Govt pushes ‘work from home’, cases up to 173

Face floor test by 5 pm today, SC tells Nath

■ Continued from Page 1 different people, including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, however, shot down the Speaker’s plea and left it to the MLAs to exercise their choice.

Hailing the verdict, Mr Chouhan said the Kamal Nath government would fall in the floor test, paving the way for the formation of a new BJP government in the state.

He said the Kamal Nath government was reduced to a minority after 22 Congress MLAs resigned from the House, and it had dishonoured the directive by the governor to face a floor test twice recently.

“The ruling Congress had resorted to all kinds to tricks available to save its government in the state. The rebel Congress MLAs were terrorised by the Congress leaders to force them to support the Kamal Nath government”, Mr Chouhan alleged.

“The SC verdict has vindicated our stand that the Kamal Nath government has lost its majority. We will stake our claim to form the government after the fall of the Kamal Nath government in the floor test”, BJP chief whip in the Assembly Narottam Mishra said.

A Congress spokesman, however, said that the Kamal Nath government would win the floor test on Friday.

The ruling Congress had a strength of 114 in the 230-member MP Assembly. Two MLAs recently passed away, reducing the strength of the House to 228.

A total of 22 Congress MLAs sent their resignation letters to the Speaker as well as the governor on March 10.

■ Continued from Page 1 to contain the spread of coronavirus, which has so far claimed four lives in the country. There were 18 new cases in the last 24 hours, with Chhattisgarh and Chandigarh reporting their first Covid-19 patients early on Thursday. A fresh death was reported from Punjab on Thursday. Health ministry officials said the deceased person was an elderly man suffering from ailments like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases like hypertension, etc. He was in Germany and had come to Punjab via Italy and was admitted to the PGI Chandigarh.

Out of the 173 positive cases in India, 25 persons are foreign nationals. One Indian pilgrim who tested positive for Covid-19 has died in Iran, marking the first death of an Indian overseas. He was among the 253 Indians who tested positive in a pre-embarkment test done by Indian doctors in Qom, the epicentre of the outbreak in that country.

India has already evacuated 211 Indians from Iran — both pilgrims and students. On, March 21, a special Air India 787 Dreamliner will be sent to evacuate nearly 230 Indians, largely students, from Rome, the current hotbed of the Covid-19 outbreak. The Indian embassy in Washington has, meanwhile, urged the US government to mitigate the difficulties of Indian students in America after the closure of universities and educational institutions due to the pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly holding meetings with senior officials to work out a strategy to contain the spread of the virus. Health ministry officials said there was no evidence of community transmission of Covid-19 in India as of now.

Officials said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had conducted tests on 826 random samples for Covid-19 and all have been found to be negative in reports that have emerged on Thursday. “This indicates that the virus is still not at the community transmission stage. Such random tests will be done continuously to see how the virus behaves,” said Mr Aggarwal.

Several states have already started imposing complete shutdowns. Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot directed the shutdown of all government, semi-government and autonomous institutions till March 31. The Delhi government too shut down restaurants and prohibited the gathering over 20 people but clarified takeaway and home delivery services will continue.

The authorities in Srinagar announced restrictions in parts of the city, including the Khanyar area, where the first positive case of coronavirus in Kashmir has been detected. The area within a 300-metre radius of the house of the 67-yearold Covid-19 patient has been sealed. The National Conference suspended all political activities in

Kashmir in the wake of the first positive Covid-19 case in the Valley. The authorities have quarantined 78 people in Srinagar who arrived from Leh on suspicion of having coronavirus.

There were eight confirmed cases in Ladakh, where Covid-19 reached through the pilgrims who returned from Iran, the home ministry said Thursday. A total of 58 people were quarantined in various hospitals of Ladakh and 18 people, including positive cases, were kept in isolation in hospitals, it added.

The Meghalaya government closed all tourist places in the state till March 31; while Himachal Pradesh banned the entry of all domestic and foreign tourists.

Chandigarh got its first case when a 23-year-old woman, who returned from London, tested positive. The UT administration has suspended public dealings at the secretariat as a precautionary measure and the entry of people to offices during usual visiting hours has been kept in abeyance. Departments have also been advised to dispose of public work quickly so that people are not forced to visit offices. Several private companies have asked people to work from home. The ICSE and CBSE boards have postponed Class 10 and Class 12 examinations, while the UGC told universities to postpone all exams and suspend evaluation work till March 31.