Spotting a tiger during a walk is not an encounter you would wish to experience. With stories of wild animals being spotted in unusual places during the lockdown, seeing a tiger on the loose is the last thing you want and which might lead to chaos! This is exactly what happened when few people in countryside Kent in England called the police for help saying that they had spotted a tiger in the neighbourhood.

Armed policemen and a helicopter arrived at the scene to locate the tiger but to their surprise, they found that it was just a sculpture that looked like a real tiger!

Picture/Martha Simpson-Twitter

The incident was narrated by Twitter user Martha Simpson. She said that the tiger sculpture that armed cops with a helicopter came to hunt for, was made by her grandmother. She also shared the pictures of the incident in which the police officers were investigating the sculpture.

My Granny is a sculptress. Today 10 armed police and a helicopter were called to her house after walkers reported a tiger in the woods. This is the tiger. pic.twitter.com/Kn21npZPiS

— Martha (@marthasimpson__) May 2, 2020

Simpson was quoted by the Guardian as saying that her 85-year-old grandmother Juliet built the sculpture using chicken wires and resin 20 years ago. She said that her son called her on her phone to tell her about the armed police coming at her doorstep with their helicopters. "Ten of them! By then I could see the helicopter above, and I thought, goodness me. So then I walked up the road and saw the police Land Rover. I went up and said: 'Do you want to be introduced to this tiger?'" she was quoted by the Guardian.

Simpson went on to say that tiger’s sculpture never bothered anyone before this incident apart from dogs, adding that the police left after looking into the matter and establishing that the sculpture did not pose any risk to the public.

But the sculpture that created a buzz attracted some attention from netizens.

Congratulations to sculptor granny. 😹 Whether granny wants to still sell the work or still keep it as landmark. Legendary!

— Imcha Imchen (@im_chat_sung) May 3, 2020

It's the tiger that came to tea! He's gorgeous!

— Hazel Preller (@pierkisser) May 3, 2020

Did it put smile on the police's face? Hope so.

— kharis (shig_ðŸ¦Â‹) (@kharis_kun8) May 3, 2020

Tiger Queen as a sequel to Tiger King?

— Mitch Cohen (@MitchCohen12) May 3, 2020

A person, who has visited the spot calls it a 'great scuplture' and said that  he visits the spot regularly for walks with his dogs.

Hilarious. Walk here with the dogs regularly. My kids love the swing very kindly left there. Great sculpture! pic.twitter.com/F3sHeTpYYk

— Phil (@PhilipRJSmith) May 3, 2020

What do you think about the post?

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Phase three of the COVID lockdown, which began on Monday, has made it clear that the government needs to be clear in its head before laying down rules and regulations.

First, there was massive confusion among citizens on the first two days about easing of restrictions two days ago, with local officials not being on the same page as Mantralaya top brass. There was confusion even among BMC's own ward officers over the rule about allowing five shops to stay open in one street. Excise officials had no clarity about opening shops, resulting in huge queues, with social distancing going for a toss. Late on Tuesday night, the civic body suddenly announced that all shops selling non-essentials, including liquor stores, will be closed from Wednesday. This is exactly where planning should have been done.

Respective ward authorities should have sat down with local shop-owners beforehand with a gameplan on how they could handle the long queues which were sure to form.
Also, there are private office ownerAlso, there are private office owners who may be working alone or may have a very small staff strength, wondering whether to go to work. People are wondering whether two or three people are allowed in private vehicles. There are so many questions that need clear, lucid answers.

When there are so many grey areas, rumours start to churn and then social media adds fuel to the mix, resulting in what we would like to call combustible confusion. Short tempers, bewildered people, different rules are all part of this mix, likely to erupt at any time. This also is counterproductive to the good work the government is doing.

Let us have more lucid communication in all aspects, using announcements and signboards to avoid panic emanating from the perplexed and perturbed. Green zones, red zones and orange zones in place, what we need most now is a clarity zone.

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All celebrity deaths aren't the same. Some are more equal than others. A chosen few are fine career moves; many more, simply indelible stamps to seal fading public memories. Even while so much of journalism involves telling readers that dear Ramesh is dead, when nobody knew dear Ramesh was alive.

Who's a celebrity, anyway? A neighbour we never had, in the form of an acquaintance we all do. We know them through their work (in varied fields), and therefore their passing on offers us a moment to collectively acknowledge/grieve the idea of death itself: "Oho he died is it? Sad." In the same way that we casually respond to vague, distant relatives passing away.

Ideally, I'd continue to believe the person is alive. It's not like I would've met them often, if at all, in any case. And they live on through our knowledge of their contributions. But that's an entry-level celebrity.

The expert level consists of what's called stardom, that mainly emanates from popular culture, involving entertainers and artistes, whose works and general personae draw us closer and closer, almost akin to owning them in a way that we do immediate family. Or more so school/college friends, since stars that appear closest are ones saved as childhood memories first.

There's also that sexual rite of passage that we attribute, in particular, to hot movie/rock-stars of our teens — a phenomenon that acceptably continues well into old age. No wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend ever felt jealous about their significant other, openly, obsessively lusting/thirsting for a famous actor/musician in general chit-chat. It's passed off as 'celebrity pass' (try going like that about your neighbour!). Maybe it's a necessary valve for sexual expression in a society that can be deeply prudish on such matters otherwise.

Where do these stars come to us from? Mainly, the screen. The fame which has been the monopoly of films and television (including live sports) — at least since the '70s and '80s, and up until user-generated social-media, spawning self-styled and home-made influencers.

Can't speak for the latter, but a deeply-felt obituary, more so mass-hysteria surrounding deaths of these stars from another sky, would please the recipients no end. It's the ultimate validation that artistes seek from the same humans who, through their art, they often pretend to hate!

And it is this final prize that masses feel naturally compelled to collectively award to an individual they feel deserves it, after all — not for something they did yesterday, day-before or even recently. They could be 'has-beens'. Which is, equally, to suggest that they 'have been'. The community outpouring is to acknowledge just that, for others to aspire for it as well.

The tragedy with such warm tributes is that they are delivered posthumously, having altogether lost value for the actual/ideal addressee. Sportspeople probably get the worst end of this stick. They peak before most careers formally begin. And from that point onwards, it's professional-fame only going downhill towards complete ignominy, until their death resurrects them into public imagination, while they aren't around to experience any of this lovely, concluding chapter of their own life!

This mass appreciation, of course, takes on a whole new meaning in the context of mainstream stars of Indian cinema. They're not just actors, who by my definition are professionals paid to exhibit temporary conditions of 'controlled insanity' — behaving like strange people, in stranger circumstances — and repeatedly returning to who they are.

But in doing so as lead actors, they become the all-purpose face of everything that we have loved about a film — its script/story and songs, choreography and musical compositions, genre and direction, cinematography, production design and editing… Not just the whole point, but the entire space a picture occupies in our collective nostalgia.

Every other artiste — musician, writer, painter — pretty much gains credit only for their own work. That's not true for a desi mainstream actor, on whose rockstar face has traditionally rested the full weight of India's popular culture. It's a huge burden to carry. Which explains the release that follows.

The image sometimes even dictates their whole life, while some spend a fair portion protecting it. No wonder, say a Suchitra Sen never stepped out of home at old age. Raj Kapoor, having learnt of his massive appeal in China only much later, chose never to visit, assuming he might disappoint fans who remembered him as the young man from Awaara or Shri 420.

Likewise, actor Amrish Puri, 72, told no one (in the public domain) that he was suffering from a rare form of blood cancer. I know this because he told me he was fine, killing off rumours to the contrary. His sudden death messed with nobody's memory of Mogambo.

The unparalleled public grief surrounding deaths of the new-age Irrfan, 53, and the old-world Rishi Kapoor, 67, in quick succession, while they had been ailing for a couple of years, has little do with any of what I've mentioned above.

It's do with a kite cut off, mid-flight — a great film stopped short of its crucial climax. Rishi Kapoor 2.0, as both actor and media presence, seemed dramatically more relevant than Rishi Kapoor 1.0. Irrfan was at the cusp of Hollywood royalty! Hurts more — especially once you imagine either as virtual family.

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper

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With the increasing number of COVID-19 patients in the city, the total number of containment zones have crossed the 2,000 mark. Of these, 1,235 are in congested areas.

The Central and the state governments have ordered restarting some activities in the red zones across the country. As on May 4, the number of sealed areas in the city reached 2,083. Sixty per cent of the Containment Zones (CZ) are in congested areas like chawls and slum. Around 600 containment zones are in densely populated areas and require 24-hour police surveillance.

"While the exact number of people living in these containment areas cannot be calculated, around 400 to 500 people live in every CZ," said a senior civic officer, adding that CZs restrict the spread of COVID.

Till April 23, the number of CZs were 983 with 231 zones released after 14 days. The number of CZs increased two-fold in the past 11 days.

Shifting to CCCs
The BMC has now begun to shift mild-symptomatic and asymptomatic patients to Corona Care Centres II (CCC). The civic body has started these centres across the city with a total capacity of 17,651 beds. As of now, 1778 positive patients are taking treatment in these centres. The NSCI club in Worli with a capacity of 500 people, has 279 positive persons. Byculla which comes under the E-ward has 210 positive persons in CCC II. F-North (Wadala) has 210, G-North (Dharavi, Dadar) has 207, H-East (Bandra) has 124, K-West (Jogeshwari, Andheri West) has 194 and L-Ward (Kurla, Chembur) has 118 patients in the facility.

In institutional quarantine, the civic body managed to increase the capacity of CCCI to 20,462 beds. There are 7,771 high-risk contacts of positive patients staying in these centres.

There are around 10 lakh people living in containment zones in the city right now.

10 lakh
No. of people in containment zones in the city

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Zyada se zyada kya hoga? Mar hi jaunga na chalte chalte? (What's the worse that could happen? I'll die, right?) These disturbing words of a physically challenged migrant walking home to UP from Thane sum up the mood of hundreds like him trudging home. With no clarity from the government, the migrants continue to risk their lives on highways.

Hundreds of the migrant workers continue to walk to Uttar Pradesh and even Nagpur. As it is difficult to walk in the scorching heat, most rest during the day and walk at nights on highways. They poured their hearts out to mid-day.

A majority of the migrants work as labourers on at under-construction sites in MMR. They said they were leaving Mumbai as they had no access to food and essential items at their workplaces. At least 1,000 men, women and children were seen walking along the Mumbai-Agra highway between the Thane-Kalyan junctions.

Most of the migrants will walk over 1,600 km to UP. Pic/Ranjeet Jadhav

'Procedure not explained'
Some people expressed anger against the state and Central governments, alleging they were not taking the plight of migrants seriously, and this was happening because the authorities on the local level weren't cooperative. They alleged that local authorities were not explaining relevant procedures. Many have filled forms, taken medical certificates and got these and other papers stamped by the police to board the transport provided but say they are not being clearly told what is next.

Kisan Pawar who is heading back to his village near Nagpur with his wife, daughter and son, said they barely have any money left. "Staying in Thane with no job or money will be more burdening. So we started on the 800-km-long journey on foot," said Pawar. At night they rested at Kalyan phata for few hours. Most migrants have been resting or sleeping on the side of the highway.

Rajesh Pawar, 28, a resident of Gondia district in Maharashtra worked as a labourer at a construction site in Thane. Since work stopped and he has no money left, he and his wife have started walking with their two-year-old daughter. An emotional Rajesh said, "I pray that such difficult times don't befall anyone. No one really cares about the poor and that's why we have no other option but to walk. We don't even have money to buy tickets and food. We hope to reach our village because the safety of my daughter is very important."

'I would have died anyway'
A man with a deformed foot who did not wish to be named, will be walking over 1,600 km to reach his village in UP. "Aise bhi mar jaate kyon ki khaane ke liye kuch nahi hai. Us se behtar hai jahan tak chal saku wahan tak jaun, is umeed se ke ghar pohochunga. Jyada se jyada kya hoga? Mar hi jaunga na chalte chalte? (I would have died anyway because I wasn't getting any food. It's better that I walk as far as I can in the hope that I will reach home. What's the worst that could happen? I'll die, right?)," he said.

Suhel Ahmed and Irshad Khan who worked at a construction site in Thane, had approached local authorities to know about the procedure to go back home. But they claimed they weren't given clarity about when they would be allowed to go back, so they left for Uttar Pradesh on foot.

'No co-ordination'
Irshad Khan told mid-day, "We waited in Thane all this time because the government had told us it would make arrangements at the right time for migrants to go home. But there seems to be lack of coordination between the Centre and state. For the past two days, we ran from pillar to post getting medical certificates and filling forms but there was no clarity on what next. We have a few hundred rupees and before that too gets over, we want to reach home. God knows when we will reach."

The chairperson of an NGO says the government must instill confidence in migrants. Jalpesh Mehta, chairperson, Empower Foundation, said, "Walking on the highway for kilometres is a risky affair and may also see migrants die due to hunger or exertion and not because of COVID-19. We have worked with government authorities and police in Maharashtra and Gujarat to provide food to the migrants and the support on the ground from authorities has been excellent. The living conditions of the migrants and support from their employers is indeed very poor, but the need of the hour is instillation of confidence in the migrants by the government on the ground that they will be taken care of and there are planned exits — trains and buses to help them reach back home safely."

1,000
No. of people seen walking along Mumbai-Agra highway

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With more than 9,000 COVID-19 positive cases registered in the city, starting May 5 the Mumbai police imposed Section 144 from 8 pm to 7 am. By this order, people won't be allowed to venture out of their homes between the decided timeframe except for medical emergencies and other essential services. However, the lockdown guidelines will remain the same for the rest of the day, as residents will be able to come out for purchasing essentials.

Even though the lockdown has been extended till May 17, the number of containment zones in the city continues to be on the rise. Cops have been noticing violations in terms of people coming out for non-essential work and crowding at various places. In a bid to curb this, the city police have imposed the prohibitory order and those violating it will be punished under the Indian Penal Code.

Crowd seen outside a liquor shop in Mumbai. Pic: Syed Sameer Abedi 

The order states, "All movement of one or more persons for non-essential activities, except for medical reasons, is prohibited from 8 pm to 7 am. Speaking to mid-day, Pranaya Ashok, DCP (PRO and Operation), said, "The implementation of this new order is crucial in terms of Mumbai's well being. The motto is to reduce crowding on road for as much as 11 hours. Hope Mumbaikars follow this for their own benefit."

Who's exempted

• Emergency services
• Establishments: hospitals, pharma related companies, laboratories, telephone and internet services, electricity, petroleum, oil and energy related IT and IT-enabled services, data centre services, ports, home delivery of food, online delivery platforms, drinking water supply and maintenance, godowns and warehouses of above sectors, trucks/tempos carrying goods, vehicles carrying people working for supplying essential services, print and electronic media
• Government and semi-government agencies and their staff

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A Mulund railway yard master, who retired from his 35-year-old job recently, was so busy in the last working month of his career, that he ended up staying at the rail terminus for a month, to handle despatching essential commodity trains, giving priority to supplies for citizens over his family.

Vilas V Pagare, 60, who retired on April 30, joined the railways around 1984 and had been posted at Central Railway in various designations. His earlier posting was at Vasind station. He retired as Chief Yard Master at Mulund Container Terminal. "The lockdown has been the most challenging time of my career. It was supposed to be my retirement month, but as the lockdown came into effect, more and more trains with essentials needed to be despatched. I decided to stay at the Mulund Container Terminal from March 23 the day the lockdown of the railways was announced, to April 22 to handle the growing number of freight trains and loading and unloading at the terminal," a proud Pagare told mid-day.

His family comprises two grown up sons and his wife. "The railways have given me everything and this was the least I could give back not just to the railways, but to society," he said, of prioritising work over family. During this time, he handled 40 trains, their deformation, loading and unloading and re-formation.

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The number of COVID-19 cases has witnessed a sharp rise in Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) area. On Tuesday, the corporation area recorded 47 cases – the biggest single-day spike in numbers so far.

Of the 47 new cases found on Tuesday, 22 patients are either essential workers or belong to a family of one. What is more worrisome is that a total of 207 new cases have been discovered in the last seven days, taking the total toll to 395 in NMMC along with seven deaths.

Navi Mumbai municipal officials said the two major contributors responsible for the explosion of Coronavirus cases are — firstly the employees working in essential services who travel to Mumbai daily and secondly, the APMC vendors and merchants.

"There are some APMC vendors and merchants who reside in Mumbai. We had asked them to arrange accommodation in Navi Mumbai so they don't contract the virus. However, despite our several announcements, they haven't followed our orders. So, if this trend continues we will take stern actions against them," an NMMC official said.
Moreover, the doubling rate of the cases in Navi Mumbai has drastically come down from 11 days to six days.

To curb the infection, NMMC has already set a time limit for buying vegetables and groceries of 9 am to 5 pm. Also, considering the rising numbers, NMMC has refused permission to open liquor shops under its jurisdiction.

47
No. of new cases recorded in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday

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While the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) provided respite to students by announcing the dates for JEE-Main and NEET on Tuesday, the Maharashtra government has not yet declared any date for Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MHT-CET) or the pending college exams, thereby making the students anxious.

Higher education minister Uday Samant did conduct a meeting on Tuesday with officials and Vice-Chancellors of all state universities to take decision based on University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines declared earlier. However, after the meeting, it was declared that final decision would be announced soon with an assurance that no student will face any academic loss.

Moreover, the state government's higher education department has decided to start counselling centres for students, parents at all districts to answer their queries regarding pending examinations, project submissions, viva and other aspects related to evaluation and assessment process.

"Every small district will have one, while bigger ones will have two such counselling centres to help the students and parents who are currently worried about their examination. These centres will have people who will resolve all their exam-related queries," announced Samant.

Special provisions for timely board results

To speed up the process of evaluating class X and XII exams, the state government will now allow teachers to travel for transporting answer sheets. Education department wrote a letter to all civic bodies, saying that teachers will have to carry the state board letter certifying their duty and I-Card to travel amid lockdown. The aim is to ensure that both results are declared before June 10 adhering to Supreme Court guidelines.

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Not a single non-essential shop will be allowed to reopen, announced the BMC on Tuesday night, citing over-crowding outside shops and violation of social distancing orders by the customers on Day 1 of COVID-19 lockdown 3.0 on Monday.

After the Centre allowed reopening of standalone shops in even red zones across the country, the state government, too, gave a go-ahead on Sunday evening. However, on Monday, everyone woke up to confusion surrounding the matter. Social distancing went for a toss later as liquor shops opened later in the day.

City Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi in the order stated that only essential shops will continue to function. "The relaxation is going to deteriorate the condition in Mumbai and, hence, relaxation will have to be withdrawn from the city," said Pardeshi in the order.

He instructed the assistant commissioners of all the wards to give no permission for the opening of five non-essential shops in a lane, as was planned earlier. The senior police inspectors will ensure compliance of these orders. Only grocery and medical stores will be allowed to open during the lockdown, the order stated. The order stated that the decision was taken because managing the massive crowds outside the shops was becoming impossible.

Earlier, sources had told mid-day that the BMC was unlikely to allow the non-essential shops to reopen in the city, which has reported close to 10,000 confirmed cases of the novel Coronavirus as of Tuesday. Besides, there are 7,000 high-risk contacts in institutional quarantine areas and around 10 lakh people are in Containment Zones.

A few civic officials had earlier in the day said that allowing more shops to function now will put additional pressure on the BMC and city police. "The civic staff and police personnel are already under pressure, and opening of shops may put added pressure on the system," said a BMC official.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk and singer-girlfriend Grimes have become parents to a baby boy. Musk announced the birth of the child on his Twitter account on Monday. And on Tuesday, he broke the internet by posting the pictures of his son on Twitter, abiding to his followers’ requests.  

Musk has been dating the Canadian singer, whose real name is Claire Boucher since 2018 and the couple announced the pregnancy on January 8 this year on Instagram. As this is Grimes’ first child, Musk, who heads Tesla and SpaceX, already has five sons and has been divorced thrice—twice from the same woman.

After a follower asked him for picture of the child, he posted a picture on Twitter where he is holding the newborn in his arms

pic.twitter.com/lm30U60OtO

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2020

When a fan asked him to send another photo of the child, he obliged and sent an edited picture saying, "Never too young for some ink haha."

pic.twitter.com/chk0Scuixp

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2020

When he was asked about the name he has in mind for his sixth child, Musk gave a cryptic response.

X Æ A-12 Musk

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2020

Explaining the name, Grimes, tweeted that the 'X' stands for "the unknown variable," 'AE' is the musician's 'elven spelling of Ai (love &/or artificial intelligence),' 'A-12' is, as gathered, a reference to the Lockheed A-12, or, in Grimes' words, the 'precursor to [the] SR-17 (our favourite aircraft). No weapons, no defences, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent."

•X, the unknown variable ⚔️
•Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence)
•A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent 🤍
+
(A=Archangel, my favorite song)
(⚔️🐁 metal rat)

— ꧁ ༒ Gℜiꪔ⃕es ༒꧂ 🍓🐉🎀 小仙女 (@Grimezsz) May 6, 2020

After announcing the pregnancy in January, Grimes had posted a photo of her flaunting her baby bump in which she called herself a ‘Chubby fairy’ in the caption.

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The nationwide lockdown imposed by the government due to the coronavirus outbreak has improved the air quality of some cities in the country. Days after a picture of the Dhauladhar Range in Himachal Pradesh being visible from Jalandhar in Punjab created a buzz, another similar picture has been doing rounds on the internet recently.

Residents of Singhwahini village in Sitamarhi district woke up to a stunning view of the Himalayan Range from their houses. The picture that went viral was posted by Twitter user Ritu Jaiswal, the Mukhya of Singhwahini Gram Panchayat who claimed that the picture was of Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world in Nepal, which was visible from the village.

In the caption, Jaiswal said that she saw Mount Everest from the rooftop of her home in the village for the first time, even though the other ranges in Nepal are usually visible in clear weather.

She tweeted in Hindi, saying that Mount Everest is visible from the roofs of the houses in Singhwahini village in Sitamarhi district, adding that nature was balancing itself, and she attributed the improvement in air quality due to the lockdown.

Ritu Jaiswal's post

हम सà¥Â€à¤¤à¤¾à¤®à¤¢à¤¼à¥Â€ à¤Âœà¤¿à¤²à¥Â‡ à¤Â•à¥Â‡ à¤Â…पनà¥Â‡ à¤Â—ाà¤Âà¤µ #सिà¤Â‚हवाहिनà¥Â€ मà¥Â‡à¤Â‚ à¤Â…पनà¥Â‡ à¤Â›à¤¤ सà¥Â‡ #MtEverest दà¥Â‡à¤Â– सà¤Â•à¤¤à¥Â‡ हà¥Âˆà¤Â‚ à¤Â†à¤Âœà¥¤ पà¥Âà¤°à¤Â•à¥Âƒà¤¤à¤¿ à¤Â–à¥Âà¤¦ à¤Â•à¥Â‹ सà¤Â‚तà¥Âà¤²à¤¿à¤¤ à¤Â•à¤° रहà¥Â€ हà¥Âˆà¥¤ नà¥Â‡à¤ªà¤¾à¤² à¤Â•à¥Â‡ नà¤Âœà¤¼à¤¦à¥Â€à¤Â• वालà¥Â‡ पहाड़ तà¥Â‹ बारिश à¤Â•à¥Â‡ बाद साफ मà¥ÂŒà¤¸à¤® मà¥Â‡à¤Â‚ à¤Â•à¤­à¥Â€ à¤Â•à¤­à¥Â€ दिà¤Â– à¤Âœà¤¾à¤¤à¥Â‡ थà¥Â‡à¥¤ à¤Â…सल हिमालय à¤Â•à¥Â‡ दरà¥Âà¤¶à¤¨ à¤Â…पनà¥Â‡ à¤Â—ाà¤Âà¤µ सà¥Â‡ à¤Â†à¤Âœ पहलà¥Â€ बार हà¥Âà¤Âà¥¤#NatureisBalancing@KashishBihar pic.twitter.com/Ss3UHAzxWN

— Ritu Jaiswal (@activistritu) May 4, 2020

When Jaiswal was questioned by a user about how she could be certain that the peak seen in the picture was of Mount Everest, she said that her husband could see the peak from the village when he was a child back in the 1980’s. She went on to explain that highest snowy peak of the Himalayas can only be seen and Everest is in the north east of our village and this pic is of the north east (sic)," she said in the comment.

Becasue definitely when we can see snowy peak of the Himalayas, the highest ones can only be scene and everest is in the north east of our village and this pic is of north east. And my husband in their childhood used to see everest in 80s. So we are sure that its the same.

— Ritu Jaiswal (@activistritu) May 5, 2020

The post, shared on May 4, garnered more than 4,500 likes and was retweeted 947 times. The picture was also shared by forest officer Parveen Kaswan who wrote that Mount Everest was seen from Bihar after decades.

When people of Singhwahini village, Bihar saw Everest from their own houses. They say this happened after decades. Courtesy @activistritu. pic.twitter.com/X0SQtZe22T

— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) May 5, 2020

Here’s how the Twitterati reacted on the picture:

I am just waiting for the day when I will be able to see Himalayas from Mumbai😜

— Hemant Jain🇮🇳 (@hemant6479) May 5, 2020

If we really belonged to the planet and the way we lived was natural to this planet then our locking ourselves up shld have upset the balance not repaired it. However superficial or temporary the effect.

— Anku Pande Chibb (@ankupande) May 5, 2020

Guess they must have experienced change in temperature also .☺ï¸Â

— Thakur ji (@Thethakurji) May 5, 2020

Wow... !
What a view sir.. 😊🙌

— Sravani (@sravani950570) May 5, 2020

What do you think about the picture?

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Maharashtra BJP leader and former CM of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis, on Wednesday paid a visit to Saint George, GT and Nair Hospitals where he met frontline workers including hospital deans, superintendents, doctors, nurses, and policemen who have been leading India's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis interacts with doctors and medical staff of Saint George Hospital, GT Hospital and Nair Hospital in Mumbai

Via. @dharmendrajore @Dev_Fadnavis @BJP4India @BJP4Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/rvdvNrLJNw

— Mid Day (@mid_day) May 6, 2020

The 49-year-old BJP leader not only interacted with the frontline workers but also complemented them for their exemplary service for the nation during coronavirus epidemic.

Devendra Fadnavis interacts with hospital staff while maintaining social distance

At Saint George Hospital, situated in Fort, Devendra Fadnavis met superintendent Dr. Khobragade, Dr. Gaiakwad, while at GT hospital he spoke to Dr. Shingare and Dr. Deshpande and at Nair hospital he interacted with Dean Dr Joshi.

The former chief minister visited the Mumbai hospitals to thank the medical workers for leading by example in the fight against COVID-19@Dev_Fadnavis @BJP4India @BJP4Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/ZzcIvElMCU

— Mid Day (@mid_day) May 6, 2020

While visiting these hospitals and interacting with the doctors, Fadnavis not only thanked the corona warriors but also reviewed the coronavirus situation in the state and especially in Mumbai.

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The Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) on Wednesday put on hold its controversial decision to deny entry to local residents employed for
essential services in Mumbai, which has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, after a furore.

Apart from KDMC, the municipal corporation of Ulhasnagar and municipal councils of Ambernath and Badlapur-- all in neighbouring Thane district--had announced similar decisions on Tuesday.

However, only KDMC has stayed the decision, which was supposed to come into force from May 8 and remain effective till May 17, during the period of the extended lockdown. The announcement to suspend the decision was made on Wednesday by KDMC commissioner Vijay Suryavandhi.

Issuing an order, the KDMC commissioner had on Tuesday appealed to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and other establishments to arrange for the stay of their employees who travel from KDMC to Mumbai.

"Many COVID-19 cases found in Kalyan-Dombivli and Ulhasnagar municipal corporations traced the source of their infection under the BMC limits. "Unless we stop people from moving between these cities and Mumbai, we cannot control further spread of COVID-19," said officials from both the municipal corporations.

Ambernath and Badlapur municipal councils have given options to their residents who travel daily to Mumbai to either stay in the metropolis from May 8 till May 17, or to avoid going to work and stay at their homes. Meanwhile, several nurses and employees of the state
government and the BMC have expressed their concerns over the decision of the KDMC and Ulhasnagar.

"What will happen to daily chores if I stay here in Mumbai for more than a week. My son is not even three-year-old, who will look after him?" said a nurse from state-run Nair Hospital who travels from Dombivli via bus.

"It is not an issue of one or two days. Everyone is scared of coronavirus infection. We feel safe when we go home and spend time with our family members. We can not simply stay
in Mumbai. I am not even sure about what kind of facilities we will be provided if we choose to stay in Mumbai," said a BMC staffer.

However, several health officials attached with these municipal corporations and councils have said that more than 50 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the metropolitan areas were
traced to Mumbai. "Some people returned from Mumbai have infected local residents, which has further stressed our already fragile health infrastructure," they said.

Congress leader and Mumbai city guardian minister Aslam Shaikh said the issue would be discussed at the state government level.

"This is the time to applaud the coronavirus warriors. The people who travel from KDMC, Ulhasnagar, Badlapur and Ambernath to Mumbai are nurses, BMC employees and other officials who are required to work in this crisis. We should be respecting their efforts.

"There are some places identified in Mumbai where temporary arrangements for accommodation can be arranged for people working in hospitals and other essential services. The state government will discuss the issue and decide further," he said.

However, Shiv Sena leader and Thane guardian minister Eknath Shinde said that no such decision will be taken without consulting the authorities concerned. Earlier in the day, Thane Municipal Corporation Commissioner Vijay Singhal suggested that similar decision--to
ban entry of local residents working in Mumbai--can be taken.

Kalyan MP Shrikant Shinde expressed the need for a proper staying facility for the people who travel to Mumbai to avoid further spread of coronavirus infection. "Such arrangement can be made in Mumbai city," he said. Millions of working-class people commute daily to Mumbai in local trains and other transport for work from Thane, Navi Mumbai, Virar, KDMC, Ulhasnagar, Ambernath, and Badlapur.

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After requests by MMR municipal corporations and councils to the BMC to provide accommodation in Mumbai to those travelling there every day for essential services fell on deaf ears, employees' unions have demanded that all frontline warriors be treated equally.

Advocate Prakash Devdas, Convener of All Municipal Unions Coordination Committee said, "BMC has to give equal treatment to all frontline warriors. Some of the security guards are staying in a godown with just one toilet for 20 people. BMC asked sweepers to stay in schools without adequate facilities. Workers need accommodation with facilities."

Almost 60-70 per cent of the cases in MMR include people who travel to Mumbai for work, or their contacts. While the BMC has made arrangements for the stay of health and water supply staff, it has not yet agreed to MMR's appeals for accommodation for around 55,000 others.

The Municipal Union General Secretary Ramakant Bane pointed out that the workers spend more than four hours travelling to work every day. "Many workers, especially labourers stay in small houses outside the city have been requesting the civic body for accommodation, but the corporation is turning a blind eye. However, there are a few employees who need to go back home every day," Bane said.

Of the one lakh employees reporting to work since the BMC issued 100 per cent attendance directive, around 50-55,000 live outside city limits. Then, there are those who work in private sectors like hospitals, laboratories, banks, etc. MMR, which includes Thane, Thane Rural, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivli, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Mira-Bhayandar, Palghar and Vasai-Virar, collectively has 1,596 patients — 16 per cent of that in Mumbai.

Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation Commissioner Chandrakant Dange told mid-day, "Out of 190 confirmed patients, almost 100 either work in Mumbai or are their close contacts. As of now, Mira-Bhayandar city has 71 active patients and only 21 of them don't have a link to Mumbai. Maximum patients are related to health professionals, and there are private hospital staff too."

Dange said they expressed their concerns in a letter to the private hospitals where 36 residents work, but didn't get any response. He said the situation is worsening and he will send a letter to the BMC as well.

"It takes nearly three hours to reach office. We have to wait for the bus, which then makes rounds to pick up other employees. But, at least we eat homemade food and go back to our children at night," said one of the BMC employees.

SJ Kunte, deputed for COVID-19 work in rest of MMR, pointed out that no is forced to stay in Mumbai. "There isn't any travel ban on residents in MMR who go to Mumbai for essential services. But it is important to control the virus transmission by restricting travel and if the BMC can arrange the duties of essential staff in a way that they can stay back home for 10-15 days and work in the city on other days it will help to reduce the number of COVID-19 patients in other corporations," said.

"We have provided accommodation in some of hotels for staff related to essential services, like doctors, nurses, etc. But there is a limitation and it is hard to provide the facility to all the employees," said a senior BMC official.

No. of COVID-19 patients (as on May 5)

Mumbai: 9,945
Thane Rural: 82
Thane: 466
Navi Mumbai: 415
Kalyan-Dombivli: 227
Ulhasnagar: 12
Bhiwandi-Nizampur: 20
Mira-Bhayandar: 182
Palghar: 31
Vasai-Virar: 161

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The city's record for the highest number of COVID-19 cases reported in a single day increased to 769 on Wednesday as the total count reached 12,716. Bracing for more cases in the coming days, the civic body is planning to set up additional COVID-19 care centres in various open spaces across the city.

Civic officials said that the new COVID-19 centres will come up at Mahalaxmi Racecourse, Nehru Science Centre, MMRDA grounds in BKC, Mahim Nature Park and NESCO ground in Goregaon. Once the work is complete, civic officials said that the current capacity of 14,000 beds will increase to 34,000 beds. For critical patients, the capacity will be increased from 3,000 beds to 4,750 beds in hospitals like Nair, KEM and SevenHills. Additionally, ICU beds will be set up at the centre in NSCI.

The G South ward (comprising Worli) with 903 cases and G North (comprising Dharavi) with 888 cases, continued to have the highest concentration of positive cases. While three deaths were reported from the G South ward, one was reported from Dharavi where a 64-year-old male resident of Naik Nagar died on Wednesday. Civic officials from G North ward said that 68 new cases were reported in Dharavi, eight in Dadar and 11 in Mahim. Civic officials in G South ward said 25 new cases were reported on Wednesday.

State health officials reported 1,233 new cases in Maharashtra and the total count of COVID-19 cases now stands at 16,758. There were 34 COVID-19-related deaths on Wednesday of which 26 were in Mumbai which included one patient who was a resident of Uttar Pradesh, three in Pune, three in Akola and one each in Jalgaon and Solapur.

While 18 of the deaths involved patients who were senior citizens, 13 of them fell in the age group of 40-59 years and 27 of the patients were suffering from other ailments. Till date, Maharashtra has had 651 deaths due to COVID-19 and till date, 3,094 COVID patients have been discharged after a full recovery. Currently, more than 2 lakh people are under home quarantine while 13,107 people are kept at quarantine facilities.

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Thousands of migrants working in the power looms at Bhiwandi set out on foot for their villages hundreds of kilometres away earlier this week. While these migrants face an enormously difficult journey with almost zero resources, those who have stayed back are also on the brink of starvation.

The Maharashtra government has been assuring of help for migrant workers should they stay back amid the COVID-19-caused lockdown. Though the Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC) is offering food packets, the power loom workers say the quality of the food is inferior.

"The municipality has been giving khichdi for 15 days and the ingredients are rice and turmeric powder. Sometimes they mix vegetables in it. But the food quality is absolutely inferior, it cannot be eaten by any human being. Being a labourer does not mean that we will eat toxic food. The food smells and makes us nauseous," said Manzar Alam, a native of Bihar.

"It is the month of Ramzan and most of us are fasting. But after eating bad quality food, some of us vomited and had to break the fast," said Alam, adding that power loom owners are not helping either and that many are breaking their fast only with water.

"The power loom owner does not respond to our calls. He either switches off his mobile phone or blocks our number," said Mohammad Sahid, a native of Ambedkar Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh.

Raw ration only for state residents
Another power loom worker, Jalaluddin Ansari said workers get food once a day. "We have not been given raw ration by the state government. In this crisis, we have to wait in long queues for langar distributed by social workers," said Ansari.

There are seven lakh registered power looms in Bhiwandi

"There was a queue of nearly 200 workers on Monday. By the time my turn came, food was over. So, I rushed to another langar half-a-kilometre away and stood in another queue. But here too, the food finished," said Ansari, who did not eat anything on Monday.

"On Tuesday, I got food but it was not very little. This is the reality of many workers who did not dare to walk home. The state government is providing raw ration to only those who are from Maharashtra. We are not given any ration," said Ansari, whose co-workers Abdul Ali and Mohammad Younus echoed his views.

Workers say they are being given khichdi - the ingredients of which are usually rice and turmeric — in the food packet for the past 15 days

A few workers from Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh tried to go home in a truck recently. "A truck driver agreed to transport us to our native place. He took R2,500 from each worker. We started our journey a few days ago, but police at Karjat stopped the vehicle and caned the driver badly. We were forced to return to hell with no food," said Ali.

Nearly 3,000 workers rushed to the State Transport bus depot in Bhiwandi on Tuesday. mid-day spoke to a few of them and asked if they had any idea about when they would return to Bhiwandi to resume work: "Humlogo ke paas aur kya hai kamane ke liye?" said Yashpal, a native of Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh.

"It is a pandemic and the whole world is reeling under a financial crisis. We don't know what will happen to us as I have heard that big companies are downsising. We are not sure if the owners of power looms will downsize too," said Sahil.

A ray of light
There is confusion among workers regarding how and where they can get registered to travel home in trains. However, a power loom owner Parvez Alam Ansari has been helping his employees.

"I have told my workers not to panic. I have been providing them with ration, vegetables, etc. and they have been preparing meals for themselves. The power loom is shut but these workers are our assets. I cannot afford to keep them stranded amid a crisis," Ansari said.

Civic body's help mismanaged
"There are seven lakh registered power looms employing around three to four lakh migrant labourers. As per our estimate, more than one lakh people want to leave the city as they don't have work and are not getting food. We are doing our best to provide food but it's been more than a month now and the assistance provided by the local corporation is mismanaged. Now our priority is to help those who want to go to their home states, such as Uttar Pradesh, which is not cooperating with Maharashtra," said local MLA Rais Shaikh.

'We resolved all complaints'
According to Pravin Ashtikar, the chief of BNCMC, initially, there were a lot of complaints regarding food quality and its supply, but all have been resolved. "We are not denying that complaints were received from people but I must tell you that we listen to them and now things have improved in the past week. There have been no complaints about the food as far as quality and supply are concerned. There are several NGOs working with us and we are supplying 80,000 food packets daily. The migrants who want to leave just want to go home because the lockdown has been extended. Most of the migrants have been taken care of by us and their employers," said Ashtikar.

Ashtikar added that so far there are 20 cases of Coronavirus in Bhiwandi city, of which two have recovered and 290 are in institutional quarantine. "We started preparing for COVID-19 in the second week of march — we procured equipment for disinfecting and started sanitising the area much in advance. As you see the result, all positive cases in Bhiwandi have come from other areas. We have successfully stopped community transmission despite a high population. Currently, Bhiwandi has a population of over 8 lakh. We started door-to-door screening last week, targeting the most vulnerable people, and 75 per cent of the survey is complete. So far, 1,011 people are found to be vulnerable as they are suffering from other ailments and we are taking care of them," Ashtikar added.

80K
Food packets Bhiwandi civic body claims it is providing

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Trains ferrying migrant workers have been on the move with about 14 of them having left from the Central Railway section and 62 from the Western Railway section across different divisions. However, there continues to be limitations in the number of trains leaving from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) as it is a red zone.

So far, eight trains have left from the MMR region with a couple of more planned in the coming days. A Bhivandi Road-Gorakhpur one was the first train to leave the MMR region on May 2 with 1,104 migrants.

The same day another train left from Vasai Road for Gorakhpur with 1,200 migrants. After this, two trains left for Jaipur — one from Bhivandi and another from Dahanu — on May 4, two from Kalyan to Darbhanga and Kalyan to Guntkul on May 5 and another two — Panvel to Rewa and Bhivandi to Patna in the wee hours of May 6.

The first train to arrive in the state was from Rayanapadu in Vijaywada

First train to arrive in Maha
Meanwhile, the first train to arrive in Maharashtra was from Rayanapadu in Vijaywada. It reached Chandrapur with 1,212 migrants around 9.10 am on May 6. The passengers were provided with food and water by the state government and later taken for health check-ups by the district collector before being sent to their homes.

One of the group leaders, who was onboard the train, said the migrants from Maharashtra had gone to Rayanapadu for red chilli plucking and transport was organised by the Krishna district administration. "They were taken to the station in 48 buses with 25 passengers each. The passengers included senior citizens, women and children too," he told mid-day over phone. Western Railway chief PRO, Ravinder Bhakar said the railways would run these trains as long as there was demand from other state governments.

14
No. of trains that have left from the CR section

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Six new cases of Corona were found in the Panvel Municipal Corporation jurisdiction on Wednesday taking the count to 113 under the PMC. Among the new cases are two APMC staffers, a police officer, a kidney patient, a homemaker and a BEST employee.

The PMC, which falls under the Raigad district, was initially declared an orange zone, as was the entire Raigad district but within 24 hours, the collector put PMC areas in the red zone.

Ramesh Lengarekar, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, PMC, informed mid-day that PMC was a part of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), like Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan and Dombivli, etc, and considering the entire MMR is in the red zone, PMC, too, falls under the said category. "While the government has the power to decide the zones (red, orange, green), the collector has been empowered to list a zone from orange to red or green to orange."

12L population in PMC
So far, two deaths have been reported from the PMC region, which has a population of 12 lakh. The number of positive cases in Raigad district, excluding PMC, is lesser and is, therefore, in the orange zone.

Areas under the PMC — Panvel, Kamothe, Kalamboli, Kharghar, Ulve and Taloja — will follow the national lockdown period till May 17 with prohibitory orders under Section 144 (no assembly of more than five people) in force.

"As per the central government directives, we are making an attempt to keep some additional shops (five) other than medical and general stores open. A decision on this will be taken soon," a senior PMC official said.

Infection from Mumbai
The BEST staffer who tested positive is attached to the Govandi bus depot, and the police sub-inspector is attached to a police station in the Central Mumbai region.

The kidney patient was undergoing his dialysis treatment in a private hospital in Sanpada while the two APMC staffers are residents of Kamothe and Kharghar.

Mangal Kamble, founder president of Swachh Kharghar Foundation, said, "People working in Mumbai have been travelling daily between Mumbai and the PMC area, and have caught the infection in the city."

Cases spike in APMC market
"Also, our concern is that most of the vegetables, fruits, and grains are being transported all over the MMR region from the APMC market, which is already seeing an increase in the number of positive cases. A thorough screening of every vehicle entering and exiting APMC should be done and at every entry point within the PMC area. This needs to be done to curtail any community outbreak of the virus," Kamble added.

Over 100 COVID-19 cases in APMC
Dr Satish Choudhari, nodal officer for COVID at Gram Vikas Bhavan, Kharghar said, "At present, we have around 24 positive cases in the quarantine centre here. All those people who have a cold, cough, fever for more than three to five days are sent to the Gram Vikas Bhavan for quarantine and are referred to sub-district hospital Panvel or to MGM hospital in Kamothe if they need further treatment."

Twelve new cases have been detected in the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) market taking the tally there to over 100.

The market, however, continues to function as per the guidelines of the committee appointed for monitoring the situation.

113
Total no. of COVID cases in PMC area

2
No. of novel Coronavirus deaths in PMC area

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With the COVID-19 death toll among BEST workers reaching three and positive cases touching 50, BEST's decision to form 'crack teams' with heads of departments monitoring staff seems to be working well.

The BEST Undertaking is currently the lifeline of the city and has been transporting essential workers.

BEST officials said the Rapid Action Teams involve various heads of departments who act swiftly when a positive case is found.

"The crack teams seem to be working well. One such team got a call on Tuesday night about an employee at Bandra bus depot. He is a resident of Dharavi and was not feeling unwell. His wife called up to say that he was feeling breathless too. We did not have time to lose and the entire team got into action. The biggest challenge was to find a bed for him as all major hospitals in the city are under pressure.

"We called up all public and private hospitals and finally could arrange a bed at Bandra's Bhabha Hospital within a few hours. This is where teamwork helps and isolated efforts would have taken more time and caused further delay," BEST's Chief Medical Officer Dr Anilkumar Singal said.

Singal said that the undertaking has been following all norms and protocols as a result of which, cases are limited even as the lifeline continues to operate.

A BEST spokesperson added that on the bright side, four more workers have recovered and have been discharged. This takes the total number of recoveries to 11.

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Over a 100 goons led by the deputy sarpanch of Kalamb village in Vasai attacked the house of a vegetable vendor who had been helping migrant workers fill forms online and register with the state government to go back to their villages, on Tuesday night.

Vasai police have registered a case against 12 people, including the deputy sarpanch Anand Gharat, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and arrested one person.

The goons, armed with iron rods and bamboo sticks, first started throwing stones at the bungalow of Brijesh Chauhan in Nirmal village, Vasai West. The house's glass windows were shattered and Chauhan's wife, Reema, got injured by little shards of glass.

The incident happened after Chauhan registered a Non-Cognisable (NC) complaint against one of the accused a day before the attack.

"My husband has been helping migrant workers fill forms online. On May 4 at 8:30 pm, two migrant workers came to my house to get themselves registered online. My husband told them to collect the details of at least 10 people and then one or two can come to submit the details as it also maintains social distancing," said Reema.

"But the duo got angry and told my husband that they belong to Kalamb village and their work should be done on priority. They screamed at us and then left, only to return 15 minutes later with Darshan Gharat and 20 other people from Kalamb village. They shouted and abused everyone in our family, including women. My senior citizen father-in-law was also manhandled," she added. "After abusing us, the mob returned to Kalamb village. Around 10 minutes later, they came with deputy sarpanch Anand Gharat, who too abused us. Somehow we managed to send them away," Reema said.

Brijesh then registered an NC against the group. "On May 5 at 9 pm, Anand and goons riding triple seat on motorcycles, armed with iron rods, bamboo sticks, etc. came shouting and started pelting stones at my house. I got injured. Neighbours came to our rescue and police also came on the spot just 10 minutes after we called them," she added.

Deputy sarpanch flees
An officer from Vasai police said, "We have registered a case against 12 people and other unidentified people and arrested one person. In all, 12 people, including deputy sarpanch Anand are wanted. We are trying to trace him."

Deputy sarpanch Anand Gharat

Anand, who is planning to seek anticipatory bail, told mid-day that Brijesh had assaulted a student residing in Kalamb village. "I had gone to resolve the matter but they have registered a case against me. An officer from Vasai police asked me to surrender but I am innocent," said Anand, who is out on bail in a rape and kidnapping case registered against him at Vasai police station last year.

May 5
Day the incident occurred

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In a latest controversy, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had decided to file a police complaint against doctors who prescribe COVID-19 tests to patients without conducting physical examinations. The officials of L ward had also come up with a complaint format that was supposed to be sent to police stations. However, when doctors slammed the move, the civic body withdrew it on Wednesday.

According to the complaint letter issued by L ward, a doctor found to have referred a patient for the COVID-19 test without a physical examination would face an FIR under Section 188 of the IPC (disobeying orders of a public servant) and the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897. Confirming that such a decision was taken by the civic administration, a senior civic official said, "The COVID-19 task force decided that doctors have to examine the patient physically before prescribing any test. Ward officials will file the complaint with the respective police station if the regulations are not followed and the police will investigate the matter further."

However, when contacted, an L ward official said that the decision was taken after a doctor based in New Delhi referred a patient for testing in Mumbai and the complaint form was being used as a scare tactic. "We weren't planning on taking action against doctors. We just wanted to discourage the medical fraternity from referring patients without examining them. The complaint form was shared on some chat groups," added the official.

Dr Avinash Bhondwe, president of the Indian Medical Association in Maharashtra said that it is an unjustifiable move since doctors don't have access to PPE kits and they cannot examine a suspected patient without adequate protection. "We are only working with masks and gloves. It is very risky to physically examine a patient and doctors are not able to buy PPE kits either since it's not available, which is why in some cases doctors are consulting patients over phone. However, the BMC cannot take action against doctors and this will be challenged in the court of law," said Dr Bhondwe.

He added that even making physical examination mandatory doesn't make sense unless the civic body provides PPE kits to all doctors. "More and more doctors are testing positive every day. If a doctor examines a patient without PPE and if the patient tests positive, then the doctor will be placed in quarantine," he said. Dr Bhondwe added that instead of testing only the symptomatic patients, the government should make arrangements to test everyone. "Health is a constitutional right and everyone should be able to undergo tests," he added. Dr Bhondwe also pointed out that till date none of the circulars issued by the ICMR have mentioned that physical examination is mandatory. He further said that L ward officials later assured him that no FIR would be filed against doctors.

When contacted, Dr Gautam Bhansali, consulting physician with Bombay Hospital, said that taking action wasn't the correct approach in such stressful times. "Such decisions are demeaning to doctors who are working so hard. Referring a patient is not a crime and doesn't warrant a punishment. At best, circulars can be issued to create awareness among doctors," he said.

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A slice of the verdant Nehru Science Centre in Worli has been taken over by the civic authorities for what Centre director Dr S Khened thinks must be for "an isolation centre, or for quarantine."

Khened said, "I do not know exactly for which. We got official communication a couple of days earlier that a portion of the centre's space will be acquired. The front portion of the Centre, just as you enter the main gate, has been taken. We usually use that space to hold Science exhibitions. We have also held a vintage car exhibition two years ago in that venue, so it is a massive space."

Centre officials said preparations are in full swing, with beds and mattresses and even mobile toilets being brought in. The Science Centre officials have tried to talk to those in charge at the site for details but without too much success.

They reasoned, "it is evident that the officials are extremely stressed and we are in fact, prepared for the worst. Authorities are working extremely hard to get this ready," they stated.

Khened said that the environs of the Centre are very green and will need to be maintained. "We need to have some skeletal staff inside to maintain the green patches, the trees, the many plants that we have. They need water and regular upkeep," he said adding that it was important that the Coronavirus facility is completely sealed off from the other parts of the sprawling complex.

The Centre also has skeletal staff quarters on the premises where currently eight senior officers are living with their families, "so it is vital that those who are going to be shifted into the facilities for Coronavirus, be confined to that space. I am sure this has been thought out and will be done," said Khened.

Physical space
The Science centre has moved its activities online, like most other institutions, with two virtual lectures scheduled on their YouTube channel on May 9 and May 11 respectively. The former will be a talk by Dr Vasant Shinde on Rakhigarhi Excavation and the latter is Dr Anil Kakodkar, on 'dealing with energy needs in the context of climate crisis'. Yet, said Dr Khened, "We will open again as a physical space when the government gives the green light. Children, the main visitors at the Centre, may have some apprehension about visiting since this will be used as a Coronavirus facility.

There is a great deal of wariness as the Centre is just next to the Jijamata Nagar slum area, which is a COVID hotspot. "However, with all the trepidation, we too understand that this is for the greater good, and everybody has to do their part in this fight," the director said.

Line up
The Worli area, with an unenviable record number of Coronavirus cases in Mumbai, is also being taken over as quarantine/isolation areas rapidly. Just around the corner from the Science Centre, the Nehru Centre, which is next to the Nehru Planetarium has also been acquired for Corona purposes.

S P Verma, Jt Director of Nehru Centre, said, "The two exhibition halls on the ground floor have been acquired, not the Nehru Planetarium. I think beds and other amenities will be moved in shortly, I do not know when exactly. We had been told to hand over possession of the spaces and have done so," he finished.

The Nehru Centre joins neighbour, NSCI club's The Dome and Mahalaxmi racecourse as an entire line of Haji Ali institutions, whose space has been acquired for Corona combat.

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At a time when the nation needs its frontline workers, Railway doctors remain inconspicuous by their absence. Considering this, the railway board has now issued a circular stating that "unauthorised absence" was hurting the system and creating a serious imbalance, hence fresh recruitments were necessary.

The circular, (a copy of which is with mid-day) signed by executive director/health, railway board, Dr Vijay Kumar, states, "A large number of doctors are on unauthorised leave. This is causing a serious imbalance in the strength of doctors in many zones. In view of this, it has been decided that vacancies of doctors who are on unauthorised absence will be filled up." It further mentioned that as and when the doctors, who are currently absent, report back to duty, they would be directed to report to the Director General/Railway Health Services (DG/RHS) for their further posting.h

The circular said necessary disciplinary action should be completed early and on priority. The Indian Railway Health Services (IRHS) is a cadre of doctors recruited through the Union Public Service Commission medical exam.

The key responsibilities of the doctors include attending to rail accident victims, pre-employment medical examination of staff, periodical medical tests of serving staff, conducting medical boards and other medical certification of serving employees and much more.

While the director-general (health) was not available for comment, a senior official said, "Recruitments are being carried out to get doctors and medical staff on board to fight the COVID-19 battle as the railways have been actively functioning even in these times. It has become the key provider of essential services, keeping the supply chain alive. Hence, the more number of medical workers come on board, the better it is."

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Around 50 students from hostels run by the Social Welfare Department in Mumbai's Worli area have requested the state government to let them go home amid the lockdown.

While the department has ensured that these students are provided with food, a majority of them hail from rural Maharashtra and are scared due to the increasing number of COVID-19 patients in Mumbai — particularly in Worli.

There are three Social Welfare Department-run hostels in Worli's BDD Chawls — building number 116 and 118. While the hostel in building 118 is a boy's hostel, building number 116 has both boys and girls.

Ashok Bansode, resident student

Ashok Bansode, an engineering student who hails from Akkalkot in Solapur said, "Initially, we were getting proper food. But as the cases kept rising in Worli area, restrictions came in place and now we are just being served dal and rice every day. We are also wondering whether or not the department will take responsibility for us."

The hostel management asked the students to get their medical check-ups done before seeking permission to travel home. But considering their financial conditions, nobody has money to arrange for private transportation.

"The way arrangements were done for students in Kota, we should also be given such help. We cannot arrange for our own transportation," Bansode added.

Suraj Kamble, another resident student said, "We should be taken home directly where we can remain in home quarantine. But if we are sent to any institutional quarantine or told to travel through railways, that can put us in danger of contracting the virus. All the Kota students are in home quarantine currently,"

Sachin Bansode, member of Chhatrabharati — a students' organisation which is helping these stranded students to go back home — said, "These students too have the right to go back home. Many of them are from rural parts of Maharashtra and don't have funds to head home on their own. We are in the process of understanding how they can be helped without compromising on safety."

Three
Total no. of Social Welfare Department hostels in BDD chawl

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City-based environmentalist Stalin D has written a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray requesting the Maharashtra State Forest Department and Thane Forest Circle to monitor Aarey Milk Colony against encroachers during the lockdown.

This comes after reports on the depleting green cover in Aarey as trees are being chopped down illegally to build hutments.

Speaking to mid-day, Stalin said the deforestation of Aarey continues unabated without the fear of law. "This is to highlight the ongoing destruction of the forests of Aarey Colony. You are well aware of the facts of the matter pertaining to the ecological importance of Aarey and it has been six long years since citizens and NGOs started fighting to protect this forest. Matters are pending in various courts pertaining to this issue, but there is nothing that stops the government from taking a positive stand to protect Aarey. There is a Supreme Court order which directs that no trees should be cut in Aarey, but this order is being violated on a daily basis," his letter states.

The activist has also alleged that taking advantage of the lockdown, antisocial elements and the slum mafia have seized the opportunity to plunder Aarey.

"We are losing at least 30 trees on a daily basis inside Aarey. Slum-dwellers are expanding encroachments, building illegal temples, clearing the vegetation regularly ever since the lockdown was imposed. We have time and again raised the alarm and intimated the facts to the authorities concerned. But, the Aarey police have not acted on any of the complaints and have instead chosen to beat up citizens who sent them proof of tree chopping and expanding encroachments in the area. The green cover in areas such as the VIP guest house area, the New Zealand hostel forest area, Unit number 13 is steadily depleting. Though the Aarey CEO had got some of the encroachments removed, more spring up in their place," the email states.

He has appealed to the government to issue directions to the Forest Department telling them to monitor the area until the current COVID-19 situation improves.

30
No. of trees cut down illegally in Aarey on a daily basis

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How do business leaders approach tricky situations? How do they find opportunities in adversities? In today's Lit Live session, its founder Anil Dharker will be in conversation with Apurva Purohit, President, Jagran Group, to not only touch upon such topics from the eyes of a leader but also chat about her recent bestseller and titles that inspire her in what promises to be an engaging Instagram live talk. Purohit, fresh off the success of her latest book, Lady, You're The Boss! (Westland), which is the second installment in The Adventures of a Woman At Work series, will continue the conversation she began five years ago with Lady, You're Not a Man! Being an avid reader and inspirational speaker, she will also talk about books like Lifespan, The Body, The Balance Within, Factfulness and John Le Carre's works of fiction.

Apart from books, Purohit hopes to deep-dive into her vast pool of experience and knowledge as a leader. She will decode and discuss her success mantras in areas like communication skills and decision-making; here she hopes to throw light on key factors like making tough choices in difficult times and the balance required to manage all stakeholders. With the pandemic on everyone's minds and work from home a reality, viewers can look forward to hearing her thoughts on how the lockdown has been a learning curve, and the lessons we can all take from work-life integration from this challenging period. Log on to @LitliveMumbai on Instagram to catch the live session at 5 pm today.

Anil Dharker

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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday night amended its previous order and allowed reopening of standalone electronics and hardware shops in the city during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown. Civic commissioner Praveen Pardeshi said there was an urgent need to keep such shops open to some extent. "It has been observed that many essential and life- saving medical equipment, IT systems related to health systems and machines,vehicles are in a state of disrepair due to closing down of electronics and hardware shops.

"Hence, there was an urgent need to keep such shops open to some extent," read the BMC's amended order signed by Pardeshi. Pardeshi directed all assistant commissioners of wards to permit one standalone electronic and hardware shop on each road to remain open during the lockdown. According to BMC officials, in view of the order some electronics and hardware shops could be opened from Thursday.

On Tuesday night, Pardeshi, in an order, had directed closure of all non-essential services, including liquor shops, in the city.

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This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever

'Goodfather' is one of the biggest Hollywood cult classic of all times. The dialogues in the film are so popular that even Mumbai Police, being themselves, played around with words and used it in their latest post on Instagram, to share the importance of wearing masks.

In the post, the police department shared a meme with a still from the film and played around with its famous line, "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse' to 'I'm gonna offer him a mask he can't refuse.' In the captions, the police wrote, "Your enemy 'corona' always gets strong on 'the mask' you leave behind," with a striking hashtag #GodfathersOfSafety.

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mumbai Police (@mumbaipolice) onMay 5, 2020 at 9:05pm PDT

The post, shared on Wednesday garnered 16,459 likes so far. One of the users who double tapped on the post was Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan, who seemed impressed by the creativity of the police department, just like the users who commenting on the post.

A user said, "Suddenly i can't remember what the original line was. Mumbai Police tum bohot acha kaam karta hai." Another user said, "Mumbai Police are now best police in the world... In making memes too!" One more user said, "These guys keep getting better day by day!!"

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The Western Railway has worked intensively on the 2020 pre-monsoon works for Mumbai suburban railway while maintaining proper protocol of COVID-19.

A glimpse of some activities

Tree Trimming: Trimming of tree branches alongside the tracks is being done which are infringing with overhead wires in order to avoid tripping in monsoon. Till now total 158 trees have been trimmed.

Insulator Cleaning: Cleaning of insulators is a major precaution against flashing of the insulator during man soon showering. The fitting of the bridges were also checked where clearance are critical. This will help to avoid tripping in monsoon. Till now total 1,395 insulators have been cleaned.

Insulator cleaning on the left and checking of bridge fittings on the right

Bird Nest Removal: This is the season of bird breeding. The bird used to make nests in OHE structures. These nests are identified during foot patrolling and live line inspections and such identified bird nests are then removed from structures. Till now total 454 bird nests have been removed.

Bird gel: The non-toxic bird deterrent gel is also applied on overhead structures and cantilevers to prevent birds from landing on overhead structures thus avoiding the nests. During locked down bird gel at total 969 points have been applied.

Bird deterrent gel and applying gel below FOB

Cross over checking: Most of the suburban section is having unregulated overhead wires and due to temperature variation, the overhead wire of cross overs may get disturbed. To overcome this problem, all cross overs were checked hot line by tower wagon and 22 of them adjusted in power blocks.

During the lock down period despite availability of only 10-15% of the regular field staff it has been ensured that important works for monsoon preparation are going on as per target in suburban section of CCG-VR section

Sufficient number of point machines have been readied by signal workshop and kept as spare for replacement in case of monsoon flooding. Vulnerable signal boxes have been raised in flood prone areas. Staff have been continuously imparted training for monsoon drills.

Earth-resistance of Telecom installations of Churchgate-Virar Section are being checked and maintained at the desired level.

Routers, Switches, LAN Extenders, wire connections of UTS & PRS are being checked, cleaned & where there is wiring issue same is being replaced. Earth resistance of these equipment are also checked.

Testing & cleaning of Train Indicators for Suburban as well as Mail/Express trains, Public Address System is also being done.

Various equipment installed in Telecom OFC rooms of Churchgate-Virar section are also being cleaned. Checking & cleaning of different cards of these equipment are also in progress.

Power Plants for various Telecom equipment are also being maintained. Process of taking measurement of battery voltage, Charger voltage, AC supply voltage cleaning the connection terminals, cleaning battery-charger etc are in progress.

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An under-trial inmate and two staff at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai have tested positive for Coronavirus. The inmate has been admitted for treatment at JJ Hospital. The jail administration, looking at the seriousness of the matter, got 150 people, including staff and inmates tested, of which results are awaited.

According to information received from prison sources on May 2, the inmate, who was accused of murder, collapsed in the jail after which he was admitted to JJ Hospital, Meanwhile, he underwent the Coronavirus test and he was found positive on May 4 as per his reports. The jail administration then got into action and tested 150 people in the jail for the virus, and their reports are awaited.

An official of Arthur Road Jail told mid-day, "We had taken measures to prevent coronavirus. After one of the inmates and two jail staff tested positive, we got 150 people in Arthur Jail tested. The report is yet to come."

Two jail staff who tested positive have been kept under quarantine. They were earlier sent out for fieldwork. According to the jail sources, if an employee has been sent outside the jail after lockdown, he would not be given in-prison duty again and would be sent on quarantine for 14 days.

The jail has been closed down because of the coronavirus outbreak, due to which no new inmates are being accepted in the jail. At such a time, only essentials services workers are allowed inside the jail.

As the number of cases in the state is on a surge, the prison department planned some important measures. As the inmates in the prison were prone to get infected, some of the prisoners were temporarily sent out on bail. Also, five prisons in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, and Pune have been closed down due to the pandemic.

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The process of sending daily-wage labourers to their hometowns has started, with three trains leaving from Panvel carrying 3,600 people on board so far. But, the long-awaited exercise seems to have mocked all rules of social distancing. While most migrants themselves are unaware of why physical space is critical to maintain, the authorities took them to the railway station in packed buses or police vehicles.

Since last week two trains have left for Madhya Pradesh and one for Bihar. One of the special trains left for Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday night and around 1,200 workers were accommodated in it. The expenses were paid for by the MP government and the food was given to the migrants by local authorities. However, the buses and police vehicles in which they were brought to the station were fully packed. Some people even stood at the door as the seats were occupied. "Bhaiyya ab social distancing ka pata nahi. Bus humko ghar pahucha do. (We don't know what is social distancing. We only want to go home). We are in such trouble. We can't stay here for another day with kids as we don't have enough money to feed our family," said Devendra Saket, a daily wage worker who was brought in a bus with his child and wife from Uran.

'Paid for medical check-ups'

"These are very difficult days and we have been praying to God that no one should suffer like this. We don't have a single rupee in hand and are totally dependent on people and the government for food till we reach home. We were also charged R100 for a medical check-up," he added. Many of the migrants claimed they had to pay Rs 100 per person for medical check-ups which were done at the police stations before they left.

 One of the many buses going to Panvel station that was packed to capacity

Priti Saket, another migrant brought to Panvel from Uran in the same bus along with her husband and six-month-old daughter said, "We don't want to say anything to anyone. We just want our kids to be safe. At least we won't sleep hungry. We were stuck for a month we just want to go home," she said. Priti also said she was charged R100 for a medical check-up.

'Glad to go home'

"I was staying in Kamothe and was quarantined for 14 days and now brought to the station. My medical check-up was done free of cost. The only problem I faced here is food. But at least the government has realises our pain and is sending us back home," said Ankit Goyal, who belongs to Satna district of MP.

"I was trying to register myself since the day it was announced that trains will go from Panvel to MP. I got my medical check-up done, the police helped us in filling the forms and doing other formalities. The buses were fully packed with around 60-70 people, but we are happy that at least now we are going back home," said Prakash Saket, who was traveling to MP.

"Third train left from Panvel today early morning to Habibganj (MP) with 24 coaches and 1,200 passengers. MP Govt bore the ticket charges of passengers, food and water provided by the local authorities. A great team effort of police , railways and revenue Dept." The Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner, Sanjay Kumar, said in his official twitter handle on Thursday.

Asked about the migrants' claims of being charged for medical check-ups, he said they seem to have visited private clinics. "If it was done by private medical practitioners, we can't help," Kumar told mid-day.

Migrants wait to board a train at Panvel station on Wednesday

The authorities are facing several challenges on ground to send the migrants home. "The biggest challenge was issuing medical certificates. Hundreds of migrants have rushed to the police stations, hospital's and private clinics to get medical certificates, exposing themselves to the pandemic. The medical certificate wasn't required, people should have been screened at railway stations and allowed to go. The respective states should arrange isolation facilities for them there," said a senior government officer.

Collector shocked

The Collector of Raigad expressed shock that the migrants were taken to the station without regard for social distancing.

"It is extremely shocking if migrants were taken to railway station in fully packed buses and police vehicles without maintaining social distancing. There are clear guidelines to the administration about the transportation of migrants. I will look into it and ensure that this isn't repeated. We will give fresh instructions to the concerned department," said Nidhi Chaudhary, Collector, Raigad.

Chaudhary also said that a special train to Odisha has been cancelled on Thursday after the Orissa High court's order asked that all citizens re-entering the state had to have certificates specifically saying they were COVID-19 negative. At least 1,200 migrants were ready to leave on Thursday after completing all formalities including general medical check ups.

Around 1.5 lakh migrants stay in Raigad district, of these 66,000 have applied to leave the state. At least 14,000 passes have been issued to stranded tourists and others who are going by their private vehicles with only three persons in one vehicle as per the rules.

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A day after most Maharashtra ministers rued the flip-flop on COVID-19 policies, indecisiveness and lack of coordination between empowered bureaucrats, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray received suggestions, objections and full cooperation at an all-party meet on Thursday.

The common sentiment was that everything wasn't right and needed timely correction at medical, social, economic and agricultural fronts, among others.

Thackeray told the leaders that the lockdown has been effective so far. "If all cooperate, we should be able to control the pandemic," the CM said during the video-conference attended by ex-CM and Assembly opposition leader, Devendra Fadnavis, Council opposition leader Praveen Darekar, MNS president Raj Thackeray, Prakash Ambedkar (BVA), Jogendra Kavade (RPI), Rajendra Gavai (RPI), Vinay Kore (Jansurajya Party), Mahadev Jankar (Samaj Paksh), Ashok Dhawale (CPM), Imtiaz Jalil (AIMIM), Kapil Patil (JD), Jayant Patil (PWP), DCM Ajit Pawar, senior ministers Ashok Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat.

Senior minister Chhagan Bhujbal and other ministers had raised voices against the bureaucracy which enjoys unlimited powers under Disaster Management and Epidemic Diseases Acts. Bhujbal said that bureaucrats at the top and district-level were unwilling to accept sane advice from political leaders and ministers. The minister's strong views were endorsed by his cabinet colleagues and junior ministers during the online meeting on Wednesday. Similar concerns were expressed in the all-party meeting too.

'Healthcare gone for a toss'

Former chief minister Fadnavis demanded Thackeray's urgent attention towards the healthcare system. He said the situation in Mumbai is serious and needed special, focused efforts. He added that hospital management isn't good and cited the incident of bodies kept around patients in a Sion hospital ward. He demanded timely and quality treatment for non-COVID-19 patients and better food and facilities at quarantine centres.

"Patients should know of beds available and other information on a dashboard. More and more healthcare staff are getting infected," he said, adding that contact-tracing was stopped for no reason and asymptomatic people were not tested. "Hiding the number of patients and dead is serious. The political leadership should enforce much-needed coordination between various arms of the government," he said.

Fadnavis protested against the growing attacks on police, which he said is demoralising the force already under duress. "The police force is increasingly getting infected but isn't getting adequate treatment," he said.

Council opposition leader Darekar said that in many cases test reports came after patients died of COVID-19. "It is wrong if people die without getting treated. The quarantine centres don't have proper facilities," he said.

Give jobs to locals: Raj

Asking for a lockdown exit plan, MNS chief Raj Thackeray said it was the right time to give local skilled and unskilled workers jobs as migrants are leaving the state. He also asked to register migrants to ease their return, if any. "Also ensure that migrant workers are screened when they return home. I had told earlier that these people would leave us in difficult times. We should have strong control over the entry and exit of migrant workers. A human approach doesn't work every time," he said.

Raj added that he had never seen Mumbai in such a state. "Please ensure that additional forces like SRPF relieve police personnel who have been on duty for two months. The containment zones need more police presence," he said.

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Migrant workers continue to suffer amid the lockdown. In the latest incident, hundreds of labourers, who had set out for home on foot, were lathi-charged by police at Kashimira on Thursday. Police chased them away towards the city, and now they have nowhere to go.

Over 250 daily-wagers were headed towards Gujarat when they were stopped by the police on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway near Ghodbunder Road junction. As police rained lathis on them, many ran down the bridge and crossed to the other side. Others ran to hide behind vehicles. A mid-day team witnessed the baton charge that took place on the north-bound Versova bridge on the highway. With no food and to transportation back home, the workers had decided to walk hundreds of kilometres to reach home.

'Don't know where to go'

"Dhobi ke kutte wali haalat ho gayi hai humari… na ghar ke rahe na ghaat ke... kidhar jayein samajh nahin aata (We don't know where to go anymore)," said Baliram Choudhary, who left his rented house at Dahisar East on Thursday to walk home to Maharajganj in UP.

Police lathi charge workers near Ghodbunder Road junction on Thursday

"I filled the form five days ago to take a train home. But I have not received any response. I got a test done for COVID-19 and my report came back negative. I lost my patience and decided to walk home," he added.

"We are stuck at this tri-junction for three hours because the police are not allowing us to cross Versova bridge," said Choudhary, accompanied by his two friends Naushad Ahmed and Sahban Hussain. "We are all tailors and lived together in the rented room. Now, even if we decide to go back, the landlord won't take us back suspecting we may have contracted COVID-19," said Ahmed. "We are now jobless as well as homeless. Police are beating us up and not allowing us to go to our hometowns," said Hussain.

Gita was headed to Nalasopara with her two kids, spouse and a relative

Among the hundreds was Gita, who was headed to Nalasopara with her two kids, husband and a relative. They worked at a construction site before the lockdown. She had planned to go to her relative's place at Nalasopara and then arrange a transportation to UP. "Why are cops chasing us away and beating us? What is our fault?" asked her relative Mukesh.

Youth looted by auto driver

A youth Umesh Paswan had boarded an autorickshaw from Bhayandar for Nalasopara, but the driver and his two friends allegedly snatched his phone and Rs 50 cash. "A few minutes after I took the auto, the driver stopped midway and his two friends came, slapped me and snatched my mobile phone and the cash," said Paswan, who did not file a complaint fearing the police would book him for violating the stay-at-home order. He then decided to walk to Nalasopara where his brother stays.

However, the police have refuted the allegations of lathi charge. "I was present there on Versova bridge and they [migrant workers] were not lathi charged," said Assistant Commissioner of Police Sanjay Kumar, Thane Rural.

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As a precautionary measure against the rising COVID-19 cases in the city, Mumbai got four COVID Care railway stations on Thursday.

The four stations - Mumbai Central, Dadar (western), Bandra Terminus and Panvel are among the 215 stations across the country shortlisted by the Union Health Ministry, where rail isolation coaches will be parked as COVID-19 care centres in case COVID cases continue to rise in the city.

These coaches will act as quarantine and isolation centres for city patients.

A senior official confirmed the development and said considering the possibility of an increase in cases, railway coaches would be put to use. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare chalked out a detailed list on Wednesday night. Elaborating further he said, separate coaches have been planned for suspected and confirmed patients to avoid cross-infection.

"The special train coaches will be cleaned and disinfected as per protocol and handed over to the authorities. Later, officials will map at least one COVID dedicated hospital for each train so that the patient can be shifted in case of an emergency," he said.

"Basic arrangements like ambulances etc for shifting the patient shall be made available by the state with paramedical staff. The train will be provided with watering arrangements, proper electricity connections and maintenance," he added.

He said the contact number of local railway authority would be shared with the state where the train is stationed and wherever required, catering arrangements shall be made by IRCTC/ Commercial Department with Railway Protection Force (RPF) ensuring suitable security. Guidelines have also been issued for proper signage to be placed outside railway stations, platforms and near the location of coaches.

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Migrant labourers in the city might soon get some respite as the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has now come up with a plan for migrant transport movement, in addition to trains.

The country's second-biggest fleet of 17,000 buses is yet to confirm the development as the plans are under process. Details, however, reveal that about 10,000 buses will be used for the process, with the costs borne by the state government. While Maharashtra Minister of Relief and Rehabilitation Vijay Wadettiwar made a public statement on this seeking expediting the plans, the MSRTC will soon make a formal announcement.

MSRTC had earlier sent about 90 buses to bring back students stranded in Kota, Rajasthan. As per the plans available, the state transport ministry said that they were in the process of building a separate portal for booking of such migrants who were willing to travel back to their home states.

An official said bus depot managers and divisional officers will stay in touch with tehsildars or appointed state administration officials. Buses will be provided for groups of 20-25 people. He added that the buses will only be for those who register themselves with the local district collectors, expressing a desire to go back to their home district or state.

Limited passengers on every bus

"The buses will be following all norms of social distancing which means only a limited number of passengers would be occupied in every bus," an official said. He added that no passengers will be allowed to de-board the bus mid-way as they will be point-to-point buses and in case of long-distance travel, the buses will be given adequate halts for food and drinks and in case of a bus break-down, replacement buses will be provided on priority.

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A 3D printing startup in Mumbai has been accused of not fulfilling its part of the deal in a crowdfunded project initiated by a Delhi-based content creator to provide equipment to frontline health workers.

In March, Kusha Kapila contacted Boson Machines (BM) to provide 3D printed face shields for medical personnel at an initially agreed price of R150, by raising Rs 900,000 on Ketto.

With an industry standard yet to emerge, there were a lot of debates between Kapila and BM over the price and the number of masks to be made for raised amount."We then settled on R19 lakh for 18,000 masks," said Kapila. "Even this meant that a shield would cost Rs 105, which was still higher than the price of other 3D printers. The price was again reduced to Rs 75, before they finally agreed to R60. At the same time, the fundraising goal was also increased to Rs 21 lakh. They already had orders and capacity for 14,500 masks and we wanted to help as much as we could."

Kapila’s tweet tagging Aaditya Thackeray where she called out Boson

Boson was paid around Rs 13 lakh for the 14,500 face shields, and the remaining money was with Ketto, to be paid after the second batch of shields were dispatched.

The story gets muddled at this point, with Kapila taking to Twitter on May 1, accusing the company of not honouring its commitment and claiming even Rs 60 per mask was steep.

"After many enquiries, and [BM co-founders and brothers] Arjun and Parth Panchal's consistent unavailability, they finally sent a cost breakdown that I forwarded to various industry experts for verification."

In another tweet, Kapila alleged BM charged more than market price. Both Kapila and Ketto also claim that BM had been evading their questions.

"As of today, suppliers charge anywhere between Rs 35 and Rs 50 for a shield of the same quality," Kapila told mid-day. "This suggests that BM is trying to profit off this fundraiser. Profiting off a pandemic is shameful and anti-national. For instance, the cost of the plastic frame is quoted as R80 and they could only justify Rs 27. That's a difference of Rs 53. Further, the visor cost is quoted as Rs 30, but we found out that a sheet costs Rs 8. The tally says BM has delivered 10,700 pieces but we don't know if this has actually happened. As of today, Boson owes [me and Ketto] Rs 6,76,000," Kapila said.

By this, Kapila means BM has to return her and Ketto R6,76,000 from the initial Rs 13 lakh paid, as per her calculations. "The last time I spoke to them, which is when we reached a price of Rs 60, they agreed to return the money but later said their CA would get in touch and have ghosted me since," said Kapila.

Parth Panchal. Pic/Facebook, Arjun Panchal. Pic/Twitter

BM claims it has already delivered 10,700 face shields to 19 hospitals and other institutions across the country, including Mumbai's Sion Hospital, Kasturba Hospital, KEM Hospital, Wadia Hospitals—and even the BMC.

In an email to mid-day, BM refers to Ketto Online Ventures Private Limited as the buyer, and not Kapila. "We are unaware of the role of Ms Kusha Kapila with the buyer, M/s Ketto Online Ventures Private Limited, and whether she is authorised to represent the company in commercial matters," it said.

BM also alleged Ketto owes them an outstanding R1,31,063 from the orders that they had already fulfilled.

"We have seen the statement put out by Boson and our legal team is taking necessary steps," said Varun Sheth, of ketto.org.

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The Maharashtra government on Friday announced a compensation of Rs 500,000 to the next of kin of all the migrants who were run over by a goods train near Aurangabad. Expressing deep anguish over the incident which killed 16 migrants, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that all the expenses for the treatment of all those injured in the mishap will be borne by the state government. "We are in constant touch with the Centre to make arrangements for running as many trains as possible for the migrants to return to their homes. I appeal to them not to give up hopes," Thackeray urged.

The Chief Minister said that the victims were working for a steel company in Jalna and were proceeding along the railway lines, apparently to their homes in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. At night they slept on the railway tracks but early Friday a goods train ran over them, killing 16 and injuring many others.

Thackeray said in the past 4-5 days around 100,000 migrants have reached home safely and more trains are being organized, including from Mumbai, to send the other stranded workers to their respective states.

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This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever

With the cases of coronavirus continuing to surge in Mumbai, the Mumbai Police has been pulling all stops to ensure the safety of the people. The police department has been active not just in the public space but on social media with their public interest messages urging people to respect the lockdown and follow the precautions put in place by the government.

In their latest post on Twitter, the Mumbai Police has posted a series of posters used some of the famous musical bands’ names such as Backstreet Boys, Linkin Park, Oasis and U2 to make sure people follow the lockdown rules.  The police department urged their followers through slogan coined with puns asking people not to visit Linkin Park,  reminding ‘U2’ stay home and that your home is your ‘Oasis’.

The Mumbai Police said in the caption, “Stay indoors, for we are on the streets, playing your favourite safety tunes with our 'Band-o-bast'.

Stay indoors, for we are on the streets, playing your favourite safety tunes with our 'Band-o-bast'. #LockdownPerformance #TakingOnCorona pic.twitter.com/ejPW0Ofbfw

— Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) May 7, 2020

The post shared on Thursday morning has garnered more than 1,900 likes and was retweeted 333 times. Users commenting on the post lauded the the police department’s creativity on their social media posts.

You guys have a great taste in music!

— Rudresh Solanki (@rudresh97) May 7, 2020

Huge respect to the person/group of people managing this account and showing his/their creativity even in this tough situation!!
Kudos to the team guys.
More recognition to you all.@MumbaiPolice @OfficeofUT

— Rishabh 🇮🇳 (@Rishabh4593) May 7, 2020

You always amaze with something 😍 new.. it's a pride to b a Mumbaikar and to be safe with Mumbai police 🙏

— roshan bangera (@roshbangera32) May 7, 2020

Creativity level genius 🔥

— Karen P (@Head_in_d_cloud) May 7, 2020

What do you think about this post?

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With the cases of Coronavirus continue to surge in the city, the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) has decided to suspend its operations from May 11 to 17.

The market committee has decided to shut all five markets, that include onion-potato markets, spices, fruits, vegetables and grains. The decision was made as cases among the market participants have been rising in spite of strict guidelines put in place to maintain social distance.

Navi Mumbai mayor Jaywant Sutar had urged the Maharashtra government to shut the APMC Market in a bid to stop the movement of people as many of the customers come from Mumbai to the travel to buy their stock of groceries.

The APMC Market in Vashi is the largest supplier of fruits, vegetables, grains and spices to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

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Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday refuted speculation about the Army being called in in Mumbai which has become a major coronavirus hotspot.

In a live webcast, he said additional manpower may be sought from the Union government if needed so that the state police force gets some respite.

CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray addressing the State https://t.co/ZZ65xsR3Oy

— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) May 8, 2020

Asking people not to believe rumours, the chief minister said the government might ask for additional manpowerfrom the Centre, if needed, to enable the police personnel to take rest in a phased manner. "This doesn't mean that Mumbai will be handed over to the Army. Police personnel are tired after working round-the- clock, some have fallen sick and a few of them have succumbed to the virus. They need rest," Thackeray said.

He also admitted that while the spread of the virus has been contained, the state has not succeeded in breaking the chain of infection yet. Whether the lockdown will be extended or not after May 17 will depend on how far people maintain discipline and follow rules, he said.

"We have to come out of the lockdown one day or the other. We can't be living permanently like this. But to come out of this sooner, you need to follow rules and maintain discipline of social distancing and use face mask," Thackeray said

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To tackle the spread of Infection, Panvel Municipal Corporation has taken a big decision. Contributing more than 40% cases in the tally of Covid-19 cases, Corporation has decided to declare entire Kamothe node as containment zone from Friday night. No travelling outside Kamothe will be allowed for common citizens, also residents will be allowed to step out only for buying essential things. Only employees working in essential services will be allowed to enter or exit the area.

Panvel Corporation area till now has reported 138 Corona cases till now. Out of these cases, 54 are from Kamothe node. To tackle the spread, Corporation was thinking of taking some strict action, finally it has decided to declare entire Kamothe node as containment zone.

The node is spread over 2.76 Square kilometer, having population of 1.13 lakh rupees. "Kamothe is contributing more cases than rest of the area, so we needed to take some strict action. As per standard practice, we were sealing a building as containment zone where positive case gets detected, but now we have decided to declared entire node as containment zone" told Ganesh Deshmukh, Municipal Commissioner of Panvel Corporation.

No travelling of persons will be allowed inside Kamothe from Friday night, only essential services employee including Medical practitioners, Government and Corporation employees, security personnel will be allowed after providing ID cards.

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India didn't exactly deal with COVID-19 the way most of the world did. Sure, there were the right noises made at regular intervals, the inane PR-exercises that are now a given from a government that picks up tips from reality television rather than qualified professionals, and some genuine, good work in states like Kerala. For millions of us, unfortunately, this was another excuse to do what we do best: pick on those who cannot fight back.

Thousands of words were expended at every stage of the outbreak on blame games that had no reason to exist. We could have used that airtime and column space to ask those elected to govern us why they had done very little. Instead, many of us chose to vilify Indians for doing what we would all have done, had we been compelled to live under the circumstances they had no choice but to accept.

Millions of us had the luxury of staying home without worrying about where our next meals would come from. The lockdown didn't prevent us from hoarding vegetables and fruit, medicine, or even alcohol, because we could worry about mundane things like running out of vodka. Yes, there were many of us who had to deal with unemployment and the inability to pay rent, but I kept thinking of those without a safety net — the men, women, and children forced to walk hundreds of kilometres without food or water, whose lives made our crises pale in comparison.

When hundreds of migrant workers gathered at Bandra in a desperate attempt to get home, anchors on television railed against their insensitivity and complained about the government of Maharashtra. None stopped to evaluate why those workers were on the street in the first place, putting their lives and those of their families at risk simply because they were in a place none of them could call home. As someone born and raised in Bombay, I struggled to get a sense of what that must feel like, to be in another city when the rug is pulled from under one's feet. None of us has lived through a pandemic before, but I was forced to think about young people who come here right after college in an attempt to make a living, and how they must cope with the closure of an office even when there isn't a global catastrophe to contend with.

There were videos of residents walking dogs and shouting at watchmen, policemen assaulted for simply trying to implement a life-saving lockdown, and arguments made by talking heads about why India's poor should stay where they are for the country's benefit. The hypocrisy of it ought to have shamed us all, but probably didn't penetrate our thick third-world skin.

It's impossible to predict what our lives will look like a year from now, when this has hopefully been put behind us and a vaccine is within reach. What I hope it will change is how we look at the faceless millions who toil for a pittance to do what the rest of us refuse to. The people who cook for us, stand guard outside our buildings and offices, ferry files between departments, wash our vehicles, and sell us fruit and vegetables when our venture capitalist-funded mobile apps fail to do the job.

Those who have left will return, because we live in a country that has failed to provide for them, forcing them to leave parents and relatives behind again. I hope we start to look at them a little more and try and implement measures to change the way they are compensated for jobs that have proven to be a lot more important than we have traditionally acknowledged them to be.

I think of celebrities, cricketers, bankers, and lawyers who routinely walk away with the largest percentage of what we collectively work to create for our country. None of them managed to do anything of any significance to alleviate our situation. Everything we thought was important was revealed to be hollow within weeks, while all the people we look down upon were revealed to have been performing life-changing roles all along.

It is naïve to assume that nurses, teachers, healthcare and sanitation workers, cooks, and vegetable vendors will suddenly start earning more than we have been trained to pay them. I like to think this pandemic will change us in subtle ways though, forcing us to recognise our inadequacies, our pompous designations and titles that we use to accomplish almost nothing.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira
Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper

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'Videsh se log flight se laye ja rahe hain, aur gareeb patri par mar rahe hain (People are being brought back from abroad on flights and the poor are dying on railway tracks)," said a migrant, who was walking on the tracks to reach his hometown in UP, about the tragic incident at Aurangabad. Most migrants are aware of it, but choose to walk on the tracks to avoid police action on the highways.

They fear they will be stopped from walking home and beaten and quarantined by the police. Speaking to mid-day, many of them said they don't have a choice.

mid-day has been reporting about the plight of the migrants who claim the government is not helping them with food and have also spent all their money since the lockdown began as they have been out of work. Many of them also claimed they decided to walk home as despite giving all required documents to board the special trains, local authorities are not telling them of the next procedures. Some of them decided to walk as they don't have the required documents. After the disturbing sight of hundreds of migrants walking home on highways, comes another such sight of them walking on railway tracks.

Tukaram Kuldip and his friends are walking from Mumbai Central to UP

Tukaram Kuldip, a resident of Basti, Uttar Pradesh, started walking from Mumbai Central on Thursday night, and by Friday morning had reached Thane. "We are a group of 30 people going to Basti. We submitted relevant documents at Nagpada police station to board the special trains, but there is no response. We are starving. Sarkar theek hai achche ke liye band kiya hai, lekin ham gareebon ka kya ? Videsh se log flight se laye ja rahe hai aur gareeb patri par mar rahe hai. (It's good the government has implemented the lockdown, but what about us poor people? People are being brought back from abroad on flights and the poor are dying on the railway tracks) We heard about the Aurangabad incident. Nobody wants to die like that but we have no options left. Ghar par hamare log bhi hain. (We have family at home)."

'Should we starve here?'

Another group of 30 migrants was walking on the railway tracks near Mulund railway station. A member of the group, Jalaluddin Khan, told mid-day. "We know it's dangerous. So should we starve here? Should we get beaten up by the police? Nobody knows what we are going through since the past one month. We are given half-cooked rice by the local civic corporation to eat once a day. We just want the government to take us home." This group belongs to Basti, Uttar Pradesh.

"Our group members submitted the forms at the concerned police station for the special trains but they got rejected. We don't know why. No one told us anything. We will see if there are any arrangements in Thane, otherwise we will continue walking," Khan said.

Udaybhan Yadav and his family are walking to Basti 

Another migrant worker, Udaybhan Yadav, a resident of Basti, started his journey from Mulund along with his wife and eight-year-old child. Yadav used to work at a hotel in Mumbai. "My parents are worried about us as we have no money and are not getting enough food here. We don't know when things will return to normalcy."

Railway speak

"We have been on alert since the lockdown was announced. The gateman and the keymen have been briefed to alert us about the movement of migrants. We have been counselling and taking action against those walking on the tracks," said Atul Pathak, IG Central Railway Mumbai division.

Inputs by Vishal Singh

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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has increased the capacity of Corona Care Centres (CCC) for positive asymptomatic people double fold, with the help of schools, college buildings and pandals on open plots. The city now has 37,343 beds reserved for people who are positive but don't have any symptoms. One-fourth of the city's patients are in these centres. The maximum number of these CCC2 facilities is in wards which are on the top with high numbers of COVID-19 cases.

While the institutional quarantine centres (CCCs) have over 7,000 high-risk contacts with a capacity of little more than 20,000, the BMC is now focusing on the Corona Care Centres 2 (CCC2) which deal with positive asymptomatic patients. The maximum number of facilities is available in E (Byculla), L (Kurla), M east (Govandi, Mankhurd), M west (Chembur) and S (Bhandup) wards where the number of patients is increasing significantly.

With the Shreeniwas Mill building have a capacity of 3,000 beds, two parking lots with 1,000 beds, NSCI club of Worli with 500 beds, and some schools, G south ward has 5,568 beds for asymptomatic positive patients. Byculla has 2,605 beds with an 850 beds centre in a hall and a pandal. With more than 900 cases in Dharavi, G North ward utilised the space of Dharavi College to set up another 700 beds facility. C ward used gymkhana lawns and buildings on Netaji Subhash Road for more than 1,200 beds.

L ward erected pandals in Somaiya ground and Kurla ST Depot for 2,000 beds, M west ward uses the Swami Vivekanand College building for 1,200 beds and M east ward with densely populated slums used MHADA buildings for a 700 beds facility.

As of today, 2,233 people are in CCC2. "Hardly 6 per cent of the beds are occupied so far. But the BMC is preparing for the worst scenario," said a BMC official.

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Despite media reports pointing out the poor handling and care of patients at Sion hospital, the administration seems to have not taken any action yet, as a new video has emerged of Friday evening, showing most patients sharing beds across the casualty ward.

On Friday, mid-day had reported how Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital admitted patients in the ward that had bodies piled on the beds. Earlier, a video had surfaced online, showing a man escaping out of the window due to the pathetic condition of the hospital. While the BMC has initiated an enquiry into the past incidents, the latest video has raised concern about the patients' safety at the hospital.

A 40-year-old woman from Dharavi was recently admitted to the casualty ward of Sion hospital with high fever. "She was given saline and asked to share a bed with another female patient. We don't know what the other patient is suffering from. What kind of isolation is this?" asks the daughter.

A Dharavi resident, 40, is made to share a bed with another patient at Sion hospital

In the video, several beds were seen occupied by at least two patients at a time. A 25-year-old man suffering from high fever was made to lie down with a 45-year-old patient. "I have been made to share a bed with a man who is more than 45 years old. I have been told that the doctor will visit me only in the morning. What if the man beside be is already a COVID-19 patient? Will he not pass on the virus to me?" he questioned while speaking to mid-day. Another patient, Vishnu Sarathi, a 34-year-old resident of Antop Hill was brought to Sion hospital by her neighbours after he complained of stomach pain. He also had high fever. However, the doctors gave him medicine and sent him back home.

Sources in the hospital said they take all the patients to the casualty ward when they arrive and due to lack of beds, they have to sit or lie down beside other patients. In case of fever, we give them medicines and if it subsides, we send them home, said the sources, adding that the rest are admitted. At present, the number of patients in the hospital is higher than that of the beds.

Some hospital staffers, who tested positive for COVID-19 but are asymptomatic, complained that they are being made to share wards with other high-risk patients. "Their report has come back positive but they do not have any symptoms," said one of the staffers.

Patients made to share a bed at Sion hospital

"We have tested positive, but there are no symptoms of COVID-19. We are afraid that our health might suffer by being among the high-risk patients," said another.

A visitor in the hospital was also seen without a mask on Friday, which violates the instructions given by the administration and also poses a risk to others.

Sion hospital Dean Pramod Ingale did not respond to mid-day's requests for comment.

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As Coronavirus cases continue to rise in the city, the civic body has decided to appoint an IAS officer for each of the city's seven zones. The officers have to improve the doubling rate of positive cases from the current 10 days to 20 days by May 17.

There were reports about differences of opinions as no one was assigned a specific work area. Now, with each officer responsible for a smaller area, administration is expected to be smoother. The BMC had six IAS officers, including the municipal commissioner, to run the various departments. The State assigned four more senior ones — three for the civic body and one for the four state-run hospitals — to boost management. In spite of years of experience, there were disagreements among officers and the result was seen in the handling of the pandemic. Sources said that some IAS officers expressed dissatisfaction over the management.

BMC chief till Friday evening, Praveen Pardeshi's order is expected to improve administration and accountability. Each of the city's zones is headed by a Deputy Municipal Commissioner. The newly-assigned officers have to visit their zones every day from morning to 2 pm and be in office till 3 pm. The civic chief is to conduct daily debriefing at 6 pm with focus on reducing the doubling rate.

These officers will supervise mapping of positive cases, contact-tracing, Containment Zones, house-to-house surveys and surveillance, identifying senior citizens with co-morbidities and their further treatment, fever clinics, facilitating private nursing homes, clinics, hospitals, etc., testing of symptomatic persons, CCC1 and CCC2 creation, community participation, etc.

While Abasaheb Jarhad, Suresh Kakani, P Velarasu and Jayashree Bhoj are additional commissioners with the BMC, Manisha Mhisakar, Dr Ramaswami and Ashwini Bhide have been deputed for COVID-19. Prajakta Lavangare has been appointed to handle CSR activities. Joint commissioner Ashutosh Salil is also on COVID-19 duty. Sujata Saunik has appointed to supervise JJ, St. George, GT and Cama Hospitals.

75% attendance in BMC

After initially cutting down employee strength by half, then increasing it to full capacity during the second phase of the lockdown, Pardeshi reduced it again to 75 per cent, barring essential services. The order says social distancing is not being maintained due to 100 per cent attendance. The focus will be on contact-tracing, quarantine centre management, upgrading municipal hospitals and pre-monsoon work. Officers and employees aged over 55 years and suffering from chronic health issues can work from home.

The civic body had been giving a daily allowance of R300 to frontline workers like nurses, doctors and sweepers. It will now give the allowance to assistant commissioners and employees at or below the post of executive engineers too.

Three officers — Pardeshi, Jarhad, and Bhoj were transferred by the government on Friday evening. Their designations remain as the decisions were taken while they held the posts.

Which zone has whom

Zone 1 (Colaba to Malabar hill and Byculla): Abasaheb Jarhad
Zone 2 (Mahalaxmi to Mahim, Chinchpokli to Wadala): Manisha Mhaiskar
Zone 3 (Bandra to Santacruz, Vileparle East to Jogeshwari East): Dr Ramaswami
Zone 4 (Vileparle west to Jogeshwari west, Malad, Kandivali): Suresh Kakani
Zone 5 (Kurla to Chembur, Govandi, Mankhurd): Jayashree Bhoj
Zone 6 (Ghatkopar, Bhandup, Mulund): Ashwini Bhide
Zone 7 (Kandivli to Dahisar): P Velarasu

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Days after a video showing patients lying next to dead bodies in a Sion hospital ward went viral, another video showing a COVID-19 patient escaping the hospital through the window surfaced on social media.

In the latest video, a middle-aged man is seen running out of ward no. 5 on the ground floor of the hospital and jumping out of the window. A few minutes later, the man is brought back by the hospital staff. BJP leader Kirit Somaiya shared the video on social media on Friday and sent a written complaint to the civic body demanding action. "The incident took place on May 3 in front of ward no. 5 which is meant for COVID-19 patients. It is the same ward where another video had shown bodies lying on beds," Somaiya said.

Dr Pramod Ingle, acting dean of the hospital, said that the video is authentic but is being shown in a negative light. "Patients of COVID-19 are often under a lot of stress and suffer from psychosis. People react differently to stressful situations. Fortunately, the patient was brought back by a guard wearing a PPE kit," said Dr Ingle. He added that the guard had been congratulated for his good work and the video was from the security footage of the hospital.

Bodies to go to mortuary

The Sion hospital committee probing the video showing bodies kept at Sion hospital's COVID-19 ward has been given a day's extension by Dr Ingle.

The patient seen walking towards the window 

Meanwhile, IAS officer Prajakta Lavangare has been appointed to take charge of Sion and Cooper Hospital. She visited the hospitals on Friday. Dr Ingle said that while the enquiry report is still awaited, a new protocol has been decided to handle bodies of COVID-19 patients.

"The bodies will now be packed in plastic sheets on the bed and then shifted to the mortuary. We have two mortuaries and among them, the bigger one has a capacity to keep around 40 bodies. Families can collect bodies from there," he said adding that currently, there are 11 COVID-19 bodies at the hospital.

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All looked well-organised for the 1,111 passengers of the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (Kurla)-Basti, Uttar Pradesh train that departed on Friday evening. However, chaos erupted amid delays as migrants were hurriedly packed like sardines into buses and transported to LTT, with social distancing forgotten.

The train transporting migrants from Meghwadi and Jogeshwari was the first to leave from the city. Sources said that of the originally 40 buses planned, just a few seemed to be pressed into service.

According to eyewitnesses, in the beginning, every bus had only 30 passengers and eight such buses arrived at LTT. But the process became tedious with just a handful of buses, which then had to make multiple trips to Jogeshwari.

The buses that came after 3:30 pm did not follow social distancing, with some people standing and some sitting on the footboard.

"We woke up at 5 am and were waiting with our kids and luggage. We expected to be taken to CSMT. But at the last minute, after the medical check-ups, we were packed into buses and brought to LTT. The confusion and chaos drained us, but finally, here we are on the train, going back home," a happy Dinesh Jaiswal, group leader of 13 people from Sonwara village said.

"We had filled forms five to six days ago at the local police station and were told last night that we would be taken to CSMT," said Shakil Ahmed, a tailor and painter, and group leader of 27 people from Gonda village.

Another resident, Manish Yadav, said that at the village they will at least stay with their family and struggle along with other villagers. "Mumbai is where we came to earn, but our roots are in the village. We stay well in the village where needs are minimal. With no sight of when the lockdown will lift, we cannot afford to stay in Mumbai at the mercy of free food," Yadav added.

"After they were brought to the railway station, group leaders were given tickets, which cost about R685 per head and then they were lined up and sent to respective coaches. Only two persons were allowed to sit in one bay. The train will reach Basti district on May 9," a railway official said.

Speaking on the last-minute chaos caused due to the change from CSMT to Kurla, Central Railway's chief spokesperson Shivaji Sutar said special trains are being run only on request of state governments. "We run trains if sending and receiving states agree. As per their request, we kept a train ready at LTT Kurla station," he said.

While nodal officer in-charge of the operation Dinesh Desai did not respond to calls, another official said that it would have been difficult to monitor every stage of the operation and these passengers all had a medical check up before embarking on the bus journey, so it was safe for them to be around each other.

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In major relief, the state government has decided that first and second-year students will be promoted to the next year based on performance. However, final year students will have to appear for their final exams which will be conducted between July 1 to 30.

State higher and technical education minister Uday Samant declared the decision through video on Friday providing relief to lakhs of students studying in thousands of colleges affiliated to different universities in the state.

However, the decision to conduct the final year exams will be subject to COVID-19 situation in the state and a decision about the same will be taken on June 20.

Also, a committee has been formed which will decide if the Common Entrance Test (CET) for UG and PG courses can be conducted. The committee is going to table their findings in eight days.

For UG the exam has been scheduled between July 1-19 and July 23-30 for PG courses.

As for students fearing non-compliance of 75 per cent mandatory attendance criteria, Samant said, "All students should be given full attendance for all days of lockdown until now which is 45 days. However even after adding these 45 days if any student is still lagging, the college should consider those cases compassionately. All final year final examination students shall continue studying as their exams will be held in July. It is a question of their career which is why the exams cannot be cancelled."

Explaining the grading system that will be used for first and second-year students, a senior University official said, "This grading will be done with 50:50 formula where 50 per cent marks will be based on internal evaluation or tests held until now before the lockdown and 50 per cent from the performance of the student in the previous year. If previous year's performance is not available, the grading will depend 100 per cent on performance until now in the academic year."

"Moreover students who have pending papers or fail in any subject will have to appear for ATKT exams which the varsities will hold within 120 days from the beginning of the new academic year," he added.

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