After 3 days, Kerala records fresh cases
nTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala reported three new coronavirus cases on Tuesday — the first in the state in three days — as it prepared to receive the first batch of expatriates from West Asia.
Four special flights are expected to arrive in the state on Thursday and all returnees will have to undergo at least one week’s quarantine in care homes arranged for them, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. “Many of them are coming without tests there. So we can’t take any risk at this point. It would have been ideal if they undergo tests before taking the flights.”
The Kerala government had been planning to send the returnees home after screening them and instructing them to stay in home quarantine for two weeks. But it dropped the plan after coming to know that most of them won’t be tested before they board the flights.
Minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan on Tuesday contested Vijayan’s assertion that the Union government was flying back expatriates from West Asia without any tests being conducted on them.
“I don’t know why he is indirectly blaming the Centre like this. On medical side, the standard operating procedure (SOP) is being prepared by the ICMR {Indian Council of Medical Research}. Its SOP came late in the evening and the CM ‘s version was based on some hearsay. We will bring back people only after tests,” he told HT.
More than 400,000 people have registered themselves on a portal the state launched last week for stranded Keralites, particularly in the Persian Gulf. But the CM said the Centre made it clear that such a massive evacuation was not possible. The CM said all three new Covid-19 cases were from Wayanad in north Kerala; they contracted the virus from a Chennai-returned truck driver who tested positive two weeks ago.
nTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala high court refused on Tuesday to stay an ordinance the government brought last week with an aim to make deductions in employees’ salaries as part of efforts to raise funds for fighting the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
The court agreed to the government’s contention that it has legislative powers to bring such an ordinance during an extraordinary situation and posted the matter for further hearing on June 4.
Kerala brought the ordinance on April 30, a day after a single bench of the high court stayed the government’s decision to deduct salaries of employees for six days every month for the next five months (totalling 30 days).
The move will be applicable to employees of all state-owned enterprises, public sector undertakings, quasi-government organisations and universities, among others.
Hearing a bunch of petitions questioning the ordinance, the government said its move cannot be called a salary cut, and added that it was a deferment of payment in the time of a crisis. The state reiterated its contention that this amount will be paid once the fiscal condition of the state improved.
“It is an extraordinary situation and the court cannot question the wisdom of the legislature in bringing out an ordinance...,” the high court observed.
The government welcomed the decision. “We are happy. As the court pointed out, it is an extraordinary situation. Instead of a united move, some people are instigating employees,” said finance minister TM Thomas Iaasc.
The state is expected to collect ~2,000 crore through this move. Employees’ organisations owing allegiance to the opposition parties said they will approach the Supreme Court soon.
THE HC AGREES WITH GOVT’S CONTENTION THAT IT HAS LEGISLATIVE POWERS TO BRING SUCH AN ORDINANCE DURING AN EXTRAORDINARY SITUATION