12
O n day one of the rollout of the Centre’s revised vacci- nation policy on Monday, a record number of 84 lakh peo- ple were vaccinated against Covid-19, short of 16 lakh jabs to achieve the Government’s target of inoculating at least 1 crore people daily to speed up the vaccination process. Responding to the feat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the “record-breaking vac- cination numbers are glad- dening”. “The vaccine remains our strongest weapon to fight Covid-19. Congratulations to those who got vaccinated and kudos to all the frontline war- riors working hard to ensure so many citizens got the vaccine. Well done India!” Modi tweeted. The previous single-day highest vaccine coverage was on April 2, where 42 lakh were given the jabs. When the Government had launched the nationwide vaccination pro- gramme on January 16, it had left it to the States to procure the vaccine from the manu- facturers. India’s cumulative Covid vaccination coverage exceeded 28 crore on Sunday, as per the Union Ministry data. Several States have upped the vaccina- tion drive by undertaking spe- cial drives. For the record, Madhya Pradesh dosed 12 lakh people, Karnataka 8.73 lakh and Uttar Pradesh 5.84 lakh, as per the latest data. In Assam, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates within the country, the Centre launched a special drive that targets to inoculate at least 3 lakh people every day. With limited vaccine sup- ply, it remains to be seen if the Centre can vaccinate the same number of people (84 lakh) or more in the coming days. Experts said that India could have avoided several deaths had it implemented the national policy in the first place. As per the revised policy, the Centre would buy 75 per cent of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to States for inoculation. Continued on Page 2 F ormer Union Ministers Sharad Pawar and Yashwant Sinha have convened a meeting of Opposition parties and emi- nent personalities on Tuesday to pave the way for creating a united platform to take on the BJP in 2024 general elections. The Congress is not part of the exercise. The meeting has been con- vened under the banner of “Rashtra Manch” at the resi- dence of Sharad Pawar in Delhi at 4 pm on Tuesday. In this regard, election strategist Prashant Kishor met Pawar on Monday. The duo had last met on June 11 at Pawar’s Mumbai residence. Kishor also looked into the election strategy to bring back the DMK to power in Tamil Nadu after a decade. The former JD(U) leader announced to “quit this space” which has raised speculation that he may play a very signif- icant role in the “bonding” of the Opposition parties. Kishor had also been a poll strategist for the JD(U) and RJD alliance in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls followed by in States like Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. The Opposition parties have been exploring ways to come up with a Third Front ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Sources from various political parties, including Congress, who have been sent an invitation by Sinha to join the meeting on Tuesday, said that grand old party will not be part of the bonhomie as all the leaders engaged in coordinat- ing the meet have sometime or other been close to Modi. Sinha himself switched sides from the BJP to the TMC early this year. Sources said the Sinha- Pawar invitation has been extended to senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal, who has refused to be part of it. Continued on Page 2 A fter Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, another senior BJP leader and UP Minister Swami Prasad Maurya said that the BJP might change its Chief Minister after elections in Uttar Pradesh and it will be decided by the central leadership. “All possibilities are there post Assembly elections in 2022. We can have a new face or Yogi Adityanath can con- tinue as Chief Minister of the State. The decision will be taken by the central leadership or the legislature party of the BJP,” Maurya told a select group of journalists here. To buttress his point, he said that the 2017 election was contested without projecting anyone as Chief Minister. After the election, the central lead- ership chose Yogi as Chief Minister and he is now our leader and the party will con- test the 2022 Assembly election under his leadership. “This does not mean we cannot have a change in Chief Minister. The call will be taken by the central leadership depending on the situation then,” he said hinting that if after elections the BJP gets majority and backwards are in dominant position they might ask for change in leadership. Continued on Page 2 T witter has restricted 50 tweets featuring video and images from a viral clip of a Muslim man in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, being assaulted, according to a recent filing with the Lumen Database by the social media platform. The tweets are withheld for users in India. Titter’s Managing Director (India) Manish Maheshwari on Monday replied to the ini- tial notice from Ghaziabad police saying that he can be available on video conferencing for questioning in connection with the circulation of the video in which the elderly man is shown claiming he was attacked by some young men who also “forced” him to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. Twitter MD also clarified that he does not deal with the matter at hand. Ghaziabad police are yet to take a call on Maheshwari’s response on joining the probe through video conference. According to sources, Twitter India MD has assured of his cooperation with police. Twitter also stated that it has nothing to do with the Loni case and, it is not interested in talking about the same. Continued on Page 2 B oth the CBSE and the CICSE informed the Supreme Court on Monday that they have amended their respective evaluation schemes to assess Class 12 students and incorporated a dispute resolu- tion mechanism for the candi- dates who have any objections. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) said it has incorporated a clause which said that the dispute with regard to computation of results will be referred to a Committee constituted by the board. It said that the scheme has been further amended so that after declaration of results, if the candidates are not satisfied with their results, the CBSE will provide online facility for reg- istration for the examination. The CBSE said that it has com- plied with the direction given on June 17 by the top court which asked it to provide for a dispute resolution mechanism in case students apply for cor- rection of the result declared by the CBSE. The apex court had also directed the CBSE to specify the timeline for declaration of the result and the date before which the optional examina- tion will be conducted, subject to conducive situation and logistical constraints. “Examination will be con- ducted by the board only in the main subjects as and when con- ditions are conducive for hold- ing the examinations. However, the marks obtained by a can- didate in this examination will be treated as final for those who opt to take this examination,” the CBSE said in its affidavit filed in the top court. The board said that as per the scheme the results for Class XII Board Examination 2021 shall be declared by July 31, 2021. “I further say that regard- ing the date before which the optional examination for the candidates who are not satisfied with their assessment with the policy, the examinations for such candidates shall be con- ducted any time between August 15, 2021 and September 15, 2021, subject to conducive situation,” said the affidavit filed by Sanyam Bhardwaj, controller of examinations of the CBSE. Continued on Page 2 W ith Indian Air Force (IAF) differing on the creation of theatre commands consisting of the three services, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat is likely to hold a brainstorming session later this week to listen to the views of all the stakeholders. He will hold the meeting as the head of the proposed the- atre commands, approved in principle by the Government three years back, sources said on Monday. Last week, the Government gave the nod to form a com- mittee of the three Vice Chiefs to find ways to expedite the process of having theatre com- mands to fight modern-day war in a cohesive and seamless manner. The US and China already have such commands. Meanwhile, the IAF has said it will refrain from dis- cussing the issue of theatre commands in media as delib- erations at various levels are still on. This observation came after reports suggested last week that the IAF is not in favour of having such com- mands. Reports also indicated that while the Army and the Navy are for the theatre com- mands, the IAF has reservations. Continued on Page 2 T he crisis in Punjab Congress is far from over. Amid new controversy over the compassionate appointments given to the sons of two sitting legislators, the Congress’ three- member panel has once again called Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to Delhi. Half a dozen Ministers, and equal number of MLAs, criti- cal of the appointments, too have been called by the panel. Amarinder has reached Delhi and is slated to meet the panel, headed by the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, with State party affairs’ in-charge Harish Rawat and former MP JP Aggarwal as its members, on Tuesday. He is likely to interact with the Congress interim pres- ident Sonia Gandhi. The meeting comes at a time when a new controversy has hit the State Congress unit, virtually dividing the party in vertical, following the Cabinet’s recent decision to appoint sons of two MLAs — Arjun Pratap Singh Bajwa (son of Qadian MLA Fatehjung Bajwa) as Punjab Police Inspector; and Bhisham Pandey (son of Ludhiana North MLA Rakesh Pandey) as Naib Tehsildar. Continued on Page 2 G iving rise to speculation, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi- date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community. “It will be someone whom the whole of Punjab feels proud of,” Kejriwal said, while address- ing the media at Amritsar after Kunwar Vijay Pratap joined the party. “We feel it’s the Sikh com- munity’s right,” he said, adding while appealing to the people of Punjab to give a chance to the AAP once, assuring that position and direction would definitely change. Continued on Page 2 New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Monday reiterat- ed there is no scientific evi- dence of Covid-19 vaccina- tion causing infertility in men and women and asserted the jabs are safe and effective. New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi has convened a meeting of the party’s general secretaries and state in-charges on June 24 to chalk out a strat- egy to plan protests against the government on issues such as the hike in petrol and diesel prices. T he Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board on Monday can- celled the annual pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Amarnath in the wake of prevailing Covid- 19 pandemic. The yatra was scheduled to begin on June 28. Lt-Governor Manoj Sinha, who is also the chairman of the Shrine board, officially announced the decision after holding threadbare discussion with the members of the board. The LG said, “However, all the traditional religious rituals shall be performed at the Holy Cave Shrine as per past prac- tice.” He directed officials to ensure devotees can virtually attend the morning and evening “aartis” (prayers) at the shrine. Detailed report on P5

˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

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Page 1: ˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

���������������������� ���������������������������������������������� ������������������ �� ���������������������������������������������� ��� ��������������� ������������ ����������� �������� �� ��� ����!�����"�� ���������������������������� ����� ���� ���� ������#������ ������ �����$����%

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On day one of the rollout ofthe Centre’s revised vacci-

nation policy on Monday, arecord number of 84 lakh peo-ple were vaccinated againstCovid-19, short of 16 lakh jabsto achieve the Government’starget of inoculating at least 1crore people daily to speed up the vaccinationprocess.

Responding to the feat,Prime Minister Narendra Modisaid the “record-breaking vac-cination numbers are glad-dening”.

“The vaccine remains ourstrongest weapon to fightCovid-19. Congratulations tothose who got vaccinated andkudos to all the frontline war-riors working hard to ensure somany citizens got the vaccine.Well done India!” Modi tweeted.

The previous single-dayhighest vaccine coverage wason April 2, where 42 lakh weregiven the jabs. When theGovernment had launched thenationwide vaccination pro-gramme on January 16, it had

left it to the States to procurethe vaccine from the manu-facturers.

India’s cumulative Covidvaccination coverage exceeded28 crore on Sunday, as per theUnion Ministry data. SeveralStates have upped the vaccina-tion drive by undertaking spe-cial drives. For the record,Madhya Pradesh dosed 12 lakhpeople, Karnataka 8.73 lakhand Uttar Pradesh 5.84 lakh, asper the latest data.

In Assam, which has one ofthe lowest vaccination rateswithin the country, the Centrelaunched a special drive that

targets to inoculate at least 3lakh people every day.

With limited vaccine sup-ply, it remains to be seen if theCentre can vaccinate the samenumber of people (84 lakh) ormore in the coming days.

Experts said that Indiacould have avoided severaldeaths had it implemented thenational policy in the firstplace.

As per the revised policy,the Centre would buy 75 percent of all vaccines from drugmakers and distribute them forfree to States for inoculation.

Continued on Page 2

���������������� �2��-23�/

Former Union MinistersSharad Pawar and Yashwant

Sinha have convened a meetingof Opposition parties and emi-nent personalities on Tuesdayto pave the way for creating aunited platform to take on theBJP in 2024 general elections.The Congress is not part of theexercise.

The meeting has been con-vened under the banner of“Rashtra Manch” at the resi-dence of Sharad Pawar in Delhiat 4 pm on Tuesday.

In this regard, electionstrategist Prashant Kishor metPawar on Monday. The duohad last met on June 11 atPawar’s Mumbai residence.Kishor also looked into theelection strategy to bring back

the DMK to power in TamilNadu after a decade.

The former JD(U) leaderannounced to “quit this space”which has raised speculationthat he may play a very signif-icant role in the “bonding” ofthe Opposition parties. Kishorhad also been a poll strategistfor the JD(U) and RJD alliancein the 2015 Bihar Assemblypolls followed by in States likePunjab and Andhra Pradesh.

The Opposition partieshave been exploring ways tocome up with a Third Frontahead of the 2024 Lok Sabhapolls. Sources from variouspolitical parties, includingCongress, who have been sentan invitation by Sinha to join

the meeting on Tuesday, saidthat grand old party will not bepart of the bonhomie as all theleaders engaged in coordinat-ing the meet have sometime orother been close to Modi. Sinhahimself switched sides from theBJP to the TMC early this year.

Sources said the Sinha-Pawar invitation has beenextended to senior Congressleader and former UnionMinister Kapil Sibal, who hasrefused to be part of it.

Continued on Page 2

���� 30�4�5�

After Deputy Chief MinisterKeshav Prasad Maurya,

another senior BJP leader andUP Minister Swami PrasadMaurya said that the BJP mightchange its Chief Minister afterelections in Uttar Pradesh andit will be decided by the centralleadership.

“All possibilities are therepost Assembly elections in2022. We can have a new faceor Yogi Adityanath can con-tinue as Chief Minister of theState. The decision will betaken by the central leadershipor the legislature party of theBJP,” Maurya told a select groupof journalists here.

To buttress his point, hesaid that the 2017 election was

contested without projectinganyone as Chief Minister. Afterthe election, the central lead-ership chose Yogi as ChiefMinister and he is now ourleader and the party will con-test the 2022 Assembly electionunder his leadership.

“This does not mean wecannot have a change in ChiefMinister. The call will be takenby the central leadershipdepending on the situationthen,” he said hinting that ifafter elections the BJP getsmajority and backwards are indominant position they mightask for change in leadership.

Continued on Page 2

���� �2��-23�/

Twitter has restricted 50tweets featuring video and

images from a viral clip of aMuslim man in Ghaziabad,Uttar Pradesh, being assaulted,according to a recent filing withthe Lumen Database by thesocial media platform. Thetweets are withheld for users inIndia.

Titter’s Managing Director(India) Manish Maheshwarion Monday replied to the ini-tial notice from Ghaziabadpolice saying that he can beavailable on video conferencingfor questioning in connectionwith the circulation of the

video in which the elderly manis shown claiming he wasattacked by some young menwho also “forced” him to chant“Jai Shri Ram”. Twitter MD alsoclarified that he does not dealwith the matter at hand.

Ghaziabad police are yet totake a call on Maheshwari’sresponse on joining the probethrough video conference.

According to sources,Twitter India MD has assuredof his cooperation with police.Twitter also stated that it hasnothing to do with the Lonicase and, it is not interested intalking about the same.

Continued on Page 2

���� �2��-23�/

Both the CBSE and theCICSE informed the

Supreme Court on Mondaythat they have amended theirrespective evaluation schemesto assess Class 12 students andincorporated a dispute resolu-tion mechanism for the candi-dates who have any objections.

The Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE)said it has incorporated a clausewhich said that the dispute withregard to computation ofresults will be referred to aCommittee constituted by theboard.

It said that the scheme hasbeen further amended so that

after declaration of results, ifthe candidates are not satisfiedwith their results, the CBSE willprovide online facility for reg-istration for the examination.The CBSE said that it has com-plied with the direction givenon June 17 by the top courtwhich asked it to provide for adispute resolution mechanismin case students apply for cor-rection of the result declared bythe CBSE.

The apex court had alsodirected the CBSE to specifythe timeline for declaration ofthe result and the date beforewhich the optional examina-tion will be conducted, subjectto conducive situation andlogistical constraints.

“Examination will be con-

ducted by the board only in themain subjects as and when con-ditions are conducive for hold-ing the examinations. However,the marks obtained by a can-didate in this examination willbe treated as final for those whoopt to take this examination,”the CBSE said in its affidavitfiled in the top court.

The board said that as perthe scheme the results for ClassXII Board Examination 2021shall be declared by July 31,2021. “I further say that regard-ing the date before which theoptional examination for thecandidates who are not satisfiedwith their assessment with thepolicy, the examinations forsuch candidates shall be con-ducted any time betweenAugust 15, 2021 and September15, 2021, subject to conducivesituation,” said the affidavitfiled by Sanyam Bhardwaj,controller of examinations ofthe CBSE.

Continued on Page 2

���� �2��-23�/

With Indian Air Force(IAF) differing on the

creation of theatre commandsconsisting of the three services,Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)General Bipin Rawat is likely tohold a brainstorming sessionlater this week to listen to theviews of all the stakeholders.

He will hold the meeting asthe head of the proposed the-atre commands, approved inprinciple by the Governmentthree years back, sources saidon Monday.

Last week, the Governmentgave the nod to form a com-mittee of the three Vice Chiefsto find ways to expedite theprocess of having theatre com-mands to fight modern-daywar in a cohesive and seamlessmanner. The US and Chinaalready have such commands.

Meanwhile, the IAF has

said it will refrain from dis-cussing the issue of theatrecommands in media as delib-erations at various levels are stillon. This observation cameafter reports suggested lastweek that the IAF is not infavour of having such com-mands. Reports also indicatedthat while the Army and theNavy are for the theatre com-mands, the IAF has reservations.

Continued on Page 2

�������������� ��,�-/�,��

The crisis in PunjabCongress is far from over.

Amid new controversy over thecompassionate appointmentsgiven to the sons of two sittinglegislators, the Congress’ three-member panel has once againcalled Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh to Delhi.Half a dozen Ministers, andequal number of MLAs, criti-cal of the appointments, toohave been called by the panel.

Amarinder has reachedDelhi and is slated to meet thepanel, headed by the Leader ofOpposition in Rajya SabhaMallikarjun Kharge, with State

party affairs’ in-charge HarishRawat and former MP JPAggarwal as its members, onTuesday. He is likely to interactwith the Congress interim pres-ident Sonia Gandhi.

The meeting comes at atime when a new controversyhas hit the State Congress unit,virtually dividing the party invertical, following the Cabinet’srecent decision to appoint sonsof two MLAs — Arjun PratapSingh Bajwa (son of QadianMLA Fatehjung Bajwa) asPunjab Police Inspector; andBhisham Pandey (son ofLudhiana North MLA RakeshPandey) as Naib Tehsildar.

Continued on Page 2

���� ��,�-/�,��

Giving rise to speculation,Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s

supremo Arvind Kejriwal onMonday announced that theparty’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be fromthe Sikh community. “It will besomeonew h o mthe wholeof Punjabf e e l sproud of,”Kejriwals a i d ,w h i l eaddress-ing themedia at Amritsar afterKunwar Vijay Pratap joined theparty.

“We feel it’s the Sikh com-munity’s right,” he said, addingwhile appealing to the peopleof Punjab to give a chance tothe AAP once, assuring thatposition and direction woulddefinitely change.

Continued on Page 2

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New Delhi: The Union HealthMinistry on Monday reiterat-ed there is no scientific evi-dence of Covid-19 vaccina-tion causing infertility in menand women and asserted thejabs are safe and effective.

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New Delhi: Congress presidentSonia Gandhi has convened ameeting of the party’s generalsecretaries and state in-chargeson June 24 to chalk out a strat-egy to plan protests against thegovernment on issues such asthe hike in petrol and dieselprices.

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The Shri Amarnathji ShrineBoard on Monday can-

celled the annual pilgrimage tothe cave shrine of Amarnath inthe wake of prevailing Covid-19 pandemic. The yatra was

scheduled to begin on June 28.Lt-Governor Manoj Sinha,

who is also the chairman of theShrine board, officiallyannounced the decision afterholding threadbare discussionwith the members of the board.

The LG said, “However, allthe traditional religious ritualsshall be performed at the Holy

Cave Shrine as per past prac-tice.”

He directed officials toensure devotees can virtuallyattend the morning andevening “aartis” (prayers) at theshrine.

Detailed report on P5

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Page 2: ˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

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Ahmedabad: The GujaratHigh Court on Monday issuednotice to the State Governmenton a batch of petitions filed byvarious Government-aidedminority schools challengingan Act conferring powers onthe State education board toappoint teachers and principalsin such institutions.

The division bench ofChief Justice Vikram Nath andJustice Biren Vaishnav issuednotice to the state governmentand asked it to respond in threeweeks.

These schools have chal-lenged the Gujarat Secondaryand Higher SecondaryEducation (Amendment) Act,2021 that was notified on May31, and which gives the state

education boardpowers to provide for qualifi-

cations and methods of selec-tion for non-teaching staff ofregistered private secondaryand higher secondary schools,as well as conditions ofappointment, promotion, andtermination of employment ofprincipal, teaching and non-teaching staff of such schools.

The amended Act also con-fers on the board the power toregulate the recruitment ofnon-teaching staff and allowsthe Gujarat State School ServiceCommission to select teachersand headmasters of registeredGovernment aided private sec-ondary and higher secondaryschools. PTI

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Thousands of people havebeen affected by a flash

flood that has hit Bihar’s EastChamparan district in thewake of torrential rain thatlashed catchment areas ofNepal recently causing a rise inwater levels of the riverGandak.

According to DistrictMagistrate Shirshat KapilAshok, altogether 45,061 resi-dents of 52 villages have so farbeen affected by the flood and1,154 have been rescued frommarooned areas with the helpof the National DisasterResponse Force (NDRF) andState Disaster Response Force(SDRF) teams.

Last week, adjoining areasof Nepal had received morethan 200 mm rainfall within 48hours and all the gates ofValmiki Nagar barrage, situat-ed close to the border betweenthe two countries, had to beopened to prevent a breach.

According to Ashok, thewater level in the barrage hassince receded by about sixmetres and stood at 106.83metres, nearly three metresbelow the danger mark.

The Gandak river wasflowing at 63.08 metres, morethan a metre above the dangermark though it has droppedfrom the peak level of 64.20metres recorded last week.

Altogether 19 boats havebeen pressed into service for

the rescue of residents strand-ed in submerged areas. Therehas been no loss of life so far,the DM added.

"We are carrying out thedistribution of ration packetsamong the needy and moni-toring of ring dams in coordi-nation with local administra-tion", said Shalini Mishra, anMLA of the ruling Janata Dal(United) who representsKesariya, which is among the worst-hit by thecalamity.

According to a releaseissued by the water resourcesdepartment in the State capital,the water level in most of therivesr was stable.

Light rainfall is predictedacross the State on Tuesday.

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Assam Chief MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarma on

Monday emphasised the needto work closely with ArunachalPradesh and NEEPCO to con-trol flood damages in northernparts of the State.

The Chief Minister, whilereviewing the flood prepared-ness of Lakhimpur andDhemaji during visits to thetwo northern bank districts,also stressed concentrating onexpeditious rehabilitation mea-sures.

"I have told the NorthEastern Electric PowerCorporation (NEEPCO) offi-cials that the problems beingfaced by the people must beresolved and people of

Lakhimpur district or those liv-ing near Ranganadi river mustnot face major difficulties.

"The NEEPCO has fiveswitches to regulate waterreleased from its dam. Whenthe switches are in workingcondition, they can releasewater in a phased manner.Problems arise when even oneof the switches is not working,"Sarma told reporters atLakhimpur.

Release of excess waterfrom the Ranganadi HydroElectric Plant of NEEPCO inadjoining Arunachal Pradeshannually leads to floods in thenorthern parts of Assam, especially affectingLakhimpur and Dhemaji districts.

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While their counterparts inneighbouring Tamil Nadu

are thanking their ChiefMinister for relaxing lockdownconditions in the State so thatthey could increase productionand employ a greater number ofworkers, entrepreneurs in Keralaare issuing SOS messages andsuicide notes to the generalpublic expressing helplessness incarrying out their business dueto victimisation by politicalmasters.

Kerala has already seeneight entrepreneurs commit-ting suicides in the last two yearsbecause of harassment by vari-ous political parties that seekfunds and anti-business stancepursued by the StateGovernment.

A release issued on Mondayby Sabu Jacob, chairman, KitexLtd. a group with turn over of

�800 crore and employing11,000 workers in their units atKizhakkambalam in Ernakulamdistrict is a note written out ofdesperation, dejection and dis-appointment.

“Kerala’s curse is some indi-viduals whose only mission is tomake money by hook or bycrook. These people are ananathema that has fallen on thisState,” Sabu Jacob writes in therelease. He is careful in using thewords for fear of more victimi-sation by leaders of the CPI(M),Congress and the CPI.

Since the new Governmentled by Pinarayi Vijayan assumedpower in the State last month,

officials from various depart-ments including Police raidedthe enterprises owned by Jacobten times. Jacob, the scion of afamous Orthodox Christianfamily in Kerala told The Pioneerthat the officials were very rudewith him.

“When you are treated likea terrorist in front of your ownemployees, what would be intheir minds? Though they raid-ed the factory premises tentimes, till date they have notissued any reasons or documentsto me,” he said.

Jacob had given conven-tional political parties in theState a run for their money inthe April 2021 Assembly elec-tion. Twenty 20, the political out-fit launched by Jacob had sweptthe Panchayat election inErnakulam district by winningeight local self government bod-ies purely based on its trackrecord of 2015 to 2020.

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With the arrest of two accused inLucknow, the sleuths of the Anti-

Terrorist Squad (ATS) claimed to havebusted a major racket responsible forthousands of forced conversions. Thosearrested are said to be having links witha prominent Muslim outfit of Lucknow.

Detailing the breakthrough inLucknow on Monday, Additional DG(Law and order) Prashant Kumar said,“On June 3, two Muslim youths attempt-ed to attack a priest at Delhi's Dasna tem-ple. After they were arrested and grilled,they coughed up the names of Umar andMufti Jahangir and took the lid off a gangconverting non-Muslims into Islam inUP and elsewhere.”

The case was later handed over to theATS, which gathered concrete evidenceand registered a case against MohammadUmar Gautam and Mufti Qazi JahangirAlam Qasmi of Jamianagar (Delhi)under various sections of the IPC,

before dropping the net on the duo.It transpired during preliminary

probe that Mohammad Umar Gautamwas Shailesh Pratap Singh of Fatehpurbefore converting to Islam in the 1970’s.After this he was banished from hishome by his father Dhanraj SinghGautam and he went to Delhi andengaged in the conversion campaignjoining hands with Mufti.

The ADG said that the accused, whowere caught in the case of conversion,admitted to converting over 1000 peo-ple to Islam by priding money and falseincentives of marriage and jobs.

He said that there were proofs of for-eign funding by the Pakistan’s counter-espionage agency ISI and the conspira-cy was hatched under the aegis ofIslamic Dawah Center.

They used to get funding for thiswork from ISI. These people used to tar-get deaf and dumb children and women.Converted women victim were alsomarried off by the gang.

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Police have arrested a manfor allegedly raping a three-

year-old girl in Chhattisgarh'sBilaspur district, an officialsaid on Monday.

The 45-year-old accusedtook the girl to his house onFriday and allegedly raped her,Kota police station head officerSanip Ratre said.

When the girl's grand-mother did not find her athome, she went out in searchof her.

She asked the accusedabout the child, but he did notopen the door, the officialsaid.

According to the official,when the woman peepedthrough a hole in the door ofhis house, she saw the accusedsexually assaulting the girl.

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From Page 1The social media giant has also asked the police

to make some changes in the legal notice issued.Sources said that the police are not satisfied withTwitter’s response and are mulling if a second noticeshould be sent. Maheshwari who lives in Bengaluruin Karnataka, was issued notice by the Ghaziabadpolice on June 17 and asked to report at its LoniBorder police station within seven days to get hisstatement recorded in the case. The firm has alsobeen issued a second notice by the Ghaziabad policeto seek “account details” of the suspects accused bythe police of posting and promoting the video.

The Uttar Pradesh Government has become thefirst to book Twitter in a criminal offence after thesocial media company has failed to comply so farwith the new IT rules that had come into effect fromMay 26. Social media companies have to complywith the rules to get safe harbour protection andabsence of the same exposes them to become liablefor fake news, harassment and defamation on its plat-form.

From Page 1The IAF is reportedly reluctant

about sharing its assets, includingfighter jets, helicopters and trans-port planes, in various commands.

The IAF also wants more clar-ity on the role of the theatre com-manders amid perception the com-mander will have the operationalcontrol rather than the IAF chief,sources said.

As regards sharing of assets,they said a modern fighter jet inIndian conditions can perform anyrole as it flies on supersonic speedhaving pan country reach.Therefore, stationing its jets orplanes in a particular theatre maynot be feasible, they said

The proposal envisages fivecommands, including the MaritimeCommand, Air Defence

Command, Northern Land Theatre(Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh andCentral sector), Western LandTheatre (Pakistan) and EasternLand Theatre. The Northern andEastern will focus on China besidesPakistan. A proposal is also therefor having a logistics and trainingcommand. The MaritimeCommand and Air DefenceCommand are likely to becomefunctional by next year, it waslearnt.

The theatre commander of therank of Lt General may be from anyof the three services and will leadspecific units of the army, navy andair force forming that theatre.Similarly, some commands willalso absorb paramilitary forceswhich are controlled by the HomeMinistry. Also, the Coast Guard willbe part of the Maritime Command.

At present, the Army, the Navy

and the IAF have their own com-mands totaling 20 besides the jointtri-service Andaman and NicobarCommand and the Strategic ForcesCommand. The latter commandlooks after the nuclear arsenal.

The proposal is to merge someof the commands of the three ser-vices into one entity for better util-isation of assets and manpower andavoiding wastage.

The committee of Vice Chiefswill hold discussions with all thestake holders and have wide rang-ing deliberations, sources said sincepara-military forces are in thedomain of the home ministry andtheir views have also to be taken.

Moreover, the formation of thenew commands will involve someexpenditure and therefore theFinance Ministry nod is crucial tomove ahead without a hitch, theysaid.

From Page 1With regard to private or

second chance compartmentalcandidates, the CBSE said thattheir examinations shall beconducted in such a manner sothat they will fall within theassessment policy for the aca-demic year 2019-2020 asapproved by the top court lastyear and, their results shall bedeclared in accordance with thesaid assessment policy. “Theirexaminations shall also be con-ducted anytime betweenAugust 15, 2021 and September15, 2021, subject to conducivesituation,” the affidavit said.

Similarly, the Council forthe Indian School CertificateExaminations (CISCE) has alsofiled an affidavit in the topcourt saying that it has com-plied with the direction andamended its assessmentscheme for Class 12 students.It said that the CISCE willendeavour to publish theresults as expeditiously as pos-sible, and subject to the situa-tion remaining conducive andstable, the results will be pub-lished on or before July 31,2021.

The CISCE said that in theevent of a student having objec-tion(s) regarding computationof marks in the result; she/hemay make a written applicationto the school concerned, stat-ing the objection in detailalong with reasons thereof.“The head of the school con-cerned will review the applica-tion, and only upon being sat-isfied with the contentionsmade therein, forward thesame to the CISCE along withher/his comments/remarksendorsing the contentionsmade and documents sup-porting the opinion regardingthe computation of marks”, itsaid.

It added that no applicationwill be entertained by theCISCE unless it is forwarded bythe head of the school con-cerned and is being sent to theCISCE within seven days ofdeclaration of results.

“Applications sent after theexpiry of 07 days from the dayof declaration of results will notbe entertained,” the affidavitfiled by Gerry Arathoon, chiefexecutive and secretary ofCISCE, clarified.

From Page 1This is not new in BJP as it happened in

Assam where the BJP contested electionunder the leadership of former CMSarbananda Sonowal but after electionHimanta Biswa Sarma was declared CM byCentral leadership.

Swami Prasad, Labour Minister in theYogi Cabinet, is second Minister after KeshavPrasad Maurya who had claimed that Centralleadership will take a call on Chief Minister.Today’s statement holds importance becausethere is a feeling that people from the back-ward castes were neglected in the governmentand this anger might prove costly for theparty.

Mauryas are backwards by caste.Backwards account for around 32% of votesin UP and are in the dominant position inthe caste matrix of this cow belt. The com-bination of backwards and upper caste cancatapult any party to power.

From Page 1India’s previous record of 4.5 million doses was on April 5,

followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation fallingbelow 3 million.

Presently, domestically made doses of the AstraZeneca vac-cine (Covishield) and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin are beingoffered to the people.

Over the last 24 hours, India reported 53,256 new cases, thelowest since March 24. Infections hit a peak of about 400,000 aday in May and deaths soared to around 170,000 in April-May.

More than 2.98 crore Covid vaccine doses are still availablewith States and Union territories, the Union Health Ministry saidon Monday. So far, 29,35,04,820 vaccine doses have been pro-vided to States and Union territories (UTs) through the Centre’sfree of cost channel and the direct State procurement category,it said.

Further, more than 2,310 vaccine doses are in the pipelineand will be received by them within the next three days,” theMinistry said. It said that as part of the nationwide vaccinationdrive, the Centre has been supporting States and UTs by pro-viding them Covid vaccines free of cost.

From Page 1Kejriwal’s announcement has given rise

to the speculation of Congress’ firebrandleader Navjot Singh Sidhu joining the AAP.

Notably, despite the intervention of theCongress high command in resolving the pre-vailing power struggle between Sidhu andChief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, the for-mer cricketer has once again opened a frontagainst him.

All along been maintaining a strategic dis-tance from the media ever since he resignedfrom the State Cabinet in 2019, Sidhu has goneon an interview spree, openly attacking CaptAmarinder and the State Government -which the political experts dubbed as pres-sure tactics to achieve his choice of resolutionto the current infighting.

From Page 1“Sharad Pawar ji and Shri Yashwant Sinha ji

are co-chairing a discussion on the presentnational scenario,” reads the invite sent out byRashtra Manch, headed by Sinha and that“Yashwant Sinha has requested your kind pres-ence and participation in the meeting.”

The Rashtra Manch is a coalition ofOpposition parties that was formed in 2018 byYashwant Sinha to counter the policies ofNarendra Modi’s Government.

While NCP’s Majeed Memon, SamajwadiParty leader Ghanshyam Tiwari, AAP leaderSanjay Singh, BSP leader Satish Mishra are amongthose likely to attend the meeting, RJD leaderManoj Jha and DMK leaders are believed to havedeclined to attend the meet at Pawar’s residence.

“Pawar is working to unite all oppositionleaders. May be, the meeting was to discuss it.The party’s national executive meeting is also tak-ing place in the national capital the same day,”NCP leader Nawab Malik said according to mediareports from Mumbai.

“Only Congress has been consistent in tak-ing on Modi and BJP,” mentioned a seniorCongress leader. While no one from the nation-al Congress leadership responded officially to thedevelopment, Maharashtra Congress leaderNana Patole said in a democracy everyone hasa right to do whatever they want to and whyshould Congress stop or question anyone.

According to Nawab Malik, the meet will beattended by at least five major political parties fornow - Trinamool Congress (TMC), Aam AadmiParty (AAP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD),Communist Party of India (M), and J&KNational Conference.

Malik took to Twitter to say that severalprominent Opposition leaders, including NCleader Farooq Abdullah, Pawan Verma, AAP’sSanjay Singh, CPI(M)’s D Raja. Eminent per-sonalities like Justice AP Singh, Javed Akhtar, KTSTulsi, senior journalist Karan Thapar, advocateMajeed Memon, and former Chief ElectionCommissioner SY Qureshi will also attend themeeting.

From Page 1Also, the Chief Minister’s bête

noire and rebel Congress leaderNavjot Singh Sidhu has once againopened a front against CaptAmarinder, started attacking him inopen. Notably, even more than aweek after the three members panelsubmitted its report to the highcommand, followed by rounds ofmeetings, the Congress top brass isyet to take the final call.

The party is yet to decide thesuitable role for the former cricketerwith the Chief Minister reportedlyputting his foot down against hisappointment as Punjab

Congress chief but agreeing toappoint him as his deputy or a cab-inet berth.

Sources said that the panel hasnot recommended CaptAmarinder’s removal as the ChiefMinister, while recommending himto be the party’s face for next elec-tions.

Besides the Chief Minister,sources have informed that six cab-inet ministers, including SukhjinderSingh Randhawa, Tripat RajinderSingh Bajwa, Bharat Bhushan Ashu,Razia Sultana, Charanjit SinghChanni, Sukhbinder SinghSarakaria, Chanrjit Singh Channi —have also been called for a meetingat the Delhi Durbar.

In addition, party legislatorsPargat Singh, Amarinder SinghRaja Warring, Kuljit Singh Nagra,Kushaldeep Singh Kiki Dhillon,Sangat Singh Gilzian, Inderbir SinghBolaria, have also been summoned.

Available information suggeststhat the party high command want-ed to have a last word with theseleaders before taking a final call on

the resolution of the party.Also, majority of thee leaders

have openly criticized theGovernment’s decision.

NEW CONTROVERSYA new controversy has hit the

party and the State Governmentover the Cabinet decision to givejobs to sons of two Congress MLAson “compassionate grounds”, morethan 30 years after their grandfa-thers were murdered by the terror-ists.

Five Cabinet Ministers —Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, TripatRajinder SIngh Bajwa, RaziaSultana, Charanjit Singh Channi,Sukhbinder Singh Sarakaria,Chanrjit Singh Channi—haveopposed the move.

Besides, Punjab congress pres-ident Sunil Jakhar, dubbing thedecision as “wrong”, had requestedthe Chief Minister for its review.Other than that, Congress MLAsKuljit Nagra, Amarinder Singh RajaWarring, Pargat Singh, HarjotKamal, have also questioned thegovernment’s move.

On the other hand, nineCabinet ministers and four CongressMPs have backed the StateGovernment’s decision, calling it“correct and in line with appoint-ments given to similarly situatedpersons in the past”.

Defending the decision, CaptAmarinder had made it clear thatthere was “no question of rescind-ing the Punjab Cabinet decision onjobs for sons of two CongressMLAs. It is just a small token of grat-itude and compensation for the sac-rifices of their families. It's shame-ful that some people are giving polit-ical colour to this decision”.

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Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singhalleged that the BJP leaders should apologise to the

public for cheating them in the purchase of land for RamMandir Teerth Kshetra Trust and demanded to realisethe donation which was misappropriated.

Addressing a press conference in Lucknow onMonday, UP incharge of AAP, Singh said that the embez-zlement in the donation collected from lakhs of the devo-tees had delayed the temple construction work.

“While BJP leaders were getting lands at lower pricein Ayodhya, the Trust was being sold the land at an exor-bitant price (nearly four to twelve times the rate in thefirst sale deed). The BJP leaders claim themselves to beRambhakts but the land scam has only exposed theirhypocrisy as they committed corruption in the name ofLord Sri Ram temple,” he said. Sharing his experiencewhile meeting with saints in Ayodhya on the issue, Singhsaid that Mahant Dilip Das became emotional whiledescribing about Lord Sri Ram. “Mahant Das told me thatthe saints are emotionally attached with Lord Ram, theyserved them and have highest reverence for Lord Ram.One of the witnesses in the land deal, Anil Mishra wasappointed as member of the Trust by PM Narendra Modi.”

“Mishra was, however, busy in getting his majestichouse constructed. His house is the only the building inAyodhya where a lift is installed,” he said.

Referring to another land deal, Singh pointed out,“Brij Mohan Das sold the land valued at �92 lakh toChampat Rai on May 23 and the same land was then soldto the Trust for �5.6 crore within 24 hours and ironical-ly the witnesses in both land deals were same personswhich naturally raise question marks on the genuinityof the process.”Meanwhile, national secretary of RashtriyaLok Dal (RLD) Anil Dubey said that the Ayodhya landscam was a very unfortunate and unbecoming issue ofthe present time and said that those involved in corrup-tion in construction of the temple for Lord Ram had noright to remain members of the Trust.

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Page 3: ˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

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Criticising the Centre for itsslow vaccination drive,

Deputy Chief Minister ManishSisodia said on Monday thatthe drive was the longest andmost mismanaged.

Referring to an advertise-ment published by severalnewspapers across the nationabout the CentralGovernment’s largest vaccina-tion drive, he said: “TheCentral Government needs tounderstand that our peopleneed vaccines not advertise-ments. If the CentralGovernment had spent themoney spent on advertise-ments to procure vaccines fromabroad, the Covid crisis couldhave been managed better.”

At present, Delhi needs2.30 crore doses to vaccinatethe entire Capital but instead ofthis so-called free vaccinationdrive, the Central Governmentwill provide only 15 lakh dosesto Delhi in July, he said.

“In fact, the BJP-ledCentral Government had alsoput pressure on the DelhiGovernment officials to adver-tise this BJP toolkit. It isabsolutely shameful that theCentral Government is pro-viding only 15 lakh vaccines forDelhi but putting pressure onour officials to publish theseadvertisements,” he added.

Speaking on the distribu-tion of free vaccines by theCentral Government to Delhi,Sisodia said, “If we look at thestatistics right now, Delhi need-ed vaccines for a cumulative of2.94 crore citizens, out of which92 lakh are for citizens in the18 plus age group and 57 lakhfor citizens in the 45 plus agegroup.”

“We still need 2.30 croredoses to vaccinate all our citi-zens. When Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal said that Delhineeded 2.94 crore vaccines toinoculate citizens within threemonths, why did we receiveonly 57 lakh vaccines in total?Delhi still needs 2.30 croredoses of vaccines to inoculateall citizens and if we are goingto receive only 15 lakh vaccines

for next month, it means weneed approximately 15-16more months to vaccinate allhere,” he said

“The vaccine is the onlyway to defeat the corona crisisin India. Many countries acrossthe world prioritised vaccinat-ing their citizens first. Whetherit was purchasing vaccinesfrom other nations or investingfunds in vaccine manufactur-ing, several nations provedthat vaccinating their citizenson a priority basis is significantto defeating the virus,” headded.

Around 65 lakh peoplehave been vaccinated in Delhi,out of which, 49.38 lakh peo-ple have been given the firstdose and 15.75 lakh people hadbeen given both doses tillSunday.

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Four workers are missingwhile six were rescued from

a fire that broke out inside ashoe warehouse located inDelhi’s Udhyog Nagar area onMonday morning. Fire officialssaid that the search and rescueoperations are still underway.

Police and the Delhi FireServices (DFS) received a callat 8.56 AM about a blaze in afactory but later it came to lightthat the two-storey buildinghouses a warehouse whereshoes are assembled andpacked for sale.

Initially ten workers weretrapped inside the godownand six of them were rescued.While four of the rescuedworkers were safe, two otherssuffered minor burn injuriesand were given first aid at thespot.

“Around 24 fire tenderswere rushed to the spot and 15more vehicles were laterpressed into service to bring theblaze under control,” saidParvinder Singh, DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Outer district.

“It is suspected that the firestarted from the first floor ofthe building and later spread toother floors,” said police.

A senior police official saidthat a case has been registeredand the owner of the godownhas been identified as Pankaj

Garg.According to Atul Garg,

the Director, (DFS), a total of35 fire tenders and around140 fire personnel have beeninvolved till now in the fire-fighting operations.

“Fire is completely under

control now, cooling operationand search operation contin-ues, the building has beendeclared dangerous by the civicbody,” said the DCP.

Elaborating on the chal-lenges faced by the fire-fight-

ers, Garg said the building didnot have any fire-safety equip-ment in place and was heavilyjammed with highly com-bustible materials due to whichthe fire spreads faster.

“The DFS was not givencorrect information in the firstplace that it was a godown andwe were not informed thatworkers were trapped inside. Itwas only after about two hoursinto the fire-fighting operationthat, we got to know that peo-ple were trapped inside whenthe family members startedcoming to the spot asking fortheir men,” said Garg.

“Four more workers arereported to be missing but westill have not been able to tracethem. We lost the gold hourswhen we could have rescuedthose trapped if informationwas shared with us in time.Even the fire has been dousedbut because of heat and smoke,it's become tough to tracethose reported missing,” saidGarg.

The exact cause of the fireis not known yet but short-cir-cuit is suspected to be the rea-son.

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Just 89 fresh cases of Covid-19 were reported in Delhi

on Monday, the lowest dailycount this year, while the pos-itivity rate reduced to 0.16 percent. The total number ofactive cases in the cityreached 1,996, of which 563are in home isolation, accord-ing to the data shared by thehealth department,

A total of 57,128 tests,including 45,468 RT-PCRtests, were conducted a dayago, the bulletin said.

In order to deal with the“possible” third wave ofCovid-19, the DelhiGovernment has speeded upthe revamping of hospitals toincrease the number of bedsand is also building hospitals.

Although cases are con-stantly on the wane, expertshave advised against laxity.Those suffering from highblood sugar post Covid-19need to be more careful, saidDr Saket Kant, a Delhi-basedendocrinologist.

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With the pandemic hav-ing made a big dent in

the overall finances of theDelhi Government, DeputyChief Minister and FinanceMinister Manish Sisodia hasissued an order on expendi-ture management and ratio-nalisation of expenditure onCovid-19 outbreaks to keepexpenses within the limits.

Sisodia informed that theexpenditure of the DelhiGovernment had increasedaround 80 per cent duringfirst two months of the finan-cial year (FY) 2021-22 ascompared to the correspond-ing period of the previous FY.He further stated that revenuereceipts had been to the tuneof �5,273 crore during the firsttwo months of the current FY,

while its expenditure hasreached �8,511 crore. Delhihas incurred �3,238 croremore than its receipts whichwere met from last year’s sav-ings.

Historically, during thefirst two months, the expen-diture was �4,705 crore in FY2019-20 and �4,965 crore inFY 2020-21.

However, due to the out-break, the expenditure duringthe first two months hasjumped to �8,511 crore in thecurrent FY, he said.

He further said, “The taxcollection has declined due tothe second wave of the pan-demic and lockdown, whilethe expenditure has increasedin comparison with the pre-vious years for implementa-tion of various relief andother measures to check thespread of the coronavirus.”

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Delhi Police on Mondayorganised special yoga ses-

sions for its personnel deployedacross various units on theoccasion of seventhInternational Yoga Day.

“I did my daily Yoga todaymorning at home. My wife toojoined me to observe the 'YogaDay',” the Delhi PoliceCommissioner, S N Shrivastavatweeted from his officialTwitter handle on Monday.

Shrivastava also posted pic-tures of him and his wife per-forming different 'asanas'.

To mark the InternationalYoga Day, the yoga sessions onMonday morning were per-formed across all the districtsand units of Delhi Police.

The officials of districtsincluding South, Northwest,Southwest, New Delhi districtsalso posted pictures of policeofficials performing yoga onTwitter.

A special yoga session was

carried out at the Singhu bor-der where personnel from theDelhi Police and CentralArmed Police Forces (CAPF)units deployed performed var-ious yogic postures, a seniorpolice official said.

“Yoga sessions were orga-nized at police stations andunits across the district on theInternational Yoga Day andpolice officials including seniorofficers also took part in it.

Amid ongoing pandemic, yogahelps in reductions of tensionand fatigue,” said AntoAlphonse, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), North district.

In the southeast district, asimilar programme was organ-ised for police personnel toreduce their stress and keeptheir mind calm.

“It will improve theirimmunity as Covid pandemic

is still prevailing and as afrontline warrior, police aremuch prone to be infectedwith coronavirus.

Keeping their physicalendurance and mutual stabili-ty in view, police staff of south-east district have pledged toperform and adhere to thenorms of yoga in their routinelife for performing their dutiesbetter,” said R P Meena, theDCP, Southeast district.

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The Delhi Government onMonday approved the

empanelment of four agenciesto carry out tree transplantationin the national Capital. Thesefour agencies are GreenMorning Horticulture Pvt. Ltd,Hyderabad, M/s Rohit Nursery,New Delhi, M/s DD MEPEngineers, Gurugram, and RPEntrepreneurs.

According to the TreeTransplantation Policy (TTP),Delhi government, to carryout transplantation from anyproject site in Delhi, the appli-cant shall be required to select

an agency from among theempanelled agencies only.

The TTP -2020 mandatesthat trees will not be removedunnecessarily in developmentprojects/works and the existingtrees in the project site shall beproperly preserved throughcareful planning, design,implementation and post-con-struction maintenance.

The policy was inducted tosave trees in the Capital. As perthe policy, in the event of thepossibility of on-site preserva-tion being not viable, at least 80per cent of the trees shall berequired to be scientificallytransplanted.

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The Delhi Police has arresteda 36-year-old member of the

Irani Gang for allegedly posing asa police officer of the CrimeBranch and later fleeing with goldornaments swindled from a jew-ellery store worker. The accusedidentified as Qasim Zafri aliasJoju is a resident of Thane districtin Maharashtra and he was arrest-ed by the Crime Branch team ofDelhi Police from Bhopal onSaturday. The Irani Gang isknown to have a presence acrossIndia. They are also known formasquerading as police or seniorGovernment officers and con-ning people. In most of the casesthey have been found to operatein a group of two to four, police

said. According to MonikaBhardwaj, DCP, Crime Branch,the incident took place on June10 when the victim, who workswith a jeweller in Karol Bagh wasrobbed allegedly by Zafri and hisassociates Habib, Shahjor andSartaj.

“In his complaint, the victimwas travelling in an autorickshawfrom Karol Bagh to ChandniChowk with a bag containinggold ornaments weighing 915grams. At about 2:45 PM, whenthe vehicle reached a mall nearBara Hindu Rao, four men ontwo bikes arrived there andstopped the autorickshaw,” saidthe DCP. “They posed themselvesas police officers of the CrimeBranch while two among themstarted checking his bag. When

the victim could not produce anybill and invoice for the goldornaments, they directed him togo bring the bill from his shopand thereafter they fled from thespot with his gold ornaments,”said the DCP.

“A case was registered underSections 419 (Punishment forcheating by personation), 420(Cheating and dishonestly induc-ing delivery of property) and 34(Acts done by several persons infurtherance of common inten-tion) of IPC”, said the DCP.

“The CCTV footage of thescene of the crime was analysedand dossiers of the previouslyarrested accused using similarmodus operandi were checkedwhich led the team to Bhopal inMadhya Pradesh,” said the DCP.

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The Delhi Police has arrest-ed a 40-year-old man for

allegedly impersonating anIndian Administrative Service(IAS) officer and using a forgedcheque to purchase a mobilephone worth �1.4 lakh in theNational Capital.

The accused has been iden-tified as Abhay Bahl, a residentof Noida. Police said that Bahlused to work in a private com-pany and he recently lost hisjob during the Covid crisis.

According to Atul KumarThakur, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), South district, onSaturday, Bahl first called up anemployee at the Samsungshowroom in South Extension-2 and introduced himself as asenior official of the company.

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Page 4: ˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

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After receiving several com-plaints against widespread

cheating and unfair trade prac-tices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystem, theMinistry of Consumer Affairshas proposed an amendment inthe Consumer Protection (e-commerce) Rule 2020 sayingthat e-commerce companieswill not be allowed to organiseflash sale of goods bringingunder question a lot of sale fes-tivals organised throughoutthe year by etailers such asAmazon and Flipkart.

A flash sale means a peri-od during which products aresold on a highly discountedprice. The ministry has soughtviews/comments by July 6 onthe draft Consumer Protection(e-commerce) Rule 2020. “

Just like with social mediagiants, each e-commerce enti-ty will also have to establish agrievance redressal mechanism

by appointing chief complianceofficer, nodal contact officerand resident grievance officerunder the new amendmentsrule.

“Additionally, conven-tional flash sales by thirdparty sellers are not bannedon e-commerce platform. But,certain e-commerce entitiesare engaging in limiting con-sumer choice by indulging in“back to back” or “flash” saleswherein one seller selling onplatform does not carry anyinventory or order fulfilmentcapability but merely places a“flash or back to back” orderwith another seller controlledby platform. This prevents alevel playing field and ulti-mately limits customer choiceand increases prices,” offi-cials said.

Coming heavily on theissue of the Country of Origin,the draft said that e-com-merce companies will nowmention the name and details

of any importer from whom ithas purchased such goods orservices. They will also have toprovide a filter mechanism ontheir websites from wherecustomers can figure out theorigin of the products quick-ly before making a purchase.

In a major push fordomestic products, it has alsosuggested that the companiesshould provide alternativesuggestions to customersbefore he/she makes a pur-chase to ensure fair opportu-nity for “domestic goods”.

The rules further forbid e-commerce companies fromdisplaying any misleadingadvertisements.

The draft proposes that ane-commerce entity which isengaged in cross-selling ofgoods or services shall provideadequate disclosure to itsusers such as the name of theentity providing data forcross-selling and data of suchentity used for cross-selling.

It further adds that no e-commerce entity shall indulgein mis-selling of goods or ser-vices offered on its platform. Every e-commerceentity shall ensure that spon-sored listing of products andservices are distinctly identi-fied with clear and prominentdisclosures.

Every e-commerce entitywhich intends to operate inIndia shall register itself withDPIIT within such period asprescribed by DPIIT for allot-ment of a registration number.

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Putting the Government in atight spot, the Supreme

Court on Monday asked theCentre if it had taken a decisionagainst giving �4 lakh ex-gra-tia to the next of kin of Covidvictims. And if it did, the SCnot only sought to see thedecision but also know theauthority who took it.

“Where is the decision thatthere is no need for ex-gratia,”the vacation bench of JusticesAshok Bhushan and M R Shahasked adding if the NationalDisaster ManagementAuthority (NDMA), headedby the Prime Minister, hadtaken the decision.

The apex court was hear-ing a PIL on Centre’s decisionto stop paying ex-gratia, fol-lowing which the Governmentfiled an affidavit stating that itcannot pay the compensationto families of COvid victimsdue to financial constraints.

Having received flak for itsblunt ‘no’ to compensation tokin of Covid victims, theCentre on Monday clarified inthe Supreme Court that it doeshave funds but its focus is onaspects like food security, pub-lic health interventions andreviving the economy. This ledthe Supreme Court to cautionthe Centre: “The Governmentsaying it has no money has verywide repercussions.”

The contents of theGovernment’s affidavit explain-ing its financial priorities wastwisted and misrepresented onTwitter, the Centre pointedout. “It is not the case of gov-

ernment that we don't havemoney. Our focus on expendi-ture of the money is on aholistic solution,” SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta said.

The SC also took up thematter of death certificates toCovid victims. The Courtasked whether there can besome measures so to as to sim-plify the process of obtainingthe certificates and also toensure that those who havebeen issued such certificateswhere COVID was not men-tioned, can avail a correction.

Senior advocate S BUpadhyay, appearing for a peti-tioner, asked if the Centre hasmoney then why is it not com-plying with the statutory oblig-ations under Section 12 of theDisaster Management Act(DMA) stipulating ex-gratiaof Rs 4 lakh as the Governmenthas declared Covid a nationaldisaster. Under the law, theCentre must have a compen-sation scheme and the amountof Rs 4 lakh was not so impor-tant, Upadhyay said.

The bench, however, said:“Every disaster is different.There can be small and bigpandemics. Or a big flood orsmall food. If the standard orgravity of a pandemic is more,then you cannot say that thesame standard can be appliedfor every disaster.”

The apex court is hearingtwo separate pleas filed bylawyers Reepak Kansal andGaurav Kumar Bansal respec-tively seeking directions tothe Centre and the states toprovide Rs 4 lakh compensa-tion to the families of coron-

avirus victims as provisionedunder the Act, and a uniformpolicy for issuing death cer-tificates.

The special vacation benchof Justices Ashok Bhushan andM R Shah reserved the verdicton the two pleas.

Observing that the FinanceCommission's recommenda-tions on dealing with disasterscannot override statutoryschemes on compensationunder Section 12 of the DMA,the bench asked the Centre “whether the National

Disaster ManagementAuthority, chaired by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, hastaken any decision that nocompensation should be givenas ex-gratia”. Mehta said he wasnot aware of any such decisionby the NDMA.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Monday said prac-

tising Yoga has helped people“muster confidence andstrength” to fight against thepandemic world over andsought to recall as how front-line Corona warriors adoptedYoga as their “shield” and madethemselves “strong” by prac-tising it.

Speaking on theInternational Yoga Day', thePrime Minister said experts arestressing the importance ofbreathing exercises likepranayama and 'anulom-vilom'for strengthening our respira-tory system.

The Prime Minister alsolaunched an 'mYoga app' thatwill be available worldwide. “Incollaboration with WHO, Indiahas taken another importantstep. We will be launching themYoga app which will haveyoga training videos in differ-ent languages for people acrossthe world. This will help usachieve our ‘One World, OneHealth’ motto,” he added

Modi said despite the pan-demic, this year’s theme for

Seventh International YogaDay –”Yoga for wellness” hasraised the morale of people andhe wished for health of everycountry, society and individualand hoped that “we will beunited and will strengthen eachother.”

The Prime Minister point-ed out that it was easy for coun-tries to forget Yoga Day duringthe pandemic as it is not intrin-sic to their culture but, instead,enthusiasm for Yoga hasincreased globally.

Yoga helped people tomuster confidence and strengthto fight with the pandemicworld over including Coronawarriors, he said.

Quoting Tamil saintThiruvalluvar, the Prime

Minister said yoga goes to theroot cause of disease and isinstrumental in healing. Heexpressed satisfaction thatglobally, research is being con-ducted in the healing proper-ties of Yoga.

He noted studies on immu-nity through yoga and childrendoing yog during their onlineclasses. He said this is prepar-ing children to fight Corona.

The Prime Ministeremphasized the holistic natureof yoga and said that it takescare of physical health as wellas mental health.

Quoting from Gita, thePrime Minister said we need tocontinue moving on the col-lective journey of yoga as it hasa solution for everyone.

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As SARS-CoV2—the virusthat causes Covid-19—

spreads to zoos in India infect-ing many inmates and claim-ing a few of them, theHyderabad-based Laboratoryfor the Conservation ofEndangered Species(LaCONES) of CSIR-Centrefor Cellular and MolecularBiology (CCMB) has issuedguidelines for Covid-19 testson the captive animals.

“The guidelines providedetailed protocols that includepictorials and frequently askedquestions for an easier under-standing of those collectingsamples for Covid testing inwildlife,” Vinay K Nandicoori,Director, CSIR-CCMB, saidin a statement here.

LaCONES is one of thefour designated centres fortesting animal samples forpossible coronavirus infec-tion. The need for the testingguidelines has been constant-ly felt as there have beenreports of captive animalsbeing infected with the disease.

“We hope that our rec-ommendations help the zoostaff in collecting and packingthe samples appropriatelybefore they send out to animaltesting centres. It willsmoothen the process for thezoos as well as testing centres.Given how difficult it is to getsamples from animals it is allthe more important that wemake most of the samples weget,” said KarthikeyanVasudevan, scientist-in-charge,

LaCONES, CSIR-CCMB.While cases of animals

being infected with Covid-19have been witnessed in otherparts of the globe, in what isbelieved to be the first knowndeath of an animal in Indiafrom the coronavirus-- a nine-year-old lioness at a zoo inChennai in Tamil Nadupassed away in early June.

At least eight lions werealso found positive inHyderabad's zoo, spread over300 acres and home to over1,500 species of animals andbirds.

In early June, this year, atleast 28 elephants tested forCovid-19 at a forest reserve insouthern India after thereported death of a rareAsiatic lion from the virus.The feline was among ninelions that had tested positivefor the virus, including twowho were in critical condi-tion.

Last year, in April, lionsand tigers at the Bronx Zoo inNew York City tested positivefor the virus. However, all of

them recovered. So was withthe case of four lions whowere tested positive at a zooin Barcelona last September.Like their counterparts acrossthe globe, they respondedwell to treatment.

After lions in VandalurZoo tested positive for Covid-19, camp elephants in theregion also came under scan-ner. Nasal and anal sampleswere taken from 28 elephants,including two calves and sentto the Indian VeterinaryResearch Institute in UttarPradesh.

In fact, authorities inneighbouring Sri Lankan hadsought guidance from Indiaon treating animals contract-ing Covid-19, after a lionnamed Thor at a Colombozoo tested positive.

“We are seeking guid-ance from the Central ZooAuthority in India in order totreat Thor,” said IshiniWickremesinghe, DirectorGeneral of the Department ofNational Zoological Gardensin a statement.

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Aiming to ensure that ben-eficiaries covered under

the food law get the rightquantity of foodgrains, theMinistry of Consumer Affairshas tweaked norms to pro-mote use of electronic weigh-ing machines at ration shopsand their integration withelectronic point of sale (ePoS)devices.

“The Department of Foodand Public Distribution hasissued a notification on 18thJune, 2021 to ensure rightquantity to beneficiaries indistribution of subsidisedfoodgrains as per their enti-tlement under the NFSA,2013,” an official statementsaid.

“Any savings if accrued byany State/Union Territory

from the additional marginprovided towards the cost ofpurchase, operation andmaintenance of the point ofsale device, its runningexpenses and incentive for itsuse, can henceforth be utilised for pur-chase, operations and main-tenance of electronic weighingscales and their integrationwith the point of sale devices,”the statement said.

“While distributionthrough ePoS devices ensuresthat subsidised foodgrains areprovided to the rightful ben-eficiary through biometricauthentication, integration ofePoS devices with electronicweighing scales would ensure that the beneficiary isgiven the right quantity offoodgrains by the Fair PriceShop dealer as per his entitle-ment,” the statement said.

Accordingly, the scheme'Assistance to state agenciesfor intra-state movement offoodgrains and FPS dealersmargin under NFSA' providesfor additional margin of �17per quintal to all state gov-ernments/Union Territoriestowards the cost of purchase,operation and maintenance ofthe point of sale device, itsrunning expenses and incen-tive for its use.

The additional margin ispayable for the fair price shopwhich has installed a point-of-sale device and is limited tothe transactions madethrough it.

Under the National FoodSecurity Act (NFSA), theCentre provides 5 kg of wheatand rice (foodgrains) permonth per person to around80 crore people at a sub-sidised rate of Rs 2-3 per kg.

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The Covid-19 crisis failed todampen the spirit of the

yoga enthusiasts as lakhs ofwomen, men and childrenincluding school students fromacross the country observedthe ‘International Day of Yoga’(IDY) on Monday with greatenthusiasm while adoptingCovid-appropriate norms.

The craze to be part of theIDY was very much evident asvideos of a group of patientsdonning PPE suits performingyoga exercises in theCoimbatore, Tamil Nadu andan ITBP jawan spreading outhis mat in the snow to do asurya namaskar became viralon social media.

President RamnathKovind, who practiced Yogaon the lawns of RashtrapatiBhavan, tweeted “Yoga is ourancestor’s vision of bringingmind-body together to achieve

holistic health and happinesswhich has benefited millionsover millennia”.

Vice President VenkaiahNaidu who performed yogawith his spouse, called it as onesimple yet powerful practicethat helps us build resilienceand improves our health holis-tically.

Similarly, UnionMinisters including PrakashJavadekar, Dr. HarshVardhan, Prahlad Singh Patel,Smriti Zubin Irani, MA Naqviand Ashwani Chowbey toojoined several citizens in per-forming yoga at their resi-dences or public places send-ing messages of importanceof the yoga.

Ayush Minister KirenRijiju mentioned how Yoga isnot just seen as a practicenative to India, but India’s giftto the world, which has beenaccepted as their own byeveryone while Road andTransport Minister Nitin

Gadkari participated in theprogramme ‘Yoga an IndianHeritage’ Campaign atNagpur.” Amid Covid-19pandemic which has causedhavoc across the world, yogais a ray of hope for all as it notonly ensures physical well-being but also keeps us men-tally fit in the stressful andanxious t imes,” UnionMinister of Agriculture

Narendra Singh Tomar said at an event orga-nized online by the NationalCooperative DevelopmentCorporation (NCDC) whileyoga guru Dr H R Nagendra,Chancel lor of SwamiVivekananda YogaAnusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA), Bengaluru sharedthat how yoga can help bringin mindfulness, self-aware-

ness, and numerous otherhealth benefits for people inrural areas where virus hascaused devastation, infectingmany and claiming numerouslives.NCDC MD SundeepNayak said yoga can help aperson in becoming healthy,wealthy and wise even asofficials from PSUs underMinistry of Power, NationalThermal Power Corporationand NHPC Limited celebrat-ed the Day across their powerstations with full enthusi-asm.

Chief Ministers, includ-ing Uttar Pradesh's YogiAdityanath, Delhi's ArvindKejriwal, Chhattisgarh'sBhupesh Baghel, Gujarat'sVijay Rupani and MadhyaPradesh's Shivraj SinghChouhan, too sent out thesame message.

The theme of this year’sYoga Day was “Be With Yoga,Be At Home” in view of thepandemic situation.

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Congress president SoniaGandhi will on Thursday

meet the party's general secre-taries and state in-charges tochalk out a strategy to planprotests against the govern-ment on issues such as the hikein petrol and diesel prices andthe current Covid and politicalsituations.

AICC sources said theleaders will give their sugges-tions for taking on the gov-ernment and reaching out tothe people to highlight its fail-ures, sources said. Besides thehike in fuel prices, theCongress will also plan protestsagainst the government overhigh inflation, the pace ofCovid vaccination and han-dling of the pandemic, theysaid.

The economic situation ofthe country is also likely to fig-ure during the discussions.The meeting comes ahead ofthe Monsoon Session ofParliament which is likely tostart in July’s second fortnight. Congress has been alsoattacking the government onissues related to the farmers'agitation against three newagri laws.

Former Congress chiefRahul Gandhi slammed theCentre for not paying com-

pensation to kin of Covid vic-tims, Congress general secre-tary incharge of Uttar Pradesh,Priyanka Gandhi wrote to UPChief Minister Yogi Adityanath

to flag the problems beingfaced by wheat farmers in sell-ing their produce and demand-ed that the government shouldguarantee wheat procurement.

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Trouble continues inRajasthan politics as turn-

coat BSP MLAs who joinedthe ruling party Congressand independent legislatorswho supported the AshokGehlot government duringlast year's political crisis led byrebel party leader Sachin Pilothave called a joint meeting onWednesday amid lobbyingfor ministerial posts. Themeetings are part of the strat-egy by the present regime inthe State to prevent Pilot andhis camp from entering thegovernment.

The MLAs, who wereelected as BSP candidates inthe 2018 assembly electionsand joined the Congress nextyear, are already mountingpressure on the Congressagainst the Pilot camp anddemanding a “reward” forthose who saved the Gehlotgovernment last year. Now,

the independent MLAs whosupported the governmentlast year have also cometogether with these legislators,and they will meet to hold dis-cussions, mainly about cabi-net expansion and politicalappointments besides theirsupport the government.

An independent MLAsaid that unnecessary attacksare being made against thegovernment. “To discuss allpolitical developments, theMLAs are meeting in a hotelon Wednesday,” the MLAsaid. There are 13 indepen-dent MLAs and six BSP-turned-Congress legislators.One of these six MLAs is cur-rently abroad, so the remain-ing 18 legislators are expect-ed to attend the meeting.

“We supported the gov-ernment last year whenattempts were made to toppleit. In the meeting, the presentpolitical situation will be dis-cussed,” he said.

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BJP president JP Nadda onMonday announced names

of national office bearers ofMahila Morcha, includingseven vice-presidents, threeGeneral Secretaries and sevennational secretaries.

Vice-Presidents of MahilaMorcha are- Malti Rava Roy(Bengal), Darshana Singh(UP), Medha Kulkarni(Maharashtra), Rekha Gupta(Delhi), Virendra Kaur Thandi(Punjab), Jyotirben Pandya(Gujarat) and Puja Kapil Misra(Rajasthan).

National GeneralSecretaries are -Sukhpreet Kaur(MP), Indubala Goswami (HP)and Dipi Rawat (Uttarakhand).

Names of treasurer, offi-cer-in-charge and socialMedia-in-charge were alsoannounced.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has

seized assets worth �40.34crore belonging to AvinashBhosle Infrastructure PrivateLtd promoter Avinash Bhosleand his family members in theform of various assets underForeign ExchangeManagement Act 1999(FEMA).

“These properties havebeen seized as equivalent valueof foreign securities / proper-ties held by Avinash Bhosleand his family members incontravention of FEMA whichprovides for seizure of equiv-alent value, situated in India,of foreign security / immov-able properties held outsideIndia,” the ED said in a state-ment.

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Page 5: ˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

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After BJP’s MP fromAlipurduar John Burla who

on Saturday demanded a “sep-arate Union Territory or a State”out of North Bengal it is the turnof his Lok Sabha colleagueSoumitra Khan to raise a simi-lar demand.

The stench of divisive pol-itics wafted into the southernparts of the State as theBishnupur MP on Mondaycried out for a separate Rarh

Banga State — comprising thesoutheastern districts of Bengal.

Though the State BJP unitdistanced itself from its two LokSabha Member’s statementscuriously it backed the “genesis”of their demands: Lack ofDevelopment in these reasons.

Incidentally both NorthBengal and Rarh Bengal ---comprising Purulia, Bankuraparts of Birbhum andJangalmahal — have of lateemerged as a saffron stronghold

that the BJP is desperate toretain in the face of the alleged— “devour all” — aggressivepolicy of the ruling TrinamoolCongress.

“When Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee can call thePrime Minister of the countrya outsider tomorrow she mayeven call us outsiders … sheshould immediately withdrawher ‘outsider’ remarks,” Khan aformer TMC leader who laterjoined the BJP before 2019 gen-eral elections said.

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress Government on Mondaygot a judicial snub with the Calcutta High Court on Mondaythrowing out its plea for recalling an earlier order directingNational Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to examine allcases of alleged human rights violations in the state post Statepolls.

The Monday’s order was passed by a larger five-judgeBench—comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and jus-tices IP Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and SubrataTalukdar— of the High Court which had after adjudicatingon a bunch of public interest litigations on the ongoing postpoll violence that had allegedly led to murders, loot, dis-placement, physical assault, destruction of property and liveli-hood. Earlier wondering why 541 petitions had to be filed withNHRC and not a single with the State Human RightsCommission the Bench had passed an order on June 18, tak-ing cognizance of a report submitted by the Member Secretaryof West Bengal State Legal Services Authority. PNS

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In what a section of retired bureaucrats called“avoidable fallout” of an “ego clash” between Centre

and State, talks to strike a compromise between theCentre and Mamata Banerjee Government on thecontroversial Alapan Bandopadhyay issue seems tohave fizzled out.

The Central Government is likely to take “strongaction” against the retired Bengal Chief Secretary fordereliction of duty meaning thereby that the retiredtop official may suffer heavily in terms of his postretirement benefits sources at State secretariatNabanna said.

According to sources a memorandum from Delhithat was received about ten days ago by Nabanna saysthat penalty proceedings would soon start against theformer Bengal Chief Secretary for failing to abide bythe orders of the Prime Minister’s Office.

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The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board on Monday cancelledthe annual pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Amarnath

located at a height of around 13,000 feet in the SouthKashmir district of Anantnag in the wake of prevailing sit-uation due to Covid-19 pandemic.

The yatra was scheduled to begin from June 28. Lt-Governor Manoj Sinha, who is also the chairman of theShrine board officially announced the decision after hold-ing threadbare discussions with the members of the Shrineboard. In a tweet Lt-Gov Sinha said, “Shri Amarnathji Yatracancelled in wake of Covid-19 Pandemic. Decision afterthreadbare discussion with Shri Amarnathji Shrine Boardmembers”. Lt-Gov Manoj Sinha said, “Yatra to be symbol-ic only. However, all the traditional religious rituals shallbe performed at the Holy Cave Shrine as per past practice”.

“It's important to save people's lives. So, it is not advis-able to hold and conduct this year's pilgrimage in the larg-er public interest”, Sinha said in another tweet. The Shrineboard is also expected to continue the live telecast/ virtu-al darshan of the morning and evening Aarti from the holycave shrine.

However, keeping in mind the sentiments of worship-pers of lord Shiva, the traditional rituals shall be carried outin the presence of saints at the shrine without any inter-ruption. The Shrine Board authorities had extended spe-cial invitations to Akhada Parishads, Acharya Parishads andexplored the possibility of establishing counters at promi-nent religious places across the country for facilitation ofSadhu/Sant Samaj.

The yatra was cancelled last year as well due to Covid19 restrictions. The Shrine board authorities had launchedonline registration of the pilgrims across different centresof Punjab National Bank.

The same was, however, suspended on April 22 in thewake of a surge in the number of cases of Coronavirus.

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Three terrorists including oneLashkar-e-Tayeeba (LeT) com-

mander hailing from Pakistan wereeliminated by the joint team of secu-rity forces in a clean operation in theSopore town of North Kashmir'sBaramulla district in the wee hoursof Monday.The operation waslaunched after receiving specificintelligence input about the presenceof terrorists in the area around 11.15p.m.

After verifying the input thesecurity forces surrounded the houseand appealed to the hiding terroriststo surrender. “In spite of repeatedappeals to surrender, the latteropened fire, injuring an army soldier.The security forces retaliated andeliminated the terrorists in the ensu-ing gunfight that lasted three hours”.

The security forces did not suf-fer any collateral damage even as theoperation was conducted in thethickly populated area of TantrayMohalla of Gund Barat village inSopore.

According to police, the triowere involved in many militancyrelated incidents that included“killing of civilians, security forcespersonnel, former militants,Sarpanchs and Hurriyat/separatistleaders/activists in north Kashmir ''.

The police identified the foreignterrorist as Mudasir Pandit aliasUmer alias Mass Bhai. He has been

active in the area since June 19.A total number of 18 FIRs were

lodged against him and he wasinvolved in the killing of nine secu-rity forces personnel, four civilians,two former militants, three sarpanch-es and two separatists.

Police claimed another closeassociate of Pandit, who has beenidentified as Abdullah alias Asrar,aPakistan national along withKhursheed Mir of Sopore were alsoeliminated in the fierce gunfight.

These terrorists were involved inthe killing of seven security forcespersonnel and five civilians, besidestwo incidents of grenade attacks.Briefing media persons in Srinagar,Director General of Police (DGP)Dilbag Singh said all the three slainterrorists were top commanders ofthe Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit.

As per police, the Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives were the perpetra-tors of the attacks that killed two

Councilors and one SPO on 29March 2021 and four Policemenincluding innocent civilians inSopore on 12 June 2021. On com-pletion of the operation, three AKs,one pistol, grenade, ammunitionand other war like stores were recov-ered from the slain terrorists.

Inspector general of police (IGP),Kashmir Vijay Kumar said the slainterrorists were hiding in a house thatbelonged to the family of anotherlocal terrorist. “I urge the families notto give shelter to active terrorists.Then they blame the police for mis-behaving with them. The families ofterrorists should refrain from pro-viding food and shelter to the activeterrorists,” he said.

General Officer Commanding(GoC) of the Army”s Kilo ForceMajor General H S Sahi said a sol-dier was injured in the operation andhe was evacuated to a hospital wherehis condition is stated to be stable.

He said this was the second suchinstance in the valley in recent timeswhere local terrorists were found tobe accompanied by Pakistani ultras.

“This is a big network nexus thatexists, which is a cause of concern.This nexus needs to be broken anddestroyed so that there is no hurdlein the peace and development ofJammu and Kashmir,” Maj. Gen. Sahisaid. He appealed to the civil societyand the people of Kashmir to coop-erate with the security forces tobreak this network”.

KOCHI: In a no holds barred attack against ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala’s maverick polit-ical leader P C George alleged on Monday that theformer has become a prisoner of a cabal consist-ing of invisible wheeler-dealers and fly by nightoperators.Addressing the media at Kottayam, Georgedemanded a High Court monitored probe into thelarge scale felling of trees from the State’s forests.It has been alleged by John Peruvanthanam, envi-ronmentalist, that trees worth �1.5 lakh crore hasbeen illegally felled from the forests in the State dur-ing the last two years and this has denuded Keralaof its fragile forest cover. “Kerala is ruled by a mafiaconsisting of a CPI(M) politician, a businessmanwith links to Jihadi forces and some characters withdubious past. Though Vijayan is the CM of a State,he speaks like the polit bureau member of the partywhich does not suit his stature. He should learnto behave like a CM,” lambasted George, a 7-termmember of the Kerala Legislative Assembly. PNS

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Dear friends!

Today, we mark the mosttragic date in the historyof Russia and all former

Soviet republics – the Day ofRemembrance and Sorrow. OnJune 22, 1941, Nazi Germanylaunched Operation Barbarossaaimed at invading the SovietUnion and that is how the GreatPatriotic War began, ending in1945. The attack was trulyunprecedented in terms of itsdestructive power — theenemy’s army was strong, high-ly skilled and one of the mostpowerful military forces in theworld at that time with theindustrial, economic and mili-tary potential of almost entireEurope working for it. However,by extreme means, nationwidemobilisation, people’s efforts,incredible courage and dedica-tion, we managed to strike back.From the very first days, it wasclear that the Nazi plan hadfailed. The Brest Fortress wasprotected by defenders, repre-senting more than 30 ethnicities.

The war united our peoplefor the sake of protecting ourland and home, however, to ourdeep sorrow, the defeat of

Nazism came at the cost of somehard, irreplaceable losses. Themilitary and civilian casualtiesare estimated to be over 27 mil-lion, including warriors of theRed Army who sacrificed theirlives in the battles and peoplewho perished during the Siegeof Leningrad and in the Naziconcentration camps. It is hardto find a family which was notscorched by the flames of war.

While events commemo-rating those who lost their livesduring the war are held through-out the country, according totradition, let’s come together andlight the Candles ofRemembrance in their honour

tonight.When we see today’sattempts to forge and rewrite thehistory of that time, to bury theheroes in oblivion, we considerit our moral responsibility touphold the historical truth. Toforget the lessons of World WarII means to lay the ground fornew inhumane conceptions andatrocities.

In this regard, we sincerelyappreciate India’s and the CIS’consistent support to theResolution “Combating glorifi-cation o f Nazism, neo-Nazismand other practices that con-tribute to fueling contempo-rary forms of racism, racial dis-crimination, xenophobia and

related intolerance” adopted bythe UN General Assembly at theRussian initiative. After all ofthese years, we feel that the sol-idarity movement born in Indiain 1941 following the Nazi intru-sion into the USSR is still alive,having significantly contributedto building up the core of theRussian-Indian relations whichtoday enjoys the level of theSpecial and Privileged StrategicPartnership. We have a respon-sibility to our past and ourfuture, to do our utmost to pre-vent those horrible tragediesfrom happening ever again. Thelessons of World War II – onwhich grounds the UnitedNations was founded – mustcontinue to guide our countriesto defend the priorities of build-ing a fair, just and multipolarworld order based on the prin-ciples of equal and indivisiblesecurity for all.

It is my sincere belief that byjoining our efforts with ourIndian counterparts and otherglobal partners we can effective-ly confront the barbarization ofinternational relations, preventdestroying the modern-daystrategic stability system. Apromising step in this direction

is seen in the recent Russia-USPresidential Joint Statement onStrategic Stability dated June 16,which declared predictabilityin the strategic sphere, reductionof the risk of armed conflicts andnuclear war as shared goals.

Dear friends, let’s preservethe memory of this dramaticpage in global history in orderto save the world for future gen-erations.

Thank you very much and,please, stay safe!

This year we will mark 80 yearssince the beginning of theGreat Patriotic War. It claimedmillions of lives, and nearly all

our families remember their losses andtheir heroes to this day. This personal con-nection is what defines our people’s sin-cere commemoration of the war and warveterans in Russia.”

“The most serious military defeats in1941 brought the country to the brinkof catastrophe. Combat power and con-trol had to be restored by extrememeans like nationwide mobilisation andintensification of all efforts of the stateand the people. In the summer of 1941,millions of citizens, hundreds of facto-ries and industries began to be evacuat-ed under enemy fire to the east of thecountry. The manufacture, of weaponsand munition, for supplies to the frontwas launched in the shortest possibletime and by 1943, we exceeded the ratesof military production of Germany andits allies. Within 18 months, the Sovietpeople did something that seemedimpossible, both on the front lines andthe home front. It is still tough torealise, understand and imagine whatincredible efforts, courage, dedicationthese greatest achievements were worth.”

“The tremendous power of Sovietsociety — united by the desire to protecttheir native land — rose against the pow-erful, armed to the teeth enemy which hadbroken and trampled peaceful life as wellas people’s plans and hopes.”

“The root causes of World War IImainly stem from the decisions made

after World War I. The Treaty ofVersailles became a symbol of graveinjustice for Germany. It basically impliedthat the country was to be robbed, beingforced to pay enormous reparations tothe Western allies that drained its econ-omy. French Marshal Ferdinand Fochwho served as the Supreme AlliedCommander gave a prophetic descrip-tion of that Treaty, ‘This is not peace. Itis an armistice for 20 years.”

“Today as well, our position remainsunchanged – there can be no excuse forthe criminal acts of Nazi collaborators. Itis therefore bewildering that in certaincountries those who are smirched withcooperation with the Nazis are suddenlyequated with World War II veterans. Ibelieve that it is unacceptable to equate lib-erators with occupants. I can only regardthe glorification of Nazi collaborators asa betrayal of the memory of our ancestors,and a betrayal of the ideals that united peo-ples in the fight against Nazism.”

“Historical revisionism, the manifes-tations of which we now observe in theWest, primarily with regard to the sub-ject of World War II and its outcome, isdangerous because it grossly and cyni-cally distorts the understanding of theprinciples of peaceful development laiddown at the Yalta and San Francisco con-ferences in 1945. The major historicachievement of Yalta and other decisionsof that time is the agreement to create amechanism that would allow the lead-ing powers to remain within the frame-work of diplomacy in resolving their dif-ferences.

The Day of Remembrance and Sorrow is a mem-orable date marked annually on June 22. On thisday, in 1941 Nazi Germany launched OperationBarbarossa aimed at invading the Soviet Union.Thus, the Great Patriotic War had begun, which

lasted until 1945. To mark this, commemorative events are held through-

out the country where flowers and wreaths are laid at mon-uments honoring the Great Patriotic War. The Russian lead-ership, representatives of veteran organisations and citizens

lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in theAlexander Garden.

According to tradition, one of the largest memorialevents, the Candle of Remembrance, starts on the night ofJune 22. It unites the whole country where candles in hon-our of the fallen heroes are lit at the monuments and memo-rials.

Russians will also observe a Minute of Silence which willbegin on June 22 at 12:15 local time — the moment when theattack by the Nazi troops was announced on June 22, 1941.

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In a gruesome incident, a 45-year-old tailorkilled five members of his family, including his

wife and two teenaged children, before commit-ting suicide in his Pachpoli residence at Nagpurin eastern Maharashtra.

The incident, which took place late onSunday night, came to light on Monday morn-ing when the neighbours of the deceased com-plained to the police. Though the police suspecta family dispute might have resulted in multiplemurders, the exact motive behind the shocking incident has not been estab-lished yet.

Talking to local media persons, Nagpur’sAdditional Commissioner of Police Sunil Phulari said: “The accused Alok Matukar initiallyslit the throats of his wife Vijaya (40) and daugh-ter Pari (14) and throttled his son Sahil (12) inhis house. He later went to the house of LaxmiBobde (55) and sister-in-law Amisha Bobde (21)and also slit their throats. He later returned to hishome and hanged himself from a ceiling fan”.

Phulari said that the incident came to lightwhen Matukars' neighbours found their hourslocked from inside even after 9 am. “One of theneighbours peeped inside Matukars' homethrough the window and found Alok lying onthe ground. Realising that something wasamiss, Matukar's neighbour alerted the police.Our team reached there and broke open the doorto find Alok lying dead under a fan in the draw-ing room, while the bodies of three other mem-bers of his family were lying elsewhere at home.Later on we recovered the bodies of Alok’s moth-er-in-law Laxmi and sister-in-law Amisha fromtheir nearby house”.

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In a big relief to the health author-ities in Maharashtra, the daily

Covid-19 infections came down to6,270 on Monday, while the deathsdropped substantially to 352 in theState. A day after Maharashtralogged 9361 cases and 605 deaths,the daily infections dipped by 3,091cases, while the deaths came downby 253.

Significantly enough, of the352 deaths recorded on Monday, 94deaths were current deaths, whilethe remaining 258 were “old andhither-to unaccounted” fatalitieswhich have been added to thestate Covid-19 toll as part

of the ongoing reconciliationprocess.

With 352 deaths reported onMonday, the Covid-19 toll in thestate jumped from 1,17,961 to1,18,313.

With 6,270 fresh infections,the total infections in the State rosefrom 59,72,781 to 59,79,051.

As 13,758 patients were dis-charged from the hospitals acrossthe State after full recovery, the totalnumber of people discharged fromthe hospitals since the second weekof March last year increased from57,19,457 to 57,33,215.

The recovery rate in the Staterose from 95.76 per cent to 96.89per cent.

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Page 6: ˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

the 1988 coup, water crisis orCorona, India has been our firstresponder and dependablefriend.” This natural bonhomiewas sought to be strengthenedwhen India announced its sup-port towards the candidature ofMaldivian Foreign Minister,Abdulla Shahid, towards theUNGA presidentship inDecember, much before thealternative candidature of anoth-er pro-India candidate, AfghanForeign Minister ZalmaiRassoul, was announced.

As amongst the highestoffices in the UN system, thevictory of Maldivian ForeignMinister is especially sweet forIndia after the biased and overt-ly political tenure of the previ-ous UNGA president, Turkishdiplomat Volkan Bozkir. In anunprecedented move whilst inPakistani, Bozkir had reckless-ly conjoined the issues ofPalestine and Kashmir andurged Pakistan: “I think it is theduty, especially Pakistan’s, tobring this issue (Kashmir) to theUN platform more strongly!”Bozkir lost all sense of propor-tion, propriety and even diplo-matic pretence when he allud-ed to the ostensible “changed sta-tus” of Kashmir: “Throughoutmy term, and consistent with theUN policy, and applicableUNSC resolutions, I have

encouraged all parties to refrainfrom changing the status of thedisputed territory.” Bozkir wassoon conferred with the secondhighest Pakistani civilian award,Hilal-e-Pakistan (third contin-uous Turkish recipient in threeyears), reflecting Islamist RecepErdogan’s growing strangleholdover Islamabad.

Now, with MaldivianAbdulla Shahid’s one-yeartenure, Delhi can expect a fairand friendly incumbent in theoffice. In a sign of times, Shahidappointed India’s DeputyPermanent Representative tothe UN, Ambassador K NagarajNaidu, as his Chef de Cabinet.Though the one-year tenuremay not allow any radicalchanges to the framework of theUN, India’s External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar alluded tothe directional reset when hestated: “We look forward toworking with him to strength-en multilateralism and itsmuch-needed reforms” — theeuphemism for India’s justifi-able quest for a permanent seatin the UNSC is barely masked.China’s nefarious role instymieing actions in favour ofIndia is well documented. Inthis crucial tenure, India willhave the opportunity to up thechorus of its preferred changes,just like Erdogan used the

UNGA platform to play hisown realpolitik to the occasion-al discomfiture of India duringBozkir’s tenure. Coinciding asit does with India’s two-yearterm as a nonpermanent mem-ber of the UNSC, the task is cutout for Indian diplomatic man-darins.

India will need to uptickand retrieve its diminished lus-tre among its once-friendlyneighbours like Nepal, Sri Lankaand Myanmar (as done forMaldives), correct undeniableperceptions of its pandemicmismanagement and the grow-ing concerns on its democraticliberties and freedom, for whichit was always famed. The chess-board of diplomacy is foreverchanging, and Delhi must seizethese serendipitously alignedcircumstances to further itsdiplomacy. Maldives had a briefdalliance with the expansionistChinese experience, as didNepal (interference inCommunist Government andlandgrab), Sri Lanka(Hambantota takeover) andBhutan (Doklam); the conse-quential difference vis-à-vis Indianeeds to be gently asserted.

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governorof Andaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

��������� ��������Sir — The death count because of COVID-19 has not been accurately reported by theauthorities. The cases of COVID-19 are alsounder-reported in many remote areas. Insuch a scenario, the death toll as displayedby the official data may not be trusted;instead, it must be considered an approx-imation of the real count.

The scenario in hospitals is also verygrim. Many a time, hospitals issued thedeath certificate of a patient, with reasonas “Death with COVID-19”. Such certifi-cates were sometimes issued even to thosepatients who had no COVID-19. This pan-demic is no doubt an unprecedented trou-ble to the entire humanity, but it has severe-ly hit a large section of people.

There are many areas where the test-ing facilities are very poor. People resistgoing to a doctor because they don’t wantto be put into quarantine or stay isolatedfrom their family. Many believe thatbecoming COVID positive is a shamefulincident, and that the society members willnot sit with her/him even if s/he gets cured.This is why many cases remain under-reported. Ultimately, if anyone dies, norecord of his COVID-related death reach-es the administration. Therefore, publicawareness is must for proper reporting ofCOVID cases and related deaths.

Dimple Wadhawan | Kanpur

������� �������������Sir — The Governments and the healthdepartments are on alert for the thirdCoronavirus wave, expected to hit us with-in four-five weeks. The States and districtsare also putting their heads together torestrict the arrival of the third wave andrelaxing the lockdown after the secondwave. There’s an urgent need to figure outhow and why these series of waves are pop-ping up. The answer is simple, as we cansee from the example of the second wave.Had people taken all the precautionsbefore moving to the new normal after thefirst wave, the situation might have beenneutralised. But the citizens as well as thepoliticians were busy in self-benefit, roam-

ing around without masks or observing thenorms of social distancing.

Again, we are going down the sameroad. If we become serious, take vaccine,wear masks properly and maintain socialdistance, the third wave can be avoided toa large scale. It’s a matter of appreciation thatthe Government is ready for the third wave,but we’d be much better off if we took theinitiative and avoided its arrival altogether.

Aman Jaiswal | New Delhi�������������� ���������Sir — It is the wish of everyone that nor-malcy should be restored in Jammu andKashmir since it is part and parcel of Indiaand the Indian people love to live in peaceand harmony. But one way or the other, ten-sion continues to prevail in the Valley.Insurgency, terrorism, violence and arsoncontinue to haunt the picturesque State.

A meeting with senior Kashmir lead-

ers has been called by PM Narendra Modi.The PM and other leaders should take thisopportunity not only to discuss the delim-itation process but also issues like grantingstatehood and ending terror from theState. The separatist parties should subscribefor peace and development in the UTs.

The resettlement of Kashmiri Panditsis another long-pending issue. They are liv-ing as refugees in their own country fordecades. Jobs for the youth and develop-ment of the State should be given top pri-ority in the meeting. The other majorproblems confronting the UTs are morepolitical in nature, so holding early elec-tions will go a long way in resolving sev-eral issues. The sooner the elections areheld, the better it would be for J&K.

Sravana Ramachandran | Chennai

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The archipelagic nation ofMaldives has witnessedtectonic undercurrents ofgeopolitical one-upman-

ship and unrest, which belie itsidyllic perceptions. India’s histor-ically benign and non-expan-sionist outlook ensured that thesemi-autocratic 30-year reign ofMaumoon Abdul Gayoom andthe subsequent, democraticallyelected Government of MohamedNasheed’s Maldivian DemocraticParty (MDP) retained a pro-Indiatilt. In 1988, India famouslyquelled a roguish coup with thedramatic landing of its ParachuteRegiment elements after flying2,000 km non-stop in ‘OperationCactus’. India’s predominantimpulse then was to deter theintervention of any other foreignpower in India’s backyard === itwas portents of such a dangerousdrift that ensued with the electionof Yameen Abdul Gayoom’sProgressive Party of Maldives(PPM) from November 2013-November 2018. Yameen’s five-year tenure saw signature movesof President Xi Jinping’s aggressiveChinese inroads with a slew ofinvestments (Belt and RoadInitiative), free trade agreementsand murmurs of a Chinese mili-tary base. India’s strategic sphereof influence was openly threatenedwith the Chinese conglomeratesreplacing Indian entities. The lurefor the Chinese was the strategicencirclement of its regional neme-sis, India, with its strategy of“String of Pearls” ports.

The traditional “India first”policy was duly restored inNovember 2018 with the return ofPresident Ibrahim MohamedSolih’s MDP. India reciprocatedwith its “Neighbourhood First”policy — soon a record $1.3 bil-lion financial package wasannounced, including the largestcivilian infrastructure project con-necting Male with three islands.The days of the unprecedented“India out” campaign unleashedby the previous Yameen dispen-sation are over for now. Maldivesalso became the first country,along with Bhutan, under the“Vaccine Maitri” diplomacy toreceive COVID vaccines. FormerPresident and current SpeakerMohamed Nasheed was quick toacknowledge: “During tsunami,

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Page 7: ˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

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When the creative director of microblogging website, Twitter, announcedthe bluebird as the logo of the techcompany in 2012, it was called "the

ultimate representation of freedom, hope, and lim-itless possibility". In the last couple of years, withmany controversies under its fold, it is beingalleged that the representation of freedom on thisplatform became selective and hope and possibil-ities were limited by the extent of the socio-polit-ical understanding and perception of the compa-ny executives about events across the globe.

Social media is one of the most powerfulmediums of dissemination of information in thetwenty-first century. Its sheer, tech-based reach tomillions can be used for positive reinforcementor to spread misinformation, to build false nar-ratives. These digital platforms were like a breathof fresh air for the society when only a few couldaccess the traditional media to express their view-points. It was like a public debate where the audi-ence had a right to decide and choose their side.

Trouble began when these open digital plat-forms became conscious of their power tomonopolize what reaches the audience. Publishedresearch by scholars of the Massachusetts Instituteof Technology shows that falsehood diffused fasterthan truth on Twitter. A data set of rumour cas-cades on Twitter from 2006 to 2017 was taken andit was observed that about 126,000 rumours werespread by nearly three million people. It alsoobserved that the effects of false news were morepronounced on political happenings than on sci-ence, natural disasters, terror, or financial infor-mation.

Nations across the globe are raising their con-cerns over the unrestrained pick and choose thatTwitter and other Big Tech companies are doingnot only with regard to the content shared on theirplatforms but also its reach to the users. Their ris-ing clout while positioning themselves as non-stateactors is in direct conflict with the constitution-ally elected representatives of the people of a coun-try. Former US President Donald Trump wasbanned by Twitter, Facebook, and others, accus-ing him of inciting violence at the US Capitol Hillin January, 2021 and casting aspersions on JoeBiden's presidential election win. When Trumpwas elected in 2016, allegations of Russian collu-sion were levelled against his campaign - it waslater found unsubstantiated by investigations car-ried out by the US Senate Intelligence Committee.Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House ofRepresentatives used the Twitter platform to labelthe 2016 elections as 'hijacked', calling for USCongress to intervene. The microblogging site didnot take any action against Pelosi for questioningthe integrity of the elections.

In France, an advocacy group had to move thecourt when Twitter resisted releasing informationabout tweets with racist and anti-Semitic content.The Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris (civilcourt of Paris)ordered Twitter to either face a fineor reveal the information to the French authori-ties through a mutually accepted mechanism. InIsrael, this platform is embroiled in a controver-sy where it stands accused of selective blockingof tweets and suspension of accounts of politicalactivists. Nigeria recently banned Twitter opera-tions in the country after it not only deleted thetweet of President Muhammadu Buhari, justify-ing it as abusive, but also suspended his accountfor twelve hours.

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There is virtual immuni-ty to abusers and a totallack of remedy to victims

of abuse of sedition. Still, wecall ourselves a country ruledby the rule of law.

In two recent cases, theSupreme Court came downheavily against abuse of crim-inal charges of sedition. It heldthat the FIR against YSRCPMP of Andhra Pradesh, RaghuRama Krishnam Raju, waslacking in the ingredients toinvoke sedition. In the VinodDua case, the court warned toreview and settle the limits ofthis draconian law. Will therulers and police listen?

Criticising the dictatorialattitude of the Administrator inLakshadweep, film-makerAisha Sultana recently said ina TV debate: "Lakshadweep

had '0' cases of COVID-19.Now, it is reporting a dailyspike of 100 cases. What theCentre has deployed is a bio-weapon. I can say this clearlythat the central governmenthas deployed a bio-weapon."The BJP's Lakshadweep unitpresident Abdul Khader, fileda complaint of sedition with theKavaratti police on June 9,alleging this anti-national acttarnished the "patriotic image"of the Centre. The policejumped to register it.

At the behest of a BJPleader's complaint, Delhi Policebooked a sedition charge inMay 2020 against senior jour-nalist Vinod Dua, allegedly tosilence him from criticising thePrime Minister and the Centrefor their CAA policy. DelhiHigh Court stayed coercive

action against Dua, and with-in hours another BJP leadercomplained and HimachalPradesh booked another sedi-tion case. It is proof that policeinvestigators are not applyingtheir minds but simply obey-ing political bosses or theirloyal followers. The SupremeCourt saved Dua on June 3 by

quashing the sedition charge,but he would be under a con-stant threat of arrest andharassment of his family. Isthere any remedy for the suf-fering of falsely accused per-sons like him? Is quashing afalse charge enough? Whendictatorial rulers do not stopabuse and the legislature issilent, people look to the judi-ciary to answer these questions.

Vinod Dua raised an issuein SC: "There is a recent trendto register FIRs against personsof the media primarily toharass them and to intimidatethem so that they succumb tothe line of the state or else facethe music at the hands of thepolice." In Kedar Nath Singh(1962), five judges of theSupreme Court made it clearthat "allegedly seditious speech

and expression may be pun-ished only if the speech is an'incitement' to 'violence', or'public disorder'"(Vinod Duavs. Union of India, WP(Crl)No. 154 of 2020, by JusticesUday Umesh Lalit and VineetSaran). In their 117-page judg-ment, the SC explained: "Everyjournalist will be entitled toprotection in terms of KedarNath Singh, as every prosecu-tion under Sections 124A and505 of the IPC must be in strictconformity with the scope andambit of said Sections asexplained in, and completely intune with the law laid down inKedar Nath Singh."

It also observed in anoth-er case: "A speech should beconsidered as a whole in a free,fair and liberal spirit, the pleastates that the police across the

country are picking a part ofthe speech or expression toinvoke section 124-A againstthe citizens, that too, withoutexamining the proximate anddirect nexus of the act." This isa caution from the SupremeCourt in the Shreya Singhalcase, which unfortunately nonefollows. What are the legal con-sequences of this continueddefiance? The SC left a hugegap on this aspect. This kindof impunity turns out to beimmunity for these abusers ofthe draconian British-time law.In February 2021, advocates,Aditya Ranjan, Varun Thakur,and V. Elenchezhiyan, filed apetition before the SupremeCourt seeking a mechanismagainst the indiscriminate andunlawful use of the seditionlaw, saying the very slapping of

the sedition charge foreverendangers the person's right tolive with dignity. It causes achilling effect on other citizensand prevents them from exer-cising their fundamental rightto criticize the Governmentand its policies by legitimatemeans. The petition wasrejected because there was nocause of action.

However, the rulers areregularly abusing and givingseveral causes of action. Thereshould be another effort toeither get the sedition lawscrapped or limited by manda-tory directions prescribed bythe apex court. How manyordinary journalists or socialmedia writers can afford to getprotection from the apexcourt? Should their affordabil-ity decide their freedom?

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The social fabric of sovereignnations is being challenged by big-tech virtual platforms where algo-rithms and machine intelligence canamplify, subdue, and hide content.The reason could be monetary asthe longer the audience is glued tothese platforms the larger is the rev-enue from advertisers, even if thatis by amplifying content that pro-motes conspiracy and extremism.US Congressman Tom Malinowskiwho brought a legislation in theCongress to hold such platformsaccountable by limiting their liabil-ity for the content posted by itsusers, argues that these algorithmsare based on exploiting primalhuman emotions - fear, anger, andanxiety - to keep users glued to theirscreens, and thus regularly promoteand recommend conspiracy-ori-ented content. The Pew ResearchInstitute survey finds that abouttwo-thirds of Americans (64 percent) say that social media mostlyhurts the way things are going intheir country.

The dual policy of some of theBig Techs regarding the data andinformation of their users is also amatter of concern. Messaging appli-cations like Whatsappareembroiledin controversies for rolling out a pol-icy that shares its user informationwith the companies under theFacebook umbrella. It faced a back-lash in many countries as the poli-cy did not provide an alternative to

the users to opt-out of it. Thoughsome data-sharing with Facebookcompanies does take place, thequestionable thing is Facebook cansee the phone numbers being usedon WhatsApp as also note howoften the application is opened byusers and the names of their mobileservice providers.

The Confederation of All IndiaTraders (CAIT) raised objectionswith the Information andTechnology Minister for prohibit-ing Whatsapp from implementingthe new privacy policy or impose aban on it. While on the one handFacebook wanted to share userinformation to generate revenue, onthe other, it moved the courts tochallenge the amendments - in theform of Intermediary Guidelinesand Digital Media Ethics Codes —to the Information Technology Act,2000 introduced in parliament.Several Public Interest Litigations(PILs) were filed in the Delhi HighCourt against the changed privacylaw of Whatsapp in which they aresharing the user information withothers. The company in turn chal-lenged the Indian government forintroducing consumer protectionamendments.

Having the largest user base ofnearly 40 crore people in India,Whatsapp and Facebook need tomove with a cautious businesssense. Their hegemony over the vir-tual messaging space is already

being challenged by new alternativeslike Signal and Telegram.

India is witness to the cascad-ing effect of rumours and fear-mon-gering during the anti-CAA andfarmers' protests on social mediatranslating into offline violenceand rioting. Polarising the users byhiding and blocking tweets of aselected few on the ground that thecontent is harmful, sensationalisingthe status of social and political lead-ers by arbitrary removal of blue ticksof verified accounts, and resistingthe law of the land translates to a for-eign company being judgemental onour domestic issues.

Recently, Twitter restricted avideo report on abortion laws andreproductive rights by a televisionchannel and labelled it as 'restrict-ed viewing' for reasons best knownto them. Using free speech as theirarmour, Big Techs for long enjoyedimmunity from content liabilityand redressal of grievance.Ironically, it is the freedom ofexpression and transparency ofsocial media that took a beatingwhile Big Tech hegemony createdsocial media haves and have nots.Unfortunately, the opposition par-ties are also playing into the handsof such platforms. It is time thatstandards are defined for digitalplatforms to promote fair play,eliminate partisanship, protect thecivil rights of the users, and promotepublic safety.

Page 8: ˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

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Dubai: Iran’s president-electsaid on Monday he would notmeet with President Joe Bidennor negotiate over Tehran’’sballistic missile program and itssupport of regional militias,sticking to a hard-line positionfollowing his landslide victoryin last week’s election.

Judiciary chief EbrahimRaisi also described himself asa “defender of human rights”when asked about his involve-ment in the 1988 mass execu-tion of some 5,000 people. Itmarked the first time he’’s beenput on the spot on live televi-sion over that dark moment inIranian history at the end of theIran-Iraq war.

“The US is obliged to lift alloppressive sanctions againstIran,” Raisi said at the newsconference.

Raisi sat in front of a sea ofmicrophones, most from Iranand countries home to militiassupported by Tehran. Helooked nervous at the begin-ning of his comments but slow-ly became more at ease over thehourlong news conference.

Asked about Iran’s ballistic

missile program and its supportof regional militias, Raisidescribed the issues as “non-negotiable.”

Tehran’s fleet of attack air-craft date largely back to beforethe 1979 Islamic Revolution,forcing Iran to instead invest inmissiles as a hedge against itsregional Arab neighbors, whohave purchased billions of dol-lars in American military hard-ware over the years. Thosemissiles, with a self-imposedrange limit of 2,000 kilometerscan reach across the Mideastand US military bases in theregion.

Iran also relies on militiaslike Yemen’s Houthi rebels andLebanon’’s militant Hezbollahgroup for counterbalanceagainst enemies such as Saudi Arabia and Israel, respec-tively.

On a possible meeting withBiden, Raisi simply answered:“No.” His moderate competitorin the election, AbdolnasserHemmati, had suggested dur-ing campaigning that he’d bepotentially willing to meetBiden.

The White House did notimmediately respond to Raisi’’sstatements Monday. Raisi willbecome the first servingIranian president sanctioned bythe US Government evenbefore entering office, in partover his time as the head ofIran’s internationally criticizedjudiciary — one of the world’stop executioners.

The victory of Raisi, a pro-tégé of Iran’s Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei, cameamid the lowest turnout in theIslamic Republic’s history.Millions of Iranians stayedhome in defiance of a vote theysaw as tipped in Raisi’s favourafter a panel under Khameneidisqualified his strongest com-petition.

Of those who did vote, 3.7million people either acciden-tally or intentionally voidedtheir ballots, far beyond theamount seen in previous elec-tions and suggesting somewanted none of the four can-didates. In official results, Raisiwon 17.9 million votes overall,nearly 62% of the total 28.9million cast. In Tehran, the

election saw a 34% turnout, anumber far lower in previousyears that saw polling stationsnoticeably empty.

Raisi’s election puts hard-liners firmly in control acrossthe government as negotia-tions in Vienna continue to tryto save a tattered deal meant tolimit Iran’s nuclear program, ata time when Tehran is enrich-ing uranium at 60%, its high-est levels ever, though stillshort of weapons-grade levels.

Then President DonaldTrump unilaterally withdrawAmerica from the landmarkagreement in 2018, setting inmotion months of tensionsacross the region.

Raisi’s election victory hasraised concerns that it couldcomplicate a possible return tothe nuclear agreement. In hisremarks on Monday, Raisicalled sanctions relief as “cen-tral to our foreign policy” andexhorted the US to “return andimplement your commitments”in the deal. On Sunday, Iran’ssole nuclear plant at Bushehrunderwent an unexplainedemergency shutdown.

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President Joe Biden wouldmeet Afghan President

Ashraf Ghani and his chiefpeacemaker Dr AbdullahAbdullah at the White Houseon Friday for the first face-to-face interaction ahead of thewithdrawal of the remainingUS and NATO forces from thewar-torn country by September11.

The visit by PresidentGhani and Dr. Abdullah willhighlight the enduring part-nership between the UnitedStates and Afghanistan as themilitary drawdown fromAfghanistan continues, WhiteHouse Press Secretary Jen Psakisaid on Sunday.

“Biden looks forward towelcoming Afghan PresidentAshraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah

Abdullah, Chairman of theHigh Council for NationalReconciliation, to the WhiteHouse on June 25,” she said.

The high-level meeting willtake place as the Taliban insur-gents have in recent weekscaptured dozens of new dis-tricts in Afghanistan and bothsides are said to have sufferedheavy casualties.

The escalation in fightingbetween Afghan security forcesand Taliban militants havedealt fresh blows to the US-bro-kered peace negotiationsbetween Kabul and the insur-gents.

The US, Psaki said, iscommitted to providing diplo-matic, economic, and human-itarian assistance to supportAfghan people, includingAfghan women, girls andminorities.

She said the United Stateswill remain deeply engagedwith the government ofAfghanistan to ensure thecountry never again becomes asafe haven for terrorist groupswho pose a threat to the UShomeland.

“The United States contin-ues to fully support the ongo-ing peace process and encour-ages all Afghan parties to par-ticipate meaningfully in nego-tiations to bring an end to theconflict,” Psaki said.

The US military exit fromAfghanistan before September11 stems from the February2020 agreement Washingtonsigned with the Taliban inreturn for counterterrorismguarantees and pledges thegroup would negotiate a polit-ical settlement to the war withthe Afghan government.

Geneva: The UN’s top humanrights body opened its latestsession on Monday and wasimmediately embroiled in adebate over the representationof Myanmar, where a militarytakeover toppled the civiliangovernment in February.

Western countries said thattwo planned debates about thehuman rights situation inMyanmar at the Human RightsCouncil’s 3-1/2 week sessionshould go forward, even with-out the country represented.

But China, the Philippines andVenezuela insisted it should beon hand.

Myanmar hasn’t been rep-resented at the UN in Genevasince the civilian government’’sambassador left after the juntatook over. The UN GeneralAssembly’s credentials com-mittee is facing a decisionabout which representation ofMyanmar will be recognised.

“If we exclude the countryconcerned, this is not fair,”said Ambassador Chen Xu ofChina, urging the debates onMyanmar to be put off until thecouncil’s next session inSeptember.

But Western envoys insist-ed the rights situation in

Myanmar was urgent, notablyover alleged rights violationssuch as those suffered by theMuslim Rohingya minorityand — more recently — pro-testers against the militarytakeover who have faced adeadly crackdown.

“We recognise that we aredealing with an unusual set ofcircumstances that have notarisen before,” said Rita French,Britain’s international ambas-sador for human rights. “Butwe need to be guided by rele-vant practice of what has hap-pened before.”

“The reason why two dia-logues were mandated just afew months ago is becausethere is a human rights crisis in

Myanmar,” she said.Envoys agreed to maintain

the council’’s schedule thatincludes the two debates onMyanmar. But the council pres-ident, Ambassador NazhatShameem Khan of Fiji,acknowledged her office wouldcontinue to assess whetherthey would proceed, and saidthe plans could still change. AP

Beijing: China has warned itsnationals in Afghanistan toleave the war-torn countryurgently in view of the ragingviolence ahead of the with-drawal of the US troops. Thewarning comes as the fightingbetween Afghan security forcesand the Taliban militants haveescalated in recent weeks. Theinsurgents have captureddozens of new districts inAfghanistan.

China’s embassy inAfghanistan has warnedChinese nationals to leaveAfghanistan, amid a rapid risein violence in the country asthe Taliban recaptures territo-ries ahead of the completewithdrawal of the US andNATO troops, Hong Kong-based South China MorningPost reported on Monday. PTI

Brussels: European Union For-eign Ministers will approve onMonday a fresh set of sanctionsagainst scores of officials inBelarus and prepare a series ofmeasures aimed at hurting thecountry’s economy, EU foreignpolicy chief Josep Borrell said.

The EU has ratcheted upsanctions since PresidentAlexander Lukashenko won asixth term last August in elec-tions slammed as fraudulent bythe 27-nation bloc. The mea-sures have targeted peopleaccused of electoral miscon-duct and responsibility for thepolice crackdown that fol-lowed.

“We will approve the pack-age of new sanctions, which isa wider package,” Borrell toldreporters as he arrived inLuxembourg to chair the min-isterial meeting. AP

Moscow: Russia’s ambassadorhas returned to the UnitedStates three months after beingrecalled as tensions rosebetween Moscow andWashington, according to atweet from the RussianEmbassy.

Russian President VladimirPutin and President Joe Bidenagreed at their summit inGeneva last week on the returnof Russian AmbassadorAnatoly Antonov and US

Ambassador John Sullivan,who left Moscow in April.

Antonov on Sunday board-ed an Aeroflot flight to NewYork and then travelled toWashington.

The Russian Embassytweeted Sunday night that hehad returned to his duties.Antonov was called home aftera Biden TV interview in whichhe said Putin was a killer;Russian officials then suggest-ed Sullivan should leave. AP

Taipei:Taiwan says it will con-tinue operating its de facto con-sulate in Hong Kong in spite ofvisa difficulties for its stafferswhile also providing consularservices online.

The Taipei Economic andCultural Office in Hong Konghas been unable to get newvisas for its staff after the HongKong Government in 2018began requiring that Taiwanesepersonnel at the office sign astatement accepting the “one-China principle,” Taiwan’sMainland Affairs Council said.The office currently has justone staffer left in Hong Kongwhose visa is due to expire nextmonth.

The one-China principleholds that Taiwan is part ofChina and the CommunistGovernment in Beijing isChina’s sole legitimate Gov-ernment. Taiwan has refused tosign the statement. AP

Ankara: Turkey’s highest courton Monday has accepted anindictment by a top prosecutorseeking to disband the coun-try’s Opposition pro-Kurdishparty on terror-related charges.

The Constitutional Courtruled in favour of hearing thecase against the People’sDemocratic Party, or HDP,which was filed by the chiefappeals court prosecutor who

is accusing it of allegedly col-luding with the bannedKurdistan Workers’ Party, orPKK, and of seeking to “destroythe unity of the state.”

The prosecutor is demand-ing that the party be dissolved,that it be deprived of treasuryfunding and that about 450party members be barred fromholding political office for fiveyears.

This was chief prosecutorBekir Sahin’s second petitionseeking HDP’s closure afterthe Constitutional Court reject-ed a previous attempt in March,citing procedural deficiencies.

There was no immediatecomment from the HDP, whichhas said previously that the caseagainst it is politically moti-vated.

AP

STOCKHOLM: Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s SocialDemocratic prime minister since 2014, lost aconfidence vote in parliament on Monday, mak-ing him the first Swedish government leader everto lose such a motion.

The development creates new politicaluncertainty in the Scandinavian nation after thelast election in 2018 created a deadlocked par-liament and months of negotiations to producea government.

Under a timeline dictated by the Swedish

Constitution, the prime minister now has oneweek to decide whether to call a new electionor ask the parliament speaker to find a new gov-ernment.

Lofven said he wants “to take some time”though “not necessarily the whole week” todecide on his next step.

That government, a Social Democratic-Green coalition, is a minority government thathas relied on votes from the small Left Party topass laws. AP

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About 10,000 refugeeshave fled from Myanmar

to India and Thailand asnationwide clashes in thecountry led to “acute” newdisplacements of hundreds ofthousands of civilians, SpecialEnvoy of the UN Secretary-General on Myanmar hassaid, warning that the region-al threat of the crisis is real.

“In my daily contactswith stakeholders inMyanmar, I hear first-handaccounts about the dire situ-ation. People suffer fromdeprivation, have no hopeand live in fear,” ChristineSchraner Burgener, SpecialEnvoy of Secretary-GeneralAntonio Guterres onMyanmar, told the UNGeneral Assembly on Friday.

In the absence of inter-national action, civilians areforming people’s defenceforces, she said.

They use self-madeweapons and receive militarytraining from ethnic armedorganisations in their resis-tance grounded on democ-ratic solidarity.

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Page 9: ˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

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The Power Ministry onFriday announced the

extension of timeline by twoyears for waiver on inter-statetransmission charge for elec-tricity generated from solarand wind sources.

Now, the waiver would beavailable till June 30, 2025.Earlier, it was applicable tillJune 30, 2023. Besides, thewaiver would now be availablefor Hydro Pumped StoragePlant (PSP) and Battery EnergyStorage System (BESS) projectsalso.

“The Ministry of Powerhas issued an order today forextension of the waiver ofInter-State Transmission sys-tem (ISTS) charges on trans-mission of electricity generat-ed from solar and wind sourcesfor projects to be commis-sioned up to 30th June 2025,”a power ministry statementsaid. Further, it said that theorder promotes the develop-ment of solar, wind, HydroPumped Storage Plant andBattery Energy Storage System,trading of RE in the powerexchanges and seamless trans-mission of RE power across thestates.

New Delhi:The country’slargest lender SBI on Mondaysaid its central board hasapproved a proposal to raise upto �14,000 crore by issuingBasel-III compliant bonds.

The bonds are proposed tobe raised in Indian or US cur-rency.”The central board ofthe bank at its meeting heldtoday on June 21, 2021, accord-ed approval for raising capitalby way of issuance of Basel IIIcompliant debt instruments inUSD and/or INR during FY22,”SBI said in a regulatory filing.

Under this, the bank plansto raise fresh additional tier Icapital up to an amount of Rs14,000 crore subject to thegovernment of India concur-rence, it added.

PTI

Mumbai:The rupee onMonday slumped to its lowestlevel in nearly eight weeks,shedding 24 paise to close at74.10 to the US dollar as par-ticipants turned cautious appre-hending foreign fund outflowsafter hawkish comments fromthe US Federal Reserve. At theinterbank forex market, thedomestic unit opened weak at74.20 against the Americancurrency, pared some initiallosses and finally closed at74.10, showing a fall of 24 paiseover its previous close.

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Two weeks since the muchtalked about new income

tax return filing portal waslaunched, technical glitchescontinue to mar the site, anissue finance ministry officialswill take up in a meeting withInfosys - the vendor which pro-vided the IT solution - at ameeting on Tuesday.

Several stakeholders havesubmitted written inputs high-lighting the issues facing theportal as well as areas that needto be fixed.

At the company’s annualshareholder meeting, Infosyshad on Saturday stated that itis working to resolve the issuesand has already succeeded onsome fronts.

Addressing shareholders’questions on the matter, Infosyssaid it is deeply concernedwith the inconvenience causedby the technical glitches in thenew income tax e-filing portal,and it is working to resolve allthe issues at the earliest.

“Infosys is working toresolve the concerns in the newincome tax e-filing portal. Forthe last week, several of thetechnology glitches, whichimpacted the performance andstability, have been addressed.And as a result, we have

observed lakhs of unique dailyusers in the portal,” saidInfosys Chief Operating OfficerPravin Rao while respondingto queries during the AGM.

Answering a shareholder’squestion, Rao informed thatclose to one lakh income taxreturns have been filed so faron the portal.

However, stakeholders, inresponse to the finance min-istry’s invitation for commentslast week, highlighted contin-ued glitches such as inability toview past e-filed returns, longerloading time of the web page,weak user interface and inabil-ity to view old demand, griev-ances and intimation orders.

The e-filing portal,www.Incometax.Gov.In, waslaunched on June 7. The taxdepartment as well as the gov-ernment said it was aimed atmaking compliance more tax-payer-friendly.

Mumbai:The BSE Sensexwiped off early losses to finishwith smart gains on Monday,propped up by HDFC twins,SBI and Reliance Industriesamid a mixed trend in globalequities. After plunging over600 points in early trade, the30-share BSE benchmarkmade a U-turn to settle 230.01points or 0.44 per cent higherat 52,574.46.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty advanced 63.15 points or0.40 per cent to 15,746.50.NTPC was the top gainer in theSensex pack, rallying 3.87 per

cent, followed by Titan, SBI,HUL, UltraTech Cement, TataSteel and IndusInd Bank. Invalue terms, HDFC twins,HUL and Reliance Industriesaccounted for most of thegains.On the other hand,Maruti Suzuki was the biggestlaggard, shedding 0.82 percent, after the country’s largestcarmaker said it will increaseprices of its entire productportfolio in the second quarterof the current fiscal due to risein prices of various essentialcommodities, including steel.

PTI

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Pandemic-hit FY21 hasturned out to be a good

year for the big cement com-panies, as their net profitssurged and market positionstrengthened, a report said.

The net profits of 10 majorlisted cement companiessurged by 29.6 per cent on anaverage in FY21, althoughaggregate revenues grew mod-estly by 3.8 per cent, accordingto an analysis undertaken byAcuite Ratings.

The cement volumegrowth has been disrupted inthe April-June quarter of FY22after the second wave of Covid-19, but the sector is expected tosee good a recovery post-mon-soon led by the government’sthrust on infrastructure activ-ities and housing construc-tion, it added.

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With a potential for a 10xgrowth in pre-tax profit

from the business over thenext decade, retail including e-commerce will be the nextgrowth engine for RelianceIndustries Ltd, Goldman Sachssaid in a report.

After growing 5x overFY16-FY20, RIL’s core retailrevenue growth has taken apause in FY21 (April 2020 toMarch 2021) due to Covidrelated macro headwindsincluding lower footfalls.

The oil-to-telecom con-glomerate run by billionaireMukesh Ambani used theperiod to build strong digitalcapabilities of the retail busi-ness while continuing toexpand its physical reach.

“We believe retail business(including e-commerce) is setto be the next growth enginefor RIL, with potential forretail EBITDA to grow 10x overthe next 10 years,” the broker-age said.

During the macro down-turn, RIL has focused on build-ing strong digital capabilitiesand the scale-up in omnichan-nel offering is driving sizeablemarket share wins.

“We see a six-fold increasein grocery organised retailpenetration in India by FY30,

coupled with 15 per cent mar-ket share gain for RIL.

“We expect RIL core retailrevenue to grow at a 36 per centCAGR over the next four yearsto USD 44 billion and e-com-merce revenues to be 35 percent of total retail revenues inFY25, at USD 15 billion,” it said.

It forecast a 50 per centmarket share for RIL in onlinegrocery by FY25, with a 30 percent market share in overall e-commerce. This translates intoUSD 35 billion e-commerceGMV (gross merchandisevalue) for RIL by FY25, withUSD 19 billion in grocery.

“Overall, we expect retailEBITDA to grow 10x from cur-rent levels by FY30,” it said.

Goldman Sachs valuedRIL’s retail business at USD 88billion in the base case and atUSD 120 billion bull case val-

uation based on stronger thanexpected macro growth andmarket share wins.

It valued RIL’s retail busi-ness using discounted cashflow (DCF) at USD 57 billionfor offline business and USD 32billion for e-commerce.

“We see a multi-year run-way of growth driven by ourexpectation of growing organ-ised retailing in India from a2.6 per cent share today to a13.2 per cent share in FY30 andrising market share for RIL inorganised retailing due to itsomnichannel strategy with amarket share going from 41.5per cent now to 54.7 per centin FY30,” it said.

With a USD 400 billionGMV, grocery is the largestretail category in India,accounting for 60 per cent ofthe total retail market.

Mumbai:Maruti Suzuki willraise prices of its vehicles dur-ing the July-September quarterdue to high input costs.

In a regulatory filing, thecompany said that over the pastyear the cost of the company’svehicles continued to beadversely impacted due toincrease in various input costs.“Hence, it has become imper-ative for the company to passon some impact of the aboveadditional cost to customersthrough a price rise,” it said.

PTI

New Delhi:When India start-ed its Covid-19 vaccinationdrive in January, not manywould have imagined that a jabcould not just protect themagainst the deadly disease butalso get them a discount ontheir favourite food, ensureextra savings on groceries andeven a higher rate of interest onbank deposits.

Private companies areoffering a number of incentivesto their customers to win overthose who are hesitant to take

the vaccine and help speed upthe pace of inoculation in thecountry reeling from a devas-tating second wave of the pan-demic.

So far, Covid-19 hasclaimed 3,88,135 lives in thecountry.

Experts have warned thatthe third wave of the pandem-ic could hit the country with-in months if a sizeable numberof people is not vaccinatedfast and Covid-appropriatebehaviour not followed. PTI

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Fair trade regulator CCI onMonday said it has

approved HeinekenInternational B.V’s proposedacquisition of an additionalequity stake in UnitedBreweries Ltd (UBL).

This, however, is subject tothe outcome of certain courtproceedings, a combinationnotice filed with theCompetition Commission ofIndia (CCI) noted.

“The proposed transaction

relates to HIBV’s potentialacquisition of additional equi-ty stake in UBL,” it said.

United Breweries isengaged in the manufacture,sale and distribution of beer inIndia.

Heineken InternationalB.V. (HIBV) is an investmentholding company and is itselfnot engaged in any businessactivity. It is a direct and anindirect shareholder for allnon-Dutch companies thatform part of the HeinekenGroup, as per the notice.

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Page 10: ˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

With the surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths, the

Indian healthcare system isstruggling. The spike in cases isconcerning as the new COVID-19 variant is more infectiousand lethal. Amidst this, peoplewith non-COVID health prob-lems are bearing the brunt of thesituation.

The fear of contractingcoronavirus on their visit to thehospital, patients with heartailments are dismissing theirsymptoms and refraining fromconsulting doctors.Consequently, there is rise inout-of-hospital sudden cardiacarrest cases that can be fatal ifnot treated immediately. Thecause of sudden cardiac arrestis usually an abnormal heartrhythm or arrhythmia.

Considering that most sud-den cardiac arrest cases occurout of hospital, it is importantto educate the masses aboutsudden cardiac arrest and theimportance of palliative care formanaging it.

The abrupt loss of heartfunction, breathing and con-sciousness is known as suddencardiac arrest. It is usually aresult of the problem withheart’s electrical system whichobstructs the heart’s pumpingability and stops blood flow tothe body. If not treated imme-diately, sudden cardiac arrest

can be fatal. On the onset of sudden car-

diac arrest, CardiopulmonaryResuscitation (CPR) should bedelivered immediately thatincreases the chance of survival.An effective chest compressionis done by pushing the chest ofthe person in cardiac arrest atthe rate of 90 compressions aminute. If CPR is continueduntil emergency help withdefibrillator is made available,it can save a life. Moreover, if aperson with sudden cardiacarrest is not given a shockthrough defibrillator, it candecrease the chance of survivalby 10 per cent every minute.

Although cardiac arrest canaffect a particular group ofpatients, it is difficult to predictwhen it can occur as there areno warning symptoms.Therefore, a continuous protec-tion is required for suchpatients. Here is when technolo-gies such Implantable CardiacDefibrillator (ICD) bring respiteto patients with sudden cardiacarrest. An ICD is a small devicethat runs on battery and is

placed under the skin below thecollar bone. By checking electri-cal signals from the heart, thedevice identifies the event ofcardiac arrest. It treats the arry-thmias or irregular heartrhythm in timely manner bydelivering electrical pulses torestore normal heart rhythm.

Earlier these devices had tobe replaced when the battery gotdepleted. However, as health-care technologies are improvingand growing by leaps andbounds, we now have deviceswith battery life up to 15 years.There are also ICDs that can beused subcutaneously. Known assubcutaneous implantabledefibrillator (S-ICD), the deviceobviates the need to insert awire inside the heart through avein. Thereby decreasing thechances of infection rate andreducing hospital stays. S-ICDprovides a treatment responsein less than 30 seconds, is analternative for those not suitablefor an open-heart surgery.

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��������These red-colouredtiny fruits are loaded withVitamins and antioxidantsthat help in reducing skin’ssigns of aging andmaking it look freshand glowing.

Eating cherriesis not only benefi-cial for your skin ,but it also helps inregulating bloodpressure because ofit’s high potassium con-tent. The phytosterols incherries help reduce bad cho-lesterol levels.

Cherries work wonders assleep stimulators. If you wantto have a good night’s sleepthen grab a cup of cherry juicebefore going to bed and afterwaking up in the morning.Cherries are a good source of

melatonin, which helps us reg-ulate our sleep cycles. Cherrieshave also been found to helpwith jet lag.

These small berries makefor a summer super food asthey can keep you hydrated andenergetic throughout the day.

At least once in a while, wemust have been told by ourparents to maintain dis-tance from people who

have white spots on their body. Ifnot, we ourselves must have turnedaround to inspect those patches ona random person that we might havecome across in a grocery store or asuper market. Why so?

“Acceptability about vitiligo ispoor in our society. Despite the dis-ease being very old there is still a lotof stigma attached to it which needsto be dissipated by spreading aware-ness about the condition,” says DrShitij Goel, Senior Consultant,Dermatologist, Sharda Hospital,Greater Noida.

The reason why people oftenlook down upon people with vitili-go or think they are any different isthe growing consciousness aboutlooks. “Vitiligo has been called asshvet kushtha and other names sinceages. Due to the unsightly nature oflesions, it has traditionally been asso-ciated with stigma attached to it.Moreover aesthetics/ appearance ofhuman skin is gaining more impor-tance in today’s world. People havebecome more conscious of theirlooks and that has been leading tothe indifferent behaviour with peo-ple having vitiligo,” Goel adds.

Not only the stigma, but the dis-ease also comes with several myths.One of them being — it is conta-gious.

“This is totally untrue. Vitiligo

is an autoimmune disease in whichpigment producing cells i.e.Melanocytes are destroyed in theskin, leading to white colour of theskin. There is no role of any infec-tion in this condition and hence it’stotally non contagious,” Goel tellsyou.

Dr Pooja Chopra,Dermatologist, Aakash Healthcare,Dwarka, is of the opinion that thereis much more awareness related tothis skin condition now as comparedto a few years back.

“It goes without saying thatvitiligo has a lot of social and psy-chological implications. But yes,people are definitely aware of it now.In fact, we get a lot of patients fear-ing that any white spot on their bodyis vitiligo. However, there is notmuch awareness regarding its treat-ment. People still think that it’s nottreatable and hence, resort to alter-nate medicine or home remedies,”Chopra opines.

The early signs of the condition,she says, are asymptomatic whitepatches anywhere on the skin andhair. “The patches might be stable orcan gradually increase in size,” saysChopra.

It’s difficult to label vitiligo asprogressive as it depends frompatient to patient. Some may have acouple of stable patches for years,while others may report rapidlyincreasing patches.

As for the causes of the condi-tion, Chopra tells you that there are

many theories behind it.“There are many theories

regarding the causes of vitiligo:autoimmune, genetic, neurogenic,environmental and others. However,there is no specific cause of the dis-ease.The basic pathology is inabili-ty of the pigment cells to producepigment, melanin,” Chopra opines.

Not to forget, that early diagno-sis can curb the spread of patches.Oral medication and topical appli-cation of specific creams can defi-nitely lead to repigmentation. “Skingrafting or punch grafting for small,stable patches gives good results.However, the disease has an unpre-dictable course. Repigmentationcan be permanent but there arechances of new patches occuringanytime during the lifetime,” addsChopra.

Goel adds that he wants vitiligoto be seen as other chronic diseaseslike Diabetes, arthritis and thyroid,which are reversible some times. “Ina majority of vitiligo cases completerepigmentation of skin is achievableby medical therapy. There are a lotof medicines, therapies such asphototherapy and lasers which arenow available for successful treat-ment of vitiligo. Even a lot of differ-ent vitiligo surgeries are now beingdone to get back colour in vitiligopatients. So, vitiligo should not beseen as an incurable disease but adisease which needs long termtreatment just like many other dis-eases,” explains Goel.

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Cataracts are normally associated with adults and that too elder-ly. However, this is not true. Children may also have cataracts

and to add to this even the new borns may also have cataract.Contrary to popular view, these children are at a high risk of poorvision due to cataract because it may stop the development of thevision itself.

Development of vision in our eyes takes place rapidly in chil-dren especially in infancy and continues till the age of six-eightyears. Any loss of vision due to causes like cataract, glasses etc.can lead to reduced development of the vision itself which is alsoknown as lazy eye or amblyopia. Amblyopia can be treated onlytill a certain age and therefore managing cataract in children issemi urgent, specialised job and most importantly a long term asso-ciation with the pediatric eye care specialist.

The lens of the child’s eye has a clouded region called a cataract.It may create hazy or even obscured eyesight if it is big or thick.The child may have a cataract in just one eye (unilateral) or in botheyes (bilateral). The majority of kids who have cataracts in justone eye have normal vision in the other but this reduces theirchance of having a good vision in the affected eye.

Cataracts are present at birth in some newborns, while oth-ers develop them in the first six months of their lives. A congen-

ital cataract occurs when a new-born is born with a cataract. Theterm infantile cataract refers toa cataract that develops in thefirst six months of a child’s life.It is important to understandthat cataracts can be presentsince birth due to the problemsduring pregnancy especially inthe first trimester. The lens andeye develops in the first sixweeks of the embryo/foetus andany problems during this timelike rubella infection can lead tocongenital cataract. However,children may have develop-mental cataracts also whichoccur at a later date.

Depending on how hazy thelens is, where the cloudiness is in the lens, and whether one orboth eyes are afflicted, the symptoms of paediatric cataracts mightvary. It might also be difficult to detect indications of cataracts inyour kid when he or she is young.

The following are signs that your kid may have cataract:�You may notice that your youngster has difficulties recog-

nising and tracking things or people with their eyes due to impairedeyesight.

�Nystagmus is a condition that causes fast, uncontrollable eyemovements or ‘wobbling’ eyes which is a symptom of cataract.

�Your child may have a squint eye which is when the eyespoint in separate directions.

�A white or grey pupil — this might be an indication of some-thing more dangerous, such as retinoblastoma, and should bechecked by a doctor immediately.

�Your child may have trouble seeing clearly in flashy brightlight or when there is glare.

�Children with cataracts may also be extremely sensitive tolight.

�If your kid has cataracts, they may try to view things by hold-ing them near to their eyes.

The management is urgent and time bound. Unlike adultcataracts, the treatment begins once the surgery is done. The childwould need glasses and treatment for amblyopia after cataractsurgery. Treatment for cataracts in children aims to:

�Maximize and improve your child’s visual development.�If there is an underlying reason, to find it and cure it.Treatment for cataracts is determined by the size, severity, and

location of the cataract-caused lens clouding.

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Many of us mighthave started drink-ing Golden milk,

irrespective of the fact thatwhether it is our cup of tea.However, it is not always ahard task to boost your

immune systems andward off infections. Onecan start with baby

steps.The key to a

healthy body is elim-inating junk food

from our diets.Any kind of junkis said to reduceyour body’sability to fightinfections.Hence, it isimportantto stick toyour ghar ka khana.

A regular rainbow dietwill give your immune sys-tem the much needed boost.

Fill up your plate with fruitsand vegetables of differentcolours. Don’t rush. Take itvia small portions through-out the day.

Whether or not, youbelieve it, but sleep play animportant role too. Takeenough rest and sleep foreight hours. Lack of sleep canstress your body and in turncan result in a compromisedimmune system.

And last, but not theleast, avoid unneces-

sary stress. It maysound toughgiven the cur-rent situa-tion, but ifyou want tosail through

the secondwave of COVID healthy andhappy, it may be a wise thingto do, and also it won’t harmyou any way.

It’s been months since doc-tors are emphasising on the

importance of having astrong immune system. But,a reminder every once in a

while won’t hurt.ROSHANI DEVI shares tips

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June 21 was International Yoga Day, itcoincided with the summer solstice, torecognise the many benefits of the

ancient Indian practice of Yoga. This year marks the sixth edition of the

International Yoga Day. Yoga serves to strengthen us physically,

intellectually, and spiritually, and is vital infighting the coronavirus, as it helps boost theimmune system. Yoga asanas, combined withthe treatment protocol prescribed byAyurveda immensely helps in the post-Coronavirus healing phase.

The following are some of the asanas thatcan strengthen the lungs if practised regu-larly:

Hasta uttanasana aka raised arm Yogapose: To begin, stand straight in samasthi-ti. Raise your arms over your head andstretch upward, making sure your palms fac-ing each other. Bend back slowly while keep-ing your head in between your arms.Maintain a straight line with your knees andkeep your eyes open.

Dhanurasana aka bow pose: Begin bylying on your stomach, bending your kneesand holding your ankles with your palms.Have a firm grip. As high as you can, lift yourlegs and arms. Look up and maintain thestance for a few moments.

Ushtrasana aka camel pose: Kneel onyour Yoga mat with your hands on your hips.Arc your back and move your palms overyour feet at the same time, until your armsare straight. Maintain a neutral position foryour neck. For a few breaths, stay in this posi-tion. Exhale and slowly return to the start-ing position. As you straighten up, withdrawyour hands and bring them back to your hips.

Ardhachandrasana aka half-moonpose: Begin with Padahastasana. Then,extend your left leg back, kneel down, andpoint your toes out. Look up and stretch yourarms over your head. Make sure your rightknee is parallel to your ankle. Form an archwith your upper body by bending backwards(which resembles half a moon). Hold theposition for a few moments. Carry on withthe opposite leg in the same manner.

Chakrasana aka wheel pose: Lie downon your back with your legs folded at theknees and your feet firmly planted on thefloor. Bend your elbows and face the sky withyour palms facing up. Place your palms onthe floor on either side of your head androtate your arms at the shoulders.

Apart from frequent breathing exercis-es and meditation, obtaining six to eighthours of sleep, and eating a balanced,home-cooked cuisine, keeping a healthy dietis critical for post-COVID recuperation.&��������� ���� ������4�!����!��(�����(���*��

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YOGA FOR THE LUNGS

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To mark the occasion ofInternational Yoga Day, Yoga-Pledge was administered by

the General Manager NorthernRailway, Ashutosh Gangal virtuallyat Northern Railways HeadquartersOffice Baroda House, New Delhi onJune 21, 2021. Some simple and use-ful yoga asanas and yoga kriyas werealso performed by a trained yogainstructor on this occasion. A surveyon yoga was also conducted.

Gangal motivated railwayemployees to practice yoga andmeditation with this year’s theme —“Be with Yoga, Be at Home” amidstthe backdrop of the pandemic. Helaid special emphasis on pranayama,which aids in promoting the holis-tic health of each individual, and isthe need of the hour in the currentprevailing pandemic environment.

Gangal also encouraged theemployees and officers to inculcateyoga as part of their lifestyle, it wouldbe beneficial in reducing work relat-ed stress and boost immunity.

Page 11: ˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

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It is fine to be scared andworried from time totime. In fact, these are

defence mechanisms thatoften help us stay away frompotential danger. However,there is another category offear that surpasses the nor-mal degree and can oftenseem irrational to thosearound us.

Those who exceed suchlevels are often subjected toanxiety and need the supportof their loved ones.

If your friend is undergo-ing anxiety, here are 10 smallways you can help them.

�Recognise the signsAnxiety disorder is one of

the most common mentaldisorders among youngIndians. Recognising thesymptoms can help you keepan eye out for a friend andcatch the issue early on.Symptoms include:

Physical symptomsLightheadednessNauseaDiarrhoeaFatigueEmotional instabilityChronic worryFearful subjective to

everythingOvergeneralisingAnxious behaviourFrustration and irri-

tabilitySelf-doubt

�Don’t force accep-tance and confronta-tion

The last thing youneed to do is put an anx-ious person in the mid-dle of a storm. While itis good to help them

with self-realisation, pushingsomebody when they arescared can further damagetheir mental health.

�Show you are concernedIt is difficult to watch

your friend deal with theunderlying chaos beneath theanxiety. While a profes-sional is more adept to

pull them out of their condi-tion, as a friend, you can showyour support and express yourconcern explicitly. Having saidthat, maintain the delicate bal-ance between concern andinterference.

�Take them seriouslyTheir fears and

anxiety may seemirrational toyou. However,it is as real as itcan be forthem and they

need to knowthat you are not

going to reprimandthem for their problems.Refrain from saying phraseslike ‘it’s just a phase’, ‘this doesnot seem to be such a big deal’,or ‘snap out of it’. Youracknowledgement will offerthem some peace of mind,

allowing them to feel secureabout having someone whounderstands them.

�Leave the diagnosis to pro-fessionals

Unless you are a licensedprofessional, refrain fromgoogling symptoms and curesfor anxiety and suggestingthem to your friend. This willonly increase their vulnerabil-ity and they will end up shut-ting themselves down to you.Help them talk to you byshowing them your support.You can accompany them totherapy sessions and help themthrough the process but nopsychological advice.

�Validate their behaviourThis might be a reiteration,

but those with anxiety arealways self-doubting and havelow self-esteem. There is oftena desperate call for attentionand you must validate yourfriend’s behaviour. What mightbe a normal occurrence toyou can be very stressful tothem which requires you to besensitive to their thoughts. It isimportant to remember thatvalidation requires a veryhealthy dose of patience as well.

�Help them find supportDuring such difficult

times, it can be hard for yourfriend to find the right profes-sional support. You can helpthem find an appropriateresource. Do a deep diveresearch, talk to the local med-ical community and supportgroups to help your friendthrough these tough times.

�Be there for themThis is not said enough but

sometimes, your friend onlyneeds you to be there. This isa simple yet uncommon prac-tice that should be done moreoften, especially by those whoare closest to the affected per-son. This applies to everyonewith anxiety disorders sincetheir mental health varies ondifferent factors associatedwith their specific lives. Thebest you can do for your friendis to be there for them.

�Epitomise calmnessYour friend needs to know

that their support system isstrong and calm. Since theyneed someone to rely on, youas a friend have to propogatecalmness and help them takecontrol of emergencies. Forinstance, in case of panicattacks, you should sit themdown gently and ask them tobreathe slowly, talking themout of their panicked stateuntil they regain control or youget professional help.

�Respect their spaceDon’t let their anxiety

become a spectacle. Yourfriend is already undergoing apersonal crisis, it is importantthat you respect their spaceand do not allow others toencroach on their grounds aswell!

Final takeawayAnxiety is no laughing

matter. By offering everydayencouragement, love and sup-port to your friend, you canhelp them tide through sometough times.

(The author is the founderand chairman of various phil-anthropic organisations.)

Today, the concept of sustainability has sur-faced to become a guiding paradigm in the evo-lution of the built environment to meet the needsof humans without denying future generationsthe ability to meet their own needs. The choiceof fenestration systems impacts building ener-gy use through thermal heat transfer, solar heatgain, visible transmittance and air leakage,forming an important aspect of sustainabledesign. Fenestration is an essential element offaçade design, which serves both performanceand aesthetic purposes. Improvements to fen-estration systems such as thermally brokenframes, insulating glass units, triple-pane glass,electrochromic and thermochromic glass, anddouble-glazed wall systems, contribute to theenergy efficiency of the facade.

A high-performance sustainable facade is anexterior enclosure or building envelope that usesthe least amount of energy to maintain a com-fortable environment inside the building whilstpromoting the health and productivity of itsoccupants. It is crucial to consider the design ofthe building facade when designing an energy-efficient building. With the rapid developmentin real estate and infrastructure, most commer-cial and residential buildings are growing ver-tically. Vertical development creates heat islands,which environmentally unfriendly productsfurther inflame. Parallel to this development, onemust also consider how these glass facades canbe made sustainable and eco-friendly withlower dependence on fossil fuels.

Technological advancements have made itfeasible to manipulate the proportion of trans-mittance, reflectance, and heat absorption of dif-ferent wavelengths. Much of the recent innova-tion in glass for fenestration products has beenfocused on controlling solar radiation to improveenergy performance. The use of low e-coatings,thin films and triple-pane glass helps to reducethe amount of solar radiation transmitted insidethe room. This significantly lowers the load onmechanical forms of cooling. Creative use ofthese glazing options combined with inventiveplanning of interior spaces can help integrate nat-ural light and further limit the use of lightingdevices. Besides reducing energy consumption,other advantages to installing energy-efficientdoors and windows include greater durability,

minimal condensation, increased indoor com-fort and air quality, and reduced operating costs.In the initial days of planning, it is essential todo a brief study of the location's climate to under-stand how the orientation and positioning of thefacade will affect the interiors of the house. Theorientation is often an advantage for the user byoptimising light and ventilation into the house,thus reducing energy consumption and costs.

For an efficient and sustainable façade, it isadvisable to adopt a climate-specific design strat-egy. In cold climates, where space-heating costsrun high, one must opt for products with a lowU-factor to keep heat loss to a minimum.Fenestrations with high SHGCs (Solar Heat GainCoefficient) are preferred in cold climates toutilise solar heat. In warm temperatures, prod-ucts with low SHGCs offer great potential forreducing solar ingress. Windows with low e-coat-ings and spectrally selective coatings are effec-tive at lowering the heat gain and have showna significant reduction in energy consumptionand energy costs required for cooling the build-ing.

Sustainable fenestration solutions at homescan easily be incorporated using double glazedwindows to insulate the interior spaces effective-ly making it cooler in the summers and warmerin the winters. Such smart windows are adequate-ly insulated, thereby reducing the overall house-hold energy consumption. The addition of sky-lights is another energy-saving way that createsan influx of natural light and adds to the over-all aesthetics of the space. It is essential to notethat high-performance windows with new tech-nologies such as double glazing, special coatings,air-tight construction, nonconductive framingmaterials and higher quality can account for ahuge difference in creating sustainable homes.Such sustainable fenestration solutions areeffective tools to enable energy efficiency, sig-nificantly enhancing the level of comfort andliveability.

Today, fenestrations are continuously beingdeveloped into the ‘fenestrations of tomorrow’.Offering a steady increase of daylight and solarenergy utilisation and control, fenestrations arefast becoming a necessary ‘climate screen’ foreffectively conserving the energy of a building.

(The author is the co-founder and executive director

of one of India’s leading sup-pliers of eco-friendly

high–performance fen-estration solutions.)

Against the backdrop of the novelCoronavirus pandemic, a large num-

ber of people were signing up with dat-ing apps to get around the barrier of lock-downs to meet new people. Some of theseapps are now coming up with updates toensure that they are doing their bit inencouraging users to get vaccinated.

Tinder has been sharing a custom-built digital educational guide which is arich and interactive resource that answers

questions as simple as

‘What is a vaccine?’, the essential ‘Can Igo out now?’ to the more serious ‘Can Iget Covid after the vaccine?’ alongsideinteractive and snackable quizzes that onecan swipe on to bust common myths.

Users can also display their vaccina-tion status and advocate for their poten-tial matches to get vaccinated by addinginteractive new stickers from the vaccinecentre to their profile.

Also in the works is an in-app ‘vac-cine centre’ which shares resources fromWHO and government portals so mem-bers can easily access government-approved vaccine information and bookan appointment at their nearest vaccina-tion site, through the app itself.

Apart from its newly launched in-appvaccine advocacy initiatives, Tinder hasbeen working with local partners such asIndia Vaccine Project on the ground, tospread vaccine awareness and helpingthem recruit youth volunteers fromamongst the Tinder community.

On a somewhat similar note, Woo haslaunched a new functional feature in theform of vaccination badges which you canproudly flaunt as a symbol of your con-tribution to the fight against the pandem-ic. A spokesperson for the app specifiedthat users have to submit a screenshot of

their vaccination certificate and only if thedocumentation passes verification areusers able to display their badge.

Woo’s recent research analysis con-firms that 70 per cent of users will con-sider meeting their dates only if they arevaccinated. Interestingly, vaccination has

now become a parameter to showcase apersonality trait and also behaves like aninitial level filter for many people.

“Although providing vaccination sta-tus on our app is optional, data has shownthat people are more likely to date some-one who has received a COVID-19 vac-cination. An important part of returningto normalcy is helping people feel safe asthey connect in person,” said RiteshBhatnagar, CMO of the homegrown dat-ing app.

Providing behind-the-scenes infor-mation, TrulyMadly introduced thenovel feature of matching with vaccinat-ed users, by asking members to sharescreenshots of their vaccine certificate,with the QR code being documented. Theaim is to encourageusers to get vacci-nated with thei m p l i e dpromise ofmore matchesand hencemore dates.

Earlier inMay, when theTrulyMadly teaminitiated the drive tomatch people based on their vaccinationpreferences, 41 per cent of users came for-ward saying that they are planning to getvaccinated and 28 per cent said they arealready vaccinated. Another importantstatistic is that 82 per cent of users men-tioned that they have battled withCOVID-19.

OkCupid also recently launched the‘I’m Vaccinated’ badge which lets individ-

uals announce their status on their pro-file and also join the vaccinated stackwhich helps them match with like-mind-ed love interests who have taken the jab.Activated bydeclaring one’svaccination sta-tus on the app,the badge is dis-played on theprofile and isexpected to resultin a 35 per centincrease in matchrate with others who are either vaccinat-ed or getting vaccinated soon.

Additionally, some in-app researchhelps gain insight into the impact the vac-cine has on the dating lives of millenni-als:

When asked ‘Will you take the Covid-19 vaccine?’

As of June 2021, 69 per cent of menand 71 per cent of women answered inthe affirmative giving hope that wewould put this pandemic behind ussoon. Compared to only 15 per cent ofmen and 13 per cent of women whoadmitted to being averse to the idea.

When asked ‘Would you cancel a datewith someone who didn’t want to take theCovid-19 vaccine?’ Of the women 45 percent said that they would cancel their datein case their potential partner is opposedto the idea of taking a vaccine shot, clear-ly not leaving anything to chance.

After all, health scores over every-thing else. But not everyone agrees sinceit was interesting to find that 69 per centof the men, a large majority, were verymuch willing to go on a date with some-one who won’t take the vaccine as well.

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Page 12: ˘ˇ - The Pioneer...Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party’s chief ministerial candi-date in Punjab would be from the Sikh community

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Georginio Wijnaldum scored twiceas the Netherlands completed aperfect group stage at Euro 2020

by comfortably beating NorthMacedonia 3-0 in Amsterdam onMonday.

The Dutch captain, who signed forParis Saint-Germain from Liverpool justbefore the tournament began, scoredtwice in the second half at the JohanCruyff Arena after Memphis Depay hadput them in front.

Depay, fresh from sealing a transferof his own to Barcelona, could claimassists for both of Wijnaldum’s goals asFrank de Boer’s side made it nine pointsout of nine in Group C.

They had already secured qualifica-tion for the last 16 as group winners afterdefeating Ukraine and Austria in frontof their own fans at the home of Ajax,and so the 1988 European championsknew they were heading for a knockout

tie in Budapest next weekend.North Macedonia, meanwhile,

were already out after losing theirfirst two games in their debutappearance at a major tourna-ment.

They leave without a point, but theywill never forget this campaign and thisgame will be best remembered as the lastof veteran 37-year-old striker GoranPandev’s International career after twodecades.

He was gifted a Dutch shirt with thenumber 122 — the number of caps hehas won — before kick-off, and wasgiven a guard of honour by his team-mates as well as an ovation from thehome fans on being replaced midwaythrough the second half.

But the North Macedonians could-n’t sign off on a high, with Pandev set-ting up Aleksandar Trajkovski for a shotoff the post when the game was still goal-less.

They also had two goals disallowedfor offside and felt that the Netherlands’opener in the 24th minute should nothave stood.

Pandev felt he was fouled on theedge of the Dutch box by Daley Blind butthe Romanian referee allowed play to goon and the home side broke forward.

Depay exchanged passes withDonyell Malen before finishing and thegoal stood following a VAR check.

Wearing their black change kit, the

Netherlands had VIP support in theshape of Prime Minister Mark Rutte,who watched the game alongside hisNorth Macedonian counterpart ZoranZaev.

And, despite the cold and damp con-ditions, the evening had the air of arelaxed send-off for the Dutch side, whowill not play any more games inAmsterdam — victory in the last 16 willsend them on to a quarter-final in dis-tant Baku.

AUSTRIA ADVANCEIn Bucharest, Christoph

Baumgartner’s first-half goal sent Austriathrough to the last 16 after a 1-0 win overUkraine that left their opponents facingan anxious wait to see if they qualify.

Hoffenheim midfielderBaumgartner turned in David Alaba’scorner on 21 minutes as Austria pippedUkraine to second place in Group C.

Austria will play Italy at Wembley onJune 26 after advancing from the groupstage at a major tournament for the firsttime since the 1982 World Cup.

Ukraine, eliminated in the groupstage at the past two EuropeanChampionships, must wait to find out ifthey advance as one of four best third-placed teams.

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Up to 10,000 fans will beallowed at Tokyo Olympic

events, organisers said onMonday, warning competitioncould move behind closed doorsif infections surge.

The decision, just weeksbefore the opening ceremony,ends months of speculationabout whether spectators will beallowed at the pandemic-post-poned Games. Overseas fanswere banned in March.

“In light of theGovernment’s restrictions onpublic events, the spectator limitfor the Olympic Games will beset at 50 percent of venue capac-ity, up to a maximum of 10,000people in all venues,” organiserssaid in a statement.

A decision on spectators atthe Paralympics will be delayeduntil July 16, a week before theOlympics open. And officials leftopen the possibility of a rever-sal if the virus rebounds.

“If there should be majordramatic change in the infectionsituation, we may need to revis-it this matter amongst ourselvesand we may need to consider theoption of having no spectators

in the venues,” Tokyo GovernorYuriko Koike said.

Senior medical experts,including top advisors to theGovernment, have said thatholding the Games behindclosed doors would be ‘ideal’from a health perspective. Theyfear crowds of fans could fuel anew surge in infections.

The decision wasannounced after five-way talksbetween Tokyo 2020 organisersand officials from Japan’sGovernment, the TokyoGovernment, the IOC and theInternational ParalympicCommittee.

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Shot-putter Tajinder SinghToor qualified for the Tokyo

Olympics with a new nationalrecord at the Indian Grand Prix4 in Patiala on a day when thenational women’s 4x100m relayteam and sprinter Dutee Chandalso breached the previous bestmarks in the country.

Toor crossed the OlympicQualification mark with a throwof 21.49m and broke his ownNational Record. The OlympicQualifying effort in this event is21.10m. The previous record,which was also in Toor’s name,stood at 20.92m and was set in2019.The women’s relay team,however, failed to place itselfinside the Olympic qualifyingbracket despite the record effortof its own.

The quartet of Hima Das,Dutee Chand, S Dhanalakshmiand Archana Suseendranclocked 43.37 seconds to win the

race ahead of India ‘B’ team(48.02 seconds) and Maldives(50.74) in the three team race.

The Indian team betteredthe previous record of 43.42 sec-onds set in 2016 by the quartetof Merlin K Joseph, H M Jyothi,Srabani Nanda and Dutee.

But the quartet failed toclock below 43.05 seconds need-ed to be among the top 16 teamsin the Road to Tokyo list. Sixteenteam will run in the women’s4x100m relay race in Tokyo

Games.O l y m p i c - b o u n d

Kamalpreet Kaur bettered herearlier national record mark inwomen’s discus throw by hurl-ing the iron disc to a distance of66.59m.

But her performance willnot be counted as the newnational record as she was thelone competitor in the event.

Kaur had become the coun-try’s first woman discus throw-er to breach the 65m markwith a national record mark of65.06m during the FederationCup here in March, which alsobooked her a spot in the TokyoOlympics.

Sprinter Dutee Chand alsoshattered a national record in thewomen’s 100m event. She com-pleted the race in 11.17seconds.However, the OlympicQualification time in this eventis 11.15s. The previous recordwas 11.21 seconds, also createdby Dutee.

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New Delhi: The IndianOlympic Association (IOA) onMonday asked the TokyoGames organisers to clarifywhether the strict regulationsimposed on the entry of coun-try’s athletes to Japan would alsoapply to those who are current-ly training abroad and are dueto reach directly.

Several athletes, includingshooters, wrestlers and boxers

are currently training abroad. Ofthese, the boxers are scheduledto return to India on July 10before flying off to Tokyo.

“Currently, we have a num-ber of Indian athletes trainingabroad for more than 30 daysand will be travelling directlyfrom the training locations toTokyo. The countries they aretraining are not in the list of 11countries that have these new

additional conditions,” the IOAsaid in a letter to the TokyoOrganising Committee for theOlympic Games (TOCOG).

“Kindly confirm that thesespecific athletes training out ofIndia for over 30 days will notbe required to follow theseadditional entry conditions,”IOA president Narinder Batraand secretary general RajeevMehta said in the letter. PTI

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The fickle English weatherplayed spoilsport in a

game promising high qualitycontest as day four of theinaugural World TestChampionship final betweenIndia and New Zealand waswashed out due to rain.

For the second time in theone-off clash, a whole daywas lost after no play was pos-sible also on the opening day.

With the weather notimproving since morning atthe Hampshire Bowl, theumpires took the call almostfour hours and 30 minutesafter the scheduled start timeof 10.30 am local time (3 pmIST).

“Day four of the #WTC21Final has been abandoned dueto persistent rain,” read an ICCupdate.

The fans who werepatiently waiting for the playto start had to leave disap-pointed.

“We thank our fans whoturned up and kept the tempo

high. See you again, tomor-row,” the BCCI added.

Rain is not forecast for theremaining two days of the bigfinal but it is likely to remainovercast as it has been the caseso far when play did takeplace. When it wasn’t the rain,bad light stopped play on both

day two and day three.A maximum of 196 overs

can be played in the game toforce a result. The trophy willbe shared if the game is drawn.

Weather has played havocwith the first ever World TestChampionship final and for-mer cricketers including Kevin

Pietersen has questioned thescheduling of the game in theUK.

“It pains me to say it, buta ONE OFF & incrediblyimportant cricket gameshould NOT be played in theUK,” tweeted the formerEngland batsman, who wants

these kind of games to beplayed in the UAE with min-imal chance of weather inter-vention.

Former India openerVirender Sehwag was alsoamong the ones who ques-tioned ICC’s decision to hostthe final in Southampton.

JOS HINTS TO SKIP IPLStar England wicketkeep-

er-batsman Jos Buttler doesn’texpect to play in the remain-der of the IPL, to be held inSeptember-October, if it clash-es the national team’s schedule.

The IPL is expected toclash with England’s limitedtours of Bangladesh andPakistan ahead of the T20World Cup.

“Usually the pocket of theIPL doesn’t clash with anyInternational games, whichmakes it a very easy tourna-ment to be available for. Whenit clashes with internationalcricket, England will takeprecedence I'd have thought,”Buttler was quoted as sayingby The Telegraph.

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France have lost Ousmane Dembele for the rest of Euro2020 after X-rays showed the Barcelona winger’s knee

injury would not heal in time, the French FootballFederation said on Monday.

Dembele, 24, was hurt in the closing minutes of the 1-1 draw against Hungary in Budapest on Saturday. X-rayson Sunday evening showed he would not be back beforethe end of the Euros.

“The recovery time is incompatible with keeping himin the squad,” the FFF said.

Dembele came off the bench in both France’s matchesin the Euros.

He replaced Adrien Rabiot for the final seconds of theopening win over Germany and replaced Rabiot again after57 minutes in Budapest with France losing and hitting thepost with a shot before limping off in the 87th minute.

Under UEFA rules which ony allow for goalkeepers tobe replaced during the tournament. France cannot call upa stand-in for Dembele, who has 27 caps.

France started with eight attackers in their 26-man squadincluding Kingsley Coman of Bayern, a similar type of play-er to Dembele who has yet to play a minute in the Euros.

Coach Didier Deschamps has other worries ahead ofFrance’s final group game against holders Portugal inBudapest on Wednesday.

Defender Benjamin Pavard took a knock againstHungary and starting strikers KarimBenzema and Antoine Griezmann aswell as Coman and backup defend-er Lucas Hernandez are nursinginjuries.

Also, Mats Hummels,Thomas Muller and IlkayGundogan face a raceagainst time to be fit forGermany’s match againstHungary on Wednesdaywith qualification for thelast 16 at stake.

The trio all sat outtraining on Monday afterpicking up knocks inSaturday’s 4-2 win overPortugal which leftGermany second in GroupF following a defeat byFrance in their openinggame.

Hummels and Mullerare both resting kneeinjuries, whileGundogan took ablow to the calf.

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Glasgow: Scotland’s bid to reach theknockout stages of a majorInternational tournament for the firsttime was rocked by the announcementon Monday that Chelsea midfielderBilly Gilmour had tested positive forcoronavirus.

Rarely will the loss of a player withjust one senior start for his country beso lamented.

The 20-year-old walked away fromWembley on Friday with theMan-Of-The-Match award after getting the bet-ter of a host of fellow Premier Leaguestars as Scotland kept their Euro 2020campaign alive with a 0-0 draw againstEngland. Steve Clarke’s side need to beatCroatia at Glasgow’s Hampden Park onTuesday to stand any hope of reachingthe last 16.

The one crumb of comfort forClarke is that he has not lost any moreplayers to self-isolation despite theircontact with Gilmour.

All 25 remaining members ofhis squad trained on Monday afternews of the midfielder’s positive casebroke.

Scotland will now have tofind a way to cope withoutGilmour — he is forced to self-isolate for 10 days — butClarke is at least blessed withoptions in midfield, which iswhy he had resisted the clam-our to start Gilmour until thetrip to London.

Southampton’s StuartArmstrong, who replacedGilmour for the final quarter of anhour at Wembley, is expected tocome into the side and should offermore of a goal threat to a team that hasfailed to find the net in their openingtwo matches.

Three years on fromshocking Argentina andEngland to reach the World

Cup final, Croatia find themselves inthe same situation as Scotland, withjust one point from their opening

two games.Without the energy of

Ivan Rakitic in midfield andthe cutting edge providedby the bulldozing presenceof Mario Mandzukic upfront, both of whom haveretired from Internationalfootball, Croatia haveappeared one-dimen-sional.

A moment of magicfrom Ivan Perisic salvaged a 1-1draw against the Czech Republicto keep their hopes of qualifica-

tion alive.Victory for either side should be

enough to seal a place in the last 16as one of the four best third-placedsides, even if they do not sneak intothe top two in Group D. AFP

Gilmour loss hurts Scotland’s hopes

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Peru beat Colombia 2-1 tokeep alive its chances of

advancing to the knockout stageof Copa America.

Sergio Peña opened thescoring for the Peruvians in the17th minute on Sunday(Monday morning IST). MiguelBorja equalised from the spot inthe 53rd but an own goal 11minutes later by Colombiandefender Yerry Mina decidedthe match at the Olimpico sta-dium in Goiania.

Peru is in third position inGroup B with three points aftertwo matches. Colombia remainswith four points in second spot,but with only two gamesremaining. Leader Brazil has sixpoints. The top four teams willqualify for the quarterfinals.

“This gives us a lot of hopein what is to come at this CopaAmerica,” Peru defender RenatoTapia said.

“We are in a good position,but we have to keep rowing togo farther.”

Peru lost 4-0 to Brazil in itstournament opener, whichraised doubts about coachRicardo Gareca’s team. The 2019

Copa America finalists are alsostruggling in South AmericanWorld Cup qualifiers. Onlyweeks ago it lost 3-0 to Colombiain Lima.

“You pay a high price formistakes and now we have toface Brazil on Wednesday,”Colombia’s Wilmar Barrios said.

“We are still missing some-thing.”

After an opening 0-0 drawwith Venezuela and the loss toPeru, coach Reinaldo Ruedaagreed.

“We are still lacking thatpass in the last 20 meters so wecan leave our forwards one-on-

one, and then have the ease tofinish,” said Rueda, who is undercriticism at home for not bring-ing midfielder James Rodriguezto the South American champi-onship.

Earlier, Venezuela andEcuador drew 2-2. Venezuela isin fourth position in the groupwith two points after threematches and Ecuador has onepoint after two games.

The next matches in thegroup will be played onWednesday. Defending champi-on Brazil will play againstColombia and Peru will faceEcuador.

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New Delhi: Indian wrestlersVinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia,Deepak Punia and Ravi Kumarwere on Monday seeded intheir respective categories for theTokyo Olympics in July-August.

Both Bajrang and Deepakhave been seeded second in the65kg and 86kg category whileRavi has been seeded fourth inthe 57kg. Star female wrestlerVinesh is the top seed in the53kg category.

Russia’s RashidovGadzhimurad is the top seed inmen's 65kg, Serbia’s Stevan Micicin the 57kg and Iran’s HassanYazdanicharati in the 86kg.

Out of the Indians whohave qualified, Bajrang andVinesh have a good chance ofwinning a medal. PNS

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