HEADS UP
🥵 WHAT: As if it wasn’t hot enough, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heat wave conditions for at least the next five days, with large parts of the country reporting temperatures around 45 degrees Celsius.
☀️ HEAT WAVE WARNING announced for Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, UP and Odisha.
🇮🇳 INDIA ROUNDUP—
▪️Maximum temperature in Delhi touched 43 degrees today and will likely touch 44 tomorrow.
▪️UP, MP reported temperatures over 45 degrees.
▪️Maharashtra is facing its fourth bout of heat waves in two months. A sharp rise in power demand means the state has only two days of coal left to burn.
▪️Power cuts in factories in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh to ration electricity. Rajasthan also imposed power cuts in rural areas, subjecting thousands of its poorest with the least, to the hottest temperatures in the desert state.
▪️Power and water crisis in J&K as the northern state unusually crossed 40 degrees today. West Bengal has ordered schools to close earlier for the summer, while Odisha has closed all schools till April 30 owing to the heat.
🔺 This year, Northwest India recorded the hottest March in 122 years. Experts pin the blame on man-made global warming caused by abuse of fossil fuels.
MASK UP (AGAIN)
😷 WHAT: Several states and UTs (listed above) have made wearing masks in public spaces mandatory again. Goa has not made it mandatory; but has advised all to wear masks.
🦠 WHY: Covid-19 cases are rising in India. For the first time in 64 days, India reported over 3,000 new cases on April 27.
🎙 PM Modi also held a meeting with CMs and asserted that threat of Covid-19 had still not completely gone, thanks to Omicron sun-variants wreaking havoc in the rest of the world.
💉 GOOD NEWS: 86% of India’s adult population has received at least two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, says the Health Ministry.
🌏 WORLD UPDATE:
🇨🇳 China has imposed a lockdown in Shanghai and Beijing, its two biggest cities. 25 other cities are under full or partial lockdowns. Shanghai is reporting upwards of 10,000 cases a day and its 25 million residents have been confined strictly to their homes for nearly a month, aggravating the human rights situation that often accompanies China’s ‘zero tolerance policy’. Taiwan is also seeing a rise in cases.
🇿🇦 Africa is seeing an uptick in Covid-19 cases, largely driven by a doubling in cases reported in South Africa.
OUT, NOW
🔴 CONTEXT: The government has begun evicting artistes, many of them Padma and Sangeet Natak Akademi awardees, who had been allotted government bungalows on rent in Asiad village in the 1980s.
👴ONE OF THEM: 90-year-old Padma Shri awardee and Odissi dance legend, Guru Mayadhar Raut.
🌟 IN ONE LINE: He has played a significant role in giving Odissi its classical status, introduced many new forms and madras, and teaching the dance within the traditional Guru-Shishya model for over five decades—for free or little income.
🔻WHY: Since the 70s, artistes between were allotted accommodations at nominal rents for three-year terms which were extended regularly. The extensions expired in 2014 and after six years of back and forth with the artistes, the government issued notices to them to vacate the houses in 2020. Some moved the court; but lost.
🗓 NOW: The government says more than a few notices were given to all before evictions had to begin. Eight artistes have asked for time till May 2, after which they will leave or be removed.
💔 THE OTHER SIDE: Guru Mayadhar Raut’s daughter claims labourers and policemen arrived this morning and began throwing her father’s possessions on the road, including his Padma certificate, without showing him an eviction notice.
“We are very low on this government's priority. There's no cultural policy as well. I am not against the eviction, but the inhumane way it was done. Our belongings were thrown out. Had I not luckily been with my father that day, he might have died,” she told NDTV
🏡 The Odissi legend is now living in a student’s basement, with no land to his name.
#METOO IN MOLLYWOOD
❗️WHAT: A young actor has accused actor/producer Vijay Babu of raping her multiple times for over a month.
🗯 THE ACCUSATION: “Whenever I was conscious, I denied consent for engaging in sex. But for him it was never an issue and disregarding my protest he has raped me several times during the past one and a half months. He made me drink or take ‘happy pills’ and then rape me. He was like a monster.”—Vijay Babu’s accuser
📱 MAKING IT WORSE: Babu then went on Facebook Live to defend himself—and named the woman (which is a crime). He has now been charged separately for rape and for revealing her identity.
❗️CONTEXT: Allegations against Vijay come a time when superstar Dileep is also being charged for abduction and rape of actress Bhavana last year. The Kerala HC recently rejected his plea to quash all FIRs against him. Watch our video on this all-important story.
FYI
AN UPDATE YOU SHOULD KNOW
👉 Justice Rajeev Singh of the Allahabad High Court, who had granted bail to Ashish Mishra, in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, has recused himself from hearing a fresh bail petition, as ordered by the Supreme Court after it cancelled Mishra's bail. Justice Singh gave no reason.
#ARTHERAPY
AND (ALMOST) END-OF-WEEK REMINDER
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