'A 25-year-old village resident reported sick at the Basti district hospital on March 28. For more than two days, he was shunted from ward to ward and hospital to hospital before he finally died in Gorakhpur, the largest city in eastern Uttar Pradesh, 70 km from Basti. He would be the first confirmed coronavirus casualty in the state. The 48 hours leading up to his death paint a grim picture of provincial India’s health infrastructure and bare the lack of preparedness or even training to handle the pandemic...'
'The Press Council of India on Friday asked the print media to stop the publicity and advertisement of AYUSH-related claims for COVID-19 treatment in order to prevent dissemination of misleading information about AYUSH drugs and services.
'Prince Charles, who came out of self-isolation to remotely inaugurate the UK's first makeshift National Health Service field hospital in London on Friday, recovered from his COVID-19 symptoms by following NHS advice, his office said on Saturday. Clarence House termed reports from India as false which claimed that the Prince of Wales' recovery after testing positive for coronavirus last week had a link to ayurvedic and homeopathy cure from a resort in south India.
'When they found him in an East Delhi locality towards the end of February, the tall, dark, and handsome labrador was hungry, weak, scared, and depressed. Apparently abandoned by his owners in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the well-bred dog had taken shelter inside a building under construction. Noticing his plight, someone called Ummeed Social Welfare Society, an Uttar Pradesh-based non-governmental organisation that took him in...'
'On 30 March, Dr Harsh Vardhan, India’s health minister, chaired a meeting to review the nation’s COVID-19 testing strategy. While the Modi administration has been reluctant to expand testing, the novel coronavirus has marched away from India’s megacities, and emerging evidence suggests that testing gaps will hamstring efforts to contain hotspots in smaller cities and rural areas.
'The Central Government has sought a direction from the Supreme Court that no media outlet should print, publish or telecast anything on COVID-19 without first ascertaining facts from the mechanism provided by the government. This prayer was made by the Centre in its status report filed in the SC in response to the PILs seeking directions for welfare of migrant workers, and measures to control the pandemic transmission...'
'India has had a Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) since 1948. In recent years, that fund has emerged as the primary focal point for the mobilisation of public donations in the wake of natural disasters like floods and earthquakes. On March 24, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national lockdown, the Union home ministry issued a notification declaring the COVID-19 epidemic in India to be a ‘natural disaster’ and invoking the provisions of the National Disaster Management Act to give the government coercive powers.
'The plight of poor migrant workers of India’s most populous state -- Uttar Pradesh – has no parallel. They were compelled to walk hundreds of kilometres to reach their hometowns after losing livelihood and suspension of transport services. To add to their woes, arbitrary fares were demanded by those offered bus services. Also, bus drivers harassed them, asking them to show their Aadhaar cards, and also deboarded some of them in the middle of highways.
'On 15 March, the union ministry of home affairs sanctioned the appointment of Baseer Ahmed Khan, Kashmir’s divisional commissioner, as an advisor to Girish Chandra Murmu, the lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Baseer is accused of being involved in a multi-crore land scam in 2009. A case against him regarding the matter remains pending with a special anti-corruption court in Baramulla. His elevation brings into question the Narendra Modi government’s promise of corruption-free governance in Jammu and Kashmir post the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution...'
'The Madhya Pradesh Economic Offences Wing has closed a case against former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and his family members, where they were accused of falsifying a property document while selling land, an official said on Tuesday. Scindia quit the Congress on March 10 and later joined the BJP. His resignation from the Congress triggered a revolt in the Madhya Pradesh party unit, with 22 MLAs who belong to his camp also tendering their resignations. This led to collapse of the Kamal Nath-led state government last week...'
