CMYK WEDNESDAY www.thestatesman.com 15 JULY 2020 FIND US ONLINE Scan this with your smartphone twitter.com/TheStatesmanLtd facebook.com/thestatesman1875 Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC* KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR TARIGAMI SEEKS RESTORATION OF RULE OF LAW ‘WORLD WON’T ALLOW CHINA TO TREAT SCS AS ITS MARITIME EMPIRE’ P10 WEATHER Partly cloudy sky. One or two spells of thundershower. Temperature will be in the range of 27-34 degrees Celsius. RAINFALL: Trace RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max.80% TEMPERATURE RS BODY LAUNCHES WELFARE SCHEME IN ARUN JAITLEY’S NAME P5 P5 Sachin no more Gehlot’s co- ‘Pilot’ WHY REFERRALS RUB HIM UP THE WRONG WAY P12 Covid-19 cases jump 1 lakh in 3 days, cross 9-lakh mark Congress strips Pilot of the posts of deputy CM & party’s state unit prez Min. 80% 9,06,752 Max: 31.5°C (-1) Min: 28.1°C (+1) SUN RISES SUN SETS 05:01 hrs 18:24 hrs MOON RISES MOON SETS No Info 12:46 hrs New moon on 20 July 3,11,565 23,727 THUMBNAILS Police officers use a loud speaker to warn and disperse people gathered in a commercial area in Bangalore on Tuesday.  AFP STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI/KOLKATA, 14 JULY SNS & PTI JAIPUR/NEW DELHI, 14 JULY Patients watch a movie on a screen installed inside a ward at the Commonwealth Games Village sports complex, converted into Covid19 care centre, in New Delhi on Tuesday. AFP CBSE class 10 & West Bengal class 10 board results on 15 July: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will declare the class 10 results on Wednesday, 15 July. The board will announce the results through an alternative assessment scheme. While class 12 exams were rescheduled to be held in July in all parts of the country, class 10 exams were rescheduled only in North East Delhi which was affected by riots in March. However, later all exams were cancelled following spike in Covid-19 cases. The results of this year's class 10 state board examinations will also be out on Wednesday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said. “The results (for Madhyamik examinations) will be released tomorrow along with the merit list...,” Banerjee said on Tuesday. The Congress high command on Tuesday finally lost its patience with dissident leader Sachin Pilot, stripping him of the posts of Rajasthan’s deputy chief minister and the party’s state unit president for revolting against CM Ashok Gehlot. Two other Rajasthan ministers Vishvendra Singh and Ramesh Meena were also sacked from the state cabinet after a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party, it’s second in the last two days. The meeting was being touted as a second chance for Pilot, who had snubbed appeals from the party’s top leadership including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi ~ to return to the fold. Pilot has been sulking since the Congress picked Ashok Gehlot as the chief minister after the 2018 Assembly polls, while his supporters insisted that he deserved credit for the party’s victory. His next move is not immediately clear. During the run-up to Tuesday’s CLP meeting, his supporters insisted that he had no plans to join the Bharatiya Janata Party. They said their aim was a leadership change in Rajasthan. “Truth can be rattled, not defeated,” Pilot tweeted in Hindi soon after he was sacked. Gehlot accused his former deputy of playing into the hands of the BJP. I am very sad that horse-trading was going on, he said. In a statement issued India, China hold fourth round of military-level talks STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 14 JULY India and China today held the fourth round of military-level talks to finalise the second phase of disengagement from friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh where troops of the two countries have been involved in a tense standoff for more than two months. The meeting between the Indian Army’s 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen Harinder Singh and his Chinese counterpart Maj Gen Lin Liu, Commander of the South Xinjiang Military District, began around 11:30 hrs at Chusul on the Indian side of LAC, sources said. The two generals have met thrice on 6 June, 22 June and 30 June. At their last meeting, they had worked out the dis- engagement plan. But it actually started on 6 July after a two-hour video conference between National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The two are the Special Representatives (SRs) of their two countries on the boundary dispute. The talks are challenging given that the two military officers are to negotiate a pullback of troops from the Pangong Tso Lake region as well as the Depsang Plains. In both areas, Chinese troops have made deep ingresses into what is regarded by India as its territory. They are also expected to focus on a pullback of troops and equipment ~ air defence radars, tanks, artillery units and air support ~ from areas immediately adjacent to the LAC. China had mobilised troops and heavy weaponry at the LAC in late April-early May at the start of tensions with India. On its part, India, too, had quickly mobilised its troops to match the Chinese deployment. Last week, troops of both countries pulled back from three friction points ~ PP (Patrolling Point) 14, 15 and 17A, creating a buffer zone of 3-4 km depth. This was done to ensure that troops who are separated at some points along the LAC by only 600 metres or less do not engage with each other. It came after a violent clash between the troops on the two sides on 15 June in which 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives and there were an unspecified number of casualties on the Chinese side. The casualties were the first in 45 years. Sunday, Pilot had claimed the support of 30 Congress MLAs and some independents. The numbers are large enough number to keep the Gehlot camp on tenterhooks, even if most of the 107 Congress MLAs and independents have expressed confidence in his leadership. The state Assembly has 200 MLAs and those close to Pilot are already calling for a test of strength. Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasara, a leader from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) is the new Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief. Ashok Gehlot met Governor Kalraj Mishra immediately after the CLP meeting, recommending the removal of the three ministers from his cabinet. Police were put on alert across the state against any fallout of the political developments. Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and other ministers reached the CM’s residence Tuesday evening for a Cabinet meeting. With all eyes on rebel Congress leader Sachin Several senior BJP leaders from Rajasthan said on Tuesday that their party’s doors are open for anybody who expresses trust in its ideology. “If anybody with a mass base joins the BJP or any political party, everybody welcomes him. Expressing trust in our ideology, if anybody joins us we will welcome him with open arms. This is a normal procedure,” Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said. Priyanka to vacate govt accommodation by 1 Aug PRESS TRUST OF INDIA NEW DELHI, 14 JULY Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday said she would vacate her govt accommodation on Lodhi Estate here by 1 Aug, terming as “fake news” reports that she had sought more time to do so. The govt had on 1 July issued an eviction notice to her, asking her to vacate the 35, Lodhi Estate bungalow before 1 August. Taking to Twitter, she wrote, “This is FAKE NEWS. I have not made any such request to the government. As per the eviction letter handed to me on the 1st of July, I will be vacating the government accommodation at 35 Lodhi Estate by the 1st of August.” The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development had last week served a notice on her to vacate the said premis- es before 1 August as she no longer comes under SPG security cover. “Consequent to withdrawal of SPG protection and grant of Z+ security cover by MHA, which does not provide for allotment or retention of government accommodation on security grounds to you, the allotment of type 6B house No. 35 Lodhi Estate is hereby cancelled wef 1 July. One month concession period on same rent till 1 August is allowed as per rules,” the Housing Ministry notice had said. Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday claimed that a “powerful” Congress leader contacted him to request allotment of the government bungalow that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has to vacate to a parliamentarian from the party so that she could stay on. Post Covid travel: Railway coaches to be customised PRESS TRUST OF INDIA NEW DELHI, 14 JULY From foot-operated soap dispensers and toilet flushes to door handles manoeuvred with the forearm and handrails coated with anti-microbial copper, the Railways’ new coaches for post corona travel launched on Tuesday come packed with features to help stave off infection. The first two coaches that rolled out from the Railway Coach Factory in Kapurthala also have fixtures coated with titanium dioxide and the provision for plasma air equipment in AC ducts to sterilise interiors using ionised air, officials said. Giving details of the two coaches, one air-conditioned and other non-air conditioned, they said the use of hands to navigate washrooms and other parts has been brought down to a minimum, making them almost handsfree. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal also indicated that the new coaches could be the new normal. “Future Ready Railway: Designed to fight Coronavirus, Railways creates 1st Post Covid Coach with handsfree amenities, copper-coated handrails & latches, plasma air purification, Titanium di-oxide coating. “For Covid-Free passenger journey!,” he said in a tweet. The features, detailed in a booklet circulated by the Railways, include a host of footoperated fixtures including taps, soap dispensers, lavatory doors, flush valves and door latches. Outside the toilet is a wash basin with a foot operated tap forearm. Besides, the compartment doors have handles operated with the fore- arm. The Railways has also installed copper coated handrails and latches as copper degrades the virus which lands on it within a few hours, the booklet said. Copper also has anti microbial properties. Thus, when the virus lands on it, the ion blasts the pathogen and destroys the DNA and RNA inside it, it said. The coaches will also have the provision of plasma air equipment in the AC duct that will sterilise the coaches using ionised air to make it Covid-19 free. The nano structured titanium dioxide coating is another special feature. This is an eco-friendly water-based coating that kills viruses, bacteria, mould, and fungal growth and most importantly enhances indoor air quality. It is non-toxic and approved by food testing laboratory of the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) It is considered to be a safe substance, and is harmless for humans, it said. The coating has been applied on washbasins, lavatory, seats and berths, snack table, glass window, floor, virtually every contact surface. The effective life of the coating is 12 months. The Railways is currently running 15 pairs of AC trains on Rajdhani routes and 100 pairs of mail and express trains. A few Shramik Special trains are also running daily. CMYK India recorded a spike of more than 28,000 cases for the second consecutive day in the last 24 hours, pushing the Covid-19 count to 9,06,752 cases with a total of 23,727 fatalities, the Union Health Ministry's data stated on Tuesday. The Corona count in the country crossed nine lakh mark from eight lakh within three days. India had crossed the 8 lakh Covid19 cases on July 11. According to data, India witnessed a spike of 28,498 fresh cases taking the total number of cases to 9,06,752 and with 553 deaths in the last 24 hours the total number of fatalities crossed 23,727. The health ministry also said that India’s 86 per cent of novel coronavirus infected active cases are limited to mainly 10 states, of which Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have 50 per cent of active cases. While Maharashtra has 1,05,935 active cases out of its total 2,60,924 confirmed cases, Tamil Nadu has 48,199 active cases. Tamil Nadu has witnessed a total of 1,42,798 coronavirus infections. The Health Ministry showed that 36 per cent of the active cases are in the states of Karnataka, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Gujarat and Assam. According to Health Ministry data, as many as 5,71,459 patients have recovered, over twice the number of active patients which stand at 3,11,565. India, however, remains the third worst-affected country after the US and Brazil. As on 12 July, the national recovery rate stood at 63.02 per cent. but 20 States/UTs have a higher recovery rate than the national average. The Health Ministry said that there is a progressive decline in the daily growth rate of new cases. In March 2020, the daily growth rate was around 31 per cent while on 31 May it was 4.82 per cent. The daily growth on 12 July has reduced to 3.24 per cent. The ministry also stat- 17,949 23,727 UNION HEALTH MINISTRY FIGURES AS OF 8.00 A.M. TUESDAY 14 JULY 2020 ed that India has one of the lowest Covid-19 cases per million population in the world. India’s cases per million population is 657 while the global average is at 1,638. Lockdown in West Bengal extended till 19 July: State government today extended the lockdown in the ‘broad-based containment zones’ till 19 July. The lockdown was enforced in the containment zones for seven days from 5 p.m. on 9 July. A directive issued by state home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay to police and respective district magistrates today stated: “... rigours of containment in the earmarked containment zones be particularly enforced in and around the city of Kolkata, and, inter alia, in the towns of Jalpaiguri, Malda, Coochbehar, Raiganj and Siliguri where comprehensive town-wide lockdown will be effected from 15 July.”