JOURNALISM OF COURAGE

SINCE 1932

DA ILY FROM: AHMEDABAD , CHAND IGARH , DELH I , JA IPUR , KOLKATA , LUCKNOW, MUMBAI , NAGPUR , PUNE , VADODARA ● REG .NO . MCS/067/2018 - 20 RN I REGN . NO . 1543/57

THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES `5.00, WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMJOURNALISM OF COURAGE

SINCE 1932

`̀ 93 per kilo

`̀ 121 per kilo

`̀ 149 per kilo

`̀ 50per Dozen

PRABHARAGHAVAN,TABASSUMBARNAGARWALA&ABANTIKAGHOSHNEWDELHI,MUMBAI, APRIL29

OFTHE thousands of COVID-19patients admitted in hospitalsaround the country, just around800 are critical, requiring eitheroxygen support, ventilators ortreatment in ICUs(Intensive CareUnits).Privatehospi-tals, which accountfortwo-thirdsofhos-pital beds in India,and almost 80 percentofavailableven-tilators,arehandlingless than10percentof thiscritical load.Thisisjustonesymptomofa

larger trend over the last threemonths: the Rs 2.4-lakh-croreprivate health care sector haslargely been relegated to thesidelines, watching the publichealth care system— govern-

ment hospitals, doctors, nursesand paramedics — battle theCovidpandemic.Behind this are a set of cir-

cumstancesthatrangefromthenatureof governmentpolicyonmanaging the pandemic to de-cisions taken by the hospitalsthemselves.From being sealed in the

early stages after their stafftested positive, likeWockhardt

inMumbaior theprivatehospitalinBhilwara, to re-fusing to admitpatients, fromsuspending serv-ices to playingsafe, private hos-pitals aren’tpulling their sub-

stantiveweight.That’snotall.

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Covid fight: Govtsystem in front,private hospitalsdo the distancing

Mumbai’sWockhardtHospitalhasbeensealed. Express

ANANTHAKRISHNANGNEWDELHI, APRIL29

STATINGTHATrightsofreligiousorlinguisticminoritiestoadmin-isteraninstitutionunderArticle30 of the Constitution “are notabove the law and otherConstitutional provisions”, theSupreme Court ruledWednesday that the NationalEligibility cum Entrance Test(NEET) for admission to gradu-ate and post-graduatemedicaland dental courses is “regula-tory” in nature and in “nationalinterest” to improve the qualityof medical educationwhich, itsaid, has become a “saleablecommodity”.Disposing a bunch of peti-

tions by the ChristianMedicalCollege, Vellore, and others, thebench of Justices ArunMishra,Vineet Saran andMR Shah or-deredthatNEETwillbetheonlyexam for admission to thecourses and institutions cannotbeallowedtoconducttheirownseparate exams over and aboveNEET.“We are of the opinion that

rights under Articles 19 (1) (g)and30 readwithArticles25, 26and29(1)of theConstitutionof

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VISHWASWAGHMODE&LIZMATHEWMUMBAI,NEWDELHI, APRIL29

WITH THE MaharashtraGovernor sitting on the stateCabinet’srecommendationthatUddhav Thackeray be nomi-nated to theLegislativeCouncil,theChiefMinisterdialledPrimeMinister Narendra Modi onTuesdayevening.Thackeray sought the Prime

Minister’scooperationinresolv-ing the crisis, sources in NewDelhi said. InMumbai, sourcesintheMaharashtragovernmentsaid the Chief Minister had ex-pressed unhappiness over the“politics being played” over hisnominationtotheUpperHouseof thestate legislature.Thackeray,whotookoathon

November 28 last year, has, un-der Article 164(4) of theConstitution, sixmonths to be-comeamemberof thestateleg-islature.However,withthepan-demic raging, a by-electioncannotbeheld,andtheonlywayto fulfill the requirement is forhim to be nominated to theUpperHouseby theGovernor.“He (Thackeray) called the

PrimeMinister to talk abouthis

nomination. He asked for helpsaying if it does not happen hewould have to resign,” a sourcein Delhi said. According to thissource, the PM told Thackeraythathewouldlookintothemat-terandgetmoredetails.InMumbai,aseniorShivSena

leader told The Indian Express:“Uddhavjidiscussedthecurrentpolitical uncertainty in the statewith the PM. He expressed un-happinessoverthepoliticsbeingplayed over his nomination asMLC at a timewhen the state isfighting the coronavirus out-break, and is standingwith theCentre inthecrisis.”Asked how the PM had re-

sponded, the Sena leader said:CONTINUEDONPAGE2

MustbecomememberoflegislaturebyMay27

SC: Minorityinstitutionrights not abovelaw or absolute

CMC-NEET

Running out oftime to enterHouse, Uddhavdials PM for help

BJPNOT INTERESTEDINMAKINGBACKDOORENTRY:FADNAVISPAGE 4

PRIVATEAND

ISOLATEDAN EXPRESS SERIES

PART I

NEXT: WHAT’S HOLDINGBACKPRIVATEHOSPITALS INTHEWARAGAINSTCOVID?

SHUBHRAGUPTANEWDELHI, APRIL29

THEREAREsomeobituariesyounever,everwanttowrite.This isone of them. We knew thatIrrfan Khan, one of the best ac-tors the world has been privi-leged towatch, was strugglingwith a debilitating disease.Weknewhewas gravely ill. Butwealsobelieved thathewould riseand shine again, because, howcould he not? How could heleave us, this enormously tal-entedhuman,whowithhisfine

bodyofworksoenrichedourin-ner lives?Irrfan, who passed away on

Wednesdaymorning at the ageof 53,wasnot just abrilliant ac-torwho dissolved into his part,leaving no residue behind. Healso managed to walk off thescreen,andcomehomewithus.Hemadespaceforhimself inourhearts, nestled in unexpectedcorners, andpoppeduponce ina while, for a chat. Which hewould begin, with that charac-teristic hooded-eyed smile:chaliyebaatkartehain.From the very first glimpse

we had of him, in ShyamBenegal’s teleserial Bharat EkKhoj, we knewwewere in thepresence of someone truly spe-cial.Hewentontobecomeanin-tegralpartofsomeof IndianTV’smost popular serials (Zee’sBanegiApniBaat,Doordarshan’sChandrakanta, and Star TV’sBestsellers),buthisheartwasal-ways set oncinema.And, over aperiod of 30 years andmore, ashe essayed one unforgettablepart after another, from AsifKapadia’sstrikingTheWarriortoShoojitSircar’sPiku,heneverletus down. If this sounds like a

gush, yes, it is. An unapologetic,teary-eyed one, because hemade things better, even in hisno-accountparts.Of his impressive body of

work,fourfilmsjostleforthetopspotforme:TigmanshuDhulia’sHaasil, inwhich he plays a localAllahabadi student leader;Vishal Bhardwaj’sMaqbool, inwhich hewas amobster-with-many-moods-in-Mumbai;Mira

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PAGE1ANCHOR He dissolved into his part, left no residue...and came home with us

IRRFANKHAN1 9 6 7 - 2 0 2 0

BUSINESS AS USUAL

BYUNNY

FULL COVERAGEPAGE8

ANJUAGNIHOTRICHABA&HARISHDAMODARANJALANDHAR,NEWDELHI,APRIL29

COVID-19hasopenedawindowof opportunity to wean awayfarmers in Punjab andHaryanafromgrowingrice to lesswater-guzzling crops such as cottonandmaize.Thedriver:Uncertaintyover

the availability of an estimatedmillion labourers from UttarPradesh and Bihar who under-takethebulkof thepaddytrans-planting that begins frommid-June. That, plus the lack ofmechanical transplanting op-tions, in contrast to the ubiqui-tous combines used for bothpaddy and wheat harvesting,means fewer farmers are likelyto takeup rice cultivation in thecomingkharif season.Manjit Singh Sidhu has, for

over a decade, been farmingpaddy on his 13 acres at UddatBhagat Ram village in Punjab’sMansa district. But this timehehasdecidedtosowcottonon11acres, limitpaddyto2acres,thattoo, subject to getting enoughlocal labour. “I finishedharvest-ingwheat onApril 20, and I amwaitingforwaterfromtheKotlaBranchof theSirhindCanal (onthe Sutlej River). They

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Russia under lockdown, India’s mannedspace mission trainees confined indoorsSUSHANTSINGHNEWDELHI, APRIL29

WHILETHEfour IndianAirForce(IAF) fighter pilots selected tobetrainedasastronautsforthecoun-try’sfirstmannedspaceflightmayhave beenmotivated by the ad-venture of space travel, theywould not have anticipated the

series of events triggeredby thespreadof thenovelcoronavirus.A couple of months after

their training began at theGagarin Cosmonaut TrainingCenter (GCTC) in Star City nearMoscow,ithasbeenputonhold—andthepilotsremainconfinedtotheirroomswhileRussiagrap-pleswith the pandemic. Russiahadreportednearly1lakhposi-

tivecases,with972deathsuntilWednesdayevening.“The four astronauts-elect

are in good health. The highlyprofessionalmedical experts ofGCTC are constantly observingthem,” Director General ofGlavkosmos JSC DmitryLoskutovtoldTheIndianExpress.Glavkosmos is the

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Sowingcotton ina field inSirsa,Haryana. Express

Labour shortage ismaking Punjab andHaryana farmersswitch from paddy

AVISHEKGDASTIDAR,ABHISHEKANGAD&DEEPMUKHERJEENEWDELHI,RANCHI, JAIPUR,APRIL29

WHILE THE Centre has allowedmovement of migrant workersinbuses, several stateshavede-mandedspecialtrains,underlin-ing the sheer numbers of thosestranded. According to sources,theMinistryofRailwayshasalsodrafted a plan to operate 400specialtrainsperday,whichcan

bescaledupto1,000,withade-tailedprotocol.While there has been no in-

dication that passenger trainserviceswillresumebeforeMay3,theRailwayscarriedoutanin-ternal exercise and communi-catedtheplantotoplevelsinthegovernment.According to the plan, each

non-AC train will carry 1,000peopleper trip—abouthalf theusual number— to ensure ade-quatesocialdistancing.“Eachbustypicallycarries25

peopleafterfollowingsocialdis-

tancing. The Railways’ detailedprotocol also had a paragraphstating that states falling in theroutes should allow themove-ment,screening,controlledem-barking etc,” a senior govern-mentofficial said.According to sources, by de-

cidingonbusesinsteadof trains,thegovernmenthasstrategicallyrestrictedthenumberofpeoplewhocanbe transported.“It is just to allow an option

of relief for the strandedwant-ingtotraveltotheirhomestates,

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Railways readies movement plan,some states push for special trains

FOURDAYSTOENDOFLOCKDOWN

Curbs tobeeasedinmanydistricts;nomovementfromcontainmentzones,hotspots

DEEPTIMANTIWARYNEWDELHI, APRIL29

IN AN indication of its plans af-ter May 3 when the currentphaseof thelockdownends,theCentreonWednesdaysaidtherewill be “considerable relax-ations” inmanydistricts.The Union HomeMinistry

alsoissuedguidelinesformove-ment of stranded migrantlabourers,students,andtouristswho want to return home.Sources, however, said this willnotapplytothoseinhotspotsorcontainmentzones.In a statement, theMinistry

said, “New guidelines to fightCOVID-19will come into effectfrom 4thMay, which shall giveconsiderable relaxations tomanydistricts.Detailsregardingthis shall be communicated incomingdays.”Curbs are expected to be

easedindistrictswherecasesaretapering. The Health Ministryhas identified 129 of the coun-try’s736districtsashotspots.OnApril 15, at the end of the firstlockdown,177districtshadbeennotifiedashotspots.The order allowing inter-

state movement of thosestranded comes almost aweekafterstatessuchasUttarPradeshand Madhya Pradesh begantransporting their migrantlabour and students stuck inotherstates.Wednesday’sordersaid,“Duetolockdown,migrantworkers, pilgrims, tourists, stu-dents and other persons arestrandedatdifferentplaces.Theywouldbeallowedtomove.”Incidentally, at a video-con-

ference meeting with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi on

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KANCHANVASDEV&ATRIMITRACHANDIGARH,KOLKATA,APR29

SETTINGApossible post-May 3template,PunjabonWednesdaybecame the first state to an-nounceatwo-weekextensionoflockdown(untilMay17),butsaidrestrictionswillbeeasedforfourhoursdaily, from7amto11am,innon-containment zoneswitheffect fromThursday. It also de-cided to allowopening of shopsandindustries intheseareas.Similarly,West Bengal Chief

MinisterMamata Banerjee saidexperts and doctors are of theopinion that the restrictionsshould continue till May-end,butannouncedsomerelaxations

innon-containmentzonesfromMay4—includingmovementofprivate taxis andbuses in greenzones, within a district, with alimitednumberof passengers.Both state governments un-

derlined that the local adminis-trationwould take the final calloneasingcurbs.Announcing his govern-

ment’sdecisioninatelevisedad-

dress, Punjab Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh said: “Thede-cisiononfurthercourseofactionwill be taken after twoweeks,dependingonthesituation.Theonlysolutionissocialdistancing.If it is under control after twoweeks,wewill takeacall.”Singhaskedpeople tomain-

tain discipline and underlinedthat if they step out, theymustwearmasks, ensure social dis-tancing and return to theirhomes by 11 am. “If we havegiven relaxation, that does notmean you can call your friendshome.Socialdistancinghastobeensured,”hesaid.Punjab has reported 377

COVID-19casesand19deathssofar.Whilefourdistricts—Patiala,

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AMITABHSINHA&KAUNAINSHERIFFMPUNE,NEWDELHI, APRIL29

WHILE MAHARASHTRA andGujarathavebeenattractingat-tentionfortherapidriseincasesof novel coronavirus infection,states in the east have, for thefirst time now, started to showsigns that they could emerge aspotentialdangerzonesaswell.The latest analysis of com-

putermodellingresultsbyscien-tists of theChennai-based Insti-tute of Mathematical Sciences(IMSc) show that thoughWestBengal,Bihar, and Jharkhandstillhada combinedcase loadof lessthan1,200onApril29,thesethreestateshadthehighestrate

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Considerable relaxationsMay4onward, saysCentre, clears returnhomeof strandedmigrants

AtacremationgroundinLucknowonWednesday,ashesawait immersion inholyrivers.Vishal Srivastav

CORONACOUNT

1,008DEATHS

7,797 RECOVERED

7,70,764sampleshavebeentestedasonApril29

31,787CASES

Punjab extends curfew by 2 wks,joins Bengal in lifting some curbs

EXPLAINED

REVISITINGCURVETOREADLOCKDOWNPAGE9

Warning signs emerge inBengal, Jharkhand, Bihar

Mumbai

THESECONDPAGE2 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMTHEINDIANEXPRESS,THURSDAY,APRIL30,2020

Railways planandnotareallyviabletransporta-tionsolutionoverlongdistances,”anofficialsaid.RajasthanChiefMinisterAshok

Gehlot tweetedonWednesday:“Longawaiteddemandofmove-mentofmigrantworkershas fi-nallybeenacceptedbytheGoI. ItisawelcomestepbutuntilGoIal-lows Indianrailway tooperate—practicallyitwillnotbepossibletofacilitate smoothandhassle-freetransporttotheirhome.”Jharkhand Chief Minister

Hemant Soren said he had toldRailwaysMinister PiyushGoyalthatthestatewouldneedspecialtrains to bring back its studentsandmigrantworkers. “We arethankful for theMHAorder andwe are deliberating on our re-sources.However, Ihadsaidear-lierthatthestateisnotcapableofbringingthembackonourown.IhadawordwithPiyushGoyaljionthismatterearlier,”hesaid.Thestateestimatesover9lakh

peoplefromJharkhand,including6.43 lakhmigrantworkers, arestranded in various parts of thecountry.In earlier interactionswith

PrimeMinisterNarendraModi,Maharashtra Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray and KeralaChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayanhad also raised the demand forspecialtrains.Officials from Odisha and

UttarPradeshhadalsoinformallyspokentoRailwayofficialsonthematter. ThePunjabgovernment,too,hadraisedthedemand.Bihar Chief Minister Nitish

Kumartweetedinsupportof themoveonWednesday.“Thisdeci-sion is appropriate andworthwelcoming.Thiswasourrequestand the central governmenthastakenapositivedecision,”hesaid.Welcomingthedecision,sen-

ior Congress leader PChidambaramsought“sanitised,point-to-pointtrains”forthepur-poseas,hesaid,buseswouldnotbeenough.

Space missionRussian government-ownedspacebusiness company,whichsignedacontractwiththeIndianSpace Research Organisation(ISRO) in June2019 for the train-ingof theIndianastronauts.“The lockdownhas strongly

beenrecommendedfortheastro-nauts-elect, as well as for theGCTCpersonnel. Thedecision toresumethefull-scaletrainingwillbe takenafter a thoroughobser-vationof the epidemic situationin the country,” Loskutov said.Russia’sPresidentVladimirPutinhad initially announced a lock-downuntilApril30,butextendedit untilMay11onTuesday,withthewarningthatthecountryhadnotyetreachedthepeakofinfec-tions, and “a hard and difficultpathliesahead”.Havingstartedtheiryear-long

training in Russia in earlyFebruary, the four fighter pilotshavecompletedapproximatelyafourth of their course so far,Loskutov said. Their schedule oftraininghasbeenmetsofar,eventhough the Russian authoritiesiimplemented the lockdownonMarch 28. “All astronauts-electcontinueworking according totheirtrainingplan,”Loskutovsaid,adding that the four Indianshad“successfullypassedtheexamonthe knowledge of the onboardsystems of themanned space-craft”. Theyare to take theexaminmanned spacecraft flight the-ory,hesaid,andare“preparingfortheexamindependently”.

Labour crisis(government)normallyreleaseitaroundApril 30,whichwill en-ablemetoplantcotton,”saysthe43-year-old.Shamsher Singh, from the

same village, also plans to onlygrowcottononhis8-acreholding,whichwasentirelyunderpaddyuntilthe2019kharifseason.JagsirSingh from Jhumba village ofBathindadistrict is going for cot-

tononfourofhisnineacres,againpreviouslyfullyplantedtopaddy.“The peoplewho transplant

paddy are from Bihar and UP.Nobodyknowsif theywillcome.Even if the lockdown is liftedonMay3, trainservicesareunlikelytoresumesoonandIcannottakea risk.While local labourers canbe used, they will demand Rs4,500-5,000 per acre, whereasthemigrantworkerschargeonlyRs2,500,”hepointsout.Southwest Punjab—mainly

Mansa, Bathinda,Muktsar andFazilka—was traditionallyacot-tonbelt.Many farmers in recenttimesswitched topaddy, thanksto assured minimum supportprice-basedprocurementandfreepowerforgroundwaterirrigationduringthecroppingseason.Thiswasfurthersupportedby

theavailabilityofmigrantlabourfortransplantingpaddyseedlings,which are first raised innurserybedsfor25-30daysbeforebeinguprooted and replanted in themainfield.

States to watchof growth—measured by theirreproductionnumbers— in thecountryinthelastfewdays.Thereproduction number refers tothenumberof personswhoareinfected on average by an al-ready infectedperson.As of Wednesday, West

Bengalhad696confirmedcasesof infection, while Bihar andJharkhand had 383 and 107casesrespectively.Together,theyaccounted for less than 4 percent of the national case load,which was close to 33,000 onWednesdayevening.Incontrast,Maharashtrahad

9,915confirmedcases;Gujarat,4,082. Together, theymade upover 40 per cent of the cases inthecountry.“The absolute numbers in

thesestates(WestBengal,Biharand Jharkhand) are still quitelow,sotheydonotseemtobeanimmediateproblem.But I thinkthey need to be taken note of.West Bengal, in particular,stands out even among thethree. At the end of March, thegrowthrate inWestBengalwasshowing signsof flattening, butnow it seems to be on a com-pletely different trajectory. Infact, ifwejustlookatthegrowthcurvesinanon-rigorousfashion,it would appear that WestBengal is following theMaharashtranumberswithalagof three weeks,” said SitabhraSinha, who, alongwith his col-leaguesat IMSc,hasbeentrack-ing thediseasenumbers.Incidentally, West Bengal

also has the fastest doublingtimeamonglargestatesinIndia,as pointed out in a graphicalanalysis by The Indian ExpressonWednesday. Doubling timerefers to the time taken for thenumberof cases todouble.Sinhasaidthatwhilethena-

tionalreproductionnumberhadfalled from nearly 1.83 beforethe lockdown began to about1.29now(fortheApril20-27pe-riod),West Bengal had a repro-ductionnumberof 1.52 (for theperiodApril18-27).Thatmeansthatevery100 infectedpersonsin thestatehasbeenpassingonthevirustoanother152people.Bihar had a reproduction num-berof 2.03, and Jharkhand,1.87.Sinhasaidthatthankstothe

lockdown, therewereonly fourstates —Maharashtra, Gujarat,West Bengal andUttar Pradesh—thatwerecontinuingtoshowa “consistent” rise in growthover timeperiods longer thanaweek. Andhra Pradesh andMadhya Pradesh also continuetogrow,butat slower rates.“Thelockdownhashelpedin

considerably slowingdownthegrowth of the epidemic. Hadthere been no lockdown, wecould have been on a path toreaching a case load of about 1lakh by the end of this month.Thanks to the lockdown, itseems the number of activecaseswouldremainwellwithin

30,000bythattime,”Sinhasaid.Activecasesdonotcountthe

numberofpeoplewhohavere-coveredfromthedisease.Therewere a little over 25,000 activecases in the country onWednesday.Sinha’s calculations show

that the current reproductionnumber inMaharashtra is 1.5,and in Gujarat, 1.38 — bothhigher than the national num-ber. The reproduction numberfor Delhi, another fast-growingstate,couldnotbecalculatedbe-cause of the large variations indaily increase in thecase load.

Chaliye, baatkarte hainNair’s The Namesake, in whichhisBengalibhadralok immigrantfinds his place in faraway NewYork; and Anoop Singh’sQissa,in which he plays a man de-sirousofsomethinghecouldnothave.Theserolescombinenotjust

the‘skills’ofaschooledactor,butdeep empathy, a generosity ofspirit, and anunfettered intelli-gence, which shone througheverything he did, good, indif-ferent, or flat-out fantastic.Hedideverything.Oratleast

everything that Bollywoodbroughttohistable,afterhavinglearnt that this tall, rangy,mag-netic-eyed person could trans-form,intoanyone,withapartic-ular kind of magic. He could gohigh, dive low, get intense, dogoofy and grumpy, growl andguffaw. He could be dangerousandmaniacal. Hewas also theloveliest, kookiest, most pas-sionate lover you ever saw. Ittook the film industry manyyearstofindIrrfan,anditisn’tasifhewasfloodedwithrolesfromthebig studios immediately af-terhisbreakoutroles,post2002,inHaasil andMaqbool.Butthefilmmakerswhodid,

like his National School ofDrama (NSD)mate Dhulia, andBhardwaj,madethemostofhis,and their own, innate knowl-edgeof theHindibelt, longneg-lectedbyBollywood.Theircom-ing together was a great

confluence. It brought a newlanguage, new robustness toHindi cinema, something thatold-schoolBollywoodfilmmak-ers like Mahesh Bhatt recog-nised.Bhatt’sproductionhousegaveIrrfanachancetogoovertothe other side, away from theraw, visceral gangland/heart-landtales,andexploreunfamil-iarterritories.Heliftedbrainlesscomedies (Rohit Shetty’sSunday)withthesameverveashe did gritty, hard-hitting tales(Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar): itwas all grist to hismill, acutelyattuned to the world aroundhim.Irrfanmet his wife, Sutapa

Sikdar, too at the NSD.Marriedfor25years,theyhavetwosons.Of course, therewasnocon-

fininghimtoBollywood.Irrfan’sworktookhimtotheworld,andhe was the only Indian actorwhowellandtrulycrossedover.He had alreadymade an earlyappearance inWes Anderson’sThe Darjeeling Limited (2007).But the big-and-small parts ininternationalproductionsquick-ened after Danny Boyle’s 2008Oscar-winner SlumdogMillionaire, and he showed upin Ang Lee’s magical-realistictaleof survival, LifeOf Pi, and insuchmega-budgetfranchisesasThe Amazing Spiderman andJurassicWorld.But homewas really where

his heart was. None of thesemuch-publicised internationaloutings could trulyminewhatIrrfan was capable of. He didthosemoviesbecausehecould,but saved the razzle dazzle forhisdesidil-hai-Hindustaniout-ings.Fullyswitchedon,hecameup as close to us as possible, tostart that conversation, as onlyhe could: chaliye, baat kartehain.I hope that those chats will

never, everend.

Uddhav“The PM agreed with the

CM’s view.We now hope thathis nominationwill be clearedsoonby theGovernor.”On Monday, the

MaharashtraCabinet reiterated

therecommendationithadfirstmadeonApril9afterameetingpresided over by Deputy ChiefMinisterAjitPawar.OnTuesdayevening, a delegation of theCabinet met Governor BhagatSingh Koshyari, and urged himtonominateThackeraytooneofthe two vacant seats in theCouncil throughtheGovernor’squota.Sources said the Governor

was“non-committal”duringhismeetingwith the leadersof theMaharashtraVikasAghadi.This,the sources said, may have“forced” Thackeray to speak tothe Prime Minister. A seniorleaderoftherulingcoalitionsaidthat on Monday night,Thackeray had discussedwithNCP leader Sharad Pawar threeoptionsgoing forward.“The first is to write to the

ElectionCommissionrequestingthattheLegislativeCouncilpollswhichwere deferred by it ear-lier thismonth due to the lock-down,shouldbeheld.Sincetheelectionwill be unopposed,wealsowant the EC to reduce therequired 21 days’ period forholdingthepoll.Thesecondop-tionistoapproachtheSupremeCourt toask it todirect theECtoholdpolls,” the leader said.The third and last option

wouldbeforThackeraytoresignasChiefMinister,thencallaleg-islativepartymeetingofallthreecoalitionpartnerstoelecthimasleader, and form the govern-mentonceagain,theleadersaid.“But”, the leader said, “we

don’t think it will come to that.We are hopeful that theGovernor will soon nominateThackeray to theCouncil.”Aminister belonging to the

Senasaidthatthechiefsecretarycouldwrite to the ECwith a re-questthatthepollsbeheldattheearliesttoavoidaconstitutionalcrisis.“Theissueisnotaboutonepoliticalparty,butofthegovern-ment. The chief secretary is ex-pectedtowritealettertotheECsoon,” theminister said.In New Delhi, a BJP leader

said that Thackeray had ap-proachedModidirectlybecausehe knows that “it would be the

PrimeMinister whowould betakingthefinalcallontheparty’sdecision”. According to thisleader, Thackeray wants the“BJP’s leaders in MaharashtrawhoarenotwillingtocooperatewiththeShivSenatobedirectedbyModiji (todoso)”.Theleadersaid:“Notonlydid

theShivSenaand its leadershipbetraytheBJP(byrefusingtoletit form the government), it hasbeenhostile to theparty’s lead-ers since it came into power.EvenduringtheCOVIDcrisis,thegovernmenthasnotcooperatedeitherwiththe localunit (of theBJP)orwith theCentre.“Why should the BJP help

Uddhav Thackeray?” the BJPleader fromMaharashtra said.“His partywould earlier ask us,‘when will our MLA becomeChiefMinister?’Nowtheywantus to tell themwhen their CMwill becomeMLC!”

Covid fight:Govt system infront, privatehospitals do thedistancingNationwide, private hospi-

talsemployfouroutofeveryfivedoctors,buttherefrainfromsev-eral cities and towns amid thepandemic is that they are lock-ing themselves down evenwhenitcomestoprovidingnon-Covidhealthcare.FromPatna toMumbai, pri-

vatehospitalscitemanyreasonsto explain their near absence:lockdownrestrictions,lackof in-ternal protocols to handle thepandemic, fear of infection totheir own doctors and nursingstaff, unwillingness to risk thebusiness from non-Covid pa-tients,oreventhegovernment’sownambiguityinco-optingtheprivate sector.But, fallenoff the radar, they

have.Bihar, in fact, witnessed an

“almost completewithdrawal”of the private health sector,whichhas nearly twice the bed

capacityof public facilities.“ForgetCOVID-19, even reg-

ular services have become un-available,” complained BiharPrincipal Secretary (Health)Sanjay Kumar on April 19. Thestate, with India’s third largestpopulation, had to issue an or-der asking all hospitals to re-sumeservices.Thiswasparticularlysignifi-

cantalsobecauseallthreehospi-tals handling Covid cases inPatnaaregovernmenthospitals.VikashRKeshri,SeniorResearchFellow, TheGeorge Institute forGlobal Health, said it was also“surprising”sincethenumberofpeoplerelyingonprivatehealth-careoverpublic forbothoutpa-tient and in-patient services inBiharis“farhigher”.Privatehos-pitals have 47,000 beds in thestate comparedwith 22,000 ofpublichospitals.“The public sector remains

the mainstay of the Covid re-sponse. The private sector re-sponse has been variable. Theyhave expressed interest but towhat extent they are actuallyproviding support requiredneeds to be gauged,” said KSrinathReddy,President,PublicHealthFoundationof India.Beforetheoutbreak, thepri-

vatesectoraccountedfornearly70percentofcriticalprocedureslikechemotherapyanddialysis,according to Indu Bhushan,Chief Executive Officer,Ayushman Bharat-PradhanMantri Jan Arogya Yojana andNational Health Authority. Yet,“alot”of theseprivateestablish-ments treating even non-Covidcases had shut down in certainstatescitingincreasedcostsandreduced footfalls, he said.“StateslikeMadhyaPradesh,

currentlystrugglingwithlackofhealthcarepersonnel,andBiharcoulddowithmoreprivatesec-tor intervention here,” saidBhushan. “This is the time thatthe private sector should belooking at awelfaremaximisa-tion model and not a profit-maximisationmodel.Hopefully,thiswillhappen,”henoted.InMumbai, thecitywiththe

largest number of Covid cases,and also themost deaths, TheIndian Express has reportedhowpatientswereturnedawayfrom one hospital to another,andevenCovid-positivepatientshavehadtowaitforhoursbeforetheycouldbeadmitted.Maharashtradidnotbarpri-

vate hospitals from treatingCovid patient butmanywouldjust not admit patients withCovid symptoms, fearing theywould be sealed by theMunicipal Corporation ofGreaterMumbai (BMC).“InMumbai,BMCismanag-

ing80percent loadof patients;the private hospitals are han-dling 20 per cent,” said SureshKakani, Additional MunicipalCommissioner. Of the 4,574 ac-tive cases on Tuesday, 400 pa-tientswere admitted in privatehospitals,whereas1,600wereinpublichospitals. Theremaining2,500-oddwereasymptomatic,not requiringadmission.In fact, as on date,

Maharashtrahas187criticalpa-tients, of whichMumbai aloneaccounts for about 120-125,mostofwhomrequire justoxy-gen support. A split of patientsrequiring critical care betweenprivateandpublichospitalswasnot immediatelyavailable.InIndia,therearethreelevels

ofCOVIDfacilities.Thefirstlevelcomprises quarantine facilitiesin stadia, hostels, schools andlodges, called Covid CareCentres. This is where mostCovid-positivepatientsarekept.The second and third levels arehospitals with oxygen support,ventilators and ICU facilities.Somepatientswhoshowsymp-toms,whicharenotverysevere,but yet requiremedical atten-tion, may also be admitted inhospitals.According to Indian Council

ofMedicalResearch,80percent

casesinthecountryshoweithermildsymptomsorareasympto-matic—thelattercomprising69percentofallcases.Thesecasesgenerally do not require hospi-talisation, andcan returnhomeafter quarantining themselvesfor two weeks in Covid CareCentres.Given the complaints from

patientsinthecity,themunicipalcorporation had onApril 25 is-suedacircularaskingallnursinghomesandprivateclinicstoopenup.OnMonday,thestategovern-mentheldextensivediscussionswith private hospitals, nursinghomesandevenclinics inPune.SubhashSalunkhe,Technical

AdvisortotheChiefSecretaryofMaharashtra, told The IndianExpress, “Theyareafraid forob-viousreasons.Theyareinvolvedbuttheycanparticipatefurther.The Health Minister and theChief Minister have already as-sured assistance for PersonalProtective Equipment to hospi-tals andnursinghomes.”In Delhi, which has over

3,300cases,governmenthospi-tals arehandlingalmostdoublethenumberof ICUpatients.Senior officials in the Delhi

government’s health depart-mentsaidtheyhadreceivedsev-eral complaints of private hos-pitals refusing treatment topatients during the lockdown,andlaterofcompellingpatientsto get a Covid-negative test re-portbeforedialysis.Thispromptedthestatetois-

sue an order on April 15warn-inghospitalsandnursinghomesinthecityofstrictaction,includ-ingcancellationof registration.While private facilitiesmay

seemtohaveremainedconspic-uouslyabsent,especially incer-tainhighburden states, it is notwithout any reason, say seniorexecutives.In some cases, facilities are

ready and waiting, but somestates like Uttar Pradesh havekept them on standby. In a fewinstances, states like Telanganadid not “fully support” the roleof the sector initially, either intestingor treatment.“There was even a time

when they (Telangana govern-ment) said ‘send all your posi-tivepatients(togovernmentfa-cilities)’. Now, I think they haverealised that in treatment, theyneed private hospital support.ButIthinkthis is justoneortwogovernments.Withmost of theother governments, there’s agreat partnership role beingplayed,”saidSangitaReddy,JointManaging Director of ApolloHospitals Enterprises, India’slargesthospital chain.“Ithinktheprivatesectorhas

beentryingtostepup.Therewastheinitial fear—somehospitalsgot shut down... and withsmaller nursing homes also,there were some who wereworried. But I think everybodyisnowrampingup,”saidReddy,also the President of theFederation of Indian Chambersof Commerce and Industry(FICCI).The sector’s biggest pain

point,though,istheirstruggletooperatefacilitiesatatimewhentheir costs have increased, buttheir revenueshaveseenadip.“I feel very strongly about

peopletryingtopullprivatesec-tor hospitals downat this pointintime,especiallywhensomeofushavebeentrying tocontinueoperationsdespiteincurringop-erating losses,” said Abhay Soi,CMD, Radiant Life Care andChairman,MaxHealthcare.SaidCKMishra, chairman,of

EmpoweredGroup 2, that is incharge of hospital facilities andtesting: “The private sector hasbeen assisting the governmentand it is a very welcome step.Perhaps,weshouldlookforwardtomoreandmoreprivate-sectorfacilitiesjoiningthegovernment.”(WITHINPUTSFROMASTHA

SAXENA,ASHISHARYANANDSHIVAMPATEL

INNEWDELHI)

FROMPAGEONE

Relaxations May 4 onward, says Centre,clears return home of stranded migrants

Punjab extends lockdown by 2 weeks

Monday,Bihar, JharkhandandOdisha,whichcomprisealargechunk of themigrant labournumbers, hadexpressed theirinability to facilitate their re-turnhomewithoutguidelinesfromtheCentre in this regard.Releasing the new guide-

lines, Union Home SecretaryAjayBhallasaidthemovementof those stranded should bearranged through mutuallyagreed terms between states,on sanitised buses, with re-quired social distancing. Onlyasymptomatic peoplewill beallowedtotravelandasecondassessment of their healthwouldbedoneontheirarrivalin their homestates. Basedonthis, theywould bemoved to

either home or institutionalquarantine.Existing lockdown guide-

lines make no allowance forinter-state movement, butthe Centre had kept quiet asstates recently moved aheadwith arrangements to getback their students and mi-grant labour. Bihar had shotoff a letter to theCentreat thetime, saying the transporta-tionwas in “utter violationofnational guidelines”.The latestguidelines,how-

ever, make no mention oftrains,whichwere among themodes of transport states hadsuggested for large-scalemovementofmigrantworkers.Themove comes as states

are finding it increasingly dif-ficulttosustainmigrantlabour,with work and revenuesources dryingup. Therehavebeen several instances of mi-grants desperate to get homeresortingtoviolenceinGujaratandMaharashtra.TheUddhavThackeray government inMaharashtra had soughtarrangements for inter-statetransportof labour.However, themovemight

endupfurtherimpactingplanstoopenuptheeconomy,whichis struggling to do sowith thefew relaxations announced.Many states have said theywould like to open the econ-omycompletelyingreenzonesafterMay3. TheMSMEsector,

forexample,isheavilydepend-entonmigrant labour.InitsorderWednesday,the

MHA said: “All States/UTsshoulddesignatenodalauthor-itiesanddevelopstandardpro-tocols for receiving and send-ingsuchstrandedpersons.Thenodalauthoritiesshallalsoreg-ister the stranded personswithintheirStates/UTs. Incasea group of stranded personswish to move between oneState/UTandanotherState/UT,the sending and receivingStatesmay consult each otherand mutually agree to themovementbyroad.”Italsoaskedstatesfallingin

between to allow the passageof suchpersons.

Jalandhar, Ludhiana andMohali — have been declaredhotspots, the containmentzones are: Jawaharpur inMohali, Pathlawa village inNawanshahar, Sujanpur inPathankot,NewJainMarket inRajpura and Kacha Patiala,SafabadiGate inPatiala.Earlier this week, the

Punjabgovernmenthadsetupanexpertcommitteetoformu-latea lockdownexitstrategy.Issuing guidelines for re-

suming economic activity innon-containment zones, the

government said standaloneshops, neighbourhood shopsand shops in residential areaswillbeallowedtoopenonrota-tion,from7amto11am.Shopsinmarketcomplexesandshop-ping malls as well as barbershopswillremainclosed.All shops in rural areas reg-

istered under the Shops &EstablishmentAct,exceptthoseinmulti-brandandsingle-brandmalls, will also be allowed toopen with 50 per cent staffstrength,forfourhoursdaily.In Kolkata, Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee announcedthat standalone shops, includ-ingforelectronics,books,paint,laundry, hardware, cellphonerecharge and paan shops, willbeallowedtoopeninnon-con-tainmentzones fromMay4.“Wewill only allow stand-

alone shops. No hawkers’ cor-ner,market or shopping com-plexwill be allowed to open,”she said. “We thought wewouldtakeadecisionafterget-ting clarity from the centralgovernment.Butwedidnotgetany clarification. So, we an-

nouncedourdecision today. Itwill be implemented fromMonday,” shesaid.She said taxis, with not

more than three passengers,and private buses, with notmore than 20passengers,willbeallowedtoplyingreenzones.“Nobodycansaywhenthis

crisiswill end.Most countrieshave already announced lock-down till the end of May andfirstweek of June. Our expertsanddoctorsbelievethatthere-strictions should continue tilltheendofMay,”shesaid.

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KERALAWORRIEDASNEWCASESPOPUP INGREEN ZONESBetweenApril21andApril27,thestatesaw74newCOVID-19casesaddedtoitstally,takingbysurprisedoctorsandhealthofficialswhohadbeenkeepingawatchonthesituation.

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CleaninganddesiltingofMithi river inprogressaheadof themonsoon. PrashantNadkar

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI, APRIL29

DIALYSIS CENTRES in the city havebeendirectednot to shutdownoper-ations for more than 24 hours if aCOVID-19 patient is detected at theircentre. A new circular issued by theBrihanmumbaiMunicipalCorporationalsostatesthatdialysiscentresstafferswearing personal protective equip-ment (PPE)donot require tobequar-antined if they are exposed to a coro-naviruspatient.The circular, issued on April 27 by

DrSanjayOak,chairmanofTaskForceCommittee, comes after several hur-dles were noted in the operation ofdialysiscentresandseekstomodifyanearlier BMC circular that warned ofpunitive action if the centres werefoundoperatingwithoutscreeningpa-tients for coronavirus and in case ofvirus transmission.The fresh circular states that if a

case is found, standard disinfectionprotocol will be carried out and onlypatients who have come in contactwith the COVID-19 infected personwouldbetested.Staffers,wearingPPEand exposed to such patients, wouldnot have to be quarantined, however,thosesansPPEwouldbequarantinedif exposed, it states.“Those (staffers) who do not de-

velop symptoms by the seventh daycanrejoinworkimmediately,”thecir-cular statedwhile amending the 14-daymandatory quarantine for healthworkersatdialysis centres.Theearliercircular, issuedonApril

10,hadaskeddialysiscentrestoscreen

everypatient before putting themondialysismachine.“Anycentrefoundtoviolate these conditions is liable forpunitive action fromMCGM,” the cir-cularstated.AccordingtoDrRBDastur,medical director in Bhatia hospital,theyhadstartedrequestingallpatientstofirstundergoacoronavirustestandthen come if their test report camenegative. “This was to contain thespreadof the infection,”hesaid.DrGaneshSanap,fromApexSwap

Transplant Registry, said the processbecametediousforpatients,whohadto undergo a test every time they re-quiredadialysis,aswellasforcentres,whofearedthatthecivicbodywillsealtheircentreif apositivecasecameup.Patients complained they had to un-dergoaCOVID-19testevery10daysorsobeforea freshcycleof dialysis.Grant Road-based Dharmendra

Kansara said it took two days for hiswife’sCOVID-19results tocome.“Shekeptvomitingbecauseherdialysiswasnothappeningontime.COVID-19testtakesa long time.Wecan’t affordpri-vatetestevery10days,”hesaid,addingthatgovernmenthospitalshadrefusedto testher.

MOHAMEDTHAVERMUMBAI, APRIL29

MULUNDMLAMihir Kotecharecently released a video, inwhichheisseensayingthatlocalpolice had registered a caseagainst unidentified personswhoshotavideoofamanbeingtakenawayinanambulanceandshared itwidely.Themanisadoctorwhowas

treating COVID-19 patients andhadsubsequentlytestedpositive.Someone recorded the video ofhim being shifted in an ambu-lanceandposteditonsocialme-dia, where it went viral. At thetime,twopatientshadtestedpos-itiveforCOVID-19inMulund,onebeingthedoctor.“Iwant to ask people if they

arethinkingaboutthecrimetheyare committing before sharingsuchvideos.AnFIRhasbeenreg-istered atMulundpolice stationagainst the personwho shot itandthosewhosharedit,”Kotechasaidinthevideo.Even though theMinistry of

HealthandFamilyWelfarehasis-sued an advisory asking peoplenot to “spreadnamesor identityof those affected or under quar-antine or their locality on socialmedia”, severalcaseshavecometolightwherepeopleare“reveal-ing”namesof thosetestingposi-tive for COVID-19 on socialme-dia. While some states were

providing the names of thosetestingpositivetoencouragecon-tactstocomeforwardintheinitialstages of the outbreak,Maharashtra government de-cided to respect confidentialityrules on keeping their identitiesprivate, as incidents of stigmati-sation rose.Maharashtra policehasbeenregisteringFIRsagainstthosefounddoingso.An officer from cyber police

saidapart fromcommunalmes-sagesandthosespreadingmisin-formationaboutCOVID-19,caseswerecomingaboutpeopleshar-ingvideosorspreadingmessagesintheirsocietyorlocalWhatsAppgroups informing others aboutwhohastestedpositive.On the day that Kotecha put

outthevideoclip,anotherpersonin Uttan recorded a video of awomanwhohad testedpositiveandwas being taken to hospitalinanambulance.Whenarelativeof thewomanfoundthevideoinhis schoolWhatsApp group, heinformedthewoman’shusband,whoapproached the localUttanSagaripolicestation,whereanFIRwasregisteredagainstthepersonin the neighbourhoodwho shotthevideoandthepersonwhofor-wardedit.Theofficerfromcyberpolice

added that there were caseswhere the information “wasmisleadingandspreadwith themotive tomalign the person orcommunity”.

Forexample,onApril27, theKhadakpada police registeredan FIR after a mutton shopownerinKalyan(west)receivedtwocallsfromcustomersaskingifhissonandbrotherhadtestedpositive.Shocked,hesaiditwasnot correct and enquired aboutthe reason for the query. To hishorror,hewastoldtheyhavegotaWhatsApp forward that theyhad tested positive. The mes-sage further said butchers andmuttonshopownersshouldnotbeallowedinthearea.Themut-tonshopownerapproachedthepoliceandanFIRwasregistered.Aseniorofficersaid, “Inma-

jority of these cases, while theintention may not be to causeproblem to the person, the ac-cused does end up putting thevictimandhis/her familyatriskof social isolation.Hencewearetaking strict action againstthose indulging in such activi-ties and registering FIRs to cre-ate feararound ‘overenthusias-tic’ people who are quick toshootvideosorshareunverifiedinformation.”Mulundpolicestationsenior

inspectorRaviSardesaisaidtheyhaveseizedthemobilephoneofthepersonwhoshotthevideoofthe doctor andwill arrest himsoon. On the Khadakpada inci-dent, a police officer said, “Themessagehasbeensharedseveraltimesandweare trying to trackdowntheoriginal sender.”

LAXMANSINGHMUMBAI, APRIL29

A65-YEAR-OLDman,whohadacoughandwasfeelingbreathlessandwanted to visit a hospital toget tested for Covid-19,was toldby theBMC1916helpline set upfor Covid-19-related assistancethatitcouldnotsendhimanam-bulance as the emergency vehi-clecouldbeprovidedonlyforpa-tients whowere confirmed tohavetheinfection.Afterfutileattemptstoaccess

an ambulance on other emer-gency numbers such as 108 and112 on Tuesday night, themanwas eventually put in a taxi to

Nairhospital inMumbaiCentralbythelocalpoliceonWednesdaymorning,onlytobeditchedmid-waybythecabbiewhopanickedathiscondition.Withgreatdifficultytheman

managedtofindanothercab,andgottothehospitalaround1pm.Themanlives inagodownin

Byculla and sellsmangoes for aliving.HewasadministeredatestforcoronavirusatthehospitalonWednesday, and the result is yettocome.Vinod Singh, who lives in

Worli,andknowshimastheyarefromthesameUttarPradeshvil-lage,saidhelearntabouthiscon-ditionat8pmonTuesday.ItwasSinghwhocalledBMC’s

helpline1916foranambulance.“Thepersonwhotookmycall

saidtheyprovideambulanceonlywhen aperson is Covid-19posi-tive. If ambulances are only forCovid-19patients, thenhowwillapersonwithsimilarsymptomswithnoothertransportavailabledue to the lockdown reachhos-pital?”heasked.Themanhasnorelativeinthe

city and lives in a godownwithtwootherpersons,Singhsaid.“If he has to find his own

transport, and his report comespositive, then howwould BMCtraceall thepeoplewhocameincontactwith himwhile hewasgetting to hospital by himself.Therehastobeasystemforsuch

patients,”hesaid.Singh tried dialling 108 and

112,butbothnumberswerecon-stantlybusy.Finally, Singh called the na-

tionalhelpline1075,whichaskedthe local police to provide help.Around 11 am, a police teamreachedhimandarrangeda taxitotakehimtohospital.However, after the cabbie

came to knowof his symptoms,aboutakilometrefromwherehehadpickedhimup,thetaxidriverleft him on the road to fend forhimself,Singhclaimed.“Hecalledmeagain.Hewasbreathingheav-ilyanditwasnotpossibleforhimtowalktohospital,”Singhsaid.Theman thendecided to re-

turn to thegodownbutafter theowner learnt about his symp-toms, he too toldhimhewasnolongerwelcomethere.Finally,af-ter scouting aroundonhis own,he found a taxi at 1 pm to takehimtoNairhospital.“It tookhimover 12hours to

getadmitted inhospital. Theau-thoritiesshouldensuresuchpeo-ple get ambulance on time,”Singh said. When contacted,Deputy ExecutiveHealthOfficerDr Daksha Shah said that thehelplinenumber1916 isonly forCovid-19 patients and they pro-videambulanceonlyforpatientswho have tested positive. “Forother patients 108 can bereached,”shesaid.

65-yr-old struggles to get ambulance,reaches hospital after 12 hours

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI, APRIL29

THE DOUBLING rate of COVID-19 cases in Mumbai has im-proved from8.3days to10daysfromApril17toApril27,datare-leased by BMC showed onWednesday.Whilethedoublingrate – days taken for the num-ber of cases to double – inMaharashtra was 8.9 days, thenationalaveragewas9.5duringthisperiod.

The civic bodyalso said thatthe fatality rate in the city hasgonedown from6.3per cent to3.9percentbetweenApril11to

April 26. The death rate inMaharashtra,meanwhile,stoodat4.3per cent in thisperiod.G Southward,which covers

the worst-affected slum andsemi-slum areas of WorliKoliwada, BDD chawls andJijamata Nagar, has recorded adoubling rate of 17.6 days be-tween April 17 and April 27. Asof April 27, thenumberof casesin thewardwas 642, highest inthe city. But in otherwards, thedoubling rate has gone up. Tward,whichcoversMulund,hasadoublingrateof 8.4days,hav-ing gone up from 13.2 days onApril 17. M East ward, whichcovers congested and slum ar-

eas of Mankhurd, Govandi andDeonar, has a doubling rate of8.8days, up from14daysandHEast(Behrampada,BandraEast)hasdoublingrateof6.9days,anincrease from9.3days.According to BMC, till April

26, it has traced 1,29,477 con-tacts of patients. Among them,21,053 are high-risk contacts.Till date, BMC has conducted66,000 tests. Approximately,5,071testsarebeingconductedper million population inMumbai.

BMChealthvolunteersatan inspectionatGeetaNagarsluminColabaonWednesday.NirmalHarindran

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI, APRIL29

THREEMOREpolicemenpostedat Kasa police station in Palgharwere suspendedonWednesdayover the lynching of two sadhusandtheirdriverbyamobonApril16. Palghar SP Gaurav Singh is-sued an order to suspendAssistantPoliceSubInspectorRBSalunkheandconstablesSantoshMukane and Naresh Dhodi,pendinganinquiry.The suspensions follow the

transferonTuesdayof35consta-blespostedatKasapolicestation.WithWednesday’s suspension,theentirestaff ofKasapolicesta-tionhasbeenshuntedout.Singhhad claimed the transferswerenotlinkedtothelynching.A spokesperson for Palghar

police station said the three po-licemenwere among the smallpolice party that had rushed toGadchinchle village onApril 16night after villagers had sur-roundedacarferryingthesadhus,Mahant KalpavrukshaGiri (70)and SushilgiriMaharaj (35), andtheir driverNileshYelgade (30).The villagers are alleged tohavemistaken the men, who wereheaded to Surat for a funeral, forchildliftersandorganharvesters.Despite the presence of the

police, the group of 500 vil-lagers attacked the men bru-tally and killed them on thespot.Lastweek,AssistantPoliceInspector Anandrao Kale andPolice Sub Inspector SudhirKataretoohadbeensuspendedfor failingtoprotect thevictimsfromthemob.

Three morepolicemensuspended

PALGHARLYNCHING

Cases lodged for sharingvideos, names of positivepatients on social media

BMC directs dialysiscentres not toshut operations formore than 24 hours

Thecircularcomesafterseveralhurdleswerenotedintheoperationofdialysiscentresandseekstomodifyanearliercircularthatwarnedofpunitiveactionifcentreswerefoundoperatingwithoutscreening

Covid cases in city doubling in 10 days: BMC

Mumbai

4THEINDIANEXPRESS,THURSDAY,APRIL30,2020

THEOUTBREAK Maharashtra

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SANDEEPASHARMUMBAI, APRIL29

THE UDDHAV Thackeray-ledcoalitiongovernmenthas takenupaproposal for protecting thesalariesandwagesofemployeesofsmall,micro,andmediumen-terprises (MSMEs) in the state.Estimating the losses suffereddue to the lockdown by the in-dustry sector inMaharashtra tobeoverRs1lakhcrore,seniorof-ficialssaid,aproposalforpayingup to two months of basicsalariesandwagesfortheMSMEstaffwasunderconsideration.Maharashtra,India’smostin-

dustrialised state, has 17 lakhregisteredMSMEs that providedirectandindirectemploymenttonearly1.5crorepeople.Ofthis,the manufacturing sector,amongtheworsthitbythelock-down,aloneaccountforsixlakhunits.Accordingtogovernmentes-

timates,nearly94percentoftheoperationalfactoryunits(34,501of36,623registeredfactories)inthestatehadstalledproductionfollowinggovernment-enforcedrestrictions.After the lockdownmeasureswereeasedfornon-in-

fectedpartsonApril20,atotalof4,500unitsresumedproductionactivitytillApril28,while15,846applied for permission to oper-ate, stated an official release ofthe state-run MaharashtraIndustrial DevelopmentCorporation.While a committee of serv-

ing and retired bureaucrats, ap-pointed by Chief MinisterUddhavThackeray, isstillmeas-uring the economic impact ofCOVID-19 andway to revive it,senior officials said small busi-nessesinthestatehavetakenthemaximum hit due to supply-chaindisruptions,withsteel,realestate,andtextile industriesbe-ing theworstaffected.Seniorofficialssaidthestate’s

Industries department has pro-posed that the governmentspend Rs 800-Rs 1,000 crore asan incentive toMSMEs that donot lay off their staff. “The pro-posal is to reimburse suchbusi-nessforuptotwomonthsofba-sicsalariesandwagespaid,”saidaseniorofficial.Thestate’sproposalcomesat

a time when a group of 11MSMEs have petitioned the

SupremeCourttoallowthemtopayworkers70percentlessdur-ing lockdown and sought a di-rection for the government topaytherestof thefundfromthePM cares fund. OnWednesday,former Union FinanceMinisterP Chidambaram also urged theUnion government to come upwith a scheme to protect thesalaries and wages of 12 crorepeopleemployedby theprivatesector.In anothermeasure to cush-

ionthe impact for thesmall andmediumbusinesses,thedepart-menthasalsoproposedthatthestategovernmentbearuptofivepercentinterestonexistingandfresh capital loans availed byMSMEsforayear. Ithasalsopro-posed the electricity duty bewaived off for all industries, in-cluding major ones, for theMarch-June period, but thestate’s energy department hasreportedlyopposedthesugges-tion.OnMonday,thestateCabinet

had introduced a provision toenabletradersmoretimetopayGST dues. The department hasnow proposed that traders be

given an additional six-monthtime formeeting various dead-linesandcompliances.These concessions, collec-

tively, are expected to cost Rs3,500-4,000 crore. With thestate’s own revenues adverselyhit,aseniorfinancedepartmentofficial said, the availability offunds to provide such sopswouldbean issue.Thestatehasestimated its own revenue lossfor the lockdown period to beoverRs42,000crore.“We are hoping that the

Centre itself announces similarschemes nationwide. This willreduce our burden,” an officialsaid.In order to infuse fresh capi-

tal, a proposal to approach theReserveBankof India fordirect-ing banks to grant 20 per centadditional loan to all eligible in-dustries without seeking freshcollateral isbeingconsideredbythe state government, said offi-cials. Meanwhile, Maharashtrais planning to prioritise capitalinvestments intheroads, irriga-tion, and other infrastructuresectors in public sector to spurgrowth.

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI,APRIL29

DAYAFTERagovernmentdelega-tionledbyDeputyChiefMinisterAjit PawarmetGovernorBhagatSinghKoshyaritourgehimtotakea decision onnominating ChiefMinisterUddhavThackeraytotheLegislative Council, former CMDevendra Fadnavis onWednesday saidBJP is not inter-ested inmakinga “backdoor en-try”intoMaharashtrapolitics.“We are confident that the

Governorwilltakeanappropriatedecision,conformingtolegalandconstitutionalframework,andac-cordingly nominate Uddhav

Thackeray to the Council,”Fadnavissaid.“Iwouldliketoem-phasize that BJPwould be veryhappy to seeUddhavThackeraybeingnominated to theCouncilandcontinuingastheCM.TheBJPdoes notwant instability in thestate.” Refuting charges that theOppositionwas behind stallingUddhav’s nomination, Fadnavissaid,“Weareneitherinterestedinengineering instabilitynormak-ingabackdoorentry.”Shiv Sena leader SanjayRaut

had accusedBJP ofmisusingRajBhawantoserveitspoliticalinter-ests. AsourceatRajBhavan,how-ever, said, “TheGovernor is con-sulting constitutional and legalexperts.Theprocessison.”

MAYURAJANWALKARRAIGAD,RATNAGIRI,APRIL29

WHENHE set out towalk fromMapusainGoa,SarojBhanRawatwaspreparedtowalkfor25to30daystomakeithomeinSatnadis-trictofMadhyaPradesh.“Itwas11ofus.Wesetoutaf-

ter packing atta and rice. Wewould cut through railwayplat-forms at night so that no onewould see us. Weworked at abuilding construction site inGoaandtherewasnoarrangementforus to stayput at the shantieswelivedinwhenwehadnowork.So,wedecidedtogohomeandwalk-ingwasouronlyoption.Wewerenotsurewhatwewouldgettoeatsowethoughtitwasbettertore-turn to home,” he said frombe-hindafacemask.In five days, the 11menhad

walked216km fromMapusa toBhoke, one station ahead ofRatnagiri on theKonkan railway.OnApril14,however,theycaught

theattentionofpolicemenattheBhokestation.“On theway, we didn’t find

any transit camps. But afterwereachedBhoke, somepolicemenaccosted us. We pleaded withthemtoallowtowalkfurtherbutthey told us that arrangementshavebeenmadeforpeoplelikeusinRatnagiri,”Rawatsaid.SinceApril 14, themenhave

made a classroom in DamleVidyalayainRatnagiritheirhome.Theschoolisnowhometo19mi-grantworkers–the11fromSatnaandothersfromtheneighbouringdistrictofSindhudurg.RamswarupKol,whostarted

fromMapusawithRawat,saidtheschoolwascomfortableandtherewasnoshortageoffood.“It’sokayfornowbutthisisnothome.Hadwe been home, we could havehelped with the work in ourfarms,”headded.Inthedistrictsalongthestate’s

coastline,migrant labourers areemployed in large numbersmostly at construction sites,

restaurants and hotels. A largenumber of workers fromNepalalso migrate to Ratnagiri andSindhudurginthesummeraheadofmango plucking routine andstayputuntiltheendofMay.Unlikemanyof his co-work-

ers fromNepal, who have beencomingtoKonkaninthesummertoworkinmangoorchards,RajeshChaudhry came toRatnagiri forthe first time this year. “We areokayherebutwiththeCOVID-19pandemicandlockdown,IthinkI

should’ve stayedhomewithmyfamily,”saidChaudhry,whohailsfromKailali inNepal.Hestaysonamangoorchardwithothersfromhisvillage.Thefeelingofbeing“caughtin

themiddle”hauntsmanyevenasthedistrictadministrationtriestoallaytheiranxiety.AtMangaoninRaigad,thedis-

placementofconstructionlabour-ersaftermanyleftfortheirhome-towns before the lockdown onMarch24, has takena toll on theworkontheMangaonbypass,lo-cated on the Indapur-Wadpalesectionof theunderconstructionMumbai-Goahighway.Alok Kumar of Chetak

Enterprises, theRajasthan-basedcompany contracted to build 26kmsection of the highway, saidtheyneedatleast500workersbutwithmanyhaving leftbefore thelockdown, only 120 are living atthe site.Many others, who hadgonehome forHoli, havenot re-turned.The company’s staff, hailing

from across the country, havebeenprovidedaccommodationatair-conditionedcontainercabins.The contracted daily-wagelabourers (earning anaverageofRs400toRs500)liveinmakeshiftasbestosshantiesattheconstruc-tionsites.Among them is Rita Danve,

who came to Mangaon fromBhusaval (about 540 kmaway)leaving her three childrenwithherparents.“Assoonasthetrainsstart again, Iwill go home,” saidDanve,whohas been at the sitefor over ninemonthswith herhusbandLaxman.Areas like Panvel and Uran

that are in close proximitywiththeMumbaiMetropolitanRegionarealsohometothousandsofmi-grantworkers. InRaigad, 36,879migrantworkers are staying at327 locations, District CollectorNidhiChoudharisaid.Afternewsandvideosofthou-

sands ofmigrantworkers gath-eredatMumbai’sBandra stationonApril 14werewidely shared,

officials said ithadbroughtanxi-ety tomanymigrantworkers inotherdistrictsaswell.Choudhari,however,saidthat

theydecidednottouprootwork-erswho stayed on constructionsites.Theadministrationprovidesthemwithdry ration, soaps andsanitisers. She said thatworkerslived in groups of peoplehailingfromthesamestateorvillageandscattering them in campswouldhave only causedmore stress tothem.“Even the organisations and

NGOsthatsupplycookedfoodtosomeofthecamps,wetoldthemtotakesmall steps toensurethatmigrant workers feel more athome.LikeservechokhatoBihariworkers, serve brinjal withkhichdi. In Panvel,we installed aTV in a camp so that they canwatchmovies intheir language,”saidChoudhari.Acarlightshoneoneightper-

sons resting their heads on theirbagsalong thehighwaynear theKharsaivillageinRaigadatdawn.

Goingwithoutwater the entirenight,thefourmen,threewomenanda three-and-a-half-year-oldchild,werelyingdowntoresttheirbodiesthathadbravedabout220kmonfoot fromVirar,Mumbai’sfar-flungsuburb,totheirvillageinGondghar in Raigad. In anothertime,theywouldtravelthesamedistanceinabusineighthours.The childwas asleep on his

mother’sstretchedlegs,hisblackfacemaskslippingoffhisear.“Wehavebeenwalkingforthreedaysnon stop.Hekept crying and re-fusing towalk,” said AkankshaKap,theboy’smother.Thefamilyhadonlyfourkilometresmoretowalktomakeithome.“Eightofusliveinoneroomin

Virar.Whatkindofsocialdistanc-ingcanwemaintain?Wedecidedtowalkhome...our familymem-bers in the village saywewouldbe quarantined in the villageschoolfor15days.Thatisfine...thisis home after all,” said AnkushKap, the boy’s fatherwho is anelectrician.

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI,APRIL29

NINEDAYSafterlockdownrestric-tionswere eased for industrialunits in areas that had not seenCOVID-19 cases inMaharashtra,signs of resumption of activityhavebegunemerging.According to anofficial state-

ment issued by the state-runMaharashtra IndustrialDevelopmentCorporation,15,846industrial units have applied fortheresumingmanufacturingandprocessingactivitysinceApril20whentherestrictionswereeased.“Alltheseapplicantshavesub-

mittedself-certifieddeclarationsor undertakings that theywillabidebythetermsandconditionslaiddownbythestateandcentralgovernments to contain thespread of coronavirus,” said thestatement.Ofthosewhohaveap-plied, productionactivityhas re-sumedin4,500units.“Accordingtothemanagementoftheseunits,3,83,613workerswereemployedearlier. Of these, 90,000have re-sumedduties,”statedtherelease.“A total of 2,500 vehicles,

which are fully compliantwithlaiddownnorms, have beende-ployed to ferry theseworkers to

andfromtheworkplaces.Noneofthe teammembers of these in-dustries have any symptoms ofCOVID-19,”itadded.Theapplica-tions for resumption have beenreceived fromMumbai, Pune,Nagpur,NashikandAurangabad.AccordingtoMIDC,inthefirst

phase of the easingof lockdownconditions before April 20, ap-provalswere given tomanufac-turing and processing units inKonkan, Pune, Nashik,Aurangabad, Amravati andNagpurdivisions.Theseincluded1,966industriesproducingessen-tial goods and 156 continuousprocessingunits – ones that run24x7.Maharashtra has a total of36,623registeredfactories.Unitsthathaveresumedpro-

ductionincludeHindustanLever,JSW Steel, POSCO Steel, UttamGalwa, Ambuja Cement,Ultratech,Golden Fiber andKECInternationalLimited.Manyoth-ersareexpectedtostartsoon,theMIDCadded.

Long way home for migrants in Konkan and the wait, even longer

Maypayupto2months’basicsalaries,wagesforMSMEstaffEXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI,PUNE,NAGPUR,APRIL29

WITH32deathsinthestate,26ofthem inMumbai, Wednesdaysaw thehighest single day jumpfor COVID-19 deaths inMaharashtraanditscapital.In Mumbai, 475 new cases

wererecordedonWednesday.Inall, therewere597newCovid-19casesacrossthestate,bringingthetotal count to 9,915, while thedeath toll rose to 432.Maharashtracontributesto29percentofcountry’sCovid-19burdenand39percentofcountry’sover-alldeathtoll.Pune (1,062 cases),Mumbai

(6,644cases)andThane(373)to-gether now account for 81 percentofMaharashtra’scases.ButariseincasesisalsobeingnotedinMalegaon, Solapur, and NaviMumbai.“Weexpectthenumberof cases to further rise, at least inhotspots basedon latest trends,”saidDrPradeepAwate, stateepi-demiologist. Three deathswererecordedinPune,one inSolapur,one in Aurangabad, and one inPanvel city. Senior citizens con-tinuetoaccountformaximumfa-talities—17ofthe32deathswereaged above 60. The instances ofthosewithnocomorbiditydyingpurelydue to coronavirus is alsoincreasing.OnWednesday,while18deceasedpatientsalsosufferedfromasthma,diabetes,hyperten-sionorheartproblems,14hadnoco-morbidityatall.Mumbai officials said of 26

deaths in Mumbai, 10 wererecorded lastweekbut assessedandconfirmedasCovid-19deathsonWednesday.A central government-ap-

pointed teamvisited Solapur toreview the control measuresagainst COVID-19. The teamheadedbyDrAKGadpayle,fromNewDelhi, reviewedwhy caseshadsuddenlygoneupinSolapur.AcrossMaharashtra,1.62lakh

peopleremainunderhomequar-antine while over 10,000 sus-pectedcases remainunder insti-tutional quarantine. OnWednesday,205peopleweredis-chargedacrossstate,of them193werefromMumbai.Mumbai, currently,has6,770

people admitted in COVID carecentres (level I),whereasympto-

matic andyet-to-be-tested slumdwellershavebeenquarantined,and 1,474 people are in COVIDcarecentres(level II),wherecon-firmed Covid-19 caseswith nosymptoms or mild symptomshavebeenputup.In Pune, a 65-year-oldman

died late Tuesdaydue toCOVID-19 related complications. AtSassoonGeneral Hospital, a 71-year-oldmandiedof COVID-19-related infection onApril 29. InNagpur, aCOVID-19patientdiedWednesdaybutauthoritiesareyetto attribute the death to coron-avirusasthepatientwasasymp-tomatic.MunicipalcommissionerTukaramMundhesaid,“Sincehewasasymptomaticdespitebeingcoronavirus positivewith someco-morbidity factors like bloodpressure abnormality, our deathcommitteewould ascertain thecauseofdeath.Onlyafterthatwewouldbeabletocommentonit.”Awoman, who delivered a

baby at IGGMCWednesday, hastestedpositive. “She is asympto-matic, but since she came fromthe containment zone ofMominpura,wetookhersamplesTuesday,” said DeputyMedicalSuperintendentSagarPande.

4,500 industrial unitsresume work, 15,846apply for permission

Govtmulls scheme to protectsalaries ofMSMEworkers

Numberofdeaths 432

Totalnumberofpeopledischarged 1,593

Numberofpeople tested1.35 lakh

Totalnumberquarantined10,813

Numberofnewcases 597

TOTALPOSITIVECASESINMAHARASHTRA

9,915

EMPTYLANES:TheAPMCvegetablemarket inVashiwearsadeserted lookWednesday.AmitChakravarty

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI, APRIL29

AFTER THE Union Ministry ofHome Affairs (MHA) issued anotification permitting inter-state movement of people, in-cluding migrant workers,tourists and others, to enablethemtoreachtheirhomes,stateofficialssaidonWednesdaythata high-levelmeeting is likely tobeconvenedonThursdaytodis-cussmodalities.Discussions on finalising

modalitieswould take place onThursday, a senior bureaucratsaid.TheMHAdecisionhascome

as partial relief to theMaharashtra government,which had been pressing theCentretomakearrangementstosend lakhs of migrant workersfrom the northern states,strandedsincethelockdownbe-gan onMarch 25 in urban cen-tres of the state, includingMumbai,without anymeans ofincomeorshelter.Thestatewaskeenthatthisshouldhappenbe-fore May 3, when the ongoinglockdown may be extendedagain.Thelasttimeitwasextended

on April 14, nearly 2,000 mi-grantsatBandrainMumbaihadtaken to the streets in the beliefthat the governmentwas goingto send them home. Keen toavoid a repeat, Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray had repeat-edlyconveyedtotheCentrethatit shouldstart special trainsandissue guidelines before the endofApril.As per the guidelines issued

on Wednesday, the migrantswould now be sent home in

“sanitised”buses.The statewill have to do the

heavy lifting for this, includingarranging thousands of busesand the screening each personwho would be transportedacross thestateborders.But the government has al-

readydonesomehomeworkonsending themigrants home byroad,asstateTransportMinisterAnil Parab had told The IndianExpress in an interview earlierthisweek.Parab had said the govern-

ment hadworkedout the exactdetailsofnumberofbusesithasineachdivision.“Wecantransportonly20to

22people inonestate transportbus, aswe have to follow socialdistancing norms. So, we havekept10,000busesready.Around1.5 lakh people can be trans-ported by these buses,” he hadadded.Theministerhadfurthersaid

thatthemigrantswillhavetoberegisteredwiththegovernmentauthorities – police or districtcollectors.“They should have at least

oneidentitycard.Peoplewhodonot have access to any shelterwillbethefirsttobemovedout,”hehadadded.

StrandedmigrantworkersinRatnagiri.AmitChakravarty

'Real estate firmsshould formNBFCs’Mumbai:Realestatecompanieshavebeenasked to reduce costofconstructiontoboostdemandandstarttheirownfinancecom-panies to provide loans tohomebuyers. At awebi-nar onWednesday, at-tendedby1,500partici-pants,Minister of RoadTransportandHighwaysNitinGadkarisaidNationalReal EstateDevelopment Council(NAREDCO)shouldpro-posetothegovernmentfor investing some amount innon-banking financial compa-nies(NBFC)andthenaskNBFCstoborrow foreign funds,whichwill help in reducing interestrates. He said thiswill help de-velopersprovide cheaper loans

to homebuyerswith faster ap-proval. “Therealestate industryshouldadoptnewtechnologiesand reduce their constructioncost,whichwill help the sectorto generatemore demand and

sell inventory at a lowcost,” he said. He saidthe central and stategovernments wereplanning to purchasehousing quarters foremployeesandif associ-ations came forwardwithplanstothegov-ernment, itwill helpdevelopers generate

liquidity and regenerate theeconomy. ENS

Labour bodies to observe12-hr fast onMay 1

Mumbai:Todraw the attention

ofstateandcentralgovernmentstotheplightofstrandedmigrantlabourersstuckforoveramonthnow, various organisationsworkingwith the underprivi-legedwillobserveaday’sfastonMay1,observedasInternationalLabour Day andMaharashtraDay andpress to sendworkersbacktotheirhomestates.Callingit a fast of “gratitude, empathyand constitutional responsibil-ity”, the organisations said thefast from6 am to 6 pmwill beundertakenby representativesofatleast15districtsinthestate.Someof theirdemands includegroceries for labourers regard-lessofwhethertheyhaverationcards; urgent repatriation ofworkerstohomestates;systemat taluka and district-level forworkers togetduesandwages;insurance coverage forworkers

andminimumwages for con-structionworkers andMGN-REGAworkers despite lost em-ployment, through DirectBeneficiaryTransfer. ENS

70 buses leave to bringstudents stuck inKota

Mumbai:At least70state trans-port buses left from the stateWednesday to bring back stu-dents stranded at Kota inRajasthan due to the coron-avirus-enforcedlockdown,anof-ficialsaid.Thevehicles left fromDhuledistrict around10.30 amand will reach Rajasthan byWednesdaynight, he said. “Thebuses will leave from KotaThursdaymorning,”theMSRTCofficial said,addingthatonly20studentswillbeallowedineachbus. PTI

CORONAWATCH

MIGRANTSTOBESENTHOME

Govt likely to finalisemodalities today

ApplicationshavebeenreceivedfromMumbai,Pune,Nagpur,NashikandAurangabad

Not interested in makingbackdoor entry: Fadnavis

HIGHEST CASESMumbai 6,644

Pune 1,062

Thane 373

Malegaon 171

NaviMumbai 162

Kalyan-Dombivali 158

Vasai-Virar 128

Wecantransportonly20to22people inonestatetransportbus,aswehavetofollowsocialdistancingnorms.So,wehavekept10,000busesready”

ANILPARABSTATETRANSPORTMINISTER

Highest singleday jump: 32deaths in state

Mumbai

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEAHMEDABAD,GANDHINAGAR,VADODARA,RAJKOT,SURAT,APRIL29

SEVEN JOURNALISTS and fivestateinformationdepartmentof-ficialswere among the 317newCOVID-19 cases reported inGujarat— thehighest single-dayjump—onWednesday.Thenum-ber of cases in the statehasnowcrossed 4,000. The number ofdeaths in the state stands at 200with 17more people dying onWednesday. Rajkot reported itsfirst death — a 60-year-oldwomanwithhypertension,whowashospitalisedonApril20,died.Herhusbandand two sonshavetestedpositive,takingthedistrictcasecountto58.NinepeoplediedinAhmeda-

bad, including a 20-year-oldwoman and a 65-year-oldmanwith a thyroid condition. Threeothers who died are twomen,aged54and64,anda45-year-oldwomanwhohadnoco-morbidi-ties.Twoothermen,aged80and61,whodiedatSVPHospital,hadhypertension. A 70-year-oldwomanwhodiedatCivilHospitalhad asthma and hypertension.Another 60-year-oldwoman tosuccumbhadlungcomplicationsalongwithmental illness.In Ahmedabad, 234 people

testedpositive,includingfiveem-ployees of state informationde-partment. Of them, two are inhomequaran-tineandthree ata carecentre.

GARGIVERMARAIPUR,APRIL29

ONTUESDAY,a58-year-oldmantested positive for COVID-19 inChhattisgarh’s Surajpur — thefirst confirmed case in the dis-trict. In the rapid test, nine oth-ers quarantined at the sameshelter campweresuspected tohavebeen infected.A 10th person suspected to

have contracted the infectionwas housed at a quarantinecampin Jashpurdistrict.

Both were green zone dis-tricts, and all 12 people had ar-rived, along many others in agroupofaround400,fromquar-antine centres in RajnandgaondistrictonApril 17.“We have sent all patients

(manwho tested positive andthosesuspectedtohavebeenin-fected) to AIIMS-Raipur. I wascontacted by the Rajnandgaoncollectorandwemadearrange-ments for 106 people they senttoourdistrict,” Surajpurdistrictcollector Deepak Soni said onWednesday.

THEOUTBREAK 5WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMTHEINDIANEXPRESS,THURSDAY,APRIL30,2020

MAULSHREESETHLUCKNOW,APRIL29

THEUTTARPradeshgovernmentissettopromulgateanordinancetoamend theEpidemicDiseasesAct,1897,toensurethatthosein-volvedinattacksonfrontlinewor-kers amid the COVID-19 pan-demic face stiff penalties,includingajailtermofuptosevenyearsandRs5lakhasfine.Citing the attack on health

workersandpoliceinKanpurandMoradabad, ChiefMinister YogiAdityanath onWednesday said,“Attacks onour coronawarriorsareaseriouscrimewhichcannotgounpunishedas thesewarriorsareworkingforthesocietybyput-tingtheir livesatrisk.”“That iswhywehavemoved

forwardtoamendEpidemicDise-asesAct...,”hesaid.

SpeakingtoTheIndianExpress,stateLawMinisterBrijeshPathaksaid that after theCentre amen-ded theAct, each statewas sup-posedtoamendrulesconcerningit. “Uttar Pradeshhas decided toimplement all provisions, likepunishment fromsixmonths tosevenyears and fine imposed intheCentralAct.Wehavedecidedto bring a freshordinance,mak-ingthepunishmentmorestrict.”Whilethenewordinancewill

becalledUttarPradeshEpidemicDiseaseControlOrdinance,2020,sourcessaiditwouldincludepun-ishmentforoffenceslikespitting,runningfromquarantinefacilities

andviolatingrestrictions.The CMsaidmedical teams,

securitypersonneloreven thoseengagedindoorstepdelivery,arehelpingpeopleofthestatebyput-ting their lives at risk and just ahandful of people cannot be al-lowed to create unrest. He saidthat hehas askedpolice officersnottohesitateintakingaction.“Suchattacksareadirectchal-

lengetothelawandordersystem,andinnosituation,theycanbeac-cepted.Ihadsaiditearliertooandwill say it again that in UttarPradesh,allthehealthworkers,se-curitypersonnel,allthesanitationworkers, andeven social organi-sations areworking tobreak thechain of coronavirus... Attackingthemisanunpardonablecrime,”hesaid,addingthatGangsterActandNational SecurityActwouldalsobe invokedagainst those in-volvedinsuchattacks.

Attacks on frontline workers: UP tobring in ordinance for strict penalty

Lucknow:Minutes after healthworkers took away nine familymembers of a person, who hadtested positive for coronavirus,to put them inquarantine, localresidentsWednesday allegedlyattackedapoliceteamdeployedat the spot and threw stones inJugiyana localityof Kanpur.Police said those who tar-

geted the police personnel de-manded that health workersshould test the patient’s familymembers at the residence andtake away only those who testpositive for coronavirus.Fiftyarearesidentshavebeen

booked in a case filed at the lo-calpolice station. ENS

Four held forattack on policeteam in Kanpur

YogiAdityanath

Chhattisgarh dist throwsup first case, question ontransfer during quarantine

SOHINIGHOSHGANDHINAGAR,APRIL29

THEGUJARATstatehealthcommis-sioner has raised concerns of dataprivacy, ownership and storage re-gardingTeCHO+app,whichisbeingused to upload data on COVID-19patients.Thesoftwarefortheappwasde-

veloped by ArguSoft India Ltd,whose president is Ravi Gopalan,the husband of Principal Secretary,Health and FamilyWelfare, JayantiRavi.Sources in the Gujarat govern-

ment confirmed that HealthCommissionerJaiPrakashShivahareraisedtheconcerninacommunica-tion dated April 16 regarding“TeCHOsoftware”,sayingthatinor-dertouseanupgradedversionof it,“certain legal aspects needed to betaken into account like consent ofthe patient, ownership of the data,datastorageanduse.Underthecir-cumstances, inordertoincreasethecoverage of the TechoSoftware ap-plication, there should be anMoUwith the developer of the applica-tion”.Sourcessaidtheconcernwasre-

garding sharing of data withArgusoft IndiaLtd.WhileShivaharerefusedtocom-

ment on the issue, Deputy ChiefMinisterNitin Patel,whoholds thehealth portfolio, told The IndianExpress, “I have come across somenews reports regarding this but Idon’thaveany information.”Inresponsetoquestionssentby

The Indian Express, Ravi said anyal-legationswere “baseless” and that“as amatter of principle, I andmyhusbandRaviGopalanhaddecidedyearsback thatallworkhedoes forthe Gujarat governmentwould befreeof cost”.Argusoft IndiaLtdbuiltTeCHO+

as a free app and its privacy policystatesthatthe“Serviceisprovided...atnocostand is intendedforuseasis”.Incidentally, the TeCHO+

“ecosystem” includes two otherapps,MyTeCHOandDrTeCHO,withtie-ups with the Gujarat govern-ment. ThroughMyTeCHO, citizenscanregistercomplaintsorfeedbackregardinggovernmenthealthserv-ices.Theservicewastemporarilyonhalt, an official said. DrTeCHO, de-veloped post-COVID-19, is to beused by private doctors to notifySARI (Severe Acute Respiratory

Infection) or ILI (Influenza LikeIllness) cases.Ascreenshotregardingmapping

data across TeCHO platformswasshared by the Gujarat InformationDepartment on April 12 on aWhatsApp groupwith journalists,showingaseniorofficialofArguSoft,SethuramanVenkataraman,loggedinto his account, while showing aspatialdistributionof cases.Earlier, in anorder onMarch27,

signedby the Joint Secretary,HealthDepartment,andissuedinthenameof theGovernor, theGujaratHealthDepartmenthadsaid,“concernedau-thoritieswillhavetoensurethatpri-vatedoctorsandhospitalsuploadallinformation online regarding sus-pectedcases”onDrTeCHO+appand“violationofthiscircularwillresultinproceedings under the GujaratEpidemicRegulation,2020”.Subsequently too the govern-

menthadissuedadvertisementsre-gardingtheapp,talkingof“manda-tory reporting of all Novel Coronavirus symptoms or Severe AcuteRespiratoryInfection(SARI)throughDrTeCHOapp”byallprivatedoctorsand private healthinstitutions”.Theprivacy policy forDrTeCHO

says, “If youchoose touseourserv-ice, thenyouagreetothecollectionanduseof informationinrelationtothis policy... For a better experi-ence…wemay require you topro-videuswithcertainpersonallyiden-tifiable information. Theinformationthatwerequestwillberetainedbyusandusedasdescribedin this privacy policy. The appdoesuse third party services that maycollect informationusedtoidentify

you.”In her statement to The Indian

Express,Ravisaidthatwhenshewasappointed as the HealthCommissioner in 2017, she had in-formedtheGeneralAdministrationDepartmentthatherhusband’sfirmArgusofthadin2013developedtheImTeCHO app for the Gujarat gov-ernment, used as a tracker forma-ternal and infanthealth.Itwasofficially“dedicatedtothe

people”onOctober7,2017,byPrimeMinister NarendraModi from hishometown Vadnagar, Ravi’s state-mentsaid,addingthattheinforma-tion is also used on the CMDashboard.Ravi added that the ImTeCHO

appwasusedfor“door-to-doorsur-veillance… after COVID-19 pan-demic struck andwas also used tomonitor treatment”. “… in the firstweekofAprilwhentheCentralgov-ernmentlaunchedamobileappforthe treatment and observation ofCOVID-19 patients andwhen gov-ernmentsweredirectedtouseit, in-stead of TeCHO, the decision wastaken at our level to use the Indiangovernment’s app”.As of April 21, according to a

Gujarat government press release,3,304 doctors were registered onDrTeCHO+application.DrKamleshSaini,statesecretary

of theGujarat chapterof the IndianMedical Association, said doctorswereexpectedtoenterdetailssuchas name, age, phone number, resi-dential address, travel history, co-morbiditiesorexistinghealthcondi-tions of SARI or ILI cases, aswell asthe symptomsbeingexhibitedandsincewhen.

Medicalofficials inVadodara’sNagarwadaafterapersontestedpositive inthearea.BhupendraRana

DATAPRIVACY,OWNERSHIPANDSTORAGE

Concerns over Gujaratapp, with links to healthsecy, used to track cases

ABANTIKAGHOSHNEWDELHI, APRIL29

EVENAS discussions onwhereeach district stands in terms ofcoronaviruscasesandtheopen-ingupformulacontinuedinthegovernment, the countryrecordeditshighest24-hourtoll— 71, it was announced onWednesday.Inall,1,008peoplehavedied

of COVID-19 across the countryso far.In the last 24 hours, 1,813

newcaseswerereported,takingthe total number of cases to31,787, and 7,796 patients haverecovered,makingtherecoveryratenearly25percent.So far, 7,70,764 tests have

been conducted in the countryinprivateandICMRlaboratories.In an interaction with the

Lions Club Internationalmem-bers from across the country,UnionHealthMinisterDrHarshVardhansaidthatthereare“alit-tleover300districtsinthecoun-try with no cases and another300withminimal - between 1and5-cases”.He also said that the dou-

bling time over the last threedays is11.3days.Accordingtotheminister,al-

thoughtheglobalmortalityrateisaround7percent, Indiahassofar shown a mortality rate ofaround 3 per cent, with nearly86 per cent fatality of patientswithco-morbidities.While the discussion cur-

rently is centred around agraded opening up of the na-

tionwide lockdown, a sourceclose to theHealthMinister in-dicated that he is in favour ofcontinuationof the lockdown.The source said, “The deci-

sion has not been taken yet onhowthe relaxationswill be im-plemented. The PrimeMinisterhimself is consulting all stake-holders and taking asmany in-putsaspossible....Wecannotriskadisaster.”“If you ask theminister per-

sonally,” the source added, “hewould tell you that it may bebetter tomaintainstatusquo.”Signalling a change in the

protocol so far, the HealthMinistryhasalreadyannouncedthatofficeswhereaCOVIDcasehas been detected need not beclosed down, aswas the proto-colearlier.“If thereisaCOVIDpatientin

anon-COVIDhospital, thatfacil-itycanbeusedafterdisinfection.The same process is to be fol-lowed for any other locationwhere a COVID patient is de-tected.Thebuildingcanbeusedafter proper disinfection,” JointSecretary Lav Agarwal had saidonTuesday.In his interaction with the

Lions Clubmembers, Vardhansaid: “This time thehallmarkofourapproachhasbeenfive-fold:(i)maintainingacontinuoussit-uation awareness, (ii) preemp-tiveandproactiveapproach,(iii)graded response as per contin-uouslyevolvingscenario,(iv)in-ter-sectoral coordination at alllevels,and,mostimportantly(v)creatingapeople’smovementtocombat thisdisease.”

At 71, highest24-hour toll;cases doublingin 11.3 days

17 more deaths, Gujaratcases cross 4,000

Indiadonotcomeinthewayof securing transparency andrecognitionofmeritsinthemat-ter of admissions. It is open toregulating the course of study,qualifications for ensuring edu-cational standards. It is open toimposingreasonablerestrictionsin thenational andpublic inter-est,” thebenchsaid.Article 19 (1) (g) grants citi-

zenstherighttopracticeanypro-fession, or to carry on any occu-pation, trade or businesswhileArticle 30 relates to the right ofminorities to establish and ad-ministereducationalinstitutions.“The rights to administer an

institutionunderArticle30oftheConstitution are not above thelawandotherConstitutionalpro-visions. Reasonable regulatorymeasurescanbeprovidedwith-outviolatingsuchrightsavailableunder Article 30 of theConstitutiontoadministeranin-stitution,” thebenchruled.Writingforthebench,Justice

Mishra said “the rights underArticle19(1) (g)arenotabsoluteandaresubjecttoreasonablere-strictionintheinterestofthestu-dent’s community to promotemerit, recognitionof excellence,and to curb the malpractices.UniformEntrance Test qualifiesthetestofproportionalityandisreasonable.Thesameisintendedtocheckseveralmaladieswhichcrept intomedical education, topreventcapitationfeebyadmit-tingstudentswhicharelowerinmerit and to prevent exploita-tion, profiteering and commer-cialisation of education. The in-stitution has to be a capablevehicleof education”.“Theminorityinstitutionsare

equally bound to comply withthe conditions imposed undertherelevantActsandRegulationsto enjoy affiliation and recogni-tion, which apply to all institu-

tions.Incasetheyhavetoimparteducation, they are bound tocomply with the conditionswhich are equally applicable toall.Theregulationsarenecessary,and they are not divisive or dis-integrative. Such regulatorymeasures enable institutions toadministerthemefficiently...Thequality of medical education isimperative to sub-serve the na-tional interest,andmeritcannotbe compromised. TheGovernment has the right forproviding regulatorymeasuresthatare inthenational interest,”theorderstated.Thepetitionershadsaidthat

unaidedminority professionalcolleges have the fundamentalright to choose themethod andmanner of admitting students,subject to satisfaction of thetriple test of a fair, transparent,and non--exploitative process,and that NEET could not be theonlyparametertodeterminethemeritof a student.They claimed that change in

theadmissionprocedureof stu-dentswouldresultinasharpde-cline in thecurrent standardsofexcellencemaintainedatthein-stitutions and that this wouldnotbe inpublic interest.Decliningpermissiontocon-

ductotherexams,thebenchsaid“the system is not yet out ofclutches of unscrupulous de-vices and dubious means areadopted todefeatmerit. The in-terest of education would fur-ther suffer and very purpose ofcentralised examinationwouldbedefeated”.“Building the nation is the

mainaspectofeducation,whichcould not be ignored and over-looked.Theyhavetocatertona-tionalinterestfirst,thentheirin-terest, more so, when suchconditionscanbeprescribedforrecognition, particularly in thematter of professional educa-tion,” thebenchsaid.

FROMPAGEONECMC-NEET

Mumbai

TENDERWWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

THEINDIANEXPRESS,THURSDAY,APRIL 30,20206

GURU GHASIDAS VISHWAVIDYALAYA(A Central University established under the Central Universities Act, 2009, No.25 of 2009)

KONI,BILASPUR-495 009 (C.G.) INDIATel. - +91-7752- 260342 260021 Fax - +91-7752- 260154 260148 website - www. ggu.ac.in

ADMISSION NOTICE (2020-21)Ref.No.03/Admission/Academic/20 Bilaspur, Date 29.04.2020Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur invites online applications for admission to the various courses for the academic session 2020-21 through VishwavidyalayaEntrance Test (VET).(a) Courses available for admission:

Honours Programmes : B. Com (Honours), BSW, BA (Honours)-Anthropology, English, Hindi, Journalism & Mass Communication, Economics, History, PoliticalScience,B. Sc. (Honours)- Anthropology , Biotechnology, Botany, Forensic Science, Chemistry, Computer Science, Zoology, Mathematics, Physics, Electronics, RuralTechnology .5 years Integrated BA - LLB, B. Com-LLBB. Pharm, B.Sc. in Forestry, Bachelor of Education (B..Ed.),B.Ed. Special Education (Learning disability), B.Ed. Special Education (Hearing Impaired), Bachelor ofPhysical Education (B.P.Ed.), Bachelor of Library & Information Science (B. Lib. & I. Sc.),Postgraduate programme : M.Sc. - Botany, Chemistry, Bio-technology, Forensic Science, Computer Science, Rural Technology, Forestry, Physics, Electronics,Mathematics, Zoology, M.A.- Economics,Political Science, Hindi, English, History,Journalism & Mass Communication. Master of Education (M.Ed.), Master ofPhysical Education (M.P.Ed.), Master of Social Work (MSW), Master of Computer Applications (M.C.A.), M.A./M.Sc . in Anthropology, M. Lib. & Inf. Sc., M.Com.Diploma programme: Diploma in Pharmacy, PGDC, CCCL

(b) Exam Centres for VET* -1.Bilaspur (CG) 2. Raipur (CG) 3 .Jagdalpur (CG) 4. Ambikapur (CG) 5. Korba (CG), 6. Janjgir/Champa (CG),7. Raigarh (CG), 8.Rajnandgaon (CG), 9. Patna (Bihar), 10. Ranchi (JH), 11. Vishakhapatnam(AP) 12. Prayagraj (Allahabad) (UP) 13. Bhubaneshwar (Odissa), 14. Kolkata (WB) , 15.Gandia (MH), 16 Jabalpur (MP),Details/names of the Centres of Examinations will be available on our website (www.ggu.ac.in) from 30'h May 2020.

(c) For admission procedure, eligibility, number of seats, reservation policy, fees, scholarship, entrance test date & time, exam centre and how to apply, pleaserefer to "Online Application for Admission 2020-21" available on university website www.ggu.ac.in

(d) Application/Entrance Test Fee-Online Application form - Rs. 500/- + Bank Charges for GEN,OBC and EWS, Rs. 250/- + Bank Charges for SC/ ST /PWD candidates.

Important dates:l. Start of Online Application Process : 4th May 20202. Closing date of Online submission of Application forms : 30th May 20203.. Downloading of Admit card (online) starts from : Will be declared later on4. Entrance test dates for All Courses : Will be declared later on5. Declaration of Results : Will be declared later on6. Counselling (For VET) : Will be declared later on7. Last date of Admission (For VET ) : Will be declared later on

*The University reserves the right to change/cancel any Centre of Examination or date without assigning any reason.Note:-1. Separate notification will be issued by the University for MBA, M. Tech. & M. Pharm., candidates interested in these courses need not apply against this advertisement .2. In case,the University will not be able to conduct Entrance Tests for courses advertised in this Admission Notice, due to lock down (COVID-19), admissions will be

given to the applicants on the basis of their merit/marks scored in the qualifying examination prescribed in eligibility criteria.3. The closing date is tentative and it can be extended if the governments extend the lock down period.

Helpline: 07752-260342 260299( For Online) Email: admissionsggv@gmail.com Registrar (Acting)

Whilst care is taken prior toacceptance of advertising copy,it is not possible to verify itscontents. The Indian Express (P.)Limited cannot be heldresponsible for such contents,nor for any loss or damageincurred as a result oftransactions with companies,associations or individualsadvertising in its newspapers orPublications. We thereforerecommend that readers makenecessary inquiries beforesending any monies or enteringinto any agreements withadvertisers or otherwise actingon an advertisement in anymanner whatsoever.

''IMPORTANT''

RFQ No.IPRCL/ADI/PROJECTS/NMHC/

EPC/2020Dated: 30.04.2020

Construction of National MaritimeHeritage Complex at Lothal, Gujarat

through Engineering,Procurement & Construction (EPC)

Mode.For more details visit website

www.etenders.gov.in/eprocure/app

INDIAN PORT RAIL& ROPEWAY

CORPORATION LIMITED

(Formerly Indian Port Rail Corporation Ltd.)

(A JV Company under Ministry ofShipping,Government of India)

No. Ch. E./20/02/Bridges/GMLR dated 28.04.2020

TENDER CANCELLATION NOTICE

Sd/-PRO/54/ADV/20-21 Ch.E. (Bridges)

DEPARTMENT Ch.E. (Bridges) GMLRTENDER NO. 7100159001SUBJECT :Request for Qualification

(RFQ)" for the work of"DESIGN ANDCONSTRUCTION OF TWINTUNNEL INCLUDINGAPPROACHES & BOXTUNNEL FOR GMLRPROJECT."The said tender is beingcancelled due to technicalreasons.

WEBSITE http://portal.mcgm.gov.inA. TELEPHONE NO. (OFFICE) 022-25962601 (Extn. 2006)B. E-MAIL ADDRESS che.gmlr@mcgm.gov.in

MCGM HELPLINE NUMBER 1800221292 from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m.FOR Homeless/Stranded Migrants/ Workers for food & shelters

Short e-tender noticeno. : BS6/014085/2020 dated : 24.04.2020

Short e-tender no.: BS6/014085/2020/tncSc/20-21/et-04Online electronic tender for “Appointment of millers based on the out-turnratio for the conversion of raw tur into Tur Dal (Split-Husked & Fatka) as perAgmark Specification for issue under Pradan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana(PMGKAY)”Complete e-tender document can be viewed and downloaded throughhttps://www.mstcecommerce.com/eprochome/tncsc and also available inwww.tenders.tn.gov.inThe bidders have to participate online bidding only with Digital SignatureCertificate (DSC) of Class-II or Class-IIIFor Registration and further details contact MSTC LIMITED,Phone:25222842/25251910/25261005 e-Mail:mstcsro@mstcindia.co.inLast Date for Online Submission : 08.05.2020.DIPR/1693/Tender/2020

TAMILNADU CIVIL SUPPLIES CORPORATIONHead Office: 12, THAMbuSAMY ROAD, KILPAuK, CHEnnAI-600 010.

Ph.no.(044) 26426773 Email id : tncsc.tn@nic.inCIn:u15137Tn1972SGC006157

MAnAGinG director.

CHHATTISGARH HOUSING BOARD DIVISION JAGDALPUR,BODHGATH COLONY, JAGDALPUR

Website: www.cghb.gov.in, Ph: 07782-231170, Mob: 094242-09020. Advt.No. 70 Dt. 29.04.2020CGHB invites Technical & Financial offer as per Request for Proposal from qualified andexperienced firms (criteria as per in RFP document) for providing "Project ManagementConsultancy Services" for Proposed Township for NMDC Ltd at Niyanar Jagdalpur (C.G.)

Name of Project

RFP for selection of Consultant for ProjectManagement consultancy (PMC) for ProposedTownship for NMDC Ltd at Niyanar Jagdalpur.C.G.

Area of Land

118.00 Acres(47.86 hect.)

Approx .Estimatedcost put to bid Value

Rs. 1768.56 Crs.

The bidder has to submit process fee of Rs. 10,000.00 & Bid Security of Rs. 18.00 lakhs bothin the form of DD/BG of any Nationalized Indian Bank with offer. The offer shall be sub-mitted either by hand/ Courier/ Speed post in the office of EE CGHB Div. Jagdalpur C.G. upto 4:00 AM dt. 22/05/2020, other conditions may be seen on website .

Executive Engineer

Request for Proposale-procurement notice. No. SSA-16021/4/2019-MIS SEC-SSA, dt. 29.04.2020

Samagra Shiksha, Andhra Pradesh is inviting Request For Proposal forprocurement and supply of set of note books under the scheme of“Jagananna Vidya Kanuka” to all the students (approximately 21 lakhs innumber) studying classes VI to X in Government/MMP/ZPP/Municipal/KGBVs/Model Schools/Ashram schools/ Residential/AidedSchools of Education and welfare departments in the State of AndhraPradesh during the year 2020-21. For details please visit https://tender.apeprocurement.gov.in from 01.05.2020. Tender/RFP form can bedownloaded from website. Eligible firms shall upload the prescribed format asper the schedules given in the above said site. Contact No. 0866-2428599.

R.O. No.: 23PP/CL/ADVT/1/1/2020-21

SAMAGRA SHIKSHASTATE PROJECT OFFICE,

KBC BOYS HIGH SCHOOL CAMPUS, OPP RAITHU BAZAR,PATAMATA, VIJAYAWADA, ANDHRA PRADESH

Sd/-V. Chinaveerabhadrudu, I.A.S.,

State Project Director,Samagra Shiksha, Andhra Pradesh

Chief Engineer (Bridges Department)No. Ch.E./20/07/Bridges/GMLR dated :- 28.04.2020

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATION (RFQ)(INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVE BIDDING)

HONOURABLE Municipal Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai invites "Requestfor Qualification (RFQ)" from eligible and experienced bidders through e-tendering as detailed below.

RFQ documents are available on MCGM portal http://portal.mcgm.gov.in under e-tender tab. Anyqueries about the work can be sent on Email address che.gmlr@mcgm.gov.in on or before 09.05.2020

Sd/-PRO/53/ADV/20-21 Chief Engineer (Bridges)

DEPARTMENT Ch. Eng. (Bridges)

e-RFQ/Bid No. 7100177476

SUBJECT "Request for Qualification (RFQ)" for the work of "Design andconstruction of Twin Tunnel below SGNP from Amar Nagar, Mulund toFilmcity Goregaon along with Cut & cover Box Tunnel in Filmcity area,Goregaon under the Goregaon Mulund Link Road Project"

Sale of e-RFQ Start Date : 29.04.2020 from 1100 hrsLast Date : 11.06.2020 up to 1300 hrs.

Pre-bid meeting 2000 hrs. on 12.05.2020

Address- Conference room of AMC (P), 2nd floor, Annex Building, MCGMHead Office, Mahapalika Marg, Fort, Mumbai-400001, Maharashtra, India.

Website http://portal.mcgm.gov.in

Contact Person Assistant Engineer (GMLR)

a. Name 1. Shri. Ashok Mali (Mob. no. +91 9820847944)2. Shri. Sudhakar Hande (Mob. no. +91 9869113088

b. Telephone No. (Office) 022-25962601, Ext. 2006c. Email che.gmlr@mcgm.gov.in

MCGM HELPLINE NUMBER 1800221292 from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m.FOR Homeless/Stranded Migrants/ Workers for food & shelters

Chief Engineer (Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project)No. Ch. E./M.S.D.P/191/ Date : 28.04.2020

Short E-Tender NoticeTHE Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai invites e-tenders for the works asshown below.

Please refer NIC's portal (https://mahatenders.gov.in) under "e-Tenders" section for further details.Sd/-

(Atul Rao)PRO/51/ADV/20-21 Ch.E. (MSDP)

Sr.No.

Name of the Work EMD (in Rs.) Tender fee(in Rs.)

WorkCompletion

period

Start Date &time of

downloadingof bid

Due date& time foron line bidsubmission

1 Design, Build, Operateand Maintenance ofWorli WwTF underMSDP Stage-II (PriorityWorks)(ADWF 500 MLD)

40,45,00,000/- Rs. 7700/- +GST

60 months(Inclusive of

monsoon)

30.04.20201100 hrs

29.05.2020Up to 1600

hrs.

2 Design, Build, Operateand Maintenance ofBandra WwTF underMSDP Stage-II (PriorityWorks)(ADWF 360 MLD)

32,40,00,000/- Rs. 7700/- +GST

60 months(Inclusive of

monsoon)

30.04.20201100 hrs

29.05.2020Up to 1600

hrs.

3 Design, Build, Operateand Maintenance ofVersova WwTF underMSDP Stage-II (PriorityWorks)(ADWF 180 MLD)

16,50,00,000/- Rs. 7700/- +GST

48 months(Inclusive of

monsoon)

30.04.20201100 hrs

29.05.2020Up to 1600

hrs.

4 Design, Build, Operateand Maintenance ofMalad WwTF underMSDP Stage-II (PriorityWorks)(ADWF 454 MLD)

39,33,00,000/- Rs. 7700/- +GST

72 months(Inclusive of

monsoon)

30.04.20201100 hrs

29.05.2020Up to 1600

hrs.

5 Design, Build, Operateand Maintenance ofBhandup WwTF underMSDP Stage-II (PriorityWorks)(ADWF 215 MLD)

17,60,00,000/- Rs. 7700/- +GST

48 months(Inclusive of

monsoon)

30.04.20201100 hrs

29.05.2020Up to 1600

hrs.

6 Design, Build, Operateand Maintenance ofGhatkopar WwTF underMSDP Stage-II (PriorityWorks)(ADWF 337 MLD)

24,63,00,000/- Rs. 7700/- +GST

48 months(Inclusive of

monsoon)

30.04.20201100 hrs

29.05.2020Up to 1600

hrs.

MCGM HELPLINE NUMBER 1800221292 from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m.FOR Homeless/Stranded Migrants/ Workers for food & shelters

Mumbai

EXPRESSNETWORK 7WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMTHEINDIANEXPRESS,THURSDAY,APRIL30,2020

OMKARGOKHALEMUMBAI,APRIL29

THE BOMBAY High Courtgranted temporary relief to aMuslim man booked by theMumbai Police for posting avideo on socialmedia accusingmembersof theTablighi Jamaatcommunity for assaulting andspittingonhim.A single-judge bench of jus-

tice Sarang V Kotwal Mondayheard the plea filed by themanseekingpre-arrestbailinconnec-tionwith an FIR lodged againsthimbyTablighiJamaatmembersat ShahuNagar Police Station inMahim. The FIRwas lodged un-der IPC section 295 for destroy-ing,damagingordefilingaplaceofworshiporsacredobjectwithintenttoinsultthereligionofanyclass of persons. He was alsobooked for criminal defamationandotherpenalprovisionsbasedonthecomplaintmadebymem-bersof thereligiousgroup.AccordingtotheFIR,theman

hadpreparedavideoclipdeliber-ately making false allegationsagainst the Jamaat to hurt reli-giousfeelingsandcausedariftin

thesociety.AdvocateVishalSaxena,rep-

resentingthepetitioner,submit-ted that his clientwas assaultedand that he had lodged a non-cognizable case at the samepo-licestationonApril21.Saxenaar-gued that the petitioner wasfalsely implicated by the policeandheshouldbegrantedpre-ar-restbail.AdvocateSVGavand,appear-

ingfor thepolice, soughtto fileadetailed response to the pre-ar-restbailplea.Whilegrantingpo-lice time to file a reply, JusticeKotwalgrantedthemantempo-rary protection fromarrest. Thecourtnoted,“Consideringthena-ture of allegations in the back-ground of the non-cognizablecase filed by the applicant him-self,atthisstage, Iaminclinedtograntad-interimrelief totheap-plicant till thenextdate.”The court further directed

that in the event of arrest of thepetitioner,till thenextdate,heisdirectedtobereleasedonbailonfurnishing personal bond of Rs25,000. The court also directedthemantocooperatewiththein-vestigationandposted themat-terforfurtherhearingonMay20.

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICENAGPUR,APRIL29

POLICEHAVE arrested nine for-eignnationals inGadchiroli and11inChandrapurforallegedvisaviolations.According to police, the for-

eigners were visiting fromKazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan inconnection with the TablighiJamaatcongregation inMarch.“They were earlier booked

under theForeigners’Act for vi-olating visa rules andwere putunder quarantine.We arrestednine in Gadchiroli onWednesdayandalocalcourthasremanded them inmagisterialcustody,” said GadchiroliSuperintendent of PoliceShailesh Balkawde. He added:“Theyhadcomehereonatouristvisa andwere taking part in re-ligiousprogrammes. That’s vio-lationof visa rules.”InChandrapur,however, the

foreign nationalswere arrestedon Tuesday but released by thelocal court on bail. Police havealso booked eight TablighiJamaat members fromMyanmar in Nagpur but havenotarrested them.

HC grants temporaryrelief to man whoaccused Tablighi Jamaatmembers of assault

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI,APRIL29

ASPECIAL court onWednesdaysenttheWadhawanbrother,KapilandDheeraj,tofurthercustodyoftheCBItillMay1intheallegedYesBank scam. TheCBI arrested theDHFL promoters fromMahabaleshwaronApril26afterthe Satara police informed theagencythattheir14-dayquaran-tinewasover.OnWednesday, the CBI sub-

mittedbeforethecourtitrequiredseven-day custodyof the twoastheywere not cooperatingwiththe probe. The CBI alleges thebrothers and Yes Bank founderRanaKapoor entered into a con-spiracy fromApril to June 2018,throughwhichKapilpaidakick-backofRs600croretoKapoorandhisfamily-linkedventurethroughaloan.The Wadhawans' lawyers

submitted before the court thatsince the investigationwas pri-marily based on documents,theircustodialinterrogationwasnotrequired.

CBI gets furthercustody ofWadhawanstill May 1

TABLIGHI JAMAATCONGREGATION9 foreign nationalsin Gadchiroli, 11 inChandrapur heldfor ‘visa violations’

‘Present situationin Kashmir stablebut fragile... peacegoal for forces’LIEUTENANTGENERALBSRAJUtook over as GOC of ChinarCorps, which looks after theArmy’s operations in theKashmir region, including thehighly active Line of Control, onMarch2.HespeakstoSUSHANTSINGH about the situation inKashmir and the LoC, particu-larlyinthecontextoftheCOVID-19pandemic.Excerpts:

Howdoyouassess thecurrentsituationontheLoC?Whyhas itbecomeactivenow?Pakistan has consistently

beenaidingandabettinginfiltra-tionformorethan30yearsnow.All the terrorist camps andlaunchpadsinPoKarefull.Theseterrorist cadresaredesperate toinfiltrate with the help ofPakistanArmy...Numerousinfil-tration attempts have beenfoiledandPakistanArmyiscon-stantly resorting to ceasefire vi-olation to support the terroristinfiltration. Our befitting re-sponsetoceasefireviolationshasbeenswift, hardandpunishing.An impervious Counter

InfiltrationGridandoureffectiveresponse to ceasefire violationshaveleftPakistanhelplessinfur-thering itsagenda.

Isn’t it fair toexpect thatwhenbothIndiaandPakistanaregrapplingwithCOVID-19, thesituationontheLoCwouldbemorepeacefulandlocalvillagerswouldbespared?What isPakistan’sgameplanontheLoC?There is only one reason for

thenearconstantceasefireviola-tions,Pakistan’sattempttoassistmore terrorists to infiltrate intoIndia in order to disrupt nor-malcy in the Kashmir valley.Pakistan Army facilitates theseinfiltrationattempts.Even in times when the

world is together in combattingthe spread of the pandemic,there is no respite fromPakistan...Oursoldiersalongtheborders arewell equipped...WeareensuringthatourbordersaresafewhilethecountryisfightingCOVID-19.TheArmyalongtheLoCpro-

videsalltypesofsuccourandas-sistance to the population. Ouroutreach programmes rangefrommedical help, evacuation,provisioningofrationsandothermaterialaid,helpinreconstruc-tion of damaged houses andevenprovidingjobopportunitiesto locals.Apart from this, education,

skill development andwomenempowerment initiatives areundertaken regularly. We livewiththelocalsandsharethere-lationshipofa‘Humsaya’ (co-in-habitants),whichmeansthatwestandshouldertoshoulderwiththemthroughgoodandnot-so-goodtimes.

Shouldweexpect thesituationontheLoCto

changeanytimesoon?Pakistan’s persistence in in-

filtratingterrorists,proliferatingfalsepropagandaareintendedtodisturbpeaceanditsactionsareunlikely to change anytimesoon...

What is the internalsecuritysituationintheValley?Whatarethe indicatorsyouaremonitoringclosely?The present situation in

Kashmir is stable but fragile.Maintainingpeacehasbeentheprime goal of all the SecurityForces,workinginclosesynergywith each other, ie. Army, J&KPolice, CAPF, intelligence agen-ciesandtheciviladministration.Also, the Awam-Army connecthas always been strong due toour ethical conduct and trans-parency inoperations.The situation has been

largelynormalandnocivilcasu-alty due to the Security Forces’action since August 5, 2019, isone example of it. Even now, inourfightagainstcoronavirus,thesupport and cooperation wehave received from the Awaamhasbeenoverwhelming.

HowhavetheguidelinesonCOVID-19alteredyourworkingroutineorthatofyourheadquarters,andofunits inthefield?Allprecautionsasperguide-

linesarebeingfollowedinletterand spirit by our headquartersandunits.Necessaryadjustmentshave

beenmade in our routine andfunctioninginordertomaintainourworkingandtherehasbeenno difference in our efficacy toconduct operations. Along theLoC,allthelocationsareisolatedand tomaintain social distanc-ing and isolations norms, thereisnoproblematall.

FULLINTERVIEWONwww.indianexpress.com

THE EXPRESS

INTERVIEWWITH

B S RAJUGOCOFCHINARCORPS

RITIKACHOPRANEWDELHI, APRIL29

THE 2020-21 academic sessionwillstartone-and-a-halfmonthslate for students enteringhighereducationthisyear.The University Grants

Commission (UGC) onWednesdayreleasedanindicativeacademiccalendarforhighered-ucation institutions, suggestingthatclassesforfirst-yearstudentscan start bySeptember1and forintermediate year students onAugust1.Italsoindicatedthattheadmission process for freshbatchesofstudentsbeconductedinAugust.For the graduating batch, as

first reported by The IndianExpress onApril 26, universitiesandcollegeshavebeenadvisedtohold their final-year or terminalsemester examination from July1 to July 15 anddeclare their re-sultsendof themonth.Forintermediate(read2ndor

3rdyear)students,highereduca-tioninstitutionscanholdtheirse-mester or year-endexaminationfrom July 16 to July 30 and an-nounceresultsbyAugust14.June,asadvisedbyUGC,canbetreatedassummervacation.Asidefrommakingchangesto

thesuggestedacademiccalendar,universitiesandcolleges,theUGCclarified, are also free to conducttheirexaminationineitherofflineor onlinemode and reduce thetime from three to two hours.

However,theexaminationshouldbeheld“observingtheguidelinesof ‘socialdistancing’andkeepinginviewthesupportsystemavail-ablewiththemandensuringfairopportunity to all students”, theUGCguidelinesstates.Incasehighereducationinsti-

tutions are unable to conductterm-end examsbecause of theCOVID-19 outbreak, they havebeen advised to promote stu-dentsbygiving50%weightagetointernalevaluationandtherestto“performanceinthepreviousse-mester”.“Inthesituationswhereprevious semester or previousyearmarksarenotavailable,par-ticularlyinthefirstyearofannualpattern of examinations, 100%evaluationmay be done on thebasis of internal assessments. Ifthestudentwishestoimprovethegrades,he/shemayappearinspe-cial exams for suchsubjectsdur-ing next semester,” the UGCguidelinesstate.For research students, viva-

voce examinations are expectedtotakeplacethroughvideo-con-ferencing.AllMPhilandPhDstu-dentswill get anextensionof sixmonths. The 2020-21 academicyearmaynothaveawinterbreakandfollowsix-dayteachingweektomakeup for the learning timelost due to the classroom shut-down. Examination for the firstsemester of 2020-21 is likely totakeplaceinJanuary2021andforthesecondsemesterinMay-June.The2021-22academicyearisex-pectedtostartonAugust2.

Start academicsession forfirst-yearstudents in Sept

MANOJCG&MILINDGHATWAINEWDELHI,BHOPAL,APRIL29

ON JANUARY 25, exactly twomonthsbeforethefirstCOVID-19deathwas reported inMadhyaPradesh,thestate’sDirectorateofHealthServicesissueditsfirstad-visory tohospitals tobeonalert.Aseconddirectionfollowedthreedays later, asking collectors toformtaskforcesandsetupisola-tionwards for those returningfromWuhan,China,thentheepi-centreofcoronavirus.OnJanuary31,adayafterIndia

reported its first caseof infectioninKerala and theWHOdeclaredCOVID-19 apublic health emer-gency, the state governmentde-cided tomakeall thosewhohadreturnedfromChinaafterJanuary15undergoacoronavirustest.AsMadhyaPradeshbecomes

the third state afterMaharashtraandGujarat to record over 100deathsduetoCOVID-19,andcitieslike Indore andUjjain emerge ashotspots, what is becoming in-creasingly clear is thatwhile thestate had started gearing up totakeon thevirus early, it took itseyeoff theballduring thecrucialperiod in March when it wasrockedbypoliticalturmoil.The Congress and BJP have

traded charges over this period,with the Congress accusing thelatterofbeingmoreinterestedintoppling its government inMadhyaPradesh,andtheBJPsay-ingthatwhenitcameintopower,thestatewasill-equippedtohan-dlethevirus.Multiple bureaucrats, both

serving and retired,whomTheIndian Express spoke to, spokeabouttheconfusioninBhopalhit-tingcoronaviruseffortsinMarch.

Notingthattheinitialmomen-tumwaslost,aseniorbureaucratsaid, “Wehad started surveyingthosewhohadcomefromabroadby the end of January itself. TheDirectorateofHealthServices is-suedatleastadozenadvisoriesinFebruary alone. Itwasmuchbe-forethefearfactorhadsetin.”On March 3, then Chief

SecretarySudhiRanjanMohantyheldavideo-conferencewithdis-trict collectors anddistrict policechiefsanddirectedthemtoensuremedicalcheck-upofallthosewhohadreturnedfromabroad.But, soon after, Bhopal was

overtakenby thepolitical tusslebetween the Congress and BJP.“The Kamal Nath governmentwascaughtupinsavingitself.HisHealth Minister had rebelled.There were also no cases inMadhyaPradesh. so thepoliticalclassperhapstookitlightly,”asen-iorofficialsaid.The Health Minister at the

timewasTulsiramSilawat,acloseconfidant of Jyotiraditya Scindia,who crossed over to the BJP.Sourcessaidthelastofficialmeet-ing Silawat attended was aCabinetmeetingonMarch6.Anofficialcurrentlyinthegov-

ernment said, “We issueddirec-tionsthatthereshouldbenoHolicelebrations onMarch 10. Weshutallschools,colleges,mallsetconMarch13.But,asyouknow,allattentionwasonthepoliticalcri-sisthen.”A top state official, sources

said,hadtopullpoliticalstringstoensurethattheGaircongregationtobeheld in IndoreonMarch14for Rang Panchamiwas put off.Thiswas a task as theorganiserswereclosetobothCongressleaderDigvijaya Singh and the BJP’sKailash Vijayavargiya. “We gotacrossmessages to both, urgingthemtoimpressupontheorgan-isers to cancel.That is the waythingswere in complete fluxbe-tweenMarch10and24,”aseniorofficialsaid.Meanwhile, BJP leaders, in-

cluding Shivraj Singh Chouhan,belittledthethreatfromthevirus.“It’s not coronabutdarona,”wasalinerepeatedbymany,accusingthe Congress of playing up theCOVID-19scaretosaveitsgovern-ment.The first case inMPwas re-

portedonMarch20, in Jabalpur,theday theKamalNath govern-mentfell.

Apart from15days inMarch,said another senior official, “an-other 15dayswere lost after theChouhangovernment tookoverbecausetherewasnocleardirec-tion”.Chouhanremainedtheonlyminister in the state for amonthafter taking oath onMarch 23.NowhehasaCabinetof five.Thenfollowedthefiascoofthe

entiretop-levelbureaucracyinthestate’shealthdepartmenttestingpositive, startingApril 3. “Thereshould have been three-fourteams.buteverybodywasput inone team, andall of themgot in-fected. So therewas no healthminister, no principal secretary,health, and no director, healthservices,”saidtheofficial.Chouhanhas sought to shift

theblameofthistoototheprevi-ous government, saying, “It ap-pearsthehealthofficialswerenottrainedandmanyofthemgotin-fectedthemselves.”Chouhan’s bureaucratic

shake-up included replacementof Mohanty as chief secretary,transferofHealthCommissionerPrateekHajela (whohad earlierheaded the NRC exercise inAssam) and a new collector forIndore.Oneofficial said thenewcollectorwas relatively inexperi-enced,andtooktimetogetontopof things.Afewdaysago,theCMsetup

a task force on coronavirusheaded by state BJP chief V DSharmaandincludingonlypoliti-cians.Thereis,besides,a13-mem-beradvisorypanelheadedbyac-tivist Kailash Satyarthi and,includingafewdoctors,whichhashad only one video-conferencewith Chouhan so far. Satyarthi’smainsuggestionhasbeentobanchild pornography. A third teamhas been formed comprisingmedicalprofessionals.

How early mover MP lost theplot amid power tussle in March

Childrensewfacemasks in JabalpuronWednesday. PTI

UGCTOVARSITIES

Mumbai

8THEINDIANEXPRESS,THURSDAY,APRIL30,2020

TALK Art,Music, Style, Food

WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

LASTINGMEMORIESAmong Irrfan’s last social media posts is a photohe had tweeted of the cast and crew of his last filmAngrezi Medium catching up over a Zoom call,which included actors Radhika Madan, PankajTripathi and Deepak Dobriyal, among others.

TANUJACHANDRA

IRRFAN THOUGHT long and hard beforeacceptingmy offer (forQarib Qarib Singlle,2017).Hewasuncertainifhewouldbereceivedwell in a romantic role at this stageof his lifebecauseromancewasmoreof aplaying fieldfortheyoung,hesaid.Ifpeopledidn’tapprove,hewouldn’t have anyone to share the flakwith other than his ownmisplaced choiceofsubject.Thenonemorning,whilereadingthelines

ofascene,Irrfanfoundwhathehadbeenlook-ingfor.ThescenehadYogicallhisdrivertofetchhimafteradinnerdate.Hecarriedpackedfoodfor him and it hit Irrfan, who often sharedmealswithhisstaff,thatherewasamanwhocared for people. Yogi lovedpeople, it didn’t

matterwhattheydidforaliving.ThisbecamethereasonIrrfanagreedtodothemovie.Intheeditingroom,Idiscoveredsomething

magical.IdiscoveredthatIrrfan’sperformancehadadynamicquality. It changeduponeachviewing.Thecinematicframeshadn’tshifted,

thelineshadn’tbeenaltered,thecharacter,thelocations,thecostumes,theywereallthesame,andyet, a tinymovement, a fleeting look, thequietestgesture,onehadn’tseenbeforewouldrevealitself.Thiswasthereasononenevertiresofsee-

ing this actor on screen, thiswas the reasonthat even thoughhisworkoftenhas tell-talesignsof‘classicIrrfan’,eachperformancevaries.The lossof thismagnificentactor isan in-

comparable one for Indian cinema. He hadcrossedonlysomepartof his journeyof sub-limeacting.Therewassomuchmoreforhimto explorewithin himself, to discover. Hewould have had no dearth of remarkablescripts coming to him for the next coupledecades.We can only imagine the kind ofbeautyhewould’vebroughttoourscreens. Itwillbealongingleftunfulfilled.Butit’snosmallthingthatallheleavesbehindwillbecherishedforalong, longtime.ChandraisthedirectorofQaribQaribSinglle

ALAKASAHANI

HISNUANCEDacting,hiseyes thatspokeandadialoguedeliverythatwas so uniquely his, won himmuch love and admirers during

his versatile career, but on Wednesday,actor Irrfan left theworld quietly. As every-one came together online to mourn, fewcouldattendhisburial at theVersovaceme-teryduetorestrictions imposed inthewakeof the coronavirus outbreak.Whilemediapersonsstoodbeyondthebarricadesoutside,presentforhislastriteswerehiswifeSutapaSikdar, sons Babil andAyan, and 15-20 rela-tives and friends, including filmmakersTigmanshuDhulia,VishalBhardwaj,AbhinayDeoandsingerMikaSingh.The54-year-oldwasadmittedtoMumbai’s

Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital onTuesdayforacoloninfection.Anofficialstate-ment onhis passing away said: “Irrfanwas astrongsoul,someonewhofoughttilltheveryendandalwaysinspiredeveryonewhocameclosetohim.Afterhavingbeenstruckbylight-ningin2018withthenewsofararecancer,hetooklifesoonafterasitcameandhefoughtthemanybattlesthatcamewithit.”Irrfan,whoreceivedtheNationalAwardfor

Paan Singh Tomar (2012) and PadmaShri in2011,wasdiagnosedwithneuroendocrinetu-mour in 2018, forwhichheunderwent pro-longed treatment in theUK. In betweenhis

treatment,heplayedtheroleofalovingfatherinAngreziMedium(2020),hislastrelease.Afterthenewsofhisdeathbecamepublic,

socialmediawasfloodedwithpostsbymanyof his colleagues in the film industry andhisadmirers. FilmmakerVishal Bhardwaj,whohas worked with him inMaqbool (2003),7KhoonMaaf (2011) andHaider (2014), toldTheIndianExpress:“Ifearedthathe(Irrfan)willbe gonemuchbefore his timebut didn’t ex-pectthatitwillbesodevastatingandravagingtomepersonally.ItfeelsasifIamtornintotwoparts.Apartofmehasdiedwithhim.”VidyaBalantweetedshecouldn’tstopcry-

ingbecauseIrrfan’sperformancesaffectedherin“apersonalway”.Callinghim“anincredibletalentandgraciouscolleague”,hisPiku(2015)co-actorAmitabhBachchan said his passingawaywasthe“mostdisturbingandsadnews”.ActorShahRukhKhan,whowastheproducerof Irrfan’sBillu (2009),calledhim“myfriend,inspiration and the greatest actor ofourtimes”.Making an immense contribution to the

world of cinema, Irrfan remains one of themostsuccessfulcrossoverartistes,withmoviessuch as The Lunchbox (2013), SlumdogMillionaire(2008),LifeofPi(2012),TheAmazingSpiderman (2012) and JurassicWorld (2015).Manyinternationalpersonalities,includingdi-rector Ava DuVernay, paid tribute to him.“Gone too soon.Whenhe is on screen, youcan’t takeyoureyesoffhim.Helivesoninhisfilms,”tweetedDuVernay.

‘Gone too Soon’Filmindustryandfanscometogether tomourn

Irrfan, Indiancinema’s finestactor

THEBEST OF THEBEST

THEWARRIOR(2001):InAsifKapadia’sdebutfilm,IrrfanplaysLafcadia,aRajasthanifeudallordwholivesbyhissword

andstrugglestogiveitup.

HAASIL(2003): Irrfangaveapower-packedperformanceasRanvijaySingh,aviolentstudentleaderatauniversityinAllahabad.

MAQBOOL(2003):BasedonMacbethbyWilliamShakespeare,thefilmbroughtIrrfanwidespreadacclaimforhisluminescentperformanceasMaqbool,amafiadon’sright-handmanwhofallsforhisboss’smistress.

THENAMESAKE(2007):BasedonthenovelbyJhumpaLahiri,thefilmbelongstoIrrfanwhoplaysAshokeGanguli,afirst-

generationIndianimmigranttoAmerica,whochoosesanunusualnameandlegacyforhisfirst-bornchild.

PAANSINGHTOMAR(2012):“Youcan’ttakeyoureyesoffhim,”saidTheNewYorkTimes initsreview.Asaformerarmymanturned-starathlete-turnedrebel, Irrfandeliversineveryframeofhisaction-packedbiopic.

LIFEOFPI(2012):AstheadultPiPatel,IrrfandoesnothaveameatyroleinAngLee’sadaptationofYannMartel’snovel.Buthe

makeseverysceneheisincount—andHollywoodsatupandtooknotice.

THELUNCHBOX(2013):AsSaajanFernandes,alonelywidowerwhosehumdrumlifechangeswhenhereceivesthe

wronglunchbox,Irrfanembodiesaquietgracethatlightsupthescreen.

QISSA(2013):AsUmberSingh,whosedesiretohaveasonleadshimtoraisehisyoungestdaughterasaboy,Irrfanisnotonlysingularlyterrifyingbutabsolutelyterrific.

PIKU(2015):AsRana,anunlikelyfoiltoDeepikaPadukone’soutspokenPiku,Irrfaniscontenttoletbiggerstarsdoallthetalkingwhilehestaysinthebackground,doingalltheacting.

HINDIMEDIUM(2017):Hisbiggestcommercialsuccess,thefilmistestimonytothefactthatIrrfancouldbeEverymaninmainstreamBollywoodfareaswell.

ANUSHREEMAJUMDAR

Asanactor, Irrfan’s rangewasunparalleled—he couldplay any characterwith conviction—allowinghimto cross over forms, languages and later,

even continents.Here are 10ofhismostnoteworthyperformances:

IrrfaninastillfromQaribQaribSinglle

DIPANITANATH

INTHEcorridorthatstudentsoftheNationalSchoolofDrama(NSD)taketoreachthemainauditorium, Abhimanch, a row of photo-graphsusedtohang,untilayearorsoago,ofpast graduates.Whether theseweremeantto celebrate achievements of pass-outs orgoad thecurrent crop towards futureexcel-lencewasneverclearbutthedisplaysdidof-fer a glimpse of a number of stalwart per-formersintheirearlydays.Inthisgallerywasarareblack-and-whiteshotofIrrfanonstage.The actor had cut his teeth in acting in thehallsof thisfamousDelhiinstitute.Alankyboywithaheadofcurlyhair,Irrfan

wasoneof thequietest students in theclassof 1987. His classmates, such as BhartiSharma,founderofKshitijTheaterSocietyinDelhi, used towonder, ‘Pata nahin yeh itnachupkyun rahta hai?’ “Henevermissedanyclassbuthealsodidnotparticipateindiscus-sions.ItwasonlywhenheperformedthatweunderstoodthatIrrfanwasapersonwhobe-lieved in listening rather than speaking.Hehadabsorbedeverythingweweretaughtandwas implementing it in his performance,”sheadds.DineshKhanna,whowasayearseniorto

Irrfanandhisclosefriend,saystheactor,whowasshyinperson,wasalwaystryingtopushtheenvelopeonstage.Hisbest friendwasastudious girl fromhis batch, Sutapa Sikdar,whowouldbecomehiswife.“Therewasaseriousnessabouthimthat’s

well knownbuthealsohada senseofmis-chiefwhichwe see in his roles,” says actorMitaVashisht.

The Quietest Boy in ClassIrrfan’s friends fromNSDremember theactor

Cinema’s Chameleon

IrrfanfromhisNSDdaysNSDArchives

IRRFAN 1967-2020

CROSSWORD4105

ACROSS

1 Hemayactwell, buthepaintsbadly (8)

5 Agirl isafterone, right (4)

9 Tracemisdirectedsupply (5)

10 Rattlecausedbya looseratchet (7)

11 Itwon’tkeepyoufullyoccupied(4-4,4)

13 Battlesuit (6)

14 Adynamicproposition(6)

17 Sportingevent thathas itsupsanddowns(12)

20 Spedtoomuch,andwentover the limit (7)

21 Concerningamorning’spapers (5)

22 LockersAtoGperhaps(4)

23 Call forarising(8)

DOWN

1 Staple food(4)

2 Passagetakenfromapamphlet (7)

3 Contenders for thehighjump(12)

4 Poleposition (6)

6 Atheartanorationshowsasenseofproportion(5)

7 Imposingcorporalpunishment (8)

8 Don’t take legalaction fornothing (4,2,6)

12 Everyyearonemayawaititsreturnwithaddedinterest(8)

15 After thismonththere’severythingtoput in (7)

16 Occasionwhenspiritsarecalled for (6)

18 Threepointsgotomyopponent (5)

19 Offshorespot I stoleawayto(4)

ARIES(Mar21-Apr20)For theseconddayrunningyouremotionalalignmentsare

strong, somethingwhichyounever findeasymainlybecausefeelingscanbesuchmessythings. It’sall aquestionofrelaxing into it, acceptingwhateverhappens. ‘Gowiththeflow’, as theysay.

TAURUS(Apr21-May21)Yournaturalinstinctforself-preservationisboostedbytwoveryhelpfulaspects

toVenus,theplanetwhichrepresentsyouremotionalneedsanddesires.Yourintellectandinstinctsshouldbefunctioningasone,soyourjudgmentcouldbeimpeccable hopefully.

GEMINI (May22- June21)Youmust get yourpriorities right. Firstamong these is theneed to co-operate

withotherpeople,whether atworkor athome. It thereforefollows that you shouldbeascharmingaspossible. Youmust be agood listener forthat’s oneof thebestways tosee to it that othersdo takeyou seriously.

CANCER(June22- July23)Noteverythingworksoutasexpected,but thenwhatwould lifebe

like if everythingwentaccordingtoplan?Prettyboring,probably.Bear thisreassuringandsimple truth inmindover thecomingdaysaspartners, lovedonesandcolleaguesstart toplayup.

LEO(July24-Aug23)This isa timeforrealism.Youshouldaccept thaterrorshaveoccurredand

thatyou’ll soonbe inapositiontoworkoutwhowasresponsibleandwhy.There isnoneedtoapportionblame,only toprevent thesameerrorsbeingrepeated. In fact, if youlearn fromyourmistakesyouwilldeservepraise.

VIRGO(Aug24-Sep23)Youought tobeabletoensure thatpartnersareneveragain inapositionto

forceyourhand.However,whethersuchanaimisrealistic isanothermatter.Probably thebestyoucando isstateyourcaseandattempt towinthemover toyourwayof thinking.

LIBRA(Sep24-Oct23)Youmaybeundersomeextrapressureat themoment,butit’sall friendly.You

arebeingurgedtobemoreoutgoing, confident inyourideasandpublicwithyourfeelings.Atall times, comebackto thecentral requirement—thedevelopmentofyouruniquetalents.

SCORPIO(Oct24-Nov23)Peopleyoulivewithcanbeverydifficulttopindown.Sometimesyou

wonderwhattheyactuallywant!Asithappens,somebodycloseshouldsoonalterdirection,liftingaburdenfromyourmind.Emotionally,professionallyandpersonally,all thepiecesof thejigsawshouldnowbebeginningtofall intoplace.

SAGITTARIUS(Nov24-Dec22)Theremaybe fewindividualswhoaregenuinelyhappywithrecent

discussionsandagreements.This ispartlybecauseyourlatentperfectionismiscomingout, soyoucantry toseesuchdiscontentasveryuseful,encouragingthedesire todobetternext timeround.

CAPRICORN(Dec23- Jan20)Youcan’t stayasyouare forever,neitherdoyouwant to. Ifnewroutinesor

methodsare tobeaccepted, itmustbewithanoptionforchange in thenear future.Thepoint is that it isonlywhenyouputyourplans intopractice thatyou’ll identify thepitfalls.

AQUARIUS(Jan21-Feb19)Secret,hiddenorsuppressed feelingsareonceagainbubblingover.You

shouldbeaware that, even ifyourbehaviourhasbeenimpeccable,otherscouldstillbeannoyedorenvious.Thatmaybetheir responsibility ratherthanyours, althoughyoumighthavetosort themoutandrestorecommonsense.

PISCES(Feb20-Mar20)Youstillhaveallyourwitsaboutyou,thankgoodness. Infactyoumaybeable

toseesensewhereotherpeoplearecompletelyconfused.Theonly thingbotheringyoumaybea long-distanceaffair, orevena familyconnectionwhich is stretchingthe limitsof youraffections.

SUDOKU4195

DifficultyLevel3sInstructionsTosolveaSudokupuzzle,everydigitfrom1to9mustappear ineachofthenineverticalcolumns, ineachoftheninehorizontalrowsandineachofthenineboxes.

DifficultyLevel1s=Veryeasy;2s=Easy;3s=Medium;4s=Hard;5s=VeryHard;6s=Genius S

OLU

TIONSUDOKU4194

Givenbelowarefour jumbledwords.Solvethejumblestomakeproperwordsandmovethemtotherespectivesquaresbelow.Selecttheletters intheshadedsquaresandjumblethemtogettheanswerforthegivenquip.___isideal, it istheworkoftheimagination.-MarquisdeSade(9))

SOLUTION:ALIVE,CROSS,UNPAID,PREACHAnswer:Happinessisideal,itistheworkoftheimagination.-MarquisdeSade

LVAEI ADIUNP

CORSS EPARCH

SolutionsCrossword4104:Across:1Desertion,8Arena,9Mailbag,10Rigout,11Athens,12Flagging,15Sanskrit,18Emigre,20Averse,21Tarnish,22Elite,23Tailoress.Down:2Exact,3Eileen,4Transfer,5Naming,6Deposit,7Castigate,11Apostates,13Afterall,14Inherit,16Kismet,17Dinner,19Rests.

JUMBLEDWORDS

OVERTHEHEDGE byMichael Fry&TLewis

CALVIN&HOBBES byBillWatterson

MARVIN byTomArmstrong

DAYTODAY BYPETERVIDAL

Mumbai

9WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

@ieExplained#ExpressExplainedIf there are questions of current or contemporary relevance that youwould like explained, pleasewrite to explained@indianexpress.comE EXPLAINED TheOutbreak

THEINDIANEXPRESS,THURSDAY,APRIL30,2020

Revisiting virus curve,to read lockdown effect

FACTCHECK, GROUND REALITY

OnApril9,The IndianExpressanalysedthenationalandstate-wiseCOVID-19growthcurves.Howhavetheseshapedsince? Inupdatedcurves, trendsduring last3weeksof lockdown

AMITABHSINHAPUNE,APRIL28

ONAPRIL9,wehadpublished thegrowth curves ofthe novel coronavirus epidemic in various states.CoveringdatauntilApril7,wehadshowedhow, justover a month after the outbreak began in the firstweek of March, the trajectory at the national leveland inmanystateshadbeguntoresemblewhat issotypical of the spread of an infectious disease — anexponential curve.With less thanaweektogobefore Indiastepsout

of a national lockdown, and into the next phase ofthe containment strategy, we revisit those growthcurveshere, inanattempt to illustrate the impactofthe lockdown,orat least lookatwhathappeneddur-ing this period. The national lockdown imposed atmidnight of March 24 — often described as thebiggest human quarantine ever — was aimed atslowingdowntherateof growthof theepidemic, sothat the number of patients needing urgent med-ical attention could remain at manageable levelswhilegovernmentandlocalauthoritieswouldrampuphealth infrastructure andprepare themselves todeal with larger number of people at a later stage.Aswemovetowardstheendof thatperiod, the lock-down does seem to have resulted in a significantslowdownof the epidemic.“Idon’t thinkthereisanydoubtthatthelockdown

didmanage to achieve a considerable slowdown inthegrowthof thedisease,” saidSitabhraSinha,asci-entistattheChennai-basedInstituteofMathematicalSciences, who has been studying the spread of theepidemic in India through computermodelling.SinhahadtoldThe IndianExpressonApril12 that,

according to a study he had been carrying outwithhiscolleagueSoumyaEaswaran, thenumberof con-firmed infected cases was likely to remain below20,000 by April 20. This, he had said, was a directimpact of the lockdown, in the absence of which,computermodels showed, thenumberwouldhavereached35,000.ThenumberonApril20was18,465,wellwithin the prediction.Thereproductionnumber(R)wementionhere—

a reference to the average number of persons in-fectedbyanalready infectedperson—are thosecal-culated by Sinha’s team.Therehasbeenasignificantchange inthegrowth

curves of the states from the last time. Some states,such as Kerala, have done well to contain the epi-demic,winningglobalacclaimfor theirefforts,whileothers, like Maharashtra and Delhi, have seen asteady rise in numbers.Someotherstates, likeGujarat,whichhadamod-

est case load at that time, have emerged as fast-growing hotspots. And states such asWest Bengal,Bihar and Jharkhandhave just begun to show signsthat they could potentially turn into trouble zonesover the next few days, although their current caseload is not very high.

TOP 7 STATE-WISECOVID-19DEATHS

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

March 1 April 27

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Andhra PradeshUttar PradeshRajasthanDelhiMadhya PradeshGujaratMaharashtra

TOP 7 STATES INFECTEDBYCOVID 19

Maharashtra

9,318

MadhyaPradesh

2,387TamilNadu

2,058Rajasthan

2,301

Gujarat

3,774

Delhi

3,314

UttarPradesh

2,053

■Maharashtra remainsontop.WhathaschangedsinceApril7 isthatthen, itaccountedforone-fifthof India’scases(1,018of5,321);now, itsshare ismorethanone-fourth.TamilNadu,Delhi,UPandRajasthanremain intop7.NewentrantssinceApril7areGujaratandMP.KeralaandTelanganadropoutoftop7.

■Maharashtraaccountsforover40%of900+deathsnationwide.Thenextfourstatesadduptoanother40%+.Outsideofthetop7,twootherstateshavewitnessedover20deathsuntilApril27—TamilNaduandTelangana,with25deathseach.

400

183

120

54 52 34 31

PUNJAB

342CASES

(APRIL 27)

19DEATHS

99CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 17,021

Recovered 104

R N/A*

March1 April7 April27

TAMIL NADU

2,058CASES

(APRIL 27)

25DEATHS

690CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 1,01,874

Recovered 1,128

R <1*

March1 April7 April27

UTTAR PRADESH

2,053CASES

(APRIL 27)

34DEATHS

332CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 70,307

Recovered 463

R 1.50*

March1 April7 April27

ANDHRAPRADESH

1,259CASES

(APRIL 27)

31DEATHS

304CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 80,334

Recovered 258

R 1.27*

March1 April7 April27

TELANGANA

1,007CASES

(APRIL 27)

25DEATHS

393CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 19,063

Recovered 332

R <1*

March1 April7 April27

WESTBENGAL

663CASES

(APRIL 27)

22DEATHS

99CASES

(APRIL 7)

Tests 13,223

Recovered 119

R 1.52*

March1 April7 April27

JAMMU&KASHMIR

565CASES

(APRIL 27)

8DEATHS

125CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 16,619

Recovered 176

R 1.24*

March1 April7 April27

KARNATAKA

523CASES

(APRIL 27)

19DEATHS

175CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 50,512

Recovered 207

R N/A*

March1 April7 April27

MAHARASHTRA

9,318CASES

(APRIL 27)

400DEATHS

1,018CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 1,29,931

Recovered 1,388

R 1,50*

March1 April7 April27

GUJARAT

3,774CASES

(APRIL 27)183DEATHS

179CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 51,601

Recovered 434

R 1.38*

March1 April7 April27

DELHI

3,314CASES

(APRIL 27)

54DEATHS

576CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 43,370

Recovered 1,078

R 1.15*

March1 April7 April27

MADHYAPRADESH

2,387CASES

(APRIL 27)

120DEATHS

290CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 31,060

Recovered 377

R 1,16*

March1 April7 April27

RAJASTHAN

2,301CASES

(APRIL 27)

52DEATHS

343CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 92,506

Recovered 770

R 1.44*

March1 April7 April27

BIHAR

366CASES

(APRIL 27)

2DEATHS

38CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 21,468

Recovered 57

R 2.01*

March1 April7 April27

KERALA

485CASES

(APRIL 27)

3DEATHS

335CASES

(APRIL 7)

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Tests 23,980

Recovered 362

R <1*

March1 April7 April27

*Reproductionnumber forApril 15-18(Small rangeofdates fit)

*Reproductionnumber forApril 20-23(Lowquality fit)

*Reproductionnumber forApril 16-21

*Casesgrowingat lower thanexponentialrate

*Reproductionnumber forApril 18-22

*Reproductionnumber forApril 6-27

*Casesgrowingat less thanexponential rate(Confidenceofcalculation low)

*Reproductionnumber forApril 18-27

*Reproductionnumber forApril 14-17(Lowquality fit)

*Recentperioddatadoesnot fitexponential inarobustmanner

*Casesgrowingat lower thanexponentialrate

*Reproductionnumber forApril 20-23

*Recentperioddatadoesnot fitexponential inarobustmanner

*Reproductionnumber forApril 21-27

*Reproductionnumber forApril 17-26

ALL INDIACOVID 19CASES&DEATHS

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

0

200

400

600

800

1000

March 1 April 27

CONFIRMEDCASES

31,286CONFIRMEDDEATHS

918■SinceApril7,whenIndiahadrecorded5,321casesand167deaths, thecountsforbothhavegrownoverfivefold.Whilewehaveplotted918asreportedbythestategovernmentsuntilApril27, thetotalnationwidehascrossed1,000since.

OTHER STATES

State Cases Deaths Recoveries

Andaman 10 0 10

Arunachal 1 0 1

Assam 37 1 27

Chandigarh 56 0 17

Chhattisgarh 37 0 32

Daman 1 0 0

Goa 7 0 7

Haryana 308 4 224

Himachal 41 2 25

Jharkhand 105 2 19

Ladakh 20 0 18

Manipur 2 0 2

Meghalaya 12 1 0

Mizoram 1 0 1

Odisha 118 1 37

Tripura 2 0 2

Uttarakhand 54 0 34

Editing:Kabir FiraqueGraphics:MithunChakraborty&RiteshKumar

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Mumbai

10WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

AFTER THE DELUGEIt istimetodesignclearrulesfordeparturefrom

acceptednormsof fiscalprudence

ARVIND SUBRAMANIANHAS likened the current economic situation to a“pralay (deluge)”, inwhich thegovernment should spendmore thanevenwhatitoughttoinarainyday.India,theformerchiefeconomicadvisersaidatane-Addaeventhostedbythisnewspaper,mustplanfora“substantially

negative” growth this year thatmight require an additional fiscal expenditure of Rs 10lakhcrore.Hehasapoint.Corporateindebtednesswasalreadyhighbeforethelockdown.Not onlywill insolvency casesmount further, but even companies facingno significantcash flow issueswouldn’t invest in an uncertain public health aswell as demand-con-strainedenvironment.Banks,too,aren’tgoingtolend,nomatterhowmuchliquiditytheReserve Bank of India (RBI)may infuse. The burden of non-performing assets,which isset togetheavier inthecomingmonths,makes it impossible forthemtofinanceaneco-nomic recovery. Last, but not the least, are households. Facedwith layoffs andpay cuts,theywould rather saveandwill beafraid tospend.Underthecircumstances, theonusforensuringthatthewheelsof theeconomystart

moving— there’s no guarantee of it happening evenwith all lockdown restrictions be-ing lifted—liesonthegovernment.Withoutsomebodytospend, theeconomyis inrealdangerof contraction,whichwill, in turn,worsentheproblemofbusinessesgoingbust,joblessnessandloandefaultsthatcanspreadtotheentirefinancialservicesindustry.Theone consolation today is that India is not saddledwith its traditional “3F” constraints—food, fuel and foreign exchange—whichwere triggers for inflation andbalance of pay-ments crises. On the contrary, public foodgrain stocks are at an all-time-high, global oilpriceshavecrashedand there isno runon the rupee,unlikeduring the “taper tantrum”periodofMay-August2013.Therisks, if atall,aretiltedmoretowardsdemand-side“de-flationaryshocks”, asSubramanianputs it, thansupply-side inflationconcerns.Thereisalegitimatequestion,though:Ifthegovernmenthastotakeuptheslack,where

will themoneyfor it comefrom?Thefinancesof boththeCentreandstatesare inamess,withreceiptsfromtaxandnon-taxsourceshardlycoveringevenexistingexpenditures.Butgovernmentsenjoysovereignborrowingpowersthatallowfund-raisingatratesbelowthatoftripleA-ratedinstrumentsissuedbyprivatecorporates,moresointhepresentrisk-aversescenario.Also,thereistheoptionofdeficitfinancing(“printingmoney”)throughtheRBIsub-scribing to primary auctions of government securities. There are, of course, costs in suchpowersbeingexercised.Pastprecedents—whethertheissuanceofadhocTreasuryBillstotheRBIpriortoApril1997orthestimuluspackagepostthe2008globalfinancialcrisis—donot inspire confidence. This is the time to design clear rules for departure fromacceptednormsof fiscalprudence.Anystimulushastobetransparentandtime-bound.

THE PRICKLY STATEAtatimeofcrisis,governmentshouldwelcome,notpunish,ideas,criticism.Theseprovideammunitionforthebattleahead

INFACINGTHEcoronaviruschallenge, informationandideasaretheonlyammuni-tioncurrentlyavailable,andshouldbewelcomedandevaluatedirrespectiveoftheirprovenance,whethertheyoriginate fromwithinthegovernmentor fromthepub-lic.Butagovernmentwhichhas,inbettertimes,soughtsuggestionsdirectlyfromthe

publicoverthewebandthroughthePrimeMinister’sapp,hasbecomeundulysensitiveata time of grave crisis.When50 young officers of the Indian Revenue Service forwarded,through their association, policy suggestions, in a report titled FORCE (FiscalOptions andResponsetoCOVID-19Epidemic)totheCentralBoardofDirectTaxesandsharedthemonsocialmedia,theCentretermeditasaposition“contrarytocurrentpoliciesofgovernment”,readitasabreachofservicerulesandinstitutedaninquiryagainstthreeseniorIncomeTaxofficers. Someof the suggestionsmaybe controversial, for instance, a hike in income taxrate to40percent for thoseearningoverRs1croreayear fora limitedperiodof time,buttheresponseisrepressiveandexcessivelyoutofproportion.Theofficersneverclaimedthattheirdocumentwasofficial.Publiclydismissingthecontroversialsuggestionswouldhavesufficedif thegovernmentwantedtodistanceitself fromthereport.Meanwhile,publicquestioningofthegovernment’shandlingofthepandemicinMani-

pur has landed several citizens in troublewith the law—police have invoked sections oftheDisasterManagementActandtheIndianPenalCode, includingsedition. Inonecase, ithadmerelybeensuggestedthataproposedquarantinecentreinImphalshouldbemovedfromagriculturallandtoadisusedairstrip.Thedeputychiefministerwasstrippedofallhisportfolios,amidacontroversyoverriceallocationundertheNationalFoodSecurityActdur-ing the coronavirus lockdown, apparently for being critical of the chiefminister’s assur-ancesofadequatefoodsupply.AndinPortBlair,ajournalistwasbookedforaskingwhythephonecontactsofCOVID-19patientswerebeinghomequarantined.Insteadofarrestinghim,theauthoritiescouldhavesimplyexplainedthat tracingcall records isonewayofdiscov-eringapatient’sclosecontacts.It isgenerallyagreedthat longafter lockdownsare lifted,nationswillhavetoremain

inclosecooperation,sothat ideasthatworkinoneplacecanbeborrowedanddeployedelsewhere.Theprincipleappliesdomestically, too.Over-sensitiveandpricklyresponsesbetray insecurity,preciselywhengovernmentsmustproject confidence.

HIS OWN PATHIrrfanpushedbackagainstBollywoodmainstream,madehis

audienceseeandbelieve.Hisbestwasyet tobe

W ITH IRRFANKHAN’S passing,wemourn the loss of a great actor. Hewas one of those performerswho dig deep into themselves to dis-cover the truth, evenwhen he played the flakiest of characters. Hehad that very unique,most paradoxical quality, something that all

great actors possess: Tomake his audiences accept the falsity of film as an ineluctabletruth, tomake thembelieve.Hebegan,in1988,inShyamBenegal’stele-serialDiscoveryofIndia.Hislatestfilm,Angrezi

Medium released inmid-March,butcouldn’t reachthetheatresbecauseof the lockdown.Hewasacinephile’sdelight.Critics lovedhim.But theconstraintsof findinggoodwork ina film industrywhichcoastedon formula-heavy flicks, andstar-drivenvehicleswerealsohisconstantcompanion.Hebeganworkwithdirectorswhobroke intoHindicinema, lat-erally, just likehehad. Themid-’90sBollywoodwason thevergeof amassive churn:Themainstream, under the steamof the three youngKhans, Aamir-Salman-ShahRukh,wascreatingdemandandsupply for family-friendly,mono-cultural,mono-theistic romancesandsanitisedsocialdramas.Pushbackwasarriving, intheshapeof filmmakerswhocamefromtheHindi-speakingheartlandsof theNorth, fromVishalBhardwaj,AnuragKashyap,TigmanshuDhulia,whowantedtotelltheirstories,andneededactorswhocoulddothejob.ThisKhan,whowashappytojunkhissurname,wasfinallyrightwhereheneededtobe.

Hewascapableofbeingasrawandvisceralasthestorieshewasoffered. Andsoon,hewasoutstanding.BigBollywoodtooknotice,andmadeagrabforhim.BigHollywoodwasn’t farbehind, and cast him in a fewmega-budget entertainers. By then, Bollywoodhad turnednew-ageyenoughforIrrfantobeabletomakesomeofhismostexcitingwork.Buthisbest,combiningmaturityand“thehraav(gravitas)”,wasyettobe.Farewell,Irrfan.Youmadeussee.

DeepakNayyar

ShahAlamKhan

Decision-makingunderhighuncertaintyrequiresconviction. It isnowessentialtobeginendof lockdown

COMPASSION, ABOVE ALLNation’s fightagainstcoronaviruscannot ignorethechronicallysickandvulnerable

PRIMEMINISTERNARENDRAModiheldhisfourthroundofconsultationswithstategov-ernments onApril 27 to review the COVID-19situation.Thedraconianlockdown,whichcompletes40daysonMay3,wasdiscussed.Asintheearliermeetings,severalchiefmin-istersurgedthat the lockdownbeextended.Whilenodecisionwasannounced, thelock-downmightwellcontinue.Forgovernmentseverywhere,moresoaf-

ter the experience of Italy, Britain and theUnitedStates,wheregovernmentsdidtoolit-tle too late, imposing and continuing lock-downs is a risk-averse strategy. If the spreadcanbecurbed,itwouldbringpoliticalkudos.If it is not, themicrobe is to blame. It is theequivalent of a one-way option in financialmarkets,whereyoucannot lose.This isevenmore attractive nowas it conforms toherd-behaviour by governments worldwide. Ofcourse, exit from a lockdown poses a realdilemma for governments. It is about deci-sion-makingunderhighuncertainty,whichrequiresconvictionandconfidence.This dilemmawill always be larger than

lifewhenthere isasingleobjectiveof savinglivesinapandemic.Butitmustalsoberecog-nisedthatthehealthofpeopleandthehealthof an economy are interdependent, wherebothshapethewellbeingofpeople.Thus,sav-inglivelihoodsisanequallyimportantobjec-tive. Obviously, getting sick and going hun-gry cannot be an either-or choice. Everyonewouldprefertostayhealthyandbewell fed.It is the role of governments to strike a bal-ance and reconcile these two objectives,ratherthanjuxtaposethemasconflicting,re-quiringachoicetobemade.Lockdowns,combinedwithmass-testing,

contact-tracing,containment-zones,manda-tory-quarantines, can only slow down thespeed atwhich the infection spreads. Thismighthelp incountrieswherepublichealthfacilitiesarerobust,yetnotadequateforlargenumbers.Butourpublichealthsystemispoorandcouldneversufficeforourlargepopula-tionif thepandemicspreads.Thereisnovac-cineyet.Fromdevelopmentthroughtrialstoproductionwill be at least one year, and farlonger before it becomes available in suffi-cientquantities forourmassivepopulation.It isnowabsolutelyessentialtobeginthe

processofexitfromthelockdown.Forone,itwould enable the government to find some

balancebetween the twinobjectivesof sav-ing lives and saving livelihoods. For another,itwouldhelprestarttheeconomy,whichhasbeenalmostcompletely shutdown,andthecollateral damage is bound to be far greaterif the lockdownisextended.A calibrated, planned and phased exit

could also helpmanage the spread of thevirus.Sofar,morbidityandmortalityassoci-atedwithCOVID-19 in Indiahasbeenmuchlower than elsewhere in theworld. This ispossiblyattributabletoourimmunesystems,whichhaveantibodiesthatcouldbeeffectiveinresistingthevirus.Afterall,millionsofmi-grantsstrandedinmegacitiesorreliefcampsincrampedspaceshavenotcaughtthevirusthrough contagion in large numbers. It sug-gests that there are already some elementsof herd-immunity in India thatwould growstrongeras the lockdownis liftedslowly.Theeconomicandsocialconsequencesof

the lockdownhavebeensevere.A largepro-portionoftheself-employed,casualworkerson dailywages, and informalworkers, whoconstitute90percentof thetotalworkforce,have lost their livelihoods. Demand hasdropped sharply as employment has con-tracted. Supply has been strangled by themassive reduction in output. Governmentrevenues,forbothCentreandstates,havecol-lapsed. And, even if the lockdown is liftednow, economic growth during 2020-21wouldbezeroornegative.For thepoor -75percentof ruralhouse-

holdsand50percentof urbanhouseholds -food security is at risk. It is amatter of sur-vival.Similarly,formicro-small-mediumen-terprises,theirsurvivalisatstake.Largefirms,except those with deep pockets, will alsostruggle.Whatever the governmentmightstipulate,most firmswill find it difficult topay thewages of their employees, for thesewill only add to their cash losses during thelockdown. Healthcare for patients, exceptthose with COVID-19, has diminished interms of both access and quality. In educa-tion,learningoutcomes,alreadypoor,willgetworseasschoolsandcollegesremainclosed.Ineverysphere,theshort-termeffectsof thelockdownwillhavelong-termconsequences- hysteresis - as future outcomes will beshapedbythispast.For the economy, the sooner the lock-

down is lifted the better. But the process of

exitfromthelockdownwillhavetobeincal-ibrated steps based on a planned transitionpath in termsof sequenceandspeed. In thisphasing,thegeographicalsizeanddiversityofIndia provide degrees of freedom that aremissing inmostcountries.On April 27, of the total 736 districts in

India, 283 districts had not reported anyCOVID-19cases so far,while another18dis-tricts had no new case in the last 28 days(greenzones).Thus,economicactivitycanre-sumewithout restrictions in 41 per cent ofour districts. In addition, 48 districts had nonewcaseinthelast14dayswhile33districtshadnonewcase in the last 21days. Thus, in11 per cent of our districts that are orangezones,economicactivitycanberesumedinaphasedmanner.Similarly, on April 27, there were nine

states, indescendingorderof numbers, thathadmorethan1,000infections:Maharashtra,Gujarat,Delhi,Rajasthan,MP,TamilNadu,UP,AndhraPradeshandTelangana. Taken toge-ther,theyaccountedfor80percentofthein-fectionsand57percentof thepopulation inIndia.Therewere13states,indescendingor-der,thathadlessthan1,000infections:WestBengal,Jammu&Kashmir,Karnataka,Kerala,Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand, Uttara-khand,Odisha,HimachalPradesh,Chhattis-garh,andAssam(inthelast five, thenumberof infectionswasindouble-digits).Takento-gether, theyaccounted for12percentof theinfectionsand42percentof thepopulation.Thedistributionofgreen,orangeandredzonedistricts among states is uneven. The distri-bution of economic activity across states isalsounequal.Evenso, therearepossibilities.Economicactivitycanberesumedindis-

trictswithout infectionsand ingreenzones.The orange zone districts can be brought inastheyturngreen.Thelockdownshouldcon-tinue in states such asMaharashtra, Gujaratand Delhi (with limited relaxationswherepossible) and in red zone districts, contain-ment-zonesorhotspotswithincities,aslongasnecessary.Inthisdecisiontobeginexitfromthelock-

down, PMModi will need to act with thesame confidence as he didwhen imposingthe lockdown.

Thewriter isaneconomistandformerViceChancellor,UniversityofDelhi

I LIVE IN a suburban, gated (let’s call it co-rona-secure) colony inNoida at the edge ofDelhi. I don’t have toworry aboutmy liveli-hood, clean water, food, or money to buyhand sanitiser. Forwork, I take the express-waytoDelhi.A fewdaysafter the lockdownwas declared, I witnessed a stream of mi-grantworkers and their families on the ex-pressway—mencarryingchildren,women,children carrying younger children and theelderly.Poorpeople,deprivedof their liveli-hoods,weresupposedlywalkingtotheirvil-lages, someas faras200 to400km.Sitaram(namechanged)sitsinfrontofmy

corona-secure colony. He sells balloons andhadoncetoldmethatheearnsaboutRs200aday.Sitaramlivesinashantyacrosstheroadandhas threemouths to feed.After the lock-down,hisonlysourceofincomehasdriedup.But Sitaram is still lucky—he andhis familymembers are apparently healthy. The lock-down couldmeandeath for a large numberofthechronically-illorthoseundertreatmentorawaitinghospitalisation.I havewritten in this newspaper about

cancer patientswho come tometropolitancities for treatment.Once their fundsevapo-rate,theyliveonthestreetsnearthehospitalswhere they are undergoing treatment (‘Thecancer refugees’, IE, July23,2018).Hundredsofsuchcancerrefugeesliveonthestreetout-

side theAIIMS, inDelhi.Within 24 hours ofthe announcement of the lockdown, thestreets and footpathsnear thehospitalwereempty.I’mnotsurewherethiscohortmeltedaway.What ismoreworrying is that theymightdiscontinuetheirtreatment. It’sunfairtocomparetragedies,butIfeelthatthechron-icallysickaretheworstaffected insituationssuchasthecurrent lockdown.AccordingtoaWHOreport(2015),nearly

5.8million people in India die every year ofnon-communicable diseases (NCDs).Constantevaluationandsurveillanceholdthekeytotreatingsuchdiseases—thisanywayisadifficult proposition ina country like India.After the lockdown, a large number of thesepatientscouldhavebeenseverelyaffected.In2018,2.15millionnewtuberculosis(TB)

caseswere diagnosed in India. Imagine theplight of these patients, a large number ofwhomwould be on treatment at DOTS (di-rectlyobservedtreatmentshort-course)cen-tres and/or at hospital OPDs,which are noweither shut downor inaccessible due to thestringentcurfew.TheresurgenceofTB—mul-tipledrug-resistantTB—asaresultofnotfol-lowing treatmentprotocols iswell known. ItisimportantthatwetrackthehealthofTBpa-tientsduringthelockdownperiod.The devotion ofmy colleagues, students,

nurses, ancillarystaff, andothermembersof

thehospitalwhere Iwork isworthmention-ing.Itwasencouragingthattheprimeminis-teraskedcitizenstoclapandclangthalis(uten-sils) as amarkof appreciation forhealthcareworkers. People responded to the PM’s callwithgusto.Unfortunately,suchappreciationwas short-lived— junior doctors of thehos-pitalwhere Iworkwereaskedby their land-lordstovacatetheirpremises.TherewerealsoreportsofafemaledoctorinTelanganabeingassaultedbythepolicewhohadstoppedherforviolatingthecurfew—shewasreportedlyonherwaytowork.Iwishtherewaslessnoiseandmoreassurancesaboutprovidingequip-menttomedicalprofessionals.Physicaldistancingis imperativetocheck

the spread of the virus. But the lockdowncould have been implementedwithmorecompassion. People’s health is the responsi-bilityof thestate.Butatnostageshoulditre-sort tomethods that hurt themarginalised.Thehealthcaresystemofanationshouldnotbe judgedbyits responsetoanepidemicbutbyitscommitmenttoitspeoples’healthinthelong term. Awell-oiled healthcare deliverysystemwouldhavebeenuseful in times likethese.Butit’snevertoolatetolearnfrombadexperiences.

Thewriter isprofessoroforthopaedics,AIIMS,NewDelhi.Viewsarepersonal

A calibrated, planned andphased exit could also helpmanage the spread of thevirus. So far, morbidity andmortality associated withCOVID-19 in India has beenmuch lower than elsewherein the world. This is possiblyattributable to our immunesystems, which haveantibodies that could beeffective in resisting thevirus. After all, millions ofmigrants stranded inmegacities or relief camps incramped spaces have notcaught the virus throughcontagion in large numbers.It suggests that there arealready some elements ofherd-immunity in India thatwould grow stronger as thelockdown is lifted slowly.

According to a WHO reportof 2015, nearly 5.8 millionpeople die every year in Indiaof non-communicablediseases (NCDs). One infour Indians runs the risk ofdying of an NCD before theyreach the age of 70. Constantevaluation and surveillancehold the key to treatingsuch diseases — thisanyway is a difficultpreposition in a developingcountry like India.

FOUNDED BY

RAMNATH GOENKA

B E C A U S E T H E T R U T H I N V O L V E S U S A L L

§ §

THEINDIANEXPRESS,THURSDAY,APRIL30,2020WORDLYWISE

I want to entertain people, butwith some substance.

— IRRFAN KHANTHEEDITORIALPAGE

ASSAM CLIMBDOWNTHEASSAMESEHAVEmodifiedtheiroriginalstandontheforeignersissue,sayingthattheydonotwanttheirrepatriation”butonlytheirdetention”. This climbdown to an olivebranchnowofferedtotheCentreto“diffusetensions in Assam”, student leaders andGana Sangram Parishad sources said.Denouncing the “occupation army-like be-haviour” of themilitary andpolice forces inthe strongest possible terms, they seriouslyregretted thatwhile they had revised theirstand,theCentrewas“notshowinganywill-ingness to budge from their position”. TheAssameseleaderssaidthattheyhadchangedtheir position on the repatriation of

Bangladeshimigrants because it would be“inhuman” todoso.

GOLD BONDSGOVERNMENTMINTS AREworking over-time to refine 13,993 kgs of gold andmakebarsforrefundtothegoldbondholdersafterOctober this year. The gold had been givenby the citizens under the National DefenceGold Bond Scheme in 1965 inwake of thewarwithPakistan.About1.4lakhbondhold-ers will get back their gold holdings. Theywerenotonlygettingregularinterestontheirpossession,butthevalueofgoldhasskyrock-etedduringthelast15years.Priceshavegoneup from Rs 130 to Rs 1,400 per ten grams.

Thefinanceministrywillrefundthepreciousmetal through1,000centres.

KOIRALA INTERVIEW“OURRELATIONSWITHChinawill be ‘very‘friendly’andourrelationswithIndiawillbethefriendliest,”saidBPKoirala,Nepal’sonlydemocraticallyelectedformerprimeminis-ter. Theman can do it again, become PM, iftheNepalesepeoplevoteformulti-partypar-liamentarydemocracyinthereferendumonMay2. InanexclusiveinterviewtoTheIndianExpress on the eve of the elections, Koiralasaidthat“NepalbelongstotheAsiancomityof nations. We will have to keep theAmericansandRussiansatadistance”.

APRIL 30, 1980, FORTYYEARSAGO

The exit dilemma

Mumbai

THEINDIANEXPRESS,THURSDAY,APRIL30,2020

WHATTHEOTHERSSAY“On Monday, global coronavirus cases passed 3 million, meaning one in threepatients is in the US. The US government has failed its people and also failedthe world.” — GLOBALTIMES,CHINATHE IDEASPAGE

WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

SCHOOLS STARTED SHUTTING down inChina in late Januaryandbythe lastweekofMarch, all theworld’s schools were closed.Almost like sunset and sunrise, as the lastschools incentralAfricancountries stoppedworking, the Chinese schools began to re-open. Other countries too are opening thedoorsof theirschoolscautiously.Butthereisa great deal of uncertainty in the air every-where. In India, there are murmurs thatschoolscouldremaincloseduntilSeptemberorOctober. And there is thequestion:Whatwillhappen“afterall this isover”?As schools began to shut down indiffer-

entcountries,theimmediatereactionwastoshifttheclassroomtohomesusingwhatevertechnologywas possible since peoplewerelockedin.Thereisalotof thinking,planning,andexecutionhappeninginahurryineverycountry,includingIndia.Countriesorregionsor even schools that havemore easy accesstoInternet-devicesandlearningresourcesintheappropriatemediumof instructionseemtohavemade the transition to online learn-ingratherquicklyalthoughnotwithoutsomepain. How effective these transitions wereandhowgoodtherelativelyshortexperiencewaswillhavetobeanalysednotonlyeduca-tionally,butalsosociallyandpsychologically.Early reports fromChinadonotpaint a rosypicture.Althoughtherearemoremobilecon-nections than people in China, only 59 percent of themobile connections arewith in-ternet and only 47 per cent households inChinaseemtohavePCsorlaptops.So,itmusthave been relatively easy for the Chinese tomove to a home-based online learning sys-tem,butonlyforabouthalf thepopulation. Ihavenotseenreportsaboutwhathappenedtotherest,whichIsuspectliveinruralChinaorareonperipheriesoftheglitteringChineseeconomy.In comparison to China, India has about

abillionmobilephoneconnections.Availabledata indicate that of these, 87 per cent arepre-paid,whichgivesusahintabouttheeco-nomic background of the people owningthese connections. Of the billion mobilephones, 67 per cent are 3G or 4G internet-connected. Someof these owners also havelaptopsordesktopsathomebuttheyarelim-ited to about 13 per cent households. Ourground-levelexperiencematcheswiththesenumbers. In rural areas of Maharashtra,Rajasthan,andUttarPradeshalthough90percent families havemobile phones, depend-ing upon the state, about 40 per cent to 60percentof theseareregularphoneswithoutinternetaccess.So, the Indianpopulation canbedivided

into several different categories. First, thehighly privileged oneswith home access tobroadbandthroughmultipledevices.Second,thosewith internet access via smartmobilephones.Third,withmobilephonesbutwith-out internet and finally, thosewithout cellphones. Broadly, this is a problem of10:40:40:10divisionof thepopulationwiththe ratios varying regionally. In response tothisdivision,variousstategovernmentshave

turnedtoradio-television technologyof the1980sand ‘90s. Theyare trying toget teach-ers and students engagedwith educationalresources on portals throughWhatsAppmessagesandsoon.Mosteffortsarecentredaroundschoolsubjectlearningalthoughthisis really vacation time. In the best of times,the classroom is not effective as various as-sessmentshaveshown.Howeffective thesehurriedlyputtogetherhome-learningeffortswill be, especially for the lower 50per cent,is a big questionmark.Will the underprivi-leged lag further behind? If we are talkingabout “completing the portion”, almosteveryonewill.Buttherearebiggerproblemstoconsider.Thesearedifficultandstressful times for

all.Apartfromthediscomfortof forcedlock-in, there is the anxiety about the futureamongparents.Childrencansensetheseten-sions. I would not worry too much aboutschool examination results during this pe-riod. Instead,ourfocusshouldbeoncreativelearningactivitiesthatengagebothchildrenand parents and lead to other long-lastinglessons.Relief isneeded,notmorestress.Whenever the schools reopen, the sheer

reliefofgoingbacktoschoolsmayalsomeantherewillbethedesiretogobacktobusinessasusual.Butexperiencesfromtheshutdownperiod could be used tomodify the educa-tionsystemasweenteranewnormalsitua-tion.Forexample, it isobservedthatwherever

less-educated parents have been invited tofacilitate their child’s learning, they haveshown enthusiasm. Parents of young chil-dren today aremostly schooled if not edu-catedandareeagertolearntohelptheirchil-dren.Parents’roleinchildren’seducationhasto be enhanced by training them in a “con-tinuing education”mode. This is especiallytrueforthechildreninanganwadisandearly

primary age groupwhere strong founda-tional skills are learned.Increasing public access to Internet for

school-age learning by creating device li-brariesisapossibility. Investmentinthecre-ation of good contextualised content inIndianlanguagesisaneed. Integratingtech-nology in education oftenmeans creatingmoreattractiveaudio-visual textbooks thatare really one-way carriers of knowledge.There is a need to recognise that the newtechnology can domuchmore and createnon-linearpathsof learning.Itissaidoureconomyandoursocietywill

not be the same fromhere on. Theneed forlearning skills thatwill help to survive andthrive in theneweconomywasalreadybe-ingdiscussedbeforeCOVID. It appearsnowthat the economy is going to change evenmoredrastically. Therewill bemorepeopledependent on agriculture and rural liveli-hoods.We needmore productive land re-sources andmore rural livelihoods. A largenumberofpeoplehavereturnedtovillages.Somewill go back to old jobswhile otherswill need new skills to findwork. The edu-cation systemhas to be sensitive to the im-mediate needs of the youth aswe contem-plate long-termreforms.As the economy changes, the need for

lifelong learning is becomingmore urgentthanever.Duringthelockdownperiod,peo-ple have learned things that they wouldnever have before. They loved the experi-ence,evenifgrudgingly.Thereisgoingtobeindividualneedtolearnnewworkskills.Ourexperiences during lockdown are pointingusinthedirectionofnecessaryandpossiblechanges.Weshouldreflectonthoseandact.

Thewriter is co-founderandpresidentofPratham.Viewsexpressed in thearticleare

personal

11

BYNOW,we have all read about howun-precedentedacrisisCOVID-19is—soIwishtoget straight to themain issues, andpos-sible solutions. We need to simplify ourcommunication,presentasustainableplanand, above all, implement. Yes, wemustcontinuetesting,butIfeelthatwearesorelylacking in implementation.There is noquestioning thewisdomof

PrimeMinister NarendraModi’s strategyin ensuring a complete lockdown.WhiletheCentre,RBIandstateshaveannouncedaslewofgoodplans,whydowestillhearofthe stoning of doctors, the lack of follow-ing of the rules, non-availability of essen-tial food andmoney for the poor. Forme,theanswerliesininadequatecommunica-tion and implementation. While we allmust work in unified fashion, the mainonuslieswithourelectedrepresentatives,right down to the MLA. It is time theyearned their votes and the trust that theirconstituents have placed in them. Theymustappearatleastonceaweekbeforethepublic,afterdonningmasksandglovesandadheringtosocialdistancingnorms,toex-plain in simple terms the government’spolicies. As the situation is dynamic, theymustcontinuouslyupdatethegeneralpub-licof thechanges.MakingappearancesonTVandgiving instructions isnotenough.Thisistheneedofthehour.Becausethe

voidof informationisquicklyfilledbyspec-ulationsandrumours,mainly throughso-cialmedia. LeonFestinger’s theoryof cog-nitive dissonance basically explains thatpeopletendtolookforconsonanceintheiraction— right orwrong. For instance, weare well-aware of the fact that smokingleads to cancer, but smokers bring aboutill-advised consonance by following any80-year-olddoctorwhosmokesandhasnocancer.Andso it is, thatwhensomeMLAs,MPs and self-proclaimed leaders haveweddings, andbreak the rules asVIPs, theaveragepersonwonders, “whycan’t i?”—thus bringing about consonance to theirwrongactions.The eminent virologist Ian Lipkin has

saidthatcompletenormalcywillreturntothe world after a vaccine is developed,which is about a year away. The economy,though, is floundering. Sowhat dowe dointhemeantimeotherthancommunicateasoutlined?Weshouldhaveaveryshort-termplan(threemonths)andashort-termplan(ninemonths),thatwillneedtobefre-quently reviewed.The very short term plan involves the

government having transparent discus-sions.Allmeetingsthattheprimeministerhaswiththechiefministersshouldbeopen— like in Parliament. Thepeople are eagerto hear not onlywhat the primeministerhas to say, but what their chief ministersareplanning.Agriculturemustbegiventhetoppriority-buyingoffarmers’goods,theirtransportationandstorage.Exportorientedindustries need to be opened up.White-collar workers canwork from home, butnot the blue-collar workers. They are thebackboneoftheeconomy.Migrantworkersaregrapplingwithnoincomeandcrowdedliving conditions—with rents to pay andnot enough food. Theymust be providedthesebasicsurvivalresources. Itwillbedif-ficult to get theseworkersback fromtheirhomeswhen the economy opens up. Thecurrent Rs 500 permonth is not enough,and this should be increased to at least Rs3,000.Thetotalcostforthisentireexercisewouldnotbeveryhigh—aboutRs50,000crore.This isasmallpricetopaywhenoneconsiders alternate scenarios whichmaybedisastrous.In the short-term, a fiscal stimulus

needs to be given directly to the rural ar-eas,andtaxesmustbereducedforthemid-dle-income group to incentivise them tospendandgeneratethemuch-neededde-mand. Stimulusmust also be given to theMSMEs in order for them to pay theirwagesandreopentheiroperations. Lastly,supportmustalsobegiven to large indus-tries to open upwith specific guidelines,but without any draconian laws ormanyimpedimentsforeitherneworexistingin-dustries: Nobodywill open up or enter iffear isdrilled into them.Where will the money for all of the

abovecomefrom?Wemustempowerthestates to act within the broad guidelinesframed by the Centre which cannot, andmustnot act as apolice force. If alcohol isan income source, then let the states de-cide on it. The Centre spends far too littleas a percentage of GDP when comparedtoother countries.Anystimulusmust fo-cus on the rural areas and themiddle-in-comegroups tonotonly tideover thecri-sis,butalsogeneratedemandtokickstartthe virtuous cycle. Industry will not pro-duceanythingwithoutdemand,even if itis opened.AsthePMsaid,“JaanHaitohJahanHai”.

The time has come to follow hismotto inletterandspirit.Alotof thebuildingblockshavebeenput inplaceby thePM. If anewstimulus packagemanages to keep/bringbackworkers, itwillbeanopportunity forustogetbackonthepathofgrowth.States,industryandcitizens—allof usmustsup-portandactas Indians.Thefuture is inourhandsandoureffortscanmakeall thedif-ference between jannat (heaven) and ja-hannum(hell).

Thewriter isabusiness consultant

It appears now that theeconomy is going to changeeven more drastically. Therewill be more peopledependent on agriculture andrural livelihoods. We needmore productive landresources and more rurallivelihoods. A large numberof people have returned tovillages. Some will go back toold jobs while others willneed new skills to find work.The education system has tobe sensitive to the immediateneeds of the youth as wecontemplate long-termreforms.

The ways outStimuluspackagemustfocusonruralareasandmiddle-incomegroupstohelpgeneratedemandandkickstartvirtuouscycle

CR Sasikumar

LETTERS TO THEEDITOR

GLARING GAPSTHIS REFERS TO the editorial, ‘Resetandreform’(IE,April29). Inadequaciesanddeficiencies intrinsic inourhealthsystem and the absence of a supportsystem, especially for daily wageworkers,areattenuatingourefforts tocontain the Coronavirus. Though ourgovernment is seeminglymaking all-outefforts tocopewiththiscontagion,the initial delay in our response to itcannot be just wished away. Our tak-ing shelter under the extenuatingclaims like the small death toll in ourcountryascomparedtothose inothercountries will only show our reluc-tance to learn fromourmistakes.

TarsemSingh,Mahilpur

THIS REFERS TO the editorial, ‘Resetand reform’ (IE, April 29). ThroughAyushmanBharat component of PM-JAY, the government has tried to im-provetertiaryhealthcareaccessforthevulnerablewhoare insuredunder thescheme by taking advantage of thehithertounder-utilisedprivatehealth-care infrastructure. Public health in-frastructure is indispensable for anygovernment to improve the health ofitspeopleandover-relianceonprivateinfrastructurewon’tsuffice.This isev-ident from the examples of SouthKorea and Singapore, which have ef-fectively contained the spread ofCOVID-19.Higher spendingonpublichealth in general and investment inpublic healthcare infrastructure, inparticular, can’t be delayed. Health,along with education, is a pillar onwhich the health of a society andcountrydepends.

DimpyBhatia,Delhi

BETTER TOMORROWTHISREFERSTOarticle, ‘Theotherpol-lution’ (IEApril29).Thetransitionintoschooling from home has given theyoungergenerationarightfulclaimtoelectronic devices such as mobile

phoneswithhigh-speedinternetcon-nections. Given their curiousity, chil-dren then access images and videosglorifying violence and bigotry. Ayoungmind is a sponge and absorbsall this. Parents and the governmentan extra responsibility to imbibe out-of-syllabussocialconcepts forthebet-termentof tomorrow’ssocietyandtheprosperity of thenation.

Prashant Singh,RaeBareli

VIRTUAL DISTANCETHISREFERSTOtheeditorial ‘School’sout’ (IE, April 29). There is noway on-line education can replace physicalclassrooms, but such is the crisis andneedof thehourthatonlineeducationhasbecomeinevitableatall levels.Andbarringurbanlocations,onlineeduca-tion still remains a distant reality dueto various issues like poor internetbandwidth, lack of awareness amongstudentsandparentsandpoorskillsofteachers. In both healthcare and edu-cation, the COVID-19 crisis has ex-posedhugegaps.Going forward,boththe central and state governmentsmust focus on infrastructure.

BalGovind,Noida

LETTER OF THEWEEKAWARD

To encourage quality readerintervention, The IndianExpress offers the Letter oftheWeek award. The letteradjudged the best for theweek is published everySaturday. Lettersmay be

e-mailed toeditpage@expressindia.comor sent to The IndianExpress, B-1/B, Sector 10,Noida-UP 201301.

MadhavChavan

Economyandsocietywillnotbethesameafterpandemicretreats.Ourexperiencesduringlockdownarepointingusinthedirectionofnecessaryandpossiblechanges

Learning in a post-Covid world

Sunil KAlagh

IndiacancollaboratewiththeUSandGermanyinmouldinganewworldorder

ONE HUNDRED years ago, there were novisas and passports for people to travel inEurope, America and their colonies. ThencameWorldWarIandthingschanged—na-tional boundaries became rigid. Economicstagnation, and recession followed.Nationalism turned into ultra-nationalism,leading to another worldwar. AfterWorldWarII,wecreatedaninterconnectedandin-stitutionalised global order. For the last 65years,despiteseveralhiccups, theworldor-derhas remained largely intact.This pandemic threatens to undo that

world order. Just as before, countries areturning inwards, becoming authoritarian.Some political scientists are predicting therise of a more closed, narrow-nationalistworld.Economistsarewritingoff globalisa-tionand free trade.Wheredoes this pessimismstem from?

From a coronavirus virion? Not really. Twocountries, considered themost powerful,have shaken the confidence of the entireworld. Niall Ferguson, the American histo-rian fromtheHoover Institution, hadcalledthem “Chimerica”. For the last decade ormore, China and America have created aneconomicrelationshipmodelthatFergusoncomparedwithNichibei, theUS-Japaneco-nomicbondingprominentlyinexistenceun-til the end of the last century. CoronavirushasshownthatChimerica is just achimera.TheChineseleadershipfacesaccusations

of hiding facts fromtheworld, allowing thevirus to cross borders and turn into a pan-demic. Till last week, their official figures

stoodat82,000infectionsand4,500deaths.Derek Scissors of the American EnterpriseInstitute, aWashington-based think-tank,argues that the number of infections couldbeashighas2.9million instead.Somecountriesdon’tfollowanyconven-

tionalcourse.Chinaisoneof them.Itfollowswhatisdescribedas“historicalexperience”.Whatever it is today, isaproductof the longrevolutionthathadculminatedinMaocap-turing power in 1949. The Chineseworld-viewisguidedbythreeimportantprinciples:GDP-ism, China-centrism and Chinese ex-ceptionalism—derivedfromthatrevolution.Deng Xiaoping had reportedly declared

inthe1980sthatthemostimportantlogiciseconomicdevelopment.Chineseeconomistsdescribeitas“GDPism”.ThesecondisChina-centrism.Maoinsistedonindependence,au-tonomy and self-sufficiency. “Ode to themotherland”,thefamouspatrioticsongcom-posedbyWangShenthatdeclaresthe“grandandbeautiful”landofChina“overthemoun-tains, across the plains, across the YangtzeandHuangrivers”asthe“dearhomeofours”,isentrenchedinthepsycheofeveryChinese.Third,isChineseexceptionalism.Chinadoes-n’t believe in learning from others. Chinashould follow its ownwisdom for answersto itsproblems, its leaders insist.TheChinesenationalistworldviewhasa

parallel in history in pre-World War IIGermany. Ethnic superiority, historicalclaimsand theAryanexceptionalismwereall very familiar to the people of theworldin the 1930s. When Hitler occupied

Sudetenland, a German-speaking area oftheformerCzechoslovakia,Europedecidedto appease him, rather than confront.RooseveltwaswatchingfromafarwhentheEuropeannations—likeBritain,FranceandItaly — were celebrating the MunichAgreement. He even praisedHitler saying,“I am convinced that hundreds ofmillionsthroughouttheworldwouldrecogniseyouractionas anoutstandinghistoric service toall humanity”.Unsurprisingly,Hitlerviolatedhisprom-

iseof“nofurtheraggression”inlessthanoneyear,andWorldWarIIbegan.WhereBritainwas in1939-40iswhereAmericastandsto-day.TheUSpresidentDonaldTrumpallowedcoronavirus todevastate its statesbefore fi-nally waking up. As late as February 28,Trumpwas asking his supporters in SouthCarolina to not heed warnings about thevirus outbreak inAmerica. Hewas blamingthemedia for “hysteria” and calling the co-rona threat “their new hoax”. Now, theEuropean nations, having cuddled up toChinafor“BeltandRoad”benefits,arestrug-gling tocontain thepandemic fallout.Interestingly, the countries that stoodup

tothiscontagionaremostlytheAsiandemoc-racies. SouthKorea led theway, conductingmore tests than America on a single day.Singaporeundertookextensive testing,mak-ingahugeefforttotrackdownanyviralsymp-toms.HongKongandTaiwan,withtheirpastexperienceofSARSfatalities,havetakentimelymeasurestocontaintheviruseffectively.India, on the other hand, has set an ex-

ampleof democraticactivismincombatingthe corona challenge. Prime MinisterNarendraModi,togetherwithhiscolleagues,is leading from the front, and has success-fully implemented a lockdown and socialdistancingmeasures,with fullpopular sup-port. A countrywith a population of about1.3 billion has reportedly seen about 17,610activecases.Modididnotresort toanyarbi-traryorauthoritarianmeasuresthoughthereweredeliberateactsofprovocationandmis-informationlikeIslamophobia. Inthefaceofsuch provocations, Modi displayed enor-mous equanimity, calm and optimism. Heproved that democracies with visionaryleadershipcan tackle suchchallengeswith-outcompromisingon liberalvalues.In theunfoldingnewworld order, India,

along with countries like America andGermany, canplay apivotal role in buildingaworld based on “human-centric develop-ment cooperation” as suggestedbyModi. Itis time for a new Atlantic Charter:Environment, healthcare, technology anddemocraticliberalismcanbeitsfoundations.Chinahas anopportunity today, evenas

it faces opprobrium globally and unrestwithinthecountry.TheChineseCommunistPartyhasaphrase,“LuxianDouzheng”orlinestruggle. Itmeanspower struggle for some,but it also denotes the struggle for a newpartyline.Therewereseveralinthepast.Cantheworldhope forabetteronenow?

Thewriter isnationalgeneral secretary,BJPanddirector, IndiaFoundation

A new line of actionRamMadhav

Mumbai

12THEINDIANEXPRESS,THURSDAY,APRIL30,2020

THEOUTBREAK TheWorld

WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

THAILAND

BangkoktoeasesomerestrictionsBangkok: Officials inBangkok say they arepreparing to ease restric-tionsthatwereimposedtofightthespreadofCOVID-19, including the reopen-ing of restaurants understrict conditions. TheBangkok MetropolitanAdministration an-nouncedWednesdaythatit hopes to lift restrictionsoneightkindsofestablish-ments it had orderedclosed through April 30.Thecity'splanscallforthereopeningofrestaurants,markets,exercisevenues,parks, hairdressers andbarbers,clinicsandnurs-inghomes,animalhospi-tals and pet salons,andgolfcoursesanddriv-ing ranges.

InBangkok. AP

PANDEMICWATCH

NEPAL

3returneesofTablighimeettestpositiveKathmandu: Nepal onWednesday said thatthree persons, who re-turnedfromIndiaafterat-tendingaTablighi Jamaatgathering, have beentested positive, bringingthe total number of theCOVID-19 patients in thecountry to 57. The threemen,whowerestayinginquarantineafterreturningfrom the Tablighi Jamaatgathering in Delhi'sNizamuddin area lastmonth, have beenbrought to an isolationwardofNarayaniHospitalin Birgunj for treatment,according to a govern-mentspokesperson.

SINGAPORE

GovtwarnsoffakenewsSingapore: Singapore onWednesday warnedagainst spreading fakenews and videos aboutmigrantsworkers,sayingthiscoulddisturblawandorder in dormitorieswhere a large number offoreignworkers, includ-ingIndiannationals,havebeentestedpositive.Lawand Home AffairsMinister K Shanmugamwarned such videos canlead to serious law andorder incidents. He saidtheauthoritiesarewatch-ingthosewhospreadthevideos "very carefully".Warningthosespreadingfakenewsmaliciously,hesaid,theywillbechargedifacrimewascommitted.

OTHERTOPGLOBAL STORIES

AGENCIESNEWYORK/WASHINGTON,APRIL29

ITHASbeen100dayssincea35-year-oldmanpresentedtoanur-gent care clinic in SnohomishCounty,Washington,withafour-day history of cough and feverandtestedpositive for thevirus.His was the first case to be

detected.Since then, more than one

million people had tested posi-tive in theUnitedStates.In that time, residents in

most states in the country —alongwithmore thanhalf of allhumanity—have been orderedto shelter in their homes in thehopes of slowing the spread ofthe highly contagious virus andto try to keep hospital systemsfrombeingoverwhelmed.Thedeathtollclimbedabove

58,000 on Tuesday, surpassingthelossofAmericanlifefromtheVietnamWar,asFlorida’sgover-normetwith President DonaldTrump to discuss an easing ofeconomic restraints.Epidemiologists have esti-

mated that the true number ofinfectionsmaybeabout10timestheknownnumber,andprelim-inary testing of howmanypeo-ple have antibodies to the virusseems to support that view.Similarly,theofficialdeathtoll islikely to vastly underestimatethe truenumberbyat least sev-

eral thousand, according toanalysisofmortalitydatabyTheNewYorkTimes.While the timeline for the

spreadof thevirushasshiftedaspublichealthauthoritiesfindev-idence that the pathogen wasspreading in communities ear-lier than believed, the speed atwhichtheworldhasbeentrans-formed is shocking.Masks are becoming an ac-

ceptedpartofpubliclife,whichiswhytherewassuchabacklashonTuesdayafterVicePresidentMikePence flouted theMayo Clinic’sprotocolsonwearingaprotective

facecoveringonavisit there.In the last 100 days, the

global economy has sufferedsuchaswiftandsuddendeclinethat economists have had toreach back to the GreatDepression foranalogies.Florida Governor Ron

DeSantis, among the latest tolock down his state against thepandemic, has been weighingwhether to joinother states inarelaxation ofworkplace restric-tions and stay-at-home ordersthat have been credited withslowingthecontagionbutwhichhavebattered theeconomy.

VicePresidentMikePenceduringavisit to theMayoClinic inMinnesota. AP

LALITKJHAWASHINGTON,APRIL29

US PRESIDENT Donald TrumpdoubleddownonChina for fail-ingtotamethecoronavirusatitsvery origin, saying it has led to184 countries "going throughhell", as several American law-makers demanded steps to re-ducedependenceonBeijing formanufacturingandminerals.Trump has been publicly

blaming China for the globalspreadof the"invisibleenemy"and launched an investigationagainst it.Hehasalso indicatedthat the United States may belooking at "a lot more money"in damages from China than

the $140 billion being soughtby Germany from Beijing forthe pandemic.LeadersoftheUS,theUKand

Germanybelievethatthedeathsandthedestructionoftheglobaleconomy could have beenavoided, had China shared theinformationaboutthevirusinitsearlyphases."It's in 184 countries, as you

hear me say often. It's hard tobelieve. It's inconceivable,"Trump told reporters atWhiteHouse Tuesday. "It should havebeen stopped at the source,whichwasChina. Itshouldhavebeen stopped verymuch at thesource, but it wasn't. And nowwe have 184 countries goingthroughhell.” PTI

STADIUM TESTINGJohannesburgresidentsgather inastadiumtobetestedfor thevirusonWednesday.SouthAfricawillbeginaphasedeasingof its strict lockdownmeasureswhichhavebeeninplacesinceMarch27,onMay1. Ithasover4,360casesand86deaths.AP

ASSOCIATEDPRESSLONDON,APRIL29

BRITISH PRIMEMinister BorisJohnson and his fiancee CarrieSymondsannouncedthebirthofa son onWednesday, just twodays after Johnson returned towork following hospitalisationfor thecoronavirus.Johnson’s office said

Symonds gave birth to a“healthy baby boy at a Londonhospital” onWednesday , andboth mother and infant weredoingwell.Johnson, 55, and Symonds,

32, announced in February thattheywere engaged and expect-ing a child together. At the time

they said the baby was due inearlysummer.Noweddingdatehasbeenannounced.Symonds,anenvironmental

campaigner and formerConservative Party staffer, alsosaidshewassickforaweekwithCOVID-19 symptoms, thoughshewasn’t tested for thevirus.Thebaby is the thirdborn to

a sitting British primeministerthis century. It wasn’t immedi-ately clear whether Johnsonplannedto takepaternity leave.

LISALERER,MAGGIEASTOR&SYDNEYEMBERNEWYORK,APRIL29

HILLARY CLINTON, the 2016Democratic presidential nomi-nee and a political veteranwhoknowsfirsthandwhatitisliketocompete against PresidentTrump, threw her support be-hind Joseph R Biden Jr onTuesday, the latest party leadertomake the case for returningtheWhiteHouse toDemocratichands inNovember.“I’ve been not only a col-

league of Joe Biden’s, I’ve beena friend, and I can tell you thatI wish he were president rightnow but I can’t wait until he is— if all of usdoourpart to sup-

port thekindof person thatwewantback intheWhiteHouse,”Clinton said on Tuesday after-noon during a virtual townhall-style event with Bidenabout the impact of the coron-avirus onwomen.Acceptinghersupport,Biden

said: “I really appreciate yourfriendship.What a, just awon-derfulpersonalendorsement.”

TheBiden campaignhad ad-vertisedthattheeventwouldfea-turea“specialguest,”andonherTwitteraccountTuesday,Clintonall but confirmed the endorse-ment as she disclosed that shewouldbeappearingwithBiden.After Clinton endorsed

Biden, the event turned into aconversation about the coron-aviruscrisis. Withaneasyban-ter that recalled the breakfastmeetings theyboth repeatedlyharkedback to, the two sharedideas to support women whowere struggling because of theoutbreak.“You’ve beenway ahead on

these issues for a long time,”Biden said to Clinton— a showof respect that was often re-turned. NYT

PRESSTRUSTOFINDIALAHORE,APRIL29

PAKISTANI MEDIAmogul MirShakilur Rehman, arrested oncharges of illegally obtaininggovernmentlandhereoverthreedecadesagowhenNawazSharifwasthechiefministerofPunjabprovince,hasbeensenttojailonjudicial remand after the coun-try'santi-graftbodydidnotseekhis furthercustody.MirShakilurRahman,theed-

itor-in-chief of the Jang groupwhich owns some of Pakistan'swidely circulated newspapersandtheGeotelevisionnetwork,wasarrestedonMarch12bytheNational Accountability Bureau(NAB) andwas in its custody till

April 28.An accountability court on

TuesdaysentRehmantojailonju-dicialremandtillMay12aftertheprosecutor said theNABdidnotneedhimanymorefor investiga-tion,theDawnNewsreported.ThechargesagainstRehman

relating to the purchase of sev-eral plots of land in Lahore gobackto1986whenSharifwasthechiefministerofPunjabprovince.The NAB alleged that Sharif

allowed Rahman illegally ac-quire more government-owned-land than he was al-lowedby law.On April 27, the anti-graft

body had issued an arrest war-rant against the embattled for-merprimeministerSharif inthelandcorruptioncase.

The 70-year-old supremo ofthe Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz,iscurrentlyinLondonformedical treatment.NAB officials said Sharif ille-

gally leasedthelandtoRehman.At the outset of Rehman’s re-mand hearing on Tuesday, NABSpecialProsecutorAsimMumtaztold the court that he could notbebrought for thehearingashewasadmittedtoaprivatehospi-talowingtobadhealth.However, Presiding Judge

Jawadul Hassan expressed dis-pleasureoverthebureaufornotpresenting the suspect and alsorefusedtoentertainthemedicalcertificate of a private hospital.Later, theNABbroughtRehmanto the court in an ambulancefromthehospital.

ANDYBRUCELONDON,APRIL29

THEUNITEDKingdomnowhasEurope’ssecond-highestofficialdeathtoll fromthenovelcoron-avirus pandemic, according tonewfiguresonWednesdaythatcoverfatalities inallsettings, in-cluding innursinghomes.Some 26,097 people died

across the United Kingdom af-ter testing positive for COVID-19 as of April 28 at 1600 GMT,Public Health England (PHE)said. That means the UnitedKingdomhashadmoreCOVID-19 deaths than France or Spainhave reported.“Thesemore complete data

will giveusa fullerandmoreupto date picture of deaths inEnglandandwillinformthegov-ernment’s approach aswe con-tinue to protect the public,”YvonneDoyle,medical directoratPHE, said.SuchahighUKdeath toll in-

creases the pressure on PrimeMinisterBorisJohnson’sgovern-ment which is facing criticismfrom opposition parties for be-ing too slow to impose a lock-downandtooslowto introducemass testing.In mid-March, the govern-

ment’s chief scientific advisersaid keeping the UK deathtoll below 20,000 would be a“good outcome”.Although international

comparisons are difficult, thenew figures confirm Britain’splace among the Europeancountries worst hit hardest bythe pandemic. REUTERS

THOMASERDBRINK&CHRISTINAANDERSONSTOCKHOLM,APRIL29

SHESTOODleaningonhercane,briefly resting amongdozensofbubblyyoungSwedesoutenjoy-ingoneof the first sunny springdaysof theyear.“I’m trying not to get too

closetopeople,” saidBirgitLilja,82, explaining that she had leftherhousetopickupanewiden-tity card in person. “But I trustthemtobecarefulwithme.”Trust is high in Sweden— in

government,institutionsandfel-low Swedes.When the govern-ment defied conventional wis-dom and refused to order a

wholesale lockdown to “flattenthecurve”of theepidemic,pub-lic health officials pointed totrust asacentral justification.Swedes, they said, could be

trustedtostayhome,followsocialdistancing protocols andwash

theirhands toslowthespreadofthevirus—without anymanda-toryorders.Sweden’sdeathrateof22per

100,000 people is the same asthatof Ireland,whichhasearnedaccolades for itshandlingof thepandemic,andfarbetterthaninBritain or France.Yet, on thiswarmspring day, at least, therewas little evidence that peoplewere observing theprotocols—adding further mystery toSweden’sapparentsuccess.While other countries were

slamming on the brakes,Sweden kept its borders open,allowed restaurants and bars tokeepserving,leftpreschoolsandgrade schools in session andplacednolimitsonpublictrans-

portoroutings in localparks.Gatherings of more than 50

people are banned. Museumshaveclosedandsportingeventshavebeen cancelled. At the endofMarch,theauthoritiesbannedvisits tonursinghomes.That’sroughlyit.Thereareal-

mostnofines,andpoliceofficerscan only ask people to oblige.Pedestrianswearingmasks aregenerallystaredatasif theyhavejust landed fromMars.Throughout the crisis

Sweden has had enough inten-sive care units to deal withCovid-19 patients, theministerof healthandsocial affairs, LenaHallengren,saidinaninterview.“Wehave250emptybeds rightnow.” NYT

Failure to stop virus atsource led to 184 countriesgoing through hell: Trump‘Life has to go on’: How Sweden faced virus

Picnickers inStockholmlastweek. NYT

PRIMARIES:THE

DEMOCRATS

Clinton endorses Biden: ‘Wishhe were president right now’

Pak media mogul remanded injudicial custody in 34-yr-old case

UK now has2nd-highestCOVID-19death tollacross Europe

BorisJohnson

Boris, fiancee announcebirth of boy, two daysafter he returned to work

USCONSIDERINGSCANNING FOR INTLAIR TRAVELLERS

■TheUSisconsideringscanningof air travellersfromcountrieshithardbythecoronavirus tostop its spread inthecountry,PresidentDonaldTrumphassaid.

■Trumpsaidthiscouldbedoneincoordinationwitheithertheairlinesorgovernment.“We'reworkingwiththeairlines.Maybeit'sacombinationofboth,”hesaid.

E●EXPL

AINE

D

Misinformationemergesaschallenge

AstheUS looksatlong-termplansandeconomicrecoveryinitiatives,misinformationaboutvaccinesisshapingtobeamajorconcernbeforeoneisevenready.Theclaimsrangefromconcernsthatvaccinetrialswillbe

rushed, toconspiracytheoriesthatBillGateswantstousethevaccinetoinjectmicrochipsinpeople.Giventhatavac-cineiswidelyacceptedasthebestwaytodefinitivelyendthepandemicthreat, fakenews-fuelledresistancetotheuseofvaccinescouldhavedevastatingconsequences.

NEW POLIO OUTBREAK IN NIGERThe World Health Organisation says Niger has been struck by a

new outbreak of polio, after the suspension of immunisationactivities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The UN health

agency reported that two children were infected by the highlyinfectious, water-borne disease and that one was paralysed

SRIRAMVEERAMUMBAI, APRIL29

BEITagraveyardincentralIndore,afuneralhomeinthemidwesternUSstateofWisconsinoraceme-teryinItaly'snortheasternregionof Friuli-Venezia-Giulia; the finaljourneys are getting lonelier andthelastgoodbyesshorter.AtthesethreeCOVID-19hotspots,conti-nents apart, fear is getting thebetter of grief and even deathdoesn’t provide an escape fromsocialdistancing.Indore'sHafiz Javed, a ceme-

terycaretaker,saysthemostdis-comforting moment for himthese days is towatch the coffinpushed,ratherthanlowered,intothegrave."Everyonestandssomedistanceapartfromeachother.Attimes, there aren't enough peo-pletoliftthebody,soitisdifficultto lower themsoftly.Wehave toslidethemintothepit,"Hafizsays.Withfewrelativesattending

burials, the last rites finishquickly. "We instruct familymembers to pilemud over thebody, and once that is done,werush to finish the job. No onehangsaround,thereisnotmuchcrying,"Hafiz says.AttheMalwamillregion'scre-

matorium, too, the pandemic'sshadow looms large. Clothpouches and steel boxes withashes hang fromhooks or sit onthefloor.Thelockdownmeanslife—anddeath—areatastandstill.Familymembers of the de-

ceased aren't turning up to col-lect themortal remains. "Somearewaiting for things toopensotheycantravel forashesimmer-sion; others are paranoid aboutinfection,"saysGauriKailashpati,a socialactivist fromIndore.IntheUS,meanwhile, funer-

als follow a strict protocol.Wisconsin funeraldirector JohnWenig shares how his sonwasleftspeechlessbyaladywhohadlost her husband after 60 yearsof marriage to COVID-19. "Shetoldmy son, 'Are you tellingmeIcan'tevenhaveaproperfuneralformyhusband?'Mysonsaidhecouldn't evenhug the ladywho

hadbrokendown.Rulesandpre-cautions, yousee."Elaborate funerals featuring

tributes and sharing of memo-riesarea thingof thepast.A US government advisory

directsforCOVID-19deceasedtobecoveredintwobodybags,andfor the face tobe coveredwithamask."Noonereallyknowsifthevirus is active and harmful afterdeath;so,theseareprecautions."There is also a cap on the

number of mourners. Amaxi-mumof10relativesareallowedinthecemetery.Technologyhashelped."Westartedlive-stream-ingthefinalrites.Irememberthefirst timewehad38people,sec-ondtimeitjumpedto167friendsandrelativeswatching it."In Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, in

north east Italy, CladioPrescherm is thankful that theworstseemstobeoverinhisre-gion. "All cemeteries are closedhere.Theyareopenonlywhenabodyisburied.Nooneiscomingtocemeterytolayaroseinthesetimes,"Preschermsays."Newspapers inBergamoare

filledwithdeathnotices,pageaf-terpage.Thattellsyoutherealstoryofhowmanypeoplehavedied."Prescherm'sfamilyhavebeen

funeral directors for 150 yearsnow. "Scenesof deathandgriev-ingarefamiliartomebutthishasbeena strangeexperience. Fromfear to sorrow, everything hasbeen different... I thinkwe, as acountry, remain shockedby thisandneed toheal as agroup... butfirst,thisvirushastobestopped."

FULLSTORYONwww.indianexpress.com

1mnUS cases, toll surpasses VietnamWarFinal journeys aregetting lonelier, lastgoodbyes shorter

Bodiesbeingburied inNewYork'sHart Island.Reuters/File

Mumbai

13SENSEX: 32,720.16 ▲ 605.64 NIFTY: 9,553.35 ▲ 172.45 NIKKEI: 19,771.19 ▼ 12.03 HANG SENG: 24,643.59 ▲ 67.63 FTSE: 6,016.53▲ 58.03 DAX: 10,835.21 ▲ 39.58

THEINDIANEXPRESS,THURSDAY,APRIL30,2020

ECONOMYWWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

GOLD`41,705

RUPEE`75.66

OIL$26.15

SILVER`38,100

Note:Spotgoldmarketsshutdueto lockdowninmajorstates. *IndianbasketasonMarch19,2020

Internationalmarketdata till1900IST

ENSECONOMICBUREAUNEWDELHI,APRIL29

ENERGY,ROADS,railwaysandur-banprojectswouldaccountforthebulkofallocations,involvingtotalestimated infrastructure invest-mentof Rs111 lakhcroreduringthefivefiscalyearperiod2020-25.Thisisaccordingtothefinalreportof the task force on NationalInfrastructurePipeline (NIP) sub-mitted to Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onWednesday.Of the total projectcapital expenditure, sectors suchasenergy(24percent),urban(17per cent), railways (12per cent)androads(18percent)arepeggedtocontributednearly70per centoftheinfrainvestmentsinIndia.WhileCentreandstatesareex-

pectedtohavealmostequalshareinimplementingNIP,privatesec-tor contribution is expectedaround21percent,asperastate-mentbytheFinanceMinistry.TheNIPcapturesallprojects—green-fieldorbrownfield,under imple-

mentationorunder conceptuali-sation—costing greater thanRs100croreperproject.Besidesstrengtheningthemu-

nicipalbondmarket,anaggressivepushtowardsassetsales,moneti-sation of infrastructure assets,deepeningofcorporatebondmar-kets,andsettingupDevelopmentFinancial Institutions for infra-structure sector, are among themeasures thathavebeenrecom-mendedbythegovernmentpanel

toaidtheprocessofgalvanisingin-vestmentsininfrastructuresectorinnextfiveyears.The task force, headed by

EconomicAffairsSecretaryAtanuChakraborty, has also recom-mendedsettingupof threecom-mittees: a panel tomonitorNIPprogress andeliminatedelays; asteeringcommitteeineachinfra-structureministryforfollowingupimplementation; andacommit-tee inDepartment of Economic

Affairs for raising financial re-sourcesfortheNIP.Outofthetotalexpectedcapi-

talexpenditureofRs111lakhcrore,projectsofRs44lakhcrore(40percentofNIP)areunderimplemen-tation, projectsworthRs33 lakhcrore(30percent)areatconcep-tualstageandprojectsworthRs22lakhcrore(20percent)areunderdevelopment. The task forcewasset up after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, in hisIndependenceDay speech lastyear,highlightedRs100lakhcroreworthofinfrainvestmentoverthenextfiveyearstomakeIndiaa$5-trillioneconomy.Thesummaryreportfor2019-

2025wasreleasedbySitharamanonDecember31,2019.Thefinalre-porthasrevisedupNIPfromear-lierRs100lakhcrore“inlightofad-ditional/amendeddataprovidedbycentralministries/stategovern-ments since the release of sum-maryNIPreport,”theCentresaid.In its summary report, the

panelhadsuggestedeffectivedis-puteresolution,contractenforce-

ment and asset monetisationamongother reforms for achiev-inginfrainvestmenttargets.Acrit-ical step inaddressingdwindlingprivate sectorparticipation in in-frastructurecanbeinstitutionalis-ingdisputeresolutionmechanismtoefficiently resolvedisputes re-latedtoPPPprojects.Investmentsmustbemade in the institutionscreated under The CommercialCourtsAct2015,TheSpecificRelief(Amendment) Act 2018and theNewDelhiArbitrationCentreAct2019forspeedyresolution,itsaid.TheRBI’s latest credit growth

data shows that year-on-yeargrowthincreditoutstandingtotheinfrastructure sector fell to a19-month lowof 3.3per cent. FY20sawadeclineinbanks’appetitetolendtoinfrastructurecompanies.Data shows in the11-monthpe-riodendedFebruary2020, creditoutstandingfortheinfrastructuresectorasawhole shrank fromRs10.55lakhcroreinMarch2019toRs 10.18 lakh crore in February2020, therebycontractingby3.5percent.

FINALREPORTOFTASKFORCEONNATIONAL INFRASTRUCTUREPIPELINE

LALITKJHAWASHINGTON,APRIL29

SNAPDEAL,ONEof India’s largeste-commerce companies, alongwith four Indian shopping com-plexeshavefiguredintheUS’2020editionof theNotoriousMarketsListforcounterfeitingandpiracy.OtherthanSnapdeal, the four

markets are TankRoad inDelhi,Heera Panna in Mumbai,Kidderpore in Kolkata andMillenniumCentreinAizawl.In all, the US Trade

Representatives’(USTR)annuallisthas 38 online markets and 34physicalmarketsthatarereportedtoengageinorfacilitatesubstantialtrademark counterfeiting andcopyrightpiracy.“Snapdeal, one of India’s

largest e-commerceplatforms, isknown as a place to purchasecounterfeitwatches and shoes,”theUSTRsaid.

AccordingtoaNovember2018survey,37percentofitscustomersreportedthattheyhadreceivedacounterfeit product fromSnapdeal.Delhi’sTankRoadmarketwas

in the Notorious Markets List(NML)in2019.“Rightholderscon-firmthatthismarketcontinuestosell counterfeit products, includ-ing apparel and footwear.Wholesale counterfeit goodsarealsoreportedlysuppliedfromthismarkettootherIndianmarkets,in-cludingGaffarMarket andAjmalKhanRoad(inDelhi),”itsaid.PTI

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICENEWDELHI,APRIL29

THEWARofwordsbetween theCongressandtheBJPgovernmentover the list of wilful defaultersescalated onWednesday, withformer Finance MinisterP Chidambaram accusingFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman of taking shield be-hind technical rules and askingthegovernmentwhyithastakenthetechnicalloanwrite-offroutefor fugitives like Nirav Modi,MehulChoksiandVijayMallya.Hitting back at Finance

MinisterNirmalaSitharamanwhohad saidwilful defaulterswerebeneficiariesofphonebankingun-der the UPA regime and theNarendraModi government ischasingthemtorecoverthedues,he also asked the Government“breakuptheNPAsintopre-2004,2004 to2014andpost-2014”ar-guing that it “will giveusan ideawhen the loanswere given and

whichloanshavebecomeNPA.”“Youkeepon throwing these

accusations that all these loansweregivenduringtheUPAregime.Is thegovernment seriously sug-gesting thatno loansweregivenafter 2014?Or that all the loansgiven after 2014areperformingloans? Imean,whatdotheytakethepeopleof India for?Wemaybe stupid, we’re not so stupid.Loanshavebeengivenafter2014,loanswere given prior to 2004also.Givethebreakup?,”hesaid.Responding to Sitharaman’s

statement thatno loan iswaivedoff and thatprovisionsaremade

forNPAsasperthefour-yearpro-visioning cycle laiddownby theRBI,Chidambaramaccusedheroftakingshieldbehindthetechnicalrule andaskedwhy is sheapply-ingthetechnicalruletothosewhohavebeendeclaredafugitiveoranabsconder. “Weunderstand thetechnical rulesof theRBI.Wearenotonthetechnicality...Therearedefaulters,therearewilfuldefault-ers,therearewilfuldefaulterswhoarestayingbackinIndiafacingin-quiriesandtryingtheirbesttopaybackandtherearewilfuldefault-ers,whohavefledIndiaandarebe-ingdeclaredfugitives.”“Your RBI rule can apply

maybe to the first, second andthirdcategories.Afterfouryearsoffullprovisioningismade,youcantechnicallywriteofftheloan.Thatyoucandofordefaulters,wilfulde-faultersandwilfuldefaulterswhohavestayedbackandtryingtofacean inquiry.Butwhydoyouapplythatruletoawilfuldefaulterwhohas fled India and your govern-ment has declared him a fugi-

tive?...Whydoesthisruleapplytothe Nirav Modis and the VijayMallyasand theMehulChoksis,”hesaid.TakingadigattheFM,hesaid“aFMwhowassilent for thelast37dayshas suddenly sprungtolifeandsprungtothedefenceofthesefugitives.Isn’tthatalittlesur-prisingandironical?”OnSitharaman’s remark that

scheduledcommercialbankshadwrittenoffRs1.45lakhcroreintheUPAperiod,hesaid:“Iamsurebe-tween2004and2014,bankswereapplying the ruleand technicallywritingoff1.6lakhcrore,butbythesame token, between2014 and2019,Modigovernmenthaswrit-tenoff 6.66 lakh crore. So,whenyoumention1.6lakhcroreshouldnottheFMalsomentionthe6.66lakhcrorerupeesthathergovern-ment has written off between2014and2019…..Butthepointweare asking is, these are fugitives.They fled Indiaunder yournose.Youhavedeclaredthemfugitivesandabsconders.Whyareyouap-plyingthisruletothem?”hesaid.

REUTERSWASHINGTON,APRIL29

USFEDERALReservepolicymak-ers onWednesday left interestratesnearzeroandrepeatedavowtodowhatittakestoshoreuptheeconomy, saying the ongoingcoronaviruspandemicwill“weighheavily”onthenear-termoutlookandposes“considerablerisks”forthemediumterm.“The Federal Reserve is com-

mitted to using its full range oftools to support theUSeconomyin this challenging time, therebypromotingitsmaximumemploy-mentandpricestabilitygoals,”theUScentralbanksaidinastatementat the end of a two-day policymeetingheldviavideoconferencebecauseof the coronaviruspan-demic.With so much uncertainty

aroundtheeconomicoutlook,the

Fedsaiditexpectstomaintainthetarget range for its benchmarkovernight lending rate “until it isconfident that the economyhasweatheredrecenteventsandisontracktoachieveitsmaximumem-ployment and price stabilitygoals.”Duringtwoemergencymeet-

ingsinMarch,thecentralbankcutitsbenchmarkrate toa rangebe-tweenzeroand0.25percent.

REUTERSWASHINGTON,APRIL29

THEUS economy contracted inthe first quarter at its sharpestpacesincetheGreatRecessionasstringentmeasures to slow thespread of the novel coronavirusalmost shut down the country,ending the longest expansion inthenation’shistory.Thedeclineingrossdomestic

product(GDP)reflectedaplungein economic activity in the lasttwoweeksofMarch,which sawmillions of Americans seekingunemployment benefits. TheCommerceDepartment’s snap-shot of first-quarter GDP onWednesday reinforced analysts’

predictions that the economywasalreadyinadeeprecession.“The economywill continue

to fall until the country opensbackup,”saidChrisRupkey,chiefeconomistatMUFGinNewYork.“If the economy fell this hard in

the first quarter,with less thanamonthofpandemiclockdownformost states, don’t ask how far itwillcraterinthesecondquarter.”Gross domestic product de-

clinedata4.8percentannualisedrate last quarter,weigheddownby sharpdecreases in consumerspendingandadrawdownof in-ventory at businesses. Thatwasthe steepest pace of contractionin GDP since Q4 of 2008— theheight of theGreat Recession. Adeepening downturn in invest-mentbybusinesseswasanothermajor factor in the slump lastquarter, helping to overshadowpositive news from a shrinkingimport bill, the housingmarketandmore spending by the gov-ernment.

Aimistoboostinfrastructureinvestments

AGGRESSIVEPUSHtowardsassetsales,monetisationofinfrastructureassets,settingupofdevelopmentfinanceinstitutionsandstrengtheningthemunicipalbondmarketaresomemeasuressuggestedbyagovernmentpaneltoboostinfrastructureinvestments.ThepanelhasdrawnupaNationalInfrastructurePipelinetobringgreaterfocusinthisarea,whichiscrucialtoboostingeconomicgrowth.

2020-25 infra fundingpeggedat`111Lcr:Energy, roads, railways toget lion’sshare

US GDP contracts 4.8% in Q1,sharpest fall since Great Recession

‘GSK plans to sell HUL stake’REUTERSBENGALURU,APRIL29

BRITISH DRUGMAKERGlaxoSmithKline Plc is planninga sale of its $3.7-billion stake inUnilever Ltd’s listed India unit,Bloomberg News reported onWednesday, citingpeople famil-

iarwiththematter.GSKplanstooffloadpartorall

of its 5.7 per cent holding inHindustanUnilever Ltd throughaseriesofblocktrades,accordingtoBloombergNews.In December 2018, Unilever

struckadealtobuyGSK’sHorlicksnutritionbusinessfor$3.8billion,boostingtheAnglo-Dutchgroup’s

positioninIndia.The deal considerationwas

paid in cash and shares of HUL,andwas completed earlier thismonth.AGSKspokesmandeclinedto

comment on the matter.HindustanUnilever did not im-mediately respond to a requestforcomment.

Americanscall for theendofthe lockdowninCaliforniaonApril26.Reuters

‘27 of top 100 companies can’tsustain current salary bill’

All the companies covered have an ability to pay their fixedopex, interest and compensation cost from cash and cashequivalents for about 5.5 months at the median, it said

Source:Deloitte/PTI

Asmanyas27of the top100companies listedon theNatio-nal StockExchangewill not beable to sustain currentwagebill if revenuedips30per cent ormore, aDeloitte study saidMETHODOLOGYDeloitte conducted a study ofthe top 100companies listedon theNSE in terms ofmarketcapitalisation

Temporarysolution:Dipintocashbalanceorborrowinshortterm

Impactwill be larger since thecash stuck in inventory andreceivables is likely to increasein such a scenario

11of the27 vulnerablecompanies have a debt toequity ratio ofmore than 1

`

27companieswon’t be ableto sustain currentwage billfromcash profits, if theirrevenue dips by30per centormore

TheotherfourareTankRoadinDelhi,HeeraPannainMumbai,Kidderpore inKolkataandMillenniumCentreinAizawl

Snapdeal, 4 shoppingcomplexes figure in USNotorious Markets List

US adds 5 of Amazon’sforeign operations to listASSOCIATEDPRESSWASHINGTON,APRIL29

THEUNITED States for the firsttime added five of Amazon’soverseas operations to its list of“notoriousmarkets” where pi-ratedgoodsaresold.Thee-com-mercegiantdismissedthemoveaspartof theTrumpadministra-tion’s “personal vendetta”against it.The Office of the US Trade

Representative onWednesdayadded theAmazon.com Inc. do-mains in Canada, France,Germany, India and the United

Kingdomtoitsannualblacklist.USTR cited complaints from

US businesses that consumerscan’t easily tell who is sellingitems on theAmazonplatformsand that the e-commerce com-pany’s procedures for removingcounterfeitgoods“canbelengthyandburdensome.’’Amazon fired back with a

statement Wednesday: “Westrongly disagreewith the char-acterization of Amazon in thisUSTRreport.Thispurelypoliticalact isanotherexampleof thead-ministrationusingtheUSgovern-ment to advance a personalvendettaagainstAmazon.’’

PRESSTRUSTOFINDIAWASHINGTON,APRIL29

THE US onWednesday placedIndiaonthe‘PriorityWatchList’forlackof sufficientmeasurable im-provements to its IntellectualPropertyframeworkonthe“long-standing” and “newchallenges”that have negatively affectedAmerican right holders over thepastyear.TheUSplaced10countries,in-

cludingIndiaandChina,onthelist,alleging that enforcementof theintellectualpropertieshavedeteri-oratedorremainedatinadequatelevelsandtheAmericanswhorelyontheirprotectionhavedifficultywithfairandequitablemarketac-cess. Thecountriesplacedon thelist by theTrumpadministrationonIntellectualProperty(IP)relatedissuesareAlgeria,Argentina,Chile,China, India, Indonesia, Russia,Saudi Arabia, Ukraine andVenezuela.“TheTrumpadministration is

committedtoholdingintellectual

propertyrightsviolatorsaccount-ableandtoensuringthatUSinno-vatorsandcreatorshaveafullandfair opportunity touseandprofitfrom theirwork,” saidUS TradeRepresentativeRobert LighthizerafterthereleaseofannualSpecial301Report on theadequacyandeffectivenessof tradingpartners’protectionof IPrights.Initsreport,theUSTRsaidthat

India had been placed on the‘PriorityWatchList’forlackofsuf-ficientmeasurableimprovementsto its IP frameworkon the “long-standing” and “newchallenges”that havenegatively affectedUSrightholdersoverthepastyear.

BRIEFLYEx-FinSecyisPESBchiefNewDelhi:Ex-financesecre-taryRajiv Kumarhas beennamedPESBchairperson.PTI

ILO:305millionjobsmaybelostGeneva:The ILOestimated305million full-time jobscouldbelostinQ2.AP

ADBapproves$346mnloanNew Delhi: The AsianDevelopment Bank onWednesday said it has ap-proveda$346-million loanto the government to pro-videreliablepowerconnec-tion in rural areas ofMaharashtra. The loanwillsupport the state govern-ment'shighvoltagedistribu-tionsystemprogrammefornewgrid-connected ruralagricultural customersacross the state, saidthemulti-lateral fundingagency.PTI

NMCfounderonprivateprobeDubai:NMCHealthfounderBRShetty saidaprobecon-ductedbyhisownadvisorshas found alleged fraud atthefirmandFinablr.

‘Groupsurgedelayindigitaltax’NewDelhi:Lobbyinggroupshaveurged India todelay anewdigital tax thatwill hitfirms like Facebook andGoogle.REUTERS

■TheUSTRsaidIndiahadbeenplacedonthe‘PriorityWatchList’ forlackof sufficientmea-surableimprovementstoits IPframework.

‘LACKOFMEASURABLEIMPROVEMENTS’

US places India on ‘PriorityWatch List’ for IP protection

ENSECONOMICBUREAUMUMBAI,APRIL29

SMALLINDUSTRIESDevelopmentBankofIndia(Sidbi)haslaunchedaspecial liquidityschemeformi-cro,smallandmediumenterprises(MSMEs), small finance banks(SFBs), non-banking financialcompanies andmicrofinance in-stitutions(MFIs)throughbanks.Theschemewouldprovidefi-

nancial support tobanks,NBFCsandMFIsbywayof termloanstoensureoperationalcontinuityandpromote onward lending toMSMEs. The tenorof these loanswillbe90days.Mohammad Mustafa,

ChairmanandManagingDirectorofSidbisaid,“Wewereprovidedaspecial liquiditywindow of Rs15,000crorebytheRBI...Thefundswill be channalised toMSMEsthrougheligiblebanks,NBFCsandMFIs.”

Sidbi launchesliquidity windowfor MSMEs, SFBs,NBFCs and MFIs

ENSECONOMICBUREAUMUMBAI,APRIL29

DOMESTIC INDICES rose onWednesday as global marketsedgedupaheadof USeconomicgrowth figures and a FederalReserve rate decisionwhile in-vestors seemedbuoyedasmoregovernments, including India,plannedtoeaseanti-viruscontrolsandallowsomebusinesses tore-open.TheSensexrose606points,or1.89per cent, to32,720.16andtheNSENifty Index gained 172pointsat9,553.35The rupee strengthened as

muchas52paiseagainstthedol-lar tomoveabove the76mark to75.66inthewakeoftheimprove-mentinglobalriskenvironment.Analysts saidmarketscontin-

uedtheirmomentumforthethirdconsecutive session and endedwithstronggainstrackingencour-agingglobalcues.Oil prices surged after US

crude stockpiles grew less thanexpected and gasoline posted asurprisedraw.Brentcrudefutureswere up $2.23, or 11per cent, at$22.69abarrelby12:05p.m.EDT(1605 GMT). US WTI futuressoared $3.58, or 29 per cent, to$15.92abarrel.

Sensex rises 606 points oneasing of curbs, Fed meet

SC turns down VodafoneIdea plea for immediatetax refund of `4,759 croreAASHISHARYANNEWDELHI,APRIL29

INAsetbacktoVodafoneIdea,theSupremeCourt (SC)Wednesdayrejectedthetelco’splea,askingtheIncomeTax (I-T)Department toprocess anddeposit tax refundsworthRs4,759.7 crore. Theapexcourtsaidtheauthoritieswerejus-tifiedinholdingbackrefundsun-tiltaxreturnsofthecompanywasperusedbytheauthorities.TheSC,however,askedtheI-T

department to takeadecisiononthependingtaxrefundsassoonaspossible.I-T department authorities

havekepttaxrefundsofthecom-pany between assessment year(AY)2012and2017, in abeyance,claiming that the returns of thecompanyfortheseyearswere“un-der scrutiny” and since a noticehadbeen issued to the company

contending the returns theyhadfiled, the refund need not beprocessed immediately. The saidtaxrefundsbetweenAY2012and2017havebeenwithheldbyau-thoritiesforvariousreasons,suchas transfer pricing adjustment,capitalisationof license fees, 3Gspectrumfees, andasset restora-tionobligation.VodafoneIdeahadsoughttax

refundsof Rs4,759.7 crore fromtheI-Tdepartment,claimingthatits tax returns betweenAY2012and2017hadnotbeenprocessedbytheauthoritiesdespiterepeatedremindersonthesame.ThoughtheSCdirectedI-Tto

process Vodafone Idea’s tax re-funds worth Rs 733 crore forAY2014-15within four weeks,thereliefcouldbeshortlived.Thedepartment had raised addi-tionaltaxdemandofRs582croreforAY2015-16,which is stuck inlitigation.

Fed sticks to zero ratepledge, vows to utilisetools to help economy

USFedChairJeromePowell.File

FormerFinanceMinisterPChidambaram. Express file

List of defaulters: Chidambaram accusesFM of taking shield behind technical rules

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICENEWDELHI,APRIL29

THE CONGRESS Wednesdayasked PrimeMinisterNarendraModitotakeurgentstepsandan-nounceafinancialassistancepack-age to protect the wages andsalaries of about11 crorepeopleworking in theMicro, Small andMediumEnterprises(MSME)sec-tor, and apaychequeprotectionprogrammeon the linesofwhattheUShadannouncedforanother1croreemployeeswithincomeoflessthanRs3.5lakhayear.Addressingapressconference,

former Finance MinisterPChidambaramlashedoutattheNDAgovernment for remaining“non-committal oneverything”,beitanexitstrategyafterthelock-down,financialassistancetostatesorafinancialpackageorassistanceforbusinesses.Hesaidmonetisa-tionofthefiscaldeficitshouldnot

beseenasa“no-goarea”.“The time tomakebolddeci-

sions to saveMSMEs is now. Ifbusinessesdonot seehope, theywill decide to close. Thegovern-menthas to step in today topro-tect11croreIndiansandgivehopetoMSMEs. It is bewildering thatthere has been absolutely no fi-nancialpackageorassistancean-nounced forbusinesses since theonsetof COVID-19,”he said, ask-ing thegovernment toannounceRs1lakhcroreaswageprotectionassistance to help MSMEs paywages and salaries forApril andanotherRs1 lakhcrore for creditguaranteefundforMSMEs.

“The time tomakebolddecisions to saveMSMEsis now. If businessesdonot seehope, theywilldecide to close”PCHIDAMBARAMFORMERFINANCEMINISTER

‘Govt has to step in toprotect 11 crore Indians,give hope to MSMEs’

Mumbai

Vol. LXIV No. 101 Printed for the proprietors, The Indian Express (P) Ltd byMs Vaidehi Thakar at The Indian Express Press, Plot No. EL-208, TTC Industrial Area,Mahape, NaviMumbai - 400710 and published from 1st floor, Express Towers, Nariman Point, Mumbai - 400021. Editorial & Administrative Offices: ExpressTowers, Nariman Point,Mumbai - 400021. Phone: 22022627/67440000. Fax: 022-22835726. Chairman of the Board: Viveck Goenka, Chief Editor: Raj Kamal Jha, Editor: Unni Rajen Shanker, Editor (Mumbai): Nirupama Subramanian.* (*Responsible for selection of News under the PRB Act) Additional air surcharge of `1

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THEINDIANEXPRESS,THURSDAY,APRIL30,2020

SPORTWWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

14Counting the zeroes in ‘zero year’Experts feel cancelling IPL 2020will benefit all stakeholders but BCCI not too keen to add extra year to Star contract

MIHIRVASAVDANEWDELHI, APRIL 29

LEGALEXPERTSandmarket-watchers,assess-ingthe impactof theCOVID-19pandemiconsports, feel that thecancellationof thisyear’sIndianPremierLeaguemightbethebest-casescenarioforallstakeholders.Advising against delaying or shortening

of the season, they say that by considering2020 as a ‘zero year’, the broadcaster, Star,andBCCIwillbeabletodealwiththepresenteconomicuncertaintybetterandalsobene-fit in the longrun.“Sincethepandemicwillresultinachange

of timelines or loss of a season, broadcasterswillneedtoreviewtheircontractswitheventorganisers. Theymayconsiderextending thetermof theircontractto includeanextrasea-sonwhereaseasonhasbeencancelled,”apa-perproducedbylawyerNandanKamath’sfirmLawNKsays.However, BCCI hasn't yet givenupon the

IPLidea.Earlierthismonth,BCCIsecretaryJayShahhadsaid:“TheBCCIwillcontinuetomon-itor and review the situation regarding apo-tentialstartdateinclosepartnershipwithallofitsstakeholdersandwillcontinuetotakeguid-ancefromtheGovernmentofIndia,stategov-ernmentsandotherstateregulatorybodies.”OntheimpactofthepandemicontheStar-

BCCIdeal,atopBCCIofficialsaid:“Wewillkeepconsultingthegovernmentand,basedontheirinputs,itwillbedecidediftheIPLcantakeplaceornot.AsfortheStardeal, it’s tooearlytotalkaboutit.”However,withmostmegasportingevents

aroundtheworld-Olympics,GrandSlamten-nis,Europeanfootballchampionship-gettingcancelledorpostponedbyayear,thechancesof IPLSeason13takingplaceseembleak.This,accordingtolawyerAnishDayal,who

specialisesinsportslawandIPLcontracts,is“aclear situationof forcemajeure”. Explainingthelegalterm,hesays,“Forcemajeureallowsthesuspensionofobligationsandthiswillhelpboth,theBCCIandfranchises,tomutuallydis-cussmitigationof thelossthatarises.”However, the trickyproblem for theBCCI

will be the implementationof the ‘forcema-jeure’clauseinthebroadcastingdealwithStarthat has promised to pay the Indian board`16,347.50croreoverfiveyearstill2022.Aspart of their 2020obligation, Starhas

alreadypaidtheBCCIapproximately`1,500croreasanadvanceforthisseason’sIPL.BCCIofficialsinsistthatinthecaseofcancellation,and the enforcement of ‘forcemajeure’, theboardwill return theadvancepayment. “Ofcourse,wewill return the amount,” said anofficial.Sports lawyerVidushpatSinghania,man-

agingpartnerof KridaLegal, saysnoneof thepartiesmayhave to pay anypenalties if theforcemajeureclause is invoked.Additionally,they can consider Season13 as a ‘zero year’,andnegotiatetoaddanextrayearattheendofthecontracttorecoverlosses.“Itdependsonhowthecontractisworded.

If it isayearlyrestriction,theywillhavetone-gotiate another year.However, if it is season-wise, then the contractwill continue till theparticular number of seasons are played,”Singhaniasays.Theideaofcontractextensionhasn'tfound

takersintheBCCI.“Thatmightnotbepossible.WewillgoforafreshtenderoncetheStardealendsin2022,”anofficialsaid.However, if the tournament is held in

October–anoption theBCCI is exploring– itcould result in Star losingout onadvertisingrevenuedue to a combination of factors, in-cluding thegloomyeconomicoutlook,whilestillhavingtopaytheentirerightsfees.A truncated andpostponed IPLwill force

Startore-negotiatedealswithadvertiserswhohavealreadybookedIPLslotskeepinginmindtheoriginalApril-Mayslot.An IPL later in theyear could see themchanging theirminds.Aproductlaunchorpromotionofseasonalgoodscan’tbeexpectedtobeshowcasedon-airiftheIPL’sschedulechanges.“In such scenarios, theymaybe forced to

renegotiate on existing bookings, rates andpackages,” Kamath,whohas previously ad-visedtheBCCIandotherstakeholdersonvar-iousissues,says.AnotherpredicamentthatStarcouldfaceis

thedropinadvertisingspendinginthecomingmonthsbecauseoftheCOVID-19-forcedeco-nomic slump. There are thosewho feel thatevenBCCImight face the sameproblem. “Incase they somehow do hold Season 13 inSeptember-October this year, as it has beenproposed,withinmonths theywill have tohold Season14 inApril, 2021. Theseback-to-backIPLswilldryuptheadvertisers.AmarketdealingwithaslowdownwillnotbeconduciveforanotherIPL,”saysaBCCImember.Hegoeson toadd that theBoard, incase

itholdsanIPLthisyear,willhavetostart theprocessof invitingbidsforanewbroadcasterin2021.“Thefinancialslumpwillmeantheywon’t get good money for the TV deal.Delaying the tender process and pushingback the broadcast rights auctionwill be awisedecision.”

Thedecisionwon’tbesostraightforwardasahostofothercommercialaspectswillbedecidedonwhethertheseasoniscancelledortruncatedaswellaspossiblevisarestrictions,whichcouldhaveanimpactonviewershipandsponsorinterest. BCCIfile

JAMESWAGNER&KENBELSONAPRIL29

DR. ANTHONY S. Fauci, the leading publichealthexpertonPresidentTrump’scoronavirustaskforce,saidthisweekthat itmightbeverydifficultformajorsportsintheUnitedStates toreturntoactionthisyear. “Safety, for theplay-ersandforthefans,trumpseverything,”hesaid.“If you can’t guarantee safety, thenunfortu-natelyyou’regoingtohavetobitethebulletandsay, ‘Wemayhavetogowithoutthissport forthisseason.’”Dr. Fauci, the director of the National

InstituteofAllergyandInfectiousDiseasessince1984, is anavid runnerwhogrewupplayingbasketball and baseball, is a fan of theWashington Nationals and the New YorkYankees.He sayshewill feel comfortable re-turning toa stadiumwhen the level of infec-tionisfarlowerthanitisnow.Excerpts:

WagnerandBelson:Whenandhowcansportsreturn?Whatweneed todo is get it, as a country

andasindividuallocations,undercontrol.Thatsometimes takes longer thanyouwould like,andifweletourdesiretoprematurelygetback

tonormal,wecanonlygetourselvesrightbackinthesameholewewereinafewweeksago.We’vegot tomakesure thatwhenwetry

togetback tonormal, includingbeingable toplaybaseballinthesummerandfootballinthefallandbasketballinthewinter,thatwhenwedocomeback to some formof normality,wedo it graduallyandcarefully.Andwhencasesdostarttorebound—whichtheywill,nodoubt—thatwehavethecapabilityofidentifying,iso-latingandcontacttracing.

Sportsareabusiness,andtheyhaveafinancialimperative.Somegovernorsandmayorshavediscussedthepossibilityofsportsreturningwithoutfans.Buttherearestillhundredsofstaffmemberswhohavetorunthestadium,theclubhouse.Whatneedstobedonetomakesurethey’realsosafe?Thethingsweneedtodotothebestofour

abilityaretryandkeepthesix-footdistanceandwear face coverings.Anddo thekindof purehygienethingsyoudotopreventthespreadofrespiratory infections:washing hands fre-quently;wearinggloves,particularlyfoodserv-ice,andtheydothatanyway;changingglovesfrequently.And if youare ina stadium,makesurethatiftherearepeoplethere,theymaintain

thatphysicaldistancebecausethevirusdoes-n’ttravelthatmuchfartherthanthat.Ifyoucandothat, it isn’t completely freeof risk,butyoudiminishtherisksubstantially. Thedensityoftheinfectioninthecommunitywilldictatethedegree towhichyoucan loosenup. I’ve saidthatmany times that the virus decideshowquicklyyou’regoingtogetbacktonormal.

Allsportsaren’tcreatedequal.Golfmightbemoresuitedtomaintainingdistance,butitwouldbeharderinbasketballorhockey.Whatcanbedone?You’vegottobereallycreative.That’sgoing

tobemoredifficultandmoreproblematic.Butyouknow, therehavebeensomesuggestionsthatifyouwanttohaveasituationwhereplay-

ersaregoingtohavetocomeintocontact, likebasketball,therearecertainthingsyoucando.Itmaynotwork. I’mnotsayingthis isthewaytogo,butyouwanttoat leastconsiderhavingplayers, if they’regoingtoplay,playinfrontofaTVcamerawithoutpeople in theaudience.And then test all the players andmake surethey’re negative and keep them in a placewhere theydon’thavecontactwithanybodyon theoutsidewhoyoudon’t knowwhetherthey’repositiveornegative.That’s going tobe logisticallydifficult, but

there’s at least thepossibilityof doing that. Inotherwords,wesaid that forbaseball, get theplayersinMajorLeagueBaseball,getacoupleofcities anda coupleof hotels, get themtestedandkeepthemsegregated.Iknowit’sgoingtobedifficultforthemnottobeoutinsociety,butthatmaybe theprice youpay if youwant toplayball.

Isitevenfairtothinkaboutsportsleaguesandteamsgettingbroadaccesstotestingifthegeneralpublicorotherindustriesaren’tgettingthesame?I hopewhenweget to that point,when

we’re going to try andget the sports figurestested, thenwewillhaveenoughtestssothatanybodywhoneedsatestcangetatest.

Sportsareanunusualbusinessbecauseathletesareinclosequartersformanymonths.Whatkindofrunwaydoleaguesneedtostartupagain?That’sthereasonIstresstheideaoftesting

everybodyandhavingavailableforthemtestsfromwhichyoucangetaresultimmediately...I don’twant tomake this conversationsoundlikeit’sgoingtobeaneasything.Wemaynotbeabletopullthisoff.We’regoingtohavetosee:Isitdoable?Dowehavethecapabilityofdoingitsafely?Becausesafety,fortheplayersandforthefans, trumpseverything. If youcan’tguar-antee safety, thenunfortunatelyyou’regoingtohavetobitethebulletandsay,“Wemayhavetogowithoutthissportforthisseason.”

Somepeopleareclamouringforsportstoresume,includingMr.Trump.Doyouthinkthatisthecorrectimpulse?There’sadifferencebetweenanimpulse

andwhatyou’regoing todo.Youdon’thaveto act on every impulse. I would love to beable to have all sports back. But as a healthofficialandaphysicianandascientist, Ihavetosay,rightnow,whenyoulookatthecoun-try,we’renotreadyforthatyet.Wemightbeready,dependinguponwhatthesportis.Butrightnow,we’renot.NYT

AnthonyFauci,theleadingpublichealthexpertonUSPresidentDonaldTrump’scoronavirustaskforce,saidthatreturnofsportsmusthappengradually.Reuters

How suspension of obligations throughforce majeure can mitigate lossesWhatisforcemajeure?It’saneventbeyondthecontrolofaparty;

something that couldnot be foreseen at thetime of entering into an agreement - in thepresent circumstances, the COVID-19 pan-demic.

Isthepandemicaforcemajeureevent?Totrigger theclause, theBCCIwillhaveto

provethatitwasn’tjustinconvenient,butim-possible,forthemtoholdthetournamentbe-causeofeventsbeyondtheircontrol.AccordingtolawyerAnishDayal,whospecialisesinsportslawandhasadvisedonIPLcontracts,thepres-ent situation– theCOVID-19pandemic andthe government imposed lockdown – “isclearlyaneventof forcemajeure”.

Whathappensifforcemajeureisinvoked?ItwillgiveIPLstakeholders–BCCI,broad-

casters, franchises, players, andadvertisers –temporary reprieve as theywouldno longerbetieddownbytheircontractualobligations.Thiscanpossiblyhelpthepartiesarriveatane-gotiated settlement by coming to the tablewith a clean slate, not burdened by strictclauses.“Forcemajeureallowsthesuspensionofobligationsandthiswillhelpboth,theBCCIandfranchises,tomutuallydiscussmitigationof thelossarising,”Dayalsays.

WhathappenstotheBCCI-Stardeal?The fate of this deal hasworried all IPL

stakeholders themost. As is the casewith allsportingleagues,itisthemediarightsrevenuethatkeepscricket’s biggestbrandrunning. In2017,StarIndiaboughtthebroadcastingrightsof the tournamentandpromisedtopayBCCI`16,347.50croreoverfiveyears.Earlierthisyear,

aspartofthedeal,thebroadcastingbehemothalreadypaidBCCI close to `1,500 crore–halfof thisseason’sinstallment.Onthefaceofit,incasethe“forcemajeure”

clausecomesintoplayandIPLgetscancelled,theBCCIwillhavetorefundtheadvancepay-menttoStar.However,itisopentointerpreta-tion.ChancesaretheBCCImight justreturnapartoftheadvancebringingintheimagerightsclause. Those in the knowalso say that there is also apossibility that the amountcouldbecarriedovertonextyearandconsideredasanad-vancefornextseason.

WillStargetanextrayearincasethisseasoniscancelled?That'sthebest-casescenarioforStarinthe

presentcircumstances.Expertssaythatincasethetournamentdoesnot takeplacethisyear,Season13canbeconsidereda ‘zeroyear’. Anextra yearwouldmeanStar getting anotherseasontorecoveritslosses.

Willthefranchiseshavetopaytheplayersif theseasoniscancelled?Thefranchise-playercontracthastwomain

paymentconditions:theplayerneedstopassa fitnesstestandhastogetabonafideno-ob-jection certificate from national boards.According to those in theknow, the contractdoesnotcontemplatecancellationofaseason.Inanormalseason,afranchisehastopay60

percentofaplayer’sfeebyApril30.Sofar,noneof theplayers havebeenpaid for the season.However,if theseasoniscancelledbecauseofthepandemic,thefranchiseswillprobablynothave topay theplayers. “The cancellation of

theIPLbytheBCCIislikelytobetreatedasforcemajeure in the context of player contracts.Unless theBCCIdecidesotherwise, paymentobligations toplayerswill stand suspended,”saysnotedlawyerNandanKamath.

Whathappensiftheseasonispostponedandtruncated?According toVidushpat Singhania,man-

agingpartnerofKridaLegal,if the IPL is postponed “theplayer can still performhisduty,whichmeansthefran-chiseswill have to pay theplayerhisfull fees”.

Incaseofatruncatedseason,itwilldependonwhether there is a clause relating to vari-ablepay.However,itislikelythattherewillbeapaycutacrosstheboard–fromplayersalariestobroadcastpayments–incasetheIPLseasonisshortenedand/orheldbehindcloseddoors.AsperapaperproducedbyKamath’sfirm

LawNK,broadcastersmightalsofacere-nego-tiationandrefundrequests fromtheir adver-tisers,whohave alreadybooked spots. Thismeansthat theadvertisementsales foraspe-cific period (for example, amobile phonelaunchor summer-specificproducts)maynolongerberelevantifthetournamentisheldin,say,October. “In such scenarios, theymaybeforcedtorenegotiateonexistingbookings,ratesandpackages,”Kamathsays.Anotherpredica-mentStarcouldfaceisthedropinadvertisingspendinginthecomingmonths.Accordingtoreports, before the crisis hit, thebroadcasterwassellinga10-secondadvertisementslotfor`13-14 lakhs. The slowdown could impacttheseestimatesincasethetournamentisheldthisyear. MIHIRVASAVDA

SIMPLYPUT

‘Don’t have to act on impulse... we are not ready to have all sports back’DR ANTHONY FAUCI

‘Difficult’ tohost Olympics ifpandemic notcontained: Abe

AGENCEFRANCE-PRESSETOKYO, APRIL 29

JAPANESEPRIMEMinisterShinzoAbesaidonWednesdaythattheTokyoOlympicscouldnottake place next year unless the coronaviruspandemic is contained, as thecity'sgovernorcalledforanextensionofthenationwidestateof emergency. The International OlympicCommitteeandtheJapanesegovernmentlastmonthpostponed theGamesuntil July2021becauseofthecoronaviruscrisis.Withtheepi-demic'sworldwideinfectionrateclimbingandexpertssuggestingavaccineisalongwayoff,doubtshavebeenraisedaboutthechancesofholdingthehugeeventnextyear."We've been saying the Olympic and

ParalympicGamesmustbeheldinacompleteform,inthatathletesandspectatorscanallpar-ticipatesafely. Itwouldbe impossible toholdtheGamesinsuchacompleteformunlessthecoronaviruspandemiciscontained,"Abesaidinresponsetoanoppositionlawmaker.Abe's summaryof the situationwas later

underlinedbyIOCPresidentThomasBach."The IOC fully agreeswith thepositionof

PrimeMinisterAbe,"BachsaidinresponsetoaquestionfromReuters."Fromtheverybegin-ningofthiscrisis,weestablishedtheprinciplethat theOlympic andParalympicGames canonly be organised in a safe environment foreveryone involved. This principle hasdrivenall our decisions so far, andwe remain com-mittedtoitinthefuture."AbehasstakedpartofhislegacyasJapan'slongest-servingpremieronholding theGames andwashoping for aboom in tourism and consumer spending.Japanhasgatheredsome$3billionindomes-ticsponsorship,anOlympicrecord,andspentcloseto$13billiononpreparations.The primeminister said onWednesday

thattheOlympics"mustbeheldinawaythatshowstheworldhaswonitsbattleagainstthecoronavirus pandemic," and cautioned thatJapanshould"braceforaprotractedbattle".Tokyo confirmed 47 new infections on

Wednesday.Thenationaltallystandsat13,895infections, including 413 deaths, nationalbroadcasterNHKsaid.Abe'scommentsechoedstatementsmade

byother senior Japanese officials thisweek.Tokyo2020presidentYoshiroMoritoldNikkanSports onTuesday that theGameswouldbe"scrapped"iftheycouldnottakeplacein2021.TheheadoftheJapanMedicalAssociation

(JMA),YoshitakeYokokura, toldanewsbrief-ingonTuesday that "unless aneffective vac-cine is developed, I expect hosting theOlympicswillbedifficult.”

Aspartof their2020obligation,StarhasalreadypaidtheBCCIapproximately`1,500croreasanadvanceforthisseason’s IPL.Those intheknowsaythat inthecaseof cancellation,andtheenforcementof ‘forcemajeure’,BCCI isexpectedtoreturnapartoforthefulladvancepayment.

BOOKIE INSHAKIBCASEBANNEDICC handed a 2-year ban to Deepak Agarwal, a franchise ownerin the 2018 T10 League held in the UAE, after he admitted toobstructing an ongoing investigation. The Indian businessmanwas named as the man involved in Bangladesh all-rounderShakib Al Hasan getting banned last year .

We'vebeensayingtheOlympicandParalympicGamesmustbeheld inacompleteform, inthatathletesandspectatorscanallparticipatesafely. ItwouldbeimpossibletoholdtheGamesinsuchacompleteformunlessthecoronaviruspandemic iscontained.”

SHINZOABE, JAPANPRIMEMINISTER

Mumbai