6 . RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718 !$˘%˜ !&’()+ ˘ +%,˚3 ... · rapid COVID-19 tests will be ... now allow users to share fre- ... launched an e-learning plat-form "Padhai

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With chorus growing fromStates to extend the

ongoing lockdown to effec-tively fight the outbreak ofcoronavirus, the Centre mayalso move in the same directionand keep the country in a stateof lockdown beyond April 14.

Various studies have shownthat the 21-day lockdownmodel is not a foolproof way tocontain the coronavirus out-break and the disease couldreturn when the lockdownends. However, theGovernment has to also makesure that tens of thousands ofdaily-wage earners are fed andsheltered during the extensionof lockdown. It has to also takeinto account the terrible stateof economy due to shutdown ofproduction across every sectionof industries, except pharmasector.

Several States such asTelangana, Maharashtra,Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh Assam,Chhattisgarh and Jharkhandare reported to be in favour ofextending the current phase oflockdown after it ends on April14. These States have con-tributed more than a third ofthe positive cases in India.

“A lot of StateGovernments as well as expertsare requesting the CentralGovernment to extend thelockdown. The UnionGovernment is thinking in thisdirection,” Tweeted Prasar

Bharati News Services citing“Government sources” after acrucial GoM meeting.

The development comes aday after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi asked coun-trymen to be ready for a longbattle against the coronavirus

pandemic, and exhorted peo-ple not to feel tired or defeat-ed while expressing confidencethe country will emerge victo-rious in its fight.

During the day, the Groupof Ministers headed by DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh is learnt

to have also discussed theStates’ suggestion for extensionof the lockdown. Modi isexpected to take a call on thisregard based on the GoM’s sug-gestions.

The GoM meeting wasattended by Union Ministers

Amit Shah, NirmalaSitharaman, Ramvilas Paswan,Piyush Goyal and PrakashJavadekar also analysed theways to open the lockdownfrom April 15.

The meeting is reported tohave discussed suggestion of

opening up the lockdown instaggered or phased mannerwith stringent rules to preventthe spread of the pandemic.

The KarnatakaGovernment said it will take adecision on the continuation ofthe 21 days lockdown thatends on April 14, after exam-ining the report by a panel ofhealth experts who have beentasked with devising an exitstrategy, which is likely to besubmitted in couple of days.

Maharashtra ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeraysaid a decision on the coron-avirus-enforced lockdown willbe taken at an appropriatetime after a review amid hintsit may continue in the Statebeyond April 14.

Thackeray chaired a meet-ing of the Cabinet, the firstthrough video conferencingdue to the outbreak, in whichthe situation prevailing in theState, which has the highestnumber of COVID-19 cases inthe country, and available med-ical infrastructure were dis-cussed, officials said.

The ongoing lockdown,which is in place in view ofcoronavirus outbreak, might beextended in Madhya Pradesh ifneeded, Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan said. “We willtake a decision after analysingthe situation. Lives of peopleare more important. We canresurrect the economy later onbut can’t be able to bring backlives of people,” Chouhan saidin a video statement.

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India on Tuesday partiallylifted the ban on export of

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)to the US after PresidentDonald Trump hinted at “retal-iation” if India does not removerestrictions on the anti-malar-ia drug, which he has oftenclaimed is the “game changer”in fighting coronavirus pan-demic there. The Congress,the TMC and the Left partieshave slammed both Trumpand the Modi Governmentover the issue.

The US President’s threatled to an upheaval in the socialmedia here with Congressleader Rahul Gandhi sayinglife-saving medicines should befirst made available to Indiansand remarked “friendship isnot about retaliation.” He alsosaid India must help all nationsin their hour of need.

Announcing the decisionon Tuesday to partially liftcurbs on export enforced onMarch 25, Ministry of ExternalAffairs Spokesperson AnuragSrivastava said the anti-malar-ia drug would be supplied to“some countries” which are“badly affected” by COVID-19.

Former Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi expressedhis objection to theGovernment U-turn on theissue, saying, “life saving” drugshould be made available to

the country first.He tweeted, “Friendship

isn’t about retaliation. Indiamust help all nations in theirhour of need but lifesavingmedicines should be madeavailable to Indians in amplequantities first.”

Senior Congress leaderShashi Tharoor also criticisedTrump saying, “Never in mydecades of experience in worldaffairs have I heard a Head ofState or Government openlythreatening another like this.What makes IndianHydroxychloroquine “our sup-ply”, Mr President? It onlybecomes your supply whenIndia decides to sell it to you.”(sic).

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India crossed the 5,000 markof positive coronavirus cases

on Tuesday with Maharashtrabecoming the first State in thecountry to go near 1,000 count.As per tallies from States, thetotal count of positive casesstood at 5,200 at 9 pm with 150casualties. The country addedmore than 400 new cases dur-ing the day and the States werestill reporting.

Mahasrashtra, which hasemerged as the biggest hotspotin the country, added 150 newcases on Tuesday and report-ed as many as 60 deaths. TamilNadu registered 67 new cases,which took its count to 690,followed by Delhi, Telangana,Kerala Rajasthan and UttarPradesh.

A day after tea vendoroperating near MaharashtraChief Minister UddhavThackeray’s private residence“Matoshri” at Kalanagar,Bandra (east) in north-westMumbai, tested positive forCovid-19, as many as 170security personnel, includingState reserve personnel, wereon Tuesday quarantined at a

building in the neighbour-hood, as a precautionary mea-sure.

The tea vendor, who hadtested positive, is currentlybeing treated at the HBTMedical College and Dr RNCooper Hospital at Juhu innorth-west Mumbai.

What caused anxiety wasthe fact that the security per-sonnel attached to the CMused to frequent the affectedvendor’s stall to have tea.

Not wanting to take anychances, the BrihanmumbnaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)decided to shift 170 securitypersonnel to the nearby theUttar Bhartiya Sangh buildingin Mumbai’s Bandra (East),where they have been quaran-tined.

Meanwhile, theGovernment has put in placethree-layered mechanism foridentification of the appropri-ate Covid-19 dedicated facili-ty depending on the severity ofthe virus infected patient.

The available data in Indiasuggests that nearly 70 per centof the Covid-19 cases eitherexhibit mild or very mildsymptoms.

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A73-year-old coronaviruspatient, who was admitted

at Delhi’s Lok NayakJayaprakash Hospital (LNJP)after being diagnosed positivewith the life-threatening dis-ease, was discharged onTuesday after his two tests forCOVID-19 came negative.

According to hospitaladministration, patientManmohan Singh has beenfurther advised to quarantinehimself for next 14 days as pre-cautionary measure. Singh,who recovered fully despitebeing suffering from multiplehealth related problems, wastaken out by hospital with staffclapping for him.

Delhi’s Health MinisterSatyendar Jain, a team of doc-

tors, nurses and other healthofficials from LNJP, were alsopresent when Singh was beingdischarged from the hospital.

“Singh was diagnosed pos-itive with COVID-19 and wasbeing treated at the LNJPHospital. I am relieved toannounce that he is now in fullspirit and has been dischargedrecently,” Jain tweeted.

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Noida: No fresh COVID-19case was detected in Noidaand Greater Noida for a thirdday in a row, even as two morecoronavirus patients werecured and discharged fromthe hospital, officials said onTuesday. Gautam BuddhNagar, adjoinining Delhi, inUP has so far recorded 58 pos-itive cases for COVID-19.

Beijing: China on Tuesdayreported no new deaths fromthe deadly coronavirus for thefirst time since it started pub-lishing figures in January butthe number of imported infec-tions increased to 983 with 32new confirmed cases, healthofficials said.

New Delhi: A case has beenregistered against two membersof Tablighi Jamaat for alleged-ly defecating in front of a roomat a quarantine centre in Narelahere. The case was registeredon Saturday, after policereceived information from thesanitation staff.

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Tuesday

announced a five-point actionplan to tackle coronavirusspread in the national Capitaland said one lakh randomrapid COVID-19 tests will beconducted in city’s hotspots.

While addressing a Pressconference via video link, theCM said the DelhiGovernment will take over pri-vate hospitals and 12,000rooms of hotels in a phasedmanner if coronavirus cases

constantly rise and reach up toactive 30,000 cases in the city.Delhi has 525 corona positivecases as on Tuesday night.

The CM said theGovernment has earmarked410 beds in Max Saket (318beds), Apollo (50 beds) andGangaram Colemet (42 beds).He said the Government-runLNJP (1,500 beds), GB Pant(500), Rajiv Gandhi Hospital(450) have been declaredCOVID-19 dedicated hospitals.

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With a view to limit the cir-culation of fake news

and misinformation through itsplatform amid the spread ofcoronavirus, WhatsApp isreducing its limits on messageforwarding even further. It willnow allow users to share fre-quently forwarded messagesto only one chat at a time.

Increased forwards of fakeinformation on symptoms, cures, Governmentadvisories and lockdown exten-sion on WhatsApp have addedto panic among people. Theexisting limit allowing users toforward a message for up to fivetimes will continue as the newrestriction is only for the fre-quently forwarded messages.

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Indian market gauges Sensexand Nifty logged their

biggest one-day gains ever inabsolute terms on Tuesday,tracking global peers amidsigns that the Covid-19 pan-demic may be peaking insome of the hard-hit countries.

Beginning the holiday-truncated week on a highnote, Sensex surged 2,476.26points or 8.97 per cent to set-tle the day at 30,067.21, whilethe Nifty zoomed 708.40points or 8.76 per cent to closeat 8,792.20 — the best sessionever for both and the biggestsince May 2009 in percentage.

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Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel on Tuesday

launched an e-learning plat-form "Padhai Tunhar Dwar",taking an innovative step toteach school children at homeduring the nationwide lock-down in the wake of thenovel coronavirus outbreak.

``With the help of theportal, lakhs of students of thestate will get online educa-tion’’, Baghel said, adding thatthe program wil l proveextremely beneficial in ensur-ing uninterrupted educationof children not only duringthe lockdown period but alsoin the near future.

CM interacted onlinewith a Class-8 girl student

from Tilda in Raipur districtand a primary school teacherfrom Patan block in Durg dis-trict. Baghel congratulatedthe team of the educationdepartment for their initia-tive.

State minister of schooleducation Dr Premsay SinghTekam, principal secretaryschool education departmentDr Alok Shukla, Director,Public Instruction JitendraKumar Shukla were present on the occasion.

The CM said now anyteacher can teach students ofnot only one school, butschools in the entire state,through the online platform.

Schools across the statehave been closed for a longtime due to the lockdown to

prevent infection of the coro-navirus outbreak, Baghel said.

“For this reason, it hasbecome necessar y that children should be providedthe opportunity to read, writeand learn, while staying intheir homes’’, he remarked.

“The state school educa-tion department has launchedthe facility of 'Padhai Tunhar

Dwar' e-platform in the larg-er interest of the students.

“With this, students willnow be able to continue theirstudies on the e-platform.This portal will be utilisedafter lockdown period as wellfor improving quality of edu-cation.”

``Through the e-learn-ing platform, teachers andchildren will be able to con-nect via video conferencingfor online interactive classesand this will be the first majoronline education platform of its kind in thecountry, which will be verybeneficial for the students ofChhattisgarh as well as stu-dents of other Hindi speakingstates, the CM further stated.

More than 40,000 people

visited the portal on the firstday of its launching onMonday and hundreds ofteachers and students have registered themselvesand more than 150 videos andother course materials havealso been uploaded.

The portal for the onlinestudies has been developed bythe state education depart-ment with the help of NIC.

Learning resources forstudents from Class-I to Class10 have been made availableon the website of the depart-ment of school education,cgschool.in.

It will be further expand-ed, after which the facility willbe available to students ofClass 11 and Class 12.

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Amid apprehension byfarmers on Wheat pro-

curement ahead of the harvest,Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar onTuesday assured the farmingcommunity that every grain oftheir produce will be procuredand purchase centres have beenincreased this time to allow“staggered” procurement inview of the lockdown.

Khattar said farmers whostore their harvested wheatcrop for longer durations maybe given incentives.

For the procurement,which normally begins onApril 1, the state governmentthis time has said for wheat itwill begin from April 20 andfor mustard from April 15.

“We have written toCentre that farmers should bepaid ''holding incentive'' fordelaying bringing their pro-duce to ’mandis’ (wholesalemarkets),” Khattar told

reporters through video con-ference. He said as against 433purchase centres and mandislast time, this season thesehave been increased to 2,000to allow staggered procure-ment of wheat, which is like-ly to last over a month.

The chief minister said''Arhitiyas'' will be involved inprocurement process. Thegovernment will digitallytransfer payments to themwho in turn will pay it to thefarmers for the crop procured,he said.

However, for mustard,farmers will be directly paid bythe government, Khattar said.“For mustard we will makepurchases from April 15 andfor this, from 66 mandis ear-lier it will be 140 mandis thistime… We are committed toprocuring every single grain offarmers,” he said.

The chief minister saidthat in view of the COVID-19pandemic, cloth masks will be

made available to farmerswhen they come to mandisand purchase centres.

He appealed to farmers tovoluntary donate at least thesum they would earn on 1-5 kgper quintal of their crop pro-duce. He said that all sectionsof society, including state gov-ernment employees, havemade contributions towards the Haryana COVID ReliefFund.

Khattar said that while alllegislators had decided todonate their month's salary forthe COVID Relief Fund, thegovernor, the deputy CM,assembly speaker, deputyspeaker, ministers and himfrom their discretionary quotahave contributed amountranging between Rs 2 crore toRs 3 crore towards theConsolidated Fund of India,making it total of Rs 51 crore.

On the farmers issue, heassured that despite the lock-down they will not be allowedto face any problem when it

comes to movement of agri-cultural equipment, includ-ing tractors and combine har-vesting machines.

With many migrant work-ers from the state having leftfor their hometown in UttarPradesh and Bihar over a weekago in the wake of lockdown,he said directions have beengiven in districts to makelabourers under the MGN-REGA.

He admitted that farmerswill have to cooperate thistime as availability of labourwas going to be a problem.

On March 28 and 29,many migrant labourers whowere present in Haryana orcame from neighbouringstates like Punjab crossedthrough the state to go to theirhometowns in view of theirapprehensions about the lock-down.

“Some left (for their nativestates) and some werestopped. Today, there arenearly 15,000 migrant labour-

ers who have been accommo-dated in our relief camps.These 15,000, if they want togo their factory or state wherethey work, if they want to goin a safe manner, we canmake efforts to send themback by following all normspertaining to COVID-19 sothat sufficient distance ismaintained in buses, like ineach bus 20-30 people can beaccommodated and sent totheir homes. During the pasttwo days 1,000 such peoplehave gone back,” he said.

Khattar also said that stategovernment had taken steps toprovide food and ration topoor sections including dailywagers and so far, 55 lakh foodpackets and 3.5 lakh rationpackets have been distributed.

On the Haryana COVIDRelief Fund, he said therewas no coercion on employ-ees, but so far 1.82 lakhemployees have come for-ward on their own makinghealthy contributions.

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In a major relief to Punjabisduring the clampdown and

COVID-19 crisis, PunjabGovernment on Wednesdayannounced reduction in fixedcharges for electricity con-sumers, along with defermentof deadline for payment ofbills.

Announcing this, the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh also instructed the statePower Department to provideuninterrupted 24x7 supply toall healthcare institutions.

“PSPCL will have to bearadditional burden of Rs 350crore due to various reliefsannounced for the consumers,”said an official spokespersonadding that the Chief Ministeralso lauded the employees ofPSPCL and PSTCL for theiruntiring efforts in maintainingcontinuous supply of power inthis time of crisis.

The Chief Minister furtherordered that no new discon-nection shall be carried outagainst non-payment tillrestrictions are withdrawn by

the Authority.Spokesperson said that the

reliefs have been announced inview of unprecedented situa-tion in which consumers areunable to pay their dues toPunjab State PowerCorporation Limited (PSPCL).

As per the Chief Minister’sdirectives, due date of electric-ity bills of all domestic andcommercial consumers, havingcurrent monthly or bimonthlybills up to Rs 10,000 payable onor after March 20, 2020, hasbeen extended up to April 20,2020, without levy of late pay-ment surcharge.

Further, one percent rebatewill be given to the consumers(exclusive of any previousarrears) who will pay electric-ity bills online through digitalmodes by original due date.

The same applies to allelectricity bills payable on orafter March 20, 2020, of all theindustrial consumers – medi-um supply (MS) and large sup-ply (LS) industrial consumers.The fixed charges of the indus-trial consumers will also beexempted for the next twomonths, with effect fromMarch 23, 2020, and energycharges may be fixed com-mensurate with reduction infixed charges (single rate), the

Chief Minister has instructed.

Since the Revised EnergyCharges will be paid by con-sumers and will not be con-sidered for subsidy, the MS andLS industrial consumers, whoseunits remained closed duringthis period, will not be requiredto pay any electricity dues.

Capt Amarinder furtherdirected the PrincipalSecretary, Power, A VenuPrasad to provide uninter-rupted 24x7 supply to allhealthcare institutions such asMedical Colleges, Hospitals,

Dispensaries and other MedicalEstablishments and QuarantineCentres across the States fortheir smooth functioning.

He has also directed thatPSPCL shall ensure continuityof supply, and complaints relat-ed to safety and restoration ofsupply shall continue to beattended. However, for othernon-essential services whichrequire visiting consumerpremises for meter reading,billing, release of new connec-tions etc may be discontinuedduring the lockdown period.

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Chandigarh: HaryanaGovernment on Tuesday lodgeda protest with the Delhi govern-ment, alleging that they failed toinform them about a State policeSub Inspector who died at a hos-pital in the national capital aftercontracting COVID-19.

Charging some of thedeceased's family members andthe hospital with concealing infor-mation, cases have also been reg-istered against them.

Haryana Home Minister AnilVij said the SI from Sonipat wasadmitted to a private hospital inDelhi last month after he suffereda brain stroke. Later, he contract-ed coronavirus infection andpassed away on Saturday.

Neither the Delhi governmentnor hospital authorities or even thedeceased's family gave any infor-mation that he had tested positivefor the infection, the minister said."On Tuesday, we lodged a strongprotest with the Delhi governmentand our state chief secretary talkedto her counterpart in this regard.A sub-inspector of the Haryanapolice died in Delhi, but we werenot informed," Vij said.

The minister said they hand-ed over the body to the family,which also concealed the infor-mation. "Many people partici-pated in the deceased's last rites inSonipat and several of his col-leagues from the police stationwhere he worked also took part inthe funeral. He was also given agun salute. Later, we learnt that hehad tested COVID positive," Vijsaid.

“I enquired from my officialsabout this, but they said they hadno information. This is a big lapseon part of the Delhi governmentthat they failed to inform us,” hesaid. Vij said 30-40 people, includ-ing police officials and somemembers of the deceased's fami-ly have been quarantined after therevelation.

“A case has also been regis-tered against some of thedeceased's family members underSections 269 and 270 of the IPCfor concealing the information. Wehave also registered a case againstthe Delhi hospital,” he said. PNS

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To ensure the supply andavailability of essential

commodities to every house-hold in the State, duringCOVID-19 crisis, HaryanaGovernment has constituted‘special teams’ of Food, Suppliesand Consumer AffairsDepartment and DistrictAdministration, to keep acheck on black marketing,hoarding, and price inflation ofessential commodities.

A spokesman of Food,Supplies and Consumer AffairsDepartment on Tuesday saidthe rate capping of 25 essentialcommodities including pulses,sugar, salt, wheat, flour, pota-toes and onions has been doneby all the DeputyCommissioners in their respec-tive districts and every shop-

keeper has been strictly direct-ed not to sell any product

above the capped rate. Apartfrom this, the shopkeepershave been directed to displaythe rate list outside their shops,so that no overcharging isdone. While, it should also beensured that the face masks andhand sanitizers should not besold above MRPs.

The spokesman said thatdirections have also been issuedfor ensuring the adequate avail-ability of mustard oil, pulsesand other essential items in theState, for this, the departmentofficers are in regular contactwith NAFED and the demandof the required stock for puls-es and mustard oil has beensent to NAFED and the samewill be received soon. Heinformed that the supply andavailability of all essential itemsis being ensured throughwholesalers.

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Stepping up its preparationsto tackle the Novel Corona

Virus, Haryana Chief SecretaryKeshni Anand Arora onTuesday directed the officers tomake an aggressive contain-ment plan in their respectivedistricts to stop communitytransmission.

She directed that the con-tainment plan should be madeon the lines of the Union HealthMinistry, adding that the planwill ensure early detection ofcases, breaking the chain oftransmission in the State.

The Chief Secretary gavethese directions while presid-ing over the meeting of theCrisis CoordinationCommittee meeting with theofficers.

She said linking micro-planning with Health aspects isthe need of the hour and everyofficer should ensure the prop-er execution of the same. Shefurther directed that while exe-cuting the micro-level plan-

ning, door to door survey ofevery household should beconducted to ascertain theexact data of how many peopleare quarantined, isolated,recovered, medically tested andif the delivery and supply chainof essential commodities ismaintained appropriately ornot. She said that every DeputyCommissioner should minute-ly understand the problem,analyze it and resolve it at thegrassroot level as in this hourof crisis only aggressive strat-egy will help to tackle this pan-demic.

Chandigarh: Directing all theDistrict Police Chiefs (CPs/SPs)to show “zero tolerance” towardsany attempt to spread rumoursor otherwise vitiate communalharmony, Director General ofPolice (DGP) Haryana, ManojYadava on Tuesday asked themto accord highest importance toprevent such kind of incidents bytaking stern action against anti-social elements in their respec-tive jurisdiction.

In a written communicationto all Commissioners of Policeand District Superintendents ofPolice, the DGP has tasked themto focus on maintenance of Lawand Order by strictly enforcinglock-down across the State.Keeping in view some reportedincidents of attacks on place ofworships or members of a par-ticular community, he hasinstructed all the police officersto be on alert and take precau-tionary measures.

Such incidents not onlyresult in rumour-mongeringand misinformation but have thepotential to damage the social

fabric and vitiate the communalharmony. They also divert thefocus of the administration awayfrom the national fight againstCOVID-19, he said A state-ment said that Home Minister,Anil Vij while presiding over areview meeting on the law andorder situation held on April 6,had also expressed concern overthe rising trend of such incidentsand stated that the Governmenthad a zero tolerance policy oncrime against minorities. Healso instructed to take stringentaction against those involved insuch inhuman acts.

The DGP said strict actionwould be taken against thoseindulging in hate speeches andrumour-mongering on socialmedia about COVID-19, Policehad so far arrested 32 accused fortheir involvement in spreadingfake news or rumors on socialmedia by registering 56 cases. Inaddition, 12 cases have been reg-istered regarding the incidents ofattacks on religious minorities inwhich 25 accused have beenarrested so far. PNS

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In yet another case in Punjab,a family in Amritsar refused

to claim the body of a coron-avirus victim, forcing theDistrict Administration to per-form his last rites.

The incident came a dayafter a family in Ludhiana hadrefused to accept and crematethe body of a 69-year-oldCOVID-19 positive woman.Following which, theAdministration there had toperform her last rites.

As per officials, the 69-year-old Amritsar man, aretired superintending engineerat the civic body there, had diedat a private hospital on

Monday.His family did not respond

to the administration when itasked them to claim the body.Thereafter, the officialsapproached the family, butthey did not come forward forthe last rites.

The daughter of thedeceased is pursuing an MBBScourse and none of his familymembers reached the crema-

tion ground where he was con-signed to flames. Initially, theman had tested negative forCOVID-19 at the GovernmentMedical College in Amritsar.

But when his conditiondid not improve, he was shift-ed to a private hospital, wherehe tested positive for the dis-ease.

Amritsar Civil SurgeonPrabhdeep Kaur Johal said: “A

few days ago, he tested negativefor the infection at the GMClab. Then he went to a privatehospital which declared himpositive in their preliminaryreport.

Thereafter, we took hissamples again for confirmationand found him positive forCOVID-19.”

In another such incident inAmritsar, residents of Verka vil-lage did not allow the crema-tion of Padma Shri recipientand former Golden templeHazuri Raagi Bhai NirmalSingh Khalsa.

The villagers had refused toallow the cremation of theGurbani exponent fearing thespread of the disease.

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The Himachal PradeshGovernment on Tuesday

decided to deduct 30 per centsalaries of State MLAs for a yearto fight the COVID-19 pan-demic.

In a meeting chaired byChief Minister Jai Ram Thakurthrough video conferencingon Tuesday, the State Cabinetdecided to deduct 30 per centsalaries and honorarium of allMembers of LegislativeAssembly, including the chiefminister, Vidhan Sabha speak-er, deputy speaker and minis-ters for one year.

It has also been decided tosuspend the Vidhayak KshetraVikas Nidhi Yojna for twoyears, a spokesperson said.

The State Cabinet alsodecided to deduct 30 per centsalaries of chairmen and vicechairmen of various boards,corporations and all politicalappointees for one year.

On the World Health Day,the Cabinet also expressed itsgratitude to the frontline ‘coro-navirus warriors’ -- doctors,nurses, para medical staff, san-itary workers and police -- fortheir dedicated services duringthe COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chief Minister alsohailed the decision of theUnion Government to deduct30 per cent salaries of thePrime Minister, MPs and cen-tral Ministers.

The Cabinet also paid itstributes to two Army

personnels from the State-paratrooper Bal Krishan ofKullu''s Puyed village andSubedar Sanjeev Kumar ofBilaspur''s Dehra village-- whoalong with three other sol-diers had fallen to the bullets ofmilitants in Jammu andKashmir on Sunday.

CM DIRECTS TO LAUNCHEXTENSIVE CAMPAIGNFOR CONTACT MAPPINGOF TABLIGHI JAMAATCOVID-19 INFECTED PER-SONS

Holding a video confer-encing with all the DeputyC o m m i s s i o n e r s ,Superintendents of Police andChief Medical Officers of theState from Shimla on Tuesday,Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakurdirected the officers that exten-sive campaign must belaunched for contact mappingof Tablighi Jamaat coronavirusinfected persons so that it doesnot multiply further.

"Such persons should bekept in quarantine till they werenot medically examined," hetold the officers. He also urgedthe people to come forward toidentify such people in theirareas to check further spread ofcoronavirus.

Thakur said that StateGovernment would not hesitatein taking strict action againstthose who would conceal infor-mation about their travellinghistory and those who giveshelter to them.

He said the ESI HospitalKatha in Baddi area of Solandistrict has been notified asHospital for treatment ofCOVID-19 positive patientsand patients from Solan andSirmaur districts would betreated in this hospital.

The CM said the StateGovernment had started tele-

medicine consultancy facili-ties in Health and Wellnesscentres to facilitate the peoplein getting treatment advisefrom specialists.

Thakur said that underthe Active Case FindingCampaign launched through-out the State, health informa-tion of 41 lakh persons werecollected by the health workersduring door to door campaign,adding that adequate arrange-ments should be made for pro-viding surgical masks, handsanitizers and gloves to thehealth workers working underActive Case Finding Campaign.

He said 4684 persons hadbeen kept under surveillancefor coronavirus in the State sofar out of which 2188 peoplehad completed 28 days of sur-veillance period, adding thatinvestigations of 79 persons forCOVID-19 had been done inthe State on Tuesday out ofwhich 22 samples have beenfound negative and report of 57samples were still awaited.

GOVERNOR HONOURSHEALTH WORKERS ONWORLD HEALTH DAY

Himachal GovernorBandaru Dattatraya on Tuesdayhonoured the doctors, nursesand safai karamchari at RajBhavan on World Health Daywhile following social distanc-ing norms. He said the wholeworld was fighting with coron-avirus pandemic, which increas-es the importance of this Day.

In the wake of the coron-avirus, millions of doctors, nurs-es, medical staff and healthcareworkers were leaving behindtheir comfort and safety tofight COVID-19 crisis and helpthose infected or suspected ofcoronavirus. “We should salutetheir spirit and give them fullrespect”, said the Governor.

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Chandigarh: To ensure socialdistancing and effective imple-mentation of curfew restrictionsin the city, the religious leadersfrom Muslim community onTuesday issued an appeal topeople to follow theAdministration’s guidelines.

The joint press conference

by various leaders from acrossthe city came after UT Policerequest. SSP Nilambari Jagadalewas also present during the con-ference at Jama Masjid, Sector 20here.

In a joint appeal, MaullanaAjmal Khan of Jama MasjidSector 20, Maullana Imran of

Masjid Manimajra, Mufti Anasof Masjid BDC-26, QuariShamsher of Masjid Sector 45and Noor, member of TablighiJamaat Chandigarh urged thecommunity to stay at home andfollow the curfew restrictions putin place to combat the spread ofCOVID-19 in the city. PNS

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Punjab on Tuesday reportedwhopping 20 new coron-

avirus cases — highest in a sin-gle day — from Pathankot(six), Moga (four), Amritsar(one), Mansa (two), and Mohali(seven) districts, besides onedeath from Amritsar. At thesame time, the state witnessed10 positive patients fromNawanshahr, Hoshiarpur andMohali recovering.

A total of seven peoplefrom Mohali district’sJawaharpur village were testedpositive, where the panch wasdiagnosed with coronavirus,taking the total number ofcases in the district highest inPunjab to 26. As many 11people from Jawaharpur vil-lage, in Dera Bassi tehsil, arepositive for COVID-19.

“As many 26 samples weretaken by conducting extensivecontact tracing after the first pos-itive case from the village wasadmitted in Chandigarh’sGovernment medical Collegeand Hospital, Sector 32. Nowthey all have been shifted to theGian Sagar Hospital at Banur,which is under GovernmentManagement,” said MohaliDeputy Commissioner GirishDayalan.

“Instead of just quarantiningthe primary contacts of positivecases, we have taken samplesextensively…Similarly, we arealso containing the affectedareas and stopping inward andoutward movement, except foressential supplies,” said Dayalan.

He said that the DistrictAdministration is undertakingextensive contact tracing todetect possible corona viruspositive cases which is clear fromthe fact that out of 2,368 sam-ples taken in Punjab, nearly 600,that is 25 percent have beentaken by the MohaliAdministration through contacttracing.

“A total of 118 samples ofthe further contacts of thosefound positive have been taken.As a part of the immediatestarting of the containment pro-tocol, 522 houses have been sub-jected to survey for checking ofsymptoms,” he said adding thatthe entire village has alreadybeen sealed as a precautionarymeasure.

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RAIPUR | WEDNESDAY | APRIL 08, 2020chhattisgarh 03

Farmers in Jagdalpur distribute vegetables free of cost in more than 20 villages in response to a call from the districtadministration on Monday. Pioneer Photo

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel

on Tuesday spoke to prisonersin different jails in the statevia video conferencing, totake stock about the arrange-ments made and preventivemeasures taken to preventcorona infection.

The chief minister spoketo offcials of five Central Jails,District Jails and Sub-Jails ofthe state, including CentralJail of capital city Raipur.

He directed prisonofficials to ensure strictcompliance to the precaution-ary measures such as socialdistancing, wearing masksand hand-washing frequentlyin Jails.

On the occasion, statehome and jail ministerTamradhwaj Sahu, additionalchief secretary to chiefminister Subrat Sahoo alsojoined the video conference.

Baghel asked the officialsconcerned about the status ofcleanliness in jails, health ofprisoners, food arrangements,visitors arrangements, healthyentertainment, legal aid for

prisoners and release ofprisoners, and smallindustries in jails.

The chief minister duringthe discussion with officialsand prisoners of different jailssaid that Covid-19 outbreak isa pandemic, and for this,prevention is the best cureand precautionary measuresshould be strictly followed.

There are five central jails,12 district jails and 16 sub-jails, with total accommoda-tion capacity of 12 thousand823, against which 17 thou-sand 131 prisoners (8151 sen-tenced and 8980 under trial)are in jails as on April 1, 2020.

Baghel gave instructions

to ensure health check-up ofall the prisoners and provideother necessary healthfacilities in jails for them toprevent corona virus infectionamong prisoners.

He directed that the newprisoners should be kept inseparate wards.

During the video confer-ence, officials informed thatto prevent the spread of coro-navirus infection among pris-oners in jails, regular cleaningof jail premise and wards arebeing ensured, and alsomasks, soaps and hygieneproducts have been providedin additional quantity.

Prisoners have been

directed to maintain personalhygiene as well.

The chief minister alsosought information aboutfood arrangements, visitorsarrangements and healthyentertainment arrangementsfor prisoners.

Officials informed thatprisoners are being providedfreshly-cooked food as per therules. Daily different vegeta-bles are being provided, toenhance their immunity.

Until April 2020, prison-ers are not being allowed tomeet their family members orvisitors.

In this case, prisoners arebeing allowed to talk to their

families through calling sys-tem. Officials informed thatcolour television, radios,chess games, carom, newspa-pers-magazines and educa-tional books are being provid-ed for healthy entertainmentof prisoners.

Baghel also reviewed thetraining of dignified liveli-hood and rehabilitation beingprovided to prisoners about tobe released from jails and theprisoners released from jailsas on April 5, 2020, onSupreme Court’s orders.

Officials informed that asper the apex court's orders, atotal of 1193 prisoners havebeen released as on 5 April

2020, which includes 892 pris-oners released on interim/reg-ular bail and 255 prisoners onparole and 46 prisoners whohave completed the term ofsentence.

Officials also informedthat these prisoners of variousjails of the state are being pro-vided training in dignifiedmeans of livelihood such asskills of iron industries,wooden art, weaving, stitch-ing, powerloom, offset-print-ing machines etc, so that theymay join the mainstream ofsociety after release. CM gaveinstructions to ensure socialdistancing between prisonersin jails during training.

Baghel takes stock of covid-19preventive preparedness in prisons STAFF REPORTER n

RAIPUR

Aman in home quarantinewho died in

Rajnandgaon on Monday,had not tested positive forCovid-19, a top state healthofficial said on Tuesday.

State health secretaryNiharika Barik Singh told thePioneer that swap samples ofthe quarantined man,Dashruram, who died inJarhamahka in Churia blockof Rajnandgaon district onMonday, had tested negativefor the contagious disease.

“He died of some otherdisease and his covid-19 testwas negative,” the health sec-retary confirmed.

The deceased,Dashruram, 45, was a truckdriver by profession and was

put on home quarantine inhis native Jarhamahka villagein Rajnandgaon after hereturned from Telangana cap-ital Hyderabad on March 28,she said.

His throat and nose swapsamples were immediatelysent to the All India Instituteof Medical Sciences (AIIMS),Raipur for further tests anddue of it, the funeral was notperformed on Tuesday, thehealth secretary said.

Meanwhile, his deathcreated panic and his bodywas kept in the district hospi-tal mortuary till the testreport, which was negative,reached from the state capital.

The dead body was nothanded over to the familymembers, sensing sensitivityof the issue, Singh said.

‘Man in homequarantine did notdie of coronavirus’

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

As part of the continuing pre-ventive measures to combat

the spread of the coronavirusoutbreak in the state, theChhattisgarh government onTuesday, extended the closure ofregistration offices until April14.

Earlier, the closure orderissued by the state commercialdepartment (registration) waseffective until April 7.

Keeping in view of thecontinuing preventive measuresfor the pandemic, the closuredate has been extended untilApril 14, until further order, anofficial release said.


The Chhattisgarh governmenton Tuesday said any individ-

ual or organisation can con-tribute money to the ChiefMinister’s Relief Fund (CMRF)online.

Officials said that an onlineportal for the CMRF has beenlaunched and donations can bedone through the portalcmrf.cg.gov.in.

The donations to the CMRFwill be utilized for the feed, assistand treat impoverished and needypeople in the state as part of thegovernment’s preventive measuresto combat the spread of the coron-avirus outbreak.

Donations to the CMRF will beexempted from income tax underSection 80G of the Income Tax Act.

The donors can also obtainonline receipts of the donation toavail tax rebates, officials said.

Registration office closureextended until April 14

Online portal for CMRF launchedCMRF will be utilized forthe feed, assist and treatimpoverished and needypeople in the state as partof the government’spreventive measures tocombat the spread of thecoronavirus outbreak


People in Chhattisgarh whoare habitual drinkers, will

still have go out alcohol forone more week as liquor out-lets and bars across the statewill continue to remain shutuntil April 14.

An order issued by thestate excise department onTuesday, extended the clo-sure of the liquor vends aswell as the godowns of thestate beverage corporation forone more week until April 14.

Liquors shops and barsacross the state are closeduntil April 7 in view of thenationwide lockdown to con-

tain the spread of Covid-19.Citing the reason of pre-

venting the citizens fromspread of contagious coron-avirus, the excise department

also issued a circular in thisregard to the district collectorsof all the 27 districts across thestate and instructed to followthe lockdown strictly.

Notable, recently thedepartment had formed acommittee to look into thematter of lifting ban on sale ofliquor across the state keepingin view the physical and men-tal conditions of habitualdrinkers.

The non availability ofliquor in the market due tothe ongoing lockdown iscausing lot problems, includ-ing mental problems forhabitual drinkers.

Three people in the capi-tal city, recently died afterallegedly consuming surgicalspirit as a replacement of theliquor amid the nation-widelockdown to combat thespread of coronavirus.

Tipplers have to waitfor another week

STAFF REPORTER nAMBIKAPUR

Sixty police personnel,including station house

officers, sub-inspectors, assis-tant subinspectors and con-stables in the Surguja policerange were rewarded for per-forming outstanding dutyduring the ongoing lock-down, police said on Tuesday.

Ten sub inspectors, 10assistant sub inspectors, 10head constables and 25 con-stables were given a total cashreward of `20,000, police said.

Notably, in order to boostthe morale of the police per-sonnel engaged in Covid-19pandemic lockdown duty inthe police range, inspectorgeneral of police (IGP)Surguja range Ratanlal Dangihad announced performancerewards for them.

One station head officer

(SHO), two sub inspectors(SIs), and two assistant subinspectors (ASIs), two headconstables, five constableswill be selected from eachdistrict and given cash prizefor their commendable jobduring the Covid-19 pan-demic lockdown duty inSurguja range every day, theIGP had announced.

The superintendents ofpolice of five districts underthe Surguja range, will short-list the names of the policepersonnel doing outstandingjobs and they will be givencash reward, a senior policeofficial said.

The selection criteriaincludes maintaining law andorder, coordination with dis-trict administration, sensitiv-ity with general public, help-ing people, better coordina-tion with staff, he added.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

The Chhattisgarh chapter ofthe Confederation of All

India Traders (CAIT) on Tuesdayquestioned the role of e-com-merce companies operating inthe country for suspending theiroperations when the whole worldand India is facing the onslaughtof coronavirus pandemic.

CAIT national vice-presidentAmar Parwani, state workingpresidents Magelal Malu andVikram Singhdeo, in a joint state-ment, said when the whole worldand country is going through acrises, the e-commerce compa-nies have suspended their opera-tion when it is most required forthe consumers.

The e-commerce companieshave failed to fulfill the needs ofthe nation, they said terming it as

the most irresponsible stand andhave to be condemned when allthe commercial establishmentshave to play a key role in fightingover the crises by coming for-ward.

By pulling back their opera-tions at this time of crises is mostunfortunate, as it would not gen-erate profits for them, the CAITsaid.

The office bearers allegedthat for all the year round, thesecompanies operate to eat into thebusiness of small retailers butnow they are not seen anywherewhen the people need it the most.

Amar Parwani said lovaltraders have come forward toensure the availability and distri-bution of essential items acrossthe country as even after the scareof getting coronavirus infection.“The work has been continued

through selfless mode,” he said.As per the call made by the

Prime Minister, the traders havebeen contributing to avoid anyscarcity of foodgrains and otheressential items across the country.

Out of the 1.25 crore tradersdue to different kinds of lock-down restrictions only 25% areworking on the supply, Parwanisaid.

He further said that withcontinuing lockdown in the last20 days in the country, the retailsector losses per day is around?15000 crore as around 7 croretraders have been affected in thecountry.

Parwani said the CAIT haswritten a letter seeking specialeconomic package to the 7 croreretailers across the country toprovide relief during this period.


Keeping in view ofreports of a tiger in

Bronx Zoo in New Yorkgetting infected by the coro-navirus pathogen, state for-est minister MohammadAkbar on Tuesday,reviewed the protectivemeasures at national parks,sanctuaries and zoos inChhattisgarh.

Akbar also reviewedthe arrangements for stop-ping human entry into thewildlife parks, officials said.

The minister directedofficials to strictly followthe advice of the central zoo

authority and national tigerconservation authority,which was issued followingthe tiger in Bronx zoo get-ting infected by Covid-19.

“Entry to all zoos andwild life centers have beenclosed since March 15 inview of Covid-19 breakout,”the minister said.

The minister directed

forest department officialsto keep eye on animals andsaid: “In case wild animalsshow any kind coronavirussymptoms then theirsamples must be taken fortesting.”

He further said that theentire campus of the JungleSafari in Nava Raipur andzoo premises has been

sanitized by the RaipurMunicipal Corporation.

Similarly, Bilaspurforest division had sanitizedthe Kanan Pendari zoo andBhilai Steel Plant has beenintimated of the advisoryfor its Maitri Bagh zoo, headded.

Likewise, theNandanvan zoo, Raipur,

will be sanitized on April 8,he said.

Deer death in KananPendari, natural not due toCovid-19

Refuting claims that afemale cheetal (deer) at theKanan Pendari zoo inBilaspur, had died of coron-avirus, forest officials said apostmortem report hasrevealed that the death wasnatural.

“The cheetal had diedof old age and natural rea-sons. Multi-organ failurewas the reason for its deathand not Covid-19,” princi-pal chief conservator of for-est (wildlife) Atul Shuklasaid.

CAIT condemns e-commercecos for suspending operations

Forest Min reviews protectivemeasures at wildlife centres

Surguja cops rewarded foroutstanding lockdown duty

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The Government has goneall out to tap the potential

of vast pool of ex-servicemenby deploying several thousandsof them all over the country invarious roles in the fight againstthe coronavirus pandemic.This measure comes in tandemwith mobilisation of more than500 National CadetCorps(NCC)cadets nowdeployed on duties like ensur-ing supply chain management,law and order, and sensitisinglocal people about the pan-demic.

With more than 5,000 ex-servicemen already deployed inthe fight against the disease,defence ministry officials saidhere on Tuesday the veteransbelonging to Army, Navy andAir Force are assisting the civiladministration and providingtheir services voluntarily andselflessly.

It is being coordinated byDepartment of Ex-ServicemenWelfare (DESW), Ministry ofDefence. The veterans are beingcontacted through the

Kendriya Sainik Board and anetwork of 32 Rajya SainikBoards at State-level and 403Zila Sainik Board all over thecountry.

Giving state-wise figures,they said in Karnataka,Brigadier Ravi Munniswamy(retired), who is coordinatingthe effort across the State, isspearheading a team of 45 vet-eran bicycle riders inBengaluru, who through aWhatsApp group are providingmedicine and essential suppliesto old and infirm in the city.

In Andhra Pradesh,around 300 ex-Servicemen vol-unteers are assisting the statepolice while in Uttar Pradesh,the Zila Sainik Boards in 75districts of Uttar Pradesh areassisting with a team of veter-ans. They have already identi-fied and contacted 6,592 for-mer military personnel fromArmy Medical Corps in thestate and put them on standbyfor any contingency.

As regards Punjab, BrigSatinder Singh (retired),Director Rajya Sainik Board,Punjab, informed that they

have employed 4,200 Ex-Servicemen as Guardians ofGovernance who are present inevery village of Punjab fordata collection and communi-ty surveillance.

Similarly in Chhattisgarh,Air Commodoree A NKulkarni(retired), who is coor-dinating the response in thestate, informed that so far onlya handful of veterans havebeen employed to provideassistance to the police in

Bilaspur, Janjgir and Korba.In the North-East,

Brigadier Narain DuttJoshi(retired) is ready with 300volunteers to assist in 19Districts of Assam. WhereasColonel Gautam Kumar Rai(retired) at Shillong has 79volunteers ready to assist thecivil administration. Brig JPTiwari (retired) from Tripurahas reported that the list of vol-unteers has been shared withthe State and district adminis-

tration and they are on stand-by for any task assigned tothem.

Similar efforts are order ofthe day in the states ofJharkhand, Haryana andUttarakhand. Brigadier Pathak(retired) from Jharkhand,Colonel Rahul Yadav (retired)from Haryana and BrigadierKB Chand (retired) fromUttarakhand are taking neces-sary steps to mobilise veteransthere.

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Congress president SoniaGandhi on Tuesday once

again wrote a letter to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, thistime suggesting the adoption offive austerity measures to gen-erate financial resources as thenation fights the Covid-19pandemic.

From suspending theambitious �20,000 croreCentral Vista project to com-pletely banning Governmentand PSUs’ print and electron-ic media advertisements; fromscaling down the Government’sexpenditure budget by 30 per-cent to withholding all foreigntrips of the PM, Ministers,CMs and government officialsand lastly, transferring themoney under the ‘PM-Cares’fund to the Prime MinistersNational Relief Fund, for rea-sons of transparency amongothers.

Suggesting that theGovernment immediately sus-pend the �20,000-crore ‘CentralVista’ beautification and con-struction project, Sonia said: “Ata time like this, such an outlayseems self-indulgent to say theleast. This sum could instead beallocated towards construct-ing new hospital infrastructureand diagnosis along with equip-ping our frontline workers withPPEs and better facilities.”

“I am certain thatParliament can function com-

fortably within the existing his-torical buildings. There is nourgent or pressing requirementthat cannot be postponed untilthis crisis is contained,” she said.

She also asked the PrimeMinister to impose a completeban on media advertisementsby the government and PSUsfor a period of two years, withadvisories for issues relating topublic health being the soleexception.

Sonia’s letter comes a dayafter the Modi governmentpromulgated an ordinance tocut salaries of the MPs, Unionministers and the PM by 30%for a year. The governmentalso announced to suspend theMP-LAD fund scheme for thenext two years.

Welcoming the govern-ment’s decisions, Soniademanded that the govern-ment scale down its ownexpenditure too. “It makessense to order a proportionatereduction of 30 per cent in theexpenditure budget (otherthan salaries, pensions and central government schemes)for the Government of India aswell. This 30 per cent (i.e. � 2.5lakh crores per year approxi-mately) can then be allocatedtowards establishing an eco-nomic safety net for migrant workers, labourers, farmers,MSMSe and those in the unor-ganised sector,” she men-tioned.

Sonia further demanded

that all foreign visits includingthose of the Prime Minister,Union ministers, ChiefMinisters, state ministers and bureaucrats be put onhold and the amount beutilised in measures to combatthe crisis.

In her third letter to Modisince the nationwide lock-down was announced, theCongress chief referred to aconversation the PM had withher and sought suggestionsfrom the party to tide over thecoronavirus crisis. She hadearlier written to the PM onthe issues of helping themigrant workers and dailywage earners.

She also suggested trans-ferring all money collectedunder the ‘PM CARES’ fundto the ‘Prime Minister’sNational Relief Fund’ toensure efficiency, transparen-cy and accountability.

"It seems like a waste ofeffort and resources to haveand create two separate enti-ties for the distribution offunds. I understand that �3,800 crores approximatelyare lying unutilised in thePMNRF (at the end of FY-2019).

These funds, plus theamount in the PM CARESfund, can be utilised to ensurean immediate food securitynet for those at the very mar-gins of society,” Sonia said inher letter to the PM.

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At a time when there havebeen concerns regard-

ing health care professionalsgetting infected while inter-act ing with C ovid-19patients, scientists from SreeChitra Tirunal Institute forMedical S c iences andTechnology (SCTIMST), anautonomous institute of theDepartment of Science andTechnology (DST), havedesigned and developed adisinfected barrier-examina-tion booth for examiningsuch patients.

The innovative disinfect-ed examination booth isclosed like a telephone boothfor examining the patientwithout direct contact withthe doctor to prevent trans-mission of infection. It isequipped with a lamp, tablefan, rack, and Ultraviolet(UV) light and has enoughspace for the patient.

The installed UV light inthe booth disinfects thechamber after each patientleaves. The UV light installedhas a wavelength of 254 nmwith a 15 watts rating, whicheffectively removes most ofthe viral load within 3 min-utes of exposure, saidMuraleedharan CV, one of thebrains behind the innova-tion.

A pair of gloves providedin the examination boothallows the patient’s physical

examination. Additionally, anentry tunnel on the side frameis provided to pass aStethoscope within the cham-ber. This feature would helpthe doctor to place stetho-scope on the patient and lis-ten to heart and breathsounds.

After the examination,the patient is requested tovacate the chamber, and UVlight will be turned on for 3minutes. When UV exposurein the chamber is completed,

the next patient is examined,and the sequence is repeated.

"Providing the higheststandards of safety to thedoctors and the front-linemedical workers while inter-acting with the carriers of ahighly contagious virus isclearly a critical priority. Athoughtfully designed pro-tective booth with clinicianinputs is a good step in thatdirection”, explained ProfessorAshutosh Sharma, Secretary,DST.

The other innovatorsinclude Ramesh Babu V, D S.Nagesh, Saurabh S. Nair,Arvind Kumar Prajapati, Dr.Sivakumar KGV and the teamof Artificial Internal Organ(AIO) and Division Of ExtraCorporeal Devices (ECD),SCTIMST.

The technical know-howof the Examination Boothhas already been transferredto Fly Tech Industr ies ,Trivandrum, said Sharma.

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As a preventive measureamid the COVID-19 out-

break, the Border SecurityForce (BSF) has issued a direc-tive to all the formationsextending the leave of per-sonnel already on leave and aredue to join this month tillApril 21.

Earlier, the CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF)CRPF had issued similarinstructions extending theleave till April 15. The CRPFhad also limited grant of leaveto its personnel and in cases ofemergency, the duration ofleave was fixed at a minimumof 30 days.

"Instructions have beenissued to all formations of BSFthat leave of personnel to beextended up to 21st April whoare already on leave and aredue to join in the month ofApril 2020. To avoid any com-munication gap, they havebeen telephonically informednot to rejoin work before April21," a senior BSF official said..

Similar instructions havebeen issued for the trainingcenters where training pro-grams are underway barringthem from any movement inthe interim period.

After a Second-in-Command officer was testedto be positive for COVID

recently at BSF's academy atTekanpur, as many as 50 per-sonnel were sent on quaran-tine.

Likewise, a Chief MedicalOfficer of the CRPF was test-ed positive for COVID-19.Following this eights per-sons in contact with theCMO who had stayed at aTransit Officers Mess in Saketwere quarantined.Subsequently, 200 other offi-cials including the DirectorGeneral of CRPF and SeniorSecurity Advisor of the UnionHome Ministry K VijayKumar, three InspectorsGeneral and others werequarantined as a precaution-ary measure.

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Accusing US PresidentDonald Trump of arm-

twisting, CPI(M) politburoon Tuesday urged theGovernment to consider onlythe safety and welfare of thepeople of India. “Trump’sthreat to India is in tune withthe obnoxious attempts tosecure drugs and other pan-demic related material and indiverting supplies meant forother countries in pure selfinterest,” said the party's politbureau.

CPI (M) general secretarySitaram Yechury wrote toPresident Ramnath Kovind toimmediately look into theplight of migrant labourers,economic consequences,shortage in medical supplieseven as he accused the Centreof failing to deal the Covidcrisis.

He also accused the BJPof communal polarisationduring the pandemic crisis.

“As the custodian of theConstitution, I hope that youwill not allow communalpolarisation to grow in thesetr ying t imes when the country needs to be united inits fight against an enemy that does not distinguish onthe basis of identities of reli-gion, caste, class etc. Pleaseimpress upon “yourGovernment” that what is

needed is human empathy not crimi-nalisation,” said Yechury inhis letter to the President.

CPI(M) leader BrindaKarat, in her letter to HealthMinister Harsh Vardhan.demandedwithdrawal of sus-pension of certain rules inrelation to pre-natal genderscreening rules of the PCP-NDT Act.

“This is with reference tothe Gazette notification datedApril 4 by the Department ofHealth and Family Welfaresuspending certain Rules ofthe PCPNDT Act. This isdone in the name of the “unprecedented situation cre-ated by Covid-19” and isvalid till June 30. I am notsure whether this is donewith your approval. I amwriting to request you to have a relook at this notification, consider itsimplications and to withdrawit,” she said, demanding thewithdrawal of the notification.

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Besides the Coronavirusscare, the Government is

also worried about theapproaching summers that maycause fires in the tiger reservesacross the country.

It is against this backdropthat the National TigerConser vat ion Authority(NTCA), an autonomousbody under the UnionEnvironment Ministry tomonitor the big cats in thecountry, has now issued a cir-cular, asking the States to bevigilant and to strengthenthe patrolling services in thetiger habitats to keep a tab onany fire incident and take pre-ventive steps accordingly.

There are around 4,000big cats in the 50 tigerreserves across the States.

In an advisory issued tothe States , NTCA DIG(Forest) Nishant Verma saidthat a few cases of forest fires

in some tiger reserves havebeen reported on variousforums during the ongoinglockdown period which is amatter of concern.

Since the forest staff andpatrolling services have beenincluded in the exempted list,it is important that they aredeployed effectively to mon-

itor the activities in theforests.

“It is kindly Informed thata considerable financial assis-tance under the ongoingCentrally Sponsored Schemeof Project Tiger has been pro-vided for preventive controlfor forest fire protection in thetiger reserves based on

reser ve specif icAnnual Plans ofOperations.

“I am directed torequest that the fireprotection measuresare implemented onwar footing in view ofthe sensitivity or vul-nerability of thereserves, particularlykeeping in mind theskeletal presence offield personnel inthese times (lock-down period),” saidVerma.

The country’s for-est policy encourages

a zero forest fire approach forits protected landscapes.

The countr y’s t igerreserves are already on highalert after a tigress in a Zoo inNew York was found to besuffering with the deadlyCoronavirus which hasclaimed thousands of livesacross the countries.

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Appealing to the people tostrictly and honestly follow

the guidelines of lockdownand social distancing on theoccasion of Shab-e-Barat,Union Minority AffairsMinister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvion Tuesday urged the people tooffer prayers and perform otherreligious rituals staying insidetheir homes.

In the backdrop of theNizamudden East event wherea gathering of the communityhas unwittingly caused a spikein coronavirus cases inNational Capital and otherstates, Naqvi said almost allreligious and social organisa-tions have appealed to theMuslims to honestly followthe guidelines of lockdownand social distancing on Shab-e-Barat.

“All the State Waqf Boards,through the Central WaqfCouncil, have been directed toassist the local administrationin implementation of lock-

down completely” on the occa-sion. The minister said reli-gious leaders have appealed tothe community “to offerprayers and perform other reli-gious rituals staying insidetheir homes”.

“We should also pray at ourhomes to give strength to India

and the entire world to elimi-nate challenges of Corona,”said Naqvi.

The Minister said theentire country is following theguidelines of lockdown andsocial distancing on the appealof Prime Minister NarendraModi. “Any type of carelessnesscan be harmful for us, our fam-ily, the society and the entirecountry”, Naqvi said and askedall to follow guidelines pre-scribed by the administration.

Social distancing hasbecome the only and the mosteffective weapon against coro-navirus. The three-week lock-down effected by theGovernment from the mid-night of March 25 has precise-ly been designed to check thecommunity spread of the virusacross the country.

But members of theTablighi Jamaat congregation,many of them being foreigners,have left their ‘contact trail’across many states andincreased corona cases by morethan 30 per cent in India.

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Tuesday issuednotice to the AssamGovernment on a plea seekingthe release of people fromdetention centres in the statewho have completed morethan two years to avoidspreading of COVID-19, stat-ing that the centres are "over-crowded".

Earlier, the Minister ofState for Home Affairs,Nityanand Rai, informed theRajya Sabha that as many as802 people were in detentioncentres in Assam as on March6 this year.

The Union Health andFamily Welfare Ministry todaysaid that the total number ofcoronavirus positive cases inthe country has gone up to4,421. Agencies

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The Supreme Court onTuesday sought response from the Centre on a plea

for immediate evacuation of allIndian students who arestranded in the UnitedKingdom (UK) amid the lock-down due to COVID-19 pan-demic.

The plea has said that gov-ernments of the UK andGermany have approached theCentre to facilitate return oftheir nationals stranded inIndia due to lockdown hereand, as per media reports,flights would be operated in thenear future from Mumbai andNew Delhi for this purpose.

The petition, filed byDelhi-based advocateMadhurima Mridul, said thatthe Government should bedirected to ensure that flightsferrying British nationals fromIndia to the UK be used toevacuate Indian students whoare stranded there and arewilling to come back.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justice LNageswara Rao asked SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta to takeinstructions on the issue andposted the matter for hearingon April 13.

Advocate Sunil Fernandesappeared for the petitionerduring the hearing which wasconducted through video-con-ferencing.

The plea has also soughta direction to the governmentto ensure that till requisitearrangements are made forevacuation, the studentsstranded in the UK are pro-

vided accommodation, ade-quate health and medical sup-port, if needed, by the IndianHigh Commission in London.

It said that many of thesestudents are exposed to greaterrisk of contracting COVID-19as they are living in packedhostels with shared kitchenand bathroom facilities duringthe lockdown imposed in theUK, which has so far record-ed over 2,300 deaths due tocoronavirus.

The plea, filed by advocateAstha Sharma, said that thegovernment should ensurethat these students are quar-antined and provided with allmedical and health facilities asprescribed by the WorldHealth Organisation.

It said that due to travelban amid coronavirus pan-demic, many Indian students,who had earlier booked tick-ets and reached various air-ports in the UK, were strand-ed and unable to take theirjourney to India.

"Surprisingly, India isprobably the only country that

has imposed an embargo onthe return of its own citizens,and where other countries aremaking all possible efforts torepatriate their citizens strand-ed in various countries, Indiawith its travel bans has madeit impossible for its own citi-zens to come back home," itsaid.

The plea claimed thatcountries having moreCOVID-19 cases like China,Spain, Italy, Iran and the UShave not imposed any embar-go on the return of theirnationals from foreign coun-tries.

It said that Indian gov-ernment could quarantinethose who return from abroadand impose reasonable restric-tions on their movement butto "pass a blanket order of pre-venting an Indian citizen fromreturning back to his home-land is violative of theConstitutional rights" guaran-teed under Articles 14 (equal-ity before law) and 21 (pro-tection of life and personal lib-erty).

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BJP president J P Nadda onTuesday paid tributes to

soldiers who were killed in anencounter with terrorists inJammu and Kashmir'sKupwara district.

The soldiers were killedin a fierce exchange of firewith a group of terroristswhich had infiltrated fromacross the Line of Control inKeran sector of northKashmir, officials had saidon Sunday.

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Considering the hardshipfaced by the flower and

betel-leaf cultivators duringthe lockdown period theBengal Government has decid-ed to lift curbs on these busi-nesses from Wednesday.

Briefing the media onTuesday Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee said that the“flower and paan cultivatorshave been facing tremendoushardship during the lockdown.So the Government has decid-ed to open flower markets andpaan shops from Wednesday.”

The police will not stop thevehicles bringing flowers andbetel leaf, she maintained.Apart from this theGovernment has also decidedto afford partial relief to the bidiindustry specifying only thosedomestic units will run wherenot more than seven people areinvolved in making bidis.Thebidi workers have been askedto make their products at homewhile agents have been allowedto collect the bundles main-taining social distance.

The “kishan Mandis” or

the farmers’ markets will con-tinue to function helping thefarmers to deal in their prod-ucts, she said reminding“extreme caution will have to bemaintained while you are in themandis.”

Banerjee’s decision cameamid reports of the StateGovernment identifying sevencorona hotspots where “intenseprogramme is being taken tocurb the spread of the disease.”The Chief Minister said “wehave identified seven areas ofcorona infections and we areworking intensely to keepthings under control.”

Amid mutual mud-sling-ing between the BJP and theTrinamool Congress over theway the crisis is being handledby the State Government withthe saffron outfit accusing theChief Minister of suppressingfacts regarding the number ofdeaths, Banerjee on Tuesdaysaid that “thus far there hasbeen 5 Corona-related deathsand 69 cases of infections.”

She said while 13 peoplehave been cured and that out ofthe 69 infected people 60 camefrom 9 families.

Expressing fear thatthere could be massiveinflux of migrant workers

stuck up in different statesshould the lockdown was lift-ed suddenly the Chief Ministersaid that such workers will bequarantined in “safe houses” forthe period when mandatoryisolation is required.

“In case the lockdown islifted suddenly there will bemassive influx of workers whoare stuck up in other States.Naturally social distancing willbe violated and causing healthhazards. Keeping this in viewthe State Government will keepthem at quarantine centres,”Banerjee said adding howeverthat she would “call these places‘safe houses’ instead of quar-antine centres.”

Meanwhile, responding toa call from the Left leadershipthe Chief Minister on Tuesdayheld a meeting with seniorMarxist leaders like LF chair-man Biman Bose and CPI(M)State secretary SuryakantoMishra both of who are polit-buro members of their party.The Left leaders appealed to theChief Minister to ensure safereturn of the migrant workersstuck up in the distant states,sources said.

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The Azad Maidan Police onTuesday registered an FIR

against 150 attendees ofTablighi Markaz atNizamuddin in New Delhi lastmonth for their alleged negli-gent act that allegedly con-tributed to the spread of thecoronavirus in the metropolis.

A day after they asked themto furnish their travel details or

face strict action, the police reg-istered an FIR against 150returnees from Nizammuddinunder sections 269 (whoeverwillfully or negligently doesany act which is likely to spreadthe infection of any diseasedangerous to life) and 271 (dis-obedience to quarantine rule)and other relevant provisions ofIndian Penal Code.

The police registered anoffence against 150 persons

based on a complaint lodgedby the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)at the Azad Maidan PoliceStation in south Mumbai.

“We request all attendees ofTablighi Markaz at Nizamuddin,New Delhi to report their trav-el details on @mybmc helpline1916 & help us in our fightagainst this pandemic. Thosefailing to cooperate will facestrict action under IPC, DM Act

& Epidemic Act,” the Mumbaipolice had tweeted on Monday.

The police said that despiteadvisories by the BMC, severalof those who had returned fromTablighi Markaz at Nizamuddin,had refused to quarantain them-selves.

The registration of casesagainst the 150 attendees of thereligious congregation atNizamuddin came on a daywhen the total number Covid-

19 deaths mounted to 40 andinfected cases to 590 inMumbai.

The state health authoritieshad said on Saturday that near-ly 1400 people fromMaharashtra had attended theNizamuddin event. “Of them,1033 have so far been identified.As many as 738 people havebeen quarantined. Nine havetested positive for Coronavirus,”an official had said.

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The number of persons test-ed positive for coronavirus

in Tamil Nadu shot up to 690by Tuesday evening, accordingto Beela Rajesh, secretary,Health and Family Welfare.“On Tuesday 69 patients weretested positive out of which 63persons were from a singlesource (Tablighi Jamaat meet atNizamuddeen). Out of the 63patients, three are from thesame family,” she said in herdaily media briefing.

Tuesday saw a 64-year-oldlady succumbing to the dread-ed virus which took the toll toseven due to the dreaded dis-ease. Rajesh said 34 districts inTamil Nadu have been afflict-

ed with Corona Virus.“Chennai and Coimbatoretopped the league with maxi-mum number of positive cases,”she said.

The testing of 1,630 per-sons who attended the TablighiJamaat meet showed that 636individuals were afflicted withcorona virus. This means thatonly 54 persons in the State

who had not attended theDelhi congregation had devel-oped the corona virus. “If youremove the number of personswho had travelled to Delhi forthe religious meet, Tamil Naduis safe and secure fromCOVID-19 disease,” said asenior health official.

Tamil Nadu governmenthas taken a decision not to usethe word Tabliqi Jamaat todiscriminate the persons affect-ed with corona virus. TheTamil Nadu Police filed a FIRagainst Maridhas, a popularvlogger (video blogger) forusing the term Tablighi Jamaatin his latest vlog and this hasevoked sharp reaction from hisfollowers. The FIR is based ona complaint filed by TamilNadu Muslim Munnetra

Kazhakam, a religious outfit inthe State.

In the neighbouring Stateof Kerala, number of coronavirus patients shot up to 336by Tuesday, said PinarayiVijayan, Chief Minister. Hesaid nine persons tested posi-tive for corona virus onTuesday. “Four of those whotested positive were returneesfrom the Tablighi jamaatConference and all of them arefrom Kasaragod district,” saidthe chief minister.

Vijayan pleaded to the per-sons who returned fromTablighi Jamaat congregationand who have gone missing tocome forward and subjectthemselves to corona virustests to help the people fromthis pandemic.

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Municipal conservancyworkers in Palladam near

Coimbatore were literallyshocked when they startedtheir routine job of cleaning thestreets and drainage channelsin the residential areas of thetown on Monday. At no pointof time during their careerthey have been told about thesignificance of the work theywere doing to keep the townneat and clean.

But Monday turned out tobe a day of pleasant experiencefor them. When they com-menced their cleaning job inone of the residential colonies,the workers received bunch offlowers, poorna kumbha (a

bronze vessel filled with aus-picious flowers, water, fruits,sandal and camphor-a ritualreserved to welcome monksand spiritual heads). Theiraarati ( lighted bronze lamp)was also performed by thewomen of the house.

Not only that, the lady ofthe house washed the feet of theconservancy workers, andrubbed the water with newclothe, which is known asPaada pooja. “This was ourway of thanking them. We allknow that this is not suffice forthe kind of work they dodespite the COVID-19 threathovering all over us. Theseworkers, nay angels, have nevertaken a day’s off in this tiringtime and they have been work-

ing tirelessly without any com-plaints. We are nothing com-pared to them,” said Indumathi,a homemaker who is directorof a dancing school inCoimbatore.

“Life will not be the samefor us after the corona virusthreat subsides. Today weunderstood that we are caredby the people and we alsobring happiness to the lives ofthese residents,” said Jyothi, oneof the workers.

Video images of the paadapooja performed on the con-servancy workers evoked emo-tional responses from people indifferent walks of life. Tamilfilm’s superstar Vivek posted anemotional message ion hissocial media page with the

picture of one of the homemakers offering paada pooja tothe conservancy workers.“How to praise this? How toname this? Womanhood ofIndia! Motherhood of India?Pure humility!! “ wrote Vivek.

While conservancy work-ers were being feted for theirselfless work, cops in TamilNadu Police have been given anew responsibility by theGovernment. Their newassignments include providingnight-long security to liquorretail outlets owned by TamilNadu Government. The policeprotection to liquor outlets is inthe backdrop of ever increasingdacoities reported from allover the State. Tipplers upsetover the shut down of liquor

outlets have started robbingliquor cartons from these shopsduring night hours.

State administration hasordered the officials of the TamilNadu State MarketingCorporation to shift the liquorstock from retail outlets to newpremises like marriage hallshired by the Government.“Liquor is transported to the newlocations amidst heavy policebandobust including armedguards. There are more policeguards accompanying the vehi-cles loaded with liquor than thevehicles transporting currencynotes from banks to various loca-tions,” said V Murugan, formerIAS officer who expressed hisshock over the obsession of peo-ple for spirit.

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ACRPF jawan was killed ina surprise terrorist attack in

Bijbehara area of SouthKashmir's Anantnag districton Tuesday.

Apparently, desperategroup of terrorists targeted theCRPF party to spread terror inthe area.

Local reports suggestedafter the outbreak of coron-avirus, jawans of paramilitaryforces had joined hands withthe local residents to tackle thethreat and providing essentialsupplies, medical aid, and otherfacilities.

According to officialsources, a CRPF party wastargeted by the terrorists inBijbehara area first by lobbinga grenade and later they werefired upon by the terrorists.

According to groundreports, one of the jawanreceived bullet injuries on hischest and was rushed to thehospital in Bijbehara. Fromthere he was shifted to GMC,Anantnag where doctorsdeclared him brought dead.

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Atotal number of 15 sus-pected cases tested positive

for coronavirus in the UnionTerritory of Jammu&Kashmiron Tuesday, taking the totaltally of positive cases to 125.

Meanwhile, one more sus-pected patient, a resident ofHajin area in Bandipora, diedlate Monday night in SMHShospital. His test reports,received Tuesday morning,confirmed he had contractedcoronavirus. At the time ofadmission in the hospital thepatient had exhibited symp-toms of dry cough, high feverand breathlessness, officialsources revealed.

After Srinagar, Bandiporais emerging as another 'hotspot' with a total number of 16positive cases reported so far inthe district.

According to the dailymedia bulletin on coronavirus,nine fresh cases tested positivein Kashmir valley and six inJammu region.

The Bulletin said that tilldate 1900 samples have beensent for testing of which 1763

have tested as negative, 125tested positive ( 118 Activecases) four recovered and threedeaths were reported so far. Atotal number of 12 reportswere awaited.

In a related development,the District Magistrate,SrinagarDr Shahid Iqbal ChoudharyTuesday issued an order pro-hibiting all sorts of religiouscongregations and publicmovement on the occasion ofShab-e-Barat in Srinagar.

The order issued underSection 144 of CrPC statesthat the decision to prohibitreligious gatherings during theoccasion has been taken basedon recommendations of con-

cerned authorities and reportsfrom the field besides takinginto account the current pre-carious health situation due toCOVID-19 pandemic..

It states that these restric-tions will remain enforcedthrough the intervening nightof April 8 and 9 adding thatviolations will attract strictaction under Section 188 of theIPC and Section 51 of the dis-aster management act.

The district authorities alsosealed all entries and exitsleading into and out of Eidgahand Lal Bazar areas of Srinagarafter several cases of COVID-19 affected persons werereported therefrom.

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Aday after tea vendor oper-ating near Chief Minister

Uddhav Thackeray’s privateresidence “Matoshri” atKalanagar, Bandra (east) innorth-west Mumbai tested pos-itive for Covid-19, as many as170 security personnel, includ-ing State reserve personnel,were on Tuesday quarantinedat a building in the neigh-bourhood, as a precautionarymeasure.

The tea vendor, who had

tested positive pandemic, iscurrently treatment at the HBTMedical College and Dr R NCooper Hospital at Juhu innorth-west Mumbai.

What caused anxiety wasthe fact that the security per-sonnel attached to the chiefminister used to frequent theaffected vendor’s stall to havetea. Not wanting to take anychances, the BrihanmumbnaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)decided to shift 170 securitypersonnel to the nearby theUttar Bhartiya Sangh buildingin Mumbai's Bandra (East),where they have been quaran-tined.

“The swab samples of thesequarantined security personnelhave been taken and sent forclinical examination,” a seniorBMC official said.

Meanwhile, the Mumbaiand state police have stationednew set of police personnel totake care of the security needsof the chief minister.

On their part, chief minis-ter Uddhav Thackeray, his cab-inet members and staff havebeen practising social distanc-ing ever since the outbreak ofthe pandemic in the state. Thechief minister held his Cabinetmeeting on Tuesday throughvideo conferencing.

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Among the regional partiesacross India, the Biju

Janata Dal (BJD) had the high-est income of �249.31 crore aswell as growth in income in2018-19, followed by theTelangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) with an income of�188.71 crore while the YSRCongress (YSR-C), whoseincome was �181.08 crore,spent the most.

As many as 24 regionalparties declared a part of theirincome as remaining unspentfor the year 2018-19 while 13political parties spent morethan the income collected dur-ing the year.

However, according to theAssociation for Democratic

Reforms (ADR), “It is foundthat the total sum of expendi-ture declared by the SP in itsaudited statement is incorrect.On adding the various expen-diture heads, it is found that thetotal declared by the party is�5.594 crore less than the actu-al amount. This reinforces ourdemand for proper scrutiny ofthe parties’ audited accounts bythe I-T department,” the reportstated.

The BJD reported thehighest increase in its incomeof �235.19 crore followed byYSR-C and TRS which declareda total increase of �166.84crore and �161.44 crore respec-tively, between FY 2017-18and FY 2018-19.

Of the 52 regional politicalparties, 37 parties declared acombined income of � 1,089.60crore in 2018-2019, of which22.88% or �249.31 crore was

the BJD’s income, 17.31% or�188.71 crore was of the TRSand 16.62% or �181.08 crorewas the YSR Congress Party’sincome.

The audit report of incomeand expenditure of regionalparties were available on theElection Commission’s web-site though the deadline forpolitical parties to submit thesereports was October 31, 2019.

“The total income of topthree parties amounted to�619.10 crore, which com-prised 56.82% of the totalincome of the political partiesanalysed, collectively,” the ADRreport said.

Just over 84% of thedeclared income of the 37 par-ties, �919.31 crore, came from“voluntary contributions”,

including donations and elec-toral bonds. Of that, 53.09% or�578.49 crore came from elec-toral bonds, though only sevenof the 37 parties accounted forthis amount.

As per report, 13 regionalparties, including theSamajwadi Party (SP), DMK,Shiromani Akali Dal and theRashtriya Janata Dal, declaredexpenditures higher than theirincomes. The SP declared anexpenditure of 50.65% morethan its income – the highestsuch amount.

Out of the total expendi-ture of �405.13 crore, 46.69% or�189.174 crore was incurred bythe top three parties – theYSRCP (�87.68 crore), the SP(�50.92 crore) and the BJD(�50.57 crore).

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Indian company Larsen &Toubro (L&T), has got an

order worth around �5,000 crorefrom the Army to establish afirst-of-its-kind, state-of-the-artunified network managementsystem to manage, support andoperate the countrywide armedforces network being set upunder the unified Network forSpectrum (NFS) project.

It involves creating a cen-tralised network monitoring,management and control systemfor all the seven layers under NFSwhich interconnects 414 Defencestations,” said SN Subrahmanyan,CEO and Managing Director,L&T on Tuesday. This is an sen-

sitive project for the Ministry ofDefence and we are proud thatthe Ministry has reposed theirfaith in our technical, engineer-ing and solutioning capabilitiesto execute this project, he stated.

The project is to be imple-mented in 18 months followedby three years of warranty andseven years of AnnualMaintenance Contract (AMC)during which the L&T will pro-vide managed maintenance ser-vices including service levelagreement monitoring, serviceimpact analysis and root causeanalysis for the countrywidearmed forces next generationnetwork.

The statement said the pro-ject involves the creation of a

resilient Cloud-based IT infra-structure on Infrastructure as aservice (IAAS) model. The scopealso includes next generationoperations system and Software(NGOSS) based unified net-work management system, eightNetwork Operations Centers(NOCs) consisting of nationalNOCs, disaster recovery NOCsand regional NOCs,

The facilities under this pro-ject — security operation centers,Tier III data centres and traininginfrastructure— will allow timemonitoring of the complete ITnetwork backbone of the IndianArmy and provide complete vis-ibility of deployed network assets,leading to optimal utilization ofresources, L&T added.

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The Coronavirus continuedto wreak havoc in

Maharashtra on Tuesday, as itclaimed 12 more lives takingthe pandemic toll to 64 and thetotal number of infected casesin various parts of the statefrom 838 to 1018.

In a clear sign of the factthat the state is passing througha critical period, 12 more per-sons succumbed to the pan-demic and 150 others testedpositive for Covid-19 causingconsiderable anxiety the statehealth department and variousmunicipal corporations com-bating the pandemic.

Of the fresh deaths,Mumbai accounted for a max-imum of six, while there werethree deaths in Pune and onedeath each in Nagpur, Sataraand Mira-Bhayandar.

With the fresh deaths, thetotal number of Covid-19deaths has mounted to 64 eversince the pandemic claimedfirst life on March 17.

The total number of infect-ed cases has climbed to 1018 inthe state. One can deduce fromthe fact that a majority of per-sons who have tested positivefor p*andemic during the lastfew days had no history of

international travel that thepandemic has begun to spreadthrough contacts in a big way.

In its daily bulletin, theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) said: “Therise in the cases is seen becauseof 55 patients are diagnosedamongst contacts in high riskcontainment area as a result ofscreening clinics and vigorouscontact tracing efforts by thehealth teams of BMC and allhigh risks contact are giventimely attention and tested.Also all the contacts who aretested positive are already beingisolated, treated and followedup”.

Mumbai, which has bornethe maximum brunt of thepandemic both in terms ofdeaths and infection, recordeda maximum of 116 cases onTuesday, while as many as 18persons tested positive forCovid-19 in Pune. Nagpur,Aurangabad and Ahmednagarreported three infected caseseach, while Thane andBuldhana recorded two posi-tive cases each. Satara, Sangliand Ratnagiri registered onepositive case each.

Meanwhile, of the 1400-odd persons who attendedTablighi Markaz atNizamuddin in New Delhi last

month, 23 persons have so fartested positive for Coronavirus.Latur district has recorded amaximum of eight positivecases, while Buldhana hasrecoedeed six cases. Two pos-itive cases each have beenreported from Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Ahmednagar,while Hingoli and Jalgaon.

Meanwhile, the medicalbulletin put out by the Statehealth department said: “Outof 20877 laboratory samples,19290 were negative and 1018have been tested positive forcoronavirus until today.Seventy nine patients havebeen discharged till date afterfull recovery,” a medical bul-letin issued by the State HealthDepartment said.

“As many as 34,695 peopleare in home quarantine and4008 people are in institution-al quarantine,” the bulletinsaid.

Meanwhile, the BMC – inits daily bulletin – said that ithad surveyed the city’s 15 lakhpopulation till date and iden-tified 665 “contacts” whichhave been referred for testing.“We have also collected 1400samples through fiveteams and through this process,130 patients have tested posi-tive for Covid-19.

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For Prime Minister NarendraModi, the use of surgical strikeshas become the new-normal inresolving intractable problemslike cross-border terrorism, black

money and Jammu & Kashmir. AfterBalakot, the airstrikes appear to haveturned the page in terrorism but in realterms, little has changed. Black money hasaltered the “colour” and “terrorism” is juston “pause.” The new invisible enemy isCOVID-19. Not even a nuclear strike willconquer this pandemic, which only time,more human lives and a vaccine can cure.Preliminary studies are showing howCoronavirus will change the way we liveand cohabit. One can only hope that ourexistential difficulties with Pakistan willease and end.

The Government and the Indian AirForce (IAF) celebrated February 26 as thefirst anniversary of Balakot. Exaggeratedclaims were made to perpetuate the onesmade last year without new evidence andfactoring the Pakistani perspective. It is tooearly to begin rewriting the doctrine andcall the airstrikes as “game-changer.”Claims on behalf of the IAF have beenmade mainly by former Chief of Air Staff,Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa, throughinterviews and parts of an internal IAFreport that were leaked to the media. Hissuccessor, Air Chief Marshal RKSBhadauria, simply reinforced Dhanoa’sclaims through the same medium at a pub-lic event titled, ‘Air Power in No War NoPeace Scenario,’ organised by the Centrefor Air Power Studies, which was presidedby Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF)’s per-spective came from a conference held atthe University of Lahore, which wasjointly organised by the Centre forSecurity Strategy and Policy Research andthe Centre for Aerospace and SecurityStudies (CASS). The event was attendedby former PAF Chief of Air Staff, Air ChiefMarshal Kaleem Saadat. A report was pub-lished in the British Air Force magazineby Alan Warnes through his interviewswith retired PAF officers. The PAF’sresponse to the IAF air strikes was called“Operation Swift Retort.”

On the most provocative, emotionaland in India even anti-national questionof hitting the target, the IAF has stuck toits claim that it hit the target, though theCrystal Maze 142M missile, which was toproduce battle damage assessment, couldnot be fired. Last year, among others whoexpressed doubts whether the IAF missileswere on target, was Ashley Tellis of the US’sCarnegie Endowment and Christine Fairof Johns Hopkins University. The Air Forcemagazine was more direct: Bombs aimedat a religious boarding school atBalakot…hit wooded area a few hundredmetres away…all bombs overshot their tar-gets. The CASS report refers to the mishit

as “tactical error and technicalinadequacy.” Even so, this wasthe first time after the 1971 warthat the IAF bombed Pakistanat Balakot. Perhaps carriedaway, Bhadauria described thebombings as “the most signif-icant air action of the IAF inover four decades.” That was abit unkind to the IAF veterans,who took part supporting theIndian Peace Keeping Force(IPKF) in Sri Lanka for 22months, and the sterling pre-cision IAF bombings at Kargilfor over three months.

Bhadauria further said thatBalakot has shown that youcan use the IAF and still have“escalation control.” He wasbacked by Army Chief, GenMM Naravane, who said: “Foryears we were told that if andwhen air (force) crosses theInternational Border (IB), itwould escalate to a full-fledgedwar. Balakot demonstrated thatif you play the escalatory gamewith skill, military ascendan-cy can be established in shortcycles of conflict that do notnecessarily lead to war.”Elementary, my dear Watson?

In his paper on air escala-tion control circulated by theUS’ Stimson Centre in 2003after Operation Parakram,IAF’s Air Commode, Ramesh

Phadke, argued that limited airoperations against Pakistan inPakistan-occupied Kashmir(PoK) were possible with min-imal escalation. Reason: IAF toPAF air balance ratio at thattime was nearly 2.5 to 1. Today,that ratio has declined to lessthan 1.3 to 1 (IAF 28squadrons versus PAF 21squadrons). The CASS reportfurther says that the probabil-ity of crisis recurrencebetween India and Pakistan ishigh and during a crisis, nei-ther side will be able to guar-antee controlling or domi-nating the escalation ladder.

PAF Air Chief MarshalMujahid Anwar Khan told theAir Force magazine that one les-son for India is not to use airpower “flippantly.” He saidOperation Swift Retort wasinevitable to demonstrate boththe resolve and restraint and wasdesigned to de-escalate. Pakistanhas found wriggle room inexplaining its nuclear bluff beingcalled. The CASS report titled,“Deconstructing Balakot” reads:“Pakistan’s carefully calibratedresponse strategy served well indampening the fears in policyanalysis that portray that anyattack inside Pakistan’s territo-ry would invoke Pakistan’snuclear threshold. However,

Pakistan, through its retaliation,Operation Swift Retort afterIndian strikes in Balakot,demonstrated that it has validconventional means of deter-rence to raise the cost of aggres-sion.”

As someone who has stud-ied Pakistan’s military andstrategic thought, I do notrecall Pakistan seriously threat-ening the use of nuclearweapons against an enemyairstrike. The four conditionsfor that were clearly codified byLt Gen Khalid Kidwai, theintellectual custodian ofPakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Hehad said — and that has notchanged till date — thatPakistan would use its nuclearweapons as weapons of ulti-mate resort in four eventuali-ties: Loss of large territory,especially in Punjab; cripplingmilitary attrition; economicblockade; and largescale polit-ical destabilisation. None ofthese conditions was violatedby the Balakot airstrikes.

One year on, AFM has saidthat PAF will be outnumberedbut will innovate to outma-noeuvre the IAF. It does notmatter what technology theIAF gets, the PAF will have thecapacity to defeat it. CASShas said that for the foreseeable

future, it will be in retaliatorymode but the threat of the useof force is essential whenPakistan’s support for Kashmirwill go beyond political, diplo-matic and moral paradigm.Kashmir has been made cen-tral to crisis and conflict.

Balakot airstrikes had thepotential to escalate and spinout of control. One single fac-tor that enabled the daring andrisky operation was a strategicsurprise. This is not likely to bereplicated. Airstrikes are notthe new-normal but a one-offlike the ground surgical strikes.Surgical strikes after Uri and atBalakot have not ended terror-ism. Infiltration has increaseddespite lockdown and unprece-dented troop density in Jammu& Kashmir.

Pakistan’s support forKashmir will not cease anddespite the internal constitu-tional changes in Jammu &Kashmir, the dispute will ulti-mately have to be resolvedpolitically. The post-COVID-19 environment may provide awindow to restart the process.

(The writer, a retired MajorGeneral, was Commander IPKFSouth, Sri Lanka and foundermember of the DefencePlanning Staff, currently theIntegrated Defence Staff.)��

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Sir — The spread of Coronaviruspandemic has brought to thefore the intricate interdependen-cies that exist within the interna-tional pharmaceutical market. Itis known that China is the largestsupplier of active pharmaceuticalingredients all over the world.India, the leading exporter ofgeneric drugs across the world, isdependent on China for morethan two-thirds of its bulk drugneeds. The spread of Coronavirushas stressed on the need to homeproduce such drugs. We must,therefore, embrace economies ofscale and increase their produc-tion to be self-sufficient.

Rati AgrawalVia email

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Sir — The Prime Minister’s appealto the people to switch off lightson April 5 was criticised by sever-al Opposition leaders. They right-ly urged the Government to focuson helping the poor amid theCoronavirus pandemic, many ofwhom do not have a roof abovetheir heads nor the money to feed

themselves and their families.Prime Minister Modi had askedpeople to stay inside their homesduring this exercise. But did hethink about those who have been

rendered homeless by this crisisand those who can no longer sparethe money to buy a candle?

Asim SuhailWest Mumbai

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Sir — Some people are eagerlywaiting for April 14 to come, hop-

ing that the lockdown would bephased out. But the present situ-ation has seen an increasingnumber of infected cases anddeaths. The lockdown has notbeen a total success. Cooperationon the part of the people has beenfound wanting to combat theCoronavirus effectively. The com-pletion of 21 days is no case towithdraw the lockdown.

Despite the lockdown, thenumber of cases and deaths is onthe rise. Phasing out the curfewwould give a fillip to the virus toplay a more destructive role thannow. More infected cases anddeaths can be expected. India maysoon join the likes of the US,Spain, Italy, Iran and Germany,which have seen a large numberof deaths and infected cases. It isnot wise to end the lockdown tilldetections pace down.

Stricter steps are needed tocombat the spread of the virusnot only at the national level butglobally where it has made hugeinroads. Zero number of cases allover the world only matters.Nothing else.

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

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Arather disconcerting communal atmosphereseems to have enveloped the entire countryat a critical juncture when we all should be

displaying common sense, unity and the resolve tocontain the spread of the deadly COVID-19. We wereon top of things till a week or two ago but now thevirus seems to be spreading at a faster pace. Till nowwe have 4,858 confirmed cases and the deaths havespiked to 136. However, we still seem to be doingbetter than the developed nations with betterhealthcare infrastructure than us. For instance, theUS has 3,67,650 cases and nearly 10,000 fatalitieswhile Spain has 1,36,675 cases and 13,341 deaths andItaly is battling with 1,32,547 cases and has seen16,523 deaths so far.

If we were to compare ourselves to all thesenations, their population density to ours and thenumber of cases they have, we would realise that tillnow we have not done so badly.

Yet, switch on the television and all you will hearare alarming reports about the exponential rise inthe number of positive cases in the last two weeks.Worryingly, these are being linked to the congrega-tion at the Markaz Tablighi Jamaat at HazratNizamuddin.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, too, is cer-tain that criminal proceedings must be initiatedagainst the maulana of the Markaz. The discoursehas become so distorted and warped that it has nowassumed a communal hue. The hawkish rhetoricdirected against the minority community continuesunabated. Compounding this trend are newsreports that there have been instances of stone pelt-ing by the community in question against the health-care professionals and the law enforcement author-ities who were urging citizens to get tested. Manyvideos of these alleged incidents are also doing therounds on social media. This only galvanises the sit-uation and the social context.

A closer look at the chronology of events por-trays a different picture. Were events of this kind heldacross the country in the days that followed the fate-ful gathering? The answer is an unequivocal “yes.”On March 16, the Hindu Mahasabha conducted agau mutra (cow urine) party to “cure” Coronavirusin which thousands of people assembled. The reveredtown of Tirupati hosted close to 40,000 people onMarch 18. It closed only the following day. Whenthe “Janta (people’s) curfew” was announced onMarch 22, we all saw the throng of humanity erupt-ing in ebullient cheers minutes after it ended andthronging the streets. The instructions were clear-ly articulated earlier. Stand on your respective bal-conies and praise the diligence of healthcare profes-sionals, the media, the armed forces, police force,essential commodity providers, the sanitation work-ers and so on, who are on the frontline battling theCoronavirus by going above and beyond their callof duty in these trying times. What did people doinstead? They gathered in disturbing numbers,banged plates and distributed sweets. They prancedaround the streets in different parts of India. Whenthe people were given a four-hour notice by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi before the country wentinto a 21-day lockdown, millions desperately tookto the streets to procure vital rations and groceries.The norms of social distancing were convenientlyforgotten.

The following day, amid the nationwide lock-down, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathconducted the Ram Lalla movement event. It didreceive a lot of flak by the Opposition, the media and

on social media and other platforms butthe story slowly fell into oblivion and isnow far removed from public conscious-ness.

Migrants who are scattered across thecountry embarked on an arduous journeyhome; in large numbers. Could the lock-down have been better planned? Perhapsyes. Was there an acute failure in imple-menting public policy? Most certainly.Why could not the Centre have foreseenthe situation arising and the States not havebeen cautioned that such a mass migra-tion would take place. The UnionGovernment and the States should haveworked together to prevent the humani-tarian crisis that eventually unfolded andalso increased the risk of a spike inCoronavirus cases across the country. TheCentre and States should have planned tohave the necessary infrastructure, trans-port and medical equipment in place tofacilitate a smooth transition instead of thechaos which ensued? We are a nationwhere rural-urban migration is a realityand has been the subject of numerousstudies. So could this not have been fore-seen?

So is Arvind Kejriwal correct in hisassessment in implementing criminalproceedings against the maulana of thecentre? After all, the assembly was a fla-grant violation of the norms. Should thedebate assume a communal context? No.This debate is not about which commu-nity conducted a gathering and which con-formed to the norms of “social distancing”which mind you was emphasised onlyrecently after the Prime Ministerannounced the first nationwide lockdownon March 22. The gathering had a num-ber of international visitors which can par-tially explain the spread of the virus.

But what is disquieting is the lopsidednature of the debate. It is immoral andunfair to attribute the exponential rise inthe number of detected cases to one com-munity. This is because there were otherleakages in the system and with time wewill begin to understand and identify thecausations and patterns. We all need totake collective responsibility because thevirus, as stated innumerable times, doesnot discriminate. You could be PrinceCharles or Boris Johnson. It will not seeyour lineage or blue blood before strikingyou. The Nizamuddin event was a mat-ter of chance with things taking a deadlyturn. The debate needs to be more real-istic and balanced. However, that said, itis also incumbent upon the communityin question to ask its people to behave ina more respectful and cooperative man-ner with those who are looking after themin quarantine. Reports of roaming aroundin the nude to harass the women health-care workers and spitting on people willembarrass and silence even the most neu-tral of observers.

As it is, there have been so many mis-conceptions about the virus that even theso-called “educated” people in society havebecome susceptible to rumours. When mysister-in-law returned from the UnitedKingdom (UK) on March 9, the ResidentWelfare Association (RWA) membersdemanded to see her travel documents.They did not heed the fact that testing wasbeing conducted at airports and she wasanyways adhering to self-quarantinenorms. Much to her consternation, the sit-uation was only defused after the interven-tion of relevant authorities.

There is another unnerving trendwhich seems to be gripping India. TheNizamuddin episode seems to have

polarised the country. At home we havea large live-in staff. At night, post dinner,they all sit upstairs in their bedroom andwatch television. Every day the conversa-tions are invariably about how India willdescend into chaos and anarchy andMuslims are the ones to be blamed for thismayhem. I try to reason with them andapprise them about similar developmentsaround the country but they appearobstinate and are determined to pursue achain of thought. I wonder what thebroader ramifications of such a thoughtprocess will be for the entire nation. Whatif we have more illiterate people who arebeing brainwashed and subscribe to thissame propaganda? It could have a cascad-ing effect, which could arrest the harmo-nious progress of a pluralistic nation likeours. After all, this is a once in a lifetimeoccurrence for many of us and if a certaincommunity is portrayed in poor light thenit will take a lot to erase the scars and thepervasive prejudice.

In such uncertain times, when a lotof negative publicity is being hurled at us,it is vitally important that we are circum-spect and unbiased in our appraisal of thesituation on the ground. Let’s not make thisglobal calamity about a community andisolate them. This is a time to shed grudgesand imagine a new world; a world wherewe all can take a common stand and treada path together. And hopefully we will beable to surmount this malaise which affect-ed one and all, so that we can once againsee each other as human beings who sharethe same needs and have the same vulner-abilities. The boundaries of caste and creedare only imagined because when tragedystrikes it knows no distinctions.

(The writer is a socio-economic commentator)

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What is the impact ofCoronavirus on religion?As the well-known German

philosopher and economist KarlMarx said, “Religion is the opium ofthe people.” For believers, worldover it provides psychological, emo-tional as well as moral support.However, the Novel Coronavirus is apandemic, which threatens believersand atheists alike. And it respects noreligion.

But the fact remains thatCoronavirus or no Coronavirus,worldwide religious leaders have amajor moral hold over millions ofbelievers. And irrespective of the faith

they belong to, almost all of themhave risen to the occasion to containthe Coronavirus pandemic. FromMecca to the Vatican, the doors areshut to the public.

This is quite a commendableachievement for the Church in par-ticular, as Christians are observing theHoly month of Lent that ends on theeve of Good Friday. The number ofChristians attending services aroundthe world swells exponentially dur-ing this time. But now all services andprayer meetings during the Lentenseason are being held online, livestreamed or pre-recorded to keep thefaithful confined to their homes andhelp stop the spread of the contagion.Even the Church of Nativity inBethlehem was closed after aCoronavirus case was confirmed inthe area.

However, Pope Francis has urgedthe priests to “have the courage to getout. Going to the sick to bring themthe comfort of God,” after taking dueprecautions and support the health-care workers, too. Many countries like

Japan, Israel, South Korea and Iranhave also shut their religious institu-tions. In an unprecedented move,Saudi Arabia has temporarily sus-pended Umrah (the non-mandatorylesser pilgrimage made by Muslimsto Mecca). Riyadh also briefly shut theGreat Mosque in Mecca and theProphet’s Mosque in Medina.

India, which believes in reli-gion, spirituality, gurus and godmen,has also followed suit. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi called upon the reli-gious leaders in the country to takethe lead and ask their communitiesto adhere to the Government’s guide-lines to contain the pandemic. Ropingin Chief Ministers, too, Modi askedthem to convene a meeting of reli-gious leaders across all faiths and urgethem to convince their people toadhere to social distancing guidelines.

Significantly, Modi’s appeal camein the wake of the recent religiousgathering in Nizamuddin in violationof Government guidelines, which hadturned into a major hotspot forspreading the Coronavirus. Nearly

2,100 people were evacuated fromMarkaz Nizamuddin, the Delhi head-quarters of the Tablighi Jamaat groupand over 1,100 are now quarantinedin different parts of the city near thereligious centre.

Prior to that, at least 15,000people might have caught the virusfrom a Sikh spiritual guru who hadreturned from Europe and wentabout preaching in more than a dozenvillages in Punjab. He later died of theCOVID-19. All the 15,000 attendeesare now under quarantine. It wasindeed fortunate that communalclashes did not follow this event.

So, how have the religious lead-ers and institutions responded toModi’s appeal? For many religiousleaders, the decision to shut thedoors of their institutions was diffi-cult but they had realised the sever-ity of the pandemic had respondedpositively. The Christian communi-ty in India closed all churches andeven held its services on Palm Sunday,which herald the beginning of theHoly Week leading up to Good

Friday, services online in keeping withthe Prime Minister’s plea for socialdistancing.

This was a significant move, aswith Good Friday, Easter, Ramzanand other festivals approaching it isimperative that communities recog-nise the need for preventing largegatherings, even after the lockdownis lifted. Thus, despite the beliefacross all faiths in the country thatpeople need God more in times oftrouble, the religious leaders haveheeded Modi’s call.

In an unprecedented manner,several temples in India have alsoclosed darshan (viewing) for thedevotees. These include the SiddiVinayakswamy temple, Kamakhyatemple, Tirupathi Balaji temple andPuri Jagannath temple among others.Even the Ganga aarti (worship) at theghats of Varanasi and theGarbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) ofKashi Vishwanath temple have been made off-limits to the pub-lic.

Setting aside their differences and

responding to the Kerala ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan’s appeal, thereligious leaders in the State, includ-ing Cardinals, Bishops, Muslim reli-gious leaders and leaders of Hinducommunities issued a joint statementon March 20, asking the people to“stand together with determinationand to overcome the trauma causedby the outbreak of the NovelCoronavirus.”

Hundreds of people from variousreligions came together in Patna tooffer an all-religion prayer, to stop theoutbreak of COVID-19. They offeredprayers in their own ways on March17 to seek divine intervention.

Spiritual gurus and godmen,who depend on huge political sup-port, are also not lagging behind intheir efforts to do the Government’sbidding. Spiritual leaders includingAmritanandamayi, Jaggi Vasudevand Sri Sri Ravi Shankar have shuttheir ashrams and asked their follow-ers not to congregate until the pan-demic is over.

“The virus knows no caste, creed

or religion. Let us beat the virus,” istheir dictum to their followers.

They also offer remedies likeyoga and meditation to their follow-ers. They are gurus of the rich and thepoor, alike. Many of them commandhuge following at home and abroad.Their followers include politicians,actors, sportsmen and bureaucrats.Many like the Baba Ramdev are alsosuccessful entrepreneurs and runmassive business empires.

Hence, the role that spiritual lead-ers can play in getting the word outabout public health measures is con-siderable.

In India, where religion plays amajor role, even in politics, the wordof a religious leader will go a long wayto help contain the pandemic. It is awelcome measure that they havejoined the fight against the virus alongwith their followers.

After all India is home to innu-merable gurus and god-men — bothgenuine and fake.

(The writer is a seniorjournalist)

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New York GovernorAndrew Cuomo said on

Tuesday that the COVID-19deaths in the state hit a newone-day peak, with 731 peopledead in the largest single-dayincrease in fatalities since thecoronavirus crisis engulfed thestate, the epicentre of the pan-demic in the US.

‘The bad news is 5,489New Yorkers have lost theirlives to this virus. That is upfrom 4,758, the largest singleday increase. That’s 731 peoplewho we lost. Behind every oneof those numbers is an indi-vidual, is a family, is a mother,is a father…,” Cuomo said.

The state has a total of1,38,836 coronavirus cases andas of Tuesday 5,489 peoplehave died, up by 731 fromMonday morning. Cuomo saidthe number of newly hospi-talised patients is also up fromMonday. In what he describedas “good news”, Cuomo saiddaily ICU admissions and dailyintubations numbers are down.

“And right now we’re pro-jecting that we are reaching aplateau in the total number of

hospitalizations and you cansee the growth… is starting toflatten. Again this is a projec-tion. It still depends on what wedo and what we do will affectthose numbers. This is not anact of God that we’re looking at.It’s an act of what society actu-ally does,” he said in his dailymedia briefing.

The Governor said he iscoordinating with Governors ofNew Jersey and Connecticut onplans to restart the economyand daily life. “We’re not there

yet. But this is not a lightswitch that we can just flick oneday, and everything goes backto normal. We’re going to haveto restart that economy, we’regoing to have to restart a lot ofsystems that we shut downabruptly. And we need to startto plan for that,” he said.

He said he has spoken toNew Jersey Governor PhilMurphy and ConnecticutGovernor Ned Lamont about“coming up with a regionalmetropolitan tri-state

approach” to restart the econ-omy and get everything up andrunning as quickly as possible.

Cuomo’s grim announce-ment on the increase inCOVID-19 deaths came afterthe state witnessed an “effec-tively flat” death toll for twodays and saw drop in numberof hospitalisations and ICUadmissions, which theGovernor has said could be“good signs” of a “possibleflattening” of the coronaviruscurve in the state.

On Monday, Cuomo hadoffered a slight glimmer of hopewhen he said the death toll in thestate has been “effectively flat fortwo days.” In the 24 hours sinceApril 4, the death toll grew to “all-time increase” of 630. But onboth Sunday and Monday, fewerthan 600 deaths from the viruswere reported in New York - 594on Sunday, 599 on Monday. InNew York City, the number ofcases had reached 68,766 and thedeath toll was 2,738.

Cuomo has said while thedeath toll is not good news,“the possible flattening of thecurve is better than the increas-es that we have seen.”

His aide Jim Malatras hadsaid based on the earliest pro-jections, it was estimated thatthe pandemic peak in the statewould come at the end of Apriland would require around1,10,000 beds just forCOVID19 patients.

Cuomo earlier announcedthe state is increasing the max-imum fine for violations of thestate’s social distancing proto-col from USD 500 to USD1,000 to help address the lackof adherence to social distanc-ing protocols.

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Japanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe declared a month-

long state of emergency forTokyo and six other prefectureson Tuesday to ramp up defens-es against the spread of the coro-navirus as the number of infec-tions surges. But the move camein the form of a stay-at-homerequest — not an order — andviolators will not be penalised.

The COVID-19 outbreak isnow rampant and rapidlyspreading, threatening people’shealth, their daily lives and theeconomy, Abe said.

The state of emergency,which is until May 6, will onlypermit Tokyo Gov. YurikoKoike and heads of the sixother prefectures to do more toreinforce calls for social dis-tancing. “The most importantthing is for each one of us tochange our activity,” Abe told agovernment task force. He urgedeveryone to cut contacts with oth-ers by 70-80% for one month,calling the coronavirus pandem-ic “the biggest postwar crisis.”

The announcement fol-lows surges in new cases inTokyo, including consecutiverises exceeding 100 over theweekend. By Tuesday therewere 1,196 confirmed cases inthe metropolitan region of 14million people. Nationwide,Japan has reported 91 deathsfrom COVID-19 and 3,906confirmed cases, plus another712 cases and 11 fatalities froma cruise ship that was quaran-tined earlier at Yokohama portnear Tokyo.

Abe has been under pres-sure to declare a state of emer-gency to get better compliancewith calls for social distancingamid rising alarm over thenumber of cases without anyknown contact with otherpatients. Tokyo Gov. YurikoKoike welcomed the emergencymeasures, saying she expectsthey “will prevail widely anddeeply among the people.” Shesaid her immediate requestunder the state of emergency is“stay home.”

Japan’s limits on officialaction during a state of emer-

gency stem from its experiencewith repression and disastersstemming from fascist govern-ments before and during WorldWar II. The public is doubly warydue to the push by Abe’s ultra-conservative ruling party and itssupporters for a constitutionalamendment to include a state ofemergency clause for disasterand wartime contingencies. Abe’sGovernment is thought to havedelayed declaring a state ofemergency out of fear of how itmight hurt the economy. But asfear of the pandemic has grown,the public and medical expertshave increasingly supported tak-ing more drastic action.

The state of emergencyincludes a stay-at-homerequest; guidance to schools ontemporary closures andrequests to close nonessentialbusinesses and stores and tocancel or postpone events andexhibits. Violators cannot bepenalized unless they fail tocomply with orders on provid-ing or storing emergency reliefgoods, such as surgical masksand medical equipment.

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Britain could see asmany as 66,000

COVID-19 deaths dur-ing the first wave of thecurrent pandemic, newresearch showedTuesday, making theoutbreak there by farthe deadliest in Europe.

Modelling conduct-ed by the Institute forHealth Metrics andEvaluation (IHME) at theUniversity of Washington’sSchool of Medicine showedthat approximately 151,680people were likely to die fromthe virus across the continent.

While the novel coron-avirus emerged in China andwas initially focussed in eastAsia, the World HealthOrganization now says thepandemic is centred in west-ern Europe, with Spain, Italyand France experiencing dev-astating death tolls.

Most European nationshave introduced strict social

distancing measures to try tostem the virus spread.

More than 5,000 peoplehave died from COVID-19 inBritain, fewer than in Spain,Italy and France. But Britain’sepidemic lags behind the restof the continent by severaldays, and its death toll trajec-tory is already steeper thanother nations. Using local andinternational data on casenumbers, as well as age mor-tality breakdowns from Italy,China and the US, the team atIHME modelled the expecteddeath toll on a country-by-

country basis. A keyconsideration was anindividual nation’sintensive care bedcapacity.

It found thatBritain could experi-ence 66,000 COVID-19deaths by July, far morethan Italy, the next mostseverely impacted, witharound 20,000. Spainand France were next,with 19,000 and 15,000

predicted deaths, respectively.“We are expecting a forebodingfew weeks for people in manyparts of Europe,” said IHMEDirector Christopher Murray.“It seems likely the number ofdeaths will exceed our projec-tions for the United States.” OnSunday the institute predictedjust over 80,000 US COVID-19deaths during the pandemic’sfirst wave. The modelling sug-gests that outbreaks in Italyand Spain, where hundreds ofdeaths have been reporteddaily for weeks, may be pasttheir peak.

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Italian Prime MinisterGiuseppe Conte consulted

top scientists on Tuesday aboutways to safely end a month-long lockdown aimed at stem-ming a pandemic that haskilled thousands and left mil-lions unemployed.

Conte’s videoconferencewith the Government’s scien-tific committee came one weekbefore Italy’s economically-crippling closure of most busi-nesses and factories is set toexpire. Few expect it will.

The shutdown and anaccompanying ban on almostall outdoor activity have helpedslow the spread of a novelcoronavirus that has officially

claimed a world-topping 17,127lives.

The daily reported tollreached 969 on March 27 andhas since levelled off. Therewere 604 new fatalities onTuesday and the rise in infec-tions fell to a new low of just 2.3per cent.

But health officials warnthat the outbreak appears tohave peaked only because ofthe various closures and bans.They insist on keeping thecontainment rules in place aslong as possible — perhapsuntil a vaccine is developed orsome reliable tests can showwho has immunity against thenew disease.

“We are far from the end,”the scientific committee’s head

Domenico Arcuri toldreporters before entering thetalks with Conte. “The numberof men and women who willdie from the virus will contin-ue to rise.”

Italian businesses counterthat they cannot afford to standidle much longer. A studyreleased on Tuesday by theConfcooperative small busi-ness lobby said the economywas being subjected to an “epochal shock” thatwould take at least two years toovercome.

It estimated that more thanhalf of Italy’s 1.3 million con-struction workers and over athird of the 11.4 million ser-vices sector employees werenow furloughed.

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Spain’s daily coronavirusdeath toll shot up to 743 on

Tuesday after falling for fourstraight days, bringing the total to 13,798, the HealthMinistry said.

However, it emphasisedthat the rise was due to week-end deaths being tallied andthat the overall “downwardtrend” is continuing.

The new figure representsa 5.7 per cent increase over the637 deaths recorded onMonday, the lowest number offatalities since March 24 in theworld’s second hardest-hitcountry after Italy in terms offatal outcomes. The number ofnew infections also grew at afaster pace, rising 4.1 per centto 140,510, the health ministrysaid. The number of new casesrose 3.3 per cent on Monday.

The “slight” rise was duelargely to the fact that manydeaths and new infectionswhich occur over the weekendare only now being recorded,said Maria Jose Sierra of thehealth ministry’s emergenciescoordination unit.

“In reality the downwardtrend is what we continue toobserve in the reports we havereceived in recent days,” shetold a daily news conference onthe figures. Spain had seen thenumber of new infections anddeaths drop each day since itrecorded a record 950 fatalitieson Thursday.

The percentage increasein the number of deaths is farlower than the 32.63 per centleap recorded as recently asMarch 21. The number of peo-ple in hospital intensive careunits also continues to fall,Maria Jose Sierra added.

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China will open-up the epi-centre of its coronavirus

pandemic Wuhan onWednesday for outbound trav-el for the first time since theJanuary 23 lockdown, as thecountry reported no newdeaths from COVID-19, attain-ing a new milestone in the bat-tle against the disease.

Just as China started open-ing-up the epicentre, concernsof rebound of COVID-19 wason the rise in the country asimported infections increasedto 983 with 32 new confirmedcases, the National HealthCommission said.

Also, 30 new asympto-matic COVID-19 cases werereported on the mainland onMonday. The NHC said 1,033asymptomatic cases were stillunder medical observation.

Asymptomatic coronaviruscases are those who test posi-tive for the virus but do notshow any symptoms and havethe potential to cause sporadicclusters of infections. Lastweek, China began disclosingthe number of asymptomaticcases for the first time, after

growing public concerns overthe potential of “silent” carriersto spread the disease.

Wuhan, where coronaviruswas first reported in Decemberlast year and then spread likewildfire to other parts of theworld, would start flights andrailway services on Wednesday,restoring a semblance of nor-malcy for its 11 million peoplewho bore the brunt of thevirus outbreak.

Hubei province for whichWuhan is the capital hasalready started outbound trav-el services. For local residents,April 8 will see the resumptionof normal life after more thantwo months of isolation, evenas epidemiologists warned thatit is not the time to complete-ly lower the guard and ease onfull-scale restrictions, espe-cially for community-basedepidemic control work, con-sidering the looming asymp-tomatic patients and possiblerebound in infections, officialmedia reported.

While lifting harsh restric-tions after the 76-day lock-down, officials asked local peo-ple to continue carrying outstrict community-based mon-itoring and management, mak-ing sure that a rebound in newinfections won’t occur follow-ing the traffic resumption.

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Anovel vaccine fully protectsmice against a lethal dose of

MERS, a close cousin of thenovel coronavirus that causesCOVID-19, scientists said onTuesday. The vaccine uses aharmless virus to deliver aMERS coronavirus protein intocells to generate an immuneresponse, said the researchersfrom researchers at theUniversity of Iowa and theUniversity of Georgia in the US.

It may hold promise fordeveloping vaccines againstother coronaviruses diseases,including COVID-19, theysaid. The team tested the MERSvaccine candidate in mice engi-neered to be susceptible to theMERS coronavirus.

The vaccine is an innocu-ous parainfluenza virus (PIV5)carrying the “spike” proteinthat MERS uses to infect cells.

All the vaccinated mice sur-vived a lethal dose of the MERScoronavirus, according to theresults published in the journalmBio.

“Our new study indicatesthat PIV5 may be a useful vac-cine platform for emergingcoronavirus diseases, includingSARS-CoV-2, the virus causingthe ongoing COVID-19 pan-demic,” said Paul McCray, aprofessor the University ofIowa. “Using the same strate-gy, vaccine candidates based onPIV5 expressing the spike pro-tein of SARS-CoV-2 have beengenerated,” McCray said.

The researchers are plan-ning more studies in animals totest the ability of PIV5-basedvaccines in preventing diseasecaused by SARS-CoV-2.

MERS (Middle EastRespiratory Syndrome) andCOVID-19 are both caused bycoronaviruses.

MERS is deadlier and isfatal in about one third ofknown cases, but there havebeen only 2,494 cases since2012, when the virus firstemerged, the researchers said.

In contrast, there have beenover 1.25 million confirmedcases of COVID-19 worldwidesince it first emerged in late2019 in Wuhan, China, andalmost 70,000 people have diedfrom the disease, they said.

The study found that justone, relatively low dose of thevaccine given to the miceintranasally — inhaled throughthe nose — was sufficient tofully protect all the treatedmice from a lethal dose ofMERS coronavirus.

When the researchersanalysed the immune respons-es generated by the vaccine,they found that both antibod-ies and protective T cells wereproduced.

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"�� $��:��$�8��#4�� Rome: Italy’s number of newcoronavirus cases has contin-ued to drop.

Civil Protection authoritiessaid Tuesday there were 3,039new cases in a 24-hour period.Italy hasn’t seen such a lowdaily number since the earlyweeks of the outbreak.

Giovanni Rezza, director ofthe infectious disease divisionof the national health institute,said, “Finally it seems we arebeginning to see a lessening ofnew cases” after a plateauphase. AP

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Indian market gauges Sensexand Nifty logged their biggest

one-day gains ever in absoluteterms on Tuesday, trackingglobal peers amid signs that theCovid-19 pandemic may bepeaking in some of the hard-hitcountries.

Beginning the holiday-truncated week on a high note,the BSE benchmark Sensexsurged 2,476.26 points or 8.97per cent to settle the day at30,067.21; while the NSEbarometer Nifty zoomed 708.40points or 8.76 per cent to closeat 8,792.20 — the best sessionever for both indices in absolute

terms and the biggest since May2009 in percentage wise.

In the Sensex pack, all 30shares ended in the green with14 of them gaining over 10 percent. IndusInd Bank was thetop gainer surging over 22 percent, followed by Axis Bank,Mahindra and Mahindra,ICICI Bank, HUL, Maruti,HCL Tech and Nestle India.

All sectoral indices endedhigher, with BSE bankex, ener-gy, auto, telecom, teck, FMCGand metal indices rallying up to10.70 per cent. Broader BSEmidcap and smallcap indicesrallied up to 5.40 per cent.

The market rally addedadded Rs 7.9 lakh crore to the

capitalisation of BSE-listedcompanies.

“Indian markets openedon a positive note followingupbeat global cues in Asianmarkets as there was somedecline witnessed in newCOVID-19 cases globally andhopes of the pandemic peakingout gathered pace,” saidNarendra Solanki, Head-Equity Research(Fundamental), Anand Rathi.

The Indian market got fur-ther boost from reports that theFinance Ministry is working ona second relief package for theIndian economy to mitigatenegative impact due toCOVID-19, he said.

Buyoed by positive senti-ment, brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, rose 2.48per cent to USD 33.87 per bar-rel on fresh hopes an OPEC-ledmeeting this week will reach anagreement to reduce oversup-ply and shore up the market.

The Indian rupee alsosurged by 49 paise to close at75.64 against the US dollar.

On the global market front,bourses in Shanghai, HongKong, Tokyo and Seoul ralliedup to 2 per cent and bench-mark exchanges in Europewere trading up to 4 per centhigher. Global stocks followedup on Wall Street’s Mondayrally amid continued signs that

the coronavirus outbreak maybe peaking in a number ofhard-hit places.

Many other analysts saidthe Indian bourses surged insync with global markets led bypositive news of flattening ofcurve of new cases reported inItaly, France, Germany anddeath tolls easing in world’shotspots like Spain and Italy.

Investors also reacted toPrime Minister NarendraModi’s suggestion that all min-

istries must prepare “businesscontinuity plans” post-April14. Globally, the coronavirushas infected more than 1.3million people and killed over74,000, and though the num-bers are still rising in manyparts, some flattening of thecurve in some of the hard-hitnations has led to hope.

In India, the death toll dueto novel coronavirus rose to114 and the number of cases inthe country climbed to 4,421.

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The rupee on Tuesday surgedby 49 paise to close at 75.64

against the US dollar, followinga rally in stock markets. At theinterbank foreign exchange,the rupee opened at 75.92 andgained further ground to touchthe day’s high of 75.60. TheIndian unit finally settled at75.64, registering a rise of 49paise over its previous close.

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has reduced the timingof market hours for call moneymarket, government securitiesmarket, currency market fromApril 7 to April 17 (from 10am to 2 pm) following theunprecedented situation thathas emerged due to the spreadof coronavirus.

The forex market wasclosed on Monday on accountof Mahavir Jayanti. Traderssaid investor sentimentsremain fragile amid concernsover the impact of coron-avirus outbreak on the domes-tic as well as global economy.

The number of deathsaround the world linked to thenew coronavirus has crossedover 74,000. In India, over4,400 coronavirus cases havebeen reported so far.

Meanwhile, domesticstocks rallied on Tuesday withbenchmark index Sensexgoing past the key 30,000-level.The 30-share index surgedover 2,476 points, the biggestsingle-day gains in absoluteterms, amid a broad-basedrally in global equities.

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Investor wealth on Tuesdayjumped Rs 7,71,377 crore as

markets bounced back aftertwo days of fall, tracking abroad-based rally in globalequities.

Following rise in equities,the market capitalisation ofthe BSE-listed firms zoomed Rs7,71,377.02 crore to Rs1,16,38,099.98 crore.

Equity markets were closed

on Monday for ‘MahavirJayanti’. “The bears loosenedtheir grip on the Indian mar-kets on Tuesday as the indicesclocked their biggest single-daygain in over a decade. Trackingthe buoyant global cues asthere are signs of COVID-19plateauing in certain parts ofthe globe, the Nifty endedhigher by 8.8 per cent at 8,792points,” Ajit Mishra, vice-pres-ident (research), ReligareBroking Ltd, said.

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The Government has takenseveral measures to safe-

guard farmers from anyadverse impact of the ongoinglockdown, and the farm sectoris expected to report a growthof little more than 3 per cent inthe just-ended financial year,Niti Aayog member RameshChand said on Tuesday.

In an interview with PTI,Chand said the Governmenthas taken measures so thatmarkets work normally duringthe lockdown period.

“The Government hasresponded to the situation. Norestriction is put on farmers ingoing to field and undertakingagriculture operations. So, allthose states which are followingthese guidelines, I do not thinkthere will be any adverse impacton the farmers,” he said.

The country is under a 21-day lockdown as part of effortsto curb spreading of coron-avirus infections.

On the first day of thecountrywide lockdown, Chandsaid some reports came that

farmers had to throw theirperishable produce on the road.

“After states issuing orderand the district administrationallowing movement of machin-ery transport, etc, I see thatafter first day, we will not haveany adverse impact on agri-culture or farmers,” the NitiAayog member said.

Replying to a question,Chand said that in the financialyear 2019-20, the farm sectorgrowth is likely to be reportedat little more than 3 per cent.“I do not think there will be anyimpact (of lockdown) on this(farm sector) growth. We areexpecting that growth rate ofagriculture sector will be littlemore than 3 per cent. I can sayif no shock happens, the long-term growth rate of Indianagriculture will be 3 per cent,”he said.

On fears that farmers mayresort to distress sale due tolockdown, Chand said, “Yousee measures have been takenthat markets works normally.Even in case of APMC Act, lotsof relaxation has been com-mended”.

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Indian pharma industry onTuesday said there is enough

stock of hydroxychloroquine inthe country, and drug firms areready to ramp up the produc-tion to meet domestic as wellas export requirements.

India has decided to par-tially lift the ban on the exportof anti-malarial drug hydrox-ychloroquine in sync with itsglobal commitment to dealwith coronavirus pandemic.

On March 25, India hadbanned the export of hydrox-ychloroquine in the midst ofconcerns that the drug could beused to fight COVID-19.

India is the largest exporterof the drug. Officials said Indiawould export the drug on acase-by-case basis after meet-ing all the domestic require-ments. “India manufactures 70per cent of the world’s supplyof hydroxychloroquine.Companies like Zydus Cadilaand IPCA are the major man-ufacturers of hydroxychloro-

quine in the country,” IndianPharmaceutical Alliance (IPA)Secretary General SudarshanJain told PTI.

The production capacity issufficient to meet the currentdemand. If the need arises, thecompanies are committed toramp up production, he added.

“The Government haswithdrawn the restrictions on12 products and its formula-tions. Various scenarios arebeing assessed and it will be the endeavour to meetboth the domestic demandand export obligation forParacetamol and hydroxy-chloroquine,” Jain said.

The objective is to min-imise speculative buying andhoarding in these trying timesand ensure balance in distrib-ution for patients and segmentwho need them, he added.

India currently has anannual installed capacity ofaround 40 metric tonne ofactive pharmaceutical ingredi-ents (APIs) of hydroxychloro-quine.

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Iranian health officials castdoubt on Tuesday on China’s

reporting of its novel coron-avirus toll, saying the figuresappear to be too low.

“After the virus spread, itbecame evident it wasn’t asChina reported,” said MinooMohraz, a health ministry offi-cial who is also a member of

Iran’s coronavirus-fightingtaskforce.

“They’re currently retract-ing many of their articles andtheir figures and studies havenot been very correct,” shesaid, quoted by state newsagency IRNA. “With what weknow of their scientific stud-ies... Their figures are not trust-worthy.” Another taskforce offi-cial said China’s figures were

“far from the truth”, based onCOVID-19’s spread and highfatalities worldwide.

Hamid Souri, an epidemi-ologist, said “distorted dataleads to distorted decision-making”.

Iran’s health ministryspokesman KianoushJahanpour came under fire onSunday after saying China’sreporting of its COVID-19 fig-

ures was a “bitter joke”.He was slammed on

Twitter by the Chinese ambas-sador to Tehran, Chang Hua,who called on him to “respectrealities and the great efforts ofthe people of China”, where thepandemic originated.

Jahanpour later retreatedand tweeted that “China’s sup-port of Iran in these tryingtimes is unforgettable”.

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The European Union (EU) isto put up 15 billion euros

(USD 16.4 billion) to helppoor countries fight the coro-navirus epidemic, the bloc’schief announced on Tuesday.

European Commissionhead Ursula von der Leyen saidthe money would help coun-tries with weak healthcare sys-tems tackle the impact ofCOVID-19 and also aid theirlong-term economic recovery.

Beating the pandemic inEurope alone is not enough,officials say, pointing out thatif coronavirus continues torage elsewhere in the world, itwill simply return in time.

“We will only win this bat-tle with a coordinated globalresponse,” von der Leyen saidin a video posted on Twitter.

“This is why the EuropeanUnion is securing more than 15billion euros to help our part-ners worldwide to fight coro-navirus.” The brief video didnot give details of where themoney would come from norwhich countries would benefit.

But officials have previ-ously identified Africa as a con-cern because of its links toEurope and the poor state ofhealthcare in many of its coun-

tries. A senior EU official lastweek warned it would be “com-pletely useless” to defeat coro-navirus in Europe if it simplyre-emerged from nearby coun-tries struggling to contain it.

“Africa could experiencethe same problems that we arefacing in Europe in a matter ofweeks,” von der Leyen said inher video on Tuesday.

“They need our help to slow

down the spread of the virus aswe needed help in this crisis.”Europe has been the epicentre ofthe virus in recent weeks but lastweek the EU’s diplomatic chiefJosep Borrell warned the viruscould “get out of control veryrapidly” in Africa. EU develop-ment ministers will meet byvideo call on Wednesday to dis-cuss details of financial help forvulnerable countries.

Islamabad: The total numberof coronavirus cases in Pakistancrossed 4,000 on Tuesday withmore than 500 fresh infec-tions reported, while the deathtoll reached 54, according tohealth officials.

The Ministry of NationalHealth Services, in its updateon its website, reported thatfour patients died of coron-avirus in the last 24 hours.

The total number of infec-tions has gone up to 4,004,while 54 have died due toCOVID-19. As many as 429have recovered while 28 werein critical condition, it said.

According to the officials,Punjab has 2,004 cases, Sindh982, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa500, Gilgit-Baltistan 211,Balochistan 202, Islamabad 83and Pakistan-occupiedKashmir 18.

The country has so fartested 39,183 people, including3,088 during the last 24 hours.The increase in the number ofnew cases was reported despitehectic efforts to curtail thespread of the virus. TheGovernment has extended thepartial lockdown until April 14and asked people to stayindoors and follow social dis-tancing measures.

Prime Minister ImranKhan has also announced Rs1,200 billion financial packageto help vulnerable people andbusinesses. PTI

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China last year became theworld leader in interna-

tional patent filings, unseatingthe United States which hadheld the top spot for more thanfour decades, the UN saidTuesday. A record 265,800international patent applica-tions were filed last year, a hikeof 5.2-percent from 2018, theWorld Intellectual PropertyOrganisation said in its annu-al report. WIPO’s complex sys-tem of registering internation-al patents involves multiplecategories. In the main catego-ry — the Patent CooperationTreaty, or PCT — China toppedthe ranking for the first time,with 58,990 applications. Itthus overtook the United States,which filed 57,840 applications,

and which has topped the PCTranking since the system tookeffect in 1978. China and theUnited States were followed byJapan, Germany and SouthKorea as the world’s top patentapplication filers, WIPO found.

“China’s rapid growth tobecome the top filer of inter-national patent applications viaWIPO underlines a long-termshift in the locus of innovationtowards the East, with Asia-based applicants now account-ing for more than half of allPCT applications,” WIPODirector General Francis Gurrysaid in a statement.

WIPO’s report showedAsian-based applicantsaccounting for 52.4 percent ofall filings, while Europe andNorth America accounted forless than a quarter each.

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Global anti-money launder-ing watchdog FATF will

review Pakistan’s performanceto meet international commit-ments in the fight against ter-ror financing during a meetingscheduled to be held in Chinain June.

Paris-based FinancialAction Task Force (FATF) is aninter-governmental body estab-lished in 1989 to combatmoney laundering, terroristfinancing and other relatedthreats to the integrity of the international financialsystem.

Currently placed on theFATF’s ‘grey list’, Pakistan hasbeen scrambling in recent

months to avoid being added toa list of countries deemed non-compliant with anti-moneylaundering and terrorist financ-ing regulations, a measure thatofficials here fear could hurt itseconomy, which is alreadyunder severe strain.

The global watchdog willreview Pakistan’s performanceto meet international commit-ments and standards in thefight against money launderingand terror financing at itsmeeting slated to be held inBeijing on June 21-26, Dawnnews reported.

It is not yet clear if themeeting could be postponeddue to the global coronaviruspandemic which broke out incentral China’s Wuhan city.

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Brussels: The EuropeanCommission (EU) will onWednesday unveil a plan forthe bloc to ease out of a coro-navirus lockdown that hasdealt a body blow to theeconomies of EU members, aspokesman said.

The strategy, to be pre-sented by CommissionPresident Ursula von der Leyenafter a videoconference withrelevant commissioners, willcome after some EU countriesannounced they were alreadyplanning to relax measures.

Both Austria and Denmarkhave said they will start phas-

ing out restrictions from nextweek, while still keeping inplace social-distancing and frequent handwashingrules in place.

The EuropeanCommission will set out guide-lines for a bloc-wide strategy,spokesman Eric Mamer told avideolink news conference.

“This is because somemember states are beginning tolook towards the first steps interms of moving away from themeasures in the weeks to come.And we feel it’s very importantthis be done in a coordinatedfashion,” he said. AFP

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The COVID-19 pandemic has forcedus all to modify our lifestyle — from

the way we live, to the way we learn, tothe way we conduct our business.SpeakIn, AI-enabled network of speak-ers and thought leaders, identified thepotential danger the global crisis maypose to the businesses, the students andthe mental well-being of individuals. Itlaunched a series of online video inter-views and webinars to ensure that bestof thought leaders are sharing verifiedand credible information.

“Online learning and webinars willbecome the new norm in the post-COVID era. Our first priority right now

is that all health restores soon. ThoughCxO’s are well aware that they are star-ing into a fragmented workforce and arestriving hard to keep employees engagedand motivated as they battle personal aswell professional challenges. Similarly,individuals are overwhelmed with infor-mation and are realising that this can beone of the most critical pauses they willtake in their lives where they can learnand re-skill. And we are seeing a mas-sive uptake in both these cases.Organisations are reaching out to usschedule their customised learning ses-sions, at the same time individuals want-ing to learn through various webinars,”said Deepshikha Kumar, FounderSpeakIn.

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In these tough times for stu-dents all over the country,

Testbook, an EdTech start-upfor Government exams prepa-ration has launched the all-in-one Testbook Pass to supportmillions of students studyingfrom home during the lock-down to prepare for more than100 government job exams sit-ting at home.

It provides complete accessto 100+ online courses, 3500+mock test, 1000+ practicequizzes, 500+ video tricks and2000+ study notes at just �149

per month. All the students and

Government job aspirants caneasily study from home, asTestbook has reduced the priceof its online courses by over 95per cent.

All the online courses pro-vided by Testbook are very aptto study on mobile with itsunique features like watchingvideo lectures even withoutthe internet which is beneficialfor helping out smaller townstudents. EdTech today is rev-olutionising in every aspect andhelping students in tackling thecrisis.

The sudden lockdown can be atesting time for the students but

due to the various exams being post-poned what it offers is time. The iso-lation can be a gift for all students ifthey use it to their advantage byworking towards their goal withutmost dedication. Online learningis a saviour in these testing times andby choosing to learn from the mostqualified teachers at the cheapest ofprices students can make the mostof the time that they have in theirhand.

Having said that, there are cer-tain perennial issues that stillplague e-learning. First & foremostis the digital divide in the countryand there are still many efforts fromthe Government’s end that need tobe taken to bridge this gap. Andwhile there have been inevitableteething problems, one can simplynot deny that online courses rep-resent the future. The recent out-break has left many experts won-dering the course of events infuture and online learning is theonly thing right now which can saveour life from coming to a completestandstill.

In these testing circumstancesdue to impromptu closure, thebiggest benefactors and the bless-ings in disguise are the onlinelearning platforms. Also known ase-learning this online learningmethod can cater to the growingdemands of the students in themost efficient manner. The onlinelearning platforms have seen aspike in the number of studentswho are enrolling in the plethora ofcourses they offer. From courses onvarious Government sector exams,technical courses to activities likepainting and even dancing there isa never-ending list that is availableto you at the most affordable price.The preparation for Governmentjobs, in particular, has put manystudents in a quandary as stilleven in these modern times theyprefer a traditional brick and mor-tar kind of setting. The reason forthat is the physical presence of theeducators and the learning atmos-phere with the students of similarinterests in these offline courses.However, the recent advancementsin technologies have taken theeducation industry by storm.

India is not new to eLearning,for instance, Coursera, anAmerican learning platform found-ed in 2012 has over 35 million usersand India is second only to Americawhen it comes to a number of peo-ple who are taking the courses. Themajor advantage that online learn-ing has over offline is its flexibili-ty. Student can learn from any-where in the world at his conve-nience. Furthermore, students inour country are generally more cau-tious when it comes to spendingand the traveling time, cost of

traveling and exorbitant offlinecourse fees only add to the woes intheir otherwise busy schedule. Themore technological advancementwill only lead to more attraction forstudents and it is expected that by2021 our e-learning will be wortha staggering $2 billion.

Online learning has covered alot of ground in the recent timesand the interface is more userfriendly and on top of that a studentgets a classroom experience by sit-ting in the corners of their rooms.There are facilities for communi-

cating with your educators and thestudents of the same course. Thebiggest trump card is its flexibletimescale. Students can get a reso-lution to their problems not onlyduring the mundane hours of theclass but also during the timewhile they are studying themselvesvia email or through an online chatsystem. The exams are mostly con-ducted online today due to its effi-cient mechanism and due to thetests, which are designed in theonline format, e-learning makesstudents accustomed to an almostexact exam atmosphere and thusincreases their chances of success.

With the availability of variouscourses by an endless number ofeducators with demos and refundpolicies, the student’s satisfaction isalways given a priority. An educa-tor in online learning keeps onimprovising to impart better edu-cation in comparison to their peersin order to survive in this humon-gous platform which enhances theexperience of the users and help intheir overall development.

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The post-millennial age or Gen Zis currently the biggest portion ofthe populace. Considered digi-

tally savvy, this generation is the firstto grow up in a completely advancedenvironment, communicating fluidlyover online media and one that is total-ly reliant over the internet. Almost sev-enty five percent of them prefer phonesover watching TV.

Similarly, as with previous gener-ations, a school and post-graduatetraining are well-respected; but, be thatas it may, the education industry isinadequately equipped with regards todigitally engaging with their under-studies, and more sadly, coming upshort on the devices to set them up fortech-driven professions.

In today’s day and age, undergradadmission is expected to grow multi-fold between 2020 and 2025, yetadvanced educational institutions havesignificant making up for the losttime. The challenge confronting edu-cational set-ups are significant, however,these foundations can utilise digitalstrategies to readily engage their digi-tally savvy students. Here are three waysone can push colleges to adopt digitaltools:

Make the enrollment processcompletely digital

Keeping aside the advancementsthat are being introduced in the edu-cational space, the school enrollmentprocess is still unaltered. Students canlook at the university through its web-site, and with fellow students or alum-

ni through connections, but it is stillextremely difficult for a student to nav-igate through the administrative side ofthings. Only through digital tech-nologies in the enrollment process caninstitutions alleviate the differencesbetween the administrative side and thestudents.

Devise digital and mobile mar-keting methodologies

There is no better way to engage thepresent generation than through digi-tal tools. Whilst teaching methodolo-gies have still seen a shift, the admis-sion outreach is yet to explore suchchannels. According to a survey, morethan 80 per cent of the students visit theschool or university’s website throughtheir phones. By having effective toolsand applications that will ease-out theprocess to submit an application, uni-versities can become digitally friendlierdrawing more applications.

Another missed opportunity thatmany universities don’t tap into is SMSmarketing. More than 70 per cent of thestudents would allow for texts from col-leges if at all it offered any substantialinformation that is beneficial for them.SMS marketing can also help out as

alerts for students to know when the lastday of the admission process could be.

Embrace new marketing tech-niques

Amongst the general public withplenty of noise, present schools must dosubstantially more outbound advertis-ing than in the past decades. Collegesare making jobs for advertising andmarking specialists to investigate themarket and develop methodologies,much like customary organisations do.

According to a recent survey, moreuniversities are using social mediamarketing than ever before. All thiswhile multi-channel advertising andcommunication still hold a pivotalrole. Students are more likely to consideruniversities that use an amalgamationof digital with print and phone com-munications.

Devising personalised contentToday, practically all colleges are

ready for customised training. Virtuallearning situations can give under-studies a modified learning experience,that is versatile to their individualneeds. These projects can also assistunderstudies with keeping tabs ontheir development and focus on their

scholarly goals. Thanks to these per-sonalised programmes, students canfurnish their minds with clear infor-mation on what they need. Understudiescan without much of a stretch give feed-back on what works for them and whatdoesn’t, offering colleges an opportunityto persistently improve their peda-gogy. Whilst personalised teachingmethodologies pave way for the bet-terment of the students, colleges anduniversities can also use personaliseddigital strategies to target students withdifferent mindsets. While this allows forholistic selection, it also encourages amuch diverse classroom making thelearning richer and more versatile.

Owing to the plethora of advan-tages, universities across the countryhave numerous questions in theirminds. Is technology going to answerevery marketing question? Will digitalmarketing render lower administrativecosts? Should we encourage diversity incolleges? Whilst digital marketing in theadmission process doesn’t guarantee theanswers to these questions, it sure doeshelp them differentiate amongst a poolof infinite universities.

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Through Numerology, one canfind out which day is good for

any specific work.We have to take date and month

of birth and add them to the date,month and year number of which thewants to know.

For example, if someone’s per-sonal date number is 2. Then, we seethe relationship of number 2 with hispsychic number and name number.

If the relationship of one’s psychicnumber with personal date numberis friendly then the date will be good.

Similarly, if his name numbervibrates friendly with personal datenumber, then the date will be good.

Like personal date number is 2and vibrations emitted by number 2are favourable for:� Improvement in financial status.� Entering into new contract.� Selecting a life partner, if unmar-ried.� Trying to get co-operation fromothers.

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As part of their contin-uing efforts to support

enterprise customers andtheir workers during thecurrent crisis, Udacity hascreated and released a freecourse in collaborationwith Upwork to promotebest practices for remoteteam management asmany companies findthemselves working withdistributed teams for thefirst time. A one-hourcourse, Managing Remote

Teams will help managersand other team leaderslearn the tools and devel-op the skills and strategiesneeded to hire, manage,and optimise remoteteams.

“As businesses strive tocontinue day-to-day oper-ations during the COVID-19 pandemic, they need toadapt their processes towhat is quickly becomingthe new normal,” saidGabriel Dalporto, CEO,Udacity. “Remote workhas replaced on-site inter-

actions for countless work-ers across the globe. Whilemany tasks can be com-pleted from home, the bestpractices for doing so —and for managing thisnewly distributed work-force — are still somethingof an enigma to manyteam leads. We wanted toprovide a solution to helpour customers betterunderstand how to operatein an online workspace.Upwork proved to be theperfect partner to help usclose that knowledge gap.”

“The rapid pivot toadopting fully remoteteams can be jarring fororganisations. We areworking to provide solu-tions that can help our cus-tomers, as well as the gen-eral public, successfullyadapt to working with adistributed workforce. Bypartnering with Udacity,we’re able to have thegreatest impact for those inneed of skills develop-ment,” said HaydenBrown, President andCEO, Upwork.

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Making the educa-tional sector

touch new horizons ofsuccess, AnsalUniversity opens itsgates yet again for thebatch of 2020. Locatedin Gurugram, the uni-versity is all geared tonurture new studentsand thus has startedaccepting applicationsfor the latest term. Theregistrations are ongo-ing and the last day ofthe application is 14

August 2020.The university

understands how therecould be a millionobstacles when one triesto hunt down theirgoals and hence it helpsthe aspiring students tokick start their journeywith the leaders of theeducation industry.Providing them withample exposure andinteractive ways ofteaching.

Dr DNS Kumar,Vice-Chancellor, AnsalUniversity, says: “We, at

Ansal University, focuson working with stu-dents and mouldingthem competentenough to transformtheir dreams into real-ity, eventually translat-ing them into their suc-cess stories. We under-stand the passion theycarry for their field andwe are here to sparktheir fire and encouragethem to reach newerhorizons of successwhile exploring theirpotential and capabili-ties.”

Abusiness analyst examinesthe info of internal or exter-nal clients and uses their

findings to form recommendationsabout business decisions. On thefinancial side, analysts are calledupon to assist the corporate, eitherthe analyst’s own employer or anexternal client, make investmentdecisions. The business analyststudies financial data, attemptingto identify trends and make fore-casts. Typically, the analyst preparesperiodic reports during which heor she recommends the corporatebuy or sells certain securities.High-level financial analysts areeven called upon to use financialmodels to work out if it's an aus-picious time to sell the corporate.

��Business or financial analyst

officer are loaded with the respon-sibilities of evaluating the creditworthiness of the business anddetermine the line of credit, alsodevelop the financial profile andinvestigate the credit history.

Business analysts pour overcompany data and use their find-ings to assist management makebusiness decisions. This data,instead of being investment-relat-ed, involves the day-to-day oper-ations of the business. A businessanalyst’s professional study strate-gy, business models, processes andworkflows, and technical systems.They are called upon to identifyinefficiencies and find opportuni-ties for the company’s operationsto be streamlined and improved.

The business analyst is a job

that composed with lots of respon-sibilities and risks. Generally finan-cial analyst is accountable forassessing the application of the loanapplicant’s using a range of crite-ria including the aim of the appli-ance, credit viability, and cus-tomer payment history and cus-tomer creditworthiness. Businessanalyst plays the role of majoradministrator of customer credit.They affect heavy computer pro-grammes to take care of all the his-tory of customer credit and keepsfinancial records up to date. Theanalyst is important for a healthyeconomy. Without the recom-mendation of the credit analyst thebanks, insurers and company can-not extend loan for business, home,cars and occasionally employeespayrolls as well.

?��A career as a business or

financial analyst requires the bach-elor’s degree in finance, accountingor another related field like ratioanalysis, statistics, economics, cal-culus, and financial statementanalysis and risk assessment. Thesesubjects are necessary to functionas a business analyst because theyaid in risk assessment. Educationalsubjects like industry and ratioanalysis are necessary because a

part of information which shouldbe known for making in thiscareer. Candidates also do thepost graduate diploma in bankingand finance for the professionaland practical knowledge of thesesectors.

�1�� Financial analyst must be able tohandle the very high level ofresponsibilities in their job.� Financial analyst also conductsfinancial accounting, which is thepreparation of statements and

transactions inside a corporation.� A business analyst is liable foranalysing, then translating all of thefinances during a company for thedirector-level individuals andbeyond.� A business analyst must have thepower of multitasking he must beready to handle different projectsat an equivalent and prioritiseprojects effectively because theorganisation might be assignedhim for multiple projects at anequivalent time.� The business analyst shouldhave the basic knowledge of soft-ware usages like Microsoft Exceland other software to analyenumerical data.� He must have fluency in Englishand strong oral and written com-munication skill and must have thesharp sense of ethics and analyti-cal and organisational skills.

��4��The business analysts start

their career on the position ofjunior analytics after occupying thedegree in accounting, finance oranother related business field withethical and quantitative focus.Mainly some of the position dealwith consumer credit evaluationand, May reserved to managementpositions overseeing analytical

departments, ethical and candi-dates who have an associate degreeand relevant experience. In somefirms, senior analysts oversee ateam handling analysis for market,region or industry. Top-perform-ing analysts can rise into financialmanagement positions oversee-ing analytical departments, mak-ing final finance decisions andmonitoring departmental perfor-mance.

��Business analysts can work in

a variety of fields and locales.Many works for lending institu-tions like banks or insurance com-panies. Additionally, there's greatdemand in investment, working foran asset manager or private equi-ty firm as a bond analyst or for rat-ing agencies like Moody’s orStandard & Poors, determining theriskiness of investing during acompany or country. The pletho-ra of opportunities is reflectedwithin the salary range that cred-it analysts receive. The annualsalary for financial analysts rangesbetween �5 lakh to �8 lakh and isdependent upon the level of expe-rience, type of industry, and geo-graphic location.

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The initial move towards yourgroundwork for any competitiveexam is to comprehend the pre-

requirements of the exam. You shouldalso well-rehearsed with the syllabus (youget that easily on the Internet). Other thanthe syllabus, you should make a note ofthe weightage of various subjects so thatyou can plan your preparations likewise. Looking over previous years' ques-tion papers assists in getting wellacquainted with the exam pattern. Hereare six steps that you can follow to pre-pare for any competitive exam: � Understanding the syllabus: First thingfirst, you should always put all your mindand heart in understanding the syllabusof the exam and the level of questionsasked. It is very important for you tounderstand what to prepare. � Preparing a time table: After you havedecided on what to prepare it is your turnto plan how to prepare. Prepare a timetable including your short term and longterm goals; this in turn will help you intimely preparation for the exam. A goodtime table is most likely to help you in bet-ter preparation and avoids haphazardness.� Study smartly: Working hard is alwaysimportant but smart study never goes outof fashion. Going through previous yearsquestion papers gives you an edge andalso you can analyse the kind of questionsbeing asked, including heavy weightagetopic. Your major focus should be onqualitative studying rather than quanti-tative studying. � Revise regularly: Every candidateshould have a regular revision strategy inhandy. It takes at least four times of reg-ular revision to actually remember some-thing for long-term. Whatever you studyshould be revised on the third day thenon the sixth day then on twelfth day andafter than on twenty first day. A goodrevision cycle is definitely going to helpyou ace the exam.� Take breaks: All work and no playmakes Jack a dull boy, as rightly empha-sised by the proverb, it is equally impor-tant to take breaks. Rather than studyingfor long durations divided your slots andtake a break in between, go out for a walk,take a nap or just listen you're yourfavorite track.

� Keep yourself motivated: The last andthe most important thing is to keep your-self motivated. Motivation to achieve yourgoal is the key to success. If you arepreparing for any exam and if you lackmotivation then even a single failure isgoing to affect you badly. To qualify anyexam we should have a strong desire toclear it and it should be maintained on aregular basis.

Belief ' is a very powerful tool. Youmust believe in yourself and your prepa-ration. Ensure that you study the sameway throughout the year, to avoid lastminute rush and stress. Spend 10-15 min-utes before going off to sleep to quicklyrecap all that you learnt throughout theday.

Also, a bit of physical activity andmeditation helps to improve concentra-tion. Do not take stress throughout theentire preparation time and stay awayfrom stressful people. Each and everymoment you must tell yourself: “I Can,I Will.” And you will be able to do it.

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The University ofSheffield, UK isoffering two

International LLMScholarships worth £4,000towards tuition fees fortwo outstanding students.

Eligibility: Be an over-seas student for fee pur-poses have an academicoffer from us to study thefull-time LLM (includesSheffield LLM, LLMCorporate andCommercial Law and LLMInternational Law andGlobal Justicepathways)have an applica-tion number.

Applicants from eligi-ble countries will still auto-matically be eligible for theInternational PostgraduateTaught Scholarship 2020(worth £2,000) and canapply for the InternationalMerit PostgraduateScholarship 2020 (worth25% of the tuition fee).

How to apply: Youmust complete the scholar-ship application form,including a 2,000 wordessay. Essay topic — Lawalone cannot address allsocial problems. Discuss.

Scholarship applica-tions will be consideredtogether with your applica-tion for admission.

Successful applicantswill be notified before

the end of July 2020.Application deadline:

June 12, 2020

The VolkswagenFoundation is offering fel-lowship for internationalyoung researchers in alldisciplines. Ten to 15 fel-lowships for researcherswill be awarded per year.

Eligibility: Anyonecan apply who identifieswith the goals of a FreigeistFellowship and whose pro-posed research project fitsin with the aims pursuedby the Freigeist initiative.Candidates must: Theirdoctorate must have beenobtained not longer thanfive years previously. Mustfrom the outset be inte-grated within a universityor an extra-mural researchinstitution in Germany.Must have changed theiracademic environment andmoved to a new locationat the latest when startingthe Fellowship. A return toworking context of doctor-ate will only be acceptedunder exceptional circum-stances. A previously com-pleted research sojournabroad. English languagerequirements for thosewho do not speak Englishas their first language.

How to apply: Applyonline.

Application deadline:October 15, 2020.

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His unorthodox batting stance has left manybefuddled but Australian run-machine Steve

Smith says though it depends on number of fac-tors, he generally positions himself outside the off-stump to limit ways in which he can be dismissed.

Smith, the world number 1 Test batsman, hasamassed 7227 runs in 73 Tests and 4162 runs inODIs with an unconventional technique, whichmost have failed to decode.

During a podcast organised by inaugural IPLchampions Rajasthan Royals, Smith opened upabout his unusual technique to New Zealand spin-ner Ish Sodhi.

Talking about his open batting stance, Smith,the former Rajasthan Royals captain, said: “Itdepends on who’s bowling, how is the wicket play-ing, how I gonna score and stuff like that or howpeople are trying to get me out, probably that deter-mines how open I am or otherwise how closed Iam.

“But my general stance where my back foot isgoing to almost off stump, or may be even outsideat stages, I know that anything outside my eyelineisn’t hitting the stumps,” he said.

“For me, you shouldn’t get out if the ball is nothitting the stumps, so that is just a trick from mewhen I first started doing it, just limiting the waysI get out,” he explained.

The 30-year-old said his off-stump stance helpshim to leave the ball which are outside his line ofsight.

“Sometimes, I get trapped in front but I’m okaywith that at stages, knowing that if it is outside myeyeline, I don’t need to try and play the ball, I canjust leave that,” he said.

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Australian cricketers were sokeen on protecting their

lucrative IPL deals that they felt“scared” of sledging India cap-tain Virat Kohli and his team-mates during a particular peri-od and instead “sucked up” tothem, former skipper MichaelClarke has claimed.

India and Australia havehad some memorable bilateralduels but Clarke felt that when-ever the Australians would faceIndia, their eyes would betrained on the cash-rich leaguewhich is played in April-Mayevery year.

“Everybody knows howpowerful India are in regards tothe financial part of the game,internationally or domesticallywith the IPL,” Clarke told BigSports Breakfast.

“I feel that Australian crick-et, and probably every otherteam over a little period, wentthe opposite and actually suckedup to India. They were tooscared to sledge Kohli or theother Indian players becausethey had to play with them inApril,” the World Cup winning

Australian skipper said drop-ping a bombshell.

Clarke believes that some ofAustralia’s ruthless on-fieldcharacter got compromisedbecause the top-10 draws at theIPL auctions gave an impressionthat they would never sledgeKohli.

“Name a list of ten playersand they are bidding for theseAustralian players to get intotheir IPL team,” he said.

“The players were like: ‘I’mnot going to sledge Kohli, I wanthim to pick me for Bangalore soI can make my $1 million formy six weeks’.

“I feel like that’s whereAustralia went through that lit-tle phase where our cricketbecome a little bit softer or notas hard as we’re accustomed toseeing,” Clarke said about thetime after the ball-tamperingscandal when terms like Elitehonesty were propagated.

India and Australia havealways enjoyed a fiery on-fieldchemistry with the two teamsengaging in many verbal wars inthe past, which include thetours of Down Under in 2007-08 and 2018.

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IPL is “massive” in terms of stature andit is a “big shame” that it cannot be

held at the moment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said star England batsmanJos Buttler, who is expecting the cash-rich event to be slotted later in the year.

Buttler, who plays for RajasthanRoyals, underlined the importance of a

tournament like IPL.“I don’t know any more than you

know about when IPL would be playedor people talking about whether it canbe pushed back. At the moment, every-thing is quite indefinite as no one knowshow long it will last. So it can’t be decid-ed at the moment when it could or couldnot happen,” Buttler was quoted as say-ing by ESPNcricinfo.

Buttler, who made massive stridesas a white ball player after a few seasonsof IPL, spoke about the impact of nothaving an IPL and the effect it couldhave on revenue. “As for the stature ofthe tournament, it’s a massive, massivetournament. Revenue that is involved inIPL is massive. It is a very importantcompetition to cricket and it’s a bigshame that it’s not going ahead orwhether it does have the way to push itin the schedule and allow it,” he said.

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Veteran off-spinner HarbhajanSingh says he won’t mind an IPL

played in empty stadiums but theevent should go ahead when theCOVID-19 pandemic is broughtunder control as several liveli-hoods are dependent on the it.

“Spectators are impor-tant, but if the situationarises, I don’t mind playingwithout them. Yes, as aplayer I won’t get the vibe,but this will ensure thatevery fan will get to watch IPLon their TV,” Harbhajan, whoplays for Chennai Super Kings,told Star Sports CricketConnected.

“We will have to be cautious

about everything and should priori-tise players’ safety by ensuring that

the match venues, team hotels,flights are properly sanitized. Alot of lives are on line so weshould organise IPL when

everything is fine,” he added.“I miss matches the

most, was hoping that Iwould get to play 17matches (includingfinals) after a year’sgap,” Harbhajan said.

Harbhajan said heis keeping himself fit for

the league as and when ithappens.

“I hope that IPL happenssoon, till then I will keepmyself fit,” quipped the 39-year-old veteran of 103 Tests.

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There are not many rolemodels in the currentIndian cricket set up other

than Virat Kohli and RohitSharma and the seniors do notcommand much respect fromthe youngsters, feels formerflamboyant all-rounder YuvrajSingh.

In a live Instagram Livequestion and answer session,deputy skipper Rohit askedYuvraj about the differencebetween the current team andthe players who played along-side the left-hander.

“When I came into the teamor when you (Rohit) came intothe team, our seniors were verydisciplined. Obviously therewas no social media so therewere no distractions,” saidYuvraj.

“There was a certain behav-iour that we boys had to carry,how they talk to people, how

they talk to media. Becausethey were the ambassadors ofthe game and India.”

But it is not the same any-more, feels Yuvraj.

“So that is what I had toldyou guys. After playing forIndia, you have to be more care-ful about your image. But I feelthe third generation. There areonly you two seniors, Virat andyou, who are playing all the for-mats, rest of the guys are com-ing and going.

“I just feel there are veryfewer guys to look up to and Ifeel that a sense of respecttowards seniors, that hasbecome a thin line now. Koibhee kisiko kuch bhee keh detahain (anyone can say anythingto anyone,” said Yuvraj.

Yuvraj, one of the best crick-eters the world cricket has seen,said the players during his timewere conscious of whatever theydid.

“I think juniors, because of

social media, party scenes, thesethings, we could not even thinkabout that in our time. Becausewe had that fear that if we dosome mistake our senior will tellus that do not do this, this is notright,” he said.

Commenting the infamousincident involving HardikPandya and K L Rahul, whowere suspended for their loosetalk on women on a chat show,Yuvraj added: “That incidentcould not have happened in ourtime.”

Rohit on his part said theatmosphere in the team is “verylight” at the moment.

“When I came into theteam, there were so manyseniors. I think I was the onlyyoungster alongside PiyushChawla and Suresh Raina. Theatmosphere is light now. I keeptalking to the youngsters, thefive-six of them.

“I speak to Rishabh a lot.There was so much scrutiny on

him and he got worked up.Media should also think beforewriting about him. But scruti-ny will be there as long as youare playing for India.”

On the mindset of theyounger generation, Yuvraj saidmost of them only want to playlimited overs cricket.

“Sachin paaji told me once‘if you perform on field, every-thing else will follow’. I was atNational Cricket Acadmey(NCA) once and I interactedwith the younger lot. I felt mostof them did not want to playTest cricket which is real crick-et. They are happy playing one-day cricket.

“I feel even the players whohave already played for Indiashould play domestic cricketwhen they are not nationalduty. It would give them valu-able experience of playing ondifferent surfaces around thecountry,” the former Indian all-rounder added.

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La Liga could return to actionas early as next month, its

president Javier Tebas said onTuesday, as the league awaits achance to restart following thecoronavirus shutdown.

Tebas also warned Spanishclubs could lose as much as onebillion euros ($1.1 billion) if theseason is not completed, push-ing football bosses in the coun-try to search for a late finish tothe current campaign.

“The different scenarios

we have been looking at withUEFA to go back to competingare most probably starting onthe May 28-29, June 6-7 or June28-29,” Tebas said.

“We’re not just looking atwhat happens in Spain... the jobis to get all our calendars (inEurope) in line so all the com-petitions are able to finishtogether.”

But Tebas said no teamtraining could take place untilafter the state of emergencyends in Spain — currently setuntil April 26. Should that end

date be pushed back thechances of restarting in Maywould likely vanish.

Tebas said “it is not anoption” to cancel the seasongiven the massive hit to revenueSpain’s top clubs would have toabsorb, with 150 million eurosgone even if La Liga finishes theseason with fans at matches.

“We are not considering atall that we will not get back toplaying matches,” he said.

“It is not just league rev-enues, it is league revenues plusall the other revenue from the

Champions League that teamswouldn’t receive.

“We are talking about onebillion euros if we don’t getback to playing, 300 millioneuros if we play behind closeddoors and 150 million euros ifwe do to get back to playingwith fans.”

Fixtures are expected to beheld behind closed doors, atleast at first, with some Spanishclubs facing the prospect ofplaying away from their owngrounds due to scheduledbuilding work.

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�� UEFA president Aleksander Ceferinsaid on Monday that there is “no way” Liverpoolshould finish the season without the PremierLeague title, even if the campaign is cancelled dueto the coronavirus pandemic.

Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool appeared set tosecure a first English top-flight title in 30 years whenthe season was suspended, sitting 25 points clearof second-placed Manchester City.

“There is no way Liverpool could end with-out the title. If the matches are played, then theywill almost certainly win it — theoretically, theystill haven’t earned the title but they almost cer-tainly will,” Ceferin told Slovenian sports dailyEkipa.

“In case the matches cannot be played, we willneed to find a way...

“And, once again, I see no scenario accordingto which Liverpool would not be the winners. Irealise fans might be disappointed if the match isplayed in an empty stadium or even if it is resolvedaround a table, but I believe that one way or anoth-er they will win the title.”

�� Thomas Mueller looksset to spend his entire career atBayern Munich, who hedescribes as his ‘passion’, aftersigning a contract extensionuntil 2023, the reigningBundesliga championsannounced on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old joined theclub as a schoolboy in 2000,making his debut for theBavarians eight years later andhas since racked up more than500 appearances.

“I am really pleased that Ihave extended with BayernMunich... and will continue togive everything for my club,” the2014 World Cup winner said onTwitter.

“Because this club is not justan employer for me — it is apassion.”

Having risen up through

the youth ranks, Mueller is aclub icon who has won eightleague titles, five German Cupsand the 2013 ChampionsLeague.

“I’m happy that we’vereached agreement with

Thomas. Thomas is a specialplayer for us, a figurehead forthe club and our fans, a leaderwho shows the way on thepitch and has achieved a lot withFC Bayern,” sporting directorHasan Salihamidzic said. AFP

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Italian top-flight football clubshave unanimously reached

agreement to cut the salaries ofplayers, coaches and staff as aresult of the coronavirus crisis,the Lega Serie A announced.

Players’ salaries will bereduced by a third of their grossannual earnings if the seasonshould be cancelled, and asixth if it resumes.

The decision was unani-mously approved by Serie Aclubs, with the exception ofJuventus, which had alreadyhammered out a deal with itsown players, said Lega Serie A.

Individual agreementsmust still be signed between theclubs and players, who willwaive between two and fourmonths salary.

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Amid apprehension byfarmers on Wheat pro-

curement ahead of the harvest,Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar onTuesday assured the farmingcommunity that every grain oftheir produce will be procuredand purchase centres have beenincreased this time to allow“staggered” procurement inview of the lockdown.

Khattar said farmers whostore their harvested wheatcrop for longer durations maybe given incentives.

For the procurement,which normally begins onApril 1, the state governmentthis time has said for wheat itwill begin from April 20 andfor mustard from April 15.

“We have written toCentre that farmers should bepaid ''holding incentive'' fordelaying bringing their pro-duce to ’mandis’ (wholesalemarkets),” Khattar told

reporters through video con-ference. He said as against 433purchase centres and mandislast time, this season thesehave been increased to 2,000to allow staggered procure-ment of wheat, which is like-ly to last over a month.

The chief minister said''Arhitiyas'' will be involved inprocurement process. Thegovernment will digitallytransfer payments to themwho in turn will pay it to thefarmers for the crop procured,he said.

However, for mustard,farmers will be directly paid bythe government, Khattar said.“For mustard we will makepurchases from April 15 andfor this, from 66 mandis ear-lier it will be 140 mandis thistime… We are committed toprocuring every single grain offarmers,” he said.

The chief minister saidthat in view of the COVID-19pandemic, cloth masks will be

made available to farmerswhen they come to mandisand purchase centres.

He appealed to farmers tovoluntary donate at least thesum they would earn on 1-5 kgper quintal of their crop pro-duce. He said that all sectionsof society, including state gov-ernment employees, havemade contributions towards the Haryana COVID ReliefFund.

Khattar said that while alllegislators had decided todonate their month's salary forthe COVID Relief Fund, thegovernor, the deputy CM,assembly speaker, deputyspeaker, ministers and himfrom their discretionary quotahave contributed amountranging between Rs 2 crore toRs 3 crore towards theConsolidated Fund of India,making it total of Rs 51 crore.

On the farmers issue, heassured that despite the lock-down they will not be allowedto face any problem when it

comes to movement of agri-cultural equipment, includ-ing tractors and combine har-vesting machines.

With many migrant work-ers from the state having leftfor their hometown in UttarPradesh and Bihar over a weekago in the wake of lockdown,he said directions have beengiven in districts to makelabourers under the MGN-REGA.

He admitted that farmerswill have to cooperate thistime as availability of labourwas going to be a problem.

On March 28 and 29,many migrant labourers whowere present in Haryana orcame from neighbouringstates like Punjab crossedthrough the state to go to theirhometowns in view of theirapprehensions about the lock-down.

“Some left (for their nativestates) and some werestopped. Today, there arenearly 15,000 migrant labour-

ers who have been accommo-dated in our relief camps.These 15,000, if they want togo their factory or state wherethey work, if they want to goin a safe manner, we canmake efforts to send themback by following all normspertaining to COVID-19 sothat sufficient distance ismaintained in buses, like ineach bus 20-30 people can beaccommodated and sent totheir homes. During the pasttwo days 1,000 such peoplehave gone back,” he said.

Khattar also said that stategovernment had taken steps toprovide food and ration topoor sections including dailywagers and so far, 55 lakh foodpackets and 3.5 lakh rationpackets have been distributed.

On the Haryana COVIDRelief Fund, he said therewas no coercion on employ-ees, but so far 1.82 lakhemployees have come for-ward on their own makinghealthy contributions.

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In a major relief to Punjabisduring the clampdown and

COVID-19 crisis, PunjabGovernment on Wednesdayannounced reduction in fixedcharges for electricity con-sumers, along with defermentof deadline for payment ofbills.

Announcing this, the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh also instructed the statePower Department to provideuninterrupted 24x7 supply toall healthcare institutions.

“PSPCL will have to bearadditional burden of Rs 350crore due to various reliefsannounced for the consumers,”said an official spokespersonadding that the Chief Ministeralso lauded the employees ofPSPCL and PSTCL for theiruntiring efforts in maintainingcontinuous supply of power inthis time of crisis.

The Chief Minister furtherordered that no new discon-nection shall be carried outagainst non-payment tillrestrictions are withdrawn by

the Authority.Spokesperson said that the

reliefs have been announced inview of unprecedented situa-tion in which consumers areunable to pay their dues toPunjab State PowerCorporation Limited (PSPCL).

As per the Chief Minister’sdirectives, due date of electric-ity bills of all domestic andcommercial consumers, havingcurrent monthly or bimonthlybills up to Rs 10,000 payable onor after March 20, 2020, hasbeen extended up to April 20,2020, without levy of late pay-ment surcharge.

Further, one percent rebatewill be given to the consumers(exclusive of any previousarrears) who will pay electric-ity bills online through digitalmodes by original due date.

The same applies to allelectricity bills payable on orafter March 20, 2020, of all theindustrial consumers – medi-um supply (MS) and large sup-ply (LS) industrial consumers.The fixed charges of the indus-trial consumers will also beexempted for the next twomonths, with effect fromMarch 23, 2020, and energycharges may be fixed com-mensurate with reduction infixed charges (single rate), the

Chief Minister has instructed.

Since the Revised EnergyCharges will be paid by con-sumers and will not be con-sidered for subsidy, the MS andLS industrial consumers, whoseunits remained closed duringthis period, will not be requiredto pay any electricity dues.

Capt Amarinder furtherdirected the PrincipalSecretary, Power, A VenuPrasad to provide uninter-rupted 24x7 supply to allhealthcare institutions such asMedical Colleges, Hospitals,

Dispensaries and other MedicalEstablishments and QuarantineCentres across the States fortheir smooth functioning.

He has also directed thatPSPCL shall ensure continuityof supply, and complaints relat-ed to safety and restoration ofsupply shall continue to beattended. However, for othernon-essential services whichrequire visiting consumerpremises for meter reading,billing, release of new connec-tions etc may be discontinuedduring the lockdown period.

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Chandigarh: HaryanaGovernment on Tuesday lodgeda protest with the Delhi govern-ment, alleging that they failed toinform them about a State policeSub Inspector who died at a hos-pital in the national capital aftercontracting COVID-19.

Charging some of thedeceased's family members andthe hospital with concealing infor-mation, cases have also been reg-istered against them.

Haryana Home Minister AnilVij said the SI from Sonipat wasadmitted to a private hospital inDelhi last month after he suffereda brain stroke. Later, he contract-ed coronavirus infection andpassed away on Saturday.

Neither the Delhi governmentnor hospital authorities or even thedeceased's family gave any infor-mation that he had tested positivefor the infection, the minister said."On Tuesday, we lodged a strongprotest with the Delhi governmentand our state chief secretary talkedto her counterpart in this regard.A sub-inspector of the Haryanapolice died in Delhi, but we werenot informed," Vij said.

The minister said they hand-ed over the body to the family,which also concealed the infor-mation. "Many people partici-pated in the deceased's last rites inSonipat and several of his col-leagues from the police stationwhere he worked also took part inthe funeral. He was also given agun salute. Later, we learnt that hehad tested COVID positive," Vijsaid.

“I enquired from my officialsabout this, but they said they hadno information. This is a big lapseon part of the Delhi governmentthat they failed to inform us,” hesaid. Vij said 30-40 people, includ-ing police officials and somemembers of the deceased's fami-ly have been quarantined after therevelation.

“A case has also been regis-tered against some of thedeceased's family members underSections 269 and 270 of the IPCfor concealing the information. Wehave also registered a case againstthe Delhi hospital,” he said. PNS

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To ensure the supply andavailability of essential

commodities to every house-hold in the State, duringCOVID-19 crisis, HaryanaGovernment has constituted‘special teams’ of Food, Suppliesand Consumer AffairsDepartment and DistrictAdministration, to keep acheck on black marketing,hoarding, and price inflation ofessential commodities.

A spokesman of Food,Supplies and Consumer AffairsDepartment on Tuesday saidthe rate capping of 25 essentialcommodities including pulses,sugar, salt, wheat, flour, pota-toes and onions has been doneby all the DeputyCommissioners in their respec-tive districts and every shop-

keeper has been strictly direct-ed not to sell any product

above the capped rate. Apartfrom this, the shopkeepershave been directed to displaythe rate list outside their shops,so that no overcharging isdone. While, it should also beensured that the face masks andhand sanitizers should not besold above MRPs.

The spokesman said thatdirections have also been issuedfor ensuring the adequate avail-ability of mustard oil, pulsesand other essential items in theState, for this, the departmentofficers are in regular contactwith NAFED and the demandof the required stock for puls-es and mustard oil has beensent to NAFED and the samewill be received soon. Heinformed that the supply andavailability of all essential itemsis being ensured throughwholesalers.

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Stepping up its preparationsto tackle the Novel Corona

Virus, Haryana Chief SecretaryKeshni Anand Arora onTuesday directed the officers tomake an aggressive contain-ment plan in their respectivedistricts to stop communitytransmission.

She directed that the con-tainment plan should be madeon the lines of the Union HealthMinistry, adding that the planwill ensure early detection ofcases, breaking the chain oftransmission in the State.

The Chief Secretary gavethese directions while presid-ing over the meeting of theCrisis CoordinationCommittee meeting with theofficers.

She said linking micro-planning with Health aspects isthe need of the hour and everyofficer should ensure the prop-er execution of the same. Shefurther directed that while exe-cuting the micro-level plan-

ning, door to door survey ofevery household should beconducted to ascertain theexact data of how many peopleare quarantined, isolated,recovered, medically tested andif the delivery and supply chainof essential commodities ismaintained appropriately ornot. She said that every DeputyCommissioner should minute-ly understand the problem,analyze it and resolve it at thegrassroot level as in this hourof crisis only aggressive strat-egy will help to tackle this pan-demic.

Chandigarh: Directing all theDistrict Police Chiefs (CPs/SPs)to show “zero tolerance” towardsany attempt to spread rumoursor otherwise vitiate communalharmony, Director General ofPolice (DGP) Haryana, ManojYadava on Tuesday asked themto accord highest importance toprevent such kind of incidents bytaking stern action against anti-social elements in their respec-tive jurisdiction.

In a written communicationto all Commissioners of Policeand District Superintendents ofPolice, the DGP has tasked themto focus on maintenance of Lawand Order by strictly enforcinglock-down across the State.Keeping in view some reportedincidents of attacks on place ofworships or members of a par-ticular community, he hasinstructed all the police officersto be on alert and take precau-tionary measures.

Such incidents not onlyresult in rumour-mongeringand misinformation but have thepotential to damage the social

fabric and vitiate the communalharmony. They also divert thefocus of the administration awayfrom the national fight againstCOVID-19, he said A state-ment said that Home Minister,Anil Vij while presiding over areview meeting on the law andorder situation held on April 6,had also expressed concern overthe rising trend of such incidentsand stated that the Governmenthad a zero tolerance policy oncrime against minorities. Healso instructed to take stringentaction against those involved insuch inhuman acts.

The DGP said strict actionwould be taken against thoseindulging in hate speeches andrumour-mongering on socialmedia about COVID-19, Policehad so far arrested 32 accused fortheir involvement in spreadingfake news or rumors on socialmedia by registering 56 cases. Inaddition, 12 cases have been reg-istered regarding the incidents ofattacks on religious minorities inwhich 25 accused have beenarrested so far. PNS

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In yet another case in Punjab,a family in Amritsar refused

to claim the body of a coron-avirus victim, forcing theDistrict Administration to per-form his last rites.

The incident came a dayafter a family in Ludhiana hadrefused to accept and crematethe body of a 69-year-oldCOVID-19 positive woman.Following which, theAdministration there had toperform her last rites.

As per officials, the 69-year-old Amritsar man, aretired superintending engineerat the civic body there, had diedat a private hospital on

Monday.His family did not respond

to the administration when itasked them to claim the body.Thereafter, the officialsapproached the family, butthey did not come forward forthe last rites.

The daughter of thedeceased is pursuing an MBBScourse and none of his familymembers reached the crema-

tion ground where he was con-signed to flames. Initially, theman had tested negative forCOVID-19 at the GovernmentMedical College in Amritsar.

But when his conditiondid not improve, he was shift-ed to a private hospital, wherehe tested positive for the dis-ease.

Amritsar Civil SurgeonPrabhdeep Kaur Johal said: “A

few days ago, he tested negativefor the infection at the GMClab. Then he went to a privatehospital which declared himpositive in their preliminaryreport.

Thereafter, we took hissamples again for confirmationand found him positive forCOVID-19.”

In another such incident inAmritsar, residents of Verka vil-lage did not allow the crema-tion of Padma Shri recipientand former Golden templeHazuri Raagi Bhai NirmalSingh Khalsa.

The villagers had refused toallow the cremation of theGurbani exponent fearing thespread of the disease.

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The Himachal PradeshGovernment on Tuesday

decided to deduct 30 per centsalaries of State MLAs for a yearto fight the COVID-19 pan-demic.

In a meeting chaired byChief Minister Jai Ram Thakurthrough video conferencingon Tuesday, the State Cabinetdecided to deduct 30 per centsalaries and honorarium of allMembers of LegislativeAssembly, including the chiefminister, Vidhan Sabha speak-er, deputy speaker and minis-ters for one year.

It has also been decided tosuspend the Vidhayak KshetraVikas Nidhi Yojna for twoyears, a spokesperson said.

The State Cabinet alsodecided to deduct 30 per centsalaries of chairmen and vicechairmen of various boards,corporations and all politicalappointees for one year.

On the World Health Day,the Cabinet also expressed itsgratitude to the frontline ‘coro-navirus warriors’ -- doctors,nurses, para medical staff, san-itary workers and police -- fortheir dedicated services duringthe COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chief Minister alsohailed the decision of theUnion Government to deduct30 per cent salaries of thePrime Minister, MPs and cen-tral Ministers.

The Cabinet also paid itstributes to two Army

personnels from the State-paratrooper Bal Krishan ofKullu''s Puyed village andSubedar Sanjeev Kumar ofBilaspur''s Dehra village-- whoalong with three other sol-diers had fallen to the bullets ofmilitants in Jammu andKashmir on Sunday.

CM DIRECTS TO LAUNCHEXTENSIVE CAMPAIGNFOR CONTACT MAPPINGOF TABLIGHI JAMAATCOVID-19 INFECTED PER-SONS

Holding a video confer-encing with all the DeputyC o m m i s s i o n e r s ,Superintendents of Police andChief Medical Officers of theState from Shimla on Tuesday,Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakurdirected the officers that exten-sive campaign must belaunched for contact mappingof Tablighi Jamaat coronavirusinfected persons so that it doesnot multiply further.

"Such persons should bekept in quarantine till they werenot medically examined," hetold the officers. He also urgedthe people to come forward toidentify such people in theirareas to check further spread ofcoronavirus.

Thakur said that StateGovernment would not hesitatein taking strict action againstthose who would conceal infor-mation about their travellinghistory and those who giveshelter to them.

He said the ESI HospitalKatha in Baddi area of Solandistrict has been notified asHospital for treatment ofCOVID-19 positive patientsand patients from Solan andSirmaur districts would betreated in this hospital.

The CM said the StateGovernment had started tele-

medicine consultancy facili-ties in Health and Wellnesscentres to facilitate the peoplein getting treatment advisefrom specialists.

Thakur said that underthe Active Case FindingCampaign launched through-out the State, health informa-tion of 41 lakh persons werecollected by the health workersduring door to door campaign,adding that adequate arrange-ments should be made for pro-viding surgical masks, handsanitizers and gloves to thehealth workers working underActive Case Finding Campaign.

He said 4684 persons hadbeen kept under surveillancefor coronavirus in the State sofar out of which 2188 peoplehad completed 28 days of sur-veillance period, adding thatinvestigations of 79 persons forCOVID-19 had been done inthe State on Tuesday out ofwhich 22 samples have beenfound negative and report of 57samples were still awaited.

GOVERNOR HONOURSHEALTH WORKERS ONWORLD HEALTH DAY

Himachal GovernorBandaru Dattatraya on Tuesdayhonoured the doctors, nursesand safai karamchari at RajBhavan on World Health Daywhile following social distanc-ing norms. He said the wholeworld was fighting with coron-avirus pandemic, which increas-es the importance of this Day.

In the wake of the coron-avirus, millions of doctors, nurs-es, medical staff and healthcareworkers were leaving behindtheir comfort and safety tofight COVID-19 crisis and helpthose infected or suspected ofcoronavirus. “We should salutetheir spirit and give them fullrespect”, said the Governor.

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Chandigarh: To ensure socialdistancing and effective imple-mentation of curfew restrictionsin the city, the religious leadersfrom Muslim community onTuesday issued an appeal topeople to follow theAdministration’s guidelines.

The joint press conference

by various leaders from acrossthe city came after UT Policerequest. SSP Nilambari Jagadalewas also present during the con-ference at Jama Masjid, Sector 20here.

In a joint appeal, MaullanaAjmal Khan of Jama MasjidSector 20, Maullana Imran of

Masjid Manimajra, Mufti Anasof Masjid BDC-26, QuariShamsher of Masjid Sector 45and Noor, member of TablighiJamaat Chandigarh urged thecommunity to stay at home andfollow the curfew restrictions putin place to combat the spread ofCOVID-19 in the city. PNS

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Punjab on Tuesday reportedwhopping 20 new coron-

avirus cases — highest in a sin-gle day — from Pathankot(six), Moga (four), Amritsar(one), Mansa (two), and Mohali(seven) districts, besides onedeath from Amritsar. At thesame time, the state witnessed10 positive patients fromNawanshahr, Hoshiarpur andMohali recovering.

A total of seven peoplefrom Mohali district’sJawaharpur village were testedpositive, where the panch wasdiagnosed with coronavirus,taking the total number ofcases in the district highest inPunjab to 26. As many 11people from Jawaharpur vil-lage, in Dera Bassi tehsil, arepositive for COVID-19.

“As many 26 samples weretaken by conducting extensivecontact tracing after the first pos-itive case from the village wasadmitted in Chandigarh’sGovernment medical Collegeand Hospital, Sector 32. Nowthey all have been shifted to theGian Sagar Hospital at Banur,which is under GovernmentManagement,” said MohaliDeputy Commissioner GirishDayalan.

“Instead of just quarantiningthe primary contacts of positivecases, we have taken samplesextensively…Similarly, we arealso containing the affectedareas and stopping inward andoutward movement, except foressential supplies,” said Dayalan.

He said that the DistrictAdministration is undertakingextensive contact tracing todetect possible corona viruspositive cases which is clear fromthe fact that out of 2,368 sam-ples taken in Punjab, nearly 600,that is 25 percent have beentaken by the MohaliAdministration through contacttracing.

“A total of 118 samples ofthe further contacts of thosefound positive have been taken.As a part of the immediatestarting of the containment pro-tocol, 522 houses have been sub-jected to survey for checking ofsymptoms,” he said adding thatthe entire village has alreadybeen sealed as a precautionarymeasure.

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6 . RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718 !$˘%˜ !&’()*+ ˘ *+%,˚3 ... · rapid COVID-19 tests will be ... now allow users to share fre- ... launched an e-learning plat-form "Padhai

6 . RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718 !$˘%˜ !&’()+ ˘ +%,˚3 ... · rapid COVID-19 tests will be ... now allow users to share fre- ... launched an e-learning plat-form "Padhai