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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday

expressed confidence that ruralvillages would be able stop thesecond wave of the Covid-19“like they did last year.”

Addressing a ceremony ofPanchayat Raj Diwas, he saidthe challenge before the nationposed by the pandemic is “a lit-tle more than the last year” andvillages should “stop at all costthe entry of the pandemic.”

“Is varsh bhi hamare samnejo chunauti hain, vo chunautipahle se zara zyada hain ki gaontak is sankraman ko kisi bhihalat main pahuchne nahindena hain, use rokna hi hain”,said Modi.

Prime Minister said likelast year it is the rural regionswhich would emerge victoriousover the pandemic.

He asked Panchayat repre-sentatives who he said, nowpossess knowledge and exper-tise, to ensure that Covid19

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As the country grapples withthe worst-ever health cri-

sis following the surge in Covidcases, the black marketing ofthe life-saving drug Remdesivirhas made life difficult for thepatients and their families. Theinjectable drug, repurposedfor Covid-19 treatment, isbeing sold six times higher thanits actual price.

On April 17, the CentralGovernment capped the priceof Remdesivir currently man-ufactured by seven companiesin India. A 100-mg vial of thedrug manufactured by Cadilanow has a maximum retailprice of �899, Syngene’s �2,450,Dr Reddy’s �2,700, Cipla’s�3,000, Mylan’s �3,400,Jubilant’s �3,400, and Hetero’s�3,490.

But leaving no chance toexploit people and fill theirpockets, the pharma supplychains are selling the medica-tion by charging obsceneamounts, with no real guaran-

tees about the genuineness ofthe drug.

Sneha Lata, a resident ofKarawal Nagar, said she boughtthe Cipla’s Remdesivir for�20,000, which is six times thanthe actual price.

“For us now life is impor-tant not money. So we were indire need and did not have anyother option but to buy injec-tion from the black market,which was arranged by one ofour friends through a distrib-utor,” she said.

Several pharma compa-nies across the city are also

indulged in black marketingallegedly. A 40- year-old manwho did not wished to benamed said his uncle, whothrough a medical shop inSaket, managed to arrange fourvials for �40,000 but later on hecame to know that the vialswere sold for �55,000 to anoth-er person.

A source told The Pioneerthat if anyone wantsRemdesivir he should get intouch with his doctor in small-er private hospitals. “The doc-tors are not taking commis-sions but they are connecting

the needy with distributors ormedicines suppliers who takethe benefit of the situation, sell-ing these vials at a higherprice,” he said.

A few days ago, the CrimeBranch of Delhi Police hadarrested four persons in twoseparate incidents for alleged-ly black-marketing theRemdesivir injections in thenational Capital.

According to MonikaBhardwaj, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Crime Branch, twoaccused, nabbed by the policeused to supply the injectionacross the country throughone courier company based atChandni Chowk, Delhi.

In another instance, twoother accused persons werearrested from near BatraHospital, MB Road, Delhi, whowere trying to sell the injectionsat exorbitant prices. Ten vials ofRemdesivir were recoveredfrom the accused persons.

The accused persons use tosell these injections in black

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Ten workers of the BorderRoads Organisation (BRO)

died, seven are injured and 29 aremissing following an avalanchein the Indo-China border regionin Chamoli district inUttarakhand on Friday.

The accident occurred in theSumna area of Niti valley inChamoli. According to officials,of the seven injured rescuedfrom the site, six are being treat-ed at the army hospital inJoshimath while one has beenreferred to Dehradun. Accordingto the BRO, its team had reachedthe site of the avalanche wheredetails of the incident and thepersons affected are being ascer-tained. The Director General ofPolice, Ashok Kumar, informedthat a total of 430 BRO workerswere at two sites when theavalanche occurred. Of theseworkers, 384 reached the ITBPand army camps safely. The IndoTibetan Border Police and armycamps at Sumna are safe, headded.

Meanwhile, Chief MinisterTirath Singh Rawat along withState Minister for DisasterManagement Dhan Singh Rawat

undertook an aerial survey of theaffected area on Saturday morn-ing. The CM told media personsin Chamoli that the army, ITBP,SDRF and NDRF teams are con-ducting rescue and relief worksat the site which had been expe-riencing considerable snowfall.

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The horror of Oxygen short-age came to haunt a private

hospital in Amritsar as sixpatients died allegedly due to ashortage of the life saving oxy-gen during the time of Covidpandemic, prompting PunjabGovernment to order a probeinto the incident.

The hospital said five of thesix patients were infected withCovid-19. Sunil Devgan, thechairman and managing direc-tor of Neelkant hospital wherethe deaths occurred, allegedthat despite the district admin-

istration being repeatedly askedto extend help, no one turnedup to do the needful. He saidsix patients, including twowomen, died due to the short-age of oxygen.

Punjab Medical EducationMinister OP Soni, however,refuted the charge and claimedthat no proper informationwas given by the hospital aboutany shortage of oxygen. Heclaimed a mere simple messagewas dropped in a WhatsAppgroup to the administration.

As soon as Punjab ChiefMinister Capt Amarinder Singhcame to know about the inci-

dent, he ordered the AmritsarDeputy Commissioner (DC) toinitiate a thorough probe. Healso said the hospital primafacie seemed to have floutedorders given to all private hos-pitals facing oxygen shortage toshift their patients toGovernment medical colleges.

Devgan claimed that afterthe death of patients, only fiveoxygen cylinders were sup-plied to the hospital. The hos-pital chairman claimed thatthree main oxygen suppliershave said that Governmenthospitals are being prioritised.

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Covid patients continue tohave nightmare in the

national Capital for want ofoxygen. Twenty-one of themdied in Jaipur Golden Hospital,while it was touch and go affairfor hundreds of others who sur-vived due to replenishment ofoxygen in the nick of time.

As oxygen supply began torun out and patients and TVchannels screamed the plightof patients and their relatives,Batra Hospital in Delhi’sTughlakabad Institutional Areareceived emergency oxygensupply from the DelhiGovernment moments after itexhausted its stock.

Similarly, many other hos-pitals received supply in thenick of time. The countdownfor the next delivery is on.

Delhi’s Saroj hospitalclosed admission to patients onSaturday due to oxygen supplyshortage. The Rohini-basedhospital started dischargingpatients amid the crisis andclosed new admissions. DoctorMayur, who is the incharge ofthe Covid ward at the hospital,said the facility has 70 criticalpatients, and there could be a“big disaster” if the hospitaldoesn’t get oxygen in time.

The crisis turned cata-strophic as 20 critically illpatients admitted at JaipurGolden Hospital at Rohini,died overnight. “The oxygen

pressure has dipped as we arerunning out of stock,” Dr DKBaluja, Jaipur Golden Hospitalmedical director, told PTI.

He said the hospital hasover 200 patients and they hadonly half an hour of oxygen wasleft at 10:45 am. It received thelast refill of oxygen aroundmidnight, after hours of delay.

“Nobody has promisedanything. Everybody is sayingwe will do our best,” the med-ical director said when asked ifthe hospital received any helpfrom the Government. DrBaluja said the hospital has over200 patients and 80 per cent ofthem are on oxygen support.Around 35 patients are in theICU, he said.

The hospital was to receiveits quota of oxygen at 05:30 pmbut the supply did not reach it

till midnight. Even then, thehospital just received 40 percent of its allocated quota andis again in a situation of crisis.

Incidentally, 25 Covidpatients had died in elite SirGanga Ram Hospital on Friday.

Executive Director of BatraHospital, Sudhanshu Bankata,said the healthcare facilityexhausted its oxygen stock ataround 9 am.

“We received an emer-gency supply from the Delhigovernment during the day. Itwill last another one-and-a-halfhour. Our supplier has notbeen responding to calls,” hesaid. There are around 350patients admitted in the hos-pital, of which 265 are Covid-19 positive and 30 are in theICU.

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With States clamouring forthe supply of oxygen, the

Indian Railways has chalkedout a major plan for unhin-dered transportation of LiquidMedical Oxygen (LMO) acrossthe key corridors of the coun-try through Oxygen Expresstrains. During the last 24 hoursthe Railway Oxygen Expressesdelivered nearly 150 tonnes ofoxygen to health authorities inNashik and Lucknow.

An Oxygen Express traincarrying three tankers of liquidmedical oxygen arrived inUttar Pradesh on Saturdaymorning giving a big relief to

the State health infrastructurebattling a grim phase of thepandemic.

For the movement of theoxygen train, a green corridor

was created between Lucknowand Varanasi. The distance of270 km was covered by thetrain in 4 hours 20 minuteswith an average speed of 62.35

kmph.“The arrival of two trucks

of medical oxygen will meetaround half the demand ofLucknow for Saturday. Thestate capital will now be in abetter position,” AdditionalChief Secretary (Home)Awanish Kumar Awasthi said.

The first Oxygen Expresstrain that left Visakhapatnamon Thursday reached Nagpurin Maharashtra on Fridayevening with seven tankerscarrying the life-saving medicalgas.

Amid the spiralling coro-navirus cases in the countryand more specifically in affect-ed States like Maharashtra,Gujarat, Delhi, Jharkhand, the

demand for medical oxygenhas shot up.

After taking stock of thesituation, the Piyush Goyal-ledRailway Ministry explored thetechnical feasibility of trans-portation of LMO. It was decid-ed that LMO has to be trans-ported through Roll On RollOff (RO RO) service with roadtankers placed on flat wagonsand the services of which hasbegun by creating a “GreenCorridor” on the existing rail-way tracks.

In order to ensure thatparameters of transportationare tested, trials were conduct-ed at various locations duringthe last week.

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In view of the prevailingCorona pandemic, Allahabad

High Court extended all itsorders till May 31, 2021 anddirected the government aswell as financial institutions notto take any action during theperiod.

A Division Bench of actingChief Justice Sanjay Yadav andJustice Prakash Padia whilehearing a PIL suo motu said onSaturday that all interim orderspassed by the High Court ofJudicature at Allahabad as wellas at Lucknow, all DistrictCourts, Civil Courts, FamilyCourts, Labour Courts,Industrial Tribunals and allother Tribunals or Quasi-Judicial forums in UP overwhich this Court has power ofsuperintendence which weresubsisting on March 15 2021,shall stand extended till May31, 2021.

The court said that theinterim orders or directions ofthis Court or any court subor-dinate to this court in UttarPradesh which are meant to

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath on Saturday

interacted with Editors ofLucknow newspapers andsought their help to removefear and negativity from theminds of people. Yogi insistedthat the government is well-equipped in terms of beds,medicines and oxygen andevery effort has been made toextend immediate and bestmedical care to the patients.

“It would be a huge mistaketo take Covid as a normalviral fever. I am in the grip ofit and I have been following theprotocol since April 13 while inisolation,” the CM said.

He said that while review-ing the situation in UttarPradesh, one should keep inmind the large population anddemographic diversity. “Thistime, the wave is about 30times more infectious than thelast time. All necessary arrange-ments have been ensured bythe government for propertreatment of patients,” he said.

“Government’s preparationis better than before. Recently,when the lockdown wasannounced in Delhi, aboutone-and-a-half lakh migrantworkers arrived here overnight.

We promptly arranged buses,made arrangements of testsand quarantine as required,” heclaimed. He said that the gov-ernment made arrangementsfor oxygen plants at govern-ment institutions.

“There was a lack of thissystem in private institutions.The work is on to set up 31 newoxygen plants, including 18plants based on the latest tech-nology of DRDO,” he pointedout.

The CM admitted thatthere was some initial problemin increasing the beds, but itwas quickly overcome. “Thereis no shortage of oxygen in anyCovid hospital, be it private orgovernment-run facility. Theproblem is blackmarketing andhoarding which will be dealtwith sternly. We are going toconduct oxygen audit in collab-oration with IIT-Kanpur, IIM-Lucknow and IIT-BHU forproper monitoring of oxygen.The system of live-tracking ofoxygen demand-supply-distri-bution is being implemented,he said.

Oxygen is not in shortsupply, provided only the needypersons use it, he said, addingthat every infected patient doesnot need oxygen, and cooper-ation is expected from the

media in raising this point.“There is no shortage of

drugs like Remdesivir. Whenthe demand increased, we senta state aircraft to Ahmedabadand procured oxygen from apharma company directly.Again, even this medicine isnot required by all patients. Themedia should make peopleaware of this important fact,”the CM asserted.

Lucknow has a higherrecovery rate in the last threedays. Similar pattern is emerg-ing in Prayagraj and Varanasi.When the first case came in thestate in February last year, thegovernment did not have any

resources.“We had one lab which

started with only 72 tests inMarch, 2020. Now, we aredoing 2.25 lakh tests per dayand the same will be rampedup further,” the CM said,adding that UP is the only stateto have conducted close to 4crore Covid tests.

All necessary steps arebeing taken to increase the bedcapacity. In Lucknow alone,KGMU and BalrampurHospital as well as several pri-vate medical colleges, includingERA, Integral, Prasad, Hind,Mayo etc have been convertedinto dedicated Covid facili-

ties. Proper facilities of oxygen,ventilators etc have been pro-vided in all hospitals. Similararrangements have also beenimplemented in other districts.Separate nodal officers havebeen appointed for each hospi-tal in Lucknow. Beds are beingmade available to all withoutdiscrimination,” the CM said.

Test or treatment, the stategovernment has fixed the tar-iff rates for all, he said, addingthat action would to be takenunder the Epidemic DiseasesAct if they charge more thanthe prescribed rates. There wasnot a single ventilator in 36 dis-tricts last year but today, everydistrict has ventilators, hepointed out.

According to the CM,Uttar Pradesh is the first stateto have announced free vacci-nation for all. Nearly 8,000 cen-ters have been set up where freevaccine jabs will to be given topeople aged above 18 yearsfrom May 1. A committee hasbeen constituted under thechairmanship of the financeminister in this regard.

“Since January 16 last whenthe vaccination started, wehave continuously maintainedthe cold chains and have beensuccessful in preventingwastage. This new phase of vac-

cination will also succeed in itsobjectives. Our innovative useof the Integrated Commandand Control Centre is beingadopted by various states of thecountry today,” Yogi said.

He said some people areengaged in creating an atmos-phere of fear and panic. Similarmessages are being circulatedon social media from differentaccounts, he noted.

“These people need to beidentified. The enlightenedclass is expected to cooperatein it and the media has to playan important role in this,” headded.

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Amid the shortage of hos-pital beds, life-saving oxy-

gen and drugs, the secondCovid wave continued towreak havoc in Uttar Pradeshas 38,055 fresh cases werereported while 223 succumbedto the deadly infection in thelast 24 hours.

Additional ChiefSecretary, Health, AmitMohan Prasad told mediaper-sons in Lucknow on Saturdaythat 23,231 people were dis-charged from hospitals aftertreatment in the last 24 hoursand at present, there were2.88 lakh active Covid cases inthe state with 10,959 patientshaving succumbed.

During the last 24 hours,Lucknow reported 5,461 freshcases but 5,799 patients recov-ered and were discharged fromhospitals. The death toll in thestate capital stood at a whop-ping 42 while there are 53,143active cases. There were 1,468fresh cases and 15 deaths inPrayagraj, 2,786 fresh casesand 10 deaths in Varanasi,2,044 fresh cases and 13 deathsin Kanpur, 1,745 new casesand one death in Meerut, and1,344 fresh cases and twodeaths in Gorakhpur.

So far, 96.79 lakh peoplehave been administered thefirst Covid vaccine jab acrossthe state while the seconddose of vaccine has been givento 19.43 lakh people.

Additional ChiefSecretary, Information,Navneet Sehgal said that18,000 injections ofRemdesivir have been receivedso far in the state. He alsosought to allay the fears ofanti-viral drug being in shortsupply.

Meanwhile, at a high-levelmeeting, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath directed officials toensure that oxygen cylinderswere given to patients onshowing a doctor’s prescrip-tion so that those in home iso-lation did not have trouble.Besides, a control room, tospecifically monitor the supplyand distribution of oxygenacross the state, has also beenset up.

Lucknow (PNS): A film basedon the life of Congress leaderand former UP Chief MinisterHemvati Nandan Bahugunawould be telecast on the lateleader’s birth anniversary onApril 25. A freedom fighterand a Congress stalwart,Bahuguna passed away in 1989.

The film titled ‘HimalayaPutra Hemvati NandanBahuguna’ will be telecast byDoordarshan at 7:00 am onDoordarshan (DD National)and at 9 pm on DoordarshanBharati. On this occasion, thelate leader’s daughter and BJPMP from Prayagraj, RitaBahuguna Joshi thanked theUnion government for the film.

She said that the film on the lifeand struggles of Late HemvatiNandan Bahuguna will help inunderstanding his multifac-eted personality and will be aninspiration for the youngergeneration.

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At least four persons werekilled while seven others

critically injured during a four-vehicle pile up near Suhawal ofJahanaganj police station areaof Azamgarh late on Fridaynight.

Upon learning of themishap and loss of lives, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath con-doled the deaths and directedlocal officials to rush to the spotand ensure proper treatment tothe injured.

As per reports, two SUVscarrying over a dozen passen-gers were returning from a‘tilak’ function at the house ofChote Lal Pandey of Mau whenthe accident occurred onMohammadabad -Chiraiyakotroad late on Friday night. Twoother trucks coming at high

speed later rammed into theSUVs.

While four victims identi-fied as Ramjeet Singh (65),Sharma Mallu (22), SanchitaSingh (55) of Luharapur inMardhah and JanardanChauhan of Juri Chauhangaonhamlet of Mardhah died on thespot, Ajay Tewari, Ravi Pandey,Ramkant Pandey, SunnyPandey, Hari Sharma, HarikeshPandey, Aagman Khan ofLuharapur Mardhah were seri-ously injured. The injured werelater shifted to a hospital fromwhere four of them werereferred to Medical Collegefor Varanasi after their condi-tion worsened.

The police later registereda case and started investigationswhile the bodies were sentfor the post-mortem examina-tion.

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In a historic move to trans-form rural India, Prime

Minister Narendra Modilaunched the distribution of e-property cards under SwamitvaYojana across the country onSaturday.

On the occasion ofPanchayati Raj Diwas, the PMdigitally distributed the prop-erty cards (Gharauni) to 57,401villagers of 425 villages of UttarPradesh, in the presence ofChief Minister YogiAdityanath.

A total of 1409 villages ofUP have benefited from thisscheme till now. Over 4.09lakh property owners acrossthe nation have been given e-property cards, paving the wayfor villagers to use the proper-ty as a financial asset for tak-ing loans and other financialbenefits. Earlier, on October 12last year, as many as 41,431 vil-lagers from 346 villages of 37districts of UP were digitallygiven certificates of ownershipin the presence of the PM.

An official communiquéreleased on Saturday confirmedthat on December 15, 2020, theCM had handed over rural res-idential records to as many as10,041 villagers of 229 villages.Later, on February 12, 2021, atotal of 2,09,016 villagers of1001 villages from 11 districtsof the state received ‘gharauni’.

While launching the eventvia video conferencing, the

PM said that while the countrywas fighting a battle againstdeadly Coronavirus, theCentral government was total-ly committed towards publicwelfare. “This scheme will notonly boost rural developmentbut will also eliminate corrup-tion in the villages,” he added.

The Prime Minister alsoconferred National PanchayatAwards 2021, on Saturday,under these categories- DeenDayal Upadhyay PanchayatSashaktikaran Puraskar (to 224Panchayats), Nanaji DeshmukhRashtriya Gaurav Gram SabhaPuraskar (to 30 GramPanchayats), Gram PanchayatDevelopment Plan Award (to29 Gram Panchayats), Child-

friendly Gram PanchayatAward (to 30 GramPanchayats) and e-PanchayatPuraskar (to 12 States).

For the first time, thePrime Minister also transferredthe award money (as Grants-in-Aid), ranging from Rs.5lakh to Rs.50 lakh, by clickinga button. The amount will bedirectly transferred to the bankaccount of the Panchayats con-cerned in real-time.

Describing the importanceof panchayats in the country,the PM said, “Panchayats andvillages are the most importantparts of our democracy.Villages play a key role in ourIndia’s progress and making it‘aatmanirbhar’.”

Lucknow (PNS): Expressingconcern over the rising casual-ties due to shortage of medicalfacilities, All India CongressCommittee (AICC) chairper-son Sonia Gandhi on Saturdaydonated Rs 1.17 crore from herMPLAD fund for the treatmentof patients in her Parliamentaryconstituency of Rae Bareli.

In a letter to DistrictMagistrate of Rae Bareli, Soniasanctioned Rs 1.17 crore formaking available all medicalfacilities for the treatment ofCorona patients. She alsoappealed to the people of herconstituency to stay safe andstrictly follow Covid-19 guide-lines and protocol. She advisedpeople to stay home and not toventure out unnecessarily atpublic places.

"I am concerned about thesafety of the people in myParliamentary constituencyduring the second surge ofCoronavirus. I appeal to mypeople to stay home and safeduring the crisis. I have writtento the District Magistrate andsanctioned Rs 1.17 crore from

my MPLAD fund for strength-ening medical facilities in RaeBareli so that better treatmentcould be provided to the infect-ed patients," Sonia told one ofher representatives in RaeBareli.

MLC and former Congressleader who fought againstSonia Gandhi at Rae Bareli in2019, Dinesh Singh also wroteto DM of Rae Bareli for settingup a 500 bed makeshift Covidhospital for infected patients.The rebel Congress leaderoffered to raise funds and con-tribute from his own funds forthe hospital.

Five Covid patients gaspedto death due to oxygen pauci-ty at a Covid level-2 hospital atRail Coach Factory in Lalganj,Rae Bareli, on Friday.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath directed offi-

cials concerned to conduct aspecial state-wide sanitisationcampaign during the ongoingweekend lockdown. As a result,43 major municipal bodiesundertook extensive sanita-tion in their areas.

On Saturday, sanitationwork was carried out inLucknow with a special clean-ing drive in 59 wards andmore than 300 slums. A total of80 tractors mounted withsprayers, 3 smog guns and 350handheld machines were usedin the sanitisation campaign inLucknow and more than 3thousand employees worked inthe campaign. MunicipalCommissioner of LucknowAjay Kumar Dwivedi said thatthe campaign will be carriedout in all 110 wards and 609slums in two days.

A special sanitisation cam-paign will be started in everylane and locality in all districtsduring the weekend and peo-ple would be sensitised aboutCorona infection through the

public address system. In orderto break the infection chain,instructions have been given toset up control rooms in allNagar Nigams and NagarPalikas of the state. The controlrooms will receive and disposeof complaints about sanitationand cleanliness.

In order to break the chainof corona infection, a sanitisa-tion campaign will be conduct-ed in containment zones across

the state in the morning andevening. Besides, instructionshave also been given to officersto properly dispose of garbageand waste coming out of thesezones. The CM asked to ensureproper masks, gloves and PPEkits for all front line workersand pay off their salaries anddues on time.

Meanwhile, a governmentspokesman claimed that con-trary to the misinformation

unleashed by the opposition,UP was on the fast track ofCovid recoveries with 22,566people being discharged in thestate on Friday. The total num-ber of recovered patients stoodat an encouraging 7.28 lakh tillnow. In fact, Lucknow record-ed a total of 7,165 recoverieswithin 24 hours, taking thetotal number of patients dis-charged to 1.18 lakh.

Expressing satisfaction on

the recoveries, the CM said,“Amidst the COVID-19 pan-demic, these numbers come asa matter of happiness. I alsorequest the people to handlethis situation very patiently astogether we can overcome thispandemic soon.”

A government spokesmanclaimed that RT-PCR testingwas going on in full swing andwith this, UP became the firststate to complete over 3.8 croretests. In view of the surge inCovid cases in UP, the depart-ment of Medical Educationhas taken an initiative to rampup testing capacity and medicalcolleges and institutes will betesting samples three timesmore — as many as 1,64,000samples on a daily basis. Toensure that there is no crisis ofoxygen in the state, the CMwhile addressing a high-levelmeeting on Saturday instruct-ed officials to set up a 24X7control room in the office ofDirector-General, MedicalEducation and Training, whereofficials would keep a tab onoxygen supply and reviewavailability of stock on a dailybasis.

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Looking at the current Covidsituation and the ongoing

second wave, a city girl hasmade a film titled ‘House ofHazu’ based on pet abandon-ment because of the generalperception that animals causethe diseases.

Mansi Sood from Lucknowsaid this has a crisis in manycountries and it worsened dur-ing this pandemic.

“Due to misinformationand rumours floating aroundthat pets can spread coron-avirus infection, many peopleacross the world started aban-doning their pets, mainlydogs and cats. Animal welfareorganisations and individual

rescuers confirmed a spike inthe cases of pets beingabandoned during the pan-demic. Now, with job lossesand financial crisis looming

large, the figure is set to rise,”she said.

She pointed out thatabandoned pets lead a verypainful life, they don’t haveaccess to clean food and water,some of them get hit by cars orsuffer from exhaustionduring summer and freeze in

winters.“At times, internal and

external parasites literally eatthem alive. Earlier, we wantedto shoot live with a real aban-

doned dog to capture its realemotions. But as there was alockdown, we chose to go theanimation way. It gave usmore freedom to show whatev-er we wanted to show,” sheadded.

Pointing out that anima-tion has a universal appeal, she

said they also decided not tohave any dialogues in the filmso that it was not bound by anylanguage.

“We really want it to beseen internationally. I think it’sthe emotional factor in the filmthat has landed well with theaudience. Even those who don’tlove pets have tears in their eyeswhile watching it. Comparingthe dog to a child has hit peo-ple right in the gut and that’sthe reaction we wanted,” Mansisaid while talking about thefeedback which they havereceived.

“The film spreads themessage that animals aroundus and our pets don’t carrythe virus and they should notbe abandoned,” she said.

�"�0"�.0Sadiya Javed, an alumna of City Montessori School, Gomti

Nagar Campus I, has earned a Global MBA from theUniversity of East London, UK with a scholarship of Rs 5,00,000.She has brought laurels to Lucknow by earning this honour onthe basis of her social work in India and her academic record.Sadiya has worked with NGOs and has been a volunteer mem-ber of an NGO that focuses mainly on the uplift of the weak-er sections of society. Sadiya attributed her achievement to thepeaceful and motivational environment of CMS and its teach-ers. CMS president Geeta Kingdon expressed happiness overthe success of Sadiya and wished her a bright future. She alsothanked the principal and teachers of CMS, Gomti Nagar CampsI, whose hard work, encouragement and guidance helped the students of school reach new heightsof academic excellence year after year.

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What is expected to providethe much-awaited

replenishment to the existingoxygen shortage in UttarPradesh, the special OxygenExpress train from Bokaro,carrying four tankers capable ofholding 20,000 litres each,reached Lucknow on Saturdaymorning. One of the tankers isfor ensuring smooth flow ofoxygen in Varanasi while therest three are for Lucknow. Ofthe three tankers delivered inthe state capital, one is slated tobe rushed to Kanpur, as the citywas facing an acute shortage.

A senior government offi-cial said on Saturday that thethe special train reachedLucknow around 7 am and thetankers were dispatched todesignated places. However,another Oxygen Express trainwith four tankers left forBokaro at 5:30 am on Saturdaymorning, to bring in liquidoxygen from the steel plant toLucknow by Monday. TheIndian Railways have special-ly built a green corridor forthese special trains.

Meanwhile, Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath inaugurated adigital platform ‘OxygenMonitoring System for UP’ forall government and privatehospitals in Lucknow on Fridaynight. UP is the first state tointroduce this system.

Additional Chief Secretary,Home, Awanish KumarAwasthi said in Lucknow onSaturday, “The platform hasbeen launched in collaborationwith Food Safety and DrugAdministration, MedicalEducation Department,Medical Health and FamilyWelfare Department, Transportand Home Departments andRodic Consultants Pvt Ltd.Representatives of this compa-ny will be present in govern-

ment and private hospitals toensure smooth supply of oxy-gen in a timely manner.”

A web portal/link has beencreated to be used by officersand employees associated withthe oxygen supply chain.Representatives of the compa-ny will be required to uploadoxygen requirement details ofthe hospital on the portal.Once done, the nearest vehicleengaged in oxygen supply willbe sent to the hospital. Theonline system aims at solvingthe issue of demand for oxygenand save time taken to reachthe scheduled vehicle.

“The software’s dashboardwill analyse and inform if thetanker is getting delayed -either in filling or in trans-portation. We will create an appwhich will be installed in thedriver's mobile phone to act asGPS,” Awasthi added.

With the launch of thedigital platform, locating vehi-cles delivering oxygen as well as

real-time monitoring andtracking will be made possible.Representatives of the compa-ny will also be present at refillstations and cooperate. Effortsare also being made to gener-ate sufficient numbers of dri-vers on every oxygen vehicle toensure speedy delivery. Thenew initiative comes amidst theacute shortage of medical oxy-gen that various states are fac-ing.

Meanwhile, for augment-ing the supply of oxygen, 13oxygen plants, eight oxygengenerator plants will be set upat government hospitals.Besides, the Medical Educationdepartment will procure 5,000jumbo oxygen cylinders at thecost of Rs 8 crore. Each cylin-der will contain 46.7 litres ofoxygen, thus adding over 2.33lakh litres of oxygen. The sup-ply of the jumbo cylinders islikely to start in the next 2-3days and these cylinders willmeet the refill requirements of

the hospitals and medical col-leges. The Medical Educationdepartment has also releasedRs 1 crore for setting up an oxy-gen plant at Jalaun MedicalCollege.

Principal Secretary,Medical Education, AlokKumar said Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath had issueddirected the officials of thedepartment to apprise the gov-ernment of the requirement ofhospitals for treatment ofCovid-19 and there is nodearth of funds for saving theprecious lives.

Kumar said the jumbo oxy-gen cylinders will be stored atthe Cancer Institute inLucknow and they will be sentto different districts as per therequirement. He said the sup-ply of the jumbo cylinderswould begin soon and everythird day, 500 cylinders arelikely to be supplied by vendorsto the Medical Educationdepartment.

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The state capital recorded thehighest number of single-

day deaths with 42 fatalities onSaturday even as it has wit-nessed more than 50,000 casesin the last 10 days with over5,000 testing positive on adaily basis. Incidentally, doctorsadmit that the figures would bemore than the official numbersconsidering several people whodo not get tested despite symp-toms while asymptomaticpatients move around withoutrealising that they are spread-ing the virus.

Officials said that close to30,000 tests are being con-ducted in the district, which isthe highest in the state. Theonly relief is that the figureshave remained stabilisedaround 5,000 even as UP clos-es in on 40,000 cases per day.

Lucknow recorded closeto 5461 cases on Saturday whilethe number of patients whorecovered was 5,799.

Nodal officer for Covid atKGMU Dr Surya Kant Tripathisaid that 42 deaths on a singleday was the cumulative effectof the cases in the last twoweeks. He pointed out that thetotal number of deaths is stilllow by looking at the death rate.

“The death rate is still lowand not very high if we takeinto account the total numberof people testing positive,” hesaid. Dr Tripathi stressed thatthe trend of deaths still showedthat most of the deceased werethose aged above 60 years withco-morbidities, as was the casein the first Covid wave.

Dr Tripathi said that aftertaking charge of the KGMUCovid facility, he would ensure‘dawai’, ‘safai’ and ‘sunwai’,which means that medicineswill be provided, cleanlinessmaintained and patients’ prob-lems heard.

Meanwhile, looking intothe increasing number of Covidcases, DM incharge RoshanJacob carried out an on-siteinspection of the AliganjCommunity Health Centre onSaturday. She directed the med-ical staff to ensure that those inhome isolation should be giventheir medicine kits and briefedabout the same. She said theteams should tour the areaand carry out antigen testsand medicine should be imme-diately given to those havingCovid symptoms. She also saidthat monitoring should be car-ried out by the IntegratedControl and Command Centreand after a review of the RRTteams’ reports, a micro-planshould be made for the nextday. During her inspection,she found that the homes of theCovid patients were taped and

barricaded by Nagar Nigam.The DM incharge said that thebarricading and taping createsan ambience of fear and henceshe directed the municipalcommissioner to stress moreon monitoring that people donot step out of their houses.

She also said that the denseareas need to be sanitised on aregular basis. While inspectingRahimnagar under the AliganjCommunity Health Centrearea, Jacob found that the labtechnician was missing whilethe staff nurse could not give asatisfactory answer about thenumber of medicine kits dis-tributed.

The DM incharge gavedirections to the CMO to sus-pend the teams for dissatisfac-tory work. Directions werealso given to ensure that theteams visiting homes on a dailybasis should give the requirednumber of kits and report thenumber of homes visited dur-ing the day.

Jacob further said that acampaign regarding the back-log of coronavirus cases is

being carried out and the offi-cials concerned should be pro-vided with the informationregarding that.

Meanwhile, in a separatemeeting held by the DMincharge, she said that themembers of teams doing Covidduties should be given PPE kits,masks, gloves etc.

She said that 18-40 teamsshould be increased in Aliganj,13-30 in Alambagh, 10-20 inIndiranagar, 5-15 in Red Cross,10-15 in Silver Jubilee, 15-30 inChinhat, 12-20 in Sarojininagarand 4-10 in Mohanlalganj.

Although the influx ofrequests for admission to gov-ernment hospitals continued atthe Integrated Control andCommand Centre on Saturday,at some hospitals the rush ofthe patients was less after theprivate hospitals were put inpublic domain.

Nodal officer for Covid atLok Bandhu Hospital Dr ArunTewari said it has made a dif-ference and the pressure of theinflux of patients to the hospi-tal has reduced.

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District Magistrate inchargeRoshan Jacob said on

Saturday that Covid testing isbeing carried out in 24 privatelabs of the city and all the gov-ernment labs where peoplecan go and get themselves test-ed for coronavirus infection.

She said the charges fixedfor private pathologies are Rs700 per test. However, if thesamples are collected at thedoorstep, the charges are Rs900. The DM said she hasasked maximum pathologies tokeep the facility of sending stafffor doorstep collection ready.

According to the DM,Covid tests are being carriedout at Shekhar Hospital inIndiranagar, Mayo MedicalCentre in Gomtinagar, CoreDiagnostics on Park Road,Modern Diagnostics inAshiyana, ChakradharDiagnostics in Chowk,Chandan Lab in Jankipuram,Life Care Diagnostics inChowk, ShambhaviDiagnostics in Gomtinagar,Khanna Diagnostics inMalihabad, Vivekananda

Polyclinic in Niralanagar,Apollo Medics in Ashiyana,Medanta Hospital at ShaheedPath, Nivaran Pathology inAliganj, RML Pathology inNiralanagar, Midland Hospitalin Mahanagar, Oliv Health onPark Road, Health City inGomtinagar, IpsumDiagnostics in Gomtinagar,SRL at Janki Plaza, PathkindDiagnostics, New LucknowDiagnostics in Aliganj, ParkDiagnostic Centre on ParkRoad and Dr Lal Path Labs inVikasnagar.

The DM also released a listof 119 vaccination centreswhere people can get vaccinat-ed from 9 am to 5 pm. The vac-cination centres includeVABMC, KGMU, SGPGI,Aishbagh Health Centre,Aliganj Health Centre,Faizabad Road Health Centre,NK Road Urban Health Centre,Red Cross Health Centre, SilverJubilee Health Centre,Tudiaganj Health Centre,Bakshi-Ka-Talab CHC,Gosainganj CHC, GudambaCHC, Kakori CHC, ItaunjaCHC, Mall CHC, NagramCHC, Sarojininagar CHC,

UPHC, Khurramnagar,Kharagpur, Rajendranagar,Naka, IIM Road, Ujariaon,Sewa Sadan, Daulatganj,Telibagh, Qila Mohammadi,Jiamau, Nilmatha, Saadatganj,Haiderganj, PHC at Khatwara,Ghara, Qila Mohammadi,Jiamau, Saadatganj, NewHaiderganj and other hospitals.

Meanwhile, looking intothe current oxygen crisis, theDM incharge said Dr Milindhas been appointed at theIntegrated Control andCommand Centre to look intooxygen supply in Lucknow.She said that over eight offi-cials have been appointed towork in shifts and keep infor-

mation regarding the move-ment of oxygen tankers in thedistrict and then ensure theavailability of oxygen in sucha manner that a minimum of5 MT oxygen is available ateach facility. These officialsare also supposed to monitor the refilling as perrequirement.

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Kaushal Kumar, an autho-rised distributor of med-

ical oxygen and owner of amedical store, was arrestednear his warehouse in DarogaKheda under Sarojininagarpolice station for selling oxy-gen at higher rates. He is aresident of Rohtas Enclave inKrishna Nagar. Several oxy-gen cylinders, four nitrogencylinders and two pick-uploaders were recovered fromthe warehouse on Saturdayafternoon.

There were number ofcomplaints lodged with theKrishna Nagar police in thepast few days. InspectorMahesh Kumar Dubey, alongwith his team, swung intoaction and conducted a thor-ough investigation. The policecame to know that the sourcefrom where the blackmar-keting starts was MarutiMedical store in Virat Nagarunder Krishna Nagar policestation.

The police team raidedthe medical store on the inter-vening night of Friday andSaturday and found out thatmore than 100 full cylinderswere being sold to people atexorbitant prices. The policecarried out a raid in Kumar’s

warehouse in Daroga Khedain the wee hours. Kumar waspicked up for interrogationand arrested after he con-fessed to his crime.

Commissioner of PoliceDK Thakur appreciated thework done by the police teamand announced a cash rewardof Rs 20,000 for the policeteam.

Meanwhile, police arrest-ed a man, identif ied asMohammad Hussain Ali, anative of Bihar presently liv-ing in Bazaar Khala, forallegedly raping a 19-year-oldgirl. The victim is a residentof an area under Wazirganjpolice station. The policebooked the accused for sexu-ally exploiting the girl bypromising to marry her andalso by assuring her a job.

They were said to be in arelationship for eight months.The girl realised that he wasplaying a mischievous gamewith her when he brought herto a hotel room in BazaarKhala to discuss the roadahead for her career. Insteadof that, he allegedly sexuallyexploited the girl. He works ata hotel in Bazaar Khala area.

The accused was pickedby the police from near newthe bus stand in Kaiserbaghwhile he was trying to flee.

Lucknow (PNS): Policeclaimed to have arrested twocriminals from GomtinagarExtension. They were wantedby the police for over a year.They were identified as AmitKumar Rastogi of KailashpuriColony and Sparsh Gupta (22).A stolen motor-cycle, Rs 500 incash and a bag containing abunch of keys and gadgets tobreak open locks were recov-

ered from their possession.The police claimed that

they were involved in theft inci-dents and auto-lifting. Theywere named in at least twodozens of criminal cases regis-tered at Gomtinagar policestation. The police received amessage on Friday night aboutthe location of the accused andthey were nabbed.

Meanwhile, two persons

were arrested by police lateFriday night from Gudambamarket crossing for being inpossession of 70 litres of illicitliquor. They were identified asJagdish Lal and Vikas, bothnatives of Barabanki. Thepolice said they had come toLucknow supply the liquor topeople as liquor shops were tobe closed for two days due tothe weekend lockdown.

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Though there was somerelief with four more oxy-

gen tankers arriving at thestate capital on Saturday, thedemand for oxygen stillexceeded the supply. At theTalkatora gas plant, over 150people were queued up to getoxygen cylinders refilled whileother gas plants also witnessedlong queues.

A senior district adminis-tration official said there wassome relief after the arrival offour oxygen tankers but thenthey were still far away fromthe huge demand because ofthe surge in cases. “Thedemand in the city currentlyis close to 8,000 small and bigcylinders per day,” he pointedout.

The official said they triedto supply the gas to manyagencies but most of the gov-ernment agencies said thatthey were getting regular sup-ply. “We have sent half tankersto two gas plants and one willgo to an agency on Faizabadroad, while two tankers will besent to two other gas plants inthe district. Most of the agen-cies on Saturday said that theydid not require oxygen. Thefour tankers which havearrived are additional,” hesaid.

The official said that withthe supply of these fourtankers, they hoped theywould be able to tide over thecrisis in the next two days.“The queues still remained atall the gas plants because wehave a limited number of sup-pliers and the demand is morebecause of the large number ofpatients in home isolation

with low oxygen levels,” hesaid. He said the gas plants arefacing acute shortage of man-power even as there has beenno increase in production.“The staffers at these plantscome from rural areas andthey are avoiding coming tothe workplaces since they wantto keep away from crowds andit has impacted the work atthese gas plants. The machinesare all working fine but thereis a crisis of manpower,” headded. The official said 20 percent of the people are procur-ing oxygen cylinders inadvance.

“When there is confidenceamong people that there isenough oxygen, the number ofpeople in queues for gettingoxygen cylinders in advancewill dip. Besides, the crowd ismore because people are get-ting the oxygen after waitingfor 3-4 hours,” he pointedout.

Meanwhile, president ofIndian Medical Association(IMA), Lucknow Chapter,Rama Srivastava said surgeriesare being postponed at privatenursing homes because theyare not sure about when theywould be getting oxygen.

“Only one OT oxygencylinder is in reserve. Even ifI need oxygen, I will be in dif-ficulty. Eighty per cent of thenursing homes are runningshort of oxygen and everybodyis in difficulty. There is no oxy-gen even for non-Covidpatients and patients are beingtold to go elsewhere,” she said.

Srivastava said they aregetting oxygen through agen-cies that are categorically stat-ing that they are not gettingenough supply from the man-ufacturers.

“The non-Covid patientswho have breathing difficultiesare facing problems becausethey are being treated with

some medication at home andif they need treatment, they aremoving out to governmentand private hospitals,” sheadded.

Meanwhile, a doctor saidthat following the first wave ofthe pandemic, theGovernment of India didrealise that there could be acrisis of oxygen.

“An amount of Rs 200crore was allocated to establish162 oxygen production unitsin 162 priority districts urgent-ly. However, only 33 factoriesstarted after a year. Producingoxygen isn’t rocket science asoxygen is 21% in the air.Oxygen factories are plenty inIndia in big and small sizes.They produce oxygen either byair separation units or by pres-sure swing adsorption. Merelyproducing oxygen is notimportant but the ability todeliver and distribute is a cru-cial factor,” he said.

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�� 1�/+,��-�(�� (��(��((�� $ ��%&'Lucknow (PNS): Dean of Faculty of Dental Sciences, KingGeorge’s Medical University, Dr Anil Chandra succumbed toCovid-19 at the Covid hospital on Saturday. He was 61. DrChandra did BDS from KGMU in 1983 and MDS from BHUin Varanasi in 1987. He joined KGMU as an assistant profes-sors on August 27, 1990 and became the associate professor onSeptember 29, 1995 and professor on June 29, 1999. He tookcharge as dean of Faculty of Dental Sciences on November 9,2019. His was the second KGMU doctor to have died of Covid-19 since the start of the second Covid wave. “With KGMU beingconverted into a Covid facility, the risk of catching infectionhas grown at the institute,” a senior doctor said.

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District Magistrate inchargeRoshan Jacob has direct-

ed 55 private Covid facilities toreserve 10 per cent of beds forthose referred by theIntegrated Control andCommand Centre.

She said that 90 per cent ofthe beds could be given topatients without the CMOreferral. She said that thenumber of empty beds had tobe displayed category-wise

outside the hospitals and theinformation would also beconveyed to the IntegratedControl and CommandCentre besides being uploadedon the portal.

Directions have beengiven to the Covid facilitieslike Vidya, Mayo, VagaSuperspeciality, AtharvaMultispeciality, Charak,Nishat, Makewell, Atlis,Vivekananda, Medanta,Lucknow Heritage, OPChaudhary, Chandan, Sahara,

Apollo, Tender Palm, Urmila,Kova, Kamakhya. Green City,Maa Chandrika Devi,Rajdhani, Sanjeevani, AdvanceNeuro, Sri Sai Life, KingMedical Centre, JP, A-One,Fehmina, SIPS, MidlandHealth Care, Ajanta, Charak,Jagrani, Sushma, CNS, RadhaKrishna, SHM, Rockland,Shatabdi Superspeciality, Baba,Sri Sai, Autar, Medical CareCentre, Medwell, LucknowMetro, Sun and Astha hospitals.

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In a much relief to the citydwellers and district admin-

istration as well, the OxygenExpress Train-1 reached theplatform number-5 of Canttrailway station with fourtankers of liquid medical oxy-gen (LMO). Meanwhile, theOxygen Express Train-2 alsoreached the station on Saturdaywith four empty tankers anddeparted for Bokaro SteelAuthority of India inJharkhand for the refilling afterthe primary inspection by theengineers of electricity andmechanical departments ofrailway.

It may be mentioned thatthere is an acute crisis of oxy-gen cylinders in the govern-ment and non-governmentCOVID-19 hospitals for thetreatment of corona patients.Few days ago, the PM had helda meeting with the public rep-resentatives and officers of thedistrict and thereafter, the deci-sion regarding providing theoxygen cylinders from Bokaroby the Oxygen Express Train,was taken. A tanker oxygencylinder had reached the oxy-gen plant in Ramnagar by roadone day earlier on the initiativeof the District MagistrateKaushal Raj Sharma. Therewas also a complaint that theoxygen cylinders were madeavailable to the corona patientsin black.

But it was not sufficient

and thus, the Oxygen ExpressTrain-1 reached the Cantt rail-way station late night on Fridaywith four tankers giving muchrelief to the district adminis-tration as well as city dwellers.The ADM, City Gulab Chandreceived the train and afterbeing unloaded, the tankerswere sent to Meditech LiquidOxygen Plant in Ramnagar forthe refilling so as the cylinderscould be supplied to the hos-pitals.

In the meantime, theOxygen Express Train-2reached the station around11.50 on Saturday and itdeparted for Bokaro after theengineers of electricity andmechanical departments ofrailway conducted an inspec-tion of the train and emptytankers as well. It is expectedthat the train will return latenight on Sunday with tankersof LMO and thereafter the cri-sis of oxygen could be min-imised to the great extent in thedistrict.

TELE-CONSULTANCYTO CORONA PATIENTS: Inthe present alarming situationwhen the outdoor patientdepartments have been closedin the government hospitalsand the private hospitals areavoiding attending the patients,the Ecure Group has come for-ward to provide tele-consul-tancy to corona patients just bypaying � 1 under the leader-ship of Dr Subodh KumarSingh, a plastic surgeon of the

city. He also issued two num-bers for any assistance- 639 0202022 and 639 020 2033.

To avail this facility, thepatients should downloadEcure ( early access) app fromPlaystore ( ios version willcome soon). They should lookfor Ecure Covid Care and clickit. Then they can select anyavailable doctors and get theirappointment by paying �1.This will be a video consulta-tion and is secure and end toend encrypted, Dr Singhinformed adding the doctorswho wish to volunteer cansign-up on ecure.com as adoctor.

While patients are gettingall basic medicine and advice,their follow up medical care isusually not possible. This leadsto the delayed treatment andcomplications. By telemedi-cine, patients will be able toremain in touch with a quali-fied doctor for continued careand early detection of anycomplication, he said.

� 1 is being charged as theappointment process goesthrough a payment gateway lestit would have been kept total-ly free. Volunteering doctorsare offering their services freeof charge.

He appealed to all the pri-vate and government doctors tocome onboard and helppatients in this unprecedentedhuman crisis. He also issuedtwo numbers for any assis-tance- 639 020 2022 and 639

020 2033.VMC LAUNCHES SANI-

TISATION DRIVE: In view ofsharp increase in COVID-19cases, the Varanasi MunicipalCorporation (VMC) onSaturday launched a sanitisa-tion and sanitation drive at abroader level in the city on thefirst day of the lockdown. Thedrive will continue on the sec-ond day of lockdown onSunday. The MLC AK Sharmaflagged off the sanitisationteams consisting of six vehiclesof Fire department, foggingmachines on two motorcycles,six jetting machines of JalSansthan and five water sprin-klers & six big foggingmachines of VMC. The super-visors of all the wards, employ-ees on duty for sanitisation andsanitation inspectors of all thezones were present with theirresources at the time of flaggingoff the drive. The dense areaswhere the infection was detect-ed more and the number ofcorona patients is graduallyincreasing, have been identi-fied, the MunicipalCommissioner Gaurang Rathi,who was also present on theoccasion of flagging off thedrive, informed and added,the drive will be launched insuch areas to control the infec-tion. The sanitation employeeswill clean their respective areasin two shifts per day besidessprinkling the bleaching pow-der in ponds, streets and spray-ing the anti-larval.

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The district administrationhas taken a tough stand on

the prescription of Remdesivirinjection unnecessary for thecorona patients by the privatehospital and issued notice totwo private hospitals regardingthis. The Health departmenthas cautioned the private hos-pitals for harassment of coro-na patients for this injection.

It may be mentioned thatthe demand of Remdesivirinjection has categoricallyincreased in the district afterthe surge in the cases ofCOVID-19 and it led to acutecrisis of the injection said to beeffective in controlling theinfection from coronavirus. Insuch a situation, the districtadministration received com-

plaints of black marketing ofthe injection. The administra-tion also received complaintsthat the private hospitals whichhave been turned into COVID-19 hospitals are unnecessarypressurising the family mem-bers of corona patients for theinjection.

Taking a serious note of it,the District Magistrate KaushalRaj Sharma and other officerscontinuously cautioned theprivate hospitals for prescrib-ing the injection only if neces-sary in severe cases. The districtadministration issued notice totwo private hospitals one situ-ated in Khajuri and anothernear BLW for prescribing theinjection to the patients unnec-essary, the DM informed. Now,the RNA Spectrum Machinesare available in the laboratory

of Sir Sunderlal Hospital (SSH),Banaras Hindu University(BHU) and with the help ofthese machines, the report ofcorona will be made availablein two days, the DM added.

The Drug Inspector, FoodSafety & Drug AdministrationOffice, Varanasi has informedthe Health department that asper the guidelines issued by theMedical Council of India(MCI), the use of this injectionmust be administered bytrained paramedical staff underthe guidance of skilled andexperienced doctors and it isnecessary only to the patientsadmitted in ICU as it min-imises the infection of thedeadly virus. The injection isadministered only in specificcondition and not in all typesof infection and in case, it is

used in unnecessary treatment,can lay adverse impact onother parts of body, the officeinformed adding, as perarrangement, the private-turned covid hospitals willpurchase by giving order directto the manufacturing compa-ny which will not make avail-able the same to anyone at locallevel.

The Chief Medical OfficerDr VB Singh has appealed tothe people to use this injectionin specific conditions and askedthe hospitals not to makeharassment of corona patientsand their family members forthe injection. Legal action willbe ascertained against the hos-pitals found guilty of forcingthe patients and their familiesfor the injection unnecessary,he cautioned.

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The effect of the two-daycorona curfew was clearly

visible in Prayagraj city here onSaturday. At the end of theweek, the two-day corona cur-few started at 8 o’clock at night.People remained indoors anddid not venture out of thehomes unnecessarily.

There was a completesilence on the main roads of thecity. Even the streets were notas active as before. Except theessential commodities in themarket, all the other shopsremained closed.

In view of the dreadedcondition of coronavirus infec-tion, people are now avoidingmeeting anyone. Morningwalkers avoided this for a fewdays. In such a situation, theproblems of the working classpeople have increased. Seeingthe Corona curfew, many peo-ple had gone to the village. TheCorona curfew will be onweekends i.e. Saturday andSunday.

A 59-hour corona curfewhas been imposed to break thechain of coronavirus, presum-ing better than continuouslockdown. This time theadministration is not beingvery strict in this curfew.Rather, seeing the horrific con-dition of Corona, people them-selves have now started lookingfor a way to escape. Seeing therising numbers of sick and

death around them, peoplehave reduced their exit fromhome. Many people havearranged the gym and exerciseat home.

Masking is mandatory dur-ing corona infection, its adher-ence has begun to appear to alarge extent. However, the dis-trict administration hasdeployed 100 sector magis-trates to take action againstthose who do not wear masks.

All of them have been instruct-ed not to hate the people.People who do not wear maskmust be persuaded if they donot obey, then impose challanon them. Their activity hasincreased on the day of Coronacurfew.

Essential services contin-ued at the Corona curfew onSaturday. Hospitals and drugshops were open. Fruit andvegetable carts were running in

the street. The Corona curfewwill remain until seven in themorning on Monday. For solong, people living in homeswill reduce the corona infec-tion. On the other hand, dur-ing the Corona curfew, sanita-tion was being carried outfrom place to place in the cityby the administration.Municipal vehicles wereengaged for carrying out thesanitisation.

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The Kotwali police ofPrayagraj claimed to have

nabbed three persons involvedin black marketing ofRemdesivir injection. The copsof the Kotwali police stationwere constantly getting infor-mation about black marketingof Remdesivir injection regard-ing COVID-19. Police laid asiege near Swaroop Rani NehruHospital, but no success wasfound.

On which the police hadlaid a web of informers. Thisattempt of the police was alsosuccessful and three peoplewere arrested on the exactinformation made by theinformer. During interroga-tion, the trio also confessed tothe black marketing of

Remdesivir injection.All the three crooks to

which they sold the injectionsused to say that whatever isneeded, it will be made avail-able. It will cost �50,000 perinjection. In order to save thelife of the patient, the relativeswere forced to buy the injec-tion. The black marketers ofRemdesivir injections in a shortperiod of time had earned ahefty amount.

The arrested miscreantssaid that they used to talk to thebuyer only on WhatsApp toavoid the police. This did notput them at risk of beingcaught. If someone called theirnumber, they would talk aboutchatting or calling onWhatsApp. When he was con-fident that he was really inneed, they used to settle the

deal with him. In addition, theyused to hover around the med-ical stores outside the SRNHospital to identify those whoneeded Remdesivir injections,and later negotiate and traphim.

The Kotwali police laidsiege near the main gate of theSRN Hospital as soon as theinformation was received. Allthe policemen were in plainclothes. After this, when thecops reached these miscreants,the miscreants got some doubt.A policeman was identified bythese people and then startedrunning away, on which every-one was caught. These includ-ed Vinod Kumar resident ofBegum Sarai MunderaDhumanganj, Rahul Shuklaresident of AmgodarShankargarh Halpata Indrapuri

Colony Barhna and AnuragYadav resident of Ramdevariyapolice station Kaptanganj dis-trict Azamgarh Halpata PatelNagar Sohbatiyabag.While Ajay Vishwakarma res-ident of Gumti PandilaMahadev police stationTharavai escaped.

PLEA TO OFFICIALS:When the entire country istroubled by the Corona pan-demic, some people are alsowarming up their pockets in it.The drugs used in coronainfection, including the injec-tion of Remdesivir,pulse oximeter, are beingblack marketed. Administrativeofficials should immediatelycurb this practice. This wassaid by senior leaderof Samajwadi PartyNandlal Nishad alias Nanda.

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The deadly coronavirus con-tinues to wreak havoc in

Prayagraj. On Friday night, 14people died, with 2,183 newlyinfected being reported in last24 hours. However, it was arelief that 2,309 patientsbecame infection-free on thesame day. Out of this, 93 peo-ple were discharged from pri-vate hospitals including Beli,SRN, and Railway hospitalswhile home isolation of 2,216people was completed. Thiswas confirmed by Dr RishiSahai, the Nodal Officer ofCorona.

Dr Sahai said that a total of11,089 people were screened onFriday. About 2,183 peoplewere found infected therein.Due to this, the total numberof active cases in the districtremains 17,000. Out of this,1,700 infected people havebeen admitted to 11 privatehospitals including the SRN,Beli, Railways, Kalindipuram.The rest is in home isolation.

However, due to shortage

of beds, many people have notbeen admitted. Many suchpeople are in home isolationwith oxygen in their homes.People are calling for beds.Efforts are being made to pro-vide beds by examining them.But thousands of infected peo-ple still need beds.

On the other hand, therewas a lack of oxygen in most ofthe Covid hospitals on Fridayas well. Oxygen was supplied insome hospitals but could notmeet the requirement. There isa high demand for oxygen inSRN Hospital, Beli and RailwayHospital.

Meanwhile, the secondwave of Coronavirus is wreak-ing havoc these days. InPrayagraj, there is a rapid tran-sition in the city as well as inrural areas. People from ruralareas are also bound to sufferthese days due to the deadlyvirus. However, there are stillsome people who are not fol-lowing the COVID-19 guide-lines completely. However, theyare being scolded by theirelders to wear masks. At the

same time, people are becom-ing aware of COVID-19 vacci-nation in rural areas.

COVID-19 test is alsobeing conducted in Saidabad,Handia, DhanupurCommunity Health Centre ofHandia tehsil. A total of 185people were corona examinedin all three blocks. Of these, 25people were found infected. Atotal of 97 people underwenttesting at the SaidabadCommunity Health Centre. Itfound 12 people infected.

Five out of 50 in HandiaUparadha, eight out of 38 peo-ple in Dhanupur Saraipithareported positive. 280 peoplehave been vaccinated inSaidabad. In Pratappur andHandia Uparadha, 60 peopleeach and 170 in DhanupurSaraipitha participated in thevaccination.

About 20 corona positivewere found in several villagesincluding the Bara Power Plantand UltraTech Company ofthe area including ShankargarhNagar Panchayat. About 169people who underwent treat-

ment for cold, cough, fever andbreath at the CommunityHealth Centre were examinedand 20 people were found to becorona infected when antigenreports came in it.

Patients found positiveincluded two from Bara PowerPlant, two from UltratechCompany, three at NagarPanchayat Shankargarh, threefrom Railway ColonyShankargarh, one fromLaundakala, one from Paguwar,one from Sonvarsha, one fromPathat Road Shankargarh, onefrom Barhaya, One from JanwaBihariya, one from Raniganj,one from Kotra MP, one fromSinghpur, a patient fromTelaghana were found infected.

Dr. Anoop Singh, theNodal Officer of Corona atShankargarh, got all the coro-na positive patients quaran-tined. Superintendent DrShailendra Singh expressedconcern over the Coronainfected patients growing in thevillages and appealed to thevillagers to take special vigi-lance.

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With 10 more deaths, thedistrict recorded anoth-

er big spike in the cases ofCOVID-19. As many as 2,168have been tested positive onSaturday evening increasingthe total number of positivecases to 54,959 crossing the54K-mark. And, with 10 moredeaths during the last 24 hours,the death toll reached 491.During the last 24 hours, 1,984patients have been recoveredand all of them in home isola-tion. The total number ofpatients cured in the district is37,576 including 34,530 inhome isolation and 3,046 inCOVID-19 hospitals. Thenumber of active cases hasjumped up to 16,892 reachingnear to the 16K-mark.

In the first report of theday, 748 positive patients werefound out of 1,859 reportsreceived and this figureincreased to 2,168 as per reportprovided by the Health depart-ment in the evening increasingthe active cases to 16,892.Earlier, in view of finding hun-dreds of new positive cases,with 25 new hotspots, thenumber of active hotspots hasincreased to 669 with 4 greenzones having been converted tored zones by a day ago. Out oftotal 3,082 hotspots, 2,413 aregreen zones and 669 are redzones.

The Health departmentcontinued vaccination drive at69 vaccination centres onSaturday including SVMHospital in Bhelupur, womengovernment hospital, divisionalgovernment hospital, commu-

nity & primary health centres,central hospital in BLW anddivisional hospital in NER.On Friday, a total of 5,380 ben-eficiaries were vaccinatedincluding 3,464 got the firstdose and second dose wasgiven to 1,916 beneficiaries.

DEMAND: Meanwhile,Association of Private Hospital& Nursing Home, Varanasihas demanded the state gov-ernment to extend the renew-al of private medical institu-tions for a year till April 30,2022. The last date for therenewal of the registration isApril 30.

The honorary secretary ofthe association Dr Ajit Saigalinformed that in December2020 and January 2021 last, thegovernment had asked the pri-vate medical institutions, clin-ics, hospitals and nursing

homes to get renewal of theregistration and added, thepapers and affidavits related tothe renewal of registration hadbeen submitted and the renew-al of the registration of all pri-vate medical institutions hadbeen made in January last butthat time is expiring on April30. In the present crisis ofCOVID-19, there is no signif-icance of the renewal of regis-tration done three months ear-lier as the same process will berepeated, he said and added,hence the association demandsthe government to extend therenewal of registration, donethree months earlier, for a yeartill April 30, 2022 because theprivate medical institutionsand hospitals are assisting thegovernment to control thedeadly coronavirus with theirfull might.

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DG/RPF awarded 7 mem-bers of RPF NCR team for

commendable works. Securityof passengers and railwayinstallations has always been akey focus area for RailwayProtection Force, NorthCentral Railway. In thisconnection, Video surveillancesystem has beencommissioned during 2020-21 at 4 stations with a zonalvideo surveillance control cen-tre for enhanced monitoring.Jhansi and Mathura stationshave been equipped with avehicular surveillance system(UVSS).

RPF team over NCR hasalways been doing a commit-ted job with hard hands andsoft hearts. During 2020-21,RPF personnel not only caught113 and 28 persons indulged inticketing frauds and drug traf-ficking respectively but alsoreunited almost 200 kids withtheir families and got the lostitem handed over back to theowners on numerous occa-sions.

Security personnel alsoworked diligently in coordina-tion with the medical team andcommercial staff for imple-menting COVID-19 protocolduring the journey. Effortsmade by RPF personnel in

serving meals to helpless andstranded persons during lock-down; guarding of railway sta-tions and rolling stock andlocomotives during lockdown;critical help rendered in safedelivery of 13 babies inShramik Special trains overNCR etc. are praiseworthy.

Presently 7 RPF NCR staffincluding inspectors are work-ing on deputation in RailwayBoard. Director General /Railway Protection Force /Railway Board awarded allthese force members with thecash award of total � 16,000, forthe timely completion of all thetasks given by the higher offi-cials with full devotion, honesty

and dedication. Among the awardees,

Satyendra Yadav, Inspector,Prayagraj Division, SanjeevKumar, Sub-Inspector,Prayagraj Division , PradeepKumar , Sub-Inspector,Prayagraj Division, ShailendraSingh Thakur, Sub Inspector,Jhansi Division, BharatBhushan , Assistant SubInspector, Agra Division,Indrajit, Assistant Sub-Inspector, Agra Division,Rajesh Singh Tomar, constable,Jhansi, Division. PrincipalChief Security CommissionerRavindra Verma congratulatedthese force members for theirachievement.

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One person was killed in aroad accident which took

place at Sidhaval Chowkunder the Pipraich police sta-tion around 4 pm on Friday.According to information, thedeceased was identified as

Azharuddin while the injuredas Kanhaiyyalal, both resi-dents of Kushinagar district.Both the youths were on theirway going towards their housein Kushinagar from Pipraichwhen a Magic vehicle comingfrom the opposite directionsuddenly hit their motorcycle.

As a result while one of themdied on the spot the pillionrider, who was seriouslyinjured, became unconscious.The police got the injuredadmitted to the MedicalCollege for treatment and sentthe body of the deceased thepost-mortem examination.

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The railway administrationhas decided to provide

additional stoppage to 02538/02537 Lokmanya TilakTe r m i n u s - G o r a k h p u r -Lokmanya Tilak Terminus spe-cial train and 09165/09166Ahmedabad-Darbhanga-Ahmedabad train atPokharayan station, CPRO PKSingh said. The 02538Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Gorakhpur special train fromApril 26 departing fromLokmanya Tilak Terminus willarrive at Pokharayan at 21.29hrs and leave at 21.31 hrs.Similarly, 02537 Gorakhpur-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus spe-cial train departing fromGorakhpur from April 26 willreach Pokharayan at 02.41 hrsand leave at 02.43 hrs. The09165 Ahmedabad-Darbhangaspecial train departing fromAhmedabad from June 1 will

reach Pokharayan at 20.43 hrsand leave at 20.45 hrs. Similarly,09166 Darbhanga-LokmanyaTilak Terminus special traindeparting from Darbhangafrom June 1 will reachPokharayan at 02.08 hrs andleave at 02.10 hrs.

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The railway administra-tion for the convenience of pas-sengers has extended the run-ning period of 05191/05192Gorakhpur-Panvel-Gorakhpursummer special train. The05191 Gorakhpur-Panvel sum-mer special train will run fromGorakhpur on April 24 and 28and 05192 Panvel-Gorakhpursummer special train fromGorakhpur on April 26 and 30.This train will run on its pre-scheduled route, stoppage andtime. Besides, all coaches inthese trains will be of reserved

category and passengers trav-eling in them will have to fol-low the Covid-19 preventionguidelines, CPRO said.

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Due to operational diffi-culties the cancellation of thefollowing DEMU trains will bedone by the railway adminis-tration.The 05033/05034Gorakhpur-Barhni-Gorakhpurunreserved special train willfrom April 24 remain can-celled until further notice,CPRO PK Singh said. The05371/05372 Gonda-Bahraich-Gonda unreserved special willremain cancelled on April 24and 25. The 05375/05376Gorakhpur-Gonda-Gorakhpurunreserved special will remaincancelled on April 24 and 25.The 05377/05378 Gorakhpur-Nautanwa-Gorakhpur unre-served special train will remaincancelled on April 24 and 25.

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In order to hold the panchayatelections in a peaceful, free

and fair manner a route marchwas taken out in sensitive areasunder Padari police station onFriday. Leading the marchSuperintendent of Police (SP)Ajay Kumar Singh appealed topeople to exercise their fran-chise fearlessly. He made them

aware that police was keepingan eye on every corner of thearea and on a call they will beavailable within few minutes.During the interaction with thepeople the SP tried to instilconfidence among them thatpolice was the friend of eachlaw-abiding citizen but wascommitted to dealing with nui-sance values with an iron hand.In the sensitive areas the SPwarned the outlaws andappealed to people to informthe administration for any type

of act to influence the votersand that their identity will bekept a secret and action will betaken against any illegal actinstantly. The march passedthrough the villages, includingChhatahaan, Chauhanpatti,Paindapur and other sensitiveareas. The SP was accompaniedby SHO Padari VenkateshTiwari and heavy police forceand Provincial Armed

Constabulary (PAC). On theother hand, in a meeting heldat Police Lines on Friday the SPgave tips to cluster mobileteams to hold the elections ina free and fair manner. He saidin view of the need for instantaction during polling 101 teamshad been formed and theywere equipped with commu-nication facilities. Besides, onesub-inspector, one woman con-stable, three constables andone homeguard were there inall teams. He directed the

teams to reach the spot with-out delay, sort out the problemsand remain in regular touchwith the area police station. Hedirected the teams deployed atthe state borders to remain alertwith the activities of the out-siders too. The meeting wasattended by the CO Sadar andother officials.

WOMAN DIES: Shockedon hearing about her hus-band’s death a woman lockedherself in a room and burntherself in Gaipura village underVindhyachal police station onFriday. According to a report,Vinod Kumar Pandey (42), aresident of aforesaid village,died in a private hospital in thedistrict during treatment.When the body reached hishouse, his wife, Mandavi (38),got shocked, locked herself ina room and burnt herself.When her neighbors sawsmoke in a room they went torescue her and rushed her to ahospital for Varanasi but shedied on the way.

INVOKED: Gangster Actwas invoked against six personsin the district recently.Madihan Station House Officer(SHO) Raj Kumar Singh saidthat criminals, Amrit Lal, PannaLal and Munna Lal, had accumu-lated a lot property and wereproving to be a threat to the soci-ety. To maintain law and orderMadihan police booked themunder Gangster Act.Meanwhile Chunar policeinvoked Gangster Act againstAslam, Sahil and Ashutosh.

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The railway administrationwill for the convenience of

passengers run the 05733/05734 Katihar-Amritsar-Katihar triweekly special trainfrom April 30 from Katihar onevery Monday, Wednesday andFriday and from Amritsar fromMay 3 on every Thursday,Saturday and Monday untilfurther notice. All coaches inthis train will be of reservedcategory and passengers trav-eling in them will have to fol-low the Covid-19 preventionguidelines, CPRO PK Singhsaid.

KATIHAR-AMRITSARTRIWEEKLY SPL: The 05733Katihar-Amritsar triweeklyspecial train will from April 30on every Monday, Wednesdayand Friday depart from Katiharat 22.45 hrs, from KarhagolaRoad at 22.45 hrs, from Kurselaat 23.22 hrs, from Naugachia at23.45 hrs, from Thana Bihpurat 23. 59 hrs, on second dayfrom Mansi at 01.03 hrs, fromKhagaria at 01.15 hrs, fromBegusarai at 01.50 hrs, fromBarauni at 03.10 hrs, fromSamastipur at 04.05 hrs, fromKhudiram Bose Pusa at 04.20hrs, from Dholi at 04.34 hrs,from Muzaffarpur at 05.30 hrs,from Hajipur at 06.25 hrs,from Sonepur at 06.40 hrs,from Dighwara at 07.10 hrs,from Chhapra at 08.50 hrs,from Siwan at 09.40 hrs, fromMairwa at 10.00 hrs, fromDeoria Sadar at 10.45 hrs, fromGorakhpur at 12.25 hrs, fromKhalilabad at 13.05 hrs, fromBasti at 13.34 hrs, from

Mankapur at 14.27 hrs, fromGonda at 15.15 hrs, fromBarabanki at 16.35 hrs, fromBadshahnagar at 17.38 hrs,from Aishbagh at 18.10 hrs,from Unnao at 19.14 hrs, fromKanpur Central at 19.55 hrs,from Etawah at 21.40 hrs, fromFirozabad at 22.35 hrs , fromTundla at 23.15 hrs, fromHathras Jn at 23.54 hrs, thethird day from Aligarh at 00.22hrs, from Khurja at 00.54 hrs,from Ghaziabad at 02.05 hrs.,from Delhi Shahadra at 02.28hrs, from Delhi Jn at 03.20 hrs,from Sonipat at 04.24 hrs,from Panipat at 04.57 hrs,from Karnal at 05.23 hrs,from Kurukshetra at 05.48hrs, from Ambala Cantt at06.55 hrs, from Rajpura at07.20 hrs, from Sirhind at07.43 hrs, from Khanna at07.57 hrs, from Ludhiana at08.50 hrs, from Phillaur at 09.06hrs, Phagwara at 09.59 hrs,from Jalandhar City at 10.40 hrs,Beas at 11.13 hrs and reachAmritsar at 12.20 hrs.

AMRITSAR-KATIHARTRIWEEKLY SPL: In thereturn journey, 05734Amritsar-Katihar triweeklyspecial train will from May 3 onevery Thursday, Saturday andMonday until further orderdepart from Amritsar at 08.25hrs, from Jandiala at 08.41 hrs,from Vyas at 09.00 hrs, fromJalandhar City at 09.42 hrs,from Jalandhar Cantt at 09.53hrs, from Phagwara at 10.07hrs, from Phillaur at 10.27 hrs,Ludhiana at 11.10 hrs, fromKhanna at 11.58 hrs, fromSirhind at 12.18 hrs, fromRajpura at 12.42 hrs, from

Ambala Cantt at 13.40 hrs,from Karnal at 14.32 hrs, fromPanipat at 14.58 hrs, fromSonipat at 15.32 hrs, fromSabzi Mandi at 16.44 hrs, fromDelhi Jn. at 17.35 hrs, fromKhurja at 09.08 hrs, fromAligarh at 19.40 hrs, fromHathras Junction at 20.05 hrs,from Tundla at 21.00 hrs, fromFirozabad at 21.20 hrs, fromEtawah at 22.18 hrs, on the sec-ond day from Kanpur Centralat 00.30 hrs, from Unnao at01.01 hrs, from Aishbagh at02.20 hrs, from Badshahnagarat 02.42 hrs, from Barabanki at03.23 hrs, from Gonda at 05.30hrs, from Mankapur at 05.54hrs, from Basti at 06.43 hrs,from Khalilabad at 07.17 hrs,from Gorakhpur at 08.25 hrs,from Deoria Sadar at 09.26 hrs,from Mairwa at 10.07 hrs,from Siwan at 10.35 hrs, fromChhapra at 12.15 hrs, fromDighwara at 12.51 hrs, fromSonpur at 13.25 hrs, fromHajipur at 13.40 hrs, fromMuzaffarpur at 14.27 hrs, fromDholi at 14. 54 hrs, fromKhudiram Bose Pusa at 15.20 hrs,from Samastipur at 15.45 hrs,from Barauni at 17.05 hrs, fromBegusarai at 17.23 hrs, fromKhagaria at 18.04 hrs, from Mansiat 18.19 hrs, from Thana Bihpurat 19.26 hrs, from Naugachia at19.50 hrs, from Kursela at 20.28hrs, from Karhagola at 21.06 hrsand reach Katihar at 22.10 hrs. Atotal of 22 coaches, including oneof SLRD, seven of general secondclass, 10 of sleeper class, two of air-conditioned (AC) third class, oneof AC second class and one of gen-erator-cum-luggage van will beattached in this special train.

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The society in which the civilorganisations were sup-

portive, cooperative and par-ticipative, such society will bemore effective, strong and moremature. In view of the increas-ing number of COVID-19cases the district administra-tion for the last one monthwere on their toes and donetheir best possible to ensuretesting, treatment and neces-sary preventive measures.Home isolation was advised forall the patients where COVID-19 symptoms were mild orthose patients who wereasymptomatic but had testedpositive for COVID-19.

This was stated by theKanpur DivisionalCommissioner, Dr Raj Shekharwhile addressing the pressper-sons on Saturday. He said as thenumber of isolation beds andalso the intensive care unit bedswere limited in number andonly serious cases could betaken up for admission andtreatment, the other patientswho were a symptomatic orhad mild symptoms had beenadvised by Health department

for home isolation and also bein possession prescribed nec-essary medications for thehome isolation patients. Hesaid the Uttar PradeshGovernment was providinghome isolation medicine kits toall those who tested positive forCOVID-19 and were advised tostay at home.

He said umpteen timesthere were many individualswho had negative COVID-19report but have similar symp-toms which were not so aggres-sive. He said for these kind ofpatients whom isolation wasrecommended, medication wasalso recommended at home.

He said to support theactivities of local administra-tion and the Health depart-ment, various civil societyorganisations were coming for-ward to help local administra-tion for better care of the homeisolation patients includingfree distribution of COVID-19medicines on request throughhome delivery services. Hepraised the NGO Parivartanteam who had started provid-ing Home Isolation Kits free ofcost for poor and needy per-sons who confine themselves to

home isolation. He said it hadbeen decided in principle thatthe request for home deliveryof medicines will be on firstcome first serve basis and thefirst hundred request will besent the COVID-19 kit within24 hours of the request madeon the telephone number givenby the Parivartan team. He saidthe administrastion has extend-ed all possible help to them.

The DC said as the num-ber of cases of COVID-19were increasing rapidly inKanpur city, the demand forthe oxygen supply had dan-gerously shot up. He said theUP Government and localadministration of Kanpur weredoing their best possible tomeet out the increased demandof oxygen in the Covid hospi-tals. He said to ensure that suf-ficient oxygen was made avail-able and to plan out the localrequirement by setting up thelocal oxygen generating plantsat all possible places.

Dr Shekhar said the UrsalaDistrict Hospital Kanpur, one500 Litre per minute capacityoxygen producing generatorhad been ordered and supply ofequipment had been ensured

by Uttar Pradesh Government.He said the new oxygen plantwill supply sufficient oxygen tothe District Hospital Kanpur.He said looking into the urgentrequirement of oxygen in thehospitals, the CMO, CMS anddirector of District HospitalKanpur to ensure that thisnew oxygen generating plantwas made functional withinnext one week.

He added in Kanshi RamHospital, one new 102 Litre perminute capacity new oxygenplant was required to fulfil therequirements of the KanshiramCovid hospital. He said for thisa site had been identified forthis purpose and the proposalwas being sent to the state gov-ernment for sanction andrelease of budget. He alsodirected the officials ofKanshiram hospital to monitorthe work progress on regularbasis and to follow up the pro-posal in the government so thatearly approval was given to theproposal. He said in case ofoverbilling in any private hos-pital Whatsapp Helpline(7307420650) has been startedwhich was functional between10 am and 10 pm.

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The Managing Director,Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail

Corporation, Kumar Keshav onSaturday informed that the UPMetro has successfully placedthe second steel girder atRawatpur which was muchlonger but weighed much lessthan the U girder. He said inview of heavy traffic atRawatpur, it was planned thatno piers should come in themiddle of Rawatpur Tirahaand due to this the distancebetween the two Pillars wasincreased up to 45 metres inthis section. He said this wasthe reason that in this span twospecially designed light weight-ed ‘Steel Box Girders’ had beenplaced instead of U or I-gird-er. He said UPMRC alwaysstrived to ensure that the MetroCorridor was planned and wasexecuted in such a way that

traffic movement did not getaffected.

He further informed thatthree locations had been iden-tified between IIT andNaubasta (Corridor-1), wheresteel girders were to be laid. Hesaid the first Steel Span had

been placed near Rawatpur, thesecond will be erected atSisamau Nala and the third onenear Vasant Vihar. Explainingwhy steel box girder, he said itwas in fact not possible to placea U or an I-girder of thislength at the said span hence

‘Steel Box Girder’ had beenintroduced.

He said the length of thesteel girder was longer than theU-girders that were being usedin the corridor but relativelylighter in weight. He said it wasalso to be mentioned that thelength of the referred steelspan was 45 metres, while U-girder had an average length of27 metres. He added that a 27-metre U-girder weighed about147 tonnes, while 45-metreSteel Span weighed about 120tonnes.

It was also informed thatthe three locations had beenidentified between the 23 kmslong IIT and Naubasta stretchwhere steel girders were to belaid. He said separate steelgirders were to be laid for up-line and down-line. He saideach 45-metre long steel gird-er was being prepared by con-necting 5 segments.

KANPUR (PNS): The apathyof the medical officials asclaimed by the District Judge,RP Singh, on Thursday clear-ly reflected the helpless situa-tion of the common man inKanpur who was running frompillar to post for admission toCOVID-19 hospital or unableto lay hands on oxygen cylin-ders. In the absence of beds,ambulances and oxygen the sit-uation had become worse anddespite the best effort of the dis-trict administration there waspanic among people. The rea-son was the dangerous spreadof COVID-19 in Kanpur. Itmay be mentioned here that theDistrict Judge who testedCorona positive on Wednesdayhad been referred to NarainaHospital, Panki but when hereached there along with the

CMO he got stuck up in the liftwhich malfunctioned forcingthe two to remain trapped inthe lift for quite some time.However, when they managedto come out the arrangementsat Naraina Hospital as allegedby the DJ were poor with hard-ly any doctor available toattend. The DJ had filed FIRagainst doctors of the hospitaland inquiry was going on.

The DJ’s bad experienceclearly was an eyeopener aswhen top officials of the citywere exposed to mismanage-ment then one can imaginewhat could be the situation ofthe common man. Ironicallyvery few PMS doctors wereavailable and were working ona skeletal nursing staff in gov-ernment hospital. It was shock-ing that despite the tall claims

of the medical body hardly anydoctors were available to givemedical advice on phone even.The calls were not picked upeven as alleged by many.Majority of the cases whichneeded medical consultationwere of very high fever andCOVID-19 and thus there werehardly doctors available to givethem advice. Majority of pri-vate doctors had switched offtheir mobiles and were notattending their routine patientswhich had left the people in thestate of panic. What one fails tounderstand that despite thetall claims of the districtadministration that beds wereavailable the picture seemed tobe opposite. There were dozensof complaints where despitereaching the hospital referred,the patients were allegedly

denied admission, leave aloneoxygen. Majority of peoplewere running with theirpatients in their private vehiclesbut they were unable to getadmission to any governmentor private hospital. It remainsto be seen what is the outcomeof the DJ incident. The black-market of oxygen and evenoximeter clearly reflects howdruggist and chemists weremaking big money in such asad situation. Several chemistshave been arrested for sellingOximeter costing � 800 at aprice of �2700 shows the peo-ple were involved in makingfast money. The free movementof processions and functions onRam Navami and the recentNavratri crowd certainly hadviolated the COVID-19 proto-col.

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0��!��-�� !�� KANPUR (PNS): Managingdiabetes during Ramadan fast-ing can not only be challengingbut life threatening as well andthus it was essential for the dia-betics to consult their doctorsbefore going on fasting duringRamadan. Diabetic who strict-ly follow their doctors and fastwith advice on diet and med-ications had shown good sugarcontrol and increased cardio-vascular benefit during thistime. However the other aspectof fasting during Ramadanwas serious health problemsand especially with COVID-19spreading dangerously all fast-ing Muslim have to be carefulbefore taking to fasting.

This was stated by noteddiabetologist, Dr Md Shahid,while addressing a virtual ses-sion on diabetes control duringRamadan on Saturday. He saidit had been observed that reli-gion was important for adevout Muslim and thus theytake to fasting despite knowingthat if can lead to hypoclycemiccondition which could often befatal. He said if one was diabetictwo then without the advice ofdoctor one should not take tofasting.

He said fasting for diabetespatients during Ramadan canalso increase the risk of com-plication in high-risk patientsthose having high variation ofblood glucose, kidney disease,elderly, heart diseases and type1 diabetes. He said in true med-ical sense high-risk diabeticswere asked not to undertake tofast since the risk of low sug-ars, high sugar, dehydrationand diabetic ketoacidosis (dangerous levels of bloodsugar) can lead to complica-tions. He said people who fastrequired medications adjust-ment to suit the calorie intakeand prevent hypoglycaemiaand hyperglycaemia.

Dr Shahid said insulindepended diabetes may requireless insulin and people in long-acting drugs may need toswitch to safer medication dur-ing this time. He said umpteendiabetic patients can have acomorbid condition such ashypertension, cardiac and renaldisorders, these medicationsneed to be adjusted since manyof these medications can causedehydration and lead to com-plications.

He said diabetes patientsundergoing fasting shouldbreak their fast if there weresigns of low sugar and highsugars. He said they shouldcheck their sugars 3-4 time aday and should end the fastimmediately if sugar level wasless than 70 mg/dl or more than300 mg/dl. He said the deci-sion to fast on each day shoulddepend on sugar controls,hydration status and acute ill-ness and people suffering fromany one of the conditions wereadvised to skip fasting thosedays.

Discussing the diet to betaken during fasting he saiddiet during Ramadan fastingplayed an important role in thecontrol of sugars. He said therewas a misconception of com-pensatory overeat during Iftarand Sahiri. He said fried foodand high caloric foods need tobe avoided. He said an Iftarshould consist of simple car-bohydrate of fruits and salads.He said one or two frugalsnacking in between Iftar andSahiri with low glycemic indexfood and complex carbohy-drates can be helpful. He saidan ideal balanced diet shouldcontain 45 to 50 per cent com-plex carbohydrates, 20 to 30 percent protein and and 30 percent of fat intake.

KANPUR (PNS): A teenagedyouth was killed while hiscousin seriously injured whena container knocked their bikenear Nai Bazar under theChaubepur police station onFriday afternoon. Irate mobblocked the GT Road anddamaged window glass of twovehicles. Circle Officer, Bilhaur,Rajesh Kumar reached the spotand pacified the situation. AnujYadav (17), son of Prem NarainYadav of Sujanpur, Chaubepur,was running a canteen in alocal factory.

He had gone to buy a mobilephone from Chaubepur townwith his cousin Anoop on bike.After purchasing the cellphone,when he moved ahead, a con-tainer coming from Kanpurknocked the bike and killedhim on the spot.

CO said the truck and its dri-ver had been taken into cus-tody.

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The Border Security Force (BSF) onSaturday said two Pakistani drones

made an intrusion bid along theInternational border in the Arnia sectorof Jammu frontier thereby violating aceasefire agreement existing betweenIndia and Pakistan since February 24-25.

However, the intrusion bid was foiledby the BSF jawans.

S P S SANDHU, DIG BSF in a state-ment said, "during the early morninghours, two Drones/UAV were observedentering from the Pakistan side andimmediately fired upon by vigilant BSFtroops which compelled it to retreat backto Pakistan territory" .

DIG BSF also claimed the BSF intel-ligence branch was receiving inputs aboutpossible use of Drones by Pakistan for fer-rying arms and ammunition from Pakistaninto Indian side. Accordingly the troopswere on high alert and the border domi-nation was exponentially increased.

He said despite the existence of a

ceasefire agreement between Pakistanand India, Pakistan Rangers have notstopped their nefarious activities againstIndia and carried on with their ill motiveson the International Border inJammu.

Before the ceasefire agreement cameinto picture Pakistan Rangers were regu-larly violating the International Boundarythrough Drone intrusions and trying todrop Arms/Ammunition in Indian terri-tory but successfully repulsed by BSFtroops on Border. It may be recalled thatBSF shot down a Pak Hexa-Copter carry-ing a huge Cache of Arms/Ammunitionon 20 June 2020 at BOP Pansar.

Meanwhile, Budgam police Saturdayarrested a terrorist during a joint searchoperation in village Nagbal of Charar-i-Sharif.

The arrested terrorist has been iden-tified as Gulzar Ahmad Bhat resident ofBathpora Arwani Anantnag.

According to a police spokesman, thearrested terrorist was in close contact withthe handlers of the proscribed Al-Badr

across the border in Pakistan and alsoactive terrorists of Al-Badr outfit in SouthKashmir.

Arms & ammunition including 01Chinese Pistol, 01 Pistol Magazine, 14Pistol rounds, 02 AK Magazine, 58 AKrounds and incriminating materials of pro-scribed terror outfit Al-Badr were recov-ered from his possession.

In another operation, a team ofBaramulla police arrested three terroristassociates (OGWs) affiliated with LET,namely Rahil Ahmad Parray S/O BashirAhmad Parray R/O Kanihama, ArifAhmad Mir S/O Ghulam Ahmad Mir RIOMazhama and Naseer Ahmad Bhat S/OGhulam Mohammad Bhat R/O Singhpora.

According to a police spokesman, "thetrio was involved in recent robbery at J&KBank Khare Sherabad on 22/04/2021 aswell as a string of other robberies vis a-vis Grameen Bank Ogmuna on12/03/2021, Grameen Bank Panzinaraon 16/03/2021 and J&K Bank Chandiporaon 24/03/2021".

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on Friday

threatened to move theSupreme Court after the elec-tions to expose the deep-root-ed conspiracy between theElection Commission officialsand BJP to “unlawfully” defeatTrinamool Congress in theongoing Assembly elections.

Referring to the context ofsome WhatsApp chats amongDeputy ElectionCommissioner Sudip Jain,Police Observer Vivek Dubeyand some DM and SPs wherethey reportedly spoke aboutarresting “trouble mongers”from the Trinamool Congress,Mamata said she would take upthe matter in the SupremeCourt.

She said “these officialsare giving orders to detainTMC workers so that theycannot take part in votingprocess … this cannot be tol-erated,” Mamata told party

men at Bolpur in Birbhumdistrict adding “after the elec-tions we will move the consti-tutional bench of the SupremeCourt and raise these issues…enough is enough.”

Saying that the TMCwould continue to act fearless-ly she said her party had noproblems with the EC workingto conduct free and fair elec-tions “but what is it like whenyou work for a particular partyand against the other party …this biased behaviour is notacceptable … there is a con-spiracy to defeat TMC.”

Accusing the EC for order-ing the police officers to roundup the “trouble mongers in theTMC and keep them in cus-tody till 4 pm,” Banerjee saidthat she had received the con-tents of the WhatsApp fromsome BJP workers who did notsubscribe to that prejudicedapproach.

Alleging that every timethere was an election ECordered Birbhum TMC chief

— a party strongman —Anubrata Mandal to bedetained, Banerjee said “everytime they put Anubrata underhouse arrest during the elec-tions which is not fair … if theydo it this time the people givea reply in the EVM machine.”

Saying that “despite playingthis dirty game the BJP will notbe able to win more than 70seats in Bengal,” Banerjee saidaccused even the State policeofficers of getting carried awayby the BJP propaganda.

“The police too are actingas if the BJP is the ruling partyin Bengal … I will not tell themanything now … they are beingguided by the Commission. Butthe EC is here for a few moredays, after that they will goaway and then I will talk to thepolice officers,” Banerjee whohad earlier alleged that alongwith the central forces even theState police officials were alsoplaying a partisan role.

Holding the Commissionresponsible for the rising num-

ber of corona cases in Bengalthe Chief Minister said that shehad repeatedly spoken againstlengthy 8-phase elections thatthe EC would not listen to.

“I had repeatedly told thatthe polls should be held in oneor two phases during the pan-demic period but they wouldnot listen to this … theybrought more than 2 lakh cen-tral forces without testingwhether they had already con-tacted the disease and now thesituation in Bengal is takingalarming proportions … whois responsible for this situation,”Banerjee said.

Reacting to Banerjee’sstatements Bengal BJP vicepresident Jay PrakashMajumdar said “her threat tomove the Supreme Court onlyshows that she has concededher defeat in the people’s court… this is a sign of surrender …now after the defeat she is try-ing to find an escape route andso she is talking about going toSupreme Court.”

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In a major setback to the rul-ing NCP in Maharashtra,

the CBI has registered an FIRagainst its senior leader andformer State Home MinisterAnil Deshmukh under sec-t ion 7 of the amendedPrevention of Corruption ofCorruption Act and section120-b (conspiracy) of IPCfor an “attempt to obtainundue advantage for impor-tant and dishonest perfor-mance of the public duty”.

Having prima facie found“cognisance offences” of cor-ruption and conspiracyagainst him during aPreliminary Enquiry (PE)conducted by it into the alle-gations made against him byMumbai’s former PoliceCommissioner Param BirSingh, the CBI on April 21registered a regular caseagainst him and otherunknown people. It entrust-ed the investigations in thecase to Mukesh Kumar, DSP,AC II, New Delhi.

Three days after it regis-tered an FIR againstDeshmukh and others, theCBI on Saturday carried outsearches at Deshmukh’sNagpur residence and sever-al locations in Maharashtralinked to him and a few of hisassociates and questioned himfor a few hours once again.

Sporting PPE kits, theCBI teams visited Deshmukh’shome and other locations inMumbai, Thane and Pune.

As part of the PreliminaryEnquiry (PE) ordered againsthim by the Bombay HighCourt, the CBI had earlier onApril 14 questionedDeshmukh for eight-longhours on Wednesday in con-nection with the allegations ofcorruption made against himby the former PoliceCommissioner.

The CBI has based itsFIR against Deshmukh andothers on the recommenda-tion made by CBI’s DSP R. S.Gunjiyal who conducted thePE against the former StateHome Minister in line withthe order passed by the

Bombay High Court on April5 that a complaint made byone Dr Jaishri LamanraoPatil.

“The Preliminary Enquiryprima facie revealed that aprima facie offence is madeout in the matter, wherein thethen Home Minister ofMaharashtra Anil Deshmukhand unknown others haveattempted to obtain undueadvantage for improper anddishonest performance oftheir public duty,” Gunjiyalstated in his letter recom-mending registration of anFIR against Deshmukh and others.

Among other things,Gunjiyal also stated in his let-ter recommending registra-tion of an FIR againstDeshmukh and others –which has made part of theFIR – that now suspendedand incarcerated policeSachin Vaze, who had earlierbeen reinstated into the policeforce after being out servicefor more than 15 years, “wasentrusted with most sensa-t ional and important cases of Mumbai city policeand that the then HomeMinister was in knowledge ofthe said fact”.

While recommending theregistration of an FIR undersection 7 of the Prevention ofCorruption of CorruptionAct, 1988 as amended by thePrevention of Corruption(Amendment) of CorruptionAct, 2018 and section 120-b(conspiracy) of IPC, Gunjiyalquoted the allegation made bythe former police commis-sioner that Deshmukh andothers had exercised“undue influence” over the

transfers and postings of offi-cials and “thereby exercisingundue influence over the per-formance of official dues bythe officials.

It may be recalled thatthree days after he was shunt-ed and posted in a relativelyinsignificant post as theCommandant General ofHome Guards, Singh had inan eight-page sensational let-ter written to the chief min-ister Uddhav Thackeray on

March 20 alleged that StateHome Minister Deshmukhhad asked now arrested andsuspended police officerSachin Vaze last month to"collect" a staggering Rs 100crore per month from bars,restaurants and other sources.

In the operative part ofhis much-discussed explo-sive letter, Singh wrote: “....Sachin Vaze who was headingthe Crime Intelligence Unit ofthe Crime Branch of theMumbai Police was

cal led by Shri AnilDeshmukh, Hon’ble HomeMinister, Maharashtra to hisofficial residence Dyaneshwarseveral times in last fewmonths and repeatedlyinstructed to assist in collec-tion of funds for the Hon’bleHome Minister,” Singh wrotein his letter.

“In and around mid-February and thereafter, theHon’ble Home Minister hadcalled Shri Vaze to his officialresidence. At that time, one ortwo staff members of theHon’ble Home Ministerincluding his PersonalSecretary, Mr. Palande, werealso present,” Singh stated.

“ The Hon’ble HomeMinister expressed to Vazethat he had a target to accu-mulate Rs. 100 crore a month.For achieving the aforesaidtarget, the Hon’ble HomeMinister told Shri Vaze thatthere are about 1,750 bars,restaurants and other estab-lishments in Mumbai and if asum of Rs. 2-3 lakhs each wascollected from each of 3 them,a monthly collection of Rs.40-50 crores was achievable.The Hon’ble Home Ministeradded that the rest of the col-lection could be made fromother sources,” the formerC Pwrote.

"Vaze came to my officethe same day and informedme of the above. I wasshocked with the above dis-cussion and was mulling overhow to deal with the situa-tion,” Singh said.

On his part, State Homeminister Deshmukh – in atweet put in the evening --

debunked Singh’s charge andsaid: “ The formerCommissioner of Police,Param Bir Singh has madefalse allegations in order tosave himself as the involve-ment of Sachin Waze inMukesh Ambani & MansukhHiren’s case is becomingclearer from the investigationcarried out so far & threadsare leading to Mr. Singh aswell”.

On April 5, Deshmukhresigned as the State HomeMinister within hours afterthe Bombay High Courtordered a “Prel iminar yEnquiry” (PE) by the CBI intothe serious charges of cor-ruption made against him bySingh.

A HC division benchordered a PE by the CBI onthe ground that “there can beno fair, impartial, unbiasedand untainted probe, if thesame were entrusted to theState police force”, promptingDeshmukh to put in hispapers saying that in the wakeof high court’s order, “it is notmorally prudent on my partto continue in the post.

Alluding to a press releaseissued by Deshmukh sug-gesting that “ he is not averseto facing any inquiry”, the HCbench ordered an inquiryand said: “Such preliminaryinquiry shall be conducted inaccordance with law and con-cluded as early as possible butpreferably within 15 (fifteen)days from receipt of a copy ofthis order”

“Once the preliminaryinquiry is complete, theDirector, CBI shall be at lib-erty to decide on the futurecourse of action, also inaccordance with law. Shouldthe Director, CBI see no rea-son to proceed further, Dr.Patil shall be duly informed ofthe same,” the Judgesobserved.

“It is needless to observethat the preliminary inquiryand further action, if at allrequired, would proceeduninfluenced by the fact thatthis Court has ordered suchan action,” the HC benchadded.

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�� !" #�@*��*��A::��&&��)��()��In a similar situation, Apollo hospi-tal received supply after UP police cre-ated a green corridor for oxygen car-rying vehicle.

“Thank you UP Govt and UPPolice for timely assistance andarranging a dedicated green channelfor transportation of liquid oxygen forour #Covid-19 patients admitted atIndraprastha Apollo Delhi. This willgreatly assist us in our fight against thesecond wave of the #pandemic,”Apollo Hospital tweeted.

“Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has 29patients on invasive ventilation. To runventilators oxygen reservoir should be3,000 cubic meters. We are gettingsupplies of 500 to 1,500 cubic metersonly. We have 516 covid patients, 129in ICU and 29 patients on invasiveventilation. These 29 patients due tofewer supplies are on manual venti-lation since midnight. This can not gofor long . Staff is getting exhausted,”the hospital said in a statement.

“Today morning, our oxygen hadalmost finished when they gave 1.5tons which is now at 0.7 tonnes ,which will last for one hour only .Yesterday it was given in writing thatINOX will start giving 9,000 cubicmeters from midnight. In spite ofbeing in crisis since 4 am, INOX didnot fulfill its commitment and justsupplied 1.5 tonnes at 5:30am,” it said.

However, the hospital adminis-tration said it has received a supply of2.5 tonnes of oxygen.

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“Heavy police force has beendeployed outside the oxygen unitsto prevent oxygen supply to privatehospitals,” Devgan alleged.

Of the six patients who died atthe hospital on Saturday, two werefrom Gurdaspur, one from TarnTaran district and the remainingthree were from Amritsar.

The DC has set up a two-mem-ber committee, comprising a PCSofficer, Dr Rajat Oberoi who is alsoin-charge of the death analysiscommittee, and a civil surgeonfrom Amritsar, to probe the matter,an official spokesperson said. TheDC said that oxygen was being sup-plied to private hospitals withoutany prejudice and that the govern-ment hospital here was also runningshort of oxygen supply on Fridaynight. He said private hospitals hadbeen told not to admit patients ifthey do not have oxygen and theyshould refer patients to Guru Nanak

Dev Hospital in Amritsar.

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Several States including MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi StateGovernments approached Ministry ofRailways to explore whether liquidmedical oxygen (LMO) tankers couldbe moved by Railways and their sup-ply is likely to be delivered shortly, saida rail official.

Zonal Railways have been alert-ed on the demands from StateGovernments. Railway Board hasdirected concerned General Managersto be fully prepared and proactivelyassist the State and CentralGovernment Agencies in movementof Oxygen by Rail and has also nom-inated Nodal Officers in RailwayBoard.

The Union Health Ministry lastSunday said it has expedited installa-tion of 162 PSA oxygen generationplants in health facilities across thecountry, while the Indian Railwaysannounced special trains to transportthe life-saver and several industrymajors pitched in by diverting supplyto hospitals.

Under the initiative, emptytankers are being loaded with liquidmedical oxygen from Visakhapatnam,Jamshedpur, Rourkela and Bokaro.The need for transportation of oxygenthrough trains was materialised astrains are faster over long distances ascompared to road transport.

Trains can operate 24 hours,while truck drivers would need to takebreaks.

The PSA plants manufacture oxy-gen and help hospitals become self-sufficient in their requirement formedical oxygen, while also reducingthe burden on the national grid for itssupply of medical oxygen. The coun-try’s largest steel-maker SAIL, TataSteel and ArcelorMittal Nippon SteelIndia are supplying medical oxygen tohealth facilities. According to theSteel Ministry, 28 oxygen plants locat-ed in the steel facilities of both pub-lic and private sectors are supplyingabout 1,500 tonnes of medical oxygenevery day. Also, an additional stock of30,000 MT, including the safety stock,is being made available for medicaluse.

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market on higher prices. They hada set network of persons who supplythe injections on demand. “A total of81 vials of Remdesivir injections wererecovered in two cases,” the police said

Meanwhile, in Uttar Pradesh theCovid crisis has turned out to be a bigbusiness for the hospitals and chemistsas life saving drugs has either vanishedfrom the medical store or are availableat a premium.

Narendra Nath, a Governmentemployee purchased Remdesivir, acrucial drug for the treatment ofCovid-19, at Rs 16,000 per vial where-as its cost is less than Rs 5000. “I wastold that the drug is out of stock. Ineeded it for my son-in-law. As I hadno option I was forced to pay extra,”he said.

His son-in-law was admitted to aprivate hospital. The doctor called himup to say that he should arrange for6 vials of the injection. “Initially I pur-chased two vials at a cost of Rs12,000 but for the remaining four Iwas asked to pay Rs 16,000 per vial,”he said.

“I was told that the dealer hasjacked up the price. These people areheartless and are minting money at thetime of crisis,” Nath said.

This has become a full-fledgedbusiness for some and police arrest-ed a group of four, comprising twodoctors, at the outskirts of Lucknow. They purchased the Remdesivirinjection at Rs 8,000 per vial and soldit at Rs 20,000 per vial.

There is no limit to this extortion.Ashutosh Sharma, a businessman inVaranasi, contacted a pharma deal-er in Lucknow who asked for Rs25,000 for one injection. “This isalmost five times the market price,” hetold this reporter.

The Uttar Pradesh police havealso launched an extensive drive tocheck the black-marketing, hoarding,and overcharging of Remdesivir andother drugs used for the treatment ofcritical Covid-19 patients across theState.

The UP special task force (UPSTF) has been pressed into service totrack the unscrupulous elements,Addl Chief Secretary, Home, AwanishKumar Awasthi said.

Besides, police forces of variousdistricts have been conducting rigor-ous drives all across the state to curbthe hoarding, black-marketing andovercharging of essential Covid-19drugs including Remdesivir, FabiFluand Tocilimuzab.

The Uttar Pradesh police hasconstituted special teams to keep astrict vigil on the high-load areas tocheck the sale of fake Remdesivirinjections.

Meanwhile, reports from Ranchisaid black-marketing and hoarding oflife-saving medicines and medicalequipment is rampant in the State.Right from portable oxygen cylindersto Remdesivir injection, there arereports of people being forced to payan exorbitant price.

Middlemen at hospitals are

reported to be fleecing critical patientsby charging them as much as Rs 1.5lakh for 6 vials of the injection. Theyclaim that the injection has beensmuggled from neighbouring Statesand countries. However, no buyer orseller is ready to come on record andlodge a complaint with the authorities.

Similarly, equipment like PPEkits and Pulse Oxymeter, etc. arebeing sold on much higher ratesthan their MRP. Pharmacists inRanchi are selling Oxymeters at Rs2,000-3,000, more than double theprice of their MRP.

On a complaint received RanchiSDM Utkarsh Gupta raided somemedical stores on April 23 and foundthat PPE kits and other equipmentwere being sold at 4-5 times higherrates than their MRP. It was found thata PPE kit of MRP Rs 210 was beingsold at Rs 800. The Ranchi districtadministration has issued helplinenumbers to complain about black-marketing during the pandemic, butvery few people are coming forwardto lodge formal complaints for thesame.

The situation is worst in ruralareas and small towns where the sup-ply of medicines and medical equip-ment is less and private hospitals andnursing homes are cashing in on thehelplessness of people.

<��+��)��)��<��,�+��guidelines be adhered to in the vil-lages and all get vaccinated.

On the occasion, Modi launchedthe distribution of e-property cardsunder the SWAMITVA scheme.Prime Minister also conferred theNational Panchayat Awards 2021 onthe occasion.

Chief Ministers of eight Statesjoined the event, held virtually witha large number of local body repre-sentatives who connected to the cer-emony. Union Minister NarendraSingh Tomar also attended theevent. “I have this confidence that ifsomeone is going to emerge victo-rious first in this fight against thecoronavirus, then it is going to beIndia’s villages, the leadership ofthese villages... The people of the vil-lages will show the way to the coun-try and the world,” the PrimeMinister said.

As many as 4.09 lakh propertyowners were given their e-propertycards, which also marked the rollingout of the SWAMITVA scheme forimplementation across the country.

The Prime Minister said lastyear SWAMITVA yojna was imple-mented in six States and its good

impact had started showing-upthere. He said under this scheme,entire village land and other prop-erties are surveyed by a drone andowners are given their ownershipdocuments. He said just now fourlakh owners in five thousand villageshave been alloted their ‘e-propertycards’.

“SWAMITVA yojna has given anew self-confidence and sense ofsecurity to villages”, said Modi.

“Gaon ke ghar ka naksha, apnisammpatti ka dastavez jab haathmain hota hain to anek prakar kiashankayen khatm ho jati hain. Issegaon main zameen-jayyezad parhone wale jhagde bhi khatm huainhain”, said the Prime Minister.

Modi said Government hasgiven Rs 2.25 lakh crore in the handsof Panchayats for the developmentof villages, an amount so big wasnever earmarked for them in thepast, he said.

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operate till further orders shallcontinue to remain in force until mod-ified by specific order of the court con-cerned. It is further directed that thecriminal courts in UP which grantedbail orders or anticipatory bail for alimited period, which are likely toexpire, on or before May 31, 2021,shall stand extended for a period tillthat date i.e. May 31, 2021.

The Bench said that any orders ofeviction, dispossession or demolition,already passed by the High Court,District Court or Civil Court, if notexecuted till the date of passing of thisorder shall remain in abeyance for theperiod till May 31,2021.

That the UP government,Municipal Authorities, other LocalBodies and agencies and instrumen-talities of the state government shallbe slow in taking action of demolitionand eviction of persons till May31,2021. The court further directedthat any Bank or Financial Institutionshall not take any action for auctionin respect of any property or an insti-tute or person or party or anybodycorporate till May 31, 2021.

The court also made clear that incase of extension of interim orders asper the present order, any undue hard-ship and prejudice of any extremenature was caused to any of the partyto such proceedings, the said party /parties would be at liberty to seekappropriate relief by moving appro-priate application before the compe-tent court. Needless to say, the Stateand its functionaries will also be at lib-erty to file appropriate application inrespect of particular case for necessarydirections.

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With many hospitalsreporting a shortage of

oxygen amid aggravating coro-navirus cases, the PunjabGovernment on Saturdayordered the closure of opera-tions at the State’s iron and steelindustry to divert oxygen formedical use.

Oxygen along with LPG isused in induction, arc fur-naces and rolling mills to cutand shape the iron and steelitems to be used by differentindustry verticals. Iron andsteel units are mostly concen-trated in Ludhiana and MandiGobindgarh.

Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh alsoordered immediate establish-ment of oxygen control roomsat the State and district-level.Ordering closure of industrialoperations at iron and steelplants, said the CM in a state-ment, adding that the StateGovernment will convey itsdecision to the Centre.

The move has come hoursafter six patients died at a pri-vate hospital in Amritsar due tooxygen shortage. Taking stockof the situation, the CM said thecurrent allocation of oxygen toPunjab is not sufficient to meetits needs and said he has already

taken up the matter with theCentre, seeking an increase inquota on an urgent basis.

Sudden influx of patientsfrom neighbouring States hasput an added burden on theoxygen requirements of Punjab,the CM noted. Capt Amarinderalso asked for a feasibilityreport from the PowerDepartment on the use of ther-mal plants for providing oxy-gen for medical use.

Punjab has witnessed asharp increase in demand foroxygen over the past a few days.

The demand for oxygencurrently stands at 250 metrictonnes per day and is furtherexpected to go up to 300 MTin coming days on account ofspiralling Covid cases.

Reacting to reports ofincrease in the price of oxygenby suppliers, Capt Amarinderasked Punjab Small Industriesand Export Corporation todiscuss, negotiate and settle thepricing with bulk suppliersand inform the PrincipalSecretary, Medical Educationand Research, on the finaldecision. The CM also orderedPunjab Health SystemsCorporation to procure 100more oxygen concentrators,including 50 approved earlier,in addition to 234 alreadybeing used in Covid facilities.

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The UT administration of Jammu & Kashmir on Saturdaydecided to impose corona curfew during the weekend till wee

hours of Monday while 2030 fresh cases of coronavirus werereported taking the total tally of active positive cases beyond18000. Fifteen more patients succumbed to the virus across J&ktaking the death toll due to Covid-19 to 2126. The UT admin-istration Saturday also announced that COVID-19 vaccinationfor people in the age group 18-45 years will be cost- free in theUT. The twitter handle of the office of LG Manoj Sinha said, "Ithas been decided that COVID-19 vaccination for people in theage group 18-45 years will be cost- free in the UT. The cost ofthe vaccine will be fully borne by the government of J&K. Thehealth department will constitute a panel to work out thelogistics".

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As the country gears up fora fresh round of Covid-19

vaccination from May 1, theCentre on Saturday suggestedthe States to consider setting upof makeshift hospitals withhelp from Governmentresearch agencies like DRDO,CSIR and cooperative entitieslike NCDC or the private sec-tor to ensure a smooth rolloutof the drive under which alladults can take the shot.

The States have also beenasked to ensure adequacy interms of oxygen supportedbeds, ICU beds and oxygensupplies as well hospital staff totake care of any adverse event.

These were some of theseveral recommendationsoffered by the high-level meet-ing chaired by Union HealthSecretary Rajesh Bhushan andDr R S Sharma, Chairman,Empowered Group onTechnology and DataManagement to combat Covid-19 here.

Dr Sharma expressed con-fidence that the CoWIN plat-form is equipped to handle the

complexities of the new phaseof vaccination and asserted thatStates should upload correct andtimely data as any incorrect datawould compromise the integri-ty of the entire system. The reg-istration process on the gov-ernment platform will beginfrom April 28.

With regards to the PhaseIII Vaccination strategy, theStates were specifically advisedto register additional privateCovid Vaccination Centres(CVCs) in mission mode byengaging with private hospitals,hospitals of industrial estab-lishments, industry associa-tions, etc., coordinating withdesignated appropriate author-ity, mechanism for applica-tions/requests and their pro-cessing and monitoring of pen-dency of registration.

The State/UTs were guidedto co-ordinate with Corporateentities/PSUs/GovernmentDepartments for their CSRfunds to facilitate setting upmakeshift hospitals and tem-porary Covid care facilities.Cooperation with NationalCooperative DevelopmentCorporation (NCDC) for repur-

posing healthcare facilities forcreation of Covid facilities wasalso advised.

NCDC Managing DirectorSundeep Nayak said that hisorganization is gearing up to theoccasion and are in the process

of instructing our 18 regionaloffices across the country tohelp the States in their vaccina-tion endeavour.

The States have also beenasked to monitor the number ofhospitals that have procured

vaccines and have declaredstocks and prices on COWINand publicise the facility of‘only online registration’ for agegroups 18-45 year, said an offi-cial from the Union HealthMinistry.

Regarding infrastructureaugmentation for effective clin-ical treatment of the hospitalizedCovid patients, States have beenadvised to review their existinghospital and other Covid treat-ment infrastructure in light ofthe daily new case, daily fatali-ty and those that would requirehospitalization, said the official.

From May 1, all adults willbecome eligible for a Covid-19vaccine and doses can be soldvia the market in the govern-ment’s latest inoculation drive,

although people under the ageof 45 will only be able to receivedoses once private sales begin orif state governments procurestocks for distribution to theseage groups. However, thoseabove 45 will continue to get thejab under the Centre’s vaccina-tion drive.

“Deploying requisitehuman resources with propertraining and mentoring of doc-tors and nurses for managementof patients and strengtheningambulance services, establishing

sufficient referral linkages fordistricts with deficit infrastruc-ture through deployment ofadditional ambulances weresome of the recommendationsoffered to the States,” said theofficial.

They were also advised touse railway coaches for man-agement of mild cases and in themeantime, details of availabili-ty of 3,816 such coaches, across16 Zones of Railways have beenshared with the States, said theofficial.

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Receiving flak over the pre-sumption that people

might end up paying far morefor a Covid shot from May 1,the Centre on Saturday tried toclarify that vaccines procuredby it would be provided free toStates. However, the statementby the Centre was silent on thehigher prices of jabs sourcedby States and private hospitalsdirectly from the manufactur-ers even though the SerumInstitute of India, maker ofCovishield, justified the ratesaying that it remained “themost affordable Covid-19 vac-cine available in the markettoday”.

“It is clarified that theGovernment of India’s pro-curement price for both Covid-19 vaccines remains �150 perdose. GOI procured doses willcontinue to be providedTOTALLY FREE to states,” theMinistry of Health tweeted.

On the other hand, the SIIsaid that Covishield coron-avirus vaccine - to be sold at�600 per dose to private hos-pitals, at �400 to States and�150 to the Centre from May1, when vaccination opens toeveryone over the age of 18 isnot costly.

“Only a limited portion ofSII’s volume will be sold to pri-vate hospitals at �600 per dose.The price of the vaccine is stilllower than a lot of other med-ical treatment and essentialsrequired to treat Covid-19 andother life-threatening diseases,”the SII said in its statement.

“The initial prices (ofCovishield) were kept verylow globally as it was based onadvance funding given by those

countries for at-risk vaccinemanufacturing. The initial sup-ply price for all Governmenti m m u n i s a t i o nprogrammes, including India,has been the lowest,” the com-pany added.

The company also saidthat while the current situationis “dire; the virus is constantlymutating while the publicremains at risk... we have toensure sustainability as wemust be able to invest in scal-ing up and expanding ourcapacity to fight the pandem-ic and save lives.

There had been reportsthat at �600 a dose, people inIndia could pay the most, ofany other country, forCovishield at private hospitals.

Those getting their shots atstate-run hospitals could endup paying the full �400 perdose if states decide they can-not absorb the costs of procur-ing fresh doses directly fromthe makers, reports hadalleged.

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As reports of hoarding,black marketing and

overcharging of Covid man-agement drugs—remdesivir,tocilizumab, favipiravir andoxygen cylinder continue topour from across the States,leaving the patients at thereceiving ends, the DrugsController General of India(DCGI) has finally inter-vened, asking all State andUnion Territory drugs con-trollers to provide dailyupdate on enforcement activ-ities to check such nefariousactivities.

“In light of present pan-demic situation in the coun-try, it has been considerednecessary to collect the dailyinformation on enforcementactivities to prevent black

marketing, overpricing withrespect to Remdesivir,Tocilizumab, Favipiravir andoxygen cylinder,” said DCGIDr VG Somani in a letter toall State and UT drugs con-trollers.

He also asked all zonal,sub zonal offices of DCGI tocoordinate with state andUT drugs control authoritiesin the matter.

With a sharp rise inCovid-19 cases in the coun-try, the demand for drugs liketocil izumab, favipiravir,antiviral medication remde-sivir and oxygen cylindershas also increased.

This, in turn, has led to ashortage of these drugs aswell as oxygen cylinder andled to black marketing andovercharging.

Tocilizumab, which is

said to reduce Covid deaths,is priced above �40,000.There is an acute shortage ofthe drug across the countryas Cipla has run out of thestock while Remdesivir, a drug that isbeing used in emergency totreat crit ical Covid-19patients who are hospitalisedis also in short supply acrossthe country.

Antiviral favipiravir too isalso in short supply.Glenmark PharmaceuticalsLtd, its manufacturer hasassured that it has ramped upproduction capacity to ensurecontinuous supply of thedrug across the country.Same is the case with oxygencylinders which are beingsold in black market at hugeprices as high as �25,000each unit.

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Taking a slew of measures toboost medical oxygen

availability in the countryamid a surge in Covid-19cases, the Central Governmenton Saturday decided to waivebasic customs duty and healthcess on the import of oxygenand connected equipment fora period of three months withimmediate effect.

It was also decided at ameeting chaired by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toexempt basic customs duty onthe import of COVID-19 vac-cines with immediate effect fora period of three months, agovernment statement said.

This will boost availabili-ty of these items as well as

make them cheaper, it said,adding that Modi also direct-ed the revenue department toensure seamless and quickcustom clearance of suchequipment.

Modi emphasized thatthere was an immediate needto augment the supply of med-ical grade oxygen as well asequipment required for patientcare both at home and in hos-pitals and asked all ministriesand departments to work insynergy to this effect.

He was told that basiccustoms duty was exemptedon Remdesivir and its API(active pharmaceutical ingre-dient) recently, and a sugges-tion was made that the importof equipment related to pro-viding oxygen to patients

needs to be expedited, thestatement said, announcingthe measures.

The items to benefit fromthe decision include medicalgrade oxygen, oxygen con-centrator along with flowmeter, regulator, connectors

and tubing vacuum pressureswing Alabsorption (VPSA)and pressure swing absorption(PSA) oxygen plants, cryo-genic oxygen air separationunits (ASUs) producing liquid/gaseous oxygen.

Oxygen cannisters, oxygen

filling systems, oxygen storagetanks, oxygen cylinders,including cryogenic cylindersand tanks besides any otherdevice from which oxygencan be generated are amongseveral other items under thiscategory.

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Holding the CentralGovernment for its

“approach” responsible forleading to chaos across thecountry, the CPI(M) onSunday asked Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for full utili-sation of the budgeted �35,000crore and PM Cares Fund tocontrol the “tsunami” of Covidpandemic.

“I understand that theremay be financial considera-tions in taking these deci-sions. Immediately, spend thebudgetary allocation of�35,000 crores for the vacci-nation programme. I, imploreyou to forthwith cancel the

project for the construction ofthe new Central Vista in Delhi,put on hold all extravagantexpenditures and transparent-ly release all the money col-lected under PM-CARES fundand transfer the same for thesupply of oxygen and vac-cines,” CPI (M) general secre-tary Sitaram Yechury said inhis letter to the PM.

“In case you are unable toprovide oxygen and vaccines to

our fellow Indians and preventfurther deaths, your govern-ment will lose its moral author-ity to continue. This health andhumanitarian disaster is pre-ventable and must be averted.This is the basic responsibili-ty your government has to dis-charge, which it has failed to doso far,” added Yechury.

CITU leader Tapan Senand Kisan Sabha leaderHannan Mollah also urgedthe Prime Minister to inter-vene on the current vaccina-tion policy which is “puttingprofit over the precious lives ofpeople in the wake of thesevere health emergency” fol-lowing the second wave ofCovid -19 pandemic.

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As an IAF aircraft ferriedsome much-needed oxy-

gen containers from Singaporeon Saturday, Defence MinisterRajnath Singh on Saturdayordered all the defence publicsector undertakings andOrdnance factories to throwopen their health facilities forcivilian Covid patients.

Assuring that the defenceministry will take all steps tohelp the State Governments inmeeting the corona challenge,Rajnath also ordered morebeds for the Sardar Patel coro-na care centre in the nationalCapital.

Taking these decisions afterholding a high-powered reviewmeeting here virtually onSaturday, he also said a 1,000-bed hospital has alreadybecome operational in Gujarat.Another hospital with a capac-ity of more than 500 beds willalso start functioning in thenext three to four days inLucknow, he said. Both thesehospitals are set up with thehelp of the defence ministry.

Meanwhile, one C-17transport aircraft of the IAF leftthe Hindon airbase nearGhaziabad for Singapore earlySaturday morning to airliftfour empty cryogenic oxygencontainers. These containerswere later off- loaded atPanagarh airbase in WestBengal. These filled up con-

tainers will be transported tothe designated centres in thecountry.

Another C-17 aircraft leftthe Hindon base for Pune toload up two empty cryogenicoxygen container trucks whichwere then flown to Jamnagarair base. The same aircraft iscurrently on its second shuttlefrom Pune to Jamnagar, with aload of 2 more empty contain-ers.

Similarly, one C-17 trans-ported two empty containersfrom Jodhpur to Jamnagar ear-lier in the day, IAF officials saidhere on Saturday. One IAFChinook helicopter and oneAn32 transport aircraft tookCOVID testing equipmentfrom Jammu to Leh and fromJammu to Kargil, respectively.The equipment consisted of BioSafety cabinets, centrifuges andstabalisers. These machineshave been made by the Councilof Scientific and IndustrialResearch (CSIR) and nowgiven to Ladakh to enhancetesting.

In New Delhi, Rajnathduring the meeting said theDefence Research andDevelopment Organisation(DRDO) is adding another250 b eds by Saturdayevening at i t s SardarVallabhbhai Patel CovidHospital here.

The minister conducted

the review at a virtual meet-ing attended by Chief ofDefence Staff(CDS) GeneralBipin Rawat, Army ChiefGeneral MM Naravane,Nav y Chief Admira lKarambir Singh and DRDOchairman G Satheesh Reddy,among others.

“All health facilities ofDefence PSUs & OrdnanceFactory Board have beenallowed to provide healthservices to local COVID-19affected civilian population.The MoD officials and thethree Services are closelymonitoring the progress ofvarious initiatives taken bythe Ministry,” he said inanother tweet.

“The Indian Air Force istaking sorties to reduce thetranspor tat ion t ime ofOxygen and other criticalsupplies . One C-17 hasreached Changi airport inSingapore today. These con-tainers of cryogenic oxygentanks will help boosting theoxygen supply in the coun-try,” Rajnath’s office said.

The Armed ForcesMedical Services (AFMS) hasdeployed additional doctors,including specialists, superspecialists and paramedics, atSardar Vallabhbhai Patel(SVP) COVID hospital inDelhi to cater to the currentsurge in COVID-19 cases.

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Expressing concern that theenforcement of Covid-

appropriate behaviour in WestBengal has been “less thanadequate”, the ElectionCommission on Saturdaydirected officials to ensurestrict action under state andnational disaster managementlaws for Covid-compliantbehaviour.

The issues were flagged ata meeting held by ChiefElection Commissioner SushilChandra and ElectionCommissioner Rajiv Kumarwith top state government offi-cials to review enforcement ofCOVID guidelines duringcampaigning in West Bengalwhere two remaining phases ofassembly elections are to takeplace next week.

“The Commission notedwith concern that during pub-lic campaigns for electioneer-ing, the enforcement underthe Disaster Management Act,2005 has been less than ade-quate,” a statement issued bythe poll panel said. The meet-ing was held just a couple ofdays after the poll panel placeda ban on roadshows and ‘pady-

atras’ and placed a cap on thenumber of persons attendingpublic meetings to 500. Theseventh and the last phase ofpolls will take place on April 26and 29, respectively.

During the meet, theCommission was informedthat besides other essentials,2,46,88,000 face masks,17,05,851 face shields and lakhsof sanitiser bottles for pollingpersonnel, and 9,00,00,000 sin-gle hand plastic gloves for elec-tors (considering 85 percentturnout), have been procuredto ensure COVID safe polls.

The Calcutta High Courthas expressed dissatisfactionwith the EC over enforce-ment of COVID-19 healthsafety norms during the ongo-ing West Bengal assemblyelection process, includingcampaigning.

The Executive Committeeof the State DisasterManagement Authority,chaired by the state chief sec-retary, which is tasked with theenforcement of COVID-19-appropriate behaviour underthe 2005 law, needs to step upits assigned statutory duty,the EC statement said onSaturday.

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On the National PanchayatiRaj Day on Saturday, the

Congress finally launched itsnew digital media platform‘INC TV’ to help spread itsmessage directly to the people.

Launching the channelvirtually on Panchayati RajDay, an initiative of formerPrime MInister Rajiv Gandhi,the Congress said the digitalplatform will help raise thevoice of the people by high-lighting the problems faced bythem, especially the poor andthe downtrodden.

On the occasion, AICCGeneral Secretar y K CVenugopal alleged that variousinstitutions in the countryare under attack from thegovernment and this is notbeing highlighted in themedia.

The ‘INC TV’ will high-light news which the govern-ment does not allow to bepublished, so as to enablepeople to know what is hap-pening in the country, AICCsecretary Pranav Jha said.

The Congress has beenaccusing the mainstreammedia of not showing theparty’s views, alleging that itis only highlighting theGovernment’s version.

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After the United Kingdom,UAE and Hong Kong, now

Iran and Kuwait on Saturdaysuspended all commercialflights from India for an indef-inite period with immediateeffect amid rising cases ofCovid.

In a circular, Kuwait’sdirectorate general of civil avi-ation said that it had suspend-ed all direct commercial flightscoming from India, effective

April 24. All passengers arriv-ing from India either directly orvia another country will bebanned from entering unlessthey have spent at least 14 daysout of India, it said in a state-ment on Twitter.

Iran has also decided to barflights from India. MohammadHassan Zibakhsh, spokesmanfor Iran’s Civil AviationOrganization noted there areno routine flights between Iranand India and “flights are oper-ated occasionally.”

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The Ministry of ConsumerAffairs on Saturday said it

is gearing up for monthly dis-tribution of additional 5 kg offoodgrains for free to 80 crorePDS beneficiaries from May 1,to help the poor tide over theeconomic hardship in the sec-ond wave of the pandemic.

Briefing media, FoodSecretary Sudhanshu Pandeysaid, “FCI has geared up itsmachinery of over 2,000 depotsto be ready with stocks for

delivery to States. FCI is intouch with states. We willtogether ensure the supplyfrom FCI to the state govern-ment and thereon to fair priceshops or ration shops.”

He said 80 lakh tonne offoodgrains will be distributedin the next two months costingthe exchequer over Rs 26,000crore. Pandey said pulses arenot included under thePradhan Mantri Garib KalyanAnna Yojana (PMGKAY) viaration shops or PublicDistribution System this time.

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New Delhi:Karnataka Bankon Saturday said it is targetingto grow its business at 12 percent to over �1.42 lakh crore inthe current fiscal year and willgradually increase the share ofretail loan in its portfolio.

In a communication toshareholders, the bank said itstrives to see 2021-22 as a yearof excellence on the back of itshealthy business growth, ‘Cost-Lite’ liability portfolio andstrengthened fundamentals.

“For the new FinancialYear, the Bank is planning togrow its business at a moderate12% to take the total businessturnover (i.E. Total of Depositsand Advances) to around�1,42,500 crore,” it said.As arealignment strategy in itsadvances portfolio, the privatesector lender said it has beeneyeing credit exposure of min-imum 50 % to retail, 35% tomid corporates and not morethan 15% to large corporates.

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The Government onSaturday extended the

deadline for making paymentunder the direct tax disputeresolution scheme Vivad SeVishwas by two months tillJune 30 to ease hardships facedby taxpayers amid the pan-demic.

Also, it has extended thedue date for issuance of noticefor reopening of assessment bytax officers where income hasescaped assessment and send-ing intimation of processing ofEqualisation Levy till June 30.

“It has also been decidedthat time for payment ofamount payable under theDirect Tax Vivad se VishwasAct, 2020, without an addi-tional amount, shall be furtherextended to 30th June 2021,”Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) said in a statement.

The deadline for filing dec-laration under the scheme

ended on March 31.The Vivad Se Vishwas

scheme provides for settle-ment of disputed tax, interest,penalty or fees in relation to anassessment or reassessmentorder on payment of 100 percent of the disputed tax and 25per cent of the disputed penal-ty or interest or fee.

The taxpayer is grantedimmunity from levy of interest,penalty and institution of anyproceeding for prosecution forany offence under the Income-tax Act in respect of matterscovered in the declaration.

CBDT said it had receivedrequests from taxpayers, tax

consultants and other stake-holders to extend time barringdates in view of the severeCovid-19 pandemic ragingunabated across the country.

“In the light of several rep-resentations received and toaddress the hardship beingfaced by various stakeholders,the Central Government hasdecided to extend the time lim-its to June 30, 2021, in the fol-lowing cases where the timelimit was earlier extended toApril 30, 2021, through variousnotifications issued under theTaxation and Other Laws(Relaxation) and Amendmentof Certain Provisions Act,2020,” CBDT said.

The scheme had nettedabout Rs 54,000 crore to theexchequer till early April andmore is expected to come inbased on the declarationsalready filed. The lastdate for making the paymenthas now been extended till June30.

Mumbai:HDFC Bank onSaturday said it has deployedmobile ATMs across India toassist customers during thelockdown.

“At restricted, sealed areas,the ‘Mobile ATMs’ will elimi-nate the need for general pub-lic to move out of their locali-ty to withdraw cash,” the banksaid in a statement.”Duringthe lockdown last year, HDFCBank successfully deployedmobile ATMs in over 50 citiesand facilitated lakhs of cus-tomers in availing cash to meettheir exigencies.”Accordingly,customers can conduct over 15types of transactions using the‘Mobile ATM’, which will beoperational at each location fora specific periodThe ‘MobileATM’ will cover 3-4 stops in aday.”We hope our mobile ATMwill provide a great support forpeople who want to avail basicfinancial services without hav-ing to venture far from theirneighbourhood,” said S.Sampathkumar, Group Head -Liability Products, Third PartyProducts and Non-ResidentBusiness at HDFC Bank.

PTI

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In view of the severe Covid-19 pandemic raging requests

put forward by taxpayers, taxconsultants and other stake-holders, the government hasdecided to provide furtherrelief to taxpayers by extendingvarious time limits of compli-ances.

Accordingly, the time limitfor passing of any order forassessment or reassessmentunder the Income-tax Act,1961 has been extended toJune 30, 2021. This time limitwas earlier extended to April30, 2021 through various noti-fications issued under theTaxation and Other Laws(Relaxation) and Amendmentof Certain Provisions Act, 2020.

Similarly, the CentralBoard of Direct Taxes (CBDT)has also extended the timelimit for passing an order con-

sequent to direction of DRPunder sub-section (13) of sec-tion 144C of the Act for threemonths to June 30, 2021.

The board has also extend-ed the time limit for issuanceof notice under section 148 ofthe Act for reopening theassessment where income hasescaped assessment by threemonths while the same exten-sion has also been given forsending intimation of process-ing of Equalisation Levy undersub-section (1) of section 168of the Finance Act 2016.

It has also been decidedthat time for payment ofamount payable under theDirect Tax Vivad se VishwasAct, 2020, without an addi-tional amount, shall be furtherextended to June 30, 2021.

A finance ministry state-ment said that notifications toextend the above dates will bebe issued in due course.

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The electronics repair mar-ket in India can help gen-

erate over five million directjobs, with a potential to gener-ate revenues of $20 billion perannum, a new report hasemphasised.

According to MAIT, theapex body representing theICT and electronics manufac-turing sector in India, therepair and calibration of elec-tronic subassemblies and prod-ucts is a $100 billion industryworldwide.

“High costs of repairingelectronic goods in developedcountries like the US andEurope are compelling the cor-porates to send goods overseas,where such repair services areprovided at lower prices due toboth skills and cost arbitrage,”said the report titled ‘ElectronicHardware Repair ServicesOutsourcing’ (ERSO) launchedat the Electronics and TelecomManufacturing Summit 2021(MAIT-ETMS).

The report made recom-mendations to the Centre tostreamline and simplify proce-dures to make India a repairand refurbishment hub for ITand electronic products.

“The electronics repairindustry has the potential ofbecoming an emerging sectorfor employment growth inIndia. With the right regulato-ry support from the govern-ment of India, the domesticrepair service sector in Indiacan experience a tremendousboost,” said NitinKunkolienker, President,MAIT.“It will, thereby, gener-ate valuable Forex revenue aswell as create employment,especially during theseCOVID-19 times, which hasmade millions of Indians job-less,” he added.

The report highlightedbackground on the regulatorylandscape and emphasised bot-tlenecks and difficulties beingfaced day to day by the repairunits in India, such as variousregulatory approvals.

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The Government onSaturday waived customs

duty on the import of Covidvaccines as well as medicalgrade oxygen and relatedequipment as the nation battledits worst health crisis with a‘tsunami’ of infections settinga new world record for cases forthe third consecutive day.

The Centre also directedcustoms officials to clear allimport consignments, includ-ing life-saving drugs and oxy-gen equipment, used in Covidtreatment on the highest pri-ority.

In a statement, the financeministry said 10 per cent basiccustoms duty on COVID vac-cines as well as the duty andhealth cess on import of oxy-gen and oxygen-related equip-ment has been waived for threemonths.

Medical Oxygen attracts 5

per cent import duty, while thesame for vaccines is 10 per cent.

India reported a record346,786 new infections onSaturday, bringing its total to1.66 crore.

Deaths also rose by arecord 2,624 to total 189,544.

The decision to exemptcustoms duty was taken at ameeting chaired by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toboost oxygen availability inthe country, the FinanceMinistry said.

Separately, the CentralBoard of Indirect Taxes andCustoms (CBIC) said field for-mations have been directed toclear life saving drugs and oxy-gen equipment consignmentson the highest priority.

Commerce and IndustryMinister Piyush Goyal alsosaid in a tweet that in anotherstep towards fighting COVID-19, customs will expedite clear-ances for import consignmentsrelating to the pandemic toensure critical equipment andmedicine can reach on time.

The government had pre-viously waived customs duty onimported Remdesivir injec-tions and the drug’s active

pharmaceutical ingredients(API) to boost supplies.

“In order to augment theirproduction and availability andto meet the rising demand, itwas decided to grant fullexemption from Basic CustomsDuty and health cess on importof the following items related tooxygen and oxygen relatedequipment for a period of threemonths with immediate effect,”the finance ministry statementsaid.

It was also decided thatbasic customs duty on importof Covid vaccines be alsoexempted with immediateeffect for a period of threemonths, it added.

The 16 oxygen and relat-ed equipment on which duty

has been waived include oxy-gen concentrator along withflow meter, regulator, connec-tors and tubing, oxygen canis-ter, filling systems, storagetanks, cylinders, includingcryogenic cylinders and tanks.

Ventilators (capable offunctioning as high-flowdevices) with nasal canula; hel-mets for use with non-invasiveventilation, non-invasive ven-tilation oronasal and nasalmasks for ICU ventilators toohave been exempted from theimport duty and health cess.

All these items so farattracted basic customs duty inthe range of 5-15 per cent anda health cess of 5 per cent.

“This will boost the avail-ability of these items as well as

make them cheaper. The PMdirected the RevenueDepartment to ensure seamlessand quick customs clearance ofsuch equipment,” the state-ment said.

The exemption fromimport duty would help keeplow the cost of overseas vac-cines that are being eyed tosupplement domesticallymadeshots ahead of openingCOVID-19 vaccination to allcitizens over 18 years of age.Import duty would have madethe imported vaccines costlierthan the ones made by SerumInstitute of India (SII) andBharat Biotech.

While Russia’s Sputnik Vvaccines are due to arrive thismonth or by next month, man-ufacturers like Moderna andJohnson and Johnson havebeen urged to seek emergencyuse approval in India.

Earlier, the governmentwaived import duty onRemdesivir injection, and alsobanned its export.

The government earlierthis month allowed the emer-gency use of imported vaccinesto curb the spread of coron-avirus infections.

In view of providing addi-tional healthcare facilities to

the people of Delhi NCR,Northern Railway on demandof the State Govt. is providing50 isolation coaches equivalent

to 800 beds as Covid CareCenters at Shakurbasti.Shakurbasti station has goodinfrastructure for maintainingthese coaches and also properapproach roads for movementof ambulances etc. Sh.Ashutosh Gangal, GeneralManager Northern Railwaysinformed that 03 patients havebeen admitted at ShakurbastiCovid Care Center.

Northern Railway is com-mitted to do all kinds of efforts/help to fight the war againstCorona.

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Puri: Given the surge in Covid-19 casesacross Odisha, the Shree Jagannath TempleAdministration (SJTA) on Saturday decid-ed to stop the entry of devotees into the12th century shrine till May 15.

However, the age-old daily rituals ofthe trinity — Lord Balabhadra, DeviSubhadra, and Lord Jagannath — will con-tinue with help of servitors and temple offi-cials, SJTA chief administrator KrishanKumar said after chairing a meetingattended by representatives of templeservitors, the Puri district collector andsuperintendent of police, and other stake-holders.

It was also decided that all prepara-tions for the construction of chariots willcontinue as per traditions. The SJTA willtake steps for procurement of masks andsanitisers for use during Chandan (san-dalwood) Yatra, Snan (bathing) Yatra, andRatha Yatra.

The annual Ratha Yatra falls on July12 this year.

"The grave challenge posed by Covid-19 was discussed in detail. All were of theunanimous view that necessary steps

must be taken to ensure continuity of theNiti-Kanti (rituals) of Mahaprabhu ShreeJagannath," Kumar said.

A decision was also taken to carry outregular screening and testing on familiesof servitors and temple officials.

The rituals related to the Ratha Yatrawill begin from Akashya Tritiya (May 15).

A Covid-19 Care Centre at NeelachalYatri Niwas will be strengthened as perrequirement, he said.

Arrangements will also be made forshifting serious patients to SUM andother hospitals in Bhubaneswar.

The temple administrator (develop-ment) will act as the Nodal Officer, an offi-cial note said.

Focus will be given on the vaccinationof those involved in daily rituals at theshrine and those engaged in the construction of chariots for the RathaYatra.

The meeting also resolved that theawareness programme will continue on theuse of face masks, sanitisation and handwashing, and the need for maintainingsocial distancing. PTI

Chennai: With the number of Covid-infectedpersons increasing in the state, the Tamil NaduGovernment has ordered closure of movie the-atres, auditoriums, temples for public worship andothers from Monday.

The government's new restrictions includeclosure of recreation clubs, movie theatres,liquor bars, auditoriums, meeting halls, shoppingcomplexes, big format stores and vegetableshops located in malls.

While, standalone vegetable and groceryshops can operate following the safety measuresbut such shops located in malls are not allowedto open. Besides, barbar shops, beauty parloursand spas will also remain closed.

Only takeaways allowed in hotels/restau-rants/mess/tea shops. For guests in hotels andlodges food should be served in their rooms, saida government statement.

E-commerce service can function with timelimits.

All places of worships closed for public butpoojas can be conducted by the staff. Only 50 per-sons are allowed for weddings, while 25 personsare allowed at funerals.

50 per cent staff of IT and ITES companiesshould work from home. Sports training centresto be closed except for training for national andinternational events, the statement added.

Compulsory e-registration for people com-ing from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala andfrom overseas by air or sea. IANS

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Bengaluru: A 61-year-old Covidpatient has committed suicide at ahospital here, the police said onSaturday. According to the police, thedeceased is identified as Ramanna,a resident of Anjana Nagar,Sunkadakatte of Bengaluru.

The police said that the deceaseddied by hanging in the Intensive CareUnit (ICU) of private 50-bedHospital in Vijayanagar which hasthree ventilators. The police said thatthe prima facie investigations revealthat he committed suicide by hang-ing. The police claimed they have notrecovered any suicide note yet andexact reasons for victim taking suchextreme step are still not known.

"The family members claim that

he was depressed, however, hospitalstaff claim that he 'appeared' to becheerful before 11.30 p.m. (onFriday) when he was attended last bythe hospital staff," the police said. The police added that when thehospital attendee again approachedat around 1 a.m. to administer hishealth status, the staff found that hisroom was locked from inside andwhen it was forced open, he wasfound hanging. The police said thatthe hospital is claiming that he wason a recovery path and respondingto the medicines quite well and thehospital had also informed him thathe would be shifted from ICU to thegeneral ward on Friday morning orevening. IANS

B�7��7/$4��/6�4�#��0��/33��5�5��4��0�'H$��Kohima: The Nagaland Government has stopped

administering the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines dueto a shortage of vials but is continuing the immuni-sation drive for people who will get the second shot,an official said on Saturday.

The state is currently facing a scarcity of COVIDvaccines with around 60,000 doses in stock, PrincipalDirector of Health and Family Welfare DepartmentDr Kevichusa Medikhru told PTI.

As of Friday, Nagaland has administered a totalof 1,79,349 doses of Covishield vaccine to 1,42,715people, including 46,634 frontline workers and14,053 health professionals, State ImmunisationOfficer Dr Ritu Thurr said.

Altogether, 36,634 people have received the sec-ond shot of COVID-19 vaccine, the official said.

"Over one lakh people are yet to get the secondjab, while the department has a stock of around 60,000doses. That is why it has decided to stop adminis-tering the first dose till the stock level improves,"Thurr said. PTI

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Betul: A centenarian in Betul in MadhyaPradesh on Saturday said he had beat-en back coronavirus infection in thesame doughty manner in which he tookthe British head on in his young days asa freedom fighter.

Birdichand Gothi, who is 103-year-old as per his Aadhaar card which statesthat he was born on November 2, 1917,had contracted the infection on April 5and recovered on Friday.

'I did not panic or rush to a hos-pital. With the same zeal with whichI fought the British, I took the virushead on. I remained happy and pos-itive, took a simple vegetarian diet anddefeated COVID-19,' he told reportershere on Saturday. PTI

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In its third sero-survey conducted inthe backdrop of COVID-19 to deter-

mine antibody response in individuals,the Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) has found a stag-gering 36.30 per cent sero-positivityamong 10,197 citizens selected using"anonymous sampling method" fromacross 24 wards in the metropolis.

Disclosing the findings of the thirdsero survey, Mumbai MunicipalCommissioner I S Chahal said here onSaturday night: “Overall 36.30 per centsero-positivity is found in 10,197 bloodsamples collected from citizens fromacross all 24 wards. While we found anincrease in the percentage of sero-pos-itivity in blood samples taken from non-slum areas, we noticed the decline insero-positivity in the slums areas”.

“Based on the survey, we intend toaccelerate the vaccination campaign inorder to limit the spread of the COVID-19,” Chahal said.

The serologic tests measure theantibody response in individuals.Antibodies to COVID-19 are producedover days to weeks after infection withthe virus.

The presence of antibodies indicatesthat a person was infected with theCOVID-19 virus, irrespective of whether

the individual had severe or mild disease,or even asymptomatic infection.

Surveillance of antibody sero-pos-itivity in a population allows inferencesto be made about the extent of infectionand about the cumulative incidence ofinfection in the population.

Among other things, the use ofserology in epidemiology and publichealth research enables understandingof the occurrence of infection among dif-ferent populations;, how many peoplehave mild or asymptomatic infection,and who may not have been identifiedby routine disease surveillance, theproportion of fatal infections amongthose infected and the proportion of thepopulation who may be protectedagainst infection in the future.

The BMC conducted the survey aspart of its preventive efforts to limit thespread of COVID-19. “While imple-menting these measures, it is importantto make certain scientific informationavailable regarding the spread of thevirus. In this regard, the third sero sur-vey of citizens was conducted in theGreater Mumbai Municipal Corporationarea recently,” Chahal said.

In the Serologic tests conductedusing unlinked Anonymous samplingmethod, the BMC found IgG antibod-ies (sero positivity) in 36.30% of 10,197blood samples.

While the BMC conducted the firstsero-survey of the citizens was con-ducted in three civic wards in July 2020.It conducted the second survey in threeother wards in August 2020. Now theBMC has conducted the third sero-sur-vey in 24 wards across the metropolis.

“For the survey, blood samples col-lected at municipal dispensaries weretested. The survey also included bloodsamples collected from private medicallaboratories. This sero survey was con-ducted on blood samples collected fromindividuals who were not vaccinated,”Chahal said.

“All blood samples have been test-ed for antibodies at MCGM’s MolecularBiology Laboratory at the KasturbaHospital.

The findings of the latest sero sur-vey show that there was 35.02 per centsero-positivity in men, while there was37. 12 per cent sero-positivity among thewomen.

“During current sero survey, 41.6%sero-positivity is found in the bloodsamples taken from municipal dispen-saries in slum areas. The first surveyfound 57 per cent sero-poisitivity in slumareas of 3 wards and during the sec-ond sero survey in these 3 ward, sero-positivity was found to be 45 per centin slums areas,” the survey findingsrevealed.

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Palestinian militants in theGaza Strip fired some three

dozen rockets into Israelovernight Saturday, while theIsraeli military struck back attargets operated by the rulingHamas group. The exchangecame as tensions in Jerusalemspilled over into the worstround of cross-border violencein months.

The barrage of rocket firecame as hundreds ofPalestinians clashed with Israelipolice in east Jerusalem. Theclashes, in which at least fourpolice and six protesters wereinjured, have become a night-ly occurrence throughout theMuslim holy month ofRamadan and show no signs ofstopping.

The UN envoy to theregion, Tor Wennesland, con-demned the violence and saidthe United Nations was work-ing with all sides to restorecalm.

“The provocative actsacross Jerusalem must cease.

The indiscriminate launchingof rockets towards Israeli pop-ulation centres violates inter-national law and must stopimmediately,” he said. “I reit-erate my call upon all sides toexercise maximum restraintand avoid further escalation,particularly during the Holymonth of Ramadan and thispolitically charged time forall.”

The US also appealed forcalm, while neighbouringJordan, which serves as the cus-todian for Jerusalem's Muslimholy sites, condemned Israel'sactions. Jerusalem, home toholy sites sacred to Jews,Christians and Muslims, haslong been a flashpoint in theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict. In2014, similar tensions eruptedinto a 50-day war betweenIsrael and Gaza's ruling Hamasmilitant group.

The Israeli military said atotal of 36 rockets were firedinto Israel throughout thenight. It said six rockets wereintercepted, while most of theothers landed in open areas.

�� +�'��

Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan on Saturday

expressed solidarity with thepeople of India battling thedeadly wave of the Covid-19pandemic, saying “we mustfight this global challenge con-fronting humanity together”.

A record single-day rise of3,46,786 coronavirus casespushed India's tally of infectionto 1,66,10,481, while active casescrossed the 25-lakh mark,according to the Union HealthMinistry data updated onSaturday.

The death toll rose to1,89,544 with a record 2,624more fatalities in a day, accord-ing to the data.

In a tweet, Khan said: “Ourprayers for a speedy recoverygo to all those suffering fromthe pandemic in our neigh-bourhood and the world”.

“I want to express our soli-darity with the people of India asthey battle a dangerous wave ofCOVID-19. “We must fight thisglobal challenge confrontinghumanity together,” he said onTwitter. His tweet came afterPakistan Foreign Minister ShahMahmood Qureshi expressedsupport to the people of India inthe wake of a massive surge inCOVID-19 cases in the countryand extended his sympathies tothe affected families. Qureshisaid the COVID-19 crisis is yetanother reminder that human-itarian issues require responses

beyond political consideration."We express our support to

the people of India in the wakeof the current wave of#COVID19 infections that hashit our region hard. On behalfof the people of Pakistan, Iextend our heartfelt sympathiesto the affected families in#India," Qureshi tweeted.

Pakistan continues to workwith the South AsianAssociation for RegionalCooperation (SAARC) coun-tries to foster cooperation totackle the pandemic, he said.

Pakistan has reported 157coronavirus deaths in the last24 hours, the highest sincelast year, while the new num-ber of cases recorded were5,908, the health ministry saidon Saturday.

Pakistan's InformationMinister Fawad Chaudhry alsoexpressed similar sentimentsfor the people of India.“Inthese difficult times our prayersare with people of #India mayGod be kind and may these dif-ficult times get over soon.#coronavirus,” he tweeted.

The tweets from thePakistani leaders came amidstsome signs of rapprochement inthe relations between India andPakistan over the Kashmir issue.

India's decision to revokethe special status of Jammu andKashmir in 2019 angeredPakistan, which downgradeddiplomatic ties with New Delhiand expelled the Indian HighCommissioner in Islamabad.

�� )��

US President Joe Biden hassaid that he wants to make

achieving climate and energygoals "a core pillar" of bilater-al cooperation with India andis looking forward to work withPrime Minister Narendra Modion the matter.

Biden's remarks came a dayafter the two countriesannounced a “US-IndiaClimate and Clean EnergyAgenda 2030 Partnership” tocreate stronger bilateral coop-eration on actions in the cur-rent decade to meet the goalsof the landmark ParisAgreement.

“I'm looking forward toworking with India's PrimeMinister Modi in a new part-nership to achieve our climateand energy goals, making thisa core pillar of our bilateralcooperation,” Biden said in hisaddress to the two-day virtualsummit on climate change onFriday.

The partnership includesdeploying 450 gigawatts ofrenewable power to meet theambitious 2030 target for cli-

mate action and clean energy.The partnership will pro-

ceed along two main tracks --the Strategic Clean EnergyPartnership, co-chaired bySecretary of Energy Granholm,and the Climate Action andFinance Mobilisation Dialogue,co-chaired by SpecialPresidential Envoy for ClimateJohn Kerry, a joint statementsaid.

Addressing the final ses-sion of the virtual climate sum-mit on Friday, Biden said thisis about the opportunity thataddressing climate change pro-vides.

It's an opportunity to cre-ate millions of good-payingjobs around the world andinnovate -- in innovative sec-tors -- jobs that bring greaterquality of life, greater dignity tothe people performing thosejobs in every nation, he said.

“For a line-worker, electri-cians, utility workers -- layingtransmission lines, connect-ing battery storage, and mak-ing our electric grid moremodern. For automotive work-ers -- building electric cars,trucks, and buses. Skilled work-

ers installing and charging sta-tions to accommodate themthroughout our countries,” headded.

America is once again step-ping into the leadership role,Biden said.

“We will be joining and apartner -- for the nations andefforts to decarbonise criticalsectors across the board,including the industrial sector,where we'll join with Swedenand India," Biden said.

Biden also welcomedRussian President VladimirPutin's call for carbon dioxideremoval.

“I'm very heartened byPresident Putin's call yesterdayfor the world to collaborate andadvanced carbon dioxideremoval. And the United Stateslooks forward to working withRussia and other countries inthat endeavour," the US presi-dent said.

"It has a great promise. Thisis a moment for all of us tobuild better economies for ourchildren, our grandchildren,and all of us to thrive not justnow, but beyond for the nextgenerations,” Biden said.

�� )��

President Joe Biden onSaturday plans to follow

through on a campaign pledgeto formally recognise thatatrocities committed againstthe Armenian people by theOttoman Empire more than acentury ago in modern-dayTurkey were genocide, accord-ing to US officials familiarwith the President's delibera-tions.

Biden spoke to TurkishPresident Recep TayyipErdogan on Friday in antici-pation of his plan, in a presi-dential proclamation to markArmenian GenocideRemembrance Day, to use theterm genocide to describe

the killings and deporta-tions of hundreds of thou-sands of Armenians. US presidents for decades haveacknowledged RemembranceDay to mark the events of1915 to 1923 but have avoidedusing the term “genocide” tosidestep alienating Turkey.

The US and Turkish gov-ernments, in separate state-ments following Friday's call,made no mention of theAmerican plan to recognisethe Armenian genocide.

The White House said

Biden told Erdogan he wants toimprove the two countries'relationship and find “effectivemanagement of disagree-ments.”

The two also agreed tohold a bilateral meeting at theNATO summit in Brussels inJune.

Biden pledged as a candi-date to recognise the massacreof Armenians as genocide,arguing that “silence is com-plicity.” Biden wanted to speakwith Erdogan before makingthe formal recognition, accord-ing to the officials, who spokeon condition of anonymity todescribe Biden's deliberationsand plans.

Friday's call between thetwo leaders was their first sinceBiden took office more thanthree months ago. The delayhad become a worrying sign inAnkara; Erdogan had goodrapport with former PresidentDonald Trump and had beenhoping for a reset despite pastfriction with Biden.

Erdogan on Friday reiter-ated his long-running claimsthat the US is supportingKurdish fighters in Syria whoare affiliated with the Iraq-based Kurdistan Workers'Party, known as the PKK. Inrecent years, Turkey haslaunched military operationsagainst PKK enclaves in north-ern Iraq and against US-alliedSyrian Kurdish fighters. TheState Department has desig-nated the PKK a terroristorganisation but has arguedwith Turkey over the group'sties to the Syrian Kurds.

Erdogan also raised con-cerns about the presence in theUS of cleric Fethullah Gulen,whom Ankara accuses oforchestrating a failed 2016coup attempt, according to theTurkish government statement.Gulen, who has lived inPennsylvania since the late1990s, denies involvement inthe coup.

�� )��

The pictures always make itlook so Presidential: Joe

Biden sitting in a tall-backchair, surrounded by thearrayed members of Congressinvited for a meeting at theWhite House.

But inside the Oval Office,lawmakers tell a differentstory, of a president so warm,so engaged, so animated —standing up, sitting down,calling on lawmakers byname, swapping stories abouttheir hometowns — and sodetermined to make them getto work and get things done.On their way out the door,they are offered a chocolatechip cookie, that mostAmerican of snacks, a to-goboost for the potential part-nership between this WhiteHouse and the Congress.

“It was the day that youwill remember, not so muchbecause you were in the OvalOffice, but because of theattention the president gave tous — the personal attention,the commitment, the authen-ticity,” said Rep. Joyce Beatty,D-Ohio, the chair of theCongressional Black Caucus.

�� +I�J��K

Aspokesperson for theXinjiang region called

accusations of genocide“counter to the facts” as Chinacame under more pressure thisweek over its treatment of theUyghur ethnic group in theremote border area.

The British Parliamentapproved a nonbinding motionThursday that said China'spolicies amounted to geno-cide and crimes againsthumanity. Human Right Watchappealed to the U.N. Earlier inthe week to investigate theallegations of crimes againsthumanity.

“The motion adopted bythe British side was totallygroundless,” Xu Guixiang, thedeputy director-general of theCommunist Party's publicitydepartment in Xinjiang, saidFriday.

“The decision was made onthe basis of remarks by somepoliticians, some so-called aca-demic institutes, some so-calledexperts and scholars and someso-called witnesses.”

In recent years, an esti-mated 1 million people or

more have been confined incamps in Xinjiang, according toforeign governments andresearchers. Most are Uyghurs,a largely Muslim ethnic group,Authorities have been accusedof imposing forced labor, sys-tematic forced birth controland torture.

The Chinese governmenthas flatly rejected the allega-tions. It has characterized thecamps, which it says are nowclosed, as vocational trainingcenters to teach Chinese lan-guage, job skills and the law tosupport economic develop-ment and combat extremism.China saw a wave of Xinjiang-related terrorist attacks through2016.

Xu said that hotels in

Kashgar, a historic Silk Roadcity in Xinjiang, were empty afew years ago and entrepre-neurs unwilling to invest astourism fell off because of ter-rorism fears. He said the gov-ernment's policies haverestored a hard-won stability.

The Foreign Ministrylabeled the genocide allegations“a monstrous lie concocted byinternational anti-Chinaforces."

"The UK already faces anumber of problems at home.Those British lawmakersshould mind their own busi-ness and do something tangi-ble for their own constituency,”ministry spokesperson ZhaoLijian said at a daily briefingFriday.

�� )��

US health officials lifted an11-day pause on Covid-19

vaccinations using Johnson& Johnson's single-doseshot, after scientific advisersdecided its benefits outweigh arare risk of blood clot.

The Government uncov-ered 15 vaccine recipients whodeveloped a highly unusualkind of blood clot, out of near-ly 8 million people given theJ&J shot. All were women,most under age 50. Three died,and seven remain hospitalized.

But ultimately Friday, theFood and Drug Administrationand Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention decid-ed that J&J's one-and-done vaccine is critical to fightthe pandemic — and that thesmall clot risk could be handledwith warnings to help youngerwomen decide if they shoulduse that shot or an alternative.

“Above all else, health andsafety are at the forefront of ourdecisions,” CDC Director Dr.Rochelle Walensky said in astatement. “Our vaccine safetysystems are working. We iden-tified exceptionally rare events– out of millions of doses" ofthe J&J shot and will con-tinue to monitor them.

The US decision — similarto how European regulators arerolling out J&J's shot —comes after CDC advisers ear-lier Friday voted 10-4 toresume vaccinations but pan-elists made clear that theymust come with warningsabout the risk. The groupdebated but ultimately steered

clear of outright age restric-tions.

“This is an age group thatis most at risk (of the clotting)that is getting vaccine pre-dominately to save other peo-ples' lives and morbidity, nottheir own. And I think we havea responsibility to be certainthat they know this," said Dr.Sarah Long of DrexelUniversity College of Medicine,who voted against the propos-al because she felt it did not gofar enough in warning women.

The committee membersall agreed the J&J vaccine"should be put back into cir-culation,” panel chairman Dr.Jose Romero, Arkansas' healthsecretary, said in an interviewafter the vote. “The differencewas how you convey the risk ...It does not absolve us frommaking sure that people whoreceive this vaccine, if they arein the risk group, that weinform them of that.”

European regulators earli-er this week made a similardecision, deciding the clot riskwas small enough to allow therollout of J&J's shot. Buthow Americans ultimately han-dle J&J's vaccine will influ-ence other countries that don'thave as much access to othervaccination options.

Dr. Paul Stoffels, J&J'schief scientific officer, pledgedthat the company would workwith US and global authorities“to ensure this very rare eventcan be identified early andtreated effectively.” J&Jalready was working with theFDA on a warning label for theshot.

�� +'�

Anew coronavirus strain thatis airborne and more

potent than all those found pre-viously in Sri Lanka has beendiscovered in the island nation,according to a top immunolo-gist here.

The variant, which is high-ly transmissible, can remainairborne for nearly an hour andis spreading fast, NeelikaMalavige, the head of theDepartment of Immunologyand Molecular Sciences of theSri Jayawardenapura Universitysaid.

“This variant of coron-avirus is more highly trans-missible than all found so far inthe island. The new strain isairborne, the droplets canremain airborne for nearly anhour,” Malavige said.

Health authorities fearedthat the new variant is spread-ing rapidly after last week'sNew Year celebrations withmore younger people gettinginfected.

“In the next two incubationperiods, the disease canprogress to a third wave,” UpulRohana, of the Public HealthInspectors said, adding that thereal situation would emergeonly in the coming 2-3 weeks.

Meanwhile, the ministry ofCOVID prevention issued newguidelines which would remainin force until May 31.

The guidelines dictate a 50per cent capacity operation formost institutions with all formsof revelry being banned.

�� '�

Kuwait on Saturday sus-pended all direct com-

mercial flights coming fromIndia until further notice dueto the worsening Covid-19 sit-uation in the country.

The move came afterinstructions from healthauthorities.

Kuwait's directorate gen-eral of civil aviation said that ithad suspended all direct com-mercial flights coming from

India, effective April 24.All passengers arriving

from India either directly or viaanother country will be bannedfrom entering unless they havespent at least 14 days out ofIndia, it said in a statement onTwitter.

Kuwaiti citizens, their firstdegree relatives and theirdomestic workers will beallowed to enter the country.

Operations of freightflights will continue, itsaid. Over one million Indiancommunity members live in

Kuwait, the largest expatriatecommunity in the country,according to the IndianEmbassy in Kuwait.

Earlier, the UK, the UAEand Canada announced banflights from India amid theworsening COVID-19 situationin the country. A record single-day rise of 3,46,786 coron-avirus cases pushed India'stally of infection to 1,66,10,481,while active cases crossed the25-lakh mark, according tothe Union Health Ministrydata updated on Saturday.

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Southeast Asian leaders metMyanmar's top general and

coup leader in an emergencysummit in Indonesia Saturday,and are expected to press callsfor an end to violence by secu-rity forces that has left hun-dreds of protesters dead aswell as the release of Aung SanSuu Kyi and other politicaldetainees.

There is little hope for animmediate breakthrough inthe two-hour gathering inJakarta between Senior GenMin Aung Hlaing and the sixheads of state and three foreignministers representing theAssociation of Southeast AsianNations.

But his decision to facethem offers a rare chance forthe 10-nation bloc to directlydeal with the general whoousted one of its leaders in aFeb. 1 coup.

“The unfolding tragedyhas serious consequences forMyanmar, ASEAN and theregion,” Singapore's ForeignMinister Vivian Balakrishnansaid on the eve of the

summit. One proposal, which has

been discussed in preliminarymeetings, is for Brunei PrimeMinister Hassanal Bolkiah, thecurrent ASEAN chair, to trav-el to Myanmar to meet the mil-itary leadership and Suu Kyi'scamp to encourage dialogue.

He would be accompaniedby ASEAN Secretary GeneralLim Jock Hoi — also fromBrunei — if the junta agreed, aSoutheast Asian diplomat toldThe Associated Press on con-dition of anonymity because heis not authorized to speak tothe media.

Another diplomat saidhumanitarian aid could beoffered to Myanmar if condi-tions improved. The diplomatalso spoke to AP on conditionof anonymity for lack ofauthority to discuss such planspublicly.

Foreign Minister RetnoMarsudi of Indonesia expressedhopes that “we can reach anagreement on the next stepsthat can help the people ofMyanmar get out of this deli-cate situation.”

�� +��

Russian President VladimirPutin has signed a decree

allowing the country to limitthe number of Russiansemployed at embassies of coun-tries determined to beunfriendly, or to ban theiremployment entirely.

The measure, announcedby the Kremlin on Friday,comes amid a flurry of expul-sions of Russian diplomatsfrom the United States andEuropean countries andMoscow's retaliatory expul-sions.

The decree directs the gov-ernment to draw up a list ofcountries determined to beunfriendly. It would affect notonly those countries' embassies,but consular offices and officesof state institutions.

The United States last weekexpelled 10 Russian diplomatsin connection with interferencein the 2020 U.S. Presidentialelection and for involvement inthe SolarWind hack of federalagencies.

The Czech Republic last

week expelled 18 Russianenvoys they labeled as spies,prompting Russia to send 20Czech diplomats home. Thatdevastated Czech Embassyoperations in Moscow, prompt-ing Czech authorities onThursday to order 63 moreRussian diplomats to leave sothat both countries had thesame number of staff in theirrespective embassies.

Poland last week said it wasexpelling three Russians andMoscow expelled five in retal-iation. The Baltic countries ofLithuania, Latvia and Estoniaordered a total of four Russianenvoys to leave.

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/��@�! �6��Berlin (AP): Chancellor AngelaMerkel has urged Germans toaccept nationwide pandemicrestrictions that took effect atmidnight, resulting in a 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew and further lim-its on personal contacts andaccess to nonessential stores inregions with high infections.

In her weekly video addressSaturday, Merkel acknowledgedthat the new rules are tough butinsisted they are needed to curbthe spread of the virus in thecountry. Germany’s disease con-trol agency on Friday reported23,392 newly confirmed casesand 286 more deaths fromCOVID-19. Since the start of thepandemic, Germany has record-ed almost 3.3 million cases and81,444 deaths.

Merkel said the new mea-sures, which automatically takeeffect in regions with more than

100 new cases a week per100,000 inhabitants, are urgent-ly needed.

Citing other countries suchas Britain, Portugal and Irelandthat saw infection rates sharplyreduced during strict lockdowns,she defended Germany's newrestrictions against critics who

have called them excessive.No country that managed to

break the third wave of the pan-demic and then loosen restric-tions again did so without toughmeasures such as nighttime cur-fews, Merkel said.

Dozens of German celebri-ties this week posted videosmocking the restrictions. Somehave since deleted their videosand apologized for echoing far-right narratives about the pan-demic while appearing to down-play the suffering of those wholost loved ones to COVID-19.

Germany’s lawmakers thisweek approved legislation thatapplies an emergency brake con-sistently in areas with high infec-tion rates, doing away with thepatchwork of measures thatcharacterised the pandemicresponse across the country’s 16states.

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� How did you come onboard Vighnaharta Ganesh?

I had just concluded workfor another project in late2020 after the lockdown waslifted. That is when I got a callfrom the casting team atContiloe Pictures stating thatthe makers of VighnahartaGanesh wanting to know if Iwas interested in playing therole of Goddess Parvati. Iscreen tested and the teampromptly brought me on boardas Goddess Parvati. It is adeeply fortunate turn of eventssince Lord Ganesha is myfavourite deity. I do believe thatsuch a character chooses youand not the other way round.So I consider my landing therole as Goddess Parvati’sblessings. � You have played Sita,Lakshmi and now Parvati, isthere a lesson that you learntwhile playing such strongcharacters?

First of all, I feel extremelyfortunate to have essayed theseGoddesses on the TV screen.Sita, Lakshmi and Parvati areall Goddesses from our epicswhose stories of virtue,ennobling qualities,benevolence and deep intrinsicstrength we have all grown upwith and have deep reverencefor. They are often andcommonly invoked as rolemodels in everyday discourse.I have said this before; peopleare attached to them & they aredeeply integral to our cultureand mythology. So theaudience’s feelings towardsthem are of paramountimportance when I essay sucha role. Plus people have acertain image that they attachwith such a character, in theirminds.� Is it hard to play amythological character?

Yes it is. What happens inthe process of essaying anymythological character is youhave the tremendous challengeto bring an image inside theaudience’s minds and hearts tolife. The audience knows andunderstands and thereforeanticipates in a sense what theysee when it comes to charactersfrom mythology. Obviouslythey are also emotionallyattached when it comes totheir favourite deities. The

costumes, sets, lighting &backdrops are therefore veryelaborate since the genredemands grandeur. I also thinkthe dialogues are definitelyamongst the toughest you’llhear in the medium giventhey are in chaste Hindi.Emoting with all this to conveya look and feel that theaudience will respond andrelate to is by no means easy.It, however, is definitelyrewarding when the audienceresponds to these efforts withtheir wholehearted affection &blessings.� What are the challenges ofplaying such characters?

Preparation wise, I havealways tried my best to absorbthe creative vision shared withme and blended it with myown understanding of thesecharacters from the stories

I’ve heard & discoveredgrowing up. Preparationalways helps and I always tryto put in my own effort byreading up or listening timepermitting. I have striven toportray the qualities theseGoddesses are identified withby our audience through mycraft. The audience’s love,affection and blessings havebeen a strong source ofmotivation to me for all ofthem.� How did acting happen toyou?

Quite by accident! I haveactually worked for severalyears as a professional interiordesigner with commercial andresidential projects. I franklywasn’t looking to get intoacting but I have endorsedJewellery & Traditional wearalongside my work as an

Interior Designer. Funnily, forover six months I kept notshowing up for the screen testfor my debut show on TV.When I finally showed up forthe screen test, things justtook off. We were on floor formy TV debut in under a weekafter that at Ramoji Rao FilmCity.�Are there any other projectsin the pipeline?

Well, I keep getting calls forprojects and a few discussions areunderway for TV as well as OTTprojects. Covid restrictions haveled to shooting locations beingmoved across the country and soI am taking my time to finalise.I hope at this time everyone stayshome and safe with their lovedones and takes care in thesedifficult times. I genuinely hopethat we all emerge swiftly andstronger from this spandemic.

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Crime is fodder for OTT entertainment so thereis a veritable glut. However, KathmanduConnection stands tall in competition because

it is a tale woven into the backdrop of the Mumbaiserial blasts with a whole lot of acumen andcomprehensive work.

The tale is put across so simply that there is noscope really to look into padded loopholes in thisleisurely paced, but nevertheless taut thriller hoppingfrom Delhi to Dubai to Kathmandu to Hong Kong;from a fugitive from Lucknow, to a news anchor inDelhi to the Delhi Police department’s celebrated buttainted officer to, of course, the serial blasts.

With so much happening it would have been adifficult job to keep things uncomplicated but thedirector needs to be praised for weaving everythingtogether seamlessly.

It all starts with the abduction of a businessman

and goes on to dip into the multinational underbellyof big dreams, quick jobs, merciless hits andconspiracies that keep you hooked for most of the sixepisodes that this series comes with.

Limiting the episodes to just six is a smart moveas those wanting to view it as a film can do so too,with each episode not exceeding 40 minutes. Thecharacters have played to the hilt to keep the storyin the forefront and that includes Anurag Arora whoplays the cop with family issues. Decorated as anencounter and anti-terror specialist, he gets suspendedafter an unauthorised visit to Kathmandu where themain baddie plays him into the hands of the policewhile settling a score with his mentor and sparkinga transnational war among criminals.

Playing the intense Om Prakash Agarwal AmitSial makes his presence felt as a casual menace on thescene. Hailing from Kanpur, he seems to haveinternalised the UP culture, diction and bodylanguage so comes across as a genuine one fromLucknow University.

The series comes in handy for people reelingunder the second COVID-19 wave and who aremostly homebound.

A must watch.

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One doesn’t expect astudent of Class XIIto spend most ofhis time lookingfor ways to make

the world a better place to live.But this is precisely what SatyamMehta, student of AmityInternational School, Noida did.Mehta tells you that he has a pas-sion for social entrepreneurship.In his free time, he loves to playtennis.

His entrepreneurial journeybecame back in 2016. “Mybrother has a start-up. Throughthat I got to know everythingthat there was to know aboutbusiness. He has an investmentcompany. But I wanted to dosomething that was for the bet-terment of the society at large,”Mehta says.

The idea to come up with anapp to help the poorer sectionsof the society came to Mehtawhen he realised that theylacked the ability to managetheir finances.

“Usually rural India lacksfinancial literacy. We intend tointroduce financial literacy in allparts of the country by givingthem access to informationneeded for the same. Before Istarted this venture, I did a lotof research and found that onlya small percentage of the pop-ulation in the country eventhought of having a bankaccount. Our aim is not tomake them invest through ourapp but to inculcate financial lit-

eracy in them so that they canmake calculated and intelligentdecisions on their own,” Mehtatells you.

The problem in the country,according to Mehta, is that theydon’t believe in savings; theybelieve in taking loans frominformal sources.

“This could be because theydon’t know how to go about itor don’t have access to thebanks. We all know that money-lenders charge huge interesttrapping the poor into a debttrap from which they can neverget out. We all know aboutfarmer suicides. This was anoth-er reason that drove us. Wewanted people to know that theycould take loan from banks,”Mehta says.

His interest in wanting toknow more about investmentwas already piqued because ofhis elder brother. After muchdeliberation, he realised that ahuge percentage of the country’spopulation had no idea aboutfinances. Hence, Rural Investwas born.

“Before the present pan-demic hit us, my team hadidentified certain villagesaround Noida to find outabout their lifestyle and get-ting to know their needs.But due to the first lock-down, we couldn’t visitthem personally butheld some webinarswhere we talkedabout financial lit-eracy. We intendto go visit thesevillages as andwhen things nor-malise a bit. We

intend to target UP first andthen slowly move to otherStates,” Mehta tells you.

He doesn’t anticipate anychallenges in trying to con-vince the people to use the apponce they actually get down tomeeting them personally. “I amsure that people will be willingto listen to what we have to sayand offer. They will understandhow easy to use our app is andhow they can not only securetheir future but also their chil-dren’s. Once they are intro-duced to the app, they caninvest as low as �100. It is a goodamount to begin with and seehow things work before theystart to invest on a more regu-lar basis,” Mehta explains. Heplans to study abroad. Once hefinishes his graduation, he plansto come back and continue towork with Rural Invest.

But his first venture camewhen he had just finished ClassIX; it is Junkguards. The aim isto reduce the e-waste.“I hadtaken part in a competitionwhen I was in Class IX. We

bagged the first placeand learnt every-thing there was toknow about e-waste. There wasso much e-wasteto be collected.We created a plat-form that con-nected all thes t a k e h o l d e r sinvolved. This waythe waste could be

collected in a time-ly manner and dis-

posed of just as prop-erly,” Mehta says.

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What does a 15-year-old dowho goes tothe US for hervacations and

comes back home to India andmisses her favourite drink — theBubble tea? Well, she makes itand then turns it into a businessventure. Meet Harshita Jain, astudent of Class XII of TheAmerican Embassy School inthe Capital studying the IBdiploma and all set to graduatein a couple of months.

She has plans to pursue abusiness degree come fall pro-vided everything falls into place.She is waiting to hear from a fewmore colleges before she final-ly makes a final call.

A couple of years back, in2018, she took up a courseoffered by Young EntrepreneursAcademy. “The idea was not toend up having a business of myown back then. But a part of thecourse involved us to come upwith a business idea. I am bornin the US and go there everyyear. I was having Bubble teacraving. A friend of mine post-ed a photo of her having it andI too wanted to drink it. It wasa very small thing that startedme on this weekend venture thatI have,” Jain says.

For those who don’t knowwhat the Bubble tea or Boba teais, the drink originated inTaiwan in 1980s and soonbecame a a rage the world over.It is a cold, frothy drink madewith different flavours, sweeten-

ers and milk with tapioca pearlsat the base of the drink. It is adrink that is enjoyed by peopleof all ages.

“Basically, these pearls arelike sabudana. The only differ-ence is that these pearls tastereally nice. I import my tapiocafrom Taiwan. There isn’t goodquality available here in India atpresent. My company —Necessiteas — believes in deliv-ering quality product to theclients; it is my USP. I try tomake Bubble tea. To begin with,it was more tea-based; one wasdrinking and chewing the pearlsat the same time. But now, it hasexpanded and there are fruitflavours. We have vegan options,

sugar-free options. What staysconstant is that you eat anddrink at the same time,” Jain tellsyou.

Interestingly, even thoughshe was born in the US, herpaternal home is in Delhi. Hermaternal home is in the US.Both sides of her family are intobusiness. Her mother’s side ofthe family is into jewellery andher father’s side deals in chem-icals. So, Jain grew up listeningto business and things that arehappening in the office and whatcan be done in case a problemoccurred.

“My grandfather started abusiness on his own. I grew uplistening to his stories and real-

ly got inspired. He came from avery small town but built anempire all on his own. Thestruggle, the hard work and dili-gence to make it big in life real-ly got me fascinated. That iswhere I got my initial entrepre-neurship from,” Jain says.

At present, since she is stillin school and has a tight sched-ule, she makes the tea only overthe weekends. Since she makesthese teas herself, she can’t massproduce; her largest batch hasbeen of 100 bottles. Those inter-ested in buying can go to thecompany’s Insta account andmessage the order and it isdelivered. However, once theschool is over for Jain, she plansto expand her business andteach a couple of people how tomake the pearls and the drinkitself so that even when she is inthe US, her business will contin-ue here.

Unfortunately, for herCOVID-19 played spoilsport. “Iwanted to open a pop-up storebut it is now on hold. However,home delivery has worked forme. While I may not be able todeliver huge quantities but who-ever has had the drink, they loveit. It feels great that people werewilling to try new things. It isgreat that even the older peoplelove it. We also do customdrinks as well — make it withsoya milk or sugar-free. Makingthe pearls is time consuming soI can’t make many bottles. Therange for the drink is between�200-�250 for 200 ml. We alsohave a system that if peoplereturn the glass bottles, they geta discount. This is to reduceplastic waste,” Jain says.

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(22) made room to cut a wide ball offSakariya but the extra bounce led tohis downfall as he ended up edging itto the wicketkeeper.

Skipper Eoin Morgan sent SunilNarine ahead of himself to give theinnings a much needed boost but itdid not work with the West Indiandeparting after hitting one boundary,leaving KKR at 55 for three in 10overs.

KKR's troubles worsened afterMorgan got run out without facing aball following a bad mix-up withRahul Tripathi (36 off 26).

Their most destructive batsmanAndre Russell had to wait till the 16thover to get into the middle with theinnings not going anywhere at 94 forfive.

Dinesh Karthik (25) came up withsome badly needed boundaries in hisbid to improve the scoring rate.

Russell smashed a straight six offMorris in the fifth ball he faced butthat remained his only big hit of thenight.

Morris removed both Russelland Karthik in the same over whichallowed Royals to limit KKR to under140. BRIEF SCORES:Kolkata Knight Riders: 133 for 9 in20 overs. (R Tripathi 36, D Karthik25; C Morris 4/23)Rajasthan Royals: 134 for 4 in18.5 overs. (S Samson 42 not out, DMiller 24 not out; V Charavarthy2/32).

�� +�+'�

Chris Morris' four-wicket burst in thedeath overs and skipper Sanju

Samson's measured innings gaveRajasthan Royals a much needed winover Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPLhere on Saturday.

Royals pacers, who were smart withtheir change of pace, restricted KKR to133 for nine after Samson opted to bowlfirst.

Royals lost their openers, Jos Buttler(5) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (22), in the pow-erplay but they never lost control of thechase and got over the line in 18.5 oversfor their second win in five matches.

For KKR, it was their fourth loss infive matches.

Morris, the most expensive player inthe IPL auction history, proved hisworth with figures of four for 23 in fourovers.

The other pacers, Jaydev Unadkat(1/25), Chetan Sakariya (1/31) andMustafizur Rahman (1/22), also madevaluable contributions.

Royals witnessed a nervy momentearly in the chase when Buttler receiveda nasty blow on his helmet as he tried tonegotiate a sharp bouncer from PatCummins. Soon after, the England crick-eter was trapped in front by mystery spin-ner Varun Chakravarthy.

Jaiswal, playing his first game of theseason, played some exquisite strokesbefore getting caught in the deep. Royals

were 50 for two in the first six overs.After Jaiswal's dismissal, Samson (42

not out off 41) stitched a 45-run standwith Shivam Dube (22) before getting his

team home alongside David Miller (24not out off 23).

Samson, who is known for his freeflowing strokeplay, curbed his natural

instinct to anchor the chase.Earlier, KKR were not able to find

rhythm in their underwhelming innings.The highly rated Shubman Gill (11)

disappointed yet again. He was droppedbefore his uncomfortable stay in the mid-dle finally ended with a run out off a bril-liant direct hit from Jos Buttler.

The Royals pacers were impressivewith their variations and did not offer thebatsmen any freebies in the powerplay asKKR laboured to 25 for one in six overs.

It became 45 for two in the eighth overwhen Gill's opening partner Nitish Rana

and with an in-form Moeen Alipencilled in at No 3 and SureshRaina to follow, CSK has the fire-power to strike late as well.

Skipper Dhoni is yet to hit hisstraps but coach Stephen Flemingbelieves he would get better withevery outing.

While Chahar has been in thethick of things at the start, spinners

Ravindra Jadeja and Moeen Ali havealso struck crucial blows.

Shardul Thakur has proved expen-sive at times but is a vital cog in the CSK

bowling unit. Add to this the fact that theWankhede stadium has seen mostlyhigh-scoring games and the team thatholds its nerves is likely to come uptrumps on a track like this.

��+�+'��

It would be nothing short of a clash of the titans whenVirat Kohli’s on-a-roll Royal Challengers Bangalore

takes on Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kingsin a top-of-the-table showdown at Wankhede Stadiumon Sunday with two points and momentum at stake.

RCB has won all its four matches so far and sits ontop of the standings. CSK, on the other hand, has hitback after losing its opener to claim three straight winsfor the second spot in the points table.

RCB, boosted by a10-wicket hammeringof Rajasthan Royals, willbe keen to continue its win-ning streak. However, the task is easiersaid than done as CSK is riding highwith three good results of its own.

Kohli and the highly-ratedDevdutt Padikkal toyed with theRajasthan Royals bowling theother day and will look to lay astrong foundation again against a var-ied CSK bowling attack.

RCB, which has more often notunder-performed amid high expec-tations, has started well. And, Kohliwill be aware of the importance ofmaintaining the intensity in a longleague.

The RCB batting appears to be top heavyand reliant on the performances of Kohli,South African maestro AB de Villiers andAustralian maverick Glenn Maxwell.Padikkal’s good form also augurs well for theteam.

However, the RCB batting unit will frontup to Deepak Chahar, who is known for hisability to strike early.

It remains to be seen if the team has whatit takes to bounce back in case there is loseof wickets early in the innings.

The RCB bowling has done the jobso far with Mohammed Siraj beingimpressive. However, they come upagainst a formidable CSK which batsdeep and the importance of early wick-ets can’t be emphasised enough.

Ruturaj Gaikwad emerged fromthree failures with an impressiveknock against Kolkata Knight Ridersand forms a strong opening partner-ship with Faf du Plessis.

A good start will help their cause

��

Rishabh Pant’s brute power will be put to testagainst Rashid Khan’s bagful of tricks in an

encounter where Delhi Capitals will start asfavourites against SunRisers Hyderabad due to theirbetter bowling resources.

The much-criticised Chepauk track will hostits 10th and final IPL game of the season in whichboth Pant and his opposite number David Warnerwould pray for a decent surface for their flamboy-ant batters.

With only a couple of first innings total inexcess of 170 across nine games here, the slow andgripping surface at the Chidambaram Stadium teststhe skills of the batsmen in a different manner.

Possibly, it’s the ability to muscle the ball thatwill come in handy on this track and hence the DCskipper’s role as a batsman will become all the moreimportant.

While Shikhar Dhawan is in good form andPrithvi Shaw in not so great touch after the firstgame, the willow-wielders, who depend on sheertiming compared to power may struggle.

In fact, Hyderabad, after playing all its fourgames in Chennai, has only now started to crackthe code of a slow track, evident during the team’scomfortable victory over Punjab Kings after a hat-trick of defeats.

With Kane Williamson back in the mix,SunRisers seemed to have got a better bal-ance in a set-up which is acutely short ofquality India internationals.

With T Natarajan’s death bowlingunavailable for this season and ManishPandey only able to manage a strike-rate of 112 odd, bulk of the respon-sibility is on overseas recruitsWarner, Jonny Bairstow,Williamson and Rashid.

The wily Afghan has againbeen very consistent and hisduel with Pant could be one ofthe most eagerly-awaitedmatch-ups that can send theTRPs soaring.

SRH’s weak link is cer-tainly its bowling attackwith none among SandeepSharma, Siddharth Kaul orall-rounder Vijay Shankarinspiring any sort of confi-dence whatsoever.

So DC will have 12overs out of 20 on whichthey can feast upon if one

takes away the eight bowled byRashid and the seasonedBhuvneshwar Kumar.

However, a bit of tweak intheir XI also won’t be bad eventhough they had comfortablybeaten Mumbai Indians in alow-scoring game here only afew days back.

One area of slight concernwill be Ashwin’s form as he hasbeen going at 8 runs per overand only a single wicket to showfor his efforts. The Chepauktrack could just give him some

breathing space after mostly flatdecks in Mumbai.

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Indian women’s ODI captainMithali Raj on Saturday

indicated that the 2022 50-over World Cup in NewZealand will be her “swan-song” after 23 illustrious yearsin International cricket.

The 38-year-old Mithali,arguably, the finestwoman cricketerthat India has everproduced, also said that sheis seriously looking for somegood seam bowling optionsfor the lively New Zealandtracks that will be on offernext year.

“It’s been 21 years ofInternational cricket and Iknow 2022 is my swansong,The World Cup,” Mithali said.

“The last year is equal tothe 20 years of myInternational cricket,” sheadded.

Mithali, the only womenbatter with 7000 plus One DayInternational runs, also spokeabout how she had to keepherself motivated during theCovid-19 times which also

pushed the global event byone year.

“I know we are in difficulttimes but it takes a lot out ofme to keep working on my fit-ness. I am not getting anyyounger, in fact I am gettingolder and I know the impor-tance of fitness,” MIthali said.

“The importance of beingin a very good emotional andmental set-up, knowing thatthere will be very few tours

before the World Cup.”Indian women are set to

play four bilateral series —away tours in England,Australia and New Zealandand a home series againstWest Indies sandwiched inbetween.

“Every tour (from nowon) is important for me as abatter as to how I am going toget the team to regroup andbuild a team for the WorldCup,” she said.

“Yeah, I am very opti-mistic looking at the girlsand in the manner they havebeen working with whateverfacilities they have in thesetimes and focus and enthusi-asm that a series is comingup.”

She admitted that fastbowling is one area that theteam needs to improve uponand build a pool looking at thefuture as Jhulan Goswamialso hits the business end ofher career.

“We definitely need tolook at a few players and pre-pare them for New Zealand,so yeah.”

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Dimuth Karunaratne scored his maid-en double hundred as Sri Lanka bat-

ted through the day without losing a wick-et on Saturday to match Bangladesh’s 500-plus score in the first Test.

The Sri Lankan captain ended thefourth day on 234 while middle order bats-man Dhananjaya de Silva moved to 154 asthe home side reached 512 for three atstumps, still 29 runs behind Bangladesh’sfirst innings total.

They have added 322 runs for thefourth wicket, the highest stand at Pallekelefor any wicket. The previous best was byAustralia’s Mike Hussey and Shaun Marsh,who made 258 in 2011, also for thefourth wicket.

Karunaratne passed his career bestscore of 196, set against Pakistan in 2017,by elegantly driving Taskin Ahmed for fourand in the same over reached his first dou-ble ton.

The 33-year-old left-hander has nowbeen at the crease for more than 11 hoursand faced 419 deliveries, 25 of which havebeen boundaries.

While his partner, de Silva reached his

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Jurgen Klopp admitted Liverpoolare not playing like a side who“deserve” Champions League

football next season after blowing thechance to move into the PremierLeague’s top four with a 1-1 drawagainst Newcastle on Saturday.

Mohamed Salah had opened thescoring after just three minutes, butLiverpool wasted a host of chancesto extend their lead and paid in stop-page time.

The Reds even had a reprievewhen Callum Wilson’s equaliserwas ruled out after a VAR review forhandball, but still could not hold onas Willock’s deflected strike secureda vital point in the Magpies’ bid fortop flight survival.

Liverpool move up to sixth butare a point behind fourth-placedChelsea and West Ham.

Two more dropped points is ablow to Liverpool’s chances of a placein next season’s Champions Leagueafter their owners’ plans for ensur-ing they have top level European

football every season without hav-ing to earn it on the field collapsedthis week.

Liverpool were one of 12 clubsto initially sign up to proposals fora European Super League (ESL) lastweekend, only to withdraw within 48hours after a backlash from theirown players and fans.

“If you deserve it, you deserve it,”said Klopp, echoing the critics of theESL as a closed shop for Europe’s bigclubs.

“I didn’t see us today playing likewe deserve Champions League nextyear. We have another five games andwe will see. We learn or we don’t playChampions League, that’s it.”

A protest outside Anfield onSaturday was more muted than theones seen ahead of Chelsea andArsenal’s home matches in recentdays, but a number of flags and ban-ners were attached to the gatesaround the ground calling out the“greed” of the club’s American own-ers Fenway Sports Group (FSG).

John Henry’s FSG helped deliv-er Liverpool’s first Premier League

title for 30 years last season.But many of the problems

Klopp’s men have encountered in

defending their title were in evidenceagain as they failed to see offNewcastle long before a nervy finale.

The hosts could not have madea better start as a brilliant touch andfinish from Salah opened the scor-ing after just three minutes.

Salah should have had a secondbut fired too close to MartinDubravka when clean through ongoal, while Sadio Mane also failed toround the Slovakian goalkeeperwith a glorious chance.

Dubravka then made a string offine saves after the break to denyRoberto Firmino, Mane and JamesMilner.

The tension in the Liverpoolplayers was clear late in the game andNewcastle capitalised after manag-er Steve Bruce sent on Wilson andWillock.

Wilson bundled home afterAlisson had saved his initial effort,but the ball had rebounded off theBrazilian goalkeeper onto the formerBournemouth striker’s hand beforehe stabbed it into an unguarded net.

Seconds later, Liverpool failed todeal with another long ball into theirbox and it fell for on-loan Arsenalmidfielder Willock, whose strikedeflected in off Fabinho to leaveAlisson helpless.

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An own-goal from Arsenalgoalkeeper Bernd Leno

handed Everton a 1-0 win onFriday night as around 2,000 fansprotested against Gunners ownerStan Kroenke outside theEmirates Stadium.

With both sides chasingplaces in Europe next season, itwas Carlo Ancelotti’s side whocame out on top with a first winin seven games.

German keeper Leno turneda Richarlison cross into his own

goal in the 76th minute to givethe Toffees victory.

The result left Everton ineighth place, three points off theChampions League places aftertheir first league win at Arsenalsince 1996. Arsenal are ninth,nine points off the top four.

“It was really important tostay attached to the top of thetable,” Ancelotti told the BBC.

“The performance was good.It’s all good news tonight and thisgives us confidence for the nextgames. Finally I can say we areback.”

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Bayern Munich blew thechance to clinch the

Bundesliga title for a ninthsuccessive season on Saturdayas the club world championscrashed to a 2-1 defeat away toMainz.

First-half goals byJonathan Burkardt and RobinQuaison sealed Mainz’s thirdstraight win, pulling themaway from the relegation fightand forcing Bayern to wait tobe crowned champions.

On his return from a kneeinjury, Bayern striker RobertLewandowski scored justbefore the end to leave himfour short of Gerd Mueller’sal l-time record of 40Bundesliga goals in a season.

Bayern can still win thetitle on Sunday without kick-ing a ball if second-placed RBLeipzig, who are 10 pointsbehind Munich, lose at hometo Stuttgart.

“That was too little fromus in the first half, you can’twin games like that, in termsof body language and ourbuild up,” said Bayern captainManuel Neuer, who was at

fault for the opening goal.“We created too few

chances and were punishedfor our own mistakes.

“We weren’t surprised byMainz, who have been playingwell and are fighting to stayup.”

Mainz had also been 2-0up at half-time against Bayernat the Allianz Arena in

January until the hosts roaredback to win 5-2 whenLewandowski scored twice.

However, this time Mainzheld their ner ve andLewandowski’s goal four min-utes into added time wasBayern’s only consolation.

HAALAND NETS TWICEIn Wolfsburg, Erling Braut

Haaland netted twice asBorussia Dortmund boostedtheir hopes of qualifying forthe Champions League nextseason with a 2-0 away win.

Haaland sprinted clear ofthe defence and fired homefrom a tight angle with just 12minutes gone.

Dortmund played with 10men for the last 31 minutesafter 17-year-old Englandmidfielder Jude Bellinghamwas sent off for a second yel-low card.

However, Dortmund dou-bled their lead whenMahmoud Dahoud won theball on the edge of his ownpenalty area and his passfound Haaland.

The 20-year-old racedclear and slotted pastWolfsburg goalkeeper KoenCasteels for his 37th goal in 38games this season in all com-petitions.

With three games left,fifth-placed Dortmund areone point from theChampions League places,but have their work cut outwith games against RBLeipzig, Mainz and BayerLeverkusen to come.

seventh Test hundred after lunch by pullingTaskin Ahmed for four. He has faced 278 deliver-ies and hit 20 fours.

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Rafael Nadal trounced com-patriot Pablo Carreno

Busta to reach his 12thBarcelona final where he willface Stefanos Tsitsipas, theGreek star who stunned thegreat Spaniard from two setsdown in this year’s AustralianOpen.

Top seed Nadal, an 11-time champion in Barcelona,eased to a 6-3, 6-2 win overworld number 13 CarrenoBusta in 90 minutes.

It was Nadal’s eighth winin eight meetings against his29-year-old Davis Cup team-mate and his 65th inBarcelona.

Earlier, Tsitsipas winner ofhis first Masters 1000 event inMonte Carlo last week, bookedhis place in a second succes-sive final when he beat Italianteenager Jannik Sinner 6-3, 6-3 in his semi-final on Saturday.

“It feels great to be back inthe final. I will try to redeemmyself from last time,” saidTsitsipas.

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Watford bounced back to thePremier League at the first

time of asking after Saturday’s 1-0 win over Millwall sealed pro-motion.

Brentford’s win atBournemouth earlier in the daymeant that only three pointswould be good enough for XiscoMunoz’s men to be promotedalongside Norwich, who camedown with them last season.

Ismaila Sarr’s early penaltygave Watford the perfect start,but they had to withstand anervy finale to guarantee theirplace back in the prestige andriches of the English top-flight.

Prior to Munoz’s appoint-ment on December 20, automat-ic promotion looked unlikelyafter dip in form under Vladimir

Ivic.However, 17 wins in just 24

games under the Spaniard helpedamass a 10-point lead over

Brentford, who have just threegames left to play.

The Bees are now at leastguaranteed a playoff spot withBournemouth, Barnsley andSwansea almost certain to jointhem in the battle for the finalpromotion place.

Barnsley moved nine pointsclear of seventh-placed Readingwith a hard-fought 1-0 win overstruggling Rotherham thanks toCarlton Morris’s early goal.

A week after securing theirpromotion, Norwich City closedin on the Championship titlewith a 3-1 win at Queens ParkRangers to maintain their five-point lead over Watford with twogames to go.

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Kylian Mbappe scored twicefor the second game in a

row but picked up a thigh injuryas Paris Saint-Germain climbedtop of Ligue 1 on Saturday witha 3-1 victory at Metz.

The France striker was rest-ed for the midweek cup rout ofAngers and returned to bolsterPSG’s title hopes as he nettedeither side of Fabien Centonze’sequaliser to send the championsabove Lille.

However, Mbappe was sub-stituted in the closing minuteswith a heavily strapped thigh, aworrying sign for PSG ahead ofWednesday’s Champions Leaguesemi-final first leg at home toManchester City.

Mauro Icardi sealed the vic-tory with a penalty a minutefrom time.

PSG are now two pointsclear of Lille, who visit fourth-placed Lyon on Sunday whileMonaco, the form side in thesecond half of the season, arefour points back ahead of theirtrip to Angers.

Neymar was restored to theline-up after serving a two-

match ban for his red cardagainst Lille, while MarcoVerratti made his first start inover a month following a posi-tive Covid-19 test.

Having scored twice in thedramatic 3-2 win over Saint-Etienne last weekend, Mbappegave PSG the lead inside fiveminutes as he ran onto Ander

Herrera’s chipped pass andfired in via the post.

Centonze tested KeylorNavas as Metz sought to snapa run of nine successive leaguedefeats by PSG, and the full-back levelled early in the sec-ond half by heading in FaridBoulaya’s cross.

Pape Matar Sarr was thendenied by Navas before PSGpunished Metz for losing theball deep in their half, asMbappe drilled in with the aidof a deflection from 20 yards.

Metz goalkeeper AlexandreOukidja made a fantastic reflexstop to thwart Leandro Paredesand Herrera rattled the wood-work, with Boulaya then racingback to clear Mbappe’s dinkedeffort off the line.

Mbappe was replaced byJulian Draxler after appearingto hurt his thigh, and Icardiwon and converted a late penal-ty to make it five goals in threegames for the Argentine.

On Friday night, DimitriPayet scored two goals and setup Arkadiusz Milik for anoth-er as Marseille came frombehind to defeat Reims 3-1away.

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World number oneAshleigh Barty celebrat-

ed her 25th birthday by fight-ing back to beat Elina Svitolinain the semi-finals of the WTAclay-court tournament inStuttgart on Saturday.

Despite losing the first setin just a over half an hour,Barty hit back to seal a 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 win over theUkrainian fourth seed.

The Australian will meeteither second-seed SimonaHalep or Aryna Sabalenka inSunday’s final.

“It’s important to believe.Regardless of the score, Ialways try and find the rightway,” said Barty, who also lostthe opening set of Friday’squarter-final against KarolinaPliskova.

“She is one of the bestcompetitors on the tour, so Iknew it would be a very hardfought match and the marginswould decide it,” Barty addedbefore being presented with abouquet of f lowers with“Happy Birthday” played overthe arena’s sound system.

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The present pandemic has made achef out of many of us. We open the

refrigerator and look at the left over andthink of ways to modify it and presenta totally new dish for the family to enjoy.But what happens when a profession-al chef opens the fridge and sees the left-overs? What does he do with them andwhat kind of gourmet dishes does hewhip up? Well, Zee Café’s new show thatgoes on air tonight at 8 pm is all thisand much more.

The show which is hosted byGaurav Gera and judged by ChefVicky, is a competition like never seenbefore. In every new episode, one willget to see two chefs pitted against eachother to come up with dishes where abfridge lega sabki class, aur chefsbanaenge kuch world class.

“It is a very different show wherethe fridge is the hero. The tagline: Abfridge lega sab ki class aaur chef

baneyegey kuch world class is totally aptand fits perfectly here. One has twochefs who are cooking against eachother. There is a theme as well whichis not revealed to them. They are shownthe key ingredients first. One has pro-fessional chefs cooking. The viewers willsee and learn how one can get creative

with ingredients found in one’s refrig-erator. We see this happening in everyhousehold today where people open thefridge and see what they can make inorder to reduce wastage,” Ratnaniexplains. He says that whenever thereis a chef judging a chef or any other per-son, there is already a benchmark that

has been set and one would expect acertain culinary level keeping in mindhow qualified the other person is.

“What I will be looking for is orig-inality, elevation, taste and flavour andpresentation and appearance,” Ratnanisays. The take away lessons here wouldbe how one can whip up good recipesfrom the ingredients found in the fridge.Since every week one will see differentchefs competing, one will see freshnessin each episode.

“Each chef here has varied culinaryexperience and comes from a differentbackground. One is teaching at a culi-nary school, another is working with arestaurant, some are self-taught andsome are working from home. So, allhave a strong background,” Ratnanisays.

The reason why Indian food hasgained prominence on the global mapis because regional food has become

big, micro-cuisine has come out of thecloset. “Also, people are travelling. Lotof home chefs are exhibiting their culi-nary skills. It is good that the impor-tance of Indian food through Indianchefs has gone through the roof. Tenyears back it was not considered coolto eat Indian food. Indian restaurantsare no longer considered to be just curryhouses. They are getting a lot of respecttoday. The vocal for local has definite-ly has its plus,” Ratnani says. He is quickto point out that fusion of Indian foodcan lead to a lot of confusion.

“My advice to people which I havegiven in this show as well, is that a dishis only going to make sense if one hasthorough knowledge, authority or theaptitude, understanding and maturityof both the cuisines that are comingtogether. Confusion can lead to disas-ter and fusion can sometimes create agenius,” Ratnani says.

�We haven't seen you in a movie for acouple of years. What is keeping youbusy?

The last one year, I have been busybuilding Nine Rasa. It tookalmost all my time, quite liter-ally. One starts with an idea toactually execute it takes a lot oftime, effort and money. But ithas been worth it. �What is app about?

It is the first ever OTTplatform that is completelydedicated to theatre andperforming arts. It hasanything and everythingthat happens on stage and

w i l l

essentially be on this particular platform.It will include full-length plays, one-actplays, skits, stand up, story reading - beis poetry or songs, dance in almost all theIndian languages. To begin with, it willbe in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati,English/Hinglish. Going forward, we willbe adding more languages to the plat-form. �What about movies?

Once the first lockdown opened. Ihave been busy shooting for not onlyHindi but Marathi films; there are newseries in the works. I have been busy witha film Love You Shankar directed byRajeev Ruia who did My Friend Ganeshaearlier. I did a Marathi film with MaheshManjrekar. I am shooting for a movie inRajasthan titled Mannu and Munni KiShaadi; it is 90 per cent complete.Hopefully these films will release once

cinema halls open. I am also acting anddirecting a film — Sarkar Ke Seva

Mein before the pandemic. Wehope to complete the shoot andrelease it as well. �What kind of content willpeople get to see?

Essentially anything that iscreative will find its way on thisplatform. Theatre is one of the

richest and finest entertainment.For a long time, it has stayed limit-

ed to auditoriums. Now is the needfor theatre to reach out to a lot more

people; to every household. The contentis completely family-friendly. Usually,

family and friends come to watch plays.This platform is the same. �What is the aim?

The aim intention with which thisplatform was conceptulised was to helpthe theatre community and fraternity dueto the present pandemic especially dur-ing the first lockdown, last year. A lot oftheatre friends called asking what couldbe done under the situation to help outtheatre people. That was also when thingshad started to go online. I felt that ifeverything was going online, why nottheatre. We also released that there is abigger need to reach out to global audi-ence and started building towards it.�There are so many apps. Do you thinkthere is scope for more?

There is place and scope for not onlymy app but many more apps that areunique. This platform is unique since itis the is first of its kind app dedicated totheatre and performing arts. On a lightervein, there were so many actors beforeme and there will be so many who willcome after me. This app will be no dif-ferent. If the content is good peoplewould like to see it. �Have OTT platforms made it manda-tory for actors to reinvent themselves?

There are two things associatedwith this. When you see some actors onthe platform you feel that they aremeant to be on it. There is so much rawand hidden talent in them. The newactors one sees here, one wonders wherethey were. Then there have been actors

who have reinvented themselves and seta precedent which is difficult to top. Butthis is what we have been taught in the-atre - your performance speaks foritself. �How has this last one year changedthe way industry will operate in thefuture?

Nothing changes overnight. It takestime but the change has started with OTTcoming to the forefront. There are newstars on the block and therefore, this plat-form is a great level playing field for them. �Has content on OTT changed story-line of films as well — realistic cinemataking front seat?

The entire concept of story-telling ischanging. People are looking for true andreal stories, inspiring stories. Realism,subtly and stories about people from TierI and II cities are taking front seat. Thereare so many stories that are waiting to thebe told and will now be told. Hopefully,my app will also play its role in tellingsuch stories. �What next?

The year 2020 has taught us manyimportant lessons. It has given us manyopportunities as well and forced us to getout of our comfort zone and think out-of-the-box. What comes next is going tobe interesting for me. One can do somany things. However, we can never beready for what the future holds for us. Butwe now have the confidence to facethings bravely and move forward so thatwhat comes next is bright and good.

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�What is DUDE about?The series is a detective-drama. The tag is: Ode to moth-

ers. The story would not have existed if not for the mother ofthe protagonist. She goes missing when he was a a child. Thefilms stems from here. On the oneset is it established that hismother is missing but the major screen part is spent on the casethat the detective is trying to solve which is going to be his lastcase. The backdrop is him looking for his mother. The inter-esting part is how he how he goes looking for her which is notthe usual conventional method.�So, there are two stories?

There is a plot and a sub-plot. The main plot is him look-ing for his mother, the sub-plot is how this is his last case wherea young couple get a threat letter that their child will be kid-napped if they don’t vacant the newly bought house. By the endof it, both stories come together and gives him a closure abouthis mother.�Why DUDE?

It is actually an acronym for Detective Umesh Dhamija(DUD); he is Dude’s father. As you can see there is no E. Initially,in the plot, we had laid a lot of emphasis on the father but thescript changed but one thing remained unchanged — the fathercontinued to be conceited. DUDE, Detective Uttam Dhamija,always felt that it was his father who gave himself this acronymand the office people. Then the father retires and Uttam joinsthe firm, the tag continues.�Why did you choose to release it on YouTube?

There is a reason why I didn’t choose a big OTT platformto release it. The trend that has been seen that only those showsmake it on big OTTs is when they have established themselvesor the film or show is star-studded or backed by a big directoror producer. For beginners, this is debilitating. I had written anddirected this film and wanted certain freedom. If I had gone toa big OTT, they probably would have said: Who is this direc-tor? Let’s get another one on board for this project. This is okaysince they have a checklist. But I wanted independence so I wentwith Rusk Media who gave me the freedom I needed. �Were there challenges faced to release it on YouTube?

The biggest problem was not that we had to shoot duringthe pandemic but the fact that the we had to change the scriptsince it was written before the pandemic. The story has no ref-erence to COVID-19. It would appear to be weird to make ashow that has no mention of the virus or address. So we setup the set story in 2019. But then came the issue of mask. Peopleeverywhere were wearing it. This was a challenge; to shoot andensure it didn’t look it was COVID-19 era. �It started with just a scribble. How did turn into a webseries??

It is now five-episode series. When I started, I had just quitmy job and started working as a creative producer. When youquit your job and you want to direct, nobody wants to pay you.I wrote DUDE because I knew no one would pay me and pro-duce it like an indie-director. In July 2019, I met the CEO ofRusk Media. We discussed a few things and that is how it wentforward.�What are the challenges young directors like yourself arefacing?

First, good stories. There is no good content. There are somany hacks being made everywhere. As a director, one antsto work on fresh ideas. The same is true for actors as well. Peopleshould get bold when it comes to writing.

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�I have fever for three days, should I go for RT-PCR/Rapid Antigen Test/CBNAAT?

In the current situation, it is presumed youhave Covid-19 infection. Treat accordingly. Ifavailable, get RT-PCR test done. Only if RT-PCRtest facility is not there, Rapid Antigen Test orCBNAAT may be done.�I am running fever for 3 days, and my RT-PCRresult for COVID 19 is positive. What all shouldI do? Which tests and what medicine should Itake?

General Care: Strict isolation at home. Allpositive patients in the same house do not haveto remain in different rooms. Monitor your tem-perature six hourly. If temperature rises above101, take tab paracetamol 650mg.3.Monitoring blood oxygen level by pulse oxime-ter, six hourly. If reading 94 per cent or higher,nothing to worry. If reading drops <94 per cent,start deep breathing exercises (pranayam). Lie onyour tummy (not on your back) for as long as youcan; this is likely to improve your oxygen level.If oxygen level not getting better, see if you cando a six-minute walk test.

Note: Please note that the period in whichoxygen level may fall is generally from day fiveto day 11 from the date of onset of first symp-tom. If lying in prone position or six minute does

not improve level above 94 per cent, then youneed to see a doctor, and you may need supple-mental oxygen.

Normal diet (patient with comorbidities needto continue to follow illness specific dietaryrestrictions). Drink sufficient fluids (patientwith comorbidities need to adjust fluid intake asneeds to be for each specific comorbidity).

Blood tests: Normally no blood test isneeded in mild cases. In those with severe symp-toms (high fever, severe diarrhoea, severe fatigueetc.) but good oxygen levels, the following testsmay be done (fasting) as baseline: CBC, CRP, LFT.

Treatment: There is no specific treatment forCOVID-19 infection. Only, treatment for reliefof symptoms is needed. For fever/bodypains/headache: Paracetamol SOS. Sore throat:warm saline gargles. Throat irritation, sneezingor running nose: Tab Cetirizine (Zyrtec): One tabonce a day. Dry Cough: Tab Montair LC; one tabper day. Wet Cough (with phlegm/sputum): Bro-Zedex Syrup, 1 or 2, teaspoons thrice daily.

Loose motions: Take Electral OralRehydration Powder, as many times as needed;in severe diarrhoea, Tab Imodium 2 mg as need-ed. Also take Curd, at-least once a day.

General immunity boosters: Tab Zinc 50mg (Tab Zinconia) for 15 days. Those with co-

morbidities such as obesity, Diabetes, high BP,asthma, kidney disease, smokers, chronicchest diseases, history of lung tuberculosis,etc): Continue all medicines already beingtaken for chronic illnesses like high BP,Diabetes, thyroid illnesses, asthma, cancer,arthritis, etc. You have to go by the advise ofyour treating doctor. You may be advised todo the following tests by your doctor: SerumFerritin, LDH, D-Dimer, Interleukin 6. Just torepeat, those above 70, and those with Diabetesand other co-morbidities, go as per your doc-tor’s advise.

Need for HRCT chest: Those with normal(>94) oxygen level do not need HRCT of thechest. It is to be done only if oxygen consistent-ly remains below 94, or there is severe breathless-ness. CT score being done these days may haveinterpretation issues, and hence do not getalarmed. Abnormal blood tests alone is NOT areason to do CT.

Note: Please do not give/take Fabiflu(Favipiravir) Doxycycline, Ivermectin orAzithromycin. None of these has any proven role.These may harm the patient as all medicines haveside effects. Most common side effects of mostdrugs are nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, loosemotions.

Steroids (Medrol/Dexona) are prohibited anddangerous for those having normal oximeterreading. Only those who need more than 3L/minsupplemental oxygen support should receive ashort course for five days. Early start of steroids(practiced by some) in our opinion, can make thecondition worse. Neither Inj Remdesivir nor con-valescent plasma is of proven value. So do notworry too much if these cannot be arranged.Neither of these will change the final outcome.Much more important than blood tests orHRCT findings is the oxygen saturation level asseen in the finger oximeter. This is the key to man-agement of Covid-19.

Disclaimer: This is a simplified and basic guid-ance for patients and their family doctors. It is basedon consensus of five AIIMS-trained specialists withover 40 years of practical experience of each. Everypatient should take treatment for COVID-19 as perthe instructions of a competent doctor.

How to measure oxygen level: Put theoximeter on right (dominant) hand’s middle fin-ger. First, cross check functioning of the fingeroximeter by test readings on other members ofthe family/caregiver. Check both at rest and afterwalking around the room for six minutes. Thosewho cannot walk for six minutes should try andwalk for three minutes at least.

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With the second big wave ofCovid-19 hitting big andswamping the country, thefocus on proper food and fit-ness while staying at home has

become even greater. What you eat, eventuallyrevs your metabolism and strengthens yourimmune system and how you direct your bodyto move via exercise ensures that you do notaccumlate weight due to inactivity and stay fit.While most is common knowledge, we haveput together some pointers that will work as aguide to your good health.

��Most people deal with cravings and food

addiction. Its impact on daily life results in yoyo weight gain. If you can reduce your crav-ings, you can easily solve any obesity-relatedproblems. To deal with cravings, plan mealsahead and keep healthy snacks, like dates, figs,melons, grapes, citrus, berries, raw honey, andsmoothies with coconut water, handy. Thesefoods work really well when you feel the needfor a sugar fix or caffeine. If you are insulinsensitive, eating cucumber slices or leafygreens along with your fruit (or a greensmoothie) will help you avoid the highs orlows.

��Introduce intermittent fasting and fasted

work outs to your routine for good results. Bepatient with yourself as the whole process isslow and can take at least four weeks to showresults. Narrowing your feeding window isincredible for brain health and weight loss. Themeals that you can skip or replace duringintermittent fasting are breakfast or dinner. Itis best to avoid snacking when fasting otherthan water. Instead, you can add a squeeze oflemon, have unsweetened coffee (with uptoone table spoon of organic cream), unsweet-ened tea, coconut or MCT oil. Some tips to fol-low while practicing intermittent fasting are:� Don’t cut any foods out of your normal diet.� Eat at least seven servings of whole fruitsand vegetables.� Do one fasted-state work out daily.� Eat at least one omega-3 rich food everyday.� Add one boosting activity each day.

��The first step while planning your diet

should be to add some of the dopamine-boosting foods. These foods include, fish,lamb, chicken, cheese, almonds, bell peppers,sesame seeds, spinach, sprouts, broccoli,pineapple, papaya, guava, kale, berries,oranges, lentils, kidney beans etc. With thesefoods you’ll be nourishing your mind as wellas adding energy-inducing foods to yourintake.

��Foods rich in fibre reduce risk of heart dis-

ease, diabetes, and cancer. Fibre is also a keyingredient for losing weight without feelinghungry. Fibre makes you feel full, because itswells in your stomach when it absorbs liquid.Soluble fibre helps the body eliminate fats andlower cholesterol, giving you a steady supply ofenergy. Some good sources of soluble fiber areOats, Phyllium husk, and fruits such as kiwi,cherries, and dried figs.

��Filling our lives with peace also has a direct

effect on good health and weight. Lack ofpeace increases the stress hormone, Cortisol,in the brain, which tells the body to store fat inthe belly. Practices such as meditation, yoga,prayer, listening to music or playing with pets,and enjoying your food help bring peace intoyour life.

When we stay healthy and vibrant, agedoes not matter. With a healthy lifestyle andpositive outlook aging is but a universal phe-nomenon. Most longevity diets are based onfoods eaten in places having the most cente-narians. Most diet advice attributes to eatingmore fresh vegetables, legumes, whole grainsand consuming less meat, dairy products,processed foods, and sugar. We all know this inprinciple, but the real challenge comes inapplication. Let’s make the right choice.

Control your consumption of animal pro-tein. Processed red meats are exceptionallyharmful. From the energy point of view, whenwe substitute animal protein with more plantprotein, there isn’t a single amino that can’t beobtained by consuming plant-based proteinsources. Amino acids are the building blocksfor every protein in the human body but con-suming too many animal proteins (as meatcontains all nine essential amino acids) doesn’tcome without a cost. On the other hand plantproteins contain decent levels of amino acids,enough to keep us going with reduced bloodglucose levels, significantly lower rates of car-diovascular disease and cancers and increasedlifespan.

��Beginning of the year is usually a good

time for setting goals and committing to newthings, particularly health and fitness goals, itis never too late. All you need to do is to stickto your goals and choose the ones that you canwork on gradually. Simply put: When you fightagainst your body, it’s going to fight back.Cravings, fatigue, and a scale that won’t budgeare all signs of your body rebelling. Your bodyis your home, your anchor. Start to treat it thatway. It’s totally okay to want to change yourbody. Whether it’s weight loss, getting stronger,gaining weight, you need to include your bodyin what ever fitness programme you choose.

Take sometime to write down one or moregoals that are truly for you and only you. Forinstance, you could pen:� Improve my mile run time because runningmakes me feel strong and powerful.� Go to Cross Fit twice a week because I lovehow I feel after lifting weights.� Commit to cooking dinner at home threenights a week because it’s healthier than goingout and improves my relationship with food. � Lose 15 pounds to get back to my “healthy,happy weight” because I like how I look andfeel at that weight.

Take five minutes and write out what youneed to do today to get to your goal tomorrow.It can be as simple as this:� Breakfast: Protein and Carb� Lunch: Protein and Vegetables.� Dinner: Protein, Carb, Wine.� Work out� Meditate five minutes.� Watch The Office

��How much our muscles influence our psy-

chological and brain health is unbelievable.Science shows that when you move your body,your muscles release chemicals known asmyokines into your blood stream that improveyour mood, reduce anxiety and depression,and make your brain more resilient to stress.We call them “Hope Molecules”. Regular exer-cise changes your brain over time and main-tains brain health. Studies show that after sixweeks of activity, we see functional and struc-tural changes in the brain’s reward system thatare similar to what you see from the mostadvance treatments for depression.

��With everyone avoiding their local gyms

due to Covid-19 concerns, it’s only natural thatso many new At Home stationary bikes havecome up in the market. Interest in cycling hasseen a major spike since the start of the pan-demic. It is one of the best forms of cardio youcan do especially long term. Cycling is non-weight bearing, so it reduces the risk of injuriesdue to wear and tear on your joints, particular-ly your knees. On an average, a thirty minutescycling session can help you burn any wherebetween 200-450 calories, if not more, depend-ing on your weight and speed.

��Yoga helps you find peace, no matter how

crazy life is. When your stress fest is in full force,sleep and breathing become more difficult,which in turn creates more anxiety. Naturally, weprescribe yoga as the fix. The alternate nostrilbreathing (Nadi Shodhana Pranayam) can easeanxiety and calm a busy brain.

Cat/Cow, technically two poses, one is notoften done without the other to counter. Its

repetitions relieve any abdominal crampingcaused by anxiety, making it a great pose tohelp with PMS cramps too.

Legs up the wall allows your nervous sys-tem to chill, reroutes circulation, grounds you,and brings you back to the present.

Headstand increases the circulation ofblood and oxygen to the brain, calming themind. Whether you are out running or indoing reps, it’s shifting your outlook.

��A single set of exercise can elicit mood

improvement. And what gets you in a bettermood than dancing? A study in the Journal ofSports & Exercise Psychology found that highlyactive people were more optimistic than thosewho do little to no activity, and they felt muchmore positive about their physical abilities.

Whether you are looking to shake up yourat-home fitness routine or want to try a work-out that doesn’t feel like a workout, the AfricanDance workout founded over two decades ago,has gone viral during the corona virus pan-demic and for good reason, because it’s funtoo. If you usually avoid dance workoutsbecause you’re worried about keeping in stepor don’t think you have much rhythm, Africandance’s joyful method will quickly change yourmind. Plus, the fact that you’re moving andgrooving from the comfort of your own livingroom means you truly have no reason to fret ifyou miss a move or have trouble keeping up.

To add icing to the fitness cake, encourageyourself to discover Pilates and experience theamazing mind and body benefits. The work-outs use mat-based Pilates, and are designed tobuild core strength and mobility while improv-ing muscle definition and posture. A strongcore is a foundation for a strong body.

��One way to attain the goal to get biologi-

cally younger is to make sure that the maxi-mum amount of oxygen your body uses perminute, typically stays stable until age 35 or 40.To really prevent decline in it, the body needsto be pushed close to its peak performance,usually once or twice a week. Add HIIT, sprint-ervals, fast paced circuits to your regular week-ly cardio. One also needs to build strength. Theaverage adult loses 3 to 8 percent of muscleeach decade after age thirty. However, studieshave shown that women in their 50s and 60swho did a full body strength work out twice aweek effectively made their bodies 15 to 20years younger in one year.

So which ever way you inspire yourself,make sure to eat consciously and exercise regu-lary. Most important, stay happy and loveyourself.

Puri is a Diet Coach and Mehrais a Lifestyle Change Practitioner.

Together, they run Calorie Conscious

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When Gerald Posner, atop US journalist, writesa book, one can be restassured that what hebrings out is the last

word on the topic. Pharma: Greed, Lies,and the Poisoning of America is the firstattempt by Posner to tread in a hithertounexplored world: the world of pharma-ceutical companies.

Everyone in the age group of 50-plusin India has heard of Parke-Davis,Geoffrey Manners, NicholasLaboratories, Wyeth Lab, Roche, Sandozor E Merck. The products churned outby these companies range from Anacin,Saridon, Aspro, (pain killers which werethe most sought after products oncesomeone is hit with headache or com-mon cold or flu) to Forhans (a tooth-paste created by dentists! That’s what themanufacturers claimed) besides othermedicines and drugs.

Way back in the 1970s and 1980s,students in B Sc degree classes whosespecialisation was Chemistry haddreams of joining these pharma compa-nies as chemists and make a reasonablygood life in the corporate world. Nobodyamong us were aware of the crimes com-mitted by some of the pharma compa-nies to manufacture diseases along withmedicines.

It took us years to know that thedrug that cured blood pressure made theuser a heart patient or a diabetic. Thediabetic patient who consumes the med-icine for blood sugar ended up as kidneypatients and this cyclic process madepharma companies part of a vicious cir-cle. The end of one disease lead to thebeginning of another and there was noend in sight to these phenomenon.

Dr B M Hegde, who was honouredby Padma Vibhushan by the president ofIndia and who is described as a cardiolo-gist with a big heart is on record statingthat in 2016, more people lost their livesbecause of drugs that those who suc-cumbed to car accidents, gun violenceand AIDS. Should one elaborate on whyand how the pharma companies sustaintheir huge profits year after year and payhuge dividend to the share-holders?

One is reminded of the battle wagedby Prof Hegde and Dr C VKrishnaswamy of Chennai (both class-mates and colleagues in their battleagainst pharma companies engaged inunder the table dealings) against thedrug Statin, a globally banned product(except in India) used in diabetes.

Posner conveys a wonderful messagethrough Pharma. All that glitters is notgold and not good. Most of the pharma-ceutical companies do not operate in atransparent manner because they aremotivated only by the urge to makecash. For that to materialise, they resort

to all kinds of dirty tricks. That’s whypersons with diabetes end up as cardiovascular patients and speed up the ren-dezvous with their Makers up in the sky.

Pharmaceutical companies and hos-pitals have become part of the healthcare industry and that is the root causeof the state of affairs all over the world.The crave for getting admission in med-ical colleges is just the tip of the iceberg.Only the monied class could managemedical studies in India as the countryfaces a severe shortage of physicians andsurgeons. Though economy has beenliberated from the shackles of controls

and regulation, the education sector isyet to get the freedom it deserves.

What makes Pharma a must read isthat Posner has told the evolution andhistory of global pharmaceutical giantsin a lucid style. An average personshould have knowledge about the phar-maceutical companies which determineour longevity. The author mentions inthe preface that it was in January 2016he sent his editor a proposal with theno-frills working title ‘A History of theAmerican Pharmaceutical Industry’. “Ihad read by then several dozen goodbooks, each about some part of the

story I hoped to cover in its entirety.There were histories of epidemics andpandemics, inspiring accounts ofgroundbreaking lab discoveries, biogra-phies of storied scientists and pharmaexecutives, even business histories ofsome companies. There was no singlevolume that started with the wild any-thing-goes 19th century era of home-grown wonder remedies to today’ssprawling pharma conglomerates thatsell a trillion dollars of drugs annually,”writes Posner in the preface. It was inthe 70 post-war years that pharmatransformed into a mega-industry, theauthor says.

Well, man’s (and woman’s) greed forlongevity too began after the SecondWorld War. Along with this unjustifiablepassion, then world saw the evolution ofmany diseases like cancer, AIDS and car-dio vascular complexities. The greedresulted in the market getting filled upwith rejuvenating drugs, medicines thatoffered eternal youth and vitality andever sustaining beauty. Hundreds ofcreams, ointments and tablets assuringone eternal youthfulness and vigor arethe fall out of this passion for extra life.One has to pay for these demands.

Health and pharma have become com-mercial products that challenge nature’slaws instead of tender, love and care. Didhumanity succeed in this race? Posnerunravels the instances with classic inci-dents. One has to read this book frompage one till the end to understand thedog-eating-dog world of pharmaceuticalcompanies.

Shady deals, mafiosos and illegaloperations with money making as thesole intention form the modern daypharmaceutical industry and health caresector while the Hippocratic Oath isgiven a silent burial by the same personswho are expected to preserve it.

Interestingly, Pharma has a chapteron Swine Flu, a precursor to the Covid-19 devouring the world today. The swineflu scare in US in 1976 and the roleplayed by the media in spreading a scareabout a non-existent pandemic formsthe core of the chapter. It speaks a lotabout the evil designs of the pharmacompanies that came forward to manu-facture vaccines for the pandemic andhow the public exchequer was swindledof $135 million to pay these companies.The political masters of the USA whosanctioned the amount for the develop-ment of the vaccine sat in bewildermentas a popular newspaper spread the wordthat “US calls flu alert on possible returnof Epidemic’s Virus”. Well, the winner, asit turned out, was the Pharma compa-nies…

Spread across 534 pages (excludingthe acknowledgement, bibliography andnotes), this is a must read for those whoare worried over the escalating cost ofhealthcare in the country as well as thesecret behind the craze for MBBS andpharmaceutical courses, the seats forwhich are still short in supply.

Gerald Posner is certain to winmany accolades and awards for thisbook in years to come. He has hit theworld at the right time and with a rightbook. It is a treasure house of knowledgeand information. It is surprising andshocking to see that this book remainsinaccessible to review pages despite thefact that each chapter providing scintil-lating news.

From the perspective of lead-ership, there is much moreto work than just getting a

job. In fact, a significant percent-age of those jobs that existedeven five years ago would notexist in the next five years. On 20June 2014, the first 3D-printedmetal part, a humble titaniumbracket, took to the skies onboard a commercial jetliner.With this, aviation history wasmade by Airbus. Imagine howmany design and manufacturingjobs a 3D-printed model aircraftwill displace going forward! Notjust manufacturing jobs, servicesector jobs in legal, medical andother professions will yieldground to digitization andautomation. In fact, all jobs thatcan be broken up into a simplecause-effect relationship will betaken over from a human beingby a more efficient device.

A leader’s work, fortunately,is deeper than what is demandedby a stereotypical job. CalNewport’s book raises this issueof deep work as the core of aleader’s contribution in the age ofautomation.

To remain valuable in oureconomy, therefore, you mustmaster the art of quickly learningcomplicated things. This taskrequires deep work. If you don’tcultivate this ability, you’re likelyto fall behind as technologyadvances. (Newport 2016, 13)

Deep work is the ability tofocus on a chunk of a job for asustained length of time withoutany distraction. If you are able tolend your entire attention to solv-ing a problem in your organiza-tion for one hour of uninterrupt-ed time, you will develop theability to plug into a space ofdeep attention in your neuralstructure. This kind of work isdifficult to replicate in themachine world. Newport

explains further: The Deep Work Hypothesis:

The ability to perform deep workis becoming increasingly rare andat the exact same time it is becom-ing increasingly valuable in oureconomy. …the few who cultivatethis skill, and then make it thecore of their working life, willthrive. (Newport 2016, 14)Decoding the history of peoplewho have produced worldclasswork such as the biologist CharlesDarwin or the author CharlesDickens, researchers have foundthat they never worked for morethan four or five hours a day.However, their work was deep anduninterrupted by the onslaught ofmodern technology.

Someone aspiring to be aleader will need to set aside spe-cific time to engage in deep work.They have to clear up digitalfreetime and stay away from smartdevices that fragment attention.This will help them not only indoing high-quality work but alsomore efficient work. In short,deep work will help leaders pro-

duce better work in less time.

Modern Misconceptionsabout Work

If you were to visualize yourworld as a limitless field ofaction, which it is indeed, yourwork would seem like a narrow,artificial boundary created byyou. When you finish a job suc-cessfully and exclaim, ‘I havedone a great job today,’ do yourealize that your claim to great-ness does not acknowledge therole of many other people whohave contributed to your tri-umph? Do you acknowledge, forexample, the following contribu-tors to your success: the employ-er who gave you your job, yourcollege teacher who taught youthe skills necessary for it, yourmother who brought you intothis world, your father who paidyour way through school, thecompassionate colleague whohelped you when you were indistress, the old farmer in SouthAmerica who produced thebreakfast cereal you ate in the

morning and the orange tree inFlorida whose fruit nourishedyou? If you did not acknowledgethe role of all these people andmany more besides, perhaps yourstatement, ‘I have done a greatjob’, would be only partially true.Our work is an expression of auniversal field of action, yet wecreate an artificial definition (i.e.,making something finite) out ofan infinite dimension of ourwork. From this crisis of visionarises the following misconcep-tions about our work:

Misconception 1: Our work isequivalent to our qualifications.

Misconception 2: Our workis a 9-to-5 affair.

Misconception 3: Our workis a product, not a process.

Misconception 1: Our WorkIs Equivalent to OurQualifications

In many of my workshops,participants introduce themselvesas ‘I am an engineer’, ‘I am anaccountant’, ‘I am an ENT spe-cialist’ or some such qualifica-tion. To explore the element of

truth implicit in the statement, ‘Iam an engineer’, one may ask thefollowing: ‘Am I an engineer, ordo I have an engineering qualifi-cation? Obviously, my identity asa human being in this world andsociety is much larger than anengineering degree.’ One of themaladies of a highly specializedsociety is that our world view isoften shaped and dominated byour skills at work. Sometimes,our world view shrinks so muchthat we begin to see ourselves asimpersonal cogs in an economicengine.

Misconception 2: Our WorkIs a 9-to-5 Affair

A great illusion that we loveto hold on to is that our worklasts only from 9 am to 5 pm,after which we go home. Thetruth is that our entire existenceis nothing but work. The veryfact of our being alive is ampletestimony that we are at work,whether we are breathing in orbreathing out, working our mus-cles or exercising our minds,working for ourselves or in spite

of ourselves. Taking intoaccount the amount of workthat nature does to keep usgoing (e.g., maintaining ourheartbeats) should convince usthat our work is not temporalbut existential.

Misconception 3: OurWork Is a Product, Not aProcess

Often, what we do is per-ceived, defined and measured interms of a product that is exter-nal to our efforts. Yet all signifi-cant work is really an intrinsicprocess of the unfolding ofhuman consciousness. Even themost tangible product of ourwork is really a process. Themen who invented the first hot-air balloon must have hailedtheir creation as evidence ofhumanity’s final triumph over

gravity. Had they lived to see thedevelopment of the most sophis-ticated rocket, they would havereadily admitted that their bal-loon was only a small and visiblestep in an unending and invisibleprocess of mankind’s inner questfor perfection. Neil Armstrong,the first human to set foot on themoon (20 July 1969) said, ‘That’sone small step for man; one giantleap for mankind.’

So it is with all our work. Webecome caught up in the productor in the ‘idea’ of the product somuch so that the process remainsobscure to our limited vision.The glib, oft-heard expression‘mind over matter’ exposes thelimitation of a vision that sees theconquest of external nature bythe mind as the only worthwhilework in this world.

An excerpt from KarmaSutras: Leadership and Wisdom

for Uncertain Times by DebashisChatterjee, published under theSAGE IIM-Kozhikode Series for

New Managers by SAGEPublications India

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Internet has transcended allboundaries of humanity. We

have reached the pinnacle ofnever-ending cycle of change.Sadly, this course of humancivilisation is irreversible. It isaccepted for all that there is noplace to hide. We are living inan “age of public”. Probably thepoetical words of award-win-ning author Thomas Friedmanthat “World is Flat” have cometrue to all of us. Ulaanbaatar(Mongolia) to Alaska (US),Reykjavik (Iceland) to Santiago(Chile) via Antananarivo(Madagascar) could well bereached in seconds with thehelp of internet. Thus, at anincredible speed, global hasbecome local and local is fastturning into global. The idea,spirit and feel of glocality ismore of ubiquitous today.

Web journalism or onlinejournalism or internet jour-nalism is a definite future ofcreative expressions today. Thisis a kind of a platform where-by an individual potentially canhave instantaneous and globalaccess to all forms of data. Andit is so simple and easy thatpeople can communicate vir-tually with anyone in any partof the world only through amobile or a tablet or a com-puter.

Creativity is consideredthe most treasured act ofhuman beings. True, we are allfast moving towards a “datanation”. If you have the data orinformation, you can simplyrule the whole world. Now thepertinent question is that howto protect it and offer dues tothe innovators. Often largelyunnoticed, this month observestwo important days to protectInternational Copyright Day oralso known as World Book andCopyright Day on April 23 andWorld Intellectual PropertyDay on April 26. The huge net-work of counterfeiting andpiracy of both tangible andintangible goods directly chal-lenges the protection of IPRsworld over.

Impending social changesare revolutionary in nature aswe are an integral part of thedigital revolution. The shift todigital communication andsubsequent technological rev-olutions are fast breaking the

barriers between traditionalmedia outlets like newspapersand magazines and alsobetween the broader mediaand communication networksacross the globe.

Cyberspace is mass space.We are into it. And so are thecriminal elements. Hence, theglobal counterfeit goods andservices are abundant both indemand and supply. Web net-works are being widely used tochannelise these commoditiesand ideas from one corner tothe other. It is sheer violationof the global framework ofIPRs.

It is a wired-up world. Theso-called Information Highwayis touching all of us. The veryfield of web journalism is pos-ing a renewed challenge to theprotection of IPRs. What weneed today is a regulatorymechanism so as to circumventall efforts to steal IPRs and useweb contents as a means to thewelfare of all. The new onlinemedia is one wherein equalityof opportunity and respect forequal distribution of intellec-tual resources are involved.

So, to negate all efforts bythe criminal syndicates, peoplecan remain ever vigilant.Moreover, public offices espe-cially the law-and-order agen-cies must clamp down seriouscharges over the defaulters. Itmust be said the InformationSuperhighway does not suggestan orderly roadmap. Theimpact of new technologies andplatforms or mediums oftenleads to chaotic and disruptivesituations around the world.Sadly, the networks created bylatest technologies are nowhereunder the absolute control ofthe inventors.

Precisely, long before theadvent of the superior tech-nologies, the power andauthority of the all-powerfulState has started eroding. Megacorporations are literally run-ning the day to day affairs ofthe modern State. The Stateshave only remained a vehicle torun the giant machines of busi-ness wherein they have becomea partner. Therefore, how toregulate the big corporations,including tech and knowledgebehemoths such as the Google, Wikipedia,

Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter,Instagram, LinkedIn havebecome a vexed question.

At the end, one can right-ly say the absolute protection ofthe IPRs is a misnomer.Whatsoever it may be, theglobal governance of IPRs,floated both by the WIPOsince the 1970s and the historictreaty of Trade Related Aspectsof Intellectual Property Rights(TRIPS) of the World TradeOrganization (WTO) of 1995may not be the final guarantorof IPRs in this digital age.

Therefore, the contentsreleased by web journalismwould always be susceptible tostealing and violation byunwanted elements.

At the heart of the narra-tive is how to stop the abuse orunauthorised use of massivecontents that flow throughglobal online journalism.Precisely, IPR is an importantaspect of the process of glob-alisation. Globalisation encom-passes many things, includingthe free flow of ideas, whereindigital media plays the mostcrucial role. And the under-standing is clear today thatwithout adequate protection ofcreative ideas through the glob-al and national IPR gover-nance systems, the interna-

tional counterfeit conglomer-ates would simply take away amajor chunk of hard workmixed with sheer innovativeefforts. It is happening very fastsince the explosion of infor-mation in the 1990s and it’s ahuge loss for the global knowl-edge economy.

Thus, Nobel LaureateJoseph Stiglitz rightly says,“How we regulate and managethe production of knowledgeand the right of access toknowledge is at the centre ofhow well this new economy, theknowledge economy worksand who benefits. At stake arematters of both distributionand economy.”

Along with this what hap-pens is that both globalisedlocalism and localised global-ism accelerate a new process ofoppression, exclusion of many-of those who are at the periph-ery, fast restructuring and gen-eral subordination of localconditions.

The process of globalisa-tion of knowledge has a newground for the growth ofneoliberal forms of economicimperialism mostly dominatedby huge private informationtechnology corporations likethe Google and Facebook.

These and other prominent

knowledge cartels are makingus easily read, write, think andprobably to recreate creativecontents every single day. Theyare positioning themselves atthe centre of production andsimply the distribution ofknowledge.

Fairly, web journalism isthriving at the back of thesegiant knowledge machines.The way these platforms aredistributing knowledge is def-initely at the running the riskof counterfeiting. Globallystrengthening governance sys-tems of IPR is a good idea.

However, crystallising thesame near equally is morethan an uphill task. The reasonbehind is that this “one size fitsall” approach of the global IPRregime launched by the TRIPSAgreement is not feasible fordeveloping and least devel-oped nations. The poor recordof implementation of the agree-ment and inadequate IP gov-ernance structure in many ofthese developing nations areposing a constant threat to pro-tect IPRs.

Again, these nations arefacing more pressing issuessuch as poverty, mal-nutri-tion, terrorism, political insta-bility and above all corruptionin high public offices. So where

is the time to safeguard pre-cious IPRs?

Their combined efforts aremostly directed towards fight-ing for survival and for basicneeds. Many of these developing nations also under-line the protection of IPRs amatter of elite concern orsomething to do with thedeveloped world.

Hence, now more thanquarter of a century, since1995, the strict implementationof the TRIPS Agreement hasstill remained sporadic, exceptin Japan, the US, Europe and insome other specific nations.

The concern today is thathow to enhance unhindereddissemination of knowledgethrough online contents with-out risking the IPRs. Else theinnovators and creators willhave no incentives left for newcreations.

Along with this, the emerg-ing information society needsto address the concerns aboutwidening digital divide andaccess to knowledge in betweenthe advanced and developingnations.

Despite the concerns ofcritical constituencies withinand outside the global IPRgovernance system, one of thepotential threats to the survival

of the system is China’s con-tinued and massive IP theftcases both from the US andother holders of IP. Indeed,America is fighting anotherCold War with China on thisfront.

To conclude, one can sayIPRs demand full protectionboth for the creators and for thewelfare of humanity. Hence, theIPR, a hitherto obscure andarcane area of study till the1990s, now needed to be madea popular discipline startingfrom the schools to the uni-versities. No need to treat IPRspredominantly as a lawyer’sparadise.

Then only the knowledgeeconomy widely growingthrough web journalism can besafely used. It’s the need of thehour. It’s a matter of dignity oflabour. The creators and inno-vators who make their workpublic on online mediumsmust be respected by payingtheir dues.

(The writer specialises inglobalization, international con-flict and global governance. He recently published his book“Globalization and IntellectualProper Rights — A comparativestudy of the patent GovernanceSystems of India and the EU”)

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Gunrunning is a malady whichmars the stability and stolidity

of the larger rubric of the UnitedStates. The American constitutionallows citizens to have legal gunswhich doesn’t border on an auto-matic firearm. Since the inception ofthe British colonial rule and theattendant counter-moves through theAmerican revolution and the patri-ot’s activities, the citizens of UnitedStates have found firearms to be apart and parcel of their civicentourage and day-to-day life.

With the advent of anarchy andpandemonium in the context of theBritish rule, bearing guns in anorganised fashion became a nom deplume for the Americans whichpersisted even when the Americansgained independence.

Gunrunning challenges the fun-damental premise of the USA, bothas a civilised nation and as a purvey-or of the liberal democracy. On theother side of the fence is the agrari-an aggressor, who owns guns, and thederelicts who own advanced weapon-ry which led to the gunrunning inci-dents sometimes at an Americanschool or in a mall or in the lobby ofa cinema hall. It’s much beyond whatDavid Kuresh did to the Americandisciples a few decades back!

Still, from the time of theAmerican myth, the citizens led bytheir leaders have sashayed their per-sonal weapons as instruments ofpride and protection. Vigilantes aspart of the national truth-seekinginstruments have always been part ofthe American myth, wherein, cappedcowboys have been avid subjects ofcinema and musical performancesand presentations in order to manthe western crime filled frontiers ofthe shack towns in the then western

underbelly of a dusty, wind-swept,United States of America. This is howthe American nation has acquired itsgreatness and profundity throughexample setting, deep-seated andfrothing functionalism.

The cowboy mindset of thesuperhero variant is a central motifof American culture and its existen-tial stature much adhered to byPresident Donald Trump. A hero hasto go gung ho with his steed, crackgun and the horse’s hooves, if orderhas to be restored on the side of thejust and the meek’s protection. In thecultural-societal mores, it’s the figureof Charleston Heston, who runs inthe tradition of the gun lobby and theNational Rifle Association (NRA)that messages for the masculineand protective veneer of a responsi-

bly restrained American society andthe larger life.

Let’s delve inside the IIndamendment which legalises gunownership and not the related vio-lence in the American firmament. It’slegal to own a non-assault orientedweapon for personal and familialprotection which should not raisemuch of a question and a poser. Still,what needs to be looked inside is thata few lacunae remain and persist inthe gun laws. One of the major issuesbeing a psychological, medical analy-sis of a prospective gun-owner, whomight be mentally unstable or a juve-nile derelict, and thus poses a threatto the lives of other Americandenizens. Telling issues have beenbrought forth by the American anti-gun lobby, but what stares them right

in the face is the fact that the anti-gun lobby is not as well organised asthe environment lobby or the tobac-co lobby, which, makes the func-tioning of it very difficult in the legaland the financial sense. Still, pitchedbattles have been fought between thegun-runners and the anti-gun lob-bies in the national and state judi-cature with promising results for theanti-gun lobbies as they are largelyled and funded by the lawyers’ guildin the business of things.

One of the cases, which appearedin the US Supreme Court, deals witha January 2019 engagement whichdetails the debate that can theManhattan gun-owners actually andsafely transport the handguns with-out engendering the chances of vio-lence in New York? The Guardian

reports that, “The conservative-majority US Supreme Court hastaken up its biggest gun rights case innearly a decade, agreeing to hear achallenge backed by the influentialNational Rifle Association lobby-group to New York City’s strict lim-its on handgun-owners transportingtheir firearms outside the home. Thenine justices reviewed a 2018 lowercourt ruling upholding the city’srestrictions after three gun-ownersand the NRA’s New York state affili-ate sued, claiming the regulationsimposed in the largest Americancity, violated the constitution’s secondamendment right to “keep and beararms.”

President Joe Biden, too, hasannounced that gunrunning, gunwalking and violence is similar tobeing an epidemic in the organicwhole of the United States. It hasbeen reported in a prominent Indiannational daily that, “US President JoeBiden on Thursday announced lim-ited gun control reforms through sixactions in the aftermath of threedeadly mass shootings, including thekilling of Asian Americans in Atlantaand shoppers at a grocery store inColorado in recent months, callingthe divisive issue an “epidemic andan international embarrassment”.President Biden has announced newgun control measures in order tobelittle the threat of home-madeweapons. Joe Biden has contendedthat America witnesses people dyingeveryday due to gun-related violenceis a blemish on the free, democrat-ic and egalitarian ethos of the UnitedStates of America while convening aplacatory mass for all the citizensunnecessarily stained in Sandy hookand Stoneman Douglas High schooland expressed his angst as, “We are

thoroughly determined to end thismenace of gunrunning in thenation,” as part of his half a dozenexecutive actions since his donningthe mantle of the AmericanPresidency.

President Biden has highlightedand interlinked the violence againstwomen, and the easy accessibility ofassault weapons with their highcapacity magazines.

In a recent move, PresidentBiden appointed David Chipman, aguns control consultant at Gifford’s,as the head of the Bureau on Alcohol,Tobacco, firearms and Explosives(ATF). Though Chipman is a proudgun owner, he has been an activelyavid gun control lobbyist since the lasttwenty-five years. Two themes haveemerged of key interest in the inter-national firmament that gun traf-ficking from the US to the UK hasbeen augmented and the ISIS is alsobehind the gun trafficking trade inMalaysia. Thus, the global overarchof the menace of gunrunning andgun walking cannot be relegated tothe backburner when one refers togun-related violence in the Americanhomeland. District of Columbia VSHeller in 2008 brought to fore thedebate that whether the IInd amend-ment protects the rights of theAmerican citizens to own weapons inself defense but added the rider, that,gun trade will continue to be regu-lated and the right to own guns is notunlimited. Thus, eventually, strength-ening the hands of those, who, cryfoul at the gunrunning crisis in theUnited States of America.

(The writer teaches atInternational Relations andInternational Organisations, IIPA,New Delhi)

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Alearner having accessed and prac-tised the entire spectrum of knowntreasures of knowledge qualifies to

be termed a “Vipra”, a scholar. S/he maystill not have a comprehensive under-standing about the realities of life. His/herknowledge may be still fractioned,depending on what particular disciplineone has explored.

A stage is then arrived at when aseeker may reflect upon the knowledgetreasure already laid down on the tableand put them in synergy for the sake of aholistic understanding. Finally, when onebecomes conversant with the living reali-ties of life, he/she gets closer to the apexof wisdom. One would then become wiseenough to have answer to most of thequestions arising in mind or those posedto him/her by a common man.

Yet, holistic understanding of thedynamics of life cannot be said to havebeen realised. Bear in mind, the entireexpanse of nature is really incomprehen-sible. It always has in its store, enough ofmysteries of life, yet to be explored andknown. Many of them would be reallybeyond the reach of an ordinary seeker.Naturally, many fresh questions beyondthe scope of one’s acquired knowledge

may keep arising in a seeker’s mind. Theseeker thus realises the limitations of hismind, intellect, and knowledge base. Heis then tempted to move beyond his mindand intellect into unexplored territories.

However, by the time the above stageis arrived at, a seeker is able to exerciseenough of self-control. Following which,if the seeker endeavours to get in tunewith the fundal element of consciousness,s/he will be able to move beyond the lim-itations of mind. For, the consciousnesselement is something, which emanatesfrom the primal source itself, and whichimparts intelligence all through the cre-ation chain. Consciousness element,therefore, is said to be omniscient and allpervading. Once the seeker gets fullytuned to the consciousness element, andthen tracks that route, would be able toexplore beyond the known, and reach outeven the hidden mysteries inlaid withnature. They have been in place eversince the creation chain got excited. Withthe onset of the creation chain, the designparameters underlying creation immedi-ately would have come into play. Havingthus, got fully tuned to the element ofconsciousness — the substratum of life —the game plan of the larger would be well

understood. Had there been no designdriving the phenomenal world, it wouldnot have been doing its round for so long,and in such an orderly manner.

Naturally, the one travelling the con-sciousness route is able to strike at andintuitively have realisation of the hiddentruths of life, inlaid with nature. It thenbecomes possible for the seeker to look atthings not simply from man’s perspective,but even in terms of larger mandate ofnature. Having thus understood nature’slarger mandate and human being’s indi-vidualistic concerns, a seeker qualifies tobe a Brahmana. For, s/he then realises thecontinuum in nature, and the unityunderlying all existences.

The paradox, however, is that egotis-tical human mind, bound by its precon-ditioning, restricts our scope of vision.And with a narrowed vision, it becomesdifficult to have holistic realisation of thedynamics of life. That makes it incum-bent upon us to expand our vision, andthen explore existential truths with anopen mind, free from any precondition-ing whatsoever. To prepare the seekers forthe aforesaid task, they were first made tomeditate upon the imagery of MotherGoddess Saraswati. Repeated reflection

on the imagery of Saraswati, supposedlythe beholder of knowledge and wisdom,the seeker realises how to pursue thelearning process so that they realisetruths of life. A detailed look into theimagery will make an interesting reading.

First the word: “Saraswati”. It is madeout of the root-syllable, “Sarasa”, whichmeans something flowing smoothly. Hername, therefore, denotes “flow” or“motion”. It implies that the imageryoffers lessons in how to ensure smoothrun of life, individually and collectively.Metaphorically, “She” is perceived as theconsort of Lord Brahma, the God person-ified for creation. Supposedly, this is inacknowledgement of the fact that therehas to be a self-evident design componentunderlying the whole creation process.Evidently, it must have come into playimmediately with the onset of creationprocess. Accordingly, its origin is assignedto the primal source itself. Therefore, inorder to get to the ultimate truths of life,the focus of learning has to be directedtowards the primal source itself.

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