China withheld data from probe team, says WHO chief villupuram l wednesday l March 31, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION A day after the WHO-China final report on the origin of Covid rejected the Wuhan lab leak theory, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tore into it, saying the international probe team did not get access to raw data in China Tedros did not want to smoke out the lab leak angle, as he called for further investigation on all hypotheses, with additional missions back to China “I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough,” Tedros said. “Further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions.” He also spoke about the withholding of data. “In my discussions with the team, they expressed the difficulties they encountered in accessing raw data.” P14 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 ■ ■ Prime Minister taunts Congress-led government in Pondy as a ‘disaster’ D ebjani D utta @ Puducherry CALLING the previous Congress government, led by V Narayanasamy as a “disaster government”, , Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his second election rally in Puducherry on Tuesday said that it failed on all fronts and looted. He said in the long list of non-per- forming governments over the years, Puducherry occupies a special place, as the “High Command government” of the Union Territory failed on all fronts, including education, filling up of medical seats, welfare of SC, STs, etc. Charging Narayanasamy with corruption, Modi said, “There was loot and only loot. MLAs belonging to the Congress party has been openly talking about the corruption directly linked to the family of the former Chief Minister and they are sidelined.” Ridiculing the former CM, the PM said that Puducherry election is unique as the sitting Chief Minister has not been given a ticket to contest, despite several years of his loyalty to the party . “This clearly shows how much of a ‘disaster’ his gover nment turned out to be,” Modi claimed. The promises made in their manifesto have not been fulfilled and a report card on the works done by the government is yet to be put out, he added.  Continued On: p4 EVMs cannot be tampered with: EC The Election Commission on Tuesday submitted before the Madras High Court that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) cannot be tampered by any Wi-Fi or other devices | P4 BIG CHANGE IN AUTOMATIC PAYMENTS FROM APRIL 1 Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally at Dharapuram in Tiruppur ahead of the Assembly polls to garner votes for the candidates in the NDA alliance | A RAJA CHIDAMBARAM ‘BJP stands for tn development’ Modi talks about the proposed defence corridor and ‘toy cluster’ that would boost TN economy E x p ress N ews S er v ice @ Tiruppur “THE defence corridor that is set to come up in Tamil Nadu will bring many benefits to the State. I will never forget the tank built in Tamil Nadu, which was dedicated to the nation on the northern border,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an election gathering at Dharapuram on Tuesday. Seeking votes for the candidates in AIADMK-BJP alliance, he said the State will also have a ‘Toy cluster’ that will show the way for producing top-quality toys for the world, adding that the Centre has changed the criteria for MSMEs and as much as `14,000 crore were sanctioned for 3.6 lakh MSME units. have remarkable affection and Modi claimed that around 1.5 compassion. Last year, the MSME lakh people related to MSMEs units went out to help others. I benefitted through interam here to assure that my est subvention scheme, government is committed and 1.8 lakh units benefitto help the business ted through credit-guaranunits.” teed fund trust scheme. He As the Prime Minister is further said, “I appreciate known for touching upon DAyS the people of Kongu reTamil saints and literary TO GO gion for their spirit of enfigures in his speeches, terprise. You have created wealth this time he picked up Andal and and value for the nation. Though Avvaiyar, and said the National the Kongu people are known for Democratic Alliance and he were their business sense, they also inspired by their ideals and be- 6 EC issues notice to A Raja for his remarks Election Commission on Tuesday issued notice to DMK MP A Raja on his alleged derogatory remarks on CM Palaniswami. It said his speech was not only derogatory but also obscene and lowered the dignity of motherhood lieved that the progress of the society is not complete without women empowerment. He listed out schemes that he said were devised with an objective of increasing women power. Like, the increase of toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission. Modi said as many as 32 lakh women in Tamil Nadu have benefitted under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana; and that around 3 lakh houses (rural) and 3.8 lakh houses (urban) have been built under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. A total of 4,800 police personnel were deployed in the town and three-layer security arrangements were made for the Prime Minister.  continued on: P4 3 1 New RBI rules require banks to send a notification to the customer 24 hours before the transaction is slated. The amount will be debited only after the customer gives his nod 2 Auto-debit payments for utility bills and subscription-based services will come to a halt 3 Standing instructions on credit or debit cards will get deactivated WHAT WILL BE AFFECTED Mobile and utility bill payments, subscription for online streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar etc WHAT WILL NOT BE AFFECTED Standing instructions on bank accounts for recurring payments such as EMIs, payments or mutual funds etc will continue as usual WHY THE NEW RULES To safeguard customers from data leaks, hacking of confidential data and payment frauds For `5,000banksauto-debit a payments above this amount, must send one-time password to customer to authenticate BJP candidate caught with cash, FIR filed Puduchery: Liquid cash to the tune of `43,000 was seized from the car of BJP candidate Sai J Saravanan Kumar, who is contesting in Oussudu constituency (SC). An FIR was registerd against the candidate and his driver | P4 Is tiruttani ‘unlucky’ for parties? | P6 Cars in cm’s convoy collide | P4 Situation is going from bad to worse, vaccinate 45+ in 2 weeks: Centre S u m i S u k anya D utta @ New Delhi The Centre on Tuesday warned that the Covid-19 situation in India is getting from bad to worse and asked districts with high caseloads to ensure 100% vaccination of all above 45 within the next two weeks. The warning came as the country recorded over 4 lakh new cases over the past Top 10 districts one week, registering nearly with active cases 58,000 daily cases on an average and a growth rate of nearly 7% Pune 59,475 active cases. Mumbai 46,248 On Sunday, over 68,000 new Nagpur 45,322 cases were reported — the most 35,264 in a day since October and Thane 26,553 about half of them were from Nashik Maharashtra. “We are facing Aurangabad 21,282 an increasingly severe and in- Bengaluru Urban 16,259 tensive situation in some dis15,171 tricts but the whole country is Nanded Delhi 8,032 potentially at risk. All efforts to contain the virus and save lives Ahmednagar 7,952 should be taken,” said V K Paul, member, health at Niti Aayog and chairman of the national Covid-19 task force. “Trends show the virus is still very active and enter our defences, just when we think we can control it, it sparks back,” he added. With the Covid vaccination window for all above 45 years of age opening from Thursday the Union health , ministry said those without pre-registrations (walk-ins or onsite registration) can get vaccines only after 3 pm and not in the forenoon session.