'As Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national lockdown on March 24 and asked Indians to stay home in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus, it triggered an exodus of migrant workers from the cities. With all work halted and public transport shut, they set off on desperate journeys, aiming to walk back to homes hundreds of kilometres away. But Gaurav Kumar was not one of them.
'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...'
'There is now a real fear that slums of Mumbai could turn out to be a big challenge in Maharashtra’s war against COVID-19, with an estimated 54 per cent of the total population of Greater Mumbai residing in them and 89 of the 203 positive cases in the ‘Maximum City’ being reported from such clusters...
'Delhi police have asked residents’ welfare associations to spy and report on people stepping out for morning or evening walks, or even moving about on the compound, attracting charges of trying to create a “police state”. The advisory, which asks the RWAs to go through CCTV footage to identify those violating the lockdown, says people with valid reasons to step out will not face action.
'Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday asked people to read the Bhagavad Gita for half an hour every day over the remaining lockdown period, triggering fears that such advice could alienate sections of the society... This wasn’t the first time Kejriwal had resorted to religion in recent times. Ahead of the Delhi elections last month, he had invoked Hanuman — a popular deity especially in North India — in what appeared to be an attempt to undercut the BJP’s narrative of projecting the AAP as anti-Hindu for its opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act...'
'A total of 120 people were packed inside the 40 to 50-seater bus with another 100 on the roof. They had travelled more than 550km over 40 hours — mostly in suffocating heat —and many of them had an even longer distance to cover. That was the account the police in Kanpur’s Naubasta area heard on Saturday night when they stopped the private bus to ask why it was flouting the lockdown.
'The lockdown for preventing the spread of the coronavirus could not have had come at a worse time for the tea gardens of north Bengal, for it coincided with the flush production of the Darjeeling tea industry. The first flush, which is harvested in March, and the second flush of May, are the biggest source of revenue for the tea gardens of the region, and till a few days ago, despite the lockdown, plucking of tea leaves continued in some gardens... “An immediate lockdown of [tea] gardens is necessary, but with the survival of the workers in mind.
'A Youth Congress worker from Malappuram who released a fake WhatsApp voice message claiming that a special train for migrant workers will leave from Malappuram’s Nilambur station on Monday, has been arrested by the police. The accused has been identified as Ali Shakeer (32), a Youth Congress worker and former mandal secretary from Edvanna. He has been booked by the Edavanna police on Sunday night...'
'If you have been rolling your eyes at the number of social media posts appearing on your timeline from friends and family, this big brother’s expectations are on another level altogether. The Karnataka government has asked all those who are quarantined at home over the COVID-19 outbreak to send a selfie every hour from their home, failing which they may be housed in mass quarantine centres. That’s 15 selfies per day for 14 days, amounting to a total of 210 selfies for the entire quarantine period!...'
'Anxiety reigns in India’s smallest state as its unprepared administration struggles with implementing the nationwide lockdown, compounded by the heavy-handed insertion of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The situation threatens to blow up into an explosive social crisis. On Saturday, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant declared the CRPF “will be given a free hand to take action against people violating the lockdown orders". Less than 24 hours later, there were already videos circulating of passers-by being assaulted and humiliated in the capital city of Panjim.
