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In a sign that the Oppositionwas gearing up to come out

of the “lockdown” mode, 22Opposition parties came onone platform on Friday toquestion the Narendra ModiGovernment’s handling of thefallout of Covid-19 pandemic,including humanitarian crisis,and said all powers were nowconcentrated in the PrimeMinister’s Office (PMO) andthe regime has abandoned anypretence of being a democrat-ic Government.

The Opposition partiesdemanded that the Centre pre-sent a revised and comprehen-sive package that will be a truefiscal stimulus in order to revup the economy.

Presenting a 11-point char-ter to the Modi Government,the Opposition leaders, includ-ing Congress president SoniaGandhi, Chief MinistersMamata Banerjee, UddhavThackeray, Hemant Soren andNCP chief Sharad Pawaramong others issued a jointstatement saying grandannouncements of �20 lakhcrore were made but it has donenothing meaningful to allevi-ate the sufferings of people,particularly the migrants whoare toiling hard to reach theirdestinations.

They sought that theCentre facilitate free trans-

portation of the migrants whoare still on roads without foodand water.

At the same time it alsodemanded the Centre consultState Governments whileallowing international/domes-tic flights.

“Present a clear and mean-ingful economic strategyfocused on revival and pover-ty alleviation instead of propa-ganda. The �20 lakh crorepackage and its contents mis-lead the people of India,” saidthe Opposition.

Interacting withOpposition leaders throughvideo conference, the Congresspresident accused the ModiGovernment of mismanage-ment in handling the situation

prevailing in the country. Shesaid the very spirit of “federal-ism” has been forgotten as allpower is now concentrated inthe Prime Minister’s Office.

“A number of renownedeconomists are predicting that2020-21 will end with negativegrowth of up to minus 5 percent. The consequences will becatastrophic,” Sonia said.

Top Opposition leadersincluded Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee,Maharashtra Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray, JharkhandCM Hemant Soren, NCP chiefSharad Pawar, NationalConference Omar Abdullah,DMK’s MK Stalin, CPI(M)’sSitaram Yechury among others.

Others who attended the

meeting and also expressedtheir views, were Congressleaders Rahul Gandhi, AKAntony, Ghulam Nabi Azad,Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed,HD Devegowda (JDS), DerekO’Brien from Trinamool,Praful Patel (NCP), MK Stalin(DMK), Sanjay Raut (ShivSena), D Raja (CPI), SharadYadav (LJD), Dr OmarAbdullah (NC), Tejaswi Yadavand Manoj Jha (RJD), PKKunhalikutty (IUML), JayantChaudhary (RLD), UpendraKushwaha (RLSP), BadruddinAjmal (AIUDF), Jitin RamManjhi (HAM), Jose K Mani(KC-M), NK Premchandran(RSP), Raju Shetty(Swabhimani Paksh), TholThirumavalavan (VCK-TN)and Prof Kondandaram (TJS).

Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP), Samajwadi Party andAam Aadmi Party (AAP),however, did not attend themeeting.

The Congress chief saidModi’s initial optimism ofbeing able to “conclude the waragainst the virus in 21 daysturned out to be misplaced”.

The meeting began by con-doling the loss of lives anddestruction in West Bengaland Odisha caused by cycloneAmphan and urged the Centreto declare it as a nationalcalamity for providing betterfinancial assistance to theStates.

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At least 45 people were killedwhen a Pakistan

International Airlines planewith 99 people on boardcrashed into a densely popu-lated residential area near theJinnah International Airporthere on Friday, officials said,nearly a week after the Covid-19-induced air travel restric-tions were lifted by theGovernment.

Flight PK-8303 fromLahore was about to land inKarachi when it crashed at theJinnah Garden area near ModelColony in Malir, minutesbefore its landing, they said.

The PIA Airbus A320 car-rying 91 passengers and eightcrew members has crashedlanded into the Jinnah HousingSociety located near the airport,a spokesperson of the nation-al carrier said.

Thick black smoke rosefrom the accident scene ofdevastation in the ModelColony area. Earlier, a PIASpokesperson and many mediareports said that there were 107people on board the aircraft.

Faisal Edhi of the EdhiWelfare Trust said so far 45bodies have been recoveredfrom the crashed plane. “Ourrescue workers have taken out45 bodies from the remains ofthe aircraft,” he said.

Sindh Health MinisterAzra Pechuho said that 19bodies have been shifted from

the crash site to Jinnah hospi-tal and another 20 to the civilhospital. Scores of injured werealso rushed to other hospitals.

The Minister said thereare three survivors, includingPresident of the Bank of PunjabZafar Masood. He called up hismother to inform her of hiswell-being. Edhi said thataround 25 to 30 residentswhose houses were damaged bythe plane have also been takento the hospital, mostly withburn wounds

The aircraft wings duringthe crash landing hit the hous-es in the residential colonybefore crashing down.

“At least 25 houses havebeen damaged in this incident,”Edhi said. “The first priority isto rescue the people. The mainhurdle is narrow streets andpresence of ordinary peoplewho gathered at the place afterthe crash but they have beendispersed,” the minister said.

According to a PIA official,the captain informed the airtraffic control that he was hav-ing problems with the landinggear before the aircraft disap-peared from the radar.

Thick black smoke rosefrom a scene of devastation inthe Model Colony area.Television footage showed res-cue crews combing throughdebris strewn across the streetsof the district — 3 km north-east of the airport — where anumber of houses have beendestroyed.

The cause of the crash is yetto be confirmed. PIA chiefexecutive Air Vice MarshalArshad Malik said the pilot hadtold traffic control that theplane was experiencing “tech-nical difficulties”. Malik reject-ed reports that the plane hadproblems even before flying.Talking to media, he said theaircraft was completely safeand sound.

He said all checks and pro-cedures were done and “tech-nically as well as administra-tively everything was in placeand perfect”.

The plane with 99 peopleon board came for landingbut just before landing thepilot said he was going for a go-around. While coming for sec-ond landing, it developed someproblems and crashed. “Thereal cause of the mishap will beknown after inquiry, whichwill be free and fair and it willbe provided with media,” hesaid.

He said some houses weredamaged but none of them col-lapsed. There was no death onground so far. Malik said thatthe entire operation will taketwo to three days to complete.Pakistan’s Dunya News said ithad obtained a recording of theconversation, also posted onmonitoring website liveatc.Net.

In it the pilot says they have“lost two engines”. Several sec-onds later he calls “Mayday,Mayday, Mayday” and there isno further communication.

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The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has painted a dismal

picture of Indian economy onthe basis of negative growthand high inflation projection.As a remedial measure, theCentral bank cut interest rateby 40 basis points. The RBI saidthat the impact of Covid-19 ismore severe than anticipatedand the GDP growth during2020-21 is likely to remain inthe negative territory.

The central bankannounced a further three-

month extension on moratori-um on term loans, defermentof interest on working capital,easing of working capitalfinancing requirements byreducing margins, exemptionfrom being classified as default-er, extension of timeline for

stressed assets, and asset clas-sification standstill.

The extension on morato-rium on term loans led to asharp sell off in banking stocksamid fear that the bank willhave to prepare them for size-able write off in the comingmonths.

After opening nearly 300points higher, the 30-shareindex gave up all the gains toturn negative shortly after thepolicy announcement by theRBI. After gyrating 770 pointsduring the day, the 30-shareSensex ended 433.56 points or1.14 per cent lower at37,673.31. It hit an intra-daylow of 37,633.36 and a high of38,403.54.

The broader NSE Niftyplunged 139.25 points or 1.23per cent to close at 11,174.75.

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With over 6,000 cases and123 deaths for the second

consecutive day, coronaviruscases in India has gone past1,24,000 with 3,707 casualties.

Maharashtra recorded amassive 2,940 fresh cases insingle day with 53 deaths whileTamil Nadu and Delhi regis-tered record number of Covid-19 cases on Friday.

With 14 fatalities and 220fresh cases reported on Friday,the death toll due to Covid-19rose to 152 in Uttar Pradesh,while the number

of cases climbed to 5,735, offi-cials said.

According to the Ministryof Health and Family Welfare,around 80 per cent cases arereported from five States:Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,Gujarat, Delhi and Rajasthanwhile over 70 per cent casesreported from cities likeMumbai, Delhi, Chennai,Ahmedabad, Pune, Indore,Kolkata, Hyderabad,Aurangabad and Thane.

At least 51,307 coronaviruspatients have recovered so far.With total cases of 44,582,Maharashtra remains on thetop in the list.

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Shops in Southeast Delhi’sShaheen Bagh, which were

closed for five months first dueto anti-Citizen AmendmentAct (CAA) protest and then thecoronavirus lockdown, openedon Friday, the last Friday ofRamzan.

The move comes after theDelhi Government lifted somecurbs during lockdown 4.0and allowed shops to functionin non-red zone areas.However, despite the festival ofEid being just round the corner,the market did not witnessmuch footfall mainly becauseof fear of the virus.

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To make most of healthcarefacilities in charitable and

private hospitals to deal withthe coronavirus situation, theMaharashtra Government hasvirtually acquired 80 per centof non-isolation beds in thesehospitals across the State.

Invoking the provisions ofthe Epidemic Diseases Act,1897, Disaster ManagementAct, 2005, MaharashtraNursing Homes Act and otherrelevant acts, the Healthdepartment in an order issuedlate on Thursday night said theproviders would make allattempts to increase their bedcapacity relating to both isola-tion and non-isolation beds.

“That means 80 per cent ofthe isolation beds availablewith any healthcare providerunder this notification shouldbe regulated by theGovernment, district collec-tors and MunicipalCommissioners and also 80per cent of non-isolation beds.The providers may charge theirrack charges to the remaining20 per cent beds,” it said.

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Aday after legislators’ com-plained to the Assembly

Speaker Gian Chand Guptathat Government officers didnot pick up their phone calls,Haryana Home and HealthMinister Anil Vij on Friday saidthat the Government officerswill have to listen to the MLAs.

A legislator is above theState Chief Secretary in proto-col and it should be conveyedto all the Government officers,he added.

Vij also admitted that offi-cials do notcome to them e e t i n g scalled by theM L A s .While sup-porting thelegislatorson thisissue, he said that this issue wasalso raised by the legislatorsearlier during previous Stategovernments. The Governmentauthorities should hear them aslegislators are the representativeof the people and they have theright to put the issues of thepeople before the governmentofficers, he said.

Vij said, “If any MLAsbring this issue before the StateChief Minister Manohar LalKhattar then action would def-initely be taken against theguilty officers.”

Rejecting some Congressleaders’ view of bringing a billover this issue in the upcomingAssembly session, the HomeMinister said, “There is no needto being such a bill. I assure thatlegislators will get due respect.”

Haryana Speaker onThursday and Friday called ameeting of State MLAs throughvideo conferencing and legis-lators raised the issue of notattending their phone calls byGovernment officers in themeeting. On this, Speakerasked legislators to submit awritten complaint against suchGovernment officers, at hisoffice. Such complaints wouldbe brought before PrivilegeCommittee. As per PrivilegeCommittee’s decision, actionwill be taken against such offi-cers, he assured.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday praised

Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee for trying hard to fightoff the disastrous impact ofsuper cyclone Amphan at atime when the State, much likethe entire country, was suffer-ing from the impact of thecorona pandemic.

The Prime Minister whojointly conducted an aerial sur-vey of the South Bengal districtsof North and South 24 Parganas— to weigh up the extent ofdevastation left behind by thesevere cyclone — along with theChief Minister and StateGovernor Jagdeep Dhankharlater said after an administra-tive meeting that the UnionGovernment would for thetime being make an advanceassistance of �1,000 crore forimmediate relief works.

Meanwhile, Prime MinisterModi on Friday eveningannounced an advance finan-cial assistance of �500 crore forOdisha after an aerial survey ofareas hit by cyclone Amphanand holding a review meetingwith Governor Ganeshi Laland Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik.

Modi, accompanied by theOdisha Chief Minister, took theaerial tour of cyclone-hit dis-tricts such as Jagatsinghpur,Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore,Jajpur and Mayurbhanj forabout 90 minutes.

“For the immediate need,the Government of Indiaannounces Rs 500 crore forOdisha, as a measure in

advance. The Centre will fur-ther help the Odisha govern-ment and make rest of thearrangements to come out ofthis crisis, after the completesurvey and the formation of arehabilitation plan,” PrimeMinister Modi said.

The cyclone caused large-scale damage to infrastruc-ture, public and private prop-erty in North and South 24Parganas, East and WestMidnapore, Kolkata, Howrahand Hooghly districts.

“The Bengal Governmenttogether with the Central agen-cies has done a good job underthe leadership of MamataBanerjee to fight the crisis inthe wake of cyclone Amphan,”the Prime Minister saidannouncing “an advance inter-im assistance of Rs 1,000 crorefor the State.”

Reminding that “the‘mantras’ of fighting coronaand fighting a cyclone aremutually contradictory to theextent that to fight the pan-demic one has to stay indoorsand maintain social distancingwhile to evade the impact ofcyclone people have to moveout immediately to the saferplaces,” --- which made tack-ling the two crisis all the moredifficult --- the Prime Ministersaid that the “Centre will workshoulder-to-shoulder with theState Government for its recon-struction…”

“We will stand by the StateGovernment and help it with-in all the prescribed norms…In this time of distress anddespair the entire the entirecountry is with the people of

Bengal,” he said.A “detailed survey will be

conducted of the damage toagriculture, power and othersectors besides damage to thehouses,” he said announcing Rs2 lakh for the next of the kin ofthose who have died in thecyclone and Rs 50,000 for thoseinjured.

Congress leader of LokSabha Adhir Chowdhury, how-ever, wondered whether “apeanut of an amount of Rs1,000 will be able to take careof such large-scale destructionas this. They will need thou-sands of crores to rebuildBengal and the Centre shouldthink in that direction. Rs1,000 crore is nothing.”

Mamata who was withModi during the one hourchopper ride later said “we sawlarge parts Namkhana,Kakdweep, Hingalganj,Basirhat and other areas. Thereis nothing left in these areas.The damage has been so exten-sive. In such circumstanceswhen he (Prime Minister) hasseen things for himself I willnot make any demand. RatherI will ask them to send theassistance --- whatever theydecide to send --- immediate-ly because we will have to startreconstruction work immedi-ately. We have to reconstructtens of embankments whichhave been washed away … asthese are coastal areas water isgushing in and villages havegone under water…”

Her claim to declare thecalamity as a national disasterfound support for the opposi-tion with the 22 outfits extend-

ing sympathy with the Stateurge the Centre to “immedi-ately declare this as a nationalcalamity and substantially helpthe states in facing the impactof this disaster.”

Union Minister BabulSupriyo along with his minis-terial colleagues DebashreeChowdhury, DharmendraPradhan and PC Sarangi tooconducted an aerial survey ofthe area in a separate chopper.

Meanwhile upward revis-ing the death toll sources atState Secretariat Nabanna saidthat 86 people had perished inthe cyclone adding the numbercould further go up in subse-quent days. Out of these 19people have died in Kolkata.Among the dead included vic-tims of wall collapse, electro-cution, tree fall, drowning,snake bite, and even panicheart attack sources said.

In Kolkata alone more than5,500 mammoth trees wereuprooted and most of themwere still lying on the roadsblocking major city thorough-fares and blocking the traffic.About 36 lakh people had beendirectly affected by the cyclone.Another 65 lakh could havebeen indirectly affected by thecyclone sources said quotingpreliminary findings sources.About 3.5 lakh houses have col-lapsed sources added.

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Asnow leopard cub whichwas rescued from a village

in Spiti valley earlier this monthand released back into the wildon May 18 evening, mighthave receded deep into its wildhabitat. It also might possiblybe reunited with its mother.

Dr Savita, IFS Pr CCF(WL) cum chief Wild LifeWarden, Himachal Pradesh onFriday said that till May 21, noreport of cub straying intohuman habitation has beenreported and it is presumedthat the animal receded deepinto its wild habitat which is

good for everyone.The chief wildlife warden

said that a snow leopard cub,aged about six months, that gottrapped in a corral of village Giu,Kaza, was captured on May 2. Itwas found to be injured anddehydrated and was brought tothe nearest wildlife QuarantineCentre of Himalayan NaturePark, Kufri for necessary treat-ment. During its quarantine,extreme care was taken lest theanimal develops any kind ofhuman imprinting. After diligentcare the animal was found to behealthy for its release back intothe wild.

She said that a team com-prising of DFO (WL), Shimla,Veterinary Officer, VeterinaryPharmacist and other Forestofficials transported the animalto the location in the vicinity ofits capture on May 17. Keepingin mind the vulnerability of thespecies, due care was taken tocomplete the journey only dur-ing the cool hours of the day.The animal was medicallyobserved at intervals of twohours throughout the journeyand was adequately fed,watered and rested intermit-tently.

Dr Savita said that anoth-er team headed by DFO (Spiti)at Kaza, other forest officialsand representatives of NCF, inthe meanwhile had located a

female snow leopard, probablycub’s mother, nearby Giu vil-lage. The team kept close tabson the movement of the animal.

A strong liaisioning betweenthe two teams was developedand a strategy was formulated torelease this cub in its habitat itselfnear to the place from where itwas captured. The cub was keptat this location for a short peri-od and the team set up a campat a short distance from theplace. Entire area was coveredthrough camera-trap surveil-lance and the animal was final-ly released on May 18 eveningin accordance with the Rescueand Release Guidelines (2010) ofHimachal Pradesh Governmentand relevant sections of WildLife (Protection) Act, 1972.

The chief wildlife wardensaid that a team of forest offi-cials along with members ofNCF and local community hasbeen deputed to observe andscan entire area for the next fewdays to keep a vigil for itsmovement around the area toprevent any untoward inci-dence. Till May 21 morning, noreport of cub straying intohuman habitation has beenreported and it is grossly pre-sumed that the animal reced-ed deep into its wild habitatwhich is good for everyone, sheadded.

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Himachal Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur on Friday

directed the officers to provideall protective equipments to thedoctors, paramedical staff,police personnel and other staffdealing with the persons arriv-ing in the State by trains fromvarious parts of the country.

Presiding over a video con-ference with the DeputyC o m m i s s i o n e r s ,Superintendent of Police andChief Medical Officers of theState from Shimla,he said bet-ter facilities must be providedin quarantine centres so thatpeople staying there do not faceany inconvenience.

He said that aged peopleand chronic patients should beprovided all the required healthcare facilities and if requiredthey should be shifted to healthinstitutions, adding that prop-er facilities such as separatewash room facilities must beensured in these institutions.

Thakur said over 1.30 lakhHimachalis stranded in variousparts of the country havereached the State from 25thApril till now. He said thatabout 81000 have been keptunder home quarantine andover 6500 have been kept underinstitutional quarantine. Hesaid the remaining have com-pleted their quarantine period,adding that people of the Stateneed not to worry about thearrival of the Himachalisstranded in various parts of thecountry as the StateGovernment was ensuring thatnobody would be allowed to gohome without proper check upand medical test.

The Chief Minister alsodirected the DeputyCommissioners to create addi-tional facilities for institution-al quarantine in their respectivedistricts keeping in view largenumber of people still expect-ed to reach the State in comingdays. He said that the StateGovernment had also madeelaborate arrangements of PPEkits and other materials forsafety of the corona warriors.He said that since all the peo-ple coming from other parts ofthe country would have to bekept in institutional quarantinetill they are not tested forCOVID and this would beadditional burden on the quar-antine centers.

Thakur said complete datashould also be compiled ofHimachalis visiting from otherparts of the country.

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Around 10000 migrantworkers are scheduled to

go back to their home statesfrom Chandigarh during nextone week.

A special shramik traincarrying 1237 passengersdeparted from ChandigarhRailway Station on Friday forMotihari in Bihar while sevenmore trains are scheduled torun from Chandigarh till May30 to take the migrant workersto their home state.

As on May 22, a total of24334 migrant workers havereturned to their home statesfrom special shramik trainswhile 1977 stranded personshave returned to their home-towns by buses fromChandigarh. The first shramiktrain from Chandigarh ran onMay 10 for Gonda in UttarPradesh

“A total of about 3500 per-sons were contacted on theirphone for the train to Motihariand 1549 persons gave theirconsent but finally 1237 per-sons turned up at the HoldingCentre in CCET, Sector 26 onFriday. Though capacity of thetrain was 1600 but due to poorresponse from the migrantlabours who registered formoving out from Chandigarh,it went with lesser capacity,”said Yashpal Garg, SecretarySocial Welfare, who is theincharge of the entire processin UT Chandigarh.

Giving details of trainscheduled till May 30, he saidthat a train is scheduled to leavefor Gaya (Bihar) and Dhanbad(Jharkhand) on May 23, Hardoiin Uttar Pradesh on May 24,Lucknow in UP on May 26,Sultanpur in UP on May 27,Madhapura in Bihar on May 28

(on route Ara, Danapur,Khagaria), Jounpur in UttarPradesh on May 29 and Chapra(Saran) in Bihar with stoppageat Siwan on May 30.

For the train scheduled toleave for Bihar on Saturday, atotal of 3403 persons havebeen contacted and out ofthem total 1602 have giventheir consent for taking thetrain, he said.

“The stranded personswere allowed to register formovement either throughhelpline or website of theChandigarh Administrationupto May 13. One day beforethe scheduled departure of thetrain, telephone calls are madeto registered persons askingthem to reach the holding cen-tre for medical screening andthereafter journey through spe-cial train. It has been observedthat after opening of industri-al and commercial units, aconsiderable number ofmigrant labour is not interest-ed to move out,” Garg added.

Garg also said that a totalof 14 migrant labours of Sikkimwere also sent through a spe-cial shramik Train. TheChandigarh Administrationalso co-ordinated journey of239 migrant Labours of Sikkimfrom other states like Punjab,Himachal and Uttarakhand bythe same shramik train des-tined to New Jalpaigudi Station.All these 253 persons will reachSikkim by buses from NewJalpaigudi Railway Station, hesaid.

A day before, a total of 138migrant labours ofChhattisgarh were sent toDehradun by special buses.From Dehradun their journeyhas been arranged through ashramik train to Chhattisgarhscheduled for May 22.

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Chandigarh: To further boostinvestment promotion andmanagement strategies to drivemore investments in the State,Punjab Bureau of InvestmentPromotion (PBIP) andSingapore-based ChandlerInstitute of Governance (CIG)on Friday signed a collabora-tion agreement through videoconferencing. The agreementwas signed between the PBIPCEO Rajat Agarwal and CIGExecutive Director Wu WeiNeng on behalf of PunjabGovernment and CIG respec-tively. Spokesperson said thatunder this, PBIP and CIGwould focus on areas includingresearch support, enhancingprocesses of investor outreach,investment facilitation and reg-ulatory approval. PNS

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar on

Friday directed the DistrictFood and Supplies Controller(DFSCs) to expedite theprocess of distribution ofDistress Ration Token (DRT)to the remaining eligible ben-eficiaries and ensure that theyget the free ration from the FairPrices Shops without any has-sle.

At present, 4,86,124 DRTshave so far been distributedand 12,90,847 persons havebeen benefitted by this schemein the State.

Presiding over a meeting ofthe Food, Civil Supplies andConsumer Affairs Departmentthrough video Conferencinghere, in which Deputy ChiefMinister, Dushyant Chautalawho also holds the portfolio ofFood, Civil Supplies andConsumer Affairs Departmentalso attended through videoconferencing. Khattar said thatthough the entitled ration cardholders in the State are gettingdouble ration for the month ofApril, May and June, there aremany migrant families who donot have ration cards.

To ensure that such fami-lies do not get deprived of food,as committed by him, the StateGovernment has made anarrangement of providing them

ration through DRTs.Khattar said that first for

the first time local Committeeshave been formed to distributeDRTs the eligible beneficiaries.He said that the scheme is nowa part of the Atma NirbharBharat Scheme of theGovernment of India. Whiledirecting the DFSCs to bemore sensitive towards thepoor people while issuingDRTs, he said that Haryana hasbeen in the forefront among all

states of the country in takingvarious measures to provideimmediate relief to the affect-ed people during the Covid-19crisis.

The chief minister said asadequate stock of ration hasbeen made available at theration depots, the DFSCswould ensure that who-so-ever visit the ration depot withthe DRTs get ration withoutany inconvenience. The ChiefMinister said that he hasalready committed that nopoor in the State would sleephungry.

Those present in the meet-ing include, Chief SecretaryKeshni Anand Arora,Additional Chief SecretaryFood, Civil Supplies ConsumerAffairs Department, P.K. Das,Additional Principal Secretaryto Chief Minister, V.Umashankar and Director,Food, Civil Supplies andConsumer Affairs, ChanderShekhar Khare.

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Condemning the CentralGovernment’s “arbitrary”

decision to delink the arhtiyas’(commission agents) commis-sion from Minimum SupportPrice (MSP), Punjab Food andCivil Supplies and ConsumerAffairs Minister BharatBhushan Ashu on Friday saidthat this “unfair practice” willcreate hindrances in ongoingsmooth procurement processin the entire country.

Taking up the matterstrongly with the UnionGovernment to pull back thisdecision, Ashu said that atpresent, two and half percentcommission is paid for servicesrendered in connection withsale and purchase of agricultureproduce under Rule of PunjabAgriculture Produce Markets(General) Rules, 1962.

“The arhtiyas’ commissionin Punjab is part of statutorycharges, so it cannot bedelinked from MSP till the pro-visions under Rules are amend-ed by the legislature. Decisionin this regard is arbitrary forwant of recommendations ofCommittees of Arthiyas andLabour Charges of FoodCorporation of India (FCI).Meeting could not be con-vened by the FCI to decide the

State-wise rate due to Covid-19pandemic leading to completelockdown or curfew as such inthe present circumstances,” hepointed in his letter to theUnion Food Minister.

Ashu, in the letter, said:“You are aware, State is alreadypassing through financial con-straints due to Covid-19 pan-demic and the same is the casewith arthiyas. They have maderemarkable efforts in ensuringhassle-free procurementdespite constraints during cur-few. They also followed healthprotocols about sanitization ofmandis and labourers andspent massive amount for thispurpose. Due to their effortsongoing procurement processis running smoothly.”

Decision in this regardshould be revoked consideringthe previous practices as the sit-uation demands more incen-tives to all stakeholders becausethe state of lockdown or curfewcreates difficulties for them, hepointed

Meanwhile, the ArhtiyasAssociation president VijayKalra also met the CabinetMinister and raised the issue.He demanded that this issueshould be taken up with theCentre and Union FoodMinistry and interests ofarhtiyas should be secured.

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An Air India special flightfrom New York carrying

100 passengers, including 60residents of Punjab, landed atthe Chandigarh internationalairport Friday afternoon. TheAir India f light AI-0102reached Chandigarh via Delhi.

The flight carried 60 resi-dents of Punjab, 12 residents ofHaryana, 16 of HimachalPradesh, 10 of Chandigarh andtwo of Uttarakhand. No pas-senger was found to be havingany symptoms of the disease.

All the returnees will reachtheir destinations under thesupervision of the respectivestate government representa-tives, who had set up help desksat the airport, and will bequarantined for 14 days, theofficials said.

As soon as they landedhere, the passengers were thor-oughly examined by govern-

ment doctors. The Indianswere brought home under theCentre's Vande Bharat mis-sion.

Mohali Civil Surgeon DrManjit Singh who led theexamination teams, said nopassenger was suffering fromfever, cough, cold etc and allwere asymptomatic for

Coronavirus. He said the pas-sengers included five fromMohali district while 64 fromvarious parts of Punjab and therest were from HimachalPradesh and Chandigarh.

The medical team exam-ined the passengers with anon-contact infrared ther-mometer.

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The total number of activeCovid-19 cases in Haryana

is 345 while the numberpatients who have been dis-charged are 706, officials saidon Friday.

While Haryana reported 35new cases of corona virus onFriday, taking the State's casetally to 1067, a total of 25patients recovered from varioushospitals in the last 24 hours.

The State has a recoveryrate of 66.17 per cent, fatalityrate at 1.50 per cent while testsper million being conducted are3,594.

The doubling rate in theState is 17 days, officials said.

While Gurugram has 250cases, Faridabad 185, Sonipat151 and Jhajjar has reported 91Covid-19 infections, making ita total of 677 cases in these fourdistricts which fall in theNational Capital Region. As perthe bulletin, 16 deaths havebeen reported so far in theState.

Yamunanagar is coronafree district of the State as eightpersons tested positive forCovid-19 have been dischargedfrom the hospitals, as per thestate health bulletin.

According to the State gov-ernment’s health bulletin, 38fresh cases were reported fromGurugram, Faridabad, Sonepat,

Kurukshetra, Panipat,Panchkula, Jind, Karnal,Rohtak and Mahendragarh.

Gurugram reported 11new cases of the deadly disease,taking the total in the districtto 250. Faridabad reportedfour new case of the deadly dis-ease, taking the total in the dis-trict to 185.

Sonepat reported one morecorona virus case, taking totalto 150. Karnal reported twomore cases, taking the tally to23. Sirsa which was corona freea day ago reported one morecase, taking total to nine.Rohtak reported one morecase, taking count to 15. 10more cases have been report-ed in Mahendragarh, takingtotal to 21.

Two more cases reportedin Rewari, talking total to 11.Five more cases have beenreported in Kurukshetra, tak-ing total to 14.

As many as 25 patientswalked out of hospital from dif-ferent districts of the State onFriday. So far, 706 patientshave been cured and dis-charged from hospitals inHaryana, including the 14Italian nationals.

According to officials, atotal of 25 Covid patients weredischarged from various dis-tricts including 14 inFaridabad, four in Sonepat,five in Jhajjar and one inPanipat.

3-FOLD INCREASE INCOVID-19 CASES THISMONTH

Haryana has recorded athree-fold increase in coronavirus cases this month, major-ity of them being reportedfrom four districts falling in theNational Capital Region.

The cases have jumpedfrom 339 as on April 30 to1,067 on May 22.

The corona virus cases inGurgaon, Faridabad, Sonipatand Jhajjar, which fall in theNCR, jumped from 54, 53, 25and 24, respectively, as onApril 30 to 250, 185, 151 and 91by May 22, according to dataput out by the state healthdepartment in its daily bul-letins.

Twelve of the 16 Covid-19deaths which the state hasreported so far took place dur-ing the month of May.

On May 4, Haryana hadrecorded the highest single-dayjump in corona virus caseswhen 75 infections werereported and a day earlier thestate had reported 66 infec-tions, most of these from theNCR districts.

The number of active casesin the state has gone up from100 on April 30 to 345 on May22.

Commenting on the spurtin Covid-19 cases in the NCR,Health Minister Anil Vij saidthe people living in districts

which are closer to Delhi havealso been affected. There are atotal of 12,319 corona viruscases in the national capital,according to authorities.

Haryana has maintainedthat several cases reportedfrom Sonipat, Jhajjar, Gurgaon,Faridabad and even Panipathave their origins in infec-tions emanating from thenational capital, followingwhich authorities had put strictregulation on borders with

Delhi to check the spread ofinfection.

Though, the essential ser-vices and movement of doctors,paramedical staff and some oth-ers as per orders of the DelhiHigh Court have been allowed.

"We had to put strict reg-ulations on our borders withDelhi to check the spread ofinfection. We have nothingagainst the people of Delhi, butwe have to protect our ownpeople too," Vij said.

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The shortage of personalprotective equipment

(PPE) kits may be throwingdoctors out of gear in Punjaband the rest of the country, butnearly 15 out of 58 firms, diag-nosed with the capabilities ofproducing the much-neededprotective gear worn by healthand sanitation professionals tominimize exposure to thedeadly infection, have receivedthe orders.

The state’s remaining threedozens of manufacturing units,whose samples have beenapproved and certified bySouth India Textile ResearchAssociation (SITRA)/DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganization (DRDO) to makePPE bodysuit and coveralls, are,as of now, have no orders inhand.

Amidst the current situa-tion, the State has alreadyrequested other states to orderPPEs from Punjab. On Friday,the state Industries MinisterSunder Sham Arora has urgedthe Union Minister ofCommerce and IndustryPiyush Goyal to consider allow-ing exports of PPEs to othercountries in need “to utilizePunjab capacity in manufac-turing of PPEs to fullest”.

The letter to the Union

Minister came a day after Arorahad shot of separate letters tothe Chief Ministers of all oth-ers states requesting them todirect their respective HealthDepartments to order PPEsfrom Punjab’s units wheneverneeded at the HLL (HLLLifecare Limited) rates.

In an apparent attempt toturn the Covid-19 challengeinto an opportunity, the stateIndustries Department hadmade persistent efforts to per-suade several textile and tech-nical textile manufacturingunits to manufacture life sav-ing PPEs, N-95 and N-99masks. Maximum of 54 units inthe state’s industrial town,Ludhiana, has received the goahead.

Notably, Punjab is a textilehub with 14 percent of the totalcotton yarn in India beingproduced in the State. Besides,Punjab is the largest producer

of blended yarn and is rankedfourth in the country in spin-ning capacity with Ludhianabeing the biggest manufactur-ing cluster for textiles in NorthIndia.

The textile industryaccounts for about 19 percentof the total industrial produc-tion of the State and con-tributes about 38 percent of thetotal exports from the State toUSA, United Arab Emirates(UAE), Iran, Bangladesh, andSaudi Arabia.

Arora, in his letter to theUnion Minister on Friday,highlighted stupendous roleplayed by state industry incoming forward and manufac-turing PPEs considered mostvital in fight against deadlyvirus in bulk, and are now in aposition to export these qual-ity products to foreign coun-tries on order.

The Minister pointed outthat 58 PPE suit manufacturersin Punjab have obtained certi-fication from SITRO/DRDO,and are ready to start process-ing orders.

“In view of the capacity ofabove mentioned manufactur-ers to produce PPE suits andquality of the products, I shallbe grateful if you kindly con-sider allowing export of PPEsuits from India,” the Ministerwrote.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on Friday

announced a slew of relief mea-sures for the beleaguered realestate sector amid the unprece-dented Covid-19 situation,including six-month extensionin permissible period of con-struction of plots or projects forall allottees, whether private orallotted by state urban authori-ties, either through auction ordraw of lots.

The stimulus packageannounced by the ChiefMinister, applicable to bothallottees and developers, isaimed at providing them withimmediate relief, while arrestingthe slowdown in housing sector.

The relief measures areapplicable to all the UrbanDevelopment Authorities of thestate, and shall be restricted toamount due from April 1, 2020to September 30, 2020.

“Notwithstanding hugefinancial implications for theState Government, we have

decided to support the realestate sector, which has sufferedmajor disruptions due to thepandemic. Various representa-tions have been received by theGovernment on this count,” hesaid.

Referring to the financialimplications of six-month exten-sion in construction period, theChief Minister pointed out thatsince development authoritiesannually receive non-construc-tion fee of nearly �35 crore, thisparticular relaxation would leadto reduction in receipt to thetune of �17-18 crore for allauthorities put together.

In another key relief mea-sure, the Chief Ministerannounced that all urban devel-opment authorities have alsobeen directed not to chargenon-construction charges orextension fee or license renew-al fee for the period from April1 to September 30, 2020.

“This would involve a finan-cial implication of more than Rsone crore on the basis of the pastaverages. As a result of this relief,

all licenses under PAPRA andpermissions under policy ofmega projects would be extend-ed by six months without anycharge,” he added.

In another incentive, theChief Minister has allowed pay-ment of instalments (includinginterest) of all auctioned prop-erties due between April 1,2020, to September 30, 2020,along with balance instalments,as equated instalments atscheme rate of interest. Nointerest shall be charged on theInstalment due between April 1,2020, and September 30, 2020,and thereafter, scheme interestwill be charged on the amountdue.

This particular relief canalso be availed for post-datedcheques of amounts depositedagainst external developmentcharges, license fee or socialinfrastructure fund etc, underamnesty policy of November 28,2019, payable up to September15, 2020, (including those whichwere due on March 31, 2020).

To promote the concept of

green buildings, the ChiefMinister also approved increasein incentive in terms of addi-tional FAR of five percent forbronze and silver, 7.5 percent forgold and 10 percent for platinumcertification by Griha and Leeds,free of charge.

Capt Amarinder also gaveconcurrence to the proposalmooted by Greater MohaliArea Development Authority(GMADA) to allow phasing inpayment of ExternalDevelopment Charges (EDC)as per release of layout plans.However, rate of EDC payableshall be applicable at the timeof approval of layout plans.

“Given the criticality andurgency of the situation, theChief Minister, as chairman ofthe Development Authorities,has decided to announce imme-diate relief measures for sixmonths, thus giving time toauthorities to come out withcomprehensive long-term pack-age,” said the official spokesper-son.

Spokesperson added that

post-facto approval of all thedecisions announced by theChief Minister would be takenby the concerned authorities atthe earliest.

These urgent relief mea-sures are in addition to certainincentives decided by theHousing and UrbanDevelopment Ministry, includ-ing extension by six months inthe moratorium in payment ofinstalments in case of auctionedproperties, said an officialspokesperson.

The Ministry has also decid-ed that share of ownership canbe transferred by UrbanDevelopment Authorities incase of auctioned sites on pro-portionate payment plus 15 per-cent, subject to minimum trans-fer of ownership of 20 percent atone instance.

Permission to sell specific,built-up area marked on the lay-out plan can be given to devel-opers thereafter, in the same pro-portion subject to havingobtained the occupation certifi-cate for such units.

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Punjab Cabinet Minister forMedical Research and

Education OP Soni on Fridayinaugurated country’s firststate-of-the-art corona testingTB Liquid Culture and DSTBiology Lab at Guru GobindSingh Medical College,Faridkot.

Soni said that the PunjabGovernment was workingextensively to prevent thespread of corona epidemic andaccelerate sapling, testing, andtreatment of patients.

The state-of-the-art labshave been set up at GuruGobind Singh Medical College,Faridkot, Government MedicalCollege, Patiala and Amritsarto enhance the testing capaci-ty of corona patients in theState.

In these labs, Covid -19 istested with hi-tech machinesand advanced techniqueswhereby staff working in theselabs is safe and is at no risk ofcontracting the disease.

“With the setting up ofthese labs, daily corona testingcapacity in the State wouldreach 9,000. One lab wouldhave 3,000 tests. Earlier, 1500tests were done in a day. NowPunjab would become the lead-ing state in the country interms of testing,” he said.

Earlier, samples for coronatest had to be sent to Pune lab-oratory and it would take morethan 14 days for their report tobe received, said Soni addingthat the report would now bereceived on the same day withthe setting up of these labs.

CONG MP TEWARI MEETSDC TO GET INSIGHT INTOMOHALI’S JOURNEYFROM 102 TO ZERO

“Beating Corona Virus

from a century to naught is acommendable journey,” saidCongress MP from SriAnandpur Sahib ManishTewari while felicitating MohaliDeputy Commissioner GirishDayalan on steering the districttowards corona-free status.Tewari enquired about thestrategy adopted in the districtto propel out of the quagmireof Covid-19. He suggestedDayalan to share best practiceswith his counterparts in otherdistricts so that recovery rate inthe State may accelerate.

Tewari also gave Rs 25lakh to the district to carry oncombat against Covid-19 andwas informed that the amountwould be utilized for acquiringan Advanced Life Support(ALS) Ambulance for the dis-trict.

Vociferously raising theconcerns of frontline warriors,Deputy Commissioner saidthat they are feeling over-whelmed, not only are theyunder enormous strain at workbut also face the fear of bring-ing virus home to their fami-lies. Pitching the need to allytheir apprehensions, Dayalansaid that it was necessary workout a way to boost their moraleand reward their efforts for sus-tained performance in times ofcrisis.

PROVIDE COVER TOPANCHES, SARPANCHES,SAMITI MEMBERS: AAP

Expressing grave concern

over deteriorating law andorder situation in the State,Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP)Punjab unit on Friday urgedthe Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh to providesecurity cover to the electedpanches, sarpanches and sami-ti members across the State.

“Not only the public atlarge is feeling insecure, butalso the elected representa-tives of panchayats, and otherswho are facing constant threatsto their lives,” said party’s chiefspokesperson and MLA ProfBaljinder Kaur.

She said that a large num-ber of panches and sarpanch-es in the State were subjectedto live under the shadow of fearand terror, leaving them withno obvious options but toreach out to the Chief Ministerand the Leader of Opposition(LoP), raising their genuinesafety concerns.

Kaue pointed that a num-ber of gram panchayats inPatiala district, SAS Nagar(Mohali) district, among manyothers have expressed seriousconcern over brutal murder ofsarpanches in Patiala andAmritsar district and attacksorchestrated on electedPanchayat representatives dur-ing the lockdown.

CTU BUSES TO PLY INZIRAKPUR, KHARAR

Punjab Government hasgiven its nod to ply theChandigarh TransportUndertaking (CTU) buses, onits existing routes within thetwo municipal limits of Mohali— Zirakpur and Kharar.Mohali Deputy CommissionerGirish Dayalan said that thebuses for the secretariatemployees would, however, berun by the State Governmentand its undertaking.

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Punjab’s Covid-19 tally onFriday reached 2,029 with

the Railway Protection Force(RPF) jawan tested positive inLudhiana as the State record-ed just one case. Till date, thestate has reported total 39deaths.

In all, total 28 patients —including seven fromJalandhar, one from Sangrur,six from Ropar, two fromFatehgarh Sahib, four fromBathinda, and eight fromMansa — were recovered fromthe contagion and sent backhome on Friday.

With this, total 1,847 coro-navirus patients have recoveredtill date, leaving just 143 activecases across the state so far with

maximum 48 in Ludhiana outof total 172 confirmed cases, 24in Jalandhar out of 210, 16 inFaridkot out of 61 positivecases, among others.

As many five districts —Bathinda, Sangrur, Mohali,Moga, and Ferozepur — havebecome corona-free with noactive cases presently. Besides,13 other districts also have lessthan 10 active cases.

In late development,Bathinda reported a positivecase, which is yet to be addedin the official tally. The patienthad recently returned fromabroad, taking the district’stally up at 42. Notably,Bathinda has become the coro-na-free only on Friday afterfour remaining patients werecured and sent back home.

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Three Special Shramik Trains on Friday left fromHaryana for Katihar, Muzaffarpur in Bihar and

Dimapur in Nagaland. An official spokesman said that a Special Shramik

Train carrying 1600 migrant labourers from Ambalarailway station left for Katihar in Bihar, another traincarrying 1460 labourers from Bhiwani left for Katihar

in Bihar and the third train carrying 1400 migrantlaborers from Panipat left for Muzaffarpur in Bihar.

Besides this, today, 1400 migrant labourers werealso sent by Special Shramik Train to their hometownsin Dimapur, Nagaland from Gurugram. Governmentspokesperson said that water bottles, masks and san-itizers were also provided to all these migrant labor-ers along with free tickets by the concerned districtadministration, so that they do not face any problem

during the journey. Before boarding the train, health checkup was per-

formed at the railway station and social distancing oflabourers was ensured inside the train compartments. He said that after registering theirnames on the portal, the data of the migrant work-ers who are willing to return to their homes is receivedby the district administration and they are informedon the mobile phones.

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Citing various epidemicmodels, the Centre on

Friday said India has averted14-29 lakh infections and37,000-78,000 deaths byputting in place social distanc-ing and lockdown measures intime since the spread of theCovid-19.

It also asserted that currentactive Covid-19 cases (as ofMay 21 ) has been limited, con-centrated in around 80 per centin five states, over 60 per centin five cities and over 90 percent in 10 States and over 70per cent in 10 cities.

Even by a simple model, atleast 14-29 lakh coronaviruscases and between 37,000 and71,000 deaths have been avert-ed, said Praveen Srivastava, asenior officer with the Ministryof Statistics and ProgrammeImplementation (MoSPI),highlighting how India hasbeen able to contain the virusthrough early implementationof nationwide lockdown.

In a routine Press briefinghere, Srivastava said theGovernment has shared pub-licly available data with inde-pendent experts such as PHFIand BCG to model the impactof lockdown, adding that “inpandemic like this there are noparallels to compare”.

“Two independent econo-mists have estimated that wehave averted 23 lakh cases and68,000 deaths. According tosome retired scientists, about15.9 lakh cases and 51,000deaths have been avoided, myministry worked with IndianStatistical Institute and found20 lakh cases were averted,” saidSrivastava.

India on Friday reportedover 1,21,000 Covid-19 cases.India is currently in the fourthphase of the lockdown which

was imposed on March 25 tocontain the outbreak of coronavirus.

Dr VK Paul, Chairman ofEmpowered Group 1 felt thatthe growth rate of coronaviruscases has witnessed a “steadyfall” from 3 April, 2020 “whenlockdown was able to put abrake on the speed of growth”.

“The number of casestoday would have been muchhigher, had lockdown not beenimplemented. Like the numberof cases, growth rate of num-ber of Covid-19 deaths too hasfallen significantly due to lock-down, marking a notable dif-ference between pre-lockdownand post-lockdown situations,”he added.

“The doubling time hascome down from 3.5 days to13.5 days because of the lock-down. You can imagine how itwould have been if growthhad continued at 22 per cent,”he said.

Reading the number ofcoronavirus cases reported incities across the country, he saidthat the pandemic spread inIndia had been “contained incities” by the measures imple-mented by authorities.

“Current active COVID-19cases (as of 21 May) are con-centrated in a few states andcities/districts; around 80 per-cent in five states, over 60 per-cent in five cities, over 90 per-cent in 10 states and over 70percent in 10 cities,” he said.Presently, most of the cases arebeing reported fromMaharashtra, Tamil Nadu,Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan andMadhya Pradesh.

He added, “At the begin-ning of the lockdown, the dou-bling rate of the cases was .4,but today, it is doubling in 13days. (13.3).”

Covid-19 cases would havealso increased exponentially

in the absence of the lockdown,said Dr Paul.

“We need to save the coun-try from deaths due to Covid-19,” asserted Dr Paul even as he

praised Ayushman BharatPradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana, which on Thursdayreached 1 crore treatments markunder the government scheme.

Joint Secretary, Health, LavAgarwal emphasised on theimproved mortality rate. Hesaid the Covid-19 fatality ratehas dropped from 3.13 per cent

to 3.02 per cent, and the author-ities involved in tackling theviral infection are concentratingon containment measures andclinical management of cases.

He said that 3,234 patientshave recovered in the last 24hours, and 48,534 people havebeen cured so far.

“The recovery rate hasimproved to 41 per cent and thecase fatality rate has improvedto 3.02 per cent,” said Agarwal,adding the focus of the HealthMinistry is on districts whichhave reported most cases.According to the Indian Councilfor Medical Research (ICMR),27,55,714 tests for Covid-19were conducted till 1 p.m.Friday, and 1,03,829 tests weredone in the last 24 hours.

“Over 1 lakh tests forCovid-19 were done each dayin the last four days,” said anofficial from the ICMR.

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In yet another move to extenda helping hand its citizens

abroad, the Centre on Fridayrelaxed visa and travel restric-tions for certain categories ofOverseas Citizens of India(OCIs) stranded abroad andwishing to return to India.

“The Ministry has relaxedthe visa and travel restrictionsthat were imposed due to coro-navirus outbreak on certaincategory of OCI card holders.Couples will be allowed toreturn to India, in cases whereone spouse is an OCI card-holder and the other is anIndian national. But they needto have a permanent residencein India. University studentsfrom India, who are OCI card-holders and have their parentsliving in India, can also returnto India. Therefore, the travelrestrictions imposed on thesecategories of OCI cardholderswill not apply anymore,” theUnion Home Ministry stated.

University students whoare OCI cardholders (not legal-ly minors) but whose parents

are Indian citizens living inIndia can travel, the ministryspokesperson said.

MEA spokespersonAnurag Srivastava alreadyrevealed several details of phase2 of Vande Bharat mission,which is expected to continuetill June 13. “We are looking tobring back our nationals from47 countries on 162 flights. Inthis phase, we are includingplaces like Istanbul, Ho ChiMinh city, Lagos and also

increasing flights to the USAand Europe. We are also look-ing at developing Frankfurt asa hub.” he said.

The OCI card is issued topeople of Indian origin, allow-ing them visa-free travel inmost cases besides conferringcertain privileges comparableto those given to citizens,except for buying agriculturalland, voting, contesting elec-tions and working in theGovernment.

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Tomato prices in consuming cen-tres of Delhi, Bengaluru,

Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabadfell below three-year lows, in therange of Rs 4-10 per kg on Friday inthe wholesale markets due to high-er supply of the commodity amidsluggish demand and lack of smoothmovement of perishable commodi-ties in this Covid-19 crisis.

The prices had ruled at Rs 14.30per kg on May 22 last year at theAzadpur wholesale mandi in thenational Capital, while above Rs 30per kg in Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

According to data maintained bythe food ministry, “In Azadpur, thecurrent modal prices are trading nearRs 440 per quintal as compared to Rs1,258 per quintal last year.” Tomatoin the retail market is being sold atRs 10 per kg, In Delhi, the tomatocrop is coming from Haryana, UttarPradesh, Madhya Pradesh andRajasthan, it said.

In Hyderabad’s Bowenpallywholesale market, tomato priceswere ruling at around Rs 5 per kg onFriday, compared with Rs 34 per kga year ago.

Similarly, in the Bengaluruwholesale market, tomato prices

were ruling at Rs 10 per kg asagainst above Rs 30 per kg in theyear-ago period.

In tomato-producing areas also,the wholesale rates have fallen belowthree-year’s seasonal average in 40districts out of 52 tracked by the foodprocessing ministry for the purposeof extending marketing linkages.

Even in 12 clusters identified forlinking directly to markets, prices oftomatoes are ruling below three-year’s average low.

For instance in five tomato clus-ters located in the Kolar district ofKarnataka, prices declined to thelevel of Rs 3-8 per kg depending onthe quality and varieties when com-

pared with Rs 14-35 per kg in theyear-ago, the data showed. In AndhraPradesh, five clusters located inChittoor district as well as in twoclusters in Odisha showed a similardeclining trend in prices.

Andhra Pradesh and Karnatakaare the top-two major tomato-pro-ducing states in India. The combinedproduction of the two states is esti-mated at 42 lakh tonne this year.India’s annual tomato production isenough to meet the domesticdemand of about 111 lakh tonnes.

The Government has peggedtotal tomato output at 193.28 lakhtonne for 2019-20 crop year (July-June), according to the ministry’s data.

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The Supreme Court onFriday sought response

from the Centre on a pleawhich has sought a ban on theuse of video communicationsapp ‘Zoom’ for official as well as personal purposes untilan appropriate legislation is putin place.

A Bench headed by ChiefJustice SA Bobde issued noticeto the Centre on the plea whichhas raised privacy concern andclaimed that continued use ofZoom app is “making the users vulnerable and prone tocyber threats”.

The matter came up forhearing through video-con-ferencing before the Bench,also comprising Justices ASBopanna and Hrishikesh Roy,which asked the Centre to fileits reply within four weeks onthe plea which has arrayed US-based Zoom VideoCommunications as one of therespondents in the case.

The plea, filed by Delhi res-ident Harsh Chugh, has alsosought a direction to the Centreto carry out an exhaustivetechnical study into the secu-rity and privacy risks of usingZoom application.

The plea, filed throughadvocate Wajeeh Shafiq, hasalleged that continued usage ofthis app might put the nation-al security at stake and mightalso give a boom to number ofcyber-threats and cyber crimesin India.

“The global Covid-19 pan-demic has drastically reshapedthe way in which consumers,businesses and schools com-municate. Rather than lendinga hand to people in need,Zoom violates the privacy of itsmillions of users by misusing and exploitingtheir personal information andfalsely, deceptively and mis-leadingly advertising fictitious security benefits ofthe programme,” the plea hassaid.

New Delhi: In a bid to bring inuniformity in uniforms put onby its personnel, Indian Navy’sSouthern Naval Command hasasked its men to put on colour-coded masks to match withtheir uniforms. As per theinstructions issued to the per-sonnel in the Kochi-basedcommand, personnel havebeen asked to put on whitemasks with white uniformsand black or navy blue maskswith other ceremonial uni-form, Navy officials told ANI.

The Defence SecurityCorps and fire services person-nel wearing khaki uniform havebeen asked to put on Khakimasks while on duty, they said.Officials said that fines have alsobeen defined where a personnot wearing a mask would becharged Rs 200. While for thesecond time, they would becharged Rs 2,000. On the needfor wearing the colour-codedmasks, officials said this wasrequired as personnel werewearing masks of differentcolours which was not goingwell with uniforms. Agency

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As cases surge each passingday amid lockdown relax-

ation and there is a continuousexodus of inter-State migrants,the Government on Fridaywarned that the fight againstcorona is a long haul not ofweeks and months but muchbeyond. It indicated thatrestrictions on peoples’ move-ment were no longer a solutionto check virus spread given theeconomic considerations.

“Lockdown cannot go onforever, it was meant for a pur-pose which we have achieved toa very large extent. Now wehave to make things difficultfor the virus,” said Dr V K Paul,Chairman of EmpoweredGroup 1 and head of the

national task force on Covid-19management.

“Goal will be to stop thespread with minimum deaths,”said Paul who is also the mem-ber of the Niti Aayog, at a Pressbriefing here.

“Fight against Covid-19and its progress in India willdepend not just on the behav-

iour of the virus but also con-tainment measures at the gov-ernment, community and indi-vidual level,” he added.

Paul also stressed that earlydetection of cases, effectivecontact tracing and testingwould be the key to keep theCovid-19 cases and deathsunder control in the comingdays as the lockdown is nowbeing relaxed.

“We have been able tokeep the cases and mortalitiesto reasonable rates so far — sothe key is to sustain themomentum we have gained asthe lockdown measures aregradually eased,” he added.“But we have to understandthat the lockdown cannot con-tinue forever.”

He exhorted the people to

seek early treatment and helpothers to fight the disease.

“It is unethical, immoral tostigmatise the disease, pleaseensure early care seeking, hand-washing and social distancingetc. Goal is to stop the spreadwith minimum deaths,” he said.

While giving details onthe availability of beds andPPEs and ventilators besidesoxygen supply for the Covid-19patients, Dr Paul also sharedthat the manufacture of diag-nostic kits has begun. “Ourindigenous capacity will beable to manufacture five lakhkits daily in the next 6-8 weeks.The ICMR has prepared viralculture, at least five companiesand 4-6 scientists are workingat national laboratories todevelop vaccine.”

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Covid-19, which causessevere respiratory symp-

toms in a patient, may take inits grip other organs too, saida study which found that thedeadly virus can also develop an inflammatory thy-roid disease called subacutethyroiditis.

Subacute thyroiditis ischaracterised byneck pain and isusually preceded byan upper respirato-ry tract infection,the researcherswrote in a paperpublished in TheJournal of ClinicalEndocrinology andMetabolism. They pointedout that physicians should bealerted about the possibility ofthis additional clinical mani-festation related to Covid-19so that requisite treatment isinitiated in time.

The disease may becaused by a viral infection ora post-viral inflammatoryreaction, and many viruseshave been linked to the dis-ease, the researchers said.They noted that Covid-19caused by SARS-CoV-2 virushas emerged as a pandemicwith severe respiratory symp-toms, and may involve otherorgans.

“We reported the firstcase of subacute thyroiditisafter SARS-CoV-2 infection,”

said Francesco Latrofa, fromthe University Hospital ofPisa in Italy. “Physiciansshould be alerted about thepossibility of this additionalclinical manifestation relatedto Covid-19,” Latrofa said.

Other authors includedAlessandro Brancatella,Debora Ricci, Nicola Viola,Daniele Sgrò and FerruccioSantini of the UniversityHospital of Pisa.

The cliniciansexamined an 18-year-old womanwho was infectedwith Covid-19 afterbeing exposed byher father. Shecompletely recov-ered from Covid-

19, testing negative a few dayslater, but started experiencingsome additional symptoms,according to the researchers.They noted the young womanhad neck and thyroid pain,fever and an increased heartrate. She was sent back to thehospital, where she was diag-nosed with subacute thy-roiditis, according to theresearchers in the study whichwas supported by theUniversity of Pisa.

The woman had normalthyroid functioning and imag-ing just one month earlier,they said. “Because of thechronological association,SARS-CoV-2 may be consid-ered accountable for the onsetof subacute thyroiditis,”Latrofa added.

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Tamil Nadu is inchingtowards the 15,000 mark as

786 persons tested positive forcoronavirus in the State onFriday, according to the bulletinissued by the Directorate ofPublic Health and PreventiveMedicine.

The release said that therewere 14,753 persons in the Statewho have tested positive tilldate. Unofficial reports saidthat the number of covid-19patients in the State havecrossed the 15,000 mark by lateFriday evening.

Four more persons suc-cumbed to the pandemic onFriday , taking the death toll inthe State till date to 98, said theofficial bulletin. The 786 per-sons tested positive on Fridayinclude 91 who returned fromMaharashtra (66), Delhi (13),Bengal (6), Andhra Pradesh(2), Gujarat, MP, Orissa and

Telangana (one each) and onefrom Philippines.

The 67 laboratories spreadacross the State tested 12,653on Friday while the total num-ber of samples tested till datestood at 3,85, 185. The day alsosaw 846 persons cured of thepandemic getting dischargedfrom the hospitals across theState taking the number ofpatients discharged till date to7.128.

Chennai recorded 569 per-sons testing positive on Fridaywhile the total number of coro-navirus afflicted persons inthe district reaching 9,364. Outof the 98 deaths recorded in theState, 67 were from Chennai,said the bulletin.

The number of cases test-ed positive in the State hasbeen on the increase steadily

since May 19. Dr C VKrishnaswamy, eminent physi-cian, said the numbers have tobe analysed threadbare to make

any observation about theupward surge in covid cases.“We are seeing strange patternsas the modern medicine hasfound to be ineffective in con-trolling the pandemic. All Icould say is that people shouldnot panic by seeing the num-bers. The vaccine is far awayfrom becoming fruitful,” DrKrishnaswamy told ThePioneer.

Leader of Opposition M KStalin, complained to Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi onFriday that the Tamil NaduGovernment and the NarendraModi Government at Centrehave failed miserably in han-dling the pandemic in thecountry. “The Tamil NaduGovernment has been left clue-less and is groping in the darkto devise a strategy to check thespread of coronavirus,” Stalincomplained to Sonia Gandhi,who is believed to have offeredhim all help.

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As the Gods have run out ofbusiness at the time of

Covid -19 pandemic and alsobecause of the lockdownrestrictions, to tide over the cri-sis Karnataka Government hasintroduced online darshan ofgods across the State in tem-ples for the benefit of the devo-tees.

The BJP Government cap-tained by Chief Minister BSYediyurappa has decided toopen online prayers and dar-shan of gods from May 27. Thedevotees can also buyprasadam along with theertha,the holy water,to their door stepby booking online.

According to KarnatakaEndowment and Charitiesminister Kota SrinivasaPoojary the State Governmenthas come out with online poo-

jas to help both the priests anddevotes at the time of crisis.The Muzarai departmentunder his Ministry controlsover 30,000 temples acrossKarnataka. The live streamingof variety of poojas will helptemples improve their financialcondition.

According to the Ministerinitially, few major temples willgo online via Facebook andtheir respective websites. “Thedevotees can pre-book a poojaby paying a fixed amount.They can, in fact, avail 30kinds of special poojas by pay-ing money for each kind or caneven go for a bulk booking”, hesaid.

He said in the first phase,the Chamundeshwari temple inMysore, Banashankari templein Bengaluru, KukkeSubramanya in DakshinaKannada, Kollur Mukambika

in Udupi, Saundatti Yellammain Belgaum, YediyuruSiddalingeshwara in Tumkurand a few more temples will goonline. These are some of thehighest revenue earning tem-ples in Karnataka.

The BJP Government hasalready released �34 crore topay salaries of the priests atabout 30,000 state-run temples.The priests, who survive ondaily offers made by the devo-tees in cash and kind, are urg-ing the government to open thetemples at the earliest.

According to reports thestate also has over 50,000 pri-

vate temples along withGovernment run temples.Recently the priests haveappealed to the governmentasking for help as they are liv-ing in a precarious state at thetime of corona with all religiousactivities and weddings havecome to a total halt.

It is reported that thefamous Balaji temple atTirupati, in Andhra Pradesh, isstruggling to pay salaries to itsemployees and priests as it hasbeen shut for two months.This temple is the world’s rich-est Hindu temple and the sec-ond richest after the Vatican.

Many devotees say thatKarnataka being theInformation Technology state, this initiative would helpthem to offer prayers to theGod at the time of deadlyspread of Corona virus in thecountry.

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Tamil Nadu politics which has been indeep slumber since the outburst of

coronavirus pandemic has started slow-ly waking up to routine life as lockdownis slowly giving way to hustle-and-bustleof normal life.

On Friday Tamil Nadu GovernorBanwarilal Purohit promulgated an ordi-nance to temporarily take over VedaNilayam, the personal residence of late JJayalalithaa, the former Chief Minister ofthe State who breathed her last onDecember 5, 2016.

The move is part of the StateGovernment’s decision to make the res-idence of late Jayalalithaa into a memo-rial. The Government had announced itsintention to make the imposing building,which was once described as theCommand Post of national politics.

It was from here Jayalalithaaannounced her decision to support theBJP-led NDA Government in 1998 andalso declared the withdrawal of supportto the same government in 1999 result-ing in the mid-term election of

1999.Since Jayalalithaa passed away issue-

less, a legal dispute arose between Sasikalaclan, the AIADMK and Deepa (niece ofthe late Chief Minister) over the owner-ship of the building.

Jayalalithaa left no will which furthercomplicated the matter. Sasikala contin-ued to stay in Veda Nilayam till she sur-rendered before the Parappana AgraharaJail in Bangalore to serve the four-yearprison term ordered by the BangaloreSpecial Court which was upheld by theSupreme Court.

Though Sasikala’s nephew TTVDhinakaran moved into Veda Nilayamfollowing her imprisonment, theGovernment managed to ease him out ofthe bungalow.

But Deepa approached the HighCourt with claims to the ownership of thebuilding and the matter is being heard bythe court.

It is at this juncture the EdappadiPalaniswami Government announcedthe promulgation of the ordinance andtook over the bungalow with all movableproperties.

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The coronavirus curve is onthe rise in Kerala and that

too with more vigor, accordingto Pinarayi Vijayan, ChiefMinister. “For the first timesince the pandemic broke outin the State in mid-January, wesaw 42 persons testing positivefor coronavirus on a single dayon Friday. Out of this, 21 werefrom Maharashtra and 17 per-sons were those who returnedto Kerala from foreign coun-tries,” said the Chief Minister inhis media interaction on Friday.

Vijayan said though theexpatriates and persons fromother States were responsiblefor increase in the pandemic,the doors of Kerala would notbe shut at them. “We will neverrefuse entry to anybody who

are coming to the State and itis not fair to do so. Our doorswill remain open for them allthe time,” said the ChiefMinister. Kerala had claimedearlier that it had succeeded inflattening the coronavirus pan-demic.

He disclosed that a total of732 persons have been afflict-ed with the pandemic and 162persons have been hospitalizedon Friday alone. “There are 28hotspots in the State as on date.We have sent 51, 310 samplesfor test and found that 49, 535tested negative. There are 84,258 persons who are underobservation in the State,” saidthe Chief Minister.

Vijayan sounded philo-sophical while he announcedthat lockdown rules have beensimplified to facilitate people to

return to their livelihood activ-ities and not for celebration.“The infants, children and theaged have to stay indoors tillthe pandemic subsides com-pletely. This is our request tothe people in the State,” saidVijayan.

He also said that as moreand more expatriates andmigrants are returning to theState in the coming days, thedefence mechanism againstcovid-19 has to be fortified fur-ther.

“Till date, 91, 344 personsreturned to the State by air, shipand road. Out of this 157 havebeen admitted to hospital forcovid-19. The Government hasmade elaborate arrangementsto receive the persons return-ing to the State in comingweeks,” he said.

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Hauling the UddhavThackeray Government

over the coals for the secondtime in this week for “ineffec-tive handling” of coronaviruscrisis, the Opposition BJP onFriday staged “SaveMaharashtra” agitation acrossthe State against the Shiv Sena-led MVA Government for thefailing to arrest the spread ofthe Covid-19 in various partsof the state.

Three days after its dele-gation complained toMaharashtra Governor BhagatSingh Koshyari about the inepthandling of the Covid-19 situ-ation in the State by theUddhav ThackerayGovernment, the BJP leadersand workers staged “SaveMaharashtra” agitation at manyplaces across the State. Theyraised slogans like “MazaAngan, Ranagan” (My court-yard a battle field).

While former ChiefMinister and senior BJP leaderDevendra Fadnavis headed theagitation in Mumbai, State BJP

president Chandrakant Patilheaded led the agitation inKolhapur in westernMaharashtra.

Talking to media personsduring the course of the agita-tion, Fadnavis said: “At a timewhen the State is undergoing amajor cororavirus crisis, theState Government has provedto be most ineffective in deal-ing with the situation. Patientsare not getting treatment in thehospitals. Patients are forced to

run around the place lookingfor hospitals. While there areno beds in government hospi-tals, patients will have to paythrough their nose in privatehospitals”.

“At a time when Mumbai isreeling under severe coron-avirus crisis, the StateGovernment is not fully pre-pared to deal with the situation.The State Government has nottaken concrete measures todeal with the situation. While

the Governments of Gujarat,Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarhand other states have comerelief packages for their people,the MVA Government has notshelled out even one rupee asrelief to the people,” Fadnavissaid.

Fadbavis demanded thatthe state government comeout with a relief package of �50,000 crore for farmers,unorganised labourers, autor-ishaw, taxi drivers and otherneedy sections of the people inthe state.

“We did not stage the agi-tation to make the state gov-ernment unstable in the state.Raising the problems of thepeople can in no way becomepoliticisation of the situation inthe state. Things will comeunder control and the statemachinery will get into the actif the Chief Minister ( UddhavThackeray) comes out of hisresidence. It is sixty days sincethe outbreak of Covid-19 in thestate, but the state governmenthas not arrested the spread ofpandemic,” State BJP presi-dent Chandrakant Patil said.

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Taking a strong objection to a let-ter written by State Higher and

Technical Education Minister UdaySamant’s letter to the UniversityGrants Commission (UGC),Maharashtra Governor Bhagat SinghKoshyari on Friday asked ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeray to takesteps to hold final year examinationof students of universities in the State‘without any further delay in thelarger interest of students”

In a letter written to the ChiefMinister, the Governor said: “Notconducting the final year examina-tions by the Universities amounts tobreach of the UGC guidelines”.

Taking a strong objection toHigher and Technical EducationMinister Uday Samant’s letter to theUGC recommending cancellation offinal year examination of students,the Governor asked the ChiefMinister to issue suitable instruc-tions to the Minister for his ‘unwar-ranted intervention’ which accord-ing to him was in ‘violation of UGCguidelines and also the relevantprovisions of the Maharashtra PublicUniversitis Act, 2016’.

The Governor lamented t6hathe was not apprised by the Minister

in the matter before recommendingthe cancellation of final year exam-ination to the UGC.

The Governor said that as perprovisions of the relevantUniversities Act, Universities havethe power and duties to hold exam-inations and confer degrees uponsuccessful students. He noted thatit would not be ‘ethical or appro-priate’ to award degrees to final yearstudents without conducting theirexaminations, which results into vio-lation of the provisions of theUniversities’ Act.

The Governor noted that receiv-ing degrees by students withoutundertaking any kind of examina-tions would have adverse impact ontheir higher studies, gradation andthe possibility of their gettingemployment.

The Governor pointed out thatthe Ministry of Home Affairs hadgranted exemption from lockdownmeasures to the State EducationBoards / CBSE / ICSE etc to conductStandard X and XII examinations.He further noted that the UGC hadalso issued guidelines on lockdownmeasures covering importantdimensions related to examina-tions, academic calendar, etc foradoption by the Universities.

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Ahead of festival of Eid,several religious places

including mosques and shrineswore a deserted look acrossJammu & Kashmir on theoccasion of Jamat-ul-Vida- thelast Friday of the holy month ofRamzan.

In the wake of suddenspike in cases of coronavirus inKashmir valley, theGovernment has not lifted theexisting ban on religious gath-erings during festivals. Strictvigil is being maintained andlocal clerics have been roped inby the local administration toappeal to residents to stay awayfrom religious places and offerprayers inside their homes dur-ing the holy month of Ramzan.

At some places, worshiperswere seen standing outside thelocked down gates of famousshrines includingHazratbal,located on the banksof Dal Lake and Jama Masjid,in Srinagar paying obeisancebut by and large the famousshrines wore a deserted look asmass assemblies were notallowed to take place.

Meanwhile, 40 new posi-tive cases of novel coronavirus(Covid-19), 07 from Jammudivision and 33 from Kashmirdivision, were reported takingthe total number of positivecases in Jammu & Kashmir to1,489 on Friday. According tothe daily Media Bulletin onnovel coronavirus (Covid-19),out of 1,489 positive cases,749 are Active Positive, 720have recovered and 20 havedied; 02 in Jammu division and18 in Kashmir division.

Moreover, 36 more Covid-19 patients have recovered anddischarged from various hos-pitals, 01 from Jammu divisionand 35 from Kashmir Division.

The Bulletin further saidthat out of 11,4859 test resultsavailable, 11,3370 samples havebeen tested as negative till May22, 2020.

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In a major measure to make most ofhealth care facilities in charitable and pri-

vate hospitals to deal with the coronavirussituation in the State, the MaharashtraGovernment has virtually acquired 80 percent of Non-Isolation beds in these hospi-tals across the State.

Invoking the provisions of theEpidemic Diseases Act, 1897, DisasterManagement Act, 2005, MaharashtraNursing Homes Act and other relevantacts, the State Health department stated inan order issued late on Thursday night thatthe health care providers would make allattempts to increase their bed capacity –relating to both Isolation and non-isolationbeds.

“That means 80 per cent of theIsolation beds available with any health careprovider under this notification should beregulated by the State Government, districtcollectors and Municipal Commissionersand also 80 per cent of non-isolation beds.Healthcare providers may charge their rackcharges to the remaining 20 per cent beds,”the notification issued by the state gov-ernment said.

The notification covers hospitals runby charitable trusts, including leadinghospitals in Mumbai like H N Reliance,Lilavati, Breach Candy, Jaslok, BombayHospital, Bhatia, Wockhardt, Nanavati,Fortis, L H Hiranandani and P D Hindujaamong others.

The State government has taken thisdecision in view of the fact that there are

not enough Covid-19 beds in the metrop-olis.

Among other things, the StateGovernment has capped the routine wardand isolation bed rates have been cappedat �4,000. It has fixed the ICU beds rateswithout ventilators, at �7,500 per day, it hascapped the rates of an ICU bed with ven-tilator support at �9,000.

The State Government has also cappedpackage rates of nearly 270 procedures andsurgeries, including cancer treatments.

Similarly, the State Government hascapped the charges for non-Covid-19patients in private and charitable hospitals.For instance, the charges for an angiogra-phy procedure at �12,000, while the hos-pitals can charge a maximum of �1.2 lakhfor an angioplasty . Asccording to the noti-fication, normal delivery at a private hos-pital cannot charged more than �75,000while delivery through a basic caesareansection has been capped at �86,250.

The revised prices are applicable forpatients who do not have medical insur-ance and those who have exhausted theirmedical insurance cover and healthcareproviders in Mumbai, Pune, Navi Mumbai,Panvel and Thane, who have agreementswith insurance companies, cannot chargemore than the lowest bed category ratesagreed.

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Jaipur: Migrant labourersreturning to State are beingkept in mandatory quarantine.Chief Minister Ashok Gehlotwants that these labourersshould not face any problemsat the quarantine centres dur-ing their 14-day quarantine.

A State-level quarantinemanagement committee wasformed on May 13 on thedirections of Gehlot to managethe facilities at the quarantinecentres and Additional ChiefSecretary, Public WorksDepartment Veenu Gupta wasmade the head of the commit-tee.

Gupta said that all themigrant labourers returningto the State have to be in com-pulsory 14-day quarantine.

These labourers arescreened while entering intothe border of the State and if nosymptoms are found then theyare asked to remain in homequarantine. If symptoms arefound then the person is sentto the institutional quarantine.

She said that if any migrantsays that there is not muchspace in the house for homequarantine then such migrantsare sent to the institutionalquarantine. Gram PanchayatBuildings, Hostels, Schools and

other such buildings are beingused as institutional quaran-tine.

Gram Panchayat, districtadministration or philan-thropists arrange provide foodto the people at the institutionalquarantine and at many quar-antine centres in villages, themigrant gets the food fromhome.

Gupta said, “People atquarantine centres are calledrandomly to take feedbackabout the facilities provided tothem and to know their griev-ances. I am happy to say thatmore than 80% people weresatisfied at the quarantine cen-tres.”

The state-level quarantinemanagement committee chiefsaid that the state has 10,212quarantine centres. More than12.10 lakh migrants havereturned to State of whichmore than 7.43 lakh arepresently quarantined includ-ing approximately 7.08 lakh inhome quarantine and around35,000 in institutional quaran-tine.

There were 61grievanceslodged at Sampark Portal relat-ed to facilities provided atquarantine centres of whichbarring six complaints, rest allwere disposed.

Districts including Pali,Udaipur, Jalore, Nagaur andDungarpur have witnessed ahuge influx of migrants, whileJalore, Pali, Nagaur,Hanumangarh and Barmer arethe districts, where the numberof people in home quarantineis high. Similarly, number ofpeople in institutional quaran-tine is high in Nagaur,Rajsamand, Jhunjhunu,Chittorgarh and Churu dis-tricts.

She said people who are inhome quarantine are strictlymonitored and those who vio-late it are first counselled andthen sent to institutional quar-antine.

Monitoring of people inhome quarantine is donethrough Covid QuarantineAlert System (CQAS) throughDepartment of Informationand Technology (DoIT). If anyperson breaches the quaran-tine, then information isreceived on CQAS and imme-diately action is taken.

Smt Gupta informed thatmaximum breaches take placein rural areas and 390 peoplehave been shifted from homequarantine to institutionalquarantine, while legal actionhas also been taken in fewcases.

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Andhra Pradesh reported62 new cases that were

detected in the 24 hours end-ing 10 a.m., Friday. The state'stally of positive cases till datestands at 2,514, while there are728 active cases that are receiv-ing treatment in various hos-pitals.

The state nodal officerreported that 8,415 sampleswere tested during the past 24hours as against 8,092 samplesthat were tested during the pre-ceding testing cycle.

With one more deathreported from the Krishna dis-trict, the death toll in the stateclimbed to 55 on Friday morn-ing. Meanwhile, with 51 per-sons cured, the state's tally ofthe cured persons climbed to

1,731.On Friday too, a substan-

tial number of positive caseswere attributed to people witha travel history to theKoyambedu market inChennai. While Chittoor dis-trict reported 14 cases, Nellorereported four cases with trav-el histories to the Koyambedumarket, which has since beenclosed.

Andhra Pradesh has beenthe frontrunner in terms ofconducting COVID-19 tests.

As on May 22, the state hastested 2,84,119 samples, behindMaharashtra's 3,19,710, andTamil Nadu's 3,71,865.

The Andhra Pradesh aver-age of 5,321 tests conducted permillion population, ranksbelow Delhi's 7,917, andJammu & Kashmir's 7,934.

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Coronavirus continued to wreakhavoc in Maharashtra on

Friday, as 63 more persons suc-cumbed to Covid-19 and a record2,940 others tested positive for thepandemic, taking the total numberof deaths to 1517 and the totalinfected cases to 44,582.

Of the total deaths reported onFriday, Mumbai accounted for 27deaths, while there were nine deathsin Pune, eight in Jalgaon, five inSolapur, three each in Vasai-Virarand Aurangabad city, two in Satara,one each in Malegaon, Thane,Kalyan-Dombiwali, Ulhasnagar,Panvel, and Nagpur city.

With 2940 fresh positive cases,the total number of infected hasrisen to 44,582. Of the total cases,the active cases in the state are30,714.

Of the 63 deaths today, 37were men and 26 were women.Twenty eight of them aged over 60

years, 31 were from the age group40 to 59 years and 4 were agedbelow 40 years. “ Forty six of 63patients (73%) had high-risk co-morbidities such as diabetes, hyper-tension, heart disease,” a statehealth department bulletin said.

There have been as many as 498Covid-19 triggered deaths inMaharasht5ra during the last sevendays. The death tally has been as fol-lows: May 15- 49, May 16 -67, May17 -63, May 18-51, May 19 -76, May20 -65, May 21 – 64 and May 22-63.

Mumbai, which is the worstaffected city in the country, record-

ed a staggering 1751 cases onFriday, taking the total number ofinfected cases to an alarming 27251.

Mumbai's crowded Dharavislum alone continued to be a causefor serious concern, as Asia’s biggestrecorded one death and 53 newcases on Friday, taking the totalnumber of patients to 1,478, and 57deaths.

On the laboratory tests front,2,88,195 out of 3,32,777 laborato-ry samples tested negative while44,582 tested positive for COVID-19 until Friday.

There are 1949 active contain-ment zones in the state currently. Asmany as 16,154 surveillance squadsworked across the state on Fridayand surveillance of 66.32 lakh pop-ulation was done.

As many as 12,583 patientshave been discharged till date afterfull recovery. Currently, 4,69,275people are in home quarantineand 28,430 people are in institu-tional quarantine.

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Ignorance is like knowledge, it has nolimits. The colossal movement of theblue-collar migrant workers back totheir home districts has exposed ourignorance about this segment. How

could the Centre not anticipate its possibili-ty when it shut down everything on minimalnotice, drawing a lakshman rekha aroundhouses on March 25? A planned evacuation,like in the case of a natural calamity, wouldhave helped. This could have also preventedmany deaths that the migrant workers are fac-ing almost on a daily basis on the highwaysand railway tracks.

However, we choose to be wise only whentragedy strikes. After beating around the bushinitially, branding the upsurge in COVID-19cases as a conspiracy by certain ChiefMinisters or a political party, the Centre couldno longer overlook the elephant in thedrawing room. Commendably, the Ministryof Railways brought the wheels back on track.The Shramik special trains were started toferry the stranded workers back to their homedistricts. Post this, the Union Government hasbeen proactive in combating the COVID-19pandemic and providing relief materials.However, it chose to be wise only in hindsightwhen it came to migrant workers.

In a recent article, Mark Tully attributedthis crisis to the class divide. Since none of ourpolicy-makers comes from the class of themigrant workers, the mandarins of RaisinaHill could not think about their fate. Onewould like to cite another factor that can betermed as “dereliction of political duty.”Problems of the agriculture sector andfarmer suicides have rocked the Parliamentmany times. Some members have also calledfor convening a separate session to discussagrarian issues and formulating a separateagriculture Budget. It is another thing thatthose suggestions have never been pursued.

However, this writer believes that theplight of the migrant workers in urban India,a bulk of whom belong to the unorganisedsector, is actually grimmer. Agrarian suicidesconstitute seven to 12 per cent of all suicidesin the country. Year-on-year figures areavailable in Accidental Deaths and Suicidesin India, an annual publication of theNational Crime Records Bureau (Ministry ofHome Affairs). The figures are low in percent-age terms if one considers that close to halfof India’s population remains dependent onprimary sectors like agriculture and forestryamong others. The law of probability entailsthat half of the suicides in India should comefrom that sector as well. However, merciful-ly, this is not the case. Agriculture is in thegreen zone as far as suicidal deaths are con-cerned. Which sector is in the red zone then?

To cite an example, in 2018, 22.4 per centof those who committed suicide were dailywage earners; 9.8 per cent were self-employed;9.6 per cent were unemployed; and other per-sons (a grey area) were 16.2 per cent.Comparatively, 7.7 per cent of the peopleengaged in the farming sector committed sui-

cide. More people coming fromthe salaried and professionalclass (8.9 per cent) committedsuicide in 2018 in the countrythan those engaged in the farm-ing sector.

The exact situation of themigrant workers might fallthrough these statistics. However,a little application of the mind willreveal their plight. A person inthe farm sector at least lives in hisown home/native place. Amigrant worker, however, is sur-rounded by professional uncer-tainties and mental insecurities.These gnaw him to the core.

But why did the plight of thepeople in the urban unorganisedsector, many of whom aremigrant workers, never capturethe attention of the politicalclass? This is possibly becausenobody is sure where they havetheir votes. In a lecture deliveredby OP Rawat, IAS (Retd), the for-mer Chief ElectionCommissioner, at Jigyasa Forum,New Delhi, earlier this year, hehad said that nearly five crore ofthe migrant workers have neverbeen registered as voters. TheElection Commission of Indiamight have bridged that gaplately. But with a registered elec-torate of 91 crore out of India’sestimated population of 137 core,the saturation limit of above 18years voters seems to have beenreached in 2019 (discounting forsome duplication in electoralrolls, which is likely to be stream-lined in near future).

While farmers are “settled”voters, migrant workers are oftennot. While some of them remainvoters in their native place, oth-

ers change their address to theplace of usual residency. Thisoften leads political parties, bothin the home and resident State,to turn a blind eye to their con-dition. Thus, their fate is less like-ly to be discussed in the legisla-ture. It is only in the wake of thelockdown that we have beenreminded of a 40-year progres-sive piece of legislation (formu-lated by the then Janata PartyGovernment) viz, the Inter-StateMigrant Workmen (Regulationof Employment and Conditionsof Service) Act, 1979, which hasbeen more honoured in breachthan in observance.

A migrant worker doesn’thave the dignity associated witha farmer. As the share of agricul-ture contracted in the GDPbasket of India, it implied morepeople had shifted out of thatsector to become wage earners.Now, the COVID scourge hasinflicted heavy damage upon themanufacturing and service sec-tors. It is anticipated that theunemployed migrant labourpopulation will fall back uponagriculture for the time being. Asituation close to that happenedwhen following the destructionof industries, during the onset ofthe British rule, people fell backon agriculture, leading to over-crowding.

Apparently, this overcrowd-ing was never fully outlived.Nearly a century of industrialisa-tion failed to bring down India’sagricultural dependency in termsof employment substantially.Notwithstanding, the share ofagriculture has been reduceddrastically in the GDP basket.

It is a pity that States do nothave approximate figures aboutthe number of migrant workers.Since it is the fundamental rightof any citizen to move and reset-tle in any part of the country, theState is not willing to intervene,despite the 1979 law. However,during a reply to a question in theLok Sabha recently (Videunstarred question 4747 datedMarch 23), figures (as of 2016)were estimated to be over 100million (10 crore). Indian Postmoney orders booked inKarnataka (paradoxically India’sIT State) amounted to �3,259crore out of India’s total figure of�5,065 crore for the year 2018-19.The other leading States areKerala (�900 crore), Tamil Nadu(�198 crore) and Maharashtra(�185 crore), referring to a strongelement from the migrant work-er community. A recent digitalwallet ad on television (Phone Pe)chose to break away from elitismand featured a migrant worker. Itis an indication that the digitalwallet economy is now givingchallenge to “money order econ-omy” of the migrant workers.

Economies often demon-strate great resilience in the faceof tough challenges. They oftenrecover sooner than predicted byexperts. As the economy settlesdown post-COVID, there will befresh demands for migrant work-ers. It remains to be seen whetherthey retake the flight of fancyback to the same place or explorelocal options.

(The writer is an independentauthor based in New Delhi. Theviews expressed herein are his personal)

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Sir — Private school teachers areamong the worst hit due to theCOVID pandemic. Many teach-ers and lecturers in private insti-tutions are facing the repercus-sions of pending dues andsalaries. Left with no option,some have been forced to take upagricultural works in their vil-lages. Many have turned as man-ual labourers and some havebeen seeking work under theMahatma Gandhi National RuralEmployment Guarantee Schemebecause they did not get theirsalary for the last two months andthere is no certainty as to whenthey might receive their dues.

They are facing terminationthreats, too, even after providingonline classes to pupils. Someteachers, who moved to the urbanareas from the villages, do not haveration cards. This makes themineligible to receive Governmentassistance, including foodgrains.The payment of salaries, job secu-rity and addressing other problemsof private teachers and lecturersshould be a priority area for theadministration.

The Government shoulddirect private schools and other

institutions to pay salaries for theentire month. Education depart-ments of all States should do theirbest to ensure that no teacher goesunpaid.

Ravi Teja Kathuripalli Hyderabad

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Sir — The story of Jyoti Kumari,a 15-year-old native of Bihar’sDarbhanga, who travelled on abicycle carrying her wounded

father and covered more than1,200 km from Gurgaon inHaryana to her village is one ofindomitable courage and persis-tence. Cycling down more than1,200 km is not a mean job. Thisis why, impressed by her physical

endurance, the Indian CyclingFederation has decided to inviteher for trials next month. This isa life-changing opportunity forher. Jyoti has proved that talentexists in small villages. Due to alack of guidance, infrastructureand opportunity, those talentedfail to deliver. The StateGovernment must provide allsupport and help her tap talent.

MN UllahSaharanpur

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “The dragon’s grip” (May 22).When the focus of the entireworld is on trying to get rid of theCOVID pandemic, China is backto playing old games and ispreparing strategies to destabiliseIndia’s development by creatingdisturbances along the Line ofActual Control. India should beextra careful in guarding its bor-ders more than in wartime asChina is creating problems via theNepal tri-junction, too.

Manisha Via email

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The current pandemic is an unprecedentedcalamity and its economic and social pain isimmense. The worst affected are the popula-

tions who subsist on daily wage or seasonal income.Barring agriculture, which is still functional, the ruraleconomy is groaning in distress. Since the deeperbehavioural changes and social restrictions that thepandemic has imposed are expected to become —and remain — the new normal for a long time, wewill have to recalibrate our economic and social pat-terns so that the hardship of daily subsistence doesnot further compound problems created by the loom-ing health crisis.

Almost 90 per cent of the workers in India arepart of the informal economy and thrive on dailywork, with little provision for employment protec-tion. The pandemic has required governmentsaround the world to introduce social distancing andlockdowns in unprecedented ways. These measureshave impacted economies and jobs worldwide andin India, too.

One of the vulnerable communities affected bythe crisis are folk artistes/craftspersons. With incomesdrying up, daily subsistence is becoming a challengefor them. But there is also an overlooked opportu-nity in this pandemic for both the Government andthese communities. The battle against the virus isbeing fought on two fronts: Prevention and cure.While health workers are making brave efforts to han-dle the contagion, the preventive part involves deepbehavioural changes, which are more effectivelyachieved through multiple approaches of social mes-saging that can make people aware. Folkartistes/craftspersons can play an influential role indissemination of information about COVID-19 ina language that rural India understands and bringabout the desired behavioural changes in society. Folkart is the most powerful medium of communicationin the hinterland.

To adapt to the new norms of social distancing,we can have smaller troupes. Village heads havebecome highly mature in handling calamities and weknow how Self-Help Groups (SHGs) across the coun-try are responding to the pandemic creatively. Often,responses look to established or well-known systemsto relay accurate information and solutions to peo-ple. For example, trusted community leaders,artistes/craftspersons can influence the behaviour ofpeople and ensure that accurate and culturally-sen-sitive health messages are conveyed and that assis-tance reaches those who need it most.

Folk arts are built on time-honoured wisdomdocumented through centuries. Much of India’s ruraland tribal social structure is built around practicescarried forward through folk wisdom. The role of folkart in this entire ecosystem is rather important becauseit incorporates valuable lessons from folk mytholo-gy. Though many fear that the impact of COVID-19 may be the end of artistes/craftspeople, the factremains that their creativity and resilience can savethem. Several organisations and guilds led by not-for-profit Dastkar are in the forefront of efforts to keepthe morale of the artistes/craftspersons intact. Thesepeople know that while lives are important, livelihoodsare no less critical.

India’s folk artistes/craftspersons have long usedtraditional storytelling for social messaging. It is wide-ly recognised as one of the most powerful tools ofcommunication and documentation of their culture.

Many grassroots organisations have alreadylaunched several innovative campaigns bychannelising the creativity of these people.However, countrywide efforts will berequired to protect the physical and finan-cial health of these marginalised commu-nities who have no fallback in these tenu-ous times.

NGOs have already channelised thecreativity of these artistes/craftspersons ina way that ensures their financial sustenanceand also reinforces the outreach of the pub-lic education campaign about the pandem-ic and the new social norms it has imposed.The initiative has caught the attention ofthe world. Working during the lockdown,which has crossed two months, a group ofcraftspersons across India produced illus-trations and paintings in traditional stylesthat depict the behavioural practices beingadvised by health advisories.

Since March, craftspersons have pro-duced artwork underlining the importanceof social distancing, wearing face masks,washing hands with soap, other hygiene eti-quette and avoiding group travel. There arealso scenes depicting hospitals treatingCOVID-19 patients. Traditionally, manyfolk art forms in India were made on largescrolls or as murals to share informationwith the community. Artists would hold upscrolls in village squares and share messagesfor creating awareness and eliciting com-munity responses. Ambika Devi is an artistfrom Rashidpur village in Bihar. Shemakes Madhubani paintings which showpeople wearing face masks and maintain-ing social distancing in village markets.

Bhilwara in Rajasthan is considered agreat success story in reversing the tide ofinfections. It was an early hotspot before

the virus was contained through creativeapproaches. Kalyan Joshi is a Phad artistfrom Bhilwara. His paintings carry mes-sages in the local language about social dis-tancing and face masks. Joshi’s artworkshave become extremely popular with thelocal people as they relate the idea to theirown traditions. Bhilwara is a prime exam-ple of innovative strategies in promotingnew behavioural patterns.

Apindra Swain, a Patachitra artist inOdisha, was quite discouraged as he hadlost his creativity. Yet when he created a clas-sic Patachitra artwork depicting the newnormal, people were interested.

It is the responsibility of all citizens, notjust NGOs, to ensure that the creative juicesof artistes/craftspeople keep flowing, so thatthe traditions they preserve don’t die out.There are several enterprising ways inwhich we can support these people. Forinstance, community stitching of masks,table mats, garden umbrellas, lampshadesand so on can be undertaken using folk andtribal art signages. This can be donethrough prior contracts with buy-backarrangements. The sponsor organisationscan arrange for supply of raw materials andsewing machines.

Tribal tours can be organised for cityfolk and foreigners and attractive productdiscounts can be offered. This can be fac-tored into the ticket/tour cost. Instead ofbringing artistes/craftspeople to the city forthe usual folk festivals, tourists can be takento the villages, where they can perform intheir natural setting. This will give touristsa better insight into their culture and be anovel experience for them as well.

Pre-sale of products can be organisedwith prepaid tour tickets for a group of 10-

15 people as per social distancing norms. In case of musicians, drama troupes,

dancers and singers, a large village centrecan be identified and made into a sort ofkala gram (art village) and artistes can per-form there. The number of performers pergroup can be restricted for the purpose ofsocial distancing.

The Companies Act, 2013, allows forpromotion and development of tradition-al arts and handicrafts to be counted as acorporate social responsibility (CSR), giv-ing businesses an effective cause to supportfolk artistes/craftspersons. The large avail-ability of space, the presence of vast cor-puses dedicated to CSR funding and thebusiness expertise of organising events allcome together to make corporations idealpatrons of folk art in these uncertain times.We all can inspire and encourage not onlyfolk artistes/craftspersons but all individ-uals to use their creativity to adapt to thenew normal.

These are people who believe in hardwork and a life of dignity. They are the oneswho will not die of starvation but from lossof dignity. We must remember that whileCOVID-19 can be lethal, mental or finan-cial illnesses can be no less fatal.

It is too early to tell if the pandemic willproduce an artistic legacy like the greatplague of the early 20th century did, but thisvirus and its fallout have already garnereda huge response. The work produced bytoday’s craftspersons in response to theCoronavirus has been to either raisemorale or money for sustenance. It is alsoa time-honoured way of documenting ourhistory.

(The writer is a well-known development professional)

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With COVID-19 bringing theshutters down on schoolsand colleges in the country,

over one crore teachers are adaptingto new ways of instruction to ensureminimal disruptions to education.Schools are finding innovative ways toimpart lessons, right from gettingtheir teachers to use WhatsApp to cor-rect assessments, recording classes orlive-streaming lectures.

In every effort, be it home visitsto check on students, travelling milesin search of internet connectivity toaccess online training material orcontributions from retired faculty,

the teachers truly remain the frontlinewarriors of education. Yet they areundervalued and unappreciated. Thetypical job description of a teacherinvolves expectations around strongcontent knowledge, 21st-century learn-ing experiences, effective learningenvironment as well as the need to belife-long learners, growing and evolv-ing in their professions.

But beyond what meets the eye,teachers also have to be passionate andthoughtful, encouraging studentengagement. They have to be respon-sive and empathetic to the needs of stu-dents from myriad backgrounds; pro-mote collaborative learning and team-work; inculcate strong values andsocial cohesion; conduct assessmentsand continuously use insights to drive,modify and bolster instruction.Educators must collaborate and con-sistently engage with parents and thelarger community; be role models,holding themselves to the highestprofessional standards and serve asmentors, bringing out the best in eachstudent, facilitating their transition to

higher levels of education or work.While expectations are galore, teach-ers function in a system that is crip-pled with challenges, including poortraining and inadequate resources.Teachers in India are often burdenedwith administrative responsibilities— election duties, maintaining mul-tiple student rosters and so on. Teacherdistribution is also poor and conse-quently, a single teacher could beteaching students from different class-es or at various learning levels, at thesame time. Despite overarching chal-lenges and constrained work environ-ment, teachers are disproportionate-ly faulted for poor learning outcomesand painted as culprits.

As standardised tests outweigh ateacher’s personal observation of a stu-dent’s progress; as people outside ofeducation are more prized as teachersthan those who have honed the craft;as technology threatens to replaceteachers; or as policies are set withoutfactoring in the opinions of teachers,we witness a collective failure — a mas-sive undermining of the profession. It

marks a systemic failure to recogniseand value teachers as experts in thefield.

Standardised models of practiceand training, evidence-based strategiesthat advocate a one-size-fits-allapproach tend to overshadow theunimaginable unpredictability andingenuity of working with and shap-ing young individuals. What makes ateacher’s work unique is that at theheart of it is emotional labour. Itrequires establishing connections withstudents first and teaching, after. Fora teacher, the most joyous memoriesstem from seemingly little momentslike a restless child settling down in theclassroom, a slow-learner inculcatingstrong foundational skills, watchingstudents embody values of sharing andkindness, witnessing the shy studentask questions or listening to first-gen-eration school-goers teach their par-ents the alphabet. This kind of workseldom gets accurately captured in pro-ductivity or efficiency metrics.

Though the metrics can’t possiblyaccount for it all, they do offer inter-

esting insights. Today, with an increas-ing body of research, there is greaterclarity and evidence on key drivers oflearning. Teachers are paramount.No other initiative — such as reduc-ing class size, revamping curriculum,investing in technology and buildingbetter infrastructure comes close tohaving as much of an impact as a goodteacher.

Drawing from a Harvard-Columbia Study, which tracked 2.5million students over two decades, onecan safely conclude that elementaryand middle school teachers have a last-ing impact beyond academics, includ-ing greater matriculation and higheradult earnings. Even students withgood kindergarten teachers end upmaking more money in the long run.Another study from Stanford showsthat an effective teacher can raise learn-ing levels each year. These impactsattenuate over time and with 70 percent of these gains retained in the longrun, a student with a learning achieve-ment, that is one standard deviationabove average, can expect 10-15 per

cent higher earnings each year. Thereis symmetry in these estimates, too.The impact, as multiplied by thenumber of students taught, means thatthe economic value of a good teachergrows with larger classes.

While the majority of teachersmay be effective and hard-working, thesymmetry also suggests lower returnsfrom ineffective or poor-quality teach-ers. Simply put, better teachers havegreater potential.

A 2013 study estimated thatreplacing an ineffective teacher in thebottom five per cent with an averageteacher could boost one student’searnings in the US by $2,50,000.Extrapolating from this, a 2016 reportfrom Washington anticipated anincrease of more than $11 billion inearnings of students by improvingteacher quality for a million publicschool students.

Implications for policy in theIndian context are clear — there mustbe concerted efforts to recognise thevalue of teachers and improve theirquality/effectiveness. A roadmap to

improve teacher quality should includetransparent and merit-based recruit-ment policies to ensure that only themost-deserving individuals get select-ed. Training should be rigorous andcustomised, delivered to suit the needsof each teacher as opposed to cascad-ed standardised training workshops ormodules. Performance-based evalua-tion and promotion mechanisms mustbe implemented to drive better learn-ing outcomes. There must be a focuson reducing the administrative load onteachers; providing greater support andaccess to requisite resources; rational-ising the distribution of teachers, andcreating a fostering environment,which acknowledges their work andencourages professional growth.

It is time we valued teachers, per-haps as we did in the ancient days. Sowhile we “reimagine” the educationsystem post-COVID, let us begin byplacing the teacher at the centre, forevery child deserves a good educator.

(The writer is a young profession-al at the Niti Aayog. Views expressed arepersonal.)

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Moscow: Russia has reportedthe highest daily spike in coro-navirus deaths on Friday, ashealth officials registered 150deaths in the last 24 hours,bringing the country’s toll to3,249.

Russia’s comparatively lowmortality rate has raised eye-brows in the West, with somesuggesting that the country’sgovernment may be underre-porting virus-related deathsand manipulating the statistics.

Russian officials vehe-mently deny the allegationsand attribute the low numbersto the effectiveness of the mea-sures taken to curb the spreadof the outbreak. Russia’s coro-navirus caseload has exceeded326,000 on Friday, with healthofficials reporting almost 9,000new infections. AP

Islamabad: Pakistan’s coron-avirus cases on Friday crossedthe 50,000-mark after a record2,603 more patients were diag-nosed with the COVID-19 dis-ease, the health ministry said.

The deadly contagionclaimed the lives of 50 people inthe last 24 hours, taking thedeath toll to 1,067, the Ministryof National Health Services said.Out of the total 50,694 patients,Sindh reported 19,924 cases,Punjab 18,455, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 7,155, Balochistan3,074, Islamabad 1,326, Gilgit-Baltistan 602 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 158 cases.

It also reported that so far15,201 people have recovered

from the malignant virus. In thepast 24 hours, 1,064 peoplerecovered from the novel coro-navirus. The authorities alsocarried out a record 16,387 tests,taking the total number of testsso far in the country to 445,987.

A special flight of Emiratescarrying 251 strandedPakistanis arrived at IslamabadInternational Airport fromDubai after Pakistan allowedthe airline to operate specialflights.

Officials said that all thepassengers were shifted to dif-ferent quarantine centres inIslamabad for 24 hours formedical tests related to theCOVID-19. PTI

Yangon: Myanmar says it willsubmit a report due Saturdayoutlining its claims of compli-ance with an order from theInternational Court of Justice toprotect members of its MuslimRohingya ethnic minority.

The Netherlands-basedcourt in January issued an orderfor Myanmar to implement pro-visional measures for the pro-tection of the Rohingya.

The court agreed last year toconsider a case alleging thatMyanmar committed genocideagainst the group, an accusationvigorously denied by the gov-ernment. The court’s proceed-ings are likely to continue foryears. Myanmar’s military inAugust 2017 launched what itcalled a clearance campaign inRakhine state in response to an

attack by a Rohingya insurgentgroup. The campaign forcedabout 740,000 Rohingya to fleeto neighboring Bangladesh andled to accusations that securityforces committed mass rapesand killings and burned thou-sands of homes.

Chan Aye, director generalof the InternationalOrganizations and EconomicDepartment of Myanmar’sForeign Ministry, said Friday thegovernment was working on thereport, but would not discuss itscontents before submitting it.

Brigadier General Zaw MinTun, a spokesman forMyanmar’s military, said it hascomplied with governmentorders by providing “completeand necessary information” forthe report. AP

Dhaka: Bangladesh on Fridaybegan assessing the damagecaused by Cyclone Amphanthat killed at least 22 people andleft many displaced in thecountry’s coastal areas.

Cyclone ‘Amphan’, thestrongest to hit the region innearly two decades, made land-fall on Wednesday evening. Itwas the most powerful stormsince cyclone ‘Sidr’ killed near-ly 3,500 people in 2007.

The powerful cyclone hascaused Taka 11 billion ($129million) in damage to the hous-ing, infrastructure, fisheriesand livestock, water resourcesand agriculture in Bangladesh,according to initial govern-ment estimates. PTI

Beijing: China has sought thesupport and understanding ofIndia and other countries for itscontroversial decision toimpose a new national securi-ty law on Hong Kong, sayingthe new legislation is aimed atcontaining the “secessionist”forces in the former Britishcolony who have posed a “gravethreat” to the country’s nation-al security and sovereignty.

In an apparent move toblunt any international back-lash, China has sent demarch-es to India and several othercountries explaining the reasonfor the new draft legislation witha reminder that “upholdingnational security” in Hong KongSpecial Administrative Region(HKSAR) is “purely China’sinternal affair and foreign coun-try may interfere in this matter.”

China on Friday introducedthe draft of a controversialnational security law in HongKong in its parliament to tight-en Beijing’s control over theformer British colony, in whatcould be the biggest blow to theterritory’s autonomy and per-sonal freedoms since 1997 whenit came under Chinese rule.

Hong Kong is a SpecialAdministrative Region (SAR) ofChina. It has observed a “onecountry, two systems” policysince Britain returned sover-eignty to China on July 1, 1997,which has allowed it certain free-doms the rest of China does not

have. “Your country maintainsclose economic and trade coop-eration as well as people-to-peo-ple exchanges with Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s prosperityand long-term stability is in linewith the common interests ofthe whole international com-munity, including your country,as well as protection of yourcountry’s legitimate interestsin Hong Kong. We hope thatyour government will under-stand and support China’s rel-evant practices,” it said. Thedemarche said since the return

of Hong Kong to China 23 yearsago, “the Hong Kong SAR hasnot acted out its constitutionalduty for national security in linewith China’s Constitution andthe Basic Law”.

“There is a clear loopholein Hong Kong’s legal systemand an absence of a mechanismof enforcement. The oppositionin Hong Kong have long col-luded with external forces tocarry out acts of secession,subversion, infiltration anddestruction against the Chinesemainland,” it said. PTI

Johannesburg: Africa’s coron-avirus cases have surpassed1,00,000, the Africa Centers forDisease Control andPrevention said Friday, as thecontinent with many fragilehealth systems has not yetseen the high numbers of otherparts of the world.

More than 3,100 peoplehave died from COVID-19across the continent of 1.3billion people.

The African continent hasseen roughly the same numberof new cases in the past weekas the week before, AfricaCDC director JohnNkengasong said Thursday,adding that “we hope thattrend continues” instead of arapid exponential increase.

While early lockdowns in

many of Africa’s 54 countriesslowed the growth of the pan-demic, Nkengasong said “thatdoesn’t mean Africa has beenspared.” But he said health offi-cials are not seeing a lot ofcommunity deaths or “massiveflooding of our hospitals”because of COVID-19.

He said the African conti-nent needs to test about 10times the number of people ithas already tested for the coro-navirus. It should strive totest at least 1 per cent of thepopulation, or 13 million peo-ple, but so far only 1.3 millionto 1.4 million tests have beenconducted. Shortages of testingand medical equipment remaina problem.

Countries with fragilehealth systems and a recent

history of conflict like Somaliaand South Sudan remain aworry for health officials ascases rise. And in Tanzania,where the president claims thevirus has been defeated byprayer, the government hasn’tupdated its case numbers inthree weeks.

South Africa has been test-ing assertively and leads thecontinent with more than19,000 cases.

Africa’s worst-case sce-nario, according to publishedmodels, would see more than3 million infected and morethan 300,000 deaths and “thatwould be overwhelming forsure,” Nkengasong said. But hewarned that “models are onlyas good as the assumptions weput in there.” AP

Dubai: The family of slainWashington Post columnistJamal Khashoggi announcedon Friday they have forgivenhis Saudi killers, giving legalreprieve to five governmentagents who had been sen-tenced to death for an opera-tion that cast a cloud of suspi-cion over the kingdom’s crownprince.

“We, the sons of the mar-tyr Jamal Khashoggi, announcethat we forgive those whokilled our father as we seekreward from God Almighty,”wrote one of his sons, SalahKhashoggi, on Twitter.

Salah Khashoggi, who livesin Saudi Arabia and hasreceived financial compensa-tion from the royal court forhis father’s killing, explainedthat forgiveness was extended

to the killers during the lastnights of the Muslim holymonth of Ramadan in line withIslamic tradition to offer par-dons in cases allowed byIslamic law.

The Saudi court’s ruling inDecember that the killing wasnot premeditated paved theway for Friday’s announce-ment by leaving the door openfor reprieve. Additionally, thefinding was in line with thegovernment’s official explana-tion of Khashoggi’s slayingthat he was killed accidental-ly in a brawl by agents tryingto forcibly return him to SaudiArabia.

The family’s decision topardon Khashoggi’s killerscomes as questions continue tolinger over who ultimatelyordered the operation and

whether his sons have comeunder pressure. The trial waswidely criticized by rightsgroups and an independentUN investigator who notedthat no senior officials nor any-one in charge of ordering theoperation was found guilty.

The independence of theRiyadh criminal court was alsobrought into question. Prior tohis killing, Khashoggi had writ-ten critically of Saudi Arabia’scrown prince in columns forthe Washington Post.

He’d been living in exile inthe United States for about ayear as Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman over-saw a crackdown in SaudiArabia on human rightsactivists, writers and critics ofthe kingdom’s devastating warin Yemen. AP

Washington: The US willwithdraw from the Open SkiesTreaty, a major accord thatpermits unarmed aerial sur-veillance flights over 34 par-ticipating countries, citingrepeated Russian violations ofits terms.

India is not a member ofthis treaty that came into forceon January 1, 2002. Most of theparticipating countries are inNorth Europe and Central Asia.

The Open Skies Treatyallows each state-party to carryout short-notice, unarmed,reconnaissance flights over theothers’ territories to collectdata on military forces andactivities.

President Donald Trumpblamed Russia’s non-compli-ance with the treaty for such adecision by the United States.

“Russia didn’t adhere tothe treaty, so until they adhere,we will pull out. But there’s avery good chance we’ll make anew agreement or do some-thing to put that agreementback together,” Trump toldreporters at the White House.

“Whenever there’s an agree-ment that another party does-n’t agree to, we have many ofthose agreements around theworld, where it’s a two-partyagreement, but they don’tadhere to it and we do. Whenwe have things like that, we pullout also,” he said.

Secretary of State MikePompeo said the US will sub-mit notice of its decision towithdraw from the Treaty onOpen Skies to the TreatyDepositaries and to all otherstates party to the Treaty.

“Effective six months fromtomorrow, the United Stateswill no longer be a party to theTreaty,” he said, adding that theUS would, however, reconsid-er its withdrawal should Russiareturn to full compliance with

the Treaty.Trump expressed hope that

the US may negotiate a dealwith Russia on arms treatyand China will be maybeincluded in that.

“We’ll see what happens,”he said.

“What’s going to happen iswe’re going to pull out andthey’re going to come backand want to make a deal. We’vehad a very good relationshiplately with Russia. And you cansee that with respect to oil andwhat’s happening with oil,”Trump said.

In his statement, Pompeoalleged that Russia’s imple-mentation and violation ofOpen Skies treaty has under-mined the central confidence-building function of the pact— and has, in fact, fuelled dis-trust and threats to US nation-al security — making contin-ued American participationuntenable.

“While the United Statesalong with our Allies and part-ners that are States Parties to theTreaty have lived up to ourcommitments and obligationsunder the Treaty, Russia has fla-grantly and continuously vio-lated the Treaty in various waysfor years. This is not a storyexclusive to just the Treaty onOpen Skies, unfortunately, forRussia has been a serial viola-tor of many of its arms controlobligations and commitments,”Pompeo said.

Despite the Open SkiesTreaty’s aspiration to build con-fidence and trust by demon-strating through unrestrictedoverflights that no party hasanything to hide, Russia hasconsistently acted as if it werefree to turn its obligations offand on at will, unlawfully deny-ing or restricting Open Skiesobservation flights whenever itdesires, he added. PTI

Hong Kong: Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers sharplycriticized China’s move to takeover long-stalled efforts toenact national security legisla-tion in the semi-autonomousterritory, saying it goes againstthe “one country, two systems”framework that promises thecity freedoms not found on themainland.

The proposed bill, sub-mitted on the opening day ofChina’s national legislative ses-sion Friday, is aimed at forbid-ding secessionist and subver-sive activity, as well as foreigninterference and terrorism. Itcomes after a months of pro-democracy demonstrations lastyear that at times descendedinto violence between policeand protesters.

The move, one of the mostcontroversial items on theagenda of the National People’sCongress in years, drew strongrebukes from the U.S.Government and rights groups.Despite that, Beijing appears tohave lost patience and is deter-mined to assert greater controland limit opposition activityfollowing last year’s protests.

“Xi Jinping has torn awaythe whole pretense of ‘onecountry, two systems’,” formerpro-democracy lawmaker LeeCheuk-yan said of China’sleader.

He said at a press briefingby opposition parties andactivists that the move showsBeijing is “directly taking con-trol.” “They’re trying to banevery organisation in Hong

Kong who dares to speak outagainst the Communist Party,”he said, describing it as a chal-lenge to global values such asfreedom and liberty.

A previous effort to passsuch legislation in Hong Kong’slegislature was shelved aftermassive street protests in 2003.This time, Beijing has decidedto circumvent the territory’slaw-making body using whatcritics say are dubious legalgrounds under the Basic Law,which has served as a sort ofconstitution for Hong Kongsince its return to China fromBritish colonial rule in 1997.

While the enactment of

such legislation is requiredunder Article 23 of the BasicLaw, Beijing has decided not totry to ram it through the HongKong legislature, said SteveTsang, director of the ChinaInstitute at the School ofOriental and African Studies inLondon. Instead, it has chosenwhat he called a “worse option”by proposing the NationalPeople’s Congress enact anational security law for theterritory.

“For many in Hong Kong,the NPC enacting for HongKong will be tantamount to theeffective end of the ‘one coun-try, two systems’ model,” Tsang

said. “I find it hard to believethis will not trigger either amassive peaceful and orderlydemonstration or more vocaland aggressive protests or,indeed, most probably, a com-bination of both.” ` A returnof violent protests would be afurther drag on the territory’screaking economy, promptingmultinational companies toreconsider their presence andWashington to review its pol-icy of granting Hong Kongmore advantageous trade con-ditions than mainland China,Tsang said.

Former Hong Kong leaderC.Y. Leung defended the move

in an interview with Chinesestate broadcaster CCTV.

He warned that the pro-democracy opposition shouldnot “underestimate the deter-mination of the Chinese gov-ernment to deal with the issuesof Hong Kong.” The nationalsecurity legislation neither hin-ders foreign investors frominvesting in Hong Kong, norprevents local residents fromenjoying the freedoms accord-ed to them by law, he said.

“To implement one coun-try, two systems in Hong Kong,there must be laws to safeguardnational security,” Leung said,noting that countries such asthe United States and Singaporehave strict national securitylaws as well.

Pro-democracy lawmakerTanya Chan countered that theproposal goes against the BasicLaw. “It is a complete dishon-or of promises made under theSino-British Join Declaration, aswell as all the promises made bythe Chinese government to usand the world,” she said.

Taiwan’s government urgedBeijing not to lead Hong into“greater turmoil” with the pro-posed national security law,stating that it will cause dis-satisfaction among the HongKong people and cause socialinstability.

“The laws of any civilizedsociety should be an umbrellato protect the people, ratherthan shackles on their free-dom,” Taiwan’s MainlandAffairs Council said in a statement. AP

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Washington: Secretary of StateMike Pompeo on Friday con-demned China’s effort to takeover national security legisla-tion in Hong Kong, calling it “adeath knell for the high degreeof autonomy” that Beijing hadpromised the territory.

The measure, submittedFriday on the opening day ofChina’s national legislative ses-sion, is strongly opposed bypro-democracy lawmakers insemi-autonomous Hong Kong.

Pompeo weighed in as well,calling the proposal by China aneffort to “unilaterally and arbi-trarily impose national securi-ty legislation on Hong Kong.”“Hong Kong has flourished as

a bastion of liberty. The UnitedStates strongly urges Beijing toreconsider its disastrous pro-posal, abide by its internation-al obligations, and respect HongKong’s high degree of autono-my, democratic institutions,and civil liberties, which are keyto preserving its special statusunder US law,” Pompeo said ina statement.

He said the decision toignore the will of the people ofHong Kong would be a “deathknell for the high degree ofautonomy Beijing promisedfor Hong Kong” under adecades-old agreement knownas the Sino-British JointDeclaration. PTI

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Treatment for COVID-19with the anti-malarial drug

hydroxychloroquine, eitherwith or without the antibioticazithromycin, offers no bene-fit for COVID-19 patients,according to a large observa-tional study.

The research, published inthe journal The Lancet,analysed data from nearly15,000 patients with COVID-19 who received chloroquine orits analogue hydroxychloro-quine, taken with or withoutthe antibiotics azithromycinor clarithromycin, and 81,000controls.

According to theresearchers, includingMandeep Mehra from Brighamand Women’s Hospital in theUS, COVID-19 patients onthese drug regimens, experi-

enced an increased risk of seri-ous heart rhythm complica-tions.

The scientists said thesedrugs should not be used totreat COVID-19 patients out-side of clinical trials untilresults from randomised clin-ical trials are available to con-firm their safety and efficacyfor COVID-19 patients.

They explained chloro-quine, an antimalarial drugand its analogue, hydroxy-chloroquine, are commonlyused to treat autoimmune dis-eases including lupus andarthritis.

Both these drugs have agood safety profile as treat-ments for those specific con-ditions, and the currentresearch said these patientsshould not stop taking thesedrugs if they are prescribed forapproved conditions.

Atlanta: Joe Biden, the pre-sumptive Democratic presi-dential nominee, had a testyexchange with a prominentblack radio personality onFriday over his support amongblack voters and his potentialrunning mate.

Charlamagne Tha Godpressed Biden on reports thathe is considering MinnesotaSen. Amy Klobuchar, who iswhite, to be vice president andtold him black voters “savedyour political life in the pri-maries” and “have things theywant from you.”

“I’m not acknowledginganybody who is being consid-ered,” Biden said.

“But I guarantee you thereare multiple black women

being considered. Multiple.” A Biden aide then sought

to end the interview, prompt-ing the host to say, “you can’tdo that to black media.”

Biden responded, “I dothat to black media and whitemedia” and said his wife need-ed to use the television studio.

He then added: “If you’vegot a problem figuring outwhether you’re for me or forTrump, then you ain’t black.” The host countered that con-versations about Biden’s run-ning mate aren’t about Trump,whom many black voters viewas racist.

“Take a look at my record,”Biden said, citing his work assenator to extend the VotingRights Act of 1965.

“The NAACP hasendorsed me every time I’verun. Come on, take a look atmy record.”

Biden has emphasized hisrelationship with black votersthroughout his campaign, not-ing throughout the primarycampaign his dependence on

black voters in his DelawareSenate races and his partner-ship as former President BarackObama’s top lieutenant.

Black voters resurrectedBiden’s campaign with a secondplace finish in the Nevada cau-cuses and a resounding win inthe South Carolina primaryafter he’d started with embar-rassing finishes in overwhelm-ingly white Iowa and NewHampshire.

Older black voters espe-cially sided with Biden over awide Democratic field thatincluded several black candi-dates, including Kamala Harris.

The California senator iswidely believed to be a con-tender for the vice-presidentialnomination. AP

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India’s top oil and gas pro-ducer ONGC and country’s

biggest electricity generatorNTPC have signed a prelimi-nary agreement to set up a jointventure company for renewableenergy projects.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp(ONGC) and NTPC Ltd“entered into a memorandumof understanding (MoU) onMay 21, 2020 in New Delhi toformalise this arrangement,”ONGC said in a statement.

The MoU will enable bothcompanies to achieve theirrespective targets in renewableenergy business.

“As per the MoU, NTPCand ONGC will explore and setup renewable power assetsincluding offshore wind, inIndia and overseas, and exploreopportunities in the fields ofsustainability, storage, e-mobility and ESG(Environmental, Social andGovernance) compliant pro-jects,” the statement said.

ONGC has a renewable

portfolio of 176 MW compris-ing of 153 MW wind powerand 23 MW of solar plants.Through this collaborationwith NTPC, ONGC envisagessignificant growth in its pres-ence in the renewable powersector. ONGC’s EnergyStrategy 2040 document callsfor the company to invest inrenewable energy sources witha target to create 5-10 gigawattsportfolio with a focus on off-shore wind power. NTPC, witha 920 MW of installed renew-able power capacity in its port-folio with about 2,300 MW ofrenewable energy projectsunder construction and aspir-ing to reach 32 GW by 2032.

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Bank and NBFC stocks onFriday tumbled up to 6 per

cent after the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) extended morato-rium on loan repayments.

“Markets were hopingsome measure from the RBIthat could boost the bankingand financial sectors but theannouncement of the extensionof moratorium further dentedthe sentiment,” said Ajit Mishra,vice-president (research),Religare Broking Ltd.

At the close of trade, sharesof Axis Bank plunged 5.65 percent, Federal Bank 5.08 per cent,ICICI Bank dropped 4.32 percent, RBL Bank 4.20 per cent,IndusInd Bank 2.52 per cent,HDFC Bank 2.43 per cent andSBI 0.72 per cent on the BSE.

Kotak Mahindra Bank,however, bounced back andclosed 0.91 per cent higher.

The BSE BANKEX fell 2.44per cent. Among non-bankingfinancial companies (NBFCs),Mahindra & MahindraFinancial Services tumbled 6.31per cent, Shriram TransportFinance Company tanked 5.78per cent, CholamandalamInvestment and FinanceCompany 5.12 per cent, BajajFinance 4.67 per cent andUjjivan Financial Services 3.57per cent. “The RBI hasannounced further extension inthe moratorium period to end-borrowers from May 31 tillAugust 31. We read this asmajor negative for all NBFCs(including the ones with strongliability franchises) as thiswould further delay the over-all collection and recovery pro-cedure, and stretch the total liq-uidity cycle for all,” EmkayGlobal Financial Services saidin a note.

It said that in addition, thiswould further damage financial

discipline, especially for small-ticket borrowers and microfi-nance institutions (MFIs).

Jimeet Modi, founder andCEO of SAMCO Securities &StockNote said, “Extension ofmoratorium is good for theeconomy but in substance, itwill negatively impact banksand NBFCs. As a whole, theRBI has taken a calibratedapproach to save the economyrather than favouring banks.”The RBI on Friday slashedinterest rates, extended mora-torium on loan repaymentsand allowed banks to lendmore to corporates in an effortto support the economy whichis likely to contract for the firsttime in over four decades.

The repo rate was cut by 40basis points to 4 per cent, RBIGovernor Shaktikanta Das saidannouncing the decisions takenby the central bank’s Monetary

Policy Committee (MPC) thatmet ahead of its scheduledmeeting in early June.

The RBI supplemented theinterest rate cut by extending bythree months the permissiongiven to all banks to give athree-month moratorium onpayment of monthly instal-ments on all outstanding loans,providing relief to home andauto buyers as well as the realestate sector where construc-tion activities are already at astandstill.

The moratorium on inter-est on working capital wasalso extended by three months.“It was a good effort policy bythe RBI though extension ofmoratorium is a short termmeasure and not really longterm. Rate cuts and reverserepo rate cut are moves in theright direction but risk aversionby banks is still high,” VirendraSomwanshi, MD & CEO,Motilal Oswal Private WealthManagement, said.

Somwanshi added thateven though one-time loanrestructuring would have led tocredit rating issues, it wouldhave been a step in the rightdirection which the marketwas expecting.

“Good for companies butbanks/NBFCs will be hit inshort term particularly whenthey are staring at higherNPAs.”

The Sensex ended 260.31points or 0.84 per cent lower at30,672.59.

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India’s foreign exchangereserves rose by $1.726 bil-

lion during the week endedMay 15, RBI data showed onFriday. According to the RBI’sweekly statistical supplement,the overall forex reservesincreased to $487.039 billionfrom $485.313 billion reportedfor the week ended May 8th.

On Friday, while announc-ing the repo rate cut, RBIGovernor Shaktikanta Das said:“India’s foreign exchangereserves have increased by $9.2billion in 2020-21 so far.

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The Confederation of IndianTextile Industry (CITI) has

hailed the measures announcedby RBI Governor ShaktikantaDas on Friday which are aimed at preserving the finan-cial stability in the system andimproving the functioning ofthe market.

These announcements willrevive the market, boostexports and imports and debtservicing, said T. Rajkumar,Chairman, CITI.

CITI Chairman thankedthe RBI Governor for reducingthe repo rate by 40 basis pointsunder the liquidity adjustmentfacility (LAF) bringing it downto 4.0 per cent from 4.40 percent with immediate effect.

Accordingly, the marginalstanding facility (MSF) rateand the Bank Rate standreduced to 4.25 per cent from4.65 per cent; and the reverserepo rate under LAF nowstands reduced to 3.35 percent from 3.75 per cent.

Rajkumar said that theindustry has been demandingfor extending the moratoriumperiod for a further period of10 months as earlierannounced for the period ofthree months (March, Apriland May) as industries acrosssectors could not resume func-tioning due to containmentmeasures resorted to preventpandemic effect and huge cashcrunch resulting thereof.

He welcomed the decisionof RBI Governor for extension

of moratorium period foranother 3 months from June,July and August 2020 and fur-ther said it has brought a def-inite relief to the industrywhich is one of the worst hitindustries because of its high-ly capital and labour intensivenature and providing employ-ment to more than 110 millionworkforce.

The announced measureswill certainly prevent a numberof companies from turninginto NPAs. He hoped that themoratorium period could fur-ther be extended up to March31, 2021, to ease the financialburden on companies.

He also welcomed the deci-sion of reduction of marginmoney, and deferring of inter-est on working capital for a

period of 6 months with anoption that the interest onmoratorium can be convertedinto FITL or Term Loan andcan be repaid by March 2021.However, repaying interestamount within a period ofnext six months would be adaunting task for the textile andclothing industry which isgrappling with the lockdownsituation at the moment.

CITI Chairman pinpoint-ed that repo rates reduced byRBI many times in the last oneyear has not been fully trans-mitted by banks to borrowersand are very miniscule. Theindustry wants the banksshould be advised to pass onthe full benefit of the recent andearlier reduction in repo rate byRBI.

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At a time when fresh bidshave been invited for the

grounded Jet Airways, thedeadline for completion of itsinsolvency resolution processhas been extended till August21 due to the lockdown.

The full service carrier, which shuttered oper-ations in March 2019, is underCorporate InsolvencyResolution Process (CIRP) andthe time period given for its completion was to endon June 13.

According to a regulatory

filing, 69 days of lockdown period from March24 to May 31 would be exclud-ed for computing the CIRP deadline.

The nationwide lockdownto curb spreading of coron-avirus infections wasannounced on March 24 andhas been extended thrice. It isnow to end on May 31.

“Therefore, the revisedtimeline for completion of theCIRP of Jet is now August 21,2020, subject to any furtherextension of the lockdown bythe State Govt of Maha or theCentral Government.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Friday held

a review meeting with CEOs ofpublic sector banks (PSBs) andasked them to implement themega ‘Aatmanirbhar’ reliefpackage to revive the COVID-hit economy.

The meeting via videoconferencing took place in thebackdrop of the �21 lakh crorestimulus package announce-ment and the Reserve Bankcoming out with fresh mea-sures, including interest ratecuts. The Union Cabinet head-ed by PM Narendra Modi onWednesday gave its nod formany of the schemesannounced as part of‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’package to prop up the econ-omy reeling under the COVID-19 crisis. “Finance MinisterSmt.@nsitharaman chairingthe review meeting, throughVC, with the chief executives ofPSBs today to review the readi-ness of banks in implementing‘Aatmanirbhar’ relief package,”the Finance Ministry said in atweet. “To operationalise theannouncements made byHon’ble FM @nsitharaman jiunder #AatmanirbharBharat,review meeting through VCwas helwith all PSBs.

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Hours after the ReserveBank of India (RBI)

extended the moratorium onrepayment of loans for threemonths on Friday, Union min-ister Hardeep Singh Puri saidthis step will offer relief to avi-ation sector companies likeairports, airlines and groundhandlers and help themimprove their cash flow posi-tion. The aviation sector hasbeen hit hard due to the coro-navirus-triggered lockdown.Consequently, during the lastfew weeks, all Indian airline

companies have either firedemployees, sent them on leavewithout pay or cut theirsalaries. “The RBI announce-ment to permit lending insti-tutions to extend the previouslyannounced moratorium byanother 3 months, i.E., fromJune 1, 2020 to August 31, 2020in view of further extension inthe lockdown offers relief tocivil aviation stakeholders,”Puri said on Twitter.

“These announcementswill also benefit aviation sectorcompanies, including airports,airlines, freight operators,ground handlers.”

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India Inc on Friday said theReserve Bank’s surprise

move to slash key interestrates will provide a much-needed respite to small busi-nesses and also revivedemand. The industry saidmore support will be requiredon an ongoing basis bothfrom the RBI and governmentto stimulate economic growthamid the COVID-19 pan-demic. The Reserve Bankunexpectedly slashed bench-mark interest rates to theirlowest levels since 2000 andextended the moratorium onrepayment of loans for threemonths to ramp up supportfor the economy which islikely to contract for the firsttime in over four decades.

The benchmark repur-chase (repo) rate was cut by40 basis points to 4 per cent,the lowest since the bench-mark came into being in2000, Governor ShaktikantaDas said. CII DirectorGeneral Chandrajit Banerjeesaid the RBI should also con-sider extending this morato-rium to NBFCs for theirrepayment to banks, withoutwhich the NBFCs sector isfacing acute distress.

“Another move the RBIshould consider is to allowone-time restructuring ofloans to relieve stressed busi-nesses. Group exposure limitfor lenders to corporates to 30per cent from 25 per cent is a

welcome move too, as it isexpected to help banks meetthe borrowing requirementsof the private sector,” Banerjeestated.

Ficci President SangitaReddy said, “With the outlookfor economic growth beingvery uncertain and RBI itselfadmitting that GDP growth inthe current fiscal will be neg-ative, Ficci feels that moresupport will be required on anongoing basis both from RBIand government and we shallremain engaged and keepproviding feedback on behalfof Indian industry to the pol-icymakers and regulator.”

Mandar Pitale, Head -Treasury at SBM Bank (India),said the accommodativestance by the central bank isa further indication that it willnot shy away from fiddlingwith interest rates goingahead, depending on the data.

“With job losses mount-ing and economic activityshowing little signs ofimprovement due to the rag-ing coronavirus scare, themove to extend the loanmoratorium period shouldprovide respite to individualsand small businesses,” Pitaleadded.

Assocham PresidentNiranjan Hiranandani said,“RBI’s third presser since thelockdown is a continued effortto increase private consump-tion and provide liquidityaccess to all sectors hit by theCOVID-19 pandemic.

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When I connect over a confer-ence call with director produc-er Ramesh Sippy, the first

thing that strikes me is the old worldway of holding a conversation that iswarm yet professional. He doesn’t askfor my name as he is already aware ofit and uses it to addresses me rather thanthe impersonal salutation that many ofthe current crop engages in. Hedoesn’t want to enter intothe interview head-long but firstinquires whichpart of the world Iam holding theconversation from.On hearing that I amconnecting fromDelhi, he quips “Youare better off as thingsare opening up while inMumbai, we can’t ventureout as yet.” Clearly, even ifyou are the director of a larg-er-than-life spectacle likeSholay, you have to abide bythe whims of a microscopicvirus and adjust to life accord-ingly.

He is doing just that. HisRamesh Sippy Academy of Cinemaand Entertainment (RSACE)at Kalina, Mumbai, which runs fivegraduation courses around film mak-ing in association with the MumbaiUniversity and Garware Institute since2017, has shifted to the online moduleof teaching. Given the nature of the pro-fession and the way it is taught, wherephysical contact seems essential, I won-der how it would be possible to contin-ue to teach online indefinitely and hesays, “That is a million dollar question.No one knows how we will go forward.and what’s happening. We do not knowwhat shape and form the course thepandemic will take. We will have to seehow much it is possible to go back tothe normal or whether in the nextsix months or one year wedo a mix of online andphysical classes or justthe former.” But onething he is sure of,his vast repertoireof films helpsbudding filmmakers learnthe craft.

It is notjust teachingfilm makingthat will beaffected butthe professionleading up toit is bound totake a hit inthe way thatit works.A l r e a d y ,there arespeculationsabout themanner inwhich inti-mate sceneswould be shot,s o m e t h i n gwhich Sippy’sfilm Sagar hadin ample measurebetween the leadpair of DimpleKapadia and RishiKapoor. The direc-tor is unfazed andsays, “Technology isthere to help us do a lot ofthings that we cannot. Evenfive, 10 or 20 years back, weused technology in Sholayand Shaan to change theface of cinema. At that time,those were creative decisionsbut now they might becomenecessary.” He goes on topoint to several projects wherepeople are sitting at home andrelating interesting storiesthrough short films. “That is a newway of story-telling now but, ofcourse, this can’t be permanentlyused for entertainment, he says andadds, that it was possible as humans,by their nature, are a race of thinkers.

He believes that taking thingslying down is not the appropriatereaction to the reaction. “It is goodto understand what the problems arebut it is not a good idea to sit backand let the virus take over your entirelife. We have to stand up and fight forthe welfare of society and individual. Ifwe try to look after everyone, everyonewill look after us. There will, of course,be stray cases of unfortunate incidentsof people who we cannot help.”

He resorts to a history lesson toexplain the point further. “There has-n’t been a World War for 70-75 years.But we are now facing Coronavirusacross the world, which is noth-ing short of a war. We willresolve this too. There will besuffering along the way,naturally, but that is theprice we pay. We wouldlearn a lot of new thingsalong the way,” he says optimistically.

Another resort to the pastis the way Doordarshan decided to tele-cast the serials of yore which command-ed huge fan-following including Sippy’sBuniyaad, which followed a migrantfamily during Partition. He believes thatthe serial has struck a chord among theyounger generation as “it was basical-ly a good story about the events thattook place.” And there are parallels incontemporary life as well. “In northIndia, there were refugee camps andpeople were confined to them. It is areminder of those times when the con-finement was greater and, the problems,more dangerous,” says the director.

Talking of Buniyaad naturally bringsus to his love for ensemble casts whichwas evident not just in the serial but alsoin films like Shaan (1980), Sholay(1975) and to an extent, Seeta aur Geeta (1972). “Of course, I likeworking with bigger casts but it is nevereasy. It is the challenge that eggs you on.The actors too could feel the vibes ofsomething very good being made and,with so much care and attention, theyput their best foot forward,” he says ashis voice fades out over a connectionthat is often patchy.

Another thing that was very muchapparent in his films were larger thanlife villains. Whether it was GabbarSingh menacingly asking his cohorts,“Kitne aadmi the?” or Shakaal declar-ing, “Ajeeb janwar hai. Kitna bhi khaebhooka hi rehta hai,” — both could chillyou to the bone. Sippy retorts, “Don’theroes come out larger than life? Wereheroes, like Amitabh or Dharmendraordinary?”

However, it wasn’t a huge canvasrather a heartwarming story that thedirector started his career with. The sonof producer GP Sippy, after havingassisted during several films, decided toturn director with Andaz in 1971. Thestory about a widower’s daughter and awidow’s son bringing the duo togetherwas unconventional given the timewhen second marriages were uncom-mon. Add to it the fact that Sippy wasall of 25. “Everyone called me a fool forattempting a film like that. Reactionsincluded, ‘You are a young guy. Whatare you doing making a film on a widowand a widower. What is wrong withyou?’” His father was also surprised thathe wanted to debut as director with thisfilm. When he approached actorShammi Kapoor for the role of the wid-ower, his reaction was not very differ-ent but for an altogether different rea-son. Shammi, who was known for hislight-hearted and stylish romcomswhich featured great music as well as alot of Elvis Presley-inspired dancingasked, “Do you know what I am famousfor? Dancing and singing. What are youtrying to do?” A young Sippy, backedby a powerful idea, was undeterred andsaid, “‘Haven’t you done enough of that?Let us try something different.’ Helooked at me, somewhere it clicked andhe agreed.”

Sippy was completely convincedthat, despite the zeitgeist of the age, theworld would not object to a man whohad lost his wife and has a daughtercoming together with a woman who hadlost her husband and had a boy. “If youmake a film like that, you need to makethe audience want them to come togeth-er so they had to be warm people withfeelings,” says Sippy thoughtfully. Luck

favoured them and superstar RajeshKhanna agreed to be a part of the film.“The music was superb while the storytelling was interesting and bright. It wasa warm story told with an unusual angle

with great performances,” he saysand pauses. The gap becomesinexplicably long and we realise

that we have lost the connectionwith him yet again.

Once reconnected, Sippy’s voicestill wavers and when I suggest that

we should re-connect again, he retorts,“It is a Coronavirus phone,” and guf-

faws before adding, “Everyone is on thephone and the internet so these arebeing used beyond their capacities.”

He repeated Hema Malini, the pro-tagonist in Andaz, in Seeta Aur Geeta.Again many people felt that a doublerole for a woman and that too on thelines of Ram Aur Shyam (1967), whichhad been essayed by none other thanDilip Kumar was a huge risk. “I felt thisone was better. The idea of Dilip Kumarbeing exploited was not as convincingas a young woman suffering theCinderella syndrome,” he says. Whatalso immensely helped the popularityof the film was Sanjeev Kumar andDharmendra, two fine actors and youngsuperstars in their own right, being castopposite Hema. “It is not easy in Indiato convince the male actor to take onthe secondary role. Their characterswere interesting but Hema had thecream and they were supporting her. Itwas great of them to say yes. In its com-mercial way the film spoke about awoman,” he says.

But it was Sholay that placed him inthe big league so much so that even nowhis name is synonymous with the film.Sippy recently received a LifetimeAchievement Award at Filmfare Awardswhich was held in Assam in Februarythis year and he feels that it was givento him mostly because of Sholay.However, he doesn’t deny, “I do have abody of work and I couldn’t have madea Sholay without having made Andaz orSeeta aur Geeta.”

The fact that the film continues tobe a phenomenon where its dialoguesare still quoted in different situations offscreen is lost on no one. But at the timeof filming no one, least of all Sippy,realised it. “I could feel that we weremaking a great film. How can you pre-dict it was a phenomenon? It just hap-pened, you couldn’t predict it. Peoplefound something new every time theywatched it,” he says attributing its suc-cess to a combination of its technique,storytelling, performances, music andbackground score. He credits writer duoSalim Javed, lyricist Anand Bakshi,music director RD Burman ,the techni-cians and cameraperson along with thecast which came together to put up agreat show.

Considering that remakes are oftenattempted of films that break box officerecords, what are Sippy’s views on thesame? “I wouldn’t make Sholay. It is notlike remakes can’t work but you shouldadd something to it or have a new takeon it. A film like Titanic was made 20years before this version. Mother Indiahad been made by Mehboob Khan lessthan 10-15 years ago before the colourfilm which was a much bigger andimproved version of the original and itworked brilliantly. It is very difficult toadd to Sholay which already has somuch. I fail to see why I should attemptto make it? If someone has the confi-dence they should do it but make itworth the attempt,” he says recalling thefate of Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag(2007).

With the advent of OTT platforms,newer directors and increased exposureof the audience, Sippy agrees that filmshave changed. “Not just the story but thewhole storytelling technique haschanged. You are, after all, telling thestory to a completely different audiencewhich has the sensibilities of the timeit lives in. Today’s viewers are very dif-ferent from the audience of the 1960s,70s, 80s or 90s. While the themes con-tinue to be the same, love stories orrevenge dramas, because we arehumans, the narrative style has trans-formed. That is the challenge as youhave to do something differently fortoday’s age and do it as interestingly aspossible hoping that the audience willlike it,” says Sippy matter factly.

It is not just story-telling which hastransformed but the way that the audi-ence consumes entertainment as well.“Something which is for the phone willremain for the phone and will never beas as impressive on screen. Under thepresent circumstances, people are say-ing that cinema may never come backbut I don’t believe it. If you have an expe-rience to share with people that is worthit, they will come to the theatre. Aren’tpeople feeling fed up at home duringlockdown? They want to step out andcinema would enable them to do that,of course, at the right time — three orsix months down the line,” he says andadds, “This is a good note to end,” butwhen I persist that I do have a few morequestions left, he teases, “You don’t wantto talk to me another time? Let’s keepit for that.”

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Thanos is hands-downone of the best comic

book villains of all time.Everything about him isvery intimidating from hisstature to his voice.However, to some extenthe is very humane andsomeone whom we couldsympathise with. In thecomic books, the characterhas this weird motivationwhich was dubbed as‘Obsession with Death’.The directors of AvengersEndgame, Russo brothersthought that this motiva-tion was not impactful,mainly because there wereelements of too much fan-tasy and the character ofLady Death had yet to beintroduced.

Actor Josh Brolin whoportrayed Thanos inAvengers Infinity War andEndgame, experimented alot with the character toachieve the acclaimeddepiction on screen. Intoday’s time, CGI has goneon to become extremelyrealistic. Despite this, theactor had a big challenge toportray an 8’3 tall formida-ble character so that theaudience could connectwith it and simultaneous-

ly, fear it. Brolin said, “Earlier,

we didn’t understand thenuances of the role. TheRusso’s had the intentionsand the relationship withGamora, Nebula and allthe others but it wasn’tuntil we started experi-

menting. We realised thatthere was a characterwhere we could invest andeveryone could sympathisewith. I think that’s thebiggest struggle we had toface.”

Fellow cast memberPaul Rudd who portrayed

Ant-Man in AvengersEndgame, said, “I thinkThanos is a really complexand an amazing antagonist.When I saw Infinity War, Iwas thinking that what heis saying has logic behindit. Maybe, he is a psy-chopath and wants todestroy the world but he isequally soft at his heart.Nobody other than Brolincould have played it sowell. It’s a perfect casting.He just exhumes thestrength and poise thatThanos possesses. Whenyou got so many heroesfighting, you got to be aformidable opponentwhich means you will beneeding a formidable actorplaying the character. JoshBrolin hit a home run withthe character’s portrayal.”

(Catch the Mad Titango against the Avengers onStar Movies on May 17 at12 pm and 9 pm.)

Ranveer Singh is urging authori-ties to consider and declare

Indian Sign Language (ISL) as the23rd official language of India. Theactor has always raised his voice onsocial issues and this time he is sign-ing a petition to raise awareness onthis cause. Ranveer’s independentrecord label IncInk, which he hasformed with Navzar Eranee, is alsoreleasing its first sign languagevideo.

He says, “We created IncInk asa platform to promote inclusivitythrough art, hence, the name —IncInk. Through our latest endeav-our, we’re lending support to the

cause of making Indian SignLanguage the 23rd official languageof India. I will be signing the offi-cial petition filed by NationalAssociation of the Deaf (NAD)India with support from the ‘AccessMantra Foundation’, who are work-ing tirelessly to make this a reality.

I urge my fellow Indians to join thiscause and give it momentum bybuilding awareness about it. We arealso releasing our first sign languagevideo on Spitfire’s latest trackVartalap with the hope that the trackwill trigger more conversations onthe issue.”

The Vartalap ISL music videowas created in collaboration withAccioMango — a community-basedstart-up, managed and operated bydeaf professionals and founded bydeaf expert Dr Alim Chandani. Itadvocates and aims to create equalopportunities for the Indian DeafCommunity in compliance withthe Rights of Persons withDisabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016. Heis also the CEO of Access MantraFoundation (AMF), a non-profitorganisation that aims to createawareness among the hearing-impaired community for informa-tion that is not easily accessible tothem.

�The Wonder Years was such aniconic show that the jacket thatyou wore in the show is now atthe Smithsonian Institute inWashington DC. How did thathappen?

My mother had kept it safely,all this while. We have a garageand it is full of every piece ofmemorabilia from me, my broth-er, and sister. Our entire childhoodis there — old printers and othertons of stuff. We always used to tellher you have to clean that up butshe liked storing all these. She alsohad this jacket which Smithsonianwanted. So now my mom has gotthe validation for keeping thegarage and all the stuff.

�You’ve directed more than 200episodes of television and arewidely regarded for your single-camera comedy work. When didyou realise that a life behind thelens was also for you?

This realisation happenedwhen I was on the sets of TheWonder Years. I was interested inthe camera. It was so cool. Iwould have questions like — whyone director filled a two-pagescene in the kitchen, and someonewould do that in two shots andanother would need six shots. Andhow those choices affect the finalproduct? These things interestedme. The first episode I directed forModern Family was just after theyhad won the Emmy for the bestcomedy. I was so terrified as towhat am I going to do, what willI bring to the show and how canI add to it?

�How did you get past the nerve?A lot of times in my directing

career, I would not literally butpsychologically slap myself,reminding that you are the direc-tor and whether you want it or not,you are here. I would tell myselfthat I have to get over myself anddo the job.

�You’ve been both, on cameraand off-camera. In which way doyou think were you treated bet-ter?

Oh, for sure on camera. WhenI was directing TV shows, it was

great, challenging and fulfilling.But no one really cared at all. I wasjust totally off the grid. But thenwhen I was on TV again, a cou-ple more times and I felt the warmembrace of the love of Americaagain. It was really fantastic.

�How old were you when youwere first nominated for anEmmy and how was the experi-ence?

I was 12 years old. And Iremember I was sleeping over atTony Rubin’s house, and it was

summer and we were all inChicago. When I woke up thatmorning, his mom had left a noteon the dishwasher that said “heyyou got nominated for an Emmy,congratulations!”. Then the two ofus rode bikes to the park and itwas great.

�Did you go to the ceremonywith a speech ready?

I did. I went with my parentsand grandparents. It was great. Yes,I had a speech ready. My parentsmade sure that I was always on top

of such things. So I had it readyand still have it.

�Do you remember who all werein your category?

I actually do. These are all thepeople I love and they’re still in theindustry — John Goodman forRoseanne, Ted Danson for Cheers,Michael J Fox for Family Ties. Andthere was Richard Mulligan fromEmpty Nest who won.

�How old are your kids? Havethey been nominated for Emmysyet?

I have two sons, 12 and sixyears old and a 10 year old daugh-ter. No, they’ve done nothing, asof now. When I look at my eldestson I think I had fired threeagents when I was that age. I wasdoing commercials in Chicagowhen I was six year old. It was sotough back then.

�Have your kids watched TheWonder Years? It must be inter-esting to watch their father gothrough puberty on TV.

Yes, they’ve watched the show.My mum shows it to them when-ever they go to her place. That wasvery sweet of her. But it is conflict-ing. I don’t want them to see it justbecause I am their dad. But I alsodesperately want them to love itand think that I am super cool. Sowe landed somewhere in between.They think it’s cool.

�How many other young gentle-men did you beat up for TheWonder Years?

They came to me after theysaw me in the film, The PrincessBride. They sent me that script andsaid ‘we’d love you to take a lookat this role and consider this part.’And I was so young then. So it wasreally my parents who went backand forth to decide about it for along time. Then my dad askedhimself, ‘if we see this on TV andsome other kid is playing the role,could we live with that?’ Theanswer was no and so we went toLA and met with the people whowrote the show and I got the job.

(All seasons of the show are air-ing on Star World.)

When Warsan Shire said,“No one leaves homeunless/ Home is the mouth

of a shark/ You only run for the bor-der/ When you see the whole city run-ning as well,” it continued to be areality for many people and theircommunities who lost their cultur-al and regional identities in the blinkof an eye.

Celebrity hairstylist and film-maker Sapna Moti Bhavnani’s webdocumentary, Sindhustan, recallsone such event where a communi-ty, amid political upheavals andreligious riots, was again forgotten.It explores the migration of theSindhi community to India duringand post-Partition. The first inspi-ration for such a project came to herwhen she discovered how her father,born in Shikarpur in Sindh, migrat-ed from Karachi to Bombay afterPartition and lived in refugee camps.The film, narrated through a seriesof extensively designed body tattooson Sapna’s body, was also inspired bya random conversation with hergrandmother, a few years ago.

She says, “I had gone to meet mygrandmother over lunch one day. Ihad covered myself because I hadjust started getting inked at that time.She commented on those tattoos bycalling me ‘old-fashioned.’ I wasstunned to hear that term from a 90-

year-old woman. She then explainedthe theory behind her saying so —when we first came to this planet, welived in tribes and didn’t have anyborders or governments or territo-ries. We had extended families andeach one of them had their ownmarkings. She said, ‘You are actual-ly going back to your roots and thatmakes me very happy.’”

And that moment, she says,made it evident for her that she wasgoing to write their stories with thatink. It was when she decided that itwas the best way to tell the story —“to herself become the story.” Thetattoos illustrate various stories ofSindhis from both India and

Pakistan. It is made using Ajrak, aSindhi design art form, as well asMadhubani from India. The tattoos,showcased only on her legs in thefilm, depict the legends of Jhulelal (arevered deity of Sindhi Hindus), avegetarian crocodile, a family enjoy-ing a picnic near the river Sindh andmore. For the audience, they wouldlook like a visual map of South Asiaand its division, an art gallery ofmemories and a story narrated onthe skin. But for Sapna, her legs arenow like a museum, which tell thetales of a lost culture. Well, just as ourfootprints mark how long we havetraversed, for her, too, “my legs sym-bolise my journey and the very roots,

where I come from.”Well, contrary to this concept,

usually, a film’s idea is conveyedthrough conversations, dialoguesand some fictionalised version ofreality. So why did she think thatdesigns and art could help her bestexpress more than the words? Shesays, “The film features narrationsof real experiences of Sindhi peoplewho remained in Pakistan duringthe Partition but later, had to migrateto India as many Hindu Sindhis werebeing forced to convert to Islam.And just to sustain, they had to adaptto new cultures and practices, learna new language and engage in newertrades, worldwide. This loss of their

homeland slowly led to a death oftheir own heritage and culture.History books never did justice toSindhis while explaining thePartition. Hence, I don’t think a fic-tional representation of this event —history’s largest migration of a cul-ture — would have been the bestchoice. It’s being talked about open-ly for the first time.” It’s why, she says,it’s not a film, but a “movement.”

When one talks about Sindh orSindhis, one is reminded of howeven though the province did notbecome a part of India after 1947, itstill echoes through our voices whenwe sing these lines of the NationalAnthem — Punjab-Sindh-Gujarata-

Maratha, Dravida-Utkala-Banga.For Sapna, it’s because even thoughthe state isn’t ours but there are manySindhis, who are Indians and havebeen residing here sinceIndependence. And hence, she adds,“it’ll always be sung like that.”

Sapna, who is currently workingon her book, tentatively titled,Chapter One, recalls that she wasdenied the visa to Sindh some timeago. And that’s when “I became myland. Hence, Sindhustan is like ahope for me that one day, I’d be ableto cross the border and touch thatsoil where my ancestors lived. I waitwith love!”

From a hairstylist to a filmmak-

er, her journey has certainly been avery transitional one. She says, “Inever believe in transitioning com-pletely and hence, I haven’t left hair-styling at all. I still do that and willcontinue to do so. But yes, sevenyears into making this importantfilm did mark the beginning ofsomething new and relevant.”

Well, certainly the reason whythe film is making rounds at variousinternational film festivals and win-ning hearts and accolades. To namea few, Excellence in Cinema Awardat AIFF May 2019, Official Selectionfrom India at the MAMI FilmFestival Asia Premiere 2019, etc.

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The BCCI has not made “anycommitment” to tour SouthAfrica in August and there

have only been discussions aboutsuch a possibility, Board treasur-er Arun Dhumal said on Friday,denying Cricket South Africa’sclaims of a confirmation.

CSA Director of CricketGraeme Smith and Chief ExecutiveJacques Faul on Thursday said thatIndia has agreed to tour the rain-bow nation for three T20Internationals in August, signallingresumption of cricket in the postCovid-19 world. But Dhumal dis-agreed.

“When South Africa’s tour ofIndia got cancelled due to coron-avirus, we had discussions that ifthere is a possibility, we will makean effort to tour South Africa. Butat no point have we made anycommitment to Cricket SouthAfrica about touring in August,”Dhumal said.

The senior BCCI office-bear-er then said that unless theGovernment clears internationaltravel, BCCI won’t be in a positionto make a commitment to anycountry.

“Right now, we can’t evencommit that we can tour Sri Lankain July followed by (short T20series) in Zimbabwe. Both thesetours are part of the FTP pro-gramme and we are still not surewhat the situation will be in twomonths, so how can we commit onSouth Africa tour?” Dhumal asked.

On a different note, whenasked about CSA Director ofCricket Graeme Smith’s supprt toSourav Ganguly’s candidature forthe ICC chairmanship, Dhumalsaid it would be good for globalcricket if an Indian is at the helm.

“There has been no formaldiscussion in BCCI about ICCchairmanship. Graeme Smith obvi-ously spoke in his personal capac-ity which is not CSA’s stand,” hesaid.

CSA President Chris Nenzanirefused to endorse Smith’s supportfor Ganguly in a statement issuedon Friday.

“As far as the BCCI is con-cerned we would certainly like anIndian to lead the global body andour President has credentials obvi-ously. But again we haven’t yet dis-cussed it,” Dhumal said.

However, a BCCI veteran whohas interacted with Nenzani, saidthat the cash-strapped Proteasshould only get a commitment ifit backs the BCCI view on ICCpolicies.

“We will definitely play SA

series but there should be riders.Is CSA with India on ICC policymatters? With Chris (Nenzani),you would want a full commitmenton paper and then proceed.

“It’s CSA which is desperate fora three-match T20. So they have todecide how they want to play it atthe ICC,” the veteran official said.

While the support to have anIPL in October-November win-dow instead of the T20 World Cupis growing, Dhumal said BCCIwon’t push for a postponement ofthe global event but at the sametime, it needs to be seen that inthese times, whether an event ofthat magnitude can be held inAustralia.

“T20 World Cup is a globalevent. Why should we push forpostponement of global event? Yes,what we need to check is that an

event of such magnitude with somany teams and all the health safe-ty norms, empty stadiums, can itbe held?

“These are calls that ICC andCricket Australia wil have to take,”Dhumal said.

DHARAMSALA OPTION FOR CAMPWith the civil aviation min-

istry announcing that domesticflights will be starting from May25, Dhumal said the Board couldexplore safe zone options for anational camp in case it can’t beheld at the National CricketAcademy in Bengaluru.

Will it make Dharamsala anoption considering that HPCAnow has a state of the art indoorstadium?

“Since it’s my state association,I would never, from my end, push

it but if after exploring options,BCCI finds that Dharamsala canhave a camp, I am more than readyto make all the arrangements.Even the hotel where the Indianteam stays Pavilion is HPCA prop-erty,” he said.

“In case, the situation inHimachal is under control and it’s

considered to be a safe zone as perGovernment protocols, the HPCAwill then do everything to make ita bio-secure environment. It alldepends on what is best availableoption,” he added.

HP has more than 100 casesand has recorded 4 Covid-19deaths so far.

�� .04 32-.

There is a 9 out of 10 chance that India will makethe trip Down Under for a four-Test series later

this year, Cricket Australia chief executive KevinRoberts said trying to downplay the uncertaintytriggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I guess there’s no such thing as certainty intoday’s world so I can’t say 10 (out of 10), but I’mgoing to say nine out of 10,” Roberts told NewsCorp.

“With the variable being, who would knowwhether we can have crowds … I’d be really sur-prised if we can’t get the Indian tour away.

“But I wouldn’t, hand on heart suggest we’llhave full crowds from the start. We’ll just have tosee how that goes,” the under-pressure chief exec-utive said.

However, when it comes to away tours,Roberts wants a bio-secure environment whichmight prompt Cricket Australia to explore optionsof sending a team for a white ball series in England.

But before that, the CA would wait and watchhow the Pakistan and the West Indies tours ofEngland pan out in terms of health safety mea-sures.

“I think there’s some chance we could send ateam over,” Roberts said.

“Obviously we won’t jeopardise the safety ofthe players, but the best test of that is that the WestIndian and Pakistan tours of England before we’redue to tour. We hope they go off without a hitch,”Roberts said.

While the India tour is a lucrative one, it isunlikely that Australia would host Afghanistan fora one-off Test, which is not a part of the WorldTest Championship schedule.

8�� Pakistan is keen to tourEngland this summer but the cricketboard does not plan to use the seriesas “leverage” to cut a deal for a recip-rocal tour in 2022, PCB chief execu-tive Wasim Khan said.

The England and Wales CricketBoard (ECB), which is estimated to loseas much as £380 million if the entireseason is wiped out due, hopes toresume cricket by rescheduling theseries postponed due to the coron-avirus outbreak, including the homeseries against Pakistan.

It seems to be an opportunemoment for the Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) to cut a deal for a returntour with England, who like severalcountries hasn’t toured Pakistan citingsecurity concerns.

“There is a lot of cricket to beplayed between now and 2022, I’ve hadthat question raised a few times; hasthere been a deal cut? Is somethinggoing to happen?” Khan said on SkySports — Cricket Show.

“But the simple fact is and it’s agenuine answer we need to get crick-et back on again and now is probably

not the time to try and leverage any-thing. Naturally things will take theircourse over the next two years,” headded.

Khan said Pakistan will haveample opportunities to prove teams likeEngland and Australia that it is safe totravel to, adding that right now thefocus is on trying to resume cricket,which has come to a halt due to thepandemic.

“We’ve got a lot of home seriesbetween now and then, which hope-fully will all go successfully, and we’llgive more confidence to the likes ofAustralia and England, who are due totour in 2022.

“But this is about getting cricketback on again. The cricketers want toplay and I think it’s important for theglobal game as well that we start tobring a level of normalcy to playingcricket again — whatever that may looklike — over the next six to 12 months,”he added.

Pakistan are scheduled to playthree Tests against England in Augustfollowed by thee T20s with the gamesto be played closed doors.

“We need a 14-day quarantineperiod when we get to England andenough time to practice for the guysso they can be ready,” Khan said.

“That’s a bit of a challenge, so we’relooking at an extended squad. We’relooking at bringing around 25 players— more than normal. We are planningto get them together to train for thetour. We’re probably about a week awayfrom that ,” he added. PTI

�� The Olympic-qual-ifying India Open badmintontournament, which was post-poned due to the Covid-19pandemic, will now be held herefrom December 8 to 13 after theBWF unveiled a revised calen-dar to salvage the disruption-hitseason.

The World Tour Super 500tournament, originally sched-uled to be held in New Delhifrom March 24-29, will now takeplace from December 8 to 13,the BWF said in a release.

The all-important event willbe preceded by the HyderabadOpen (August 11 to 16) and theSyed Modi International(November 17 to 22).

The BWF announcementcomes a day after India’s singlesplayers were allowed access toindoor courts with badmintonin the list of 11 sports whichhave been permitted to resumetraining.

As many as eight tourna-ments were rescheduled fromtheir original dates, includingimportant events such as NewZealand Open Super 300 (Oct

20-25), Indonesia Open Super1000 (Nov 17-22), MalaysiaOpen Super 750 (Nov 24-29),Thailand Open Super 500 (Dec1-6) and season-ending WorldTour Finals (Dec 16-20) inGuangzhou, China.

Four tournaments —German Open (March 3-8),Swiss Open (March 17-22),European Championships (April21-26) and Australian Open(June 2-7) remained suspendedwith BWF saying that “suitablereplacement dates are still beingfinalised.”

As many as 10 tourna-ments, including SingaporeOpen Super 500 (April 7-12),Badminton Asia C’ships (April21-26) — which fell within theApril 28 Olympic qualificationdeadline — were cancelled.

According to the revised cal-ender, the HSBC BWF WorldTour will return with the TaipeiOpen Super 300 fromSeptember 1-6, while theThomas and Uber Cup Finals inAarhus, Denmark will take placeon the rescheduled dates ofOctober 3-11. PTI

�� 4�2��-:��

England paceman Chris Woakes isglad to be suffering the “normal-

ity” of familiar aches and pains fol-lowing his first bowling net prac-tice since the coronavirus lock-down.

Warwickshire’s Woakes wasback at his Edgbaston homeground in Birmingham onThursday for an hour-long stintafter being chosen for an individ-ual session.

The players are seeking tobuild up their fitness ahead of athree-Test series at home againstthe West Indies, which looks set tobe rescheduled for July behindclosed doors.

“It’s what we know, it’s what wedo,” Woakes told a conference callon Friday. “Obviously it’s the job,so it was nice to have some form ofnormality going back to sometraining.”

England have selected 18 bowlersto take part in individual training ses-sions across seven grounds, with justa physiotherapist in attendance.

Under strict health mea-sures they are not allowed touse changing rooms and mustwork with a set of balls theyalone can pick up.

“It looks a lot different towhat we’re used to,” said the 31-year-old Woakes, an allrounderand veteran of 33 Tests.

“But at the same time, withwhat’s everyone’s been through,it was quite nice to be out thereand do a bit of training and getthe ball back in hand,” the

World Cup-winner added.“Obviously not having

bowled for two months, there’sa few things that are sore. Thesides definitely woke up thismorning knowing I’d had abowl yesterday but it was niceto be back out there.”

�� U-��.-:0�,4��

Nearly 13,000 cardboardcut-outs of Borussia

Moenchengladbach support-ers are set to welcome theteam for Saturday’sBundesliga match againstBayer Leverkusen behindclosed doors.

Gladbach hosted the firstBundesliga game ever playedwithout fans on March 11,shortly before the Germanseason was put on holdbecause of the coronavirusoutbreak.

One of the club’s support-ers’ groups, FanprojektMoenchengladbach, subse-

quently came up with the ideaof allowing fans to print life-sized images of themselves tobe placed inside the ground.

The cut-outs line the sta-dium’s otherwise emptystands, with season ticket

holders able to have theircardboard lookalike allocat-ed to their regular spot.

“We’re arranging closeto 13,000 cut-outs, but almost20,000 have been orderedalready,” Thomas Ludwig,

head of the supporters' group,told SID.

“It’s a nice operation,which creates an atmospherein the stadium,” saidGladbach sporting directorMax Eberl. “Even if at thesame time it’s a reminder thatfootball without supporters isnot the same.”

“It’s fantastic. We reallyhave the impression that we’renot alone when we’re trainingin the stadium,” addedGladbach coach Marco Rose.

Gladbach are third inthe table and six pointsbehind leaders BayernMunich. They won 3-1 atEintracht Frankfurt last week.

�� 4.20�-

Borussia Dortmund willagain be without Belgium

midfielder Axel Witsel whenthey travel to Wolfsburg onSaturday on the Bundesliga’ssecond week of action since itrestarted, coach Lucien Favresaid.

Witsel has not recoveredfrom muscular problems he

suffered trying to regain fitnessbefore last weekend’s resump-tion of matches.

But former Liverpool mid-fielder Emre Can is fit again andavailable for selection asDortmund aim to keep theirpursuit of leaders BayernMunich on track with a victo-ry.

Favre also said he was stillhopeful German internationalMarco Reus, who injured groinmuscles in February beforematches were suspendedbecause of the coronavirus pan-demic, could return to actionbefore the end of the season.

“He still hasn’t trained withthe team. We hope he’ll be ableto return as quickly as possibleand help us,” Favre said.Dortmund trail Bayern by fourpoints but face the reigningchampions at home on Tuesday

in a match that could prove cru-cial in deciding the outcome ofthe title race.

�� 0�-

Milan’s San Siro stadium iscloser to being demol-

ished after Italy’s heritageauthority found that the iconicstadium cannot be protected forcultural or historic reasons.

“The property namedGiuseppe Meazza Stadium (SanSiro) has no cultural interest andas such is excluded from theprotection provisions,” theLombardy region of Italy’s cul-tural heritage ministry wrote in

a report.AC Milan and Inter Milan,

who share the stadium to thewest of the city, have launchedtheir bid to knock down the SanSiro and build a new 60,000-capacity home on the samesite.

City authorities have beendivided over the project andrequested the opinion of Italy’sheritage authorities.

The report found that as theSan Siro has undergone contin-uous transformation since being

built in 1926, with only a smallpart of the original stadiumremaining, it would not be sub-ject to protection.

Although approval fromItaly’s heritage body is not thefinal decision, it could be animportant step towards bothteams’ hope of redevelopingthe site.

The clubs want to build anew ground adjacent to the cur-rent San Siro, while the old sta-dium would make way for anarea “dedicated to sports, enter-tainment, and shopping”.

Milan Mayor Guiseppe Salainsists he wants to renovate theexisting stadium so that it couldcelebrate its centenary in 2026by hosting the opening ceremo-ny of the Winter Olympics thatyear.

Both clubs are formerEuropean giants with AC Milanhaving won the ChampionsLeague seven times while Interwere the last Italian team to winthe European title, when theylifted the trophy for the thirdtime in 2010.

Neither have won the SerieA title since AC Milan tri-umphed in 2011.

��Former Pakistan speedster ShoaibAkhtar and wicket-keeper Rashid Latif havetorn into Babar Azam saying that if hewants to lead like Imran Khan, then heshould also develop his personality to matchthe current Prime Minister of the country.

“Babar Azam wants to be a captain likeImran Khan but this does not mean thatit will only be related to playing cricket. Heneeds to take a leaf out of PM Imran’s bookwith regards to personality as well,” Akhtarsaid in a YouTube show WAJI’s Sports.

“Please don’t speak about things whichwe already know from the past 10 years. Wewon’t buy this argument. Babar has tosharpen up his communication skills, hispersonality, ability to lead from the front,fitness level etc. I think he has a lot to prove.”

Echoing the sentiments, Latif said:“When captain is sitting in a press confer-ence, he gives insight about his vision butthis was clearly lacking. Our captain is giv-ing headlines about the language barrierand things we already know.

“Babar should have made a strongstatement rather than just following thescript given to him. You have already show-cased that your mental attitude andapproach is not up to the mark.”

The whole debate over the languagestarted when former pacer Tanvir Ahmedsaid that Babar will have to improve hispersonality, his dressing sense and hisEnglish. IANS

�� Barcelona midfielder Arturo Vidal wantsto stay at Camp Nou despite transfer rumours linkinghim away from Spain.

The Chilean also stated that he is looking to end theseason with couple of trophies in the bag.

“I am very happy and comfortable in Barcelona andof course I want to stay here. I am also feeling in bet-ter shape than ever. This is a good group and I have gotgreat friends in the dressing room,” Vidal told MarioVelasco during an Instagram Live session.

“Physically I feel better than ever. I have never hadso much time to prepare myself. We have a special (train-

ing) plan that helps me lengthen mycareer for as long as possible.

“I am ready for what’s to comeboth in the Champions Leagueand in LaLiga. We are top of the

league and we have a greatchance of going through inthe Champions League,” headded.

“There are two monthsof football left to be playedand in that time we have to

give everything.” IANS

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BCCI made no commitment on SA tour: Dhumal��% �� $ ��1 "// �� ,34��

There will neither be loo breaksduring training nor the play-

ers will be allowed to hand overtheir caps or sunglasses to the on-field umpires as internationalcricketers will be required to letgo of some of their intrinsichabits when play resumes in thepost-Covid-19 world.

In its “back to cricket” guide-lines issued for resumption of thegame, ICC has effectively barredplayers from handing over theirpersonal equipments (cap, towel,sunglasses, jumpers) to theumpire or his teammates as partof maintaining social distance.

“Players and umpires shouldmaintain social distancing onthe cricket field and that includesno handing over of player items(cap, towels, sunglasses, jumpers)to the umpire or teammates,” readthe ICC playing guidelines.

However there was no clari-ty on who will keep the players’items?

“Consider adopting a processthat will assist the bowler in man-aging his/her items. Umpiresmay also be encouraged to usegloves when handling the ball,”

says the governing body.The players are unlikely to

keep their cap or sunglasses in thefield of play as it would attractpenalty runs just like in the caseof a helmet. The ICC also wantsthem to minimise their “timespent in the changing roombefore and after a match”.

The ICC Cricket Committeehas already recommended ban onusing the saliva on the ball andnow players have been advisednot to “touch eyes, nose, andmouth after making contact withthe ball” and sanitise their handsafter they come in contact withthe ball.

Life might get even tougherfor them when they are trainingfor the game with no loo andshower breaks encouraged.

“All participants should adopta ‘ready to train’ approach wherepossible i.E. Come to trainingprepared without the need to useany communal facilities such aschanging rooms or showeringfacilities,” read one of the train-ing guidelines.

“Personal equipment shouldbe sanitised before and after use(training and competition),” readanother one.

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