HYDERABAD  THURSDAY  MAY 28, 2020  `7.00  PAGES 18  LATE CITY EDITION APAI TO HELP GET REFUNDS FOR FLIGHT CANCELLATIONS The Air Passengers Association of India on Wednesday launched an online tool to help passengers get full refunds GRIEVANCE CELL TO REGISTER CLAIMS DAMAGES SOUGHT FOR HARASSMENT Passengers can visit the APAI Grievance Cell at https://docs.google.com/ forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfc99rMw9aSTAd0pq8m04VvbpCRcXufBcdaxn5AkSX 760aWsw/viewform and fill in their flight details. APAI national president Sudhakara Reddy told TNIE they have already received over 1,000 complaints and will move the Supreme Court soon against airlines ■ ■ Reddy said passengers who came to know about cancellations after reaching the airport should be compensated for harassment “We have been shouting from the rooftop that airlines are like leaches and ministry has been taking their side all the time and every time and doesn’t care for the plight of pax,” he added 354 NO OF DOMESTIC FLIGHTS OPERATED BETWEEN 12 AM-5 PM ON WEDNESDAY CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Quarantine kicks in as passengers on two more flights test positive EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi TWO persons travelling in different flights have been found positive in the past 24 hours. A passenger on Air India Delhi-Ludhiana flight on Tuesday was tested positive for Covid-19. The passenger was an Al- Take CBSE boards in the place you are right now EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi IN an attempt to provide relief to students, the Union Human Resources Development ministry on Wednesday announced that those who have moved to other states or districts after lockdown can opt to appear in the Class X and Class XII board exams by the Central Board of Secondary Education from there itself. The decision is expected to benefit students of boarding schools as well as those in coaching hubs who had left for their home districts in the wake of the lockdown to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. The CBSE had rescheduled its board examinations as the papers could be completed since the lockdown began on March 25. The remaining papers will now be held between July 1 and 15. Sources said the ministry took the latest decision in view of the long distances students would have to travel and the quarantine measures that school authorities would have been forced to take. liance Air employee and a total of 36 passengers on the flight along with four crew members have been put in institutional quarantine as per Punjab government rules. Alliance Air, which operates regional flights, is part of Air India. “The passenger who works in the security depart- ment of Alliance Air was travelling on a paid ticket,”Air India stated. The flight was operated on May 25, when domestic flight services resumed after remaining grounded for two months. In a similar instance, an air p a s s e n g e r t r ave l l i n g o n Ahmedabad-Guwahati flight Virus can’t spread during flights: CDC Viruses don’t spread easily on flights because of “how air circulates and is filtered on airplanes”, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday KIND INITIATIVE DON’T PANIC, BUT BE ON ALERT OVER COVID: KCR Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday appealed to the people not to panic over Covid-19 despite some estimates that there would be spike in cases in next two to three months. “Even if the number of cases increases in the State, there is no need to worry. The government is ready to provide medicare to the needy. The required PPE kits, test kits, masks, beds, ventilators and hospitals are ready,” the Chief Minister said. During a review meeting on Covid-19 situation,the Chief Minister, however, cautioned people to be on high alert and take precautionary measures. “Despite the relaxations to the lockdown curbs, the spread of Coronavirus was not abnormal,” he said Migrants to fly home thanks to law school alumni `1,500 aid to poor stopped, govt staff’s 50% pay cut to continue EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad WITH the State’s revenue receipts remaining sluggish despite exemptions given to some sectors from the lockdown, the State government on Wednesday decided to withdraw the payment of `1,500 to the white ration card holders and continue with 50 per cent pay cut for the government employees in June. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao took this decision at a review of the financial health of the State at his official residence Pragathi Bhavan here. The meeting was also attended by Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and Principal Finance Secretary K Ram-  All shops to be opened from today  TSRTC services exempted from the curfew  State Formation Day to be a low-key affair | P7 akrishna Rao among others. The other decisions taken during the meeting included payment of instalments towards principal and interest on the loans that the State has availed, which is mandatory, and continuing the Aasara pension payments as it is the government’s commitment to the poor. was found positive after reaching destination on Wednesday . However, the airline the person travelled could not be ascertained immediately . On Tuesday, a passenger on an IndiGo flight from Chennai to Coimbatore had tested positive for coronavirus. IndiGo grounded the entire crew of the This apart, the State government will provide 12-kg free rice to the poor next month, but will stop payment of `1,500 from June to the poor as they can now find employment due to the lockdown relaxations announced by the government. The Chief Minister also decided that pay cut up to 75 per cent for peoples’ representatives, 60 per cent cut for AIS officers, 50 per cent cut for the State government employees and 25 per cent cut to pensioners should continue for May month as well. The 10 per cent cut in the wages of contract and outsourcing employees will also continue. These decisions were taken in the backdrop of revenues receipts not picking up any momentum. CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 MUKESH RANJAN & PEARL MARIA ’SOUZA @ Ranchi / Bengaluru IT’s a journey they could not have imagined. The first batch of 180 migrants from Jharkhand, stranded in Mumbai for over two months due to the lockdown, will fly to their Ranchi on a special chartered flight on Thursday 6 am. The initiative is the alumni of the National Law School of India University Bengaluru. , Moved by the plight of migrants being highlighted by the print and electronic media, the alumni had initially booked seats for 45 workers from Jharkhand on a flight to Ranchi. It was scheduled to depart from Mumbai at 7 am on Wednesday, but was cancelled. “Since we had already decided to help them, we thought why not book a chartered flight,” said National Law School alumn Suhaan Mukherjee, who practises law in Delhi. The team also got a fair price for the flight from Air Asia airlines. AVOIDABLE MISHAP 3-YR-OLD BOY FALLS INTO ABANDONED BOREWELL IN MEDAK EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Medak IN yet another borewell accident, a three-year-old boy slipped into one such abandoned well in Podchanpally village of Papannapet mandal in Medak district on Wednesday . The rescue teams are trying to ensure that the boy gets enough oxygen supply since the well is about 120 ft deep. They are also trying to dig a parallel well to reach and rescue him, but it would be a long and laborious process. A farmer, Mangali Bhikshapathy drilled a new borewell in his two-acre of land in Podchanpally on Wednesday after he sank two borewells in his field as he could not strike water. At that time, his daughter Naveena and her son Sai Vardhan were with him. At about 5 pm, they set out for home as dusk would settle shortly and at that time the boy was walking along with them. The boy who was close to the one of the abandoned borewells accidentally slipped into it. Naveena immediately lowered her saree into it hoping the boy would hold it. But by then the boy appeared to have gone much deeper and could not hold the saree. The police, meanwhile, said that the boy may have slid to the bottom of the 120ft borewell. CONTINUED ON P2 since the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25. There have been varied guidelines by the States on quarantine. While some States have made home quarantine mandatory for every passenger, many others have talked about institutional quarantine. Border situation controllable and stable, says China Trump again offers mediation, this time to ease tension along the Sino-Indian border sovereignty and security, and safeguarding peace and stability in the border areas. Now the IN its first reaction after two China-India border area situastand-offs at the Line of Actual tion is overall stable and conControl between Indian and trollable.” Experts saw it as a Chinese troops on May 5 and conciliatory gesture. May 9, China on Wednesday Hours later, Chinese Ambassaid the situation at the LAC sador to India Sun Weidong, in was ‘stable and controllable’. a webinar, said both nations are US President Donald Trump not each other’s threats but opadded a bit of drama to the situ- portunities. “The Dragon and ation by offering to mediate be- t h e E l e p h a n t c a n d a n c e tween India and China to settle together.” the ‘raging border “China and India Nepal dispute’. “We have are fighting together cartography informed both India against Covid-19 and and China that the we have an imporA constitutional U n i t e d S t at e s i s tant task to consoliamendment to ready, willing and date relations. Our include Kalapani able to mediate or aryouth should realise and Lipulekh as bitrate their now Nepalese territories the relation between raging border disChina and India, the in its new political pute. Thank you!” two countries are opmap was put on Trump tweeted. portunities for each hold after Nepali He had in the past other and pose no Congress sought made multiple offers time to take its call threat,” the Chinese of mediation beenvoy said. tween India and PaSeveral areas kistan on the Kashmir tangle, along of the LAC have been witonly to be promptly rejected by nessing enhanced military acNew Delhi, saying there was no tivity on both sides following a scope for a third nation in what face-off between the troops in was essentially a bilateral Ladakh and Sikkim. India has dispute. maintained that its troops did In Beijing, Chinese foreign not do any activity on the other ministry spokesperson Zhao side of the border and blamed Lijian said: “We are committed China for hindering its normal to safeguarding our territorial patrolling operations. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi MATH & EFFECT OF MODI PACKAGE—BY S GURUMURTHY P9 Covid patient complains of lack of docs at Gandhi Hosp O I S H A N I M O J U M D E R @ Hyderabad BACK ON THE STREETS Children seek alms at a traffic junction in Hyderabad on Wednesday. As the lockdown restrictions were relaxed, many poor people and their children, hit the streets looking for help | R V K RAO | P3 WHILE the State government has been claiming that all Covid-19 patients are being provided the best possible treatment at Gandhi Hospital, patient testimonials seem to speak a different narrative. On Tuesday a middle aged man from Hyderabad was admitted in , Gandhi Hospital after testing positive for Covid-19. However, he shared a video, claiming that no doctor has checked him since he was admitted. The man in the video could barely speak and said that he had difficulty in breathing and was very scared that he CONTINUED ON P3 might lose his life. WINGED PESTS No threat now, but TS gears up to fight locusts V N I L E S H @ Hyderabad Three-year-old Sai Vardhan fell into a borewell at Podchanpally village on Wednesday evening flight for 14 days and said they were trying to reach out to the passengers of the flight as per government norms. The passenger has been quarantined at ESI state medical facility at Coimbatore. India on Monday resumed domestic passenger flights after a gap of over two months TELANGANA has geared up seven districts that share border with Maharashtra with all the ammunition required to fight swarms of locusts, in case the winged pests enter from the neighbouring State. However, speaking to meteorologists from the private weather forecasting agency Skymet and the India Meteorological Department revealed that Telangana might not have much cause of worry . Locusts are known to follow the trajectory of winds. Mahesh Palawat, Chief Meteorol- ogist of Skymet, said that the winds presently blowing from the northwest are limited only till Vidarbha, helping the locusts reach till there and for the next two days, these winds are expected to have an impact maximum up to east Madhya Pradesh. He said that in these two days there is only marginal chance of winds reaching the northern tip of Telangana like Adilabad or Asifabad and as a result the chances of the pest entering the State are scarce. After two days, southwest winds are expected to blow, further repelling the insects away from Telangana. When contacted, an official of Locust Warning Organisation, a Central government body said that , there is as of now no threat of the locust to Telangana. Telangana Agriculture Principal Secretary, B Janardhan Reddy said, “Presently it (locust swarms) is in Maharashtra, between Amravathi and Nagpur. Its direction and trajectory are not yet established. If Maharshtra is unable to control, it will further go ahead. The definite prediction is Chhattisgarh but whether it will pass through the border districts like Adilabad and Mancherial or over them or via Nagpur, it is not yet known. We are in touch with the Maharashtra authorities. CONTINUED ON P7 TELANGANA COVID-19 CASES CROSS 2,000-MARK PAGE 3 EXPRESS READ Centre spreading Covid through railways: Didi Kolkata: Expressing concern over the alarming rate of Covid infection in Maharashtra, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee accused the railways of sending migrants without consulting her government | P10