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As coronavirus cases con-tinued to swell in the coun-

try, adding 400-500 patients aday since Wednesday, theCentre on Saturday againlinked the rise to the TablighiJamaat members congregatingin Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markazin mid-March, saying theyalone contributed 30 per centof the total cases.

The Ministry of Healthsaid total number of cases as onSaturday morning stood below3,000, including 68 death and601 new cases reported overthe last 24 hours.

“Till now there are 2,902positive cases in India. 601 pos-itive cases have been reportedsince Friday, 12 deaths alsoreported on Friday, taking thetotal to 68. One eighty threepeople have recovered/dis-charged,” said Lav Agarwal,Joint Secretary in the Ministry.

But according to the totalof figures collected from States,the overall numbers of positivecases stood at 3,510 by 8.30 pmon Saturday. Maharashtrastood at the peak 537 positivecases, including 47 new. It wasfollowed by Tamil Nadu with485 positive cases, including 74new. With 59 new cases, Delhiwas on the third spot.

The national Capital hasoverall 445 positive cases.Kerala with 304 positive cases,11 of them new was placedfourth. Telengana, UttarPradesh and Rajasthan hadmore than 200 cases each.

Meanwhile, Dharavi inMumbai reported two morecases of coronavirus, taking thetotal number of positive casesin the area to five.

Agarwal said 1,023 coron-avirus cases in 17 States wererelated to the Jamaat’s congre-gation. “Around 30 per cent ofthe total cases are related to thereligious congregation so far.We need to understand that weare as strong as the weakestlink,” he said.

Punya Salila Srivastava,Joint Secretary in the HomeAffairs Ministry, said through

a massive coordinated effortaround 22,000 Tablighis andtheir contacts have been quar-antined.

All issues related to theongoing lockdown are beingmonitored by a 24x7 controlroom of the Ministry of HomeAffairs here, she said, addingthat about 200 personnel fromthe National Disaster ResponseForce (NDRF) and CentralArmed Police Forces are linkedto it on the ground level.

The officer said all mea-sures to implement the three-week nationwide lockdown,set to end on April 14, havebeen effective till now and thesupply of essential goods andservices has been “satisfactory”.

Union Home SecretaryAjay Bhalla has written toStates and Union Territories toensure that the supply chain ofessential items is not obstruct-ed during the lockdown peri-od, she said.

The first installment of�11,092 crore under the Statedisaster response fund wasreleased by the MHA on Friday.States can utilise this money forensuring aid to migrant work-ers and other calamity-relatedwork, she said.

States and UTs are runningrelief camps for migrant work-ers and other needy people incoordination with NGOs and other community groups,she added.

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After a CMO of CRPF wasfound Covid-19 positive

and isolated besides eight oth-ers officers were quarantined,the paramilitary, in a proactivemeasure, has now mapped adetailed list of about 200 per-sonnel, including DG CRPF,who were traced to have con-tacts with the quarantined per-sonnel. All the 200 such per-sonnel, including top official,have been advised self/homequarantine, and are accordinglyobserving the same as a pre-cautionary measure.

The list of the contact trac-ing includes CRPF DG APMaheshwari and senior secu-rity Adviser of MHA K VijayKumar, along with others.

Detailed report on P5�� &'#

The Centre’s decision toreverse its Tuesday night

order notifying a new domicilestatus for Jammu & Kashmirreflects a realisation that itneeded to take political partiestogether for maintaining long-term normalcy in the UnionTerritory.

As per the latest order, alljobs in Jammu & Kashmir willbe for those who stayed in thearea for at least 15 years.

The Centre was forced towithdraw its order followingangry response from Jammu &Kashmir-based political parties,including National Conference(NC), People’s DemocraticParty (PDP) and newly formedJammu & Kashmir Apni Party.

The State unit of the BJPtoo had briefed top brass of theparty after receiving brick batsfrom common masses overignoring their genuine con-cerns while drafting the rulesdefining the domicile statusand granting reservation injobs meant only for fourth

class employees.An official said that swift

response from the Centre wasmeant to win hearts and mindsof the people of Jammu &Kashmir especially at a timewhen the Centre has alreadyinitiated political process withthe setting up of delimitationcommission.

“Any person who fulfils thefollowing conditions shall be adomicile of the Union Territoryof Jammu & Kashmir for thepurposes of appointment toany post under the UnionTerritory of Jammu &Kashmir,” said the revised noti-fication titled as Jammu andKashmir Reorganisation(Adaptation of State Laws)Order-2020.

“....no person shall be eli-gible for appointment to anypost unless he is a domicile ofthe Union Territory of Jammu& Kashmir,” the amendedJammu and Kashmir CivilServices (Decentralisation andRecruitment) Act, which is apart of the notification, said.

Turn to Page 4

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Contrary to its earlier asser-tion that not everyone is

required to wear masks as theprimary focus is on social dis-tancing, the Union HealthMinistry on Saturday cameout with a detailed advisoryrecommending home-madecloth mask for all and even laidout a pictorial “Do It Yourself(DIY)” guide.

It attributed the latest moveof homemade face cover for thegeneral public, excluding med-ical staff/health workers, tothe benefits that certain coun-tries have claimed due to itsusage.

Wearing of face covers isespecially recommended forpeople living in densely popu-

lated areas or in crowded mar-kets, as per the advisory whichcomes amid rising number ofcoronavirus cases as well asrush among people for masks,aggravating a shortage of theitem among medical personnelwho need them the most.

The Ministry said that peo-ple who are not suffering frommedical conditions or havingbreathing difficulties may usethe handmade reusable facecover.

“Certainc o u n t r i e shave claimedbenefits of home-made face cover for the gen-eral public. Such homemadeface cover is a good method formaintaining personal hygiene.Such usage certainly will helpin maintaining overall hygien-ic health conditions.

“Therefore, it is suggestedthat such people who are notsuffering from medical condi-

tions or having breathing dif-ficulties may use the handmadereusable face cover, particular-ly when they step out of theirhouse. This will help in pro-tecting the community at large,”it said.

“This face cover is not rec-ommended for either healthworkers or those workingwith or in contact withCOVID-19 patients or arepatients themselves asthese categories of people

are required to wear specifiedprotective gear”.

The advisory says the facecovers could be made out ofclean cloth available at home,which needs to be thoroughlycleaned and washed before aface cover is stitched.

Turn to Page 4

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Contrary to the global trendwhere elderly are said to be

the most vulnerable to Covid-19, in India it is the young peo-ple who are bearing the bruntof the deadly disease. At least42 per cent of the total positivecases reported so far are in theage group of 21-40. Peopleabove 60 years accounted foronly 17 per cent of the cases.

“We have done the ageprofile analysis of Covid-19cases in India. We found that9 per cent of positive cases arein between 0- 20 years, 42 percent cases are in the age groupof 21-40, 33 per cent in 41-60and 17 per cent in the peopleabove 60 years of age,” said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary,Ministry of Health and FamilyWelfare.

However, in contrast, assituation prevails at present,most of the fatalities reportedin India are from the higherage group.

Around 1.15 million peo-ple from across the world areinfected with the virus whichhas claimed 60,428 lives since the first case ofCovid-19 was reported inDecember last year fromWuhan in China. So far,2,36,095 have recovered.

“As far as deaths are con-cerned, we have noticed thatadvanced age and co-mor-bidities such as diabetes, kid-ney and cardiac ailmentsplayed an important role indeaths,” said Agarwal.

“We are battling with thison a day-to-day basis. Still, thecase doubling rate in India islesser than others,” he added.

Turn to Page 4

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Amid concerns raised byseveral Opposition lead-

ers, including former PowerMinister Jairam Ramesh, thatPrime Minister NarendraModi’s call for a 9-minuteblackout at 9 pm on April 5could result in a grid collapse,the Ministry of Power on

Saturday said the appre-hensions that this may cause

instability in grid and voltagefluctuation harming electricalappliances are misplaced.

Clearing the air over apossible power grid collapse,the Power Ministry said thereis no call to switch off streetlights or appliances in homeslike TV, refrigerators, air con-ditioners and only lightsshould be switched off for 9minutes.

The lights in hospitalsand other essential serviceswill remain on. The clarifica-tion came after several newsreports claimed that the PrimeMinister’s appeal for a 9-minute blackout would resultin power grid collapse andwould take time to restorepower across the nation.

Ramesh, Congress MPShashi Tharoor, andMaharashtra Energy MinisterNitin Raut have expressedconcern that the PM’s callcould lead to a multi-State gridcollapse and result in blackout

in the entire country.Turn to Page 4

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The silver lining in the grey clouds of theCoronavirus pandemic is that it has

brought families closer. So much so thatDD National found it the right time to goback in time and bring back all the familydramas or to be precise classics that hadpeople glued to their sets. Back in the 80sand 90s, it was an era when people wouldeagerly wait for their favourite shows. It wasnothing short of a festivity and puja forsome when they would do aarti of the TVsets as soon as Ramayan was aired.

From mythological shows likeRamayan and Mahabharat to fantasy oneslike Alif Laila, to dramas like Circus tosuperheroes series like Shaktimaan, there’ssomething for everyone to watch duringthis lockdown and keep them entertained.

Nitish Bhardwaj, who played LordKrishna in Mahabharat, says that thereason why the millenials too are glued totheir TV screens in the re-telecast of theseshows is because of curiosity.

“The millennials are wondering whytheir parents were praising these serials somuch, what is there that makes them standout. This curiosity has attracted theattention of the younger generation towardsthe re-telecast,” he says.

Another reason is that the storyline isrelevant even today and hence fresh. “Thevalue systems and the drama of humanrelationships in these serials is relevant forall times. The human conflict and strugglehas in fact increased over the last 30 yearsand this makes Mahabharat even moreidentifiable,” Bhardwaj tells you.

There is a difference, he says, in theshows that were made then and now.“People nowadays call their shows factory-line ‘soaps’ whereas our shows were andstill are ‘designer products’ which cater toboth classes and masses,” he adds.

Mukesh Khanna, who playedShaktimaan says that good work remainsgood even if you watch it after 30 yearsdown the line. “Gold will always remaingold, no matter after how long you dig it.That was a period of creativity.You name any showfrom those daysand it is still asgood. Shows nowhave lost essence.One reason forthis may bethe dailytelecast,” hesays.

H etells youthat there-telecast

of these shows was next to impossible butnow that it has happened, it is time to cheerup. “Back then, when Mahabharat used tocome on TV, everyone was hooked to theirscreens and it looked like a curfew situationon the roads. Then with the emergence ofmore and more channels, the variety ofcontent increased manifold. It lookedimpossible that these shows will evercome back because of the varied taste of theaudience. I could have never imagined thatthere will be a time when the whole country

will sit and watch Mahabharat orfor that matter Shaktimaan

again. But it happened andwhosoever cae up withthis idea to relive the 90sshould be appreciated.

This will not only beatthe boredom of the 21-day

lockdown but will alsoinstill in people the value of

relationships that was

slowly being lost. Moreover, the youngergeneration will get a taste of their cultureand tradition which is the need of the hour,”Khanna tells you.

Khanna hopes that the re-telecast ofsuch shows will bring about a change in theTV industry and that makers would nowstart coming up with concept that will stayrelevant even after three decades years.

“I hope that this change will come andthe makers will realise that the audiencewants something fresh but it will dependon how long the lockdown period stays.People have the tendency to forget whatthey learnt once they come out of thatphase. People should stop repeating contentand think of newer concepts. One track iscopied by multiple shows and as a result,80 per cent has low TRPs,” he says.

Apart from the fact that technology hasevolved, Khanna hasn’t see any positivechange in the TV industry. “All these years,I feel that TV has degraded a lot. Yes, notto mention there are a lot of people whoare working extremely hard, the otherwisequality of things have degraded. Peoplehave started twisting history. They want togive a modern twist to everything whichcan’t and shouldn’t happen because then

it doesn’t showcase our culture. Theessence gets lost. Not everything canbe modernised especiallymythological shows. This is thereason why many such shows failedto leave a mark,” he says and givesa hint that the audience will get to

see Shaktimaan Season 2, bigger andbetter soon.

�What is your role in AladdinNaam Toh Suna Hoga?

I play Mallika, who is the creatorof djinn and the lamp. She is the onewho has created all the djinns.�What attracted you to play therole?

The dimensions of the characterofcourse. It is a very larger than lifeand humongous character. Mallika isthe lead antagonist, it is like thewhole show is on one side and Mallikasingle-handedly on the other. Shestands tall. Moreover, the show is alsowell-established so there were noreasons for me turn down the project.�From Mayavi to now Aladdin, howhas the journey been?

It has been an excellent one.Throughout my journey, I followedGod’s instinct more than mine. Therewas a time when I auditioned for a fewprojects and I took the ones that gotfinalised first instead of taking thechance of waiting for the otherones thinking that they mightbe better. There were timeswhen I was a part of a coupleof projects at the same timebut I have never regretted mydecisions that 'oh I shouldhave waited for other thingsto happen'. And in returnwhatever project I took backthen turned out well for me. Ibelieved that it was God’s will,therefore I never questioned mydecisions.�How easy or difficult was itfor you to be a part of thisindustry?

I wouldn’t say it was easy ordifficult. Acting just happened withme. No one in my family belong to thefield and hence, I had no one whocould have guided me for my betterback then. I only had a dream, thatof being an actor. I kept onbelieving in it so much so that Ideveloped the etiquette of an

actor —body language and others.And that didn't make sense to manypeople back then. I remember whenI was in Class VIII, my teacherscolded for me behaving like aheroine. I had a mixed feeling then —bad because I felt it was humiliatingand good because I thought thatpeople have started to believe that Ihave the qualities of an actor and canbecome one, even though I had noclue of what the field used to be like.

Then after some time, I took partin certain competitions, looked forwork in the newspaper and eventuallyit happened and I came into theindustry. One change led to the other.I have always managed to be as

hardworking as I was before,I never felt saturated and

never took anythingcasually. Even when Iwas in the mostcomfortable ofpositions, I hadtried to evolve andbe where I amtoday. So itwasn’t easy at

all. Now whenI see peoplewho areenamouredby ourlifestyle andprofessioncome intothis industrybut it is notthe way howthings work.

They are notpersistent enough,

may be they are forthe initial two years but

then it gets lost. However,my husband (GurmeetChoudhary) and I bothhave worked extremelyhard all our lives. We

have always motivated each other toimprove our skills.�You and Gurmeet are one of thepower couples of the industry. Whatkeeps the relationship so fresh?

It is because we are best friendsfirst. And one can never get bored oftheir friend. Also we have set ourindividualistic priorities right, it is notas if one of us have kept that aside. Theother day someone was telling me thatpeople should give space to theirpartners. That’s what made me thinkthat do we give space to each other andthe answer was instantly a yes. Take forexample if I am out with my friendsthat includes only girls and if Gurmeetis free and is getting bored at homethen I ask him to join us and he neversays no and vice versa. We have thatlevel of understanding and there is nohard core role that my time is my time.Also, we are each others’ first priorityand everything else comes second.This is what keeps us going.�You both have worked together onvarious shows. How easy or difficultwas that?

Initially, it was difficult to work.We got to work together on our firstbreak — Ramayan and even Mayavi.We used to laugh a lot. I found ithilarious to act together. Thengradually we started having lot ofexpectations from each other, weadvised each other too. Then aftersome time, we got to work together fora film on a digital space and we realisedhow both of us have evolved as actorsas well as human beings by workingtogether. We were matured andstopped expecting from each other, interms of work. The equation hadchanged over the years for us asactors and that was great.�What is there in the pipeline?

Currently I am focusing solely onAladdin... and there is a film —Shubho Bijoyo that I have done withGurmeet. It will release soon.

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal and Deputy Chief

Minister on Saturday interact-ed with parents in a session on‘Parenting’ in the Time ofCorona’. During the session,Kejriwal and Sisodia bothanswered questioned posed bychildren and parents onCOVID -19

Urging parents to utilisethis time with children to themaximum, Sisodia who is alsoEducation Minister in AamAadmi Party (AAP) Cabinet,said Parents need to be sensitiveabout this situation and moni-tor what their children areexposed to in these times.

Kejriwal asked parents tounderstand the gravity of the sit-uation and explain this to thechildren is crucial for the par-ents. “Parents should set anexample for their children bythose in need around us,” hesaid. According to data availablewith Directorate of Education (DoE ), 44 Lakh students in Delhiare studying in Government,private and corporationsschools.

The interaction was joinedby the Director of EducationVinay Bhushan and CEO ofMeraki Foundation, SeemantDhadwal.

Kejriwal and Sisodia tookquestions on COVID-19 and itsgravity, and urged parents totake a positive approach andexplain to their children sensi-tively about the gravity of the sit-uation.

Initiating the session,Sisodia said, “If we talk aboutDelhi, 44 lakh students arestudying in Delhi schools

including MCD, private andGovernment schools. As a resultof the lockdown, children are athome. It is very important tounderstand how to sail throughthese tough times. The aim is toeffectively utilise our time athomes during the isolation, andthat is why we are holding thisdiscussion on “Parenting in theTime of corona.”

Introducing the session tothe audience, Kejriwal said, “Wehad to close down schools forthe last 15-20 days, due to theextraordinary situation that hasarisen worldwide. The only waythat we can save ourselves fromthe virus is by following socialdistancing norms, staying awayfrom other people and ceasingcontact with others. Consideringthe gravity of the situation andto ensure good health of you andyour children, we had to shutdown schools 15-20 days back.”

“Children are energetic, theywant to go out and play, but alltheir activities have stoppedbecause of the lockdown. I canunderstand that they must behaving questions onCoronavirus and the lockdown.Following our announcementyesterday on ‘Parenting in thetimes of Corona’ broadcast, wehave got interesting questionsfrom the parents and children,”said Kejriwal.

Quoting a question from aparent on the COVID-19, hesaid, “A 5-year-old girl has askedher mother, if we were all aregoing to die. Children are inno-cent, and it is natural for themto have all these questions. Wewill try to address these ques-tions that children have andthose that parents have as well.We will also extend this program

further and conduct this sessionon a regular basis with variousexperts. Our motive is to changethis time of crisis into an oppor-tunity. Everyone is so busy intheir lives that we do not get timeto sit and have a conversationwith our children, even in sum-mer vacations during schoolwhen parents are usually work-ing all the time. This is the timewhen everybody is at home, andparents and children can spendquality time with each other. Ihope that by the end of this pro-gram parents will be able toknow how to constructivelyengage their children in activi-ties and conversations duringthese times of the lockdown.”

Bhushan , DoE said,“Children are asking questionson the reasons for the lockdown,and then posing questions onwhy they can not go out to playand meet their friends. Parentsare unable to understand how toanswer these questions. I wouldlike CM Arvind Kejriwal to saysomething on this.”

CM Arvind Kejriwal said,“Parents must be explaining totheir children aboutCoronavirus, and how danger-ous this new virus is. The par-ents should explain to theirchildren that this virus is con-tagious and spreads throughdirect contact. The first waythrough which the virus canenter if a person coughs orsneezes on you if you are stand-ing close to him. The secondway is somebody covering theirmouth and nose with theirhands while coughing andsneezing and touching somesurface, and then touching thatsurface and touching your faceand mouth again.

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Delhi reported 59 freshCovid-19 cases on Saturday

and the total number of cases inthe national Capital has gone upto 445. Anticipating the increasein the number of patients andmore pressure on the doctorsand the paramedics, the DelhiGovernment on Saturday wroteto the Union Government forthe urgent supply of PersonalProtection Equipment ( PPE)for doctors treating Coronapatients.

Explaining the situation inDelhi, Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal said that Delhi is at thelocal transmission stage and sit-uation looks under control.

Citing health bullet inreport, Kejriwal said thatCorona cases in Delhi were at445 with 59 new cases in 24hours and local transmission

cases was stable at 40.We havebeen successful in containingthe community spread ofCorona in Delhi; Out of 6deaths, 3 were from Markaz, 5of them were above 60 yearsand suffering from other majordiseases,” Kejriwal said.

“Among all the patientswho have Coronavirus around11 are in ICU and five are onventilators. we can say that thisis the local transmission andnot community transmission.In community transmission,people do not get to know fromwhom they are getting affect-ed but right now no such situ-ation has occurred in Delhi.We have found 2,300 peoplefrom the Markaz Nizamuddin.Among these people, 500 areadmitted to various hospitalsand around 1,800 are in quar-antine. We are testing all the500 people because they havevarious symptoms and all of

them may be suffering fromcoronavirus which means thenumber of COVID-19 positivecases in Delhi will increase. ButI want to reiterate that this isnot community transmissionso there is nothing to worry

yet,” he added.He said that till now Delhi

has witnessed six deaths due tocoronavirus. “Among these sixpeople five were above 60 andone person was 36-year-old.Among these six people, three

were from Markaz. Amongthese six people, five peoplehad other serious diseases.One person had liver disease,one person had sugar, twopersons had a respiratory dis-ease and one person had heart

disease. I want to request all thesenior citizens who are above55 or 60 years that you shouldbe very very cautious about thesituation and do not go outside.All the senior citizens are veryprecious us and I do not wantany of them to suffer. I will alsorequest the people who haveserious diseases to be verycautious because Coronaviruscan be lethal for them,”Kejriwal said further.

“Right now I have to pri-orities number one is to ensurethat there should not be anycommunity spread ofCoronavirus and the secondone is if somebody is affectedby Coronavirus then the per-son should get the best treat-ment and no death shouldhappen in Delhi. I am person-ally monitoring the situation inDelhi and I have every recordof the persons who are affect-ed by the Coronavirus. We will

ensure the best health facilityand treatment to these patientsin Delhi,” said Kejriwal.

Delhi Government has dis-tributed lunch to around6,63,928 people and dinner toaround 6,78,544 people.

“The Delhi Governmenthas the arrangement to feedmore than 10,00,00 people. Iam happy to say that manyNGOs and religious organisa-tions are also distributing foodto needy people. This is thetime to show humanity to thepeople and feeding hungrypeople is always good work. Iwill request everyone to ensurethat not a single person inDelhi should stay hungry,” headded further.

The Delhi Governmenthas also started ration sup-ply.As per the Governmentdata, from Friday onwardsnearly 40 to 50,000 peoplehave already registered for

ration services.These are the people who

are not having ration cards. “I will request others also

to register soon. I will requestthe people who know how tohandle internet and computerto help these poor people toregister. All these people willget 5 kgs of free ration,”Kejriwal said.

He also said, “Recently dueto the Nizamuddin incidentand as Delhi already has manyforeign patients the number ofcoronavirus patients have sud-denly increased. Right now weurgently need PPE kits and wehave already written to theCentral Government about it.I do not want the doctors andnurses to work without the pro-tective gear but the centre is yetto provide us with these kits. Iwill request the Centre to pro-vide us with PPE kits urgent-ly.”

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The Delhi Police has sentnotice to Tablighi Jamaat

leader Maulana Saad Kandhalviand seven others after a FirstInformation Report (FIR)against Kandhalvi and sevenothers for holding a religiouscongregation at Southeast Delhi’sNizamuddin Markaz allegedly inviolation of the lockdown ordersand not maintaining social dis-tancing to contain the spread ofcoronavirus. The Delhi Police’sCrime Branch wrote to Saad andothers on March 31, seeking thedetails under Section 91 of theCode of Criminal Procedure(CrPC).

According to notice whichcontains 26 questions, policehad asked them to submit detailsof name, address, registrationdetails of the organisation, detailsof the its office bearers, details ofincome tax returns filed byMarkaz for the last three years,PAN numbers, bank accountnumbers and bank statementsfor the last one year of theorganisation.

“A list of employees workingfor the organisation (Markaz),number of religious gatheringsorganised by it from January 1,2019, a map plan of the premis-es was also sought and detailswhether CCTV cameras areinstalled in the premises havealso been sought,” the CrimeBranch had stated in their notice.

“A copy of the permissionsought from police or any otherauthorities, if any, for holding areligious gathering in the premis-

es. Details of audio-visual record-ing made by or in possession ofany person who attended thegathering have also been sought.Details of people — both Indianand foreigners — who arrived atthe Markaz after March 12 andtheir health conditions have alsobeen demanded,” the notice fur-ther stated.

Police has also asked themto submit details of people andvolunteers who were on duty atthe premises and details of cur-few passes issued to any person.

The FIR was registered onTuesday at Crime Branch policestation on the compliant ofStation House Officer ofNizamuddin police station.

According to FIR, the DelhiPolice contacted the authoritiesof Markaz on March 21 andreminded them of the govern-ment order that prohibited anypolitical or religious gathering ofmore than 50 people.

“One Mufti Shahzad wasinformed about the situationarising due to COVID-19 andwas asked to take immediateaction for preventing the spreadof the disease. He was directedto send the foreign devoteesback to their respective countriesand other Indian persons totheir respective cities, the FIRstated.

However, no one paid anyheed to the lawful direction ofpolice, it added. Moreover, anaudio recording purportedly ofSaad was found in circulation onWhatsApp on March 21, inwhich the speaker was heardasking his followers to defy thelockdown and social distancingand to attend the religious gath-ering of the Markaz, accordingto the FIR.

On March 24, the govern-ment ordered 21-day nationwidelockdown and restricted anysocial, political or religious gath-ering. Subsequently, on March24, a meeting was held atHazarat Nizamuddin police sta-tion between SHO and officerbearers of Markaz. “The meet-ing was attended by Saad,Mohammad Ashraf,Mohammad Salman, Yunus,Mursaleen Saifi, Jishan andMufti Shehzad and they wereinformed about lockdownorders,” the FIR said.

“It was found that despiterepeated efforts, they did notinform the health department orany other government agencyabout the huge gathering insidethe Markaz and deliberatelydisobeyed the governmentorders,” the FIR stated.

“The Sub DistrictMagistrate of Defence Colonyinspected the premises severaltimes and found that around1,300 people, including foreignnationals, were residing therewithout maintaining social dis-tance. It was also found thatthere were no arrangements ofhand sanitizers and face masks,”the FIR stated.

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Some unidentified persons broke intoa liquor shop at Roshnara Road in

north Delhi and decamped with liquorbottles. The incident occurred on theintervening night of Saturday-Sunday,barely 25 meters away from the police

picket in the area. According to a senior police official,

during patrolling on Saturday morning,police found that the shutter of a wineshop at the Roshnara Road in northDelhi was broken.

“The shutter of the wine shop hadbeen forcibly pulled up and some liquor

bottles and crates were stolen. A caseunder relevant sections of the IndianPenal Code (IPC) has been registered atthe Sabzi Mandi police station,” said thesenior police official.

The Crime graph of National Capitalin last 15 days has shown a 42 per centdownfall. “It seems that miscreants or

addicts are taking advantage of such sit-uation and just to fulfill their addictionneeds now they are breaking into liquorshops,” said Aditya Okhade, a resident.

The liquor shops are closed in cityafter the lockdown was imposed acrossthe country in wake of coronavirus outbreak.

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In the wake of coronavirus(COVID-19) pandemic out-

break, the health department ofNew Delhi Municipal Council(NDMC) conducted an inten-sive sanitation drive in marketareas. The civic body onSaturday sanitised the marketareas such as Yashawant Place,Sarojini Nagar, Khanna market,Lodhi Colony, Khan Market,Pandara market, Connaughtplace and Shanker marketusing disinfectant on shouldermounted Knapsack pumps andvehicle mounted pumps.

A senior NDMC officialsaid that special focus is beinggiven to disinfect public places

like Mother Dairy milk, SafalVegetable, taxi and bus stands,public toilet units, NDMCbuildings etc.

“Residential areas and pub-lic buildings are also beingfocused extensively and horti-culture tankers with hypochlo-rite solution have beendeployed in NDMC area fordisinfection of Residential areasand clusters. Besides, regularsanitization of NDMC wastecollection vehicles and transferstation is also being carriedout,” he said.

NDMC has ensured ade-quate personal protectiveequipment (PPE ) like Glovesand Masks to its SafaiKaramcharis, the official said.

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Delhi Transco Limited(DTL) has asked people

not to fly kites near electricalinstallations and high tensionlines in the national interest,saying the practice is causingtrippings and outages acrossthe national capital.

DTL is working round theclock to ensure uninterruptedpower supply in the city butduring the last two days a fewtripping in the transmissionlines witnessed after it came incontact with a metal coatedmanjha in east Delhi areassuch as Geeta Colony andPatparganj. Since it takes a

long time in physically locatingthe entangled kite and remov-ing it, therefore it may take timein restoration of power supply,it said in a statement.

“It took around one hour inrestoring the line in GeetaColony that affected around 20MW load. While, a total loadof 86 MW was also affected in

Patparganj. Though the powersupply was restored within 20minutes by transferring theload to the other circuits andtransformers, however it tookaround one hour in restorationof affected lines,” it added.

The DTL further said thatelectricity is an essencial serviceand any disturbance in thetransmission network mayresult in power cut for a longduration.

Besides, the continuity andoperations of other majoressential services (such as watersupply, hospitals, milk plantsetc) also depends upon unin-terrupted power supply,” itadded.

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The Ministry of ExternalAffairs (MEA) has decided

to examine request of some ofthe countries requesting evac-uation of their nationals whoare stranded in different partsof the country following thenationwide lockdown measuresannounced by Prime Ministerlast month.

However, the DelhiDisaster ManagementAuthority (DDMA) said that itwill follow Standard OperatingProcedure (SOP) for releasingquarantine persons.

The move came after theGovernment of India receivedseveral such requests from for-eign countries for evacuation oftheir nationals from India.

The DDMA of the DelhiGovernment in a statementsaid that some of the protocolwould be observed before tak-ing any decision. “The char-tered flight would be arrangedby the concerned foreignGovernment in consultationwith the Ministry of CivilAviation (Government of India)and prior to departure, theforeign national would be

screened for COV1D- 19 symp-toms as per the standard healthprotocol,” it said.

“Only those foreign nation-al would be allowed to leavewho are asymptomatic forCOVID- 19. In case of symp-tomatic person, the futurecourse of treatment would befollowed as per the standardhealth protocol,” it said.

The DDMA further saidthat the local transportationarrangements from the place ofstay of the foreign national tothe point of embarkation wouldbe arranged by the localembassy or consulate of therespective foreign Government.

With a view to preventingspread of COVID- 19 and as ameasure of abundant precau-tion, persons returning fromforeign locations alter February15 had been quarantined ingovernment arranged facilities.In respect of these persons, thesome protocol would beobserved after completion ofthe specified mandatory quar-antine period, it said in a state-ment.

The government will followStandard Operating Procedure(SOP) for the process. “Person

testing negatives for COVID- I9 would be released as per stan-dard health protocol from thesaid quarantine facility.However, this will not apply toa group, where even one persontests positive for COVID-19.

These persons, who will betested negative, are expected toreturn to their homes or to thehomes of their families, relativesand friends or to other placesshelter like hotels etc by mak-ing their own transportarrangements, it said, addingthat the transit pass for move-ment of vehicle being used bysuch person would be issued bythe District Magistrate of thedistrict concerned where theyhave been quarantined.

As part of precautionarymeasure, such persons wouldhome quarantine themselves fora further period of 14 days asper standard protocol afterreturning to their destination,it added.

The DDMA also said thatdetails of person released fromquarantine, along with theirdestination, will be shared withthe concerned State/UTGovernment for necessary fol-low up.

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Indian Railways has decidedto run several long distance

‘Parcel Cargo Express SpecialTrains’ (PCET) in a time-bound manner to provideseamless transportation facili-ties for movement of goods todifferent parts of the country.These special trains will help indelivering items of daily needsduring the lockdown periodnecessitated due to the deadlyCoronavirus outbreak in India.

These special trains will berun between Yeshwantpur toHazrat Nizamuddin andBandra Terminus to Ludhiana.

To meet the requirementsof key infrastructure sectors

during the nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19,Indian Railways has been ful-filling its commitment toensure availability of importantraw material and fuel throughits freight services.

“During the situation of

lockdown, Indian Railwaysstaff deployed at various goodsheds, stations and controloffices continued working withfull devotion to ensure that thesupply of essential items forthese critical sectors does notget affected. Due to relentless

operations of Railways, allpower plants and petroleumdepots have proper stock withthem despite lockdown,” therailway said in a statement.

It said that during last 12days from 23rd March to 3rdApril 2020, Railways loaded andcarried 2,50,020 wagons of coal,and 17742 wagons of petroleumproducts (One wagon contains58-60 ton consignment).Details are as follows:

To monitor the uninter-rupted movement of materialsfuelling the power, transportand infrastructure sectors andother essential commoditiesover Indian Railways, an emer-gency freight control centre isworking in the Ministry of

Railways. Freight movement isbeing closely monitored byofficials at very senior level,” itsaid.

Indian Railways along withMinistry of Home affairs iskeeping in touch with stateGovernments to sort out anysuch operational issue if theyarise.

Meanwhile, all divisionsand workshops of NorthernRailways are working 24x7 tofight against COVID-19. In itscontinuation efforts to fightagainst the Coronavirus, it hasmanufactured 1,673 liters ofhand sanitizer, 9,036 facemasks, 241coverall besides con-verting 174 coaches into isola-tion wards.

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Delhi Jal Board (DJB)employees have decided to

donate their one-day salary toChief Minister’s Relief Fund inorder to support the DelhiGovernment fight against coro-navirus. With the announce-ment, the DJB has become thefirst among the StateGovernment’s departments todeclare their support to fight theCorona outbreak.

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Vice-Chairman Raghav Chadha saidthat all the staff of the civic bodyhas decided to contribute unan-imously to contribute one-daysalary for the noble cause.

“Everyone at@DelhiJalBoard has unani-mously decided to donate oneday’s salary to Chief MinisterRelief Fund in the wake ofCovid-19 epidemic. This is ahumble effort to support Delhigovernment’s fight against coro-navirus under the leadership ofCM @ArvindKejriwal,” Chadhatweeted.

“With the contribution ofone day salary, an amount ofnearly �2 crore will be trans-

ferred to Chief Minister’s relieffund on behalf of DJB family. Mygrateful thanks to my colleaguesat @DelhiJalBoard for thishumanitarian gesture,” he said inanother tweet.

“To extend every possiblehelp that can be provided to thesociety is the need of the hour.My grateful thanks to my col-leagues and we all pray for thesafety and well-being of all citi-zens”, he said.

Chadha said that the Delhigovernment under the leader-ship of Chief Minister ArnindKejriwal is making all possibleefforts to contain the spread ofcoronavirus in the state andensure people face the least dif-ficulty during the lockdown.

“DJB is working round theclock to ensure uninterruptedsupply of water and unhinderedsewerage services during thelockdown, he added.

Praising healthcare profes-sionals, Chadha said “We all arebeing inspired from our frontlineheroes - from our doctors, nurs-es and healthcare workers tothose who are ensuring the sup-ply of essential services in chal-lenging times,”

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Hyderabad: A woman at a vil-lage near here was found pos-itive for coronavirus after deathprompting the authorities totake up measures on a largescale to contain the spread ofthe virus.

The woman had com-plained of sore throat on March31 and she consulted aRegistered Medical Practitioner(RMP) locally, who was alleged-ly functioning from the premis-es of a dental clinic, officialsources said on Saturday.

The RMP administeredsaline and sent her away, theysaid.

She consulted a doctor atMahabubnagar later whoallegedly performed endoscopythough she was suffering fromsore throat, they said.

He had referred her to the

state-run Osmania GeneralHospital in Hyderabad whereshe was admitted, they said.

She passed away whileundergoing treatment.

Suspecting her ill-health,doctors there sent her samplesfor a coronavirus test.

Her test result, which wasreceived on Friday, was foundpositive for coronavirus,according to Ranga Reddy dis-trict Collector Amoy Kumar.

The woman, who report-edly did not go out of her vil-lage, is suspected to have con-tracted the infection from someworkers from Bihar who werestaying on her premises, thesources said.

The Bihar workers hadtravelled by train in whichsome persons who participatedin a religious congregation in

Delhi had also reportedly trav-elled.

The four Bihar workershave been sent to the state-runGandhi hospital in the city forcoronavirustest the results ofwhich are awaited.

Official sources said theadministration has quarantinedher family members and allthose who handled her corpse.

The village residents havebeen advised home quarantineand those having symptoms likecough and fever have beensent for COVID-19 testing,they said.

The sources added thatcases have been booked againstthe RMP, the doctor atMahabubnagar and the dentist(who allowed his clinic premis-es to be used by the RMP) fortheir alleged negligence. PTI

From Page 1In a series of tweets, the

Ministry said some apprehen-sions have been expressed thatthis may cause instability inthe grid and fluctuation involtage which may harm theelectrical appliances. “Theseapprehensions are misplaced.The Indian electricity grid isrobust, stable and adequatearrangements and protocolsare in place to handle the vari-ation in demand,” it said.

In a letter to StateGovernments, the Ministry ofPower said the appeal of thePM is to voluntarily switch offonly the lights at 9:00 pm onApril 5, 2020. “There is no callto switch off either street-

lights or appliances like TVs,refrigerators and ACs inhomes. The lights in hospitalsand all other essential serviceslike public utilities, municipalservices, offices, police sta-tions, manufacturing facili-ties, etc will remain on,” it said.

According to the PowerMinistry data, the maximumpower demand in the countrystood at 1,25,817 megawatt(MW) on April 2, 2020, almost20 per cent lower than April 2,2019 of 1,68,326 MW.

Earlier in a tweet, Tharoorsaid, “An unprecedented dropin electricity demand at 9 pmon Sunday and an immediatesurge at 9.09 pm could causethe electrical grid to crash. So

electricity boards are contem-plating load shedding from 8pm and staggered return tonormal after 9.09 pm. Onemore thing the PM did notthink about!”

India’s peak powerdemand at best is about 170gigawatt (GW). However, dueto lockdown, the demand hasfallen by more than 20 per centand it currently hovers around120-130 GW.

Of this, household barelycomprises 10-12 per cent.Officials believe a sudden drop and rise after nine-minute shutdown won’t causedisruption as it’s already pre-pared to manage up to 15 GWfluctuation.

From Page 1“The face cover should be

prepared in such a manner thatit can cover the mouth andnose completely and can be tiedover the face easily”. It isadvised that two sets of suchface covers be made so that onecan be washed while the otheris used.

“Hand washing would still remain essential criteriaand hand should be washedbefore wearing the face cover. Such face covers should also not be thrownanywhere but kept safely,washed properly with soapand hot water and dried prop-erly before they are used,” theguideline said.

From Page 1Government officials and BJP leaders are tightlipped on this fiasco,

while many Hindu hardliners in the Jammu blamed the Centre and theBJP for the U-turn in just two days. Section of State BJP leaders had flaggedthe issue before the party high command in private and sighted numer-ous examples of unrest among large sections of society including unem-ployed youth awaiting filling up of 50,000 vacancies.

The NC in statement said that the reversal order is just “cosmetic” urg-ing “Delhi must stop toying around with J&K.” The PDP accused the BJP ofplaying dangerous games in the Valley in its bid to change the demography.

“The way in which the Union Government proclaimed a new job anddomicile policy for the erstwhile State now clearly indicates people at thehelm of affairs in New Delhi are dealing with Jammu & Kashmir very casu-ally and without application of mind,” said the PDP.

“It’s high time the people of J&K get to decide the laws that will gov-ern them rather than being subjected to the whims and fancies of the Centrewhere orders are issued in the morning and changes to the same orderissued in the evening. Restore statehood, conduct elections,” said OmarAbdullah.

Omar again tweeted: “Delhi made a mistake notifying the domicilerules during this time of crisis & I madea mistake getting sucked into thisdebate at a time when it’s wrong to letpolitics distract from the #COVID19fight. I haven’t spoken my mind about5/8/2019 yet but I will when this is over.”

In the April 1 notification, the jobswere reserved only up to group 4 in theGovernment, which is equivalent to therank of constable in police parlance andmulti-tasking staff in Governmentoffices.

Under the domicile law, anyone whohas resided for 15 years in Jammu &Kashmir or has studied for seven yearsand appeared in Class 10 and Class 12examinations in an educational institu-tion located in the Union Territory is adomicile. Anyone who is registered as amigrant by the Relief and RehabilitationCommissioner (Migrants) will also bedeemed to be a domicile. The childrenof all-India services personnel, who haveserved there for 10 years, also comeunder the category.

Others who can be deemed to be adomicile include the children of thoseCentral Government officials, all-Indiaservices officers, officials of PSU andautonomous bodies of the CentralGovernment, public sector banks, offi-cials of statutory bodies, Central uni-versity officials and those of recognisedresearch institutes of the CentralGovernment, who have served inJammu & Kashmir for 10 years.

From Page 1According to a paper published in

Lancet Infectious Diseases, the Covid-19kills an estimated 13.4 per cent of patientsin the 80 plus age group , compared to 1.25per cent of those in their 50s and 0.3 percent of those in their 40s.

The sharpest divide came at age 70.Although 4 per cent of patients in their 60sdied, more than twice that, or 8.6 per cent,of those in their 70s died, Neil Ferguson ofImperial College London and his col-leagues estimated in the paper, based on theglobal data.

However, experts say that even if theyoung get infected, their survival rate ismuch higher in India, like in Italy andFrance where elders deaths were compar-atively higher.

“As things stand, India has a very youngpopulation. Its median age is 28.4 years. Theactual data runs somewhat like this: 44.7 percent of the population is below 25 years of

age and 41.24 per cent of the population isin the age group of 25-54 years. So alto-gether, more than 85 per cent of India’s pop-ulation is below 54 years of age.

“Based on the data as analysed forFrance, Italy and Iran, India’s young are like-ly to act as a bulwark against the virus. Itseems likely that this shall keep the deathrates very, very, low indeed. India, with itsyoung population coupled with the lock-down, shall come out of the crisis soonerand better than many European nations.

“This does not mean that the infectionrates shall necessarily be low. We may getfairly high infection rates. I must also men-tion that there is no reliable data for infec-tion rates at the global level. What seemsclear is that the death rates for India shallbe very low and to my mind that is the mostimportant parameter that should be usedto gauge the situation,” said Dinesh Singh,former Vice Chancellor, Delhi Universityand a mathematician.

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Dhar (MP): The family of a 65-year-old man in Dhar in MadhyaPradesh claimed he died of apolice beating during lockdownon Saturday when he was out tobuy essentials, a charge denied byofficials.

Tigu Budhya died in Gurjivillage under Dhamnod policestation limits, 50 kilometres fromthe district headquarters, afterpolice hit him, said his son Raju.

Refuting the allegations,Superintendent of PoliceAdityapratap Singh said, “We gotinformation that a man waslying on the street. We rushedhim to hospital where he died.”

“My father was beaten todeath by the police between

6:30-7am. He had gone to buyessentials. My brother-in-lawhas said police came in vehiclesand thrashed my father,” Rajutold reporters. Singh said theincident was being probed anda team of doctors was conduct-ing post mortem to find out thecause of death. Meanwhile, localCongress MLA Panchilal Medasaid the incident was unfortu-nate and police should not haveacted in this manner. “His bodyhad marks of assault by sticks.I request the district collector toconduct the deceased’s exami-nation by a team of governmentdoctors and a local doctor. Theguilty should be punished,”Meda said. PTI

%:$�%�� + ��"�� Chaibasa (Jharkhand): Three members

of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) were gunneddown in an encounter with security per-sonnel in West Singhbhum district here onSaturday, police said.

A team comprising CRPF 94 Battalionpersonnel and Khunti district policelaunched an operation around 7 am fol-lowing a tip-off that members of theCommunist Party of India (Maoist) hadassembled in forests near Chirungreda vil-lage, Superintendent of Police IndrajeetMahata said.

The Maoists opened fire at the secu-rity personnel, who gunned down threeNaxalites in retaliatory action, he said.

Police recovered their bodies andseized rifles, bullets and ammunitionfrom the spot, he added.

Mahata said a few other members ofthe Communist Party of India (Maoist)managed to flee.

In another incident, a group of Maoistsdetonated an improvised explosive device(IED) near a house in Dholabani villageof the district around 12.45 am onSaturday, police said.

Security personnel reached the spotshortly after the blast. Seeing them, theNaxalites fled, a police officer said.

However, before escaping to nearbyforests, the ultras shot at a friend of theowner of the house near which the IEDexploded. He had informed the policeabout the incident, he said.

According to the officer, the injuredman is undergoing treatment at MGMHospital in Jamshedpur and his conditionis stated to be critical.

Three motorcycles parked near thehouse were gutted after they caught firedue to the blast, he said.

Further investigation into the incidentis underway, the police said. PTI

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New Delhi: The IndianCouncil of Medical Research(ICMR) on Saturday issued anadvisory to start rapid antibodybased blood tests for COVID-19 in areas reporting clustersand in large migration gather-ings or evacuee centres.

The decision for recom-mending these tests was takenat an emergency meeting of theNational Task Force heldrecently.

The move comes in thewake of the country reporting3072 COVID-19 cases includ-ing 75 deaths so far.

The results of antibodytests similar to blood tests areavailable in 15-30 minutes.

“Cases of influenza-like ill-ness to be monitored in healthfacilities. Any surge in cases tobe monitored and brought tothe notice of surveillance offi-cer/CMO for additional inves-tigation,” the advisory said.

As a matter of abundantprecautions, all symptomaticpersons with influenza-like ill-ness should be advised homequarantine for 14 days. At facil-ity level, symptomatic individ-uals with influenza-like illnessto be tested using rapid antibodytests, the apex health researchbody said in its advisory.

If antibody test comes outnegative, then if warranted, it

can be confirmed by real-timeRT-PCR using throat/nasalswab.

At present, the govern-ment uses the RT-PCR (poly-merase chain reaction) tests todetect the coronavirus fromsamples of throat or nasal swabof people with symptoms orhigh-risk individuals whomight have come in contactwith a positive patient.

RT-PCR negative indicatesthe likelihood of a non-COVID-19 influenza-like ill-ness while RT-PCR positivemeans it is a confirmed caseand action as per protocolshould be initiated for isolation,treatment and contact tracing,the advisory stated.

If the antibody test comes

out to be positive, there has tobe a clinical assessment andtreatment in hospital or isola-tion as per protocol.

Action as per protocolshould be initiated for contacttracing.

“If symptoms worsen, referto designated COVID-19 hos-pitals. When home quarantineis not feasible, consider facili-ty-based quarantine,” the advi-sory stated.

It also listed some generalguidelines according to whichhealthcare workers doing therapid antibody test should usegloves, mask, and head covers.

Healthcare workers col-lecting throat/nasal swabshould follow standard nation-al infection control guidelines,

it said.The rapid antibody tests

approved by US-FDA/CE-IVDor non-CE-IVD validated byICMR-NIV with marketingapproval by DCGI should beused.

In order to ensure that allsuch cases are monitored andnecessary action is initiatedwith respect to infectious dis-ease management, details of alltest results shall be uploaded inICMR portal.

“All such organisations areduty bound to register them-selves to ICMR portal andupload the data in real-time.Failure to do so, they will beheld liable to action underDisaster Management Act,2005,” the advisory stated.

Washington: India’s offer of aregional South Asian response totackle the coronavirus pan-demic has been an effectivecounter to China’s attempts tochange the narrative on thedeadly disease, according to anAmerican think-tank expert.

Aparna Pande, Director ofthe India Initiative at theHudson Institute, made theremarks on Friday during anonline discussion on China’sattempts to change the narrativeon COVID-19 and how coun-tries in the world are respond-ing to the major health crisis.

“China has pushed a charmoffensive in South Asia boththrough offering medicalteams, sending test kits andprotective equipment andoffering to build hospitals.However, the results have beena mixed bag,” Pande said.

India’s offer of a regionalSouth Asian response has beenan effective counter to Beijing’sattempts to change the narrative,she said.

Prime Minister NarendraModi on March 13 proposedformulation of a joint strategy bythe SAARC nations to fight thecoronavirus, a suggestionpromptly backed by all memberstates, barring Pakistan.

Calling on the SAARCmembers to set an example forthe world, Modi reached out tothe eight-member regionalgrouping and hosted a video conference among theleaders to chalk out a strongstrategy to fight the coron-avirus pandemic.

According to Pande,Pakistan and Sri Lanka areheavily dependent on Chineselargesse, especially under theBelt and Road Initiative (BRI),and have been the most open toand reciprocated Beijing’scharms.

For Pakistan, strategic rela-tions with China take priorityover everything else, includingthe health of its own people,she said.

Pakistan refused to evacuateits citizens, especially studentsfrom Wuhan, the epicentre ofthe coronavirus infection, whenthe pandemic broke out and, likeIran, did not suspend flights toand from China, she noted.

Further, Pakistani officialsincluding a former ambassadorto the UN and the PrimeMinister’s Scientific Advisor are“peddling conspiracy theoriesabout the origins of the virus,blaming the US and the UK andabsolving China of any respon-sibility,” Pande said.

Sri Lanka, she noted, “hasgone ahead and signed a 10-yearloan of USD 500 million withChina Development Bank tohelp the country mitigate thefinancial impact of the crisis.”

India “while avoiding opencriticism of China, has sought tocounter any Chinese charmoffensive by seeking a coordi-nated regional response throughbuilding quarantine shelters inMaldives and Nepal and theSAARC COVID fund to whichIndia has contributed USD 10million and other countriesoffered money and aid as well.

“India also has 2 naval shipsready to be deployed to anycountry that needs assistance inthe region,” she noted.

There is a vast differencebetween India and China’sresponses as would be betweena democracy and an autocrat-ic country, the Hudson schol-ar said. Lack of proper anddetailed planning beforeimposing a nation-wide lock-down in India have createdproblems, she added.

“However, it can beblamed on lack of planning,not malevolent intent. Thestate did not anticipate themigrant crisis and so struggledfor a few days to deal with it.However, it is not just India,many countries are facing chal-lenges keeping people underlockdown,” Pande said.

“So, it should be easier tounderstand the problems facingthe world’s largest democracy, acountry of 1.3 billion people, asit seeks to keep people indoors,curtail the spread and avoid bur-dening its weak healthcare infra-structure,” she said.

“For countries like SriLanka and Pakistan — thatwere deep in China’s grasp —Beijing’s grip will be strength-ened. For those like Maldives,Nepal, and Bangladesh this willactually strengthen ties with India and wariness ofclose ties with China or aid fromChina and I think here India’soffer of a South Asian response,aid and technical assistance hashelped strengthen those bonds,”Pande added. PTI

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The coronavirus crisis deep-ened in Maharashtra on

Saturday as the pandemicclaimed six more lives takingthe total number of deaths to32 and 154 more persons test-ed positive for COVID-19 invarious parts of the State.

On a day when the totalnumber of infected personsrose to a staggering 635, thestate health authorities con-firmed the death of six morepersons due to Covid-19.

Mumbai continued to bearthe maximum brunt of thecoronavirus on Saturday, as thepandemic claimed four morelives taking the total number ofCOVID-19 deaths to 22 and thetotal number of infected cases

rose to a staggering 330.Of the remaining two dead,

one succumbed to pandemic atMumbra in Thane, whileanother died at Amravati ineastern Maharashtra.

Apart from having beentested for COVID-19, three ofthose — whose deaths werereported during the day — hadcomorbidities and one sufferedfrom age-related risk factors.

Those who died inMumbai on Friday after hav-ing tested positive forCoronavirus comprised: a 53year-old male patient, whodied of severe respiratory illnessat KEM Hospital, 67 year-oldmale who died of respiratoryfailure at the KEM Hospital haddiabetes, a 43-year-0ld whodied at the Nair Hospital of res-

piratory failure had ischemicheart disease, diabetes & chron-ic lung disease and a80-year-old man who died of respira-tory failure at the KEMHospital, had been admitted forfever and breathlessness.

Of the remaining deaths,a 57-year-old man fromMumbra died at the KEMHospital on Saturday morning,while a 47-year-old man diedat the district civil hospital atAmravati.

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New Delhi: The IndianCouncil of Medical Research(ICMR) appealed to the peopleon Saturday not to consumeand spit smokeless tobacco inpublic places.

The apex health researchbody said chewing smokelesstobacco products (gutka, panmasala with tobacco, pan andother chewing tobacco prod-ucts) and areca nut (supari)increases the production ofsaliva, followed by a very strongurge to spit.

“Spitting in public placescould enhance the spread of theCOVID19 virus,” the ICMRsaid. “In view of the increasingdanger of COVID-19 pan-demic, it is an appeal to thegeneral public to refrain fromconsuming the smokelesstobacco products and spittingin public places during theCOVID epidemic.” PTI

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Seven persons among thosepeople from Maharashtra,

who attended Tablighi Jamaatevent in Delhi’s Nizammudinlast month, have so far testedpositive for coronavirus.

“Of the persons who haveundergone COVID-19 tests,seven have tested positive forthe pandemic. The infectedpersons comprised two per-

sons each from Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Ahmednagar,while one person is fromHingoli in easternMaharashtra, “ official sourcessaid here on Sarturday.

Of the 1400 people fromMaharashtra who had attend-ed the Nizamuddin event,1033 have so far been identi-fied. “As many as 738 peoplehave been quarantined,” thesources said.

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Ghaziabad (UP): Ten freshCOVID-19 cases were reportedin the last 24 hours here takingthe total number of cases in thedistrict to 23, a health officialsaid on Saturday.

Of the total cases, three per-sons have been discharged afterrecovering from the disease.

Meanwhile, a three-kilo-metre radius around JamaMasjid of Malipada area inMasuri town here was cor-doned off by district officials assome residents were suspectedto have COVID-19.

Deputy Collector PrashantTiwari has been deputed as theofficer in-charge to strictlyenforce the orders with move-ment of vehicles and public notallowed till further orders.

In case any loiterer is found

flouting the orders, the personwould be booked under Section188 (disobedience to order dulypromulgated by public servant)of the Indian Penal Code.

Ghaziabad DistrictMagistrate Ajay Shankar Pandeysaid permission for movementwould be granted only in excep-tional cases.

As many as 102 people, whocame in close contact with thecoronavirus positive persons,have been home quarantined sofar. Of the 428 samples that weresent for testing, 280 peoplewere diagnosed negative whilethe rest of the reports are stillawaited, Chief Medical OfficerDr NK Gupta said.

A total of 234 positive caseshave been reported across thestate till now, officials said. PTI

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Focusing on in-house solu-tions to fight coronavirus

pandemic, the DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) hasdesigned a full-body disin-fect ion chamber cal ledPersonnel Sanit isat ionEnclosure. This walk-throughenclosure is designed for per-sonnel decontamination, oneperson at a time. The DRDOis already manufacturing andsupplying sanitisers andmasks to the Delhi Policewhile the Navy has manufac-tured handheld temperaturegun at a cost of �1,000 whichis much less than the onesavailable in the market. TheDRDO has also developedportable sanitisation spraywhich can be used to spray-ing disinfectant.

Giving details about thelatest endeavour, defenceministry officials said here onSaturday the portable systemis equipped with sanitiser

and soap dispenser. Thedecontamination is startedusing a foot pedal at theentry. On entering the cham-ber, electrically operatedpump creates a disinfectantmist of hyposodium chloridefor disinfecting. The mistspray is calibrated for anoperation of 25 seconds andstops automatically indicatingcompletion of operation. Asper procedure, personnelundergoing disinfection willneed to keep their eyes closedwhile inside the chamber.

Moreover, the systemconsists of roof mounted andbottom tanks with a total of700 litres’ capacity.

Approximately 650 per-sonnel can pass through thechamber for disinfection untilthe refill is required. The sys-tem has see-through glasspanels on side walls for mon-itoring purpose and is fittedwith lights for illuminationduring night time operations.A separate operator cabin isprovided to monitor overalloperations.

The system has been man-ufactured with the help of M/sDass Hitachi Ltd, Ghaziabad,within a time span of four days.This system can be used for dis-infection of personnel at theareas of controlled ingress andegress such as entry and exit tohospitals, malls, office buildingsand critical installations.

Earlier, the DRDO alsodeveloped face protection maskfor health care professionalshandling COVID-19 patients.Its light weight constructionmakes it convenient for com-fortable wear for long duration.

This design uses com-monly available A4 size Over-Head Projection (OHP) filmfor face protection. The hold-ing frame is manufacturedusing Fused DepositionModeling (3D printing).Polylactic Acid filament is usedfor 3D printing of the frame.This thermoplastic is derivedfrom renewable resources suchas corn starch or sugarcane andis biodegradable.

The face mask will be mass

produced using injectionmoulding technique for vol-ume production. Nearly 100face shields are being pro-duced daily and provided toPGIMER, Chandigarh.Similarly, 100 are producedand handed over to ESIC,Hyderabad.

A demand of 10,000 masksbeen received from PGIMERand ESIC Hospitals, they said.

In the continuing questfor developing indigenous solu-tions to combat the pandemic,the DRDO is ready with tech-nologies for sanitising areas ofdifferent sizes. The Centre forFire Explosive & EnvironmentSafety (CFEES), Delhi hasdeveloped two configurationsof sanitising equipment. Theseare spinoffs from technologiesdeveloped for fire suppressionapplications.

The CFEES, Delhi withthe help of its industry partnerhas developed portable saniti-sation equipment for sprayingdecontamination solution con-sisting of one per cent

Hypochlorite (HYPO) solu-tion for sanitisation of sus-pected area.

The portable system can bemounted as a backpack and canbe carried by the operationspersonnel.

This system incorporateslow pressure twin fluid (air &disinfectant liquid) technologyto generate very fine mist. Thesystem is capable of disinfect-ing upto 300 square metrearea.

The application areas can

include hospital reception, doc-tor chambers, office spacesdealing with general public,corridors, pathways, metro andrailway stations, bus stations,etc.

The Centre with the help ofits industry partner has alsodeveloped a higher capacitywhich is carried on a trolley.The system incorporates lowpressure single fluid (disinfec-tant liquid) technology gener-ating very fine mist. It is capa-ble of disinfecting upto 3,000

square metre area. It has a tankcapacity of 50 litres and has alancing (throw) distance of12-15 metres.

This is useful for disin-fecting hospitals, malls, air-ports, metro stations, isola-tion areas, quarantine centresand high risk residential areas.

Two of these systems arebeing provided to Delhi Policefor immediate use. These canbe made available to otheragencies with the help of indus-try partners.

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The Indian Army onSaturday came out with an

advisory for general publicasking people to be careful onApril 5 while lighting diyas orcandles.

“Use soap to wash your handsand not alcohol-based sani-

tisers prior to lighting,” it said.There have been cases of peo-ple suffering burn injuries dueto use of sanitiser and thencoming into contact with fire.Recently, a 44-year-old Rewari

(Haryana) man suffered 35per cent burn injuries when heaccidentally came into contactwith fire in his kitchen whilecleaning household items withan alcohol-based hand sanitis-er. Doctors have also advisedcaution in its usage.

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After a Chief Medical Officer(CMO) of CRPF was

found Covid-19 positive andisolated and eight other officerswere quarantined, the para-military, in a proactive mea-sure, has now mapped adetailed list of about 200 Forcepersonnel, including DG CRPFhimself, who were traced tohave contacts with the quar-antined personnel. All the 200such personnel, including topofficials, have been advisedself/home quarantine and areaccordingly observing the pro-tocols as a precautionary mea-sure.

The list of the contact trac-ing including CRPF DG APMaheshwari and SeniorSecurity Advisor of MHA KVijay Kumar have been advisedhome quarantine or quarantineat CRPF facilities till the testreports are out. However, thesetop officials have not exhibit-ed any symptoms of the novelcoronavirus, top CRPF officialssaid.

At least three InspectorsGeneral, whose wards returnedfrom foreign countries, havealso been quarantined as aprecautionary measure. FormerCRPF DG Vikram Srivastavahas also been self-quarantinedas a preventive measure.

The CRPF chief, who hashimself subjected to homequarantine, is supervising thework of the Force from home.While Maheshwari is current-ly free from any Covid-19symptoms, he is undergoingthe quarantine drill as a pre-cautionary measure, officialssaid.

A CRPF spokesperson said,

“A CRPF officer has testedpositive for COVID-19. Allpersonnel in contact with theofficer have been quarantined.The DG CRPF had an indirectcontact with the officer. As perprotocol, DG is observingquarantine.”

“We will win together. Theonly Mantra is social distanc-ing. To all of us let this be thereligion as well as spirituality ofthe day. Save oneself to saveothers. Save humanity,”Maheshwari has tweeted tag-ging Prime Minister NarendraModi, PMO, HMOIndia andUnion Home Minister AmitShah.

Liaison Officer andAssistant Commandant ofCRPF P Raja, who had beenquarantined after ChiefMedical Officer Dr Deepakwas tested Covid-19 positive, isbeing tested for novel coron-avirus. Raja’s swab sampleshave been sent for testing to alaboratory. The 200 CRPF per-sonnel sent on home quaran-tine were traced to be in con-tact with Raja and furthercourse of measures will betaken after test reports of Raja,

top CRPF officials said. Those quarantined include

OPD patients attended by DrManish Kumar, SMO at RKPuram here, admitted patientsin CRPF hospital at RK Puram,personnel who were in contactwith a driver of 178 Battalionwho was attached with Covid-19 positive CMO Dr Deepak,personnel in contact withanother driver of 139 Battalionwho was attached with DrManish, personnel who were incontact with quarantinedTransit Officers Mess person-nel Raj Kumar Paswan of 122Battalion, andMedical/Paramedical staff ofcomposite hospital of CRPF atRK Puram.

Another list of officialsquarantined includes thosewho were in contact withAssistant Commandant P Raja,Liaison Officer of SeniorSecurity Advisor of UnionHome Ministry K Vijay Kumarwho is a former CRPF chief.This list also includes IG(Operations) of Chhattisgarh,Section Officer to DG, DIG(Operations) Sukma, AssistantCommandant P Martin Raju,

Driver Tejvir Singh andInspector M Harikumar.

Meanwhile, around 2,500CRPF men posted at Force'sheadquarters and otherattached offices (CoBRA, RAF,Northern Sector) here havebeen barred from leaving thestation without due permission

from superiors but the same isbeing flouted by some menwho are visiting their hometowns in adjoining States ofDelhi on weekends posingthreat to those posted at theCRPF directorate here. The topbrass of the CRPF is seized ofthe issue and is likely to initi-

ate sharing of live locations ofthose posted at the headquar-ters here so that the personneldo not resort to unauthorisedmovement and virtuallybecome coronavirus carriers,sources said.

The CRPF has alreadyissued directives that those on

leave should continue to be onleave till April 15 and thosereporting back should firstcontact the Chief MedicalOfficer of the CRPF at RKPuram here before joiningduty.

The Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP), whose head-

quarters is also located besidesthe CRPF Directorate at theCGO Complex, has alreadymade provisions for sharing oflive locations twice by its per-sonnel working from home asa measure to check the spreadof Covid-19 by restricting theirunnecessary movements.

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The Centre has allowedshops of agricultural

machinery and its spare partsto remain open during thenationwide lockdown. Repairshops for trucks on highwayshave also been included in thatlist. The Union Home Ministryissued the 4th Addendum tothe guidelines issued regardinglockdown, to exempt shops ofagricultural machinery and itsspare parts.

"Shops of Agriculturalmachinery, its spare parts(including it supply chain)and repairs to remain open.Tea industry, including plan-tations, with a maximum of 50per cent workers were alsoexempted, in an order by theMHA.

The fourth addendumissued by union home secre-tary Ajay Bhalla exemptedshops for truck repairs onhighways, preferably at fuelpumps as well as the tea indus-try, including plantations withmaximum 50 per cent workers.

The MHA said that socialdistancing and proper hygienepractices must be ensured ineach of these activities.

The decision seems to havebeen taken in view of theurgent need for trucks to plynormally, given they carrymost of the essentials includ-ing vegetables and grains. Indiais amid a nationwide shutdownfor 21 days where all servicesare suspended save few essen-tials.

This extreme decision wasnecessitated in wake of the out-break of Covid-19 in India.

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Chairing a joint meeting of theEmpowered Groups con-

stituted for planning and ensur-ing implementation of COVID-19 response activities in thecountry, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Saturdayreviewed the countrywide pre-paredness regarding availabilityof hospitals, proper isolationand quarantine facilities as wellas disease surveillance, testingand critical care training.

He also directed the con-cerned groups and officials toensure sufficient production,procurement and availability ofall essential medical equipmentsuch as PPEs, masks, gloves andventilators, the Prime Minister’sOffice (PMO) stated in a seriesof tweets.

The Government has con-stituted 11 different EmpoweredGroups, under the DisasterManagement Act, to suggestmeasures to ramp up healthcare,put the economy back on trackand reduce the misery of peopleas quickly as possible post 21-daylockdown imposed to containthe Coronavirus pandemic.

Each group has a senior rep-resentative from the PMO andthe Cabinet Secretariat to ensureseamless coordination and isbeen empowered to formulateplans and to take all necessarysteps for their time-bound imple-mentation.

The Empowered Group onMedical Emergency andManagement Plan is headed by

NITI Aayog member Dr V Paul,while the Group on Availabilityof Hospitals, Disease Surveillanceand Testing and Critical CareTraining work under theChairmanship of EnvironmentSecretary C K Mishra.

The Empowered Group onensuring the availability of essen-tial medical equipment, pro-duction Procurement, Importand Distribution is headed byPharmaceuticals Secretary P DVaghela, while the Group onaugmenting Human Resourcesand Capacity Building is underMinistry of Micro, Small andMedium Enterprises (MSME)Secretary Arun Panda. DrinkingWater Secretary ParameswaranIyer leads the Group onFacilitating Supply Chain andLogistics Management for avail-ability of necessary items.

CEO NITI Aayog AmitabhKant heads the Group on coor-dinating with the private sector.

The Group on Economic andWelfare measures functionsunder Economic AffairsSecretary while AtanuChakraborty and Informationand Broadcasting Secretary RaviMittal heads the Group on

Information, Communicationand Public Awareness.

Ministry of Electronics andInformation Technology(MEITY ) Secretary AjaySawhney helms the Group onTechnology and Data

Management, HRD SecretaryAmit Khare heads the panel onPublic Grievances while HomeSecretary Ajay Kumar Bhallaleads the Empowered Groupconstituted on Strategic issuesrelating to Lockdown.

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With coronavirus cases ris-ing by hundreds and

deaths multiplying with eachpassing day, the Governmenton Saturday came out with afive-phased ‘containment planfor larger outbreaks’ on theperception that current Covid-19 spread mimics the H1N1pandemic of 2009.

“This suggests that whilethe spread of COVID-19 in ourpopulation could be high, it’sunlikely that it will be uni-formly affecting all parts of thecountry. This calls for differ-ential approach to differentregions of the country, whilemounting a strong contain-ment effort in hot spots,” saidthe document that visualisesfive different step-wise sce-narios in case of any such out-breaks in the country.

It begins with travel-relat-ed cases reported in India fol-lowed by local transmission ofCOVID-19, large outbreaksamenable to containment,wide-spread community trans-mission of COVID-19 diseaseand finally to the point, if or

when India becomes endemicfor the deadly disease. TheGovernment current strategy isfocussed on these five pointsaiming to combat the deadlydisease.

So far, the virus has killedover 80 people and infectedover 3000 in the country. Largenumber of cases has beenreported from Delhi,Karnataka, Kerala,Maharashtra, Rajasthan, TamilNadu, Telangana and UttarPradesh.

“Large scale measures tocontain COVID-19 over largeterritories have been tried inChina,” notes the documentprepared by the Union HealthMinistry.

In India also, clusters haveappeared in multiple States,particularly Kerala,Maharashtra, Rajasthan, UttarPradesh, Delhi, Punjab,Karnataka, Telangana and UTof Ladakh while 211 districtsare now reporting COVID-19cases and the risk of furtherspread remains very high, asper the document.

Current estimates of theincubation period of COVID

range from 2-14 days, andthese estimates will be refinedas more data become available.

Strategic approach for sce-nario include travel relatedcases reported from Indiawhich focuses on early detec-tion through universal screen-ing of all International pas-sengers at Points of Entries(PoEs) and tracking travellersin the community who havetravelled from affected coun-

tries.Talking about the possi-

bility of local transmission ofCOVID-2019 disease, whichso far the Government hasdenied, the document saidthat local transmission willlead to clustering of cases intime and space, epidemiolog-ically linked to a travel relatedcase or a positive case that haslinks to a travel related case.The cluster containment strat-

egy will be extensive contacttracing and active search forcases in containment zone,testing all suspect cases andhigh risk contacts, as per thedocument.

“Geographic quarantineand containment strategy pro-poses defining the area ofoperation, active surveillancefor cases and contacts in theidentified geographic zone andexpanding laboratory capacityfor testing all suspect cases,high risk contacts and SARIcases. Implementation of socialdistancing measures with strictperimeter control and provid-ing chemoprophylaxis withHydroxychloroquine to allasymptomatic healthcareworkers and asymptomatichousehold contacts of labora-tory confirmed cases has beenfurther course of action.”

However, if the contain-ment plan is not able to con-tain the outbreak and largenumbers of cases start appear-ing, then a decision will needto be taken by State adminis-tration to abandon the con-tainment plan and start on mit-igation activities, it stated.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday said that

India and the US have decid-ed to ''deploy the full strengthof the India-US partnership” tofight COVID-19' that hasinfected over a million personsglobally and killed more than60,000.

Modi said this after ''anextensive conversation withPresident Trump''.

In a tweet, PM Modi wrote,"Had an extensive telephoneconversation with President@realDonaldTrump. We had agood discussion, and agreed todeploy the full strength of theIndia-US partnership to fightCOVID-19."

In India, which is into its11th day of the 21-day lock-down, the pandemic positivecases stand at over 3,000 withthe dead count at 75 while theUS is undergoing a far severecoronavirus attack with thepositive cases breaching the2.75 lakh mark and the deathtoll standing at nearly 7,500.

In terms of positive cases,the US has the most in theworld while fatalities-wise it hassurpassed China, the origin ofcoronavirus and is behindSpain and Italy.

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New Delhi: Nearly 66,000members of Self Help Groups(SHGs) in 24 States covering399 districts of the countryunder the Ministry of RuralDevelopment’s NationalRural Livelihood Mission(NRLM) have so far made1.32 crore face masks, theGovernment said onSaturday. PNS

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As the three-week lockdowncontinues and may not be

eased at one go, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will interactwith floor leaders of variouspolitical parties via a videolink on April 8.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Pralhad Joshi said thePrime Minister will interactwith floor leaders of all thoseparties which have more thanfive MPs in both houses ofParliament on April 8 at 11 am.

Covid-19 and countrywidelockdown are likely to be dis-cussed during the meeting.

This will be the prime min-ister's first interaction withopposition leaders after thelockdown amid criticism thatthe former has not taken the lat-ter in confidence and notinformed about the state ofmedical and other contingen-cies.

Keeping in mind the normsfor social distancing and trav-el restrictions, the much-cov-eted meeting will be conduct-ed through a video confer-ence.

Many opposition leadershave been asking for an all-party meeting with the PrimeMinister on the pandemicwanting to have the first-handinformation on the steps tocope with the crisis which maynot end too soon in time.

In the meeting,Government officials said thatthe Prime Minister will seeksuggestions from different par-ties on the future road map tocontain the deadly virus. Themeeting will start at 11am withModi’s opening remarks inwhich he will appraise theparty leaders of the steps hisgovernment has taken so far.

The meeting will also be anopportunity to build a broadpolitical consensus on India’sfight against Covid-19, accord-

ing to officials.Besides Modi, union home

minister Amit Shah, defenceminister Rajnath Singh, par-liamentary affairs minister andLeader of the Rajya Sabha,Thawar Chand Gehlot are alsoexpected to be present.

Meanwhile, BJP’s vice-president Jay Panda has dis-missed Congress charges ofgovernment not being ready todeal with the crisis which hasclaimed 75 lives and the num-bers of those positive reaching3,000 in the country as oftoday. Panda said all the sug-gestion made by the state gov-ernments have been imple-mented by the Prime Ministerand that “ Prime Minister iscoordinating with the states runby the opposition parties”.

Pointing to a survey, theBJP leader said “ 83 per cent ofpeople have expressed confi-dence with PM’s leadershipduring the ongoing crisis”.

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The season of coronavirus orCOVID 19 is not about fear,

anxiety and tension alone. Thepandemic has a lighter side too. Aninteraction with Government staffworking round-the-clock for coro-na virus detection and to trace thepersons suspected of carrying thevirus brought out some interestingfacts. It has the potential to sendone in splits notwithstanding thetiresome work being put up by theteam of officials.

It all began with the MarkazNizamuddin congregation and inthe backdrop of reports that 1500delegates from Tamil Nadu attend-ed the international conclave heldto re-energise the Tablighi Jamaatoperations in India.

The Chennai Corporationofficials and the DomesticBreeding Checkers zeroed in on areturnee from the Nizamuddinmeet and went to examine the per-

son on March 23. He is a residentof Korukkupet, an area dominat-ed by the community to which theman belongs.

The members of his house andsome of the neighbours told theofficials that the suspect was notthere and he has gone to a relation’shouse outside the city. The officialsbelieved what they told and wentback.

But when they were told againby the family members on March28 and 31 that the man has notreturned, the officials smelled a ratand sought the help of local police.The local police in Chennai hastheir own “intelligence agents”who informed them that the per-son whom they are looking for waspresent in his house and was inhiding. The corporation officialswith the assistance of the localpolice barged into the residence inthe wee hours of Friday only to bewelcomed by the man they weresearching for!

“Though he was reluctant toagree that he was the same personwhom we were looking for, theman finally came round andaccompanied us to the StalnelyMedical College for tests. He wastested positive and was admittedto the hospital for treatment. Hehad reservations in getting admit-ted to the hospital but the menu ofthe delicacies served free of cost forthe patients did him in. Till he isfound negative, the man would beprovided with Idli, Pongal, chutneyand sambar for breakfast, eggbiriyani for lunch and dinner ,tea/coffee and snacks in theevening,” said one of the officials.

Once they admitted the manin the isolation ward, the officialsrushed to Korukkupet to quaran-tine the entire street and are in theprocess of examining all the peo-ple in the neighbourhood.“Though he gave us enoughheadache, our modus operandi to

make him fall in line and his pas-sion for food made up for all ourefforts,” said the health official.

City of Chennai and the OldMahabalipuram Highway (alsoknown as IT highway because ofthe number of IT majors in thisstretch) wore a deserted look onSaturday as vehicles and personsstayed off the roads.Sriperumbudur , the hub of auto-mobile giants and engineeringcompanies resembled a ghost citywith no vehicles or persons com-ing out in the open. Trade bodiessaid that the industrial hub is los-ing �2,500 crore per day becauseof the lock down. Liquor is themost sought after commodity inTamil Nadu as in neighbouringKerala. The entire liquor stock inTamil Nadu State MarketingCorporation (TASMAC) retailcounters are being shifted tosecured marriage halls in the Stateto save the ‘stuff ” from the prey-ing eyes of spirit bandits.

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With the number of patients testing pos-itive for coronavirus reaching 485 by

Saturday evening in Tamil Nadu, the StateGovernment has asked the Chennai office ofthe National Institute of Epidemiology toundertake a study on why the returnees fromthe congregation at Nizamuddin were afflict-ed with this pandemic.

This was stated by Beela Rajesh, secretaryto the department of health and family wel-fare while addressing the daily media briefingon Saturday. She said 74 persons tested pos-itive on Saturday alone. “Out of the 485 per-sons tested positive for coronavirus in the State,422 are either Nizamuddin returnees or peo-ple with whom they had interacted. There areonly 63 persons who tested positive for coro-na virus who do not have anything to do withthe religious congregation,” said the health sec-retary.

Despite the sudden spurt in the numberof corona positive cases in the State, TamilNadu is still in Stage -2 of the disease and theadministration has launched all-out contain-ment activities to control and check the situ-ation from vitiating further, she said.

“By Sunday, all medical colleges in theState would have set up the testing facilitieswhich is expected to bring down the timetaken for testing the corona virus attack. Morethan 29 lakh people in the State had beenscreened since the outbreak of the disease,” saidRajesh. She said the State was on the alert fromJanuary 18 onwards and all passengers reach-ing the airports in Tamil Nadu had beenscreened and tested. This is one of the reasonsfor Tamil Nadu effectively controlling the coro-na virus spread. But the Tablighi Jamaat con-ference and subsequent developments had

contributed in upsetting our work. Now we arein a State of medical emergency,” said Rajesh.

She asked the people not no panic and toobserve strictly the social distance rules. “Allsenior citizens with history of blood pressureand sugar are asked to undergo tests for thesame in the changed situation,” said the healthsecretary.

In Chennai, the civic administrationalong with the department of health officialshave identified ‘eight hotspot clusters’ in thecity where multiple corona virus cases havebeen identified. The civic officials along withpolice sealed the entry and exit points to allthese clusters to prevent the movement of vehi-cles as well as unauthorised persons.

Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy,who is the overall commander of the fightagainst the pandemic asked the people tostrictly adhere to the social distance and notto come out of the houses unless it is an emer-gency. “We have given full authority to thepolice to take legal action against those whowander around the metro,” he said in a videomessage. The Chief Minister also disclosed thatcash assistance of �1,000 would be providedto each of the rice ration card holders in theState and this amount would be delivered atthe doorsteps itself by Government staff so thatpeople need not come out of the houses andstand in queues.

MK Stalin, leader of the Opposition whois also the president of the DMK asked partycadre to stop all political activities and engagethemselves in helping the administration tofight the corona virus. Interestingly, JayanthiNatarajan, former union minister andCongress leader said in a TV programme thatshe too would cooperate with the Centre andState Government in eradicating coronaviruscases.

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With total number of coro-navirus positive cases

inching closer to 100 in Jammu& Kashmir, the Governmentagencies are slogging on groundzero to track down each one ofthe 2000 contact persons of pos-itive cases. So far over 1000 caseshave been tracked down andefforts are on reach out to major-ity of these cases as they run therisk of spreading the virus in dif-ferent pockets of J&K.

On Saturday, highest num-ber of seventeen (17) cases test-ed positive, 14 from Kashmirdivision and 3 from Jammudivision.

According to official sources,92 cases have so far tested pos-itive in J&K while total numberof active cases stood at 86. Four

patients have been dischargedfrom the hospital after theyrecovered fully and two deathshave been reported fromKashmir division. According tothe daily bulletin released by thehealth department, test reportsof 55 patients were still awaited.

According to official sources,around 86 patients with highviral load have been isolated inthe different covid hospitals inboth Srinagar and Jammu andbeing taken care of.

Out of 17 fresh cases, threepositive cases were reportedfrom Narsoo, in Udhampur dis-trict. According to Rohit Kansal,spokesman of Jammu &Kashmir Government, "thereported cases were all contactsof a positive patient fromUdhampur with travel historyabroad".

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The Gujarat police onSaturday identified and

quarantined 7 more personsfrom the Tablighi Jamaat, whoreturned from Delhi'sNizamuddin after the lock-down came into force. All arefrom Navsari.

So far 110 such personshave been quarantined inGujarat since Friday.

"We have identified andquarantined 7 more personsfrom the Tablighi Jamaat, whoreturned from Nizamuddin inDelhi after the nationwidelockdown was imposed. Theprocedure of medical check-upand quarantine is being carriedout right now" said ShivanandJha, Directorate General ofPolice (DGP).

"Yesterday we had identi-fied and quarantined 103 per-sons from the Jamaat. Two ofthem were found positive andone of them died," said Jha. "The police have lodgedfour complaints against 10such Tablighis for violatingthe lockdown provisions. Twocase are in Botad, one is inBhavnagar and one has beenregistered in Navsari. Werequest all such persons tocome forward," said Jha.

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Alarmed over the growingnumber of Tablighi Jamaat

returnees testing COVID-19positive, Shobha Karandlaje,Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)MP from Karnataka, onSaturday accused them ofspreading coronavirus acrossthe country.

"Several Tablighi Jamaatmembers who attended a con-gregation at the NizamuddinMarkhaz in Delhi in March fledto other parts of the country,carrying and spreading coron-avirus. Many have tested pos-itive," Karandlaje said atChikkamagaluru, about 250km from here.

Of the hundreds ofTablighis who attended the 3-day event on March 13-15, asmany as 600, including around250 from Karnataka, have test-ed positive and been quaran-tined.

Terming the Tablighis as"corona jehadis" for stayingput at their centre and notreporting to authorities fortesting, the BJP lawmaker saidone community was not coop-erating with the government infighting the pandemic.

"Some of the communi-ty members attacked womenhealth workers in Bengaluru'snorthern suburb on April 2when they went to check if

Tablighi returnees had takenthe test," she said.

Of the 391 Tablighireturnees, around 200 weretested. 13 of them have testedpositive and the remaining 187negative.

One of the returnees, how-ever, died early this week at Sirain the Tumakuru district, about70 km northwest from here.

Five members of the com-munity were arrested forallegedly assaulting healthworkers, under the mistakenidentity that they were enu-merators for the NationalRegister of Census (NRC).

Thiruvananthapuram: The PostmasterGeneral has informed the KeralaGovernment that his department willnow take up the task of deliveringmoney to people's homes, provided thebank account is linked to Aadhaar.

This has been welcomed by theKerala government which has given thegreen signal for this new operation, whichwill see fewer people approaching banksor ATMs to withdraw money.

All the people who want to avail ofthis service will have to inform their localpost office about the amount of moneywhich they want to be delivered to theirhomes.

Once this is done, the post office willentrust the task of delivering the moneyto the postman who will bring it to theirhomes, after ensuring the person has therequired funds in his bank account andthat it is linked to Aadhaar. IANS

Srinagar: 900 people havebeen allowed to go home dur-ing the last four days aftercompletion of the quarantineperiod in J&K, officials saidhere on Saturday.

Another batch of 290 per-sons who had been placedunder quarantine in differenthotels of Srinagar city aftertheir arrival from outside, wereallowed to go home onSaturday.

These people belong to dif-ferent places in the Valley and

the authorities provided themtransport up to the districtheadquarters of there places ofdomicile.

Authorities have thankedthese people for the coopera-tion they extended during thequarantine period.

Those leaving for theirhomes on Saturday expressedgratitude to the authorities forgiving them free lodging, foodand other facilities during theperiod they remained in quar-antine, officials added. IANS

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As the total number of persons test-ing positive for coronavirus crossed

the 255 mark in Kerala by Saturdayevening, a widely respected Congressleader, PT Thomas, who is also amember of the State’s LegislativeAssembly, has accused the LDFGovernment of goofing up the directiveissued by the Centre on February 26 tocheck the spread of the pandemic.

“The Kerala Government’s callousattitude towards the guidelines result-ed in some of the travelers from Britain,Italy and West Asian countries whoreached the Cochin InternationalAirport hoodwinking the health offi-cials and succeeded in coming out of theairport. These passengers were all car-riers of Corona virus and many personswho interacted with them ended up ascorona patients” Thomas told ThePioneer on Saturday. The law makersaid that this happened after the March16 press briefing by Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan who had claimed thatKerala was well fortified against coro-na virus.

Thomas’ statement comes at a timewhen Kerala has 295 confirmed coro-na virus cases and 251 were undergo-ing treatment for the same in varioushospitals as on Friday evening. He saidthe health system in Kerala which wasonce the envy of other States is in totaldisarray now because of the callousnessof the powers that be (read PinarayiVijayan-led CPI(M) Government).“Though I had pointed out that the Stateflouted the guidelines issued by theCentre on February 26, I was shouteddown by the hangers-on around theChief Minister. They pose as the sup-porters of the Chief Minister but theyare spoiling his name and reputationthrough their deeds,” saidThomas.

The Congress leader pointed out to

Television images of Pinarayi Vijayanbeing placed along with ChinesePresident and South Korean PrimeMinister with claims that he is the oneand only leader from this part of theworld who leads the war against Coronaeffectively.

He also disclosed that there weremany instances of violation of themedical protocol issued by the WorldHealth Organization and the Centre. “Apublic servant in Idukki who tested pos-itive was admitted to hospital. But hewas not discharged despite him testingnegative for corona virus in two suc-cessive tests.

Though the district medical boardhad agreed to discharge him, authori-ties in the State capital ordered againstit. He was discharged from the hospi-tal only on Friday evening following apublic uproar. It is with pain I point outthat in Kerala all decisions are beingtaken by political authorities and notbased on guidelines formulated byWHO or the health experts,” saidThomas who also sent a letter to thechief minister.

In yet another shocking incident,the Government issued the order toquarantine health department officialswho were on duty at Cochin airportduring March 19 to 24 only on March29 and that too after it found that twoofficials tested positive. “Certain pas-sengers who reached Cochin fromabroad were allowed to go scot-freewithout any tests and this is the mainreason for the sudden spurt in the num-ber of corona virus patients in Kerala,”said Thomas.

He also said that the local mediawas working as Public Relations con-sultants for the chief minister . “Thereis a limit for sycophancy. But in the caseof Vijayan, I do have doubts about theintentions of those who make thesesocial media posts,” said Thomas, whohimself is a journalist-turned-politician.

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Maharashtra Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray said

here on Saturday that there wasno need for migrant labourersto return to their respectiveStates, as the State Governmenthad arrangements to houseand feed 5 lakh migrants invarious parts of the State.

Addressing the peopleacross the State through socialmedia, the Chief Minister said:“We have taken responsibilityto look after the migrantlabourers from other States.We have made free arrange-ments for their stay, two meals-and one breakfast and medi-cines. Hence, there is no needfor migrants to go anywhere”.

“I am also requesting the

Maharashtrians stranded inany other State to stay putthere. If you are in difficulty,please call the Chief Minister’soffice for assistance,”Uddhavsaid.

The Chief Minister warnedthat his Government wouldinitiate legal action against theanti-social elements who weretrying to drive a wedge in thesociety taking advantage ofthe current situation in thestate.

Uddhav said that in orderto prevent crowds, the StateGovernment would not permitcelebrations of any festival orany event to be organised bypeople from any religion orpolitical party and sportsorganisation.

“We are fighting the pan-demic in a united manner and

we will not allow anyone to foilour efforts,” he said.

“You have no alternative.Please sit at home and ensurethat there are no crowds atpublic place. There are no bet-ter weapons than determina-tion and self-confidence. Withthese weapons, we will defi-nitely win the war againstcoronavirus,” Uddhav said.

The Chief Ministerexpressed confidence that theState Government had tracedand quarantined nearly 100 percent of people who had attend-ed Tablighi Jamaat event inDelhi's Nizammudin lastmonth.

“In case someone has notbeen as yet, the people shouldthemselves come forward andundergo tests and treatment,"he said.

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Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) Hospital hasstarted a new 50 bed arrangement for

treatment of COVID-19 patients.Called the COVID-19 Hospital, the newly

started facility has been kept separate from theNon-COVID-19 hospital. “Two separate iso-lation wards have also been started- one forCOVID-19 (suspect) isolation ward with it'sown ICU and another for COVID-19 (posi-tive) isolation ward with its separate ICU,” anews release by a Ministry of Shipping saidhere on Saturday.

As part of arrangements to deal withCOVID-19, screening is done at the new gateand each hospital has its own entrance, its ownreception, its own casualty, ICU, wards etc.Also, PPE suits have been made compulsoryin COVID-19 hospitals of MbPT and SpecialSOPs defined for separation of patients.

According to the release, MbPT has alsostarted quarantine wards at three locationsnamely, Dhanvantari Building in MbPTHospital, Nadkarni Park Welfare Centre,Wadala, and CMC Building inside IndiraDocks for keeping the suspected persons.

MbPT has also tied up with Sailors’ Home,Wadi Bunder (500 beds) for use as quaran-tine facility. “We have also established tie upbetween Municipal Corporation and a CruiseVessel having accommodation for 2000 per-sons on board to serve as floating quarantinefacility. Further, vacant flats in the residentialquarters in the vicinity of Port Trust Hospitalreadied for accommodating the isolationcases/staff on emergency duty,” the Ministryrelease said.

Certain steps taken by MbPT to ramp upthe fight against COVId-19 include: masksand gloves compulsory even in non COVID-19 hospitals. “All necessary equipment likePPE, Mask, Gloves and Medicines purchasedin large quantity. Even seven new ventilatorsprocured. Telemedicine facilities provided forall patients through all hospital depart-ments.Dispensing of medicines to patientsthrough tie up with Wellness Pharmacy out-lets spread all over the State,” the release added.

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Jammu: A joint team of security forces on Saturdayeliminated four terrorists, belonging to pro-PakistanHizbul Mujahideen terror outfit, in a clean operationin Kulgam district of Jammu & Kashmir. The groupof terrorists were chiefly responsible for targeting civil-ians in the area, official sources said.

Police spokesman in a statement said, “A HizbulMujahideen group of terrorists was killing civiliansover the last 12 days. Four such killings were doneby them in south Kashmir. Police were able to trackthem down and an operation was launched thismorning by the police, security forces, army in whichthree of them have been neutralised,” a policespokesperson said. The body of the fourth terroristwas recovered by the police while clearing the debrisof the house, demolished during the operation.

According to police, the slain terrorists were localresidents of the area and three of them have beenidentified as Aijaz Ahmad Naikoo,Shahid SadikMalik,Aadil Ahmad Thakor. PNS

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The coronavirus pandemichas killed over 60,000 peo-

ple worldwide, nearly threequarters of them in Europe,since it emerged in China inDecember, according to a tallycompiled by AFP at 1330 GMTSaturday from official sources.

A total of 60,457 deathshave been recorded, including44,132 in Europe, the continentworst hit by the virus. The offi-cial tallies probably reflect onlya fraction of the actual numberof cases.

With 14,681 deaths, Italy isthe country with the highestdeath toll, followed by Spain(11,744), the United States(7,159), France (6,507) andBritain (4,313).

Since COVID-19 firstemerged, 1,130,204 cases havebeen declared officially in theworld, with more than half ofthem in Europe (610,846).

There have been 290,219 inthe United States and Canada(7,325 deaths between them)and 115,777 cases in Asia(4,124 deaths).

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Rome: Air raid sirens soundedacross China and flags flew athalf staff in tribute on Saturdayto victims of the coronaviruspandemic, including the healthcare “martyrs” who have diedfighting to save others.

With the highest numberof infections in Europe andtheir hospitals overwhelmed,Spain and Italy struggled toprotect medical staff on thefront lines of the outbreak,while 17 medics in Egypt’smain cancer hospital testedpositive for the virus.

As the number of infec-tions has grown to more than1.1 million worldwide, healthcare systems are strainingunder the surge of patients andlack of medical equipment likeventilators as well as protectivemasks and gloves, giving rise togrowing concerns about theexposure of hospital personnel.

Italy and Spain, with com-

bined deaths of more than25,000 and nearly a quarter-mil-lion infections, have reported ahigh percentage of infectionsamong health care workers.

Carlo Palermo, head ofItaly’s hospital doctors’ union,fought tears as he told reportersin Rome of the physical risksand psychological trauma theoutbreak is causing, notingreports that two nurses hadcommitted suicide.

“It’s a indescribable condi-

tion of stress. Unbearable,” hesaid. “I can understand thosewho look death in the eye everyday, who are on the front lines,who work with someone whomaybe is infected, then a fewdays later you see him in theICU or die.” U.S. PresidentDonald Trump announced lateFriday he would prevent theexport of N95 protective masksand surgical gloves to ensurethey are available in the U.S. -prompting neighboring

Canada’s prime minister torespond that cross-border aidgoes well beyond supplies.

“I think of the thousands ofnurses who cross the bridge inWindsor to work in the Detroitmedical system every day,”Justin Trudeau said. “These arethings Americans rely on.” Thenumber of people infected inthe U.S. Has now exceeded aquarter-million, with the deathtoll climbing past 7,000. NewYork state alone accounts formore than 2,900 dead, anincrease of over 560 in just oneday. Most of the dead are inNew York City, where hospitalsare swamped with patients.

World Health Organizationdirector-general TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus warnedAfrican leaders of an “immi-nent surge” in coronavirus caseson the continent, urging themto open humanitarian corridorsto allow the delivery of badly

needed medical supplies.More than half of Africa’s

54 countries have closed air,land and sea borders to preventthe virus’ spread but that hasdelayed aid shipments. Viruscases in Africa are now over7,700, and the head of theAfrica Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention haswarned some nations will havemore than 10,000 cases by theend of April.

In the Philippines, Sen.Richard Gordon, who is alsohead of the local Red Cross,said lockdown measures havemeant millions of poor familiesare unable to fulfill basic needs.

“A lot of people are hungry.They’re asking for milk, they’reasking for diapers. They say it’snot going fast enough,” Gordonsaid, threatening to have localofficials arrested if they stealfrom government aid for dirt-poor families. AP

Beijing: A group of Chinesemountaineers has begun anexpedition on Mount Everest asChina limped back to normal-cy after the coronovirus out-break. The site, however,remains closed to foreignclimbers.

The highest peak of theworld stands on the border ofChina and Nepal and can beclimbed from both sides. Chinahas closed its side to foreignclimbers while Nepal has can-celled all expeditions in responseto Covid-19. Only Chineseclimbers are permitted this

spring season because of thepandemic, operators told theBBC. China has suspended for-eign expeditions on the northside of 8,848-meter MountEverest in Tibet during thespring climbing season of 2020due to the global spread of thecoronavirus. The TibetMountaineering Association(TMA) announced during thesecond week of March thatwhile China has made greatprogress in containing the coro-navirus disease, its rapid globalspread still brings uncertaintyand danger. PTI

Islamabad: A Pakistani law-maker has appealed to theUnited Nations to form a com-mission to probe if coronavirusis a man-made or a naturallygrown virus and also trace itsorigin, according to a mediareport.

The motormouth formerPakistani interior minister,Rehman Malik, in a letter to UNSecretary General AntonioGuterres, suggested that theproposed commission onCOVID-19 under the UNConvention on BiologicalWeapons, 1975 might compriseof virologists, scientists, profes-sors, researchers, analysts andexperts in the fields of microbi-ology and virology, the DawnNews reported.

Making the letter public at

a press conference through avideo link, Pakistan PeoplesParty (PPP) Senator Malik saidthe commission should presentits report to the UN secretarygeneral in three months, andgive recommendations to pre-vent future breakouts of suchviruses, and international stan-dards for coordination in case ofa breakout. The COVID-19,which originated in China’sWuhan city, has so far killed59,456 people worldwide andinfected more than 1,122,320 in190 countries. For the proposedUN commission on COVID-19,Malik has proposed seven ‘termsof references’ to the UN secre-tary general. These include accu-rate identification of the geo-location of the COVID-19’s ori-gin, identification of areas with

zero patient, discovery as to whythe behaviour, intensity and fer-tility rate of COVID-19 variesfrom country to country, inves-tigation whether it is a man-made or naturally-grown virusand examination of the allega-tions of transportation of thevirus from one place to otherdestinations in the world, as a‘biological warfare tactics’.

He said the deadly coron-avirus pandemic had stirred upthe worst global crisis sinceWorld War II, the daily said.

“Many claims, speculations,conspiracy theories and misin-formation about the diseasehave found their way into theinternational print and elec-tronic media, blurring distinc-tion between real and fakenews,” he said. PTI

Dhaka: Bangladesh onSaturday extended the nation-wide transport shutdown tillApril 11 as the country record-ed its biggest single-day increaseof COVID-19 cases with ninenew positive tests, taking thecountry’s total to 70.

The country reported twomore deaths from the novelcoronavirus, taking the totalnumber of fatalities to eight,according to data released by thehealth directorate on Saturday.

One of deceased was 90-year-old and the other was 68and both had histories of heartdisease and stroke respectively,Institute of Epidemiology,Disease Control and Research(IEDCR) Director MeerjadySabrina Flora told a virtualmedia briefing here.

The tally of infectionsincrease to 70 after nine morepeople, including two childrenaged under 10, tested positive inthe last 24 hours.

This is the biggest jump inpositive tests over a 24-hourperiod since Bangladeshannounced its first cases onMarch 8. The total number ofrecovered patients is 30.

The authorities collected553 samples from across thecountry in the last 24 hours andtested 434, Abul Kalam Azad,director general of theDirectorate General of HealthServices, said in an onlinebriefing. PTI

Melbourne: Researchers havefound that an anti-parasiticdrug already available aroundthe world can kill the novelcoronavirus grown in cell cul-tures within 48 hours, anadvance that may lead to thedevelopment and trial of anew clinical therapy forCOVID-19.

According to the study,published in the journalAntiviral Research, the drug,Ivermectin, stopped the virus,SARS-CoV-2, from growingin cell culture within 48 hours.

“We found that even a sin-gle dose could essentiallyremove all viral RNA by 48hours and that even at 24hours there was a really signif-icant reduction in it,” saidstudy co-author Kylie Wagstafffrom Monash University in

Australia.The scientists said

Ivermectin is an approved anti-parasitic drug that has alsobeen shown to be effective invitro against a broad range ofviruses including HIV, Dengue,Influenza and Zika virus.

However, Wagstaff cau-tioned that the tests conduct-ed in the study were in vitroand that trials needed to be car-ried out in people.

“Ivermectin is very widelyused and seen as a safe drug.We need to figure out nowwhether the dosage you can useit at in humans will be effective- that’s the next step,” Wagstaffsaid.

“In times when we’re hav-ing a global pandemic andthere isn’t an approved treat-ment, if we had a compound

that was already availablearound the world then thatmight help people sooner,” shesaid.

Although the mechanismby which Ivermectin works onthe virus is not known, the sci-entists said it is likely, based onits action in other viruses, thatit works to stop the virus‘dampening down’ the hostcells’ ability to clear it.

“As the virologist who waspart of the team who were firstto isolate and share SARS-COV2 outside of China inJanuary 2020, I am excitedabout the prospect ofIvermectin being used as apotential drug against COVID-19,” said Leon Caly, study co-author from the RoyalMelbourne Hospital inAustralia. PTI

Islamabad: Pakistan’s coron-avirus cases rose to 2,708 onSaturday with the number ofpatients in the Punjab province,which accounts for more thanhalf of the country’s total pop-ulation, crossing the 1,000-mark.

According to the NationalHealth Services, COVID-19has so far claimed 40 lives,while 130 patients have recov-ered.

Punjab — the hotspot ofthe viral infection in Pakistan— reported a total of 1,072cases, followed by Sindh at 839,Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 343,Balochistan 175, Gilgit-Baltistan 193, Islamabad 75and 11 cases in Pakistan-occu-pied Kashmir (PoK).

The viral infection in thecountry is rapidly spreading,

despite hectic efforts by thegovernment to curtail it, offi-cials said.

On Friday, the World Bankhas approved USD 200 millionin aid to Pakistan to help dealwith the impact of the novelcoronavirus.

According to RadioPakistan, the project titled“Pandemic ResponseEffectiveness in Pakistan”, willsupport the government toprepare and respond to the dis-ease and strengthen nationalsystems for public health pre-paredness.

Asserting that no one wassure how long the COVID-19pandemic would last, PakistanPrime minister Imran Khan onFriday announced a massivepackage to the constructionsector to restart economy. PTI

Beijing: Ninety-five Chinesepolice officers and 46 medicalworkers died in the fight againstthe coronavirus pandemic,State-run media reported onSaturday, revealing for the firsttime the casualties of the front-line officials fighting the battleagainst the global health crisis.

The revelation of the casu-alties came as China onSaturday held a national memo-rial for the martyrs and victimsof the coronavirus outbreak.

China has reported 81,639

confirmed COVID-19 casesand 3,326 deaths, majority ofthem from epicentre Hubeiprovince and its capital Wuhan,where the deadly virus origi-nated late last year.

As of Thursday, a total of 60frontline police officers and 35auxiliary police officers hadsacrificed their lives at thefrontline of the battle, officialmedia here quoted the ChineseMinistry of Public Security.

As of March 15, at least 46medical workers have sacrificed

their lives during the battle byrisking infection, over-work oraccidents state-run GlobalTimes reported.

Earlier, Chinese officialssaid over 3,000 medical work-ers have contracted the virus.China has deployed 42,000medical workers in Hubei andbuilt 14 makeshift hospitals toaccommodate surging cases.

Hubei province has so farreported 67,803 confirmedcases, including 50,008 inWuhan. PTI

Varese (Italy): The shiny newrobots gently check the puls-es of highly infectious patientson life support in the Italianepicentre of COVID-19.

The doctors and nurseslove them because they alsohelp save their own lives.

Italians have seen theworld around them turnunrecognisable from the var-ious lockdowns and socialdistancing measures used tofight the new coronavirus out-break.

But little appears to havepained them as much as see-ing dozens of doctors andnurses die while trying to savethe tens of thousands ofpatients who have suddenlyended up in hospitals acrossItaly’s pandemic-hit north.

The country’s medicalassociation said on Friday that at least 70 medics havedied from various causes since Italy recorded the firstofficial COVID-19 death onFebruary 21.

The fear is that an over-whelmingly majority of the 70would still be alive today hadthey been better protectedagainst the coronavirus.

This helps explain whythe doctors are nurses in a hos-pital near Italy’s mountainousborder with Switzerland arelaughing behind their face-masks while posing for photoswith their new robot friends.

The Varese hospital hasreceived six of the sleek andslightly human lookingmachines on wheels. AFP

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New York: The New YorkState reported its highest num-ber of 562 COVID-19 deathsin a single day, with a persondying almost every two-and-a-half minutes, as GovernorAndrew Cuomo allowed redis-tribution of ventilators andprotective gear to hospitalswith greater need.

Coronavirus cases in thestate, the epicenter of the pan-demic in the US, crossed100,000 and it recorded thehighest increase in the numberof deaths from the virus in asingle day between April 2 and3, Cuomo said.

The death toll in the statenow stands at 2,935, anincrease of 562 deaths in justone day, Cuomo said.

“The curve continues to go

up,” Cuomo said whileaddressing reporters on Friday.

The number of confirmedcoronavirus cases in the statenow stand at 102,863, nearlyhalf of all COVID-19 infec-tions in the US, where the tallyhas reached 277,953. NewYork City alone has 56,289coronavirus patients.

Cuomo also gave a grimassessment of the rising number of casualties, sayingthe state witnessed the “highest single increase in thenumber of deaths since westarted.”

More than 7,000 peoplehave died in the US, and 1,867in the New York City alone,according to Johns HopkinsUniversity CoronavirusResource Centre.

“More people in New Yorkdied from the virus in the last24 hours than in the first 27days of March. The state’sdeath toll has nearly doubledin the last three days,” The NewYork Times said.

The Governor alsoexpressed anger over the shortsupply of essential medicalequipment for healthcare professionals to help themdeal with the surge in the cases across the state and thecountry.

He said personal protec-tive equipment (PPE) such asmasks, gowns and face shieldsare in short supply in NewYork as they are across thecountry and there is need forcompanies to make thesematerials. PTI

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London: A 5-year-old boywith pre-existing underlyinghealth issues is the UK’syoungest COVID-19 victim asthe country’s death toll in thecoronavirus pandemic rose by708 in 24 hours to hit 4,313 onSaturday.

UK Cabinet Office minis-ter Michael Gove revealed thelatest death toll during thedaily Downing Street briefing,during which he reiterated thegovernment’s plea for the pub-lic to continue to strictlyobserve social distancing overwhat is set to be a pleasantweekend.

“If we weigh up an hour ortwo outside and weigh itagainst the lives of those welove and the lives of those onthe NHS (National HealthService) frontline, then itshould be clear, I hope to allthat we should follow theadvice,” said Gove.

“The sun might be out, butthat doesn’t mean you shouldbe out,” Stephen Powis, NHSEngland’s National MedicalDirector said.

A statement from the NHSon the latest deaths in England

said that patients were agedbetween five years and 104years old.

The latest figures emergedas police forces across the UKput on extra patrols in parksand outdoor areas, amid fearsthat large numbers of peoplewill be tempted to go outsideand break social distancingrules in the warmer weather.

During the daily briefing,Gove also announced that hun-dreds of ventilators were beingmanufactured in the UK everyday and more had beensourced from abroad, includingGermany and Switzerland anda batch of 300 invasive venti-lators from China arrived onSaturday.

“I’d like to thank theChinese government for theirsupport in securing that capac-ity,” he said. He said a part-nership between UniversityCollege London (UCL) andMercedes Benz has produceda new “non-invasive” ventila-tor, which have been clinical-ly approved. The partnershiphas already produced 250,which will rise to 1,000 a dayby next week. PTI

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/&��$��$� $�� 0��3��>��$��#�� Madrid: Spanish Prime

Minister Pedro Sanchezannounced on Saturday theextension of the country’s lock-down until April 25 in order tocurb the spread of the novelcoronavirus.

“The cabinet on Tuesdaywill again ask for authorisationfrom parliament to extend fora second time the state of alertuntil Saturday April 25 at mid-night,’ Sanchez said in a tele-vised speech.

“With the utmost caution,we believe that this is the timethat our health system needs torecover,” he said.

Hospitals, in particular theintensive care units, have beenoverwhelmed by an influx ofcoronavirus patients.

The total number of fatal-ities in the country stands at11,744, second only to Italy.

The number of newSpanish cases also slowed to7,026, taking the total to124,736.

A nationwide 15-day stateof emergency was firstannounced on March 14 bar-ring people from leaving homeexcept for essential outingssuch as buying food or seekingmedical care. AFP

Madrid: Spain recorded asecond successive daily dropin coronavirus-related deathswith 809 fatalities, accordingto official figures publishedon Saturday. The number ofdeaths in Spain peaked onThursday at 950. The totalnumber of deaths in Spainnow stands at 11,744, secondonly to Italy. The number ofnew cases in Spain alsoslowed with 7,026 taking thetotal to 124,736. AFP

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New Delhi: An aircraft ofReliance Industries Limited(RIL) has flown in 6,000 per-sonal protection equipment(PPE) kits or coveralls for thefrontline health workers inMumbai fighting the Covid-19outbreak.

“6,000 PPE lifted & flownstraight to Mumbai for ourfrontline #HealthWarriorsfighting to protectMumbaikars!”, theBrihunmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) said in atweet.

“A huge thanks to@ril_foundation & @thisiskarfor making this possible!”, BMCsaid in the tweet.

RIL and RIL Foundationhave announced several initia-tives to fight Covid-19. Theseinclude contribution of Rs 500crore to the PM-CARES Fund,Rs 5 core to the Chief Minister’sRelief Fund of Maharashtra,and contribution of Rs 5 croreto the Chief Minister’s ReliefFund of Gujarat.

In addition, it set up India’sfirst 100-bed exclusive Covid-19 hospital geared up in justtwo weeks to handle coron-avirus patients. IANS

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The Income Tax Departmenthas allowed individuals to

submit Form 15G and 15H forthe current fiscal after June 30for claiming exemption fromTDS on interest income tomitigate the hardship of peopleamid the Covid-19 crisis.

Forms 15G and 15H arefiled by persons whose incomesare below the taxable threshold,to seek exemption from TDSon interest income.

These forms are usuallysubmitted by taxpayers to banksand financial institutions inApril. In an order, the CentralBoard of Direct Taxes said the15G and 15H forms submittedlast fiscal will remain valid tillJune 30, 2020, since the Covid-19 pandemic has caused severedisruption in the normal work-ing of almost all sectors of theeconomy, including banks andother institutions.

New Delhi: A 9-minute lights-out by most of households onSunday evening can potential-ly collapse the grid due tosudden drop and then a quicksurge after the event. But tomanage the dramatic changesin electricity and its impact onthe grid, the government hasdrawn an elaborate plan tomanage it. Following are thebroad plan of action.

Electrical appliances suchas AC, fans, TVs, refrigeratorsare not supposed to beswitched off and only house-hold lights are to be switchedoff from 9 pm to 9.09 pm onSunday.

Also, lights in all essentialservices, including hospitals,police stations and manufac-turing facilities as well as streetlights are not to be switched off.

These two steps will ensuresizeable household demand

continues irrespective of lights-out. Power System OperationCorp Ltd — the agency respon-sible for managing the grid -has mapped all India lightingload and estimated suchdemand at 12-13 gigawatts(out of a total consumption of125-126 GW).

Unlike normal operation,this reduction in load of 12-13GW would happen in 2-4 min-utes and recover nine minuteslater — within 2-4 minutes.This sharp reduction in loadand recovery, which is unprece-dented, will need to be handledthrough hydro and gasresources. The drop in load andsubsequent rise will be man-aged by using hydro and gasgenerators that require the leastamount of time for ramp up.

All regional entities havebeen advised to maintain theirinterchange with the grid as per

schedule. Distribution compa-nies have been advised to avoidany feeder switching opera-tion from 20:00 to 22:00 hrs.

Also, control room staff atnational and all regional/ stateload centres will be strength-ened and grids will be closelymonitored to tackle any con-tingency. State load distributioncentres have asked distributioncompanies to ensure that sub-stations and housing society/residential apartments’ mainsupply is not be switched off atfeeder / mains level.

During the evening peakhours — 18:10 to 20:00 hrs —hydro generation will bereduced and conserved forproviding flexibility during21:00 hrs event. During thistime, thermal and gas genera-tion will be scheduled in amanner so as to manage thepeak. PTI

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The national cyber securityagency has alerted donors

against fake ‘UPI IDs’ for a spe-cial fund launched by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi tocombat the COVID-19 pan-demic. In an advisory issued on

Saturday, the Indian ComputerEmergency Response Team(CERT-In) said it has “trackedseveral fake UPI IDs which aresimilar to the UPI ID used bythe “Prime Minister’s CitizenAssistance and Relief inEmergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund”.

CERT-In is the country’snodal agency to guard cyberspace. The advisory identifiedsome of the fake UPI IDs in cir-culation such as pmcares@pnb,p m c a r e s @ h d f c b a n k ,pmcare@yesbank, pmcare@ybl,pmcare@upi, pmcare@sbi andpmcares@icici.

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The worst stage of coron-avirus pandemic became

visible in the US when theDonald Trump Governmentreported that employers cutover 7 lakh jobs in the first twoweeks of March — close to theMay 2009 financial crisis peakof 8,00,000 job losses.

Most of the job losses werereported from restaurants andbars, followed by retailers. Itwas the first decline in payrollssince September 2010, CNBCreported. The unemploymentrate rose to 4.4 per cent — from3.5 per cent — the first jobdecline in a decade, the USBureau of Labor Statisticsreported on Friday.

The Labor report, howev-er, doesn’t capture “the nearly10 million laid-off and fur-loughed Americans who filedinitial jobless claims in thepast two weeks as much of thenation’s economy was shutdown to contain the spread ofthe virus”. According to a USAToday report, that’s becauseLabor’s survey was conductedthe week ending March 14,before most states ordered res-idents to stay at home andnonessential businesses — suchas restaurants, movie theatersand most stores — to close.

It means the job loss num-

bers for March will actually beway high. The US LaborDepartment on Thursdayrevealed that another 6.6 mil-lion workers filed jobless claimslast week.

“The report does capturethe first stumble in the econo-my’s historic free fall. Thenumber of workers filing initialjobless claims rose by 70,000 —the most since 2013 — to282,000 in the week of Labor’ssurvey”. The April jobs report,which won’t be released untilMay 8, could include the near-ly 10 million Americans whofiled for first-time unemploy-ment benefits as the pandem-ic forced businesses to closeand people to stay at home,CNN reported.

Job losses over the next fewweeks will come from a widerrange of sectors, according toDaniel Zhao, senior econo-mist at careers websiteGlassdoor.

“White collar jobs are notsafe from this,” Zhao was quot-ed as saying.

“If this is an indication ofwhat was happening beforethe full force of the crisis hit,then it will be hard to come upwith the words to describe thenumbers in future months,”added Nick Bunker, economicresearch director at job searchsite Indeed.

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All Americans should covertheir faces with scarves or

homemade cloth masks whenthey leave their homes as partof the desperate efforts to curbthe massive spread of the coro-navirus pandemic in the coun-try, President Donald Trumphas suggested.

Citing the latest recom-mendations from the USCentre for Disease Controland Prevention (CDC), Trump,who has decided not to wear amask, urged people to wearface coverings like scarves orhomemade cloth masks, and tokeep medical-grade masksavailable for the health work-ers who are struggling to con-tain the growing number ofCOVID-19 cases.

The guidelines issued by

the CDC, the Government’spublic health advisory agency,came as the US reported morethan 1,100 deaths in a singleday — the highest total for a24-hour period anywhere inthe world.

Senior officials at the CDCtold the White House thisweek that stronger guidelines

were necessary to prevent thevirus from spreading betweenasymptomatic people, USmedia reported.

The US has so far con-firmed 278,458 cases of Covid-19 and more than 7,100 deaths.New York state remains theworst hit area, with nearly3,000 deaths.

The deadly coronavirushas so far infected over1,131,000 people and claimedthe lives of over 59,800 peopleacross the world, according tolatest figures from the JohnsHopkins University.

Until now, health authori-ties here said that only the sick,or those caring for patients ofcoronavirus, should wearmasks, but newer studies sug-gest that covering up one’s faceis important to prevent inad-vertent transmission.

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Kolkata: Metro RailwayAuthorities have taken sever-al initiatives to provide differ-ent basic facilities to workersincluding contract labourersstaying at work site ofNoapara-Barasat via BimanBandar Metro ExtensionProject. Arrangements havebeen made to provide meals tothese workers regularly.

Groceries, food items and

LPG cylinders in adequateamount have been provided atthe site for that.

Masks, alcohol based san-itizers and soaps have alsobeen provided to the workersand they have been encouragedto wash their hands frequent-ly in order to stop the spread ofCOVID-19. They have alsobeen encouraged to follow thegovernment’s guidelines to stop

spread of this deadly virus. Social distancing and

cleanliness are being main-tained at this site camp verystrictly. Water tank and RObased water plants have been

installed for maintaining per-sonal hygiene at this site camp.Separate room has also beenidentified as Isolation Room foranyone found with symptomsof cold, cough and fever.

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OPEC and its allies are dueto discuss oil production

cuts next week following USPresident Donald Trump’sclaim that leading producersRussia and Saudi Arabia willslash output to boost tum-bling prices.

The meeting was original-ly expected to be held viavideo conference on Monday,but now looks likely to bepushed back to “take place

later in the week,” said a sourceclose to OPEC, who asked notto be named.

On Thursday, kingpinexporter Saudi Arabia called foran urgent meeting of OPECand other countries to “stabilisethe oil market” following aphone call between Trumpand Saudi Crown Prince and defacto leader Mohammed binSalman.

Oil prices have tumbledsince the beginning of the yeardue the fallout from the coro-

navirus pandemic — which hasweighed heavily on economiesand demand — and a price warbetween OPEC kingpin SaudiArabia and Russia, the keyplayer in OPEC+.

The two countries failed toagree further output cuts at ameeting at the Vienna-basedOrganization of the PetroleumExporting Countries (OPEC)last month, leading Riyadh toopen the oil taps to flood themarket.

OPEC+ member

Azerbaijan’s Energy Ministrysaid in a press release that next week’s meeting would aim to discuss the adop-tion of a “new declaration ofcooperation”.

Russian President VladimirPutin said Friday that Moscowwas prepared to discuss “areduction in the volume ofabout 10 million barrels a day,a little less, maybe a littlemore.” “I believe that it is nec-essary to combine efforts inorder to balance the market

and reduce production,” Putinsaid.

According to a Russiansource cited by the TASS newsagency Friday, US officials havebeen invited to take part in themeeting. Trump surprisedinvestors on Thursday bytweeting: “I expect & hope”Riyadh and Moscow will becutting back “approximately10 Million Barrels, and maybesubstantially more”.

“Could be as high as 15Million Barrels,” he added in a

subsequent post. Oil prices —which hit 18-year lows earlierthis week — rallied sharply fol-lowing Trump’s statements,marking a record rise in a day’strading on Thursday.

On Friday, Brent stood at$34.11, up 14 percent, andWTI at $28.34, up 12 percent.

However, a deal “at thisstage seems more like specula-tion than something likely tohappen quickly,” warned CarloAlberto De Casa ofActivTrades.

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Once the Covid-19 pan-demic ebbs, the course of

economic recovery in India willbe smoother and faster thanthat of many advanced coun-tries, according to KPMG.

UNCTAD in its latestreport on Covid-19 impact ondeveloping countries has pre-dicted that the majoreconomies to be least exposedto recession would be Chinaand India.

KPMG has said that stepstaken to prevent the spread ofthe virus, such as the lockdown,have brought the economicactivity to a standstill andcould impact both consump-tion and investment.

The abrupt halt in urbanactivity could lead to a steep fallin consumption of non-essen-tial goods. In addition, around37 per cent of salaried employ-

ees in urban India are informalworkers who will face uncer-tain income following the stallof urban activity.

KPMG has prepared threescenarios that can play out forthe Indian economy. If there isquick retraction across theworld, including India, by endApril to mid May, India’s GDPgrowth for 2020-21 may be inthe range of 5.3 per cent to 5.7per cent.

The second scenarioassumes that while India is ableto control Covid-19 spread,there is a significant globalrecession. In this scenario,India’s growth will fall to 4-4.5per cent.

In the third scenario, ifthere is proliferation withinIndia and lockdowns getextended coupled with a glob-al recession, it will be a doublewhammy for the Indian econ-omy. India’s growth will fallunder 3 per cent in this sce-nario as a prolonged slow-down would exacerbate eco-nomic troubles.

However, experts alsopointed out that to show high-er GDP growth in revisednumbers recently, the govern-ment has reduced the base inthe previous year.

In that case, the govern-ment should have revised andlowered GDP growth for pre-vious year. So, projections aretaking place as per officialnumbers. It is now not thequestion whether governmentnumbers are right. The histor-ical government numbers areincorrect now, experts said.

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Gabon on Friday bannedthe sale and eating of bats

and pangolins, which are sus-pected of sparking the novelcoronavirus in China wherethey are highly prized in tra-ditional medicine.

President Ali BongoOndimba also announced thegovernment was planning tolock down the capital Librevilleand unveiled an emergencypackage for those hard hit bythe pandemic.

The novel coronavirus isbelieved to have come frombats, but researchers think itmight have spread to humansvia another mammal.

Pangolins are criticallyendangered and have longbeen protected, but they aresold in the markets of the cap-

ital Libreville, as are bats, andtheir meat is popular.

The central African nationis 88 per cent covered in for-est and hunting and bush meathave long been a way of life.

The water and forest min-istry said the novel coronaviruswas a “combination of two dif-ferent viruses, one close to batsand the other closer to pan-golins”, and claimed to bequoting a scientific study pub-lished in Nature.

Gabon has declared 21COVID-19 infections, butnone from animals, the min-istry said. “A similar decisionwas taken by the authoritieswhen our country was affect-ed by the Ebola virus — a banon eating primates,” ForestryMinister Lee White said.

The national parks agencyANPN announced in mid-March that tourists would nolonger be allowed to interactwith great apes to avoid anyrisk of contamination by thecoronavirus.

The pangolin, the world’smost heavily trafficked mam-mal, also called the scalyanteater, is believed to havepossibly been a vector in theleap of the novel coronavirusfrom animal to human at amarket in China’s Wuhan citylast year.

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Back in the 70s, 80s and even 90s,there was a time when azure skywas a norm. Then everythingchanged. Globalisation openeddoors and the almost empty

roads and no traffic snarls soon became athing of the past. Soon the air quality indexwas touching 1,000 and beyond and manypeople ended up with several breathingproblems.

Cut to March 25, 2020. Clear blueskies, a smattering of stars in the night skyand a clear view of the Capital for mileson end from the roof top without the usualhaze is what Delhiites are waking up tosince the lockdown. While the circum-stances that have led to the present situa-tion is extremely unfortunate given that thenumber of COVID-19 cases as of April 4,2020 stands at 3,474 and deaths at 91, thereare a few numbers that are falling and peo-ple can take heart from it and breathe easydue to improved air quality.

According to a data by SAFAR (March30, 2020), the Capital has seen a reductionof 63 per cent in NOx and 49 per cent fallin PM2.5. Mumbai too witnessed adecrease in numbers — NOx 57 per centdown and PM2.5 down by 53 per cent,Pune: NOx stands at reduced percentageof 55 and PM2.5 at 38 per cent.

According to Anumita Roychoudhary,associate director general at the Centre forScience and Environment, the overall airpollution levels have dropped sharplyafter the lockdown because vehicles, fac-tories, construction has stopped. “Wedon’t want to depend on this kind of emer-gency to bring this change. But this crisishas proved that if health risk perceptioncan provoke emergency response it cangalvanise far reaching changes. Collectivecommunity action during this pandemichas forced us to reinvent solutions toreduce our vulnerability to toxic risk. Wehave made massive lifestyle adjustments topractice social distancing,” Roychoudharysays.

She tells you that whether this crisisinduced change can throw up long-termsolutions to air pollution is a question thatwe need to address. This means that wehave to make systemic changes to institu-tionalise some of the emergency respons-es in terms of maximising potential of dig-ital world to alter the concept of workplace,scale up public transport options to reducevehicle miles travelled and personal vehi-cle numbers, roll out electric mobility tomove towards zero emissions, ensure zerotolerance for non-compliance with emis-sions control regulations and standards,among others, only then post pandemicperiod can gain from this short termbreather from emergency action.

“Health risk associated with the ongo-

ing air pollution problem also needsemergency response. There are concernsthat during post pandemic period, it willbe business as usual and pollution will goout of control once again. But people needto understand that air pollution kills 1.2million people and makes many more illannually. This requires similar emergencyresponse and public support for strongaction. This pandemic has also brought tolight the evidence that air pollutionincreases vulnerability to pandemicbecause poor air pollution has alreadycompromised lungs and overall health ofpeople. It is important to deepen aware-ness and public understanding of this con-nection and overall health risk associatedwith air pollution to build the momentumfor hard action. We need strong and sus-tained action across regions and give ournational clean air programme effectiveteeth,” Roychoudhary says.

Environmentalist BS Vohra tells youthat the reduced AQI levels has one mes-sage to give. “It was all manmade. It wasour fault that we allowed polluted indus-tries to function and we allowed vehicu-lar pollution to reach levels that people inDelhi were choked. Nature has given us astrong message — when we try and cor-rect the wrong — when we stop things thatcreate pollution — things change for thebetter,” Vohra says.

Also, there is now no scope of ambi-guity. “Today, we know the exact reasonfor the high AQI levels. Earlier, there weremany studies that threw up differentreading on what was contributing to theair pollution. Now, we know the real rea-son. We are being told that the mistake wasours and we need to take correctiveaction,” Vohra tells you.

He paints a dismal picture if we don’tlearn the lesson this lockdown has taughtus. “First, the lockdown was not somethingthat human did to combat air pollution.It was forced due to COVID-19. Theimproved AQI doesn’t mean man has donesomething. If the virus has not been there,things would be as it was before. Therewould have been no improvement in AQIlevels. Second, there is going to be no long-term impact. If today, the lockdown isopened, it would not take more than a fort-night for things to be back to what theywere. The AQI is going to shoot up onceagain if we allow the industries to work atthe same pace and just as many vehiclesto ply on the roads,” Vohra says.

Dr Gufran Beig, chief project scientist,System of Air Quality and WeatherForecasting And Research (SAFAR) at theIndian Institute of Tropical Meteorologytells you that they have put up data of thelast two years to compare the NOx levelsand PM 2.5 in the four SAFAR cities –

Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad.“This lockdown has given us chance to val-idate inventory emission levels. Once weare back to normal, we will be in a posi-tion to combat pollution levels. It isunfortunate that COVID-19 has forced thissituation on us but it has made it possiblefor us to correct the earlier findings andprovided us an opportunity to set our pri-orities right for the future,” Beig explains.

Besides the AQI, another pressingquestion staring at us is whether this willhave an impact on the climate. Beig tellsyou that when one studies climate, onelooks at a long-term impact. He tells youthat it is early days but some ongoing inter-national studies suggest that there may bechanges. “Some changes are taking placein the air circulation leading to fasterrecovery of the ozone layer in the upperatmosphere. But these are early days toreach any concrete conclusions for now,”Beig says.

Prarthana Borah, India director, CleanAir Asia, that propagates reduced econom-ic activity as a strategy for reduced air pol-lution, tells you that what is encouragingis that sectors will now think of reorgan-ising activities to benefit air quality and usenew technology like virtual platforms toreplace existing ways of work, travel andconducting business which may lead to apositive impact on air quality.

“We don’t need something as drasticas the fear of death from a pandemiccaused by a virus as a solution to air pol-lution. We must try to understand thatwhile air quality has improved it hasimproved due to the complete absence ofeconomic activity be it traffic -- road, rail,air, stopping of construction and industryand any other polluting activity. This cannever have a long-term impact as we can’tenvisage a world of no economic activity.In the last week, PM2.5 was as low as 35and PM 10 between 55 and 70. This meanswhile it is not as good as the WHO stan-dards, we are capable of having a baselinethat meets the national ambient AQ stan-dards. This will guide the process of tar-gets we need to set for ourselves withincreased economic activity and howmuch of this increase matches with achiev-ing the 20-30 per cent decrease in air pol-lution levels we want to achieve,” Borahopines.

She tells you that it is easy to maintainthe present AQI levels once things are backto normal. “What we need is to figure outthe right way to reduce our negative impacton the environment. For this we need reg-ulations that limit our activities. We needto set targets and then work on restrict-ing or improving economic activity byintroducing the right technologies that willcontinue to restrict air pollution. Once

these quantitative figures are in place it willbe easier to work on developmental workthat prioritise clean air targets. However,there is also a danger that priorities postCOVID-19 will be different and manyother pressing issues like air pollution andclimate change may take a back seat. Wecan already see this in the postponementof the 2020 COP Climate talks. The samemay be with air as cities will be battlingwith COVID-19 recovery and it may takesome time for them to start talking aboutair,” Borah says.

The lockdown has left its mark onwildlife as well. There are several videoson social media doing the rounds wherepeople have filmed a civet in Kerala, deerin Haridwar, Nilgai roaming the desertedstreets of Noida, leopard spotted inChandigarh and a pod of dolphins spot-ted along the seashores of Mumbai. Thereare many who believe that since humansare now confined to their homes, this isNature’s way of claiming what was its ter-ritory.

According to Dr Ravi Chellam, CEO,Metastring Foundation & director ofMission Secretariat, National Mission onBiodiversity and Human Well-being, thisis one of way of viewing it.

“It does tell us about the remarkableresilience of Nature to come back if we giveit the slimmest of opportunity. It is timethat we humans recognise, accept andwork with the fact that we are part ofNature and it is the foundation for our exis-tence and development. There is a price topay for destroying Nature and the cost willalways be higher than any projected eco-nomic benefit. Even places like Chernobylwhich was abandoned after the nuclear dis-aster became a thriving wildlife habitat.Nature is very resilient and when given anopportunity it would try to re-colonise andmake a comeback,” Chellam says.

Pawan Sharma, founder of ResqinkAssociation for Wildlife Welfare, based outof Mumbai agrees with Chellam and tellsyou that one can say that is partially truethat Nature’s way to take back what wasrightly its.

“There is need to co-exist with the ani-mals. Till now they co-exited with us, nowit is our turn to give back. What we are wit-nessing that had led to the lockdown is thedamage human intervention can do.Nature has its way to balance itself out. Wehad only read it in books but today we areliving it. It is time to slow down. In ourquest to develop we destroying Nature butdevelopment and conservation needs to gohand-in-hand. Animals don’t understandmanmade boundaries. Man hasencroached on their habitat and damagedit. Since there is no disturbance now, ani-mals are curious and are out exploring,”

Sharma says.Chellam is quick to point out that

reports of wild animals roaming thestreets need to be viewed in the right per-spective. “Even before the lockdown it wasnot unusual to see lions, leopards, ele-phants, gaur, rhino, many species of deerand antelopes including nilgai and black-buck, many other smaller mammals likejackals, mongoose, many reptile speciesincluding monitor lizards, different speciesof snakes, many species of birds includinglarge ones like Sarus cranes, either on orby Indian roads. These sightings werewhen things were normal. With the lockdown, human presence and disturbancehas gone down drastically and hence weare getting to see these animals much morefrequently and also more often during daytime,” Chellam explains. There are sever-al reasons why these animals are in thecities to begin with.

First, many of these animals livearound cities and their habitat may be frag-mented by the city and hence they wouldbe using the city for passage from one partof their habitat to another which wouldhave been difficult when there was trafficand human presence. It should not be for-gotten that it is we humans who have set-tled in wildlife habitats and in somesense, we are the intruders and not the ani-mals. Second, could be that the city offersresources, primarily food (mostly in theform of garbage and food plants in our gar-dens and parks), domestic animals includ-ing dogs and pigs and water. It is alsoimportant to understand that these animalshaven't settled in the urban areas. They areonly using it for some time.

Chellam sees a way forward. “It isabsolutely crucial that humanity learns theright collective lessons from this pandem-ic. It would be a huge mistake to revert tobusiness as usual once the worst of the pan-demic is over or a vaccine is developed. Ifwe continue to develop in ways thatdestroy Nature and pollute the environ-ment and without compassion for all fel-low human beings, such tragedies are onlybound to be repeated. We have to recog-nise that we live in an inter-connectedworld not just with citizens of othercountries but equally if not more impor-tantly with Nature and all species thatoccur in the wild. We need to completelyre-prioritise and invest more in restorationof Nature and functional ecosystems,basic but very essential needs of all peo-ple like health, sanitation, adequate nutri-tion, safe housing and education insteadof grandiose infrastructure projects and themilitary. The re-prioritised developmentmodel will enable much greater levels ofequity, much more sustainable develop-ment and build resilience,” he tells you.

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The Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) want the International

Cricket Council (ICC) to awardthem the hosting rights of a majorevent in lieu of the financial lossessuffered due to India’s refusal to playa bilateral series against them.

PCB Chief Executive WasimKhan asserted that Pakistan is pre-pared to host a major ICC eventsometime in 2023.

“I don’t think hosting interna-tional cricket is now such a big issuefor Pakistan as the security situationhas improved now,” Khan said.

“The fact that we have logisti-cally hosted the entire PakistanSuper League in Pakistan and alsoteams like Sri Lanka and Bangladeshfor Test matches besides othersmaller events and series shows weare capable of hosting a big ICCevent.”

Khan said that if Pakistan gets

a major ICC event it would makesense as it has suffered lot of finan-cial losses due to India’s refusal toplay matches in India or Pakistan forsome years now and also becausethere appears to be no chance of anyIndo-Pakistan series taking place inthe near future.

“There appears to be littlechance of India and Pakistan play-ing and we have already sufferedlosses in millions of dollars.”

He said that the chief executives

of cricket Boards will have a videoconference with the ICC to discussWorld T20 Cup, Asia Cup andWorld Test Championship.

“There is no doubt that becauseof the coronavirus pandemic everyboard is facing a big challenge toreduce their financial losses as

much as they can. We are all in thesame boat. We have similar inter-ests. When this conference is heldwe will be discussing future mea-sures.”

Khan said the aim is to preparean alternate plan whenever cricketresumes.

� �� &'#

The FIFA Under-17 Women’sWorld Cup to be held in Indiain November was on Saturday

postponed by football’s governingbody due to the worsening COVID-19 pandemic across the globe.

The women’s age group show-piece was to be held at five venuesin the country — Kolkata, Guwahati,Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad and NaviMumbai — from November 2-21.

The tournament was to be com-peted among 16 teams, with hostsIndia being automatic qualifiers. Itwas to be India’s maiden appearancein the U-17 Women’s World Cup.

The decision was taken by theFIFA-Confederations working groupwhich was recently established by theBureau of the FIFA Council toaddress the consequences of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

The working group recom-mended the Bureau of FIFA Councilto “postpone the FIFA Under-20Women’s World Cup Panama/CostaRica 2020 — originally scheduled forAugust/September 2020 — and theFIFA Under-17 Women’s WorldCup India 2020 — originally sched-uled for November 2020.”

“New dates will be identified,”FIFA said in a statement.

It was also decided “to create asub-working group on the women’sinternational match calendar toconsider potential changes to the cal-endar and dates of postponed FIFAfinal tournaments”.

The All India FootballFederation said the postponementwas on expected lines.

“Just like other sports eventswhich were postponed due to thisdreaded disease, it (postponement ofU-17 World Cup) was to happen. Wehave to accept the decision,” AIFFGeneral Secretary Kushal Das said.“The qualifying events in Europe

and Africa and other confederationsare yet to be held and so the deci-sion was on expected lines.”

He said the tournament willmost likely be held next year.

The working group of the worldbody which took the decisionincludes the FIFA administrationand Secretary Generals and topexecutives from all confederations.

It unanimously approved a seriesof recommendations following itsfirst meeting, which was organised

via conference late on Friday.While the tournament itself is

five months away but only the qual-ifying event for Asia has been heldso far from which from which Japanand North Korea have made the cut.

Five remaining qualifying events— that of Africa, Europe, Oceania,South America, and Central, NorthAmerica and Caribbean — have notbeen held due to the global healthcrisis which has affected more thana million people.

The official schedule of thetournament was announced inFebruary and Navi Mumbai was tohost the final.

The Local OrganisingCommittee (LOC) said it support-ed the decision though it was look-ing forward to host the tournamentin November as scheduled.

“We agree that this has beenmade with the highest regard forpublic health, and the participatingteams, host cities, staff and visiting

fans, and keeps the best interests ofeveryone in mind,” the LOC said ina statement.

“For us at the moment, the pri-mary concern is the health and wellbeing of every stakeholder involvedin the tournament. We don’t wantto take any risk that is detrimentalto our community before it is clear

that there is no threat to people’shealth due to this pandemic.”

The LOC said it will continueto provide full support to FIFA onall matters and look forward tohosting a successful tournament inthe near future.

In other decisions, the workinggroup recommended “to postpone

all international matches due to beplayed during the upcoming June2020 window; and to organisebilateral discussions with confed-erations concerning 2022 FIFAWorld Cup qualifiers in order tofinalise a revised match schedulepending health and safety develop-ments”.

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Batting long comes naturally toCheteshwar Pujara and now

he wants his fellow Indians to dothe same by staying at home as“the battle against the COVID-19pandemic can only be won bybeing indoors”.

Pujara was one of the eliteIndian sportspersons who attend-ed the video call held by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onFriday to discuss ways to fight thecoronavirus.

“The Prime Minister wantedus to pass on the fighting spirit ofa sportsperson to the generalpublic. Sportspersons do inspire tofight,” Pujara said.

“Every single person is a sol-dier at the moment. If you stayindoors, you are fighting the bat-tle for your own country. There

has to be a collective effort else wecan’t win this,” said India’s Testbatting mainstay.

After helping Saurashtra wintheir maiden Ranji Trophy titlelast month, little did he know thathe would be spending all his timeat home. Pujara is enjoying the“forced” break and most of histime goes into entertaining histwo-year-old daughter.

The closest he has got to a “hitin the nets” is by playing with aplastic bat.

But a gym at home means heis not compromising on his fit-ness.

“I usually take everything ina positive way. Sometimes youneed to take a break as asportsperosn and there can’t be abetter time. We just won theRanji and it is the right time totake three to four weeks off.

“Luckily I have a gym athome. With gym, I can still do mystrength sessions, cycling and

running. I also do yoga whichhelps a lot,” said Pujara.

He was supposed to playcounty cricket in the UK but thattoo has been postponed at least tillMay 28 and faces a cancellation.

Considering the current cir-cumstances, Pujara might have towait till the Australia tour start-ing November to play his firstcompetitive game since the RanjiTrophy final. But he is preparedfor any eventuality.

“I would still have some first-class games before the Australiatour. I am prepared for anything.This is the time when we can’t justbe thinking about sporting events.First, we have to win this battleagainst coronavirus,” he said.

“We just need to make surethe virus is contained and thingsget back to normal. After that wecan talk about the game.”

� � � ��&'#

The COVID-19 pandemicmay have indefinitely stalled

all sporting activities but formerEngland captain Kevin Pietersenstill “truly believes” the 13th edi-tion of IPL should happen themoment there is a window ofopportunity.

He proposed a “condensed”league behind closed doors forone of cricket’s biggest money-spinners, adding the fansshouldn’t be risked.

“Let’s say July/August is theearliest, I do truly believe the IPLshould happen. I do believe it isthe kick-start to the cricket sea-son. I think every single playeraround the world is desperate toplay the IPL,” Pietersen said.

The former star batsmanexpressed his thoughts on StarSports’ show Cricket Connected.

The IPL is important notjust for players and franchises,but also for the people workingbehind the scenes, and this wasnot lost on Pietersen.

“There could be a way in

which to get some money intothe franchises, into the economyby having a situation where youuse maybe three venues whichare completely closed to fans andthe players can still go out andplay the tournament in threeweeks or in four weeks.

“So, it’s a more condensedtournament in three venueswhich we know are safe, whichwe know are secure,” he said.

Agreeing with Pietersen,former India batsman SanjayManjrekar spoke on the impor-

tance of organising the IPL.“The moment we get clear-

ances from all the authoritiesthat matter, the IPL should hap-pen, only because it will kickstart the economy because whenyou talk about the IPL it’s notjust about the Mumbai Indians,or a Dhoni or a Virat Kohli, thereare a lot of people who are mak-ing their livelihood through theIPL,” he said.

Recently, Rajasthan Royals’executive chairman ManojBadale had said that a “short-

ened” IPL couldn’t be ruled out,provided the BCCI and its other

stakeholders are on the samepage.

� �� &'#�

Former all-rounder TomMoody on Saturday picked

India’s Rohit Sharma and fellowAustralian David Warner as bestopening batsmen in T20 cricket.

Moody is also a well-knowncoach and commentator.

In a question and answer ses-sion, the 54-year-old also pickedChennai Super Kings as hisfavourite IPL team and M S

Dhoni favourite captain.“Tough call, but I would be

more than happy with @david-warner31 And @ImRo45 (Rohit),”Moody wrote on his Twitter pagewhen asked about the best open-ing batsmen in T20s.

There is abundance of crick-eting talent in India but amongstthe emerging ones, Moody feelsShubman Gill “stands out”. Gillhas played two ODIs for India andhas also made the Test team butis yet to get a game.

Moody, who has coachedmultiple IPL teams, believes NewZealand skipper Kane Williamsonis blessed with the best cricketingbrain and Ravindra Jadeja is hisfavourite Indian fielder.

Asked about his favouriteIndian cricketer, Moody pickedskipper Virat Kohli.

�� Australia fast bowler PatCummins feels nice about skipper TimPaine rating him as one of the contenders forfuture Test captaincy but says the topic is justa moot point as the wicket-keeper is still play-ing.

Discussions about who should leadAustralia whenever the 35-year-old Paineretires are ongoing. Former captain SteveSmith’s leadership ban has also expired.

Earlier this week, Paine named Smith,Cummins, Travis Head, Alex Carey andMarnus Labuschagne among those whocould take up the captaincy.

Former skipper Michael Clarke has longbeen pushing for Cummins — the currentvice-captain — to lead the national side.

“It’s nice to hear, (I) don’t think it makesme want it more or less. I’m glad being a vice-captain underneath him that I get that nod.He’s brilliant,” Cummins was quoted as say-ing by cricket.Com.Au.

“Like I’ve said a hundred times before, Ikind of feel it’s not quite right talking aboutcaptaincy now when we’ve got someone likePainey and Finchy (limited-overs captainAaron Finch) doing great jobs. We’ll see downthe track, but at the moment it’s bit of a mootpoint.”

The 26-year-old Cummins, who hastaken 143 wickets from 30 Tests since mak-ing his debut in 2011, is expected to topCricket Australia’s contract list for 2020-21whenever it is announced, underling hisimportance in Justin Langer’s team.

The 26-year-old has become the mostresilient member of the attack after aninjury-plagued start to his career. He wasappointed one of Paine’s deputies last year, butcurrently has no captaincy experience at thedomestic level. “In the perfect world, your firstexperience of being captain — say Australiancaptain, you’ve (already) had quite a bit ofexperience leading and you know exactlywhat it entails,” he said.

“But things don’t always work out asexactly as you planned.” PTI

��G�$�J� England crick-eters, both men and women,have volunteered pay cuts anddonated 500,000 pounds ascontribution towards the fightagainst the COVID-19 pan-demic.

The cricketers’ gesturecomes after the England andWales Cricket Board had pro-posed a 20 percent cut in theplayers’ salaries. The ECB was waiting for aresponse from the representatives at theProfessional Cricketers’ Association.

The donation of 500,000 pounds is equiv-alent to a 20 percent reduction in the salariesof men’s cricketers while the women volun-teered for a pay cut in their April, May and Junesalaries.

“Following a meeting of all of the Englandmen’s centrally contracted cricketers, the play-ers have agreed to make an initial donation of£0.5m to the ECB and to selected good caus-es,” read a statement from the players.

“The precise details of the charitabledonation will be decided over the next weekby the players. This contribution is the equiv-alent of all of the England centrally contract-ed players taking a 20% reduction in theirmonthly retainers for the next three months.”

�� Former India openerWasim Jaffer has picked M.S. Dhonias captain of his all-time ODI XI.

Jaffer had recently revealed thatall Dhoni wanted when he started offwas to make �30 lakh and live peace-fully in Ranchi. However, the veter-an wicketkeeper-batsman went on toplay 90 Tests, 350 ODIs, and 98 T20Isfor India captaining the team to the2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 50-over World Cup and is touted to be

the most successful captain to leadthe Men in Blue.

In his all-time ODI team, Jafferpicked four Indian batsmen —Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma,Virat Kohli and Dhoni who was alsochosen as wicketkeeper. However, noIndian bowler could make a cut toJaffer’s team.

Jaffer, who recently retired fromall forms of cricket, also picked WestIndies legend Sir Vivian Richards,South Africa’s AB de Villiers and2019 World Cup hero Ben stokes inthe batting line-up.

Jaffer picked Wasim Akram asthe all-rounder, Shane Warne orSaqlain Mushtaq as his spinner, WestIndies seamer Joel Garner andAustralia legend Glenn McGrath ashis pacers.

The 42-year-old, surprisingly,picked Australia’s two-time WorldCup winning captain Ricky Pontingas the 12th man. IANS

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?�?#��2��B�C��&��C(��7�� =��9�� The postponement of theFIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup willnot derail preparations for the tour-nament as the country is still com-mitted to “delivering a memorable”meet whenever it is possible, RomaKhanna, the tournament director of

Local Organising Committee,said. “We were, of course, look-ing forward to the tournamentbut everyone understands thecurrent situation and has beensupportive,” Roma said.

“The fact that three of thevenues (Kolkata, Navi Mumbai,

Guwahati) have already hosted aFIFA tournament in the past helpsand the other venues seem on track.Everyone is committed to ensuringthat this does not impact us muchand we move ahead with our plan-ning and deliver a memorable U-17Women’s World Cup in India,” shesaid.

She added that the LOC willwork with FIFA to chalk out alter-nate dates best suited to host thetournament in India which haspreviously hosted the U-17 Men’sWorld Cup which was won byEngland.

"We shall work with FIFA tolook at alternate dates best suited tohost the tournament in India. At pre-sent, in collaboration with FIFA, theMinistry of Sports and Youth Affairs,the Ministry of Health and FamilyWelfare and Hosting States, nation-al and international health author-ities, we are constantly monitoringthe situation regarding COVID-19in India.”

“We are in regular touch withFIFA and all the other concernedstakeholders. Three of the venues(Guwahati, Kolkata and NaviMumbai) hosted the FIFA U-17World Cup in 2017 and already meet

the majority of FIFA requirements.The two new venues, Ahmedabadand Bhubaneswar, also have thebasic infrastructure ready. We alsoalready had one round of FIFAinspections in November at all fiveof these venues, which went reallywell.

“It is a tough decision but it isin the best interest of everyone espe-cially the players. As I have saidbefore, the safety of the players, fansand all the other stakeholders is ofutmost importance to us. We lookforward to hosting a spectacularFIFA U-17 Women’s WC in the nearfuture,” she concluded. IANS

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2''* �� 2�� Even as the fate ofthe 13th edition of the IPL hangsin balance, both BCCI as well asthe IPL franchises are keepingfingers crossed in order to havea full season of the cash-richleague. And a major player inthis scenario is the foreignboards as an IPL without theforeign players wouldn’t be thecarnival it is. So, even as thecountry fights the pandemic,BCCI has been keeping foreignboards in the loop with regardsto developments.

Speaking about it, a BCCIofficial said that the foreignboards like Cricket Australia orthe ECB and Cricket SouthAfrica among others have allbeen constantly updated on thescenario and the directives of thegovernment with regards to

fighting COVID-19.“While various options have

been discussed like a closed-door tournament, or a cur-tailed one, it is almost clear thateveryone wants foreign playersto be a part of the IPL and thatis one of the major highlights ofthe tournament. So, we havebeen constantly updating theboards of the situation here andthe directives that are beingissued by the health departmentas well as the government in thefight against coronavirus.

“In fact, it is a two-wayprocess as international borderlockdown is also an aspect thatneeds to be kept in mindbecause at the end of the daywhenever the IPL does happen,the foreign players need to flyin,” the official pointed. IANS

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�/I� ��#//�� 5�� #��:�"��#�� The world has come to astandstill due to the coronavirusoutbreak and that has led to allsporting events across the globeeither being cancelled or sus-pended. While federations havestarted asking sportspersons totake pay cuts, the Pakistan CricketBoard just like BCCI has made itclear that there will be no pay cutsat present.

A PCB official said that whilethe current situation is beingmonitored, there will be no paycuts in the current financial year

which runs till June 30 for thePakistan board.

“Our financial year runs fromJuly 1 to June 30. All player con-tracts (central and domestic) aretill 30 June. There will be no salarycuts in the 2019-20 financial year.We have put in place systems toensure that monthly salaries arepaid on time and without delay.The PCB is monitoring the situ-ation in the country closely as itevolves and will amend its policywhen appropriate,” the officialsaid. IANS

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Ace pistol shooterAbhishek Verma saysmaintaining focus and

form till the Tokyo Olympics,postponed to next year due tothe COVID-19 pandemic, willbe a huge challenge, but one thathe is equipped to take on.

The ongoing nationwidelockdown has halted trainingschedules of all the sportsper-sons.

And the ensuing postpone-ment of the quadrennial Gamesmay threaten to disturb hisfocus a bit.

“Hitting the peak and thenmaintaining it, maintaining myconcentration and focus is goingto be challenging. Though itgives us more time but one yearis a lot of time,” two-time World

Cup Gold medallist Verma said.The 30-year-old Verma is

confined to his home inChandigarh at the moment, buthis mind is in a Gurgaon pay-ing guesthouse, where his train-ing tools, including SCATT, areawaiting his return from whatwas supposed to be a short two-three-day trip to his parents’place.

SCATT is an advancedequipment, involving sensors,and used by top shooters to keeptrack of their progress whiletraining both indoors and out-doors.

The lockdown meant com-promise with his training. He ishappy to be home but for ashooter who prefers to practicethrough the year, Verma is find-ing spending time without hisequipment “odd”.

“I like to practice 365 daysa year but right now I am ableto do only dry practice. When Icame home, the plan was to onlystay for two-three days, butthen the lockdown wasannounced and I got stuck here.

“But there is no other wayat the moment given the situa-

tion. I can only hope that thingsnormalise and I am able to goback and start practising again.

“Definitely, it will be differ-ent now that the Olympics havebeen postponed. It’s not easy tomaintain the focus and form. SoI will concentrate on maintain-ing my form and focus till theGames,” the double World CupGold medallist said.

In the absence of his keyequipment, Verma’s training isrestricted to dry practice, sim-ulation, exercises, yoga andmeditation.

Verma had secured anOlympic quota place by winningthe 10m air pistol Gold medal atthe Beijing World Cup in Aprillast year, before winning anoth-er yellow metal in the same eventat the Rio World Cup in August-September.

�� G� �J�� The Sports Authority of India onSaturday held a meeting with Hockey India officials andnational team coaches via a video conference and drewa roadmap for the next 16 months leading up to theTokyo Olympics.

SAI plans to hold meetings with presidents, secre-tary generals, high performance directors, head coach-es and chief executives of all National Sports Federationsto reassess their long-term plans, qualification scenar-ios and strategies to align with the Olympics.

In that direction, SAI director general SandipPradhan and other officials held a meeting withHockey India representatives, which included its chiefexecutive officer, executive director, high performancedirector David John and the men’s and women’s teams’chief coaches, Graham Reid and Sjoerd Marijne.

Various modalities pertaining to the sport, includ-ing the teams’ training, domestic competition structureand foreign exposure, were discussed.

According to a statement from the SAI, a numberof viable solutions and alternatives to the earlierplanned strategy were deliberated upon in view of theongoing lockdown.

Also discussed were options such as training underquarantine (physical and psychological aspects) and pos-sible restricted cross-border movement once the lock-down is lifted.

The men’s team chief coach Reid expressed confi-dence about their Olympic preparations.

“We had a very productive meeting and discussedthe planning process for the next 16 months. Weinformed SAI that the team and staff are being well caredfor, while in strict quarantine,” Reid said.

“We discussed various scenarios and await decisionsas to when we can re-start full training. We also agreedto remain as flexible as possible with the aim of beingready to go as soon as international competitionrecommences.”

National women’s team chief coach Marijne agreedwith Reid and said the meeting was a very productiveone.

“We had a positive discus-sion about the state of affairsand we indicated our pref-erences once the situationimproves and as soon asmore is known about the pos-sibilities in the future.

“We also mentionedabout our preferenceabout players staying innational camps duringdomestic tournamentsin order to avoidinjuries in thelead up to theOlympics nextyear,” the Spanishcoach said.

“I particularly liked thepro-activeness of SAI andHockey India and I am veryoptimistic about our prepa-rations for the TokyoOlympics. I think it is goodthat we are thinking about thepositives and way forward.”

�� <#=��,��#<=

Real Madrid’s Brazilianmidfielder Casemiro has

said that he is not thinkingabout winning the ChampionsLeague or La Liga titles thisseason as the world grappleswith the coronavirus out-break.

In a video call with youngfans, coordinated by globalcharity Save The Children,Casemiro said on Friday thatfootball paled into insignifi-cance compared to the pan-demic, which has claimed thelives of more than 60K peopleworldwide.

“Do we want to win theleague? We definitely want towin La Liga and we want towin the Champions League,”the 28-year-old said.

“But I’m not thinkingabout winning La Liga, I’mthinking about winning thefight against the coronavirus.I think if everyone does theirpart, that’s the most importantthing. It’s a tough time foreveryone. We need to win thematch against the coron-avirus.”

Real Madrid are current-ly second in Spain’s La Liga

standings, two points behindleaders Barcelona with 11matches remaining in the sea-son.

Zinedine Zidane’s menare due to meet ManchesterCity in the second leg of theirChampions League round of16 tie, having lost the firstencounter 2-1 at theBernabeu.

All major football compe-titions in Europe have beensuspended indefinitely as partof efforts to stop the spread ofthe virus.

“It’s a difficult time foreverybody,” Casemiro said.“We have to do our part bystaying at home. Everyonehas to help out and follow therules,” he added.

� � � +=&+��

Amid the nationwide lock-down, veteran Indian

archer Tarundeep Rai is busybuilding shoulder muscles atthe Army Sports Institute inPune, which he believes willkeep him in shape for TokyoOlympics.

The postponement of theTokyo Games was a bitter pillto swallow for the two-timeWorld Championship Silvermedallist as he will get one yearolder when he takes the fieldfor his third Olympics.

“For me, the postpone-ment of Olympics means I willget older by one year, so it willbe a new challenge,” the 36-year-old said.

He has been forced tochange his training due to theworsening COVID-19 pan-demic and his daily routinenow is to search YouTube forvideos on “how to build shoul-der muscles” and train at thegym for long hours.

“It’s a big risk to go to thetrainers, so YouTube is theconstant company now. I fol-low some channels and picksome videos,” Rai, who com-peted in 2004 Athens Olympicsand 2012 London Games, said.

“Now I’m not shootingthat much. It’s more of dryshooting practice so that thebody is tuned to bow andarrows,” the 2010 Asian Gamesindividual Silver medallist said.

Rai, along with India num-ber one Atanu Das and hisArmy colleague Pravin Jadhav,had clinched quota place for

the men’s team while winninga Silver at the WorldChampionships at Den Boschin the Netherlands last year.

The trio was placed in thetop-three in the trials to pickthe Indian squad for TokyoGames when the COVID-19pandemic brought to a halt toall the sporting activities.

“No doubt I’ve a bit aheadin terms of experience, but thereal challenge will be to stay fitand compete with the risingyoung talents. In this one year,many 20 to 22-year-olds willcome up and compete for aplace in the team. I think bybuilding shoulder muscles, Iwill be able to withstand thechallenges ahead,” he said.

Rai hopes the current sit-uation will normalise in aboutthree months and when theseason resumes, he will againpick up his bow and arrows.

“I estimate an off-season ofminimum six months due tothe extraordinary circum-stances. So, I will work hard atthe gym for three months andthen recovery will follow. Itwould help me personally. I’vemade my schedule that way.”

He said one positive aspectof the postponement of TokyoGames is that India’s chancesof winning an elusive Olympicmedal in archery will improve.

“But there’s a positive sideto it (postponement). Therewill be competition and we willmake a strong team for theOlympics and hopefully thewomen’s team will also quali-fy, giving us good hope for amedal next year,” he said.

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Thailand and Malaysia havebeen banned from sending

weightlifters to the TokyoOlympics. The InternationalWeightlifting Federation said in itsstatement on Saturday that theThai Amateur WeightliftingAssociation (TAWA) has beensuspended for three years, while

the Malaysian WeightliftingFederation (MWF) has been givena one-year ban.

In its decision, theIndependent Member FederationSanctions Panel (IMFSP), whichissued the bans to the two feder-ations, said the bans would applywhenever the Games take place.

Additionally, the Thai federa-tion has also been fined $200,000,

half of which “shall be used by IWFto offset IWF costs alreadyincurred in connection with theTAWA matter and for additionalIWF testing of TAWA athletes”, thepanel said.

The Thailand federation hadalready withdrawn from theTokyo Olympics voluntarily afternine of its weightlifters werecaught for doping violations at the

2018 World Championships.The IMFSP said that both the

TAWA and MWF were informedof the bans on Wednesday andhave 21 days to appeal in theCourt of Arbitration for Sport(CAS).

The two countries thus joinEgypt in being banned from theOlympics while Colombia andRomania await their decisions.

��Former worldchampion ViswanathanAnand and five otherleading Indian playerswill compete in anonline chess exhibitionon April 11 to raisefunds for country’s fightagainst COVID-19.

The Indians willtake on players fromacross the world on theportal chess.Com.

Apart from Anand,India No 2 Vidit SGujrathi, P Harikrishna,Baskaran Adhiban (allGrandmasters) and thecountry’s top two women players-Koneru Humpy andDronavalli Harika will compete on 20-board event.

The event will be streamed live on chess.Com/tv, whereall donations made will be sent to the PM’s CARES Fund.

Anand, who is stuck in Germany owing to the trav-el restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, tweet-ed: “Please support the Indian Chess Community’s sup-port towards Covid 19 relief.”

To participate in the event, players must have aChess.Com blitz or FIDE standard rating of under 2000and will be required to make a donation during the reg-istration process.

A guaranteed game against Anand requires a mini-mum donation of $150. However, a $25 registration fetch-es the chance to play any two of the six Indian stars (oneof whom may be Anand).

Just five spots are left to play against Anand.Besides, the three biggest donors will get to play

against Anand on additional boards during the live streamon chess.Com/tv.

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FIFA has extended the agelimit for the men’s football

tournament at the rescheduledTokyo Olympics due to thecoronavirus pandemic.

The amended Olympicrule on Friday retains the“players born on or after Jan 1,1997” standard for the TokyoGames following a one-yearpostponement agreed lastweek by the InternationalOlympic Committee andJapanese authorities.

It means players eligiblefor the intended under-23

tournament in 2020 can stillplay in Japan at age 24 nextyear. Men’s football kicks offahead of the July 23, 2021opening ceremony in Tokyo.

The Olympic decision wasmade by a FIFA panel of foot-ball officials worldwide, creat-ed to address the footballshutdown during the healthcrisis.

The 16 men’s teams at theTokyo Olympics next year canalso select three over-age play-ers in their rosters. A stellarlineup includes Argentina,Brazil, France, Germany andSpain.

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The CONCACAF NationsLeague finals scheduled to

be staged in Texas in Junehave been postponedindefinitely due to thecoronavirus pandemic,the region’s governingbody said.

CONCACAF, theruling body for footballin North America,Central America and theCaribbean, said the four-teamfinals would take place at adate to be determined.

The finals had beenscheduled for June 4 and June7 in Houston and Dallas.

“As we continue to assess our com-petitions scheduled to be played in thecoming months, the welfare of everyoneinvolved in football across our region

remains our first priority,” CONCA-CAF said in a statement.

“Given the ongoing publichealth situation, and followingconsultation with FIFA regard-ing the international football

calendar, we have made thedecision to suspend the

CONCACAF NationsLeague Finals.”

Costa Rica,H o n d u r a s ,Mexico and theUnited States had

been due to take part in thefinals.

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Renowned cricketers WasimAkram and Darren Gough

have joined other sporting greatssuch as Jack Nicklaus andMichael Phepls in auctioningtheir items of memorabilia andhelp raise funds for the fightagainst the COVID-19 pandem-ic. Legendary Pakistani fastbowler Akram and England’sformer star pacer Gough areamong the latest cricketing per-sonalities attempting to combatthe challenges posed by theunprecedented global health cri-sis.

According toathletesrelief.Org, Gough and

Akram have promised items ofmemorabilia to be auctioned onbehalf of the Centre for DisasterPhilanthropy who have set up aCOVID-19 Response Fund.

Akram, Pakistan’s highest

wicket-taker in both Test andODI cricket, has pledged a signedbat and ball while Gough,England’s second-highest wicket-taker in ODI cricket, has pledgeda signed ball.

While Akram’s bat and andball have raised $150, Gough’ssigned ball has attracted $50.

Stars from other sportsinvolved in the fundraisinginclude Nicklaus, Mike Tyson,Nick Faldo, Rory McIlroy,Martina Hingis, Stephen Curryand Phelps, among others.

Multiple Olympic Goldmedallist America swimmerPhepls, whose signed swimsuithas helped raised $1490, said, “Inorder to give back during this

challenging time, I am donatinga ‘game worn’ suit cap and gog-gles to athletesrelief.Org.”

At $41350 for his signedfootball, former AmericanNational Football League (NFL)star Rob Gronkowski raised themaximum amount.

Akram and Gough joined along list of cricketers who havemade efforts to help out duringthe crisis, including Jos Buttler,who is auctioning the shirt he waswearing when England won theWorld Cup last year.

England women’s captainHeather Knight have signed up asNHS volunteer, while SamCurran has launched a fundrais-ing campaign.

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Australia coach Justin Langer believes resuming crick-et behind closed doors when it is safe to do so will

have “great value” for the public, deprived of action bythe coronavirus shutdown.

Like almost the entire sporting schedule around theworld, cricket has been halted by the pandemic, with noreturn date set in stone.

One of the options being mooted is to have the sportresume after restrictions have been lifted, but in emptystadiums.

“When you started off playing cricket, when you wereunder age, there’s no crowds there,” he told BBC Radio.

“You played it because you loved playing the game,you loved playing with your mates and you loved play-ing the game.

“For the love of the game, and for still being able toentertain people through TV sets or radio, then there’svalue in (playing behind closed doors).

“Yes it’s different, but we’ll never, ever, ever take forgranted how lucky we are ever again.”

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The Belgian FootballAssociation (URBSFA)

announced on Saturday thatit is working with UEFA

toward a “constructive”solution regarding thepremature end to theBelgian championship.

On Thursday, theBelgian Pro League recom-mended that the season bedeclared finished due tothe coronavirus pandemicwith the present tableaccepted as final. It becamethe first European league topropose such a measure,though others could follow.

On Friday, the govern-ing body of European foot-

ball (UEFA), in a joint state-ment with the EuropeanClub Association and theEuropean Leagues, warnedthat “abandoning domesticcompetitions is, at this stage,premature and not justified”.

UEFA threatened to banall teams from Europeancompetitions next season ifthey did not complete theirleague season.

The URBSFA released astatement on Saturday sayingthat its president, MehdiBayat, had spoken to thepresident of the governingbody of European football,Aleksander Ceferin.

The statement did notspecify the nature of this“jointly” negotiated solu-

tion, saying only that theBelgian association wouldpresent the UEFA executivecommittee with its “recom-mendations for stopping itschampionship”.

The Pro League board’svoted unanimously onThursday to advise its gen-eral assembly not to resumethe 2019-2020 first divisioncampaign.

Club Brugge, who are 15points clear with 11 match-es to play, would becomeBelgian champions.

The AGM is expected toratify this decision on 15April but its board will pre-sent the proposal to UEFA’sexecutive committee.

The Belgian federation,which will also present itsrecommendations and aimsto “preserve Belgium’sEuropean places in the 2020-2021 season”, said the state-ment.

The statement alsoreminded UEFA that it hadcalled for solidarity withinEuropean football duringthe coronavirus crisis andsaid Bayat had “advocated aflexible approach to thisconcept, which allows thespecific circumstances ofeach league to be taken intoaccount.”

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Former Manchester United striker DimitarBerbatov said that the 2019/20 Premier

League title should be awarded to arch-rivalsLiverpool if the season cannot get underway.

The Premier League is currently underindefinite suspension as the United Kingdomgrapples with the coronavirus pandemic.Liverpool were hurtling towards a first leaguetitle in three decades before the suspensionand have a 25-point lead at the top of the tablewith nine games left. They hence need twomore wins to confirm the title.

“People are suggesting to give the title toLiverpool, and honestly they deserve it the waythey had been playing, nobody was going tocatch them,” Berbatov, who scored 56 goals infour seasons at United told Betfair.

“With the way they play their games, thefootball they produced and how far they arein front, they fully deserve the title this sea-son.”

The Premier League said in a statementon Friday that it is looking to finish theremaining league and cup matches. However,any return “will only be with the full supportof the Government and when medical guid-ance allows.”

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�Tell us about your character HimmatSingh in Special OPS?

He is a chief analyst with RAW. Heis the brain behind all the strategies

and plans. He has to deal with hispersonal and professional life

without one affecting theother. He is an interesting

character in all. He tries tobe as fair as possible withhis team.�What made you take up

the role?Neeraj Pandey, Sheetal

Bhatia and I have known eachfor the longest of time. Neeraj’s

writing are very exclusive and he hasa skewed way of looking at a

scene. Whenever he writesthe screenplay, it will sur-

prise you everytime. Atthe same time he has

got great sense ofhumour even at thedarkest of situa-tions. He has aspecial flair forwriting and thatmakes it all themore interesting.

Another reason waswhen I read the

script for the firsttime, I was about to just

read the first episode butI read the complete series in

one go, The story was that interestingand gripping. The man behind themachine and the machine itself wereextremely good and was the reason forme to say yes. �How did Naseem happen?

It was my debut. I used to do the-atres a lot those days. The film hap-pened with me because Mak (MakrandDeshpande) thought that I was the bestactor back then. We used to do ourrehearsals together. One fine day he toldme ‘come lets meet Saeed AkhtarMirza (writer-director of the film)’. Hesaw me and suddenly the role of thatreligious fundamentalist came aboutand I was casted for that. �How easy or tough was the wayahead?

It is like any other profession. Upsand downs do happen, but that’s not amatter to worry about. I also did TVwhen it was not like what it’s today. Weused to do small films and one hourepisodes. The journey was good. It wasa time when people believed if you area brilliant actor then you can only donegative roles. We started from there.One thing that we maintained was per-sistence and every thing went well.�What are the things that you lookout for before taking up a project?

I don’t compartmentalise it. It is justlike an attraction to the project. Themoment I feel like I have to do this, Igo for it. At the same time, I am at a

stage when I have a lot of substantialstuff to do and not something which Iam over-qualified for. So this is onething that I look for rest everything fallsin place.�A role that came close to you or theones that was most challenging?

I find these questions very difficultto answer, I am not that narrow mind-ed as an actor. Everything that I havedone is equally close to my heart. As forchalleging, there is nothing as such.Challenging is a word used by thosewho don’t have the capability or capac-ity of doing it. I see things as interest-ing or uninteresting. And I have donea lot of interesting stuff along with unin-teresting ones too. It’s been a journeyand journey can’t be unidirectional.There are always twists and turns, thesame has been for me. I too have seenups and downs, but at the end of it I cansum it up by saying ‘no complaints’.�A project that you were apprehen-sive about but it came out well.

Nothing as such. I don’t usuallyjump into something without knowingwhat it is. There are many projects oth-erwise where I thought this particularscript has good potential to make it bigand I got involved with it but it didn’tturn out well. You can’t do much aboutthese things. You can just only with gowith good intention about it as an actorand how will it turn out depends on thedestiny of the product.

�Is it hard to cope with such disap-pointments?

Initially, I used to feel flustered whena project didn’t do well or like I expect-ed. But then I realised the best way tolive an artist’s life is to dispassionatelypasssionate about things. By this Imean, I am extremely passionate whenI am working but the moment the lastday is over I become dispassionateabout it. I don’t hold on to the longingof it because that is beyond my control.After I have completed shooting, Iwould look at it like any other and notlike the one who have been a part of it.

It makes life easier, if I would continue hanging upon it then I wouldhave been landed in a mental asylum bynow. (laughs)�How do you define acting? What isyour approach towards it?

I am a simulator. I simulate thingsand make it as believable as possible,that’s my intent when I am acting. I tryand make things so believable that I caneven work if sci-fi movie. Many peopleindulge in realism talks but realism is amyth. The moment you have editingprocess, realism can’t exist because youare jumping in time. Realism happensin real time. If you will look for it, youcan’t make sci-fi movie. Take for exam-ple Avatar, it is a sci-fi movie but it isextremely believable. It should be inaway where one can feel, touch and smellthe characters. That has been my motto.

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�How did your journey in the entertainment industrybegin?

I had not planned how to go about it but it all began backin 2015. I always wanted to entertain. When I was in school, col-lege and with family and friends I would always crack jokes andbecame the centre of attention. I started making videos and makea second vine ad put it on my page which got replies from friends.But then slowly people started commenting. People shared memeson Instagram which I used to put. By 2016, I had a million fol-lowers on Insta. Then there was a boom in Internet and todayI have more than eight million subscribers on my YouTube chan-nel.�Was it tough to get noticed on YouTube?

Initially, I was under the impression that there was no pointin putting video here. I had Insta fans but the people on this plat-form are different from YouTubers who have far more patience.But I asked my team member to start putting videos on theYouTube. A friend told me that the channel was doing well. Istarted putting longer videos here. I can’t say it was easy, nor canI say that it was tough. All I can say is that I had loads of fun. Itwas slow process to garner that kind of attention.�How was the experience of doing the movies?

Student of the Year (SOTY) 2 was amazing. I had never sucha huge crew. I never knew how things worked. What differentthings were for? I didn’t know what assistant director did. Themovie has taught me so many things that I use on my channel.Take spot dadas. I had heard of them but never realised whattheir work was. Tiger bhai (Shroff) was standing next me so Ithought the man holding the umbrella was for him. But then hemoved away but this man continued to hold the umbrella overmy head. It was then I realised he was doing it for me. It felt soamazing. I got to learn so much including how to face the cam-era from Tiger Shroff.�Tell us about your latest project — Who’s Your Daddy?

It is a web series. It is an amazing story set in Delhi. It is aboutrelationships. First, when I was a kid and my relationship withmy father and then with my son. Second, my relationship withmy grandmother. Third, my relationship with my friends. Thenthere is a love angle and my relationship with her. When I readthe script, I loved it and laughed a lot. It has been written so well.�What made you say yes to it?

I am very particular when it comes to content. Even whenI create content I don’t go ahead unless I am convinced with it.When I was offered the role, I took it up on just listening to thenarration. It was much later that I read the screenplay. Peopleknow I do comedy, here I have gone a step ahead. People willsee me romancing, crying and even getting angry. I wanted toshow my fans different facets of myself.�You have around 8 million subscribers. What makes yourfans come to your channel?

I do my best to try and give as much time to them as pos-sible. I reply to their comments. But I rarely have time for myfamily so it is not always possible to be constantly in touch withthem. However, I try to do as much as I can and meet them inperson and talk to them.�What are the challenges to ensure you stay where you are?

It was not as if I have had to face many. I just love doing whatI am doing. When I was doing the web series I have had to shootround the clock and loved every moment of it. I never feel thatmy professional life has put up any roadblocks till now and hope-fully it will be so in the future as well. Yes, schooling was a chal-lenge.

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While tattoos have been herefor a while but what is tak-ing the industry by storm

today are the sound wave or audio tat-toos. Yes, you read that right. Tattoosthat have a voice and can be heard.Hard to believe? Meet Lokesh Verma,founder of Devilz Tattoos who is mak-ing it come true.

“This is a new technology inIndia. The tattoo industry was staticfor so many years with no inventionsbut now with these dynamic soundwave tattoos we are taking the indus-try a step further. What we mean bythis, is you can hear a sound from yourtattoo, it’s not the simple static tattooany more,” he says. Verma may be thefirst and the only one in India to haveadapted this technology but it isoriginally an American idea.

“This was in trend in the US twoyears back. However, it has only beena year since I brought the concepthere. Intially, there were not many tak-ers. But slowly it caught the attentionof the people. And in the last fewmonths this technology was acknowl-edged by people and more and morepeople are getting it done. Till now, wehave inked around 80 people withsound wave tattoos,” Verma tells youwho a few minutes back was busy ink-ing another customer but comes outto tell you more about this newtrend.

As complicated it may sound, theprocess is quite easy. The client isasked to record a five to 30 secondsound clip of anything that they wantto cherish. It may be their baby’s firstcry or their dog’s voice or even a mes-sage from their loved ones who are nomore. Then a sound wave is createdout of it using various softwares andput out on paper.

“Once the visual of the soundwave has been created, we take a printout of it and then ink it on our client’sbody line by line. Once it is inked, weupload the picture of the sound waveon our website. People can scan itusing the sound wave app on theirmobiles and hear the audio messagein it as many times as they want. It is

just like the way QR codes work, youscan something and it redirects youto another site,” he tells you.

A year, when Verma came to kowabout this technology, it attracted himand he made his mind to know moreabout the art.

“I am always looking to bringsomething new in the field. When Igot to know about this, I knew thatthis is something that I have to bringto my country. I started doing myresearch and read a lot about it. I knewthat such a technology would requirea lot of specialisation. Before execut-ing the idea, I did many trials to seehow it would work. I used skin padsto test it and only when we were suc-cessful I decided to do it on people,”Verma says who inks these tattooswith his team of experts. It didn’t taketoo long for Verma or for that matterhis team to excel in the skill, all thanksto his 17 years of experience in theindustry.

Like any other person who is step-

ping into unchartered waters, Vermatoo was apprehensive about the idea.

“Intially, I was a bit apprehensiveabout introducing the concept becausethe lines of the sound wave are intri-cate. There is no room for even theslightest of error in such tattoos. If asingle line is not correctly madebecause the artist is inexperienced, thesound wave will become crooked andthe tattoo will not work. This needsspecialisation in line work and theartist should have super steady handsto draw the lines. It is not like the usualtattoos where if something goeswrong, you can just shade and fix it.Each and every line of the sound wavehas to be precise,” he says. The cost ofthe tattoo starts at �15,000 for a clipof five seconds.

There is a reason why people areopting for these tattoos. “One is ableto keep the loved ones near you andheard their voice even if they are hun-dreds of miles away. My wife got ourbaby’s voice inked when he was twoyears old. She was never interested in

tattoos but this was something shecouldn’t resist,” he tells you.

Mostly married couples and peo-ple with young children, who are 35to 45 years of age go for this becausethey can keep that commitment.

Though the tattoo industry hascome a long way but the mindset ofpeople still has to change. “There is aneed for change in the mindset whenit comes to getting a tattoo. Many areapprehensive before getting one andseek for help from family and friends.When someone gather enoughcourage to walk into the tattoo studiothey are so confused that they ask theirfriends for help. People have to starttaking their own decisions. Havingsaid that, one change that I have seenis that earlier people used to go forrandom designs because tattoo wassomething new and they just wantedto get one. Now people have startedputting thoughts behind their tattoos.They tend to express their faith or atti-tude towards life through them,”Verma tells you. His first tattoo wasthat of a devil’s face he inked on hisfather.

There’s a story here. “I came intothis profession because I was fond oftattoos but back then there were notmany studios and the ones that werethere were expensive. I thought whynot buy a machine myself as it will costless and I can make as many tattoosas I want. I bought the machine butwas too scared to try it on myself soI walked up to my father and asked ifhe would be interested in gettinginked. I was surprised when heagreed. I made a random design,which he still has on his hand — adevil’s face. It went pretty well and thatgave me confidence to make moredesigns and taking this up as a career.This is how I started Devilz Tattoo,”he tells you.

Verma, of course, is a celebrity ofsorts. People seek him out for his qual-ity work. “Back in 2008, Remo D’Souza was the first celebrity to visit mystudio. He was in Delhi-NCR for ashoot and that’s when he came to mystudio to get inked,” he tells you.

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He is one gem of an actor and what makeshim so is his down-to-earth nature and notto mention natural acting skills. He speaks

with Musba Hashmi about his debutand how he is

dispassionately passionateabout his pro-

Could you have imagined being locked-down in your home because of a global

epidemic? Bizarre as it sounds, this block-buster movie scenario has come to pass, andwe all find ourselves trapped in our homes,unable to move out or even interact with any-one from the outside world.

This situation has caused a surprisingamount of frustration to humans across theworld, with many plummeting into depres-sion and states of despondency. And, as weall know, since there is a mind-body connect,staying mentally strong goes a long way inkeeping your immunity up, and your defencesstrong against the disease. So, if you are car-ing for a cat, dog or any other animals, here’show they’re helping you stay on top of things.

Mental strength means physicalstrength: It is a proven fact that families, orindividuals, with pets are emotionally andmentally healthier than people who don’t havepets. This means you are less likely to sufferfrom depression, or other kinds of mental andemotional problems that could bring yourimmunity down. Having a pet has therefore

made you physically more resilient to any kindof disease, including viral infections.

A reason to go on: For people who dofall sick with the virus, or any other disease,resilience has a lot to do with wanting toget better and get back to life. Those of uswho have had pets will vouch that betteremotional ties with those around us puts usin the correct frame of mind for recovery.Since our relationship with our cats anddogs is more unconditional, and uncom-plicated than how we relate to mosthumans, having a pet means we're moreinclined to recover faster and return to car-ing for them.

Good company: The long-term bene-fits of having a pet aside are that those ofus with pets to care for are not likely to suc-cumb to boredom, depression and unhealthyhabits like binge-eating, not exercising, orbinging on our gadgets. Not only do our petskeep us on our toes, because we build health-ier mental neurons while interacting withour pets, our general disposition is moreproductive and proactive while being home-bound, thanks for the fur balls in our lives.%$��!�3��$��,$�$��?��(@)��-��1��

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�� Myth 1: Dogs can spreadthe Covid-19 virus

Fact: According to theWHO, there is no evidenceto suggest that COVID-19in the form that it appearsin humans can spread ontocompanion animals or, forthat matter, can an animalsspread the virus to humans.

Myth 2: So pets can skipthe hygiene protocols

Fact: A senior vet at theAmerican vet charity PSDAsays the hygiene protocolseven for pets is still impor-tant. For instance, if yourpet in taken out, it couldbring back the virusthrough its paws, which can

contaminate your home forhumans. So don’t skip sani-tising them.

Myth 3: Since dogs or catscan’t spread the virus, theycan be around patientswith COVID-19

Fact: It is not recom-mended. Not so much forthe sake of the pets asmuch for the patient whomay be recovering from thevirus. Their immunitywould be low at such apoint, so it’s actually a goodidea to keep both animalsand humans away fromthem since animals maycarry bacteria or germsfrom being taken outdoors.

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Before the coronavirus lockdown, didyou ever think your house could becapable of so much multi-tasking?My house is now a one-roomschoolhouse, an office, a gym, a

restaurant that’s turning out three meals a day,a messy art studio, a global pandemicmonitoring station, and the place where ourfamily relaxes and sleeps.

Speaking of sleep, I’ve never been sograteful that my kids have an early bedtime —7 pm and 8 pm for the 4 and 5-year-old — andhappily sleep through the night. As a sleepconsultant, I’ve been speaking to many parentsabout how to navigate this challenging time.I’ve always preached that ensuring a goodnight’s sleep is a precious gift for our children,and I believe it now more than ever. Here’swhy: ● Sleep is a powerful immune-booster. Both

adults and children that are sleep-deprivedare more susceptible to illness. Withoutsufficient sleep, your body produces fewercytokines, which is a protein that targetsinfection.

● Sleep supports our emotional health. Sleepis a mood-booster, and acts as a soothingbalm for our emotional balance. Much-needed at the moment.

● Sleep is crucial for all aspects of ourphysical health, from cardiovascular tometabolic to respiratory to immune system. As Matthew Walker says in Why We Sleep,

“Sleep is the single most effective thing we cando to reset our brain and body health each day.”

Here’s my guidance on how to ensure yourbaby or child is able to sleep peacefully duringa time when anxiety is surely running high inthe family.

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The hundreds of parenting decisions wemake during the day will impact ourchildren’s night sleep.

Anchors. As I say in Sleep, Baby, Sleep,routine is like a magic wand for parents tokeep their babies happy, healthy and secure.But let’s face it — our young children havenowhere to go and no pressing deadlines. Yetwe can still create a predictable routine, whichprovides a sense of normalcy and safety. Formy two daughters, I’ve put a focus on creating“anchors” in our day, points of stability in theocean of free play. After breakfast, we do ourmath lesson. While eating lunch, we listen to astorytelling podcast (Listen & Play by theBBC). In the afternoon, we work on phonics.In the late afternoon, we call the grandparents.Before dinner, my husband does physicalexercise with the girls. These are thepredictable touchpoints that they can count onevery single day. There’s no need to be rigid,but having a daily rhythm with anchors giveschildren a sense of security.

Exercise. Our stir-crazy little kiddos needphysical activity — and lots of it! Movement isgreat for releasing endorphins and will helpour children to sleep well at night. Even whenstuck inside, we have options — you can havea dance party, water play in a small kiddie poolor bathtub, Cosmic Kids Yoga, or hopscotch,relay race or frog jumps in the hallway. I’veeven seen videos of kids biking, roller skatingand skateboarding inside the house. Becreative! Get the kids up and moving at least 3times a day — and join them, because it’s agood stress-buster for you, too!

Screentime. As soon as the WHOdeclared a global pandemic, I decided that mystrict stance on screentime could be relaxedduring these weeks at home. My kids don’t

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nap anymore, and we all need downtime. Everyday after lunch, we pull the curtains, turn offthe lights, snuggle up under blankets and “go tothe zoo.” Meaning we visit the Cincinnati ZooHome Safari via their Facebook page. Hangingout with the hippos and porcupines is soothing,sweet and educational. If you’re jugglingcooking, cleaning, laundry, work, andhomeschooling — choose a nice programme(I love Daniel Tiger for toddlers) and give someguilt-free screentime. Since we have a set timefor screens, the kids aren’t bugging me to watchvideos the rest of the day, which is an addedbonus.

Note: please don’t use screentime for the 2hours before bedtime, because it may be toostimulating and interfere with a good night’ssleep.

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Many families that I consult with havetrouble setting a bedtime routinebecause they have family functions,

weddings, and travel. Since all of that is off thetable, it’s a perfect time to establish an age-appropriate bedtime for your little one.

Early to Bed. Babies and young childrenneed 11 to 12 hours of continuous night sleep.This means that if your baby wakes up at 7 am,bedtime should be between 7 and 8 pm. Sleep isessential for your child’s mood, growth,development and immunity. To shift your child’sbedtime earlier, I recommend pulling thecurtains and turning off the bright overheadlights after sunset. Create a bedtime routine. Itcan be simple — dinner, bath, books, bed. Writeit down on a piece of paper, let your childdecorate the bedtime chart, and hang it on thewall in their bedroom.

Comfy, Cozy Bedtime. I always encourageclients to think of bedtime as the best part of theday, rather than a power struggle. Cuddle upwith your child, read books, sing a lullaby or saya prayer. In order for your child to relax enoughto “let go” of the day and fall asleep, they shouldfeel secure and connected. Every night I ask mydaughters what they want to dream about (it’soften cake and unicorns) and then I spritz themwith imaginary “dream spray.” This puts happythoughts into their minds about sleep.

White Noise. I recommend white noise toevery parent that wants their baby or child tosleep better. White noise provides a soothingrumbly backdrop for sleep and helps drown outthe household noises. Especially these days whenyou may be taking late-night conference callsfrom the living room, play some white noise for

your child. The easiest way to try it is bydownloading a free app (such as Sleep Pillow) onyour phone or tablet.

Will your child get “addicted” to white noise?This is a common question and the answer is no!If you want to wean off of white noise in thefuture, you can simply reduce the volume for afew days.

Sleep Training. I spoke with a mom of twinswho has let go of her domestic helpers duringquarantine, has a job in banking that hasconverted to work-from-home because ofcoronavirus, and is exhausted from the nightwakings that used to be handled by a nanny. Herelderly mother is attending to one twin, and sheis attending to another and they are both uptwice at night, for as long as an hour each time.For babies over 6 months, you can do sleeptraining and proactively shape the sleep patternsso you don’t have so many night wakings. In mybook Sleep, Baby, Sleep, you will get the completeguidance to help your baby sleep through thenight. In the book, I also cover newborn sleep,baby sleep, toddler sleep and nap schedules forage 0 to 4 years.

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It’s mission critical to be mindful of whatwe’re saying in front of the kids. Our childrenwill surely struggle with sleeping peacefully if

we are exposing them to too much talk andworry about coronavirus.

Turn Off the TV. Put the TV news on a 21-day lockdown. There is absolutely no reason toexpose your child to sensational and scary newsreporting. If it’s terrifying for you as an adult,then please protect your child. Also, don’t talkon the phone about the gory details ofcoronavirus in front of your kids. They arealways listening and absorbing what you say onthe phone. Remember, the beauty of having anearly bedtime is that you can watch the news andmake your phone calls at night.

Invite Questions. I’ve given simple andhonest explanations about coronavirus and thelockdown to my kids. Since their world hasdrastically changed from school, playdates andsports to 24/7 at home, I do check in with themonce a day. I simply ask “do you have anyquestions for me?” Most of the time they don’t,but they know that the lines of communicationare open. They know it’s safe to have questions.If we can help our children process theirconcerns in the day, they will better be able torelax and surrender to sleep at night.

Manage Your Own Triggers. To help yourchild’s anxiety, you have to manage your own.

For me, that means having an extra loaf of breadand the freezer and an ample supply ofchocolate. It means not looking at Whatsappwhile I’m playing with the kids because the newsis too triggering. It means talking to a friendwhen I’m feeling scared or anxious so I can workthrough it, but not in front of the kids. It meansfocusing on what I can control — staying home,washing my hands. And letting go of what I can’tcontrol — the actions of others, how long thiswill last.

Empowering Messages. Since the kidsunderstood from their school friends thatcoronavirus is a big, scary thing, I have focusedon what our family is doing to stay healthy. Theyknow that children are mostly not getting sickfrom coronavirus, but I’m sure they’re scaredabout their parents getting sick. I tell the kids —I eat healthy food, I exercise, I take vitamin Cand I sleep well. I’m strong and healthy. I’veassured them that if I do get sick for a few days,my body will fight the virus and bounce back.

Honour Ambiguity. We are on a 21-daylockdown, but there is no guarantee that it willend there. This is an ambiguous situation. Pleasedon’t get your heart set on having freedom onApril 15 and then feel crushed if it doesn’thappen. When my 5-year-old asks how long we’llbe at home, I tell her the truth — I don’t know. Itmay be 21 days, or it may be 100 days. You mayalso want to consider the possibility that thiscould be a long road ahead, so that you’ll also beable to emotionally support your children in theweeks ahead.

Love Them Up. I tell the kids every singleday that I love being at home with them. Thatthis is such a special time for our family to betogether. That there is no one I’d rather be stuckhome with. You may be spread thin and stressedout of your mind, but don’t underestimate whata gift it is for your children to have bonus timewith their parents.

So there you have it — create a flow for yourdaytime routine, enjoy cozy bedtime snuggles,and protect your children from nonstopcoronavirus conversation. In doing so, we cancreate a virtuous cycle where our kids feel goodduring the day and sleep peacefully at night, thusboosting their physical and emotional resilience.For all the essential workers on the front lines ofthis crisis, endless thanks for your service. Forall the rest, please stay home, stay safe, take careof each other and wash those hands!

The writer is an American sleep consultantliving in Mumbai. She is a holistic nutritionist

and author of book Sleep, Baby, Sleep, publishedby HarperCollins

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Bashir Assad, the Kashmiriwriter has come out with yetanother interesting andinsightful study of Kashmir fol-lowing the abrogation of

Article 370. To quote Bashir, he hasbrought out the “bitter truth followinghis inner voice” underscoring theIslamisation and Pakistanisation of nar-ratives in Kashmir. And he blames thepolitical leadership in Kashmir whichremains “mired in conservatism andshort-sightedness around Muslimness”for the troubled situation. Competingschools of Islamist extremism have swayin Kashmir with the local political lead-ers, intellectuals, media, social and cul-tural activists, lawyers, businessmen,employees etc. spearheading the Islamistextremist movement. Being witness tothe steep decline of the unique Kashmiriculture, Assad calls upon the silentmajority of Kashmiri Muslims “not to becarried away by the frenzies of theextremists who thrive on violence”.

As regards the decision of the Indianparliament to revoke Article 370 andreorganise the J&K State into two UTs ofLadakh and Jammu and Kashmir, theinternational community has by andlarge viewed this decision as India’s inter-nal affair, with the exception of Pakistanand its ardent supporters-China, Turkeyand Malaysia. However, there has beenconcern over the restrictions imposed inthe State following this decision. So far asthe local response to this historic deci-sion is concerned, Assad is right in hisanalysis that in north Kashmir (exceptingSopore and Rafiabad belt in Baramulladistrict which is dominated by Jamaat-e-Islami), the local people have remainedpeaceful. And the new narrative of theIndian Government revolving aroundempowerment, investment and develop-ment (EID) has found resonance amongthe people in rural Kashmir, Gujjars andBakarwals, Paharis, Kupwara, Handwara,Gurez and most of the Jammu region.

In case of south Kashmir, Jamaat-e-Islami has been influential in Kulgam,Tral, Pulwama, Bijbehara, Anantnag,Kokernag, Doru and Pahalgam and thatgets reflected in the different politicalresponse and incidents of violence there.In central Kashmir, Srinagar city remainsthe hotbed of separatism nerve centre ofPakistani narrative being parroted by thepolitical elite, intelligentsia, academia,journalists and civil society.

Coming back to Article 370 , Assadbelieves that the idea behind this Articlewas to allow the unique Kashmiri identi-

ty based on composite culture, socialharmony and brotherhood to flourish.This very foundation of Kashmiriyat col-lapsed with the ethnic cleansing andforced exodus of the entire indigenousminority community of KashmiriPandits in January 1990 and thereafter.The Pandits continue to live in forcedexile for the past 30 years now. And thereis no prospect of their return to theirhomes, as all their landed properties,houses, business and educational estab-lishments and even the temples havebeen occupied in an organized manner.And with the digitisation of land revenuerecords going on in full swing inKashmir, all these properties are beingconveniently transferred in the names oftheir illegal occupiers. Here it would bepertinent to mention that all through thepast 75 years, the successive State govern-ments have legalised the settlement ofnon-Kashmiri Muslims in the State. Over26,000 Afghan Pashtuns were providedland and State citizenship in 1950s atGutli Bagh, Ganderbal. Similarly over650 Tibetan Muslim families were pro-vided land and State citizenship in Hari

Parbat area in Srinagar around 1959-60.And after 1970s, one has been noticingthe ingress and silent settlement of radi-cal Muslims belonging to Allah Walegroup from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar etc.,who set up their shops and captured thelocal mosques. So much so, over 800local Kashmiri Muslim Imams weresilently replaced by these radical fire-brand non-local Muslims who con-tributed a lot in radicalising the KashmiriMuslim society by weaning them awayfrom the local Sufi-Rishi tradition ofIslam. Assad has been honest in pointingout that most of the Kashmiri Muslimemployees who would shift to Jammuduring the annual Durbar move, havepurchased land or houses in Jammu par-ticularly during the past decade or so.This is in quite contrast to the fact thatnone of the Hindu employees shiftingfrom Jammu to Srinagar during theDurbar move, have ever purchased inany land or house in Kashmir. One mayadd that thousands of acres of forest andnazool land has been occupied by influ-ential Kashmiri Muslims andGujjars/Bakarwals, which was subse-

quently regularised by Farrooq Abdullahand GN Azad governments under theRoshni Act. All this has been done tochange the demographic character ofJammu region into a Muslim majorityone, so that the narrative of Muslim andseparatist politics is extended to Jammuregion as well.

Assad makes yet another valid pointstating that the NC government underChief Ministership of Farooq Abdullah(1996-2002) rebuilt the “completely col-lapsed infrastructure including hundredsof bridges, schools, hospitals, shrines andgovernment buildings.” Yet the NC andits leadership never highlighted theseachievements in their 2002 election cam-paign. Instead their election plank wasthe restoration of autonomy. Here onewould recall how the NC stalwart MirzaAfzal Beg would during his election cam-paign in 1977 flaunt a piece of rock salt(of Pak origin),and a green handkerchief(rumal) in order to emotionally black-mail the local Muslim population. Assadis emphatic in saying that both the “NCand PDP used Article 370 for winningelections. They only complained about

the erosion of authority when out ofpower. For them, Article 370 was layinggolden eggs”. The abrogation of Article370 once again brought the think tanks,NGOs, human rights groups, media etc.to the fore, with the local political classpropagating “soft separatism”. The prob-lem is compounded because the “politi-cal family fiefdom has taken deep rootsin Kashmir. And this political kinshipsurvives in the conflict, with both theseparatist and mainstream political elitesbeing the conflict profiteers”. So the chal-lenge for the Government of India is tomake peace more profitable for thesepolitical elites than the conflict.

Assad argues that the increasingPakistanisation and Islamisation of theKashmiri narrative, actually promptedthe Modi government to abrogate Article370. He blames the separatists and theNC and PDP leaders by holding thethreats of secession, for the dilution ofArticle 370. As regards the impact of theabrogation of Article 370, Assad is rightin saying that “the majority of Kashmirisare happy that the political class, whichexploited them emotionally, economical-

ly and politically for decades, is finallymade to pay the price for it. The com-mon people want these corrupt leaders tobe arrested on charges of corruption,misappropriation, embezzlement, nepo-tism and favouritism”.

Now that Article 370 is history, newtasks for the government are to restorethe confidence of the people throughEID, de-radicalisation, rational delimita-tion to give due representation todeprived sections both in Jammu andKashmiri regions, and to undo the artifi-cial merger of areas in a particular con-stituency initiated by Mirza Afzal Beg inpost-1975 period to prevent the Shias,Kashmiri Pandits, Gujjars and othercommunities from getting elected fromtheir territorial strongholds. To conclude,the book provides a refreshing narrativeof the actual situation obtaining inKashmir, not touched upon otherwise bythe so called Kashmir experts. As such itis a must for all those interested inunderstanding the social and politicaldynamics in Jammu and Kashmir.

The reviewer is a Senior Fellow, NehruMemorial Museum and Library, New

Delhi and editor, Himalayan and CentralAsian Studies

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Ten kilometres from thePratap Singh High School,on the road to the famous

Kaas Plateau, Maharashtra’s veryown Valley of Flowers, is the pic-turesque campus of the BhartiyaBhatke Vimukta Vikas VaSanshodhan Sanstha (IndianInstitute of Research andDevelopment of Nomadic andDe-notified Tribes). Inside, thereis a School of Social Work, ajunior college, hostels and anAshram school with 250 studentsfrom classes 1 to 10.

At 2 pm on a weekday, theplace is abuzz with activity.Students and teachers have justreturned from an invigoratinglunch break, ready to resumetheir quest for knowledge. I headto the first floor of the double-storeyed institute building thatembraces a circular courtyard.Here in a small corner room, agroup of 50 students await me-the youngest is 12 years old, theoldest 16. Some play the tabla,the dholki and the Congo drums.Others create music on the syn-thesizer and the harmonium.Together they form the school’sorchestra-one that has won nameand fame in the district.

They are often invited to singfor the All India Radio and atlocal programmes. As the strongvoices of the girls and the boys inthe group decry casteism and callfor equality through their songs,a new energy pervades the room,and with it, a new hope.

It is these students whosestories I wish to tell…

AishwaryaAishwarya Umesh Dharase is

13 years old. Slim, with a deepsepia skin tone, she wears abright, sleeveless red and goldsalwar suit. Her jet black hair isoiled and tightly pulled back intoa pony. ‘I want to become alawyer and fight for the truth,’this Class 7 student tells me. Shealso wants to learn to play theharmonium and the tabla. Afterall, she spent the first few years ofher life around these musicalinstruments. Aishwarya’s parentslived in the Bijapur district ofKarnataka. Her father played thedholki, tabla and pakhawaj in anorchestra, while her mother wasa singer. She also sewed garmentsto feed her family. Then one day,when she was barely six yearsold, Aishwarya’s mother died inan accident. Shortly after, herfather abandoned her. ‘I was verysmall then. I didn’t understand

what was happening. Suddenly Ihad no family, no one to call myown,’ she tells me matter-of-fact-ly. Life as Aishwarya knew it wasover. Initially her paternal grand-parents looked after her. Soonhowever, her mausi (maternalaunt) took over.

Aishwarya does not know ifshe is related to her mausi byblood. She doesn’t know hermaternal grandparents either.‘Mausi says my mother was hersister and she treats me like herown daughter. That’s all that mat-ters. I have seen her work in thefields to raise me. It is her name-Bharti-that I write when I amasked for my mother’s name.’Bharti first got Aishwarya admit-ted into a Kannada-mediumschool but she wasn’t happy withthe quality of education. Shedecided to send her to the

Ashram school where her owndaughter Vaishnavi was study-ing. It was in Class 6 thatAishwarya came to Satara. ‘I havebeen here for a little over a yearnow. Each day I learn new things.When I feel low, I think of mymausi. She is my inspiration. Oneday I will make her proud,’ shetells me, the quiver in her voiceonly emphasizing the determinedlook on her face.

PragatiNext to her sits a slim

bespectacled girl in a white,printed salwar suit. 13-year-oldPragati Ranjeet More is a studentof Class 8. Eyes brimming withtears, she narrates her story.

‘When I was born, my moth-er abandoned me in the hospitaland went to live with her parents.She didn’t take me home. Didn’t

hold or hug me.’ Pragati’s fathercollected her from the hospitaland took her to Pune. There heleft the tiny infant with his sister.‘My bua raised me. She put me ina school in the city. Then one daymy dadi turned up. She said thatI shouldn’t stay in Pune. Shefought with my bua and broughtme to Phaltan in Satara district.Since that day my bua stoppedtalking to us.’

Young Pragati was onceagain uprooted. She lost the onlylife and family she had known.But she was a survivor. Shebegan to adjust to her new life.Just as she was learning to cope,another tragedy befell the family.Their house in Phaltan col-lapsed.

They had to move to Satara.Pragati’s father used to be a con-struction worker. But he drankheavily and gradually stoppedworking. In fact, it was hisdrinking that had drivenPragati’s mother away. In Satara,her grandfather took up work ina hotel to feed the family.Pragati enrolled in a nearbyschool.

One day, when she was inClass 3, her grandmother andfather fought bitterly. ‘My dadiburnt herself. She died,’ Pragatirecounts in a stony voice. Hermother used this opportunity todivorce her father.

That was when she discov-ered that she had a youngerbrother. ‘My mother never cameto see me. I didn’t know that myfather used to visit her. Afterthey divorced, I found out that Ihad a younger brother, Omkar.He is now in Class 4.’

Despite all the tragedies thatlife had heaped on her, Pragatidid not give up. She had learnthow to cook when she was barelyfive years old. While her grandfa-ther helped her with the house-work, he also had to go out andearn. So young Pragati went toschool, did housework, cookedand looked after her brother. Oneday, in the newspapers, she readabout the Ashram school inSatara. She quietly went to herfather and said she wanted to jointhe school.

He agreed. Thus began a newjourney.

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Elections and Presidentialleadership in the United

States are a spectacle par excel-lence. This is equally true forboth the elections for theanointed Presidency and theCongressional polls locally.Awareness and deliberationsabout the US foreign policyacross the larger internationalsystem are everyone’s pet peevebut the scenario in the domes-tic politics remains an domainorb, which has been investi-gated to a lesser extent else-where in the international sys-tem. Also, it is a theoreticalprinciple in the discipline ofinternational relations thatthere lies a continuum betweenthe domesticity of a nation andits larger footprint in the glob-al comity of nations. It’s in thispartisan narrative, where-inthe domestic political discoursegladly but confrontationallysubsists.

In the contemporaryAmerican firmament,President Donald Trump isgoing through the toughestphase of his Presidency whichis even more serious concernthan the impeachment pro-ceedings in the US Senate,which he had to be contentwith. As a related fact, it is theCOVID-19 virus which posesa national security and a healthchallenge for a besiegedAmerican nation. As the trailof coronavirus patients mountsin the United States, theAmerican leadership seemsperplexed despite being on theanointed pedestal of being themost powerful nation endowedwith a mammoth defense para-phernalia which the nationcan wield in the internationalsea, land and air firmament. It’sthe Calvinist self doubt of anincessant urge for self enhance-ment and continuously beingon guard which should beutilised by the American estab-lishment in this hour of crisiswhen the entire comity ofstates is seemingly strangulat-ed by the new pandemic.

Apart from the pandemic,it is the threat of global terrorand the vitriol in the aftermathof the impeachment proceed-ings which cause a big snarl-upand a vitiation of the politicalecosystem in the United Statesof America. Frequent ego-tripsthat President Trump has hadwith the various Secretaries and

his other top official machin-ery has marred the taint-freeexpectation of confused hoipolloi. Despite being theunstinting confidants ofPresident Trump, severalCabinet members have beenshown the door despite theirscathless records of efficiencyand loyalty towards theTrump’s dominion.

One stand-out aspect ofthe US Democratic primarieshas been the fact that BernieSanders, the left of the centre,Democratic Presidential hope-ful, has been sidelined out ofthe race with Joe Biden beingthe candidate from theDemocrat side of the fence totake on the political juggernautof President Trump. One sin-gular perspective out of manyin the context of the Americanpublic sphere concerning the

leadership performance ofPresident Trump has been theidiom of myriad flip-flopswhich President Trump hasundertaken in the light of thevarious position and portfoliochanges in his Cabinet.Secondly, President Trump hasbeen changing the quintes-sential American point of viewin the light of the climatechange policies, American judi-ciary and the American policyperspective in the context ofSouth Asia, where-in India’sstance has always been that ofnegating the hyphenation ofitself (India) with the IslamicRepublic of Pakistan. The win-win economic leadership byinking a mega trade deal withIndia along with the quaranti-ning of India concerning thestipulation of GSP (GeneralizedSystem of Preferences) has

been the characteristic gogglesthrough which some sectionsof India perceive the Americanpolicy perspective to be.Another poser on his politicalleadership happens to be thatof frequent changes in thevisa-related work conditionsvis-a-vis India, which rendersNew Delhi slightly doubtful,especially the old guard inNew Delhi’s political and diplo-matic leadership. One areawhere President Trump’s lead-ership of the new world hasbeen proactive is that of apeacemaking role in theAfghanistan conundrum andhis tie-up with the Talibanbased in Doha, Qatar. Even inthe context of a turmoil-ridden“Middle East”, the Washingtonleadership has done well witha mixed outcome in the contextof the Syrian quagmire. In the

context of Iran, PresidentTrump got rid of GeneralSuleimani but did not retaliatewhen the American assets inIraq were targetted by Tehranthus casting aspersions on acleansing and aggressive pos-ture of the American leader-ship. It was this BOP run pol-icy which took the steam out ofthe acolytes of the leadership inWashington.

Jeffrey A Jenkins writes inhis authored book titled,Leadership in AmericanPolitics, that, “There is a lead-ership gap in American politicsbetween the leadership neededto address the country’s mostpressing problems and thatprovided by the nation’s elect-ed and appointed leaders. If weturn to political scientists toshed light on such leadershipissues, we find their work often

lacking. As important as lead-ership is in explaining politicalchoices and policy outcomes,studies of leadership are limit-ed in many subfields of politi-cal science research and aremissing altogether in others.”Still, despite traces of whimsand flip flops, the domesticWASP fraternity and the whiteblue collared workers still rootfor President Trump despite hisleadership and popularityrankings transforming in theaftermath of individual situa-tions.

His appeal lies in the lead-ership gung ho, loud chaper-oning and symbolically stiffupper lip political noncha-lance embedded with a sense ofAmerican hyper puissancewhich takes wings with thepresence of a cacophonouspolitical leadership and

opposition.As an adjunct imagery,

one can cite the speech ofPresident Whitmore in theoriginal patriotic f lick,Independence Day. On theoccasion of the launch of theAmerican counter attack on theAlien Mothership, the embat-tled American President perch-es himself atop a F-16 andorates, “We the people of thefree world and the Americanpeople shall not falter. We willnot disappear into the night.We will not wither away intodarkness and shadows. We willput up a struggle against theAlien Mothership. We shallovercome and it will be a his-torical moment when theworld’s fighter jets gathertogether for the largest aerialbattle of the world, since WorldWar-II along with the braveAmerican flyers.”

Thus, the practice ofPresidential leadership is areflection of the larger impacton the commoners which ringstrue in the leadership frame-work of President Trump, also,whenever the American home-land faces a crisis or a holocaustof impactful proportions. Thevenerable Pew Research Centertoo reported in January 2020about the dismal support toPresident Trump’s foreign pol-icy. It was argued that, “Despitenegative trends in his popu-larity as a true blue leader, hisstanding has improved. Thecurrent Pew Research surveyfinds an uptick in some coun-tries since 2018 in ratings forPresident Trump and the US,though the degree of changevaries from modest to solidlypositive.

At least two plausible fac-tors may be behind these shifts.First, support for Trump hasincreased somewhat on theideological right in manynations.” The 63 per centrecorded disinterest and dis-satisfaction with PresidentTrump’s policy has been gen-erated maybe because theworld is flat since a long timebut the domestic panning outof his electoral prospects mightbe a completely different lead-ership ball game altogether inthe context of the Americanhomeland.

(The writer teaches at IIPA,New Delhi)

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Published in 2002, poet andwriter Dom Moraes in the

co-authored book with SarayuSrivatsa, Out of God’s Oven:Travels in A Fractured Land,wrote: “India had the most bru-tally stupid middle-class in theworld.”

That observation comesto Moraes, a prolific and priv-ileged man, after journeyingthrough and writing about theworld in the 1960s and 1970s.He returns in 1980 to India forgood. In his remaining 25years, he produces journal-ism, non-fiction, travelogues,while struggling through thedesertion of his poetic musethat returns late in his life.

Moraes, like VS Naipaul, isdismayed with subcontinentalpoverty, violence and brutali-ty, while awed by its culturalpasts. Owing to the stark classdivide that has arisen due toIndia’s struggles with tacklingCovid-19, his comment hasresurfaced online in recentdays. In one way, Moraes’observation reeks of westerncondescension, but it carriesinsight that allies with concern:A society’s fiercest critic isoften its truest lover.

A mass of the middle-classof this country views theCovid-19 driven lockdown asan instance of the efficacy ofthe administration. Somemembers have gone on toquestion why poor people arewalking from cities to theinnards of rural India. Many,mainly middle-class people,have defended police excesseslike spraying disinfectant onthe walkers, or worse, con-

verted the Tablighi Jamaatevent in Delhi, into one aboutMuslim bashing.

There’s proof that theUnion Government didn’t takethe threat seriously at the time;law enforcement both at theCentre and Delhi State was lax;major shrines of other religionswere open. But, none of thoseseem to matter. Our “Hindu-Muslim” framing is set.

This majority middle-classIndia lauds the Governmentwhen it sends airplanes forcountrymen abroad who needto be retrieved to escape thecoronavirus. But a hodgepodgequarantine for the unwashedmasses is par for the Covid-19course. It’s easier and cheaperto send airplanes for a fewIndians abroad, it’s harder toarrange for transport for thou-sands of daily wagers in the bigcities who belong to villages.

This urban middle-classIndia refuses to see their con-tradiction here. If the poorwork so hard in the cities, whymust any emergency makethem leave the city to return tothe village? Isn’t the city theirhome too?

Your essayist departs fromthe Moraes rapier thrust intothe Indian psyche. It was madelong back. A part of it is truenow. The India that he wrote ofis removed from us. In someways for the good, in many forthe worse. A part of today’sIndian middle-class is perhapsmore brutal than it’s stupid. Itisn’t ready to see the messthat’s the lockdown: Therehave been 22 documenteddeaths of migrants while walk-

ing back to their villages; manyhave said they’d die of hungerbefore the coronavirus killsthem. If our poor feel so, whatdoes that mean about our bois-terous nationalism?

India’s urban culture hasmade the poor seem sub-human. Our poor are ourinvisible people. Almost nobig country in the world thatbattles Covid-19 has witnessed

its urban poor walk back to itsnative place. Our daily-wageworkers slave in the cities fordecades. Many even havepapers that enlist them asdomiciled residents. But they

are made to feel that they real-ly don’t belong. There is mid-dle class acceptance to theirunbelonging. The collectiveemotion is one of wonder anddisconcert: Ah, millions-are-

marching to oh no, get-them-back-in-the-sty! Yes, there aremiddle-class exceptions. Butnobody has been able to con-vince them to stay back, leastof all the Union Government.They banged plates salutingour healthcare workers the daythe Prime Minister announcedthe lockdown. No sooner, theyset foot for home.

However, it’s essential tosteer away from binaries: Wemay empathise with the urbanpoor but can’t demonise themajority of India’s urban mid-dle-class. Many sections oftoday’s collective urban mid-dle-class, wasn’t unlike thepoor. Most of them have hadtough lives, have seen theirancestors toil. They too camefrom villages some genera-tions back. Exactly like today’surban poor, they lived cheek byjowl and were exploited.

One assumes, one’s suffer-ings, makes one a better humanbeing towards other sufferers.It’s not true. Our middle classhas its origins in discord. Butthey will behave exactly liketheir class superiors who exploitand may look down on them.That’s why our poor are poor.Poet WH Auden, who encour-aged Moraes as a teenagedpoet, wrote in his poem“September 1, 1939”: I and thepublic know/What all school-children learn/Those to whomevil is done/Do evil in return”.This moment sums up sub-continental middle-class mores.

(The writer is AssociateProfessor, Jindal School of LiberalArts & Humanities)

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The first calling of the present pan-demic is not to panic. Should youpanic, you may lose your sense of

reasons and alert, which may not let youcarry on your fight prudently in allstrength. Let us brave the situation byexercising all the care and caution assuggested by the experts. We havebraved many such pandemic in the past.Even this one will pass. Rest assured, thesituation may begin to ease out soon.

In the cosmic game plan, globalhealth situation is figured out through alook at progressive movement of the Sun.That is about to reach its zenith on April14th. Till then, watch your health care-fully and remain live to our collectiveobligations as well. Situation may beginto gradually ease out thereafter. Once theSun moves considerably beyond theRahu-Ketu axis by June end, the situationmay expectedly be in control.

Even otherwise, if we ever lose ouralertness and become complacent, wecould be taken for a ride. Only a fewdays back, Chaitra navaratra got over,when the devout would have offeredprayers to Mother Goddess Durga,believed to be repository of Shakti. Mindit, it is a period of major weather change

in India when one needs to rejuvenateoneself and be well geared up to face thechallenges during the emerging season.We maintain austerity and regulate ourfood regime to tone up our digestive sys-tem, vital to our overall health condi-tion. Regular prayers help clear off theclutters of mind, regain confidence, andstrengthen vital forces playing within.

It may be pertinent to note here thatall ancient puranic stories necessarilydiscuss terror — fight between devtas(high born) and rakshas (demon), inwhich, the latter always have the firstlaugh. Why? Perhaps, the devtas wouldhave been complacent, not been alertagainst impending danger from unseem-ly forces, and forgotten their sense ofcollective obligations. Hence their fall.But when all devtas gather, invoke thedivine — the all-powerful and all-know-ing eternal element of consciousness,which drives all our dynamic functional-ities including power of knowing — theyoutsmart the demonic forces and regaintheir lost ground. Import of the abovesimile does not need any further elabo-ration.

Mother Goddess, in the form weperceive, is shown with 10 hands — car-

rying weapons in eight, a conch shell(blowing instrument) in one, and lotusflower in the other — having twoimports. First, the ten directions.Second, the 10 sensory organs — fiveeach of perception and action. She com-bats negative energies flowing througheight directions with her armouries, withthe rest two marked with productivity.

The conch-shell when blown excitesa sound note comparable to ‘O?’ — theprimal-sound that supposedly got excit-ed when the first motion happened atthe primordial source, which, in turn,excited the creation chain. The conch-shell thus naturally symbolises thesource energy, up above in the cosmos.The majestic lotus flower in all coloursmade of numerous petals signifies enor-mity and diversity of creation. Mind it,lotus flower grows in the mud under-neath water body. But not even a trace ofmud or water droplet can stay on flowerleaves, which implies that though beingall-powerful, yet, she does not carry anysense of ego, or attachment to the primalelements making it.

The evil forces are in evidence allacross, making us vulnerable to theironslaught. Their killing potential wouldbe felt much faster and relatively cover afairly wider range than our productive

initiatives, which could take us for a rideif ever we become complacent. We,therefore, need to be fully on guard in acombative mode against the evil forcesto make optimum use of our productivepotential, vital to our existence.

Now, why weird form assigned tothe demons? It is said that demons areconjurors, capable of hoodwinking usby making varied illusionary presencesand take us for a ride. Remember, nosuch form-existence is in evidence any-where in the world. It is so charac-terised just to exemplify in clear termsthe danger inherent in the evil forcesplaying from within or beyond.Coronavirus could be taken as oneform of unseen demonic force availablein our surrounding carrying killingpotential. Negative memory implantsin our minds are another form of nega-tive forces playing within, which oftenmake us lose our sense of reasons andorder that may cost us heavily. Let usbe always war-ready to combat suchdemonic forces for a smooth sail of life.

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