Confusion over circulars, says survey

Respondents were not sure what was allowed as part of the graded lockdown exit

07/05/2020, NISTULA HEBBAR,NEW DELHI

Shutters down: Some liquor stores remained closed in New Delhi on Wednesday.R.V. MoorthyR.V. Moorthy

The lockdown has been extended till May 17, but with a graded exit for various zones. Surveys have indicated that very few people understood the government circulars on what is allowed and what is not.

Less than 25% of the over 16,358 responses polled from 12,410 people across 277 districts surveyed by Local Circles (a community platform) indicated understanding of the circulars — a fact borne out by the large number of clarifications issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs after the announcement of the lockdown extension.

Of the respondents, 66% were men and the rest women. 42% of the respondents hailed from Tier 1 cities, 36% from Tier 2, and 22% from Tier 3 and 4 and rural areas.

The survey also reveals that 74% of those polled wanted no relaxations to the lockdown in districts that showed a high virus load (out of the 277 districts polled, 27 had high virus load).

Another survey was taken just after alcohol was allowed to be sold from standalone stores. It showed that 52% of around 8,078 respondents across 250 districts were of the view that home delivery of alcoholic beverages should be attempted by State governments to prevent infection spread through crowding at stores.

Around 16% of the respondents said that the shop opening time should be extended, while 23% were in favour of heavy police presence to ensure social distancing. Several States have increased the prices of liquor with a “corona cess”, but the lines have remained long and the shops crowded.

While home delivery is not explicitly disallowed or allowed by State excise laws, Chattisgarh has allowed online booking and sale of liquor, for up to 5 litres of alcohol per customer and a delivery charge of ₹120.

Of the over 8,000 respondents, 69% were men and 31% women, with 45% of them from Tier 1 cities, 35% from Tier 2, and the rest from Tiers 3, 4 and rural areas.

Madurai Kamaraj University still awaits a Registrar

07/05/2020, STAFF REPORTER,MADURAI

Madurai Kamaraj University’s (MKU) Registrar in-charge N. Sankar resigned on May 1, but no decision regarding his replacement has so far been made by the administration.

Vice-Chancellor M. Krishnan had said that a decision would be made on Monday after a meeting with Syndicate members.

However, senior officials of Higher Education department had not permitted conduct of the meeting, said a source.

The last time the position was occupied by a full-time official was in June 2019. Then the administration held one round of interview for 16 candidates in January 2020 and deemed all the applicants unfit for the post. Although the administration should have called for applications again through advertisements, it has not yet done that.

A senior Syndicate member, who was part of the group which interviewed applicants for the post of Registrar, said that re-advertising did not take place because the administration was busy working on a self-study report to be submitted to the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

“We had sought the conduct of an interview via videoconferencing with the VC and immediate re-advertising. However, we are yet to hear from him. We are likely to request Mr. Sankar to continue in the position until COVID-19 lockdown is lifted,” the Syndicate member said.

‘Colour-coded passes must for buying liquor’

People should avoid vehicles: police

07/05/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,MADURAI

Madurai City Police have made colour-coded movement passes issued by Madurai Corporation mandatory for buying liquor bottles from TASMAC outlets that are reopening on Thursday.

In a statement, Commissioner of Police S. Davidson Devasirvatham said the passes were valid for moving out to buy essential goods between 10 a.m. and 5 pm. two days a week.

While yellow passes were valid on Mondays and Thursdays, orange passes were valid on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Green passes on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

People who carried yellow passes alone would be allowed to buy liquor bottles from TASMAC shops on Thursdays.

Those who were found not wearing face masks and following social distancing norms could not buy liquor. Besides, those who violated these norms would be booked for violating the curfew order.

People should also avoid using motor vehicles during their visit to liquor outlets, the Commissioner of Police added.

Timings

People above 50 years of age could buy liquor between 10 a.m. and 1 pm. Those between 40 years to 50 years would be allowed to buy liquor from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and the others from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., the statement said.

Bus services may resume with guidelines: Gadkari

Officials say onus is on Home Ministry to frame the rules

07/05/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,NEW DELHI

Nitin Gadkari

Bus services may resume soon, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.

Addressing a video-conference with members of the Bus and Car Confederation of India, he said: “We may soon start bus transport along with some guidelines. Airlines, railways and bus transport are required to be opened on a certain scale as there are many people stranded,” the Minister said.

Mr. Gadkari said the challenge staring at the Ministry was to strike a balance between ensuring social distancing and commercial viability for bus operations.

Ministry sources said there was no decision yet on reopening road transport and that the guidelines for it would be framed by the Union Home Ministry, followed by the State governments.

Many experts also shared their suggestions for resumption of operations. O.P. Aggarwal from World Resources Institute-India shared recommendations for dealing with reduced ridership and the need for more number of buses to ensure social distancing.

‘More buses required’

“In the beginning, there will be reduced ridership because of a drop in demand as people may continue to work from home as well as due to the need to maintain social distancing. We need to look how we can improve the finances of the operators and how we can have more buses to increase their number on the roads,” Mr. Aggarwal said.

“With one-third of the capacity, how do we improve finances and how do we increase the number of buses? We need to look at the number of idle buses such as tourist buses and inter-city services. Can we get out of contract and stage carriage limitation to use them for city or regional operations? As far as the financial viability aspect is concerned, some financial support will be required, but we also need to look at the tax structure of bus services versus the metro services. There is also a need to revive the national bus rejuvenation programme,” he said.

Flights from U.S., U.K. delayed

Crew have to undergo COVID-19 tests; services from West Asia not affected

07/05/2020, JAGRITI CHANDRA, SUHASINI HAIDAR ,NEW DELHI

Safe zone: A quarantine centre being readied for NRIs near the Calicut International Airport on Wednesday.PTI-

The wait to return home for thousands of Indians has become slightly longer after the government's plan to mount Air India flights to bring back Indians from around the world was deferred on Wednesday by 24 to 48 hours. Multiple government sources confirmed that the delay was because Air India crew are required to undergo COVID-19 tests.

However, passengers in West Asia will be unaffected as flights to the region will take off on schedule.

“Destination countries require the crew to be COVID negative. These are a significant number of pilots and cabin crew who are required to undergo the test on short notice,” a government official explained the reason for the delay in Air India flights..

By the original plan, flights from six countries were scheduled to land on Thursday, but will now arrive either on Friday or Saturday.

The first flight from the U.S. was scheduled to arrive in Mumbai from San Francisco at 4 a.m. on Thursday. It now stands delayed by 48 hours.

Similarly, a flight scheduled to arrive in Delhi from Washington DC at 1 p.m. on Thursday will now land on Saturday. The first one from London was scheduled to arrive in Mumbai at 1.30 a.m. on Thursday, but this will now bring back Indians two days later.

Seven-day exercise

However, a flight each to Abu Dhabi and Dubai to be operated by Air India Express will arrive on Thursday without delay, as crew members were able to undergo the mandatory medical test. This Air India subsidiary will operate 22 of the total 64 flights planned by the Government of India.

The delay will have a cascading effect on the seven-day plan chalked out by the government. It was scheduled to end on May 13 but has spilled over to May 17.

State, Centre differ on period of quarantine

Kerala says 7 days; MHA wants double

07/05/2020, STAFF REPORTER

The Union and State governments do not appear to be on the same page on the enforcement of quarantine norms for Non-Resident Indians (NRI) who are returning home from Thursday. A section of Health Department staff believe this could turn out to be problematic.

The Kerala government has declared that those returning from abroad would have to be on a mandatory seven-day quarantine at State-controlled facilities irrespective of their COVID-19 infection status or age. The Standard Operating Procedure released by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday night, however, says the returnees would have to give an undertaking that they are willing to undergo institutional quarantine for a minimum of two weeks at their own cost. They would also have to submit results of the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RC-PCR) test to the Indian missions where they have registered themselves.

Jipmer to resume limited OP services

07/05/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,PUDUCHERRY

Jipmer will selectively restart outpatient (OPD) services on Friday.

According to a press note, patients need to call and register on 0413-2298200. Jipmer will first send the appointment date and time for telephone and video consultation as text messages to the patient’s mobile. After the telephone consultation, selected patients will get a text message for personal visit to Jipmer.

Only patients with this message will be allowed to enter the hospital. After checking at screening OPD, patients will be directed to their respective OPDs. Only one attender is allowed with each patient, and both must wear masks.

Patients will need to follow travel restrictions imposed by the government, and Jipmer cannot make any exemptions, the press note read.