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THE HINDU MUMBAI

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2020 5EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

WEST

Mumbai’s local trains, for thefi��rst time in their history, willbe shut down for nine days.The decision to close the en-tire suburban network of theCentral Railway (CR) and theWestern Railway (WR) wastaken as part of a larger deci-sion of the Ministry of Rail-ways to shut all passengertrains across the country un-til March 31 in a bid to arrestthe spread of novel coronavi-rus (COVID-19).

The decision came barely12 hours after the State an-nounced to restrict access to

local trains, the lifeline of thecity, by deploying teams atevery station to check andpermit access only to peoplewho were part of essentialservices such as the police,or had an emergency. OnSunday, with ‘Janata Curfew’in place, trains ran empty,and were operating at ap-proximately 60% capacity.The Brihanmumbai ElectricSupply and Transport (BEST)also ran only 1,253 buses of afl��eet of over 4,000.

According to a notifi��ca-tion released by the RailwayBoard, all suburban trainsacross the country and the

services of Kolkata Metroshall be cancelled from mid-night of March 22 to mid-night of March 31. All long-distance trains on both theCR and the WR will also beshut. Mumbai Metro has alsodecided to stop its opera-tions during this period.

Mumbai’s local trains onan average ferry over 80 lakhpeople daily, of which thou-sands work in providing es-sential services. After theRailway Board’s announce-ment, the State governmenthas put in place a joint ‘huband spoke’ action plan withthe Maharashtra State Road

Transport Corporation(MSRTC) and BEST. The twoservices will jointly providetransport to people provid-ing essential services likebanks, police, and hospitalstaff��, who live in distantsuburbs.

MSRTC will arrange forbuses at fi��ve-minute inter-vals from key stations in theouter suburbs to three keychangeover points — Borivalistation (East), Khopat inThane, and Vashi station, onthe Western Line, CentralLine, and Harbour Line, res-pectively. BEST will operatebuses from these changeov-

er points to various locationsin the city. The entire opera-tions will only be availablefor persons engaged in pro-viding essential services.

The Brihanmumbai Muni-cipal Corporation (BMC) haslisted all police and BMC offi��-cials, staff�� associated withhospitals and pharmacystores as well as staff�� of tele-phone and internet provid-ers and electricity distribu-tion companies — BEST,Adani Electricity Mumbai Li-mited (AEML), and Maha-rashtra State Electricity Dis-tribution Company Limited— as essential services.

Mumbai’s local trains to remain shut till March 31Ajeet MahaleMumbai

State transport, BEST buses to ferry people providing essential services at three key changeover points

The Shiv Sena and the Na-tionalist Congress Party(NCP) on Sunday directedtheir MPs not to attend theongoing budget session ofParliament in the wake of theCOVID-19 outbreak.

“Request all MPs of NCP –LS & RS not to go back to Del-hi. Please stay where you areand assist Govt Agencies helpcitizens to fi��ght #Coronaviruspandemic,” party presidentSharad Pawar tweeted.

Late in the night, Senaleader and Rajya Sabha MPSanjay Raut said in a tweetthat party MPs would not bepresent in Parliament fromMonday.

“Keeping the Covid-19 sit-uation in mind, all ShivSenaMPs won’t be attending Par-liament from today. The de-cision has been taken by ourParty Chief and honourableCM Uddhav Thackeray forhelping the government tofi��ght this Pandemic. @CMO-Maharashtra @narendramo-di,” he tweeted.

The NCP and the Sena aresecond and third regionalparties to do so after Trina-mool Congress supremo andWest Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee issued si-milar instructions to its par-ty leaders.

An NCP MP from Lok Sab-ha, who did not wish to benamed, said it is deplorable

on part of the Union govern-ment to not call off�� the bud-get session. “We have sever-al State governments,including that of Maharash-tra, which have abruptlyended their budget sessiondue to the spread of CO-VID-19. At any given point,more than 1,500 people arein presence in Parliamentand when Prime MinisterNarendra Modi himself is ad-vocating social distancing, itwas the responsibility of theCentre to cancel the sessionlast week.”

The NCP leader also saidthat a number of senior MPshad requested Mr. Modi totake business of ‘vote on ac-count’ last Tuesday itself.

Alok DeshpandeMumbai

Sena, NCP ask MPs to skip budget session

Pune, along with other dis-tricts in western Maharash-tra and Marathwada, cameto a standstill during the ‘Ja-nata Curfew’, while thenumber of COVID-19 posi-tive cases in Pune rose to 27on Sunday.

The total number of pa-tients in the city is at 15,while in Pune district, it is at27. The remaining 12 casesin the district are fromPimpri-Chinchwad.

On Saturday, a 41-year-oldPune woman with no histo-ry of foreign travel testedpositive for the virus and ison ventilator support at thecity’s Bharti Hospital. Fourof her close relatives have al-

so tested positive, said dis-trict authorities.

There are 55 patients un-dergoing treatment in hos-pitals in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Of them, 27have tested positive whilethe test results of the re-maining 28 are still awaitedfrom the National Instituteof Virology (NIV).

“Till date, 466 patientshave been admitted toPune’s Naidu Hospital while121 are in Pimpri-Chinch-wad’s Y.C.M. Hospital and afurther 16 are at D.H. Hospi-tal in Aundh. From this totalof 603 admissions, 548 havebeen discharged till now; 55

are being treated at the mo-ment, of whom 27 have test-ed positive for COVID-19,”said an offi��cial from Punezilla parishad’s healthdepartment.

He said, till date, 3,214passengers who had arrivedfrom the aff��ected countrieshad been quarantined. Ofthem, 821 had completedtheir 14-day observation pe-riod while 2,393 were still inquarantine. District authori-ties also said around onelakh homes across Pune dis-

trict had been covered byhome surveillance teams. Atotal of 3,32,897 residentswere screened, of whom 18had been referred to NaiduHospital.

‘Eerie calm’Meanwhile, there was an ee-rie calm on the city’s bus-tling roads as residents iso-lated themselves withintheir homes to stave off�� theCOVID-19 scourge.

While citizens in severalresidential societies res-

ponded energetically to thePrime Minister’s call tothank those dispensing es-sential services by bangingplates and blowing conchshells, several more ques-tioned the wisdom behindthe move. “A lot of supersti-tious messages and false in-formation about combatingCOVID-19 are being spreadthrough WhatsApp and oth-er social media,” said a resi-dent from a housing societyin the city. The messages saymaking noise by banging

plates and blowing conchshells on your balcony willmake the virus go away, and“imply that following the‘Janata Curfew’ is enoughand that they can stop prac-tising ‘social distancing’ af-ter that,” he said.

With the gravity of theCOVID-19 contagion gra-dually sinking in, few vehi-cles were seen on the usual-ly clogged Mumbai-Puneexpressway which was se-rene even at its most con-gested junctions like Amru-tanjan Bridge and BhorGhat.

Robust police deploy-ment was in place to enforcethe curfew with stray two-wheeler riders driven off��the streets and sent back totheir homes.

With a lockdown offi��ciallyannounced in the State, on-ly up to 400 buses of thePune Mahanagar ParivahanMahamandal fl��eet of 1,700will run in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad from Monday toferry only people dispens-ing essential services likedoctors, municipal clean-ers, and other staff��. The cur-few witnessed a similarlyenthusiastic response inKolhapur and Sangli dis-tricts in western Maharash-tra as well as inMarathwada.

The Sangli district admi-nistration has alreadysealed its borders with Kar-nataka and stopped inter-State bus services in a bidto contain the spread of thevirus.

Pune, western Maharashtra at standstill Residential societies respond to ‘Janata Curfew’; number of positive cases reaches 27 in Pune district Shoumojit BanerjeePune

Samples of four peoplesent for novel coronavirustesting from Amravati onSaturday returned nega-tive, while 10 new sampleswere sent on Sunday,health offi��cials said.

So far 47 sample sentfrom the district have test-ed negative. Another 214people who returned fromcities like Mumbai andPune have been advisedhome quarantine, theysaid.

‘Janta Curfew’ as well asthe 5 p.m. tribute to fron-tline health and essentialservices staff�� got an over-whelming response in thedistrict. Roads were desert-ed in Amravati and Badne-ra cities, and shops wereclosed from 7 a.m..

Meanwhile, one personwas admitted to the districtcivil hospital in Nashik forsuspected exposure to co-ronavirus while the sam-ples of four others, whowere admitted on Satur-day, returned negative,health offi��cials said.

They said 44 of the 297people who arrived fromcoronavirus-aff��ected re-gions had completed their14-day observation period,while 253 people were sur-veyed for symptoms onSunday.

So far, samples of 55 pe-ople have been sent fortesting, with 54 returningnegative, while the reportof one is awaited.

10 samplessent fortesting inAmravati Press Trust of IndiaAmravati