PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY FROM GUWAHATI & DIBRUGARH

RN-1127/57 TECH/GH – 103/2018-2020, VOL. 82, NO. 102 GUWAHATI, FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020

82 years of service to the nation

www.assamtribune.com ePaper app for The Assam Tribune Pages 12 Price: 6.00GET IT ONGoogle Play

p2 p5 p11Nagaland to get COVID-19testing laboratory soon

Sonowal reviews Covid-19scene at Biswanath

China, Europe showrestarting economy not easy

No gemstones are needed,

a mask and sanitizer will

help you during this bad

phase!

JOCOSERIOUS

NEW DELHI, April 16:Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday re-viewed the impact of COV-ID-19 on the Indian econ-omy, and discussed a pos-sible second stimulus withFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman to boost sec-tors hit hard by the pan-demic.

Modi held discussions with

the Finance Minister as the

pandemic hit sectors from

small industries to the avia-

tion sector hard with millions

of jobs at stake.

The meeting comes amid

drastic reduction in GDP

growth forecast by various

multi-lateral funding agen-

cies for the current fiscal due

to the impact of COVID-19

and consequent lockdown.

Modi reviews impact ofCOVID-19 on economy

State of the economy was

discussed in details during

the meeting, sources said,

adding resource mobilisation

for taking on the future chal-

lenges was also highlighted.

As per the World Bank’s

latest assessment, India is

expected to grow 1.5 per

cent to 2.8 per cent. Similar-

ly, the IMF on Tuesday pro-

jected a GDP growth of 1.9

per cent for India in 2020, as

the global economy hits the

worst recession since the

Great Depression in 1930s.

The pandemic and conse-

quent lockdown have hit vari-

ous sectors, including MSME,

hospitality, civil aviation, agri-

culture and allied sector.

The government constitut-

ed an empowered group -

headed by Economic Affairs

Secretary Atanu Chakraborty

- which is entrusted with the

task of suggesting measures

that can bring the economy

back on track quickly post the

lockdown.

Besides, it was also asked

to work on relief and welfare

measures for various sectors

of the economy as well as for

the poor and needy.

In his address to the nation,

the Prime Minister had ex-

pressed concern over prob-

lems being faced by poor and

daily wagers and farmers.

“The government has

made every possible effort to

help them through Pradhan

Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yoja-

na. Their interests have also

been taken care of while mak-

ing the new guidelines,” he

had said. – PTI

R DUTTA CHOUDHURY

GUWAHATI, April 16: At

this time of crisis, the Assam

Police is making optimum

use of the social media not

only to reach out to the people

to educate them, but also help

out the people in need. Since

the outbreak of COVID-19,

the social media posts of the

Assam Police are reaching

out to millions of people to

educate them and also to help

those in need.

Additional Director Gen-

eral of Police, Harmeet Singh

said, “as with every crisis sit-

uation we have faced in the

past, communication is the

key. This is also vital in this

Assam Police using socialmedia to reach people

hour of crisis. Social media

has always been an important

aspect of our communication

strategy, as it allows us to

facilitate conversations

around the crisis, connect us

to the citizens and directly

communicate with them.”

Singh said that the Assam

Police followed a multi

pronged strategy of sensitiza-

tion, reaching out to the com-

munity to provide relief, and

being a credible source of in-

formation in this ‘Infodemic.’

This has been not only for the

people, but as a source of in-

formation for the media, too.

The Assam Police is also using

the social media to prevent an-

yone from creating confusion

in the minds of people with

false information.

The Smart Social Media

Centre of the Assam Police

has been very proactive in

dealing with COVID-19

crisis, getting into action as

early as March 12. Since,

then, the social media team

has been running a wide

range of campaigns- sensitis-

ing citizens on the gravity of

crisis, lockdown guidelines,

various dos & don’ts, impor-

tance of social distancing and

the menace of misinforma-

tion through regular adviso-

ries, memes, graphic explain-

ers and videos.

ImportedChinese PPEswill be tested,says Himanta

RITURAJ BORTHAKUR

GUWAHATI, April 16:

Amidst concerns about the

safety of the PPEs imported

from China, Health Minister

Himanta Biswa Sarma today

said the kits which reached

Guwahati last night will be

tested in state labs even

though they are CE/FDA

verified.

Some reports today

claimed that many PPE kits

that arrived in India have

failed safety checks at the

Defence Research & Devel-

opment Organisation labora-

tory in Gwalior.

Sarma, however, told The

Assam Tribune that there is

no instruction from Govern-

ment of India regarding test-

ing the imported kits in

Gwalior.

Assam became the first

State yesterday to buy PPEs

directly from China. Earlier,

the states had been getting

the share of those procured

by Government of India.

Some kits were also donat-

ed by China.

A consignment of 50,000

PPEs ordered by Assam gov-

ernment from Guangzhou in

China reached Guwahati in a

special flight last night, tak-

ing the stock of PPEs in the

State to 1.5 lakh.

“The consignment was

cleared by Custom today

evening. The kits will be test-

ed in our lab, only after that

it will be dispatched to the

hospitals,” Sarma said.

SEE PAGE 6

Second stimulus under consideration

SEE PAGE 6

Indiansabroad

NEW DELHI, April 16: Atotal of 3,336 Indians in 53countries were infected bythe novel coronaviruswhile 25 lost their livesdue to the disease,government sources saidtoday. The strandedIndians will have to bepatient as the governmentis not evacuating them aspart of a policy decision tocheck spread of the virusin the country, they said. –PTI

China refutalBEIJING, April 16: China

has refuted allegations thatthe coronavirus pandemicmay have originated in alaboratory near the city ofWuhan where contagioussamples were beingstored. A foreign ministryspokesman cited the WHOhead and other medicalexperts as saying therewas no evidence thattransmission began fromthe lab. – AP

Army decisionNEW DELHI, April 16:

The Indian Army onThursday directed all itsmilitary establishments,cantonments, formationheadquarters and fieldunits to totally restrictmovement of forces tillApril 19 in view of thegovernment's freshlockdown relatedguidelines. – PTI

Full refundNEW DELHI, April 16:

The Civil Aviation Ministryon Thursday said thepassengers who had bookedflight tickets during thefirst phase of lockdown fortravel up to May 3 mustget a full refund from theairlines without anycancellation charges if theyask for it. – PTI

nnnnn Also see page 9

HelplineGUWAHATI, April 16: The

Assam Police on Thursdaylaunched four mobilehelpline numbers to assistthe senior citizens duringthe lockdown hours. Thenumbers are 6026900974,6026900975, 9435215029and 9132699735. – StaffReporter

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16: The

State government has accord-

ed permission to the Guwa-

hati Tea Auction Centre

(GTAC) to restart their oper-

ations in a limited manner to

conduct e-auctions of tea with

effect from April 16. Howev-

er, auction will resume at the

centre from April 23.

This permission to resume

operations was also accorded

to related stakeholders as and

when required with certain

riders – registered tea ware-

houses in Guwahati city, reg-

istered tea auctioneers offices

in Guwahati city, registered tea

buyers offices, registered tea

producers offices, registered

transporter companies and

registered courier offices.

The establishments will

have to avoid overcrowding

and maintain social distancing

and COVID-19 protocol.

The last auction was held at

the GTAC on March 24.

Last year, the GTAC sold

195 million kilograms of tea.

The State’s production last

year stood at 655 million kilo-

grams.

Guwahati Tea Auction Buy-

ers Association secretary Di-

nesh Bihani said the govern-

ment’s decision will help the

seller members who want to

sell their teas immediately at

the GTAC because due to

lockdown they were unable to

open their factories. Recently,

the tea industry has allowed

them to resume operations

and they have produced their

teas and dispatched to GTAC.

“It will be helpful to reduce

their cash crunch and solve

their problem of cash liquidity

to some extent,” Bihani said.

Tea auction centreto operate from April 23

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16:

Two persons from Mori-

gaon have tested positive for

COVID-19 today, taking the

cumulative number of posi-

tive cases in the State to 34,

Health Minister Himanta

Biswa Sarma said.

The two from Morigaon

– Samsul Alom (72) and

Furkam Ali (25) – were sec-

ondary contacts of Nizamud-

din Markaz attendees and

were in quarantine at the

Lahorighat Model Hospital.

There were seventeen

people in quarantine at the

Lahorighat hospital.

“They were to be re-

leased after the mandatory

tests on the thirteenth and

fourteenth day. These two

persons, however, tested

Two more test positive in MorigaonDC, SP quarantined; 3 released from Goalpara hospital

positive for COVID-19 on

the 14th day,” officials said,

adding that the patients are

being brought to Guwahati

for further treatment.

Morigaon DC Rituraj

Bora, SP Swapnaneel Deka

and the district’s joint direc-

tor of health Dr RK Barka-

taky, who came in contact

with the COVID-19 positive

duo, have been instructed to

go for quarantine at their re-

spective quarters for 14 days.

Two local TV journalists of

Lahorighat have also been

asked to be in home quaran-

tine.

Meanwhile, three patients

were released from Goal-

para Civil Hospital today.

Sarma along with Minis-

ter of State for Health Pi-

jush Hazarika visited the

Goalpara hospital to moni-

tor the discharge of the pa-

tients – Khabiruddin

Ahmed, Shahjahan Ali

Ahmed and Yusuf Ali.

“As per Indian Council of

Medical Research protocol,

they have been sent to 14-

day home quarantine after

they tested negative in two

successive tests on the thir-

teenth and fourteenth days,”

Sarma said.

Yesterday, two patients

were released from the

Sonapur Civil Hospital after

they were declared virus-

free by doctors. These re-

leased patients too will have

to be in home quarantine for

another 14 days as per WHO

protocol.

Around ten more patients

are likely to be discharged

tomorrow or day after.

“By April 20, we hope to

release most of the pa-

tients,” the Health Minister

said.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal visiting the newly set up isolation centre at Sri Sri Pitambar Dev Goswami Civil

Hospital in Majuli on Thursday. – UB Photos

Strategicapproach tofight virus

NEW DELHI, April 16:

The Union government has

adopted a special strategy to

fight coronavirus, with specific

instructions for the district and

state authorities on how to go

about with it, the Home Min-

istry said on Thursday.

The strategic approach for

COVID-19 containment

broadly involves defining the

area of operation, applying pe-

rimeter control, delineating

containment and buffer zones,

a ministry statement said.

Besides, there is active

search for cases, contact trac-

ing, quarantine, clinical man-

agement and awareness gen-

eration among public.

NEW DELHI, April 16:

Congress leader Rahul

Gandhi on Thursday called

for a united fight against

COVID-19 and said a lock-

down is no solution, but ag-

gressive testing is the main

weapon to defeat the coro-

navirus and it should be

used strategically.

Addressing a press confer-

ence via video link, he said

India will emerge as a bet-

ter place if everyone fights

the virus with confidence

and not out of fear. Noting

that the ongoing nationwide

lockdown is like a “pause

button” and not a solution to

defeat the virus, the former

Congress chief said testing

is the real weapon against it,

which India should use stra-

tegically.

Calling upon the govern-

ment to quickly resolve the

issue of the migrants strand-

ed at various places without

food and money, he feared

that it might lead to social

unrest otherwise.

He also called for a provi-

sion of food to be distributed

among the poor and margin-

alised, while providing a safe-

ty net for the MSMEs and

other strategic industries,

which foreign entities may be

eying for takeovers.

“In no way does a lock-

down defeat the virus. It

stops the virus for some

Rahul for united fight againstCOVID-19, aggressive testing

time. The biggest weapon to

fight the virus is testing. Test-

ing is scaled to know where

the virus is moving and you

can isolate it and target it,”

he said.

Gandhi said the scale of

testing in India has been

low so far at 199 per 10 lakh

people – around 350 tests

per district – which he said

is not enough to tell which

way the virus is moving.

“If you have to fight the vi-

rus, you have to increase

testing dramatically... That

means you have to move

into random testing,”

he noted.

More than 2,083,820 declared cases registered in 193

countries and territories

Death toll from the pandemic 137,500

At least 450,500 patients recovered

Now the pandemic epicentre, the US has 639,664

infections and 30,985 deaths

Italy the next most-affected country with 21,645 deaths

from 165,155 infections

Data till 4:30 pm on Thursday – AFPCOCOCOCOCOVID-19VID-19VID-19VID-19VID-19 sta sta sta sta status in tus in tus in tus in tus in INDIAINDIAINDIAINDIAINDIA

Confirmed cases 12,759

Cured/Discharged 1,515

Death 420

Figures include foreign nationals

As on 16/04/2020 at 5 pm

Source: Ministry of Health & Family Welfare

Alert TODAY

Alive TOMORROW

SEE PAGE 6

SEE PAGE 6

Journalist bodymoves SC against

media houses

SPL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI, April 16: The

National Alliance of Journalists

(NAJ) on Thursday moved the

Supreme Court against all re-

trenchment, salary cuts and

allied orders by media houses

against its employees.

The media body sought

the intervention of the

Supreme Court in ordering

that the actions against jour-

nalists be suspended.

The petitioner NAJ has

called for direction to all me-

dia houses, including digital

media, to treat all termination

notices, resignations received

pursuant to request, wage re-

ductions, and directions to go

on leave without pay, which

took place after the announce-

ment of the COVID-19 lock-

down, as suspended with im-

mediate effect.

Layoffs, salary cuts

SEE PAGE 6

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 20202 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI

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INTERNATIONALINTERNATIONAL

Washington: President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House onWednesday in Washington. – AP/PTI

BEIJING, April 16: As countriesconsider how to restart their virus-halted economies, the early expe-riences in China and parts of Eu-rope show it will be no easy task.

Workers back on the job are waryof spending much or going out.

Shoppers are staying away fromthe few stores reopening. Masksand social-distancing measures arenot fading. And pervasive is the fearthe coronavirus could return iflockdowns meant to stop its spreadare eased too much, too quickly.

Still, leaders are anxious to reo-pen factories, schools and shops andto repair the economic damagefrom the pandemic that has claimedmore than 137,000 lives of morethan 2 million people infected.

Some Chinese cities tried reas-suring consumers by showing offi-cials eating in restaurants. In the US,

people have begun getting reliefchecks to help them pay the bills.

Rome’s streets were largely de-serted despite some stores reopen-ing. In Vienna, clothing store ownerMarie Froehlich said her staff washappy to be back after weekscooped up at home. But dependentlargely on tourism,she expects thebusiness will takemonths to returnto normal.

“Until then, we are in crisismode,” she said.

Truck salesman Zhang Hu inZhengzhou, China, is back at workbut his income plummeted becausefew people are buying 20-ton rigs.

“I have no idea when the situa-tion will turn better.” In the US,with many factories shut down,American industrial output

shriveled in March, registering itsbiggest decline since the nation de-mobilised in 1946 at the end of WorldWar–II. Retail sales fell by an un-precedented 8.7 per cent, with Aprilexpected to be far worse.

And troubling data indicate theworst may still be to come in many

parts of the world.UN Secretary-General Antonio

Guterres is urging stepped-up ef-forts to prepare Africa, warning thatthe continent “could end up suffer-ing the greatest impacts.” Singa-pore’s outbreak has jumped morethan 1,100 cases since Monday.

It had looked to be successful incontaining a first wave of infections,but the new cases are occurring

among workers from poorer Asiancountries who live in crowded dor-mitories and work in the tiny city-state’s trade-dependent economy.

In Brazil, a war of words has bro-ken out over President JairBolsonaro’s lackadaisical approachto the virus. “We’re fighting against

the coronavirus andagainst the‘Bolsonaro-virus,’”Sao Paulo state

Governor Doria told The Associ-ated Press in an interview, addingthat he believes the President hasadopted “incorrect, irresponsiblepositions.”

The US began issuing one-timepayments this week to tens of mil-lions of people as part of its $2.2-trillion coronavirus relief package.

But another part of the reliefpackage, a $350-billion paycheck

protection programme aimed atsmall businesses, is running dry af-ter being open for only a matter ofdays. Negotiations were accelerat-ing in Washington over a $250-bil-lion emergency request to help.

The US has recorded more than30,000 deaths “the most in theworld” and over 600,000 confirmedinfections, by a Johns Hopkins Uni-versity count.

Still, the nightmare scenarios pro-jecting a far greater number ofdeaths and hospitalisations have notcome to pass, raising hopes fromcoast to coast and promptingstronger calls for easing of restric-tions. Foreign leaders, meanwhile,rushed to the defence of the WorldHealth Organisation after Trumpvowed to halt US payments to theUN agency for not sounding thealarm over the virus sooner. – AP

China, Europe show restarting not easy

Virus-hit economies

WASHINGTON, April 16: TheUS has “passed the peak” on newcoronavirus cases, PresidentDonald Trump has said and pre-dicted that some states would reo-pen this month.

The US has over 637,000 con-firmed COVID-19 cases and over30,826 deaths, the highest for anycountry in the world.

At the daily White Housecoronavirus briefing on Wednesday,Trump said new guidelines to reo-pen the country would be an-nounced on Thursday after hespeaks to Governors.

“We’ll be the comeback kids, allof us,” he said. “We want to get ourcountry back.”

The Trump administration haspreviously fixed May 1 as a possi-ble date to reopen the world’s larg-est economy, but the President saidsome states may be able to returnto normalcy earlier than that.

“The battle continues, but the datasuggest that nationwide we havepassed the peak on new cases. Hope-fully, that will continue, and we willcontinue to make great progress,”Trump said. These encouraging de-velopments, he said, have put theUS in a very strong position to fi-nalise the guidelines for states onreopening the country.

“Hopefully that will continue, andwe will continue to make greatprogress,” Trump said.

US has ‘passed the peak’ on newcoronavirus cases, says Trump

Dr Deborah Brix, a member ofthe White House Task Force onCoronavirus, said that over the lastfive or six days there has been de-cline in new cases across the coun-

try. “This has been very reassuringfor us. At the same time, we knowthat mortality and the fatalities thatwe are facing across the UnitedStates continue,” she said.

Nine states have less than 1,000cases and less than 30 new casesper day. Some states like Californiaand Washington State, Oregonnever really had a peak because of

so much work that their populationsdid to decrease and keep the newcases down, she said.

Two states, Rhode Island andProvidence are in a unique situa-tion, she said. First, they had in-creasing cases from the New YorkCity area and now they have newincreasing cases from the Bostonarea. They are caught between twoincredible hotspots in the country,she said.

Reiterating that this is a highly-contagious virus, Brix said in socialgatherings and coming togetherthere is always a chance that asymp-tomatic person can spread the vi-rus unknowingly.

“No one is intending to spread thevirus. We know if you are sick youwill stay home. But to all of you thatare out there that would like to jointogether and just have that dinnerparty for 20 don’t do it yet. Continueto follow the presidential guidelines.We really appreciate the work of theAmerican people,” Brix said.

Asked why the US accounted forsuch a significant proportion of theglobal death toll of 136,908, Trumpaccused other countries of lyingabout their mortality rate.

“Does anybody really believe thenumbers of some of these coun-tries?” he said, in an apparent ref-erence to China where the pan-demic originated and spread acrossthe world. – PTI

WASHINGTON, April 16: Al-leging that coronavirus was ge-netically-engineered in a Wuhanlab, an Indian-American survivorof the deadly virus has urgedPresident Donald Trump to seekcompensation from China, runninginto trillions of dollars, for the thou-sands of deaths and harming theAmerican economy.

“The unleashing of global deathand suffering with thecoronavirus, a plague upon all ofus, is worse than Pearl Harbour,and given its deception, and later,cover-up, lack any semblance ofhonour,” Indian-American attor-ney Ravi Batra said in a letter tothe President.

“On the established rules oflaw, China is at least guilty of neg-ligence in proximately causing aworld pandemic, where nearlytwo million people have sufferedits pain and suffering, and nearly

122,000 souls have lost their livesand left their families damagedand fractured,” he said in a letterdated April 14.

China owes us civil compen-sation – at least for negligence -a fair and reasonable amount,“which I recommend match ourstandard for 9/11, but no less thanUSD 1 million dollars for everyAmerican who tested positive forCoronavirus, USD 5 million forevery American who died, andUSD100,000 for every Americanwho has to be ‘locked down’,” hesaid.

“I recommend, given the cover-up, which exacerbated the injury,pain and suffering globally, as wellas avoidable deaths, that China’sownership of debts in every coun-try – for example the USD1.2 tnin China’s ownership of our T-Bills– be cancelled,” Batra said.

In his letter, Batra charged

China with hiding the actual sourceof coronavirus.

He also accused Beijing of ig-noring “the fraudulent assertion”by the Chinese Communist PartyPropaganda Czar that “Wuhan Sea-food Market, with zero Bats, hasany value to getting to thesource.”

China, it appears, is following anold playbook it developed in SARSoutbreak, he alleged.

On Wednesday, Fox News, in anexclusive report, said COVID-19originated in a Wuhan laboratorynot as a bio-weapon, but as part ofChina’s effort to demonstrate thatits efforts to identify and combatviruses are equal to or greater thanthe capabilities of the UnitedStates.

This may be the “costliest gov-ernment coverup of all time,” oneof the sources was quoted as say-ing by Fox News. – PTI

Trump urged to seek compensationfrom China on nCoV

6.50-lakh nCoV medicalkits dispatched fromChina: Indian envoy

BEIJING, April 16: China on Thursday dispatched 650,000coronavirus medical kits to India to help fight the COVID-19pandemic, Indian Ambassador to Beijing Vikram Misri said.

Over two-million test kits being procured from Chinawill be sent to India in the next 15 days, he told PTI here.

“#IndiaFightsCoronavirus A total of 650,000 kits, includ-ing Rapid Antibody Tests and RNA Extraction Kits havebeen despatched early today from Guangzhou Airport to#India,” Misri tweeted on Thursday.

As its factories resumed operations after over a two-monthgrim battle against the coronavirus, China is busy tappinginto the vast business opportunities of export of key medicalgoods, especially ventilators and personal protection equip-ment (PPE), across the world, including India, where bothprivate and government bodies are placing orders for theimport of these products.

Two major consignments of medical kits were reportedto have been sent to India from China earlier as part ofefforts to step up testing specially in hotspots during thecurrent lockdown in the country.

India has extended its ongoing lockdown to fight thecoronavirus till May 3. It has reported 414 deaths due to thedisease and 12,380 people have been infected by the diseasein the country. – PTI

The Australian cruise ship Greg Mortimer arrives to port for passengers to be transported to the international airport in Montevideo,Uruguay on Wednesday. The ship has been anchored off Uruguay's coast since March 27 with more than half its passengers andcrew infected with the new coronavirus, according to authorities. – AP/PTI

ABUJA, April 16: Nigerian securityagents have killed 18 people in their en-forcement of measures to curb coronavirus,a figure higher than the documented tollinflicted by the disease, the country’s hu-man rights body said.

Africa’s most populous nation has im-posed a total lockdown in megacity Lagosand the capital Abuja and set restrictions inother regions in a bid to contain the virus.

According to official figures, coronavirushas so far infected 407 people in Nigeria, 12of them fatally. Security forces, includingpolice and army, have been deployed to en-force the restrictions, sparking deadly con-frontations in some states.

In a report released late on Wednesday,the National Human Rights Commissionsaid it had received and documented “105

complaints of incidents of human rights vio-lations perpetuated by security forces” in24 of Nigeria’s 36 states and Abuja.

Of these complaints, “there were eightdocumented incidents of extrajudicial killingsleading to 18 deaths”, it said. The commis-sion noted that the tally of killings was higherthan the recorded toll from the disease itself.

“Whereas COVID-19 led to the death of11 victims, law-enforcement agents extra-judicially executed 18 persons in the causeof the enforcement regulations,” it said,referring to the official virus toll as at thetime of the report.

It accused the security agents of “exces-sive or disproportionate use of force, abuseof power, corruption and non-adherence tonational and international laws, best prac-tices and rules of engagement.” – AFP

18 killed by Nigerian security forcesover virus lockdown: rights body

South Koreanruling party

wins landslidevictory in polls

SEOUL, April 16: South

Korean President Moon Jae-

in’s ruling Democratic Party

won a landslide victory in

parliamentary elections held

amid the COVID-19 pan-

demic, preliminary results

revealed on Thursday.

The preliminary results

from the National Election

Commission showed that the

Democratic Party secured

163 directly-contested con-

stituency seats, while its sis-

ter Platform Party gained 17

proportional representations

(PR) slots, reports Xinhua

news agency.

The quadrennial elections

for the 300 members of the

National Assembly were held

across the country on

Wednesday to let voters cast

ballots for 253 constituency

seats and 47 PR slots.

It marked the first timesince the Constitution was

amended in 1987 to end the

past military dictatorshipand adopt democratic elec-

tions that a single political

party won three-fifths ofthe total parliamentary

seats.

The main conservativeOpposition United Future

Party and its satellite party

garnered 84 constituencyseats and 19 PR seats.

The minor progressive

Justice Party won one con-stituency seat and five PR

slots, while the centre-left

Open Democratic Party andthe centrist People’s Party

won three respective PR

seats.Five independent candi-

dates obtained the remaining

constituency seats in the

parliamentary elections,

widely seen as a mid-term

referendum on the Moon

government. – IANS

Record 22 mn havesought US jobless aid

WASHINGTON, April 16:The wave of layoffs that hasengulfed the US economysince the coronavirus struckforced 5.2 million more peo-ple to seek unemploymentbenefits last week, the govern-ment reported on Thursday.

Roughly 22 million havesought jobless benefits in thepast month – easily the worststretch of US job losses onrecord.

All told, roughly nearly 12

million people are now re-ceiving unemploymentchecks, roughly matching thepeak reached in January2010, shortly after the GreatRecession officially ended.

All businesses deemednonessential have beenclosed in nearly every stateas the economy has virtuallyshut down. Deep job losseshave been inflicted acrossnearly every industry.

Some economists say theunemployment rate couldreach as high as 20 per centin April, which would be thehighest rate since the GreatDepression of the 1930s. Bycomparison, unemploymentnever topped 10 per centduring the Great Recession.

Layoffs are spreading be-yond service industries likehotels, bars and restaurants,which absorbed the brunt ofthe initial job cuts, into whitecollar professional occupa-tions, including software pro-grammers, constructionworkers and sales people.

Collectively, the job cutscould produce unemploy-ment on an epic scale. Up to50 million jobs are vulnerableto coronavirus-related lay-offs, economists say – aboutone-third of all positions inthe United States. – AP

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 3NATIONAL

CHANDIGARH, April 16: The

coronavirus pandemic and the result-

ing lockdown may impact some chil-

dren’s mental health and emotional

wellbeing and parents should address

their needs with compassion and a

friendly approach, according to a lead-

ing psychiatrist.

While the impact of the pandemic and

the ensuing situation on the mental health

of children and adults may not have been

documented yet, SK Mattoo, the head

of PGIMER, Chandigarh’s Psychiatry

Department, suggest some ways in

which children can be counselled.

“There are some general principles

which apply to adults and children as well.

As far as children are concerned, the

responsibility lies more with parents and

caretakers and they must address the

needs of children, whatever their que-

ries are, whatever be their difficulties or

problems. They need to be addressed

through compassion, consideration and

a friendly approach,” he said .

NEW DELHI, April 16: The

Union home ministry on

Thursday asserted that rules

such as wearing face masks,

practising social distancing and

no gathering of five or more

persons should be strictly en-

forced at public places in or-

der to ensure that the lock-

down clamped to contain the

spread of coronavirus in the

country is implemented effec-

tively.

Addressing the daily media

briefing, Joint Secretary in

the ministry Punya Salila

Srivastava said it should be

ensured that five or more per-

sons do not assemble at a pub-

lic place.

Also, people should not spit

at public places and workplac-

es, she said.

Elderly people, those who

are not keeping well and those

with young children should be

encouraged to work from

Mask-wearing, social distancingshould be enforced strictly: MHA

home and temperature

screening as well as use of hand

sanitizers should be made man-

datory at workplaces, Srivas-

tava said.

She added that the sale of

liquor, gutkha and tobacco

should be banned to ensure

that the lockdown is imple-

mented effectively.

The officer said that the

home ministry on Wednesday

had published comprehensive

directives or guidelines to be

followed for the second phase

of national lockdown valid till

May 3 and it had asked various

States and Union Territories

to get these implemented on

ground.

The ministry also stressed

on wide publicity of these

measures among the general

public, she said.

Under the ongoing lock-

down, Srivastava said, airlines,

railways and road transport

will be banned.

Taxis, auto rickshaws, cycle

rickshaws and cab aggregator

service will also be prohibited

along with all educational and

related institutes, Srivastava

said.

The officer said all public

spaces like malls, sports com-

plexes and all cultural and reli-

gious meetings will be prohib-

ited from being held during

this period.

Those places that are not

hotspots and containment

zones will be allowed to hold

some select activities post

April 20, provided all existing

directives and social distanc-

ing norms are followed in

those areas strictly.

“This is to ensure that agri-

culture and related activities

are fully operational and rural

economy works with more ef-

fectiveness,” she said.

She said due action is being

taken wherever the lockdown

is being violated.

“The situation of supply of

essential food items like

wheat, rice, pulses and milk

supply is satisfactory and

their availability is being

monitored continuously,”

Srivastava said.

She added that the workers

in private and public sector

should be encouraged to use

the Aarogya Setu app. – PTI

MHA ministry stresses on widepublicity of these measuresamong general public

NEW DELHI, April 16: A

university in Rome is conduct-

ing a pilot run for a patented

artificial intelligence-based

tool developed by three bio-

technology students and a pro-

fessor from Mumbai, which

they claim can test COVID-19

through voice-based diagnosis

using a smartphone.

The tool is being tested by

the University of Tor Vergata

in Rome and has already been

tested on 300 individuals, and

has yielded 98 per cent accu-

rate results.

According to the students

and the professor from DY Pa-

til Institute of Bio Technology

and Bio Informatics, Mumbai,

the tool is based on a voice-

based diagnosis through an app.

The team includes bioinfor-

matics students – Rashmi

Chakraborty, Priyanka Chau-

han and Priya Garg.

Students develop AI-based voicetool to detect COVID-19Rome university conducting pilot run

“While several foreign uni-

versities are trying to launch a

voice-based AI tool for COV-

ID-19 detection, this Indian

tool is fully functional and cur-

rently in use in Italy to suc-

cessfully identify COVID-19

patients. The students have a

full-fledged working software

with a rich database of patients

and healthy samples. This tool

is being currently used by the

University of Rome to detect

COVID-19 patients with 98

per cent accuracy,” Prof San-

tosh Bothe, who supervised

the project, told PTI.

“As someone speaks to the

microphone on the app, the tool

breaks down the voice in mul-

tiple parameters such as fre-

quency and noise distortion.

These values are then com-

pared to a normal person’s val-

ues and the patented technique

then determines if the patient

is positive or not,” he added.

A team at the Indian Insti-

tute of Science (IISc), Banga-

lore, is also working on a diag-

nostic tool based on analysis of

cough and respiratory sounds.

According to Giovanni Sag-

gio, professor at the Rome

university’s Engineering de-

partment, the audio-based dis-

ease diagnosis tool can find

coronavirus from the timbre

of the voice.

“Each human voice has

6,300 parameters, and only a

few units, less than a dozen,

specifically characterize indi-

viduals. The human ear, apart

from colds, is not able to dis-

tinguish them, but AI does.

Each one of our internal or-

gans is sort of a resonator, so if

we have a problem with our

lungs or our heart, this is re-

flected in our voice,” Saggio

said. – PTI.

MUMBAI, April 16: A

Mumbai court here on Thurs-

day granted bail to a television

journalist arrested for alleged-

ly ‘spreading misinformation’

with his report that the gov-

ernment was thinking of start-

ing Jan Sadharan train servic-

es for migrants, which alleg-

edly led to a crowd gathering

in Bandra.

Rahul Kulkarni, journalist

with a Marathi news channel,

was arrested by Mumbai Po-

lice on Wednesday, a day after

several migrant workers gath-

ered near Bandra station here

demanding that they be sent

back to their home towns.

Kulkarni was produced be-

fore a magistrate in Bandra on

Thursday where the police

sought his custody.

The court, however, refused

the police’s plea and remand-

ed Kulkarni in judicial custody,

Migrants’ unrest: Scribe held formisleading report gets bail

following which his advocate

Subodh Desai immediately

filed a bail application.

After hearing brief argu-

ments, the court granted him

bail on a surety of Rs 15,000.

Ten others arrested in the

case were remanded in police

custody till April 19.

The police booked Kulkarni

under Indian Penal Code Sec-

tions 269 (negligent act likely

to spread infection of disease

dangerous to life) and 505(b)

(intent to cause fear or alarm

among public whereby any

person may be induced to com-

mit an offence against the state

or against public tranquility),

and provisions of the Epidem-

ic Diseases Act.

According to police, Kulkar-

ni allegedly gave a “false” sto-

ry, saying the Railways was

going to start special trains to

ferry migrant workers strand-

ed in Maharashtra back to their

native States.

The police said hundreds of

migrant workers gathered at

the Bandra station on Tuesday

after watching the news, and

they were later dispersed.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena lead-

er Sanjay Raut hailed the

court’s decision to grant bail

to Kulkarni. He said the arrest

of the journalist in connection

with the gathering of migrants

in Bandra was unfortunate.

Talking to a news channel,

Raut said the government and

media were both important

pillars of democracy.

“Both sides should be alert

that such an incident should not

happen again. I am happy jour-

nalist Rahul Kulkarni got bail.

The police should find out truth

into the charges on which he

was arrested,” the Rajya Sab-

ha member said. – PTI

IMTECH to dogenome

sequencing ofcoronavirus

CHANDIGARH, April 16:

Embarking on an ambitious

project, CSIR-Institute of Mi-

crobial Technology (IMTECH)

on Thursday said it has initiat-

ed whole genome sequencing

of the novel coronavirus

SARS-Cov-2.

Whole genome sequencing

is the method used to deter-

mine the complete DNA se-

quence of a specific organism’s

genome.

CSIR-IMTECH along with

other sister CSIR laboratories,

with specialisation in genom-

ics, medicine and cell biology,

will carry out large-scale ge-

nome sequencing of the vari-

ous SARS-Cov-2 strains across

the country, an official said.

With its expertise in micro-

bial and genomic research,

CSIR-IMTECH will perform

sequencing of the SARS-Cov-

2 RNA genome isolated from

clinical samples, he said.

Viruses have higher muta-

tion rate than other microbes

and their genetic material

keeps on changing quickly as

they replicate rapidly.

The complete genome se-

quence information will ena-

ble researchers to gain in-

sights about the origins of the

virus, the different types of

strains circulating in India and

how has it spread across the

length and breadth of our coun-

try, Sanjeev Khosla, Director,

CSIR-IMTECH said.

The genomic resource ob-

tained from this sequencing

will also allow identification of

new targets for diagnosis and

drugs for COVID 19, he said.

“CSIR-IMTECH has been

at the forefront in augmenting

efforts of the government to

fight COVID 19. We have al-

ready started clinical testing of

samples and now by embark-

ing on this mission to se-

quence viral strains, we will

be better equipped to under-

stand the nature of this virus

which has caused a global pan-

demic,” he said. – PTI

K O T TAYA M / T H I R U -

VANANTHAPURAM, April

16: A 50-year-old woman trav-

elled 2700 km in a car crisscross-

ing 6 States to meet her criti-

cally ill son, a BSF jawan in Jodh-

pur, despite strict lockdown re-

strictions due to COVID-19.

The woman was accompa-

nied by her daughter-in-law

and another relative during the

journey, which they covered in

3 days time.

Speaking to PTI from Jodh-

pur in Rajasthan, Sheelamma

Vasan said the health condition

of her son, Arun Kumar (29),

who is suffering from myosi-

tis, (inflammation of muscles),

is improving.

“Due to God’s grace we have

reached here without any prob-

lems anywhere,” she said.

The family was informed by

a Malayali doctor at AIIMS in

Woman travels 2,700 km tomeet ailing son in hospital

Jodhpur about Arun Kumar’s

condition following which they

decided to undertake the jour-

ney from Kerala through Tam-

il Nadu, Karnataka, Maharash-

tra, Gujarat to reach Rajasthan.

Thanks to the intervention of

Union minister V Muraleedha-

ran, office of Chief Minister Pi-

narayi Vijayan and Congress lead-

er Oommen Chandy, the family

could get necessary passes for

the travel across the States.

Volunteers of Hindu help

line, a VHP organisation,

helped in arranging a cab and

two taxi drivers free of cost to

take them to Jodhpur.

After getting necessary

passes arranged by Kottayam

District Collector PK Sudheer

Babu, Sheelaamma accompa-

nied by her daughter-in-law

Parvathy and another relative

set off on the journey from

Panackachira village in Ko-

ruthodu panchayat in Kot-

tayam on April 11 and reached

Jodhpur on April 14.

The jawan, who had come

to his village in February end

on leave and days after his re-

turn had fallen ill, had ex-

pressed desire to meet his

mother and wife.

Arun Kumar’s one-year-old

child is in Kerala.

This mother’s journey

comes close on the heels of

another woman who rode

1,400 km on her two-wheeler

from Telangana to bring back

her son stuck in Andhra Pra-

desh. The burqa-clad mom,

Razia Sultana, a school teach-

er from Bodhan town in Tel-

angana undertook the journey

on her scooter and brought her

son, a student from Rehmata-

bad in Andhra Pradesh. – PTI

Parents should address needs of children withcompassion, says PGIMER psychiatry head

Mattoo said that parents should not

try to just discipline or control, but try

to understand the issues and problems

from the children’s or younger peo-

ple’s perspective.

“They should try to help them solve

those problems or issues,” he told PTI.

While some adults too may feel anx-

ious and isolated, and worry about the

uncertainty these days, Mattoo said

people should keep themselves busy

and try to maintain a daily routine.

“They should try

to sleep well, eat

well and at proper

time, take care of

their bodies, exer-

cise daily, do yoga

and meditation,

keep themselves

entertained and re-

laxed with whatev-

er is available,” he

said.

“They must also

collect appropriate information about

dos and don’ts with regards to the coro-

navirus. Where to seek help, how to

seek help, phone number, email IDs,

apps and maintain contact with people

over phone, social media, talk to

friends, family members and well-

wishers, while following social distanc-

ing norms,” he said.

Mattoo said that in case they feel

stressed or tense, they must talk to

people and try to find appropriate solu-

tions to their wor-

ries,” he added.

He said while

most people are re-

silient and under-

stand what the

problem is, a few

people may have

personal issues be-

cause of which they

might worry.

“Some people

might have physi-

cal illnesses, some have mental illness-

es, some may have disabled people at

home who need to be taken care of

and may face issues of how to procure

medicines and help for them,” he said.

In case there is a problem, one can

always seek help, he said.

“There are helplines available with

all major hospitals, including PGIMER,

Government Medical College here.

There are helplines available both for

physical issues and any queries related

to health, including mental health.

“Also, all hospitals have emergency

open round-the-clock. Anybody who

feels there is an emergency should get

the help required,” he said.

Asked what would be the advice for

people with depression and related

conditions, the doctor said, “If there

are issues, they must maintain contact

with their social network then seek

help. And if things get out of hand then

there are medical agencies, hospitals,

helplines.” PTISK Mattoo

Charbagh railway station wears a deserted look during the nationwide lockdown in wake of the coronavirus pandemic, inLucknow on Thursday. – PTI

War against an invisible enemy

4 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020

MESSAGE FOR TODAY

Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.

– MARK TWAIN Covid-19 and the race for a cure

Extra vigilanceWith the number of Covid-19-affected persons rising to

32 in the State and several suspected carriers who hadattended the Tablighi Jamaat remaining untraced, the au-thorities need to be extra vigilant to ensure that thingsstay under control. Compared to the rest of India, Assamand the Northeast as a whole has so far not reached anyalarming stage vis-a-vis spread of the coronavirus and thisleeway at our disposal should be put to good use to preventan epidemic. Our preparedness levels need to be upgrad-ed further by adding necessary equipment and infrastruc-ture, especially testing and treating facilities, and at thesame time driving home into the mass psyche the mes-sage that maintaining physical distance during the lock-down period will be critical to warding the scourge off. Thattwo Covid-19 patients have been cured and released fromhospital is another positive indication – something thatwould encourage people to come forward for voluntaryscreening and treatment if necessary.

With five districts of the State out of 170 in the countrynow declared as Covid-19 hotspots, there is an urgentneed for expediting screening of every suspect casebesides restricting inter-district movement of people intothese areas. A sustained campaign in these clusters in-volving different media platforms including social mediais another imperative. The fact that a number of TablighiJamaat attendees who do not belong to the State but havebeen staying in Assam are reportedly on the run to es-cape the heightened security has emerged as a matterof worry. The neighbouring northeastern States shouldintensify vigil so that these people can be detected fornecessary screening. Community leaders should impressupon these people – and in fact any individual who areapprehensive of voluntary screening – to avail testing asthey pose a grave risk to community health. In anotherdisturbing development for the Northeast, six more per-sons have tested positive in Meghalaya in quick time, allbeing members and helpers of the same family whereone member had died of Covid-19. The need is to identi-fy all those who came into contact with the affected familyand facilitate their screening before it is late. Alongsideefforts to check the spread of the deadly virus, the StateGovernment would also do well to chalk out a compre-hensive revival package for the economy. Unavoidableas it is, the extended lockdown will bleed many sectorsand hence the need to evolve ways and means to easethings in the days ahead. Agriculture is one such areathat will need constant focus of the authorities. It is goodto see many curbs now being removed nationwide to en-sure that agriculture and related activities do not come toa grinding halt during the shutdown. Agriculture still be-ing a major component of the State’s economy, the dis-tressed farming community will need a lot of interven-tions from the Government in the coming days.

Bad timingApparently, with American President Donald Trump, it

is both ‘America first’ and ‘Donald Trump first’, never mindthat Planet Earth at the moment is in the midst of a lethalhealth crisis! Till just a few months ago the maverick Pres-ident was sitting pretty as far as the imminent November2020 US Presidential elections were concerned. The way-ward American public seemed to have forgotten about therecessionary trends in their nation’s economy in 2008caused by George W Bush’s adventurism, which catapult-ed the first African-American Barack Obama to the Presi-dency. It took two terms on Obama’s part to prudently man-age the economy and bring it back to shape. Things hadalready been looking good for the American economy,employment was rising as fast as the GDP when, much tothe surprise and consternation of the international com-munity, Donald Trump won the 2016 elections. The buoy-ant economy helped maintain Trump’s favourable ratingsat a comfortable level despite the numerous lies he hasspouted and the blunders he committed. But, at the begin-ning of this year, the Covid-19 pandemic spread acrossthe entire globe, creating havoc in the US, and Trump’selectoral prospects have turned a trifle sour. His appre-hension of becoming a one-term President has becomemore real because the coronavirus has severely damagedthe US economy and unemployment figures have climbedto an unprecedented level.

It is an unsavoury aspect of Trump’s persona that, inresponse, he has started using diversionary ploys to takethe heat off his own mismanagement of the crisis and focusit on the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as Chi-na. Trump is complaining that the WHO had “defendedthe actions of the Chinese Government, even praising itsso-called transparency”, rather than call a spade a spadeand hold that nation to account. In retaliation, he has an-nounced that he would be withholding US aid to the WHO,which amounts to between $400 to $500 million annually,while accusing the UN body of “severely mismanagingand covering up” the threat posed by the coronavirus. Buteven some of his own supporters have not forgotten thatTrump had pooh-poohed the conclusions of the WHO whenit declared ‘a public health emergency’ on January 30, andasserted that Covid-19 was not any more serious a threatthan the common flu! He had at that stage even praisedChina for its ‘efforts and transparency’ with regards to theoutbreak and the measures it was taking to stem its spread.An individual would have to be extremely naive not tobelieve that Trump is targeting the WHO now because heneeds a scapegoat for his administration’s own initial com-placent response to the threat. That he has chosen to en-gage in such an appalling strategy when humanity is bat-tling to confront the Covid-19 crisis reveals the absoluteegocentricity of this President.

ue to the current Covid-19 pandemic, the wholeworld is under the shad-ow of the fear of death.

Neither a vaccine to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection nor appropriatemedicine to cure Covid-19 patientshas been invented so far. Due to lackof proper medicines, a large numberof Covid-19 patients are losing theirlives globally per day. In such a time,the drug hydroxychloroquine hasbeen in the news for the past coupleof weeks due to its possible use incuring Covid-19.

The drug hydroxychloroquinehas been identified by the US Foodand Drug Administration (FDA) asa possible treatment of Covid-19and it is being tested on more than1,500 Covid-19 patients in NewYork. Anticipating that it will work,given the initial results, the US Pres-ident Donald Trump has boughtmore than 29 million doses of hy-droxychloroquine for potentialtreatment of Covid-19 patients.Though the efficacy of hydroxychlo-roquine in Covid-19 treatment isnot yet clinically proven, yet the USPresident has been a proponent ofits use, calling it a ‘game changer’.It has generated massive interestafter Trump endorsed the drug.Meanwhile, the US FDA has givenemergency use authorization tohydroxychloroquine to treat adultand adolescent Covid-19 patientswho cannot participate in a clinicaltrial. The US FDA has said that hy-droxychloroquine can be prescribedas appropriate, when clinical trialsare not available or feasible. Hence,many US hospitals are currentlyusing hydroxychloroquine as thefirst-line therapy for hospitalizedCovid-19 patients despite extreme-ly limited clinical data supporting itseffectiveness. The Brazilian Presi-

D

More data on

hydroxychloroquine for treatment

of Covid-19 are urgently needed

to inform clinical practice. Clinical

trials are on in certain countries

like the US, UK, Spain and

Australia, but the experts

suggest that larger clinical trials

are needed on Covid-19 patients

to test the effectiveness of the

drug hydroxychloroquine.

Lettersto the

EDITOR

Sir, – Many experts have nowstarted hinting that the world isheading towards a huge change inall economic and geopoliticalscenarios and calculations. Theyhave compared the presentsituation with the World War III.Though it is not a war againstnations, but it is definitely a waragainst a tiny sub-microscopicvirus whose body has nothing buta little bit of RNA and protein. Allthe deadliest weapons of thisworld seem to be useless in frontof this microbe. The world is nowtrembling with fear of this unseenenemy. Those giant world leaderslook helpless, existence of God isin doubt as all doors of churches,temples, mosques and gurudwar-

as are closed now. So, fromwhere the people can see a silverlining then? Human superiority ison the verge of extinction whilefighting against a deadly virus.Acharya Chanakya stated that

dent Jair Balsonaro compared hy-droxychloroquine to ‘Jeevan dayi-

ni’ for Covid-19 patients. While suchworld leaders as Trump and Bal-sonaro have been praising the roleof hydroxychloroquine in the battleof Covid-19, concerns are beingraised worldwide about the effec-tiveness of the drug to fight againstthis deadly virus. Is hy-droxychloroquine really acure for Covid-19 patients?The answer to this ques-tion is ‘no’. The drug hy-droxychloroquine has notyet been proven to cureCovid-19 patients.

Hydroxychloroquine isan inexpensive anti-malar-ial drug similar to chloro-quine, one of the oldest andbest-known anti-malarialdrugs with lesser side-ef-fects. Though chloroquinephosphate is typically usedto treat malaria but hy-droxychloroquine, which isa less toxic variant, is alsoused in some other cases.It is an anti-inflammatory drug; henceit has been used to treat rheumatoidarthritis and lupus, apart from ma-laria, for decades. According to theNational Institute of Health, in vari-ous studies, hydroxychloroquine hasdemonstrated antiviral activity, anability to modify the activity of theimmunity system, and has an estab-lished safety profile at appropriatedoses, leading to the hypothesis thatit may be useful in the treatment ofCovid-19 patients. Hydroxychloro-quine is an interferon blocker, andworks by diminishing the immunesystem’s response to a viral infec-tion. A hyperactive response by theimmune system is said to be prima-rily responsible for alveolitis, also afallout of severe Covid-19.

The drug hydroxychloroquineshot to fame as it is shown to haveshortened the time to clinical recov-ery of Covid-19 patients. However,no proper human trials have beenconducted to determine its efficacy.Many anecdotal studies have shownthat hydroxychloroquine can reduceviral loads in Covid-19 patients. Astudy in France enrolling 80 patientsshowed that hydroxychloroquine

alone or in combination with azithro-mycin appeared to reduce the viruslevels quicker. A new study of 1,061hospitalized Covid-19 patients inFrance showed 91.7% cure (viralshedding) within 10 days of hydrox-ychloroquine treatment along withantibiotics. It also reported a 96%cure rate after 15 days. In anotherstudy in Wuhan, the epicentre of theCovid-19 outbreak, it appeared toreduce the duration of severe Cov-id-19 illness with hydroxychloro-quine treatment.

Though hydroxychloroquine haslesser side-effects, it is not withoutrisks, as even short-term use cancause cardiac arrhythmias or irregu-lar heartbeats, seizures, dermatolog-ical reactions and hypoglycaemia. Hy-

droxychloroquine is likely to be safefor 90% of the population, but it couldpose serious and potential lethal risksto those susceptible to heart condi-tions, especially those with chronicmedical problems and are already onmultiple medications. Just recently,an anaesthesiologist in Guwahati diedfrom a heart attack after he took hy-droxychloroquine. The drug takenin combination with azithromycin in-

creases the risk of side-effects like arrhythmiaand even toxicity if takenin higher doses. A recentstudy has shown that upto 11% of Covid-19 pa-tients on hydroxychloro-quine and azithromycinare in the red zone for po-tential cardiac side-effects.Few hospitals in Swedenhave halted the use of hy-droxychloroquine due toreported side-effects suchas cramps and loss of pe-ripheral vision in patients.

India is a dominant man-ufacturer of hydroxychlo-roquine, which manufac-tures 70% of the world’s

supply of hydroxychloroquine. WhileIndia supplied the drug to the USand some other countries lifting theban on its export on April 7, 2020 totreat Covid-19 patients, concerns arebeing raised why India is not usinghydroxychloroquine as first-line ther-apy for hospitalized patients withCovid-19.

The Ministry of Health and Fami-ly Welfare, Government of India hascleared that India wouldn’t includehydroxychloroquine in the treatmentprotocol of Covid-19 patients now asits effectiveness to cure Covid-19patients hasn’t been proven yet. TheIndian Council of Medical Research(ICMR) says that while reduction inviral load has been observed in Cov-id-19 patients, there is not enough

data to say that hydroxychloroquinecan be used as a treatment for Covid-19 patients. No data from the WHOis also available in this regard. TheWHO has included hydroxychloro-quine in an international clinical trialcalled the ‘solidarity trial’ which iscurrently evaluating four differenttreatment options. The ICMR hasalso initiated study in this regard. TheICMR will let everyone know its find-ings based on evidence. Of course,India is allowing the use of hydroxy-chloroquine with azithromycin in se-verely ill Covid-19 patients understrict medical supervision.

The ICMR has cleared on March24, 2020 that hydroxychloroquineshould be used as prophylaxis, orpreventive medications by healthcareworkers, their contacts and familymembers of Covid-19 patients. TheICMR has recommended the re-quired dose for them also. The ICMRhas decided that if hydroxychloro-quine reduces the chances of Covid-19 among them, then it will be ad-vised to other people also. The re-sults are awaited. The people mustnot start using hydroxychloroquinethemselves; it can cause death.Hence, the Union Health Ministrylast month moved hydroxychloro-quine to Schedule H1, which can besold only on prescription from a qual-ified doctor.

Most of the medical experts aroundthe world have warned against anyuse of hydroxychloroquine as a treat-ment of Covid-19 patients withoutclinical studies. It is therefore theneed of hour that more data on hy-droxychloroquine for treatment ofCovid-19 are urgently needed to in-form clinical practice. Clinical trialsare on in certain countries like theUS, UK, Spain and Australia, but theexperts suggest that larger clinicaltrials are needed on Covid-19 patientsto test the effectiveness of the drughydroxychloroquine.

Why NYAY is relevant in corona timesYAY (Nyuntam Aay Yo-jana) or the Minimum In-come Support Pro-gramme which was the

thrust of the Indian National Con-gress Party’s campaign in the lastLok Sabha elections of 2019 hascome back into focus in the coronabackdrop. Debates and discussionson NYAY dominated television spacethat perhaps India desperately re-quired a social security net for itsbelow poverty line citizens. Theserpentine flow of the village-bounddesperate penniless migrant work-ers on the highways of India in theaftermath of the sudden lockdownand the recent protests of migrantworkers in Surat (Gujarat) and Ban-dra (Mumbai) are a rude awakeningfor any government to pull up itssocks, do a reality check on the lackof safety net for our impoverishedlow income daily wage-earners andour unemployed population.

Between 2004 and 2014, the Con-gress-led UPA Government hadmanaged to lift 14 crore people outof poverty and with NYAY the objec-tive was to eliminate abject povertyby the year 2030. NYAY would havebrought into its ambit five crore fam-ilies from among the poorest of thepoor. Each family would have been

n Bobbeeta Sharma

guaranteed a cash transfer of Rs72,000 a year. The money would havebeen transferred to the account of awoman of the family. NYAY wasplanned keeping in mind the size ofIndia’s GDP and the level of TotalExpenditure (Central and State gov-ernments) which would have madeit possible to implement NYAY ‘with-out, in any way, affecting the goal offiscal prudence’. A gradual implemen-tation plan was also chalked out inphases – Design phase (3 months),Pilot and Testing phases (6-9 months)and finally the roll-out which wouldalso have been in phases. The esti-mated cost was planned at 1% of GDPin the first year, 2% of GDP in sec-ond year and ‘as the nominal GDPgrew and families moved out of pov-erty, the cost would decline as a pro-portion of GDP’. An independentpanel of eminent economists and so-cial scientists would have supervisedthe NYAY programme right fromdesign to the final roll-out. Had theCongress won the 2019 LokSabhaelections, NYAY would have been areality by now and could have pro-vided the safety net for its belowpoverty line citizens and understand-ably would have been a saviour formany families amidst the presentcorona crisis.

The developed countries aroundthe world have social security meas-ures for their citizens. The UnitedKingdom has the Job Seekers Al-lowance and Low Income Benefits.Many European countries haveFamily Allowance Benefits whichare paid monthly. Single parentsreceive extended child benefits. InDenmark, citizens can claim socialassistance if they undergo a chal-lenging social change like unemploy-ment, illness or divorce due to whichthey are no longer capable of sup-porting themselves or their family.Such benefits in many Europeancountries are given apart from theusual free education of their chil-dren, health insurance, maternitybenefits, old age pensions, etc.

Just as it is the duty of any gov-ernment to provide basic ameni-ties of water, electricity and roadsto its citizens, so also is the respon-sibility of any government to pro-vide required social security bene-fits to its citizens. These are not tobe considered as doles but arerights of every citizen. In a highlypopulated country like India it isnot possible to extend such bene-fits to all its citizens, hence it shouldbe the goal of any political party tosee that at least the underprivi-leged section of the population iscovered with a social security net.

The corona challenge is a wake-up call for the Government to put inplace a permanent safety net for thepoorest of the poor of our country.And NYAY is one such scheme thatcan be implemented even at thisjuncture. As it is, many previousUPA schemes have been carriedforward by the NDA Governmentat the Centre as governance is a con-tinuous process. Of course one mustadmit that the party in power havevery intelligently repackaged thesewith populist names over the pre-viously slightly bureaucratic-fla-voured titles that would easily re-side in a common man’s psyche!Nearly 32 of such UPA schemeshave been repackaged and renamed.For instance, the 2013 NirmalBharat Abhiyan became the SwachhBharat Mission. The 2010 Free LPGConnection to BPL Families becamethe Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.The 2008 National Girl Child Dayprogramme became the Beti Bach-ao, Beti Padhao Yojana. The 2011National Manufacturing Policy be-came Make in India. The 2010 Na-tional Skill Development Pro-gramme became Skill India and soon and so forth.

The Government’s announce-ment of an economic package of Rs1.70 lakh crore distributing free foodgrain and cooking gas for three

months is a temporary measure totide over the immediate coronavi-rus crisis but that will not sustain forlong. In these unprecedented timesIndia desperately needs a perma-nent scheme like NYAY to give res-pite to its underprivileged popula-tion. It should not matter now thatNYAY is the brainchild of Congressleader Rahul Gandhi or that it is ascheme that is close to his heart. Itshould not matter now that RahulGandhi in his 2019 campaign saidthat NYAY would restart the econo-my the way a key starts a car, that itwould revive an economy hit hardby demonetization. It should not alsomatter now that Gandhi was the firstIndian politician to warn the Gov-ernment about the corona threat asearly as in February 12, 2020. Healso said that mere clapping wouldnot help; there was need for cashrelief and tax sops, besides relief inrepayment of loans as part of a bigeconomic package.

Indeed it is still not too late toimplement NYAY. What mattersnow is a scheme like NYAY whichis expedient for the daily wage-earners of our country and it shouldbe implemented fast and quick. Ifserving the people of the nation isthe overriding goal of any politicalparty, it should not matter whogave birth to NYAY.

N

‘when the enemy is invisible, it isprudent to remain in the hiding’.That’s what we all are doing now,just retreating and hiding in ourown households. This is the onlyway left. Let’s stay at home andhope for a sunny day. Yours etc.,Dr ILA BANIA, Morigaon.

RERA officeSir, – The Real Estate (Regula-

tion and Development) Act(RERA) was implemented onMay 1, 2016. Many States likeMaharashtra, Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh, etc., have taken severalsteps for the interest of thestakeholders of the real estatesector prior to the start of thenationwide lockdown. Now, thegood offices of RERA under theseStates are giving some relief tothe stakeholders due to theproblems faced because of thelockdown. But, in Assam, we donot see the existence of anyRERA office and its function.Under this situation, manyunscrupulous builders aredelaying the construction works ofthe projects or are staying away

from the sites, harassing the bonafide customers. This has createdan unprecedented recession in thereal estate sector, distorting thedevelopment of the realty marketin the State. The condition will bepathetic in Assam due the absenceof a full-fledged independent officeunder RERA and the accumulatedunsolved cases to date. Yours etc.,PRASANTA BARUAH, Math-uranagar, Dispur.

Exorbitant pricesSir, – The authorities con-

cerned have constantly beenpublishing the prices of vegeta-bles in the market, through boththe electronic and print media,during this period of lockdown.But, we the common people arefacing the wrath of the unscrupu-lous vendors, who are chargingwhimsical rates. Moreover,cigarette, gutkha, etc., are beingsold in the black market in everynook and corner of Guwahati andother towns of the State at pricesbest known and fixed by thevendors. Are there any authori-ties to keep a check on these

vendors at this time of crisis?Moreover, some mobile apps aredoing the rounds about deliveringfresh vegetables at our door-steps. That is also a far cry as Imyself had ordered somevegetables through one such appa few days ago, but the order isyet to be delivered. The contactnumber provided in the app iseither busy or notresponding. What about thepeople who have just a fewrupees left at this time of thecrisis, like the daily wage-earners, etc.? So, I request theauthorities concerned to keep astrong vigil on the vendors andprovide the consumers a phonenumber through which we canlodge our grievances andcomplaints. Yours etc., ROOPAMGOSWAMI, South Sarania,Guwahati.

Student communitySir, – I would like to draw the

attention of the authoritiesconcerned to the huge loss thatthe student community is going toincur during this academic year as

the lockdown has been extended.It’s undeniable that now it’s timewe gave priority to the concern todefeat the pandemic and ensureour survival. Since a few districtsof the State are not affected thatmuch by the pandemic, the districtadministrations concerned shouldmake efforts to find out all thepossible measures that may enablethem to allow the schools andcolleges to reopen imposing someprecautionary restrictions aftertwo weeks or so. Though someschools and colleges have beenfacilitating online education, itdoesn’t seem to be fruitful.Besides, the students belongingto the very poor section of thesociety are not able to avail suchnew-age facilities. The authoritiesought to figure out somethingeffective to extend a helping handto the students at this crucialhour. Yours etc., DIPEN GOGOI,Teok, Jorhat.

n Dr Dharmakanta Kumbhakar

Articles (within 1000-1100 words) and

Letters to the Editor for publication in

the editorial page may be sent to the

email ID: editor@assamtribune.com.

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 5CITY

LOCAL FORECAST:

Partly cloudy sky. Rain/thundershower is likely tooccur. Maximum andminimum temperatures aremost likely to be 32°C and22°C respectively on Friday.

TEMPERATURE:Max 33.1°CMin 19.4°C

OBITUARY

KamaleswarGoswami

GUWAHATI,April 16: DrKamaleswarGoswami, re-tired Director,Forensic Sci-ence Laborato-ry, Assam,breathed his

last at a private hospital here todayat 3.50 am. He was 77.

Dr Goswami, a resident of Bhaga-dattapur, Beltola, leaves behind hiswife, a son, two daughters, two sons-in-law and grandsons besides a hostof relatives, friends and well-wishers.

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16: Express-ing concern at reports of some me-dia houses in the country resortingto salary cuts and sacking of theiremployees in the wake of the COV-ID-19 pandemic, principal opposi-tion Congress party today request-ed media houses to refrain from suchactions while at the same time, call-ing upon the government to imme-diately announce a financial stimu-lus package for the sector.

Former Chief Minister Tarun Go-goi said media has continued itsoperations despite numerous obsta-cles which have arisen due to theCOVID-19 pandemic and the nation-wide lockdown.

“The newspapers and news me-dia have also felt the impact of COV-ID-19. However, despite the lock-

Cong urges media managements not to cut salaries, sack staffdown the newspapers are continu-ing their operations and fulfillingtheir responsibility towards society.Unfortunately, some media houseshave resorted to certain steps whichwill hurt their employees. In somecases employees have been sacked.

In some cases salaries of employ-ees have been cut. As a result, thejournalists and other media sectoremployees are suffering from anxi-ety and apprehensions. We all areworried,” said Gogoi.

He added, “We request mediahouses not to sack their staff orcut salaries of their employees.We hope media houses will refrainfrom undertaking such actions.

Even the Prime Minister hascalled upon all companies not tosack employees or reduce salariesin this period of crisis.”

Gogoi said that media, as thefourth pillar of Democracy, has avery crucial role in society. “As such,

we request the government to pro-vide a stimulus package to news-papers and media houses. Both theCentral and Assam governmentsshould do so at the earliest. Jour-nalists are functioning as soldiersin the frontline in the fight againstCOVID-19. The government shouldprovide relief to the media sectorand journalists,” said the three-timeChief Minister.

Assam Pradesh Congress Com-mittee (APCC) president RipunBora said that the COVID-19 pan-demic has impacted all sectors andthe media industry in India andAssam is also facing problems onaccount of it.

“However, many national mediahouses, instead of working togeth-er with their employees at this timeof crisis, have resorted to pay cutsand sacking and forcing many staffmembers to take leave without pay.This is very unfortunate. This willimpact tens of thousands of mediasector employees and their fami-lies,” Bora said.

He added, “Many media organi-

sations have been in existence fordecades and a loss of advertisingrevenue or subscriber base for aperiod of one or two months shouldnot lead to a situation where thou-sands of their employees lose jobsor face salary cuts. In such a situa-tion, we urge all media houses acrossIndia, including Assam, not to re-sort to staff retrenchment or salarycuts. Media personnel should notbe made to suffer on account of tem-porary losses faced by media hous-es,” the State Congress chief said.

Bora called upon the Central gov-ernment to provide “a stimulus pack-age for the media sector, with spe-cial emphasis on the print media tohelp it tide over this crisis.”

He added that in Assam, themedia, and especially, the printmedia, has played a vital role innation building since the pre-In-

dependence era.“As such, the Assam government

should also take steps to help thelocal and regional media houses ofthe State. Some sort of subsidy orstimulus to local and regional me-dia houses will come handy to re-vive the sector at this crucial mo-ment. In addition, journalists, likehealth workers, police and securi-ty personnel and other emergen-cy services staff, are workinground the clock in Assam at thistime of pandemic to bring news tothe public and help the govern-ment in the fight to prevent spreadof COVID-19. So, media person-nel of Assam should be immedi-ately brought under coverage ofthe health insurance scheme an-nounced recently by the Stategovernment for staff of other emer-gency services,” Bora said.

Tarun Gogoi, Ripun Bora urge Centre, State Govt to providestimulus package to newspapers and media houses

Security personnel seizing two-wheelers without necessary documents, during the second phase of the

lockdown, in Guwahati on Thursday. – AT photo

ANYTHING FOR THE TUMMY: Poor people search for food items in a garbage bin in Guwahati on

Thursday. – Photo: Samarendra Sarma

MAMATA MISHRA

GUWAHATI, April 16: Even associal media is filled with memeson husbands ‘forced’ to do house-hold chores during lockdown, in re-ality, it’s a picture in stark contrastfor women like Jonali and Korobi forwhom life has been hell within theconfines of their homes because ofdomestic violence. Fears of under-reported surge in domesticabuse cases in the Statehave made women’s rightsgroups wary about the safe-ty of women during the on-going lockdown.

With the lockdown inforce, and women trappedwith their abusers, a num-ber of cases are being reported fromvarious parts of the State of womenfinding it difficult to escape or re-port the physical, mental and ver-bal abuse. Most of such cases arebeing reported from rural Assam.

“Unprecedented situation, lack ofincome and similar factors are mak-ing the situation worse for womenas the perpetrators unleash theirfrustration on the women and chil-dren, who are in a much more vul-nerable position in the present sit-uation,” said Anurita Pathak Haz-arika, State director of the NorthEast Network (NEN) which has beenworking on the issue of domesticviolence for the past 25 years.

NEN has approached Jishnu Baru-ah, Additional Chief Secretary, De-partment of Social Welfare, seekingcertain measures to ensure that theAssam State Advisory to combatCOVID-19 includes gender respon-sive measures by government to ad-

dress safety and security of women.The organisation has also de-

manded recognition of domestic vi-olence intervention by profession-als and different organisations as anessential service and allowing mo-bility with service passes to the or-ganisations and activists respond-ing to such crisis situations.

Korobi’s (name changed) casewas reported from upper Assam to

NEN. Soon after the lockdown wasenforced, and her husband could notget his regular supply of liquor, Ko-robi and her child had to bear thebrunt of his anger.

Though physical abuse was notnew to her in her seven years ofmarried life, it became an everydayaffair as her husband was compelledto live at home 24X7.

On the other hand, another vic-tim of domestic violence Jonali(name changed) was rescued by herbrother after days of mental tortureby her in-laws.

“We have received many suchcases so far. The actual number is farmore than what is being reported.We understand that the 181 helplineand one stop centres are functional.However, in remote villages wherewe work, women are not being ableto access these services for variousreasons,” added Anurita.

“We are remotely handling such

cases due to the lockdown restric-tions in force and the support pro-vided by us is only limited giventhe current scenario. If such vio-lence continues or gets aggravat-ed, it may prove to be disastrous forwomen and children in the long run.Our cases so far include abusedwomen fleeing violent homes toseek shelter, reporting to the tha-na, calling us on our helplines for

help and so on,”she added.

The Chairper-son of the Nation-al Commission ofWomen had re-cently stated thatin India domesticviolence com-

plaints have been increasing by theday since the nationwide lockdownwas imposed.

On behalf of the organisations ad-dressing violence against women,NEN has also made an appeal for ac-cording mobility to organisations ac-tively providing services like coun-selling, legal aid, shelter and othersimilar services and which are rec-ognised by the State social welfaredepartment as service providers.

“Shelter homes, irrespective of thescheme they run, must be authorisedwith special protocols to provide shel-ter to any aggrieved women and theirdependants affected by or fleeing vi-olence, the appeal added.

The government must also alertfrontline grassroots workers likeANM, anganwadi, village defenceparties, village headmen/women,etc., to immediately report suchcases to service providers, police,NGOs, etc., the appeal further said.

Women’s rights groups wary ofsurge in domestic violence in State

Call to ensure that the Assam StateAdvisory to combat COVID-19 includes

gender responsive measures bygovernment to address safety and

security of women

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16: In a bid toensure that the spirit of Rongali Bihuremains intact amid the fight tocheck the spread of COVID-19,singer Angaraag Mahanta aka Pa-pon organised a three-day concertlive on social media platforms onApril 14, 15 and 16.

The innovative mode of ‘virtual’Bihu celebration generated a lot ofenthusiasm among fans as a num-ber of artistes including singingsensation Zubeen Garg joined theonline concert from Mumbai and ex-tended Bihu greetings to the peo-ple of Assam.

Bihu songs, dance and musicform the soul of the festival of Bo-hag Bihu that marks the beginningof the Assamese New Year. In nor-mal times, the entire State rever-berates to dhol beats and songs.Affected by the global pandemichowever, this major festival wascelebrated indoors by the peoplethis time.

Papon peps up Bihu spiritwith 3-day online concert

“Unfortunately this year sincethe people of Assam and all the As-samese people around the globe

will not be able to step out to cele-brate, I thought why not keep up

with the celebrations by using thedigital medium. This live concertis dedicated to the festival, tospread positivity and bring peopletogether virtually. I was joined bysome of my friends on April 15 inthe live session. I am really excit-ed and happy to be curating thesesessions,” Papon said, at the sametime asking people to stay indoorsand spread positivity.

Fans and viewers were in for areal treat as singers like ShreyaGhoshal, Shaan, Richa Sarma,Zublee and others joined the onlineconcert and hummed several songs,including some popular Bihu num-bers. The concert went live on Fa-cebook, Instagram and YouTube at6.30 pm each day. The singer alsotook requests from viewers.

Heart throb Zubeen Garg in avideo chat with Papon, wished thepeople on the occasion of Bihu fromMumbai. Zubeen also informed thepeople about his better health con-dition and his upcoming musicalprojects.

Papon and Shaan during the online

concert.

Guv urges leaders of all organisationsto impress upon their followers

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16: In view offive Assam districts being identi-fied as novel coronavirus hotspotsby the Union Health Ministry,Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi to-day appealed to the leaders andmentors of different socio-religious,cultural and sports organizations toimpress upon their followers andmembers to strictly adhere to rulesduring the extended lockdown pe-riod of the pandemic.

Prof Mukhi said the lengthen-ing of the mandatory stay-at-homeperiod to 40 days has been neces-

sitated to contain and controlspread of the deadly virus in thecountry.

It may be noted here that the Un-ion Health Ministry on Wednesday

listed five districts in the State asCOVID-19 hotspots, though all ofthem have been identified as ‘clus-ter hotspots’.

The Governor, while appealing toeverybody to remain inside and notventure out unless it is extraordi-narily an emergency situation, heobserved that if the coronavirus sit-

uation spins further out of control, itwill take a heavy toll on the humanand economic health of the State aswell as the country.

He, therefore, urged all to showtheir solidarity with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s callto follow the lockdown exten-

sion till May 3, 2020, to break thechain of transmission induced by thenovel coronavirus.

The Governor, at the same time,hailed the residents of the State forobserving 21-day national lockdownassiduously and cooperating withthe government in the fight againstthe COVID-19 pandemic.

n Obeying lockdown rules

GUWAHATI, April 16: Anticipat-ing the huge surge in the demandfor withdrawal from the EPFScheme to fight the COVID-19 pan-demic, EPFO has come out with acompletely new software and a re-ceipt module for online receipt ofclaims, according to a press releaseissued here.

The application was required tobe in paperless form to curtail anyphysical movement in view of theongoing social distancing. It was de-cided to introduce a system of set-tling claims in auto mode directlyby the system in respect of all suchmembers whose KYC requirementswere complete in all respects.

The provision for special with-drawal from the EPF Scheme tofight the COVID-19 pandemic ispart of the PMGKY scheme an-nounced by the government and anurgent notification on the matterwas made to introduce a para 68 L(3) of the EPF Scheme. Under this

EPFO settles over 1.37 lakhCOVID-19 claims

provision non-refundable with-drawal to the extent of the basicwages and dearness allowances forthree months or up to 75 per centof the amount standing to a mem-ber’s credit in the EPF account,whichever is less, is provided. Themember can apply for a lesseramount also. This being an ad-vance, does not attract income taxdeductions.

Since introduction of this pro-gramme, EPFO across the countryhas processed about 1.37 lakhclaims disbursing an amount of Rs279.65 crore. All applications whichare fully KYC compliant are proc-essed in less than 72 hours. Mem-bers, who have applied for claims insome other category, can also fileclaims to fight the pandemic anddepending upon the KYC compli-ance condition of each member, eve-ry effort is being made to settleclaims at the earliest, the press re-lease added.

Food distributedGUWAHATI, April 16: Global

Hospital of Surgery distributed fooditems among more than 100 fami-lies here on April 13, said a pressrelease today. The hospital plans todistribute more such items shortly.

Door-to-doordistribution of

meat, eggsfrom today

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16: The Kam-rup (Metro) district administrationin collaboration with the AssamLivestock and Poultry Corporationwill start door-to-door distributionof mutton, chicken and eggs in thecity from Friday. Under the initia-tive, public will get a plate of eggsat Rs 140, one kilogram of dressedand packed chicken at Rs 240 andone kilogram of dressed and packedmutton at Rs 650.

The distribution process will bemonitored by a team comprising of-ficials from the Guwahati MunicipalCorporation and district animal hus-

bandry and veterinary department.

COVID-19disrupts mosquito

control driveSTAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16: At a timewhen the whole world is fightingagainst COVID-19, people from dif-ferent corners of the city have com-plained about a sudden surge in thenumber of mosquitos in their re-spective areas, which has created anew health concern for them.

Entomologists have attributedthis to the disruption of the routinedesiltation of drains on account ofthe nationwide lockdown.

“At this time of the year, generally,regular fogging and desiltation of drainsis needed to control mosquitos. But,the current health emergency situa-tion has obviously disrupted such ac-tivities,” an entomologist said.

Meanwhile, a senior official of theGMC stated that its drain desilta-tion drive system has been largelyaffected by the shortage of labour-ers amid the lockdown, as labourersfrom outside the city have not beenable to attend duty.

“Though we have scarcity of la-bour, yet we resumed the desilta-tion drive and set a target to cover60 per cent of the areas of Guwaha-ti,” the senior GMC official said.

Officials of the Kamrup (Metro)district health department, at astakeholders’ meeting held late lastweek, informed that the fightagainst COVID-19 and mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, dengueand Japanese Encephalitis will be

carried on simultaneously.

GU cancelssummer vacation

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16: The Gauha-ti University on Thursday announcedcancellation of the upcoming summervacation as its academic activitieshave been greatly disrupted amidstthe nationwide lockdown. Themonthlong vacation starts from July 1as per the academic calendar.

Different colleges affiliated to theUniversity, however, have contin-ued their classes through the on-line mode during this period. Theauthority of the Dakshin KamrupGirls’ College, located at Mirza onthe western outskirts of Guwahati,said the college has already con-ducted 60 online classes in each de-partment during the lockdown.

The online classes are being con-ducted by colleges via platforms likeWhatsApp video call, WhatApp chat,the Zoom app, conference call, etc.

Popular sciencepioneer’s death

condoledSTAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16: BharatJan Bigyan Jatha secretary DrManuj Kumar Patowary hascondoled the demise of notedscientist Dr Mahanta KumarKalita, a pioneer and leader ofpeople’s science movement inAssam, who passed away onApril 13.

Dr Patowary said that DrKalita played a major role inorganizing the Bharat JanBigyan Jatha in the Northeast-ern region and in bringing astream of volunteers andorganizations under it.

Mowsam Hazarika, formereditor of Bigyan Jeuti, alsocondoled the demise of the notedscientist and said that Dr Kalitamade a tremendous contributionin the people’s science move-ment in the State.

WEATHER

GUWAHATI

Call for Govt aidto families hit by

thunderstormGUWAHATI, April 16: Voluntary organisation Save

Guwahati Build Guwahati (SGBG) has appealed to

the State government to extend all possible help to

those marginal farmer families whose dwelling

houses were damaged by the thunderstorm that

lashed several parts of the State on Wednesday.

In a press release issued here today, SGBG

president Krishno Kanto Borooah and vice president

Ajoy Dutta urged the State government to immedi-

ately deploy resources at its command to provide

new dwelling houses to those marginal farmers who

lost their dwelling houses in Wednesday’s thunder-

storm.

In case the government fails to do this, the

ongoing anti-coronavirus lockdown will become

meaningless, as these marginal farmer families

would start staying with their relatives or fellow

villagers going against the protocol of social distanc-

ing, they pointed out. They also reminded the

government that these affected families do not have

any ready funds to rebuild their houses within a

short period.

The State government should engage the Assam

Disaster Management Authority or any other

appropriate authority to assess the damage and

provide all materials and human resources required

to build the dwelling houses of these families

without any delay, the SGBG office-bearers said.

PPE kits beingmade at NF Rly

workshopsSTAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16: The Northeast FrontierRailway (NFR) has started manufacturing Per-sonal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits at its work-shops.

“Indian Railways’ production units, workshopsand field units have started manufacturing PPEcoveralls for medical and healthcare personnelwho get directly exposed to the COVID-19 whileworking among infected patients. Indian Railwayswill produce over 30,000 such coveralls in Apriland plans to manufacture one lakh units in May.The prototype coveralls have already cleared theprescribed tests with the highest grades at theauthorized DRDO laboratory at Gwalior,” said Sub-hanan Chanda, Chief Public Relations Officer(CPRO) of the Maligaon-headquartered NFR.

“In order to fill the gap in availability and re-quirements of PPEs, workshops in NFR have alsostarted making PPEs as per specification provid-ed. Prototypes of PPEs made at the New Bon-gaigaon and Dibrugarh workshops with the helpof presently available infrastructure have beentested by railway medical professionals. Nearly150 sets of PPEs have been made in last two tothree days. NFR plans to make 2,000 sets of PPEsout of 30,000 targeted by Indian Railways,” headded.

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 20206 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI NATIONAL

ADVERTISEMENTNo. UDD(T)9/2020/56

Selection to the post of Chairperson of Real Estate Appellate Tribunal.

In view of the national lock down on account of Corona pandemic (COVID-19) and in

accordance with Section 46(1)(a) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016,

the Govt. of Assam in Urban Development Department invites applications from Hon’ble Judges

and Hon’ble Judges (Retd.) for selection to the post of Chairperson of Real Estate Appellate

Tribunal from persons who meet the following criteria:-

1. Section 43 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 provides for the

establishment of the Real Estate Appellate Tribunal and under Section 45 of the said Act,

the Appellate Tribunal shall consist of a Chairperson and not less than two whole time

Members.

2. Under Section 46(1)(a) of the said Act, a person shall not be qualified for appointment

as a Chairperson of the Appellate Tribunal unless he is or has been a Judge of a High

Court.

3. Under Section 46(2) of the said Act, the Chairperson of the Appellate Tribunal shall be

appointed by the appropriate Government in consultation with the Chief Justice of High

Court or his nominee.

4. Under Section 47(1) of the said Act, the chairperson of the Appellate Tribunal shall hold

office, as such for a term not exceeding five years from the date on which he enters

upon his office, but shall not be eligible for re-appointment. Provided that in case a

person, who is or has been a Judge of a High Court, has been appointed as Chairperson

of the Tribunal, he shall not hold office after he has attained the age of sixty-seven years.

5. Section 47 (2) of the said Act mentions that before appointing any person as Chairperson

of the Appellate Tribunal, the appropriate Government shall satisfy itself that the person

doesnot have any such financial or other interest, as is likely to affect prejudicially his

functions as a Chairperson.

6. The salary allowances and other terms and conditions of service of the Chairperson of

the Appellate Tribunal will be as per clause 30(1)(a) of the Assam Real Estate (Regulation

and Development) Rules, 2017.

7. Desirable Applicants with adequate qualification and requisite age as prescribed above

may apply with their Bio-data (format at Annexure-I) mentioning their age, qualifications,

experience within 17:00 hours of 08.05.2020 to Sri Niraj Verma, Principal Secretary,

Urban Development Department, Block-D, 1st Floor, Janata Bhawan, Dispur, Guwahati-

6 with the envelope superscribed “Application for the post of Chairperson of Real Estate

Appellate Tribunal”.

8. The Headquarter of Real Estate Appellate Tribunal will be in Guwahati.

9. The applicants in Service should apply through proper channel.

10. The format for application is enclosed at Annexure-I.

Sd/-

Principal Secretary to the Govt. of Assam,

Urban Development Department

------------------------------------------------------

FORMAT OF APPLICATION FOR THE POST OF CHAIRPERSON OF THE REAL

ESTATE APPELLATE TRIBUNAL, ASSAM

1. Name and Address :

2. Age as on 01.01.2020 and Date of Birth :

3. Educational Qualification :

4. Present post held :

5. Details of posts previously held and experience :

:

6. Willingness letter to resign from the present

post if selected for the post of Chairperson,

Real Estate Appellate Tribunal :

7. Past Administrative knowledge and experience :

Date:- SIGNATURE

NAME

Note: 1) Please attach 4 (for) copies of your recent passport size photographs along-with a

xerox copy of your Photo Identity Card

2) Please attach 2 (two) extra sheets and copies of the supporting documents to

substantiate the claims made in the application.

3) Please attach NOC from the present employer if already in Govt. Service.

Janasanyog/D/184/20

ADVERTISEMENTNo. UDD(T)9/2020/55

Selection to the post of Member (Judicial) and Member (Administrative) of Real Estate Appellate

Tribunal.

In view of the National lock down on account of Corona pandemic (COVID-19) and in accordance with

Section 45 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, the Govt. of Assam in Urban

Development Department invites fresh applications for the third time (as the last date of receipt of

applications for the posts advertised by the Department vide advertisement No. UDD(T)9/2020/52,

dated 17.03.2020 published in the esteemed dailies on 18.03.2020 fixing the last date of application

till 17.04.2020) for selection to the post of Member (Judicial) and Member (Administrative) of Real

Estate Appellate Tribunal from persons who meet the following criteria:-

1. The Member (Judicial) and the Member (Administrative) shall be appointed by the appropriate

Govt. on the recommendations of a Selection Committee consisting of the Chief Justice of the

High Court or his nominee, the Secretary of the Department handling Housing and the Law

Secretary and in such manner as may be prescribed.

2. In the case of Member (Judicial), he has held a judicial office in the territory of India for at least

fifteen years or has been a member of the Indian Legal Service and has held the post of

Additional Secretary of that service or any equivalent post or has been an advocate for at least

twenty years with experience in dealing with real estate matters.

3. In the case of Member (Administrative) he is a person who is well versed in the field of urban

development, housing, real estate development, infrastructure, economics, planning, law,

commerce, accountancy, industry, management, public affairs or administration and possesses

experience of at least twenty years in the field or who has held the post in the Central

Government or a State government equivalent to the post of Additional Secretary to the

Government of India or an equivalent post in the Central government or an equivalent post in

the state Government.

4. The Member of the appellate Tribunal shall hold office, as such for a term not exceeding 5 (five)

years from the date on which he enters upon his office, but shall not be eligible for re-

employment. Provided further that no Judicial Member or Administrative Member shall hold

office after he has attained the age of sixty-five years.

5. The person should not have any financial or other interests that is likely to affect prejudicially

his functions as Members.

6. The salary/allowances and other terms and conditions of service of the Member (Judicial) and

the Member (Administrative) of REAT will be as per Clause 30 of the Assam Real Estate

(Regulation and Development) Rules, 2017.

7. Suitable candidate with adequate qualification and requisite age as prescribed above may

apply with their Bio-data (format at Annexure-I) mentioning their age, qualifications, experience

within 1700 hours of 08.05.2020 to Sri Niraj Verma, Principal Secretary, Urban Development

Department, block-D, 1st Floor, Janata Bhawan, Dispur, Guwahati-6 with the envelope

superscribed “Application for the post of Member (Judicial), Member (Administrative) of Real

Estate appellate Tribunal”.

8. The Headquarter of Real Estate Appellate Tribunal will be in Guwahati.

9. The applicants in Service should apply through proper channel.

10. The format for application is enclosed at Annexure-I.

11. Those candidates who have already applied in terms of the earlier advertisement No. UDD(T)148/

2017/Vol-I/47, dated 18.12.2019 may not apply again.

12. An applicant who applies for both the posts should submit separate applications for each post.

Sd/- Principal Secretary to the

Govt. of Assam,

Urban Development Department.

FORMAT OF APPLICATION FOR THE POST OF MEMBER (JUDICIAL)/MEMBER

(ADMINISTRATIVE) OF THE REAL ESTATE APPELLATE TRIBUNAL, ASSAM

1. Name and Address :

2. Age as on 01.01.2020 and Date of Birth :

3. Educational qualification :

4. Present post held :

5. Details of posts previously held and experience :

I) Member (Judicial): The details of the applicant who has been a Head of a judicial office in

the territory of India for at least fifteen years or has been a member of the Indian Legal

Service and has held the post of Additional Secretary of that service or any equivalent post

or has been an advocate for at least twenty years with experience in dealing with real

estate matters :

II) Member (Administrative): The details of the applicant being well versed in the field of urban

development, housing, real estate development, infrastructure, economics, planning, law,

commerce, accountancy, industry, management, public affairs or administration and possess

experience of at least twenty years in the field or who has held the post in the Central

Government or a State Government equivalent to the post of Additional Secretary to the

Government of India or an equivalent post in the Central Government or an equivalent

post in the State Government :

6. Willingness letter to resign from the present post if selected for the post of Member (Judicial)

and Member (Administrative) of REAT :

7. Past Administrative knowledge and experience :

Date: Signature

Name

Note: 1) Please attach 4 (four) copies of your recent passport sized photographs along-with a

xerox copy of your Photo Identity Card.

2) Please attach 2 (two) extra sheets and copies of the supporting documents to substantiate

the claims made in the application.

3) Please attach NOC from the present employer if already in Govt. service.

Janasanyog/D/181/20

CHENNAI, April 16: The Cen-

tre has informed the Madras High

Court that it is not possible for it to

organise any evacuation of Indian na-

tionals from any foreign country in

the current COVID-19 lockdown

situation.

The submission was made in a

counter to a PIL seeking steps to

bring about 350 Indians stranded in

Malaysia after visiting the country

on tourist visa.

A Special Bench of Justice R Subbi-

Can’t evacuate Indians from overseas: Centre tells HCah and Justice R Pongiappan, before

which the PIL came up for hearing,

adjourned the matter after two weeks

after going through the counter.

In the counter, filed by Additional

Solicitor General G Rajagopalan on

behalf of the Union home ministry,

the government submitted that af-

ter the global outbreak of COVID-

19 it has proactively taken steps to

ensure safety and wellbeing of Indi-

an nationals abroad as well as peo-

ple in the country.

It said all types of passenger move-

ments through designated immigra-

tion land checkposts on the country’s

borders with Bangladesh, Nepal and

Myanmar border have been suspend-

ed as also all scheduled international

commercial passenger flights.

Some of the countries have re-

ported a very large number of cas-

es including deaths, putting passen-

gers from these countries particu-

larly at higher risk of infection.

Travel back of such passengers to

different regions of India poses a

grave risk to the country having a

population of over 1.3 billion.

“In such a lockdown situation, it

is not possible for the Government

of India to organise any evacuation

of Indian nationals from any coun-

try,” the counter said.

Petitioner Gunasekar, an advocate,

submitted that while the Malaysian

government flew back all its nation-

als stranded in India by arranging a

special flight, the Centre is not tak-

ing any steps to bring its nationals

in Malaysia.

According to him, his client Mul-

lainathan had telephoned him from

Malaysia on April 4 and informed

that he visited Malaysia on a tourist

visa and that now he is unable to

come back due to the lockdown.

Besides his client and his family,

there were over 350 Indians strand-

ed in Malaysia due to the cancella-

tion of the flight operations follow-

ing the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Supreme Court had on Mon-

day observed that Indian citizens

stranded in various countries due to

the COVID-19 pandemic should “stay

where they are” after the Centre said

it would not be feasible to “selective-

ly evacuate” those who want to re-

turn due to various reasons.

The Centre’s response was to a

batch of pleas seeking evacuation of

Indian citizens from different coun-

tries, including United Kingdom

and Gulf nations. – PTI

26 new casestake Dharavi

tally to 86;death toll 9

MUMBAI, April 16: The

number of coronavirus cases

in Dharavi jumped to 86 after

as many as 26 people tested

positive for the infection on

Thursday in the slum area of

Mumbai, a civic official said.

With one more person suc-

cumbing to the infection on

Thursday, the COVID-19

death toll in the slum reached

nine, the official said.

“Eleven persons had tested

positive earlier on Thursday,

while 15 cases were detected

later in the day. This took the

day’s tally of COVID-19 patients

from Dharavi to 26,” an official

of the Brihanmumbai Municipal

Corporation (BMC) said.

Eleven of these cases were

reported from Muslim Nagar

locality, four from Mukund Na-

gar, two each from Social Nagar

and Rajiv Nagar, and one each

from Sai Raj Nagar, Transit

camp, Ramji Chawl, Laxmi

Chawl, Janata society, Shiv-Shak-

ti Nagar, and Sarvoday Nagar

localities in Dharavi, he said.

Dharavi is one of the largest

slum areas in Asia. Nearly 15

lakh people live in shanties in

this highly congested area. – PTI

SER startsmanufacturing

PPE kitsKOLKATA, April 16: The

South Eastern Railway has

started manufacturing Person-

al Protective Equipment

(PPE) to ensure proper pro-

tection for its doctors, para-

medical staff, nurses and

healthcare personnel to deal

with COVID-19 pandemic, an

official said here on Thursday.

The kits are being manufac-

tured mainly at SER’s Kharag-

pur workshop and the divi-

sional unit there, he said.

The PPE kits include face

cover, eye shield, N-95 mask,

coverall gown with hood, shoe

cover and gloves, the official said.

As a pilot project, the

Kharagpur workshop has

manufactured 52 PPE kits,

while the Kharagpur division-

al unit has produced 20 such

kits, he said. – PTI

countrywide lockdown an-

nounced by the Central gov-

ernment to contain coronavi-

rus pandemic in the country.

“The document makes ref-

erence to earlier advisories of

the Cert-In and states that

Zoom is not a safe platform.

The guidelines have been is-

sued to safeguard private indi-

viduals who would still like to

use the platform for private

purposes,” the ministry said.

It said the advisory has been

issued to prevent any unau-

thorized entry into a Zoom

conference room and to pre-

vent unauthorized participants

to carry out malicious attacks

on the terminals of other us-

ers in the conference. – PTI

MHA warns againstholding Zoom meetings

NEW DELHI, April 16:

Zoom meeting platform is not

safe and it is not to be used for

official purposes by govern-

ment officials, the home min-

istry said on Thursday.

The warning, earlier issued

by Computer Emergency Re-

sponse Team (Cert-In), was

reiterated by the Cyber Coor-

dination Centre (CyCord) of the

home ministry in an advisory.

“This advisory states that

the platform is not for use by

government officers/officials

for official purposes,” a state-

ment from the ministry said.

Zoom became a popular ap-

plication for executives con-

ducting meetings while work-

ing from home during the

IIT-Kanpur,Lucknow

institute makealternative to

N95 masksKANPUR (UP), April 16:

The IIT-Kanpur and Luc-

know’s Sanjay Gandhi Post-

graduate Institute of Medical

Sciences have claimed to have

developed an alternative to

high-end N95 face masks.

Called as the positive pres-

sure respirator system (PPRS),

it will address an acute scarcity

of N95 masks, which are a crit-

ical component of personal pro-

tective equipment kits, IIT’s

mechanical engineering Prof

Nachiketa Tiwari said.

He said the new mask can

be produced in a large quanti-

ty in a short time as it needs

local material. He claimed that

the PPRS is a safer alternative

to their counterpart.

The existing N95 respirator

does not protect the user if

there is an imperfect seal be-

tween the mask and the face,

as there is negative pressure

inside it, Tiwari said.

“In contrast, the PPRS pro-

vides uncontaminated air be-

cause it uses positive pres-

sure. Thus, contaminated air

from a room cannot enter it

even in the presence of a leak-

age,” he added. – PTI

Assam Police ...(Contd from page 1)

The reach, especially after stepping up of the social media

content push, has been phenomenal. Till now, with a reach of

over 18.1 million users, 8.76 million post engagements and

over a period of three weeks, some of the awareness video

campaigns have gone viral reaching more than 6 million views.

Similarly on Twitter, the social media team has received

more than 2 million impressions. The police personnel also

disseminate their message through WhatsApp to each of the

police personnel, who then pass it on to their social networks.

This reach is massive and incalculable.

For example, an awareness video from Tinsukia on the im-

portance of personal hygiene and social distancing has received

around 3 million views alone. The video campaign on Bihu

awareness, put up a couple of days back, has already received

1.1 million views and over 30,000 shares on Facebook.

Singh said that the social media also allows sensationalism

and disinformation to spread quickly - and that’s where the

social media team of the police comes in. “Our response to the

Infodemic fallout of COVID-19 has been multi pronged too. We

have been putting out regular advisories to sensitise citizens

on the menace of fake news and rumours.

With the kind of reach our social media channels have, the

content pushed through our social media channels is then being

used by TV, electronic, radio and other digital mediums as a

credible source of information. This is key to fighting misinfor-

mation - being a credible source of information to counter the

fake narratives,” he added. The Assam Police is also taking

tough action against those involved in spreading rumours and

false news.

Social media has also emerged as a platform to provide relief

and assistance to those in distress and in emergency due to the

lockdown guidelines. The police social media response team,

apart from handling regular queries, is also responding to peo-

ple who are reaching out to it for help. From providing life-

saving medicines to food essentials and ration, the team coor-

dinates with the concerned district police to facilitate the deliv-

ery of essential items to people in need. Through Twitter,

Facebook and WhatsApp, the team receives a good number of

queries on an average every day. All district arms of the team

are also running their own relief campaigns and providing as-

sistance to the needy.

Journalist ...(Contd from page 1)

The NAJ submitted before the Supreme Court that various

employees of the media industry were meted out with inhu-

man treatment by their employers, based on unilateral deci-

sions to either slash salaries or issue termination notices.

It pleaded that these steps were taken despite an advisory

from the Centre directing that no services should be termi-

nated during the period of the nationwide COVID-19 lock-

down. The petition listed at least nine instances where media

houses have imposed salary cuts or issued notices sending

employees on indefinite unpaid leave, or served termination

letters.

In the backdrop of the lockdown, the media industry has

affected job and wages cuts with impunity, the petitioner al-

leged.

The media houses have “summarily shut down”, arguing

that it was in violation of the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947.

Further, apart from contravening legal provisions and adviso-

ries, the petitioner argued that these steps were taken without

being mindful of the helpless position of the employees.

Moreover, such treatment is contended to be in violation of

the terms of the employment contracts and appointment let-

ters, in some cases. The retrenchment effected over the last

few days is additionally in violation of the Working Journalists

Act of 1955 as well as the Other Newspaper Employees (Con-

ditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955, it

pointed out.

Strategic ...(Contd from page 1)

The strategic approach for containment include defining area

of operation and applying perimeter control, active search of

cases, early isolation, contact listing and tracking, quarantine

and follow up of contacts.

The government is also carrying out sample tests of all sus-

pect cases, symptomatic contacts, asymptomatic direct and high

risk contacts of a confirmed case and severe acute respiratory

infections (SARI) cases, the statement said.

In the (hotspots red zones) districts or cities, there is focus

following detection of a large number of cases or higher growth

rate. The highest case load districts contribute to more than 80

per cent of cases in India.

In the hotspots of clusters and large outbreak areas, there

has been localised increase in the incidence of COVID-19 cases

occurring within a defined geographic area, e.g., in a village,

town, or city and the cases may not be epidemiologically linked.

If there is more than 15 cases, it implies progression of a

small cluster or evolvement of multiple clusters. Less than 15

cases means it is happening in a limited area and cases are

epidemiologically linked, the Home Ministry said.

The perimeter of mapped clusters are facilitated by existing

geographic boundaries like roads, rivers, etc, and established

clear entry and exit points. Only one or two arterial roads into

the containment zone will be kept open for essential services.

All roads connecting the containment zone will be guarded by

police or volunteers.

There will be no unchecked outward movement except for

essential services, there will be no unchecked influx of popula-

tion into the containment zone too.

All vehicular movement, public transport and personnel

movement will be restricted. Details of people moving out of

the perimeter will be recorded and followed up with the Inte-

grated Disease Surveillance programme (IDSP), it said.

The perimeter control operations for the clusters and large

outbreaks remain the same except for the enhanced scale of

arrangements for large outbreaks. – PTI

Rahul for ...(Contd from page 1)

“When we come out of the lockdown, the virus is going to

start its work. It is important that we have a strategy in place to

come out of the lockdown,” he said, adding that it is time to ramp

up testing and put adequate infrastructure in place when the

virus picks up again.

Urging people not to be worried, Gandhi said they should

fight the virus unitedly as the country is bigger than any disease,

while asserting that India will overcome the current crisis too.

“...Caste, religion and creed will have to be forgotten in fighting

this virus,” he said.

Calling for a “strategic opening” of the lockdown, Gandhi sug-

gested opening certain key areas and to use testing to identify

hotspots. “This is where ramping up testing is important, to

dynamically identify the hotspots,” he said, suggesting creation

of two basic zones – a hotspot zone and a non-hotspot zone.

The Congress leader said the pandemic will have a negative

effect on the country’s economy, while adding that people are

becoming unemployed and “it is going to get worse”. He also

called for preparing packages for SMEs as well as for big com-

panies.

Calling for providing money and foodgrains to the poor, he

said in line with the proposed NYAY scheme of the Congress,

the government should give money directly to 20 per cent of the

poor people in the country because they are facing difficulties.

He also called for setting up structures and managing funds,

saying if all the money is spent now, there can be a financial crisis

later. “Hence, you need to think and move strategically,” he said,

adding that there is going to be a massive financial backlash due

to COVID-19 and waves of unemployment that will put a huge

pressure on our financial system.

The Congress leader also called for granting adequate re-

sources to the states to help them deal with COVID-19 in a

“nuanced” manner. He insisted that there is a need for devolu-

tion of powers to the states to help them effectively deal with the

situation. – PTI

Imported ...(Contd from page 1)

He further said the items are CE/FDA-verified and better

quality than those available in the local market. “We have re-

viewed the products available locally,” the Minister said.

The Central government has been insisting that it was pro-

curing CE/FDA-certified PPE kits only. But some consignments

were also received as donations.

Kits that are not FDA/ CE-approved have to pass quality tests

in India.

There is concern among medical circles about the shortage of

PPEs in India. Assam had just 10 PPEs on March 16.

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 7

NORTH EAST

NORTH EASTERN COALFIELDS

Coal India Limited(A Maharatna Company under Ministry of Coal)

Margherita-786181 (Assam)

Registered Office : Office of the General Manager, North Eastern

Coalfields, Coal India Limited, Dist Tinsukia, Assam-786181, Corporate

ID No. L23109WB1973GOI028844, Phone No. 03751-220344, E-mail:

gmmrg1@sanchernet.in, Website : www.neccoal.co.in

All the tenders issued by CIL and its Subsidiariesfor procurement of Goods, Works and Services areavailable on website of Coal India Ltd.www.coalindia.in respective subsidiary Company, CILe-procurement portal https://coalindiatenders.nic.inand Central Public procurement portalhttps:eprocurement.gov.in. In addition, procurementis also done through GeM portal https://gem.gov.in

Sd/- General Manager,NEC, Margherita.

No. DME/28/AIIMS/2020/4967

Corrigendum Notice

Due to outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the prebid

committee meeting in respect of EOI (Expression of

Interest) published Vide No. DME/28/AIIMS/2020/4456,

dt. 20.03.2020 for Establishment of temporary campus

for AIIMS, Guwahati, is postponed and rescheduled on

2nd May 2020 and the last date of bid submission is

extended upto 8th May 2020.

For details changed, kindly go through the website:

www.dme.assam.gov.in.

Sd/- Director of Medical Education, Assam

Sixmile, Khanapara, Guwahati-22.Janasanyog/C/20/20

Forecast for NE: Rain/thunder-

shower is very likely to occur

at many places over Arunachal

Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya,

Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram

and Tripura.

Warning: Thunderstorm with

lightning and gusty wind with

speed (30-40) KMPH is very

likely to occur at isolated places

over Arunachal Pradesh. Thun-

derstorm with squall with

speed(40-50) KMPH accompa-

nied by hail is very likely to

occur at isolated places over

Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland,

Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.

Heavy rain is very likely to oc-

cur at isolated places over As-

sam and Meghalaya.

Temperatures:

Max (°C) Min (°C)

Dibrugarh 31.4 20.0Tezpur 30.6 20.1Silchar 31.8 18.4Dhubri 30.8 20.1Jorhat 27.0 18.7N Lakhimpur 31.2 18.6Shillong 21.2 –Cherrapunjee 22.5 12.9Aizawl 29.6 16.9Kohima – 12.8Pasighat 30.4 21.8Itanagar 31.3 18.5Imphal 27.0 15.5Agartala 34.3 20.0

WEATHER

NORTHEAST

RON DUARAH

DIBRUGARH, April 16: He had

to bear the “stigmatization” of be-

ing a Tablighi Jamaat returnee, and

being a 31-year-old man, that did not

make him any happy. However, his

family members in the sleepy Medo

village near Tezu, headquarters of

Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh,

are happy that he is likely be released

from hospital on Friday.

The first and lone COVID-19 pa-

tient of Arunachal Pradesh is cur-

rently asymptomatic, in good health

and has a healthy appetite, complain-

ing of no physical discomfort.

Two teams of medical personnel

have been attending to the patient in

the special isolation ward of the Tezu

Zonal General Hospital since March

Arunachal COVID-19 patient likely to be released today31. His COVID-19 test was declared

positive by the Dibrugarh-based Re-

gional Medical Research Centre, a

unit of the ICMR, on April 2.

Meanwhile, the first medical team

is now under mandatory isolation. Af-

ter the patient’s release from hospi-

tal, the second team of medics will

also go into isolation, District Medical

Officer of Tezu, Dr S Chai Pul, said.

When asked, Dr Chai Pul told The

Assam Tribune today that the pa-

tient was not given any major

drugs. “We gave him broad spec-

trum multivitamins with better Vi-

tamin C content,” she said, adding

that he was given a diet with a lot of

nuts like almonds.

Dr Chai Pul said that the patient

was found COVID-19 negative as per

the ICMR guidelines on Wednesday

for the fourth time. This qualifies for

his release from the hospital.

Meanwhile, the four family mem-

bers of the patient, who had been

kept under home isolation since

March 31, have all tested negative,

and the Health authorities have de-

clared all of them safe for perform-

ing normal social activities.

Dr Chai Pul also said that the pa-

tient was provided an electric kettle,

tea, salt and sugar. He was allowed to

drink warm water and sip black tea.

Though the patient has not been

on any drug therapy, he has recov-

ered well enough in less than 20 days

of hospitalisation. Many believe in

private that warm saline gargles and

dozens of cups of tea may have

helped. Tea professionals have all

along been eulogizing the curative

properties of tea, both black and

green. The magic element in tea is

supposed to be polyphenols which

have anti-viral properties. This prop-

erty has been established during the

containment research on SARS,

which is also caused by a coronavi-

rus. Veteran tea professional Saura-

bh Shankar states that tea has more

than 200 medicinal properties, and

that all of these are being document-

ed systematically by scientists of the

Tea Research Association at Tocklai

in Jorhat district. He said that both

green tea and black tea have medic-

inal properties that have been proved

in the United Kingdom and China

over the ages.

While the anti-coronavirus prop-

erties of tea are yet to be fully docu-

mented in any medical journal of

repute, the tea planting community

is now all the more inclined to bet-

ter explore the medicinal proper-

ties of teas of the Brahmaputra Val-

ley in particular. The results could

be quite revealing.

Retired professor of tea husband-

ry at the AAU, Jorhat, Dr Swapon

Baruah said that polyphenols in tea

have high antioxidant properties

which are known to inhibit cold and

flu. He added that the pharmaceuti-

cal properties of tea have been fairly

well-documented. Tea consumed in

generous quantities with no milk and

less sugar is always beneficial, he

maintained. Dr Baruah pointed out

that tea workers generally do not

suffer from cold and flu, chiefly due

to their consumption of black tea

without sugar.

A deserted locality in Shillong after the district administration imposed curfew in the Meghalaya capital following detection

of COVID-19 cases, on Thursday. – UB Photos

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG, April 16: The

mortal remains of the doctor

who died of COVID-19 on

Wednesday, were laid to rest

at the Presbyterian Church

cemetery at Raithsamthiah

here today, almost 24 hours

after his demise.

The deceased was first tak-

en to the electric crematori-

um at Jhalupara on Wednes-

day. However, local residents

disallowed his cremation, fear-

ing spread of the virus. The

district administration tried

to convince the local residents

to allow the cremation, but

they did not relent.

Later, the traditional heads

of Nongpoh also reportedly

did not allow the deceased to

be buried at his farmhouse in

Ri-Bhoi district either.

Throughout the night the

authorities tried to convince the

people to allow the last rites of

Meghalaya doctor laid torest 24 hours after death

the deceased, allaying fears of

transmission of the virus.

After several rounds of

meetings among the public

and the district authorities,

people of some areas finally

came forward to allow the

burial. It was then decided that

the deceased should be bur-

ied at the Presbyterian

Church cemetery at Rait-

samthiah. A few officials from

the district helped in the per-

formance of the last rites.

The unfortunate develop-

ment has been attributed to

the alleged failure of the

Health Department to create

awareness on the issue of

deaths due to COVID-19.

There is still no information

from the State Health Depart-

ment about the national and

international protocol that is

followed to handle bodies of

those who die of the disease.

It has also failed to dispel fears

about virus transmission from

the dead bodies.

According to the Union

Health Ministry, “the main

driver of transmission of

COVID-19 is through drop-

lets. There is unlikely to be

an increased risk of COVID

infection from a dead body to

health workers or family

members who follow stand-

ard precautions while han-

dling the body.”

The Ministry states that

“only the lungs of dead COV-

ID patients, if handled during

an autopsy, can be infectious.

The ash does not pose any

risk and can be collected to

perform the last rites.”

The same guidelines have

also been laid down by the

World Health Organization.

However, the Meghalaya

Health Department has failed

to highlight these vital points

to the people and has still not

taken a cue from the latest

incident in the State.

Rs 30,000 toSikkim patients

strandedoutside StateA CORRESPONDENT

GANGTOK, April 16: The

State Government has decid-

ed to provide a one-time med-

ical assistance amounting to Rs

30,000 to patients from Sik-

kim stranded in other parts of

the country.

In addition to this, the Gov-

ernment has also decided to

provide all ASHA workers

with an honorarium of Rs

5,000 in view of their role in

the ongoing efforts to contain

spread of COVID-19.

“I briefed the Governor

on steps taken to distribute

relief materials. An addi-

tional list of 29,000 benefi-

ciaries will be provided by

Sunday,” said Chief Minis-

ter PS Tamang.

Governor Ganga Prasad

and the Chief Minister

launched a portal, COVID-

19 Transmission Chain Pre-

vention System, of the

Health and Family Welfare

Department developed by

the NIC. It has a self-report-

ing module wherein people

who have returned to the

State can register them-

selves. Those people will be

observed for 14 days with

constant monitoring.

The Governor also handed

a cheque for Rs 11 lakh con-

tributed by Mahashay Dhar-

ampal Gulati, CEO of MDH

Spices, to the Chief Minister’s

Relief Fund.

ArunachalGovt to extendaid to citizens

strandedoutside State

CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR, April 16:

The Arunachal Pradesh Gov-

ernment has decided to ex-

tend financial assistance to

people of the State who are

stranded in other parts of the

country due to the ongoing

nationwide lockdown.

The decision to this effect

was taken today in a Cabinet

meeting held by Chief Minis-

ter Pema Khandu through

video conferencing.

“In view of the grievanc-

es and issues faced by per-

sons from Arunachal

Pradesh stranded across

the country, the cabinet de-

cided to provide financial

assistance to all such per-

sons. It was decided that an

amount of Rs 3,500 each

will be disbursed to all per-

sons of Arunachal Pradesh

stranded outside the state

for sustenance during the

lockdown period, from

Chief Minister’s Relief

Fund,” stated a press re-

lease from the CMO here.

The financial aid will be dis-

bursed by the deputy com-

missioners concerned in con-

sultation with local MLAs and

other stakeholders through

direct transfer to bank ac-

counts or through UPI after

due verification.

The Google doc sheet

which was circulated by the

State Government to gather

information of all persons

stranded outside the State,

will be shared with the re-

spective DCs for disburse-

ment of financial assistance.

The Cabinet further decid-

ed to extend the time and date

for registration of persons

stranded outside the State to

12 am on April 19 for the proc-

ess of disbursement. Further,

those who are unable to reg-

ister on the Google doc sheet

by the extended deadline, can

contact their respective DCs

or MLAs for assistance, which

will be provided after due ver-

ification, the release added.

POWERGRID reliefGUWAHATI, April 16: The Power Grid Corporation of In-

dia Ltd, North East Region, has been distributing essential

items like pulses, rice, oil, soaps, masks, etc., among needy

people living in and around its substation at Bongaigaon, Salaka-

ti, Misa, Balipara, Tezpur, Biswanath Chariali, Mariani, Silchar

and Badarpur in Assam, Agartala and Kumaraghat in Tripura,

Mokokchung and Dimapur in Nagaland, Khlrehiat and Shil-

long in Meghalaya, Imphal in Manipur and Aizawl in Mizoram,

a press release stated. The distribution process is still on and

till date, a sum of Rs 1.7 crore has already been spent, includ-

ing aid for setting up quarantine centres and testing laborato-

ries, and aid to the NEIGRIHMS, Shillong, and the Tezpur and

Jorhat Medical Colleges in Assam.

The POWERGRID has also been providing Rs 250 to every

contractual worker as additional support, in addition to their

wages. It has already contributed Rs 200 crore to the Prime

Minister Cares Fund, besides donating one day’s salary from

all the employees, the press release added.

CORRESPONDENT

IMPHAL, April 16: The Ma-

nipur Government has begun

transferring Rs 2,000 each to

the bank accounts of people, in-

cluding students, stranded out-

side the State, who had sought

help through the State’s newly

launched website.

Speaking to reporters dur-

ing his visit to two old age

homes on the outskirts of Im-

phal today, Chief Minister N

Biren Singh said his Govern-

ment is also considering pro-

viding assistance to those who

are currently in different cit-

CORRESPONDENT

DIMAPUR, April 16: Nagaland will

soon get a Biosafety Level-3 (BSL-3) lab-

oratory for COVID-19 tests with the

equipment for it reaching here on Thurs-

day. The consignment weighing 18

tonnes was brought from Mumbai in a

C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft of

the India Air Force, following a request

from Nagaland Governor RN Ravi to

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Along with the sophisticated equip-

ment, a technical team also arrived here

to set up the BSL-3 laboratory at the

Naga Hospital Authority Kohima. The

aircraft was scheduled to arrive at the

Dimapur airport on Wednesday, but was

delayed due to bad weather in Assam.

Considering the urgency of setting up the

laboratory in the State, the IAF on Wednes-

day even made efforts through diplomatic

channels to use Bangladesh airspace, but it

did not materialise as the weather in that

Manipur Govt gives Rs 2,000to people stranded outside State

ies for medical treatment.

A website

(www.tengbang.in) was

launched on March 29 to reach

out to the people of Manipur

who are stranded outside the

State and in need of help to

overcome hardships due to

the nationwide lockdown im-

posed in the wake of the COV-

ID-19 outbreak.

The Chief Minister handed

over rations and medical sup-

plies, including hand sanitiser,

masks and medicines, to the

inmates of the old age homes

and interacted with them.

BJP MLA Th Satyabrata,

Principal Secretary (Health)

V Vumlunmang, Social Wel-

fare Director Ng Uttam and

other government officers

were also present.

The visit came in the back-

drop of the Prime Minister’s

recent call to take special care

of the elderly people.

Singh said that post April 20,

the State Government may

consider certain relaxations for

a few selected sectors after as-

sessing the situation. Howev-

er, no decision would be taken

in a hurry as the State has a

long international boundary.

Urging the public and civil

society organisations to join

hands with the Government in

the fight against COVID-19, he

observed that it is not the time

to indulge in a blame game and

unnecessary criticism. He also

called upon the public to imme-

diately inform the police if any-

body detects sale of essential

items at higher prices.

Meanwhile, a team led by

Principal Secretary and Resi-

dent Commissioner of Ma-

nipur Bhawan in Delhi PK

Singh has started distribution

of dry rations to students and

others stranded in the nation-

al capital.

Nagaland to get COVID-19testing laboratory soon

country was also not conducive.

The next consignment for the labora-

tory is expected to arrive soon.

Meanwhile, Nagaland Chief Minister

Neiphiu Rio has thanked the Indian Coun-

cil of Medical Research, New Delhi, for

fulfilling the long-felt need of the Gov-

ernment to “have our own testing facil-

ities”. Work will begin immediately so

that it becomes functional at the earliest,

he said. State Health and Family Welfare

Minister S Pangnyu Phom said the labo-

ratory would be set up on a war footing.

It may be mentioned here that a pa-

tient with COVID-19 symptoms was

shifted from Dimapur to the GMCH in

Guwahati, Assam, on April 12. Subse-

quently, he tested positive and is cur-

rently undergoing treatment at the

GMCH. The Nagaland Government has

thanked the IAF, the Centre and the Min-

istry of Defence for extending support

and cooperation to the State in its fight

against COVID-19.

Plea: Nagaland Congress president K

Therie on Thursday requested Chief

Minister Neiphiu Rio to provide a

monthly aid of Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000 each

to the people of Nagaland stranded in

other parts of the country and abroad

due to the ongoing nationwide lockdown.

Warning: Dimapur Deputy Commis-

sioner Anoop Khinchi on Thursday said

that strict action would be taken against

those found violating the containment

measures against COVID-19.

Khinchi said despite repeated orders

issued by him, it had come to notice

that some villages have barred entry

of medical professionals, personnel on

emergency duty, and the staff and pa-

tients of the Zion Hospital, Dimapur,

where a COVID-19 patient was initial-

ly admitted.

He directed the village councils, col-

ony chairmen and all concerned to en-

sure that frontline workers are hon-

oured and respected.

Technical personnel after delivery of laboratory equipment at the Dimapur airport on Thursday. – Photo: Correspondent

8 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020STATENEWS IN BRIEF

Relief materials distributedGUWAHATI, April 16: Lion’s Club of Gauhati Seva

distributed relief materials to poor people at KalapaharColony and Lal Ganesh in the city. This was informed bysecretary Neeru Sethi in a press release. Daljit Singh andSanpreet Singh assisted in the distribution of reliefmaterials. Over 200 packets were distributed by the

organisation among the people.

Scholars donate fundsJORHAT, April 16: Fifty-eight research scholars

working at CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat, have contributed anamount of Rs 54,201 to the Prime Minister’s CitizenAssistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund. ACSIR-NEIST press note stated the amount was trans-ferred through SBI online donation payment portal.CSIR-NEIST also produced hand sanitisers, liquidhandwash, disinfectants, homemade masks, which weredistributed to police stations, district administrationoffices, post offices, banks, ONGC, BCPL, District andSessions Judge Court, FCI, Indian Air Force Station inthe past one month. – Staff Correspondent

Teleconferencing at DhemajiDHEMAJI, April 16: Due to the lockdown, activities of

the Dhemaji District Child Welfare Committee havebeen severely affected. The committee has taken adecision to conduct its activities through teleconferenc-ing. Dhemaji District Child Welfare Committee chairper-son Labanya Lahan Chutia called upon the public tocommunicate with her in respect of child welfare andchild protection or about any kind of incident relating tochild. – ANN Service

Guidelines on masksSILCHAR, April 16: Wearing of face masks in public

places has been made compulsory across the countryduring the ongoing lockdown. “As per the directions onCOVID-19 by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Governmentof India, along with special emphasis on social distanc-ing, wearing of face covers by people at public placesand work stations as their social responsibility iscompulsory now,” said Cachar ADC Sumit Sattawan. TheADC informed that as per the directions, spitting inpublic places shall be punishable with fine as well.– Staff Correspondent

Competitions for studentsHAILAKANDI, April 16: Students of Hailakandi

district took part in various competitions on the occasionof Ambedkar Jayanti and Rongali Bihu through ICT-enabled Distance Learning Programme. Inspector ofSchools Rajiv Kumar Jha disclosed that students of 62secondary and higher secondary schools and 36 pre-senior madrassas participated in the competitions fromtheir homes through ICT-based distance learning.– Correspondent

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

JORHAT, April 16: The CSIR-North

East Institute of Science and Technolo-

gy (CSIR-NEIST) in collaboration with

the 5 Air Force Hospital at Rowriah is in

the process of setting up a laboratory at

the IAF hospital to test samples for

COVID-19.

Speaking exclusively to The Assam

Tribune, CSIR-NEIST Director Dr G

Nara Narahari Sastry said that as the

institute was having expertise in mo-

lecular biology and microbiology with

required laboratory facilities and gov-

ernment laboratories operational under

CSIR authorised to take up testing of

COVID-19, an initiative to set up the

laboratory has been undertaken.

Dr Sastry said the proposed labora-

tory will be able to carry out tests on

nearly 100 samples within a 3-4 hours

under the RT-PCR (reverse transcrip-

tion polymerase chain reaction) meth-

ROOP CHOUDHURY

GOALPARA, April 16: Tea gar-

den labourers, working as daily-

wage earners at the Maijonga Tea

Estate in Raikhyasini, Garopara

Part II under Matia Revenue Cir-

cle, around 6.5 km from the dis-

trict headquarters of Goalpara,

have been facing extreme eco-

nomic hardship during the lock-

down period.

These people are simply at a

loss as to whom they can speak of

their woes as they are out of work

in the tea gardens since the lock-

down started on March 25. They

said that the lockdown extension

till May 3 would bring unprece-

dented hardship as their employ-

er follows the principle “No work,

No Pay”.

This correspondent, while trav-

elling through the area with a team

from the Red Cross Society, Goal-

para branch, met some females la-

bourers who are living in abject

poverty in hamlets in the Raikh-

yasini Part-I and Part-II areas.

For these labourers, life is full of

New lab for COVID-19 atIAF hospital likely

od. The laboratory at the IAF hospital

will be one among the 12 CSIR labora-

tories to be set up across the country

under the CSIR initiative.

Dr Sastry said that on Wednesday, a

team of NEIST scientists led by him

and Air Commodore Dr S Bhargava

along with doctors and officials of 5

Air Force Hospital held a joint meet-

ing and finalised the infrastructural and

logistical aspects that will be needed

to operate the laboratory at the 5 Air

Force Hospital.

He said a joint team of doctors of the

IAF hospital and CSIR-NEIST scientists

will work together to operate the labo-

ratory.

“If things go according to plan, we

will be able to make the laboratory ready

within a week,” Dr Sastry stated.

The CSIR-NEIST team of scientists

will not only provide the equipment and

diagnostic kit reagent support, but also

facilitate the Air Force hospital staff to

conduct the testing as CSIR-NEIST has

almost all the infrastructural facilities to

conduct such tests with little orienta-

tion, Dr Sastry said.

The director said that the laboratory

will function in close coordination with

the district administration and the Jorhat

Medical College and Hospital.

Dr Purnima Baruah, JMCH Superin-

tendent and Associate Professor of

Microbiology, told this newspaper that

a team of CSIR-NEIST and IAF hospi-

tal recently visited the JMCH laborato-

ry to know about the set-up.

Dr Baruah said the proposed labora-

tory is expected to be a booster in the

efforts under way to prevent outbreak

of novel coronavirus.

Dr Sastry said that the CSIR-

NEIST and the 5 Air Force Hospital

were also jointly working to set up a

101-bed makeshift hospital for treat-

ment of COVID-19 patients at the IAF

hospital premises.

Tea garden labourers facing extreme economic hardshipuncertainties with very little in-

come besides day-to-day hardship.

Some female labourers expressed

concern over their earnings as daily

labourers, saying that their income

has totally stopped and most of

them have run out of money.

They also said that the relief dis-

tributed by the government was

insufficient and they were not able

to sustain their families. There is

also shortage of drinking water as

most of the wells in the area have

dried up.

Kamona Ghosh, a 33-year-old

who resides in Raikhyasini Part-II

and works as a temporary labour-

er at the tea estate, said her family

is excluded from the public distri-

bution system as she does not have

a ration card and has a family of

seven members. To augment the

family’s income, her husband runs

a small tea stall in front of her hut

which is now closed due to the lock-

down. She harvested some paddy

recently from her small plot of land

on which the entire family is de-

pendent. Her family also depends

on wild edible tropical plants and

tubers to enrich their diet.

She is now short of food and said

that she has not received any re-

lief. She has no clue how to feed

her family due to extension of the

lockdown, and said, “we are going

to bed with hunger pangs”.

Though she admitted to having

received Rs 500 in her Prime Min-

ister Jan Dhan Yojana account, she

alleged that some people who not

engaged in farming activities are

getting money under the PM-Kis-

han scheme whereas her family

has been excluded despite being

engaged in agriculture activities.

She has been hardly able to ob-

serve the mandatory health guide-

lines laid down by the government

as precautions against coronavirus.

Proper sanitation is still a far cry in

the neighbourhood affected by low

standard of living. She uses her

chadar as a mask to cover her face

and there is lack of awareness re-

garding the dreaded virus and the

need for social distancing in the

neighbourhood.

Another example is Lata Pal, a

35-year-old who works as a casual

labourer and gets Rs 167 as daily

wage at the Amjonga Tea Estate.

She has a ration card and has re-

ceived 25 kg rice and Rs 500 in her

PM Jan Dhan Yojana account.

She has two minor daughters

and they have been surviving on

rice, salt mixed with a little mus-

tard oil with wild edible plants but

no vegetables.

Pal works with pottery in her

spare time and her husband sells

the items in the market, earning a

measly sum of around Rs 600 per

month. She said she is worried

about her daughters in the absence

of proper sanitation, potable wa-

ter and household toilet.

Ashim Kumar Chakravorty,

manager of the Maijonga Tea Es-

tate, said that the tea garden is reel-

ing under heavy financial loss fol-

lowing the lockdown, and the loss

at present is estimated at around

Rs 1 lakh daily.

The tea leaves have overgrown

and harvesting could not be done

on time. He said he had received a

verbal order to open the garden

following the mandatory health

guidelines.

The garden has 130 permanent

and 110 casual labourers, and most

of the permanent labourers have

been engaged.

The manager said free ration

will be provided by the garden

management to the permanent la-

bourers as per the Plantation La-

bour Act during the lockdown pe-

riod. All the labourers have ac-

cess to health facilities provided

by the garden.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross Soci-

ety, Goalpara branch, urged the la-

bourers to remain vigilant and dis-

play strong resolve to fight the dread-

ed coronavirus. The Red Cross So-

ciety assured that masks will be dis-

tributed to all the labourers.Women labourers at the Maijonga tea estate in Raikhyasini, Garopara.

Members of Lion’s Club of Gauhati Seva distributing reliefmaterials.

CORRESPONDENT

DIPHU, April 16: In view

of the lockdown, prices of

vegetables have started soar-

ing, causing concern for the

common man. In Diphu, the

prices of vegetables have in-

creased abnormally for the

past several days.

Taking advantage of the

situation, a section of traders

have hiked prices of vegeta-

bles and essential commodi-

ties. The traders have in-

creased prices in the range

of 50-60 per cent. But what

is more unfortunate is that

the farmers are yet to get

their due prices.

“This year, I have incurred

a huge loss in my tomato cul-

tivation as no one is willing

to purchase my produce. I

have a huge loan, and I am

not in a position to repay the

instalments,” said Nimai Sin-

ha, a tomato cultivator of

Natun Basti of Bakalia.

He is not alone, as hun-

Farmers incur hugeloss in Diphu

State has sufficient food stock,says Agriculture Minister

CORRESPONDENT

SIVASAGAR, April 16:

Agriculture Minister Atul

Bora and Food and Civil

Supplies Minister Phani

Bhusan Choudhury on

Thursday visited Sivasagar

and Charaideo districts to

review the overall situation

in upper Assam.

Briefing the media at the

Sivasagar DC’s office, Bora

said the State has sufficient

food stock for over a

month, and hence there

should not be any shortage

in the food supply chain.

Replying to queries that a

section of unscrupulous

traders have been reaping

benefits by creating

artificial scarcity of essential

items, the Minister said the

retail market in Sivasagar

district is controlled by

wholesale traders of Jorhat

for which the three Deputy

Commissioners of Sivasa-

gar, Jorhat and Charaideo

have been asked to monitor

the situation.

The Minister said death

of large number of pigs in

the district, as reported by

The Assam Tribune on

April 9, is being looked into

and the necessary preven-

tive measures against

swine fever are being taken

so that it cannot take the

form of another epidemic.

Bora said the govern-

ment has been taking all

possible steps for doubling

farmers’ income by 2022.

The farmers and the SHGs

have been provided

tractors, power tillers and

other agriculture machin-

ery to encourage multiple

cropping.

Choudhury said adequate

measures have been taken to

help the needy people during

the lockdown and except rice

and masoor dal, there is no

scarcity of any essential

items at present. “The state

requires 5,000 MT of rice

per week, and, therefore

there was some shortage

initially as the rice mills

were completely closed for

about a month,” he said.

The meeting was

attended by Amguri MLA

Pradip Hazarika, Thowra

MLA Kushal Duwori,

Sonari MLA Nabanita

Handique, Sivasagar DC

Lakhinandan Gogoi,

Sivasagar DDC Nawab Al

Azhar Ali, BJP leader

Bhaben Mohan, and senior

AGP leaders of the district.

CORRESPONDENT

HAILAKANDI, April 16:

The Hailakandi district admin-

istration felicitated the front-

line workers who are on the

forefront in the ongoing fight

against the novel coronavirus.

At a programme held at the

Deputy Commissioner’s of-

fice on Tuesday, Deputy

Commissioner, Keerthi Jalli

and senior officials of the ad-

ministration and health de-

partment felicitated 23 front-

line workers such as ASHAs,

ANMs, supervisors, sanita-

tion workers, drivers and

technicians who are combat-

ing the virus.

Jalli said the felicitation

programme coinciding with

Rongali Bihu was organised

to acknowledge the pivotal

role played by the frontline

heroes in protecting the so-

ciety, state and country from

the coronavirus pandemic.

“As we usher in a New Year,

let us start afresh with a new

Frontline workers engaged inCOVID-19 management feted

resolve in the fight against

coronavirus,” she said.

Saluting the warriors, Jalli

said, “Everyone should take

note of the fact that the first

line of workers is already

engaged in COVID-19 relief

and doing commendable job.

I salute the frontline warri-

ors who are being felicitated

today and those who are at

ground zero fighting against

the pandemic.”

Jalli urged the society not

to ostracize the frontline

workers or attach any stigma

to them. “The enthusiasm

shown by the frontline army

of workers is unmatchable and

surely deserves praise from

the administration. The small

gesture from our side will

boost their morale to work

further against the coronavi-

rus contagion,” she said.

The Deputy Commission-

er pleaded with the people

to cooperate with municipal

and sanitation workers who

are working round the clock

in collecting waste and clean-

ing the streets in this hour of

crisis. “The sanitation work-

ers must be appreciated for

working tirelessly to help

prevent the spread of the vi-

rus,” she said.

Jalli warned that those ob-

structing or coming in the

way of the frontline workers

from discharging their duties

during the challenging times

would not be spared. “These

frontline workers are mem-

bers of my family. Those who

are threatening or prevent-

ing them from doing their

duties would have to confront

me first,” she warned.

DDC Vikram Dev Sarma,

ADC RK Dam, AD (Health)

EL Faihraem, Circle Officer

Tridip Roy, Joint Director

(Health Services) Dr RC

Dwivedy garlanded the work-

ers and presented a gamosa

to them as a token of recogni-

tion for their hard work.

OBITUARY

Nirmal BorahCORRESPONDENT

DOOMDOOMA, April 16:

Nirmal Borah,

a social activ-

ist, died on

Wednesday

following a

cardiac arrest.

He was 60. He was closely as-

sociated with Doomdooma

Namghar, Doomdooma bran-

ch of Elora Vigyan Mancha and

several other organisations.

He leaves behind his wife and

a son. His sudden death was

widely mourned.

Power supplydisrupted in

JorhatSTAFF CORRESPONDENT

JORHAT, April 16: Power

supply was disrupted in many

areas across the district due

to a thunderstorm that hit the

district late on Wednesday

afternoon. Uprooted trees

fell on electricity lines, while

electric poles also fell down

due to the high-velocity

winds, leading to disruption

of power supply.

A district administration

official said that APDCL staff

since Wednesday night have

been working to restore the

electricity supply and by

Thursday afternoon, the sup-

ply was restored in several

areas. On the extent of dam-

age caused by the storm, the

official stated that survey

work was under way.

It may be mentioned here

that around 100 houses were

completely damaged and 704

houses were partially dam-

aged due to a thunderstorm

that blew over Jorhat district

on the night of April 9. Alto-

gether, 4,019 people spread

over 60 villages were affect-

ed by the storm on April 9,

the DDMA report stated.

dreds of farmers in the dis-

trict are now facing the same

problem. The problem gets

aggravated day by day due to

the lack of initiative on the

part of the Agriculture depart-

ment. “We don’t get adequate

prices on our vegetables.

However, a section of traders

has been earning handsome-

ly depriving the farmers,” the

farmer claimed.

Several farmers, including

Satyaranjan Sinha, Paresh

Das, Hejuram Das, Noni Das,

Sankar Das and Harekrishna

Singh criticised the Agricul-

ture department for its al-

leged failure in taking action

to help the farmers. “I have

suffered a huge loss as crops

are now getting rotten due to

lack of support from the au-

thorities,” Satyaranjan said.

To mitigate the situation ,

the farmers have now de-

manded the Agriculture de-

partment to offer help and

procure their produce to

avoid further loss.

Guidelines for saleof fish, poultry

CORRESPONDENT

HAFLONG, April 16: As

a precautionary measure

against COVID-19, the Dima

Hasao district administration

has allowed door-to-door

sale of fish, meat and poultry

products in Dima Hasao

twice a week.

The Animal Husbandry

and Veterinary department

will prepare a system for sale

and purchase of fodder and

feed in the district and main-

tain a record of vehicle pass-

es for both government and

private vehicles used for pur-

chase of fodder and feed from

other districts. However,

only one vehicle is allowed

per day with mandatory ve-

hicle details to be mentioned

in the pass along with the

name of the helper and driv-

er. The retail outlets for sale

of fodder and feed will open

only twice a week.

For sale of meat or fish,

selected vendors will be is-

sued passes for house-to-

house sale, area-wise and

only twice in a week while

strictly maintaining social

distancing during sale. It is

to be mentioned that proper

hygiene is to be maintained

at all times while selling.

Sale of meat or fish at

shops has not been permit-

ted yet. However, price hike

of 20 per cent above the gov-

ernment-approved rate is

permissible. Laying stress on

strictly maintaining social

distancing during sales, the

district administration has

also ordered that in case of

any violation of the guide-

lines, people shall attract

penalties as per provisions of

the Disaster Management

Act, 2005 and cancellation of

permission.

Officials of the 129 Bn of the CRPF distributing food items at Bhadeyaguri in Chirangdistrict on Thursday. – Photo: ANN Service, Gossaigaon

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 9BUSINESS & ECONOMY

NEW DELHI, April 16: Highlighting the piv-otal role played by IMF in maintaining stability ofthe international monetary and financial system,Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister NirmalaSitharaman today said that the multilateral financ-ing body should continue rendering this criticalrole to the global financial architecture.

The Finance Minister said this during theplenary meeting of the International Monetaryand Financial Committee, the ministerial-lev-

el committee of the International MonetaryFund (IMF), which she attended through vid-eo-conference.

The discussions at the meeting were basedon IMF Managing Director’s global policy agen-da titled, ‘Exceptional Times – ExceptionalAction’.

The members of the IMFC updated thecommittee on the actions and measures takenby member countries to combat COVID-19,and also remarked on IMF’s crisis-responsepackage to address global liquidity and mem-bers’ financing needs.

During her intervention, Sitharaman outlinedvarious measures taken in India to respond tothe health crisis as well as to mitigate its im-pact. In this regard, she mentioned about allo-cation of $2 billion (Rs 15,000 crore) by theGovernment of India for strengthening thehealthcare system; announcement of a schemeof social support measures amounting to $23

NEW DELHI, April 16: Morethan 20 lakh jobs are at risk in In-dia’s aviation space and depend-ent sectors in the wake of thecoronavirus pandemic, accordingto global airlines’ grouping IATA.

Commercial flight services havebeen suspended till May 3 as thegovernment has extended the na-tionwide lockdown in continuingefforts to curb spreading of coro-navirus infection, which has al-ready affected more than 11,000people in the country.

Faced with challenging businessconditions, some domestic air-lines have resorted to leave with-out pay and layoff of expat pilots.

Against the backdrop of the cur-rent situation that has also result-ed in substantial economic disrup-

FM underlines IMF’s role in maintainingstability of global financial system

billion (Rs 1.70-lakh crore) to alleviate the hard-ship of the poor and the vulnerable; provisionof relief to firms in statutory and regulatorycompliance matters; easing of monetary policyby the RBI; and three-month moratorium onloan instalments.

The Finance Minister also informed theIMFC about India’s role as a responsible mem-ber of the global community by providing crit-ical medicines to other nations. She also men-tioned about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s

initiative of creating a COVID-19 EmergencyFund for the SAARC region at the SAARCleaders’ video-meeting.

The IMFC meets twice a year, once duringthe Fund-Bank annual meetings in October, andagain during the spring meetings in April. Thecommittee discusses matters of common con-cern affecting the global economy and advisesthe IMF on the direction of its work. This year,due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the meetingtook place through video-conference. – IANS

COVID-19 pandemic

Over 20 lakh jobs at risk, says IATAtions, the IATA said airlines in In-dia are also not spared.

The International Air TransportAssociation (IATA) today said thatairlines globally are now facing anexistential crisis as a result of theCOVID-19 outbreak.

“Airlines in India are not spared.Passenger revenue is expected tofall by more than $8.8 billion andpassenger demand decline by 36per cent. This puts over 2 million(over 20 lakh) jobs at risk, includingsectors that are dependent on avia-tion,” Albert Tjoeng, Assistant Di-rector for Corporate Communica-tions (Asia Pacific) at IATA, said.

He told PTI that the priority forthe Indian government is to ensurethat airlines have sufficient cash flowto tide them over this period, byproviding direct financial support,facilitating loans, loan guarantees,and support for the corporate bondmarket. “Taxes, levies, and airportand aeronautical charges for the in-dustry should also be fully or par-tially waived,” he added.

The IATA is a grouping of around290 airlines, including Air India,Vistara, IndiGo and SpiceJet.

Globally, Albert Tjoeng said,IATA is expecting a revenue lossof $314 billion and passenger de-mand to fall by 48 per cent com-pared to 2019. Airlines are facinga liquidity crisis, burning $61 bil-lion of their cash reserves in the

second quarter of 2020, he added.On Tuesday, IATA Director

General and CEO Alexandre deJuniac said the industry’s outlookgrows darker by the day.

“The scale of the crisis makes asharp V-shaped recovery unlikely.Realistically, it will be a U-shaped re-covery with domestic travel com-ing back faster than the internationalmarket. We could see more than halfof passenger revenues disappear.That would be a $314 billion hit,” hehad said. He had also said that air-lines could burn through $61 billionof cash reserves in the second quar-ter alone. “That puts at risk 25 mil-lion jobs dependent on aviation. Andwithout urgent relief, many airlineswill not survive to lead the econom-ic recovery,” he had said. – PTI

Indian aviation,dependent sectors

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attends the plenary meeting of the International Monetary

and Financial Committee of IMF through video-conference, in New Delhi on Thursday. – PTI

NEW DELHI, April 16: TheCentre has formed guidelines onrefund of air tickets which werebooked during the first and theextended lockdown periods.

In an office memorandum, theMinistry of Civil Aviation acknowl-edged the unusual situation that hasarisen due to the lockdown and itsconsequential effect on the air pas-sengers and airlines. At present,domestic and international commer-cial flights are banned since March25, 2020, barring cargo operations.

To deal with massive cancella-tions, domestic airlines started tooffer credit to the passengers inlieu of their booking amounts.These credits can be used to booktickets at a later stage, when thesituation normalises.

However, discrepancies haveoccurred on the refund mechanism.The first phase of lockdown wassupposed to have ended on April

KOLKATA, April 16: The Com-merce Ministry is working on afinancial package for the tea indus-try which has been reeling under acrisis in the wake of the coronavi-rus outbreak, Tea Board ChairmanPK Bezbaruah said today.

Production has been hit badlyas tea gardens across the countrywere closed due to the nationwidelockdown to contain the spread ofthe disease, he said.

Recently, West Bengal and As-sam, two big tea producing Statesin the country, have allowed op-erations in the estates with re-stricted workforce.

The planters were asked tomaintain social distancing normsand take proper safety precau-tions in the tea gardens.

“The Commerce Ministry isworking on a financial package forthe battered tea industry whichhas been hit by the lockdown,”Bezbaruah told PTI.

There will be a “drastic reductionin volume this year due to the lock-down, and this could be to the ex-tent of 120- 125 million kg,” he said.

NEW DELHI, April 16: Retire-ment fund body EPFO settled3.31 lakh PF withdrawal claimsworth over Rs 945 crore in last15 days to give relief to the mem-bers during the lockdown.

The provision, which was notifedon March 28, 2020, for special with-drawal from the EPF Scheme totide over the COVID-19 pandemicas part of the Pradhan Mantri GaribKalyan Yojana (PMGKY) package,has provided timely relief to theworking class of the nation, a La-bour Ministry statement said.

Since the introduction of this pro-gramme, in just 15 days Employ-ees’ Provident Fund Organisation(EPFO) has processed 3.31 lakhclaims disbursing an amount of Rs946.49 crore, the ministry said.

In addition, an amount of Rs 284crore has been distributed by theexempted PF Trusts under this

NEW DELHI, April 16: Mobile phones, televi-sions, readymade garments and stationery items willbe allowed to be sold on e-commerce platforms likeAmazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal during the lockdownfrom April 20, officials said today.

The clarification from a senior Home Ministry of-ficial came a day after Union Home Secretary AjayBhalla issued revised guidelines for the extendedlockdown period till May 3.

Electronic items like mobile phones, TVs, refrig-erators, laptops will be available one-commerce platforms from April20, the official told PTI. Readymadegarments and stationery items for school childrenwill also be available on the e-commerce platforms.

“Along with essential commodities like groceriesand medicines, non-essential items are also allowedto be sold by the e-commerce companies,” anotherofficial said.

However, the delivery vans of the e-commercecompanies will need permission from authorities toply on roads. According to fresh guidelines issued onWednesday, commercial and private establishmentsare being allowed to operate during the extendedlockdown period.

“Vehicles used by e-commerce operators willbe allowed to ply with necessary permissions,”

Bandhan Bank sees noproblem in loan repayments

Commerce Ministryworking on package forsector: Tea Board chief

The country had produced around1,380 million kg of tea last year.

Assam and West Bengal al-lowed 50 per cent and 25 per centworkforce respectively to startoperations in the gardens, but thiswill not suffice to maintain the pro-duction volume at a decent level,Bezbaruah said.

Operations with 50 per cent work-force have also been allowed in thetwo others tea producing regions –Kerala and Nilgiris, he added.

A list of suggestions regardingthe financial package was sent tothe Commerce Ministry whenthe lockdown started, he said.

The proposals included en-hancement of working capital lim-it by 20 per cent, bringing downthe interest rates and waiver ofpenalty for deferred loan repay-ment, Bezbaruah said.

“This (the package) will bear amarginal cost to the governmentand will not be much,” he said.

Bezbaruah also urged the gov-ernment to pay the provident fundfor all the tea garden workers fora period of three months. – PTI

PF withdrawals

EPFO settles 3.31 lakhclaims worth over

Rs 945 cr in 15 daysscheme, notable among them be-ing TCS, it added.

Under this provision, non-re-fundable withdrawal to the extentof the basic wages and dearnessallowances for three months orup to 75 per cent of the amountstanding to member’s credit in theEPF account, whichever is less,is admissible.

The member can apply for less-er amount also. This being an ad-vance, does not attract income taxdeductions, it stated.

EPFO is committed to serve itsmembers during this crisis, and itsoffices are functional to maintainthe continuity of essential servic-es even in difficult situations.

The availability of these facili-ties through online services hasbrought much relief to the needysubscribers during the lockdownperiod, it added. – PTI

Centre forms guidelinesfor refund of air tickets

14, but it has been extended till May3. “If a passenger has booked a tick-et during the first lockdown peri-od... for travel during the same pe-riod for both domestic and interna-tional air travel and refund is soughtby the passenger against that book-ing being cancelled, the airline shallrefund the full amount collectedwithout the levy of cancellation

charge,” the ministry said.The guideline mandates air-

lines to make the refund withinthree weeks from the date of re-quest for cancellation.

“If a passenger has booked aticket during the first lockdownperiod... for travel during the sec-ond lockdown period for both do-mestic and international air trav-el and the passenger seeks refundon cancellation of the ticket, the

airline shall refund the full amountcollected without levy of cancel-lation charge.”

Similarly in this case, the air-lines have been mandated to makerefunds within a period of threeweeks from the date of requestfor cancellation.

On Wednesday, senior officialsfrom the Ministry of Civil Aviationvia a virtual platform met airlineCEOs on the issue. In hindsight,private airlines were acceptingticket bookings for travel post April14. However, the earlier lockdowndeadline got extended till May 3.Consequently, airlines adoptedtheir previous strategy of provid-ing a “travel credits” to passen-gers of the now cancelled flights tomake another booking as and whenthe sector reopens.

This system is complicated as tick-eting agents and various paymentchannels are also involved. – IANS

National lockdown

Mobiles, TVs, readymade garmentsto be available from April 20

the ministry said.The previous notifications of the Home Ministry

had specifically said that e-commerce platforms areallowed to sell only essential goods like food, phar-maceuticals and medical devices.

The new guidelines did not classify essential andnon-essential items.

The move is being viewed as an attempt by thegovernment to revive industrial and commercial ac-tivities which have been stalled due to the lockdown

since March 25.A large number of people are

engaged in the logistics and deliv-ery works of such e-commerce platforms. By open-ing the sector, the government is trying to protectthe interests of this large segment of employees.

The guidelines also said: “All facilities in the sup-ply chain of essential goods, whether involved in man-ufacturing, wholesale or retail of such goods throughlocal stores, large brick and mortar stores or e-com-merce companies should be allowed to operate, en-suring strict social distancing, without any restric-tion on their timing of opening and closure.”

The government has also allowed movement ofall trucks and other goods/carrier vehicles with twodrivers and one helper subject to the driver carryinga valid driving licence. – PTI

Hyundai handsover advanced

COVID-19 testingkits to ICMR

BUSINESS REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16: Country’ssecond largest auto-maker HyundaiMotor India Ltd (HMIL) today hand-ed over COVID-19 advanced diag-nostic testing kits to Indian Councilof Medical Research (ICMR).

The globally proven diagnostickits worth Rs 4 crore, which havebeen imported from South Ko-rea, offer high level of accuracyand can cater to the testing re-quirements of over 25,000 indi-viduals, an HMIL statement said,adding that the same diagnostickits are also being exported to theUSA, Europe and other countries.

“As a socially responsible and car-ing brand, Hyundai is committed tothe fight against COVID-19. To pro-vide further assistance to the gov-ernment’s efforts, we have handedover globally proven COVID-19advanced diagnostic testing kits im-ported from South Korea,” thestatement quoted SS Kim, MD &CEO, HMIL, as saying about thehandover of kits.

Hyundai has taken a series ofinitiatives to assist the govern-ments in the battle against COV-ID-19, including donation of Rs 5crore to TN CM’s Relief Fund,supply of ventilators and otherrespiratory aids, distribution ofPPEs, masks and other safety kits,and distribution of dry rations toadversely impacted sections ofsociety, it said.

Hyundai will also offer extend-ed support of 2 months to cus-tomers who were unable to availvehicle’s warranty/extendedwarranty/free service due tohealth emergency or dealershipshutdown in affected cities, be-sides the ongoing roadside assist-ance service to customers (doc-tors/police/bankers, etc.) who arein essential services, the state-ment added.

E-commerce platforms

COVID-19 leavespvt healthcare

sector in financialdistress: studyNEW DELHI, April 16: The

private healthcare sector in thecountry is witnessing an unprec-edented slowdown due to out-break of COVID-19 in India andthe resultant lockdown, accordingto a FICCI-EY study.

“The pandemic has caused anadverse impact on the privatehealthcare sector resulting in 70-80 per cent drop in footfall, testvolumes and 50-70 per cent dropin revenue in last ten days ofMarch that is expected to sustainin month of April with continuedlockdown,” the study said.

Possible ramp up will be gradu-al thereafter, taking at least threequarters for return to normalcy,according to the study titled,‘COVID-19 impact assessmentfor private healthcare sector andkey financial measures recom-mendations for the sector’.

“With an estimated impact ofRs 14,000-24,000 crore operatinglosses for the quarter, the sectorwould need liquidity infusion, in-direct and direct tax benefits, andfixed cost subsidies from the gov-ernment to address the disrup-tion,” the study said.

According to FICCI HealthServices Committee Chair AlokRoy, the financial distress accen-tuated by COVID-19 lockdownhas forced several standaloneand small nursing homes in tier-II and III cities to pull down theshutters.

Many others are at high risk ofclosing down soon since theircash flows have dried up, due tosteep decline in patient footfalls,and they are facing liquidity cri-sis for even sustaining their staffsalaries, he added. – PTI

Lockdown

KOLKATA, April 16: Privatelender Bandhan Bank does notapprehend any repayment is-sues owing to the nationwidelockdown to contain the spreadof COVID-19, a top official of thebank said.

Recovery, however, has beenhalted at present dueto the curbs.

MD and CEO ofBandhan Bank ChandrasekharGhosh said repayments should notbe a cause for concern as borrow-ers’ businesses are continuing.

“Recovery of micro loans fromborrowers have stopped fromMarch 23,” Ghosh told PTI.

He said since bank personnelcannot physically go to collect theloan repayment amount, the out-standing will remain at the previ-ous level.

Ghosh said interest will be re-

covered at the time of repayment,irrespective of whether the cus-tomer opted for the three-monthRBI moratorium.

“We are explaining to our cus-tomers that the costs involved inopting for the moratorium are highsince the interest will be com-

pounded at the time ofrepayment,” anotherbank official said.

In case of microfinance, repay-ments are made on a weekly ba-sis (equated weekly instalments),and not as EMIs.

The official said most of thebank’s customers are apprised ofthe costs of opting for the mora-torium and are agreeable to re-pay as per schedule.

As on March 31, BandhanBank’s total loan book stood at Rs71,825 crore, reflecting a 60 percent year-on-year growth. – PTI

Govt waivesrental of firms

in STPI till JuneNEW DELHI, April 16: IT

companies operating in SoftwareTechnology Parks of India (STPI)will not have to pay rent for fourmonths starting March 1, 2020 inthe wake of the coronavirus out-break and the lockdown.

“In view of the challenges thrownby COVID-19 outbreak and conse-quent lockdown, the NarendraModi Government today took amajor decision to provide relief frompayment of rental to the small ITunits operating out of the STPI,”Ministry of Electronics and IT (Me-itY) said in a statement. Around 266companies operate in STPI with atotal employee strength of over4,100. Most of these units are ei-ther medium and small technologyenterprises or start-ups.

“The MeitY has decided to pro-vide rental waiver to these unitshoused in STPI premises in thecountry from March 1, 2020 till June30, 2020, i.e., for 4-month periodas of now,” the statement said.

STPI is an autonomous societyunder MeitY and it has 60 centresacross the country, it added. – PTI

LOCKHORNS

THE PHANTOM ® By Lee Falk

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE

BLONDIE

Know your DAYBy JACQUELINE BIGAR

HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Friday, April 17, 2020:

With serious purpose you expect to be listened to, and this year you are not

disappointed. You may change your mind in your career direction but even with

added pressures you do well. A turn for the better in your fortune is likely. If

single, you meet someone new and become a couple very quickly. If attached,

do not be critical. Your partner needs extra reassurance now. PISCES is way

sensitive and vulnerable.

The Stars Show the Kind of Day You’ll Have: 5-Dynamic; 4-Positive; 3-

Average; 2-So-so; 1-Difficult.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

H Longstanding communication problems with a child or roman-

tic interest can be overcome today. Talk and listen openly and hon-

estly and give plenty of time for what needs to be said. The result of this is a

deep sense of connectedness. Bravo. Tonight: Early bedtime.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

H HH Kindness and patience are of the utmost importance today.

Be on guard and avoid repeating patterns. A past life connection with

a social group you are dealing with is being played out. Reflect on karmic

connections in order to facilitate trust and acceptance. Tonight: Relax.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

H HH You might enjoy experimenting with new forms of meditation

and prayer today. Too much ritual and formality will generate restless-

ness for Gemini. Keep incantations short. A light heart sings a sweet song.

Tonight: The gods and goddesses are apt to respond to humor and novelty.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

H A new perspective regarding challenging situations develops

today. This is good for talking through problems and finding an-

swers. Be a good listener. Honesty and ethical behavior provide the stand-

ards for success. Tonight: Talk with a friend who lives a long ways away

from you.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

HH H Today, charming and eloquent companions go out of their

way to include you in their plans. A telepathic exchange can even

occur, providing a deeper glimpse into the heart and mind of a partner. Tonight:

Go over financial strategies as sources of security are shifting.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

HH H Do not lose focus today. Dissipating precious energy will end

in frustration. You enjoy the peace and beauty of nature. Performing an

act of kindness for one who is ill will bring a personal blessing. Tonight: Intimate

date night, even if virtual.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

HHH Today will be exciting but extremely hectic. Don’t become over-

whelmed: It is all good news. Lovers offer valuable information. Stay

centered with your daily session of relaxation techniques. Tonight: Take care of

your body and honor it as a temple of spirit.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

H Ask elders for guidance. Delve into your family’s heritage. Set

aside a corner of your home to create a personal altar. Decorate it with

a familiar keepsake. A great depth of spiritual understanding will follow, which

you will find comforting. Tonight: Chat with friends.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

H Social prospects are happy today. An existing relationship

can strengthen or a new one develops. A talented and well-mannered

person includes you in plans and invitations. Make sure you spare time for a

child who needs your attention. Tonight: Online retail therapy.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

HHH Today brings helpful guidance from friends, so seek an opinion

or request advice. You will feel like keeping to yourself, but if you do

this you will advance. There is an urge to contribute on a professional level.

Take time to relax. Tonight: Be yourself.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

HH Today is your day. You especially enjoy exchanging notes

with a new prospect who has suddenly caught your eye. A degree of

freedom in a committed situation is essential to your happiness, so make sure

this prospect is independently minded. Tonight: As you like it.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

H You gain a deeper awareness of who you are and what your

life means today. Prepare for secrets to come to light. You might even

get a glimpse into the motivations of others as well as a message from the spirit

world. Tonight: Show off.

H H

Thought for the day

You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.

– ANTON CHEKHOV

I am as confounded by dogs as I am ___

to them. – Roger A. Caras (8)

Words: Educe, sixty, docent, billed.

Answer: I am as confounded by dogs as

I am indebted to them. – Roger A. Caras

Given below are four jumbled words. Solvethe jumbles to make proper words and movethem to the respective squares below. Selectthe letters in the shaded squares and jumblethem to get the answer for the given quip.

JUMBLED WORDSHEALTH CAPSULES®

by Bron Smith

Health Capsules is not intendedto be of a diagnostic nature.

CROSSWORD - 6870

Across:1 Wick, 4 Emblem, 8 Spa, 10 Scan, 13 Iterates, 14

Penance, 15 Setter, 17 September, 21 Boy, 22 Eat, 23 Axe, 26

Kshatriya, 27 Pariah, 28 Lasagna, 32 Asphodel, 34 Sign, 35 GMT,

36 Halide, 37 Seth.

Down: 1 Wasp, 2 Clan, 3 Epic, 5 Murder, 6 Lot, 7 Misery, 9 Ate,

11 Celeb, 12 Nasty, 15 Seta, 16 Taxi, 18 Pour, 19 Mesh, 20 Bah, 23

Areas, 24 Eying, 25 Splash, 26 Kayoed, 28 Leg, 29 Alms, 30 Give,

31 Ankh, 33 Pal.

SOLUTION

SOLUTION TO TRIBUNE CROSSWORD – 6870

Across

1 Candle fibre (4)

4 Symbol (6)

8 Health resort (3)

10 Look at (4)

13 States repeat-

edly (8)

14 Act of contrition

(7)

15 Breed of gun-

dog (6)

17 Ninth month of

the year (9)

21 Lad (3)

22 Consume (3)

23 Chopping tool

(3)

26 The warrior as

per Indian caste

system ? (9)

27 Outcast (6)

28 Wide flat pasta

strips (7)

32 A flowering plant -

“shop deal” ana-

gram ? (8)

34 Indication (4)

35 Greenwich Mean

Time (3)

36 A compound con-

taining a halogen

(6)

37 Third son of Adam

(4)

Down

1 Insect (4)

2 Family (4)

3 Heroic story (4)

5 Homicide (6)

6 Destiny (3)

7 Wretchedness (6)

9 Had a bite (3)

11 One in the spot-

light (5)

12 Beastly (5)

15 Bristle (4)

16 Car for hire (4)

18 Come out in a

stream (4)

19 Network (4)

20 Exclamation of

contempt (3)

23 Regions (5)

24 Regarding (5)

25 Spatter (6)

26 Knocked out in

boxing match (6)

28 A lower limb (3)

29 Charitable gifts (4)

30 Bestow (4)

31 Egyptian symbol

of life (4)

33 Comrade (3)

07:45 Pratham Xongbad

14:00 Biyolir Headline

16:00 Abelir Khabar

16:30 Superfast Prime Time100

17:00 City18

18:00 Prime Time18

19:00 Dintur Shironam

20:00 Porjyobekhyon

21:30 Aparadh Nama

22:00 North East Scan

22:30 Noixo Xironam

08:30 Devotional Music08:45 Swachh Bharat Batori

08.50 Batori

15:00 Vigyan Prasar

15:30 Classical Music

16:00 Abelir Batori

16:05 Akholor Juti

16:30 Chiphung

17:00 Nimishote Batori

17:02 DD Kisan TV Serial in Hindi

17:30 Krishi Darshan

18:00 Dharabahik

18:30 Batori

18:45 NE News

12:00 Oggy And The Cock...

15:30 The Tom & Jerry Show

15:30 Tom And Jerry: Back to Oz

16:00 Oggy And The Cock...

21:30 The Tom & Jerry Show

22:30 Courage, Cowardly Dog

23:00 Ben 10

23:30 Teleshopping

12:00 Chhota Bheem

12:30 Grizzy And The Lemm...

13:30 Chhota Bheem

14:30 Grizzy And The Lemm...

15:30 Chhota Bheem

16:30 Grizzy And The Lemm...

17:30 Chhota Bheem

18:30 Chhota Bheem Neeli..

20:00 Super Bheem

21:00 Grizzy And The Lemm...

22:00 Mr. Bean: The Animated...

23:00 M.A.D.

23:30 Teleshopping

12:00 Africa's Wild Side

13:00 Wild Families

14:00 Wolves of Yellowstone

15:00 Survival Of The Fittest

16:00 The Lakeshore Killers

17:00 Built For The Kill

18:00 World's Weirdest

19:00 Wild Pals

20:00 Survival Of The Fittest

21:00 India's Wild Leopards

22:00 Hostile Planet

23:00 Dangerous Encounters

12:00 Snakes in The City

13:00 Running Wild/Bear Grylls

14:00 Adventure: Primal Survivor

15:00 Science of Stupid

07:00 Breakfast Live08:00 Live at 809:00 Good morning Assam10:00 Assamese news11:30 Kotha Barta (R)12:00 Mid Day Live13:00 Assamese Telefilm14:30 Afternoon Prime17:30 Guwahati Bisesh18:00 Guwahati Live18:30 Breaking @ 6:3019:00 Assamesse Prime Time20:00 Discussion Show21:00 Super Prime Time22:00 Live at 1022:30 Noixo Guwahati

23:00 Noixo Batori

1700 Xopun1730 Barala Kai1830 Xopunor Aasutia Rang2000 Jonaki Kareng2030 Xopun2100 Oi Khapla2130 Bah Amarawati Bah2200 Borola Kai

14:30 IPL HLs

15:00 ICC WC T20I

18:30 Sledge Hammer

19:00 ICC World T20 HLs

20:00 IPL HLs

21:00 ICC World T20 HLs

22:00 IPL HLs

23:00 Ind vs Aus ODI HLs

23:00 Hero ISL HLs

14:30 IPL HLs

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As people adopt social distancing meas-

ures to fight the COVID-19 pandemic,

every mom should know that newborns

are most prone to infections as their immune

system is still developing, and hence, they

should be protected from infection-causing

germs and bacteria.

Simple tips like washing your hands before

feeding your baby, after changing a nappy, after

touching pets or any surface and not mixing

baby's clothes with that of an adult can go a

long way in protecting your baby from

infections, health experts said.

These measures need to be followed

every day, not just during the period of the

pandemic.

"Hygiene plays a key role in keeping your

baby healthy. It reduces the chance of your

baby falling ill due to the germs and virus she

is exposed to every day. So, to ensure baby's

safety, parents should maintain good hygiene,

especially mothers, since the baby spends a lot

of time with her," said Dr Prathibha Babshet,

Ayurveda expert, The Himalaya Drug

Company.

Your hands carry germs and bacteria that

most often cause the common cold, flu, and

other infections.

Washing your hands properly and regularly

for a minimum of 20 seconds with water and

soap is essential to remove harmful bacteria

and germs, Dr Prathibha said.

It is equally important to encourage your

toddler to wash hands. Keep a sanitizer with

you at all times, just in case you do not have

the option to wash your hands, she said.

While your baby is playing, crawling, or

running, she comes in contact with floor

surfaces and almost everything in the

house. This exposes her to all kinds of

bacteria. Therefore, make sure to clean

surfaces with disinfectants, the Ayurveda

expert advised.

New mothers should also remember that it

is natural for your baby to create a mess while

crawling, playing, or eating.

A good bath is necessary to keep your baby

clean and tidy. Make sure you replace your

baby's bath towel every 3-4 months, she said,

adding that it is equally important for the

mother to maintain basic hygiene, which will

prevent germs from passing on to the baby.

As baby's clothes and diapers get soiled

every other hour, make sure you change the

diaper every 2-3 hours and clean or wipe the

baby's bottom also.

Keeping your nails long can cause a

bacterial infection because dirt can accumulate

in your nails.

(Source: IANS)

Newborn hygieneHealth experts give tips on hygiene rules for

moms of newborn babies

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 202010 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 11FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020

STATE

Two arrestedfor arson

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

DIBRUGARH, April 16:

Police have arrested the two

persons accused in setting

ablaze some seven shops in

Greenwood tea estate area

on Sunday.

According to police,

around 11 pm on April 12,

miscreants set fire to a ra-

tion shop owned by one Na-

zir Hussain of Niz Khania

Gaon under Rohmoria PS.

The same miscreants had si-

multaneously set fire to an-

other six shops in 40 no. line

of Greenwood TE, under La-

howal police station. One of

those six shops was owned

by the same person Nazir

Hussain.

On joint investigation by

OC, Lahowal and OC, Roh-

moria, the two were arrest-

ed yesterday, police in-

formed. The accused are Md

Alam Ali alias Alam Zafar

(32), s/o Lt Abdul Gafar, Pal-

tan Bazar, Chandmari and Md

Jiarul Haque alias Muna (32),

s/o Md Khairul Haque of

Chaulkhowa.

One seriouslyhurt in knife

attackA CORRESPONDENT

NAGAON, April 16: In a

dispute last night, a gang of

miscreants injured one Nitu

Das severely with a sharp

knife at Amolapatty Red

Cross Chariali in the town and

fled away from the spot be-

fore the police arrived.

According to sources, the

seriously injured youth was

immediately admitted to the

Nagaon Swahid Bhugeswari

Phookonani Civil Hospital.

Police have registered a case

in this regard and started in-

vestigation. But no one has

been arrested till the filing of

this report.

The sources said here this

afternoon that the youth had

indulged in a dispute with the

gang for an unknown issue at

around 10:30 pm on Wednes-

day and during the dispute,

one of the members of the

gang attacked Nitu Das with

a sharp knife following which

all of them fled from the spot.

Meanwhile, the local resi-

dents of the area have identi-

fied three of the gang mem-

bers who are now absconding.

One dies inboat mishapCORRESPONDENT

DHUBRI, April 16: One

Sher Ali (56) died after his boat

sank in the Brahmaputra near

New Ghat area under Dhubri

Police Station on Wednesday

morning due to a storm.

According to police, Sher

Ali and his son Mohor Ali

went to the river for fishing

on Wednesday morning.

However, due to a storm

their boat sank. Though,

Mohor survived, his father

drowned, police said.

Police constablecommits suicideSTAFF CORRESPONDENT

DIBRUGARH, April 16:

One police constable of the

Traffic branch identified as

Rupjyoti Kalita reportedly

committed suicide at his rent-

ed house in Bishnunagar here.

The cause of his extreme step

could not be ascertained. Kali-

ta hailed from Titabor.

OBITUARY

Akhilesh MishraCORRESPONDENT

DOOMDOOMA, April 16:

Former vice-chairman of

Doomdooma Municipal Board

(DMB), veteran Congress-

man and vice-president of Ka-

kopothar Block Congress

Committee Akhilesh Mishra

passed away this morning at a

private nursing home in Di-

brugarh. He was 68 and suf-

fering from kidney-related ail-

ments.

Before the cremation, the

mortal remains of Mishra was

taken to the office of the Doom-

dooma Municipal Board and

the Rajiv Bhawan here to pay

the last tributes. Doomdooma

MLA Durga Bhumij also con-

doled the demise of Mishra.

A resident of Doomdooma

town, Mishra leaves behind

his wife, two sons and a host of

relatives.

CORRESPONDENT

BISWANATH CHARIALI,

April 16: Chief Minister Sar-

bananda Sonowal reviewed

the situation in Biswanath

district today arising out of the

COVID-19 pandemic at a

high-level meeting held in the

conferrence hall of the office

of the Deputy Commisioner

of Biswanath district.

Addressing the meeting,

Sonowal said that the State

gevernment has undertaken

all necessary steps for clamp-

ing total lockdown following

the revised guidelines of the

Central government during

the second phase of the lock-

down. He said that the gov-

ernment had given permis-

sion to farmers to engage in

agricultural activities and,

hence, he ordered the district

Agriculture department to

ensure that the farmers were

not harassed in any way. He

instructed the district admin-

istration to form some super-

visory units in the tea gardens

of Biswanath district to super-

vise the compliance of the

standard operational proce-

dures including social distanc-

ing in work places, factories

etc., by tea garden labourers.

Likewise, he also asked the

administration to ensure ful-

filling the interest of the small

tea growers in the district.

The Chief Minister in-

structed the Deputy Com-

missioner to hold meetings

regularly with the Minister-

in-Charge of the district, par-

liamentarians and MLAs for

resolving problems that

might arise due to the ongo-

ing lockdown. He observed

that nine lakh people of Biswa-

nath district should not face

any dificulty in availing essen-

tial commodities and servic-

es and asked the departments

concerned to ensure public

safety. He called upon the of-

ficers and employees to work

honestly, friendly and devot-

edly. The meeting was well

attended by State Minister

Ranjit Dutta, MLAs Padma

Hazarika, Utpal Borah,

Prashanta Phukan, Deputy

Commissioner Dhruva Jyoti

Das, Superintendant of Police

Rajen Singh, Gohpur SDO

(Civil) Narendra Kumar Shah

and others.

Later, Sonowal addressed

a press meet in which he ex-

pressed his gratitude to all the

departments including

Health, Home, Food and Civ-

il Supplies, media persons

etc., for their restless work

in the society during the out-

break of COVID-19.

Sonowal reviews COVID-19scene at Biswanath

Hindu MilanMandir donatesfor corona reliefOUR BUREAU

DIBRUGARH, April 16:

The executive comittee of

the Dibrugarh Hindu Milan

Mandir today donated Rs

50,000 towards the Assam

Arogya Nidhi. The cheque

was handed over to

Additional Deputy Com-

missioner Susanta Kumar

Dutta by a delegation of the

mandir committee,

comprising Madhusudan

Ghosh (president), Sudip

Kumar Banik (vice

president), Debnath Lahiri

(secretary) and joint

secretaries Pranabendu

Ghosh and Kamakhy

Chakraborty.

Relief distributedANN SERVICE

PATACHARKUCHI,

April 16: In a bid to provide

relief to the needy families

here during the ongoing

nationwide lockdown, a

section of people, including

a senior advocate and

notary public, Bajali,

Giridhar Choudhury, has

been distributing food

items in different parts of

the subdivision.

Choudhury distributed

packets of essential

commodities among 30

needy families at Kharad-

hara here today. The needy

families from different

communities belong to

Bilpar, Nizsathisamuka,

Khatpar, Pahala and Barjar

villages under three gaon

panchayats.

During distribution, he

appealed to the villagers to

follow the lockdown strictly

and strengthen the age-old

bond of unity in the society.

Mahendra Das, a social

worker, along with the

representatives of Kharad-

hara Unnayan Samiti and

the Kali Puja Celebration

Committee, helped in the

smooth distribution of food

items and maintaining

proper social distancing.

Workers maintaining social distance after plucking leaves at a tea garden near Jorhat, on Thursday. – UB Photos

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

DIBRUGARH, April 16:

Allaying apprehensions

among the tea garden work-

ers that their wages and oth-

er entitlements accrued dur-

ing the 19-day industry clo-

sure due to the lockdown

would be deducted in the lat-

er working season, State La-

bour Welfare Minister San-

jay Kishan today said that the

plantation industry must pay

wages and distribute the ra-

tions to all its workers not-

withstanding the loss the in-

dustry has incurred during

the 19 days.

“There is a departmental

order in which all employers

and managements have been

asked to pay wages on due

dates and also give the la-

bourers the rations they de-

serve without any deduction.

At this time of crisis the in-

dustry has to make the pay-

ment,” the Minister said

while replying to newsmen

here today at the Circuit

House. The Minister was

here to attend a joint review

meeting of the Labour De-

partment, Food and Civil

Supplies Department, Agri-

culture Department, Veteri-

nary and Animal Husbandry

and other allied industries.

Agriculture Minister Atul

Bora, Food and Civil Supply

Minister Phani Bhusan

Choudhury and Revenue and

Disaster Management Min-

ister Jogen Mohan and other

MLAs and officials of the de-

partments concerned also at-

tended the meeting.

TEs must pay wages toworkers for lockdownperiod, says Minister

336-year-old tradition broken atBiswanath Ghat temple

CORRESPONDENT

BISWANATH CHARIALI,

April 16: A 336-year-old tra-

dition was broken on Wednes-

day at historic Biswanath

Ghat temple on account of the

ongoing lockdown. The tem-

ple, better known as ‘Gupta

Kashi’ is situated on the bank

of the river Brahmaputra in

Biswanath district and around

15 kilometres away from

Biswanath Chariali town to-

wards the south of the NH-

15. The tradition is that the

idol of Lord Shiva is carried

to a nearby village, Bhirgaon

on a dola covering a distance

of five kilometres and is wor-

shipped in a temple there for

the day.

It is returned to the origi-

nal site in the evening. People

offer pooja-archana to the

deity along the road. Accord-

ing to information, the tradi-

tion was started by Ahom king

Gadadhar Singha in 1684 and

since then it has been carried

out every year without any

break. But this time, the au-

thorities in the temple decid-

ed to move the deity around

the temple for three times

only and thus concluded the

programme adhering to so-

cial distancing and other

norms strictly. The district

and police administration

made adequate security ar-

rangements for it.

A CORRESPONDENT

NAGAON, April 16: Amid

the ongoing nationwide lock-

down called in wake of the

COVID-19 outbreak, the offi-

cials and other staff of Nagaon

District Transport Office, the

commandant and other staff of

the 9th Assam Police Battal-

ion, Barhampur, together ex-

tended their helping hands to

those needy and daily wage

earners of the society and dis-

tributed packets of essential

goods among them at various

locations in the district.

As per information received,

the commandant of the Battal-

ion, Hitesh Roy, following the

appeal of the government went

ahead to help those needy peo-

ple in and around greater

Barhampur area and distribut-

ed rice, dal, sugar, milk, mus-

tard oil, wheat flour and tea

leaves among around 350 fam-

ilies of Barhampur Adar-

shagaon, Shivasthan, Panigaon,

Nedhorgaon, Putoni, Ghugor-

gaon, Rongajan, Sonarigaon and

other nearby villages of great-

er Barhampur area.

The battalion significantly

used a total of 12 trucks to car-

ry the essential commodities

during the distribution.

It may be mentioned that

the commandant of the battal-

ion initiated strict measures

during the distribution so that

no photo or video of distribu-

tion would go viral in the so-

cial media.

Similarly, under the special

pursuance of DTO, Nagaon,

Ranjib Kr Boruah, the officials

as well as other staff of Na-

gaon District Transport Office

also distributed essential

goods among more than 300

poor families and other daily

wage earners at various plac-

es in the town. Assistant En-

forcement Officer Pradip

Bhuyan led the team of offi-

cials who distributed the es-

sentials among the poor fami-

lies of the town.

Meanwhile, the president

and secretary of Nonoi Sutar-

gaon Gram Panchayat, Dipa-

moni Bora, and Tarun Das,

respectively distributed Rs

1,000 each among 121 fami-

lies who have no ration card.

Essential items distributedamong poor families at Nagaon

Security personnel keeping a strict vigil during the second phase of national lockdown, at Mariani on Thursday. – UBPhotos

CORRESPONDENT

TEZPUR, April 16: State

Agriculture Minister Atul

Bora in a review meeting

held yesterday evening at the

Circuit House here said that

the government and the lo-

cal administration will make

all arrangements for the sale

of local farmers’ produce in

other States of the region.

Along with other parts of

the State, the farmers in

Sonitpur district are facing

heavy losses this time due

to the lack of common mar-

ket to sell their produce,

particularly the seasoned

crops, including green veg-

etables.

After holding a meeting

with the Deputy Vommis-

sioner Manvendra Pratap

Singh and other administra-

tive officials, Bora stated that

the farmers should not lose

hope.

“We understand the con-

dition of the farmers and took

note of their losses,” he said,

adding that the farmers here

can sell their produce to the

other States of the region and

the government will extend

all necessary help to them.

Govt will extend all help to farmersto sell their produce: Minister

ANN SERVICE

DULIAJAN, April 16: The

Rotary Club of Duliajan has

taken an initiative to support

the daily wage earners here.

The club members recent-

ly distributed grocery items

like rice, dal, mustard oil, po-

tato, onion, salt, soaps, etc.,

among 100 families in the

adopted village of the club, at

Chapatoli Bongali Gaon under

Duliajan constituency.

Rotarian Siddartha Hazari-

ka, Rotarian Sunil Borgohain,

Rotarian Rajumoni Gogoi, Ro-

tarian Bimal Borgohain and

Rotarian Dhurbajyotj Hazari-

ka were present during the

programme.

The Rotary Club of Dulia-

jan has joined hands with the

Government of India to fight

the dreaded COVID-19 pan-

demic.

To curb the menace, united

cooperation is needed, stated

a press release issued by the

Rotary Club of Duliajan.

Rotary Club distributes fooditems among needy families

CORRESPONDENT

HAILAKANDI, April 16:

The district police has arrest-

ed some persons in connec-

tion with pilferage of rice and

flour wheat meant for the poor

here on Wednesday.

Revealing it, Superintend-

ent of Police Pabindra Kumar

Nath said a huge quantity of

rice and wheat was recovered

from 299 Berakhalerpar LP

School under Mohanpur Part

II of Algapur circle on

Wednesday. “Forty-five bags

of rice and five bags of wheat

flour, each bag containing 50

kg of grains, weighing around

2,500 kg, have been recov-

ered from the school used as

a godown,” Nath said.

When the police personnel

reached the site, they found

the main door of the school

locked from outside. When

they opened it, they found a

person inside.

Police are on a hot trail of

the absconding fair price shop

dealer Ainul Hoque who hap-

pens to be an Anchalik Pan-

chayat member and president

of the school management

committee of the LP School

where the foodgrains were

concealed.

Nath said Ainul, who had

stated on Tuesday before the

Algapur OC that he had re-

ceived 12 quintals of rice in

March and April, was making

a ‘blatant lie’ as the police re-

covered 22.5 quintals of rice

and 2.5 quintals of wheat flour

from the school. The police

also conducted a search oper-

ation in his house.

The SP said the foodgrains

stored in the school would

have found its way to the open

market had the police not act-

ed timely.

Following the unearthing of

misappropriation of NFSA

rice worth Rs 40 lakh in the

district, the police is pursuing

the case vigorously with raids

being conducted at some plac-

es leading to the recovery of

stockpiles of foodgrains and

arrests being made “as it was

a clear cut case of theft and

embezzlement”.

Two cases have been reg-

istered with the Algapur Po-

lice Station on Wednesday.

Three persons have been ar-

rested in connection with

these two cases. Further in-

vestigation into these cases is

on.

Three held for theft of essentialcommodities in Hailakandi

Demow Primary Health Centre carrying out a fogging drive, on Thursday. – UB Photos

I have done well evenin the recent domesticgames that I haveplayed. I have noreason to doubtmyself (that I can’tmake anothercomeback).

– Dinesh Karthik

“

12 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATISPORTS

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020

Originating from Japan,

‘su do ku’ is a mind game

and a puzzle that can be

solved with proper

reasoning and logic. Fill

the grid with digits in such

a manner that every row,

every column and every

3 x 3 box accommodates

the digits 1 to 9 without

repeating any.

Solution of last problem

SU DO KU

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LONDON, April 16: Newcastle

United fans have long dreamed of

ridding the club from owner Mike

Ashley, but a potential 300 million

pound (USD 377 million) takeover

Saudi takeover promises new dawn for Newcastle at a cost

backed by the Saudi sovereign

wealth fund presents fans on Tyne-

side with a different dilemma.

Retail tycoon Ashley has been

deeply unpopular in his 13 years in

charge of Newcastle, during which

time the club have twice been rele-

gated from the Premier League

before bouncing back into English

football’s lucrative top flight.

British financier Amanda Stave-

ley has held a long-running inter-

est in brokering a deal for one of

England’s most passionately sup-

ported clubs with attendances of-

ten above 50,000 despite years of

limited success.

Ashley labelled Staveley a “waste

of time” when a previous bid to take

control collapsed in 2017.

However, documents filed last

week to Companies House provide

a framework for talks between

Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners and

Ashley.

According to reports, 80 per cent

of the deal would be funded by Sau-

di Arabia’s Public Investment Fund

with Staveley providing 10 per cent

and the other 10 per cent coming

from British billionaire brothers

David and Simon Reuben.

The Toon Army have long voiced

their dissent as Ashley has tried to

cash in on the riches of Premier

League television rights deals,

whilst investing little on improving

the team on the pitch.

“There was a famous banner a

couple of years ago that read: ‘We

don’t demand a team that wins, we

demand a club that tries.’ For the

last 13 years we haven’t had a club

that has tried,” a spokesman for the

Newcastle United Supporters

Trust (NUST) told AFP.

“Under this ownership there has

been no ambition, effectively no in-

vestment and no hope for a sport-

ing entity that hasn’t been a sport-

ing entity. It’s been there to sur-

vive and nothing more.” The pros-

pect of deep-pocketed owners, par-

ticularly at a time when most other

clubs will be cutting back due to

the economic crisis caused by coro-

navirus, is an alluring one for the

Magpie faithful.

Indeed, a 40 million pound drop

in Ashley’s asking price since talks

began in January is believed to be

linked to the falling value of football

assets due to a shutdown caused by

the COVID-19 outbreak.

Manchester City’s run of 11 ma-

jor trophies since an Abu Dhabi

takeover in 2008 transformed their

fortunes is an example of the dif-

ference wealthy Middle Eastern

owners can make.

Prior to 2011, City had not won a

major honour since 1976. Newcas-

tle’s barren run stretches back to

1969. – AFP

Under Mike Ashley, Newcastle United has twice been relegated fromthe Premier League.

NEW DELHI, April 16: The BCCI on

Thursday suspended the 2020 Indian Pre-

mier League “till further notice” in the

wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which

has claimed more than 400 lives and af-

fected over 12,000 in the

country.

The PTI reported on

April 14 that the Indian

cricket board (BCCI) had

intimated the eight fran-

chises along with other

stakeholders about the

indefinite postponement

of the tournament’s 13th

edition but there was no official word from

the parent cricketing body.

“Due to the evolving global health con-

cerns regarding COVID-19 and lockdown

measures implemented by the Govern-

ment of India to contain the spread of the

pandemic, the IPL Governing Council of

the BCCI has decided that the IPL 2020

season will be suspended till further no-

tice,” said BCCI secretary Jay Shah in a

statement.

Still have lot to offer in

T20 format: KarthikNEW DELHI, April 16:

Dinesh Karthik understands

the reason for his exclusion

from India’s ODI team af-

ter an underwhelming 2019

World Cup but what he can’t

comprehend is the T20 snub

as that is one format where

he is still confident of making

significant contributions.

Karthik, who has played

26 Tests, 94 ODIs and 32

T20s over a 15-year-ca-

reer, is used to making

comebacks but to make

another one will be tougher

than ever for the 34-year-old.

And he knows that.

“My record in T20s has

been good. A big tournament

like the World Cup did not go

exactly as per the plan. I could

understand the one day bit

(being dropped from ODIs)

but even now I would like to

think that I stand a good chance

in returning to the T20 side.

“I have done well even in

the recent domestic games

that I have played. I have no

reason to doubt myself (that I

can’t make another come-

back),” Karthik told PTI in an

exclusive interview.

Out of the three formats,

he averages best in T20s –

33.25 with a strike rate of

143.52. Does getting dropped

hurts? “It does hurt, no doubt

about that. I have always had

this burning desire to play for

my country and it hasn’t di-

minished one bit.”

It was a rollercoaster ride

for Karthik leading up to the

World Cup as he was dropped

for the home ODI series

against Australia, India’s last

before the showpiece event.

However, the selectors

picked him in the squad over

Rishabh Pant for his “better”

wicket-keeping skills.

Eventually, Pant too be-

came part of the World Cup

side after Shikhar Dhawan

fractured his thumb in the

middle of the tournament.

Karthik failed to make an

impact in two innings he got

in the World Cup including the

semifinal which India lost to

New Zealand. In fact, Indian

team management drew

heavy flak from all quarters

for fielding three specialist

keepers (MS Dhoni, Rishabh

Pant and Karthik) in playing

XI while ignoring specialist

batsman Kedar Jadhav.

He was assigned the role

of a finisher in the T20 side

and his most significant knock

came in the 2018 Nidahas Tro-

phy final where he hit a last-

ball six to win India the title.

Though he has slipped con-

siderably in the pecking or-

der, Karthik remains hopeful

of another comeback. KL Ra-

hul is currently being tried as

a wicketkeeper-batsman in

limited overs cricket at the

expense of Pant. – PTI

IPL 2020 suspendedtill further notice

The IPL was set to start on March 29

and end on May 24 but it was first post-

poned till April 15 after a surge of COVID-

19 positive cases in India. However with

situation not being conducive for any sport-

ing activity and the coun-

try in the midst of a 40-

day lockdown, the BCCI

didn’t issue any fresh

date.

“The health and safety

of the nation and every-

one involved in our great

sport remains our top pri-

ority and as such, the

BCCI along with the Franchise Owners,

Broadcaster, Sponsors and all the Stakehold-

ers acknowledge that the IPL 2020 season

will only commence when it is safe and ap-

propriate to do so,” Shah further stated.

While BCCI is not committal on when

cricket could resume in the country, Shah

maintained that India’s richest sporting

body is monitoring the situation and will

seek guidance from the central government

as well as states. – PTI

MINSK, April 16: The start of the new

women’s soccer season in Belarus has been

delayed by fears that players have been ex-

posed to the new coronavirus, but the men’s

league shows no sign of stopping.

The women’s league was due to start its

2020 season on Thursday, but the Belarus

soccer federation said on Wednesday it is now

“suspended until further notice.”

The federation added that “several” play-

ers had contact with “possible carriers” of

the coronavirus.

Belarus is the only country in Europe still

playing professional men’s soccer games with

spectators in the stands. Belarusian President

Alexander Lukashenko has opposed strict

lockdown measures and even played in an ice

hockey game in front of spectators last month.

“There is no basis to close down the cham-

MELBOURNE, April 16:

Cricket Australia on Thursday

laid off majority of its staff till

June 30 as it battled a financial

crisis triggered by the COV-

ID-19 pandemic but remained

hopeful of the T20 World Cup

in October-November, fol-

lowed by the India tour being

held on schedule.

The Australian financial year

starts on July 1 and ends on

June 30, which means that em-

ployees have been laid off for a

period of two and half months

during which it is impossible

to have any sporting activity

with no chance of normalcy

around the corner.

“We have made the decision

during this period of isolation,

where activity has naturally

Cricket Australia lays off staff till June-endbeen reduced, to stand down

our people on reduced pay

(with the exception of a skele-

ton staff) effective 27 April for

the remainder of the financial

year,” CA said in a statement.

The decision was conveyed

to the staff by Chief Executive

Kevin Roberts.

“The impacts on the sports

industry of the coronavirus

pandemic are bigger than any

one sport,” CA said.

“We are conscious of the

impact this will have on Aus-

tralian Cricket and are work-

ing hard to manage that proac-

tively,” it added.

Cricket Australia had earli-

er delayed the announcement

of central contracts for its play-

ers amid the financial hit

caused by the pandemic. Play-

ers have also spoken about the

possibility of a pay cut given

the situation.

While there is speculation

that the IPL, which has been

postponed for the time being,

might take the T20 World

Cup’s slot, CA said the host

country is ready to conduct the

event even in empty stadiums

if that’s what guidelines de-

mand.

The CA admitted that there

have been major financial re-

percussions of the pandemic.

“Even though CA was able

to complete a bulk of its 2019-

20 season before the corona-

virus crisis hit, the subsequent

downturn has brought the in-

definite postponement of crick-

et and other sports worldwide,

which has in turn severely dis-

rupted commercial partners

and other revenue streams,”

it stated.

“CA remains optimistic the

2020-21 men’s and women’s

home summer scheduled to

begin with the men’s T20

World Cup in October and

November will proceed,

whether in empty stadia if so-

cial distancing restrictions re-

main in place or as relevant

crowd guidelines allow,” it

added. The CA has followed

in the footsteps of the Austral-

ian Football League and the

National Rugby League in lay-

ing of staff till June 30.

“CA has followed the lead

of the Australian Football

League and National Rugby

League in reducing its work-

force to a skeleton staff until

June 30 when more will be

known about restrictions

brought about by the virus, and

the economic picture is poten-

tially clearer,” it stated. – PTI

A post of the flood light system of the All Assam Tennis AssociationComplex at Chachal, Guwahati, fell on the court under the impact ofthe storm that took place on Wednesday. The storm also causedmajor damage to the complex.

The officials of the Guwahati Sports Association (GSA) with thehelp of RG Baruah Unnayan Samity, Gopal Nagar Unnayan Samityand Pub Sunsali Development Committee distributing foodmaterials to the needy people in various places of East Guwahation Thursday. The GSA officials also distributed Bihu jalpans topolice personnel on duty at various places of Guwahati. They alsodonated Rs 50,000 to the Assam Arogya Nidhi and the cheque washanded over to DC Kamrup (M) Biswajit Pegu.

Belarus postpones women’ssoccer but men’s league on

pionship,” Sports and Tourism Minister Ser-

gei Kovalchuk said of the men’s league in an

interview broadcast on Wednesday by the

state Belarus 5 TV channel.

He was speaking before the announcement

that the women’s league was suspended.

Attendance for men’s league games in Be-

larus has plummeted in recent weeks as many

fans chose to stay away. Fan boycotts have

been organised at the majority of the 16 top-

tier clubs.

“Nowadays, the number of fans has shrunk

by more than 70 per cent,” Kovalchuk said.

“No one is forcing anyone to go to the sta-

dium. You can go, or not go.”

The Belarusian league has attracted fans

from other countries in lockdown and signed

new foreign TV deals with broadcasters keen

to show live sports. – AP

Sharathhighest-ranked

Indian againNEW DELHI, April 16:

Veteran table tennis player

Sharath Kamal on Thursday

surpassed compatriot G

Sathiyan to become the

highest-ranked Indian in the

ITTF world rankings,

jumping seven spots to

reach 31.

The jump in the rankings

comes after Sharath’s

triumph at the Oman Open

last month, when he won

his first ITTF title in 10

years.

“Some positive news,

amidst all the negativity

currently (due to the

COVID-19 pandemic).

Feels great actually. Just the

news I needed while I find

myself away from the game

during this lockdown,” an

elated Sharath said.

His younger team-mate

Sathiyan dropped a place to

be 32.

The fast-rising Mudit

Dani also made notable

progress in the rankings as

he broke into the top-200

for the first time in his

career. – PTI

BUDAPEST, April 16: In-

ternational Weightlifting Fed-

eration (IWF) president Tam-

as Ajan resigned in the wake

of allegations of corruption and

doping violations made in a

documentary earlier this year.

“The IWF thanks Tamas

Ajan for more than four dec-

ades of service to weightlift-

ing,” said IWF acting presi-

dent Ursula Papandrea in a

statement on its website.

“We can now begin the

work of determining a fresh

path towards achieving the full

potential of our sport,” said

Papandrea.

NEW DELHI, April 16: Australia’s Pat Cummins is

the most complete fast bowler from the current crop

of cricketers, says legendary Glenn McGrath.

McGrath answered 25 rapid-fire questions from ES-

PNcricinfo on a range of subjects.

Asked about most complete bowler in world cricket

now, McGrath replied: “Pat Cummins. I like the way

he goes by.”

One of the best fast bowlers through the 90s till late

2000s, McGrath believes that bowling to Brian Lara

will be slightly tougher than Tendulkar. He also re-

vealed his secret wishlist, if he could take a Test hat-

trick.

“Tough,” he said when given a choice between Lara

and Tendulkar.

“I would go with Lara just (a bit) from my experi-

ence. The hat-trick wishlist would be Brian Lara, Sachin

Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.”

Asked what delivery, he didn’t possess in his armoury,

he cheekily replied: “The 100 miles per hour deliv-

ery.”

According to him, the bowlers who work a lot hard-

er than the batsmen, “Fast bowlers are better blokes,

work harder and batsmen expect everything.”

Given a choice of Mankading in a World Cup final

where he has to get the last wicket but with only two

runs to defend, the legendary pacer said that he would

never do it.

He also feels that after watching Jim Carrey’s per-

formance in Dumb and Dumber, he would like the Hol-

lywood actor to play his role if a biopic is made. – PTI

Cummins is most complete fastbowler in world: McGrath

Weightliftingchief steps down

The statement by the Bu-

dapest-based federation noted

an independent investigation

is ongoing into the allegations

made by German broadcaster

ARD in a report in January.

The documentary alleged a

“culture of corruption” had

been established in the Olym-

pic sport with prominent

weightlifters rarely subjected

to drugs tests and cash being

taken by doping controllers to

accept manipulated samples.

Hungarian Ajan, 81, who

had been at the IWF since

1976 serving 24 years as

general secretary and the

past 20 as president, claimed

the allegations were un-

founded.

The programme by jour-

nalists ARD including Hajo

Seppelt, who broke the sto-

ry on Russia’s state doping

scandal, claimed half of the

450 world championship or

Olympic medallists between

2008 and 2017 were not

asked to undertake any dop-

ing tests. – AFP

Tamas Ajan

Pat Cummins