![1´34B78=8BC4A384B
52A=0E8ADB
3WPZP)01P]V[PSTbW
6^eTa]T]cX]XbcTaSXTS^]
BPcdaSPhSdTc^cWT]^eT[
R^a^]PeXadbPbcTbcbR^]SdRcTS
PUcTaWXbSTPcWPcPW^b_XcP[X]
3WPZPaTeTP[TSWTfPbbdUUTaX]V
Ua^2^eXS (^UUXRXP[bbPXS^]
Bd]SPh
?BH27:8;;4A74;3B0HB
³;8:43´:8;;8=6?4?;4
4cPW)0hTPa^[SP]Z]^f]
c^QTP_bhRW^ZX[[TaWPbQTT]
PaaTbcTSfWX[TcahX]Vc^WPRZWXb
T[STaQa^cWTafXcWP]PgT_^[XRT
bPXS
40AC7@D0:45$
06=8CD3478C6D9
0WTSPQPS) 0]TPacW`dPZT^U
$PV]XcdSTbW^^Z_Pacb^U
6dYPaPc^]Bd]SPh]XVWcQdc]^
PY^aSPPVTc^_a^_Tach^a[XUT
WPbQTT]aT_^acTSPb_Ta
_aT[XX]PahPbbTbbT]ccWT
BcPcT6^eTa]T]cbPXS
20?BD;4
A8=:D67B7Q =4F34;78
B
ack in the day when he
was awaiting his big
screen debut with Kai Po
Che, actor Sushant Singh
Rajput had sauntered into The
Pioneer office with a casual
ease, a winning smile, jeans and
tees, totally playing down his
heartthrob appeal among the
younger women staff. In fact,
he was acutely alert and dis-
arming at the same time, con-
trolling and spontaneous in bits
and pieces. The young man had
a sharp mind, playful, witty and
deep, depending on the ques-
tions one fielded at him. It was
this agility that helped this
boy from small-town Bihar to
score top grade as a mechani-
cal engineer at the Delhi
College of Engineering and
carve his way to stardom as he
loved theatre. So it is difficult
to understand that the same
young man lost control of
his mind and committed
suicide by hanging himself
from a ceiling fan after a
night of partying with
friends.
And amid the swamp of
the pandemic, Sushant’s suicide
is a grim reminder of how clin-
ical depression, for which he
had been taking help for the
last six months, got the bet-
ter of him. Was it the inse-
curity of a profession, where
he was actually delivering hits
consistently, prompting com-
parisons with his idol Shah
Rukh Khan as the next TV
star who would conquer the
big league of the film indus-
try? Was it the fleeting and
pyrrhic nature of fame or the
meaninglessness of it? Failed
relationships? Was it
the crumbling cir-
cle of his close
friends who
seemed to be in
a Hemlock
pact, his man-
ager commit-
ting suicide
just a few
d a y s
before? Or
was it his
deep trauma at
not having recov-
ered from his
mother’s death
when he was 16?
Any which way
his decision would be
irreconcilable consid-
ering many years ago
he had shared how
he developed
empathy, getting
into the skin of human char-
acters at theatre director Barry
John’s workshops, how he was
a spiritualist believing that we
are on a journey that should be
worth the end and how he
loved star-gazing as it remind-
ed him of the bigness of the
universe around us. And yes, he
loved reading books and writ-
ing. He did admit he was an
introvert but one never thought
that the devil would nest in the
corners of a mind that was ever
curious and probing.
One would tend to remem-
ber him by his short filmogra-
phy but he stood out in each of
his characters. Inspired by Jack
Nicholson and Daniel Day-
Lewis, he egolessly surrendered
to fill the contours of the com-
mon Indian youth, complete
with his anxieties and bravado.
Though a buddy film, he stood
out among Rajkumar Rao and
Amit Sadh in Kai Po Che. He
even received a nomination
for the Filmfare Award for Best
Male Debut. As the titular
detective in the action thriller
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, he
brought out the crevices of an
investigative mind with such
angularities and pointedness at
the same time that director
Dibakar Banerjee said he was
the true intellectual legacy inter-
preter of Bengal’s cult fiction
hero.
Of course, his highest-
grossing releases came with a
supporting role in the satire PK
(2014), followed by the biopic
MS Dhoni, The Untold Story. It
not only became one of the
highest grossers of Bollywood
but showed the maturity of an
actor, who was not overawed by
the aura of one of India’s most
loved cricketers, did not just
mimic his physicality but
invested him with a humanity
and emotion that shaped the
Captain Cool he had become.
Then there was Kedarnath,
Sonchiriya and Chhichhore,
where he brought alive people
from the dustbowl with
extraordinary grit, all of
whom ended up rescuing
humanity itself.
Perhaps, that’s the reason
why he set up a teaching acad-
emy to educate underprivi-
leged kids from the hinterland.
He had strong views on the
education system and didn’t
believe that we should add
more bricks to the wall. And at
one of The Pioneer discus-
sions, he even became pas-
sionate. “We shouldn’t be telling
the kids what to wear, what to
eat or who to vote.
?=BQ =4F34;78
The peak stage of coron-
avirus could come about in
mid-November when the
country will face paucity of iso-
lation and ICU beds as well
ventilators.
This alarming finding is
part of study conducted by the
Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR), which has
said the eight-week lockdown
along with strengthened pub-
lic health measures has delayed
the peak stage of Covid-19 pan-
demic in India.
The study conducted by
researchers from an Operations
Research Group of ICMR has
noted that if the coverage of
public health measures can be
increased to 80 per cent, the
epidemic can be mitigated,
otherwise around mid-
November there will be serious
shortage of isolation and ICU
beds as well as ventilators.
“The lockdown shifted the
peak of the pandemic by an
estimated 34 to 76 days and
helped bring down the number
of infections by 69 to 97 per
cent thereby allowing time for
the healthcare system to shore
up resources and infrastruc-
ture,” said the study. In the sce-
nario of intensified public
health measures with 60 per
cent effectiveness after lock-
down, the demand can be
met until the first week
of November.
After that, isolation beds
could be inadequate for 5.4
months, ICU beds for 4.6 and
ventilators for 3.9 months, pro-
jections by the health
researchers showed.
However, this shortfall is
estimated to be 83 per cent less
than what it could have been
without the lockdown and
public health measures.
With sustained
Government steps at increasing
the infrastructure and different
pace of epidemic in different
regions, the impact of unmet
need can be reduced.
If the coverage of public
health measures can be
increased to 80 per cent, the
epidemic can be mitigated, the
researchers stated.
According to the model-
based analysis for Covid-19
pandemic in India, with the
additional capacity which has
been built up for testing, treat-
ing and isolating patients dur-
ing the lockdown period, the
number of cases at the peak
would come down by
70 per cent and the cumulative
cases may come down by near-
ly 27 per cent.
B0?=0B8=67Q =4F34;78
The Centre and the Delhi
Government will fight
coronavirus together in the
national Capital as on Sunday
in a crucial meeting with
Lieutenant Governor Anil
Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal along with the AIIMS
Director, the Union Home
Minister Amit Shah said the
Central Government is com-
mitted to check Covid-19
spread in Delhi.
Key decisions which were
taken in the meeting included
Covid-19 testing to double in
in Delhi in the next two days
and subsequently increased by
three times in six days. Also,
the Centre will immediately
provide 500 converted rail
coaches to the Delhi
Government, which will
increase the bed capacity by
8,000. A committee has been
set up to ensure availability of
60 per cent beds by private
hospitals at lower rates and fix
the rate of corona testing and
treatment and house-to-house
health surveys will be con-
ducted in containment zones.
According to an official
statement, the Home Minister
has directed immediate trans-
fer of 4 IAS officers to New
Delhi to assist the Delhi
Government for management
of Covid and public health.
Two senior officers SS Yadav
and SCL Dass, currently post-
ed at the Centre, will assist the
Delhi Government, it said.
Announcing a slew of
measures to check the spread of
the coronavirus in the nation-
al Capital after he held a meet-
ing, Shah said Covid-19 tests
will be started at every polling
station in containment zones
and a comprehensive house-to-
house health survey will be
conducted in the hotspots for
contact tracing.
In view of shortage of beds
for coronavirus infected
patients in Delhi, the Modi
Government has decided to
immediately provide 500 rail-
way coaches which will be
equipped with all facilities, he
said. Also, detailed guidelines
will be issued for conducting
the last rites of those who suc-
cumb to the deadly virus.
Shah said a joint team of
doctors of the Union Health
Ministry, the Delhi
Government’s Health
Department, AIIMS and the
three Municipal Corporations
of Delhi will visit all Covid-des-
ignated hospitals in the Capital
and prepare a report after
inspecting the health systems
and preparedness.
The development comes
two days after the Supreme
Court lashed out at the AAP
Government, describing as
“horrific” the state of affairs in
Delhi hospitals with bodies
being stacked next to corona
patients.
It had also expressed con-
cern over fewer tests being con-
ducted in the national Capital
and had directed ramping up of
testing.
?=BQ =4F34;78
Facing the brunt of the
month-long stand-off
between the Indian and
Chinese troops along its terri-
tory, the Union Territory of
Ladakh is now struggling to
cope up with another nemesis:
Coronavirus.
During the last one week
alone, the UT has seen a five-
fold high in its number of
positive cases, going up from
103 on June 7 to 549 on June
14. During the last three days
the State has seen back-to-
back three 100 plus spikes,
recording the highest single-
day spike with 198 positive
cases on Saturday. On Sunday
it recorded 112 new cases.
As per the media bulletin
released by the Directorate of
Health Services UT Ladakh,
all of the 198 persons tested
positive for Covid-19 in
Kargil district.
With no marked change in
the Covid-19 situation,
Maharashtra on Sunday
recorded 120 new deaths and
3,390 fresh infections, taking
the total number of deaths to
3,950 and infected cases in the
State to 1,07,958 cases.
Delhi recorded 2,224 cases
and 56 deaths on Sunday tak-
ing its total number of cases to
41,182, including 15,823 recov-
ered/discharged/migrated,
24,032 active cases and 1,327
deaths.
This is the highest single-
day spike in the number of
Covid-19 cases.
=0E8=D?037H0HQ =4F34;78
Its contagious smite may be
losing its killer sting.
That may be the only speck
of hope for a world haunted by
talks of a possible second wave
of Covid-19 in the US, its
reappearance in Beijing, and
the alarming spread of the
deadly virus in South America,
Asia and the Middle East.
The cases are shooting up,
but the death curb is unmis-
takably on the bend.
On June 12, the total num-
ber of cases globally stood at
78,29,293 and the death tally at
4,30,813. In terms of Case
Fatality Rate (CFR), this turned
out to be 5.50 per cent.
A month ago on May 12,
the number of positive cases
worldwide stood at 43,06,378
and the death count at 2,92,946.
This translated into a mortal-
ity rate of 6.80 per cent. It
means during the one month
period, the CFR came down by
1.21 per cent.
Now let’s take a look at the
one-month period between
May 12 and June 12. During
this period the CFR further
came down. The total number
of cases globally stood at
43,06,378 on May 12, which
went up to 77,27,232 with the
addition of 35,28,915 new cases
by June 12. Similarly, the death
count went up from 2,92,946 to
4,27,698. Overall, during this
period the CFR stood at a mere
3.81 per cent, nearly 1.70 pc less
than the all-time CFR.
The global death count
peaked out
on April 25
when the
CFR stood at
7.28 per cent.
From then one, it witnessed a
steady decline from week to
week, fortnight to fortnight.
On May 10, the CFR stood at
6.99 per cent, on May 25 at 6.38
per cent, and on June 3 at
5.50 per cent.
Similarly, between May 31
and June 12 the global death
count rose by
one per cent
every day
with the exception of
just one day when it
shot up by 2 per cent on
May 27.
Compare this with the
period between May 1 and May
15 when out of 15 days, death
count rose by 2 per cent on 13
days and 3 per cent and one per
cent each on two other days.
There is another way of
looking at this declining trend.
On June 12, the world record-
ed 1,36,572 cases, the highest
single-day spike so far.
This included 8,000 more
cases over the previous day
count. On the same day, the
global death count stood at
4,925. This was 419 less death
than the previous day tally of
5,344.
Once again, the number of
cases went up, but the death
count came down.
?=BQ =4F34;78
In the backdrop of month
long stand-offs at the Line of
Actual Control (LAC) in
Ladakh, Defence Minister
Rajnath Singh on Sunday said
India will never compromise
on its “national pride” as it is no
longer a “weak” country.
Stressing the point that
the country’s security capabil-
ity has increased, he also
assured the Opposition that
talks with China were on to
peacefully resolve the con-
frontation.
Making these assertions
in a virtual rally in Jammu
Kashmir, he also said no one
will be kept in the dark
about the issue.
“I want to assure that we
will not compromise with
national pride under any cir-
cumstance. India is no longer
a weak India.
Our strength in national
security has risen. But this
strength is not meant to fright-
en anyone but to secure our
country,” he said.
?C8Q =4F34;78
A42-year old man suddenly
collapsed and died due to
natural causes onboard Air
India’s Lagos-Mumbai flight
on Sunday, the national carri-
er said.
The flight was part of
Vande Bharat Mission, under
which the Central Government
is operating special repatriation
flights to bring back stranded
Indians from abroad amid the
coronavirus pandemic.
Air India’s flight AI 1906
departed from Lagos in Nigeria
at 7 pm Indian Standard Time
on Saturday and landed in
Mumbai at 3.45 am on Sunday.
“A passenger aboard AI
1906 of June 13 from Lagos to
Mumbai passed away due to
natural causes today.
“A doctor onboard along
with our crew, trained to han-
dle such medical emergencies,
made a valiant attempt to
revive the passenger,
aged 42, who had suddenly col-
lapsed, through resuscitation
etc but all their efforts
went in vain,” the airline’s
spokesperson said.
4`gZUaVRZ_^ZU?`g+:4C
1HHG WR XSJUDGH IDFLOLWLHV E HOVH WKHUH¶OO EH VHYHUH VKRUWDJH RI ,8 EHGV YHQWLODWRUV
7HVWLQJ WR WULSOH . EHGV
LQ UDLO FRDFKHV LQ 'HOKL
DYRYg`hde`VVa5V]YZdRWVWc`^T`c`_R`_d]RfXYe
/DGDNK VHHV YLUXV VSLNH
DPLG VWDQGRII UHFRUG
ULVH LQ 'HOKL LQ D GD
R_UZVdWc`^
_RefcR]TRfdVd
`_S`RcU2Zc:_UZR
cVaRecZReZ`_W]ZXYe
,QGLD QR ORQJHU µZHDN¶
QHYHU FRPSURPLVH RQ
QDWLRQDO SULGH 5DMQDWK
B^PaX]VR^a^]PVTccX]V[TbbUPcP[cWPc´b^][hW^_T
D]X^]7^TX]XbcTa0XcBWPWW^[SbPTTcX]VfXcWD]X^]7TP[cWX]XbcTa7PabWEPaSWP]D]X^]7^TBTRaTcPah0YPh
:dPa1WP[[P3T[WX;60]X[1PXYP[3T[WX20aeX]S:TYaXfP[P]S^cWTabX]=Tf3T[WX^]Bd]SPh ?C8
exclusive
pioneer
90=D0AH! ('%°9D=4 #!!
BDB70=CB8=67A09?DC
$ EHDXWLIXO PLQG WKDW OHW LQ WKH GHYLO
XVaP]cb`dTdT^dcbXSTcWT2WWPcaP_PcXBWXePYXPWPaPYCTaX]dbc^aTcda]c^cWTXaW^Tc^f]X]dQPX^]Bd]SPh ?C8
CC0;
BC0C4B CC0;20B4B340C7BA42E4A43
PWPaPbWcaP ($' ($ $('
CPX[=PSd ##%% #$ !#$#
3T[WX # '! ! $'!
6dYPaPc !$( #' %
DccPa?aPSTbW % $ (('!%'
APYPbcWP] !$! !'%(#
FTbc1T]VP[ ' #$$%
PSWhP?aPSTbW '! #$(%
:Pa]PcPZP '(%
7PahP]P !'
1XWPa %#$ %($
0]SWaP?aPSTbW % $! '# %
9Pd:PbWXa $# $(!'(
CT[P]VP]P #(# '$!
0bbP #$ ' (%
4`gZU*
:?:?5:2
20B4B) !%
340C7B)($ #
A42E4A43)
%(#%#
02C8E4) $ (
/CWT3PX[h?X^]TTa UPRTQ^^ZR^SPX[h_X^]TTa7`]]`hfd`_+
fffSPX[h_X^]TTaR^
X]bcPVaPR^SPX[h_X^]TTa
;PcT2Xch E^[ #8bbdT %#
0XaBdaRWPaVT4gcaPXU0__[XRPQ[T
?dQ[XbWTS5a^
34;78;D2:=F 17?0;17D10=4BF0A
A0=278A08?DA 270=3860A7
347A03D= 7H34A0103E890HF030
4bcPQ[XbWTS '%#
51, 1R 5HJQ 877(1* 5(*' 1R 8$'2''1
347A03D==30H9D=4 $!!*?064B !C!
m
@A:?:@?'
340C75C74
833;42;0BB
@?6J*
5D4;?A824BA8B4
E4AC#?4A;8CA4
CEID9B54
?665597
2E5
! F9F139DI m
DA@CE#
=0?;8140C8=C4AC
A40272??08C0;8058=0;](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/pioneer-dehradun-e-paper-15-06-2020-200615135736/85/Pioneer-dehradun-e-paper-15-06-2020-1-320.jpg)
![dccPaPZWP]S!347A03D=k=30H k9D=4 $!!
3ULQWHG DQG SXEOLVKHG E $MLW 6LQKD IRU DQG RQ EHKDOI RI 0. 3ULQWHFK /WG SXEOLVKHG DW 8QLJDWH *HQHUDO 0HGLD 3YW /WG 2OG 1HKUX RORQ 2SS 8WWDUDNKDQG -DO 6DQVWKDQ 'KDUDPSXU 'HKUDGXQ 3K 0RE DQG SULQWHG DW $PDU 8MDOD 3XEOLFDWLRQV /WG 6KHG 1R 3DWHO 1DJDU R2SHUDWLYH ,QGXVWULDO $UHD
'HKUDGXQ 8WWDUDNKDQG (GLWRU KDQGDQ 0LWUD $,5 685+$5*( RI 5H (DVW DOFXWWD 5DQFKL %KXEDQHVZDU 1RUWK /HK :HVW 0XPEDL $KPHGDEDG 6RXWK %DQJDORUH KHQQDL HQWUDO .KDMXUDKR 'HOKL 2IILFH 1R %HKLQG *XODE %KDZDQ %DKDGXU 6KDK =DIDU 0DUJ 1HZ 'HOKL 3KRQH RPPXQLFDWLRQ 2IILFH ) 6HFWRU
12,'$ *DXWDP %XGK 1DJDU 83 3KRQH /XFNQRZ 2IILFH WK )ORRU 6DKDUD 6KRSSLQJ HQWUH )DL]DEDG 5RDG /XFNQRZ 7HOHSKRQHV
$OWKRXJK HYHU SRVVLEOH FDUH DQG FDXWLRQ KDV EHHQ WDNHQ WR DYRLG HUURUV RU RPLVVLRQV WKLV SXEOLFDWLRQ LV EHLQJ VROG RQ WKH FRQGLWLRQ DQG XQGHUVWDQGLQJ WKDW LQIRUPDWLRQ JLYHQ LQ WKLV SXEOLFDWLRQ LV PHUHO IRU UHIHUHQFH DQG PXVW QRW EH WDNHQ DV KDYLQJ DXWKRULW RI RU ELQGLQJ LQ DQ ZD RQ WKH ZULWHUV HGLWRUV SXEOLVKHUV DQG SULQWHUV DQG VHOOHUV ZKR GR QRW RZH DQ UHVSRQVLELOLW IRU DQ
GDPDJH RU ORVV WR DQ SHUVRQ D SXUFKDVHU RI WKLV SXEOLFDWLRQ RU QRW IRU WKH UHVXOW RI DQ DFWLRQ WDNHQ RQ WKH EDVLV RI WKLV ZRUN $OO GLVSXWHV DUH VXEMHFW WR WKH H[FOXVLYH MXULVGLFWLRQ RI FRPSHWHQW FRXUW DQG IRUXPV LQ 'HOKL1HZ 'HOKL RQO 5HDGHUV DUH DGYLVHG DQG UHTXHVWHG WR YHULI DQG VHHN DSSURSULDWH DGYLFH WR VDWLVI WKHPVHOYHV DERXW WKH YHUDFLW RI DQ NLQG RI DGYHUWLVHPHQW EHIRUH
UHVSRQGLQJ WR DQ FRQWHQWV SXEOLVKHG LQ WKLV QHZVSDSHU 7KH SULQWHU SXEOLVKHU HGLWRU DQG DQ HPSORHH RI WKH 3LRQHHU *URXS·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 B78;0
In a bid to boost the econo-
my hit by the coronavirus
pandemic, the Himachal
Pradesh government on
Sunday exempted several cat-
egories from the purview of
mandatory home quarantine
amid interstate movement.
Under the standard oper-
ating procedures (SOPs) for
interstate movement of indus-
trial workers, industrialists,
factory owners, traders, raw
material suppliers, service
providers and inspecting
authorities, they will be
exempted from home quaran-
tine, a government statement
said.
The Chairman, State
Executive Committee (SEC),
has ordered few additions and
amendments in the orders
and regarding quarantine
requirements and has direct-
ed all the departments and
organisations, District
Magistrate, Police Officers,
officials and local authorities
of Himachal Pradesh to
ensure the directions of the
National Disaster
Management Authority and
the National Executive
Committee (NEC).
A spokesperson of the
Revenue department and
Disaster Management said
that as per the amendments,
the person covered under
SOPs for inter-state move-
ment of industrial workers,
industrialists, factory own-
ers, traders, raw material sup-
pliers, service provider,
inspecting authorities will be
exempted from purview of
home quarantine.
The persons visiting the
State for bonafide purpose of
trade, business, job, project,
service purpose, commission
agents and arhtiyas with sup-
porting documents and enter-
ing the State with valid per-
mit/e-pass and not coming
from high COVID-19 case
load cities and other contain-
ment zones from rest of the
country will also be exempted
from the purview of quaran-
tine.
He said that the manage-
ment, incharge or head of any
NGO or any charitable organ-
isation, which has branches in
the State and travels to the State
of Himachal Pradesh in con-
nection with its affairs or for an
official meeting, for a short
duration not exceeding 48
hours and don't mix with gen-
eral masses, follows all social
distancing and other COVID-
19 prevention
protocols/norms, does not
organize any social/cultural
or any other gathering of any
sort, shall be exempt from
quarantine requirement in the
State.
The spokesperson said that
all persons coming from high
case load COVID-19 infected
cities will be institutionally
quarantined.
Only for exceptional and
compelling reasons may be
permitted to be home quaran-
tined, instead of institutional
quarantine, for 14 days. The
migrant labourers coming in
the State can be sent directly to
the work site of the orchardist,
agriculturist, contractor, project
proponents.
ALL HIMACHAL DIS-
TRICTS TO HAVE REVIEW
MEETINGS FOR IMPLE-
MENTATION OF STIMU-
LATION PACKAGE
Himachal Chief Minister
Jai Ram Thakur has approved
review meetings to be held in
each district of the State to
make an assessment of the
arrangements made in the dis-
tricts for containing the spread
of COVID-19 as well as district
plans towards re-starting the
economic activities including
development works.
These review meetings will
be chaired by the Speaker,
Ministers, Deputy Speaker,
Deputy Chairman and Chief
Whip.
The agenda approved by
the Chief Minister for these
meetings at the District level
include review of arrangements
made for containment of
COVID-19, review of imple-
mentation of all flagship pro-
grammes started by the central
and state governments, uti-
lization of unspent amount, sta-
tus of Chief Minister's
announcements, progress of
schemes on which foundation
stones were laid by the Chief
Minister.
Speaker Vidhan Sabha,
Vipin Singh Parmar will chair
the meeting in Kangra district
on 16 June, 2020. Similarly, Jal
Shakti Minister Mahender
Singh Thakur will preside over
meeting in Mandi district on 17
June, Education Minister
Suresh Bhardwaj in Shimla
district on 23 June.
Urban Development and
Housing Minister Sarveen
Chaudhary in Hamirpur dis-
trict on 26 June, Agriculture
Minister Dr. Ram Lal
Markanda in Lahaul and Spiti
district on 28 June, Rural
Development and Panchayati
Raj Minister Virender Kanwar
in Una district on 18 June,
Industries Minister Bikram
Singh in Chamba district on
19 June, Forest Minister
Govind Singh Thakur in Kullu
district on 22 June, Social
Justice and Empowerment
Minister Dr. Rajiv Saizal in
Solan district on 20 June,
Deputy Speaker Hans Raj in
Kinnaur district on 27 June,
Deputy Chairman, State
Planning Board Ramesh
Dhawala in Bilaspur district
on 29 June and Chief Whip
Narender Bragta in Sirmaur
district on 24 June.
6.82 LAKH QUINTAL PEAS
AND OFF-SEASON VEG-
ETABLES SENT FROM
HIMACHAL DURING
LOCKDOWN
About 6.82 lakh quintal
peas, cauliflower and other off
season vegetables have been
sent to neighbouring states
despite a lockdown, a govern-
ment spokesperson said. In
the wake of the Corona pan-
demic, for smooth transporta-
tion of farm produce, Kisan
Rath Mobile app was also
launched.
Information of five lakh
trucks and 20 thousand
tankers were also made avail-
able with the help of this app
to facilitate farmers and
traders, so that the farmers
and traders could easily
transport their produce and
various other vegetables to
markets of the State and out-
side the State.
The spokesperson said
about 35164 quintal seeds of
rice, maize, sorghum, bajra
and other such seeds were
made available at subsidised
rate through Agriculture
Distribution Centres.
@dPaP]cX]TfPXeTSU^aX]SdbcaXP[f^aZTab^cWTabX]7XPRWP[
?=BQ 270=3860A7
With 10 COVID-19 related
deaths and 459 fresh
cases in the last 24 hours,
Haryana’s tally of cases crossed
7000-mark on Sunday.
Gurugram and Faridabad
continued to witness the surge
in positive cases with
Gurugram reporting 169 and
Faridabad 191 fresh cases in the
last 24 hours.
The state count stood at
7208 positive cases including
4117 active patients. Ten more
deaths were reported in
Haryana taking the toll to 88.
A day before, the state had
recorded 415 cases of
Coronavirus and eight deaths.
After the continuous spike
in cases, the case-doubling rate
in Haryana on Sunday was
recorded as eight days, COVID
positive rate was 4.01 per cent,
recovery rate was 41.66 percent
and fatality rate stood at 1.22
percent. Till date, 3003 patients
including 200 in the last 24
hours have recovered and been
discharged from hospitals.
“Out of 459 fresh cases,
169 were reported from
Gurugram, 191 from
Faridabad, 15 in Ambala, 13
each in Rohtak and Palwal, 10
in Kurukshetra among other
cases.
Gurugram has reported a
total of 3294 cases while
Faridabad has recorded 1277
positive cases so far,” according
to the state Health
Department’s evening bulletin.
The total cases in the state are
7208. Ten deaths were report-
ed in Haryana in the last 24
hours and the total
Coronavirus deaths recorded
so far are 88, the bulletin stat-
ed.
Just a week back, Haryana
had on June 7 witnessed its
biggest single-day spike with
496 COVID-19 cases and
crossing 4000 mark. As many
as 1.85 lakh samples have been
tested till date in Haryana.
The report of 5836 samples is
awaited, the state’s bulletin
stated.
Additional Chief Secretary,
Health, Rajeev Arora on
Sunday said 1523 patients have
recovered in the last one week
whereas 2797 new patients
admitted in health facilities or
homes isolated in the same
period.
He informed that calls
related to Coronavirus,
telemedicine and mental health
were received at call center
(1075). A total of 149843 health
calls are received at the call cen-
ter. This included 121752
Corona related calls and 28091
calls for telemedicine. 1000
doctors of different specializa-
tions were made available for
Tele Consultation through call
centers, he said.
Arora further said that
special focus is given on time-
ly tracings of COVID positive
cases and treatment thereof.
The State Government has also
taken initiative to start calling
the cases which are in home
isolation to take feedback from
them on various issues like
availability of regular health
services to them.
7PahP]PaT_^acb STPcWb#$(UaTbWRPbTbX]!#W^dab
Q 7KH VWDWH FRXQW VWRRG DW SRVLWLYH FDVHV LQFOXGLQJ
DFWLYH SDWLHQWV
Q $IWHU WKH FRQWLQXRXV VSLNH LQ FDVHV WKH FDVHGRXEOLQJ
UDWH LQ +DUDQD RQ 6XQGD ZDV UHFRUGHG DV HLJKW GDV
29,' SRVLWLYH UDWH ZDV SHU FHQW UHFRYHU UDWH
ZDV SHUFHQW DQG IDWDOLW UDWH VWRRG DW SHUFHQW
?C8Q =4F34;78
The domestic political rum-
blings in Nepal, its growing
aspirations and assertiveness
driven by China's strong eco-
nomic backing and India's
complacency in engaging
with it made the landlocked
nation take the unprecedented
step of escalating its decades-
old border row with India to a
new high, strategic affairs
experts said on Sunday.
The communist
Government of Nepal on
Saturday managed to get a
unanimous approval of the
lower house of the country's
parliament to a new map
depicting disputed areas of
Lipulekh, Kalapani and
Limpiyadhura as Nepalese ter-
ritories, prompting India to say
that such artificial enlarge-
ment of territorial claim is
untenable.
The vote, notwithstanding
the all-encompassing cultural,
political and trade ties of seven
decades between the two coun-
tries, is seen as a reflection of
Nepal's readiness to take on the
regional giant, India, and sig-
nals that it no longer cares
about the old framework of
relationship.
Rakesh Sood, who was
Indian Ambassador to Nepal
from 2008 to 2011, said both
sides have allowed the rela-
tionship to come to a very very
dangerous point and that India
should have found time to
engage with Kathmandu as it
pressed for talks on the issue
since November.
I think we have displayed
a lack of sensitivity, and now
the Nepalese have dug them-
selves deeper into the hole
from which they will find it dif-
ficult to come out, he told PTI.
Nepal shares a border of
over 1,850 km with five Indian
states - Sikkim, West Bengal,
Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and
Uttarakhand. In sync with the
unique ties of friendship, the
two countries have a long tra-
dition of free movement of
people across the border.
According to official data,
nearly eight million Nepalese
citizens live and work in India.
The two countries also have
solid defence and trade ties.
India is the largest trading
partner of Nepal, and the total
bilateral trade in 2018-19 was
Rs 57,858 crore. Currently,
about 32,000 Gorkha soldiers
from Nepal are serving in the
Indian Army.
Ambassador Ranjit Rae,
who served as Indian envoy to
Nepal between 2013 and early
2017, said Prime Minister KP
Sharma Oli decided to go
ahead with the new map just to
consolidate his position and
overcome rumblings in domes-
tic politics. This sort of play-
ing up anti-India sentiment had
helped him in winning the
elections and he thought it will
again help him now as he is
under lot of domestic pressure,
he said.
I think it is related to Oli's
insecurity domestically as his
position in Nepal is quite weak.
There have been a lot of
demonstrations in Nepal for
the Government's failure in the
economic front, on managing
COVID-19. There have been
rumours within Nepali
Communist Party that there
may be a change in leadership.
I think this has been a lifeline
for Oli, he said.
India's relations with
Nepal came under severe strain
following the 2015 economic
blockade. Since then, China
has been pumping in huge
amount of financial resources
in Nepal, helping the land-
locked country in laying new
roads including connecting it
to Chinese cities for trans-
portation of petroleum and
other essential products, osten-
sibly to help Kathmandu cut
dependence on New Delhi.
China is also planning to
lay an ambitious railway net-
work connecting Kathmandu
and Shigatse in Tibet where it
would join an existing railway
line to Lhasa. China has also
offered Nepal four ports for
shipment of goods to the land-
locked country which previ-
ously had to rely heavily on
routes through India.
Prof S D Muni, a noted
strategic affairs expert, said
China has been a factor in the
whole issue as Nepal was more
encouraged to raise the issues
with India realising that Beijing
has been supporting it.
However, he said the big-
ger message from Nepal was
that the Nepalese are asserting
themselves and the old frame-
work of special relations is
gone completely. They do not
care about it. You will have to
deal with Nepal differently,
with little more sensitivity and
with little more tact and under-
standing. It is a new Nepal.
Over 65 per cent of Nepalese
are very young people. They do
not care about the past. They
have their aspirations. Unless
India is relevant to their aspi-
rations, they would not care,
he said.
By going for a constitu-
tional amendment for the new
map, Ambassador Sood
argued, Nepal is converting
what was a difference in terms
of territorial perceptions into a
dispute and making its position
non-negotiable over it.
We have a territorial dispute
with China; our militaries are
right now talking about 'dis-
engagement'. We have a terri-
torial dispute with Pakistan;
our militaries are eyeball-to
eyeball and there is firing
across the Line of Control,
Sood said.
Is that how we want to
visualise our border with Nepal
by making it a dispute when we
have shared an open border
with free movement of people
since the British days and
which has continued after 1947
as well, he asked. The for-
mer diplomat said the only
option before the two countries
was to have talks. Asked
whether China was behind
Nepal's 'bold' move, Sood said
he did not believe Kathmandu
has taken up the issue at
Beijing's behest though he
agreed that Chinese influence
in the Himalayan nation has
grown in recent years.
Sood, who served in the
Indian missions in Brussels,
Dakar, Geneva,Islamabad and
Washington, expressed dismay
over India not responding to
Nepal's call for talks on the
sticky issue, saying New Delhi
should have found time to
engage with the neighbouring
nation.
Everyday we keep reading
that our prime minister has had
virtual meetings with 50 of his
counterparts, our external
affairs minister has had virtu-
al meetings with 70 of his
counterparts; surely it should
have been possible to have a
meeting with the Nepalese
officials at some level or the
other - foreign minister, foreign
secretary or at the level of the
prime minister, he said.
Muni, who was India's
Ambassador to Lao PDR,
appeared to agree with Sood.
There are a lot of areas where
India has shown complacency
and over-confidence in dealing
with smaller neighbours. Nepal
is no exception to that.
He also said that China has
been factor as Nepal was more
encouraged to raise the issues
with India since Beijing has
been supporting it. Rae said
Nepal's decision to go for the
constitutional amendment will
make the issue more compli-
cated to resolve.
I think it is going to com-
plicate the relation rather than
improve them. It will make the
issue more intractable. I agree
that since November they have
been saying that they wanted to
talk but for one reason or the
other talks were not immedi-
ately possible, he said.
But we did say that we will talk
after the coronavirus crisis is
over. So there was no pressing
urgency for Nepal to go ahead
with the constitutional amend-
ment. After all the issue has
been pending since 1997; so
another few months would not
have made such a big differ-
ence, said Rae.
Muni, a professor emeri-
tus in Jawaharlal Nehru
University, also said India's
Neighbourhood First policy
derailed as its implementation
was allowed to go berserk.
Sood, too, wondered why India
should tell Nepal that it will talk
on the matter only after the
coronavirus crisis is over. I can
understand that India too has
made mistakes. I do think we
should have found time to
engage with Nepal, he said.
We keep saying that we
have a very close historical, cul-
tural, linguistic and religious
affinity with Nepal. Then why
be so insensitive that we can-
not find time to talk to them for
more than 5-6 months.
They raised the issue in the
month of November and that
time there was no COVID cri-
sis, he said.
?VaR]VdVa`]ZeZTd4YZ_RSRTZ_XVdTR]ReVUS`cUVcc`h+6iaVced
?C8Q :0C70=3D
Nepal Parliament's upper
house on Sunday endorsed
a proposal to discuss the
Constitution amendment bill to
update the country's new polit-
ical map that includes three
strategically key Indian terri-
tories, a day after the lower
house unanimously voted in
favour of the bill.
Nepal's ruling and oppo-
sition political parties on
Saturday voted in unison to
amend the Constitution to
update the national emblem by
incorporating the controversial
map incorporating Lipulekh,
Kalapani and Limpiyadhura
in India's Uttrakhand, a move
described by New Delhi as
untenable.
Of the total 275 lawmakers
in the House of Representatives
on Saturday, all 258 lawmakers
present in the house voted in
favour of the Constitution
amendment bill. Now, the
bill will undergo a similar
process in the National
Assembly, wherein the ruling
Nepal Communist Party com-
mands two-thirds majority.
Rajendra Phuyal, secretary
of the National Assembly
Secretariat, tabled the bill at the
first meeting of the upper
house on Sunday,
The Kathmandu Post
reported.
During the second meeting
of the National Assembly later
on Sunday, Law Minister Shiva
Maya Tumbahangphe tabled a
proposal to consider the bill for
discussions, the paper said.
After the discussions, the pro-
posal to consider the bill was
unanimously endorsed, it
added. The National Assembly
will give lawmakers 72 hours to
move amendments
against the bill's provi-
sions, if they have any.
We are making nec-
essary preparations to endorse
the bill within
the next four days, Phuyal
was quoted as saying by the
paper.
After the National
Assembly passes the bill, it
will be submitted to the
President for authentication,
after which it will be incorpo-
rated in the Constitution. After
that, the new map will be used
in all official documents,
including the coat of arms.
Meanwhile, the
main Opposition Nepali
Congress has urged the gov-
ernment to intensify diplo-
matic efforts to ensure the
country's rights in the Kalapani
area after the country includes
its updated political and
administrative map in the
Constitution, the Himalayan
Times reported. In a press
statement on Saturday, the
party said the campaign to
reclaim encroached territories
would enter the second phase
after the revised map incorpo-
rating Limpiyadhura, Lipulek
and Kalapani areas as its parts,
gets endorsed and this would
mark a significant solidarity in
the issue of nationality.
Reacting to Kathmandu's
move, Ministry of External
Affairs Spokesperson Anurag
Srivastava said on Saturday
this artificial enlargement of
claims is not based on histori-
cal fact or evidence and is not
tenable. It is also violative of our
current understanding to hold
talks on outstanding boundary
issues.
The India-Nepal bilateral
ties came under strain after
Defence Minister Rajnath
Singh inaugurated a 80-km-
long strategically crucial road
connecting the Lipulekh pass
with Dharchula in Uttarakhand
on May 8. Nepal reacted
sharply to the inauguration of
the road claiming that it passed
through Nepalese territory.
India rejected the claim assert-
ing that the road lies completely
within its territory.
=T_P[bd__TaW^dbTT]S^abTb
_a^_^bP[c^R^]bXSTaPT]ST]c
c^d_SPcT]Tf_^[XcXRP[P_
B7A4H0
What a weird year 2020 is.
How we imagined it to be
important, meaningful and top
notch but it had plans of its
own. How excited I was to take
my first step into the senior
school but things took an unex-
pected turn. As a student how
has Covid-19, lockdown and
quarantine affected me? Well,
my birthday was almost at the
start of this lockdown period,
so I had to cancel my party,
uninvite all of my friends and
that was the moment when I
actually started to hate the
coronavirus.
I was kind of happy that
there would be no school and
extended vacations but also sad
at the same time that I would-
n’t have a proper first day of IX
class. When the news of online
classes came in, I had some-
what mixed feelings about that.
Online classes were the best
that the schools could do in
these uncertain times.
The first day could have
been little better, half of the
time was gone in Internet
issues and in almost every
class something or the other
would go wrong.
I was happy thinking that
the teachers would go easy on
us and not a lot of homework
would be given but that was not
to be. Everyday we had home-
work for every subject and the
syllabus was vast. Every
evening and afternoon we were
busy completing the home-
work and would not have time
for any self-study. On top of
that, school was for six hours
during which we were con-
stantly staring at a laptop screen
and only studying. This just
made it worse.
Due to the fact that our
screen time had drastically
increased, many of us would
experience headaches and be
exhausted by the end of the day.
Needless to say, none of us liked
or wanted to study for six
hours straight! In school we
had sports, art and music, and
other activities throughout the
day but online classes had
none of that.
To make it worse, our
friends weren’t there with us to
get us through the day. There
we were staring at our screens,
giving answers now and then,
just studying without any sup-
port from our friends. This
unfortunate reality was over-
whelming andt pulled all the
fun out of school. Everything
we loved about school was
there no more and this painful
reality had become our every-
day routine.
But as time passed, we
adjusted and adapted to this
system and tried to see the bet-
ter side of it. We interacted
more in class, if we missed our
friends we would -face time
them and tried to make a new
routine in this weird phase.
Every summer I would go
swimming or cycling with my
friends, go to the park, the mall
and just do something inter-
esting everyday. But now since
I’m stuck at home for 24 hours
the level of boredom has
reached its peak. I know this is
the time to polish up your tal-
ents, do what you love- which
for me would surely be art. I
have made many new pieces of
art but now everything seems
so bland, I’m bored of that too.
But recently we just received
the holiday homework and
frankly it has given me at least
something interesting to do but
as I started to actually attempt
the homework I realised it was
not something but a great deal
of work.
Those things aside, even
the weather was not in my
favour. Whenever I went in the
balcony, I was met by a flam-
ing floor and scorching heat.
I started to be so depen-
dent on the AC and actually
grateful for it. One benefit that
came out of the lockdown was
family time. I had so much
time to actually bond with my
parents, play games with them,
watch movies together and
have discussions about my
future.
I learned how to cook new
snacks, do some household
chores and help around the
house.
I actually looked forward
to all these moments. Once in
a while we would have fights
but even that indirectly was a
mode of entertainment for all
of us.
But as I looked outside my
own life, things were getting
scarier and alarming- coron-
avirus had affected millions of
lives all over the world.
The cases in India itself are
growing rapidly and spreading
like wildfire.
Suddenly my problems, all
the homework, no notebooks,
all of this just didn’t matter any-
more. Realising how a huge
number of people were losing
their loved ones, the fear the
victims were facing if they
would be alive to see tomorrow,
all of this was so much more
important, bigger than my own
problems.
(The writer is a class IX
student at MIS, New Delhi)
0V[X_bT^UPbcdST]c´b[XUTSdaX]V[^RZS^f]
?=BQ 270=3860A7
Punjab Government on
Sunday notified Voluntary
Disclosure Scheme (VDS) for
the consumers having unap-
proved water connection in the
rural areas.
Under the scheme, the
Water Supply and Sanitation
Department offers an oppor-
tunity to consumers for vol-
untarily disclose their unap-
proved connections for regu-
larization “free of cost”. As per
the policy, no charges will be
taken from consumers for the
previous usage of water, if any.
The scheme will be for-
mally launched on June 15
(Monday) and last date to
apply under VDS is July 15,
said the state Water Supply and
Sanitation Minister Razia
Sultana, adding that the new
connections can also be applied
during this period.
The Water Supply and
Sanitation Minister said that
department has also planned to
conduct third party compre-
hensive household survey of all
rural households in Punjab
from July onwards.
During the survey, if any
consumer is found with unap-
proved connection after closure
of VDS, that is July 15, 2020, his
or her connection will be dis-
connected and charges will be
collected from him or her
towards unapproved usage of
water in the past.The Minister
added that the Department of
Water Supply and Sanitation is
hopeful of getting huge
response from the citizen with
regard to this scheme.
?d]YPQ[Pd]RWTbE3Bc^
aTVd[PaXiTd]P__a^eTSfPcTa
R^]]TRcX^]bX]adaP[PaTPb](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Empfohlen
Empfohlen
Weitere ähnliche Inhalte
Ähnlich wie Pioneer dehradun-e-paper-15-06-2020
Ähnlich wie Pioneer dehradun-e-paper-15-06-2020 (20)
Mehr von DunEditorial
Mehr von DunEditorial (20)
Kürzlich hochgeladen
Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)
Pioneer dehradun-e-paper-15-06-2020
- 1. 1´34B78=8BC4A384B 52A=0E8ADB 3WPZP)01P]V[PSTbW 6^eTa]T]cX]XbcTaSXTS^] BPcdaSPhSdTc^cWT]^eT[ R^a^]PeXadbPbcTbcbR^]SdRcTS PUcTaWXbSTPcWPcPW^b_XcP[X] 3WPZPaTeTP[TSWTfPbbdUUTaX]V Ua^2^eXS (^UUXRXP[bbPXS^] Bd]SPh ?BH27:8;;4A74;3B0HB ³;8:43´:8;;8=6?4?;4 4cPW)0hTPa^[SP]Z]^f] c^QTP_bhRW^ZX[[TaWPbQTT] PaaTbcTSfWX[TcahX]Vc^WPRZWXb T[STaQa^cWTafXcWP]PgT_^[XRT bPXS 40AC7@D0:45$ 06=8CD3478C6D9 0WTSPQPS) 0]TPacW`dPZT^U $PV]XcdSTbW^^Z_Pacb^U 6dYPaPc^]Bd]SPh]XVWcQdc]^ PY^aSPPVTc^_a^_Tach^a[XUT WPbQTT]aT_^acTSPb_Ta _aT[XX]PahPbbTbbT]ccWT BcPcT6^eTa]T]cbPXS 20?BD;4 A8=:D67B7Q =4F34;78 B ack in the day when he was awaiting his big screen debut with Kai Po Che, actor Sushant Singh Rajput had sauntered into The Pioneer office with a casual ease, a winning smile, jeans and tees, totally playing down his heartthrob appeal among the younger women staff. In fact, he was acutely alert and dis- arming at the same time, con- trolling and spontaneous in bits and pieces. The young man had a sharp mind, playful, witty and deep, depending on the ques- tions one fielded at him. It was this agility that helped this boy from small-town Bihar to score top grade as a mechani- cal engineer at the Delhi College of Engineering and carve his way to stardom as he loved theatre. So it is difficult to understand that the same young man lost control of his mind and committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan after a night of partying with friends. And amid the swamp of the pandemic, Sushant’s suicide is a grim reminder of how clin- ical depression, for which he had been taking help for the last six months, got the bet- ter of him. Was it the inse- curity of a profession, where he was actually delivering hits consistently, prompting com- parisons with his idol Shah Rukh Khan as the next TV star who would conquer the big league of the film indus- try? Was it the fleeting and pyrrhic nature of fame or the meaninglessness of it? Failed relationships? Was it the crumbling cir- cle of his close friends who seemed to be in a Hemlock pact, his man- ager commit- ting suicide just a few d a y s before? Or was it his deep trauma at not having recov- ered from his mother’s death when he was 16? Any which way his decision would be irreconcilable consid- ering many years ago he had shared how he developed empathy, getting into the skin of human char- acters at theatre director Barry John’s workshops, how he was a spiritualist believing that we are on a journey that should be worth the end and how he loved star-gazing as it remind- ed him of the bigness of the universe around us. And yes, he loved reading books and writ- ing. He did admit he was an introvert but one never thought that the devil would nest in the corners of a mind that was ever curious and probing. One would tend to remem- ber him by his short filmogra- phy but he stood out in each of his characters. Inspired by Jack Nicholson and Daniel Day- Lewis, he egolessly surrendered to fill the contours of the com- mon Indian youth, complete with his anxieties and bravado. Though a buddy film, he stood out among Rajkumar Rao and Amit Sadh in Kai Po Che. He even received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. As the titular detective in the action thriller Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, he brought out the crevices of an investigative mind with such angularities and pointedness at the same time that director Dibakar Banerjee said he was the true intellectual legacy inter- preter of Bengal’s cult fiction hero. Of course, his highest- grossing releases came with a supporting role in the satire PK (2014), followed by the biopic MS Dhoni, The Untold Story. It not only became one of the highest grossers of Bollywood but showed the maturity of an actor, who was not overawed by the aura of one of India’s most loved cricketers, did not just mimic his physicality but invested him with a humanity and emotion that shaped the Captain Cool he had become. Then there was Kedarnath, Sonchiriya and Chhichhore, where he brought alive people from the dustbowl with extraordinary grit, all of whom ended up rescuing humanity itself. Perhaps, that’s the reason why he set up a teaching acad- emy to educate underprivi- leged kids from the hinterland. He had strong views on the education system and didn’t believe that we should add more bricks to the wall. And at one of The Pioneer discus- sions, he even became pas- sionate. “We shouldn’t be telling the kids what to wear, what to eat or who to vote. ?=BQ =4F34;78 The peak stage of coron- avirus could come about in mid-November when the country will face paucity of iso- lation and ICU beds as well ventilators. This alarming finding is part of study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which has said the eight-week lockdown along with strengthened pub- lic health measures has delayed the peak stage of Covid-19 pan- demic in India. The study conducted by researchers from an Operations Research Group of ICMR has noted that if the coverage of public health measures can be increased to 80 per cent, the epidemic can be mitigated, otherwise around mid- November there will be serious shortage of isolation and ICU beds as well as ventilators. “The lockdown shifted the peak of the pandemic by an estimated 34 to 76 days and helped bring down the number of infections by 69 to 97 per cent thereby allowing time for the healthcare system to shore up resources and infrastruc- ture,” said the study. In the sce- nario of intensified public health measures with 60 per cent effectiveness after lock- down, the demand can be met until the first week of November. After that, isolation beds could be inadequate for 5.4 months, ICU beds for 4.6 and ventilators for 3.9 months, pro- jections by the health researchers showed. However, this shortfall is estimated to be 83 per cent less than what it could have been without the lockdown and public health measures. With sustained Government steps at increasing the infrastructure and different pace of epidemic in different regions, the impact of unmet need can be reduced. If the coverage of public health measures can be increased to 80 per cent, the epidemic can be mitigated, the researchers stated. According to the model- based analysis for Covid-19 pandemic in India, with the additional capacity which has been built up for testing, treat- ing and isolating patients dur- ing the lockdown period, the number of cases at the peak would come down by 70 per cent and the cumulative cases may come down by near- ly 27 per cent. B0?=0B8=67Q =4F34;78 The Centre and the Delhi Government will fight coronavirus together in the national Capital as on Sunday in a crucial meeting with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal along with the AIIMS Director, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Central Government is com- mitted to check Covid-19 spread in Delhi. Key decisions which were taken in the meeting included Covid-19 testing to double in in Delhi in the next two days and subsequently increased by three times in six days. Also, the Centre will immediately provide 500 converted rail coaches to the Delhi Government, which will increase the bed capacity by 8,000. A committee has been set up to ensure availability of 60 per cent beds by private hospitals at lower rates and fix the rate of corona testing and treatment and house-to-house health surveys will be con- ducted in containment zones. According to an official statement, the Home Minister has directed immediate trans- fer of 4 IAS officers to New Delhi to assist the Delhi Government for management of Covid and public health. Two senior officers SS Yadav and SCL Dass, currently post- ed at the Centre, will assist the Delhi Government, it said. Announcing a slew of measures to check the spread of the coronavirus in the nation- al Capital after he held a meet- ing, Shah said Covid-19 tests will be started at every polling station in containment zones and a comprehensive house-to- house health survey will be conducted in the hotspots for contact tracing. In view of shortage of beds for coronavirus infected patients in Delhi, the Modi Government has decided to immediately provide 500 rail- way coaches which will be equipped with all facilities, he said. Also, detailed guidelines will be issued for conducting the last rites of those who suc- cumb to the deadly virus. Shah said a joint team of doctors of the Union Health Ministry, the Delhi Government’s Health Department, AIIMS and the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi will visit all Covid-des- ignated hospitals in the Capital and prepare a report after inspecting the health systems and preparedness. The development comes two days after the Supreme Court lashed out at the AAP Government, describing as “horrific” the state of affairs in Delhi hospitals with bodies being stacked next to corona patients. It had also expressed con- cern over fewer tests being con- ducted in the national Capital and had directed ramping up of testing. ?=BQ =4F34;78 Facing the brunt of the month-long stand-off between the Indian and Chinese troops along its terri- tory, the Union Territory of Ladakh is now struggling to cope up with another nemesis: Coronavirus. During the last one week alone, the UT has seen a five- fold high in its number of positive cases, going up from 103 on June 7 to 549 on June 14. During the last three days the State has seen back-to- back three 100 plus spikes, recording the highest single- day spike with 198 positive cases on Saturday. On Sunday it recorded 112 new cases. As per the media bulletin released by the Directorate of Health Services UT Ladakh, all of the 198 persons tested positive for Covid-19 in Kargil district. With no marked change in the Covid-19 situation, Maharashtra on Sunday recorded 120 new deaths and 3,390 fresh infections, taking the total number of deaths to 3,950 and infected cases in the State to 1,07,958 cases. Delhi recorded 2,224 cases and 56 deaths on Sunday tak- ing its total number of cases to 41,182, including 15,823 recov- ered/discharged/migrated, 24,032 active cases and 1,327 deaths. This is the highest single- day spike in the number of Covid-19 cases. =0E8=D?037H0HQ =4F34;78 Its contagious smite may be losing its killer sting. That may be the only speck of hope for a world haunted by talks of a possible second wave of Covid-19 in the US, its reappearance in Beijing, and the alarming spread of the deadly virus in South America, Asia and the Middle East. The cases are shooting up, but the death curb is unmis- takably on the bend. On June 12, the total num- ber of cases globally stood at 78,29,293 and the death tally at 4,30,813. In terms of Case Fatality Rate (CFR), this turned out to be 5.50 per cent. A month ago on May 12, the number of positive cases worldwide stood at 43,06,378 and the death count at 2,92,946. This translated into a mortal- ity rate of 6.80 per cent. It means during the one month period, the CFR came down by 1.21 per cent. Now let’s take a look at the one-month period between May 12 and June 12. During this period the CFR further came down. The total number of cases globally stood at 43,06,378 on May 12, which went up to 77,27,232 with the addition of 35,28,915 new cases by June 12. Similarly, the death count went up from 2,92,946 to 4,27,698. Overall, during this period the CFR stood at a mere 3.81 per cent, nearly 1.70 pc less than the all-time CFR. The global death count peaked out on April 25 when the CFR stood at 7.28 per cent. From then one, it witnessed a steady decline from week to week, fortnight to fortnight. On May 10, the CFR stood at 6.99 per cent, on May 25 at 6.38 per cent, and on June 3 at 5.50 per cent. Similarly, between May 31 and June 12 the global death count rose by one per cent every day with the exception of just one day when it shot up by 2 per cent on May 27. Compare this with the period between May 1 and May 15 when out of 15 days, death count rose by 2 per cent on 13 days and 3 per cent and one per cent each on two other days. There is another way of looking at this declining trend. On June 12, the world record- ed 1,36,572 cases, the highest single-day spike so far. This included 8,000 more cases over the previous day count. On the same day, the global death count stood at 4,925. This was 419 less death than the previous day tally of 5,344. Once again, the number of cases went up, but the death count came down. ?=BQ =4F34;78 In the backdrop of month long stand-offs at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said India will never compromise on its “national pride” as it is no longer a “weak” country. Stressing the point that the country’s security capabil- ity has increased, he also assured the Opposition that talks with China were on to peacefully resolve the con- frontation. Making these assertions in a virtual rally in Jammu Kashmir, he also said no one will be kept in the dark about the issue. “I want to assure that we will not compromise with national pride under any cir- cumstance. India is no longer a weak India. Our strength in national security has risen. But this strength is not meant to fright- en anyone but to secure our country,” he said. ?C8Q =4F34;78 A42-year old man suddenly collapsed and died due to natural causes onboard Air India’s Lagos-Mumbai flight on Sunday, the national carri- er said. The flight was part of Vande Bharat Mission, under which the Central Government is operating special repatriation flights to bring back stranded Indians from abroad amid the coronavirus pandemic. Air India’s flight AI 1906 departed from Lagos in Nigeria at 7 pm Indian Standard Time on Saturday and landed in Mumbai at 3.45 am on Sunday. “A passenger aboard AI 1906 of June 13 from Lagos to Mumbai passed away due to natural causes today. “A doctor onboard along with our crew, trained to han- dle such medical emergencies, made a valiant attempt to revive the passenger, aged 42, who had suddenly col- lapsed, through resuscitation etc but all their efforts went in vain,” the airline’s spokesperson said. 4`gZUaVRZ_^ZU?`g+:4C 1HHG WR XSJUDGH IDFLOLWLHV E HOVH WKHUH¶OO EH VHYHUH VKRUWDJH RI ,8 EHGV YHQWLODWRUV 7HVWLQJ WR WULSOH . EHGV LQ UDLO FRDFKHV LQ 'HOKL DYRYg`hde`VVa5V]YZdRWVWc`^T`c`_R`_d]RfXYe /DGDNK VHHV YLUXV VSLNH DPLG VWDQGRII UHFRUG ULVH LQ 'HOKL LQ D GD R_UZVdWc`^ _RefcR]TRfdVd `_S`RcU2Zc:_UZR cVaRecZReZ`_W]ZXYe ,QGLD QR ORQJHU µZHDN¶ QHYHU FRPSURPLVH RQ QDWLRQDO SULGH 5DMQDWK B^PaX]VR^a^]PVTccX]V[TbbUPcP[cWPc´b^][hW^_T D]X^]7^TX]XbcTa0XcBWPWW^[SbPTTcX]VfXcWD]X^]7TP[cWX]XbcTa7PabWEPaSWP]D]X^]7^TBTRaTcPah0YPh :dPa1WP[[P3T[WX;60]X[1PXYP[3T[WX20aeX]S:TYaXfP[P]S^cWTabX]=Tf3T[WX^]Bd]SPh ?C8 exclusive pioneer 90=D0AH! ('%°9D=4 #!! BDB70=CB8=67A09?DC $ EHDXWLIXO PLQG WKDW OHW LQ WKH GHYLO XVaP]cb`dTdT^dcbXSTcWT2WWPcaP_PcXBWXePYXPWPaPYCTaX]dbc^aTcda]c^cWTXaW^Tc^f]X]dQPX^]Bd]SPh ?C8 CC0; BC0C4B CC0;20B4B340C7BA42E4A43 PWPaPbWcaP ($' ($ $(' CPX[=PSd ##%% #$ !#$# 3T[WX # '! ! $'! 6dYPaPc !$( #' % DccPa?aPSTbW % $ (('!%' APYPbcWP] !$! !'%(# FTbc1T]VP[ ' #$$% PSWhP?aPSTbW '! #$(% :Pa]PcPZP '(% 7PahP]P !' 1XWPa %#$ %($ 0]SWaP?aPSTbW % $! '# % 9Pd:PbWXa $# $(!'( CT[P]VP]P #(# '$! 0bbP #$ ' (% 4`gZU* :?:?5:2 20B4B) !% 340C7B)($ # A42E4A43) %(#%# 02C8E4) $ ( /CWT3PX[h?X^]TTa UPRTQ^^ZR^SPX[h_X^]TTa7`]]`hfd`_+ fffSPX[h_X^]TTaR^ X]bcPVaPR^SPX[h_X^]TTa ;PcT2Xch E^[ #8bbdT %# 0XaBdaRWPaVT4gcaPXU0__[XRPQ[T ?dQ[XbWTS5a^ 34;78;D2:=F 17?0;17D10=4BF0A A0=278A08?DA 270=3860A7 347A03D= 7H34A0103E890HF030 4bcPQ[XbWTS '%# 51, 1R 5HJQ 877(1* 5(*' 1R 8$'2''1 347A03D==30H9D=4 $!!*?064B !C! m @A:?:@?' 340C75C74 833;42;0BB @?6J* 5D4;?A824BA8B4 E4AC#?4A;8CA4 CEID9B54 ?665597 2E5 ! F9F139DI m DA@CE# =0?;8140C8=C4AC A40272??08C0;8058=0;
- 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 B78;0 In a bid to boost the econo- my hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the Himachal Pradesh government on Sunday exempted several cat- egories from the purview of mandatory home quarantine amid interstate movement. Under the standard oper- ating procedures (SOPs) for interstate movement of indus- trial workers, industrialists, factory owners, traders, raw material suppliers, service providers and inspecting authorities, they will be exempted from home quaran- tine, a government statement said. The Chairman, State Executive Committee (SEC), has ordered few additions and amendments in the orders and regarding quarantine requirements and has direct- ed all the departments and organisations, District Magistrate, Police Officers, officials and local authorities of Himachal Pradesh to ensure the directions of the National Disaster Management Authority and the National Executive Committee (NEC). A spokesperson of the Revenue department and Disaster Management said that as per the amendments, the person covered under SOPs for inter-state move- ment of industrial workers, industrialists, factory own- ers, traders, raw material sup- pliers, service provider, inspecting authorities will be exempted from purview of home quarantine. The persons visiting the State for bonafide purpose of trade, business, job, project, service purpose, commission agents and arhtiyas with sup- porting documents and enter- ing the State with valid per- mit/e-pass and not coming from high COVID-19 case load cities and other contain- ment zones from rest of the country will also be exempted from the purview of quaran- tine. He said that the manage- ment, incharge or head of any NGO or any charitable organ- isation, which has branches in the State and travels to the State of Himachal Pradesh in con- nection with its affairs or for an official meeting, for a short duration not exceeding 48 hours and don't mix with gen- eral masses, follows all social distancing and other COVID- 19 prevention protocols/norms, does not organize any social/cultural or any other gathering of any sort, shall be exempt from quarantine requirement in the State. The spokesperson said that all persons coming from high case load COVID-19 infected cities will be institutionally quarantined. Only for exceptional and compelling reasons may be permitted to be home quaran- tined, instead of institutional quarantine, for 14 days. The migrant labourers coming in the State can be sent directly to the work site of the orchardist, agriculturist, contractor, project proponents. ALL HIMACHAL DIS- TRICTS TO HAVE REVIEW MEETINGS FOR IMPLE- MENTATION OF STIMU- LATION PACKAGE Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has approved review meetings to be held in each district of the State to make an assessment of the arrangements made in the dis- tricts for containing the spread of COVID-19 as well as district plans towards re-starting the economic activities including development works. These review meetings will be chaired by the Speaker, Ministers, Deputy Speaker, Deputy Chairman and Chief Whip. The agenda approved by the Chief Minister for these meetings at the District level include review of arrangements made for containment of COVID-19, review of imple- mentation of all flagship pro- grammes started by the central and state governments, uti- lization of unspent amount, sta- tus of Chief Minister's announcements, progress of schemes on which foundation stones were laid by the Chief Minister. Speaker Vidhan Sabha, Vipin Singh Parmar will chair the meeting in Kangra district on 16 June, 2020. Similarly, Jal Shakti Minister Mahender Singh Thakur will preside over meeting in Mandi district on 17 June, Education Minister Suresh Bhardwaj in Shimla district on 23 June. Urban Development and Housing Minister Sarveen Chaudhary in Hamirpur dis- trict on 26 June, Agriculture Minister Dr. Ram Lal Markanda in Lahaul and Spiti district on 28 June, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Virender Kanwar in Una district on 18 June, Industries Minister Bikram Singh in Chamba district on 19 June, Forest Minister Govind Singh Thakur in Kullu district on 22 June, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dr. Rajiv Saizal in Solan district on 20 June, Deputy Speaker Hans Raj in Kinnaur district on 27 June, Deputy Chairman, State Planning Board Ramesh Dhawala in Bilaspur district on 29 June and Chief Whip Narender Bragta in Sirmaur district on 24 June. 6.82 LAKH QUINTAL PEAS AND OFF-SEASON VEG- ETABLES SENT FROM HIMACHAL DURING LOCKDOWN About 6.82 lakh quintal peas, cauliflower and other off season vegetables have been sent to neighbouring states despite a lockdown, a govern- ment spokesperson said. In the wake of the Corona pan- demic, for smooth transporta- tion of farm produce, Kisan Rath Mobile app was also launched. Information of five lakh trucks and 20 thousand tankers were also made avail- able with the help of this app to facilitate farmers and traders, so that the farmers and traders could easily transport their produce and various other vegetables to markets of the State and out- side the State. The spokesperson said about 35164 quintal seeds of rice, maize, sorghum, bajra and other such seeds were made available at subsidised rate through Agriculture Distribution Centres. @dPaP]cX]TfPXeTSU^aX]SdbcaXP[f^aZTab^cWTabX]7XPRWP[ ?=BQ 270=3860A7 With 10 COVID-19 related deaths and 459 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, Haryana’s tally of cases crossed 7000-mark on Sunday. Gurugram and Faridabad continued to witness the surge in positive cases with Gurugram reporting 169 and Faridabad 191 fresh cases in the last 24 hours. The state count stood at 7208 positive cases including 4117 active patients. Ten more deaths were reported in Haryana taking the toll to 88. A day before, the state had recorded 415 cases of Coronavirus and eight deaths. After the continuous spike in cases, the case-doubling rate in Haryana on Sunday was recorded as eight days, COVID positive rate was 4.01 per cent, recovery rate was 41.66 percent and fatality rate stood at 1.22 percent. Till date, 3003 patients including 200 in the last 24 hours have recovered and been discharged from hospitals. “Out of 459 fresh cases, 169 were reported from Gurugram, 191 from Faridabad, 15 in Ambala, 13 each in Rohtak and Palwal, 10 in Kurukshetra among other cases. Gurugram has reported a total of 3294 cases while Faridabad has recorded 1277 positive cases so far,” according to the state Health Department’s evening bulletin. The total cases in the state are 7208. Ten deaths were report- ed in Haryana in the last 24 hours and the total Coronavirus deaths recorded so far are 88, the bulletin stat- ed. Just a week back, Haryana had on June 7 witnessed its biggest single-day spike with 496 COVID-19 cases and crossing 4000 mark. As many as 1.85 lakh samples have been tested till date in Haryana. The report of 5836 samples is awaited, the state’s bulletin stated. Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Rajeev Arora on Sunday said 1523 patients have recovered in the last one week whereas 2797 new patients admitted in health facilities or homes isolated in the same period. He informed that calls related to Coronavirus, telemedicine and mental health were received at call center (1075). A total of 149843 health calls are received at the call cen- ter. This included 121752 Corona related calls and 28091 calls for telemedicine. 1000 doctors of different specializa- tions were made available for Tele Consultation through call centers, he said. Arora further said that special focus is given on time- ly tracings of COVID positive cases and treatment thereof. The State Government has also taken initiative to start calling the cases which are in home isolation to take feedback from them on various issues like availability of regular health services to them. 7PahP]PaT_^acb STPcWb#$(UaTbWRPbTbX]!#W^dab Q 7KH VWDWH FRXQW VWRRG DW SRVLWLYH FDVHV LQFOXGLQJ DFWLYH SDWLHQWV Q $IWHU WKH FRQWLQXRXV VSLNH LQ FDVHV WKH FDVHGRXEOLQJ UDWH LQ +DUDQD RQ 6XQGD ZDV UHFRUGHG DV HLJKW GDV 29,' SRVLWLYH UDWH ZDV SHU FHQW UHFRYHU UDWH ZDV SHUFHQW DQG IDWDOLW UDWH VWRRG DW SHUFHQW ?C8Q =4F34;78 The domestic political rum- blings in Nepal, its growing aspirations and assertiveness driven by China's strong eco- nomic backing and India's complacency in engaging with it made the landlocked nation take the unprecedented step of escalating its decades- old border row with India to a new high, strategic affairs experts said on Sunday. The communist Government of Nepal on Saturday managed to get a unanimous approval of the lower house of the country's parliament to a new map depicting disputed areas of Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as Nepalese ter- ritories, prompting India to say that such artificial enlarge- ment of territorial claim is untenable. The vote, notwithstanding the all-encompassing cultural, political and trade ties of seven decades between the two coun- tries, is seen as a reflection of Nepal's readiness to take on the regional giant, India, and sig- nals that it no longer cares about the old framework of relationship. Rakesh Sood, who was Indian Ambassador to Nepal from 2008 to 2011, said both sides have allowed the rela- tionship to come to a very very dangerous point and that India should have found time to engage with Kathmandu as it pressed for talks on the issue since November. I think we have displayed a lack of sensitivity, and now the Nepalese have dug them- selves deeper into the hole from which they will find it dif- ficult to come out, he told PTI. Nepal shares a border of over 1,850 km with five Indian states - Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In sync with the unique ties of friendship, the two countries have a long tra- dition of free movement of people across the border. According to official data, nearly eight million Nepalese citizens live and work in India. The two countries also have solid defence and trade ties. India is the largest trading partner of Nepal, and the total bilateral trade in 2018-19 was Rs 57,858 crore. Currently, about 32,000 Gorkha soldiers from Nepal are serving in the Indian Army. Ambassador Ranjit Rae, who served as Indian envoy to Nepal between 2013 and early 2017, said Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli decided to go ahead with the new map just to consolidate his position and overcome rumblings in domes- tic politics. This sort of play- ing up anti-India sentiment had helped him in winning the elections and he thought it will again help him now as he is under lot of domestic pressure, he said. I think it is related to Oli's insecurity domestically as his position in Nepal is quite weak. There have been a lot of demonstrations in Nepal for the Government's failure in the economic front, on managing COVID-19. There have been rumours within Nepali Communist Party that there may be a change in leadership. I think this has been a lifeline for Oli, he said. India's relations with Nepal came under severe strain following the 2015 economic blockade. Since then, China has been pumping in huge amount of financial resources in Nepal, helping the land- locked country in laying new roads including connecting it to Chinese cities for trans- portation of petroleum and other essential products, osten- sibly to help Kathmandu cut dependence on New Delhi. China is also planning to lay an ambitious railway net- work connecting Kathmandu and Shigatse in Tibet where it would join an existing railway line to Lhasa. China has also offered Nepal four ports for shipment of goods to the land- locked country which previ- ously had to rely heavily on routes through India. Prof S D Muni, a noted strategic affairs expert, said China has been a factor in the whole issue as Nepal was more encouraged to raise the issues with India realising that Beijing has been supporting it. However, he said the big- ger message from Nepal was that the Nepalese are asserting themselves and the old frame- work of special relations is gone completely. They do not care about it. You will have to deal with Nepal differently, with little more sensitivity and with little more tact and under- standing. It is a new Nepal. Over 65 per cent of Nepalese are very young people. They do not care about the past. They have their aspirations. Unless India is relevant to their aspi- rations, they would not care, he said. By going for a constitu- tional amendment for the new map, Ambassador Sood argued, Nepal is converting what was a difference in terms of territorial perceptions into a dispute and making its position non-negotiable over it. We have a territorial dispute with China; our militaries are right now talking about 'dis- engagement'. We have a terri- torial dispute with Pakistan; our militaries are eyeball-to eyeball and there is firing across the Line of Control, Sood said. Is that how we want to visualise our border with Nepal by making it a dispute when we have shared an open border with free movement of people since the British days and which has continued after 1947 as well, he asked. The for- mer diplomat said the only option before the two countries was to have talks. Asked whether China was behind Nepal's 'bold' move, Sood said he did not believe Kathmandu has taken up the issue at Beijing's behest though he agreed that Chinese influence in the Himalayan nation has grown in recent years. Sood, who served in the Indian missions in Brussels, Dakar, Geneva,Islamabad and Washington, expressed dismay over India not responding to Nepal's call for talks on the sticky issue, saying New Delhi should have found time to engage with the neighbouring nation. Everyday we keep reading that our prime minister has had virtual meetings with 50 of his counterparts, our external affairs minister has had virtu- al meetings with 70 of his counterparts; surely it should have been possible to have a meeting with the Nepalese officials at some level or the other - foreign minister, foreign secretary or at the level of the prime minister, he said. Muni, who was India's Ambassador to Lao PDR, appeared to agree with Sood. There are a lot of areas where India has shown complacency and over-confidence in dealing with smaller neighbours. Nepal is no exception to that. He also said that China has been factor as Nepal was more encouraged to raise the issues with India since Beijing has been supporting it. Rae said Nepal's decision to go for the constitutional amendment will make the issue more compli- cated to resolve. I think it is going to com- plicate the relation rather than improve them. It will make the issue more intractable. I agree that since November they have been saying that they wanted to talk but for one reason or the other talks were not immedi- ately possible, he said. But we did say that we will talk after the coronavirus crisis is over. So there was no pressing urgency for Nepal to go ahead with the constitutional amend- ment. After all the issue has been pending since 1997; so another few months would not have made such a big differ- ence, said Rae. Muni, a professor emeri- tus in Jawaharlal Nehru University, also said India's Neighbourhood First policy derailed as its implementation was allowed to go berserk. Sood, too, wondered why India should tell Nepal that it will talk on the matter only after the coronavirus crisis is over. I can understand that India too has made mistakes. I do think we should have found time to engage with Nepal, he said. We keep saying that we have a very close historical, cul- tural, linguistic and religious affinity with Nepal. Then why be so insensitive that we can- not find time to talk to them for more than 5-6 months. They raised the issue in the month of November and that time there was no COVID cri- sis, he said. ?VaR]VdVa`]ZeZTd4YZ_RSRTZ_XVdTR]ReVUS`cUVcc`h+6iaVced ?C8Q :0C70=3D Nepal Parliament's upper house on Sunday endorsed a proposal to discuss the Constitution amendment bill to update the country's new polit- ical map that includes three strategically key Indian terri- tories, a day after the lower house unanimously voted in favour of the bill. Nepal's ruling and oppo- sition political parties on Saturday voted in unison to amend the Constitution to update the national emblem by incorporating the controversial map incorporating Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura in India's Uttrakhand, a move described by New Delhi as untenable. Of the total 275 lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Saturday, all 258 lawmakers present in the house voted in favour of the Constitution amendment bill. Now, the bill will undergo a similar process in the National Assembly, wherein the ruling Nepal Communist Party com- mands two-thirds majority. Rajendra Phuyal, secretary of the National Assembly Secretariat, tabled the bill at the first meeting of the upper house on Sunday, The Kathmandu Post reported. During the second meeting of the National Assembly later on Sunday, Law Minister Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe tabled a proposal to consider the bill for discussions, the paper said. After the discussions, the pro- posal to consider the bill was unanimously endorsed, it added. The National Assembly will give lawmakers 72 hours to move amendments against the bill's provi- sions, if they have any. We are making nec- essary preparations to endorse the bill within the next four days, Phuyal was quoted as saying by the paper. After the National Assembly passes the bill, it will be submitted to the President for authentication, after which it will be incorpo- rated in the Constitution. After that, the new map will be used in all official documents, including the coat of arms. Meanwhile, the main Opposition Nepali Congress has urged the gov- ernment to intensify diplo- matic efforts to ensure the country's rights in the Kalapani area after the country includes its updated political and administrative map in the Constitution, the Himalayan Times reported. In a press statement on Saturday, the party said the campaign to reclaim encroached territories would enter the second phase after the revised map incorpo- rating Limpiyadhura, Lipulek and Kalapani areas as its parts, gets endorsed and this would mark a significant solidarity in the issue of nationality. Reacting to Kathmandu's move, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said on Saturday this artificial enlargement of claims is not based on histori- cal fact or evidence and is not tenable. It is also violative of our current understanding to hold talks on outstanding boundary issues. The India-Nepal bilateral ties came under strain after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a 80-km- long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8. Nepal reacted sharply to the inauguration of the road claiming that it passed through Nepalese territory. India rejected the claim assert- ing that the road lies completely within its territory. =T_P[bd__TaW^dbTT]S^abTb _a^_^bP[c^R^]bXSTaPT]ST]c c^d_SPcT]Tf_^[XcXRP[P_ B7A4H0 What a weird year 2020 is. How we imagined it to be important, meaningful and top notch but it had plans of its own. How excited I was to take my first step into the senior school but things took an unex- pected turn. As a student how has Covid-19, lockdown and quarantine affected me? Well, my birthday was almost at the start of this lockdown period, so I had to cancel my party, uninvite all of my friends and that was the moment when I actually started to hate the coronavirus. I was kind of happy that there would be no school and extended vacations but also sad at the same time that I would- n’t have a proper first day of IX class. When the news of online classes came in, I had some- what mixed feelings about that. Online classes were the best that the schools could do in these uncertain times. The first day could have been little better, half of the time was gone in Internet issues and in almost every class something or the other would go wrong. I was happy thinking that the teachers would go easy on us and not a lot of homework would be given but that was not to be. Everyday we had home- work for every subject and the syllabus was vast. Every evening and afternoon we were busy completing the home- work and would not have time for any self-study. On top of that, school was for six hours during which we were con- stantly staring at a laptop screen and only studying. This just made it worse. Due to the fact that our screen time had drastically increased, many of us would experience headaches and be exhausted by the end of the day. Needless to say, none of us liked or wanted to study for six hours straight! In school we had sports, art and music, and other activities throughout the day but online classes had none of that. To make it worse, our friends weren’t there with us to get us through the day. There we were staring at our screens, giving answers now and then, just studying without any sup- port from our friends. This unfortunate reality was over- whelming andt pulled all the fun out of school. Everything we loved about school was there no more and this painful reality had become our every- day routine. But as time passed, we adjusted and adapted to this system and tried to see the bet- ter side of it. We interacted more in class, if we missed our friends we would -face time them and tried to make a new routine in this weird phase. Every summer I would go swimming or cycling with my friends, go to the park, the mall and just do something inter- esting everyday. But now since I’m stuck at home for 24 hours the level of boredom has reached its peak. I know this is the time to polish up your tal- ents, do what you love- which for me would surely be art. I have made many new pieces of art but now everything seems so bland, I’m bored of that too. But recently we just received the holiday homework and frankly it has given me at least something interesting to do but as I started to actually attempt the homework I realised it was not something but a great deal of work. Those things aside, even the weather was not in my favour. Whenever I went in the balcony, I was met by a flam- ing floor and scorching heat. I started to be so depen- dent on the AC and actually grateful for it. One benefit that came out of the lockdown was family time. I had so much time to actually bond with my parents, play games with them, watch movies together and have discussions about my future. I learned how to cook new snacks, do some household chores and help around the house. I actually looked forward to all these moments. Once in a while we would have fights but even that indirectly was a mode of entertainment for all of us. But as I looked outside my own life, things were getting scarier and alarming- coron- avirus had affected millions of lives all over the world. The cases in India itself are growing rapidly and spreading like wildfire. Suddenly my problems, all the homework, no notebooks, all of this just didn’t matter any- more. Realising how a huge number of people were losing their loved ones, the fear the victims were facing if they would be alive to see tomorrow, all of this was so much more important, bigger than my own problems. (The writer is a class IX student at MIS, New Delhi) 0V[X_bT^UPbcdST]c´b[XUTSdaX]V[^RZS^f] ?=BQ 270=3860A7 Punjab Government on Sunday notified Voluntary Disclosure Scheme (VDS) for the consumers having unap- proved water connection in the rural areas. Under the scheme, the Water Supply and Sanitation Department offers an oppor- tunity to consumers for vol- untarily disclose their unap- proved connections for regu- larization “free of cost”. As per the policy, no charges will be taken from consumers for the previous usage of water, if any. The scheme will be for- mally launched on June 15 (Monday) and last date to apply under VDS is July 15, said the state Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Razia Sultana, adding that the new connections can also be applied during this period. The Water Supply and Sanitation Minister said that department has also planned to conduct third party compre- hensive household survey of all rural households in Punjab from July onwards. During the survey, if any consumer is found with unap- proved connection after closure of VDS, that is July 15, 2020, his or her connection will be dis- connected and charges will be collected from him or her towards unapproved usage of water in the past.The Minister added that the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation is hopeful of getting huge response from the citizen with regard to this scheme. ?d]YPQ[Pd]RWTbE3Bc^ aTVd[PaXiTd]P__a^eTSfPcTa R^]]TRcX^]bX]adaP[PaTPb
- 3. dccPaPZWP]S347A03D=k=30H k9D=4 $!! ?=BQ 70;3F0=8 The Corbett tiger reserve reopened for visitors after a long gap of 88 days on Sunday. The Bijrani zone of the tiger reserve has now been opened for tourists. Necessary precautions are being observed in view of Covid-19 pandem- ic due to which earlier, all pro- tected forest areas had been closed to visitors. Corbett was reopened for visitors while observing the guidelines issued by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). On the first day of the reopening, visitors from Kashipur- Firoz, Snehpal and Naved went for a jungle safari from the Bijrani gate in the morning shift. The visitors were thermal scanned and the Corbett staff ensured that they had masks and hand sanitisers with them in order to proper- ly observe the NTCA guide- lines. The Bijrani ranger Rajkumar informed that only one Gypsy was booked in the morning shift on Sunday while three such jeeps had been booked for the evening shift. A total of eight tourists enjoyed jungle safari in Corbett on the first day of its reopening for vis- itors. ?=BQ A0=060A An elephant was found dead in the Dhela range of Corbett tiger reserve on Sunday. According to departmental offi- cials, the personnel were on routine patrol in the range when they spotted the car- cass of a female ele- phant in the eastern Dhela area. The patrol team informed senior officials about the finding. On being informed, the Corbett director Rahul, sub divisional officer Kundan Singh Khati and ranger Sandeep Giri among others reached the site. According to Khati, it appears as if the female elephant died due to a wound sustained in a fight with another elephant. The pachyderm was aged about 15 years. The veterinary doctors conducted the post mortem examination of the elephant after which the body was destroyed, added the sub divi- sional officer. ?=BQ 70;3F0=8 The States of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh have come together to work in syn- ergy for tiger conservation on the borders of both the states. An inter-state coordination meeting for tiger protection was held in Surai forest range to discuss this collaboration. According to chief conservator of forests, Parag Madhukar Dhakate, in the meeting between officials of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh strategies were made with regard to operation monsoon, intelligence sharing, patrolling and human-wildlife conflict mitigation. It was decided that long distance forest patrolling will be undertaken every fort- night by the forest staff of both the states. The field director of Pilibhit tiger reserve (UP) Raja Mohan, its deputy director Naveen Khandelwal and Terai east divisional forest officer Nitish Mani Tripathi shared their experiences with the frontline forest staff during the interaction.The depart- ment is expecting that this amalgamation to strategise ways for the achievement of the common goal -tiger conserva- tion- will achieve positive results. The inter-state meeting which lasted two days also saw foot patrol by 40 frontline forest staff of the two states. It is expected that the joint col- laboration will also prove help- ful for tiger protection in the Terai arc landscape and in the border area with Nepal. It is pertinent to mention here that tigers- like all animals do not take cognisance of inter-state boundaries. Hence, the tigers from Corbett are known to travel to the jungles in the neighbouring state and the other way round. In the past, wildlife criminals have often used the border area of Uttar Pradesh to infiltrate into the Corbett landscape. Considering this, the focus of both the states on enhancing tiger protection in the border areas is expected to further boost wildlife protection. 2^aQTccaT^_T]bU^aeXbXc^ab TXVWcT]Y^hYd]V[TbPUPaX (OHSKDQW IRXQG GHDG LQ 'KHOD UDQJH RI 75 Eµ[XQ^TE@Z_Y^V_bSUcV_bdYWUb S_^cUbfQdY_^Y^R_bTUbQbUQc ?=BQ 347A03D= The Bharatiya Janata Party State president and MLA Bansidhar Bhagat has averred that lakhs of people will attend the virtual rally for Garhwal region to be addressed by the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday. Bhagat also released the link for the virtual rally on Sunday. At the same time, the BJP state president opined that the Congress is worried due to the service being rendered to the people by the BJP and the pub- lic contact programmes being conducted successfully by the party amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Frustrated by this, the Congress leaders are resort- ing to making irrelevant state- ments. The BJP State president said that the Union Defence minister will address a virtual rally on Monday. The prepara- tions for this rally for the Garhwal division have been undertaken on a large scale. Though this virtual rally will be based in Dehradun and is meant for the Garhwal division, it will be attended by people from across the State, nation and even abroad. Considering this, the party expects lakhs of people to attend this virtual rally, said Bhagat. According to the BJP state president, while the Union Defence minister Rajnath Singh and BJP national vice president and Uttarakhand in- charge Shyam Jaju will address the virtual rally from the party’s Delhi office, he himself along with chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, party’s state gen- eral secretary (organisation) and other office bearers will observe social distancing while attending the rally at the BJP state office in Dehradun. In addition to this, party workers and members of the general public will also attend the vir- tual rally from the district to booth level. Those wishing to attend the virtual rally should long on to Targetting the Congress, the BJP state president said that the Congress leaders are frus- trated by the fight against Covid-19 under PM Narendra Modi, the public service being done by the BJP during this time and the success of the party’s public contact cam- paign- a part of which is the virtual rally. Due to this, they are play- ing politics even during the Covid-19 pandemic. “The Congress leaders are unable to give up their old habit of play- ing politics over dead bodies. Far from helping in the fight against Covid, they are trying to create hurdles in the efforts. However, the people under- stand the reality and the con- spiracy of the Congress will not succeed,” said Bhagat. 19?BC0C4?A4B834=C ;PZWbc^PccT]SAPY]PcWBX]VW´beXacdP[aP[[hc^SPh ?=BQ 347A03D= The newly appointed chief executive officer of Dehradun Smart City Limited (DSCL), Ranvir Singh Chauhan conducted site inspections of various ongoing works under the Smart City project here on Sunday. Discussing the work status and plans in detail with officials concerned, he directed them to prepare a plan soon for the works to be undertaken during the coming monsoon season. Chauhan visited sites of various ongoing works includ- ing the smart road, water sup- ply augmentation, Parade Ground, Paltan Bazaar and Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC). After discussing the status of the works with officials concerned, he directed that the plan for Smart City works to be under- taken during the monsoon season should be prepared soon so that the citizens do not face any problem due to the construction works. The construction works in Paltan Bazaar should be exe- cuted in a manner which entails minimum inconve- nience to the traders in the market. The plan for the work to be undertaken here during the monsoon should also be pre- pared soon. Currently, such construction works should be accorded priority on Parade Ground which will be difficult to undertake during the mon- soon. Not finding the excavation for water supply augmentation satisfactory, Chauhan stressed that such excavation works should be undertaken with special focus on the safety of the general public. The DSCL CEO also inspected Covid-19 related works underway at the ICCC. He said that two factors are being accorded top priority in all smart city works. Firstly, necessary precau- tions have to be observed to protect all workers from Covid- 19 contagion and execution of work in view of the coming monsoon season. The DSCL additional CEO Ashish Bhattgai, assistant general man- ager Surya Kotnala and other officials concerned were also present during Chauhan’s inspections. ?=BQ 347A03D= The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) fin- ished its two-day sanitation drive on Sunday using about 5.86 lakh litres of one percent- age sodium hypochlorite solu- tion. On Saturday, the corpo- ration sterilised 50 out of 100 wards with the help of 51 tankers using 3.02 lakh litres of disinfectant. On Sunday, MCD disinfected only 45 wards out of the remaining 50 wards of Dehradun with 2.84 lakh litres of disinfectant using 49 tankers. According to the officials, the remaining five wards will be sanitised on Monday. Apart from public places, the corporation also sanitised quarantine centres, contain- ment zones and Covid care centres. The Dehradun munic- ipal commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey said that rather than spraying disinfectant on wide roads and open areas, MCD focussed on the areas where the chances of spreading contagion are more including the residential areas, railings or roller shutters of shops, bench- es and main gates of buildings among others. It is pertinent to mention here that this was the second sanitation drive conducted by the municipal corporation this month. On the directions of State administration, the MCD commenced such weekend san- itation drives to minimise the risk of community spread of Covid-19 in the city. / OLWUHV RI GLVLQIHFWDQW VSUDHG E 0' LQ VDQLWLVDWLRQ GULYH ?=BQ 347A03D= The number of novel Coronavirus (Covod-19) patients in Uttarakhand increased to 1819 on Sunday with the state health depart- ment reporting 34 new cases of the disease. With the death of one more patient the death toll in the state from the disease has increased to 24. On the day, 14 new patients were reported from provisional state capital Dehradun. In Tehri district, nine patients were reported while in Haridwar five patients were found. In Haridwar dis- trict five new patients were reported while three patients each were found in Uttarkashi and Chamoli district. One patient was found in Uttarkashi district. In Dehradun, one doc- tor of ONGC hospital was found positive for Covid-19. On a positive note, 34 patients were discharged from different hospitals of the state which increased the count of patients who have recovered from Covid-19 to 1111 on Sunday. On Sunday, 11 patients were discharged from Bageshwar while 10 patients recovered from Covid-19 in Dehradun district. In Champawat and Nainital dis- tricts six and five patients were discharged while one patient each was discharged from Almora and Chamoli district. A 61 year old male, a resi- dent of Kotdwar of Pauri dis- trict who died at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh on Friday was found positive for Covid- 19 on the day. It increased the death toll of Covid-19 affected patients in the state to 24. The AIIMS authorities also informed that a 42 year old female from Muzaffarnagar of Uttar Pradesh who had visited the emergency of the hospital on Saturday and had left the hospital on the same day died at Muzaffarnagar on Saturday. The hospital administration had taken her sample which was found positive for Covid- 19 on Sunday. The additional secretary, state health department, Yugal Kishore Pant said that reports of 1019 samples were found negative for the disease on Sunday. He added that reports of 4661 samples are still await- ed by the department. On Sunday, a total of 1082 samples were collected for COVID -19 testing. The authorities have so far taken swab samples of 45344 suspected patients for COVID-19 test. Out of the total samples taken, 4.61 per- cent samples have been found positive for the disease. The doubling rate of disease in the state is 19.87 days while the recovery percent in the state is now at 59.36. A total of 9667 persons are kept in institutional quarantine by the state health department. The state now has 708 active patients of the disease. Dehradun with 205 active cases is maintaining its position at top of the table of Covid-19 positive active patients .Haridwar district is at second position with 124 active cases. With 118 active patients Nainital district is at third position. Tehri district with 93 active cases is at fourth posi- tion. Pauri and Udham Singh Nagar districts have 31 active cases each. Pithoragarh district now has 24 active cases while Bageshwar has 22 active cases. Rudraprayag has 20, Chamoli 15 and Uttarkashi 11 active patients of the disease. Champawat now has nine while Almora has two active cases of Covid-19. The state has declared 74 areas as containment zones to check the spread of infection. Haridwar district has 39 con- tainment zones while Dehradun district has 21 con- tainment zones. The district administration has made ten containment zones in Tehri. Pauri and Udham Singh Nagar have two containment zones each. $%4`gZU*aReZV_edW`f_UZ_DeReVY 7KH SDWLHQW FRXQW MXPSV WR Y SDWLHQWV UHFRYHU IURP WKH GLVHDVH Q CWT_aT_PaPcX^]bU^acWXbaP[[hU^acWT6PaWfP[ SXeXbX^]WPeTQTT]d]STacPZT]^]P[PaVTbRP[T Q ?Pachf^aZTabP]STQTab^UcWTVT]TaP[_dQ[XRfX[[ P[b^PccT]ScWTeXacdP[aP[[hUa^cWTSXbcaXRcc^Q^^cW [TeT[ ?=BQ 70;3F0=8 The mortal remains of mar- tyr Yamuna Prasad Paneru were cremated with full state honours at Chitrashila Ghat of Ranibagh in Haldwani on Sunday. The education minis- ter Arvind Pandey, BJP state president Bansidhar Bhagat and many prominent persons visited the residence of the martyr and placed floral wreaths on his body as mark of respect. At Chitrshila Ghat, the transport and social welfare minister Yashpal Arya placed floral wreath over the mortal remains of Paneru. Arya attended cremation of the mar- tyr on the behalf of chief min- ister (CM) Trivendra Singh Rawat. Earlier on the day, the body of the martyr was brought to his residence from A r m y Cantonment in a somber envi- ronment. The funeral pyre of Paneru was lit by his seven year old son Yash and brother Bhuwan Paneru. MLAs Navin Dumka, Ram Singh Keda, former min- ister Harish Chandra Durgapal also attended the funeral cere- mony. Subedar Paneru lost his life in Gurej sector of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday during patrolling. He joined Kumaon regiment of Army in February 2002. Anative of Padampur Meedar village of Okhlakanda block, Paneru was a keen moun- taineer and had scaled Mount Everest in the year 2012. ?=BQ 70A83F0A On the directions of the State administration, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the SC- ST scholarship scam has regis- tered 12 FIRs against 22 col- leges for irregularities in schol- arship money amounting to about C10.88 crore. These self-finance institu- tions are accused of showing fake admissions to embezzle crores of money meant to be paid as scholarship to SC-ST students in Haridwar and Dehradun districts. According to information provided by the SIT, the Baba Farid Institute of Technology at Suddhowala, Chakrata Road in Dehradun has allegedly embezzled an amount of C31,26,544. Similarly, DRPME Saharanpur (UP) Dr Rajendra Prasad Polytechnic, DEC College of Education, DCET, DCTC, Doon College of Law, Doon College of Ganeshpur- all in Saharanpur have allegedly embezzled C1.48 crore. Monand University at Hapur (UP) allegedly embezzled 1.02 crore while Himalayan Group of Professional Institution, Himachal Pradesh allegedly embezzled C26,48,700.Shri Ram Institute of Professional Studies, Kalka Engineering College, Kalka Institute for Research and Advanced Studies- all in Meerut alleged- ly embezzled C15,98,400. Krishna College of Law at Chhutmalpur, Saharanpur (UP) allegedly embezzled Rs 20,52,200 while Om Santosh Private ITI also in Saharanpur allegedly embezzled Rs 26,49,700. Swami Vivekanand College of Education Roorkee, allegedly embezzled C 24,83,500 while College of Advanced Technology in Roorkee allegedly embezzled C5.61 crore. Similarly the Roorkee College of Education at Sherpur in Haridwar allegedly embezzeled C 82,78,200 while Saraswati Professional Degree College at Jagjitpur, Haridwar allegedly embezzled C 41,42,600. Investigation has been started against all of these institutions with filing of FIRs in various police stations of Haridwar and Dehradun. The SIT chief, Manjunath TC informed that with the lodging of FIRs, teams have been deployed for investigation and further action in the cases !58AbPVPX]bc!!R^[[TVTbX]BCB2bRW^[PabWX_bRP ?=BQ 347A03D= The chairperson of State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) Usha Negi recently received a com- plaint letter from a woman accusing a school warden of physically abusing and harass- ing her son in the school hos- tel during the lockdown. According to the complaint let- ter, the mother lives in Greater Noida and when the school administration asked her to take her son home before the lockdown commenced in the country, she could not come to Dehradun due to her medical issues at that time. She claimed in the letter that she tried var- ious means like contacting Dehradun police for help but they declined saying that they cannot make any arrangements to send the child outside Uttarakhand in the lockdown. Moreover, she further averred that the school admin- istration assured her that they will take care of her son. According to the complainant, when she arrived in Dehradun and picked her son from school, he told her how the warden has harassed, molest- ed and physically abused him during the lockdown period. She said that her son might suf- fer from a life time trauma but the school administration is still trying to defend the war- den. According to her, the school administration is equal- ly responsible for her son's con- dition as much as the accused warden. She alleged that the school management is trying to influence the police investiga- tion and requested Negi to ensure a fair trial of the case. Taking action on the com- plaint, Negi instructed the chief education officer of Dehradun to investigate the matter and PachaHPd]P?aPbPS ?P]TadRaTPcTS F^P]PRRdbTb bRW^^[PSX]^U X]U[dT]RX]V_^[XRT X]eTbcXVPcX^] B44:B74;?5A B2?2A 3B2;24X]b_TRcbf^aZbX]eXTf^U^]b^^] CWTbTbT[UUX]P]RT X]bcXcdcX^]bPaTPRRdbTS ^UbW^fX]VUPZT PSXbbX^]bc^TQTii[T Ra^aTb^U^]ThTP]cc^ QT_PXSPbbRW^[PabWX_c^ B2BCbcdST]cbX] 7PaXSfPaP]S3TWaPSd] SXbcaXRcb
- 4. ]PcX^]#347A03D=k=30H k9D=4 $!! C02:;8=62A=0E8ADB ?8=44A=4FBB4AE824Q =4F34;78 Experts have hailed the Modi Government decision to amend the Essential Commodities Act and bring an ordinance to promote barrier- free inter-State and intra-State trade in agriculture sector, to usher in the path of creating ‘One India, One Agriculture Market’. In a webinar titled the same, organised by Press Information Bureau on Sunday, several scientists, educationists and journalists were of opinion that this new initiative of the Union Government will open a new window of opportunity for the agricultural marketing sector of the country, thus bringing a positive change in the rural economy. Dr. N C Nayak, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kharagpur said, the agriculture sector would get a boost with the cab- inet decision for rejuvenation of agriculture and food pro- cessing sector of the country and bring a change in the agri- cultural economy by encour- aging private as well as foreign direct investment in the farm- ing sector. He also hoped that such a positive initiative of the Union Government will also help encourage investment in cold storages and usher in modernisation in food supply chain. Dr Kishore Goswami, another expert from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Kharagpur spoke on the merits of the deci- sion with optimism for growth which is evident in the farming sector with market linkages in the value chain with the stake- holders. He is of the opinion that the decision taken by the Cabinet is in line with the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and will likely initiate private-public partnership among the stake- holders also. Dr Dipankar Gorai (Agriculture) and Dr Subrata Sarkar (Horticulture), both experts from Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Burdwan opined that the decision would play a piv- otal role in motivating farmers to produce and supply farm produces with better linkages among farmers, processors, warehouse and exporters among others. They even spoke about the price stability and better pro- ductivity which are integral parts of the positive sides of the Cabinet decision. Taranjit Singh, Managing Director, JIS Group stated that the decision is a positive ini- tiative from the perspective of industry, as it will empower the farmers for engaging proces- sors, wholesalers, aggregators, large retailers, exporters and the like on a level playing field, while building capacity as well as fostering a resilient supply chain for the farm products to the global markets, thereby encouraging entrepreneurship in the agriculture and food pro- cessing sector. ?8=44A=4FBB4AE824Q =4F34;78 CongressonSundaydemand- ed that the Centre go for an immediate reduction in the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG to August 2004 level. With the seventh rise in fhe fuel prices, the party in a state- ment said it is important to remindthatthecurrentcrudeoil prices at about 40 US Dollars is similar to August 2004 level and yet consumers are paying a heavier bill. In August 2004, Petrol was Rs 36.81 per litre, Diesel 24.16 and LPG Rs 261.60 per cylinder in Delhi but currently Petrol is being sold at Rs 75.78 per litre, Diesel at Rs 74.03 per litre and LPG at Rs 593 per cylinder. Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said Modi- Shah government must imme- diately rollback the excise duty hike of Rs 23.78 on petrol and Rs 28.37 on diesel. Today130croreIndiansare battling the Corona pandemic. The poor, migrant workers, shopkeepers, farmers, small and medium businesses and those who have lost their jobs are struggling to survive the eco- nomic ruin unleashed by the Modi government. But instead ofreducingtheirburdenthedra- conian and anti-people BJP Government is fleecing the peo- ple by not just raising fuel rates on daily basis but also refusing to share benefits of lower crude with people, Surjewala said. Petrol and Diesel prices have been hiked by Rs 4.52 per litre and Rs 4.64 per litre respec- tively during the last 8 days itself despite crude oil prices being benign. t is a matter of record that excisedutyonPetrolwasRs9.20 per litre and on Diesel it was Rs. 3.46 per litre in May, 2014 when Modi Government assumed office. In the last six years, the excise duty on Petrol and Diesel havebeenincreasedonPetrolby an additional Rs 23.78 per litre and on Diesel by an additional Rs 28.37. This translates into a 258percentincreaseinexciseon petrol and 820 percent hike in excise duty on diesel, the grand old party said in a statement. Congress alleged that between financial year 2014-15 to fiscal year 2019-20, the Modi government has hiked taxes on Petrol and Diesel 12 times and has collected a whopping Rs. 17,80,056 crore in just the last 6 years. Will Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his gov- ernment explain why Petrol and Diesel that cost less than Rs. 20perlitretoIndia,isbeingsold atsteepratesofRs.75.78perlitre for Petrol and Rs. 74.03 per litre for Diesel?, Surjewala asked. The party demanded that petrol and diesel should be brought under the GST. 344?0::D0A970Q =4F34;78 With no sign of improve- ment in the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, a 'Work from Home' manual for Central Government employees is being prepared by the Centre. While the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has asked the States and UTs to send back the offi- cers due for posting at the Centre, sources said the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) has also been tasked to segregate and prepare a list of the IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS, IRTS etc and other Class I officers who are also medicos to enable both the Centre and State Government to engage them accordingly in tackling the pandemic. Though the DoPT has pre- pared a draft framework for ‘work from home’ (WFH) which was practised duly dur- ing the lockdown period, the final WFH guidelines with cer- tain legal validity seeking to facilitate operation of e-office in all Central Ministries and departments is being worked upon. Sources said that Minister of State for Personnel Dr Jitendra Singh last week in a meeting on June 12 advised the DoPT officials to expedite the process and also suggested for a separate list of MBBS back- ground civil servants and that the Centre should write to States to send back officers overstaying in States and UTs. A senior DoPT officer said that now it is certain that with daily rise in COVID figures, the central government secretariat will have to continue for a stag- gered attendance and variable working hours to maintain social distancing at workplace for quite long now. “A broad framework for work from home is important to standardize the operating procedure even post lock down situation and to ensure safety and security of information, while accessing government files and information remote- ly from home,” said the official mentioning that a new set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been finalised for the employees which is differ- ent from the norms prevailed during lockdown. Sources said the Department of Expenditure have been informed about the expenses to be borne towards employees requiring the logis- tic supports in the form of lap- top/ desktop by the respective ministries/departments. Reimbursements like that for internet services for working from home may be added and that transport and refreshment expenses in physical offices may be dropped. DoPT sources said it is also figuring out the medical/MBBS background civil servants and other health policy experts who are into government departments so that they can quickly be engaged in the fight- ing the war against corona. As of now we can say that there may be around 20-25 per- cent of total strength of civil servants who are also doctors or have undergone training in health policy and manage- ment. Once we have proper data this will be quite helpful in this crisis and the same experts can be used or engaged in times of crisis, DoPT sources said. A senior official said it will be good if the Ministries of Health at the Centre and State engage the medico civil ser- vants in their departments rather than people from tech- nical and humanities' back- ground as has been the case over the years. The corona pandemic has made the government and other stakeholders realise that health care service is of utmost significance in nation building, said the official. Further, the DoPT has also written to State governments to spare officers for central dep- utation. In the letter it explains that every cadre is allowed a deputation reserve rule under which the officers are allowed to work on deputation includ- ing that under the Central Staffing Scheme (CSS). “The utilisation of this reserve is low and this under- utilization, particularly at Deputy Secretary/Director level, causes serious gaps in cadre management. It is, there- fore, requested that larger num- ber of officers may kindly be recommended for appoint- ment at Deputy Secretary/Director/Joint Secretary level under the cen- tral staffing scheme (CSS) so that the central deputation reserve/deputation reserves are duly utilized for this purpose,” said the letter. ?=BQ =4F34;78 India should rethink and revise its 'One China' policy and exploit the geographic, ethnic, and economic fault lines within the Asian giant, such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang, a group of experts has said. At a webinar jointly organ- ised by Law and Society Alliance and Defence Capital on Revisiting 'One China' pol- icy: Economic and Political Options for India: Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan, and Xinjiang, the experts said India's non- interference when Tibet was annexed by China 70 years ago, thereby changing its geo- graphical boundaries, has come back to haunt India since 1962. The experts at the webinar were Arvind Gupta, former deputy national security advis- er of India and now director of Vivekananda International Foundation; Jayadeva Ranade, former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat and present day President of Centre for China Analysis and Strategy; Seshadri Chari, sec- retary-general of Forum for Integrated National Security; Nitin A. Gokhale, editor of StratNewsGlobal and BharatShakti; and Abhijit Iyer- Mitra, senior fellow at Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. Editor of Defence.Capital N C Bipindra moderated the ses- sion. In his remarks, Gupta said what 'One China' policy was considered as a reciprocity to the 'One India' policy. However, India gave up its influence on Tibet in the 1950s and accept- ed its annexation by China. This situation as far as Tibet is concerned continues till date. However, India has taken a flexible approach in the past few years on Tibet, Gupta said and pointed out to the 2010 India- China joint statement that did- n't mention the 'One China' policy, then external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj’s state- ment in 2014 on the reciproc- ity on the unity and sovereign- ties of each other, and the invite to the Taiwanese repre- sentative to join the 2014 Narendra Modi oath taking ceremony. He expressed his concerns about not taking a dynamic approach and said that we have not moved very much in revis- ing policy and taking forward what was said in the statements. On Tibet, Gupta suggested that India should be supporting the effort of the Tibetans to have self-rule and should give the Dalai Lama more recognition and position in diplomatic engagements, apart from visi- bility in India’s political circles. Nitin Gokhale, in his argu- ments, said China’s actions regarding ‘One India’ policy such as stapled visas to Indian citizens from the states of Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh, denying visa to an Indian military commander who was heading the army in Jammu and Kashmir and Beijing’s opposi- tion to Indian prime minister visiting Arunachal Pradesh were all reasons enough for India to rethink the ‘One China’ policy. “Taiwan is the low hanging fruit as far as a rethink on ‘One China’ Policy is concerned. We should think of increasing our economic and technological relations with Taiwan. They are wonderful in electronic chip manufacturing, semicon- ductors, and 5Gn technolo- gies,” Gokhale said. Jayadeva Ranade stressed the need to build up India’s own capabilities in countering China - not only on the border, but on all fronts. He predicted that the tensions between the US and China will certainly either put India in a sweet spot or in a del- icate position in the days to come. He said that the govern- ment should provide scholar- ships to those wanting to learn Mandarin from Taiwan instead of China, where the visitors are brain-washing into becoming slaves of Chinese supremacy. Sheshadri Chari argued that India should never accept the ‘One China principle as pro- pounded by Beijing. On Xinjiang, Chari pointed out that the region was annexed by China because of which it cre- ated borders for itself with Central Asian nations, Afghanistan, and India. Abhijit Iyer-Mitra classified three major problems of India with China - cutting off the Pakistan-China nexus, the need for a problems free border, and China’s veto power at UNSC. He gave food for thought by flagging questions like - are we ready to give nuclear weapons to Taiwan? Can we support Taiwan strategically? Can we support the democra- cy movement in Hong Kong, given the fact that we already have many protests in India? Can we recognise Taiwan? Can we support Uighurs? Can we support Manchuria and Inner Mongolia? Can we support the minority rebels in Mongolia? Can we sell them weapons? A094B7:D0AQ =4F34;78 The India Meteorological Department (IMD) used ISRO’s satellites –INSAT 3D, INSAT 3DR, polar orbiting satellites including SCATSAT, ASCAT, Oceansat-2 and Megha Tropiques kept a con- stant eye on the super cyclone Amphan along with available ships and buoy observations to study the intensity, locations and cloud cover around as it brewed into super cyclone. According to IMD report on super cyclone Amphan, the system has been monitored since April 23, a three week prior to the formation of a trough of low pressure over the southeast Bay of Bengal on May 13. As it developed into a super cyclone, Indian satel- lites sent data every 15 minutes to the ground station helping track and forecast its move- ment and save hundreds of lives and helped the agencies to minimize the damages. Amphan has intensified into a super cyclone on May 19-20 and made its landfall in West Bengal between Digha and Hatiya on the afternoon of May 20 that caused extensive damages in West Bengal and coastal Odisha. The West Bengal Government has pegged financial loss to the tune of Rs 1.02 lakh crore across the state due to Amphan. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) report on Super Cyclonic Storm Amphan that crossed West Bengal coast during May 16-21 , as a very severe cyclonic storm across Sundarbans, said that from May 18 midnight onwards till May 20, the system was tracked gradually by IMD Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) at Visakhapatnam, Gopalpur, Paradip, Kolkata and Agartala as it moved from south to north. IMD also utilised DWR products from ‘DRDO Integrated Test Range’, Chandipur, Balasore for track- ing the system. The cyclone was monitored through Indian satellite observations from INSAT 3D and 3DR, polar orbiting satellites including SCATSAT, ASCAT etc. and available ships buoy obser- vations in the region. Amphan moved very slow- ly during initial two days with a speed of 4-5 kmph and very fast during last two days prior to landfall with windspeed of about 20-30 kmph. A Low Pressure Area formed over south Andaman Sea and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal on May 1. It meandered over the region for next five days and became less marked on May 6. However, associat- ed cyclonic circulation persist- ed over the region till May 12 . On 11th, it was indicated that cyclogenesis (formation of depression) would occur around 16th May (48 hours prior to formation of the Low Pressure Area and 120 hours prior to formation of depres- sion) over the BoB. It again reappeared as an Low Pressure Area on May 13 over southeast Bay of Bengal. Under favourable environmental con- ditions, it concentrated into a depression over southeast BoB in the early morning on May 16 and further intensified into a deep depression (DD) in the same afternoon. It moved north- northwestwards and intensified into Cyclonic Storm “AMPHAN” (pronounced as UM-PUN) over southeast BoB in the evening on May 16. It further intensified into a Severe Cyclonic Storm (SCS) on May 17. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has lauded the IMD for its accurate prediction of Amphan. This was the second time that WMO appreciated India Meteorological Department (IMD) for its accurate prediction. Earlier, during Fani cyclone in Odisha, the world body has hailed IMD forecast. µH`cWc`^9`^V¶^R_fR]W`c8`geV^a]`jVVdZ_h`cd 4g_TacbWPX[?´bSTRXbX^]c^PT]S4bbT]cXP[2^^SXcXTb0Rc RQJ VHHNV UHGXFWLRQ LQ SHWURO GLHVHO SULFHV 83dbTS8BA´bbPcT[[XcTb c^ZTT_ThT^]0_WP] ?=B064=284BQ =4F34;78 Amid the ongoing face-off with China at the Line of Actual Control, Union Minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari on Sunday India is not interested in the land of China or Pakistan but wants peace and amity. India (even) never tried to grab land of its neigh- bours like Bhutan and Bangladesh, he stressed. Addressing the virtual ''Jan Samvad'' rally of Gujarat BJP from Nagpur in Maharashtra, he said India believed in peace and non-violence and does not want to be strong by becoming an expansionist. The Minister of Road Transport Highways and MSME also said that COVID- 19 crisis will not last long, as a vaccine is on its way soon. India do not want land of either Pakistan or China. All India want is peace, amity, love, and (want) to work together (with neighbouring countries), Gadkari said. His comments came at a time when India and China are engaged in a stand-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. Talking about the comple- tion of one year of the second term of the Modi government, Gadkari said its biggest achievement was to bring peace in the country by dealing with matters of internal and exter- nal security. ...Whether it is about almost winning over the Maoist problem or securing the coun- try from Pakistan-sponsored terrorism...There is China on the one side of our border and Pakistan on the other side. We want peace, not violence, he said. During his speech, Gadkari referred to the famous novel Mrityunjaya by Marathi nov- elist Shivaji Sawant, saying peace and non-violence can be established by only those who are strong and not weak. We should not make India strong by becoming expan- sionist. We want to make India strong for establishing peace. We never tried to grab land of Bhutan. Our country made Sheikh Mujibur Rahman the prime minister of Bangladesh after winning the war (with Pakistan in 1971), and our soldiers returned thereafter. We took not a single inch of land. We do not want land either of Pakistan or China. All we want is peace, amity, love, and wanted to work together, he said. Gadkari also said the coro- navirus crisis will not last long as scientists in India and abroad have been working to develop a vaccine. This crisis is not going to last long. Effort is on in our country to develop a vaccine for coronavirus. Scientists across the world are working in this direction. As per the information received by me, I can say with confidence that very soon we will find vaccine. Once we develop a vaccine, we won''t have to fear the crisis, Gadkari added. As per the Union Health ministry, India saw the highest single-day spike of 11,929 novel coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the number of infections to over 3.20 lakh on Sunday, while the toll crossed the 9,000 mark with 311 more deaths. 4_^µdgQ^d3XY^Q@Q[Q^T Red`UQSUQ]Ydi*7QT[QbY 8]SXPbW^d[SaTeXbT³]T2WX]P_^[XRh Tg_[^Xc2WX]PbUPd[c[X]TbbPhTg_Tacb ?8=44A=4FBB4AE824Q =4F34;78 The Centre on Sunday said that six Indian companies - Hetero, Cipla, BDR, Jubilant, Mylan and Dr Reddy's Labs -- have applied to Indian Drug Regulatory Agency, Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for permission to manufacture and market the Remdesivir drug in India. In a release here, the Union Health Ministry said that five of these have also entered into an agreement with Gilead, a biopharmaceutical company, which had applied to CDSCO, for import and marketing of Remdesivir on May 29. After due deliberations, permission under Emergency Use Authorization was granted on June 1 in the interest of patient safety and obtaining further data. The applications of these six companies are being processed by the CDSCO on priority and in accordance with the laid down procedures. The companies are at various intermediate stages of inspec- tion of manufacturing facilities, verification of data, stability testing, emergency laboratory testing as per protocol. Being an injectable formulation, test- ing for assay, identity, impuri- ties, bacterial endotoxin test and sterility become very crit- ical for patient safety and this data needs to be provided by the companies, the release read. The CDSCO is awaiting the data and is providing com- plete support to these compa- nies. It has already waived off the requirement of local clini- cal trials for these companies by invoking emergency provi- sions. The Ministry made it clear that as per its upated Clinical Management Protocol for COVID-19, drug Remdesivir has been included as an inves- tigational therapy only for restricted emergency use pur- poses along with off label use of Tocilizumab and Convalescent Plasma. The said protocol also clearly mentions that the use of these therapies is based on limited available evidence and limited availability at present. Use of Remdesivir under emergency use may be consid- ered in patients with moderate disease (those on oxygen) but with no specified contraindi- cations. This drug has still not been approved (market autho- rization) by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), where like India it continues only under an Emergency Use Authorization. Additionally, the first three batches of imported consign- ments are to be tested and reports submitted to the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), said the release. 6^ec)BXg8]SXP]UXabP__[XTS c^23B2U^a_TaXbbX^]c^ P]dUPRcdaTATSTbXeXaSadV