The document discusses convalescent plasma therapy emerging as a promising treatment for COVID-19 based on a US clinical trial. The trial of 25 patients found that plasma transfusions from recovered patients improved conditions in 76% of active cases, with 11 being discharged from the hospital. No serious side effects occurred. The findings generate hope as a potential treatment option as the pandemic continues to spread globally.

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Convalescent plasma thera-
py is emerging as one of the
most promising and safe treat-
ment options for patients with
severe Covid-19 symptoms, a
new trial in the US has found.
The therapy involves tak-
ing anti-bodies from the blood
of a person who has recovered
from Covid-19 and transfusing
those anti-bodies into an active
coronavirus patient to help
kickstart the immune system to
fight the infection.
Published in The
American Journal of Pathology,
the study conducted by the
researchers from the Houston
Methodist Hospital in the US
said that the results of the trial
showed that 19 out of 25
patients (76 per cent) improved
with the treatment and 11 were
discharged from the hospital.
There were no serious adverse
side effects caused by the plas-
ma transfusion.
The findings have gener-
ated hopes in the global com-
munity rattled by the virulent
virus which has claimed over
3 lakh people with over 63
lakh infected cases across the
world.
The clinical trials to trans-
fuse plasma from recovered
Covid-19 patients into critically
ill patients started on March 28.
“While physician-scientists
around the world scramble to
test new drugs and treatments
against the Covid-19 virus,
convalescent serum therapy
emerge as potentially one of the
most promising strategies,” said
study researcher Eric Salazar
from Houston Methodist
Hospital.
Patients were treated under
emergency use guidelines
(eIND) from the US Food and
Drug Administration and then
received approval from the
FDA to open up the trial to
more patients as an investiga-
tional new drug (IND).
According to the
researchers, the therapeutic
approach dates back to at least
as early as 1918 when it was
used to fight the Spanish Flu.
Recently, the convalescent plas-
ma therapy was used with
some success during the 2003
SARS pandemic, the 2009
influenza H1N1 pandemic,
and the 2015 Ebola outbreak
in Africa.
?=BQ =4F34;78
India on Wednesday for the
first time went past 9,000
new cases in a day amid a
Chinese study indicating that
the countries could see around
15,000 new cases from June 15
onward. The country recorded
9,238 new cases and 258 deaths
on Wednesday, which took its
overall tally of cases to 2,16,429
and total death count to 6,087.
National Capital Delhi saw
a big spike with new cases ris-
ing to 1,513, the highest so far
in a day, and as many as 59 peo-
ple succumbing to the dread-
ed virus in day. So far, Delhi has
23,645 confirmed cases and
615 deaths.
A Chinese study which
had rightly predicted the
growth of coronovirus in many
countries including the US has
painted an alarming picture,
saying that India will add
around 15,000 new cases every
day from June mid.
Maharashtra appeared to
be peaking in terms of Covid
19-triggered fatalities and
infections on Wednesday, as it
notched the highest-ever day's
tally on 122 deaths and as
many as 2,560 more people
tested positive for the pan-
demic in various parts of the
State.
With the fresh deaths and
infections, the total number of
deaths in Maharashtra jumped
to 2,587 while the total num-
ber of infected cases went up to
74,860 in the State.
The worsening situation
in the State can be evi-
dence from the fact that there
have been a total of 816 deaths
in Maharashtra during the pre-
vious nine days.
On May 26 (Tuesday) the
State had witnessed 97 deaths,
while there were 105 deaths on
May 27, 85 deaths on May 28,
116 deaths on May 29 and 99
deaths on May 30, 89 deaths on
May 31, 76 on June 1 and 103
on June 3. Wednesday's toll was
122.
?=BQ =4F34;78
Expressing concern over
recent reported acts of van-
dalism of 800AD Buddhist
heritage in Pakistan Occupied
Pakistan (POK), India on
Wednesday asked Pakistan to
“immediately vacate all illegal-
ly occupied territories”.
This strong reaction
relayed by Ministry of External
Affairs Spokesperson Anurag
Srivastava here came after
reports of vandalism, deface-
ment and destruction of
Buddhist heritage in
Gilgit-Baltistan. Registering
protest, he said “egregious
activities” of this nature dis-
playing contempt for the
ancient civilisational and cul-
tural heritage are “highly con-
demnable”.
“We have conveyed our
strong concern at reports of
vandalism, defacement and
destruction of invaluable
Indian Buddhist heritage
located in Gilgit-Baltistan
area of the Indian territory
under illegal and forcible
occupation of Pakistan,” he
said.
He said India has sought
immediate access for its experts
to visit the area in order to
restore and preserve the invalu-
able archaeological heritage.
344?0::D0A970Q
=4F34;78
It’s likely to be the end of road
for cricketer-turned-politi-
cian Navjot Singh Sidhu in the
Congress.
Sources said Sidhu has
been approached by Aam
Admi Party (AAP) and poll
strategist Prashant Kishor is
believed to be mediating
between Sidhu and AAP.
AICC sources said that
Sidhu has himself not been
active in recent times within the
party and has distanced himself
from the cadre.
Punjab Chief Minister
Amarinder Singh has never
concealed his dislike for Sidhu’s
political posturing.
Sources confirmed that poll
strategist Prashant Kishor has
spoken to Sidhu about his future
in the AAP.
Sources said Sidhu wants to
be named as the CM candidate
of AAP in Punjab for the next
elections as a precondition for
joining the party.
0A270=09HC8Q =4F34;78
Amid coronavirus scare, the
Government has asked
animal breeders and owners of
the exotic live species such as
animals, fish and birds to vol-
untarily declare their stock/s
within next six months as
also ensure health cards of
their subjects.
The plan is to prepare an
inventory and streamline the
import of exotic animal/birds
or fish species in the country,
which is now being considered
to be fraught with risk of
zoonotic (animal to human)
transmission. Exotic live
species are animal or plant
species moved from their orig-
inal range (location) to a new
one most often by people.
This is for the first time
that the Government has taken
such a move. The officials at the
Union Environment Ministry
have asserted that precaution is
better than prevention before
any coronavirus kind of pan-
demic spreads here. In India as
in the world, much of the
exotic live species is currently
legal. There exists a large
demand and market for ani-
mals like ball pythons, pocket
monkeys, crocodile skinks,
hissing cockroaches and a wide
range of exotic birds.
However, till now, there has
been no detail about the pop-
ulation status, numbers
poached, illegal trade hubs and
dynamics of these species. This
makes it difficult to know the
impacts of illegal trade on the
population status of many of
these captured animals, said the
officials.
To plug the gaps, the Union
Environment Ministry has
issued an advisory enlisting dos
and don’ts aiming to streamline
the trade.
“Considering the signifi-
cance of import and export of
exotic live species, this Ministry
is issuing an advisory to
streamline the process for
import and possession of exot-
ic live species here.
The aim is to develop an
inventory of exotic live species
through Voluntary Disclosure
Scheme to streamline CITES
compliance as well as stream-
line the import procedure,”
said the official about the
guideline.
As per the advisory, it will
be mandatory for the own-
ers/animal breeders to regis-
ter/declare progenies of the
imported exotic live species.
The processes under this
Advisory shall be dealt online
through the Ministry’s Parivesh
portal.
18BF0944C10=4A944Q
;D2:=F
Claiming to have proved
experts wrong UP Chief
Minister Yogi Adityanath said
that because of the effective
measures taken by the
Government there are only over
8,000 corona positive cases in
Uttar Pradesh against experts’
grim projection of over 70,000
cases by the end of May.
“The experts had claimed
that by the end of May total
corona positive cases in UP
would be over 70,000. But,
where we stand on June 3?
Today, we have over 8,000 pos-
itive cases of which around
5,000 have recovered and tech-
nically the State of 23 crore has
just 3,000 positive cases.
Similarly at the national level
the total cases are over 2 lakh
whereas the experts had
claimed there would be 32
lakh cases at this juncture,” Yogi
told The Pioneer here on
Wednesday.
“We are set to prove
experts wrong again. Some are
saying that as the corona pan-
demic is yet to touch peak in
India it was wrong to unlock at
this stage. They say the figures
will skyrocket now. But because
of awareness created among the
masses, strengthening of the
health system and the support
the Government got from all
section of the society, includ-
ing the religious leaders, we
will again prove these experts
wrong.”
To buttress his point he
said that the virus
struck both India
and the United States at around
the same time.
The US has better health-
care facilities but the pandem-
ic devastated it while India was
able to control the spread (of
disease) better.
The number of positive
cases in India is over 2 lakh
while the USA has 17 lakh pos-
itive cases and the death toll in
India is over 5,000 while in the
US it is over 1 lakh.
“It is all about manage-
ment. We took timely steps to
keep the cases low,” he said and
added: “Alertness and aware-
ness about the pandemic has
kept the figure down,” he said.
He admitted that contain-
ing this disease was a financial
strain and said in April there
was shortage of funds to meet
the Government expenses.
BC055A4?AC4AQ =4F34;78
The Delhi Police on Wednesday filed a
chargesheet before a court here in relation
to riots that took place in February during anti-
CAA protest in which the building of a pri-
vate school was burnt down in N-E Delhi.
Faisal Farooque, owner of Rajdhani
School in Shiv Vihar locality was among the
18 arrested, for involvement in burning the
adjacent DRP Convent School. Apart from
DRP Convent School, a sweet shop was also
set on fire and one of its employees, Dilbar
Negi, was trapped inside and his charred body
was found later, police said.
The police filed the chargesheet against
Farooque and others for conspiring with PFI,
Pinjratod, Jamia Coordination Committee.
?C8Q 170AD27
Eight workers were killed and 50 others were
injured on Wednesday in a massive fire trig-
gered by a blast in the boiler of a chemical facto-
ry at Dahej in Gujarat’s Bharuch district, police
said. The death toll may rise further as some of
the injured workers are in a serious condition,
according to police.
As companies of methanol and xylene chem-
icals are located near the affected factory, author-
ities have shifted about 4,800 people from near-
by Luvara and Lakhigam villages to safer places
as a precautionary measure.
About 230 workers were present inside the
factory, Yashaswi Rasayan, located in Dahej
Special Economic Zone-1, 42 kms from
Bharuch, at the time of the incident in after-
noon, they said.
C=A067D=0C70Q D108
Mumbaikars and the people
in the neighbouring
towns and cities heaved a huge
sigh of relief on Wednesday
evening, as cyclone Nisarga
skipped the country’s com-
mercial Capital and surround-
ing areas after making a land-
fall at Murud-Janjira town in
Raigad district, triggering
strong winds, heavy rainfall
and raging sea surge in the
coastal Konkan region.
Reeling as they have been
under a severe coronavirus
crisis for the past ten weeks,
anxious Mumbaikars were
waiting with bated breath for
the arrival of the severe
cyclonic storm, but Nisarga —
when it finally arrived in
Maharashtra — changed its
direction after its landfall
between 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm
at the historic Murud-Janjira
town in Raigad district, on
Wednesday and headed
towards Pune.
“It (cyclone) made the
landfall at Latitude 18.5 N and
Longitude 73.2 E, just north of
the historic Murud-Janjira
town. A slight of change of
direction towards North
Eastwards meant, the impact of
the cyclone on Mumbai was less
severe than originally expected,”
an official release said.
One person was killed and
seven others were injured in
Raigad.
Three persons sustained
minor injuries when stones
fell on the tin roof of their hut-
ment at Santacruz in north-
west Mumbai, while four oth-
ers were injured parts of roof
crashed on them at
Walkeshwar in south Mumbai.
While the metropolis wit-
nessed minor incidents like tree
falls and wall crashes as cyclone
Nisarga by-passed it, the coastal
districts of Maharashtra bore
the brunt of rough weather
conditions like strong
winds, heavy rainfall and rag-
ing sea surge.
Tidal waves measuring up
to 6 to 8 feet lashed parts of
coastal areas in Ratnagiri and
Raigad districts, both of which
bore the brunt of cyclone
Nisarga.
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INTERVIEW
pioneer
Lucknow: Drawing a parallel
with Tibet, UP Chief Minister
Yogi Adityanath asked the
Nepalese Government to con-
sider the pros and cons before
taking a decision on restruc-
turing its political border
because India and Nepal share
one “atma’ but two bodies.
It has an example of Tibet
before it and Nepal should not
follow the same mistake.
“India and Nepal has age
old relations which cannot be
severed by altering the
boundaries. In fact, these two
countries have one atma
(soul). Both of them are
culturally very strong because
of their link...We are two
bodies but the soul is one,” the
UP CM said. PNS
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Geneva: The World Health
Organization on Wednesday
said clinical trials of the drug
hydroxychloroquine will
resume, having been suspend-
ed pending a safety review in
the search for coronavirus
treatments. “On the basis of the
available mortality data... the
executive group will commu-
nicate with the principal inves-
tigators in the trial about
resuming the hydroxychloro-
quine arm,” WHO chief Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
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The remote Kinnaur in
Himachal Pradesh on
Wednesday saw a couple con-
tracting coronavirus, the first
cases in the district, as the state
reported 12 fresh infections,
pushing the COVID tally to
358.
Now, barring Lahaul-Spiti,
11 of the 12 districts in the state
have infection cases. According
to officials, the Kinnaur couple-
-a 45-year-old man and his 45-
year-old wife--had returned
from Delhi on a bus on May 27.
Samples of their 10-year-old
child will be taken again for
testing, Chief Medical Officer
Dr Sonam Negi said, adding
that they were institutionally
quarantined at Urni. They are
now being shifted to a dedi-
cated COVID care centre in
Reckong Peo.
Eleven of the fresh patients
had returned from other states.
Six of them came from Delhi,
two each from Punjab and
Maharashtra’s Mumbai and
one from Madhya Pradesh,
officials said. Special Secretary
(Health) Nipun Jindal said four
cases were reported from
Kangra, two each from
Kinnaur, Mandi and Hamirpur,
and one each from Shimla and
Bilaspur. In Shimla, a man
from the Taklech area of
Rampur Bushahr tested posi-
tive, Rampur SDM Narendra
Chauhan said. The SDM said
the man had come from Delhi
along with the Kinnaur couple
on May 27. He was quarantined
at the SJVN, Kotla, and being
shifted to Mashobra.
In Bilaspur, a Delhi-
returned 31-year-old man from
Solan district has contracted
the infection, an official said.
The man came from Delhi in
his car and was stopped by
police at Garha-Morh on the
HP-Punjab border and quar-
antined at Swarghat, he added.
In Kangra, a 22-year-old
man who arrived on an Air
India flight from Delhi on
May 29 and institutionally
quarantined at Fatehpur, test-
ed positive for COVID-19, the
special secretary said. Besides,
a 30-year-old asymptomatic
man from Badhal village in
Fatehpur, who returned from
Madhya Pradesh on May 27
and was quarantined at
Sansarpur Terrace; and a 31-
year-old man who came back
from Punjab''s Pathankot on
May 28 and was home quar-
antined at Gangath, tested pos-
itive, Jindal added.
The official said a 25-year-
old man from Golwan in
Fatehpur tehsil also tested pos-
itive. He violated the contain-
ment zone orders. Two infec-
tion cases were detected in
Hamirpur district. A 30-year-
old man who recently returned
from Delhi was found infected
with the virus. The other
patient is a 25-year-old man
who came back from Punjab’s
Mohali. In Mandi Sundernagar,
two men, aged 23 and 26, test-
ed positive for the virus. They
had returned from Mumbai, a
district official said. The num-
ber of coronavirus cases in the
state has risen to 358, officials
said, adding that the number of
active patients is 204. As many
as 148 patients have recovered
so far.
Hamirpur has the highest
number of active cases in the
state at 74, followed by 54 in
Kangra, 18 in Solan, 15 in Una,
13 in Chamba, 11 in Bilaspur,
eight in Shimla, seven in
Mandi, two in Kinnaur and one
each in Kullu and Sirmaur.
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After suspending inter-state
public transport services
for over two months in the
wake of coronavirus lockdown,
Haryana government on
Wednesday resumed the bus
services.
As the scope of relaxations
has been further widened in
accordance with the Centre's
guidelines, the inter-state bus
service resumed on a few routes
Wednesday, an official said,
adding most routes would be
operational by Thursday.
Barring Delhi, which has
ordered sealing of its borders
for a week in the wake of the
rising coronavirus cases in the
city, Haryana Roadways buses
will ply to other states like
Uttarakhand, Punjab,
Himachal, Rajasthan and Uttar
Pradesh.
Haryana Roadways offi-
cials said bookings for only 30
seats will be done in each bus
to adhere to social distancing
norms. Haryana Roadways had
resumed the bus service with-
in the state on May 15, the first
time since the lockdown was
announced in March.
The government on
Wednesday also issued
Standard Operating Procedures
(SOPs) in accordance to the
guidelines issued by the Union
Ministry of Home Affairs
regarding inter-state travel in
buses of the Haryana
Roadways. Passengers intend-
ing to undertake inter-state
travel must carry their identi-
ty proofs and tickets, in either
electronic mode or physical
form. Apart from this, the bus
staff as well as passengers must
have Arogya Setu app down-
loaded in their mobile phones.
Giving details, an official
statement said it must be
ensured that the staff and pas-
sengers are free of any COVID-
19 symptoms. If any such per-
son boards the bus, he or she
must immediately be de-board-
ed and sent home and the peo-
ple in contact with him or her
must be home quarantined for
14 days, it said.
The buses for ferrying pas-
sengers should be fully sani-
tised inside out. In addition,
sanitiser bottles must be kept
inside the buses at all times and
must be used by the bus staff
from time to time at regular
intervals.
Wearing of masks by
everyone onboard a bus and on
bus stands must be strictly
adhered to by all and passen-
gers should carry sanitisers
with them, it said, adding
thermal screening of passen-
gers must be ensured by the
staff during the boarding
process.
No passenger should be
allowed to board if he or she is
running high temperature. The
staff doing thermal screening
must be wearing PPE kits while
doing the screening and should
sanitise themselves properly
and adequately, the statement
added.
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?=BQ 270=3860A7
Yet again, Haryana on
Wednesday reported high-
est single day surge of 302 fresh
COVID-19 cases so far, raising
the total of infected cases to
2,954.
Of the 302 new cases
reported on Wednesday, 132
are from Gurugram alone.
Faridabad accounted for 69
cases, the second highest dis-
trict of the State followed by 28
new cases each in Narnaul
and Sonepat. 20 more patients
have recovered from various
hospitals of the State over the
last 24 hours on Wednesday.
The State has a recovery
rate of 36.87 per cent, fatality
rate at 0.78 per cent while
tests per million being con-
ducted are 5,045. The doubling
rate in the State is six days. As
per the Health bulletin, 23
deaths have been reported so
far in the State. With 1, 089
people cured and discharged
from the hospitals, there are
1,842 active COVID-19 cases
in Haryana now.
Gurugram reported 132
new cases of the disease, taking
the total in the district to 1195.
Faridabad reported 69 new
case of the deadly disease, tak-
ing the total in the district to
487. Sonepat reported 28
cases, taking tally to 261. Nuh
reported six more cases, taking
total to 78. Eight more corona
virus cases reported in Ambala,
taking total to 69. Panipat
reported one more case, taking
the tally to 65. One more case
reported in Panchkula, taking
total to 27.
Karnal reported 10 more
cases, taking count to 66. One
more case reported in
Fatehabad, taking total to 25.
One more case reported in
Bhiwani, talking total to 45.
Seven more cases have been
reported in Rohtak, taking
total to 97. 28 more corona
virus cases reported in Narnaul,
taking total to 70. Hisar report-
ed eight more cases, taking the
tally to 61. One more case
reported in Kaithal, taking
total to 30. One more corona
virus case reported in
Kurukshetra, taking total to 37.
According to officials, a
total of 20 Covid patients were
discharged from various dis-
tricts including four in
Gurugram, 10 in Sonepat, one
in Nuh, one in Panchkula, one
in Yamunanagar and two in
Sirsa.
By Wednesday evening,
Haryana had sent as 127,895
nasopharyngeal samples for
testing to various diagnostic
laboratories, of which 120,393
tested negative while report was
awaited in 4,548 cases, the
Health Department said.
34 CASES, ONE DEATH IN
PUNJAB
Punjab on Wednesday
reported one death and 34
fresh coronavirus cases, taking
the state's COVID-19 death toll
to 47, out of total 2,376 tested
positive for the deadly conta-
gion till date.
Among those tested posi-
tive, 13 cases have their source
of infection from outside
Punjab, besides two health
workers, a police personnel,
and a pregnant.
With 12 more patients —
four each from Hoshiarpur
and Pathankot, three from
Amritsar and one Barnala —
recovering from the virus, the
state now has 300 active cases
with total number of recovered
patients standing at 2029, at a
recovery rate of 85 percent.
The corona death was
reported from Jalandhar on
Tuesday night where a 64-
year-old, already suffering from
diabetes and asthma, died at
Ludhiana’s Dayanand Medical
College and Hospital. A resi-
dent of Tagore Nagar in
Jalandhar, the woman — who
was initially admitted to a pri-
vate hospital in Jalandhar and
later referred to DMCH — had
tested positive for COVID-19
on June 1. This is the district’s
ninth death.
Punjab had recorded two
corona deaths a day before —
an 85-year-old ex-serviceman
from Ludhiana and 60-year-old
from Pathankot.
Besides, Jalandhar also
reported three new cases,
including one person who
recently returned from abroad.
However, Jalandhar dis-
trict authorities has maintained
that 10 people had tested pos-
itive since Tuesday evening,
including eight who are the
members and contacts of a
family which had come in con-
tact with a Lajpat Nagar fami-
ly, and one of their contacts at
Bhargo Camp. Jalandhar
administration has listed the
district tally at 263.
After a gap of two days,
seven cases were reported from
SAS Nagar (Mohali), including
three with travel histories —
one of whom recently returned
from Lucknow, three were cat-
egorized as ILI (influenza-like
illness) and one was an auxil-
lary nurse midwife. With this,
the district’s coronavirus count
has increased to 116, with 15
active cases. Extensive sam-
pling is on. As of now, 6050
samples have been taken in the
district,” said Mohali Deputy
Commissioner Girish Dayalan.
Pathankot also reported
seven fresh cases — of which
four were contacts of already
diagnosed cases, two were cat-
egorized as ILI and the last had
a travel history.
In SBS Nagar
(Nawanshahr), one person who
recently returned from abroad
tested positive. A migrant was
among two people who tested
positive in Patiala. Two people
who recently returned from
abroad were among
Gurdaspur’s three new cases.
In Faridkot, one auxilury
nurse midwife and one police
person was tested positive. The
third case was a person who
recently returned from abroad.
Amritsar continued to lead
the COVID-19 tally in the
state with 390 coronavirus
cases, followed by 258 in
Jalandhar; 200 in Ludhiana;
157 in Tarn Taran; 144 in
Gurdaspur; 133 in Hoshiarpur;
125 in Patiala; 120 in Mohali;
105 in SBS Nagar
(Nawanshahr); and 102 in
Sangrur.
ONE TESTS POSITIVE IN
CHANDIGARH
A 25 years old male, a res-
ident of Delhi was tested
COVID-19 positive in
Chandigarh on Wednesday.
He works in Delhi and is a res-
ident of Uttrakhand.
“The patient returned from
Delhi on May 22 to visit his
mother, who is a housemaid at
Sector-21 here. He developed
fever and sore throat on May 1
and visited GMSH-16 on June
2 for checkup and tested posi-
tive,” the Chandigarh Health
Department’s bulletin stated.
The cases in Chandigarh stood
at 301 on Wednesday, the bul-
letin added.
Meanwhile, two days after
death of an elderly woman in
containment zone -Sector 30 B,
the residents held a protest on
Wednesday demanding that
the sealing be lifted from the
area. An 80 years old woman,
who was tested COVID posi-
tive post-death, had allegedly
died due to delay in availabil-
ity of ambulance to take her to
GMSH-16
MC area councilor
Devinder Singh Babla had also
written to the UT
Administration alleging that
this was the second case in
Sector 30 in which a person
had died due to failure of
Administration. While an
elderly woman died on
Monday, an elderly man had
died earlier. All the residents in
Sector 30 B have been living in
the sealing area for two months
now, he had said.
Meanwhile, another
protest was held at containment
zone -Bapu Dham colony
where residents demanded
relaxations in movement. 14
out of 20 pockets in BDC are
sealed to stem the spread of
Coroanavirus.
?=BQ A0=278
At least 38 new cases of
Covid-19 infection sur-
faced in the State on
Wednesday, taking the total
count of Coronavirus infected
patients here to 764, health offi-
cials said. The cases were
reported from 11 districts –
Simdega, Palamu, Latehar,
Koderma, Ramgarh, Ranchi,
Bokaro, Saraikela, East
Singhbhum and Gumla, offi-
cials added.
Almost all the Covid-19
suspects who tested positive on
Wednesday returned from
other States, officials from the
National Health Mission
(NHM) said. Most of the pos-
itive cases reported on
Wednesday had travel history
to Mumbai – one of the worst
Covid-19 affected cities in
India, they added.
As per a bulletin issued by
the NHM on Wednesday late
evening, at least 546 of the total
Covid-19 cases reported in
Jharkhand so far are migrant
workers. There are as many as
438 active cases in the State and
321 patients have recovered, the
bulletin further said.
The recovery rate of Covid-
19 patients here, however,
dropped on Wednesday as only
one patient won his battle
against the virus. In the past
one week, at least 10 patients
have recovered from the infec-
tion every day, figures compiled
by the NHM say.
More than half of the 760
odd people infected by COVID-
19 virus so far in Jharkhand are
in the age bracket of 11 to 30
years – a trend that highlights
how young people were as
prone to the virus as their older
counterparts, health officials
said. Out of the 764 cases, 459
are in the age bracket of 11 to
30 years and 237 in rhe age
bracket of 31 to 50 years, the
NHM bulletin said.
According to NHM, more
than 70 per cent of the
COVID-19 cases reported in
Jharkhand are migrant work-
ers. At least 4 lakh migrants
have returned to Jharkhand
since the lockdown was
imposed across the country in
March, health officials said.
The Government has so far
collected samples of 87,190
Covid-19 suspects from across
the State, and more than 760 of
them have tested positive. At
least 73,735 of the 97,000 odd
samples collected have been
tested so far, the NHM report
said.
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The AIIMS Nurses' Union,
which has been protesting
for the last three days over its
members' poor working con-
ditions, on Wednesday warned
the administration that they
will go on strike if their con-
cerns are not addressed, as the
number of workers infected by
COVID-19 at the hospital here
rose to 329 including 47 nurs-
ing staff.
The nurses' body had put
forth a number of demands
including implementation of a
uniform four-hour shift with
personal protective equipment
in COVID-19 areas of the
Centre-run hospital, a uni-
form rotation policy between
COVID-19 and non-COVID-
19 areas, and establishment of
proper donning and doffing
area.
In a fresh mail sent to
AIIMS Director Dr Randeep
Guleria, the Nurses Union said
that no heed has been paid to
letters and regular representa-
tions in task force meetings
conveying the plight of
COVID-19 healthcare workers.
At this difficult juncture,
the aggrieved nurses of AIIMS
have decided to carry on with
our protest until the adminis-
tration pays enough heed...
We are still left unheard by the
AIIMS authorities. So we have
been forced to resort to severe
steps including mass casual
leave on June 10 and still if our
issues persist, we have decided
to go for indefinite strike from
June 15, the mail read.
Underlining that
they are seeking a prompt
meeting with the Director, the
union said, We also do not
want to go for strike during this
difficult time.
But when it would become
a predicament, we will be hav-
ing no options but to go for
strike and the sole responsibil-
ity of all consequences will be
on the AIIMS administration.
President of the union
Harish Kajla earlier during the
day said working at a stretch for
six hours, which usually
extended to seven to eight
hours at times, while donning
PPEs was adversely affecting
the physical well-being of the
nursing staff, especially the
women. Several of our staff
are facing health complica-
tions like body rashes and uri-
nary tract infections, while
several others have lost weight,
Kajla said. Women
are having issues related to
menstruation as they cannot
change sanitary pads with PPE
on, neither can they go to the
washroom. Once you wear a
PPE you cannot take it off just
like that and thus we are forced
to wear adult diapers during
duty, but it's very uncomfort-
able, he said.
He further said that as the
health of nurses is adversely
affected, they are getting prone
to contracting the infection
fast. Kajla said since there
was no response from the
administration, the protest
would continue but clarified
that the healthcare work is not
getting hampered. Nursing
staff participate in the protest
in rotation after their shifts get
over. Since February 1, as
many as 329 healthcare work-
ers including four faculty mem-
bers, 17 resident doctors, 47
nurses, 86 hospital attendants,
62 sanitation staff and 77 secu-
rity personnel among others
have been infected by the virus.
AIIMS Medical
Superintendent Dr DK Sharma
said, 329 healthcare workers
have so far contracted coron-
avirus since February 1. Several
of those who had tested posi-
tive for COVID-19 have recov-
ered and rejoined duty.
So far three persons from the
AIIMS succumbed to COVID-
19. An electrician who had
tested positive for the disease
died on Sunday. A sanitation
supervisor and a mess worker
at the RPC canteen died due to
the disease last week.
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The Cabinet on Wednesday
cleared an ordinance to
amend the Insolvency and
Bankruptcy Code (IBC) where-
by fresh insolvency proceed-
ings will not be initiated for
defaults due to the COVID-19
pandemic, according to
sources. Payment defaults
from March 25 -- the day
when the nationwide lock-
down to curb coronavirus
infections began -- would not
be considered for initiating
insolvency proceedings for a
certain period of time, they
said.
The sources said the ordi-
nance to amend the IBC has
been approved by the Cabinet.
Three sections of
the Code -- which provides for
a market-linked and time-
bound resolution process of
stressed assets -- would be
suspended. The time period
would be for six months and
not exceeding one year, they
added. The sources said an
enabling provision has been
approved by the Cabinet
wherein the corporate affairs
ministry can decide about the
time period for which the three
sections should be suspended.
Defaults due to COVID-19
would not be considered for
initiating insolvency proceed-
ings.
As a result, companies
defaulting on repayment oblig-
ations due to disruptions on
account of the pandemic would
not be pushed into insolvency,
they said. According to them,
defaults that are not related to
the pandemic and applications
filed for insolvency before
March 25 would be dealt with
under the Code. On May
17, Finance and Corporate
Affairs Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman said the govern-
ment would provide various
relaxations under the insol-
vency law, including suspend-
ing fresh proceedings for up to
one year.
After all, when lockdown
gets lifted immediately, you
are not sure how much of the
businesses will get restored...
No fresh insolvency proceed-
ings will be initiated for up to
one year, she had said.
Under the IBC, an entity can
seek insolvency proceedings
against a company even if the
default is only one day.
This is subject to the min-
imum threshold of Rs 1 crore.
Earlier, the threshold was Rs 1
lakh. The measures were
announced as part of the fifth
and final tranche of the Rs 20-
lakh crore stimulus package
that was unveiled to boost the
economy ravaged by the pan-
demic and subsequent lock-
down.
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3. dccPaPZWP]S347A03D=kC7DAB30H k9D=4#!!
?=BQ 347A03D=
The Municipal Corporation
of Dehradun (MCD) will
resume the property tax col-
lection from June 8. However,
only 25 people will be allowed
to deposit the property tax in
a single day as a precautionary
measure against the spread of
Covid-19.
In the middle of March,
MCD had closed the tax sec-
tion for the public because of
the pandemic due to which
many locals could not submit
their property tax.
The Dehradun deputy
municipal commissioner
Rohitash Sharma informed
that the corporation has
approved 20 per cent rebate for
15 days to those taxpayers
who failed to submit property
tax by March.
Besides, the same rebate is
also applicable to the taxpayers
of the current financial year
2020-2021. As informed earli-
er by tax superintendent
Poonam Rawat, those who had
not deposited the property tax
by March will have to submit
the tax of the last as well as the
current financial year.
Furthermore, to ensure the
implementation of safety pro-
tocols in order to contain the
spread of Covid-19 contagion,
the tax section of MCD will
operate in Town Hall for prop-
erty tax collection.
According to MCD tax
superintendent Vinay Pratap
Singh, the corporation will
give tokens to only those tax-
payers who will arrive by 11:30
AM in the MCD compound.
He said that maximum 25
people will be allowed to sub-
mit the tax in a day and no
entries would be approved
after 11:30 AM.
If the number of taxpay-
ers arriving by the given time
exceeds 25 people, the remain-
ing will be given tokens for the
next day, added Singh.
Moreover, if any taxpayer is
unable to visit MCD campus to
deposit residential tax due to
some reason and asks the cor-
poration to provide the facili-
ty to submit tax from his or her
home, MCD will send munic-
ipal tax inspectors to their
homes to facilitate the process
of tax submission, informed
Sharma. It is pertinent to men-
tion here that MCD collected
about C44 crore in property tax
from residential as well as
non-residential property tax-
payers till March.
23c^aTbdT_a^_Tach
cPgR^[[TRcX^]Ua^9d]T'
?=BQ 347A03D=
Anganwadi workers will
continue to home deliver
the Take Home Ration (THR)
in June too to the beneficiaries
of Dehradun district for the
third time in a row since April.
Last month, the Anganwadi
workers delivered THR to over
two lakh beneficiaries that
include children, pregnant
women and lactating mothers
under Supplementary
Nutrition Programme (SNP) of
Integrated Child Development
Services (ICDS).
The Self Help Groups
(SHGs) who generally pack
and send the ration to
Anganwadi centres are also
sending gloves, sanitisers and
masks to the workers since
April as a precautionary mea-
sure against Covid-19 pan-
demic. Since the last month,
the State administration has
added peanut butter to the
THR of over 1000 beneficiaries
of Dehradun district that
include malnourished and
undernourished children, and
women with high-risk preg-
nancies.
The administration did
not approve the distribution of
THR from the Anganwadi cen-
tres this month due to the cur-
rent circumstances in
Dehradun. The district magis-
trate Ashish Kumar Shrivastava
said that Anganwadi workers
will continue to home deliver
the ration to all the beneficia-
ries this month too. According
to the Child Development
Project Officer (CDPO) Anju
Badola, some Anganwadi
workers have even commenced
to home deliver the ration
while some will begin from
June 5. She said that all the
Anganwadi workers will finish
the distribution of THR by
June 10. “The administration
gives us five days to distribute
the ration and since most of the
Anganwadi workers start from
the fifth day of every month,
they will home deliver the
THR to beneficiaries by June
10,” added Badola. It is perti-
nent to mention here that no
Anganwadi worker is sent from
outside area to the containment
zones for THR distribution. As
informed earlier by chief devel-
opment officer Nitika
Khandelwal, the district
administration delivers the
THR through barricading to
the Anganwadi workers pre-
sent in the containment zones
and they distribute ration while
taking all the necessary pre-
cautions.
D8Bd_RUTUYfUbUT
d_X_]UcY^:e^Ud__
?=BQ 347A03D=
With the Government of
India permitting the
reopening of religious sites
from June 8, the State
Government is considering the
possibility of starting the Char
Dham Yatra in a limited, con-
trolled and safe manner. Since
the situation is dynamic, a
decision in this regard will be
taken considering the situations
at the time, said Chief Minister
Trivendra Singh Rawat.
Interacting with the media
on Skype, the Chief Minister
said the State Government has
taken various important deci-
sions to provide relief to those
connected with tourism. Many
economic activities have been
resumed to boost the state’s
economy. The Government has
started receiving revenue
through registry, stamp and
other sources. Work is under-
way on various schemes in
addition to the Mukhyamantri
Rozgar Yojana which has been
launched for the youth and
those who have returned to the
state. Regarding the natives
who have returned to
Uttarakhand during the pan-
demic, Rawat said that the
government is compiling rele-
vant details about them to
ascertain aspects like whether
they will remain in the state for
good or move out to other
states after the pandemic.
About two lakh people have
returned to Uttarakhand and
their screening, testing and
quarantine are being facilitat-
ed as per the Central
Government guidelines. The
CM said, “Covid-19 cases are
rising in the state but we are
fully prepared. We have about
14,000 beds in institutional
facilities. Along with ICUs and
ventilators, the number of doc-
tors and paramedical staff has
also been increased. At the
same time, special focus is
being laid on strengthening the
rural economy,” he said.
Earlier, the CM said that
historic and long awaited deci-
sions had been taken by the
Modi 2 government.
“The government headed
by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi has strengthened nation-
al security and taken the his-
toric decision of abrogating
articles 370 and 35 A. Muslim
women were provided con-
siderable relief with quashing of
triple talaq. The Citizenship
Amendment Act was also
passed though some people
tried their best to create false-
hoods around it. The way for
construction of Ram temple in
Ayodhya was also paved in a
manner agreeable to members
of both the communities
involved.
Rebate was provided in
corporate tax and income tax
while the scope of social secu-
rity was expanded to start pen-
sion scheme for small shop-
keepers. Earlier the govern-
ment had worked on ensuring
cooking gas supply in every
home and now it is working on
facilitating clean drinking water
connection in every home in a
time-bound manner. The one
nation, one ration card scheme
has also been introduced and
is likely to be implemented in
Uttarakhand by August this
year.”
Regarding the Covid-19
pandemic, Rawat said that the
timely decisions taken by the
Modi government had miti-
gated the extent of damage
which the virus could have
wreaked. The situation in the
nation is still much better com-
pared to the global scenario, he
added.
?=BQ 347A03D=
The number of novel
Coronavirus (Covid-19)
affected patients in
Uttarakhand jumped 1,085 on
Wednesday with the state
health department reporting 42
patients of the disease. On the
day, 30 patients were also dis-
charged from the hospital after
their recovery from the disease.
One Covid-19 positive patient
admitted in the Max hospital
Dehradun died on Wednesday
which increased the death toll
in the state to eight. The
authorities however claim that
refractory shock with meta-
bolic acidosis was cause of his
death.
On Wednesday 15 patients
were reported from Nainital
district while nine patients
each were reported from
Dehradun and Haridwar dis-
tricts. In Chamoli district six
patients were reported while
one patient each surfaced in
Pauri, Udham Singh Nagar
and Pithoragarh districts. On
the day 11 patients were dis-
charged from Nainital and six
from Dehradun district.
Similarly five patients were
discharged from Tehri while
four were discharged from
Almora district. Three patients
were discharged from Udham
Singh Nagar district while one
patient was discharged from
Pithoragarh district.
Meanwhile in yet another
case of death in a quarantine
centre, a 23 year old woman
died in Thalisain of Pauri dis-
trict on Tuesday night. Her
sample has been sent for
Covid-19 test.
The additional secretary,
state health department, Yugal
Kishore Pant said that reports
of 1,029 samples were found
negative for the disease on
Wednesday. He added that
reports of 7004 samples are still
awaited by the department.
On Wednesday, a total of 1128
samples were collected for
COVID -19 testing.
The authorities have so far
taken swab samples of 34413
suspected patients for COVID-
19 test. Out of the total sam-
ples taken, 4.03 percent samples
have been found positive for
the disease.
The doubling rate of dis-
ease in the state is 7.24 days
while the recovery percent in
the state is now at 24.30. A total
of 33789 persons are being kept
in institutional quarantine by
the state health department.
Uttarakhand now has 791
active cases of the disease.
Dehradun with 228 active cases
is maintaining its position at
top of table of Covid-19 posi-
tive active patients.
Nainital district is at sec-
ond position 157 active cases.
The Tehri district is at third
spot with 86 active cases while
Haridwar has 73 active patients
of the disease. Almora district
now has 48 active cases while
Udham Singh Nagar has 36
active patients. Pauri and
Pithoragarh districts have 23
and 26 active cases respective-
ly while Champawat district
has 25 active cases. Chamoli
and Bageshwar districts have 23
and 15 active cases of the dis-
ease respectively. Uttarkashi
district has 14 active cases
while Rudraprayag district has
eight active patients of the dis-
ease.
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With a backlog of over
7000 swab samples
which are waiting to be tested
for Covid-19 in different lab-
oratories, Uttarakhand is pre-
cariously placed in its fight
against the pandemic. As per
the bulletin of the state health
department released at 2 pm on
Wednesday, the backlog of
untested samples stands at
staggering 7,004. The state has
so far collected 34,413 swab
samples for Covid-19 test out
of which 7,004 samples are
awaiting tests which means
that the state has a backlog of
20.5 per cent (backlog vis a’ vis
total samples collected). This
percentage when compared
with other States paints a very
sad picture of Uttarakhand.
Himachal Pradesh (HP), the
neighbouring state of
Uttarakhand for example has
only 2.5 per cent of untested
samples (compare it with 20.5
percent of Uttarakhand). It is
not only the HP which is far-
ing much better than
Uttarakhand, take the case of
Rajasthan where a total of
44,0789 samples have so far
been collected and out of which
42,8471 samples have been
tested and it has a pendency of
only 2,945 samples. The per-
centage of untested samples in
Rajasthan is only 0.66.
In Uttarakhand, Haridwar
district leads the tally of back-
log with 2,994 samples which
are yet to be tested. It is learnt
that the samples collected on
May 24 are yet to be tested in
this district.
The mountainous district
of Tehri has a backlog of 1528
samples while results of 765
samples are awaited in Nainital
district.
In last few days, the sam-
ples in the laboratories of the
state are continuing to get
accumulated. On May 21, the
backlog was of about 1600
samples which jumped to 2300
on May 23, 3500 on May 25,
3900 on May 27 and 4700 on
May 29. The backlog became
6100 on May 31 and crossed
7000 figure mark on
Wednesday.
One does not need to be an
expert to understand the
importance of testing to keep
a check on Covid-19. The
accumulation of samples in the
laboratories means that there is
an inordinate delay in finding
the positive patients and
increasing chances of conta-
gion to spread in the popula-
tion. Social activist and health
expert Anoop Nautiyal who is
keeping a close eye on the
progress of the disease and
measures taken to combat the
pandemic said that huge back-
log of samples is an ominous
sign for the state and immedi-
ate steps are needed to increase
the pace of sample testing in
the state. He said that health
department of Uttarakhand
should take inspiration from
neighbouring Himachal
Pradesh in this respect.
The government
spokesperson and cabinet min-
ister Madan Kaushik accepted
that large number of samples
are pending to be tested in the
state. He said that the state gov-
ernment has initiated a tender
process for the private labs for
Covid-19 tests after which the
sample testing would gain
momentum.
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After a long wait, the
process of sample testing
started at the Indian Institute
of Petroleum (IIP) Dehradun
on Wednesday.
The lab of IIP was given per-
mission by the Indian
Council of Medical Research
(ICMR) in the month of
April. On the day the lab was
jointly inaugurated by the
additional secretary health,
Yugal Kishore Pant and direc-
tor of IIP, Anjan Roy.
Speaking on the occasion,
Roy said that initially 50 sam-
ples per day would be tested
and soon the capacity would
be increased to 100 samples
per day.
Pant said that the IIP lab
would reduce the load on
other labs of the state. The lab
of the IIP is the fifth lab in the
state in government sector to
have the test facility of Covid-
19 after Medical College
Haldwani, Government Doon
Medical College (GDMC)
Dehradun, Medical College
Haldwani, Medical College
Srinagar and All India
Institute of Medical Science
(AIIMS) Rishikesh.
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Organic farmer Gopal
Upreti has set a new
Guinness world record for the
tallest coriander plant at 2.16
metres (7.1 feet). The previous
record was a 1.8 metre tall
coriander plant. The record-
breaking coriander was grown
by Upreti at Ranikhet in
Almora district and measured
on April 21.
Upreti said that he had
grown coriander organically on
about 10 nali land. Most of the
plants had an average height of
five feet with the average thick-
ness of the stem ranging from
half an inch to one inch. Stating
that he had used traditional
farming techniques, Upreti said
that the height of the plants did
not affect the aroma and other
aspects. As an organic farmer,
Gopal grows coriander every
year. Using traditional
Himalayan farming methods
brings its own challenges. As the
coriander is grown without
using a polyhouse or any arti-
ficial covering, the crop is some-
times exposed to the harsh
Himalayan weather conditions.
Apart from coriander, Upreti
also cultivates apples, plums and
peaches on his land in Ranikhet.
Meanwhile, CM Rawat
phoned Upreti and congratu-
lated him on his achievement.
Rawat said that this achieve-
ment is a matter of pride for the
state and will motivate the
youth and others in the region
to also put in effort in agricul-
ture.
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After the last elephant pop-
ulation estimation con-
ducted in Uttarakhand during
2015, the census of the pachy-
derm population in the state is
set to begin from June 6. For
the first time, about 15 drones
will also be used in this three-
day exercise.
According to chief conser-
vator of forests, Parag
Madhukar Dhakate, elephants
will be counted in Corbett
tiger reserve, Rajaji tiger reserve
and 12 forest divisions of the
western circle and Shivalik ele-
phant corridor. The forest
department has completed all
preparations for this
exercise. About
2,500 employees of
the department will
be deployed for the
population estima-
tion of the pachy-
derms.
D h a k a t e
informed that
department person-
nel have already
been given training for this
exercise. The elephants are to be
counted by the beat watcher
using total count system and
direct sighting. He further
informed that there were 1559
elephants in Uttarakhand dur-
ing 2012 which increased to
1797 in 2015. After the three
day exercise, it will take about
two months to compile and
finalise the collected data. After
that the report will be submit-
ted to the chief wildlife warden
who will then release the pop-
ulation estimation figures.
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The Asian Development
Bank (ADB) has approved
a financial help of $2 million
(C14 crore) to Uttarakhand
Renewable Energy
Development Agency
(UREDA) for establishment of
Pirul based power and bio
mass units in Uttarakhand.
The project has also been sanc-
tioned by the screening com-
mittee of Department of
Economic Affairs (DEA), min-
istry of finance of Government
of India.
The secretary Power,
Radhika Jha who played a key
role in doing the spadework
for approval of the project
said that a proposal of C14
Crore was put before the ADB
for employment generation
from pine needles, reducing
forest fires, creation of women
self help group (SHG), the
training of women SHG for
collection and storage of Pirul,
setting up of Pirul based pro-
jects with the help of Van-
Panchayats and their capacity
development. She said that
under the Pirul Policy-2018, a
total of 38 projects have been
allotted to entrepreneurs in
two stages. Out of them four
projects are in last stages of
establishment.
Pine trees occupy a space
of 4 lakh hectares of land in the
state and cover 16.36 percent of
total forest area of Uttarakhand.
Experts opine that the state has
a total power production
potential of over 150 MW from
available pine needles and other
biomass.
Industrial use of Pirul is
one of the pet projects of
Uttarakhand chief minister
Trivendra Singh Rawat. Apart
from power generation from
Pirul, the objective of the state
Government is to create
employment opportunities in
the mountainous areas of the
State.
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In a major initiative aimed at
ensuring transparency, the
Panchayati Raj department of
Uttarakhand has decided that
all payments by Panchayats
would be made online from the
Public Finance Management
System (PFMS) platform. It
would end the system of pay-
ment by cheques and other
modes by the Panchayats. On
Wednesday, an online training
and review meeting on PFMS,
presided over by the Joint
Secretary, ministry of
Panchayati Raj, Government of
India, Sanjeev Patjoshi was
organised. In the meeting addi-
tional secretary and director
Panchayati Raj, Uttarakhand,
Harish Chandra Semwal and
District Panchayati Raj officers
of all 13 districts and other offi-
cials participated.
In the meeting, Patjoshi
emphasised that the payments
should be made by integration
of PFMS and Priya -Soft. He
appreciated the fact that bank
accounts of all 7791 Panchayats
in Uttarakhand are linked with
the PFMS platform. Patjoshi
added that the payment process
should be initiated after geo -
tagging.
He said the GST registra-
tion of the Panchayats would be
made compulsory in the near
future. The officer said that the
issue of cyber security should
also be catered to prevent
online frauds. He added that
the banks which are associated
with village, block and district
Panchayats should not be
changed. In the meeting more
than 150 delegates that includ-
ed officers of Panchayati Raj
department and officials of
Indus -Ind bank participated.
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In a move to ensure barrier-
free trade by farmers and
help raise their income, the
Union Cabinet on Wednesday
approved an amendment to the
six-and-a-half-decade-old
Essential Commodities Act
1955 to deregulate food items,
including cereals, pulses, onion
and potatoes. It also nodded
the promulgation of an
Ordinance to allow farmers to
engage with processors, aggre-
gators, large retailers, exporters,
to pave the way for creating
“One India, One Agriculture
Market”.
The EC Act, which
empowers Government to
impose curbs on stocking of
farm produce, will be amend-
ed to make it in tune with the
times and to attract invest-
ments into the farm sector.
Besides, the “Farmers
(Empowerment and
Protection) Agreement on
Price Assurance and Farm
Services Ordinance, 2020” will
empower farmers for engaging
with processors, aggregators,
large retailers, exporters on a
level playing field without any
fear of exploitation.
However, the Act will be
invoked during inflation, war,
or any other unforeseen cir-
cumstances.
Addressing a media brief-
ing later, Union Agriculture
Minister Narendra Singh
Tomar said the Cabinet had
approved the Ordinance to
ensure barrier-free trade in
agriculture produce. It will not
bind farmers to sell their crop
only to licensed traders in the
APMC (Agricultural Produce
Market Committee) mandis
of their respective talukas or
districts.
“The proposed amend-
ment will allay fears of private
investors of excessive regula-
tory interference,” he said
adding it will also allow clamp-
ing of stock limits on agricul-
tural commodities only under
“very exceptional circum-
stances” like natural calamities
and famines.
Besides enabling better
price realisation for the coun-
try’s farmers, the amendment
ensures no such stock limit
shall apply to processors or
value chain participant, subject
to their installed capacity or to
any exporter subject to the
export demand. The amend-
ment announced will help both
farmers and consumers while
bringing in price stability. It will
also prevent wastage of agri-
produce that happens due to
lack of storage facilities.
The Ordinance, for its part,
basically aims at creating addi-
tional trading opportunities
outside the APMC market
yards to help farmers get remu-
nerative prices due to addi-
tional competition.
On May 17, the Ministry of
Consumer Affairs, Food and
Public Distribution had circu-
lated a draft of the Ordinance
to amend the EC Act. The ECA
draws from the days of the
Bengal famine and the Defence
of India Rules of 1943.
Describing the EC Act as
“anachronistic”, the Economic
Survey 2019-20, too, recom-
mended the “jettisoning” of
this law.
The Ordinance will
empower farmers for engaging
with processors, aggregators,
large retailers, exporters etc., on
a level playing field without any
fear of exploitation. It will
transfer the risk of market
unpredictability from the
farmer to the sponsor and also
enable the farmer to access
modern technology and better
inputs. It will reduce cost of
marketing and improve income
of farmers, the Government
said.
This Ordinance will act as
a catalyst to attract private sec-
tor investment for building
supply chains for supply of
Indian farm produce to global
markets. Farmers will get access
to technology and advice for
high value agriculture and get
ready market for such produce.
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Leh-based 14 Corps chief Lt
General Harinder Singh
will hold parleys with his
Chinese counterpart on June
6 to pave the way for the like-
ly backing off of troops from
four flashpoints on the Line of
Actual Control(LAC) in
Eastern Ladakh. The two
Lieutenant General-rank offi-
cers will meet at a designated
meeting point on the LAC.
Ahead of the meeting,
Northern Command chief,
Lt General Y K Joshi, visited
Leh on Wednesday and
reviewed the situation with Lt
General Singh, sources said
here on Wednesday.
Incidentally, Army Chief
General M MNaravane had
visited Leh about a fortnight
back to take stock of the sit-
uation in the backdrop of
four stand-offs now between
the Indian and Chines armies
in a frontage of 25 to 30 km
in Ladakh. The Chinese have
intruded three kms into the
Hot Springs area of the
Galwan valley and pitched
tents besides building bunkers
and enhancing force levels.
Admitting that the
Chinese had raised its troop
strength in sizable numbers,
Defence Minister Rajnath
Singh, in an interview to a
private television channel on
Tuesday, had said diplomatic
and military level talks were
on to defuse tension on the
LAC.
He also said the Army
chief had told him that the
next round of senior level
talks will be held on June 6
and he was hopeful of a
peaceful resolution follow-
ing the upcoming parleys.
The groundwork for the
June 6 meeting was laid at the
third meeting at the level of
Major Generals held on
Tuesday, sources said. Almost
daily discussions are on
between the military on the
ground at various levels
including at the Brigadier-
level and twice by Major
Generals earlier but no break-
through was achieved.
As of now, there is no let
up on the four confrontation
sites with soldiers from both
sides on high alert. As China
increased its troops and vehi-
cle strength, India too
responded in the same man-
ner by ramping up its troops.
Moreover, all the advanced
landing grounds in Ladakh
are now ready to share
increased load of take offs and
landing of transport aircraft
ferrying more troops and
logistical back up.
India is also holding strict
vigil on the 250 km-long road
in Eastern Ladakh near the
Galwan valley as the Chinese
are objecting to the con-
struction of a bridge. The
strategic road runs parallel to
the LAC and India says it does
not breach the LAC as
claimed by the other side. The
Galwan valley saw pitched
battles between India and
China during the 1962 war.
As infrastructure all along
the LAC has vastly improved
in both the countries, troops
increase patrolling especially
during the summer months.
The Indian security estab-
lishment is now wary of the
growing Chinese aggressive-
ness during the ongoing face-
offs and is prepared for any
challenge, sources said.
In order to address such
face-offs, India and China
had agreed some years back to
have a hotline between the
director generals of military
operations(DGMO) on the
lines of an existing mecha-
nism between India and
Pakistan.
However, the proposed
hotline is held up due to pro-
cedural differences. In
January this year, the Army
Chief had said all issues have
been resolved and the proce-
dural aspects have been
ironed out. He said the hot-
line would be between the
DGMO from India and
China’s Western Theatre
Command.
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The CPI(M) Politburo meet-
ing on Wednesday criti-
cised Prime Minister Naredra
Modi for declaring lockdown
“abruptly” in an unplanned
way. The politburo which first
time convened through video
conferencing also said that the
20 lakh crore financial package
is just a re-packaging of the
existing schemes and essentially
a loan providing activity and no
bearing on Government’s
expenditure to help the people.
“In contrast, the central
Government has now virtually
lefttheIndianpeopletofendfor
themselves in combatting the
pandemic. PM Modi, having
declared an unplanned, unilat-
eral, abrupt lockdown, has nei-
ther used the period of sixty
threedays(beforeeasingrestric-
tions) for either augmenting the
healthfacilitiesrequiredtocom-
bat the pandemic nor in pro-
viding relief to the people who
have been agonized cruelly by
not getting any time to prepare
to meet the consequences of the
lockdown. Having unilaterally
declared, without consulting the
state governments, the central
Government is now shifting the
burden of bearing the conse-
quences of the lockdown, par-
ticularlythehumungoushuman-
itarianissueofcroresofmigrant
workerswiththeirfamiliesmov-
ing across the country on to the
shoulders of the State
Governments. Modi refuses to
partwiththethousandsofcrores
ofrupeesheiscollectinginapri-
vate trust fund under the PM’s
name, to the states,” said polit
bureau in statement.
The CPI (M) polit bureau
also criticised the BJP
Governmentsforimplementing
harsh Acts like UAPA, NSA
during the lockdown period to
target those who oppose them,
especially people from Muslim
community.
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Keeping the West Bengal
Assembly polls next year
in mind, the Centre on
Wednesday renamed the
Kolkata Port Trust after
Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder
leader Syama Prasad
Mookerjee, who hailed from
the State. The Cabinet also
approved the formation of
new Pharmacopoeia
Commission and Empowered
Group of Secretaries to
enhance investments in India.
On a high since it bagged
18 seats in the Loks Sabha elec-
tions last year, Union Home
Minister Amit Shah had just
on Tuesday asserted that the
BJP will form the next
Government in the State.
“The Board of Trustees of
Kolkata Port Trust in its
Meeting held on 25th
February, 2020 has also passed
a Resolution to re-name
Kolkata Port as Syama Prasad
Mookerjee Port, Kolkata con-
sidering his multifaceted
genius as an eminent jurist,
academician, thinker and
leader of the masses.
“On the occasion of the
inaugural ceremony of
Sesquicentenary Celebrations
of Kolkata Port on 12th
January, 2020, keeping in view
the sentiments of the people of
West Bengal, it was announced
that Kolkata Port will be re-
named after Dr. Syama Prasad
Mookerjee, one of the most
deserving sons of West Bengal
and a front-runner in nation-
al integration, dreamer of
Bengal's development, inspi-
ration for industrialisation and
ardent votary of one law for
one nation,” the Government
said in a statement.
Further, the Cabinet
approved the setting up an
“Empowered Group of
Secretaries (EGoS) and Project
Development Cells (PDCs)” in
Ministries/Departments for
attracting investments in India.
This high-level body, headed
by Cabinet Secretary, will look
into the proposals to enhance
investments in India. The other
members in the EGoS are
CEO of Niti Ayog, Secretaries
in charge of Industry,
C o m m e r c e , R e v e n u e ,
Economic Affairs. The con-
cerned Department’s Secretary
will be co-opted.
The Cabinet also approved
Pharmacopoeia Commission
for Indian Medicine
Homoeopathy (PCIMH) as
Subordinate Office under
Ministry of AYUSH by merg-
ing into it Pharmacopoeia
Laboratory for Indian
Medicine (PLIM) and
H o m o e o p a t h i c
Pharmacopoeia Laboratory
(HPL).
The merger is aimed at
optimising the use of infra-
structural facilities, technical
manpower and financial
resources of the three organi-
sations for enhancing the stan-
dardisation outcomes of
Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and
Homoeopathy drugs towards
their effective regulation and
quality control.
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The NIA has conducted
searches at the premises of
a construction firm in Ranchi
in connection with a case
relating to Maoist funding.
The searches yielded cash
book and several bank
account details used for chan-
nelizing the “levy” for the
banned CPI (Maoist).
The NIA conducted the
searches on Tuesday at the
office premises of Ram Kripal
Singh Construction Private
Limited Company at
Panchwati Plaza, Kutchary
Road, Ranchi in connection
with NIA case relating to
terror funding of CPI
(Maoist), Giridih registered
on July 9, 2018.
The case was originally
registered at Dumri Police
station in Giridih district of
Jharkhand on
January 22,.2018 after the
arrest of accused Manoj
Kumar with cash amounting
to C6 lakh and other incrim-
inating documents.
Kumar was alleged to
have collected ‘levy’ from
contractors on the instruc-
tions of absconding accused
Krishna Da alias
Krishna Hansda of
Mandladih Ledhwa village
under Pirtand police station
in Giridih, Hansda was a
J h a r k h a n d
Regional Committee member
of CPI(Maoist).
“During investigation, it
was revealed that the
arrested accused
Manoj Kumar was an employ-
ee of RKS Construction
Private Limited Company and
was acting as conduit between
t h e
construction firm and the
Maoists in Giridih area, the
NIA said in a statement.
The probe also
revealed that accused Hansda
was going to make levy
payment of C6 lakhs to the
operatives of CPI (Maoist)
when he was apprehended.
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The introduction of the anti-
India Bill in Nepalese
Parliament is the second such
instance in the last six months
when the external Intelligence
agency Research and Analysis
Wing (RAW)was caught off
guard.
In January, six anti-CAA
resolutions were introduced in
EU Parliament but the discus-
sions were deferred only after
reactivediplomacysetinmotion
by New Delhi to wriggle out of
the embarrassment when the
mandate and role of RAW was
to work in a preemptive manner
andgatherinputsonsuchdevel-
opments in timely manner for
course correction.
While the move to bring in
a Constitution amendment Bill
to include Indian territories
Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and
Lipulekh was afoot in
Kathmandu,theIndianagencies
could not get to know about the
developments there and the
undercurrents that are set to
impact the ties between the two
countries.
The slip was more so con-
spicuous when a foreign gov-
ernment and its agencies were
on overdrive to push the
amendments in the Nepalese
map through their links withthe
political parties and the leaders
in Kathmandu.
Sources said a slew of top
officials had to rush to
Kathmandu to delay the intro-
duction of the Bill in Nepal
Parliament but no political party
there could afford to distance
from the nationalistic move.
The Bill was tabled in Nepal
Parliament on Sunday to
endorse the amended map.
Apart from the changes in
the map, Nepal has also decid-
ed to man the border with
India by its army which will
open the door for training to the
armed forces there for border
guarding by third country
which can exploit the situation
to monitor the frontier with
India.
India should propose
deployment of Indian training
team in border guarding to
avoid landing of such teams
from a third country. India is
already training Bhutanese bor-
der guarding forces.
The EU move against the
amendments in the citizenship
law that went unnoticed by
RAW is more serious as about
600 lawmakers out of 751 mem-
bers in the European Parliament
had moved six resolutions
against CAA. Not only this,
even the diplomatic corps was
seen wanting in the absence of
any advance assessment of such
an impending move.
Every Indian embassy or
high commission abroad has a
political desk that is mandated
to assess political situations and
report to the ministries of home
as well as external affairs. Those
manning the political desks are
supposed to cultivate relations
with the politicians of the host
countries.
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Union Home Ministry on
Wednesday allowed the
entryofcertaincategoriesoffor-
eign nationals including busi-
nessmen, healthcare, technical
andmanagerialexpertstoIndia.
These people are allowed to
enterIndiathroughcommercial
or chartered flights and have to
apply for fresh business or
employmentVisa.“Government
ofIndiahasconsideredthemat-
ter regarding relaxation of the
visa travel restrictions for cer-
taincategoriesofforeignnation-
als who need to come to India.
Foreign businessmen com-
ing to India on a Business visa
(other than on B-3 visa for
sports) in non-scheduled com-
mercial/ chartered flights.
ForeignHealthcareprofessionals,
health researchers, engineers
and technicians for technical
work at Indian health sector
facilities, including laboratories
and factories. This is subject to
a letter of invitation from a rec-
ognized and registered health-
care facility, registered pharma-
ceutical company or accredited
University in India, said MHA.
“Foreign Engineering,
Managerial, Design or other
Specialists travelling to India on
behalf of foreign business enti-
ties located in India. This
includesallmanufacturingunits,
design units, software and IT
units as well as financial sector
companies (banking and non-
banking financial sector firms).
ForeignTechnicalspecialists
and engineers travelling for
installation, repair and mainte-
nanceofforeign-originmachin-
ery and equipment facilities in
India, on the invitation of a reg-
istered Indian business entity.
These could be for equipment
installation, or is under warran-
ty, or for after sales servicing or
repair on commercial terms,”
said MHA.
“The above categories of
foreign nationals would have to
obtain a fresh Business visa or
Employment visa, as applicable,
from the Indian Missions/ Posts
abroad. Foreignnationalshold-
ing a valid long term multiple
entry Business visa [other than
B-3visaforsports]issuedbythe
Indian Missions/ Posts abroad
would have to get the Business
visare-validatedfromtheIndian
Mission/ Post concerned. Such
foreign nationals would not be
permitted to travel to India on
thestrengthofanyelectronicvisa
obtainedearlier,”saidtheMHA’s
circular.
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