16-04-2021 The Asian Independent

www.theasianindependent.co.uk ASIA 16-04-2021 to 30-04-2021 9
’Railways has provided 20 isolation
ward coaches to Maha’s Nandurbar’
New Delhi : Keeping in view the
growing number of Covid cases across
the country, the Indian Railways,
which has prepared over 4,000 coaches
as isolation wards for patients, has
provided 20 coaches to Maharashtra’s
Nandurbar district.
India on Friday recorded over 2
lakh Covid cases in the last 24 hours.
India has recorded two lakh Covid
cases for two consecutive days.
While responding to a question
about the number of train coaches
deployed as Covid-19 care isolation
coach, Railways Board Chairman and
CEO Suneet Sharma said, "Last year
we prepared 4,000 isolation coaches
for Covid-19 patients. And till date we
have provided 20 coaches in
Nandurbar district in Maharashtra."
He said that Nandurbar has
demanded 100 isolation ward coaches
from the railways and in the coming
days more coaches will be provided.
The Indian Railways had last year
converted over 4,000 coaches as isolation
wards for Covid-19 patients with
proper facilities for the medical team
and the infected persons.
These coaches have been placed at
several stations across the country.
Sharma said that last year the railways
had provided over 800 isolation
ward coaches to the Delhi, Bihar and
Uttar Pradesh governments.
When asked about the extra rush
seen at several stations in
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and
other parts of the country, the
Chairman assured that the national
transporter is keeping a close watch on
the situation. He said: "We are keeping
a close watch on stations, in all stations
at Mumbai, Gujarat’s Surat,
Karnataka’s Bengaluru and others, and
wherever we are finding high demand
we have authorised our general managers
to operate more trains."
He assured that there will no dearth
of services and the situation is quite
normal now particularly in Mumbai,
Surat and Bengaluru.
Sharma said that services of the
trains will continue, and wherever
there are demands they will operate
extra services.
asked about the arrangements for
Covid protocols in trains and railway
premises, Sharma said that the railways
through its e-ticketing portal of
IRCTC and through announcements at
railway stations and through displays
is spreading awareness among the
people to follow Covid-19 guidelines.
"And as a precaution we have
stopped providing bed linen, blankets
in air conditioned coaches since last
year, and we are only allowing ready
to eat food in the trains," he said.
Citing the achievement in the
freight business of the national transporter,
Sharma said, "Last year we
have loaded 1232.64 million tonne of
freight, which is highest in history of
railways."
"And by April 15 in this financial
year, railways loaded 54.4 million
tonne of freight as compared to 30.8
million tonne during the same period
last year and the revenue from freight
till April 15, 2021 is Rs 5,429 crore as
compared to Rs 2,816 crore last year
during same period," he said.
He said that the railways is also carrying
essential commodities. "We are
continuing to maintain our services
even during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Railways will provide whatever
demand is there. Entire railways fraternity
is dedicated to serve the
requirement of the nation," he added.
153 rail coaches on standby
for Mumbai Covid patients
Mumbai : With the Covid-19 continuing
to march aggressively, the
Central Railway (CR) and Western
Railway (WR) is all prepared to provide
rail coaches for isolation of
asymptomatic patients, officials said
here on Friday.
While the WR has kept on standby
128 coaches, CR has reserved 25,
totalling to 153 coaches where the
patients can be shifted as Mumbai’s
’active cases’ inches close to the onelakh
mark. It may be recalled that last
year, at the height of the Covid pandemic
in 2020, the Indian Railways
had converted over 5,000 rail coaches
for Corona patients across the
country.
However, till now railway coaches
were not utilized in Mumbai or
Mumbai Metropolitan Region
(MMR) - both the worst-hit in the
country - but this year in view of the
steep increase in Covid patients, the
isolation coaches may be used, officials
said.
These coaches are parked at different
railway sidings in and around the
city, and can be quickly shunted
around for medical use after washing,
cleaning, installing oxygen cylinders
inside, etc. "We can deploy them at
short notice after we get the request
from the concerned medical authorities,
and take them to the designated
locations by adhering to all the government
protocols in this regard,"
said the official, declining to be identified.
The Mumbai tally has shot up
to 553,404 cases and 12,197 deaths,
besides 84,753 ’active cases’.
The Mumbai Circle (MMR) has
recorded a total of 11,50,776 cases
and 21,416 deaths and the state tally
is 36,39,855 cases and 59,153 fatalities
till date.
Akali Dal MP
Harsimrat tests
Covid-19 positive
Chandigarh : Akali Dal MP
and former Union Minister
Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday
tested Covid-19 positive. Earlier,
her husband Sukhbir Badal had
contacted the virus. "Dear all,
I’ve tested positive for Covid-19
today with mild symptoms. I
have quarantined myself at home
and am taking all the necessary
precautions," she informed in a
tweet. "I would request all those
who came in contact with me to
isolate and get themselves tested
at the earliest."
Her husband, who is also a
Member of Parliament, had tested
positive on March 16. He was
discharged from a private hospital
in Gurugram on March 24.
Students turn teachers for underprivileged
kids in Covid times
New Delhi : At a time when
an outbreak of coronavirus has
forced the school students to stay
at home and continue their studies
online, children of labourers
and daily wage workers have no
choice but to skip their studies as
they can merely afford a smartphone
or 24 hours Internet connectivity.
Keeping this in mind
some Delhi Samaritans, who
themselves are students, have
started teaching these children.
"Yamuna Khadar Pathshala"
runs under a flyover at the banks
of river Yamuna in Delhi’s
Mayur Vihar, Phase-1. Around
250 students from the nearby
slums every day come here to
continue their studies offline.
This ’under the flyover’
school is being run by six teachers
who are also students. One of
these teachers is Panna Lal, a
12th pass and has done a oneyear
computer course while
another one is Devender, a law
student.
The third teacher is Deepak
Chaudhary, who is doing M.A.
and has done a two-year computer
diploma. Fourth is Rupam, a
B.A. student, fifth is Mukesh, a
Class 12th pass and holds a oneyear
computer diploma, and the
last one is Dev Pal who manages
all the activities in this school.
These people are running the
school for those children, who
do not have much money nor
any other system to pursue studies
in these corona times. The
parents of these children are
daily wage wagers, labourers or
rickshaw pullers, etc. who toil
hard every day to meet their
basic requirements.
Panna Lal told IANS, "I have
been teaching children since a
year ago. There are some problems
here due to which children
are unable to study properly, and
their parents also cannot afford
smartphones."
Dev Pal, who manages everything
in the "Yamuna Khadar
Pathshala", told IANS: "We
were planning to start this school
in March last year but could not
implement the idea due to
enforcement of the lockdown.
Then we decided to start online
classes but this idea could also
not work in absence of electricity
and smartphones."
"After some time we began
physically teaching students
from Nursery to Class 10. We
have a total of six teachers to
teach these students," said Dev
Pal.
He further said: "We never
pressurise children for a fee.
They give us some money as per
their convenience."
"All the teachers who teach
here are students themselves. We
have requested many to help us
meet the basic requirements.
Thereafter, we also urged people
to at least send a teacher here for
our help if they cannot give
money, but no one helped," said
Dev Pal.
According to Dev Pal, the
teachers here have also faced
similar adversities in their lives.
They aim to make these children
succeed in life. However, they
also have to earn a livelihood.