Indian Newspapers In English-First India-Rajasthan-19 March 2020 edition

1. JAIPUR l THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 l Pages 14 l 3.00 17°C - 31°C OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR & AHMEDABAD RNI NO. RAJENG/2019/77764 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 281 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia COMBATING COVID-19 SECTION 144 IMPOSED IN RAJ TILL MARCH 31 Jaipur’s Amber Fort bears a deserted look after all monuments were shut due to coronavirus. —PHOTO BY NAIM KHAN Kartikey Dev Singh “The safety of people of Rajasthan stranded abroad should be talked to the Ministry of Exter- nal Affairs. Full screen- ing of passengers arriv- ing by air from abroad should be done at hotels near the airport for which three hotels have been identified. Sus- pects should be instruct- ed to stay in home Isola- tion completely for 14 days when symptoms appear in the examina- tion. Apart from this, information should also be pasted outside their house so that the people of the neighbourhood do not meet them and can avoid infection,” Gehlot instructed, further say- ing, “Gehlot said that there will be no shortage of resources in the state to deal with Corona. Iso- lation facility , lab prepa- ration PM MODI TO ADDRESS NATION TODAY AT 8 PM Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 8 pm on Thursday evening regarding the ongoing coronavirus outbreak across the world and the efforts to combat it. The address comes after a high-level meeting PM chaired on Wednesday to review the efforts to contain COVID-19. The country has seen 151 cases of corona- virus so far and three patients have died. To control the spread of the virus, the govern- ment has drawn up a plan to sensitise people and spread awareness about the issue. THREE POSITIVE CASES IN JHUNJHUNU, RETURNED FROM ITALY 8 DAYS AGO Jaipur: Owing to the threat of mass scale spread of coronavirus and three more coro- na positive individu- als being reported in Jhunjhunu, which in- clude husband-wife and their two-and-a- half-year-old who returned from Italy eight days ago, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot directed to im- plement prohibitory orders (section 144) in the first phase across the state by March 31 to save the lives of people from coronavi- rus infection. The District Magis- trate and Sub Division- al Officers have been authorised to issue nec- essary guidelines in this regard, as a meas- ure to deter congrega-  State Government to request Central Govern- ment to send a special team for Jhunjhunu  The positive patients residence area has been divided into three zones in one, two and three kilometer radius where the screening will be done  Five senior offi cials sent to Jhunjhunu from head quarters child  WHO and UNICEF teams to also visit Jhunjhunu to take stock of situation  350 teams formed for special screening at Jhunjhunu Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot along with Raghu Sharma, DB Gupta, Kuldeep Ranka holding a review meeting on the situation of coronavirus in state, on Wednesday. stopped from the pro- cess of new admission in schools.” He also in- structed public and gov- ernment libraries to be closed by 31 March. Moreover, also instructed to place curfew in Jhunjhunu at the place where three patients infected with corona virus have been found within a kilometre radius of the patients’ house for the next two days to prevent the spread of infection to others. The Chief Minister has also directed to de- velop testing facilities at Ajmer, Kota, Bharat- pur, Jhunjhunu and other places and double the testing capacity in Jaipur. tion of people, which is one of the prime factors of the virus’s spread. Further, Gehlot also in- structed officials to sound a curfew in one kilometre radius of the affected family’s house in Jhunjhunu. On Wednesday, Ge- hlot reviewed meas- ures to prevent infec- tion of COVID-19 in Gehlot instructed the officials. The Chief Minister also directed that “Par- ent and Teachers’ Meet- ing (PTM) should be stopped with immedi- ate effect in all govern- ment and schools in the state till 31 March and the pres- ence of parents and children should the Chief Minister’s Office. “It is the whole- hearted effort of the state government that the citizens of the state survive the infec- tion of this epidemic. People should not be advised to through loudspeakers at other religious and public places includ- ing temples, mosques,” Gehlot private gather be Turn on P9 CORONA TAKES STOCK, MARKET TANKS BELOW 29K Sensex nosedives 1,709 points in freefall Nifty gives up 8,500-mark SC asks BJP if MP rebel Cong MLAs exercised choice freely? MIMI IN SELF QUARANTINE AFTER LONDON VISIT  Bengali fi lm actress and Trinamool Con- gress MP Mimi Chakraborty, who returned from England on Tuesday, announced she would remain in home isolation for the next seven days and won’t even meet her parents as a precautionary measure in view of the coronavirus outbreak. Barring ONGC,ITC, all Sensex constituents finished in the red New Delhi: The Su- preme Court Wednesday asked the BJP how could the court be sure that the 16 rebel MLAs from Madhya Pradesh, staying at a resort in Bengaluru, had exercised their choice to tender their resignations from the state Assembly freely? A bench headed by Justice DY Chandra- chud and comprising Justice Hemant Gupta said these 16 could tilt the balance this way or that way . “We are thinking as to how we can ensure an order....They must have free unhindered access to the Assembly. They should be free to exercise, do whatever they want.” Advocate Maninder Singh, representing the rebel MLAs, Turn on P9 on  Mimi, who touched down at the NSCBI Airport in Kolkata from London where she had been busy shooting for “Baazi”, went through thermal screening. Mumbai: The Sensex crashed below the 29,000-level while the Nifty dived almost 500 points on Wednesday as the coronavirus pandemic maintained its death grip on mar- kets across the globe. S&P lowering In- dia’s growth forecast and the Court’s refusal to pro- vide relief to telecom firms on the AGR issue further sapped risk ap- petite, traders said. After swinging over 2,488.72 points in a high- ly volatile session, the 30-share BSE Sensex closed 1,709.58 points or 5.59 per cent lower at 28,869.51. The Sensex closed below the 29,000- mark for the first time GOVT, RBI MULL RELAXING BAD LOAN RULES FOR CORONA HIT SECTORS Government and central bank are considering giving relief to banks, aviation and other hospital- ity sectors hit by the coronavirus outbreak by relaxing bad loan classifi cation rules, a source familiar with the matter said. The gov- ernment is discussing increasing timeline by 30-60 days to classify a loan as a bad loan, the source said. Currently, a debt not serviced for 90 days is classifi ed as a bad loan. Congress  She appealed to people to abide by the government directives to prevent spread of disease.  “I have returned from a place like UK via Dubai. So all the pre- cautions have been taken. My father is above 65 years, I have told parents not to meet me.” Supreme Justice Ranjan Gogoi to take oath as Rajya Sabha member today New Delhi: Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi will take oath as Rajya Sabha member on Thursday, sources said. Rajya Sabha sources said he will take oath at by PowerGrid (11.29 per cent), Kotak Bank (11.23 per cent), Bajaj Finance (11.11 per cent), HDFC Bank (9.92 per cent) and NTPC (8.08 per cent). Earlier in the day, S&P Global Ratings lowered India’s eco- nomic growth forecast to 5.2 per cent for 2020, since January 2017. On similar lines, the broader NSE plummeted points, or 5.56 per cent, to end at 8,468.80. Barring ONGC and ITC, all Sensex constitu- ents finished in the red. IndusInd Bank was the top loser, diving 23.90 per cent, followed Nifty 498.25 11 am on Thursday . The former CJI, who gave landmark Ayod- hya judgment, nominated to the Rajya Sabha by President Ram Nath Kovind on March 16. was has Turn on P9

2. NEWS JAIPUR | THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 02 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia Keen contest in the offing for 3 Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan 2 candidates each for BJP & Congress are in fray after last day of taking back names on Wednesday Family pelt stones at cops as they arrest alimony case accused Alwar: Bus hits bike, three die on the spot First India News First India News Alwar: A bus hit a bike near Paladia turn in the Tijara area on Wednes- day . A mother-daughter along with the son in law, were riding on the bike and died on the spot. After the incident, the bus driver fled from the spot. Additional SP Arun Macha, Kushal Singh, SHO Ji- tendra Navariya also reached the spot as soon as they received the in- formation. The police sent the three deceased dead bodies at Tijara Hospi- tal Mortuary, and in- formed their family. Police said the deceased has been identified as 65-year-old Savetri, her daughter Sushila and son in law Surajbhan. Police also said that after the accident, the bike was burnt to ashes as it caught fire and the bus has been seized. by the officials. ‘Really tragic that an old man was beaten to death’ First India News Alwar: Family and vil- lagers pelted stones at police officials Raisarana village situ- ated in Mandan police station area when the officials had gone to capture a standing warrantee from Pun- jab. Due to which the officials including the station incharge got injured. A case of ali- mony was filed by the wife of the accused Omprakash Bawaria in Punjab. In this case, the police reached his village to arrest the accused. After the inci- dent, all the family members the accused fled away and escaped from the village. ASP Neemrana Sid- dhant Sharma said, Punjab Police along with head constable Ashok Yadav First India News in Jaipur: BJP has made Rajya Sabha elections interesting by fielding two candidates despite numbers to ensure vic- tory of any one candi- date. The move has cre- ated ripples in Con- gress, who are already been facing challenge to keep its flock togeth- er in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Notwithstanding re- quest from Congress, BJP leaders Rajendra Gehlot and Omkar Sin- gh Lakhawat have filed nomination papers. Three seats have fall- en vacant in Rajasthan. Bases on their strength in the state assembly, two seats would have gone to the Congress easily while BJP would have got one seat. DSP Mandan police station had gone to Raisarana to catch Omprakash. Meanwhile, his family members pelted stones at the police officials. Mandan police station incharge Vikram Sin- gh reached the spot as soon as he received the information. The fam- ily members attacked the police. Several present on the spot, in- cluding the police of- ficer, were injured in the attack. The injured policemen are being treated in the local town hospital. Rajendra Gehlot Omkar Singh Lakhawat KC Venugopal Neeraj Dangi members. The party is hoping to win over dis- sident Congress MLAs as well as independents. However, the Con- gress has issued whip hence its MLAs will have to show their vote before casting it but in- dependents have no such obligation. The BJP has a wild hope on mistake like wrong ink or absence if not direct cross voting. the party with Con- gress. Besides it was counting on 13 inde- pendents, 2 CPM, 1 RLD and 2 BTP MLAs that brings it total to 125 MLAs. BJP has 74 votes in- cluding 72 of its own MLAs and two from RLP. After 51 first pref- erence votes it would require cross voting of at least by independents as well as congress of legislators from oth- er parties and inde- pendents. Each candidate needs 51 votes on the basis of house strength of 200 legislators. Congress was hopeful of easy win for two candidates AICC general secretary KC Venugopal Neeraj Dangi. The ruling party has 107 MLAs including six from BSP who merged However, BJP after nominating Rajendra Gehlot as first choice suddenly fielded one more candidate former Rajya Sabha MP Omkar Singh Lakhawat forcing Congress to fortressing of its legislators. With four candidates for two seats, Congress will have to work hard to avoid cross voting by its own MLA in addi- tion to secure support including policemen and using from Gravel-filled dumper collides with car at highway, 5 dead NEW BEGINNINGS First India News were in the car were go- ing to Nagaur. Deputy Satish Yadav reached at the spot as soon as the accident was reported. The acci- dent was so gruesome that the deceased got trapped in the car. The dead bodies from the car with help of a crane. Ajmer: Five people have died in a horrific accident, when a gravel- filled dumper and car fiercely collided, on the Jaipur Road Highway at Rupangarh in Ajmer on Wednesday . All the deceased people Jaipur: Congress MLA and former DGP Harish Meena cornered the state government on law & order issue. Meena tweeted on the death of Madan Lal Meena after he was beaten by some people doubting him of mobile phone theft in Sikar. He said that it was re- ally tragic that an old person was severely beaten to death by the powerful. young and farmers of this community contrib- uted a lot to elect the Congress government. Mega Harish Meena ceased took his body to Neem Ka Thana police station and staged a demonstration demand- ing Rs 50 lakh as com- pensation, government job for dependents and action against culprits. The dead body was only crematised after police arrested the accused. The curred on March 4 when Madan Lal was blamed of mobile theft in a Bhandara at Khatu Shyam fair and was se- verely beaten. He was referred to SMS hospi- tal in serious condition where he died. The family of the de- incident oc- OFF THE RECORD The poor, Governor Kalraj Mishra inaugurated his renovated offi ce at Raj Bhavan on Wednesday. On this occasion his granddaughters Aashi and Amishi were also present. HOW LONG WILL SIROHI’S NEW COLLECTOR LAST? B different levels and in different contexts. But at times certain districts become rather interesting cases, take Sirohi for example. Sirohi has had as many as fi ve collectors in last thirty months. What is more interesting is that out of these fi ve, four were 2011 batch young IAS offi cers. Abhimamyu Kumar, Sandesh Nayak and Anupama Jorwal have served as Collector, Sirohi and Bhagwati Prasad Kalal was recently transferred on the post. Still more interesting that none of them was able to complete one year on this post. Sample this...Abhimanyu Kumar 6 months, Sandesh Nayak 11 months, Anupama Jowal 6 months and Bhagwati Prasad Kalal hasn’t yet fully unpacked as he was posted at Sirohi recently on 1 March 2020. It will be curious to see how much does he last? Sirohi district assumes extra importance as it has state’s only hill station Mt. Abu in its jurisdiction area. There have been 36 collectors posted to Sirohi since 1975. Sirohi was historically famous for manufacturing ‘Double- Edged Swords’ since 15th century days of Chuhan- Deora rulers, explains well why it equally is double edged to be a collector here. ureaucratic transfers and postings, specially of collectors, matter for everybody at Assumed to be Muslim, man buried, later cremated GUP SHUP GAMA POSTED IN CITY UNDER PHQ OFFICERS’ RADAR T The offi cers are busy preparing bio data of the Gamas across the state. It is believed that a nexus of ‘maal’ against posting followed by ‘monthlies’ is shamelessly on. PHQ offi cers have received complaints from many police stations. So in phase one all such Gamas will made non fi eld which will be followed by a departmental enquiry. Buzz is that many Jaipur posted Gama are in this list. CORONAVIRUS TRIGGERS THE ‘CLEANLINESS VIRUS’ IN SAHAB S complainant coming to his offi ce, of being infected. His fear of getting infected is so high that he avoids sitting in his offi ce and is found touring the city in the name of inspection. Cops tell each other that Sahab, before going to any police station, calls up one of his known sub ordinates and inquires about the cleanliness of the police station and the nearby areas. If the need arises, a Gama rank offi cer is assigned, to get the space clean. Sahab only reaches for inspection once desired destination is clean enough for his visit. The ‘Cleanliness Virus’ of the sahab is on everybody’s discussion agenda. ahab from police commissionerate is really worked up thinking about Coronavirus. He suspects, almost every The man was said to be a liquor addict and was found unconscious on the road, he added. The body was kept at the mortuary for three days awaiting identifi- cation. Despite efforts to trace the next of kin, the identity could not be ascertained members of Hindu and Muslim communities were brought in to take a decision. The community lead- ers presumed that he was a Muslim after ex- amining the body and the burial took place. Tonk: Initially buried as per Islamic tradi- tions, an unidentified man’s body was ex- humed and later cre- mated after he was found to be a Hindu. The family members identified the body of Mahaveer Tuesday, a day after the burial, as they stum- bled upon photos of the deceased that had circu- lated on social media. The man was brought to a government hospi- tal in an unconscious state on March 12 and he died on March 13. Sahu on and he Gama rank cops deputed at police stations are being monitored by the offi cers in the PHQ. PANTHER NOT HAPPY WITH TIGERS A Panther has even complained to his senior offi cers regarding these two prowling tigers and the buzz is that both the tigers are on the radar now. These tigers rather than following Panther’s directions are busy in fueling casteism leading to total disarray among subordinates leading to an increased crime rate. Panther posted in the range is more worried about two Tigers in his range rather than the criminals of his area. AMBER MERCANTILLES ALL SET FOR JAIPUR A for the construction of RERA registered Shyam Dham Heights Project. Manoj Poddar, Aarti Parasrampuria are the directors of the group. The project has been pitched for Rs 13.84 crore. BUILDER ON DIVERSE ROADS A interesting journey on. He was already a successful name in real estate with one project after another now he has another sector tapped too. In last two years he has constructed two schools on the city. One in Mansarovar and the other on the Kalwar road. Well that’s called smart diversifi cation. GAMBLING SINKS ITS CLAWS ON BUILDER T mber Mercantilles Group signed a land deal for 1780 square yards in Jaipur builder from Jaipur real estate market has an he Cricket batting has ruined many lives. Now name of a builder has been added Realty to this list. The builder had a sound real estate business but today owes crores of rupees to the market. His projects too have failed. His life is Check FIRST INDIA spreads its vistas... we shall now recount bytes and buzz in the real estate sector SHRI BALAJI DREAM DEVELOPERS SET WITH NEW PROJECT S Rs 7 crores, but talk in the market suggests that the deal was worth Rs 11 crore. The property market is buzzing with excitement over this project. hri Balaji Dream Developers fi nalised a deal for 4 bigha land at Sikar for the construction of Matra Chaya project. Vijay Sharma, Ravi Sharma are the director of the project. The land deal was worth shuttling between Jaipur and Goa trying to save life from the gambling dons.

4. RAJASTHAN 04 J AIPUR | THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia in CORONAVIRUS HC POSTPONES MUNICIPAL POLLS POLLS IN SIX MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS DEFERRED FOR 6 WEEKS; JAIPUR AIRPORT CANCELS 10 OUT OF 61 FLIGHTS BRIEF z Jaipur: DGP Bhupendra Singh has issued an advisory to police personnel asking them to take precautions due to rising coronavirus cases in state. Use of breath analysers has been banned till further orders and now meetings would be held through video conferencing and cor- respondence be done by email if possible. Additional Commis- sioner Ashok Gupta informed that the advisory issued by the PHQ is being taken seriously. PLATFORM TICKETS TO COST `50 TO DETER CROWD Jaipur: As a preventive measure against corona- virus, Railways has increased prices of platform tickets from `10 to `50. The objective is to stop overcrowding at railway stations. The increased price of platform tickets would be applicable on 10 railway stations including Jaipur junction. New rates would come into effect from midnight and will be applicable till March 31. On one hand, the railway administration has been paying special attention on cleanliness of trains and stations but simultaneously to discourage people from unneces- sarily coming to stations to see off passengers, it has hiked platform ticket prices five times. Accord- ing to railway sources, there is tendency of so many people going to platform to see off just a single passenger sometimes, hence this drastic step has been taken to regulate the crowd. z Jaipur: The wait of Jaipur regarding phase 1B of Jaipur Metro is going to end soon as the project is set to begin from April 1. Now, Metro will start operating from Badi Chaupar to Man- sarovar, said Railway Safety Commissioner of Metro RK Sharma. 195 EVACUATED FROM IRAN REACH JAISALMER FACILITY Jaipur: Air India has evacuated 195 Indians from Iran, which is one of the worst affected countries from COVID 19 and brought them to Jaisalmer on Wednesday. Two special AI planes landed in Jaisalmer with passengers who had been stranded in Iran following virus outbreak. The z Jaipur: Congress has welcomed the decision of the High Court regarding post- poning the Municipal Corporation elections. PCC Organisation General Secretary Dr Mahesh Sharma said we had written a letter to EC regarding the same and we welcome HC decision. first plane had 105 pas- sengers including 68 men and 37 women while the second had 41 men and 48 women. Prior to this, three AI planes had brought 289 Indians to Jaisalmer. All of them have been kept in —PHOTO BY NAIM KHAN 10 flights cancelled due to virus scare, few passengers First India News First India News endra Singh Raghav ap- peared on behalf of the state government. The advocate general informed the court that at a time when even courts have been com- plying with COVID 19 guidelines, there is no need to conduct munici- pal election in haste. Accepting the argu- ment, Justice Sangeet Lodha said in his rul- ing that Coronavirus has been declared glob- al pandemic by the World Health Organisa- tion (WHO) and the cen- tral government too has issued guidelines regarding it, therefore it would be wise to post- pone the elections be- cause thousands of peo- ple would assemble at one place to vote. With that the court deferred elections in six municipal corpora- tions of Jaipur, Jodh- pur and Kota. isolation at wellness centre developed by the Army. With Wednesday’s 195 passengers, total number of people at the facility has reached 484.They will be kept here for 14 days. So far none of them have been found positive of the virus. Earlier, these 195 people were screened at Jaisalmer Airport after which they were taken to the wellness centre. The army has developed this modern wellness centre with a capacity of 1,000 beds in just a month. Apart from excel- lent medical facilities, people here also have arrangements for games and entertainment. Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court on Wednes- day deferred municipal corporation polls in state for six weeks on grounds of coronavirus outbreak. The division bench of Justices Sangeet Lodha and Manoj Kumar Vyas deferred the elections on a plea by the state government. The court also dis- posed of six PILs with similar requests. HC has also given lib- erty to the state govern- ment and petitioners that in case situation doesn’t improve, they can again approach the court for further relief or if the situation im- proves then they can again file applications. Advocate general MS Singhvi and additional advocate generals Ma- jor RP Singh and Saty- cancelled its flight to Muscat. Air Asia flights to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur are already sus- pended till 10 April. The passenger load has reduced to fifty per- cent forcing airlines to rather cancel flights than fly at loss. This has come as a big worry for air travelers desiring to take a flight for some ur- gent work or medical emergency . The aviation sector, like other sectors of economy, has been forced into an unprece- dented situation in re- cent memory . The situa- tion will completely im- prove only after the Coronavirus pandemic is taken care of interna- tionally which certainly will take some time. z Jaipur: As a precaution due to coronavirus, a ban has been imposed on meeting prisoners in Rajasthan jails. DG Jail NRK Reddy issued the orders. More than 100 relatives reach Jaipur Jail daily to meet the prisoners. Jaipur: As Coronavirus flies high, the airline flights seem to be taking a beating. People had al- ready cancelled their recreational air travels now they are also can- celling any air travel which can be avoided. The airlines too are can- celling flights due to re- duced passenger load. The awareness cam- paign by Govt and me- dia reports too has made people vigil thus avoid- ing air travel. GOI has stopped issuing visas to anybody except people of Indian origin. Jaipur Airport can- celled 10 out of 61 on Wednesday . Go Air was forced to cancel five out TEMPLES REVISE DARSHAN TIMINGS Bikaner: Coronavirus scare has put district adminis- tration on its toes. District administration is monitor- ing the situation on day today basis and issuing neces- sary instructions. Health department has ordered closure of historic Junagarh Fort till further orders. The world famous Karni Mata temple too will now conduct necessary worship schedules and discourage large gathering. The tourism department has asked all hotels to cancel bookings of foreign tourists from 19 March and if they allow any foreign tourist then 14 day isolation will be mandatory. All religious places in the state are being either closed or open for only a small amount of people. For the first time in 348 years, Shrinath temple will only open for 4 slots instead of 8. Whereas, in Ajmer Dargah vaju would only be done through tap water. Regular practise of vaju has been suspended for the time being. Apart from this temple in Chittorgarh would open from 12 to 2:30 pm and Ram Devra temple in Jasilmer will open for darshan in three slots. The Brahma temple of Pushkar has also been closed for devotees till March 31. In Moti Dungri Temple darshan are open from Mangla till 9.30 am. of its total six flights from Jaipur due to in- structions from their head office obviously due to drastically low passen- ger load. Indigo and Air India cancelled their Delhi flights. Air India also cancelled its flights to Udaipur and Bhopal. Go Air cancelled its flights to Mumbai, Ben- gluru, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. Talking about International Oman Air on Wednesday People told to avoid visiting religious places First India News z Advocate Shubham Modi has filed a PIL in Rajasthan HC Jodhpur making central & state govts parties among others while pointing out non compliance of the guidelines issued by the govt. z Health Minister Raghu Sharma pre- sided over a meeting where all heads of medical departments were present. Sharma reviewed corona- virus related issue including number of positive patients, people who are being screened based on the symptoms. flights YOUTH KEPT IN ISOLATION Rajsamand: A youth, who returned to Asotia in Rajsamand from Poland on March 11, has been kept in the isolation home ward in view of coronavirus infec- tion. The medical department team also conducted medical tests of the youth as well as his family members and instructed them to remain in an isolation home for 28 days. Rajsamand District Medical Officer JP Bunkar said that 18-year-old Vedant Gaur was studying international law in Poland and had returned to Rajsamand on March 11. On receiving the information, Health Department team examined his health and he was found normal. Although keeping the WHO guidelines in mind, he has been kept in an isolation home ward. TOURIST FOUND DEAD IN HOTEL Jaisalmer: A Mumbai resident Bharat Panchal, 58, who had come to Jaisalmer as a tourist, was found dead in his hotel room on Wednesday. The tourist had a fever when he reached Jaisalmer and was also examined in a private hospital on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, Panchal was found dead in a hotel room. After getting the information, the medical department team reached the hotel and started the investigation. It is being told that the deceased was already BP and diabetes patient. The family of the deceased has been informed and the body has been kept in the mortuary. The postmortem will be carried out after his family reaches Jaisalmer. FAMOUS KAILA MATA FAIR POSTPONED TILL MARCH 31 Karauli: A day after CM Gehlot’s appeal for caution, the Kaila Mata fair, famous across north India, has been postponed till March 31. The fair which attracts lakhs of devotees was to begin from 20 March. The temple trust also announced closure of darshan after the morning Aarti on Wednesday till 31 March. All the religious rituals including the Aarti will continue but only in the presence of temple priests. The disappointed devotees are leaving their offerings outside the temple premises. Small traders look- ing forward to the fair are disappointed due their financial loss. Meanwhile the district administration is making all ef- forts to make people aware of the corona threat and using all means at disposal to educate people of keeping hygiene through washing hands, using masks & sanitizers. gleshwar Purushottam Bharti, Manas Goswa- mi of Govinddev ji tem- ple, Rajasthan Waqf Board Khanu Khan Budhwali and chief of Jama Mas- jid Nadeem Qureshi held a press conference. CM had met religious leaders to persuade them to appeal to people to avoid crowd at places of worship. Jaipur: A group of re- ligious leaders have asked people to avoid visiting places of wor- ships and pray at home for next few days. Acting on CM Ashok Gehlot’s suggestion, the religious leaders in- cluding Mahant Kailash of Moti Dungri, Father Vijaypal, z ACS Rohit Kumar Singh in a letter to the airports author- ity has given strict instructions to sanitise trollies on daily basis. He also instructed use of triple layer mask in all hospitals and also follow “Hand Hygiene” Protocol. Chairman Mahaman- DISTRESS CALL Distressed Indian students in Philippines seek help to get back home firmed tickets but the airport authorities are not allowing them to check in because of the new travel regulations. Meanwhile, the Indi- an Embassy in Manila, in a tweet, said that they, along with the Ministry of External Affairs, are trying to work out a solution. “It is requested to all to kindly have pa- tience,” the embassy said. “It is need of the hour that the Indian govern- ment send a plane to bring these Indian stu- dents back Bhandari, who in the past has worked for the cause of the Indian di- aspora, and who was ap- proached by these stu- dents told PTI. According to these students, some 100 of them have been at the airport since Tuesday . They all have con- been cancelled due to the new policy. Most of the students, she said, had booked their flights for March 17 and rest were sched- ule to travel to India on March 19 and 20. But the flights were can- celled and scores of In- dian students are now stuck at the airport in Manila, Nair said in the video message sent to Prem Bhandari, head of the Jaipur Foot USA. banned the entry of passengers from Af- ghanistan, Philippines and Malaysia to India with immediate effect amid stepped up efforts against the spread of COVID-19. In a video message by one of these stu- dents Akhil Bala Nair, around 200 Indian stu- dents had booked their flight tickets for India in the next few days. But all of them have Washington: Hundreds of distressed Indian stu- dents, stuck in the Phil- ippines, are seeking help through video mes- sages as they are unable to fly back home due to the travel restrictions imposed by India to con- tain the spread of the deadly novel coronavi- rus, according to friends and relatives of some of these students in the US. The Indian govern- ment on zzz In the video message sent to Prem Bhandari, head of the Jaipur Foot USA the stranded students can be seen seeking home,” Stranded students sought Prem Bhandari’s (inset) help. help Tuesday —PTI

5. INDIA J AIPUR | THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 05 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia MP POLITICAL CRISISKarnataka High Court has rejected the plea by Congress leader Digvijaya Singh seeking directions to the police Rebel Cong MLAs demand security, write to K’taka DGP Bhopal: The rebel Con- gress MLAs holed up at a five star resort in Ben- galuru have demanded security from the Kar- nataka Director Gener- al of Police. They have also refused to meet Congress leader Digvi- jaya Singh who had gone on Wednesday morning to meet them. In a letter to the Kar- nataka DGP, the MLAs said, “Some Congress leaders from Madhya Pradesh have come to Bengaluru. They are putting pressure on us and are trying to create an atmosphere by which they can misrepresent the fact in the SC where hearing is going on.” In the letter, they said that they have giv- en an affidavit to the SC in which they have put forward facts and their views. “Kindly provide se- curity to us so that our life can be secured,” said the letter to the Karnataka DGP. Earli- er, rebels Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh, who are camp- ing in Bengaluru, is- sued a video message, refusing to meet Digvi- jaya Singh and other Congress leaders who have gone to meet them and reiterated that they were there out of their own choice. in Sehore district. Rebel Congress MLAs refuse to meet Digvijay BJP destroying democratic principles: Cong New Delhi: The BJP is using force and might to invariably destroy democratic principles, Advocate Dave appearing for the Congress party told the SC on Wednesday dur- ing the hearing on the former’s plea seeking directions for conduct- ing an immediate floor test in the MP Assem- bly. Dave told a two- judge bench headed by Justice Dr DY Chandra- chud and also compris- ing of Justice Hemant Gupta that a very stable government was func- tioning in the state for the past 18 months and urged that the MLAs who resigned from Con- gress must go back to the electorate and win the election again. have come here on our own. Request Digvijaya Singh and other leaders that they go back be- cause we don’’t want to meet them,” the MLAs said in the video mes- sage. Sources say that the rebel MLAs issued the video message to Digvijaya Singh after he was detained by the Bengaluru Police. Singh reached Ben- galuru on Wednesday morning wanting to meet the rebel MLAs. Twenty-two Congress MLAs have resigned from the Assembly, the resignation of six has been accepted by the Speaker. Digvijaya Singh an- nounced that he will start hunger strike as he was denied a meet- ing with the MLAs. Dushyant Kamal Nath accuses BJP of behaving like Hitler Digvijaya Singh Bhopal: Rebels Con- gress MLAs from Mad- hya Pradesh, who are camping in Bengaluru, issued a video message on Wednesday, refusing to meet former CM Dig- vijaya Singh and other Congress leaders who have gone to meet them and reiterated that they were there out of their own choice. “Have come to Ben- galuru on our own. For the past one year, no work has been done. We Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Minister Nath on Wednes- day accused theB- JP of ‘dirty ‘politics and suppressing democratic values and rights much like Hitler. The CM was re- acting after senior Congress leaders, including Digvi- jaya Singh were detained in Ben- galuru when they tried to meet the 16 rebel Congress MLAs. Nath said: “Con- gress Rajya Sabha candidate Digvi- jaya Singh and other Congress ministers tried to meet the Congress MLAs who have been held hostage by the BJP in Ben- galuru. The police stopped them, mis- behaved with them and detained them, which was com- pletely dictatorial and Hitler like.” Chief Kamal playing the Madhya Pradesh Congress Party MLAs leave after meeting Governor Lalji Tandon, to demand for the release of their party MLAs from Bengaluru on Wednesday. —PHOTO BY PTI CONGRESS DELEGATION LIKELY TO MEET MP GUV NATH DARES BJP TO BRING NO-CONFIDENCE MOTION DK SHIVAKUMAR MEETS K’TAKA DGP SOOD DIGVIJAY BIGGEST DRAMATIST IN COUNTRY: SHIVRAJ ‘WE DON’T WANT TO MEET ANY PARTY LEADER’ A Congress delegation met Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon at 1:45 pm on Wednesday. Earlier on Tuesday, CM Kamal Nath wrote to the Governor reiterating his demand for the rebel Congress MLAs to be brought back to Bhopal from Bengaluru. This development comes amid the political crisis in MP. MP Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday dared the BJP to bring a no-confi dence motion in the Assembly if they wanted a fl oor test to be conducted. “A fl oor test is done either due to trust vote or due to no-confi dence motion, ours is a running government not a new one,” Kamal Nath told reporters. Senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday dubbed Digvijay Singh of Congress as the “big- gest dramatist”, hours after the latter tried to meet rebel MLAs of his party in Bengaluru but prevented by the police. Shivraj Singh Chouhan said even the rebel MLAs are wary of Singh and didn’t want to meet him. “Digvijay Singh is the biggest dramatist in the coun- try,” the former chief minister told reporters Karnataka Cong Presi- dent DK Shivakumar on Wednesday met the DGP Praveen Sood in Bengaluru and de- manded police protec- tion for MP Cong MLAs and the removal of BJP workers from the hotel in Bengaluru, where the legislators are currently lodged. “The MP legis- lators have requested police protection, that is all. Let the police give them protection, our candidate (Digvijaya Singh) has come, let him meet the legisla- tors,” said Shivakumar. Kamal Citing threat to their life and security, 22 rebel Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh who are lodged in Bengaluru, wrote to Karnataka’s DGP on Wednesday requesting that no Congress leader should be allowed to meet them. “I am a Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh, voting is scheduled for March 26,” Singh told reporters. DIGVIJAYA TAKEN OUT OF POLICE STATION IN B’LURU GOVERNOR REPLIES TO SPEAKER’S LETTER Senior Cong leader Digvijaya Singh and other leaders were taken out of Amruthahalli Police Station in Bengaluru. Singh said, “I don’t know where am I being taken. I should have been allowed to meet my MLAs. I am a law-abiding citizen.” He added, “We will defend our govern- ment and will take back our MLAs.” Responding to Madhya Pradesh As- sembly Speaker NP Prajapati’s letter, state Governor Tandon said “Both of us have been receiving letters from the so-called missing MLAs. In their letters, wherever they are at present, they have not mentioned any diffi cul- ties being faced by them,” Tandon said in his letter on Tuesday. ANOTHER 205 INDIANS ARRIVE FROM IRAN New Delhi: The govern- ment on Wednesday evacuated another batch of 205 Indians from Iran, where 988 people have died due to the coronavi- rus pandemic. A flight of the Mahan Air landed in New Del- hi this morning with Indian passengers, mostly Shia pilgrims from Ladakh who were stranded in Iran, offi- cial sources said. Of those who re- turned, 115 are male, 85 female, four children and one infant. Some of them are Non Resident Indians as well. So far 591 Indians have been evacuated from Iran. Over 16,000 people in Iran, includ- ing around 250 Indian pilgrims have tested positive for coronavi- rus. India has sent a team of health profes- sionals for their treat- ment. India will pay heavy price: Rahul Gandhi Man suspected to have corona jumps off 7th floor BJP not to hold protest for 1 month: Nadda New Delhi: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said quick and aggressive action was required to tackle coronavirus, warning India will pay “extreme- ly heavy price” for the Centre’’s inability to act decisively . “Quick aggressive ac- tion is the answer to tackling the coronavi- rus. India is going to pay an extremely heavy price for our govern- ment’’s inability to act decisively,” Rahul Gan- dhi said in a tweet. Even on February 12, he had made a similar statement when he said “coronavirus was an ex- tremely serious threat to the people and the economy .” “My sense is the government is not taking this threat seri- ously,” he said. “The Nodal Officer in- formed us about the 35-year-old man who was brought from Del- hi’s Indira Gandhi air- port as a suspected cor- onavirus patient. He committed suicide to- day by jumping off the Super Speciality Block building,” police said in a statement. New Delhi: A man sus- pected to be infected with coronavirus alleg- edly committed suicide by jumping off the sev- enth floor of a bulding of Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital on Wednesday, soon after he was ad- mitted to the facility by airport authorities, po- lice said. Coronavirus scare enters ‘most secured’ Tihar Jail New Delhi: BJP has decided to not organise or par- ticipate in any form of demon- stration or agita- tion for the next one month. “The Prime Minister in the Parliamenta- ry party meeting yesterday, had de- sired that should avoid any type of agitation or demonstration because of the coronavirus pan- demic. The BJP has decided that the party will not participate in any agitation,” said party president JP Nadda. ‘GOGOI SHOULD EXPLAIN ‘CLEAN CHIT’ Tourists wear protective masks as a preventive measure against coronavirus, at Lotus temple in New Delhi on Wednesday. FIRST POSITIVE CASE IN WB CASE FILED AGAINST VARDHAN we Afghanistan. They also include four women. Till three to four days ago there were 12 Afghan among the quaran- tined prisoners but the number has down to three now. They were all arrested by the Customs De- partment. New Delhi: The coro- navirus scare reached Tihar Jail as well as other jails in the national capital and a total of 18 prison- ers have been quaran- tined so far. The isolated prison- ers include eight for- eign nationals out of which three are from has nationals come PHRASE ‘URBAN NAXALITES’ IS NOT USED BY GOVT : MHA IN RS New Delhi: The govern- ment does not use the phrase ‘Urban Naxalites’, Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy informed the RS on Wednesday. Reddy, in a written reply in the Upper House, said that the Centre’s national policy addresses Left- wing extremism in all its manifestation including the urban activities. “The REPORT CARD OF UP GOVT FILLED WITH LIES: PRIYANKA GANDHI New Delhi: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday said that the report card of Uttar Pradesh government on the completion of its three years is fi lled with lies. “The BJP government of UP is releasing its report card. In this report card fi lled with lies, big claims have been made about women’s safety. But PRADHAN HAILS PM MODI’S SAARC OUTREACH INITIATIVE POSTPONE VISIT TO VAISHNO DEVI: SHRINE BOARD phrase ‘Urban Naxal- ites’ is not used by the Ministry of Home Affairs. However, government’s national policy and action plan addresses Left-wing extremism in all its mani- festation including urban activities,” Reddy replied on being asked ‘who are urban Naxalites and what legal action has been taken against them’. after the horrifi c Unnao incident, the incident in Lakhimpur today exposed the claims of women’s safety. When will the gov- ernment wake up?” she tweeted. Earlier today, CM Yogi held a press confer- ence on the occasion of the BJP government com- pleting three years and an- nounced the achievement of the government. New Delhi: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative to bring together the SAARC na- tions to combat coronavirus by terming the move as “humane and far-sighted step,” which will serve as an example to the world. Pradhan said the step taken by Prime Minister Modi indicates India’s seriousness towards containing the viral outbreak, which recognises no border, but also the deep bonds of amity that New Delhi shares with the subcontinent. Jammu: After reviewing all aspects related to yatra and the safety of pilgrims in wake of coronavirus outbreak, Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board on Tuesday appealed pilgrims to postpone their visit to the temple till normalisation of the situation. “In view of coronavirus, Ramesh Ku- mar, Chief Executive Offi cer, Vaishno Devi Shrine Board today reviewed all aspects related to yatra and the safety of pilgrims. The CEO has appealed pilgrims to postpone their visit to the Shrine,” the shrine said in a statement.

6. PERSPECTIVE 06 J AIPUR | THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia CORONA GIVES SAARC A CHANCE TO REUNITE PM Modi has won hearts and shown the kind of leadership that is needed IN-DEPTH CONG ON SLIPPERY SLOPE IN RS POLLS game of political one-upmanship is on between the Bharatiya Ja- nata Party and the Congress for supremacy in the Upper House of parliament which has its bien- nial polls on March 26. A rudderless Con- gress finds itself buffeted by the BJP which has upset the party’s calculations in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh by causing defections. With 55 seats up for grabs, the Congress finds itself on a slippery wicket. The party could lose half of its 12 seats because of the recent defections in which 22 Congress leg- islators in Madhya Pradesh left the party in support of Jyotiraditya Scindia, who joined the BJP. Five Congress legislators in Gujarat also defected to the BJP , dashing the par- ty’s hopes of winning two of the four seats at stake. The party had been plan- ning to field two candidates given its strength of 73 in the 182-member assem- bly and the support extended by Jignesh Mevani, an independent MLA. To guard its flock against further poaching, Con- gress moved the remaining 68 legislators to a luxury hotel in Jaipur. Although the party high command sought their opinion on the number of candidates to be fielded, these lawmakers have unanimously au- thorised party president Sonia Gandhi to decide on the matter. Whatever the strat- egy , the Congress appears to have already lost one Rajya Sabha seat from Gujarat even before the votes have been cast as the party is now six short of the number needed to win two seats. What we are witnessing is an action replay from 2017 Rajya Sabha poll when Ahmed Pa- tel barely managed to get past the line. Six Congress legislators had then defected to BJP and nine did not vote. Keeping the MLAs in a luxury hotel is no guarantee of their loyalty . In Madhya Pradesh Congress faces the loss of one seat after the departure of Scindia and the subsequent resignations by his loyalists. Both parties were as- sured of winning one seat each and the fight was for the third seat. After the de- fections, the third seat may also go the BJP way. In case the government is top- pled before March 26 and a few more Con- gress MLAs cross over, then the party could be left regretting Scindia’s humili- ation at the hands of Digvijay Singh and Kamal Nath. Congress decision to field Neeraj Dangi, a Dalit leader close to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, from Rajasthan has not gone down well with party legislators. Will this opposi- tion trip Dangi is difficult to say at this junc- ture. KC Venugopal, the other candidate, is expected to make it to the RS. In all, 55 seats from 17 states will go to polls. Of these, 51 are falling vacant in April due to retirement of sitting MPs and four seats are already vacant due to resignations. All five Trinamool Congress candidates from Bengal won unopposed. A PRACHITA SINGH SAXENA The author is a is a scholar of Strategic Affairs, and has been associated with USI of India, a Strategic Think Tank of GOI G od has strange ways of teaching mankind, it’s lessons. Supported by own advents and technology , whenever humans or any crea- ture has challenged nature, to say ‘ Ahhm Brahmasmi’ (I am the God), very subtly and clearly God has conveyed that you are far away from it and better know your place as mortals. Corona is also one such nature’s fury or god’s wrath that has shaken the entire mankind on this planet. We are all too busy fighting with each other over man- made boundaries of nations, regions, languages, religions and caste. The nature’s fury has no such boundaries and affects all living beings, across all such divisions, without any discrimination. ‘When Corona virus does not differ- entiate, why should we?’ SAARC is a regional alliance formed in 1985 by India and its neighbouring countries of South Asia. The purpose was friendly co-operation on vari- ous issues keeping in mind mu- tual benefits in trade and cul- tural exchange. Another aim plus was to build a healthy po- litical clout in the emerging multi-polar world order. How- ever, due to bilateral differences between the two biggest partici- pating nations, India and Paki- stan, the agenda got hijacked and subsequently , SAARC was put on the back burner. It goes to the astute states- man like Prime Minister Nar- endra Modi to again reunite all the SAARC members to fight the pandemic of Coro- na. It’s a world calamity and needs to be fought together. Let’s say – “SABKI LADAI.” PM Modi is an intelligent leader with a vision to convert threats into opportunities. In the past, he has successfully converted various jibes on him like ‘Chaiwala’ or ‘Chaukidar’ into election winning slogans. Also, he converted the Pulwama attack threat into national cre- scendo by giving a befitting re- z Formulate joint strategy to fight the Corona pandemic together and work towards finding an antidote for it. ply in the form of the surgical strikes. This clearly united the nation more fiercely and gave him another thumping victory . In the threat from Corona also, he found an opportunity not just to help the people globally but also to project himself as world leader. He moved swiftly to reunite SAARC for a common cause to serve the human race across manmade frontiers. PM Modi gave a call to all Head of the States to join in a video confer- ence and pledge a common intent and collective method- ology to fight the disease. All Head of the States readily agreed with exception of Pa- kistan who reluctantly con- firmed in the end. The Health Minister of Pakistan, Zafar Mirza, attended the confer- ence along with all other Head of the States, which was held at 5 pm on March 15, 2020. It is very unfortunate to find Pakistan’s arrogance and bellig- erent attitude at this hour of regional crisis. Why would they not want a solution to a pandem- ic, even for their own country- men? It is also a point of amuse- ment that not only did the Prime Minister refused to attend the meeting, the Health Minister used this meeting to again raise the issue of Kashmir and prais- ing China totally out of context. China had failed miserably to contain the COVID-19 which has led to this present day situation of severe urgency and panic in MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE VIDEO CONFERENCE AND JOINT DECLARATION IS THE SPIRIT BEHIND SUCH AN INITIATIVE z COVID-19 Emergency Fund with India pledging USD 10 million initially. z Rapid Response Teams of doctors and specialists in India to be on standby and placed at the disposal of SAARC. z Share integrated disease surveillance portal with SAARC members to keep a close watch on the spreading and containment of the disease. the whole world. Alarmingly , ministers, officials and media are on record to say that they do not have enough funds and resources to fight the COV- ID-19 but still, they refuse to join hands with their very neighbours. Have we really gone that far apart even being so close? And who exactly is perpetuating this distance? The uncompromising atti- tude and their severe obses- sion with Kashmir. This also is one of the primary reasons of decline of the stature of Pakistan as a nation state in the world standing. The video conference was a big hit, not just with all the par- ticipants but has been ac- claimed as a great move by the world. Following were some of the points flagged at the SAARC Video Conference and agreed to by all the participants:- z Create a common research platform to co-ordinate research. Pakistan’s z Combined evacuation of citizens from Corona-hit nations. More important than the vid- eo conference and joint dec- laration is the spirit behind such an initiative. PM Modi has won hearts and shown the kind of leadership that is needed from Head of a ma- ture and responsible Nation like India, at such an hour of crisis. Similar calls for joint action amongst G-20 and oth- er various international fo- rums is the testimony to the growing popularity of the initiative. Pakistan is again exposed to be on the verge of intellectual bankruptcy , with only bloated ego and attitude. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL We are all too busy fighting with each other over manmade boundaries of nations, regions, languages, religions and caste. The nature’s fury has no such boundaries and affects all living beings A silent hero during the Coronavirus crisis N Top TWEET Dharmendra Pradhan @dpradhanbjp UP has emerged as a non-partisan, non-appeasing, yet most inclusive model of governance. Do read this detailed peice,’Three years of governance, trust and development’ by CM Shri @mYogiAdityanath ji on completion of 3years in office. Many firms, especially in tech, have closed their of- fices, mandated that em- ployees telecommute, and provided them with comput- ing and video technology to work remotely . Not only does this keep an important part of the economy going, but it also has had unintend- ed positive consequences. Vehicle congestion, for ex- ample, has vanished. The hours harried commuters previously lost in traffic can now be dedicated to work and family . Corporate travel is disappearing, and video conferences are the new norm, with associated re- ductions in airplane pollu- tion and huge savings in time. Likewise, educators at nearly every level are scram- bling to find online alterna- tives to in-classroom in- struction. FOR FULL REPORT LOG ON TO WWW.PROJECTSYNDICATE.ORG governments to track the infected, contact them, and quarantine them early. These technologies have been the target of much criticism in recent years. Now, when they are help- ing us save lives, they de- serve our praise. South Korea’s achieve- ment is truly impressive. As of March 17, the coun- try has had 8,320 cases and 81 deaths, despite an early bad start. Contrast this with Italy, which at the same time reports 27,980 cases and 2,158 deaths. Technology’s contribu- tion to pandemic manage- ment goes beyond tracking and quarantines. As the US and countries in Europe move toward near-com- plete lockdown, with po- tentially disastrous conse- quences for the world econ- omy, technology offers a glimmer of hope. ety’s good ahead of private convenience. I would add that these countries also stand out for their students’ high math literacy . In the 2019 PISA rankings, pro- duced by the OECD, China ranks first in math with a score of 591 out of 600, Ja- pan ranks 6th, and South Korea is 7th. By contrast, Italy is in 31st place, Spain places 34th, and the United States ranks 37th.3 PISA scores may have their shortcomings, but they do provide a rough idea of the math literacy of the average citizen in the countries that take part. And the fact that the coun- tries with the highest rank- ings seem to have adopted the most effective contain- ment strategies serves as a reminder that, ultimately, the reason we want better training in math and logic is not to land more lucra- ot to diminish the superhuman efforts of nurs- es, doctors, and h e a l t h - c a re workers worldwide, but sometimes, no matter how hard one tries, and no mat- ter how selflessly one sacri- fices, one stands no chance against a more powerful en- emy . The new coronavirus, COVID-19, has proved to be such a foe. Were it not for technology , against it would have been lost by now. Math and technology, to be more precise. I say math, because understanding a concept as basic as “expo- nential growth” proved cru- cial for attacking the enemy head-on. The successful containment of the epidem- ic in China, South Korea, and Japan has been attrib- uted to strong governments and cultures that put soci- Piyush Goyal @PiyushGoyal Railways has been taking a series of proactive measures to stop the spread of #Coronavirus in India. Measures include creation of quarantine facilities & help desks, improved sanitation of stations & trains and regular announcements to inform passengers. the battle tive jobs, but to make bet- ter decisions regarding our lives. Technology has been the true champion in the fight against the spread of COV- ID-19. Here, I don’t mean the ICUs and respirators without which severely ill patients would not stand a chance. I mean the new data-driven technologies that enabled responsible SOMETIMES, NO MATTER HOW HARD ONE TRIES, ONE STANDS NO CHANCE AGAINST MORE POWERFUL Spiritual SPEAK Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love. —Song of Songs 2:5 ENEMY G Vol 1 G Issue No. 281 GRNI NO. RAJENG/2019/77764. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Press, D.B. Corp Limited, Shivdaspura, Tonk Road, Jaipur. Published at 304, 3rd Floor, City Mall, Bhagwan Das Road, C-Scheme, Jaipur-302001, Rajasthan. Phone 0141-4920504. Editor: Jagdeesh Chandra, responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

7. INDIA J AIPUR | THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 07 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia DON’T ASK QUESTIONS BASED ON NEWSPAPER INFORMATION: OM BIRLA New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday cautioned MPs not to ask ques- tions based on what is published in newspa- pers and raise issues only on the basis of their own information. Birla’s direction came after A. Raja, a Dravida Munnetra Ka- zhagam leader and an MP from Mayiladu- thurai in Tamil Nadu, referred to a newspa- per article while ask- ing a supplementary question during Ques- tion Hour. “MPs should not ask questions based on in- formation published in newspapers. This is in the rule book that ques- tions should not be asked based on the in- formation of newspa- pers and television channels. So, ask ques- tions based on your own information,” Bir- la said while interrupt- ing Raja. “The newspapers car- ried articles that the Law Minister and the Telecom Ministry suc- ceeded in getting the Supreme Court’s per- mission to allow private telecom operators like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea to pay statutory dues totalling Rs one lakh crore over 20 years. You succeeded. Who gave concession to the operators.” POWERGallery OVER 300 IAS OFFICERS YET TO FILE IPR Around 300 IAS offi cers from various cadres have not fi led Immovable Property Return (IPR). GOVT GOING SLOW WITH SR LEVEL TRANSFERS IN ARMY? Whispers are that relieving orders on transfers of senior offi cers in Army are not coming off easy these days as Govt is reportedly going slow on transfers of offi cers at Brigadier level and above. PANKAJ SINGH TO MOVE KOLKATA? Pankaj Singh is likely to move to Eastern Zone in Kolkata as ADG BSF. He is 1988 batch IPS offi cer of Rajasthan cadre. IRS OFFICER REDDY TO JOIN AP GOVT Sadhu Narsimha Reddy will join the Andhra Pradesh govt on deputation basis for three years. He is a 2006 batch IRS (C&CE) offi cer presently posted as Addl Commissioner, GST at Vizag Zone. R S ARUN GOES ON ICD TO KERALA R S Arun is going on inter cadre deputation (ICD) to Kerala from Manipur for a period of three years. He is 2009 batch IFS offi cer of Manipur cadre. MS JACINTHA LAZARUS GOES ON ICD TO KERALA Ms Jacintha Lazarus is going on ICD to Tamil Nadu from Manipur for a period of three years. She is 2005 batch IFS offi cer of Manipur cadre. ANUP KUMAR SATPATHY RETURNS TO PARENT CADRE Anup Kumar Satpathy, Group General Manager (Commercial & Operations), CONCOR at Central region, Nagpur, is returning to parent cadre after completing successful four years. During his ten- ure, the container rakes in central region especially at Mandideep (Bhopal) increased. He is a 1993 batch IRTS offi cer. NILAYA MITASH IS PRINCIPAL OPERATIONS COORDINATION SPECIALIST, ADB Nilaya Mitash has been appointed as Principal Operations Coordination Specialist (Regional Co- operation) IS 6 with the Asian Development Bank, New Delhi for a period of three years. He is 1991 batch IAS offi cer of Karnataka cadre. NO CLARITY ON HOW MD & CEOS OF MERGING PSBS WILL BE ACCOMMODATED There is still no clarity yet on how the Govt would accommodate MD & CEOs of merging public sec- tor banks as there are virtually no vacancies right now in other public sector banks. VACANCY OF CMD, BEL NEXT YEAR; ADVERTISEMENT SOON The Government of India is expected to issue advertisement in a couple of month for the post of Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Bharat electronics Limited falling vacant with the retire- ment of present incumbent M V Gowtama next year in June. GOEL RELIEVED TO JOIN GOI Aashish Kumar Goel has been relieved from UP to join GoI in the Ministry of Rural Development as JS on deputation. He is a 1995 batch UP cadre IAS offi cer. NAVEEN GULATI GETS TEMP DEPUTATION TO RITES Naveen Gulati presently posted with Northern Railway has been selected for deputation to RITES as CEO, REMCL at Gurgaon for a period of six months till a regular incumbent is appointed. He is an IRSEE offi cer of 1988 batch. AIR FORCE & ITBP RECRUITMENT POSTPONED DUE TO CORONA OUTBREAK IAF has postponed the Airmen Recruitment Ex- ams, planned at 86 cities across the country from March 19 to 23, 2020 has been postponed. Simi- larly, ITBP also postponed Constables/Tradesmen recruitment written exams, scheduled on March 23,2020, was to held at 11 centres. CONG MOVES ADJOURNMENT NOTICE IN LS ‘ENACT LAW ON POPULATION CONTROL’ New Delhi: BJP member Sanjay Seth on Wednesday demanded that the government should enact a law on population control and voting right should be denied to those having more than two children. Raising the matter during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, Seth said that the country will have to face long-term consequences due to growth in population. Seth, who is BJP MP from Ranchi, said India is poised to overtake China as the most populous country in 2027 and the population would touch 160 crore in the next 30 years. He said those with more than two children should be denied some government facilities and they should be denied the voting right. “A Bill should be brought to make the law,” he said. —ANI Congress MP K Suresh on Wednesday moved an adjournment motion no- tice in the Lok Sabha over the nomination of former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi to the Upper House of Parlia- ment. President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday nominated former CJI Gogoi to the Rajya Sabha. Gogoi served as the 46th CJI from October 3, 2018, to November 17, 2019. GOVT HAS DECIDED TO REVIVE BSNL AND MTNL: RS PRASAD ‘26 DIED IN ASSAM DETENTION CENTERS IN LAST 3 YEARS’ RS ADJOURNED AFTER RUCKUS OVER DIGVIJAYA’S DETENTION DELHI POLICE ACTED SWIFTLY & PROMPTLY DURING RIOTS Union Minister for Communi- cations Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the LS on Wednes- day that the govt has decided to revive BSNL and MTNL, and that it is also giving packages to employees who sought voluntary retirement. “We strongly believe that the existence of a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) like BSNL is important both for public service and also fairness in the entire system of commu- nication. BSNL had suffered bad times. In 2014-15, 2015- 16 it became a bit positive,” the Minister informed the House. “Our government has taken a conscious decision to revive both BSNL and MTNL because they do public ser- vice in fl oods, earthquake etc. Minister of State for Home Affair, Nityanand Rai informed that 26 detenues have died in detention centers, due to illness, during the last three years in Assam. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha on the number of individuals who died in detention centres in Assam in last three years, Rai said, “As per the information provided by the government of Assam, 799 detenues are held in detention centers in Assam as on February 27, 2020. Out of which 95 have 3 years or more in detention. 26 detenues have died during detention period due to illness during last three years.” “In 2017--six, 2018--nine, 2019- -ten and 2020--one person died,” he said. New Delhi: RS Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday adjourned the House till 2 pm after an uproar by opposition Congress lawmakers over the detention of sitting member Digvijaya Singh by police in Karnataka’’s Bengaluru earlier in the day. While members were discussing various issues during Zero Hour, Cong mem- ber MV Rajiv Gauda mentioned Digvijaya Singh’’s detention as an ‘’urgent matter’’. The Chairman however did not allow him to press ahead. “If this is so urgent, why did you not give a notice to the Chair? You had enough time in the morning. By doing so, you are debarring other members of the chance to speak in the House,” Naidu said. New Delhi: The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday said in the RS that the Delhi Police acted swiftly and promptly in a professional manner during the riots held in the national capital last month, adding the high population density of the area and narrow lanes were a challenge in the movement of forces and vehicles. In a written reply in RS, Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs, G. Kishan Reddy said as per reported by the Delhi Police, until March 12, 763 cases including 51 cases under Arms Act have been registered. “A total of 3,304 persons have been arrested or detained while 545 persons were injured and 52 died during the recent riots in Delhi,” he said. Shiv Sena slams Malik’s comments IN THE COURTYARD Two days before hanging, convicts move Delhi court New Delhi : In a new twist to the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, AP Singh, the counsel for the four con- victs, moved Delhi’s Pa- tiala House Court seek- ing a stay on the death warrant execution on Wednesday . With two days to go for the execution of the four accused, their law- yer claimed that he has filed a curative petition on behalf of convict Pawan Gupta in the Su- preme Court and a mer- cy petition on behalf of Akshay Singh. The curative petition filed on behalf of Pawan Gupta claims that he was a juvenile at the time of the incident. Meanwhile, another convict Akshay Kumar Singh had written a sec- ond mercy petition to President Ram Nath Ko- vind on Tuesday . NCP CHIEF SHARAD PAWAR SUMMONED Pune: The Koregaon Bhima Inquiry Commis- sion has summoned NCP chief Sharad Pawar todepose before it as a witness in the 2018 caste-violence case, the panel’’s lawyer Ash- ish Satpute said here on Wednesday. Pawar will have to appear before the commission in Mumbai, as the scheduled hearing by the com- mission was shifted there in view of coronavirus outbreak. The hearing, which was scheduled to be held in the last week of March, will now be held between March 30 and April 4. Mumbai: Shiv Sena has said that Goa’s Gov- ernor Satya Pal Malik’s recent comments about governors that they do not have much to do, and the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir usually “drinks wine and plays golf”, are a blot on the prestige of the constitutional post. “Satya Pal Malik’s comments are a blot on the prestige of the Rajb- havan (Governor’s House),” Shiva Sena’s mouthpiece editorial read. “The Goa Governor says that the Governor of Kashmir wine, which is an insult to Jammu and Kash- mir. Malik himself is a former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and what should we un- derstand from his com- ments about what he used to do when he was the Governor there,” it added. COURT PULLS UP LAWYER ON NEW PLEA TO DEFER HANGING In another manoeuvre to delay the ensu- ing death sentence slated for Friday, the death-row convicts, through their counsel AP Singh, once again knocked on the doors of the trial court seeking stay on their hanging on the grounds that their legal remedies are pending. SUPREME COURT REFUSES TO HEAR CONG MLA’S HEAR SC ADJOURNS OMAR’S PETITION Saamna The SC on Wednesday refused to hear a plea fi led by the brother of MP Cong MLA Manoj Choudhary seeking his release claim- ing that he, along with other MLAs, was being forcefully kept in captivity by BJP members and Kar- nataka police. “Today, we are in a peculiar situation. The public of the state trusted the Congress party (with 114 seats) while the BJP had won 109 seats. SC FURIOUS WITH TELECOS, CENTRE FOR SELF-ASSESSMENT OF AGR DUES The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Central government which had fi led a petition seeking staggered payment of adjusted gross revenues (AGR) dues by telecom companies. “Self-assessment of AGR payments is a sheer violation, sheer contempt,” observed the apex court and said that it will consider the govern- ment’s rescue plan on the next date of hearing. drinks JUSTICE DHARMADHIKARI IS NEW CHIEF JUSTICE OF BOMBAY HC Mumbai: Acting Chief Justice Bhushan Pradyumna Dharma- dhikari was on Wednes- day appointed as the new Chief Justice of the Bombay HC, according to an offi cial announcement. The senior most judge, Justice Dharmadhikari was appointed as acting chief justice following the retirement of Justice ‘CENTRE’S DECISIONS ON J-K WILL HAVE LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES’ New Delhi: Congress MP Manish Tewari on Wednesday said the decisions of the govern- ment to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate J&K into two union territo- ries will have long-term consequences and called upon the government to listen to the voice of its residents. Initiating the debate on supplementary HANGMAN CONDUCTS DUMMY EXECUTION AT TIHAR New Delhi: The Tihar Jail offi cials will conduct the dummy execution of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case today. Hangman Pawan has reached Tihar jail for the March 20 hanging of the convicts. Meanwhile, Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four convicts, on Tuesday fi led another curative petition before the Supreme Court, claiming that at the time of committing the offence, he was a minor and thereby, his death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment. CBSE BOARD EXAMS POSTPONED OVER CORONAVIRUS New Delhi: In view of the coronavirus outbreak, the HRD ministry in a communication to various educational regulators, asked to reschedule the ongoing examinations including CBSE Board and university examinations. Centre asked for all school, university, engineering and technical en- trance exams to be postponed and to be resched- uled after March 31. After the directive, CBSE announced that the examinations scheduled from March 19 to 31 have been postponed for both Class 10 and Class 12 students. Pradeep Nandrajog, the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court. A notifi ca- tion issued by Law and Justice ministry said on Wednesday: “In exercise of the power conferred by Clause (I) Article 217 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Justice Bhushan Pradyumna Dharmadhikari”. demands for grants for Jammu and Kashmir from April 1, 2019 to Oct 30, 2019, he said the deci- sions of the government to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories had been taken due to “narrow politics” and “the country will have to bear long-term conse- quences”.

8. TALKING POINT 08 J AIPUR | THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia To illustrate, a sick traveler with COVID-19 who returns to the US from China doesn’t make a pandemic, but once they infect a few family members or friends, there’s some debate. If new local outbreaks ensue, epidemiologists will agree that efforts to control global spread have failed and refer to the emerging situation as a pandemic DIVYA HEMNANI BEFORE AFTER WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PANDEMIC, EPIDEMIC & OUTBREAK? I regions of the world, it is con- sidered a pandemic. However, some epidemiologists classify a situation as a pandemic only once the disease is sus- tained in some of the newly affected regions through local transmission. To illustrate, a sick traveler with COVID-19 who returns to the US from China doesn’t make a pandemic, but once they infect a few family mem- bers or friends, there’s some debate. If new local outbreaks ensue, epidemiologists will agree that efforts to control global spread have failed and refer to the emerging situa- tion as a pandemic. Terms are political, not just medical Epidemiologists are princi- pally concerned with prevent- ing disease, which may be fundamentally different than the broader concerns of gov- ernments or international health organizations. The WHO has declared only two pandemics in histo- ry - for influenza in 1918 and for influenza H1N1 in 2009. For weeks, epidemiologists like me have been calling the coronavirus a pandemic. From an epidemiological per- torical event. implores us to stop reading the news. While he advocates going SWITCH OFF Avoid the 24/7 news chan- nels and feeds unless it is your business to do so, or unless the information is likely to impact you directly. Try to develop a routine of checking in on the main headlines once, twice or three times a day so you stay informed about the most important events without being sucked into the vortex of click bait and news of incremental changes in the number of coronavirus cases or the ups and downs of the stock markets. aged morning and evening news. health during a crisis. INTERNATIONAL AND OUT OF CONTROL BIGGER AND SPREADING SMALL, BUT UNUSUAL A When people in places out- side of Wuhan began testing positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2 (which causes the disease known as COV- ID-19), epidemiologists knew the outbreak was spreading, B learn to predict how many cases of an illness should normally happen within a de- fined period of time, place and population. An outbreak is a noticeable, often small, increase over the expected number of cases. Imagine an unusual spike in the number of children with diarrhea at a daycare. One or two sick kids might be normal in a typical week, but if 15 children in a daycare spective, the WHO’s declara- tion is overdue. As of March 11, the official numbers count an excess of 120,000 cases in at least 114 countries. Pandemic is the highest level of global health emer- gency and signifies wide- spread outbreaks affecting multiple regions of the world. However, the WHO state- ments remain hopeful that the pandemic can be con- trolled and the damage mini- mized by taking immediate aggressive steps. The formal declaration of COVID-19 or any other infec- tious disease as pandemic tells governments, agencies and aid organizations world- wide to shift efforts from con- tainment to mitigation. It has economic, political and soci- etal impacts on a global scale, and the WHO takes extreme care when making this deter- mination. This formal declaration needn’t incite fear or cause you to stockpile surgical masks. It doesn’t mean the virus has become more infec- tious or more deadly, nor that your personal risk of getting the disease is greater. And it doesn’t mean that efforts to fight COVID-19 are being abandoned. But it is an his- a likely sign that containment efforts were insufficient or came too late. This was not unexpected, given that no treatment or vaccine is yet available. But widespread cases of COVID-19 across Chi- na meant that the Wuhan out- break had grown to an epi- demic. come down with diarrhea all at once, that is an outbreak. When a new disease emerg- es, outbreaks are more notice- able since the anticipated number of illnesses caused by that disease was zero. An example is the cluster of pneumonia cases that sprung up unexpectedly among mar- ket-goers in Wuhan, China. Public health officials now know the spike in pneumonia cases there constituted an outbreak of a new type of coronavirus, now named SARS-CoV-2. n the most classical sense, once an epidemic spreads to multiple countries or n epidemic is an out- break over a larger geographic y tracking diseases over time and geogra- phy, epidemiologists area. 5 WAYS TO MANAGE YOUR NEWS CONSUMPTION IN TIMES OF CRISIS Thousands of employees interna- tionally are already working from home in COVID-19 self-isolation because of their recent travel, re- lated symptoms or immune system vulnerability. But to do so while habitually checking the news on devices - and allowing 24/7 news channels to play non-stop in the background - might erode your productivity and increase stress and anxiety. A foundational element of media literacy in the digital era is striking an appropriate balance between news consumption and other activities. Even before the current crises, Australian research demon- strated news avoidance had risen among news consumers from 57% in 2017 to 62% in 2019, driven by a sense of news fatigue. Self-help expert Rolf Dobelli cold turkey and abandoning all packaged news consumption. So too does philosopher Alain de Botton in The News – A User’s Manual, while proposing more positive news and journalism’s examination of life’s deeper issues, emotions and aesthetics. In journalism education there has been a move towards “peace journalism”, “mindful journalism”, “constructive journalism” and “solutions journalism”, where the news should not merely report what is wrong but suggest ways to fix it. Of course, it would be a mistake to abstain from all news during the COVID-19 pandemic and its unpredictable economic and social consequences. Often it is best to navigate a middle path, so here are five sug- gestions on how you can stay in the loop at home while you get your work done. DIVE DEEP Look for long-form journalism and in-depth commentary on the topics that most interest you. Articles by experts (Editor’s note: like those in The Conversation!) include the most important facts you need to know, and are likely to have a constructive angle presenting incisive analysis and a pathway to a solution or best practice. On radio and television, look for big picture current affairs programs like the ABC’s AM and 7.30 – or on a lighter and more positive note Ten’s The Project – so you don’t have to be assaulted by a disturbing litany of petrol station hold-ups, motorway chases and celebrity gossip in the pack- CONNECT Use social media wisely – for com- municating with family and friends when you might be physically isolated and by following authoritative sources if something in the news is affecting your life directly, such as emergency services during cyclones, fires and floods. But avoid the suggested and sponsored news feeds with dubious and unfiltered information (often shared as spam by social media illiterates). Keep your social media commentary civil, empathetic and supportive – mindful of everyone’s mental INTERROGATE Ask the key question: “What is the best source of the information I absolutely need to know?” Go to primary sources where possible. Subscribe to offi- cial and authoritative information feeds – for example, daily sum- maries from the World Health Organisation) and the Common- wealth Department of Health on COVID-19 and your preferred bank’s summary reports on the sharemarket and economic indicators. BE MINDFUL Bear in mind the well being of any children in your household with the timing and selec- tion of your hard/live news consumption. Research has shown more constructive news stories have fewer negative mental health impacts on children, particularly when combined with the opportunity to discuss the contents with their peers. Finally, you might also use these crises to build your own media literacy – by pausing to reflect carefully upon what news you really need in your family’s life. For many of us it will mean a much more critical diet of what we call “traditional hard news”–allowing us the time to read and view mate- rial that better contributes to the quality of our lives. Design: Abhishek Gupta Municipal workers spray disinfectant on boats at Dal lake as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, in Srinagar on Wednesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

9. SPORTS J AIPUR | THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 09 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia KEEP YOUR COOL IN THE CORONA CRISIS After the cancellation of major events due to the corona pandemic, many players have started posting messages and updates on social media to share their mantra to battle tough times Act responsibly to keep COVID-19 at bay: Sachin Kohli and co. spread awareness to battle virus ensure we all stay safe,” Tendulkar tweet- ed. “We all are wor- ried due to coronavi- rus. But there are some points that we should keep in mind like not going to crowded places,” Ten- dulkar said in a video posted on Twitter. “If you are coughing or not feeling well, then you must visit the nearest doctor.” he added. vigilant and most im- portantly remember, prevention is better than cure. Please take care everyone.” Rohit Sharma also posted a video of himself in which he asked people to be “a little smart, a little proactive” and in- form the medical authorities as soon as they get any symptoms. He also lauded the ef- forts of medical pro- fessionals who have been in the frontline of the bat- tle against the virus. New Delhi: Legend- ary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar Wednesday made an appeal to fellow coun- trymen to follow the basic guidelines is- sued by the health ministry to keep cor- onavirus at bay . Stressing on the im- portance of hygiene, the Master Blaster also advised everyone to wash hands regularly and practice social dis- tancing for a few days to fight the disease. “ As citizens, we have to act responsibly . We could follow simple steps to keep the Corona Vi- rus at bay . It is my request to everyone to follow basic guide- lines to try our best to The New cricketing world has come to a standstill due to the coronavi- rus outbreak which means that the mem- bers of the Indian cricket team have got a break from their un- relenting schedule. Away from the crick- et field, the players have been posting messages and up- dates on social media. Captain Virat Koh- li said, “Let’s stay strong and fight the #COVID19 outbreak by taking all precau- t i o n a r y measures. Stay safe, be Delhi: on nearest Rani Rampal advises fans to wash hands regularly Halep donates equipment to help corona fight in Romania —ANI New Delhi: Indian women’s hockey team skipper Rani Rampal on Wednesday advised fans to wash hands regularly to help keep coronavirus infection at bay . Accepting the Safe Hands Challenge from ace athlete Hima Das and sand-artist Sudar- san Pattnaik, Rampal posted a video showing a tutorial on how to wash hands properly . “I accept #SafeHandsChallenge from @sudar- sansand @HimaDas8 I request everyone to take precautions and #StaySafe. I further challenge @SjoerdMarijne @waynelombard @boxervijender @KarmanThandi @geeta_ phogat @BabitaPhogat @Sangram_Sanjeet to make sure people around you stay safe,” Rampal tweeted. She further challenged women’s team head coach Sjoerd Marijne, boxer Vijender Singh, wrestler Geeta Phogat, Babita Phogat, and three more to take the Safe Hands Challenge. Rampal had said that the team has been training like before, but the players are strict- ly following all the preventive measures ad- vised by the doctors and the coaching staff. New Delhi: “We are so grateful for the brav- ery of our medical workers at these difficult times. I am committed to helping my country and have decided to donate medical equip- ment,” Halep said in a tweet. “This is the perfect opportunity to show that we know how to be supportive and re- sponsible with our lives and those around us,” Halep told fans in a video message posted on her official Facebook page.“While we are at home, doctors and medical personnel make huge efforts to treat and save each life by ex- posing themselves for the general good...” “I decided to donate a sum of money for the pur- chase of the necessary equipment and materi- als in such situations, the amount that will be directed immediately to the medical authori- ties in Bucharest and Constanta,” she added. “I encourage everyone who can to contribute to the joint efforts to combat this virus. In the meantime, let us all take care of ourselves, be responsible and stay positive!” Apart from Halep, Bianca Andreescu and Caty McNally both have donated their signed tennis rac- quets to benefit ‘Athletes For Relief’. —Agencies —ANI —ANI Manager suspended for misbehaving with Sports Secretary JDCA polls postponed due to coronavirus Naresh Sharma Wimbledon still planning for play despite virus mayhem IPL 2020: BCCI explores July-Sept window for IPL ber 4. A roof has been installed over Roland Garros’ centre court, Philippe Chatrier, with floodlights on the three other main courts, ena- bling play to go on later. Wimbledon remain hopeful that play at the grass-court tournament will be able to go ahead if the spread of the vi- rus is slowed. —Agencies of 134 clubs are partici- pating in the election. While quoting the govt order, the election offic- er said that more than 50 people cannot gather at a place, hence the elec- tion has been postponed. Earlier, on Wednes- day morning, some club officials gathered at the residence Whip Mahesh Joshi and appealed to him to post- pone the election. After that, Joshi spoke to the election officer and in- formed him about the opinion of these clubs. Interestingly , the elec- tion has been post- poned, considering the 134 club office bearers as a crowd. On the other hand, the Rajya Sabha elections are due on March 26, in which 200 MLAs will participate. aware the sporting sched- ule has been decimated by the deadly pandemic. French Open bosses on Tuesday revealed the clay-court event will move from its sched- uled spring slot to Sep- tember. The year’s sec- ond Grand Slam was due to begin on May 24, but will now run from September 20 to Octo- New Delhi: Wimbledon organisers planning to play the Grand Slam this year, despite the coronavirus chaos that led the French Open to be pushed back until Sep- tember. Wimbledon is sched- uled to run from June 29 to July 12, but All Eng- land Club chiefs are are still Jaipur: In view of the spread of coronavirus in the state and compliance with the order issued by the state government, elections of the Jaipur District Cricket Associa- tion (JDCA) have been postponed. The JDCA election was to be held on March 22 and its nom- ination process was go- ing on, but on Wednes- day, the election officer Loknath Soni issued an order all of a sudden and halted the election pro- cess. Soni postponed the elections until further orders. However, many clubs are not satisfied with the decision of the elec- tion officer, as the nomi- nation process started on Tuesday only . A total Naresh Sharma Shamim charge of the grant branch, which has now been given to Sports Manager Anirudh Jag- dhari. According to the information, had called Shamim in his office on Wednes- day and instructed to release the grant mon- ey of the players. Meanwhile, an argu- ment started between the two and Shamim misbehaved with the Sports Council Secre- tary. Officials of sports associations were also present at that time. Actually, the players were extremely wor- ried about grants. had the Jaipur: Misbehaving with the Sports Coun- cil (RSSC) Secretary Mahendra Meena did not go well for Sports Manager Ahmed as the council suspended with immediate effect due to indiscipline. Shamim’s headquar- ters will be Bharatpur during the suspension period. Meena issued the suspension During the suspension period, subsistence al- lowance will be paya- ble to Shamim as per rules and a chargesheet will be issued sepa- rately to him. Meena Shamim of Chief Shamim Mumbai: The BCCI has postponed the IPL 2020 until April 15 but there is no real clarity or cer- tainty whether the tour- nament could take place even after that date be- cause there is no news of any drastic improve- ment in health condi- tions because of still prevailing coronavirus. There have been re- ports about BCCI ex- ploring the April-May window to hold the IPL 2020 but a report in an english daily stated that the governing body could be looking seri- ously at a more practi- cal July-September 2020 window. powered by Rubicon Project A section in BCCI feels that the April-May win- dow could be too tricky because there is no as- surance of the Corona- virus peaking out in this timespan and if they explore the July- September there is the possibility of the pandemic’s effect waning. orders. their FROM PG 1 Section 144... and other should be developed through SDRF at the dis- trict level.” Speaking to First In- dia after the meeting, health minister Raghu Sharma said, “People coming to Jaiour from outside will be kept at Hotel Lalit, Clarks Amer and Marriot for tests. Only after their test re- ports are found to be negative will they be al- lowed to head home, however even then they will be kept in home iso- lation. The prohibitory orders have been issued keeping in mind the rise which was already tight. The rupee depreciat- ed 12 paise to 74.36 against the US dollar (intra-day). Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude futures slipped over 3.48 per cent to USD 27.73 per barrel. chairmanship of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. The committee also con- sists of 7 ministers, in- cluding CS DB Gupta and about half a dozen IAS officers. The com- mittee has been formed to review the efforts be- ing made for reducing road accidents in the state. The committee ad- ministered by the Trans- port Department would hold 2 meetings in a year. The telecom compa- nies have to clear all dues mentioned in the judgement, the court said. “Indian markets ended at three year lows, with Nifty below the 8,500 mark, in tandem with Asian and Europe- an markets after global agencies warned of a global recession follow- ing the impact Covid-19. At the same time, rising infections in India and associated disruption in business- es led to India’s GDP growth forecasts also being downgraded. This will also affect the gov- ernment’s fiscal maths, in cases.” Additional Chief Sec- retary Medical Health Rohit Kumar Singh said that three people of Jhunjhunun have been found positive in the investigation con- ducted in SMS Hospital. They are kept in isola- tion at Jhunjhunu’s hos- pital. The cases found in Jhunjhunu brought to Jaipur for further treatment fol- lowing complete medi- cal protocols. Meanwhile, in view of rising road accidents in the state, a state level road safety committee has been formed in the resignations,” insisted Singh. BJP insisted that it can bring the 16 rebel Congress MLAs and present them before Jus- tices Chandrachud and Gupta in chamber and the judges can ascertain the views of MLAs. Justice Chandrachud referred to the affidavit filed by the rebel MLAs. The court noted that how does it ensure that there is a free exercise of choice? “And, as a constitutional court, we also have to discharge our duties. What can be the modalities to ensure it? “said Justice Chand- rachud. The agency had earli- er projected a growth rate of 5.7 per cent during the 2020 calendar year. Asia-Pacific eco- nomic growth in 2020 will more than halve to less than 3 per cent as the “global economy en- ters a recession”, S&P said in a statement. Banking and telecom stocks came heavy selling pressure after the Supreme Court pulled up the telecom companies for doing self-assessment of the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues fixed by the apex court in its verdict on October 24 last year. facilities and SC asks... submitted before the court that it is wrong that MLAs were kid- napped or abducted and all allegations of coer- cion are rubbish. “They resigned out of their own free will. A direc- tion be issued to the Speaker to accept their of will be under Corona takes... saying the global econo- my is entering a reces- sion amid the coronavi- rus pandemic. window —Agencies

10. Sharing is necessary and a crucial part of human growth chart, I believe every responsible human should share the knowledge he has. 2NDFRONT —Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India 10 POSTAL REG NO. JPC/010/2019-21 J AIPUR | THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia GUJ CONG MLAs IN RAJ GO FOR A CITY RIDE First India News Cong decides to fight on 2 Guj RS seats MLAS IN JAIPUR LEARN TO VOTE Jaipur: The Congress MLAs from Gujarat currently lodged in Jaipur to keep the BJP at bay during Rajya Sabha elections toured the city on Wednesday . The 18 MLAs boarded bus from hotel Shiv Vi- las at 3.30 PM. The bus made a brief stop at Amer T point to buy drinking water. Their first stopover was WTP mall fol- lowed by Gaurav Tow- er, Amber and Nahar- garh. They reached WTP around 4.15 pm via transport Nagar, Raja Park, Trimurti Circle and JLN Marg. The MLAs around half an hour at the mall. It was learnt that three to four legisla- tors did some shop- ping. MLA Veer Ji RHB riding crest of golden jubilee sale First India News of now they needed only one vote technically and with the support of Jignesh Mewani, both the candidates may win. The first seat will go to Gohil and the second to Solanki, but the latter, who is also the son of former chief minister Mad- havsinh would have to ensure his victory on the strength of the good- will of his father. Meanwhile, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel has claimed that more Congress MLAs are set to resign from the party . Accord- ing to sources, both the candidates were repri- manded by Sonia Gan- dhi over the embarrass- ment the party faced due to their in-fighting. Gandhinagar: After much dilly-dallying, the Congress high command has decided that to field both its Gujarat candidates in March 26 RS polls, though party is down by five MLAs who re- signed earlier in the week. Till Tuesday night, the central lead- ership was in two minds whether to get one of the two leaders to with- draw from the fray after these resignations and apprehensions of cross- voting. Finally, it was de- cided that both would contest since they still have possibility of scraping through with support of one Inde- pendent Solanki, Gujarat MLAs Javed Pirzada, Lakha Bharwad, Anand Chaudhary and Vikram Madam with Rajasthan Congress leader Rajkumar Sharma at World Trade Park in Jaipur on Wednesday. about high command’s decision regarding Ra- jya Sabha election. Ac- cording to sources, first preference votes will go to Shakti Singh Gohil. As per Chief Whip Dr Ma- hesh Joshi and Dy Chief Whip Mahendra Chaudhary Shiv Vilas to meet the leaders. Both the lead- ers are trying to cause SENSITIVE CM ASSURES FARMERS’ WELFARE damage to BJP camp. Arrangements also being done to shift the Congress MLAs. Joshi said that he has not role in Gujarat politics. His responsi- bility was to take care of these MLAs. What- ever decision they need to take would be de- cided by Gujarat Con- gress and High Com- mand. Thumar said that they are not going back be- fore March 25. He said that they may visit some other places during their stay . He described Jaipur as beautiful city . Earlier, the MLAs held a meeting in the ho- tel, which was attended by GPCC president Amit Chavda and leader of op- position Pravesh Dama- ni who apprised them are hi on Wednesday . In the meeting with national interim Presi- dent Sonia Gandhi, at- tended by national ob- servers B.K. Hari Pras- ad and Rajni Patil, the State leaders said that as sources, Jignesh Mevani. Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki, the two candidates, dis- closed this to the MLAs on their return to Jaipur, where they all are camping, from Del- spent reached candidate Naresh Sharma Government of India Locust Warning De- partment, Jodhpur. “A letter should be written to the Central Govern- ment to make more re- sources available to deal with grasshoppers. Also, farmers should be made aware to take measures to prevent lo- cust. The potential loss can be reduced by in- creasing the participa- tion of common people in this work,” he said. The Chief Minister also directed to make adequate ments for the pur- chase of gram and mustard at the sup- port price under the Rabi season 2020-21. be started soon in var- ious parts of the state as an aid to the dam- age caused by hail- storm and rain. “Farmers had to face problems due to the pre- vious government not depositing the premium amount under the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme on time. Our government has borne it,” the chief minister said, directing that “it should be ensured that the premium amount is deposited on time.” Expressing concern over loss of crops due to locust outbreak in about eight districts of the state, CM Ge- hlot said that accord- Jaipur: Chief Minis- ter Ashok Gehlot said on Wednesday that the state government is working with full sensitivity for the wel- fare of farmers. “Ac- cording to the intention of the government, offi- cials should ensure such a robust system that farmers can get com- pensation for crop dam- age at the earliest,” Ge- hlot said while address- ing a review meeting of Department of Agricul- ture and Cooperatives at the CMO. He directed that the distribution of agricultural ex- change grant should Follow NGT, remove plugs in CEPT units: CS RHB Comissioner Pawan Arora with senior offi cials of board inspecting the acquired lands. Shivendra Parmar Similarly Kota, Bikaner, Udaipur and Alwar saw a sale of 22 properties grossing Rs 3.20 crore. Arora said that now there was only one Wednesday remaining in the month for peo- ple to benefit from RHB discounts. RHB commissioner along with senior officials of board inspected the ac- quired lands in Siroli, Dantli and Vatika are- as. RHB is soon coming up with a scheme for Eco- nomically Section and Lower In- come Group and there- fore inspection of ac- quired lands assumes special importance. Aro- ra now wants to focus on quality of construction. With his track record of turning around board in short span of time, EWS and LIG can very soon expect true value for their money while they realize the dream of their own house. CM Ashok Gehlot with (from left) Sidharth Mahajan, Pawan Kumar Goyal, Niranjan Arya, Naresh Pal Gangwar, Kuldeep Ranka, DB Gupta, Lalchand Kataria, Udai Lal Anjana and Bhajan Lal Jatav. Jaipur: Housing Board (RHB) continues to celebrate its golden jubilee in a never before style. Wednesday is being celebrated as ‘Budh- war Nilami Utsav’ (Wednesday Auction Festival) throughout the month of March. An elated RHB Com- missioner Pawan Arora informed that the zeal of the people to benefit from the up to 50% discount offer is intact and the sales figures show that. He said that this Wednes- day registered sale of 101 properties across the state which grossed RHB a whopping Rs 26.58 crore. Circle first, second and third of Jaipur grossed revenue of Rs 21 crore from sales of 68 properties. Circle first and second of Jodhpur sold 11 properties and grossed Rs 2.42 crore. Rajasthan state again,” he said. Gehlot instructed officials to make time- ly arrangements in coordination with the may increase huge increase in the number of locusts in So- malia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Pakistan, Balochistan and Arab countries, the outbreak of locust in the arrange- ing to bulletin issued by World Food and Agriculture Organisa- tion, locust outbreak is expected to be more this year. “Due to the ‘Will hanging Nirbhaya convicts stop crimes?’ First India News lector informed about problems in CETP con- struction. He said that concerned trustee will apprise the NGT about that. CS Gupta and ACS Rajeshwar Singh ex- pressed unhappiness on this saying that the situ- ation should have been cleared earlier. Special secretary Arushi Malik was also present in the meeting. She informed about guidelines of Bhopal NGT. Later in the day, raj and watershed. In the meeting, CS Gup- ta directed to take de- cisions on the pend- ing points. ACS Niranjan Arya was also part of the meeting. Also, the rules could be amended if re- quired. The Chief Secre- tary also took a meeting regarding compliance with the orders given by the NGT at 4:30 pm. LSG Secretary Bha- wani Singh Deta was also present in the meeting. New Delhi: Former Su- preme Court judge Jus- tice Kurian Joseph on Wednesday questioned whether crimes will stop hap- pening after the con- victs in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case are hanged. “By hanging these people (Nirbhaya con- victs), will such type of crimes stop? In Bachan Singh case, Supreme Court had Backward said that the death penalty can be hand- ed over in rarest of the rare cases, and that too, only when all other options are unquestionably fore- closed,” retired Justice Joseph said. He said that if people who com- mit such crimes are sent to jail forever, soci- ety can be told that if anyone indulges in such sort of crimes, they will be behind bars forever. Jaipur: Chief Secre- tary DB Gupta held a meeting Kalisindh sewerage treatment plant on Wednesday. He in- structed officials to remove hurdles in construction of CETP and follow standard set by NGT. The CS asked district collectors to give factu- al position so that no problem is faced in fu- ture. The Karauli Col- regarding heinous DB Gupta Chief Secretary DB Gupta held a meeting regarding the time bound engineering promotion of engi- neers in panchayati TETE -A-TETE SO TWEET: GHAR GHAR KI KAHANI BUENA ‘RESORTED’ TO POWER PLAY Nirmal Tiwari S twitter chat between two sen- ior Jat leaders of the state. RLP MP Hanuman Beniwal recently twitted demanding development of area from Veer Tejaji to Kharnal. Beni- wal also demanded the de- velopment of Lohagarh fort of Maharaj Surajmal. Tour- ism minister Vishwendra Singh didn’t wait long and replied affirmative. Minis- ter committed development funds for Kharnal and also announced a large Tejaji Shivendra Parmar B rashtra and now again when it hosted the Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh. The owners of the resort seem to be truly believing in making the hay while the Sun shines. Actu- ally the resort owners wanted to expand the facility so they had ap- plied for 90A of the adjacent 4 bigha land but the JDA officials had put the file on back burner for one reason or the other. Now with so much VIP movement includ- ing the CM himself the resort management took full advan- ome Twitter chats give deep insights to lesser known facts specially political. Sample this uena Vista resort was the center of activity when it hosted the Con- gress MLAs from Maha- Hanuman Beniwal Vishwendra Singh temple in Parbatsar. Hanu- man Beniwal also responded by expressing his gratitude to which Vishwendra Singh re- acted in a interesting manner by tweeting back that how could he refuse to his brother’s demand? Minister further wrote that the MLA of Par- batsar is his son and the MP of Nagaur is his brother so he will definitely provide necessary funds. Now worth noting that, the Parbatsar MLA Raniwas Gavdiya is considered from the Pilot camp. —FILE PHOTO MP MLAs in Jaipur. spite heavy security and all the nitty gritty of the VIP movement. It inspected the adjacent 4 bigha land. So now Buena Vista can expect the good news soon. tage of the situation. They managed a call from someone influential to the JDA officers. The phone did the trick and the JDA team reached the resort de-

11. www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia 11 JAIPUR, THURSDAY MARCH 19, 2020 This issue is sponsored by Fashion Suitings Pvt. Ltd. Welcoming ‘LIVA Miss Diva 2020 Runner-Up’ Neha Jaiswal back to the Pink City NEHAL NAYAR nehal.nayar@firstindia.co.in S tarted her journey from the Pink City back in 2016, Neha Jaiswal returned to the city once again after bagging the title of ‘LIVA Miss Diva 2020 Runner-Up’, on Wednesday. Hailing from Pune, Maha- rashtra, Neha was an Architecture student in Jaipur, with a great passion for being a part of the glamorous in- dustry . In an exclusive interview with City First, she opened up about her journey, and how she feels to have started it from ‘Gulabi Nagri’. On asking about how it feels to have bagged the title, Neha stated, “I believe that the former winners of the title have achieved so much more than I have, and I just want to work harder and don’t want it to get to my head and think that it’s something big that I have done.” Talking about the journey , she said, “The journey has been quite long. My first pageant was back in 2016 when I had participated in Elite Miss Rajasthan, which I eventually won. After this, I wait- ed for 3 years to concentrate on my Ar- chitecture degree which I had been stud- ying in Jaipur, and after that is when I pursued my dream of participating in a national-level beauty pageant.” She add- ed, “I completed my course and dedicated the entire 4-6 months to my preparations for this pageant. Had I been doing this along with my college, I’m sure I wouldn’t have achieved as much as I have achieved now.” ‘Elite Miss Rajasthan’ is the brand of Gaurav Gaur which has sent many glamorous faces of Rajasthan to national pageants across, and made a name for the brand in Rajasthan and India. Differentiating herself from the other contestants at the pageant, Neha mentioned, “Somewhere I feel that my Army upbringing and the Defence background does play a major role in my performance everywhere. It makes you adapt to situations very quickly and you’re more open to situations in difficult times.” “I believe that Jaipur is really lucky for me, as this is where I started my jour- ney in this career, and despite the fact that Coronavirus is at its peak, it was important for me to come back to this city , for the beau- tiful memories and career it has given me,” she added. ARTFUL GRACE! Jagdeesh Chandra launched the poster of ‘Elite Miss Rajasthan 2020’ at Fort Jaipur on Wednesday evening, at a selective gathering. Seen here with him are (from left) Neha Jaiswal, Akanksha Bhalla, Sonaxi Chanana, Mona Gautam and Gaurav Gaur. Neha Jaiswal —PHOTOS BY MUKESH KIRADOO BEING COMPETITIVE FEARING JANHVI A people from the industry, and that she considers ‘Dhadak’ star Janhvi Kapoor her big- gest competition. Talking about the debate around nepotism, Ananya said, “I still agree that we have an advantage and we get to meet people. We have easier access to people from the in- dustry as we have grown up around them. But now that I’ve got that chance, it’s unfair for me to waste it. I want to make my father proud.” “There are so many exam- ples of such talented people who have not come from the film background like Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma and then there are actors like Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt who have come from film fam- ilies and done so well. So, it all comes down to the audience,” she added. B Aur Woh’. She feels blessed to see her work getting noticed by people, and now she wants to compete with herself to do better on screen. “My journey in cinema has re- cently begun and I feel blessed and fortunate that my work has got no- ticed by some of the best film-makers of the industry. I’m thrilled about my performances being highlighted. As an actor, I can only aspire to do better from here on. I want to compete with myself and do better with each film,” Bhumi said. She added, “It has been an incredible year for sure and I have to thank my incredible directors for choosing me to be a part of their vision. Their confidence in me is a huge validation for an artist like me who wants to be a part of the best films that are being made today. I’m cherishing this moment and all the success and it is making me a lot more motivated to only do better work and deliver better performances on-screen.” Bhumi will next be seen in ‘Dur- gavati’ and ‘Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitaare’. humi Pednekar has been on a roll as she has had a series of hit films, such as ‘Saand Ki Aankh’, ‘Bala’ and ‘Pati, Patni nanya Pandey feels that star kids have an advantage as they have easier access to Ananya Panday Bhumi Pednekar —IANS —IANS

12. HOLLYWOOD 12 JAIPUR | THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 Quarantine www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia ‘Black Widow’ DELAYED! F Mood ollowing the delay of several Hollywood movies and events, Disney has now pushed back the re- lease date of ‘Black Wid- ow’ amid growing concerns of coronavi- rus. The Scarlett Jo- hansson’s starrer super- hero movie has been pushed to an undetermined future date. The much anticipated Mar- vel flick was supposed to hit the big screens on April 30 in India, and May 1 in the US. Helmed by Cate Shortland ‘Black Widow’ is the latest studio release to be pushed due to the coronavirus pan- demic. The Universal studio has also moved the ninth ‘Fast & Furious’ film from May this year to April 2021, while Par- amount studio pushed ahead of the release of ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ just eight days before its scheduled release. Johansson has played Black Widow, a major role in seven Marvel movies, tracking her evolu- tion from morally dubi- ous Russian assassin to a world-saving Avenger. The upcoming film depicts the life events of Natasha Ro- manoff during the time between the film narratives of Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Avengers: Endgame (2018). Lady Gaga ... her Instagram post A bound, many of them including singer Lady Gaga shared insights from her quarantine on social media. Gaga on Wednesday took to Instagram to share the details of her sixth day of quarantine by sharing a picture with her boyfriend Michael Polansky . She explained in the caption that she is spending the day by playing video games and cards and taking care of herself and Vanessa on TikTok her boyfriend. “Day 6 of self-quarantining! Going strong, playing video games and cards, and taking care of ourselves. Important remind- er: keep your mind as stress-free as possible and your body mov- ing,” she captioned the post. “#selflove #selfcare #bekind try not to pass it in case you have it #corona it’s ok and so wonderful to stay home if you can! What a kind act for the world,” she added. Globally, 184,976 people have been infected, while 7,529 have died from COVID-19, as per the latest available data on the World Health Organisation (WHO) website. s the outbreak of coronavirus leaves celebri- ties home- —ANI M by not one, but four of famous friends - Serena Williams, Kendall Jenner, Blake Lively and Taylor Swift. In the interview that appears in a magazine, Gigi revealed several unknown facts of her life. Among interesting things her fans got to know is that the model actually prefers rural tranquillity over life in the fast lane of the big cities. She said she enjoys being at her mother Yolanda Had- id’s Pennsylvania property and how it reminds her of the ‘simple pleasures’ of life. “The farm has really made me remember, and bring back to my life, my most simple pleasures. It’s allowed me to fill my days off with the little things that make me happy, like art, gardening, yoga, cooking, being outside, and spending time with my loved ones and animals. Being away from the city and the public eye makes me feel like a kid again, and that freedom has been really healing for me,” said Gigi. —IANS odel Gigi Hadid was recently in- terviewed Peace Lover! —ANI V as she shared a clip of her- self recreating an iconic ‘High School Musical scene’. The actress starred as Gabriella Montez in all three instalments of the classic Disney Chan- nel movies, alongside Zac Efron’s Troy Bolton, and paid tribute to the franchise with her debut post on the video sharing site. Following in the footsteps of co-star and pal Ashley Tisdale, the 31-year-old actress shared a side-by-side post of the clips as she performed the song while pouring a glass of wine with it. “Well. It’s come to this. Lol @ashleytisdale maybe I start getting into tik tok? Username is va- nessahudgens not vanessahudgens0 okay byeeee,” Vanessa wrote in the caption. anessa made her debut on the Chinese short video App TikTok Hudgens Gigi Hadid Vanessa Hudgens —IANS Scarlett Johansson FACE OF THE DAY YOUR DAY Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva ARIES MAR 21 - APR 20 TAURUS APR 21 - MA Y 20 GEMINI MA Y 21 - JUNE 21 CANCER JUNE 22 - JUL Y 23 Good profi ts will come today from your business. You may be able to undo what you did wrong in the past by doing good today. Your lover may plan an exotic evening for you. You will do something good to make your parents feel proud. Your promotion time is near so do your best. Remember live on your terms and conditions and let none in this world defi ne who you are and how you should live life. You are blessed with a wonderful life partner. You are tough and strong and you don’t feel defeated easily. Young scorpios must stand for their self respect. You may move into a new house soon. You may have to take some decision regarding your future today. Getting married soon is on cards for some. Maintain cordial relationship at workplace with everyone so remain on the neutral pace. You may travel a lot and it will be really refreshing for you. Your dear friend may take on a paid trip to some where far for the sole purpose of rejuvenation. On social front, you have friends like family. You may feel attracted to someone who can be your potential life partner. On professional front you need to think out of box to be in the limelight. LEO JUL Y 24 - AUGUST 23 You will experience the almost peace at home today. You must stop worrying about those who doesn’t care about you. You guidance will cure someone of their illness. Theses days you are attracting money from every single direction. Your strategy will work for promoting your business. VIRGO AUG 24 - SEP 23 LIBRA SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22 You will be in a romantic mood today and your lover will like this for a change so have fun. You will devote some serious time to pursuing your hobby. On fi nancial front, you will get returns from old investments. You will help your spouse in domestic chores today. SCORPIO OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22 You will get what you have been asking for a long time. Your parents may give you some money to start with something new. You may pay extra attention today to your dressing. Those of you going a job interview will nail it. Financially you will take all the right decisions today. You will maintain all the peace that you require on the home front. You will be busy in some kind of customising work. You will be easily able to relax and take full rest today since you managed to complete all your work in advance. You may have a very strong desire to buy a very expensive thing. SAGITTARIUS NOV 23 - DEC 22 Some of you may strongly feel to do something right today. On academic front, you will devote many hours to studies today to prepare for some test or exam. You will focus on your career like never before as you have set a goal for yourself recently. You will feel spiritually inclined today. CAPRICORN DEC 23 - JAN 20 You will be really excited to meet your lover today after a short break. On academic front, you will surprise everyone with an outstanding performance. Life is beautiful for you as you always look for the half glass full. You may save to buy something for someone. AQUARIUS JAN 21 - FEB 19 PISCES FEB20 - MARCH 20 Today you may get the success in professional life for which which you have been waiting forever. You believe in competition for the sake of self improvement.Your friends are a blessing for you and they are with you no matter what and when. You may put your work on hold to enjoy with family. You may sell or purchase some property today for the business purpose. You may go on a long drive with your lover. You are a good businessman and even fi ner parent. Keep a check on expenses as you tend to buy things unnecessarily sometimes. You will love the environment at home today. VARSHA JESWANI, Model

13. ETC JAIPUR | THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 202013 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia QUARANTINE? NO PROBLEM! D lenge! #COVID19 surely is an uphill health and public safety task, but all of us are in this fight together! I fur- ther nominate @roger- federer,@Cristiano and @ imVkohli to take up this challenge! #coronavirus #StaySafe.” Following her ‘Produc- tivity in the time of COV- ID-19!’ series, Deepika Padukone on Wednesday spent her second day of quarantine by pampering herself with love. Padu- kone shared a short video on her Instagram story massaging her face with a facial massager shared a still picture from the same as a post. “Season 1:Episode 2 Pro- ductivity in the time of COVID-19!” she captioned the post and hashtags of self love and self care with it. eepika Padukone took the Hands Challenge’ and shared a vid- eo where she is seen washing her hands. The actor took the challenge as the Director-General of the World Health Organiza- tion, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, nominated her for the challenge amid the coronavirus pandemic. The actor took to Twitter as she shared a video, while she is seen wearing a mask while she shows the hand- washing technique. At the end of the video, after washing her hands prop- erly , Deepika is seen wink- ing at the camera as she wipes her hands using a towel. She captioned the post as, “Thank You @DrT- edros, for nominating me for the #SafeHands Chal- ‘Safe Still from her Twitter post and added ... her Instagram post —ANI Deepika Padukone The Appreciated EFFORTS KEEPING FIT @ HOME #CORONAEFFECT I Kaif has shared some amaz- ing workout exercises you all can do at home, amid the COVID-19 lockdown. Taking to her Instagram account, Katrina posted a couple of her workout vide- os. She is seen performing squats, pushups and situps along with her trainer Yas- min Karachiwala at her ter- race. “#WorkoutatHome Can’t go to the gym so sharing the workout that Yas and I did at home. Stay safe and be ac- tive if u can. 1. Squat & Side Leg Lifts - 3 sets x 20 reps; 2. Reverse Lunge - 3 sets x 15 reps; 3. Situp - 3 sets x 20 reps; 4. Pushup - 3 sets x 15 reps (you can substitute with in- cline pushups or knee push- ups); 5. Plank to f you are missing your gym sessions due to coro- navirus outbreak, don’t worry. Actress Katrina S scare, and lauded the efforts taken by the Indian officials to combat the spread of the virus. The 34-year-old actor document- ed her experience of flying back to India from London on Instagram sto- ries. She started the video by thank- ing everybody at the airport, and the ones on the flight for a ‘smooth and responsibly done’ journey . The actor also addressed how she and her husband was surprised to see not much of a screening hap- pening back in London. She fur- ther detailed about how after landing onam K Ahuja with hus- band Anand Ahuja re- turned to India from Lon- don, amid the Coronavirus in India, before immigration, they were asked to fill a form that took a past 25-day travel history. She, Anand and sport-boy, who is like a ‘family’ to her, were checked for their temperatures, which were ‘fine’. Sonam also lauded the incredible ways in which the authori- ties and the govern- ing bodies are han- dling the situation. —ANI ‘T’ - 3 sets x 15 reps; Mountain Climbers - 4 slow and 15 tempo x 3 sets,” Katrina wrote. Katrina’s workout videos come after the shut- down of gyms in several ar- eas, including Delhi and Ma- harashtra, in the wake of coronavirus scare. 6. her Sonam K Ahuja Katrina Kaif —IANS WAKE-UP PEOPLE! sitting cooped-up in their homes and apartments for weeks or months on end. Feel their helplessness, despera- tion, and claustrophobia. It could be YOU tomorrow. Un- derstand how this pandemic has destroyed a part or whole of everyone’s wealth instant- ly . FOLKS BEWARE! Mother Nature has lost its patience. STOP AND THINK. DON’T JUST STAND & STARE! Stop electing people on emotive is- sues. SET THE NARRA- TIVE. Ask for the best health services and highest educa- tion. Shun the warmongers. Come on the streets if de- ceived. If not, these streets will lie empty one day. LIS- TEN TO THE GONG AND WAKE UP! tudes and call all such issues a ‘HOAX’? For how long will politi- cians use religion and race to feed their bloated egos and keep us in permanent strife? For how long will they let us over-populate our towns and cities like rabbits, with- out a thought for civic amen- ities? For how long will the rab- ble-rousers set the false nar- rative and divisive agenda? FOR HOW LONG? On the other hand, we the people, take everything for granted- partying, shopping, travel, movies, sports, and much more. Each person is getting so self-centered, we may implode. Imagine the hundreds of millions now RAINU SINGH cityfirst@firstindia.co.in T around us for long. WHY I SCREAM, WHY? There are thousands of hy- potheses and conspiracy theories floating around about this highly destructive pandemic. But what we all collectively choose to ignore is this: For how long can the so-called ‘Visionary’ leaders of the world turn a ‘Blind he world has been caught sleeping and oblivious to nature stirring restlessly all To stay safe from the outbreak of deadly Coronavirus in the country, everyone is seeking safety measures, may it be a commoner or a celebrity. Setting good examples of social distancing and isolation, Karisma Kapoor was spotted chilling at home, Sharad Kelkar was seen spending time with his family, and Jeetendra Kapoor was snapped spending a lovely time with his grandson Lakshya.  machines instead of R&D on health and funds for educa- tion and action against glob- al warming? For how long will the elec- torate let these Leaders sit in Palatial State Houses and mouth hypocritical plati- Eye’ to this assault on na- ture? For how long can mankind gouge the resources from the earth, as if they are limit- less? For how long will resourc- es be diverted towards war

14. CITY BUZZ JAIPUR | THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 14 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia kirti.chauhan@firstindia.co.inMaestro of Fine Jewellery: Surabhi coloured-stone accessories; mul- tifaceted beaded strings and jew- els in contemporary, everyday wear designs; vintage victorian and edwardian pieces for those with a love of the antique; a unique jewellery collection for children; stylish jewels and ac- cessories for Men and a host of silver gifts and collectable. KIRTI CHAUHAN T he Jewellery designer, Surabhi Kasliwal Godha has a passion and flair for creating flawless and aesthetical pieces. She is the found- er of ‘Surabhi Fine Crafted Jewels’, whose flagship store is located at Narain Niwas Palace in Jaipur. In an exclusive conversation with City First, Surabhi sheds light on her jour- ney as a jeweller, opening her forthcoming store in Jaipur, USP of her brand and much more. Tell us about working on re- storing your family home ‘Lal Haveli’. The Lal Haveli is our ancestral home. The idea behind restoring it was to bring back the old charm it had when it was bought over by my great great grandfa- ther, Dhanna Lal Kasliwal Sa- heb. Currently, it is owned by my father Sudhanshu Kasliwal and is around 200 years old. It has taken almost ten long years to restore it to its current state. Original craftsmanship and sea- soned ‘karigars’ were used for the restoration, so as to give the Haveli its original look. This sec- ond store is created in an old classic Rajputana royal architec- tural style. The store will open on 29 March, which is my grand- father’s birthday . What is the USP of your de- signs? The USP is that we are a quality conscious, design-oriented be- spoke jewellery brand that re- flects the values and attributes – versatility, quality and innova- tion. The brand imbibes a deep sense of awe and respect for the artisanal and the aesthetic. My design consciousness is reflected in each piece that is painstak- ingly crafted. I am passionate about customizing trousseau wedding collections and rein- venting heirloom pieces in mod- ern day avatars for a new and more contemporary look. jewellery Tell us about your journey so forth as a jeweller? As an alumnus of the renowned Jewellery Design and Technolo- gy Institute and with over 15 years of design experience, I have worked with numerous na- tional and international jewel- lery brands. I established the ‘Surabhi Fine Crafted Jewels’ in 2011 with its flagship store lo- cated at the premiere heritage hotel of Jaipur, the majestic What more will the new store at Lal Haveli offer for your clientele ? The store will house only high end and exclusive jewellery piec- es for men and women with a stunning range of gold, dia- monds and real gemstones arte- facts. The bridal jewellery which has been displayed is totally cus- tomised exactly in sync with cli- ents taste and outfit. What is the kind of jewel- lery available at your outlets? ‘Surabhi Fine Crafted Jewels’ displays a variety of jewel collec- tions including timeless ‘jadau’ jewellery that showcases the el- egance of the regal Rajputana; dazzling diamond and precious Surabhi Kasliwal Godha Narain Niwas Pal- ace. For me, jewel- lery should be a re- flection of the wear- er’s personality and style, and I try ensure that with each piece we craft at Surabhi. We are now looking forward to launch our second store in Jaipur at The Johri Jaipur lo- cated at the historic ‘Lal Haveli’. MASKING IT GOING GREEN BUZZ CITY FIRST R Jaipur, which provides a clean and pollution-free environment to the citizens of Jaipur. In its con- tinued effort towards this, a tree plantation program was on Wednesday morning. UDH Minis- ter Shanti Dhariwal and a senior member of the club and Adarsh Nagar MLA Rafiq Khan planted the first sapling. Yogendra Singh, Captain, Ram- bagh Golf Club briefed the Minis- ter about this program, in which a mini jungle of trees comprising of varieties that flourish in the lo- cal environment are planted. He also explained that these are very fast-growing trees and require only 2-3 years of watering and maintenance after which they de- velop in maintenance-free and natural surroundings. cityfirst@firstindia.co.in ambagh Golf Club has al- ways worked towards de- veloping a green area with- in the concrete jungle of JNU MEDICAL COLLEGE A of MBBS, Jaipur National Univer- sity (JNU) Medi- cal college is now going to achieve a new height of success by start- ing the PG cours- es. Medical Council of India has permitted JNU medical col- lege to start 8 PG courses in Non- clinical subjects. Keeping in view the scarcity of the specialist in these subjects, it is a great oppor- tunity for young- sters to master in these subjects for better medi- cal and research career. The non- clinical field is emerging as a major sub field of medical sci- ence for Courses. have bright ca- reer options af- ter doing PG and MD courses in various plines of medical science. fter con- tinuous success of 4 years Shanti Dhariwal with Rafiq Khan, Yogendra Singh and others STEP 1: Locate some fabric. You can use as many layers as you want, but try not to put in so many that you keep ALL the air out. CITY FIRST W see if there were any DIY options. Boy , did it deliver! Apparently , all you need is fabric, a pattern, a couple of pieces of elastic and mad sewing skills. We broke it down the process to make it easier for you to make your own masks. We can’t promise they’ll protect you from Coronavirus, but they seem dependable enough to keep out the dust. If nothing else, think of this as something to do while you practise social distancing. THOUGHT CHANGING MOVIE ith illness in the air and shops running out of masks, we turned to the ever-helpful Pinterest, to STEP 2: Draw out a pattern. We’ve included one we found online. STEP 3: Place pattern on each layer of fabric and cut. At this stage, your layers should be slightly larger than the fi nal product in your mind. STEP 4: Sew them all together, and add elastic to make them wearable. If you have the time (we know you do!), you may decorate your fi nished project to suit your personal aesthetic. STEP 5: Forget where you put your brand-new mask and set about making another. Or just make more to give your loved ones. SWATI JANGID swati.jangid@firstindia.co.in T sage on the silver screen. The film describes how people be- lieve in rumours, tag others on that basis, and also about how people backbite, in spite of be- ing a good friend. While interact- ing with City First, Sunil Puro- hit said, “People want to be a nuclear family, which is a topic of stress looking at the growing number of old age homes in var- he short film ‘Vah Re! Sa- maj’ is the one by which the artists of Jodhpur presented a social mes- cityfirst@firstindia.co.in Poster of the film ‘Bachpan’, and many more. This is an effort to spread Sunil’s thoughts about some common and special topics like discrimination made on caste, creed, colour or sex, and many other social topics. It is the fourth short film made by rich production house, with the team. His other movies gave a very straight message to the viewers and was appreciated by all. ious cities.” The characters of this short film are led by Suraj Bohra, Ramji Vyas, Rakesh Vyas, Sunil Purohit, Pooja Borha, Suraj Bohra, Dr Anandraj Purohit, Samrat Jagdish, Harsh, and oth- er team members. It is a short film produced by Rich Produc- tion House, Jodhpur. This pro- duction house-made short films earlier, like ‘Rishte’, ‘Rishte 2’, PG They disci-