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=0E8=D?037H0HQ =4F34;78
The speed of coronavirus
spurt in India, both in terms
of duration of doubling of cases
as well as ratio of growth over
a period of one month, could
provide little comfort despite
reassuring claims by officials
and experts. The country has
surpassed the global average
and raced ahead of some of the
worst-affected nations by a big
margin on both these counts.
In one month, India saw a
nine-time rise in the number of
cases, going up from 6,700
cases on April 9 to 63,000 plus
cases on May 9. In the same
duration, the worldwide count
rose from 1,600,590 to
4,098,288 cases, which amounts
to a near 2.5-time rise.
The USA saw a similar 2.5-
time growth with cases rising
from 4,29,000 to 10,29,494
between April 9 and May 9.
India has surpassed some
of the other worst-affected
countries such as France,
Italy, Spain Germany, China,
and Canada, Turkey and Iran
with even much faster
momentum.
With its doubling speed
of 11 days, India now trails
only Russia in terms of ratio
of growth over a period of
one month among 13 worst
affected countries.
In aggregate terms the
world’s doubling up speed is
consistent at 22-24 days, where-
as the USA, France, Italy,
Germany, Canada, Spain,
Turkey and Iran are taking any-
where between 24 to 39 days to
double up.
On May 9, the worldwide
count of positive cases stood at
4,115,559. In reaching here
from the halfway mark of
2,057,779, it took 24 days — the
number stood at 2,076,503 on
April 16. The global rate of
doubling has been nearly con-
sistent in the last one month
with average daily addition of
between 75,000 to 95,000 new
cases. One third of these cases
are reported from the USA
alone on daily basis.
The USA has also con-
tributed more than 25 per cent
of the total global cases.
The USA’s May 9 tally of
total cases stood at 13,47,318,
where it reached after doubling
up from 6,52,476 on April 15
in 24 days. In the same period
between March 21 and April
15, the USA raced from 5,600
to 65,246 cases, registering a
12-time growth.
?=BQ =4F34;78
After months of lull on the
Line of Actual Control
(LAC), the Indian and Chinese
armies were involved in two
face-offs in the last few days.
On Saturday, soldiers of both
the sides came to blows in
Sikkim while a similar tense
situation was resolved at the
local level earlier last week in
Ladakh region.
The entire 4,000 km odd
long LAC was devoid of any
serious stand-offs since the
73-day long such incident in
Doklam near Sikkim in 2017.
The two armies backed off
after intervention at the high-
est political and diplomatic
levels from two countries.
The face-off in Naku La, at
a height of more than 16,000
feet near North Sikkim took
place on Saturday afternoon,
sources said here on Sunday.
There were more than 150
soldiers from both the sides
and some of them traded
blows, it was learnt. A minor
scuffle also broke out before the
situation was brought under
control, officials said. The
Naku La is a pass in North
Sikkim at 5,000 metres.
The Indian Army later
said, “Aggressive behaviour by
the two sides resulted in minor
injuries to troops.
The two sides disengaged
after dialogue and interaction
at local level. Temporary and
short duration face-offs
between border guarding
troops do occur as boundaries
are not resolved.”
Officials also said troops
resolve such issues mutually as
per established protocols.
Unconfirmed reports said at
least three Indians and seven to
eight Chinese soldiers were
injured in the scuffle.
?=BQ =4F34;78
Aweek ahead of the sched-
uled expiry of the extend-
ed lockdown on May 17, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi will
hold a meeting on Monday
through video conferencing
with all the Chief Ministers
to assess the situation and
road ahead.
The meeting is convened at
3 pm and the main agenda is
expected to be on the
opening up of public transport
and the dilution of current
lockdown norms.
Modi on Sunday evening
had consultation with key
Ministers in the Cabinet and
senior officials in the empow-
ered group of officers. The
Cabinet Secretary also con-
vened meeting of all
Chief Secretaries and Health
Secretaries to assess the
present situation.
This will be the fifth meet-
ing of the Prime Minister
with the Chief Ministers since
the outbreak of the novel
coronavirus.
The Prime Minister’s
Office took to Twitter to share
the information that he would
hold the meeting via video-
conference around 3 pm.
“PM Narendra Modi to
hold the 5th meeting via video-
conference with state Chief
Ministers tomorrow (Monday)
afternoon at 3 pm,” PMO India
tweeted.
Sources in the
Government said the focus of
the meeting would be on
boosting economic activities
and pushing efforts to convert
“red” zones with high Covid-
19 case load into “orange” or
“green” zones.
Several States have recent-
ly relaxed labour laws to pump
up industrial activities
with staggered shifts or limit-
ed staff as a fresh spike in coro-
navirus cases could undo the
gains so far.
Monday’s meeting could
also discuss further relaxations
as part of a graded exit from the
lockdown but all restrictions
are unlikely to be withdrawn in
one go, the sources suggested.
?=BQ =4F34;78
India reported more than
4,000 new cases for the first
time in a single day on Sunday
with Maharashtra adding 1,942
new cases and Tamil Nadu
chipping in with 669 new cases,
taking the total count to 67,044
cases and 2,207 deaths, includ-
ing 111 on Sunday.
Total cases in Maharashtra
mounted to 22,171 including
53 deaths.
Maharashtra is followed
by Gujarat with around 8,195
cases and nearly 500 deaths.
The State reported 398 cases
and 23 deaths on Sunday.
State like Bihar and Odisha
have registered significant
rise due to infection detected
among migrant workers
returning home.
Delhi, with nearly 7,000
cases and 73 deaths, has slipped
to the fourth spot. Delhi added
383 cases and five deaths on
Sunday.
Tamil Nadu has now
become the third worst coron-
avirus-hit State, surpassing
Delhi after reporting over
7,200 cases.
In Tamil Nadu, the bulk of
cases were reported from
Chennai, where the vegetable
and fruit wholesale market at
Koyembedu was declared a
hotspot. More than 1,500 pos-
itive cases were found to be
linked to the market. Of the
total cases in Tamil Nadu,
1,824 patients have recovered
and 44 have died.
Rajasthan added 106 new
cases to reach a total 3,814 cases
and 2 more deaths to total 108
deaths, while Madhya Pradesh
reported 157 new cases for total
of 3,614 and a high death
count of 215.
UP reported total 3,373
cases including 79 deaths of
which 5 died on Sunday.
West Bengal reported 153
new cases, taking the total to
1,939. With 14 deaths report-
ed in the last 24 hours, the
death toll rose to 113 in Bengal.
23 new cases of Covid-19 were
reported from Haryana.
?=B?C8Q 8=3A4
Even as Indore in Madhya
Pradesh continues to be
among the country’s most wor-
risome coronavirus hotpots,
the temple city Ujjain is mak-
ing health officials uneasy as
the latter’s death rate from the
infection as on Sunday stood at
a whopping 19 per cent, far
higher than the 3.35 per cent
national average.Ujjain, famous
for the Mahakal Temple and a
city with seven lakh inhabi-
tants, has seen 45 of 237 Covid-
19 patients succumbing to the
infection, the death rate being
a shade below 19 per cent at
18.9 per cent, as per
official data.Among those who
have died are a police inspec-
tor and a BJP corporator, lead-
ing to major political parties
pointing out to the city’s creaky
health infrastructure, and the
Shivraj Singh Chouhan gov-
ernment responding by shunt-
ing out the district collector
and the superintendent of
police.
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The Indian Railways will
gradually restart passen-
ger train operations from May
12, initially with 15 pairs of
trains, the national transporter
said on Sunday.
These trains will be run as
special trains from New Delhi
station connecting Dibrugarh,
Agartala, Howrah, Patna,
Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar,
Secunderabad, Bengaluru,
Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram,
Madgaon, Mumbai Central,
Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.
All passenger train ser-
vices were suspended due to a
lockdown announced on
March 25.
After the resumption of
these 15 services, railways will
start more special services on
new routes, based on the avail-
able coaches after reserving
20,000 coaches for Covid-19
care centres and adequate
number of coaches being
reserved to enable operation of
up to 300 trains everyday as
“Shramik Special” for stranded
migrants.
Booking for reservation in
these trains will start at 4 pm
on May 11 and will be available
only on the IRCTC website
(https://www.Irctc.Co.In/).
Ticket booking counters at
railway stations will remain
closed and no counter tickets
(including platform tickets)
will be issued, it said. Only pas-
sengers with valid confirmed
tickets will be allowed to enter
railway stations.
It will be mandatory for
passengers to wear face cover
and undergo screening at
departure and only asympto-
matic passengers will be
allowed to board the trains.
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Amid the rising coronavirus cases in the country, Cabinet
Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Sunday held a video conference
with Chief Secretaries and Health Secretaries of all States and
Union Territories to oversee the steps taken to curb the spread
in the country and sought cooperation of the State Governments
in running special trains for transportation of stranded
migrant workers from different States to their respective native
destinations.
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The dwellers of a tiny hut-
ment located off the IIT-
Bombay campus at Powai in
north-east Mumbai were in for
a surprise as a large spotted
deer — apparently after being
chased by a leopard from the
nearby Sanjay Gandhi National
Park — crashed through their
roof and landed in their house
in the early hours of Sunday.
In what virtually came as a
bolt from the blue, the deer
crash-landed into the one room
house of one Mrs Sunita Singh
in Hanuman Tekdi slum colony
located on the neighbourhood
of IIT-Bombay campus, which
is on the periphery of the
Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
As the forest officials sur-
mised later in the morning, the
deer might have run for its life
after being chased from a
nearby hillock of the Sanjay
Gandhi National Park, and
crashed into hutment through
the roof.
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About 1234 migrant labour-
ers returned in a special
train from Gujarat at Tatangar
railway station on Sunday
evening.
About 95 per cent workers
were residents of various vil-
lages in West Singhbhum dis-
trict.
The administration had
made arrangements for 40
buses to help the returnees
reach their respective vil-
lages.
Several help desks and
kiosks have been made at the
railway station to guide the
workers returning to their vil-
lage.
A team of 17 doctors
examined those returned.
The workers were advised
for home quarantine for next
14 days.
The police force were
instructed to make all neces-
sary arrangements and pre-
cautions for the return jour-
ney of migrant workers in the
city amid coronavirus out-
break and the subsequent
lockdown.
“A team under police
officers have been deployed
to convey the message to the
migrant workers. All district
police chiefs have been
instructed to keep police
teams in standby in case a
law and order situation aris-
es
We are appealing to all
those returning is to listen to
the district authorities.
There should not be any
problems. Everyone who
returned, will be sent to their
villages,” said the official.
About a month into lock-
down, the home ministry has
relaxed lockdown measures to
allow movement of migrant
workers across states but with
strict health protocols. Listing
the conditions, the ministry
said all states and union terri-
tories should designate nodal
authorities and develop stan-
dard protocols for receiving
and sending such stranded
persons.
Those returned on a spe-
cial train returned on a special
bus to the city in the evening
and after collection of their
swabs at Loyola School in
Bistupur they were sent to
home quarantine.
The workers, who returned
home were in a mood to go
back home. We are really very
happy to return home. This
coronavirus lockdown has not
only denied us work but also
separated us from our family,
said one worker.
A8CD0=90H:D0AQ A0=278
In this hour of crisis caused by
Covid-19 virus, incessant
rains have added to the woes of
farmers in State. The vegetable
growers have become one of
the biggest victims of the rain
and lockdown around the State
Capital.
With comparatively cheap-
er rates for yields and scarcity
of buyers in the local market,
the farmers have had to face
considerable financial loss.
Some of them are facing a
tough time in getting at least
the amount they invested in
agriculture, sources said.
Kishore Sahu, a farmer
from Deori village of Nagdi
block, cultivated cabbage,
French beans and peas at a cost
of Rs 90 thousand in about 3.2
acres of land.
The rain completely
decomposed cabbage crop,
most of the French bean
seedlings were damaged and
the peas suffered heavy damage
while bearing fruit. Sahu said
that he earned only Rs 24
thousand and lost 2.50 lakh.
The waste crop was fed to the
cow due to lack of demand in
market.
At present, Cabbage and
Hot Corn have been planted in
50 - 50 decimals.
Now insects have infested
corn crops due to continuous
rains and despite spraying
medicines, the insects are not
being controlled,” he said.
“Twenty other farmers of the
village are facing a similar cri-
sis. Farmers started cultivating
Ginger, Gandhari and Green
Spinach, he added.
Another farmer from Piska
Nagri Village of Nagri Block,
Bajrang Sahu, cultivated
Cauliflower, Cabbage and Bitter
Gourd at a cost of Rs 45,000 in
about 1.2 acres.
The incessant rains
caused a lot of damage to the
Bitter Gourd crops. There was
a good crop of Cauliflower and
Cabbage, but due to scarcity of
buyers in the market, it was not
sold even to get capital, he
added.
Since third week of April
when lockdown-2 was
announced farmers are facing
huge problem to bring their
produce in the markets and
rains have added to their woes.
Rajendra Mahato, a farmer
of Kudlatoli village, invested
about 65,000 capital in the
cultivation of Cabbage, French
bean, Carrots and Peas in 1.2
acres of land.
The rain caused some
damage to vegetable crops. But
due to lack of market in the
lock-down, the sale of vegeta-
bles only fetched Rs 18,000,
said Mahto.
Now it seems impossible to
continue the work of farming
without capital after loss, he
added.
Deori Village Panchayat
Mukhiya, Manju Kachhap, said
that the quality and produc-
tivity of vegetable crops has
increased under the guidance
of the Birsa Agricultural
University (BAU) scientists
and the Department of
Agriculture. But the rain and
Corona virus have increased
the concern of the farmers. The
farmers of the area have
become financially weak due to
these calamities.
Farmers have no capital
for farming and it is becoming
difficult to run a family's liveli-
hood. Initiative is needed to
maintain the morale of the
farmers, she added.
BAU Dean Agriculture
Dr MS Yadav said that in view
of the disaster almost every
year, farmers will have to cul-
tivate vegetable crops along
with food grains, pulses and
oil seeds in multi-crop farm-
ing. Multi-level farming sys-
tem and integrated farming
system will have to be adopt-
ed.
The farmers should insure
their crops. By strengthening
the market management and
setting up cold storage and pro-
cessing units in the blocks,
solutions to farmer problems
can be possible, he added.
?=BQ A0=278
Amigrant labourer from
Hazaribag district tested
positive for coronavirus in
State on Sunday. With the
detection of new case the num-
ber of corona cases in state has
gone up to 157. According to
health department, the youth
who hails from Barakatha
block of district had returned
to Hazaribag from Maharashtra
few days back. The man along
with four others (residents of
Giridih) had come to
Jharkhand few days back.
The detection of new cases
and its trend is alarming as in
past few days, cases of corona
in migrant workers has gone
up. Last week, twenty-two
migrant workers who returned
to Jharkhand were tested coro-
na positive in the highest sin-
gle-day tally of Covid 19 cases
in eastern state. Out of 22
cases, 20 cases were detected
from Garhwa and who from
Koderma districts on Friday
evening.
The 20 who tested positive
for the Sars-CoV-2 virus in
Garwha had returned from
Surat in Gujarat and have been
quarantined in an under-con-
struction prison.
Also, on Saturday evening
a clash erupted between vil-
lagers and police team at
Aadhori village under
Bansidhar police station area of
Garhwa district. A team of dis-
trict administration and local
police had gone to village for
corona test of people who had
return from Surat in Gujarat.
However, the villagers were
not cooperating and adamant
of not going to hospital for test
which resulted in scuffle
between villagers and cops.
However, the matter was
resolved after senior police
and administrative officials
intervened.
Meanwhile, the return of
migrant workers, patients and
students stranded at different
parts of country is going on. On
Sunday, the second special
train ferrying stranded patients
and their attendants at Vellore
reached Hatia.
The train from Vellore
having 22 coaches ferried 1138
passengers mostly patients and
their caregivers who had gone
for treatment at Christian
Medical College (CMC),
Vellore. This is the second
train to reach Hatia from
Vellore as on Friday first train
from Vellore reached Hatia.
Also, around 1000 migrant
workers from Bangalore and
other districts of Karnataka also
reached Hatia.
Sources said that in past
few week more than 25000
people mostly migrant workers,
students, patients stranded at
different parts of country have
returned back to their home
state. A health department
official requesting anonymity
said, “Those migrant workers,
patients or students are return-
ing back through arrangements
made by state government they
are thoroughly checked. The
migrant workers have to under-
go thermal scanners and other
test. Also in state they are kept
on 14 days quarantine period.
However, the risk is from such
people who are returning back
without any norms or guide-
lines.”
Meanwhile, in positive note
for fourth consecutive days no
corona case was reported from
Hindpiri which has become as
hotspot of Covid 19 in
Jharkhand. Out of 93 cases in
Ranchi, 53 people have recov-
ered and discharged from state,
while two persons have died
from disease in State Capital.
Pan-state out of total 157
cases, the number of persons
who have recovered and dis-
charged from State has gone up
to 78, while number of active
case is 56, while three persons
have died from disease.
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COVID-19 has affected the
majority of the population
across the world directly or
indirectly. Till date, in India,
more than 2100 people have
lost their lives, while the rest are
living their lives in fear, uncer-
tainty and social and financial
insecurity.
The economy of the coun-
try is crumpling with each
passing day. The pandemic is
throwing new challenges for
both the government and its
people further complicating
India's economic slowdown.
The Centre for Monitoring
Indian Economy (CMIE) states
that the unemployment rate in
India has soared further to
27.11 per cent for the week
ending 3rd May - which was
under seven per cent in mid-
March.
In the future, there will be
less opportunities to earn con-
sidering the present scenario of
the country. The manufactur-
ing and services sectors will
take time to return to their pre-
vious output potential. The
central government made an
appeal, a few days ago, to the
employers to pay salaries and
wages to their employees and
workers during the period of
lockdown.
The Employees Provident
Fund Organization (EPFO)
and Employees State Insurance
Corporation (ESIC) had been
asked to collect data on job
losses, salary cuts and delayed
payments so that it could be
reviewed by the Prime
Minister’s Office once the data
was collected. Regardless of this
fact, many corporate houses
and industries did not wait
even for a month and began
cutting the pay of its employ-
ees in the range of 10-50 per-
cent.
There were airlines that
advised their staff to take com-
pulsory no-pay leave of one to
three days, depending on
employment grades (three days
for senior-most employees).
For the sake of retention of
jobs, India's manufacturing
companies decided to cut some
fixed percentage from their
salary if their production does
not start on time when the
units are allowed to function.
Companies for their own sur-
vival are bound to cut the
costs in many ways. Direct cut
in salaries of employees or
sending them for indefinite
leave without pay are some
examples.
The intake of freshers
may also be kept on hold till
the situation improves. As
per the market survey, 39%
people are facing salary cuts
while 15% are set to lose their
jobs. The story doesn’t end
there: the Government of
Kerala, on 28th April 2020,
promulgated an ordinance to
override the High Court stay
on deferment of the payment
of salary of government
employees for six days every
month from April to August
2020.
It means, one month
salary of all the state govern-
ment employees will be
deferred in five instalments.
Worst affected are the peo-
ple in the unorganised sector.
Once the business of various
establishments stopped, the
sense of insecurity spread all
around.
The daily earners, by
virtue of their understanding
and emotional links with their
native places, started to move
with little savings and food. In
rising temperatures, they kept
walking with their small chil-
dren and families. narrating a
personal experience, on May
9th, 2020, my husband was
allowed to drive down from
Ranchi to Noida where I was
staying alone for the past
fifty-one days.
All along the 1250 kilo-
meters I requested him to
take notes on what he saw on
the road, so that I could pen
down his feelings about how
he felt when he saw migrant
workers and their families
walking to their homes
drenched in sweat. Some peo-
ple were walking in groups
while some alone. Most of
them carried heavy bags on
their shoulder and head.
There were little children
happily walking with their
hand clasped to their parents
not realising how grueling the
journey was.
A few parents carried their
young children in their arms
too. There were even people
seen cycling from one state to
another.
With limited food and
water, limited amenities the
migrant worker crisis has put
a question on the country’s
ability to protect its citizens.
Not that the government has
failed to take initiative to
protect their people.
There are special trains
introduced to ferry migrants
stranded in Covid-19 lock-
down. Since May 1st, about 302
Shramik Special Trains have
ferried around three lakh pas-
sengers home from different
major cities to most of the
places in UP, Bihar, Jharkhand,
West Bengal and Odisha. But
there are many who still remain
unaware of the initiatives being
taken by the government.
The big questions will
always remain, when will they
return or will they return at all
after the situation improves.
If not, this will affect the
infrastructure and agriculture
sector leading to increased
poverty and unemployment in
the country.
Need of the hour is to
think and act on ways and
means to revive the country’s
economy for the betterment
of its people. There needs to
be a well-thought out plan
with adequate focus on social
welfare, industrial revival
and economic stimulus once
the pandemic starts to
recede.
The author is Research
Fellow, Indian Council of
World Affairs, Delhi
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Sixty-one more people tested
positive for COVID-19 in
Punjab on Sunday, taking the
number of confirmed cases in
the state to 1,823.
Of the fresh cases, 35 are in
Rupnagar, eight each in
Amritsar and Fatehgarh Sahib,
seven in Mohali and one each
in Amritsar, Kapurthala and
Patiala, as per a medical bul-
letin issued here.
With nine more patients
discharged from hospitals, the
number of those cured of the
infection rises to 166 in the
state. Five patients in Jalandhar,
two in Mohali and one each in
Mansa and Pathankot were
discharged after being declared
fully cured, the bulletin said.
Amritsar continued to top
the COVID-19 tally in the
state with 295 cases, followed
by Jalandhar (175), Tarn Taran
(157), Ludhiana (125),
Gurdaspur (116), SBS Nagar
(103), Mohali (102), Patiala
(97), Hoshiarpur (90), Sangrur
(88), Muktsar (65), Moga (57),
Rupnagar (55), Faridkot (44),
Ferozepur (43), Bathinda (40),
Fazilka (39), Fatehgarh Sahib
(36), Pathankot (29),
Kapurthala (25), Barnala (21)
and Mansa with 20 cases, as per
the bulletin.
Thirty-one fatalities have
been recorded so far, while two
patients are critical and on
ventilator support, the bulletin
stated.
A total of 40,962 samples
have been taken so far for
testing in the state. Reports of
3,845 samples are awaited.
There are 1,626 active cases in
the state as of now, the bulletin
said.
HARYANA REPORTS 28
FRESH CASES WITH
TOTAL AT 703
With 28 fresh Coronavirus
cases in Haryana on Sunday,
the total tally now stood at 703
in the state.
Out of 28 fresh cases, 11
were reported from Sonepat, 7
from Faridabad, 3 from
Bhiwani, 2 from Panchkula, 1
each from Nuh, Palwal, Rohtak,
Charkhi Dadri and Kaithal,
according to the state Health
Department’s evening bulletin.
The total active COVID-19
patients in the state are 393
while 300 patients have been
cured and discharged from
hospitals, as per the state’s
health bulletin.
The worst-affected districts
of the state with the maximum
number of positive cases are
Gurugram with 142 cases,
Sonepat with 100 cases and
Faridabad with 95 cases. As
many as 56983 samples have
been tested so far, of which
51046 have tested negative.
However, the report of 5234
samples is awaited, the bulletin
stated.
The COVID-19 positive
rate stood at 1.36 percent,
recovery rate at 42.67 percent
and doubling rate of
Coronavirus cases at 9 days on
Sunday in Haryana.
A spokesman of the State
Government said that more
than 43.80 lakh persons have
already downloaded Aarogya
Setu App in Haryana. And,
more than 390 mobile health
teams were formed to check
health status regarding SARI,
ILI etc in the state.
Haryana has 26, 125 bed-
ded quarantine facilities in
dedicated COVID Care
Centers and 8,751 isolation
beds are available in dedicated
COVID hospitals and in ded-
icated COVID Health Centers,
the spokesman added.
In a bid to contain the
spread of Coronavirus,
Haryana Government had
allowed State and Chandigarh
government offices to function
with 100 percent working
strength of Group A and B offi-
cers and 33 percent working
strength of Group C (except
junior engineers) and D
employees on May 3.
WITH 4 FRESH CASES,
CHANDIGARH TALLY IS
174
Four fresh cases of
COVID-19 (Coronavirus) were
reported on Sunday, taking
the total count in Chandigarh
to 174.
Three fresh cases were
from the Bapu Dham colony,
Sector 26 here, which has now
110 infected persons and one
from Sector 40 till the evening.
The number of fatalities
stands at three in the city now.
The test results of a 62-year-old
male resident of Bapu Dham
colony, who died at the
Government Medical College
and Hospital, Sector32, on
Saturday, also came back pos-
itive.
“A 62 years old male resi-
dent of Bapu Dham colony
Sector 26 who had been report-
ed as positive for Coronavirus
had expired on Saturday at
GMCH 32. He was admitted at
GMCH 32 with complaints of
loose stools on May 7,” stated
Chandigarh Health
Department’s evening health
bulletin.
“The person was a patient
of heart disease. He suffered
from a cardiac arrest three
years back for which he had
undergone angioplasty and
angiography. His sample for
COVID-19 was taken at
GMCH 32 and was found to be
contaminated initially.
Subsequently one more sample
was taken after death which
was reported as positive for
Coronavirus,” it stated.
The three fresh cases of
Coronavirus included a 5 years
old boy, 11 years old male and
45 years old male. All are res-
idents of Bapu Dham colony.
“5 years old boy is a fami-
ly contact of already diagnosed
positive case. 45 years old male
is a community contact of
already diagnosed positive case
in the area He has two family
contacts and 28 community
contacts. The 11 years old male
is also a community contact of
already diagnosed positive
patient,” the bulletin stated.
21 cases were reported
from the BDC on Saturday,
making it the steepest single-
day spike in Chandigarh.
Earlier, it was on May 1 that
Chandigarh had witnessed 14
cases in a day.
The city has 147 active
cases, 24 have recovered from
the virus while three deaths
have been reported so far.
The recovery rate has
declined to 13 percent in the
city, lower than the national
average of around 30 percent.
2142 samples have been tested
so far in the city.
Report of 20 samples was
awaited till the filing of this
story. Among the six contain-
ment zones of the city, the BDC
contributes the highest (110)
cases, followed by Sector 30-B,
from where 21 infections have
been reported.
'_Vh4`gZU*TRdVdZ_Af_[RS#)Z_9RcjR_R%Z_4YR_UZXRcY
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About 68,000 such migrant
workers have been sent
back to their home states free
of cost through various trains
and buses from Haryana.
“The State Government,
led by Chief Minister Manohar
Lal, in its commitment to send
willing migrant workers to their
home states is providing free
transport facility through 5000
buses and 100 ‘Special Shramik
trains’ for them to reach their
states in a safe and systematic
manner,” said an official
spokesman.He said that after
the announcement made by
Chief Minister Manohar Lal to
send every migrant labourer
and agricultural labourer back
to their home states, 68000
such migrants have been sent to
their homes states
As many as 6000 migrant
labourers have returned to
their homes states through 200
buses to western Uttar Pradesh
and other states and more than
3600 migrant labourers
through three trains to Bihar
and Madhya Pradesh, he said.
The spokesman informed
that till date, through more
than 1100 buses carrying
migrant workers have been
sent to various states, 890 buses
has been sent to Uttar Pradesh,
152 buses to Rajasthan, 44
buses to Madhya Pradesh, 9
buses each to Punjab, and
Uttarakhand and 2 buses have
been sent to Himachal Pradesh.
He further informed that
till date through a total of 14
‘Special Shramik trains’ migrant
workers have departed to Bihar
and Madhya Pradesh, out of
which 10 trains were departed
to Bihar and 4 trains to Madhya
Pradesh.
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- 1. 5>A<4A?0=70= 038CC43C088B =Tf3T[WX)5^aTa?aXT X]XbcTaP]^WP]BX]VWfPb PSXccTSc^cWT088BWTaT^] Bd]SPhTeT]X]VPUcTaWT R^_[PX]TS^Ud]TPbX]Tbb b^daRTbbPXSBX]VWXbd]STa ^QbTaePcX^] 098C968B;8?B8=C 20)32CA APX_da)5^aTa2WWPccXbVPaW 2WXTUX]XbcTa0YXc9^VXfW^fPb PSXccTSX]P_aXePcTW^b_XcP[ WTaTPUcTabdUUTaX]VPRPaSXPR PaaTbcWPbb[X__TSX]c^R^PP bT]X^aS^Rc^aPccT]SX]VWXbPXS 20?BD;4 =0E8=D?037H0HQ =4F34;78 The speed of coronavirus spurt in India, both in terms of duration of doubling of cases as well as ratio of growth over a period of one month, could provide little comfort despite reassuring claims by officials and experts. The country has surpassed the global average and raced ahead of some of the worst-affected nations by a big margin on both these counts. In one month, India saw a nine-time rise in the number of cases, going up from 6,700 cases on April 9 to 63,000 plus cases on May 9. In the same duration, the worldwide count rose from 1,600,590 to 4,098,288 cases, which amounts to a near 2.5-time rise. The USA saw a similar 2.5- time growth with cases rising from 4,29,000 to 10,29,494 between April 9 and May 9. India has surpassed some of the other worst-affected countries such as France, Italy, Spain Germany, China, and Canada, Turkey and Iran with even much faster momentum. With its doubling speed of 11 days, India now trails only Russia in terms of ratio of growth over a period of one month among 13 worst affected countries. In aggregate terms the world’s doubling up speed is consistent at 22-24 days, where- as the USA, France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Spain, Turkey and Iran are taking any- where between 24 to 39 days to double up. On May 9, the worldwide count of positive cases stood at 4,115,559. In reaching here from the halfway mark of 2,057,779, it took 24 days — the number stood at 2,076,503 on April 16. The global rate of doubling has been nearly con- sistent in the last one month with average daily addition of between 75,000 to 95,000 new cases. One third of these cases are reported from the USA alone on daily basis. The USA has also con- tributed more than 25 per cent of the total global cases. The USA’s May 9 tally of total cases stood at 13,47,318, where it reached after doubling up from 6,52,476 on April 15 in 24 days. In the same period between March 21 and April 15, the USA raced from 5,600 to 65,246 cases, registering a 12-time growth. ?=BQ =4F34;78 After months of lull on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the Indian and Chinese armies were involved in two face-offs in the last few days. On Saturday, soldiers of both the sides came to blows in Sikkim while a similar tense situation was resolved at the local level earlier last week in Ladakh region. The entire 4,000 km odd long LAC was devoid of any serious stand-offs since the 73-day long such incident in Doklam near Sikkim in 2017. The two armies backed off after intervention at the high- est political and diplomatic levels from two countries. The face-off in Naku La, at a height of more than 16,000 feet near North Sikkim took place on Saturday afternoon, sources said here on Sunday. There were more than 150 soldiers from both the sides and some of them traded blows, it was learnt. A minor scuffle also broke out before the situation was brought under control, officials said. The Naku La is a pass in North Sikkim at 5,000 metres. The Indian Army later said, “Aggressive behaviour by the two sides resulted in minor injuries to troops. The two sides disengaged after dialogue and interaction at local level. Temporary and short duration face-offs between border guarding troops do occur as boundaries are not resolved.” Officials also said troops resolve such issues mutually as per established protocols. Unconfirmed reports said at least three Indians and seven to eight Chinese soldiers were injured in the scuffle. ?=BQ =4F34;78 Aweek ahead of the sched- uled expiry of the extend- ed lockdown on May 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting on Monday through video conferencing with all the Chief Ministers to assess the situation and road ahead. The meeting is convened at 3 pm and the main agenda is expected to be on the opening up of public transport and the dilution of current lockdown norms. Modi on Sunday evening had consultation with key Ministers in the Cabinet and senior officials in the empow- ered group of officers. The Cabinet Secretary also con- vened meeting of all Chief Secretaries and Health Secretaries to assess the present situation. This will be the fifth meet- ing of the Prime Minister with the Chief Ministers since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The Prime Minister’s Office took to Twitter to share the information that he would hold the meeting via video- conference around 3 pm. “PM Narendra Modi to hold the 5th meeting via video- conference with state Chief Ministers tomorrow (Monday) afternoon at 3 pm,” PMO India tweeted. Sources in the Government said the focus of the meeting would be on boosting economic activities and pushing efforts to convert “red” zones with high Covid- 19 case load into “orange” or “green” zones. Several States have recent- ly relaxed labour laws to pump up industrial activities with staggered shifts or limit- ed staff as a fresh spike in coro- navirus cases could undo the gains so far. Monday’s meeting could also discuss further relaxations as part of a graded exit from the lockdown but all restrictions are unlikely to be withdrawn in one go, the sources suggested. ?=BQ =4F34;78 India reported more than 4,000 new cases for the first time in a single day on Sunday with Maharashtra adding 1,942 new cases and Tamil Nadu chipping in with 669 new cases, taking the total count to 67,044 cases and 2,207 deaths, includ- ing 111 on Sunday. Total cases in Maharashtra mounted to 22,171 including 53 deaths. Maharashtra is followed by Gujarat with around 8,195 cases and nearly 500 deaths. The State reported 398 cases and 23 deaths on Sunday. State like Bihar and Odisha have registered significant rise due to infection detected among migrant workers returning home. Delhi, with nearly 7,000 cases and 73 deaths, has slipped to the fourth spot. Delhi added 383 cases and five deaths on Sunday. Tamil Nadu has now become the third worst coron- avirus-hit State, surpassing Delhi after reporting over 7,200 cases. In Tamil Nadu, the bulk of cases were reported from Chennai, where the vegetable and fruit wholesale market at Koyembedu was declared a hotspot. More than 1,500 pos- itive cases were found to be linked to the market. Of the total cases in Tamil Nadu, 1,824 patients have recovered and 44 have died. Rajasthan added 106 new cases to reach a total 3,814 cases and 2 more deaths to total 108 deaths, while Madhya Pradesh reported 157 new cases for total of 3,614 and a high death count of 215. UP reported total 3,373 cases including 79 deaths of which 5 died on Sunday. West Bengal reported 153 new cases, taking the total to 1,939. With 14 deaths report- ed in the last 24 hours, the death toll rose to 113 in Bengal. 23 new cases of Covid-19 were reported from Haryana. ?=B?C8Q 8=3A4 Even as Indore in Madhya Pradesh continues to be among the country’s most wor- risome coronavirus hotpots, the temple city Ujjain is mak- ing health officials uneasy as the latter’s death rate from the infection as on Sunday stood at a whopping 19 per cent, far higher than the 3.35 per cent national average.Ujjain, famous for the Mahakal Temple and a city with seven lakh inhabi- tants, has seen 45 of 237 Covid- 19 patients succumbing to the infection, the death rate being a shade below 19 per cent at 18.9 per cent, as per official data.Among those who have died are a police inspec- tor and a BJP corporator, lead- ing to major political parties pointing out to the city’s creaky health infrastructure, and the Shivraj Singh Chouhan gov- ernment responding by shunt- ing out the district collector and the superintendent of police. :_UZR4`gZUXc`heY#_UYZXYVde 1DWLRQ RQO DIWHU 5XVVLD LQ WHUPV RI VSLNH UDWH DPRQJ ZRUVWDIIHFWHG FRXQWULHV ?T^_[TR^T^dc^]cWTbcaTTcbPUcTabW^_bfTaT^_T]TSQaXTU[hPUcTaP[^]VQaTPZSdaX]V[^RZS^f]c^RdaQcWTb_aTPS^U R^a^]PeXadb^]cWT^dcbZXacb^U9Pd^]Bd]SPh 0? 5HVXPSWLRQ RI SXEOLF WUDQVSRUW GLOXWLRQ RI FXUEV OLNHO RQ DJHQGD E`eR]Tc`ddVd'(hZeY_VhUVReYd Ae`eR]hZeY4d4`gZU ]`TU`h_c`RURYVRUe`URj . QHZ FDVHV RQ 6XQ 0DKD DGGV F[[RZ_cVT`cUd hY`aaZ_X* 4`gZUUVReYcReV BC055A4?AC4AQ =4F34;78 The Indian Railways will gradually restart passen- ger train operations from May 12, initially with 15 pairs of trains, the national transporter said on Sunday. These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi. All passenger train ser- vices were suspended due to a lockdown announced on March 25. After the resumption of these 15 services, railways will start more special services on new routes, based on the avail- able coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for Covid-19 care centres and adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains everyday as “Shramik Special” for stranded migrants. Booking for reservation in these trains will start at 4 pm on May 11 and will be available only on the IRCTC website (https://www.Irctc.Co.In/). Ticket booking counters at railway stations will remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) will be issued, it said. Only pas- sengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter railway stations. It will be mandatory for passengers to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure and only asympto- matic passengers will be allowed to board the trains. DELQHW 6HF VHHNV 6WDWHV¶ KHOS LQ UXQQLQJ PRUH VSO WUDLQV IRU PLJUDQWV ?=BQ =4F34;78 Amid the rising coronavirus cases in the country, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Sunday held a video conference with Chief Secretaries and Health Secretaries of all States and Union Territories to oversee the steps taken to curb the spread in the country and sought cooperation of the State Governments in running special trains for transportation of stranded migrant workers from different States to their respective native destinations. ,QGLD KLQD VFXIIOH RQ 6LNNLP ERUGHUEV_dVdZefReZ`__VRc?`ceYDZZ^ cVd`]gVURWeVcZ_eVcgV_eZ`_Re YZXYVdea`]ZeZTR]UZa]`^ReZT]VgV]d KDVHG E OHRSDUG GHHU WDNHV UHIXJH LQ 0XPEDL KRXVH C=A067D=0C70Q D108 The dwellers of a tiny hut- ment located off the IIT- Bombay campus at Powai in north-east Mumbai were in for a surprise as a large spotted deer — apparently after being chased by a leopard from the nearby Sanjay Gandhi National Park — crashed through their roof and landed in their house in the early hours of Sunday. In what virtually came as a bolt from the blue, the deer crash-landed into the one room house of one Mrs Sunita Singh in Hanuman Tekdi slum colony located on the neighbourhood of IIT-Bombay campus, which is on the periphery of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. As the forest officials sur- mised later in the morning, the deer might have run for its life after being chased from a nearby hillock of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and crashed into hutment through the roof. 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- 2. dccPaPZWP]S!347A03D=k=30H k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·V ZLOO QRW EH KHOG UHVSRQVLEOH IRU DQ NLQG RI FODLP PDGH E WKH DGYHUWLVHUV RI WKH SURGXFWV VHUYLFHV DQG VKDOO QRW EH PDGH UHVSRQVLEOH IRU DQ NLQG RI ORVV FRQVHTXHQFHV DQG IXUWKHU SURGXFWUHODWHG GDPDJHV RQ VXFK DGYHUWLVHPHQWV ?=BQ 90B743?DA About 1234 migrant labour- ers returned in a special train from Gujarat at Tatangar railway station on Sunday evening. About 95 per cent workers were residents of various vil- lages in West Singhbhum dis- trict. The administration had made arrangements for 40 buses to help the returnees reach their respective vil- lages. Several help desks and kiosks have been made at the railway station to guide the workers returning to their vil- lage. A team of 17 doctors examined those returned. The workers were advised for home quarantine for next 14 days. The police force were instructed to make all neces- sary arrangements and pre- cautions for the return jour- ney of migrant workers in the city amid coronavirus out- break and the subsequent lockdown. “A team under police officers have been deployed to convey the message to the migrant workers. All district police chiefs have been instructed to keep police teams in standby in case a law and order situation aris- es We are appealing to all those returning is to listen to the district authorities. There should not be any problems. Everyone who returned, will be sent to their villages,” said the official. About a month into lock- down, the home ministry has relaxed lockdown measures to allow movement of migrant workers across states but with strict health protocols. Listing the conditions, the ministry said all states and union terri- tories should designate nodal authorities and develop stan- dard protocols for receiving and sending such stranded persons. Those returned on a spe- cial train returned on a special bus to the city in the evening and after collection of their swabs at Loyola School in Bistupur they were sent to home quarantine. The workers, who returned home were in a mood to go back home. We are really very happy to return home. This coronavirus lockdown has not only denied us work but also separated us from our family, said one worker. A8CD0=90H:D0AQ A0=278 In this hour of crisis caused by Covid-19 virus, incessant rains have added to the woes of farmers in State. The vegetable growers have become one of the biggest victims of the rain and lockdown around the State Capital. With comparatively cheap- er rates for yields and scarcity of buyers in the local market, the farmers have had to face considerable financial loss. Some of them are facing a tough time in getting at least the amount they invested in agriculture, sources said. Kishore Sahu, a farmer from Deori village of Nagdi block, cultivated cabbage, French beans and peas at a cost of Rs 90 thousand in about 3.2 acres of land. The rain completely decomposed cabbage crop, most of the French bean seedlings were damaged and the peas suffered heavy damage while bearing fruit. Sahu said that he earned only Rs 24 thousand and lost 2.50 lakh. The waste crop was fed to the cow due to lack of demand in market. At present, Cabbage and Hot Corn have been planted in 50 - 50 decimals. Now insects have infested corn crops due to continuous rains and despite spraying medicines, the insects are not being controlled,” he said. “Twenty other farmers of the village are facing a similar cri- sis. Farmers started cultivating Ginger, Gandhari and Green Spinach, he added. Another farmer from Piska Nagri Village of Nagri Block, Bajrang Sahu, cultivated Cauliflower, Cabbage and Bitter Gourd at a cost of Rs 45,000 in about 1.2 acres. The incessant rains caused a lot of damage to the Bitter Gourd crops. There was a good crop of Cauliflower and Cabbage, but due to scarcity of buyers in the market, it was not sold even to get capital, he added. Since third week of April when lockdown-2 was announced farmers are facing huge problem to bring their produce in the markets and rains have added to their woes. Rajendra Mahato, a farmer of Kudlatoli village, invested about 65,000 capital in the cultivation of Cabbage, French bean, Carrots and Peas in 1.2 acres of land. The rain caused some damage to vegetable crops. But due to lack of market in the lock-down, the sale of vegeta- bles only fetched Rs 18,000, said Mahto. Now it seems impossible to continue the work of farming without capital after loss, he added. Deori Village Panchayat Mukhiya, Manju Kachhap, said that the quality and produc- tivity of vegetable crops has increased under the guidance of the Birsa Agricultural University (BAU) scientists and the Department of Agriculture. But the rain and Corona virus have increased the concern of the farmers. The farmers of the area have become financially weak due to these calamities. Farmers have no capital for farming and it is becoming difficult to run a family's liveli- hood. Initiative is needed to maintain the morale of the farmers, she added. BAU Dean Agriculture Dr MS Yadav said that in view of the disaster almost every year, farmers will have to cul- tivate vegetable crops along with food grains, pulses and oil seeds in multi-crop farm- ing. Multi-level farming sys- tem and integrated farming system will have to be adopt- ed. The farmers should insure their crops. By strengthening the market management and setting up cold storage and pro- cessing units in the blocks, solutions to farmer problems can be possible, he added. ?=BQ A0=278 Amigrant labourer from Hazaribag district tested positive for coronavirus in State on Sunday. With the detection of new case the num- ber of corona cases in state has gone up to 157. According to health department, the youth who hails from Barakatha block of district had returned to Hazaribag from Maharashtra few days back. The man along with four others (residents of Giridih) had come to Jharkhand few days back. The detection of new cases and its trend is alarming as in past few days, cases of corona in migrant workers has gone up. Last week, twenty-two migrant workers who returned to Jharkhand were tested coro- na positive in the highest sin- gle-day tally of Covid 19 cases in eastern state. Out of 22 cases, 20 cases were detected from Garhwa and who from Koderma districts on Friday evening. The 20 who tested positive for the Sars-CoV-2 virus in Garwha had returned from Surat in Gujarat and have been quarantined in an under-con- struction prison. Also, on Saturday evening a clash erupted between vil- lagers and police team at Aadhori village under Bansidhar police station area of Garhwa district. A team of dis- trict administration and local police had gone to village for corona test of people who had return from Surat in Gujarat. However, the villagers were not cooperating and adamant of not going to hospital for test which resulted in scuffle between villagers and cops. However, the matter was resolved after senior police and administrative officials intervened. Meanwhile, the return of migrant workers, patients and students stranded at different parts of country is going on. On Sunday, the second special train ferrying stranded patients and their attendants at Vellore reached Hatia. The train from Vellore having 22 coaches ferried 1138 passengers mostly patients and their caregivers who had gone for treatment at Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore. This is the second train to reach Hatia from Vellore as on Friday first train from Vellore reached Hatia. Also, around 1000 migrant workers from Bangalore and other districts of Karnataka also reached Hatia. Sources said that in past few week more than 25000 people mostly migrant workers, students, patients stranded at different parts of country have returned back to their home state. A health department official requesting anonymity said, “Those migrant workers, patients or students are return- ing back through arrangements made by state government they are thoroughly checked. The migrant workers have to under- go thermal scanners and other test. Also in state they are kept on 14 days quarantine period. However, the risk is from such people who are returning back without any norms or guide- lines.” Meanwhile, in positive note for fourth consecutive days no corona case was reported from Hindpiri which has become as hotspot of Covid 19 in Jharkhand. Out of 93 cases in Ranchi, 53 people have recov- ered and discharged from state, while two persons have died from disease in State Capital. Pan-state out of total 157 cases, the number of persons who have recovered and dis- charged from State has gone up to 78, while number of active case is 56, while three persons have died from disease. !#$]YWbQ^dQR_ebUbc bUdeb^Vb_]7eZd_:µ[XQ^T 74 @D0A0=C8=43 /RFNGRZQ UDLQ DGG WR IDUPHUV¶ ZRHV LQ -¶NKDQG 3A=470B8=70 COVID-19 has affected the majority of the population across the world directly or indirectly. Till date, in India, more than 2100 people have lost their lives, while the rest are living their lives in fear, uncer- tainty and social and financial insecurity. The economy of the coun- try is crumpling with each passing day. The pandemic is throwing new challenges for both the government and its people further complicating India's economic slowdown. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) states that the unemployment rate in India has soared further to 27.11 per cent for the week ending 3rd May - which was under seven per cent in mid- March. In the future, there will be less opportunities to earn con- sidering the present scenario of the country. The manufactur- ing and services sectors will take time to return to their pre- vious output potential. The central government made an appeal, a few days ago, to the employers to pay salaries and wages to their employees and workers during the period of lockdown. The Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) and Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) had been asked to collect data on job losses, salary cuts and delayed payments so that it could be reviewed by the Prime Minister’s Office once the data was collected. Regardless of this fact, many corporate houses and industries did not wait even for a month and began cutting the pay of its employ- ees in the range of 10-50 per- cent. There were airlines that advised their staff to take com- pulsory no-pay leave of one to three days, depending on employment grades (three days for senior-most employees). For the sake of retention of jobs, India's manufacturing companies decided to cut some fixed percentage from their salary if their production does not start on time when the units are allowed to function. Companies for their own sur- vival are bound to cut the costs in many ways. Direct cut in salaries of employees or sending them for indefinite leave without pay are some examples. The intake of freshers may also be kept on hold till the situation improves. As per the market survey, 39% people are facing salary cuts while 15% are set to lose their jobs. The story doesn’t end there: the Government of Kerala, on 28th April 2020, promulgated an ordinance to override the High Court stay on deferment of the payment of salary of government employees for six days every month from April to August 2020. It means, one month salary of all the state govern- ment employees will be deferred in five instalments. Worst affected are the peo- ple in the unorganised sector. Once the business of various establishments stopped, the sense of insecurity spread all around. The daily earners, by virtue of their understanding and emotional links with their native places, started to move with little savings and food. In rising temperatures, they kept walking with their small chil- dren and families. narrating a personal experience, on May 9th, 2020, my husband was allowed to drive down from Ranchi to Noida where I was staying alone for the past fifty-one days. All along the 1250 kilo- meters I requested him to take notes on what he saw on the road, so that I could pen down his feelings about how he felt when he saw migrant workers and their families walking to their homes drenched in sweat. Some peo- ple were walking in groups while some alone. Most of them carried heavy bags on their shoulder and head. There were little children happily walking with their hand clasped to their parents not realising how grueling the journey was. A few parents carried their young children in their arms too. There were even people seen cycling from one state to another. With limited food and water, limited amenities the migrant worker crisis has put a question on the country’s ability to protect its citizens. Not that the government has failed to take initiative to protect their people. There are special trains introduced to ferry migrants stranded in Covid-19 lock- down. Since May 1st, about 302 Shramik Special Trains have ferried around three lakh pas- sengers home from different major cities to most of the places in UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. But there are many who still remain unaware of the initiatives being taken by the government. The big questions will always remain, when will they return or will they return at all after the situation improves. If not, this will affect the infrastructure and agriculture sector leading to increased poverty and unemployment in the country. Need of the hour is to think and act on ways and means to revive the country’s economy for the betterment of its people. There needs to be a well-thought out plan with adequate focus on social welfare, industrial revival and economic stimulus once the pandemic starts to recede. The author is Research Fellow, Indian Council of World Affairs, Delhi 5XVWcX]V2E83 ()7^fR^^]_T^_[TPaTbdUUTaX]V. 2QH PRUH PLJUDQW ZRUNHU WHVWV YH LQ -¶NKDQG 2A=02D=C A40274B $8= BC0C4 ?=BQ 270=3860A7 Sixty-one more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Punjab on Sunday, taking the number of confirmed cases in the state to 1,823. Of the fresh cases, 35 are in Rupnagar, eight each in Amritsar and Fatehgarh Sahib, seven in Mohali and one each in Amritsar, Kapurthala and Patiala, as per a medical bul- letin issued here. With nine more patients discharged from hospitals, the number of those cured of the infection rises to 166 in the state. Five patients in Jalandhar, two in Mohali and one each in Mansa and Pathankot were discharged after being declared fully cured, the bulletin said. Amritsar continued to top the COVID-19 tally in the state with 295 cases, followed by Jalandhar (175), Tarn Taran (157), Ludhiana (125), Gurdaspur (116), SBS Nagar (103), Mohali (102), Patiala (97), Hoshiarpur (90), Sangrur (88), Muktsar (65), Moga (57), Rupnagar (55), Faridkot (44), Ferozepur (43), Bathinda (40), Fazilka (39), Fatehgarh Sahib (36), Pathankot (29), Kapurthala (25), Barnala (21) and Mansa with 20 cases, as per the bulletin. Thirty-one fatalities have been recorded so far, while two patients are critical and on ventilator support, the bulletin stated. A total of 40,962 samples have been taken so far for testing in the state. Reports of 3,845 samples are awaited. There are 1,626 active cases in the state as of now, the bulletin said. HARYANA REPORTS 28 FRESH CASES WITH TOTAL AT 703 With 28 fresh Coronavirus cases in Haryana on Sunday, the total tally now stood at 703 in the state. Out of 28 fresh cases, 11 were reported from Sonepat, 7 from Faridabad, 3 from Bhiwani, 2 from Panchkula, 1 each from Nuh, Palwal, Rohtak, Charkhi Dadri and Kaithal, according to the state Health Department’s evening bulletin. The total active COVID-19 patients in the state are 393 while 300 patients have been cured and discharged from hospitals, as per the state’s health bulletin. The worst-affected districts of the state with the maximum number of positive cases are Gurugram with 142 cases, Sonepat with 100 cases and Faridabad with 95 cases. As many as 56983 samples have been tested so far, of which 51046 have tested negative. However, the report of 5234 samples is awaited, the bulletin stated. The COVID-19 positive rate stood at 1.36 percent, recovery rate at 42.67 percent and doubling rate of Coronavirus cases at 9 days on Sunday in Haryana. A spokesman of the State Government said that more than 43.80 lakh persons have already downloaded Aarogya Setu App in Haryana. And, more than 390 mobile health teams were formed to check health status regarding SARI, ILI etc in the state. Haryana has 26, 125 bed- ded quarantine facilities in dedicated COVID Care Centers and 8,751 isolation beds are available in dedicated COVID hospitals and in ded- icated COVID Health Centers, the spokesman added. In a bid to contain the spread of Coronavirus, Haryana Government had allowed State and Chandigarh government offices to function with 100 percent working strength of Group A and B offi- cers and 33 percent working strength of Group C (except junior engineers) and D employees on May 3. WITH 4 FRESH CASES, CHANDIGARH TALLY IS 174 Four fresh cases of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) were reported on Sunday, taking the total count in Chandigarh to 174. Three fresh cases were from the Bapu Dham colony, Sector 26 here, which has now 110 infected persons and one from Sector 40 till the evening. The number of fatalities stands at three in the city now. The test results of a 62-year-old male resident of Bapu Dham colony, who died at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector32, on Saturday, also came back pos- itive. “A 62 years old male resi- dent of Bapu Dham colony Sector 26 who had been report- ed as positive for Coronavirus had expired on Saturday at GMCH 32. He was admitted at GMCH 32 with complaints of loose stools on May 7,” stated Chandigarh Health Department’s evening health bulletin. “The person was a patient of heart disease. He suffered from a cardiac arrest three years back for which he had undergone angioplasty and angiography. His sample for COVID-19 was taken at GMCH 32 and was found to be contaminated initially. Subsequently one more sample was taken after death which was reported as positive for Coronavirus,” it stated. The three fresh cases of Coronavirus included a 5 years old boy, 11 years old male and 45 years old male. All are res- idents of Bapu Dham colony. “5 years old boy is a fami- ly contact of already diagnosed positive case. 45 years old male is a community contact of already diagnosed positive case in the area He has two family contacts and 28 community contacts. The 11 years old male is also a community contact of already diagnosed positive patient,” the bulletin stated. 21 cases were reported from the BDC on Saturday, making it the steepest single- day spike in Chandigarh. Earlier, it was on May 1 that Chandigarh had witnessed 14 cases in a day. The city has 147 active cases, 24 have recovered from the virus while three deaths have been reported so far. The recovery rate has declined to 13 percent in the city, lower than the national average of around 30 percent. 2142 samples have been tested so far in the city. Report of 20 samples was awaited till the filing of this story. Among the six contain- ment zones of the city, the BDC contributes the highest (110) cases, followed by Sector 30-B, from where 21 infections have been reported. '_Vh4`gZU*TRdVdZ_Af_[RS#)Z_9RcjR_R%Z_4YR_UZXRcY ?=BQ 270=3860A7 About 68,000 such migrant workers have been sent back to their home states free of cost through various trains and buses from Haryana. “The State Government, led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal, in its commitment to send willing migrant workers to their home states is providing free transport facility through 5000 buses and 100 ‘Special Shramik trains’ for them to reach their states in a safe and systematic manner,” said an official spokesman.He said that after the announcement made by Chief Minister Manohar Lal to send every migrant labourer and agricultural labourer back to their home states, 68000 such migrants have been sent to their homes states As many as 6000 migrant labourers have returned to their homes states through 200 buses to western Uttar Pradesh and other states and more than 3600 migrant labourers through three trains to Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, he said. The spokesman informed that till date, through more than 1100 buses carrying migrant workers have been sent to various states, 890 buses has been sent to Uttar Pradesh, 152 buses to Rajasthan, 44 buses to Madhya Pradesh, 9 buses each to Punjab, and Uttarakhand and 2 buses have been sent to Himachal Pradesh. He further informed that till date through a total of 14 ‘Special Shramik trains’ migrant workers have departed to Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, out of which 10 trains were departed to Bihar and 4 trains to Madhya Pradesh. %'XVaP]cf^aZTabV^QPRZ c^cWTXaW^TbUa^7Pah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
- 3. dccPaPZWP]S347A03D=k=30H k0H !! ?=BQ 347A03D= The apprehension of the health department and concerned citizens that the returning migrants could bring novel coronavirus (COVID- 19) to the areas of Uttarakhand which hitherto have remained free from the dreaded virus is proving true. On Sunday, one person who had recently returned from COVID-19 infested Gujarat to his village in moun- tainous district of Uttarkashi was found positive for the dis- ease. The district like other mountainous districts of the State was so far free from the virus and has been placed in the green zone. A day earlier, four persons, the migrants who had came from Uttar Pradesh (UP) were found infected with the COVID-19 in Udham Singh Nagar district which was also in green zone. The person found positive for COVID-19 in Uttarkashi is a 32-year- old youth from Dunda block. He along with three others had come on motorcycles from Surat in Gujarat on May 8. His sample was taken on May 8 by health department when he showed some symptoms of the disease. The sample was declared pos- itive on Sunday by the lab of AIIMS, Rishikesh. A shocked district health department has now sent five people who had came into his contact into quarantine and is tracing other contact history of this youth. With this new case, Uttarakhand now has 68 cases of the disease out of which 46 patients have recovered and discharged from the hospitals. The additional secretary, state health department, Yugal Kishore Pant reports of 331 samples were received by the health department on Sunday and out of them one was found positive for COVID-19. He said that the state now has 21 active cases of the dis- ease out of total 68 positive cases so far. Pant said that reports of 194 samples are still awaited by the department. On Sunday, a total of 187 sam- ples were collected for COVID -19 testing. The authorities have so far taken swab samples of 9668 suspected patients for COVID-19 test. Out of the total samples taken, 0.75 per- cent samples have been found positive for the disease. The rate of recovery from the COVID-19 in the state is 67.65 percent. A total of 14624 persons are kept in home quarantine while 2514 are in facility quar- antine. A total of 1264979 peo- ple have so far downloaded the ‘Aarogya Setu App’ on their smart phones. Out of the 21 active cases in the state, Udham Singh Nagar district now has highest nine cases followed by Dehradun district which has eight active cases. Haridwar district has two active cases while Nainital and Uttarkashi districts have one active case now. The doubling rate in the state in the last seven days is 39 days. CVefc_Z_X^ZXcR_edScZ_XZ_XgZcfde`DeReV Y 2Q 6XQGD RQH SHUVRQ ZKR KDG FDPH EDFN IURP *XMDUDW IRXQG SRVLWLYH IRU RYLG LQ 8WWDUNDVKL GLVWULFW ZKLFK VR IDU ZDV IUHH IURP FRURQDYLUXV Y )RXU SHUVRQV ZKR KDG UHWXUQHG IURP 83 ZHUH IRXQG LQIHFWHG D GD HDUOLHU LQ 8GKDP 6LQJK 1DJDU GLVWULFW ?=BQ 347A03D= After a long gap, the CT scan facility would soon start at Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) hospital. A new Coronary CT Angiography machine is being installed in the department of radiology of the GDMC and the machine would start is operation in two weeks. The principal of the GDMC, Dr Ashutosh Sayana said that 64 slice machine is highly advanced and apart from CT, it would also be used for doing angiography and other diag- nostic process. He said that the works like space selection and power supply for the machine has been completed. It is worth mentioning here that this important radio diagnostic machine of the biggest Government hospital of the state is non-functional from February 2019. In its vis- its to GDMC, the teams of Medical Council of India (MCI) had expressed annoy- ance over the absence of CT scan facility in the hospital. Interestingly the GDMC has also started a diploma course in radio diagnosis and considering the patient load in the hospital at least two such machines are needed here. The old CT scan machine was installed in the hospital in the year 2004 and as per norms it should have been replaced after ten years. However this machine was used beyond its term due to which it became prone to repeated malfunc- tioning. When this machine become non functional in February 2019, the state administration finally accept- ed the long standing demand of the GDMC hospital to replace this machine with a more advanced one. More than 50 CT scans were done by the lone machine daily when it was operational and in absence of this facility the patients are forced to visit expensive private hospitals and diagnostic centres to get the CT done. In absence of CT scan facility, the doctors in some cases were advising MRI scans for the patients resulting in extra load on the MRI machine. 7 VFDQ IDFLOLW VHW WR UHVXPH DW *'0 KRVS ?=BQ 347A03D= The first of the special trains to bring migrants from Uttarakhand back to the State will depart from Surat in Gujarat early on Monday morning. Informing about this on Sunday, the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat thanked the Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for facil- itating the special trains. Rawat informed that the first train bringing back migrants to Uttarakhand will depart from Surat at 4 AM on Monday and arrive at Kathgodam. This train will transport migrants belonging to the Kumaon region. Similarly, another train will depart from Surat to Haridwar on May 12. The timing of this train is not yet finalised but is expected to be scheduled soon, said the CM. Addressing those returning to their native state the CM wished them good health and asked them to maintain all the necessary pre- cautions for their own health and that of those around them. He also thanked the local social workers who had helped in making various arrangements for migrants from Uttarakhand.Earlier, while addressing the media, cabinet minister and State government spokesman Madan Kaushik had said that about five special trains to bring back migrants from Uttarakhand are expect- ed to be finalised in the next couple of days. It will be recalled that the State govern- ment had already deposited Rs 50 lakh advance with the Railways to bring back its natives to the state. The State government has already stated that the migrants returning in the trains will not have to pay for the journey which will be paid for by the govt. ?=BQ 347A03D= Children are getting easily irritated spending more time indoors during the lock- down and thus to make them stay at home for over a month now is a challenge, State their parents. While sharing the experience of managing their kids during the lockdown, local parents told The Pioneer about the ways in which they are try- ing to make the lives of their kids easy. “Children get fed up easi- ly than adults when they are put under restrictions. Schools and other classes used to keep them occupied but now they do not know what to do with their free time. Therefore, in the first week of the lockdown, I enrolled my children in some online classes. My daughter likes dance so I have enrolled her in a two-month dance course besides enrolling my son in coding classes. Also, their mobile phones also keep them busy. Not an ideal situation but what else can we do, said a local teacher Bidhistha Chakrobarty. According to Ladpur resi- dent Preetika Gairola, “Initially we all were very excited to spend time with each other during the lockdown. But when I and my hus- band got busy with work from home later, our children start- ed to seek our attention by doing things like fighting with each other continuously or compelling us to take them out- side. Therefore, we made a timetable for them and it took me a couple of days to make them follow it. A proper sched- ule during the lockdown is cur- rently helping us to manage our children. The internet is also playing a huge role in keeping them occupied. However, there are some parents who are not strug- gling to keep their children occupied during the lockdown. I understand that many peo- ple are having difficulties in tackling with their kids during the lockdown. But it is thank- fully not same for me as I live in a joint family. There are seven children in our family with eight adults so it is less stressful than in a smaller fam- ily. Our children remain quite occupied the whole day. Of course, they cause annoyance at times but it is still manageable. I think it is a perk of living in a joint family, said homemak- er Shanti Singh. ?=BQ 347A03D= With thousands of migrants returning to their native villages from var- ious States, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat talked to district Panchayat chair- persons on the phone and enquired about their condition. He also sought feedback from them on the efforts being undertaken by the district administration to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Rawat said that a large number of migrants from Uttarakhand are being brought back from various States with many of them having been brought back so far. The State Government is observing all the medical norms in this process. The migrants are being sent to their destination in the state only after proper screen- ing. Those who are not display- ing any symp- toms are to remain under home quaran- tine. Gram Pradhans have been authorised to ensure that this is strictly followed. R a w a t requested the d i s t r i c t Panchayat heads to also keep an eye to check whether those returning to the state are prop- erly observing quarantine. They should inform the gov- ernment immediately in case of any problem. The CM said that migrant Uttarakhandis are to be brought back considering the problems they are facing. However, it must also be ensured that COVID-19 con- tagion does not spread further. While the government machinery is doing the need- ful, the cooperation of the local public representatives is also necessary, he added. 3=cUU[cVUUTRQS[Vb_] TYcdbYSd`Q^SXQiQdXUQTc =^cTPbhc^ZTT_RWX[SaT]^RRd_XTSSdaX]V[^RZS^f])?PaT]cb 6SHFLDO WUDLQ WR GHSDUW IURP 6XUDW ZLWK PLJUDQWV WRGD B42=3CA08=C 34?0AC5ABDA0C C70A83F0A= CD4B30H ?=BQ 347A03D= Out of about 1.80 lakh migrants registered for returning to Uttarakhand, about 30,000 have been brought back till Sunday evening. Though there is a risk factor bringing back migrants from other States, their return has to be facilitat- ed. Apart from this, intensive care units (ICUs) have been set up in 11 of the State’s districts and the same in the remaining two districts will also be estab- lished soon, said Cabinet Minister and State Government spokesman Madan Kaushik. Addressing the media here on Sunday, Kaushik said that about 1.80 lakh migrants had registered to return to Uttarakhand. Out of these, 23,794 had been brought back by Saturday night and the number would increase to 30,000 by Sunday evening. He said that though there is some risk in bringing back migrants to the state from out- side, the return has to be facil- itated as one does not leave a family member stranded. About five special trains are expected to operate in the coming days from various parts of India bringing back strand- ed Uttarakhandis. Those returning to the state are undergoing proper screening and other precautions which is why it is taking some time for them to depart towards their home districts after returning to the state. Apart from this, out of 21,717 persons from other states stranded in Uttarakhand who had registered to return to their home states, 6,378 persons have been sent back to their states Regarding the medical facilities in the state, Kaushik said that presently there are four laboratories testing sam- ples for COVID-19. Whereas there were ICUs in only three districts in 2017, ICUs have now been established in 11 dis- tricts and will start functioning soon in the two remaining districts- Almora and Bageshwar. Further, a govern- ment order has also been passed to provide benefit of Ayushman Bharat and Atal Ayushman Uttarakhand Yojana to government employees and pensioners in the state. To tackle the situation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, Rs 85 crore has been released from the State Disaster Relief Fund. From this sum, Rs five crore each has been provided to the districts for measures to ensure protec- tion from COVID-19 while Rs 20 crore has been released to the Medical Education depart- ment for strengthening COVID-19 notified hospitals and arrangement of necessary equipment. Apart from this, Rs 10 crore has been released to the Medical Education depart- ment from the CM relief fund to strengthen the government medical colleges. B^TaXbZbX]e^[eTSX]QaX]VX]VQPRZXVaP]cb QdcRP]´c[TPeTcWTTXcWTa)PSP]:PdbWXZ ?=BQ 347A03D= People who recently returned from other states and do not want to get quarantined at their homes can stay in the quarantine centres established by the district administration. However, the demand for cooked food packets has declined by 30 per cent in the Dehradun district since the administration provided some lockdown relaxations in the district. According to the Dehradun Chief Development Officer (CDO) Nitika Khandelwal, the administration mostly provides food packets to daily wage workers and migrants. Since some have started working, they do not require cooked food packets anymore. Many workers from shelter homes and quarantine centres have also returned to their respective districts due to which the requirement of food packets has declined. There are only about 70 per cent people now who are being delivered the cooked food packets, informed Khandelwal. However, she added that the requirement of ration kits is about the same as before because there are still many people who depend on district administration for their food items to cook their meals. Meanwhile, many migrants have been returning in recent days from other States to their homes in Dehradun. Reportedly, many families are concerned that the return of their family members from outside can increase the risk of COVID-19 infection. Talking about this, Khandelwal stated that those who do not want to go home due to safety concerns of their family members can stay in the quarantine centres set up by the district administration. There are all the facilities provided by the administration in the institutional quarantine centres for people. Anyone who wants to stay willingly can stay here for their quarantine period, added the CDO. 'HPDQG IRU IRRG SDFNHWV GURSV E LQ 'HKUDGXQ ?=BQ 70A83F0A347A03D= Though the West Bengal Government has allegedly not been prompt in ensuring the return of its stranded resi- dents from Haridwar, about 150 Bengalis departed for their home State in buses on Sunday. They were permitted to leave by the local administration with e-passes. Meanwhile, Cabinet Minister and State Government spokesman Madan Kaushik said that Uttarakhand Government had repeatedly contacted the West Bengal Government to facili- tate the return of Bengalis stranded in Haridwar. However, the State Government had not received any response from West Bengal, he said. About 900 residents of West Bengal have been strand- ed in Haridwar for about 50 days due to the lockdown. They have been making consistent attempts to return to their home state but were unable to do so. Their patience gave way after May 3, when they staged a protest demon- stration accusing the West Bengal government of remain- ing apathetic towards their condition and not facilitating their return efficiently. Devashish Dhar from West Bengal said that the Uttarakhand government and local administration had pro- vided a lot of support to the Bengalis stranded in Haridwar. If the West Bengal government had also worked in a similar manner, the stranded Bengalis would have been home by now, he said before boarding the bus out of Haridwar. Another person boarding the bus to West Bengal said that they had been informed that their home state would allow them entry on the basis of the e-pass. They would have to spend some time under quar- antine. Stating that the Uttarakhand government had supported the stranded Bengalis considerably, he said that the government of his home state had provided only a little cooperation. Meanwhile, Haridwar city magistrate Jagdish Lal said that about 150 people have been allowed to depart for West Bengal. This process will continue, he added. Earlier, addressing media persons in Dehradun, cabinet minister Madan Kaushik said that repeated communications sent to the West Bengal gov- ernment regarding the return of its stranded residents in Haridwar had not received any response. He said that the Bengalis stranded in Haridwar were under considerable stress and were being provided nec- essary facilities and even coun- seling to handle the situation. BcaP]STS1T]VP[XbUX]P[[hbcPacST_PacX]VUa^7PaXSfPa F4BC14=60; 6E4A=4=C 508;43C A4B?=3C A4?40C43 2D=820C8=B 5AD³:70=3 6E4A=4=C 030=:0DB78: 2018=4C8=8BC4A 0=3BC0C4 6E4A=4=C B?:4B0= ?=BQ =4FC47A8 The Sri Dev Suman Uttarakhand (SDSU) University has given final touches to preparations to ensure transparency in affilia- tion to colleges. The universi- ty has created a web portal for affiliation to colleges in the 2020-21 academic session. After a trial, the web portal will be formally launched. The uni- versity officials state that facil- itating online process for col- leges seeking affiliation with the university will prevent any anomalies and ensure trans- parency. It should be mentioned here that 114 private colleges and 53 Government colleges are affiliated to the SDSU University. Till now, the college representatives had to make visits to the university office for affiliation. In some cases the private colleges used to alleged- ly indulge in anomalies due to lack of transparency. The uni- versity vice chancellor PP Dhyani had decided to put in place an online application process for affiliation. The uni- versity’s web portal is now ready and preparations are now underway to conduct a trial of this portal. This portal will facilitate online affiliation for all colleges in the coming academic ses- sion. In addition to securing the affiliation online, the col- lege will be able to grant admis- sions to students only after written permission from the university. The university vice chan- cellor PP Dhyani said that the web portal is now ready in order to ensure transparency in the process. A trial of the por- tal will be conducted and any gaps found will be redressed. C78B?AC0;F8;; 5028;8C0C4=;8=4 0558;80C8=5A 0;;2;;464B8= C7428=6 0203482B4BB8= !(#WPeTQTT] Qa^dVWcQPRZQh BPcdaSPh]XVWcP]ScWT ]dQTaf^d[SX]RaTPbT c^QhBd]SPh TeT]X]V B3BDc^R^]SdRccaXP[ ^U_^acP[U^aPUUX[XPcX^]
- 4. ]PcX^]#347A03D=k=30H k0H !! ?=BQ =4F34;78 Reaching out to the littoral countries located on the rim of the strategically impor- tant Indian Ocean, India has dispatched its warship to sup- ply essential items to at least five countries in the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic. The ship INS Kesari set sail on Sunday as part of ‘Mission Sagar’ and this effort is in line with India’s role as the first responder in the region. Giving details of the deployment, officials said here the countries which will get the items include Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros. The ship is carrying food Items, COVID related medicines including HCQ Tablets and Special Ayurvedic Medicines with Medical Assistance Teams. The deployment is in con- sonance with Prime Ministers Narendra Modi’s vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) and highlights the importance accorded by India to rela- tions with her neighbouring countries and further strengthens the existing bond. The operation is being progressed in close coordina- tion with the Ministries of Defence and External Affairs, and other agencies of the gov- ernment, officials said here. As part of Mission Sagar, INS Kesari would enter the Port of Male in Republic of Maldives, to provide them 600 tons of food provisions. India and Maldives are close maritime neighbours with strong and extremely cordial defence and diplomatic rela- tions. This even as INS Jalashwa reached Kochi, Kerala on Sunday with 698 Indian evac- uees from Maldives, another Indian Navy warship INS Magar reached Male, capital of Maldives on Sunday to bring out 200 more Indians. They will be ferried to Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu. Both the war- ships are deployed for the rescue effort codenamed ‘Operation Samudra Setu.’ INS Magar has made all necessary logistic, medical and administrative prepara- tions at her base port Kochi to comfortably accommodate civilians before setting sail towards Maldives. The ship will evacuate Indian citizens while ensuring all precautions related to COVID-19 including social distancing norms are fol- lowed. An entirely separate section of the ship with essen- tial facilities like food and washrooms has been prepared to accommodate the evac- uees and a separate mess has been allotted for women, infants and senior citizens. Additional precautions have been taken by dividing the evacuees into groups to avoid crowding at common areas like dining hall and bath- rooms. VdRcZeRVddfaa]ZVd e`]Zee`cR]_VZXYS`fcd ?=BQ =4F34;78 The ITBP on Sunday reported 56 fresh Covid-19 cases followed by 18 cases each in BSF and CISF besides two infected persons in CRPF. With the 56 new infections in these Forces, the total number of infected persons in the paramilitary ranks rose to 752 on Sunday from 653 on Saturday. With the latest additions of coronavirus infection in its ranks, the tally of the patients rose to 276 in the BSF which continues to be the worst hit paramilitary by the viral pan- demic. While 16 cases were report- ed from Tripura, two were test- ed positive for Covid-19 in the national capital in the Border Security Force (BSF), officials said. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) contracted two positive cases on Sunday taking the tally of infected persons to 236. The CRPF has the second highest number of positive cases followed by ITBP which has reported156 cases so far. In the CRPF, there are 233 active cases with two patients recovering from the disease and a Sub Inspector suc- cumbing to the viral infection. With 18 new positive cases, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has 66 corona virus infected persons. The number of corona virus infections in the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) rose to 18 from the last count of 13 posi- tive cases last week. Paramilitary officials said the personnel have contracted the infections most- l y during frontline duty along with the local police for enforc- ing lockdown and social mea- sures as part of the Government's efforts to break the chain of spread of the dis- ease. The Forces have under- scored that all safety protocols are being strictly followed by the personnel during deployment with civil police. ?=BQ =4F34;78 These are tough times. As the Covid-19 crisis looms to new proportions brining the world to standstill, leaving many shelter-less and jobless while disrupting medical aid to many patients, a diverse lot of individuals and organisations are working silently to help such vulnerable groups across the country, reinforcing the faith that not all is lost. About 1,586 kilometers away from the national capital, Mohammed Shujatulah of Humanity First Foundation spends his days distributing food to the needy outside hos- pitals, orphanages and railway stations in Hyderabad. Shujatulahreliesoncrowd fund- ing and individual donations to sponsor his charity work. Similarly, many NGOs like KAB Welfare Foundation and Blood on Demand helpline (9266666666) from Giving is Living Foundation have been holding blood donation camps in Delhi and NCR region to ensure that patients suffering from Thalassemia and other blood disorders do not have to face difficulties in Covid-times. Blood transfusion is the main treatment for the persons afflict- ed with blood disorder. Their representatives felt that at this time when there is huge shortage of blood due to lockdown following restriction on movement and donors scared of going hospitals amid Covid-19 scare, there should be a centralised venue like Indian Red Cross Society where donors can donate the blood and hos- pitals including those in private sector collect the blood. GS Kapoor, Director of Giving is Living Foundation called for uniform blood pro- cessing and other charges as has been done in the case with the test for Covid-19 test. Why should there be vari- ation for such an important life saving product? he asked. On the other hand, The Hans Foundation, a public char- itable trust which provides funding support to NGOs in the country has been reaching out to lakhs of migrants, poor, sick and homeless and hungry people through its more than 350 NGOs in 26 states and union territories particularly in rural India. On its part, Smile Train, the world'slargestcleftorganization, recently launched a digital cam- paign in India titled, #EndTheStigma, to create awareness around the stigma associated with COVID-19 while members of Inner Wheel District 301, New Delhi, a branch of International Inner Wheel, a global NGO has come forward to distribute packed food for 5 000 people at differ- ent slum areas in Delhi. Then there are stories, of children donating their piggy banks for purchase of face masks and sanitisers, and for feeding masses who live on street, and of groups of young volunteers distributing food and masks to needy, of old men donating their life savings towards improving health care infrastructure. There are about 92,000 NGOs and many more indi- viduals, some acknowleged by authorities but most of them working anonymously, who are trying to comfort millions battling pandemic and penury. Individually, these striv- ings may not count much. Yet each one of them affirm the commitment to healing the ocean of humanity called India. 6B:P_^^a3XaTRc^a^U 6XeX]VXb;XeX]V 5^d]SPcX^]RP[[TSU^a d]XU^aQ[^^S _a^RTbbX]VP]S^cWTa RWPaVTbPbWPbQTT] S^]TX]cWTRPbTfXcW cWTcTbcU^a2^eXS ( cTbcFWhbW^d[ScWTaT QTePaXPcX^]U^abdRWP] X_^acP]c[XUTbPeX]V _a^SdRc.WTPbZTS 8]SXP´bbX[T]cbPeX^dabPa^dbT W^_TU^aW^T[TbbY^Q[Tbb ?=BQ =4F34;78 Netizens trolled Radio Pakistan on Sunday after it committed a major gaffe in its bid to get even with India. After Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and Doordarshan start- ed to include the Gilgit- Baltistan region and Muzaffarabad in their weather forecasts, Radio Pakistan tweet- ed with maximum and mini- mum temperatures in Ladakh, albeit with a major error. In a series of tweets, Radio Pakistan provided the weather detailsforalltheregionsinIndia occupied Jammu and Kashmir. But in one tweet, a major goof- upattractedmanyTwitterusers. In Ladakh maximum temper- atureis-4degreecentigradeand minimum temperature is-1 degree centigrade, the tweet read. Social media users were quicktopointoutthemix-up of thewords‘maximum’and‘min- imum’ by Radio Pakistan’s Twitter handle. Twitter users soon pointed out that -4 degree centigrade was actually lower than -1 degree centigrade and cannot be the ‘maximum’ tem- perature. “This is the result when math teachers are part time sui- cide bombers and terrorists,” wrote one of tweeter user. One twitter user comment- ed “India started Weather Forecast of Bangladesh in 1970 one year later East Pakistan became History Bangladesh was born. History will repeat itself in PoK Gilgit Baltistan. Pak army start preparing from today itself”. One user pointed that the peopleinPakistandidnotknow thedifferencebetweenthemax- imum and minimum. Another user advised Pakistan to follow India correctly, even if they intended to follow the country blindly. In #Ladakh, maximum temperature is -4 degree centi- grade and minimum tempera- tureis-1degreecentigrade,read the tweet. Another tweeted “India started Weather Forecast ofBangladeshin1970oneyear later East Pakistan became HistoryBangladeshwasborn. History will repeat itself in PoK GilgitBaltistan.Pakarmystart preparing from today itself’. One Twitter user said, “It's high time for you to engage yourself in Education and schooling rather than militancy. See your officials don't even understand what's Max and what's Low.” Another tweeted, Wrong... max should be -1 and minimum should be -4. Ye tweet padh ke Pakistan ki max- imum aukat aur minimum IQ patachalgayi..(Afterreadingthe tweetonegetstoknowPakistan's maximumstatusandminimum IQ), read another tweet. Another tweeted, “This is what happens when you divert all the money to terrorism from edu- cation.” RIP common sense!!! - 4maxand-1min???Konsegole se Science padhe ho??? anoth- er Twitter user wrote. Radio Pakistan's tweet aimed at levelling scores with India triggered a flurry of funny posts with some using memes featuring Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah's photo. Many others, with their tweets, schooled Pakistan to not copy their daddy - a reference used by many trolls since the countrywasbornoutofIndiain 1947. The IMD move to include PoK, Gilgit and Baltistan and Muzaffrabad in the Jammu Kashmir sub division comes days after the Pakistan Supreme Court’s decision to allow the Islamabad to amend a 2018 administrative order to conduct general elections in the region. The move came close on the heels of Pakistan Supreme Court's decision to let its gov- ernmentholdelectionsinGilgit- Baltistan. India had lodged a protest with Pakistan, asking Islamabadtoimmediatelyvacate all areas under its illegal occu- pation. The Gilgit-Baltistan Order of 2018 provided for administrative changes, includ- ing authorizing the Prime Minister of Pakistan to legislate on an array of subjects. ?=BQ =4F34;78 The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday said that north-west, eastern and southern States are likely to get rainfall, thun- derstorm and hailstorms with strong winds in the next four days due to western distur- bances and convergence of moist easterly and southwest- erly winds in the lower levels. The present weather conditions is likely to stay for a few more days and will delay the onset of the heat wave. In the past one and half month, unexpected rainfall and thunderstorm have damaged 25-30 percent rabi and horticulture crops across India. According to the IMD, northwest and north eastern states including Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu Kashmir, Gilgit, Baltistan, Muzaffarabad, Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand witnessed squally winds with widespread rainfall, thundershowers and hailstorms on Sunday. “The present weather conditions over North West and central India will remain till May 14. The Western Disturbance is likely to move further northeastwards and interact with the low-level circulation and easterlies over northwestern parts of India causing increase of moisture incursion in the region. This feature likely to cause isolated to scattered rain/thunder- showers over Western Himalayan Region and plains of northwest India mainly dur- ing May 10-14,”the IMD said. “Due to trough/wind dis- continuity, isolated to scat- tered rain/thundershowers very likely over central south peninsular India during the next 5 days,” it said. The North West, Central, North-East and Southern states are also predicted to receive rainfall in the next four days. According to Dr Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the regional forecasting centre of the IMD, said it was a result of a fresh western disturbance and this condition is likely to stay for a few more days and will delay the onset of the heat wave. The IMD has earlier predicted thunderstorms accompanied with lightning, hail and gusty winds (30-40 kmph) at isolated places in parts of northwest India. The IMD in its weather summary and forecast bulletin predicted isolated to scattered rain/thundershowers, due to the Western Disturbance, over Western Himalayan region and plains of northwest India main- ly between May 10 and 14 with peak activities on May 10. The north eastern and eastern may also receive scattered rain- fall/strong winds/hailstorms in the next four days due to con- vergence of moist southwest- erly winds in the lower levels. “The Western Disturbance likely to move further northeast wards and interact with the low level circulation and easterlies over northwestern parts of India causing increase of mois- ture incursion in the region,” the IMD bulletin read. The IMD predicted thun- derstorm accompanied with lightning and gusty winds (speed reaching 30-40 kmph) at isolated places over Jammu Kashmir, Ladakh, and Gilgit- Baltistan and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) till May 14. =^acWfTbcTPbcTa]b^dcWTa]BcPcTb c^VTcaPX]UP[[cWd]STabc^aX]#SPhb =TcXiT]bca^[[APSX^?PZ^eTaUPd[chfTPcWTad_SPcTPQ^dc9: =^[Tcd_X]_PaPX[XcPah f^Tb*$%]TfRPbTbX] 8C1?*1B528B5 'TPRW ?=BQ =4F34;78 Playing a major role in the national effort to fight COVID-19, Hyderabad-based Defence Research and Development’s (DRDO) pre- mier lab, Research Centre Imarat (RCI), has developed an automated contact-less ultra- violet (UVC) sanitisation cab- inet, called Defence Research Ultraviolet Sanitiser (DRUVS). It has been designed to sanitise mobile phones, iPads, laptops, currency notes, cheque leafs, challans, passbooks, paper, envelopes, etc. The DRUVS cabinet is hav- ing contactless operation which is very important to contain the spread of virus. The proximity sensor switches, clubbed with drawer opening and closing mechanism, makes its opera- tion automatic and contactless. It provides 360 degree exposure of UVC to the objects placed inside the cabinet. Once the sanitisation is done, the system goes in sleep mode hence the operator need not wait or stand near the device. The RCI has also developed an automated UVC currency sanitising device, called NOTESCLEAN. Bundles of currency notes can be sanitised using DRUVS, however, disin- fection of each currency notes using it will be a time-con- suming process. For that pur- pose, a sanitising technique has been developed, where one has to just place the loose cur- rency notes at the input slot of the device. It picks the notes one by one and makes them pass through a series of UVC lamps for complete disinfection. 3A3STeT[^_bPdc^PcTS R^]cPRc[Tbbd[caPeX^[TcbP]XcXbPcX^] RPQX]Tcc^UXVWcR^a^]P ?=BQ =4F34;78 InthebackdropoftheVizaggas tragedy, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued new safety guidelines to factories insisting for test or trial runs to avoid industrial disasters in the units. TheNDMAunderUnionHome Ministry insisted that no units should go for full fledged scale of production at least for seven days and test or trial run should be conducted to check the safe- ty of plants. The detailed guide- line directed all manufacturing unitsmustconductsafetychecks and trial runs and test the plants and machinery to avoid leaks or blasts in the units. The NDMA also directed a seriesofpandemicpreventionin work places such as 24-hour sanitisation of premises, tem- perature check of all employees twice daily, providing face shields, masks and PPEs (per- sonal protective equipment), creating physical distancing by erecting barriers on work floors and dining facilities and ensur- ing no sharing of tools etc. The authority also directed the fac- tories to make financial provi- sionsforcheckingthehealthcare of the workers. The guidelines say, “Factories need to maintain a sanitisation routine every two- three hours especially in the common areas that include lunchroomsandcommontables whichwillhavetobewipedclean withdisinfectantsaftereverysin- gleuse.”Thishastobedoneeven in case of accommodation, they add.Apartfromtwotemperature checksaday,theguidelineshave asked factories to ensure work- ers showing symptoms do not reporttoworkandtherearepro- visionsforhandsanitisers,gloves and mask for all. ?=BQ =4F34;78 Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday said that he is hopeful that Parliament’s Monsoon Session could be held on time, despite the Covid-19 crisis. The Monsoon Session normally begins in the last week of June or in the first week of July. Despite COVID- 19 crisis, I am hopeful that ses- sion could be held on time. But it will also depend on the situ- ation prevailing at that time, Birla told PTI Last year, the Monsoon SessionranbetweenJune20and August 7. The Speaker under- lined that it was a testing time due to the COVID-19 crisis, but expressed hope that the session could be held as per normal schedule. Asked whether it will be possible to hold the session if there are strict social-distancing norms still in place in June-July, Birla said a way out could be foundwhenthatsituationcomes. FewdaysagoBirlametVice President and Rajya Sabha Chairperson Venkaiah Naidu and discussed on using video conferencemethodsinthepanel meetingsofParliament.Birla,on whose initiative a control room wassetupinLokSabhaandstate assemblies for better coordina- tion between states in helping people, said this experiment turned out to be very successful as elected representatives from different States got in touch witheachotherandhelpedpeo- ple from their respective con- stituencies who are stuck in other places. MPs cutting across party lines reached out to people and helped them during this pan- demic-forced lockdown. They should be praised and I thank them,hesaid.Inthewakeofthe COVID-19 pandemic, the Budget session had to be ended prematurely on March 23, over 10 days ahead of its last sched- uled sitting on April 3. =30XbbdTb]TfbPUTch VdXST[X]Tbc^UPRc^aXTbc^ Pe^XSUdcdaTSXbPbcTab ?=BQ =4F34;78 Restaurants and hotels across the country have urged the State Governments to allow them to sell the liquor amid coronavirus lockdown. The move comes at a time when several state govern- ments have allowed the sale of retail alcohol with some guide- lines. In its appeal to the state governments, the Restaurants and hotels have stated that there is a stockpile of around C3,000 crore lying with them. Last week, the Supreme Court also advised the state govern- ments to consider the online sale or non-direct contact and home delivery of the same. National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) President Anurag Katriar said on one hand we are sitting with expensive liquor inven- tory and on the other hand, we are cash starved. We request every state Government to allow us an opportunity to sell our liquor stocks, preferably through home delivery model. This will help us deplete our stocks, raise some money to take care of urgent people needs and will still be compli- ant to social distancing norms. We understand that this may require some amendments to the law but I am sure it can be carried out under the current extraordinary circumstances, Katriar said. In similar vein, The Beer Cafe founder and CEO Rahul Singh said liquor sales in India take place through three licenced verticals -- retail, horeca (hotels, restaurants and catering) and canteen stores department. The total horeca licenced places are around 30,000 in the country and at any given time, the stock in hand would be for 1 month. Which means that due to lockdown, the total unsold inventory lying at various horeca outlets across India would be around Rs 3,000 crore, he added. While retail sales of liquor are opening, the service indus- try continues to be in limbo, he said. What we are asking the state governments is simple. All we are asking is to allow us to sell our stock on a tempo- rary basis. We would like to sell our stock, Singh said. Every country in the world has done this and it is also needed to be done here, he added. At least allow us to sell this stock that is with us of around C3,000 crore and get liquidity to pay wages and Fovernment should make temporary amendments to the rules. It will also ease the queues at the retail outlets, he added. ATbcPdaP]cbW^cT[bdaVTBcPcT6^ecbc^P[[^f[X`d^abP[T ;BB_TPZTa)^]b^^]BTbbX^][XZT[h^]cXT
- 5. ]PcX^]$347A03D=k=30H k0H !! 2E83 (DC1A40: :D0A274;;0??0=Q 274==08 Tamil Nadu Government’s decision to relax lockdown regulations from Monday morning suffered a setback as the State registered 669 new cases of coronavirus positive patients on Sunday. The addition of the 669 new entrants to the pandemic table took the number of persons tested positive in the State to 7,204. The last nine days saw the num- ber of covid-19 patients in the State going up from 2526 (May 1) to 7,204, an increase of 4,678. A medial bulletin issued by the Tamil Nadu Government on Sunday said the the number of fatalities rose to 47 as three more persons succumbed to the pandemic. Chennai with 509 coro- navirus cases led the tally on Sunday and the number of patients in the metrop- olis went up to 3,839, the highest in the State. But what is of concern to commu- nity health specialists in Chennai and the remaining parts of the State is the move by the Government to relax the lockdown restrictions and allow the opening of business and commercial establishments all over barring the containment regions. The Koyambedu Fruits and Vegetable Market, spread across an area of 65 acres has been shut down and all the shops were shifted to Thirumazhisai outside the Greater Chennai Municipal Corporation. Only wholesale traders would be allowed to operate from the new premises, according to the Government release. Dr K Kolandaswamy, former direc- tor of public health and preventive med- icine, Government of Tamil nadu who is working as an advisor to the State Governmet, told The Pioneer that there was no need to panic over the increas- ing numbers. “This is bound to happen and we are seeing is the impact of our carelessness towards hygiene and san- itation in the past. You can see that vil- lages where people observed cleanliness and sanitation are absolutely free of this pandemic. The increase in the number of coronavirus cases will continue for some more time but what we need is courage and the flexibility to observe the restrictions,” said Dr Kolandaswamy. The Tamil Nadu Government as part of its efforts to fight the pandem- ic and revive the ailing economy has set up a 24-member committee of experts headed by former Reserve Bank of India Governor C Rangarajan to assess the immediate and medium term impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the State’s economy. The 88-year-old economist and his colleagues in the committee has been asked by chief minister Edappadi Palaniswamy to suggest means to improve the tax-GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) ratio, diversifying revenue sources and re-prioritizing expenditure. Tamil Nadu Government is strategizing ways and means to woo the US and European companies who are quitting China to set up manufac- turing plants in the State. :D0A274;;0??0=Q :278 Kerala’s seesaw battle with coronavirus saw the pan- demic getting an upperhand on Sunday as seven persons test- ed positive for the pandemic. The new cases of covid-19 were reported from the districts of Wynadu (3), Thrissur (2) , Ernakulam and Malappuram (one each). K K Shylaja, Kerala Minister for Health, told a TV channel later in the evening that three of the seven fresh cases were from the expatriates who reached the State on Thursday. The details of the status of covid cases in the State was dis- closed through a press release by the Kerala Government as the daily media briefing by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was called off in the last minute. The release stated that 26, 712 persons are under obser- vation in the State as on Sunday. Out of this, 26,350 were under house observation while the rests have been hos- pitalized. The Vande Bharat Air India flight which was to bring back 181 expatriates from Doha was cancelled in the last minute. The flight was expect- ed to land in Thiruvananthapuram airport at 10 pm but the onward flight to Doha was not given permission by the Qatar Interior Ministry to land in that country, accord- ing to Gopalakrishnan, district c o l l e c t o r , Thiruvananathapuram. “We do not know the rea- sons for denial of permission for the Air India flight by the authorities in Qatar. But the passengers who had booked their tickets in this flight would be brought back on Tuesday,” said Gopalakrishnan. Besides passengers from the southern districts of Kerala, many per- sons hailing from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra had booked their tickets in this flight. Though the specially trained pilots and cabin crew for the flight had boarded the aircraft at Kozhikode airport by Sunday noon, they were called back as the authorities in Qatar denied permission to the air- craft to land in Doha. Notwithstanding setbacks like the return of coronavirus and the cancellation of the flight from Doha on Sunday, the State administration is going ahead with preparations to receive and take care of all the expatriates who are coming back. Many private college buildings have been converted into temporary quarantine sta- tions by modernizing and san- itizing them to receive the West Asian returnees. .HUDOD UHSRUWV VHYHQ QHZ FRURQDYLUXV FDVHV :D0A274;;0??0=Q :278 Aphysicist based in Kerala’s Kayamkulam has brought to life the age-old adage ‘Necessity is the Mother of Invention’. Rest and recupera- tion are two words which are alien to Dr M G Gireeshan, a PhD in electronics who works as the vice-principal of Perumbavoor’s Jai Bharat College. There are more than 200 technology driven inno- vations and inventions, many with patents, to his credit. Some of his inventions include the technology to prevent video piracy and the automatic sys- tem to guard un-manned level crossings at railway tracks. Though the national lock- down due to coronavirus pan- demic forced Gireeshan to stay at home, 200 km away from his workplace, he did not sit idle. In addition to extending help to his father P M Gopala Menon, a well known tantric scholar in the State, during his pujas, Dr.Gireeshan immersed himself in finding out a tech- nology to beat the coronavirus using the medium of electron- ics. The end result is a path- breaking instrument, which may send chill down the spine of law breakers. There were many instances of persons ordered to undergo quarantine and isolation escap- ing from the isolation wards hoodwinking the health staff as well as police men guarding them. Many who were sent home for quarantining too made use of the first available opportunity to come out of the isolation rooms much to the horror of the health officials and the local population. This may soon come to an end if the technology devel- oped by Gireeshan is put into use. Gireeshan used a a com- bination metalcraft and elec- tronics to develop a fool-proof Safety Handcuff in the form of a bracelet which could be worn by the person who has been asked to undergo quarantine or isolation. If the person tries to unlock or remove the bracelet in his bid to escape from the quar- antine room, an alarm bell will ring in the neighbouring houses. “This has been done taking into account the habit of Keralaites everywhere. Our best security guards are our neighbours who keep watchful eyes and ears to monitor any movements in our house. The small alarm system, as simple as a calling bell, could be installed in the neighbouring houses and once the alarm is sounded the neighbours can alert the relations of the patient as well as the local police sta- tion. It is a wireless system,” Gireeshan told The Pioneer. Please don’t be under the impression that the uniqueness of the invention is over. “It is possible for the policemen in the control room to detect any attempts by the quarantined person to remove the bracelet or to escape from the quaran- tine room. The TV screen installed in the control room or the mobile phone number attached to the control room would alert the policemen on duty about the intention of the person,” said Giresshan. He said that he incurred an expense of Rs 4,000 to develop the Safety Handcuff. Since medical experts, especially community medicine doctors are of the view that the Covid- 19 pandemic would be around for some more time, mass scale production of Safety Handcuffs is sure to being down the prices. Any takers for Safety Handcuffs? :TaP[P´b_WhbXRXbcPZTbbPUTchWP]SRdUU Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath Government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to provide employment to 90 lakh people in Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME). At a meeting with officials in Lucknow, the UP Chief Minister said: It is our commitment to bring back the glory of MSME sector. The present crisis due to coronavirus has given us an opportunity. We are tak- ing it as a challenge to turn Uttar Pradesh into the hub of MSME sec- tor. Banks will give loans to every willing entrepreneur on generous terms. This sector will provide at least 90 lakh job opportunities. At present there are 90 lakh MSMEs units in the state. The CM said rules for all types of NOCs will be relaxed along with the environ- mental clearances for new units. For transparency, all certificates will be available in a single-window system, Adityanath said. Uttar Pradesh has a rich histo- ry of micro, small and medium industries. The specific product of every district (one product in each district) is proof of this, he said. Yogi said, Entrepreneurs who set up units in this sector will be able to apply and get NOCs quickly. Online applications will be invited for loans from banks. Loans fairs will be organised between May 12 and May 15 in each district. Banks have been directed to provide loans on easy terms. The Chief Minister said the officials should motivate more entre- preneurs to set up units in the state. Prepare a detailed action plan as soon as possible. Despite the reces- sion, this sector has contributed sig- nificantly to the growth of per capi- ta income of the State in the last three years. We will further increase the income through this, he said. IANS Bengaluru: A 56-year-old woman suc- cumbed to Covid-19 here, even as peo- ple with travel history to north India spiked coronavirus cases in Karnataka, raising the tally to 848 with 54 new cases, highest single-day rise, according to an official on Sunday. Positive case number 846, a resident of Bengaluru Urban, died on Thursday. She was confirmed Covid-19 positive on Saturday, said a health official. The woman, who died in a private hospital, had symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). This is Karnataka's 31st Covid-19 death and Bengaluru Urban's seventh. Meanwhile, in the past 24 hours, Covid-19 cases spiked in Karnataka, with several people from Bagalkote, Belagavi and Shivamogga testing positive after visiting Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Ajmer in Rajasthan. Gujarat has been badly hit by coro- navirus and is second to Maharashtra in the number of cases. As of 5 p.m. Sunday, cumulatively 848 Covid positive cases have been confirmed in the state. These include 31 deaths, said the offi- cial. On Sunday, 36 people were dis- charged -- Kalaburagi (13), Chikkaballapura (4), Vijayapura (8), Belagavi, Gadag and Bagalkoe, 3 each and Myusuru and others, 1 each. Among the 394 active cases, 388 are isolated at designated hospitals and are stable, except six in the ICU. Thirty-two of the new cases are men while 22 are women, including 15 below 20. There were also seven children below 10 years of age. Of the 53 new cases, Belagavi con- tributed 22, Shivamogga and Bagalkote, 8 each, Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada, 7, Kalaburagi, 4, Bengaluru Urban, 3 each, Chintamani in Chikkaballapura and Davangere, 1 each. All eight men from Shivamogga had a travel history to Ahmedabad, seven of whom are from Shikaripura, hometown of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa. Until Saturday, Shivamogga was a green zone without a case, but eight new cases in the past 24 hours made it an orange zone overnight. Shivamogga is 312 km northwest of Bengaluru. All Belagavi and Bagalkote cases had a trav- el history to Ajmer. All Bhatkal cases were contacts of earlier cases. IANS 80=B Q 00A0E0C8 Andhra Pradesh's see-saw battle with Covid-19 saw the weekend close with 50 new cases on Sunday. The death toll further increased with one more death reported from the Kurnool district. Andhra Pradesh's nodal officer reported that the cumu- lative tally of Covid-19 cases in the state touched 1,980 by Sunday morn- ing. Of the 8,666 samples tested, 50 positive cases were detected in the 24 hours ending 10 a.m., Sunday. Chittoor district reported 16 cases — the highest numbers in AP, followed by Kurnool with 13 new cases. Six cases were detected in the Guntur dis- trict and five cases each were report- ed from Anantapur and Nellore dis- tricts respectively. The Prakasam dis- trict had only two cases in the past 24 hours while Kadapa, Krishna, and Visakhapatnam districts registered one case each. No new cases were reported from four of the state's 13 districts. Meanwhile, the death toll increased to 45, following the death of one person in the Kurnool district. The preceding 24 hours also saw 38 persons discharged from hospitals after they were declared totally cured of Covid-19. With this, the number of cured in the state stands at 925 peo- ple. Consequently, there are 1,010 active cases in Andhra Pradesh as of Sunday. On Saturday, the state's active cases tally had dipped below the 1,000-mark and with only 43 cases detected, Andhra Pradesh had report- ed it's lowest daily tally of Covid-19 cases in weeks. Kurnool district's cumulative tally tops the state list at 553, followed by Guntur and Krishna districts with 376 and 338 cases respectively. Seven of the state's 13 districts did not report any new cases in the last 24 hours. The State's top Covid-19hotspots of the Kurnool district continued to top the cumulative tally charts, with 566 cases detected here till date. Guntur's tally stands at 382, Krishna district has 339 cases and Anantapur has 107 case. Chittoor with 112 cases and Nellore with 101 cases are the latest to cross the 100-mark in terms of cumulative numbers. With the latest updates, six of the 13 districts have crossed the 100-mark. 80=B Q 06A0 Agra Central jail's inmate 60- year-old Virendra's death due to Covid-19 on Saturday, has alarmed other inmates and the jail adminis- tration, which has taken a series of steps to halt the spread of the infec- tion. Jail authorities have quarantined 14 other inmates of his ward and 16 wardens. DIG Lav Kumar has twice visited the jail to review the condi- tions and the facilities available in the jail premises. Other prisoners are said to be panic-stricken and have demanded testing. Against a capac- ity of around 1,500, the jail is over- crowded with 1,943 inmates. The deceased Virendra, serving life sentence, had been shifted to Agra from Jhansi in December 2019. He was admitted to the SN Medical College on May 3, after a brain stroke due to high blood pressure. His report on May 6, confirmed he was Covid-19 positive. Questions doing round here raise an accusing finger at the jail management. When meetings mulaakaat had been discontinued with the prisoners, of relatives and outsiders, how did Virendra get infected. Possibly he caught the infection in the hospital, but that is discounted as his stay was very short. Lucknow: A Government doc- tor, UP's first corona patient to get plasma therapy, died on Saturday night due to kidney infection. Dr Sunil Agarwal, the 58- year-old government doctor, was infected in the line of duty. His corona test report came negative for the second consecutive time on Saturday, hours before he passed away. Dr D. Himanshu, in-charge infectious disease unit, King George's Medical University (KGMU), said, He was dia- betic and suffering from acute respiratory syndrome. He was on ventilator throughout the treatment and given antiviral and symptomatic treatment. Since he was critical, we tried plasma therapy on him, after which the condition of his lungs improved and heart func- tioning was better. However, five days ago, he developed UTI that was not related to Corona. The dialysis was done twice, but infection aggravated and he died due to kidney failure. The doctor's wife, who was also being treated for coron- avirus, was declared recovered and discharged after her two consecutive tests came nega- tive. She was in the isolation ward adjacent to the ICU where husband was being treat- ed. Their son is a MBBS final year student in KGMU. Asked about the success of plasma therapy, Dr Himanshu said though patients showed positive signs after plasma therapy, nothing conclusive could be said at the moment. He said that clinical trials of the therapy will continue on other patients to reach a conclusion. Dr Sunil Agarwal was an anesthetist, posted in Orai in Jalaun district. He was a part of the Covid-19 team deployed in the Jalaun Medical College. Chief Medical Officer Jalaun, Dr Alpana Bartariya said, He was the first Corona case in the district and we still do not know how he got infect- ed.Family members said Dr Agarwal had fever for eight days and difficulty in breathing since April 16. He came to Lucknow along with his wife in an ambulance on April 24. Test reports of couple con- firmed corona on April 25. IANS FAddea]Rd^R cVTZaZV_eUZVd `WcV_R]WRZ]fcV0bZTSPQ^dccWTbdRRTbb^U _[PbPcWTaP_h3a7XP]bWd bPXScW^dVW_PcXT]cbbW^fTS _^bXcXeTbXV]bPUcTa_[PbP cWTaP_h]^cWX]VR^]R[dbXeT R^d[SQTbPXSPccWT^T]c RJL *RYW WR SURYLGH / MREV LQ 060( VHFWRU 0VaPYPX[X]PcTb STPcWUa^2^eXS RPdbTbR^]RTa] 9PX[PdcW^aXcXTbWPeT `dPaP]cX]TS #^cWTa X]PcTb^UWXbfPaSP]S % fPaST]b PRUH LQIHFWLRQV LQ 71 WRWDO DW Lucknow: A man was found dead in one of the Shramik Special trains com- ing to Lucknow from Gujarat, late on Saturday evening, police said. He was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead. Superintendent of Police (SP), Railways, Saumitra Yadav said the train had arrived from Dhola in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat. The SP said, None of the passengers informed us of the man being sick. When the train reached Lucknow, the police noticed a man lying life- less and rushed him to the Balarampur hospital where he was declared brought dead. The deceased has been identified as Kanhaiya, 30, resident of the Sitapur district. The SP said that since all the co-passengers had left the train when the police found the man, no details about his illness could be ascertained from them. IANS ;Qb^QdQ[QdQibYcUcd_ ($(gYdX%$^UgSQcUc ?=BQ 90D After successfully containing the spread of coronavirus at least in Jammu division, the Jammu Kashmir Government is fully geared up to receive stranded passengers via train services at Udhampur railway station from Monday. Elaborate arrangements for screening and sampling have been made by the government authorities to ensure smooth disbursal of passengers heading to different destinations. Meanwhile, 26 new posi- tive cases, three from Jammu division and 23 from Kashmir division were detected on Sunday taking the final tally in Jammu Kashmir to 862. Out of five districts of Kashmir val- ley, Anantnag district alone accounted for 119 active cases. According to the daily Media Bulletin on novel coro- navirus (Covid-19), out of 861 positive cases, 469 are Active Positive, 383 have recovered and 09 have died. One more patient,admitted in the GMC hospital tested positive late evening in Jammu. A close door neighbour of a family from Gurah Bakshi Nagar area also tested positive in Jammu. Meanwhile, health audit of Jammu district has been com- pleted and a total number of 14.4 lac residents were sur- veyed by the different health department teams. A total number of 600 samples were collected and four members of a family including their driver was tested positive. Large number of Rohingyas, screened during the health audit across different temporary camps in Jammu also tested negative during the survey,official sources said, Moreover, 15 more Covid- 19 patients have recovered and discharged from various hos- pitals of Kashmir Division, the bulletin said. District Development Commissioner, Dr Piyush Singla Sunday said, they have made all arrangements to receive the people of JK who are stranded outside and are being brought back to home through special trains and to be de-boarded at railway station Udhampur. The DDC informed that magistrates along with other staff members have been deployed to receive these pas- sengers at the platform. Besides, the district adminis- tration has made a specially designed app for registration of passengers. Data entry opera- tors have been deployed to guide the passengers about process of online registration on App. The Nodal officer at control room will get the real time data for data base man- agement, which will facilitate the allocation of buses for onward journey of these peo- ple to their home towns imme- diately. - . DOO VHW WR UHFHLYH VWUDQGHG SDVVHQJHUV YLD WUDLQ DW 8GKDPSXU C=A067D=0C70Q D108) With the ruling Congress decid- ing one of its candidate from the fray of the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls scheduled for May 21, Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray is likely to get elected unopposed to the Upper House of the State Legislature along with eight other candidates in the fray. A day after its state unit Balasaheb Thorat announced that the party would field two candidates –Rajesh Godirao Rathod and Rajeshkisho alias Papa Modi – for the May 21 Council polls, the Congress announced its decision to withdraw one of the two candidates from the poll fray. Since there are now nine candi- dates for as many seat in the State Council for which the biennial elec- tions are slated for May 21, the elec- tion of Uddhav and eight other can- didates in the fray has become a fore- gone conclusion now. Though Thorat was insistent on contesting two seats instead of one seat as he did not want to give one extra seat to the BJP, the Congress high command directed him to field only candidate to ensure that Uddhav is elected unopposed in the elections. The Congress high command did not want unnecessary complica- tions which would have arisen in the event of an election for nine seats from among the ten candidates. If there was an election, there was a pos- sibility of cross-voting which was not in the interest of the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi in the state. “Elections to nine Maharashtra Council seats will happen unopposed. Keeping in mind ongoing Coronavirus crisis and the candida- ture of Uddhav Thackeray in the elec- tions, the Congress has withdrawn one of its candidates. We are grate- ful to State Congress president Balasaheb Thorat and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan,” Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut tweeted in the evening. Uddhav, who was sworn in as the chief minister on November 28 last year, is not a member of either of the Houses of the State Legislature. As provided under the Constitution, Uddhav will in the normal course have to get elected to either of the Houses on or before May 27, the six- month deadline for his becoming a member of either of the Houses. The biennial elections to the State Legislative Council have been neces- sitated by the retirement on April 24 of nine members -- comprising four from the NCP, three from the BJP and one each from the Shiv Sena and Congress. Each party needs 29 votes to ensure its candidates elected to the Upper House of the State Asssembly. The BJP is the biggest gainer because of the Congress’ decision to pull out one of its candidates from the fray. Though it has a strength of 105 in the 288-member State Assembly as against 116 votes needed for winning four seats, the BJP had gone ahead and fielded four candidates. They are: Praveen Dhatke, Ranjitsinh Mohite- Patiol, Dr Ajit Gopchade and Gopichand Paralkar as its candidates for the State Council polls. PWPR^d]RX[_^[[b)DSSWPe bTcc^VTcT[TRcTSd]^__^bTS 0DQ IRXQG GHDG LQ 6KUDPLN 6SHFLDO WUDLQ IURP *XMDUDW $3 FRURQD WDOO DW PRUH GLVWULFWV FURVV PDUN TP]fWX[T!%]Tf_^bXcXeT RPbTbcWaTTUa^9Pd SXeXbX^]P]S!Ua^:PbWXa SXeXbX^]fTaTSTcTRcTS^] Bd]SPhcPZX]VcWTUX]P[cP[[hX] 9Pd:PbWXac^'%!