Govt hikes paddy MSP by Rs53/qtl for 2020-21€¦ · New Delhi: Violence against healthcare personnel and rude behav-iour towards them are not acceptable, Prime Minister Narendra

NNeeww DDeellhhii:: Violence against healthcare personnel and rude behav-iour towards them are not acceptable, Prime Minister NarendraModi said on Monday, noting that such incidents are a result of"mob mentality". Addressing the 25th foundation day of the RajivGandhi University of Health Sciences in Bengaluru via video, Modisaid he is aware of "an area that is of great concern to you all".

Violence against healthcare personnel unacceptable: PM

BRIEF

AffordableLLuucckknnooww :: Lucknow'sSanjay Gandhi PostGraduate Institute ofMedical Sciences hasclaimed to have devel-oped a cheap rapid testthat can detect coron-avirus in less than 30minutes.Developed by theDepartment of MolecularMedicine andBiotechnology at the pre-miere government institu-tion, the RNA-based testwill cost just Rs 500 afterit gets approval from theIndian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR).

NGT refuses NNeeww DDeellhhii:: The NationalGreen Tribunal Mondayrefused to entertain a pleaseeking implementation ofthe Centre's contingencyplan to combat the loominglocust attack saying therewas nothing to show in thepetition that no action isbeing taken by the con-cerned authorities in thematter."The applicantsacknowledge that there is acontingency plan. There isnothing to show that noaction is being taken by theconcerned authorities inthe matter.

Demand JJaammmmuu:: Some Muslim andSikh organisations inJammu on Mondaydemanded reservation forthe communities in theAssembly, higher educationand employment, claimingthat they have "sufferedneglect".Their demand forreservation in the Assemblycame at a time the govern-ment has set in motion theprocess of delimitation ofconstituencies."Whileundertaking the process ofdelimitation of Assemblyconstituencies, JammuMuslims should be givenproper representation.

Export banNNeeww DDeellhhii:: The govern-ment on Monday limitedits export ban on alcohol-based hand sanitisers onlyto those in containers withdispenser pumps.In a noti-fication, DirectorateGeneral of Foreign Tradesaid alcohol-based handsanitisers in any otherform or packaging are freefor exports with immediateeffect. Amid COVID-19 out-break, the government hadbanned exports of all typesof sanitisers in March, butlimited the restriction inMay only to alcohol-basedsanitisers.

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TI & his family working for

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New Delhi, Jun 01 (PTI)

The government onMonday hiked the mini-mum support price (MSP)of paddy marginally by Rs53 per quintal to Rs 1,868per quintal for the 2020-21crop year, while the ratesfor oilseeds, pulses and ce-reals were also raised.

The decision, taken bythe Cabinet headed byPrime Minister NarendraModi, will help farmerstake a call on which kharif(summer) crop to grow assowing picks up with thearrival of southwest mon-soon.

The Met Departmenthas projected normal mon-soon during the June-September period."Basedon the recommendation of

the Commission forAgricultural Costs andPrices (CACP), the cabinethas approved MSP of 14crops. Paddy (common)MSP has been increased toRs 1,868 per quintal forthis year," AgricultureMinister Narendra SinghTomar told media after themeeting.

He said the increase insupport price of paddywill ensure 50 per cent re-turn over the cost to thefarmers, he said.The MSPof Grade A variety ofPaddy has been increasedto Rs 1,888 per quintal for2020-21 crop year from1,835 per quintal last year.

In an official statement,the government said thesupport price of cotton(medium staple) has been

increased by Rs 260 perquintal to Rs 5,515 perquintal for 2020-21 from Rs5,255 per quintal lastyear.The support price ofcotton (long staple) hasbeen increased to Rs 5,825per quintal from Rs 5,550per quintal in the said pe-riod, it added.

Govt hikes paddy MSPby Rs53/qtl for 2020-21

The decision, takenby the Cabinetheaded by PrimeMinister NarendraModi, will helpfarmers

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs a cabinet meeting, in New Delhi, Monday.

NNeeww DDeellhhii:: The UnionCabinet on Mondayapproved an increase inminimum support prices(MSP) of 14 kharif crops.Theincreased MSP will ensure aprice which will be 50 percent to 83 per cent morethan the cost of production,I&B Minister PrakashJavadekar said while brief-ing reporters on Cabinetdecisions here.

Cabinet approvesMSP for

14 kharif cropMigrant workers waiting to board the train.

Jammu, Jun 01 (PTI)

Four trains with migrantworkers are scheduled toleave for Chhattisgarh andMadhya Pradesh in thenext two days from theKatra railway station inReasi district of Jammuand Kashmir, an officialspokesman said onMonday.

Over 30,500 migrantworkers have been sent

back to their home statesand union territories inspecially arranged 19Shramik Trains betweenMay 19 and 28, he said.OnJune 2, two trains will de-part for Raigarh inChhattisgarh. The firsttrain would leave at 1 pmand would pass throughDelhi-Katni-Shahdol-Anuppur halting atBilaspur and Champa,while the second train willleave at 5 pm and wouldpass through Delhi-Bhopal-Nagpur halting at Raipur,Bhatapur, Bilaspur andChampa, the spokesmansaid.

On June 3, he said, thefirst train would depart at 1

pm for Raigarh inChattisgarh and wouldpass through Delhi-Katni-Shahdol-Anuppur haltingat Bilaspur and Champa,while the second train willleave at 5 pm for Anuppurin Madhya Pradesh andwould pass throughGwalior-Sagar-Anuppurhalting at Gwalior andSagar.The spokesman saidonly those migrant work-ers would be allowed tomove towards the Katrarailway station who areregistered with the LabourDepartment or with the dis-trict administration of thedistrict concerned.

The SOP also lays downthat no migrant worker,

who has not been medicallyscreened before he boardedthe bus from the respectivedistrict, would be allowedto move towards the rail-way station, the spokesmansaid.

He appealed to all thosemigrant workers who havenot registered themselvestill date to register on the al-ready notified weblink andwait for theirturn."Migrant workers willalso be facilitated by thefield staff of the LabourDepartment for registra-tion. Those migrant work-ers who have already regis-tered on the web portalneed not to register andwait for their turn.

4 trains to ferry migrants to C’garh & MPChhattisgarh andMadhya Pradesh inthe next two daysfrom the Katra railway station

Depression in ArabianSea to intensify, will

impact MumbaiNNeeww DDeellhhii:: The depression inthe Arabian Sea is likely tointensify into a severe cycloneand cross the northMaharashtra and southGujarat coasts on June 3, andwill have an impact onMumbai, the IndiaMeteorological Departmentsaid on Monday. The depres-sion will intensify into a deepdepression --- the third andfourth stage of any cycloneformation --- by thisevening.It will intensify into acyclonic storm by June 2, theCyclone Warning Division ofthe IMD said.


The death toll due toCOVID-19 rose to 5,394?andthe number of casesclimbed to 1,90,535 in thecountry, which registeredbiggest single-day spikes of230 deaths and 8,392 casestill Monday?8 am, accordingto the Union HealthMinistry.

India is the seventh worst-hit nation by the novel coro-navirus pandemic.The num-ber of active COVID-19 casesstood at 93,322 while 91,818

people have recovered andone patient has migrated,the ministry said."Thus,around 48.19 per cent pa-tients have recovered so far,"a senior health ministry of-ficial said. The total numberof confirmed cases includesforeigners Of the 230 deathsreported since Sundaymorning, 89 are inMaharashtra, 57 in Delhi, 31in Gujarat, 13 in TamilNadu, 12 in Uttar Pradesh,eight in West Bengal, sevenin Madhya Pradesh, five inTelangana, three inKarnataka, two in AndhraPradesh and one each inBihar, Punjab andRajasthan.

Washington, Jun 01 (PTI)

The US remained a tin-derbox of anger and emo-tion as violent protestserupted for a sixth day

across the country over thecustodial killing of African-American George Floyd, re-sulting in the death of atleast five people, the arrestof thousands and placing of

curfew in nearly 40 cities,while forcing PresidentDonald Trump to take shel-ter in a White Housebunker.

Considered to be theworst ever civil unrest inthe US in decades, the vio-lent protests have engulfedat least 140 cities acrossAmerica in the days follow-ing the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old man who waspinned to the ground inMinneapolis on Monday bya white police officer who

kneeled on his neck as hegasped for breath.Some ofthe protests have turned vi-olent, prompting the activa-tion of the National Guardin at least 20 states.

"At least five people werekilled in violence thatflared as demonstrations inparts of the country de-volved into mayhem," TheWashington Post report-ed.Police have arrested atleast 2,564 people in twodozen US cities over theweekend.

Violent protests engulf USThousands arrested and nearly 40 cities under curfew

Country over thecustodial killing ofAfrican-AmericanGeorge Floyd, result-ing in the death of atleast five people

India registers biggestsingle-day spike of 8,392

COVID-19 casesTotal rises to 1,90,535: GovtMore than 70 per cent of the deaths aredue to comorbidities,according to thehealth ministry website

RAILWAY PORTERS IN MASK

Railway porters wearing face mask wait to board a train at New Delhi RailwayStation, during COVID-19 lockdown 5.0, in New Delhi, Monday.


Videoconferencing plat-form Zoom has releasedan enhanced and encrypt-ed version of the applica-tion in order to ensure pro-tection and privacy of per-sonal information, coun-try's federal cyber securitysaid on Monday, asking

users to update its latestversion.

"The latest version 5.0 ofZoom has been releasedwhich supports AES 256-bit GCM encryption ofmeeting data and greaterresistance to tampering,"said a latest CERT-In advi-sory, accessed by PTI.

Other security improve-

ments include changingthe minimum default pass-word length to six charac-ters for meetings, webina-rs and cloud recordingsand giving the capabilityto admins to disable shar-ing on cloud recordingsand setting their expira-tion times, said the nation-

al technology arm to com-bat cyber attacks andguarding of the Indiancyber space.

The latest addition of se-curity features in the plat-form, whose usage spikeddue to the nationwide lock-down, is believed to havebeen carried out in view ofsecurity-related advisoriesissued by the Ministry ofHome Affairs and CERT-In to its users.

In April, the Unionhome ministry had issuedan advisory and said thatthe Zoom meeting plat-

form is not safe and it isnot to be used for officialpurposes by governmentofficials.Such a warningwas also issued by theCERT-In and was reiterat-ed by the CyberCoordination Centre(CyCord) of the home min-istry. Unguarded usage ofZoom between profession-als working from homedue to the COVID-19 pan-demic can be vulnerable toattacks by leakage of sen-sitive office chat to cybercriminals, the CERT-Inhad said in April.

Zoom app releases latest encryption, security features‘The latest version 5.0 of Zoom has beenreleased which supports AES 256-bit GCMencryption of meeting data and greaterresistance to tampering’


The polls to 18 RajyaSabha seats, deferred due tothe coronavirus pandemic,will now be held on June 19,the Election Commissionannounced on Monday.

Out of these 18 seats, foureach are from AndhraPradesh and Gujarat, threeeach from Madhya Pradeshand Rajasthan, two fromJharkhand, and one eachfrom Manipur andMeghalaya.The counting ofvotes will be held on theevening of June 19 itself, theCommission said in a state-ment.Counting for RajyaSabha and legislative coun-cil elections is usually heldon the day of polling itself.

While deferring the elec-tions early March, the pollpanel had made it clear thatprocesses completed bythen, including nomina-

tions filed by candidates,will remain valid."The onlysteps remaining were theactual poll and the count-ing. That would be complet-ed now," an official ex-plained.

The Commission had de-ferred the March 26 RajyaSabha elections citing thethreat of coronavirus, say-ing a decision on conduct-ing them will be taken afterreviewing thesituation.While 17 membersfrom six states retired onApril 9, one fromMeghalaya retired on April12.Originally the electionwere to take place on March26 on 55 Upper House seats,but 37 candidates have al-ready been elected withouta contest. The statementsaid the Commission hasnow reviewed the matter indetail after considering allfactors, including the latestguidelines issued by theUnion Home Secretary.TheCommission also decidedthat state chief secretarieswill depute a senior officerfrom the state to ensure thatthe instructions regardingCOVID-19 containmentmeasures are complied withwhile making arrange-ments for conducting theelections.

Deferred due to coronavirus,elections to 18 RS seats to be

held on June 19: ECFour each are fromAndhra Pradesh andGujarat, three eachfrom Madhya Pradeshand Rajasthan, twofrom Jharkhand, andone each from Manipurand Meghalaya

02BHILAI-36GARHCENTRAL CHRONICLE, TUESDAY, JUNE 02, 2020

Collector inspects railway stationRajnandgaon: Collector Topeshwar Verma inspected railway sta-tion on the wake of Shramik Special train which is arriving at thestation. He instructed to make one gate for entry and exit.

Central Chronicle News

Bhilai, June 01: Test re-port of another twoCorona suspects camepositive late evening onSunday. One of the vic-tims is a resident ofNehru Nagar area andhad returned from Puneabout three days ago. Shehas been admitted in ShriShankaracharya Hospital,Junwani. In the secondcase, the person who hasbeen tested CoronaPositive, had visited hisrelative’s place a couple ofdays ago. Due to this rea-son, his primary contactshave been quarantinedand the area of his rela-tive’s place has beensealed. The patient is ad-mitted in Raipur.

According to informa-tion, a young girl of VidyaVihar, Nehru Nagar(West) was tested CoronaPositive on Sunday lateevening. She had travelledby air from Pune to

Raipur on May 28. Onreaching Bhilai, she di-rectly visited DurgDistrict Hospital whereswab sample was collectedand she was instructed toremain in home quaran-tine. Late night on Sunday,district administration re-ceived her test reportsafter which she was im-mediately shifted to Shri

Shankaracharya Hospital,Junwani. As her parentswere the only primarycontact, they were shiftedto Sector 3 QuarantineCentre. Here they ex-pressed willingness forpaid quarantine afterwhich they were shifted toQuarantine Centre inAnand Mangalam inDurg.

The second corona posi-tive patient hails fromBaliya (Uttar Pradesh)and had come toChhattisgarh for treat-ment of cancer. He wasundergoing treatment atAIIMS Raipur. In themeanwhile, he visited herdaughter’s in-laws placesituated near MarodaGate. He stayed here for

about two days and had re-turned back to Raipur.After receiving his report,nine members of hisdaughter’s family havealso been quarantined inhome. The entire localityis being sanitized.

Senior administrativeand police officials visitedNehru Nagar as well asMaroda Gate area and

gave necessary directionsto the ground staff.Houses of both the vic-tims have been sealed andintensive sanitizationworks are being conduct-ed in the localities.Samples of primary con-tacts of both the victimshave been sent for testing.

Risali MunicipalCorporation officials in-

formed that they swunginto action immediatelyafter receiving report ofan elderly person whostayed with his relative inthe Mauhari Maroda, BRPChowk area. The entirearea including the vic-tim’s house has beensealed and intensive sani-tization work is beingdone in the areas. On in-

structions of RisaliC o r p o r a t i o nCommissioner PrakashKumar Sarwe, each andevery house of the localityis being sanitized. 50 sani-tary workers have been de-ployed in the area. HealthDepartment employeesare conducting survey inevery house for collectingnecessary information.

Another two tested Corona Positive in Steel City


Rajnandgaon, Jun 01: Inthe case of urban naxalnetwork which is provid-ing logistic support tonaxals operating inBastar, now the problem

for Landmark RoyalEngineering owner VarunJain increased manifoldand at all his whereaboutsthere is total silence. Atpresent Varun Jain hasgone hiding fearing arrestby Kanker police. Policesuspect Khairagarh con-tractor Vikas Arya is con-nected with Varun Jain. Ifreliable sources are to bebelieved DSP AkashMarkam as officer of SITteam raided the residence

of Vikas Arya inKhairagarh on May 28.

SIT got an informationthat Vaun Jain us havingclose connection withVikas Arya and on thatbasis team raided Vikas'sresidence but Varuncouldn't be found there.Vikas clarfied SIT that he

is having business con-tacts with Varun and re-cently did business trans-actions with him in con-nection with the construc-tion of Kawardha hi-techbus stand. In this connec-tion he had talks withVarun's wife many times.On Thursday, SIT seized

two mobiles of Vikas andis expected that teamwould get some leads fromthe call details of thesemobiles.

It needs to be men-tioned here, case was reg-istered on March 24,2020in Sikased police ofKanker district for inves-

tigating naxal sympathis-ers, fin ding those in-volved and arresting theaccused. Accordingly ASPKirtan Rathod constitutedsix member team to inves-tigate the case. The teamis continuously gettingsuccess in this case.12 accused arrested sofar

SIT has so far arrestedM/s Landmark RoyalEngineering Bilaspurowner Nishant Jain and11 other accused. Thename of Varun also sur-faced in the list of ac-cused. It needs to be men-tioned here, this companyis engaged in the roadconstruction work innaxal infested area for along time and small con-tractor's engaged withthese companies havestaff who make availabledaily requirement itemsto naxals.

Problems increase for Landmark Royal Engineering owner Fearing arrest goes

hidding

SIT raid Kanker doubtingVarun given shelter

Youth drowns in SheonathCentral Chronicle News

Bhilai, June 01: A 23-year-old youth drowned in RiverSheonath on Sunday. Hisbody was recovered onMonday morning. Afterperforming autopsy, lastrites of the mortal remainswere performed on Monday.According to information, agroup of five youth hadgone to River Sheonath atvillage Ganiyari.

Three of them knewswimming while two othershad never entered into theriver. But all of them en-tered into the river to takebath. Suddenly, one of themidentified as ShubhamRamteke (23) moved intodeep water and drowned.His friends tried to rescuebut failed in their attempt.

On information, Policeteam from Jeora SirsaChwoki reached the spotand search operations were

launched. The divers wereunable to find the body tilllate evening. Search opera-tions resumed on Monday

morning after which thebody was fished out. Afterperforming autopsy, thebody was handed over to the

family. The deceasedShubham Ramteke was aresident of Kosa Nagar,Bhilai.

Street vendors permittedto conduct business


Bhilai, Jun 01: As per theinstructions of the StateGovernment, the DistrictCollector Dr SarveshwarNarendra Bhure has is-sued guidelines regardingthe operating of business-es in the district to preventany spread of Covid -19.The street vendors havebeen given permission toconduct business undercertain conditions, whichwill be applicable to allstreet vendors includingthose operating on pullcarts, kiosks etc within thelimits of Durg district.The carts can operate from07:00 hrs to 18:00 hrsMonday through Saturday.

They will have to maintaina distance of at least 20feet between every cart.The vendors who movearound in streets to sell es-sential items such as(fruits, vegetables) will beallowed to operate on allseven days of the week. Ifarea is less in a market orroad and the number ofpullcarts is more, then thezone commissioner and TIwould try to establishsome criteria to follow adistance of 20 feet and canimplement odd evenarrangement. Additionalspace can also be identi-fied for this. Both the sell-er and the buyer will be re-quired to use mask orcloth to cover face. It will

be compulsory for the ven-dors to display ‘takeawayonly’ boards. Notices tothis effect will also be past-ed by local bodies in allmajor street vendingplaces. Adherence to so-cial distancing will bemandatory, keeping soap /sanitizer will be mandato-ry. Takeaway will be com-pulsory and eating foodstanding near the card willnot be allowed. Circles willhave to be done near thecart, so as to maintain so-cial distancing. Strict ac-tion will be taken as perprovisions in case the in-structions are not fol-lowed. The above proceed-ings will be coordinated bythe concerned SHO.

TI & his family working for poor & needy


RRaaiiggaarrhh,, JJuunnee 0011:: Due to threatsand dangers from global pandemicCOVID-19, at one place where ma-jority of population feels safe by re-siding themselves at home, on theother, it is the doctors, sanitaryworkers and police who are han-dling the frontline and working tosave the mankind, extending allpossible help. In this the role of po-lice is the most crucial and de-manding and they are extendingfull support on all fronts. Motivatedfrom the same, apart from the po-lice personnel on duty, there arefew from the family also who arepart of their assistance and in thiscase the family of Kotwal DhruvKumar Markandey is the one fulfill-ing the role of Covid-19 fightersand have established themselvesas helpers for the needy.

In the last 70 days of lockdownall over the country, the role of TI

DK Markandey from Bhupadevpurthana has turned out to be the onethat of helper of the mankind, whois jointly performing both the roleas policemen being in uniform andas saviour of mankind. Then be itthe case of solving the pain, griefand woes of labourers or other per-sons walking on foot or for thatmatter helping the underprivilegedvisiting their doorsteps, DKMarkandey is the one who is al-ways ready to help the humanityduring this crisis.

It is in order to provide relief tocommon men and provide securityto the people, the TI BhupdevpurThana is also increasing motivationof other people and donors to-

wards extending a helping hand forthe poor and migrant labourers.

DK Markandey at one placewhere is ready to help all con-cerned from COVID-19, on theother, he is also teaching othersabout social distancing, wearing ofmasks and ensuring section-144and punishment in case if the sameis violated. In case of road safety,this TI Markandey is very muchstrict and it is for this reason themost accidental prone area ofJintal-Kharsia road is still safeunder this watchful eyes. Kotwal-DK Markandey informed that forsafety from coronavirus he has sofar distributed around 10000 masksfree of cost to persons and this is

going to continue further. It is thiseffort by TI Markandey that theself-confidence of Women Self-Help Group in Gram Lodhajhar andRakshpali is still intact. Thesewomen are preparing masks takingclothes from police departmentand again submit it back to policethana from where it is taken forneedy. Apart from this daily TIMarkandey is distributing around50 food packets to needy and thisinclude migrant labourers and oth-ers in need.DK's hobby is family's mission:It is in order to serve the humanity,it takes lot of courage and dare andabove all sensitiveness for othersand to which this man-in-uniformTI DK Markandey is fulfilling forlast three decades. TI Markandeyinformed that during his last 36years of service, he has providedhelp for many 'divyangs' on hisown expenditure and this particu-lar drive of his still continues. In ad-dition to this he always provideshelp in some form or the other toneedy, be it financial or any othersupport and all this is being done

without any popularity stunt andjust for personal satisfaction.

It is for this reason that suchacts of benevolence on part of DKMarkandey has got him special re-spect and honour in the eyes of thepeople. All the more being a hum-ble person himself, Markandey'sfamily is also equally helping andgenerous in their support toMarkandey.

TI Markandey's wife-Shakuntala Markandey, and sonEngg. Akhilesh Kumar Markandeyare also supporting him in all hisworks for welfare of mankind. Atone place where the TI is helpingthe needy and poor, on the other,the family is supporting the strayanimals on streets be it dogs, cats,cattle and others and arranging fortheir fodder and food as per theirlimitations and for this all three inthe family have included it in theirdaily routine. So during this toughtimes, wherein everybody is busyin saving their families, TIMarkandey and his family are es-tablishing an example for other tofollow and worth adopting.

Total six booked undergambling act


Bhatgaon, Jun 01: As perinstructions from SPBalodabazar and directionby Addl. SP Nivedita Paland under guidance ofSDOP Bilaigarh SanjayTiwari, all the instructionsfor the lockdown are beingstrictly followed. In thiscontext, under leadershipof TI Bhatgoan andInspector JitendraKoshale, the orders fromthe senior officers arebeing strictly adhered andall the migrant labourerscoming from other dis-tricts and state are beingsent to quarantine centrein the vehicles and all thisis being closely monitoredby him. It was during reg-ular patrolling, they got tipfrom an informer that an

accused Abhishekh Niralaat Gram Junwani MandaliChowks writting 'satta-patti' and getting 'satta'rates from interested per-sons. Based upon this the'hamrah staff' conductedraid at Gram Junwani at2:55 pm and nabbedAbhishekh S/o ShivKumar (22) R/o GramJunwani and recovered'satta-patti' receipt on apiece of paper, a dot-penand 'cash worth Rs 1370

from his possession. It wasin the presence of witness,the accused was arrestedand a case under section 4(K) of Gambling Act wasbooked against him.Similarly in another raidin Dheewar locality inBhatgaon on May 29 at 1:40pm, five gamblers withcash worth Rs 6100 and 52pack of cards were nabbedand a case under section 13of Gambling Act was filedagainst them.

Woman, two children killedin gas cylinder blast


Raigarh, Jun 01: A 25-year-old woman and hertwo children were killedafter a cooking gas cylin-der exploded in theirhouse in Raigarh districton Monday, police said.

The blast took place inthe house located inChandai village underSarangarh police stationlimits at around 8 amwhen the woman wascooking food while herhusband had gone out forwork, RaigarhSuperintendent of PoliceSantosh Singh said.

The woman, identifiedas Lata Sahu, and her sonsTikesh (7) and Jhalak (3)died on the spot, he said,adding that the house wasalso damaged in the explo-sion. Soon after being alert-ed, a police team rushed to

the spot and sent the bodiesto a local hospital for post-mortem, the official said. A

case has been registeredand further probe is under-way, he added.

" The incident took place ataround 8 am, husbandSukhram Sahu was awayfrom the house but his elderbrother was near the houseat the time of incident. Theblast was reported bySukhram's elder brother andthree persons were killed inthe blast."

Santosh Singh SP Raigarh

What official said

The blast took place in the house located in Chandaivillage under Sarangarh police station limits ataround 8 am when the woman was cooking food whileher husband had gone out for work. The woman, iden-tified as Lata Sahu, and her sons Tikesh (7) and Jhalak(3) died on the spot, he said, adding that the house wasalso damaged in the explosion.

About the incident

With distribution of masksand food for needy

RMC to build internationalground at Sapre School


Raipur, Jun 01: RaipurMunicipal CorporationMayor Eizaj Dhebarsaid RMC will build in-ternational ground atSapre School.Addressing the scribeshere, RMC Mayor saidthat opposition to con-struction in Sapreschool ground is BJPsponsored.

Amid growing oppo-sition to the construc-tion work by theMunicipal Corporationat the historic SapreSchool, Mayor EjazDhebar informed aboutthe development of thegrounds as well as thebeautification of theBudha Talab is beingdone. He described theprotest as BJP spon-

sored. Mayor EjazDhebar told the pressconference that there isno plan to build a foodpark in the Sapre schoolgrounds. Work is on tomake it an internation-al ground, for which Rs2 crore has been sanc-tioned. He alleged thatmany people are spread-ing rumours in this re-gard. He told that thetender for this work wasreleased out twomonths ago. Work isbeing done under SmartCity. Mayor Dhebar ac-cused the BJP of spon-soring the protest. Hesaid that Budhatlab isthe lifeline of the city.For 25 years, there hasbeen no work on the re-juvenation of old agepond. Now a blue printcosting 2 crore has beenprepared. On opposi-tion to the constructionin the grounds, theMayor said that theground is not gettingsmaller. Preparationsare on to make theground international.He said that petty oppo-sition can be ignored.

Take all measures to avoid community transmission: CS


Raipur, Jun 01: The ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghelhas taken seriously the risein number of Corona posi-tive cases in the state andhe has directed the officersto take all precautionarymeasures to gain controlon it. So as per instructionsfrom CM, the ChiefSecretary RP Mandal con-vened meeting with seniorofficers at CHiPS officealong with Collectors, SPsand district officers andgave them necessary in-structions. In this meetingthe divisionalCommissioners and IGsand other senior officerswere also present.

Chief Secretary RPMandal said that as per in-structions from CM, a spe-cial cell has been prepared

to put a check and preven-tion and relife measuresfrom spreading ofCoronavirus. Addl. ChiefSecretary Subrat Sahooand Health Secretary,Transport Secretary,Secretary LabourDepartment are constantlymonitoring this cell.

He said that to ensurethat there is no communitytransmission of corona inthe state, for this all willhave to work with full alert-ness and seriousness. Hesaid that keeping in mindthe number of affectedCOVID-19 positive patientsin neighbouring states, CSdirected the Collectors ofthe neighbouring districtsof the state with otherstates to take special pre-caution. He said that thedistrict wherein no COVID-19 special hospital has not

been built, there entirearrangements and prepara-tions be made in coming 10days. In these hospitals, therequired standards will bemaintained. He informedthat all the sports com-plexs, stadium, publicparks, clubs and bars willremain completely closedtill June 7.

Chief Secretary Mandalsaid that inspection of con-tainment zone by done onthe spot in practical man-ner, so that people do notface any problems. Thesample testing of the mi-grant labourers comingfrom neighbouring statesshould be done at the quar-antine centre and its moni-toring be done on regularbasis. The duty of officerand employees be finalisedshift-wise in these centres.The labourers residing in

these quarantine centresshould not be allowed tomeet any outsiders and theofficers/employees on dutyshould ensure adherence tothe guidelines issued forprevention of this virus.Along with this special at-tention be paid towardshealth test, food and waterand recreation and safetyshould be paid in these cen-tres. Seeing threat of thisvirus to pregnant womenand young children,arrangements be made fortheir examination at near-est CHCs or PHC and as perrequirement they shouldbe provided separaterooms.

Chief Secretary said thatkeeping in mind chances ofcommunity transmission,the persons coming fromother districts should beasked to take e-pass. He

said that all the passengerscoming via train should beregistered in all the railwaystations and details ofthose coming in privatetaxis and other vehiclesalong with their residenceand mobile number shouldalso be kept. Addl. CS toCM, Subrat Sahoo also con-ducted district-wise reviewof preparations in COVID-19 hospitals and took infor-mation about various med-ical equipments and med-ical staff. He said that incase if the medical staff re-quires training, it will beprovided.

DGP DM Awasthi saidthat the opening and clos-ing time of shops in cityshould be strictly followed.The number of passengersin the autos and taxisshould not exceed the limitand it is compulsory for all

the passengers to usemasks. In the market andother public places socialdistancing should be fol-lowed and it is only duringparticular hours that peo-ple would be allowed to goand visit. During lockdownperiod the shops should notbe opened and there shouldbe ban on movement ofpeople. It is only the peoplerelated to essential servicesand other important workbe allowed to move.

During this video-confer-encing, PCCF RakeshChaturvedi, PrincipalSecretary Panchayat andRural DevelopmentDepartment GauravDwivedi, Forest andIndustry Department'sPrincipal Secretary ManojKumar Pingua, SecretaryTransport depttKamalpreet Singh,Secretary Health NiharikaBarik Singh, SecretaryLabour Sonmani Borah,Secretary PWD SiddharthKomal Pardeshi, SecretaryUrban Admn.Alarmelmangai D.,Secretary Social WelfareDeptt. Prasanna R., IGPolice Anand Chabda andother senior officers werepresent in the meeting.

03RAIPURCENTRAL CHRONICLE, TUESDAY, JUNE 02, 2020

RSYB submits memo to Education MinisterMembers of Rashtriya Sindhu Yuwa Brigade (C.G.) (RSYB)submitted memorandum to Education Minister regardingnot opening of schools during increase in number of cases.

Opposition to constructionactivities in SapreSchool ground isBJP sponsored,alleges Mayor

Directs to completeall COVID-19 hospitals in districtsin 10 daysCS holds video-conferencing withsenior officers


Raipur, Jun 01: In a swiftand sudden reshuffle onMonday, ChhattisgarhHome Ministry recalledfrom deputation IPS officerGP Singh and posted himback in the Police HeadQuarters (PHQ). Singh hasbeen on deputation sinceearly 2019 as ADG (EOW &

ACB). Simultaneously,Raipur (DIG & SSP) hasbeen assigned the addition-al charge of DIG (EOW&ACB) in the same notifica-tion. Both the postingshave come into effect fromtoday itself. In anothermajor development, gov-ernment appointed 2004-batch IPS officer NehaChampawat as SpecialSecretary (Home).Champawat was presentlyposted in the PHQ and hadserved as SP ofMahasamund district andDIG of Sarguja policerange. Champawat will easeup the burden of Secretary(Home and Jail) Arun DeoGautam, IPS, who is alsoSecretary (PublicTransport Department).

ADG GP Singh recalled toPHQ from EOW & ACBRaipur DIG & SSP ArifH Shaikh given addi-tional charge of DIG(EOW & ACB)Neha Champawat,IPS, made specialSecretary (Home)

Grocery shop burgledRaipur: Unidentified burglars broke into a lockedgrocery shop situated in Sarora Mazdoor Nagar anddecamped with cash Rs 16500 and several packets ofcigarettes, all totaling to Rs 17000. The burglary wasnoticed in the morning when owner Mukesh KumarChandravanshi arrived to open his shop for the day.He immediately lodged a complaint in Urla police sta-tion following which police have registered an offenceunder Section 457, 380 IPC against unidentified bur-glars and is now investigating the matter further.

Raipur, June 01: Chhattisgarh LegislativeAssembly Speaker Dr Charandas Mahant onMonday held a review meeting related withsanctioned and proposed works at AssemblySecretariat at a meeting held at the Assemblypremises here. Chief Secretary RP Mandal,Principal Secretary Legislative AssemblyChandra Shekhar Gangarade, Public WorksDepartment Secretary Siddharth KomalPardeshi, Chief Engineer of PWD VijayKumar Bhatpahri and other senior officialswere also present on the occasion.

Speaker reviews sanctionedand proposed works atAssembly Secretariat

Satta bookie arrestedRaipur: Gudhiyari police on Monday arrested abookie from Shukrawari Bazaar area after nabbinghim red-handed accepting cash bets for illegal sattaoperation and seizing cash Rs 2330 from him.Identified as Suryakant Dhivar, the accused was im-mediately taken to police station where he was laterbooked under Section 4A of Gambling Act.

04EDITCENTRAL CHRONICLE, RAIPUR, TUESDAY, JUNE 02, 2020

I do a good job of staying positive andjust moving on.

KKAATTIIEE TTAAYYLLOORR

ChronicleC E N T R A L

Established 1974 Volume 45 No. 238

Printed and Published by Sameer Maheshwari on behalf ofRamgopal Investments Pvt. Ltd. at Navbharat Press,Navbharat Bhawan, Press Complex, Raipur.Editor in Chief - Sameer Maheshwari.Editor: Sameer Shukla (Responsible for selection of news under PRB Act.)Phone: (0771) 4257700 Fax : (0771) 4257703 Postal Regn. No. C.G./RYPD.N./62/2019-21 Regd. No. 26172/74/RNI

US & WHO

It’s not nice to say the world’soldest democracy the UnitedStates (US) president DonaldTrump is chaos? But, the wayTrump is upset with China andto teach them lesson, start tofire one after another, createshim a laughable politician.First Trump’s claim that hespoke with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi over the phoneto discuss the latest bordertensions with China, India’spromptly said it is “directly intouch” with the Chinese onthis matter, and the PM Modihas been no “recent contact”between Modi and Trump, andtheir last conversation had on4 April on the subject ofHydroxychloroquine, provethat he lied. After this USPresident years of ignoringthe plight of Hong Kong, hisrescinding special trade statuswith Hong Kong, makes nosense! What gives? He’sthrowing Hong Kong underthe bus to get back at China.Finally, Trump after spendingweeks accusing the WorldHealth Organization (W.H.O)of helping the Chinese govern-ment cover up the early daysof the coronavirus epidemic inChina, Trump said that the USwould terminate its relation-ship with the agency. Thoughthere is no evidence that theW.H.O. or the government inBeijing hid the extent of theepidemic in China. Actually,there is no evidence that theW.H.O. or the government inBeijing hid the extent of theepidemic in China, and publichealth experts generally viewMr. Trump’s charges as a wayto deflect attention from hisadministration’s own bungledattempts to respond to thevirus’s spread in the UnitedStates. Actually, the US hasbeen shown the world that it’sthe only humanitarian govern-ment of the world though theykilled thousand human anddestroyed country/city aftercity, but any former Presidentof US has never killed 100,000(and unstoppable) Americancitizens like Trump forCOVIND-19? Trump withdraw-ing funding from the WHOdoes not make any sense. He'strying to blame this catastro-phe on the WHO, when theWHO declared the coron-avirus a global health emer-gency on January 30. Then onFebruary 27, four weeks afterthe WHO declared the globalhealth emergency, Trumpclaimed that the virus wasgoing to "disappear". Tryingto blame the pandemic spreadin the US on the WHO is astunt and it is so transparentthat Trump is trying to rewritethe coronavirus. Whatsoever,Many believe, turning US backon the W.H.O. makes not onlyUS and the world less safe.

BBiiddyyuutt KKuummaarr CChhaatttteerrjjeeee,,FFaarriiddaabbaadd

LETTERSTO THE EDITOR✍

Central Chronicle welcomes, articles, write ups, comments on different issues foreditorial page (800-900 words), Letter to editor for this page. It can be sent by

e-mail at: [email protected] letters can be edited or rewritten for clarity of thoughts.

WHAT THEY TWEET!

RRoohhiinnii SSiinngghh@@rroohhiinnii__ssgghh

There is something soimmoral about denyingtreatment to patientsfrom ‘other’ states. Delhiis Delhi only because itis the national capital.Successive central gov-ernments have investedin health infrastructurehere. It belongs to

everyone.

BBoorriiss JJoohhnnssoonn ##SSttaayyAAlleerrtt@@BBoorriissJJoohhnnssoonn

From today, in England, you will beallowed to meet up to five friends inpublic outdoor places or in your gar-den. This will be a moment of joyand relief for many. Please remem-ber to keep 2 metres away fromthose you don’t live with, and wash

your hands regularly.

AAddiittyyaa RRaajj KKaauull@@AAddiittyyaaRRaajjKKaauullFun Fact: Pakistan ISI Spy AbidHussain was yesterday meeting adecoy informant at Karol Bagh inNew Delhi at a bakery shop. WhileAbid was munching Samosa,Intelligence Bureau officialsspoiled the party and nabbedhim. He was allowed to have theentire Samosa though.

BBhhaarrttii JJaaiinn@@bbhhaarrttiijjaaiinnTTOOII

Aren’t hospitals essentialservices? How can peoplebe stopped from access-ing hospitals, notwith-standing inter-state bor-ders. Plus hospitals likeAIIMS are Centrally-fund-ed and a citizen from any-where in the country hasevery right to seek treat-

ment there.

RRaattaann SShhaarrddaa @@RRaattaannSShhaarrddaa5555My contention is, if Chinese

investors find our startup’s lucra-tive why do our billionaire ven-ture funds avoid them? Just play-ing safe. SW houses sitting onbillions of dollars can’t producedecent SW products?If # Modi jicould get huge platforms built

quickly what stops others?

RRaahhuull CChhaauuddhhaarryy@@RRaahhuullnnlluullkkooArrangements of Buses, Trains were made for North East Students to travel back to their home states by @ABVPVoicekaryakartas.

CChhaarruu KKuummaarr@@TTaarroottQQuueeeeeenn

Goodmorning Beautiful Souls. Letus think good thoughts and let’spray for everyone’s health. Let’shope the best with unexpectedmiracles , more power and Successto you this June.

T obacco kills over 80 million peo-ple worldwide every year.

Tobacco remains a deadly, and yet en-tirely preventable, risk factor for ahost of diseases-from the world'sbiggest infectious disease killer tuber-culosis to major non-communicablediseases (NCDs) that account for over70% deaths globally, Whether it is theworld’s biggest killer cardiovasculardiseases (heart disease and stroke) orcancers or diabetes or chronic respira-tory diseases, it is tobacco which is acommon risk factor to all. More alarm-ingly, it is also linked to COVID-19. TheUN chief called upon governments toact now on COVID-19 or face“unimaginable devastation”. Tobaccoincreases the risk of serious outcomesof COVID-19, including death. One im-mediate step the governments musttake is to ban all forms of tobacco (in-cluding e-cigarettes, vaping or otherheated tobacco products, hookah etc)and take strongest possible measuresto hold the industry liable (legally andfinancially) - it is now a human rightsimperative.

Governments have promised to endinfectious diseases like TB and pre-vent untimely deaths due to NCDs byone-third in the next 126 months - butone of the biggest roadblocks toprogress on these goals is tobacco.COVID-19 pandemic has made us allrealize how challenging it could be toeliminate an infectious disease likeCOVID-19 (or TB). But tobacco is anindustry-propelled disaster causing

havoc that is entirely avoidable. It ispossible to end tobacco, now. Tobaccoalso jeopardizes our progress on arange of sustainable developmentgoals, including a crippling economicloss of US$ 1.4 trillion every year. Withthe looming threat of economic tollthat COVID-19 pandemic may have onour economies, we can help salvagethis financial crisis by averting unnec-essary economic (and health) catas-trophe caused by tobacco.

Industry on the other hand is bentupon protecting its markets: the tobac-co industry is selling new productssuch as e-cigarettes and heated tobac-co products to create new generationsof addicts, revealed a new report ofthe Southeast Asia Tobacco ControlAlliance (SEATCA), “Today’s teens, to-morrow’s customers: Baiting youthswith new tobacco products to create anew generation of addicts”. “Like theydid with cigarettes, the tobacco indus-try is targeting youths with slick adver-tising, flavours, and technology of e-cigarettes,” said Dr Ulysses Dorotheo,Executive Director of SEATCA.

Dr Tara Singh Bam, Deputy RegionalDirector for Asia Pacific, InternationalUnion Against Tuberculosis and LungDisease (The Union) shared that in its2019 report on the global tobacco epi-demic, the World Health Organization(WHO) noted that there is insufficientevidence to support the use of e-ciga-rettes as a population-level tobaccocessation intervention to help peoplequit conventional tobacco use and alsonoted that these products are un-doubtedly harmful. Several govern-ment leaders are worried of the indus-try tricks to deceive and lure children,youth and adults alike. “The sale of va-ping devices might increase the num-ber of young people who smoke, as va-ping among non-smoking youth can bea gateway to traditional cigarettes”said Dr Bima Arya Sugiarto, Mayor ofBogor City, Indonesia and Co-Chair ofAPCAT (Asia Pacific Cities Alliance forTobacco Control and NCDsPrevention).

Former Health Minister of Nepal,

Khagraj Adhikari and Chair of APCATParliamentarians (Asia PacificParliamentarians’ Caucus for TobaccoControl and NCDs Prevention), alerted:“Vaping has gained popularity amongthe youth in Nepal. It was introducedto the market with no evidence as ahealthy alternative and a way to quitsmoking. Awareness about its poten-tially harmful effects is still low. Wemust enact policies to ban e-cigarettesand heated tobacco products to pre-vent more unnecessary death.” With adevastating impact on health securityglobally of the pandemic, there is noexcuse anymore for not banning allforms of tobacco, including e-ciga-rettes, heated tobacco products,hookah, chewing tobacco, etc.

Tobacco was already an epidemic ifwe look at the preventable diseaseburden and death toll since years –year after year. But the association oftobacco as a life-threatening risk fac-tor for a range of conditions that canresult in serious outcomes of COVID-19, including death, must become thetipping point to hold the industry li-able, ban all forms of killer tobaccoproducts, and strictly enforce all evi-dence-based health policies on theground.

Prof (Dr) Surya Kant, Head ofRespiratory Medicine Department ofKing George’s Medical University(KGMU) said that according toMinistry of Health and FamilyWelfare, Government of India, 86% ofdeaths due to COVID-19 have exhibit-ed comorbidity related to diabetes,chronic kidney issues, hypertensionand heart related problems. Tobaccois a common major risk factor for allthese conditions. Tobacco spitting inpublic places could enhance thespread of COVID-19. According toIndian Council of Medical Research(ICMR), “Chewing/ smokeless tobac-co products (Gutkha, ‘Paan masala’with tobacco, ‘Paan’ and other chew-ing tobacco products) and areca nut(supari) increase the production ofsaliva followed by a very strong urgeto spit. ICMR has urged to refrain

from consuming smokeless tobaccoproducts and spitting in public places.State Government of Uttar Pradesh inIndia had banned the sale of ‘paanmasala’, in view of the alarmingCOVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

The recent release of a report bythe National Institute of Health in Italystated that more than 99% of thosewho have died from COVID-19 hadpre-existing medical conditions, in-cluding high blood pressure, heartdisease, Chronic ObstructivePulmonary Disease, and diabetes.Tobacco is a major common risk fac-tor for all these listed conditions, saidProf Rama Kant, WHO DirectorGeneral's Awardee and noted surgeonand tobacco control leader. RecentCOVID-19 deaths in Delhi show that45.28% of those who died due toCOVID-19 were less than 60 years ofage (54% were above 60). An impor-tant factor which can cause seriousoutcomes of COVID-19 includingdeath is co-morbidities. In Delhi,86.79% of those who died of COVID-19 had high blood pressure, diabetes,heart ailment or kidney disease.Again, tobacco is a major common,yet entirely preventable risk factor forall these conditions.

If we are to deliver on sustainabledevelopment where no one is left be-hind, then we need to eliminate disas-ter-causing risk factors like tobacco,alcohol, etc and have to hold thesecorporations liable for the irreparabledamage they have caused over theyears. These are the roadblocks thatmust be removed before we can accel-erate progress towards all other sus-tainable development goals and tar-gets. Governments must considerstronger life-saving measures towardspreventing tobacco caused epidemicof diseases, which is now also linkedto COVID-19. The cost of inaction isvery high and will threaten progresson health and other sustainable devel-opment goals.

SShhoobbhhaa SShhuukkllaa aanndd BBoobbbbyy RRaammaakkaannttaarree ppaarrtt ooff CCNNSS ((CCiittiizzeenn NNeewwss SSeerrvviiccee))

A catholic nun distributes buttermilk packets to passengers queueing outside Secunderabad Railway Station before boarding a trainto return to their homes after the government eased restrictions, in Secunderabad on Monday.

End Tobacco to prevent epidemics of diseases and deaths

CARE OF PASSENGERS

C ongress President Sonia Gandhi’s anguish over the fear,pain and sobs of the migrant workers and the absoluteness

of her solidarity with the derelict labour force, which is misguid-ed, misused and misbehaved with, would have been first-placedistress had it not been to pinpoint what she thinks lack of con-cern on the part of the government. Unfortunately despite beingan honest cry out of a compassionate heart, it remained an exten-sion of her predecessor’s interlocution with the migrant labourersto reach a conclusion negating the good impact of the lockdown.Before conceiving a post corona conduct of life and livelihood,what has to be reckoned with is that it is about eight to ten croreskilled and unskilled labourers who volunteer into displacementfrom their home and hearth leaving job offers under governmentschemes as if such schemes are not up to the level of their de-mand for better wages that would help them look after demandsbeyond keeping both ends meet. It is not the question of the me-nial labourers alone who could be retained against the ‘work nearhome’ or ‘grains against work’ schemes, but also that of skilledartisans for whom there is a paucity of job opportunities for goodwages. That makes migration more lucrative for making non-agricultural hay. Had the state governments seen the fears, tearsand sobs of the migrant labourers in reverse and planned a jointstrategy with the central government, the situation would havebeen different with bringing the paymasters of these migrantlabourers to a negotiating table. If people of one state are movingout of their state in search of employment, it is not only about theexercise of fundamental right to move about in the country butalso about the sufficiency of the price the government schemesoffer to pay for their toil, which this laborious class is rejecting.On one hand, some see the issue and try to make a political scoreout of the trudge and fatigue of the walkers of the long roadswhile on the other the very march and exhaustion are being putto suspicion by making an audit of the account of time and dis-tance and speed and stamina for any credibility. Nevertheless,the derelict labourers left to fate and free will only expose thefailure of the governments of the states –which they belong toand the one they toiled in. They will remain, unsung heroes of co-rona period when they acted while the others flew. Social securi-ty is not feeding and lodging alone, as education to children manyof them include the migration as their right. Good motivation tothe migrant labourers can round them up to the understandingthat unknown employers at unknown places can buy their talentand toil and not their tears and sobs whosoever may be in thegovernment of the state where development is also about thesemigrant labourers’ drudgery.

Skill and talent sold, not sobs and tears

R elatively unscathed in Europe, Cyprus has set the ball rollingto lift some bit of the overwhelming gloom that surrounds

the hospitality and tourism industry. It is offering to take care of allcontinental travellers who test positive during their stay, as well astheir families and close contacts. All visitors will be required totake a test in their own country before travelling. A corona-nega-tive certification, in a way, would be the new passport. Goa, too,has opted for the production of a ‘negative certificate’ or mandato-ry testing of any person entering the state. Is conditional access toits beaches and hotels, with social distancing and hygiene rulesoutlined, on the cards? It’s hard to say. What the authorities ex-pect, how the hosts measure up and the tourists react are all in therealm of uncertainty. Half of the respondents in a global surveymay have sprung a surprise by expressing willingness to travel afarin 2020 itself, but the industry shares none of the optimism. Inkeeping with its policy to unlock businesses in a staggered mannerand in deference to the demands of tourism hotspots like Goa,Kerala and other stakeholders, the Central government gave theailing hospitality sector respite as Lockdown 4.0 ended on May 31.Fresh guidelines allowing restaurants and hotels to open theirdoors to diners from June 8 inject a fresh lease of life into a sectorwhich has been in a state of coma these past nine weeks of clo-sure. Other than some hotels and motels that have been convertedinto quarantine centres or have been housing doctors and otherstaff on Covid duty, the hospitality sector had come to an absolutestandstill. This led to the unfortunate pay cuts and layoffs of em-ployees as cash-strapped managements were unable to sustainthe manpower and infrastructure. Many an enterprise wound up,with little hope of revival in the near future as debts piled up. InHimachal Pradesh alone, the loss to hotels has been pegged ataround Rs 800 crore in this period. A revenue fall of Rs 5 lakh croreis feared in the country’s hospitality and tourism segment this fi-nancial year. Jobs in the hotel industry account for nearly 9 percent employment and over 9 per cent of the GDP. Industry figuresput the number of workers at 73 lakh. Add to it the allied liveli-hoods that largely thrive on the hospitality services — the airlines,tour operators, transporters, vegetable farmers, fisheries, poultry,dairy — and we have crores of workers staring at a monetarycrunch or joblessness. And, this squeeze is bound to impact the al-ready dwindling revenues of states. However, despite the lifting ofcurbs in areas other than containment zones, the sector facesbleak prospects as most people are still hesitant to step out. To at-tract customers, the hoteliers and restaurateurs will have tospruce up their act and ensure social distancing protocols by spac-ing out the seating arrangement, maintain sanitation and hygiene,conduct thermal screening of the visitors and regulate the air-con-ditioning system so that fears of infection are kept at bay. Shrinesand malls that also open on June 8 will need to adopt similar prac-tices. The road to recovery is indeed long and weary. The Centre’spackage had barely anything for this critical GDP and foreign ex-change-earner industry. There are no easy answers to the crisis,but an immediate bailout and assistance is necessary. For a start,the government can have a relook at the demands for interest andcollateral-free funds for paying salaries and operating costs, and apart waiver of liabilities.

Hospitality unlocked

SHOBHA SHUKLA &BOBBY RAMAKANT

“The trudge and fatigue of the walkers of the longroads are being put to suspicion by making an auditof the account of time and distance and speed andstamina for any credibility.”

Migrant workers political gun fodder !

No excuse for inaction

EPFO Regional Office organises webinar with Ladhu Udyog BhartiCentral Chronicle News

Raipur, Jun 01: TheEmployees' ProvidentFund Organization,Regional Office, Raipur,has been organising webi-nars with Industry Bodies,Traders’ Associations,Entrepreneurs andLabour Organizations inrecent times on the specialprovisions and specialmeasures adopted by theEPFO with regard to itsservice to its stake hold-ers. During the ongoingphase of lockdown and thedisruptions caused by it inour general life and eco-nomic activities, variousspecial measures havebeen introduced by EPFOto address the concernsand constraints faced byits members.

In this series a Webinarwas held on 26/05/2020 inwhich Regional P.F.

C o m m i s s i o n e r ,Chhattisgarh, Jay Kumarinteracted with around 23entrepreneurs affiliatedwith Laghu Udyog Bharti,C h h a t t i s g a r h .Purushottam Patel, StatePresident, LUB, DurgaPrasad, State Office Head,LUB alongwithSatyanarayana Agrawal,Ex State President LUB,Mahesh Agrawal, Korba,B.K. Mishra, Ramesh

Kumar Singh, VP,Jamnipali, Shyam BabuYadav, SecretaryJamnipali, Bipin KumarSingh, Rajendra Tiwari,Ghanshyam Kumar,Sanjay Choubey, IshwarPatel, Aman Tiwari andother members participat-ed. Durga Prasad, StateOffice Head, welcomed theefforts of EPFO, Raipurfor organizing this webi-nar.

Addressing the partici-pants, RPFC, Raipur,Chhattisgarh, Jay Kumarshared the details ofPradhan Mantri GaribKalyan Yojna(PMGKY)and stated that around6000 small and medium es-tablishments/industrialunits situated inChhattisgarh are eligiblefor getting the assistanceof 24% P.F. contribution(12% Employee Share and12% Employer Share)from Government of India06 wages months startingfrom March 2020 toAugusts 2020 provided theestablishments filed theironline declaration andECR which would helparound 1.47 Lakh of work-ers associated with theseunits however, still around1500 units for the month ofMarch 2020 and around2600 units for the month ofApril 2020 are yet to avail

these benefits. He furtherelaborated that consider-ing the immediate finan-cial constraints beingfaced by establishments inreporting their monthlyPF compliance, EPFO hasseparated the process ofmaking PF contributionfrom filing of MonthlyReturn (ECR) with effectfrom April 2020. This to-gether with the fact thatthe EPFO has recentlyclarified that delay in de-positing monthly contri-bution and relatedcharges during the lock-down period due to asso-ciated operational or eco-nomic reasons will not beconsidered as deliberatedefault and no penaldamages will be leviedautomatically for suchdelay, has made monthlyPF compliance much eas-ier. During the webinar,some members also dis-

cussed their problems andshared queries whichwere immediately re-solved by i S.D. Gokhe, SS& Mrs Mini Saju, DPA ofthe PF Regional Office,Raipur.

0536GARHCENTRAL CHRONICLE, RAIPUR, TUESDAY, JUNE 02, 2020

Pandaria: Helping Hands worker, tehsildar and other peopleassociated with making arrangements for migrant workerswere subjected to rapid test by CHC Pandaria.

CHC perform rapid corona test

SBI inaugurates Fund SettlementLink Office at Raipur


RRaaiippuurr,, JJuunn 0011:: State Bank of Indiais presently serving the state withits 403 branches, more than 1200ATMs and 1400 Bank Mitras up tothe deepest rural area ofChhattisgarh State. Also, Bankhandles currency on behalf ofReserve Bank of India andGovernment business of Centraland State government.

Adding one more feather in thecrown, Bank has started its Fundsettlement Link Office (FSLO) atRaipur. Till now, this office wasfunctioning from Bhopal. The newoffice was inaugurated by Mrs ASivagami, Regional Director,Reserve Bank of India and RajivKumar, Accountant General ofChhattisgarh State jointly. In thelight of COVID-19 pandemic, theinaugural function was organisedby maintaining social distancingand hygiene at State Bank ofIndia, Administrative Office,Byron Bazar, Raipur. On this pres-tigious and simple function, TilakShourie, Additional DirectorTreasury Accounts and Pension,Mahesh Sakalle, Senior Treasury

Officer graced the occasion bytheir presence. Alok Kumar Sinha,General Manager, State Bank ofIndia and Shyam Singh, AssistantGeneral Manager (FSLO), StateBank of India were also presentduring inaugural function.

After opening of FSLO atRaipur, the process of settlementof funds with Reserve Bank ofIndia will be done at local level.This will eradicate any possibledelay in settlement of funds.

Moreover, currency managementand reporting will also be done atlocal level. Madam Sivagami ap-preciated the initiative taken byState Bank of India. Rajiv Kumarexpressed his views and advisedto the Bank to adhere to theAccounting Principles and report-ing norms. Mr Sinha GeneralManager, SBI expressed his com-mitment in financial developmentof the State and best customerservice.

Raipur Sarafa Association expressesgratitude towards CM


Raipur, Jun 01: The dele-gation of Raipur SarafaAssociation led byPresident Mr. HarakhMalu met courtesy theChief Minister Mr.Bhupesh Baghel at his res-idence office on Thursday.The office bearers of theassociation expressedtheir gratitude to the ChiefMinister Mr. BhupeshBaghel for taking the deci-sion to open the sarafabusiness now 6 days aweek during the lockdownin Raipur city and all overChhattisgarh.

The delegation told theChief Minister that thisdecision created a wave ofhappiness in the businesscommunity and made it

easier for the business tooperate. The move will fur-ther motivate the businessactivities at this difficulttime during lockdown.

Chief Minister Mr.Baghel told the delegationthat the business shouldbe conducted only by fol-

lowing the use of protec-tive equipment like masksand physical distancingnorms by all the traders.Other officials of RaipurSarafa Association includ-ing Mr. Kailash Soni andMr. Anil Kucheria werepresent on the occasion.

More than 71 thousand labourers stranded in otherstates have been brought back to CG in 59 trains


Raipur, Jun 01: Return oflabourers and other peopleof Chhattisgarh strandedin other states due to lock-down is being continuous-ly facilitated. On instruc-tions of Chief MinisterMr. Baghel and after coor-dinating with other state

governments, nearly 59trains have been approvedtill date for return oflabourers and other preo-ple. Labour Minister DrShivkumar Dahariya in-formed that various rail-way boards are being sanc-tioned necessary funds for

travelling expenses oflabourers from otherstates to Chhattisgarh viashramik special trains.Till date, payment of Rs 3crore 74 lakh 31 thousand330 has been done for re-turn of 50 thousand 797passengers via 39 trains.

He informed that till date,State Government hasbrought back nearly 71thousand 712 labourersand 453 other passengersstranded in other statesvia 53 special shramiktrains. Dr Dahariya in-formed that free of costsnacks, meals, heathcheck-up and transport fa-cilities have beenarranged for the labourersthat are reaching at thestate border or passing viaChhattisgarh to reachtheir state, during lock-down. Any migrantlabourer who is reachingat Chhattisgarh border, ir-respective of the state theybelong, will be treated as aguest by ChhattisgarhG o v e r n m e n t -Administration.

SECL distributes foods packets and water bottles to the passengers in Shramik Special Trains


Bilaspur, Jun 01: Wholecountry was under lock-down due to the COVID-19pandemic. The migrantworkers those stuck intheir workplace were re-lentlessly demanding con-veyance to reach their na-tive. Government considertheir demand positively

and Special Trains wererun to carry Migrant la-borers home.

SECL is playing its roleand has not left any stoneunturned to ensure that nomigrant laborer goes hun-gry as the Shramik Specialtrains pass throughBilaspur railway station.

On 31.05.2020, SECL dis-tributed 1650 food packetsand water bottles to theMigrant laborers travel-ling by Rajkot-BandelShramik Special Train

(No. 09273) & Vasai Road-Howrah Shramik SpecialTrain (No. 09245) at theBilaspur Railway Station.Similarly on 01.06.2020,SECL distributed 1300 foodpackets and water bottlesto the Migrant laborerstravelling by Pune-HowrahShramik Special Train(No. 09273). These activi-ties were carried out underthe CSR initiative ofSECL. In is pertinent tomention that like othercountries in the world,

India is also severely af-fected by the global pan-demic COVID-19. The lock-downs was imposed byGovernment of India indifferent stages to counterthe community spreadingof Corona Virus. Due tothis the migrant laborerwere stuck in their work-place, far from their native.Indian Railways has oper-ated several Special Trainsto safely transcend thosemigrant laborers to theirnative.

Gandhi Memorial School handover food and other items


Nandini- Ahiwara, Jun01: Gandhi MemorialSchool pastor and sistermade arrangement of oneday food and other items

for migrant workers keptin Banbarad quarantinecentre of MunicipalCouncil Ahiwara ward no15 and handed over rice,dal, vegetable, fruits etc tothe municipal councilpresident Natwar LalTamrakar and Tamrakarin turn thanked pastorand sister for this nobleact.

Bees attack over 100 workersengaged in MNREGA work


Balod, Jun 01: OnMonday in between vil-lage Sirpur andBagaikonha near Shitlatemple of Daundiloharablock, about 100 workerswho were engaged in thepond deepening work gotstung by a group of bees.More than a dozen womenworkers were also injuredand all of them wererushed to CHCDaundilohara with thehelp of 108. One of the vic-tim Raimun Bai Sahusaid, she was stung at 17places. The sudden attackcreated chaos and every-one ran for safety.

Health Department tak-ing precautions for protec-tion against corona

No sooner 108 carryingwomen workers reached

CHC entire hospital andthe vehicle was sanitized.It needs to be mentionedhere, one day back case of

corona infected patienthas come to fore and thelocal administration inalert mode.

On Chief Minister's ini-tiative

State Govt approves 59trains for return ofmigrant labourers inother states

Amount of Rs 3.74crores paid to RailwayBoards for 39 trains

In Bilaspur RailwayStation

For migrant work-ers in quarantinecentre

Traders happy withthe decision toopen the business 6days a week

Rakhi Ganguli achievessuperannuation


Nandini-Ahiwara, Jun01: Rakhi Ganguli, postedas manager of ZillaSahakari Kendriya BankAhiwara branch achievedsuperannuation and wasgiven a touching farewellby the bank staff. On this

occasion municipal coun-cil president NatwarTamrakar, president ofSahakari Samiti PawanJain, branch managerBori Ganesh PrasadShukla, branch managerMurmunda RajendraSharma and bank staffwere present.

Seminar on ‘sportsdiet’ conducted

Raipur, Jun 01:Under the aegis ofChhattisgarh StateJudo Association, awebinar on 'SportsDiet was organised onMay 31 at 4:30 pm forthe players and coach-es. It is an unique at-tempt by the associa-tion and other martialarts players, coachand parents also tookpart in it, informsAnis Memon GeneralSecretary DistrictJudo AssociationRaipur.

Electricity bills troubleconsumers: Rajput

Churikala, Jun 01: At atime when the centre isreeling under economiccrisis due to corona in-duced lockdown, electrici-ty company is taxing theconsumers with heftypower bills in the month ofMay, alleged former mem-ber of Water ConsumerCommittee LakshmanSingh Rajput. He said,state government shouldtotally waive off Marchand April bills as it was to-tally lockdown and smallconsumers could not earnanything. No sooner com-pany started taking meterreading hefty bills weregiven to the consumersand are many times higherthan the normal bills theyget in the usual months.

Two Maoistsarrested

Bijapur, Jun 01: Bijapurpolice scored major suc-cess in their campaignagainst the naxals whenon May 31 DF, DRG fromBairagarh PS on combingoperation towards villageHingum and Ider arrestedone woman and man whilethey were running in asuspicious condition to-wards the forest ofHingum. On interrogationone was identified asManglu Farsa(30), presi-dent of Ider JantanaSarkar and another KopeFarsa(25), active memberof Matwara LOC. Mangluwas involved in murderand other heinous crimesand Kope is trained inusing single shot gun.Both were arrested andproduced before the courtfor judicial remand. Bothcarried award of Rs 1000each on their heads.

Alok Kumar Sinha (General Manager, State Bank ofIndia), Mrs A. Sivagami (Regional Director, ReserveBank of India), Rajiv Kumar (Accountant General,Chhattisgarh State) at the inauguration of undSettlement Link Office at Raipur.

06NATIONCENTRAL CHRONICLE, TUESDAY, JUNE 02, 2020

Dr Vishwas Mehta took charge as Kerala's new Chief Secretary, ata simple function at the Secretariat here on Monday. He is 1986batch Rajasthan cadre officer.

Vishwas Mehta takes charge as Kerala Chief Secretary

White tigress at Delhi zooundergoes dental procedure

New Delhi, Jun 01 (PTI):

A five-year-old white tigress inthe Delhi zoo underwent amonth-long dental procedureafter she stopped eating due toswelling in the lower gum.

On finding that the tigress,Sita, was under stress and hadstopped her feed intake, Delhizoo officials in May first weekconducted a preliminary exam-ination which revealedswelling in the lower gum closeto the lower left canine. It wascausing the tigress immense

pain and discomfort, requiringimmediate medical interven-tion to help alleviate pain, non-profit Wildlife SOS, which as-sisted in the dental proceduresaid in a statement.

Agroecology could accelerateinclusive growth in India

New Delhi, Jun 01 (PIB):

International experts in aconvention organized byNITI Aayog endorsed ef-forts to significantly boostagroecological and naturalfarming approaches inIndia.

Speaking to an audienceof senior international andnational experts and policy-makers, Minister ofAgriculture Shri NarendraSingh Tomar stated,Natural farming is our in-digenous system based oncow dung and urine, bio-mass, mulch and soil aera-tion. In the next five years,we intend to reach 20 lakhhectares in any form of or-ganic farming, includingnatural farming, of which12 lakh hectares are underBharatiya Prakritik KrishiPaddhati Programme. Hefurther noted that theParamparagat Krishi VikasYojana launched in 2015 topromote organic farmingamong small and marginalfarmers has in the last fouryears covered 7 lakhhectares and 8 lakh farm-

ers. He pointed out thatAndhra Pradesh,Karnataka, HimachalPradesh, and Kerala havetaken up natural farmingon a large scale. AndhraPradesh alone has brought 2lakh hectares under naturalfarming under this scheme.He concluded by highlight-ing that the need of thehour, in light of the covid-19pandemic, was to have foodfree from chemical fertilis-ers and pesticides, while notignoring the need to feedand nourish the country.

Kolkata’s College Street counts itslosses after Cyclone Amphan

Kolkata, Jun 01 (PTI):

The wind swooshed like itwas possessed, trees felllike ninepins and rainseeped through walls ofwarehouses and shops,soaking thousands ofbooks and endangering apriceless piece of Kolkataheritage its famed CollegeStreet.

The night of May 20,when Cyclone Amphan un-leashed its wrath, couldwell have written the epi-taph of College Street, a 1.5km street with about 1,500stores that fell silent withthe lockdown on March 25and was anyway fightingfor survival in an era of e-books and Kindle.

Almost two weeks later,the signs of the damageare still there, said S KHyder Ali, one of the hun-dreds of shop ownersstruggling to salvage whathe can. He watched the cy-clone horror unfold from adark corner of his housein his village in Hooghly

district close to Kolkata.He could reach CollegeStreet only four days later,wading through knee-deepwater with books floatinglike corpses to access hisstall. I saw trees getting up-rooted and everythingaround flying in the air,but I thought the destruc-tion was worse in villageareas. I never imaginedcities could be hit so bad. Icould barely make my wayto the shop, which wascompletely flooded. Almost

all my books are damagedand not in a condition to besold, the 40-year-old toldPTI. Ali's 45-year-old shop,once run by his father, nowstands in ruins along withmany other shops in theiconic book market, locallyknown as boi para' (theneighbourhood of books).The Publishers andBooksellers Guild has esti-mated that the damage suf-fered by the market is like-ly to run into crores of ru-pees.

Arunachal rolls out long term policyfor developing health infra

Itanagar, Jun 01 (PTI):

The Arunachal Pradeshgovernment has initiateda long-term policy for de-veloping robust health in-frastructure in the state tofight the COVID-19 pan-demic, Chief MinisterPema Khandu said onMonday.

The government has de-cided to utilize funds underNorth East SpecialI n f r a s t r u c t u r eDevelopment (NESID) andNorth East Council for up-grading the states healthsector, he said. "A long-termpolicy for robust infrastruc-ture and facilities for all 25district hospitals in thestate has been rolled outwith proposed allocation ofRs 350 crore," Khandu toldreporters in his office here.He said Corona cases in the

state is quite low with onlythree positive cases beingreported and it was possibleonly because of the nodalofficers appointed by thestate government in vari-ous states of the countrywho took tremendous painin taking all precautions forthe stranded people by sup-plying them food items andessentials for which thespread of the virus wasminimized. "The govern-ment in order to tackle thepandemic has provided

funds to all 26 deputy com-missioners by providing anamount of Rs 12 lakh eachfrom the state disaster re-sponse fund to deal with thesituation. A separate fundof Rs 1.3 crore has been re-leased from the chief minis-ter relief fund (CMRF) to allthe superintendent of po-lice, he said.

Khandu said the govern-ment had also released anamount of Rs 15 croreunder the Mukhya MantriRogi Kalyan Kosh(MMRKK) to the districtsbesides reducing thesalaries of all lawmakersby 30 per cent from Aprilthis year to March 2021."Our efforts are to detectpositive cases in quaran-tine facilities so that thespread of the virus couldbe checked," the chief min-ister said.

Kerala Govt gears up to tacklemonsoon-related diseases

Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 01 (PTI):

The Kerala government isgearing up its machineryto tackle monsoon-relateddiseases with a revisedfever protocol even whileas it battles the COVID-19pandemic.

The onset of monsoonover Kerala marks thecommencement of thefour-month rainy seasonin the country.

The country receives 75per cent of the rainfallfrom June to September.

As per the latest medicalreport issued by theDirectorate of HealthServices (DHS) on its web-site, at least 2,660 fevercases were reported in thestate on May 30 and 65,039fever cases in the month ofMay alone. The state gov-

ernment anticipates a risein fever cases in the mon-soon season. "As usual,there are chances of risein fever cases during themonsoon season. Alongwith that, cases ofdenguefever,Chikungunya, and

Leptospirosis diseases arealso likely to increase. Thestate government has toput up anew plan to tacklethese diseases whilebat-tling thecoronavirus pan-demic," a senior Health de-partment official told PTI.

The Directorate said therewere 12 confirmed cases ofDengue on May 30 alonewhile 295 cases were re-ported in the month ofMay. In the month of May,at least seven confirmedcases of Chikungunya wasreported in the state.Similar was the case ofleptospirosis with 83 con-firmed cases reported lastmonth.

The state governmenthas proposed a revisedfever protocol and includ-ed COVID-19 in the list ofdiseases having feversymptoms.

Health authorities alsolaid emphasis on keepingsurroundings clean so thatthe immediate environ-ment would not becomebreeding ground for mos-quitoes.

Smile biggest reward: Villagers who helped Mizos on trainBegusarai, Jun 01 (PTI):

Hospitality extended byresidents of nondescriptvillages to passengerswhen the special trainsmake a stopover in Bihar'sBegusarai district duringthe coronavirus lockdownis winning many hearts.

District MagistrateAbhishek Kumar Singhwas pleasantly surprisedwhen he found the men-tion of Begusarai in anews item published inMizoram, more than athousand kilometres away.

The report was occa-sioned by a tweet fromMizoram Chief Minister

Zoramthanga, hailing theSamaritans in Bihar whohad reached out to the peo-ple of his state with foodand water when theirtrain made a brief and un-

scheduled halt in the dis-trict recently.

"Few days after strandedMizos offers their food toFlood-affected victims ontheir way back, a brief

halt of their#ShramikSpecialTrain at#Begusarai Bihar wit-nessed good #Samaritansoffering them food in re-turn!" Zoramthanga hadsaid on Saturday."Goodness for goodness.#India is beautiful whenflooded with #Love."

The chief minister'spost has been retweetedover 5,800 times and gar-nered over 21,000 likes sofar. Zoramthanga had alsoshared a short video clip,barely 30 seconds long,wherein villagers can beseen sprinting up a slop-ing landscape, and carry-ing baskets full of water

bottles and packets offood.

The footage, apparentlyshot from inside a com-partment of the trainwhile it was stationary, is aheart-warming picture ofcompassion transcendingboundaries of region, lan-guage and ethnicities.

It is a far cry from someunfortunate episodes ofxenophobia reported inthe early stages of theCOVID-19 pandemic whenpeople from the Northeastwere called "Chinese", anallusion to their facial fea-tures, and accused ofspreading the deadly infec-tion.

Probe blames safety lapsesfor LG Polymers gas leak

New Delhi, Jun 01 (AP):

A committee appointed byNational Green Tribunalhas blamed gross humanfailure and lack of basicsafety norms for a gas leakin a South Korean-ownedchemical factory thatkilled 12 people and sick-ened hundreds.

The committee said thetanks from which the gasleaked May 7 at the LGPolymers plant inVishakhapatnam, a portcity in Andhra Pradeshstate, were outdated andlacked temperature sen-sors.

Workers at the factorywere slow to respond tothe leak and the chemicalcompany lacked experi-ence in monitoring andmaintaining tanks full ofchemicals that sat idle forweeks due to coronaviruslockdown, said the com-mittee's report, which wasissued and accessed andreviewed by The

Associated Press. LGPolymers is owned by LGChem Ltd., South Korea'slargest chemical company,which produces a range ofindustrial products, in-cluding petrochemicals,plastics and batteries usedin electric vehicles. It ispart of the family-ownedLG Corp. conglomerate,which also has an elec-tronics arm that globallysells smartphones, TVsand computers.

The gas that leaked fromthe plant was styrene,which is used to makeplastic and rubber.Styrene gas is a neurotox-

in and can immobilize peo-ple within minutes of in-halation. It can be fatal athigh concentrations. Daysafter the mishap, the APfound out that the plantlacked environmentalclearance before the leak.LG Chem had maintainedthat LG Polymers India op-erated the plant whileabiding environmentalregulations and said it wasclosely monitoring effortsto handle the aftermath.After the leak, policecharged LG Polymers withculpable homicide, includ-ing negligence in handlingtoxic substances.

Doctors booked Muzaffarnagar:

Three doctors herehave been booked forallegedly not inform-ing the UP health de-partment about theirpatients having feverand cold, which arealso symptoms ofCOVID-19. Accordingto officials, it hasbeen made mandato-ry for private doctorsto inform the districthealth department ifany of their patientshave fever, cough orcold. Dr Arun Kumar,Dr ML Garg and DrHemant Kumar werebooked on the com-plaint of chief med-ical officer DrPraveen Chopra andtheir clinics sealed, apolice official said.

Suspected suicide Delhi: The electrocut-

ed body of a 74-year-old otorhinolaryngolo-gist, who lived alone inhis rented flat in westDelhi's Vikaspuri, wasfound in his bedroomand police said thatthey suspected it to becase of suicide.However, no suicidenote was recovered.Deputy Commissionerof Police (West)Deepak Purohit saidthe body of DrJatinder Ahluwalia,who dealt with all con-ditions ear, nose andthroat (ENT) related,was found in the bed-room and the indexfingers of both of hishands were wired toan electric socket.

Officer held Itanagar: An addi-

tional deputy com-missioner (ADC)level officer of theArunachal Pradeshgovernment and an-other person were ar-rested for their al-leged involvement ina multi-crore landcompensation scamin Anjaw district bor-dering China. Thesleuths of SpecialInvestigation Cell(SIC) of the state po-lice arrested SodePotom, who is cur-rently posted as theADC of Likabali inLower Siang district.

Stone pelting Bhadohi: A head

constable was in-jured and a police ve-hicle damaged instone pelting by vil-lagers near here on apolice team, whichhad gone to resolve adispute over removalof a Sheesham tree,fallen on a hut duringstorm. BhadohiSuperintendent ofPolice Ram Badansaid a Sheesham treehad fallen on the hutof a women inIbrahimpur village.On getting informa-tion about the ten-sion in the village, apolice team reachedand tried to resolvethe problem, the SPsaid, adding this,however, led to bothsides pelting stone onthe police party.

Tech solutions New Delhi: The Delhi

Police said that it wastaking the help of tech-nology to protect its per-sonnel from COVID-19,as the number of casesof the infection contin-ued to rise in the force.Contactless sensor-based sanitization ma-chine, thermal cam-eras, video intercom de-vice and UV disinfec-tion box have been in-stalled at police stationsacross south district, anofficial said. To ensuresafe and contactless vis-itor handling, the southdistrict has installedfour hitech devices atthe entry gate of policestations to protect thepersonnel and visitors.

BRIEF

5. Identify thisfestival.

1. After 71 years, from which place or location did BBCWorld Service moved it’s operation to BroadcastingHouse in Portland Place, London, after it’s final bul-letin on Thursday, 12th July, 2012?

2. Who said, ‘All forms of Government ultimately are notgoing to succeed in trying to control/censor the inter-net?

3. In 1835, British government formed a paramilitaryforce, a police unit for the protection of the Englishsettlements against tribal attacks and other assaultsduring British occupation in Northeast India. It wasrenamed multiple times, and it gradually evolved tobecome India’s oldest paramilitary force. By whatname paramilitary force formed, The Assam Rifles?

4. He studied Mechanical Engineering at Maulana AzadCollege of Technology, Bhopal, winning the UniversityGold Medal in 1968. After having worked briefly as alecturer at the National Institute of Technology, hewas selected for both the Indian Police Service andIndian Administrative Service. He served as a Districtcollector of Indore and become the chief minister ofIndian state. Who was he?

6. Which new state was carved out from Punjab in 1966?

(1) Bush House (2) Rupert Murdoch (3) Cachar Levy(4) Ajit Jogi (5) Gangur festival of Rajasthan (6)Himachal Pradesh and Haryana

Courtesy- Ramaquiz

Answers

K N

O W

L E

D G

E

Q

U E

S T

KQ-1027

MUNICIPAL DUTY

Municipal employee Sukuta Pradhan does all sanitation works in Pakhar TMC Quarantine Centre of Balasoredistrict, Odisha on Monday (PIB).

Villagers providing food for passengers bound for Mizoram.

Pema Khandu

Situation of College Street in Kolkata.

Vegetable growing at anorganic farm.

Tigress Sita undergoesdental treatment.

07SPORTS/BUSINESSCENTRAL CHRONICLE, TUESDAY, JUNE 02, 2020

Milan: Paris Saint-Germain have signed Argentina international Mauro Icardi fromInter Milan on a four-year deal after taking up the option to buy the on-loan forward,the two clubs announced. "PSGermain are delighted to announce the signing ofMauro Icardi on a permanent deal, following the striker's loan from Inter Milan dur-ing the 2019-2020 season," the French club said in a statement.

Icardi signs four-year PSG deal


Premier India pacerJasprit Bumrah won'tmiss the hugs and high-fives as part of a wicketcelebration but he will cer-tainly miss applying salivaon the ball and feels an al-ternative should be pro-vided to maintain the redcherry.

The ICC CricketCommittee, led by formerIndia captain AnilKumble, recommended aban on using saliva on theball as an interim measureto deal with the COVID-19pandemic. However, theCommittee did not allowthe use of artificial sub-stances as a substitutemove.

The new rule makes lifetougher for the bowlersand Bumrah, like manyformer and current fastbowlers, feels there oughtto be an alternative.

"I was not much of a

hugger anyway and not ahigh-five person as well, sothat doesn't trouble me alot. The only thing that in-terests me is the salivabit," said Bumrah in a chatwith Ian Bishop andShaun Pollock on ICC's

video series 'Inside Out'."I don't know what

guidelines we'll have to fol-low when we come back,but I feel there should bean alternative," he added.

Bumrah said not beingable to use saliva makes

the game more batsman-friendly. "If the ball is notwell maintained, it's diffi-cult for the bowlers. Thegrounds are getting short-er and shorter, the wicketsare becoming flatter andflatter.

"So we need something,some alternative for thebowlers to maintain theball so that it can do some-thing - maybe reverse inthe end or conventionalswing." When former WestIndian pacer Bishop point-ed out that the conditionshave been favourable tothe fast bowlers over thelast couple of years,Bumrah nodded in agree-ment.

"In Test match cricket,yes. That is why it's myfavourite format, becausewe have something overthere. But in one-daycricket and T20 cricketone-day cricket there aretwo new balls, so it hardlyreverses at the end.

‘We need an alternative to saliva’Sydney, Jun 01 (PTI)

Australian batting starSteve Smith on Mondaysaid he would be willing totake part in the IPL if theT20 World Cup scheduledin his country for October-November is postponeddue to the COVID-19 pan-demic.

The BCCI is eyeing aSeptember-October win-dow for the indefinitelypostponed IPL.

Smith, who was namedRajasthan Royals captainahead of the scheduledseason, said he would beopen to travelling for theIPL if the Australian gov-ernment thinks it is safe.

"I think when you'replaying for your country ata World Cup, that's the pin-nacle for one-day or T20cricket, so of course I'dprefer to play in that,"Smith said after returningto training with the NewSouth Wales squad onMonday.

"But if that doesn't hap-pen and the IPL's there,and they postpone it, thenso be it. IPL's also a terrifictournament as a domestictournament.

"So that's out of every-

one's control at the mo-ment, players are justdoing what we're told andgoing where we need to goand playing whatever's onat that stage."

Last week, it was report-ed that Cricket Australiawrote to the InternationalCricket Council to post-pone the T20 World Cup to2021. The fate of the eventis expected to be decidedon June 10 when the ICCmeets. "I personallyhaven't really thought

about it, I think it'd just begoing off the advice of theprofessionals and the gov-ernments and essentiallydoing what we're told.

"If that happens thengreat, if not then there'sjust so much going on inthe world right now thatcricket kind of seems a lit-tle bit irrelevant. So we'llget back when we're told toand until then it is sittight, get fit and strongand freshen up mentally,"said Smith.

Smith open to playing IPL if T20 World Cup is postponedMMuummbbaaii:: Star batsman Steve Smith says the experience of

having played more pink ball games than Indiawould give Australia 'slight advantage'when the two sides clash under flood lightsin December but the Virat Kohli-led side has

the batsmen to stand up to the challenge. Cricket Australia lastweek confirmed that India will tour Down Under for a full tourcomprising four Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is. The secondTest will be a day-night affair, starting from December 11 inAdelaide. "We played a few more pink ball games, perhaps, thanIndia which might be a slight advantage," the Aussie star bats-man said in a Facebook session, hosted by Sony Sports India.

Slight advantage for Australia in day-night Test: Smith


Every cricketing era has a "definingpair" which builds the narrative and theduo of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma is aspecial one for India in modern times,says Sri Lankan legend KumarSangakkara.

Kohli and Rohit have aggregated nearly36,000 runs (35,930 runs) across three for-mats and Sangakkara feels the duo hasthe same aura which Sourav Ganguly andRahul Dravid had in the late '90s and early2000s. "There is something very specialabout Virat and Rohit. That fact that ruleshave changed and run-scoring might havebecome slightly easier in one-day cricket,but it's incredibly hard, the volume ofcricket that India athletes play,"Sangakkara said on Star Sports' 'CricketConnected'. Sangakkara feels that Kohliand Rohit deserve the respect also for thefact that players from bygone era didn'thave to constantly play three formats.

"So, I think you have to have a lot of re-spect for Rohit and Virat but understandthat it's all because of the players that

have gone before and have done all thehard work then as well. "So, it's a knock-on effect, so in every era, there's always adefining pair and in the modern era, it'sRohit and Virat for India for sure."

Sangakkara recollected the era ofDravid and Ganguly and drew a parallelwith Kohli and Rohit where batsmenhave been destructive despite being or-thodox in their technique.


BCCI treasurer ArunDhumal on Monday saidthat their cricket opera-tions and National CricketAcademy (NCA) team areworking on organising atraining camp for the topcricketers but didn't com-mit to any time frameunder prevailing circum-stances.

Though COVID-19 casescontinue to rise signifi-cantly in India and areinching towards the 2 lakhmark, the central govern-ment has been takinggradual steps to open upthe economy.

"The (resumption of) na-tional camp is under re-view with the cricket oper-

ations team and NCA staffworking out the possibili-ty to have it as soon as pos-sible. Different states aretaking different measures(with regards to relaxation

on lockdown), so we willtake a call accordingly,"Dhumal told PTI.

"Everybody (players)comes form one or theother state. They can co-or-

dinate with their respec-tive stat association andtrain till the time it is safefor the entire team to gettogether," the treasureronce again stressed on thepoint he had stated beforestart of fourth phase oflockdown. While Englandcricketers have alreadystarted training in batch-es, top Australian crick-eters including DavidWarner and Steve Smithattended a practise sessionof New South Wales onMonday. It has been a weeksince domestic flight oper-ations have resumed inIndia and Dhumal said theboard will lock in on thelocation for the nationalcamp only when safety ofthe players is ensured.

‘Virat-Rohit pair is defining pair for India’ NCA and Cricket Operations are working onresumption but can’t put time-frame to it: Dhumal

Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket players Abhishek Sharma andNavneet Virk train at the Amritsar Games Association Complex, inAmritsar on Monday.

Liga to resume withReal Madrid playing

at training centerMadrid, Jun 01 (AP) The Spanish league is resum-ing in less than two weekswith Real Madrid playing itsgames at the club's trainingcenter. Madrid will host Eibaron June 14 at the 6,000-capaci-ty Alfredo Di St fano Stadium,a venue used mostly by theclub's B team at the CiudadReal Madrid center on thecity's outskirts. Madrid is notstopping renovation work atthe Santiago Bernab u Stadiumas all remaining league gamesare likely to be played withoutfans because of the coron-avirus pandemic. The leagueon Sunday confirmed the datesand times of the first tworounds of matches to beplayed after the competitionwas stopped mid-Marchbecause of the pandemic.


The country's manufac-turing sector activityrecorded another sharpdeterioration in businessconditions during May asnew orders placed withproducers continued tofall after April's recordcontraction, leading firmsto cut jobs at the quickestpace on record, a monthlysurvey said on Monday.

The headline seasonallyadjusted IHS Markit IndiaM a n u f a c t u r i n gPurchasing Managers'Index (PMI) stood at 30.8 inMay, up from 27.4 in April,pointing to another sub-stantial decline in thehealth of the country'smanufacturing sector, al-beit one that was slightly

softer than recorded inApril. In April, the indexhad slipped into contrac-tion mode, after remainingin the growth territory for

32 consecutive months. InPMI parlance, a printabove 50 means expansion,while a score below thatdenotes contraction.

"The latest PMI datasuggested that Indianmanufacturing output fellfurther in May. This resultis particularly poignantgiven the record contrac-tion in April which wasdriven by widespread busi-ness closures," said EliotKerr Economist at IHSMarkit.

As per the survey, weak-er demand drove outputlower following April'srecord decline.Consequently, firms cutstaff numbers at thequickest pace since datacollection began over 15years ago.

Indian manufacturingoutput falls further in May

Mumbai, Jun 01 (PTI):

Equity benchmarkSensex surged 879 points onMonday, driven by gains inReliance Industries, HDFCtwins and TCS as investoroptimism heightened afterthe government began theprocess of unlocking theeconomy.

Positive cues from globalmarkets too buoyed in-vestor sentiment here.

After skyrocketing 1,250points during the day, the30-share index settled 879.42points or 2.57 per cent high-er at 33,303.52.

Similarly, NSE Niftysurged 245.85 points or 2.57per cent to finish at 9,826.15.Bajaj Finance was the topgainer in the Sensex pack,rising around 11 per cent,followed by Titan, Tata

Steel, SBI, M&M, HDFC,IndusInd Bank andReliance Industries.

On the other hand, SunPharma, Nestle India andUltraTech Cement wereamong the laggards.

According to NarendraSolanki, Head- Equity

Research (Fundamental),Anand Rathi, Indian mar-kets started the week on apositive note following up-beat Asian market peersand the sentimental posi-tive news of 'Unlock-1' andhopes of economy gradual-ly opening up took hold.

Sensex soars 879 pts as Indiabegins to unlock; Nifty tops 9,800

New Delhi, Jun 01 (PTI):In its endeavour to offer newproducts to commodity marketparticipants and to deepen themarket ecosystem, the BSE onMonday launched options ongoods contracts like gold miniand silver kilo.The two contracts launchedare gold mini (100 gram) andsilver kilo, the exchange saidin a statement.These contracts werelaunched by S K Mohanty,whole-time member of mar-kets regulator Sebi, whoemphasised that this is theright time for the launch ofthese contracts."The options on goods con-tracts shall enable small-timejewellers, retailers to comeforward and hedge their pricerisk on the BSE's commodityplatform," said Ashishkumar

Chauhan, MD and CEO of theBSE. Sameer Patil, chief busi-ness officer of the BSE, saidthese contracts are deliverablecontracts and shall terminateinto physical deliveries at thetime of expiry.The National Stock Exchangewill introduce options on goldmini from June 8.Options contract gives thebuyer or holder of the contractthe right (but not the obliga-tion) to buy or sell the under-lying asset at a predeterminedprice within or at the end of aspecified period.

BSE launches optionson gold mini, silver kg


Kia Motors India onMonday launched a re-freshed version of its pop-ular SUV Seltos with pricestarting at Rs 9.89 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

The refreshed Seltosnow comes equipped withten new features related tosafety, convenience, con-nectivity and design, overand above other keyenhancements,the company saidin a statement.

M o r e o v e r ,many existingfeatures in high-er variants suchas sunroof arenow available inlower variants too,the statement added.

The company furthersaid that based on marketresearch and customerpreference, it has also de-cided to discontinue itstwo variants ofSmartstream Petrol 1.4T-GDI GTK and GTX 7DCT.

"The refreshed Seltos is

the result of a deep under-standing of the Indian au-tomotive market, and ourcustomers' desires and re-quirements, and we areconfident it will continueto win hearts for Kia in

India," Kia Motors IndiaManaging Director & CEOKookhyun Shim said.

He further said, "theSeltos marked the arrivalof the Kia brand in India.It laid a strong foundationfor Kia in the country andas a vehicle... the Seltos en-

abled us to address all theunmet needs of the seg-ment."

Similar to the previousversion of the Seltos, therefreshed version will con-tinue to be available in twodistinct design lines: TechLine aimed at family-ori-

ented customersand GT Line

aimed at en-t h u s i a s t swho areyoung at

heart, KiaMotors Indiasaid."With the next-

gen technology inthe refreshed Seltos,

we are confident that wewill deliver customer de-light that is unparalleled,"Shim added.

The SUV will be avail-able in three engine op-tions of 1.5 litre petrol, 1.4litre GDI petrol and 1.5litre diesel, across 16 vari-ants priced between Rs9.89 lakh and Rs 17.34 lakh(ex-showroom Delhi), itadded.

Kia Motors launches refreshedSeltos at Rs 9.89 lakh

Mumbai, Jun 1 (PTI):

The coronavirus pan-demic is likely to shave atleast USD 25 billion offfrom the January 2020 cu-mulative brand value oftop 100 domestic brands,says a report.

According to the latestreport by Brand Finance,globally, the top 500 brandscould see a value erosionof USD 1 trillion fromtheir January 2020 brandvalue, following COVID-19disruptions.

"As the new coron-avirus pandemic wreakshavoc on the global andnational economy, thecountry's top 100 mostvaluable brands could loseup to 15 per cent of brandvalue cumulatively, a po-tential drop of nearly USD25 billion compared to theoriginal valuation as ofJanuary 1, 2020," the re-port said.

Brand Finance has as-sessed the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic basedon the effect of the out-break on enterprise value,compared to what it wason January 1, 2020.

The report further saidthe Tata Group has re-tained the title of the mostvaluable brand, breakingUSD 20 billion brandvalue mark for first timethis year and the group'sluxe hotel brand Taj is thestrongest brand in thecountry with brandstrength index score 90.5out of 100.

This is despite the factthat the value has in-creased by only 2 per centto touch the USD 20-bil-lion-mark, making it theonly domestic brand totouch this milestone.

COVID-19 to shave USD25 bn off from top 100domestic brands value New Delhi, Jun 01 (PTI):

Energy trading platformIndian Energy Exchange onMonday launched the real-time electricity market(RTM) on its platform, amove that will help utilitiesbuy and sell power just anhour before the require-ment.

The RTM enables con-sumers, including distribu-tion companies (discoms)and captive users, to buypower on exchanges just anhour before delivery.

The real time market isan endeavour by the regula-tor, CERC, to make thepower market dynamic byenabling trade in electricitythrough half-hourly auc-tions, Indian EnergyExchange (IEX) said in aregulatory filing.

There will be 48 auctionsessions during the daywith delivery of powerwithin one hour of closureof the bid session, the filingadded.

"With the launch of RTM,the Indian energy marketsare moving towards global

standards of electricitytrading and establishingthe new energy order in thecountry. It will support theutilities in reducing de-pendence on grid deviationframework, of the order of20 BU in fiscal year 2020,"IEX Ltd CEO and ManagingDirector Rajiv Srivastavasaid.

Srivastava further saidthat the primary purpose ofthe real-time market is toallow utilities to managetheir power demand dy-namically, save on huge de-viation related penaltiesand integrate renewables inan effective way.

"The new market seg-ment will foster greaterflexibility, competition andefficiency in electricity sec-tor and address the emerg-ing needs of the time," headded.

With the fast-paced shifttowards renewable energy,the real-time electricitymarket will facilitate thedistribution utilities tomanage the challenge of in-termittency associated withrenewables, the filing said.

Indian Energy Exchange launchesreal-time electricity market

Power consumptiondips 14% to 103

BU in MayNew Delhi, Jun 01 (PTI):

Power consumption inMay declined by 14.16 percent to 103.02 billion units(BU) compared to 120.02BU a year ago, mainly dueto low demand amid coro-navirus-induced lock-down.

However, the slump inpower consumption hasnarrowed down in May to14.16 per cent from 22.65per cent recorded April inthis year. The entiremonth of April had wit-nessed low power demanddue to COVID-19 lock-down.

This shows that powerconsumption has im-proved after governmentstarted giving relaxationsfor economic activitiesand mercury soared be-yond 45 degree intensify-ing heat wave in the coun-try. According to powerministry data, the totalelectricity consumptionwas 103.02 billion units inMay this year compared to120.02 BU in same monthyear ago.

Finland in pain as border closureblocks Russian tourists

Helsinki, Jun 01 (AP):

Finns in the Nordic na-tion's eastern border regionsay they haven’t seen any-thing like this since the 1991collapse of the SovietUnion. The closure ofFinland's border withRussia amid the coron-avirus pandemic has put anabrupt stop to visits by thenearly 2 million Russiantourists who prop up thelocal economy each year.

Finland shares a 1,340-kilometer land border withRussia complete with sever-al crossing points in what isone of the EuropeanUnion’s longest externalborders. It was shut downboth by Helsinki andMoscow in mid-March dueto the pandemic. Given

Russia’s sustained infectionrate, there is little hope thatthe border will be openedfor Finland's summertourism season — andmany believe the borderwill likely remain shut evenlonger. 'It definitely has hada big effect. You just would-n't imagine such risks re-

late to the border anymorein the year 2020,' saidPetteri Terho, spokesmanfor the Zsar Outlet Village, alarge upscale shopping areacatering to both Finns andRussians near the Vaalimaaborder station, the busiestcrossing point between thetwo nations.

Widespread destruction in ElSalvador, Guatemala after stormSan Salvado, Jun 01 (AFP):

Tropical Storm Amandatriggered flash floods,landslides and power out-ages as it barrelledthrough El Salvador andGuatemala, killing 14 peo-ple, authorities said, warn-ing of further heavy rainto come.

El Salvador PresidentNayib Bukele declared a15-day state of emergencyto cope with the effects ofthe storm, which he esti-mated to have caused $200million in damage, butwhich weakened later inthe day as it moved intoGuatemala. Amanda, thefirst named storm of theseason in the Pacific, un-leashed torrents of flood-water that tossed vehiclesaround like toys and dam-

aged about 200 homes, thehead of the CivilProtection Service WilliamHernandez said. The fatali-ties were all recorded in ElSalvador, Interior Minister

Mario Duran said, warn-ing that the death tollcould rise. One person isstill missing, senior gov-ernment official CarolinaRecinos added.

Hong Kong blocks vigil, rush on for UK passportsHong Kong, Jun 01 (AP):

Hong Kong police reject-ed an application Mondayfor an annual candlelightvigil marking the anniver-sary this week of the 1989Tiananmen Square crack-down, as residents rushedto apply for passports thatcould allow them to moveto the United Kingdom.Throngs of people linedup at DHL courier outletsacross the city, many tosend documents to the UKto apply for or renew whatis known as a BritishNational (Overseas) pass-port.

My BNO passport ex-pired in 2004, but at thetime I didn't renew it be-cause I trusted China, said40-year-old Peter Chan,who works in asset man-agement and waited in linefor more than two hours.

Chan said he was worriedabout political and securi-ty issues in Hong Kongstemming from an upcom-ing national security lawas well as a push by thesemi-autonomous territo-ry's legislature to enact a

bill that would make it ille-gal to insult the Chinesenational anthem. Eventhough there is rising anti-immigrant and anti-Asiansentiment in the U.K., it'sstill better than HongKong, he said. In Hong

Kong, you never knowwhat will happen in future,Chan said. It would be thefirst time in 30 years thatthe candlelight vigil, whichdraws a huge crowd to anoutdoor space, is not heldin Hong Kong. The vigilmarks the deadly militarycrackdown on pro-democ-racy protesters in Beijing'sTiananmen Square onJune 4, 1989.

The police, in a letter toorganizers, said it wouldviolate coronavirus socialdistancing rules that bangatherings of more thaneight people. Organizer LeeCheuk-yan, chair of theHong Kong Alliance inSupport of PatrioticDemocratic Movements ofChina, expressed disap-pointment and urged peo-ple to light candles individ-ually and observe a mo-ment of silence.

Amid COVID-19 pandemic, newacademic year begins in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 01 (PTI):

Signalling the beginningof a new academic year, atleast 45 lakh students inKerala on Monday beganattending virtual classesorganised by thestate edu-cation department in anbid to ensure that they donot miss out on lessons dueto the COVID-19 inducedlockdown. The online ses-sions named 'First Bell' aretelecast through VICTERSChannel, under the StateGeneral EducationDepartment, for classes 1 to12 from 8.30 AM to 5.30 PMon weekdays.

The classes were initiat-ed by a message from ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayanwho said the decision ononline classes was takendue to the pandemic. "Iwish all the students a won-derful academic session.The teachers and the par-

ents should ensure that thechildren attend the onlineclass. We have brought outsome restrictions in ourdaily life due to the pan-demic. We need to ensuresocial distancing. It is notpossible to start normalclasses in schools as it may

cause spread of the virus.However, we need to carryforward the studies of ourchildren," Vijayan said.The Kerala Infrastructureand Technology forEducation (KITE) hasbrought out the timetablefor conducting the classes.

Yediyurappa reluctant to discuss discontent in BJP

Bengaluru, Jun 01 (PTI):

Amid speculation aboutdiscontent within the rul-ing BJP in Karnatakaafter a section of legisla-tors held meetings lastweek, Chief Minister BSYediyurappa on Mondaysaid he was focused on thestate's development andcontaining the spread ofthe COVID-19 pandemic.

"I'm working for the de-velopment of the state andtowards containing thespread of COVID, I'm fo-cused on it, I'm not wor-ried about other issues.

I would not like to reactabout it," Yediyurappa toldreporters here in responseto a question. Reacting toreported comments by cer-tain BJP legislators stat-ing that Yediyurappa isnot their leader, he merelysaid he would not wish to

comment on it.This was the first re-

sponse by the ChiefMinister in person afterrecent meetings by a sec-tion of legislators setalarm bells ringing in theruling party. However,Yediyurappa not givingany direct reaction regard-

ing the recent meetings ordenying any discontent-ment against his leader-ship has given some cre-dence to the speculation,party sources said.

Ministerial aspirationsof some senior legislatorsand impending electionsto the Rajaya Sabha and

state legislative council issaid to have triggered thepoliticking, as over adozen party legislators,mostly from northKarnataka, met at seniorMLA Umesh Katti's cityresidence over meals onThursday.

Katti, an eight-timeMLA, who has been sulk-ing for not being mademinister, is also makingfrantic efforts for hisbrother Ramesh Katti tobe chosen for the RajyaSabha seat that will fall va-cant soon. Though severallegislators, who attendedthe meeting includingKatti, had tried to down-play it by calling it a casu-al meeting, another seniorlegislator BasanagoudaPatil Yatnal's commentsgave credence to the specu-lation about the discontentraging within.

Community transmission of corona-virus infection well-established


Community transmis-sion of the coronavirusinfection has been well-es-tablished across large sec-tions or sub-populationsin the country, a group of

health experts, includingdoctors from the AIIMSand two members of anICMR research group onCOVID-19, has said.

The government hasmaintained that the coun-try has not yet reached

the community transmis-sion stage of the diseaseeven as the death toll dueto COVID-19 rose to 5,394and the number of casesclimbed to 1,90,535 in thecountry on Monday.

India has now becomethe world's seventh worst-hit country in terms ofcoronavirus cases.

The report compiled byexperts from the IndianPublic HealthAssociation (IPHA),Indian Association ofPreventive and SocialMedicine (IAPSM) andIndian Association ofEpidemiologists (IAE)has been submitted to theprime minister.

"It is unrealistic to ex-pect that COVID-19 pan-demic can be eliminatedat this stage given thatcommunity transmissionis already well-estab-lished across large sec-tions or sub-populationsin the country," the reportsaid.

PREPARED FOR MONSOON

Karnataka State Fire Force personnel pack up their belongings onto a fire tender after showing their skills inpreparation of the monsoon season in Bangaluru on Monday.

08NATION-WORLDCENTRAL CHRONICLE, RAIPUR, TUESDAY, JUNE 02, 2020

US accuses China of using situation for making threatsUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has accused China of using a"tactical situation" on to its advantage and threatening others, likeits border with India.

BRIEFBody found

BBhhuubbaanneesswwaarr:: A migrantworker, who hadreturned from Mumbairecently, was founddead near a quarantinecentre in Odisha'sCuttack district, policesaid on Monday. Thedeceased was identifiedas BrajabandhuRana(40), a native ofKrushnapur village. Hewas lodged at a quaran-tine centre inKrushnapur panchayatunder Badamba policelimits in Cuttack district.After his return fromMumbai, he was kept atthe quarantine centresince May 26. However,his body was found nearthe boundary wall of thequarantine centre,police said.

Block WeTransferNNeeww DDeellhhii:: India hasordered its internetservice providers (ISPs)to block file-sharingwebsite WeTransfer at atime when hundreds ofmillions of people areworking from homebecause of a nationwidelockdown to stop thenovel coronavirus. Theorder, dated May 18,from India's Departmentof Telecommunications(DoT), which wasreviewed by Reuters,does not specify a rea-son for blocking thewebsite, but invokes aclause from conditionslaid out for grantinglicences to ISPs. Theclause directs all licenceholders to block web-sites in the interest ofnational security or public interest.

Not unlockAAmmaarraavvaattii:: As theCOVID-19 lockdown 5.0came into effect onMonday, the AndhraPradesh government hasdecided not to unlock itsborders yet for inter-state movement of vehi-cles and people. StateDirector General ofPolice DG Sawang saidin a release that restric-tions on inter-statemovement of peoplewould remain in force"till a further decision istaken." Those seeking tocome to AP from otherstates in private vehi-cles should obtain an e-pass through the gov-ernment's 'Spandana'web portal and undergomedical tests.

HC restrainsNNeeww DDeellhhii:: The DelhiHigh Court hasrestrained a companyfrom using mark 'Devtol'for manufacturing andselling hand sanitiserssaying it infringes thetrademark and logo ofwell-known antiseptic'Dettol'. Justice RajivShakdher, who conduct-ed the hearing throughvideo conferencing, alsoimposed a cost of Rs 1lakh on the manufacturerof 'Devtol' hand sanitis-ers and directed that theamount be deposited tothe Juvenile Justice Fundwithin a week. The ordercame on a suit by ReckittBenckiser (India) Pvt Ltdseeking permanentinjunction against MohitPetrochemicals Pvt Ltdfor selling hand sanitis-ers under the brandname 'Devtol'.

Attacks continueOuagadougou:Unidentified gunmenopened fire at a cattlemarket in easternBurkina Faso, killing atleast 25 people in thedeadliest attack in aparticularly violentweekend in the volatilecountry, authorities andwitnesses have said. Inthe country's north, in aseparate attack, ahumanitarian convoycame under fire inSanmatenga province,claiming the lives of fivecivilians and five securi-ty forces, according to agovernment statement.

BS Yediyurappa (L) attending an event in Bengaluru on Monday. Kerala’s Higher education minister KT Jaleel teachingHistory via online medium on Monday.

A pro-democracy protester (C) waves a British colonialflag during a ‘Lunch With You’ rally at a shopping mall inthe Central district in Hong Kong on Monday.Houses devastated by the overflowing of a creek due to

the torrential rains caused by the passage of tropicalstorm Amanda in San Salvado.

Checkpost for entering Finland from Russia at border.

Power sector workers opposed to Electricity Amendment Bill

New Delhi, June 01 (PTI):

Lakhs of power sectoremployees and engineersare protesting against theElectricity AmendmentBill 2020 and the govern-ment's move to privatisepower distribution com-panies in union territo-ries, according to AIPEF.

Last month, FinanceMinister NirmalaSitharaman had an-nounced the government'splan to privatise powerdistribution utilities inunion territories. Thepower ministry also circu-lated a draft ElectricityAmendment Bill 2020 onApril 17, 2020. "Lakhs of

electricity employees andengineers across thecountry have joinedhands to observe a protestdemonstration maintain-ing social distance againstthe ElectricityAmendment Bill 2020 andmove to privatise thepower distribution inUnion Territories," AllIndia Power EngineersFederation (AIPEF)spokesperson VK Gupta

said. Gupta termed theBill anti-farmer" and"anti-domestic con-sumer", as it paves theway for privatization ofthe entire power sector inthe country. After the Billis passed, farmers willhave to pay a monthlypower tariff of Rs 5,000-6,000, while subsidizeddomestic consumers willhave to pay at least Rs 8-10 per unit for consump-tion of up to 300 units permonth, he said. The Billhas been notified by thepower ministry at a timewhen all forms of meet-ings, interactions, dis-cussions and protests are choked.

Wayward whaletakes city break

in MontrealMontreal, Jun 01 (AFP):A young humpback whalethat swam up one ofCanada's major rivers andhas been exploring the wa-ters off Montreal for a fewdays was likely led astraywhile on a hunting trip,authorities have said.

Since Saturday, thegiant creature has beenswimming in the StLawrence river againstthe backdrop of theMontreal skyline -- hun-dreds of kilometres(miles) from the waters itusually calls home.

The humpback is likelyto be the same creature asthat seen a few days agofurther downstream nearQuebec City, said Marie-Eve Muller of the Quebecmarine mammal emer-gency network (RQUMM).

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Govt hikes paddy MSP by Rs53/qtl for 2020-21€¦ · New Delhi: Violence against healthcare personnel and rude behav-iour towards them are not acceptable, Prime Minister Narendra