Railways relaxes reservation refund rules

TNN | Mar 22, 2020, 04.45 AM IST

Trichy: As per the government advisory in the wake of Covid-19 to avoid crowding and practice social distancing, Railways has relaxed refund rules for tickets generated through passenger reservation system (PRS) counters.

All rules for e-ticket are remaining the same, as a passenger does not need to come to the station for a refund of the ticket. The relaxation is for journey period between March 21 and April 15.

In case, trains were cancelled by Railways during the journey period, refund across the counter can be taken on submission of the ticket up to 45 days from date of journey, instead of extant rule of 3 hours or 72 hours, a release from Trichy Railway Division said.

If the train is not cancelled and the passenger does not want to travel, ticket deposit receipt can be filed within 30 days from date of the journey at the station, instead of the extant rule of 3 days.

Ticket deposit receipt can be submitted to claims office for getting the refund with 60 days of the filing of ticket deposit receipt subject to verification from train chart, (instead of the extant rule of 10 days). For passengers who want to cancel ticket through 139 can get refund across the counter within 30 days from the date of journey. (Instead of the extant rule of up to scheduled departure of the train), the release said.

Railway authorities have asked passenger to avail the facility by avoiding coming to the railway station during the spread of the virus, the release added.

58 inmates given bail to decongest Madurai jail

TNN | Mar 22, 2020, 04.41 AM IST

Madurai: As many as 58 inmates of Madurai Central Prison were released on bail on Saturday in order to bring down congestion in the jail in the wake of Covid-19 scare. These inmates include two women, who were lodged in special prison for women, where 105 have been lodged.

The decision was taken at a special camp that took place on the prison premises, which was chaired by justice P N Prakash from Madurai bench of Madras high court. Madurai city police commissioner S Davidson Devasirvatham, south zone IG K P Shanmuga Rajeswaran, and Madurai district superintendent of police N Manivannan took part in the camp. A panel of judges from Madurai district court and officials from prison department also took part.

The 35-acre Madurai Central Prison, located in the heart of the city, has a capacity to accommodate around 1,300 inmates, but more than 1,550 inmates were lodged in the prison.

Deputy inspector-general of prisons D Pazhani told TOI that it was an initiative by the prison department and the judicial department. The inmates considered for release on bail was based on a report prepared by the police department. It was held in order to bring down the strength in the prison in the wake of Covid-19, he said.

There are around 960 convict prisoners and 630 remand prisoners in Madurai Central Prison. Out of the 630, the authorities released 58 inmates, DIG said.

Sources from the prisons department said that a camp will be held on Monday too in order to further bring down the numbers. The list of prisoners to be released was carefully selected based on the eligibility norms laid down under the law. It was scrutinized in such a way that these people will not create any unrest in society.

Meanwhile, various measures are being taken in the prisons department in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19 among inmates and one such measure was suspension of interview with their family members and lawyers for two weeks.

Rush for vegetables causes price rise in city markets

TNN | Mar 22, 2020, 04.49 AM IST

Anticipating uncertain times, all vegetable markets in the city witnessed a huge turnout of customers on Saturday as they made bulk purchases. The increase in the crowd also saw vegetable prices rising by at least 30%.

Central vegetable market, Paravai market, farmers market at Anna Nagar and Bibikulam, K Pudur market, Thayir market as well as roadside markets on Bypass Road witnessed a sudden throng of men and women. Most of them purchased vegetables to stock up to 15 days instead of their usual one week. “Janata curfew has been called on Sunday. But we do not know what lies ahead and if it all it is a pandemic, how long will it last. What if markets are also shut like parks and large commercial establishments. I have purchased double the quantity of vegetables than my usual weekly quota,” said K Vijayalakshmi from Surya Nagar.

J Velavan from Ponmeni said there is panic among the public because of rumours that markets too will be closed as a preventive measure. With the public transport system also curtailed, the price of vegetables may increase further, he said. “The increased demand for vegetables has resulted in price rise. It is only 9 am, but more than half of the vegetables I purchased today has been sold out. Though it is only a one-day voluntary curfew, panic among the public is quite evident through the way they purchase,” R Selvam, a vegetable seller said.

Prices of all vegetables including onion, tomato, carrot, beans, coconut, brinjal, ladies finger and cabbage have gone up. While already they have witnessed an increase of up to 30%, it may rise further depending on how people react to the situation, he added.

Many residents said they have already purchased essentials required for the next one month from grocery stores and medical stores. It has resulted in the increased crowd in grocery stores, be it at the ones next door or wholesale grocery stores.

MKU to hold online classes

TNN | Mar 22, 2020, 04.50 AM IST

Madurai: The Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) has urged its students to make use of the digital education platform being provided by the consortium for educational communication (CEC) to study university course subjects from their homes. The university, following the government’s orders for COVID-19 prevention, has been shut down from March 16 till March 31.

In a formal notification issued on Friday, the university said that e-content courseware for 87 under graduate subjects are available on the CEC website (http://cec.nic.in/). “Two weeks is a long time, so we, of course, want to keep students engaged. We told our students to consider as if still they were at the university and spend at least a minimum of four to five hours studying or doing assignments,” said Dr R Sudha, director, educational multimedia research centre (EMMRC) at MKU. The EMMRC, Madurai has so far hosted 1,570 e-contents in CEC website.

The notification further mentioned that students can make use of study webs of active learning for young aspiring minds (SWAYAM) platform, a programme by the Ministry of human resource development that enables professors and faculties of centrally funded institutions like IITs, IIMs, etc., to offer massive open online courses (MOOCs). In the current semester, CEC is also delivering more than 150 SWAYAM MOOCs for under graduate and post graduate courses. Students can also study from CEC-UGC YouTube channel and make use of the educational curriculum-based lectures for free. Some MKU departments have also prepared timetables for online seminars and assignments and sent them via email for students to follow and learn from home.`

Meanwhile, on the TV platform, 11-subject based SWAYAM Prabha DTH channels are available on DD free dish, Dish TV and Reliance Jio mobile App.

‘Identifying and isolating contagion is key in battle against coronavirus’

22.03.2020

South Korea has set an example in tackling the coronavirus. How did they do it and what was behind some of the steps the country took. Talking to TOI’s Indrani Bagchi, South Korea’s ambassador Shin Bong-Kil spelt out the steps taken by his country and how democracies have to do things differently. Excerpts:

• Korea tackled the coronavirus issue very aggressively, resulting in fewer deaths. Tell us what was the thinking behind these moves.

We thought that identifying and isolating the contagion in the early stages was the easiest way to fight coronavirus. We were successful. Also, we could treat patients well, which lowered the death rate. We developed the drive through test kit in early stages. Our bio companies worked at top speed to make both reagent and equipment. We could identify the geographical area of the infection and group early. It is an opaque religious group (Shincheonji) in the Daegu area, which has a church in Wuhan. They were heavily contaminated. We got a list of the group members and we made a comprehensive test of them. 60% of all Korea’s infected individuals cases were from this group. This province had almost 90% of all of Korea’s contamination.

• What is Korea doing to prevent the outflow of Covid-19?

The Korean government is strictly controlling outbound travellers who could be described as “close contact”, i.e. one who has been within 2 meters of an infected person. These people are prohibited from leaving Korea. Until March12, we had identified 22,000 of such “contacts”. They are not infected but they could be vectors. Our main airport is Incheon International Airport. We made it into a Covid-19-free zone. We have made mandatory, multi-step fever checks on all outbound passengers. We are screening strictly — three times in airport — departure hall, security checkpoint and boarding gate.

• What innovative steps did you take to fight this virus?

Our drive-through test centre has been popular and is very effective. Now we have developed a walk-through test centre. You get the results by text message on your phone. Korea is a heavily wired country, so this is possible. We have six firms already manufacturing testing kits. If India has an interest, we can connect them. We have developed an app for fighting the virus. When you move, the GPS on your phone detects where you are and where you have travelled. That helps us quarantine areas where infected persons have visited. The app also helps us monitor the ‘self-quarantined’. If you break quarantine, you are detected. Yes, there are privacy issues, but we feel safety and health are more important. We are now producing a health certificate for travellers. Korea is the first to make this health certificate. Now India is asking for a similar certificate. We proposed that our authorised medical institutions produce this health certificate. Indians have called it a “ very good idea”.

• China says they have a model to deal with pandemics like coronavirus. Do you think democracies have a different model?

The principles that governed our response are important — openness and transparency. At every stage, we were open to what was going on, numbers etc. That way we earned the trust of the people. They believed the government and are more open about obeying government instructions. In a democracy, we believe, this is most important. If you are an authoritarian government, you can control this information. But people don’t believe it. Like in North Korea — they say there is no coronavirus infection. But they have shut down the capital Pyongyang, even shut down embassies. India, the world’s largest democracy, should be open and transparent so that a nation of 1.3 billion could believe in the government to follow decisions.

Full interview on www.toi.in

We’ve developed an app for fighting the virus. When you move, the GPS on your phone detects where you are and where you have travelled. That helps us quarantine areas where infected persons have visited. The app also helps us monitor the ‘self-quarantined’

40% of cases in India recorded in last 2 days

New 1-Day High Of 77 Takes Total To 332

DurgeshNandan.Jha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:22.03.2020

The Covid-19 count continued to surge across the country with at least 77 new cases reported from states on Saturday, surpassing Friday’s figure of 57 as the highest for a single day and taking total number of cases to 332.

Kerala (12), Maharashtra (10) and Punjab (10) reported new cases in double digits even as the national count in the past two days alone stood at 133, accounting for 40% of all cases since the first one was confirmed on January 30. While Maharashtra and Kerala together account for more than a third of all cases, government data shows new hotspots are emerging.

Govt sending spl flight to bring in 262 Indians stuck in Rome

In Rajasthan’s Bhilwara, 11 new cases have been reported in the past 48 hours. Punjab and Gujarat have also witnessed significant spike in Covid-19 cases.

Meanwhile, Assam may become the 22nd state in the country to report a Covid-19 case. A four-and-a-half-yearold girl, who had recently travelled from Bihar, tested positive for the infection in Jorhat. Her sample has been sent for re-confirmation to an ICMR lab in Dibrugarh.

In all, fresh cases were reported from 13 states, indicating the spread of the infection across the country. The Union health ministry confirmed 283 cases, including 23 who have recovered. The ministry’s count of Covid-19 cases includes 39 foreign nationals, one who has migrated and four persons who have died.

The government admitted that Covid-19 infections were spreading but said there was no evidence yet of community transmission, which happens in stage three of an outbreak. Joint secretary (health) Lav Aggarwal said on Saturday that more cases have been found in some locations.

“Yesterday (Friday), there were 6,700 contacts (of Covid-19 positive cases) and now it is 7,000. This number is going up and if factual information shows there is community transmission we will tell the nation about it,” he said.

Also, the government is sending a special flight to bring in 262 Indians stuck in Rome in Italy where the Covid-19 outbreak has claimed over 4.000 lives. On Sunday, PM Narendra Modi’s has appealed to people to observe a “janata curfew”.

All cops using police vehicles in Delhi will blow siren at 5 pm for a minute and the PM has urged people to express their appreciation for the work being done by those in hospitals, airports, by banging utensils, or by clapping for five minutes. Meanwhile, the central government on Saturday held a video conference for training of hospital staff across states for critical care management in case of need for more hospitalisation with surging Covid-19 cases.

Gujarat seems to emerging as a new hotspot for the virus. Between March 19 and March 21, the number of Covid-19 cases in the state has risen from two to 14. While 13 positives had a history of foreign travel, the state also recorded its first Covid-19 patient, a 67-year-old Surat man, who had no international travel history but had visited Delhi and Jaipur recently for work.

Bhilwara, meanwhile, could be sitting on a ticking bomb as 11 cases have been reported in the past two days. All of those infected are doctors and nursing staff with no recent travel history abroad.

In Odisha, where two Covid-19 cases have been confirmed, CM Naveen Patnaik announced complete lockdown of five districts and eight major towns, including Bhubaneshwar and Puri for a week to control disease spread.

Full report on www.toi.in

Scared migrant workers ‘quit Maharashtra’ amid shutdown

Mumbai:22.03.2020

Amid a near-total shutdown in the country’s commercial capital, several thousands of panicky migrant labour from different parts of India are bolting the city daily to escape the clutches of coronavirus pandemic as the state led with 63 cases on Saturday.

Since the past four-five days, various railway termini in the city, particularly the Central Railway (CR), have witnessed hordes of migrant workers jostling to catch trains bound for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and other locations.

Migrant labour from different parts of India forms a significant chunk of the state’s workforce with many working in Mumbai, Raigad, Thane, Palghar districts, besides Pune and Nagpur.

Many apprehend that they would face pay-cuts or job losses, but a Maharashtra government order has decreed all public-private sector not to cut wages or terminate casual, temporary or contractual workers.

“The termination of employee from the job or reduction in wages in this scenario would further deepen the crisis and will not only deepen the financial condition of the employee but also hamper their morale to combat their fight with this epidemic,” Maharashtra commissioner of labour Mahendra Kalyankar said.

Kalyankar added that if any worker takes leave, he/she should be deemed to be on duty without consequential deduction in wages of this period with the coronavirus pandemic, in tune with the appeals made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The problems of the migrants hopeful of returning to the safe havens of their native homes were compounded with the Central Railway (CR), Western Railway WR) and Konkan Railway (KR) together cancelling around 275 long-distance trains till March 31. IANS

LAST-MINUTE PANIC: Migrant workers try to board an overcrowded passenger train on Saturday after government imposed restrictions on gatherings in Mumbai