CMYK TUESDAY www.thestatesman.com 21 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 DISCORDANT SIGNAL FROM TURKEY IMMIGRATION: TRUMP ADDS TO CONFUSION P10 WEATHER Generally cloudy sky. One or two spells of thundershower. Temperature will be in the range of 27-33 degrees Celsius. RAINFALL: 13 mm RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max.94% TEMPERATURE Max: 33.5°C (+1) Min: 26.5°C (0) SUN RISES SUN SETS 05:05 hrs 18:22 hrs MOON RISES MOON SETS 04:20 hrs 18:15 hrs Next moon quarter on 27 July THUMBNAILS A partially damaged portion of historic Mubarak Begum masjid is seen next to a busy road after heavy rains in the old quarters of New Delhi on Monday. AFP Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain back to work after recovering from Covid-19: Delhi 1 Health Minister Satyendar Jain resumed work on Monday after recovering from Covid-19. The minister, who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus on 17 June, was back to his office at around 11:40 a.m. Jain has meetings scheduled with officials to review measures being taken to arrest the spread of Covid-19. New Consumer Act comes into force: The Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which empowers consumers, simplifies consumer dispute adjudication process and introduces the concept of product liability finally comes into Force replacing the existing Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The new Act would give consumers more control over the quality of goods and services being provided to them by corporations. The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 8 July, 2019. Later it was passed on 30 July, 2019, by the Lok P4 Sabha and later cleated by RS on 6 August. In a jibe at former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the wake of his latest video on PM Narendra Modi led Central government’s alleged ‘mistakes and lack of discretion’ in handling the border dispute with China, the BJP on Monday said his comments were ‘choking the nation’ and his behaviour did not behoove an opposition leader. “Through this (video), Rahul Gandhi appears to be only choking the interests of the nation. He does not appear to play any positive role behooving a constructive opposition,” BJP senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said at a press conference. Trivedi said whether it was the Doklam issue or the lat- STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA, 20 JULY midst fresh Covid19 cases surging to new records daily, state government today announced ‘complete lockdown’ across the state for two days every week in view of community spread occurring in a few areas. “This week, complete lockdown would be enforced on Thursday and Saturday and next week, it would be on Wednesday. The second lockdown day of the next week would be announced after a meeting on Monday”, said state home secretary, Alapan Bandopadhyay at a Press Conference in Nabanna today. The existing lockdown in the broad-based containment zones will continue, Bandopadhyay added. This is the first time that Bengal government confirmed community spread occurring in a few areas of the state. “After discussing with scientists and experts we have come to know that there are some cases of community spread and after seeking opinion from doctors and specialists, chief minister Mamata Banerjee in a high level meeting today decided to bring in tougher restrictions through sudden complete lockdown so as to break the chain and thereby control the spreading of the disease,” he said. Bandopadhyay said that the state government will P12 A est problem in Galwan in east Ladakh, amid any dispute or tension, briefing had to be taken (by Congress leader) from China. He said Rahul Gandhi’s remarks gave an impression as if he had personal problems with PM Modi. Quoting an article in China’s mouthpiece Global Times dated 17 June, 2020, he said the author in the article wrote that India should revisit their border crisis. He said a similar sentiment echoed ‘word by word’ in Rahul Gandhi’s remarks. Trivedi reminded the Congress of the positive role played by then Bharatiya Jan Sangh during the 1962 war with China, and 1965 and 1971 war with Pakistan. He said the manner in which BJS had extended support to then Congress government was appreciated by Jawaharlal Nehru. Turn to Page 5 KOLKATA, 20 JULY inform the days on which the lockdown would be enforced much in advance so that people do not face any problem. On the days of complete lockdown, all offices, establishments, transport sector would remain closed. Banks would operate five-day a week from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and remain closed on Saturdays and Sundays. Customer services would be provided during the revised working hours. Earlier, an advisory was issued to DMs, DGP CP , Kolkata stating: “DMs may take a view on continuing lockdown: town-wide or zone-wise depending on the local situation. They can do it for five to seven days… State-wide containment zone-based lockdown continues till 31 July.” Reiterating that the state government is constantly improving the medical infrastructure, Ban- SNS& PTI JAIPUR/NEW DELHI, 20 JULY Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday described his former deputy Sachin Pilot as a worthless person, doing nothing, but said he raised no question over it in the party’s interest. In his statement, he, however, did not name him. He said no demand was raised to change the PCC president, a post which Pilot held for the last seven years in Rajasthan. Gehlot said he “used to talk about a conspiracy to topple his government but nobody believed that he (Pilot), having an innocent face, good command over English and Hindi and influence over the media across the country, can do this. NEW DELHI, 20 JULY PRESS TRUST OF INDIA A coronavirus vaccine created by the University of Oxford appears safe and induces a strong immune response within the body, scientists announced on Monday after the first phase of human trials. Doses of the vaccine were given to 1,077 healthy adults aged between 18 and 55 in five UK hospitals in April and May as part of the phase one clinical trial and results, published in the Lancet’ medical journal. The results show they induced strong antibody and T-cell immune responses for up to 56 days after they were given. T-cells are crucial for maintaining protection against dopadhyay said there are many vacant beds in government and private hospitals as well as safe homes. “Only four to five per cent seriously symptomatic patients and seven to eight per cent of moderately symptomatic patients need hospital facilities while remaining 87 to 88 per cent Covid positive patients are asymptomatic and can remain in home isolation or safe homes,” he added. In case of any help, people can take assistance from integrated helpline numbers: 1800313444222 or 033-23412600. For telemedicine assistance, one can dial 033-23576001 and for ambulance services, 033-40902929. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in a recent letter to the state government informed that Kolkata, Howrah, North and South 24-Parganas as well as emerging hotspots in Jhargram, Purulia, Nadia, East Midnapore, Hooghly and Nadia need immediate attention. “Owing to increasing number of cases observed in Kolkata, there is a need to develop a robust strategy to contain the spread of infection,” read the letter. The Ministry asked the state to utilise the lockdown to focus on containment, surveillance and testing in the containment and buffer zones and stressed that the state needs to ensure that at least 80 per cent of the new cases have their close contacts traced and quarantined within 72 hours of case confirmation. It further pointed out that the overall testing has continued to remain low compared to the national average. West Bengal registered another new record of single-day spike of 2,282 fresh Covid cases while 35 people died due to the infection in the last 24 hours. There are 17,204 active cases with the total case count being 44,769 and the death toll rising to 1,147. A highest number of 1,535 Covid patients were discharged from hospitals in a single day with a total of 26,418 patients recovering in the state till now while the discharge rate stood at 59.01 per cent. In the last 24 hours, 645 people in Kolkata were detected Covid positive and 16 died due to the infection. North 24-Parganas recorded 574 fresh cases and eight deaths and Howrah recorded 213 cases and seven deaths. A spike of 181 cases was recorded in Hooghly, which is the highest single-day cases that have been recorded in the district till now. SNS STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 20 JULY Currently 7,071 out of 11,239 beds in Covid designated government hospitals and 190 out of 1,904 Covid beds in private hospitals are unoccupied. Gehlot calls former deputy ‘worthless person’; High Court hearing resumes Oxford Univ Covid vaccine safe, induces immune response, say scientists LONDON, 20 JULY 11 lakh-mark 2,382 fresh cases in Bengal Use faceless assessment, says I-T Dept There is no need to meet the local Income Tax Department officer in case one receives a scrutiny notice, the tax department said in its latest public message on the new faceless assessment scheme. With the Internet-based faceless assessment being used now, the “face of the Income Tax Department is changing”, it said. The department said a person or an assessee need not worry if they receive a tax scrutiny notice from the department. “Faceless income tax is here to help. No need to meet your local income tax officer to explain your income PTI and tax,” it said. P5 Total lockdown in Bengal With spike of 40,425 cases, for two days every week India crosses BJP slams Rahul remarks on handling of border dispute with China NEW DELHI, 20 JULY P7 Bengal government confirmed community spread occurring in a few areas of the state Min. 83% STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE CHELSEA POUNCE ON UNITED’S DE GEA ERRORS BABRI MASJID CASE: ADVANI TO DEPOSE ON 24 JULY the virus for years. The findings are seen as promising, but experts feel it is too soon to know if this is enough to offer protection as larger trials get underway. “There is still much work to be done before we can confirm if our vaccine will help manage the Covid-19 pandemic, but these early results hold promise, said Professor Sarah Gilbert, coauthor of the study. “As well as continuing to test our vaccine in phase 3 trials, we need to learn more about the virus for example, we still do not know how strong an immune response we need to provoke to effectively protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection. If our vaccine is effective, it is promising,” she said. Rajasthan is the only state where no demand was raised to change the PCC president in seven years. We knew that nothing was happening here. We knew he is nikamma(worthless) and nakara (idle), still, we did not question this in the interest of the party, Gehlot told reporters. Rebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot said on Monday that he was “saddened but not surprised” and called the allegations against him of offering money to a party MLA to switch to BJP as “baseless”. The former deputy chief minister of Rajasthan said this was a clear attempt to undermine his reputation and take the focus away from the substantive issue he has raised against the party leadership of the state. The Rajasthan High Court on Monday resumed hearing a petition filed by Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident Congress MLAs, challenging the disqualification notices issued to them by the Assembly Speaker. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, counsel for the Speaker, argued that the petition was premature as a decision was yet to be taken on disqualifying the MLAs from the House. He said there was no scope for interference by a court over the showcause notices issued by the Speaker. The pilot camp moved the court on Friday amid the infighting in the state unit of the Congress, as chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his now sacked deputy Sachin Pilot tussled for power. The petition was taken up a by a bench of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Prakash Gupta. On Friday, the court heard arguments by the dissidents’ advocate Harish Salve. The proceedings resumed on Monday morning and continued after a lunch break. The notices to the MLAs were served after their party complained to the Speaker that they had defied a whip to attend two Congress Legislature Party meetings last week. The Pilot camp, however, argues that a party whip applies only when the Assembly is in session. See also Page 5 With the highest single day spike of 40,425 novel Coronavirus cases in past 24 hours, India’s Covid tally rose past 11,19,043, according to Health Ministry data on Monday. With 681 fresh deaths the pandemic toll reached 27,497, it said. Once again Coronavirus cases crossed one lakh within three days. India crossed 10 lakh Covid-19 cases on July 17, and added another one lakh before July 20. Rubbishing the reports of community transmission of Covid-19, Indian Medical Association (IMA) in an official statement said, "It is for the official agencies to ascertain this stage in the natural history of the epidemic. Crowd sourcing data can not replace authentic data." “IMA is confident that the public health authorities and the medical fraternity are fully engaged and prepared in containing the fallout,” read the statement. IMA said the data shows that the clusters are in urban metros and not in the countryside where open spaces are the rule. The highest spike in cases were reported from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. Karnataka, the new hotspot state, is nearing 65,000 cases, as Maharashtra remained the worsthit state, with 3,10,455 cases and 11,854 casualties followed by Tamil Nadu with total 1,70,693 cases, and 2,481 deaths. With 1,22,793 cases and 3,628 fatalities Delhi remained the third worst- 11,18,043 3,90,459 40,425 22,664 27,497 UNION HEALTH MINISTRY FIGURES AS OF 8.00 A.M. MONDAY 20 JULY 2020 hit city in the country, the ministry data showed. States with more than 10,000 cases include Karnataka (63,772), Gujarat (48,355), Uttar Pradesh (49,247), Rajasthan (29,434), Madhya Pradesh (22,600), West Bengal (42,487), Haryana (26,164), Andhra Pradesh (49,650), Telangana (45,076), Assam (23,999), Jammu and Kashmir (13,899), Kerala (12,480), Odisha (17,437) and Bihar (26,569). As many as 7,00,087 have been cured, which is almost twice the number of active patients at 3,90,459. India continues to be the third worst-hit country after the US and Brazil, and in the last 24 hours, 32,56,059 samples were tested, as the testing lab network continued to expand. The global Covid-19 figures have increased to over 14.4 million, while there has been 605,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University. US to conduct naval exercises with India, Japan STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 20 JULY Amid aggressive posturing by China against its neighbours on territorial and maritime issues, the US today conducted joint naval exercises with India and Japan to send out a clear strategic message to Beijing. The US move comes in the midst of the ongoing standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in Eastern Ladakh and China's increasing hostility in its running feud with Japan over the chain of Senkaku/ Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea. A US carrier strike group, led by aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, the world's largest warship, conducted an exercise with Indian warships near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The exercise is on the lines of the one India had with the Japanese Naval forces at the end of June. The IndiaJapan naval exercise was termed "Passex" or passing exercise. ‘’The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is transiting through IOR (Indian Ocean Region). During the passage, Indian Navy units undertook CMYK Passage Exercise (PASSEX) with (the) US Navy,’’ the Indian Navy tweeted this evening. The USS Nimitz carrier strike group, along with another one led by USS Ronald Reagan, recently completed an operational deployment and “freedom of navigation” mission in the South China Sea where China is involved in both island and maritime disputes with a number of its neighbours, includingVietnam and the Philippines. The US has 10 Nimitz-class “super-carriers”, each of which is around 100,000-tonne and capable of carrying 80-90 fighters, deployed around the globe. Several Indian warships, including destroyers, frigates and submarines as well as maritime patrol aircraft, are taking part in the exercise. Meanwhile, mine warfare forces from the US and Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) have begun a Mine Warfare Exercise (MIWEX) off the coast of Northern Japan. The aim of the naval exercise is to enhance the interoperability among all participating assets on both sides and to improve mine countermeasure skills as well. During the exercise, participating units will practice warfare tactics to include sweeping, hunting and mine detection. Sources said India, the US and Japan were also in touch on the next round of the Malabar naval exercise conducted by the three countries. There was also a proposal to invite Australia to be part of the exercise. Sources said both the US and Japan have for quite some time been in favour of including China in the exercise, particularly in view of growing expansionist designs of China. India, however, was hesitant to include Australia in the Malabar exercise but it has shed its reluctance in the wake of the Eastern Ladakh military stand-off with China.. (REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE)