More trouble is brewing for wrestler Sushil Kumar as Delhi Police has now started acting in another case registered against him in September last year. The case was registered by a shop owner in Delhi who had accused the wrestler of beating him up at the Chhatrasal Stadium for asking for due payments.

The complaint was lodged by Satish Goyal, who runs a grocery shop. Goyal told The Daily Guardian, “The ration for the stadium used to be supplied from my shop. My money was due before the last lockdown. I went to the stadium where the newly transferred coach Ashok Kumar took the due slip from me and handed over to Sushil Kumar. I made a calculation of Rs 405,950 which was due. Ashok Kumar promised to make the payments, but it was not made. One day, I was called to the stadium by an associate of Sushil Kumar. When I reached there, Sushil Kumar and his associates were standing. He asked me about the whole thing and then refused to pay. Then I said I would die if do not get the payment. Soon after this, Sushil Kumar and other wrestlers beat me up heavily.” Satish Goyal registered the complained with the Model Town Police Station. However, no action was taken at that time due to Sushil Kumar’s “influence”.

When The Daily Guardian spoke to coach Ashok Kumar, he said the allegations levelled by Satish Goyal are baseless and only Rs 1,605 is due. “I don’t remember any single incident of Sushil Kumar beating up the shopkeeper. Just because lockdown was imposed again, we were unable to give him the payment,” Kumar said.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police Crime branch is taking the investigation ahead and the double Olympic medalist is likely to be charged for destroying evidence. Police claim that Sushil Kumar tried to destroy evidence, including mobile phones and video footages, after having been arrested for his alleged role in the murder of Sagar Rana. It is learnt that Sushil Kumar got rid of his mobile phone in Haridwar. Also, police are looking for the clothes Sushil Kumar was wearing on the night of the incident. 

This is the reason Sushil Kumar was taken to Haridwar for further investigation in the murder case by the Delhi Police Crime Branch.

The story of Ghatane, a village in Solapur district of Maharashtra, has now become an example for thousands of villages across India. The sarpanch of this village has made the entire village Covid-free in just a few months after he was appointed as the head.

Rituraj Deshmukh, 21, took up the task of making the entire village Covid-free and now there is not even a single corona case in Ghatane village. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has applauded him in his recent virtual interaction with the people of the state.

While many rural areas across the nation are being affected badly by the rapidly increasing numbers of Covid cases, Ghatane village has emerged as an exemplary model. A village with population of around 1,500 in Solapur district has brought Covid cases down to zero under the leadership of one of Maharashtra’s youngest sarpanch Ruturaj Deshmukh. 

Ruturaj Deshmukh, a science graduate, was elected sarpanch in January this year. He had no idea about the challenges he was going to face in the coming months. According to him, the situation in the village was grim at that time. Due to Covid-19, the families of the village had lost their loved ones. In such a situation, the biggest challenge for him was to make the people of the village aware of Covid appropriate behavior. Keeping each step firmly, this village and the sarpanch of this village have become an example for everyone.

In April, death of two residents, a father-son duo, shook the villagers. It was

Rituraj Deshmukh

21-year-old sarpanch makes Maharashtra village Covid-free later confirmed that they both had contracted the Covid infection. There was panic among the villagers as this small village does not even have a primary health centre; Covid care centres were around 20 km from the village. The local residents had to go to the Public Health Centre at Narkhed, around 10km away, or to the tehsil place of Mohol, around 20 km away, which had the nearest Covid care centre.

Talking exclusively to The Daily Guardian, Ruturaj Deshmukh said, “The battle has not been won yet. Few of the villagers who were staying in their farm huts, have returned to the village. We have distributed Covid safety kits to each house. We have provided masks, sanitisers and soaps in these kits. Also, pulse oximeters and digital thermometers have been given to families with elderly members. We held vaccination camps. We can say the battle will be won only after we vaccinate every individual in the village.”

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in his address to the state on Sunday announced a “Corona-free village” drive to check the spread of Covid-19 in rural areas and appreciated sarpanch Ruturaj Deshmukh for his dedication and efforts.

In a dramatic turn of events, West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay retired on Monday afternoon only to be appointed as the Chief Advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. However, according to sources in the Central government, a chargesheet may be issued and action will be taken against Bandyopadhyay for defying orders to join duty in Delhi.

Harekrishna Dwivedi has been appointed the new Chief Secretary of West Bengal. As per reports, though Alapan Bandyopadhyay has retired, he is getting a “big post” by way of being made the Chief Adviser to the Chief Minister. B.P. Gopalika has come to the post of Home Secretary. As per the new order, Bandyopadhyay will take on the new role from 1 June for a period of three years.

Mamata Banerjee said, “State Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay has retired as his service ends today (31 May 2021). He didn’t

Maintaining the continuous declining trend, India’s daily new Covid-19 cases further declined on Sunday to 1.52 lakh cases, marking the lowest tally in the last 50 days. Even the daily positivity rate continued its streak of less than 10% for seven continuous days at around 9%, data shared by the Union Health Ministry showed.

The active caseload further dipped to 20,26,902, easing pressure on the country’s health infrastructure and states like Delhi and Uttar Pradesh which have entered the unlock phase.

“As part of continued decline in the daily new cases, 152,734 daily new cases were registered in the last 24 hours, while the death count increased to 3,29,100 with 3128 daily new fatalities,” the statement from the Health Ministry read.

The top five states that have contributed the maximum number of Covid cases to the daily infections are Tamil Nadu with 28,864 cases, followed by Karnataka with 20,378 cases, Kerala with 19,894 cases, Maharashtra with 18,600 cases and Andhra Pradesh with 13,400 cases.

Around 21.3 crore vaccine doses have been administered, as per the provisional report till 8 am on Monday. In a bid to give impetus to the inoculation drive, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan held a meeting with states and UTs on Monday and emphasised on community-based outreach approach where sessions can be conducted in non-health facility based settings and are nearer to home (e.g. in a community centre, RWA centre/office, panchayat ghar, school buildings, old age homes etc.) for elderly and differently-abled population, an advisory for Near to Home Covid Vaccination Centres (NHCVCs) for elderly and differently-abled citizens.

States/UTs were also urged to increase the number of near-to-home vaccination centres, and create awareness among the masses for use of these CVCs. Amid reports of wastage of vaccines from several states like Rajasthan, the Union Health Secretary also suggested to states/UTs to retrain and reorient vaccinators to ensure judicious usage of the vaccines.

Earlier, the Health Ministry informed states that nearly 12 crore doses will be available to them in June, enabling them to ramp up the vaccination numbers. India vaccinated over 5.3 crore doses in May.

Meanwhile, India may soon start in a few weeks testing the feasibility of a regimen that mixes two different doses of Covid vaccines to see if it helps boost immune response to virus, said Dr N.K. Arora, chairman of Covid-19 working group under National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI). Apart from this, government sources also shared that tests on the effectiveness of a single dose of Covishield will also likely begin soon as part of the government’s new strategy.

The move comes in the backdrop of the shortage of vaccine shots and disparity between availability of Covaxin and Covishield, which has slowed down the vaccination drive in the country.

India’s annual economic growth rate picked up in the January-March quarter compared with the previous three months, but with the second wave of Covid-19 wreaking havoc across the country, economists aren’t too optimistic this quarter. Corona-induced curbs and lockdowns have hit economic activities like retail, transport and construction, putting millions out of work.

According to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Monday, the country’s GDP grew by 1.6 per cent in the January to March quarter (Q4 FY21) but contracted by 7.3 per cent in the entire financial year. The economy took a recovery path from the third quarter of FY21 (December quarter) as restrictions were eased; the festive sales also contributed to the 0.4 per cent growth in the third quarter after contracting 23.9 per cent in the first quarter and 7.5 per cent in the second quarter. The economy further improved during the January-March quarter with key indicators bouncing back, including GST collections, employment and demand.

In the fourth quarter, the manufacturing sector, which had risen by 1.7 per cent in Q3, registered a growth of 6.9 per cent. Apart from this, the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector grew 3.1 per cent in Q4. Agriculture has been the only sector to register a growth in all the four quarters.

Consumer spending—the mainstay of the economy—rose 2.7% year-on-year in the January-March quarter, following a revised 2.8% fall the previous quarter, data showed. The construction sector saw the growth of 14.5% during the three months to March. Investments rose 10.9% compared with growth of 2.6% the previous quarter, while state spending jumped 28.3% after almost no growth in the October-December period, data revealed.

But the advent of the second wave seems to derailed the recovery process and the March quarter GDP numbers will have little implication on the current economic growth trajectory. Economists believe that with Covid-19 reaching India’s villages, rural demand and sectors dependent on the rural economy might come under severe stress, affecting the overall consumer spending in a big way.

While ratings agencies had earlier projected India’s economy to register double-digit growth in FY22, the second Covid wave and subsequent local lockdowns seem to have hit the economy hard. No wonder, rating agency Moody’s has lowered its original FY22 growth forecast for India to 9.3 per cent, while Barclays has cut its growth estimate for the country to 9.2 per cent.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday took a potshot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he said that the country cannot fight the Covid-19 pandemic with “meaningless talks” once a month. He was indirectly referring to the PM’s ‘Mann ki Baat’. Taking to Twitter, the Congress leader said, to fight against Covid-19, one needs “right intention, policy, determination”.

“To fight against corona, you need the right intention, policy, determination. And not meaningless talks once a month,” tweeted the Congress MP in Hindi.

‘Mann ki Baat’ is the Prime Minister’s monthly radio address to the nation, which is broadcast on the last Sunday of every month. Prime Minister Modi addressed the 77th episode of his monthly radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat” at 11 am on Sunday.

On Friday, the Congress leader had taken a swipe at the Narendra Modi-led Central government alleging that the Prime Minister, with his poor vaccine strategy, was responsible for the second wave of Covid-19 in the country.

The former Congress President had said that the Covid-19 death rate put out by the Central government was inaccurate and underreported and if the Centre did not act immediately it will be left grappling with several successive waves of the pandemic, as the virus goes on mutating. He had also claimed that India has no vaccination strategy.