3V_XR] @aa SRU]j SReeVcVU - Daily Pioneer

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A day after the Supreme Court advised the Central and State Governments to consider a lockdown to break the chain of Covid-19 trans- mission, prominent industri- alist and trader bodies have called for a nationwide shut- down. Prominent industrialist and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president Uday Kotak called for the curtail- ment of economic activity “to reduce suffering” due to the deadly second wave of Covid- 19 cases in India. “At this critical juncture when the toll of lives is rising, the CII urges the strongest national steps, including cur- tailing economic activity, to reduce suffering,” Uday Kotak said in a tweet. Kotak has asked for the highest-level response mea- sures to address the rising wave of Covid-19 cases, as cur- rently safeguarding lives is key to cut the transmission links. “The healthcare infra- structure and supply build-up are being undertaken on an emergency basis by the Governments at the Centre and States, but will take time,” he said. Earlier, several experts as well as leading economists suggested the Government a nationwide lockdown is the only solution to break the chain of Covid infections. From US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci to AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, all have suggested a complete lockdown. An online survey con- ducted by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) showed that at least 67.5 per cent participants are in favour of nationwide lockdown while 78.2 per cent people have said they agreed that corona has become uncontrollable. CAIT national president and secretary general Praveen Khandelwal on Monday urged the Prime Minister to imme- diately impose a nationwide lockdown in order to break the chain of infections during the second Covid-19 wave. CAIT said in the event of a national lockdown, the trad- ing community across the country will ensure the supply of essential items like last year. Over 9,000 respondents par- ticipated in the online survey. Amid an exponential rise in coronavirus cases, the SC on Sunday urged the Centre and States “to consider imposing a lockdown to break the chain in interest of public welfare”. I n a sad end of the panchay- at elections, more than half a dozen candidates in the panchayat polls have died across the State before they were declared elected by the returning officer. Re-poll will now be held on these seats later. According to reports, most of the candidates died following Covid like symp- toms but none of them had got themselves tested or treat- ed because they did not wish to be barred from the count- ing process. The State Election Commission (SEC) had said the candidates and their agents will be allowed to enter the counting centres only if they have tested negative for Covid-19 in the 48 hours prior to the commencement of the counting process or taken both doses of the vaccine. Pinky, who contested the village pradhan post in Kurawali in Mainpuri dis- trict, won the election on Sunday. However, she died before the counting could take place. T he Supreme Court on Monday rejected the pleas of Election Commission of India to ban media reporting on the Madras High Court’s observations that the poll panel was singularly respon- sible for Covid-19 deaths and it should be booked for mur- der. Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah advised the EC to take the criticism by the Madras High Court in the right spirit. “The ECI is a sea- soned constitutional body which has been entrusted with functions of conducting the elections. We cannot in today’s times say media will not report the discussions that take place in court,” the Bench said. The Bench went on to point out that the discussions that take place in the courts are of importance and are in pub- lic interest. “It’s not a mono- logue that one person will speak and then judges will speak. We have an Indian pat- tern of arguments in court...There is an aspect of the application of mind. First prayer of don’t report what is said in court was farfetched,” said Justice Chadrachud rejecting the EC plea. “When something is observed, it’s in the larger public interest. They (Judges) are also humans and they are also stressed...Take this in the correct spirit,” said Justice W ith people rushing for computerised tomogra- phy scan (CT-scan) at the slightest sign of Covid-19 symptom, the Government has asked them not to do so as it can have health side- effects as serious as cancer besides causing holes in their pocket. “In mild Covid-19 illness CT-scan is not needed, rather it can result in cancer in young people in their later stage of life. One CT-Scan is equivalent to 300 chest x- rays, it’s very harmful,” said AIIMS director and pulmo- nologist Dr Randeep Guleria. CT scan and markers are being misused. A lot of peo- ple are getting CT scans done. There is no use of the scan in the early stages, as it will not detect Covid properly in mild cases, Dr Guleria said. Guleria, who is also a member of the national pan- demic task force, added blood tests can’t always prove Covid infections as other underlying diseases can also trigger a spike in biomarkers. The CT-scan machine takes cross-sectional images of the body using computers and rotating X-ray machines. They are being used to detect Covid infections by detecting signs of pneumonia or white patches in the lungs. More people are relying on the expensive scan than last year as reports suggest the mutant variants of the virus can go undetected in the gold stan- dard RT-PCR test. S ustaining the tempo of air- lifting the much-needed oxygen from abroad, an aircraft of the IAF flew non-stop for 12 hours to bring home oxygen from Frankfurt, Germany. The C-17 transport plane ferried four empty cryogenic contain- ers from there and landed at the Hindon airbase, Ghaziabad. Similarly, another C-17 air- craft airlifted 450 oxygen cylin- ders from Brize Norton in the UK to the Chennai airbase in Tamil Nadu. In the past few days, the IAF planes carried out numerous sorties to ferry the containers from Singapore, Thailand and United Arab Emirates. I n yet another hospital tragedy in the country in recent days, 24 patients, 23 of them Covid-infected, died in Karnataka’s Chamarajanagar due to alleged oxygen shortage in the district hospital in the last 24 hours, with the Government warning of strin- gent action against those found guilty. The Government ordered a probe into the matter and appointed senior IAS officer Shivayogi Kalasad as the inquiry officer. Following the incident, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa convened a meeting with oxy- gen producers, where a num- ber of decisions were taken to ensure supply of allocated quantity of oxygen to the State by the Centre.Among these were to reduce the time taken to refill oxygen tankers, pro- vide a green corridor for faster commuting of oxygen tankers and avoid unnecessary delay at toll gates. Utilising the service of the LPG tanker tanker dri- vers in case of emergency was also another important deci- sion. Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar maintained that only three people had died due of oxyten shortage and not 24 as reported, though he stressed that the probe would reveal the truth. The incident evoked a sharp response from the Congress, with party leader Rahul Gandhi wondering “how much more suffering before the ‘system’ wakes up. In heart-breaking episodes preceding today’s incident in the country, a fire at a mall in Mumbai housing a Covid- designated hospital in March left nine, including those on ventilators, dead, while 22 Covid-19 patients who were either on ventilator or oxygen support, suffocated to death when their oxygen sup- ply stopped suddenly due to a malfunction in the main stor- age at a civic hospital in Nashik. R uthless attacks on the van- quished Opposition work- ers continued in West Bengal with at least 8 people losing their lives to alleged Trinamool Congress violence in various parts of the State in the past 24 hours or so, reports said. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made a public appeal asking the people to remain indoors and refrain from engaging in violence, but polit- ical animosity degenerated into bloodshed. Indian Secular Front work- er Hasanur Zaman was repeat- edly bombed to death at De Ganga in North 24 Parganas while BJP worker Haran Adhikari was shot in Sonarpur. Another BJP supporter succumbed to bullet injury at Moynaguri in Jalpaiguri district of North Bengal. A third BJP worker was shot dead at Burapancha village near Sitalkuchi in Coochbehar where CAPF firing had claimed four lives during the elections. A woman was bumped off at Ranaghat in Nadia district while a Left supporter was killed in Murshidabad, sources said. Another BJP man was allegedly beaten to death at Beleghata in North Kolkata, party men alleged. Properties, including motorcycles, of BJP and CPI(M) supporters were destroyed at Chakdaha, Haringhata and other areas of Nadia district, sources said. Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh alleged that the houses of BJP men were vandalised and torched at Bhagwanpur and Patashpur in East Midnapore while saffron party offices were torched at Balurghat and North Dinajpur in North Bengal. He appealed to the Chief Minister to “stop this carnage and let the people live in peace.” Ghosh led a team of BJP leaders to meet the Governor at Raj Bhavan. He said, “Elections are over and what- ever ill-feeling should now be forgotten… Instead of that our workers and those of some other political parties are being systematically targeted, beaten up, murdered and their prop- erties destroyed. We have been forced to transfer the victims of this violence to other safer places. I request the Chief Minister to order her men to stop this or else we shall be forced to resume campaign from tomorrow.” Refuting the charges, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “Our leader Mamata Banerjee has asked people not to indulge in violence. In none of the cases, the TMC is involved. In fact, it is the fight between the old and the new BJP men. The old BJP men are beating up the new entrants who went from the TMC.” T he people of West Bengal had put the rulers of Delhi in their place by handing them out a stunning loss in the Assembly elections and this “proves that the BJP is not a shahenshah,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said. Mamata will take oath for the third time in a row as Bengal Chief Minister on May 5, senior party leader and Minister of the outgoing State Cabinet Partho Chatterjee said after the TMC Legislator party on Monday unani- mously elected her as the Leader of the TMC Legislature Party. She alleged the BJP had misused the poll body to defeat her but failed, “thanks to the people of Bengal”. Refusing to let her anger on the Election Commission die down, Mamata complained how the counting of votes at Nandigram was manipulated at gunpoint to ensure that she lost by a wafer-thin margin. “I have an SMS with me… it was sent by someone... it said the Returning Officer of Nandigram was forced not to order a recount at gunpoint… he said he had risk his life and family if he ordered a recount… But I will not take it lying down. I will move the court and definitely tell all the officials to preserve VVPAT and other papers,” she said. Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Government has extended the coronavirus-induced cur- few in the entire State by two more days, May 6. As per the latest order, the restrictions will remain in place in all 75 districts till May 6 morning. The restrictions were slated to be lifted on May 4 morn- ing. This is the second exten- sion of lockdown-like curfew in the country’s most popu- lous State. T he State on Monday report- ed 8,914 Covid-19 positive cases in 30 districts and the State pool, with which the total tally surged to 4,71,563. Of the new cases, 5,081 were detected from quarantine and 3,833 were local contacts. Khordha district reported the maximum 1,258 cases fol- lowed by Sundargarh with 592, Cuttack 587, Puri 530, Sambalpur 520, Bargarh 452, Nabarangpur 433, Bhadrak 351, Angul 331, Jharsuguda 304, Balangir 291, Nuapada 278, Ganjam 262, Kalahandi 236, Jajpur 232, Nayagarh 194, Baleswar 179, Boudh 175, Gajapati 165, Rayagada 157, Dhenkanal 149, Koraput 145, Mayurbhanj 134, Kendrapada 132, Subarnapur 121, Jagatsinghpur 109, Keonjhar 104 and Deogarh 103, Malkangiri 73 and Kandhamal 62.Besides, 255 cases were reported from the State pool. Currently, the active cases in the State stood at 71,835 and the cumulative samples tested were 1,02,27,321, including 46,643 on Sunday. The positivity rate stood at 4.54 per cent. Meanwhile, five more patients died in the State on the day. With this, the death toll jumped to 2,073. Two deaths were registered in Khordha district and three in Sundargarh. However, 6,488 patients recovered on the day, taking the total recoveries to 40,4,063 in the State. T here was huge rush in the markets in Bhubaneswar in blatant flouting of the Covid-19 guidelines after the shops and vending places reopened on Monday after the two-day week- end shutdown. Though the Government had announced that all the gro- cery shops, single shops on roadsides, vegetable and fruit shops would remain open from 6 am to 12 pm during the 14-day lockdown period beginning from May 5, huge queues were seen in the malls and grocery and other shops. There was lit- erally a mad rush before the for- eign liquor shops as tipplers queued up to purchase large stocks before the lockdown peri- od. Concerned over the violation of norms, Special Relief Commissioner Pradeep Jena on Monday appealed to people not to unnecessarily crowd the mar- kets as all essential commodities’ shops like vegetable, grocery, poultry products, meat, milk and medicines would remain open during the lockdown. He also assured that there are enough stocks of essential commodities and there would be no shortages and hoarding; so, there is no need for panic buying. I n view of the raging second wave of Covid-19, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday postponed the bye- election to the Pipili Assembly constituency in Odisha and two Assembly constituencies in West Bengal. The bye-elections were scheduled to be held on May 16.In a notification, the ECI stat- ed, “Commission after taking all material facts and inputs of CEO West Bengal and CEO Odisha in consideration and tak- ing note of lockdown/restric- tions under Disaster Management Act, 2005, as issued by NDMA/SDMA has decided to defer scheduled polls and extend period of elections in Pipili Assembly constituency of Odisha and Jangipur and 56- Samserganj Assembly con- stituencies of West Bengal.” T he Covid-19 cases declined slightly in capital city Bhubaneswar on Monday when 809 positive cases were reported on Monday. With this, the city’s total tally rose to 46,317. Out of the new cases, 119 were from quarantine while 690 were local contacts.Out of the local contacts, maximum 55 cases were reported from the Old Town area followed by Patia with 49, Nayapalli 46, Khandagiri 42, Chandrasekharpur 32. Jayadev Vihar 16 and Laxmisagar 15.Currently, the active cases in city stood at 8,378.Meanwhile, death toll increased to 266 with one more causality in city on day. However, as many as 598 patients recovered on day, taking total recoveries to 37,652 in city.

Transcript of 3V_XR] @aa SRU]j SReeVcVU - Daily Pioneer

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Aday after the SupremeCourt advised the Central

and State Governments toconsider a lockdown to breakthe chain of Covid-19 trans-mission, prominent industri-alist and trader bodies havecalled for a nationwide shut-down.

Prominent industrialistand Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII) president UdayKotak called for the curtail-ment of economic activity “toreduce suffering” due to thedeadly second wave of Covid-19 cases in India.

“At this critical juncturewhen the toll of lives is rising,the CII urges the strongestnational steps, including cur-tailing economic activity, toreduce suffering,” Uday Kotaksaid in a tweet.

Kotak has asked for thehighest-level response mea-sures to address the risingwave of Covid-19 cases, as cur-rently safeguarding lives iskey to cut the transmissionlinks. “The healthcare infra-structure and supply build-upare being undertaken on anemergency basis by theGovernments at the Centreand States, but will take time,”he said.

Earlier, several experts aswell as leading economistssuggested the Government anationwide lockdown is theonly solution to break thechain of Covid infections.From US epidemiologistAnthony Fauci to AIIMSDirector Randeep Guleria, allhave suggested a completelockdown.

An online survey con-

ducted by the Confederationof All India Traders (CAIT)showed that at least 67.5 percent participants are in favourof nationwide lockdown while78.2 per cent people have saidthey agreed that corona hasbecome uncontrollable.

CAIT national presidentand secretary general PraveenKhandelwal on Monday urgedthe Prime Minister to imme-diately impose a nationwidelockdown in order to break thechain of infections during thesecond Covid-19 wave.

CAIT said in the event ofa national lockdown, the trad-ing community across thecountry will ensure the supplyof essential items like last year.Over 9,000 respondents par-ticipated in the online survey.

Amid an exponential risein coronavirus cases, the SC onSunday urged the Centre andStates “to consider imposing alockdown to break the chain ininterest of public welfare”.

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In a sad end of the panchay-at elections, more than half

a dozen candidates in thepanchayat polls have diedacross the State before theywere declared elected by thereturning officer.

Re-poll will now be heldon these seats later.

According to reports,most of the candidates diedfollowing Covid like symp-toms but none of them hadgot themselves tested or treat-ed because they did not wish

to be barred from the count-ing process. The State ElectionCommission (SEC) had saidthe candidates and theiragents will be allowed to enterthe counting centres only ifthey have tested negative forCovid-19 in the 48 hoursprior to the commencement ofthe counting process or takenboth doses of the vaccine.

Pinky, who contested thevil lage pradhan post inKurawali in Mainpuri dis-trict, won the election onSunday. However, she diedbefore the counting couldtake place.

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The Supreme Court onMonday rejected the pleas

of Election Commission ofIndia to ban media reportingon the Madras High Court’sobservations that the pollpanel was singularly respon-sible for Covid-19 deaths andit should be booked for mur-der.

Justices DY Chandrachudand MR Shah advised the ECto take the criticism by theMadras High Court in theright spirit. “The ECI is a sea-

soned constitutional bodywhich has been entrusted withfunctions of conducting theelections. We cannot in today’stimes say media will not reportthe discussions that take placein court,” the Bench said.

The Bench went on topoint out that the discussionsthat take place in the courts areof importance and are in pub-

lic interest. “It’s not a mono-logue that one person willspeak and then judges willspeak. We have an Indian pat-tern of arguments incourt...There is an aspect ofthe application of mind. Firstprayer of don’t report what issaid in court was farfetched,”said Justice Chadrachudrejecting the EC plea.

“When something isobserved, it’s in the largerpublic interest. They (Judges)are also humans and they arealso stressed...Take this in thecorrect spirit,” said Justice

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With people rushing forcomputerised tomogra-

phy scan (CT-scan) at theslightest sign of Covid-19symptom, the Governmenthas asked them not to do soas it can have health side-effects as serious as cancerbesides causing holes in theirpocket.

“In mild Covid-19 illnessCT-scan is not needed, ratherit can result in cancer inyoung people in their laterstage of life. One CT-Scan isequivalent to 300 chest x-rays, it’s very harmful,” saidAIIMS director and pulmo-nologist Dr Randeep Guleria.

CT scan and markers arebeing misused. A lot of peo-ple are getting CT scans done.There is no use of the scan in

the early stages, as it will notdetect Covid properly in mildcases, Dr Guleria said.

Guleria, who is also amember of the national pan-demic task force, added bloodtests can’t always prove Covidinfections as other underlyingdiseases can also trigger aspike in biomarkers.

The CT-scan machinetakes cross-sectional images of

the body using computersand rotating X-ray machines.They are being used to detectCovid infections by detectingsigns of pneumonia or whitepatches in the lungs. Morepeople are relying on theexpensive scan than last yearas reports suggest the mutantvariants of the virus can goundetected in the gold stan-dard RT-PCR test.

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Sustaining the tempo of air-lifting the much-needed

oxygen from abroad, an aircraftof the IAF flew non-stop for 12hours to bring home oxygenfrom Frankfurt, Germany. TheC-17 transport plane ferriedfour empty cryogenic contain-ers from there and landed at theHindon airbase, Ghaziabad.

Similarly, another C-17 air-craft airlifted 450 oxygen cylin-ders from Brize Norton in theUK to the Chennai airbase inTamil Nadu. In the past fewdays, the IAF planes carried outnumerous sorties to ferry thecontainers from Singapore,Thailand and United ArabEmirates.

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In yet another hospitaltragedy in the country in

recent days, 24 patients, 23 ofthem Covid-infected, died inKarnataka’s Chamarajanagardue to alleged oxygen shortagein the district hospital in the last 24 hours, with theGovernment warning of strin-gent action against those found guilty.

The Government ordereda probe into the matter andappointed senior IAS officerShivayogi Kalasad as theinquiry officer.

Following the incident,Chief Minister BS Yediyurappaconvened a meeting with oxy-gen producers, where a num-ber of decisions were taken toensure supply of allocatedquantity of oxygen to the Stateby the Centre.Among these

were to reduce the time takento refill oxygen tankers, pro-vide a green corridor for fastercommuting of oxygen tankersand avoid unnecessary delay attoll gates. Utilising the service

of the LPG tanker tanker dri-vers in case of emergency wasalso another important deci-sion.

Health Minister Dr KSudhakar maintained that only

three people had died due ofoxyten shortage and not 24 asreported, though he stressedthat the probe would reveal thetruth.

The incident evoked asharp response from theCongress, with party leaderRahul Gandhi wondering“how much more sufferingbefore the ‘system’ wakes up.

In heart-breaking episodespreceding today’s incident inthe country, a fire at a mall inMumbai housing a Covid-designated hospital in Marchleft nine, including those onventilators, dead, while 22

Covid-19 patients whowere either on ventilator oroxygen support, suffocated todeath when their oxygen sup-ply stopped suddenly due to amalfunction in the main stor-age at a civic hospital inNashik.

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Ruthless attacks on the van-quished Opposition work-

ers continued in West Bengalwith at least 8 people losingtheir lives to alleged TrinamoolCongress violence in variousparts of the State in the past 24hours or so, reports said.

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee made a public appealasking the people to remainindoors and refrain fromengaging in violence, but polit-ical animosity degenerated intobloodshed.

Indian Secular Front work-er Hasanur Zaman was repeat-edly bombed to death at DeGanga in North 24 Parganaswhile BJP worker HaranAdhikari was shot in Sonarpur.

Another BJP supportersuccumbed to bullet injury atMoynaguri in Jalpaiguri districtof North Bengal. A third BJPworker was shot dead atBurapancha village near

Sitalkuchi in Coochbeharwhere CAPF firing had claimedfour lives during the elections.

A woman was bumped offat Ranaghat in Nadia districtwhile a Left supporter waskilled in Murshidabad, sourcessaid. Another BJP man wasallegedly beaten to death atBeleghata in North Kolkata,party men alleged.

Properties, includingmotorcycles, of BJP andCPI(M) supporters weredestroyed at Chakdaha,Haringhata and other areas ofNadia district, sources said.

Bengal BJP president DilipGhosh alleged that the housesof BJP men were vandalisedand torched at Bhagwanpurand Patashpur in EastMidnapore while saffron partyoffices were torched atBalurghat and North Dinajpurin North Bengal. He appealedto the Chief Minister to “stopthis carnage and let the peoplelive in peace.”

Ghosh led a team of BJPleaders to meet the Governorat Raj Bhavan. He said,“Elections are over and what-ever ill-feeling should now beforgotten… Instead of that ourworkers and those of someother political parties are beingsystematically targeted, beatenup, murdered and their prop-erties destroyed. We have beenforced to transfer the victims ofthis violence to other saferplaces. I request the ChiefMinister to order her men tostop this or else we shall beforced to resume campaignfrom tomorrow.”

Refuting the charges, TMCspokesperson Kunal Ghoshsaid, “Our leader MamataBanerjee has asked people notto indulge in violence. In noneof the cases, the TMC isinvolved. In fact, it is the fightbetween the old and the newBJP men. The old BJP men arebeating up the new entrantswho went from the TMC.”

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The people of West Bengalhad put the rulers of Delhi

in their place by handing themout a stunning loss in theAssembly elections and this“proves that the BJP is not ashahenshah,” Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee said.

Mamata will take oath forthe third time in a row asBengal Chief Minister on May5, senior party leader andMinister of the outgoing StateCabinet Partho Chatterjee saidafter the TMC Legislatorparty on Monday unani-mously elected her as theLeader of the TMC LegislatureParty. She alleged the BJP had

misused the poll body todefeat her but failed, “thanksto the people of Bengal”.Refusing to let her anger onthe Election Commission diedown, Mamata complainedhow the counting of votes atNandigram was manipulatedat gunpoint to ensure that shelost by a wafer-thin margin.

“I have an SMS with me…it was sent by someone... it saidthe Returning Officer ofNandigram was forced not toorder a recount at gunpoint…he said he had risk his life andfamily if he ordered arecount… But I will not takeit lying down. I will move thecourt and definitely tell all theofficials to preserve VVPATand other papers,” she said.

Lucknow: The Uttar PradeshGovernment has extendedthe coronavirus-induced cur-few in the entire State by twomore days, May 6. As per thelatest order, the restrictionswill remain in place in all 75districts till May 6 morning.The restrictions were slatedto be lifted on May 4 morn-ing. This is the second exten-sion of lockdown-like curfewin the country’s most popu-lous State.

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The State on Monday report-ed 8,914 Covid-19 positive

cases in 30 districts and theState pool, with which the totaltally surged to 4,71,563. Of thenew cases, 5,081 were detectedfrom quarantine and 3,833were local contacts.

Khordha district reportedthe maximum 1,258 cases fol-lowed by Sundargarh with 592,Cuttack 587, Puri 530,Sambalpur 520, Bargarh 452,Nabarangpur 433, Bhadrak351, Angul 331, Jharsuguda304, Balangir 291, Nuapada278, Ganjam 262, Kalahandi236, Jajpur 232, Nayagarh 194,

Baleswar 179, Boudh 175,Gajapati 165, Rayagada 157,Dhenkanal 149, Koraput 145,Mayurbhanj 134, Kendrapada132, Subarnapur 121,Jagatsinghpur 109, Keonjhar104 and Deogarh 103,Malkangiri 73 and Kandhamal62.Besides, 255 cases werereported from the State pool.

Currently, the active casesin the State stood at 71,835 andthe cumulative samples testedwere 1,02,27,321, including46,643 on Sunday.

The positivity rate stood at4.54 per cent. Meanwhile, fivemore patients died in the Stateon the day.

With this, the death tolljumped to 2,073. Two deathswere registered in Khordhadistrict and three inSundargarh. However, 6,488patients recovered on the day,taking the total recoveries to40,4,063 in the State.

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There was huge rush in themarkets in Bhubaneswar in

blatant flouting of the Covid-19guidelines after the shops andvending places reopened onMonday after the two-day week-end shutdown.

Though the Governmenthad announced that all the gro-cery shops, single shops onroadsides, vegetable and fruitshops would remain open from6 am to 12 pm during the 14-daylockdown period beginningfrom May 5, huge queues wereseen in the malls and groceryand other shops. There was lit-erally a mad rush before the for-

eign liquor shops as tipplersqueued up to purchase largestocks before the lockdown peri-od. Concerned over the violationof norms, Special ReliefCommissioner Pradeep Jena onMonday appealed to people notto unnecessarily crowd the mar-kets as all essential commodities’

shops like vegetable, grocery,poultry products, meat, milk andmedicines would remain openduring the lockdown. He alsoassured that there are enoughstocks of essential commoditiesand there would be no shortagesand hoarding; so, there is noneed for panic buying.

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In view of the raging secondwave of Covid-19, the Election

Commission of India (ECI) onMonday postponed the bye-election to the Pipili Assemblyconstituency in Odisha and twoAssembly constituencies in WestBengal.

The bye-elections werescheduled to be held on May16.In a notification, the ECI stat-ed, “Commission after taking allmaterial facts and inputs ofCEO West Bengal and CEOOdisha in consideration and tak-ing note of lockdown/restric-tions under DisasterManagement Act, 2005, asissued by NDMA/SDMA hasdecided to defer scheduled pollsand extend period of electionsin Pipili Assembly constituencyof Odisha and Jangipur and 56-Samserganj Assembly con-stituencies of West Bengal.”

���� '67'�45"#��

The Covid-19 cases declinedslightly in capital city

Bhubaneswar on Mondaywhen 809 positive cases werereported on Monday. Withthis, the city’s total tally rose to46,317.

Out of the new cases, 119were from quarantine while690 were local contacts.Out ofthe local contacts, maximum55 cases were reported from theOld Town area followed byPatia with 49, Nayapalli 46,Khandagiri 42,Chandrasekharpur 32. JayadevVihar 16 and Laxmisagar15.Currently, the active cases incity stood at 8,378.Meanwhile,death toll increased to 266with one more causality incity on day. However, as manyas 598 patients recovered onday, taking total recoveries to37,652 in city.

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In between elections andpolitical slugfest, the second

wave of the Covid-19 pan-demic has made death, des-peration and fear to broodover the entire nation. Anothernoteworthy occurrence of con-cern, that is taking place exact-

ly like the previous year, is thereturning of migrants in citieslike Mumbai and Delhi to theirhomes. However, unlike lastyear, the only respite for themis their planned exit from thebig cities, which are unable tocater to their livelihoods asboth the pandemic and pan-demonium prevail.

Last year, the scene wasmore of chaos with the heartwrenching scene of themigrants’ long walk to home oraccessing the services of illegaland exploitative private trans-porters amid economic shockand stringent mobility restric-tions owing to the lockdown.

Last year on March 25when the lockdown wasenforced unprecedentedlyacross the entire country, it

amounted to movementsbeyond the understanding ofcommon man and this led toacute disruptions like suddenloss of income, surge in debtcoupled with the fear of viraldisease, which was still notcompletely understood bymankind.

Apart from this, the com-plete absence of public trans-port with sealed State bordershalted the momentum of thenational life, made the suste-nance and survival of migrantsor urban labourers difficult.

However, irrespective ofthe swift exit of the workingclass from their workplacesthis year, they continue to livewith uncertainties and theirdistrust over the state have onlyincreased over all these

months. What has happened inbetween the end of first waveand the outbreak of the secondanswers precisely the reasonbehind the prevailing uncer-tainties and migrants’ distrustof the state. As in between thegiven timeline, the migrantworkers on many occasionshave made choices aboutwhether to stay or return totheir abodes.

And in most cases, whileadult male members tried theirluck in cities, women and chil-dren stayed at their nativeswhile many of them were mak-ing to-and-fro movement fromcities to back to their homes asopportunities brightened anddimed over time.

And as such a completeyear was spent among uncer-

tainty, shocks and new chal-lenges, which rendered migrantand urban labourers econom-ically, socially, psychologicallyand emotionally sick andunsettled.

And their financial recov-ery through state interventioneven after taking into accountemployment through MGN-REGA has been abysmally lowand through private playershave been quite too inade-quate with little work and pal-try wages. Besides, cash trans-fers and additional supply ofrations through the PDS havebeen short-spanned althoughhelpful.

And all these moments oflives of migrant and urbanlabourers have added to theirexperiences and have helped

them to make up their mind toface the second wave.Therefore, their actions havebeen well-calibrated and not-desperate unlike last year asthose were based on thepremises of the strong suspi-cion that the government is lesslikely to come their aid and res-cue, be it the need for cash,healthcare or food.

Why have the migrantsresorted to planned exit; first-ly because in the absence ofstrong state aid and interven-tion, this is the best financialstrategy to escape further surgeof debts arising from the needto bear costs of food and hous-ing rent in the wake of anuncertain income.

Secondly, it is an easy wayto escape from the tiring jour-ney owing to an overwhelmedtransport system and save livesfrom getting the viral infection

and subsequent deaths as thehealth system is already over-burdened.

Besides, the fast-changingrules, irrational pattern of eco-nomic recovery and a fragilesocial security apparatus andresultant distrust over bothmarket and state have added onto the decision of the migrantsand urban labourers to make aplanned home bound move-ment.

The city has by and largebecome a hostile place for themigrant labourers mainlyowing to little or no bargainingpower at workplace. So, the cityremains both an opportunityand threat for the migrants andis controlled by forces beyondthe power of the migrants.

The plights of the migrantshave remained and despite thehuge media attention to theirstruggles and sufferings. It is

now important to plan policiesso as to cater to the require-ments of the migrants andurban labourers in the face ofsuch jerks and shocks arisingfrom natural calamities, pan-demics or even in a war-likesituation and augmenting thestate’s preparedness to enduresuch situations with an assuredand enhanced employmentthrough MGNREGA andassured cash transfers andadditional, uninterrupted sup-ply of rations through the PDSthroughout such challengingtimes.

(The writer is a lawyer anda public policy expert and aDistinguished Adjunct Professorof Law and Media Studies atSchool of Mass Communication,KIIT University. He can bereached [email protected].)

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Following cancellation ofClass-IX and Matric exam-

inations for the session 2021,the Board of SecondaryEducation (BSE) has begun aprocess to award marks to stu-dents based on school tests andpre-board examination resultsrespectively.

As notified by the BSE, theheadmasters of schools havebeen asked to submit theTabulation Registers of Classes-IX and X examinations in aprescribed format. The for-mat as given by the BSE may beprepared in three copies with-in next one or two days at theMentor school. As per decision,

each copy will be prepared forDEO, Mentor school and indi-vidual school. Notably, theState Government has can-celled the annual Matric exam-ination for the year 2021 andClass-IX examination in viewof the spread of Covid in itssecond wave.

The results of Class-XBoard would be prepared onthe basis of an objective crite-rion to be developed by theBSE, School & Mass EducationMinister Samir Ranjan Dashhad told while announcing thecancellation of HigherSecondary Certificate (HSC) orMatric examination on April21. “Any candidate, who willnot be satisfied with marksawarded to him/her on thisbasis, will be given an oppor-tunity to sit in an examinationas and when the conditions areconducive to hold the exami-nation,” Minister had said.

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As management of haz-ardous chemicals emanat-

ing from industrial and man-ufacturing units, automobiles,

agro-chemicals, wastes andother sources are not veryoften carried out appropriate-ly, they make their entry intoenvironment and pollute air,water and soil severely with sig-

nificant adverse effects. Thiswas stated by guest speakerswhile participating in a webi-nar held on Sunday here on thetheme ‘Hazardous chemicals inenvironment and humanhealth’ organised by the OrissaEnvironmental Society (OES)under the chairmanship ofOES president Dr SundaraNarayana Patro.

“These toxic substancessubsequently enter into plantsand animals, eventually toreach human beings throughthe food chains and the air,water and food they consume.

These chemicals remaindeposited in their systems for

long and frequently lead toacute and chronic health dis-orders,” said a speaker.According to the experts, eventhough appropriate legal pro-visions and strategies are inplace at national and global lev-els for dealing with this men-ace, their stringent implemen-tation still remains a distantdream.

The speakers furtheremphasised that in considera-tion of the detrimental impactsof the hazardous chemicals,emphasis has to be laid on theirminimal use, proper handlingand regulation giving priorityto the health and safety issues

of both present and futuregenerations. Chief speakerBPUT Dean of Science andProf of Chemistry at theTrident Academy ofTechnology Dr Manas RanjanSenapati narrated that varioustypes and sources of hazardouschemicals ranging from foodadditives, pesticides, paints,batteries and e-wastes to bio-medical wastes, fly ash andmicro plastics which possessthe potential for inciting awide range of diseases includ-ing cancer, respiratory prob-lems, digestive, cardiovascular,endocrine, urinary, immuneand nervous systems. Dr Patro

stressed the need of eradicatingthe ill effects of modern devel-opment and adoptingGandhian principles for a pol-lution-free environment andcaring more for a healthierearth. OES secretary Dr JayaKrushna Panigrahi in his wel-come address stated that chem-icals obtained from naturalsources are not detrimental tohumans and other organisms.

Thus, it is desirable that wemake best use of the sub-stances provided by nature tomeet our bare needs and makethe minimal use of hazardoussubstances from synthetic andindustrial sources.

���� '67'�45"#��

Accepting the OdishaGovernment’s recommen-

dation, the President of Indiaon Monday issued an order forcompulsory retirement of taint-ed Indian Forest Service (IFS)officer Abhay Kant Pathakfrom his service.

Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik has been continuous-ly emphasising on high-degreeof morality and integrity in

public service. As part of thepolicy of zero tolerance towardscorruption, the StateGovernment had recommend-

ed to the President for com-pulsory retirement of the 1987-batch Odisha-Cadre IFS offi-cer.In November last year, theState Vigilance had arrestedAbhay Pathak and his sonAkash on the charges of amass-ing assets worth crores dispro-portionate to their knownsources of income.

Abhay had been serving asthe Additional PCCF (PlanProgramme and Afforestation)since June 2, 2018.

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Fo r m e rMember of

N a t i o n a lCommissionfor Womenand rights activist ManasiPradhan was on Friday admit-ted to the Care Hospitals hereas she tested Covid positive aday back.Pradhan was on atwo-month tour since Januarybefore returning to Odisha onMarch 15.

“Get Well Soon” messageshave been coming in from

high dignitaries from across theglobe after news of Pradhanadmitted to hospital got spread.

Several senior officialsfrom the United Nations,Heads of States, foreignem-bassies in India, former USAmbassador

Sharon Wilkinson,Executive Director of WFIWashington DC, LordElizabeth Butler, several IndianMin-isters and MPs, Indiancelebrities have inquired aboutPradhan’s health and wishedher speedy recovery.

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On May Day, a webinar onrights of labour was organ-

ised by Utkal SammilaniCentral Committee underchairmanship of Basant KumarTripathy.

Over thirty participantsfrom across the State and otherStates took part in the pro-gramme. While advocate

Bishnu Prasad Sharma andactivist Rajiv Sagaria placed-background of migration trailfrom western Odisha,Sammilani Titilagarh branchpresident Gajanan Mishra andcentral president BasantaTripathy discussed variousaspects of migration issue.

Despite the various provi-sions of social security provid-ed to migrants under InterState Migrant Workmen Act1979, the establishments engag-ing migrant labourers are notimplementing law. In thiscontext, Sammilani decided tosubmit a memorandum toGovernment demanding that

all establishments engagingmigrant labourers be regis-tered and the Government andenforcement authorities beasked to enforce law in full spir-it in Odisha so that establish-

ments would engage locallabourers rather than out-siders.The summing up ofwebinar was done bySammilani general secretaryRadhanath Praharaj.

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With the Covid-19 situationworsening in New Delhi,

Odias living in the national cap-ital have urged Odisha ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik to pro-vide necessary assistance tothem, especially those who areinfected. They have requestedPatnaik to provide oxygen cylin-

ders, which are scarce in Delhi,and other relevant kits requiredfor the Covid-19 treatment.

In a letter to Patnaik, DelhiPrabasi Odia Mahamanch direc-tor Gobardhan Dhal has urgedfor immediate assistance for theOdias in Delhi. The letter men-tioned that Delhi is battlingwith the worst pandemic situa-tion amid a complete collapse of

health infrastructure and Odiapeople who need immediatemedical emergency are strug-gling to get a bed or admissionat hospitals. If the OdishaGovernment sends minimum200 oxygen cylinders, regulatorsand kits through the OdishaBhawan, they can be made avail-able to the needy so that manylives can be saved, Dhal said.

���� '67'�45"#��

The third phase vaccinationdrive began on Monday in

Bhubaneswar for the agegroup of 18 and 44. Those,who have registered them-selves on Cowin portal andgot the slot, took the jab at theallotted vaccination centres.

The BhubaneswarMunicipal Corporat ion(BMC) has set a target to vac-cinate as many as 5 lakh peo-

ple. All the beneficiaries fromthis group would be given thesecond doses by the end ofJune or the first week of July.

The inoculation pro-gramme on Monday, whichstarted from 8 am, continuedtill 1 pm for 18-44 age groupwhile the beneficiaries above45 got the jab between 3 pmand 6 pm at the same centres.

Youths were seen queuingup at different vaccinationsites in the city in sizzling heatwhile waiting patiently fortheir turn. The civic bodybegan the vaccination driveafter receiving 1.5 lakh dosesof Covaxin from the BharatBiotech.

However, the BMCadvised citizens of 18-44-agegroup not to visit vaccinationcentres without registration,which can be done at selfreg-istration.cowin.gov.in.

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As the State Government hasdeclared a 14-day lock-

down from May 5, panic buy-ing was found in the twincities of Cuttack andBhubaneswar on Monday.There was mad rush beforeshops selling grocery, veg-etable, other daily consum-ables, medicines and OMFEDoutlets.

People flooded at theseshops looking to stock up onthe items for thenext twoweeks. Though police deploy-ments were made at severalmarketplaces, the customerswere in a hurry.

At many shops where slot-shad been made for them tostand up for their turn for

maintainingsocial distancing,the buyers were creating amelee. At the RelianceFreshoutlets also, there were longqueues of buyers.In Cuttack,Malgodown and Chhatra Bazarwere choke-a-block with thebuyers throwing the Covidrules to wind.

There was no socialdis-tancing at these two places withthe scary customers turning outinlarge numbers since earlymorning ensuring that theyhave their quotasfor the entirelockdown period.

This was despite the factthat the Commissioneratepolice and the BMC and theCMC had declared that theshops selling essential itemswould remain open during thelockdown.

Some dishonest tradersseized upon the situation andsold the items at higher prices.The prices of some groceryitems and vegetables soared upon the day by Rs 5 to Rs 10.

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Atotal of 241 tankers andcontainers carrying

4410.462 MT of medical oxy-gen have been escorted so farfrom Rourkela, Jajpur,Dhenkanal and Angul districtsof Odisha by the Odisha Police.

More were leaving onMonday. As many as 28 tankerswere dispatched from Angul

with 458.02 MT, 50 fromDhenkanal with 793.5 MT, 65from Jajpur with 1314.53 MTand 98 from Rourkela with1844.412 MT.

Further, 68 tankers with1404.83 MT of oxygen weresent to Andhra Pradesh, 67tankers with 1124.179 MT ofoxygen were sent to Telangana.Tamilnadu received six tankersfilled with 116.22 MT of med-

ical oxygen. Similarly, Haryanareceived 27 tankers filled with528.782 MT of oxygen. 13tankers with 211.16 MT ofoxygen were sent toMaharashtra, while 182.931MT of oxygen filled in 12tankers have left forChhattisgarh. As many as 20tankers have carried around362.42 MT of oxygen to UttarPradesh and 25 tankers with

417.55 MT of oxygen weresent to Madhya Pradesh. Twotankers with 33 MT of oxygenwere sent to Delhi and onetanker with 29.32 MT sent toPunjab in last 11 days. TheOdisha Police is committed toensure that there is no delay inloading and transporting so asto promptly serve thousands ofpatient other needy States, anofficial release said.

BHUBANESWAR: With themassive spread of infectiondue to Covid-19 in its secondwave, yet another journalistsuccumbed to the virus onMonday.

Subhransu Mishra, a resi-dent of Salebhata village inBalangir district, passed awaywhile undergoing treatmentfor Covid-19 at the SabarmatiGeneral Hospital in Cuttack.

Mishra was in his early 50s.He was the ‘Sambad’ represen-tative from Salebhata inBalangir district. PNS

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Ade-addiction centre inChandagada village was-

ransacked by irate villagersafter a 22-year-old inmate wasfounddead on Sunday. Thedeceased’s family alleged thatthe centre’s trainer killed him.

The deceased was Sk Jabar,a resident of Banta village onthe outskirts of Jagatsinghpurtown.Irate villagers also stageda road blockade at CourtChhak onCuttack-Jagatsinghpur NH 55.

Later, police rushed to thespot,seized the body and main-tained law and order.Reportssaid the de-addiction centre‘Chesta’ provides treatmenttoyouth falling prey to drugs andintoxicant consumption.

DeceasedJabar’s family hadsent Jabar for treatment to thecentre a month’sback and paidnecessary monthly charges Rs12,000.

Jabar’s father SeraAli hadvisited the centre on Sundaymorning but the cen-tre’sauthority had restrictedhim to meeting his son citingCovid 19reason.

Strangely, on Sundayevening news about Jabar’sdeath was conveyed tohis fam-ily members. A case has beenregistered against de-addic-tion centre ownerRajkishorDas who hasabsconded soon after the inci-dent. Meanwhile, a man-hunthas been launched againstthe accused, informedJagatsinghpur SDPOPriyaRanjan Satapathy.

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The State InformationCommission (SIC) office

here would remain closed for15 days from May 5 in view ofthe upsurge of the Covid-19pandemic.

This was decided onMonday by SIC ChiefCommissioner Sunil Mishra.The decision was taken in viewof reports of SIC employeesbeing affected by Covid-19.However, the employees andofficers are advised not to leavethe headquarters, Mishra said.

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To mark the WorldImmunisation Week 2021

observed from April 24 to 30,the AIIMS Bhubaneswar’sDepartment of CommunityMedicine and Family Medicine(CM&FM) organised a webi-nar on April 30 on the theme‘Vaccine Brings Us Closer’.

Speaking on the role ofvaccines in controlling the sec-ond wave of the pandemic inIndia, Dr Sanjay Rai of theAIIMS New Delhi Centre forcommunity Medicine said thatwhen people are asking every-where whether there is an endto this pandemic, the answer is‘yes’. This pandemic is going toget over through herd immu-

nity either through naturalinfection or vaccination. “Thevaccines that are presentlygiven to people are safe andshouldn’t be doubted as theyhave been approved by theregulatory authorities aftergoing through different phas-es of high clinical test byresearchers,” said Rai.

India has approved threevaccines, Covaxin, Covishieldand Sputnik V, and all havegone through every phase oftrials while five more vaccinesare there which are under tri-als now, added Rai. OdishaDirector of Health and FamilyWelfare Dr Bijay Panigrahysaid that during pandemic, theState has been ensuring allkinds of immunisation

throughout. The objective hasalways been full immunisationcoverage under the UniversalImmunisation Programme(UIP).

While in India the fullimmunisation coverage was35.4% in NFHS-1 and reached77.5% in NFHS-5, in Odishathe full immunisation coveragewas 55% in Annual HealthSurvey (AHS); and during 2021in spite of Covid pandemic theimmunisation was 85.4%.

HoD of CM&FM Dr SonuH Subba said that eventuallyvaccines would help peoplecome closer; it is one of themost important public healthdiscoveries. “Over the past 30years, 50% of childhood deathshave been avoided because of

vaccine. Thanks to vaccine, itbecame possible to eradicate avery dreaded disease like smallpox and the polio mellitus,” saidSubha.

AIIMS BhubaneswarDirector Dr GitanjaliBatmanabane said immunisa-tion clinic was one area of hos-pital which remained openedthroughout pandemic evenwhen our OPDs were closed,Vaccine would also help attain-ing herd immunity as vaccinerequires six weeks to buildprotection, she added.

Around 15 crore peoplehave been vaccinated as ofJanuary out of which 2.5 crorehave been fully vaccinated andIndia stands 3rd globally invaccinating its population.

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More than 20,000 familiesof truck owners have

been pushed to the margins asCorona has brought their busi-ness to a halt.

The Covid 19 has proved tobe an insult to injury whentruck owners could hardlymake ends meet after localindustries decided to rely onrail rather than road transportfor coal movement. Many truckowners’ families ofBrajrajnagar, Belpahar andBandhbahal of Jharsuguda dis-trict are under tremendousfinancial pressure with no helpin sight.

Earlier, power plants, steelplants, aluminium and spongeiron factories were transport-ing coal through trucks,trawlers and multi-axle trailers.But for the last two years, localindustries moved significantvolume to railways bleeding thetrucking business dry.

Due to the district admin-istration's efforts and pressurefrom the truck owners associ-ation and the local public, theprivate industries had restored

some of that business to truckowners. However, due toreduced production in mines inthe Covid crisis, many driversremained home for most of lastyear. The moratorium given bythe Union Government on theEMIs gave a marginal reprieveto truck owners.

However, before the situ-ation could revert to normal,the second wave of Covid caseshas disrupted all hopes of aneconomic recovery for thesefamilies.

Looming uncertainty hasalso forced the drivers fromother States to go back to theirhometowns, as thousands oftrucks stand on the roads.

As owners of these trucksare unable to pay their instal-ments on time, truck financecompanies and their collection

agents are knocking on thedoors of these families everyday. Susant Moharana, a truckowner from Khaiguda, said,“The truck owning families arestruggling to provide two mealsto their families.

The drivers are not willingto drive vehicles in peak coro-na and our trucks are gather-ing dust.” Tapankanta Jena,another truck owner fromBelpahar's Gumadera, said“Several unemployed youths inthe district bought trucks bytaking loans from unorganizedmarket.

They were hoping that theywill find livelihood with thethriving industrialisation inthe district. But corona hasspelt doom for all such families.Today, they neither have theirtrucks nor have a livelihood.”

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In a shocking incident, theauthorities of Hi Tech

Hospital in Rourkela allegedlycarried out the cremation of aCovid-19 patient withoutinforming his family mem-bers about his death.

According to reports, DilipSaha of the Bandhamunda areahere was admitted to the HiTech Covid Hospital two daysago and he died while under-going treatment on Sundaymorning.The concerned staffsof the hospital cremated thebody without informing thedeceased’s family.

Later, Dilip’s family mem-bers, who reached the hospitalto know about his condition,were shocked to learn that hehad died.

Tension ran high as theystaged protest against the hos-pital authorities and blockedNH-143 at Gandhi Chhak hereon Monday morning. An hourlater, police reached the spotand pacified them.

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In an exemplary act, LabourMinister Susanta Singh drove

an ambulance to carry a Covid-19 patient to a hospital inSohela of Bargarh district onSunday. On being informedthat a youth of Tabada villageunder Sohela block of the dis-trict was suffering from Covid-19, the Minster reached the

locality by driving the ambu-lance himself. Singh then tookthe patient to the SohelaHospital in the vehicle andfacilitated his admissionprocess. He also directed thedoctors to ensure proper treat-ment of the youth. Notably, theMinister, who belongs to thedistrict, has donated a newambulance for Covid-19 man-agement in the area.

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Much before contractualworker Dinabandhu

Mishra committed suicide onApril 20, the Registrar andController of Finance (CoF) ofSambapur University hadapprised the PrincipalSecretary, Higher Education,Saswat Mishra, on the allegedarrogance and misbehaviour of

Vice-Chancellor Sanjib Mittalto staff members. “It hasbecome difficult for most of thestaff members to work underhim,” they had written in theletter to the Principal Secretaryon April 8. While Registrar DrDitaram Patel is a senior OASofficer, CoF Prasant KumarNayak is senior officer offinance services of the StateGovernment.

“Me kisiko nehi chhodun-ga, sabaka buri halat karkechhodunga, (I won’t spare any-body; I’ll ensure others get theworst)” are the common wordsused by the VC to both thesenior and junior staff mem-bers, the duo officers of the

university had written in theletter. They mentioned thedates when the VC used suchrough words and misbehavedwith almost everybody. Rudebehaviour apart, the duo offi-cers also had brought allegationof grievous financial irregular-ities against the VC since theday he joined. “The VC is pur-chasing different goods foruniversity without followingthe official procedure.

He is calling the local ven-dors to his room and purchas-ing different goods. Later he isforcing all other concernedofficers to release the paymentand later regularize officialprocedures that are complete-

ly violating the financial rulesunder university Act,” the lat-ter by Dr Patel and Nayak said.

“Further he is sending filesto different officers through hispeon and forcing them to signthe files immediately, totallyviolating the financial rules,”they mentioned.

Threatening officers fornot becoming party to suchillegal and unfair activities, heused words like “app logo kopata nehi he, VC ka power kyahe (you all don’t know what’sthe power of the VC), theymentioned in the letter. Theyfurther alleged that the VC wasmisbehaving with officersbefore the sub ordinate staff

members and in meetings inpresence of the other officers.The word –‘Sale’ (ruffians) is acommon word from his mouthwhich is unbearable.

On one occasion, he alsoforced the university doctor tomake payment to a local ven-dor for purchase of differentitems that she denied and facedVC’s anger, Dr Patel and Nayakmentioned.

While expressing theiragony before higher authorityand explaining the pressure andmental torture, they requestedfor reversion of their services totheir parent department asthey were working under dep-utation in university.

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Responding to the shortageof oxygen for treatment of

Covid-19 patients in the coun-try, the Jindal Steel & PowerLtd (JSPL), since April, hasbeen supplying liquid medicaloxygen (LMO) from its megasteel complex at Angul.

Several hospitals acrossthe country have receivedoxygen despatched throughtankers.The company is 100tonnes of LMO every day.“Forus, it is nation first.

I am sure together weshall defeat the pandemic,”JSPL chairman Naveen Jindalhad stated a few days before.The company continually pro-duces LMO at its oxygen plant

at Angul and tankers are filledin round the clock. Thetankers are being despatchedto several States who needmedical oxygen like AndhraPradesh, Telangana, DelhiNCR, Madhya Pradesh andMaharashtra and several otherStates as per the advice of theGovernment.

A dedicated team underthe direct supervision ofNaveen Jindal is working dayand night to ensure the time-ly despatch of oxygen.

An Oxygen Express runby the Indian Railways alsocarried LMO tankers to otherStates. Two tankers airliftedfrom Maharashtra were alsofilled with LMO from JSPLAngul recently.

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Freedom fighterGopabandhu Choudhury

was remembered on his deathanniversary in a brief celebra-tion held at his native villageKherasa here on Thursday.

The meeting was chairedby educationalist NikunjaKishora Behera and attendedby prominent personalities ofJagatsinghpur.

The speakers spoke aboutChoudhry’s contribution tofreedom movement duringpre-independence period.Choudhry had relinquishedthe Deputy Collector’s postunder the British administra-tion to join the freedom move-ment, which was a subject ofhot discussion then.

Besides, coming from aZamindar family, he hadbacked the abolition of theZamindari practice. He hadinspired his younger brotherNabakrushna Choudhury, aformer CM of Odisha, and sis-ter in law Malati Choudhury,they said.

The meeting was attendedby former MunicipalityChairman Biplab Choudhury,social activist MadhabnandaBehera, Krushna ChandraPradhan, Lipu Mohanty,Amarjit Nayak and SaradaPrasad Sahoo.The districtadministration too paid floraltributes to Choudhry on hisdeath anniversary.

District Collector SKMohapatra, municipalityExecutive Officer Bimal PrasadLenka and DIPROKaminiranjan Patnaik visitedBangala Chowk and Kherasavillage on Thursday and offeredhomage.

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Following the death of fivejournalists in Ganjam dis-

trict, the Press Club ofBrahmapur has set up a Covidisolation cell exclusively forworking Journalists and theirfamily members in its premis-es. This is said to be a first-of-its-kind initiative in Odisha.

The isolation cell, whichhas been established with thecooperation of the BerhamapurMunicipal Corporation(BeMC), has eight beds. “Wehave put all required basicinfrastructures at place like

oxygen, pulse ox-meter andinfra-red thermometer alongwith the required medicines. Itwill of a great help for jour-nalists with corona symptoms.

During the first wave lastyear, journalists had encoun-tered great difficulties in homeisolation due to non-availabil-ity of space and infrastructure,”said former Press Club presi-dent Sisir Panigrahi.

He informed that a fewmore scribes with coronasymptoms are currently inhome isolation and undergoingtreatment. Apart from these, aspecial vaccination drive hasbeen launched for journalistsfrom Monday onwards at theBaikunthanagar UrbanPrimary Health Centre, theBeMC Commissionerinformed.

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The Barbil police seized 16bikes from the godown of

a scrap dealer and arrested two

persons in this connection.On Sunday, Barbil police sta-tion IIC Sushanta Kumar Dashon a tip-off raided the house ofone Sushil Kumar Tripathy ofBhadrasahi near Barbil andrecovered a stolen bike of oneChaitanya Patra of Jurrudiunder Bamebari police stationwho had lodged a complaint inthe local police station on April4 regarding the theft of his bike.

On interrogation of Tripathy,he revealed that there are alsosomebikes in the godown ofSurabbudin Seikh, the scrapdealer with whom he wasworking as the manager. Policeraided the scrap unit and seized15 bikes.

When scraptraderSurabbudin failed to fur-nish any documents of thevehicles, policearrested himand his manager Tripathy.

Sources further revealedthat in the year 2016- 17, thethen SP,Rajesh Pandit,Keonjhar had put a ban on anytype of scrap trading toput acheck on the metal theft butafter the withdrawal of thebanlast year, metal theft includ-ing theft of motorbike andcycles isgoing on nonstop in thedistrict.

It is alleged that the scraptraders mostly those who hailfromoutside of the State likeBihar and West Bengal befriendwith bike andcycles lifters whoserve them readymade clientfor purchasing stolenbikes andcycles which are then disman-tled to be used as spare parts.

It is demanded that onceagain there be a complete banon scraptrading in the districtand strong action be taken toregularise activities of flour-ishing scrap trading in district.

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Acase has come to the forein which a visually-

impaired Dalit woman wasmisbehaved by a woman police.

Pramila Jena of Chhadeshunder the Rajkanika policelimits on April 23had lodged anFIR against one Ajay KumarJena over a land dispute.OnApril 26, she again hadgone to the Rajkanika policestation to knowwhat the policewere doing based on her FIR.

However, Sub Inspector ofRajkanika police station,Kanunbala Sahu,after findingher at the police station,allegedly started misbehaving-with her using slang, along withpoking fun at her for being avi-sually impaired. She also droveher out of the police station

bythreatening to arrest her andforward her to court. Pramilarecently knocked the doors ofSP of Kendrapada, by urginghimto provide justice by regis-tering a case under SC/ST PAAct againstthe rowdy female SIof the Rajkanika police station.

The victim also filed apetition before the ChiefMinister to providejustice toher. She also threatened tocommit suicide if she wasde-nied justice.

When contacted,Rajkanika police station IICUmakant Nayak stated thatthe allegation against his staffwas purely false and fabricated.

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External Affairs Minister S.Jaishankar on Sunday took

on the Congress, which hadattempted to project that theCentral Government had col-lapsed and foreign embassieswere reaching out to theOpposition for help with theirCovid-19 medical emergencies.

On Sunday, the NewZealand Embassy in New Delhitweeted an SOS tagging youthleaders of the Congress, saying,“Could you please help withoxygen cylinder urgently atthe New Zealand HighCommission? Thank you.”

Youth Congress presidentBV Srinivas responded to therequest and tweeted an hourlater saying, “We have reachedNew Zealand HighCommission with oxygen

cylinders. Please open the gatesand save a soul on time.”

However, the New ZealandEmbassy apologised soon after,saying, “We are trying allsources to arrange for oxygencylinders urgently and ourappeal has unfortunately beenmisinterpreted, for which weare sorry.”

The apology came afterJaishankar rebutted Congressleader Jairam Ramesh, whohad on Saturday accused theGovernment of being com-pletely dysfunctional and unre-sponsive towards medicalemergency at the PhilippinesEmbassy.

On Saturday, the IndianYouth Congress had tweeted avideo claiming that its mem-bers were providing medicalemergency services at theEmbassy of the Philippines in

New Delhi.Ramesh tweeted the video,

saying, “While I thank @IYCfor its stellar efforts, as anIndian citizen I’m stunned thatthe youth wing of the opposi-tion party is attending to SOScalls from foreign embassies. Isthe MEA sleeping@DrSJaishankar?”

To this, Jaishankar tweetedon Sunday morning, “MEAchecked with the PhilippinesEmbassy. This was an unso-licited supply as they had noCovid cases. Clearly for cheappublicity by you know who.Giving away cylinders like thiswhen there are people in des-perate need of oxygen is sim-ply appalling. Jairamji, MEAnever sleeps; our people knowacross the world. MEA alsonever fakes; we know whodoes.”

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Sustaining the tempo of air-lifting the much-needed

oxygen from abroad, an air-craft of the IAF flew non-stopfor 12 hours to bring homeoxygen from Frankfurt,Germany. The C-17 trans-port plane ferried four emptycryogenic containers fromthere and landed at theHindan airbase, Ghaziabad.

Similarly, another C-17aircraft airlifted 450 oxygencylinders from Brize Nortonin the UK to the Chennai air-base in Tamil Nadu. In the

past few days, the IAF planescarried out numerous sortiesto ferry the containers fromSingapore, Thailand and theUnited Arab Emirates.

An Italian air force trans-port plane landed here onMonday with a team of med-ical experts, oxygen genera-tion plant and ventilators tohelp India fight the pandem-ic. The oxygen generationsystem capable of supplyingthe gas to the entire hospitalwill be deployed at the Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice(ITBP)hospital inGreater Noida.

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States seem to have to waitmore to get the adequate

supply of vaccines, particular-ly Covishield with its manu-facturer Adar Poonawalla ofSerum Institute of India (SII)on Monday categorically stat-ing that his firm cannot rampup production overnight asvaccine making is a specialisedprocess.

The statement ofPoonawalla comes days afterhe had said that due to “pres-sure and aggression” for himand his family temporarilyleaving the country for theUK, as “everyone wants thevaccine to be available in thequickest possible time.” This islikely to impact the vaccina-tion drive that was kicked offfrom May 1 to cover 18 + pop-ulation i.e. about 60 crorepeople.

In a statement here,Poonawalla said that it hasorders from the Governmentto supply 11 crore more dosesover the next few months ontop of 15 crore already sup-plied, Poonawalla said. Hefurther said that another 11crore doses will be supplied to

states and private hospitals inthe next few months. “Wehave got all kinds of support,be it scientific, regulatory andfinancial. As of today, wereceived total orders of over 26crore doses, of which we sup-plied more than 15 croredoses. We have also got 100per cent advance of Rs 1,732.5crore by the GOI for the nexttranche of 11 crore doses inthe next few months,” he said.

Earlier in the day, theUnion Ministry of Health saidthat 11 crore doses ofCovishield are to come fromSII during May, June and July.Another 5 crore doses ofCovaxin have been orderedfrom Bharat Biotech India Ltdfor the same months.

Poonawalla, however, didnot give a timeline for sup-plying the vaccines. Pune-based SII can produce 6-7crore doses a month and isreportedly planning to rampup production to 10 crore by

July.Though the Centre has

among various steps openedup vaccination for all above 18years from May 1, the pro-curement of jabs has been leftto states and private hospitals.This has led to state afterstate rushing to SII, which canmeet only a small part of thedemand.

Serum is licensed to man-ufacture COVID shots fromAstraZeneca Plc and NovavaxInc. But so far, the governmenthas approved onlyAstraZeneca’s Covishield vac-cine for use.

The Government has alsoapproved the homegrownCovaxin vaccine of BharatBiotech. Russia’s Sputnik Vvaccine too has been approvedfor emergency use.

SII CEO Poonawalla, whois currently in London, said thepopulation of India is huge andto produce enough doses for alladults is not an easy task.

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Alarmed at various requestsappearing on social media

such as twitter regarding theadoption of kids whose parentshave died due to Covid-19, theNational Commission for theProtection of Child Rights(NCPCR) has warned the com-mon citizens/NGOs to refrainfrom doing so and written toStates and Union Territories,urging them to inform childprotection authorities aboutsuch orphans.

“The commission hasbeen made aware of instanceswhere it has been seen thatmany NGOs are advertisingabout the children who havebecome orphans after losingboth their parents to Covid-19,” NCPCR chairpersonPriyank Kanoongo has writtento chief secretaries across theStates in a letter.

He said that “in such a sadsituation of the surge inCovid-19 cases in the countrythere are situations arisingwhere the child has lost bothits parents or is found to beabandoned. It may be notedthat the Juvenile Justice (Careand Protection of Children)Act, 2015 provides for theprocedure to be followed forchildren who have lost theirfamily support and havebecome children in need ofcare and protection.”

The missive followedcomplaints that a few NGOsand individuals had been ontheir own on the social plat-forms l ike twitter andWhatsApp urging people tohelp such kids “get a new lifeand spread the word,” whilesharing their contact num-bers.

The procedure under theJJ Act, 2015 ensures that chil-dren are provided all the min-imum standards of care andtheir rights are upheld andprotected, Kanoongo said.

“Therefore, it is of utmostimportance that these childrenwho have lost their familysupport must be producedbefore the child protectionauthorities of the district, andinformation about these chil-dren must be shared with the

authorities”He also pointed out that it

was necessary for every indi-vidual, entity, organisation orNGO to ensure that any infor-mation received aboutorphaned and abandonedchildren during these Covidtimes is shared on the helpine1098.

“Similarly, it is furtherrequested that if any suchinformation for an abandonedor orphaned children isreceived by any entity, organ-isation, NGO then the samecan be also be informed to theNational Commission forProtection of Child Rightseither through email([email protected]) or throughtelephone (011-23478250) forassistance and help to thechildren,” the letter said.

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The Union Home Ministryhas ordered deployment

of 50 additional companies(5,000 personnel) of theCentral paramilitary forces inJammu and Kashmir to aug-ment law and order securitygrid in the Union Territoryfrom May 7. The move comesafter a request to the effect wasmade J&K DGP through a let-ter on April 27 and it wasapproved by the Centre thenext day.

The mobilisation is beingmade “for augmentation ofexisting deployment grid toeffectively manage law andorder and security duties.”

On the decision for

deployment of the 50 CentralArmed Police Forces (CAPF)or Central paramilitary com-panies, the order said, “Thematter has been considered inthis Ministry, it has been decid-ed to provide 50 companies ofCAPF (CRPF-20, BSF-10, SSB-10, ITBP-05 and CISF-05 com-

panies) to Union Territory ofJammu and Kashmir by May 7.

“The UT Administrationof Jammu & Kashmir isrequested to work out thedetailed deployment plan inconsultation with the respec-tive CAPFs and the deploy-ment of the CAPFs companies

may be made only after com-pleting the mandatory quar-antine period to break thechain of coronavirus, readsthe order issued on April 28.

Keeping in view theCovid-19 situation, the HomeMinistry advised the Jammuand Kashmir administration totake necessary transporta-tion/logistics/accomodationand other arrangementsrequired in connection withdeployment of the CAPFswithin the UT, as per theGovernment guidelines on thesubject. The deployment of theadditional paramilitary per-sonnel will be organised by UTAdministration, added thecopy of the order.

Presently, 60 battalions ofthe CRPF and 10 battalions ofother CAPFs are deployed onthe ground in the UnionTerritory for law and order asalso for the security duty roles,sources said. The additionaltroops are likely to be also usedfor the conduct of theAmarnath Yatra, they added.

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The CBI on Monday said ithas registered a case in

connection with the “ISROspy case” in compliance to aSupreme Court order of April15 this year for taking actionagainst the erring police offi-cers who allegedly framed sci-entist S Nambi Narayanan in afalse espionage case.

Earlier, the case was regis-tered by Kerala Police onOctober 20, 1994, as Crime No.225/94 at Police StationVanchiyoor, Trivandrumagainst a Maldivian Nationalunder Foreigner’s Act on theallegations of overstaying inIndia after the expiry of thevisa.

Subsequently, another caseas Crime No. 246/1994 datedNovember 13, 1994, was alsoregistered at Vanchiyoor Policestation under Official Secrets

Act 1923 and Section 34 (com-mon intention) of IPC againsttwo accused Maldivian nation-als on the allegations that they,in collusion with some others,had taken part in the activitiesagainst the sovereignty andintegrity of India and indulgedin other activities which wouldharm the cordial relations ofIndia with its neighbours.

Later, the investigation ofboth the said cases wasentrusted to a SIT of Keralapolice. In Crime no. 246/1994,besides said two accused, fourmore persons including twoscientists working at LiquidPropulsion Systems Centre(LPSC) of ISRO were arrest-ed on the charges of espionage

activities. Further, the investigation

of both these cases was trans-ferred to CBI. In theEspionage case, CBI submit-ted Final Report (chargesheet) before the Chief JudicialM a g i s t r a t e ,Ernakulam(Kerala) which wasaccepted by the Court. Whilesubmitting the said report inthe Espionage case, the alle-gations pertaining to espi-onage were found to be false.

One of the scientists SNambi Narayanan took thematter for taking actionagainst the erring officials tothe apex court by way of fil-ing a civil writ petition.

The SC, in its judgementdated September 14, 2018 inthe Civil Appeal No. 6637-6638/2018), awarded com-pensation of Rs 50 lakh toNarayanan on several countsand also ordered the consti-

tution of a Committee, forobtaining actual scenarioincluding arrest, false impli-cation of the said scientist andto find out ways for takingappropriate steps against theerring officials, the CBI said.

Accordingly, a Committeeunder the Chairmanship of aretired judge of the SC, wasconstituted by the UnionHome Ministry, it said.

The Committee, afterconducting inquiry, submittedits report before the apexcourt. Based on the saidenquir y report, the SCthrough an order on April 15directed the CBI to proceed inthe matter in accordance withlaw, being a Court directedenquiry.

“Accordingly, as per thedirections of Hon’ble SupremeCourt, CBI has registered acase,” the agency said in astatement.

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The Union Home Ministryon Monday sought a

report from the West BengalGovernment on the post elec-tion violence in the State tar-geting Opposition politicalworkers.

The Home Ministry in aletter to the West Bengal ChiefSecretary has asked him tosubmit a detailed report on theviolence that broke out inparts of the state on Sundayevening even as trends andresults from the Assemblyelection were pouring in.

The houses and vehicles ofsome Bharatiya Janata Partycandidates were allegedlyattacked and a party office at

Arambagh was set on fire. Thevehicle of Suvendu Adhikari,who defeated Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee inNandigram, was also report-edly attacked.

“MHA has asked WestBengal Government for areport on the post election vio-lence targeting oppositionpolitical workers in the state,”the Home MinistrySpokesperson tweeted.

After the violence,Trinamool Congress leaders,however, said they had noth-ing to do with any such inci-dents in West Bengal andurged people to maintainpeace and follow Covid-19protocols.

At Natabari, the car of BJP

candidate Mihir Goswami waslearnt to be damaged after theElection Commissionannounced his victory fromNatabari in north Bengaldefeating RabindranathGhosh, minister and seniorTMC leader.

A BJP party office atArambagh was set ablazewhere the party’s candidateMadhusudan Bag defeatedTMC’s Sujata Mondal byaround 7,100 votes.

At Siuri, a BJP office wasransacked and the local partyleader’s tractor was set ablaze.

A similar incident wasreported from Kolkata’sBeleghata constituency wherea BJP candidate’s garage wasset on fire.

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Aspecial NIA court inKerala’s Ernakulam on

Monday sentenced a fakeIndian currency note (FICN)racketeer to six years rigorousimprisonment besides impos-ing a fine in connection withthe Thrissur FICN case.

An NIA spokesperson saidhere that the special court forNIA cases in Ernakulam con-victed Ali Hossain akaMohammed Ali Hossain, 30, aresident of Murshidabad dis-trict in West Bengal, under sev-eral sections of the IndianPenal Code in a 2018 FICNcase and sentenced him to sixyears rigorous imprisonmentbesides imposing a fine of Rs85,000 on him for his role inprocuring, possessing and cir-culating FICN in Kerala.

The official said that a case

was originally registered at theThrissur East police stationon August 19, 2018 againstHossain following the seizureof two FICNs of Rs 2,000denomination from his pos-session.

Based on Hossain’s inter-rogation, 101 fake notes of Rs2,000 face value each wererecovered from his residence inPalakkad district.

NIA had taken over thecase on October 27, 2018.

The official said that inves-tigation had revealed that in2018, Hossain had conspiredwith accused Alim Sheik, aBangladeshi national who isabsconding, to smuggle FICNinto Kerala, with an intentionto use the same as genuineIndian currency for unlawfulgains.

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Reacting to reports of theCentral Vista as essential

service, Congress spokespersonPawan Khera has attacked theUnion Government and raisedquestions about the vaccines.

Addressing a Press confer-ence on Monday Khera said,“Central Vista is an essential ser-vice, amid this pandemic in theCapital where thousands aredying every day, lakhs are suf-fering and struggling for hospi-tal beds, for oxygen, for medi-cines, in the same capital city, theCentral Vista is an essentialservice, but the vaccine willcome in July, is that a joke?”

He said over the last 15 days,the tragedies in the hospitals thatwe have all witnessed in Delhi,which is the capital city, a fewkilometres from the CentralVista, hospitals are pleadingthrough social media, throughmedia, they are pleading, beg-ging for oxygen.

“Is the vaccine available? We

have been told by the manufac-turers that it wouldn’t be avail-able before July. I don’t want toremind Hon’ble Prime Ministerwhat he said in January at theWorld Economic Forum that byAugust, 300 million peoplewould be vaccinated,” he said.

The Congress demandedauditing and distribution of for-eign aid like injections, oxygenand other drugs. “We requestand demand from theGovernment, every day, pleasemake public, share it with everyIndian, where has this aid comefrom, where is it going -- whichstate, which hospital, whichagency,” he said.

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Jaipur: Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot hasinstructed officials to maintainconstant coordination with theCentral Government toincrease the allocation of med-ical oxygen in view of theever-increasing active cases ofCovid in the state. Along withthis, he has also directed tostrongly advocate for providingtankers as per requirement toRajasthan out of the oxygentransport tankers beingimported through the centralgovernment.

The Chief Minister hassaid strict adherence to theCovid protocol is very impor-tant for lifesaving. He instruct-ed that the epidemic red alertstarting from Monday shouldbe strictly followed the guide-lines of Public DisciplineFortnight, there should not beany laxity in it.

Shri Gehlot was reviewingthe supply of oxygen, avail-ability of medicines, Covidcondensation and the epidem-

ic Red Alert - Public DisciplineFortnight starting Mondaythrough video conference onSunday night.

He said that the consump-tion of oxygen in the state isincreasing rapidly due toincreasing compaction. Sincethe central government is allo-cating oxygen under theNational Plan, it is very impor-tant to increase the amount ofallocation in view of the needof Rajasthan. He said that therehas been an additional increaseof 350 metric tonnes in the pro-duction capacity of oxygen atthe Jamnagar plant. In such asituation, Rajasthan gets anallocation of extra oxygen fromthere.

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Shattering peace prevailing along the 194 kmlong international border between India

and Pakistan across Jammu frontier, thePakistani rangers early Monday morning tar-geted a BSF patrol party in the Ramgarh sub sec-tor of Samba by opening 'unprovoked' firing onthem.

This is the first incident of 'unprovoked' fir-ing on the Indian border guards after both Indiaand Pakistan had renewed their mutually bro-kered ceasefire agreement from the midnight ofFebruary 24-25.

Luckily, the BSF patrol party escapedunhurt. Official sources in the BSF confirmed,"no loss of life/injury was reported on groundzero".

According to official sources, "early Mondaymorning Pakistani rangers stationed at one ofthe Pak post 'Tipu' and 'Hussain' fired around20 rounds of small weapons targeting theworking party of BOP Majra near mount no 8/36pillar no 81". In response, BSF jawans exercisedutmost restraint but maintained a close watchon the activities of the Pak rangers.

After gathering inputs and making prelim-inary assessment of the groundsituation, PRO BSF, DIG SPS Sandhu, Jammu

frontier in a formal statement claimed, "Pakistanir a n g e r sresorted to 'unprovoked' firing at 06:15 a.m inRamgarh sector on BSF patrolling party aheadof fencing." No loss of life/injury was reported,he added.

Interestingly, the Ramgarh sector was wit-nessing hectic activity for the last couple ofweeks.

On March 16, 2021 alert BSF jawans hadkilled a Pakistani intruder in the same sectorafter he refused to retrieve inside the Pak ter-ritory and kept advancing towards the Indianside.

Several aeroplane shaped balloons with PIAwritten on it were also recovered from agricul-tural fields in the Hiranagar, Arnia and RS Purasectors of Jammu frontier.

Meanwhile, local villagers in the borderareas were living peacefully for the last twomonths and focusing on harvesting their wheatcrops standing in the fields.

Local civilians bore the maximum brunt ofcross border firing in the past and were lead-ing peaceful lives since the past more than twomonths in the forward areas.

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Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterEdappadi Palaniswami sub-

mitted his Government’s res-ignation to GovernorBanwarilal Purohit on Mondaymorning as a follow up to theElection Commission of Indiadeclaring the results of theLegislative Assembly electionheld on April 6.

M K Stalin, president of theDMK, who led his party as wellas the Secular Front to animpressive win in the electionwould be sworn in as the nextChief Minister on Friday. Thenewly elected MLAs of theDMK are meeting at the partyheadquarters in Chennai onTuesday to formally elect Stalinas the leader of the legislativeassembly. Stalin had told mediapersons late Sunday eveningthat the swearing in would be

held at the Raj Bhavan inChennai and it would be a sim-ple affair. The mission to ensurea smooth transition of powerbegan late Sunday evening andcontinued throughout Mondaywith bureaucrats and policeofficials calling on Stalin at hispalatial residence many times.

In the 234 strongLegislative Assembly, the DMKwould have 133 members whilethe AIADMK with 66 mem-bers would don the role of theprincipal opposition party.

The Indian NationalCongress, the principal ally ofthe DMK, won 18 of the 25seats it contested, while the twoCommunist parties shared twoseats each. The VCK, a Dalitoutfit, managed to win fourseats. The DMK will notinclude any of the allies in itsgovernment as the party com-mands a safe and securestrength in the House.

The PMK and the BJP,allies of the AIADMK, wonfive and four seats respective-ly. The Anna Makkal MunnetraKazhakam launched by TTVDhinakaran and the MakkalNeethi Maiam, launched byfilm actor Kamal Hassan failedto win at least one seat from theState. Both Dhinakaran andHaassan were defeated in thehustings.

Sixty eight year old Stalinwould be the oldest person tobe sworn in as Choef Minister.His predecessor EdappadiPlaniswamy was 63 when hetook oath of office as chief min-ister in 2017, while MKarunanidhi, Stalin’s fatherhad become the chief ministerat the age of 45. K Kamaraj was57 when he was sworn as chiefminister while C N Annadurai,the first DMK chief ministerwas 60 when he became thechief minister.

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During the covid pandemic,it has been seen that the

sensitivity of DeendayalHospital staff is dead. BeenaGhosh, resident of Begambagh,died on April 30, but Rs 8,000were demanded to hand overthe body.

Son Shankar was upsetdue to lack of money. After thematter went viral on socialmedia, the DM in charge tookcognizance and the investiga-tion has been handed over toSDM. After this, the body wasalso handed over to Shankar.

Bina Ghosh was testedpositive on 24 April, the sameday she was admitted to thecorona ward of DeendayalUpadhyaya Joint Hospital.

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Jammu: The Union Territoryof Jammu & Kashmir onMonday recorded 51 deaths,highest so far in one single daywhile 3,733 new cases of coro-navirus tested positive takingthe tally of active positive casescloser to 35,000 cases.

According to a media bul-letin, only 11 Covid ICU bedshave been left vacant in GMC,Jammu, four in Chest DiseasesHospital, 20 in Gandhi Nagarhospital, three in ASCOMSHospital. The situation inSrinagar is no different. As perthe media bulletin, only 1Covid ICU bed was vacant inSMHS hospital in Srinagar, 2 inSKIMS, Soura.

Meanwhile, there has beenno let up in the total numberof new cases. On May 3 out of

3733 new positive cases1294were reported from Jammudivision and 2439 fromKashmir division.

The death toll due toCovid 19 touched 2421 after 35deaths were reported fromJammu division and 16 fromKashmir division.

Moreover, 1536 moreCovid-19 patients have recov-ered and discharged from var-ious hospitals including 626from Jammu Division and 910from Kashmir Division.

Both the capital cities ofSrinagar and Jammu continueto record the highest tally ofpositive cases despite observingcorona curfew. On Monday,Srinagar recorded 1136 casestaking the tally of active posi-tive cases to 10,143. PNS

New Delhi: The BJP is likely tofinalise its choice of ChiefMinisterial nominee for Assamin a day or two as internal con-sultation within the party hasbegun amid a suspense overwhether it will continue withincumbent chief ministerSarbananda Sonowal or bring ina new face.

Sonowal and his powerfulministerial colleague HimantaBiswa Sarma are being seen asthe two most obvious con-tenders for the top job. BJP sources said internal con-fabulation is on in the party, andthe its parliamentary boardmay soon name centralobservers to preside over themeeting of its newly-electedparty MLAs in Guwahati wherethey will pick their leader. Central observers generally con-vey the choice of the party topbrass to the state leadershipwhich in turn is endorsed by the

MLAs. The ruling BJP-led NDA

has retained its grip on Assam,bagging 74 of the 126 assembly

constituencies that went to polls,while the opposition Congress-led grand alliance managed toclinch just 50 seats. PTI

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Assam Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal

thanked all sections of peoplefor giving a clear mandate tothe BJP-led alliance in theassembly election, results ofwhich were declared onSunday.

Expressing his gratitudeto the people belonging toBarak and Brahmaputra val-leys, and other parts of thestate, the chief minister in astatement on Monday said,they had reposed their faith in

the BJP-led alliance due to itsperformance in four key areas.

The areas were "develop-ment carried out by the BJP-ledgovernment which manifestedin every nook and corner of thestate, its unrelenting fightagainst corruption, initiatives tostrengthen peace and harmo-ny, and committed efforts ofthe government to safeguardthe identity and existence of theAssamese people from theinflux which had significantlyaltered the demography of thestate, especially lower Assam",the statement said.

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In a new development in themuch-discussed phone tap-

ping case, senior IPS officerRashmi Shukla on Mondaymoved the Bombay HighCourt, seeking a direction tothe Mumbai police not to takeany coercive action against herand urging the court for anurgent hearing in the case reg-istered under the OfficialSecrets Act and other laws forallegedly leaking certain con-fidential documents.

In a criminal write petitionfiled through her advocateSameer Nangre, Shukla – whois currently Additional DirectorGeneral (ADG) of the CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF)based in Hyderabad – soughta direction to the police to nottake any “coercive action”against her. She also sought anurgent heading in the case, asshe was apprehending her

arrest in the case.Shukla’s counsel said in

the petition: “My client is oneof the senior most officers of1988 cadre in police service formore than 30 years....Theapproach of the respondentstate is to arm-twist the peti-tioner by bogus and frivolouscase”.

“The petitioner hasexposed the nexus betweenministers and politicians andother gross corruption involvedin assigning posting to policeofficers...This reveals courageand integrity of the petitionerin performing her officialduties and making her bestendeavours to expose and elim-inate the corruption by bring-ing the guilty to books,” Nangrestated in the petition.

“Instead of applauding andappreciating the work of thepetitioner, the governmentauthorities are involved inframing the petitioner in afalse criminal case,” the petition

stated.The petition pertains to an

FIR registered by the police atthe BKC Cyber Police Stationon March 26 based on a com-plaint filed by the StateIntelligence Department (SID)against unknown persons forthe alleged illegal phone tap-ping and invoked sections ofthe Official Secrets Act,Information Technology Actand Indian Telegraph Act.

Before the BKC police reg-istered an FIR in the phonetapping case, MaharashtraChief Secretary Sitaram Kuntehad claimed in a report sub-mitted to Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray that “itappears that Ms. Shukla herselfhad leaked the confidentialreport (to the former chiefminister Devendra Fadnavis)”.

On her part, Shuklaskipped the summons issued toher to appear before the BKCon April 26 and April 28 forrecording her statement in the

case. It may be recalled that the

SID had lodged a lodged acomplaint with the police afterMaharashtra’s former chiefminister and senior BJP leaderDevendra Fadnavis had onMarch 23 gone to towndemanding a CBI inquiry intothe alleged racket involvingthe transfers and promotions ofpolice officers ranging frominspectors to high-ranging IPSofficers.

Fadnavis had made hisdemand based on a confiden-tial submitted to it in Augustlast year by the then StateIntelligence CommissionerRashmi Shukla through thethen the Director-General ofPolice Subodh Jaiswal onAugust 25, 2020 allegedlyinvolving corruption in mattersrelating to the transfers and promotions ofpolice officers ranging frominspectors to high-ranging IPSofficers.

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Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Mondayaccused the ruling BJP Government in Uttar Pradesh

of remaining in "isolation" and said the frightening picturescoming from hospitals are exposing the tall claims of ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath.

"The BJP government did nothing in past four yearsand remained in isolation due to which it has put entirestate in isolation now. The tall claims of Adityanath isexposed in frightening pictures and videos coming fromhospitals daily," Yadav said in a statement here.

He also questioned the work being done by chief min-ister's 'Team-9', saying that in some cases, entire familiesare COVID-19 positive and no one is there to take care ofthem. The SP leader also alleged that alive people are beingdeclared dead in hospitals.

"There is no proper supply of oxygen and no beds inhospitals. Hundreds of people are dying due to misman-agement and BJP government is responsible both admin-istratively and morally," Yadav said, adding that such irre-sponsible government is of no use to people.

Lucknow: In order to preventCovid surge in the rural areas inUttar Pradesh, the YogiAdityanath Government isgoing to launch a mega testingcampaign for Covid infection inall the revenue villages of thestate from May 5.

The Chief Minister, whilepresiding over a high-levelCovid review meeting, said thatthe rural areas have been a mat-ter of huge concern and we haveto protect the villages from theCovid spread.

To curb the Covid numbersin rural areas, the governmenthas decided to ramp up testingin around 97,409 revenue vil-lages of 75 districts.

The focus is to contain thespread of the infections in ruralareas."We have to protect vil-lages from Covid infection atany cost. There is a need for spe-cial vigilance in the villages. Insuch a situation, a massive cam-paign of Covid testing should beconducted in all the 97,409revenue villages of the state", hedirected. The initiative startingfrom May 4, aims to drivedown Covid-19 rates and trans-mission in the rural areas byidentifying positive cases.

The Chief Minister hasasked the officials to make allthe necessary preparations.

The number of RRTs(Rapid Response Teams) shouldbe increased to check Covidspread in the villages of each dis-trict.Members of RRTs shouldmake door-to-door visits andcheck body temperatures,record oxygen level and checkfor other symptoms in peoplewho are into home isolation.

The Chief Minister alsoordered the health departmentto complete preparations for thesuccessful implementation ofthis large testing drive whichwill begin from Tuesday.

"We are hoping that the vil-lagers will recognize the bene-fits of getting tested to helpreduce the spread of the virus,"said a governmentspokesman.

Yogi Adityanath asked theofficials to seek help from themonitoring committees. Thosewho are found unwell or thosewho tested positive, should begiven treatment according toCovid medical protocols.IANS

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Two major NGOs here thathave been providing oxy-

gen to Covid patients, haveurged their families to returnempty cylinders.

About 200 oxygen cylin-ders and 15 concentrators, pro-vided by the two nonprofitorganisations — Shri ChetraBajaj Committee and HelpAgra — are lying with peoplebeing treated in home isolation,they told PTI.

“Some people are rentingour cylinders further to otherpeople at heavy rates. When wecall them, they refuse to returnthem and tell us to keep thesecurity amount," Shri ChetraBajaj Committee SpokespersonNandkishore Goyal said,adding the security amountvaried from Rs 5,000 to Rs6,000.

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In a relief to the health author-ities, the number of Covid 19-

triggered deaths in Maharashtradropped further to 567 onMonday, while the state logged48,621 new infections.

A day after the state record-ed 669 deaths and 56,647 newcases, the daily deaths droppedby 102 while the infectionscame down by 8026.

The drop in the number ofdaily deaths in the state shouldbe seen in the context of the factthat the daily deaths had goneup to 10-35 on April 28, whilethe state witnessed 802 deathson May 1 and 669 deaths onMay 2. With 567 new deaths,the total number of deaths in thestate climbed from 70,284 to70851. Similarly, with 48,621infections, the total number ofcases rose from 47,22,401 to47,71,022.

As 59,500 patients weredischarged from the hospitalsacross the state after full recov-ery, the total number of peopledischarged from the hospitalssince the second week of Marchlast year went up to 40,41,158.The recovery rate in the state forthe first time in several days rosefrom 84.31 per cent to 84.7 percent.

The total “active cases” inthe state dropped from 6,68,353to 6,56,870 cases. The fatalityrate in the state stood static at

1.49 per cent.With 78 fresh deaths, the

Covid-19 toll in Mumbaiincreased from 13,294 to 13,372,

while the infected cases went upby 2624 to trigger a jump in theinfections from 6,55,997 to6,58,621.

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Concerned by the suddendecrease in the number of

Covid-19 tests being conduct-ed in the metropolis, MumbaiMunicipal Commissioner I SChahal on Monday appealedto the citizens in the city tocome forward to get tested sothat “a minimum of 40,000tests are done every day” in thecountry’s commercial capital.

In an appeal made on aday when the number of dailyCovid-19 tests dropped to23,542 as against 56,000 testsdone in a single day themetropolis last month, Chahalsaid: “It has been the consistentpolicy of MCGM to do maxi-mum testing to flush outCorona virus from Mumbai’senvironment”.

“Our highest single daytesting from March 2020 till10th Feb 10, 2021 when sec-ond pandemic wave hitMumbai was 24,500,” the civicchief said.

“However, immediatelythereafter our testing was morethan doubled & touched 56000tests on a single day in April2021. Our average daily testingin the month of April’21 wasnearly 44000 per day,” Chahalsaid.

“It has been observed thatthe testing figures have fallenin last few days from 50,000plus to 38000 day before &28,000 yesterday. It’s likely tofall further during weekends,”the civic chief said in themorning.

As per the Covid-19update released by theBirhanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC), the num-ber of Covid-19 tests done ona single day dropped to 23,542on Monday.

“Our aggressive testingpolicy has resulted in reduc-tion of the positivity rate. Thismight have reduced the naturaldemand for home collection ofswabs by our citizens in the lastfew days,” Chahal said.

Jammu: In a shocking incident, par-ents of a 2-month-old dead Covid pos-itive baby abandoned the body at a hos-pital in Jammu district and fled, an offi-cial said on Monday.

S.M.G.S. Hospital MedicalSuperintendent, Dr Dara Singh, said theparents ran away from thehospital. "The baby was admitted to thehospital on Sunday with congenitalheart disease and other problems. Thebaby, who had tested positive forCovid-19, expired and the parentswere told to test themselves for thevirus. Instead of testing themselves ortaking the dead baby's body, theparents ran away from the hospital," hesaid.

"Our efforts to trace them havefailed so far and we have kept the bodyin the hospital mortuary. IANS

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people to a higher ground andsafety, like we should have ifthis were a real tsunami, wewere mesmerised and walkedinto the exposed seafloor,trying to pick up coral andseashells. We travelled to Goa,crowded planes and airportsand instead of managing trav-el from hotspots like theUnited Kingdom, or evendomestic travel, we “celebrat-ed” the rising numbers of airpassengers through tweets.Instead of restricting air trav-el, either within India, fromIndia or into India, weallowed hundreds of people tocome in likely carrying newand exotic variants of thevirus. The world, however, isscared of the new variantsemerging from India and haspretty much closed its doorsto India.

Some of us had read aboutthe sudden rise in cases inBrazil, starting with theAmazonian city of Manausand spreading across thatSouth American country, andwondered whether India toocould see such a tremendous-ly debilitating tsunami ofcases. Instead, we were toldstories of Indian exceptional-ism, how India had beaten

back the virus and taking a cuefrom our leaders, across fieldsfrom politics to sports, we alllet our guard down. Instead ofunderstanding why India wasspared the “full” impact of theoriginal Coronavirus, werolled out a gradual vaccineprogramme and indeed madea song and dance aboutexporting millions of vac-cines abroad. Nothing againstIndia’s generosity to the world,but maybe here following amore selfish American philos-ophy might have ensured thatmore people in India werevaccinated and the death tollfrom this outbreak might havebeen less.

Yes, a large majority ofthose who have died wereelderly and had led full lives,and while many of themmight have died in this tsuna-mi also, the issue is that a largenumber of people who diedneed not have died had thearrangements for more bedsand oxygen been made earli-er. Yes, the system might stillhave been overwhelmed,meaning that those whocaught the disease early ben-efited from more resourcesbut if the special COVID-19hospitals in Delhi and

Mumbai had been establisheda week earlier, if a properlogistical programme hadbeen thought out for oxygentransport a month earlier,many lives might have beensaved. The Government isgoing around tom-tommingIndia’s “low” COVID-19Fatality Rate; in fact, with a bitof planning and organisa-tion, it could have been lowerstill.

The fact of the matter isthat we saw the warning signsbut chose to ignore these; weall bought into the story ofIndian exceptionalism. Weblithely chose to ignore whatwas happening elsewhere inthe world and believed thatonce we all start getting vac-cinated, things will get evenbetter. We went ahead andplanned for massive religiousfunctions like theMahakumbh, we had partieson Holi and we put ourselvesat risk. We ignored the warn-ing signs, even though thesewere in plain sight for all of usto see. No wonder, now wefind ourselves drowning in atsunami.

(The author is ManagingEditor, The Pioneer. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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Anybody who has seenvideos of the horrific2004 tsunami thatkilled an estimated

quarter of a million people, andthere are several of these onYouTube, might have noticed insome videos that as much as 10-15 minutes before the tsunamiactually hit the shore, waterhad started withdrawing fromthe beach. The students of mid-dle-school geography willremember that it is taught as aclassic warning sign of animpending tsunami; and we areactually taught at a very early agethat one needs to find higherground in such a situation. Thislesson is redoubled in manycoastal areas. Maybe some peo-ple did seek shelter when theynoticed this, many did not. Yes,the tsunami might have gottenmany of those who escapedanyway; it was so devastatingthat running away could do onlyso much. But even if it saved afew lives, the lessons in schoolwould have been worth it.

That was a real tsunami,what we have in India right nowis not a second wave of COVID-19 infections. We have an over-whelming tsunami of COVID-19 infections and, in Delhi andin many other cities acrossIndia, the healthcare system isoverwhelmed. We know that atleast 3,500 people are dyingevery day, at least in official sta-tistics. India is inching up to2,50,000 deaths and almostevery family in Delhi at leastknows either a loved one or aclose friend who has died fromthe Coronavirus Tsunami.While the authorities now strug-gle with managing the situation,we have to start taking intoaccount as to why we all ignoredthe warning signs.

And these were there. Thesewere there for all of us to see andread about in the news. Weknew there was a deadly newBritish variant doing the rounds;we knew that there was a new“double mutant” variant. Evenwith limited testing, we knewthat there were hotspots emerg-ing in and around Mumbai andPune. But instead of herding

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SOUNDBITE�������������� ����������Sir —The Indian Premier League (IPL)match between archrivals Mumbai Indians(MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK)recently was a perfect entertainer and cer-tainly the match of this season so far.Kieron Pollard’s stunning onslaught tookthe Mumbai Indians to an improbable winin a run-fest. The defeat also ended theSuper Kings’ five-match winning streak.

The MI came out with flying colours ina last-ball thriller. With 138 needed from thelast 10 overs, they knew there was just oneway to go about it and, in Pollard, they foundthe man to pursue the Herculean task. Hemuscled Jadeja for three sixes in the 13thover before smashing two more off LungiNgidi in the next. By the end of 14 overs,Mumbai were 130 for three. At the samestage in their innings, the Super Kings were126 for four. Pollard raced away to 50 in 17balls, the fifth joint-fastest in the IPL, andreduced the equation to 66 required fromthe last five overs. A match that witnessedan equal number of fours and sixes (30 each)is absolutely a bad memory for the bowlers.Remarkably, both teams displayed trueteamwork to arrive at such a mammothtotal. But Rayudu and Moeen Ali from CSKand Pollard and Krunal Pandya from MIdeserve special applause. Let’s hope the rich-est cash league will offer the best entertain-ment in the remainder of the series.

Satish Reddy Kanaganti | Nalgonda

���� ��������������������Sir — Winning over the first wave ofCOVID-19 was no mean feat for India.Buoyed by it, New Delhi started vaccinediplomacy to help other nations during thecrisis. However, things turned upsidedown as the second wave hit us hard andsent our healthcare system reeling. Somesceptics applaud other countries for beat-ing the second wave and compare it withIndia’s “failure”. However, we must keep inmind that we have a huge population andthere are several other barriers. Despite allthe constraints, our recovery rate is far bet-ter and mortality rate is too low. Even theUS and Russia, among the developed

nations with top medical infrastructure,were devastated by the second wave.

The Centre and State Governments aredoing their best to fight the pandemic andutilising their resources to the optimum.The services of final-year MBBS studentscan be utilised for providing services liketele-consultation and monitoring of mildCOVID cases after due orientation by andunder supervision of faculty. It’s time forall of us to work together and overcomethe pandemic. The darkness will soon goaway if every citizen follows the rules andprecautions at individual level.

Aman Jaiswal | New Delhi

��� ���������� � �� ����Sir — These Tamil Nadu Assembly elec-tions were the first time in the last fivedecades without the towering presence ofthe icons of Dravidian politics. This time,the State may well have seen the emergence

of one, perhaps two, new icons. Now theState has newly elected MLA and to-be-Chief Minister M K Stalin who is well suit-ed for this new generation and for theDMK. He is 68 years old and has finallyreached where he wanted to be for five longdecades in the shadow of his father and oneof the leading lights of the Dravidian move-ment, the late Muthuvel Karunanidhi.

However, the AIADMK hasn’t done asbadly as was expected, especially with theweight of an alliance with the BJP whichwas more like a liability. Stalin, because ofhis genealogy, long years in politics andtwo successive wins, in 2019, when theDMK-led grouping won 38 of the 39 LokSabha seats in the State, and now, can stakeclaim to being the next Dravidian icon.

Anshita Rochwani | Ujjain

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Under the ‘Liberalised Pricing andAccelerated National COVID-19Vaccination Strategy (LPANCVS)’,

announced on April 19, which was kicked offfrom May 1, the Centre has plans to vaccinateall adults above 18 years of age. Before this, theinoculation drive that was launched on January16, covered healthcare and frontline workers andpeople above 50 years of age and those withcomorbidities. In the second phase of the drivethe age limit was brought down to those above45. Vaccine manufacturers were giving all theirsupplies to the Government of India (GOI) andcharging �150 per dose even as the latter wasarranging for inoculation of eligible people freeat Government vaccination centres (GVCs).However, those opting to get vaccinated at pri-vate hospitals needed to pay �250 per dose. TheGOI incurred a subsidy on vaccination done atGVCs equal to �150 per dose, plus the cost ofadministering it. It was funded from the UnionBudget.

Even as the above arrangement involved dif-ferential pricing, like free for those who got vac-cinated at GVCs and others getting the jab at pri-vate hospitals for a price, the proposed systemfrom this month is much more complex. Underit, of its total supply, the vaccine manufacturerwould give 50 per cent to the GOI at the rate of�150 per dose and make the remaining 50 percent available to State Governments, private hos-pitals, industrial establishments at a price to bedeclared in advance (the price charged for vac-cination by private hospitals would be moni-tored). People can make an “informed” choiceat the time of booking an appointment at a pri-vate vaccination centre.

The vaccines will not be available for sale atpharmacists or chemist shops in the open mar-ket. The present system of private hospitals inoc-ulating those above 45 years for �250 per dosewill cease to exist as they will no longer be get-ting any supplies from the GOI quota and willhave to procure directly from vaccine manufac-turers at the price notified by the latter.

Meanwhile, the manufacturers haveannounced prices they intend to charge from theState Governments and private hospitals. TheSerum Institute of India (SII), the maker ofCovishield, will charge �300 per dose on sup-plies to States and �600 per dose from privatehospitals. Bharat Biotech, the maker of Covaxin,will charge �400 per dose from States and �1,200per dose on supplies to private hospitals. Bothwill continue to supply to the GOI at the rate of�150 per dose (this is as per a statement issuedby Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Healthand Family Welfare).

Putting all pieces together, there will be aminimum of five prices for the COVID-19 vac-cination dose i.e. zero, �300, �400, �600, �1,200(the cost to the recipients will be higher by anamount equal to the “service charge” levied bythe State Governments/private hospitals tocover the cost of administering the vaccine)depending on the vaccine type and the channelthrough which it is done.

Meanwhile, more vaccines like Sputnik V,Nasal Covaxin and so on, are are expected to getapproval shortly. But those are likely to be priced

even higher. The earlier arrange-ment was far from optimal as itentailed differential treatment ofeligible people depending on theplace they got the jab. While,those going to GVCs got it free,others opting for private hospitalspaid �250 per dose. Even as theinvolvement of private hospitalswas justified in view of the need tocover a large number (there are300 million in the 45 plus group)within a short time frame, puttinga price tag to it and that too �100over and above the price they paidto manufacturers militated againstthis objective. Indeed, this was apotent factor behind dismal resultsthus far with only about 20 millionin a total of 300 million having gotboth the shots (even as other fac-tors such as the initial vaccine hes-itancy among the public at large asalso supply constraints were equal-ly responsible).

Under the new regime, even asthe facility of getting a jab for �250per dose at private hospitals forpersons in the 45 years plus cate-gory has been withdrawn, theCentral Government wants over500 million people (50 per cent ofabout one billion of the adult pop-ulation i.e. over 18 years whom itexpects to get jabs from States andprivate hospitals’ quota) to pay aprice high enough to destabilisethe budget of even a middleincome family.

Consider the following twoscenario: First, let’s take the low-est in the price spectrum i.e.

Covishield — supplied for �300per dose to States. Add servicecharge of �200 per dose (67 percent of the price; this is the mark-up applied to �150 per dose beingthe price billed to private hospitalsunder the erstwhile dispensation),the recipient will pay �500 perdose. For two doses, this comes to�1,000. A family of four will haveto shell out �4,000.

At another extreme, considerCovaxin supplied for �1,200 perdose to private hospitals. Plusservice charge, the recipient willpay �2,000 per dose. For twodoses, this will be �4,000. In thiscase, the dent on this family’s bud-get will be �16,000.

Given the high prices at Statecentres and much higher at privatehospitals and considering thatvaccination from the GOI quota(50 per cent of total supply) is forfree, people will tend to gravitatetowards the latter. The clamour forgetting vaccinated at GVCs will beso pronounced as to cause a com-plete breakdown of this network.This could be averted if only theState Governments decide to dofree inoculation even out of thepaid quota; however, this willrequire them to give heavy subsidyfrom the State Budget.

Already, some States likeMaharashtra, Delhi and so on haveannounced their intent to give itall free and others are likely to fol-low suit. If, it has to be free for allinvolving subsidisation by theCentre or States then why go

through such a cumbersomeroute?

Considering that the crisis is ofan unprecedented magnitude(once in a lifetime) afflicting theentire population, there is a direneed for vaccinating at least onebillion within the shortest possi-ble time frame and given the pit-falls of differentiated pricing, theCentre should opt for inoculatingeveryone free of charge.

Apart from GVCs, all otherstakeholders like the State healthfacilities, private hospitals, indus-trial establishments and so onshould be involved in the vaccina-tion drive. They can pick up theirrequirements directly from themanufacturers even as the GOIdoes overall coordination, negoti-ates a good price and makes pay-ment.

Given the mammoth numbersi.e. two billion doses, a price of�200 per dose should be goodenough to cover the cost and givegood return to the manufacturers(here, it is pertinent to recall astatement by Adar Poonawalla,CEO, SII, “the firm was making aprofit even at a price of �150 perdose”). The cost of purchase i.e.about �40,000 crore can be metfrom the allocation of �35,000crore made in the Union Budgetfor 2021-22 (an additional �5,000crore would be needed to make upfor the deficit). As for the “servicecharge” for vaccination, this costmay be paid by the States fromtheir Budgets.

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Joseph Needham a brilliantBritish bio-chemist whohad obtained a doctorate

from Cambridge Universityin 1925, visited China severaltimes. In his book ‘Science andCivilisation in China’ Needhamposed the problem, known as“Needham’s grand question”, inrespect of China, but whichapplies equally to India.

The question is this: Whydid China (and India), whichwere far ahead of Westerncountries in science and tech-nology at one time, later fellbehind, did not have an indus-trial revolution, became back-ward and consequently victimsof imperialism and colonisa-tion?

There is no doubt thatboth India and China were atone time far ahead of theWestern countries in scienceand technology. China invent-ed gunpowder, the magneticcompass, paper and printing,

which, according to FrancisBacon, were the three mostimportant inventions facili-tating Europe to pass from thedark Middle Ages to theModern age. But why didChina’s progress in scienceand technology stop there-after? According to Needhamit could have been theConfucian philosophy, whichwas incompatible with scien-tific development, which wasresponsible for this. But is thisexplanation not superficial?

As for India, it was farahead of the West in ancienttimes. Indians invented thedecimal system in mathemat-ics, which was one of the rev-olutionary inventions in histo-ry. The numerals in the deci-mal system were known asArabic numerals by theWesterners, but the Arabscalled them Indian numerals.Were they really Arabic orIndian? To answer this we

may note that the languagesArabic, Persian, and Urdu arewritten from right to left. Butif we ask an Arab, Persian, orUrdu writer, to write any num-ber (say 259 or 1,379) he willwrite it from left to right. Thisindicates that these numberswere taken from a languagewhich is written from left toright. And now it is accepteduniversally that the decimalsystem and the number zero,was invented in India.

The importance of zerocan be understood by consid-ering the following: Theancient Romans built a greatcivilisation of Caesar andAugustus. But if we were to askan ancient Roman to write thenumber one million he wouldhave been stumped. The rea-son for this is that the ancientRomans wrote their numbersin alphabets, V standing forfive, X standing for ten, L for50, C for 100, D for 500, and

M for 1,000 (or millennium).There was no alphabet express-ing a number greater than1,000. So if an ancient Romanhad to write 2,000 he wouldhave to write MM and if hewanted to write one million hehad to write M a 1,000 times.

On the other hand, accord-ing to the system invented byIndians, to write one millionthey had only to write one and

then put six zeros after that.The ancient Greeks andRomans just did not have theimagination to conceive of anumber called zero. By usingzero our ancestors could con-ceive of astronomically largenumbers. Thus, 1,000 hadthree zeros after one. If we addtwo more zeros we get one lakhand so on.

Aryabhatta, who reputed-ly lived in the 5th Century ADworked on quadratic equa-tions, the binomial theoremand calculated the value of pieto a fairly accurate degree. Healso made significant contribu-tions to astronomy, being per-haps the first person in theworld to prove that the Earthrotates on its axis, thus causingday and night.

Brahmagupta and Bhaskaralso made great contributionsin mathematics and so on. Inmedical science India was atleast 1,000, if not 1,500, years

ahead of any country. Thus,Sushrut, the father of surgery,invented plastic surgery in the6th century BC while theBritishers discovered it onlytowards the end of the 18thcentury AD during the Anglo-Mysore wars, and that too,from a traditional physicianwho lived near Pune.

The harbour at Lothal inGujarat, which is regarded asquite modern in its construc-tion, was built around 5,000years ago, and is regarded aspart of the Indus valley civili-sation. Why, then, did we fallbehind the West? Why did wenot have an industrial revolu-tion? Why was our advance inscience and technologyblocked, while Europe pro-duced Copernicus, Galileo,Kepler, Newton, Descartes,Robert Boyle, Cavendish,Priestly, Lavoisier, Maxwell,Gauss, Max Planck,Rutherford, Heisenberg, Pauli,

Niels Bohr, Einstein,Schrodinger, Chadwick,Madam Curie, Otto Hahn inphysics, chemistry and math-ematics, William Harvey, Ross,and so on in medicine,Edmond Halley and so on inastronomy, James Hutton inGeology, Linnaeus, Buffon,and Darwin in biology, and soon. No doubt we produced CVRaman, Srinivasa Ramanujan,Chandrashekhar, S Bose and soon but these are just a handful

What happened that madein the history of India thedevelopment of science andtechnology less important(after the great burst of scien-tific creativity in ancient India),while in the West it becamemore important? This mysteryis yet to be solved. Were therecultural, economic, or histor-ical factors involved in thisdeceleration in learning? Alot of scientific investigation iscalled for.

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An ethnic rebel group innorthern Myanmar said it

shot down a Government mil-itary helicopter on Mondayduring heavy fighting over astrategic position.

The claim by the KachinIndependence Army came asprotests against Myanmar'smilitary government continuedin Kachin State and elsewherein the country. It would be thefirst aircraft shot down duringrecent hostilities between thegovernment and ethnic guer-rilla armies. There was noimmediate comment by thegovernment on the incident.

The Kachin are one of sev-eral ethnic minorities whohave allied themselves withthe nationwide protest move-ment against the military'sFebruary ouster of the electedgovernment of Aung San Suu

Kyi, who was arrested andremains in detention. Thecountry's ethnic minoritieshave been fighting for decadesagainst the central governmentfor greater autonomy.

Government offences areunderway against the Kachinand the Karen, another ethnicminority in eastern Myanmarthat maintains its own armedforce and also has been the tar-get of airstrikes. The fighting inKachin and Karen states hasdisplaced more than 45,000 vil-lagers.

Col Naw Bu, a spokesmanfor the Kachin IndependenceArmy, said his group's forcesshot down the aircraft aftergovernment forces used heli-copters and jet fighters in anattack on Momauk township,where the Kachin seized a baseat the foot of Alaw Bum moun-tain from the government onMarch 25.

A video on social mediasaid to be of the helicoptershows, at a great distance, anaircraft diving as the sounds ofheavy weapons are heard. Asthe helicopter continues a steepdescent, it appears to catch fireand leaves a trail of smoke. Thevideo, and another taken from

a distance showing smoke fromwhat was said to be the crashsite, could not be indepen-dently verified.

Naw Bu said it was the firstaircraft shot down in what hasbecome a fierce battle lastingalmost two weeks after thegovernment attacked withheavy artillery and fighter jets.

“Good news! Our prayerhas been answered. KIA shotdown a terrorist's helicopter,”Hkanhpa Sadan, foreign sec-retary of the guerrilla army'saffiliated Kachin NationalOrganisation, said on Twitter.Opponents of the military gov-ernment routinely refer to itsforces as “terrorists”.

The ruling junta continuesto also face a challenge in thecities and towns of Myanmar,where street protests are stillbeing held more than threemonths after it seized power.

Security forces often use

lethal force to break up theprotests. The AssistanceAssociation for PoliticalPrisoners, which tracks deathsand arrests, said at least fivecivilians were killed Sunday onwhat protesters declared wasGlobal Myanmar SpringRevolution Day.

The organisation said secu-rity forces have now killed 765protesters and bystanders. Thegovernment puts the death tollat about one-third that figureand says its actions are justifiedto stop what it calls rioting.

The government also haskept up targeted arrests ofactivists and other people itconsiders to be behind theresistance movement. TheAssistance Association says3,555 people have beendetained since the army'sseizure of power. About 40journalists are among thosebeing held.

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The US will never waver inits commitment to prevent

another terror attack on thecountry and to keep theAmerican people safe,President Joe Biden has vowed,as he marked the 10th anniver-sary of the killing of Osama binLaden in Pakistan.

The al Qaeda leader whoevaded justice for 10 yearsafter the terror attacks ofSeptember 11, 2001 met hisend in a covert raid by US spe-cial operations forces on May1, 2011 in the Pakistani garri-son city of Abbottabad.

In a statement on Sunday,Biden, then Vice President,recalled that he joinedPresident Barack Obama andmembers of the national secu-rity team, crowded into theSituation Room of the WhiteHouse in 2011 to watch as theUS military delivered long-awaited justice to bin Laden.

"It is a moment I will neverforget," Biden said, while prais-ing the intelligence profes-sionals who had painstakinglytracked bin Laden down; the

clarity and conviction ofPresident Obama in makingthe call; the courage and skillof the American team on theground.

"It had been almost tenyears since our nation wasattacked on 9/11 and we wentto war in Afghanistan, pursu-ing al Qaeda and its leaders. Wefollowed bin Laden to the gatesof hell — and we got him.

"We kept the promise to allthose who lost loved ones on9/11: that we would never for-get those we had lost, and thatthe United States will neverwaver in our commitment toprevent another attack on ourhomeland and to keep theAmerican people safe," thepresident said.

Biden noted that as a resultof the efforts taken the US, hisadministration was bringing toan end the country's longestwar and draw down the last of

the American troops fromAfghanistan where al Qaeda isnow a "greatly degraded" terrorgroup.

The US and NATO for-mally began withdrawing theirlast troops from Afghanistanon Saturday, according toWhite House and military offi-cials. President Biden set May1, 2021 as the official date onwhich the remaining troopswould begin pulling out,although the military has beenflying equipment out of thecountry in recent weeks,according to US media reports.

There are between 2,500-3,500 US troops and about7,000 North Atlantic TreatyOrganisation (NATO) soldiersremaining in Afghanistan, thelast of whom will leave the war-torn country by the end ofSeptember.

Under a deal signed lastyear between the Taliban mil-itants and the administration offormer president DonaldTrump, foreign forces were tohave left by May 1 while theTaliban held off attacking inter-national troops.

Biden last month pushedback the May 1 pullout, sayingsome troops would stay onuntil September 11 this year,the 20th anniversary of the 9/11attacks, citing the security sit-uation.

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Saudi Arabia's King Salmanappointed a new Economy

Minister and named his eldestliving son as a special adviserin a series of royal decreesissued early on Monday.

The king named Faisal al-Ibrahim as the minister ofeconomy and planning, a movethat promotes him from hispost as deputy minister inwhich he'd served as sinceearly 2018.

Al-Ibrahim has previouslyheld jobs with Aramco and inthe country's Council ofEconomic Affairs andDevelopment, according toSaudi state media reports.

Finance MinisterMohammed al-Jadaan hadbeen serving as the actingminister of economy since lastyear. In another decree pub-lished in state media, KingSalman appointed PrinceSultan bin Salman as a specialadviser to his father.

The prince had been headof the Saudi Space Authority,leaning on his experience as thefirst Arab astronaut to go tospace in 1985.

The space authority willnow be chaired by Abdullah al-Swaha, who is also the minis-ter of communications andinformation technology.

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Top Biden administrationofficials and US senators

crisscrossed the Middle East onMonday, seeking to assuagegrowing unease among GulfArab partners over America'sre-engagement with Iran andother policy shifts in the region.

The trips come as the U.S.And Iran, through intermedi-aries in Vienna, discuss a returnto Tehran's tattered 2015 nucleardeal with world powers thatformer President Donald Trumpabandoned three years ago.

The United Arab Emirates,Saudi Arabia and other Gulfallies, excluded from Obama-era nuclear negotiations, haverepeatedly pressed for a seat atthe table, insisting that anyreturn to the accord mustaddress Iran's ballistic missileprogram and support forregional proxies.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.,a key Biden ally dispatched onoverseas diplomatic missions,told reporters in the UAE's cap-ital of Abu Dhabi that he hopedto allay the sheikhdom's“understandable and legitimateconcerns” about the return tothe landmark deal and to cre-ate “broader engagement” withGulf partners.

Coons said “close consul-

tation” with the UAE about theongoing talks in Vienna was“important, expected and hap-pening," adding that he hopesthe Emiratis “may not just benotified, but actually help.”

What that means remainsunclear, as Gulf states nowwatch with resignation as nego-tiations gain traction in theAustrian capital. When askedto elaborate, Coons balked atthe suggestion that the UAE'sinput had acquired any greatersignificance in talks with Iranover the last five years.

“I did not in any way meanto suggest that there was somedeal in the works where theEmiratis would be securinganything,” he said. “Vienna isthe place where the UnitedStates government, the admin-istration, is negotiating.”

Regional tensions are ris-ing. To pressure the Bidenadministration to lift sanctionsand come back into compliancewith the deal, Iran has steadi-ly violated the accord's limita-tions on nuclear enrichmentand stockpiles of enriched ura-nium. The long shadow warbetween Israel and the Iran hasintensified, with suspectedIsraeli attacks on Iranian shipsin volatile Mideast waterwaysand at Iran's Natanz nuclearfacility.

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San Diego: The Biden admin-istration said on Monday thatfour families that were separat-ed at the Mexico border duringDonald Trump's presidency willbe reunited in the United Statesthis week in what HomelandSecurity Secretary AlejandroMayorkas calls “just the begin-ning” of a broader effort.

Two of the four familiesinclude mothers who were sep-arated from their children inlate 2017, one Honduran andanother Mexican, Mayorkassaid, declining to detail theiridentities. He described themas children who were 3 yearsold at the time and “teenagerswho have had to live withouttheir parent during their mostformative years”.

Parents will return to theUnited States on humanitarianparole while authorities con-sider other longer-term formsof legal status, said MichelleBrane, executive director of theadministration's FamilyReunification Task Force. Thechildren are already in the USexactly how many families willreunite in the United States andin what order is linked tonegotiations with the AmericanCivil Liberties Union to settlea federal lawsuit in San Diego,but Mayorkas said there were

more to come.“We continue to work tire-

lessly to reunite many morechildren with their parents inthe weeks and months ahead,”Mayorkas told reporters aheadof the announcement. "Wehave a lot of work still to do, butI am proud of the progress wehave made and the reunifica-tions that we have helped toachieve this week.”

More than 5,000 childrenwere separated from their par-ents during the Trump admin-istration going back to July 1,2017, many of them under a“zero-tolerance” policy to crim-inally prosecute any adult whoentered the country illegally,according to court filings. TheBiden administration is doingits own count going back toTrump's inauguration inJanuary 2017 and, according toBrane, believes more than 1,000families remain separated.

While family separationunder “zero-tolerance” endedin June 2018 under court orderand shortly after Trumpreversed course, Biden hasrepeatedly assailed the practiceas an act of cruelty. An execu-tive order on his first day inoffice pledged to reunite fam-ilies that were still separated “tothe greatest extent possible.” AP

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The European Union hassummoned Russia's ambas-

sador after Moscow blacklistedeight EU officials in retaliationfor the bloc's decision to imposesanctions over the imprison-ment of Russian oppositionleader Alexei Navalny.

The Russian listannounced Friday includesEuropean Parliament PresidentDavid Sassoli and Vera Jourova,a vice president of theEuropean Commission whosebrief includes rule of law issuesand disinformation.

European Commissionspokesman Peter Stano saidthat Ambassador VladimirChizhov would meet inBrussels later Monday with

senior EU officials who “willconvey to him our strong con-demnation and rejection ofthis decision.”

Stano said the Russian-imposed travel bans are “obvi-ously very politically motivat-ed and lack any legal justifica-tion. They are groundless.” Hesaid that “this all shows thatRussia is determined to con-tinue the hostile track of con-frontation.”

Russia's foreign ministryhas accused the EU of wanti-ng to punish Moscow for its“independent foreign anddomestic policies” and of try-ing to limit its developmentwith “unlawful restrictions.”

EU foreign ministers willdiscuss tensions with Russiawhen they meet on May 10.

Niamey (Niger): An ambushon a military patrol near Niger'sborder with Mali killed 16Niger soldiers and left onemissing, the government said.

The patrol was returningfrom a security mission nearthe border with Mali in Tilliain the northern part of Niger'sTahoua region when it wasattacked by a band of men rid-ing motorcycles on Saturdayevening, the Ministry ofInterior said in a statement lateSunday. Six other soldiers werewounded in the ambush.

Niger's military also inter-cepted a group of suspectedextremists Friday night, killingat least 24 who were preparingto attack Baibangou, a villageabout 100 kilometers (62 miles)north of the capital, Niamey,

according to a statement fromthe ministry of defense.

“While in police custody,before being transported toNiamey, the suspected terror-ists tried to escape around 4a.M. And 24 of them were shotdead by the army,” the defenseministry said.

Both incidents are beingofficially investigated.

Niger and neighboringBurkina Faso and Mali arebattling the spread of deadlyextremist violence from groupslinked to al-Qaida and theIslamic State group.

The increasing violencehas killed thousands of peopleand displaced hundreds ofthousands despite the pres-ence of regional and interna-tional troops. AP

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Israeli settlers attacked aPalestinian village in the

occupied West Bank overnight,setting brush fires and hurlingstones, Palestinian officials andan Israeli rights group saidMonday.

It appeared to be a revengeattack after three Israelis werewounded in a drive-by shoot-ing at a nearby traffic junctionon Sunday.

The Israeli human rightsgroup B'Tselem said dozens ofsettlers attacked the village ofJaloud. It circulated videosshowing the fires, with peopleshouting in the background.Israeli security forces arrested11 Palestinians and four peo-ple were wounded by rubberbullets, B'Tselem said.

Ghassan Daghlas, aPalestinian Authority officialwho monitors settlement activ-ity in the northern West Bank,provided a similar account,saying the villagers had comeout to defend the village afterthe settlers attacked.

The Israeli military saidIsraeli civilians and Palestinianshurled rocks at each other out-side the village and that “anumber of locations were ignit-ed.” It did not provide details onwhat triggered the violence. Itsaid around 10 people weredetained, but did not identifythem.

Radical Israeli settlers havebeen known to carry out so-called “price tag” attacks onPalestinian communities inresponse to violence or per-ceived Israeli plans to restrictsettlement activity.

Israel captured the WestBank in the 1967 war, and thePalestinians want it to form themain part of their future state.Nearly 5,00,000 Israeli settlerslive in more than 100 settle-ments scattered across the WestBank, which is home to some2.5 million Palestinians.

Dhaka: An overcrowdedspeedboat ferrying over 30passengers and defying theCovid-19 restrictions capsisedafter hitting a stationary sand-laden cargo vessel in the PadmaRiver on Monday, leaving atleast 26 people dead, a seniorBangladesh police officer said.

The accident occurred at theold Kanthalbari ferry terminal inShibchar upazila of Madaripurat around 8 am. The boat, dri-ven by an inexperienced driver,overturned in the Padma Riverin central Bangladesh whileheading for Madaripur districtfrom Munshiganj district.Rescuers have retrieved at least26 bodies, police said.

"We have retrieved 26 bod-ies, rescued alive five others . ..

But searches are underwayfor more as several speedboatpassengers are feared miss-ing," said Ashiqur Rahman, thepolice inspector of a nearbyferry terminal. PTI

Brussels: In an announcementsure to be welcomed by travel-ers worldwide, EU officials onMonday proposed easingrestrictions on visiting the 27-nation bloc as vaccinationcampaigns across the continentgather speed. Travel to theEuropean Union is currentlyextremely limited except for ahandful of countries with lowinfection rates.

But with the summertourist season looming, thebloc's European Commissionhopes the new recommenda-tions will dramatically expandthat list. The Commissionhopes the move will soon allowtravelers reunite with theirfriends and relatives living inEurope and support the bloc'seconomy this summer.

“Time to revive EUtourism industry and for cross-border friendships to rekindle— safely,” EuropeanCommission President Ursulavon der Leyen said. AP

���� +5�'17�45

Australia's Prime MinisterScott Morrison on Monday

defended his government'sdecision to ban and impose ajail term and a penalty forAustralians trying to returnfrom India, saying it is in thecountry's “best interests” and toprevent a third wave of infec-tions.

The Australian govern-ment, for the first time in his-tory, recently imposed a ban onits citizens from returninghome, if they have spent timein India up to 14 days beforeflying back.

The government threat-ened to prosecute them with apossibility of five years of jailterm or a penalty of 66,000Australian dollars (USD50,899).

Colombo: Sri Lanka's AttorneyGeneral on Monday slapped800 charges against two top for-mer security officials for theirfailure to prevent the deadly 2019Easter Sunday bomb attacks inwhich over 270 people, includ-ing 11 Indians, were killed.

The charges were unveiledin the Colombo High Court bythe country's top law officerDappula de Livera against for-mer official in the defenceministry Hemasiri Fernandoand former chief of policePujith Jayasundera.

The duo has been accusedof neglecting the prior intelli-gence input on the impending

attacks, thereby failing to pre-vent the loss of life.

Nine suicide bombers,belonging to local Islamistextremist group NationalThawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linkedto ISIS, carried out coordinat-ed blasts that tore throughthree churches and as manyluxury hotels in Sri Lanka onthe Easter Sunday in 2019.

A special presidential panelrecently recommended thatcriminal action be takenagainst both Fernando,Jayasundera and several othersenior defense officials, includ-ing former presidentMaithripala Sirisena. PTI

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TRabi Sankar on Mondaytook over as the new

Deputy Governor of theReserve Bank of India for aperiod of three years, the cen-tral bank said in a statement.

Sankar has filled thevacancy created after the retire-ment of B P Kanungo on April2.

The other three deputygovernors are Michael D Patra,who heads the all-importantmonetary policy department;Mukesh Kumar Jain, the com-mercial banker-turned-centralbanker; and Rajeshwar Rao.

Sankar wasExecutive Director of theReserve Bank before being ele-vated to the post of deputy gov-ernor.

The AppointmentsCommittee of the Cabinetcleared Sankar’s appointmentas the new RBI deputy gover-nor on Saturday.

“In pursuance with theGovernment of India notifica-tion dated May 3, 2021, TRabi Sankar took over as theDeputy Governor of ReserveBank of India today for a peri-od of three years or until fur-ther orders, whichever is ear-lier,” the RBI said.

���� +7+'��

Equity benchmark Sensexstaged a smart recovery

from the day’s low to end withmarginal losses on Monday,propped up by robust buying inFMCG and telecom counters.

Reliance Industries andbanking stocks accounted formost of the losses, while arebounding rupee also provid-ed support, traders said.

After plunging over 750points in early trade, the 30-share BSE index made a U-turnto finish 63.84 points or 0.13per cent lower at 48,718.52.

In similar movement, thebroader NSE Nifty closed 3.05points or 0.02 per cent higherat 14,634.15.

Titan was the top laggardin the Sensex pack, shedding4.58 per cent, followed byIndusInd Bank, RelianceIndustries, Axis Bank, KotakBank, ITC, SBI, ONGC andICICI Bank.

On the other hand, BhartiAirtel, HUL, Maruti, BajajFinance, Asian Paints, NTPC

and Nestle India were amongthe gainers, climbing up to 3.98per cent.

“Domestic equities recov-ered sharply from day’s lowdespite weak global cues. Whilegrowing uncertainties aboutcollection efficiency and assetquality of banks/NBFCsdragged heavy weight finan-cials, strong buying in FMCGand Metals supported recoveryin markets,” said Binod Modi,Head Strategy at RelianceSecurities.

While persistent rise insecond wave of COVID-19cases has weighed on investors’sentiments, steady corporateearnings with positive man-agements’ commentariesoffered support to markets, henoted.

On the macroeconomicfront, India’s manufacturingsector activity was largely flatin April, as rates of growth fornew orders and output eased toeight-month lows amid theintensification of the COVID-19 crisis, a monthly surveyshowed on Monday.

���� 45#�/5�6�

APIL in the Delhi HighCourt on Monday sought

direction to the Delhi govern-ment and the NDMC toremove the hoardings put upby a Bengaluru-based beermanufacturer advertising itsproduct.

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice JasmeetSingh issued notice to theGovernment of NationalCapital Territory of Delhi, theNew Delhi Municipal Council(NDMC) and the beer manu-facturer - Pegasi Spirits - seek-ing their stand on the plea bya lawyer.

Advocate Dhruv Chawla,in his plea, has said that the

Ministry of Information &Broadcasting (MIB) inSeptember last year put out anadvisory for private satellite TVchannels to ensure that liquor,tobacco and other intoxicantsare not advertised directly orindirectly on their channels inviolation of existing law.

In March this year he cameacross several hoardings acrossDelhi advertising the alcoholicbeverage of Pegasi and filed acomplaint with the AdvertisingStandard Council of India(ASCI) regarding the same.

He also filed an applicationunder the Right to InformationAct seeking details with regardto any sanction or permissiongiven by NDMC to put up thehoardings.

���� 45#�/5�6�

The Government onMonday waived Integrated

GST (IGST) till June 30 on theimport of Covid-related reliefmaterial donated or receivedfree of cost from outside Indiafor free distribution.

The Finance Ministry in astatement said the governmenthad received a number of rep-resentations from charitableorganisations, corporate enti-ties, and other Associations/entities outside India seekingexemption from IGST on theimport of Covid-19 relief mate-rial, donated/received free ofcost from outside India for freedistribution.

“Accordingly, the CentralGovernment has ... Grantedexemption from IGST onimport of such goods receivedfree of cost for free distributionfor covid relief,” it said, addingthe exemption would be applic-

able till June 30.This exemption would also

cover goods already importedbut lying uncleared at theCustoms ports.

The Government hasalready exempted from cus-toms duty import of a host ofCOVID-related relief materials,including Remdesivir injec-tion and its APIs, Inflammatorydiagnostic (markers) kits, med-ical grade oxygen, oxygen ther-apy related equipment such asoxygen concentrators, cryo-genic transport tanks, etc, andCovid vaccines.

The IGST exemption givenon Monday would be subject tonodal authorities, appointedby the state governments,authorising any entity, reliefagency or statutory body, forfree distribution of such reliefmaterial.

The said goods can beimported free of cost by a stategovernment or, any entity/

relief agency/ statutory body,authorized in this regard forfree distribution anywhere inIndia.

The importer shall beforeclearance of goods fromCustoms produce a certificatefrom the said nodal authoritiesthat goods are meant for freedistribution for Covid relief.

After imports, theimporter shall produce, to theDeputy or AssistantCommissioner of Customs atthe port within a period of sixmonths from the date ofimportation or within suchextended

period not exceeding ninemonths, a statement containingdetails of goods imported anddistributed free of cost.

This statement shall becertified by the said nodalauthority of the state govern-ment.

“This exemption shallthus enable import of the Covid

relief supply imported free ofcost for free distribution with-out payment of IGST (up to the30th June, 2021). As customsduty is already exempt , theseimports will not attract any cus-toms duty or IGST,” the min-istry added.

India’s single day COVIDinfections had crossed a record4 lakh mark last week. OnMonday, 3.68 lakh new infec-tions and 3,417 deaths werereported.

Last week, the governmentslashed IGST rate on import ofoxygen concentrators for per-sonal use to 12 per cent, from28 per cent, for two months tillJune 30.

Under Goods and ServicesTax (GST), the tax levied onconsumption of goods or ren-dering of service is split 50:50between the Centre and thestate. Such tax is known asCentral-GST or CGST andState-GST or SGST.

���� 45#�/5�6�

The country’s sugar produc-tion has reached 29.91 mil-

lion tonne till April of theongoing 2020-21 marketingseason, industry body ISMAsaid on Monday.

With regard to sugarexports, mills have contractedfor shipments of 5.4 to 5.5 mil-lion tonne so far. Out of which,3.5 million tonne has beenexported, while another 1 mil-lion tonne is expected to bedone by this month, it said.On ethanol, Indian Sugar MillsAssociation (ISMA) said millshave supplied 117.72 crore litresof ethanol to oil marketingcompanies till April 19 of thisyear against the total contract-ed quantity of 302.53 crorelitres, it added. Releasing updat-ed production figures, ISMAsaid mills across the countryhave produced 29.91 milliontonne of sugar during the Oct-April period of the 2020-21marketing season (Oct-Sept).

ISMA has estimated sugarproduction to be 30.2 milliontonne in the 2020-21 market-ing season, higher than 27.42million tonne achieved in theprevious season. As perthe ISMA data, Sugar produc-tion in Uttar Pradesh, thecountry’s largest sugar-pro-ducing state, remained slight-ly lower at 10.56 million tonnetill April of this year, as against11.65 million tonne in theyear-ago period.

Whereas the output inMaharashtra, the country’s sec-ond-largest sugar producer,rose substantially to 10.56 mil-lion tonne from 6.09 milliontonne in the said period.Similarly, output in Karnataka,the country’s third-largestsugar-producing state, rose to4.16 million tonne till April ofthis year as against 3.38 milliontonne in the year-ago period.Most mills in these key pro-ducing states are expected toclose their operations in thenext fortnight or so.

���� +7+'��

With the second wave ofthe pandemic disrupt-

ing supply chains for mostindustries, India Ratings hasprojected an overall 6 per centmedian revenue growth forcorporates this fiscal overFY20.

However, this will be ahigh 21.2 per cent over FY21,the year of the pandemic whenhalf of the year was almost lostin lockdwons; and the forecastis more than its own earlierassumption of 4.4 per cent,though.

The service-oriented sec-tor is the worst hit so far whenit comes to supply-side dis-ruption from the second waveof the pandemic, the reportsaid on Monday, adding thishas pushed back their recoverybeyond the current fiscal.

While FY22 is likely to bebetter than FY20 for most ofthe sectors due to an improve-ment in revenue benefittinglargely from elevated pricesand pent-up demand resultingin higher volume growth,volatile commodity pricesalong with interest rates rever-sal and the rupee fall are like-

ly to cap profitability, the reportadded.

“Given these, we expect anoverall median revenue growthof 6 per cent for corporates inFY22 over FY20 and 21.2% overFY21,” India Ratings said, andpointed out this is an increasefrom its earlier estimate of amedian growth of 4.4 %.

The gains in FY22 is pri-marily a result of some level ofconsolidation resulting in bipo-larisation, meaning larger com-panies growing faster thansmaller ones, it said. Moreover,excess cash used for delever-aging across sectors will resultin higher operating leveragesupporting the overall creditprofile of corporates, theagency noted.

But sectors like pharma,chemicals, cement and steelmay witness some capex onaccount of higher liquiditycushion with them, it added.

Lower revenue growth islikely to test the credit profilein FY23 due to the moderationin consumption and invest-ment demand outlook andsmoothening out of supplychain issues, and the conse-quent possible moderation inprices, the rating agency said.

New Delhi:The country’slargest lender SBI on Mondayannounced allocating �71 croretowards the fight againstCovid-19, a part of which willbe used to set up a makeshift1,000-bed hospital for the treat-ment of patients in some of theworst-affected States. StateBank of India (SBI) has allo-cated �71 crore to undertakevarious support initiatives tocombat the second wave ofCovid-19, SBI said in a release.

The State-owned lenderhas allocated �30 crore for amakeshift hospital while �21crore will be used to supportinitiatives such as procure-ment of life-saving healthcareequipment, oxygen supply tohospitals, Covid-care centres,ambulances, PPE kits, masks aswell as food relief efforts.Besides, �0 crore will be usedto supplement government’seffort in genome sequencing,and �10 crore will be ear-marked to collaborate withon-ground NGOs to addressthe community needs, SBI said.

����� 45#�/5�6�

India’s high frequency indi-cators have started to show a

softening trend in economicactivity, Crisil Research said onMonday.

“In India, the impact ofstate-announced restrictionsare more clearly showing upacross high frequency indica-tors - they all trended down forthe second consecutive week,”it said. Retail mobility fell 8.2percentage points (pp) on aver-age in the week ending May 2,while workplace mobilityslowed 7.1 pp.

Besides, toll collectionthrough electronic modedeclined 2 per cent on-week.

Similarly, Goods andServices Tax e-way bill collec-tion (volume) declined 6.9 percent on-week for week endingApril 25.

Lately, India’s crushing sec-ond Covid-19 wave has beenmaking new peaks with everypassing day, as daily cases nearthe 4 lakh plus level.

“If it was any consolationamid the steep rise in dailycases and deaths, growth in

recoveries, which lagged casestill last week, grew faster by 57per cent in the week April 26-May 2. That compared with 16per cent growth in cases.”

“Growth in daily cases inmajor affected states, such asMaharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradeshtoo slowed down, comparedwith the week ending April 25.But recovery rate has declinedto 82 per cent as of May 2, dueto the high base of confirmedcases,” Crisil said.

Furthermore, it said thatCovid-19’s second wave is clos-ing in on rural India.

“The share of predomi-nantly rural districts in newcases in April was 30 per centup from 21 per cent in March.This is still lower than the peakreached in the first wave (at 40per cent in August 2020).”

“Further, daily vaccina-tions are slowing as vaccinesupplies are choked. Theydropped from 1,992 per millionin the week prior to 1,585 permillion on average, in the weekending May 02. This is the thirdstraight week that daily vacci-nations have declined.”

����� 45#�/5�6�

Demand growth pushedIndia’s manufacturing sec-

tor output higher in April,showed IHS Markit IndiaManufacturing PMI report onMonday.

Accordingly, the reportsaid economic conditions inIndia’s manufacturing sectorremained favourable in April,as companies scaled up pro-duction in line with a furtherimprovement in demand.

Consequently, the head-line seasonally adjusted IHSMarkit India ManufacturingPurchasing Managers’ Index(PMI) inched up from 55.4(index reading) in March to55.5 in April.

The PMI ranges between 0and 100, with a reading above50 indicating an overallincrease compared to the pre-vious month.

Besides, the report saidconsumer goods sector wasthe strongest-performing cate-gory, followed by capital goodsand then intermediate goods.

“While output and sales

increased at the slowest ratessince last August due to anintensification of the Covid-19crisis, there was a faster upturnin international orders,” thereport said.

“Moreover, quantities ofpurchases expanded at one ofthe strongest rates seen for overnine years as firms sought toboost their inventories.”

Furthermore, survey par-ticipants signalled a steepincrease in input costs, thequickest since July 2014, andupward revisions to sellingprices.

“The rate of charge infla-tion climbed to the highest inseven-and-a-half years.”

���� +7+'��

The second wave of Covid-19 and the resultant

localised lockdowns haveimpacted over 75 lakh jobs,taking the unemployment rateto a four-month high of 8 percent, the Centre for MonitoringIndian Economy (CMIE) saidon Monday.

The situation on theemployment front is expectedto continue to remain chal-lenging going forward as well,CMIE’s managing director andchief executive Mahesh Vyassaid.

“In the month of April,compared to March, we havelost 75 lakh jobs. That is whathas caused the jump in theunemployment rate,” he toldPTI.

The national unemploy-ment rate touched 7.97 per centas per the centre’s proprietarydata, with urban areas wit-nessing higher stress at 9.78 percent and rural joblessness at7.13 per cent.

The national unemploy-ment rate had stood at 6.50 percent in March, and the numberon both rural and urban frontwas lower.

The second wave of theCOVID-19 pandemic has ledto a slew of pockets going

under lockdown-like situationwith only essential activitiesbeing allowed, which result ina chill in a bulk of economicactivities and a resultant impacton jobs.

“I do not know about thepeaking of the COVID wave,but I can see stress on theemployment front,” Vyas said.

What is likely to happenis that unemployment canremain at high levels, he said,adding that the labour forceparticipation rate can also fall.“In worst situation, both canhappen,” Vyas added.

He, however, said that thesituation right now is not asdire as the one witnessed in thefirst lockdown, when theunemployment rate hadtouched up to 24 per cent lev-els.

The country is reportingaround 4 lakh new infections aday and over 3,000 deaths. Inan address to the nation lastmonth, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi had advisedstates to look at lockdowns asa last resort, because of itsimpact on economic activity.

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The second wave of Covid-19 and the rollback of the

stamp duty cut inMaharashtra impacted thehousing sales in April, showeda report by Knight FrankIndia.

The report noted thatMumbai recorded upwards of10,000 residential propertyregistrations in April 2021.

However, upon delvingdeeper into the property reg-istrations data, it was foundthat, only 7 per cent of theseregistrations were from new

residential sales concludedin the same month, while 93per cent of the registrationswere from properties trans-acted between December2020 to March 2021 for whichapplicable stamp duties werepaid during the lower ratewindow, it said.

The Maharashtra stategovernment in December2020 had given a leeway offour months to homebuyersto register a property after thepayment of stamp duty inorder to prevent crowding ofregistration offices.

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The rupee rose by 14 paise toclose nearly one-month

high of 73.95 against the USdollar on Monday followinglosses in the American cur-rency in the global markets.

A fall in crude oil pricesand positive economic datahelped the local unit pare earlylosses.

The rupee had openedlower at 74.25 and hit the day’slow of 74.33 later in line withearly losses in the domesticequities.

The local unit, however,pared its losses in afternoontrade on the back of dollar saleby exporters, positive manu-facturing data and a recoveryin stock indices.

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Shares were higher in Europeon Monday after a retreat in

Asia, where some marketsincluding those in Tokyo andShanghai were closed for hol-idays. London was also closedfor the May Day holiday.

Hong Kong and Seouldeclined while Paris andFrankfurt advanced. US futureswere higher.

Oil prices were mixed andthe yield on the 10-yearTreasury note was steady at1.62 per cent.

Markets have mostlyclimbed in recent weeks asinvestors remain optimisticthat the pandemic is slowly andsteadily coming to a close, atleast in the United States.

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TB has killed more people inhistory than any other infec-

tious disease. MycobacteriumTuberculosis continues to ravagecommunities and societiesacross the globe since its emer-gence 9000 years ago. Indiabears disproportionately largeburden of the global TB inci-dence, accounting for over 27per cent of the world’s 10.8 mil-lion TB cases. This burden isfurther exacerbated as Indiaalso is a leading country for peo-ple with multiple drug-resistantforms (MDR-TB) that do notrespond to commonly usedmedicines and aggravate mortal-ity.

Multiple factors contributeto the growing rates of TB:Tuberculosis is a social disease.The under-privileged are dispro-portionately affected due topoor living conditions, malnu-trition and access to healthcare.Stigma leads to underreportingand ostracization within the

community and the workplaces.The long treatment period leadsto poor compliance, and thechronic nature of the diseaseleads to rising mortality.

“The severity of the epidem-ic has led to a host of TB con-trol initiatives in the countrywith the Government commit-ted to eradicating TB by 2025.We have made great strides inTB care. The scaling-up of diag-nosis and treatment and an effi-cient system has saved millionsof lives. However, while thesesuccesses are commendable,there remain gaps, such as themedicalised perception of TB,that need to be addressed. Fortoo long, the focus has been ondiagnosis and treatment of dis-ease, with minimal attention tosupportive services, making TBredressal a challenge,” Dr DalbirSingh, President, GlobalCoalition for TB, says.

TB is a multifaceted issueinvolving society, gender, and

inequalities. Viewing it througha solely medical lens hinders ouropportunities for patient care. ATB patient’s first interface witha medical service is often anunfamiliar hospital environ-ment, where a heavy emphasison technical knowledge andtreatment procedures reinforcesthe patient’s growing anxieties.A large part of making TB ser-vices accessible involves demys-tifying the disease. While coun-selling services ensure thatpatients are adequately sensitisedregarding their illness, these arestill centralised facilities that areinaccessible for many. We needto move towards decentralisedpatient-centric approaches thatserve to reduce the burden onmarginalised communities.

“While we work towardsmaking TB care more accessible,we must also consider the expe-riences of those affected by TB.Often, programmes are designedfrom a position of expertise that

fails to account for the needs ofthose the programme aims tobenefit. There is a glaringabsence of the patient’s voice inour TB control initiatives and asubsequent lack of understand-ing of the patient experience.The voices of those affected byTB matter because they breakthrough pre-existing percep-tions and provide real experi-ences and needs of those thathave survived TB. There is aneed for a sustained effortfocused on benefiting them,easing their experiences,empowering them and makingthem the voice for change,” DrRajeev Gowda, Former RajyaSabha member, adds.

The fight against TBrequires the combined effort ofmany sectors. The pandemic hasshown us that it is possible totackle such diseases if we worktogether and that there is muchto be learned from the COVID-19 response.

������ � Immunity hastaken centrestage during thepandemic. So much so, thatanything and everything thathas immunity boosterwritten on it is running offthe shelves real quick.However, heightenedimmunity can be achieved athome without too muchefforts.

Eating a handful ofalmonds every day can dothe job for you. Almondsare a source of 15nutrients such asmagnesium,p r o t e i n ,riboflavin,zinc, etc. Inaddition tothis, they arealso high in vita-min E, which acts as an

antioxidant to support pul-monary immune function.Vitamin E is also known tooffer protection against infec-tions caused by viruses andbacteria. It also helps preventcold.

Alternatively, you cansoak f ive-six almondsovernight and have them asthe first thing in morning.

Breathlessness, chest tightnessand coughing, does thesesound like COVID symp-

toms to you? Most probably, yes.However, the fact of the matter isthat all these symptoms echo withasthma too.

While it is hard to identifywhether a person is having anasthma attack or COVID becausethe patients are now presenting withnewer symptoms, experts say thatasthma patients should continuewith their medications.

“People feeling breathlessmay sometimes confuse

between Covid symptomsand an asthma attack.The major symptomsseen nowadays in Covidpositive patients arebreathlessness instead of

fever or any other com-mon Covid symptoms

such as sore throat,headache, cough etc. In such a

situation it is best to use the inhalerso the asthma attack can be man-aged. In case of asthma patients hav-ing contracted Covid, inhalers andbronchodilators as well as othermedications should be continued asper schedule. Nebulisers are againvery useful in handling Covidinduced bronchospasms. Asthmapatients can easily use nebulization,with or without steroids, to helpalleviate chest congestions andpressure,” Dr Sandeep Nayar, SeniorDirector & HOD, Chest &Respiratory Diseases, BLK-MAX

Super Speciality Hospital, tells you.Respiratory viruses can trigger

and worsen asthma symptoms andif a person has uncontrolled asth-ma, they may develop or face severeCovid symptoms. Uncontrolledasthma can mean that there willalready be inflammation in thelungs and airways will be compro-mised so in many cases Covid mayeven lead to pneumonia, fibrosis(thick and stiff lung walls) or otherintense respiratory diseases.

“All asthmatics need to be com-pliant with their regular medica-tions. Covid virus can also causeflare up of asthma in addition to

causing pneumonia. Hence, earlymedical advice should be sought incase of symptomatic deterioration,”Dr Arunesh Kumar, SeniorConsultant & Head RespiratoryMedicine/Pulmonology, ParasHospital, says.

Nayar adds that all asthmapatients above 18 years of age mustget vaccinated to prevent the dead-ly implications of the virus even ifthey get infected.

“Vaccination will not just helpin protecting from the virus but willalso help reduce the severity of thesymptoms. However, those havinghad an immediate or severe aller-gic reaction to the vaccine or any ofits ingredients, must consult theirphysician,” Nayar says.

Many people don’t considerasthma as a serious condition,however, asthma compounded byother infections can increase therisk. An important aspect for allpatients is to know the triggers soone can keep away from them andbe protected from another attack.

“Identify your triggers. If dustcauses problem, try and keep yoursurroundings dust free. Maintainproper cleanliness at all times. Atsuch a time, when differentiatingbetween COVID and asthma attackhas become a task, it is advisablethat you are on optimum guard andeliminate anything and everythingthat can aggravate asthma,” Dr.Deepak Verma, Internal Medicine,Columbia Asia Hospital,Ghaziabad, explains.

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One of the most common chronic diseases of the respiratorysystem, asthma affects more than 300 million people across

the world with around one-tenth of them in India. While the preva-lence of asthma is higher in developed countries, the burden ofasthma-related deaths is much higher in developing countries likeIndia. In fact, according to a report published by the World HealthOrganisation (WHO), over 80 per cent of asthma deaths take placein developing countries.

While environmental allergens like dust, pollen, insects anddomesticated animals are the leading triggers of asthma, outdoorair pollution has also emerged as a problematic trigger. Researchersfrom the French Institute of Health and Medical Research foundthat high traffic intensity and ozone exposure has increased therisk factors in individuals living with asthma. With rising envi-ronmental pollution, the incidence of respiratory disease is increas-ing in India, particularly among children. It is important there-fore to introduce a holistic approach towards the management ofthis condition through the use of naturopathy and yoga. Evidencesuggests that a naturopathic approach can offer long-term healthbenefits to people with asthma by reducing the intensity of thedisease, improving symptoms and lung function while significant-ly reducing drug requirement.

Modern medicine reliesheavily on the use of steroidinhalation and anti-inflamma-tory drugs to manage the con-dition. These drugs work byreducing inflammation andmucus production in the air-ways, thereby improvingsymptoms and con-trolling the condi-tion. However, thehigh cost of drugsand their potentialside effects remain acause of concern. Anaturopathy basedtreatment, on the otherhand, uses a drugless

approach which is much safer and sustainable.Naturopathy is holistic rather than a compartmental way of

treating and managing a condition. While modern medicine worksin a reactive approach to manage symptoms when they arise, natur-opathy works to eliminate the cause and reduce the severity of thedisease. The Alternative system of medicine believes that all dis-eases are caused due to an accumulation of toxins or morbid mat-ter in the body and negative vibrations in the mind. The therapeu-tic plan in naturopathy is executed in three phases — the elimi-native phase, which focuses on cleansing the body of accumulat-ed toxins, the soothing phase, which focuses on rejuvenating thebody and supplying the necessary nourishment, and the construc-tive phase, in which the body’s metabolic activity is regulated.

The treatment is divided into three therapy sections — Naturecure therapy, Diet therapy and Yoga therapy. Nature Cure thera-py consisted of chest pack applied from 30 minutes to an hour onceor twice a day depending upon the clinical condition of the patient.This was accompanied by a combination of hot foot and arm bath,partial massage therapy to upper back and chest, fomentation,Asthma Bath, Oxygen Bath, Steam and Sauna Bath, Enema, SteamInhalation and Drainage therapy. Under the diet therapy, patientswere prescribed nutritionally calcium-rich, non-mucus and non-acid generating food-items along with herbs and lots of water. Yogickriya, Yogasana, Pranayama and Yoganidra spanning into a three-week programme with a gradual gradation in the severity of thepractices was the third pillar of the treatment approach.

The study combined with a year follow up of patients had shownhighly promising results. The naturopathy approach helped thesepatients to improve their lung function and symptoms while reduc-ing the requirement of drugs in most patients.

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Dazzling white teeth isa dream of many.Everyone wants to

get rid of yellow teeth for thatperfect smile. Of course, onecan visit a dentist but thatwill fall heavily on yourpocket. Here are home reme-dies foe the same.

Most homeshave baking sodaand yes, it canbe used foralmost any-thing — fromcleaning toiletsto getting rid ofthat stain in yourfavourite dress orshirt to even whiten-ing the teeth.

Take two-four tea-spoons of baking soda andadd lemon juice to make apaste. Depending on theamount of baking soda, theadded liquid will differ.

Apply a liberal amount ontothe toothbrush and brushteeth for two minutes.Repeat the process a fewtimes a week or until thedesired results are achieved.

Believe it or not rinsingthe mouth with coconut

oil for whitening isage-old. Prior to

brushing yourteeth, use aspoon toscoop anappropriateamount of

coconut oilup. Take one-

and-a-half table-spoon of coconut

oil and put it into yourmouth. Like the mouth-wash, swish the liquidaround for 10-15 minutes.Spit out the oil and thenbrush teeth. Repeat as nec-essary.

Pearly white teeth and picture perfect smile is on

everyone’s bucket list.ROSHANI DEVI shares

simple and easy to followhome remedies that can help

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The second wave of COVID-19 has beencharacterised by a sharp spike in casesthat has overwhelmed the healthcare

system in India. Scenes depicting patient andattendants waiting for tests, oxygen and med-icines have become common these days. Theonly solution is to fight back.

The first important observation duringthis time is that vaccinated people seem tobe protected against severe form of the dis-ease. Except a few rare cases, the vaccinatedpeople have mostly recovered well. In addi-tion to this, the infection rate among vacci-nated people does not appear to be signifi-cantly lower than unvaccinated people.Third, vaccination doesn’t provide absoluteprotection against infection or reinfection.This makes it clear that all citizens need tofollow guidelines like wearing of masks, reg-ular hand washing/use of sanitisers and socialdistancing norms. Fourth, the proportion ofpeople with moderate or severe diseaseappears to be higher as compared to previ-ous years pandemic. This too has overbur-dened the healthcare system. Fifth deterio-ration of patients in second week (from symp-tom onset) has been reported frequently. Themost frequent deterioration has been report-ed from day seven to day 12 of symptomonset. Deterioration includes rapid declinein oxygen saturation level, markedly increasedbreathlessness overnight, chest pain, appear-ance of high grade fever after few days ofbeing afebrile etc. Sixth, though elderly peo-ple and people with comorbidities appear tobe at higher risk of adverse outcomes butsevere disease isn’t infrequent among healthyunvaccinated adults.

The picture appears to be gloomy. Whatcan be done at this stage to minimise the lossof lives? Here are a few basic facts that areessential to manage the ongoing pandemic.The first part focuses on what can be doneat home. The first step involves classificationof disease severity at home. First, anybodytesting positive for Covid-19 by rapid anti-gen kit or RT-PCR needs to isolate himselfand monitor his oxygen saturation. Personwith oxygen saturation of 94 per cent, 90 to94 per cent and less than 90 per cent at roomair are considered to have mild, moderate andsevere disease respectively. These needs to bemonitored at least four times a day till twoweeks are competed or the person is com-pletely symptom free. Second, we need toidentify factors which predict the progressionto moderate and severe disease. One impor-tant test which can be done at home itself ismeasuring pulse rate regularly along withoxygen saturation. If the pulse rate is persis-tently more than 100 on repeated measure-ment and oxygen saturation drops by morethan five per cent on walking for six minutesthen there are higher chances of progressingto moderate and severe disease. HighResolution Computed Tomography scoringis informative of disease severity too if it isdone on day six of symptom onset.

By following the basic precautions andgetting vaccinated will help us beat the virus.

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With Covid-19 impacting us likenever before, most of us arespending more time at home.

Working from home, around the sameenvironment, can become a mundanetask. Along with work stress, beinglocked up at home, can impact usmajorly. Changing the set up at homecan increase our productivity as whatwe see and interact with directly influ-ences our well-being.

A home office that inspires creativ-ity is easy. It is also a great way to utilisequarantine time. Here are three basictips which you can play around withand also infuse with your personal style.

�Use bright colours as these helpyou stay awake and alive while keepinglethargy away. An accent piece is a greatway to add a fun element to your space.Stress can sneak up on you but the goodnews is that you can keep the levels

down by simply using the right coloursin your home. You might not evennotice it, but your body and mind reactto colours. For 2021 Pantone hasn’t cho-sen one but two colours of the year —the neutral ‘ultimate grey’ together witha lovely yellow called ‘illuminating’. Thismix of colours conveys a message ofstrength and hopefulness that is bothenduring and uplifting. Practical androck solid but, at the same time, warm-ing and optimistic, this union is one ofstrength and positivity. As grey is a neu-tral, soothing shade, hints of yellow canbring in a bright element that yourspace would be happy to have.

�Working from home is the normfor plenty of professionals, but for someof us, we’re just getting in the groove ofworking remotely for the first time. Aswe get used to that work-from-homelife, it’s important to rearrange yourhome work space in an organised way

that will keep you focused on your dailytasks with all the essentials you need.To help you upgrade your new workstation, avoid getting too cosy or comfy,invest in a good office chair, a desk and,maybe, then add a fashionable cushionto go along with the arrangement. WFH can get boring and it’s here to stay,so keep changing your cushions every month or so as these can add anew look to your home-office everymonth.

�Last, keeping your surroundings

clutter-free can change the entire game.With fewer distractions around, youreyes will remain focused on tasks athand. It’s essential for your productiv-ity — and your mental health — to keepyour workspace organised. It may seemlike a daunting task, but the incentiveto start organising is undeniable.

—The author is director of e-com-merce of an Indian brand of handmaderugs and accessories that are exported toover 90 countries across the world

Actress Shweta Tripathi encourages sustainablefashion for the sake of the environment.”I am a big

advocate of sustainable fashion and I think if one is con-scious of the environment, they’d always choose ethi-cal clothing over anything else. Right from thrift storesto second-hand shopping, I’d like to encourage peopleto indulge in these practices and make a difference,”Shweta said.

The actress treats her clothes with a lot of love andcare to ensure they are not torn or damaged.

“The problem is that everyone thinks someone elsewill save the world. It’s time to be that someone. If weall do our little bit, the world will be in a better place.I’d also like to tell people that even when it comes tosourcing for shoots, we try our best to cut down on newthings,” she added.

In her new web-series, the thriller Escaype Live,Shweta wears her own footwear.”For my character inEscaype Live, I’m wearing my own footwear as opposedto buying new ones because if there’s something thatalready fits, I think it’s really unnecessary to purchasenew ones,” she said.

—IANS

Beauty is a matter of cultivatingsome good habits to last you a life-

time. Here are some tips that I swearby to give you that extra edge:

Remember to cleanse yourface every night, removing make-up and pollutants that aredeposited during the day. Iuse an aloe vera and lemoncleanser for normalto dr y skin.Glowing skin thatis free fromblemishes is theresult of daily,a p p r o p r i a t ecleansing.

Remove allcreams, l ikec l e a n s i n gcreams, nourish-ing creams,under-eye creamswith moist cottonwool, so that there isno moisture loss.Moist cotton doesn’t

absorb moisture fromthe skin.

Moisture and pro-tection are the life of

skin, especially in winter,to keep the skin soft

and smooth. Sun-expo-sure also causes mois-ture loss. Use sunscreen

or sun-block beforegoing out in the sun.Choose high SPF for sun-sensitive skin, while SPF25 would suit most skins.Use a sunscreen gel foroily skin. When you areat home, apply mois-turiser.

I have normal todry skin. So, I applynourishing cream at

night, after cleansing, mas-saging it on the face with

outward and slightly upwardstrokes. I include the neck inmy massage routine and wipeoff cream with moist cotton

wool before bedtime.Use a facial scrub for blackhead-

prone, oily skin at least twice a week.Avoid scrubs on pimples, acne or rash, aswell as very dry, dehydrated skin. It candeplete both oil and moisture, causingflaking of the skin. For normal skin, ascrub may be used once a week.

Use a face pack at least once or twicea week. I use a face pack daily. It consistsof herbal powder and seaweed lotion,mixed with yogurt, honey and egg white. If your skin is oily, apply it moreoften. Packs help to deep cleanse the skinand tighten it, delaying ageing signs. TheShahnaz Husain Home Pack suits all skintypes.

Keep your hair clean and neverneglect shampooing the hair. It is veryvital to your hair looking its best and stay-ing healthy. Use mild herbal shampoo andhair rinse. After washing the hair wrap itin a towel and allow it to soak up mois-ture. Avoid rubbing the hair. Avoidbrushing wet hair. Use a wide toothedcomb.

—IANS

According to NationalEating Disorders

Association, the InternationalNo Diet Day on May 6 encour-ages the rejection of diet cul-ture. This movement, started byMary Evans Jones in 1992, cel-ebrates the importance of bodyacceptance, diversity, andrespect for all body shapesand sizes.

The day is dedicated topromoting a healthy lifestylewith a focus on health at anysize. It aims to educate peopleabout the right way to diet andnot feeling guilty aboutindulging once in a while; cre-ate an acceptance of how yourbody looks and its uniqueness;and to end weight discrimina-tion.

Nutritionist, sports consul-tant, psychologist ShwethaBhatia, who is among the fewdieticians recognised by theIndian Dietetic Association,Mumbai, shares her thoughtson the day’s importance thatmay make you rethink yourapproach to dieting culture.

“We must respect people ofall sizes and their unique bat-tles with body shaming andweight loss. However positivebody image in no way shouldbe an excuse for quitting andremaining unhealthy. Ashumans we do have a psycho-logical association with food.This can reach unhealthy pro-portions in the form of emo-tional eating,” Bhatia says.

She emphasises, “Shootingfor unrealistic body types isharmful. The focus should beon health and fitness ratherthan a certain size or numberon the scale. Shape is largelydetermined by your genes. Sois the tendency to store fat andbuild muscle in certain areas.Even when you begin to lose

fat, it leaves areas that werenever meant to store it first,” shesays.

With major celebs in herlist of clients, Bhatia, 43, is awell-known name in the fitnessand nutrition field. She says: “Afit body always looks good.Aesthetics is the by-productwhen you have more muscleand less fat. Spot reductiondoes not work. When youexercise, it is working the mus-cle rather than burning the fatsitting above it. Fat burning is

targeted trough the diet. A dietis a combination of nutrientsyour body needs on a dailybasis to survive, repair andadapt. Being on a diet thereforemeans doing the right thingsmost of the time in line withyour heath and fitness goals.Going off the diet then meansletting go once in a while in away that it does not throw youoff the wagon.”

Finally, she advises: “Stopobsessing over calories andconsumed and burnt: Exercise

is for improving fitness, not try-ing to cancel out cheat meals.Calorie burning is the bonusand not the goal of the exerciseprogram. The caloric value offoods is measured in a con-trolled environment in a lab.But in your body, your hor-mones and enzymes decidehow these calories are releasedand used.

All calories are not equal.Foods with similar caloriestake different pathways oncedigested and their fate dependson our hormones. Caloriecounting without paying atten-tion to quality and quantity ofnutrients does not make sense,even within a calorie deficitplan. You may lose weight buthealthy weight loss means lessfat mass while gaining or main-taining muscle.”

—IANS

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ACovid-19 outbreak left thestar-sprinkled IPL on ten-terhooks as Kolkata Knight

Riders’ Varun Chakravarthy andSandeep Warrier tested positivefor the dreaded virus, forcingpostponement of their gameagainst Royal ChallengersBangalore, while cases also cameto light in the Chennai SuperKings camp.

The match, which was to beheld in Ahmedabad on Mondayevening, will be rescheduled sometime later during the tourna-ment, which will conclude on May30.

“Varun Chakravarthy andSandeep Warrier were found to bepositive in the third round of test-ing in the last four days. All otherteam members have tested nega-tive for Covid-19,” the league,which features the biggest namesin International cricket, said in apress release.

Apart from this, ChennaiSuper Kings CEO KasiViswanathan, bowling coachLakshmipathy Balaji and a buscleaner with the contingent test-ed positive on Sunday.

A top BCCI official, afterdeclaring all three cases to be “falsepositives”, later clarified that Balajialong with the unnamed cleanerhad come out positive even in therepeat test.

“Three members of CSK con-tingent, CEO Kasi, bowling coachL Balaji and a bus driver had test-ed positive in the morning fol-lowed by negative Rapid Antigen

test report,” the source said.“However second RT-PCR

report found Balaji and bus dri-ver positive again. The others inthe team especially playing mem-bers have tested negative,” headded.

CSK, currently based in Delhi,

suspended their training for theday and are scheduled to faceRajasthan Royals on May 5. Theteam had been hit by Covid caseseven in the 2020 edition whichwas held in the UAE.

There was cause of concern inDelhi too as a few groundsmen atthe Arun Jaitley Stadium, whichis due to host Mumbai Indians vsSunRisers Hyderabad on Tuesday,have also tested positive for the

virus.However, Delhi and Districts

Cricket Association (DDCA) chiefRohan Jaitley asserted that “noneof the groundsmen on duty” areamong them.

The BCCI continued to insistthat the league will go on butMonday’s developments have def-initely cast a shadow on how theCovid-19 threat would be man-aged for an event being stagedacross six venues — two at onetime.

Leg-spinner Chakravarthyand pacer Warrier, both 30, havebeen isolated and the rest of theKKR contingent has returnednegative reports for now. Of thetwo, Warrier has not yet made theplaying XI in any of the sevenmatches KKR have played.

“The Medical Team is in con-tinuous touch with the duo andare monitoring their health.Meanwhile, the Kolkata KnightRiders have now moved towardsa daily testing routine to identifyany other possible cases and treatthem at the earliest,” the IPL stat-ed.

“The Medical Team is alsodetermining the close and casualcontacts of the two positive casesduring the 48 hours prior to col-lection of the sample that returnedthe positive test results,” it added.

KKR last played on April 29against Delhi Capitals inAhmedabad and the develop-ment is bound to trigger anxietyin the league, which had beengoing along smoothly so far in abio-secure bubble in front ofempty stands.

“Now, the DC players (cur-rently in Ahmedabad) will alsohave to be tested and every mem-ber of the team contingents that

came in contact withChakravarthy and Warrier willalso be contact traced through theapp watch that has been given toeveryone,” a BCCI source said.

According to IPL’s StandardOperating Procedure for Covid-19 management, any close contactof an infected person has to iso-late for six days and return threenegative tests on days 1, 3 and 6.

It is learnt that KKR’s pacespearhead Pat Cummins revealedthe latest development to all theAustralian players in the IPL afterChakravarthy, while undergoingsome shoulder scans for a niggleafter Thursday’s game, tested pos-itive for the virus.

Chakravarthy has appeared inall of KKR’s matches so far andbeen one of their most successfulplayers with seven wickets under

his belt.KKR and CSK had clashed on

April 21 in Mumbai.IPL had dealt with positive

cases before the tournament start-ed, including some high-profilenames like Axar Patel and DevduttPadikkal.

However, this is the firstinstance of positive cases in themiddle of the tournament.

“The BCCI and the KolkataKnight Riders prioritise the healthand safety of everyone involvedand all measures are being takenin that endeavour,” the IPL stated.

Foreign players, who werealready anxious about gettinghome with travel restricted fromIndia, are edgier right now. Butfranchises would prefer the leagueto continue with necessary safe-guards.

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Players, especially overseasrecruits, are feeling edgier

following the emergence of twoCovid-19 cases in the KolkataKnight Riders camp on Mondaybut teams feel “there is no goingback” and the IPL should contin-ue despite the ever-increasingthreat of the raging pandemic.

Questions are being raised onhow a strict bio-bubble createdfor the world’s biggest T20 leaguewas breached after KKR’s VarunChakravarthy and SandeepWarrier got infected with thedeadly virus.

Foreign players, who werealready anxious about gettinghome with travel restricted fromIndia, are a more worried lot.

“There is no going back nowwith half of the tournamentdone. The news (positive cases inKKR) makes the BCCI’s jobmore challenging,” a franchiseofficial said.

“We have been hearing that

a player got infected because hewas taken outside the bubble forscans. So, it could have happenedoutside the bubble. As far as Iknow, everyone is strictly follow-ing the protocols laid out by theBCCI and there was no breachthere,” he added.

Another team official saidthe tournament should continueas long as more teams are notaffected by the virus.

“Even if you have to pausethe tournament, how long canyou hold back? The only way isto keep isolating the positivecases and keep playing. Theplayers are naturally more anx-ious now but it is mainly becausethey are not sure about how theywould get back home,” said theofficial.

UK, Australia and NewZealand have banned travellersfrom India and a sizable numberof players competing in the IPLare from the these countries.

“We should let the BCCIdecide what is best for all of us.

Flooding them with too manyopinions on what should bedone following the cases at KKRwould only lead to more confu-sion,” said another top official ofa team.

Five-time winners MumbaiIndians were already testing theirplayers on a daily basis andother teams are likely to followthat in the wake of cases atKKR.

KKR players have been toldto isolate in the room and eventeams like Delhi Capitals havetold its players and support staffto stay in their rooms after thedevelopment on Monday.

The two sides played eachother four days ago.

“Following the news, we havebeen told to stay in our roomsand strictly follow the protocols.The players are fully aware thatthe situation outside is grim andthe IPL bio bubble is a much saferenvironment at this point intime,” said a support staff mem-ber of a leading franchise.

����5��8���������������$�$$�������"�� ����I���������� New Delhi: Chennai SuperKings bowling coachLakshmipathy Balaji testingpositive for Covid-19 has leftthe BCCI in a fix about thenext few IPL games in Delhiafter postponement ofMonday’s evening matchbetween Kolkata Knight Ridersand Royal ChallengersBangalore in Ahmedabad.

While the entire KKRteam has gone for a six-dayhard quarantine, startingSunday, after VarunChakravarthy and SandeepWarrier returned positive,Balaji, who is a regular feature

in the CSK dug-out has goneinto isolation after returningwith two RT-PCR positiveson Monday.

“Balaji’s positive report iscertainly a cause of concernalthough the CSK players havetested negative. But normally,a lot of people start showingsymptoms from the fifth orsixth day. There are discussionswhether it is safe to go aheadwith the next two matches inDelhi,” a senior BCCI sourcetold PTI. While DDCA presi-dent Rohan Jaitley told PTI thathe hasn’t been informed aboutany re-scheduling. PTI

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Cricket Australia currently has noplans to arrange a charter flight to

bring its players back home fromCovid-19-ravaged India once the IPLgets over, its chief Nick Hockley saidon Monday.

Hockley insisted that Australianplayers are feeling safe and secure inthe IPL bio-bubble but his commentscame before it emerged that two KKRplayers have tested positive for thedreaded virus.

Mumbai Indians batsman ChrisLynn had recently requested CricketAustralia to arrange for a charter flightfor Australia players after the tourna-ment concludes on May 30.

“There’s no suggestion at themoment of any charter flight,” Hockleytold Melbourne radio station SEN.

“We’re working closely and talk-ing closely with the AustralianCricketers’ Association, with the play-ers and with the BCCI to make sureeveryone’s okay and the people havegot full information.

“We’ve been in touch with theplayers there and they are generally ingood spirits. The work the BCCI hasdone around the (bio-secure) bubblemeans they are feeling safe and secure,and those we’ve talked to are general-ly planning to complete their playingcommitments.”

The Cricket Australia boss saidthey are monitoring the situation anda decision will be made but notimmediately.

“The BCCI have come out andsaid they understand and want to sup-port the players in making sure theyget home safely at the end.

“The tournament doesn’t finishuntil the 30th of May, so for themoment it’s monitor the situation andas we get closer to the end of the tour-nament we’ll need to see where the sit-uation is at,” he said.

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New Delhi: Cricketer-turned-com-mentator Michael Slater, who is cur-rently doing commentary in the IPLhere, has launched a scathing attackon his country’s Prime MinisterScott Morrison for not allowing itscitizens to return from Covid-19 hitIndia, calling the travel ban a “dis-grace”.

Australia has shut its bordersand not allowing any commercialflights from India because of themassive Covid-19 surge here whichhas led to all the players, supportstaff and commentators, who mighthave wanted to leave the IPL in a fix.

“If our Government cared forthe safety of Aussies they wouldallow us to get home. It’s a disgrace!!Blood on your hands PM. How dareyou treat us like this. How about yousort out quarantine system. I hadGovernment permission to work onthe IPL but I now have Governmentneglect,” Slater tweeted.

Threatening a five-year jailterm or hefty fine, the AustralianGovernment temporarily barredits citizens from entering the coun-try if they happened to be in Indiawithin 14 days of their intendedarrival. PTI

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