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The Niti Aayog has identified15 places, including Delhi,

Mumbai and Ahmedabad, as“high case load” and said India’ssuccess in battling coronaviruspandemic is dependent onthem. Out of these 15, sevendistricts show particularly highcase volumes. They areHyderabad (Telangana), Pune(Maharashtra), Jaipur(Rajasthan), Indore (MadhyaPradesh), Ahmedabad(Gujarat), Mumbai(Maharashtra) and Delhi.

Other high case load placesthat are “critical” in the battleagainst Covid-19 include —Vadodara (Gujarat), Kurnool(Andhra Pradesh), Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh), Jodhpur(Rajasthan), Agra (UttarPradesh), Thane(Maharashtra), Chennai (TamilNadu) and Surat (Gujarat).

“These 15 districts are crit-ical in our battle against Covid-19. Of them, 7 show particu-larly high case volumes. India’ssuccess in battling Covid-19 isdependent on them. We mustaggressively monitor, contain,

test, treat in these districts! Wemust win here,” NITI AayogCEO Amitabh Kant said.

As per the report, Gujaratand Maharashtra are the onlyStates where three districts ineach are in “critical” situation.Gujarat’s Ahmedabad,Vadodara and Surat districtsand Maharashtra’s Thane, Puneand Mumbai are declared “crit-ical”. Madhya Pradesh andRajasthan with two districtseach are mentioned in the listwith Bhopal and Indore, andJodhpur and Jaipur respective-ly as critical hotspots.

Among the “high case vol-ume districts”, Delhi with 100per cent contribution to “Statecase load” and 12.62 per centcontribution to “India caseload” is passing through mostcrucial phase in the fightagainst the novel coronaviruspandemic amid reports of 54

deaths and 3,108 confirmedinfected cases, the data said.

Ahmedabad in Gujarat issecond in terms of contributionto State case load estimated66.07 per cent and 9.43 per centto India case load; followed byHyderabad with 55.64 per centState case load and 2.41 Indiacase load and Indore with49.57 per cent State case loadand 4.48 per cent India caseload contribution.

Jaipur with 36.98 per centState case load and 3.49 percent India case load is on thefifth position in terms of “highcase volumes” followed byMumbai with 33.30 per centState case load and 11.62 percent India case load contribu-tion; and Pune with 8.45 percent State case load and 2.95per cent India case load.

Kant said if we carefullyobserve the daily and weeklycase growth rates in high case-load States in conjunction, it is“encouraging” that Telangana isshowing noticeable improve-ment. The Government had onMarch 29 constituted 11empowered groups to suggestmeasures to ramp up health-care and put the economy backon track. Kant heads theEmpowered Group coordinat-ing with private sector NGOsand international bodies.

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As the Covid-19 casesbreached 30,000 marks and

death surging to 1,000, Indiamoved up by two slots to the15th position among the list of20-worst Covid-19 affectednations in the world in just aweek.

The total confirmed casesin the country stood at 31,284and 977 deaths, at 11 pm onTuesday on the basis of figuresreaching from States.

Experts said that the num-ber could be on the higher sidegiven that India is yet to rampup the testing in the country.Global data shows that as onTuesday, just 519 people permillion population are beingtested in India. This is quite lowwhen compared to other coun-tries like Belgium and Canadawhere the count is over 19,000per million people.

Worldwide, over 31 lakhpeople have been infected withCovid-19 which has claimedmore than 2.1 lakh lives so far.

Maharashtra, Gujarat andDelhi remained the worstaffected States, while MadhyaPradesh stole march overRajasthan on Tuesday to occu-py the fourth place. Rajasthan,Tamil Nadu, UP and Andhra

Pradesh were ranked behindthem in that order.

Maharashtra has 9,243cases. Gujarat reported anoth-er big spike of 226 new cases,raising total confirmed cases to3,774 and 181 death, 19 ofthem on Tuesday alone.

National Capital Delhireported 206 new cases toreach a total of 3,314 and 54deaths.

After recording 75 casescases on Monday, MadhyaPradesh saw big leap adding222 cases on Tuesday for a totalof 2,387 cases and 120 deaths.

It turned out to be a BlackTuesday in Tamil Nadu as 121persons tested positive forcoronavirus on a single say tak-ing the number of Covid-19patients in the State to 2,058.

The last few days havebeen showing some kind offluctuations in the number ofpersons tested positive for the

pandemic which encouragedthe government to loosen thelockdown guidelines and thiscould have played havoc,according to medical experts.

Continued on Page 6

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Just as plasma therapy offeredsome hope for critical Covid-

19 patients, many of whomresponded well to it, the UnionHealth Ministry on Tuesdaytried to play down its efficacysaying it is in experimentalstage and warned it can causelife threatening complicationsif not used in proper mannerunder proper guidelines.

The Ministry’s observa-tion comes days after theIndian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR), a healthresearch wing of the Ministry,gave permission to a string ofStates such as Rajasthan,Maharashtra and Delhi to use

plasma of the Covid-19 curedpatient for the treatment of thevirus-infected person.

Ministry’s Joint SecretaryLav Agarwal said currentlythere are no approved therapiesfor Covid-19 and there is notenough evidence to claim thatplasma therapy can be used fortreatment of the disease.

“The ICMR has launcheda national-level study to assessthe efficacy of plasma therapyin treatment of Covid-19,” hesaid.

“Till ICMR concludes itsstudy and a robust scientificproof is available, plasma ther-apy should be used only for

research or trial purpose. Ifplasma therapy is not used inproper manner under properguidelines, then it can alsocause life threatening compli-cations. It’ll be harmful topatient and illegal,” Agarwaladded.

Incidentally, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal toosaid in view of positive resultsfrom a few Covid-19 patients,his Government will conductmore trials in the sector. On hisappeal scores of TablighiJammat members who recov-ered from the Covid-19 diseaseregistered to donate their plas-ma.

“The Centre had given uspermission only for limitedtrials of plasma therapy on crit-ically ill Covid-19 patients atLNJP hospital. We will conductmore trials in the next 2-3 daysand then will seek permissionfrom the central governmentnext week, for all the seriouspatients,” Kejriwal said.

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Days after the lynching oftwo seers of Juna Akhara

in Palghar, Maharashtra, whichcreated a massive furore acrossthe country, two sadhus werebattered to death inBulundshahr late on Monday.

The incident created ten-sion in the area but swift actionby the police defused the situ-ation. The police nabbed thealleged killer Murari, alsoknown as Raju, about 2 kilo-metres away from the spot. Hewas allegedly under the influ-ence of cannabis.

The accused revealed thatafter taking bhang on Mondaynight he went to the temple andkilled the sadhus with a lathi.He said that he carried outGod’s will, denying he had anyquarrel with the priests. Thesenior official said the youthwill be interrogated at lengthlater as he was still under theinfluence of the drug.

After the news spread

about the murder, tension ranhigh in the area and peopleassembled in large numbersnear the temple. Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathhas assured strict action againstthe accused. Yogi, who washighly critical of the Palgharincident, received a call fromMaharashtra Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray whorequested him to take strictaction against the culprit.

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Hundreds of migrant work-ers came out on roads

and vandalised the office of anunder-construction buildingand some vehicles in an area ofGujarat’s Surat district onTuesday while demanding thatthey be sent back to theirnative places, police said.

The workers were earlierhired by contractors engaged inthe construction of theDiamond Bourse Complex inKhajod area of Surat, they said.

It all started when theworkers learnt that their con-tractors have brought in morelabourers from other parts ofGujarat to speed up the con-struction work after gettingapproval of the district collec-tor, DCP (zone 3) VidhiChaudhari said.

“They got angry after see-ing labourers from outside atthe site. They claimed thatthese outsiders may be carry-ing coronavirus. These workers

then started demanding that ifpermission can be granted tobring outsiders here, then whycan’t they travel to their nativeplaces. This demand triggeredthe violence,” Chaudhari said.

The angry workers dam-aged the administrative officeof the under-construction siteand two cars parked near theoffice, she said.

“We have started theprocess to lodge an FIR in this

connection,” the official said.Earlier, in a separate inci-

dent in the morning, a police-man was injured when somelocals threw stones at the secu-rity personnel who were tryingto enforce lockdown in Dindoliarea of Surat city, DCP (zone-1) RP Barot said.

Five persons were detainedfor the attack on the policemen,he said.

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The Kerala High Court onTuesday stayed for two

months the operationalisationof the State Government’s orderto deduct a month’s salary of itsemployees to tide over thefinancial crisis caused by coro-navirus pandemic. In its order,the Government had said theState Government employees’salary for six days every monthwould be deducted for thenext five months.

The HC made it clear,“Payment of salary is certain-ly not a matter of bounty. It isa right vested in every indi-vidual to receive the salary.”

The Government’s deci-sion to defer the employees’salary of six days everymonth for the next fivemonths had upset theGovernment staff who hadvoluntarily come forward todonate a day’s salary to theChief Minister’s DisasterRelief Fund immediately.

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Outstanding loans amount-ing to �68,607 crore of top

50 wilful bank loan defaultersin the country, including firmsof Mehul Choksi and VijayMallya, have been technicallywritten off till September 30,2019, the Reserve Bank ofIndia said in a RTI reply.

Absconding dimantaireChoksi’s company GitanjaliGems tops the list of thesedefaulters with a whoppingamount of �5,492 crore,according to the list.

Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlinesfigures in the list at number 9,with outstanding of �1943crore which have been techni-cally written off by the banks.

In his application, RTIactivist Saket Gokhale hadsought the list of defaulters ason February 16, but the RBIsaid the requested informationis not available.

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Washington: The US is car-rying out a “very serious”investigation against China,President Donald Trump hassaid, indicating that hisadministration is looking at abigger compensation fromBeijing than the $140 billionbeing sought by Germanyover the coronavirus pan-demic.

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The Haryana Police onTuesday arrested 30 people

for allegedly attacking policeparty at the cremation groundin Chandpura village ofAmbala Cantonment onMonday evening.

Police on Monday hadasked the local residents toallow the cremation of an 82-year-old local woman, whomthey suspected to have died ofcoronavirus but the residents ofthe village threw stones at thepolice and doctors at the cre-mation ground. The policehad to open fire in the air todisperse the mob when vil-lagers repeatedly objected tothe cremation of the oldwoman.

Talking to The Pioneer,DSP, Ambala Cantt, Ram

Kumar said taking serious noteof it, a case under appropriatesections of IPC has been reg-istered against more than 150people in the Police Stationconcerned. So far, 30 personsinvolved in this incident havebeen arrested.

Continued on Page 6

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New Delhi: China on Tuesday said it was “deeply concerned”over the evaluation result of the Covid-19 rapid testing kits sup-plied by two Chinese firms and subsequent decision by the IndianCouncil of Medical Research (ICMR) to not use the equipment,and hoped that India will resolve the issue “reasonably”.

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Katra Azambeg in Nakkhaslocality of the state capital

was on Tuesday declared a coro-navirus hotspot after one moreperson tested positive there.

This is the same area wherea nurse of King George’s MedicalUniversity and her four kin hadtested positive. The nurse’s moth-er too tested positive for coron-avirus infection in the same areaon Tuesday.

District Magistrate AbhishekPrakash said no movementwould be allowed in the area. Hesaid all essential commoditieswould be distributed in the areathrough volunteers FaizanAhmad and Saif Siddiqui.

A senior official said therewere over 42 houses in KatraAzambeg and it was very close toanother hotspot, Hata Santabeg.

Nearly 35 teams of the CMOoffice sensitised Old Haiderganj,Asharfabad, Kala Bazaar andNaubasta on Tuesday.

Principal Secretary (Urban

Development) Deepak Kumar ,who is the nodal officer forLucknow, along with DistrictMagistrate Abhishek Prakashheld a meeting with the admin-istrative officers of private med-ical colleges, KGMU, SGPGIand government and privatehospitals to review the prepara-tions for the decisive fight againstCOVID-19

The private hospitals wereasked to inform the districtadministration if they lackedspace for quarantine of doctorsand medical staff on COVIDduty. KGMU spokespersonSudhir Singh clarified that twopatients who had died in the crit-ical care unit of the medicinedepartment where the infectednurse was on duty, had testednegative for coronavirus.

Meanwhile, Defence PROGargi Malik said that the father-in-law and mother-in-law of theCanadian doctor who had test-ed positive for coronavirus here,had tested negative and bothwould be discharged on

Wednesday.Meanwhile, UP on Tuesday

reported three fatalities due toCOVID-19, taking the deathtoll to 34, as the number of casesin the state rose to 2,053 with 66more people testing positive forcoronavirus infection.

The fresh cases were report-ed from different parts of thestate, including 17 from Agra, fol-lowed by 12 from Varanasi and8 from Kanpur Nagar.

Dr Vikasendu Agrawal, JointDirector/State SurveillanceOfficer, Integrated DiseaseSurveillance Programme (IDSP),said two deaths were reportedfrom Agra, and one fromKanpur. With this, Agra accountsfor 12 deaths, followed byMoradabad (6) and Meerut (5).Four COVID-19 deaths havetaken place in Kanpur, and oneeach in Basti, Varanasi,Bulandshahr, Lucknow,Firozabad, Aligarh and Shrawasti.

The fresh cases brought thetotal count in the state’s 60 dis-tricts to 2,053.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath has directed

officials to prepare a strategyfor relaxation in lockdownafter May 3 in districts identi-fied as ‘free’, ‘green’ and ‘orange’zones.

He was interacting withofficials of Team 11 in Lucknowon Tuesday.

“Prepare an action plan forvarious activities in green andorange zones. Self-help groups(SHGs) of women should beengaged for production ofmasks etc,” he said.

Of the 75 districts in UP, 60districts have reported coron-avirus positive cases while inthe remaining 15, there has notbeen a single case so far.

The chief minister direct-ed officials to prepare an actionplan for restarting industrialunits after May 3 and employmigrant labourers arrivingfrom different states.

Additional Chief SecretaryAwanish Awasthi told mediapersons on Tuesday that thechief minister gave severaldirections to officials during hismeeting with Team 11 thatincluded an action plan forrelaxation in lockdown in somedistricts after May 3.

“Officials informed thechief minister that they havemade arrangements to lodge15,000 to 25,000 people inquarantine centres in respectivedistricts. Capacity of quaran-tine shelters in districts havebeen increased to accommo-date labourers evacuated fromother states,” he said.

Awasthi said that 7,425industrial units had startedfunctioning across the state,employing 1.33 lakh peopleand there was no ban on trans-portation of construction mate-rials in the state.

The additional chief secre-tary said that 11,000 workers

were engaged in constructionof three major projects —Purvanchal Expressway,Gorakhpur Link Expresswayand Bundelkhand Expressway— while the PWD had started225 projects . “Work on small-er projects has also commencedin 25,000 gram panchayats andseveral lakh unskilled workershave been hired there,” he said.

Meanwhile, the chief min-ister reiterated that lockdownbe followed strictly with specialfocus on maintaining socialdistancing.

“All houses in hotspotsshould be sanitised,’’ he said.

Yogi also directed officialsto ensure oxygen supply inLevel-1 and Level-2 hospitals.

“The number of Level-1COVID hospitals should beincreased while number ofbeds in Level-3 hospitalsshould be augmented. All hos-pitals should be equipped withadequate PPE kits and N-95masks,” he told officials.

The chief minister alsodirected officials to ramp uptesting capacity and said that alllabs should have pool testing

facilities. “Persons taking samples

from patients should be trainedas per COVID protocol andwhile increasing testing facili-ties, import of global technol-ogy should be considered.Plasma therapy should also beused fir treatment of COVID-19 patients,” he said.

Yogi stressed that everychain of coronavirus infectionhad to be broken, health work-ers had to be trained to preventmedical infection and biomedical waste should be prop-erly disposed of.

The chief minister alsoasked the chief medical officersto meet nursing home ownersand doctors at district level tospeed up tele-consultation topatients.

“The names and telephonenumbers of doctors should bepublicised widely so that peo-ple could avail the facility,” headvised.

Yogi said that hay stock wasplenty these days hence ‘HayStock Bank’ be set up at cowshelter homes, especially for thestray bovines.

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The Uttar Pradesh govern-ment has directed district mag-istrates to expedite resumptionof operation of MSME units intheir respective districts subjectto guidelines laid down forlockdown.

In a circular issued to all dis-tricts, Chief Secretary RK Tiwarisaid that only MSME and ruralindustries located outsidehotspot containment zonewould be allowed to operate.He said that MSMEs be alsodirected to abide by directivesissued by Health and Homeministries for practising socialdistancing and the use of sani-tisers.

Tiwari said that generalmanagers of district industrycentres along with district healthofficers would ensure compli-ance of social distancing and useof sanitisers.

He also said that besidesthermal scanning of employeesof MSME units, rapid tests forcoronavirus should also be con-ducted.

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Facing flak over supply ofinferior PPE (personal pro-

tective equipment) kits to gov-ernment hospitals and theirsubsequent withdrawalthrough a confidential letter,the state government said thatas the kits were for protectionagainst SARS (Severe AcuteRespiratory Syndrome) andH1N1 virus and not forCOVID-19, their supply waswithdrawn.

“Around 3,500 PPE kitspurchased at a price of Rs 115per kit were to be used forH1N1 virus and were suppliedto hospitals. The purchaseswere made as per recommen-dation of an expert committeeand had all approvals. But thegovernment decided to with-draw these kits as they wereunfit to be used for COVID-19,” Additional Chief Secretary(Home) Awanish Awasthi toldmedia persons in Lucknow onTuesday.

The imbroglio surfacedafter a government letter ask-ing hospitals not to use thesePPE kits and they be returned,got leaked.

The reason for their returnwas ascribed to the kits beingof inferior quality.

Once the issue snowballed,the government ordered a STFprobe into the leakage of theconfidential letter.

Awasthi said that therewas no scam in the supply andpurchase of these kits asclaimed by a section of themedia and others.

“The only lacuna was thatthese were not for COVID-19cases,” he said.

The additional chief secre-tary further said that now PPEkits used for COVID-19 wereof good quality and were beingpurchased at a price of Rs 1,086per kit.

The earlier kits were pricedRs 115 per kit and the entireamount of Rs 3.50 lakh usedfor purchase of 3,500 PPE kitswas withdrawn by the govern-ment.

Principal Secretary(Health) Amit MohanPrasad said that these H1N1PPE kits were supplied inOctober, 2019 as there was pos-sibility of the spread of the

virus. “The quality of PPE kits

can be gauged from the differ-ence in their prices. TheCOVID-19 kit comes for Rs1,086 per unit while the kitpurchased earlier was at Rs 115per kit,” Prasad said .

The principal secretarysaid both kits were purchasedin accordance with officiallylaid norms and there was nolapse in the procedure.

Earlier, after the leakage ofthe letter on withdrawal of PPEkits, opposition leaders, includ-ing Congress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra,

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After evacuating students from Kota and labourers fromHaryana, now the Yogi Adityanath government plans

to evacuate stranded workers of Uttar Pradesh fromadjoining Madhya Pradesh from Wednesday. This wasannounced by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a rou-tine meeting with Team 11 officials in Lucknow onTuesday. Yogi said that after the successful evacuation of12,000 workers of UP from Haryana in two phases, it wastime to replicate the effort for labourers stranded in MadhyaPradesh. Officials said that around 400 buses would bepressed into service for the operation.

Around 15,000 labourers are expected to return to theirnative districts in UP from the adjoining districts, thoughthey will have to be quarantined for 14 days at shelter homes.

The chief minister made it clear that only those work-ers from other states would be brought back who have com-pleted 14 days of quarantine in that state and on their returnto their native districts, they would have to remain in quar-antine for another 14 days.

While 12,200 labourers were brought to UP fromHaryana, the government also evacuated 10,500 odd stu-dents of the state from Kota in Rajasthan last week.

Meanwhile, the UP government also started evacuat-ing around 10,000 students from three pick up points inPrayagraj from Monday night.

Officials said that 300 buses were pressed into servicefor the students to be ferried to their respective districts ineastern UP. Before being despatched to their native places,these students underwent medical tests.

The officials said that the Prayagraj operation would endby Wednesday. Anticipating evacuation of large number ofstranded workers from other states, Yogi had earlierdirected officials to make arrangements to house around15 lakh people in quarantine shelter. All district authori-ties were alerted to arrange accommodation for 10,000 to15,000 people in quarantine centres.

As per government estimates, there are around 10lakh UP natives working in other states. While it will notbe feasible to bring all of them back due to logistic prob-lems, but it is feasible in case these states share borders withUP.

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Condemning the murder oftwo sadhus in Anoopsahar

town of Bulandshahar onMonday night, SamajwadiParty chief Akhilesh Yadavcautioned against politicisationof the incident.

“Instead of politicising theincident, those in power shouldfind out the cause of violentinstincts, tendency and crimi-nal reason behind the incident.

There should be a promptprobe and follow-up actionmust be expedited,” Akhileshadvised on Tuesday.

Targeting the BharatiyaJanata Party government, the SPchief said that despite lockdown,there had been no let up incrime and incidents of rapes andmurders were still happening.

“Besides, smuggling ofliquor and other commoditiesis rampant during lockdownand many BJP leaders are also

found to be involved in thenefarious practices,” he said.

Akhilesh averred that cor-ruption was flourishing in gov-ernment relief work for thepandemic-affected poor. “A BJPleader and Mayor of Agra andMLAs are accusing their gov-ernment of irregularities inrelief operations. The govern-ment has not acted againstcomplaints of corruption inHealth department and officersinvolved in the scam in pur-

chase of rapid test kits, medi-cines, masks and sanitisersseem to have been let off,” hesaid.

The SP chief charged thatthe BJP government had failedin the task of providing relief tothe people in the hour of crisis.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal andNationalist Congress Party alsocondemned the murder of thesadhus inside a temple anddemanded a high level probeinto it.

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Asserting that the Centreshould be cautious in

procuring test kits, BahujanSamaj Party chief Mayawatisaid that the fight against coro-navirus should not be weak-ened in any way due to corrup-tion.

Interestingly, she chose tocite corruption in Congress-ledUnited Progressive Alliance(UPA) regimes while caution-ing the Narendra Modi-ledNational Democratic Alliance(NDA) government at theCentre.

In a tweet on Tuesday,Mayawati posted, “It was well-known during Congress rule atthe Centre that there was cor-ruption in preparation forDelhi Commonwealth Games,

especially in items procuredfrom abroad. Besides, fund forthe welfare of poor Dalits wasalso diverted and spent inap-propriately.”.

The BSP chief further post-ed, “Hence, the current BJPgovernment at the Centreshould learn from the same andexercise caution while procur-ing testing equipment, specif-ically those related to testingcoronavirus so that the fightagainst the pandemic is notweakened at any cost.”

Mayawati posted thesetweets after the BJP govern-ment was criticised for procur-ing sub-standard COVID-19test kits from a Chinese firm ata very high cost when a betterquality kit was available atmuch lower price in othercountries.

Lucknow (PNS): Asking students tostay safe by staying in quarantine andmaintaining social distancing, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath said thegreatest partner of a person duringcalamity was patience and one shouldnot lose it. The chief minister onTuesday interacted with the studentswho came back from Kota throughvideo conferencing from his official res-idence and enquired about their well-being.

He said that it was a big challengefor the government to bring back morethan 11,500 youth stranded in Kota dueto the lockdown. “We made an actionplan and communicated with theGovernment of Rajasthan and theGovernment of India and we were suc-cessful in bringing you back to yourhomes,” he said.

Yogi said that the greatest partnerof a person during calamity was his orher patience. “You all kept patience andits result is that all of you are safe in yourhomes today,” he said.

Yogi said that protection and aware-ness were very important in the battleagainst coronavirus. “All the studentswho came back from Kota must stay inhome quarantine for 14 days and alsofollow social distancing. It will be goodfor you and your family. If there is anyproblem, then you can call the CMhelpline number 1076 or relief linenumber 1070,” he said.

He said the students could stay intheir homes and complete the syllabus.

“For the ease of students, we have alsoarranged online classes in the state. Oureffort is to set up some good education-al centres in all districts across the statefor helping students prepare for com-petitive examinations so that aspirantsof Uttar Pradesh need not go outside thestate,” he said.

The chief minister said that on thethird day of the lockdown, more thanfour lakh migrant workers from Delhi,Haryana, Rajasthan and other states ofthe country headed for their home-towns on foot and it was a big challengefor us.

There were lighter moments dur-ing the video conferencing. DeekshaVerma, a student from Gorakhpur,thanked Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathfor bringing them home. On hearingthis, the chief minister asked her if shereached her home safely, to whichDiksha said yes. When the chief min-ister said in a lighter vein, “But we havenot received our fare,” everyone presentburst into laughter. He, however wishedDeeksha a bright future and said thatwhen she cleared a competitive exam-ination and thereafter served the nation,that would be the actual fare she wouldhave paid.

The chief minister also interactedwith Nidhi Singh of Varanasi, MansiSingh of Moradabad, Shalini Rai ofGhazipur, Aman Yadav of Mau, RajPandey of Ayodhya, Unnati Verma ofPrayagraj, and Nidhi Agarwal andAbhinav Dubey of Lucknow. s

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The Uttar Pradesh government has rampedup collective manufacturing capacity of sani-

tisers to about 2 lakh litres per day from 40,000litres a month back to cater to increaseddemand for hand sanitiser due to coronaviruspandemic. Besides chemical industrial units, sev-eral sugar mills have set up plants to manufac-ture sanitisers. Principal Secretary (Sugarcane)Sanjay Bhoosreddy said that 82 units in the statewere engaged in commercial production of handsanitisers and 36 of these were dedicated sani-tiser plants, 27 sugar mills, 11 standalone dis-tilleries and eight independent units.

“Earlier, there were only 5-6 permanenthand sanitiser units in UP and the number hasrisen to 36 in the last few weeks, he said.

While the 2019-20 cane crushing season istapering in the state, mills engaged in sanitiserproduction are likely to continue manufactur-ing even after they end crushing operations. Forthis, they would need ethanol/alcohol, whichthey already have in abundance. So far, 32 of 119sugar mills in UP have closed down for the sea-son.

Meanwhile, all UP-based units have collec-tively produced more than 2.5 million litres ofliquid hand sanitiser last month. Of this, near-ly 1.8 million litres was supplied to retail mar-ket. The Sugarcane department is also supply-ing hand sanitiser free to the police, medical andhealth staff and local bodies. Mills that have setup hand sanitiser facilities pertain to major pri-vate sugar companies like Balrampur Chini,Birla, Dalmia, Dhampur, Uttam, etc. While somesugar companies are manufacturing hand sani-tiser in bulk or supplying to other firms for bot-tling and marketing, a few others have signedcontracts to supply ethanol to external plants.

Lucknow (PNS): In a tragicincident in Budaun, two kidsdrowned in a water-filled pit ata brick kiln in Ughaiti area onTuesday. A large number oflabourers work at the brickkiln in Khitaura village underUghaiti police station inBudaun. On Monday evening,the children of these workerswere playing when suddenlythey noticed Raj Kumar (8), sonof labourer Anandpal, and Sonu(6), son of Harish Singh, miss-ing but did not inform anyone.When the kids did not return

home till late, their family mem-bers searched for them andfound their bodies floating in awatery pit. Upon beinginformed, the police reached thescene and took out the bodiesbefore sending them for autop-sy. Both the kids had enteredthe pit to bathe and had wadedinto the deep side and slippedas a result of which they died.

Meanwhile in Mau,depressed with her husbandbeing away in Surat (Gujarat)due to the lockdown, a womanended her life on Monday night.

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Samajwadi Party chief AkhileshYadav and others, had slammedthe Yogi government for playingwith the lives of doctors and hos-pital staff.

They demanded that theprotective gears provided to themedics be of good quality.

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��)��-�� >&1�� ,��Lucknow (PNS): Acting tough against party’s loose cannons,Bharatiya Janata Party state president Swatantra Dev Singh hasissued notice to two lawmakers for making “remarks in themedia” which is against the ideology and principle of the party.The lawmakers who faced the disciplinary axe are Suresh Tiwari,MLA from Barhaj in Deoria and Shyam Prakash law makerfrom Gopamau in Hardoi. A few days back Suresh Tiwari hadgiven a statement asking people not to purchase vegetable fromMuslim vendors. When the statement created a political furorehe said he had suggested after he saw video of Muslim ven-dors spitting on vegetables and fruits. Shyam Prakash was pun-ished for asking district administration to return his donationfrom Legislature Fund because of alleged corruption in pur-chase of medical kits. BJP state president said that the conductof both the lawmakers was against the ideals of the party andthey had been asked to give reply within seven days.

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The body of an unidentifiedman, clad in khaki uni-

form with a RPF logoembossed on the left arm anda pair of jeans, was recoveredfrom Gomti river inHasanganj police station areaon Tuesday. Police said thebody flowed from elsewhereand they were trying to ascer-tain the identity of thedeceased.

As per reports, PramodKumar Pandey of Saadatganj,who works as an LPG deliv-eryman, was at Jhulelal Parkon Tuesday morning whenhe spotted the body stuck inhyacinth in the river. He alert-ed the police and a teamreached the place. The police

got the body fished out andsaid it appeared to be 3-4 daysold. Investigating officerAbhay Singh said they haveshared details with their coun-terparts in other police sta-tions. About the RPF logo, thepolice said they were yet tosolve that puzzle. The policecould not give details of thewounds, if any, on the body asit was in a swollen state andcould not be examined. “Theautopsy report will ascertainthe cause of death,” the policesaid. Sources said the inves-tigating team focused onasserting that the body flowedfrom somewhere else insteadof making further probe.

Meanwhile, a Thakurganjresident accused two youthsand their group of attacking

him and issuing death threatson Tuesday morning. Reportssaid the complainant, identi-fied as Vinod Kumar Bajpai ofSarai Mali Khan area, noticeda group of youths laughing outloud and using cuss words out-side his house. He came outand found Abhilash Kashyap& Rahul Kashyap (both of thesame locality) and othersstanding at the gate and swear-ing at each other. When Bajpaiasked the youths to not useabusive language outside hishouse and leave the place,they blew their top indulged ina verbal spat with him.

“They lunged at me andkicked me in the stomach andface. While leaving the scene,they also issued death threatsto me,” he alleged.

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Babasaheb BhimraoAmbedkar University

(BBAU) has developed its owncustomised low-cost sanitisa-tion tunnel to fight Covid-19which has been made by theconstruction department.Similar tunnels will be estab-lished in various parts of thecampus.

“It is a temporary structurecovered with f lex sheet.Provision of agricultural spraymachine has been made forsanitisation with sodiumhypochlorite solution,” BBAUmedia spokesperson RachnaGangwar said.

She said that to keep costminimum, arrangements oftwo-way switches have beenmade at the entry & exit pointsof the tunnel instead of a sen-sor. “The cost of this arrange-ment is less than Rs 15,000 andmay be installed anywherewith ease. The first sanitisationtunnel has been installed at theVC office and many more tun-nels are likely to be installed atstrategic locations in the cam-pus once BBAU reopens afterlockdown,” she said.

�� 79(:3.5

Central Institute forSubtropical Horticulture

(CISH) has evaluated theimpact of Covid-19 effect onmango orchards. CISH directorShailendra Rajan said that theinitial phase of lockdown over-lapped with the most crucialperiod of orchard operations bythe mango farmers of northernIndia. “Not only problems aris-ing due to lockdown, untimelyrains and hailstorm also dam-aged the mango crop duringMarch. Plant protection opera-tions were a bit disturbed due toless mobility in the orchardsduring the onset of lockdownbut resumed partially after-wards. However, the frequencyof farm visits by the ownersdrastically reduced and manycould not even visit the orchardsand relied upon local persons,”he said.

He said that there wasshortage of pesticides due totransport restrictions. “The rec-ommended pesticides were notavailable in the shops due to theaffected supply chain. A suddenupsurge in temperature accel-erated the incidence of mangopests. Pesticides, as per therecommended spay schedule,were not available to contain

them,” he said. He pointed outthat the unavailability of pub-lic transport system had animpact on availability of labour-ers for operations in theorchards.

“At many places, due to thefear of coronavirus during theinitial lockdown period, labour-ers were not ready to work inorchards. Overall, severalmango growers could not findlabourers, hampering activi-ties like pesticide spray and irri-gation during the fruit develop-ment stage, which may result inreduction in yield, and harvestmay also be affected due toshortage of manpower becauseof social distancing duringlockdown. This will be muchapparent where the crop isearly and farmers have to per-form operations harvesting,packaging, and marketing,” theCISH director said. Rajan saidthat Covid-19 is disruptingsome important activities inhorticulture and supply chains.

“Disruptions in supplychains due to transportationproblems will also have adverseeffects on production and mar-keting export. In the current sit-uation of lockdown, the majorimpact is on mango export aswell as sale within the country,”he pointed out.

%:�9�E(�� Lucknow (PNS): Vice-Chancellor of AKTU VinayKumar Pathak interacted withteachers of the affiliated collegesthrough video-conferencing onTuesday. He said most of theinstitutes have given Marchsalary to the teachers. He saidthe AKTU administration wastrying to make sure that Aprilsalary was also paid to theteachers. He informed theteachers that he was going tomake a provision to get infor-mation related to their salarypayment. “On the AKTU por-tal, the institutes will have toupdate the information relatedto salary payment,” he said.

Examination controllerRajiv Kumar said that in view ofthe lockdown, remuneration ofteachers would be paid by theend of this week.

Lucknow (PNS): Ration wasdistributed among the poorand needy at St Paul’s Collegein Cantonment on Tuesday.Teachers and alumni of the col-lege gave away ration to thepoor, affected by the ongoinglockdown. Ration was distrib-uted from college premiseskeeping social distancingnorms in mind. All the teach-ers and alumni members werewearing masks and gloves. A

total of 250 ration kit bags weredistributed from the college.Each kit contained 5 kg rice, 5kg atta and 2 kg daal.

Besides, vice-president ofSt Paul’s Alumni AssociationAshish Yadav contributed Rs10,000 to the college funds. Theassociation conveyed specialthanks to the CentralCommand Headquarters ofIndian Army for granting per-mission for the event.

�� 79(:3.5

The surveillance of fish dis-eases by National Bureau of

Fish Genetic Research(NBFGR), under the Ministryof Fisheries, is likely to be car-ried out on a pan-India basis.NBFGR director KK Lal said itwas important for curtailingthe trans-boundary diseases.Currently, the surveillance isbeing done in 19 states andthree union territories through31 collaborating centres, and isbeing coordinated by NBFGR.

Lal said this surveillance isaimed at bringing crediblereporting from India on aquat-ic animal diseases and curtail-ing the spread of these diseases,including viruses.

He said that this report sentby the Central government tointernational agencies facilitatesthe trade of fish and fish prod-ucts with the other countrieswhich is worth Rs 45,000 crorefrom India. Lal said theNational Surveillance

Programme for AquaticAnimal Diseases is supportedby the the Department ofAnimal Husbandry, Dairyingand Fisheries, Ministry ofAgriculture and FarmersWelfare through NationalFisheries Development Board.

“Diseases are a seriousconstraint for the growth ofaquaculture, and huge eco-nomic losses are reported byfarmers in different sectorsdue to aquatic animal diseases.Early detection is key to con-trol of diseases and can only beachieved through a structuredsurveillance programme,” heexplained.

Lal said that NBFGR pub-lishes the detailed protocoland SOP for all the centres asper the internationallyapproved method and the var-ious institutes across the coun-try submit their report toNBFGR. “They carry out theirsurvey through targeted sur-veillance where people frominstitutions go and inquire

whether there was any diseasein fishes in their areas and withthe farmers reporting the dis-ease,” he said.

“The programme has beensuccessful in strengthening ofpassive disease surveillance inthe country and investigationof disease outbreaks, therebyproviding scientific advice tothe farmers.

Under the programme,seven new pathogens from thecountry have been detectedearlier. The programme hasbeen successful in developinga strong network of aquatic ani-mal health laboratories in thecountry besides developingdiagnostic capability for detec-tion of international agencies -listed and emerging aquaticanimal pathogens. Further, theprogramme has also been suc-cessful in establishing mecha-nisms for first-time confirma-tion of exotic and emerging dis-eases and notification of firsttime occurrence of internation-ally-listed diseases,” he added.

�� 79(:3.5

Bollywood singer KanikaKapoor’s blood samples

have been tested for plasmatherapy which is being conduct-ed by KGMU for critical coro-navirus patients. A senior doc-tor from KGMU said sinceKanika’s blood samples showedlow haemoglobin levels, shewould donate plasma nextweek. He said that the bloodsamples were collected from herresidence and tested. “A teamfrom KGMU collected her sam-ples. Since the haemoglobin lev-els were low, she will be donat-ing plasma next week. Thehaemoglobin levels were lessthan 12.5, which is the mini-mum level required for plasmadonation,” he said.

He added that she waskeen on donating plasma aftershe came to know about plas-ma therapy. The singer had test-ed positive and landed in a con-troversy for leaving a largenumber of contacts by attend-ing parties in the state capitaland not quarantining herselfafter returning from London.

The singer who had testednegative on March 10 was shift-ed to SGPGI where she recov-ered from the disease and wasdischarged on April 6. However,none of her contacts tested

positive and the actress said thesame in her statement on socialnetworking sites.

On whether any othercoronavirus patient hadapproached them for plasmatherapy, the doctor replied innegative. However, he said theyhad appealed to the patientscured of Covid-19 in thisregard.

Meanwhile, the first patientto have received plasma thera-py was stable on the third day.He was given the therapybecause he was getting criticalwith acute breathing problem

after he was first admitted toKGMU. “He was given seconddose of plasma late on Mondayevening and the results areencouraging,” the doctor said.

He added that the plasmawhich was given to him wasthat of the first coronaviruspatient of Lucknow, theCanadian doctor, since herblood group matched with him.Plasma therapy was started atKGMU after Dr Tausif, a resi-dent doctor of KGMU, UmaShankar Pandey, and 35-year-old Canadian doctor donatedplasma.

�� 79(:3.5

There will be no BadaMangal celebrations in the

Naya Hanuman Mandir inAliganj in over a century dueto Covid-19 outbreak and con-sequent lockdown. The firstBada Mangal is scheduled for May 12.

Confirming the same,administrator of the templeAnil Tewari said that every yearthey would seek permissionfrom the district administra-tion to hold Bada Mangal cel-ebrations and since there is nopermission this year, therewould be no celebrations. “Also,public gatherings and religiouscelebrations have been restrict-ed in the city and thus, the tem-ple will remain closed,” he

said. However, he added thatthe priest was performing rit-uals on a daily basis during thecurrent lockdown period.

A devotee, who has been aregular visitor to the temple,said it was after over 100 yearsthat there would be no celebra-tions of Bada Mangal, whichhas become a regular andunique feature of Lucknow.

“Ironically, as per a story,there was an epidemic about100 years back and all thosewho remained closeted in thetemple were saved while allthose left outside died. TheBada Mangal celebrations orig-inated because of this episodeand now a century later, the sit-uation is similar and people arestuck in the midst of a pandem-ic,” he recalled.

Bada Mangal remains oneof the most awaited affairs andpeople take this opportunity toserve the poor and needy byorganising bhandaras acrossthe city.

Manager of HanumanTemple (Aliganj) RK Dixitsaid that 15 days prior to BadaMangal, they would getnumerous calls on the spots fortents, arrangements for devo-tees and bhandaras. “However,now there is complete silencein the temple premises thisyear and the regular hustle andbustle is missing,” he added.

Dixit said they would alsonot be able to decorate thetemple premises on BadaMangal. “One cannot do anydecoration because there areno flowers available. “Even

the ‘bhog’ which we serve isnot the regular one. Instead ofladdoos and halwa, we areserving porridge to the deity inthe morning and daal-chawalin the afternoon since all sweetshops are closed. The deity isserved regular meals cooked inthe kitchen which appears verystrange because not less thanthree quintals of laddoos wereserved to devotees on the occa-sion of Bada Mangal,” he said.

Authorities associated withthe temple said there was awhole lot of frenzy associatedwith Bada Mangal. A seniormanagement official said therehave seen days when peoplewould perform ‘dandwat’ inthe night wearing a light stoleup to the temple premises.

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Lucknow (PNS): A thief wascaught red-handed while tryingto steal beer cans from a closedshop in Ashiyana. However,two of his aides managed toescape. Police said the accusedwas being interrogated and amanhunt was launched to nabhis aides.

As per reports, manager ofSri Lal and AssociatesCompany, Bablu Dubey ofOmex City, looks after businessof the company which owns 23

shops of Indian Made ForeignLiquor and beer in Ashiyana.On Friday morning, Sabir andManish of Rajni Khandinformed him that three per-sons were stealing goods fromcompany’s shop in Sarpatganj inAshiyana. On the information,Dubey, along with an employ-ee, reached the scene and foundthe shutter of the shop jackedup. Dubey entered the shop andfound three men keeping beercans in a bag. Dubey lunged at

the miscreants to catch themand caught hold of two ofthem. “While two of them man-aged to escape, I succeeded inpinning down one with the helpof the employee,” Duey told thepolice.

Police said Dubey broughtthe man he had nabbed to thepolice station. “The accused wasidentified as Soraj of Ashiyana(Sector M). He owned up hiscrime and disclosed the namesof his aides,” the police said.

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Lucknow Metro will be creat-ing signages on the floor of

stations to ensure social distanc-ing once it opens for public use.Managing director of UttarPradesh Metro Rail CorporationKumar Keshav said that tillnow, the signages made on thefloor were primarily for facilitat-ing the passengers, but nowadditional ones would be madeto help in keeping the passengersapart.

“This is important becauseCovid-19 is here to stay. The sig-nages which will be made on the

floor along with reminderswhich will be put on glass panesto help the passengers inremembering that they shouldnot touch anything and ensureprecautions,” he said. He addedthat currently they were in theprocess of designing colouredstrips which would be put infront of the counters and otherareas where people stand inqueues. “These strips will bestuck on the floor and can beused easily for 8-9 months. It ismuch easier in comparison topainting the floor,” he added.

Keshav said that they weredesigning the signages on their

own and had received no direc-tions from the government.“We are also purchasing masksto give to the commuters whodon’t have any,” he said. Askedwhether they were devising anystrategy to recover the lossesincurred due to lockdown, hesaid they were currently focus-ing on making metro a safemode of travel. “Once com-muters start coming, the revenuewill also also come,” he said. TheUPMRC managing director saidthey were also continuing withtheir plans of releasing tendersbecause such works cannot bestopped.

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The start of constructionwork on many projects has

witnessed the arrival of work-ers and the coming phasewould be more importantbecause any laxity or violationof lockdown and other normsmay pose further threats byincreasing the cases ofCOVID-19. This belt ofPurvanchal (eastern UP) com-prising 10 districts of Varanasi,Azamgarh and Vindhyachaldivisions is one of the worstaffected regions of the statewith 76 COVID-19 patientsincluding maximum 63 fromVaranasi division, followed bynine from Azamgarh and fourfrom Vindhyachal. Out ofthem, 55 are still active patientswhile 20 were discharged andone died.

The region has seen threemain causes in the hike ofCOVID-19 patients. The firstcause was slow when therewere no restrictions on thearrival of passengers from for-eign countries and the first twopatients that were detected inVaranasi were among them asboth of them came here fromDubai in United Arab Emirates(UAE), one by direct flight tothe city, while other via Delhi.At that time most of the otherparts of the region remainedunaffected. Both these patientswere recovered and returnedhomes long ago and the areasthey belong were also not

declared as hotspots but aftertheir detection, the areas wereproperly sealed and those per-sons who came into their con-tacts were quarantined.

However, the second rea-son was the most shocking oneas it had caused sharp hike incases not only in Varanasi butalso in many districts of theregion including Azamgarh,Ghazipur, Jaunpur andMirzapur. Most of the COVID-19 patients detected duringthis period either attendedNizamuddin’s Tablighi JamaatMarkaz event in Delhi or theycame into the contacts of them.In the city, the most sensitivehotspot is Madanpura bufferzone from where as many as 16positive corona patients includ-ing three fresh from RevariTalab were found and majori-

ty of them were linked withJamaat event. Besides,Nakkhighat patient was alsoassociated with same episode.

Later, a third cause wasseen when many migratedworkers from different parts ofthe country arrived in thisregion, violating lockdownnorms, through various medi-ums of transport.

Two COVID-19 patientswho were detected fromArjunpur in Sewapuri blockhere came from Kolkata hidingin trucks during lockdownperiod. The only patient cameinto light from Bhadohi is alsoa migrated worker who hailsfrom Katihar in Bihar butstopped in Bhadohi when hereached there from Delhi. OnTuesday, three COVID-19patients were detected from

Jaunpur and all of themreached their homes inBadlapura area from Mumbai.

Besides, there were someother patients though whowere not workers but they alsocame from other cities recent-ly. First patient of Gangapurwas a trader who came fromKolkata and later, two more ofhis family members were alsoaffected. He was the onlypatient who died of corona inthis region so far. Similarly, thefirst positive corona patientfrom Pitarkunda is also a trad-er who had visited Delhi some-time ago and later, three moreof his family members wereinfected. Not only this,Bajardiha’s lady patient camehere from Saudi Arabia whileLohta’s student fromMoradabad.

These developments clear-ly indicate that if after May 3there would be any pressure onthe government to transportthe trapped migrated workersfrom Delhi, Mumbai,Ahmedabad, Surat, Hyderabad,Indore and others, they maykick up the number of COVID-19 patients, once again, becauseall are among the worst affect-ed cities.

In such cases, properhealth check-up and sufficientquarantine should be done asit is being done with the stu-dents brought here from Kotaand now Prayagraj, the twoplaces which are comparative-ly less affected.

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After a brief relief a day ago,the number of new

COVID-19 cases has shot up,once again, in the city here onTuesday when as many as 12patients including four of thefamily, three employees andone customer of wholesaletrader from Sapt Sagar medi-cine market and resident ofMadauli, were found. Besides,three persons from RevariTalab, a locality adjoininghotspot Madanpura but fallsunder Bhelupur police stationand a 60-year old advocatefrom Kazipura Khurd, underthe Sigra police station werealso found positive coronapatients.

With this, the number ofpositive corona patients in thecity has shot up to 49 and outof them, 30 were found onlyduring the last five days.According to the DistrictMagistrate (DM) Kaushal RajSharma, the four persons of thefamily of medicine wholesalerare his father (50), sister (30),wife (24) and sister’s one-and-a-half year old son. Besides,three of his employees andone customer (30), who ownsa retail shop in Pahadia area,were also found positive andwith this, out of 12 newCOVID-19 patients, eight werethose who came into the con-tact of medicine wholesaler.Besides, three persons werefound positive corona patientsfrom Revari Talab area whocame into the contact with anearlier COVID-19 patient fromKarnataka staying in nearbyMadanpura area and attended

Tablighi Jamaat Markaz eventin Delhi.

However, a surprise findingis an advocate from Sigra areaas he had neither any travel norany contact history and due tofever, he was referred to PtDeen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU)Hospital (Pandeypur) for sam-pling. The administration isconsidering revising the num-ber of hotspots as at present,there are eight such bufferzones in the district.Meanwhile, three COVID-19patients have also found inBadlapura area in Jaunpur whoreturned from Mumbai intrucks last week and were beingquarantined at some placesthere. Two of them were fromPhattupura village and onefrom Karanpura. In Jaunpur, sofar eight positive patients werefound and out of them, fourwere discharged.

With this, the number ofCOVID-19 patients fromVaranasi division has increasedto 63 including 49 from

Varanasi, eight from Jaunpurand six from Ghazipur. Nocorona patients have beendetected from Chandauli so far.Out of 63, 45 are active patientsand 44 are being treated atDDU Hospital, while one at SirSundarlal Hospital (SSH) inBanaras Hindu University(BHU).

Among these, 45 activepatients, 40 are from Varanasi,four from Jaunpur and onefrom Ghazipur. So far, 17patients including eight fromVaranasi, five from Ghazipurand four from Jaunpur havebeen recovered and one ofVaranasi has died.

Meanwhile, according toinformation, out of eighthotspots in the city, Lohta hascome into green zone and if thesituation remains so Bajardihaand Gangapur will also comeinto green zones by May 1 andMay 2 respectively. All thesecame from red to orange zonesearlier. According to ChiefMedical Officer (CMO) Dr

VB Singh, Lohta was declaredhotspot on April 2 and afterthat 100 samples were collect-ed and when none of themwere found positive on April 15it was shifted to orange zone.Similarly, after finding of all 121samples negative Bajardiha wasshifted to orange zone on April17 while as no samples out of60 were found positive inGangapur after April 5, it wasalso shifted to orange zone onApril 18. Besides, 23 sampleswere collected from hotspotNakkhighat. Since April 24, 173samples were collected fromPitarkunda and out of them152 were found negative andresults of 21 are awaited. OnMonday, the results of 200samples were received andnone of them were found pos-itive.

Besides, in view of comingof several cases into the lightfrom biggest wholesale medi-cine market of Purvanchal(eastern UP), Sapt Sagar, it hasbeen that after April 30, themarket would be opened butonly by adopting odd and evenformula. The entry would begiven from two sides and onlyhalf of the shops can be openedevery day. Except retailers, noother would be allowed to gothere. Meanwhile, the DM hasinformed that 22 Sri Lankanstudents studying in BHU arebeing sent by a special flight toDelhi and then from therethey would be carried to SriLanka as in this direction, theExternal Ministry has grantedpermission to BHU. All the stu-dents have been advised tomaintain social distancing andother norms.

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In a sensational incident, a 25-year-old youth who had

allegedly gone to meet his girl-friend in a field nearby herhouse in the wee hours onTuesday morning was beaten todeath with lathis by her fami-ly members. The incidentoccurred in the Niwan village,under the Dhoomaganj policestation. The family membersof the girl spotted them in thefield and beat him to deaththere.

On receipt of information,Dhoomangaj reached the spot,took the body of the victim intoits custody and sent it to mor-tuary for the postmortemexaminations.

The cops, however actingswiftlyarrested the threeaccused involved in the mur-der. At the same time, raids arealao being conducted in searchof the other abscondingaccused, police said.

Ajay Bhartiya alias Dalau ofthe same village, was done todeath in a field near the housein Niwan village, under theDhoomanganj police staion.The family members of theyouth who launched a hecticsearch found his body in a poolof blood in the wee hours onTuesday.

In this regard, CO CivilLines Brij Narayan Singh saidthat Ajay went to meet his girl-friend in the field nearby. Inthe meantime, the family mem-bers of the girl came to knowabout it who also reached thereand killed the youth by beatinghim to death with lathis. Thepolice had arrested three cul-prits in this connection andraids were also being conduct-ed in search of the remainingaccused, the CO added sayingthat Ajay was a labourer by pro-fession.

Meanwhile, theColonelganj police raided theHindu Hostel in search of thewanted students of AllahabadUniversity (AU) against whomthe FIRs were lodged under

Gangster Act. However noaccused were found duringthe raid.

Some inmates of the HinduHostel had an altercation withthe corporator and sanitaryworkers over some issues andhad also hurled crude bombs atthe Manmohan Park to createterror.

In the same case, theColonelganj police had filed acase against Mridul Tiwari ofBallia, Vikas Rai of Mau,Tejaswi Singh of Varanasi,Aman Gupta of Banda, PrakashShukla of Rae Bareli, GauravYadav of Firozabad andAshutosh alias Annu Passiunder Gangster Act. All ofthem lived in Hindu Hostel.Inspector Colonelganj ArjunTyagi said that MridulTiwari is the leader of thegang . Attempts were beingmade for their arrest, Tyagiadded.

FIR LODGED AGAINST8: An FIR has been lodgedagainst eight persons includinga newly married couple, herefor organising the marriage ingross violation of the ongoinglockdown norms.

The FIR was registeredunder Section 188 of IndianPenal Code (disobedience of anorder promulgated by a public

servant) besides theEpidemic Act by Kydganjpolice. The marriage of atrader’s son Deepanshu tookplace in Kydganj area onSaturday.

The family claimed thatthey organised the functionafter taking a written permis-sion from police officials onApril 20.

The permission for thewedding was given on condi-tions of social distancing, pres-ence of limited people andwearing masks by all includingthe bride and groom. However,a photograph of the bride andgroom without mask wentviral.

On the basis of the photo-graph, the FIR was lodgedagainst eight persons includingthe bride and groom who werepresent at the function. SPCity Brijesh Kumar Srivastavasaid permission for all pro-grammes, including marriageand functions were cancelledon April 22.

The family was aware ofthe development but still wentwith marriage, he added.

7 CRPF JAWANS QUAR-ANTINED: After a CRPFjawan who is a resident ofHandia tehsil in Prayagraj andis currently posted in

Kharagpur in West Bengal test-ed positive for COVID-19,seven CRPF jawan inPrayagraj who had interactedwith him during his recent visitto the city have been quaran-tined.

According to nodal officerfor Coronavirus in Prayagraj,Rishi Sahai, the CRPF jawanhad come to his native villageon March 26 last and afterspending nearly two weeks inthe village, he returned toKharagpur on April 12.

During his visit, the CRPFjawan had met his seven col-leagues who worked withCRPF Prayagraj, the officeradded. He further informedthat families of all the sevenCRPF jawan besides that of theCRPF personnel posted inKharagpur have been quaran-tined. All the samples havebeen sent for COVID-19 test-ing. The officers said that thesample of youth fromKaundhiyara on whose vehi-cle the two positive brothers ofKapari had travelled, has test-ed negative.

Currently, four corona pos-itive patients admitted in Level1 Hospital in Kota area ofPrayagraj including three fromPrayagraj and one fromPratapgarh.

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District Magistrate BRTiwari said in view of the

lockdown violations, specialvigil was being maintained onthe hotspot areas with the helpof drones. He said specialpolice teams had beendeployed in sensitive andhotspot areas to prevent move-ment of people and action wasbeing taken against those foundviolating the norms.

Tiwari said magistrateswere touring the wholesalemarkets and ensuring thatsocial distancing was beingmaintained there.

He said City MagistrateHimanshu Gupta touredCollectorganj, Nayaganj andBirhana Road areas and askedthe wholesalers to ensure socialdistancing. He said the whole-sale markets were being close-ly monitored by drones.

The district magistratedrones were also monitoringareas like Jajmau, NaubastaBabupurwa, Kidwai Nagar,Gwaltoli, Colonelganj,Chamanganj, Anwarganj andseveral other surroundingareas.

He appealed to the peopleto ensure that they maintainedsocial distancing and woremasks when moving out forbuying essential commodities.

The district magistratedenied rumours that 58 coro-navirus positive cases werefound in a madarsa and saidsome electronic media werespreading fake news to createsensation.

He also denied any inci-dent as reported by the mediaat a hospital and appealed tothe print and electronic mediato refrain from such reporting

which could pose further prob-lems in the present situation.

Tiwari said more help waspouring in from different cor-ners for the fight against thedeadly coronavirus. He saidDeen Dayal Group ChairmanYogesh Sachan had donated�51,000 while offers for help invarious forms was pouring inand many community kitchenswere providing cooked food tothe poor and needy along withthe stray animals.

Tiwari said on account ofthe lockdown, stray animalsincluding cows, dogs, pigs werethe worst hit but several socialorganisations were regularlyproviding food to them.

He said it had been decid-ed to allow shops in mandis toopen on alternate days on oddeven basis to maintain socialdistancing. Thus shops withodd number would open onone day and those with evennumber the next day, he added.

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Two police personnel havebeen found to be coronaviruspositive and they have beensent to hospital. The reports ofthese two cops came lateMonday.

Chief Medical Officer DrAK Shukla said rapid contact

tracing was being done inmore areas apart from thehotspots to identify the spreadof coronavirus in other areas.

He said throat and nasalswab samples were continuous-ly being taken and sent to theGSVM laboratory for test.

Meanwhile, GSVMMedical College hospital’sChief Medical SuperintendentDr RK Maurya said that theCOVID-19 Hospital at thematernity hospital had 69COVID-19 patients and theywere healthy and normal.

He said 88 samples weresent late Monday night to themicrobiology department andthe reports were still awaited.

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(�� #��&��#��KANPUR (PNS): While thedistrict administration andpolice are making all efforts toenforce social distancing andprevent people from comingout in large numbers, socialworkers and organisationsdistributing food to the poorand needy people are negatingthese efforts.

At a food distributioncamp organised by the localleader of a political party inGovind Nagar, scores of peo-ple could be seen crowdedaround the counter to getfood packet without caringfor social distancing.

This was not an isolatedincident. Similar scenes can beseen at most of the placeswhere food packets are being

distributed.Ironically, the administra-

tion seems to be biased in giv-ing permission for distribu-tion of cooked food. There aremany groups that are waitingfor the administration’s nod.

While giving permissionfor food distribution, the

administration should ensurethat social distancing is strict-ly maintained there. Similarly,the last day of ration distrib-ution at fair price shops wit-nessed a huge rush and peo-ple flocked the shops to gettheir quota without caring forsocial distancing.

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The Life InsuranceCorporation of India has

shown great performance amidCOVID-19 lockdown andimproved its number of policiesand settled more than twocrore claims. Even in presentdifficult times of businessowing to the coronavirus pan-demic, the LIC continued tobetter its performance.

In the just concludedfinancial year 2019-20, LICachieved its highest number ofpolicies for the last six years.Individual new business perfor-mance of the LIC as onMarch 2020 showed theimpressive figures of 2.19crore in number of policiesand � 51,227 crore in firstyear premium income.

The LIC collected singlepremium of � 21,967 crore and

non-single premium of �29260 crore, the ratio being42.88 for single premium and57.12 for non-single premium.

The LIC pension andgroup schemes vertical cre-ated a new record by clock-ing more than � 1 trillion pre-mium income during theFinancial Year 2019 – 20. LICcollected � 126,749 crore asgroup schemes new businesspremium income against �

91,179 crore in the previousyear with a growth rate of39.01 per cent and a marketshare of 80.54 per cent as com-pared to 77.94 per cent lastyear. Overall, LIC achieved animpressive growth rate of25.17per cent in first year newbusiness premium as com-pared to private players whohave collectively achieved apremium growth rate of 11.64.per cent.

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The railway personnel ofNorth Eastern Railway

(NER) during the ongoingnationwide lockdown period inforce to check the spread ofnovel coronavirus are ensuringthe movement of goods andparcel trains and doing othertasks for the convenience ofcommon people either byremaining present at work andfrom home. Sanitisation workwas being done continuously atvarious work places. Besidesmeasures are being taken forchecking the coronavirusinfection, ensuring health careand availability of health equip-ment. Moreover humanitarianassistance works are also beingreadily done by railwaymen.The NER administration washonouring railwaymen bydeclaring them ‘CoronaWarriors of the day’ everydayin order to boost their morale.Continuing the sequence, threerailwaymen were declared the‘Corona warriors of the day’ onon April 26,Chief Public Relations Officer(CPRO) Pankaj Kumar Singhsaid.

Reports said that RajeshPrasad, working in the office ofSuperintendent / Store in thedivisional office of Varanasidivision, in this difficult timebesides discharging his dutiesto the best of his ability was tak-ing interest in other works

too. He played an importantrole in ensuring the timelyavailability of medical deviceslike oxygen flowmeter, pulseoximeter, vacuum suctionmachine, BiPAP machine,syringe infusion pump, ther-mometer, ICU ventilator etcRajesh Prasad’s dedication tothe work is commendable forwhich he was declared the‘Corona warrior of the day’ ofVaranasi division.

Likewise SC Kushwahaworking as senior section engi-neer/TRD in DivisionalRailway Manager, Lucknowoffice, was doing the work ofTPC control of Gorakhpur-Gonda, Gonda-LucknowJunction and Burhwal-Sitapurboard all alone. Kushwaha wasmaintaining the records, doingthe work of taking blocks fornecessary work and ensuringthe availability of employees.Apart from them he was also

contributing to the distributionof sanitiser products for whichhe was declared the ‘Coronawarrior of the day’ of Lucknowdivision.

Besides Ramji Yadav, whoworks as senior clerk in MandalHospital, Izzatnagar, besidesdischarging his duties con-tributed in ensuring the avail-ability of medical equipmentsuch as sanitiser, face mask,PPE kit, ventilator for the pre-vention of coronavirus infec-tion. Yadav ensures the regularcleaning of isolation ward andwas constantly working to edu-cate the employees coming tooffice on ways to prevent coro-navirus infection. He weredeclared the ‘Corona warrior ofthe day’ of Izzatnagar division.

The railway administra-tion will continue to honoursuch employees in order toboost their morale during thelockdown period. The railway

administration was proud of itscorona warriors.

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Keeping the ongoing coun-trywode lockdown in mind tocheck the spread of Covid-19,the railway administration isdoing in-house production ofessential materials for preven-tion of infection. Under it facemasks and PPE (PersonalProtection Equipment) arebeing manufactured inmechanical workshops atGorakhpur and Izzatnagarand other units. So far about33,000 face masks and 2,500PPEs had been made in theseworkshops which were beingused by medical workers in therailway hospital to prevent thespread of coronavirus infection,the CPRO, Pankaj KumarSingh said.

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On the directive of BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) district

president Ajit Chaubey districtsecretary and its zila seva pra-mukh Ajit Rawat and districtsecretary Vinod Singh Pateldistributed Namo kits and facecover among the people by fol-lowing social distancing guide-lines in Urmaura gram sabha inRobertsganj block on Monday.Besides the Aarogya Setu appwas downloaded in theAndroid mobile phones ofpeople and they were told toensure cleanliness and hygiene.

Ajit Rawat said that thenationwide lockdown was inforce till May 3 to ensure thespread of novel coronavirusand save the people and fol-lowing its guidelines was theirduty. He said that we should

also ensure that no one slepthungry around our houses.He said that we should feed the

animals make arrangementsto keep water outside our hous-es for the birds. He stressed on

maintaining social distancingto check coronavirus epidem-ic and leave the house onlywhen necessary. He said thatwe should wash our handsfrequently with soap. He saidthat we should not go out ofour house and not call anyonethere. He said that it was ourduty was to stay at home andfollow the lockdown guidelines.

Meanwhile district secre-tary Ajit Rawat was going toMarkundi hill in Robertsganjblock where a large number ofmonkeys and langurs congre-gate, made arrangement forfruits and fed them so that theydid not face any problem dur-ing the ongoing lockdownperiod. He said that the Centraland state governments werecapable of handling the situa-tion but we should follow theirguidelines.

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Station Officer (SO) ofJaspura police station Alok

Singh conducted a meeting ofmaulavis of Jaspura town andrequested them to ask people oftheir community to offer namazat home and should not go tomosques. SO Singh said that thehe had requested the maulavisto extend their cooperation inmaintaining law and order in thetown. SO Singh said that theguidelines of lockdown in forceto check the spread of novelcoronavirus were being imple-mented in the town. SO Singhsaid that he was providing rationkits to the poor and needy peo-

ple in town as well. He said thathe had prepared a list of poorand needy people of the townand was distributing ration kitsamong them as per theirrequirement. SO said that he hadresolved that no one shouldremain hungry in entire town.

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A resident of the districtwho had returned from

Mumbai tested positive forCovid-19 on Tuesday, nodalofficer, Government AllopathicMedical College (GAMC),Banda, Dr Karan Rajput, said.Talking to The Pioneer, DrRajput said that this 26-year-old corona positive patientbelonging to Naraini town ofthe district had returned fromMumbai on April 25 where heworked as a labourer. Dr Rajputsaid that he went to GAMC onApril 25 for a health check-up.Being a corona suspect he was

admitted in quarantine ward ofthe Medical College and hissample was sent to JhansiMedical College for the test. DrRajput said that he had testedpositive on Tuesday. Nodalofficer said that the patient hadbeen shifted to the isolationward and his treatment hadstarted. He said that total fourcoronavirus positive cases hadbeen found in the entire districtso far.

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Station Officer (SO) ofTindwari Anuruddha Singhthat four police teams had

been deployed in Macha villagewhere third coronavirus posi-tive patient was found. He toldThe Pioneer that guidelines oflockdown were being imple-mented in the town. SO saidthat the people were offeringnamaz in their houses. He saidthat vehicles passing fromTindwari police station areawere being checked and theirdetails were being noted. Singhsaid that the entry of the vehi-cles with valid passes was beingallowed at the checkposts situ-ated on Banda- Fatehpur border.SO said that more than twodozen bikes were challaned forviolation of lockdown guidelines

in the town. He said that lunchpackets and ration kits were alsobeing distributed among thepoor and needy. SO said that veg-etables sellers, dairy, groceryshopkeepers and owners of med-ical stores were directed to ensuresocial distancing among the cus-tomers. SO Singh said that he wastaking regular round of the townand asking the people to stay athome and not come out of theirhouses unless there was an emer-gency. Singh said that police gavemasks to those who did not wearthem with a warning of chal-lan if they were found withoutthem twice during policechecking.

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Orders have been issued tothe officials to ensure

cent per cent implementationof the lockdown guidelines inthe entire district. This was saidby District Magistrate BandaAmit Singh Bansal while talk-ing to The Pioneer here onMonday.

He said that following hisorders police teams werechecking vehicles and wearingof face masks by people in theentire district. People comingout of their houses without anurgent work and not wearingface masks were being chal-laned under Section188 of theIndian Penal Code (IPC). Noone would be allowed to breakthe norms of guidelines.Policemen were making thepeople aware about the impor-tance of face mask in order tokeep Covid-19 away. District

authorities and police officialshave been advised to ensuresocial distancing at the shopsselling essential commodities.

DM said that DSO Bandahas been directed to ensure dis-tribution of ration among thepoor and needy as per govern-ment instructions. DM Bansalsaid that if any shopkeeperrefused to give ration to thebeneficiary of governmentscheme then the matter would

be dealt with strictly.DM Bansal said that he had

issued instructions to sub-divi-sional magistrates (SDMs) ofBanda, Baberu, Atarra andNaraini to ensure facilities forthe farmers at wheat purchasecentres in their respective cen-tres. DM said that they havebeen asked to ensure the avail-ability of clean drinking waterto the farmers. DM said thatthe payment of farmers againstthe purchased wheat should bemade within time. DM Bansalsaid that he had directed thetehsildars of Banda, Baberu,Atarra and Naraini to distrib-ute lunch packets among theneedy and poor people throughcommunity kitchens. DM saidthat all officials have beendirected to maintain law andorder during lockdown period.Bansal said that he had visitedall UP-MP borders along withSP Siddharth Shankar Meena

and directed official at policecheckposts not to allow vehicleswithout valid passes. DM saidthat they have been directed tocheck the passes of the peoplesitting in the vehicles. DMsaid that he was taking regularround of the district and wasissuing orders to follow lock-down guidelines. DM Bansalsaid that the problems of thepeople related to erratic watersupply were also beingresolved. Bansal made anappeal to the people to stay athome for their well being. DMBansal lauded the efforts ofpolicemen, doctors, paramed-ical staff, sanitation officials andbank.

Officials for extendingtheir services during Covid-19outbreak. Bansal made anappeal to the residents to prac-tice yoga and develop positivethinking in order to combat theinfection.

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Northern Coalfields Limited(NCL) Amlori region is

continuously distributingration, sanitisers and masks etc.under Corporate SocialResponsibility (CSR) to helpneedy families facing prob-lems related to Covid-19 out-break and lockdown. In thisseries the NCL Amlori onMonday distributed 324 rationkits. Out of them 60 kits wereprovided in Chitarbai Kalanpanchayat, 64 kits in Gaderiapanchayat and 200 kits inDevsar block to the needyfamilies.

In the same sequence asmany as 60 masks and 20 sani-tisers were also distributed inChitrabai Kalan panchayat.The NCL Amlori area wasconstantly working with the

district administration toensure the strict compliance ofthe lockdown guidelines beingto check the spread of novelcoronavirus and helping theneedy. It may be pointed outhere that so far Amlori Areahas provided 1,094 ration kits,5,730 pieces of masks and1,333 sanitisers among theneedy. The NCL Jayant dis-tributed ration among theneedy families of wards 12, 14and 19. The NCL Jayant wasconstantly trying to help theaffected families.

In this series the Jayant areaof NCL on Sunday distributedas many as 175 ration kits inwards 12, 14 and 19.

It may be pointed out herethat a total of 855 ration kitsand 1,010 masks had been dis-tributed under the corporatesocial responsibility.

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Ajeeta Srivastava, arenowned folk singer and

a retired teacher set an exam-ple donated �25,000 to thePM CARES Fund. She handedover the cheque to DM SushilKumar Patel at his office at theCollectorate on Monday tofight against coronavirus.

Ajeeta Srivastava hadretired from Arya Kanya InterCollege, Mirzapur. Residents ofthe district like Maya Pandey,

Anuj Srivastava, DrRajesh Mishra andSameer Verma, saidthat AjeetaSrivastava, who hadbagged severalawards, was aninspiration formany.

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Rajesh Pandey,a resident of

Ahraura, decided to celebratethe birthday of his daughter ina novel way.

He went to the Ahraurapolice station recently andsought the help of the SORajesh Chaubey there. RajeshPandey celebrated his daugh-ter’s birthday by donating 101lunch packets to the SO andrequested him to get them dis-tributed among the needy. TheStation Officer accepted hisrequest, blessed the girl childand wished her a bright,healthy and prosperous future.

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District president AkhilBhartiya Udyog Vyapar

Mandal (ABUVM) BandaManoj Jain and general secre-tary Amit Seth Bholu honouredfire brigade team at ChhotiBazar area. The team wasoffered towels as a token ofrespect towards their work ofsanitising the entire city on aregular basis.

General secretary ABUVMAmit Seth Bholu said that theywere doing their work sin-cerely as they were sanitisingthe entire city regularly inorder to protect the city peoplefrom novel coronavirus infec-tion. Bholu said that it was theright time to honour them inorder to boost their morale.

Prominent among those pre-sent on the occasion were

Ashok Gupta, Santosh KumarOmar and Rohit Jain.

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As many as 5,500 Lunchpackets were distributed

among the poor and needypeople in different parts of thecity on Tuesday.

Banda MLA PrakashDwivedi said that the lunchpackets were distributed inKhaipar, Aliganj, Khutla,Rahuniya, Kyotara, PadmakarChauraha, Chhawani,Ramleela Road, Bangalipura,Kyotara, Karbala,Jawaharnagar, Jheel ka Purwa,Sarvodaya Nagar, ShukulKuwan, Gayatrinagar, PeeliKothi, Station Road, Roadwaysbus stand, Swaraj Colony,Noniya Mohal, MuktidhamRoad and Civil Lines. Amongthose who distributed theselunch packets were MahendraSingh Kachhwah, Rajat Seth,Vishwa Prakash Srivastava,Ankit Agnihotri and Pankajraikawar. MLA PrakashDwivedi said that his aim wasto ensure that no one remainedhungry in entire vidhan sabhaarea. Dwivedi said that he wasdetermined to ensure regulardistribution of lunch packetsamong the poor and needyduring the ongoing lockdownperiod. Dwivedi said that 150ration kits were also distributedin Kyotara and Shambhunagaramong the needy and poor bydistrict president, BJP,Ramkesh Nishad, former pres-

ident, Yuva Morcha, BJPPushkar Dwivedi, city presi-dent, BJP, Rajesh Gupta, citygeneral secretary Rohit Tiwari,Santosh Rajput, Ashwani

Dwivedi and AnurudhaTripathi.

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Wheat, gram, straw andother household items kept intwo houses at UsarapurwaAnsh Dubariya under Badausapolice station were reducedto ashes when a fire broke outthere on Monday night

Badausa SO NareshPrajapati said that this fireincident took places in thehouses of Ramdeen, son ofBhairamdeen, and Chunki atUsarapurwa Ansh Dubariyaunder Badausa police station.He said that an FIR had beenlodged in this connection.

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Agang of unidentifiedthieves struck at three

houses in Nakara village underthe Maigalganj Kotwali anddecamped with cash and jew-ellery from there. The thievestargeted the houses of VinodSingh, Munendra Singh andDinesh Singh situated on theoutskirts of the village recent-ly. They fled with �50,000 fromthe house of Vinod Singhwhich he had kept after sellinghis wheat crop besides jew-ellery worth lakhs. MunendraSingh said that his daughterwas in the house owing to theongoing lockdown and a mar-riage in the house. She had kepther ornaments and �11,000 incash in his room which theburglars took away with them.Dinesh Singh said that thethieves had taken away �10,000in cash and jewellery fro hishouse too.

The thefts took place whenthe inmates were sleeping. Thehouseowners informed thepolice about it. InspectorChandrakant Singh said that acase had been registered in thisconnection and police teamhad been made active forarresting the culprits.

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District Magistrate

Shailendra Kumar Singh helda meeting with the office-bear-ers of the IMA branch ofLakhimpur Kheri and privatehospitals/clinics of the districtat the Collectorate auditoriumin connection with the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the meeting ChiefMedical Officer (CMO) DrManoj Agarwal discussed theprecautions to be taken vis-a-

vis the operation of hospitalsand clinics in current scenarioin the wake of the outbreak ofpandemic. He explained indetail the measures to preventinfection in the clinic/hospital.He asked them to provideinformation about any coron-avrus suspect to the healthteam of the district .

Addressing the doctors,the DM told them to ensurethat no hospital or clinicbecame the centre for spread of

Covid-19 infection in any case.He instructed the doctors notto be negligent as far as Covid-19 infection and biomedicalwaste was concerned.

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A woman died under sus-picious circumstances in Oeltownshop under the Oel police

outpost under the Kheri policestation here recently. Accordingto a report received here,Rahees, a resident of MahabariMohalla in the township, saidthat his daughter, Kusuma,was doing stitching in thehouse and he had gone to thefield. His wife, Raheesa (45)went to their daughter, told herthat she was feeling uncom-fortable and went to rest in theroom. After some time whentheir daughter went inside the

room she tried to wake up hermother but she died notrespond. At this the girl raisedan alarm. Rahees said that onbeing informed by their daugh-ter he returned home andinformed the police. Policeoutpost incharge Rajbali saidthat he had not received anycomplaint from the familymembers of the victim. He saidthat reason behind the deathwas not clear.

Meanwhile a 16-year-oldgirl accused three youths ofgangraping her in a villageunder the Khamaria policeoutpost. A resident of the vil-lage said that his teenageddaughter had gone out fromthe house and did not returnhome due to which theybecame upset and launched asearch for her here, there andeverywhere but could not traceher whereabouts. Some vil-lagers spotted her in the bananafield and informed her familymembers. When they reachedthere the three youths fledfrom there. The girl hadaccused them of gangrapingthem. Police outpost inchargeMahesh Tyagi said that herfather had lodged a complaintagainst two youths in this con-nection. A case has been reg-istered now allegation of gan-grape was being levelled. Thevictim had been sent for a med-ical examination. The matterwas being investigated.

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The Jhangha police arrestedtwo accused of theft on

Monday evening. They wereidentified as Dharamdev, aresident of Gauri Buzurg inDeoria district and AbhishekYadav, a resident ofShatrughanpur under the

Chauri Chaura police stationarea in Gorakhpur district.The police apprehended thethem from Nekwar Chaurahalate on Monday evening onbeing tipped off by an informer.Police have recovered stolenjewellery from them. Withtheir arrest two cases of thefthad been worked out.

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During a drive launchedunder the direction of

Superintendent of PoliceManilal Patidar, the team con-stituted by Charkhari inspectorincharge Rakesh Kumar Sarojand the one of the Excisedepartment arrested Pooja (28),

wife of Shivprasad, a resident ofKabutardera Soopa underCharkhari police station in thedistrict on Monday.The teamrecovered 10 litres of semi-manufactured illicit liquor. Acase was registered against theaccused under Section 60 of theExcise Act at the local stationin this connection.

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The death toll due to Covid-19 inJammu & Kashmir on Tuesday

rose to eight as one more patient,with a history of diabetes andhypertension,failed to recover anddied at Chest disease hospitalSrinagar. Srinagar district recordedsecond death while Baramulla hasrecorded three deaths and oneeach death was recorded inBandipora, Anantnag andUdhampur districts so far.

Meanwhile, 19 new cases ofcoronavirus were detected, all acrossKashmir division and 12 patientswere discharged from differenthospitals after they were fully recov-ered in Jammu.

According to DeputyCommissioner, Srinagar, Dr ShahidChoudhary, "an over eighty year oldlady died in Srinagar on Tuesday.He said, to break the chain, health

survey teams were visiting door todoor to screen the general popula-tion. He himself, visited red-zoneareas to monitor the survey work.According to official sources, thedeceased patient was tested positiveon Monday and died after herhealth condition deteriorated onTuesday.

According to media bulletin, atotal number of 565 cases have test-ed positive in Jammu & Kashmir sofar. Out of these 381 are Active pos-itive. 15 cases are active in Jammuregion and 366 in Kashmir division.A total number of 176 cases haverecovered so far, 42 across Jammuand 134 in Kashmir region.

On the other hand, DirectorGeneral of Police J&K Dilbag Singhled the Jammu and Kashmir Policepersonnel in showing the solidari-ty with corona warriors across thenation in the lawns of Police head-quarters.

Speaking on the occasion theDGP said that on behalf of J&KPolice personnel, doctors & Para-medical staff of Police hospitals, ‘Ithank and pay solidarity to lakhs ofcorona warriors of the country’.

The DGP said that it is unfor-tunate that at some places mis-chievous elements are violating theGovernment orders, attacking thecorona warriors and termed theseas shameful acts.

He said that the stern actionwill be taken against such violatorsand added that around 60 Policepersonnel were injured at differentplaces while enforcing the lockdown and implementing the ordersand advisories of the Government. Similar ceremonieswere organised across differentdistrict headquarters to show soli-darity with the Covidwarriors.

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The Kerala Government’smove to seize/defer a

month’s salary of its employeesto tide over the financial crisiscaused by coronavirus pan-demic has been stayed for twomonths by the Kerala HighCourt on Tuesday. This was inresponse to petitions filed byvarious trade unions of theGovernment employeesbelonging to Opposition par-ties like the Congress and theBJP.

While staying theGovernment Order, the Courtmade it clear that deferment ofsalaries , prima facie, amount-ed to denial of the right toproperty.

The Government’s deci-sion to defer the employees’salary of six days every monthfor the next five months hadupset the Government staffwho had voluntarily come for-ward to donate a day’s salary tothe Chief Minister’s DisasterRelief Fund immediately afterthe breaking out of the pan-demic in the State.

Justice Bechu Kurian, whoheard the petitioners as wellthat of the Advocate General ofthe Kerala Government, saidthat it was not possible toaccept the AG’ submission thatthe Government had the powerto defer the disbursement ofsalary by a few months.

“Payment of salary is cer-tainly not a matter of bounty.It is a right vested in every indi-vidual to receive the salary.Article 300A of theConstitution which confers aright to property will includewithin its purview “salary” alsoa property, at least prima facie,”the judge said while staying theGovernment Order andadjourning the petition forfurther hearing to May 20.

Earlier, the AG, Sudhakara

Prasad, argued that theGovernment was incurring anexpenditure of �8,000 crore tofight the coronavirus pandem-ic. “The Government isempowered to defer the salaryof its employees as per theDisaster Management Act andEpidemic Diseases Ordinance.The Government has launchedcommunity kitchens and isoffering free ration to all sec-tions of the society. The socialwelfare pension for the agedand infirm is also being dis-tributed and this needs money,”the AG contended before theCourt.

But the Judge was nothumored by the arguments ofthe Government and said thatfinancial difficulty is not aground for the StateGovernment to defer the pay-ment of salary. “Prima facie, Ifind, the deferment of salary,for whatever purposes it maybe, amounts to a denial ofproperty. In such a view of thematter, I stay the operation ofthe Government Order for aperiod of 2 months,” the Courtruled.’

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It turned out to be a Black Tuesdayin Tamil Nadu as 121 persons

tested positive for coronavirus on asingle say taking the number ofCovid-19 patients in the State to2,058.

The last few days have been show-ing some kind of fluctuations in thenumber of persons tested positive forthe pandemic which encouraged theGovernment to loosen the lockdownguidelines and this could have playedhavoc, according to medical experts.It may be noted that 76 persons hadtested positive for coronavirus lastTuesday.

There was no media briefingeither by the Health Minister or sec-retary though it was widely believedthat the government may make someannouncements by the end of the dayas Chief Minister EdappadiPalaniswami held a lengthy meetingat Fort Saint George with the highpower committee if IAS, IPS and med-ical professions to review the status

prevailing in the State.The medical bulletin issued by the

department of health is silent aboutthe number of persons dischargedfrom the hospitals on Tuesday thoughit has been one of the salient featuresof the government’s release. The num-ber of fatalities reached 25 as one moreperson succumbed to the pandemicon Tuesday.

Out of the 121 persons tested pos-itive on Tuesday, 103 are fromChennai, said the bulletin. “This is animportant point to note and is a signthat the lock down rules and regula-tions are not being followed in letterand spirit by the Government or by thepeople,” said Dr Sajith Kumar, expertin contagious diseases who works atthe Government Medical College,Kottayam. Dr Kumar is closely mon-itoring the progress of the coronavirusin South India said that time was notyet conducive for making any kind ofrelaxation in the lockdown.

“We have to be in lockdownmode till we make sure that the virusis completely eliminated from the

State,” said the doctor.Chief Minister Palaniswami told

the members of the high power com-mittee to drive home the message thatonly staying at home and maintainingthe social distance would make theState free of the pandemic.

“We have our own experience thatthe instance of coronavirus comingdown when the lockdown regulationswere followed stringently. Countrieslike Italy which were reeling underpressure has subjugated the pandem-ic by observing lockdown norms andsocial distance,” said the chief minis-ter.

The day began in Chennai withthe news that Nungambakkam PoliceStation has been infected with coro-navirus as two cops on duty were test-ed positive . The building and the areawere cordoned off, all policemen onduty were tested and the enter premisewas sanitized as per specifications .Throughout the day , the entire staffworking in the building sat out in frontof the shops and commercial buildingsin the area.

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Kolkata: Alleged ‘corona car-riers’ continued to attack themuch touted corona warriors— this time leaving a numberof policemen injured atTikiapara in Howrah where themen in uniform had gone toimpose a total lockdown.

Tikiapara is a containmentzone deserving a total lock-down. According to a seniorpolice official “hundreds ofpeople were seen floutingnorms and roaming freely andeven riding motorbikes in alocal market area. Many werenot wearing masks. When thelocal team of policemen chal-lenged them they were firstabused and then attacked withstones and sticks,” leaving half

a dozen law enforcers injured.Two police vehicles were

also damaged, officials saidadding the injured policemenhad been hospitalized.

The incident occurred lateon Tuesday noon, sources saidadding a large number ofpolicemen including rapidaction force was rushed to thearea. “The situation is tense butunder control as of now,” asenior official said adding thepolice are looking for the per-petrators of the crime.

Criticising the attack onthe policemen Minister andlocal MLA Rajib Banerjee said“the Government will takestrict action against the cul-prits.” PNS

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Former Union Minister andBJP’s MP from Karnataka

Anant Kumar Hedge has com-plained to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi against Twitteralleging that it was encouraginganti-national propaganda anddemanded an investigation intoits activities which he said wereharming national interests.

Hegde, whose account wasblocked by Twitter on April 24for allegedly posting “contro-versial” comments. has, in turn,accused it of “sponsoring” and“accepting” pro-Khalistani com-ments and not blocking it.

The BJP leader accusedTwitter of “discrimination andfavouritism” by blocking hisaccount for what he called“exposing Tablighi Jamaat” but,at the same time, taking noaction against the accountnamed “Gurupatwant SinghPannun” promoting the cause ofa separate ‘Khalistan’.Hegde saidhe would not delete his postswhich Twitter asked him to doand instead sought to knowwhether the microblogging siteis “allowed to collect revenuesfrom anti-nationals ?.”

In his letter to Prime

Minister on April 21 with sub-ject ‘ Paid promotion of anti-national propaganda and cam-paign with support of TwitterIndia’, the BJP Lok Sabha MPfrom Uttara Kannada said hehas received a written complaintfrom former National co-con-venor of BJP’s IT cell, VinitGoenka, about “anti-national”and “paid/promoted campaignby Twitter India” and soughtthat Twitter be asked to changeits policy and prevent anti-India propaganda” on its plat-form. Hegde has demandedTwitter should be asked to“declare money/business gen-erated from any suspected anti-India commercial operation“.“As newspaper and televisionare governed under law of theland, same should be appliedhere as this is a sponsoredactivity”, the BJP MP claimed inhis letter to the Prime Minister.

Hegde, known for his con-troversial comments, said therehas been “selective targeting” ofseveral pro-India handles,which have been suspended orlocked in the past fewmonths.Twitter has askedHegde to delete his controver-sial comments to unblock hisaccount.

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The MaharashtraGovernment on Tuesday

announced closure of the mainand new administrativebuild-ings of Mantralaya (StateSecretariat) at Nariman Pointin south Mumbai for two dayson April 29 and 30 to facilitate the sanitisation of alloffices in the two buildings inthe wake of three employeestesting positive for coronaviquarantined. Informed officialsources said that one comput-er operator working in theDisaster Management Cell and two contractor-appointedsweepers working in a seniorminister’s office had testedpositive for coronavirus onMonday.

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The coronavirus situation inMumbai’s Dharavi locality

turned grim on Tuesday, asfour persons died of Covid-19and 42 others tested positive inAsia’s positive in a single day.

With the latest fatalities andinfections, the total number ofdeaths in this densely populat-ed slum rose to 18, while thetotal infected cases mounted to330.

Dharavi witnessed fourdeaths on Tuesday. While twopersons – a man and a woman– both aged 60 years succumbedto Covid-19 at LTMG Hospitalat Sion in north-central.

Two persons – both maleaged 48 years and 55 years–died at the KEM Hospital.

The new infected cases werereported from SocialNagar,Matunga Labour camp,Kunchi Kurve Nagar, AzadNagar, Sanjay Gandhi Nagar, 90feet road area, Pivla Bungalow,Mukund Nagar,Muslim Nagar,Kalyanwadi, Indira Nagar, newMunicipal chawl, MarkendeyaSociety, Dhobi ghar, RajivGandhi Nagar, Mochi gully,Shatabdi Nagar, PV Chawl, AgasWadi and Uday Society.

Those who were diagnosedpositive for Coronavirus wereaged 13 years and 74 years.

Earlier on April 23, onedeath and 25 cases had beenreported from Dharavi in a sin-gle day.

Spread over 240 hectarearea, Dharavi is one of theCovid-19 hotspots in Mumbai.

Ever since first few cases ofCoronavirus were reported inthe early first week of April, theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) is closelymonitoring the situation inDharavi where the healthauthorities have clamped a totallockdown.

The pandemic cases havebeen reported from most partsof Dharavi, a fact that has trig-gered considerable anxietyamong the health authoritieswho are taking all measures toensure against the communityspread of the pandemic in thisdensely populated slum.

On its part, local doctors aswell the ones from the BMChave held several fever clinics inthis slum. Apart from enforcingstrict social distancing norms,the police and health authoritieshave been using drones to mon-itor the activities in Dharavi.

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Despite rise in numbers, theGovernment, however, takes solacefrom the fact that 20 countries puttogether to reach the total of India'spopulation size have reported 84times the number of cases detected inthis country.

The Union Health Ministry alsoclaimed that compared to the 20nations which have reported maxi-mum number of Covid-19 cases,India has reported only 1/200 timesthe number of deaths as the totalnumber of deaths in these 20 coun-tries. "From the WHO data on April27, we observed the number of con-firmed cases in these 20 countries andcompared it with confirmed cases inIndia. We found 1/84 cases reportedin India or 84 per cent more cases havebeen reported in these countries.These 20 countries have reportednearly 200 per cent more deaths thanin India", Joint Secretary in the UnionMinistry, Lav Agarwal at a pressbriefing here.

He said in the last 24 hours, 1,543new Covid-19 cases have been report-ed, taking the total number of casesto 29,435, and no new cases ofCOVID-19 has been reported from 17districts in the last 28 days.

The official also added that therate of doubling of cases has increasedto 10.2 days and that total 6,868patients have been cured so far and684 patients have recovered in the past24 hours, which takes the recoveryrate to 23.3 per cent.

He also said that number of casesof Covid-19 re-infection is veryminuscule world-wide, and in theabsence of any conclusive evidence,patients certified as cured through RT-PCR test are perfectly alright.

"Globally, number of cases ofCovid-19 re-infection is very minus-cule; hence, in absence of conclusiveevidence, we have to surely considerthat those patients who have been cer-tified as cured as per RT-PCR - thegold standard for Covid-19 - are per-fectly alright."

He reiterated the importance oflockdown saying that the doublingtime of coronavirus cases in India was3-3.25 days before the lockdown,and now is around 10.2 days. "This ismainly because of our focus on con-tainment, physical distancing andlockdown measures," he added.

He insisted that if a Covid-19patient is found to be infected at anyhealth facility, the facility can bereused after proper disinfection pro-

cedures. Similarly, workplaces wherepositive patients were found can beused after proper disinfection,Agarwal added.

Earlier during the day, UnionHealth Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan ina meeting with Department ofBiotechnology and its 18 autonomousbodies and PSUs, asked them to fast-track development of antibody detec-tion kits, RT-PCR detection kits andCovid-19 vaccine, under the ''Make inIndia'' initiative.

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Dr SK Sarin, Director, Institute ofLiver and Biliary Sciences, Delhi, tooraised hopes saying bodies of peoplewho recover from coronavirus pro-duce an anti-body/plasma in theblood to help the person fight againstcoronavirus. If a little bit of this anti-body/plasma is given to a criticalpatient then the plasma helps in thelatter person`s recovery.

“We are happy with the positiveresults in the 4 patients. Blood & plas-ma is ready for 2-3 other patients thatwe have at LNJP Hospital, we may givethem the plasma therapy today. Theplasma therapy can only be given topatients who have not yet been put ona ventilator.”

The convalescent plasma therapyuses antibodies from the blood of arecovered coronavirus patient to treatthe critically-ill Covid-19 patients. Thetherapy can also be utilised to immu-nise people at a high risk of con-tracting the respiratory infection suchas health workers, patients’ familiesand other high-risk contacts.

The therapy works on the premisethat the blood of a recovered patientcontains antibodies with the ability offighting Covid-19. The antibodies ofthe recovered person once ingestedinto a patient’s body will target andfight the coronavirus.

Several States like Kerala, Gujaratand Punjab have already started usingplasma therapy for Covid-19 patientswhile nearly 100 institutes have showninterest to conduct such experiment.

On April 24, in fact HealthMinister Dr Harsh Vardhan had sug-gested the Red Cross Society to coor-dinate with recovered Covid-19patients who can be mobilised forblood donation, from which conva-lescent plasma could be used for trans-fusion to Corona affected patients forearly recovery.

In 2014, WHO too had recom-

mended the plasma therapy to treatEbola virus disease. During the H1N1infection of 2009, doctors used plas-ma therapy to treat patients.

China, where coronavirus out-break first emerged, had used thistreatment to treat critical Covid-19patients. Two trials of plasma thera-py were conducted on 15 coronaviruspatients and they showed improve-ment. Several countries around theworld, including the United Kingdomand the United States, have also start-ed plasma therapy trials.

According to researchers, theplasma therapy is akin to passiveimmunisation. However, they said itis a preventive measure and not atreatment.

A study by John HopkinsUniversity immunologists stated someof the risks associated with the con-valescent plasma therapy. For instance,it said during the blood transfusion,there are risks that an inadvertentinfection might get transferred to thepatient. The therapy might also fail insome patients and cause an enhancedform of infection and can have adverseeffect on immune system.

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This is followed by REI Agro with�4,314 crore and Winsome Diamondswith �4,076 crore. Rotomac GlobalPrivate Limited has funded advancesof �2,850 crore which have beentechnically written off and KudosChemie Ltd with �2,326 crore, RuchiSoya Industries Limited, now ownedby Ramdev’s Patanjali, with �2,212crore and Zoom Developers Pvt Ltdwith Rs 2,012 crore being the othercompanies.

Forever Precious Jewellery andDiamonds Private Limited has loansof Rs 1,962 crore written off whileDeccan Chronicle Holdings Limitedhave Rs 1915 crore written off loans.

Choksi’s other firms Gili India andNakshatra Brands also have loans ofRs 1,447 and Rs 1109 crore respec-tively written off. REI Agro ofJhunjhunwala brothers is alreadyunder the scanner of ED. The CBI andED are also probing alleged fraud bythe owners of Winsome Diamonds.

Vikram Kothari’s Rotomac is thefourth in the list. He and his son RahulKothari were arrested by the CBI forbank loan default. In the lastParliament session, Rahul Gandhihad asked the Government to providea list of top 50 bank loans defaultersin the country, leading to sharp

exchanges and uproar in the LokSabha. “The information on top 50wilful defaulters and their sum offunded amount outstanding andamount technically/prudentially writ-ten off as on September 30, 2019reported in CRILC by banks, is pro-vided,” the RBI said in its writtenresponse dated April 24.

The RBI said that according tosection 8 (1)(a) of RTI Act 2005 readwith para 77 of Supreme Court judge-ment of December 16, 2015 inJayantilal N Mistry case, informationon overseas borrowers is exemptedfrom public disclosure.

“Data is as reported by banks andRBI will not be held responsibly oraccountable for any misreportingand/or incorrect reporting by thereporting entities,” the RBI said in thewritten reply to the RTI query.

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“Have spoken to Yogi Adityanathover phone and discussed the incident.I told him we are with you againstsuch a heinous crime. Just the way weacted upon and nabbed the accused,I wish you would do the same andavoid giving this a communal angle,”Uddhav Thackeray tweeted.

Several other Sena leaders, formerUP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadavand Congress leader Priyanka Gandhialso expressed concern over the inci-dent.

Senior Shiv Sena leader and partyMP Sanjay Raut also condemned themurder of the two sadhus and said,“Terrible killing of two sadhus at atemple in Bulandshahr, UP, but Iappeal to all concerned to not makeit communal the way they tried tomake Palghar, Maharashtra incident.”

Senior Superintendent of Police(SSP) in Bulundshahr, Santosh KumarSingh on Tuesday said that the crimehappened at a Shiv temple in Pagonavillage under Anupshahr Kotwali.The killing came to notice whendevotees of the area visited temple forprayers on Tuesday morning. Theyfound both the seers lying in pool ofblood. The deceased sadhus havebeen identified as Jagan Das (55) andSeva Das (35). Both had been stayingin the Shiv temple for the past 10years. The SSP said that they arrest-ed a youth identified as Murari akaRaju of the same village who comesfrom a Dalit community.

“The accused was nabbed twokilometers away from the spot in aninebriated condition and naked along

with a sword which was probably usedfor killing both the sadhus,” he said.The SSP claimed that two days backthe sadhus had scolded him for steal-ing their “chimta”(big tongs) whichcould be the reason for such crime.

Circle Officer (CO) Kotwali, AtulChoubey said that the bodies havebeen sent for postmortem. He saidthat investigation was underway.Additional forces have been stationedin the area in order to maintain lawand order situation.

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“Team has been formed to arrestremaining people involved in it. Tomaintain the law and order, adequatepolice forces have been deployed ataround the incident site,” he said.

DSP Kumar said, “After beinginformed about the incident onMonday, we had tried our best to paci-fy villagers to allow the cremation, butthey instead pelted stones on us.With the deployment of adequateforce, the situation was controlled andthe body was cremated late in theevening.” Kumar said the villagers didnot heed to the police when they weretold that all safety measures had beentaken. Apart from pelting stones, themob also damaged the vehicle.

Police sources said the woman, achronic diabetes patient, died at theAmbala Cantonment Civil Hospitalon Monday afternoon. She displayedno Covid-like symptoms, but doctorstook her sample as a precautionarymeasure and to allay apprehensions.The report was awaited.

As soon as bereaved family mem-bers reached Chandpura village withthe body, residents stopped themfrom performing her last rites. Sensingtrouble, the police was called but thevillagers were adamant not to allowthe cremation.

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Some locals got angry after a PCR(police control room) van reached alocality in Dindoli to enforce the lock-down in the wake of the coronavirusoutbreak, he said. “We sent a PCR vanin the area after coming to know thatpeople were roaming around and notadhering to the lockdown norms.When the police asked locals to stayindoors, some of them got angry andstarted throwing stones at the police-men,” Barot said.

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Amid complete lockdownfor over last one month,

hundreds of 'immunocom-promised' cancer patients arerisking their lives and facingmany hardships, each day, inJammu & Kashmir to get 'time-ly' treatment.

Even though theGovernment had suspendedOPD services in GovernmentMedical College andAssociated hospitals in Jammu,patients from border areas ofRS Pura, Pallanwala, Rajouri,Poonch and hilly districts ofDoda and Kishtwar continue toreport in the Department ofRadiotherapy and Oncology toget a fresh lease of life.

According to rough esti-mates, an average number of40-50 patients are reporting inthe GMC hospital, Jammu.

Some of these patients aregoing there for their routinefollowup, chemotherapy/radiotherapy session but large num-ber of fresh cases are also get-ting registered on daily basis.

Some of the outstation

patients are camping here inJammu for over one month asthey cannot afford to organisetheir travel in the wake ofstrict restrictions. Those com-ing from different parts ofJammu and rural pockets facehardships in the absence ofpublic transport.

Speaking to The Pioneer, anattendant of a cancer patientfrom RS Pura area said, "myfather- an ex-serviceman, suf-fering from cancer, is goingthrough a very tough phase forlast one month". He said, hewas receiving treatment at aprivate hospital in Katra butsince lockdown they havestopped admitting patients asthe hospital has been listed asone of the dedicated Covid-19hospitals".

Narrating his ordeal, ex-serviceman's son said, "we haveto pass through several securi-ty check points and show ourhospital record. He said recent-ly i shifted my father to GMC,Jammu but due to heavy rushout there i took him to militaryhospital in Jammu as he imme-diately needed blood transfu-

sion". He also claimed, no onein the GMC was observingsocial distancing and severalcancer patients were seatedtogether in the OPD room.

One of the junior doctorsin the department, demandinganonymity, told The Pioneer, "the cancer patients are findingit difficult to get medicine sup-plies from AMRIT (AffordableMedicines and ReliableImplants for Treatment)counter in the GMC.

He said, "we had handedover a list of 15-20 regular med-icines prescribed to differentcancer patients but the samehave not been made availablefor the patients.

The junior doctor alsoclaimed, "We are not gettingproper PPE kits and have evenorganised their face masks andhand sanitisers on their own".The hospital supplies are lim-ited and cannot last long, headded.

Highlighting adverse con-ditions in which they are forcedto work, another junior doctorclaimed, "even though large

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In a major decision impactinglakhs of students, the Centre

on Tuesday announced that thepending CBSE Board exams forClass 10 and Class 12, whichcould not be conducted due tothe outbreak of coronaviruspandemic, will not be held anymore and students should beevaluated and promoted on thebasis of their internal exams.However, it left to the States totake a decision on the examsconducted by their respectiveState Boards.

The CBSE had postponedthe Class 10 and Class 12examinations in March to pre-vent the spread of coronavirusin the country. Later, the Boarddecided to conduct exams onlyfor about 30-odd subjects.

During a video conferencemeeting with the StateEducation Ministers and offi-cers, Union HRD MinisterRamesh Pokhriyal Nishank

apprised them of the decisionand hinted that the syllabus fornext year’s entrance test ofJEE, NEET, etc based on Class12 qualification will be cutdown by 30 percent.

The HRD Minister alsoappealed to all the States to startthe process of evaluation ofanswer sheets of Board exams,facilitate CBSE to evaluateanswer sheets of the students intheir respective States andmake preparations to declarethe results of board examina-tions on scheduled time asdone every year.

A senior HRD ministryofficial said that States will nowhave to decide on the Minister’sappeal regarding the evaluationof board exams. “Since boardexams are part of the federalstructure, Centre can’t beimposing but the Statesacknowledged the ground sit-uation and will do according-ly. It was brought to the noticeof HRD Minister that most of

the education boards had donewith 80 per cent of their exam-inations except for Keralawhich was hit with the Corona

scare much before the nation-al lockdown was announced,”said Ministry official.

The HRD Minister had

interacted with the parents onMonday where issues likeexams, session etc werebrought to the notice of Centre.

“The HRD Minister wasconvinced alongwith thedemands of several states thatsince the academic session hasbeen hampered, though all thebest efforts of online educationhave been put in, there arepupils who have not been ris-ing upto to the crisis due to var-ious issues. Hence, syllabusshould be curtailed for acade-

mic and competitive examina-tions in this academic session,”said a Ministry source presentin the conference meeting.

Delhi Deputy ChiefMinister and EducationMinister Manish Sisodia tookto social media saying he hadasked to promote the CBSEclass 10 and class 12 studentswithout holding the pending

examinations based on theinternal marks.

Some of the states high-lighted the issues like non-availability of smart phones,computers or where they are,internet data is a problem or incases such things are notaffordable and in past candi-dates of such areas havesecured good positions inentrance test like that for IIT,NDA, Medical etc.

Pokhriyal, alongwith HRDMinister of State Sanjay Dhotre,interacted with EducationMinisters and EducationSecretaries of all the Statesthrough video conferencing.Education Ministers of 22States and secretaries from 14States and Union Territoriesattended the conference.

Pokhriyal informed themon his Ministry’s request, theMHA has relaxed the lock-down rules to open bookstoresso that students can avail booksto continue their studies.

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Despite lockdown, India has wit-nessed a record sale of fertilisers even

as wheat harvesting too continues briskly.As per the data provided by the Centre,over 10.63 lakh metric tons of fertiliserswere sold in April which is 32 percenthigher than the last year sale of 8.02 lakhMT.

And as reported by the States, about98-99% of wheat crop has been harvest-ed in Madhya Pradesh, 92-95% inRajasthan, 85-88% in Uttar Pradesh, 55-60% in Haryana, 60-65% in Punjab and87-88% in other States.

The agencies have also procured102.37 lakh tons of wheat and 15.71 lakhtons of rice so far.

Officials said the record fertilisers’sale will ensure adequate availability ofcrop nutrients to farmers for the sowingoperation of kharif (summer) crops.

On April 17, 41 fertiliser rakesmoved from plants and ports. This is thehighest movement of fertilisers duringlockdown period in a day. One rake car-ries 3,000 tonnes of load at a time. The

Centre has allowed operation of fertilis-er plants in the country.

For his part, Union ConsumerAffairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan onTuesday tweeted that as many as 102.37lakh tons of wheat and 15.71 lakh tonsof rice have been procured so far. Themajor contributors are Punjab (48.27 lakhmetric tons followed by Haryana (19.07lakh metric tons. The Ministry has tar-geted to procure 407 lakh metric tons ofwheat and 112 lakh metric tons of ricethis year.

“Going by the present pace of pro-curement, the target of 407 LMT kept forthe season is likely to be achieved. Theprocurement exercise is likely to contin-ue till June 30. However, looking atrestrictions during lock down, period

may get extended by another 15 days,”said a senior food ministry official.

Considering the looming threat ofspread of COVID-19 virus, procurementis being undertaken after taking enoughpre-cautions and ensuring social dis-tancing in the mandis,” officials added.

On the other hand, the Ministry ofAgriculture has procured 72,415.82 met-ric tons of Gram (Chana) from AndhraPradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan,Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Similarly,1,20,023.29 metric tons Toor Dal hasbeen procured from Tamil Nadu,Telangana, Andhra Pradesh,Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat andOdisha. 1.83 lakh tons mustard has beenprocured from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradeshand Haryana.

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Citing an RTI reply by theRBI, the Congress on

Tuesday alleged the ModiGovernment has waived off�68,607 crore of the top 50bank loan defaulters, includingNirav Modi, Mehul Choksi.

Several leaders, includingformer Congress chief RahulGandhi, also alleged that theGovernment waived off loansworth �6.66 lakh crore between2014 and September 2019.

“I had asked a question inthe Parliament the names of thetop 50 bank loan defaulters in thecountry, but the FinanceMinister did not answer,” Rahulsaid.

“Now the RBI has given thenames of Nirav Modi, MehulChoksi and many of BJP’s‘friends’ in the list of bank frauds.

That is why this truth was heldback from Parliament,” Rahulsaid in a tweet in Hindi.

Congress chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala also releasedthe list of the top loan defaulters,as per the RTI reply, anddemanded answers from thePM. “This is a classic case ofpromoting ‘dupe, deceive anddepart’ policy of the ModiGovernment, which can nolonger be accepted and the PMhas to answer,” he told reportersthrough video conference.Surjewala also said “this reflectsthe dishonest intentions of theModi Government”.

He said the entire country isfighting the coronavirus andthe Government has no moneyto pay to States, but has themoney to condone and write off�68,307 crore of bank loandefaulters.

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Government-enforced socialisolation may help relative-

ly affluent populations limit thespread of deadly Covid-19, butthese steps can be devasting forthe nearly 1 billion peoplearound the globe currentlydwelling in urban slums, wherephysical space is scarce, andmany rely on daily wage labourfor survival, according to a glob-al study.

Published in the Journal ofUrban Health, the study empha-sised on the need to prioritiseproviding basic needs such aspotable water, sanitation and amoratorium on evictions besidessupporting existing communi-ty leadership in delivering healthcare and emergency prepared-ness to help the poor urban tosail through the Covid-19 pan-demic.

The study is important inthe Indian context having thedensely population which ishome to several urban slums likeDharavi in Mumbai where near-ly 8.5 lakh people are living incramped conditions in an areathat spans about 0.83 squaremiles.

The report has beenauthored by a team of publichealth experts and epidemiolo-gists working in collaborationwith community leaders and

non-governmental organisa-tions (NGOs) from urban slumsaround the world.

While noting that Covid-19became a pandemic because ofthe global spread of the virus bythose people who can afford totravel on airplanes and cruiseships, the report noted that thedisease has ended up in vulner-able communities of the world.

It has suggested eight urgentrecommendations for reducingthe impact of the deadly virus onpeople living in poverty.

These recommendationsare crucial not just for peopleliving in urban slums in theglobal south, but for other vul-nerable populations, such asmigrant farm workers andthose living in refugee campsand homeless encampmentsand on Native American reser-vations in the United States, theauthors say.

Evidence now suggests thatthe coronavirus is dispropor-tionately affecting blackAmericans in some US cities,possibly due to similar structuralfactors, such as the inability totake time off of work.

“The political and econom-ic shocks and instability that arehappening now and are likely tofollow from this epidemic willlikely kill more and lead tomore disability in this popula-tion than the coronavirus itself,”

said Jason Corburn, a professorof public health and of city andregional planning at theUniversity of California,Berkeley, and lead author of thepaper. “We felt we needed astrategy that recognized theunique needs of the urban poorat the front.”

Close living conditions andlack of basic sanitation makeurban slum dwellers particular-ly vulnerable to contracting andspreading the coronavirus, saidstudy’s co-author Lee Riley, aprofessor of epidemiology andinfectious diseases at UCBerkeley.

Many also have pre-existingmedical conditions and lackaccess to health care, puttingthem at high risk of dying ordeveloping serious complica-tions if they do get sick with thevirus.

Simply staying home israrely an option for them, as itoften means giving up work andeven basic necessities like food,water and sanitation.

“Shelter-in-place is a luxu-ry of the wealthy,” Riley said.“In many slums, people need towalk a long distance to collectwater to use at home. Mostpeople living in slums alsohave no choice but to partici-pate in the informal economy,which will disappear underlockdowns.”

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In the first casualty due toCovid-19 in the paramilitary

forces, a CRPF Sub InspectorMd Ikram Hussain of 31Battalion on Tuesday suc-cumbed to the fatal disease.This even as 12 more CRPFjawans tested positive forCovid-19 in Delhi taking thetotal tally to 47 cases in theforce, including the deceased.

Hussain, 55, had on Fridayreported at the DG Staff CampHospital at RK Puram with thesymptomatic issues at 10.40AM complaining of runningnose, difficulty in breathing,

fever and headache.Keeping in view his symp-

toms, Hussain was immediate-ly referred to SafdarjungHospital for further investiga-tion /treatment. The test reporthad confirmed his condition asCovid-19 positive on Friday.

On Tuesday, Hussain suc-cumbed due to Covid-19 at3.30 PM at Safdarjung Hospital.He had underlying conditionsfor the viral disease in the formheart condition, officials said.

Hussain hails from Barbarivillage under Sarupeta post ofBarpeta district in Assam.

After Hussain testing pos-itive, all the medical and para-

medical staff of the DG StaffCamp Hospital were quaran-tined at the CRPF QuarantineCentre at Narela here and a fewothers were advised homequarantine for 14 days. The DGStaff Camp Hospital was alsotemporarily closed and thepatients have been asked toreport at DetachmentComposite Hospital ofNorthern Sector at RK Puram.

While 17 personnel whocame in direct contact withHussain were earlier quaran-tined at Narela, a Chief MedicalOfficer and a Nursing Assistantwere home quarantined.

Earlier, 47personnel of 31

Battalion were quarantined atNarela after aConstable/Nursing Assistanthad tested positive for the viraldisease last week. As many as25 persons out of this group of47, including a private person(plumber) have been diag-nosed so far to be Covid-19positive, officials said.

Besides this, a CMO hadtested positive for the diseaseearlier this month and a HeadConstable of Rapid Action Forcedeployed in Ahmedabad hadbeen diagnosed with the disease.

The paramilitary haslaunched a detailed survey ofpersonnel deployed in Covid-

19 related duties in the hotspotsand other operational areasand if positive cases have beenreported from such locations inorder to take preventive steps,officials added.

Union Home MinisterAmit Shah took to Twitter toexpress his condolences fol-lowing the death of Hussain. “Iam deeply saddened by demiseof Sub Inspector MohammadIkram Hussain was battlingcorona infection. He (Hussain)bravely fought the epidemic tillhis last breath. His contributionsto national service and internalsecurity will continue to inspirethe countrymen,” Shah tweeted.

�� 345�6478

Those who have been clini-cally declared as a very

mild/pre-symptomatic case bythe treating medical officercan opt for home isolationprovided they have the facili-

ty at their home to do so, theGovernment said in its homeisolation guidelines issued onTuesday.

But, before opting for suchoption, the person will have tofill in an undertaking on self-isolation agreement as well askeep the Arogya Setu app, asoftware that alerts the userabout the health status of theuser as well as people in his/hervicinity.

As per existing guidelines,during the containment phase,the patients should be identi-fied as very mild, mild, mod-erate or severe and according-

ly admitted to Covid CareCentre or dedicated Covidhospital.

“However, very mild/presymptomatic patients hav-ing the requisite facility athis/her residence for self-iso-lation will have the option forhome isolation,” the govern-ment said in a statement.

The guidelines say thatthey should have the requiredfacility for self-isolation athome and also for quarantiningthe family contacts while acaregiver should be appointedon 24 x7 basis, who will haveto maintain communication

with the hospital for the entireduration of home isolation.

Also, the caregiver and allclose contacts of such casesshould takeHydroxychloroquine prophy-laxis as per protocol. Duringthe self-isolation period, thepatient will have to monitor hishealth and regularly inform theDistrict Surveillance Officerof his health status for furtherfollow up by the surveillanceteams.

“Those in home isolationare also advised to seek imme-diate medical attention if thereare serious signs or symptoms

like difficulty in breathing,persistent pain/ pressure inthe chest, mental confusion orinability to arouse, developingbluish discolorations oflips/face,” says the guidelines.

The caregivers are advicedto wear a mask, practice handhygiene rigorously before andafter removing gloves and usealcohol based hand rub.

They have also been told to“avoid direct contact with bodyfluids of the patient, particu-larly oral or respiratory secre-tions. Use disposable gloveswhile handling the patient,” itstated.

�� 345�6478

The Centre on Tuesday calledfor urgent action to facilitate

inter-State border movement oftrucks and lorries carrying essen-tial goods to ease public life dur-ing the Covid-19 pandemic.

Road and TransportMinister Nitin Gadkari alsourged the States/UTs through avideo conference meeting withthe Chief Ministers to expediteland acquisition and utilise fundsworth �25,000 crore allocated forthe purpose to help regainmomentum in road constructionthrough land acquisition.

The Union Minister pulledup State Governments for cre-ating delays in clearance ofgoods transport adding thatnearly 3.5 lakh trucks werestranded at present due to delaysin inter-state clearance andscreening, officials aware of thedevelopment said adding that

there was no discussion on inter-state public transport.

“States also reiterated thatdecision on public transportwill be taken following theMinistry of home affairs’ orderpost May 3,” said official.

Gadkari reminded to adhereto health advisories like properdistance, wearing of masks, useof sanitisers, both by the dri-ver/cleaners.

The meeting was alsoattended by the Chief Ministersof Mizoram, Himachal Pradeshand Arunachal Pradesh.

“There were several issueson movement of goods andtransportation that needed to beresolved. There is delay in sup-ply movement and hence themeeting was called to discuss thehurdles. There was no discussionon public transport yet, that willonly take place on May 3,”Himachal Pradesh transportminister, Govind Thakur said.

Gadkari also told States toprovide transportation for labourto factories and ensure food andshelter for labourers.

Transport associations havedemanded an economic relieffrom the Centre.

“Across segments there is anissue of shortage of drivers,money and load. Lack of labourhas already led to shortage ofsupplies. Movement of vehiclesis still a major issue despiteMHA advisories. E-pass systemis not working properly andmovement of staff apart fromdrivers is still a tedious task.Local restrictions are not help-ing the transport fraternity asthere is no fresh load, no unload-ing at the factories, go-downs orwarehouses and the our vehiclesget stuck for days together, apartfrom harassment by local admin-istration,” said All India MotorTransport Congress presidentKultaran Singh Atwal.

�� 345�6478

Defence Minister RajnathSingh on Tuesday directed

the defence public sectorundertakings(DPSU) andOrdnance FactoryBoard(OFB)to be ready withcontingency plans to ramp upproduction and contributeextensively to the economicrecovery.

Taking stock of the overallpreparedness of the PSUs tocompensate for the lost work-ing time due to lockdown,Singh referred to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s plansto revive the economy post-lockdown and said the defenceproduction units along withprivate defence industry couldplay a major role in the eco-nomic revival. The ministerconveyed this message duringvideo-conference meeting withthe PSUs and OFB.

“Several Units of OFB andDPSUs which are located innon-red zones have alreadystarted operations. Almost allDPSUs have made contingencyplans to ramp up productionafter the lockdown is lifted bydrawing up plans to work inthree shifts and extending thework days from five to six daysa week,” defence ministry offi-cials said after the meeting.They also said work will be car-ried out in the defence factoriesby observing social distancingand other relevant healthguidelines.

During the conference,OFB conveyed that it has man-ufactured 12,800 overalls,developed specialised machines

for testing Personal ProtectionEquipment (PPE), supplied6.35 lakh masks to local author-ities and 340 specialised tentsto Arunachal Pradesh forCOVID 19 patients. The OFBis more than 100 years old andhas 41 factories across thecountry manufacturing mis-siles, tanks, guns, ammunitionand other weapons for thearmed forces.

The Bharat Electronics Ltd(BEL) has made arrangementsto manufacture 12,000 ventila-tors in the month of May 2020and another 18,000 in June2020, the defence ministrystatement said adding, around3,000 engineers will also par-ticipate in training health pro-fessionals in operationalisingthese ventilators.

The Department ofDefence Production (DDP),defence ministry, OFB andDPSUs made a contribution of?77 crore to the PM CARESfund generated from CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR)funds and one day salary con-tribution, the statement said.

Separately, the DefenceResearch and DevelopmentServices (DRDS), the maincadre of Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation(DRDO) to which about 7,000scientists belong, made a con-tribution of ?10 lakh to PMCARES fund in addition to oneday salary. The demand draft of?10 lakhs was handed over toMinister of State for DefenceShripad Naik by All IndiaDRDS Association (AIDA) lastweek.

During the conference, the

OFB also reported that therewas no COVID 19 positive casein any of its 41 manufacturinglocations. Moreover, in itsfight against the coronaviruspandemic, the OFB distributedone lakh litres of hand sanitiz-er and earmarked 280 isolationbeds at its hospitals in 10 loca-tions.

The aviation conglomerateHindustan AeronauticsLimited(HAL)has also ear-marked 93 isolation beds inBengaluru for COVID-19patients. The HAL has manu-factured 300 aerosol cabinetsand supplied them to varioushospitals. It has also distributed56,000 masks and extendedsupport to migrant labour.

The Bharat Dynamics Ltd(BDL) is also working witheminent scientists for finalisa-tion of design for ventilatorsand to make the prototype.The

Mazagon DockShipbuilders Limited (MDL)provided PPE and medicinesworth Rs Five lakh to NavalQuarantine Centre, Mumbaiand distributed 4,000 litres ofsanitiser.

Secretary, (Department ofDefence Production) RajKumar, senior officials ofDepartment of DefenceProduction, senior officials ofOFB, BEL, HAL, MDL, BharatEarth Movers Ltd (BEML),Garden Reach Shipbuilders &Engineers Ltd (GRSE), BDL,Hindustan Shipyard Ltd.(HSL), Midhani MishradhatuNigam Ltd (MIDHANI) andGoa Shipyard Ltd participatedin the video conference.

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New Delhi: In view of theongoing coronvirus crisis, theCentre on Tuesdayannounced approval for pro-viding Mid-Day Meal (MDM)to schoolchildren during sum-mer holidays too, on which anadditional expenditure ofabout �1,600 crores will bemade.

In addition, under the

MDM Scheme, while an ad-hoc grant of �2,500 crore isbeing issued for the first quar-ter, the annual central alloca-tion of cooking cost (for pro-curement of pulses, vegetable,oil, spices and fuel) under thescheme has been enhanced to�81,00 crore from �7,300crore (an increment of10.99%).` PNS

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The number of COVID-19 positivecases in the US just hit a stagger-ing one million while the numberof deaths crossed 56,000. Thecountry has, perhaps, passed its

peak, unless there is a second wave, like in thepandemic of the last century. As casesmount, the number of Americans who willsuccumb to the deadly virus is astonishing-ly reaching closer to the combined death tollin the Korean and the Vietnam wars.

The world has grown up on the narra-tive that America cares about the lives of itspeople — whether in combat or civilians —than most countries. While the validity of thisargument can be debated, there is no deny-ing that there’s a sense of pride about theAmerican way of life and the approach of itsGovernment, which drives a superiority rid-den revenge in the aftermath of every exter-nally induced attack/setbacks. Not for noth-ing, the death of four American soldiers inthe deserts of Niger and three soldiers in theManda Bay, Kenya, in 2018 churned adomestic debate about the need for assessmentin American troop deployments in Africa andthe world over. The humiliation that Americasuffered in Tehran in the 1979 hostage crisisstill fuels its regime, toppling compulsions inTehran. The severity of the US’ response hasalso historically depended on the political affil-iation of the incumbent President, with theRepublicans going for a whole hog response.That America is mired in an election cyclewith Joe Biden, the likely Democratic presi-dential candidate, catching up fast withPresident Donald Trump’s ratings is sure toshape a response that is intended to reassurethe domestic electoral base that the US willavenge the loss of lives. So, how will it respond?

While it is too early to predict theAmerican response in shaping a post-COVID-19 global order, portents of a recal-ibrated relationship with China are alreadyemerging. Mutual blame-game over the ori-gin of the virus, expulsion of each other’sprominent media organisations and an inves-tigation into the origin of the virus are alreadybeing undertaken by the US. While this maynot fundamentally transform the broadertrends of the Sino-US relationship, historical-ly predictable trends in the latter’s responseafter national crises and the vectors emerg-ing from the COVID-19 epidemic, along withits toll on American lives, point to substan-tive overhaul in its policies once it emergesout of the reeling pandemic that has broughtthe country to a screeching halt.

The 9/11 attacks saw it undertake imme-diate response in the form of unprecedent-ed tightening of homeland security and glob-al compulsive lobbying for “war on terror,”leading to the invasion of Iraq on the pretextof “weapons of mass destruction.” Theimpact of these global changes in America’sforeign policy was so intense that they arebeing experienced even now in varied forms:Tougher airport screening protocols, reduc-

tion in the number of visasissued, surveillance and tighten-ing of immigration norms. Withthe Trump administration rein-forcing American foreign policyconservatism, these impacts arebeing felt even more, especiallyby the non-citizens in the USthan ever before. His announce-ment of a new visa section normmust be seen in the same light.

The rapidity with which theCOVID-19 epidemic is sweepingacross cities in the US, havingbroken the back of one of themost populous and iconic cities,New York, there cannot be muchdoubt that Washington is plan-ning an overall recalibration offoreign relations with China.One of it is health infrastructure,perhaps an ongoing analysis toassess intelligence failure aproposCOVID-19, improving the use oftechnologies in predicting andfighting future crises like the cur-rent Coronavirus outbreak,enhancing robustness for betterdefence preparedness and com-mensurate response to criseslike this pandemic.

In the historic $2 trillionstimulus package that has beensigned by Trump to bring theAmerican economy back ontrack, an emergency fund of$8.3 billion has been put forth bythe Trump administration for thedefence department. Clearly,there is a defence component ofthe American response toCOVID-19 from the Pentagon in

waiting. Whether it will be tooChina-specific or a general uplift-ing of America’s preparednessremains to be seen.

That the US could not seethe virus coming and ravagingAmerican lives on an unprece-dented scale has catapultedCOVID-19 high on the list of itshistorical intelligence failure —perhaps in the same line as PearlHarbour, the Iranian hostagecrisis and the 9/11 attacks. Whilethat is a conventional nationalsecurity consideration, Chinahas also launched a “propagan-da war” through “wolf warrior”diplomacy upon the US and else-where by ramping up the narra-tive that the American militarymight be to blame for theCoronavirus outbreak in China.As such, what COVID-19 hasdone is that it has further flaredup the already tense and uncer-tain atmospherics in the US-China relationship, coming closeon the heels of an ongoing tradewar between the two largesteconomies of the world.

As the US-led liberal inter-national order is perceived to beunder severe strain in the face ofan unapologetic claim for a peer-competitor status by China,COVID-19 and the tit-for-tatresponses from both sides isbound to turn the US-Chinastrategic rivalry more com-bustible. In more recent US mil-itary and diplomatic documents,China has begun to occupy a

much starker place as a “revision-ist power”, a strategic competitorand challenger to the US globalprimacy “that needs to be coun-tered and contained.”

As China’s increasing eco-nomic and security engagementswith countries across the globerattle America’s strategic minds,the US, despite President Trump’suncertain ways, has been dou-bling down on its alliances andstrategic partners to manage theconsequences of China’s rise.America’s approach to China’sambitious Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI) and the latter’sapproach to the US Indo-Pacificstrategy has brought forth acomplex set of perceptions andmisperceptions about the globalorder. The new face of US-China competition and con-frontation, seen through thewrangling over 5G technolo-gies, China’s heft with leading USuniversities and national securi-ty concerns, is adding furtheracrimony amid the COVID-19saga.

Amid anger and suspicionwithin the global communityregarding China’s response to thevirus outbreak, Beijing isincreasingly projecting itself asa country that has successfullyfought COVID-19 and is readyto help other nations now. To besure, China’s response amid theongoing COVID-19 crisis glob-ally has positioned it ahead ofAmerica in the “scramble for

Europe” 2.0. On the other hand, the US

occupies the limelight forPresident Trump’s arguably“incompetent” and “unpopular”leadership and for becoming theground zero of COVID-19infections. How the two mostpowerful militaries and thelargest economies in the worldrespond and engage with eachother will not only influence thefuture of their great power com-petition but also the multipleplatforms of global governanceand multilateral agencies, cuttingacross the political and econom-ic apparatuses that will deter-mine the emerging global order.

Once America emerges outof this pandemic, it is sure toundertake vigorous domesticand foreign policy recalibra-tion. Perhaps, for the first time,the world will see an offensiveconcoction of America’s healthimperatives domestically andits national security objectivesabroad. This strategy is likely topivot itself on three components— emerging technologies (par-ticularly AI), enhanced surveil-lance and a historicallyunmatched upping the ante onbuilding new and expansivehealth infrastructure. Airportsglobally, particularly in the US,could see the end of any “touch”,even as facial recognitionmachines will likely replace anyphysical contact that carries therisk of infection. Facial recogni-tion would in turn mean vastdatabases of people online.Many of these technologies arealready functional at Chineseairports, about which democra-cies all over the world, led by theUS, have depicted discomfort.

For many in the US, as inthe world, this would mean aconflicting question of “consent”and a more constricted democ-ratic space. Enhanced State con-trol, surveillance and personaldata storage could change thevery nature of democracies andfor many people a costly bargain.However, given the emergingnature of threats, it appears thatmost political systems will optfor that bargain, particularly inline with the fact that the fun-damental tenets of liberaldemocracies have historicallyshared an inversely proportion-al relationship with nationalsecurity.

In the case of the US, thesechanges would mean that theperils of fighting this one-upmanship battle with Chinacould shift the credentials of itspolitical system towards thosethat it seeks to fight.

(Vivek Mishra is deputydirector, KIIPS, Bhubaneswar,and research fellow, ICWA, NewDelhi. Monish Tourangbam isassistant professor ManipalUniversity, Karnataka)

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Sir — It is important to note thatdue to the sudden imposition oflockdown due to the spread ofCoronavirus, thousands of stu-dents were stranded in variousparts of the country and abroadas well. They were unable toreturn home due to travel restric-tions. Students, stuck in severalparts of India, want to get backhome. In many cases, they are fac-ing financial distress.

Days after the lockdown wasannounced, the Uttar PradeshGovernment sent 250 buses topick up about 9,000 stranded stu-dents from Kota in Rajasthan.Several other States have alsoeither brought back students orare planning to do so.

However, it is regretful thatBihar Chief Minister NitishKumar has been opposing the eas-ing of lockdown rules and haseven refused to bring back stu-dents stranded in Kota. Kumarmust not abdicate his responsibil-ity of ensuring safe passage to thestudents and coordinate withState Governments to ensure has-sle-free return of the students.

AMS NadwiLucknow

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Sir — Ever since the lockdowncame into effect, it has beenmore than clear that the entirecountry is suffering. The unprece-dented lockdown has unsettledlives, halted the economy and put

India Inc into deeper crisis. Thedevastation faced by millions ofmigrant workers and labourers,who had little economic buffer orsafety net, was heart-wrenching.

But what about the plight ofpregnant women? There havebeen a number of incidents wheredoctors have refused to admit

pregnant women due to the lackof a COVID-19 test report. Manywomen have been forced to deliv-er babies at the roadside.

The Government needs to acton this to prevent a secondCOVID-19-related crisis — awave of premature births andpoor outcomes, especially among

our most vulnerable populations.Ensuring institutional deliverymust be the first responsibility ofevery State Government.

AA HafizKerala

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Sir — Post the lockdown, workculture is definitely going toundergo a sea-change. The ben-efits of this are many. We savehours of commute time, work-lifebalance improves and there’s adrastic change in the atmos-phere. This form of an arrange-ment has indeed worked andmany companies will be able toadopt it with ease for long-term.

While many companies willbe able to adapt to this new kindof work culture, there are othersfor whom getting back to theoffice is crucial and unavoidable.More and more will test positive,need isolation, quarantine, treat-ment, even hospitalisation. But wehave to take the bull by thehorns.

Niharika SinghVia email

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In the months during which the Coronavirusoutbreak has been afoot, it has laid bare thevulnerability and helplessness of an interde-

pendent and interlinked world to the ravages thatcan be unleashed by a rapidly spreading novelcommunicable disease. The question one asks atthis moment is, why is this so?

What happened to the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) and the global governancestructures that were built in order to counter thissort of crisis? Didn’t the world learn anythingfrom the earlier outbreaks of communicable dis-eases like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome(SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome(MERS), Swine flu (H1N1) and so on? The entirehealthcare governance at the global level simplycrumbled like a house of cards. There is completedisarray and confusion around the world, whenideally global protocols should have been in placeto control the spread of the disease.

What has been witnessed during the pan-demic is that countries have tended to act inde-pendently. More in tune with their domesticrequirements (cultural pride, market demandsand so on) rather than in a coordinated fashionas part of a global governance network.

On the one hand, the Chinese authorities hadsought to suppress information regarding theappearance of the new virus (by some accountsthe Chinese are still hiding the real numbers),while on the other hand a unified response to thedisease, which was expected from the world andinternational institutions like the WHO (once itsgravity became evident) was completely absentand is absent even today.

Nothing highlights the lack of coordinationbetween countries better than the testing regimefor the Coronavirus initiated by South Korea andthe US. While South Korea made the testing ofCOVID-19 free for its citizens, in the US testingwas a paid endeavour in the initial days, whichresulted in delayed identification of infected indi-viduals and led to the rapid spread of the disease.

While the Chinese may be at fault in their fail-ure to warn the world about the outbreak of thehighly infectious disease right at its onset, theirpropaganda is correct to an extent that the devel-oped world, with all its technological prowess, hassurrendered before the Coronavirus. This begsthe question, what has caused the failure of glob-al healthcare governance?

The WHO Director-General Dr TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus declared COVID-19 asa pandemic (rather late in the day) and askedcountries to undertake preventive and protectivepublic health measures that “strike a fine balancebetween protecting health, preventing econom-ic and social disruption and respecting humanrights.”

The WHO, while rightly emphasising theneed to respect human rights, appears to havesimply laid the responsibility of containing thepandemic along with the responsibility of pre-venting social and economic disruption, onnational healthcare systems, which are patchy andinefficient in most of the developing countries.

Ideally it should have been at the forefrontof the Corona war, advising countries on the pro-tocols that needed to be followed. Instead itsresponse was slow, confused and inconsistent. Itdoesn’t take a genius to imagine what the situa-tion in developing countries would be whendeveloped countries with better healthcare sys-tems were unable to contain the virus.

As the pandemic has shown us, the spread

of a contagion in any major economywill have reverberating effects on theentire global economy. Thus it cannotbe the job of national governmentsalone to halt the spread of disease. It hasto be a joint effort between the coun-tries with the global health watchdogleading from the front.

However, the statement of theDirector-General, which came outrather belatedly, was in the form of arecommendation rather than a concreteplan of action for nations to follow. Itindicated a complete lack of power toeffectively engage in governance ofhealthcare around the world and adopta leadership role in the hour of crisis.

The reason behind the incapacity ofthe WHO to effectively engage in glob-al healthcare governance appears to bethe North-South divide that permeatesinternational relations. This invisibleline has divided the world into the glob-al developing South, which comprisesthe underdeveloped and developingcountries and the wealthy, industrialisedNorth.

The countries of the global Southare plagued with problems, in differingmeasure, of poverty, lack of respect forhuman rights, absence of democraticgovernance and so on, along with a deepdistrust of the industrialised countries,who are perceived to be ready to useevery instrument to control policy-mak-ing of the developing nations, for theirown economic gains.

The developed countries, in theindustrialised North on the other hand,have either left the global South to itsdevices or are attempting to providestrait-jacketed solutions to problems,instead of sharing the global governancespace with them, in which an accept-able solution to the problems of theglobal South could be arrived at.

This exclusion of the South fromparticipation has further fuelled the per-

ception that developed countries areonly interested in subverting gover-nance of developing nations for theirown economic gains. COVID-19 hasrudely awakened the world to the factthat the dividing line between theglobal North and South is not so wideas it appears to be and the North can-not ignore the problems of the South —be it human rights violations or poorhealthcare — as something alien tothem.

What is the solution then? Theexisting global governance architecturehas fallen woefully short in managingthe interdependencies and integrationbetween countries. This is partly due tothe speed of globalisation which accen-tuates these interdependencies andpartly due to the Westphalian principlesof sovereignty and non-interference inthe internal affairs of States.

What is required at this juncture isa novel governance model which isbased on international cooperation.This governance model should respectsovereignty but only to the extent thatit does not cause hindrance in address-ing transnational challenges that mayrequire a global coordinated response.

Global governance implicitly man-dates a certain level of internationalintervention which is contrary to theprinciples of sovereignty and non-intervention in each other’s affairs. Inaddition, this governance model wouldalso have to address the asymmetriesexisting in the present structure of gov-ernance which lead to a participationdeficit of developing countries in glob-al norm creation, thereby accentuatinginequalities between nations.

This new model should genuinelyattempt to fulfill the mandate of ArticleIII of the United Nations Charterwhich provides that there should be“international cooperation in solvinginternational problems of an econom-

ic, social, cultural, or humanitariancharacter and in promoting and encour-aging respect for human rights and forfundamental freedoms for all withoutdistinction as to race, sex, language, orreligion.”

In the case of the present pandem-ic, while it is obvious that China issquarely to be blamed for the mayhemaround the globe, the immediaterequirement is that the WHO as aninternational organisation should bereformed as has been stated by the US,India and Australia.

The need for global healthcaregovernance has to be realised and theWHO should be vested with thisresponsibility.

For discharging this duty, the WHOshould be provided with the necessaryfinancial and human resources toaddress the issue of governance ofhealthcare around the world. Theadministration of the WHO should bemade more broad-based and represen-tative of global realities by increasing theparticipation of the global South in theorganisation.

At a political level, it may be pro-vided with similar administrative pow-ers as are available to the IAEA(International Atomic Energy Agency)where it can direct a proper course ofaction instead of merely making recom-mendations that the countries may ormay not follow.

Dilution of political borders is areality and not just in the field of pol-itics, finance and cyberworld but in thefield of social and physical integration.The problems of countries, starting withbasic healthcare, have to be addressedat a global level.

The earlier the world, both theNorth and South, realises this, the bet-ter it would be for everyone around.(The writers are Assistant Professors,Department of Law, Sikkim University)

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As we near the end of the lock-down on May 3, there areindications that the exit strat-

egy is likely to be a staggered one asthe Government tries to beat theCoronavirus from sweeping acrossthe country. Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan has indicated thatthe COVID-19 strategy will remain,the same: Locate, test, isolate andtreat.

While it is true that our villageshave not reported many cases so far,

but if the virus spreads to ruralIndia, can our public healthcare sys-tem manage to deal with it? Is therea contingency plan for such a situ-ation?

Right now the Governmentseems to be banking on the COVID-19 not reaching rural India. It ishoping that the million migrantlabourers who went back home totheir villages soon after the nation-wide lockdown began on March 25might not be infected or vectors.

This is for two reasons, DrVardhan says. “Personally I feelthat these migrant labourers wouldnever have come in contact with thecarriers of the disease. TheCoronavirus arrived in India withinternational travellers and, there-fore, most cases so far have been inthe cities. The second is that theyhave already covered the two-week quarantine period. Had they

been infected it would have beendetected by this time,” he explainsto this columnist.

Also, the rural folks havebecome alert and do not allowstrangers into their villages. They arekeeping constant vigil. Awarenessabout the virus and how it spreadshas increased because there are117 crore phone subscribers who getinformation through their mobilephones.

State officials have told villagecouncils to prevent labourers return-ing from the cities from entering thevillage or meeting people due to thefear that they might be infected withthe Coronavirus. In view of allthese precautions, the Minister isconfident of meeting the challengeif it reaches rural India.

“Money is not an issue. We havegiven �4,000 crore to the States. Weare supplying them test kits. We can

do much more,” he assures.However, data show that though

urban residents are more at risk dueto proximity to international trav-ellers and cheek by jowl housing, therural folk are not off the hook asthey face several challenges includ-ing inadequate access to properhealthcare, low insurance penetra-tion and a growing chronic diseaseburden.

With two-thirds of the popula-tion living in rural India, we needa different strategy to take care oftheir healthcare needs, particularlyas the pandemic looms over us. Asa priority, the quality of rural health-care needs to be stepped up.

The health infrastructure datapublished in the National HealthProfile, 2019, found thatGovernment hospitals would runout of beds in rural India even if thevirus hits 0.03 per cent of the pop-

ulation in the villages. The pressureof handling patients in rural Indiais twice as much as the nationalaverage. While for every 10,000 peo-ple in the country, there is one doc-tor available; in rural India one doc-tor is available for every 26,000 peo-ple.

There are also practical difficul-ties in implementing Governmentguidelines on health and hygiene.For instance, rural folks wonder howthey can follow social distancing ina limited space? Or wash theirhands often when they are in thefields or even at home becausethere is no running water or soap?They wonder how they will be ableto afford masks when they don’thave money to buy them? Or howcould they get proper healthcare inthe event of an outbreak whenthere are not enough Governmenthospitals in the vicinity?

The widening urban-ruraldivide is also evident in the inequal-ities in consumption, quality of lifeand availability of physical andsocial infrastructure.

The Union Governmentannounced a �1.7 trillion financialpackage on March 26 for direct cashtransfers and free food and the sec-ond one is to follow soon. But thisbarely amounts to one per cent ofIndia’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP).

What is needed is a strategysuited to rural India. For an inclu-sive economic growth, there is aneed to focus on the agrarian econ-omy. Second, the panchayats shouldbe utilised in the fight againstCOVID-19 and also for economicrecovery.

Realising the need for this,Prime Minister Narendra Modihimself addressed the gram pan-

chayats and sought their help lastweek. Similarly, realising theirimportance, Odisha Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik has pragmaticallyvested on sarpanches the powers ofDistrict Collectors.

In Kerala, its network of localbodies and the women empower-ment programme ‘Kutumbashree’has taken the battle against theCoronavirus to the communitylevel. Gram panchayats could be theengine to deal with the problemsunique to the villages. It is clear thata successful strategy for rural Indiawill go a long way in dealing withthe pandemic. However, the solu-tions have to be organic and com-munity-based for them to work.And the war should be fought ontwo fronts — healthcare as well ason the economic front.

(The writer is a senior journal-ist)

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China on Tuesday called onall countries of the five-

member BRICS bloc to uniteand "do the right thing" in theface of the Covid-19 pandem-ic, amid mounting pressurefrom the US and other countrieson Beijing over the origins of thecoronavirus.

With its rapid spread inmany parts of the world, theCovid-19 has put the lives andhealth of people around theworld under grave threat, seri-ously disrupted the flow ofpeople worldwide and the glob-

al economy, and posed a severechallenge to BRICS (Brazil,Russia, India, China and SouthAfrica) countries, ChineseForeign Minister Wang Yi saidwhile speaking at a video con-ference of the BRICS' foreignministers. "Should we let scienceand reason prevail or createpolitical divisions, bolster coop-eration across borders or isolateourselves through decoupling,promote multilateral coordi-nation or practice unilateralism?We all need to answer thesequestions in a way that standsthe test of history," said Wang,who is also the State Councillor.

While US President DonaldTrump has stepped up calls fora probe into the origin of coro-navirus, which emerged firstfrom Wuhan, Britain, Australiaand German Chancellor AngelaMerkel have called for moretransparency from Beijing onCovid-19 origins.

China said the origin of thevirus is a matter of science andshould be studied by scientistsand professionals.

Wang said as representa-tives of major emerging coun-tries with global influence, theBRICS countries much act inthe interest of the well-being of

humankind, and stand by jus-tice and equity.

"We must make the rightcall and do the right thing," hewas quoted as saying by thestate-run Xinhua news agencyreported. "We must worktogether to sustain a peacefuland stable international envi-ronment and foster brighterprospects for win-win progress,"he said. Wang called on allBRICS countries to stand firmby multilateralism, by the UN-centred international systemand by the purposes and prin-ciples of the UN Charter.

Trump has withdrawn over

USD 400 million funding forthe World Health Organisation(WHO), accusing it of backingChina in "cover-up and under-reporting" of coronavirus cases.

For its part, China whichhas announced USD 30 millionadditional funding to the WHOhas staunchly defended its roleand the health agency's DirectorGeneral Dr General TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus.

"We need to champion theapproach of consultation andcooperation for shared benefitsin governance, and take the leadin advancing global governancereform along the right direc-

tion," Wang said. He called onBRICS countries to safeguardthrough the joint efforts thelegitimate rights and interestsand space for development "notjust for ourselves but also for allother emerging market anddeveloping countries."

Wang asked the countries toenhance coordination onmacroeconomic policies to curbrecession, create jobs, protectlivelihoods and stabilise theglobal economy. He also calledfor sustaining coordination tokeep up the secure and smoothfunctioning of global industrialand supply chains.

"The sudden onslaught ofCOVID-19 reminds us onceagain that our interests areclosely entwined and so are ourfutures," Wang said. A challengethat respects no border andmakes no distinction of ethnic-ity has only made global gover-nance more important, not less,he said. In response to somearguments that the world willnever be the same again after theCoid-19, Wang said China'sstrategic assessment was that thepandemic will not change thetheme of the times whichremains peace and develop-ment.

Beijing/Wuhan: A few gutsyIndians who stayed put inWuhan are back at work aftera strict 76-day lockdown, butare still worried about the pos-sibility of a second wave ofattack by the vicious coron-avirus, going by the growingnumber of asymptomatic casesin the country.

Wuhan, the central Chinesecity at the epicentre of the coro-navirus pandemic, made glob-al headlines on Sunday as thelast COVID-19 patient was dis-

charged, marking an importantmilestone in the city's fightagainst the invisible enemy,while India and several othercountries are still under strictlockdown to curb the spread ofthe disease that has claimed over2,10,000 lives worldwide.

With 50,333 confirmedcases and 3,869 deaths, Wuhanbore the brunt of the highly-infectious virus which firstemerged there in Decemberlast year and spread like wild-fire in the city of 11 million peo-

ple before turning into a glob-al pandemic, virtually bringingthe world to a grinding halt.

Wuhan, which becamefamous in India for the historicfirst informal summit betweenPrime Minister Narendra Modiand Chinese President XiJinping in 2018, is a majorinternational educational cen-tre and industrial hub withsome of China's famous scien-tific research centres and lab-oratories, attracting studentsfrom India and abroad. PTI

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The UN humanitarian chiefsaid USD 90 billion could

provide income support, foodand a health response to thecoronavirus pandemic for 700million of the world's most vul-nerable people — a price tagjust 1 per cent of the USD 8 tril-lion stimulus package the 20richest countries put in place tosafeguard the global economy.

Mark Lowcock told a videobriefing most experts agreethat the peak of the Covid-19pandemic hasn't reached thepoorest parts of the world, butmay peak in the next three tosix months.

He said about 700 millionpeople — 10 per cent of theworld's population — are mostvulnerable and concentrated inabout 30 to 40 countries whichalready receive humanitarianassistance and will see a bigdrop in incomes as the virusspreads and governmentsimpose restrictive measuresand lock downs.

“If you wanted to protectthem against that drop inincome, then probably forabout USD 60 billion you coulddo that,” Lowcock said.

And for something likeUSD 30 billion, he said, peoplefacing the threat of starvationcan get food, and the healthresponse to Covid-19 can befinanced.

Lowcock said probablytwo-thirds of the USD 90 bil-lion could come from interna-tional financial institutions likethe World Bank and theInternational Monetary Fund.

“They would need tochange the terms on whichthey provide assistance to somepeople,” he said.

“So, for example, theywould need to reduce interest rates and provide somedebt relief. But they have thefirepower if they were given abit more subsidy to probablymeet about two-thirds of the costs.”

Lowcock said the remain-ing one-third could be financedby a one-time increase inGovernment developmentassistance.

He said the argument he'smaking is that a one-off 20 percent increase “will save youhaving to deal with a 10-yearproblem.” “USD 90 billion is alot of money but it is an afford-able sum of money,” he said.

New York: The USDepartment of Defense hasreleased three short videosshowing what appears to beunidentified flying objects.

The videos showing"unidentified aerial phenome-na", the term used by thePentagon, were taken by USNavy pilots, one in November2004 and the other two inJanuary 2015.

Even before the USDepartment of Defense decid-ed to authorise the release ofthe videos, they were circulat-ing in the public domain afterunauthorised releases in 2007and 2017.

The US Navy previously

admitted that these videos cir-culating in the public domainwere not fakes.

"After a thorough review,the department has determinedthat the authorised release ofthese unclassified videos doesnot reveal any sensitive capa-bilities or systems, and does notimpinge on any subsequentinvestigations of military airspace incursions by unidenti-

fied aerial phenomena," the USDepartment of Defense said ina statement on Monday.

"DOD is releasing thevideos in order to clear up anymisconceptions by the publicon whether or not the footagethat has been circulating wasreal, or whether or not there ismore to the videos," said thestatement, adding that the aer-ial phenomena observed inthe videos remain characterisedas "unidentified."

Two airmen documentedthe 2004 incident in the NewYork Times three years ago.They estimated the unidenti-fied object to be 12.19-metrelong and oval in shape. IANS

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South Korea's UnificationMinister Kim Yeon-chul on

Tuesday rejected unconfirmedreports of North Korean leaderKim Jong-un's health as "fakenews" and "infodemic", insist-ing he can say confidentlythere have been no unusualsigns in Pyongyang.

Speculation about Kim'shealth spiked after he skippedan annual visit to the mau-soleum of his grandfather KimIl-sung on the late nationalfounder's April 15 birthanniversary, the North's mostimportant national holiday,reports Yonhap News Agency.

Media reports have sincespeculated that Kim Jong-unmight be seriously ill, but SouthKorean officials have disputedthe reports, repeatedly sayingthere were no unusual signsfound in North Korea and thatthe leader was believed to bestaying in the country's easterncoastal town of Wonsan.

"It can be seen as a phe-nomenon of infodemic," theUnification Minister said dur-ing a parliamentary foreignaffairs committee meeting,referring to a recent deluge ofunfounded rumours about theleader's heath.

"We have intelligencecapacity that allows us to say

confidently that there are nounusual signs."

In a report last week, CNNsaid that the US was lookinginto intelligence that Kim Jong-un was in "grave danger" aftera surgery.

That came after a report byDaily NK, a South Korea-basednews outlet specializing inNorth Korea issues, that KimJong-un was receiving medicaltreatment outside Pyongyangfollowing a cardiovascular pro-cedure, said the Yonhap NewsAgency.

The Minister duringTuesday's briefing called thosereports "fake news" based onunconfirmed information.

Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump said he has a"very good idea" about the sta-tus of Kim Jong Un but he can't talk about it now, amid rumours about theill health of the North Koreanleader.

“I can't tell you exactly —yes, I do have a very good ideabut I can't talk about it now. Ijust wish him well,” Trump toldreporters at a White Housenews conference.

There have been uncon-firmed reports that Kim is notin good health. The rumoursbegan after he missed the April15 commemoration of the108th birthday of his grandfa-ther, North Korea founder Kim

Il Sung. North Korea has notdispelled the rumours of illhealth of its ruler.

“I have had a very goodrelationship with Kim JongUn. If I weren't president youwould be... You would havebeen in war with Korea. Youwould have been in war withNorth Korea if I wasn't presi-dent that I can tell you. Heexpected that. That I can tellyou,” he said.

“I hope he's fine. I doknow how he's doing relative-ly speaking. We will see… Youwill probably be hearing in thenot-too-distant future,” Trump,who met Kim at least twice topersuade him to give up hisnuclear weapons, said. IANS

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French Prime MinisterEdouard Philippe has out-

lined a plan to fight the coro-navirus by testing everyonewho has come in contact withan infected person.

Philippe announced theplan while addressing law-makers at the NationalAssembly. He said when a per-son tests positive, individualsthat have been close contactwith that person — regardlessof whether they have anysymptoms or not — will be tested. Philippe said, “Allthese contact cases will be test-ed and will be asked to isolatethemselves.”

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The US is carrying out a"very serious" investigation

against China, PresidentDonald Trump has said, indi-cating that his administrationis looking at a bigger compen-sation from Beijing than theUSD 140 billion being soughtby Germany over the coron-avirus pandemic.

The deadly contagion,which originated in China inmid-November, has so farkilled more than two lakh peo-ple and infected over three mil-lion globally. The largest num-ber of them are in the US: morethan 56,000 deaths and overone million infections.

Leaders of the US, the UK

and Germany increasinglybelieve that the unfortunatedeaths of so many people anddestruction of the global econ-omy could have been avoided,if China had shown trans-parency and shared the infor-mation about the virus in itsearly phases.

Many countries have start-ed talking about claiming com-pensation from China. Trump,during the Rose Garden pressconference on Monday, wasasked about Germany planningto send a bill to China for euro130 billion (USD 140 billion)for the damages. “Would youradministration look at doingthe same?”

“Well, we can do some-thing much easier than that.

We have ways of doing thingsa lot easier than that,” thePresident replied. "Germany islooking at things and we'relooking at things and we'retalking about a lot more moneythan Germany is talking about.

“We haven't determinedthe final amount yet,” but "it isvery substantial," Trump said.After the US, Europe has beenthe worst hit by the virus. InIndia, mainly because of theearly and aggressive preventivemeasures, the fatalities haveremained low at 886 and infec-tions at 28,000.

“If you look at the world, Imean, this is a worldwide dam-age. This is a damage to the USbut this is a damage to theworld,” said the President.

Trump said there are "a lotof ways" one can hold Chinaaccountable for the spread ofthe virus. “We're doing veryserious investigations, as youprobably know. We are nothappy with China,” he said.

“We are not happy withthat whole situation because webelieve it could've been stoppedat the source. It could've beenstopped quickly and it would-n't have spread all over theworld. And we think thatshould have happened. So,we'll let you know at the appro-priate time, but we are doingserious investigations,” Trumpsaid. In recent weeks, there hasbeen an increasing supporttowards the move to holdChina accountable.

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Russian President VladimirPutin has extended the

nation’s partial economic shut-down through May 11, sayingthe coronavirus outbreak isyet to reach a peak. Speaking ina conference call with top offi-cials on Tuesday, Putin says theshutdown that began at the endof March and was to expire onApril 30 has slowed conta-gion. Lockdowns imposed byRussian regions have kept mostpeople, except those working invital industries, at home.

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More than 2,10,000 peoplehave died worldwide in

the coronavirus pandemic, 85per cent of them in Europe andthe United States.

A total of 2,13,437 deathshave been recorded among3,094,964 cases since the out-break began in China late lastyear. Total 9,38,497 have beenrecovered so far.

Washington: US cases of thenovel coronavirus wereapproaching 1 million onTuesday, having doubled in 18days, and made up one-third ofall infections in the world,according to a Reuters tally.

More than 56,000Americans have died of thehighly contagious respiratoryillness COVID-19 caused bythe virus, an average of about2,000 a day this month, accord-ing to the tally.

The actual number of casesis thought to be higher, withstate public health officialscautioning that shortages oftrained workers and materialshave limited testing capacity.

About 30% of the cases

have occurred in New Yorkstate, the epicenter of the USoutbreak, followed by NewJersey, Massachusetts,California and Pennsylvania.

Globally, coronavirus casestop 3 million since the outbreakbegan in China late last year. TheUnited States, with the world'sthird-largest population, hasfive times as many cases as thenext hardest-hit countries ofItaly, Spain and France.

Of the top 20 most severe-ly affected countries, the UnitedStates ranks fifth based oncases per capita, according to aReuters tally. The United Stateshas about 30 cases per 10,000people. Spain ranks first atover 48 cases per 10,000 peo-ple, followed by Belgium,Switzerland and Italy.

US coronavirus deaths, thehighest in the world, now exceedthe total number of Americanskilled in the 1950-53 KoreanWar — 36,516. Coronavirusdeaths total just below the 58,220Americans killed during theVietnam War that ended in1975. The coronavirus has killedmore people in the United States

than the seasonal flu in recentyears, except for the 2017-2018season, according to the US.

Flu deaths range from alow of 12,000 in the 2011-2012season to a high of 61,000 dur-ing 2017-2018. Coronavirusdeaths in the United States fallfar short of the Spanish flu,which began in 1918 and killed675,000 Americans, accordingto the CDC.

Unprecedented stay-at-home orders to try to curb thespread of the virus have ham-mered the economy, with thenumber of Americans seekingunemployment benefits overthe last five weeks soaring to26.5 million.

About a dozen states arebeginning to relax the stay-at-home restrictions despite thewarning of health experts thatpremature actions could causea surge in new cases.

A Reuters/Ipsos survey thismonth found that a bipartisanmajority of Americans want goon sheltering in place to protectthemselves from the coron-avirus, despite the impact onthe economy. Agency

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Deeksha has initiated a free 21-dayonline bridge course which helps

students who have completed theirClass X to transition smoothly intoScience streams of PUC. The coursefocuses on important concepts, prob-lem-solving and formulae in the coresubjects of Math, Physics, Chemistryand Biology.

The course will have four hour class-es for six days a week. Post registration,students will be given a login id andpassword to the Impartus platformwhere lectures are taught and uploadedlater for access, along with live doubt

clarification and homework.“The PU syllabus is in-depth, and

students must have a strong hold overcore concepts which are taught in the9th and 10th grades in order to makethe most of their PU years. The BridgeCourse has been designed to help stu-dents become self-dependent, strength-en their foundation and have more con-trol over their learning. This course hasbeen developed entirely for the onlineplatform and is an opportunity for stu-dents and teachers to adjust to the newonline teaching paradigm, before thestart of the semester,” said Dr Sridhar G,founder, Deeksha.

The 21 day online bridge coursestarts from May 4.

�� 345�6478

The FORE School ofManagement has commit-

ted an amount of �10 lakhtowards the PM-CARES fund.The institute’s decision hascome in the wake of theCOVID-19 pandemic outbreakthat is currently being foughtby the nation.

The institute pledged thissupport in this extraordinarytime and severe crisis. This isin addition to the CorporateSocial Responsibility and phil-anthropic activities FORE

undertakes regularly. Through this contribution

FORE expresses its solidaritywith the nation in its fightagainst this unprecedented andcataclysmic situation affectingthe wellbeing of the people ofIndia. It is good to see that evenwhile widening economic slow-down, the B School is happilylending the helping hand.

The institute is playing akey role in ensuring commu-nity welfare through its engag-ing, creative and resourcefulteam in assuaging any life-threatening crisis.

Schools, educational institutes andtuitions are closed for regular teach-

ing as a precautionary measure inlight of COVID-19 pandemic. Studentsare at home, as are their parents.Everyone is trying to make the best ofthis period of lockdown. While parentsare trying to balance work-from-homewith family time, a challenge that mostparents are also facing is that of keep-ing their school going children mean-ingfully engaged and ensuring that theirstudies do not suffer. Technology is play-ing an important role here.

Online learning platforms areensuring that students can continuewith their classes from the safety of theirhomes. Educators and Ed Tech solutionproviders are joining hands to help tideover this crisis. From providing platformaccess to schools to conduct their ownlive classes to organising free live class-es for students of all grades — all solu-tions are geared towards ensuring thatstudents can continue their learning.

For most students across India,April is typically the start of the new aca-demic session. Particularly, for studentsin Class X and XII who will be appear-ing for their Board Exams in 2021,attending classes online is the only waythey can continue to keep up with their

syllabus. Online classes are a saviour toofor all those students appearing for com-petitive exams over the next fewmonths.

Some of the highlights of a power-ful online learning experience include:� Live interactive classes with teach-ers who are thoroughly trained andexperienced� Comprehensive study content in the

form of videos and animations toexplain a concept� Powerful assessments in the form ofa variety of tests and smart reports� All India Test Series (for JEE/NEETaspirants) that help benchmark theirperformance against other aspirants� An interactive 'classroom' experiencethrough the use of chat, in-class quizzesand polls

� Forums and dedicated platforms forimmediate doubt resolution where stu-dents can connect with their teachers� The freedom and flexibility to accessthese classes across devices - mobile,tablet, laptop or desktop� The option to continue learning atyour own pace - recorded lectures,video lessons and more.

Online learning does call for asense of discipline. For students to beable to muster that, it is important thatthey are encouraged to balance theironline studies with other activities forleisure. While studying, remember totake adequate breaks. Needless to say,a good diet and adequate rest and exer-cise will go a long way to ensure thatstudents can make the most of theironline classes.

Parents too can consider taking iteasy with their restrictions related toscreen times during this period. Letthem watch their favourite series or playa game or two if they wish to. It isindeed a difficult period for all and ourchildren too must be trying hard tocope with this new reality in light of thevirus. Thank God for technology andthe world wide web!

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The Coronavirus outbreak is lead-ing into a situation where publichealth systems need to act deci-

sively and quickly to contain thegrowth of the deadly virus in our coun-try.

Clearly, the main emphasis is andshould be on containing and mitigat-ing the disease itself. But we cannotnegate the economic slowdown it hascreated with companies grappling tounderstand and implement lessonsbeing learnt from this global pandem-ic.

The entrepreneur/business ownerholds the key in such a critical situation;as their clarity, approach and visiontowards understanding the marketscenario and their business will definehow the economy in India will emergefrom the current economic crisis.

Here are a few key learning whichshould be applied by entrepreneurs dur-ing such times:� Keep yourself updated on an hourlybasis: Business events in such a situa-tion are taking place at a shocking speedand the picture changes very fre-quently. Only few days ago, it lookedlike the outbreak was mostly confinedto few cities but within a couple of daysthe virus has entered every state of thecountry. This is also critical if your busi-ness has a pan-India presence.Communicate with your team andupdate date and vice versa every 6 hourson data points, tweak in businessstrategies etc.� Employee communication: In suchscenarios, employees might likely getexposed to conflicting informationand feel anxious or confused about thebest course of action. Make sure that

travel policies are clear in terms ofwhere employees can travel to, for whatreasons, what authorisations arerequired and when the policy will bereviewed. Also, adopting flexible work-ing options such as remote workbecome important. Lay clear guidelineson how they will work and when theywill be reviewed. Communicate poli-cies promptly, clearly and in a balancedmanner to all employees to get the sameeffective outcome as it was there dur-ing regular office hours.� Self-learning: Learning is a contin-uous process and shouldn’t stop at anylevel. In fact the most successful peo-ple in the world are the ones who makea commitment to never stop learning.Success often means nurturing the lovefor learning and if you want to be suc-cessful always try and learn somethingnew. A strong desire of learning newthings can help increase personal andbusiness productivity especially duringa situation like the corona virus out-

break where many places have beenlocked down. In such a situation onlinetutorials, web-based informationalcourses and apps that offer assistancewith just a few taps is the best way toenhance your learning.� Reflect on what you’ve learnt:Rather than breathing a sigh of reliefand returning to a normal routine whenthe crisis subsides, efforts should bemade not to squander a valuable learn-ing which you might have gained dur-ing crisis situation. Documentation ofresponses, events during COVID-19should be made which can be reviewedlater. Rapidly evolving situations exposeexisting organisational weaknesses,like an inability to make hard decisionsor an excessive bias towards consensuswhich constitute opportunities forimprovement.� Prepare now for the next crisis:Coronavirus is not a one-off challenge.There is a high possibility to expectadditional phases to the current epi-

demic and additional epidemics in thefuture. Your research on the effective-ness of organisational responses todynamic crises indicates that there isone variable which is most predictiveof eventual success — preparation andpre-emption. Preparing for the next cri-sis (or the next phase of the current cri-sis) now is likely to be much more effec-tive than ad hoc reactive decisions thatare taken when the crisis actually hits.

And finally, smart entrepreneursmust also prepare themselves for achanged world. We should expect thatthe Coronavirus or any pandemic cri-sis will change the businesses andsociety in important ways. It is likely tofuel certain areas such as online shop-ping, e-education and public healthinvestments. Companies need to con-sider the changes this crisis has madein the way they operate, use that learn-ing and reflect it in their strategic plans.

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Are you an entrepreneur? Doesworking from home leave

you isolated or subject to distrac-tions, in turn impacting yourproductivity? Or you can’t affordtraditional private office space;perhaps it is time to dig the con-cept of coworking.

Even traditionalists have beenbidding the office goodbye infavour of a work-from-anywherelifestyle. Where coworking hasbecome the digital age’ sage’sanswer to 50 years of the cubicle,and the hype is only getting loud-er.

Coworking spaces are nowmore than just a hot trend, but dueto every facility which they offer,they are likely to be around formany years. So as an entrepreneur,if you choose to work in a sharedoffice space, you can expect toenjoy some of the following perks.

Productivity boostingsetting: Coworking spaces havebeen intricately designed to boostcreativity, productivity, and col-laboration. Being part of a sharedenvironment allows individuals tocollaborate, get exposure to newideas, different ways of workingwith a sense of togetherness. Thepositivity that emanated fromthose environments is what madecoworking such a unique, enrich-ing, and charming experience.

The open space is a juxtapo-sition of office settings as well asa home environment that providesflexibility to every worker. Thepresence of strategically baseditems like plants, design of chairsas well as colours of the walls playsan essential role that helps inextracting great professionalresults.

Working and more:Coworking spaces are becomingnot just a place to work, but alsoa place to learn and grow. Manyshared workspaces conduct dif-ferent activities like yoga classes,meditation sessions, and socialmixers.

Liberty to grow: Coworkingspaces are the best choice for allkinds of corporate firms andbusinesses. The flexibility of plug& play and absence of lockdownperiod offers liberty for everyoccupant to enter and exit thebooked office as per their demand

and need. While one needs to think of

the future of their company’s sizein terms of members as theyacquire a traditional workspace,such details are quite often uncon-sidered when booking a cowork-ing space.

Attracting and retainingtalent: Finding work-life balanceis becoming more and more vital,especially for the ever-progressivemillennial generation. The uplift-ment of coworking spaces isallowing the business owners tohave complete ownership of theirwork schedules, and a greatersense of autonomy over theirlives. They offer an option forentrepreneurs to work where theylive, which helps to spur creativ-ity, collaboration, and engagementin their passions to create evengreater and more sustainablegrowth.

From the freelance writer tothe software engineer, and to thetraveling mogul, coworking spacesare rapidly becoming the entre-preneur’s trend of the future. So,after given benefits coworkingspaces offer, it is no surprise thatthe shared working ecosystem isgrowing exponentially with nosigns of slowing down anytimesoon.

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The COVID-19 outbreakand the resultant uncer-

tainty has impacted schoolsand educational institutesacross India. Rising to theoccasion, Indian Edtechmajor Meritnation, a sub-sidiary of test preparationleader Aakash EducationalServices Limited (AESL), isconducting special free liveclasses for students duringthe lockdown helping themcontinue their studies.

Meritnation has

opened up its live classesand entire range of studyresources for students ofClass VI to Class XII at nocost, until the lockdown islifted. The premium studyresources provided byMeritnation include:� Videos, animationsexplaining concepts� Variety of tests and smartreports that give studentsvaluable insights� Access to a data bank ofover 40 lakh questionsanswered by experts� Supporting text and

downloadable RevisionNotes for easy reference� Solutions for NCERTand other textbooks

Meritnation is also con-ducting Live Classes forstudents appearing forJEE/NEET, at no charge.Additionally, more detailsabout the Free Live Classesby Meritnation can beviewed here — www.mer-itnation.com/liveclass.

Pavan Chauhan,Founder and CEO ofMeritnation believes thatthe ability to adapt is impor-

tant for success. “Studentsacross India are comingonline to study in hugenumbers. The popularity ofour live classes with thou-sands of students joining inevery day clearly showsthat students are increas-ingly getting used to theconcept of online learning.Meritnation will continueto offer free live classes onits platform till the lock-down is called off, and willbe there to ensure that thestudents get all the help tostudy,” he says.

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��"��!�� $��The Indian School of

Hospitality is introduc-ing new postgraduate diplomain Ser vice OperationsManagement, tailor-made forboth recent and workinggraduates who wish tobecome human resource,marketing, customer servicemanagers in the services sec-tor.

Duration: Six months ofon-campus teaching supple-mented with online classesand digital learning, followedby five months of industryimmersion.

Eligibility:Candidates should have

successfully completed theirBachelor’s degree of a mini-mum three or four-year dura-tion with its equivalent(10+2+3 or 10+2+4). Thebachelor's or master's degree

should be from a universitywhich is recognised by theUGC of India.

The candidate needs tohave a minimum of 55 percent aggregate at graduationlevel.

Before applying, candi-dates studying three-yeardegree programme will haveneeded to pass all subjectsfrom the first to fourth semes-ter, while applicants who pur-sued a four-year courseshould have passed in all sub-jects from the first to sixthsemester.

C e r t i f i c a t i o n :Postgraduate Diploma inSer vice Operations inManagement.

How to apply: Log on tohttps://ish.nopaperforms.com/.

Last date to apply: July2020.

��,��""�� The Institute of

Management Studies(IMS) offered degree pro-grammes affiliated to CCSUniversity Meerut invitesapplication for differentcourses for its 2020 batch.

IMS Noida offers undergraduate and post graduateprogrammes in business man-agement, law, mass commu-nication, and informationtechnology.

How to apply: Applicantsseeking admission arerequired to fill a separateapplication form for the same.Applicants can collect theapplication form, from theinstitute by paying �1,000 forUG courses & �1,400/ forPGDM programme.

It can also be obtained bypost, through online ordemand draft facility of�1,050/- for UG courses &�1,450/- for PGDM in favor ofIMS — NOIDA payable atNoida/Delhi.

Admission process:

The applications for aca-demic year 2020-21 is open toapplicants who have passed orwill appear for the qualifyingexaminations under the high-er secondary from any recog-nised Board of Educationsuch as AISSCE/IB/ICSE, orequivalents.

All eligible candidates willhave to undergo EntranceExam Campus at Noida whichcomprises of a written test andpersonal interview.

All qualifying candidateswill be required to carry theirportfolio.

Admission is based onthe marks obtained in quali-fying examination and theperformance in written testand personal interview.

Last date to apply: July,2020.

How to apply: Log on toh t t p : / / i m s n o i d a . c o m /http://imsnoida.in.

Or contact: 18001039383,+ 9 1 - 9 9 1 1 5 0 0 0 0 0 / 0 1 2 0 -4798800-02.

The use of the Internet andother technologies inimparting education has

exploded in the recent years.With digitisation making its wayinto the education sector, blend-ed learning has found its space inthe classrooms, and is on its wayto become the new norm.

Blended learning, also knownas hybrid learning, is nothing buta union of online and face-to-faceinstructions for better learningoutcomes. It is a combination ofclassroom based learning andweb based content. Onlineresources, together with in-personinstructions create a more per-sonalised learning environmentfor students. The prevalence ofdigital and social media in ourlives has made blended learningmore of a necessity than anupcoming trend. It is a flexibleconcept that empowers both stu-dents and facilitators, and shouldbe adapted in every school.

Blended teaching method-ologies offer students a wider per-spective and an enhanced learn-ing experience that goes beyondwhat face-to-face or online modes

can do alone. In this article we willexplore what teachers are doingto introduce online componentsin their teaching practice, andthings to keep in mind for ensur-ing the effectiveness of thosestrategies for improved studentengagement.

There are a few things to bekept in mind while implementingblended learning

There is no standardapproach to it: We need to decideon how our blend looks like.What all face-to-face compo-nents are substituted with onlineinstructions widely variesdepending upon course instruc-tional goals, teacher experience,teaching style, learner character-istics, developmental level, andresources available online.

You need a good chunk oftime to switch to hybrid:Redesigning a traditional courseinto a hybrid one takes time -sometimes up to 6 months. Ittakes time and commitment tomerge the blended learningprocesses in the existing courseseffectively and to achieve thegoals of the course with appro-

priate teaching methods. Just start small and keep it

simple: New learning technolo-gies, for example podcasting,internet-based audio and videocommunication, e-portfolios,web-annotation and social net-working tools including blogs,websites and wikis are creatingnew blending potentials. Out ofthese many possible learningtechnologies available, teachersneed to choose wisely to come upwith their personalised blendedcourse.

Give students time to graspthe hybrid concept: It is impor-tant for teachers to communicatetheir intentions behind theapproach at the onset of the aca-demic term.

Students need to be madeaware of the technologies in use,their responsibility for personallearning as well as time manage-ment requirements.

Some of the key challenges ofteaching in a blended formatfrom the faculty perspective arethe time commitment, lack ofsupport for course redesign, dif-ficulty in acquiring new teaching

and technology skills, and the riskfactors associated with this typeof course. Blended learning willnot fulfill its promise of improvedlearning unless teachers areencouraged to re-think andredesign courses that offer stu-dents varied and better learningexperiences than those offered byeither online or classroom teach-ing alone.

Despite all the above chal-lenges, blended learning hasincreased rapidly, driven by evi-dence of its advantages over eitheronline or classroom teaching.There is enough evidence to sug-gest the enormous potentialblended learning has — all that isrequired is the adequate profes-sional development of the teach-ers.

Opportunities need to beprovided to the teachers to incor-porate online learning compo-nents into their classrooms.Institutions and teachers togeth-er can make the most of theopportunities presented by blend-ed learning.

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The world as we knew it has changedforever and we did not even realiseit. It changed as if Thanos has

snapped his finger in order to restore bal-ance. Very scary thought indeed. But lookat the positive side of it. We realised thatit is possible to be productive with aZoom/MS Team/Slack/G-Meet meetingthan a physical one. We realised that thecountless hours we spent travelling wasindeed not needed. We realised that it ispossible to teach our students sitting milesaway, be effective and engage with them.

Teachers world over have learnt a newlesson that they are not the all and endall of knowledge. They are facilitators inthe learning process of a student andhence it is important for them to realisetheir limitations. Teaching is not impor-tant, making students learn is.

At a time when universities havelocked down and dorms are empty; at atime when the whole world is fighting thisgrim battle with a contagion calledCOVID-19, higher education is at a pointof serious disruption. Universities havenot changed themselves since the first onestarted in Bologna, Italy in 1088.

They had a similar model the worldover — a large campus, huge infrastruc-ture, big lecture halls, a large pool ofresearch focused faculty, tenure track sys-tem, large endowments for more build-ings and labs and a talented student bodywho was paying through their nose to getexpensive degrees.

In all of this, one thing was missing,actual research on how teaching-learningis happening in the class room. Is itteacher to learner, or is it peer-to-peer oris it the internet in post Google world.

Universities had started their onlineventures couple of decades ago but itremained mostly for executive educationor short term certificate programmes. Itwas blasphemous to even think of doingaway with large lecture theatres. MOOCSby prestigious universities led the way toslowly challenge this notion, with newprivate players and experiments in thewest and in India becoming popular.However, they still remained niche.

Higher education in the post COVIDworld is ready for a drastic change in theway it had operated. Increasingly, with thesuccess of mass online teaching of allkinds of courses, students will start

demanding more blended/online classes.Hence cost structure will have to bealigned with new forms of learning.

Universities have to invest hugeamount of money in completely revamp-ing their IT infrastructure to facilitateonline learning. Both synchronous andasynchronous learning methods have tobe adopted by the teachers. Current plat-forms are not meant for teaching; they aregood for conference calls and e-meetings.Hence technology companies have to cre-ate a complete different technologicalplatform which will enable mass teach-ing from remote locations, enable atten-dance, assignments, group discussions,online proctored examinations and mul-tiple other features which will mimic areal class room.

Professors have to completely rethinktheir courses and its pedagogy to suit thenew normal as they can’t teach an offlinecourse in an online mode without think-ing through it. A lot of learning has to becurated and not just converted intoonline submission.

There would be huge learning curvefor faculty as students are more tunedwith the reality of connected world.Professors like me have to completelyunlearn old ways and re-learn the new.

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To recognise academicachievement,University of

Strathclydes Dean'sInternational ExcellenceAward offers internationalstudents a merit basedscholarship towards the firstyear of tuition fees of a full-time Masters, EdDEducation or one year MResprogramme in the Faculty ofHumanities and SocialSciences.

Number of scholar-ships: 50

Value: Up to £4,000Subject: Education,

English, History, Law,Modern languages, Physicalactivity for health, Politics,Psychology, Social work andsocial policy, Speech andlanguage therapy,Journalism, Creative writing

Eligibility: Candidatesmust: Be available to com-mence their academic stud-ies in the UK by the start ofthe academic year inSeptember/October 2020.

Have an offer of studyfor a full time, postgraduate,Humanities and SocialSciences programme at theuniversity.

For more information:https://www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/scholarships/human-itiessocialsciences/deansinter-nationalexcellenceaward-

postgraduatetaught/ or con-tact hass-pg-

[email protected] deadline:

May 31, 2020

Internshala hasannounced free access totrainings, its e-learning plat-form, for academicallybright students from theeconomically weaker sec-tions. The scholarship aimsto encourage the studentcommunity to continuelearning and help them beatthe odds of financial con-straints.

All the students current-ly enrolled in a school orcollege (including distanceeducation) with a history ofgood academic performance,i.e, with a score of 75 percent and above in Classes Xand XII and college andwhose annual family incomeis less than �2.4 lakh wouldbe eligible for the scholar-ship.

The students can learnvaried skills including pro-gramming, data science,business, design, creativewriting on InternshalaTrainings through its shortduration online trainingprogrammes.

Students can choosefrom any one of the 19online trainings

For more details visit:bit.ly/Internshala-Scholarship

Application deadline:The last date aply is May 15,2020.

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The postponed Tokyo 2020Olympics will have to be

cancelled if the coronaviruspandemic isn’t brought undercontrol by next year, the organ-ising committee’s presidentwarned, ruling out furtherdelays.

The comments, in an inter-view with a Japanese sportsdaily published on Tuesday,come as medical experts doubt-ed whether the pandemic canbe sufficiently contained bynext year to hold an eventdrawing participants and spec-tators from around the world.

The pandemic has alreadyforced a year-long delay of theGames, which are now sched-

uled to open on July 23, 2021.But Tokyo 2020 president

Yoshiro Mori was categoricalwhen asked by the NikkanSports daily whether the Gamescould be delayed until 2022 ifthe pandemic remains a threatnext year, replying: “No.”

“In that case, it’s cancelled,”Mori said.

Mori noted the Games hadbeen cancelled previously onlyduring wartime, and comparedthe battle against coronavirusto “fighting an invisible enemy”.

If the virus is successfully

contained, “we’ll hold theOlympics in peace next sum-mer”, he added. “Mankind isbetting on it.”

Masa Takaya, a Tokyo 2020spokesman, declined to com-ment on a possible cancellationof the Games and told reportersthat Mori’s remarks were basedon “the chairman’s ownthoughts”.

But the comments will addto growing questions aboutthe postponement, decided lastmonth after heavy pressure onthe organisers and theInternational OlympicCommittee from athletes andsports federations.

On Tuesday, the head ofJapan Medical Associationwarned it would be “exceeding-

ly difficult” to hold the Gamesnext year if a vaccine has notbeen found.

“I would not say that theyshould not be held, but itwould be exceedingly diffi-cult,” Yoshitake Yokokura toldreporters.

�� And last week a Japanese

medical expert who has criti-cised the country’s response tothe coronavirus warned that hewas “very pessimistic” that thepostponed Olympics can beheld in 2021.

But Tokyo 2020 spokesmanTakaya countered that evenmedical experts said it was tooearly to make a judgement onsuch a possibility.

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Tottenham became the latest Premier League clubto open their doors to players on Tuesday as part

of the “Project Restart” plan to finish the English top-flight season.

The Premier League has been suspended sinceMarch 13 but there is growing belief the campaigncan be concluded over the summer months.

Resuming matches on June 8 is reportedlyamong the ideas set to be discussed when the PremierLeague’s key stakeholders meet on Friday.

That would require full training to begin by May18 and Premier League clubs are starting to worktowards that date by giving players the option of usingtheir training grounds.

Tottenham have followed Arsenal, West Ham andBrighton in allowing players to use facilities for indi-vidual sessions that conform to social-distancingguidelines.

“No more than one player per pitch will be per-mitted at any one time to undertake on-pitch exer-cise, with only a restricted number of the squad com-ing to the training centre each day,” a Tottenham state-ment said.

“Each player will travel independently and arriveat the facilities already dressed in training wear beforereturning home immediately after they have conclud-

ed their session.”After weeks of lockdown in

Britain, ministers believe thereturn of football would boostmorale. Culture secretary OliverDowden who is responsible forsport, said he had been in talkswith the Premier League “with

a view to getting football upand running as soon as pos-sible” but stressed anymoves would have to beconsistent with publichealth guidance.

The clubs remaincommitted to ending the2019/20 campaign and

there are compellingfinancial and legal rea-sons to play the remain-

ing 92 games.

�� >4;73

The Bundesliga couldreturn by “the middle

or end of May”, Germany’ssports ministers have said,as the league awaits the go-ahead from AngelaMerkel’s government toresume the season.

The sports ministers ofGermany’s 16 states met onMonday and announced ina statement that it is “jus-tifiable” for the league toresume “in empty stadi-ums” from “the middle orend of May”.

“The German FootballLeague must create andenforce the strictesthygienic and medical con-ditions, and monitor themwith appropriate mea-sures,” added the state-ment.

German ChancellorMerkel will meet state lead-ers in Berlin on Thursday,when it is hoped theBundesliga will get thegreen light to resume.

All football inGermany ground to a haltin mid March due to thecoronavirus pandemic.

Last week, theGerman Football League(DFL) announced it isready to resume from May9, albeit behind closeddoors with tight hygienemeasures and players test-ed regularly.

A return in Maywould make theBundesliga the first topleague in Europe to resumeas Germany cautiouslyeases lockdown measures.

Key politicians, includ-ing health minister JensSpahn, have backed theleague’s return plans.

�� Badminton Association ofIndia is ready to host the $400,000India Open, an Olympic qualifier, inDecember this year or January nextyear, provided the Covid-19 pandem-ic subsides and the Government givesits approval.

The Badminton World Federation(BWF) had last week sent a letter toBAI, asking it for a slot to conduct theBWF World Tour Super 500 tourna-ment, which was suspended last monthalong with the other Tokyo Gamesqualifiers due to the virus outbreak.

In reply, BAI has given BWF twoslots, saying it is ready to host the eventeither in December or January, pend-ing government approval, said Ajay KSinghania, General Secretary, BAI.

“...We told them we are ready toconduct the India Open in Decemberor January but it all depends on howthis global health crisis comes undercontrol and if we get the Governmentapproval,” Singhania said.

“We received the mail (from BWF)last week, asking us if we can host theevent in September but gauging theuncertainties around, we have givenDecember as first option and Januaryas the second alternate.

“But it depends on a lot of factors.Right now, international travel is alsobanned, so let’s see.”

The India Open Super 500 eventwas scheduled to be held in New Delhifrom March 24 to 29.

Meanwhile, the Badminton WorldFederation on Tuesday suspended theUS Open World Tour Super 300 tour-nament to be held in June due to thefast-spreading Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Badminton World Federation(BWF) can confirm the suspension ofthe YONEX US Open 2020 set to beheld 23-28 June in Fullerton,California,” the BWF said in a release.

“This decision was made in closeconsultation and consensus with USABadminton. PTI

�� 345�6478

India on Tuesday lost thehosting rights of the 2021

men’s world boxing c’ship toSerbia after the InternationalBoxing association alleged non-payment of host fee by thenational federation, whichclaimed that AIBA “acted inhaste”.

The Boxing Federation ofIndia acknowledged the delaybut blamed it on “proceduralcomplications” arising out ofthe AIBA’s failure to resolve“issues” with regards to theaccount in which the moneywas to be transferred.

The payment of what isestimated to be $4 million wasdue to be made on December2 last year.

“After New Delhi didn'tfulfill its obligations to payhost fee as mentioned in theHost City Agreement terms,AIBA has terminated the con-tract. Therefore, India wouldhave to pay a cancellationpenalty of $500,” the AIBAsaid in a statement.

The elite competition,which would have happened forthe first time in the country, willnow be held in the Serbian cityof Belgrade.

“Serbia has everything toorganize a great event for ath-letes, coaches, officials, and, ofcourse, for our boxing fans,”AIBA Interim PresidentMohamed Moustahsane stated.

�� 345�6478�

National badminton coachPullela Gopichand on

Tuesday said the current ath-lete-centric model of fundingdoesn’t benefit sport and thereis a need to look at supportinga group rather than individu-als to produce more champi-ons.

“All present models areathlete-centric, they don’t ben-efit the sport as a whole. Theybenefit individual athletes. Weshould look at funding a grouprather than individual ath-letes,” Gopichand made theassertion while addressing aspecial online session organisedby the Sports Authority ofIndia (SAI) for its newly-appointed Assistant Directors.

“The structure shouldthrow up champions. The levelof competition should be sohigh, that they become world-class without them even know-

ing. The number 2 and num-ber 3 should be constantlypushing the number 1.”

Talking about the impor-tance of coaches in the sport-ing ecosystem, Gopichand said:“You want people to be on-field, you want them to work ascoaches ... (however) as timegoes by, a lot of people want to

become mentors and adminis-trators and they don’t want tocontinue coaching.

“As administrators I wantyou to be aware, of who areputting in the effort and whoare remotely managing.

“Most successful modelsworldwide are coach-driven,sports science and athlete-dri-

ven. People working on thefield should be the decision-makers.”

Gopichand, who won the2001 All-England C’ship title,said rather than having grass-root-level coaches, intermedi-ate coaches and elite coaches aspart of a hierarchy, they shouldall work parallelly.

He also said that it isimportant that coaches are con-stantly motivated so that theydon’t lose interest in their job.

Gopichand, who groomedSaina Nehwal and P V Sindhuto Olympic medals in 2012 and2016, also emphasised on theimportance of having a strongdomestic competition structureto create more winners.

“We need to find smallpockets where not only train-ing is world-class but compe-tition is also world-class.Internal competition is whatwill make people strive to getbetter,” he said.

�� 345�6478

One of the most awaitedpart of this years IndianPremier League (IPL),

which currently stands sus-pended due to the coronavirusoutbreak, was the return ofMahendra Singh Dhoni to thecricket field. Dhoni last playedin the World Cup 2019 semi-final against New Zealand andsince then has been on a sab-batical. It was believed thatDhoni’s performance in the IPLwould decide if he will be a partof India’s WT20 squad. Butcricketer-turned-commentatorAakash Chopra begs to differ.

The former India openersaid that he believes it’s a hugemisconception people had thatDhoni’s comeback into theIndian team would be based onhis performance in the IPL.

“It’s a huge misconceptionthat Dhoni’s comeback to theIndian team was dependent onhis performance in the IPL,”Chopra said.

“If that is how we willview Dhoni as a player and his

career and what he hasachieved as a player, then Ithink we are just knocking atthe wrong door because it’s notright.”

Chopra feels that if Dhoniwants to play for the Indianteam again and if the teammanagement also wants thesame, it will happen.

“See, if the team wants himto play, all that will happen. Butif the IPL doesn’t take place thisyear, the T20 World Cup does-n’t happen this year, of coursehe will be a year older and withhim out of the cricket formore than 18 months, you canassume that you might not seehim play again for India,” hepointed.

The former India bats-man, however, said that look-ing at the present scenario,organising the T20 World Cuplooks “difficult” in October-November which in turn canopen a window for the 13thIPL edition and the tourna-ment can be held even behindclosed doors.

“It’s still a long shot

because we don’t know how theworld is going to operate. ThisCovid-19 pandemic is a devel-oping story. For a tournamentlike the IPL, you have to ensureplayers’ safety. It’s being con-templated to have the IPLbehind closed doors and Ithink it’s better to have thetournament with empty standsrather than not having thetournament at all.

“To be honest, the T20World Cup looks very, very dif-ficult because Australia hasalready put a travel ban tillSeptember. The T20 WorldCup is slated to be played inOctober. So, October-November might just turn outto be the window to open upsuddenly because moving theentire world to one place andthen playing the tournament isa lot tougher than playing, saythe IPL, in one country wheremost of the players are Indiansand only a handful of playershave to fly in. From a com-mentator and a cricket lover’spoint of view, I would want theIPL to happen,” he added.

�� :.7:%�%�

Former India player VVS Laxman onTuesday conducted his first online ses-

sion for batsmen of Ranji Trophy runners-up, Bengal, and to start with, he focussedonly on the mental aspect.

During his two separate 45-minutesessions with Abhishek Raman and KaziJunaid Saifi, Laxman also had in attendanceBengal coach Arun Lal, cricket operationsmanager Joydeep Mukherjee, and state U-23 coach Sourasish Lahiri.

Bengal opener Raman, who fritteredaway a bright start last season, was givenlessons on how to deal with failures andways to regain confidence.

“We talked about our last season. Whatwere my mindset through the season. Asession with lot to learn from and how to

prepare the mindset during ups anddowns of the season,” Raman said in astatement issued by the CAB.

Raman started the season with succes-sive hundreds, against Kerala and Andhra,but eventually aggregated 406 runs at 25.37from 10 outings.

Laxman talked about how to controlthe mind in order to avoid playing looseshots, importance of batting in the first onehour of play on bowling friendly pitches.

Rookie batsman Kazi, who made hisdebut and went on to play two matches,was told about how to ensure a seamlesstransition from age-group to senior crick-et. The CAB will continue with its onlineclasses with focus being on their top-orderbatsmen, their biggest letdown in an oth-erwise eventful season when they reachedtheir first Ranji Trophy final in 13 years.

�� Former Australiapacer Brett Lee believes battinglegend Sachin Tendulkar used toplay “cat and mouse” with leg-endary spinner Shane Warneduring their playing days.

Speaking on Star Sports’show Cricket Connected, Leesaid that Tendulkar was verycomfortable batting againstWarne and in fact on his days,the Master Blaster just toyedwith the Australian leggie, whichwas a rare sight.

“He (Sachin) used toadvance down the wicket a fewtimes & invited Warne to bowla fraction too short. Sometimes,he would wait patiently on theback foot and play those beau-tiful shots,” said Lee.

“It was almost like he wasplaying cat and mouse withWarne and not many batsmencan play cat and mouse withShane Warne because he’s so tal-ented. But on days, SachinTendulkar was toying withWarne and that does not happenoften,” he added.

Tendulkar and Warne hadan epic duel whenever theyfaced each other on the field.

Lee further revealed thatWarne hated the way Tendulkarbatted against him and wouldexpress anger after being unableto get the Indian batter out.

“The way Sachin used toread bowlers out of their hand,the different technique he used

to play different balls was pureclass.

“There were times whenWarne would try and get the tra-jectory a bit different throughthe air and sometimes, he wouldtry and get a few balls to drop.Every time he would try the sub-tle variations, there was onlySachin who would pick them up.

“Warne would bamboozleother batsmen around the world,but Sachin would watch thehand much better than most ofthe other batsmen.

“Warne hated it, he wouldcome back and say that he triedeverything to get Sachin out, buthe couldn’t,” Lee said.

Tendulkar made his debutagainst Pakistan at Karachi in1989 as a 16-year old. The mas-ter batsman went on to play 200Tests for India, scoring 100 cen-turies across Tests and ODIs. In463 ODIs, Sachin scored 18,426runs including 49 tons and inTests, he has 15,921 runs to hisname including 51 centuries.

“I was 22 years when I gotmy first opportunity to playagainst the Little Master,” Lee,who played 76 Tests, 221 ODIsand 25 T20Is for Australia, saidwhile recalling the first time heplayed against Tendulkar.

“I nicked him off and Ithought I’m done. I didn’t careabout a Test match since I wasso happy to get SachinTendulkar out,” he added. PNS

�� &%�%(%

Flamboyant West Indiesopener Chris Gayle has

called his former team-mate Ramnaresh Sarwan“worse than coronavirus”,accusing the Guyanese ofplotting his exit fromCaribbean Premier Leagueoutfit Jamaica Tallawahs.

The big-hitting Gayle,who has since moved to StLucia Zouks, blamedSarwan for an alleged fall-out with Tallawahs fran-chise, which did not retainhim for the 2020 seasonafter playing for them as amarquee player last year.

The opener claimedthat Sarwan was behindhis ouster as the former

middle-order batsmanwanted to take control ofthe franchise.

“Sarwan, you areworse than the coron-avirus right now,” Gaylesaid in a video uploadedon his YouTube channel.

“What transpired withthe Tallawahs, you have abig part to play becauseyou and the owner are likethis (very close). You werethe one at my last birthdayparty here in Jamaica, giv-ing big speech about howfar we have come.”

Sarwan is the assistantcoach of JamaicaTallawahs.

Continuing his ballis-tic attack on his formerWest Indies teammate,

Gayle went on, “Sarwan,you are a snake. You are sovindictive. You are soimmature. You still stab-bing people in the back.

“When are you plan-ning to change? Don’t evenconsider seeing theUniverse Boss and saying‘Yo Chris’ because I amtelling you this straightup, that’s it.”

Gayle played his firstfour CPL seasons withTallawahs before turningout for St Kitts and NevisPatriots in the next twoseasons respectively.

He returned toTallawahs the previous sea-son as a marquee playerbefore his alleged fall-outwith the franchise.

�� 1%;�

French professional sportsleagues including football

and rugby cannot restart beforeSeptember because of coron-avirus restrictions, PrimeMinister Edouard Philippe saidon Tuesday.

Philippe made theannouncement as part of agradual plan to lift the lockdownin France. He said no eventwhere more than 5,000 peoplegather would be alloweduntil at least September.

The news is also like-ly to affect the Tour deFrance, due to embarkfrom Nice on August 29and where hugecrowds would beexpected to

gather at the start and finishlines.

“The 2019-2020 profession-al sports leagues, notably foot-ball, cannot yet restart,” Philippetold a televised address to Frenchparliament at the NationalAssembly.

“I would like to be precisehere, no large sports gatheringor any gathering of 5,000 peo-ple or more, needing the permis-sion of the local police and longprior arrangements, will be

allowed before September,”Philippe said.

The announcementappears to scupper theplans of French football'stop division Ligue 1 to

start again in June withplayers being recalled

as of May 11.

��( ��'�� (��. �� !

�(�!�� !�1E��4* �� (�� /+# 36�� Out-of-favourIndia cricketer Suresh Rainahas jumped into the defense ofRishabh Pant, stating thatwhen the young wicket-keep-er-batsman is on song, hecould be as dominant asVirender Sehwag and YuvrajSingh.

Raina feels Pant can go onto become a top cricketer forthe country as he possesses allthe natural talent that a crick-eter should.

“He is a top cricketer,when he plays well, youbecome happy and he remindsof Yuvraj and Sehwag, he is asdominant as them, when heplays the flick, it reminds youof Dravid as well,” Raina saidduring a Live video sessionwith Yuzvendra Chahal.

Before cricket wasstopped due to coronavirus,Pant had lost his place in theteam in white-ball cricket toKL Rahul. IANS

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