TRIBALS TAKE DOUBLE HIT AS JOB-LOSS AND MALNUTRITION … · hoe after recover, sai the offi - cials...

Recollections from Anjali andSachin Tendulkar’s big day in1995 as couple celebrates25 yrs together on Monday » P12

CITY INCHING TO25,000 MARKMumbai sees 1,372 new cases on Wednesday and 41 of the state’s 65 deaths » P02

COVID CLAIMS FIVE MORE BMC WORKERS: UNIONWhile unofficial count stands at 15, civic body has not released any data so far » P02

CZs DOWN,SEALED BLDGS UP

A LOW-KEY SILVERANNIVERSARY

May 21, 2020, Thursday, 28 pages R4, Mumbai | Phone : 6831 4800 | Fax : 2642 6812 | www.mid-day.com

Rumours, cancellations, and late calls dogging migrants

We have gotyour back, sayshome minister

Saphale prawn farms hit by ‘chingri chors’

DharmenDra Jore

[email protected]

STATE Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday has assured that the govern-ment will do everything in its power to ensure the well-being of police personnel in Mumbai and the rest of the state at such a time. Deshmukh told mid-day, “I’m the head of the police family and have vis-ited hotspots in 18 districts, including Mumbai, to interact with personnel on duty. I cannot leave my family alone.” » P03

hemal ashar

[email protected]

ONE of the lockdown’s less-er known impacts, has been a spike in brash robberies at prawn farms, in a small town called Saphale, located in Pal-ghar district in Maharashtra. » P06

Faizan Khan

[email protected]

SINCE the Indian Railways gave the nod to run Shramik Special trains to ferry migrants to their hometowns, Mumbai police have received over seven lakh applications and already sent nearly three lakh of them home. On the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, the police have also been tackling rumour-mongering that often leads to chaos. » P05

VinoD Kumar menon

[email protected]

AS the COVID-19-caused lock-down nears two months, tribal areas in the state have started witnessing signs of deteriora-tion with an increasing number of malnutrition cases as the sup-ply of ration to aanganwadis in the first 21 days of the lockdown was greatly impacted. Activists told mid-day that in Melghat, one of the worst-hit tribal areas, there was no ration for the first three weeks to make free meals in aanganwadis. » P09

As supplies to aanganwadis are hit in the state’s worst-hit regions, data shows alarming rise in numbers of both moderately and severely malnourished children in April

TRIBALS TAKE DOUBLEHIT AS JOB-LOSS ANDMALNUTRITION ON RISE

7lApprox no. of migrants’ applications city cops received till May 19

SEND‘Hi’

To our official Whatsapp number

MID-DAY COMES

TO YOUR PHONETo receive a replica of the Mid-day newspaper daily on Whatsapp for a clean, digital read:

88722 22250

Revised list of sealed buildings sees a 50 per cent jump to reach 1,910, even as containment zones down to 649 » P02

Allaying concerns of cops, Anil Deshmukh assures govt will ensure their wellbeing

Aquaculture industry says gangs are targetting them, sometimes stealing 250 kg of ish worth R1 lakh at one go

‘In tribal areas around Chikhaldara block in Melghat, tribals had to survive on stock available at home, with no new stock or cooked food coming in’Poornima Upadhyay, member, Khoj NGO

A malnourished child in Nashik in 2011 and (below) malnourished children from Jawhar, Mokhada, in 2013. FILE PICS/ATUL KAMBLE

Migrants from the western suburbs leaving Mumbai. PICS/ASHISH RANE

39Malnourished kids in March in one Melghat block

Despite state’s best eforts, labourers trying to return to their hometowns continue to sufer, even as registration applications keep rising

02 CITY mid-day Thursday, May 21, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com

MuMbai Meri Jaan BY ManJul

COVID-19 count in city inches closer to 25,000

A CORRESPONDENT

[email protected]

WITH 1,372 new cases of novel Coro-navirus taking the total count to 24,118 on Wednesday, Mumbai is inching closer to the 25,000-mark. Meanwhile, the state’s infection count has also reached nearly 40,000.

The city body are now also focus-sing on senior citizens and has start-ed a survey to check their oxygen saturation levels. According to the state health department officials, Maharashtra now has a total of 39,297 COVID-19 cases and 27,581 of them are currently undergoing treatment.

On Wednesday, 679 patients were discharged and so far 10,318 people infected with COVID-19 has been sent home after recovery, said the offi-cials. Across Maharashtra, 65 COV-ID-19 related deaths were reported on Wednesday, with 41 of them from Mumbai, 13 from Pune, three from Navi Mumbai, two each from Pimpri Chinchwad, Solapur, Ulhasnagar and Aurangabad.

Among the deceased, 32 were sen-ior citizens while 48 of them suffered from other ailments. Civic officials said of the 41 casualties, 15 died be-tween May 13-15. Of the over 1,000 new cases in the city, 150 had tested positive between May 17 and May 18 and their names were included in the official figure on Wednesday, civic officials said. Total number of cases in Dharavi rose to 1,378, with

officials reporting 25 new infections on Wednesday, including six from Matunga Labour Camp, one of a containment zone. Dadar reported 11 new cases, including a 12-year-old boy, while Mahim saw 15 new infec-tions, including five cases from the New Mahim Police Colony. Civic of-ficials from G North ward said it has a mortality rate of 4 per cent and a discharge rate of 39 per cent.

The BMC has been conducting house-to-house survey to screen people, with 1,000 teams covering around 6-7 lakh people daily. Ac-cording to the officials, over 58 lakh houses have been covered so far and 7,447 suspected patients have been referred for testing. More than 52,000 people have been identified as high-risk contacts of the COVID-19 patients and 36,167 of them have been quarantined at various facilities.

As part of the special survey for senior citizens, 10.25 lakh hous-es have been covered till date and 1.68 lakh senior citizens have been screened. Elderly with low oxygen level were referred for treatment to the nearby hospital or dispensary.

COVID-19TICKER

39,297ACTIVE CORONAVIRUS CASES IN MAHA AS OF TODAY

A migrant worker at Antop Hill on Wednesday. Death toll in Mumbai stands at 841; 1,390 in state. PIC/ASHISH RAJE

PRAJAKTA KASALE

[email protected]

WHILE the number of COVID-19 positive cases increased by 4,500 in four days, the number of Contain-ment Zones (CZ) in congested areas reduced by 43, as the Brihanmum-bai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has combined the zones and sealed entire slum pockets. The number of CZs stands at 649 against 692 on May 14. However, the number of sealed buildings has increased by almost 50 per cent to 1,910.

The number of CZs (manageable and in congested areas) has been in-creasing as the number of patients is increasing rapidly. On May 9, the number of CZs crossed 2,500, after which the BMC adopted a new sys-tem of combining multiple CZs and sealing entire slums for better man-agement. From May 14, the BMC split up the CZs in two parts – CZs (in con-gested areas) and sealed buildings. On May 14 the CZ number was 692 and the number of sealed buildings was 1,271.

After four days, the number of cases in the city increased by 4,573. But despite the sharp increase in cases, the number of congested CZs was reduced by 43. “The CZ num-ber does not increase as the slum pockets where the positive cases were reported are already closed. The work of combining the zones in slum pockets is still going on,” said a BMC official.

While the CZs have decreased the number of sealed buildings has in-creased. At least 1,271 buildings were sealed on May 14, and now the num-ber is 1,910. The list has excluded the buildings which were opened after completion of 14 days quarantine

period.The maximum number of sealed

buildings in G/South ward (Wor-li, Prabhadevi) is 160. There are 146 sealed buildings in F North (Wadala, Sion). K West and K East

wards – from Jogeshwari to Vile Parle - have 257 sealed buildings. L ward, E (Byculla), H east (Bandra E to Santacruz E), N (Ghatkopar) also have over 100 sealed buildings each.

As COVID-19 infections increase, CZs decreaseWhile cases increased by 4,500 in four days, the Containment Zones reduced as the BMC has combined zones and sealed entire slums, in an attempt to contain the spread; Number of sealed buildings rises

Highest number of congested CZs in L ward

L ward comprising Kurla and some parts of Chembur still has 168 CZs. It is approximately one-third of the total number of CZs in the city. Manish Valanju, assistant commissioner of L ward, told mid-day, “There are issues of common toilets, garbage collection, etc. We can’t reduce the number of CZs if it causes inconvenience to the residents. But after a discussion

with the police, we combined some of the pockets on a practical basis and so the number reduced to nearly 200 from the earlier 500 plus CZs.”S ward comprising Bhandup has 59 CZs in congested areas while M East ward of Govandi, Mankhurd area combined have CZs in 59 pockets. Even D ward of Tardeo, Malabar Hill has 25 CZs in slums.

File picture of Dharavi Koliwada, a CZ where people used to defy the order, so authorities decided to put up a strong barrier to stop them. PIC/SURESH KARKERA

PRAJAKTA KASALE

[email protected]

THE union of municipal employ-ees on Wednesday claimed that five more BMC employees had suc-cumbed to COVID-19. Up to May 8, six civic employees had lost their lives to Corona. But the Brihanmumbai Mu-nicipal Corporation hasn’t published any clear data in this regard.

According to the information shared by BEST, a wing of the BMC, nine employees have died and 137 have reported COVID-19 positive up to May 19. According to the Mahar-ashtra State Police, eight police per-sonnel from MMR and three from other parts of the state have lost their

lives to COVID-19.As per the union’s information, a

female sanitation worker with the Solid Waste Department of C ward (Girgaon) working at Kumbharwada section was admitted to Nair Hos-pital on May 17. She died on May 18. Another employee of E ward (Bycul-la) deputed at Kamathipura Chowki died too, said the Municipal Union. Others included a security officer of KEM hospital, a ward assistant with Sewri TB hospital (died on May 16), and a contract worker at the civic-run Lokmanya Tilak hospital, Sion.

Job to kin“The BMC has not officially con-firmed the deaths of these employ-

ees. They are also not ready to con-duct tests for their employees for the fear of losing employees at work. Also, contract workers haven’t been considered at all. The BMC should treat them equally,” said Ramakant Bane, general secretary of the Mu-nicipal Union.

After the fourth death in BMC, the civic corporation had announced a job for his heir on compassionate grounds.

As per the order by former com-missioner Pravin Pardeshi, the jobs will be given on priority. Milin Sawant, Joint Municipal Commis-sioner of the general administration department of the BMC did not re-spond to calls or messages.

Five more civic staffers succumb: UnionThe data was provided by the Municipal Union; no clear statistics from BMC


Continued from page 01

LAMENTING the unfortu-nate deaths of the staff and officers, he said that as a pre-cautionary measure, all the personnel above 55 years of age have been asked to go on paid leave and families with quarantined personnel are being supplied all essentials free of cost.

He said the deployment of paramilitary forces in hot-spots would offer the state po-lice much-needed rest before they set out again to manage festivals in the post-lockdown period.

The 70-year-old minister said that his age did not deter him from venturing out be-cause even the IPS and state service officers in high-risk age groups have been doing their duty at the frontline.

Safety measuresSanitisers worth R51 lakh, food worth R82 lakh, masks (all types) worth R52 lakh,

safety gear like face shields, surgical hand

gloves, flasks, rain suit, water dis-pensing machines, 1,400 PPEs worth

R86 lakh, mineral water worth R15 lakh, pulse oxime-ters worth R4 lakh and smart-watches worth R40 lakh have been made available by the government, social organisa-tions and pharma companies to the police.

Staffers have been given 10 masks each, along with free of cost transportation, meals, boarding (50 rooms), energy drinks and ORS. Police vehi-cles are sanitised twice daily.

Helpline, fever clinic, care centreA dedicated COVID helpline has been set up for hospi-talisation, dedicated to the police personnel. The finan-cial grant of R20 lakh was ap-proved last week for the Care Centre at Marol.

The police housing depart-ment and BMC will build it in association with sponsors. As many as 500 COVID-19 beds are exclusively available to the police personnel at two city hospitals. Preventive medicine, vitamins, body supplements worth R10 crore have been distributed.

Deshmukh said that this had definitely helped in boosting the mental and

physical health of the police personnel. The hospitals on the police panel are treating the infected personnel free of cost.

Police welfare fundAbout R1.30 crore has been allotted between March and

May by the Police Welfare Fund for buying equipment and essentials. R2 crore aid was given to the police per-sonnel deputed on the front-line. Another R1.28 crore would be distributed soon. Around 33 infected person-nel were given an advance of R1 lakh each for daily medical expenses.

Rewards, compensationThe 496 personnel who re-covered from the infection and resumed duties were giv-en a cash reward of R10,000 each from the welfare fund. This has upped the morale of the police force, stated Deshmukh. The families of COVID-19 victims would get compensation of R1.5 crore each. The Mumbai Police Foundation has given three affected families R10 lakh each.

Quarantine camp officeA quarantine camp office has been set up for COVID-af-fected staffers’ families. The families get updates as and when required and they are also being given ration at no charge.

ARITA SARKAR

[email protected]

SINCE May 4, 15 employees – 14 ward boys and one from the pharmacy of the BD Petit Par-see General Hospital in South Mumbai who tested positive for COVID-19 – have accused the hospital management of mistreatment.

They claim they are not getting proper food and the union is threatening to go on strike if their concerns are not addressed.

Mumbai Mazdoor Union Secretary, Dhunji Naterwalla said initially they got regular meals, but for the past four days, they are getting only rice and dal. “These workers are putting their lives at risk. Why should the food given to

them be different from the meal patients get?” he asked.

Since the lockdown, many staff members didn’t re-port to work as they couldn’t find transportation. Shar-ad Sawant, president of the Kamgar Samiti at Parsi Gen-eral Hospital said a few weeks ago, the hospital threatened an inquiry against them if they didn’t report to work after which staff reached the hospital and have been living there ever since.

“During the lockdown, many of us tried to reach the hospital but cops wouldn’t al-low us even after we showed our IDs,” he said. Employees who weren’t able to report to duty accused the management of unfairly deducting April’s salary. A 44-year old ward boy who tested positive said, “While I am recovering and looking forward to getting discharged, they are telling me to work in the COVID-19 ward,” he said.

Refuting the claims, Dr (Lieutenant-General Retired) Manomoy Ganguly, hospital CEO said salaries, as well as ex-gratia payments were giv-en to all staff who worked in April.

“We have been feeding three times the number of workers and provided them with free housing on the hos-pital premises. We are going out of our way to look our employees and patients and doing the best we can in these

trying times,” said Dr Ganguly.When asked about food, Dr

Ganguly said, “We are giving them good food including organic vegetables from our kitchen garden, but they keep

demanding more. Despite be-ing part of the essential ser-vices, they have shown a lack of responsibility and less than half of them have been work-ing for the last two months.”

Parsee General Hospital union at loggerheads with management

The union has threatened to go on strike if concerns are not addressed

COVID-19 staf claim they are not getting proper meals and have not got their April’s salary yet

‘Police are my family, can’t leave them alone’

A dedicated COVID helpline has been set up for hospitalisation,

dedicated to the police personnel. The financial grant of R20 lakh was

approved last week for the Care Centre at Marol. The police housing

department and BMC will build it in association with sponsors. As

many as 500 COVID-19 beds are exclusively available to the police

personnel at two city hospitals

1,500 Mantralaya stafers told to share work with city police on the ield

The state government has roped in the services of 1,500 Mantralaya officers and employees to share work with the Mumbai police. The officers of the rank of Under Secretary and assistants who are under 40 years have been ordered to join the Mumbai police personnel. Escaping the field duty would invite disciplinary action. By Wednesday, 1,421 Mantralaya cadre staff had been sent to assigned

police stations where the commanding officers would allot them appropriate work. A three-member team of home principal secretary (special) Amitabh Gupta, Mumbai police joint commissioner (law and order) Vinoy Choubey and deputy secretary (general administration) Rahul Kulkarni have been tasked with making additional civil employee force to the city police.

`1.30CRAmount allotted by Police Welfare Fund for buying equipment and essentials

500No. of COVID-19 beds exclusively available to police personnel at two city hospitals

“Salaries, as well as ex-gratia payments, were paid to all employees who worked in April. We are also giving them good food including organic vegetables from our kitchen garden. Despite being part of the essential services, the hospital staff has shown a lack of responsibility’ Dr Manomoy Ganguly, hospital CEO

‘These workers are putting their lives at risk. Why should the food given to them be different from the meal all patients get?’ Dhunji Naterwalla, Mumbai Mazdoor Union Secretary

04 mid-day Thursday, May 21, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com

daily dossier @hankypanty: No of people I want in the kitchen when I’m cooking: 1 (me). No of people that show up in the kitchen when I’m cooking: Population of Bangladesh.

a spitting imageA senior citizen sits on a pavement off Eastern Express Highway, against graffiti with a timely message. pic/sameer markande

In a heart-warming video series titled One Way, actor-director Makarand Deshpande has started talking about his journey into the arts. The first episode talks about his early days and how he went from being a sportsman to an artiste. “I was encouraged by Nivedita and Aaditi Pohankar to start this and talk about my journey. The series is called One Way because it was my only choice. I was never at a crossroads about my entry into the arts,” he told this diarist. “In the next episode I will talk about my journey from the age of 17 to 54. I joined college through the sports quota. So, essentially, I went there as a cricketer and left as an artiste,” he said.

In the current crisis, circles of solidarity are cropping up around the world. For instance, a city-based group of six musicians has started an initiative to support performing artistes. They have been reaching out to performers to come forward and help their colleagues by donating a monthly ration kit worth R700. Speaking to this diarist, musician Sheena Thakur, who is part of the group said, “It started when one of our members, Prince Mulla, came across another musician who tried to end his life owing to financial pressure. The incident shook us. Mulla took it upon himself to reach out to people he knew to help them out. Eventually, we started helping our friends and acquaintances out of our own pockets, and before we knew it,this had taken the form of a proper initiative.” Log on tofacebook.com/a4amumbai to donate a kit.

makarand’s way

music to our ears

Comedian Kunal Kamra is raising donations for RT-PCR Covid test kits by Maharashtra-based Mylab Discovery Solutions in a zero-profit initiative. He has decided to do this in an innovative manner by letting go of a treasured possession, his YouTube button, to the donor pledging the highest amount. “I realised that while people were donating PPE and grocery kits, there was no one donating actual test kits to vulnerable zones. I am planning to donate the one I have raised

funds for, to the Sion Hospital. A single kit can be used to test 100 samples,” Kamra told this diarist, and added, “I am urging others now to give up their most prized possession in this time of need and start afresh. Several people are stepping forward to

join in.” Since his pledge, Vishal Dadlani, Javed Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap and Varun Grover have joined the pledge with awards, signed copies and even a personal concert. To contribute log on to milaap.org.

Music director duo Salim-Sulaiman, who have been working towards creating opportunity for folk musicians, have teamed up with Nikhil Arora to provide them with a fund that will take care of their monthly expenses during the current crisis. They have also tied up Gunsar Folk School, Jaisalmer, to distribute food packets and ration kits. “The COVID-19 pandemic has been a testing time for communities across the nation, but the crisis has hit the ones with least access to a stable income the hardest, including daily wage folk musicians from all over India’s rural districts. We partnered with Salim-Sulaiman to start a country-wide fundraiser, to help provide these local artistes with basic amenities every month during this challenging time. Our aim is to help as many small, mini and micro entrepreneurs as possible and deal with the health and economic impact of the crisis,” Arora, vice president and managing director, GoDaddy India, told this diarist. To contribute log on to ketto.org.

secure the folk musician

Salim Merchant, Nikhil Arora and Sulaiman Merchant

Kunal Kamra’s big gesture

YouTube button

From gulzar to tagoreOn Friday, Rabindranath Tagore’s 159 birth anniversary, NCPA will showcase a presentation of his translated Urdu and Hindustani poems by Gulzar. The event was first staged in July 2014 as part of their annual festival titled Bandish: Celebrating the Legendary Composers. The archival footage will now be available for viewing. “On this occasion, we are happy to present some of his evergreen poems translated by none other than the legendary poet, lyricist and director, Gulzar saab, who regards Tagore as his first guru.

Gurudev’s words are sure to lift our spirits, especially in the present situation,” Dr Suvarnalata

Rao, Indian music head,

NCPA, told this

diarist.

Distribution of ration kits


PALLAVI SMART

[email protected]

WHILE migrants from all over the country are walking home from cities, those at IIT Bom-bay seem to be going through their own ordeal amid the COVID-19-caused lockdown. The Students collective – IIT Bombay for Justice has written to the institute’s director seek-ing relief for daily wagers.

The informal students’ body has pointed to the condition of construction labourers and other contractual workers in-side IIT-B’s Powai campus. The letter to IIT-B Director Subha-sis Chaudhuri claims that the IIT-B administration has failed to pay the workers and treat them with dignity and respect.

“The workforce at IIT-B con-sists mostly of contract work-ers. In the lockdown, IIT-B has washed its hands of their problems. The administra-tion is refusing to pay wages to many workers, for whom the institute is the principal employer. And it has failed to assure that contractors pay workers their wages.

“The worst-hit are perhaps the 700-odd construction workers who live in differ-ent labour camps around the campus. Almost half of them have not been paid their wag-es since February and for some weeks now, they have also not received the ‘kharchi’, or pet-ty cash, that otherwise helps them tide through the month,” states the letter, adding that the institute is not even help-ing them travel home.

Other staffers — house-keeping staff, maintenance workers and mess workers — the letter claims have not been

paid for March, April and May as these months are usually ‘vacation time’ for the insti-tute. Apart from demanding the workers’ salaries, the let-ter says that a report about the goings-on should be given to all members of IIT-B.

An IIT-B spokesperson de-nied the claims and shared a detailed statement of the ad-ministration’s efforts for the labourers.

“There are around 340 la-bourers under two major con-tractors. The IIT-B, through its contractors, has ensured pay-ment of wages to all labourers as per government regulations. Efforts are being made to help labourers travel home. Powai police were contacted to expe-dite their travel arrangement. In addition to kharchi, the con-tractors have also arranged two weeks’ ration for labourers.

Further, IIT-B faculty and staff have contributed gener-ously to meet additional daily expenses of the labourers,” read the statement.

Labourers collect ration at the IIT-B campus, which the institute says was arranged by the contractors

Daily-wagers at IIT-B suferingwithout wages: student bodyIIT-B spokesperson rubbishes allegation, says administration has been providing ration and trying to arrange travel for the workers


DESPITE all the hurdles they are ensuring that the daily wage labourers, stuck in the city without a source of in-come and daily meals, return to their native places, said police. Thousands of applica-tions keep pouring in every day, they said. Police said they have sent around 2.8 lakh migrant workers in 142 Shramik Special trains so far. On an average, the city runs 20 trains to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and other states, daily.

"I won't be able to tell you what the force is facing on the ground to ensure there is no problem. We have been taking forms despite not knowing who has COVID-19 and who doesn't. Thousands such applications keep com-ing at most police stations daily and till May 19, we have received over 7 lakh of them," a senior police officer, who is making transportation arrangements for migrants, told mid-day.

The officer added that their work doesn't end at accepting applications. "We have to arrange transport to the railway stations, provide food, water, etc. We make all necessary arrangements while risking our own lives," he said.

But their efforts are con-stantly challenged by ru-mours, and due to cancella-tion of trains. Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP Pranaya Ashok attributed the over-crowding at the stations to rumours about trains leaving the city. "The same happened in Bandra," he said.

There are times when the workers reach the station on receiving a call from the police, but are turned away either due to miscommuni-cation or cancellation. Ashok

said "sometimes, due to train cancellation, we have to send them back till new arrange-ment is made."

Gayasuddin Sheikh, a mi-grant staying in Nirmal Na-gar, Bandra, told mid-day, "After submitting the form at police station, we got a call one day about a train to Bihar. We reached Bandra Terminus where thousand others had gathered. Our number nev-er came up and the police asked us to leave." He added,

"There was another train on Wednesday and 18 of us were taken to the station on a bus, but the train left as soon as we reached our destination."

Shahnavaz Khan, who has been stuck in Mumbai since February when he came for a job interview, has also been trying to find a place on one of the special trains to Bihar. "I submitted the form on May 6, and on May 13 I got a call from Nirmal Nagar police station for a train next day. I

went to Bandra Terminus on May 14 but my number didn't come up, as there was a huge rush."

Navi Mumbai in same spotThe situation is the same in Navi Mumbai. Mohammed Naushad from Kamothe said a day after submitting an ap-plication online for a train to Uttar Pradesh, he was asked to come to report to the po-lice station.

"When I reached the police station, I was told my name was not registered with them and was asked to go back home. I went back an-other day and waited for six hours, but my name didn't come up."

Navi Mumbai Police Com-missioner Sanjay Kumar said, "Sometimes, this hap-pens because of cancellation of trains or assessment of number of travellers. We call more people because several who registered to travel have already left," said.

Navi Mumbai police has sent around 28,000 migrant workers in 26 special trains.

Police fight rumours as they send lakhs of migrants homeSay despite all the hurdles, they are ensuring that the daily wage labourers, stuck in the city without work and food, return to their native places

Oshiwara Police Station organised a drop for migrants in a BEST bus till Bandra Terminus, from where they took a train to their hometown Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday. PIC/ASHISH RANE

‘I won’t be able to tell you what the force is facing on the ground to ensure there is no problem. We have been accepting forms despite not knowing who has COVID-19 and who doesn’t’ A senior police officer

CM skips meet with Guv, sends Sena secretary

A CORRESPONDENT

[email protected]

CHIEF MINISTER Uddhav Thac-keray skipped a meeting called by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Wednesday evening to review the COVID-19 situation, raising further questions regarding the relationship between the CMO and Rajbhavan, which is already strained due to political reasons.

However, Thackeray sent Shiv Sena secretary and his personal assistant Milind Narvekar as his representative for the meeting.

The CM and NCP boss Sharad Pawar had reported the gover-nor to PM Narendra Modi for creating a parallel power centre by holding similar COVID-19 re-view meetings with senior state bureaucrats. Koshyari had not in-vited Thackeray for the previous

meets. Apparently, Wednesday’s meeting was called after BJP leaders met Koshyari on Tues-day to protest against misman-agement of the pandemic. The Opposition party has been trying to divide the governor on vari-ous issues. However, Narvekar said that the CM didn’t miss the meeting deliberately but had in-formed Koshyari that he would be busy with other work.

Milind Narvekar says CM had informed he would be busy with other work


THIS town, two train stations ahead of Virar, is a pulsating aquaculture hub. Many farm-ers, several from Mumbai too, have ponds cultivating prawns primarily, which they sell in local markets, or to processors for export.

Jimmy Maneckshaw, a prawn farmer originally from Mumbai, and based in Saphale for more than 20 years now, said, “The farmers' grapevine reports at least three thefts a month. There is a viral and true video of a recent robbery in progress doing the rounds.”

Maneckshaw, who has 11 ponds in Saphale said that though farms had security, “It is difficult to secure huge expanses. Thieves strike in gangs of 10 going up to 15, in-timidating owners and staff.” They use casting nets to catch the shrimp. The robbers often throw some feed in the water and catch the fish. It is done un-der cover of darkness. He add-ed that this has become “easy money” for criminals.

Armed and dangerousKirthiraj Salian of the famous Shakti Aquaculture, called them “dacoities.” He said, “Gangs converge using rods,

knives and now even rifles. They can take anything be-tween 250 to 300 kg of fish. These are rich pickings, they can fetch you approximately R 1 lakh in the market."

They cart the shrimp to a waiting vehicle stationed near-by. The goods have to be sold quickly. The chain means it is easy to nab these criminals. Farm owners feel cops need to be stricter and speedier in re-solving the complaints.

Equipment goneSachin Akre and another farm-er from Saphale said, “It is

not just fish, but on site equipment like PVC pipes, ce-ment bags, engines are also stolen. These are huge losses, especially for small owners."

Akre explained, “The gangs are split into two. One segment creates a ruckus, with an intent to distract. As staff go there, an-

other group strikes at a pond.”Kunal Kini, another farm

owner added, “A number of owners are now contemplating extensive CCTV surveillance, but with huge areas to cover this is not easy. Earlier, thieves stole to feed themselves. Now, they take big amounts to make

a killing in the market.”

Totally brazenRavi Kumar Yellanki, manag-ing director, Vasaikhi Bio-Ma-rine Pvt. Ltd, supplier of seed to prawn farmers in Saphale said the thieves, “are display-ing a new level of audacious-ness. They sell their loot as fish from this farm or the other, cheekily touting the biggest names in aquaculture. Some of the stories of the robber-ies sound like they belong to a Banana Republic, not India.” With the lockdown due to COVID-19 deepening despera-

tion, Saphale’s ‘chingri’ chors are transforming from a rag tag bunch into well-organised, armed criminal gangs.

Police speakSenior officials from Saphale and Kelwa Sagari police sta-tions, however, said there were not too many complaints. The Kelwa Sagari station police said they have some complaints and were quick to register them. They claimed to have appre-hended a few persons in con-nection with the crimes. “We also conduct rigorous night patrolling,” an official said.


ANURAG KAMBLE

[email protected]

THE family of a 50-year-old civic employee, who tested positive for COVID-19, had to run from pillar to post to get a bed at a BMC hospital. De-spite having served as a cook in a corporation hospital for 30 years, the Mulund-based fam-ily had to get him hospitalised in a private hospital in Navi Mumbai at high cost.

“My dad has given 30 years to the BMC, feeding patients in the hospital. But we had to shift him to a private hospital in Navi Mumbai. Is this how frontline warriors are treat-

ed?” his son asked.On May 7, he had a fever so

was taken to a private hospi-tal, where they said he had ty-phoid. But, later he was shifted

to another private hospital as he started feeling breathless and on May 18, a COVID-19 test returned positive.

“We were told to shift him to a COVID-19 hospital. The private hospital had already charged us R44,000 so we were looking for a BMC Hospital,” his son said.

His daughter got a bed at a BMC hospital. But by the

time they arranged an am-bulance, the bed was given to another COVID-19 patient who was critical. “So we tried other BMC hospitals, but we received negative answers from everywhere,” she said.

One of their relatives ad-vised taking their father to a private hospital in Navi Mum-bai. By the time they arranged an oxygen ambulance, it was already 2 am, and they were charged R5,000.

“The hospital told us to pay R50,000 as deposit, but when we couldn’t, they took R5,000

and told to arrange for the re-maining amount,” he added.

“Why can’t the BMC cater to their staff at their own hospi-tal?” they ask. In the last three days, they have spent more than R70,000 and are being forced to take a loan to pay bills.

“Despite being a BMC em-ployee if we find it tough to find a bed for our father, what must be the scenario for com-mon people? Also, the ambu-lance service is inadequate and the BMC, the government should look into it,” his daugh-ter said.

‘Gangs converge using rods, knives and now even rifles. They can take anything between 250 to 300 kg of fish. These are rich pick-ings, they can fetch you approximately R1 lakh in the market’ Kirthiraj Salian, Shakti Aquaculture

‘It is difficult to secure huge expanses. Thieves strike in gangs of 10 going up to 15, intimidating own-ers and staff’

Jimmy Maneckshaw, prawn farmer

‘They sell their loot in the markets as fish from this farm or the other, cheekily touting the biggest names in aquacul-ture. Some of the stories of the robber-ies sound like they belong to a Banana Republic, not India’

Ravi Kumar Yellanki, Vasaikhi Bio-Marine Pvt. Ltd

Shell(fish) shocker!Prawn farmers say cops must be stricter and speedier in resolving complaints

The farmers’ grapevine suggests at least three prawn thefts a month

‘Is this how frontline COVID-19 warriors are treated?’Asks family of a positive BMC employee who could not get a bed in a corporation hospital and is now under enormous monetary pressure

Staf tests positive, but what next?

In another case, a 32-year-old employed as a sweeper with the civic body tested positive at BYL Nair Hospital a couple of days ago. On Wednesday morning, he got a call from BMC telling him to be ready as health officials would pick him up. But even nine hours later, the patient was still waiting for officials to arrive. When his family approached the local ward office to enquire about the delay, they denied having any information. Till the time of going to press, the patient was still waiting for BMC officials to arrive.

`70,000Amount his family has spent in last three days

May 18Day the BMC employee test positive

‘We tried both BMC and the government’s COVID-19 and ambulance helpline, but nothing helped. The hospital initially told us to pay R50,000 as deposit, but when we couldn’t, they took R5,000 and asked to arrange the remaining amount’ BMC employee’s son

BMC has converted NESCO exhibition centre into quarantine centre. FILE PIC/SATEJ SHINDE

FAIZAN KHAN AND

DIWAKAR SHARMA

[email protected]

AS the city gears up for Eid, five com-panies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) arrived in Mumbai on Monday to assist the city police managed the ar-eas worst-hit by COVID-19. The force has been deployed at various sensitive zones across the city to help maintain law and order and ensure social distancing.

The sensitive zones also include city’s Containment Zones and the zones under Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) that have the maximum number of cases. “The forces have been deployed at south, central, western and eastern Mumbai as per requirements. They are also con-ducting flag marches in their respective areas,” said DCP Pranaya Ashok, spokes-person for Mumbai police.

The deployment of CAPF, which stands for any central security force, in-cludes three companies of CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) and two of CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force).

“There are COVID-19 hotspots in my

zone and policemen are getting affect-ed. The CAPF will help implement the lockdown,” said DCP Zone III Abhinash Kumar. One company of the CAPF has been deployed in the zone.

Deployment starts on ThursdayDCP Zone VI Shashikumar Meena said, “Affected areas are gradually increasing in my zone. One company consisting of three platoons of CAPF has been as-signed to Zone VI. They will be deployed

at various locations on Thursday.”Anticipating a rush of people during

Eid, the security forces will be busy en-forcing social distancing.

“The strictness is a compelling re-quirement because people are adamant about coming out to shop for Eid despite knowing that shops are closed. Those found violating the lockdown will be dealt with an iron hand. We request peo-ple to please cooperate with the police,” said a senior police officer.


Central forces join city cops to enforce social distancing among citizens

A CISF company readies for a flag march at SNDT college on Wednesday. PIC/ASHISH RAJE

RAJENDRA B. AKLEKAR

[email protected]

EVEN as the Indian Railways on Tuesday night announced that they would gradually exit the COVID-caused lockdown by starting 200 non-AC trains as per timetable from June 1, the railways in Mumbai have mo-bilised local trains for internal movement of staff.

Trains have been under com-plete lockdown since March 22, with Shramik Specials for migrants starting on May 1 and special Rajdhani Expresses be-ginning on May 12.

“Local trains are now being run in limited number and are only for the internal movement of staff. Shramik Specials for mi-grants are increasing by the day and more and more railway staff is now required to be on duty. To maintain proper social dis-tancing inside these trains, we have limited movement of local trains. But they are not open to anyone else other than railway staff,” a senior rail official said.

“The sight of local trains back on track is something so com-mon. And I was surprised to see one of them on Western Railway the other day. It felt so good,” Vi-rar resident Akash Durve said.

Officials said that in addition to the Shramik Special trains, Indian Railways is going to start 200 new time-tabled trains from June 1. The routes and schedules of these trains will be intimat-ed soon. the booking will only

online and shall commence in a few days.

Sources said trains will be non-AC and no tickets will be sold at any railway station and prospective travellers should not come to the railway station to buy tickets.

To facilitate walking migrants, plans are being made where they can approach station masters at railway stations on the main line close to their locations to board trains for the rest of the jour-ney. Railways have also asked all state governments to identify and locate such migrants, regis-ter them at the district head-quarters and transport them to the nearest main line railway station. The railways will have to be given the list of traveller so they can arrange for Shramik Specials.

Rail stalls to startThe Indian Railways on Wednes-day allowed rail stalls, book stalls, chemist stalls and vend-ing units to start functioning at all railway stations across the country with immediate effect.

"There are quite a few Shra-mik trains and special Rajdhani trains which have been running. These shops will cater to that. Besides this, there is railway staff that is operating at the sta-tions," an official said.

There was, however, no clarity if stalls only where Sharmik/spe-cial trains originate, halt and ter-minate or all stalls will remain open or all stalls across zones.

Limited locals resume to ferry railway stafWith 200 scheduled long-distance trains to resume on June 1, limited services start in city only for railway employees who need to be at work

Trains waiting to depart seen at Churchgate station


SAMIULLAH KHAN

[email protected]

THE developer of Ajmera Cityscapes in Kandivli, last week, handed over the 23-storeyed building to the civic body for COVID-19. The 303 flats in the complex will be converted into isolation wards. Work on cleaning the premises and installing the beds has begun for a 1,000-bed isolation ward ready for use soon.

Developer Alpesh Ajmera of Ajmera Cityscapes is also a member of the Bri-hanmumbai Developers Association. He handed over his permission letter to deputy municipal commissioner Shankarwar and assistant munici-pal commissioner (R-South) Sanjay Kurade on May 16.

The site is located in Thakur Com-plex, opposite Tera Panth Bhavan cen-tre in Kandivli East. “In this time of crisis, my family and I wanted to do something for society,” said Ajmera, adding, “MP Gopal Shetty is like an elder brother to me. We discussed this with him and took the decision.”

Ajmera met then Municipal Com-missioner Pravin Pradeshi around April end and received a call from civic authorities on May 15 regarding meeting local officials.

With most government and private hospitals full, there is barely any space to accommodate new COVID patients. “The government should also facil-itate ventilators and ICUs at every

quarantine centre so they don’t have to be transported to hospitals in case of emergencies,” said Ajmera.

MP willing to provide ventilatorsAt the Ajmera Cityscapes quaran-tine facility, MP Shetty believes that “the government must reserve 100 of the 1,000 beds for patients requiring ventilators.” If implemented, Shetty said that he will arrange for at least 25 ventilators at this centre. Many other builders and developers from across the city have similarly given their ready and empty flats to the civ-ic body for quarantine centres. AMC Kurade of R-South ward was not avail-able for comment.

PALLAVI SMART

[email protected]

AS the city fights the COVID-19 pan-demic, several educational institu-tions are coming forward to help, especially by providing their build-ings. But a well-know school from Santacruz, the Podar International School, which was being considered as a quarantine facility by the civ-ic body was not taken over following objections raised by locals as well as parents of students.

The BMC has put its plan of creating the quarantine facility at this school on hold following a letter by the local corporator regarding this. The BMC, however, clar-ified that it will revisit the plan if the need arises.

While some parents have alleged that the school told them to stand with the management by opposing the plan, some said this could spread infection in their locality. One of the parents, a local resident, said, "The school is right at the junction where most of us shop for essen-tials. If there is a quarantine facil-

ity right there, it will be dangerous."

A parent alleged, “We received information from

the school, informally through parents’ groups. It categorically said that the plan can be opposed once the parents come forward, espe-cially the local residents. Clearly the school used parents to refuse the civic body.”

Local corporator Hetal Gala wrote a letter to the civic body on Monday requesting the plan be put on hold. “The BMC has put the plan on hold after we approached it. Our MLA

Ashish Shelar supported us."Despite several calls and mes-

sages, the principal of Podar Inter-national School, Vandana Lulla, did not respond. H-West ward officer Vinayak Vispute clarified that this does not mean the school will not be taken over. “It will be acquired as and when required."

Dr Harish Shetty, a renowned psy-chiatrist, said, “Scientifically, having a quarantine centre in the locality or a COVID-19 patient in the vicinity does not directly lead to one getting infected. But because of fear people tend to exaggerate the conditions."

Developer gives 303 flats for quarantine centre23-storeyed facility in Kandivli East will have 1,000 beds to be used for housing COVID-19 patients

The site is located in Thakur Complex, opposite Tera Panth Bhavan centre in Kandivli East

BMC’s plans to take over top school on back burnerCivic body wanted to convert Podar International School into a quarantine centre, stopped after opposition from locals and corporator; BMC says it will revisit plan

The BMC has said it will acquire Podar International School as a quarantine centre as and when needed. PIC/SHADAB KHAN300

No. of beds that school can

accommodate

RANJEET JADHAV

[email protected]

ENVIRONMENTALISTS from across the city have decided to stop working for the migrants after activist Afroz Shah, know for his Versova Beach clean-up initiative, tweeted on Tues-day night alleging that the Tilak Nagar cops harassed him for doing the same.

Shah in his tweet said, “Harassed for 2 hours by Tilak Nagar police. Taken to the police station. Let off by saying please leave. Suspending all my activities to help the poorest of the poor. Sorry migrants — the sys-tem doesn’t allow me to work for you. Broken heart. Broken soul. I cry and I am in pain.”

Since the lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of Coronavirus, Shah has been helping those in need by pro-viding food and essential items. Since the last nine days, he has been distrib-uting food among the migrant workers walking back home on foot via the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway. After

providing food to the migrants wait-ing at Kalyan Shil phata on Tuesday, Shah entered Mumbai via the Mulund toll plaza when he saw another group of workers waiting there. He offered to drop them where they were head-ing in his pick-up truck.

Speaking to mid-day, Shah said, “These people were walking towards Byculla and as it is very far from Mulund, I decided to ferry them in my truck. After dropping them at Byculla I found another group walk-ing towards Ghatkopar to board a bus, which would take them to their

hometown. Again, as the journey from Byculla to Ghatkopar was a long one, I decided to drop them off there. Is helping these poor migrant workers a crime? When I reached Ghatkopar, the cops stopped me just before Tilak Nagar and behaved in a very bad man-ner. It seemed as if I had committed some crime.”

Shah tried to explain to the cops that he was doing social work but they were not ready to listen and even threatened to take action against him.

“They took me to the Tilak Nagar police station and said they would register an FIR but none of them were ready to tell me what my crime was. Later, they took me back to the location and asked me to leave. Their behaviour was just not acceptable de-spite knowing that I was trying to help the migrants. Today Commissioner of Police Parambir Singh got in touch with me and asked me to give a state-ment mentioning the sequence of the events. He assured that appropriate action would be taken against those who harassed me,” said Shah.

When contacted, Mumbai Police spokesperson Pranay Ashok and DCP Shashikumar Mina were unavailable for comment.

‘Cops harassed me for helping migrants’Environmental activist Afroz Shah’s tweet on the harassment he faced goes viral on social media; he says the cops took him to the Tilak Nagar police station, made him wait for two hours and threatened to register an FIR

Environmentalists are helping te needy since the lockdown was imposed in the state (left); The truck in which Shah ferries migrants

‘They took me to the Tilak Nagar police station and said they would register an FIR but none of them were ready to tell me what my crime was. Later, they took me back to the location and asked me to leave. Their behaviour was just not acceptable despite knowing that I was trying to help the migrants’ Afroz Shah, environmental activist


RAJENDRA B. AKLEKAR

[email protected]

MATHERAN residents, who had been complaining of lack of transport for basic essen-tials, may now get their trains back. Following a court order, the district collector has now approached Central Railway to get the services of the nar-row gauge train service from Aman Lodge to Matheran restored.

The 6,500 resi-dents in the hill town are cur-rently depend-ent on about 460 horses and a few hand carts for essential sup-plies.

mid-day had last month highlight-ed how residents of Matheran had appealed that just allowing one tempo ser-vice a day would save their problems of essential supplies. Motorised vehicles are not allowed in Matheran due to it being an eco-sensitive zone and things had been getting difficult with very few hand-cart labourers and a limited number of horses available to ferry essentials.

The residents had ap-proached the court, which has now led the district collector to look into options. “The dis-trict collector had approached the Central Railway about Ma-theran train services,” a senior

CR official confirmed.Local residents said there

had been positive movement. “On Sunday, a team of railway officials visited Matheran to sanitise rail coaches and sta-tions. Two passenger coaches and two goods coaches were in the process of being sani-tised on Sunday. On Monday, a few trials were done,” local resident Sunil Shinde, who

has been spearheading the demand said.

As per Eco-Sensi-tive Zone February 2003 notification, motorised vehi-cles are banned in Matheran and hand-rickshaws

and horses are used for transpor-

tation of goods."We feel

trapped on the hill with all essential utili-ties coming on horseback for a

premium and be-coming unafforda-

ble. The labour that was pulling hand carts

too went away a few days into the lockdown and only horses have been left for transporta-tion of goods. This has led to a spike in rates with R100 for LPG cylinder transport," he added.

The Matheran Municipal Council asked the Raigad dis-trict collector to allow tempos to ferry essential goods, but the permission was denied since the matter was sub-ju-dice.

Trains to Matheran may resume soon

Closed shops in the area

'We feel trapped on the hill with all essential utilities com-ing on horseback for a premium and becoming unafforda-ble. The labour that was pulling hand carts too went away a few days into the lockdown and only horses have been left for transportation of goods. This has led to a spike in rates with R100 for LPG cylinder transport'

Sunil Shinde, a local resident

Residents of the hill town had complained that in the absence of trains, the only way essential supplies reached them was via hand-carts and horsebacks

460No. of horses being used to ferry goods

up the hill

6.5kNo. of residents in

Matheran

Situation set to worsen as lockdown progressesMany tribals have lost incomes that they would have earned by selling forest produce in the ongoing season, have to survive on peanuts under NREGA


POORNIMA Upadhyay, asso-ciated with the NGO Khoj has been operating from Melghat district of Amravati.

“In tribal areas around Chikhaldara block in Melghat and in a block comprising nine tribal beats (Motha, Sa-lona, Hatru, Jarida, Khatkali, Gaulkheda, Tembrusonda and Semadoh), during the first 21 days of the lockdown, the supply chain of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) was adversely impact-ed. Tribals had to survive on stock available at home, with no new stock or cooked food coming in.”

Khoj found that in the block, 377 kids between the age of six months and six years were in the MAM (Moderate Acute Malnourished) category in March. In April, that number increased to 1,016. For the cor-responding periods, the num-ber of children of the same ages under the SAM (Severe Acute Malnutrition) category was 39, and then increased to 296.

Worsening scenarioUpadhayay added, “The sce-nario will continue to wors-en in coming weeks as the lockdown has been extended and moreover, with monsoon coming, it will be tough for kids to get nutrition as cooked food is not coming from aan-ganwadis.”

Tribals are also not able to access markets amid the lockdown. “In addition, as per NREGA records, nearly 1.90 lakh tribals and villagers from Melghat had job cards. Of these, only 45,000 have managed to get a job with a minimum wage of R237 for eight hours, which is too mea-gre a salary.”

The Shramik Mukti San-gathana had filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court for the distribution of free ration to the poor under the National Food Security Act. Two other organisations too filed PILs with similar concerns in April 2020. The court clubbed all PILs and directed district le-gal aide cells to address trib-als’ grievances.

“Shahapur is a tribal area that falls under Schedule Tribes and out of Murbad’s 160 villages, nearly 72 are tribal ones deprived of nu-tritious food supply. At pres-

ent they are given rice, 5 kg wheat per person. But daal is only 1 kg, which is insuffi-cient for a month. After our PIL, the government agreed to supply foodgrains even to those without a ration card,” said Indavi Tulpule, member of Shramik Mukti Sangathana.

However, the demand has not been fulfilled as sufficient edible oil and daal for each ra-tion under the Public Distri-bution System (PDS) have not been provided.

Tulpule added that due to afforestation, the forest pro-duce is already declining. Tri-bals would have earned from the produce during the ongo-ing season, but the system was disrupted by the lockdown. There is no demand for prod-ucts such as mangoes, mahua flowers and thendu (beedi) leaves. Currently, Shahpur has 90 kids with SAM and 538 kids with MAM.

She added that in Mahar-ashtra, the implementation of Amrut Ahar scheme has been substantiated by a Governor’s Order, wherein cooked meals, including eggs, have to be giv-en to children up to six years old in scheduled areas. Amid the lockdown, the cooked meal has been replaced by rations which lack sufficient protein.

“Under the NREGA, three villages — Akleshawadi,

Khutal, and Bramhan Gaon, were to get work within a 4 km radius. But in the scorching heat, women cannot leave the house and also have to take care of the house. With no transport, men have to walk for an hour every day to reach work. When they approached concerned authorities, they were asked to submit a letter saying they can’t take up the job under NREGA because they do not want to travel. Isn’t this unfair? And a wage of R237 for eight hours is not justified,” Tulpule said.

Hiralal Sonawane, CEO, Zil-laprishad Thane, rubbished the claims saying they have provided foodgrains to each and every villager under the scheme and that the needs of the tribals are being taken care of in Shapur and Murbad. When asked about data on malnutrition, he said, “I am in a meeting at Collector’s office, and do not have the data with me. I will ask my Deputy CEO to speak to you.” However, no one called till the time of go-ing to press.

The other sideIndra Maloo, ICDS commis-sioner for Maharashtra, said, “The department of Tribal Welfare has issued a GR re-garding APJ Abdul Kalam Amrut Yojna for tribal areas. It has three choices of food —

supply of dry ration, supply of tiffin (cooked food) and di-rect benefit transfer of money (R36 per person) to the benefi-ciary’s bank account.”

Maloo added that other than the Amrut Aahar pro-gram, ICDS has its own sup-plementary nutrition pro-gram, comprising Take Home Ration (consisting rice, wheat, fortified oil, and salt, chawli, turmeric, chilli powder, etc) and cooked meals being pro-vided during the lockdown to maintain social distancing. “Nearly 65 lakh households have been benefited across the state,” Maloo said.

Maloo also admitted that cases of malnutrition are in-creasing as a result of lack of nutrition to children in Sha-hapur, Melghat and Chikhal-dara. She added that due to is-sues in internet connectivity, online educational program are experiencing a lag.

“As per data available till February 2020, the state has around 50,708 malnourished children in the age group of six months to six years under SAM. The top three districts area Ahmednagar with 1,518 cases, Akola in second place with 841 cases and Amravati (Melghat/Chikhaldara) has 1,069 cases.”

With regards to the PIL in high court, she said, “We are party to the PIL and have al-ready made our submission in the court.”

When told about the mal-nourishment numbers col-lated by NGOs, Maloo said, “I do not have their data, it will be difficult to make any com-ment.”

Malnourished children in Jawhar, Mokhada in 2013. The tribal belt has always struggled with malnourished children, who are entitled to cooked meals at aanganwadis. FILE PICS/ATUL KAMBLE

With no transport, men have to walk for an hour every day to reach work. When they approached concerned authorities, they were asked to submit a letter saying they can’t take up the job under NREGA because they do not want to travel. Isn’t this unfair?

Indavi Tulpule, member of Shramik Mukti Sangathana.

10 NATION mid-day Thursday, May 21, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com

Cyclone Amphan rages through Odisha’s coastal districts, kills two

New Delhi: With 5,611 new Coronavirus cases and 140 new fatalities in the last 24 hours, the total tally of such infections in India stood at 1,06,750 on Wednesday, the health minis-try data revealed. Total includes 61,149 active cases, 3,303 fatali-ties, and 42,298 patients cured of the disease, the ministry said.

In Maharashtra, Coronavirus cases climbed to 37,136, followed by Tamil Nadu with 12,448 cas-es and Gujarat with 12,140 cases so far. Maharashtra has the highest number of deaths at 1,249, followed by Gujarat’s 719 and Madhya Pradesh’s 258. In Delhi, the total tally rose to 10,554. States with more than 4,000 cases each are Rajasthan (5,845), Madhya Pradesh (5,465) and Uttar Pradesh (4,926). Other major states and Union Territo-ries that have reported more than 1,000 cases each are West Bengal (2,961), Andhra Pradesh (2,532), Punjab (2,002), Telanga-na (1,634), Bihar (1,498), Jammu and Kashmir (1,317), and Karna-taka (1,397).

Other states and UTs that have reported a significant number of Corona cases are Haryana (964), Kerala (642), Odisha (978), Jharkhand (231), Chandigarh (200), Tripura (173), Assam (142), Chhattisgarh (101) and Uttarakhand (111). Agencies

BeNgaluru: A loud ‘thunder-ing’ sound in several parts of Bengaluru on Wednesday afternoon triggered panic among the residents, while the officials ruled out the pos-sibility of it being an earth-quake. The sound was heard across the city from Kempe-gowda International Airport off Devanahalli in the north to Kengeri and Electronic City in the South. Many people feared it could be a mild tremor as doors and windows shook af-ter the noise.

However, the Commission-er of Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority Manoj Rajan ruled out the possibility of any earthquake and said it needed to be investigated.

“We have 12 seismic mon-itoring centres in Karnataka but none have reported any seismic activity,” Rajan told PTI. The Bengaluru police commissioner Bhaskar Rao said there was no damage re-ported anywhere. He said he too came to know from media of the sound heard from the airport to Hebbagodi here. However, there were no calls to the police control room re-garding any damage. “We have also asked the Air Force Con-trol Room to check if it was a jet or supersonic sound.

Bengaluru police are await-ing confirmation from the Air Force,” Rao said in a statement. The Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre also clarified that the activity reported in the state capital was not due to an earthquake.

Agencies

A Coronavirus-themed robot navigated by health officials sprays disinfectant, in Chennai. PiC/aFP

BhuBaNeswar: Cyclone Am-phan caused havoc in the coastal districts of Odisha as it triggered heavy rainfall, coupled with high-velocity winds while moving towards the West Bengal on Wednes-day. Hundreds of trees were uprooted and electric and telecom infrastructure damaged.

The government has re-ceived reports of two deaths from Bhadrak and Kendrapara districts due to the cyclone.

“We have received reports of a child’s death at Tihidi in the Bhadrak district. The dis-

trict collector has sent a team, comprising tehsildar, medical and police officers. The ex-act cause will be ascertained after autopsy,” said special relief commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Jena.

A 67-year-old woman died in her house in the Satabhaya area of the Kendrapara district as ambulance didn’t reach her in time. An inquiry has been

ordered to ascertain the cause of death, said the SRC.

A total of 1,48,486 peo-ple have been evacuated from low-laying areas, and thatched and mud houses, and accommodated in 2,921 cyclone shelters. Besides, 1,885 pregnant women were shifted to hospitals for better care in the last two days, said the SRC. Thirty-six NDRF and ODRAF teams have been de-ployed in the coastal districts.

“Route clearing and resto-ration works have begun in the Jagatsinghpur, Kendra-pada and Bhadrak districts.

Mostly trees and electric poles have been uprooted at many places. Damage assess-ment has also begun,” said the SRC.

Energy Secretary Bishnu-pada Sethi said they had re-ceived reports about damage to electric infrastructure in the cyclone affected areas.

“As a precautionary meas-ure, the department had pre-positioned manpower and electric equipment. Once the impact of the cyclone de-creases, we will try to restore electricity supply,” said Sethi.

Agencies

Fire and Rescue Service personnel clear uprooted trees on a road following gusty winds as super cyclone Amphan makes its landfall, in Kendrapada district, on Wednesday. PiC/PTi

1,48,486Total no. of people evacuated

Thundering sound creates panic in Bengaluru

Nation sees sharpest spike of 5,611 new COVID-19 casesHealth ministry says the total includes 61,149 active cases, 3,303 fatalities, and 42,298 patients cured of the disease

Commercial passenger flights to resume from May 25: PuriNew Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday domestic scheduled commercial pas-senger flights will resume in a calibrated manner from May 25, two months after the services were shut due to Coronavirus.

All scheduled commercial passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 25, when the Modi government imposed lock-down to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus. “Do-mestic civil aviation oper-ations will recommence in a calibrated manner from Monday, May 25, 2020. All airports and air carriers are being informed to be ready

for operations from May 25,” Puri said on Twitter. “Stand-ard Operating Procedures for passenger movement are also being separately issued by the Ministry of Civil Avia-tion,” he added. Agencies

Vardhan to be WHO Board chairman

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan will take charge as the chairman of the WHO Executive Board on May 22, sources said on Tuesday. The Board meeting of the WHO will be held on May 22. The Board is composed of 34 technically qualified members elected for three-year terms.

Bus services restart in Kerala

Fifty-six days after operations came to a complete standstill the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation on Wednesday morning commenced its bus and water services. The state government had cleared the operation of only intra district services.

First 12,000 HP locomotive starts rolling

The first 12,000 HP made in India locomotive, manufactured by Madhepura Electric Loco Factory in Bihar, has been put into operation by the Railways from Pandit Deen

Dayal Upadhyaya Junction. The loco is named WAG12 with Number 60027. The train departed from Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Station at 2:08 pm on Tuesday.

1,400

1,458Total no. of COVID-19 cases in Karnataka

‘Coronavirus will not be completely eradicated shortly. It is necessary to accept it as part of life, beware of it, and create awareness among the masses about healthcare’

Sharad Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party president

File PiC/aFP

COVID-19TICKER

ACTIVE CORONAVIRUS CASES IN INDIA AS OF TODAY

1,06,750

No. of employees Ola to lay off

The Commissioner of

Karnataka state Disaster

Management authority

Manoj rajan ruled out

the possibility of any

earthquake and said it

needed to be investigated

11 WORLD mid-day Thursday, May 21, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com

States ‘fudging testing data’

Public health officials in some states are accused of bungling COVID-19 case statistics. In Virginia, Texas and Vermont, officials are combining the results of viral tests with antibody tests, which “doesn’t give a true picture of how the virus is spreading”. In Florida, Rebekah Jones, the data scientist who developed the state’s COVID-19 dashboard, said this week she was fired for refusing to manipulate data “to drum up support for the plan to reopen.”

US tops world with 1.5 mn COVID-19 cases, Trump says it is an ‘honour’WASHINGTON: President Don-ald Trump has said it is a “badge of honour” for Amer-ica to “lead” the world with 1.5 million confirmed Coro-navirus cases since it means the US is testing more people for the disease that has killed over 300,000 people across the world. The US has 1.5 mil-lion confirmed cases and over 91,000 deaths, both the world’s highest.

“By the way,” he told report-ers on Tuesday, “you know when you say that we lead in cases, that’s because we have more testing than anybody else.” “So when we have a lot of cases... I don’t look at that as a bad thing, I look at that as, in a certain respect, as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better.”

‘Badge of honour’He said, “So I view it as a badge of honour. Really, it’s a badge of honour.”

“It’s a great tribute to the testing and all of the work that a lot of professionals have done,” the president said. According to the Centres for Disease Con-trol, the US had conducted 12.6 million tests by Tuesday.

The Democratic National Committee has criticised the president’s comments, tweet-ing that the 1.5 million COV-ID-19 cases in the US repre-

sented “a complete failure of leadership”. Trump is seeking reelection in the November presidential poll.

Pro-Trump docs’ recruitmentMeanwhile, Republican polit-ical operatives are recruiting

“extremely pro-Trump” doc-tors to go on TV to prescribe reviving the US economy as quickly as possible, without waiting to meet safety bench-marks proposed by the CDC to slow the COVID-19 spread.

The plan was discussed in a May 11 conference call with a senior staffer for the Trump re-election campaign organ-ised by CNP Action, an affiliate of the GOP-aligned Council for National Policy. A leaked re-cording of the hour-long call

was provided to The AP by the Centre for Media and Democ-racy, a progressive watchdog group. Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign communi-cations director, confirmed to AP that an effort to recruit doctors to publicly support the president is underway, but declined to say when the initia-tive would be rolled out.

“Anybody who joins one of our coalitions is vetted,” Mur-taugh said on Monday.

Agencies

'I don't look at that as a bad thing, I look at that as, in a certain respect, as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better'

Donald Trump, US president

The novel Coronavirus has also claimed nearly 92,000 lives in the US, also the world’s highest. FILE PIC/AFP

A Satere-Mawe indigenous child sits beside a man preparing medicinal herbs to treat people with COVID-19 symptoms in the Wakiru community, in Taruma, Brazil. Satere-Mawe indigenous leader Andre Satere said 11 people in their community are showing Coronavirus symptoms. The local and state governments were called to assist, but to no avail. At least 88 indigenous people have already died of COVID-19 in the Amazon. PIC/AFP

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil on Tues-day recorded the highest daily deaths caused by COVID-19, Reuters reported on Wednes-day. So far, the virus has killed 17,971 in Brazil and infected 2,71,628, including 17,408 new cases registered on Tuesday.

COVID-19 has entered the re-mote indigenous lands in Bra-zil’s Amazon, the government agency responsible for protect-ing native people brushed off calls for action.

In the face of a spreading pandemic, indigenous activists, celebrities and agents on the ground warn inaction is enough to wipe out many indigenous people. Agencies

ROME: As nations around the world loosen restrictions, people are discovering that “the new normal” is anything but. Yet some realities have emerged: schools, offices, public transport, bars and res-taurants are now on the front lines of post-lockdown life.

What a return to normal looks like varies widely. In It-aly, where good food is an es-sential part of life itself, once-packed restaurants and cafes are facing a huge financial hit as they reopen with strict so-cial distancing rules. The loss-es are forecast to pile up to $32 billion this year.

Education is also facing a radical rethink. Cambridge became the first university in the UK to cancel all face-to-face lectures for the upcoming school year. In South Korea, high school seniors had their

temperatures checked and used hand sanitisers as they returned to school on Wednes-day. Many governments, in-cluding several US states, are in fierce disagreement over what the new normal should even be. Agencies

Servicemen of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry disinfect Moscow’s Leningradsky railway station. As on Wednesday, COVID-19 cases in Russia reach 3,08,705, with 8,764 cases in the past 24 hours, and death toll stands at 2,972 with 135 new casualties. PIC/AFP

Pak records 1,932 new cases, 48 deaths

Pakistan recorded 1,932 new COVID-19 cases and 46 fatalities during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 45,898 with 985 deaths, the health ministry said on Wednesday. Pakistan has started easing in phases the Coronavirus lockdown and partially resumed its domestic air services.

Countries struggle to define ‘new normal’

Brazil records highest daily jump in deaths

4,861,456Total no. of COVID-19 cases across the world

3,22,483Total no. of COVID-19 deaths worldwide

91,921Total no. of COVID-19 deaths in the US


comment Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution? —

Groucho Marx, American comedian

ThoughT for The Day

Printed and published by Shaikh Latif Gaffar on behalf of Mid-Day Infomedia Ltd, and printed at R/847/3, T.T.C, Industrial Area, M.I.D.C., Rabale, Navi Mumbai. Editorial and Advertising offices at 6th floor, RNA Corporate Park, off Western Express Highway, Kalanagar, Bandra (East) Mumbai 400 051; Telephone Nos: 6831 4800; Fax No: 26426812, RNI Number 35667/79 Postal Registration No MCE/263/2015-2017. Repro-duction in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Editor: *Tinaz Nooshian (*Responsible for selection of news under the Press and Registration of Books Act 1867)

www.facebook.com/mid-day

www.twitter.com/mid_day

plus.google.com/mid-day

Write to us: [email protected]

have your say!

LETTERS

One can feel the pain and angst of ST bus drivers ferrying mi-grants, detailed in a frontpage

report in this paper. The drivers who are transporting these migrant la-bourers back to their states are doing a service to the city.

They need to have all the safe-ty gear. Good quality masks, with spares if needed on the road journey, with many of them traversing 700 km or so, and sanitisers are abso-lutely mandatory. The buses need to

be sanitised before and after every journey. Gloves too must be made available for the drivers in case they wish to use them. These buses must have designated halts at certain bus stands, which is necessary on such a long journey. The bus stations must have sanitisation facilities and, as far as possible, clean washrooms for the few staff transporting this huge shift-ing population outside the city.

While the drivers will be inevita-bly exposed to a number of people,

we have to keep all other safety pa-rameters in place. It was shocking to read that some buses have one driver for the journey. Staff crunch accept-ed, but you need two drivers or one available at some depot midway in case the current driver needs a break or has to be replaced.

Authorities must see that these drivers have adequate, clean food for the course of the journey. Clean drinking water is non-negotiable. It was disheartening to read that they

are at times, not equipped with these and rely on NGOs on the way for food. They cannot even buy food as most eateries or dhabas where bus drivers traditionally eat are closed because of the pandemic.

Though trains have started for mi-grants, buses too play a very impor-tant role, in what may be the largest reverse migration in the world. Let us keep those that are driving that movement, literally at the top of our concern and caution chain.

ST drivers must get assistance on priority

The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper

Landmarks and Sachin Tendulkar are like butter and toast. And there’s another one coming up

— on May 25 — when Sachin and Anjali complete 25 years of marriage.

A quarter-century ago, the build-up to the big day in Mumbai was exciting. A close associate of Sachin was even offered money to pro-vide a blow-by-blow account of the wedding ceremony and the recep-tions (one for the cricket fraternity at Jade Garden, Worli, and another for relatives, neighbours and friends at Sun-n-Sand hotel) for a Kolkata publication. Of course, the offer was promptly turned down.

A mid-day report said that there was a fair bit of mail reaching the Sahitya Sahawas colony at Bandra (East), asking for invitations. Also, that Sachin’s attire for the wedding ceremony was being tailored at a Hill Road boutique called Anja San, owned by Asha Bhosle.

As expected, the photographers had a field day on May 25 and Ash-ish Raje, a mid-day staffer then, re-members making a morning dash to Tendulkar’s Bandra (East) dwelling to capture the to-be-groom. He got a picture of Tendulkar clearing the front seat of his car and then head-ing to Jewel of India, Worli, where the wedding ceremony was to be held.

Post the nuptials, the bride and groom posed for a battery of pho-tographers under the summer sun on the Jewel of India lawns. And news-paper editors wanted photographs of the following day’s reception, to be attended by the who’s who of Indian cricket. But that was not to be. All they could manage was guests streaming in — the light not half as good as the red carpet events of today.

Tendulkar invited a handful of journalists. We thought hard before deciding on our gift for the couple. I was clear that I had to buy some-thing that would be enduringly use-ful. From a gift shop specialising in

marble products at Dadar, I opted for a small Ganesh idol.

I entered Jade Garden to be greet-ed by the late Hemant Waingankar, a dear friend of Sunil Gavaskar and a father-like guide to Sachin. When Hemant was around, his trusted lieu-tenant Anil Joshi couldn’t be far away and there was Anil besides Mr and Mrs Tendulkar on stage.

It was Waingankar, who informed Gavaskar that the young Sachin had missed out on the Bombay Cricket As-sociation’s Best Junior Cricketer of the Year (1986-87). It moved Gavaskar to pen a letter to Tendulkar (written on the bonnet of a car as Gavaskar wait-ed to board a London-bound flight to

participate in the MCC Bicentenary Test at Lord’s), citing his own example of missing out on that Mumbai cricket honour. The written communication went on to become a significant part of the Tendulkar success story.

We journalists kept to ourselves at one end of the terraced Jade Garden and watched celebrity after celebrity walk up on the simple stage to greet the couple. Among them were the Sportsfield building gang which in-cluded Ajit Wadekar, Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri, Polly Umri-gar and GS Ramchand — apart from Kapil Dev and Maharashtra chief minister Manohar Joshi.

The Tendulkar family did not miss out on inviting anyone who had played a role in their son’s stupen-dous journey. Even those who played a few Ranji Trophy games with him were called. Also, the coaches of the Mumbai age group teams he played for, including Hemu Dalvi, who man-aged/coached the under-17 squad in 1987. Former Mumbai batsman San-jay Jaywant, who played club cricket with Tendulkar’s elder brother Ajit at Jolly Cricketers, was there too. The most memorable part of the evening for Jaywant was reuniting with actor Nana Patekar, whom he hadn’t met since his college days. “Nana gave

me a hug and my friends were quick to inform me recently that I am seen with him in the film, Sachin — A Bil-lion Dreams,” Jaywant told me on Tuesday.

I spotted Behram Contractor, the ed-itor of the Afternoon Despatch & Cou-rier, making mental notes as it were for his Round & About back page column. As expected, Busybee came up with a fine piece a few days later — his third on the event. “If Wills were to revive its Made for Each Other contest, the cou-ple would win it hands down. The bride and groom, I thought, complemented each other, in looks, youth, dedication to their respective callings, the desire to keep their marriage and the ceremo-nies thereafter as low-key and private as possible,” he wrote.

It was a grand wedding reception, but there were no excesses for it to even border on over the top. Sachin’s father Ramesh was as welcoming and pleasant as he was when I landed up at Sahitya Sahwas for the first time in 1990. Tendulkar Sr was a busy man at Jade Garden but he made it a point to ask each of his guests whether they were being well looked after.

Meanwhile, the photographers were still at ground level. I remem-ber Ajit inviting them to eat their dinner but clicking photographs of the reception was a clear no-no. The evening of May 26, 1995, was not just a wedding reception of a spe-cial cricketer. It was a celebration of cricket — big names, small names and most of all, good values.

It’s a pity that the silver wedding of Sachin and Anjali will be a low-key affair due to the Coronavirus lock-down. But their partnership is a cele-bration in itself. While we renew our wishes made 25 Mays ago, we can’t help hope for another landmark. And let not the COVID-19 pandemic stop us from raising a toast to them.

Long partnerships were never rare for Sachin. This one — a 25-year married association with Anjali — is as special as they come

mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello

Send your feedback to [email protected]

Clayton Murzello

PAVILION END

Sachin and Anjali Tendulkar on their wedding day in 1995. PIC/MId-dAy ArChIves

Strictly punish those found flouting guidelinesApropos ‘What lockdown?’, it is indeed a sorry state of affairs that despite knowing full well just how COVID-19 is playing havoc with the lives of citizens, people are still found moving around with scant respect for the police who have put their lives at stake for the sake of our safety. The authorities should take strict action against those found violating the curfew norms.

shrIyA sAnt

How Pauline Rohatgi helped me for my bookApropos ‘Remembering Pauline, the Indophile’, I would like to put on record how helpful art historian Pauline Rohatgi was, long ago here in London, when she was working at the India Office library and I was sourcing pictures for my book City of Gold, the biography of Bombay. She understood that I did not have a very big picture-budget, so we conspired together: I got a particular, little-known cover-picture that I wanted, and the Library got several free copies of my published book. A number of the photographs in that book were contributed by another old, and now lost Mumbai friend, Foy Nissen, to whom Pauline was very supportive in his declining years.

GIllIAn tIndAl

City must get back to its normal routineWith reference to, ‘What lockdown?’, it is time to end this COVID-19 phobia. From next month, flights, malls, cinemas and restaurants must start functioning with strict guidelines. Mumbaikars are suffering from boredom.

rItA sAlAnA

Coming soon: Silver wedding!

It was a grand wedding

reception on May 26, 1995

at the Jade Garden, Worli but

there were no excesses for it

to even border on over the top.

sachin’s father ramesh was

welcoming and pleasant. he

was a busy man but he made

it a point to ask each of his

guests whether they were

being well looked after

UMA RAMASUBRAMANIAN

[email protected]

IN April, this paper had re-ported that Sanjay Leela Bhansali had decided to demolish the elaborate set of Gangubai Kathiawadi (Gangubai’s brothel to be razed?, April 23). Al-most a month later, Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, producers of the ambitious un-derworld drama, Dongri to Dubai, are faced with a similar di-lemma. The team of the Avi-nash Tiwary-fronted drama

had recreated Dongri in Madh Island,

before the pro-ject rolled in mid-February. With the set ly-ing unused for two months and the lockdown

having extended in Mumbai, the mak-

ers are considering demolishing it.

“Unfortunately, the lockdown has been extended, and [we are only weeks away] from

the monsoon. So, we can’t keep the set

standing for too long. Once we procure the nec-essary permission from the authorities, we may pull it down and re-build it post the monsoons. At the moment, this looks like the most prac-tical approach. It’s a tough call, but the producers will decide soon,” says director Shujaat Saudagar.

The web series is based on the book Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Ma-fia, and chronicles the rise of Dawood Ibrahim. Rebuilding the set from scratch will be an unforeseen additional expense. “Creating Dongri of the ’80s and ’90s was im-perative because we did not want to compromise on the story or its aesthetics. It’s a huge set, so creating it again will be challenging. We will try to salvage it as much as we can,” he adds.

The lockdown was an-nounced just 20 days into the shoot of the ensemble drama. “We had recreated Bombay of the ’80s in Vile Parle, and were shooting there. We are not worried about [retaining] that set because we have al-ready filmed a major portion there. But, the Dongri set was untouched when the lock-down came into effect.”

‘It’s a huge set, so building it again will be challenging’Shujaat Saudagar

mid-day Thursday

21 . 05 . 2020

13

MOHAR BASU

[email protected]

WHAT was to be a four-day work trip in Abu Dhabi has turned into a two-month stay for Mouni Roy. The actor had headed to the UAE capital in March for a magazine shoot, only weeks before the Indian government banned interna-tional flights. “After the shoot, I decided to stay back in Abu Dhabi for two weeks, as my next project was scheduled to kick off only on April 15. I was possibly ignorant, but I didn’t imagine that the world will shut down. I have been stuck here with four days’ clothes,” says Roy, who is staying with a childhood friend.

She is also concerned about her family in Cooch Behar. “I have been checking on them every day. I am relieved that my brother is by mom’s side at this time. My cousins also live close by, that’s an added advantage.”

Even as she is grateful to have found a home away from home, Roy is keen to return to the country. “I have been oscillating between anxie-ty and calmness. Everybody around the world is going through a hard time. So, I sought solace in the fact that I have a roof over my head and a warm family, away

from home. That said, I am eager to return to India.”

Demolishing Dawood’s denAfter Dongri set in Madh Island lies unused for months, Dongri to Dubai director says makers Farhan-Ritesh are contemplating pulling it down

Staying in Abu Dhabi since March, Mouni rues being unable to join her family in Cooch Behar

‘Oscillating between anxiety and calmness’

IF you follow Richa Chadha on social media, chances are you’re already familiar with her online avatars of Quarantina, the kooky

anchor, and Tina Singh, an angry reporter from north India. The actor’s satirical series, Quarantina, which sees her bringing forth

bizarre and funny news from all over the world, has piqued the interest of some OTT platforms. Sources suggest a streaming service has approached Chadha to develop it as a series. A source reveals, “With the segment gaining traction on

the Internet,

a leading OTT platform is keen to turn it into a weekly series. Richa will continue to write and helm it, thus enjoying creative freedom on the show. The head honchos of the streaming service are in talks with the actor, who has yet to give her nod.”

Mohar Basu

SO IS THE BUZZ

QUARANTINA

ON OTT’S SLATE?

Sources say OTT platform in talks with Richa to develop her sketch as a series

(Top) Avinash Tiwary had shared an image from the heavily guarded set, on social media; producers Akhtar and Sidhwani

16 HITLIST mid-day Thursday, May 21, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com

UMA RAMASUBRAMANIAN

[email protected]

If social media posts are tes-timony, it appears to be all fun and games at Kunal Kemmu’s household. The father has been making the most of his downtime by entertaining daughter Inaaya with games and music, but admits that raising a child amid a pan-demic can be challenging. “We have become more mindful of her surroundings, and have been ensuring that everything

that is frequently touched is sanitised, particularly In-aaya’s toys. We are keeping a constant check on her, and making sure that everybody washes their hands, often,” Kemmu tells mid-day, adding that the hygiene lessons he’s learning are likely to become regular practice.

“Basic hygiene is taken for granted. We should learn from this episode. It is during times like these that one under-stands how much love people have for each other.”

THOUGH the 93rd Oscar award ceremony has been slotted for february 2021, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is consid-ering postponing the preten-tious event in response to the outbreak, as per reports.

The current telecast date is february 28, 2021, on ABC.

“It’s likely they’ll be post-poned,” international web-site Variety quoted one of its sources as saying. According to another source of the out-let, the date of the event re-mains unchanged.

The president of the Acad-emy, David Rubin had earlier in April told Variety that it was too soon to discuss the 2021 Oscar telecast.

“It’s impossible to know what the landscape will be. We know we want to cele-

brate films, but we do not know exactly what form it will take,” the portal quoted him as saying.

MAHARASHTRA Chief Min-ister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday, asked the enter-tainment industry to prepare an action plan on limited re-sumption of film shooting and post-production activities by adhering to social distancing norms amidst the lockdown.

Thackeray, however, ruled out reopening of cinema halls or theatres anytime soon. Shooting for films as well as other production activities re-mained suspended since mid-March in view of the pandemic.

“The government would consider an action plan on how shooting and post-production activities can be resumed in a limited way by adhering to social distancing and other norms,” Thackeray told a dele-gation of representatives of the entertainment industry, espe-cially from the Marathi theatre, television and cinema.

The prominent demands of the industry included sav-ing single-screen theatres, helping poor music compos-ers, and waiving GST on film production. Thackeray told the delegates that he didn’t believe that clamping

of lockdown meant everything must come to a standstill.

“We have allowed indus-tries, trade and shops to open by taking all the precautions. Commercial activities have also started in the state, barring the containment zones,” an official statement quoted Thackeray as saying on the occasion.

The CM said the huge enter-tainment industry comprises various artistes like actors, backstage persons, technicians and workers. Thackeray said his government would consider providing rent concessions to production houses which have their sets erected in at film City, and supporting folk artistes.

Referring to the demand of producers to allow resumption of shootings and post-produc-tion work, the CM said

the demand can be considered in “non-red” zones in the state.

Agencies

‘Shah Rukh was attentive, charming’ Creators of Khan-backed Netflix original Betaal recall first interaction with superstarSHAHEEN PARKAR

[email protected]

IT may be easy to label Pat-rick Graham as a one-trick pony as he follows his hor-ror series Ghoul with an-other scarefest, Shah Rukh Khan-backed Betaal, but the director says he’s incentiv-ised to explore the genre given that few in Indian cin-ema are willing to do so. “I hope to dabble in other gen-res as well, but there is a gap in the market when it comes to dealing with scarefests.

[Horror films are] either in-your-face [scary], or at-tached with an element of comedy. I like to play with the psychological aspect,” he says of the zombie hor-ror thriller, co-directed by Marathi filmmaker Nikhil Mahajan, whom the makers appointed given his “pas-sion for the genre”.

Viineet Kumar and Aaha-na Kumra’s Netflix offering, the second digital project to be backed by Khan follow-ing 2019’s Bard of Blood, is set in a village that becomes a battleground when a two-century-old East India Company colonel and his battalion of blood-thirsty zombies are released from their tomb.

England-based Graham says he is often asked about his interactions with Khan. “I come from a small village in England and people often ask me if I have met him. I am not usually star-struck, but, was nervous to interact with the legend. [Before our first meeting], I laid on my office floor and practiced breathing exercises. Along with Nikhil and co-writer Suhani Kanwar, we gave him a narration for three hours. He was charming, humble and attentive, and did not once break eye-contact.”

for SRK fan-boy Mahajan, meeting Khan was a dream-come-true. “He had a lot of inputs, and we had endless cups of coffee during our first meeting.”

When Mahajan had first met Graham, the former was planning a Hindi film that never took off. With Betaal, he makes his foray into the industry.

Patrick Graham; (top) Nikhil Mahajan on the sets of Betaal

‘We take basic hygiene for granted’Kunal Kemmu on parenting lessons he’s learnt amid the lockdown

Academy considers postponing Oscars 2021 amid pandemic

CM invites action plan for shoot resumption

‘We’ve ensured that objects frequently touched are sanitised, particularly Inaaya’s toys’ Kunal Kemmu with Inaaya Naumi. PIC/INSTAGRAM

A file photo of the Oscar trophy. PIC/GETTYIMAGES

The shoot of Aamir Khan’s film, Laal Singh Chaddha, is one among those affected by the lockdown; (bottom) Uddhav Thackeray

Armaan Malik took to social media to warn against a Facebook page,

Armaan Malik live. The singer requested netizens to report and block it. “Please don’t believe anything that the page posts about me or on behalf of me on Facebook. It’s not me,” he wrote. The crooner also interacted with fans on social media. Several expressed concern about the ongoing situation and their inadequacies.

“Take it one day at a time. Right now, we all are in the same boat. There’s no rush to achieve anything,” he advised.

Give and tellFarhan Akhtar was questioned by

netizens after he shared photos of PPE kits donated by fans that bear his name (inset). Social media users told him charity should be faceless. The actor-filmmaker had posted photos of cartons on which it was written that they were made possible by Akhtar’s fans. A user asked, “Why is your name pasted in bold on the boxes?” In response, Akhtar wrote, “So that the manufacturer knows whose order it is and where to send it.” Most netizens, however, did not seem convinced with Akhtar’s line of thought.

SPECIALEDITION

Ranvir Shorey, Purbi Joshi and Omi Vaidya star in the quarantine edition of Metro Park. The actors shot their portions independently at home for the web series

Sara’s nostalgic tripSara Ali Khan marked four years of her graduation from Columbia University by sharing a throwback photograph. “Sometimes this feels like a minute ago and sometimes it feels like another

lifetime,” she wrote. Coolie No 1 co-star Varun Dhawan took to the comment section and wrote, “Best picture you ever put up.” Khan was not exactly amused. Let go of negativity

On Wednesday, Amitabh Bachchan shared his words of wisdom to spread positivity. In a video uploaded on his Instagram handle, the veteran superstar appealed to fans to let go of grudges and tend to their relationships in these difficult times. In a play of words from the current scenario, Big B wrote, “Let’s quarantine the bitterness lying in some corner of our mind. Who knows, this way we might prevent a relationship from being put on a ventilator.” Fans proclaimed, “Truer words were never spoken.”

Mira Kapoor’s interior designer sister Noor Wadhwani has designed Shahid Kapoor’s work place. She posted pictures of the ‘office meeting or vanity pod or call-it-what-you-want’ space on her social media handle. Wadhwani shared the sketches and FaceTimed with Mira who executed it on the ground. The designer was hoping to travel to Mumbai to add some final touches and photograph it in a professional way. Considering the current scenario, Wadhwani is unsure about her trip, so shared the pictures on social media. Thanks to her, we get a sneak-peek of where Sasha will conduct business meetings.

Farah’s helping hand for migrants

Daughter Anya raised funds through her sketches to deliver food kits to the needy and feed stray animals amid the lockdown. Now, Farah Khan is extending a helping hand to the migrant workers, especially women. She is helping them fight the pandemic with safe hygiene practices. The filmmaker has collaborated with chef Vikas Khanna to donate 72,000 sanitary pads.

Khan and Khanna, who lives in New York, had been discussing the plight of these

women over the phone before taking the

decision. They have tied up with

NGOs raising awareness about female hygiene.

Designed to workBirthday cheerMandana Karimi celebrated her birthday on Tuesday by extending help to the fund-raiser, No One Sleeps Hungry. She collected 200 bags of groceries to distribute to the needy. “It was overwhelming to be part of a cause on my special day. I’ve received so much love from everywhere. I have got calls from people who I haven’t spoken to for years. It might be a strange time for all of us, but it has brought us all closer to each other,” she says.

Beware of imposter


have you heard?Colour hacksNeena Gupta is using a painting brush to colour her hair amid the lockdown. Initially, the veteran actor asked husband Vivek Mehra how to go about it considering salons are shut. He gave her a brush but it did not work. Gupta, who is in Uttarakhand, picked up a painting brush from a local store. She referred to it as her ‘jugaad’ as she could do a fine job with it. Next time, she intends to colour her tresses using a toothbrush. Anyone in need of beauty hacks, ask Gupta.

KRUTIKA BEHRAWALA

[email protected]

MARINA Balakrishnan’s child-hood memories are flecked with aromas of molten jag-gery, powdered cardamom and fresh coconut milk as her grandmother cooked the moong dal pradhaman (a variety of payasam) at their Thalassery home. “She would roast the moong dal in batch-es, some only sautéed while others cooked till brown. This added diverse textures to the dal,” says the certified plant-based chef, who will recreate this dessert for her new, week-ly dining experience titled Oottupura (Malayalam: eating house), launching this Sunday.Featuring a set menu of 10 home-style, vegetarian dishes (without onion-gar-lic) from the Malabar region, the meal is available on pre-or-der basis (limited to 10 people) with pick-up from her Juhu residence. “The oot-tupura symbolises community since it’s a gathering of peo-ple sharing delicious food. In the times of social distancing, my endeavour is to recreate the warmth of a Malayali din-ing experience in one’s own home,” she says.

This edition of the seasonal menu, changing as per availability of produce, includes pumpkin erissery; stir-fried long beans; cucumber pachadi with a hint of mus-tard; inji puli laced with tamarind, gin-

ger and jaggery, and sambar-am or spiced buttermilk — all served with Kerala’s native adatt matta rice.

“The focus is on using fresh and carefully sourced ingre-

dients,” says Balakrishnan, 56, who does the prep and cooking herself to control hy-giene standards. This includes extracting fresh coconut milk, setting the curd from organic cow’s milk and hand-pound-ing spice powders. Pantry sta-ples such as peppercorn, jag-gery, cardamom and Malabar

tamarind have been sourced from Kerala “to maintain the integrity of flavours and food properties,” she adds.

The food is prepared in tra-ditional brass and soapstone cookware using family reci-pes passed down via gener-ations. “For example, in the technique of making inji puli

in a kalchatti, I tie its mouth with banana leaf, which helps the inji puli brew for a bit and lends it an aroma,” she says. Ayurveda principles are part of her cooking too; like, avoiding raw green chillies in the buttermilk because they “cause imbalance to the pitta dosha governing digestion.”

Packed in non-plastic con-tainers, the meals will be ac-companied by a clean banana leaf and tags for dishes that can be reheated. “Food has the energy to heal. I hope this ex-perience offers nourishment for the body and soul in these times,” she signs off.

LOG ON TO @thatthalasserygirl on Instagram (pre-orders open on Friday) COST `750

A seasoned Keralite consultant chef’s new weekly dining experience is inspired by Malabari flavours from her grandmother’s kitchen

The oottupura beckons

mid-dayThursday

21.05.2020

18

Cannes

couture

1. At her Cannes Film debut in 1991, Madonna shocked every-one at the première of Truth or Dare wearing a silk conical bra, bloomers and a glorious mauve coat by Jean Paul Gaultier.

2. In 2016, when actor Chris Pine suited up in a double breasted Giorgio Arma-ni and a polka dotted square, the Internet swooned over him. A win for men’s fashion.

3. Name a better love story than Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Cannes. The actor’s 2017 Michael Cinco ball gown had everyone screaming “Cinder-ella”. It inspired memes too.

LOG ON TO Festival de Cannes on Facebook (to browse images)

STYLE FILES

The film festival might be canned but its fashion moments are timeless. Here are some of the best

(Clockwise from left) Beans thoran, kumbalanga manga parippu (ashgo-urd dal with raw mango), olan, adatt matta rice with a dollop of inji puli

Balakrishnan uses traditional utensils such as the kalchatti (soap-stone cookware) to cook the food

PICS/AFP

Moong dal pradhamanYield: 10-12 servings Cooking time: 45 minutes

INGREDIENTS£ ½ kg split moong dal£ 4 cups thin coconut milk£ 2 cups thick coconut milk£ ¾ kg jaggery (melted and strained)£ 2 tablespoons ghee£ 4-5 cardamom powdered£ 4-5 cups water£ ¼ cup coconut bits fried

METHOD

Heat ghee in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add moong dal and fry till it turns golden. Add water and cook until the dal is well done. Stir the jaggery syrup and cook on slow fire till it reduces by half. Add thin coconut milk. Keep stirring, bring it to a boil and reduce it in volume. When reduced by half, add thick coconut milk and cook on slow fire for two minutes. Add cardamom powder and fried coconut bits. Note: The payasam should be of creamy consistency.

Recipe of the week from Mumbai’s hottest chefs

KITCHEN SUPERSTAR

‘The oottupura symbolises community since it’s a gathering of people sharing delicious food’ Marina Balakrishnan

Inji puli

Marina Balakrishnan

19 THE GUIDE mid-day Thursday, May 21, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com

Learning the stepsLet’s face it, if the lockdown has done us any good, it’s giving us the gift of time. So keep aside the house chores, and learn some new moves with this online bachata class. The workshop is beginner-friendly and part

of the proceeds will go towards a mask-making initiative.

ON May 24 LOG ON TO insider.in COST R250

TEAM GUIDE RECOMMENDS

The best of things to do in twos

LOVE BYTES

Weaving

supportA popular handloom exhibition is taking the online route to help artisans across India sustain

SUKANYA DATTA

[email protected]

WE were at an exhibition in Pune in March, when COV-ID-19 struck. With social gath-erings no longer a possibility, we had to slam the breaks on all our upcoming exhibitions, including our monthly phys-ical exhibition Go Swadeshi,” recalls Madhavi Naidu, general manager, sales and marketing, GoCoop, a social organisation that facilitates e-connect be-tween artisans and customers. Ever since, they have been in touch with their network of weavers and entrepreneurs

across India on how to tide over this financial crisis. “We re-

alised that large amounts of their stock were lying unsold in their facilities. They not only had their own families to take care of, but also the artisans working under them. It is why we decided to take the exhibi-tion online,” reveals Naidu.

The week-long exhibition, which will be live on the or-ganisation’s website, has been divided into four parts based on India’s geography — north, east, south and west. It will fea-ture around 40 creators selling weaves from states including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnata-ka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. “What the artisans need right now is our support more than charity, as their stocks are pil-ing up, and there is no outflow. Depending on the response, we may extend the exhibition,” she shares. Here’s a look at what’s on display.

Dealing with disrespect

I swear by TikTok and its end-less scrolling to put me to sleep, and particularly, Toron-tonian Boman Martinez-Re-id’s videos. The 20-year-old, inspired by shows like Real Housewives, has been putting up his own reality TV skits where he deals with what he calls “daily disrespect”. Watch his mom diss his sweatpants, his best friend cough on him and the time he was left to “read” for seven minutes and thus forced to “disintegrate” on a molecular level.

LOG ON TO Bomanizer on TikTok

dalreen r

am

os

The man of the series

People are raving about Paatal Lok as if the web series will do for In-dian shows what 16-year-old Sachin Tendulkar did to cricket when he de-buted for the country. The story of the nine-epi-sode show revolves around a suburban Delhi cop who’s out to prove to the world that he isn’t the numbskull everyone thinks he is. But is the execution as flawless as the Master Blaster’s on-drives were? Don’t put your money on it. Is it worth a watch? Yes, you can bet on that.

LOG ON TO Paatal Lok on primevideo.com

shunas

hir

se

n

Rom-com to the rescueWho doesn’t like a bittersweet rom-com to cosy up on a weekend night? And this one’s got a shy Chinese-American (played by Leah Lewis) girl helping a school jock (Daniel Diemer) win over another girl he has fallen for. Except that she, too, is smitten by the same girl. Titled The Half of It, the queer teen romance, which is written and directed by Alice Wu, is being hailed as a coming-of-age film and has been getting a lot of praise on social media platforms. It might be a good idea to turn off the news updates and indulge in some good old us-time.

LOG ON TO Netflix

West life This section will feature prints like ajrakh, band-hani and shibori on textiles, which are designed for life in the desert. Naidu tells us that Jahangir Khatri, an artisan from Kutch, who specialises in ajrakh block prints, will be selling dupat-tas, stoles and sarees, while an enterprise called Shalu Hand Printers will showcase Chanderi sarees in shibori and bandhani prints. Also look out for a range of pretty, Jaipur block-printed quilts and bedsheets.

Heading northHand-made Nehru jackets from weavers in Jharkhand, dupattas and sarees in the famed Banarasi silk from Ut-tar Pradesh, and hand-woven Chanderi and Maheshwari sarees and fabrics, among other products, will be avail-able in this section.

East is bestSoft jamdani sarees and tangail weaves made by ar-tisans from West Bengal will be featured here. There will also be sarees, dupat-tas and stoles with geomet-ric Sambalpuri ikat designs from Odisha, along with rich Baluchari silks.

Simply south

On display will be Molakalmu-ru silk sarees, the contrasting Pochampally handloom ikat sarees, dress materials and cushion sets, dhurris or rugs made using inter-clock weav-ing, and embroidered sling

bags, pouches and sarees cre-ated by the Lambani commu-nity in Karnataka.

FROM May 21 to 27 LOG ON TO gocoop.com/goswadeshi COST R500 to R50,000

One-time-only experiences curated by cool folk

LIMITED EDITION

‘The artisans need our support now, not our

charity’ Madhavi Naidu Ikat cushion covers will be on sale

A shibori kurta that’s part of the sale

A jamdani saree made in BengalA Banarasi silk dupatta

The lockdown has turned out to be a major cause of financial concern for weavers across the country

20 THE GUIDE mid-day Thursday, May 21, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com

Online baithakMUSIC ▶ Watch Padma Shri awardee Shubha Mudgal in a live concert titled Baithark where she will present different genres like thumri, khayal and dadra.

TIME 7 pm onwards LOG ON TO HCL Concerts on Facebook

Virtual readingsBOOKS ▶ Every Thursday and Saturday, you can join theatre group D for Drama for a special reading with 20 people over a Zoom call. Today, it will be No Exit by Jean Paul Satre.

LOG ON TO @fordramabombay on Instagram EMAIL [email protected]

EXERCISE ▶ Missing your daily run in the lockdown? Here’s how you can participate in a virtual one while maintaining social distancing protocols in the safety of your home. With the EsselWorld Virtual Funrun, you can opt for a 5 km or 10 km run and compete in a 24-hour period starting Saturday midnight, inside your home or compound. Your performance will be tracked through an app or wrist device. For children, there is an obstacle run that can be put together using furniture at home. You will receive participation certificates and discount coupons at the end of it.

CALL 9920142195 LOG ON TO esselworld.in

A home run

SUNDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

A funny turn from the Middle EastLAUGH ▶ Drive those lockdown weekend blues away by logging on to an online comedy show by Nitinn Miranni. In the past, the Dubai-based comedian’s routines have had themes including ridiculous airport rules and regulations, the obsession Indian men have with Bangkok, and the more idiosyncratic aspects of his own life. Having honed his skills in Dubai, he has also had to work with a lot of restrictions, which he says has helped him build discipline and not use foul language in his sets. Miranni has performed at comedy

festivals around the world and says that he tries to find humour in the most mundane things. You can now watch him perform in the comfort of your own home. Titled Comedy Munch, the show will also feature Kajol Srinivasan with her witty one-liners in an opening act. All you need to do is log in on time and ensure you are watching from a quiet room so that the artistes face minimal disturbance.

TIME 8 pm onwards LOG ON TO insider.in COST `249

Also check out

For art lovers: Artist Ramdas Shankar Lobhi is auctioning his work In Gratitude and donating all the proceeds to the PM Cares Fund. The painting is inspired by the architecture and people of Bali.LOG ON TO

saltscout.com

For the storyteller:

Performer Helly Shah will take you through the basics of storytelling at this workshop.ON May 23, 5 pm LOG ON TO insider.in

THURSDAY

True detectiveAhead of Sherlock Holmes Day, three contemporary crime writers talk about their association with the timeless sleuth

In sync with the sleuth

I GOT introduced to the char-acter when I was a child. We

didn’t have too much of choice back then, moving

from Enid Bly-ton to Sherlock Holmes, to Aga-tha Christie. The

character fascinat-ed me, and there is a

story about a snake — The Adventure of the Speck-led Band — that’s stuck in my head. It’s about how someone is trying to do away with chil-

dren inherit-ing a fortune. And what I like [about Conan Doyle] is that he doesn’t put everything on

a plate. You are working with the detective, which I feel that many modern detective nov-els are missing. They give out everything in black and white.

The Hound of the Basker-villes has also stayed with me. The images of the hounds and the moors, and the fact that you can be confronted with these demonic beasts in the dark, was more fascinating than the actual mystery. When I read it as a kid, it was guaran-teed that I wouldn’t step out at night for a while.

Kiran Manral

Holmes, the adapter

I read The Hounds of the Baskervilles when I was in school and it had this old-school way of story-telling that I wasn’t familiar with. But for me, the resurrection of the character came in the

form of the shows [on BBC star-ring Bene-dict Cum-b e r b a tc h] . It’s not that Holmes was

fading away. But people got to see a modern adaption of the first fictitious detective figure that most of us ever knew. I have seen the films with Robert Downey Jr, too, and the fact that one character can spawn such high-profile adaptations shows how important he is. There are also many literary derivatives, of which Satya-jit Ray’s Feluda is the most successful.

Bilal Siddiqui

Character study

The whole idea of a historical detective began for me when I received an abridged Sher-lock Holmes book as a prize in school. The book opened up everything I had thought about the UK, about the Dick-ensian era and the grasslands of England. When I read Holmes in the beginning, I remember feeling like I was solving the mystery along with this man. But re-read-ing it later, I started dwelling more on the character and details like the descriptions of the large castles. More than the stories, it’s the characters like Professor Moriarty that

I remember. Also, another association I have with the series is through my dog. My peers and

seniors would [laughingly] call it The Hound of the Bask-ervilles, when it was actually this little Pomeranian.

Anita Nair

There might be a number of reasons why people are stressed out right now, and meditation is one way of dealing with them. There are different techniques that one can adopt to tackle specific problems, and expert Bhumika Jigar Gala will now take participants through some of these at an online session.

ON May 23, 4 pm onwardsLOG ON TO The Amethyst Meraki on Facebook

Inner healing

CTRL+ ALT + RELAX

Smart ways to unwind end of week

GET LIT

Compiled by Shunashir Sen

Sherlock Holmes Day is

celebrated on May 22, creator

Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday

About books, writers and between the lines

mid-dayThursday

21.05.2020 education21

SHAMEEM KHAN

As students, we absorb all that is taught to us in schools in order to prepare ourselves to be academi-cally qualiied for future challenges. But aren’t there times when we feel that instead of learning everything that is a part of our syllabus, we would do better to focus our energy on just the subjects that could help us in our future careers.As a parent, we can set our kids up for their future by encouraging them to focus on the subjects ac-cording to their aptitude. If they succeed in these subjects, they’re most likely to succeed in the real world.

Academic success is important because it directly decides the posi-tive outcomes of the students after graduating. Research shows that the students with good degrees or high levels of education are more probably to be employed and paid a higher salary grade than the others with no academic success.

Here we analyse the subjects that a child would do well to focus on in his learning years.

MathematicsNumbers are important. Mathe-matics is known to be the most rel-evant subject in school, and the one that employers are looking at most closely. Especially with the tech-nological boom and the computer science industry growing rapidly every day, there is a pressing need for people who have an expertise on the number games to be innovating at the highest rate possible.

EnglishYou may be great at numbers, but what signiicance will it hold if you don’t have the communication skills to back it up. Efective communica-tion is the key to a good job done. so, having the word skill in writing and communicating is an essential skill if you want to be a successful

part of a team.

The Second LanguageYou may have a grasp on the Queens language but it’s also important to understand the local language. Hin-di being our National language, it is important to read and write the lan-guage luently because there will be communications both written and verbal that you may have to engage in later in your work as well as social life.

Sciencesscience ofers the answers to vari-ous questions we ask out of curios-ity, in our early years. For instance, how does it rain? How does our body function? science helps us to learn about the various weath-er conditions, and helps to distin-guish between normal weather and dangerous weather. Learning the basics of how certain devices work can help to develop ideas of your own and invent new technology. It is worth specialising in its various branches like Biology, Technology, Chemistry, Engineering etc. to be prepared for interesting career o ptions like medicine, engineering, IT etc.

Social Sciencesocial science deals with Human Beings – their behaviour, develop-ment, relationships, and the various institutions they require to function and carry on their life smoothly. For example – family, school, work-place, government, judiciary, rec-reation clubs, etc. social studies is incorporated in the school curricu-lum through a combination of sub-jects like – History, Geography, Cul-tural studies, Economics, Political science, sociology, Psychology etc. so whether one wants to become a doctor or an engineer or a chartered accountant, an artist or a teacher, we all have to live in a society and adapt to various situations to lead a successful and productive life.

SHAMEEM KHAN

DIFFERENT things may hold your child’s interest for his/her alma ma-ter. But it’s deinitely not the school’s infrastructure or prime location as many parents would like to believe. Here’s what appeals to your little an-gels about their second home…

A humane touchA good school appeals to the young and impressionable minds. More than technology, a human touch will do the wonders. Decorations on the walls, inspirational pictures that ap-peal to children—be it Gandhiji or their sports idol Ronaldo hung on the walls inspire them to give their best. similarly, a student’s art-work or thoughts on a subject displayed on the wall goes a long way to make an impression about the children’s tal-ents and thoughts which are carefully

nurtured by the school.

Motivational atmosphere of the schoolIt is imperative that the whole atmos-phere of the school is conducive to good work. The spirit of the school, the social and psychological condi-tions that exist in the school vis-à-vis the principles ideals and the teach-er’s mental make-up goes a long way in educating the children in the true sense.

The teacher’s takeA teacher who knows what to do, how to do it and gets it done without it ever entering the mind of a pupil to question on her ability to get it done makes a good school.

Energy, enthusiasm and innovationA school is good if it can hold a child’s

interest and helps to direct his en-thusiasm in a proper manner. Pupils should be eager to tell what they know of a topic and add their own to make an altogether new story.

A disciplined approachA good school that has a well-ar-ranged program of studies and games is a good school. A balanced time-ta-ble which arranges study time with leisure activities is so meticulously planned that students desire to do work at certain times and play at some times. Too much variation of a program weakens the minds of the children.

Encourages aptitudeIn a good school, a child’s natural aptitude is recognised and encour-aged. If a child inds himself doing maths when his mind is into music or vice-versa, it is not aspirational for the child.

WhAT STUDENT’S WANT?students aspirations for an ideal school is more psychological than anything else. Research says that schools should touch the emotion-al chord of its students to be ad-judged the best. These are some of the things that should meet the re-quirements of the children in their ideal school:

A strong community feelingWithout a sense of belonging and connection students may feel al-ienated. Without support students may experience loneliness and de-spair. schools that are too large for students to know each other, too competitive and obsessed with per-formance or has a staf which can't develop close, caring relationships with young people are unlikely to provide a cohesive and principle based community that students need.

While there are debates on what makes an

ideal school- ranging from good

infrastructure to fine teachers, there are

those who suggest a different view

How good is your school? The Subject MatterA student’s interest and aptitude towards a

subject will be the guiding force for a

successful career choice in his life

The world that will emerge after this pandemic will be very differ-ent from what was before. Com-panies have deferred and rescind-ed job offers, and put internships on hold. This increases the need for professionals and employ-ees to upgrade upskill and cater themselves to the current corpo-rate requirements.

Talerang (www.talerang.com) started as my independent re-search project at Harvard Busi-ness School 6 years ago.

Students and professionals are prepared for their careers through training in 21st century skills and access to internships and jobs.Communication has become a keyWith so many people working

from home, having excellent communication skills on the job is critical in dealing with your manager, your customers and also in getting a sale. Students can start reading, practicing their in-troduction in front of the mirror or video tape themselves, and also join a course that teaches them how to communicate effectively. Time-management, resilience and technical know-how is important for working remotelyMany companies are looking at how they can continue with some of their staff working remote-ly even after the lockdown and quarantine phases of the pan-demic end. This will lead to the importance of key technical skills from all graduates.

Data science and AI are growing fields To unlock the value trapped inside data organisations will need experts with knowledge of Python, R and Machine Learn-ing. Scarcely has any industry not been touched by AI. AI will power driverless cars, glean in-sights from raw data, recommend products to shoppers, create ac-tionable insights for businesses, help farmers increase yields and much more. Companies that have robust AI systems will be able to understand their customers bet-ter. Businesses will want to hire employees who know Python, Machine learning, and Deep Learning with Tensor Flow and Keras and more.

ONLINE TRAINING FOR JOB VIABILITYShveta Raina, Founder and CEO, Talerang gives you tips on how to

acquire new skills to be work-ready during lockdown

I Have Changed My NameGangaram Rajanna to Jacob

Gaini as per MaharashtraGazette Copy No. X-18651Dated 13th January, 1994.

[30641727]

Change Of Name

22mid-dayThursday

21.05.2020

Tenders & Notices

CST

� Esbee Advertising 99200 61605 / 77159 44443 [email protected]

FORT

� Supernet Advertising & Mktg 9967061530 / 40075454 [email protected]

� Skyline Advertisers 9820305598 [email protected]

� C V Thakkar Advertising Agent 9820052558 [email protected]

� J K Advertisers 9821170286 / 9821175699 [email protected]

� Sunjeet Communications 40792222 / 40792204

[email protected]

� I-max Communication P. LTD. 9769247454 / 66340828 [email protected]

MASJID (W)

� Ganesh Advertisers 9819994826 [email protected]

� Gautam Advertising 23427667 [email protected]

� S Arts Advertising 9867615899 [email protected]

� SNM Advertising 9322722310 / 23429531 [email protected]

� Kamdar Publicity Service 9819398855 [email protected]

SANDHURST ROAD

� Creative Ads Advtg 9221555545 [email protected]

MAZGAON

� Pinto Advertising 9869040181 [email protected]

BYCULLA (W)

� Safa Creations 9820796804 [email protected]

� Taj Publicity Service 9892011371 [email protected]

� Two Star Advertising Service 9821325247 [email protected]

CURREY ROAD

� Manjyot Ads 9820460262 [email protected]

NARIMAN POINT

� Insite Advertising Services 440020554 [email protected]

MARINE LINES

� Samyak Media & Productions 9821034656 / 22050530 [email protected]

� Samkit Advertising 9821074187 [email protected]

CHARNI ROAD (E)

� J B Enterprises 9820361400 [email protected]

� Khooshi Creations 9869000624 / 22425899 [email protected]

GRANT ROAD (E)

� Falak Advertising 9821417305 [email protected]

MUMBAI CENTRAL

� Azad Publicity 9821204061 [email protected]

� Modern Publicity Service 9820368537 / 9869663898 [email protected]

� Riddhi Arts 9821146594 [email protected]

� Focus Advertising 022 4022 8844 / 4923 8855 [email protected]

LOWER PAREL

� Ezipp International 9320209000 / 66551111 [email protected]

� Assured Media 9769247454 / 66340828 [email protected]

DADAR (W)

� B Y Padhye Publicity Pvt Ltd 24229241 / 24220445 [email protected]

� Stylus Arts 9322262213 [email protected]

MATUNGA ROAD (W)

� Time Advertising 8976181891 / 24466191 [email protected]

BANDRA

� Yash Ad Agency 9322256961 / 9699578999 [email protected]

� Sunways Advertising 9594074078 / 9820587770 [email protected]

� Kee Media 98204 25612 / 022 6556 0660

[email protected]

KHAR (W)

� Ad Agents 26042543 / 8655008552 [email protected]

� Kirti Agencies 26047542 / 9819190739 [email protected]

VILE PARLE (W)

� Rohit Ads 9820094562 / 9820325509 [email protected]

� Promserve Advertising 26281018 / 9167778766 [email protected]

VILE PARLE (E)

� Gauri Press Communications 26176310 [email protected]

ANDHERI (W)

� Lokhandwala Advertising 26310995 [email protected]

� Carl Advertising Pvt Ltd 9820323369 [email protected]

� HD Creatives 9821214292 [email protected]

� Zoya Creation 9833364551 / 9820199918 [email protected]

� Panther Advertising 9223425907 [email protected]

� Saksham Media Pvt Ltd 26251458 [email protected]

� Castle Studio Pvt. Ltd. 98337 27371 / 98673 01966 [email protected] ANDHERI (E)

� Anuja Media Works 9820063935 [email protected]

� M Ads 9819072072 [email protected]

� Ventures Advertising Pvt. Ltd. 9324875951 / 61226023 [email protected]

� Zodiac Advertisers 9322241222 [email protected]

JOGESHWARI (W)

� P V Advertisers 2676888 / 26768899 [email protected]

� Techno-Krats Enterprises 9892706193 [email protected]

GOREGAON (W)

� Superage Advertising Pvt Ltd 28734788 / 9167234788 [email protected]

� Adresult Services 9820843623 [email protected]

SOUTH

MUMBAI

WESTERN

23 TENDERS, NOTICES & CONTRACTS mid-day Thursday, May 21, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day

The Readers are recommended to make appropriate inquirybefore sending money, incurring any expenses or entering intoany commitment in relation to any Advertisement published inthis publication. Midday Infomedia Limited does not vouch forany claims made by the advertisers of products and services.The Directors, Key Managerial Personnel, Printer, Publisher &Editor of Midday Infomedia Limited shall not be held liable forany consequences, in the event such claims are not honoured bythe Advertisers. MIDDAY INFOMEDIA LIMITED

fUtgto˜g fUtgovt˜l gkºte, ˜tufU rlbtoK rJCtd (C/v), mkCtd c\zJtlerlrJ=t mqalt f{UbtkfU 02/2020-21 c\zJtle, r=ltkfU 08.05.2020

rlrJ=t ytbkºtK mqalt rlölr˜rF; fUtgo nu;w ytpl˜tRol (Online) rlrJ=tYk ytbkrºt; fUe st;e ni> WÖ˜urF; fUtgo fUt rJô;]; rJJhK JucmtRox http://mptenders.gov.in vh =uFt st mfU;t ni>

f{U. vtuxo˜ f{U. rs˜t fUtgo fUt ltb ytbkºtK f{U.

XufuU fUeylw. htrN (h¥. ˜tF

bü)

ybtl; htrN

(‹vgu bü)

rlrJ=t Œvºt fUe

htrN (‹vgu bü)

mbgtJr"

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1

2020_PWDRB _88445_

Pack1

c\zJtlebtuh"\z mu rNJàgtvtle btdo ˜kctRo 4.40 rfU.be. fUt rlbtoK fUtgo>

Œ:b 274.57 274570/- 15000/-10 btnJMtofUt˜mrn;

rlrJ=t Œvºt WvhtuÿU =rNo; JucmtRx mu rlrJ=t fUt rl"torh; bqÖg ytpl˜tRl Cwd;tl fUh f{Ug rfUgu st mfU;u ni> rlrJ=t Œvºt f{Ug fUhlu YJk ytpl˜tRol rlrJ=t Œô;w; fUhlu fUe ykr;b r;r: YJk mbg r=ltkfU 30.05.2020 mtgk 17.30 ;fU rl"torh; ni> rlrJ=t fUe rJô;]; N;ü YJk rlgb Wvhtu¢; =rNo; vtuxo˜ vh =uFe st mfU;e ni> rlrJ=t bü rfUme ŒfUth fUt mkNtu"l, gr= ntu ;tu Wmu mbtath vºttü bü ŒfUtrN; lné rfUgt stfUh fuUJ˜ JucmtRox vh ne Œ=rNo; rfUgt stJudt> bq˜ ybtl; htrN, bq˜ Nv: vºt YJk rlrJ=t bü WÖ˜urF; yàg =ô;tJus bwÏg yrCgk;t ˜tufU rlbtoK rJCtd (v/v) Rk=tih fuU fUtgto˜g ôvez vtuôx/hrsôxzo ztfU/ rlrJ=tfUth fuU ôJgk fuU nô;u r=ltkfU 01.06.2020 mtgk 17.30 ;fU ne ôJefUth rfUgu stJudu> ztfU rJCtd mu ntulu Jt˜e rfUme Ce =uhe fuU r˜Y rJCtd WÀ;h=tge lné hnudt>

fUtgovt˜l gkºte, ˜tufU rlbtoK rJCtd (C/v) se-11319/20 mkCtd c\zJtle

24 TIMEPASS mid-day Thursday, May 21, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com

Can you ind the words connected in one way or the other with the theme indicated by the title in today’s Word Search? The words may be read horizontally, vertically or diagonally either forwards or backwards, but always in straight lines. Use a ruler to cross them through as you ind them.

Blur, Camel, Coldplay, Cream, ELP, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, Muse, Oasis, Pink Floyd, Queen, Radiohead, Rainbow, The Kinks, The Police, The Verve, The Who, Uriah Heep, Yes

WHAT TO DO Fill each empty cell with a digit from 1-9, ensuring that no digit is repeated in any row, column or 3x3 square.

WHAT TO DO Place the numbers 1-9 exactly once per row, column and 3 x 3 bold-lined box. Additionally the sum total of the squares in each dashed-line shape must match the total given in that shape, and you may not repeat a number within a dashed-line shape.

WORDSEARCH British rock Bands

MEDIUM SUDOKU

FIENDISH SUDOKU

I am a little confused

about a girl I have been

meeting a lot. We are

friends, but I have been

making small gestures

to try and see if she feels

anything more for me. I

have feelings for her and

want to tell her about

them, but I sometimes

get the sense that she

knows this and doesn’t

want me to say anything

because it will be

awkward. She constantly

talks about how I am a

great friend, and I feel as

if I am being pushed into

the friend zone. What do

I do?

If she thinks of you as a great friend, why can’t you spend a little more time trying to figure out what she is trying to say? Better still, why not simply ask her? If she doesn’t want you to think of her as anything other than a friend, it may prevent any unpleasantness in the future. The more you think about this, the higher your chances of

being hurt if you misread what she is trying to tell you. You don’t have to worry about this affecting your relationship either, if you first ask if she is comfortable discussing this.

A co-worker and I kissed

at an office party a few

months ago, because

I was a little drunk. It

was nice, but I don’t

have any interest in

him. Unfortunately, he

now sends me flowers

and cards every week,

because he thinks I

want to go out on a

date. How do I send him

the message that I am

not interested without

making this a potential

problem at work?

Why are you skirting the issue by not addressing him directly? Accepting or rejecting those overtures only makes things worse, because you are deepening the confusion. Ask him out for a cup of coffee, talk about what happened, and explain why you don’t want this to affect you both professionally. This conversation is inevitable, so do it.

The inbox is now open to take your most carnal and amorous queries. Send your questions on email to [email protected]

I think she is friend-zoning me!

Your resolve is likely to falter today, especially if you have to deal with emotions while deciding something.

Both domestic and work pressures are likely to increase today, which may have a proportionate rise on your stress. Stay calm.

You may act as a friend, philosopher and a guide to people and help them ind correct alternatives to deal with speciic situations.

Overlowing with enthusiasm and energy today, you shall not feel disappointed, even if you do not get expected rewards.

Although your work burden is bound to increase, the stars are in your favour, so no hurdles should be expected.

A day full of diiculties and roadblocks shall make you toil even on simple tasks. Steer yourself clear of trouble.

AR

IES

CA

NC

ER

LE

O

SC

OR

PIO

SA

GIT

TA

RIU

S

PIS

CE

S

You may not be in a mood to slog out at work today, but shall feel more inclined to spend some quality time with your sweetheart.

You will have to be very careful today. As the planets are not in your favour, and you could end up on the losing side.

The positive developments today shall leave you very happy, especially the performance of your children.

Expenses are likely to spiral today, leaving you high and dry. However, you have enough reserves of positive energy, so use them.

Be careful about people who may try to tarnish your image and spread false reports regarding you on account of their animosity.

A hectic and an exhausting day is on the cards, and you shall be on your toes throughout the day.

TA

UR

US

CA

PR

ICO

RN

LIB

RA

VIR

GO

GE

MIN

I

AQ

UA

RIU

S

DR. LOVE

25 TIMEPASS mid-day Thursday, May 21, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com

CLASSIC CROSSWORD

SOLUTIONS

WORDSEARCH MEDIUM SUDOKU FIENDISH SUDOKU

CLASSIC CROSSWORD 10081

ACROSS

1 A group of southern African native warriors

5 Viper like snakes9 Church bench12 Scottish town — “nob a” anagram13 Artificial Intelligence Advisory

Committee14 Pray for us - ___ pro nobis?15 Laundry requisite (7,6)18 Guwahati locale19 Ring of light20 Long playing records, in short22 Napped26 Small loudspeaker30 Hindu deity31 Magnetic Resonance Imaging32 Clear or transparent34 Storage container35 Yielding or malleable37 Willing to obey39 This drives some train engines41 Air Transp. Radio42 Capital of Shaanxi province, China45 Large horns49 Bird-watcher53 Play on words54 Duty-roster55 A plant with bitter juice56 Behold, look57 Looked at keenly58 Right and ___: on all sides?

DOWN

1 One of the United States2 IIM grads.3 ___ out: become unconscious4 Breathe in5 Famous Hindi movie of days gone by

- “An a” anagram?6 Weary sound7 Ernest Hemmingway to his friends

and admirers?8 Find fault noisily9 Seed vessel10 Previous to11 State of conflict16 Drive into action17 Timber21 Collar fastener23 An Asian ox24 Very wicked25 Son of Jacob26 Horse’s gait27 Spouse28 Old French coin29 Singer Coolidge31 Random Hse. mail33 Same again36 Cab38 Sparing40 Bishop’s headwear43 Sailor’s call44 Of ___: of importance?46 Liver secretion or ill-temper?47 From (2,2)48 Let it stand!49 Goddess of plenty50 Feel remorse for51 Compass pt.52 A young boy

THE BRILLIANT MIND OF EDISON LEE – JOHN HAMBROCK

CALVIN & HOBBES – BILL WATTERSON

ZITS – Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman

BETWEEN FRIENDS – Sandra Bell-Lundy

Scribble pad

TEASERA man ordered a length of rope from his hardware store. But when he went to collect the rope, he found that the assistant had miswritten the order by interchanging feet and inches. As a result of this, the rope was only 30% of the length that the man wanted. So, what length did he want and what length did he get?

TEASER

The man ordered 9 feet 2 in and got 2 feet 9 in of rope

mid-dayThursday

21.05.2020

26SWEET ROGER »P28

BCCI apex council’s Gaekwad: IPL possible in place of T20 WCNEW DELHI: BCCI apex coun-cil member Aunshuman Gaekwad said this year’s T20 World Cup seems unlikely to go ahead, making space for the current-ly suspended IPL on the calendar depend-ing on the COVID-19 situation in India. The former India coach said cricketers will have to gather all their mental strength to deal with the uncertainty that the pan-demic has caused. “I have my

doubts that T20 World Cup will be held this year. About IPL, we cannot think of just now. It will depend on Indi-

an conditions and the window is only during this T20 WC which is October-November,” Gaekwad said.

“If the World Cup gets cancelled or postponed, then only

IPL can happen but then also it depends on what the condi-tions are in India,” he added.

PTI

Holding: CWI misused funds by BCCILONDON: Fast bowling great Michael Holding has alleged misuse of half a million US dollars that BCCI donated to Cricket West Indies besides raising serious questions on the financial management of the game’s governing body in the island nations.

On a YouTube show, Hold-ing displayed the audit report of Pannell Kerr Foster (PKF) on cricket governance in the Caribbean and raised sever-al red flags. He also touched upon the donation CWI re-ceived from the BCCI for the benefit of its former players.

“Way back in 2013-2014, the BCCI donated half a million US dollars specifically to go to past players. I am a past player, not that I want any of it but I know a lot of past players, I have never heard that not even one cent out of that half a million going to any past player.

“I am absolutely sure if they [CWI] had done that, they would have made a big hullabaloo about it. Where is that half a million dollars? I will tell the viewers very soon,” he said.

PTI

HARIT N JOSHI

[email protected]

SIR Andy Roberts has warned the International Cricket Council (ICC) against allowing any artificial substance to be applied on the ball.

There has been talk about polish, wax or a suitable sub-stance being permitted by cricket’s world governing body as a substitute to saliva to induce swing.

The Anil Kumble-headed ICC Cricket Committee on Monday recommended a ban on saliva being applied on the ball as a precaution when the sport resumes after the COVID-19 pandemic curve stabilises.

However, application of sweat will be allowed be-cause it is highly unlikely that the virus can be transmitted through it as per the medical advice received from ICC Med-ical Advisory Committee head Dr Peter Harcourt.

“It will be difficult for play-ers to stop applying saliva be-cause it comes naturally. How-ever, if perspiration is allowed, it should be fine [to swing the ball]. But I strongly oppose any use of artificial substances on the ball,” Roberts told mid-day on Tuesday from Antigua.

Roberts, one of the world’s most feared pacers in the mid-1970s, felt the ICC will be encouraging ball tampering by allowing an external sub-stance to be used.

“The ICC is going to tamper with the ball if it allows the use of an external substance. You are bringing back stuff like vaseline. You are making it [ball tampering] legal, which is wrong,” said Roberts, 69.

The uncertainty over the game is not lost on the former West Indies pace spearhead. “We don’t know how long will the COVID-19 last. It may last some months, a year, or for donkeys years. We just don’t know,” said Roberts, who claimed 202 wickets in Tests and 87 victims in ODIs.

Roberts stressed that crick-et has always been a batsman’s game and the new recommen-dation, which will be ratified by the ICC Board, will make the game a nightmare for the bowlers. “It was always a bats-man’s game with most rules in their favour. It’s the rules that have reduced the game

to a mockery. The game went on to become more and more batsman-friendly. Now, the batsman knows exactly where the ball will be pitched [taking into consideration the field restrictions]. I feel the new restriction [no application of saliva] will make the game a bigger nightmare for bowlers,” said Roberts.

Several current pacers

like Pat Cummins and Ishant Sharma are already bracing up for the challenge of adjust-ing to the new normal of not applying saliva when action resumes. When asked how he would have dealt with the sit-uation, Roberts said: “I have long finished playing cricket, so I don’t have to worry too much about it. But I don’t know, I can’t imagine.”

‘Can’t tamper with it’West Indies pace great Sir Andy Roberts warns against use of any artificial substance as a substitute for saliva; feels sweat is enough to shine the ball

Cummins accepts saliva risk but seeks alternate option

MELBOURNE: Australia pacer Pat Cummins while accepting the health risk associated with the usage of saliva urged the game’s custodians to come out with an alternate option to strike a balance between bat and ball. Cummins said applying sweat or any external substance like wax on the ball could be an alternate option if usage of saliva is banned.“If we remove saliva, we have to have another option,” he was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.“Sweat is not bad, but I think we need something more than that, ideally. Whatever that is, wax or I don’t know what.“If that’s what that science is telling us, that it’s high risk using saliva...as long as we’re keeping other options open, whether that’s sweat or something artificial.” PTI

India pacer Mohammed Shami applies saliva to the ball during the second T20I against NZ at Auckland in January. PIC/AFP

‘It was always a batsman’s game with most rules in their favour. I feel the new restriction [no application of saliva] will make the game a bigger nightmare for bowlers’ Sir Andy Roberts

NEW DELHI: The youngest wicketkeeper-batsman to play a Test for India, Parthiv Patel, feels it’s better to pick KL Rahul over Rishabh Pant in white-ball cricket. In the lat-est episode of Lockdown But Not Out series by FanCode, Patel, who made his India de-but in 2002, spoke his mind when asked about his first choice as India wicketkeeper in ODIs and T20Is.

“At this point of time, KL Rahul. I feel Rahul is your short-term thing in a way, if you’re thinking of the World Cup. I think he’ll do the job for you during the World Cup, there’s no doubt about it.

“Pant definitely has it in him, there’s no doubt about that. If I put myself into his shoes when I was 17-18, I didn’t have a good series, and going back to domestic cricket for a couple of years helped me a lot.

“Every time I’ve met Rishabh, I’ve always told him that people are talking about

you only because you have talent. If you had no talent then people would not have been talking about you, so you should always keep that in mind. Sometimes, you have

to go back to domestic cricket and just get that form back,” he explained.

IANS

India’s KL Rahul

KL is a short-term solution: Parthiv

Parthiv Patel

27 SPORT mid-day Thursday, May 21, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com

Fake it with sex dolls!Sport without fans is a challenge for organisers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are few innovations tried out to make empty stadiums more appealing

SEX DOLLS: By far the most attention has been generat-ed by South Korea’s FC Seoul, who were accused of putting sex dolls in their seats after mannequins advertising adult toys appeared at their match on Sunday. FC Seoul denied the figures, reported-ly provided by a distributor, were sex toys.

ROBOT DRUMMERS: Sport took a surreal twist when Tai-wan’s baseball league start-ed last month, with robots providing live music as they drummed in the stands. In what could have been a scene from Star Wars, a group of ro-bots banged drums for Raku-ten Monkeys’ opening game.

PIPED NOISE: The sound of tinny, recorded cheering has replaced the roar of the crowd in some stadiums. In South Korea’s K-League, re-cordings of popular chants have echoed around the country’s empty football venues, some of which host-ed games at the 2002 World Cup. Meanwhile, TV viewers of Australian Rules football will hear pre-recorded crowd noises laid over the match footage when games return next month.

APP-LAUSE: Software devel-opers have launched an app, MyApplause, which allows fans to create crowd noise from their homes. Users can choose from cheering, clap-ping, chanting and whis-tling, and the resulting noise is played over the stadium loudspeakers and the spec-tators’ home sound systems.

BASEBALL BARBECUE: Base-ball cheerleaders in Taiwan have been carrying out live interactions with fans from the stadiums, chatting and broadcasting dance routines over their phones. One cheer-leader even cooked and ate a barbecue while sitting in the stands, while streaming herself on the internet.

Cardboard cut-outs of Borussia Moenchegladbach’s fans are seen at the Borussia Park football Stadium in Moenchengladbach. PICS/AFP

Mannequins in the stands during a football match at Seoul

CARDBOARD CROWD: Card-board cut-outs have been a popular way to fill empty seats, but German football club Borussia Moenchenglad-bach took the idea a step fur-ther and gave fans the chance to have life-sized images of themselves in the stands. Thousands of fans have taken up the offer, where they pay 19 euros to have their image placed in the stadium. Text/AFP

COVID-positive SAI cook had no access to hockey players: Batra NEW DELHI: Hockey India on Wednesday ruled out shifting the Olympic-bound men’s and women’s teams from the Sports Authority of India’s Bangalore centre despite the death of a COV-ID-positive cook there.

The cook died of a car-diac arrest and later tested positive for COVID-19. “The question of moving out the teams from SAI Bangalore does not arise because it’s the best facility in the coun-try,” said Hockey India CEO Elena Norman.

“We have spoken to of-ficials and players at SAI. None of them interacted with the person who tested positive for the virus,” said Indian Olympic Association chief Narinder Batra.

It is learnt that the cook, who was staying outside the SAI campus since the lock-down (March 10 onwards) came to the facility for a meeting on May 15 to dis-cuss resumption of kitchen activities. The meeting was attended by 16 members of which none were players.

RWITC can now shift

horses to PunePRAKASH GOSAVI

[email protected]

THE Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) finally got the permission yester-day from the government authorities to shift horses to Pune.

Hundreds of racehors-es which participated in the Mahalaxmi season be-tween November last year until the racing season was abruptly abandoned due to the COVID-19 lock-down two months ago have been stranded in Mumbai due to the re-strictions placed on their movement. The race club’s CEO, NHS Mani, confirmed the development while speaking over the phone to mid-day.

Enthused by the good news, it is learnt that some trainers have already made arrangements for the floats (a special vehicle that is used to trans-port the pricey thor-oughbred horses), and loading was expected to start on Wednesday night.

The Pune monsoon racing season traditionally starts in July.

Former Congress Presi-dent Rahul Gandhi, who announced the launch of the Nyay scheme in Chhat-tisgarh, the implementa-tion of the scheme has also started from Chhattisgarh itself. The Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana being launched by the Chief Min-ister Mr. Bhupesh Baghel from May 21 can be seen as a link to it.

The Nyay scheme that Congress had promised to implement in its manifes-to was aimed at ensuring minimum income availa-bility of the poor through direct bank transfer. Soon after the formation of the Baghel led government in Chhattisgarh, work was started regarding the eco-nomic strengthening of farmers, tribals and labor-ers. Now, Under the state government’s Rajiv Gan-dhi’s Kisan Nyay Yojana, starting from May 21 on the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Ra-jiv Gandhi, the exchange of funds for paddy, maize and sugarcane (rabi) crops will be transferred to the farm-ers’ account on the basis of the area registered and acquired in Kharif year 2019. . This will directly help 20 lakh farmers. For

this, a provision of Rs 5100 crore has been made in the budget. Earlier, the state government had waived loan amounting to Rs. 8800 crore for about 18 lakh farmers. Apart from this, steps like four times com-pensation on agricultural land acquisition, irrigation tax forgiveness have also been taken.

Continuous steps are be-ing taken to ensure econom-ic justice to the workers as well. During the lockdown period, the Chhattisgarh government has generated massive employment un-der the Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Scheme and directly bene-fited 23 lakh villagers.

44% area of Chhattis-garh is covered by forest, 31% of the population be-longs to tribal communi-ty. Forest produce is the major source of income for millions of families in

the state. To increase the income of the tribals, the government has ensured the middle-market free market system and pur-chase of forest produce at the right price. Tendu leaf collection rate increased to Rs 4000 per standard bag. Apart from this, the number of forest produce purchased on support price has been increased from 7 to 25 now.

Amid lockdown, forest produce was extensively collected in the forest areas of the state. Chhattisgarh accounted for 98 percent of the total forest produce across India. In the current season, a target of collect-ing 16 lakh 71 thousand standard sacks of tendu leaves with which about 12 lakh 53 thousand collec-tors will be benefited. 649 crore will be paid directly to them as remuneration. The state government is giving an additional in-centive of Rs 13 per kg for the fixed support price of Mahua flower at Rs 17 per kg. Similarly, in addition to the support price in the purchase of Kusumi Lakh, Rangini Lakh and Kullu Gum, additional incentive is being given by the state government.

Implementation of Rahul’s ‘Nyay Scheme’ begins in Chhattisgarh

A MEDIA MARKETING INITIATIVE

Bhupesh Baghel, (CM, Chhattisgarh)

AMERICA’S champion gymnast Si-mone Biles has dished out some ad-vice to her fans on how to stay fit and strong amid the lockdown.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most gymnasiums across the world are shut and in order to stay fit, peo-ple are finding ways and means to do so by searching workout routines on various social media platforms.

But it is not easy to find the right one that suits an individual’s pref-erence. And who better than Si-mone, the four-time Olympic gold medal-winner, to listen to.

In a recent Instagram post, she wrote to her 3.8 million follow-ers: “My @liveCandid tip to stay strong: Mix it up. Obviously, right now I can’t train with my team but I like to go for walks or a jog to get some fresh air. I might do some sit-ups, lunges, and jump rope. And then as time goes by I find myself looking at online workouts and dance workouts too to mix it up. #emergestronger #livecandid #throwback.”

SWISS tennis great Roger Federer has extended help to people suffering across the globe due to various crisis situations this year—be it the Australian bushfires, the disadvantaged African chil-dren or the ones affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a report in Tennis World USA, Roger has donated more than $5 million (approx R37.82 crore) so far. His first contribution to charity was in January when the Rally For Relief took place. Roger and Rafael Nadal announced a donation of over $170,000 (approx R1.2cr) to help the efforts of au-thorities and NGOs in the fight against the bushfires

that ruined 18.6 million hectares of Australian land.

He even organised the Match For Africa 6 in Cape Town. Roger, along with Bill Gates, Rafael and Trevor Noah raised more than $3 million (approx R22.69cr) for poor African children.

Later, Roger and his wife, Mirka, donated $1 million to help the COVID-19 affect-ed families in Switzerland. Lastly, he also decided to give another million dollars to help provide meals for ap-

proximately 6 4 , 0 0 0

Africans.

America’s star gymnast Simone Biles feels it is important to incorporate various forms of exercises to stay strong during the global pandemic

28 SPORT mid-day Thursday, May 21, 2020 | www.mid-day.com | twitter.com/mid_day | epaper.mid-day.com

Postal Registration Number MCE/263/2015-2017

close of playGeorgina helps lover Ronaldo get perfect braidsPORTUGUESE football su-perstar Cristiano Ronaldo’s partner Georgina Rodriguez gave him a braided look, as he returned to Juventus training on Tuesday in Italy.

Cristiano, 35, spent the lockdown in his native Ma-deira, Portugal for almost two months before returning to Italy with his family earlier this month. Georgina recently shared this picture (extreme right) with her 18.2 million followers and captioned it: “I love to pamper my loves. This afternoon I practice

with braids [this model knows how to stay still].” Meanwhile, Cristiano posted this picture (right) flaunting his new look and wrote: “When we become patient and consistent, we find the way to get through the difficulties. #backontrack #beresponsible.”

Federer crosses R37.8cr worth of donations in 2020 alone

Anushka Sharma shares funny ‘dinosaur’ video of hubby ViratINDIA cricket captain Virat Kohli was seen mimicking a dino-saur in a hilarious video shared by wife and Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma on Wednesday.

With no cricket on due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Virat has been spending quality time with his family in Mumbai.

In the video, Virat was seen

walking around the house like a dinosaur (screengrab above)and creating sounds like one too.

Anushka shared the video with her 36.7 million Instagram fol-lowers and wrote: “I spotted....a dinosaur on the loooose.”

The post received 30,92,836 ‘likes’. IANS

Anushka Sharma

HAZEL, YUVI SPORT ‘SAME HAIRDO’Cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s wife Hazel Keech was in a mood to appreciate her hubby. On Wednesday, she Instagrammed this picture wearing a wig to match Yuvi’s hair, and wrote: “I love your hair so much I decide to get the same hairdo! I’m so glad we got locked up together during this Covid time, I don’t know what I would done without you. This time has been a testing for everyone, and you have not only managed to look after our family but you have also managed to look after those less fortunate than us. You have a gift to somehow find something to laugh about and make light of tough situations. You call me chipku but is cos I never wanna be without you! Thank you for so much Husband, I love you #husbandappreciationpost.”

‘MIX IT UP’

‘Obviously, right now I can’t train with my team but I like to go for walks or a jog to get some fresh air. I might do some sit-ups, lunges, and jump rope’Simone Biles

Cristiano Ronaldo was in

Madeira with Georgina

and his kids for almost

two months before

returning to Italy

If the print copy of Mid-day hasn’t reached you, call Rohit : +91 89992 82617.

To receive a replica of the Mid-day newspaper daily

on WhatsApp for a clean digital read,

send a 'Hi' to our oicial WhatsApp No. 88722 22250.

TRIBALS TAKE DOUBLE HIT AS JOB-LOSS AND MALNUTRITION … · hoe after recover, sai the offi - cials...

Documents

Transcript of TRIBALS TAKE DOUBLE HIT AS JOB-LOSS AND MALNUTRITION … · hoe after recover, sai the offi - cials...