Afternoon News - 28 March, 2020
05:05 Share

Xatras pray for defeating coronavirus: Xatradhikar Dr. Pitambar Dev Goswami - Activities in the Auniati Xatra branches in the State have shrunk to only prayers for defeating coronavirus, that too, with just two or three devotees. These religious places of Srimanta Sankardev and Sri Sri Madhavdev have been following the coronavirus guidelines to the letter.

**DoNER & NEC to provide Rs 25-crore for North Eastern States to fight coronavirus - **The Development of North Eastern Region Ministry and the North Eastern Council would provide Rs 25 crore to the States in the Northeast for gap funding to fight coronavirus.

After Rush in markets, Assam Government to close vegetable markets across State - Assam Chief Secretary on Friday evening issued a slew of directives. As per directive all markets will remain closed until further order except grocery and pharmacy due to the chaos created by some people in almost all market places across the state during the 21-day-long nationwide lockdown.

3 medical colleges in Assam to exclusively treat coronavirus patients - Barring cancer, Gynaecology and emergency patients; the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital, Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, Assam Medical College and Hospital) in Dibrugarh and the Silchar Medical College & Hospitals are not going to admit any general patients from Saturday so as to make dedicated hospital beds available for facing every eventuality in the outbreak of coronavirus in Assam.

Udalguri villagers build barricades to keep coronavirus at bay - Villagers of a couple of villages in Udalguri, including Bhuyankhat, Kahibari and Pachkiya have taken initiatives to barricades their villages and isolate themselves after Prime Minister Modi announced a nationwide lockdown to fight coronavirus.

**Octogenarian walks 100 km on his way home at Laluk in Lakhimpur district - **An octogenarian had walked 100 kms on his way home situated at Laluk in Lakhimpur district and arrived here totally exhausted last evening. According to information, one Khagen Baruah (80) of Laluk had gone to Guwahati to meet his son who works there and returned home on the previous day of the ‘Lockdown’ declared.

**Guwahati police distribute food to homeless amidst lockdown due to coronavirus - **Amidst the nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus, the Guwahati city police personnel distributed food to the needy in different parts of the city, on Friday.

**MLA Atul Bora urges CM Sarbananda Sonowal to activate Village Defence Party’s - **Dispur Constituency BJP MLA Atul Bora has appealed to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to activate the Village Defence Party, in view of the corona outbreak. VDPs are volunteers of a village and are responsible for safe guarding the area of that particular village’s jurisdiction.

**Couple held by Hatigaon Police for pelting stones at police in Guwahati - **The Hatigaon Police, on Thursday evening, arrested a couple for allegedly pelting stones at police personnel, at Shah Nagar area in Guwahati. The police were conducting routine checks during the lockdown when they spotted the couple loitering on the road. After the police’s intervention the couple allegedly started to misbehave and pelted stones at the personnel. The stone pelting injured a women Home Guard named Anjuw Begum. The accused are – Noor Alom and his wife Ashima Begum. A case has been registered at Hatigaon P.S.

Government needs to work in a systematic manner to open markets, says Debabrata Saikia - The Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, said that the lockdown will become meaningless without systematic planning to open the markets or distribute essential commodities to the people.