Amid outrage over charging migrant workers for the train journey home during the coronavirus lockdown, the Centre on Monday said the government has not talked about charging anything from migrant labourers as 85% of the transportation cost is being borne by the railways and 15% by the state.

The Centre's clarification came after Congress president Sonia Gandhi said state units of the party would bear the cost of train tickets for migrants returning home.

The Centre on Monday said that the impact of lockdown is visible on the spread of the novel coronavirus as the doubling time has improved from 3.4 days before lockdown to 12 days today.

Lockdown and containment efforts are yielding results, our challenge now is how to further improve these results, to further increase doubling time, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Lav Agarwal, said at the daily media briefing.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed that there is more than enormous evidence to suggest that the coronavirus originated from the virology laboratory in Wuhan.

Pompeo's statement came during an interview on American Network television on May 3.

The Indian National Congress (INC) has now decided to bear the cost of train ticket fare for the ferrying of migrant labourers stranded in various parts of the country back to their native states. Congress president Sonia Gandhi informed of the development on Monday and said that the Pradesh Congress Committees in every state shall take the necessary steps in this regard.

Kalpataru Power Transmission (KPTL) on Sunday said it had terminated the deal with CLP India to sell its transmission project ALP for not fulfilling certain conditions.

The deal was inked in July last year.
This is in furtherance of our intimation on July 3, 2019, regarding execution of definitive agreement with CLP India for sale of stake in Alipurduar Transmission (ATL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, a BSE filing said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said that Delhi is ready to reopen its economy as it will not be able to sustain further lockdowns.

Delhi is ready to re-open now...We will not be able to sustain the lockdown for long as the economy is in peril. The revenue has fallen from Rs 3500 Crores in April month of previous years to Rs 300 Crores this year. How will government function? Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.

In what comes as a significant development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in a video conference meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on the COVID-19 crisis. The meeting will take place at around 4.30 PM and it will also be attended by the Union Minister of External Affairs, Dr. S Jaishankar.

This is the first time that Modi is taking part in a NAM meeting since taking his oath as the Prime Minister of India in 2014.

The Jammu and Kashmir police has paid a tribute to its cop Sub Inspector Sageer Ahmad Pathan, also known as Qazi, who was martyred on Saturday in an operation at Chanjmulla Handwara along with CO 21 RR Col Ashutosh Sharma, Major Anuj Sood and two soldiers of the same unit.

Qazi attained martyrdom protecting integrity and sovereignty of our nation and safeguarding the interests of people till last breath, the J&K police said in a statement.

As the government has given some relaxations in the nationwide lockdown, several states will allow liquor shops to open hoping to generate revenues.

On Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs in its order has allowed the sale of non-essential items but with a few conditions. The ministry said that alcohol shops that fall under the Orange and Green zones will be allowed to open as long as they maintain social distancing norms and no more than six people allowed.

As the Centre allowed some relaxations in the nationwide lockdown, the Delhi government has issued a detailed statement on the services that will be allowed in the national capital from Monday (May 4).

After a comprehensive review, and in view of the lockdown measures having led to significant gains in the COVID-19 situation in Delhi, and in full compliance of the order issued by Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India dt. 1/5/2020, the lockdown in Delhi is being extended for a further period of two weeks beyond May 4, 2020, a press release from the government said.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.