Their secret is quick and efficient public-health systemsTHE phone rings and a doctor picks up. “Sir, we’ve run out of ventilators. What do we do when more patients come?” Soon after, a grim medic explains that the disease they are battling kills three in four victims. There is no vaccine or treatment.Such talk has become commonplace in the time of covid-19. Yet this scene has nothing to do with the current pandemic.

HUNDREDS of Left activists are showing exemplary motivation and are helping poor, stranded people in West Bengal. From the day one of lockdown, Left mass organisations have organised temporary food distribution centres. The success story of one has inspired others and numerous such centres have come up in the state. Without any help from the state government, these activists have run ‘community kitchens’ in many areas. They have been encouraged by neighbourhood and people are contributing in cash or kind.In Titagarh in North 24 Parganas, one such community kitchen has run for 42 days.

ON May 7, 2020, Uddhav Thackeray, chief minister of Maharashtra, held an all-party video conference on tackling the Covid pandemic. CPI(M) Central Committee member Ashok Dhawale attended. The following is the nine-point charter that he placed on behalf of the CPI(M).1. The situation of migrant workers is grim. The state government should ascertain the city-wise number of migrant workers and prepare a concrete plan for sending them home. Sufficient trains/buses should be started from Mumbai and other major cities for this.

LAST week, on the night of April 16, a shocking case of mob lynching took place in Gadchinchle village of Dahanu tehsil in the Palghar district of Maharashtra, around 150 kilometres from Mumbai. This incident must be strongly condemned and strict punishment meted out to those proved guilty.What were the facts of the case? Why did it occur? And what is its political fallout? WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED?Two sadhus with their driver were going by car from Mumbai to Surat to attend a funeral. Their names were Mahant Kalpavruksha Giri (70), Sushilgiri Maharaj (35) and Naresh Yelgade.

THE CITU and other mass organisations in Karnataka have undertaken massive relief work among the people, particularly the poor and the working class, during the ongoing lockdown to check the spread of the novel coronavirus. The CITU launched a special drive – Asangatitharige Annapoorna Sankalpa–Nimmondige Naavu CITU Pracharabhiyana – to help the unorganized sector workers who have been hit the hardest due to the lockdown. It was decided to provide food hampers with 18 essential items, at a cost of Rs 800 each, to at least 10,000 families in the state.