Cyclone Amphan stays as the predominant story on most front pages Friday morning. At least 72 people lost their lives due to the cyclone.
The government capping air fare, among a string of other new rules, a few days before the resumption of domestic air travel, also gets top billing on Page 1.
Check out Business Standard’s exclusive on the labour ministry worried by ordinances that temporarily abolish labour laws in some states to foster more economic activity.
The paper notes, “The last living link with the rest of the world was snuffed out for many Calcuttans when their mobile phone batteries went dead. There was already no TV, no Internet, no music being delivered right into their ears, no online classes, no work from home. No heating food at the press of a button.”
Disaster does bring people together — the Kolkata daily reports that ‘Modi and Mamata joint survey’ will assess the damage, today over some of the Amphan-ravaged areas of Bengal.
The report ‘Virus arrives in UP towns & villages on buses, trains, trucks’, states, “A day after Mumbai Mirror reported that 36 people in Basti district of Uttar Pradesh, who arrived home on a Mumbai-Gonda train, had tested Covid-19 positive, 59 more migrants who left Mumbai in trucks and buses after the lockdown was eased have tested positive in Barabanki, Jaunpur, Bareli, Varanasi and Siddharth Nagar.”
In some local news: ‘BMC can take over 80% pvt hospital beds’. The paper reports, “The state government on Thursday allowed the BMC to take over 80 per cent of private hospital beds, except those meant for maternity, dialysis and chemotherapy… It has also capped the per day charge at Rs 9,000 for an ICU bed at these facilities.”
In encouraging news for all potential flyers but less so for airlines, ‘Govt sets fare range for flights, 40% tickets to be sold below mid-point’.
The fixed minimum and maximum fares will obtain till August 24. Airlines will need to sell 40% seats below midpoint of the fare band on each flight. “Based on flying time, there are seven categories: starting at flights below 40 minutes having a range of Rs 2,000-6,000 and going upto those with flying time of 3-3.5 hours with a range of Rs 6,500-18,600,” TOI reports.
In other non-Covid bad news, ‘Riot accused turns out to be man who took gunshot victim to hosp’.
TOI reports, “A recent bail order of a man accused of rioting in northeast Delhi in February this year has revealed that he had, in fact, rushed a gunshot victim from his locality to a hospital. Asad (23), through his counsel UA Khan, had sought bail with the contention that he had helped a person named Aasif, who was injured by a bullet during the riots.”
A ray of light amid grey times — New Delhi Municipal Corporation decided to open up public parks and TOI carries a picture of people feeding geese at the garden.
According to The Indian Express’ lead story, ‘…web check-in, face mask, and Aarogya Setu approval must’ for air travel.
More interesting is a little box item (‘Why the govt changed its mind in just three days…’) that explains the government’s “sudden” change of heart on air travel. It reports: “An imminent threat of more than one airline folding up…is learnt to be the reason” for the resumption of domestic flights.
And it appears China has been misbehaving on the border for a while now. The report ‘Big surge in Chinese transgressions, most of them in Ladakh’, finds that there has been “a marked increase in the number of Chinese transgressions” into the Indian side of LAC between 2015 and 2019. It notes that “Overall, there were 663 recorded Chinese transgressions in 2019, up from 404 in 2018. This included a 75 per cent spike in the western sector and a 55 per cent rise in the eastern sector.”
The Covid-19 tally of deaths in the capital continues to be under scanner. A brief report (‘MCDs’ coronavirus death…’) notes: “Municipal Corporations of North and South Delhi have….recorded 426 cremations or burials…as ‘Corona positive’ while Delhi government’s official health bulletin has recorded only 194.” It added that the “the government said the civic bodies had not provided documents to back their claim on the numbers”.
In its report (‘WB, Odisha flooded as Amphan…’) on the havoc wreaked by Amphan, the daily notes the damage would have been far more extensive if the evacuation of more than 6.5 lakh people in West Bengal and Odisha hadn’t been done.
And fresh trouble brews in the national capital after ‘Another big spike in Delhi with 571 fresh Covid cases’. The paper reports, “Delhi Thursday recorded 571 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), taking the total number of cases in the city to 11,659.. With over 500 new cases each day, Delhi has been recording the highest single-day spike for the last three days, the data shows.”
On the domestic political front, comes news from Karnataka where ‘Sonia booked for Cong tweet claiming misuses of PM fund’. The complaint alleged that Congress “tried to create distrust among masses with its tweet by spreading ‘baseless charges’”. In a tweet, the Congress had alleged that the PM CARES funds were being misused.
The country’s economic perils continue, in ‘Demand for loans ebbs amid curbs’, the paper reports that India’s “outstanding non-food credit shrank by Rs. 1.36 trillion, or 1.32% on 8 May from 27 March”. This is “despite a massive liquidity injection by the central bank to spur credit growth”.
It quotes a labour ministry official as saying “How can an Ordinance abolish labour laws in a state? It’s not merely about labour laws but also about labour rights. Who will benefit if the industrial dispute mechanism is abolished?”
The official added that the ministry was “firming up its response to the Ordinances and a final decision would be taken in the next couple of days”.