G Plus Vol 7 Issue 26

@guwahatiplus | /c/gplusguwahati www.guwahatiplus.com

INSIDE

Volume 07 | Issue 26 Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020 Price `10 Assam has broken the chain of coronavirus

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Private establishments

not to open, clarifies Chief Secretary Union minister’s tweet on commercial establishments opening after 20th April confuses all

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Combating Covid-19: Guwahati declared Orange Zone by Centre

Nehal Jain @NehalJain96

avi Shankar Prasad, the union minister for law and justice, put up a tweet on April 18 which led to widespread confusion.

“Here is a list of what will remain open all over India with effect from 20th April 2020,” he tweeted.

Among the list of activities he wrote that would be functional across the country from April 20 onwards was the opening of commercial and private establishments.

However, the recent guidelines for lockdown 2.0 released by the government of India clearly specifies that only certain activities such as sale of essential goods, public utility services, agriculture and horticulture to name a few would be exempted.

The guidelines clearly specify that establishments such as shopping malls, restaurants, bars, saloons/spas and cinema halls would remain shut during the lockdown period till May 3.

Other activities being allowed are health services, operations of fishing, plantation of tea/ coffee, financial sector, online classes, supply of essential goods, industrial establishments, construction activities, private vehicles for emergency services and offices of the government.

However, the union minister made it clear that these allowances will not be given to districts which have been declared containment zones.

Speaking to G Plus regarding the Union Minister’s tweet, ADGP Law and Order G P Singh said, “The tweet is general in nature.

All specifications of the same are

mentioned in the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. I advise people to thoroughly go by the guidelines to understand what all will function from April 20.”

He added that the Assam government will soon release an additional list of guidelines for the state and instead of relaxations, the public might get to face more stringent measures.

Further clarification on the same was provided to G Plus by the Chief Secretary of Assam.

“Private and commercial establishments will not open.

Only agricultural activities in rural areas, selected industrial activities, e-commerce will be allowed. Only shops of agriculture machinery and repairs, manufacturing, distribution of fertilizer, pesticides, seeds will be allowed. Food processing industries and brick kiln will be allowed. Food movement by trucks will be allowed,” the chief secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna said adding that the public’s impression of private and commercial establishment opening is wrong.

In the same vein, Biswajit Pegu, Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup (M) said, “We will continue to enforce the lockdown as before.

Certain exceptions would be given to repair shops and suppliers but not beyond that.”

As soon as the union minister tweeted that private and commercial establishments will open, people from various sections started raising various questions as the ambit of private /commercial establishments is huge. Also, with the lockdown on place for private and public service vehicles, a tweet like this has confused not only Assam but the entire country.

Admin’s mutton/chicken

home delivery system unplanned, allege customers

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hough the district administration has claimed that chicken, mutton and eggs will be delivered at the doorsteps of Guwahatians from 17th April, many city residents are disappointed alleging that the system is unplanned and if the vendors allotted for the work are not delivering the items there was no need of coming up with such plans whereby the expectations of many meat lovers have bitten the dust.

Kedar Nath, a resident of Jyotikuchi, talking to G Plus said, “If the delivery system is not smooth, the administration should not have started it. People expect and try to contact the number provided by the administration, but no one responds. It is disappointing and looks rather unplanned.”

Similarly, many residents of the city, talking to G Plus, alleged that none of the numbers of the mutton vendors are functioning, and the claims made by district administration looks like a hoax.

The district administration had issued numbers of venders from different locations in the city – Paltan Bazar, Khanapara, Lakhara, Noonmati, Ganeshguri, Beltola, Lalganesh, BHangagarh and Jalukbari.

The customers complained that none of the vendors receive calls; their mobile phones are either switched off or busy. A resident somehow managed to contact a

G Plus News @guwahatiplus vendor of Lal Ganesh on 17th April, and the vendor took the order promising him that the mutton will be delivered on 18th morning.

The customer, on 18th, tried contacting the vendor many times but the vendor did not receive the call. The same issue was faced by many mutton lovers across the city.

A senior official of the Kamrup (Metro) district administration, talking to G Plus, said that the livestock and poultry corporation does not have the meat item in sufficient quantity to fulfill all the orders. Therefore, the vendors have switched off their phones. The vendors are receiving huge number of calls and because they are not being able to meet the demand, they have switched off their phones. The official said that it is an emergency situation so people need to have patience.

G Plus also talked to the officials of the livestock and poultry corporation. A senior official, Pankaj Borah, talking to G Plus said, “The entire system will be smooth within a few hours.” He explained that because of the lockdown it is difficult to get skilled manpower, but still within few hours they (corporation) have

managed to train some and very soon the customers will get the meat products delivered at their doorsteps. He said that the mutton has to be processed and sold maintaining proper hygiene. Also, the mutton comes from different districts and it has to be carried in refrigerated trucks.

Due to the storm there were difficulties in the transportation of the meat till 17th April. “Today (18th April) we received 1,000 kilos of mutton,” said the official adding that the mutton is now getting packed hygienically. He said there is a demand of around 800 kilos from the public and it will be delivered by 19th April.

He said that the vendors are getting around 300 to 500 calls per hour which compelled them to switch off their mobile phones. Therefore the livestock corporation is taking online orders.

“There should have been a toll free number but because it is not there, the customers are facing problems.

Soon it will be resolved,” said the official.

The chicken delivery is not a major issue but many residents have alleged that many local vendors in the locality are selling chicken but at a higher price – Rs 200 per kilo for undressed chicken.

Many customers are aware that it is an emergency situation but their only grievance is that if there is a process it should be planned or else it should not be started because expectations are unnecessarily raised.

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Lead Story

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

Assam has broken the chain of coronavirus: Himanta Biswa Sarma Nehal Jain @NehalJain96

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ssam has successfully broken the chain between society and positive coronavirus cases long back, announced Himanta Biswa Sarma during a press meet on Saturday, April 18.

He added that whatever positive cases Assam are being reported currently are from quarantine camps and not from within the society.

“As far as the first wave is concerned, we are stable. But we have to stay alert for future,” stated the minister.

He added that the government is strictly following Assam Care in three levels - the citizens of Assam stranded outside India, outside Assam and those inside Assam facing problems.

Till now in Assam, 4,400 samples have been collected and tested. Out of these, 34 results have come in positive, 4,199 negative and the results of 167 tests are awaited.

It is to be mentioned that among the 4,400 tests conducted are patients from Meghalaya and Mizoram as well.

It should be mentioned that Assam is now also capable of conducting tests for Arunachal Pradesh since a sixth lab in the state has been recognized by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) as coronavirus testing centre.

The ICMR recently approved Assam’s Tezpur Medical College and Hospital (TMCH) as an accredited laboratory for the testing of samples for COVID-19.

The other five testing centers of Assam are Gauhati Medical College & Hospital, Jorhat Medical College & Hospital, Silchar Medical College & Hospital, Barpeta Medical College & Hospital, and Regional Medical Research Centre at Lahowal in Dibrugarh.

“Assam has conducted 120 tests per 10 lakh population,” informed the state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

He further added that in terms of tests conducted, Assam is moderately placed having conducted more tests than some

of the other states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Assam to now collect nasal samples for Covid-19 tests

So far, doctors in Assam had been collecting throat samples to conduct coronavirus tests.

However, from now on, nasal samples shall also be collected for the tests, informed Himanta Biswa Sarma.

It should be mentioned that 34 patients of Assam have tested positive for the virus. Out of these, 4 are non-residents of the state.

According to health officials, 79% of coronavirus positive patients of Assam are Male while only 21% are Female.

“The age-wise range of positive patients in Assam is 18 to 71 years,” state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma informed.

However, he added that while the most vulnerable age group is 50-60 years, people in the age group 30-50 years are also vulnerable to the disease.

Assam govt receives over 9 lakh calls from people stranded due to lockdown We have received 9,29,000 calls on helpline numbers provided to people from Assam stranded outside due to the lockdown, stated state health and finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

He said that 4,32,383 calls of these are actually from outside Assam, as confirmed by service providers.

So far, 2,17,220 people have filled up the forms provided and the remaining have been asked to do so.

It should be mentioned that the Assam government had launched helpline numbers for people of the state stranded outside. First, the government extended a helping hand to people stranded outside the country and gave them financial aid of $2000 each. Then, they extended help to people stranded in other parts of the country for health check-ups and later for people with low paying jobs as well as students stranded

Himanta Biswa Sarma across the country.

As on April 18, 725 people stranded outside have been provided with monetary help of Rs 25,000 each. Out of these, 620 people have already received the money.

“By April 20, 50,000 more people will get the benefit amount after completion of verification,” Sarma informed.

He added that the state government is expecting approximately 15 lakh people from Assam to be stranded outside based on the staggering number of calls they have been receiving.

Guwahati registers drastic fall in crime amidst lockdown Nehal Jain @NehalJain96

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ith the on-going lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus and fewer people venturing out, crime across the country has seen a sharp drop.

The crime rate in Guwahati,

too, has gone down drastically.

Crime saw a significant decline over the past one month, since the government of Assam banned all public gatherings, followed by the nationwide lockdown that took effect from 25 March, said Munna Prasad Gupta, Commissioner of Police, Guwahati.

In the same vein, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime),

Jayant Singh told G Plus, “Vigilance of the administration and the coronavirus scare has become a deterrent for the criminals.”

However, he added that some cases of burglary and dacoity have come to light.

One such incident came to light on April 15 when a dacoit entered a residence in Rajgarh area of the city.

“A miscreant entered our house at around 4 PM. He claimed to be suffering from coronavirus and threatened us to give him money or he would spit all over our place,” the victim informed.

A case was registered in this regard and the police are currently investigating the matter.

“We are cracking down on

all suspicious movement. We have also deployed drones to help us keep track of even the smallest movement,” a senior police official told G Plus.

He added that there has been a step up in vigilance in Guwahati as well as other parts of the state. The sealing of borders has also proved helpful in lowering the crime rate.

Assam police arrests 1753 people for lockdown violation While crimes have gone down, traffic violations have witnessed a steep increase during the lockdown period as the police continue to take steps against lockdown offenders.

As on April 17, the Assam police has reported 1735 incidents of lockdown violation and registered 937 cases in this regard. A total of 1753 people have been arrested so far while many have faced lathi charge / punishments.

Further, the police have detained 14884 vehicles including

19 boats and also collected fines worth Rs. 71,05,900 from offenders.

While many had speculated that the government would put relaxations during the second phase of lockdown, the Indian government instead emphasized on stricter vigilance.

As the country moved towards the second phase of the lockdown, Assam DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta announced that the Assam Police will act more strictly and warned that the

police will take strict action if anyone violates the rules of the lockdown.

Requesting the people to cooperate with the police and to stay at home during this period, he added, “No person will be allowed to take out their personal cars. If anyone comes out of their houses in any emergency, they will have to come with a valid authorization letter and ID card.”

Police will be compelled to take strict action against those who do not maintain social

distancing, Mahanta said.

The DGP further stated that till April 20, there won’t be any relaxation and therefore, urged the people to maintain discipline.

Police punishment on violators | G Plus File photo

Concern

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

3

With lockdown extension, state govt receives appeals galore from citizens Saumya Mishra @saumyamishra03

Several people have appealed to health minister with the extension of lockdown These include those stranded outside the state and require assistance for their elderly parents in Assam Some are unable to return to the state owing to lockdown Others are not being able to afford the cost of treatment at private hospitals As per an MoU, private hospitals have been treating OPD patients of govt hospitals Private hospitals are facing their own challenges Assam govt has also launched a helpline for those stranded outside the state It is especially meant for those who belong to weaker sections of society

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ver since the country-wide lockdown was announced to control the spread of coronavirus and now with the extension of the lockdown till May 3, several people have reached out directly to state health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over Twitter for assistance for various reasons.

Those who have appealed to him for help include people who are stranded outside the state and require assistance for their elderly parents in Assam, those who are not being able to return to

the state owing to the lockdown, and some who are not being able to afford the cost of treatment at private hospitals.

In one such example, Dishi Bora tweeted to Sarma about not being able to afford treatment for her newborn who was admitted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Pratiksha Hospital in Guwahati.

Bora wrote in her tweet: “Sir I have tried to reach you several times to talk about my babies struggling in NICU of Pratiksha hospital. Please help. At this present time I am really facing difficulty with sufficient funds. I badly beg your attention Sir.” To this the minister assured that he had spoken to the owner of the hospital and that they would be offered treatment at a concession.

It is to be mentioned that the state government had signed a MoU with 34 major private hospitals and clinics which agreed to lend a helping hand to the government in the battle against the virus. The government hospitals have been readied exclusively for COVID-19 patients.

As per the agreement, the private hospitals have been taking all general OPD patients of the government hospitals from March 28 onwards.

A MoU had been signed for the same, the validity of which is two months.

A total of 34 hospitals will share the load of patients from government hospitals including, Marwari Hospital, Nemcare Hospital, Shankardev Netralay, Sanjeevani, Agile Hospital. Pratiksha, Excel Care, Ayursundhra, Swagat Hospital have also been included in the agreement.

In another instance, a Tezpur resident’s brother was admitted at GNRC Hospital in Guwahati since April 1. He appealed to Sarma on Twitter, “We are not able to afford the cost of treatment money for him as he is a daily wage labourer.

His treatment is ongoing at home only but nowadays we are not able to buy medication also so requesting you for financial help.”

The minister asked for more details from him.

Further, the private hospitals are facing their own set of challenges as they have been asked to provide free treatment under the Atal Amrit Abhiyan (AAA) and the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) to general OPD

patients. They are also incurring losses during the ongoing crisis due to coronavirus.

Helpline number launched to assist people stranded outside Assam

Meanwhile, the state government has also launched a helpline for those stranded outside the state.

State health and family minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in a press conference released a helpline number to assist those citizens of Assam who are currently stranded outside the state. The number provided is 9615471547.

It is especially meant for those who belong to weaker sections of society, living below the poverty line, informed Sarma. After verification, the beneficiaries would receive financial assistance by the government.

He added that the beneficiaries would include students whose parents are unable to financially support them, others who are engaged in menial jobs outside the state or pilgrims.

People in need of financial help, who are stranded outside the state during this lockdown can give a missed call on this number.

“After the missed call is received, an automatic voice message will be sent along with the link to a website.

People can fill in the required forms with the details and after proper verification by the respective Deputy Commissioner concerned, the financial help will be provided,” said Sarma.

For people who are unable to connect to the internet and do not fill the form in the following 24 hours after the missed call, a group of 400

volunteers will call and help them personally.

These volunteers include students of Gauhati University, Assam Engineering College and Cotton University.

Sarma further cautioned people and asked them to be sure that the call is from Assam government before providing bank details, saying that only the bank account number and IFSC code will be required.

The helpline received around 10,000 calls in the first 10 to 15 minutes of its launch.

Further, the same helpline number will also be used in the near future to help bring back these stranded people.

It is to be mentioned that the financial help will

be provided only to the needy section who could not be provided any monetary help from their respective families.

It is to be mentioned that the helpline has already received around 4.32 lakh calls and 2.08 lakh forms have been filled so far.

4 Concern

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

Billion dollar Abu Dhabi debt imbroglio might have massive impact on Assam tea industry Barasha Das @Barasha_mi2

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MC Healthcare is the largest private sector health service provider in the UAE, and has 194 medical facilities across 19 countries.

Recently, the company, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, has been placed under the supervision of a United Kingdom court. This came as a reaction to an appeal filed by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), Dubai against the health giants against a debt of 6.6 billion dollars. And the ADCB is only one of the 80 major regional and international financial institutions that had extended credit to the NMC Group.

The financial crisis came to light after NMC uncovered over four billion dollars of its previously undisclosed debts amid other announcements in February this year.

The India angle Indian-born billionaire businessman, Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty is the founder of NMC Health and also the UAE Exchange House. Both these entities are now under investigation.

Reportedly, ADCB has filed a criminal complaint against BR Shetty and five others.

After the allegations against NMC Health came to light and the company went into administration due to its insolvency, Shetty had to resign from his position as Director.

Allegedly, due to sharp drop in prices at which the former director had to pledge his shares for the debt incurred, it is said that his net worth had fallen significantly from the earlier estimate of 3.5 billion dollars.

Fearing legal procedure the founding member has reportedly absconded from the UAE and is currently

residing in India.

How does the Middle East scam impact Assam?

On 18th October 2018, BR Shetty’s BRS Investment bought the then 179-year old Assam Company (India) Limited (ACIL), at more than Rs 700 crores after an extended period of financial uncertainty for the tea grower. The bid was significantly higher than the next highest bid of around Rs 500 crores. Even then, many eyebrows were raised at the significantly high difference in the bidding amount.

The Assam Company (India) Limited is engaged in tea plantation, oil and gas exploration as well as in infrastructure development. In Assam, apart from exploring the discovered oil fields, the company operates the original Assam Tea company.

The Assam Tea Company was founded on 12th February, 1839 by Dwarakanath Tagore, grandfather of noble laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, and it is the world’s first tea company.

The ACIL now operates all 15 tea estates of the original company which expands across 14,000 hectares of land in Assam. It also has 14 stateof–the-art factories, and the current market value of its tea segment is reportedly Rs 3,210 million.

In October 2019, BR Shetty unveiled plans to shift the tea company’s office to Barbaruah, Dibrugarh and to introduce Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and blockchain to help increase the output of the company’s tea production five-fold. He set a target of 50 million kilograms of tea within the next five years.

However, given his involvement in the billion dollar imbroglio and the subsequent significant deduction in his net

worth, the tea sector of Assam is speculating about its impact on the Assam Tea Company.

Dipanjol Deka, Secretary of the Tea Association of India, talking to G Plus said, “I have been in contact with the other members of the tea associations, but we are not yet sure of the circumstances. However, if Shetty gets arrested or any untoward situation occurs, it might impact his tea gardens in the state. Until then we can’t comment on anything.”

G Plus has been reporting about the downfall and losses of the great tea sector of Assam for the last two years. Given the scenario, it can only be imagined for now what lies in hand for the recently revived 180 year old tea company that not just contributes a significant percentage to the state’s tea production (given its large tea estates) but also employs around 32,000 workers.

Representative Image of tea estate

Tea industry facing steep losses due to 21-day lockdown G Plus has earlier reported that the tea sector of Assam might incur large losses given the extended lockdown period.

After the initial phase of the nationwide lockdown of 21 days, the tea gardens have been permitted to resume operations with 50 percent of the workforce and following COVID-19 protocols.

G Plus tried to enquire about the actual amount of losses during this period. It has to be mentioned that the main flushing season of the gardens starts from March. As such the first flush was under way

when the lockdown happened, and the second flush is about to start soon.

The manufacturing of tea is a continuous process and the best produce that is usually exported is of the season. However, due to the lockdown and as the industry was not exempted gardens could not pluck the buds or further process them as required.

Dipanjol Deka said, “The gardens producing the best and high quality products

have suffered the most. Although overall analysis has not yet been done, we have calculated a loss of 25 to 30 percent of the year’s produce for these gardens.”

The comparison is made with the losses incurred by these estates when bandhs are called by associations for around two weeks under normal circumstances. A two-week closure in operation leads to losses of 15 to 20 percent. As such, three week lockdown

losses would be even higher.

“But there are many small gardens which do not have any permanent workforce. They are dependent on daily wage ‘coolies’ and do not care much about quality issues. These gardens have been reportedly operating in spite of lockdown and have stocked their flushes.

They are also ready with the skiffing process for the second flush. For them the losses might be none to a maximum of 7 percent,” added Deka.

It has to be mentioned that the major issue faced by the tea industry in this crisis is not

the losses in production but the non-availability of finance as the products could not be auctioned or sold due to the sudden lockdown.

Even after the auction centres are permitted to operate after 20th April, officials worry about the sale of tea due to nonavailability of transportation and couriers services. Samples of the products are usually couriered to the buyers before they are auctioned. Without the sampling process, the auction centre either needs to wait further or find other means to monetize the products.

City

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

5

Carnivorous animals in state zoo to follow new diet plan, 2-day fasting introduced

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he Assam State Zoo has introduced a new diet pattern for its animals starting this financial year with the primary objective of keeping the welfare of the animals in mind.

Speaking to G Plus, the DFO of Assam State Zoo, Tejas Mariswamy said, “Big cats (tiger/lion) were generally fed 6 days a week with beef being the staple diet. If we compare this with a wild tiger, it is seen that in the case of a wild tiger about one in every 10 to 20 hunt attempts are successful. An adult tiger can consume up to 40 kgs of meat in one meal and it may not kill again for four or five days. A wild tiger also has to protect its territory for which it moves around 15 to 20 kms every day. Absence of these aspects has a deep impact on the biology of the tiger, making it more like a domestic animal.

Therefore it is important to control their feeding in such a way that there is no lethargy of mind and body setting in, in the tigers.”

Further, considering the global trends in practices regarding feeding of the animals, Assam state zoo has introduced a two-day fasting for tigers and five-day feed in a week wherein on four days it will be fed beef and mutton on one day. The Assam state zoo is exploring opportunities to include more variety in the diet.

“The main aim of introducing two-day fasting is to make the animal think and thinking is extremely important to keep the animal mentally active,” the DFO added.

Being scavengers, vultures generally don’t feed every day.

Therefore food will now be provided every alternative day only. Gradually, the zoo intends to shift to a twice-a-week feeding pattern for vultures.

With respect to the aquatic birds which were being fed dead fish, they will now be provided with live fish fingerlings which will be released in the pond.

The aquatic birds will have to fish them as they do in natural surroundings. This is a sort of feed enrichment where the birds are made to exhibit natural behaviour.

Again, it was observed that the herbivores, especially deer,

were overloaded with protein as observed by the health advisory committee of the Zoo. Now the feed has been modified accordingly in the new diet plan taking examples from Mysore zoo which is one among the best performing zoos in the country.

As a part to invoke the natural behaviour of the captive animals, food enrichment activities are being taken up whereby the food is hidden inside the enclosure or inside

a bamboo stick or on trees etc to get the animals use their sensory skills to find the food.

Further, as per Central Zoo Authority (CZA) guidelines, deer will now be fed more on natural green grass and tree leaves and the vegetables and fruits will be gradually withdrawn or lessened. For quality green grass zoo will have the bigger hydroponic system Capable of producing over 1200 kgs of fodder grass per day.

A tiger feeding at Guwahati Zoo | G Plus photo

Janasanyog No. 206/20

Atiqul Habib @guwahatiplus

6 In The News

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

Lockdown Extension: Here are the activities allowed after April 20 Saumya Mishra @saumyamishra03

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he union home ministry on April 15 released a set of revised guidelines to control COVID-19 in the country.

It is to be mentioned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation on April 14, had announced the extension of the nation-wide lockdown period till May 3.

However, the government has allowed select public activities from April 20. The central government order states, “To mitigate hardship to the public, select additional activities have been allowed which will come into effect from 20th April, 2020.

These limited exemptions will be operationalized by State, UTs/ district administrations based on strict compliance to the existing guidelines. Also, before

Agriculture All agricultural and horticultural activities to remain fully functional such as farming operations by farmers and farm workers in field Agencies engaged in procurement of agriculture products, including MSP operations.

Mandis operated by the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) or as notified by the State/ UT Government (e.g., satellite mandis). Direct marketing operations by the State/ UT Government or by industry, directly from farmers/ group of farmers, FPOs’ cooperatives etc.

Operations of the fishing (marine and inland)/ aquaculture industry, including feeding & maintenance, harvesting, processing, packaging, cold chain, sale and marketing.

Plantation

allowing these select additional activities, States, UTs/ district administrations shall ensure that all preparatory arrangements with regard to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for social distancing in offices, workplaces, factories and establishments, as also other sectoral requirements are in place.”

Below is a list of some of the economic activities which have been allowed after April 20:

Veterinary Hospitals, dispensaries, clinics, pathology labs, sale and supply of vaccine and medicine.

All health services (including AYUSH) to remain functional, such as hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, telemedicine facilities.

Dispensaries, chemists, pharmacies, all kinds of medicine shops including Jan Aushadhi Kendras and

Manufacturing units of drugs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical oxygen, their packaging

transport and supply chain.

Public utilities: Operations of oil and gas sector.

Operation of animal husbandry farms including poultry farms & hatcheries and livestock farming activity.

Financial sector

Postal services including post offices.

Generation, transmission and distribution of power at central and state levels.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and RBI regulated financial markets and entities like NPCI, CCIL, payment system operators and standalone primary dealers.

Operation of utilities in water, sanitation and waste management sectors.

Bank branches and ATMs, IT vendors for banking operations.

Banking Correspondents (BCs), ATM operation and cash management agencies.

All goods traffic will be allowed to ply.

SEBI and capital and debt market as notified by SEBI.

Social sector

Operation of homes for children/ disabled/ mentally challenged/ senior citizens/ destitutes/ women/ widows.

Observation homes, after care homes and places of safety for juveniles.

Processing, packaging, sale and marketing of tea, coffee, rubber and cashew, with maximum of 50% workers.

Operation of anganwadis.

Collection, processing, distribution and sale of milk and milk products by milk processing plants, including

Pharmaceutical and medical research labs, institutions carrying out COVID-19 related research.

Authorised private establishments which support the provisioning of essential services, or efforts for containment of COVID-19, including home care providers, diagnostics, supply chain firms serving hospitals.

Operations of tea, coffee and rubber plantations, with maximum of 50, workers.

Animal Husbandry

medical equipment shops.

Medical laboratories and collection centres.

Disbursement of security pensions.

social

Others

Online teaching/distance learning to be encouraged.

MGNREGA works to be allowed with strict implementation of social distancing and face mask.

Movement, loading/ unloading of goods/ cargo (inter and intra state).

Supply of essential goods.

IT and IT enabled services, with up to 50% strength.

E-commerce companies.

Courier services.

Print and electronic media including broadcasting, DTH and cable services.

Industries operating rural areas.

in

Manufacturing units essential goods.

of

Construction activities of roads, irrigation projects, buildings and industrial projects in rural areas, outside the limits of municipal corporations, and all kinds of projects in industrial estates.

Construction of renewable energy projects.

Continuation of works in construction projects,

Representative Image material, raw material and intermediates.

Construction of medical/ health infrastructure including manufacture of ambulances.

Movement (inter and infra within the limits of municipal corporations, where workers are available on site and no workers are required to be brought in from outside.

Private vehicles for emergency services, including medical and veterinary care, and for procuring essential commodities.

Offices of the Government of India, its autonomous/ subordinate offices.

In state governments, offices of police, home guard, civil defence, fire and emergency services, disaster management, prisons and municipal services will function without any restriction.

Other departments to work with restricted staff.

What all will remain shut till May 3

As per the new guidelines, here’s a list of activities which will continue to remain prohibited till May 3: All domestic and international air travel of passengers, except for security purposes.

All passenger movement by trains, except for security purposes.

Buses for Public transport.

Metro rail services.

Inter-district and inter-state

State, including by air) of all medical and veterinary personnel, scientists, nurses, pars-medical staff, lab technicians, midwives and other hospital support services, including ambulances. movement of individuals except for medical reasons or for activities permitted under these guidelines.

All educational, training, coaching institutions etc shall remain closed.

All industrial and commercial activities other than those specifically permitted under these guidelines.

Hospitality services other than those specifically permitted under these guidelines.

Taxis (including auto rickshaws and cycle rickshaws) and services of cab aggregators.

All cinema halls, malls, shopping complexes, gymnasiums, sports complexes, swimming pools, entertainment parks, theatres, bars and auditoriums, assembly halls and similar places.

All social/ political/ sports/ entertainment/ academic/ cultural/ religious functions/ other gatherings.

All religious places/ places of worship shall be closed for public.

Religious congregations are strictly prohibited.

In case of funerals, congregation of more than twenty persons will not be permitted.

In The News

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

7

City schools react

HRD Ministry postpones school fees payment; instructs timely salary disbursement to employees Barasha Das @Barasha_mi2

A

fter Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the lockdown till 3rd of May, the Union Home Ministry issued a new set of guidelines to be followed during the lockdown period. A list of instructions has also been issued for lockdown 2.0 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development on 15th April. A copy of the same has also been forwarded to all AICTE approved colleges/institutions.

The HRD Ministry had clarified that colleges/institutions should not insist on payment of fees till the ongoing lockdown is lifted and normalcy is restored.

Revised guidelines with new timelines will be issued by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in due course.

The notice has also directed all educational institutions to display the information on their websites and to communicate the same to the students through email.

Further the HRD Ministry issued instructions against the non-payment of salary and termination of faculty and staff members in the period of lockdown. It clarified that salary and other dues of all members are to be released, and if any layoffs are made during this period, those are to be withdrawn. The above mentioned instructions are to be strictly followed and a letter in this regard has been issued to the respective Chief Secretaries of all states and union territories.

G Plus checked on the implementation of these rules by a few reputed educational institutions of Guwahati.

Banti Bhuyan, Principal and Trustee Secretary of Faculty Higher Secondary School Amingoan said, “When the lockdown happened we had just given the previous year’s results.

Also the re-admission just got started and students were asked to pay online. However, we have not compelled students to pay the same. Hardly a handful of the students have paid their dues.

But we are conducting regular online classes. The timelines for the payments have not yet been decided and we have not updated

the students as of now. Those who wish to pay can do so.”

Talking about the salaries of the teachers, she added, “We have paid the regular salaries till March and hopefully will be able to pay for April as well. However, nothing can be commented on the same if the situation continues.”

As for Delhi Public School, Guwahati, a guardian informed that the earlier date of readmission was postponed from 10th April to 30th April due to the 21-day lockdown. But no amendments have been done on the same after the lockdown period got extended. Reportedly, salaries of teachers and staff have been paid accordingly till date and no terminations have been made.

Guardians of Maria’s Public School have alleged that the school has not only raised the readmission fees two-fold but have also hiked the monthly fees by around Rs. 800 during the period of lockdown. After complaints were made regarding the hike the payment procedure was stopped.

Nellie Ahmed Tanveer, Founder and Managing Trustee of Maria’s Public School said, “We are paying the staff, although a little late. We have asked the guardians to pay the fees, otherwise how are we to make salary payments?

But we are not forcing them the guardians. We would like to take the fees but no pressure on parents is being put. We also have people from economically backward sections who are not able to avail the regular online classes, but we are trying to support them howsoever we can.”

When asked about the fee hike she said, “Whatever they have to pay is given to them beforehand.

We do discussions about this in the management committee and abide by that. It is necessary to feel for everybody’s suffering and not arbitrarily deny doing something.” However, Tanveer said the school fees were not hiked.

Anita Verma, Headmistress of Sanskriti The Gurukul said, “The school is not worried about fees and have not even mentioned about payments to the students.

All process of admissions and monthly dues will be dealt with accordingly after the lockdown is lifted. Instead we have focused more on providing quality education through online classes

to the students. Also the salaries and dues of all faculty and staff members have been paid accordingly and on date.”

“We haven’t started the new scholastic year yet. We are up to date with the salaries of our teachers and the employees. We will be paying them regularly.

We will ask the parents to pay the fees at a later time once the situation is normal,” Father Sebastian Mathew, Principal, Don Bosco School, Panbazar.

Chief Secretary to the Government of Assam, Kumar Sanjay Krishna, however said that no instructions regarding the monetary issues of educational institutions have been sent to him. As such no comments were made.

The list of instructions of the HRD Ministry includes certain other points.

It notified against fake news circulation and apart from discouraging believing and circulating fake news, asked people to rely on information published on the websites of MHRD/ UGC/AICTE. Similarly, for other government circulars, official websites of the concerned ministries and departments are to be referred to.

As for the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS), it has been informed that activities for the academic year 2020-21 have been delayed. However, the scheme would be continued as earlier after the lockdown is lifted.

A calendar with new timelines regarding the same will be published in the AICTE website in due course.

The Union Ministry has asked institutions to continue with

regular online classes during the extended lockdown. A revised academic calendar will be issued

by UGC/AICTE subsequently.

Regarding the conduct of semester examinations, institutes are asked to peruse the websites of UGC/AICTE regularly as UGC has constituted a committee for recommending the modalities of conduct of examinations, award of marks and passing criteria and directions will be issued accordingly.

For students who need to pursue summer internships are asked to do so from home and those for whom the same is not feasible, this requirement may be fulfilled in December 2020.

As many students might not have access to internet services, colleges and institutions are advised to allow students of other educational institutions also

to share their campus internet facilities. Lastly, attendance rules are to be relaxed in the light of lockdown and unavailability of good bandwidth in certain rural areas.

All academic institutions are to adhere to the rules strictly, failing which action will be taken as per prevailing rules.

It has to be mentioned that although the rules had been issued on the 15th April, no proper implementation of the same has been done in Guwahati. Although many educational institutions have not yet collected fees from the students for the lockdown period, reportedly none have issued proper notice about new timelines. Further, many schools are in oblivion regarding the payment of salaries to faculty and staff members in the coming months.

8 Governance

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

Combating Covid-19: Guwahati declared Orange Zone by Centre Nehal Jain @NehalJain96

Red Zone: Golaghat, Nalbari, Dhubri, Goalpara, Morigaon Orange Zone: South Salmara, Lakhimpur, Kamrup, Cachar, Karimganj, Kamrup (M), Hailakandi Green Zone: Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Biswanath, Karbi Anglong (W), Udalguri, Tinsukia, Sonitpur, Sibsagar, Nagaon, Majuli, Kokrajhar, Karbi Anglog, Hojai, Dima Hasao, Darrang, Chirang, Charaideo, Bongaigaon, Barpeta, Baksa

G

uwahati city, which falls under Kamrup (M) district of Assam, has been declared Orange Zone by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

To tackle the outbreak of coronavirus in an effective and structured manner, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has classified country’s

districts into three zones - Red, Orange and Green — based on the severity of outbreak in those areas.

The goal of the containment plan is that the states should utilize the extended lockdown period to the maximum extent to convert the hotspots (Red) to Orange and in turn Green Zones and contain the spread of Covid-19 in the country.

Golaghat, Nalbari, Dhubri, Goalpara and Morigaon districts of Assam have been declared red zone, that is, coronavirus hotspot.

Districts in the red zone need to have focused attention owing to a large number of Covid-19 cases and high growth rate.

The health ministry has classified a total of 170 hotspot districts across the nation under the ‘Red Zone’. This is further divided into two groups i.e. there are 123 hotspot districts with a large outbreak and 47 hotspot districts with clusters.

The inclusion criteria for hotspots (Red Zone), according to the government, includes, “Highest caseload districts contributing to more than 80 per cent of cases in India or highest caseload districts contributing to more than 80 per cent of cases for each State in India or districts with doubling rate less than four days.”

The government will try to provide door-to-door facilities in these areas.

A hotspot district can be turned to Orange Zone when no cases are reported in the last 14 days.

Currently in Assam, the

Guwahati’s only Containment Zone currently: the Athgaon Kabrasthan Masjid | G Plus Photo districts of South Salmara, Lakhimpur, Kamrup, Cachar, Karimganj, Kamrup (M), and Hailakandi have been declared orange zones. The areas with a limited number of cases in the past and with no surge in positive cases recently would be included under the orange zone.

Only restricted activities such as limited public transport and farm product harvesting are expected to be allowed in the coronavirus orange zone.

Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) engaged in manufacturing of essential items like wheat four (atta), pulse (dal) and edible oils would be

allowed to function freely with strict maintenance of social distancing.

Further, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Biswanath, Karbi Anglong (W), Udalguri, Tinsukia, Sonitpur, Sibsagar, Nagaon, Majuli, Kokrajhar, Karbi Anglog, Hojai, Dima Hasao, Darrang, Chirang, Charaideo, Bongaigaon, Barpeta and Baksa districts have been declared green zone. These are the areas that have not reported positive coronavirus cases.

It should be noted that any district currently in hotspots can be moved to the Green category if no new cases arise in 28 days.

Exemptions may be given

in these sectors as per the government’s plan.

Limited movement of people linked to essential services and business may be given extension. Opening of liquor shops and other essential items that play a major role in generating state revenue may get an extension in this zone.

A total of 207 non-hotspot districts with clusters and noninfected districts have been classified as Green Zone.

On the positive side, however, a total of 11 coronavirus positive patients have been released from various areas of Assam after full recovery.

Covid-19 positive cases in Assam rises to 34, death toll at 1 With the samples of two residents of Morigaon district in Assam testing positive for coronavirus on April 16, the state’s tally rose to 34.

Informing the media about the two new cases in the state, the health and finance minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the two infected persons had contact with people who attended Nizamuddin Markaz event - a religious gathering organised

by Tablighi Jamaat - in New Delhi in March last.

“Two persons from Morigaon district have tested positive for coronavirus and they both are secondary contacts of Nizamuddin Markaz attendees,” Sarma tweeted.

“The cumulative number of coronavirus patients in the

state now stands at 34. Out of these, five patients have been cured and discharged from hospitals,” he further added.

Out of the 34 coronavirus cases reported in Assam so far, nine are from Golaghat district, six from Morigaon district, four each from Nalbari, Goalpara, Dhubri districts, and one each from South Salmara, Kamrup (Metro), Kamrup, Karimganj, Lakhimpur, Cachar and Hailakandi districts.

While 32 of the corona positive cases have direct or indirect links with the Nizamuddin Markaz, one has a travel history to Saudi Arabia and the source of transmission in regard to the resident of Spanish Garden in Guwahati is still unknown.

Further, Assam registered

its first casualty owing to complications of coronavirus on April 10 with the passing away of a 65-year-old man from Hailakandi district in Silchar.

The deceased, Faijul Haque Barbhyan, had a travel history to Saudi Arabia as well as to the Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi, and had confirmed COVID-19 positive.

He was undergoing treatment at Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) but the doctors had stated that his condition was “alarming”.

On the positive side, however, five coronavirus positive patients – three from Goalpara and two from Morigaon – have been released after their full recovery.

Two persons released from MMCH on 18th April, 2020 | G Plus Photo

News This Week

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

A quick round up of the news that mattered during the past week

1

Airlines asked to make full refunds on tickets booked during lockdown

The civil aviation ministry, on April 16, asked all airlines to give full refund within a period of three weeks to passengers who booked their flights during the lockdown period.

The airlines have been asked to refund full ticket/booking amounts for both domestic and international tickets. The civil aviation ministry held a meeting with airlines to discuss the issue of refund for cancellation of flight tickets booked during the lockdown period. As per a memorandum issued by the ministry, if a passenger has booked a ticket during the lockdown period till May 3, the airline shall refund the full amount collected without levy of cancellation charge.

2

Maharashtra govt directs landlords to not evict tenants

Sanjay Kumar, Maharashtra’s additional chief secretary, issued an advisory where he said, “Many people are staying on rent and it is a fact that tenants are finding it difficult to pay the rent regularly in times of financial crisis. Therefore, the recovery of payment (rent) should be postponed for the next three months.” He further mentioned that if a tenant fails to make the payment on time, they should not be evicted. It is to be mentioned that Maharashtra has the highest number of COVID-19 infected patients in India followed by Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

3

All passenger trains, flights to remain suspended till May 3

All passenger train service as well as domestic and international flight operations will remain suspended till May 3. Prime Minister NarendraModi announced on April 14 that the nation-wide lockdown will be extended till May 3. As per reports, the Indian Railways said that all passenger train services, including premium trains, mail/express trains, suburban trains and Kolkata metro rail, will continue to remain suspended till May 3. Further, the goods and parcel trains will remain operational to ensure the availability of essential supplies. Additionally, the directorate general of civil aviation tweeted: “All domestic and international scheduled airlines operations shall remain suspended till 11.59 pm of May 3, 2020.”

4

Private schools cannot increase school fees during lockdown in Delhi

Private schools in Delhi will not be allowed to increase fees during the coronavirus lockdown, informed Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. “Only tuition fee can be charged from students on monthly basis. No other fee like annual or transportation fee or under any other head should be charged in wake of the pandemic COVID 19. Schools cannot ask for three months’ fee at a time,” said Sisodia. He further added, “And online classes facilities will not be stopped or terminated by private schools for students even if they fail to pay their fees....” He also mentioned that schools cannot withhold salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff or collect fee quarterly.

5

IPL 2020 suspended till further notice

The Indian Premier League (IPL) governing council of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided that the IPL 2020 Season will be suspended till further notice. The decision has been taken due to the evolving global health concerns regarding COVID-19 and lockdown measures implemented by the Government of India to contain the spread of the pandemic. Meanwhile, BCCI will continue to monitor and review the situation regarding a potential start date in close partnership with all of its stakeholders and will continue to take guidance from the Government of India, State Governments and other State Regulatory bodies.

6

9

Centre launches helpline to facilitate smooth inter-state transport of perishables

To facilitate smooth transport of perishable agricultural commodities, the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, has launched two helpline numbers. The call centre numbers are 18001804200 and 14488. The centres are to operate all days of the week at all hours and can be contacted by truck drivers and helpers, traders, retailers, transporters farmers, manufacturers or any stakeholder who faces any kind of problem in inter-state movement of agricultural, horticultural or any other perishable commodities besides seed and fertilizers. The call centres are operated by the IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL), Faridabad, Haryana and will be manned by 10 customer care executives initially, but services might be escalated as per requirement.

7

Maharashtra allows over 1 lakh workers to go home after medical check-up

Maharashtra’s Social Justice Minister Dhananjay Munde informed that government has allowed over one lakh migrant sugarcane workers to go back to their villages after a medical check-up. He took to his twitter and wrote, “Stay inside homes when you return there.

Good news for my sugarcane worker brothers! You can return to your home (villages) now. The government has issued an order in this regard. Return to home staying within the rules laid down by the government.

Take care of your health as well of your villages. Stay inside homes when you return there.” As per a statement issued by the minister’s office, over 1.31 lakh sugarcane workers are living in temporary shelters provided in the premises of 38 sugarcane factories in Maharashtra, while several others are stuck at different places.

8

4 months’ rent for IT units and startups in STPI centers waived off

The central government has decided to provide rental waiver to the small IT units operating out of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) for four months. The decision has been taken as the firms are facing challenges due to the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Law and IT minister took to his twitter and said, “IT units/ startups operating from 60 STPI Centers across India have been granted waiver from paying rental for period between 01.03.2020 and 30.06.2020. This will benefit nearly 200 small & medium IT/ITeS units supporting 3000 direct jobs. @stpiindia #IndiaFightsCorona”.

9

COVID-19: Sweden’s princess starts working as health care assistant

Sweden’s Princess and Duchess of Värmland Sofia started working in hospital to help in the country’s fight against coronavirus. Princess Sofia took a threeday medical course at Sophiahemmet University College in Stockholm, where she is also an honorary chair member. So far COVID-19 has infected 11,927 people in Sweden and 1203 have died. According to reports the university is training up to 80 people a week to help in lifting the burden placed on doctors and medical workers in the country. She became part of the Swedish royal family in 2015, after marrying Carl Phillip, who is the son of King Carl Gustaf.

10

Attach property of those attacking health workers, police: Yogi Adityanath

TAfter an attack on police and health workers in Moradabad who were trying to to quarantine contacts of a coronavirus patient, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on April 16 said that in case of damage to property by miscreants while ensuring lockdown and screening of suspected coronavirus cases, money should be recovered from the accused, and if they fail to do so, then their properties should be confiscated. Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said, “In every way medical and police teams would be protected… The Chief Minister has also ordered to book the miscreants under National Security Act (NSA) besides Epidemic Diseases Act and Disaster Management Act.”

10 Guest Column

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

Limited lockdown

GUEST COLUMN

Planning the plausible way out

I

n the unprecedented move by the most of the state governments first and then the union government, the entire country was put to a standstill for a period of 21 days.

The world’s fifth largest economy is at halt and with each passing day is bearing losses. A pause button was pressed by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi with his signature style of addressing the nation. The move can be termed as a necessary evil which is being taken by almost all the countries for the betterment of their respective citizens. The deadly corona virus has attacked around 204 countries and India is no exception. The only way to break the chain was a complete

Easing lockdown in stages is the only possible solution.

This can be only achieved with a new breed in federalism, where more power has to be granted to the states and the union plays the role of a nodal institution where it will be facilitator. countrywide lockdown so that community transfusion does not take place. It will be erroneous to say that the government implemented the lockdown in haste and no signs were given prior to the complete lockdown.

The state governments very systematically started closing places where large gatherings took place on every day basis such as gyms, hotels, schools, universities, cinema halls, tourist places etc. From the Centre, the lockdown was first experimented with the complete lockdown for one day, which was then extended to 21 days. Thereafter, it was further extended by another 19 days to May 3. The union government cannot be criticised

for the decision taken and the timing of the decision as in comparison to many developed countries, India’s response was a prompt one. Developed countries like United State of America and Italy are paying for the delay in steps taken by the government to prevent the spread of the virus.

The real battle will start after the lockdown period gets over.

The citizens of the country should bear in mind that after the completion of the 40 days the virus wouldn’t disappear without leaving any trace. As soon as the lockdown is lifted, people will start gathering, keeping the peril in the back seat. The government will be having a tough time in managing post lockdown period. The government should opt for limited lockdown till the increase in positive cases starts declining. A complete exit from the lockdown will backfire; rather easing lockdown in stages is the only possible solution.

This can be only achieved with a new breed in federalism, where more power has to be granted to the states and the union plays the role of a nodal institution where it will be facilitator. This will stand to be called as cooperatively federal structure. A common exit plan for the entire India cannot be the solution to the problem The needs of each state shall be targeted by the state itself and priority to them should be given in the first phase of limited lockdown. At the first stage only the supply chain of essential goods should be opened. The onus of deciding what amounts to essential goods shall be designated to respective states itself. Only, opening of the retail shops, which stands at the end of the supply chain will not solve the problem, if the entire supply chain is not restarted. The chain starts from production and ends at consumption of goods, each stage shall be taken into confidence. It will totally depend on the state machinery. The implementation shall be moved from macro administration to micro administration. The state has to further delegate the task of implementation to each district with additional power

to each district, depending upon spread of the virus. Further, with the advent of the harvest season in India, lockdown in the primary sector will disrupt a large section of population.

At the subsequent stage, nonessential items but day to day products should be given seal of approval. This includes soaps, detergents, hygienic products etc. The operating line should be same as the first one. The third stage, places which attracts crowd and are of least important for sustenance shall be opened for the public. Business in this stage includes hardware stores,

phase by implementation shall take at least six months for the complete lockdown to get over.

Coming to horizontal strata of the person on the basis of income, the worst effected from the lockdown are the daily wage workers as no work for almost a month may push them into livelihood darkness, recovering from where will be a difficult task. The basic needs of such citizens have to be borne by the government itself. Direct benefit transfer will be an effective measure, where the government can identify the Jan Dhan Accounts and amounting bearing

Saurav Jhunjhunwala The only remedy to break the chain of corona virus is physical distancing, India being a population of 1.2 billion people, the concept of physical distancing was never in practice.

Since, these 40 days have made people of India more concerned and conscience towards hygiene, this would not be wrong to say that physical distancing will be the new normal in India. The centre and the state are taking all the preventative measures

A normal scene during the lockdown in Guwahati | G Plus photo clothing outlets, electronic goods and places with non-essential gatherings cinema halls, gyms and also religious gatherings should be given clearance. For transportation too, there shall be phase by phase opening of airports and railway station.

Interstate transportation through railways or road shall not be permissible and can be only through air only. Limited public transport should be allowed and sanitization of the transport modes has to be done on regular intervals. Though the lockdown will be lifted, but restrictions should be imposed on the public for the welfare of the public at large. A phase by

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the basic necessities shall be transferred. The Jan Dhan Yojana has built the infrastructure for the government and it is an apt time to use those accounts for transferring benefits.

The steps initiated have to be followed by the people. Both, formal and informal ways have to be adopted so that people comply to the orders of the government. Religion too, can be mode for limiting the menace of the virus as it plays an important role in the Indian culture. Government can also take help of various religious leaders and groups, for an appeal to their followers to adhere to the restricted lockdown.

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during the lockdown so that there is no exponential growth.

The task of state machinery will increase manifold postlockdown. This is a war and the stages involved to slow down the pandemic are the battles. The complete war can only be won through subjective lockdown or down to earth lockdown which means no formal lockdown but terms and conditions will be applicable.

(The author is a Law Graduate from National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam and currently pursuing Masters of Law from Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar. The views expressed are his own)

Guest Column

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

11

Great depression 2.0: COVID-19 crisis, India and the world economy GUEST COLUMN

D

iagnosing on the basis of current symptoms, we don’t really need a degree in economics to predict what’s coming. A global recession is inevitable and this time it is going to be worse than ever before. The Novel coronavirus has killed over 400 people and affected over 12,000 people in India alone. Over 10,000 people have lost their lives in just the last 24 hours with over 20 lakh COVID-19 positive cases, taking overall death toll up to well over 1.3 lakh across the globe.

With half of the world’s population locked down in their own homes and with restrictions on movement, businesses and more or less everything, pace of the global supply chain has turned sluggish. Thanks to the Wuhan virus’s butterfly effect, manufacturing had to be brought to a standstill to prevent spread of the virus in the communist country. People’s Republic of China, that also happens to control 1/3rd of the world’s supply of both finished and unfinished commodities, stopped manufacturing goods which led to a sharp decline in supply of goods; further leading to a decline in sale, sharp fall in revenue generated, ultimately resulting in worldwide lay-offs.

The entire sequence can be seen in action across the globe right now because today we live in a world so connected, anything happening in any part of the

world effects us all.

If we look back in time and look at the Great Depression which literally was the worst economic downturn in history, it sent Wall Street into a panic state wiping out millions of investors. About 15 million Americans had lost their jobs and half of America’s banks had bailed out. This year International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted the worst downturn since the Great depression, issuing a stark warning about the economic toll of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The economic output of nations is collapsing at an unprecedented pace and the international organization also suggests that this crisis could reverse our gains from globalization earned over decades!

Even in 2001, the world saw a rapid drop in stock market prices and the 9/11 attacks had a big role to play in slowing down of economies in various parts of the world with almost a doubled unemployment rate across the globe.

The last time, we witnessed a global financial crisis which began around December of 2007 but the markets actually began to crash around September of 2008 and it wasn’t until March of 2009 that world economy hit rock bottom. The 2008- 09 period of financial crisis was a result of massive flaw in handling finances on a global scale but this time, it is different and unlike

What lies on the other side of this lockdown? What’s next for us in a post coronavirus world?

Are we prepared to help and prevent small and medium businesses from shutting down? Can we, as consumers, go back to retail stores after getting used to the doorstep delivery service? anything we’ve ever seen before.

It is extreme and the world is in a state of panic. During this 2008 financial crisis, people lost jobs, companies bailed out and the economy went crashing down.

Stock markets had dropped by a whopping 56% in a period of a little over 500 days, but this time, global recession will be worse because the stock markets have seen a sharp 20% decline in just about a period of 3 weeks!

The 2008-09 recession had only contracted world economy by a little less than 1%, and although 1 percent is a lot, I say ‘only’ because this year, global economy is all set

to contract by 3% at least as per IMF’s projections in its World Economic Outlook. Consumer debt is supposedly higher than ever before and stock market volatility, apparently, is as bad as it was right before the 2008 recession. Travel ban has brought airlines at the verge of bankruptcy, entertainment industry is hit due to the norms of social distancing and impossibility of having any large gathering of people, sports industry, broadcast industry, every single wage earner working behind the scenes, every business that we can think of is at the verge of bailing out. Businesses are going to shutdown because they’ll run out of money to pay bills and salaries to employees; restaurants and eateries will be shut.

Like every recession, some businesses tend to make money when everybody else loses theirs, like McDonald’s that say an increase in revenue as more and more people resorted to cheap fast food to feed their families. The only ones who will probably make some money are those businesses involved with doorstep delivery of goods to consumers and online content creators, Netflix, Amazon and other streaming platforms.

These businesses have witnessed a huge spike in viewership and subscriber count since the beginning of this lockdown especially due to a massive chunk of population online today. Back in 2008, only about 22% of the

world was on the internet while today over 60% of the world’s population is active on the internet and more and more people have access to internet with each passing day.

What lies on the other side of this lockdown? What’s next for us in a post coronavirus world? Are we prepared to help and prevent small and medium businesses from shutting down?

Can we, as consumers, go back to retail stores after getting used to the doorstep delivery service? Are we going to get over the coronavirus hysteria and go back to crowded places?

Are we ready to employ the lakhs of students passing out of universities in the next two months? Are we ready to tackle a possible global food shortage problem? How does a country, placed as one of the fastest emerging economies in the world, plan to deal with this mammoth of a problem?

(The author is a student of Mass Comm at Royal Global University, Guwahati. The views expressed are her own)

But China does not have a socialist system, it has a totalitarian system, and what Dr. Tedros, a man who himself was accused of covering up the Cholera epidemic in his country of Ethiopia while being the health minister, was actually doing was attacking democracy world over on behalf of Beijing.

However, what is most concerning about this whole saga is the fact that from midJanuary to mid-February, the WHO was parroting Beijing’s line that no country should

enact travel restrictions on China, and consequently, there were no travel restrictions on China with the exception of the US, which led to Covid-19 spreading across the world.

Therefore, what the WHO actually did, is helped spread the Coronavirus around the world, and it did this on behalf of Beijing.

(The author is a student of Journalism and Mass Comm at Royal Global University, Guwahati. The views expressed are his own)

Rifa Deka

WHO is to blame!

Gaurav Agarwal

W

hen will we collectively hold the World Health Organisation (WHO) responsible for its deliberate malversations?

In January, the WHO endorsed the Chinese hypothesis of the novel Coronavirus not spreading from person to person, while also stressing on the fact that the organisation does not recommend any specific health measures for travellers commuting to and from Wuhan.

Furthermore, the WHO also ignored Taiwan’s warnings after the country had repeatedly informed them about possessing evidence on human to human transmission of the virus. Taiwan also wrote to the WHO on the 31st December last

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the WHO, attributed “China’s success” to the superiority of their socialist system. informing them about the same, but the WHO kept denying these claims until mid-January, after which they had no other option left but to iterate the naked truth or risk standing exposed as the mouthpiece for Chinese propaganda.

Even now, Taiwan, despite being engaged in battle against Covid-19, is denied membership or even an observer status

at the WHO solely because China objects and refuses to acknowledge Taiwan as a nation.

Moreover, WHO, since the inception of the Covid-19 age, has praised China’s efforts in containing the virus, repeated the country’s lies as facts, and hailed “Chinese transparency.”

But as these lies have been exposed, it has become more and more apparent that the WHO’s primary aim is that of doing a good job as China’s ancillary staff.

Even Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the WHO, gave an interview to Chinese state media in late January and said that Beijing’s response was admirable and should be emulated by the rest of the world. He then attributed “China’s success” to the superiority of their socialist system.

12 Guest Column

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

Lockdown 1.0: The less focused scenes T he pandemic outbreak of CoVid-19 has meant that most of the busy cities of India have come to a standstill. The empty roads, the deserted footpaths etc have all symbolized the fact that the usually occupied citizens of the nation are forced to remain isolated at one’s place with limited or rare chances of locomotion.

However, the sad fact is that even after the first phase of lockdown which constituted for 21 days, the government has been forced

The biggest advantage of this lockdown has been the positive impact of it upon the environment. The less of vehicular or industrial emissions, reduction in harmful flow of sewage, minimal or no running of motorboats or ships, airways etc have all resulted in reduction of pollution level significantly from the earth’s surface. to constitute the second phase of lockdown which would last till 3rd of May, only to cope up with the menace of this outbreak. While a lot of focus has been grabbed by this infectious disease during this period, there are certain positives related to this lockdown as well that have actually blessed the mass at large.

The conspicuous fact is that in

order to understand the positives brought about by this quarantine period, we need to especially analyze two scenarios: the pre lockdown scenario and the post lockdown scenario. Speaking of the pre lockdown scenario, the citizens were leading a normal life which was an amalgamation of both luxuries as well as dilemmas of different kind. No doubt that the citizens were allowed to move and work freely according to their own wish before the lockdown, but certain issues like less of quality time for oneself or for the closed ones, issues related to health and the environment etc all kept bothering them and the core reason behind these issues, was the predicament of ‘less of time for an analysis at the individual level’. Hence, it won’t be wrong to say that the ‘lockdown’ factor has somewhere down the line given just the right amount of time to the people to rethink and create the much required balance.

The fact that is evident to one and all is that the initial part of the 21 days of lockdown was obviously a bit difficult for the crowd to handle since it was very new to them. But with the passing of time, people were seen adjusting to the same, and when people had no other option than to just stay at their respective places, they also tried to reform themselves by taking various necessary measures.

In today’s scenario, activities done by the masses can be broadly classified into two categories - those that are done by the youths and those that are done by the elderly. Among the various activities done by the youths, the use of social media or getting involved in one or the gadgets top the list of activities performed by most of the youths. And the palpable fact is that the youths have been more often than not blamed for wasting most of the time over social media or gadgets.

well, the lockdown has just come But the good news is that the as a blessing at the right time. lockdown period has just come as The lockdown has forced people a blessing in disguise for most of Bishaldeep Kakati to stay back at their respective the youths as well. The youths in homes and with no restaurants this quarantine period have been of pollution level significantly or food stalls; people have been found to invest all the time not from the earth’s surface. And compelled in one or the other way only over social media but also for this is evident from various news to stay away from junk food. In reading books, novels, watching items circulating, like reduction fact, many people have been also series and also in helping the of pollution level in New Delhi, found cooking healthy items at government directly or indirectly clear view of mountain ranges their homes and that has not only to tackle the adverse situations from specific spots, appearance of ensured consumption of healthy created by this pandemic by rare variety of birds and animals items by the burgess but also either delivering essentials to the people or by sanitizing different places.

The elderly people however, who are less interested about social media or gadgets have surprisingly shown their interest in knowing about social media or its technicalities in order to connect with different people around the globe. So, to be precise, the lockdown period has just brought the right balance in terms of this particular aspect for both the youths and the elderly.

In fact, the denizens over the years have Whistling Ducks that flocked to Dighalipukhuri during the lockdown also been complaining of various health issues etc. Therefore, in short, we can many of the citizens have slowly that have kept bothering them conclude that the lockdown has started developing interest in again and again. And the busy time also ensured that nature gets the baking or cooking different items. schedule of the people which has much required time to reconstruct Moreover, people quarantined led to improper eating habits has the ecological balance. at their homes, have also taken directly contributed to the health Thus the entire deliberation out time to exercise or do yoga issues that people have been definitely throws a light to the regularly, and the combination of suffering from. Furthermore, the fact that the lockdown has to healthy food and proper exercise tendency to eat more and more of an extent designed the lives of have just ensured that the citizens fast food or junk food either for human beings in an organized restore their health back at least to time issues or more so as a kind manner except for the restrictions some extent amidst the lockdown. attraction has altogether made of moving or working freely.

However, the biggest advantage the people to suffer from various However, it would be now an of this lockdown has been ailments like gastrointestinal interesting thing to observe in the the positive impact of it upon problems, obesity, liver problems upcoming days, the behavior of the environment. The less of etc. And along with this, lack the human beings as soon as this vehicular or industrial emissions, of proper exercise or yoga has lockdown is lifted. reduction in harmful flow of meant that the people at large (The author’s views are his own. sewage, minimal or no running have simply kept on degrading of motorboats or ships, airways their health with each passing G Plus may or may not subscribe etc have all resulted in reduction day. But even in this regard as to the same)

Sports body donates towards fight against covid-19 G Plus News @guwahatiplus

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n order to extend a helping hand as support against COVID-19 the Guwahati Lawn Tennis Association (GLTA) has handed over a

cheque of Rs. 25,000 towards the Assam Arogya Nidhi Trust.

GLTA President Kalyan Kumar Das and Vice-President Dr. Madhuryya Hazarika respectively handed over the cheque to Assam Health and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on April 13.

GUEST COLUMN

It is to be mentioned that on April 11, GLTA represented by its President Kalyan Kumar Das and Advisor Pronoy Bordoloi also handed over a cheque of Rs. 25,000 to Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal, towards the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

Business

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

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Around 80 quintals of local fish being sold in Guwahati amidst lockdown everyday Covid-19 red zone areas are barred from exporting fish for sale G Plus News @guwahatiplus

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he fisheries department of Assam government had decided to provide fish to the residents of Guwahati from 10th April and around 80 quintals of fish is being sold in city every day ever since. The Kamrup (Metro) district administration, as a part of its COVID-19 precautionary measures, allowed door-to-door sale of local fish in Guwahati from April 10. On the first day around 11 quintals of local fish was sold at the FISHFED counter located in Rupnagar. There are other wholesalers also in three major fish markets of Guwahati – Pandu, Bhetapara and Uzan Bazar who bring local fish and deliver to the local vendors who visit localities to sell fish at the door steps of the residents.

The managing director of FISHFED, Dr DJ Sharma, talking to G Plus said, “We are bringing fish from corporate societies located outside the Kamrup (Metropolitan) districts like Chandrapur, Mayong etc. But we are making sure that fish is being not imported from any of

the Covid-19 hotspots.”

Talking about the local markets where wholesalers are bringing fish, Sanjiv Choudhury, the fisheries department official in-charge for local markets said, “We have ordered all the wholesalers not to bring fish from red zone areas. The deputy commissioners and police heads of those districts are also informed that vehicles carrying fish should not be allowed to move or ply outside the districts.”

There are five red zone areas identified in Assam – Golaghat, Nalbari, Dhubri, Goalpara and Morigaon.

South Salmara, Lakhimpur, Kamrup, Cachar, Karimganj, Kamrup (Metro) and Hailakandi have been identified as orange zones and rest of the districts are green zones.

Therefore the fish wholesalers who are permitted to sell fish claim that they mostly bring fish from Chandrapur and Barpeta.

The fisheries department is not generating any revenue from the fish sale now as they are selling fish at FISHFED at the same prices that they purchase from corporate societies.

Small fish like Bhangon, Rohu, Common Carp etc are sold at

A customer buying fish at FISHFED in Rupnagar, Guwahati| G Plus Photo Rs 250 per kilo whereas fish of more than 1 kilo weight like Rohu, Bhokua etc are sold at Rs 350 per kilo.

The FISHFED is maintaining all norms of social distancing and have also provided uniforms and masks to the fish sellers at the counters.

The wholesalers have also

been asked to maintain social distancing norms. Even the fish vendors have been asked to maintain strict social distancing norms while delivering fish in the localities.

FISHFED sells around 20 quintals every day, Pandu – around 8 quintals, Bhetapara – around 25 quintals and Uzan

Bazar – around 26 quintals.

Hence, around 80 quintals of local fish is being sold in Guwahati amidst the lockdown.

There are still residents who claim that there is unavailability of fish. The fisheries department has claimed that after 20th April there will be no shortage of fish.

Lockdown: Assam youths come together to help students with free online classes

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group of friends from Assam have come together to provide free online classes to help students in need, during this lockdown period.

The group of friends includes students and working professionals from the state who have come forward to help students learn subjects like maths, science, physics, and chemistry.

The online classes are conducted for the students of class 9 to 12 in English and Assamese.

Speaking to G Plus, one of the team members said, “Due to the lockdown, students have been

facing difficulties in their learning process. So, we decided to provide our future generation with free online tutorial classes in our mother tongue.”

Further, going forward they also plan to include biology, English and a few more subjects to their classes.

They initiated the classes by creating a WhatsApp group for students to join. Currently, they have more than 200 students from various districts of Assam including Jorhat, Sivasagar, Golaghat, Dibrugarh, Kamrup, Morigaon, Tinsukia, Udalguri and Lakhimpur to name a few.

The online coaches are a bunch of working professionals and students from various universities including Tezpur University, Dibrugarh University, Gauhati University, IIT Jodhpur and Jorhat Institute of Science & Technology (JIST) among others.

They provide the class timings, study materials, video links, and other important information to the students through the WhatsApp group. The classes are conducted via video calling applications and later those videos are uploaded on Youtube so that students can watch them again.

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The minister’s confusion

omments on social media, made especially by prominent personalities, tend to create major confusion and the latest by the Union Minister for Law, Communications & Technologies and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad is no exception. The union minister tweeted some information regarding what will open and what will not after 20th April and this only succeeded in confusing the entire country.

Along with other information, he tweeted that private and commercial establishments will be open after 20th April. Now, no one can doubt the genuineness of Ravi Shankar Prasad’s Twitter handle, more so the media and this became a sensational story.

As soon as he tweeted, many media organisations started reporting that commercial and private establishments will open post 20th April.

Now, the ambit of “private establishments” is huge restaurants, malls, bars, swimming pools, saloons, IT firms and many more fall under private establishments. The owners and the employees of such establishments immediately started raising questions and the general feeling of the lockdown being truly eased way ahead of time gathered ground. The media organisations thereafter started questioning the state bureaucrats who instantly clarified that such private establishments will not open

under any circumstances immediately after 20th April.

The point of concern is that the state and the central governments are spending a huge amount of money in spreading awareness to combat fake news and a tweet from an honourable union minister in times of such special emergency in the country appears to be terribly irresponsible. The “fake news pandemic” in our country has taken away many lives in the past; in our very own Assam the infamous Dokmoka lynching case where two Guwahati youths were lynched purely on the basis of a fake piece of news circulating on social media continues to haunt our people. The tweets by leaders and politicians are always taken seriously by media organisations and such Twitter accounts have become valuable sources of genuine news for many journalists. But this tweet of Ravi Shankar Prasad has again raised questions about the dependability of such Twitter accounts because in spite of the leader tweeting important information, the journalists were left to double validate the same with the bureaucrats of the country.

The political leaders of the country, especially those in the government, really need to exercise caution when wanting to disseminate news as vital as this and not create confusions in the process.

Swapnil Bharali (Editor) @swapnilbharali

Coronavirus’ burden on the economy

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s the lockdown enters phase 2 and now India is discussing relaxations starting April 20th, we have to realize that we’re in this for the long haul. From 20th April, businesses will slowly dip their foot in the cold waters and see whether they would like to swim or just sit back and wait this out until the 3rd of

May. With that in mind, the last decade has seen India’s ‘renteer class’ grow. This class has typically survived on steep rental incomes with steep expenditures (including paying taxes). But what a large chunk of people in this group have failed to do is invest this money in creating sustainable livelihood/business opportunities. This money came in, came out and is now a mere Facebook memory.

That being said, the COVID-19 has left property owners in stretches like GS Road high and dry. With business establishments and companies seeking “Force Majeure” and the government asking landlords to not seek rent, the ‘renteer class’ has been backed to a corner. Even if landlords accept a delay in collection of rents, are banks willing to accommodate delay in payment of loans? Have EMIs been waived off?

GDP growth in the country was already projected on the lower end and the COVID-19 has impacted this even further. The IMF’s estimation of the world economy has a loss of $9 trillion and even more, if the problem isn’t tackled.

The challenge here is that the economic backbone has been broken.

With the daily wage workers out of jobs and homelessness becoming a major add on in times of social distancing, where is the nation heading and where are we getting out of this?

Of course, I do not want to paint a morbid picture, but just pause and think – if you don’t know where your next meal or paycheque is coming… what will you do?

Sidharth Bedi Varma @sid_bv

Stand as one; more so against fake news

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n a democracy, media is considered to be bringing the ultimate truth. People believe what they see, hear and read and it becomes imperative for media to give legitimate and authentic news. If not, it jeopardises the truth, the ramifications of which can be damaging to say the least.

It is said that in the last couple of days, there has been a lot of outrage on the misinformation put out by media houses and it is

A lot of unverified news floats around - more so because every person operating social media is now a reporter, journalist, writer or editor of sorts. very heartening that people have been talking about it. However, when the media houses do clarify, it hardly reaches those who have already consumed the misinformation. Some people will have to call them out the minute they see anything wrongly informed in the media.

Now, when we speak about media, it encapsulates not just mainstream media but a very big role today is played by social media. A lot of unverified news floats around - more so because every person operating social media is now a reporter, journalist, writer or editor of sorts. They have the tendency to distort any kind of news and this eventually percolates to the unsuspecting viewer or reader who is left with no other option but to believe what is at hand.

Most of the time, it has been advised not to forward anything on WhatsApp without knowing the veracity of the news. But as usual, people make the blunder of forwarding news, views or videos without a thought about the consequences it might create

and some do it knowingly. And it is always difficult to identify who initially shared the fake news.

Recently, a health worker died of a brain haemorrhage in Madhya Pradesh. The entire news was communalised with the false narrative that she died after people from a community attacked her. However, when Altnews contacted the family, a friend said she died of a brain haemorrhage and no one from any community attacked her.

It is very disheartening to see news being communalised at a time when the whole world is fighting the pandemic. Shouldn’t we be fighting the virulent situation together, instead of diverting from the main issue and concentrating on petty matters such as religion? Aren’t we in this together or do we find joy in portraying to the world that religion is far more important than life itself?

Having said this, I would request the returnees of the Nizamuddin Markas Tablighi Jamaat to kindly come forward, if you still haven’t and get yourself tested. This is the most important religion for you right now. The state and the country need to get back on its tracks and start working. After this lockdown, we will have to start from scratch. The economy of the country and the globe has gone berserk and it is the duty of every individual to help it stand on its feet again.

Talking about economy, there was a message in circulation where Ratan Tata discredits expert opinion on the economic crisis in the post Coronavirus world. However, the message ends with a positive note, “The coronavirus is no different. I do not have any doubt about that.

We will defeat the Corona hands down. The Indian economy will bounce back in a great manner.”

A whole lot of people including celebrities tweeted the graphic, which was in circulation on WhatsApp, to multiple forwards.

Soon, Ratan Tata took to Twitter and rubbished the message attributed to him, saying that he has not said or written such a post and if he did, he would do so on his official channels. If people look

rBullying on social media

O pinion Tinat Atifa Masood

closely at the message, it is replete with grammatical mistakes, very unlikely of Ratan Tata.

During this 40-day lockdown, mainstream media including social media has been filled with fake news, misinformation and communal rhetoric. And people haven’t stopped to give false reports on nature too.

A two month old video from Ahmedabad originally posted by the Times of India on February 12, 2020 in their YouTube channel, showing hundreds of birds flocking in the sky and moving together in a pattern, which is called murmuration, was circulated as a shot from Chandigarh’s Kalka Road saying, “Nature is back to the basics,” and posted by a Facebook user on April 9, 2020, which has been shared close to 800 times.

There is and will be no end to fake news by media till the time they choose to give out the truth and the facts that are. And leaders in the government and opposition should be stringent about imparting the exact data and not some hearsay or what they think is right. Any kind of false narrative, no matter who the person may be, should be nipped in the bud and not allowed to go forward.

On a parting note, we all need to salute and give a standing ovation to the Assam Police for tracking false news and posts in social media and warning that stringent action will be taken against all who defy the law in the present circumstances that we are all facing right now.

More important is to fight the virus by staying home and obeying the rules set down by the government. This is not the time to spew hatred and bring to the fore communal differences. We need to stand united on all fronts.

Letter to the Editor

With trembling legs and shaky fingers I stared at my phone at another notification. The popup message was from a social media account. One more troll, one more humiliating viral post. I started explaining to myself: this shall pass too. Weakly I got up to wash my face and tried to sleep again. I jolted up with one more notification, it was the same. I wish I could turn things back. I just want to run away. The thoughts of a social media victim made me think for days. We consider bullying as a crime, we consider harassment as a severe offensive crime but is it not important to understand the fact that social media trolling is a part of harassment too? Studies have shown that many in course of time have ended up taking their lives and making some hasty decisions because of social media bullying. And who is responsible for their death? Are we not the ones responsible? Will it not be you and I, the very creator and spreader of the laughing trend be responsible for the mental harm that has been caused to someone? Do you want to be responsible for this crime?

Susmita Baruah Guwahati, Assam

In Focus

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

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Dist admin facilitates door-to-door supply of mutton, chicken and eggs in Guwahati

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he district administration has been taking various measures to cater to the nutritional needs of the citizens during this lockdown period.

As the people Guwahati had remained deprived of nonvegetarian food during the early part of the lockdown, the administration has been trying to facilitate the supply of meat and fish at the doorsteps of the citizens maintaining proper lockdown protocol.

As such, nine more vendors were permitted to supply mutton, chicken and eggs under the Assam Livestock and Poultry Corporation Limited, Khanapara with effect from April 17.

Only fresh products are to be distributed door-to-door.

While maintenance of cold chain is mandatory, vendors with refrigerator/insulated van will move with packet-chilled meat packages of half kg and 1 kg.

The rate of the dressed and packed chicken is fixed at Rs. 240 per kg and that of dressed and packed mutton is fixed at Rs. 650 per kg. The rate of eggs per tray is Rs. 140.

Earlier, the district administration had also permitted 35 vendors to sell broiler chicken

with prices fixed at Rs. 150 for live birds and Rs. 220 for dressed chicken.

Guwahatians took to the social media handles of G Plus and shared their thoughts on the administration’s decision of fixing prices of meat and eggs.

Kaustav Mani Mahanta said, “Guwahati’s population is 23.8 lakhs and only a few vendors have been given permission to sell. All numbers are busy. If you are going to buy from other butchers they will charge for dressed chicken Rs 350-380 per kilo and in some places it’s per hen. Mutton per kilo is Rs 1000. Bhouka Fish per kilo Rs 600-800 and Rou Fish per kilo Rs 500-700. Commission corruption is going on. It’s just like staying out of the crime by issuing a letter and fixing norms in paper. Nothing has been applied on the field.”

Tonmoy Chetia said, “Make the basic necessities like groceries & vegetables available through door to door services. Forget about meat and fish, there is no feast going on.”

Appealing to the administration Amarjeet Yadav said, “I request our honourable ministers, cops and other officials to ensure door to door delivery because what we are seeing is large number of people gathering when the vans are coming and rather than

door to door delivery, chicken is distributed undressed to empty vans as soon as possible which is violating the lockdown agenda and social distancing. We have stayed at home for almost 23 days and all efforts of our cops, ministers, officials and all others who are engaged in will go in waste.”

Sharing her experience Nandini C. Bhagawati said, “I contacted the concerned person who delivers

meat but when I asked them if they would deliver door to door as told, they refused and said we have to go to a particular point to collect.

If this is the case what is the use of social distancing? The district administration should clarify.”

Kushal Rajbongshi who tried reaching out for the service said, “I called on the registered mobile number which is updated by the government but the person

refused door to door supply.”

Complaining about the situation Parikshit Kumar Kar said, “I haven’t seen any door to door supply. Almost all the numbers provided are switched off. The vendors are charging high but there is no control from administration. There is no vigilance of the situation nor do they provide any complaint number.”

The news of 50,000 PPE Kits arriving in Guwahati by a special flight from China created a buzz among G Plus followers. Some comments in reaction to the news are given below.

Avishek Dey

Hrishikesh Hazarika

Abhishek Soni

Anurag Deb

Here in India every opportunity is being used as political advantage. A few months back people of Assam were against CAA, CAB and then the main culprit was the ruling party of Assam and then suddenly they turn to be Gods. Sorry for my comments. We are not fighting a pandemic but we are making our political ground strong. Some won’t understand this and I don’t even expect but I see a hard future. People should consider everything that is coming but should not forget that ‘What wrong is wrong’.

Ironic! The virus came from China. And now we want to buy kits from the same place? Quite some business China has done. First spread the virus worldwide. Then provide them the testing kit and money rains. And our country is still lagging behind in the medical sector. They talk about highly equipped hospitals and look today, we don’t have anything. All we are doing is importing - that too from a country which is on the verge of destroying the world.

Dhanraj Koirala

PPE kits should be tested before delivering to healthcare workers as many countries have complained against faulty PPE kits sent by china. We can’t afford to risk our healthcare workers’ life. They have already destroyed the entire world without using a single nuclear weapon so we should be very alert.

We can’t take the risk of the lives of our doctors.

Why are we depending on these kits? Aren’t the ‘Thali Bajao’, ‘Diya Jalao’ thing going to save this nation from the virus? Also, we were moving towards ‘Made in India’ concept, so after so many years of this current government what you want us to believe? That we failed? We lag in every sector. We don’t have the best equipment that today we have to import it from China which currently can’t even save itself.

I feel proud of Himanta Biswa Sarma for whatever he is currently doing for our state. I see no minister putting so much effort as much this man has made in getting everything as fast as possible to making temporary hospitals. A big salute and I hope these kits will help our doctors to fight this deadly disease as soon as possible. At least now all those people who were shouting that doctors are not given PPE kits will keep their mouths shut.

16 Trotter

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

In Mumbai civic body’s post, Tulsi refuses home tour Kyunki Lockdown

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he Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation took Instagram users on a trip down memory lane when they shared a clip from the opening song of Kyunki...Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi to drive home a point about social distancing. The popular show, which had turned union minister Smriti Irani into a household name for her role as Tulsi Virani, ended over a decade ago, but fans still remember the title song which begins with Tulsi inviting viewers into her home.

In 2020, however, Tulsi is not letting anyone inside, thanks to the coronavirus lockdown. In the civic body’s post, the opening sequence of the show’s title song has been played in reverse, so it begins with Tulsi greeting viewers with a namaste before shutting the door.

The BMC’s post comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus till May 3. During the lockdown, citizens have been asked to stay indoors to practice social distancing and avoid stepping out, unless it is for essentials. “’Kyunki Saans Bhi Bahut Smart Thi.’ She

refused the home tour to any visitors, for the safety of her family members during the lockdown,” wrote the BMC while sharing the video. Since being posted online, the creative coronavirus advisory has been viewed over 17,000 times on the photo and video sharing platform, collecting a ton of compliments. “Hats off to the creative minds,” wrote one person in the comments section, while another said: “Amazing creativity.”

It also impressed Smriti Irani, who reposted it on Instagram urging people to stay indoors.

(Source: ndtv)

Bakery customer spends $1,000 on a single doughnut

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bakery in Ohio was left stunned when a customer paid $1,000 - or approximately Rs 76,000 - for a single doughnut. Tremont Goodie Shop in Upper Arlington revealed that an old-time patron of their bakery shelled out the astonishing amount in the midst of the coronavirus crisis when many small businesses are struggling to stay afloat and thanked him for his kind gesture.

Sharing the news on Facebook, Tremont Goodie Shop said that the customer ordered a single custard doughnut and paid $1,000 for it. “We are in tears,” they wrote while sharing a photo that appears to show the doughnut in a paper bag with a heart drawn on it. “This is a custard doughnut for $1,000 to help keep us in business. What a blessing.”

According to a daily, the generous customer - who has not been named - had been visiting the bakery “for 40 or 50 years.”

“He called and asked us if he would be able to give us $1,000 for his doughnut,” said Emilie Smith, the manager of the family-owned bakery. “I got choked up. He asked again ‘would that be ok?’ because there was silence on the line.”

She said she managed to choke out a “yes, of course, it would be ok!” and that she had never expected this generosity.

The man’s act of kindness also touched many on social media.

“That is absolutely amazing! I am so grateful for folks who can do something like that,” wrote one person on Facebook.

(Source: ndtv)

Rusty knife embedded in man’s head for 26 years after being mugged

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surgeon has removed a rusty knife from a man’s head which was embedded there for 26 years. The four-inch blade had been there since he was violently mugged in 1994. In 2012, the patient, 76, named only as Mr Duorijie sought medical attention after he began suffering from a chronic headache. But the knife was kept in his head because it was believed to pose a threat to his life if he had it removed.

It was finally taken out at Shandong Qianfoshan Hospital in China, which described the case as a ‘miracle’. Images supplied by the facility in Jinan, capital city of Shandong Province, show the intact fruit knife blade retrieved from the back of goatherd Mr Duorijie’s head.

Mr Duorijie, who is from the rural county of Haiyan in China’s northwestern Qinghai Province, underwent two procedures on April 2 and 8. At the end of March, he was flown more than 1,860 miles for the pro bono treatment after medics touring the countryside discovered his shocking case, which went largely untreated due to the limitations of local medical facilities.

(Source: metro.co.uk)

200 guests show up to couple’s Zoom wedding

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ith families and friends unable to come together to celebrate new babies, big birthdays, and yes, weddings, too, people all around the world have had to make the hard decision to cancel or postpone their milestone events as the coronavirus pandemic has taken over. But one Texas couple decided that just because they couldn’t gather their loved ones in person, that didn’t mean they weren’t going to still say “I do,” surrounded by the warmth of those who love them most. So, they took to the platform we’ve all been heading to, to connect these days and hosted a Zoom wedding instead.

Originally, when stay-at-home orders were first enforced, Kaitlin Dilworth and Ethan Pollack of Austin, Texas, decided to postpone their March 28 wedding.

In fact, they rescheduled the entire event for next year, putting down deposits for the venue, band, and catering.

But as their original wedding date grew closer and closer, Kaitlin and Ethan, who’d been together for eight years, got talking. After all, they already had the marriage license, rings, outfits, and an officiant.

Why

shouldn’t they get married?

“We had waited this long already and realized that it was never about the wedding, it was about the marriage,” Kaitlin said. “So we just did it.”

The couple sent out email instructions to guests letting them know that the ceremony was back on and dropped their marriage license off with their officiant to sign (maintaining proper social distancing protocol, of course).

On March 28, they had almost 200 people tune in via Zoom to watch them say their vows, and everyone found their own way to get involved, too.

Some friends wore tuxes, others sent in video toasts, and several mailed them bottles of champagne.

(Source: bestlife)

Fiction

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

The Spring Flower D eta, what will you give me for Bihu?” asked 9-year-old Junuka. Amrit picked his daughter on his lap. “Tell me, what do you want?” Amrit’s voice did not crack. “A doll and a dress,” Junuka whispered. Her mother Rina had warned her not to ask her father for anything this Bihu.

“I will give you. Later, ok?”

Amrit said lovingly. “Ok. Has Bihu been postponed because of corona?”

She wanted confirmation. “Yes.” Amrit kissed her cheek.

“Listen. Are you there?” Rina called out from the kitchen.

“Yes. What is it?”

“Come here.”

All Li had with him were photographs of his parents. At night he stood in front of the window and cried as loud as he could. The people in Linjiang Avenue who lived near their apartment heard him cry…..

What if there is a medical emergency?

What if he has to pay the rent? In the last few days Amrit realised that not thinking about “what ifs” was both peaceful and pleasant.....

Amrit placed Junuka on the floor and went inside the kitchen.

“I need rice, pulses, sugar and spices today.” Rina spoke over her shoulder. “But I had gone to Budhin’s shop the day before,” Amrit tried to recollect exactly what he had bought. “Yes, but it was milk, tea, potatoes and onions.” Rina was prepared.

Amrit had last counted out two hundred eighty three rupees in his wallet. “Ok,” he said. His mother Minoti came out of her room at that moment. “Ma, I will get your medicines today.” Amrit suddenly remembered and said apologetically. “Ok ok. Let’s see if we survive corona first. Then we will take medicines.” Minoti knew she was in the high risk category and hence nervous. “It will be good to die now. There’s nothing more left for me in this world to do.” Amrit looked at the wrinkled skin on her frail hands.

“Ma, what will I become?” he had asked as a toddler once. “Oh,

you will become a big officer, in a big office,” Minoti had replied with conviction.

With some money left behind by his late father Amrit chose Ganeshguri to start his own eatery. Minoti lovingly named it “Togor.” “You are starting your business in spring and Togor is the flower of spring.” Everyday, Amrit would keep some money for himself, saved some to pay his boys and with the rest bought what was needed for the next day. With the little that he saved he married Rina and started his family.

“Togor” was in a bylane, with bamboo walls and a tin roof.

Amrit had placed four tables with four benches to seat four people each. Rotis, parathas and chicken pulao sold well during lunch hours. Amrit felt he was doing all right, though sometimes he wondered how much he could have earned with a bigger, proper restaurant.

Hu Li Jun looked out of the large arched window of the living room at the serene Yangtze, through the drizzling morning rain. The skyscrapers of Hankou were visible on the opposite bank.

The Industrial & Commercial Bank of China was the silhouette Li gazed at, where his father Zhang Yong worked.

He had bought this apartment with help from his friend Mr. Junjie, a top man of the Party in Wuhan, at Linjiang Avenue. Two days ago, Li decided to start his life again and go to work, open his restaurant “Zhizi” and start to cook and feed customers. He saw a few cars cruising along the avenue and pedestrians walking briskly wearing face masks. The pain and despair he had felt, for every day and every night, locked up in this apartment, for the last three months seemed like a memory now. He wanted to cry out in anger once more, but did not. He turned away from the window, walked up to the polished wooden cabinet and lit the last remaining incense stick in front of his parents’ photograph. They had died of the virus and he was not allowed to attend their cremation. The people in white suits did it for him.

On a cold December evening they had all sat down together for dinner. They were celebrating 25 years of “Zhizi” the restaurant on the banks of Lake Shahu that Wang Zhing, Li’s mother, had set up and handed over to Li to manage. They got the Xiaozhan rice from Tianjin to celebrate.

Li had gone in the morning to Huanan to get the bat meat which his mother wanted to cook. She preferred fruit bats but there were none that day.

Friends of Li’s father always praised his mother’s cooking.

Fruit bats didn’t smell and could be cooked easily. “For the rest of the species, extra love is required.” Wang told Li a long time ago. The meat Li got that day emitted the familiar smell of urine and faintly of faeces, but his mother was an artist with bats. She deep fried the meat and added onions, garlic and chilli pepper liberally. Had it been fruit bats Wang might have made a ‘palauan soup’ with coconut milk, spices and ginger.

“So why don’t you tell us about Meili?” Zhang Wong asked his son on the dinner table. Li was embarrassed. He had guessed much earlier that his parents knew about Meili. He had met Meili last spring when she came to “Zhizi” with her friends from

Jianghan University.

Both fancied each other. His mother saw his reddening ears.

“Son, it’s ok. You can take your time. Your father is pulling your leg.” Zhang Wong gulped some beer, and chewing the meat mixed with rice, looked at Li and said, “Don’t worry. Just let us know when you are sure.”

It was in the first week of January that Meili called him. He was preparing an order for Lotus Root and Pork soup when the phone rang. “Hello Li. I have to tell you something.” “Yes Meili.

What’s up?” Li detected urgency in Meili’s voice. “My father is taking us to Shanghai today.

All of us are leaving.” “Is it? But why?” “I don’t know. He came back from work and asked us to get ready. I will call you once we reach there.” Meili said. After a pause Li asked, “Is it because of the flu?” “Maybe, I don’t know. I have to go now. Bye.” Meili hung

up. It was in the news that there was a mysterious flu in Wuhan and many people were infected.

He didn’t want to admit it but knew in his heart that it’s the reason for Meili’s father taking the family away. Li and Meili never talked since that day.

The lockdown in Wuhan was announced late January and the police were everywhere. Anybody caught outside would be brutally dealt with. Wang once thought she heard gunshots. Within a day Wuhan became a ghost town. For Li’s family, it started with the headaches and then fever. First his father, then Li and finally his mother. “Please help. My parents are sick. I have to take them to hospital. Let us go out of the house.” Li said calling the local police station. The doctors and police came within minutes, covered in white. They did not enter the house. They sprayed chemicals all over them before whisking his parents away. “We will treat them. You stay in the house.” One police officer told Li gruffly. “But I want to go with them.” “No. You stay. We will take them.” Twelve days later Li received a call. “Your parents are dead. We will conduct the

cremations tomorrow.”

Li broke down. “I want to go. I want to see them one last time.

Please.” “No. You stay in the house. It will be taken care of.”

All Li had with him were photographs of his parents. At night he stood in front of the window and cried as loud as he could. The people in Linjiang Avenue who lived near their apartment heard him cry. The Yangtze kept flowing with the stars shining above. Li looked at the river and raised his voice till his throat hurt, till the tears dried, till his head felt like it would shatter. He wanted the river to carry the sound of his crying on its waters all over the world.

His phone rang. It was Ratul, his employee. Amrit sighed deeply, there was no escaping this, he thought. “Hello Ratul.

How are you? Where are you?”

“I am ok dada. I am at home.

Do you have any news when it’s going to open dada?”

Amrit came to the point. He knew it was futile to delay the inevitable. “No Ratul. I don’t know when it will be lifted.

Listen, talk to Jiten. Both of you

17

Pranjal Sarma come to my home in the evening.

I will arrange some money for you. Part of last month’s salary.

Whatever I can.” “Ok dada. We will come in the evening.” Ratul sounded relieved. “Ok. I’ll be waiting.”

“Rina, listen. I am going out to the ATM. Will go to Budhin’s and get what you told me to.

Won’t take long. Tell Ma I will get her medicines too.” The ATM was nearby. Amrit inserted his card and looked at the balance.

Seven thousand seven hundred sixty eight rupees. He did a fast calculation. He had to give Ratul and Jiten fifteen hundred each.

Amrit knew it was not enough for them to last a month, but it was the best he could do. That left four thousand seven hundred for him. The list Rina gave him along with the medicines for Ma would be around one thousand rupees. He will have three thousand seven hundred rupees with him. He must keep aside fifteen hundred rupees for his purchases once the lockdown got lifted, to start his business. He hoped his landlord will excuse his rent for the month. This left him fifteen hundred odd rupees only. There were still sixteen more days to go until 3rd May. Amrit did not want to think about what if the lockdown got extended. What if there is a medical emergency? What if he has to pay the rent? In the last few days he realised that not thinking about “what ifs” is both peaceful and pleasant. He came out of the ATM and started walking towards Budhin’s grocery store. He paused for a few moments in front of Krishna Boro’s house and deeply inhaled the fragrance of the Togor flowers. They were in full bloom.

Amrit felt strangely light as he started walking faster.

Li stepped out of the house for the first time in three months. He locked the door, crossed the wide road and started walking on the pavement on the river bank. It was a clear but chilly April day.

He soon came to his favourite spot near the Wuchang Jiangtan Park. The five Zhizi trees looked glorious covered with the little white flowers. His mother would sometimes smell of Zhizi flowers when she lighted incense sticks.

With the fragrance all around him, he started walking faster.

Neither Amrit nor Li will ever know that “Togor” and “Zhizi” are the names of the same spring flower!

18 Fun Horoscope of the week

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020 These predictions are based on the month of birth, and are about an individual’s work environment, parents and extended family.

Jayashree Bose Certified Feng Shui, Chinese astrology, date selection consultant & author, www.facebook.com/geoprinciples

Share your ideas with your seniors or generally build a relationship with people at work on 19th and 23rd April. On 18th April be wary of dealing with the opposite gender. 21st April avoid scheduling any meetings, you are bound to have disagreements. 22nd April you will be emotionally hurt either by your parents or seniors.

20th and 24th April will be ideal days for you share your ideas with your seniors and host your important meetings. Just avoid dealing with your seniors and your extended family on 19th, 21st and 22nd April. On 21st April you will be emotionally hurt by your seniors or parent’s words and actions. On 22nd April you could have disagreements with your boss.

20th April you could feel your parents or your boss don’t appreciate your efforts at all. On 21st April avoid planning or hosting any important meetings, things will not go according to plan.

23rd April avoid hosting any meetings you could easily get into confrontations.

Utilize 22nd and 23rd April to share your ideas with your seniors and host your important meetings. Avoid scheduling any important meetings on 24th April, you could get into disagreements. You could have issues with your seniors or your extended family on 19th and 21st April. 19th April avoid trusting anyone with your secrets.

23rd and 24th April will be great days for you to share your ideas with your seniors and host your important meetings. 18th April you could be betrayed or emotionally hurt by someone at work.

19th April be careful of your words and action as you will create your own problems, it will also be a slow day, don’t over plan.

23rd and 24th April will be excellent days for you to connect with your work mates and schedule important meetings. Your seniors will be receptive to your ideas.

On 23rd April you could feel your seniors and/or your parents are ungrateful, they don’t appreciate you. 20th April will be a slow day for you.

On 18th April you could be betrayed by someone at work and/or emotionally hurt by your family. 21st April be careful of your words and action as you will create your own problems, avoid hosting important meeting on this day. 22nd April will be great to host your important meetings and share your ideas with your boss/ seniors or just connect with them.

18th April will be a great day for you to build a rapport with your seniors and people at work, host your important meetings on this day. Your seniors will be receptive to your ideas. Avoid scheduling any meetings on 21st April, results will not be as you expected. 22nd April will be a slow day for you.

18th and 19th April will be ideal days to share your ideas with your boss or connect with people at work and family. 23rd April will be a slow day and things may not work out as planned. Avoid socializing or making any promises on 20th April, avoid over planning for 21st April.

This will be an average week for you. Just lay low and don’t draw too much attention to yourself. 18th April you could have a disagreement with your senior or work associate, don’t schedule any important meetings. 19th and 20th April will be excellent days for you to connect with your work mates and schedule important meetings. On 24th April be careful of your words and actions as you will create your own problems.

Watch yourself on 19th and 22nd April, avoid making any promises or getting into a confrontation. Share your ideas with your seniors or generally build a relationship with people at work on 18th April, host your important meetings on this day. You could feel emotionally betrayed by your seniors or extended family on 24th April, not a day to share secrets.

18th and 22nd April are ideal days for you to mingle with your seniors, people at work and build your work network. Host your important meetings on these dates. Avoid everyone and anyone on 20th April, you are bound to get into a disagreement.

23rd April you could feel emotionally hurt.

Which popular tourist spot got its name from the fact that Sati’s eyes fell at that spot when Vishnu cut it into 51 pieces?

6.

Antonio Fernandez Rodriguez is seen here drinking his immortal creation.

Which very much feared (though baseless) product did he create?

Dr. Soubhadra Chakrabarty This quiz has been brought to you by Brain Jam, a property of Priya Communications

Dilbert By Scott Adams

Sudoku 6

7

6 1 8 5 8 44 53 37 7 9 6 5 7 8 3 1 9 93 4 5

7

29 3 4 1 82 6 2

7 54 3 5 4 9 3 7 1 1 7

8 3 57

Daily 18-Apr-2020 DailySudoku: Sudoku:Sat Fri 10-Apr-2020

(c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2020. All rights reserved. (c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2020. All rights reserved.

5.

veryhard hard

last week solution 63 27 19 75 56 71 38 94 95 82 44 53 37 43 72 89 14 55 61 47 88 99 26 12 22 16 93 61 79 68 85 36 41 34 57 28

48 6 8 29 13 2 9 6 54 38 1 7 3 82 97 65 4 2 15 61 96 8 7 98 22

45 71 66 89

33 3 1 5 7 46 54 7 5 4 43 85 98 54 2 9 31 74 12 89 3 1 6 59 27

Daily 18-Apr-2020 DailySudoku: Sudoku:Sat Fri 10-Apr-2020

(c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2020. All rights reserved. (c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2020. All rights reserved.

Which famous artist is credited to have designed the Dream Sequence in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 movie, Spellbound?

curio-city

4.

adjective British Slang. exhausted; very tiredextremely full; crowded; jammed: a room chockablock with furniture and plants.

1. The Kolkata Kati Rolls

Which cricketer holds the record for scoring the fastest century in Ranji Trophy?

2. Treaty of Yandaboo

3.

[ chok-uh-blok ]

adjective [nak-erd]

3. Rishabh Pant, in 48 balls for Delhi against Jharkhand in

Which treaty signed in 1826 to end the First Anglo-Burmese War also led to the ceding of Assam to the British by Burma?

chockablock

2016

2.

Word of the week Word knackered of the week

4. Salvador Dali

Which popular snack was invented by Nizam Restaurant, Kolkata in early 1960s when they replaced the heavy iron skewers with lightweight bamboo ones?

5. Nainital

1.

6. Corona Beer

curio-city

veryhard hard

http://www.dailysudoku.com/ http://www.dailysudoku.com/

Lifestyle

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

Science behind Vaastu T he Hindus have believed since the Vedic era that everything that exists in the universe, including our bodies, is made of five elements.

These five elements are earth (geomagnetic energy), water (gravitational energy), fire (solar energy), air (wind energy) and space (cosmic radiation).

These forces have a powerful influence on us, as well as the environment. Vaastu is the science of building our houses and environment in such a way so that we are in harmony with these forces of nature. If we are not aligned with solar and geomagnetic forces we may experience illness, misfortune and struggle. If the natural forces are against us, we will face a lot of problems in terms of health, wealth, peace and happiness.

The east is the source of solar, ultra-violet rays, and the north is the source of magnetic energy. We should keep our

environment open to these life supporting energies. So the east and north should be kept vacant, lighter and open.

The harmful infra-redrays, which come from the south, and the destructive gamma rays, coming from the west, cause disruption within the environment and our bodies.

Using the principles of Vaastu Shastra, we protect ourselves from these rays. So, heavier, thicker and higher structures are recommended at the south and the west.

Each of these elements is associated with a particular

direction.

When to start Vaastu consultation?

One should start following

Vaastu from the moment he/ she plans to purchase a plot.

It is said that the Vaastu of a plot should be assessed at first before proceeding. If the

19

Hemanta Kumar Sarmah

Engineer, Businessman, Advanced Pranic Healer and Su Jok Acupressure specialist.

Vaastu of the plot is wrong, then it must be corrected at first. A defective plot can spell disaster.

The next step after correction of the plot is to make a Vaastu compliant plan of the house. The architect or designer should adhere to the Vaastu norms. This will include management of the space outside the building and placing the source of water, storage tank, rooms, balconies, verandah, toilets and staircase according to directions.

There are certain steps like when and where to start construction as per Vaastu.

The last stage is during the final touches like painting and interior decoration. There are Vaastu rules for these too.

How to use your limited resources to the fullest during this quarantine? in taste.

Sohini Chakraborty Chatterjee

yy Curd is more easily digestible than milk.

W

e are going through a time which the mankind has never faced before. We have to keep in mind multiple things while preparing our daily home menu.

Firstly, we have to fulfil the nutritional demand of our body and build up immunity.

Secondly, we have to limit going outside for buying food materials as much as possible.

Thirdly, we have to store foods in moderate amounts to avoid going out frequently.

Fourthly, we have to maintain proper hygiene and sanitation and protect ourselves from being infected.

Thus to meet all these requirements at a time we must prepare food at our home intelligently as food is the basic necessity we need.

Instead of making multiple items like roti-sabji etc, we can opt for stuffed parathas like gobi ka paratha, muli ka paratha, aloo ka paratha etc, because it will add variety to daily diet, it is nutritious and can also help in saving fuel.

yy Curd contains prebiotics which are extremely gut healthy. yy Curd or other milk products are not as perishable as milk.

Instead of normal rice and dal, we can make khichdi or fried rice or rajma chawal because: yy Rice is deficient in amino acid lysine (present in dal) and dal is deficient in amino acid methionine (present in rice), thus if we mix both we will get all the amino acids.

during this lockdown to combat our hunger pangs or to use as snacks we are really doing something unhealthy, because due to less physical activities we are already in threat to become couch-potato.

Moreover, if we add more fat, trans fat or simple sugars to our diet our weight will increase multiple folds, thus we have to make a few healthy snacks like:

yy Rice mixed with dal or rice with vegetables are wholesome food options as they contain carbohydrate, protein, vitamins and minerals.

yy Making laddoo with sattoo, dates, jiggery,

yy It is healthy, delicious and fuel saver too.

yy Laddoo with coconut, dry fruits and nuts,

If we are storing potato chips, chocolate cakes

yy Making vegetable stuffed samosa by air frying or shallow frying,

yy Making diet snacks with flat rice (cheera), oats, chia seeds, nuts etc. yy All of these are nutritionally well balanced, yy These can be stored for a longer period of time, yy We can involve kids in preparing laddoos etc to make the preparation even more enjoyable!

As milk is more perishable than most of the food items, if we are storing more milk packets they can rot easily.

Thus we can prepare curd, buttermilk even payesam rather than consuming raw milk which are beneficial in the following ways like: yy These are more delicious

yy Even milk shakes mixed with fruits like mango, banana is delicious and healthy!

As our physical activities are less now, our calorie requirements are decreasing. Thus instead of heavy dinner, we can have soups like vegetable soup or chicken soup for dinner because these are filling and nutritionally rich.

If any food item is stored in excessive amount like tomato, lemon, chilli and you feat they might rot, you can make pickle using them.

Therefore, we have to use each and every food resource to make sure nothing is wasted and to utilize our resources for maximum benefits.

20 Catching Up

| Apr 18 - Apr 24, 2020

PIC OF THE

Most shared story of the week

WEEK

#PHOTO | Roads of Fancy Bazar, #Guwahati painted by Friends Club expressing gratitude to Covid-19 warriors!

1.9 K

204

@guwahatiplus @guwahatiplus

A Silent Bihu

| Photo: Surajit Sharma

Kharghuli Hills

O

ne of the well known posh and scenic localities of Guwahati, the Kharghuli Hills are believed to have been named so as it was a magazine during the Ahom era where artilleries “khar-barood” (khar referring to gunpowder) were stored.

Thukubilia Sankari Bor Naamghar located to the left (while travelling from Uzan Bazar) at the start of the Kharghuli Road is centuries old.

A short distance further are three centuries-old bungalows that served as the official quarters of the Joint Steamer Company during the British period.

After the company closed operation,

the bungalows were taken over by the Gauhati High Court. Of these two have remained which are now being used as the judges’ quarters. The area is now known as Malibagan.

Kharghuli also had a tea garden owned by a British person named Cambell. In the early part of the 20th century the tea garden was taken over by Manik Chandra Barooah, a prominent businessman of the time and the first chairman of Guwahati Municipal Board (now GMC). The garden was named Latasil Tea Estate. The estate was closed down upon Barooah’s death in 1915. The Assam state Raj Bhawan is now located on a fraction of the estates’ land.

Printed & Published by Sunit Jain on behalf of Insight Brandcom Pvt. Ltd. and Printed at Janambhumi Press (P) Ltd., Kalapahar, Guwahati and Published at 4A, Royale Arcade, Ulubari, Guwahati - 781007, Editor: Swapnil Bharali.

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