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The Supreme Court onFriday said the state of

affairs in Delhi hospitals was“horrific” with regard to dis-posal of the bodies of Covid-19and sought responses from theCentre and different States onits plea taking suo motu cog-nisance on the treatment givento patients and the handling ofthe bodies.

The court said hospitals arenot showing due care to thebodies and not even informingfamily members about deaths,as a result, they are unable toattend the last rites.

“Hospitals aren’t giving duecare and concern to the deadbodies. Patients’ families aren’teven informed about deaths.Families haven’t been able toattend the last rites too insome cases. How are deadbodies being treated?” the court

asked during the hearing. “It isa horrendous situation. Worsethan animals, people are beingtreated,” the court said.

A bench of Justices AshokBhushan, SK Kaul and MRShah also issued notices to theCentre, Maharashtra, West

Bengal and Tamil Nadu. “The situation in Delhi is

horrendous, horrific andpathetic,” the bench said dur-ing the hearing.

The judges went on to addthat Government hospitals inDelhi are not properly dealingwith bodies of deceased Covid-19 victims, adding that patients’families have not beeninformed about deaths onsome occasions.

It also asked theGovernment why somepatients were not gettingadmission in hospitals despitethe Government app showingthe availability of beds.

“Reports also show thatpatients are not able to getadmitted to the hospital where-as data shows a large numberof beds remain vacant. TheState is not only duty-bound toprovide beds but also ade-quate infrastructure, manpow-

er, and staff to attend to thepatients,” the SC bench said.

The top court furtherslammed the DelhiGovernment citing mediareports which have shown the“pathetic” condition of patients.

“Very sorry state of affairsin Delhi and its hospitals.There is no adherence to theMHA guidelines,” SC said.

Not just Delhi but the SCalso pulled up Maharashtra,Bengal and Tamil Nadu overthe condition of Governmenthospitals in their States.

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China has reported 10 newcoronavirus cases, includ-

ing two more confirmed infec-tions in Beijing, followingwhich the capital city sus-pended plans to reopen schoolsfor Grade I to IIId students.Beijing reported its first Covid-19 case on Thursday after aninterval of 56 days.

��

The country’s total numberof positive Covid-19 cases

crossed 3 lakh-mark on Fridaynight while the infectionsbreached one lakh-mark inMaharashtra and Delhi record-ed 2,000-plus cases for thefirst time in a day.

The Maharashtra total tallytouched 1,01,141 in the Statewhere 127 more people suc-cumbed to pandemic duringthe last 24 hours taking thetotal number of deaths to 3,717.With no let up in the coror-navirus crisis in the State, 3,493people tested positive for thepandemic in various parts ofthe State on Friday.

Despite the Tamil NaduGovernment’s stance that therewas no need for any total lock-down of Chennai and the threeneighbouring districts tocheckmate the spread of coro-navirus disease, the Staterecorded an all time high of1,982 persons testing positivefor the pandemic on Friday, thehighest numbers to be testedpositive on a single day.

With Friday’s testing, thenumber of persons tested pos-itive in the State for the pan-demic till date has reached40,698. Taking into account thenumber of persons cured of thedisease and discharged (22,047)

from hospitals across TamilNadu, there are 18,281 covidpatients across the State as onFriday evening, said a release bythe Government of TamilNadu.

The death toll in TamilNadu reached 367 with 18more persons succumbing tothe pandemic on Friday. While17 of the dead had co-mor-bidities (suffering from otherserious ailments) a 38 year oldmale died without any comor-bidities.Of the 127 deathsreported on Friday, Mumbai —

which had recorded 97 deathseach during the last two days —accounted for 90 deaths, whilethere were 12 deaths in Pune,11 deaths in Thane, threedeaths each in Kalyan-Dombivli and Sangli, twodeaths each in Nashik andAurangabad, one death each inBhayandar, Vasai-Virar, Dhuleand Amravati.

��

Even as India sees a steep risein coronavirus cases with

the consequent jump in thenumber of deaths, Maharashtraand Delhi, two of the worst-hitStates with a rising graph of thepandemic, have rejected thepossibilities of extending thelockdown.

It was expected that theStates like Maharashtra, TamilNadu, Delhi and Gujarat whichare the top four States with ashare nearly 2,00,000 coron-avirus cases of a total of3,00,000 in the country mightcontinue with the lockdown ata time when the pandemic ispeaking across these States.

While Tamil Nadu andGujarat Governments are yet tospeak up their mind on theissue, Delhi and MaharashtraGovernments made it clearthat lockdown would not beextended beyond June 30 andactivities would be unlocked

with “new normal” of socialdistancing and other standardoperating procedures.

Reviving and sustainingeconomy seemed to have over-ridden the logic of “life first” innot continuing the lockdownwhen there is no sign of coro-navirus curve in any waystraightening itself in thesetwo States.

Delhi Health MinisterSatyendar Jain said lockdownwould not be extended whenasked if there have been dis-cussions to continue it in thenational Capital.

Jain’s remarks came a dayafter the city witnessed thehighest single-day spike inCovid-19 cases as it recorded

1,877 fresh infections onThursday and total 1,085 casu-alties.

Maharashtra ChiefMinister’s Office too made itplain that the lockdown in theState will not be extended andalso appealed people to avoidcrowding in order to halt thespread of coronavirus.

At present, the lockdown isimposed in the State till June30. “Lockdown will not be re-announced. Chief MinisterUddhav Balasaheb Thackerayhas requested and appealed tothe people not to crowd any-where. Follow the instructionsgiven by the government andtake care of yourself,” theMaharashtra CMO tweeted.

��

New Delhi: “In war, you do notmake soldiers unhappy. Travelextra mile and channel someextra money to address theirgrievances,” the Supreme Courtsaid on Friday taking seriousnote of non-payment of salaryand lack of proper accommo-dation to doctors engaged infight against Covid-19.

The courts should not beinvolved in the issue of non-payment of salary to health careworkers and Governmentshould settle the issue, it said.

New Delhi: Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Friday consti-tuted a high-level expert committee, which includes IndianCouncil of Medical Research Director-General BalramBhargava, to suggest effective steps to deal with the Covid-19outbreak in the national Capital, officials said. Apart fromBhargava, the six-member panel also includes NationalDisaster Management Authority members Krishna Vatsa andKamal Kishore; AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, DGHSAdditional DDG Dr Ravindran and National Centre for DiseaseControl Director Surjit Kumar Singh.

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Corona war is not over yet.We should be very alert

and face the situation evenmore professionally at the sametime with a human face,” saidChief Minister Naveen Patnaiksaid at a review meeting onCovid-19 held on Friday.

While videoconferencingwith DIGs and SPs of the State,Patnaik said people at large seea ‘human face’ in police actions

and the good work shouldcontinue.

“Police should try andrationalise available manpow-er. I would like the DGP to pre-pare an action plan to makemore and more manpoweravailable at the police stationlevel. This may be done with-in a fortnight with properplanning.” he said.

Continued on Page 2

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One more Covid-19 patientsuccumbed to the virus on

Friday, taking the total tally offatalities to 10 in the State, saidthe Health and Family WelfareDepartment.

The 55-year-old man ofGanjam district died whileunder treatment in a hospital.The cause of death was acuterespiratory distress syndrome.

On the day, a total of 112

more persons tested Covid-19positive in 18 districts in theState. With this, the total num-ber of positive cases in the Statemounted to 3,498.

Of the new cases, five werelocal contacts while remaining107 were reported from differ-ent quarantine centres. Puridistrict reported the highest 15cases followed by Khordha andMayurbhanj with eight andseven.

The remaining fresh caseswere: Jharsuguda (2), Malangiri(3), Keonjhar (5), Jajpur (3),Angul (6), Deogarh (2),Cuttack (3), Ganjam (6),Sundargarh (4), Boudh (3),Gajapati (5), Sambalpur (5),Balangir (5), Baleswar (5) andNayagarh (4).

Continued on Page 2

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The number of Covid-19 pos-itive cases increased to 103 in

Bhubaneswar with two morepersons, including a hospital

staff, tested positive for the virus on Friday.The two are among eight new cases reported in Khordha dis-

trict. While one is a 46-year-old woman employee of the ApolloHospital, another is a 30-year-old man of the Nayapalli area,informed the BMC.

This is the third case reported from the Apollo Hospital inBhubaneswar so far. The BMC said the man detected in theNayapalli area is a family member of a person tested positive ear-lier. Continued on Page 2

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Police have collected �1.25 crore as fine from people caughtin public places without facemasks across the State, said

Director-General of Police (DGP) Abhay while attending a video-conference chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik onFriday. The State Government has increased the fine amount foroffenders from �200 to �500. The penalty amount has also beenincreased to �1,000 after two repeated violations on mask use,he pointed out. The DGP also said a sum of �11,74,350 has beencollected from people who violated the social distancing normand �1,03,800 from offenders of night curfew norms. He saidthat while implementing a directive issued by the Chief Ministeron “zero walking inside Odisha for inter-State migrants,” the DGPsaid police undertook 524 trips in different vehicles to transportas many as 24,587 people and dropped them at different borderpoints. Continued on Page 2

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S JYOTIRANJAN

Afew days ago as we enteredunlock-0.1, apart from

unlocking some essential sec-tors of the economy, it was alsodecided for opening up publicplaces of worship.

But when the cases ofCovid-19 infection are explod-ing, such a decision is likeputting the cart before thehorse. It is better that certainthings be kept for later, espe-cially after establishing bettercontrol over the pandemic.

And places of public wor-ship or religious congrega-tions, irrespective of social dis-tancing norms being in vogue,are prone to violations of suchguidelines and norms.

Studies have shown that,there have been umpteen num-ber of instances of religiousgatherings amplifying theCovid-19 infections in manycountries across the globe andthis should actually discourageGovernments from openingplaces of worship in the initialstage of the unlock process.Any protocol in place, be it useof personal protective equip-ment by the staff managingcrowd or personnel manningvarious responsibilities in thereligious institutions, onlineregistration and issue of e-passes to devotees who will beallowed inside, cannot effi-ciently check infection in thegatherings at confined places.

India remains among thetop five virus affected countriesand it cannot contemplate ofsomething that has the poten-cy to create a situation of masstransmission.

It is a matter of greatdelight that, quite many tem-ple managements, churchesand Islamic religious bodieshave been prudent enough todecide against opening now.What we need to do is, pri-oritise reopening of the econ-omy efficiently and with giv-ing due emphasis to publichealth and safety and as suchall optional activities should bepostponed only to be reopenedafter achieving efficient disease

control in a well calibratedway.

The challenges are many;the compulsion to unlock inorder to save the economy andkeep a tap on disease control isimportant.

However, it seems moredifficult with each passing day.If data from ICMR linked stud-ies are to be believed, the dis-ease burden for diabetic peoplehave grown by 80 percent since1990 and this makes themmost vulnerable to the risk ofthe Covid-19 infection. Giventhe fact as above, it is matter ofgreat public health concernthat, the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) estimat-ed the global prevalence of dia-betes among adults over 18years of age as 8.5 percent in2014.

And in case of India,according to a ‘InternationalDiabetes Foundation report’ of2019 (Diabetes Atlas), one insix people with diabetes in theworld is from India and as suchit is placed among the top 10countries in the world for peo-ple with diabetes, and it comesat number two with an esti-mated 77 million diabetespatients.

This indeed is a greatthreat in itself in exposing themillions of vulnerable Indiansto the infection and a fastercommunity transmission andwhich in fact should be theguiding factor in deciding ourpriorities.

On the contrary, in aninteresting development, inorder to control the Covid-19pandemic, the Governor ofCalifornia passed an executiveorder limiting attendance atplaces of worship to 25 percent of building capacity or amaximum of 100 attendees,against which the South BayPentecostal Church movedan application for temporaryinjunction before theSupreme Court of UnitedStates of America, which wasrejected by the court lastmonth.

The majority, includingChief Justice Roberts, RuthBader Ginsburg, StephenBreyer, Sonia Sotomayor andElena Kagan declined theprayer for injunction on theregulations.

Chief Justice Robertsobserved, "The notion that it is"indisputably clear" that theGovernment's limitations areunconstitutional seems quiteimprobable.

He further observed,"Although California's guide-lines place restrictions onplaces of worship, those restric-tions appear consistent with theFree Exercise Clause of the First

Amendment. Similar or more severe

restrictions apply to compara-ble secular gatherings, includ-ing lectures, concerts, movieshowings, spectator sports, andtheatrical performances, wherelarge groups of people gather inclose proximity for extendedperiods of time.

And the Order exempts ortreats more leniently only dis-similar activities, such as oper-ating grocery stores, banks,and laundromats, in whichpeople neither congregate inlarge groups nor remain inclose proximity for extendedperiods”.

It was also observed in thejudgment that, the restrictionsappeared to be consistent withthe First Amendment to the USConstitution, which reads,“Congress shall make no lawrespecting an establishment ofreligion, or prohibiting the freeexercise thereof; or abridgingthe freedom of speech, or of thepress; or the right of the peo-ple peaceably to assemble, andto petition the Government fora redress of grievances”.

The first amendment issimilar to Article 19 of theIndian Constitution and hasthe ingredients of reasonablerestriction.

However, in another devel-opment the Delhi High Courthas on 12 June, rejected a PILchallenging relaxations made aspart of the Unlock 0.1 andimposed a cost of Rupees20,000 on the petitioner.

We need to contemplateour unlock policies in a rea-soned way and properly pri-oritise ‘what to open’ and ‘whatnot to open’.

It is particularly importantthat, religious activities arelimited to our respective homesand there is no urgency to openup places of worship.

There is a cogent argu-ment against opening of theplaces of worship, i.e., normal-ly such places are confined overparticular space and the anxi-ety and craving our societyshows in thronging there andparticipating in religious gath-erings is certainly a grave chal-lenge to crowd managementand adhering to social dis-tancing norms.

Not only that, it will alsooverburden the public trans-port system, as it might lead tomany resorting to public trans-port to reach religious desti-nations of choice and the socialdistancing in public transportshall definitely be blatantlyviolated.

(The writer is a lawyerand public policy expert. Hecan be reached at [email protected])

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The number of road acci-dents in the State has

declined following implemen-tation of the Motor Vehicles(Amendment) Act 2019, saidstate Transport MinisterPadmanabha Behera on Friday.

The new Act was imple-mented on September 1 lastyear. Between September andDecember, the number of acci-dents came down by 9.93 percent compared to the corre-sponding period in 2018.

Similarly, the number ofdeaths due to road accidentshas decreased by 12.29 per centin the given period. InSeptember-December 2018,total 3,573 accidents werereported with 1,635 fatalities. Inthe same period in 2019, 3,218accidents were reported with

1,434 fatalities.Between January and

March 2020, there was a reduc-tion of 5.78 per cent in roadaccidents and 14.36 per cent innumber of deaths compared tothe same period in 2019.

The number of road acci-dents was 3,058 betweenJanuary and March in 2019 and2,881 during the correspondingperiod in 2020.

The number of accidentdeaths was 1,580 duringJanuary-March, 2019 and 1,353in the same period in 2020.

“The numbers of casualtiesand injuries due to road acci-dents have come down inOdisha with implementation ofnew MV Act.

The number of accidentshas also decreased during theCovid-19 lockdown,” said theMinister.

��

Even as colleges and univer-sities in the State have been

closed due to the Covid-19lockdown, staffers were direct-ed on Friday to attend officesfrom June 17. In a letter toRegistrars of all Government-run universities and Principalsof all colleges, HigherEducation DepartmentSecretary Saswat Mishra direct-ed all teachers, officers, andnon-teaching employees of theeducational institutions toattend office from June 17.They have been asked to ensureCovid-19 preventive measures,including social distancing dur-ing their work. Notably, class-es in all educational institutionsof the State have been sus-pended till July 31 in view ofthe Covid-19 situation.

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An unaccountable cash of �3.91 lakh was seized from

Mayurbhanj Chief DistrictVeterinary Officer (CDVO)Abhay Kumar Tripathy byVigilance official while he wason his way to Bhubaneswar onFriday.

Following the seizure ofcash, the Vigilance police alsoconducted simultaneous raidson his residence at JayadevVatika in Bhubaneswar andhis office chamber and rentedhouse at Baripada.

Acting on reliable infor-

mation that the CDVO was onhis way to Bhubaneswar fromBaripada with the huge cashin a car, Vigilance officialsintercepted his vehicle atHatapada in Betnoti ofMayurbhanj district at around8.15 am. During verification,the cash kept in five envelopeswas found in his possession.When he failed to give a sat-isfactorily explanation regard-ing the source of the cash, theVigilance officials detainedhim.

Further investigation wason in this connection, sourcessaid.

��

The final semester examina-tion of the engineering col-

leges under the Biju PatnaikUniversity of Technology(BPUT) would be held online,informed Odisha SkillDevelopment & TechnicalEducation MinisterPremananda Nayak on Friday.

The online examination ofthe 8th semester would beconducted between first weekand second week of July in andoutside Odisha.

The students, who wouldfail to appear in the examina-tion online, can attend thesemester test offline in theirrespective colleges after thelockdown, said the Minister.

Notably, there was uncer-tainty over holding of the finalsemester examinations of engi-neering courses following phas-es of lockdown enforced due tothe Covid-19 pandemic.

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The southwest monsoon hasfurther advanced into most

parts of Odisha except six dis-tricts, the RegionalMeteorological Centre heresaid on Friday. The monsoonhas covered most districtsexcept some parts of Bargarh,Jharsuguda, Sundargarh,Sambalpur, Keonjhar andMayurbhanj. Conditions arebecoming favourable for fur-ther advancement of the mon-soon into the remaining partsof the State during the next 48hours, it said.Heavy rainfallwarning has been issued forseveral districts till June 14.

��

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Students and alumni of the Utkal University hereare upbeat as their institution has found a place

in the list of best 100 universities of the country.The Utkal University has been ranked 96 amongtop 100 universities in the National InstitutionalRanking Framework 2020 released by the Ministryof Human Resources.

Four other educational institutions, including twoprivate universities of the State, have also been

enlisted in the national ranking. The UtkalUniversity, the State’s oldest, has created a nichefor itself in the realm of higher education. Knownfor its top-quality research in science and human-ities, it has produced many scholars. administra-tors, scientists and economists of national andinternational repute.

In November last year, the university celebratedits platinum jubilee with commitment to upkeepits high tradition in education and research.

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Twenty-one more personnel belonging tothe NDRF, ODRAF and Fire Services test-

ed positive for Covid-19 in the State duringthe last 24 hours, informed the Informationand Public Relations Department on Friday.

They are among 112 cases reported from18 districts in the State.

With the new cases, the number of infect-ed personnel belonging to theNDRF/ODRAF/Fire Services rose to 136.

Notably, about 300 personnel belongingto NDRF/ODRAF/Fire Services weredeployed in restoration works in the CycloneAmphan-hit areas in West Bengal. Whilethey were put in quarantine centres on theirreturn, 136 of them have tested positive forthe virus and most of them are asympto-matic.

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Ajoint squad of theBhubaneswar Municipal

Corporation (BMC) and theBhubaneswar DevelopmentAuthority (BDA) on Fridaysealed the Market Building atUnit-2 here due to violation ofCovid-19 guidelines.

As per reports, the actionwas taken after the team foundviolation of the social distanc-ing norm as people gathered inlarge numbers for shoppingahead of the Raja festival.

Notably, on Thursday,more than 20 shops, includingAmber, Vishal Mega Mart,Maa Tarini Bastralaya, andLingaraj Lassi, had been closedfor the same reason.

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The celebration of the WorldDay against Child Labour

on June 12 is a wakeup call forthe Odisha Government topay attention to the humani-tarian task of eradication ofchild labour.

Unless and until childlabour is completely eradicat-ed and every child goes toschool, receives education, thedemographic dividend whichour country has will not gettranslated in growth and pros-perity for everyone

According to the datapublished by the NationalCrime Records Bureau(NCRB), in its Crime in Indiareports, from 2016 to 2018 thenumber of FIRs registered

under Child Labour[Prohibition and Regulation]Act (CLPRA) in Indiaincreased from 204 in 2016 to464 in 2018. During these

three years, the number ofvict ims rescued underCLPRA also increased byfrom 384 in 2016 to 810 vic-tims in 2018.

Given the registration ofcases under CLPRA and thetotal number of children res-cued in conjunction withthe total number of childlabourers in India it is clearthat the Indian States havecompletely failed in its statu-tory duty of eradication ofchild labour.

According to the Census of2011, Jharkhand stands at 11thposition in terms of number ofchild labour (3.3 lakh) in thecountry.

However according to theNCRB data, Odisha reportedzero cases of child labour dur-ing 2016-2018 and not a singlechild was rescued from labouror slavery, thus signifying verypoor reporting of cases underCLPRA in the State.

��

The State Government onFriday permitted dhabas

along the National Highwaysand the State Highways to pro-vide takeaway service duringthe night curfew and weekendshutdowns. The office of theSpecial Relief Commissionerissued an order in this regard.

Procurement of paddy,delivery of rice, and procure-ment of groundnut and pluseshave also been allowed duringthe weekend shutdowns, theorder said.

��

Aman was allegedly beatento death by another person

at Damana under theChadrasekharpur police limitshere on Thursday night. Theexact cause behind the murderis yet to be ascertained.

The deceased Deepak wasworking as a mason and stay-ing in a slum near the KalyanMandap in Damana.

Sources said an alterca-tion had broken out betweenDeepak and the other personwhen both were in inebriat-ed conditions in the slum. Ina fit of rage, the latter staredb eat ing Deepak with awooden stick killing him onthe spot. On receiving infor-mation, police reached thesp ot and arrested theaccused.

The cops were furtherinterrogating the accused whilea scientific team went to thespot on Friday morning forinvestigation.

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Odisha has become the firstState in the country to

receive ISO certification forhostels meant for tribal stu-dents.

The ST&SC WelfareDepartment had earlierlaunched the ”Mission Suvidya”project to provide all tribal hos-tels uniform standards of infra-structure, amenities andhuman resources.

In the first phase, hostels ofKeonjhar and Sambalpur dis-tricts were taken up for assess-ment. Out of 156 hostels ofKeonjhar, 60 were selected forintensive interventions. Of 90hostels of Sambalpur, 12 wereselected for the purpose.

The remaining hostelswould be assessed after thelockdown is lifted and restora-tion of normalcy.

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The Fisheries & AnimalResources Development

Department has launchedhome delivery of poultrymeat, eggs and fish duringweekend shutdowns in thecapital city.

The orders can be madefrom various OPOLFED andChilika Fresh stores in the city.While the minimum orderamount is fixed at �499, homedelivery charge of �50 is applic-able on each order.

��

The State Youth Congress onFriday burnt effigies of

Prime Minister NarendraModi, Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik and Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan here inprotest against frequentincreases in prices of petrol anddiesel.

“While the entire countryis battling the coronavirus,increase in petrol and dieselpr ices by the UnionGovernment has shaken thefinancial conditions of thepeople. People had lost earn-ings during the lockdownbut when they came out forsourcing livelihoods, hike in

fuel prices has hit them hard,”said State Youth Congresspresident LoknathMoharathy.

He severely criticized theCentre for increasing fuelprices when the per-barrelcost of crude oil in the inter-national market has comedown to 30 US dollar from 120US dollar.

Stating that both the Unionand the State Government aretaking 75 per cent tax,Moharathy demanded that theyreduce tax rate on petrol anddiesel in the interest of peoplesoon.

Among others,Manoranjan Dash, RanjitPatra, Sankuna Kanhar,Debashish Mohapatra,Biranchi Barik, DeepakMohapatra, BishwaranjanDas, Chinmay Pradhan,Biplab Parida, NalinikantNayak, Pratap Kumar Pradhan, SubhrakantJena, Kartikswar Tandi andAlok Kumar Digal were pre-sent.

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From page 1

The Chief Minister alsoappreciated efforts of the entirepolice force for creating aware-ness among people and enforc-

ing the lockdowns during thelast three months. “My appealfor ‘Zero walking insideOdisha’ for inter-State migrantswas implemented in letter andspirit because of systematicand coordinated hard work,”Patnaik observed.

Appreciating the worksdone by ODRAF and FireService officials in relief and

restoration operations in WestBengal post Cyclone Amphan,Patnaik said that in spite of thecoronavirus threat, ODRAFand Fire personnel faced thesituation boldly and helpedpeople in distress in Kolkata.

“The service will be aninspiration for others; and theentire country has appreciatedthe work done,” he stated.

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From page 1

With this, the number ofactive cases in the State rose to1,131.

However, on the day, asmany as 120 more patients test-ed negative for the virus andrecovered from the disease.

Out of them, 30 were fromGanjam, 19 from Khordha, 14from Baleswar, 12 fromBalangir, nine fromDhenkanal, seven each fromNayagarh and Sundargarh, sixfrom Angul, f ive fromKeonjhar, four each fromJagatsinghpur and Puri andone each from Deogarh,Kendrapada, and Jharsuguda.

With this, the total numberof recovered cases in the Stateincreased to 2,474.

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From page 1

He was put under homequarantine.

“Contact tracing is stillcontinuing. Primary contactsand nearby houses are beingquarantined and sanitised,” theBMC tweeted.

Out of 103 cases detectedin capital city so far, three per-sons have died, 59 recoveredand 40 are active cases.

With eight new cases, thenumber of Covid-19 posi-tives in Khordha district roseto 315 out of which 186 haverecovered and 123 are activeones.

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From page 1Police personnel have also

been providing security in8,002 temporary medicalcamps set up to lodge themigrant workers since May 3.As many as 5,22,148 peoplehave returned to the State byJune 11.

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An accused youth attempted tocommit suicide inside the

Pattapur police station in Ganjamdistrict on Friday morning follow-ing his arrest in a murder case.

Pramod Dalai of theKabisuryanagar area in the districthad been arrested on Thursdaynight in connection with a murdercase.

Source said that a personnamely Bibhu Prasad Das of theHinjili area was killed in forest atTaptapani on May 23 over illegalganja trade.

Two accused persons hadbeen arrested in this connectionand forwarded to court earlier.Police arrested Pramod, who wasthe third accused in the case.

Following his arrest, Pramodallegedly consumed phenyl in thetoilet of the police station. Policerushed him to the nearbyCommunity Health Centre atAdapada.

After his condition deteriorat-ed, he was shifted to the MKCGMedical College Hospital inBrahmapur.

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Though people elsewhere in theState started rushing to markets for

Raja festival shopping with theGovernment relaxing the night curfewfor three hours till 10 pm on Friday,the Ganjam district administrationdecided to continue with previous cur-few timing to avoid public congrega-tion.

In view of the three-day festivalbeginning on Saturday, the districta d m i n i s t r at i on h a s i s s u e d aStandard Operating Procedure(SOP) to be followed by the publictill June 16.

All kinds of gathering for celebra-tion of the festival like Raja Doli, Mela,Mahotsav, feasts and traditional gamesplayed on the occasion have beenstrictly prohibited throughout the dis-trict.

However, all essential shops, gar-ments and stationary shops are allowedto operate between 7 am and 7 pm dur-ing the period. Nonessential shops areallowed to open between 7 am and 2pm.

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Out of 8,755 Odia migrant workers reg-istered names to return home in

Jharsuguda district, only 2,325 have reachedthe district so far.

Sources said 1,072 persons were kept oninstitutional quarantine centres out of which572 have returned home on completion ofquarantine period. The rest 1,253 persons arestaying in home isolation.

Financial assistance of Rs 2,000 has beengiven to 375 workers out of 572 who havereturned home from institutional quarantinehomes. The rest persons have been advisedto submit copy of their bank accounts forpayment of aid.

While the Government has given Rs 5.63lakh, the district administration has alreadydeposited Rs 7.50 lakh in migrants’ accounts.The excess amount has been paid from thefunds received from other heads to fightagainst coronavirus, said a senior officer.

Till date, 4,853 swab samples have beencollected and sent for Covid test in the dis-trict. Till Tuesday forenoon, 4,174 reportswere received. An average of 150 samples perday is being sent to the ICMR and ILS labsat Bhubaneswar for test.

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Two fishermen were killed andanother suffered injuries after a

boat capsized in the Mahanadi rivermouth near the Paradip NehruBungalow on Friday.

Reportedly, around 15 fishermenhad ventured into sea in the boat forfishing. Unfortunately, the vesselcapsized due to heavy rain andstrong wind.

While 13 fishermen, includingthe injured one, were rescued, twoothers drowned in the deep water.However, the bodies were later fishedout of the water while the injured wassent to the Paradip CommunityHealth Centre for treatment.

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Demanding action against the family mem-bers of her female partner, a 28- year- old

girl knocked the door of Aul police station andstaged dharana on Tuesday. She demanded samesex marriage, but finally, the girl returned empty-handed as her female partner denied to accepther.

The girl seeking police help is fromBalipatana village under Pattamundai police lim-its. On Tuesday claiming that she has a love affairwith a girl under Aul police limits for last nineyears, she wanted same sex marriage as bothwere in livein relationship. But she complainedbefore the Aul police that the family membersof her female partner were obstructing theirmarriage.

She urged the IIC of Aul police to call thegirl to police station . The girl came but deniedto marry her when Aul police asked the girlwhether she wanted to do same sex marriage.

Meanwhile, the complainant informed themediapersons that she possessed several pho-tos and videos of her intimate moments withher partner and described the latter's act asbetrayal.

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The IIM, Sambalpur, signed a memo-randum of understanding (MoU)

with the India SME Forum, whose mem-bers will mentor the students towards lead-ership and intrapreneurship fellowship forenterprises.

IIM Sambalpur Director ProfMahadeo Jaiswal said, “This associa-tion is a big step towards educating,mentoring and inspiring the willingand able start-ups and SMEs that havethe potential to be world class enter-prises.

This will also offer a platform toimbibe global best practices for sustain-ing long term growth.

As part of the MoU, the IIMSambalpur in collaboration with the IndiaSME Forum will develop and conduct pro-grammes on leadership and entrepre-neurship development for SME, SC/ST,women executives/ enterprises acrosssectors in the country.”

India SME Forum and ACEEDEDirector General Sushma Morthania stat-ed, “We are glad to associate with adynamic new age management institutelike IIM Sambalpur.

The MOU will facilitate the mutualsharing of best practices and expertiseincreation of new entrepreneurs in thecountry.

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The Urban Wage EmploymentInitiatives (UWEI), a �100- crore

scheme recently launched by ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik to help the lock-down-hit urban poor people, is beingimplemented smoothly in the JodaMunicipality area under Keonjhar dis-trict.

Sources said the Joda Municipalityhas been allocated �94 lakh under thescheme. District Collector AshishThackre and Sub-Collector PratapPreetimaya have urged the municipal-ity administration to utilse funds beforeSeptember 30, 2020 so that fundswould not be diverted to other urbanareas.

Accordingly, 41 works, includingdrain and roads repairing, have been takenup at an estimated cost of � 60.38 lakh.The works have been entrusted to differ-ent SDAs and SHGs and till now �10 lakhhas been deposited in beneficiaries’accounts under the direct benefit trans-fer (DBT) scheme.

The early implementation of theUWEI has given a big relief to poor peo-ple of the municipality who were roam-ing in the streets without any job.

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Afive-feet-long male cobra was res-cued from a Government quar-

antine centre at Mahanala underSanakhemundi block in Ganjam dis-trict on Friday.

A member of People for Animalsrescued the venomous snake andreleased it near a hill.

Around 40 migrants workers arestaying at the Covid-19 quarantinecentre set up at the Mahanala school

since past 10 days after they returnedfrom Surat.

However, panic ran high amongthe inmates after the cobra was spot-ted in the quarantine centre. TheNodal Officer of the quarantine cen-tre contacted the local unit of Peoplefor Animals to rescue of the snake.Subham Sahoo, a member of theorganisation, reached the quarantinecentre, caught the snake successfullyand then released the reptile into thewild.

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AHavildar of the Motu bor-der check-post among

three persons tested positive forthe coronaviurs in Malkangiridistrict during the last 24 hours.Intensive contact tracing andfollowup action is underway,informed district CollectorManish Agarwal on Friday.

After detection of the case,IIC and other staffs of the Motupolice station have been instruct-ed to remain under home quar-antine. Besides, the police stationhas been made a containmentzone.The rest two cases weredetected from a temporary med-ical camp (TMC) in Korukondablock. While one of them has atravel history to Tamil Nadu,another was working as an atten-dant at the TMC.As on Friday,the number of positive cases inthe district stood at 25 out ofwhich 21 have recovered,informed the Collector.

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From day one, the new VIMSARDirector is engulfed in a delicate

situation on the matter of fraudulentMRI billing in the hospital. It isalleged, the agency running the cen-tre has misappropriated crores ofrupees of the State Government since2016, but in connivance with othersenior officials of the institution.

Of late, it has been found that theconcerned agency – Hindustan LatestLtd (HLL), was preparing false billsin the names of the patients withoutthe knowledge of the treating doctorsand taking money from Government.“This will be to the tune of cores,”informed Dr Sankar Ramchandaniand many more doctors of the insti-tution.

Whereas such cases are in thou-sands, but one case could be taken asan example. As per the advice of thedoctor, the MRI of a patient, Indumati

Pal was done on May 28. The MRIwas suggested for LS spine portiononly and that was done which costs�4,000. The money is borne by theState Government. But the concernedagency showed that the MRI wasdone for other parts too and bill wasmade for �12, 000 instead of Rs 4,000.“This is just the tip of the ice berg,”said Dr Ramchandani.

There are thousands of suchinstances where the Government haspaid crores of rupees through falsebilling and also with the knowledgeof some corrupt people of the insti-tution, he added. However, from thevery beginning, the scam of crores ofrupees has emerged as a challengebefore the new Director. “There willbe an inquiry into the whole matter.Action will be taken against theagency, the erring staff and all othersinvolved directly or indirectly,” saidnew Director Dr Meher. At the sametime steps will be taken to recover themoney from the agency, he added.

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After bagging Geographical Indication(GI) tag for sweetmeat ‘Odishara

Rasagola’, the State has now soughtrecognition for famous ‘Gajapati datepalm jaggery’.

An application in this regard has beensubmitted with the GI Registry by Dr PKarthigeyan, IPR expert, who has beenauthorised by the Odisha Rajya TalgurSamabaya Sangha Ltd (ORTSS).

“Date palm jaggery is a naturalsweetener obtained from sweet juice(neera) of the date palm trees which aregrown in natural climate. Gajapati datepalm jaggery is prepared in a trapezoidalform called ‘patali gur’. The jaggery is pro-duced in traditional methods and it ispurely organic in nature as no natural orsynthetic colouring agents and artificialsweetening agents are added in the jag-gery,” said Dr P Karthigeyan.

“It has numerous medicinal value andis used in the preparation of Ayurvedicmedicines for curing asthma, gastric

disorders, cough etc. The jaggery is alsoused by diabetic patients as it contains lesssugar than sugar cane jaggery, crystalsugar and other sweetener agents. Thejaggery is rich in vitamins and naturalminerals and also more nutritious thanother sweeteners,” he added.

The GI tag allocation will take a yearas it has to undergo many stages. Thegrant of GI will help the OdishaGovernment to protect the interest of trib-als, enhance their livelihood and employ-ment, he told.

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Keonjhar Collector Ashish Thackre onThursday held a videoconference

with all Sarpanches of the district andurged them to maintain social distancingduring the ensuing Raja festival.

He told the Sarpanches that in themeantime migrant labourers have returned to their villages, forwhich the chances of communityspread of the Covid-19 pandemic arevery high.

So, the only remedy is to maintainsocial distancing; and for this, theadministration has restricted the crowdmovement, swing playing, worship at thereligious places, gatherings in market-places.

Only shops dealing with groceriesand clothes and dress materials wouldremain open from 6 am to 6 pm and allother shops would remain open from 6am to 2 pm.

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The Brahmapur MunicipalCorporation (BeMC) is

all set to collect holding taxat the increased rate from theFY 2020-21 online, sourcessaid.

However, representativesfrom different social outfitsand NGOs, namely, formerpresident of the Ganjam Baradvocate Bhagaban Sahu,Manav Adhikar SurakshyaManch convener advocateAbani Kumar Gaya, Odisha

Unit of Bharat BikashParishad president SurendraPanigrahi, ONSU-TUCI,AIKKS Ganjam unit secretaryShankar Sahu, social activistKishore Chandra Patra andsenior BJP leader KanhuCharan Pati have stronglyprotested the hike in holdingtax

They described theincrease as arbitrary and anti-people, not based on any uni-form principle. When thecurrent holding tax rate as ofFY 2019-20 is already higherthan tax rate of many otherStates, the recent hike madeby the BeMC is quite unjustand uncalled for, they lament-ed.

In the absence of electedbody, how could the BeMChave decided to hike the hold-ing tax against public interest,they questioned?

Notably, amid hue and cryover multifold increase in

holding tax by the BeMC, theGanjam Bar Association hadearlier given a memorandumto the RDC (SouthernDivision) Brahmapur, protest-ing the increase in March thisyear.

The holding tax wasreportedly increased by theBeMC after revision of bench-mark value of land cost in thecity by the district adminis-tration for which the BeMChas decided to collect therevised holding tax fromhouseholds.

Similarly, on March 12,the opposition BJP also hadthreatened to launch stiragainst the BeMC for the pro-posed manifold hike in holdingtax.

If the BeMC fails to rollback its decision, the variousorganisations and the publicwill be forced to come to roadand continue their protest, theleaders cautioned.

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The Khordha police onFriday arrested three

dacoits and a purchaser oftheft items in connection witha house burglary committed atBhogada village underBaghamari police limits onMay 25 night.

The police registered a caseand started investigation on thecomplaint lodged by houseowner Saumya RanjanJayasingh. He had alleged thatabout 12 dacoits had entered

his house at 1.30 am, attackedhis family members with sharpweapons and looted away 150grams of gold from their house.

The three arrested culpritshave been identified asHaribandhu Khatua alias Haria(30) and Ajay Nayak alias Aji(40) of Kendupalli village underBegunia PS in Khordha districtand Sukanta Behera (34) ofBadapokharia village underDasapalla PS in Nayagarh dis-trict. The person who wasarrested as receiver of stolenproperty has been identified asAnita Sahoo (45) of SibajiNagar under the NayagarhTown PS.

Police seized �45,500,ammunitions and 3.7 gm goldfrom the accused persons.

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As many as nine accusedpersons were arrested by the

Rourkela Police for their allegedinvolvement in the DilshadKhan murder case.

According to Rourkela SP KShiva Subamani, the victimDilshad was brutally attackedwith lathis and sharp weaponsby a group of accused personson June 7 evening in the Railwaycolony area under Plant Sitepolice station. Later, the victimsuccumbed to the injury.

In the case, the police have nabbed nineaccused persons including the principal accusedJeetendra Saha. As the police have been haunt-ing for 3-4 more accused, the SP could not revealthe names of arrested persons in apprehensionof problem in further investigation and arrest.

Meanwhile, the police have forwarded all tothe court.

According to the SP the motive behind thecrime was an old rivalry of 2018. In 2018 the vic-tim had slapped the principal accused in a feastand since then he was planning to take therevenge. Besides failure in certain previousattempts, he managed to attack the victim onJune 7 evening while the latter had visited thearea.

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The members of Athagarh BarAssociation in a meeting wel-

comed the newly joined JudgesSrimayee Acharya and NabanitaDash. Acharya joined here as SubJudge and Dash as SDJM.Additional District JudgeArabinda Pattnaik and JMFCSoumya Sekhar Mahanta wel-comed the newly joined Judges andexpected positive response fromthem. Senior lawyers PranakrushnaDash, Adwaita Charan Panda,Prasanna Kumar Rout, BishnuPrasad Sahoo, Sanjay Dash, SaratDash, Prasant Mishra, ManojPattnaik, Satyen Panda, JagadanandTripathy, Gyana Dhalsamant,Deepak Mansingh, Manoj Pattnaik,Gyanaranjan Mohapatra, ShrinathRath among others were present.

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As gradual disengagement takesplace at the Line of Actual

Control(LAC) in Ladakh, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh on Fridayreviewed the situation with Chief ofDefence Staff(CDS)General BipinRawat and the three Services Chiefs.Since the complete de-escalation willtake some more days, he was briefedalso about the next course of actionregarding talks at all levels of the twoarmies to resolve the stand-offs.

Incidentally, this was the secondmeeting between the defence minis-ter and the defence top brass in thisweek. The first meeting on Mondayassessed the talks between Lt GeneralHarinder Singh and Major General LiuLin last week. The latest meeting tookstock of the pace of efforts to reducetension and an assessment of theground situation, sources said here.

The high-level meeting alsoreviewed the military build-up byChina all along the LAC from Ladakh,Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh andArunachal Pradesh last month. TheIndian forces had also quicklyresponded by adding muscle to theirtroop strength besides deploying

heavy weapons closer to the LAC asa precaution, they said.

Rajnath has all along maintainedduring the month-long stand-off atfour locations in eastern Ladakh thatdiplomatic and military efforts willfind a peaceful way out to end theimpasse. He was apprised of theforthcoming schedule of talks whichinclude meetings between officers oftwo sides at the LAC over a course of10-12 days to ensure mutual with-drawal of additional troops fromoperational areas to peacetime loca-tions.

Moreover, the latest review camein the backdrop of almost regularinteraction at the diplomatic and mil-itary level to end confrontation. Also,India and China in the last two daysalso gave out almost similar statementsfavouring early resolution.

The minister was also apprised ofthe tension still prevailing at PangongTso(lake)with the Chinese troops notgoing back. However, the two armieshave pulled back from the other threesites including the Galwan valley andthe Hot Springs. In fact, in the HotSprings, the Chinese intruded at leastthree kms and were now retreating totheir original positions, sources said.

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Covid-19 may affect theentire nervous system,

including the brain, spinalcord, nerves, and the musclesof the infected individual,according to a review of stud-ies which may help better man-age the neurological symp-toms of the disease such asheadaches, seizures, andstrokes.

According to the research,published in the journal Annalsof Neurology, nearly half ofhospitalised Covid-19 patientshave neurological manifesta-tions like headache, dizziness,decreased alertness, difficultyconcentrating, disorders ofsmell and taste, seizures,strokes, weakness, and musclepain.

"It's important for the gen-eral public and physicians to beaware of this, because a SARS-COV-2 infection may presentwith neurologic symptoms ini-tially, before any fever, cough orrespiratory problems occur,"said study lead author IgorKoralnik from NorthwesternUniversity in the US.

In the analysis, the scien-tists describe the different neu-rological conditions that mayoccur in infected patients andhow to diagnose them, as wellas likely pathogenic mecha-

nisms.Koralnik said that this

understanding is key to directappropriate clinical manage-ment and treatment for Covid-19 patients.

There are many differentways Covid-19 can cause neu-rological dysfunction, he said.

In addition, they said thevirus may cause direct infectionof the brain, meninges -- a con-nective tissue lining severalparts of the nervous system --and the cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) which acts as a shockabsorber for the skull.

The reaction of theimmune system to the infection

may also cause inflammationthat can damage the brain andnerves, the scientists added.

Since knowledge about thelong term outcome of neuro-logic manifestations ofCOVID-19 is limited, theresearchers plan to follow somepatients prospectively to deter-mine if neurological problemsare temporary or permanent.

Prof. Rajinder K Dhamija,Head of NeurologyDepartment, Lady HardingeMedical College and SSKHospital, Delhi agreed with theobservations of the researchers.He explained that the virus caninfect the brain two ways--through nasal cavity andthrough the blood supply to thebrain. “Once the virus attacksthe brain, it can result intoblood clotting,” he said addingthat there are perviousresearches also like those con-ducted in Wuhan, China whichhave found that neurologicalmanifestations in severely illpatients such as headache,dizziness, impaired conscious-ness, stroke, ataxia and seizurebesides loss of smell.

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Union Home Ministry onFriday told the States not

to block the movement of vehi-cles including goods and pub-lic transport Highways andmain roads after 9pm. Centre’sclarification came after seriesof complaints came on block-ing of transport during curfewtime 9pm to 5am in manyStates and State borders.

Union Home SecretaryAjay Bhalla wrote to ChiefSecretaries that curfew time isimposed only to prevent con-gregations and ensure socialdistancing and not for blockingvehicle movements. HomeSecretary said that public andgoods transportation shouldnot be blocked during the cur-few time.

Centre also told States thatloading and offloading ofgoods also not to be blockedduring curfew time. HomeSecretary also clarified thatmovement of people coming byflights, trains or buses after longjourney also permitted duringcurfew time.

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Ahead of the Rajya Sabhaelection, the Congress on

Friday accused the BJP ofindulging in corrupt electoralpractices and said it will raise theissue with the ElectionCommission.

Congress spokespersonAbhishek Singhvi said a dele-gation of party leaders wouldmeet the EC and petition it tohighlight instances of its legis-lators in Gujarat being lured andintimidated by the ruling BJP.

The election for four RajyaSabha seats in Gujarat will beheld on June 19.

Singhvi said the party wassure of its victory in RajyaSabha elections in Gujarat andwould bag two of the four seatsas per its strength in the statelegislature.

Fearing poaching of itsMLAs, the Congress has movedits MLAs to resorts in the stateas well as in neighbouringRajasthan.

"Our victory is certain, ournumbers are sufficient," Singhvisaid at an online Press confer-ence.

"Our means are clean andpure, our strategy is strong, butthat should not prevent mefrom exposing before you thosewho are doing just the opposite,"he also said.

He alleged that "everybodyhas not indulged in gutter levelpolitics and everybody is not

indulging in corrupt practices".Singhvi also alleged that the

BJP was intimidating its MLAsthrough misuse of power, wascreating a non-level playingfield and making a mockery ofthe 10th Schedule.

The Congress leader citedan instance of one of its GujaratMLAs Panjbhai KunjbhaiVansh, who was being subject-ed to harassment at the handsof the state government in anold case even when he did nothave any criminal record.

Singhvi said the Congresswill not be cowed down by thethreats of the ruling BJP and willfight it out in EC and thecourts.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi on Friday said that

he was saddened to see India’stolerance and acceptance ofnew ideas “disappearing” andthat the “division of people wasweakening the structure of thecountry”.

“We are a very tolerantnation. Our DNA is supposedto be tolerant. We’re supposedto accept new ideas. We’re sup-posed to be open, but the sur-prising thing is that that DNA,that open DNA, is sort of dis-appearing. I say this with sad-ness that I don’t see that levelof tolerance that I used to see.I don’t see it in the United Statesand I don’t see it in India,”Rahul said in an interactionwith US diplomat NicholasBurns.

“When you divide AfricanAmericans, Mexicans andother people in the UnitedStates, so you divide Hindusand Muslims and Sikhs inIndia, you’re weakening thestructure of the country. But,the same people who weakenthe structure of the country saythey are nationalists," he added.

During the conversation,Burns, Professor of Diplomacyand International Relations atHarvard, said the US and Indiahad the advantage to correctthemselves unlike “an author-itarian country” like China.

"In many ways, India andthe US share many traits. Wewere both subjects of theBritish empire, we both liber-ated ourselves from that empirein different centuries…Countries sometimes have togo through a discussion and apolitical debate about who arewe at the core? What kind ofnation are we? We are animmigrant nation, a tolerantnation,” Burns said.

Of the US’s “deep politicaland existential crisis”, he added,

“I do see strengths that democ-racies go through trials. Weplay out our differences, inpolitical campaigns or in streetprotests, but at least we can dothat. You can authoritarianismcoming back in China andRussia. We democracies, wesometimes go through painfulepisodes because of our free-doms, but we’re so muchstronger because of them.”

Burns described Trump ashaving an “authoritarian per-sonality”. “He (Trump) wrapshimself in a flag. He declaresthat he alone can fix the prob-lems. I must say, I thinkPresident Trump is in manyways an authoritarian person-ality. But in our country, you’reseeing the institutions remainstrong,” he said.

On the coronavirus pan-demic, Burns expressed disap-pointment at the lack of coor-dination between countries.“This crisis was made for theG20. It was made for PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andPresident Xi Jinping andDonald Trump to work togeth-er… for the common globalgood,” he said.

The Gandhi scion notedthat people were becoming“insular”, a behaviour that wasaccelerated by the Covid crisis.However, he later added: “I dosee new ideas and new waysemerging after Covid. I canalready see people cooperatingmuch more than they werebefore. Now, they realise thatthere are advantages to beingunified.”

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Prime Minister NarendraModi convened two-day

meeting of Chief Ministersand Administrators of UnionTerritories on June 16 and 17to assess the Covid-19 situationprevailing across the country.The meeting will be heldthrough video conferencingon June 16 and 17 at 3pm andmain agenda is expected to bethe treatment on the pandem-ic and health sector scenarioacross the country.

According to highly placedofficials, the Prime Ministerand Chief Ministers will discusson the health scenario andhealth infrastructure and itsupgradation to control thepandemic. The increase ofdeaths and patients in theMetro cities and creation ofmore infrastructure are also inthe agenda of the meeting.Before the meeting the PrimeMinister will assess the situa-tion with the Union HealthMinistry officials and otherhealth experts.

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Elders are not setting theright example. Many former

and present Rajya Sabha mem-bers have been found to beindulging in, what ChairmanVenkaiah Naidu termed, “bla-tant misuse and disregardtowards public money”. TheParliamentarians made multi-ple train bookings but neverbothered to cancel it even ifthey did not undertake thejourney. This has not onlyresulted in massive losses to theState exchequer but also waste-ful expenditure.

For the calendar year 2019,

the Railways has raised ademand for a payment of Rs.7.8 crores to be made by theRajya Sabha Secretariat as 1/3rdshare of the total cost of traintravel by the sitting and formermembers of Parliament, theirspouses and companions. Therest 2/3rd of the total cost is tobe paid by the Lok SabhaSecretariat.

Following this huge billraised by the Railways an analy-sis by the Rajya SabhaSecretariat of the number ofbookings made and actualjourneys undertaken by somesitting and former members ofthe Upper House, on the direc-tions of Naidu, was conducted.

Several cases of MPs blatantlymisusing the privileges pro-vided to them have been found.

A former member of RajyaSabha made as many as 63bookings of up to 4 per day on23 days in January, 2019 cost-ing a total of Rs 1,69,005. Asagainst this, the former MPconfirmed having travelled bytrain only on seven occasionsagainst a total train fare of onlyRs 22,085. This, in effect,means, the Rajya SabhaSecretariat has to pay an extraamount of Rs 1,46,920 whichcomes to about 87% of the totalamount claimed by theRailways on account of book-ings made by the said formermember of Rajya Sabha duringthe month of January, 2019.

In respect of a sitting mem-ber also, the analysis done bythe Rajya Sabha Secretariathas revealed that the actualjourneys performed duringJanuary, 2019, amounted to

only 15% of the total claim ofRailways. This means theSecretariat is required to pay85% extra for journeys not per-formed and the respectivebookings not cancelled.

With Naidu expressing hisstrong displeasure, the upperhouse Secretariat has issued astern note of caution to theMPs that in case of future vio-lations, deductions will bemade from their salaries.

Rajya Sabha SecretaryGeneral Desh Deepak Vermaasked the members to ensurecancellation of bookings notavailed failing which recoverywill be made for such bookingsif they are not cancelled in time.

"The members of RajyaSabha are being advised forsome years to avoid multipletrain bookings and to cancelthe unused bookings. Furtherto audit objections regardingsuch multiple bookings and thecost sharing formula and direc-

tions of the CentralInformation Commission torecast the process of trainbookings, the Rajya SabhaSecretariat has been taking upthe matter with the Railwaysover the last couple of years,"said a Parliament source.

On its part Railways havesince agreed to change thesoftware for train bookings bythe MPs to enable identificationof bookings by the members ofboth the Houses separately.This new software is likely to beoperationalised soon, sourcestold The Pioneer.

In his note, Verma said, “Ithas, however, been noted fromthe details of debit claims raisedby the Ministry of Railways thatmultiple bookings are beingmade by some members in var-ious trains departing fromsame/different stations to dif-ferent destination stations forthe same day. Rajya SabhaSecretariat has to make pay-

ments to the Ministry ofRailways even for those book-ings which are actually notutilised by the members.”

“Members would appreci-ate that non-performance ofjourney on reserved berthsand non-cancellation thereof intime leads to unnecessaryexpenditure and avoidabledrain on Rajya Sabha budget.It also put the public to incon-venience as they fail to get con-firmed berths/seats," said thenote.

Following discussions withthe Chairman Naidu, the sec-retary general warned, “In viewof the above, members arerequested to cancel all suchbookings which are not likelyto be utilised, well in advance.In case of non-cancellation ofbookings which are not actu-ally utilised by the members,the amount of fare of suchbookings shall be recoveredfrom the members.”

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BJP leader and nationalspokesperson Syed

Shahnawaz Hussain on Fridayhit back at Congress leaderRahul Gandhi over his “intol-erance in India” remark andsought him to offer an apolo-gy for his "unpardonable utter-ances".

Former Congress presi-dent reportedly equated Indiawith America in claiming thatboth countries were not beingtolerant.

BJP spokesperson saidRahul’s comment that like inAmerica where ‘whites andblacks’ dispute exist and theyclash with each other in Indiatoo Hindu, Muslims and Sikhsface a similar situation, is “unpardonable” and“undoubtably condemnable”.

Hussain quoted Rahul say-ing that “intolerance” wasincreasing in India and claimedthat it was conspiracy to

defame the country . BJPleader said Rahul’s commenthave diminished country’simage and demanded his apol-ogy to the country.

He said Rahul has nounderstanding of India’s “greatheritage” and “culture” and hehas become habitual in criti-cising his country.

Hussain alleged that evenat time of crisis like presentedby Coronavirus pandemic, theCongress leader was not leav-ing a chance to attack thecountry that too while atalkingto a foreigner. “ It is highly con-demnable and people of thecountry would not forgive him”.

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With telemedicine fastbecoming a necessity for

patients amid Corona scare, theInsurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority ofIndia (IRDAI) has asked thehealth insurers to allow thefacility to be part of the claimsettlement policy. It need not befiled separately with the author-ity for any modification, itoutlined.

Telemedicine allows healthcare professionals to evaluate,diagnose and treat patients inremote locations usingtelecommunications technolo-gy in remote locations too toaccess medical expertise quick-ly, efficiently and without travel.

Telemedicine offered shallbe in compliance with thetelemedicine practice guide-lines issued by the UnionHealth Ministry in March and

as amended from time to time,IRDAI said.

As per the guidelinesissued in consultation withNITI Aayog, medical practi-tioners will have to pursue asound course of action to pro-vide effective and safe medicalcare founded on current infor-mation, available resources,and patient needs to ensurepatient and provider safety.

Dr N Subramanian,Chairman, Health Committee,PHDCCI and Director atIndraprastha Apollo Hospitalsadvised young practitionerswho are keen to adopt thetelemedicine technology that itis very important to have cer-tain amount of discipline andthey should establish a rela-tionship and trust with thepatients especially in case ofTelemedicine.

He said this at a video con-ference of series on "DigitalHealth: The Future:

Telemedicine-Where do WeStand Today" held last monthand organized by the PHDChamber of Commerce andIndustry.

During the discussion, DrHarsh Mahajan from MahajanImaging said that with the

advent of Corona, telemedicinehas become the necessity wheretechnology is helping us a lotto fight this crisis. But it has tobe under supervision of a clin-ician. He further added thatapart from teleradiology,telemedicine can be used indigital pathology, dermatol-ogy, ophthalmology and manyother segments.

Aditya Berlia from ApeejaySatya University felt thatbecause of Covid-19, at least20-25% medical system willmove to telemedicine in nearfuture while Dr. Hans RajBaweja, Chairman, EthicsCommittee, MCI explainedthe key points of telemedicineguidelines, like mandatorypatient consent, mandatorypatient identity as it is difficultto identify the patient in audioconsultations, taking of histo-ry & entering all the details inthe prescription. “It is manda-tory for doctors also to intro-

duce themselves at the time ofconsultation and only genericmedicines should be pre-scribed,” he said.

The experts also called forRegulatory framework forTelemedicine for Internationalpatients as well.

Vivek Seigell, PrincipalDirector Health, PHDChamber said that the recom-mendations arrived from thediscussions held will be sub-mitted to NITI AAYOG aspolicy inputs on various aspectsof telemedicine especially forconsulting internationalpatients.

The Telemedicine guide-lines were issued amid thenovel coronavirus outbreak, todecongest the healthcare facil-ities as medical professionalscan consult the patient remote-ly which would protect both ofthem from virus transmission,and does not disrupt the lock-down measures.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Fridayallowed the Tamil Nadu Government to find outways and means to sell liquor, whether online orat physical outlets in the state.

A bench of the apex court, headed by JusticeAshok Bhushan, said it is not for a court to laydown how liquor can be sold. "These are for theState governments to decide what to do," the benchsaid.

The court was hearing a petition seeking direc-tions to not open Tamil Nadu State MarketingCorporation (TASMAC) shops in the state.

The top court had last month stayed aMadras High Court order, which had directed theclosure of all state-run liquor shops and allowedonly the online sale of liquor in the state duringthe coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdown.

Tamil Nadu government had filed a petitionbefore the Apex Court challenging the MadrasHigh Court order on the matter.

Madras High Court had passed the order afterhearing anumber ofpetitions andfinding theviolation of thesocial distanc-ing norms, asordered by theUnion of Indiato prevent thespread of coronavirus, atthe liquorshops

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Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supre-mo HD Deve Gowda, senior

Congress leader MallikarjunKharge and ruling BJP's grassrootcadres Ashok Gasti and IrannaKadadi have been declared electedto the Rajya Sabha unopposed, apoll official said on Friday.

"Gowda, Kharge, Gasti andKadadi have been duly elected to fillthe seats in the Upper House inplace of Kupendra Reddy of JD-S,B.K. Hariprasad and Rajeev Gowdaof the Congress, and PrabhakarKore of the BJP, who are retiring onJune 25 on the expiration of their

term of office," returning officerM.K. Vishalakshi said in a state-ment here.

Though the biennial electionswere scheduled on June 19 in theevent of a contest, the returningofficer declared the results after theend of the last date of withdrawalof nomination, which was Friday, as there were no other can-didates.

Former Prime Minister DeveGowda, 87, got elected to theUpper House with the support ofthe opposition Congress as hisregional party has only 34 legisla-tors, 10 short of the required 44votes.

Jaipur: Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot onFriday made a scathing attack on theCentral Government alleging that theRajya Sabha polls were deliberately deferredin March as the Centre's poaching attemptswere incomplete by then, and now when thedates were rescheduled, "four of our MLAsfrom Gujarat have already resigned".

Speaking at a press conference onFriday, the CM said, "The Rajya Sabha elec-tions could have been held two monthsback. However, the Centre's poachingattempts were not complete by then, so, theRajya Sabha polling was deferred. Now, withthe dates of these elections beingannounced, four of our Gujarat CongressMLAs have already resigned. Even duringCorona times, Modi and Shah are busyplaying politics," he alleged.

"This is the time to save lives. SoniaGandhi has already told the PM that westand united to fight Covid-19. However,BJP continues conspiring to break up thegovernments even during the corona peri-od. Not a single vote in Rajasthan will gointo their kitty and both our candidates will

win," Gehlot said."Today, we need to see who is causing

pain and who is applying balm on pain. Thecorona crisis started appearing in February.Rahul Gandhi had warned the Governmenton February 12, however, during those days,the MP Government was toppled.Karnataka, too, faced the same fate. Thegovernment invested all its resources in top-pling governments. We can see the resultslooking at the present situation of the coun-try," he said.

"Modiji says he would make a 'Congressmukt Bharat', but India will never getCongress 'mukt'. Congress lives in the DNAof India", said Gehlot.

He questioned how the nation wouldbe able to fight Covid-19 if all political par-ties, all castes and creed don't stand unit-ed. "Why does this thought never cross PMModi or Amit Shah's mind?"

All Congress MLAs stand united todefeat the fascist forces, he said, adding 13independents and 2 BTP MLAs havepromised to support the Congress inRajasthan. IANS

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The short-term Kuruvai cul-tivation spread across the

five districts of Thanjavur,Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam,Tirucirapalli, Cuddalore andNagapattinam commenced onFriday as the Cauvery watergushed out of the Mettur Damto irrigate the vast stretch ofpaddy fields.

The importance of theevent could be understoodfrom the fact that ChiefMinister EdappadiPalaniswamy travelled to Salemfrom Chennai despite theemergency conditions prevail-ing in the state due to coronavirus pandemic to open thesluice gates of the Dam forreleasing the water.

Palaniswamy scored apolitical advantage over hisrivals by opening the gates ofthe shutters on June 12, the tra-ditional date on which Cauverywater is released from MetturDam for Kuruvai cultivation.This is the first time in the lastnine years Cauvery water isreleased from Mettur Dam onJune 12.

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Since the situation in Tamil Nadu,especially in Chennai and sur-

rounding districts are getting aggra-vated , the Government on Fridaymorning announced that JRadhakrishnan IAS, principal secre-tary, would be the new HealthSecretary of the State. The incumbentHealth Secretary, the glamorous DrBeela Rajesh IAS has been transferredto the commercial taxes department.

The exit of Dr Rajesh as health sec-retary was in the cards for the last fewweeks as the number of coronaviruscases in the State has been increasingsteeply. The last one month saw thenumber of covid patients in TamilNadu increasing by four folds and allmeasures going haywire.

Dr Rajesh, daughter of a formerCongress legislator Rani Venkatesh,had become a darling of the media aswell as housewives across the State forthe kind of sarees which she used towear during the press briefings.

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Despite Tamil NaduGovernment’s stance

that there was no need forany total lockdown ofChennai and the threeneighbouring districts tocheckmate the spread ofcoronavirus disease, theState recorded an all timehigh of 1,982 persons testingpositive for the pandemic onFriday, the highest numbersto be tested positive on a sin-gle day.

With Friday’s testing,the number of persons test-ed positive in the State forthe pandemic till date hasreached 40,698. Taking intoaccount the number of per-sons cured of the disease anddischarged (22,047) fromhospitals across Tamil Nadu,there are 18,281 covidpatients across the State ason Friday evening, said arelease by the Governmentof Tamil Nadu.

The death toll in TamilNadu reached 367 with 18more persons succumbingto the pandemic on Friday.While 17 of the dead had co-morbidities (suffering fromother serious ailments) a 38year old male died withoutany comorbidities.

The day also saw 1,342getting discharged from hos-pitals after getting cured ofthe pandemic. Till Friday, atotal of 6.42 lakh personshave been tested across theState in 78 laboratories.

Earlier in the dayGovernment PleaderJayaprakash Narayan toldMadras High Court thatthe administration has noplans to order lock down inChennai or any other placesin the State. The MadrasHigh Court had asked theGovernment about thescope of a total lockdown inthe backdrop of the everincreasing number of covidcases in the capital city andneighbouring districts.

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Kerala’s hope for a respitefrom coronavirus came a

cropper as the State saw 78 per-sons testing positive for thepandemic on Friday. Thedepartment of health blamedthe 36 expatriates and 31 fromother States who reachedKerala following lockdown forFriday’s upsurge in the covidcases.

The State also saw tencases of community transmis-sion on Friday though officialsdenied the possibilities of largescale transmission of the dis-ease. As on Friday, 1,303 per-sons were under treatment invarious hospitals across Kerala.

With the passing away of a71-year-old man in Kannurdistrict on Friday. Kerala’s deathtoll due to covid reached 19.Till date Kerala has tested 1.06lakh samples. There are 128hotspots in the State and 999persons have been cured of thepandemic till Friday.

The famous Lord KrishnaTemple would remain out ofbound for the devotees fromSaturday morning, according toMinister K Surendran who is incharge of temples in the State.The decision not to allow devo-tees in the temple was takenfollowing reports that Thrissurdistrict is experiencing a hikein the number of coronaviruscases.

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Inconvenienced as they have been by recurringinundations over the years across their city, then

monsoon has begun on an optimistic note forMumbaikars. For, the Ministry of Earth Sciences(MoES), in coordination with the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC), on Friday put inplace a State-of-the-art Flood Warning System,which can predict flood inundation three days inadvance.

Maharashtra Chief Minister UddhavThackeray and Union Earth Sciences Minister Dr.Harsh Vardhan jointly launched an IntegratedFlood Warning System for Mumbai.

Named iFLOWS- Mumbai, the IntegratedFlood Warning System will help make themetropolis become more resilient, by way of earlywarnings for flooding especially during high rain-fall events and cyclones.

Using this, it will be possible to have an esti-mate of the flood inundation 3 days in advance,along with three to six hours immediate weath-er updates.

It will be very useful, especially if people needto be evacuated from low-lying areas as we willbe able to forecast 12 hours in advance that a par-ticular spot may get flooded. The system will alsoforecast the rainfall in each pocket.

Developed by the MoES using its in-houseexpertise, in close collaboration with the BMC, thesystem uses rain gauge data and local data suchas data on land use, land topography, drainage sys-tems, water bodies in the city, tide levels, infrastructure and population in the metropolis.

Using these as inputs, the prediction systemmodels weather, rainfall, runoff and water move-ment, tide and storm surge impacts based onwhich early flood warnings for the city will be provided.

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After earning a Supreme Court rap on itsknuckles for its alleged mismanagement of

corona pandemic the Bengal Government onFriday faced flak from the principal Oppositionparties which accused the ruling TrinamoolCongress of bringing back “medieval barbar-ity” in its style of governance.

Hours after the Apex Court sought clari-fications from the State on issues related to hap-hazard handling of the corona cases Bengal BJPpresident Dilip Ghosh said only a judicial slapcan make the State Government work.

“It has become the habit of the MamataBanerjee Government to receive slaps from thecourt without which it would not functioningthe way it should,” Ghosh said complaining how“from the very beginning the State governmenthas been hiding the number of deaths and sup-pressing corona related facts which only com-plicated the problem… Initially they would testadequately to keep the infection figures down.Then they started collecting samples butdelayed their examinations … patients are madeto wait for days before results are made avail-able … by when either they are dead or theyhave gone back home.”

Referring to the dead bodies being “sub-jected to utmost humiliation” when they werepulled by hooks and “stuffed like dead cattle inside municipal vans” for stealthy dis-posal he said, “like the CPI(M) stole corpsesto cloak its crime at Nandigram, the TMC isstealing dead bodies to hide corona.” CongressLeader in Lok Sabha called the entire act ofstuffing the bodies inside vans with the help oflong hooks “an act of medieval barbarism whichhas no parallel in the modern world. It hasshamed us in the entire country and elsewhere.”

Kolkata: The Bengal EducationDepartment has suspended twowomen teachers working in a pri-mary school in East Burdwan dis-trict after it was discovered that theywere teaching from an Englishalphabet book which had lessonsthat amounted to belittle people withblack complexion.

“Two teachers have been sus-pended and the Department islooking into the matter as to howsuch lessons were allowed to be pub-lished,” State Education MinisterPartho Chatterjee said adding theschool had purchased the book in itsown capacity and that it was not aregular book prescribed by theGovernment. PNS

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Coronavirus has so farclaimed the lives of at least

35 police personnel and left3,388 other personnel infectedin various other parts ofMaharashtra.

“..3,388 police personnelhave tested positive for Covid-19. Of these 1,945 have recov-ered & 35 have tragically suc-cumbed,” Maharashtra HomeMinister Anil Deshmukhtweeted on Friday, givingdetails of fatalities and infec-tions among the state policepersonnel.

Informed officials sourcessaid that as many as 129 police

personnel had tested positivefor the pandemic during thelast 48 hours.

“There's been a steady risein the number of #Covid_19calls on the police helpline100. As many as 1,02,361 suchcalls have been received. 263instances of assaults on police-men have seen 846 arrests,”Deshmukh tweeted.

“As many as 1,27,846offences have been regd. u/s188 of IPC since the lockdownleading to 25,741 arrests &seizure of 81,206 vehicles. �6,97,67,411 havebeen collected in fines fromoffenders,” the Minister tweeted

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The line of control inHajipeer sector of Uri in

Baramulla early Friday morn-ing witnessed heavy exchangeof mortar shelling in the for-ward areas in which one civil-ian woman was killed whiletwo others received splinterinjuries.

More than one dozen fam-ilies from forward villages wereshifted to the safer locationinside a guest house by the localadministration.

Hitting back strongly,Indian army is learnt to havecaused extensive damages onthe other side of the line of con-trol.

Ground reports claimed,few Pakistani soldiers receivedinjuries as some of their postswere directly hit in retaliatoryfire. The line of control alsoremained active in differentpockets of Rajouri and Poonchduring the day.

At least three incidents ofceasefire violations werereported from Shahpur,Kirniand Qasba sectors of Poonch,Balakote sector in Mendhartehsil and Manjakote sector ofRajouri.

Srinagar based DefencePRO, Col Rajesh Kalia in astatement said, "Pakistan armyinitiated an unprovoked cease-fire violation along the LoC inRampur by firing mortars andother weapons. Befittingresponse was given".

According to local reports,four villages of Uri includingChuranda, Hathlanga,Gowhalan, and Hajipeer suf-fered maximumdamages.Several vehicles andresidential houses were target-ed by the Pakistan Army in thearea.

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The Covid-19 infectionsbreached one lakh-mark

in Maharashtra on Friday, asthe infected cases’ tallytouched 1,01,141 in the Statewhere 127 more people suc-cumbed to pandemic duringthe last 24 hours taking thetotal number of deaths to3,717.

With no let up in thecorornavirus crisis in theState, 3,493 people testedpositive for the pandemic invarious parts of the State onFriday.

Of the 127 deaths report-ed on Friday, Mumbai –which had recorded 97 deathseach during the last two days

– accounted for 90 deaths,while there were 12 deaths inPune, 11 deaths in Thane,three deaths each in Kalyan-Dombivli and Sangli, twodeaths each in Nashik andAurangabad, one death eachin Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar,Dhule and Amravati.

There have been a total of1,937 deaths in Maharashtraduring the previous 17 days.On May 26 (Tuesday) thestate had witnessed 97 deaths,while there were 105 deaths

on May 27, 85 deaths on May28, 116 deaths on May 29 and99 deaths on May 30, 89deaths on May 31, 76 on June1, 103 on June 2, 122 on June3, 123 on June 4, 139 on June5, 120 on June 6, 91 on June7, 109 on June 8, 120 on June9, 149 on June 10, 152 on June11 and 127 on June 12.

There have been ten suchdays since June 2 when thetotal number of deaths havetouched three digits in thestate.

Of the 127 dead onFriday, 92 were men while 35were women. Seventy sevenof them were aged over 60years, 52 were from the agegroup 40 to 59 years and 8were aged below 40 years.

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Jammu: More than 250 Covid-19 patients were dischargedfrom different hospitals ofJammu on Friday while 156new cases were detected andone more patient died inJammu, taking the death toll to53.

According to the mediabulletin, out of 156 new cases,88 patients were detected acrossJammu division while 68patients tested positive acrossKashmir division. Out of 266patients, who were discharged,

211 patients were from Kashmirand 55 from Jammu division.

At the present, the count ofCovid-19 patients in Jammuand Kashmir has reached 4730cases, out of which 2591 areactive positive. A total numberof 738 patients were active pos-itive from Jammu and 1853from Kashmir division.According to the media bul-letin, more than 2,000 patientshave recovered fully in Jammuand Kashmir. 353 in Jammuand 1733 in Kashmir. PNS

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The murder of a pregnant ele-phant, which died in theVelliyar river in Kerala’sMannarkkad forest division inPalakkad district on May 27,

must rank among the cruellest killingsof animals ever. According to the post-mortem report, the immediate cause ofher death was drowning. Before that, shecould not eat or drink for nearly 14 daysfollowing an explosion in her mouth thatinflicted major, incapacitating woundsin the oral cavity. “This”, the report reads,“resulted in excruciating pain and dis-tress in the region and prevented the ani-mal from taking food and water for near-ly two weeks. Severe debility and weak-ness, in turn, resulted in a final collapsein water that led to drowning.”

According to Kumar Chellappan’sreport in The Pioneer of June 6, the ele-phant was injured as she tried to eat acoconut that had been stuffed withexplosives to kill wild boars that ate upcrops. The report further stated that thepolice had arrested P Wilson, a tapperin a rubber plantation, the previous dayand were looking for the plantation’sowners, Abdul Kareem and his sonRiyazuddin, and had charged all threeof them under various sections of theKerala Forest Act and the Wildlife(Protection) Act, 1972. Wilson hasreportedly admitted that he had filled acoconut with explosives and placed it inthe plantation to kill wild boars that reg-ularly devoured/destroyed crops.According to reports, Wilson, followinginterrogation, had taken police andforest department officials to a shedinside the plantation, where the explo-sives had been worked on, and someremnants were found. In the event,instead of a wild boar, an elephant bitinto the fruit.

A word of caution. Before burstinginto a round of applause for the police,one should remember that the accusedare yet to be convicted and adequatelysentenced. Since Indian elephants(Elephas maximus) feature in Part I(mammals), Schedule I, of the WildlifeProtection Act, their hunting “in asanctuary or a national park” can leadto imprisonment of up to seven yearsand a “fine which shall not be less thanten thousand rupees.”

The award of the maximum punish-ment will depend on successful prose-cution in courts, which, in turn, woulddepend on convincingly marshalling andweaving evidence into unfolding argu-ments. This implies thorough investiga-tion and reflection thereon. This aspectneeds to be emphasised as the KeralaGovernment’s and local bodies’ recordin protecting animals and bringingtheir murderers and tormentors to bookis by no means exemplary. In some cases,

they are guilty of condoning oreven sanctioning killing.

In fact, one wonderswhether the Kerala Governmentwould have ordered an investi-gation into the present case andmade the kind of serious effortsit has to arrest the culprits, hadthe media not taken it up sostrongly and waves of shock andanger not swept the country.Another female elephant haddied in April in thePathanapuram forest range areaunder Punalur division inKollam district after trying to eatan explosive-laden fruit. It was,according to forest officers,treated adequately but in vain.The incident did not find anycoverage in the national mediauntil anger exploded over thepregnant elephant’s murder andwas only mentioned in passingin a couple of reports even afterthat. An investigation has beenordered but nothing like theefforts made following the deathof the pregnant elephant hasbeen launched.

Poaching is rampant in thearea. According to a report byVinod Mathew in The Print(datelined June 5), 24 wild ele-phants have died of unnaturalcauses like poaching in the lastfive years in Kerala. If theGovernment was serious aboutstamping out the menace, itwould have made recognisablydetermined efforts to bring theguilty to book in every case ofelephant killing like the one inApril. Besides, a telling com-mentary on the state of affairs inKerala is the almost casual men-tion in several post-Palakkaddeath media reports that the

explosive-laden coconut thatkilled the elephant was targettedat wild boars destroying crops.

Two points need to be madehere. First, such savage killing ofno animal can be justified.Second, the Kerala Governmenthad permitted the killing ofwild boars in May. The Printreport cited above quotes DrAsha Thomas, Additional ChiefSecretary, Forest and Wildlife,Kerala Government, as saying,“There have been periodicdemands from farmers that theybe allowed to protect their cropand given the right to shoot wildboars. About a month ago, aGovernment order was issuedthat allowed the shooting of wildboars, subject to a number ofclauses.” The clauses, accordingto her, included “certification bythe local authorities that an areais suffering crop loss on accountof sustained attack by wild boarsand so on.” She added, “And oncethe permission is granted, onlysomeone from an empanelledgroup of licenced firearm own-ers would be allowed to shoot. Sofar we have had only one suchcase.”

P Wilson, who allegedlystuffed explosives in the coconutthat killed the pregnant ele-phant, as well as the two otheraccused in the case, AbdulKareem and Riyazuddin, had, ifthe allegations against them arecorrect, either not heard aboutthe conditions governing thekilling of wild boars or thoughtthese could be ignored withimpunity. One needs hardly to besurprised if the latter has beenthe case. According to a reportin the NDTV (June 5) by Sneha

Mary Koshy (edited byDeepshikha Ghosh), villagersin the region often used fire-crackers or explosives stuffed infood to protect their fields fromwild animals like boar and thehorrific practice had been wide-ly condemned. Obviously, how-ever, such condemnation had notled to deterrent punishments ofthe kind that would have haltedthe three accused in their tracks.

It is certainly important toprotect crops. The need to do so,however, can also be cited as anexcuse. A report by AdamWithnall in The Independent ofthe United Kingdom datelinedJune 5 quotes KartickSatyanarayan, co-founder of theNGO Wildlife SOS, as sayingthat farmers continued to use“crude and inhumane” methodslike fruit bombs “on the pretextof crop protection… despitecrop compensation schemesavailable from the forest depart-ment”. According to a report byShaji Phillips in The IndianExpress of June 6, theMannarkkad range forest officer,Ashique Ali U, in charge of prob-ing the Palakkad killing case,said that the accused were in thehabit of hunting wild animalsand selling their meat. This, iftrue, would junk any claim thatthey were trying to protect theircrops.

There are multiple reasonsfor growing elephant-humanconflict. In many cases, humansare guilty of wanton provocation.This is clear from a report,datelined May 18, 2019, byBirdie Witten in the Mirror, theUnited Kingdom, which wasbrought to the notice of this

writer by Sonia Jabbar, whoruns a successful elephant con-servation programme in NorthBengal. The report is about amother elephant, which hadgiven birth near the dry bed ofa lake, trying to get her newbornbaby to stand, while a crowd ofvillagers watched and took pho-tographs. Increasingly indicatingher irritation through move-ments, she finally charged at thecrowd as the latter started throw-ing stones at her and killed a 27-year-old man. Ten other ele-phants appeared in the areashortly afterwards, causingpanic.

This incident happened inWest Bengal. Kerala is not theonly State where elephants aremaltreated. In the last couple ofdays, three elephants wereapparently poisoned to death inChhattisgrah. Such crimes arebecoming increasingly frequentthroughout the country becausehuman encroachment into ani-mal habitats is growing, thanksto a swelling population. It is notjust new farms and human set-tlements but the entire range ofprojects — roads, rail tracks,power transmission lines, mines,industrial plants — undertakenin the name of a skewed conceptof development catering toadvertisement-driven compul-sive consumption. Animals willperish and the environmentruined if the process continuesunreformed. Finally, with theirsupportive linkages of life formsgone, humans will face extinction.

(The writer is ConsultantEditor, The Pioneer, and an author)

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Sir — New Zealand PrimeMinister Jacinda Ardern must becongratulated for having eliminat-ed the scourge of Coronavirus.This is inspiring for the rest of theworld. While it is hearteningthat the country has declared itselfCOVID-19 free, it would beunjust to compare its recoverywith the rise in active cases inIndia. The whole of New Zealandcomprises only 4.9 million peo-ple, which comes to around one-fourth of the population of Indianmegacities like Mumbai or Delhi.Compared to India, New Zealandhas an extremely low populationdensity. This would relativelyhinder the spread of theCoronavirus.

No doubt New Zealand’srecovery will act as a case studyfor the entire world but onecountry’s situation cannot becompared with that of another.However, India needs to takesome important lessons fromNew Zealand on public health.We must exercise caution toarrest the spread of the diseasein our country.

Ravi Teja KathuripalliHyderabad

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Sir — With the InternationalCricket Council (ICC) banningthe age-old technique of using

saliva to shine a ball when crick-et emerges from the shutdowncaused by the COVID-19 pan-demic, bowlers will have to fixtheir gaze on revamping theirbowling skills to thrive in inter-

national cricket.Mastering bowling actions

and delivering the ball with var-ied lines and lengths consistent-ly may well be an alternative forthe bowlers. To enhance the

chances of taking wickets at fre-quent intervals, pacers may optfor reverse swing deliveries bytaking the best out from therough patches of the ball. One justhopes that before resuming crick-et, the ICC discusses the usage ofartificial wax in future meetingsto balance the game between thebat and ball. The problem calls forpragmatic solutions.

Tushar AnandPatna

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Sir — Despite the fact that India’sCOVID-19 cases have climbed tothe fourth highest in the world,people are yet to come to termswith the gravity of the situation.This despite the fact that we arebeing given daily updates on thenumber of cases and deaths. It’sjust not enough for us to followGovernment instructions undera lockdown. For our own safety,we must follow guidelines evenunder “unlock.” It’s a matter of lifeand death after all.

SrinivasVia email

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In April, even as the country was in the gripof the global pandemic, the Ministry ofHuman Resource Development (MHRD)

wrote to universities around the country, urg-ing them to study India’s response to the SpanishFlu and to identify those strategies from 1918that might be replicated in the lockdown-exitplan. Further, the MHRD exhorted universitiesto set up dedicated research teams to survey theneighbouring villages for their awareness ofCOVID-19.

In spite of being sincere and noble, thesedirectives tend to underscore, quite unintention-ally, a couple of chronic oversights that our insti-tutions have historically suffered from. Perhapsmore so now, than in 1918. However, the con-temporary clamour over the imperatives ofonline teaching, calls for technological upgra-dation of academic institutions, debates aboutequal access to e-learning portals and the long-term feasibility of such a learning model, giventhe low-to-moderate success of India’s alreadysizeable distant learning programmes, have com-pletely drowned out these other questions ofgreater import.

As our economy limps back to its routineafter undergoing an extended hard lockdownfrom March 25, what precise roles and tasksshould we delegate to our universities andresearch institutes? If India’s road to economicrecovery and self-reliance is predicated onwidening the bylanes of the “local”, how do wemobilise our universities to contribute to themission?

Perhaps an honest acknowledgment of ourshortcomings would be a useful plank to takeoff from. Of the two aforementioned instruc-tions sent by the MHRD, the first draws uponan assumption that the older city universities,such as those in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai andBanaras, would have archives detailing the colo-nial administration’s handling of the Spanish Fluepidemic.

Admittedly, as a people, we aren’t too goodat record-keeping. In spite of the annual reportsand the college magazines, our educational insti-tutions haven’t really fared too well when itcomes to documenting their own activities andachievements, let alone those of the Governmentand such. It is only in the last five or six years— thanks to the compulsion of submittingdetailed reports to various accreditation bod-ies — that the process of meticulous documen-tation and archiving has come into effect.

The second directive, at least in theory, seeksto alert academic and research institutions totheir own geo-cultural location. We must be can-did in admitting that in a bid to have an exceed-ingly “national” character, Indian universitieshave often ignored the uniqueness of theirrespective locations. This oversight is more pro-nounced in the Central universities.

An engagement with the local — its needs,its history, its practices as well as its knowledgetraditions — if harnessed well, would havereaped great dividends. Unfortunately, thisremains a major omission both in syllabi andinstitutional outlook.

Before we assign responsibilities to our uni-versities and seek to realign their priorities, wemust address both of the aforementioned con-cerns. Further, we must begin by asking as towhat it is that the “local” needs the most in thesetumultuous times and in the uncertain futurethat we anticipate with much trepidation.

Here, the experience of Hollywood, prob-ably one of the most spontaneous-yet-organisedindustries in the world, has an important les-son for us. Prior to the outbreak of the Spanish

Flu, the business of movie-making inthe US thrived on a partnership of sortsbetween film-makers and independentexhibitors. The family-run “mom-and-pop” theatres, which had mush-roomed throughout the US, had pro-pelled the small-time local exhibitorson a somewhat level playing fieldwith the big city-based producers.

However, once the prolonged lock-down threw the subsistence economyof these theatres into a spin, a mannamed Adolph Zukor, a Hungarian-American film producer, started prey-ing on their vulnerability and launcheda vicious acquisition drive. He bulliedthe theatre owners into selling off theirassets at throwaway prices and estab-lished a total monopoly by extendinghis control over every link in the busi-ness chain.

Zukor succeeded in altering forev-er the participative character of theAmerican film industry and turning itinto a highly centralised trade thatrefused to factor in spaces outside LosAngeles. This structure of productionand control that was set in place dur-ing the pandemic and has produced thelikes of Harvey Weinstein remains vir-tually untouched till date.

As India aims for economic recov-ery through strategies of self-relianceand power to the small and cottagebusinesses, it must remain vigilant ofsuch predatory monopolising tenden-cies. We need to guard our at-risk localplayers against hawkish forces thatthreatened to render them inconse-quential.

This has to be done through acombination of financial assistance andskill upgradation. While theGovernment has announced a detailedeconomic package, a roadmap forrecalibrating the retreating workforcetowards the needs of the rural econo-my remains to be thrashed out.

It is precisely in this context thatthe role of universities in post-COVIDIndia may be best framed. Universitiesmust start by identifying problems spe-cific to the workforce and businessesaround their locations, devise contin-

gency measures to help them survivethe immediate crisis and, in the longrun, find ways to enable them to con-tribute robustly to our economicrevival.

To this effect, the following sugges-tions may be of interest. First, the mas-sive labour movement in the weeks fol-lowing the lockdown has propelledback into the limelight certain con-stituents of our economy that werebecoming increasing invisible. Afterdecades of focus on heavy industries,mega infrastructure projects, IT hubsand the service sector, we are onceagain looking at the rural economy andagriculture.

Under the circumstances, it isimportant that our universities, agri-cultural research institutes and depart-ments of agriculture, horticulture andbotany leverage their research outputto the local farmers. This, in turn,would entail training a batch of indi-viduals from the nearby villages who,by virtue of being familiar with bothscientific terminologies and the localidiom, can establish a bridge betweenresearchers at a regional centre and thefarming community that thrives in itsvicinity.

A successful model for such anenterprise has already been put in placeby an Odisha-based organisation calledBack to Village (B2V). Through itschain of Unnat Krishi Kendras, whichprovide scientific training to youngfarmers and college graduates withroots in the villages, B2V has succeed-ed in establishing a dialogue amonguniversities, researchers and farmers.

It will be expected of the univer-sities to find ways to open up suchknowledge traffic and further diversi-fy the scope of their outreach to otheraspects of the agricultural economysuch as food processing, packaging,warehousing, transportation and so on.

Second, universities must try toread the sociology of the regional econ-omy by extensively mapping and doc-umenting local business trends, prac-tices, market orientations and gaps inthe production chain.

Besides being of immense value topolicymakers, both at times of crisis(the current one and in the future) andotherwise, such data would emboldenthe universities themselves to launchshort-term skill enhancement courses,bearing in mind the specific needs ofthe local workforce.

Easing age-restriction and otheradmission-linked eligibilities will pro-mote learning opportunities outsidethe curriculum and extend them tothose learners, who aren’t necessarilya part of the regular academic pro-grammes. This will go a long way inempowering the migrant populationthat has swarmed backed to the villagesand is now staring at joblessness anda bleak future.

Third, on the strength of the afore-mentioned data, each university mustendeavour to establish at least one cen-tre dedicated exclusively to local his-tory, trends and resources. For exam-ple, universities in States like Jharkhandand Chhattisgarh can establish centresfor the promotion of the tribal econ-omy, while those in Punjab andHaryana can focus on sports.

By providing market linkages,devising strategies for product-promo-tion, organising trader-policymakermeets and continuously leveragingtheir in-house research findings, suchcentres may trigger new businesstrends that would be naturally sustain-able and might even prevent large-scalemigration to urban centres once thepandemic ends.

However, in a bid to become“vocal for local”, institutions must notend up usurping the local’s right tospeak for itself. Mechanisms for rou-tine interactions with stakeholdersfrom the local community and factor-ing in their feedback while assigningresearch goals must be institution-alised. If we must speak for the local,it is imperative that we know its lan-guage too. Then and only then can wemove towards a resurgent India that istruly self-reliant.

(The writer teaches English at DelhiUniversity)

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The pandemic has affected theworld in more ways than one.Economies of nations are in

shambles due to the Corona-enforced lockdowns. The world hasseen major job losses in each sector.And with the global death tolltouching 4,24,333, countries areeven finding it difficult to arrangefor last rites, particularly as manynear and dear ones have refused to

accept bodies of Coronavirus vic-tims. The State is left shouldering theburden of funerals of the dead andlivelihood doles for the living. As oftoday, social distancing is the onlyeffective method to control furtherspread of the contagion and coun-tries are struggling to open up theireconomies while dealing with thethreat of community spread.

However, we should learn tomake the best of what is available tous and come up with innovativeideas that will work during this time.Online education has come to stayand will require more innovativemethods, be it teaching, learning orconducting examinations. ArtificialIntelligence (AI) and MachineLearning (ML) are in for a quantumjump and these areas will requiremany specialists and offer millions

of jobs. E-libraries can also be con-sidered in this domain.

The digital economy has plen-ty of jobs to offer. With social dis-tancing becoming the new normal,people will increasingly resort to theuse of digital transactions and devel-oping different applications willrequire many specialists. As onlinebuying and selling become morerampant, they would require inno-vative advertising, too.

Another demand will be in thefield of alternate energy. Keeping inview the need for keeping pollutionlevels low now that they have beenbrought under control by the lock-down, more and more people willswitch to solar energy. Solar cars willalso be in demand in the near futureand all this will require designing,manufacturing and marketing skills.

While restaurants and road-side eateries may take longer toreopen and business will be a bitslow to pick up even when they do,home delivery of food items is like-ly to see a spurt in times to come aspeople will be a little reluctant toventure into crowded places. Onlinecooking classes, too, will be theorder of the day as food styling isvery much in demand these days.

While the global tourism indus-try is likely to remain severelyaffected, domestic tourism is expect-ed to pick up once the lockdown iscompletely eased across the coun-try. But most of it is likely to berestricted to areas within driving dis-tance as people will most avoidunnecessary train and plane travel.

The gig economy was doing welleven before the pandemic struck

and is likely to boom now. One canbe a “one stop shop” even for majorprojects and take the help of otherspecialists as and when required.

Once the scare of the Coronaoutbreak is over, everyone is goingto be much more careful about theirhealth, including improving theirimmune system. This will ensurethat associated industries in thehealthcare domain will be indemand and will have to gear up tocope with this sudden spurt.

Surely the market for healthcareand personalised gym equipmentwill also witness an upward trajec-tory. Additionally, the demand foralternate medicines such as ayurve-da, homeopathy and so on willincrease manifold. Further, yoga willbecome even more popular andmore experts and specialists in

these areas will be required. One can also consider upgrad-

ing one’s knowledge and skills asthere are a number of online cours-es available right now, some even forfree.

As they say, there is always a sil-ver lining in every dark cloud. Oneshould just learn to evolve and inno-vate and consider some of the newoptions available now and find asmany positive alternates to deal withthese trying times as possible.

One thing is for sure, the oldway of life is gone forever. One hasno option but to adapt, innovate andtry something new and different.The question is when and theanswer to that is: The best time isnow.

(The writer is an Indian Navy veteran)

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London: Twitter has removeda vast network of accounts thatit says is linked to the Chinesegovernment and were pushingfalse information favorable tothe country’s communist rulers.Beijing denied involvementFriday and said the companyshould instead take downaccounts smearing China.

The US social media com-pany suspended 23,750accounts that were posting pro-Beijing narratives, and anoth-er 150,000 accounts dedicatedto retweeting and amplifyingthose messages.

The network was engaged“ in a range of coordinated andmanipulated activities” in pre-dominantly Chinese languages,including praise for China’sresponse to the coronaviruspandemic and “ deceptive nar-ratives” about Hong Kongpro-democracy protests, thecompany said. The accountsalso tweeted about two othertopics: Taiwan and GuoWengui, an exiled billionairewaging a campaign from NewYork against China’s presidentand party leader Xi Jinping andhis administration. AP

Rotterdam: Dutch activistshave spray painted the words “killer” and “ thief ” anddaubed red paint on a statue ofa man from the 17th-centuryGolden Era of Dutch trade andcolonial expansion.

A municipal worker wasremoving the paint from thestatue of Piet Hein inRotterdam on Friday, amid awave of vandalism on statues ofhistorical figures in the UnitedStates and Europe.

Hein is best known forleading a Dutch naval action in

1628 that captured a Spanishtreasure fleet near Cuba. Agroup calling itself “ Heroes ofNever” in Dutch claimedresponsibility, saying in a state-ment Hein was “ a key figure inclearing the way for trans-Atlantic human trade inenslaved West Africans.”

The death of George Floydat the hands of Minneapolispolice officers has sparked a re-examination of the actions ofhistorical men, who often wereexalted in the form of statuesand other memorials. AP

London: The statue ofMahatma Gandhi in London’sParliament Square is amongseveral monuments being cov-ered and boarded up hereahead of another set of plannedprotests, which erupted afterthe custodial killing of African-American George Floyd.

The steps below Gandhi’sstatue and the sculpture offormer UK Prime MinisterWinston Churchill nearby wereamong those targeted withgraffiti during anti-racismBlack Lives Matter protestslast weekend, which ended inviolent clashes betweendemonstrators and police offi-cers on duty.

More clashes are fearedthis weekend as anti-racistgroups as well as far-right bod-ies are planning rival demon-strations in the UK capital.

“ The statue of WinstonChurchill in Parliament Squareis a permanent reminder of hisachievement in saving thiscountry – and the whole ofEurope – from a fascist andracist tyranny,” UK PrimeMinister Boris Johnson said ina Twitter statement, as he urgedpeople to stay away from fur-ther protests amid fears ofmore violence.

“ It is absurd and shamefulthat this national monumentshould today be at risk ofattack by violent protestors. Yes,he sometimes expressed opin-ions that were and are unac-ceptable to us today, but he wasa hero, and he fully deserves hismemorial,” he said.

Johnson said that while heunderstands the “ legitimate

feelings of outrage” at the cus-todial death of Floyd, a 46-year-old man who died after a whitepolice officer knelt on his neckin Minneapolis on May 25, theprotests held in the UK in sol-idarity have been “ hijacked byextremists” intent on violence.

“ The attacks on the policeand indiscriminate acts of vio-lence which we have witnessedover the last week are intoler-able and they are abhorrent.The attacks on the police andindiscriminate acts of violencewhich we have witnessed overthe last week are intolerable andthey are abhorrent,” he said.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan

also urged Londoners to stayaway from the protests, withfears of clashes between anti-racism and far-right demon-strators.

“ I’m extremely concernedthat further protests in centralLondon not only risk spread-ing COVID-19, but could leadto disorder, vandalism and vio-lence. Extreme far-right groupswho advocate hatred and divi-sion are planning counter-protests, which means that therisk of disorder is high,” saidKhan.

“ Be in no doubt thesecounter-protests are there toprovoke violence, and their

only goal is to distract andhijack this important issue.Staying home and ignoringthem is the best response thisweekend,” he said.

Khan confirmed that theMetropolitan Police wereworking on a “ robust” polic-ing plan to keep Londonerssafe and to prevent disorder,including covering up keylandmarks.

“ Together with our part-ners, we are ensuring that keystatues and monuments at risk,including the Cenotaph,Winston Churchill and NelsonMandela, are covered and pro-tected,” he said. AP

Louisville (US): The use of con-troversial “ no-knock” warrantshas been banned in Louisville,and the new ordinance namedfor Breonna Taylor, who wasfatally shot after officers burstinto her home.

The city’s Metro Councilunanimously voted Thursdaynight to ban the controversialwarrants after days of protestsand calls for reform.

Taylor, who was studying tobecome a nurse, was shot eighttimes by officers conducting anarcotics investigation onMarch 13. No drugs were foundat her home. “ I’m just going to

say, Breonna, that’s all she want-ed to do was save lives, so withthis law she will continue to getto do that,” Taylor’s mother,Tamika Palmer, said after thelaw was passed.

“ She would be so happy.”The law bans the use of the war-rants by Louisville Metro offi-cers. Police typically use them indrug cases over concern thatevidence could be destroyed ifthey announce their arrival.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paulalso introduced federal legisla-tion Thursday that would banthe use of no-knock warrantsnationwide. AP

Hong Kong: More than 100protesters in Hong Kongmarched and shouted slogansduring a lunchtime protestFriday in a luxury shoppingmall, marking the one yearanniversary of a clash withpolice outside the semi-autonomous Chinese city’s leg-islature.

Protesters marched throughthe mall in the Admiralty busi-ness district holding flags thatread “ Hong KongIndependence” and shouting “stand for Freedom, stand withHong Kong.”

Protesters sang the protestanthem “ Glory to Hong Kong”, and a large banner was laid outwith a Chinese saying meaning“ The people fear not death, whythreaten them with it?” Thedemonstrators were commem-orating last year’s event in whichtens of thousands of protesterssurrounded the legislative build-ing and stalled the reading of anextradition bill that would have

allowed criminal suspects to besent to mainland China to standtrial. Police deployed tear gasand rubber bullets to dispersethe protesters, one of the firstviolent clashes in what wouldbecome a monthslong push forgreater democracy.

The protest movement qui-eted down earlier this year as thecoronavirus pandemic began,but picked up steam in recentweeks after China’s ceremonialparliament decided to enact anew national security law forHong Kong, a former Britishcolony. AP

Kiev: The wife of UkrainianPresident Volodymyr Zelenskiysays she is infected with thenovel coronavirus.

First lady Olena Zelenskawrote in an Instagram post onFriday that her husband andtheir children have tested neg-ative.

She said she feels good, isreceiving outpatient treatmentand is isolated from her fami-ly “ in order not to put them indanger” .

Ukraine has so far report-ed over 29,000 confirmedcoronavirus cases, including870 deaths.

The Government startedgradually easing lockdownrestrictions in late May with theresumption of public trans-portation and the reopening ofmalls and gyms. AP

Rome: Prosecutors went toquestion Italian PremierGiuseppe Conte on Friday aboutthe lack of a coronavirus lock-down on two towns in northernItaly’s Lombardy region thatbecame one of the hardest-hitareas of the country’s outbreak.

Doctors and virologistshave said the two-week delay inquarantining Alzano andNembro helped allow the virusto spread in Bergamo province,which saw a 571% increase inexcess deaths in March com-pared with the average of theprevious five years.

Lead prosecutor Maria

Cristina Rota arrived with ateam of aides morning at thepremier’s office in Rome,Palazzo Chigi, on Friday morn-ing. In addition to Conte, sheis expected to question thehealth and interior ministers. Inprevious days, Rota has inter-viewed the head of the SuperiorInstitute of Health.

To date, no one has beenplaced under investigation andit’s unclear what, if any, crimi-nal responsibility might beassigned to public officials fordecisions taken or not in theonetime epicentre of Europe’soutbreak. AP

Islamabad: Pakistan hasreported 6,397 new coron-avirus cases on Thursday, thehighest single day spike, tak-ing the total number of infec-tions in the country to1,25,933, the Health Ministrysaid on Friday.

The new record single dayspike was reported on a daywhen the Pakistan governmentwas to present the budget forthe 2020-21 fiscal year inParliament after showing dis-mal negative 0.38 per centGross Domestic Product (GDP)growth in the outgoing year, forwhich the officials have blamed

the coronavirus outbreakamong the main reasons.

The Ministry of NationalHealth Services reported that107 patients died of coron-avirus during the last 24 hours.A total of 40,247 patients haverecovered from the contagiousinfection so far.

Punjab province has report-ed 47,382 patients of coron-avirus, Sindh 46,828, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 15,787,Balochistan 7,673, Islamabad6,699, Gilgit-Baltistan 1,030 andPakistan-occupied Kashmirreported 534 cases till now, thehealth ministry said. PTI

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Oklahoma City: Black com-munity and political leaders arecalling on President DonaldTrump to at least change thedate of an Oklahoma rally kick-starting his return to publiccampaigning, saying that hold-ing the event on Juneteenth, theday that marks the end of slav-ery in America, is a “slap in theface.”

Trump campaign officialsdiscussed in advance the pos-sible reaction to the Juneteenthdate, but there are no plans tochange it despite fierce blow-back. California Sen. KamalaHarris and Tulsa civic officialswere among the black leaderswho said it was offensive forTrump to pick that day — June19 — and that place — Tulsa, an

Oklahoma city that in 1921 wasthe site of a fiery and orches-trated white-on-black attack.

“ This isn’t just a wink towhite supremacists — he’sthrowing them a welcomehome party,” Harris, a leadingcontender to be Democraticpresidential candidate JoeBiden’s running mate, tweetedof Trump’s rally plans.

“ To choose the date, tocome to Tulsa, is totally disre-spectful and a slap in the face toeven happen,” said SherryGamble Smith, president ofTulsa’s Black Wall StreetChamber of Commerce, anorganization named after theprosperous black communitythat white Oklahomans burneddown in the 1921 attack. AP

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New York: Global poverty couldrise to over one billion peopledue to the Covid-19 pandemicand more than half of the 395million additional extreme poorwould be located in South Asia,which would be the hardest-hitregion in the world, accordingto a new report.

Researchers from King’sCollege London and AustralianNational University publishedthe new paper with the UnitedNations University WorldInstitute for DevelopmentEconomics Research (UNU-WIDER) said that poverty islikely to increase dramaticallyin middle-income developingcountries and there could be asignificant change in the dis-tribution of global poverty.

The location of globalpoverty could shift back towardsdeveloping countries in SouthAsia and East Asia, the reportsaid. The paper, ‘Precarity and

the Pandemic: Covid-19 andPoverty Incidence, Intensityand Severity in DevelopingCountries,’ finds that extremepoverty could rise to over 1 bil-lion people globally as a resultof the crisis.

The cost of the crisis in lostincome could reach $500 millionper day for the world’s poorestpeople, and the intensity andseverity of poverty are likely tobe exacerbated dramatically.

The report said that basedon the $1.90 a day poverty lineand a 20 per cent contraction,more than half of the 395 mil-lion additional extreme poorwould be located in South Asia,which would become the hard-est hit region in the world —”mainly driven by the weight ofpopulous India” — followed bysub-Saharan Africa whichwould comprise 30 per cent, or119 million, of the additionalpoor. The report added that as

the value of the poverty lineincreases, a larger share of theadditional poor will be con-centrated in regions where thecorresponding poverty line ismore relevant given the averageincome level. For instance, theregional distribution of theworld’s poor changes drastical-ly when looking at the $ 5.50 aday poverty line—the medianpoverty line among upper-mid-dle-income countries.

At this level, almost 41 percent of the additional half a bil-lion poor under a 20 per centcontraction scenario would livein East Asia and the Pacific,chiefly China; a fourth wouldstill reside in South Asia; and acombined 18 per cent would livein the Middle East and NorthAfrica (MENA) and in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean(LAC), whose individual sharesare close to that recorded forsub-Saharan Africa. AP

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Kabul: A bomb explodedFriday inside a mosque inwestern Kabul, killing at leastfour people, including theprayer leader, and woundingeight, an Afghan governmentofficial said.

Interior Ministryspokesman Tariq Arian said thebomb had been placed insidethe mosque but had no addi-tional details. Police cordonedoff the area and helped movethe wounded to ambulancesand nearby hospitals. No onetook immediate responsibilitybut a mosque attack earlier thismonth was claimed by theIslamic State group’s affiliate.The Taliban issued a state-ment condemning the attackand calling the death of theprayer leader a “ great crime.”Azizullah Mofleh Frotan wasamong the city’s more promi-nent prayer leaders. Violencehas spiked in recent weeks inAfghanistan, with most of theattacks claimed by the IS affil-iate, headquartered in the east-ern Nangarhar province. AP

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New Delhi: Due to activity ofStatic and dynamic databasecompression, all the services ofDelhi PRS i.e. reservation, can-cellation, charting , internetbooking, PRS enquiry on tele-phone no. 139 and ElectronicDeposit Receipt ( EDR) ser-vices will not be available forthree hours and thirty minutesduring the intervening nightof 13/14.06.2020 i.e. from11.45 p.m. on 13.06.2020 to03.15 a.m. on 14.06.2020approximately.

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In view of the lockdown, theGovernment on Friday

released only a part of the retailinflation data, which indicatesthat food prices have gone upby 9.28 per cent in May.

“All India year-on-yearinflation rates for ConsumerFood Price Index (CFPI) forthe month of May 2020 forRural, Urban and Combinedsector are 9.69 per cent, 8.36per cent and 9.28 per centrespectively,” said an officialpress release.

In May 2019, the foodinflation was 1.83 per cent asper the full CPI data releasedfor that period.

The Government for thesecond month in a row releasedthe truncated data on retailinflation in the backdrop of thelockdown following COVID-19pandemic. For April also,Ministry of Statistics andProgramme Implementationhad released a truncated CPIdata. The Government had

imposed the lockdown fromMarch 25, 2020 to curb thespread of coronavirus. The lock-down adversely affected eco-nomic activities in the country.

In a statement, the NationalStatistical Office (NSO) in theministry said that in view of thecontinued limited transactionsof products in the market inMay, 2020 as well, it has beendecided to release the pricemovement of sub-groups/groups of CPI, follow-ing the principles of adequacyas indicated in the CPI releasefor the month of April 2020.

“The price of only thoseitems were included, whichhave been reported from atleast 25 per cent of markets, sep-arately for rural and urban sec-tor and constituted more than70 per cent weight of the respec-tive sub-groups/ groups,” it said.

Also, the all India indiceshave been compiled usingdirect approach by consideringa common market at thenational level in both rural andurban sectors separately.

New Delhi: The Governmenton Friday held back the releaseof complete data of index ofindustrial production for April,saying it is not appropriate tocompare the IIP data with ear-lier months due to COVID-19lockdown.

An official statementshowed that the IIP — whichmeasures factory output in thecountry — stood at 56.3 pointsin April, 2020 compared to 126

in the same month a year ago.“In view of the preventive

measures and announcementof nationwide lockdown bythe government to containspread of COVID-19 pandem-ic, majority of the industrialsector establishments were notoperating from the end ofMarch, 2020 onwards.

“This has had an impact onthe items being produced bythe establishments during the

month of April, 2020, where anumber of responding unitshave reported NIL produc-tion,” Ministry of Statistics andProgramme Implementationsaid in the statement issued onFriday.

Consequently, it is notappropriate to compare theIIP of April, 2020 with earliermonths and users may like toobserve the changes in IIP inthe following months. PTI

New Delhi: BhartiAXA Life Insurance, ajoint venture betweenBharti Enterprises, oneof India’s leading busi-ness groups, and AXA,one of the world’slargest insurance com-panies, said the company regis-tered 17 per cent growth in itsrenewal premium to �1,359 corefor the year ended March 31,2020, against �1,164 crore in thelast financial year 2018-19.

The total premium incomegrew 5 per cent to �2,187 crorein the financial year 2019-20from �2,076 crore in 2018-19.The company said its new busi-ness premium income stood at�829 crore in the financial year2019-20, as compared to �911crore in the corresponding fiscal

period a year ago. Assetunder management wit-nessed a surge of 21 percent to �6,902 crore infor the year ended March31, 2020, from �5,699 crore as on March31, 2019.

Parag Raja, ManagingDirector and Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Bharti AXA LifeInsurance, said, “We grew andregistered steady performanceon many business parametersin the financial year 2019-20,despite the disruption causedby the spread of Coronaviruspandemic and the subsequentlockdown in the crucial monthof March, which adverselyaffected the domestic life insur-ance industry in terms of newbusiness.”

Raipur: In certain sections ofmedia it has been reported thatChhattisgarh Government onThursday disallowed NMDC tocarry out Iron Ore storage,loading in its Bailadila Minesat Dantewada District. Thoughthere is no written communi-cation from the StateGovernment, however, it hasbeen reported that NMDC hasnot obtained storage licensesfor its Loading Plants.

NMDC will place all therelevant facts and legal positionbefore the State Government toresolve the issue amicably.

NMDC is having a longassociation of more than 60years with the people ofChhattisgarh and is committedto serve the State and its peo-ple in years to come.

Mumbai: The country’s for-eign exchange reserves crossedthe half-a-trillion mark for thefirst time after it surged by mas-sive USD 8.22 billion in theweek ended June 5, accordingto the latest data from the RBI.

The reserves rose to USD501.70 billion in the reportingweek helped by a whopping risein foreign currency assets(FCA).

In the previous week endedMay 29, the reserves hadincreased by USD 3.44 billionto USD 493.48 billion.

In the week ended June 5,FCA, which is a major compo-nent of the overall reserves, roseUSD 8.42 billion to USD 463.63billion. Expressed in dollarterms, the foreign currencyassets include the effect ofappreciation or depreciation ofnon-US units like the euro,pound and yen held in the for-eign exchange reserves.

The gold reserves declinedby USD 329 million to USD32.352 billion in the reportingweek, the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) data showed.

In the reporting week, thespecial drawing rights with theInternational Monetary Fund(IMF) were up by USD 10 mil-lion to USD 1.44 billion. PTI

Mumbai: The Reserve Bankon Friday proposed to reviewthe guidelines on ownership,governance and corporate struc-ture of private sector banks inthe backdrop of key develop-ments in the space in the recentyears. The five-member internalworking group to review theguidelines will be headed by RBICentral Board Director PKMohanty, the central bank saidin a release. PTI

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It was mid-February. The tepid wintersun played gracious host to manySunday brunches. The sweet smell of

spring was just about beginning to tingleone’s senses. Regular conversationsrevolved around summer trips to Europe,the forthcoming IPL season and theusual politico-economic gossip. Newschannels were busy beaming ‘BreakingNews’ stories even when there was none.There were faint murmurs about how avirus was affecting certain geographies,swiftly brushed aside since it did not con-cern us. Life, in short, was a breeze. Hadanyone bet on the odds of the breeze turn-ing into a violent tempest in a matter ofweeks would probably have been baptizedas a reincarnate of Nostradamus.

And so it happened. The pesky trav-eller, that some called the Chinese virus,went on an Around the World in 80 Daysor less trip. As it travelled, it left countriesdevastated. One after the other, countriesannounced airport shutdowns, sealedborders and stay-at-home orders. Theword ‘lockdown’ became an integral partof the Indian lexicon since March 25, 2020.Something this drastic, surreal and dra-matic had never been imagined before, letalone been experienced by generations.The stark reality resembled fictionalworks of Hollywood producers that wehad enjoyed over popcorn and cokecombos in movie theatres (unfortunate-ly, closed now).

While the June sun beats down on usin all its glory and the fresh Alphonso

mango shake (that I have perfected overmultiple tries) tastes simply superb, I pressthe rewind button to reminisce about thelittle things that brought joy and helpedmould a different perspective during thelast few months — moments and experi-ences that gave me an opportunity toreflect, appreciate and acknowledge real-ities.

TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED —EUREKA MOMENT

The morning jog on the road, theimpromptu coffee date (with wife, ofcourse), the rustling of the daily newspa-per, the live sports on TV and the avail-ability of beer from the local liquor store— all things taken for granted. Until thelockdown struck. The sight of the morn-ing newspaper at my doorstep after a threeweek break and the endorphin rush Iexperienced with a five km jog after thehiatus, brought immense joy as well as arealisation to ‘take nothing for granted’.The age-old saying, finally understood,loud and clear. However, I am still crav-ing the coffee date and a classic Federer-Nadal duel.

HUMANITY IS ALIVEIn spite of personal strife, countless

people stepped up to the plate and loos-ened their purse strings to help feed theneedy irrespective of faith, caste or polit-ical biases. These heroes deserve to beapplauded. The joy at seeing such selflessservice cemented my belief that human-ity is alive and kicking. All is not lost.

NO EXPECTATION, NO DISAP-POINTMENT

Governments across the world actedto mitigate the effects of the pandemic.Such was the nature of the problem thatthere was no easy solution for lawmakersto follow. Confusion, panic, flip-flops

ruled the roost. It would be premature andgrossly unfair to pass judgement on theresponse of governments around theworld. Whether they acted with prudenceor otherwise, depends entirely on the levelof personal strife of the evaluator as wellas his/her political disposition (unwaver-ing or not). While I oscillated betweendespair and hope, the famous words byJohn F Kennedy reverberated loud andclear, “Ask not what your country can dofor you, ask what you can do for yourcountry.” Words that made me lightlamps, bang plates and add my pennies tothe newly launched care fund. Withhope, and I must admit a bit of expecta-tion, I even perused through the fine-print of the 20 lakh crore package. Whilethe zeroes made my head spin, I foundsolace in a quote by Mark Twain, “Ifvoting made any difference they would-n’t let us do it.” With that thought, Ilearnt not to expect — a surefire recipe to avoid disap-pointment.

J O U R NA L I S MV/S BREAKINGNEWS

C o u n t l e s shours in front ofthe television andmany more buried inreading news stories onmy phone made meappreciate true journal-ism. At one end of thespectrum was the ‘break-ing news’ in bold fonts andbright colours trying towoo me with a narrativethat spelt sensationalism.At the other end, was a jour-nalist traversing the lengthand breadth of the country,reporting on the plight of

migrants. I must admit, the latter was farmore compelling to watch, appreciate andreflect upon.

DIGNITY OF LABOURDusting around the house, wiping the

droplets off the shower panel and learn-ing how to clean the dishes. Simplechores, unnoticed till the lockdown hap-pened. The intervening period taught me,and hopefully many, the respect and dig-nity such jobs deserve.

DEBATES, DATA AND FLATTENINGOF THE CURVE

Endless hours spent infront of the television.Heated exchanges onWhatsApp groups.Learning (unsuccessfully)to be a quasi-epidemiolo-gist. And understanding

data that would makean Applied-Math stu-dent proud. All in aday’s work. Well,all it did was to‘fatten the curve’(notice the miss-ing ‘L’), on thegraph as well asthe mid-riff.

The discus-sions and

debatess i m p l yre-iterat-ed mylong heldbelief thatcommon

s e n s e ,

after all, is not so common. And that herdsare immune to an alternate viewpoint. Welive in a world of on-tap information andmaking sense of this information over-loadfed to us through social-media universi-ties requires diligence. As for debates,sometimes silence speaks louder thanwords. Much to the delight of my family,I am now learning to use the mute buttonon my TV remote and have downloadedthe latest version of App-Detox on mymobile. It seems my personal journeytowards the Zen garden has begun.

ONE FOR SORROW, FOUR FOR APARTY

Home cooked delicacies, some freshbrews, conversations and fights over whohas the best Spotify playlist. It does not takea dozen friends to make a rocking party.All it takes is four of the most amazing peo-ple whom I call family — my wife, my lazyson, my adorable daughter and moi. As formy friends who called me a bore until now,wait till we meet again. I sure have learnta thing or two about partying.

BACK TO SCHOOLFrom spending time setting up my

daughter’s online class module to helpingher with her assignments helped mereconnect with learning. Long hours read-ing texts, learning and explaining conceptswere a refreshing change from the monot-ony and pressures of everyday work life.If anything, the lockdown made me con-versant with what children learn at schoolthese days, quite different from what andhow we were taught in yesteryears. Analternate career in teaching in the future?Never say never.

THE GAMES, HOUSE-PARTIES,NETFLIX AND FAMILY ZOOM CALLS

The first time I logged onto thehouse-party app to connect with

friends, I was admonished by the childrenof the house. This seemed to be theirdomain. Gradually, the friends and fam-ily sessions moved to Zoom calls, muchto the relief of the younger generation.Birthdays were celebrated, anniversarieswished and Ludo played online. Withtime on hand, even though distanced,social interactions never stopped. Yes,everyone connected and thankfully so.Leisure found a new medium throughtechnology. Long-lost hobbies were revi-talised, board-games were scheduled,countless Netflix series enjoyed andthere was enough laughter all around. Foronce, time was never short and gettingbored not an option. The lockdown, ina strange way, brought us all a little clos-er.

INDIA’S GOT TALENTMy Facebook / Instagram feed was

inundated with posts that spelt pure tal-ent in capitals. A friend stroking away atthe keys of his piano, another doing aperfect rendition of Summer of 69 and yetanother displaying the perfectly bakedcroissant. I could never have imaginedthe passion and talent that was hiddenbehind the cloak of the regular ‘9 to 5’life. The lockdown brought this talent tothe fore and I hope has re-kindled longlost passions. The therapeutic effecteach one of these posts had on me isimmeasurable.

The virus-induced lockdown hasbeen tough on many counts. Funnilyenough, it has given each of one of us,moments that we might have missednoticing or appreciating otherwise. I wishto use these special moments to re-build,re-invigorate and re-imagine my being.

Let the summer sun smile and shine.(The author is the director of Pebble

Street.)

Ayushmann Khurrana has alwaysbeen inspired by Amitabh

Bachchan since his childhood andit was his dream to share screenwith the legend. Shoojit Sircar’sGulabo Sitabo made his life-longdream come true. On the releaseday of the film on a digital plat-form, Ayushmann has penned anote recounting his first impres-sion of seeing the iconicsuperstar on the bigscreen.

“Whenever ayoung person in ourcountry wants to stepinto the field of acting,his goal is AmitabhBachchan. There wasa dialogue in my lastfilm that ‘Bachchancan’t be made, youare just bornBachchan’. As a childwhen I saw Big B onthe big screen in Humin Neelam cinema, Ifelt such a surge ofenergy within me andthat’s when I decided thatI will become an actor,” saysAyushmann.

He adds, “My first TV

shoot was done in Mukesh Mills and thiswas the place where Jumma

Chumma De De from Hum wasshot. That day I got the ‘I havearrived’ feeling. If this was the sit-uation back then, you might bethinking what feeling I must begoing through today.”

Ayushmann thanks his men-tor Shoojit for uniting him with

his biggest matinee idol. “In Gulabo Sitabo,

this celebrity stoodbefore me as a ‘co’artist and the attitudeof our characters inthe film was such thatwe had to endureeach other a lot. Inreality, I cannot sayanything to such abig star like him. Iwould like to thankShoojit da for thisamazing experience,for showing me inthe same frame with asuperhero likeAmitabh Bachchan.

You are my guru, I havereached here by holding

your hand.” saysAyushmann.

�What is the premise ofNancy Drew?

The series picks up withNancy Drew, a teenagedetective, at age 18. She’s alittle disenchanted with sev-eral things in her life andhasn’t been doing the detec-tive work that she was busywith in her youth. And thenthis mystery falls into her lapand it’s on her shoulders tofigure it out. Her resource-fulness and integrity are putto test in the glamorous —but sometimes treacherous— world of Hollywood.

As much as you’d like toflow and go along withNancy to figure out the mys-tery she finds around herself,you will also find youngadults dealing with things intheir day-to-day lives. Theyjust have this fantastic cir-cumstance right in front ofthem to deal with.

�Why do you think it is theright time to bring backNancy Drew?

I’m excited for this showbecause it incorporatesNancy Drew, who has beenimportant to so many gen-erations. When this first

came up, my parents hadstories about reading NancyDrew books to tell me. Iremember them being inthe library at the agewhen my friendsplayed comput-er games. Andso, it’s beensomethingthat’s famil-iar with somany peopleand to nowsee it in thisincarnation isindeed fantastic.

�Why do you think theaudience will love thisrecreation of Nancy Drew?

I would say for anybodywho has seen other rendi-tions of Nancy’s storythrough series, films or

books, I would just point outthat none of them have hadKennedy McMann. Nobodyimagined her like Kennedy.

Just meeting her andgetting to watch

her work is fun.She was bornto play thisrole. I’mexcited foreverythingthat comes

from it.

�How does Aceadd to the

premise?Ace is a guy who works

at The Claw Restaurantwith Nancy and her friends.He washes dishes in theback and he’s a friend andconfidant of Nancy and aco-worker of George and

Bess.Well, often known as an

“amiable burnout,” Ace is afairly-mindful person. Helives simply and enjoysdoing the dishes as much asanything else. He’s thought-ful enough to interact withNancy and figure thingsout with her.

�How are we introducedto Ace in the pilot episode?

We first meet Ace atThe Claw. He’s in the back,washing dishes and doinghis thing. He’s there withNancy as this mystery fallsinto their lap.

�How would you describeAce’s relationship to hisco-workers at The Claw?

Ace has several impor-tant relationships in hislife. He works closely withhis co-workers. George ishis boss and keeps him incheck. He’s a confidant ofNancy Drew and they shareeach other’s lives. He seemsto have quite an affectionfor Bess, who’s anotherwaitress at The Claw.

(The Season 1 is nowstreaming on Voot Select.)

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�Tell us something about yourcharacter Clark Kent.

Henry Cavill: Clark is a wellbrought up farm boy. At the sametime, he is a young man who hasno clue of who he is and why heis so different. Later, his self-dis-covery layers his life with a senseof loss. He feels like an outsiderat all stages of his life. The onlyplace he’s been able to feel athome is with Martha andJonathan but otherwise, evenwhen he knows who his real par-ents are and where his real homeis, he’s made to feel even more asan outsider there.

�Tell us something aboutMartha and Jonathan.

Henry: They both are good,traditional and moral people. Ithink Kevin and Diane broughtthat to their characters exception-ally well. Kevin had an incrediblesort of openness and softness thatwas like a traditional father andwhen he played Jonathan, it wasreally easy to feel that. It was like-wise with Diane. As Martha, sheplayed the role of a caring moth-er so well.

There is still that slight fear ofClark for her because she knowswhat he is capable of. I thoughtthat was fantastic. When Clark isolder, she totally accepts andknows that I’m a controlled per-son. She portrays that wonderfulstrength, which is exactly where

Superman gets a lot of hisstrength from. As generic as itmaybe, Clark’s upbringing and hisnurturing is from the likes ofJonathan and Martha and thestrength which Kevin and Dianebrought to those roles, made it soeasy to play that.

�How was it working with AmyAdams?

Henry: I really liked workingwith Amy. She is great and bringsgood fun and energy to the set.On long days, you do need some-one to goof around sometimes.As a person, you can have funwith Amy and then she brings outthis wonderfully powerful andaxed character. I think the inter-

action between Amy andSuperman is that she is obvious-ly the ‘Superwoman’ in a subtlesense. She has finally found thisone guy who can literally sweepher off her feet (Laughs).

�How was it working with ZackSnyder?

Henry: His energy was alwaysup and its fun. Even though thehours were extremely long, Zackkept stuff interesting and excitingwhich is a great thing about him.It’s cool for us also and that per-meates with the entire crew. Wewere making Superman for good-ness sake. So, it had to be cool andZack reminded us of that with hisattitude and his way of being him-self every day. And I couldn’t haveasked for a better director for thisfilm. He is great!

Amy Adams: Working withZack, at first, I was a little nervousbecause he is so confident and Idon’t possess the same confi-dence. If they let me work on thesame scene for five days, I’ll keepdoing it, perfecting it but Zackknows exactly what he is lookingfor and he knows when he has it.That gives a certain kind of con-fidence.

He just has a strong idea ofthe story, the character and I wasreally thrilled by that. I hate to saythat I was surprised but I reallywas because I knew he was sucha visual master and that he had areally strong vision for the film.His detailed understanding of

the character was awesome.For the first couple of days,when I worked with him, hewould really stay on some-thing when it really had to bedone for the character. When

we were shaping Lois andtheir relation, he really stayedwith me and helped me tofind Lois in this new worldand this tone of the film. Iappreciate that!

�Tell us more about thesuit.

Henry: I have loved thecostume. I think it’s a reallygood modernisation of some-thing very classic. It is veryalien and yet recognisable asthe suit we all know and love.I think it almost brings atestosterone energy to some-thing which I think isrequired in today’s set offilms because everyone isused to things being high inoctave and visceral in thenews. Films in today’s timesare fantasies and they have tobe even bigger and better. Ithink the suit lends some-thing of that sort. It is some-thing which is exceptionallycool.

�How does Superman affectLois?

Amy: I think he takesLois by surprise and it is veryinteresting that it takes thisperson from another world tomake her more human. Hishumanity brings about achange in her heart and prob-

ably gives her a strong senseof humanity as well. As thestory continues, she becomesa stronger and well-roundedhuman being. I think shereally comes to respect andidentifies humanity by herexperiences with Clark.

�Tell us about some attrib-utes that Henry andSuperman share.

Amy: I expected a lotmore swagger from Henrybut he actually turned out tobe quite humble and gener-ous. In our first reading, Iremember thinking that he isa rare package not only in lifebut especially in Hollywood.To find somebody with thatphysical presence that alsohas this softness is just rare.There is something very gen-tle about him. He has thatquality that is so importantfor Clark and for Superman,both. You are actually able tobelieve that he can just savethe entire world.

(The film airs on June 15at 9 pm on Sony PIX.)

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Returning to helm an Agatha Christie adaptation afterthe mammoth success of his last film Murder on the

Orient Express (2017), Kenneth Branagh seems partic-ularly pleased with how his next Death on the Nile hasshaped up. Audience in the sub continent have a spe-cial interest in the film as it stars our very own Ali Fazalalongside a bevy of talented artistes namely ArmieHammer, Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Annette Bening,Rose Leslie, Russell Brand and Emma Mackey amongothers.

Kenneth, who isin the midst of pro-moting his next,Christopher Nolan’sTenet, got talkingabout Fazal in aninterview. The actor-filmmaker, whenasked about Fazalwas quoted saying,“Ali was a joy towork with, anabsolute delight. He’sa total pro. He’s a realdetails man. He wascompletely caughtup in how the char-acter looked, sound-ed and was able to bevery precise, but alsovery playful. Hecould improvisewhen I asked him toimprovise. He has astrong sense ofhumour. He is ener-getic and physicallyvery adroit, so hewas involved in bothdancing and inaction pieces. Hewas a fantasticensemble player. Hewas incredibly pop-ular with our cast,they loved him.”

Fazal, who has a handful of international films to hiscredit including 2017’s Oscar nominated Victoria andAbdul alongside Judi Dench, is among the popular Indianactors, internationally. Known to balance between hisinternational and Indian work, the young actor is mak-ing the country proud globally.

The actor was recently in discussion for his talks abouthow he learnt to be independent in his teens, and hasrealised it is liberating but comes with immense respon-sibility. He added that his boarding school experience pre-pared him to cope with lockdown in a better way. Ali hasbeen at his Bandra home alone since early March and hasbeen managing well without any house help. “I am an acci-dental cook. But being outside home and living in a board-ing school has made me realise that I can manage wellon my own,” he said.

“I remember in my early teens when I first went toDoon, I struggled for a few weeks. But over the time, itbecame enjoyable. Being independent has its ownadvantages. It is liberating but it comes with immenseresponsibility, too,” he said.

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Sevilla beat local rivals RealBetis 2-0 as La Liga returned

after three months away onThursday, becoming the secondof Europe’s five major leagues toresume following the coron-avirus pandemic.

After the Bundesliga inGermany, La Liga opened itsdoors again to players but notsupporters at the RamonSanchez Pizjuan, where the usu-ally vibrant Seville derby wasplayed in front of empty stands.

Lucas Ocampos gave Sevillathe lead from a 56th-minutepenalty and Fernando Regesthen added the second goal forthe home side, who are third inthe table.

Both coaches made use oftheir new allocation of five sub-stitutes and there was a drinksbreaks in each half but the con-

test lost its fluency late on, in partbecause Betis never looked likestaging a comeback.

Victory strengthens Sevilla’shold on third place as theymove four points above Getafeand Real Sociedad below them.Betis sit 12th and face the pos-sibility of being dragged into arelegation battle. “I alwaysbelieved we would play again,”said La Liga president JavierTebas, who had also indicatedthat “10 or 15 per cent” of fanscould attend stadiums before theseason finishes on July 19.

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Young Haider Ali was rewarded for his stupendousrecent form with a maiden international call-up for

Pakistan’s ‘bio-secure’ tour of England in August-September.

The major surprises in the list of 29 players was theinclusion of former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, who lastplayed for Pakistan in October 2019, and the recall offast bowler Sohail Khan, who last played for the coun-try in December 2017.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Friday announceda 29-player squad for three Tests and as many T20Is inthe UK.

Haider had an outstanding 2019-20 season, follow-ing which he earned an emerging contract for the 2020-21 season.

Meanwhile Sohail, whose last played for Pakistanin the Boxing Day Test aginst Australia in 2016, is com-ing off a good domestic season.

In the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2019-20, he took 22wickets in nine matches, while he grabbed seven wick-ets in the PSL.

The announcement a day after premier pacerMohammad Amir and middle-order batsman HarisSohail pulled out of the tour citing personal reasons.

“Amir withdrew so that he can be at the birth of hissecond child in August while Haris took the option ofpulling out of the tour due to the Covid-19 pandemic,”the PCB media release said.

Four reserve players have also been named as a coverin case anyone fails the pre-tour Covid-19 testing, whichwill be carried out on June 20 and 25.

An extended squad, including white-ball specialists,is being sent to England as the players, in accordancewith series SOPs in the wake of Covid-19, will remainin England from start to finish.

“The selectors have picked a squad which gives usthe best chance of success in England. But the main focusof the selectors has been red-ball cricket, which we willplay for nearly two months with the T20Is to be playedat the backend of the ICC World Test Championshipfixtures,” chief selector and head coach Misbah-ul-Haqsaid.

“The series against England will be challenging asour players have not played any competitive cricket sinceMarch, while the home team will come following a seriesagainst the West Indies.”

Besides Haider, Kashif Bhatti is the other uncappedplayer in the side. Kashif was in the Test squad againstAustralia and Sri Lanka but did not play.Squad: Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan

Masood, Azhar Ali (captain), BabarAzam (Test vice-captain and T20Icaptain), Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam,Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad,Khushdil Shah, MohammadHafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad

Rizwan (wk), SarfarazAhmed (wk), FaheemAshraf, Haris Rauf, ImranKhan, MohammadAbbas, MohammadHasnain, Naseem Shah,

Shaheen Shah Afridi,Sohail Khan, UsmanShinwari, WahabRiaz, Imad Wasim,Kashif Bhatti,Shadab Khan and

Yasir Shah.R e s e r v e s :Bilal Asif,Imran Butt,Musa Khan

a n dM o h a m m a d

Nawaz.

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Senior India speedster IshantSharma believes that theban on saliva to shine the

ball will make things easy forbatsmen and it needs to beensured that the competitionremains fair.

Ishant, who has played awhopping 97 Tests, reasonedthat if the bowlers don’t shine thered ball, used in the longest for-mat of the game, then it won’tswing helping batsmen.

“If we don’t shine the redball, it doesn’t swing and if itdoesn’t swing then it becomesreally easy for the batsman. Ithink the competition should befair and not a batsman dominat-ed game,” the 31-year-old said onStar Sports show CricketConnected.

The lanky pacer, who has297 Test and 115 ODI wickets tohis name, feels that bowlers willneed to take special precautionsto ensure that they don’t use sali-va as it is an old practice.

“I feel that the most impor-tant thing will be avoiding theuse of saliva on the ball andrefraining from shining the ball.

“We will have to take specialprecautions for this as we areused to shining the ball, especial-ly the red ball,” said Sharma, whorepresents Delhi in domesticcricket.

��

The Indian team’s August tour ofZimbabwe was on Friday called

off by the BCCI owing to theCovid-19 threat, which hasn’tallowed national cricketers to evenresume training.

The development comes a dayafter Sri Lanka Cricket announcedthat India’s limited overs tour inJune-July was postponed indefinite-ly.

“...The Indian Cricket Teamwill not travel to Sri Lanka andZimbabwe owing to the currentthreat of Covid-19,” BCCI secretaryJay Shah said in a statement.

“Team India was originallyscheduled to travel to the islandnation from 24th June 2020 forthree ODIs and as many T20Is andto Zimbabwe for a series compris-ing three ODIs starting 22ndAugust 2020,” Shah said.

The Indian team is yet toresume training and the camp isunlikely to take place before July.The players will take around sixweeks to be match ready, accord-ing to the side’s support staff.

Shah, in the release, reiteratedthe board’s stance that it will organ-ise a training camp only when it isdeemed safe by the Government.

“...The BCCI will conduct acamp for its contracted players onlywhen it is completely safe to trainoutdoors.

“The BCCI is determined totake steps towards the resumptionof international and domestic crick-et, but it will not rush into any deci-sion that will jeopardize the effortsput in by the Central and StateGovernments and several other

respective agencies in containingthe spread of the coronavirus.”

Zimbabwe head coach andformer India opener LalchandRajput was left disappointed atthe cancellation of the series.

“It (the series cancella-tion) is a sad thing forZimbabwe Cricket as theywould not be able to playagainst India.

“Every teamwants to play againstIndia as it is one of thebest teams.

�/�� 7��

India might not have to tourAustralia and play their

matches in front of empty standslater this year after AustralianPrime Minister Scott Morrisonon Friday said sports stadiumscapable of seating 40,000 peoplewill be allowed to host crowdsof up to 10,000 from nextmonth, in further relaxation ofcoronavirus restrictions.

The four Tests of the much-anticipated series will be playedat Gabba, Adelaide Oval, MCGand the SCG respectively start-ing December 3, CricketAustralia (CA) had said recent-ly. “For outdoor venues up to40,000 spectator capacity, tick-eted and seated events will beable to be held in front of acrowd of no more than 25 percent of capacity under Step 3,” astatement from the PrimeMinister said as per on the offi-cial website, pm.gov.au.

“For outdoor venues ofmore than 40,000 spectatorcapacity, further advice is beingsought from the AHPPC, witharrangements to be settled by thestates and territories on a venueby venue basis,” it added.

The announcement wasmade following a meeting of theNational Cabinet, which com-prises the Prime Minister andstate and territory leaders.

Morrison was joined byChief Medical Officer (CMO)Brendan Murphy who said thatAustralia’s response to Covid-19was in a “good place”.

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Bayern Munich could securean eighth straight

Bundesliga title this weekend,but host BorussiaMoenchengladbach onSaturday without suspendedduo Thomas Mueller andRobert Lewandowski.

Bayern will be confirmedchampions with a win onSaturday if second-placedBorussia Dortmund lose atrelegation-threatened FortunaDuesseldorf earlier in the day.

That scenario would giveHansi Flick’s side an unassail-able 10-point lead with threegames remaining.

But Bayern are withoutLewandowski, the league’s topscorer this season with 30goals, and Mueller, who is oneshort of the Bundesliga record

of 21 assists in a single cam-paign.

“It’s annoying, but we can’tdo anything about it,” saidBayern coach Flick.

Thiago Alcantara has alsobeen ruled out, for three weeksand needs an operation afterstruggling with a groin prob-lem, Flick said on Friday.

Joshua Zirkzee, 19, is anoption to replace Lewandowskiup front while Serge Gnabrycould start for Mueller if he isfit after a back injury.

Bayern proved they canscore goals withoutLewandowski by thumpingHoffenheim 6-0 in lateFebruary when the Polish strik-er was injured.

Fourth-placed Gladbachpulled off a shock 2-1 victoryat Borussia Park when thesides met last December.

,'�3��!<The International TableTennis Federation (ITTF) onFriday released an update of keyevents in the third quarter of2020, announcing the cancella-tion of the World Tour BulgariaOpen, while exploring the pos-sibility of holding an alternativeevent for players who can trav-el to the Czech Republic.

Due to local restrictions forhosting international events, theITTF announced the cancella-tion of the ITTF World TourBulgaria Open, set to be heldfrom September 1 to 6 inPanagyurishte.

Table tennis’ global gov-erning body will explore oppor-tunities for the possibility of analternative event to be scheduledon the same dates.

The Czech Open, scheduledfor August 25 to 30 in Olomouc,will not be staged as a full openinternational event due to poten-tial travel restrictions. However,the ITTF is discussing withlocal organizers about the pos-sibility of jointly holding an alter-native event for those who cantravel to the Czech Republic.

The ITTF is finalizingdetails of an alternative eventsformat. IANS

/:�� >�

The final stages of this season’sinterrupted Champions League

will be played in Lisbon, with thefinal on August 22 or 23, Germannewspaper Bild reported on Friday.

The assertion by Bild followsreports by several other Europeanmedia in recent days. An official

announcement is expected whenUEFA’s Executive Committee meetsby videoconference next Wednesday,June 17.

Bild also reported that the clos-ing stages of the Europa League areset to be moved to Germany, withmatches being played in the regionaround Cologne, in the west of thecountry.

�'0��' -�<�The Union SportsMinister Kiren Rijiju on Fridayemphasised the importance ofbeing atmanirbhar in the sport-ing ecosystem and felt need todevelop a successful league cul-ture to make sport as a sustain-able career opportunity.

“You have to be empoweredto take care of yourself. Thecountry has to be self-reliant.Whenever there are challenges,disasters or catastrophe, we needto ensure we emerge stronger. Ihave to ensure our athletes andcoaches become stronger afterlockdown,” Rijiju said duringIndian table tennis player MuditDani’s online lockdown chatseries In The Sportlight on Friday.

“Sports stars motivate peo-ple immensely. In achieving theGovernment’s efforts, our sportsstars have played a very criticalrole,” he added.

The Minister further said wehave to make leagues successfulin order to ensure viable andfruitful sporting careers for ourathletes at all levels.

“First of all, sport is a way oflife but that is not enough.Sport has to be a career also.Sport has to give you respect,position, earning, comfort andrecognition. So for that whenyou have a flourishing leaguesystem in the country —

whether it is national or statelevel, it has to be successful. Andto make the leagues successful,it has to be commercially viableand successful too,” he said.

Rijiju also expressed hisdream of making India a topcountry in the Olympic medalstally. Stressing on the greatcooperation from various stake-holders, the Sports Ministerwants to make India one of thetop-10 medal winning nationsby 2028 Olympics. “Although wehave achieved some success inhockey and a few individualsports, we have not been able tomake any successful impact inOlympic history. I am talkingabout creating a sporting culturein India. In days to come I wantto ensure that not only our par-ticipation but our success ratealso soars,” he concluded. PNS

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Former West Indies captainDarren Sammy has revealed

that an IPL teammate, whoaddressed him with a racistnickname, has reached out toassure him that he was “oper-ating from a place of love” andhe no longer wants an apolo-gy for what happened.

The two-time T20 WorldCup-winning skipper hadopened up about being calledKalu — a derogatory word todescribe black people — by hisSunrisers Hyderbad teammatesand demanded an apologyfrom the bunch earlier thisweek.

“I’m please to say that I’vehad a really interesting conver-sation with one of the guys andwe are looking at ways to edu-cate rather than focusing on thenegatives. My brother reas-sured me that he operatedfrom a place of love and Ibelieve him,” Sammy tweeted.

“In hindsight, asking for

apology, I shouldn’t have evendone that. If me and my team-mates have done something notintentionally, but now I realisethat could be deemed ortermed as something that couldbe hurtful to a team-mate ofmine,” he later toldESPNCricinfo.

He, however, did not revealthe name of the player he is intouch with.

“Don’t get me wrong I’mnot condoning what wasdone/said. I’m saying let’s usethis opportunity to educateeach other so it doesn’t happenagain. One can only apologizeif he/she feels wrong aboutsomething. I’m confident &proud to be black. That willnever change,” Sammy said.

Sammy’s allegation of beingaddressed with a racist a nick-name was lent credence by anold social media post of his thenSRH teammate Ishant Sharmain which Kalu was used to iden-tify the West Indian in a groupphotograph.

ISHANT CALLS FOR FAIR COMPETITION��*��*��*�6 (��, (��6*��(�� *��/��6��*��)��*�)�5(*,�K�7/�/��

It’s not just the pacers who willbe at a disadvantage due to the

ban on use of saliva but spinnerstoo will suffer as they won’t get therequired drift during middleovers, feels India’s top wrist spin-ner Yuzvendra Chahal.

The ICC has banned the useof saliva on ball as an interimhealth safety measure in the wakeof the Covid-19 pandemic — amove that has raised concernsabout the game becoming evenmore batting friendly.

“When you use a natural ele-ment like saliva, it helps pacerswith swing and spinners with thedrift,” Chahal said onESPNCricinfo, specifically talkingabout white ball cricket.

Drift in cricketing terminol-ogy is the sideways movement inthe air when a slow bowler triesto impart spin.

“If as a spinner, I cannot getdrift in the middle overs, the bats-men will have it easy. This issomething that will affect everybowler in the world. I will have tofigure out a solution once I startbowling in the nets,” Chahal,

who will be turning 30 nextmonth, said.

The spinners also comple-ment the pacers in shining theball, said Chahal, who has 146wickets in 94 games.

“Spinners use saliva too tomaintain the shine of the ballbecause we are aware that pacerswill bowl after us or are bowlingfrom the other end,” he added.

“And I would like to maintainthe condition of the ball in a waythat it helps pacers whenev-er they come. Pacers alsothink the same way. Whenthey see spinners coming,they refrain from shiningthe ball too much. This ishow we plan things.”

On to his owngame and thewiry leg-spinnersaid one advicefrom HarbhajanSingh duringhis first IPLstint at theM u m b a iIndians has stayedwith him forever.

“. . .HarbhajanSingh once told me

— back your skills as a bowler. Mystrengths are varying my pace andbeating the batsman in flight.

“I have seen a lot of spinnerschange their actions while bowl-ing at the Chinnaswamy. I cansense their fear, I then tell this tothe batsmen in my team so thatthey can attack him,” Chahalsaid.

He feels that his attackinginstincts are considered beneficialby both Virat Kohli and RohitSharma.

“Virat Kohli or RohitSharma, whoever the captain is,they want us to pick up wickets.Even if I concede 70 runs in my

10 overs but pick up three wick-ets in the middle overs, it

will benefit the team,”said Chahal.

“The pace of thegame also quickenswhen spinners areoperating from bothends. If there is turn onoffer, it becomes difficultto play spinners in the

middle overs. We havealways believed in going forwickets in the middleovers,” Chahal added.

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