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406 stranded Russians evacuated from India

New Delhi (NVI): A fresh batch of 406 Russian nationals, who were stranded here due to lockdown, were sent back home today, in the fourth such ferry.

”On April 1, a fourth dedicated flight departed from IGI Airport in #NewDelhi with 406 stranded Russian tourists on board, ” Russian Ambassador to India Nikolay Kudashev said in a statement.

“This was a fourth dedicated flight to bring our compatriots home. This mission required dedication on behalf of many agencies,” he said.

He expressed his gratitude to the airmen who made these flights possible as well as to compatriots whose fortitude proved to be up to the highest mark of strategic partnership between our countries.

The Embassy offered compatriots who reached the airport on the eve of the departure food, which included traditional Russian dishes. Citizens who could not board the airplane were lodged at a comfortable hotel in Delhi until the next flight.

Kudashev thanked the Ministry of External Affairs, DGCA, local administrations and police of various states for their kind support and selfless effort in these challenging times.

”Both Russia and India face same challenges and work together to contain the spread of infection while securing the interests of our citizens, many of whom face difficulties while away from home,” the envoy said.

”Our leaders, President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are in personal touch over this matter,” Kudashev added

Covid-19 death toll climbs to 6 in Bangladesh

Bangladesh lockdown

New Delhi (NVI): Bangladesh today reported one more fatality from coronavirus as the death toll due to Covid-19 climbed to six in the country.

In addition to this, three more people have been tested positive for COVID-19, raising the total number of coronavirus cases to 54, according to United News of Bangladesh.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque has claimed that the country’s medical facilities are capable enough to handle the crisis. “Every day, we’re improving our healthcare system. Ventilators are being added to different hospitals. In addition, we’re preparing more hospitals to treat coronavirus patients,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB), a platform of former and current cricketers, has decided to support the poor people during the coronavirus crisis.

They formed two committees — Advisory Committee and Convening Committee — comprising current and former star cricketers, cricket organisers and fans, according to the media reports.

Kabul shrine attacker was Kerala-born ISIS terrorist: Report

The terror attack on a Sikh shrine in Kabul left 25 dead and 8 injured. (Photo Credit: Twitter @TOLOnews)

New Delhi (NVI): The Indian national, who carried out a terror attack at a Sikh shrine in Kabul last week, has been identified as Mohammad Muhsin of Kerala, according to an Afghan media report.

At least 25 people were killed and 8 were wounded in the attack on the shrine on March 25.

The real name of the Indian attacker of the Sikh temple in Kabul city was Mohammad Muhsin, Khaama Press News Agency has reported, citing unnamed officials of the Intelligence Bureau.

“Originally hailing from Kerala of India, Muhsin left for Afghanistan in 2018 to join the offshoot of the Islamic State terror group or the ISIS Khurasan,” it said.

The report said Muhsin’s mother has confirmed that she received a message that her son was killed during the attack on Sikh temple in Kabul.

The ISIS Khurasan had earlier issued a statement, claiming that the attack was carried out by Abu Khalid al-Hindi.

The Amaq News Agency, affiliated with the terror group had also released a photo of the suicide bomber.

According to Indian investigators, 21-year-old Muhsin had worked in Dubai for some time before going to Afghanistan to join the ISIS.

Rs 1 cr for kin of health workers if they die while treating Covid-19 cases: Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi (NVI): Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1 crore for families of healthcare professionals if they die while treating or serving any Covid-19 patient.

The Delhi CM made the announcement while addressing at a virtual briefing. “If anyone loses their life while serving any Covid-19 patient, be it sanitation workers, doctors or nurses or any other staff, temporary or permanent, from private or government sector, their family will be given Rs 1 crore as our mark of respect for their service,” he tweeted.

Kejriwal further said that every protection will be taken to protect the medical staff dealing with Covid-19 patients.

“Every precaution will be taken to protect our medical staff dealing with #COVID19 patients but despite that if anything untoward happens to them, we will take care of their families,” he tweeted.

The announcement comes even as 90 positive cases have been reported in Delhi till now.

In addition to this, 1,637 positive cases of coronavirus have been found in India, while the death toll is at 38, according to the Health Ministry.

221 more complete quarantine in Kashmir, sent back home

Mubashir Bukhari

Srinagar (NVI): 221 more persons completed their quarantine period here today and were allowed to go home, the Jammu and Kashmir administration said.

This comes a day after the first batch of 78 persons completed a 14-day quarantine period at hotel Heemal in Srinagar.

Additional Deputy Commissioner and In-charge Quarantine Centers, Srinagar, Syed Hanief Balki said that 221 persons were sent back to their respective homes in SRTC buses after completing 14-day mandatory quarantine period.

The tests sample of these people came negative and now they have been asked to quarantine themselves in their respective homes for the next period as a precautionary measure.

These have arrived in Srinagar from different parts of India and abroad. These people included females and children as well, Balki said.

One of the persons who completed his quarantine period and was heading home thanked the administration for the facilities. “We were properly looked after; food and lodging too were good. We appeal everyone to cooperate with the government to stop the spread of coronavirus,” the person told NVI on condition of anonymity.

Among these 221 persons, a mother holding her baby was also seen coming out of one of the quarantine centers in Srinagar.

As a precautionary measure to limit the spread of coronavirus, hundreds of travelers, including students, who arrived in Jammu and Kashmir from other countries, primarily from Bangladesh, were isolated soon upon their arrival and then shifted to the quarantine facilities.

More than 90 quarantine facilities have been identified and established in Srinagar. More than 2000 persons returning from outside countries so far have been accommodated in these facilities.

Nepal: Around 400 Indians put under quarantine in Birgunj

New Delhi (NVI): Amid the coronavirus pandemic, around 400 Indian nationals in Nepal have been placed under quarantine in Birgunj, according to The Himalayan Times.

A large number of Indian citizens heading towards India via border in Parsa have been kept in an education faculty building, at a temporary quarantine facility, a Nepal police official was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The Indian nationals were placed in quarantine following the directive issued by the Parsa’s Chief District Officer as per an agreement signed by Nepal and Indian governments.

Both sides have signed an agreement that stranded Nepali or Indian nationals will be taken care of by the host country during the lockdown.

Meanwhile, the Nepal government has extended the COVID-19 lockdown by a week, which will be in effect till April 7 now.

So far, five people have been infected from COVID-19 in Nepal, with no death case.

Over 200 stranded at Delhi Gurdwara shifted to Nehru Vihar school

Majnu Ka Tilla Gurdwara in Delhi (File)

New Delhi (NVI): Around 205 people, who were stranded at Majnu Ka Tilla Gurdwara in the National Capital have been shifted to a school in Nehru Vihar by Delhi Police, which has been turned into a quarantine center for them.

These people had walked to the Gurdwara which falls on Delhi Ring Road, from different places in Delhi and the NCR region. They were waiting for help from the administration or Government so that they can back to their homes in Punjab.

However, since the gathering of so many people at one place is highly risky during the coronavirus outbreak, Delhi Police shifted them to the Nehru Vihar school today in three buses, with each bus carrying 15 persons, in line with the protocols regarding social distancing amid Covid-19 outbreak.

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee has made arrangements for food and shelter of the stranded persons who have been shifted to the school.

DSGMC President Manjinder Singh Sirsa also tweeted over the matter with a video message: “People belonging to Punjab from different places in Delhi had gathered at Gurdwara Majnu Ka Tilla Sahib. 205 of them have been shifted by the Delhi Government to Nehru Vihar School. We had requested the Delhi and Punjab Government to transport these people back to their homes so that their gathering at one place doesn’t increase the danger of Covid-19 spread.”

Coronavirus cases in India jump to 1,637; death toll at 38

New Delhi (NVI): As the country entered its eighth day of lockdown, the total number of positive COVID-19 cases rose to 1,637 while the death toll climbed to 38, with several states reporting new cases, according to Union Health Ministry.

The cases include 1,466 active coronavirus cases, while 132 people have been cured.

386 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 1,637.

In addition to this, the government has named 10 “hotspots” around the country where an unusual transmission of the disease took place and several clusters were reported.

These places are namely Dilshad Garden, Delhi’s Nizamuddin, Noida-Meerut, Bhilwara, Ahmedabad, Kasargod, Pathanamthitta, Mumbai and Pune.

New casualties were reported from Gujarat, Punjab, Telangana and West Bengal.

Meanwhile, the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Andhra Pradesh today doubled, making the total count to 87. As many as 43 new cases from eight districts were reported.

In addition to this, the Nizamuddin Tablighi centre building was evacuated after a 36 hour-long operation. A total of 2,361 people were evacuated and 617 of them were sent to hospitals and 1,744 were sent to quarantine facilities, Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said.

Govt allows EPF withdrawal amid Covid-19 lockdown

New Delhi (NVI): The government has amended the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) scheme to allow subscribers to withdraw non-refundable advance from their corpus in view of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement on Sunday, the labour ministry notified the grant of permission to EPF members to withdraw up to 75 percent of the employee’s contribution to the corpus or the sum of basic wages and dearness allowance for a period of three months to ease the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

The notification came days after the government eased provident fund rules to help salaried individuals endure the financial impact of the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The labour ministry said that the amendments to the EPF scheme came into force from March 28.

Retirement fund body EPFO or Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation has issued directions to its field offices for promptly processing any applications received from EPF subscribers “to help them fight the situation”, the labour ministry added.

The government has also decided to pay the EPF contribution on behalf of both the employer and the employee for the next three months under certain conditions. This benefit will be only extended to organizations with up to 100 employees with 90 percent of them earning less than Rs 15,000 per month.

Here’s how to apply for a Provident Fund (PF) withdrawal online:

  1. The user is required to log in to the EPF scheme’s member portal – unified portal- epfindia.gov.in. This is to apply for either 75 percent of the non-refundable advance component of an EPF account or three months of wages and dearness allowance, whichever is less.
  2. Once logged in, the member has to select the claim form 31 under the online services section of the website. In the next step, the user is prompted to verify the last four digits of savings bank account number linked with the PF account and click on “proceed”.
  3. The EPF subscriber is redirected to a withdrawal form. On the next page, the member selects the “PF Advance” form (Form 31) from the dropdown next to the text “I want to apply for”.
  4. In the next step, the user selects the purpose for withdrawal. The EPF portal has introduced a new option, called “outbreak of pandemic (Covid-19)”, in the dropdown menu.
  5. In the next step, the EPF subscriber is asked to provide a scanned copy of a cheque clearly showing the IFSC code and the account number. Only images in the JPEG format and size between 100 Kbs and 500 Kbs are accepted.

6, The user proceeds by agreeing to the self-declaration message.

  1. The member submits the request by verifying the Aadhaar number through an OTP- or One Time Passcode-based method.
  2. Once the request is made, the funds are credited to the EPF subscriber’s savings account within three working days, according to the EPF members’ portal.

Centre defines domicile of J&K

Mubashir Bukhari

Srinagar (NVI): Eight months after abolition of special status of Jammu and Kashmir, the central government today notified rules specifying criteria for domicile of the newly-created Union Territory, which will entitle them to UT government jobs.

According to the Gazette notification, “a person who has resided for a period of 15- years or has studied for a period of 7 years and appeared in Class 10th /12th examination in an educational institution in J&K, will be eligible to be the resident of Union Territory.”

Persons registered as migrant by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrants) in the UT of J&K will also be included in the definition.

It also includes “Children of such residents of J&K as reside outside UT of J&K in connection with their employment or business or other professional or vocational reasons.”

The domiciles will also include children of those central government officials, All India services officers, officials of public sector undertaking and autonomous body of central government, public sector banks, officials of statutory bodies, officials of central universities and recognized research institutes of central government who have served in Jammu and Kashmir for a total period of 10 years.

“Subject to the provisions of this Act, no person shall be eligible for appointment to a post carrying a pay scale of not more than Level-4 (25500) unless he is a domicile of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” reads section 5A of The Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Decentralization and Recruitment) Act.

The level 4 includes posts like Junior Assistant, Constable, which is considered as the lowest category of non-gazetted posts. This means domiciles of J&K UT would have exclusive right on class-4th and non-gazetted posts to be advertised by the Services.

The government has already repealed 29 laws of the erstwhile state while 109 have been amended. Section 5A states that no person shall be eligible for appointment to a post carrying a pay scale for not more than level 4 “unless he is a domicile of UT of J&K.”

Through the same order, the Centre has repealed the J&K civil services (special provisions) Act.

The decision comes eight months after the central government abolished the special status of J&K, granted under Article 370. The Centre also had scrapped Article 35A, which defined the Permanent Residents of J&K who were exclusively entitled to the state government jobs and admission to state-run professional educational institutions.

After that move, there was anxiety among local populace in Jammu and Kashmir that the abolition of special status would open floodgates and they would stand to lose special privileges in UT government jobs and professional educational institutions.

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