Kakrala- Kuchia, located in the Kiathal district of Haryana, is home to approximately 1200 people. Parveen was emotionally attached to the village although she grew up in a city. When she used to visit the village as a child, she saw no roads, no schools and a severe water problem.

She completed her Engineering from Kurukshetra University, but destiny had other plans for her. People from Kakrala-Kuchia village approached her father and expressed their wish to make Parveen the ‘Sarpanch’ of the village. According to the government, only educated people could become the Sarpanch.

Initially, Parveen was hesistant about taking up the responsibility, her father convinced her. Thus, at 21-years of age, Parveen Kaur, left a high-paying job and became the Sarpanch of Kakrala-Kuchia- the youngest Sarpanch in all of Haryana.

The first task that she took on herself was a thorough village inspection after which she made a list of all the things that had to be changed and fixed.

First, she recognised that the people of the village had to go far to get water. So she set up water coolers everywhere. She also built proper roads – something that the village lacked.

Second, she realised that the safety of women in the village was compromised. So she set up CCTV cameras and solar lights across the village so that women and children can roam around even at night without worrying about their safety.

She realised that there was a lack of educational opportunities for children. They did not have many books but wanted to study. Hence she set up and filled it with books for children to read.

Four committees have been set in the village, by the women for the women. In these committees, women get together, share their problems, and resolve them together.

Parveen has taught us how age doesn’t matter if there is willingness and passion to do good with their life.

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The total coronavirus cases mounted to 41,13,811, while the death toll climbed to 70,626 with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 1,065 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate due to the coronavirus infection has further declined to 1.72 per cent. There are 8,62,320 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 20.96 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and it went past 40 lakh on September 5.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 4,88,31,145 samples have been tested up to September 5 with 10,92,654 samples being tested on Saturday.

Of the 1,065 fresh deaths, 312 are from Maharashtra, 128 from Karnataka, 81 from Uttar Pradesh, 71 from Andhra Pradesh, 69 from Punjab, 61 from Tamil Nadu, 58 from West Bengal, 34 from Bihar, 30 from Madhya Pradesh, 25 from Delhi, 22 from Haryana, 19 from Chhattisgarh, 18 each from Puducherry and Uttarakhand, 15 each from Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand.

Fourteen fatalities have been reported from Rajasthan, 11 from Kerala, nine each from Goa and Telangana, eight from Tripura, seven each from Assam and Odisha, four from Himachal Pradesh while Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Manipur and Meghalaya have registered one fatality each.

Of the total 70,626 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the maximum at 26,276 followed by 7,748 in Tamil Nadu, 6,298 in Karnataka, 4,538 in Delhi, 4,347 in Andhra Pradesh, 3,843 in Uttar Pradesh, 3,510 in West Bengal, 3,091 in Gujarat and 1,808 in Punjab.

So far, 1,543 people have died of COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh, 1,122 in Rajasthan, 886 in Telangana, 781 in Haryana, 770 in Jammu and Kashmir, 735 in Bihar, 538 in Odisha, 462 in Jharkhand, 356 in Chhattisgarh, 352 in Assam, 337 in Kerala and 330 in Uttarakhand.

Puducherry has registered 298 fatalities, Goa 229, Tripura 144, Chandigarh 69, Himachal Pradesh 54, Andaman and Nicobar Islands 50, Manipur 36, Ladakh 35, Meghalaya 15, Nagaland 10, Arunachal Pradesh eight, Sikkim five and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that State-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

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This sleepy little district in northeastern Jharkhand has emerged as an unlikely hub of cybercrime in India. It is an obscure town populated by poor farmers, and the homes get barely five hours of electricity a day. Yet, it has gained notoriety as cybercrime hub, even inspiring a popular web series.

Once again, Jamtara comes to the scene as the police in Haryana’s Faridabad have pieced together about a new phishing racket that they suspect has been used to access over 300 nationalised bank and private accounts across five states- Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand.

Police are yet to ascertain the amount of money involved. But they have made five arrests- among the first in a racket involving e-Sim frauds. Four of those five are from Jharkhand’s Jamatra.

According the police, this recent case is unique as the perpetrators use e-SIMs as the main conduit. Through the investigation and from the confessions of perpetrators, police realised that the culprits gain control of bank accounts after obtaining the e-SIMs of victims.

Two years back, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, who himself is a 1982 batch IAS officer from Jharkhand , revealed that Jamatra is identified as new cyber crime hub. According to him, more than half of India’s crimes committed by fraudsters posing as bank managers were traced back to this town.

Thousands of calls are recorded daily at the cellphone towers near these villages. Calls are made to random numbers in search of gullible victims, who will share their debit or credit card details with the “bank official” and end up shockingly witnessing money vanishing from their accounts.

As Jamtara is back, this time in a new e-Sim phishing racket, this is what the police have pieced together the procedures of the scam:

Step 1: Acquire a series of mobile numbers, use all of them to try and log in to a bank account. If a number prompts an OTP, it’s time for the next step.

Step 2: Call the number’s owner and pretend to be customer care executives of the mobile operator offering to upgrade SIM cards or Know Your Customer (KYC) details. Gain trust, obtain the victim’s email ID.

Step 3: Send an email to the victim containing text to be sent to the official customer care number. It’s a ruse to register your email ID with the victim’s number, so that you can put in an official request to convert the SIM into an e-SIM. Once done, the victim’s phone number and everything else it’s linked to, including the bank account, is under your control.

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The online forms have been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of External Affairs and Governments of various States and union territories, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Uttrakhand and Madhya Pradesh among others. According to the MoCA guidelines, this facility will be available for all international arriving passengers from August 8, 2020.

This will help in making passengers’ journey more convenient and comfortable in a contactless way as they won’t have to fill the physical copies of the forms on arrival. Delhi Airport continues to be a hub for international travel. With India establishing air bubble with several countries, the number of international arrivals is likely to go up. Then, this new online self-declaration and quarantine exemption portal will prove to be beneficial for the government officials in taking a swift and informed decision on granting exemption or know the latest health condition of the international arriving passenger.

Passengers seeking exemption under the five specific categories will need to fill the e-form available on the website of Delhi Airport “www.newdelhiairport.in”. They will have to submit it along with supporting documents, including copy of their passports, at least 72 hours before boarding their flights. However, there is no such time capping for passengers filling for the Self-Declaration form.

This process will help passengers avoid the hassle of providing the same set of information and documents to different authorities multiple times as online portal has the smart option to autofill the second application using the previous application’s request number. All applications will get auto-routed to the respective state government depending upon the first port of arrival. Similarly, all self-declaration applications will be routed to Airport Health Organisation (APHO), under Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

A copy of approval or rejection of exemption requests on specific grounds will be emailed to the passengers. Those who would be given exemption from mandatory institutional quarantine can show the same at the transfer area after landing at Delhi Airport, and walk out of the airport hassle-free. This process would not only help the flyers, who can seek exemptions, but also the authorities in completing the requisite formalities faster, and reduce congestions at the arrival hall of the Airports.

Passengers would be considered for exemption only if they fall under any one of the five exempted categories – Pregnant women, People whose kin died recently, people from serious illness (Description to be provided), parents accompanied by children below 10 years and COVID-19 negative in recent RT-PCR test.  Airlines may also notify passengers at the time of reservation that the receiving Indian State Government(s) may authorise exemptions from institutional quarantine for five specific categories on a case-to-case basis.

Commenting on this development,. Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO-DIAL, said “COVID-19 has certainly changed the way Delhi Airport operates. The focus of our activities remains on the safety and convenience of our passengers. Keeping in view the inconvenience faced by arriving international passengers during this pandemic situation, Delhi Airport has associated with the Government of India to take an initiative that is crucial for the well-being of all international arriving passengers, who are waiting to come back to India. Having an approved exemption form will not only ease the quarantine process, but also mitigate the problem of inordinate delay while queuing up for quarantine process. Further, passengers can also avoid the hassle of the filling physical copies of the self-declaration twice.”

Ms Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, MoCA, appreciated the Delhi Airport’s initiative and said, “It’s been a while since international repatriation service resumed in India. Passengers are planning to travel for various reasons on limited international flights during the pandemic. MoCA appreciates Delhi Airport’s contribution in helping digitise and streamline this process of health self-declaration and exempting passengers. E-platform prepared by DIAL would be used by all airports in the country and help the States/ health authorities to fast track the process of clearances for international arrivals. This will further facilitate to scale up the number of flights handled at Indian airports.”

According to the current government mandate, all passengers arriving by international flights in India must undergo seven days institutional quarantine at their own cost, followed by seven days of home quarantine. It is mandatory for international arriving passengers to undergo health screening by APHO. This includes thermal temperature screening by discreetly mounted, highly accurate, mass screening cameras.

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Massive swarms of locusts have reached the outskirts of Delhi after entering Gurugram on Saturday. The Haryana government has issued a high alert notification and convinced the residents that all necessary steps have been taken, including deploying tractor-mounted spraying facilities to fight the locust menace.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation following the locust attack. The administration has now asked the Gurugram residents to keep their windows closed and to make clanging sounds by beating dhols and drums and bursting crackers to ward the insects off.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Air Traffic Control has directed pilots of all airlines to take necessary precautions during landing and take-off in view of locust swarms seen near the airport area. The central government has set up 11 control rooms to coordinate the response.

The swarm of locusts started around 11:00am. The desert locust had destroyed agricultural crops of many States.

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