Mexico cancels soccer season because of coronavirus pandemic

By: AP |

Published: May 23, 2020 10:07:01 am

The Olympic Stadium stands empty as Mexico City faces its lockdown to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus on May 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Christian Palma)

Mexico’s Liga MX cancelled the remainder of its spring season without crowning a champion for the first time, a decision caused by the new coronavirus pandemic.

Teams had played 10 of the Clausura’s 17 dates before suspending play March 15. The league said in a statement Friday that restrictions caused by the health emergency made it impossible to continue without putting people at risk.

“It’s indisputable that we live in an unprecedented situation in this country that obliges the soccer industry in Mexico to act with absolute sensitivity and respond with unity to the demands that have presented themselves,” the statement said.

Some teams had begun testing players for COVID-19 as a step toward resuming the season, most likely in stadiums without fans. Twelve players from Santos Laguna in the northern city of Torreon tested positive this week.

Cruz Azul, seeking its first league title since 1997, finished with 22 points and a one-point lead over second-place León, which joined Cruz Azul in qualifying for the next CONCACAF Champions League. Santos Laguna and América were next with 17 points each.

Jonathan Rodríguez was the leading scorer with nine goals.

The women’s professional season was also cancelled.

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Sikkim to reopen schools, colleges from June 15, announces education minister - education

Schools and colleges in the state will reopen from June 15, Sikkim Education Minister KN Lepcha announced on Friday.

“We will be reopening all schools and colleges from 15th June. We will start with classes 9th to 12th while classes for Nursery to VIII will not be held. Morning assemblies will not be allowed in the schools to ensure social distancing,” said Lepcha.

The Schools and colleges were closed in the backdrop of COVID-19 pandemic.

Further, the minister underlined the need to ensure social distancing norms when classes reopen. He informed that normal morning assembly will not take place. No COVID-19 case has been reported from Sikkim.

India on Friday saw the biggest rise in COVID-19 cases at 6,088 with the total number of cases rising to 1,18,447 with nearly 41 per cent recovery rate.

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Amphan tears through bengal 2 days on, power & water supply yet to resume; residents protest in Kolkata

By: Express News Service | Kolkata |

Updated: May 23, 2020 7:38:46 am

The mangled remains of a taxi after a tree fell on it in Ramrajatala, Howrah, Friday; a man carries a tin sheet salvaged from the rubble of his damaged house in South 24 Parganas. (PTI)

After living without electricity and water supply for over 48 hours since cyclone Amphan wreaked havoc in the state, residents started protesting in several areas of Kolkata.

The protest first broke out in Jadavpur area where residents took to the streets demanding restoration of power and water supply.

According to Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) officials, water supply could not be restored in some areas as there was no electricity. So, even in places where water supply was available, residents in high-rises could not pump up water in their buildings due to lack of power.

Later in the day, protests also broke out in several other places, including Ajaynagar, Bijaygarh, Shakuntala Park, Panchasayar, Anandapur, Bagha Jatin, Tollygunge, Behala and airport areas.

A man carries a tin sheet salvaged from the rubble of his damaged house in South 24 Parganas. (Reuters)

“How can we live like this? There is no electricity for the last 48 hours. On top of that there is no water supply. We don’t even have water to wash our hands and mouths,” said a resident of Tollygunge Circular Road area. People in her locality could not also charge their mobile phones as there was no electricity, she added.

At Ajaynagar, people blocked the EM Bypass for half an hour in the morning. “As there is no electricity, water supply has been hit. What is CESC doing? Why can’t they restore electricity even two days later?” a man said.

Road blockades were also reported from Jadavpur and James Long Sarani in Behala area. “We went to seek police help. Some KMC workers came, but left in between their rescue work,” said a protester.

Similar protests erupted in Dum Dum area as well as Bally and Belur areas in Howrah district.

Chairman of board of administrators at KMC Firhad Hakim said power supply in most of the affected areas will be restored in the next two days.

“We have requested the CESC to restore power supply if possible by today or tomorrow. In large parts of Kolkata, state electricity board also supplies power. I had a discussion with officials and they said electricity will be restored by today. Right now, we are not restoring street lights as electrical poles and wires have been damaged in several areas.

Work to remove lamp posts and clear roads is on. Street lights will be restored in phased manner after getting certificates from CESC. In Behala, Tollygunge and Jadavpur areas where CESC runs electricity through overhead wires, CESC said it will take two days to restore power supply. I am constantly in touch with them to ensure electricity is restored as soon as possible,” said Hakim.

At Mandeville Gardens in Ballygunge, residents expressed their displeasure after water did not recede from apartment premises after two days.

State panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee rushed to the area to pacify the residents and assured them of all help.

“It is an issue with pumps. I have asked KMC to restart pumping stations to solve this issue,” said Mukherjee.

Meanwhile, several roads were blocked for traffic movement across the city as work to cut the fallen trees is yet to begin. In most of the roads, trees were uprooted due to the impact of cyclone Amphan on Wednesday. Even two days after the disaster, uprooted trees continue to remain on the streets in most of the places, including Alipore, New Aipore, Maidan, Ballygunge, Golf Green, Bhowanipore, Tollygunge, Gariahat, Salt Lake and on major roads in North Kolkata.

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Tripura Class 10 and 12 pending exams to start from June 5 - education

The Tripura government declared to reschedule papers of Class 10 and 12 board examinations that were postponed earlier due to COVID-19 lockdown. These postponed exams would begin from June 05.

“The board examinations of Class 10 New Course syllabus were over earlier. Only few subjects of Class 10 and Class 12 Old Syllabus were left due to COVID-19 lockdown. We are planning to start those remaining examinations from June 5. All the examinations will start from 12 PM and continue till 3:15 PM,” Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath told the mediapersons at Civil Secretariat on Thursday late evening.

There were 27,142 candidates enrolled for the Class 12 or higher secondary examinations. Of the total, 8,749 candidates would appear for the remaining exams at total 58 centres. For these Class 12 candidates, the TBSE would conduct Sanskrit and Statistics examinations on June 05, Economics on June 06, Psychology on June 08, Arabic and Music on June 09, Geography on June 10 and Home Management and Home Nursing and Nutrition on June 11.

“ We will sanitize the centres before commencement of the exams and social distance will be maintained in these centres. Only one centre has fallen under Red Zone. We will shift it to another centre outside the red zone,” he told.

Out of total 39,917 Class 10 candidates, 309 would appear for the remaining examinations including Physical Science on June 05 and Life Science on June 06. These examinations would be conducted in total 60 centres.

The Class 12 and 10 examinations were started from March 2 and 3.

Referring to complaints received regarding fees of private-run schools in the state, the minister said that he requested the private schools not to hike schools fees and take initiatives for fee-relaxation for the students in the crisis period.

“I have asked the private schools to write to me about their initiatives they have taken. So far, I got reports from 34 schools where they have agreed to give relaxation in tuition fees and school bus fares,” said Nath.

There are total 309 private schools with enrollment of nearly one lakh students. Nearly 5,000 teachers are serving in these schools.

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Atmanirbhar Bharat: PSBs asked to implement measures for each sector

By: ENS Economic Bureau | New Delhi |

Published: May 23, 2020 6:45:19 am

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday held a review meeting with heads of public sector banks (PSBs), asking them to implement the sectoral measures announced as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package to revive the economy affected by COVID-19. The meeting via video conferencing took place in the backdrop of the Centre announcing several measures that depend upon action by banks, such as Rs 3-lakh crore of fresh loans for MSMEs. At the meeting, everyone aligned on the need for quickly addressing the needs of MSMEs and other customers. Operational details of the measures will be released soon, according to the Department of Financial Services.

Since the Union Cabinet has already approved various schemes announced under the package, operational guidelines have been issued to banks. Under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) worth Rs 3-lakh crore for MSMEs, interest rates are capped at 9.25 per cent for banks and financial institutions, and at 14 per cent for NBFCs.

Explained

MSME credit guarantee, Kisan credit cards key

The government meeting with banks aimed to quickly operationalise various measures announced as part of Atmanirbhar Bharat package, key among them being full credit guarantee on Rs 3 lakh crore of loans to MSMEs and credit disbursal to farmers through fresh Kisan credit cards. Ensuring that liquidity reaches to the borrowers — such as small vendors, corporates and farmers — is a key challenge in implementing the relief measures.

National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC) will provide 100 per cent guarantee against losses on loans advanced to eligible MSMEs and MUDRA borrowers under the scheme, which is open till October 31. All MSME borrower standard accounts with outstanding credit of up to Rs 25 crore as on February 29, and with an annual turnover of up to Rs 100 crore would be eligible for guaranteed emergency credit line funding. They can get up to 20 per cent fresh loans of their entire outstanding credit.

In order to push credit into the economy, the government has also clarified to bankers that no action will be taken against them for commercial decisions gone wrong. “Loans worth over Rs 6.68 lakh crore were sanctioned by PSBs during March 1 – May 19 for 59.79 lakh accounts from MSME, Retail, Agriculture & Corporate sectors. A steady increase in credit availability for each of these vital sectors” the Finance Ministry said in a tweet earlier in the day.

It added, “Public Sector Banks sanctioned over Rs 1.07 lakh crore as emergency credit lines & working capital enhancements in the period March 20 to May 19, with Rs 25,527 crore of this amount already being availed by customers.”

As per a PTI report, the Finance Minister has emphasised on the quick disbursal of additional loans to MSMEs, to simplify process, formats and documentation, Indian Bank Managing Director Padmaja Chunduru said after the meeting.

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UGC National Fellowship for OBC 2019-20 : List of qualified candidates released, check here - education

University Grants Commission (UGC) has released the list of candidates qualified for the National Fellowship award for Other backward Classes (NFOBC) 2019-20. The list has been prepared on the basis of merit in UGC NET- JRF and CSIR NET- JRF exams. The list of candidates can be checked at the official website of UGC at ugcnetonline.in or ugc.ac.in. Candidates can also download their award letters from the website.

The national fellowship encourages students in OBC category to take up higher education and pursue degrees like M.Phil. and PhD.

There are a total of 659 candidates who have been selected from the UGC NET June 2019 exam 150 from CSIR NET June 2019 exam. Moreover, 578 candidates from the UGC NET December 2019 and 133 from CSIR NET in December 2019 have made it to the list.

“The fellowship will be payable from the date of issue of result of NFOBC (in case, the candidate is already pursuing M.Phil/Ph.D) or from the actual date of joining M.Phil/Ph.D, whichever is later. Therefore, if a candidate has already taken admission, for M.Phil./Ph.D through regular and full time mode, in any UGC recognised University/Institution and his/her roll number is given in the list, he/she should apply for fellowship before 31.07.2020 only,” reads the official letter issued by UGC.

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Five states say incoming fliers to stay in quarantine

By: Express News Service | Bengaluru, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram |

Published: May 23, 2020 5:29:56 am

The Kerala government Friday said the passengers would have to stay in home or institutional quarantine for 14 days. (Representational)

With domestic flight operations set to resume on Monday, at least five states and one Union Territory have decided that incoming passengers would have to stay in home or institutional quarantine.

The governments of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Assam, and the administration of Jammu and Kashmir have decided that arriving passengers will have to stay in quarantine.

The Kerala government Friday said the passengers would have to stay in home or institutional quarantine for 14 days.

Kerala, which had only 16 active cases on May 8, has seen 200 new cases in the past two weeks. The surge is attributed to the arrival of evacuation flights from the Middle East and the entry of people from other states. On Friday, Kerala recorded 42 fresh cases, the largest single-day hike since the state reported its first case on January 30.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the media, “Quarantining would be mandatory for all those who reach Kerala via domestic flights. Whatever be the mode of travel to Kerala, all those who come from outside have to go into quarantine. However, it would not be binding on those who come to the state for 1-2 days for business purposes and then go back. But, this category of passengers will also have to observe necessary preventive guidelines.”

Meanwhile, with at least 15 flights expected to arrive in Srinagar from next week, Kashmir divisional commander P K Pole told The Indian Express, “All those passengers arriving at Srinagar airport will be put under administrative quarantine and tested.”

In Karnataka, domestic passengers from high-risk states — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh — will have to stay in institutional quarantine for seven days, followed by 7 days of home quarantine. Those returning from other states will have to stay in home quarantine for 14 days.

The governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have decided to quarantine people arriving on flights as well as other modes of transport.

Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that people arriving by any mode would have to stay in quarantine for 14 days.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has, meanwhile, said it plans to screen all passengers on arrival at the Mumbai airport and quarantine them at home for 14 days. It said the state and the Centre will discuss this subject to formalise the guidelines.

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