New Delhi, April 3

The Editors Guild of India has said it is “deeply perturbed” over the government blaming the media in the Supreme Court for causing panic among migrant workers, leading to their exodus in the wake of the lockdown, and asserted that such actions could obstruct the process of dissemination of news.

In a strongly-worded statement, the Guild said blaming the media at this juncture can only undermine the current work being done by it under trying circumstances.

“The Editors Guild of India is deeply perturbed over the recent government statement before the Supreme Court putting the blame on the media for causing panic among migrant workers leading to their mass movement in the wake of the lockdown,” the statement said.

This led the apex court to observe that while it didn’t want to inhibit the debate on the pandemic in any way, the media should refer to and publish the official version of the developments pertaining to the coronavirus pandemic, the Guild said in the statement issued Thursday night.

The Guild stated that it holds the court in the highest respect, but finds this advice “gratuitous and unnecessary”.

Such charges can also obstruct in the process of dissemination of news during an unprecedented crisis facing the country, it said.

“No democracy anywhere in the world is fighting the pandemic by gagging its media,” it said.

The Guild also hit out at the lodging of a First Information Report against the Editor-in-Chief of the website TheWire.

“A police action in the form of an FIR under criminal laws at this stage is an overreaction and an act of intimidation,” the Guild said.

Any such intimidation of the media or blaming the media for mass migration of workers will be counterproductive, it said, adding that such actions will be tantamount to disabling the messenger.

“The Guild believes for sure that the media must be responsible, free and fair. But such interference can only undermine those goals,” the statement said.

Taking a serious note of the panic caused among migrant workers due to fake news, the top court had earlier this week said it expects the media including print, electronic and social to maintain a strong sense of responsibility and ensure that “unverified news” with regard to coronavirus pandemic is not disseminated.

The Supreme Court had said the migration of a large number of labourers working in the cities was triggered by panic created by fake news that the lockdown would continue for more than three months. —PTI

Madrid, April 2

Confirmed coronavirus cases approached one million around the world on Thursday as Europe reeled from the pandemic and the US prepared for what President Donald Trump warned would be “horrific” days ahead.

The virus claimed thousands more lives in its relentless march across the globe, including nearly 1,000 new deaths in Spain, despite more than half of the planet subjected to some form of lockdown.

And it continued to wreak havoc on the global economy, with Spain reporting its biggest monthly increase in jobless claims on record and the US expected to reveal more massive job losses.

Since emerging in China in December, COVID-19 has infected more than 940,000 people—including at least 500,000 in Europe—and claimed more than 47,000 lives, according to a tally by AFP from official sources.

World Health Organisation head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been a “near exponential growth” in new cases over the past five weeks and a doubling of deaths in the past week alone.

“In the next few days we will reach one million confirmed cases and 50,000 deaths,” he told a virtual news conference on Wednesday, warning that Africa and Latin America needed to be prepared for a wider impact.

New figures on infection rates and virus-related deaths would show on Thursday whether there were signs the epidemic could be peaking in Europe, where at least 34,000 have died.

Britain and France both reported their highest daily death tolls on Wednesday, but infection rates in Italy and Spain—the two countries hardest hit—were slowing.

Spain said on Thursday it had suffered a record 950 deaths in 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 10,003.

The number of confirmed cases passed the 110,000 mark, the government said, although the rates of both new infections and deaths continued a downward trend.

“The data show the curve has stabilised” and the epidemic has entered a “slowdown” phase, Health Minister Salvador Illa said.

Spain, the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, also registered a leap of 302,265 jobless claims last month after imposing a nationwide lockdown since March 14.

The virus has chiefly affected the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions, but recent cases have highlighted that it can kill people from all walks of life.

The dead have included a 16-year-old in France, a 12-year-old in Belgium and Ismail Mohamed Abdullah, 13, in Britain, whose family said the “gentle and kind” boy had no underlying health issues.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, himself in isolation after testing positive, announced plans for a massive increase in virus testing after it emerged that just 2,000 of hundreds of thousands of staff in the state-run National Health Service (NHS) had been tested.

The United States, which now accounts for almost a quarter of reported global infections, saw its death toll pass 5,000 by the early hours of Thursday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Among the latest known US fatalities was a six-week-old baby who was taken to a Connecticut hospital late last week.

“Testing confirmed last night that the newborn was COVID-19 positive,” the state’s Governor Ned Lamont tweeted. “This is absolutely heartbreaking.”

Trump, who was criticised for initially playing down the virus but has stepped up containment efforts in recent days, warned that the situation was going to get much worse.

“We’re going to have a couple of weeks, starting pretty much now, but especially a few days from now, that are going to be horrific,” he said.

“But even in the most challenging of times, Americans do not despair. We do not give in to fear.” More than three-quarters of Americans are under lockdown, including tens of thousands of prisoners, who were told Wednesday they would be confined to their cells for two weeks.

Officials also shuttered the Grand Canyon to prevent tourists gathering there, and New York announced that outdoor basketball courts would be closed as the city grapples with sky-rocketing infections and a severely strained health system.

The US Labor Department was due on Thursday to provide weekly figures on first-time claims for unemployment benefits after last week’s report showed a record 3.3 million filed claims.

Economists are warning that US job losses could surge to the previously unimaginable range of 10 to 20 million in April.

The virus and the measures taken to contain it have raised fears of the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

It has also claimed the lives of many high-profile figures, including on Wednesday jazz legend Ellis Marsalis, whose family said the “giant of a musician and teacher” died at the age of 85 after contracting the virus. — AFP

Raipur, April 3

The pandemic caused by a new virus may have brought the world to its knees, but that has not deterred a couple in Chhattisgarh to name their newborn twins as ‘Corona’ and ‘Covid’.

The two words may evoke fear and devastation in minds of others, but for the Raipur-based couple they symbolise triumph over hardships as the twins – a boy and a girl – were born during the ongoing coronavirus-enforced nationwide lockdown which has disrupted normal life.

The names, they said, would remind them about all the hardships they conquered amid the lockdown, ahead of a successful delivery on the intervening night of March 26-27 at a government hospital here.

However, the couple said they might change their decision later and rename their kids.

I was blessed with the twins – a boy and a girl – in the early hours on March 27. We have named them Covid (boy) and Corona (girl) for now,” Preeti Verma, the 27-old mother of the newborns, told PTI.

“The delivery happened after facing several difficulties and, therefore, my husband and I wanted to make the day memorable.

“Indeed the virus is dangerous and life-threatening but its outbreak made people focus on sanitation, hygiene and inculcate other good habits. Thus, we thought about these names,” she said, giving reasons for their unusual decision.

“When the hospital staff also started calling the babies as Corona and Covid, we finally decided to name them after the pandemic,” she said.

The couple, originally from Uttar Pradesh, resides in a rented house in the Purani Basti area of the state capital.

“On late night of March 26, I suddenly experienced severe labour pain and somehow my husband arranged an ambulance operated under 102 Mahtari Express service.

“As no vehicular movement was allowed on roads due to the lockdown, we were stopped by police at various places but they let us go after noticing my condition,” Verma said.

I was wondering what would happen in the hospital as it was midnight, but fortunately doctors and other staff were very cooperative,” she said.

“Our relatives, who wanted to reach the hospital, could not make it as bus and train services were stopped due to the lockdown,” said Verma, who already has a two-year-old daughter.

The twins were born in Dr BR Ambedkar Memorial Hospital.

Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the hospital, Shubhra Singh, said the mother and the newborns were discharged recently and they were in good health.

As soon as Verma reached the hospital with her husband, arrangements were made to perform a caesarean section on her as it was a complicated case, Singh said.

“Within 45 minutes of their arrival, the delivery was done successfully,” the PRO said.

The twins had become a centre of attraction in the hospital after the couple named them as Covid and Corona, Singh said. PTI

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