12
A s part of their strategy to keep the heat on the Government over the farm sector Bills, Opposition parties on Wednesday requested President Ram Nath Kovind not to give his assent to the contentious legislations and conveyed to him that their passage in the Rajya Sabha was “unconstitutional”. The Opposition leaders represented by Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad met the President to submit a memo- randum on behalf of MPs who boycotted the last three days of the Monsoon Session. The Government should have consulted all parties, farmer leaders before bringing the farm Bills, Azad said after meeting the President. The Bills are now pending for the President’s approval. It was earlier decided that leaders of five Opposition par- ties — Congress, TMC, Samajwadi Party, TRS and DMK — will meet the President to raise the issue but due to Covid-19 safety proto- cols the parties decided to sub- mit the memorandum through Azad. “The Constitution was undermined ...We have given a representation to the President that the farm Bills have been passed unconstitutionally and he should return these Bills,” Azad said briefing the media. W ithout the participation of Opposition members, the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed three crucial labour sector Bills which will influence lives and livelihood of millions of “blue collar “workers. The new legislations will, among other things, allow a corporate to hire and fire “blue collared” workers at will. The protesting MPs had written to Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu that the con- tentious Bills should not be passed “unilaterally. It will be a blot on democracy.” The labour Bills form part of the labour reforms move. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, the Industrial Relations Code 2020 and the Code on Social Security, 2020 were earlier passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. These Bills will now be sent for President Ram Nath Kovind’s assent and then they will become law. Introducing the Bills in the Upper House, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar said they will provide a “safe environ- ment” for workers. “Social security benefits have also been added. This will be in sync with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resolve for a universal social security,” he added. “The Congress and like- minded parties held a march from the Gandhi statue to the Ambedkar statue on the Parliament premises protesting the “anti-farmers, anti-workers Bills that have been rubber- stamped in Parliament in the most undemocratic manner by the Modi Government,” tweeted Jairam Ramesh. W idening the scope of its ongoing investigations into the Sushant Singh Rajput death-related drug case, the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) on Wednesday sum- moned Bollywood actresses Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor and Rakul Preeet Singh and fashion designer Simone Khambatta. On a day when its officials questioned the late actor’s tal- ent manager Jaya Saha for the third consecutive day and also Udta Punjab and Ghajini pro- ducer Madhu Mantena Varma, the NCB issued summons to five Bollywood personalities in connection with the probe in the Sushant death-related drug probe and the larger Bollywood-drug mafia nexus. NCBs Deputy Director (Operations) KPS Malhotra confirmed that his organisation had sent out summons to Deepika, Sara, Shraddha and Rakul. Official sources said that the NCB had also called Simone, Deepika’s manager Karishma Prakash and Sushant’s former Manager and Shruti Modi for questioning. In what is being seen as an apparent deviation from the very objective behind the Sushant’s death-related drug case, the NCB appeared to be going whole hog against the Bollywood-drug mafia nexus. As per the information that trickled out of its office, the NCB has summoned Simone, Rakul, Shruti Modi on September 24, while Deepika and her manager Karishma had been called for questioning on September 25. Sara and Shradhha have been sum- moned for questioning on September 26. Deepika’s questioning by the NCB, which has aroused considerable interest among the people across the country, should be seen in the context of the information that sur- faced during the questioning of actress-accused Rhea Chakraborty in the drug case. Karishma works with Jaya Saha, with whom Rhea Chakraborty had chatted about CBD oil, as a manager in Kwan talent management agency. During the question- ing, the NCB had reportedly quizzed Jaya if she had any knowledge about Karishma procuring drugs for Deepika Padukone. The NCB had retrieved Deepika’s WhatsApp chats with Karishma in which the two were seen discussing drugs. Earlier, Jaya’s chats with Rhea Chakraborty about CBD oil were also retrieved by NCB. After being summoned for questioning, Karishma did not turn up at the NCB office on Tuesday for questioning, say- ing that she needed some more time, while her talent man- agement agency’s CEO Dhruv Chitgopekar offered to coop- erate with the agency in the investigations. According to sources, the NCB investigations have thrown up a WhatsApp chat of 2017 between D (Deepika Padukone) and K (Karishma). In the chat, Deepika reported- ly asks Karishna: “You have Maal?, Karishma responds say- ing: “Yes, but at home. I am at Bandra. Later Krishma tells Deepika that one Amit is bringing it to a high-end restaurant “koko” at Lower Parel. Deepika seeks to con- firm if it is hash not weed. S audi Arabia on Wednesday suspended all flights travel to and from India in the wake of the increasing number of Covid-19 cases. In a circular issued, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said it was “suspending travel to and from the following countries (India, Brazil and Argentina) including any person who has been in any of the mentioned countries above in the last 14 days prior to their arrival to the Kingdom”. India and Brazil are among the worst affected countries due to coronavirus pandemic. India stood at second place, followed by Brazil in the case of coron- avirus cases. However, passengers who have official Government invi- tations have been excluded from this suspension. The GACA circular — titled “Suspension of travel to coun- tries where the Covid-19 virus has outbreak” was marked to all the airlines and chartered flight companies operating at the Saudi Arabia’s airports. In March this year, Saudi Arabia had suspended all flights from and to India due to spread in coronavirus cases. Saudi Arabia and the UAE host a significant Indian migrant population. Five days back, Air India Express had said the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) suspended its flights for 24 hours for bringing two passengers with Covid-positive certificates on August 28 and September 4. Hong Kong also banned Air India flights from Sunday till October 3 after a few pas- sengers on its flight on Friday tested positive for Covid-19 post arrival According to rules of the UAE Government, every pas- senger travelling from India is required to bring an original Covid-negative certificate. A s expected for the last sev- eral weeks, Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey has final- ly taken voluntary retirement from service and is all set to plunge into politics. There are speculation that Pandey will join the Janata Dal(U) and contest either the Assembly elections or Lok Sabha bypoll from Valmikinagar in north Bihar. Pandey’s request seeking voluntary retirement was approved by Governor Phagu Chauhan, a notification issued by the State Home Department said. Speaking to mediapersons on Wednesday, Pandey said, “I have not joined any political party as of now. If I do, I will tell you about it. As far as social work is concerned, I can do it without entering politics as well.” He added, “I have worked for 34 years with honesty and without bias, and now people are questioning me. I want to tell them that I was devoted to my duty.” The Shiv Sena has slammed Pandey for “running a political agenda” over the Sushant Singh Rajput case. T he Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday clari- fied that it has not given any direction to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to issue a notice to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar over his poll affidavits. The EC’s statement came a day after Pawar said the Income Tax department has served him a notice in con- nection with his poll affidavits submitted to the poll panel. “... It is stated that Election Commission of India has not issued any such direction to CBDT to issue notice to Pawar,” the EC said in its state- ment. While expressing solidar- ity with eight Rajya Sabha members suspended over chaos during a vote on con- troversial farm Bills, Pawar, 79, accused the Centre of pursuing an agenda against political opponents as he referred to tax notices. New Delhi: Doctors and environment experts believe that extreme levels of air pollution in the national cap- ital during winter is likely to aggravate the COVID-19 situation in the city and pose a serious challenge to the government. Every winter, Delhi’s air quality dips to a dangerous low due to many reasons, including the city’s geographic location, unfavourable weather, stubble burn- ing and local sources of pollution. New Delhi : Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was hospi- talised on Wednesday due to coron- avirus infection, sources said. The 48- year-old Aam Aadmi Party leader was admitted to the state-run LNJP Hospital here at around 4 PM following com- plaints of low oxygen levels and fever. He has been kept under observation, they said. T he Centre informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it has prima facie found violation of the pro- gramme code by Sudarshan TV’s Bindas Bol show and has issued a notice to the channel. The SC said the steps taken by the Government in pur- suance to the show cause notice against the channel will be subject to the orders of the court. Since the notice has been issued on Wednesday, the hearing is deferred to October 5, the court said. T he Supreme Court on Wednesday directed a Delhi Legislative Assembly panel not to take coercive action against Facebook India VP and MD Ajit Mohan till October 15 in connection with a summon asking him to depose before it with regard to North-East Delhi riots. Delhi Assembly’s peace and harmony committee had issued a notice to Facebook India vice president and man- aging director in connection with complaints accusing the social media giant of deliber- ately not taking action to curb hateful content on its plat- form. New Delhi: Minister of State for Railways and Karnataka BJP MP Suresh Angadi passed away on Wednesday, days after he tested positive for Covid- 19. The 65-year-old passed away around 8 pm at the AIIMS trauma centre which has been converted into a dedicated Covid-19 facility, sources at the hospital said. A fourth-term MP from Belagavi, Angadi is the first Union Minister to have died of coronavirus. At least six MLAs and three MPs have earlier succumbed to it. Angadi had on September 11 himself announced on microblogging site Twitter that he had contracted the disease. The MP from Belagavi had requested all those who came in close contact with him over the last few days to mon- itor their health and get test- ed in case of any symptoms. T he much-awaited report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India into the 60,000 crore Rafale fight- er jet deal has said the French manufacturer Dassault and MBDA are yet to honour their commitment about offset clause to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The offset clause stipulates the foreign vendor has to plough back 30 per cent of the contract price into the Indian defence and aerospace indus- try. In the Rafale deal, the limit was raised to 50 per cent to enable the Indian industry to tie up with world class foreign companies and gain first world technology. The Government watch- dog said on Wednesday it stud- ied 17 deals inked in the last one decade to analyse the effi- cacy of the offsets clause intro- duced in 2005. It said the Defence Ministry has to over- haul the policy as the offset pol- icy has not yielded the desired results. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly alleged that the Government favoured a private Indian company for granting the offsets in the Rafale deal. The main Opposition party also claimed that company was given the offsets contract worth over 30,000 crore. The CAG report said in many cases it was found that the foreign vendors made var- ious offset commitments to qualify for the main supply contract but later were not earnest about fulfilling these commitments. “For instance in the offset contract relating to 36 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), the ven- dors M/s Dassault Aviation and M/s MBDA initially pro- posed (September 2015) to discharge 30 per cent of their offset obligation by offering high technology to the DRDO. The DRDO wanted to obtain technical assistance for the indigenous development of engine (Kaveri) for the light combat aircraft. Till date the vendor has not confirmed the transfer of this technology,” the CAG then noted. Giving background of the offset policy adopted in 2005, the CAG said it was applicable for all capital purchases above 300 crore. The foreign ven- dor was required to invest at least 30 per cent of the value of the purchase, in India. This investment could be made avenues like foreign direct investment, offering of free transfer of technology to Indian firms, purchase of eli- gible products manufactured by Indian firms (exports). For the discharge of these offsets the foreign vendor had to select an Indian firm as a partner (Indian Offsets Partner or IOPs). From 2005 till March 2018, 46 offset contracts had been signed with foreign ven- dors, valuing 66,427 crore. Under these contracts, by December 2018, 19,223 crore worth of offsets should have been discharged by the ven- dors. However, the offsets claimed to have been dis- charged by them was only 11,396 crore, which was only 59 per cent of the commit- ment. Further, only 48 per cent (5,457 crore) of these offset claims submitted by the ven- dors were accepted by the ministry. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

# &ˆ˘€¦ · 23/09/2020  · questioned the late actor’s tal-ent manager Jaya Saha for the third consecutive day and also Udta Punjab and Ghajini pro-ducer Madhu Mantena Varma,

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Page 1: # &ˆ˘€¦ · 23/09/2020  · questioned the late actor’s tal-ent manager Jaya Saha for the third consecutive day and also Udta Punjab and Ghajini pro-ducer Madhu Mantena Varma,

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As part of their strategy tokeep the heat on the

Government over the farmsector Bills, Opposition partieson Wednesday requestedPresident Ram Nath Kovindnot to give his assent to thecontentious legislations andconveyed to him that theirpassage in the Rajya Sabha was“unconstitutional”.

The Opposition leadersrepresented by Congress leaderGhulam Nabi Azad met thePresident to submit a memo-randum on behalf of MPs whoboycotted the last three days ofthe Monsoon Session.

The Government shouldhave consulted all parties,farmer leaders before bringingthe farm Bills, Azad said aftermeeting the President. TheBills are now pending for thePresident’s approval.

It was earlier decided thatleaders of five Opposition par-ties — Congress, TMC,Samajwadi Party, TRS andDMK — will meet thePresident to raise the issue butdue to Covid-19 safety proto-cols the parties decided to sub-mit the memorandum throughAzad.

“The Constitution wasundermined ...We have given arepresentation to the Presidentthat the farm Bills have beenpassed unconstitutionally andhe should return these Bills,”Azad said briefing the media.

������������������� �������

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Without the participationof Opposition members,

the Rajya Sabha on Wednesdaypassed three crucial laboursector Bills which will influencelives and livelihood of millionsof “blue collar “workers.

The new legislations will,among other things, allow acorporate to hire and fire “bluecollared” workers at will.

The protesting MPs hadwritten to Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu that the con-tentious Bills should not bepassed “unilaterally. It will be

a blot on democracy.” Thelabour Bills form part of thelabour reforms move.

The Occupational Safety,Health and WorkingConditions Code, 2020, theIndustrial Relations Code 2020and the Code on SocialSecurity, 2020 were earlierpassed by the Lok Sabha onTuesday. These Bills will nowbe sent for President RamNath Kovind’s assent and thenthey will become law.

Introducing the Bills in theUpper House, Labour MinisterSantosh Gangwar said theywill provide a “safe environ-

ment” for workers. “Socialsecurity benefits have alsobeen added. This will be insync with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s resolve for auniversal social security,” headded.

“The Congress and like-minded parties held a marchfrom the Gandhi statue to theAmbedkar statue on theParliament premises protestingthe “anti-farmers, anti-workersBills that have been rubber-stamped in Parliament in themost undemocratic mannerby the Modi Government,”tweeted Jairam Ramesh.

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Widening the scope of itsongoing investigations

into the Sushant Singh Rajputdeath-related drug case, theNarcotic Control Bureau(NCB) on Wednesday sum-moned Bollywood actressesDeepika Padukone, Sara AliKhan, Shraddha Kapoor andRakul Preeet Singh and fashiondesigner Simone Khambatta.

On a day when its officialsquestioned the late actor’s tal-ent manager Jaya Saha for thethird consecutive day and alsoUdta Punjab and Ghajini pro-ducer Madhu Mantena Varma,the NCB issued summons tofive Bollywood personalities inconnection with the probe inthe Sushant death-related drugprobe and the largerBollywood-drug mafia nexus.

NCBs Deputy Director(Operations) KPS Malhotraconfirmed that his organisationhad sent out summons toDeepika, Sara, Shraddha andRakul. Official sources saidthat the NCB had also calledSimone, Deepika’s managerKarishma Prakash andSushant’s former Manager andShruti Modi for questioning.

In what is being seen as anapparent deviation from thevery objective behind theSushant’s death-related drugcase, the NCB appeared to begoing whole hog against theBollywood-drug mafia nexus.

As per the informationthat trickled out of its office, theNCB has summoned Simone,

Rakul, Shruti Modi onSeptember 24, while Deepikaand her manager Karishmahad been called for questioningon September 25. Sara andShradhha have been sum-moned for questioning onSeptember 26.

Deepika’s questioning bythe NCB, which has arousedconsiderable interest amongthe people across the country,should be seen in the contextof the information that sur-faced during the questioning ofactress-accused RheaChakraborty in the drug case.

Karishma works with JayaSaha, with whom RheaChakraborty had chatted aboutCBD oil, as a manager inKwan talent managementagency. During the question-ing, the NCB had reportedlyquizzed Jaya if she had anyknowledge about Karishmaprocuring drugs for DeepikaPadukone.

The NCB had retrievedDeepika’s WhatsApp chats with

Karishma in which the twowere seen discussing drugs.Earlier, Jaya’s chats with RheaChakraborty about CBD oilwere also retrieved by NCB.

After being summoned forquestioning, Karishma did notturn up at the NCB office onTuesday for questioning, say-ing that she needed some moretime, while her talent man-agement agency’s CEO DhruvChitgopekar offered to coop-erate with the agency in theinvestigations.

According to sources, theNCB investigations havethrown up a WhatsApp chat of2017 between D (DeepikaPadukone) and K (Karishma).In the chat, Deepika reported-ly asks Karishna: “You haveMaal?, Karishma responds say-ing: “Yes, but at home. I am atBandra. Later Krishma tellsDeepika that one Amit isbringing it to a high-endrestaurant “koko” at LowerParel. Deepika seeks to con-firm if it is hash not weed.

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Saudi Arabia on Wednesdaysuspended all flights travel

to and from India in the wakeof the increasing number ofCovid-19 cases.

In a circular issued, SaudiArabia’s General Authority ofCivil Aviation (GACA) said itwas “suspending travel to andfrom the following countries(India, Brazil and Argentina)including any person who hasbeen in any of the mentionedcountries above in the last 14days prior to their arrival to theKingdom”.

India and Brazil are amongthe worst affected countries dueto coronavirus pandemic. Indiastood at second place, followedby Brazil in the case of coron-avirus cases.

However, passengers whohave official Government invi-tations have been excludedfrom this suspension. TheGACA circular — titled“Suspension of travel to coun-

tries where the Covid-19 virushas outbreak” was marked to allthe airlines and chartered flightcompanies operating at theSaudi Arabia’s airports. InMarch this year, Saudi Arabiahad suspended all flights fromand to India due to spread incoronavirus cases.

Saudi Arabia and the UAEhost a significant Indianmigrant population. Five daysback, Air India Express hadsaid the Dubai Civil AviationAuthority (DCAA) suspendedits flights for 24 hours forbringing two passengers withCovid-positive certificates onAugust 28 and September 4.

Hong Kong also bannedAir India flights from Sundaytill October 3 after a few pas-sengers on its flight on Fridaytested positive for Covid-19post arrival

According to rules of theUAE Government, every pas-senger travelling from India isrequired to bring an originalCovid-negative certificate.

����������������������������� ��������!��"�� ����

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As expected for the last sev-eral weeks, Bihar Director

General of Police (DGP)Gupteshwar Pandey has final-ly taken voluntary retirementfrom service and is all set toplunge into politics.

There are speculation thatPandey will join the JanataDal(U) and contest either theAssembly elections or LokSabha bypoll fromValmikinagar in north Bihar.

Pandey’s request seekingvoluntary retirement wasapproved by Governor PhaguChauhan, a notification issuedby the State Home Department

said.Speaking to mediapersons

on Wednesday, Pandey said, “Ihave not joined any politicalparty as of now. If I do, I willtell you about it. As far as socialwork is concerned, I can do itwithout entering politics aswell.”

He added, “I have workedfor 34 years with honesty andwithout bias, and now peopleare questioning me. I want totell them that I was devoted tomy duty.”

The Shiv Sena hasslammed Pandey for “runninga political agenda” over theSushant Singh Rajput case.

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The Election Commission(EC) on Wednesday clari-

fied that it has not given anydirection to the Central Boardof Direct Taxes (CBDT) toissue a notice to the NationalistCongress Party (NCP) chiefSharad Pawar over his pollaffidavits.

The EC’s statement came aday after Pawar said theIncome Tax department hasserved him a notice in con-nection with his poll affidavitssubmitted to the poll panel.

“... It is stated that ElectionCommission of India has notissued any such direction toCBDT to issue notice toPawar,” the EC said in its state-ment.

While expressing solidar-ity with eight Rajya Sabhamembers suspended overchaos during a vote on con-troversial farm Bills, Pawar, 79,accused the Centre of pursuingan agenda against politicalopponents as he referred to taxnotices.

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New Delhi: Doctors and environment experts believethat extreme levels of air pollution in the national cap-ital during winter is likely to aggravate the COVID-19situation in the city and pose a serious challenge to thegovernment. Every winter, Delhi’s air quality dips to adangerous low due to many reasons, including the city’sgeographic location, unfavourable weather, stubble burn-ing and local sources of pollution.

�������� ������������������������ ��!�����!���� ����New Delhi: Delhi’s Deputy Chief

Minister Manish Sisodia was hospi-talised on Wednesday due to coron-avirus infection, sources said. The 48-year-old Aam Aadmi Party leader wasadmitted to the state-run LNJP Hospitalhere at around 4 PM following com-plaints of low oxygen levels and fever.He has been kept under observation,they said.

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The Centre informed theSupreme Court on

Wednesday that it has primafacie found violation of the pro-gramme code by Sudarshan TV’s Bindas Bolshow and has issued a notice tothe channel.

The SC said the steps takenby the Government in pur-suance to the show cause noticeagainst the channel will besubject to the orders of thecourt. Since the notice hasbeen issued on Wednesday,the hearing is deferred toOctober 5, the court said.

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The Supreme Court onWednesday directed a

Delhi Legislative Assemblypanel not to take coerciveaction against Facebook IndiaVP and MD Ajit Mohan tillOctober 15 in connection witha summon asking him todepose before it with regard toNorth-East Delhi riots.

Delhi Assembly’s peaceand harmony committee hadissued a notice to FacebookIndia vice president and man-aging director in connectionwith complaints accusing thesocial media giant of deliber-ately not taking action to curbhateful content on its plat-form.

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New Delhi: Minister of Statefor Railways and KarnatakaBJP MP Suresh Angadi passedaway on Wednesday, days afterhe tested positive for Covid-19.

The 65-year-old passedaway around 8 pm at theAIIMS trauma centre whichhas been converted into adedicated Covid-19 facility,sources at the hospital said.

A fourth-term MP fromBelagavi, Angadi is the firstUnion Minister to have died ofcoronavirus. At least six MLAsand three MPs have earliersuccumbed to it.

Angadi had on September11 himself announced onmicroblogging site Twitter thathe had contracted the disease.

The MP from Belagavihad requested all those whocame in close contact with himover the last few days to mon-itor their health and get test-ed in case of any symptoms.

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$����������������&�'� ��!(�"���"���������������������"�����""���������&�"����#������&������� ���������"������&�'���)�%��"��%����������������#��������#��&�����������'� ����������*�"���"��� �+,

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The much-awaited report ofthe Comptroller and

Auditor General of India intothe �60,000 crore Rafale fight-er jet deal has said the Frenchmanufacturer Dassault andMBDA are yet to honour theircommitment about offsetclause to the Defence Researchand Development Organisation(DRDO).

The offset clause stipulatesthe foreign vendor has toplough back 30 per cent of thecontract price into the Indiandefence and aerospace indus-try. In the Rafale deal, thelimit was raised to 50 per centto enable the Indian industry totie up with world class foreigncompanies and gain first worldtechnology.

The Government watch-dog said on Wednesday it stud-ied 17 deals inked in the lastone decade to analyse the effi-cacy of the offsets clause intro-duced in 2005. It said theDefence Ministry has to over-haul the policy as the offset pol-icy has not yielded the desiredresults.

Congress leader Rahul

Gandhi has repeatedly allegedthat the Government favoureda private Indian company forgranting the offsets in theRafale deal. The mainOpposition party also claimedthat company was given theoffsets contract worth over�30,000 crore.

The CAG report said inmany cases it was found thatthe foreign vendors made var-ious offset commitments to

qualify for the main supplycontract but later were notearnest about fulfilling thesecommitments.

“For instance in the offsetcontract relating to 36Medium Multi Role CombatAircraft (MMRCA), the ven-dors M/s Dassault Aviationand M/s MBDA initially pro-posed (September 2015) todischarge 30 per cent of theiroffset obligation by offering

high technology to the DRDO.The DRDO wanted to obtaintechnical assistance for theindigenous development ofengine (Kaveri) for the lightcombat aircraft. Till date thevendor has not confirmed thetransfer of this technology,” theCAG then noted.

Giving background of theoffset policy adopted in 2005,the CAG said it was applicablefor all capital purchases above

�300 crore. The foreign ven-dor was required to invest atleast 30 per cent of the valueof the purchase, in India. Thisinvestment could be madeavenues like foreign directinvestment, offering of freetransfer of technology toIndian firms, purchase of eli-gible products manufacturedby Indian firms (exports). Forthe discharge of these offsetsthe foreign vendor had toselect an Indian firm as apartner (Indian OffsetsPartner or IOPs).

From 2005 till March2018, 46 offset contracts hadbeen signed with foreign ven-dors, valuing �66,427 crore.Under these contracts, byDecember 2018, �19,223 croreworth of offsets should havebeen discharged by the ven-dors.

However, the offsetsclaimed to have been dis-charged by them was only�11,396 crore, which was only59 per cent of the commit-ment. Further, only 48 per cent(�5,457 crore) of these offsetclaims submitted by the ven-dors were accepted by the ministry.

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In perhaps the first case involv-ing a caller identification app

to project a constable as a fairlysenior functionary in the PunjabGovernment, Punjab police hasarrested a constable for posingas Chief Minister’s PA to dupegovernment officers and others.

Constable Manjinder Singhwas using the Truecaller app tofalsely project him as senior offi-cer of various designations.

Taking note, the stateDirector General of Police(DGP) Dinkar Gupta has direct-ed the Special DGP, PunjabArmed Police (PAP), to dismissthe constable, who has beenfound to be indulging in crim-inal acts and was acquitted inthree different cases on earlieroccasion. Recruited as a con-stable in Punjab Police in 2006,the cop was at present deployedas a Sentry Guard at 1st IRB near21 No Overbridge, Patiala.

Gupta said that the policeinitiated action after the state’sExpenditure secretary andMining director Vijay N Zadeinformed that he had been get-ting calls from a person claim-ing that he was speaking fromthe CM’s residence. “When itwas checked, it was found thatno such person was on duty inCM’s residence or office.However, The Truecaller showedthat the call had emanated from‘CM house Chd’,” he added.

MODUS OPERANDI

An MBA, the suspect usedto call various governmentofficials, and often introducedhimself as Kuldeep Singh, PAto CM Punjab. He was makingcreative use of technology toshield his original identity,said the DGP, adding that thecop was apparently manipu-lating the Truecaller app toidentify himself as someonefrom CM office Chandigarh,SSP Chandigarh, MuktsarDeputy Commissioner, amongothers. Eight mobile phones ofvarious companies like Lava,Samsung, Nokia, Oppo,Panasonic, along with 12 SIMcards, have been recoveredfrom the constable’s posses-sion, along with an Innova car,copies of Aadhar, voter cardsand marksheets of other indi-viduals, etc.

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Claiming that no politicalparty has misguided the

farmers over the agriculturebills passed in Parliament,Haryana Bhartiya Kisan Unionpresident Gurnam SinghChaduni on Wednesday saidthat farmers are fully awareabout the farm bills and they arejust seeking a law which ensuresassured Minimum SupportPrice (MSP) for crops.

Talking to The Pioneer onphone, he said that the legisla-tors of Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and Jannayak Janata Party(JJP) should listen to their innervoice and join agitation againstanti-farmer bills. He said theagitation has received a warmresponse from labourers totraders despite the Centre andBJP- ruled State Government’scampaign in favour of thesebills. “We have appealed to thetraders and shopkeepers to shutdown their establishments insupport of farmers against thesebills. The peaceful agitation hasbeen called and will further beintensified in coming days," headded.

Chaduni who is leadingfarmers’ agitation againstCentres’ three contentious farmbills in Haryana claimed that theState has witnessed such a bigstir after many years. TheFarmer's Produce Trade andCommerce (Promotion andFacilitation) Bill, 2020 and theFarmers (Empowerment andProtection) Agreement of PriceAssurance and Farm ServicesBill, 2020, were passed by theUpper House recently throughvoice vote despite objectionfrom farmers.

He said, “We hope thatMLAs of BJP and JJP will listen

to their inner voice and wouldcome forward in support offarmers who have been demon-strating the passage of agricul-tural reform bills in the parlia-ment.” He alleged that throughthese passed bills, the rulingparty is trying to benefit the bigbusiness.

Asked whether these billshave become political, Chadunisaid that this has become peo-ple’s issue as the opposition didnot play its due role when threeordinances were introduced.They are playing a better rolenow after farmers stir picked up.

Responding to a questionthat Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar hasrecently appealed to farmers totalk to the State Government, hesaid, “BJP Government hadnever invited farmers for talksto redress their concerns in thepast few years. We are ready totalk to the Government if theyinvite us to discuss issues per-taining to farmers of the State.”

Responding to the questionthat Haryana Chief Ministeralso assured farmers' of notending the MSP of crops, hesaid that if this system is notbeing ended, then why maizewas not purchased at the rateof MSP. In place of MSP of Rs1,760 per quintal, the farmerssold maize to private players inthe range of just Rs 800 to 1,100per quintal. Why did (the gov-ernment agencies) procureonly 25 per cent of total gram(at the rate of MSP)? The gov-ernment is withdrawing itshand from offering supportprice to the crops of farmers.

Asked about the BJP'scharge that farmers are beingmisguided by the oppositionleaders, Chaduni said that noone can misguide the farmers.This issue is not related to

Congress, JJP and BJP but ofthe people of the country. Healleged that JJP has failed toraise the voice of Haryanafarmers. “If Dushyant wants tokeep hopes of farmers alive, heshould move out of the alliancegovernment in the interest ofthe farmers. Farmers gaveDushyant votes with the hopethat he will work for their wel-fare. He got the anti-BJP votes.But in his hunger for power, hehas put all those votes in thepocket of the BJP. The BJP hasnow brought out a death war-rant for the farming sector. Heshould withdraw support fromthe BJP-JJP government.”

On the recent hike in MSPfor Rabi crops, he said that thehike in the MSP is insufficientin comparison to the rate ofinflation. Normally, the MSP isdeclared at the end of Octoberor initial period of November,but this time they havedeclared it one and halfmonths in advance. This is justan attempt to convince thefarmers that MSP is not beingdiscontinued.

Chaduni further said thatwith the passage of these billsin both the Houses of the par-liament, now the entire agri-culture business will go intothe hands of few private capi-talists. Agricultural producewill go to them and people ofthe country will purchase foodgrains from them at muchhigher prices. Currently, thegovernment purchases foodgrains and supplies to the poor(at cheaper rates) as the gov-ernment doesn't believe inprofit making. Farmers arejust seeking a law from theUnion Government whichensures assured MinimumSupport Price (MSP) of thecrops, he added.

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To encourage people forcorona testing and to check

profiteering by private labora-tories, the Punjab Governmenthas capped Covid-19 tests ratesfor private labs. The laborato-ries are also instructed to dis-play rates in a visible manner.

“The State Government,in exercise of the powersbestowed under the EpidemicDiseases Act, 1897, (COVID-19 Regulations 2020), hasdirected that no private labo-ratory should charge anyamount more than Rs 1,600 forRT-PCR test for COVID-19,inclusive of GST and Taxes,documentation and reporting,”said the state the Health andFamily Welfare Minister BalbirSingh Sidhu on Wednesday.

Sidhu said that for TrueNatTest for COVID-19, no privatelaboratory should charge anyamount more than Rs 2,000and Rs 2,400 fixed forCBNAAT test inclusive of GSTand Taxes, documentation and

reporting in the state of Punjab.At the same time, he clar-

ified that any additional cost forhome collection of samples isto be fixed by an individual lab-oratory.

“But, the lab shall adhere tothe guidelines issued by PunjabGovernment. All the testingprotocols, as laid down byICMR and the Government ofIndia and the StateGovernment from time to time,shall strictly be followed by theprivate laboratories,” said theMinister. He said that the pri-vate laboratories shall share thedata pertaining to the results oftests for COVID-19 with theState Government and uploadon ICMR portal on a timelybasis.

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To bring in more trans-parency and check corrup-

tion among public servants, thePunjab Cabinet on Wednesdayapproved the establishment ofa multi-member VigilanceCommission.

The Cabinet passed thePunjab State VigilanceCommission Ordinance, 2020,which proposes to set up aCommission as an indepen-dent body to exercise moreeffective superintendence overthe functioning of VigilanceBureau and all departments ofthe State Government, in orderto provide clean, fair and trans-parent administration.

It will comprise a chairmanwith two members, with aterm of five years, an officialspokesperson said after thevirtual Cabinet meeting,adding that the Punjab StateVigilance Commission(Ordinance) Bill, 2020, willprovide for the constitution ofthe Commission to effectivelyexercise superintendence andcontrol over the functioning ofVigilance Bureau and otherDepartments of the StateGovernment.

The spokesperson said thatthe Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh had steeredthe constitution of a similarCommission back in 2006which was, however, scrappedby the Akalis when they cameto power in 2007. The CM hasbeen empowered to make anychanges in the Ordinance, oncedrafted by the LawRemembrance, to ensure cre-ation of a fool-proof mecha-nism to look into all issues indetail and deliver justice in allfairness.

Once formulated, thePunjab State VigilanceCommission shall review theprogress of investigations con-ducted by the Vigilance Bureauand cases of prosecution sanc-tion pending with variousdepartments of theGovernment.

The Vigilance Commission

shall tender advice to variousGovernment departments, andother investigations onVigilance matters. It has beenempowered to give directionsto the Vigilance Bureau for dis-charging the responsibilityentrusted to it. It has also beenempowered to inquire or causean inquiry or investigation tobe made in respect of allega-tions made under thePrevention of Corruption Actand other relevant offencesagainst public servants.

The spokesperson said thatthe Commission will consist ofthe State Chief VigilanceCommissioner as chairperson,to be appointed from amongstthose persons who have beenor are serving as Judge of theHigh Court or an officer in therank and pay scale of Secretaryto Government of India.

PUNJAB REVISES FEESTRUCTURE IN NURSINGCOLLEGES

To strengthen medicaleducation and infrastructuralfacilities at the state’sGovernment and PrivateMedical Colleges, PunjabCabinet has given its nod forrevision of fee structure in var-

ious nursing courses witheffect from academic session2020-21. However, theincrease in the fee will beapplicable prospectively onlyto new students joining in thenew session from 2020-21onwards. All the existingenrolled students will contin-ue to pay at old rates for thefull course.

“The revision has beenproposed with regard to ANMNursing courses inGovernment or Private nurs-ing colleges, BSc Nursing(Basic) and BSc Nursing (PostBasic) in private colleges of theState,” said a spokesperson.

The revision comes inaccordance with the recom-mendations of a committeeconstituted under the stateMedical Education andResearch Department’sPrincipal Secretary on January29, 2020, in compliance of theorders passed on August 2,2017, by the Punjab andHaryana High Court.

As per the revised rates,the ANM course fee is to beincreased from Rs 5000 peryear to Rs 7000 per year inGovernment institutions andfrom Rs 14,375 per year to Rs

18,000 per year in privateinstitutions. “There would beno increase in the fee of BScNursing (Basic) and BScNursing (Post Basic) course,which is Rs 40,000 per year inGovernment institutions.However, in private institu-tions, it is proposed to beincreased from Rs 40,250 to Rs50,000 annually,” said thespokesperson.

PUNJAB TO FILL 8393POSTS OF PRE-PRIMARYTEACHERS

In a move that wouldmake the pre-primary gov-ernment schools more com-petitive with private institu-tions and increase enrolment,the State Cabinet has approvedfilling up of 8393 posts of Pre-Primary Teachers, while alsogiving a go-ahead to theirdepartmental service rules.Besides, the Cabinet has decid-ed to give relaxation in age andspecial credit to existing expe-rienced volunteers workingin the Education Departmentat the time of recruitment ofthe pre-primary teachers.

Though the total require-ment of pre-primary teachersstands at 12,000, the fiscal sit-uation prevented the FinanceDepartment from approvingfull recruitment, said the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh adding that all effortswould be made to completethe remaining recruitment atthe earliest. Spokesperson saidthat 8393 posts of pre-prima-ry school teachers would befilled up, calculated with anorm of one teacher for every30 students as actual enrol-ment of students at present.The School EducationDepartment would ensure thecompletion of rationalizationbefore advertising the posts ofthese teachers.

The annual f inancialimplications involved in thefirst three years, till these 8393teachers are under probationwould be Rs 103.73 crores,whereas the annual financialimplications would be Rs

374.20 crore after they com-plete the probation.

CABINET CLEARS DECKSFOR STRATEGIC DISIN-VESTMENT OF PACL

Decks were cleared onWednesday for disinvestmentof Punjab Alkalies andChemicals Limited (PACL),with the state Cabinet stamp-ing its approval for the same.Accepting the report of theExtraordinary GeneralMeeting (EGM) of PACL, aswell as the recommendationsof the Empowered Group ofMinisters set up on September17, the Cabinet has given thego-ahead for disinvestment of33.49 percent equity share-holding of PACL, held byPunjab Government throughPunjab State IndustrialDevelopment Corporation(PSIDC).

Finance MinisterManpreet Badal informed themeeting that the State will getRs 42 crore from the same ofits share, held through PSIDCwhose sovereign debt cur-rently stands at Rs 900 crore.

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Union Home Secretary AjayKumar Bhalla on

Wednesday said Haryana hasperformed outstandingly inCovid-19 management, howev-er, the officers concerned needto be cautious owing to theupcoming festive season.

Bhalla was holding a reviewmeeting to tackle the Covid-19crisis in the National CapitalRegion, a statement issued by thestate government said.

In the meeting, HaryanaChief Secretary, Keshni AnandArora apprised that the HaryanaGovernment is closely monitor-

ing the cases of coronavirus andspecified that the state has beenemphasizing on RT-PCR testingand rapid antigen testing to dealwith the crisis, as a result ofwhich the condition of the dis-tricts falling under the NationalCapital Region is improving.

She said that the ratio of RT-PCR testing and rapid antigentesting in the state is 65:35respectively and all corona symp-tomatic patients are undergoingRT-PCR testing. The state hasfocussed on contact tracing andclinical management besidesconducting several public aware-ness activities and providingtesting facilities for COVID-19

management. She furtherinformed that active contacttracing within a span of 72hours is being done through spe-cial cells in the districts.

Additional Chief Secretary,Health Department, RajeevArora said the rate of testing inthe state is 68,244 per millionwhile the rate of testing in dis-tricts falling in the NationalCapital Region of the state is1,04,423 per million. Likewise, inthe National Capital Region,the positivity rate of coronacases is 6.31 and the recovery rateis 84.52 per cent while the fatal-ity rate of corona infectedpatients is 0.91 percent.

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The union territory ofChandigarh on Wednesday

reported its highest single-dayjump in deaths at 10 as 180fresh infections surfaced inthe city. With this, the deathtoll due to COVID-19 reached137 while the total case tallystood at 10726 in the city, according tothe Chandigarh HealthDepartment’s evening bulletin.

“There were 2537 activecases in the city. With 255recoveries reported in the past24 hours, a total of 8049 resi-dents have so far recoveredfrom the virus,” the bulletinsaid. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 related parameters havewitnessed an improvement inthe city this week.

The recovery rate jumpedto 75 percent in the city, whichwas less than 60 percent lastweek.

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Haryana on Wednesday wit-nessed 27 more fatalities

due to Covid-19, taking thedeath toll to 1,233, while 1,986fresh cases pushed the State'sinfection tally to 116,856.Of thenew deaths, three each werereported from Ambala andRohtak; two each fromGurugram, Karnal, Bhiwani,Kurukshetra, Sirsa and

Yamunanagar and one eachfrom Faridabad, Panipat, Hisar,Panchkula, Mahendergarh andFatehabad, according to thestate health department's dailybulletin.Among the districtswhich reported a high spike incases are Gurugram (286),Faridabad (262), Hisar (215),Panchkula (146), Sonepat(131), Ambala (125), Karnal(117) and Kurukshetra (100).The number of active Covid-19

cases in the State is 19,276,while 96,347 patients have beendischarged after recovery. Asmany as 2,571 patients weredischarged after recovery in thelast 24 hours. As of Wed, thestate has a recovery rate of82.45 per cent and the fatalityrate is 1.06 per cent. The rateat which infections are dou-bling is 27 days and Covid-19positivity rate is 6.67 per cent,as per the bulletin.

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PUNJAB CAPS COVID-19 TESTSR ATES FOR PVT LABS

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Page 3: # &ˆ˘€¦ · 23/09/2020  · questioned the late actor’s tal-ent manager Jaya Saha for the third consecutive day and also Udta Punjab and Ghajini pro-ducer Madhu Mantena Varma,

RAIPUR | THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 24, 2020chhattisgarh 03

No./DR. BRAMH/SPC/ 15463 Raipur dated 22/9/2020e-Procurement Tender Notification

Dr.B.R.Ambedkar Memorial Hospital Raipur (C.G.)invites e-tender no. 67942 for Online e-tenders areinvited for Repair and Running, Maintenance &Operation (CMC) of Central Air-conditioning plantand Independent AC units. The Tender Documentcontaining the detailed terms & conditions may beviewed and obtained from https://eproc.cgstate.gov.in

OFFICE OF THE JT.DIRECTOR CUM SUPERINTENDENT DR.B.R.AMBEDKAR MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

RAIPUR (C.G.)

Jt. Director cum SuperintendentDr.B.R.Ambedkar Memorial Hospital

Raipur(C.G.) G- 83839/3 Ryp/Dtd 23.9.20

BID SUBMISSION START DATE 2020-09-22 17:00:00 BID DUE DATE 2020-10-13 13:00:00PHYSICAL FDR SUBMISSION END

DATE2020-10-13 13:30:00

BID OPEN DATE (SCHEDULED) 2020-10-13 14:00:00

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Ensure excellence both in theteaching and learning

processes to students ofGovernment English MediumSchools across Chhattisgarh,Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghelsaid on Wednesday.

Emphasis should also be

given on developing all infra-structure to impart high qualityeducation, he said at a reviewmeeting of the opening ofEnglish Medium Schools in thestate.

The meeting took place athis residence-cum-office herewith School Education MinisterDr Premsai Singh Tekam andsenior government officials, anofficial release said.

Seeing the encouragingresponse from parents, the

benchmark of the GovernmentEnglish Medium School is toprovide better quality educationthan the private schools, theChief Minister said.

He said the initial plan wasto begin a school in each districtheadquarters. But with demandrising, the number has increasedto 51.

“Go for parallel planning

of 146 English MediumSchools in each block of thestate from next academicsession. The training ofteachers should also beensured,” said Baghel.

School EducationDepartment Principal SecretaryDr Alok Shukla said that Durgdistrict has plans for 10 schools,Balrampur 4, Raipur, Korba and

Bilaspur 3 each, Janjgir-Champa,Bemetara, Korea, Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi and Surguja 2each and the other districts oneschool each.

The principals have beenappointed and teachers’appointment is in progress. Atotal of 27,741 students havebeen admitted and online classeshave begun.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel on

Wednesday called for the promo-tion of high- quality fish seedproduction as well as bamboohandicrafts and farming inmedicinal plants.

Reviewing the workplan of‘Livelihood Centres’ at the Gauthansand activities to be made operationalat the centres, Baghel laid emphasison promoting skill development

through training in different sectorsamong the rural youth.

He was holding a review meet-ing at his official residence here.

An official statement said theChief Minister laid stress on devel-opment of fisheries across the statefor which high quality fish seedproduction must be promoted.

He said the state's fish produc-ers procure better fish seeds fromother states. Keeping this in view,the fish producers should be impart-ed training if high quality and better

species fish seed production.Similarly, with availability of

bamboo in the state, bamboohandicrafts and farming inmedicinal plants, includingnaturopathy, should be promoted.

He stated that training onmaking of bamboo products toyouths in districts where avail-ability of bamboo is higher willprovide them employment.

In forest areas, medicinalplants farming along with train-ing to establish naturopathy

treatment centres will be pro-moted. These sectors will helpbring income.

According to PrincipalSecretary Dr Alok Shukla, it isestimated that around 20,000youths have been trained in dif-ferent sectors.

The proposal is to producecattle health worker, producer oforganic fertilizer and differentmaterials from cow dung, nurseryworker, gardeners and makers ofbamboo products among others.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIGARH

Awild elephant got electro-cuted on Wednesday after

coming in contact with a livewire laid illegally at a farm inChhattisgarh's Raigarh dis-trict, an official said.

The carcass of the tusker,aged around 30 years, wasrecovered from the farm inMedharmar village in theDharamjaigarh ForestDivision, Divisional ForestOfficer Manivasagan. S said.

According to preliminaryinvestigation, a farmer hadallegedly laid an illegal elec-tricity connection to operate abore well at his farm. The ele-phant came in contact with thewire and died, the official said.

Forest Department offi-cials shifted the carcass forpostmortem.

A case has been registeredand the farmer is being ques-tioned, the official added.

With the latest fatality,nine elephants have died inChhattisgarh due to variousreasons in the last fourmonths. Three of these havedied in Raigarh district.

The thick forested north-ern Chhattisgarh, consistingof Surguja, Korba, Surajpur,Raigarh, Jashpur and Koreadistricts, is known for human-animal conflict.

The region has witnessedseveral killings of tribals andelephants as well as damage tohouses and crops by rogueanimals.

Excise Departmentseizes illegal liquorKABIRDHAM: The ExciseDepartment on Wednesday seizeda huge quantity of 252 Indian MadeForeign Liquor (IMFL) bottles val-ued at `1.80 lakh in Chhattisgarh’sKabirdham district. Two personswere arrested for transporting itfrom Madhya Pradesh.

An official press release quotedthe Kabirdham district AssistantExcise Officer Nitin KumarKhanduja as saying that the seizureincluded 28 cartons.

The arrested men were identi-fied as the vehicle driver SanjayVerma (26) and his accompliceVijay Kumar Yadav (26).

Sanjay Verma is from Bhilaiand Vijay Kumar fromRajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh, thestatement said.

Acting on a tip, the ExciseDepartment spotted a SUV andintercepted it near a petrol pumpon the Sahaspur-Lohara trijunctionin the district. The SUV (CG-04,H-4977) was also seized.

STAFF REPORTER nBILASPUR

Chhattisgarh Police onWednesday busted an

IPL 'satta' (betting) racketoperating in Bilaspur city

and arrested three persons.B i l a s p u r

Superintendent of PolicePrashant Agrawal told thePioneer that `14,000 incash as well as bettingrecords detailing transac-

tions of around `50 lakhwere seized from them.

Those arrested wereidentified as Ravi Ramani(32) of Godpara, AbhijeetDueby (32) of Kududandand Luv Verma (32) ofMadhya Nagri in the city,the officer said.

Seven mobile phones,a LED TV and a set-topbox were also seized.

Police conducted theraid late on Monday nightafter getting a tip about abetting racket in Godparalocality in the city on thematch played betweenRajasthan Royals andChennai Super Kings,Agrawal said.

STAFF REPORTER n SUKMA

A22-year-old man was killed byNaxalites on suspicion of being

a police spy in Chhattisgarh'sSukma district, the police said onWednesday.

The incident took place in theJagargunda police station area,considered a Maoist stronghold.

The body of Uika Hunga, kid-napped by Naxalites last week, wasfound between Misiguda andKunded villages by some locals onWednesday morning, InspectorGeneral of Police (Bastar) P.Sundarraj said.

According to preliminaryinformation, Hunga, a resident ofKunded, was killed on Tuesdayevening. The official said the exactcause of the death will be knownafter autopsy.

A handwritten Maoist leafletfound at the spot accused Hunga ofbeing a police informer and statedthat the Jagargunda area committeeof the rebels took responsibility forthe killing, the official said.

The police denied that Hungawas associated with them. A searchhas been launched to nab theNaxalites, the senior official said.

A family member of the victim

told reporters that Hunga was kid-napped by Maoists on September 14when he was returning after accom-panying his sister to her in-laws'house in a nearby village, he added.

STAFF REPORTER n GARIABAND

The Chhattisgarh Forest Departmenthas arrested five persons illegally

transporting 24 pieces of sal wood val-ued at `27,000 in Chhattisgarh’sUdanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve in theGariaband Forest Range.

Officials also seized three piecesof sal wood and two wood cuttingmachines valued at `55,000 from aperson in a village in the forest range,

an official press release said onWednesday.

An official said that KishoreKishore (Sondhoor village), GulshanKumar Sahu, Digesh Vishwakarmaand Umeshwar Sahu of Ghatulavillage and Saurabh Ganda andTijeshwar Gond of Mechka villagewere transporting the sal wood ontheir bikes.

Of these, five have been arrestedwhile one managed to escape.

Wild elephantelectrocuted

Ensure excellence in GovtEnglish Medium Schools: CM

RAIPUR: Appreciating the‘Padhai Tuhar Dwar’,Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel said Wednesdaythat it has come as a link withschool going children for con-tinuing education during Covid-19. The programme has wonkudos across the country.

Baghel was holding a reviewmeeting at his official residence.

The scheme was launched onApril 7, said an official release.

Earlier, it was run online butin rural and remote areas due tolack of Internet and Androidmobile phones, the programmewas extended through offline.The programme of ‘PadhaiTuhar Para’ (Streets) and ‘BultuApp’ was developed.

These efforts were wel-

comed by the Prime Ministerand NITI Ayog along with edu-cationists.

Under the programme, 2.2lakh teachers and 23.13 lakh stu-dents have been registered.Around 31,792 study materialshave been uploaded. Offlineclasses are being taken by 22,771teachers and ‘Shiksha Sangwari’covers 7.60 lakh students.

CM appreciates ‘Padhai Tuhar Dwar’

Go for fish seed production, bamboo handicrafts: CM

Naxalites kill man in SukmaForest Departmentseizes sal wood

Home Minister TamradhwajSahu on Wednesday said that inthe past few months police haddemolished several Maoist hide-outs and killed several Maoists inencounters.

“A large number of Naxalshave surrendered while under-standing that there is no future forNaxalism. Sensing their losingbase, Maoists from outside thestate are killing innocent villagersand trying to create terror in theregion,” the Minister was quotedas saying in a press release.

During Covid lockdown andflood, villagers were providedbasic amenities that has increasedpublic confidence in the police. Inthis situation Maoists are brand-

ing anyone ‘Janvirodhi’ (anti-peo-ple) and killing them. This is asign of weakness, he said.

He said that the killing ofinnocent people will spell doomfor Naxalites in Bastar region.

‘Killing innocents will be the end of Maoists’

IPL betting racketbusted, 3 held

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Even as the Opposition con-tinued to boycott

Parliament, Rajya SabhaChairman M Venkaiah Naiduon Wednesday said he wasduty bound to take disciplinaryaction against the eight MPsalthough their suspension wasan “unpleasant” thing to do.Justifying his action, he alsosaid the opposition has theright to protest but the questionis how it should be done.

Addressing the housebefore adjourning the housesine die, Naidu also appreciat-ed the role of Parliament staffand said holding a sessionduring this pandemic requiredsome innovative thinking andelaborate planning, well inadvance.

Secretary-General, RajyaSabha and his team in theSecretariat as also theParliament Security Serviceand other agencies includingthe Central Public WorksDepartment (CPWD) whoworked behind the scenes, “didnot fail me in this regard. Iwould like to put on record myappreciation for the effortsmade by them.” The Memberspresent in the House lauded thecontribution by thumping thedesk.

As regards the events in thelast three days, Naidu said hewas duty bound to uphold thedignity of the rules, standardsand values of the Upper House.He also said the Rules do pro-vide for such suspension whenit becomes inevitable.

In his concluding remarksbefore the Rajya Sabha wasadjourned eight days ahead ofthe schedule, the Chairmansaid the floor of the augustHouse was the most effectiveplatform for contestation ofideas.

However, if boycott is donefor a longer period, it amountsto leaving the very platformthat enables members to effec-tively convey their ideas,besides contesting those ofothers.

Referring to the letter hehad received from Leader ofOpposition Ghulam NabiAzad and others urging theHouse not to pass the threelabour codes, the Chairman

said there have been a numberof precedents when the busi-ness was taken up as perschedule and bills wereapproved in the wake of boy-cott or walkout by some mem-bers.

In this context, he cited thepassage of the Finance Bill andAppropriation Bill in 2013.

Naidu said had the lettersuggested the postponement ofbill by stating that they wouldattend the House, he wouldhave discussed the issue withthe government. He said there

was no such assurance. On theother hand some of the mem-bers justified what they haddone. Therefore, he decided togo ahead with the bills, he said.

The Chairman said forthe first time in this history ofthis House, a notice of motionwas given for the removal ofthe Deputy Chairman and itwas rejected. He pointed outthat the mandatory 14 daysadvance notice was not given.

Referring to the develop-ments surrounding thisunprecedented move, he said

they have been deeply painfulfor all those who hold thestature and the dignity of thisHouse dear to their hearts. Heappealed to the members toensure that such unseemlybehaviour was not repeated.

Though it was not thefirst time that some memberswere suspended and Billspassed when some sections ofthe House boycotted the pro-ceedings, Naidu said “I find itextremely unpalatable. Thiskind of a situation needs to beavoided by all means.”

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Cutting short its scheduled18 sittings amidst rising

Covid-19 scare, the Lok Sabhawas adjourned sine die onWednesday after passing theMajor Ports Bill, 2020, and 24others previously, includingthe contentious farmers bills.Speaker Om Birla describedthe session as “historic” andcongratulated members forattending the Parliament in“difficult situation” and fullyobserving the “health protocol”.

Prime Minister NarendraModi walked into the house asthe house was in the process ofpassing the Major Ports bill ,2020. The opposition had boy-cotted the session.

On the concluding dayduring the zero hour majorityof the issues were raised by theBJP members though a fewTDP and YSR Congress Partymembers and AIADMK alsospoke on the subjects relatingto their States andConstituencies.

BJP MP Uday PratapSingh(BJP) said the Modi-Government which broughtmilestone legislations onTriple-talaq, article 370, farm-ers bills and ‘resolved’ Ramtemple issue, should bring alaw for the control of popula-tion which, he said is the oneof the main causes of unem-ployment, exploitation andcorruption. He said law tocontrol population was theneed of the time.

Many of the issues raisedwere relating to Bihar as MPRajiv Pratap Rudy said thedevelopment work undertak-

en by the State Governmentwould ensure its victory in theOctober-November poll. Oneof the members from Mizoramsought speeding up of theshifting of Assam Rifles head-quarters outside Aizawl whichhe said would solve the prob-lem conflict between AssamRifles and civilians.

Expressing happiness overthe high 167 per cent produc-tivity in the monsoon session,the Speaker said during zerohour 370 issues were raisedand in particular mentionedSeptember 20 when, he said,the house sat for late nightwith 88 MPs raising theirissues. He said 855 paperswere also laid by the ministersduring the session.

Birla also mentioned thelong and comprehensive dis-cussion undertaken by thehouse on the Covid19 situa-tion.

Before passing the MajorPort bill, 2020, Union Minister

for Shipping (Ind) MansukhMandaviya said the last portact was 1963,when the portsused to run in service model.“ Now in 2020 we need tobring technology to the ports.The PPE model can bringtechnology”, he said.

He stated that in the lastfive years things in ports hasimproved and Calcutta portwhich was running losses isnow earning profit and work-ers receiving regular salariesand pension.

BJD MP AnubhavMohanty while supporting thebill requested the governmentto rename Paradip port afterformer Odisha Chief MinisterBiju Patnaik.

YSRCP MP sought thegovernment that States shouldalso be taken into considera-tion in the development ofports as he said “port boardcannot decide alone on thedevelopment of the port”, hesaid.

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The Supreme CourtWednesday directed a

Delhi Legislative Assemblypanel not to take coerciveaction against Facebook IndiaVP and MD Ajit Mohan tillOctober 15 in connection witha summon asking him todepose before it with regard tonorth east Delhi riots.

Delhi Assembly’’s peaceand harmony committee hadissued a notice to FacebookIndia vice president and man-aging director in connectionwith complaints accusing thesocial media giant of deliber-ately not taking action to curbhateful content on its platform.

A bench of Justices SanjayKishan Kaul, Aniruddha Boseand Krishna Murari issuednotices to the secretary of theLegislative Assembly, the min-istries of Law and Justice,Home Affairs, Electronics andIT, Lok Sabha and RajyaSabha, represented by theSecretary General, and DelhiPolice, asking them to respondto the plea.

The apex court’’s ordercame on the plea filed byMohan, Facebook IndiaOnline Services Pvt. Ltd andFacebook, Inc, which con-tended that the committeelacks the power to summon orhold petitioners in breach of itsprivileges for failing to appearand it was exceeding its con-stitutional limits.

They challenged theSeptember 10 and 18 noticesissued by the committee thatsought Mohan’’s presencebefore the panel which isprobing the Delhi riots inFebruary and FB’’s role inspread of alleged hate speech-es.

Senior advocate HarishSalve, appearing for Mohan,submitted that committee cannot decide the breach ofprivilege of the house andadministrative control oversocial media is with theCentral Government.

“Privilege is something tobe decided by the Assembly. Acommittee cannot decidewhether action on privilegecan be taken or not,” Salve saidadding that the DelhiGovernment could not putMohan “in the pain of pun-ishment” by asking him toappear before the Committee.

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The Supreme Court onWednesday asked the

Centre to clarify by Friday themodalities of refund of airtickets to be made to the pas-sengers and travel agents inview of cancellation of flightsduring the COVID-19induced lockdown period.

The top court asked theCentre to file a fresh affidavitby September 25, with regardto issues relating to modalitiesof ticket refunds on whichSolicitor General TusharMehta conceded that theinstant affidavit is poorlydrafted.

A bench of Justices AshokBhushan, R Subhash Reddyand M R Shah said that it isonly concerned with refundand non-refund of money fortickets booked during thelockdown period.

It was hearing a plea whichhas raised the issue of airtickets refund owing to can-cellation of flights due toCOVID-19 induced lockdownwhich had commenced fromMarch 25.

Senior advocate SanjayHegde, appearing for NGO‘Pravasi Legal Cell’, said that ifone books tickets in airlineslike Air India, Indigo etc andfly out of India then the affi-davit filed by Director GeneralCivil Aviation (DGCA) isapplicable.

He said that the DGCAshould also cover people forrefund, who have bookedflights on these carriers tocome back to India like in theGulf Countries and thereforethe issue needs to be sorted.

Solicitor General TusharMehta, appearing for Ministryof Civil Aviation and DGCA,said that the Government hastaken a decision of refundkeeping in mind the welfare ofall and an appropriate solutionhas been worked out.

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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) on

Wednesday predicted veryheavy rainfall over WestBengal, Sikkim, Assam,Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh andBihar over the next few days.According to the IMD, a low-

pressure area lies over centralparts of west Madhya Pradeshand neighbourhood with asso-ciated cyclonic circulationextending up to mid-tropos-pheric levels. It is likely tobecome less marked bySeptember 24. However, it’sassociated cyclonic circulationlikely to recurve northeast-

wards during the next 3-4days. India received 918.3 mmrainfall as against the normal of849.2 mm, an increase of 8 per-cent so far. Uttar Pradesh,Himachal Pradesh, Jammu andKashmir, Nagaland, Manipurand Mizoram are among thosestates which received less rain-fall this monsoon.

“High convergence overthe northeast and adjoiningeast India very likely due tostrong moist southerly/south-westerly winds from Bay ofBengal at lower troposphericlevels till September 26. Atrough runs from northeastUttar Pradesh to northMaharashtra at lower & middle

tropospheric levels. It is verylikely to persist until September24,” IMD said.

Under the influence of theabove systems, fairly wide-spread to widespread rainfallwith isolated heavy to veryheavy falls are very likelyover Assam and Meghalayaon September 24; Sub-

Himalayan West Bengal &Sikkim; East Uttar Pradesh tillSeptember 25 and Bihar onSeptember 26.

Thunderstorm with light-ning at isolated places verylikely over Uttarakhand, UttarPradesh, Vidarbha,Chhattisgarh, Bihar, GangeticWest Bengal, Gujarat state,

Madhya Maharashtra,Marathwada, Coastal AndhraPradesh & Yanam, Telanganaand Tamilnadu, Puducherry& Karaikal. Strong Wind(speed reaching 45-55 kmph)very likely over SouthwestArabian Sea. Fishermen areadvised not to venture intothese areas.

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Contrary to the expecta-tions, while coronavirus-

induced lockdown did not helpimprove Ganga’s water quality,experts have asserted sayingthat, in fact, it deteriorated.Release of sewage and no freshwater discharge from theupstream is said to be the rea-son for the deterioration.

In fact, Ganga is not alone.The water quality of Beas,Chambal, Sutlej andSwarnarekha also did not com-ply with the primary waterquality criteria for outdoorbathing during the lockdownperiod since March, this year,as per a new report by theCentral Pollution ControlBoard.

In contrast, seven out of 19major rivers in India recordedan improvement in water qual-ity in April during the nation-wide lockdown period, said thereport released on Wednesday.

The report titled,“Assessment of Impact ofLockdown on Water Quality ofMajor Rivers”, attributed theworsening report card of theGanges to the discharge ofuntreated or partially treatedsewage, negligible or dry sea-sonal flow that increases con-centration of pollution and nofresh water discharges from theupstream.

The river’s water qualityhad worsened in many stretch-es, the analysis suggested not-

ing that the Ganges’ compli-ance with primary water qual-ity reduced from 64.6 per centto 46.2 per cent during thelockdown period.

The report said that sevenout of 19 major rivers in Indiarecorded an improvement inwater quality in April duringthe nationwide lockdown peri-od, which was enforced for 68days from March 25 in a bid tocontain the viral outbreak.

The seven rivers thatshowed an improvement inwater quality include Brahmani.The primary water quality cri-teria such as taking outdoor

baths in Brahmani improvedfrom 85 % during the pre-lock-down period to 100% when therestrictions were in place.

The correspondingimprovement for the other sixrivers are: Brahmaputra (87.5per cent to 100 per cent);Cauvery (90.5 per cent to 96.97per cent); Godavari (65.8 percent to 78.4 per cent); Krishna(84.6 per cent to 94.4 per cent);Tapi (77.8 per cent to 87.5 percent) and Yamuna (42.8 percent to 66.67 per cent).

The report attributed theworsening report card of theGanges to the discharge ofuntreated or partially treatedsewage; negligible or dry sea-sonal flow that increases con-centration of pollution and nofresh water discharges fromthe upstream.

Baitarani, Mahanadi,Narmada and Pennar riverswere 100 per cent compliant asfar as taking outdoor bathswere concerned.

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The Government hasempowered the National

Investigation Agency (NIA) toprobe offences under theNarcotic Drugs andPsychotropic Substances Act inorder to make it independentin terms of investigation ofdrug trade and linkages withterror funding.

The Revenue Departmentof Union Finance Ministry hasissued a Gazette notification inthis regard.

Section 53 of NDPS Actallows the Centre to entrust anyofficer with “the powers of apolice station for the investiga-tion of the offences under thisAct.’’

The NIA was established asa federal anti-terror probeagency a year after the 26/11Mumbai serial terror attacks toinvestigate terror crimes withinter-State or international ram-ifications. Through an amend-ment in the NIA Act last year,the agency was also empoweredwith the jurisdiction to probecases related to human traffick-ing, counterfeit currency notesand cyber terrorism but nar-cotics cases were still out of itspurview.

However, the latest Gazettenotification signed by the Under

Secretary in the RevenueDepartment of the FinanceMinistry Biswajit Sarkar enlargesthe authority of the NIA to probedrugs-related crimes.

Officials did not rule out thepossibility of the NIA steppinginto investigating the largerissues of drug-related crimes inBollywood with suspected linksto syndicates in foreign shores.The linkages of Bollywood per-sonalities with drug consump-tion and involvement with drugsyndicates has come to the forefollowing the probe by theNarcotics Control Bureau(NCB) into the drug peddlingnetwork in connection with themysterious death of film starSushant Singh Rajput.

The EnforcementDirectorate that is probing themoney laundering aspect in acase related to Rajput’s death firstflagged the drug connection inBollywood. The CBI is sepa-rately probing the criminalaspect of the death of Rajput.

The empowerment of theNIA with probes into NDPScases will also help the agency insystematically busting the link-ages between terror modulesand narco-terrorism especiallythose related to syndicates inJammu and Kashmir andPunjab as also the Northeast andin Naxal-hit areas, officialsadded.

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Even as its Covid-19 COV-AXIN enters Phase II

human clinical trials in India,Hyderabad-based vaccinemanufacturer Bharat Biotechon Wednesday announced ink-ing a pact with WashingtonUniversity School of Medicinein St. Louis for a novel chimp-adenovirus, single doseintranasal vaccine for the coro-navirus.

Bharat Biotech owns therights to distribute the vaccinein all markets except USA,Japan and Europe.

While the Phase I trialswill take place in Saint LouisUniversity’s Vaccine andTreatment Evaluation Unit,Bharat Biotech, upon obtain-ing the required regulatoryapproval, will pursue furtherstages of clinical trials inIndia and undertake largescale manufacture of the vac-cine at its GMP facility locat-ed in Genome Val ley,

Hyderabad.“We are proud to collab-

orate on this innovative vac-cine. We envision that wewill scale this vaccine to 1 bil-lion doses, translating to 1 bil-lion individuals vaccinatedreceiving a single-dose regi-men. An intranasal vaccinewill not only be simple toadminister but reduce theuse of medical consumablessuch as needles, syringes, etc.,significantly impacting theoverall cost of a vaccinationdrive,” said Dr. Krishna Ella,Chairman and ManagingDirector of Bharat Biotech.

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Flight Lieutenant ShivangiSingh will be the first

woman fighter pilot to fly thesophisticated Rafale fighter jetsrecently inducted into the IAFat its Ambala airbase.

Varanasi-born Singh wascommissioned into the IAF in2017 as part of the secondbatch of women fighter pilots.At present, she is flying Mig-21jets and her conversion trainingto fly the Rafales has com-menced, sources said here onWednesday.

After rigorous training, shewill join the ‘Golden Arrows’squadron of the Rafales atAmbala some months later.

Prior to this assignment,she was flying MIG-21s some-where in the Rajasthan sector.Her course-mate FlightLieutenant Pratibha is all set tofly another frontline jet SU-30shortly, sources added. It will beanother first one for womenfighter pilots. At present, thereare ten women fighter pilots inthe IAF.

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KOCHI: 67-year old KummanamRajasekharan, former Governor ofMizoram, has alleged that people aredenied fundamental and civic rights inKerala by the Marxist Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan.

“Under the Marxist rule, the police isusing violence to suppress agitations for jus-tice and democracy. What we see in Keralais the worst kind of Stalinism as the chiefminister has turned himself into a dictator.There is all round corruption and nepotismin everything associated with the KeralaGovernment,” said Rajaselkharan whileinaugurating the day-night agitation byBJYM, the BJP’s youth wing atThiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.

Rajasekharan said that Kerala has notseen the kind of police brutality beingunleashed by the Government on activistsagitating for restoration of fundamentalrights. “Pinarayi Vijayan is exploiting reli-gious sentiments of the people by allegingthat the agitations were for banningQuran. We are not against Quran or anyholy books. But we are against misusingreligious sentiments to divert the attentionfrom real issues like gold smuggling,” hesaid. PNS

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KOCHI: Citizens in Kasaragoddistrict in Kerala are up in armsagainst the State Governmentfor its indifference to theExclusive Covid Hospital builtby the Tata Group as part oftheir commitment to the peo-ple.

“The 541-bedded hospitalwas built at a cost of Rs 60 croreby the Tatas in just 150 days.The Tatas handed over thefully furnished hospital build-ing to the Kerala Governmenton September 9. But till datethe State administration has notappointed even a single doctoror para-medic staff to the hos-pital though the district isseeking a surge in the numberof Covid-19 patients,”Sukumaran Periyachoor, KeralaState Secretary of SaparyaCultural Society, said in arelease on Wednesday. PNS

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KChief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has tak-ing strong exception to the Union Ministry of

Culture’s move to keep scholars from the State awayfrom the expert committee constituted for ‘conduct-ing a holistic study of the origin and evolution of Indianculture during the past 12 millennia and its interfacewith other cultures of the world’.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister NarendraModi, excerpts of which were released to the media,Palaniswami expressed his shock and surprise over thenon-inclusion of any scholars from Tamil Nadu in thecommittee. “Tamil Nadu has a glorious past and is hometo one of the oldest civilizations, viz. Dravidian civi-lization-a living and thriving culture in the South ofIndia,” said the Chief Minister in the letter.

He also drew the attention of the Prime Ministerabout the latter’s visit to Mahabalipuram , the sea shoreheritage site of Mahabalipuram for the India-Chinasummit in October 2019. “You visited Mahabalipuramwhere you had observed the awe-inspiring timelessmonuments and glorious legacy of Tamil heritage infull splendour. You will therefore agree with me thatany chronicle of Indian history and culture would begrossly incomplete without giving its rightful place toTamil culture and language,” wrote the Chief Minister.

Aligarh: Oxygen gas was beingsold by Kasimpur road locatedRadha Industrial Gas Plantwithout any proper testing,license, and registration. OnMonday night, the plant wassealed after a night-long inves-tigation by the team led by theCity Magistrate. They also ceasethe company’s bill book andreceipts. Supply records arebeing scrutinized for the lasttwo-month deliveries. DistrictMagistrate was directed to reg-ister a case against plant ownerArun Agarwal and has sought aresponse from the drug inspec-tor.

The administrative teamalready confiscated all the doc-

uments along with 300 cylindersand 4 vehicles last night. Theteam has questioned plantowner Arun Agarwal in whichit was revealed that this plant hasbeen supplying gas in Aligarh,Hathras, Kasgunj and Etah since24th August. On 7 September,the plant owner applied for alicense in the Control ofExplosives office, Agra.

After this raid, there is chaoswithin the departments for per-secution. District MagistrateChandra Bhushan Singh gave astrict warning to the druginspector for the action. CityMagistrate and ACM II team hasbeen instructed to do this activ-ity continuously. PNS

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With Uttar Pradesh Panchayat elections including Aligarh inthe upcoming months , the demand for illegal weapons has

also soared to influence voters and intimidate rivals and to scorea victory at any cost.

In the elections for Pradhan, violence, power and money arethe backbone of most of the candidates which often turns the elec-tion into the battlefields. This resulted in rivalry affects generationsof family’s candidate. On the other hand, these elections are an ever-green market of illegal firearms and liquor which has received freshinput during this election in Aligarh. These weapons are being soldat elevated prices to the criminals in Aligarh division.

Aligarh, Etah, Mainpuri and Bulandshaher are the biggest mar-ket of illegal arms in western U.P with Aligarh as the main man-ufacturing hub of these illegal firearms because it is an industrialepicenter of lock and hardware industries due to which cheap labor,technique and materials are readily and easily available. Most ofthe country made arms also manufactured by blacksmith here inAligarh. These weapons are being used by villagers and farmersto protect them from criminals and wild animals but during elec-tions, these arms are used to intimidate voters and maintain theirsupremacy.

Aligarh: In the corona period,oxygen gas cylinders are playingimportant role in saving the livesof patients. Most of the hospi-tals are getting the oxygen cylin-der from unlicensed dealers.

According to the businesssources, dealers are supplyingoxygen gases which are basicallyused in welding to various hos-pitals in the district. This weld-ing oxygen gas can be danger-ous for the patients as it containsmany harmful substances. Inthis regard, the Commissionerof Food and Drugs has alreadyordered to be vigilant, yet thesupply is continuing withoutany testing. The main reason isthat the industrial oxygen cylin-der is much cheaper than med-ical oxygen.

The purity of medical oxy-gen must be 99% but the indus-trial oxygen contains carbondioxide and other heavy hydro-carbons which can be harmfulto the patients. PNS

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Kerala, which had declareditself as Covid-free in May

2020, faces the prospects ofequalling or even overtakingneighbouring Tamil Nadu in thenumber of Covid-19 patients inthe coming weeks. The State onWednesday diagnosed 5,376new patients, the highest num-ber of positive cases to be reg-istered on a single day.

The State also registered 20fatalities in a single day, highestnumber to be registered in a 24hour period till date. Disclosingthe official figures to the mediaon Wednesday evening, ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan saidthe situation in the State is seri-ous. “There are 42, 286 Covid-19 patients across the State onWednesday who are undertreatment. Out of the 5,376patients diagnosed with thepandemic on Wednesday, 4,424contracted the disease throughsocial contacts. There are 852patients in

Thiruvananthapuram and thesituation in the capital city isgrievous,” said Vijayan.

The day also saw V S SunilKumar, minister for agriculture,testing positive for coronavirus.Vijayan blamed the agitationsled by the BJP and the Congressthroughout the State for the hikein the number of patients. “It isbecause of the violation of thenorms by the opposition partiesthat the disease has spread allover the State and the numberof patients went up,” saidVijayan who also said that manyof the participants in the agi-tations had tested positive.

The Chief Minister alsodisclosed that the day saw 99health workers and policementesting positive.

The number of new personstested positive on Wednesdaywas higher than 5,337 patientsin Tamil Nadu as on Tuesday.On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu had46,350 Covid-19 patients whilethe tally in Kerala reached 42,286 on Wednesday evening.

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The Central Bureau ofInvestigation on Wednesday

busted a cattle smuggling net-work with terror links in aState-wide raid at 15 placesincluding Kolkata, sources said.Surprisingly the CBI investiga-tions reached the doors of someBorder Security Forces officerswho along with their counter-parts in the Customs depart-ment facilitated the cattle smug-gling the proceeds from whichfound its way to trans-borderterror funding and arms market.

The CBI action comes aboutweek after the NationalInvestigation Agency busted anAl Qaeda network operatingfrom Murshidabad district bor-dering Bangladesh.

The CBI conducted raids atsenior BSF official S Kumar’s res-idence and sealed it after six-

hour search operations, sourcessaid adding he was in touch withone Enamul Haq who has beenidentified as the mastermind ofthe whole operations, MdGhulam Mustafa, EnamulSheikh and others. It is the sec-ond time that Haq’s nameappears in an FIR. A big fish inillegal cattle trade he paid bribesto BSF and customs officials,”said sources.

The proceeds from the cowsmuggling were used to pur-chase arms, gold and otheritems for the JamatulMujahideen Bangladesh or JMBthe terror outfit whose networkwas busted in 2014 following theKhagragarh blasts in Burdwandistrict. JMB has been involvedin conducting subversive activ-ities in the neighbouring coun-try. A team of 110 CBI sleuthsconducted raids at various placesincluding Salt Lake, Topsia and

other places in Kolkata for abouteight hours sources said addingthe accused had discovered aunique way of functioning with-out raising eyebrows. The CBIsources said some senior cus-toms officials were also in theirradar.

“Suppose they would cap-ture 50 cows … they would thenhand over the seized cattle to theCustoms Department whichthen would call tenders to dis-pose the animals off…. Howeverwhile doing so they would sellaway 500 in place of 50 cattle andthose like Enamul would pur-chase them with legal docu-ments before … the proceedsfrom the sale would then go topurchase arms, gold and cur-rency of various countries for theJMB,” sources said adding inves-tigation was on to find outwhether the network had linkswith other organisations or not.

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Two security guards of abuilding were killed on

Wednesday after having beentrapped in a flooded lift at ahousing society at Agripada insouth Mumbai, even asovernight rains continued to bat-ter the metropolis and its sub-urbs inundating the low-lyingareas and paralysing the roadand rail traffic in the country’scommercial capital.

On a day whenMumbaikars woke up to heavyrains that had been lashing themetropolis and its suburbs forthe entire night, a shockingtragedy befell NathaniResidency building in Agripada,where two security guards meta watery grave when they wentto waterlogged basement ataround 8 am to start the watersupply for the society.

However, water levels start-ed increasing when they enteredthe lift and closed the doors andtried to go to the upper floors.“The flooded lift did not startnor did the doors open… Theypressed the alarm buttons andsome residents rushed down tosave them, but could not gothere due flooding,” AgripadaPolice Station Senior Police

Inspector Savlaram Agavanesaid.

The two deceased securityguards were identified as JamirAhmed Sohanan and ShehzadMemon. Later in the day, thebodies of the two security weretaken out from the flooded liftby the fire brigade personnelwho arrived on the scene littlelater.

With no let up in the rains,the railway tracks of the Centraland Western Railway’s suburbannetwork – considered Mumbai’slife line—lay under thick sheetsof water at several places. Whilethe services of the CentralRailway (CR) and WesternRailway (WR) were badly affect-ed, the CR services fromChhatrapati Shivaji MaharajTerminus to Thane and Vashihad to be suspended.

Heavy water-logging wasreported from parts of Mumbailike Dadar, Wadala, Parel, Sion,Matunga, Worli, MumbaiCentral, Kurla, Chunabhatti,Mazagaon, Masjid Bunder,Byculla Goregaon, Malad,Dahisar, Kurla, Ghatkopar andMulund. Similarly, the subwaysat Dahisar, Malad, Santacruz andMankhurd were flooded,prompting the authorities tosuspend the traffic.

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The death roll in Monday’s collapseof a three-storey building at

Narpoli in the powerloom town ofBhiwandi in the adjoining Thane dis-trict mounted to 40 on Wednesday,as more number bodies from underthe debris on the third consecutiveday.

A 43-year-old three-storey Jilanibuilding -- situated in the PatelCompound at Narpoli nearDhamankar Naka at Bhiwandi -- hadcrashed like a proverbial pack ofcards at 3.45 am, when the residentswere sleeping at their homes in theearly hours of Monday.

The collapsed building had in all40 flats. There were 150 residents inthe building when it collapsed.

The rescue and relief opera-tions, which have been going on forthe past three days, have been ham-pered by heavy intermittent rains.

A few persons are still fearedtrapped under the debris of the col-lapsed structure.

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Amid sudden spike in Covid-19 cases, theAdministrative Council (AC) which met

under the chairmanship of LieutenantGovernor, Manoj Sinha on Wednesdayapproved the proposal of the Department ofRural Development and Panchayati Raj toissue a notification for conducting electionsto vacant Sarpanch/Panch constituencies.

The detailed schedule will be finalised bythe election authority.

According to a statement issued by theDepartment of Information and PublicRelations, “Filling of the vacant constitutionalposts will ensure devolution of powers andproper grass-root planning in the 3rd-tier ofthe Local Self Government”.

“It will ensure that the non-functionalPanchayats become functional”, the statementread.

Earlier, general elections to 39,521Sarpanch/Panch constituencies in 4,483Halqa Panchayats were conducted in 2018 ofwhich 13,257 positions are vacant due to res-ignation, removal, election of Sarpanch asBDC Chairpersons, death, and non-avail-ability of candidates at the time of election.Among them, 1,089 vacancies pertain to theoffice of Sarpanch, whereas 12,168 are Panch

vacancies.Pertinently, the elections to the vacancies

notified earlier were postponed due to secu-rity concerns and the onset of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, in another landmark decisionthe Administrative council approved the re-allocation of 1997 number of unfilled super-numerary posts for recruitment of registeredKashmiri migrants and non migrantKashmiri Pandits, who are willing to serveand settle down in Kashmir under thePrime Minister’s Package.

According to the government spokesman,“the decision of re-allocation of the unfilledposts is aimed at accelerating the recruitmentunder the PM's package and the benefits ofemployment to Kashmiri migrants and non-migrant Kashmiri Pandits”.

The Administrative Council alsoapproved conducting the recruitment only onthe basis of written test/skill test, without viva-voce, for the selection of suitable candidatesthrough the J&K Services Selection Boardwithin six months of the referral of posts bythe Department of Disaster Management,Relief, and Rehabilitation& Reconstruction.

The re-allocated posts include posts ofSub Inspector Commercial Taxes andAssistant Compiler in Finance Department(997), Field Assistant,

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In what came as a huge reliefto the local population, a

tigress on prowl in the forestsof Pandharkawada in Yavatmaldistrict of eastern Maharashtrawas captured by the state forestdepartment officials onWednesday.

Within days after it mauleda 60-year-old woman to death inan agricultural field nearAndharwadi and Pattanbori vil-lages, the two-year-old sub-adult tigress named T2C1 was captured near theTipeshwar WildlifeSanctuary. Ahead of its capture,the tigress was being routinelyspotted through camera trapimages along Andharwadi,Koparmandvi, Vasari and Kobaivillages in PandharkawadaForest Reserve.

Apart from killing an elder-ly woman, the man eater hadalso attacked another person, buthe escaped with injuries. Thetigress had also attacked cattle.

In a well-planned opera-tion, the tigress was darted andcaptured successfully by thestate forest officials onWednesday, following the pro-tocols of the National TigerConservation Authority(NTCA).

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ABlock DevelopmentCouncil (BDC) Chairman

of Khag Budgam was shot deadin cold blood by 'unidentified'terrorists near his ancestralhome at Dalwash village in theCentral Kashmir’s Budgam dis-trict late Wednesday evening.

The public representativewas identified as BhupinderSingh by the local police author-ities. He was not accompaniedby his personal security officersat the time of the deadly attack,official sources claimed.

A senior police officer inSrinagar said, the BDC chair-man Bhupinder Singh left twoPSOs in police station Khag andleft for ancestral home alonewithout informing StationHouse Officer Khag.

Local reports said, “Singhused to stay at AloochibaghSrinagar and had gone to Khagfor some work”. Local politicalworkers said Singh had con-tested election independentlybut was supported by PDP.

Mainstream politicians inKashmir valley condemned thetargeted killing of BDC chair-man. Former Chief MinisterOmar Abdullah tweeted,”Mainstream grass root politicalworkers are easy targets for mil-itants and unfortunately inrecent years the threat to themhas only increased”.

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Page 6: # &ˆ˘€¦ · 23/09/2020  · questioned the late actor’s tal-ent manager Jaya Saha for the third consecutive day and also Udta Punjab and Ghajini pro-ducer Madhu Mantena Varma,

The police ought to be thenatural, visible and trust-ed representative of theGovernment to immedi-ately address any con-

cern or perceived danger by the cit-izenry. Personnel are expected to beaccessible, unbiased and positivelyinterventionist to address any cri-sis. Maintenance of “law and order”is their foremost function. In awounded and increasingly polarisedsociety like India, where the soci-etal faultlines and suspicions rundeep, it is only the supposedly apo-litical and “independent” institu-tions like the police that can theo-retically rein in violent tempers, pas-sion and hatred unleashed by thosewho have vested interest in keepingthe societal pot boiling. From con-trolling secessionist movements,insurgencies, civic/communal riots,vandalism, traffic, mob control,theft, crime etc — the laundry listof policing duties is unforgivinglylong. Many individuals from thepolicing forces across the countryhave distinguished themselves withsupreme courage, conduct and dig-nity to uphold the lofty motto ofSatyameva Jayate (Truth aloneTriumphs). However, collectivelythe institutional image of the policein the public consciousness is farfrom the desired levels of probity,independence and empathic moor-ings.

Over the last few decades, thespectre of communal riots in 1984,2002 or even the latest communalriots in February in Delhi, haveraised serious questions about theinstitution’s conduct. Almost always,the standard concerns of partisanpreferences, apathetic behaviour,dilly-dallying and capitulation havedominated the post-mortem ofeach of these strifes with all rulingnational and State parties guilty ofcomplicity in the same, wheneverin power. The convenience, lure andutility of a beholden police forcemake for incalculable comfort forthose in power, who ensure that theplethora of police reform commit-tee reports over the years continuesgathering dust. Various reformcommittees, led by Prakash Singh,Soli Sorabjee, VA Malimath, KPadmanabhaiah and JF Ribeiro,have attempted to professionaliseand rescue the institution from theclutches of vested interests, but bar-ring minor changes triggered by theSupreme Court’s intervention, theessential narrative and outcomeremain the same.

The recent 17,000-pagechargesheet by the Delhi Police,that has named 15 people underthe sections of the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act, of theIndian Penal Code and ArmsAct, has re-ignited the debate ofinstitutional credibility. Thefather of the “All-IndiaAdministrative Services” (ofwhich the Indian Police Serviceis an integral part), Sardar Patel,famously said, “…these peopleare the instrument. Removethem and I see nothing, but apicture of chaos all over thecountry.” While the policinginstitution was certainly notremoved, it did not live up to theexpectations as the larger pictureof civic chaos, corruption anddeteriorating law and order isattributable, to an extent, on itsconduct.

Already the harsher insur-gencies have been essentiallyoutsourced by the State Police tothe Indian Army or to theCentral Armed Police Forces.The frequency at which theArmy is requisitioned to conductflag-marches, control civic disor-der or handle natural disastersdoes not show the State Policeforces in a glowing light.

The significance of Delhi inthe national imagination, owingto its status as the capital of thenation, makes Delhi Police thecynosure of administrative effi-cacy. From the offices of theCentral Government, SupremeCourt, foreign embassies, mul-tilateral organisations to thesprawling metropolis of 17 mil-lion residents — the responsibil-

ity and privilege of maintainingShanti Sewa Nyaya (Peace,Service, Justice) is on the largestmetropolitan police service in theworld. Despite over 80,000 per-sonnel, Delhi Police is clearlyoverstretched with over 25 percent of its staff committed to VIPduties and securing large-scaleevents that are typical to any cap-ital city — leaving too few, tohandle the restive city effective-ly. It has the unwanted distinc-tion of having the maximumnumber of complaints regis-tered against its own personnel.Frequent accusations of inaction,corruption and even collusionfurther mar the perception. Theinstitutional rifts within wereapparent from a very publicand embarrassing siege of itsheadquarters by thousands ofpolice personnel revolting andcomplaining against their ownsenior officers last year. Theoddity of Delhi Police comingunder the jurisdiction of theMinistry of Home Affairs, asopposed to the elected DelhiGovernment, has been a con-stant bone of contention forsuccessive regimes. The impliedconcern is the plausible politicalinfluence exerted on the DelhiPolice by the CentralGovernment. While there aregood functional reasons for this,as is done in major metropolitanpolice forces of global capitals,the concerns of undue politicalinfluence are increasingly hard toignore.

Irrespective of theGovernments in power, the nar-rative has been disconcerting.

The Delhi High Court had notedabout the 1984 riots, “Thoughwe boast of being the world’slargest democracy and Delhibeing its national Capital, thesheer mention of the incidents of1984 anti-Sikh riots in generaland the role played by DelhiPolice and state machinery inparticular makes our heads hangin shame in the eyes of the worldpolity.” It is that lingering senti-ment of kowtowing to the pow-ers-that-be that has again sulliedthe optics accompanying thechargesheet pertaining to theDelhi riots. Indeed, the perpetra-tors and instigators of such vio-lence are rarely one-sided, but theposited optics of a virtual cleanchit to one side of the protestersraises extremely dangerous andpolitical portents for the policinginstitution, as also for the nation.Importantly, the Commissionerof Delhi Police has clarified thatthey, “had questioned personswithout regard to their religionand party affiliation.” Yet somehard data continues fanningconcerns. Delhi Police’s recentcampaign of Dil ki Police (Policewith Heart) — with a heartreplacing the ‘o’ in Police — hasto go beyond slick slogans anddenials as the chargesheet couldhave reflected a more nuanceddiversity of purported arsonists.Now, eyes are on Delhi Police touphold Shanti Sewa Nyaya,“without regard to religion andparty affiliation” as was con-firmed by its Commissioner.

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islands)

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Sir — Japan welcomed its newlyelected Prime Minister YoshihideSuga, replacing Shinzo Abe, whostepped down due to ill healthafter nearly eight years in office.India and Japan have had strongrelations with the latter funding80 per cent of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train projectthrough a soft loan of � 79,000crore at an interest rate of 0.1 percent, with a tenure stretchingover 50 years and a moratoriumperiod of 15 years. Now the onusof continuing the relation lies onSuga. Only time will tell if he willbe successful in continuing Abe’slegacy.

Rahul ChouhanUjjain

��������������Sir — Eighteen Opposition par-ties wrote to the President urg-ing him not to sign the farm Billspassed in the Parliament. In theletter, the parties brought to hisattention how the process was an“absolute and total murder ofdemocracy, ironically in themost hallowed temple of democ-racy, Parliament.” After the dis-appointing show of arrogance by

the Government, the Presidentshould return the Bills anduphold the sanctity of the con-stitution.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

�����������������Sir — India and China haveagreed to stop sending moretroops to their respective sides of

Line of Actual Control (LAC) ineastern Ladakh. The major deci-sion taken during the sixthround of talks between the twocountries came as a whiff of freshair. However, various mediahouses have reported that Chinahas doubled its total number ofair bases near LAC, upgrading itsmilitary infrastructure. It is timefor China to realise that escalat-ing tension at the LAC would be

counter-productive. Can it let theUS get more support from theregion?

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

�����������������Sir — As per the data compiledby the Ministry of Labour andEmployment, more than onecrore migrant labourers returned

to their home States on foot dur-ing March and June. This alsoincludes those who travelledduring the lockdown. As per pro-visional available information,81,385 accidents occurred on theroads (including national high-ways) during the said period with29,415 fatalities. Now that theGovernment has the data on thenumber of deaths, it shouldensure compensation for thefamilies of the deceased. It can-not say there is no data.

Najibullah Mumbai

��������������������Sir — As Indian garmentexports face stiff competitionfrom neighbouring countries,encouraging the handloom sec-tor can help revive the industry.Showcasing products withunique designs and skills canattract considerable attention ofthe international buyers. TheGovernment should make itcompulsory for every licensedtextile mill to set up a handloomunit in its compound.

Madhu AgrawalChandni Chowk

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The 12-hour military commander-levelmeeting, the first after the five-point con-sensus at Moscow, has once again ended

with all indicators pointing towards a stalemate.India, on its part, is buoyed with the brilliant pre-emptive tactical actions on August 29-30, lead-ing to gaining control of dominating tactical fea-tures on our side of the Line of Actual Control(LAC) on the southern bank of Pangong Tso. Thiswas followed by readjustments of defences on thenorthern bank, gaining domination over theFingers area where the Chinese have transgressedand are unwilling to restore status quo antebel-lum.

The manoeuvres of the Indian Army haveempowered the Indian negotiators to hold par-leys from a position of strength. However,China, through its mouthpiece, Global Times, andother State-owned and controlled media, remainsin constant denial mode, blaming India insteadfor the current military stand-off. Despite theChinese claims, Xi Jinping, the Chinese Presidentand strongman, is acknowledged globally as theaggressor in pursuance of his cherished dreamof becoming the strongest and the most power-ful world leader.

The Indian stand so far has been determined,consistent and firm. India has outrightly reject-ed the Chinese suggestion of “meeting halfway.”India rightly insists on its demand of “first-in,first-out,” considering the fact that it was thePeople’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops who vio-lated the established agreements and protocolsand made multi-pronged transgressions into ourterritory in eastern Ladakh in early May. The PLAis also guilty of not adhering to the decisionsarrived at during the first Corps Commandersmeeting on June 5 for de-escalation and dis-engagement, leading to the ugly clashes atGalwan.

The Galwan clashes, resulting in fatalities onboth sides, made India and the world realise thatit was a well-planned cartographic aggression bythe Chinese with the express consent of theCentral Military Commission (CMC) led by Xi.The obstinate attitude displayed by the Chinesethereafter proves beyond doubt that the finaldecision will also be taken by none other thanXi whose “China dream” and personal ambitionare stake.

Xi is a career politician, privileged to havebeen born with a “Red spoon” in his mouth. Hisfather, Xi Zhongxun, was “Red royalty”, a heroof the Communist revolution who later fell outwith Mao Zedong, according to AnanthKrishnan, an acknowledged China-watcher.After the purging of his father, Xi was shifted torural China from the privileged living in CentralBeijing, the area earmarked for the then Chineseelite. Xi struggled thereafter to enter the youthwing of the Communist Party and the final accep-tance into the party is well-documented and anexample of focussed determination, perseveranceand hardship. Despite being born into the “Redroyalty,” he was not parachuted to the top andhad to struggle his way through at every stage.His initial background and subsequent struggleto rise to power had made him ambitious andadamant.

Xi took over the reins of the party when itwas in a disarray. He, therefore, began to con-

solidate his power and graduallybecame all-powerful through com-plete centralisation of authority. Hebrought to an end the “collective lead-ership” system in the Communist Partyof China (CPC). He not only managedto gain hold of all the top three postsin China but also had a resolutionpassed for abolishing the President’sterm limit, enabling him to rule indef-initely. This act of his has not gonedown well with the young and aspiringleaders within the CPC who see a darkfuture for them with bleak chances ofrising to the top. Like all authoritarianleaders, Xi, too, has a fair number of dis-sidents and domestic opponents.

During his consolidation of poweramong other things, he has relied a lotupon emphasis on ideology and nation-alism. Xi believes that the communistideology must prevail upon every-thing else among the Chinese populace.The “3 W” strategy enunciated for thePLA is aimed at promoting and ensur-ing compliance of the ideology.

The PLA, as is well-known, is nota national army but the army of theCPC. Moreover, Xi’s reliance on theindoctrinated cadre of the UnitedFront Work Department over careerdiplomats, while appointing ambas-sadors to South Asian and other targetcountries, indicates his preference forideology over diplomacy to carry for-ward his pet Belt and Road Initiative(BRI) project. Xi has also given a newimage of aggressiveness and assertive-ness to the Chinese diplomacy through“wolf warrior” diplomats. He wants tobe recognised as the most powerfulChinese leader by challenging thesupremacy of the American President.

To fulfil his ambition and imbibenationalism, Xi has announced his

roadmap in what is referred to as the“China Dream.”

“President Xi’s dream is of astronger nation with a strong military,”according to Liu Mingfu, a retiredChinese colonel and author. The under-lying idea behind the “China Dream”is to restore the ex-Middle Kingdom’sglory and regain the Chinese suprema-cy through expansionism. It is alsoaimed at minimising internal dissensionthrough national unity. Xi’s ambition isto make China not only stronger butassertive as well. This is a very criticalyear for Xi in his roadmap for realis-ing the “China Dream” by 2049, thecentenary year of the People’s Republicof China. There are two intermediarygoalposts in 2021 and 2025. This yearis the launchpad for 2021, the 100thanniversary of the CPC. Xi hadpromised the nation that by 2020 hewould ensure poverty relief by bring-ing all Chinese above the poverty lineand strengthen national defence and theChinese armed forces.

However, the Chinese economyhad begun to show a downward trendin 2019 itself when China’s growthdropped to its slowest pace in nearlythree decades. With the outbreak of theCovid-19 pandemic, Xi was certain thathe would not be able to meet hispromised economic targets in 2020.Despite the bold face being put up byChina, it is certain that its economy isundergoing a crisis. The banking sys-tem is the worst-hit, with growingunemployment and disrupted globalsupply chains adding to the pressure.

The centralisation works well aslong as the going is good. But in timesof crisis, many dissenting voices areraised. Xi is now facing a similar situ-ation at home. As is evident, nothing

moves in China without his approval orconsent. Xi has obviously failed to meethis promised economic targets toremove poverty and is facing a hugechallenge to his authority. Any pullbackat this time by the PLA troops will beviewed as a defeat for China, thus negat-ing his second goalpost as well of astronger military.

Can Xi at this juncture afford totake this risk and relent? That is whythe Chinese media is talking of a “longhaul” through the winters. Xi’s calcu-lation is based on the premise that aprolonged deployment would affect theIndian economy more than the Chineseone. He is mistaken. India stands unit-edly to safeguard its territorial integri-ty and would not yield till Chinavacates from the transgressed areas. Onthe other hand, he is faced with grow-ing dissension at home.

Despite the propaganda unleashedby the State-controlled media of theinvincibility of the PLA forces, Xi isuncertain of an assured victory. Evena stalemate would be viewed as anIndian victory and a Chinese failure.There is no dearth of dissenters at homewaiting for his failure and ensure thathe doesn’t get a second chance. Xi isfaced with a dilemma of relent orretreat. Knowing the ambitious personaof Xi, he is unlikely to yield ground tohis dissenters so easily. Rather thanbeing forced to resign, he would pre-fer to relent at an opportune time andorder the PLA to vacate. How and whenis a matter of negotiations and timing.Meanwhile, India should not ditherunder any circumstances.

(The author is a Jammu-based vet-eran, political commentator and secu-rity and strategic analyst. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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The Coronavirus pandemic hasprompted billions to seek shel-ter in their homes as countries

across the world have gone into lock-downs at different times and in manyphases. Although doing so has checkedthe spread of the virus to a certainextent, it has not slowed the progres-sion of other diseases. Therefore, theneed to find innovative ways to stemand treat such diseases grows daily andfor many countries, telemedicine hasprovided a cheap and practical way tomeet this need.

It is a quintessential example of theFourth Industrial Revolution in actionand is an area in which India hasalready demonstrated its ability to lead.

Few interventions are as conducive topiloting ambitious telemedicine inIndia than tobacco cessation andthere are three reasons for this.

First, as the Foundation for aSmoke-Free World’s India Reportshows, tobacco use is widely prevalentin the country and its results are dev-astating. There are nearly 270 millionadult users of tobacco in India. Expertsestimate that tobacco use is responsi-ble for nearly 10 per cent of all deathsin the country and the resulting eco-nomic burden amounts to more thanone per cent of the Gross DomesticProduct (GDP). This figure riseswhen we consider the economic tollof tobacco-related disability and otherindirect costs. Ultimately, the burdenof tobacco use constrains healthcare,particularly for the poor.

Second, many of those mostaffected by tobacco use live in placeswith few specialists to provide cessa-tion services. The shortage of health-care providers is acute in these regionswhere brick-and-mortar clinics are fewand far in between. India already suf-fers from a shortage of healthcareproviders, with only one doctor for

every 1,400 people and only one hos-pital bed for every 2,000 people (wellbelow the World Health Organisation’srecommended norms).

Third, unlike many other medicalconditions, treating tobacco addictionand diagnosing its sequelae, such asoral cancers, can often be doneremotely. Tobacco cessation is predi-cated on counselling for behaviour,which can be effectively delivered viatelemedicine platforms. India hasmore cases of oral cancer than any-where else in the world due to the pop-ularity of smokeless tobacco productsin the country.

The scale of tobacco use and itsresulting harms, its disproportionate tollon those in rural areas and the abilityto effectively treat it and diagnose manyof its sequelae make it a natural con-tender for telemedicine. However,some structural changes are required tosuccessfully integrate telemedicine inthe healthcare sector’s arsenal.Specifically, the three “Ds” — doctors,diagnostics and data — requireredoubled focus in this context. TheMinistry of Health and Family Welfare’srecently-notified Telemedicine Practice

Guidelines provide a scope for regis-tered medical professionals (RMPs) tofamiliarise themselves with telemedi-cine. The guidelines include instruc-tions for RMPs to maintain digitalrecords of patients, including evaluationand management reports.

Doctors may still require guidanceto select appropriate software andtechnology that can help streamlinethese tasks. Though specialised digitalapplications to facilitate cessation areavailable, doctor awareness is the keyto unfetter their use-case. Additionally,issues of medical ethics and liabilitiesneed to be addressed, to build patienttrust.

The second critical area is invest-ments in diagnostics. Recent experi-ments with tele-diagnostic services inMaharashtra have enabled the use ofphotos to detect early cases of oral can-cer and identify at-risk patients. Thisensures that RMPs can make clinicalevaluations to identify early onset of dis-eases to reduce the time between diag-nosis and treatment.

The country requires similar inter-ventions that leverage the combinationof widespread smartphone access andstate-of-the art diagnostics. But scalerequires private sector investments,based on a profitable business model.

Diagnostics capabilities can likely bebolstered through hub-and-spoketelemedicine models to ensure access tolarger markets at reduced rates of ser-vice distribution. Moreover, the use ofArtificial Intelligence (AI) and MachineLearning (ML) to augment diagnosticcapabilities of physicians can also reducehealthcare costs. Studies estimated thatthe use of this model to treat strokepatients can reduce costs by 10 per cent.

India’s fragmented healthcareecosystem has multiple public, private,and individual healthcare providers.

Therefore, it is often a challenge forhealthcare professionals to maintainrobust medical records. Even when theydo, such records are not easily portable,and patients rarely get timely access.Digitisation of health records can helpdoctors administer appropriate treat-ment and create a knowledge bank thatwill help officials understand trends inpublic health, such as the burden oftobacco use.

It is important that such solutionsare designed as open data ecosystems,subject to user audits and not as vulner-able single points of failure. Studies indi-cate that high, out-of-pocket expendi-ture on healthcare pushes around 32-39million citizens below the poverty lineevery year.

Telemedicine services offer anopportunity to leapfrog traditional con-straints to quality healthcare. The three“Ds” offer the means to unlock suchpotential and reduce the healthcare bur-den that is a consequence of widespreadtobacco use.

(Shah is research manager at theFoundation for a Smoke-Free World andSharan is, partner, Koan Advisory Group.The views expressed are personal.)

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Kathmandu: A civil societygroup in Nepal has launchedprotests against China forallegedly constructing build-ings on the country’s territoryin Humla district, according tomedia reports on Wednesday.

The activists chanted slo-gans such as “Return Nepal’sland” and “stop Chinese expan-sionism,” it said.

According to mediareports here, China has alleged-ly constructed 11 buildings onthe Nepalese territory in theHumla district bordering Tibet.The disputed area lies inLampcha village of NamkhaRural Municipality in Humladistrict.

Beijing has maintained thatthe constructions were carriedout on the Chinese side of theborder.

The reports also said thatPillar Number 11 that defined

the Nepal-China boundary wasmissing from the area.

“There was just a hut in thearea in 2005,” Dattaraj Hamal,assistant chief district officer ofHumla who visited the disput-ed area recently, was quoted assaying by The Kathmandu Post.

“I talked to the peoplethere and reported to the chiefdistrict officer,” Hamal said. “ein turn reported to the HomeMinistry. He now has gone tothe area as per the HomeMinistry’s instructions.”

Chakka Bahadur Lama, aMember of Parliament fromHumla, said that as long asboth sides do not ascertain thelocation of the missing pillar,the dispute will continue. OnTuesday, a Nepalese delegationled by Chief District Officer ofHumla had reached the area totalk to Chinese officials, MyRepublica reported. PTI

Beijing: China on Tuesdaylashed out at the passage of a billby the US House ofRepresentatives that threatenssanctions over the alleged use offorced labor in China’s Xinjiangregion, calling the accusation alie.

Foreign ministryspokesman Wang Wenbin saidthe bill “maliciously slanderedthe human rights situation inXinjiang” and sought to curbdevelopment and progress inthe region while stirring up eth-nic divisions and interfering inChina’s internal affairs.

“The so-called problem offorced labor is totally a lie fab-ricated by some organizationsand personnel in the UnitedStates and the West,” Wang toldreporters at a daily briefing.

The House voted 406-3 todeclare that any goods producedin Xinjiang are presumptivelymade with the forced labor ofdetained Uighurs and otherethnic minorities, and thereforebanned from being imported tothe U.S.

If enacted into law, it couldforce companies to avoid aregion that products 80% of thecotton in China, one of theworld’s top producers of thefiber, as well as tomatoes andmanufactured goods.

Members of Congress saythe measure is needed to pressChina to stop a campaign thathas resulted in the detention ofmore than 1 million Uighursand other predominantlyMuslim ethnic groups underbrutal conditions. AP

Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump has termedSenator Kamala Harris as“grossly incompetent,” sayinghe was surprised when hisDemocratic rival Joe Bidenpicked her as his running matein the November 3 presidentialelection.

Ms Harris, 55, is the first-ever Black, African-Americanand Indian-American womanto be the vice-presidential can-didate of a major politicalparty.

“I was surprised to learnwhen Joe Biden selected(Kamala) Harris as his runningmate. Believe it or not, it’s trueshe is rated the most liberalperson in Congress. I thinkshe’s grossly incompetent I’ll be

honest with you,” DonaldTrump said during a rally inPennsylvania.

Donald Trump, aRepublican, said during theDemocratic primaries no onetreated Joe Biden as badly asMs Harris.

“Also, Harris was droppedout of the Democratic Party’spresidential race as her popu-larity ratings dipped low,” hesaid.

Former vice presidentBiden has defended Ms Harris,saying she is smart, tested andprepared. “She (Kamala Harris)is smart. She is tested. She isprepared,” Mr Biden said dur-ing a virtual fundraiser eventwith Ms Harris.

“The way she talks about

her mom, her immigrant storythat started Indian. It’s one ofthe things that really stood outto me. We both talked aboutour moms. My mom was allabout sacrifice and communi-ty and how much they sacri-ficed for both of us, my momand hers. And I know thepride you feel in her nomina-tion,” Mr Biden said.

Ms Harris, who is busycampaigning in various parts ofAmerica, on Tuesday distrib-uted yard signs to supporterswho drive by parade-style andspoke at a voter mobilisationevent in Detroit.

She also launchedMichigan’s “Shop Talk” pro-gramme at HeadlinersBarbershop in Detroit.“Everything’s at stake,” MsHarris told a woman as shemade a brief stop at a woman-owned cold pressed juice com-pany in Michigan.

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Washington: HouseDemocrats are proposing asweeping bill to curb presi-dential abuses, a pitch to vot-ers weeks ahead of ElectionDay as they try to defeatPresident Donald Trump, cap-ture the Senate fromRepublicans and keep theirHouse majority.

The legislation, a wide-ranging package of new andrevised bills, will beannounced Wednesday morn-ing by the heads of sevenHouse committees.

It would, among othermeasures, limit the president’spardon power, strengthenlaws to ban presidents fromreceiving gifts or paymentsfrom foreign governments,better protect independentagency watchdogs andwhistleblowers from firing orretribution and require betterreporting by campaigns of

foreign election interference.Each of the bill’s provisions isa response to actions byTrump or his administrationthat Democrats saw as abus-es of presidential power.

It builds on an electionsand ethics reform packagefrom House Speaker NancyPelosi that the House passedsoon after Democratsassumed the majority in 2019.

“Since taking office,President Trump has placedhis own personal and politi-cal interests above the nation-al interest by protecting andenriching himself, targetinghis political opponents, seek-ing foreign interference inour elections, eroding trans-parency, seeking to endaccountability, and otherwiseabusing the power of hisoffice,” the committee chair-men and chairwomen said ina joint statement. AP

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'������������������������������$����������"��������&���2��������� Washington: A number of

Taliban prisoners who werereleased by the Afghan gov-ernment as a condition forpeace talks have taken up armsagain, top official AbdullahAbdullah said Tuesday.

Abdullah, who chairsAfghanistan’s High Council forNational Reconciliation and isoverseeing the government’speace efforts, said discussionswith the Taliban in Qatar so farhave been positive.

However, he said some —though not the majority — ofthe 5,000 Taliban prisonersreleased by the government asa condition for talks hadresumed the fight againstKabul.

“I do know that some havereturned to the battlefield,which is a violation of theagreement that they had made,”Abdullah said during an onlineconference with the USCouncil on Foreign Relations.

Abdullah said talks

between the two sides hadbegun in Doha on a positivenote, as the delegations buildsome familiarity with eachother.

Yet the level of violenceinside Afghanistan has notfallen, and he called on theUnited States, which launchedthe peace process with its owndeal with the Taliban, andPakistan, which maintains tiesto the insurgents, to pressurethem to agree to a ceasefire.

“Unfortunately, so far, thelevel of violence is very highand to a level that is not accept-able for the people,” Abdullahsaid.

“I repeat my call to theTaliban themselves and also toall partners who have anyleverage over the Taliban topress on that point.”

Abdullah said he plannedto visit Pakistan in the comingdays for the first time since2008. AFP

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Beijing: The US is guilty of“obstructing” the global fightagainst emissions, China saidWednesday, as Beijing seizedthe climate agenda by vowingto go carbon neutral by 2060 —a target welcomed by environ-mentalists despite its patchydetail.

The goals, which include apledge to reach peak emissionsin 2030, are still the most con-crete yet announced by China,which is the world’s biggest pol-luter and accounts for a quar-ter of the planet’s greenhousegas blamed for rising temper-

atures.They also open a new

divergence in relations with theUS, which are already pinchedby squabbles over trade, tech,defence and human rights.

Speaking to the UNGeneral Assembly, ChinesePresident Xi Jinping onTuesday renewed his supportfor the Paris climate accord andcalled for a green focus as theworld recovers from the Covid-19 crisis.

Under President DonaldTrump, the United States — theworld’s second-largest polluter

— pulled out of the agreement,blaming China for the stalledmomentum on tackling glob-al emissions.

“This clearly... seriouslyobstructs the progress of reduc-ing global emissions and pro-moting green, low-carbondevelopment,” China’s foreignministry spokesman WangWenbin said in a statement onWednesday.

“What qualifications doessuch a country have to criticiseChina,” he asked, citingAmerica’s hunger for plasticsand its export of waste. AFP

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Paris: The Eiffel Tower wasevacuated for several hours onWednesday after police receiveda call suggesting a bomb hadbeen placed there.

The Paris monument hadbeen searched and no explosivesfound, a police spokeswomansaid. It reopened at about 2.25p.m (1225 GMT). Several hun-dred people, including tourists,restaurant staff and workmenwere led away from the tower inthe late morning. AFP

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Paris: France’s defence minis-ter has admitted to misleadingthe nation about virus protec-tions for air force personnelwho evacuated French citizensfrom the hard-hit Chinese cityof Wuhan and have been sus-pected of links to France’s firstconfirmed COVID-19 cluster.

The revelation on Tuesdayby Defence Minister FlorenceParly to a Senate investigatingcommittee is a further blow tothe credibility of FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macron’sgovernment as it battlesrebounding infections.

Health Minister OlivierVeran is expected to announcenew restrictions on gatheringsWednesday as the numbers ofvirus cases and hospitalisa-tions mount.

As China locked down thecity of Wuhan in January, the

French government startedrepatriation flights for Frenchcitizens there. One such flightreturned to France fromWuhan on January 31, operat-ed by 18 military personnelbased in Creil, in the Oiseregion north of Paris, thedefense minister said.

In February, regionalhealth authorities announced avirus cluster in the Oise region,and the first cases in Francewith no clear link to cases inChina or Italy. Within weeks,France’s coronavirus case counthad skyrocketed and the nationwas in a lockdown.

With over 31,400 con-firmed virus-related deaths,France has the third-highestdeath toll in Europe afterBritain and Italy. France isnow reporting about 10,000new infections a day. AP

United Nations: Saudi Arabia’sKing Salman used his speechbefore the UN GeneralAssembly on Wednesday tostress his country’s Islamicroots and slam rival, Iran.

Reading from a piece ofpaper and seated at a deskunder a large portrait of hisfather, King Abdulaziz, themonarch reiterated the sacredrole of Islam in Saudi Arabia,which Muslims believe wasrevealed to the ProphetMuhammad more than 1,400years ago in the mountainouscaves of Mecca.

He touted the kingdom’srole as president of the G-20this year, and the billions ofdollars in humanitarian aidSaudi Arabia gave to countriesaround the world in pastdecades.

He refrained from criticiz-ing the recent deals struck bythe United Arab Emirates andBahrain to establish ties withIsrael, but stressed the kingdomremains committed to the ArabPeace Initiative that offers Israelfull ties with Arab states inexchange for concessions thatlead to a Palestinian state. He

also said Saudi Arabia wel-comes US efforts at resolvingthe crisis.

He said the Middle Easthas been suffering from majorpolitical and security chal-lenges, blaming Iran for muchof the region’s instability. Heaccused the Iran-backedHezbollah group in Lebanon ofsowing the political disarraythat has been ultimately blamedfor the devastating explosion atBeirut’s port last month.

He said Saudi Arabia hastried to extend its hand over theyears to Iran, “but to no avail.”

He blamed Iran for target-ing Saudi oil facilities last year,saying: “It demonstrated thatthis regime has total disregardfor the stability of the globaleconomy or stability of oilsupplies to international mar-kets.”

The 84-year-old monarch’sprerecorded remarks makehim only the second Saudiking to deliver a speech to theworld assembly. The only otherSaudi monarch to do so was hislate brother, King Saud, in1957 at the UN headquartersin New York. AP

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The Government has pro-posed to formulate a

National Retail Trade Policyand stakeholder consultationsare being held for the same,Parliament was informed onWednesday.

In a written reply in theRajya Sabha, Commerce andIndustry Minister Piyush Goyalsaid that the government hasset up a National Traders’Welfare Board with the objec-tives of welfare of traders andtheir employees, simplificationof the Acts and rules applica-ble to traders, reduction ofcompliance burden andimprovement in access tofunds.

“Yes. The governmentproposes to formulate NationalRetail Trade Policy,” he said inreply to a question.

Replying to a separatequestion, he said the govern-ment is in the process of final-ising a National Logistics Policywhich will help bring downlogistics cost significantly.

He also said 24 sub-sectors

(such as agro-food processing,steel, agro chemicals, electron-ics products, furniture, leather,auto parts and textiles) in man-ufacturing have been identifiedin consultation with industrybased on export potential,import substitution andemployment generation capac-ity, where attention would begiven to make India a self-reliant country and a globalsupplier.

In another reply, the min-ister informed the Upper

House that Make in India isnow focusing on 27 sectorsunder Make in India 2.0.

“ D P I I T(Department for Promotionof Industry and Internal Trade)is coordinating action plans for15 manufacturing sectors, suchas aerospace and defence, foodprocessing, capital goods,leather, pharmaceutical andmedical devices, etc, while theDepartment of Commerce iscoordinating for 12 servicesectors,” he added.

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The Government has sweet-ened the deal to privatise

state-owned power distribu-tions operations in UnionTerritories as 100 per centequity holding will be soldonly in financially viable utili-ties while it will retain 26 percent stake in weaker discomsexpected to have continuedneed for subsidised retail tar-iffs.

Also, the power purchaseagreement (PPAs) of only bet-ter performing discoms havingretail tariffs that cover the costof power purchase will beassigned to the purchaser.Discoms making losses on saleon power will continue to besupported by the state-ownedentity for a specified periodeven after equity transfer to aprivate entity.

“The draft standard bid-ding document finalised forprivatisation of discoms inUTs has laid emphasis on giv-ing a commercially attractivedeal to investors. This is

expected to attract better val-uations for discoms,” said agovernment official asking notto be named.

The provisions in the draftbidding document means thatprivatisation of discoms in say,the UT of Jammu and Kashmir,will continue to have a role ofstate agencies to meet the sub-sidy needs of the consumers.There is a gap of Rs 2.12 perunit in the average cost ofsupply and the average cost ofrealisation in J&K while theaggregate transmission andcommercial (AT&C) losses inthe state are staggering 47.85per cent.

As part of theAatmnirbhar Bharatannouncements, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanon May 16 announced the pri-vatisation of power distribu-tion companies (discoms) inthe UTs, including Jammu &Kashmir, amid the Covid-19crisis. She said that this will seta model for adoption of sim-ilar reforms initiatives instates.

New Delhi: Although freshinsolvency proceedings weresuspended in May for a periodof six months to help compa-nies weather the coronaviruspandemic, ongoing proceed-ings continued and as many as24 companies were ordered togo in for liquidation by NCLTbenches across the country inabout two months after thenationwide lockdown wasimposed.

As many as 19 of thesecompanies were defunct,according to the data of theInsolvency and BankruptcyBoard of India (IBBI).

The total admitted amountof the companies was �9,302.82crore, and the total liquidationvalue was just 8.6 per cent ofthe total admitted amount at�803.89 crore, the data showed.Data of some of the companies,including admitted dues andliquidation were not available.

Three corporate debtorswhich were ordered for liqui-dation as a going concern, orwhich were not defunct, wereBhatia Global Trading PrivateLtd, Lotus Auto EngineeringPrivate Ltd and VintronCommunication Private Ltd.

Bhatia Global Trading wasordered for liquidation by theAhmedabad bench of theNCLT on May 29 while theNew Delhi bench ordered thesame for Lotus AutoEngineering and VintronCommunication on June 1 and8, respectively. The admittedclaims for Bhatia GlobalTrading amounted to �1273.93crore while the liquidationvalue was �250.92 crore.

IANS

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The GST Council is likely toapprove a two-year exten-

sion of compensation cess levyon goods and services to allowCentre to pay entire shortfall inGST tax collection by statesexpected till June 2022.

Sources in the Governmentsaid that with 21 states express-ing their preference for theBorrowing Option-1 proposedby the Centre to meet the GSTcompensation needs of statesthis year, the next course ofaction would extend the peri-od of cess levy beyond five yearGST transition period thatends in June 2022.

As the Council is likely toadopt the compensation for-mula suggested by t he Centrein the difficult year of Covid-

19 pandemic, sources said itmay also decide how longcompensation cess levy shouldbe extended to clear all dues tostates.

“A two-year extension ofcess is the most likely outcomeof the Council cil meetingscheduled on October 5.However, the council maydecide to adopt compensationformula for FY21 in the nextmeeting and defer decision oncess extension till a moreappropriate study of the issueis done,” sources quoted earli-er said.

Under the existing GSTAct compensation for shortfallin GST collection over anagreed formula is payable bythe centre for the first five yearsof the operations of new taxsystem from July 2017 to June2022. This is paid through col-lection made on account of cesslevy on certain goods and ser-vices.

The term of the cess is co-terminus with compensationliability with the Centre. So, theCouncil should withdraw cess

also after completion of fiveyears. But with Covid present-ing different challenge beforethe governments and h as leadto states bleeding over GST col-lections, the compensationneeds of the Centre has grownmanifold.

As cess could not cover thishigh level of compensationneeds this year and may be nextyear, there is talk of extendingthe levy of cess beyond June2022.

As per the Centre’s projec-tion, the total amount expect-ed to be collected fromCompensation cess would be tothe tune of Rs 65,000 crore infy21 while total compensationpayable to all states and unionterritories may be to the tuneof Rs 3,00,000 crore. So thereis a total shortfall of Rs 2,35,000crore expected this year.

The Centre wants thisshortfall be met through extraborrowings under special dis-pensation by the states whiletheir dues get settled after June2022 by extending the com-pensation cess levy.

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The Rail Land DevelopmentAuthority (RLDA) has

floated a Request for Proposal(RFP) for leasing a land parcelof 3,700 square meter in EastTambaram in Chennai.

According to the RLDAofficials, the land parcel islocated along BharathamadhaStreet, near TambaramSanatorium Flyover and islocated just 7 km away from theairport, 3 km from the nearestbus stand and 2 km fromTambaram Railway Stationwhich is the third busiest sta-tion and second-largest rev-enue generator in Chennai.

The reserve price of the siteis Rs eight crore.

“It is permitted for usesunder Institutional Land Areaby CMDA for 45 years. Anonline Pre-Bid conference washosted by RLDA on September14 and elicited exceptionally

good response from developersbased in Chennai and nearbymetros,” an RLDA official said.

Ved Parkash Dudeja, ViceChairman of RLDA said thatbolstered by a spate of infra-structural developments, thegrowth of IT/ITes sector and arobust infrastructure of retailcomplexes, hospitals andschools, Chennai has carved anidentity of a stable real estatemarket.

“Being well-connected tothe railway station, bus standand airport, the site located inEast Tambaram, SouthChennai, has immense poten-tial for institutional develop-ment,” he said.

Dudeja also stressed thatthe planned development onthe site will boost infrastructureescalating prices of real estateprojects in the vicinity and her-ald the socio-economic trans-formation of the region.

According to RLDA, the

land parcel falls under thejurisdiction of MetropolitanTransport Corporation,Chennai, Tambaram hasemerged as a prominent resi-dential hub in South Chennai.

The site is owned bySouthern Railway and it issurrounded by a lower mid-end residential colony on theeast side of the site. It is per-mitted for institutional devel-opment and is also eligible forthe construction of high-risebuildings.

The lessee will be mandat-ed to provide buildings andbuilding services, civic ameni-ties, vehicle parking for usersand visitors on surface andbasements, internal security,roads and internal circulationnetwork, and landscaping onthe site.

The lessee will be grantedmarketing & sub-leasing rightsas per Terms and conditions ofAgreement.

Bengaluru: Karnataka is facing a finan-cial crunch, evident from a record 255%increase in its net debt for fiscal 2018-19, an official said on Wednesday whileciting a Comptroller and AuditorGeneral report. “In its state financeaudit report, the CAG red-flagged thatKarnataka’s net debt was �17,766 crorein 2018-19 financial year, a whoppingincrease of 255% over the 2017-18 fis-cal,” said the report, which was tabled inthe state legislature on Tuesday.A 6-dayMonsoon Session of the legislaturebegan on Monday after it was delayeddue to the Covid-induced lockdown andsurging virus cases across the southernstate.To meet the growing expenditure,the previous Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S)-Congress coalition Govt borrowed heav-ily -- 55% of the debt from the open mar-ket, 27 % from public account, 6 per centfrom national social security fund and5 per cent from the central Govt.

IANS

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Taking advantage of lowprices in major oil-pro-

ducing centres in Saudi Arabiaand UAE, India has filled up itsstrategic crude oil reserves tomeet its energy needs in timesof emergency and saved a neat$685.11 million in the process.

It bought crude oil at anaverage price of $19 per barrelto fill its reserves in April andMay when prices reached anall-time low while the US oiltouched negative price levels infutures market.

The state-funded reservesare meant to tide over short-term supply disruptions andwill take care of India’s oil needsfor 9.5 days.

The country was alreadyholding half of its total 5.33million tonnes oil reservescapacity when the governmentdecided to take advantage ofthe low crude prices.

India’s three petroleum

reserve caverns atVisakhapatnam (1.33MT),Mangaluru (1.5MT) and Padur(2.5MT), managed by IndiaStrategic Petroleum ReservesLtd (ISPRL), are now full.

Another 6.5MT facility iscoming up at Padur inKarnataka, and Chandikhole inJajpur.

Work on two more facilityat Bikaner in Rajasthan andRajkot in Gujarat will be initi-ated soon. When complete,these facilities will hold enoughoil to meet domestic require-

ments for over a month.The oil ministry has also

told the ISPRL to identify newsites so that the storage facili-ty is increased to ensure oilstock of 90-100 days for use inan emergency at all times.

A large strategic oil reservecapacity can benefit even morefrom lower oil prices as theselead to huge savings for theexchequer.

The ISPRL has signed amemorandum of understand-ing with Abu Dhabi NationalOil Company (ADNOC) forthe lease of half of its 2.5 mil-lion tonnes Padur facility. Lastyear, it signed an MoU withSaudi Aramco for the lease ofa quarter of Padur SPR.

The ISPRL has alreadyleased half of the 1.5 milliontonne capacity in Mangalurustorage to ADNOC. It has alsofilled its 1.03 million tonneVizag facility with Basra oilfrom another OPEC producer,Iraq.

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Benchmark indices paredintra-day gains to end with

losses for the fifth straight ses-sion on Wednesday as senti-ment remained risk-aversedespite supportive cues fromglobal markets.

Telecom and financecounters witnessed robust sell-ing, while gains in index heavy-weights RIL and HDFC Bankrestricted the losses for thebenchmarks.

After opening on a posi-tive note, the 30-share BSESensex suddenly

came under selling pres-sure in afternoon trade, beforefinally closing 65.66 points or0.17 per cent lower at37,668.42. Similarly, the NSENifty shed 21.80 points or 0.20per cent to close at 11,131.85.

Bharti Airtel was the toplaggard in the Sensex pack,

tanking 7.89 per cent, a dayafter Reliance Jio unveiledaggressively priced post-paidplans bundling data and sub-scription to streaming ser-vices.

Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank,NTPC, PowerGrid, ONGC,TCS and Bajaj Finance wereamong the other losers, tum-bling as much as 3.46 percent.

On the other hand, AxisBank, HUL, Infosys, HDFCBank, Nestle India and Titanled the winners’ chart withgains of up to 1.82 per cent.

Reliance Industries closed0.83 per cent higher after thecompany said global invest-ment firm KKR will invest Rs5,550 crore in its subsidiaryReliance Retail Ventures Ltd(RRVL) for 1.28 per cent equi-ty stake.

Global equities foundfirmer ground following arebound on Wall Street, whichwas once again led by technol-ogy stocks.

“Indian benchmarkindices traded in a tight range

before finally ending the daywith a negative bias. The uncer-tainty and lack of direction wasclear in the market trend,

which was actually supportedby gains in RIL and HDFCBank. Banking index ended theday slightly positive.

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Gold price declined onWednesday by �614 to

�50,750 per 10 grams in thenational capital amid lowerprice for the yellow metal inthe international market,according to HDFCSecurities. In the previoustrade, it had closed at �51,364per 10 grams. Silver alsotanked by �1,898 to �59,720per kilogram from its previ-ous close of�61,618 per kilo-gram. “Spot gold prices for 24carat in Delhi extendeddecline by Rs 614...,” HDFCSecurities Senior Analyst(Commodities) Tapan Patelsaid.

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The rupee appreciated byone paisa to close at 73.57

against the US dollar onWednesday as investors turnedcautious amid weak domesticequities.

At the interbank forexmarket, the rupee openedweak at 73.59 against thegreenback and moved in aclose range in the day trade. Itfinally settled 1 paisa higher at73.57 against the US curren-cy. A strong dollar againstmajor currencies overseas putpressure on the domestic unit,forex dealers said.

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New Delhi: The NationalBook Trust, India (underthe Ministry of Education,Govt. of India) initiated aunique step towards booksand reading by organizinga Session on PromotingIndia’s ‘Young Voices’.

The session broughttogether eminentChildren’s Writers /Illustrators and the youngbudding Child Authors ofIndia on a single platform.Ms. Sudha Murthy, Ms

Deepa Agarwal, Mr SubirRoy, and Dr Rajesh Vyasshared their experiences ofwriting and understandingwhat children today areinterested in reading. Theyoung Child Authors aged7 to 15 talked about theirinspiration behind writingat such a young age, andtheir future goals.

Ms. Sudha Murthy,Chairperson of InfosysFoundation and a prolificwriter in English and

Kannada, in her Keynoteaddress on ‘Children’sLiterature in India’, under-lined how important it isnever to underestimateyour potential.

Mumbai: With an aim to augmentingAtmaNirbhar concept across the healthcarestakeholders in the country, Mumbai-basedstart-up WONDRx has launched a mobileapp to book an appointment with the near-est doctor or the vaccination clinic. It hasalready listed 180K plus healthcare providers,making it the largest healthcare providers’aggregator in India.

“This product will make the vaccinationjourney highly convenient for every stake-holder,” said WONDRx founder and direc-tor Pankaj Sindhu.

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Actor AyushmannKhurrana’s contribution as

an actor to bring about socialchange through his films hasbeen hailed by the Time mag-azine. He is among five Indianswho have made the list of 100Most Influential People in2020, along with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,Google CEO Sundar Pichai,London-based Indian origindoctor Ravindra Gupta whoworked to find a cure forAIDS and Bilkis Dadi, who wasat the forefront of ShaheenBagh protests in Delhi againstthe Citizenship AmendmentAct (CAA).

The National Award-win-ning actor has been listed inthe Artists category, whichalso includes Oscar-winningKorean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, Fleabag creator and starPhoebe Waller-Bridge andHollywood star Michael BJordan, besides pop musicsuperstars Selena Gomez, JBalvin and Jennifer Hudson.

“I am truly humbled withthe recognition that Time hasbestowed on me. As an artiste,I have only looked to con-tribute towards bringing a pos-itive change in society throughcinema and this moment is ahuge validation of my beliefsystem and my journey,”

Ayushmann said.“I have always believed

that cinema has the power tobring about change by trigger-ing the right conversationsamong people and society.Hopefully, through my contentchoices, I have been able tocontribute towards my countryand countrymen,” he added.

The presidential memoirs of the 44th presi-dent of the United States, Barack Obama, will

be published in two volumes. The first volume,titled A Promised Land, published PenguinRandom House, will be issued in 25 languages.A publication date for the second and conclud-ing volume of the memoirs will be announcedat a later date.

Obama tells the story of his improbableodyssey. From a young man searching for hisidentity to a leader of the free world, hedescribes details of both his political educationand the landmark moments of the first term ofhis historic presidency — a time of dramatictransformation and turmoil.

Providing a stirring, deeply personal accountof history in the making, Obama takes readerson a compelling journey from his earliest polit-ical aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus vic-tory that demonstrated the power of grassrootsactivism to the watershed night of November 4,2008. He was elected as the 44th president of theUnited States then, becoming the first African-American to hold the nation’s highest office.

Reflecting on the presidency, he offers aunique and thoughtful exploration of both theawesome reach and the limits of presidential

power as well as singular insights into thedynamics of the US partisan politics and inter-national diplomacy. Obama brings readersinside the Oval Office and the White HouseSituation Room, to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing andpoints beyond. We are privy to his thoughts ashe assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a glob-al financial crisis, takes the measure of VladimirPutin, overcomes seemingly insurmountableodds to secure passage of the Affordable CareAct, clashes with generals about the US strate-gy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform,responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizonblowout and authorises Operation Neptune’sSpear, which leads to the death of Osama binLaden.

The memoir is intimate and introspective.It’s the story of one man’s bet with history, thefaith of a community organiser tested on theworld stage. Obama is candid about the balanc-ing act of running for office as a Black American,bearing the expectations of a generation buoyedby messages of “hope and change” and meetingthe moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces thatopposed him at home and abroad, open abouthow living in the White House affected his wifeand daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubtand disappointment. Yet he never wavers fromhis belief that inside the great, ongoing Americanexperiment, progress is always possible.

Said former President Obama, “There’s nofeeling like finishing a book and I am proud ofthis one. I’ve spent the last few years reflectingon my presidency and in A Promised Land, I’vetried to provide an honest accounting of my pres-idential campaign and my time in office, the keyevents and people who shaped it, my take onwhat I got right and the mistakes I made, thepolitical, economic and cultural forces that myteam and I had to confront then. In the book,I’ve also tried to give readers a sense of the per-sonal journey that Michelle and I went throughduring those years, with all the incredible highsand lows. And finally, at a time when Americais going through such enormous upheaval, thebook offers some of my broader thoughts onhow we can heal the divisions in our countrygoing forward and make our democracy workfor everybody — a task that won’t depend on anysingle president but on all of us as engaged cit-izens. Along with being a fun and informativeread, I hope more than anything that the bookinspires young people across the globe to takeup the baton, lift up their voices and play theirpart in remaking the world for the better.”

(A Promised Land will be published onNovember 17.)

In the new normal, a second homewill be an extension of our prima-ry lifestyle for encompassing our

personal and professional lives.Vacations will now be about a saferhome away from home. And Indiansare betting big on price real estatesabroad, taking advantage of a depressedmarket. India Sotheby’s InternationalRealty hosted a panel discussion onChanging Lifestyles In The New Normalby established thought leaders andindustry experts. The panelists wereEdward Gibbs, Chairman, Head ofDepartment, Middle East & India,Sotheby’s Auction (London); NatalieMik, Global Vice President AffiliateServices, EMEIA Sotheby’sInternational Realty Affiliates LLC;Nicholas Spencer, BusinessDevelopment Manager, MEA & India,Berkeley Group and Akash Puri,Director International, India Sotheby’sInternational Realty. The webinaraimed at discussing ways of enhancinglifestyles through art and secondhomes in the UK and other keyEuropean destinations.

Akash explained some of the typ-ical reasons why Indian clients areinvesting in a second home overseas.He said, “London has always been apreferred destination for Indians. It isthe cultural and educational capital ofthe world so there’s a lot of aspirationalvalue. For London, there is a demandand supply shortfall of 40 per cent atthis particular moment. This probablywill grow with the delays in construc-tion that may have been caused becauseof the pandemic. Nowadays, buying aproperty overseas is not a wishfulthinking anymore but is prudent finan-cial advice for anyone who wants todiversify and enhance their wealthportfolio. We look at diversification

through real

estate. There’s a great rental deal thatone gets, which is higher than the infla-tion rates, very different from whathappens here. The third level of incomeis the long-term currency play. So ifyou look at capital appreciation of yourproperty, the rental deal and the cur-rency play, you are looking at a dou-ble digit return on an annual basis. Ifyou ask why the United Kingdom? Theanswer is because it is number one inthe global real estate transparencyindex.”

Natalie gave an overview of EMEIAregion i.e. 35 regions for Sotheby’sRealty operations. She shared, “First ofall, I would say that our offices allacross EMEIA have been incredibly fastin adjusting and innovating in timeslike these. Well, the first three monthswere quite challenging. However, nowwe are seeing phenomenal growthacross different regions. This recoveryis based on pent up demand. Peoplewere hesitant earlier but are nowgoing ahead with their real estate pur-chases. The market in France, UK, Italyand Germany has seen good growthrates. We are also seeing strongdemand from smaller countries, espe-cially the ones offering Citizens ByInvestment Programmes such asPortugal, Malta and Andorra.”

She explained the buying behav-iour of international clients duringCOVID-19 in EMEIA region. “Wehave definitely seen the change in thebehaviour. Most of our clients don’town just one property. They own anentire portfolio of properties. Thefirst change in the buyer behaviour thatwe have seen is a shift for countrysideproperties. Second big trend is a greatdeal of keeping out and sitting at home,working from home to upsize their pri-mary residence based on their need tocombine office and home space. Thethird trend, which wasn’t expected but

we are seeing and is drastic — anunusual amount of significant sales.There are opportunistic buyers who areseeing this time as an opportunity toget a deal. There is a demand for coun-try homes and bigger homes to upsizeprimary residences.”

Nicholas agreed with Natalie andtold us about the changes and buyingpreferences of Indians due toCoronavirus. He said, “People arefocussing more on lifestyle and afford-ability. They are leaning towards openspaces. We have seen a slight regressionin interest in central London stock anda much higher level of pickup in outerLondon stock. There has been almost50 per cent increase in four-bedroomhouses outside central London. Peopledon’t want to be confined to smallspaces. They prefer functional spaces.A lot of people tag London with lux-ury but the important thing to under-stand is that we are a place-maker andnot just a luxury home provider. Sothat’s where the trends are leaning atthe moment.”

“The secondary homes are gradu-ally becoming the primary ones,” saidAkash.

Edward believes that challeng-ing and dangerous times provide

opportunities to all companies to growand move ahead. So has the tradition-al style of auction adapted to theCOVID era? He said, “This is amoment of great evolutionary change.When the meteor strikes, you eitherevolve or die. I think we have success-fully evolved to the changing andchallenging circumstances. Our tradi-tional format is live sales but remoteworking and lockdown restrictionsmade it less of an option. Now we havesuccessfully adapted to an online for-mat and this has worked exceptional-ly well. It has been a seamless transi-tion, beyond all expectations. Althoughlive sales attract more bidders, the dig-ital format is also creating huge oppor-tunities. We are looking at up to 90 percent of auctions going online. Some ofthe changes are new auction formats,jewellery and single-lot auctions. Wenow have a ‘buy now’ tab on our web-site, which was launched in early June.We have Sotheby’s gallery network,which features 24 galleries. Private salesare much more transparent and acces-sible now. So there have been manynew innovations and exciting develop-ments.”

Well, the future is the pre-sent.

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GAIL (India) Limited under-took a number of digital ini-

tiatives to raise awareness aboutincreasing air pollution and mea-sures to fight the pandemic, whichhas now reached 20 millionIndians in a short span.

It has been actively workingtowards educating the Indianmasses about air pollution. Underthese digital initiatives events,short films, contests, raahgiri,pledges, etc. were undertakenregarding problems caused due toair pollution to create awarenessand change mindsets and thatwould lead to a greener and clean-er tomorrow.

They worked with hashtagslike — #StayPositive,#SocialDistancing, #StayHome#StaySafe, #RukJanaNahin,#EnvironmentFriendlyLifestyleHabits, #GreenDriveWithNaturalGas,etc.

To contribute to the nation-wide fight against COVID-19,GAIL employees working fromhome produced a song to createawareness on staying positive,social distancing, staying at homeand staying safe. GAIL and itsemployees produced anothermusic video titled, Ruk Jana Nahinfor motivating themselves to kick-start their projects and also toacknowledge the efforts of thefrontline warriors of COVID-19.

#WakeUpAndSmellTheChange online initiative aimed to spreadthe idea of appreciating and pre-serving the positive environmen-tal changes occurred due to thelockdown. Through this initiative,the netizens were asked to take apledge and sustain this change infuture as well as with befittinglifestyle habits. Its#GreenDriveWithNaturalGasonline initiative aimed to spreadawareness about the use of natur-al gas as a fuel.

Kalinga Institute of IndustrialTechnology (KIIT) Deemed

to be University has been hon-oured with the Utkrisht SansthanVishwakarma Award 2020 for itsexcellent performance in specif-ic domains leading to significantcontribution towards nationalgrowth and development.

All India Council forTechnical Education (AICTE),Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment, Government ofIndia has given this award toKIIT-DU for post COVID-19 re-development and rehabilitationplan. The award was presentedin 13 different categories, whileKIIT is the only institution inIndia to get the award in the cat-egory.

The AICTE had held a com-petition “AICTE-VishwakarmaAwards-2020” for the studentsand AICTE-approved institutesto encourage and motivateyoung students and institutionsto raise their performance intheir specific domains. AICTE

recognised and honoured theinnovative work of the KIIT-DUfor its social work during theCOVID-19 pandemic. Theawards were declared in thepresence of Dr RameshPokhriyal Nishank, Union

Minister of Education; ProfessorAnil D Sahasrabudhe,Chairman, AICTE; Dr MPPoonia, Vice Chairman;Professor Rajive Kumar, MemberSecretary and other eminenteducationists and dignitaries.

RITES Ltd, TransportI n f r a s t r u c t u r e

Consultancy and Engineeringcompany, has been awardeda contract for RailwayElectrification works on com-petition basis amounting to`475 crore.

An agreement will besigned between RITES andthe concerned Railway inthis regard in due course.This turn key contractmajorly covers sections ofMavli-Bari Sadri for 82RKM; Udaipur-Himmatnagar for 210 RKM;Bhatinda-Firozpur for 81RKM; and Gulbarga-Bidarfor 110 RKM of NWR, NRand SCR, respectively.

Rajeev Mehrotra,Chairman and ManagingDirector, RITES Limited,said, “These important addi-tions to our order book willbe executed on priority asthese are a part of the keyplan of railways for completeelectrification.”

Afirst of its kind web-interactionwas organised by Western

Railway Sports Association (WRSA)to motivate the sportspersons ofWestern Railway. Tanuja Kansal,president of Western RailwayWomen Welfare Organisation(WRWWO) and Alok Kansal, gen-eral manager of Western Railway,attended as the chief guests. Theyinteracted with sportspersons,coaches, captains and sports admin-istrators of Western Railway SportsAssociation through the Webinar.

Five Arjuna awardees, 60 coach-es, and 22 elite sportspersons tookpart in this interactive session. Theweb interaction was anchored by RajKumar Lal, president of WRSAand Sandeep Rajvanshy, generalsecretary of WRSA.

The webinar was organised aspart of the ‘Fit India Freedom Run’.Principal HODs, divisional railway

managers and other officers ofWestern Railway also joined. Ashort film about various infrastruc-ture and allied facilities was show-cased during the session, followed bya brief presentation on variousactivities of WRSA and profiles of37 sports teams of Western Railwaygiving details of team members, cap-tains and coaches.

Names like Gurbux SinghGrewal (Olympian bronze medalist,hockey), Balbir Singh Grewal (AsianGames hold medalist, hockey),Diana Edulji (Padamshree andArjuna Award, cricket), Eliza Nelson(Padamshree Award, hockey), SelmaD’silva (Padamshree Award, hock-ey) and Subhash Agarwal (runner-up in World Billiards

Championship) were talkedabout with great pride.

Kansal commended thesports personalities who havewon laurels for the country, aswell as for Railways. She fur-ther said that this was madepossible only because of thetalent developed by each indi-vidual, through their hardwork and determination,which has made them cham-pions today. She also gavecredit to the parents of thesesportspersons, who encour-aged them to pursue theirdreams and provided all thenecessary support. She addedthat now it was the turn of rail-ways to support them to reach

the pinnacle of their career insports. She said that this couldbe fulfilled by achieving targetsset by their coaches. She fur-ther encouraged women topursue sports at a profession-al level. She emphasised onhow a sportswoman playsdual role — that of a caringmother at home and anachiever in sports.

She said she is proud ofthe fact that many sports-women of WR have wonawards and medals. She wasdelighted that four of WR’swomen hockey players arepresently undergoing trainingat Bengaluru for the TokyoOlympic Games. She wished

them the very best for theGames.

As a gesture of apprecia-tion, an award of �25,000 wasannounced for the welfare ofWR’s sportswomen, whichwill be used to set up lockersets for them. Many of WR’ssportswomen from varioussporting events have theirpractice sessions in WR’sMahalaxmi sportsground. Thelocker sets will be placed in thechanging room at the pavilionat Mahalaxmi, which will ben-efit and be of great help to thesportswomen.

Kansal concluded,“Continuous effort is the keyto unlocking one’s potential,and success comes to thosewho refuse to give up. We haveto believe in ourselves and fol-low the road to our dreams.”

SHARP Business Systems (India)Pvt. Ltd announced the launch of

PN-CD701, the world’s first Windowscollaboration display, which offersbest-in-class environment for businessmeetings with better space utilisationand more productive collaborationwith minimal setup.

The display has been speciallydesigned keeping in mind the officeand remote working requirement ofcorporates. The next-generationinteractive display enables betterspace utilisation and more produc-tive collaboration in meetings, boardrooms and training rooms whichwould totally revolutionise the wayofficial conferences are conductedwhether working from home oroffice space. The display comes withcertification from Microsoft andSkype for businesses.

Announcing the launch, ShinjiMinatogawa, managing director, said,“SHARP has been known for its ded-ication to constantly developinginnovative technologies to supportthe evolving needs of its customers.Our products not only offerimproved technology and the latestfeatures but also improve their qual-ity of life. We have yet again deliveredon this promise and offered our cus-tomers with the seamless all-in-one

solution that allows them to workcomfortably and efficiently fromanywhere in the world.”

Besides the launch, SHARP hasalso rolled out a special, integratedpackage of workplace solutions keep-ing in mind the requirement ofworking professionals operating

remotely in the times of COVID-19.The package includes the Windowscollaboration display along with amulti-functional printer — aCommercial Air Purifier and aDynabook laptop. The package canbenefit all work groups includingstartups but is in particular designed

for SMEs, BFSI, large institutions andmultinational corporates to makeworking from home easier, saferand more efficient.

The collaboration displayembraces a 4K Ultra HD 70-classinteractive display, 12+12W built-inspeakers, a high-quality camera andan IoT sensor hub that works seam-lessly with the best Microsoft 365 col-laboration tools. The device comeswith a built-in microphone and awireless casting that works withWindows and Android devices. Itprovides clear, visual information toenable more efficient workstation util-isation and creates a comfortablemeeting and training environment formore productive collaboration andlearning, while also improving over-all facilities management. Besides, the10-point Projected Capacitive[PCAP] touch technology and DirectOptical Bonding provides a moreaccurate touch precision and natur-al Pen-on-Paper experience.

The launch took place virtuallywith a footfall of over 500 corporatecostumers across the industry. The 4KUltra HD Windows CollaborationDisplay is available for purchase allover India directly from the compa-ny or through authorised SHARPdealers and is priced at �11,29,000.

�It has been more than amonth that you tookcharge of the MunicipalCorporation of Ghaziabad.What have been yourobservations about the cityso far?

Well, I will not call themflaws, rather areas, whichneed improvement, wherework needs to be done.Over the course of time, Ihave seen that scope of workin many fields.

�Where did you see it themost?

The biggest problem inGhaziabad is garbage dis-posal, for which we haveprepared a complete actionplan for permanent solution.A plan is being prepared toset up 10 garbage factories infive of the municipal corpo-ration’s zone cities — KaviNagar, Vijay Nagar, MohanNagar and Vasundharaareas. Here, five factories

will be set up in the firstphase in six months. Thesewill be operated on PPPmodel. The MunicipalCorporation will providethe waste to the respectivefirm that runs these facto-ries. This firm will segregatewet and dry waste and makeorganic fertiliser and otherproducts from it and sell itin the market. The factorieswill operate from the pro-ceeds from it. TheMunicipal Corporation willneither take nor provideanything for this. The spe-cial thing is that 12,000

garbage pickers will also getRanj Gar in these factories.Here, these units will have astate-of-the-art machine forgarbage disposal. This entireproject will be operated at acorporate level. In January2021, the first factory will becommissioned and handedover to the city.

�Do you have any plans tomake the city beautiful?

Of course, the targethas been set to make the cityclean and green in missionallocation. Vending zoneswill also be set up. Digitalhoardings will not beinstalled in the city anymore.The variance of stray ani-mals will be stopped as wellas action is being taken toget rid of the problem ofmonkeys and stray dogs inresident areas.

�What is the action plan toprotect the property of the

Municipal Corporationfrom the land mafia?

After taking charge, Ihave inspected many placesand made an action plan tosave the assets of the corpo-ration. With the removal ofland from the possession ofland mafia, the number ofproperties of the corpora-tion which has been givenon rent or lease is 1,200.Allottees who have sub-letthese assets will be cancelledand all properties will be re-auctioned.

Also, the tax base willbe increased so that theincome of the municipalcorporation can increase.The assets will be mailed tobring it into the tax net. Asfar as redeeming the landfrom land mafia is con-cerned, strict action will betaken against such people sothat no one can muster thecourage to commit such acrime again.

To meet the expected growth ofpassenger footfall, AAI’sDehradun Airport is getting

upgraded at the project cost of �353crore. The first phase of developmentwork includes construction ofDomestic Terminal Building alongwith Utility Block, Car park, SewageTreatment Plant, RainwaterHarvesting structures and other ancil-lary structures.

With an area of 42,776 sqm, theNew Terminal Building will able towelcome 1,800 passengers duringthe peak hours, thereby expanding thecapacity of the airport eight timesthan before. The building will have aconcourse, check-in area, securityhold and arrival lounge at groundfloor, security hold at first floor andother services and various offices atmezzanine floor. Equipped with 36check-in counters and four aero-bridges, the new terminal will have allthe modern facilities like self check-in kiosks and inline baggage screen-ing facility. Ample retail space spreadin an area of 6,465 sqm is alsoplanned, to help accelerate the gen-

eration of revenue and employmentfor local youth.

The design height of the buildingis optimally done to reduce the cost

of construction and operation. Thebuilding has been designed to providepassengers and visitors a sense ofplace highlighting the culture and her-

itage of Uttarakhand. Arched façadeis inspired by the work featured atForest Research Institute, Dehradunand the feature columns are inspired

by the form of Brahmakamal, the stateflower of Uttarakhand.

The new building will also haveeco-friendly sustainable features likedouble-curved roof to aid in rainwa-ter harvesting, sewage treatmentplant, solar power system, energy effi-cient fixtures and provision of max-imum natural light through sky-lights.

The second phase of the develop-ment work will include shifting ofoperations from existing terminalbuilding to the new one and construc-tion of balance portion of terminalbuilding along with integration of allthe services and completion of bal-ance works.

Almost 80 per cent of the devel-opment work has been completed andthe project is likely to be completedby October 21.

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Mahendra Singh Dhoni didnot lead from the front by

dropping himself down thebatting order during a mam-moth chase, opined formerIndia batsman GautamGambhir, tearing into CSK cap-tain’s decision to bat at numberseven against Rajasthan Royals.

The former India openerreckons that if any other captainhad done this, he would havedrawn a lot of flak but since itis Dhoni, people are not eventalking about it.

“I was a bit surprised to behonest. MS Dhoni batting at No7? And sending (Ruturaj)Gaikwad, Sam Curran beforehim. Makes no sense to me. Infact you should be leadingfrom the front,” Gambhir toldESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time Out.

“This is not what you callleading from the front. Battingat No 7 when you’re chasing217. The game was over. Faf wasprobably the lone warrior,” hesaid.

“See, if someone else wouldhave done this, some other(batsman) captain had batted atNo 7, he would have got a lotof flak. It is MS Dhoni —probably that’s why people don’ttalk about it.”

The 38-year-old Gambhir,who played 58 Tests and 147ODIs between 2003 and 2016,also questioned CSK’s intent towin the game.

“There is nothing wrong ifyou end up getting out early, atleast start leading from thefront, trying to inspire the teamas well. What you did in the lastover (hitting 3 sixes in last over),probably if you’d done thatcoming in at No 4 or 5, along-side Faf, you could have madea game out of it,” said Gambhir.

“Probably there was nosuch intent to make a game outof it. I thought after the (first)six overs, they had literally

given up on the game. Andprobably MS was trying to getback into that match rhythm ofbatting till the end and get someruns under his belt so he canactually play these kind ofinnings in the coming games.

“You’ve got to be in the pre-sent, try and win each gamepossible. I thought there was nointent to win the game and theywere never there in the chase.”

On Dhoni hitting threesixes in the f inal over,Gambhir said, “Yes, you cantalk about MS Dhoni’s last overbut it was of no use to be hon-est. It was just all personalruns.”

Gambhir said it was“absolute miscalculation” onthe part of CSK to delayDhoni’s arrival at the crease.

“When you don’t haveSuresh Raina, you’re makingpeople believe that SamCurran is better than you.You’re making people believe

that Ruturaj Gaikwad,Curran, Kedar Jadhav,Faf du Plessis, M Vijay,all these guys, are bet-ter than you.

“Probably not the rightcaptaincy as well. This isnot how you ask someonelike MS to lead the side.”

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Kings XI Punjab will look toput behind the controver-sial ‘short run’ decision in

their IPL opener and start afreshwhen they take on Virat Kohli’sbuoyant Royal ChallengersBangalore here on Thursday.

In their opening game againstDelhi Capitals, the square-legumpire erroneously called KXIP’sChris Jordan for a ‘short run’ in thethird ball of the 19th over, effec-tively costing his team the close-ly fought game.

KXIP went on to lodge anappeal to the match referee overthe incident but on Thursday, KLRahul and Co would like forgetthe unsavoury incident and focuson the task ahead.

In contrast, RCB opened theircampaign on a winning notedefeating Sunrisers Hyderabadby 10 runs, raising hopes thatthings might finally fall into place

for them this season.Devdutt Padikkal started

his IPL career on a classy notehitting a sublime half-centuryand will once again be in focus,while AB de Villers will alsolook to continue in the samevein following a crucial half-century.

Both Kohli and AaronFinch looked good on Mondaynight and would be itching tospend more time in the middle.

Yuzvendra Chahal, asalways, will be the key man inthe RCB bowling attack. ButUmesh Yadav continues to leakruns and going by his showingin the first game, he could bereplaced by Mohammad Siraj.It remains to be seen if the teamcan fit in England all-rounderMoeen Ali in the middle-order.With Josh Phillippe being cho-sen as the specialist wicketkeep-er batsman to start with, Ali canonly replace Dale Steyn in the

eleven.For KXIP, Mayank

Agarwal looked in imperioustouch but was gutted to not beable to get his team over the linewith just one run required towin.

Rahul, Glenn Maxwell andNicholas Pooran will be expect-ed to step up as they possess theability to take away the gamefrom any opposition.

Big hitters Chris Gayle,who was left out of the openerfor better balance in the eleven,could be back and batting all-rounder Jimmy Neesham couldalso be given a chance.

KXIP’s bowling is spear-headed by Mohammed Shami,who proved his high worth inthe team’s opener.

Young leg-spinner RaviBishnoi will go into the gamemore confident, havingimpressed against DelhiCapitals.

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The extended two-week quar-antine of Chennai Super

Kings hampered his prepara-tions as he did not get enoughtime for batting practice, saidcaptain Mahendra Singh Dhoniafter his side lost to RajasthanRoyals by 16 runs in their sec-ond IPL game.

Dhoni came in to bat at No7, sending the likes of SamCurran and Kedar Jadhav aheadof him in a mammoth 217-runchase on Tuesday.

Asked why he came so lowin the order, the CSK captainsaid, “I haven’t batted for a longtime. 14-day quarantine doesn’thelp.”

“Also, we wanted to try dif-ferent things, give opportunitiesto Sam (Curran). We have theopportunity to try differentthings. If they don’t work, youcan always go back to yourstrengths,” the CSK skippersaid.

Dhoni’s reference was toCSK’s extra one-week quaran-tine after 13 people in their con-tingent tested positive for Covid-19, resulting in missing out onimportant training sessions. Hewas not out on 29 off 17 ballswith three sixes in the last over.

Although he didn’t nameMurali Vijay but the veteranopener’s run-a-ball 21 was oneof the reasons for CSK fallingshort besides an off-day from hisspin duo of Ravindra Jadejaand Piyush Chawla.

“With 217 on the board, weneeded a very good start whichwas not the case. Steve (Smith)and (Sanju) Samson batted verywell. We need to give credit totheir bowlers. Once you’ve seenthe first innings, you knew thelengths to bowl,” Dhoni said.

“Their spinners did well tobowl away from the batsman.Our spinners made the error tobowl too full. If we would’vemaybe restricted them to 200, itwould’ve been a good game.”

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Convinced that possessing an array ofshots is a must to go with power-hit-

ting, wicket-keeper batsman SanjuSamson says he worked on these aspectsduring the coronavirus enforced break.

The work done by Samson was thereto be seen when he pulverised theChennai Super Kings on Tuesday night,setting up a Rajasthan Royal’s win withhis blistering 32-ball 74-run knock,studded with nine sixes and a boundary.

That he is an impact player is aknown fact but his clean and elegant hit-ting earned praise from one and all.

“I think range-hitting is what thegame demands in this generation. I hadtime to work out in these 5 months, andI think I’ve increased that ability,” Samsonsaid at the post-match presentation.

“I’ve been working hard on my fit-ness, diet and training, and on mystrength, because my game relies a lot onpower hitting,” he added.

Samson, who was adjudged Man-of-the-Match, said his plan is to go and hitall the deliveries in his arc.

“My game plan is stand and deliver.If it’s in the arc I go for it, and it’s veryimportant to keep the intent to hit the ballif it’s there to be hit.

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The women’s FIFA Under-17World Cup, which has been

rescheduled to February-March,is likely to be postponed yetagain in view of the Covid-19pandemic.

Originally scheduled to beheld in five venues of India fromNovember 2 to 21, the women’sage group showpiece waspushed to February 17-March 7next year due to the pandemic,which has played havoc withsporting calendars worldwide.

With the health crisis stillshowing no signs of abating andwith the qualifying tournamentsyet to be held in Africa, Northand Central America and SouthAmerica, there is a high possi-bility of the tournament gettingpostponed yet again.

“There is a high possibilitythat the women’s FIFA U-17World Cup will be postponedagain. The new time framewhen the tournament will beheld is yet not known. But mostprobably it is getting postponed,”a source privy to the develop-ment told PTI.

All India FootballFederation (AIFF) general sec-retary Kushal Das, however,

told PTI that there is “no officialupdate” on the matter yet.

But when asked specifical-ly whether there is a possibilityof the postponement of thetournament in view of the pre-vailing situation, he said, “It canbe (postponed).”

With less than five monthsleft for the tournament, theconfederations of Africa (CAF),North and Central America(CONCACAF) and SouthAmerica (CONMEBOL) are yetto hold their qualifiers.

Europe (UEFA) cancelled itsqualifying tournament lastmonth and nominated Spain,England and Germany — itshighest-ranked teams. The con-federation of Oceania (OFA) didthe same and nominated NewZealand as its representative inthe U-17 World Cup.

Only Asia (AFC) conduct-ed the qualifiers as scheduled.Japan and North Korea qualifiedafter becoming the championsand runners-up respectively inthe 2019 AFC U-16 Women'sChampionship.

The AIFF had planned tostart the national camp earlynext month but it may not hap-pen if the tournament is post-poned.

Ottawa: Last year’s US Openchampion Bianca Andreescusaid on Tuesday she will sit outthe remainder of the season tofocus on her “health and train-ing” after a year beset by injury.

Andreescu, who beat SerenaWilliams at Flushing Meadows12 months ago, has not playeda match since hurting her kneelast October at the WTA Finalsin Shenzhen.

“I have come to the difficultdecision to skip the clay courtswing this year and will be tak-ing the remainder of the seasonoff to focus on my health andtraining,” Andreescu wrote onTwitter.

“As hard as it was to cometo this conclusion, I have somuch to look forward to in 2021,including the Olympics; I want

to use this time to focus on mygame so I can come backstronger and better than

ever.”Andreescu joins

defending RolandGarros championAshleigh Barty

and newly-crownedUS Open winner NaomiOsaka on the absenteelist for the September27-October 11 Grand

Slam in Paris.

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Skipper Rohit Sharma pum-melled the Kolkata KnightRiders bowling into sub-

mission and powered MumbaiIndians to an imposing 195 forfive here on Wednesday.

After Shivam Mavi (2/32)removed opener Quinton DeKock (1) cheaply, Rohit (80 off54 balls; 3 fours, 6 sixes) andSuryakumar Yadav (47 off 28; 6fours, 1 six) conjured 90 runs forthe second wicket to pull theteam out of trouble.

Rohit, who began with amaximum, displayed his lan-guid grace and elegance as hetook the Kolkata attack to thecleansers. Surya effortlesslysmashed four boundaries offSandeep Warrier (0/34), includ-ing a cover-drive and a flick, inthe third over.

Rohit got going after smash-ing pacer Pat Cummins (0/49)for two maximums — both histrademark pull-short. With thetwo looking good and hittingsixes and fours at will, Mumbairaced to 94/1 after 10 overs.

Kolkata, however, cut shortSurya’s stay when he was runout. Rohit continued his brutalonslaught against chinamanKuldeep Yadav (0-39), smashinghim for two maximums.

Saurabh Tiwary (21),Hardik Pandya (18) played per-fect second fiddle to Rohit,who literally bulldozed theopposition bowlers. Kolkatatried to pull things back byremoving Rohit, Hardik inquick succession even asMumbai added 48 runs in thelast five overs.

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The absence of veteran pacerLasith Malinga is an oppor-

tunity for others to step up,according to Mumbai Indianscaptain Rohit Sharma. The 37-year-old Malinga has been ruledout for the season and in hisabsence, MI relied upon JamesPattinson and Jasprit Bumrah todeliver in the death overs in theIPL season opener againstChennai Super Kings.

It didn’t quite work out forthem and they ended up losingthe match by five wickets. “Whathappened in the past is in thepast,” said Rohit after the toss onWednesday. “There are someareas where we need to rectify.Hopefully we don’t make thosemistakes.”

“Malinga is like Pollard, hasbeen a massive player for us. Itwas unfortunate that he could-n’t make it due to personal rea-sons. That gives an opportuni-ty to others. We need to enjoyour cricket as a squad.”

KKR captain Karthik choseto field first, despite teams bat-ting first winning three of thefour games that have beenplayed in the season thus far.“We will bowl first. IANS

New Delhi: At the 2010 IPL player auc-tion, Mumbai Indians, Chennai SuperKings, Royal Challengers Bangalore andKolkata Knight Riders were locked in afierce bidding war for West Indies allrounder Kieron Adrian Pollard. Eventually,Mumbai Indians grabbed him for a whop-ping $2.2 million. Since then, theTrinidadian has been a MI loyalist, and onWednesday, he played his 150th IPL matchfor the four-time IPL champions.

“Having someone like Pollard in thesquad is always nice. He is a massive play-

er for us, hopefully he’ll come out and enjoyhis game, like he always goes,” MI captainRohit Sharma said of the towering WestIndian at the start of Wednesday’s match.

A master of hitting humongous sixes,33-year-old Pollard has played 11 consec-utive seasons for MI since 2010, hasscored 2,773 runs at an amazing strike rateof 146.64 — hitting 177 sixes and 182boundaries, before the start of Wednesday’sgame against KKR.

The only other player that instantlycomes to mind for his loyalty to a single

franchise is Virat Kohli, who has played forRCB in all 13 seasons that IPL has been inexistence for.

Pollard didn’t have an extraordinaryfirst season with MI in 2010 — 273 runsin 14 matches without a half-century and15 wickets — but the franchise owners keptfaith in him as he was more than handywith the ball too. He has bagged 56 wick-ets at an economy rate of 8.83, before theKKR game on Wednesday.

A brilliant fielder in the deep, Pollardhas taken 82 catches so far. IANS

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Batting at No 7 is not leading from front: Gambhir lashes out at Dhoni

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�����,������ ���� ��� �����������7 A� ���Sharjah: It will take some timeto see MS Dhoni — the finish-er, that everyone is waiting for,says Chennai Super Kings headcoach Stephen Fleming as hisside fell short in its run chaseagainst Rajasthan Royals despitehaving the former India captainat the crease.

“We have this questionevery year. He was in in the 14thover, which is pretty muchoptimal time, and sort of battedaccordingly. He is coming backfrom not playing a huge amountof cricket,” Fleming said at thepost-match press conference.

“So, the expectations to seehim at his best is gonna takesome time. But you see himtowards the end, he was verygood. Faf du Plessis carried the

form, so we weren’t too far away.It wasn’t the batting that was theworry to be honest.”

Fleming said his spinnerswere slow in adjusting thelength of their deliveries (theybowled overpitched). SanjuSamson (74) was on fire againsttheir spinners.

“Their (RR) hitting wasvery good in the 8 overs theyfaced. It was a good surface (tobat) and we were slow onadjusting. We did not adjustquickly. There was intent toadjust but execution was poor.

“So it was dangerous timeand we had to just hang in thereand try. We came close topulling back to a manageablescore but that last over took usout of reach.” PTI

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