is quite boring,” said

Banny Mak, 24, a local resident.“ We are social animal(s),

we need to go out for some fun.I think with proper protection(for) ourselves and to protectother people. I think it isalready ok to go out.”

Hong Kong has recorded1,005 cases of COVID-19,which has killed four peoplein the city. It banned publicgatherings of more than fourpeople for 14 days fromMarch 29, after recording thebiggest daily increase in newCOVID-19 infections, andlater extended that restrictionuntil April 23. AGENCY

London: Prime Minister BorisJohnson on Sunday vowed thatBritain “ will defeat” the dead-ly coronavirus, soon after hewas discharged from hospitalfollowing week-long intensivecare treatment for the diseasethat has killed over 10,000people in the country.

Downing Street said thatJohnson left St. Thomas’Hospital in London and willhead to his prime ministerialresidence of Chequers inBuckinghamshire, south eastEngland. In a video messagerecorded to mark his dischargeas well as Easter Sunday, the 55-year-old leader said that the UK“ will defeat this coronavirusand defeat it together” .

He said: “ I have today lefthospital after a week in whichthe NHS (National HealthService) has saved my life, noquestion. It’s hard to find thewords to express my debt.

“ And the reason in the endmy body did start to get enoughoxygen was because for everysecond of the night they (NHSdoctors and nurses) were watch-ing and they were thinking andthey were caring and makingthe interventions I needed” .

Johnson name-checked anumber of the “ utterly brilliant”

doctors and nurses for theircare during his week-long hos-pitalisation and stressed that theUK will win the “ national bat-tle” against coronavirusbecause the NHS is the “ beat-ing heart of this country”.

“ It is the best of this coun-try. It is unconquerable. It ispowered by love. So thank youfrom me, and from all of us, tothe NHS, and let’s remember to

follow the rules on social dis-tancing. Stay at home, protectour NHS — and save lives,” hesaid.

As he wished the Britishpublic a Happy Easter, Johnsonalso expressed his thanks to themany millions and millions ofpeople across this countrydoing the right thing and goingthrough the hardship of self-isolation. PTI

Tehran: Iran on Sundayannounced 117 new deaths fromthe novel coronavirus, bringingthe overall official toll to 4,474,even as it eased some restrictionsthat had been imposed to slowthe spread of the illness.

Health ministry spokesmanKianoush Jahanpour also told anews conference that 1,657 newinfections had been confirmed inthe past 24 hours, taking the totalto 71,686. Iran has carried out263,388 tests for the virus so far,he added. Of those confirmed tobe infected with COVID-19 andadmitted to hospitals, 43,894have recovered and been dis-

charged, while 3,930 are in a crit-ical condition. Iran announcedits first coronavirus cases onFebruary 19 and has so farbecome the worst-hit country inthe Middle East.

The new tolls come as Iranhas started a gradual reopeningof its sanctions-hit economy.On Saturday, it allowed smallbusinesses to reopen outsidethe capital and this will beextended to Tehran on April 18.President Rouhani alsoannounced in a cabinet meet-ing that an intercity travel banin place since last month wouldbe lifted on April 20. AFP

New York: US PresidentDonald Trump was warnedabout the potential for a pan-demic but he repeatedly playeddown the seriousness of thevirus and focused instead oncontrolling the message, pro-tecting gains in the economyand batting away warningsfrom senior officials, a lengthyinvestigative report in a leadingAmerican newspaper has said.

The report in The NewYork Times revealed that therewere warnings from the intel-ligence community, nationalsecurity aides and governmenthealth officials about animpending pandemic and itsconsequences but Trumpplayed down the crisis.

“ An examination revealsthe president was warned aboutthe potential for a pandemicbut that internal divisions, lackof planning and his faith in hisown instincts led to a haltingresponse,” the NYT said.

The US is the worst-hitcountry in the world with over530,000 COVID-19 cases and20,608 fatalities, according toJohns Hopkins University data.

“ Top White House advis-ers as well as experts deep inthe Cabinet departments andintelligence agencies all sound-ed alarms and urged aggressiveaction to counter the threatfrom the coronavirus, butPresident Trump remainedslow to respond,” it said.

Trump’s views were “coloured” by long-runningdisputes inside the adminis-tration over how to deal withChina and his own suspicion ofthe motivations of officialsinside what he viewed as the “Deep State.”

Further, recommendationsfrom public health officialsoften competed with econom-ic and political considerationsin internal debates, slowingthe path toward belated deci-sions.

The NYT report said thatthe National Security Councilofficials received the warningsin early January about thepotential dangers from a newvirus in Wuhan, China. PTI

Washington: Abortion rightsadvocates on Saturday called onthe US Supreme Court tourgently intervene to forceTexas to reinstate the right toabortion, which has been sus-pended in the state since thestart of the novel coronaviruspandemic.

This is the first appealrelated to COVID-19 to reachthe highest American court,which has been operating onlyin writing for nearly a month.

The Court, which legalizedabortion in 1973 in its land-mark Roe v. Wade decision, willhave to decide whether a statecan suspend the case law in thename of a public health emer-

gency.This case will be a test for

the Supreme Court, which hasbeen profoundly reshapedsince the election of PresidentDonald Trump.

During his campaign, theRepublican billionairepromised to appoint only anti-abortion judges to the court.Since then he has brought intwo new judges out of nine.

The petition concernsTexas’s decision — later fol-lowed by other conservativestates — to include abortion onthe list of “ non-emergency”medical procedures prohibitedwhile the COVID-19 outbreakcontinues. PTI

�� 1.3'.

Spain’s daily death toll fromthe coronavirus rose to 619

on Sunday, after falling forthree straight days, the gov-ernment said.

The country, one of theworst hit by the pandemic, hasnow recorded 16,972 deathsfrom COVID-19.

The daily toll was from 510on Saturday, compared with arecord 950 deaths as recently asApril 2. The number of con-firmed cases rose by 4,167 to166,019, a smaller increasethan was recorded on Saturday,the Health Ministry said.

Beijing: Although China isclaiming success in its battleagainst the coronavirus, mil-lions have lost their jobs in theeconomic fallout, throwing intojeopardy an ambitious target toeradicate poverty this year.

Beijing has been workingto fire up the economy againafter bringing it to a nearstandstill to curb the spread ofCOVID-19, but many firmshave had a bumpy restart andworkers are bearing the bruntof the pain.

Despite being a country ofskyscrapers and high-tech

innovations, China still hasmillions of people on meagreincomes.

About 5.5 million ruralChinese live in poverty, definedby the government as survivingon less than 2,300 yuan ($326)a year. A slowing economy putspressure on a key CommunistParty goal to become a “ mod-erately prosperous society” bythe end of 2020, an ambition inplace long before the virusemerged.

It also threatens a long-heldtacit agreement between peo-ple and party that freedoms can

be sacrificed in return for eco-nomic progress, an under-standing that largely forms thebasis of the authoritarian gov-ernment’s legitimacy in theabsence of elections.

China has little in the wayof social security benefits andworkers who lose their jobshave an inadequate safety net,meaning mass unemploymentoften brings a fear of unrest.

Official statistics show job-less numbers have soared, withroughly five million more peo-ple out of work betweenDecember and February. PTI

Tel Aviv: The coronavirus pan-demic has forced militariesand militias to adapt to aninvisible enemy, even as tradi-tional conflicts grind on.

Armies have had to enforcesocial distancing rules amongtroops while helping withnational outbreak containmentand postponing maneuvers.

On Thursday, Saudi Arabiadeclared a temporary halt tofighting in Yemen because ofthe pandemic, while in Libyaand Afghanistan conflicts areintensifying despite UN appealsfor a global cease-fire. An out-break in poor or war-scarrednations would be particularlydevastating.

Before the pandemic,Israel’s military kept tabs on theIran-backed Hezbollah militiain Lebanon, carried out occa-sional airstrikes against Iran’smilitary presence in Syria andretaliated for sporadic rocketfire from the Gaza Strip.

Now troops are beingmobilized to help policeenforce quarantines, assist theelderly or provide child care forhealth workers.

To prevent infections, thearmy canceled some weekendleave and isolated certaingroups of soldiers.

Most training exerciseshave been canceled or delayed,though the air force conduct-ed a drill with U.S. Forces —with each pilot isolated in hisown fighter jet.

The army chief had to self-quarantine after coming incontact with a virus carrier,though he eventually testednegative.

The conflicts on Israel’sfrontiers persist. In late March,Syrian air defenses opened fireon missiles allegedly launchedfrom Israeli warplanes.

The Israeli military saidborder defense remains its toppriority.

“ Our enemies are still atour borders and our civiliansare still within sniper or anti-tank missile range,” said Lt.Col. Jonathan Conricus, a mil-itary spokesman.

The virus has spread to theIsraeli-occupied West Bankand to Gaza, which has beenblockaded by Israel and Egyptsince the militant Hamas groupseized control in 2007.

The long-simmeringIsraeli-Palestinian conflict nowexists side-by-side with effortsto contain the outbreak.

Troops have carried outhome demolitions in the WestBank, soldiers killed twoPalestinians in clashes and atrickle of rockets has beenfired from Gaza.

But the virus is also open-ing doors to limited coopera-tion. Israel has helped delivertest kits and other supplies toboth the West Bank and Gaza.

An Israeli-Palestinian com-

mittee is coordinating themovement of Palestinian work-ers and security forces in theWest Bank.

Spurred by concern overthe pandemic, the Saudi-ledcoalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemendeclared a temporary cease-fireafter five years of war.

The Houthis have dis-missed the offer as a ploy andclashes continue, casting doubtover a future peace agreement.

The UN had called for anend to escalating fighting soauthorities can confront thecoronavirus. Yemen confirmedits first case this week, whileforeign backers Iran and SaudiArabia have struggled to stemmassive outbreaks.

An outbreak in Yemen,where the conflict has devas-tated the health care system,could be catastrophic.

The past month hasbrought more human suffering

across the country. Ground fighting in the

north caused 270 deaths in 10days. The Houthis fired mis-siles at the Saudi capital,Riyadh, triggering retaliatorystrikes on Yemen’s capital,Sanaa. A rebel attack on the cityof Taiz, in western Yemen,killed at least six female pris-oners and wounded two dozenwomen and children.

Even modest hopes forpeace talks in Yemen stand incontrast to Libya, where rivalforces have ignored humani-tarian pleas for a cease-fire,seeking to exploit the diplo-matic void left by the pan-demic. Eastern-based forcesunder the command of KhalifaHifter are escalating a year-longsiege of the capital, Tripoli,which they want to wrest fromthe U.N.-backed government.

Artillery shells crashedthrough living rooms, cars, asea port and three hospitals

over the last month, killing atleast 16 civilians and woundingover 30. Grad rockets struckone of the country’s few coro-navirus facilities, sendingshrapnel into a doctor’s leg dur-ing surgery and forcing seri-ously ill patients to evacuate asthe bombs fell.

Militias allied with theTripoli government haveexpanded their use of Turkishdrones, at one point attacking anaircraft allegedly carrying med-ical supplies and protective gear.In South Korea, which has man-aged to slow the outbreak, themilitary is key to containment.

More than 450 militarymedical staff and 2,700 troopshave been deployed to helpwith treatment at hospitals,screening travelers, enforcingquarantine, producing facemasks and helping trace thecontacts of virus carriers,according to the DefenseMinistry. AP

.��/�� '

�� 3@,

Italy on Sunday reported itslowest coronavirus death

toll in more than three weeks,confirming trends showingthat the COVID-19 outbreakin Europe’s worst-hit nationhad peaked.

The 431 new deathsreported by the civil protec-tion service were the lowestsince March 19. Italy’s death

total now stands at 19,899,officially second behind theUnited States.

Rome: Billions around theworld celebrated Easter Sundayfrom lockdown at home as thepope urged solidarity to fightthe coronavirus pandemic andthe European death toll fromthe virus topped 75,000.

Unprecedented scenes ofempty churches emerged fromItaly to Panama and thePhilippines, as religious leadersfound creative ways to addressparishioners marking the holi-day weekend from the confinesof their homes.

More than half the world —over four billion people — arein lockdown worldwide as gov-ernments scramble to halt thepandemic’s deadly march acrossthe globe.

The death toll from thevirus soared past 112,407 thisweekend, with more than 1.7million reported infectionsglobally.

Europe is by far the hardest-hit continent and on Sundaymarked a grave milestone withmore than 75,000 dead, accord-ing to an AFP tally.

The United States wasquickly emerging as a hotspot aswell, and on Saturday marked itsown grim landmark: more than20,000 dead, out of around halfa million infected.

The US now has the high-est death toll and the most casesout of any country in the world.

Speaking from a near-empty Saint Paul’s Cathedral,Pope Francis’ Easter Sundaymessage was largely focused onthe pandemic, offering prayersfor the ill and urging a unitedEuropean front to fight thepandemic.

“ For many, this is an Easterof solitude lived amid the sor-row and hardship that the pan-demic is causing, from physicalsuffering to economic difficul-ties,” he said, in a livestreamedmessage beamed around theworld.

He called for European “solidarity” in the face of thevirus, adding: “ After the SecondWorld War, this beloved conti-nent was able to rise again.” Thepope had earlier urged creativ-ity to mark the holy weekend —a call that appears to have beenmet by some of the world’s twobillion-plus Christians.

In Panama an archbishopblessed his nation from a heli-copter, while worshippers inSpain blasted music from theirbalconies and US PresidentDonald Trump said he would beamong those following Easterservices online. AFP

>,3? ��?4/ �/� 4/3��/�/@3�4,.� ��3. ��.@/

��#��#�� >��%��"?�$�� +�� :��"��#� �$

.�/�� =:��'�� '��

0�� 0��

London: The UK could end upbeing one of the worst-hitEuropean countries in thecoronavirus pandemic, a seniorscientific adviser to the gov-ernment warned on Sunday.

Sir Jeremy Farrar, directorof the Wellcome Trust whosits on the British govern-ment’s scientific advisorycommittee SAGE, said Britainis facing the highest death tollin the region as further wavesof the deadly virus cannot beruled out.

“ The numbers in the UKhave continued to go up. I dohope we are coming close tothe number of new infections

reducing. But yes the UK islikely to be one of the worst ifnot the worst affected countryin Europe,” Farrar told theBBC.

As of Saturday, the deathtoll in the UK stands at 9,875,increasing rapidly day on day.The death toll in neighbouringEuropean countries stands at19,468 in Italy – among theworst hit countries in theworld, and Germany at 2,871.

Farrar said that Germanyhad introduced testing at a “remarkable” rate which helpedit gain a “ critical six to eightweeks” to prepare its healthsystem for the pandemic. PTI

?��"��) �"�/�#��#��$(��.>,'$51� ��#�*��#��A�#�

&��#�� 1��:&�

��#��#��(�251��

Yangon: Myanmar’s New Yearfestival of Thingyan is thecountry’s biggest public holiday— normally a week of nation-wide celebration and water-fights, with soaked revellerspartying late into the night.

But this year, in an echo ofcancelled Easter celebrationselsewhere in the world, thecountry’s commercial hubYangon is locked down, withresidents confined indoorsbecause of the coronavirus.

Food delivery bicycles andrickshaws have commandeeredthe city’s usually traffic-chokedstreets after the Governmentordered people to stay homeunless for essential food andhealthcare needs.

By Sunday Myanmar offi-cially had just 38 confirmedcases — including three deaths— but many fear the low num-ber of tests mean the real fig-ures are likely many timeshigher. AFP

�� '��

5�� /��

!�� '�

4� �� #�� -��"��#� �$

? � ��#"��#��(�#��)�#��#��#�� #��

!�� ##8��,�,8,

9�� #+#3

Colombo: Sri Lanka hasamended a law to make cre-mation compulsory for thosedying from the novel coron-avirus to prevent any potentialthreat despite strong opposi-tion from the Muslim com-munity.

The Quarantine andPrevention of DiseasesOrdinance (Chapter 222) hasbeen amended by a gazetteissued by Health MinisterPavithra Wanniarachchi, thegovernment said.

“ .......The corpse of aperson who has died or is sus-pected to have died of coron-avirus shall be cremated...,”the gazette dated April 11states.

The move followedprotests from the island’sMuslim community whichaccused the authorities of vio-

lating Islamic burial rites.The process of cremation

is forbidden within Islam andJudaism, which require mem-bers of the faiths to be buried.

Wanniarachchi said thatthe body shall be burned at atemperature between 800 to1200 degree Celsius for a min-imum period of 45 minutes toone hour. He said that the cre-mation should take place at acemetery or a place approvedby the authorities.

The amended law preventsbodies being handed over toanyone other than “ to personswho undertake the necessaryduties of cremation” .

The attire and non-reusable personal protectiveequipment used by personswho handle the corpse shallalso be destroyed during cre-mation. PTI

#��"�� #"�� "��#��%�#��#��(�

� ��$��2�� !�"#"#��>*?��@��

,&"��""

� �� +,-�.,%/'

As the global economy goesthrough an unprecedented

tough phase amid the coron-avirus crisis, a World Bankreport on Sunday said thatSouth Asia may witness itsworst economic performancein the last 40 years.

The report also said that atleast half of the countries in theregion are likely to fall in deeprecession.

“South Asia will likelyexperience the worst econom-ic performance of the last 40years. Because of the unparal-leled uncertainty, this reportpresents a range forecast, esti-mating that regional growthwill fall to a range between 1.8and 2.8 per cent in 2020, downfrom 6.3 per cent projected sixmonths ago.

The hardest hit is theMaldives where GDP is expect-ed to decline by between 8.5and 13 per cent this year, astourism has dried up. Also, forAfghanistan, Pakistan, and SriLanka, the full range of their

forecast GDP growth for this fiscal year is in negativeterritory.

In a worst-case scenario,the whole region would expe-rience a contraction of GDP, itadded. The report noted thatwhile normal downturns arecaused by lack of effectivedemand, this crisis is caused bysupply constraints. While typ-ically manufacturing is themost cyclical part of the econ-omy, this time service sectorsare hardest hit, it added.

“While usually, GDP decel-erates faster than consumption,as consumers smooth their

spending over economic cycles,this time consumption is fallingsharply. Moreover, supply dis-ruptions and panic buying canjeopardize food security. Thesudden disappearance of ser-vice sector jobs and the rise infood prices have created eco-nomic hardship, especially forpeople in the informal sector.”

It noted that policy makersin South Asia are dealing witha plethora of challenges.

The first task is to preparethe, still underdeveloped,health-care system for the fightagainst COVID-19. Anotherimmediate task is to secureaccess to food and basic needsto the most vulnerable peoplein society.

Similarly, it is important tosecure other vital functions inthe economy, such as paymentsystems and banking opera-tions. This all has to beachieved in a deterioratingglobal environment, while deal-ing with fiscal stress and prob-lems in financial markets thatwere caused by pre-existingvulnerabilities, it said.

4!/��.��'.=��/� 4/3B

��"��#�� "� �#%�#"�� 86��#��=@

$��*�� >��"��#�%�� #�"?�$��(� � �� "��#?�$��*�� +�� #�>��"��#��5�#��#� �� #�� ?�&�� #�� #�� @ �� $

�� )1 0%

The Taliban announcedSunday it will be releasing

20 Afghan Government pris-oners the group has been hold-ing, in the first phase of itscommitment under its historic peace deal with theUnited States. The deal calls forthe government to release 5,000Taliban prisoners in exchangefor 1,000 government officialsheld by the Taliban insurgents.

The Afghan governmentreleased its first 100 Talibanprisoners last week and Jawed

Faisal, a spokesman forAfghanistan’s national securityadviser, said the government hasthus far released 300 Talibanprisoners overall from govern-ment custody. Suhial Shaheen,a spokesman for the Taliban’spolitical office, said in a tweetthat the first government pris-oners will be handed over to theInternational Committee of theRed Cross in the southernKandahar province.

The exchanges come afterthe Taliban met with the headof US Forces in Afghanistan tocall for an end to what they say

is an increase in Americanattacks since a peace deal wassigned in February, allegationsthe US Military denied. OnSaturday, a U.S. Militaryspokesman called on theTaliban to stop attacking Afghansecurity forces whom he saidAmerican troops would con-tinue to come to their aid inaccordance with the agreement.

He spoke on condition ofanonymity in line with regula-tions. The peace deal is aimedat paving the way for the U.S.To extricate itself from the 19-year war, America’s longest.

4��)��#"��&6��#��#��#��

+�� $��#�� +��>��"��#� ��A�� $�?�$�� $

"��*��

(��

!��

(3$&�&�$:�($�&��53%5�3%&)%��$&(""��%3�%B%"�5%��

)%�"&)>2�3%�$8$&%��7�3&)%�7(4)&��4�(�$&�

��B(�>*?#� ��&)%3(��%�(�&%�&�$:�($�&�$%2�3%��22%$$�&��7��'�$(2��%%�$�&��&)%��$&�B�"�%3�'"%�5%�5"%

(��$�2(%&8

�� +,-�.,%/'

Robust digital paymentinfrastructure helped more

than 30 crore people to receivefinancial assistance of `28,256crore under Pradhan MantriGarib Kalyan Packageannounced by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanon March 26 to protect themfrom the impact of the lock-down, an official statementsaid on Sunday.

A digital pipeline laid a fewyears ago — through linkingJan-Dhan accounts as well asother accounts with the bene-ficiaries’ mobile numbers andAadhaar Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) — was instru-mental in cash transfer underPradhan Mantri Garib Kalyanpackage amid coronavirus pan-demic.

This infrastructure pipelineis providing the necessarybackbone for DBT flows, adop-tion of social security/pensionschemes, etc, the FinanceMinistry said in a statement onSunday.

As part of `1.70 lakh crorePradhan Mantri Garib Kalyanpackage relief package, morethan 30 crore beneficiarieshave been given support viadirect benefit transfer throughfirst installment during thelast week. Two more install-ments of cash transfer will bedone in May and June.

Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojana (PMJDY) was launchedin August, 2014 with an aim toprovide bank accounts tounbanked persons, it said,adding out of around 126 croreoperative CASA accounts as onMarch 20, 2020, more than 38crore have been opened underPMJDY.

New Delhi: Apex body ofexhibiting and trade show indus-try, Indian Exhibitions IndustryAssociation (IEIA), on Sundaysought an economic packagefrom the government, saying thesector has suffered a loss of Rs3,570 crore due to cancelledevents on account of coron-avirus pandemic.

The impact of COVID-19outbreak on exhibiting and tradeshow industry has been unprece-dented with multiple global andnational events being postponedor cancelled in the country, IEIAsaid in a statement. “...In last fewweeks more than 90 shows havebeen reported to be either post-poned or cancelled due toCOVID-19 during the time-period, summing up to approx-imately 15 per cent of the totalevents conducted annually in theorganised sector, with a resultantestimated loss of Rs 3,570 crorefor the entire sector and this mayincrease if COVID-19 crisislingers on,” IEIA President SBalasubramanian said.

New Delhi: The MSME sectorwill tide over the huge blowcaused by the lockdown, andreduce chinese import depen-dence by ramping up domesticmanufacturing with the gov-ernment support, UnionMinister Nitin Gadkari has said.

In a video-conference withPTI, the MSME minister saidthe government was working ona “war footing” to resolve issues- like working capital crunchand access to affordable financing - faced by the sector,

as millions of units stare at stag-gering losses.

Gadkari said the commit-tees constituted by the PrimeMinister’s Office are continu-ously monitoring and assessingthe situation on the ground andwould suggest if and when thelockdown can be lifted in cer-tain sectors for normal opera-tions to resume, and addedthat “work should begin wherepossible while keeping the virusat bay”.

The MSME Minister said

nearly 8-10 lakh units will berestructured in the comingdays, asserting that owners willhave to take care of their work-ers and put in place mechanismsfor proper sanitisation as a pre-ventive measure once theyreturn to work. Gadkari alsoinformed that a Rs 10,000 crore“Fund of Funds” has beenapproved by the FinanceCommittee and will be placedbefore the Union Cabinet forapproval. This fund, he said, willfacilitate MSMEs to raise money

from the capital market, as aportion of their equity will bepurchased by the government.“We will encourage MSMEs toenter the capital market andattract foreign investments,increase exports from the sec-tor through large-scale pro-duction and create jobs,” theminister said.

He observed that the gov-ernment was well aware of theissues faced by micro, small andmedium enterprises, and pack-ages announced by the Finance

Minister will set in motion arecovery for the sector.

Gadkari said that recom-mendations of the UK SinhaCommittee appointed by theReserve Bank of India will soonbe implemented.

The Minister said he hasdirected district officers to go tobanks and facilitate paper workand coordination for loans to becleared as fast as possible, anda “branch-wise” monitoringwas underway to ease the cred-it woes of the MSME sector. PTI

Vienna: The world’s top oil-pro-ducing countries will meet viavideoconference at 1600 GMTon Sunday, a source close toOPEC said, as they try to addressplummeting oil prices due to thecoronavirus crisis. The sourcespoke on the condition ofanonymity, but the meeting wasconfirmed by Azerbaijan. Themeeting will take place in theframework of consultationsresulting from the meeting onApril 9 of ministers from OPECand non-OPEC countries,”Azerbaijan’s energy ministrysaid in a statement. It added thatthe meeting would be chaired bySaudi Energy Minister PrinceAbdulaziz bin Salman andRussian Energy MinisterAlexander Novak. AFP

New Delhi: Turning ‘crisis intoopportunity’, India needsrenewed focus on infrastruc-ture in the wake of the damagecaused by COVID-19 and talksare on with state governmentsto re-start highway construc-tion projects where migrantlabourers can be gainfullyemployed, union minister NitinGadkari said.

In a video-conference withPTI, the road transport, high-ways and MSME minister saidtalks are on with state govern-ments for facilitating safe returnof migrant labourers, an esti-mated 20 lakh of whom are inshelters pan-India.

“I had a meeting with roadsector officials. Work can be re-started at projects with conditionthat adequate measures are

taken for safeguard against coro-navirus. We have to followguidelines. At some places col-lectors have given permission,some not. We are doing a followup along with the chief secre-taries of the states,” the ministersaid. He said an estimated about20 lakh migrant labourers arestuck in shelters or have goneback to villages and in view ofthe Disaster Management Actbeing in place, district collectorscan take a decision on it.

“As I have said and believe,we can turn any problem intoopportunity, we need to focus onhighways building with renewedvigour...Highways sector hasfaced much obstacles due tocoronavirus. In coming years wewill have to give the highest pri-ority to the infrastructure sector.

To accelerate the economy, infra-structure is needed,” Gadkarisaid. He said plans are afoot toboost the highways sector. Acommittee has already been setup, he said, adding that workneeds to be commenced on awar footing on highway projects,including the �1 lakh croreDelhi-Mumbai new expresswaywhich would usher in develop-ment of backward and far-flungareas of Rajasthan, Haryana,Maharashtra, Gujarat andMadhya Pradesh. Reiteratingthat the government has saved amassive �16,000 crore on landacquisition as it is on a new align-ment, the minister urged com-panies to come forward for set-ting up manufacturing hubs andclusters along the highway toboost economic growth. PTI

Washington: America’sreopening could probably startat least in some ways nextmonth, a top member of theWhite House Task Force oncoronavirus said on Sunday asthe US battles one of the worstpublic health crises in a century.

For weeks now, over 95per cent of 330 millionAmerican population areunder stay-at-home order anda national emergency has beenput in place as the UnitedStates has become the hotspotof COVID-19.

More than 20,000Americans have lost their livesbattling coronavirus and over5.3 lakh have been tested pos-itive. New York, the globalfinancial capital, is the epi-center of this crisis with morethan 1.8 lakh positive cases and

8,650 deaths. President Donald Trump

is mulling reopening the coun-try, where in more than 17million people have lost theirjob, given that in some parts ofthe country like New York,there are signs of reduction innew COVID-19 patients andstates like Washington andCalifornia have successfullyflattened the curve throughstrict enforcement of socialdistancing measure.

With American economyin teeters, President Trump hasdescribed this as one of thebiggest decisions of his life thathe has ever had to make.

“I think it (reopening thecountry) could probably start, atleast in some ways, maybe nextmonth. And, again it’s so diffi-cult to make those kinds of pre-dictions, because they always get

thrown back at you if it doesn’thappen,” Dr Anthony Fauci,director of the National Instituteof Allergy and InfectiousDiseases at the National Instituteof Health told CNN. During the interview, Dr Fauci, who is a member of the White House Task Force on coron-avirus, hinted that the reopen-ing of the country could be inphases and spread out region byregion depending on theground situation.

“We are hoping that, at theend of the month, we couldlook around and say, OK, isthere any element here that wecan safely and cautiously startpulling back on? If so, do it. Ifnot, then just continue to hun-ker down. And that’s what, atleast for me standpoint of thepublic health aspect, that welook at,” he said.

“Other decisions are going tohave to be made at the level ofthe president and the governorsabout what they are going to dowith all of the information theyget. The only thing I and my col-leagues in public health andmedicine can do is to give a pro-jection of the kinds of things thatmay or may not happen whenyou make these steps,” he noted.Responding to a question, DrFauci acknowledged that thingscould have been difficult in theUS had everything been shutdown from day one.

“It’s very difficult to goback and say that. I mean,obviously, you could logicallysay, that if you had a processthat was ongoing, and youstarted mitigation earlier, youcould have saved lives.Obviously, no one is going todeny that. PTI

�� =�-��'��

4��#�� #��"�� %#� �

)�� 7#B�� C��

! � ��#�� BC�B�D��$%�E�� <��#��

4�� 2"��#��@��1�2"��

�7*CD6� #�#�� *��#�*��,/,�

1�� P#�� )@%)151

Aday after West BengalChief Minister Mamata

Banerjee increased the limit ofthe workforce in tea gardensfrom 15 to 25 per cent amidthe nationwide lockdown, thetea industry on Sunday urgedthe state government to gradually allow up to 50 percent of the labourers in theplantations.

The chief minister hadfirst allowed the deployment ofonly 15 per cent of the work-force in the tea gardens, whichshe increased to 25 per cent onSaturday.

Welcoming the move,Arijit Raha, secretary generalof the Indian Tea Association(ITA) told PTI, “TheConsultative Committee onPlantation Associations(CCPA) made a representationto the government seeking toallow flexibility in operationswithin prescribed limits. Theincreased deployment will

help in plucking and ancillaryactivities.” ITA is a constituentof the CCPA. “We are hopeful that the state govern-ment will consider theenhancement of workforce to50 per cent,” he said.

Rudra Chatterjee, directorof Luxmi Group, which ownsthe Makaibari brand, wel-comed the move saying it willhelp them get a portion of thefirst flush.

“We will get the entire sec-ond flush, the season forwhich will start from May. Thesecond flush will be protected.Makaibari had fetched thehighest price in the history ofDarjeeling second flush atUSD 1850 per kg,” he said.

Chamong Tea ChairmanA Lohia said after the govern-ment decided to allow moreworkforce in the tea gardens,the group has begun pluckingin all of its 13 gardens inDarjeeling by following guide-lines laid down by the admin-istration.

�� !�"#"#

1�� $

5��!��7��7��>��1 ��)��"�Q"K��KKQ��$

/��7��$

1�� 7��!��7��7��<�� $

5��7��

��7��!�>�!��)��'��

��$5��

CC!��!��!7��7��

�� 7�� *��$

�'�I��'��I��

��'��$

:��"�%&��+�3�!�� ;�*&��+3�!�� "� �+�"��"%��$�,+" (��$�(#�� ;��"

��0��<"��%%��$��;��!��(#�� 4�#��( ��4� �"!��$�"+��!��$�4"�$�;��"� "!��!��!��"��" 33,��$��$��#;�� "�"�(��;=>8��"

��!��,��"�� +��"� 3�" ,��+

��!��+�1�

*�#�*��!��"� �$0"�(%��$+"��7�� @�@ �� #

�5��7��77��$�'��<��'��;��I��5��$

'��7�� $��5��7��$�'��!��$

5��7��$

��On the shores of paradise, gorgeous singles meet and

mingle. But there’s a twist. To win a $100,000 grand prize,they’ll have to give up sex. This reality TV dating gameshow, produced by Fremantle production companyTalkback, releases on Netflix on April 17.

�� Some chefs compete to get the hosts and special guests

high on elevated cannabis cuisine with their artful use ofleafy herb, THC infusions and CBD sauces. The reality talkshow releases on Netflix on April 20.

��Detective Harry Bosch will find himself at a center of the

complex murder case, a messy federal investigation and a cat-astrophic threat to Los Angeles — the city he has pledged toserve and protect. The series is set to release on Amazon PrimeVideo on April 17.

/ � * * � �

Apple and Google fueled hopesfor digital technology’s

promise against a fast-moving,invisible killer, announcing ajoint effort to help public healthagencies worldwide leveragesmartphones to contain theCOVID-19 pandemic.

New software the companiesplan to add to phones wouldmake it easier to use bluetoothwireless technology to track downpeople who may have been infect-ed by Coronavirus carriers. Theidea is to help national, state andlocal governments roll out appsfor so-called “contact tracing”that will run on iPhones andandroid phones alike.

The technology works by har-nessing short-range bluetoothsignals. Using the Apple-Googletechnology, contact-tracing appswould gather a record of otherphones with which they came intoclose proximity. Such data can beused to alert others who mighthave been infected by knowncarriers of the novel Coronavirus,typically when the phones’ own-ers have installed the apps andagreed to share data with public-health authorities.

Developers have already cre-ated such apps in countriesincluding Singapore and China totry to contain the pandemic. InEurope, the Czech Republic saysit will release an app after Easter.Britain, Germany and Italy arealso developing their own tracingtools.

No such apps have yet beenannounced in the United States,but gov Gavin Newsom ofCalifornia said Friday that stateofficials have been in touch withthe companies as they look aheadat how to reopen and lift stay-at-home orders. “We were on thephone just this morning, forexample, with Apple,” he said ata news conference.

Privacy and civil liberties

activists have warned that theapps need to be designed so gov-ernments cannot abuse them totrack their citizens. Apple andGoogle said in a rare jointannouncement that user privacyand security are baked into thedesign of their plan.

The technology might serveas a stopgap until there is wide-spread testing for the novel coro-navirus, which in the US remainslimited after production problemsand limited federal coordinationof the tests’ production and dis-tribution. “It’s not a replacementfor just having widespread testing,which would be more accurate,”said Tiffany Li, a visiting law pro-fessor at Boston University whostudies privacy and technology.“But clearly we have a huge short-age of tests.”

Bluetooth signal tracking, asGoogle and Apple plan to use it,can protect privacy far betterthan other options such as GPS orcell-tower based location data,which allow centralized authori-ties access to the information.

But Li noted it could still leadto numerous mistaken alerts —for instance, if someone were infull protective gear or in an adja-cent apartment while physicallyclose to an infected person.

Pam Dixon, executive direc-tor of the World Privacy Forum,said a conversation with Apple’ssenior director for global privacy,Jane Horvath, assured her that theinitiative will protect people’s pri-vacy.

Sensitive information willstay on individual phones inencrypted form — no personally

identifiable data would be collect-ed — and alerts would be handledby public health agencies, not thetech companies. It says locationdata for users won’t be used andthe identity of people who mayhave been infected will be protect-ed by encryption and anony-mous identifier beacons thatchange frequently. “I think they’vetaken care of some of the reallybig problems,” Dixon said, notingthe companies say they can turnoff the system when it’s no longerneeded. “The government is notgoing to have identity informationof those testing positive.”

Asked about the Google-Apple effort at his daily newsbriefing, President Donald Trumpcalled it “very interesting,” butexpressed concern that “a lot ofpeople worry about it in terms ofa person’s freedom. We’re going totake a look at that.”

Security experts note thattechnology alone cannot effective-ly track down and identify peo-ple who may have been infectedby COVID-19 carriers. Suchefforts will require other tools andteams of public health care work-ers to locate people in the physi-cal world, they say. In SouthKorea and China, such effortshave included the use of credit-card and public-transit records.

In general, epidemiologistssay contact tracing won’t be effec-tive without widely available test-ing. In the Czech Republic, theplan is to have soldiers performtesting; medical students havebeen trained to staff call centersfor notifying people at high riskof infection.

The Czech app will use bothBluetooth technology and geolo-cation data from wireless carriersand banks to create “memorymaps” that trace the movement ofinfected people. That will helpthem identify others they cameinto close proximity with in thefive to 10 days before they testedpositive.

The hope is to quickly isolatepeople who may be affected so thevirus can be contained andrestrictions on movement relaxed.The app builds on a popular cel-lular-location mapping app usedby one in 10 Czechs, who num-ber 10 million.

The Google-Apple solutionwill also be voluntary — or opt-in — but with far greater privacyprotections, something theEuropean Commission specifiedas a central requirement of anysuch apps in a policy recommen-dation this week for the 27-nation bloc.

Given the great need for effec-tive contact-tracing — a tool epi-demiologists have long employedto contain infectious disease out-breaks — Google and Apple willroll out their changes in twophases. In May, they will releasesoftware that will support public-health apps for both Android andiOS phones. In coming months,they will also build the function-ality directly into the underlyingphone operating systems.

On Friday, the companiesreleased preliminary technicalspecifications for the effort, whichthey called “Privacy-PreservingContact Tracing.”

3�$

With nationwide lock-down amid theCoronavirus pandemic,

leading companies and enterpris-es are seeing most of their work-force operating remotely. Workingfrom home has become the newwork culture that people are fol-lowing during self-quarantine.

And as it gets intensified,there are multiple ways in whichfollowing a proper schedule couldget tiring as well as confusing.However, one can operate success-fully at home by practicing sincerediscipline, implementing properto-do lists and, above all, usingtechnology in the right manner.

There have been conversa-tions aplenty about the challengesof working from home and at thesame time, without affecting pro-ductivity. It may not be preferred,but currently working from homeis the need of the hour to ensuresocial distancing. Every cloudhas a silver lining as does this one.This current predicament givesbusinesses, employers, andemployees a golden opportunityto unlearn the classic operationaldynamics and discover newmantras.

This is sure to be a complexperiod but overcoming these chal-lenges will make us who we wantto be. To do so, you need someorganising skills to maintain ahealthy balance between yourpersonal and professional life andkeep them separate.

��

While the easiest thing todo is to stay up late at night andget up late in the morning giventhat you are at home and youdon’t have to venture out.However, following the oldoffice schedule is more helpfuleven while you’re at home. Getup on time, have your earlymorning coffee and squeeze insome me-time. Don’t forget thatworking out is of utmostimportance. Don’t forego thehabit and try to organise yourschedule at least for the next 24hours.

Sitting on a couch or the bedwhile working might look com-fortable at first but one needs toremember that it’s not going to bejust one or two days of working inthe comfort of your home. Settingup a workstation will not onlymake you more focussed but willalso help you maintain a fine linebetween your personal and pro-fessional spaces.

!�� !A day without any set agen-

da can go haywire with you hav-ing no clue of the to-dos. You

might have an idea as to what allyou are supposed to work on,however, as the day progresses,one tends to forget as assignmentskeep piling. Keeping a proper to-do-list to segregate and prioritisewhat’s important and what’s notand following it religiously willhelp you plan your day better.

��@�� As we are working from

home, we tend to sit on ourassignments and digital screensfor long hours continuously,which can have an adverse impacton our body and mind. Make it apoint to take breaks in betweenand get up from the workstation

for short breaks — going for astroll to the balcony might help.Instead of sitting and attendingcalls, you can walk while doing soas it will help your body relax a bit.

@��

Working from home doesn’tmean you have to work in isola-tion or all by yourself. Ensure youtake every opportunity to engagewith your team or colleagues. Bein constant touch with your teamvia conference calls, video calls,emails, hangout chats and more.Check if everything is fine at yourcolleagues’ ends and if the workis going smoothly. In times like

these, we need to reach out toeach other as and when required,too.

@ � ��@��

The biggest drawback ofworking from home is that peo-ple tend to mix both their person-al and professional lives, leavingvery little time at hand for them-selves or their family. One canstrike the perfect balance by set-ting a fixed time where you willnot work or sit in front of yourlaptop to work. Planning your dayshouldn’t only be restricted toyour assignments and projects.

Space out your timings for lunchand a coffee break to relax dur-ing the day.

��

While working from homemight now save a lot of time spentin commuting for some people,this shouldn’t mean that youstart working way past yourdefined hours just because youhave enough time at hand. Thisis the moment where you unwindand utilise the extra time you haveby doing something you look for-ward to before you end the day.It could be spending quality timewith your family members, pet,

learning an art, reading a book or,for that matter, catching up on theseries you are currently hookedto. These activities will not onlyhelp you to relax your mind butalso keep you fresh for the nextday.

In times of a lockdown, it isan individual responsibility to beself-motivated and accountable.Begin by developing measurablegoals for work and continue tocommunicate with the world viatechnology — the biggest thingkeeping us sane in such ‘no-socialisation’ times.

(The writer is SVP, Marketing,Analytics and Direct Revenue,ALTBalaji.)

� � � � � � � � 5

4��'��+��('��

%�� !��!��&��1#��#!&�$%#�!�%� $-#!(

IMPORTANCE OF

ROUTINE$!DE4 $!F!9 ��'�� '��

�� !�"#"# ��!��+�$��%��&�11

'3?��--/�4 �!/�34�3!04!� '/�3/ ,.��,��3/� / �=,4!�!,�!/3�=/,�!4�4,�/�4.�4��/�!.�/.��4!0�,��.3.��-,�!4

F��?�=��7��7��

�� $

5��7��*��@7��7��!��7�� '�L7��>M�� !��7��7�!��$

�@��>��7��7��F��5��0��%��$��-��7��7��7��!��5��$

3��&��3��.�� 7��L7��"K��M��$

5��1=0�/��1��

��7��&@A'.!"B��$

1��1�� &@A'.!"B��>��7��7��7��7��>��$

F��7��7��!��7�� &��$

�0?3>/'��4.�@/�,��?'/'�,��.>,'$51�-,�!4

3��

�� $

/�� 7��7��$

�@��7�� !��$�,��&��,�&��0��&��!.��0�$

5��7��&��,32!��$��7��7��&��$

� �� !��"#$�%�&'

'��7��&@A'.!"B��7��

7��7�$-��

��7��&��7�� $

/��7��L&1M$�@�� >��7��$

.��)�� *��.��)�� *��<��&��/�� 7��7��$�

��"��+��"+�� $�3��" (� �0�,&��+��$�� ;>��?��,$&��5�(

All of us have heard the proverb, “Where thereis a will, there is a way” often and most of us

know what it means. However, we don’t realise thatthis proverb can be an important tool for self-trans-formation. The question of one’s inner transforma-tion is linked to their will and resoluteness of spir-it. Hence, if one decides with a strong will not toharbour any negative thoughts or allow oneself toindulge in any kind of bad behaviour, one will suc-ceed in the process of inner change. Otherwise, onewill feel demoralised and give up the effort to changeoneself.

We must know that in the process of self trans-formation or change, the temptation to work for win-ning tributes and laurels and to rise to fame and glorywill be strong. One will feel attracted towards theopposite sex and this will too will exert a powerfulpull on the mind. The situation will be provocativeand one might feel cheated by as there are wordlytemptations.

This is the timewhen it is essential tostand firm and facethe storm like a rockand tell yourself thatit is a question ofyour integrity andhonour. You made apromise to yourselfthat you won’t be apuppet or a slave ofnegative habits.Question yourself if“Am I going to breakmy promise? Am I aperson who does notstick to his/her words or whose promise has novalue? Wouldn't it be a breach of trust? Because youmade a promise with god not to indulge in nefari-ous acts and swore that you had given up. Does itbehove a person with self-respect to break hispromise and to do what he himself had consideredas spiritually obnoxious and morally evil?” This kindof self-talk is helpful while one is on the path of selftransformation.

It has been observed that one of the weakness-es that results in spiritual ruin of man is that, he post-pones the implementation of certain decisions eventhough they were made by him and are for his owngood. This happens especially if a person fails in theinitial steps of self-transformation. As a result of this,he feels frustrated and loses his self confidence.Having lost his will, he gives up the effort and saysto himself: “I am not giving it up forever. I will startand fight again. But perhaps, the time has not yetcome. I will start it on some more auspicious andmemorable day.” And when that day finally comes,he thinks that, for this day, he will start afresh. Butagain there is a pitfall and then he starts all overagain. But one who is not determined to continueagainst all odds, will admit his defeat again and again.And, having lost his heart, will either give up theefforts forever or will postpone it until another aus-picious day.

Such people get used to repeated failure and, inthe process, become weak. Let us, therefore, makea strong affirmation and say to ourselves: ‘Even ifheavens fall, I am now not going to fall. My pledgeis tougher than steel. And I am not going to falterand will march from great to greater heights!’ Whenwe work for self-change with a tenacious and deter-mined will, only then will the society change. Apartfrom this individual responsibility of self-change,there is no other known way of worldly transfor-mation.

On the righteous path

'��7�7�� &@A'.!"B��

��7��L&@�.M�� 6��$

��6��''�L1&,!:M��&��$

5��7��,��3��1&,!:�� $��5��&@�.�� &@A'.!"B$5��7��1&,!:��7�� >��.��%��$

-�� !��31�=@2' 31/1)013 +')0+� �'

Lala, a 3-month-old blackLab, romped into Ufuoma

George’s life a few weeks ago,just as she retreated into herNew York apartment in the faceof the Coronavirus pandemic.

Lala, she thought, would becompany. But she’s turned out tobe so much more. “Being aloneat home kind of is hard,” saysGeorge, “but with a pet you havesomeone to take care of, some-one to play with you, someoneto greet you in the morning, soit’s kind of like really calmingand comforting.”

Whether it’s a dog, a cat or,yes, a hedgehog named QuillieNelson, pets are proving to beunexpected heroes in lockdown.They include the newly adopt-ed and fostered like Lala; peo-ple have flooded shelters, look-ing for pets to fill their extrahours at home.

Laura Evans, her husbandand their three kids brought 12-week-old Zoe to their Bethesda,Maryland, home after the pan-demic hit . The squirmyYorkshire terrier needs con-stant attention, and they’rehappy to oblige. “We wanted tobring a little light and life to ourhouse,” Evans said. “She’s a cud-dly work, homework sidekick.Everyone wants to hang withher.”

Nancy Karan said her pet,

Shadow gets her out of her NewYork apartment for quality timewith her fellow dog walkers, ata safe distance. At night theysleep together, “because it’s verycomforting just to have his bodyon my bed.”

In Houston, Quillie Nelsonand other pets help maintainroutines for Rachael Pavlik and

two teens. “I think having petsduring a scary time like this isgood for the whole family. It’sgood for the kids to have a senseof normalcy and a sense ofresponsibility, like they have toget out of bed before noon tofeed their animals,” she said.

Kitty Block, president andCEO of the Humane Society of

the United States, urged morepeople to foster and adopt as thehealth crisis worsens. “It frees upspace in the shelter to takethese animals in that may be dis-placed because their familymember, their owner is ill orfinancially in a troubled situa-tion,” she said.

While many people seek

comfort, some frustrations havesurfaced with all the together-ness. Professional dog trainerNicole Ellis in Los Angeles, ofthe service Rover.com, saidowners should make a con-scious effort to tire out their ani-mals before a Zoom meeting orimportant phone call.

“We can’t blame them ifthey’re like, ‘I’m bored! I’mbored!’ and they haven’t doneanything all day. It’s not theirfault,” she said.

That doesn’t seem to be aproblem for Squiggles, a beard-ed dragon in South Orange,New Jersey. Dan Cohen’s 13-year-old daughter, Julia, has

survived with help from her chilllizard, who has her own emo-tional support vest and tinymask. “We don’t want her catch-ing Coronavirus,” he joked.

Aubrey Fine, a licensed psy-chologist and professor emeri-tus at California PolytechnicState University, said the rela-tionship is mutually beneficialbetween humans and animals.“In a time of tremendous andunique life challenges, goodnessis still around us. When you’relooking at souls, animals touchhuman souls and humans touchanimal souls. And togetherserendipity can happen.”

—AP

Violence against women at anytime is unacceptable. Amid lock-downs imposed worldwide due

to Coronavirus pandemic, cases ofdomestic violence across the globe haveseen a spike says Tedros AdhanomGhebreyesus, director general of theWorld Health Organisation (WHO).Asking women who are tormented tosave themselves anyway they can, healso tweeted recently, “Sadly, there arereports of increase in domestic violencesince the #COVID19 outbreak began.We call on countries to include servicesto #EndViolence as an essential servicethat must continue during the response.There is never any excuse for violence.”

In the UK, as reported in a nation-al daily, more than 25 organisations,working for domestic violence victims,have reported an increase in theircaseload since the start of the virusspread in the country. In India, accord-ing to a monthly magazine, theNational Commission for Women(NCW) has also observed more thantwo-fold rise in gender-based violencein the country during the Coronaviruslockdown. From 116 cases in the firstweek of March, the total number ofcomplaints by women rose to 257 in thefinal week (between March 23-April 1),out of which 69 were of domestic vio-lence. As per Rekha Sharma, chairper-son, NCW, the cases of domestic vio-lence are higher in Uttar Pradesh,Bihar, Haryana and Punjab. These arethe states where maximum cases havebeen reported by women who couldreach NCW through different plat-forms and narrate the torture. However,she pointed out that the actual numbermust be even larger because therewould be many women who are unableto report because of the fear of torturethey face from their husbands and in-laws. Well, one cannot even imagine therise in the total number of cases if everywoman in remote corners of India isgiven easy access to report such crimeswithout being scared of their harasser.

Before the lockdown, a reportreleased by the National Crime RecordsBureau (NCRB) in January 2020,revealed that domestic abuse toppedthe list of violence against women in2018. Out of the total crimes registeredunder the Indian Penal Code (IPC)against women, 31.9 per cent cases reg-istered were listed under the ‘cruelty byhusband or his relatives’. The samereport claimed Uttar Pradesh to be themost unsafe place for women as 59,445cases of crime were registered from the

state in 2018. Of these crimes, 2,444were registered as dowry deaths, while284 cases as abetment to suicide ofwomen in the state. The NCRB datafrom 2016 to 2018 indicated thatGhaziabad and Meerut districts inWestern UP have maximum number ofcases registered, which also includedmurders of wives by husbands.

“It all starts with arguments overpetty things that soon transforms intoideological differences that destabilis-es the harmony between a married cou-ple. Most men grow intolerant towardstheir partner speaking against them.They lose patience and with the objec-tive of punishing them, they end upkilling or torturing their wives,” sharesDr Kashika Jain, a psychologist.

According to Atul Sharma, a socialactivist, the crime statistics in WesternUP are extremely frightening. “Bothpolice and administration have to takeserious steps to control the crime rate

against women. Killing of women bytheir husbands and relatives is utterlydisgraceful and unacceptable,” he adds.

Another factor that has resulted inthe increase in numbers is that due tothe lockdown, both men and womenare unable to move out of their houseto find some solace away from the

monotony. Ideally, when a husbandbeats his wife, the woman finds com-fort in her parents’ home but now sheis unable to head even there. Men, onthe other hand, are facing salary cuts,many have already lost their jobs andare anxious about the future. As aresult, they are venting their frustrationon women.

Ayushi Jain, a social developmentpractitioner, says, “In dysfunctionalhouseholds, spending time outside thehouse is a tried and tested method ofavoiding violence at home. On onehand, going out allows men to take outthe ‘built up anger’, on the other, forwomen, it’s a way of diffusing the inten-sity of what they are going through bygetting in touch with the outside world,possibly seeking support through com-munity gathering or counselling.” Shebelieves that in the current situation,the ways to vent the growing tensionare severely limited because there is

more confrontation between the twoparties during the lockdown, whichsubstantially increases the violence.

Besides the NCW, many non-prof-it organisations have intervened in thesituation and have started providingonline counselling to such cases. Manyhave also issued guidelines on socialmedia to educate people on ways ofintervening in cases of domestic vio-lence around them without jeopardis-ing the life of the victim. However,women who have absolutely no infor-mation about how to access such plat-forms still remain vulnerable. With thelockdown having been further pro-longed, the concerned authorities andNGOs are working to help the victimsof domestic violence due to the grow-ing need to take stronger initiatives,especially in smaller, more staunchlypatriarchal regions like Uttar Pradeshand Bihar.

3+��*��

�1�� &�� *�.��/��

8�#'��,�#$ '� 0��$ ��/ ,�� 1��(�!��"�*!��"�/��%#$�1#�'�!$�� *!� �%� ",��#�� /#"��! 1#��'�$-"�*!��%��3 �+��8�

*��

"% ��1�� !�"#"#

�� 1+&/,�5,3

Manchester United starPaul Pogba said he is

eager to return from a lengthyspell on the sidelines when foot-

ball resumes following the coron-avirus pandemic.

The World Cup winner hasbeen limited to just eight appear-ances for United this season afterbattling a nagging ankle injury.

“I’m already training andtouching the ball,” Pogba, who

hasn’t played since December 26, toldthe United Podcast.

“I’ve been frustrated, a long timeago. Now I’m almost there, so I’m justthinking about getting back andtraining fully with the team andeverything.”

“You think bad but I’ve neverhad something like this in my career,so I always take it in a good way. Itmakes me more hungry to comeback and do well. And, yeah, it justshows me as well how much I lovefootball.”

�� The Montreal WTA tourna-ment, one of the key build-up events aheadof the US Open, was axed on Saturday andwill not be played until 2021, officials said.

The event, scheduled for August 7-16,had been in jeopardy after QuebecProvince requested that all sporting andcultural events be cancelled throughAugust 31 as a means of slowing the spreadof the coronavirus.

“As a result of the measures imposedby the Quebec government prohibitingholding events until August 31, the RogersCup in Montreal will postpone theirevent to 2021,” said a WTA statement.

“The WTA reiterates that health andsafety will always be the top priority. Weunderstand this was a difficult decision and

we look forward to being back in Montrealin 2021.”

Tournament director Eugene Lapierresaid the decision was made for them.

“At the beginning of the COVID-19crisis we were hoping that the situationwould be resolved in time to be able to hostour tournament as initially planned on thecalendar.”

It is thus with a heavy heart that wereceived this news, but we understandthat this decision was necessary,” he said.

This is latest blow to tennis seasonwhich has been on ice for the lastmonth. AFP

�� +,-�.,%/'

Indian equestrian ace FouaadMirza on Sunday said that

the postponement of TokyoOlympics to next year due tothe COVID-19 pandemic wasa “blessing in disguise” forhim as he will get more time forpreparation.

The 28-year-old Mirza,who won two Silver medals inthe 2018 Asian Games inIndonesia, is currently trainingin Germany.

“The postponement ofOlympics is like blessing in dis-guise for me as it gives muchneeded rest to the horses andpractice for me,” Mirza said.

"My favourite horseSeigneur Medicott has recov-

ered from injury and I will starttraining with him. TouchingWood and Fernhill Facetimegot time to rest and they willbe fresh whenever the seasonbegins,” he added.

Mirza won a Silver each inindividual eventing and team

eventing in the 2018 AsianGames on Seigneur Medicottwhile Touching Wood andFernhill Facetime took himclose to fulfil his Olympicsdream.

He said India has secureda berth for the Olympics but hewants to confirm his personalquota for the Tokyo Games.

“For a confirmedOlympics berth I have to com-pete in one more event. That iscalled ‘Four Star Long’. I cancomplete this task in interna-tional ‘Four Star Long’ compe-tition. My choice of competi-tion was to be held inMontilibretti, Italy from April9-12 but that got cancelled dueto Covid-19.”

If Mirza passes the last

hurdle, he will become India’sthird equestrian participant inthe Olympics after late IndrajitLamba (1996) and ImtiazAnees (2000).

Mirza is currently trainingunder the watchful eyes ofGerman legend SandraAuffarth who won a Gold(team event) and Bronze (indi-vidual) in 2012 LondonOlympics, besides a Silver(team event) in 2016 RioGames.

“I am based in Bergedorf,North-West Germany. Thisplace is almost free fromCovid-19 impact and there issome relaxation for athleteshere. With all required precau-tions, I am continuing mytraining here,” he said.

�� Former India openerKrishnamachari Srikkanth feels thatcurrent captain Virat Kohli can be com-pared with the legendary Kapil Dev,given both have tremendous self-beliefand never-say-die attitude.

Srikkanth was part of the squad thatKapil led to victory in 1983 World Cupwhile Kohli featured in the team thatwon the 2011 edition of the showpiece.

“I’ve played along with Kapil Devand I’ve been the chairman of selectioncommittee for choosing Virat Kohli andI can tell you, both of their attitudes areabsolutely the same,” Srikkanth said onStar Sports show Cricket Connected.

“Both have a tremendous amount

of self-belief and they know they onlygo out with intention to win. The never-say-die attitude in them and the aggres-siveness makes them fantastic duringchases and the positive attitude both ofthem have makes them very similar toeach other.”

On the same show, former batsmanVVS Laxman said that Kohli never letshis guard down.

“The one thing I admire about ViratKohli is his intensity. One thing I wasworried about was whether he will burnout quickly. But not even one session orone over he lets his intensity drop andthat is really commendable,” Laxmansaid. PTI

�� +,-�.,%/'�

Former India captain-turned-administra-tor Mohammed Azharuddin feels that all

cricket boards should come together toredraw the international calendar as theCOVID-19 pandemic has ensured that thecurrent schedule is irredeemable.

Azharuddin, who is the president of theHyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), feelsthat tweaking of the Futures Tours andProgrammes (FTP) is also necessary toaccommodate IPL, which is important forboth domestic and foreign players.

“I am sure they can have a restructuredFTP for two years because of so much ofuncertainty in prevailing circumstances. Imean you can always prepare for good timesbut you can’t prepare for bad times,” the 57-year-old former skipper said.

“Once things settle down, we can have adialogue with other member nations,” headded.

The IPL, which was scheduled to be heldfrom March 29-May 24, is set to be postponedindefinitely as the country stares at a lockdowntill the end of this month.

“I think if they have to slot IPL, the wholeitinerary needs to be changed. That’s oneoption or else stick to the current itinerarywith whatever gone being gone.

“But that means huge losses for all thestakeholders and is not practical,” saidAzharuddin, whose own Association hostsseven home games of Sunrisers Hyderabad.

“Therefore, I am expecting a completeoverhaul of the FTP, if we have to fit in theIPL. I feel all the boards will agree as every-body is getting affected. But obviously theBCCI gets affected more,” he added.

IPL has so much prominence because for-eign players like Jos Buttler and Pat Cumminshave expressed their willingness to participate

in the tournament at some point of the year.“No one will say no to IPL. Not even the

foreign players. So many people thrive on IPL,”he set the record straight.

“For a lot of our domestic guys, who arenot India regulars, let’s accept they look for-ward to the IPL.”

However, the man who led India in threeeditions of the 50-over World Cup, doesn’tthink that the World T20 in Australia inOctober-November will be done away with.

“I don’t think World T20’s slot will begone. It’s third week of October and if thingsare okay by then, I would believe World T20will happen.

“This is purely my personal opinion asyou can’t tinker with a World Cup. But obvi-ously IPL will get accommodated in some-where.”

��,% @03+,�

Australian all-rounder GlennMaxwell believes a rescheduled

IPL can be held behind closed doorsbut it will be difficult to justify con-ducting the upcoming T20 WorldCup without fans cheering from thestands.

Both the 13th IPL and T20World Cup are uncertain at themoment with the worseningCOVID-19 pandemic.

One of the options for BCCI isto host the IPL in the October-November window if the ICC decidesto postpone the T20 World Cup(October 18-November 15). Therehas also been talks of conducting thetournaments behind closed doors.

One of the stalwarts of T20cricket, Maxwell feels if crowdsweren’t possible for either of the twoevents, the IPL would be a betteroption to go ahead.

“... It’s going to be hard for us tohave crowds. I think if IPL goes aheadthey can probably survive withoutany crowds, but I can’t see the T20World Cup surviving without anypeople there,” Maxwell told ABCGrandstand.

“It’s going to be hard for us to jus-tify having a World Cup when wecan’t get people into the grounds. SoI can’t see it happening in the nearfuture. We’ve got to take care of every-one’s health and wellbeing.”

�� &/,++1'�

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’sintensity stood out and

he looked in spectacular touchduring the IPL camp, vouchedhis Chennai Super Kingsteammates, who remainedunperturbed by speculationsover their talisman’s future ininternational cricket.

The three-time winnershad commenced their trainingon March 2 with Dhoni join-ing from day one, but it wassuspended on March 14 owingto the novel coronavirus out-break.

Leg-spinner PiyushChawla, who was picked bythe franchise during the auc-tion late last year, said Dhoniwas focused and showedmatch-like intensity in theway he was batting and keep-ing.

“Mahi bhai was absolute-ly focused, training purpose-fully and was looking reallygood. He was showing match-like intensity in the way he wasbatting and keeping and thatwas rubbing off on others,”Chawla was quoted as sayingon the CSK website.

Karn Sharma, another leg-gie in the squad, said the CSKcaptain’s enthusiasm andinvolvement were a source ofinspiration for the other mem-bers.

“Mahi bhai was batting fortwo to three hours at netsevery day, and the way he washitting the ball no one couldsay he was returning from along break. The way he was

training was a huge motivationfor the rest of us,” he added.

“During match simula-tions, he was very involved,speaking to the bowlers, andthe rhythm he was in, it was abig boost for our team,”Sharma said.

Meanwhile the team’sbowling coach, LakshmipathyBalaji, described Dhoni as anatural athlete and that he wasclearly looking forward to theseason.

“MS is a natural athleteand supremely fit. He didn’tlook rusty, didn’t look one bitlike he was away from thegame. He was clearly lookingforward to the season, the wayhe was training, batting, keep-ing and being involved withthe team,” Balaji added.

Team physiotherapistTommy Simsek said it was thefirst time in about 10 years hesaw Dhoni do some wicket-keeping training.

“For the first time in about10 years I saw MS do somewicketkeeping training andthat goes to show that he wasdefinitely keen, definitelyfocused to do well this year,”he added.

“I was worried that hehadn’t done much for a longtime and then that he wouldtry and do too much, too soonand he may get injured.

“It turned that I need nothave worried — MS being theprofessional, he looked in real-ly good shape. He said he’dstarted (training) a month orso before our fitness camp,”Simsek said.

�� +,-�.,%/'

Former Pakistan pacerShoaib Akhtar says hecannot fathom why

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has“dragged it for so long” as theright time for the maverick ex-India skipper to call it quits wasafter last year’s ODI WorldCup.

Akhtar said he hopes the38-year-old Dhoni gets aresounding farewell despite hisresolute silence on what thefuture holds.

“This guy has served to thebest of his ability. He shouldleave cricket with dignity. Idon’t know why he dragged itfor so long. He should haveretired after the World Cup,”Akhtar said from Islamabad.

“If I would have been in hisplace, I would have hung up myboots. I could have playedshorter formats for three-fouryears but I left (after the 2011WC) as I wasn’t into the game100 per cent. So why drag?” heasked.

Dhoni, who has not playeda competitive game since theWorld Cup semifinal in July,was preparing to make a much-anticipated comeback with theIPL, which is now unlikely totake place.

If he had done well in theIPL, there was a possibility ofhim playing the T20 World Cupin October-November.

Akhtar believes Dhoni isnow in a limbo but deserves agrand send-off despite the anti-climactic turn of events.

“As a country, you shouldlet him go with a lot of respectand dignity. Give him a nicesend off. He has won you the

World Cup and done wondersfor India. He is a wonderfulhuman being at the same time.But right now, he seems to be

stuck,” he said.Akhtar said Dhoni should

have ideally retired after lastyear’s 50-over World Cup.

“When he could not finishthe game in the semifinal(against New Zealand). I felt heshould have retired but he canonly answer why he didn’t,” hesaid.

“He should have played afarewell series after the WorldCup may be and then saidgoodbye in a manner befittinghis great stature.”

Talking about the Indianteam’s inability to win a globalevent since the 2013 ChampionsTrophy, Akhtar said ViratKohli’s team needs match-win-ners in the middle-order.

“Winning tournaments isone thing but staying at top isanother. India is still the top-ranked Test team and is almostamong the top teams in the lim-ited-overs format. So, we shouldnot base their performanceonly on their showing in ICCevents.

“Of course, they shouldwin ICC events and they haveto. This team, when the top fourscore, they win more oftenthan not. But if they don’t,then it is an issue. Another thingI noticed is that you need amatch-winner like Yuvraj(Singh) or Dhoni in the middle-order,” he explained.

“When we toured India in1998, we always thought we

would run through India aftergetting the top order. There wasno match winner until Yuvrajcame in, followed by Dhoni.

“Then you started seeingchange in results. Right now, theproblem is lack of finishers,”opined the 44-year-old.

Akhtar doesn’t see anycricket happening for the nextsix to eight months as coron-avirus continues to wreak havocaround the world.

But if India’s tour ofAustralia takes place, Akhtarsees all four Tests going downthe wire.

India had won their firstever Test series in Australia earlylast year. But this time, Australiawill be a different kettle of fishin the presence of Steve Smithand David Warner, who wereserving ball-tampering banswhen India toured last.

“Despite the loss in NewZealand, I think India is a very,very good team and can give atough time to Australia. Butagain, India have to prove thatlike they did the last time.

“However, I don’t see thatseries happening. My assess-ment is there won’t be anycricket for next one year. TheT20 World Cup is not going tohappen.

“We are dealing with a pan-demic at the moment. Anyindustry, which requires crowdgathering, is going to suffer,”Akhtar added.

�� Crystal Palace manag-er Roy Hodgson has warnedagainst ‘artificial means’ of decid-ing the Premier League.

In a statement to theLondon club’s supporters, theveteran former England manag-er insisted there was widespreadsupport for playing the 2019/20season out to a finish.

“Everyone is in total agree-ment we need an end to this sea-son,” wrote Hodgson.

“We don’t want artificialmeans of deciding who wins theleague, who gets into theChampions League, who getsrelegated and promoted.”

His letter came after UEFA,European football’s governingbody, warned a failure to com-plete domestic leagues could seeclubs excluded from continen-

tal competitions next season.Hodgson said players who,

in common with the rest of theBritish population, are current-ly in lockdown would ideally likethree to four weeks’ preparationbefore playing a match again.

But the 72-year-old added:

“I accept there may have to bea squeeze on that time-frame.”

The League has been sus-pended until April 30, with fur-ther delays looking likely. Palacecurrently safely is in mid-table,with the Eagles 12 points clearof the relegation zone. AFP

�� +,-�.,%/'

England limited-overs skip-per Eoin Morgan considers

2019 World Cup final as the“most dramatic game of crick-et” that has ever been played,saying it helped the sport grow“outside the normal bubble”and lifted its profile.

England were adjudged thewinners of the 50-over WorldCup last year on the basis oftheir superior boundary countafter the epic final against NewZealand, and also the ensuingSuper Over, ended in a tie at theLord’s in London.

“The final was the mostdramatic game of cricket andthe best game of cricket thatprobably has ever been playedwhich contributes to the hypeof it,” Morgan was quoted as

saying by Kolkata KnightRiders official website.

It was a landmark day for

sport overall as Novak Djokovicedged out Roger Federer in anepic Wimbledon summit clash

some kilometres away, that’sconsidered to be the longestever final in the history of theprestigious tennis tournament.

“I think one of the greatthings about it was on the dayof that great game of cricketwas, it’s always now associatedwith the longest everWimbledon final that was epicas well,” Morgan said.

“It helped us in growingcricket outside of the normalbubble that we’re already in toa different audience, and for usat home it has lifted the profileof the game like we’ve neverseen.”

England had crashed out inthe group stage of the 2015World Cup and Morgan said itwas an amazing journey thatthe team went through fromthat embarrassing defeat to

reaching the pinnacle of worldcricket after four years.

“I think the journey wewent on is probably the mostexciting. In 2015, the embar-rassing nature in which wewere bundled out of that WorldCup and the journey weembarked on to try and changethe brand of cricket we playedwith a new group of extremelytalented players over the courseof 4 years — it’s brilliant,” hesaid.

“Just being able to impartsome of my knowledge andexperience along with somevery senior players and a groupof great support staff whoalways continue to questionwhat we do in a good way inorder to hold us accountable. Itsort of culminated in last year’sWorld Cup.”

Dhoni should have retired after 2019 WC: Akhtar

%" !�� < �� %�� E�� B8�/�'++ -��+�� '++F& ��

%��" ��!�� +"<�� +"<F& ��

%"�� +"<��#��

.��&��!�9%�%*��,� ��'"�0��*��-�"2 �:� ��

%��G�� '�� = (++' $�� "��E��#� $&'F* ��$ ��

� ��<�� $&'

>�� >� ��%��=��A �� <��- �� '++-��+��

)��7��)��

.�� =��

'$9�� &B8-+��1�%�@ ��

) ��/�� &��+� 33�&��1

Oly postponement blessing in disguise for Fouaad

,�� #��.�� $9��

2��?�� '/�

Documents

English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ......ment zones came hours after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ... 39 lakh cash, tradi-tional arms like irons rods, khanda,