New Delhi, April 2

The Delhi Police have registered a case against the management committee of the Majnu Ka Tilla gurdwara here for violating lockdown orders and not maintaining social distancing, a senior officer said on Thursday.

A total of 225 people, who wanted to travel to Punjab but were stranded in the national capital due to the lockdown, were staying at the gurdwara.

An FIR was registered at the Civil Lines police station under sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code, the officer said.

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjeet Singh Sirsa said the chief ministers of Delhi and Punjab were duly informed about the people at the gurdwara stranded due to the lockdown and were asked to evacuate them.

It was the government’s duty to provide them shelter. The DSGMC had offered the langar hall of the Majnu ka Tilla gurdwara to set up a quarantine facility around 15 days ago, he said.

“The stranded people were safe in the gurdwara but the Delhi Government shifted them to a school where they are living in unhygienic conditions. Now, they have filed a complaint against the DSGMC which was told to give these people food,” Sirsa added.

The gurdwara will continue to provide food to these stranded people, he asserted. PTI

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Phagwara: The police have adopted a creative way of spreading awareness about Covid. Sub-Inspector Baljinder Singh has sung a song to make people aware of coronavirus. The song is titled “Let the people of my country unite and campaign together on coronavirus”. The song has been written by ASI Pratap Waris. TNS

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 1

Amidst the deployment of its transport fleet in the ongoing battle against the COVID-19, the Air Force is procuring over 55,000 personal decontamination kits (PDKs) that are used for providing immediate protection in a nuclear, biological and chemical contaminated (NBC) environment.

According to IAF sources, the procurement of these kits would be done in a staggered manner by taking into account the IAF’s periodic consumption and the equipment’s shelf life.

Part of the procurement would be to replenish expended stocks and part to build up reserves. Procurement of the entire lot in batches is expected to take up to two years, an officer said.

The IAF has deployed its C-17, C-130 and An-32 transporters to ferry medical supplies and emergency equipment to various parts of the country where they are critically required.

PDKs are small, ready-to-use kits that can be worn on a waist belt or carried in cargo pockets and are used to neutralise chemical, biological or radiological agents and toxic industrial materials

IAF aircraft were also used to evacuate stranded Indian nationals from China and Iraq.

“Since IAF operations require some personnel to come in contact with passengers as well as service providers at various stations in an environment where the threat of virus infection is high,” the need for precautions and being prepared for any situation while working in a biologically contaminated environment cannot be understated,” an officer said.

PDKs are small, ready-to-use kits that can be worn on a waist belt or carried in cargo pockets and are used to neutralise chemical, biological or radiological agents and toxic industrial materials that have accumulated on personnel and equipment while in the field.

While PDKs are not intended to replace a complete decontamination process, they can be used in emergency situations.

A few years ago, the Defence Research and Development Organisation had developed a PDK for the forces, which is now being produced commercially by the private industry.

Exposure to micro-organism and hazardous chemicals is not confined to the armed forces in war, but the civilian population at large too can be adversely affected and can be caught unawares at any time, as the current situation has brought out. All three services have their own full-fledged NBC warfare cells and also have at their disposal an array of equipment and materials to mitigate the threat at a large scale.

The National Disaster Management Authority too has drawn up plans to cater to an NBC disaster.

Deposing before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, General Bipin Rawat said he has been meeting jawans who were asking why this gap was not being narrowed.

New Delhi: Army officers drawing “exceptionally high” disability pension shouldn’t mind paying “a little amount of income tax”, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat has suggested. Deposing before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, the military advisor to the country’s defence minister also said that there was a “wide variation” in the disability pensions of army jawans and officers and that it was “creating heartburn”, which “is not being understood by officers”.

The report of the parliamentary committee, headed by BJP MP Jual Oram, was tabled in Parliament on 13 March. In its report, the committee has asked the Modi government to present a “factual position” and its “clear decision” on the deduction of income tax from disability pensions and communicate it to army personnel, both serving and retired, by 13 April.

This came after top military brass and defence ministry officials, in their depositions to the committee, sought to defend the government’s controversial move to tax disability pensions in June last year. The government backed off early this month but there are still apprehensions about it, as the parliamentary committee flagged in its report.

Apprising the committee of the “wide variation” in the disability pensions of army jawans and officers, General Rawat said he has been meeting jawans who were asking why this gap was not being narrowed.

“So, one of the ways of narrowing this gap is this. Those who are drawing exceptionally high pensions, can they not pay a little amount of income tax? It is not applicable to a jawan because in spite of his disability pension being given to him, he is not coming into the tax bracket of ₹ 5 lakh as per the new tax regime,” the CDS has said in his deposition to the committee.

Also read: Army may recall retd personnel with medical expertise if fight against Covid-19 intensifies 

The pension gap

According to the report of the standing committee, Rawat gave a detailed presentation on the background of the disability pension that is given for battle casualties and also for lifestyle diseases or other issues. It was started during the British regime.

By 1971, there were 157 ‘battle casualty’ pensions. It was revised in 1985 and 1996. After the Sixth Pay Commission, the disability pension became a part of the retiring salary — that is, the last salary drawn at the time of retirement. So, Rawat explained, if the disability is suffered by an officer and also by a jawan, because of the disability becoming a part of the last pay drawn, there is a very wide variation in their pensions for the same disability. For instance, if an officer’s leg and that of a jawan had to be amputated, the difference in their pensions could be as high as “four times”.

In June 2019, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had clarified in a circular that tax exemption for disability pension would be available only to armed forces personnel “who have been invalidated from service on account of bodily disability attributable to or aggravated by such service and not to personnel who have been retired on superannuation or otherwise”. It triggered a controversy, forcing the government to shelve it early this month.

The parliamentary committee noted in its report that the defence ministry had directed the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (PCDA) to stop deducting income tax from disability pensions. “They (the committee), therefore, recommend that the factual position in this regard may be intimated within one month of the presentation of this report and clear decision of the government in this regard should be communicated to all personnel, serving and retired, to obviate any chances of misapprehensions and feeling of soreness amongst them, under intimation to the Committee,” the report reads.

Also read: Three pitfalls of CDS, Dept of Military Affairs and why it should make us sceptical

New Delhi: Even as it prepares to deal with any emergencies due to the Covid-19 crisis, the Army is launching a cyber security exercise this month to assess its operational preparedness in the cyber domain.

In a recent interview to Economic Times, India’s National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) Lt. Gen. Rajesh Pant had said almost 4,000 fraud portals related to coronavirus have been created across the globe by cyber criminals and mafia organisations in the last two months.

The Army too had, in March, issued an advisory that said targeted campaigns on the theme of coronavirus have been undertaken in the last few weeks by India’s adversaries to compromise email or other accounts and also to infect official or personal IT assets of defence personnel.

Army sources told ThePrint the annual exercise will help assess the defensive cyber security preparedness of the Army, data security and in evaluating compliance to the Army’s existing cyber security policies.

“The exercise is aimed at looking for vulnerabilities in the network and coming out with corrective actions. The exercise will generally help take a relook at the existing procedures, verify if reported issues have been resolved and carry out additional checks to secure the force’s cyber infrastructure,” an Army source said.

While preparations for the exercise had begun last month, it is likely to conclude by November, after which a final report will be prepared, sources said. The exercise was conducted last year too.

Also read: Ready to operate beyond mandate to fight the pandemic: CDS Bipin Rawat

Exercise to evaluate cyber awareness

Defence sources said cyber security exercises, in general, evaluate cyber awareness and precautions taken by every individual in the service apart from strengthening intra service networks from cyber attacks. These include phishing or denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which are a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic.

For three months in 2019, India faced the most cyberattacks in the world, according to a reportreleased by Subex, a Bengaluru-based firm providing analytics to telecom and communication service providers.

The report, released on 27 February, notes that while the US was the most cyber-targeted nation in 2019, India held the top spot in April, May and June.

ThePrint had earlier reported that the Indian Army faced at least 23 cyberattack attempts last year. Lt Gen D.B. Shekatkar (retd), president of the think-tank Centre Knowledge Sovereignty India, had then said there would be an increase in cyberattacks from India’s adversaries in the years to come, which could be “deadlier” than terrorist attacks and can also affect a nuclear facility, or the air traffic control system, the power grid or even disable the war machinery during a war.

Also read: Soldiers failing to disclose Covid-19 information will invite action under Army Act

The Army, Navy and Air Force are putting in place separate measures after the Indian military’s first case of COVID-19 was detected in Leh.

New Delhi: From restricting the entry of veterans and essential civil contractual staff, to staggered langar (meal) timings for troops — the Indian military has put in place strict drills to stop coronavirus from getting into its bases.

The drills are being strengthened after the Army reported its first case of COVID-19 — a 34-year-old jawan in Leh. It has quarantined all soldiers and colleagues of the soldier, who is attached to the Ladakh Scouts Regimental Centre.

A senior Army officer had earlier told ThePrint that the Army is dealing with the outbreak in three stages: Prevention within the force, assistance to the civil administration, and planning for contingencies, which may arise if the coronavirus threat reaches the next stage.

Also read: Military’s isolation camps on standby, Army ready to deploy facilities to fight COVID-19

Why military is being extra cautious

Military bases can accommodate up to a few thousand personnel and their families, living as a community with close interactions.

Thus, in the eventuality of even a single person contracting COVID-19, the spread is likely to be at a faster rate, not just affecting the community, but also operational preparedness, defence sources told ThePrint.

What the Army is doing

Among the multiple measures being put in place, the Army has restricted retired personnel and any civil porters, contractual maintenance workers or vendors into the garrisons. Many of these civilians work regularly in the garrisons.

“Only bare essential movement from within or outside the garrisons is being permitted. Permissions are only being given on a case-to-case basis,” an Army source told ThePrint.

The Army has extended leaves of its personnel across the country until 15 April, and for the limited troops coming back from leave, temporary duties or courses, sources say there are separate quarantine barracks being created with beds and other basic facilities at the unit level.

The returning personnel will have to undergo a two-layered medical screening at field areas — first at transit and then at the units — after which they will be required to spend two weeks in the quarantine barracks. Every barracks will have about 15 to 25 people.

Additionally, isolation barracks are being created for suspected cases with flu-like symptoms, where they will stay put for two days. If their health doesn’t improve, they will be evacuated.

Meals for the troops will also be served barracks-wise at staggered timings, to avoid crowding. Only one designated person will be serving the troops, according to the missive. Personnel have also been advised to restrict visits to places of worship.

This aside, the Army is setting up multiple hand-washing points, minimising congestion in barracks, shutting down non-essential stores and canteens inside the garrison. It will also display instructions, banners, posters and play of audio messages across the units.

“The initial drills set up are being upgraded in minute details. The essence lies in ruthless implementation of the drills set up,” a senior Army officer said.

The Army has also has set up a mechanism to trace contact history by asking each individual to maintain a daily contact log.

Also read: Defence Ministry proposes leasing of military equipment and specialised trial wing

‘Naval dockyards empty’

The Navy, too, is in the process of shutting down offices not considered essential, and enforcing work from home for all officers.

“The men will go into a two-watch system. There will be bare essential manpower required to run the offices,” a senior Navy officer told ThePrint.

The Navy has also restricted the entry of non-uniformed people into dockyards. Since then, the dockyards are virtually empty, given that regular civil staff can’t come in after public transport was stopped, sources say.

Entry of domestic help and guests has also been restricted in the Navy’s residential areas.

Navy personnel who have been on ships deployed in foreign countries will be quarantined for 14 days on return.

“We are still deciding the full modalities of work from home with the security overlays and procedures,” a Navy source said.

IAF restrictions

Sources in the Indian Air Force say regular briefings are being conducted on the measures to be undertaken by its personnel.

The IAF has also restricted manpower at workplaces to 50 per cent, while the other 50 per cent work from home. It has also directed the Director General Medical Services to work out a disinfection plan for office complexes of Air Headquarters.

Also read: Rafale production halts in France due to COVID-19, jets’ delivery to India could be delayed

New Delhi: The Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE) in Gwalior has started conducting tests for COVID-19 cases, while also producing hand sanitisers in small quantities.

The DRDE, which is a part of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is the nodal lab for the development of chemical-biological defence technologies and works on national preparedness against the use of such agents in warfare.

The body was selected by Madhya Pradesh health authorities to carry out the detection tests for people suspected of being coronavirus patients.

A senior DRDO official said the tests will be carried out with protocols “duly standardised in accordance with National Center of Disease Control (NCDC)”.

Also read: By failing to scale up testing coronavirus, India may have lost crucial time

Production of sanitisers

The DRDE has been producing hand sanitisers in its lab in accordance with the World Health Organization’s guidelines. It has produced at least 14,389 bottles of 500 ml each.

The formula is a tried-and-tested product that is already a part of DRDO’s inventory.

These sanitisers have been distributed to top security establishments, such as the National Security Council Secretariat, Special Protection Group, the defence forces and the Prime Minister’s Office. It has also been supplied to the National Technical Research Organisation, Central Bureau of Investigation, Intelligence Bureau and government think-tank Niti Aayog.

“We are a R&D organisation and don’t have big production facilities. Some of the other DRDO labs have also been authorised to produce the sanitising solution in limited quantities,” the DRDO official said.

The DRDE might scale up its production based on future requirements, according the senior official.

Also read: How the hand sanitiser came about — from 12th century to 1997

DRDO implements extra measures

In addition to running tests, the DRDO has set up multiple screening mechanisms for its personnel and their families coming from abroad. At DRDE, which is a Biosafety level – 3 lab, such screenings have already begun, according to the official.

Multiple awareness programmes are also being run regularly and hand sanitisers distributed to all DRDO labs across the country. Further, DRDO has set up a 24X7 helpline to field questions on COVID-19 daily.

In an interview, Dr G Satheesh Reddy, DRDO chairman and secretary, Department of Defence R&D, said the Gwalior-based lab has developed diagnostic kits against enlisted biological agents like Anthrax.

Also read: Work from home, more sick leaves, no visitors: How Modi govt is keeping staff COVID 19-free

New Delhi: The Army has initiated Covid-19 testing in their hospitals as India gears up to test more people amid the coronavirus pandemic.

According to senior Army officers, five Army hospitals have been conducting testing of Covid-19. These facilities are Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Command Hospitals in Udhampur, Lucknow, Bangalore, and the R&R Army Hospital in Delhi.

The decision in this regard came earlier this month, Army sources said.

The move comes at a time when the country — with just 52 government laboratories — clearly lacks adequate testing facilities.

With the rising number of confirmed cases, India has already expanded Covid-19 testing to private labs and asked every state to earmark at least one hospital to treat coronavirus patients.

The Indian Council of Medical Research, the country’s apex health research body, has put out a series of guidelines for Covid-19 testing in private laboratories.

Also read: Military’s isolation camps on standby, Army ready to deploy facilities to fight COVID-19

Army to be trained to fight Covid-19

Sources said Army personnel are being nominated for training in various reputed medical institutes across the country, such as the National Institute of Virology, Pune, PGIMER, Chandigarh, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, and AIIMS in New Delhi to be better prepared to deal with the pandemic.

The Indian Air Force, meanwhile, has designated the Command Hospital Air Force, Bengaluru, to conduct Covid-19 testing.

“To monitor the prevailing situation and provide immediate response and assistance as required, a 24×7 crisis management cell has been set up at Air Headquarters and various Command Headquarters. IAF aircraft are continuing to fly in medical supplies and doctors to Leh and flying out blood samples for Covid testing to Chandigarh and Delhi,” an IAF statement read.

The Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE) in Gwalior has also started conducting tests for Covid-19.

The DRDE, which is a part of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is the nodal lab for the development of chemical-biological defence technologies.

Army issues fresh guidelines

The Army Thursday issued fresh instructions on measures required to fight the pandemic.

This included identifying additional infrastructure for setting up of quarantine or isolation centers in each station for the troops, extending the Army’s network of hospitals and laboratory facilities to assist civil administration in areas affected by the novel coronavirus.

The instructions further said a plan should be prepared for sidestepping medical personnel from lesser-affected areas to augment healthcare in severely-affected areas if required, and additional training of the Army’s own medical personnel at various hospitals to be better prepared to fight Covid-19.

The armed forces have put in place over a dozen isolation facilities across the country, of which, five are housing 1,073 people — most of them have been evacuees of different countries.

ThePrint had earlier reported that the military has put in place strict drills to stop coronavirus from getting into its bases, which included disallowing entry of civil contractual staff and staggered office and meal timings.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Thursday met Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, Army Chief General M.M. Naravane, IAF chief Air Marshal R.K.S. Bhadauria and Navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh to review the action plan of the Defence Ministry with regard to dealing with Covid-19.

Also read: Indian Air Force cancels Services Selection Board interviews amid coronavirus outbreak

New Delhi: The Indian military has identified six more of its hospitals to carry out Covid-19 tests and earmarked 28 other facilities across the country to exclusively deal with the outbreak.

ThePrint had earlier reported that five Army hospitals have been conducting Covid-19 testing.

Speaking to ThePrint, Lt General Anup Banerji, DG Armed Forces Médical Services (AFMS), said, “As of now, there are five hospitals across Army, Navy and Air Force which can carry out Covid-19 test using RT-PCR. Six additional hospitals are also being equipped shortly with the resources to begin testing.”

The military is also in the process of procuring additional personal protective equipment (PPE) to tide over the crisis. The armed forces have been directed to augment medical resources for civil health set-ups too.

Lt General Banerji also said the Armed Forces Medical College has initiated four research studies on coronavirus.

“The findings of these studies will be shared with all other departments. This will hopefully help better understanding of the coronavirus,” he said.

The top medical officer also pointed out that the National Institute of Virology is working on a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Also read: India ramps up Covid-19 assistance to SAARC nations, team set to leave for Nepal

‘Have adequate PPEs for use in hospitals’

The military’s move comes at a time when the country — with only 52 government laboratories — clearly lacks adequate testing facilities.

Asked if the military hospitals are equipped with enough PPEs, Lt Gen Banerji said their availability was a challenge, both at the national and global levels.

“The rational usage of PPEs is very crucial and we have issued necessary advisory to that effect to the services. We, as AFMS, are presently geared up with adequate PPEs for use in our hospitals,” he said.

Asked about medical precautions being taken along the Line of Control with Pakistan and the Line of Actual Control with China, the Army officer said isolation wards at peripheral hospitals at these formations have been geared up.

“Intensive information, education and communication campaigns are going on for serving personnel. Leave extension of those on leave as well as curtailment of leave to bare minimum have been imposed. Segregation facilities have been set up to observe troops already back from leave from various states,” he said.

As of now, the Army has reported one case of coronavirus, a 34-year-old jawan in Leh whose father had travelled to Iran.

“He was on leave at his home in Leh, taking care of his father who had returned recently from Iran and suffering from Covid-19. The soldier has made an uneventful recovery,” Banerji said.

Also read: 3 US Navy sailors test positive for Covid-19 aboard aircraft carrier with crew of 5,000 

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 27

Chandigarh reported a new coronavirus case on Friday, an official said—the eighth case in the city.

UT Adviser Manoj Parida said in a tweet that authorities were trying to track down the people who might have come in contact with the person, who travelled to Dubai recently.

The latest case was a 22-year-old man from Sector 30 in Chandigarh who returned from Dubai on March 11. He developed fever on March 25, the 15th day of his return—considered unusual for the virus, which usually has an incubation period of between 2 and 14 days.

“Bad news, one new corona positive case in Chandigarh. Dubai returned.  Symptoms detection on 15th day. Unusual. Tracing his contacts. All will be quarantined,” Parida said in a tweet.

A press release by Chandigarh’s Department of Public Relations said that the patient was admitted to GMCH 32 on March 25. Health Department then tracked down 57 of his contacts—both primary, incluing his family, and secondary—and put them under home quarantine.

This number includes his mother, who the press release says is a “high-risk contact”.

High risk people in terms of this disease are either the elderly or people with pre-existing health conditions.

He’s been kept in an isolation ward and is “totally asymptomatic and fully stable”, the release said.

This brings Chandigarh’s coronavirus tally to eight. Seven people were  previously tested positive for the global pandemic that has wreaked havoc across the world.

India’s coronavirus tally has crossed 700, with 17 deaths. Chandigarh is under curfew to prevent spread of the disease.