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3 CRPF personnel killed in shootout at Kashmir’s Kupwara, minor boy also dead

File Photo

Abid Bashir

Srinagar (NVI): At least three CRPF personnel were killed and one was critically injured after a patrolling party was attacked by terrorists at Kralgund area of Handwara in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, the force officials said today.

A 14-year-old handicapped boy was also killed as he was caught in the crossfire, a police official said. Earlier, CRPF spokesperson had said that a militant was killed at the spot.

“One unidentified militant has been killed. Three CRPF men have been injured in the attack. It was an attack on CRPF party that was responded effectively,” CRPF spokesperson in Srinagar, Pankaj Singh told NVI, adding that a CRPF jawan, who also got hit in the gunbattle, is critical.

He said security forces have cordoned off the area and a search for other attackers was launched.

The attack comes a day after an Army Colonel, a Major, two soldiers and a J&K police sub-inspector lost their lives in an encounter at Chanjimulla area of Handwara. Two militants were also killed in the overnight gunfight, including a top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander from Pakistan.

Pakistan violates ceasefire along LoC in J&K’s Rajouri

Ceasefire
Representational image

Jammu (NVI): Pakistani troops initiated an unprovoked ceasefire violation along Line of Control (LoC) in Nowshera and Sunderbani sectors in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district today, defence officials said.

“…At about 1600 hours, Pak initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with Small Arms & shelling with Mortars along LoC in Nowshera Sector, District Rajouri(J&K),” they said, adding that Indian Army is retaliating.

Later, the Pakistani Army also violated ceasefire in Sunderbani sector at around 1630 hours, they added.

In another news, three CRPF personnel were killed and one was critically injured after a patrolling party was attacked by terrorists at Kralgund area of Handwara in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.

(More details awaited)

Covid-19 deaths reach 471 in Pakistan; cases top 20,000

New Delhi (NVI): Pakistan is witnessing a rapid increase in the positive cases of coronavirus with more than a 1,500 cases being reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total cases to 20,725 with at least 471 fatalities being recorded so far.

Looking at the breakdown of cases, Sindh province has reported 7,882 coronavirus cases, highest among all the provinces, while Punjab has 7,646 positive cases.

On the other hand, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 3,129 cases, Balochistan is at 1,218, Gilgit-Baltistan at 364, Islamabad at 415 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is at 71 cases so far, according to Geo News.

In addition to this, Pakistan had reported 400 recoveries in the last 24 hours taking the number of recovered patients to 4,715 in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Sindh province has banned all religious gatherings during the holy month of Ramzan in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Coronavirus cases exceed 10,000-mark in Bangladesh

(Image source: United News of Bangladesh)

New Delhi (NVI): The total number of deaths from coronavirus continues to rise in Bangladesh as 5 more people have died in the last 24 hours, taking the total casualties in the country to 182.

Besides, a whopping 688 new cases of coronavirus infection were reported during this period, raising the number of such cases in the country to 10,143, according to United News of Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, the number of doctors infected by coronavirus reached 554, according to the Bangladesh Doctors Foundation report.

In addition to this, 9 firefighters, including an officer, of Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) have been diagnosed with coronavirus so far.

Considering the worsening situation, the government is about to extend the general holiday again to prevent the transmission of the deadly virus, media reports states.

Once a Maoist, this Telangana MLA is helping tribals, poor amid lockdown

New Delhi (NVI): 49-year-old Danasari Anansuya, an MLA from Mulugu in Telangana, is busy nowadays distributing food and essentials to poor people in tribal areas of her constituency since the lockdown began.

A former Maoist for 11 years, Anasuya starts off on a tractor daily around 9 am with the supplies and spends the whole day, braving scorching heat, in distributing food and essentials at villages located in every corner of her constituency.

Anasuya doesn’t mind crossing rivulets, jungles, or rocky terrains while walking miles to feed her people who live at some places or remote villages where vehicles can’t go.

Fondly called ‘Seethakka’, the Congress MLA has started a #GoHungerGo campaign, winning the internet with her videos and photos where she is seen distributing food grains, vegetables, oil and other essential commodities to people.

In her yesterday’s video post on Twitter, Seethakka said that while crossing five mountains on her way back, a twist in her leg made her return painful, but could not at all dampen her spirit to help people.

“While crossing 5 mountains on my way back a twist in my leg made my return painful, hope I see a great morning tomorrow were I enter 40th day of #GoHungerGo corona help,” she tweeted.


The MLA has been praised by Twitterati as well as other social media users for her undaunted spirit. One such tweet read: “Doesn’t the video look like that of a migrant worker waking to her village? But it isn’t! This is an MLA carrying essentials in the hot sun and rocky path to far-flung tribal villages. Seethakka has been doing this for about 39days now. Spellbound by her dedication.”

On May 3, Anasuya tweeted that it was her 39th day of helping people at a village where she reached after covering a distance of 16 km on bike and walk.

“16 kilometres with bike and walk #corona help in ponugolu village 39th Day distribution of Rice,vegetables,oil etc #GoHungerGo,” she tweeted.

A member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Jana Sakthi in the 1990s, Anasuya surrendered arms to join the mainstream in 1994 and became a politician a decade later.

CBIC, I-T Dept warn against fake GST refund messages

New Delhi (NVI): The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and the Income Tax department have warned taxpayers not to fall prey to fake messages on GST Refunds by clicking on unverified links.

Apart from CBIC and IT-Department, GSTN network has also asked the people to be careful with any tax refund message as it could be a phishing message to trick the assessees.

“Taxpayers Beware !!! Please do not click on any fake link which promises to give refund. These are phishing messages and are not sent by CBIC or @Infosys_GSTN. Visit http://gst.gov.in for online filings related to GST #IndiaFightsCorona #StaySafe,” CBIC tweeted yesterday. It was also retweeted by PIB’s Fact Check Unit that is an initiative by the Press information Bureau to bust fake news on the internet and social media, especially during the lockdown.

The Income Tax department also tweeted saying: “Taxpayers Beware! Please do not click on any fake link which promises to give refund. These are phishing messages and are not sent by the Income Tax Department.

https://twitter.com/IncomeTaxIndia/status/1256815018596634627

A typical fake message, designed to look like an official message from the department, reads like this:”Due to Covid-19 outbreak, central govt. has decided to provide tax refund to ALL taxpayers, in order to provide them financial ease during lockdown. Click below to claim your refund. (Phishing web link)”.

In order to help the taxpayers during the ongoing financial crisis during lockdown, the I-T Department has expedited the process of issuing all pending tax refunds up to Rs 5 lakh.

Till April 21, the department had issued nearly 14 lakh refunds involving an amount of Rs 9,000 crore to various taxpayers.

Ever since the government decided to fast track income and GST refunds to help taxpayers during the lockdown period, such fake messages are doing the round on social media.

Covid-19: Central teams being deployed in 20 worst-hit districts

Health Ministry
Representative Image

New Delhi (NVI): At least 20 Central Public Health Teams have been formed and are being sent to as many districts that are reporting the maximum number of COVID-19 cases in the country, Union Health Ministry has said.

These teams will support state governments to implement coronavirus containment measures in the affected areas.

The teams will be deployed in the following 20 districts:

1. Mumbai, Maharashtra

2. Ahmedabad, Gujarat

3. Delhi (South East)

4. Indore, Madhya Pradesh

5. Pune, Maharashtra

6. Jaipur, Rajasthan

7. Thane, Maharashtra

8. Surat, Gujarat

9. Chennai, Tamil Nadu

10. Hyderabad, Telangana

11. Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh

12. Jodhpur, Rajasthan

13. Delhi (Central)

14. Agra, Uttar Pradesh

15. Kolkata, West Bengal

16. Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh

17. Vadodara, Gujarat

18. Guntur, Andhra Pradesh

19. Krishna, Andhra Pradesh

20. Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

These teams shall report to Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary/Secretary of Health of the respective state and assist state health departments in the implementation of containment measures for COVID-19 affected areas within these districts and cities.

J&K: Civil Secretariat re-opens in Srinagar amid lockdown

Abid Bashir

Srinagar (NVI): Amid the Covid-19 lockdown, Civil Secretariat re-opened in Srinagar after a gap of six months today, though partially. Tight security arrangements were in place for the re-opening of the Civil Secretariat building.

Employees walked through de-contamination tunnels installed by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) on the premises of Secretariat, the highest seat of governance in J&K.

“We installed four sanitisation tunnels in the secretariat and all employees walked through before entering their respective offices,” SMC Mayor, Junaid Azim Mattoo told NVI.

All the employees were also screened for body temperatures by thermal devices, installed by the Health Department in a bid to detect Covid suspects.

Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu also arrived at the secretariat here, even as Darbar Move would formally fully re-open in the summer capital next month on June 15.

The Civil Secretariat is functioning from here today with the staff and officers based in Srinagar and the rest of Kashmir districts. The decision was taken by the government to ensure less crowd at the civil secretariat in the wake of the pandemic that has affected over 700 people in J&K and claimed eight lives so far.

For over a century, the Civil Secretariat has been functioning from Jammu in winter months and in summers from Srinagar. The practice is known as Darbar Move in J&K as it was started by Maharaja Ghulab Singh and then continued by his son Maharaja Hari Singh, who ruled J&K till 1947.

Lockdown 3.0: Long queues outside liquor shops; things allowed in Delhi

People outside a liquor shop in Delhi (Source: Twitter)

New Delhi (NVI): The third phase of extended lockdown kicks in from today for two more weeks as Centre allows a few relaxations in orange and green zones.

Districts in the country have been divided into red, orange and green zones. No activities will be allowed in the containment zones across the country.

Long queues were seen outside liquor shops at many places in the country including Delhi, which is following the Centre’s guidelines for the extended lockdown.

All wine shops in Delhi are following the social distancing norms with police deployment to deal with any law and order situation.

Yesterday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said in a webcast that the national capital is ready to “reopen” and there is a need to restart economic activities as revenues have dried up.

Notably, the government gets a huge revenue from the sale of liquor. The liquor shops were shut since the lockdown first kicked in from March 25.

Here are things allowed in Delhi from today:

  • Essential shops, stationery shops, standalone shops including liquor, neighborhood colony shops and shops in residential complexes, both essential and non-essential will be allowed to open.
  • 33 percent of attendance allowed in offices dealing with non-essential activities.
  • All private offices are allowed to open with 33% strength.
  • Technicians, plumbers, mechanics, electricians, sanitation workers, maids, etc who offer small services and are dependent on their daily work will be allowed.
  • IT-related services shops, call centres, data centres, warehousing services, cold storage, private security and facility management services.
  • Essential goods manufacturing units and supply chain, IT hardware manufacturing units.
  • Packaging material manufacturing units will be open
  • Two passengers in a car beside drives; only one person allowed on 2-wheelers, no pillion
  • Construction works at places where workers staying nearby
  • Marriage ceremonies with up to 50 people only while maintaining social distancing; 20 people allowed in a funeral
  • Agricultural activities, financial sector activities and goods carrier-related services

Inter-state movement relaxations for only those distressed, stranded, not all: MHA

MHA

New Delhi (NVI): The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a clarification regarding the relaxation in inter-state movement of some people during the lockdown, saying that it is applicable to only distressed migrant workers, stranded pilgrims, students and tourists who had moved from their native places just before the lockdown and could not return.

“It is clarified that the MHA orders are meant to facilitate movement of such stranded persons, who had moved from their native places/workplaces, just before the lockdown period but could not return to their workplaces/native places on account of restrictions placed on movement of persons and vehicles as part of lockdown measures,” the MHA order which was issued yesterday by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla read.

The facilitation envisaged in the aforesaid orders is meant for such distressed persons, but does not extend to those categories of persons, who are otherwise residing normally at places, other than the native places for purposes of work etc., and who wish to visit their native places in normal course, the communication to Chief Secretaries on States read.

Several people including migrants labourers, students, pilgrims and tourists are stranded in the country since the lockdown kicked-in from March 25.

The MHA on Friday issued an order allowing Railways to operate trains to ferry migrant labourers to their native places on the consent on two states and following the social distancing norms, i.e., keeping distance between passengers in such trains.

The nationwide lockdown has entered its third phase from today as it was extended by two more weeks on Friday till May 17. the initial 21-day lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 night and was further extended by 19 days on April 14 (Till May 3).

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