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

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

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

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

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

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

Meanwhile, Dharavi inMumbai reported two morecases of coronavirus, taking thetotal number of positive cases

in the area to five.Agarwal said 1,023 coron-

avirus cases in 17 States wererelated to the Jamaat’s congre-gation. “Around 30 per cent ofthe total cases are related to thereligious congregation so far.We need to understand that weare as strong as the weakestlink,” he said. Punya SalilaSrivastava, Joint Secretary inthe Home Affairs Ministry,said through a massive coor-dinated effort around 22,000Tablighis and their contactshave been quarantined.

All issues related to theongoing lockdown are being

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

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

Union Home SecretaryAjay Bhalla has written toStates and Union Territories to

ensure that the supply chain ofessential items is not obstruct-ed during the lockdown peri-od, she said.

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

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

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After a CMO of CRPF wasfound Covid-19 positive

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

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

Detailed report on P5

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Contrary to its earlier asser-tion that not everyone is

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

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

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

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

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

cover.“Certain

c o u n t r i e shave claimed bene-fits of homemade face coverfor the general public. Suchhomemade face cover is a goodmethod for maintaining per-sonal hygiene. Such usage cer-tainly will help in maintainingoverall hygienic health condi-tions.

“Therefore, it is suggestedthat such people who are not

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

“This face cover is notrecommended for eitherhealth workers or thoseworking with or in contactwith COVID-19 patientsor are patients themselves

as these categories of people arerequired to wear specified pro-tective gear”.

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

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Contrary to the global trendwhere elderly are said to be

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Amid concerns raised byseveral Opposition lead-

ers, including former PowerMinister Jairam Ramesh, thatPrime Minister NarendraModi’s call for a 9-minuteblackout at 9 pm on April 5could result in a grid collapse,the Ministry of Power onSaturday said the apprehen-sions that this may causeinstability in grid and voltagefluctuation harming electricalappliances are misplaced.

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

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

Ramesh, Congress MPShashi Tharoor, andMaharashtra Energy MinisterNitin Raut have expressedconcern that the PM’s callcould lead to a multi-State grid

collapse and result in black-out in the entire country.

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While the number ofCOVID-19 cases crossed

3000 in India on Saturday, nofresh cases of the deadly viruswere reported in Jharkhand,health officials said. The State,where the first case of coron-avirus was reported as late asMarch 31, has put more than1.3 lakh people on home quar-antine and sent over 15,000people to quarantine centres, areport from the NationalHealth Mission (NHM) said onSaturday.

The report further saidthat highest number of sampleswas collected from Ranchi dis-trict and the least number ofsamples were collected fromSahibganj in Jharkhand. Out ofthe 206 samples collected fromRanchi by Saturday, 200 testednegative and the report ofremaining six suspects areawaited. The highest number ofsamples was collected fromKolhan division and the lowestfrom Palamu division, theNHM report said.

Meanwhile, a 50-year-oldRanchi resident, who wasreportedly admitted in the iso-lation centre at RajendraInstitute of Medical Sciences(RIMS) on Friday, died onSunday. Sources said that hissamples were collected forCoronavirus tests on Fridayand the test result is awaited.He had cough, cold and mild

fever, doctors said. "We shiftedhim to emergency after hishealth started deteriorating.He died during treatment,"said a senior RIMS official,requesting anonymity.

While speculations wererife that he may have died dueto Coronavirus infection, therewas no official statementreleased on the cause of hisdeath by the time this reportwas filed. A family member ofthe deceased said that his bodywas not handed over to thefamily by the time of filing ofthis report. A highly placedhealth official this correspon-dent contacted was unaware ofthe case.

According to NHM, morethan 1500 travelers are undersurveillance in Jharkhand and270 of them have completedtheir 28 days of staying underobservation. The Governmenthas more than 37,000 beds inquarantine centres across theState and nearly 3000 beds inIsolation Centres, the NHMreport said. Besides, the Statehas more than 250 ICU bedsand over 1600 non-ICU beds.

Out of the 691 samples col-lected in Jharkhand so far, 446have come out negative andonly two have tested positivefor COVID-19. The report ofremaining 172 Coronavirussuspects are awaited, healthofficials said.

Turn to Page 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

H etells youthat there-telecast

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

will sit and watch Mahabharat orfor that matter Shaktimaan

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

This will not only beatthe boredom of the 21-day

lockdown but will alsoinstill in people the value of

relationships that was

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

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

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

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

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

see Shaktimaan Season 2, bigger andbetter soon.

�What is your role in AladdinNaam Toh Suna Hoga?

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

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

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

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

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

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

hardworking as I was before,I never felt saturated and

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

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

They are notpersistent enough,

may be they are forthe initial two years but

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

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

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

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

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

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Members of more than6000 families staying in

Hindpiri alone were screenedfor Coronavirus by Saturdayafternoon, Ranchi DeputyCommissioner Rai MahimapatRay said. The inspection wascarried out on Saturday afterinitial resistance by locals andalleged misbehaviour metedout to some health workers onThursday, sources said.

"We did not face any resis-tance from the locals today(Saturday). Members of morethan 6000 families living in thearea have already beenscreened," Ray said. He, how-ever, did not comment on thefindings from the area.

Hindpiri is located at astone's throw from theMahatma Gandhi Road of the

State Capital –one of the old-est stretches connecting dif-ferent parts of the city. The firstCOVID-19 case of Jharkhand,a Malaysian woman, wasreported from this locality.The administration wanted tocheck every person who mayhave knowingly or unknow-ingly came in direct contactwith the woman since the dayshe tested positive.

However, on Thursday,some locals resisted the entryof health workers in their hous-es, suspecting that the data col-lected from the locality willeventually be used for theNational Register of Citizens(NPR) – an idea of the unionGovernment that drew widecriticism from members of aparticular community. TheAnjuman Islamia committeehad to intervene and convincethe locals, mostly illiterate peo-ple of a particular community,to get tested for COVID-19,sources said.

The 22-year-old Malaysian

woman, who happens to be theonly positive COVID-19 ofcapital Ranchi, was appre-hended along with 16 other for-eign nationals from a mosquein Hindpiri on March 31. She

had returned from the TablighiJamaat congregation in NewDelhi by Rajdhani Express onMarch 16. The woman's testreport brought the entire local-ity under scanner. However,

some locals still resisted med-ical examinations claiming thatthe woman was asymptomatic,and only one particular com-munity was being targeted ingarb of the testings.

Meanwhile, the lockdownon Saturday was followedstrictly across the State capital.A press communique from thedistrict administration saidthat people were readily usingthe facilities provided by theGovernment during the lock-down. "More than 300 callswere made to a helpline num-ber for senior citizens since thelockdown was enforced.Through the helpline number,many senior citizens soughthelp in getting edibles, LPGcylinders and even medicinesand mobile phones," saidRanchi Deputy CommissionerRai Mahimapat Ray.

One of the callers, he said,had broken his leg and was inneed of medical help.Responding to his complaint, ateam of the district adminis-

tration took him to RajendraInstitute of Medical Sciences(RIMS) and provided medicalassistance, added Ray. The dis-trict administration runshelpline numbers for senior cit-izens, mental health assistanceand delivery of edibles and gro-cery.

The helpline number forsenior citizens received around300 calls and 95 per cent of thecomplaints were addressed,said Ray, adding that theadministration was paying spe-cial attention to those seniorcitizens who stay alone inRanchi and do not haveyounger family members tohelp them out during this cri-sis. Cops patrolled the streets ofRanchi on Saturday andensured the people stayindoors.

However, commoners wereallowed to move out till 10amfor buying vegetables, rationand other edibles. Most areas ofthe city wore a deserted lookduring the day.

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In an attempt to fight againstCorona virus infection joint-

ly with the CentralGovernment and the StateGovernment, JharkhandPradesh Congress Committee(JPCC) on Saturday announcedthat the party will extend its fullsupport to all effort taken bythe Central Government andthe State Government to com-bat spreading of Corona virusin the State.

Talking to media personsJPCC Chief cum Food andCivic Supplies Minister in theState Government, RameshwarOraon said that all the party'sleaders and workers are withthe steps being taken by theCentral and the StateGovernment to tackle theworldwide Coronavirus epi-demic. The party appealed toall the people in this hour ofcrisis, that on April, 5 evening,they should pray to God forsafety from this epidemic inaccordance with their religion,culture, beliefs and tradition.

Oraon was talking on thePrime Minister NarendraModi's appeal, in which heappealed to the people that theyshould off all the lights onApril, 5 at 9 pm and lit Candlesand Diya's for nine minutes.

The State Congress Chiefsaid that during this global cri-sis and nationwide lockdown,all the people should rise aboveparty loyalty, religious, ethnicand community sentimentsand wish for human welfareand those who are stuck in dif-ferent ways in lockdown, helpthem and provide proper relief.

Oraon said that the StateGovernment is fully cooperat-ing to provide relief to poor andneedy people during the ongo-ing lock down. The StateGovernment will consider onproviding economic package toaffected people after comple-tion of the lock down, headded.

"The State Governmenthas taken various steps to com-bat against the global epidem-

ic at block and district level andin this regard a relief commit-tee was also constituted by theparty to effectively implementthe programmes on groundlevel so that the poor andneedy could get the benefits ofthis. The party is also con-structed a war room at itsState Headquarter. There arevarious phone calls comingfrom various parts of the Stateregarding people facing prob-lems during the ongoing lockdown. The relief committeemembers are providing help tothe people with the help of StateGovernment officials and theparty workers of that area," saidOraon.

The party’s State chief saidthat he himself is regularlymonitoring the relief workgoing on by the StateGovernment and the party.Congress is partner in ChiefMinister Hemant Soren ledcoalition government in theState.

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The State energy depart-ment has appealed to peo-

ple of the State to switch offonly household lights at 9 PMon April 05 in a bid to main-tain balance in the electricitygrids. The department hasasked people to continue usingall essential electrical equip-ment during the 9 minuteduration when the nation willpray for its triumph againstCOVID 19.

According to a press com-muniqué sent by DGM (PR)JBVNL major power distribu-tion firms of the nation held avideo conferencing on the sit-uation that may arise due tosudden change in the load onvarious grids across the coun-try at 9 PM on April 5. It wasassessed that sudden turningoff of the household lights at 9Pm will result in sudden reduc-tion of about 1200 to 1300 MWload in the country.

Prime Minister NarendraModi has appealed to people ofthe nation to light candles,earthen lamps, torch etc at 9PM on April 5 to show soli-darity and fight against thedarkness prevailing in theworld in the wake of COVID-19. The PM has asked peopleto switch off the lights beforelighting candles, lamps etc.

Notably, it was discussed inthe video conferencing on

Saturday that the suddenreduction of load may result inmisbalance in the power grids.Therefore, it was decided thatthe thermal power plantswould be run on low-load dur-ing the period and hydel plantsand gas turbines would bekept under rotation so that thepower grids remain balanced.

It was decided in the meet-ing not to shut any electricityfeeder during the period so that

emergency services continue tooperate.

The Ministry of Power hasalso issued advisory to peopleto help maintain electricitysupply.

According to the advisorypeople should switch off onlyhousehold lights between 9PM and 9:09 PM for nineminutes and should not turn ofother equipments such as fans,television, refrigerator etc. Also,street lights, society lights andother important lights shouldnot be turned off during thenine minute period.

At 9:10 PM people areadvised to turn on lights one byone so that the load balance atgrids does not get disturbed.Also, the department hasrequested people not to payheed to any kind of rumourrelating to electricity and main-tain social distancing normsthat are advised to the peopleof the nation during the lock-down period.

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As a part of its preparednessto control the spread of

Novel Coronavirus, SouthEastern Railway (SER) hasdrawn up a plan to convert andmodify 329 coaches into isola-tion and quarantine wards ini-tially to help COVID-19 affect-ed people at large.

SER Senior Public RelationOfficer (PRO), Suhas Lokharesaid that different units of SERhave started the conversionand modification works onwar footing.

"The conversion and mod-ification works of the coachesare being carried out under theguidance of MedicalDepartment and the convertedand modified coaches will beequipped with all necessarymedical facilities for theCOVID-19 affected people.One coach is expected to havea good number of medicallyequipped beds to serve theCOVID-19 affected people," headded.

Lokhare said that theworks for conversion and mod-ification of 329 coaches intoisolation and quarantine coach-es are being carried out on warfooting at KharagpurWorkshop, Santragachi Depot,

Tatanagar Depot and HatiaDepot. "Out of 329 coaches,Kharagpur Workshop has beenentrusted to convert and mod-ify 160 coaches. SantragachiDepot is converting 89 coach-es while Tatanagar Depot andHatia Depot are modifying 20and 60 coaches respectively," headded.

The PRO said that onlyNon-AC Sleeper Coaches willbe utilised for the conversionand modification to help theCOVID-19 affected people."One Indian style toilet will beconverted into a bathing roomwith bucket, mug and soap dis-penser. Water taps with lift type

handle will be provided in thewash basins. There will beprovision for oxygen cylin-ders, extra bottle holders, stor-age area, dustbins with footoperated lid etc. Mosquito netswill be fitted on the windowsand measures are being takento ensure ventilation," headded.

"Irrespective of their des-ignations, employees of SERhave spontaneously come for-ward in this mission for con-verting and modifying thecoaches into isolation andquarantine coaches to help theCOVID-19 affected people,"said Lokhare.

Meanwhile, IRCTC onRanchi Rail Division onSaturday, through the basekitchen of IRCTC in collabo-ration with Department ofCommerce and RailwayProtection Force providedfood, hand sanitiser and maskto about 760 poor and needypeople so that not a poor orneed could live hunger during21-day lock-down is going onacross the Country to preventthe spread of Corona virus.

The Railway Departmentsdistributed food, sanitiser andmasks at Dhumsa Toli, Chutiaamong around 400 people andat Hatia, Chandni Chowk,Heshag and Sithio around 200people get food from thedepartmets.

Ranchi DivisionalPersonnel Department dis-tributes about 60 packets ofcoocked Rice and Pulses.Railway Protection Force Hatia,CIB Ranchi and SIB Ranchi ofHatia-Oga Section nearly 100masks and 100 Sanitiser at thevillage Kathal Toli near Karrastation.

Packets of food are dis-tributed as well as to protectagainst corona virus infectionto create awareness campaignand follow the lock down frompeople the requested.

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In the next few days residents ofJharkhand may get some respite from the

rising temperature as light showers withthunderstorms and gusty winds are expect-ed in most parts of the State.

As per the Meteorological Centre,Ranchi for the next two days- April 5 andApril 6 the weather across the State willremain dry. However, from April 7 to April9 light to moderate showers are expected.From April 10 onwards dry weather con-ditions are likely to prevail across the State.

“A trough has formed in the southernparts of India which is bringing moisturein Jharkhand as well. Light showersaccompanied with thunderstorm andlighting are likely to occur from April 7 toApril 9 in some parts across the State.Gusty winds at a speed of about 30- 40 Kmper hour are also likely to occur during thistime,” said Deputy Director, MET CentreRanchi, Abhishek Anand

On April 7 light showers with thun-derstorm activity is expected in isolatedparts of central and north westernJharkhand like Palamu, Garhwa, Simdegaand Gumla. Light showers with thunder-storm and lighting is predicted in scatteredplaces of central, southern and north east-

ern parts of Jharkhand on April 8. Lightshowers especially in the south eastern partlike East Singhbhum are expected on April9.

As per the MET Observatory CentreRanchi, for the next few days the maxi-mum temperature in the central parts ofJharkhand and around the State capital willbe around 36 to 37 degree Celsius. In thenorth eastern region, the maximum tem-perature will be around 38 to 39 degreeCelsius while in the south eastern parts it

will be around 39 to 40 degree Celsius.“In the next few days, there will not be

any significant rise in the temperature asit will also be cloudy. Presently the tem-perature being recorded is around nearnormal and it will continue to remain soin the coming days,” added the official.

As per the communiqué issued, fromApril 5 to April 8 the minimum temper-ature in Ranchi and its surrounding areasis likely to remain around 19 to 21 degreeCelsius.

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Three women naxals werekilled in a fierce encounter

between Maoists and securityforces under Gudri police sta-tion area in West Singhbhumon Saturday morning.

Those killed were in theage-group of 25 years andbelonged to the squad of areacommander Suresh Munda ofthe banned CPI-Maoist.

Forces have recoveredthree fire-arms from the threekilled lady rebels along withhuge quantity of ammunitionand explosives from the scene

of encounter.The encounter took place

at Chirung village in Gudrilocated in a hilly terrain bor-dering Khunti district fromabout 7 am and continued foran hour.

West Singhbhum superin-tendent of police, IndrajeetMahatha said the encountertook place while they werecarrying out an anti-insur-gency operation at Gudri thanaarea having got a specific infor-mation.

"During the operationthere were jawans of CRPF's170 and 60 battalions posted inWest Singhbhum and 94 bat-talion from the adjoiningKhunti district beside the dis-trict police jawans. The per-sonnel rushed to the Chirungvillage by maintaining social

distancing and encircled thevillage where about 25 rebelswere holding meeting with thevillagers. But as the police andpara-military forces reached,the rebels started firing at thetroops. After an initialexchange of fire from both thesides for about an hour, thenaxals started backtrackingand finally fled the scene," saidMahatha.

The SP, West Singhbhum,said after the rebels fled thescene they carried out a searchoperation and found the bullet-ridden bodies of three ladynaxals. Beside those bodieswere lying three rifles.

"During the search, wefound over 500 rounds of bul-lets, arrow bombs, two IEDs,medicines, naxal literaturefrom the scene, suggesting that

the rebels belonging to SureshMunda squad of the CPI-Maoist were at the Chirung vil-lage for motivating the villagersfor joining the naxalism,"Mahatha pointed out.

In the last few days anti

insurgency operation in theWest Singhbhum has beenintensified following intelli-gence reports that suggestrebels are camping in the pock-ets.

The administration hasincreased police patrolling onthe bordering areas connectingto West Bengal and has alsodeployed adequate number ofparamilitary personnel on areaspotential to rebels attack.

Meanwhile intelligencesources maintained that thenaxals have once again startedinfluencing the local residentsto come to the fold of the nax-alism," said a senior intelligenceofficer. He said the rebels aretargeting areas in Sonua,Goelkera and Porahat region ofWest Singhbhum.

�� 5��/'#

BSL management has so far distributed 23000masks and 29000 soaps among its employees

and contract workers for safety of steel workers.Also in this series preparations have been madeto distribute about 50000 masks and 40000 soapsfor the steel workers.

Apart from preparing an isolation ward atBGH, adequate numbers of ventilators andother necessary equipment, safety dress formedical personnel and sanitizer for the hospitals,have also been arranged. The work of cleaningand sanitization is also going on on war footingin various shops and townships of BSL includ-ing BGH. BSL officers and personnel havejointly transported ration and food items among500 poor families during the lockdown by vol-untary donations. Also BSL personnel wishing tojoin this work can contact on mobile number8986875357.

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Vedanta has contributed 101crore rupees to the Prime

Minister's Citizen Assistanceand Relief in EmergencySituations (PM-CARES) Fund.It will fund up to 200 crores inproviding relief measures tocommunities at large across thecountry, informed VivekAnand Public Relation Officerof Vedanta Electrosteel SteelLtd. (ESL).

This contribution to PM-CARES fund will complementVedanta’s earlier commitmentof creating a 100-crore corpuswhich is catering to three spe-cific areas – livelihood of thedaily wage workers across thenation, preventive health care,support to all our employeesand contract partners acrossour plant locations, said Anand.

In a bid to especially min-imise the impact on the poorand marginalised sections,Vedanta has pledged over 10 lacmeals across India to the dailywage earners and over 50,000stray animals will be fed dailyfor the entire month.

Moreover, Vedantaemployees will donate one day’ssalary which will be matchedby the company to help provide

immediate relief measures tolocal communities through theCM relief funds, said Anand.

Vedanta ESL working handin hand with the administra-tion to fight COVID-19; active-ly participating in helping thecommunity in its operationalareas in Bokaro during thistime of distress.

The company is runningactive awareness campaignsand sanitisation drives to curbthe spread of the deadly virus.The company is regularly feed-ing daily wage constructionworkers stuck in and aroundthe city sincelockdown.

Vedanta ESL has providedsupport to local administrationto help government bodieswith timely assistance andresources including 7000 facemasks and 2000 soaps, and 200liters of sanitizers to districtadministration were providedfor hospitals, police, paramili-tary, gram panchayat, andmedia, he said.

Vedanta Chairman AnilAgarwal said, “It is our respon-sibility to make sure that noone dies of hunger. My appealto the government is to pro-vide migrant labourer at leastRs 8,000 every month for thenext three months.”

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SP Palamu Ajay Linda is visitingpolice stations taking stock of the

situation and cops’ morale while hisdeputies are out visiting rural, semiurban and urban quarantine centres.

Linda said, “On Saturday I vis-ited police stations located on NH 75and 98 and asked the officials thereto ensure that under no circum-stances trucks/ lorries should line upon NH 75 and 98.”

The SP said, “I have asked myofficials to ensure that letter ofunion Home Secretary Ajay Bhallawherein MHA has maintained thattransportation of all goods withoutdistinction of essential and nonessential, have been allowed remainsunhindered.”

He further said, “ If police findany truck/ lorry loaded with somesuch non essential which is of noconsequence right now be checkedbut it must be maintained that fleetof such trucks/ lorries do not line upon NH or on any road but some faraway in the open.”

Social distancing of drivers mustnot be compromised with reiterat-ed Linda.

Linda said, “I have asked OCs tohave spray of sodium hypochloriteon the surface, walls, windows, irongrills etc of the police stationsbesides personal hygiene like handwash, sanitisers, masks etc.”

One of his deputies Vijay KumarSDPO Hussainabad is out with firebrigade having diluted solution ofsodium hypochlorite with which thisofficer and his team is ensuringspraying of this chemical on insti-tutions like banks, shops, roads,flanks near eateries.

Another deputy Sandip KumarGupta of Sadar visited rural quar-antine centres like Sua centre whereare quarantined 2 labourers whohave come from Lucknow andSimdega, 5 at Koreeya centre wherehave come labourers from Jaipur, 6at Jamuney centre who have comefrom Maharashtra, Chhatisgarh andVaransi, MK DAV centre where arelodged 22 members of tablighiJamaat and one person from Delhi,chiyanki centre has 20 persons inquarantine who have come fromSonebhadra.

Gupta said these quarantinedpeople except the Jamaat persons arevery local and as such these quar-antined people are at ease heresince they have a feeling that they arein the panchayat of their own villageswhich makes them emotionallystronger.

Sources said the Jamaat mem-bers too are of Palamu and many ofthem are of the town Daltonganj andits vicinity also and their main con-tention is that when they aredeclared having no symptom beshifted from institutional quarantineto their homes.

�� &�>��,

Jharkhand director general of police M VRao made one more safety measure for

his constabulary and officials includinghimself when his IG (Provision) VipulShukla under DGP’s order announced aninstruction that no cop and official willwear cap from April 01.

IG Shukla issued a written instructionon April 01 wherein there is an embargoon wearing cap. Shukla said, “We haveasked our men and all officials not to wearcap. This instruction has come into effectimmediately that is April 01.”

IG further said, “This embargo is tillfurther orders”. He said there is an instruc-tion for wearing full sleeve uniform whichis applicable to cops to officers both with-out any exception. Sources said thisinstruction is for DGP also.

Asked about this not to use cap by copsand officers IG said, “It is primarily for thehygiene reasons. Caps cannot be washedso frequently and regularly as one gets uni-form washed. Hence caps have been takenoff from the heads.”

Reminded that DGP has so goneminutely about sleeve of the uniform andthe cap but one thing that still maybecome the source of worry in time ofcoronavirus is the stars that are on theshoulder of the cops and the DGP as wellto which IG Shukla on hearing this issuegot concerned saying, “ This too will be dis-cussed with senior officials.”

However, he said that it is the stars thatidentify the rank of the cops and officials

and if it is ‘off ’ then there is a fear of greaterconfusion to set in among the force out inthe field for tackling any law and order sit-uation or for containing or foiling anyunlawful activity.

“For field formation police needstars. It is a required thing,” the IG reiter-ated.

However, when alluded to WHO’s noteon coronavirus that its virus sits more andlonger time on metal he said “ Our starsneed to be re looked from this point ofview.”

SP Palamu Ajay Linda said, “Ourpolice force here has begun to follow theseinstructions. We are all out to have ourpolice family safe and fit in this most high-ly challenging time.”

Linda said, “We were told of peoplehaving no suitable or any adequate waterresources available to them taking to theriver Koyal here, on which I dispatched mySDPO Sandip Kumar Gupta to the bank ofriver to find out who these people were.”

Linda said, “People which includedwomen, girls and some boys were of theextremely depressed and destitute class aswomen were found washing their kitchenutensils, children’s clothes as they had nowater source back home.”

SDPO Gupta said, “Under order of SPwe rushed there where we found very fewpeople collecting drinking water for theiruse.”

Sources said the river Koyal is the lifeline and it is the lock down that has reducedthe dependency of poor on this river to alarge extent.

�� ,�*�'��5

Social outfit Naman is feeding the pooracross the city in the time of lockdown due

to spread of coronavirus. The organisationunder the leadership of Amarpreet Singh Kale,has been working from past five days to feedthe hungry. Its volunteers cook food withutmost hygiene and precaution at its Sakchioffice and visit different locations to feed theneedy. “We have identified several areas in thecity where the food is being distributed. Wehave also trained our volunteers about hygieneand social distancing,” said Kale. The drive willcontinue till April 14. He said that Namanbelieves in service above self. Being people ofaction, all of our members came together. Weare looking to provide poor families with sta-ple provisions for a month.

Food parcels are distributed at differentlocations. With the necessity increasing by theday, the plan is to increase the number of foodprepared and distributed based on the require-ment.

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Teachers in governmentschools in Bokaro have

been asked to deliver rations formidday meals to homes of stu-dents during the lockdownimposed to contain COVID-19but the teachers are facing dif-ficulty due to shortage of trans-port facility, and also lack ofconsignment of rice.

Supplies don’t always comeon time, families of migrantworkers have moved and theyhave not been provided masksor gloves.

The first round of middaymeal delivery for the periodbetween March 18 and March31 was carried out on March 30and 31 the nationwide lock-down was announced onMarch 25 — but was not com-

pleted.The second round began

on Wednesday and will con-tinue till April 14. BlockEducation Officers have beenasked to ensure delivery of riceat the children’s houses throughthe teachers.

Shyama KumariHeadmistress of Govt ShankarUtkramit middle school,Bokaro Thermal has receivedthe message from the higherauthorities and abided by theorder the School's presidentReshmi Devi, Sanjojika SabitaDevi and Shyama Kumari pro-viding rice to all students of theschool.

"We will make all efforts sothat no students of GovtShankar Utkramit Middleschool may sleep with an emptystomach”, said Kumari.

She said Covid-19 rice andcash were also distributedamong the 82 students of classI to VII of SUMS, at their doorsteps under by my sepervisionon Saturday , while social dis-tancing was maintained prop-erly during the distributionprocess, she added.

Zila Parishad member,Bharat Yadav thanked all threewomen including school head-mistress Shyama Kumari fordistributing Covid-19 riceamong the students at theirdoors.

The headmistress said, “Weare fully committed and deter-mined to provide all possibleassistance to all students ofschool, considering the gravi-ty of the current situationbecause of Coronavirus pan-demic".

From Page 1Several attendees of

Tablighi Jamaat congregationfrom Jharkhand are underscanner here. Even a Stateminister's son has been sent toan isolation centre after hislinks with Tablighi Jamaat sur-faced. Sources said that at least150 people with TablighiJamaat links were under scan-

ner in Jharkhand. The numberof Coronavirus patients inIndia crossed 3000 on Saturdayand the death toll neared 100.Jharkhand has only two testingcentres – a handicap in testingcases at a faster pace, say doc-tors. At least 84 samples werecollected on Saturday and theresults of all the 84 samples areawaited.

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Focusing on in-house solu-tions to fight coronavirus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The face mask will be mass

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The application areas can

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

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

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

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

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

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The Indian Army onSaturday came out with an

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

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

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

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

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After a Chief Medical Officer(CMO) of CRPF was

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

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

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

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

A CRPF spokesperson said,

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

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

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

top CRPF officials said. Those quarantined include

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

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

Driver Tejvir Singh andInspector M Harikumar.

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

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

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

The CRPF has alreadyissued directives that those on

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

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

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

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The Centre has allowedshops of agricultural

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Chairing a joint meeting of theEmpowered Groups con-

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

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

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

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

The Empowered Group onMedical Emergency andManagement Plan is headed by

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

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

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

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

Information, Communicationand Public Awareness.

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

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

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With coronavirus cases ris-ing by hundreds and

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Current estimates of theincubation period of COVID

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

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

tries.Talking about the possi-

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

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

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

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

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday said that

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

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

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

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

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

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

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As the three-week lockdowncontinues and may not be

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ing to officials.Besides Modi, union home

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Income Tax Departmenthas allowed individuals to

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

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

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

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

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

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

These two steps will ensuresizeable household demand

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The national cyber securityagency has alerted donors

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

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

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

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The worst stage of coron-avirus pandemic became

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

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

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

It means the job loss num-

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

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

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

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

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

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All Americans should covertheir faces with scarves or

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

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

The guidelines issued by

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Groceries, food items and

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

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

spread of this deadly virus. Social distancing and

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

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

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OPEC and its allies are dueto discuss oil production

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OPEC+ member

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

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

and reduce production,” Putinsaid.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Gabon on Friday bannedthe sale and eating of bats

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The coronavirus pandemichas killed over 60,000 peo-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Italy and Spain, with com-

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

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

“It’s a indescribable condi-

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

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

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

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

needed medical supplies.More than half of Africa’s

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Making the letter public at

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Australia.The scientists said

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The viral infection in thecountry is rapidly spreading,

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

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

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

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

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

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

China has reported 81,639

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

��

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

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

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

“The curve continues to go

up,” Cuomo said whileaddressing reporters on Friday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A statement from the NHSon the latest deaths in England

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

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

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

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

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3&��$��$� $�� 4��0��A��$��#�� Madrid: Spanish Prime

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) want the International

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

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

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

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

Khan said that if Pakistan gets

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

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

He said that the chief executives

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The All India FootballFederation said the postponementwas on expected lines.

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

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

He said the tournament willmost likely be held next year.

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

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

via conference late on Friday.While the tournament itself is

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In other decisions, the workinggroup recommended “to postpone

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

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Batting long comes naturally toCheteshwar Pujara and now

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The COVID-19 pandemicmay have indefinitely stalled

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

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

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

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

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

“There could be a way in

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

stakeholders are on the samepage.

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Former all-rounder TomMoody on Saturday picked

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

Moody is also a well-knowncoach and commentator.

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

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

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

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

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

Asked about his favouriteIndian cricketer, Moody pickedskipper Virat Kohli.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the most successful captain to leadthe Men in Blue.

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

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

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

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

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:�:#��@��C�<��&��<(��8�� =��9�� The postponement of theFIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup willnot derail preparations for the tour-nament as the country is still com-mitted to “delivering a memorable”meet whenever it is possible, RomaKhanna, the tournament director of

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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3)), �� 3�� Even as the fate ofthe 13th edition of the IPL hangsin balance, both BCCI as well asthe IPL franchises are keepingfingers crossed in order to havea full season of the cash-richleague. And a major player inthis scenario is the foreignboards as an IPL without theforeign players wouldn’t be thecarnival it is. So, even as thecountry fights the pandemic,BCCI has been keeping foreignboards in the loop with regardsto developments.

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

fighting COVID-19.“While various options have

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

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

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�/E� ��#//�� 8�� #��9�"��#�� The world has come to astandstill due to the coronavirusoutbreak and that has led to allsporting events across the globeeither being cancelled or sus-pended. While federations havestarted asking sportspersons totake pay cuts, the Pakistan CricketBoard just like BCCI has made itclear that there will be no pay cutsat present.

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

which runs till June 30 for thePakistan board.

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

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Before the coronavirus lockdown, didyou ever think your house could becapable of so much multi-tasking?My house is now a one-roomschoolhouse, an office, a gym, a

restaurant that’s turning out three meals a day,a messy art studio, a global pandemicmonitoring station, and the place where ourfamily relaxes and sleeps.

Speaking of sleep, I’ve never been sograteful that my kids have an early bedtime —7 pm and 8 pm for the 4 and 5-year-old — andhappily sleep through the night. As a sleepconsultant, I’ve been speaking to many parentsabout how to navigate this challenging time.I’ve always preached that ensuring a goodnight’s sleep is a precious gift for our children,and I believe it now more than ever. Here’swhy: ● Sleep is a powerful immune-booster. Both

adults and children that are sleep-deprivedare more susceptible to illness. Withoutsufficient sleep, your body produces fewercytokines, which is a protein that targetsinfection.

● Sleep supports our emotional health. Sleepis a mood-booster, and acts as a soothingbalm for our emotional balance. Much-needed at the moment.

● Sleep is crucial for all aspects of ourphysical health, from cardiovascular tometabolic to respiratory to immune system. As Matthew Walker says in Why We Sleep,

“Sleep is the single most effective thing we cando to reset our brain and body health each day.”

Here’s my guidance on how to ensure yourbaby or child is able to sleep peacefully duringa time when anxiety is surely running high inthe family.

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The hundreds of parenting decisions wemake during the day will impact ourchildren’s night sleep.

Anchors. As I say in Sleep, Baby, Sleep,routine is like a magic wand for parents tokeep their babies happy, healthy and secure.But let’s face it — our young children havenowhere to go and no pressing deadlines. Yetwe can still create a predictable routine, whichprovides a sense of normalcy and safety. Formy two daughters, I’ve put a focus on creating“anchors” in our day, points of stability in theocean of free play. After breakfast, we do ourmath lesson. While eating lunch, we listen to astorytelling podcast (Listen & Play by theBBC). In the afternoon, we work on phonics.In the late afternoon, we call the grandparents.Before dinner, my husband does physicalexercise with the girls. These are thepredictable touchpoints that they can count onevery single day. There’s no need to be rigid,but having a daily rhythm with anchors giveschildren a sense of security.

Exercise. Our stir-crazy little kiddos needphysical activity — and lots of it! Movement isgreat for releasing endorphins and will helpour children to sleep well at night. Even whenstuck inside, we have options — you can havea dance party, water play in a small kiddie poolor bathtub, Cosmic Kids Yoga, or hopscotch,relay race or frog jumps in the hallway. I’veeven seen videos of kids biking, roller skatingand skateboarding inside the house. Becreative! Get the kids up and moving at least 3times a day — and join them, because it’s agood stress-buster for you, too!

Screentime. As soon as the WHOdeclared a global pandemic, I decided that mystrict stance on screentime could be relaxedduring these weeks at home. My kids don’t

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nap anymore, and we all need downtime. Everyday after lunch, we pull the curtains, turn offthe lights, snuggle up under blankets and “go tothe zoo.” Meaning we visit the Cincinnati ZooHome Safari via their Facebook page. Hangingout with the hippos and porcupines is soothing,sweet and educational. If you’re jugglingcooking, cleaning, laundry, work, andhomeschooling — choose a nice programme(I love Daniel Tiger for toddlers) and give someguilt-free screentime. Since we have a set timefor screens, the kids aren’t bugging me to watchvideos the rest of the day, which is an addedbonus.

Note: please don’t use screentime for the 2hours before bedtime, because it may be toostimulating and interfere with a good night’ssleep.

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Many families that I consult with havetrouble setting a bedtime routinebecause they have family functions,

weddings, and travel. Since all of that is off thetable, it’s a perfect time to establish an age-appropriate bedtime for your little one.

Early to Bed. Babies and young childrenneed 11 to 12 hours of continuous night sleep.This means that if your baby wakes up at 7 am,bedtime should be between 7 and 8 pm. Sleep isessential for your child’s mood, growth,development and immunity. To shift your child’sbedtime earlier, I recommend pulling thecurtains and turning off the bright overheadlights after sunset. Create a bedtime routine. Itcan be simple — dinner, bath, books, bed. Writeit down on a piece of paper, let your childdecorate the bedtime chart, and hang it on thewall in their bedroom.

Comfy, Cozy Bedtime. I always encourageclients to think of bedtime as the best part of theday, rather than a power struggle. Cuddle upwith your child, read books, sing a lullaby or saya prayer. In order for your child to relax enoughto “let go” of the day and fall asleep, they shouldfeel secure and connected. Every night I ask mydaughters what they want to dream about (it’soften cake and unicorns) and then I spritz themwith imaginary “dream spray.” This puts happythoughts into their minds about sleep.

White Noise. I recommend white noise toevery parent that wants their baby or child tosleep better. White noise provides a soothingrumbly backdrop for sleep and helps drown outthe household noises. Especially these days whenyou may be taking late-night conference callsfrom the living room, play some white noise for

your child. The easiest way to try it is bydownloading a free app (such as Sleep Pillow) onyour phone or tablet.

Will your child get “addicted” to white noise?This is a common question and the answer is no!If you want to wean off of white noise in thefuture, you can simply reduce the volume for afew days.

Sleep Training. I spoke with a mom of twinswho has let go of her domestic helpers duringquarantine, has a job in banking that hasconverted to work-from-home because ofcoronavirus, and is exhausted from the nightwakings that used to be handled by a nanny. Herelderly mother is attending to one twin, and sheis attending to another and they are both uptwice at night, for as long as an hour each time.For babies over 6 months, you can do sleeptraining and proactively shape the sleep patternsso you don’t have so many night wakings. In mybook Sleep, Baby, Sleep, you will get the completeguidance to help your baby sleep through thenight. In the book, I also cover newborn sleep,baby sleep, toddler sleep and nap schedules forage 0 to 4 years.

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It’s mission critical to be mindful of whatwe’re saying in front of the kids. Our childrenwill surely struggle with sleeping peacefully if

we are exposing them to too much talk andworry about coronavirus.

Turn Off the TV. Put the TV news on a 21-day lockdown. There is absolutely no reason toexpose your child to sensational and scary newsreporting. If it’s terrifying for you as an adult,then please protect your child. Also, don’t talkon the phone about the gory details ofcoronavirus in front of your kids. They arealways listening and absorbing what you say onthe phone. Remember, the beauty of having anearly bedtime is that you can watch the news andmake your phone calls at night.

Invite Questions. I’ve given simple andhonest explanations about coronavirus and thelockdown to my kids. Since their world hasdrastically changed from school, playdates andsports to 24/7 at home, I do check in with themonce a day. I simply ask “do you have anyquestions for me?” Most of the time they don’t,but they know that the lines of communicationare open. They know it’s safe to have questions.If we can help our children process theirconcerns in the day, they will better be able torelax and surrender to sleep at night.

Manage Your Own Triggers. To help yourchild’s anxiety, you have to manage your own.

For me, that means having an extra loaf of breadand the freezer and an ample supply ofchocolate. It means not looking at Whatsappwhile I’m playing with the kids because the newsis too triggering. It means talking to a friendwhen I’m feeling scared or anxious so I can workthrough it, but not in front of the kids. It meansfocusing on what I can control — staying home,washing my hands. And letting go of what I can’tcontrol — the actions of others, how long thiswill last.

Empowering Messages. Since the kidsunderstood from their school friends thatcoronavirus is a big, scary thing, I have focusedon what our family is doing to stay healthy. Theyknow that children are mostly not getting sickfrom coronavirus, but I’m sure they’re scaredabout their parents getting sick. I tell the kids —I eat healthy food, I exercise, I take vitamin Cand I sleep well. I’m strong and healthy. I’veassured them that if I do get sick for a few days,my body will fight the virus and bounce back.

Honour Ambiguity. We are on a 21-daylockdown, but there is no guarantee that it willend there. This is an ambiguous situation. Pleasedon’t get your heart set on having freedom onApril 15 and then feel crushed if it doesn’thappen. When my 5-year-old asks how long we’llbe at home, I tell her the truth — I don’t know. Itmay be 21 days, or it may be 100 days. You mayalso want to consider the possibility that thiscould be a long road ahead, so that you’ll also beable to emotionally support your children in theweeks ahead.

Love Them Up. I tell the kids every singleday that I love being at home with them. Thatthis is such a special time for our family to betogether. That there is no one I’d rather be stuckhome with. You may be spread thin and stressedout of your mind, but don’t underestimate whata gift it is for your children to have bonus timewith their parents.

So there you have it — create a flow for yourdaytime routine, enjoy cozy bedtime snuggles,and protect your children from nonstopcoronavirus conversation. In doing so, we cancreate a virtuous cycle where our kids feel goodduring the day and sleep peacefully at night, thusboosting their physical and emotional resilience.For all the essential workers on the front lines ofthis crisis, endless thanks for your service. Forall the rest, please stay home, stay safe, take careof each other and wash those hands!

The writer is an American sleep consultantliving in Mumbai. She is a holistic nutritionist

and author of book Sleep, Baby, Sleep, publishedby HarperCollins

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Bashir Assad, the Kashmiriwriter has come out with yetanother interesting andinsightful study of Kashmir fol-lowing the abrogation of

Article 370. To quote Bashir, he hasbrought out the “bitter truth followinghis inner voice” underscoring theIslamisation and Pakistanisation of nar-ratives in Kashmir. And he blames thepolitical leadership in Kashmir whichremains “mired in conservatism andshort-sightedness around Muslimness”for the troubled situation. Competingschools of Islamist extremism have swayin Kashmir with the local political lead-ers, intellectuals, media, social and cul-tural activists, lawyers, businessmen,employees etc. spearheading the Islamistextremist movement. Being witness tothe steep decline of the unique Kashmiriculture, Assad calls upon the silentmajority of Kashmiri Muslims “not to becarried away by the frenzies of theextremists who thrive on violence”.

As regards the decision of the Indianparliament to revoke Article 370 andreorganise the J&K State into two UTs ofLadakh and Jammu and Kashmir, theinternational community has by andlarge viewed this decision as India’s inter-nal affair, with the exception of Pakistanand its ardent supporters-China, Turkeyand Malaysia. However, there has beenconcern over the restrictions imposed inthe State following this decision. So far asthe local response to this historic deci-sion is concerned, Assad is right in hisanalysis that in north Kashmir (exceptingSopore and Rafiabad belt in Baramulladistrict which is dominated by Jamaat-e-Islami), the local people have remainedpeaceful. And the new narrative of theIndian Government revolving aroundempowerment, investment and develop-ment (EID) has found resonance amongthe people in rural Kashmir, Gujjars andBakarwals, Paharis, Kupwara, Handwara,Gurez and most of the Jammu region.

In case of south Kashmir, Jamaat-e-Islami has been influential in Kulgam,Tral, Pulwama, Bijbehara, Anantnag,Kokernag, Doru and Pahalgam and thatgets reflected in the different politicalresponse and incidents of violence there.In central Kashmir, Srinagar city remainsthe hotbed of separatism nerve centre ofPakistani narrative being parroted by thepolitical elite, intelligentsia, academia,journalists and civil society.

Coming back to Article 370 , Assadbelieves that the idea behind this Articlewas to allow the unique Kashmiri identi-

ty based on composite culture, socialharmony and brotherhood to flourish.This very foundation of Kashmiriyat col-lapsed with the ethnic cleansing andforced exodus of the entire indigenousminority community of KashmiriPandits in January 1990 and thereafter.The Pandits continue to live in forcedexile for the past 30 years now. And thereis no prospect of their return to theirhomes, as all their landed properties,houses, business and educational estab-lishments and even the temples havebeen occupied in an organized manner.And with the digitisation of land revenuerecords going on in full swing inKashmir, all these properties are beingconveniently transferred in the names oftheir illegal occupiers. Here it would bepertinent to mention that all through thepast 75 years, the successive State govern-ments have legalised the settlement ofnon-Kashmiri Muslims in the State. Over26,000 Afghan Pashtuns were providedland and State citizenship in 1950s atGutli Bagh, Ganderbal. Similarly over650 Tibetan Muslim families were pro-vided land and State citizenship in Hari

Parbat area in Srinagar around 1959-60.And after 1970s, one has been noticingthe ingress and silent settlement of radi-cal Muslims belonging to Allah Walegroup from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar etc.,who set up their shops and captured thelocal mosques. So much so, over 800local Kashmiri Muslim Imams weresilently replaced by these radical fire-brand non-local Muslims who con-tributed a lot in radicalising the KashmiriMuslim society by weaning them awayfrom the local Sufi-Rishi tradition ofIslam. Assad has been honest in pointingout that most of the Kashmiri Muslimemployees who would shift to Jammuduring the annual Durbar move, havepurchased land or houses in Jammu par-ticularly during the past decade or so.This is in quite contrast to the fact thatnone of the Hindu employees shiftingfrom Jammu to Srinagar during theDurbar move, have ever purchased inany land or house in Kashmir. One mayadd that thousands of acres of forest andnazool land has been occupied by influ-ential Kashmiri Muslims andGujjars/Bakarwals, which was subse-

quently regularised by Farrooq Abdullahand GN Azad governments under theRoshni Act. All this has been done tochange the demographic character ofJammu region into a Muslim majorityone, so that the narrative of Muslim andseparatist politics is extended to Jammuregion as well.

Assad makes yet another valid pointstating that the NC government underChief Ministership of Farooq Abdullah(1996-2002) rebuilt the “completely col-lapsed infrastructure including hundredsof bridges, schools, hospitals, shrines andgovernment buildings.” Yet the NC andits leadership never highlighted theseachievements in their 2002 election cam-paign. Instead their election plank wasthe restoration of autonomy. Here onewould recall how the NC stalwart MirzaAfzal Beg would during his election cam-paign in 1977 flaunt a piece of rock salt(of Pak origin),and a green handkerchief(rumal) in order to emotionally black-mail the local Muslim population. Assadis emphatic in saying that both the “NCand PDP used Article 370 for winningelections. They only complained about

the erosion of authority when out ofpower. For them, Article 370 was layinggolden eggs”. The abrogation of Article370 once again brought the think tanks,NGOs, human rights groups, media etc.to the fore, with the local political classpropagating “soft separatism”. The prob-lem is compounded because the “politi-cal family fiefdom has taken deep rootsin Kashmir. And this political kinshipsurvives in the conflict, with both theseparatist and mainstream political elitesbeing the conflict profiteers”. So the chal-lenge for the Government of India is tomake peace more profitable for thesepolitical elites than the conflict.

Assad argues that the increasingPakistanisation and Islamisation of theKashmiri narrative, actually promptedthe Modi government to abrogate Article370. He blames the separatists and theNC and PDP leaders by holding thethreats of secession, for the dilution ofArticle 370. As regards the impact of theabrogation of Article 370, Assad is rightin saying that “the majority of Kashmirisare happy that the political class, whichexploited them emotionally, economical-

ly and politically for decades, is finallymade to pay the price for it. The com-mon people want these corrupt leaders tobe arrested on charges of corruption,misappropriation, embezzlement, nepo-tism and favouritism”.

Now that Article 370 is history, newtasks for the government are to restorethe confidence of the people throughEID, de-radicalisation, rational delimita-tion to give due representation todeprived sections both in Jammu andKashmiri regions, and to undo the artifi-cial merger of areas in a particular con-stituency initiated by Mirza Afzal Beg inpost-1975 period to prevent the Shias,Kashmiri Pandits, Gujjars and othercommunities from getting elected fromtheir territorial strongholds. To conclude,the book provides a refreshing narrativeof the actual situation obtaining inKashmir, not touched upon otherwise bythe so called Kashmir experts. As such itis a must for all those interested inunderstanding the social and politicaldynamics in Jammu and Kashmir.

The reviewer is a Senior Fellow, NehruMemorial Museum and Library, New

Delhi and editor, Himalayan and CentralAsian Studies

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Ten kilometres from thePratap Singh High School,on the road to the famous

Kaas Plateau, Maharashtra’s veryown Valley of Flowers, is the pic-turesque campus of the BhartiyaBhatke Vimukta Vikas VaSanshodhan Sanstha (IndianInstitute of Research andDevelopment of Nomadic andDe-notified Tribes). Inside, thereis a School of Social Work, ajunior college, hostels and anAshram school with 250 studentsfrom classes 1 to 10.

At 2 pm on a weekday, theplace is abuzz with activity.Students and teachers have justreturned from an invigoratinglunch break, ready to resumetheir quest for knowledge. I headto the first floor of the double-storeyed institute building thatembraces a circular courtyard.Here in a small corner room, agroup of 50 students await me-the youngest is 12 years old, theoldest 16. Some play the tabla,the dholki and the Congo drums.Others create music on the syn-thesizer and the harmonium.Together they form the school’sorchestra-one that has won nameand fame in the district.

They are often invited to singfor the All India Radio and atlocal programmes. As the strongvoices of the girls and the boys inthe group decry casteism and callfor equality through their songs,a new energy pervades the room,and with it, a new hope.

It is these students whosestories I wish to tell…

AishwaryaAishwarya Umesh Dharase is

13 years old. Slim, with a deepsepia skin tone, she wears abright, sleeveless red and goldsalwar suit. Her jet black hair isoiled and tightly pulled back intoa pony. ‘I want to become alawyer and fight for the truth,’this Class 7 student tells me. Shealso wants to learn to play theharmonium and the tabla. Afterall, she spent the first few years ofher life around these musicalinstruments. Aishwarya’s parentslived in the Bijapur district ofKarnataka. Her father played thedholki, tabla and pakhawaj in anorchestra, while her mother wasa singer. She also sewed garmentsto feed her family. Then one day,when she was barely six yearsold, Aishwarya’s mother died inan accident. Shortly after, herfather abandoned her. ‘I was verysmall then. I didn’t understand

what was happening. Suddenly Ihad no family, no one to call myown,’ she tells me matter-of-fact-ly. Life as Aishwarya knew it wasover. Initially her paternal grand-parents looked after her. Soonhowever, her mausi (maternalaunt) took over.

Aishwarya does not know ifshe is related to her mausi byblood. She doesn’t know hermaternal grandparents either.‘Mausi says my mother was hersister and she treats me like herown daughter. That’s all that mat-ters. I have seen her work in thefields to raise me. It is her name-Bharti-that I write when I amasked for my mother’s name.’Bharti first got Aishwarya admit-ted into a Kannada-mediumschool but she wasn’t happy withthe quality of education. Shedecided to send her to the

Ashram school where her owndaughter Vaishnavi was study-ing. It was in Class 6 thatAishwarya came to Satara. ‘I havebeen here for a little over a yearnow. Each day I learn new things.When I feel low, I think of mymausi. She is my inspiration. Oneday I will make her proud,’ shetells me, the quiver in her voiceonly emphasizing the determinedlook on her face.

PragatiNext to her sits a slim

bespectacled girl in a white,printed salwar suit. 13-year-oldPragati Ranjeet More is a studentof Class 8. Eyes brimming withtears, she narrates her story.

‘When I was born, my moth-er abandoned me in the hospitaland went to live with her parents.She didn’t take me home. Didn’t

hold or hug me.’ Pragati’s fathercollected her from the hospitaland took her to Pune. There heleft the tiny infant with his sister.‘My bua raised me. She put me ina school in the city. Then one daymy dadi turned up. She said thatI shouldn’t stay in Pune. Shefought with my bua and broughtme to Phaltan in Satara district.Since that day my bua stoppedtalking to us.’

Young Pragati was onceagain uprooted. She lost the onlylife and family she had known.But she was a survivor. Shebegan to adjust to her new life.Just as she was learning to cope,another tragedy befell the family.Their house in Phaltan col-lapsed.

They had to move to Satara.Pragati’s father used to be a con-struction worker. But he drankheavily and gradually stoppedworking. In fact, it was hisdrinking that had drivenPragati’s mother away. In Satara,her grandfather took up work ina hotel to feed the family.Pragati enrolled in a nearbyschool.

One day, when she was inClass 3, her grandmother andfather fought bitterly. ‘My dadiburnt herself. She died,’ Pragatirecounts in a stony voice. Hermother used this opportunity todivorce her father.

That was when she discov-ered that she had a youngerbrother. ‘My mother never cameto see me. I didn’t know that myfather used to visit her. Afterthey divorced, I found out that Ihad a younger brother, Omkar.He is now in Class 4.’

Despite all the tragedies thatlife had heaped on her, Pragatidid not give up. She had learnthow to cook when she was barelyfive years old. While her grandfa-ther helped her with the house-work, he also had to go out andearn. So young Pragati went toschool, did housework, cookedand looked after her brother. Oneday, in the newspapers, she readabout the Ashram school inSatara. She quietly went to herfather and said she wanted to jointhe school.

He agreed. Thus began a newjourney.

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Elections and Presidentialleadership in the United

States are a spectacle par excel-lence. This is equally true forboth the elections for theanointed Presidency and theCongressional polls locally.Awareness and deliberationsabout the US foreign policyacross the larger internationalsystem are everyone’s pet peevebut the scenario in the domes-tic politics remains an domainorb, which has been investi-gated to a lesser extent else-where in the international sys-tem. Also, it is a theoreticalprinciple in the discipline ofinternational relations thatthere lies a continuum betweenthe domesticity of a nation andits larger footprint in the glob-al comity of nations. It’s in thispartisan narrative, where-inthe domestic political discoursegladly but confrontationallysubsists.

In the contemporaryAmerican firmament,President Donald Trump isgoing through the toughestphase of his Presidency whichis even more serious concernthan the impeachment pro-ceedings in the US Senate,which he had to be contentwith. As a related fact, it is theCOVID-19 virus which posesa national security and a healthchallenge for a besiegedAmerican nation. As the trailof coronavirus patients mountsin the United States, theAmerican leadership seemsperplexed despite being on theanointed pedestal of being themost powerful nation endowedwith a mammoth defense para-phernalia which the nationcan wield in the internationalsea, land and air firmament. It’sthe Calvinist self doubt of anincessant urge for self enhance-ment and continuously beingon guard which should beutilised by the American estab-lishment in this hour of crisiswhen the entire comity ofstates is seemingly strangulat-ed by the new pandemic.

Apart from the pandemic,it is the threat of global terrorand the vitriol in the aftermathof the impeachment proceed-ings which cause a big snarl-upand a vitiation of the politicalecosystem in the United Statesof America. Frequent ego-tripsthat President Trump has hadwith the various Secretaries and

his other top official machin-ery has marred the taint-freeexpectation of confused hoipolloi. Despite being theunstinting confidants ofPresident Trump, severalCabinet members have beenshown the door despite theirscathless records of efficiencyand loyalty towards theTrump’s dominion.

One stand-out aspect ofthe US Democratic primarieshas been the fact that BernieSanders, the left of the centre,Democratic Presidential hope-ful, has been sidelined out ofthe race with Joe Biden beingthe candidate from theDemocrat side of the fence totake on the political juggernautof President Trump. One sin-gular perspective out of manyin the context of the Americanpublic sphere concerning the

leadership performance ofPresident Trump has been theidiom of myriad flip-flopswhich President Trump hasundertaken in the light of thevarious position and portfoliochanges in his Cabinet.Secondly, President Trump hasbeen changing the quintes-sential American point of viewin the light of the climatechange policies, American judi-ciary and the American policyperspective in the context ofSouth Asia, where-in India’sstance has always been that ofnegating the hyphenation ofitself (India) with the IslamicRepublic of Pakistan. The win-win economic leadership byinking a mega trade deal withIndia along with the quaranti-ning of India concerning thestipulation of GSP (GeneralizedSystem of Preferences) has

been the characteristic gogglesthrough which some sectionsof India perceive the Americanpolicy perspective to be.Another poser on his politicalleadership happens to be thatof frequent changes in thevisa-related work conditionsvis-a-vis India, which rendersNew Delhi slightly doubtful,especially the old guard inNew Delhi’s political and diplo-matic leadership. One areawhere President Trump’s lead-ership of the new world hasbeen proactive is that of apeacemaking role in theAfghanistan conundrum andhis tie-up with the Talibanbased in Doha, Qatar. Even inthe context of a turmoil-ridden“Middle East”, the Washingtonleadership has done well witha mixed outcome in the contextof the Syrian quagmire. In the

context of Iran, PresidentTrump got rid of GeneralSuleimani but did not retaliatewhen the American assets inIraq were targetted by Tehranthus casting aspersions on acleansing and aggressive pos-ture of the American leader-ship. It was this BOP run pol-icy which took the steam out ofthe acolytes of the leadership inWashington.

Jeffrey A Jenkins writes inhis authored book titled,Leadership in AmericanPolitics, that, “There is a lead-ership gap in American politicsbetween the leadership neededto address the country’s mostpressing problems and thatprovided by the nation’s elect-ed and appointed leaders. If weturn to political scientists toshed light on such leadershipissues, we find their work often

lacking. As important as lead-ership is in explaining politicalchoices and policy outcomes,studies of leadership are limit-ed in many subfields of politi-cal science research and aremissing altogether in others.”Still, despite traces of whimsand flip flops, the domesticWASP fraternity and the whiteblue collared workers still rootfor President Trump despite hisleadership and popularityrankings transforming in theaftermath of individual situa-tions.

His appeal lies in the lead-ership gung ho, loud chaper-oning and symbolically stiffupper lip political noncha-lance embedded with a sense ofAmerican hyper puissancewhich takes wings with thepresence of a cacophonouspolitical leadership and

opposition.As an adjunct imagery,

one can cite the speech ofPresident Whitmore in theoriginal patriotic f lick,Independence Day. On theoccasion of the launch of theAmerican counter attack on theAlien Mothership, the embat-tled American President perch-es himself atop a F-16 andorates, “We the people of thefree world and the Americanpeople shall not falter. We willnot disappear into the night.We will not wither away intodarkness and shadows. We willput up a struggle against theAlien Mothership. We shallovercome and it will be a his-torical moment when theworld’s fighter jets gathertogether for the largest aerialbattle of the world, since WorldWar-II along with the braveAmerican flyers.”

Thus, the practice ofPresidential leadership is areflection of the larger impacton the commoners which ringstrue in the leadership frame-work of President Trump, also,whenever the American home-land faces a crisis or a holocaustof impactful proportions. Thevenerable Pew Research Centertoo reported in January 2020about the dismal support toPresident Trump’s foreign pol-icy. It was argued that, “Despitenegative trends in his popu-larity as a true blue leader, hisstanding has improved. Thecurrent Pew Research surveyfinds an uptick in some coun-tries since 2018 in ratings forPresident Trump and the US,though the degree of changevaries from modest to solidlypositive.

At least two plausible fac-tors may be behind these shifts.First, support for Trump hasincreased somewhat on theideological right in manynations.” The 63 per centrecorded disinterest and dis-satisfaction with PresidentTrump’s policy has been gen-erated maybe because theworld is flat since a long timebut the domestic panning outof his electoral prospects mightbe a completely different lead-ership ball game altogether inthe context of the Americanhomeland.

(The writer teaches at IIPA,New Delhi)

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Published in 2002, poet andwriter Dom Moraes in the

co-authored book with SarayuSrivatsa, Out of God’s Oven:Travels in A Fractured Land,wrote: “India had the most bru-tally stupid middle-class in theworld.”

That observation comesto Moraes, a prolific and priv-ileged man, after journeyingthrough and writing about theworld in the 1960s and 1970s.He returns in 1980 to India forgood. In his remaining 25years, he produces journal-ism, non-fiction, travelogues,while struggling through thedesertion of his poetic musethat returns late in his life.

Moraes, like VS Naipaul, isdismayed with subcontinentalpoverty, violence and brutali-ty, while awed by its culturalpasts. Owing to the stark classdivide that has arisen due toIndia’s struggles with tacklingCovid-19, his comment hasresurfaced online in recentdays. In one way, Moraes’observation reeks of westerncondescension, but it carriesinsight that allies with concern:A society’s fiercest critic isoften its truest lover.

A mass of the middle-classof this country views theCovid-19 driven lockdown asan instance of the efficacy ofthe administration. Somemembers have gone on toquestion why poor people arewalking from cities to theinnards of rural India. Many,mainly middle-class people,have defended police excesseslike spraying disinfectant onthe walkers, or worse, con-

verted the Tablighi Jamaatevent in Delhi, into one aboutMuslim bashing.

There’s proof that theUnion Government didn’t takethe threat seriously at the time;law enforcement both at theCentre and Delhi State was lax;major shrines of other religionswere open. But, none of thoseseem to matter. Our “Hindu-Muslim” framing is set.

This majority middle-classIndia lauds the Governmentwhen it sends airplanes forcountrymen abroad who needto be retrieved to escape thecoronavirus. But a hodgepodgequarantine for the unwashedmasses is par for the Covid-19course. It’s easier and cheaperto send airplanes for a fewIndians abroad, it’s harder toarrange for transport for thou-sands of daily wagers in the bigcities who belong to villages.

This urban middle-classIndia refuses to see their con-tradiction here. If the poorwork so hard in the cities, whymust any emergency makethem leave the city to return tothe village? Isn’t the city theirhome too?

Your essayist departs fromthe Moraes rapier thrust intothe Indian psyche. It was madelong back. A part of it is truenow. The India that he wrote ofis removed from us. In someways for the good, in many forthe worse. A part of today’sIndian middle-class is perhapsmore brutal than it’s stupid. Itisn’t ready to see the messthat’s the lockdown: Therehave been 22 documenteddeaths of migrants while walk-

ing back to their villages; manyhave said they’d die of hungerbefore the coronavirus killsthem. If our poor feel so, whatdoes that mean about our bois-terous nationalism?

India’s urban culture hasmade the poor seem sub-human. Our poor are ourinvisible people. Almost nobig country in the world thatbattles Covid-19 has witnessed

its urban poor walk back to itsnative place. Our daily-wageworkers slave in the cities fordecades. Many even havepapers that enlist them asdomiciled residents. But they

are made to feel that they real-ly don’t belong. There is mid-dle class acceptance to theirunbelonging. The collectiveemotion is one of wonder anddisconcert: Ah, millions-are-

marching to oh no, get-them-back-in-the-sty! Yes, there aremiddle-class exceptions. Butnobody has been able to con-vince them to stay back, leastof all the Union Government.They banged plates salutingour healthcare workers the daythe Prime Minister announcedthe lockdown. No sooner, theyset foot for home.

However, it’s essential tosteer away from binaries: Wemay empathise with the urbanpoor but can’t demonise themajority of India’s urban mid-dle-class. Many sections oftoday’s collective urban mid-dle-class, wasn’t unlike thepoor. Most of them have hadtough lives, have seen theirancestors toil. They too camefrom villages some genera-tions back. Exactly like today’surban poor, they lived cheek byjowl and were exploited.

One assumes, one’s suffer-ings, makes one a better humanbeing towards other sufferers.It’s not true. Our middle classhas its origins in discord. Butthey will behave exactly liketheir class superiors who exploitand may look down on them.That’s why our poor are poor.Poet WH Auden, who encour-aged Moraes as a teenagedpoet, wrote in his poem“September 1, 1939”: I and thepublic know/What all school-children learn/Those to whomevil is done/Do evil in return”.This moment sums up sub-continental middle-class mores.

(The writer is AssociateProfessor, Jindal School of LiberalArts & Humanities)

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The first calling of the present pan-demic is not to panic. Should youpanic, you may lose your sense of

reasons and alert, which may not let youcarry on your fight prudently in allstrength. Let us brave the situation byexercising all the care and caution assuggested by the experts. We havebraved many such pandemic in the past.Even this one will pass. Rest assured, thesituation may begin to ease out soon.

In the cosmic game plan, globalhealth situation is figured out through alook at progressive movement of the Sun.That is about to reach its zenith on April14th. Till then, watch your health care-fully and remain live to our collectiveobligations as well. Situation may beginto gradually ease out thereafter. Once theSun moves considerably beyond theRahu-Ketu axis by June end, the situationmay expectedly be in control.

Even otherwise, if we ever lose ouralertness and become complacent, wecould be taken for a ride. Only a fewdays back, Chaitra navaratra got over,when the devout would have offeredprayers to Mother Goddess Durga,believed to be repository of Shakti. Mindit, it is a period of major weather change

in India when one needs to rejuvenateoneself and be well geared up to face thechallenges during the emerging season.We maintain austerity and regulate ourfood regime to tone up our digestive sys-tem, vital to our overall health condi-tion. Regular prayers help clear off theclutters of mind, regain confidence, andstrengthen vital forces playing within.

It may be pertinent to note here thatall ancient puranic stories necessarilydiscuss terror — fight between devtas(high born) and rakshas (demon), inwhich, the latter always have the firstlaugh. Why? Perhaps, the devtas wouldhave been complacent, not been alertagainst impending danger from unseem-ly forces, and forgotten their sense ofcollective obligations. Hence their fall.But when all devtas gather, invoke thedivine — the all-powerful and all-know-ing eternal element of consciousness,which drives all our dynamic functional-ities including power of knowing — theyoutsmart the demonic forces and regaintheir lost ground. Import of the abovesimile does not need any further elabo-ration.

Mother Goddess, in the form weperceive, is shown with 10 hands — car-

rying weapons in eight, a conch shell(blowing instrument) in one, and lotusflower in the other — having twoimports. First, the ten directions.Second, the 10 sensory organs — fiveeach of perception and action. She com-bats negative energies flowing througheight directions with her armouries, withthe rest two marked with productivity.

The conch-shell when blown excitesa sound note comparable to ‘O?’ — theprimal-sound that supposedly got excit-ed when the first motion happened atthe primordial source, which, in turn,excited the creation chain. The conch-shell thus naturally symbolises thesource energy, up above in the cosmos.The majestic lotus flower in all coloursmade of numerous petals signifies enor-mity and diversity of creation. Mind it,lotus flower grows in the mud under-neath water body. But not even a trace ofmud or water droplet can stay on flowerleaves, which implies that though beingall-powerful, yet, she does not carry anysense of ego, or attachment to the primalelements making it.

The evil forces are in evidence allacross, making us vulnerable to theironslaught. Their killing potential wouldbe felt much faster and relatively cover afairly wider range than our productive

initiatives, which could take us for a rideif ever we become complacent. We,therefore, need to be fully on guard in acombative mode against the evil forcesto make optimum use of our productivepotential, vital to our existence.

Now, why weird form assigned tothe demons? It is said that demons areconjurors, capable of hoodwinking usby making varied illusionary presencesand take us for a ride. Remember, nosuch form-existence is in evidence any-where in the world. It is so charac-terised just to exemplify in clear termsthe danger inherent in the evil forcesplaying from within or beyond.Coronavirus could be taken as oneform of unseen demonic force availablein our surrounding carrying killingpotential. Negative memory implantsin our minds are another form of nega-tive forces playing within, which oftenmake us lose our sense of reasons andorder that may cost us heavily. Let usbe always war-ready to combat suchdemonic forces for a smooth sail of life.

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