2. Accordingly, the Writ Petition is dismissed as withdrawn granting such liberty. Consequently, connected Miscellaneous Petition is closed. No costs.

07.05.2020 Index : Yes/No Internet: Yes/No sj Note: Issue order copy by 13.05.2020 To

1.The Chief Secretary, State of Tamil Nadu, Fort St. George, Chennai – 600 009.

2. The Director of Medical Education, Directorate of Medical Education, Kilpauk, Chennai – 600 010.

Sales rise 7.66% to Rs 172.38 crore

The UK government on Saturday announced a once in a generation transport sector investment of around 2 billion pound, with a major chunk ear-marked for emergency improvements to cycling and walking infrastructure for the country's green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps made the announcement during the daily 10 Downing Street briefing, during which he also revealed the official death toll in hospitals and the wider community from COVID-19 as 31,587. The Cabinet minister said the new investment in transport looks ahead into the future to ensure the public is supported to use more greener travel options and avoid overcrowding in public transport as travel restrictions are gradually eased in the coming weeks. "Whilst it's crucial that we stay at home, when the country does get back to work we need to ask those people to carry on cycling or walking and for them to be joined by many others as well," he said. The minister also said the move beyond ..

At least six security personnel, including an Army major, were killed when a roadside bomb struck a patrol vehicle in southwestern Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, close to the border with Iran. The Army on Friday said in a statement that a vehicle of paramilitary Frontier Corps was targeted through a remote-controlled improvised explosive device (IED) in Kech district's Buleda area, about 14 km from the Iran border. A major and five soldiers were killed while one soldier was injured, according to the Army. Baloch militants on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) in a statement said the roadside bomb was planted by its operatives and it will continue its struggle until the establishment of an independent homeland and a free society". BLA is a banned entity in Pakistan. It was also declared a terrorist group by the US in 2019. Security sources said the route where the explosion took place was monitored round the clock because of ...

Turkey reported 50 new COVID-19 deaths and 1,546 fresh cases on Saturday as it prepared steps to return to normal life. Total fatalities stand at 3,739, while infections number 137,115. According to figures posted on Twitter by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, 89,480 patients have recovered. Shopping malls, barber shops, hairdressers and beauty salons will open for business on Monday as Turkey starts easing restrictions. Meanwhile, one of Turkey's biggest soccer clubs, Besiktas, announced a player and a club employee had tested positive for the new coronavirus. Earlier this week, the Turkish Football Federation said matches behind closed doors would resume next month, prompting the resumption of limited training sessions.

The coronavirus in Japan has brought not just an epidemic of infections, but also an onslaught of bullying and discrimination against the sick, their families and health workers. A government campaign to raise awareness seems to be helping, at least for medical workers. But it's made only limited headway in countering the harassment and shunning that may be discouraging people from seeking testing and care and hindering the battle against the pandemic. When Arisa Kadono tested positive and was hospitalized in early April, she was only identified as a woman in her 20s in food business. Soon, friends let her know that groundless rumours were circulating: that the family-run bar she helps with was a hotbed of virus; that she had dined with a popular baseball player who was infected earlier but she has never met; that she was sneaking out of the hospital and spreading the virus. It was as if I was a criminal, Kadono said in an interview from her home in Himeji, western Japan, after ending

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has won bipartisan praise for rallying supplies for his ravaged hospitals and helping slow the coronavirus, is coming under increasing criticism for not bringing that same level of commitment to a problem that has so far stymied him: nursing homes. In part-lecture, part-cheerleading briefings that have made him a Democratic counter to President Donald Trump, Cuomo has often seemed dismissive and resigned to defeat when asked about his state leading the nation in nursing home deaths. We've tried everything to keep it out of a nursing home, but it's virtually impossible, Cuomo told reporters. Now is not the best time to put your mother in a nursing home. That is a fact. Residents' relatives, health care watchdogs and lawmakers from both parties cite problems with testing and transparency that have prevented officials and the public from grasping the full scale of the catastrophe. And they are second-guessing a state directive that requires nursing ..

Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal has refused to divulge details of his two meetings with suspected bookies before the Disciplinary Panel which handed him a three-year ban after a hearing, according to Board sources. According to the source, Akmal had a meeting with two unidentified men in Defence Housing Society in Lahore. "Umar claims both these gentlemen met him at parties thrown by friends in DHA. But he has refused to even tell the Anti-Corruption officials what was discussed at these meetings," a reliable source in the Pakistan Cricket Board told PTI. "Even when the Anti-Corruption officials first presented their report to him on the night between 19th and 20th February in Karachi, Akmal admitted he committed a mistake by not reporting the meetings to them but refrained from giving any details, the source said. Akmal was found guilty of two charges under the PCB Anti-Corruption Code and on April 27, he was banned from cricket activities till February 19, 2023. The 29-year-old has 14 ..

A sheriff's deputy in North Carolina is facing criminal charges after authorities said he led a group of armed people to the wrong home in a search for a missing girl. New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David said Friday that Jordan Kita, who worked in the New Hanover Sheriff's Office, will be charged with trespassing and breaking and entering. Kita led an armed group May 3 to the home of Dameon Shepard, a senior at Laney High School in Wilmington, according to James W. Lea, a lawyer for Shepard's family who is preparing a civil lawsuit. The all-white group tried unsuccessfully to force its way into the home of Shepard, who is black, news outlets reported. Kita was looking for Lekayda Kempisty, a 15-year-old girl who was reported missing earlier that day. She was later found safe. In its effort to find Lekayda, Kita's group was searching for someone named Josiah who used to live next door. Shepard told news outlets that he repeatedly tried to point out to the group that they had

They prepared for icy cold and trained to be on the watch for polar bears, but a pandemic just wasn't part of the program. Now dozens of scientists are waiting in quarantine for the all-clear to join a year-long Arctic research mission aimed at improving the models used for forecasting climate change, just as the expedition reaches a crucial phase. For a while, the international mission looked like it might have to be called off, as country after country went into lockdown because of the virus, scuppering plans to bring fresh supplies and crew to the German research vessel Polarstern that's been moored in the high Arctic since last year. News of the pandemic caused jitters among those already on board, said Matthew Shupe, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado and co-leader of the MOSAiC expedition. "Some people just wanted to be home with their families," he told The Associated Press in a video interview from the German port of Bremerhaven, where he and about 90 other

An Air India flight with 163 Indians landed at the Hyderabad international airport from Kuwait on Saturday night as part of the government's Vande Bharat Mission to bring home Indian nationals stranded abroad, airport sources said. The AI flight 988 landed at the airport shortly after 10 pm, the sources said. To facilitate the arriving passengers and aircraft crew, the Hyderabad International Airport has kept the international arrivals and the stretch right from the aerobridge to the arrivals ramp fully sanitized and fumigated, the sources said. It will be ensured that passengers follow social distancing norms, they said. The passengers would be screened by thermal cameras prior to immigration formalities, they said. Glass shields were provided at each manned immigration counter to avoid any personal contact between the passengers and immigration officers, they said. The passengers would be taken for mandatory quarantine at the designated locations in the city, the sources added.

Air India crew members, who reside in Gautam Buddh Nagar and are involved in flight operations to evacuate Indian citizens stuck abroad due to lockdown, can return home from Delhi only after their COVID-19 test results are found negative, officials said on Saturday. The crew would be examined for COVID-19 through the real-time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction or the RT-PCR test, considered a gold standard but costly and time-consuming process as against the rapid anti-body tests, and put on duty again if found fit, the officials said. The Gautam Buddh Nagar police had requested the management of the national carrier to accommodate its crew members that reside in Noida and Greater Noida in Delhi for the duration of the Centre's Vande Bharat Mission. The request was made because Gautam Buddh Nagar in western Uttar Pradesh falls in the Red Zone' and the to and fro movement of the flight crew could increase the risk of COVID-19 infection, the officials said. "A letter from .

Dubbing Congress' criticism of the central government's handling of COVID-19 crisis as "absurd", the BJP on Saturday said the opposition party is weakening the country's fight against COVID-19 instead of extending cooperation. BJP's national media incharge Anil Baluni said Congress leaders, on a regular basis, are making "absurd statements on the behest of their party president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, to remain relevant in news". Baluni said the BJP-led government at the Centre welcomes Opposition's constructive suggestions in the battle against COVID-19, but "the opposition party should not do politics" over the pandemic. "Rather than becoming a part of the battle against COVID-19, the Congress is unfortunately resorting to politics and its leaders are trying to weaken the fight by making absurd statements, Baluni said. Underscoring that India has done relatively well than other countries and has been praised for effectively handling the coronavirus, Baluni said the Congress ..

The concessions given by the UP government to traders will prove to be a pace setter for the revival of economic activity in the state at a time when the nation is going through a rough phase due to the COVID-19 outbreak, UP Vyapaari Kalyan Board chairman Ravi Kant Garg said. He said the exemption from labour laws for three years is bound to open gates for economic growth that was hit by the coronavirus lockdown. Such measures will spur economic activities and boost the investment climate in the state, Garg said while talking to a group of reporters on Saturday evening. He further said that exemption of 46 variety of fruits and vegetables from the clutches of Mandi Adhiniyam Suchana through Krashi Utapadan Mandi Adhiniyam (Sansodhan) ordinance 2020 would boost the trade. It is bound to help farmers as well as traders, he added. Now, the farmer would be free to sell his produce outside Mandi Parishad. Exemption of Mandi shulk (Mandi tax) from 46 variety of grains would provide maximum .

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday held a global video conference with the state's expatriates and enquired about their well-being amid the Covid-19 pandemic and assured them of the government's full help to their family members living in the country, if they need it. An official statement said Rajasthan natives living in more than 90 cities across 50 countries attended the video conference during which they appreciated the government's efforts to control the coronavirus spread and also offered their help. They proposed financial assistance to stranded migrant workers, arranging training for them to secure better employment abroad, besides cooperation with the state government in education and the developing villages, the release said. They also offered help in skill development for youths besides providing technical skills to new entrepreneurs, the release said. During the conference, many entrepreneurs also gave suggestions to bring the economy of the state back on ...

The Jawaharlal Nehru University on Saturday announced its academic calendar and said exams will be completed by July 31. JNU vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar said the academic calendar has been unanimously approved by all the deans of Schools and Chairpersons of Special Centres. "Tentatively, students are expected to return to JNU campus between June 25 to and 30 so that they can complete their remaining academic components and complete their examinations. Examinations will be completed by July 31," he said. The next semester for the continuing students will start from August 1. Even if the examination results are not ready by July 31, students will have the opportunity to provisionally register and move on to the next semester. The entire monsoon semester registration process will be completely online making it easy for the students to register even from their homes," he said. The deadline for research scholars to submit their theses/dissertations has been extended to December ...

A teacher of a civic body-run school, who was involved in distributing ration during the lockdown, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, officials said on Saturday. The teacher was posted at a primary school in Wazirabad under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. The teacher had last come to school on April 28 and started showing COVID-19 symptoms from May 2. His test report came on Friday, an official of North Delhi Municipal Corporation said. "We traced his six primary contacts and they have been sent into quarantine. Since they are completely asymptomatic, no test has been done yet," he said, adding the school building has been sanitised.

The first batch of 326 Indian nationals stranded in the UK due to the coronavirus-linked global travel restrictions arrived here from London early on Sunday morning. The special evacuation flight AI 130, a Boeing 777 plane which departed from London on Saturday, landed at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) at around 1.30 AM with 326 Indians, according to a source. "1st flight 2 #Mumbai landed- crew interaction less with the passengers. Protective kit was given 2 all-along with snack n meal kept on the seat beforehand. Next #quarantine. Watch the space," tweeted a passenger onboard the flight. "Reached Mumbai safely from UK. Thank you so much to @airindiain @HCI_London, @NISAU_UK, @MEAIndia," another person said in a tweet. The airport authorities, in a statement on Saturday, said that the arriving passengers with symptoms will be moved to isolation centres. Asymptomatic passengers residing in Mumbai will be moved to quarantine facilities like hotels, ..

Security forces have launched a search operation in a forest area near the International Border in Samba district after three grenades and 54 rounds of AK ammunition were recovered from the area, police said on Sunday. The explosives and ammunition were noticed by some villagers in the forest area near Goran village in Kandi belt on Saturday following which the police were informed, a senior official said. He said a joint search operation was launched following the recovery as the area used to be an old route for infiltration from across the border. Security forces had conducted massive combing operations all along the IB in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts recently. However, nothing was found during these operations.

A fire broke out in a cardboard factory in outer Delhi's Bawana on Sunday morning, Delhi Fire Service officials said. However, no one is trapped or injured in the incident, they said. A call about the blaze was received around 7.25 am, following which 15 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The fire fighting operations are underway, the officials said.

In the wake of the gas leak at a factory in Visakhapatnam, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued detailed guidelines for restarting industries after the lockdown and the precautions to be taken for the safety of the plants as well as the workers. In a communication to all states and union territories, the NDMA said due to several weeks of lockdown and the closure of industrial units, it is possible that some of the operators might not have followed the established standard operating procedures. As a result, some of the manufacturing facilities, pipelines, valves may have residual chemicals, which may pose risk. The same is true for the storage facilities with hazardous chemicals and flammable materials, it said. The NDMA guidelines said while restarting a unit, the first week should be considered as the trial or test run period after ensuring all safety protocols. Companies should not try to achieve high production targets. There should be 24-hour sanitisation ..

Ganjam district in Odisha reported its first COVID-19 death after a man succumbed to the virus on Sunday, taking the death toll in the state to three, an official of the health department said. The total number of coronavirus cases in the state has climbed to 352, with 58 more testing positive for the disease, the official said. At least 41 of them are those who returned from Surat in Gujarat recently, he said. Last month, Odisha had reported two COVID-19 deaths - both in state capital Bhubaneswar. Of the 58 new cases, 29 are from Ganjam district, 15 from Balasore, and 1 from Mayurbhanj. Angul district registered coronavirus cases for the first time, with 13 people there contracting the virus. Twenty of the 30 districts in the state have so far reported COVID-19 cases. The number of active cases in the state has climbed to 281. At least 68 people have recovered from the disease. On Saturday, 3,458 samples were examined in the state. A total of 59,780 samples have been tested so ..

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,109 and the number of cases climbed to 62,939 in the country on Sunday, registering an increase of 128 deaths and 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 41,472, while 19,357 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. The total number of cases also include 111 foreign nationals. Of the 2,109 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 779 deaths. Gujarat comes second with 472 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 215, West Bengal at 171, Rajasthan at 106, Uttar Pradesh at 74, Delhi at 73, and Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu at 44. The death toll is 31 in Punjab, 30 each in Karnataka and Telangana. Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana each have registered nine COVID-19 deaths, Bihar five and Kerala four. Jharkhand has recorded three COVID-19 fatalities. Odisha, Chandigarh, Assam and Himachal Pradesh have reported two deaths each. Meghalaya and ...

He hops off a helicopter, whips off his shades and makes a dash through the grounds towards his home to give his mother a surprise, but there she is, waiting at the door with a pooja thali' in her hand. That admittedly cheesy scene between Shah Rukh Khan and Jaya Bachchan from the blockbuster Hindi film Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham was playing in Sonali Puri's mind when she was on a Mumbai-Jammu flight to give her mother a surprise last month. Her mother was at the door just as she had imagined but instead of a thali' was a hand sanitiser! Good hygiene is a blessing in times of coronavirus, my mother told me, laughed the 37-year-old. That was in mid-March, a few days before the coronavirus forced lockdown began on March 25. And home in Jammu is where Puri still is, the short vacation turning into extended mother-daughter downtime, both recalibrating their equations as they spend focused time with each other after years. This Mother's Day, the first time in years perhaps that Puri has been .

Delhi recorded five more deaths due to coronavirus, while 381 fresh cases of the virus were reported, the city government said on Sunday. With the fresh cases, the virus tally in the national capital has climbed to 6,923. Between midnight of May 8 and midnight of May 9, five fresh fatalities due to the virus were reported, taking the death toll to 73, the government said in its health bulletin. While there are 4,781 active cases of the virus in the city, 2069 patients have so far recovered from COVID-19.

Senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and Chairman of the Western Odisha Development Council (WODC), Subash Chauhan died at a private hospital here on Sunday following a prolonged illness. He was 54. Chauhan, who was undergoing treatment for liver ailment was a bachelor and breathed his last in the morning, family sources said. Closely associated with the RSS and VHP for many years, the former national Convenor of the Bajrang Dal had quit the BJP and joined the Biju Janata Dal in the run-up to the 2019 general elections. Chauhan was subsequently appointed the chairman of WODC in September last year. A host of dignitaries including Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Pratap Sarangi condoled the demise of Chauhan describing it as a big loss for the state. Expressing deep grief, Patnaik said the contributions made by Chauhan for the welfare of the people will always be remembered by all in the state. Praying for peace for the ...

A massive dust storm barrelled through the national capital and neighbouring areas on Sunday, a day after the mercury touched the 40.9 degrees Celsius mark in the city -- the season's highest so far. Light rains were also reported from isolated places in Delhi-NCR, weather experts said. Gusty winds and rains led to a significant drop in the mercury. The maximum temperature is expected to settle around 35 degrees Celsius. Delhi residents on social media shared videos of gusty winds with plumes of dust engulfing the streets. Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the regional forecasting centre of the IMD, said it was a result of a fresh western disturbance. Winds gusting up to 70 kilometers per hour swept across the national capital accompanied by light rains, he said.

The coronavirus lockdown has brought a sea change in the buying behaviour of many Indians, such as purchasing vegetables and other consumables without asking for prices, far from the old habit of asking 'dhaniya' or 'mirchi' free from vendors, according to a survey by Enormous Brands. The web-based survey, conducted between March 30 and April 22, took feedback from 3,737 respondents in cities including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Ahmedabad. It found that there has also been a sharp increase in adoption of digital technology by older people to join the e-commerce bandwagon for ordering items like milk, grocery and home essentials and paying through wallets and UPI. The study also found that COVID19 has helped in forming an opinion for pushing the 'Make in India' agenda, with 42 per cent believing that "there is an active and deliberate attempt by China to spread COVID across the world for economic gains" which has led to a strong anti-China sentiment. "The ...

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday came to the help of 13 girl students from the Northeast studying in Delhi University, after they were asked to vacate their hostel, and he made it clear that they can continue to stay in their current accommodation "as long they as wish". The minister for Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) intervened after the DU administration asked the students to vacate the North Eastern Students House for Woman by May 31. The provost had asked the students to leave the hostel as soon as possible due to the expiry of mess contract by month-end. While the hostel has a capacity of about 100, currently 13 students are stuck there because of the lockdown. "I have spoken to vice-chancellor of the Delhi University Prof Y C Tyagi regarding the students and resolved the issue. They can continue to stay comfortably in the hostel as long as they wish," Singh said here. The minister said no one should bother students and put them under any kind of ...

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said 75 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the city are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. The chief minister said the government has also issued an order for requisition of ambulances of private hospitals, adding that the decision has been taken in the wake of shortage of state-run ambulances. "They (private ambulances) will have to be pressed into service when the government requires their service," Kejriwal said while addressing an online media briefing. The government has made arrangements for treatment of those at their homes with mild COVID-19 symptoms in accordance with the Centre's guidelines. "Out of 6,923 COVID-19 patients, only 1,476 are admitted at hospitals, rest getting treatment at their homes and COVID-19 centres," Kejriwal added.

Thoughts on the Iron Bowl, trading draft picks for a coach and grizzlies in Tennessee.

We handicap college football's league championships to see just how much chaos to expect, sort out Jim Harbaugh's job options and much more.

Breaking down the College Football Playoff, Jim Harbaugh's coaching options and William and Kate's royally late arrival to a Nets game.

Jason Gay prepares for Johnny Manziel's first start in Cleveland and tells of watching the royals meet Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

Johnny Manziel's deflating debut, Andrew Luck's perplexing trash talk and the etiquette on eating gingerbread houses.

Is it worth it for a prime basketball recruit to play fewer minutes in a rotation at Kentucky on his way to the NBA?

What does Andrew Luck's fantasy week of doom say about the Colts' chances to surprise in this year's NFL playoffs?

Hail to the victors of the Jim Harbaugh sweepstakes: Michigan. Plus, our favorite sports moments of 2014.

For decades, there have been concerns that India's universities were being bogged down by the number of institutes they had to manage. Recently, the University Grants Commission accepted in principle that autonomy must be green-lighted. But debates on the freedom of institutions remain inconclusive, reports Deepa A.

Since the introduction of the central government's Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme, enrolment numbers in schools have gone up. But how reliable and meaningful are the enrolment figures? Deepa A uncovers major indications of things having gone wrong in SSA's quest for targets.

Women domestic workers and children narrated horrific stories of violence and abuse at a recent public hearing in New Delhi, co-organized by the National Commission for Women (NCW). Organizers aimed to raise public awareness. Teresa Barat reports.

Now that the early days of the UPA government are behind us, we must begin to judge the administration not by its responsiveness to advocacy alone. Even when governments listen, deeper gaps in the policy arena can thwart progress, and the challenge is to overcome these as well. The India Together editorial.

Possibly, but perhaps not alone. There are plenty of obstacles within our unjust and deeply hierarchical civil society outside of the media. Still, an important connection exists between journalism and the strengthening of civil society: citizenship. The India Together editorial.

The anti-defection law disqualifies legislators who switch allegiances when a government's majority in legislature is threatened, and rightly so. But by stretching it to penalise lawmakers who vote against their party's stand on normal legislative matters, our Constitution has curtailed dissent itself. The India Together editorial.

While endless rounds of complaint and criticism have been seen in every arena, this has not led the public to demand that the size of government be reduced. How long will this last? The India Together editorial.

An arterial that cuts through the lands of the Andaman's ancient tribes has brought them to the brink of extinction. Related article: Troubled Islands

A Supreme Court ruling putting live-in relationships on par with marriages raises difficult questions. Will it pit one woman's right to legal protection against another's? Does it overlook bigamy? Shoma Chatterji reports.

While Mayawati's projects to build parks and statues have drawn derision in the drawing rooms of the stately homes in the country, the people at her rallies are in awe of her. Her work is Dalit power, they feel and will make her immortal. Kulsum Mustafa has more.

The Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS) has developed long-overdue indicators to assess gender sensitivity in governance.

The shortage of girls is more than a sociological concern; it demands that we change the mindset of doctors and clients to create a socio-cultural milieu that is conducive for the girl child’s survival, says Dr. Vibhuti Patel.